By Dan Donahue, NBC Nightly News |
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Good Thursday afternoon. There is new hope the U.S. may be turning a corner in the pandemic, controversial Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing an nearly unprecedented rebuke from House colleagues, and Democrats want Donald Trump to testify under oath. |
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Here is what’s in our Nightly Rundown. |
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New Covid cases falling as U.S. surpasses 450,000 deaths |
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The U.S. has crossed the grim milestone of 450,000 Covid deaths, but there is positive news to report — nationally, the seven-day average of daily new cases down 41 percent from its peak last month. |
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As of today, there are no states or territories experiencing a percentage increase in cases from over the past 14 days. |
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And the number of people hospitalized with Covid is down 29 percent from the peak. |
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Worldwide, there were 3.7 million new cases reported during the week ending Jan. 31, a 13 percent drop from the prior week, according to the WHO’s latest situation report. |
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The U.S. is also now averaging 1.3 million Covid vaccinations a day, the White House Covid Task Force said on Wednesday. |
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Of the nearly 56 million doses of vaccine distributed around the U.S. so far, 33.9 million have been administered as of Wednesday, according to the CDC. View our vaccination tracker map. |
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But experts caution it is still too early to know whether the vaccinations are a major factor in the drop in new cases. |
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And there are growing concerns that highly-contagious variants now spreading across the country may cause another surge. |
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A video tweeted by our Sam Brock, showing customers and employees not wearing masks inside a grocery store in Naples, Florida has now been viewed over 3 million times. The store’s owner claimed that masks don’t work and suggested the Covid death toll is a hoax.The CDC said on Wednesday that teachers do not need to be vaccinated before schools can safely reopen. Only about half of all U.S. states have made teachers eligible for vaccinations, the New York Times found.A study finds that people ages 20-49 are most responsible for driving the spread of Covid.After a court ruling, Oregon will begin vaccinating state prisoners as part of phase 1A, which could delay health care workers and others in the 1A group from receiving their shots.A Georgia man has been sentenced to six months in home confinement after trying to sell $300 million worth of N95 face masks that didn't exist to a foreign government. |
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Florida grocery store captures country’s divide over wearing masks |
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House to vote on removing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees |
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After the GOP leadership decided to take no action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for her past incendiary remarks, House Democrats will hold a vote this afternoon on stripping Greene of her two committee appointments. |
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday condemned Greene’s past comments, in which she endorsed wild conspiracy theories like QAnon, suggested school shootings were staged, and appeared to endorse violence against lawmakers on the left. |
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But McCarthy also told fellow GOP colleagues that he did not plan to remove Greene, a Georgia Republican, from her committees, leaving Democrats to feel they have no choice but to hold today’s vote. |
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Greene took to the House floor this afternoon to denounce some of her past comments and positions, but did not apologize language that’s been criticized as racist and violent. |
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“These were words of the past and these things do not represent me,” she said, before going on to equate the media with QAnon. |
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Democrats are particularly outraged that Greene was placed on the House Education committee, after her past comments on school shootings, and a recently unearthed video from March 2019 of her harassing David Hogg, a Parkland survivor turned gun control advocate. |
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Greene changed her tune during her speech today. “School shootings are absolutely real, and every child that is lost, those families mourn it.” |
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Greene has also questioned in the past the facts surrounding the 9/11 attacks. “It’s odd there’s never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon,” she said in a 2018 speech to a conservative group. |
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Today, she made a reversal on that as well. “I also want to tell you 9/11 absolutely happened. I remember that day, crying all day long watching it on the news. And it’s a tragedy for anyone to say it didn’t happen,” Greene said. “I do not believe that it’s fake.” |
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Biden declares “America is back” in speech to State Department |
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President Biden vowed to “rebuild” America’s alliances that were strained under his predecessor and “re-engage with the world,” in his first visit to the State Department as president. |
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“America is back. Diplomacy is back,” Biden said, to State Department staffers. “You are the center of all I intend to do. You are the heart of it.” |
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Biden spoke again later in the afternoon, laying out his foreign policies that mark a significant departure from Former President Donald Trump’s “America First” views. |
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Biden said that American values have “come under intense pressure in recent years,” and were “pushed to the brink in the last few weeks” — appearing to reference the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. |
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He vowed to work with America’s allies to meet the challenges on the world stage, “from a pandemic to the climate crisis to nuclear proliferation.” |
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Biden praises State Department employees as 'the face of America' |
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More on Biden’s first 100 days: |
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Biden called on Americans to “defeat political extremism,” and turn to faith in this “dark, dark time,” in an address to the National Prayer Breakfast this morning.779,000 people filed initial jobless claims during Biden’s first full week in office, better than the 830,000 economists had expected.Hunter Biden will open up about his struggles with substance abuse in a new memoir titled “Beautiful Things,” due out April 6. |
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House impeachment managers ask Trump to testify under oath |
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The House Democrats prosecuting the impeachment case against Donald Trump have asked the former president testify under oath at his trial set to begin on Tuesday. |
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Trump is not required to appear at the trial, where he stands accused of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. |
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But Democrats made the request for Trump to testify either before or during the trial, after his attorneys filed briefs disputing the allegations, and labeling the proceedings as partisan and unconstitutional. |
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“In light of your disputing these factual allegations, I write to invite you to provide testimony under oath,” Lead Impeachment Manager Jamie Raskin wrote in a letter to Trump. |
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Raskin gave Trump until Friday at 5 p.m. to respond. |
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What else we’re watching: |
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Former Columbus, Ohio police officer Adam McCoy has been indicted for murder in the Dec. 22 shooting of Andre Hill.CNN President Jeff Zucker told employees he expects to leave the network when his contract expires at the end of the year. |
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Watch us this evening at 6:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. CT on NBC, or check your local NBC station listing. After the broadcast, access Nightly News video on NBCNightlyNews.com or the NBC News app. |
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