Trump impeachment stands in Biden’s way
Trial may thwart bid to unite nation
WILMINGTON: President-elect Joe Biden unveiled plans on Thursday for fighting Covid and injecting US$1.9 trillion (56.9 trillion baht) into a battered US economy. Already, however, his ambitious first 100 days agenda is being overshadowed by the looming Senate trial of his soon-to-be predecessor Donald Trump.
Mr Biden promised “a new chapter” for the nation, just one day after Mr Trump became the first US president to ever be impeached twice, as the incoming Democrat sought to seize the narrative in a prime-time address and get Americans looking ahead again.
“We will come back,” he said from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. “We didn’t get into all this overnight. We won’t get out of it overnight. And we can’t do it as a separated and divided nation.
“The only way we can do it is to come together, to come together as fellow Americans.”
With his Democrats narrowly controlling both houses of Congress, Mr Biden, 78, has a shot at passing what would be the third massive pandemic aid package.
What he is less keen to talk about, however, is the impending trial of Mr Trump, something that will introduce a potentially nightmarish mix of scheduling complications and political drama into an already-tense Senate.
In his 25-minute televised speech, Mr Biden made no mention of Mr Trump, impeachment or the deadly violence that nearly overwhelmed Washington last week.
Instead he addressed “the twin crises of a pandemic and this sinking economy”, a challenge exceeding even that which faced him as vice president to Barack Obama when they assumed office following the 2008 financial crisis.
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to hit new peaks, the vaccination programme is stumbling and there are fears the economic recovery from the cratering of 2020 could backslide.
His proposal, dubbed the American Rescue Plan, would include a host of measures aimed at revitalising the world’s largest economy.
Among those are raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, aiding struggling state and local governments, safely reopening schools, rolling out a huge vaccination campaign, extending unemployment benefits and boosting the size of stimulus cheques Congress approved last month.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said they would hit the ground running in order to assure the plan’s success.
“We will get right to work to turn President-elect Biden’s vision into legislation that will pass both chambers and be signed into law,” they said in a joint statement.
Mr Biden, who will be sworn in on Wednesday, is also promising to get vaccinations off the ground, with an eye-catching slogan of 100 million shots administered in the first 100 days.
The incoming president plans to tackle all of this at the same time, putting one of the darkest periods of American history in the rear-view mirror. It’s a tall order.
Yet Mr Biden takes office with one advantage he was not expecting even a few weeks ago: full, if razor thin, control of Congress.
Shock victories by Democrats in Georgia’s two Senate run-off races this month mean Democrats will have slim majorities in both chambers when he takes over.
This will also help Mr Biden in getting confirmations of his cabinet choices.
Among those beginning the process is Treasury secretary pick Janet Yellen, who goes before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.
Avril Haines, Mr Biden’s pick for director of national intelligence, had been scheduled to have a nomination hearing yesterday but the Senate Intelligence Committee said at the last minute they were postponing it until next week.
The elephant in the room, however, is impeachment.
Mr Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on Wednesday for “incitement of insurrection”, by allegedly egging on a huge crowd of his supporters to march against Congress
on Jan 6.
The mob rampaged through the Capitol building, fighting with police and leaving lawmakers fearing for their lives. Five people died.
In the Democrats’ dream scenario, the Senate would have convened in emergency session to conduct a lightning-quick trial by Wednesday, forcing Mr Trump out. But the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, scratched that idea.
On Inauguration Day, Sen McConnell will lose his leadership, ceding
to Sen Schumer, who is vowing to press ahead.
A statement by Sen McConnell that he is open-minded on Mr Trump’s guilt raises the possibility that the outgoing president gets convicted by a twothirds Senate majority. If convicted, a second, simple-majority vote would be enough to bar Mr Trump from ever holding public office again but before any of that, senators must figure out how to try a Republican ex-president while cooperating on an agenda sent by a new Democratic one.