Biden names liberal econ team as pandemic threatens workers
CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and AAMER MADHANI
FILE - In this Aug. 14, 2019, file photo former Fed Chair Janet Yellen speaks with FOX Business Network guest anchor Jon Hilsenrath in the Fox Washington bureau in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — With unemployment still high and the pandemic threatening yet another economic slump, President-elect Joe Biden is assembling a team of liberal advisers who have long focused on the nation's workers and government efforts to address economic inequality.
Janet Yellen, announced Monday as Biden's nominee for treasury secretary, served as chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018, when she placed a greater emphasis than previous Fed chairs on maximizing employment and less focus on price inflation. Biden also named Cecilia Rouse as chair of his Council of Economic Advisers, and Heather Boushey and Jared Bernstein as members of the council.
All are outspoken supporters of more government stimulus spending to boost growth, a major issue with the coronavirus pandemic cramping the U.S. economy.
Those choices "signal the desire of the Biden administration to take the CEA in a direction that really centers on working people and raising wages," said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and former Labor Department chief economist during the Obama administration.
Biden's nominees are also a more personally diverse group than those of previous presidents.
Yellen, if confirmed by the Senate, would be the first woman to serve as treasury secretary, after breaking ground as the first woman to chair the Fed. Rouse would be the first Black woman to lead the CEA in its 74 years of existence. And Neera Tanden, Biden's pick for director of the Office of Management and Budget, would be the first South Asian American in that job.
Biden also selected Wally Adeyemo to be Yellen's deputy, which would make him the first Black deputy treasury secretary. Rouse, Tanden and Adeyemo will all require Senate confirmation, and Tanden in particular is already drawing heavy Republican criticism.
Along with its progressive cast, Biden's team also has years of experience in government and policymaking. And that's earning plaudits from some conservatives, who note that the nominees are not a far-left group bent on strangling the economy, as President Donald Trump repeatedly warned during the 2020 campaign.
"They are intellectual liberals, but not burn-it-all-down socialists," said Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an adviser to Sen. Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. "They're fairly conventional liberal economists and experts."
Still, the Biden administration's ambitious goals will face solid opposition from Republicans in Congress. The GOP needs to win one of two Georgia Senate seats in a Jan. 5 special election to retain control of the Senate, and the Republicans made major inroads on Nov. 3 in the Democrats' House majority.
"Most of the policies that Biden ran on will not survive a Republican Senate," Riedl said. Those include proposals to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and significantly increase taxes on wealthy Americans.
Biden could secure another round of stimulus spending early next year, particularly if the recent spikes in confirmed virus cases push the economy into recession again. But such a package will likely have to come in under $1 trillion to get Senate Republican support, Riedl said, rather than the higher figure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seeking.
Tanden is the president and CEO of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress and was the director of domestic policy for the Obama-Biden presidential campaign. She first made her mark in the Clinton orbit, and served as policy director for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential race.
A spokesman for GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas tweeted that Tanden "stands zero chance of being confirmed" as budget director, citing "an an endless stream of disparaging comments about" Republican senators. And Josh Holmes, a political adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, tweeted that her confirmation was likely doomed.
Brian Deese, a former senior economic adviser in the Obama administration and now the managing director and global head of sustainable investing at BlackRock, is expected to be named director of the White House National Economic Council, according to a person familiar with transition plans who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Deese worked on the auto bailout and environmental issues in the Obama White House, where he held the title of deputy director of both the NEC and the OMB.
Deese and Adeyemo are both under fire from progressives for their connections to BlackRock, a giant Wall Street asset management firm. BlackRock has sought to avoid greater regulatory scrutiny by Treasury. And many activists assail the firm for owning huge stakes in oil and gas companies.
Rouse, a labor economist and head of Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs, served on the CEA from 2009 to 2011, and served on the NEC from 1998 to 1999 in the Clinton administration.
Notably, she organized a letter earlier this year signed by more than 100 economists calling for more government action to help Americans caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
"The planning for a fairer economy, grounded in facts and evidence, begins now," Rouse tweeted Monday.
