President and vice president will also visit the CDC while in Georgia
- Asian American lawmakers say violence has reached ‘crisis point’
- US and China publicly rebuke each other in first major talks of Biden era
- House passes bill that would give Dreamers a path to citizenship
- Podcast: Why Medicare for All is a political headache
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10.45am GMT
Cleve Wootson Jr and Amy Wang write for the Washington Post this morning about Biden’s trip to Georgia, and his administration’s wider attempts to engage with the Asian American community, saying:
President Biden has refocused his trip to Georgia on Friday so he can meet with Asian American leaders about violence against their community. He has ordered flags flown at half-staff after the shooting that killed six Atlanta-area women of Asian descent. His administration is backing a bill that allows the Justice Department to review coronavirus-related hate crimes.
And White House officials have spent two days working the phones, reaching out to leaders and advocates in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and reaffirming their commitment to fighting anti-Asian hatred.
10.37am GMT
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris head to Atlanta in Georgia today in what was a planned trip, but which has now taken on additional significance after this week’s Atlanta spa shootings, in which six of the victims were women of Asian descent. The itinerary of the trip has changed significantly as a result. as NBC News reported overnight:
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden and Harris will meet with representatives of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, state lawmakers and community advocates to “hear about the impact of the incident on the community and to get their perspective on the rise of Anti-Asian hate incidents.”
Biden and Harris’ visit to Atlanta, which will be their first joint trip since taking office, had initially been scheduled as part of the administration’s “Help is Here” tour promoting the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package.
10.30am GMT
Good morning and welcome to Friday’s live coverage of US politics. The national focus on hate crimes against the Asian American community continues in the aftermath of the shooting in Atlanta, while strained US relations with China were on open display yesterday. Here’s where we are and what can we expect to see today.