OnPolitics: Biden's shooting his COVID shot

Mabinty Quarshie, USA TODAY
·3 min read
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with a bipartisan group of mayors and governors to discuss a coronavirus relief package, in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Feb. 12, 2021, in Washington. From left, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ORG XMIT: DCEV109
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Now that Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial is over, President Joe Biden wants to move on. (Even if Trump wants to keep talking about it.)

The tiny thing on Biden's mind? Oh, just a pandemic that's crippled the American economy, killed nearly 500,000 and upended the world. Totally casual. No big deal.

It's Mabinty, with today's top news.

The president gets down to business to defeat COVID-19

If you didn't catch my sarcasm, fighting COVID-19 is a big deal for Biden. Dare I say, the biggest deal?

One piece of legislation that Biden wants to be passed into law ASAP is his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.

He will visit Milwaukee on Tuesday, making his first official trip as president, to make the case for the bill at a CNN town hall. Anderson Cooper will interview Biden at Milwaukee's Pabst Theater that will air at 9 p.m. ET., in front of "an invitation-only, socially distanced audience."

Biden will then visit a Pfizer manufacturing site in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Thursday, where he'll tout his administration's work to increase COVID-19 vaccinations and rally support behind his American Rescue Plan.

Do you know who else wants a relief bill passed into law? The American public. A recent Quinnipiac University poll found 68% of Americans support passage of the legislation, including 37% of Republican voters, 68% of independents and 97% of Democrats.

No Republican members of Congress have expressed support for the bill.

  • Struggling with paying your mortgage? Biden’s got an (executive) plan for that. The president is extending a ban on home foreclosures for federally backed mortgages by three months and expanding a mortgage relief program in a push to stabilize the nation's housing affordability crisis amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

'The race to 100 million doses'

Are you one of the few who's been vaccinated? USA TODAY got an exclusive look at how the White House is handling vaccine distribution:

  • States will receive their biggest boost yet in coronavirus vaccine doses this week, a 23% increase over the previous week and a 57% increase since Biden took office, administration officials told governors Tuesday.

  • The White House also announced that it’s doubling to 2 million the number of doses being sent directly to local pharmacies.

  • Biden set a goal of administering 100 million doses in his first 100 days. “With the progress we’re making I believe we’ll not only reach that, we’ll break it,” he tweeted Tuesday.

More politics news you need to know:

  • Marcia Fudge is poised to become secretary of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development amid a historic housing crisis. Can she save the day?

  • A majority of Americans do not think Trump should be allowed to hold elected office in the future, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

  • Biden is making an early, aggressive push to end the war in Yemen. The urgency to end the conflict may be due to guilt.

Life is short. Take more naps. —Mabinty

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID vaccine and relief bill, Joe Biden participates in CNN Townhall