Alan Blinder, former vice chair of the Fed and a currently an economics professor at Princeton, praised Rouse's management style and her expertise in the economics of education and workforce training. Biden has proposed making two years of community college tuition-free.
"That kind of stuff is right in her wheelhouse," Blinder said.
Boushey, picked to be one of the three members of the CEA, is president and co-founder of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a think tank focused on inequality. The center conducts its own research and also provides grants to mostly left-leaning academics to study aspects of inequality.
Bernstein, also nominated for the CEA, was an adviser to then-Vice President Biden during the Obama administration before becoming a fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. Bernstein has also worked as a social worker and was an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-supported think tank.
Associated Press writers Alexandra Jaffe, Paul Wiseman and Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.
Coronavirus: China builds quarantine camp for more than 4,000 people
The US will rejoin the Paris climate change agreement
OKLAHOMA CITY — One name missing in President Donald Trump's flurry of pardons is "Tiger King" Joe Exotic. His team was so confident in a pardon that they had readied a celebratory limousine and a hair and wardrobe team to whisk away the zookeeper-turned-reality-TV-star, who is serving a 22-year federal prison sentence in Texas. But he wasn't on the list announced Wednesday morning. Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in federal prison for violating federal wildlife laws and for his role in a failed murder-for-hire plot targeting his chief rival, Carole Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for big cats in Florida. Baskin was not harmed. Maldonado-Passage, who has maintained his innocence, was also sentenced for killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records. A jury convicted him in April 2019. In his pardon application filed in September, Maldonado-Passage's attorneys argued that he was "railroaded and betrayed" by others. Maldonado-Passage, 57, is scheduled to be released from custody in 2037, but his attorneys said in the application that "he will likely die in prison" because of health concerns. Maldonado-Passage's backers, who referred to themselves as "Team Tiger," said in a statement Wednesday that "140 million Joe Exotic fans had a hard time getting out of bed this morning." "We are as disappointed that the president did not sign Joe's pardon, as we were confident yesterday that he would," the statement said. The blond mullet-wearing zookeeper, known for his expletive-laden rants on YouTube and a failed 2018 Oklahoma gubernatorial campaign, was prominently featured in the popular Netflix documentary "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness." The Associated Press
Sudden rise in infections raises fears over lunar new year, when people usually travel around the country
With the third executive order of his new administration, President Joe Biden said the US will rejoin the Paris Agreement.
From Bernie's mittens to Mike Pence's alien hands, the inauguration was a joy and Trump must be furious
Biden's speech subtly threw shade at his predecessor, while refusing to mention him by name. Kamala Harris did a double fist-bump. And Trump disappeared via helicopter in a moment fit for a movie villain
After being sworn in as president Joe Biden began his inaugural address declaring, "Democracy has prevailed."
Joe Biden rejoins Paris Agreement, requires masks on federal property in flurry of Day 1 directives
Rogers, Arkansas , Jan. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- America's Car-Mart, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRMT) today announced it will release fiscal 2021 third quarter financial results on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, after the market closes. Senior management will hold a conference call the following day, Wednesday, February 17, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. (Eastern). A live audio of the conference call will be accessible to the public by calling (877) 776-4031, conference ID #8139134. International callers should dial (631) 291-4132. Callers should dial in approximately 10 minutes before the call begins. A conference call replay will be available two hours following the call for thirty days and can be accessed by calling (855) 859-2056, conference ID #8139134; International callers should dial (404) 537-3406. A webcast of the conference call will also be available on the Company's website www.car-mart.com. About America's Car-Mart America's Car-Mart operates automotive dealerships in twelve states and is one of the largest publicly held automotive retailers in the United States focused exclusively on the "Integrated Auto Sales and Finance" segment of the used car market. The Company emphasizes superior customer service and the building of strong personal relationships with its customers. The Company operates its dealerships primarily in smaller cities throughout the South-Central United States selling quality used vehicles and providing financing for substantially all of its customers. For more information about America's Car-Mart, including investor presentations, please visit our website at www.car-mart.com. CONTACT: Jeffrey A. Williams, President and CEO (479) 464-9944 or Vickie D. Judy, CFO (479) 464-9944
