WTF Just Happened Today

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

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1/ Biden endorsed “getting rid of the filibuster” in order to pass voting rights legislation. With less than 10 months until the 2022 midterms, Biden said “this is the moment to defend our democracy” and that the repeated obstruction of election reform by Senate Republicans had left Democrats with “no option but to change the Senate rules […] to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action on voting rights.” In his remarks, Biden cited the Jan. 6 insurrection, characterizing the “violent mob” of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol to try to stop Biden’s electoral college win as an “attempted coup.” He added that the only way to protect the right to vote and ensure election security was to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. “Pass it now,” Biden said. “I am tired of being quiet.” Changing the Senate rules, however, would require the support of all 50 Democrats and the vote of Kamala Harris to break a tie. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, meanwhile, have expressed strong public opposition to changing filibuster rules, and several other Democrats, including Mark Kelly, Jon Tester, and Jeanne Shaheen, haven’t committed to changing the Senate rules to allow elections reform legislation to pass by a simple majority. (NBC News / New York Times / ABC News / Politico / Washington Post / Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / CNN)

2/ A record 145,982 people are in U.S. hospitals with Covid-19, passing the record of 142,273 set on Jan. 14, 2021. Overall the seven-day average of new cases stood at more than 714,600 – up 74% from a week ago. The U.S., however, reported 1.34 million cases in a single day on Monday, beating the previous record of 1,044,970 cases, which was set on Jan. 3. The daily average of new deaths was 1,674 – up 6% from a week earlier. (Washington Post / NBC News)

3/ The CDC is considering updating its mask guidance to recommend that people opt for N95 or KN95 masks rather than cloth face coverings. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky previously declined to officially recommend Americans wear N95s regularly. The White House, meanwhile, is weighing whether to offer better, higher quality masks, like KN95 or N95s, to all Americans for free. A senior administration official, however, said the effort would make little difference because “half the country won’t wear any mask.” A half dozen former health policy makers, including members of Biden’s transition team, said the Biden administration needs a reset on its Covid-19 strategy because “trust in the CDC, it feels like we have gone backwards.” (Washington Post /