- Republicans make lowball offer to Biden on Covid stimulus aid
- Expert warns US to brace for virulent Covid strain
- Trump hires new impeachment defense team after lawyers quit
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Here’s Stephen Collinson’s analysis of the dilemma facing president Biden today over working more closely with Republican senators on putting together a Covid stimulus package that can garner bipartisan support. He writes for CNN:
The president must now evaluate whether the new Republican offer is a good faith opening bid in an effort to find common ground, or a bluff calling exercise that would cause lasting damage to a new President’s authority and political capital if he were to accept it.
And while Biden is keen prove his capacity to make divided Washington work, he knows he risks fracturing support from Capitol Hill Democrats if he significantly downsizes his own plan to win Republican support in the Senate.
Donald Trump may have left the White House, but his shadow still looms large in Washington and the Republican party as the Senate prepares for his second impeachment trial.
The 50 Republicans in the Senate are grappling with how to appease Trump’s supporters, who still make up a hefty share of the party’s base, while acknowledging that the former president incited the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
Related: ‘This path is untenable’: can the Republican party split with Trumpism?
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/39yIttR