Fired Pan Pacific Hotel workers launch wrongful termination class action lawsuit
A union representing workers at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver has filed a class action lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court alleging the hotel wrongfully terminated 100 employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unite Here Local 40 says the workers — many of them women and immigrants with years of service — are owed as much as $3 million in severance pay. The union says the Pan Pacific "concocted a plan to drastically reduce its staff from 450 workers to 80." "Instead of informing workers of their plans, the company sent workers repeated messages delivering false hope suggesting they intended to bring workers back," it said in a statement. Local 40 president Zailda Chan said the hotel circumvented group termination payout regulations in the Employment Standards Act by firing workers in three batches of fewer than 50 workers. Chan also said the hotel offered some workers $250 to sign a contract taking away their regular full-time status to become casual, on-call workers with no severance rights. Those who refused to sign were among those fired. "Had the hotel properly notified workers of its plans to drastically reduce its workforce, this class of workers could have been entitled to receive significant payouts," said Chan. CBC contacted the Pan Pacific Hotel for comment but has yet to hear back. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented upheaval in the tourism and hospitality sectors. In April of last year, Stats Canada estimated travel restrictions could lead to a loss of 74 per cent of tourism industry jobs and a reduction in tourism industry gross domestic product of between 50 per cent to 70 percent from 2019 to 2020. The lawsuit said lead plaintiff Romuel Escobar started at the Pan Pacific in 1996 as a houseman and worked his way up to become a senior concierge in 2008. The claim says Escobar held that position until he was fired "without cause and without notice" in August 2020, after working his last shift in March 2020. The hotel has not filed a response and none of the allegations have been tested in court.
WASHINGTON — Vice-President Kamala Harris broke the barrier that has kept men at the top ranks of American power for more than two centuries when she took the oath Wednesday to hold the nation's second-highest office. Harris was sworn in as the first female U.S. vice-president — and the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to hold the position — in front of the U.S. Capitol by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Later, she presided as Senate president for the first time to swear in three new Democratic senators, including her replacement. The moment was steeped in history and significance in more ways than one. She was escorted to the podium by Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, the officer who single-handedly took on a mob of Trump supporters as they tried to breach the Senate floor during the Capitol insurrection that sought to overturn the election results. Harris was wearing clothes from two young, emerging Black designers — a deep purple dress and coat. After taking the oath of office, a beaming Harris hugged her husband, Douglas Emhoff, and gave President Joe Biden a fist bump. Her rise is historic in any context, another moment when a stubborn boundary falls away, expanding the idea of what's possible in American politics. But it's particularly meaningful because Harris is taking office at a moment when Americans are grappling over institutional racism and confronting a pandemic that has disproportionately devastated Black and brown communities. Those close to Harris say she'll bring an important — and often missing — perspective to the debates on how to overcome the many hurdles facing the new administration. "In many folks' lifetimes, we experienced a segregated United States," said Lateefah Simon, a civil rights advocate and longtime Harris friend and mentee. "You will now have a Black woman who will walk into the White House not as a guest but as a second in command of the free world." Harris — the child of immigrants, a stepmother of two and the wife of a Jewish man — "carries an intersectional story of so many Americans who are never seen and heard." Her family joined her on stage as she took the oath and later during her procession to her new office building near the White House. She was led by her alma mater Howard University's marching band and walked while holding the hand of her grandniece and alongside her husband, stepchildren, sister, brother-in-law and nieces. She will address the nation Wednesday evening from the Lincoln Memorial. Harris, 56, moves into the vice presidency just four years after she first came to Washington as a senator from California, where she'd served as attorney general and as San Francisco's district attorney. She had expected to work with a White House run by Hillary Clinton, but President Donald Trump's victory quickly scrambled the nation's capital and set the stage for the rise of a new class of Democratic stars. After Harris' own presidential bid fizzled, her rise continued when Biden chose her as his running mate last August. Harris had been a close friend of Beau Biden, his elder son and a former Delaware attorney general who died in 2015 of cancer. The inauguration activities included nods to her history-making rise and her personal story. Harris used