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| Good morning, Daily Briefing readers. What's that, something important is happening today? I can't ever imagine what ... It's Jane Onyanga-Omara, with Wednesday's news. |
| Joe Biden will become the 46th president of the United States, and Kamala Harris will make history as his deputy. Hours before their inauguration, President Donald Trump issued a final wave of pardons and commutations, with beneficiaries including his former adviser Stephen Bannon, and rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black. |
| Trump is expected to spend the last moments of his presidency Wednesday at his Florida estate, barring a last-minute change of plan. And it's exactly one year since the first known U.S. case of the coronavirus – the disease that went on to cause untold devastation – was reported. |
| 🎧The inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is finally here. Elections editor Annah Aschbrenner reminds us why it's so historic on today's 5 Things podcast. Politics reporter Rebecca Morin is also on the show, talking about what Kamala Harris is bringing to her role as the first woman of color to be vice president. Listen here. |
| 📲And to keep up with all the inauguration happenings by text message, sign up here. |
| Here's today's news: |
An Inauguration Day like no other |
| As President-elect Joe Biden's term begins at noon ET on Wednesday, it will be an Inauguration Day for the history books : Kamala Harris will officially be the first female vice president — and the first Black and South Asian woman to take the role. There's a pandemic raging across the country, and the outgoing commander-in-chief is being impeached because of a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. And the date is a palindrome that won't happen for another thousand years. Not in modern times has an inauguration been staged amid such domestic turmoil. But while the 59th inaugural ceremonies will be much smaller because of security concerns and health risks, Biden and Harris will still take the oath of office on the Capitol's West Front. And the same day Biden is sworn in, he will introduce immigration legislation that will include an eight-year pathway to citizenship for nearly 11 million immigrants living in the United States without legal status, along with expanding refugee admissions and an enforcement plan that includes deploying technology to patrol the border. |
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Trump plans to end his presidency at Mar-a-Lago as Biden takes oath |
| If he sticks to the schedule, President Donald Trump will spend his final minutes in office at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Trump is expected to be at the Palm Beach club, which he dubbed the "Winter White House," when the clock strikes noon on Wednesday, ending a contentious presidential term that closed with days of seclusion after a riot in the U.S. Capitol and will be capped with a final military send-off at Joint Base Andrews. Barring a schedule change, the White House has invited hundreds of supporters to a ceremony at the airbase, expected to feature a red carpet and military color guard – and perhaps a preview of another Trump presidential run in 2024. Trump will be the first president in more than 150 years to skip the inauguration of his successor. |
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One year ago: COVID-19 made its first appearance in the US |
| On Jan. 20, 2020, the United States' first known U.S. case of the novel coronavirus was reported in Snohomish County, Washington, north of Seattle. In the year since, COVID-19 has crept into every county in the nation, killing more than 400,000 people, and infecting 1 in every 14 Americans. To put it in perspective, that's almost as many Americans as the number who died during World War II. Vaccines offer an eventual end to the pandemic, but less than half of the 31 million doses distributed to states so far have been used because of bottlenecks and a decentralized rollout. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to make COVID-19 his administration's top priority, proposing a $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief package that includes $70 billion for virus testing and a national vaccination program. |
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More high winds are expected throughout California |
| Howling winds roared across portions of California this week, sparking a string of new wildfires and leaving more than 240,000 customers without power. More high winds are expected into Wednesday , forecasters said. High wind warnings and advisories continue across much of the state, where wind gusts may reach 70 to 80 mph at higher elevations and 50 to 70 mph in valleys and along the coast, the National Weather Service said. To put the winds in perspective, a Category 1 hurricane has winds of 74 to 95 mph. The gusty winds kicked up fresh fires in Santa Cruz County, causing evacuations for 120 homes, and the state's firefighting agency said it had responded to at least a dozen vegetation fires in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties in 12 hours. Yosemite National Park was forced to close "due to damage from high winds," according to the park's website, and two COVID-19 vaccination centers also were shut down due to threat of fires. |
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More news you need to know: |
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Warnock, Ossoff to be sworn in, giving Democrats majority in Senate |
| Democrats will take control of the Senate on Wednesday after their two newest members, Georgia's Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, are sworn in late Wednesday afternoon , according to a Senate source, causing a 50-50 split in the chamber. They're set to be sworn in after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take their oaths of office as the new president and vice president, meaning Harris will officially be the president of the Senate and the tie-breaking vote allowing Democrats control of the chamber. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat who is set to take control of the chamber, said he was meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Tuesday about a power-sharing agreement because the chamber will be split down the middle. |
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ICYMI: Michigan nurse sings 'Amazing Grace' for national audience at COVID-19 memorial |
| A Michigan nurse whose moving rendition of "Amazing Grace" spread widely on social media early in the COVID-19 pandemic sang the hymn for the country on Tuesday night. Lori Key, 29, performed at a nationwide COVID-19 memorial in Washington, D.C., before President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. The memorial was part of the inauguration events and honored the 400,000 lives lost to the coronavirus across the country. Key, a registered nurse who works in Detroit, said working as a COVID-19 nurse was heartbreaking. "When I'm at work, I sing," she said during the memorial. "It gives me strength during difficult times, and I believe it helps heal." You can watch her previous rendition of the hymn here. |
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