1/11
On Thursday the Biden administration, along with congressional Democrats, unveiled a new immigration bill creating a path of 8 years to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country. #velshi

1/13
I have watched every presidential inauguration that I can remember, since I was a little boy, and long before I ever imagined I would live in America. But I had never watched one the way I watched the inauguration of Joe Biden. #velshi

2/13
I’d never considered the details leading up to an inauguration. I watched this one like a nervous parent, making sure everything went as planned. #velshi

3/13
Thanks to the last four years, everything is different, now. Our demons are on full display, our Union is certifiably imperfect. Our nation is divided. #velshi

4/13
After a year that takes first place in our history for death, destruction, fear and injustice, normalcy is struggling to regain its place. One thing with which we will struggle in this new day for America is the death of shame. #velshi

5/13
In addition to the other norms the former president destroyed, he turned lying - deliberate, casual and often with the force of law - into an art form and, with that, contributed to the death of shame. #velshi

1/10
Three days ago, we saw the putrid runoff of what’s been stoked, distilled & fomented by Trump since the beginning of his term. The riot in service of an attempted coup wasn’t spontaneous. It was planned & encouraged by the President of the United States of America. #velshi

2/10
The halls of our Capitol have only twice seen such insurrection - the last being August 24, 1814 when the British invaded Washington DC, set fire to the White House and breached the U.S. Capitol building before setting it ablaze. #velshi

3/10
The U.S. Senate was unable to meet in the historic Old Senate Chamber for nearly 5 years after that. On Wednesday, Senators returned after just five hours. But what a chaotic five hours it was. #velshi

4/10
Members of Congress were in the building because federal law dictates that the sealed certificates of each state's Electoral votes - which were cast on 12/14 - be transported to the Congressional chamber to be counted. There they were stored in the three wooden boxes.#velshi

5/10
Staffers took those boxes with them as they were ushered out of the House chamber. There are duplicates and, had the rioters taken the boxes and burned them, we’d still be able to account for all of the votes and get this done. #velshi

1/13
On the night of Thursday, May 28th, I was standing in front of a burning liquor store at the corner of E. Lake St. & Minnehaha Ave in Minneapolis. 3 days had passed since the killing of George Floyd by police. #velshi

2/13
I had been at that intersection for 6 hours watching the frustration grow. For 90 seconds, I described the scene, in detail, to my colleague Brian Williams, who was anchoring in New York City. But I was concerned... #velshi

3/13
The impression one might get from watching a police station overcome & of buildings burning was that of riot, or that Minneapolis was burning. But it wasn’t & I wanted to emphasize that the majority of the protestors were peaceful & not participating in any violence. #velshi

4/13
So I took an extra 20 to clarify that. And that 20 seconds is the ONLY part of several days of my reporting that right wing media continues to circulate. #velshi

5/13
An inaccurate blending of the events of those days became a regular laugh line for Donald Trump, who repeatedly told rallygoers some version of this story. That 20 sec. clip of my reporting, without context, made it to the floor of Congress as part of a hearing. #velshi

1/8
Mike Pence is the 48th Vice President, the 2nd highest office in the U.S. executive branch. He’s also the Senate president, with the authority to cast the tie-breaking vote. That’s what made his response to a vital question during this week’s debate so feckless. #velshi

2/8
Just before the debate ended, the moderator reminded Pence that Trump has, several times, refused to commit himself to a peaceful transfer of power after the election. She asked, if Joe Biden won the election and Trump refused to leave office, what would he do as VP? #velshi

3/8
In his roughly 2-min. answer, Pence talked about Hillary Clinton, spying, the Mueller report, Trump’s impeachment, mail-in voting & the FBI. One of the only thing Pence didn’t mention was what he would do if Trump refused to accept a peaceful transfer of power. #velshi

4/8
Here's the thing: Mike Pence isn’t about to tell Trump anything he doesn’t want to hear. It’s the basic rule of survival in the Trump orbit. But back in 2016, that is exactly what Pence told “60 Minutes” he WOULD do. #velshi

5/8
Pence said in 2016, “I promise you that when the circumstances arise where I have a difference on policy or on presentation…I would have no hesitation, were I privileged to be vice president, to walk into the president's office, close the door, and share my heart.” #velshi

1/13
This past week, before he did an interview with a top-rated AM radio station in St. Louis, and THEN being interviewed on CNN, Senator @HawleyMO wrote an Op-Ed for the fourth highest circulated newspaper in America. #velshi

2/13
In all of those extremely high-profile appearances, he repeated his grievance that he is being quote "cancelled" and quote "muzzled." That's rich. #velshi

3/13
Hawley freely discussing his being "muzzled" seems lost on him as he writes about how "corporate monopolies and the left team up to shut down speech they don't like and force their political agenda on America…” #velshi

4/13
Hawley continues: "For those who still believe in free speech & the First Amendment, this is the time to take a stand." That's cute. Complaining about being cancelled while speaking on the Senate floor. Complaining about shutting down free speech in a major newspaper #velshi

5/13
Hawley seems to enjoy taking stands, he's just not overly discerning about their being rooted in truth. And when they clearly aren't rooted in the truth, Hawley believes he bears no responsibility for what he says. Hawley can apparently dish it out but can't take it #velshi

A very personal thread about this story and why I increasingly believe addressing the rot caused by QAnon will be one of the Biden administration’s most important and most difficult tasks.

