By the numbers: A statistical look at Trump's four years in office
The Dow Jones Average has increased by more than 10,000 points since outgoing President Donald Trump’s inauguration four years ago.
But consumer confidence — due in large part to the coronavirus pandemic — is down, while the national unemployment rate is up a full 2 percentage points from Jan. 2017.
Economic growth is exponentially higher as of the last quarter. (But that’s also because it was catastrophically lower in the preceding quarter due to the coronavirus.)
And the federal budget deficit is more than five times higher than what it was when Trump first took office, while the public debt has grown by nearly $8 trillion.
These numbers tell only part of the story of Trump’s presidency, failing to capture the tweets, controversies, Supreme Court nominations and impeachments — plural — during his four years in the Oval Office. But they do help frame the overall economic and financial environment that existed before Trump became president and the one that exists as he leaves office on Jan. 20.
Law enforcement and the military probing whether members took part in Capitol riot
Former and current members of law enforcement agencies and the military appear to have participated in last week's chaos in Washington, alarming lawmakers on Capitol Hill and Americans nationwide as each day brings new video and information about the riot and the rioters.
Investigations by law enforcement agencies and news organizations, along with a series of arrests, have exposed a widening issue of domestic extremism among the ranks of those who are meant to protect Americans.
On Monday, even the U.S. Capitol Police announced that the agency had suspended "several" of its own and will investigate at least 10 officers for their actions.
Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock and Alex Padilla to be sworn into the Senate on Wednesday
Senators-elect Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock and Alex Padilla will be sworn in Wednesday in the "late afternoon" by incoming Vice President Kamala Harris, according to two sources familiar with the plan.
Ossoff and Warnock won their Senate runoff elections in Georgia on Jan. 5 and California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Padilla to fill Harris' seat, which she resigned from on Monday.
Once Harris and the three senator are sworn in, the Senate will be divided 50-50, but Democrats will hold the majority because Harris will be able to cast tie-breaking votes as vice president.
Senate leaders Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are working on a power-sharing agreement for a 50-50 Senate, according to a source familiar with the process. The deal would determine how the Senate and committees operate in an evenly divided Senate.
The two are expected to talk Tuesday about that as well as Trump's upcoming impeachment trial, confirmation hearings for Biden nominees and coronavirus relief.
FBI vetting service members ahead of inauguration amid reported fears of insider attack
Defense officials say they are worried about an inside attack or some other threat from service members involved in securing President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, The Associated Press reported.
As a result, the FBI is vetting all service members on hand in the capital to support the inauguration, an Army official told NBC News on Sunday.
"The Army is working with the FBI to vet all service members supporting the Inauguration National Special Security Event," the official said.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told the AP that officials were conscious of the potential threat, and he warned commanders to be on the lookout for any issues as the inauguration approaches.
The stakes are high for Biden's inaugural address. Here's what to expect.
As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office facing more crises than any other president in modern American history, the stakes for his inaugural address couldn't be higher.
A transition official said that Biden worked on the speech over the weekend with family members and his senior adviser Mike Donilon and that the address will emphasize familiar themes from his campaign: unity, healing and a vision for the many crises the country faces.
Advisers also said the address will echo some of Biden's recent speeches, which have doubled as opportunities to test inaugural themes. As he unveiled his $1.9 trillion economic package last week, Biden said bipartisanship was essential to addressing the economy and the Covid-19 pandemic: "Unity is not some pie-in-the-sky dream — it's a practical step to getting the things we have to get done as a country get done together," he said.
Census Bureau director to resign amid allegations of pressure to produce immigrant count
Facing criticism over efforts to produce citizenship data to comply with an order from President Donald Trump, U.S. Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham said Monday that he planned to resign with the change in presidential administrations.
Dillingham said in a statement that he would resign on Wednesday, the day Trump leaves the White House and President-elect Joseph Biden takes office.
The Census Bureau director’s plan to resign comes as the statistical agency is in the middle of crunching the numbers for the 2020 census, which will be used to determine how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets, as well as the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year.
Last week, Democratic lawmakers called on Dillingham to resign after a watchdog agency said he had set a deadline that pressured statisticians to produce a report on the number of people in the U.S. illegally.
Viewers' guide to Biden's Inauguration Day: Everything you need to know
Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday in a ceremony that will keep with tradition while being unlike any other inauguration in U.S. history.
There will be pomp, ceremony, former presidents, congressional leaders, A-list performers, parades and tributes to the troops — but before a small, socially distanced audience in a city that has been locked down because of the dual threats of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed almost 400,000 people in the U.S., and possible domestic terrorism after the deadly violence at the U.S. Capitol.
One thing there won't be is an argument that Biden will have drawn the biggest crowd in inauguration history — he and officials in Washington, D.C., hope it will be the smallest, with people watching from their couches instead of the National Mall.
The day's events will be far more star-studded than Donald Trump's inauguration, which was headlined by country singers Toby Keith and Lee Greenwood. Among those participating Wednesday are pop superstars Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, rock icon Bruce Springsteen and country superstar Garth Brooks.
Latinos in the Biden administration shoulder high expectations, urgency to undo Trump policies
Obama White House veterans Julie Chávez Rodriguez and Adrian Saenz are heading back to Pennsylvania Avenue this week with a sense of urgency and a feeling of starting from scratch.
President-elect Joe Biden, who is to take the oath of office Wednesday, made Chávez Rodríguez his director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, while Saenz will be deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement.
Chávez Rodríguez, Saenz and other Latinos in the Biden administration will be shouldering some high expectations from a nation on edge after the riot on the U.S. Capitol and President Donald Trump's second impeachment — during a pandemic and the economic fallout that has robbed people of work and paychecks.
"It's not going to be easy. I don't go into any of this with rose-colored glasses," said Chávez Rodríguez, the granddaughter of the civil rights icon and labor leader César Chavez.