Biden calls shootings ‘health crisis of gun violence’ during speech in Atlanta – US politics live

Joe Biden ended his speech in Atlanta directly addressing the family members of the eight victims of this week’s shooting.

“I know they feel that like there’s a black hole in their chest that they’re being sucked into, that things will never get better. But our prayers are with you, and I assure you, the one you lost will always be with you,” Biden said.

“The day will come when their memory brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye, as unbelievable as that is now. It will take a while, but I promise you it will come, and when it does, that’s the day you know you’re gonna make it.”

The president is wrapping up his schedule in Atlanta by meeting Georgia Democrat Stacy Abrams. Looks like the meeting will be kicking off shortly.

Former President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, club has been partially closed because of a Covid-19 outbreak.

That’s according to several people familiar with the situation, including a club member who received a phone call informing them about the closure Friday. A receptionist at the Mar-a-Lago club confirmed the news, saying it was closed until further notice, but declined to comment further.

A person familiar with club operations said that, out of an abundance of caution, they had “partially closed” a “section of the club” for a short period of time and quarantined some of its workers.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation by name. The number of cases, what portions of the club were closed or how it was affecting the former first family weren’t immediately clear.

Representatives for Trump and the Florida Department of Health did not immediately respond to a phone call and email Friday seeking comment.

Trump moved to Mar-a-Lago after leaving Washington in January, and has spent the weeks since then laying low, golfing, dining with friends, meeting with Republican party leaders and plotting his political future as he considers running again in 2024. – AP

Kamala Harris condemned the Tuesday shooting of eight people in the Atlanta area, six of them Asian-American women, as a “heinous act of violence” on Friday during a speech at Emory University, following a meeting between her, the president, and a delegation of Asian-American leaders from Georgia.

“Whatever the killer’s motive, these facts are clear,” she said. “Six out of the eight people killed Tuesday night were of Asian descent. Seven were women. The shootings took place in business owned by Asian-Americans. The shootings took place as violent hate crimes and discrimination against Asian-American has risen dramatically over the last year or more.”

Josh Marcus has the vice president’s comments.

The president has used his address in Atlanta to connect the motivation of the alleged shooter to the rhetoric of Donald Trump calling Covid-19 the China virus.

“Whatever the motivation we know this, too many Asian Americans have been walking up and down the streets worrying, waking up each morning the past year feeling their safety and the safety of their loved ones are at stake,” Biden says.

He added: “Words have consequences, it’s the coronavirus. Full stop. The conversation we had today with the AAPI [Asian American Pacific Islander] leaders, and that we’re hearing all across the country, is that hate and violence often hide in plain sight.”

The president met with leaders of the city’s Asian American community to discuss the massacre that killed 8 people.

“We talked about Tuesday’s mass shooting, about another example of public health crisis of gun violence in this country,” Biden says.

The president is expected to take the podium at any moment.

Follow live with The Independent.

Joe Biden accidentally referred to Kamala Harris as “President Harris” during a press conference, which conservative conspiracy theorists jumped on, alleging the Democrats were planning on ousting Mr Biden and replacing him with Ms Harris.

Mr Biden was announcing that the administration had facilitated more than 100 million Covid vaccination doses when he made the flub.

“Now when President Harris and I took a virtual tour of a vaccination centre in Arizona not long ago, one of the nurses on that, on that tour injecting people, giving vaccinations, said that each shot was like administering a dose of hope,” he said.

Mr Biden has made the slip in the past, referring to her as “president-elect” in December while discussing their own vaccinations.

Graig Graziosi has the response.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been accused of sexual harassment by another woman – this time an aide who currently works in his office, The New York Times reports.

Alyssa McGrath, 33, said Mr Cuomo has previously allegedly ogled her body, remarked on her looks, and made suggestive comments about herself and another female aide in the office, according to the publication. This makes Ms McGrath the first woman to speak against the governor as a current employee, as she works as an aide in Mr Cuomo’s office.

Incidents recalled by Ms McGrath included the governor calling herself and another female aide “mingle mamas”. He referred to her as “beautiful” in Italian and gazed down her shirt once to comment on a necklace.

Mr Cuomo also inquired about the woman’s lack of wedding ring and what the status was of her divorce, she claimed when speaking to The New York Times.

The Independent’s Danielle Zoellner is following the developing story.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun probing claims of a cover-up in the number of Covid-related deaths of New York state nursing homes, according to The New York Times.

The outlet reported that agents have contacted the governor’s aides, interviewed senior Health Department officials, and subpoenaed Andrew Cuomo’s office for documents related to the disclosure of data.

While the governor’s office maintained that the incomplete data needed to be fully vetted before release, staffer Melissa DeRosa told state lawmakers that they “froze” because of a Justice Department request for data in August.

An investigation by the Times, meanwhile, found that aides removed the data in question two months earlier, in June.