Biden news today: President unveils ‘ghost guns’ plan and names new ATF nominee with rallying cry to ‘fund the police’

The Independent’s senior Washington correspondent Eric Garcia has been reporting on the rash of Covid-19 diagnoses among the DC power elite in recent days, and has this analysis to offer.

Abby Finkenauer, who is running to challenge the longest-serving Republican senator, Iowan Chuck Grassley, has been dealt a serious blow by a judge who has ruled her ineligible for the Democratic primary ballot.

Ms Finkenauer was challenged by Republicans who claimed she did not submit enough valid signatures to become a candidate – and the case ultimately came down to three signatures that did not include the date.

According to the Des Moines Register, the judge recognised how galling the ruling was.

“The Court takes no joy in this conclusion,” wrote the judge. “This Court should not be in the position to make a difference in an election, and Ms. Finkenauer and her supporters should have a chance to advance her candidacy. However, this Court’s job is to sit as a referee and apply the law without passion or prejudice. It is required to rule without consideration of the politics of the day.”

Among the numerous attendees of Joe Biden’s gun safety announcement later will be Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.

Gun safety campaigner Fred Guttenberg, who lost two children in the Parkland school shooting, is in Washington, DC for Joe Biden’s announcement of new measures designed to curb the spread of weapons that end up being used in deadly crimes.

Elon Musk’s technology company SpaceX was praised for a charitable act in February when it sent hundreds of Starlink terminals to Ukraine to help maintain internet access in the country as it came under Russian assault. However, it has now emerged that the shipment of terminals was in fact delivered via a “public-private partnership” with the US government.

After Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris hosted her for a jubilant appearance outside the White House where the judge reflected on the deep import of her rise to the highest court in the leand.

“I have achieved something far beyond anything my grandparents could have possibly ever imagined,” she said. “But no-one does this on their own…

“We have come a long way toward perfecting our union. In my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Two police officers in Buffalo, New York who were caught on camera pushing a 75-year-old racial justice protester to the ground have been cleared of any wrongdoing.

According to an arbitrator, Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski were justified in pushing Mr Gugino during the protest in downtown Buffalo in New York, as the protester refused to comply with the orders and acted erratically.

The video of the interaction was one of
many shocking clips of police-protester encounters during the summer of 2020, which saw Black Lives Matter demonstrators and others met with often draconian and sometimes brutal reprisals when they took to the streets to protest police violence.

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar has the story.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan made the rounds on the Sunday shows, where he was asked about aspects of the Ukrainian conflict covering military aid, Vladimir Putin’s role in alleged war crimes, and the question of whether the mass murder uncovered in various Ukrainian cities could constitute genocide.

He also explained that the US is prepared to continue throwing out Russian government employees who are found to be engaging in espionage on behalf of the Kremlin.

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The White House has released the beginnings of Joe Biden’s plan to crack down on “ghost guns”, privately made firearms with no serial numbers that a briefing describes as “the weapon of choice for violent criminals”.

According to the White House, a new rule introduced by the Justice Department will target both existing guns and the business of manufacturing them, including “unserialized ‘buy build shoot’ kits that individuals can buy online or at a store without a background check and can readily assemble into a working firearm in as little as 30 minutes with equipment they have at home.”

Read the White House’s full fact sheet here.