Democrats look to renew push for voting rights protections bill – live | US news

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Gabrielle Canon, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• US and Russian diplomats held a day of negotiations in Geneva over the fate of Ukraine. The diplomats described the talks as “useful” and “very professional,” but officials did not achieve any major breakthroughs in the negotiations, amid fears of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Democrats are looking to renew their efforts to pass a national voting rights bill, despite Republicans’ unified opposition to their proposals. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will travel to Atlanta, Georgia, tomorrow to address “the urgent need to pass legislation to protect the constitutional right to vote and the integrity of our elections,” per the White House’s guidance on the trip.
• The Fulton county district attorney is moving toward a decision on whether Donald Trump should be charged for attempting to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. “I believe in 2022 a decision will be made in that case,” Fani Willis told the AP last week. “I certainly think that in the first half of the year that decisions will be made.” Willis and her team began their work after Trump pressured Georgia’s top election official to “find” enough votes to hand him a victory, even though three recounts confirmed the former president lost the state to Biden.
• Bernie Sanders accused the Democratic party of having “turned its back on the working class”. In an interview with the Guardian, the progressive senator said Democrats needed to make “a major course correction” in order to focus on fighting for working Americans and standing up to “powerful corporate interests”.

Gabrielle will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged Americans to avoid travel to Canada due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the neighboring country.

Reuters reports:

The CDC elevated its travel recommendation to ‘Level Four: Very High’ for Canada, telling Americans they should avoid travel to its northern neighbor. The CDC currently lists about 80 destinations worldwide at Level Four. It also raised the island of Curaçao to Level Four on Monday.

The United States in November lifted restrictions at its land borders with Canada and Mexico for fully vaccinated foreign nationals, ending historic curbs on non-essential travelers in place since March 2020 to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, US coronavirus hospitalizations have hit a new record of 132,646, surpassing the country’s previous record set in January of last year.

Mitt Romney came to the defense of fellow Republican senator Mike Rounds, after Donald Trump attacked him for acknowledging the former president lost the 2020 election.

“Mike Rounds speaks truth knowing that our Republic depends upon it. Republicans like Govs Hutchinson, Baker & Hogan; Sens McConnell, Thune & Johnson; Bush & Cheney; plus 60+ courts and even the right-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial page agree: Joe Biden won the election,” Romney said in a tweet.

Romney’s tweet came a day after Rounds acknowledged the reality that Trump had lost the 2020 race, telling ABC News, “The election was fair, as fair as we’ve seen. We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency.”

In response, Trump released a statement accusing Rounds of being “woke,” saying he will never endorse the South Dakota senator again.

“Is he crazy or just stupid?” Trump said. “Even though his election will not be coming up for 5 years, I will never endorse this jerk again.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s opposition to amending the filibuster, which Republicans have repeatedly used to block voting rights bills.

“I think that everyone is going to have to take a hard look at where they want to be at this moment in history, as we’re looking at efforts across the country to prevent people from being able to exercise their fundamental rights,” Psaki said.

Because the Senate is evenly divided between the two parties, majority leader Chuck Schumer needs all 50 Democrats on board before he can move forward with changing the filibuster, so he will need to convince Sinema to support the proposal.

A reporter asked Jen Psaki about whether Joe Biden believes he has the political influence to get a voting rights bill across the finish line, amid unified Republican opposition to Democrats’ proposals.

“It’s a hard question to answer because really what we’re talking about is whether we can get enough votes in Congress to get this done,” the press secretary said.

Psaki described access to the ballot box as a “fundamental right for all Americans,” noting that voting rights bills have historically attracted bipartisan support in Congress.

“I think we would dispute the notion that the president hasn’t been active or vocal” on voting rights, Psaki said “He’s given a range of speeches. He’s advocated for voting rights to pass.”

But the press secretary added that the White House understands advocates’ frustration about Democrats’ failure to get a voting rights bill passed as of now.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing with reporters, and she provided a preview of Joe Biden’s remarks in Atlanta tomorrow.

The speech is focused on the need to pass national voting rights legislation, although Republicans have repeatedly blocked Democrats’ voting rights bills by invoking the Senate filibuster.

Psaki said the president would use the Atlanta speech to underscore what is at stake in the fight for voting rights, but she acknowledged Biden will not be able to sign any bill until he has the votes in the Senate, which will almost certainly require amending the filibuster.

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