WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House has announced that President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will be in Eastern Kentucky on Monday to view damage from last week’s historic flash flooding.

Details of the visit have not yet been released, but the White House says the President and First Lady will accompany Gov. Andy Beshear and Kentucky First Lady Britainy Beshear at a FEMA recovery center.

Last Friday, Biden declared the flood a major disaster and has since authorized individual assistance in eight counties, including Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Knott, Letcher, Owsley, Perry and Pike.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden issued a federal disaster declaration Friday in response to widespread flash flooding across Eastern Kentucky.

Officials say this is one of the quickest disaster declarations ever issued.

“Even as search and rescue efforts continue, this expedited disaster declaration from the President means federal assistance will be immediately available to help our people in Eastern Kentucky,” U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers said. “The work ahead is daunting for our communities and federal assistance will be critical for the long-term recovery process. I am grateful for the strong support of the entire Kentucky federal delegation in raising Gov. [Andy] Beshear’s prompt request to the President’s immediate attention. As we address the crises in each county, I will work diligently to ensure federal assistance is maximized for our communities.”

According to the President’s major disaster declaration, “federal funding is available to the commonwealth and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency protective measures in the counties of Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Johnson, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, Owsley, Perry, Pike, and Wolfe. Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures for the entire commonwealth.”

Gov. Beshear said during a press conference Friday morning the state is also requesting assistance for individuals affected by flooding. That assistance would have to come from a separate declaration, once local governments are able to provide estimates of the damage.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a statement released Thursday morning by the White House Press Office.

The following is the text of that statement:

“This morning, President Biden tested positive for COVID-19.  He is fully vaccinated and twice boosted and experiencing very mild symptoms.  He has begun taking Paxlovid. Consistent with CDC guidelines, he will isolate at the White House and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.  He has been in contact with members of the White House staff by phone this morning, and will participate in his planned meetings at the White House this morning via phone and Zoom from the residence. 

“Consistent with White House protocol for positive COVID cases, which goes above and beyond CDC guidance, he will continue to work in isolation until he tests negative.  Once he tests negative, he will return to in-person work.

“Out of an abundance of transparency, the White House will provide a daily update on the President’s status as he continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation.

“Per standard protocol for any positive case at the White House, the White House Medical Unit will inform all close contacts of the President during the day today, including any Members of Congress and any members of the press who interacted with the President during yesterday’s travel.  The President’s last previous test for COVID was Tuesday, when he had a negative test result.”

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following an unprecedented day that saw protestors swarm the Capitol building, Congress worked through the night and certified the outcome of the 2020 election early Thursday morning.

The result paves the way for President-elect Joe Biden to be sworn in as the next president on Jan. 20.

Afterwards, the White House released a statement from President Donald Trump continuing to protest the results of the election, but committing to an orderly transfer of power.

One woman was killed and several people were hurt in clashes between protestors and capitol police.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Unwilling to cede the political stage, President Donald Trump is ramping up his campaign schedule to aggressively counterprogram former Vice President Joe Biden’s show at the Democrats’ convention as campaigning gets down to what the president on Monday called “crunch time.”

Trump was visiting Minnesota and Wisconsin on Monday — the latter the official host state of the entirely virtual Democratic National Convention — to launch a week of travel and political events aiming to blunt the customary polling “bounce” that a candidate gets during their convention week. The president trails in both public and private surveys less than three months before Election Day.

“We’re going to be working very hard,” Trump said before leaving the White House. “We have to. We’re getting down to final crunch. We want to be there.”

Marking his heaviest week of political travel since the coronavirus put a stop to his campaign schedule and imperiled his reelection chances, Trump was expected to sharply criticize Biden’s economic policies in the Upper Midwest battleground states.

On Tuesday, Trump will take on Biden over his immigration policies during a visit to Yuma, Arizona. He is also set to travel to Pennsylvania, the state of Biden’s birth, on Thursday, ahead of the Democrat’s acceptance speech.

Trump’s aggressive push comes as his path to reelection has narrowed since the coronavirus hit, and he’s been forced to play defense in the states that carried him to reelection four years ago. Minnesota, viewed as a GOP pickup opportunity a year ago, now appears to be slipping out of reach, Republicans say.

Wisconsin, a state that had voted for Democratic presidents for decades until Trump’s 2016 victory, has emerged as one of the toughest battlegrounds of 2020. Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday plans to visit the southern part of the state. Trump’s campaign views the state’s whiter, older demographics to be more favorable than Michigan, which Trump also won four years ago but is increasingly seen as a likely Democratic pick-up.

Trump’s campaign is seizing on Biden’s decision not to travel to Milwaukee for the convention, citing the pandemic, as the Democrat ‘effectively abandoning’ Wisconsin. The GOP is surging Republican surrogates to the state this week in a show of force, including Pence and Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel.

Democrats insist they are still contesting the state, where they are devoting resources to television ads and field organizing, but that Biden is just being cautious and curtailing non-essential travel due to the coronavirus. He and Sen. Kamala Harris, his newly announced running mate, are set to deliver their convention addresses from Biden’s home state of Delaware this week, mitigating the need for air travel.

The Republican Party and Trump campaign are also ramping up their efforts as Biden takes center stage. Trump Victory, the campaign’s joint field program with the Republican National Committee, will be holding over 2,500 events across the country, the RNC said. They also plan to knock on more than 1 million doors and call millions more voters during the week of the Democratic convention.

“Look, we’re going to be all over the place during this convention,” said Trump campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley. “We bought out basically the masthead of YouTube, Daily Caller, other places, so when you go online you’re going to see the excitement. You’re going to see the apparatus that’s been built at this campaign that is the envy of the political universe. And we’re going to flex a little muscle this week.”

The events this week come as Trump’s campaign is looking to redefine what the president’s political events look like in the age of the coronavirus. Trump is set to address hundreds of supporters at airports in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Mankato, Minnesota, two months after he was forced to abandon plans to resume holding rallies amid a resurgence in cases.

In Minnesota, there is a statewide mask mandate for public indoor spaces, and capacity must be limited so safe social distancing can be maintained. In Wisconsin, supporters are required to be masked, but there is no statewide limit on how many people can gather.

Trump’s campaign, meanwhile is trying to set historically high expectations for the Biden campaign.

“You better believe that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are going to get somewhere between a 8 and 10 point bump after this convention they put on,” Gidley told Fox on Monday, “solely because the media just fawns all over them.”

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Former Vice President Joe Biden has selected one-time Democratic rival U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, of California, as his running mate.

That news was made official with a tweet from Biden at 4:17 p.m., followed by an update of his campaign website this afternoon. The update shows the two together under a graphic reading “Biden Harris.”

In his announcement, Biden called Harris, “a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants.”

Harris, 55, is in her first term as a U.S. senator. Prior to that, she served as district attorney in San Francisco and as California’s attorney general.

Harris, who is biracial, becomes the first Black woman to be nominated for vice president by a major political party.

With the selection of Harris, Biden has cemented a centrist Democratic ticket, avoiding a more progressive selection such as U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was also widely considered to be on the vice presidential shortlist.

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