Transition of Power
At the start of the month, after the last of former President Trump’s legal cases against alleged voter fraud had closed and each state had long since certified their election results, Trump called Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, attempting to persuade him to overturn the election result. In the call, Trump claimed, “…we won every state. We won every statehouse in the country. We held the Senate…And we won the House'' to which Raffensperger responded, “President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. We don’t agree that you have won.” Raffensperger went on to explain the steps Georgia has taken to confirm the legitimacy of the results and disputed Trump’s assertions of election fraud.
On January 6th, days after Trump’s call with Raffensperger, Congress was scheduled to conduct a formal tally of the electoral votes and address the challenges on the Arizona and Pennsylvania results. At this time, Trump supporters began protesting outside the Capitol Building as Trump held a rally nearby. Continuing with his claims that the election results were fraudulent, Trump told his supporters, “After this, we’re gonna walk down, and I’ll be there with you…we’re gonna walk down to the Capitol.” The crowd outside the Capitol Building continued to grow and amidst Congress’s oral debates protests turned into an insurrection. A violent mob began to storm the Capitol, breaching the Capitol Building for the first time in over 200 years.
The insurrectionists rummaged through desks on the Senate floor, broke into the offices of Congressmembers, and violently clashed with the Capitol Police and National Guard whilst chanting phrases like, “Hang Mike Pence.” Both chambers of Congress were narrowly evacuated, and riots persisted for hours leaving five dead, including a Capitol police officer. Since the attack, over 150 arrests have been made of participants across the country. Among these arrests was Jacob Lewis, a Victorville man known for resisting Covid-19 restrictions on his business “The Gym".
The following day, January 7th, Congress reconvened to certify the election results. The Arizona and Pennsylvania results were separately challenged and ultimately upheld. There were, however, a total of 147 members of Congress who voted to overturn one or both of these states’ election results. Jay Obernolte, the newly elected representative of California’s 8th district, was among these Congress Members.
Impeachment
Following the Capitol breach, many lawmakers, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, began to call on Vice President Pence to invoke a power granted to him by the 25th Amendment that would allow him to declare President Trump unfit for office because of his role in inciting the insurrection. When Pence did not invoke the 25th Amendment, the House went forward with impeachment. On January 13th, a single article of impeachment, charging Trump with “incitement of insurrection,” was passed with 232-197 votes. The House delivered the article of impeachment to the Senate on January 26th and the trial is set to begin on February 8th. This trial is expected to be shorter than the last impeachment trial that took three weeks.
Senate
In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden narrowly won Georgia, giving hope to Democrats hoping to secure the two available Senate seats. On the same day as the Capitol breach, January 6th, Georgia held its runoff elections between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Kelly Loeffler, who served as the temporary replacement when Senator Isakson resigned, and Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican David Purdue. Both Democrats won their elections creating a rare 50-50 split in the Senate between Democrats and Republicans. Because the Vice President serves as the President of the Senate, this means Democrats now have control over both houses of Congress and the executive branch.
Start of Biden’s First 100 Days
Following the capitol breach, insider security threats, and the ongoing pandemic, the inauguration of President Joe Biden required additional precautions including increased security, screening of the national guard, and closures around D.C. Traditionally the National Mall, a long grassy park that borders the Capitol Building, is full of people there to watch the swearing-in ceremony, but this year the mall was filled with thousands of American flags to discourage large crowds and show a “commitment to an inclusive and safe event that everyone can enjoy from their home.” The typical parade and inaugural balls were also canceled to reduce the Covid-19 spread.
After being sworn in and attending the inauguration festivities, Biden went straight to work and made over a dozen executive orders during his first day in office. Some notable orders include committing to rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change, issuing a national mask mandate on federal property, creating the role of Covid-19 Response Coordinator, canceling the Keystone pipeline, and various others to address inequality and discrimination. In the days following, Biden also passed numerous orders to combat the spread of Covid-19, provide economic relief to U.S. families, and outline a plan to reopen schools. Other orders of note include reversing the Trump era ban on trans individuals from serving in the military and an order to stop the renewal of private prison contracts.
At the time of Biden’s inauguration, none of his cabinet member nominees had yet been sworn in by the Senate and their roles were temporarily filled with acting secretaries. There are currently six confirmed cabinet members with seventeen remaining to be confirmed (including ten core cabinet members). Once confirmed, Biden’s cabinet will be historically diverse and has already made history among those confirmed. The members confirmed include Avril Haines (the first female Director of National Intelligence), Lloyd Austin (the first Black Secretary of Defense), Janet Yellen (Secretary of the Treasury), Antony Blinken (Secretary of State), Alejandro Mayorkas (the first Latino Secretary of Homeland Security, and Pete Buttigieg (Secretary of Transportation and the first openly gay cabinet member confirmed by the Senate).
California Laws
As early as January 1st, numerous new laws came into effect in California, many focused on Covid-19 response, worker protections, and supporting minority groups. Amidst the ongoing pandemic and political tensions, these laws largely reflect the need to multitask in order to get the most people the help they need.
Months into the Covid-19 crisis, healthcare workers continue to struggle with personal protective equipment shortages, leading them to reuse and ration things like gloves and masks. Starting in April, hospitals that don’t stockpile personal protective equipment may be fined up to $25,000. Healthcare providers will also begin collecting data on the sexual orientation and gender identity of Covid-19 patients to contribute to research on how the pandemic affects the LGBTQ+ community in California. To help protect workers and slow the spread of Covid-19, employers are now required to notify employees within 24 hours if they have reason to believe they came in contact with someone who’s contracted the virus, and worker’s compensation will be expanded for those who contract the virus on the job.
In the past few years, California has steadily increased its minimum wage. The minimum wage for large companies will now be $14 an hour, and $13 an hour for businesses with 25 or fewer employees. With the passing of the highly publicized Prop. 22, workers for app-based companies like Uber and Lyft, will remain classified as independent contractors, but will now be offered healthcare and employment benefits below the normal state standard if they work at least 15 hours a week. In relation to the pandemic and lockdown orders, California also expanded its anti-price gouging law to apply to those who began selling products recently to address the resale of scarce supplies at higher prices.
Largely inspired by Black Lives Matter protests and calls for police reform, California has passed many laws to protect citizens and incentivize diversifying workplaces. As a part of recent police reform, officers are now prohibited from using chokeholds and similar restraints, fatal shootings by an officer of an unarmed person must now be investigated by the California Attorney General, and counties are permitted to create a civilian oversight board for sheriffs. By the end of 2021, companies are expected to meet many new requirements to diversify executive boards, such as but not limited to, having at least two women on boards with at least five people and at least two members of an underrepresented community for boards with at least four members. Companies with over 100 workers will also be required to submit annual pay data based on race, ethnicity, and gender.
Covid-19 (California)
On January 25th, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that state-wide stay-at-home orders would be lifted, and the state would return to a county-by-county tier system. This announcement followed roughly two weeks in which new Covid-19 cases declined steadily along with hospitalization. While the Covid-19 death rate has yet to see a decrease, the new case number per day continues to decline, though only four California counties are currently in either the “Substantial” or “Moderate” tier, while the remaining counties, including San Bernardino, are still in the first “Widespread” tier.
With the announcement on the 25th, Newsom also announced a four-phase plan for vaccine distribution. So far, we’ve begun Phase 1A, which includes vaccinating healthcare workers and nursing facilities, and Phase 1B, which expands the availability to anyone over 65 years old, workers in education, emergency service workers, and food and agriculture workers. Phase 1C is expected to begin in the Spring and expand access based on age, then the final phase, Phase 2, will begin in the summer or fall of 2021.
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