Trump's Final Days: The Best Countdown Ever

On today's Quick News Daily Podcast, we cover a lot of smaller stories that are making headlines. These include stories about Vice President-elect Kamala Harris resigning her Senate position today, when Jon Ossoff and Reverend Warnock could be sworn in as U.S. Senators from Georgia, and what effect Twitter's ban on Trump is already having. Also, we'll cover the changes to the Inauguration, like a Tom Hanks-hosted TV program, and President-elect Biden's stimulus plan (The American Rescue Plan).

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Transcript:

SENATE

Kamala Harris is resigning from the Senate today so that she can prep for her role as Vice President, which is still so, so fun to say.

This means that the current California Secretary of State will fill her seat. He said that he expects to be sworn in on Wednesday.

Another thing I’ve been wondering is when exactly do Jon Ossoff and Reverend Warnock get sworn in in the Senate?

Well, according to WXTL in Georgia, every country in Georgia was able to meet the deadline of certifying their results by midnight this past Friday.

No precincts or counties reported any changes in the outcome, so again, no fraud there.

Warnock and Ossoff have to bring their certification papers to DC, and once they do that, they’re usually sworn in the next day.

Even though I’m sure they could head there today with their papers, everywhere I’ve looked says that Democrats will get control of the Senate on January 20th, so I guess everyone just kind of takes a break until then.

 

BIDEN STIMULUS PLAN

I think it was Friday of last week, President Biden (I’m just going to start calling him that, if you don’t mind) introduced his plan for a $1.9 trillion emergency legislative package to fund a nationwide vaccination effort and provide direct economic relief to Americans. He’s calling the plan “The American Rescue Plan”.

"In this pandemic in America, we cannot let people go hungry. We cannot let people get evicted. We cannot let nurses, educators and others lose their jobs when we so badly need them. We must act now and act decisively," Biden said.

Woah, is that our president saying that? Is our president actually getting involved in passing bills and doing actual work? I thought he was just supposed to tweet about what he’s watching on Fox & Friends.

The American Rescue Plan will include more than $400 billion toward dealing with COVID, including $160 billion to execute a national vaccination program, expand testing and mobilize a public health jobs program.

The proposal includes $1,400 stimulus checks for Americans and extends and expands unemployment benefits, including a $400 weekly unemployment insurance supplement, through September.

The CNN article says “Biden's plan invests $50 billion to expand Covid-19 testing, providing funds to purchase rapid tests, expand lab capacity and help schools and local governments implement regular testing protocols. Biden will also ask for $30 billion to invest in the disaster relief fund to ensure sufficient supplies and protective gear, and to provide total federal reimbursement for critical emergency response resources.”

The request includes $30 billion in rental, utility, energy, and water assistance for those hit hardest by the pandemic, as well as extending eviction and foreclosure moratoriums until September 30th.

In terms of small business help, Biden is proposing $15 billion in flexible grants to more than 1 million of the hardest hit small businesses. He is proposing investing $35 billion in government funds into state, local, tribal, and nonprofit small business financing programs.

Biden's plan would provide additional resources for high-quality, affordable childcare. He will request a $25 billion emergency stabilization fund to assist childcare providers in covering their costs to operate safely. It would also provide emergency paid leave to an additional 106 million Americans in order to help reduce the spread of the virus.

There’s also a proposal for the child tax credit to be made refundable for the year, and that Congress increase the credit to $3,000 per child, or $3,600 for a child under the age of 6 and make 17-year-olds qualifying children for the year.

Biden is asking f $350 billion in emergency funding for state, local and territorial governments in order to support front line workers, keeping them on the job and paid.

I don’t know, I don’t want to get too optimistic because it is Congress, after all. Plus, they always say that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

To get this deal passed, they just need to make sure they keep moderate Democrats, like Joe Manchin, happy.

The lives and futures of tens or hundreds of millions of Americans really should not come down to one or two people, especially old white dudes who are probably millionaires, but that’s our system right now, unfortunately.

It is a very good step in the right direction though, because it’s about helping working Americans, not just tax breaks and straight up money for companies. I honestly don’t get how blue-collar workers think that Republicans are their friends and Democrats are their enemies.

And, I hate to say it, but Manchin had a good point on CNN’s State of the Union yesterday. He said, “I'm on board by helping people that need help, people that really can't make it, people that don't have a job. Sending checks to people that basically already have a check and aren't going to be able to spend that or are not going to spend it -- usually are putting it in their savings account right now -- that's not who we are."

So, you might be asking “when is the earliest the money could start flowing?” The answer, according to Kevin Kosar, a resident scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute and co-editor of the book Congress Overwhelmed, might be mid- to late February.  

Another CNN article pointed out that in his speech Thursday night, Biden said he would like to work with members of both parties to enact his American Rescue Plan, indicating that he wants to go the traditional route, which would require the backing of at least 10 Republican senators.

 

INAUGURATION

The arrests for the insurrection at the Capitol just keep piling up.

There won’t be an actual parade from the Capitol to the White House, just a virtual parade (whatever that is).

There won’t be inaugural balls either, but it might actually be better this year. Instead of these, we’ll get a special TV program that’s hosted by Tom Hanks.

This will run from 8:30 PM ET to 10:00 PM ET. It’ll be on the original networks, and also on cable on CNN and MSNBC.

The program will include performances from Jon Bon Jovi, who campaigned with Biden in Pennsylvania, Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake, and Ant Clemons.  

As for President Sore Loser, Trump plans to leave the White House on Inauguration Day and have a departure ceremony at Joint Base Andrews. This means he’d be the first president in modern history to skip the inauguration of the next president. 

As for the departure ceremony, I don’t know about you, but that kind of seems like a misuse of military resources. I’m not sure if we care about those things all the time, or if it’s just when Democrats try to ask why we’re spending so much money on the military. Yeah, I am pretty salty about that topic…

After the departure ceremony, Trump will use our hard-earned tax dollars one last time to use Air Force One to fly to Mar-a-Lago.

Speaking of programming for the Inauguration, that reminds me: I won’t be having a show on Wednesday. It’ll be much more captivating to watch the swearing ins and speeches.

 

MISINFORMATION

According to research by Zignal Labs, which the Washington Post reported on Saturday, online misinformation about election fraud decreased by 73 percent in the after Twitter banned Trump on January 8.

Zignal found that the use of hashtags that were used by right-wing people about the Capitol riot also dipped considerably

Mentions of the hashtag #FightforTrump, which was across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media services in the week before the rally, dropped 95 percent. “#HoldTheLine” and the term “March for Trump” also decreased more than 95 percent.