two Bibles to take the oath, one that belonged to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the late civil rights icon whom Harris often cites as inspiration, and Regina Shelton, who helped raise Harris during her childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area. After the ceremony, she and Emhoff escorted former Vice-President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, out of the Capitol, a gesture that would normally be performed by the incoming and outgoing presidents, but Trump did not attended the inauguration. Harris, Pence and their spouses spoke for several minutes before the Pences departed. To celebrate the occasion, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the nation's oldest sorority for Black women, which Harris joined at Howard University, declared Wednesday as Soror Kamala D. Harris Day. Members of the sorority watching the celebrations across the country were clad in pearls, as was Harris, and the sorority's pink and green colours. "There is a pride I can't put into words," said Elizabeth Shelby, a member of the sorority's Alpha Psi chapter, who watched from her home in Nashville, Tennessee. "It is such a joy to see her rise to this place in our country. It is such a joy to know that she is one of us, that she represents us." Biden, in his inaugural address, reflected on the 1913 march for women's suffrage the day before President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, during which some marchers were heckled and attacked. "Today, we mark the swearing in of the first woman in American history elected to national office, Vice-President Kamala Harris. Don't tell me things can't change," Biden said. As vice-president, Harris will expand the definition of who gets to hold power in American politics, said Martha S. Jones, a professor of history at Johns Hopkins University and the author of "Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All." People who want to understand Harris and connect with her will have to learn what it means to graduate from a historically Black college and university rather than an Ivy League school. They will have to understand Harris' traditions, like the Hindu celebration of Diwali, Jones said. "Folks are going to have to adapt to her rather than her adapting to them," Jones said. Her election to the vice presidency should be just the beginning of putting Black women in leadership positions, Jones said, particularly after the role Black women played in organizing and turning out voters in the November election. "We will all learn what happens to the kind of capacities and insights of Black women in politics when those capacities and insights are permitted to lead," Jones said. __ Ronayne reported from Sacramento, California. Associated Press journalist Christine Fernando in Chicago contributed. Kathleen Ronayne And Alexandra Jaffe, The Associated Press
Debunking myths: Ontario doctors explain why most people should get COVID-19 vaccines
With anti-vax sentiment bubbling online, a group of Ontario doctors is attempting to assuage people's fears and counter misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) held a virtual news conference Wednesday, hoping to debunk some of the most prevalent myths about vaccinations floating around online. "It's normal that people are going to have legitimate questions and concerns about the COVID vaccines," said OMA president Dr. Samantha Hill. "It's normal to have questions about all of your healthcare." But, the group of doctors noted, anyone with questions should seek out a trusted source like a family doctor and not rely on social media for information. Here's what the OMA's panel had to say about three of the most common myths out there about COVID-19 vaccines. Myth 1: I don't need to get the vaccine as I'm not at risk One misconception discussed Wednesday was the idea that people don't need to get vaccinated because they aren't personally at risk. Family physician Dr. Sarita Verma, the dean, president and CEO of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, said that line of thinking just doesn't add up. For one, people infected with COVID-19 could end up with long-term health effects that don't appear right away — to say nothing of young people who contract COVID-19 and end up in hospital. "Even if you do not get the worst case of COVID-19, you can still pass on the virus to someone who might get sick and die," Verma said. "As a family doctor, I would say I'm going to get the vaccine. There's no reason why you shouldn't, and there are no major, terrible ill effects that will cause bad outcomes worse than getting COVID-19." According to the latest figures from the federal government, there have been 24 reports of adverse medical reactions following novel coronavirus vaccinations in Canada, which represents 0.007 per cent of all doses administered. Ten of those were considered serious — and that's out of 338,423 doses administered as of Jan. 9. The most frequently reported side effects were vaccination site reactions, pins and needles, nausea, itching, chest discomfort and anaphylaxis. "The benefits of vaccines authorized in Canada continue to outweigh the risks," the government's website says. Myth 2: The vaccine was tested too fast and isn't safe Another myth raised Wednesday is that the vaccine was tested too quickly, and is therefore inherently unsafe. Hill said that simply isn't the case. "The truth of the matter is that the vaccine was tested extremely rigorously, and