Biden news: Harris says US ‘not into regime change’ but won’t say whether she agrees Putin must go

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Jen Psaki responds to resignation rumours

President Joe Biden delivered remarks this morning hailing another successful jobs reports that sees employment return to pre-pandemic levels and unemployment to drop to a level not seen since 1969.

While inflation remains a huge concern to Americans, Mr Biden has also ordered the release of up 1 million barrels of oil per day from the strategic petroleum reserve for the next six months in a bid to control prices that have spiked since the US and its allies imposed strict sanctions on Russia after it began its war on Ukraine.

Answering questions from reporters on Thursday, Mr Biden said Russian president Vladimir Putin “seems to be self-isolated and there’s some indication that he has fired or put under house arrest some of his advisers”.

Meanwhile, new reports say that White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki will leave her post this spring to take up a job at MSNBC. It had long been speculated that Ms Psaki would be leaving the administration soon after more than a year in the role.

At Friday’s press briefing Ms Psaki refused to comment on her plans, other than to say she that if she left she would spend time with her children and would sleep.

Pressed on if she could do be an effective briefer with plans to join a media outlet Ms Psaki said she is abiding by all ethics rules and legal requirements.

Key points

• Jobs report shows continued hiring, unemployment falls to 50-year low
• Biden admin ordering release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from strategic reserve
• Jen Psaki will not confirm White House resignation rumours
• Covid-19 asylum limits at US-Mexico border to end May 23
• Vulnerable Dems plead with Biden to delay reopening asylum

[1 April 2022 12:38 · Andrew Naughtie]

ICYMI: Biden warns Putin may be “self-isolating” as he wages Ukraine war

Worries about Vladimir Putin’s state of mind and access to accurate information have become a major theme of the Ukraine crisis, and Joe Biden offered some new context to those suspicions yesterday when he said that the Russian president appears to be alarmingly distanced from his top lieutanants.

“He seems to be self-isolating, and there’s some indication that he has um...fired or house-arrested some of his advisers,” said Mr Biden, adding that he was waiting for more “hard evidence” on the issue.

Recent assessments from US intelligence indicate that Mr Putin may still be receiving inaccurate information or even outright lied to by senior advisers afraid of the consequences of giving him bad news.

[1 April 2022 13:10 · Andrew Naughtie]

Why can’t the US just legalise marijuana?

The House of Representatives is today expected to pass a bill that would finally legalise marijuana for personal use at the federal level, a move that would catch the government up with numerous states that have already done the same after a decades-long “war on drugs”. However, the chances of the bill making it through the US Senate are much more slim.

Here, John Bowden looks at the reasons behind the federal government’s reluctance to end the criminalisation of a drug smoked by millions of Americans every day:

[1 April 2022 13:52 · Andrew Naughtie]

New jobs numbers show recovery still continuing

The latest jobs numbers show that the US economy has added well over 400,000 jobs in the last month – another blow to any claims that Joe Biden is overseeing some kind of economic disaster.

Read more from the Associated Press here.

[1 April 2022 14:20 · Andrew Naughtie]

ICYMI: Biden announces gender-neutral changes to travel bureaucracy

The Human Rights Campaign, a major LGBT+ lobbying group, has praised the Biden administration for new measures including a new gender X marker on applications for US passports on Thursday, as well as gender-neutral airport scanners, in addition to other measures aimed at making the federal government more inclusive for transgender people.

Declaring that the people they campaign for have “an ally in the White House”, HRC interim president Joni Madison said that “News of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to policy reforms that will improve the lives of transgender and non-binary people in this country is a wonderful way to kick off this year’s International Transgender Day of Visibility.”

Read more below:

[1 April 2022 14:50 · Andrew Naughtie]

What the jobs numbers mean

Political analyst Junita Tolliver has pulled out a stark line from the superficially encouraging new jobs report: while the overall pace of hiring remains healthy, there are still major gaps between the employment rates for different racial groups.

Meanwhile, others have plotted where the recent run of numbers puts the US as it plots a path back to a pre-pandemic level of economic health.

[1 April 2022 15:08 · Oliver O'Connell]

Labour stats approach pre-pandemic levels as unemployment falls again

The US unemployment rate dropped two tenths of a percentage point over the last month to 3.6 percent, the lowest since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the Bureau of Labour Statistics, “total non-farm payroll” rose by 431,000 from 1 March to 31 March, with “notable” gains across “leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, retail trade, and manufacturing”.

Andrew Feinberg has the latest from Washington, DC, ahead of President Biden’s remarks this morning highlighting the encouraging economic news.

[1 April 2022 15:32 · Andrew Naughtie]

Where is Jen Psaki headed?

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, one of the Biden administration’s most visible public figures, is well-known to be planning to move on from her job in the near future – and now, Axios reports that she is set to leave the administration for a job at MSNBC.

Sara Fischer also reports that Ms Psaki will not be replacing the network’s star progressive host Rachel Maddow.

The question of who will replace Ms Psaki herself in her role at the White House briefing room lectern has been circulating for a while, and based on her performances while Ms Psaki has been isolating with Covid-19, the most likely candidate seems to be the current communications director, Kate Bedingfield. Here’s a profile.

[1 April 2022 15:53 · Andrew Naughtie]

US secures release of reservist held by Taliban

Safi Rauf, a 27-year-old naval reservist who has been held by the Taliban since December, has been released after months of negotiations. As reported by CNN, he and his brothers co-founded a group that worked to evacuate people seeking to escape from Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul last year.

Bevan Hurley has the story.

[1 April 2022 15:58 · Andrew Naughtie]

Biden now speaking on jobs report

Joe Biden begins his speech today by proclaiming that his first year in office has seen the fastest decline in unemployment than during any other president’s first year.

“Our economy has gone from being on the mend to on the move,” he says.

[1 April 2022 16:00 · Andrew Naughtie]

Biden celebrates impact of Covid recovery legislation

Joe Biden is making an effort to link the good news on jobs to legislation passed under his presidency, trumpeting the “more than 4,000 new programs” now underway as a result of various pieces of legislation – laws that he accepts most Americans won’t have time to know about in detail.

“People are making more money,” he says, dismissing what some have called the “great resignation” as “long overdue” – the sign that the economy is allowing people to find better – and better-paying – jobs after years of being underpaid and overworked.