Republican Rep. Nancy Mace's former chief of staff files to run against her



Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina may have to compete against a familiar face as she seeks re-election, because her former chief of staff, Daniel Hanlon, has filed to run for the House seat she currently occupies.

Mace, who has been serving in Congress since early 2021, was one of the eight House Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the House speakership last year. McCarthy has since departed from Congress.

Mace recently endorsed former President Donald Trump, even as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley challenges Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nod.

"Today I’m endorsing Donald J. Trump for President. I don't see eye to eye perfectly with any candidate. And until now I've stayed out of it. But the time has come to unite behind our nominee. To be honest, it's been a complete s*** show since he left the White House," Mace said in a tweet.

"Our country needs to reverse all the damage Joe Biden has done. By every barometer, our lives and our nation were better under President Trump. The economy was booming, our border was locked down and our nation and her allies were safer because our adversaries feared him. Donald Trump's record in his first term should tell every American how vital it is he be returned to office," she continued.

Trump defeated Haley in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary on Tuesday.

— (@)

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Ron Klain may soon be out as White House chief of staff



As the Biden administration continues to garner low approval ratings amid frequent setbacks to its legislative agenda, President Biden is being pressured to shake things up among his staff.

It increasingly appears that Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, may end up losing his job as the President’s top adviser.

Critics say that Klain has pushed the administration leftward on a number of crucial policy issues resulting in a seemingly perpetual series of blunders.

Notably, Klain’s own twitter was cited in the 6-3 Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Biden administration’s private sector vaccine mandate.

Klain retweeted a statement that celebrated the OSHA vaccine mandate as “the ultimate work-around” for the federal government to require large-scale vaccination.

Klain is also believed to be the person responsible for leaking news of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement.

Democratic leaders in Congress appear to be growing increasingly frustrated with Klain.

According to the Daily Mail, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Klain’s relationship grew tense due to his role in negotiating the Build Back Better legislative package and the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Additionally, it appears that Klain is responsible for souring Senator Joe Manchin’s (D – W. Virginia) relationship with the White House. The Washington Post reports that Klain had a key role in drafting the White House’s response to Senator Manchin’s opposition to Build Back Better.

Sen. Manchin has told his allies that he blames Klain for pushing President Biden further to the left on policy. Manchin made clear that Klain damaged the senator’s relationship with President Biden.

An unnamed federal lawmaker criticized Klain for his relationship with the Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D – Wash.). The Daily Mail reports that this lawmaker accused Klain of creating “a monster” and that he has given the appearance that Rep. Jayapal holds considerable influence over the White House’s legislative agenda.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in early February on 1,005 Americans left President Biden with his lowest approval rating yet. 41% of respondents said they approved of President Biden, while 56% disapproved.

Considering that Republicans have an 85% chance of retaking the House of Representatives and a 73% chance of retaking the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections, it appears that the Biden administration will be unable to advance its legislative agenda – which may be why Klain hinted that his time as Chief of Staff could end in 2022.

If Republicans retake both chambers of Congress it is unlikely that Klain will have an even worse time negotiating policy.

Republican members of Congress are even calling for President Biden to fire him.

Biden chief of staff says administration wants to mail masks to every US household



The chief of staff for President Joe Biden says the administration is looking at sending masks to every household in the U.S., as the White House seeks to get Americans to "mask up" over the first 100 days of the Biden presidency.

What are the details?

NBC News reported Thursday that the administration was batting around the idea of mailing out masks, an idea that was floated during the Trump administration but ultimately scrapped.

In an interview with the outlet Thursday evening, NBC's Lester Holt asked Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain about whether the idea was back on the table.

"Yeah, ya know, Lester, this was an idea that really came up last year in the Trump administration," Klain began. "The public health agencies recommended it, the president vetoed it for some reason, we want to get this back on track. We're looking at what can be done to quickly do this with the mask supplies that we have."

"I hope in the next few days, or next week, we may be able to announce some progress on this," he continued, reiterating, "Of course, this is part, overall, of a plan to try to get every American masked up in these first 100 days."

Klain added, "We're going to do everything we can to make masks more available to people, to increase the supply of masks, and of course, to get people to wear those masks."

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain speaks with @LesterHoltNBC about the plan to send masks to every American."W… https://t.co/JNLVNLVzkA
— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt)1612476000.0

The specifics of how many masks would be send out per household and how much the initiative would cost has not yet been released.

ABC News reported in September of last year that a watchdog group, American Oversight, was able to obtain documents from earlier in 2020 detailing the United States Postal Service's plans to "distribute 650 million reusable cotton face masks to Americans" that spring. That would have amounted to five masks for every household.

A Trump administration official told The Washington Post at the time, "There was concern from some in the White House Domestic Policy Council and the office of the vice president that households receiving masks might create concern or panic." The Trump White House instead sent masks to organizations for distribution.

Forbes reported that according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll from December, 73% of Americans said they wear a mask when out in public, including 55% of Republicans. The outlet noted, "that number shows how mask-wearing has become more popular as the pandemic continues: in May, only 52% of Americans were wearing masks all the time."

President Donald Trump received heavy criticism for his reluctance to wear masks early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, while Biden has pushed masks and campaigned on the vow to issue a nationwide mask mandate. Within hours of taking office on Jan. 20, Biden issued executive orders requiring masks to be worn on federal property and on interstate transportation such as airplanes and rail.

Joe Biden has chosen a White House chief of staff



Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has chosen a White House chief of staff, moving forward with an anticipated transition of power from President Donald Trump after mainstream media roundly declared Biden victor in the contested race.

What are the details?

The Washington Post reported that Biden has selected longtime Democratic adviser Ronald Klain to serve as White House chief of staff, noting that Klain previously worked "in the late 1980s as a top aide to Biden when he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and ran Biden's office when he first became vice president."

Biden said in a statement:

"Ron has been invaluable to me over the many years that we have worked together, including as we rescued the American economy from one of the worst downturns in our history in 2009 and later overcame a daunting public health emergency in 2014. His deep, varied experience and capacity to work with people all across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we confront this moment of crisis and bring our country together again."

According to the Associated Press, Klain "was the Ebola response coordinator during the 2014 outbreak and played a central role in drafting and implementing the Obama administration's economic recovery plan in 2009."

The New York Times pointed out that Klain, who was described as President Barack Obama's "Ebola Czar," has "been a sharp critic of President Trump's handling of the coronavirus."

But Klain is also the former Biden staffer who admitted at the National Press Club last year that it was "just luck" that the H1N1 "swine flu" outbreak that occurred during the first Obama-Biden administration wasn't a "mass casualty event."

"Sixty million Americans got H1N1 in that period of time, and it's just purely a fortuity that this isn't one of the great mass casualty events in American history," Klain said, adding, "It had nothing to do with us doing anything right. It just had to do with luck."

Klain acknowledged Wednesday that he had been tapped by Biden for the top White House role, writing, "I've seen so many kind wishes tonight on this website. Thank you - and I'm sorry I can't reply to each of you. I'm honored by the President-elect's confidence and will give my all to lead a talented and diverse team in a Biden-Harris WH."

I’ve seen so many kind wishes tonight on this website. Thank you - and I’m sorry I can’t reply to each of you. I… https://t.co/KxWudfjswo
— Ronald Klain (@Ronald Klain)1605143620.0

The race for the White House, however, remains contested, as the Trump campaign presses forward with legal battles in several states pointing to voting irregularities and allegations of voter fraud.