TAMER FAKAHANY
DEPUTY DIRECTOR – GLOBAL NEWS COORDINATION, LONDON
From The Associated Press
Media www.rajawalisiber.com – Joe Biden will become the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, seeking to move past the toxicity and bitterness that has engulfed the nation as the divisive Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House comes to a grinding halt.
There will be 180 degree reversals, immediate ones, from Day One of his presidency in both policies and tone.
The president-elect plans to unveil a sweeping immigration bill as soon as his administration takes over. It would provide an eight-year path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. without legal status, Lisa Mascaro and Bill Barrow report.
It’s a massive about-face from the Trump administration’s harsh anti-immigration policies.
The legislation puts Biden on track to deliver on a major campaign promise after four years of Trump’s restrictive policies. But it does not include beefed-up border security, which makes its passage in Congress more difficult.
Great Expectations: Biden has evoked Franklin Delano Roosevelt in promising a remaking of America unseen since the New Deal. Pledging to emulate some of the loftiest reforms in the nation’s history has left him with towering promises to keep. And he hopes to deliver that despite the pandemic and searing national divisions. Can Biden’s great expectations be met? Democrats only have razor-thin control of the House and Senate. But he brushes off the doubters. What’s certain is that the effort will be intense. Dozens of consequential executive actions as well as major pieces of legislation are coming in a deluge that starts on Inauguration Day, Will Weissert reports.
The To-Do List: Biden’s hefty list starts with a flurry of orders. Climate change, immigration, health care and more will be competing for attention — and dollars.
National Security: Biden’s national security Cabinet may be bare on Day One of his presidency. His nominees to head the State Department, the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and the intelligence community are facing a series of confirmation hearings. None is likely to be confirmed by the time Biden takes the oath of office Wednesday.
MLK Day: Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris pitched in on Martin Luther King Jr. Day service projects ahead of inaugural events. Biden and his wife, Jill, joined an assembly line in a Philadelphia parking lot, filling food boxes for people in need. Harris also took part in a service event in Washington.
Black Americans: The resiliency, culture and heroism of Black Americans and the African Diaspora will be the central theme of a virtual event this evening that will celebrate the nation’s diversity ahead of the inauguration. Kamala Harris will offer remarks at the event, “We Are One,” which will also honor the historic nature of her being the first Black and South Asian woman to become vice president of the U.S. Several of the nation’s top Black leaders will also deliver remarks, Kat Stafford reports.