the speed with which we were able to develop the vaccine was based on improved collaboration," she said. Dr. Noah Ivers of Women's College Hospital in Toronto agreed with that assessment, and said though scientists moved fast, no steps were skipped during the creation and testing of the vaccines. Intense speed was possible thanks to "unprecedented collaboration" between governments and scientists around the world, as well as "unprecedented investment," he said. WATCH | Coronavirus variants upping pressure to get people vaccinated That this is a true global pandemic also meant scientists had a wealth of cases to choose from to complete necessary testing. Usually, Ivers said, vaccine approval would take a trial involving around 6,000 to 8,000 people, and that would take many years in order to accumulate the number of positive cases needed to say if a vaccine works and is safe. "Because there were so many cases going on amongst the people who volunteered for the experiments, they were able to accumulate the number of volunteers, the number of cases, very very quickly," he said. Scientists also know that when it comes to vaccines, if side effects are going to occur, they'll usually happen within six weeks, Ivers said. That's why it's reassuring that in clinical trials, tens of thousands of people were monitored for eight weeks. "So we actually know quite a lot about the safety of the vaccine, and we know quite a lot about how unsafe it is to get COVID," he said, adding that millions of people around the world have now gotten a COVID vaccine, with routine surveillance being conducted after the fact. "What we see right now, as we've seen in the experiments, is that the vaccines certainly are safe," he said. "They're safe enough for me and my family." Myth 3: COVID vaccines are unsafe for certain people Dr. Upton Allen, chief of infectious diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, also stressed that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe for all racial and ethnic groups. Most people, he said, can get vaccinated without having to talk to their doctors first. But that's not true for everyone. Some people should talk to their physician, such as people who are taking immunosuppressive medications, he said. Anyone who has a major reaction to the first dose of a vaccine, or who is known to be allergic to any of its components, should also talk to their doctor. "There's not a lot in the vaccine that is known to be a major cause of allergic-type reactions," Allen said, giving examples like lipids, potassium, sodium, sugar, water, and mRNA (which triggers the immune response) as vaccine ingredients. Allen did note, however, that doctors don't yet have enough data from clinical studies for people under 16 years old to get these shots. "It is important to remember though that until vaccines are approved for children, we can indeed help to protect children by vaccinating those who care for them."
'Huge,' 'tremendous' Trump snow sculpture in N.L. draws onlookers, rude gestures
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A massive snow sculpture on a St. John's lawn depicting former United States president Donald Trump drowning in a sea of blue drew visitors all day on Wednesday. The sculpture depicts Trump with his arms up, mouth open and hair aflutter, while his signature red tie floats out before him on the blue-painted snow. Co-creator James Keating said Wednesday the snow carving is "huge" and "tremendous" and represents Trump "drowning in controversy." He and his 16-year-old son, Ashton Keating, had been working on it for a few days. Keating estimated they put about 10 hours of work into it and said they made sure it would be ready for Joe Biden's inauguration as U.S. president on Wednesday. Biden is now the 46th president of the United States, after he beat former president Donald Trump in an election held Nov. 3. Keating was coy about why he built the Trump monument, saying simply that he and his son build an elaborate snow statue every year. This was his first political work, he said, adding that it was "lots of fun to make." Many who had stopped by to see the sculpture had chuckled, he said, adding that some had made gestures he wasn't comfortable describing in an interview. Noting that he got much of the snow from the walkways belonging to the church next door, Keating said his good deed of shovelling balances out the obscene gestures he has invited to the area. His message to former president Trump? "Bon voyage," he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 20, 2021. The Canadian Press
For three years, adherents of the sprawling QAnon conspiracy theory awaited a so-called Great Awakening, scouring anonymous web postings from a shadowy "Q" figure and parsing statements by former U.S. President Donald Trump, whom they believed to be their champion. Instead, Democratic President Joseph Biden was calmly sworn into office, leaving legions of QAnon faithful struggling to make sense of what had transpired. In one Telegram channel with more than 18,400 members, QAnon believers were split between those still urging others to 'trust the plan' and those saying they felt betrayed.
New Radicals 'You Get What You Give', Andra Day's 'Rise Up' and other unifying performances from Parade Across America
Because of coronavirus, the annual Parade Across America went virtual following the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
What is the Paris Climate Agreement and why has Biden rejoined the deal?
