Biden news: Impeachment filed as White House says ‘bigger issues’ than president not wearing mask

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US President Joe Biden signs executive order on Covid-19 during his first minutes in the Oval Office (EPA-EFE)
US President Joe Biden signs executive order on Covid-19 during his first minutes in the Oval Office (EPA-EFE)

Joe Biden is facing an impeachment attempt after his first full day in office.

While he moved swiftly to undo the legacy of Donald Trump by singing executive orders from Covid-19 to immigration, Republicans moved just as quickly to block the president creating a legacy of his own.

Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene filed articles claiming corruption against the president and his family in Ukraine, Russia and China.

New White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who faced no questions on the impeachment attempt in her second press briefing, brushed off concerns from reporters that the president was setting a bad example by breaking his own mask mandate.

"I think we have bigger issues to worry about," she said.

Earlier, Biden snapped at a reporter asking if the new president's plan for 100 million doses of the Covid vaccine were enough given the dire state of the pandemic in the US.

“When I announced it you all said it’s not possible, come on give me a break man. That’s a good start, 100 million,” Biden said.

Dr Anthony Fauci said rapid vaccine deployment will be needed if the country is to return to normalcy by the fall, but only if 85 per cent of the population is vaccinated by the end of summer in a best case scenario.

Speaking in his first White House press conference without Donald Trump was "liberating", Fauci said.

Acting homeland security secretary David Pekoske has paused some deportations for 100 days while asylum policies are reviewed, while Biden also sent to congress a an immigration reform bill removing the term “alien”. It would be replaced by "non citizen".

Trump, meanwhile, spent first full day out of the White House at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Leaders around the world congratulated Biden after his inauguration on Wednesday but the Kremlin has so far kept silent. That didn’t stop Russian state media portraying him as an absent-minded politician pre-occupied with minority rights or Aleksey Zhuralyev, a deputy for the ruling United Russia party, branding Mr Biden’s first speech as a “boring, old man’s” spiel.

Follow live updates and analysis from The Independent