Biden says 'no time to waste' on COVID relief bill

He made brief remarks Saturday after the House passed the legislation.

This is Day 40 of the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.


Christie: A lot of Trump's policies are things Republicans support

Ahead of former President Donald Trump's address at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, Sunday afternoon, ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos asked former New Jersey Governor and ABC News contributor Chris Christie about statements made by Republican leaders in recent weeks.

"Three weeks ago, you had Mitch McConnell saying the president bears responsibility for the siege.  Kevin McCarthy says the same thing.  Kevin McCarthy's at CPAC saying this is Trump's Republican Party.  Mitch McConnell says he'd vote for him in 2024," Stephanopoulos said.

"The bottom line is this, George.  You know, Donald Trump is not a departing two-term president like George W. Bush was and as a result, he's got an opportunity to come back again if he wants to.  And there are going to be some in the party who want him and there are going to be some in the party who don't," Christie said. "But what is consistent is many of the policies that were pursued over the last four years -- take aside the personality; take aside the tweets -- a lot of those policies are things that Republicans support."


Fauci: Need to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized use of a third COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S., declaring the Johnson & Johnson vaccine safe and effective in adults 18 and older.

ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Dr. Anthony Fauci about hesitancy from people over its reported efficacy compared to others.

"What do you say to those who want to wait for Moderna and Pfizr?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"We have to get away from that line of thought," Fauci responded. "We have three highly efficacious vaccines. Safe and efficacious."

"If I went into a clinic and said we have JJ now, I would take the one that is available to me now," Fauci continued.


Biden sends letter on Syria airstrike to leaders of House, Senate

The White House released a letter Saturday from President Biden to the speaker of the House and president pro tempore of the Senate on the airstrike in eastern Syria, in his effort to keep Congress "fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Act."

"I directed this military action consistent with my responsibility to protect United States citizens both at home and abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct United States foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive. The United States took this action pursuant to the United States' inherent right of self-defense as reflected in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter," Biden wrote in the letter.

This comes following some bipartisan criticism the White House received over the decision to carry out the airstrike in Syria.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle



Biden teases announcement on US actions with Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi report

As Biden departed the White House to board Marine One Saturday afternoon, he was asked if he planned to punish Saudi Arabia’s crown prince following a U.S. intelligence report that concluded he ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden carefully teased an announcement but said it wouldn’t specifically pertain to Khashoggi’s murder.

He said, “there will be an announcement on Monday as to what we’re going to be doing with Saudi Arabia in general.”

The president then left the White House for Delaware.

On Friday the Office of Director of National Intelligence released a highly anticipated report on the death of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident who was murdered and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in Oct. 2018.

It revealed the U.S. intelligence community found Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation to capture or kill him.

The Saudi government has denied that that the crown prince was involved and instead blamed the death on a rogue team of government agents.

The killing has roiled the United States' longstanding ties with Saudi Arabia.

Biden said he spoke to King Salman on Thursday, one day before the report was released.


Jan. 6 was 'most heinous attack,' Garland says

Garland described the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol as "the most heinous attack on the democratic processes I have ever seen and one I never expected to see in my lifetime." He added he will make sure to provide career prosecutors all the resources they need to carry out their investigations while also taking a broader look at the symptoms behind the country's domestic extremism problem.

Asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whether the president "has the absolute right to do what he wants with the Justice Department," Garland said presidents are "constrained by the Constitution as are all government officials" and cited comments by Biden committing to not interfere with Justice Department matters. At the same time, Garland said that the Department of Justice is part of the executive branch and because of that, on policy matters they do "follow the lead of the president and the administration as long as it is consistent with the law." When asked who an attorney general represents when his interests conflict with the president's, Garland said the attorney general "represents the public interest, particularly and specifically as defined by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States."

Asked whether the president can order an attorney general to open or close an investigation, Garland said such a question was a hard one for constitutional law but that he did not expect it to be a question for himself given President Biden's statements assuring independence for the department.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., took a contentious tone with Garland in his line of questioning as he pressed him on multiple topics. At one point, when Graham asked Garland whether he thought former FBI Director Comey was a good FBI director, Garland declined to answer, which Graham said he found "stunning" because he thought Comey was terrible. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., pressed Garland on whether he would commit to investigating not only the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, but those "upstream" like the funders, organizers, ringleaders or others not actually at the Capitol.  Garland cited his past experience as a line prosecutor, noting "we begin with the people on the ground and we work our way up to those who are involved and further involved -- and we will pursue these leads wherever they take us."

Asked about whether he would end the Trump Justice Department's policy of generally stonewalling in the face of oversight requests from Congress, Garland committed to Whitehouse that the department would be "as responsive as possible" to any requests and "at the very least why if it can't answer a question or can't answer a letter." Garland also committed that he would work with Whitehouse on getting answers to the committee on requests that the Justice Department under Attorneys General Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions previously ignored.

In an exchange with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Garland committed that his personal politics will have no impact on prosecutions and investigations he oversees as attorney general. Asked what he would do if he was ordered to do something that he considered to be unlawful, Garland said he would first tell the president or whoever else was asking him that what they were ordering was unlawful and would resign if no alternative was accepted.

Asked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., what he will do to improve morale in the department, Garland said he would on his first day make an oath to career prosecutors and agents "that my job is to protect them from partisan or other improper motives." Klobuchar then asked Garland whether he believes he'd need "additional authorities" to combat the country's domestic terrorism problem. Garland said while the department "is probably always looking for new tools ... the first thing we have to do is figure out whether the tools that we have are sufficient."

-ABC News' Alexander Mallin