The US was the first country to abandon the 2015 agreement to tackle global emissions - but president Biden has rejoined
After taking the oath of office Wednesday, President Joe Biden issued a rare repudiation of white supremacy and domestic terrorism seen on the rise under his predecessor's watch. In his inaugural address, Biden denounced the "racism, nativism, fear, demonization," that propelled the assault on Capitol Hill by an overwhelmingly white mob of Donald Trump supporters who carried symbols of hate, including the Confederate battle flag. "A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us," Biden said in the nearly 23-minute-long speech promising to heal a divided nation. "A cry that can't be any more desperate or any more clear. And now a rise of political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat." Compared to his immediate predecessors, three of whom attended Wednesday's inauguration, Biden is the first president to directly address the ills of white supremacy in an inaugural speech. In his second inaugural address in 1997, former President Bill Clinton called out racial divisions as "America's constant curse," but stopped short of naming culprits. Biden's words follow months of protests and civil unrest over police brutality against Black Americans, as well as a broader reckoning on the systemic and institutional racism that has plagued nonwhite Americans for generations. "To be perfectly clear, it was incredibly powerful," Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, a national racial justice organization, told The Associated Press. "We shouldn't underestimate the cultural change that had to take place, in order for that to happen on one of the biggest political stages in the world." "I think it's just really important that, as a result of our movement, racial justice became a majoritarian issue this summer," Robinson added. "Now the work begins in translating that rhetorical issue into a governing issue." Biden delivered his inaugural address on the very platform that the insurrectionist mob scaled two weeks ago to breach the Capitol building, vandalizing federal property and taking selfies on the Senate floor. The riot left at least five people dead, including a Capitol police officer. The rioters, some espousing racist and anti-Semitic views and conspiracy theories, were incited by baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in the November presidential election. Some attempted to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College results, in which Black and Latino voters played a significant role in handing victory to Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris. Voter suppression, along with other forms of systemic racism, are top of mind for civil rights groups and supporters of Black Lives Matter, which last year became the largest protest movement in U.S. history. "To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words," Biden said in his speech. "It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy. Unity." Biden also highlighted the historic nature of the swearing in of Harris, the first woman and first Black and South Asian person to hold that office. "It is exciting to see a Black woman become vice-president, and yet we must hold her and President Biden accountable to ensure Black liberation and the eradication of white supremacy," said Patrisse Cullors, co-founder and executive director of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. "We must heal from anti-Black racism and the heavy health and economic impacts from COVID-19," Cullors said in a statement. "Then, we can focus on thriving Black lives through investments in health, education, housing, and environmental justice." Biden began addressing some of these issues in a series of executive orders signed after the inauguration. They order federal agencies to prioritize racial equity and review policies that reinforce systemic racism, which the BLM foundation said mirrors a proposal contained in the BREATHE Act, proposed legislation championed by the foundation and the Movement for Black Lives. It calls for sweeping federal reforms, including overhauling police, the criminal justice system and immigration enforcement. Susan Rice, Biden's incoming domestic policy adviser, said the new president would also revoke the just-issued report of Trump's "1776 Commission," downplaying the historic legacy of slavery in the United States. The commission was created in response to The New York Times' "1619 Project," which highlights the long-term consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans. Biden's remarks also came a day after the nation marked yet another grim milestone surpassing 400,000 deaths as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has disproportionately killed Black Americans and other people of colour and laid bare longstanding racial disparities in the country's health system. "We are entering what may be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus," Biden said. "We must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation." In his speech, Biden invoked Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation committing to freeing enslaved Africans during the Civil War. "When he put pen to paper, the president said, and quote, 'If my name ever goes down into history, it will be for this act and my whole soul is in it. My whole soul is in it,'" Biden said. "Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this," he declared. ____ Stafford reported from Detroit and Morrison reported from New York City. —- Stafford and Morrison are members of the AP's Race & Ethnicity team. Follow Morrison on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison. Follow Stafford on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/kat__stafford. Kat Stafford And Aaron Morrison, The Associated Press