Biden to visit Milwaukee, his first official trip, with Trump's impeachment trial out of the way

Joey Garrison

February 16, 2021 at 10:15 AM·4 min read

WASHINGTON — With his predecessor's impeachment trial no longer a distraction, President Joe Biden will visit Milwaukee on Tuesday, making his first official trip as president as he pushes for quick approval of his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.

Biden will take part in a CNN town hall at Milwaukee's Pabst Theater that will air at 9 p.m. ET.

It comes after the U.S. Senate on Saturday voted to acquit former President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial and as Biden zeroes in on his policy agenda to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The short stay – followed by a second visit on Thursday to a Pfizer manufacturing site in Kalamazoo, Michigan – gives Biden an opportunity to tout his administration's work to increase COVID-19 vaccinations and rally support behind his American Rescue Plan, which he wants Congress to pass in the coming weeks.

Related: Biden Says 200 Million More Vaccine Doses Coming This Summer

More: Many Democrats are furious over Trump's acquittal, but President Biden just wants to move on

"With the impeachment trial in the rear-view mirror, Biden can really hit upon some of the things that he's already said as president-elect were going to be a priority," said Paul Nolette, associate professor of political science at Marquette University. "Addressing COVID-19, particularly ramping up the vaccines, and really pushing his stimulus package."

Broad public support of bill hasn't translated to Republicans in Congress

The trip to Wisconsin is his first outside Washington, his home state of Delaware or the Camp David presidential retreat since becoming president. Biden is expected to arrive in Milwaukee in the early evening and has no other stops scheduled before he boards Air Force One back to Washington.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden will take "take questions from Americans about the issues they are facing every day, including the pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis."

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper will moderate the forum, which will feature "an invitation-only, socially distanced audience."

As Biden's COVID-19 relief bill heads through Congress, the White House has pointed to widespread public support in public polling to argue the package is bipartisan. A recent Quinnipiac University poll found 68% of Americans support passage of the legislation, including 37% of Republican voters, 68% of independents and 97% of Democrats. Yet no Republican members of Congress have expressed support for the bill.

More: Do states and cities 'need' Biden's $350 billion in direct COVID-19 relief? It depends where you're asking

President Biden says 200 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses are coming this summer

Nolette called the town hall an opportunity to "speak to the American people" as Biden seeks to build more support and sway some Republicans his direction.

"Especially given that this is the first event like this as president," he said, "I think it will get a particularly large amount of attention and really is an opportunity for him to press the necessity for his COVID relief bill."

Biden stayed mostly quiet about Trump's impeachment trial as the former president faced charges of inciting an insurrection for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. A 57-43 majority of the Senate voted to convict Trump, but fell short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction.

More: For one night only, Pabst Theater emerges from pandemic and prepares for Joe Biden's Tuesday visit

Throughout the proceedings, the White House repeatedly deferred to the judgement of the Senate. In a statement following the Senate's acquittal, Biden said, "While the final vote did not lead to a conviction, the substance of the charge is not in dispute."

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a close Biden ally, said it's time for Congress to take action on COVID-19 in with Trump's impeachment trial over.

"I think that phase of accountability moves to the courts now," Coons said Sunday on ABC's This Week. "And we in Congress need to move forward with delivering the expanded unemployment checks, the stimulus checks, the reinvestment in our economy that the American people so desperately need and deserve."

A nod to DNC host city that had plans scrapped

In choosing Wisconsin for his first official trip as president, Biden will return to a critical Midwest swing state that he campaigned in three times ahead of his election victory over Trump. Biden won the state by just 20,608 votes four years after Trump carried the state by 22,748 votes in 2020. It will be a battleground again in 2024.

More: Joe Biden won't travel to Milwaukee for 2020 DNC because of coronavirus concerns

The trip is also a nod to Milwaukee, the original host city for last summer's Democratic National Convention before the pandemic forced a mostly virtual gathering.

"People across the city and the state were really looking forward to having the nation's eyes on the city," Nolette said. "I don't think that was a pure coincidence that Milwaukee, the place that was supposed to hold the convention, is Biden's first stop outside of his home state and D.C."

Reach Joey Garrison on Twitter @Joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden CNN town hall: President hopes to build support for COVID relief

