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ABC News

State Dept. condemns arrests, repression in Russia

PHOTO: Demonstrators clash with riot police during a rally in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, Russia, Jan. 23, 2021.
7:40
Pavel Korolyov/AFP via Getty Images
Herd immunity by September 'an ambitious goal': Dr. Vivek Murthy
By Libby Cathey, Adia Robinson, Jack Arnholz, Meredith Deliso, Lauren King, Catherine Thorbecke, Michelle Stoddart, Lauren Lantry
Last Updated: January 24, 2021, 11:44 PM

This is the fifth day of the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Top headlines:

  • National Guard troops to drawdown to 5,000 through mid-March
  • Biden attends church with family
  • Murthy on vaccine supply, distribution: There are lots of challenges
  • Biden speaks with Boris Johnson
  • State Department condemns arrests of protesters in Russia
Here is how events are unfolding. All times Eastern.

Jan 24, 2021 11:44 PM

Biden to lift ban on transgender people serving in military

Multiple people familiar with the matter confirm that President Joe Biden will sign an executive order that will lift the Pentagon’s ban on transgender people serving in the military on Monday. 

The controversial ban was put in place by former President Donald Trump in 2017 that reversed the Obama administration’s policy to allow open service by transgender people.

New Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will be on hand at the White House ceremony Monday, where the executive order will be signed. 

“The ban will be officially lifted tomorrow,” said one of the individuals familiar with the matter.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez


Jan 24, 2021 9:17 PM

National Guard troops to drawdown to 5,000 through mid-March

The 7,000 National Guard troops requested for post-inauguration assistance in Washington will draw down to 5,000 through mid-March, a National Guard bureau official told ABC News in a statement Sunday.

And while the current plan is to assist through mid-March, "the National Guard will stay as long as needed at the request of supporting agencies," the statement continued.

The troops will be offering security, communications, medevac and logistical support, according to the statement. 

-ABC News' Matt Seyler


Jan 24, 2021 7:45 PM

Biden attends church with family

Biden continued his weekly routine of attending mass and chose Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown as his place of worship for his first Sunday in office.

PHOTO: President Joe Biden waves as he departs after attending Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Jan. 24, 2021, in Washington, DC.
Patrick Semansky/AP
President Joe Biden waves as he departs after attending Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Jan. 24, 2021, in Washington, DC.
Patrick Semansky/AP

A pool report indicated that Biden's son Hunter, and two granddaughters, Maisey and Finnegan Biden attended mass with him. The presidential motorcade also stopped at a bagel shop. The president was not seen getting out, but a reporter was told Hunter Biden went inside to pick up food. The president and his family returned to the White House a few minutes later.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle



Jan 24, 2021 3:52 PM

Murthy on vaccine supply, distribution: There are lots of challenges

In his appearance on ABC's "This Week" Sunday, Biden’s nominee for Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said that when it comes to meeting the goal for 100 million vaccines in the first 100 days of the president's administration, there are things that could go right or wrong.

"I think President Biden fully understands there's a larger goal here, as we all do, which is that we've got to vaccinate as many Americans as possible. And that's going to take a lot of work, work dispelling this disinformation, working on the supply, increasing distribution channels," he told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. "And that's some of what the vaccine plan that he announced over the last week is intended to -- to achieve."

Stephanopoulos pressed Murthy on whether there are ways to increase the supply and equitably distribute the vaccines.

"It appears, at least in these first vaccines that have gone out, they've been going largely to wealthier areas of the country, largely to whiter areas of the country," Stephanopoulos said.

PHOTO: Dr. Vivek Murthy appears on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Jan. 24, 2021.
ABC News
Dr. Vivek Murthy appears on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Jan. 24, 2021.
ABC News

"Well, it's the right question, George, because success has to be gauged not just by the number of vaccines we deliver but also by how fairly we deliver those vaccines -- how equitably we deliver them," he said in response. "What we've got to do here is not just, again, increase supply, which we can do using the Defense Production Act ... but we've also got to set up the kind of distribution channels, like mobile units, like strategically placed community vaccination centers, that can reach people who traditionally are hard to reach and don't have access to health care."

He added, "We have got to track our progress. We have got to make sure that we have data on where the vaccine is being administered, so that we can ensure that it, in fact, is being distributed equitably."

.@GStephanopoulos: Vaccines have been going to wealthier and whiter areas in the country: Is there a way to get more equitable distribution and increase the supply?Vivek Murthy: Success is not just number of vaccines, but how “equitably” we deliver them. https://t.co/revKTaAEyP pic.twitter.com/tO4B7Z8Kjz

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 24, 2021

Jan 21, 2021 2:48 PM

Biden, Harris to spend 1st full day focusing on pandemic

Biden is waking up in the White House for the first time as 46th president of the United States and Vice President Kamala Harris to the fact that for the first time in American history a woman is serving as vice president.

PHOTO: Kamala Harris bumps fists with Joe Biden after being sworn in as Vice President of the United States during the inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2021.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Kamala Harris bumps fists with Joe Biden after being sworn in as Vice President of the United States during the inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2021.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

After a historic inauguration, they'll start the day alongside their spouses with an inaugural prayer service from the Washington National Cathedral but attending virtually from the White House Blue Room. Their first full day in office will focus on the coronavirus pandemic, with Biden set to deliver afternoon remarks on his administration's COVID-19 response, take 10 executive actions aimed to control the pandemic and receive a COVID-19 briefing.

PHOTO: President Joe Biden signs his first executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
President Joe Biden signs his first executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP

Ahead of introducing what it has deemed the "National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness," the Biden administration addressed other top priorities overnight including moving to halt deportations of certain non-citizens for 100 days to review immigration policies. The president on Wednesday took at least 15 executive actions from invoking a mask mandate on federal properties and reversing now former President Donald Trump's Muslim ban to moving to rejoin both the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord, barreling faster to dismantle his predecessor's legacy than other modern presidents.

MORE: Biden promises unity and redemption amid divisions and challenges: ANALYSIS

Biden and Harris are taking office amid a racial-justice reckoning, a struggling economy and with the systems of government having come under literal attack by supporters of the man they defeated. While Wednesday's inaugural festivities saw powerful musical performances and poetry, amid history-making formalities, the surreal fact lingered: They took the office on the same Capitol steps that violent pro-Trump protesters climbed to storm the halls of Congress precisely two weeks earlier.

PHOTO: An overview of the Capitol during the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021.
Jim Bourg/Reuters
An overview of the Capitol during the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021.
Jim Bourg/Reuters

In the wake of the seige and in their first days of office, Biden and Harris will also have to contend with Trump's impeachment trial which will be taken up in the newly Democratic Senate as soon as the end of this week, competing for floor time with their legislative agenda and Cabinet confirmations.


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