There are thousands of meme queens across the country. Let me introduce you to another one – my former best friend.

We grew up together, were inseparable throughout high school, drove to school together every morning, went on vacations with each other’s families. Sometimes i went to church with her family and sometimes she came to church with mine. We were in each other’s weddings.

She graduated from a good college and went into finance. She didn’t like it much. She moved to California with her husband, went to nursing school and became a delivery nurse. She loved it.

She had a baby, and then had two more. But she had a difficult time finding reliable childcare, and not being near any family, she found it increasingly impossible to juggle work and children.

.@MiekeEoyang will be the new deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy, according to documents obtained by @KatieBoWill. https://t.co/c2F8GNQUIf

Check another position off the list of mid-level federal cyber jobs that we're waiting to see filled.

Biden cyber appointees so far:

▪️ Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Tech: Anne Neuberger

▪️ NSC Senior Director for Cyber: Michael Sulmeyer

▪️ Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy: Mieke Eoyang

Biden has also named a bunch of cyber-related or cyber-adjacent appointees below the cabinet level. See next few tweets.

▪️ NatSec Adviser: Jake Sullivan
▪️ Principal Deputy NatSec Adviser: Jon Finer
▪️ Homeland Sec Adviser: Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall
▪️ Deputy HSA: Russ Travers

▪️ NSC Senior Director for Russia and Central Asia: Andrea Kendall-Taylor
▪️ NSC Senior Director for China: Laura Rosenberger
▪️ NSC Senior Director for Resilience and Response: Caitlin Durkovich
▪️ NSC Senior Director for Technology and National Security: Tarun Chhabra

And last but not least:

▪️ Office of Science and Technology Policy Director: Eric Lander

These fucking hacks.

Look, Biden's still Biden, but these fucksticks covered Trump's vast conflicts of interests for 0.5 seconds before just giving up when it became clear Trump simply didn't care about ethics.

Expect them to keep ringing this bell on Biden each week, however.

Biden having a foundation is pretty much the same as it was for Clinton, for Obama, for pretty much every President in living memory except maybe Jimmy Carter.

Yeah, these "foundations" and everything should be a point of concern. They're kind of weird.

But.

These political reporters suddenly flipping to covering Biden's "ethics quandaries" are also the ones who nodded off about the Trump Foundation, the hotels, the golf courses ...

Remember his taxes? That was maybe a week of coverage then forgotten.

Politico in particular can't be trusted to act in good faith when their editorial staff makes decisions like giving Ben Shapiro a platform and higher profile via their site.

They're going to spend the next four years watching for any cough or hiccup and calling it a plague.

Wouldn't it be lovely if we had a national press who were capable of reporting on ethics violations in an ethical manner, and not one determined to sensationalise every little thing as if it were the beginning of a massive scandal?

0. Impact of Biden as the President of the US on India and how the game is being played to weaken Modi ji. The crux of my long discussion with a Doctoral student of American studies: The thread

1.Trump was ousted by the CIA through the rigged elections because he was bringing in too much of world peace. He waged ZERO wars, improved the relationship between Islamic countries and Israel. He offered a truce to North Korea. But American system didn't like it

2a. As the American system runs on the basis of War Industry which Eisenhower categorically mentioned the existence of a “military-industrial complex” that dominates the decision making in Washington, irrespective of whoever becomes the President, in his farewell speech

2b. : Ref:

3. Hence Trump was ousted. Since even after leaving the office as a former President he is too powerful a person because of the knowledge and information he has now, they will ensure that he is harassed to the point that he either goes mad or dies under mysterious circumstances

NEW: The Biden administration arrived in January to find an exodus of foreign service officers at State, climate scientists gone at Interior and EPA, and workplace safety inspectors at Labor dropped under Trump. @rbravender reports on the path ahead. ($)

Biden is scrambling to make government work cool again, hoping to staff up w/ young idealists who buy into the "build back better" slogan. His admin is looking at ways to rehire some of the many scientists, retired officials, & other experts who hit quit over the last 4 years.

It won't be easy. Some agency veterans who left have moved on from the US government & say they're not interested in coming back. Fights over where to prioritize federal $ will likely mean Biden & Congress have tough choices about which of their pet issues they want to pay for.

And even some government employees who are relieved by the Democratic president's rhetoric about empowering the federal workforce are worried about how another administration after Biden might approach workers.

The gov jobs portal is packed with openings, like a Kansas-based EPA criminal investigator, a diversity & inclusion specialist for the Peace Corps, & a guide at Kings Canyon National Park. It's critical that these jobs are filled across the bureaucracy, per former US officials.