Associated Press
China says US is 'playing with fire' after latest military aid for Taiwan
The Chinese government protested Sunday the latest American announcements of military sales and assistance to Taiwan, warning the United States that it is “playing with fire.” U.S. President Joe Biden authorized Saturday the provision of up to $571 million in Defense Department material and services and in military education and training for Taiwan. Separately, the Defense Department said Friday that $295 million in military sales had been approved.
TODAY
Here’s what to do if you win the Mega Millions jackpot
The next drawing for the Mega Millions jackpot of $8325 million will take place December 20 Here's what to do if you win.
Associated Press
Isolated Chicago communities secure money for a coveted transit project before Trump takes office
Adella Bass dropped her in-person college classes because it was just too hard to get there from the far South Side of Chicago, where the city's famous elevated train doesn't run. The Biden administration notified Congress last week that it would commit $1.9 billion toward a nearly $5.7 billion project to add four new L stations on the South Side, the Chicago system’s largest expansion project in history. The pledge, which the Federal Transit Administration is expected to formally sign before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, essentially locks in current and future funding.
AFP
Minorities fear targeted attacks in post-revolution Bangladesh
For generations, the small Hindu temple outside the capital in Muslim-majority Bangladesh was a quiet place to pray -- before arsonists ripped open its roof this month in the latest post-revolution unrest."My son saw the flames and doused them quickly," said temple custodian Ratan Kumar Ghosh, 55, describing how assailants knew to avoid security cameras, so they tore its tin roof open to enter.
Associated Press
Winter is hitting Gaza and many Palestinians have little protection from the cold
Winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and many of the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 14-month war with Israel are struggling to protect themselves from the wind, cold and rain. There is a shortage of blankets and warm clothing, little wood for fires, and the tents and patched-together tarps families are living in have grown increasingly threadbare after months of heavy use, according to aid workers and residents. Shadia Aiyada, who was displaced from the southern city of Rafah to the coastal area of Muwasi, has only one blanket and a hot water bottle to keep her eight children from shivering inside their fragile tent.
CBS News
NYPD chief resigns amid sexual misconduct claims
NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey has resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct, the department says.
Associated Press
As flooding becomes a yearly disaster in South Sudan, thousands survive on the edge of a canal
Long-horned cattle wade through flooded lands and climb a slope along a canal that has become a refuge for displaced families in South Sudan. “Too much suffering,” said Bichiok Hoth Chuiny, a woman in her 70s. Such flooding is becoming a yearly disaster in South Sudan, which the World Bank has described as “the world’s most vulnerable country to climate change and also the one most lacking in coping capacity."
CNN
Two US Navy pilots eject safely over Red Sea after fighter jet shot down in apparent friendly fire incident
Two US Navy pilots ejected safely after their fighter jet was shot down over the Red Sea on Saturday in an apparent friendly fire incident, US Central Command said in a statement.
AFP
Iraq's prohibition zeal threatens Baghdad's boozy subculture
The smell of dampness rises through the dust at a private club in central Baghdad, one of many shut in a crackdown on alcohol sales in Iraq.Several private "social" clubs that have operated in Baghdad for decades were sent official letters in November forbidding them from manufacturing and serving alcoholic beverages.
Associated Press
Two US Navy pilots shot down over Red Sea in apparent 'friendly fire' incident, US military says
Two U.S. Navy pilots were shot down Sunday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the U.S military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of America targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels. The U.S. military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the time, though the U.S. military’s Central Command did not elaborate on what their mission was and did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.
AFP
Tunisia women herb harvesters struggle with drought and heat
On a hillside in Tunisia's northwestern highlands, women scour a sun-scorched field for the wild herbs they rely on for their livelihoods, but droughts and rising temperatures are making it ever harder to find the precious plants.Wildfires fuelled by drought and rising temperatures have ravaged these woodlands, further diminishing the natural resources that women like Soudani depend on.
AFP
Trump threatens to take back control of Panama Canal
Incoming US president Donald Trump on Saturday slammed what he called unfair fees for US ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand control of the waterway be returned to Washington.He continued that if Panama could not ensure "the secure, efficient and reliable operation" of the channel, "then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question."
Politico
Trump taps billionaire Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta as Italy ambassador
Fertitta has never held political office but is a longtime GOP donor — including to Trump’s Save America PAC.
Associated Press
The water was their livelihood. Now Thailand's sea nomads work to preserve a vanishing way of life
When Hook was a child, he started his days by jumping off the boat that his family lived on and into the ocean. Now Hook, whose full name is Suriyan Klathale, lives on land like the rest of his community, a people known as the Moken. The recollections of his childhood, which many Moken of his generation still have, are mostly just memories.
Associated Press
Fleeing motorist is dead after driving into Texas shopping mall and injuring 5
A fleeing motorist drove a pickup truck into a busy JCPenney store in Texas on Saturday, injuring five people before he was fatally shot by law enforcement, authorities said. Four of the injured people were taken from the Killeen mall to hospitals and the fifth went on their own, Sgt. Bryan Washko of the Texas Department of Public Safety said in an evening media briefing. Ofelia Miramontez of the Killeen Police Department said the incident began with calls about an erratic driver in a black pickup in Belton, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) away.
Reuters
Trump says he might demand Panama hand over canal
President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday accused Panama of charging excessive rates for use of the Panama Canal and said that if Panama did not manage the canal in an acceptable fashion, he would demand the U.S. ally hand it over. In an evening post on Truth Social, Trump also warned he would not let the canal fall into the "wrong hands," and he seemed to warn of potential Chinese influence on the passage, writing the canal should not be managed by China. It also underlines an expected shift in U.S. diplomacy under Trump, who has not historically shied away from threatening allies and using bellicose rhetoric when dealing with counterparts.
AFP
In ruined homes, Palestinians recall Assad's torture
School lessons ended in Syria's biggest Palestinian refugee camp on October 18, 2012, judging by the date still chalked up on the board more than a decade later.According to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, at the start of Syria's conflict in 2011 it was home to 160,000 registered refugees.
CNN
How a teenager’s holiday romance led to prison time in Dubai
British citizen Marcus Fakana, 18, is facing a one-year prison sentence for his summer romance with a London teenager, 17, who he met while on holiday in the United Arab Emirates.
Politico
Biden could foil Trump’s plans to resume federal executions
The president is considering using his clemency power to convert federal death sentences to life in prison.
NBC News
Lara Trump says she's removed her name from contention to be Florida's senator
Lara Trump, President-elect Donald Trump's daughter-in-law, said on Saturday that she decided to remove her name from consideration to be a senator in Florida.

Broad public support of bill hasn't translated to Republicans in Congress

A nod to DNC host city that had plans scrapped

Latest Stories