America was front and center on the D-Day, and America was front and center during the commemoration ceremonies. No matter what your politics maybe, President Biden was undeniably our representative on that stage and his words were the words of our nation. When he spoke, it was America that was speaking through him, and what he said in his speech, were the sentiments of each and every one of us. As always, democracy and freedom were the trending concepts.

Along with the President of the United States, were many other leaders who all together showcased the mightiest of the nations on this earth. As spectacular as the gathering of these personalities was, it was significantly overshadowed by the presence of real, actual Veterans of the actual D-Day, who participated in the landing at the beaches of Normandy 8 decades ago. Many have lived for over or close to 100 years. Most of us don’t have any idea as to what these men went through and what their determination accomplished. Most of us can’t even imagine being in their shoes, putting their lives on the line, and walking through that hail of bullets to achieve what must have seemed impossible.

As I watched some of the ceremonies, there were videos of D-Day landing playing on a loop. I was able to feel the shadow of death spread over the entire operation. There was an eerie and ominous filter on the camera that captured, what Hemmingway described as the “…death being issued in small, intimate, accurately administered packages.” As the soldiers disembarked from their boats and made a run to the land, I could see the bullets welcoming their onslaught. A soldier stepped out of the water and fell to the ground, face down onto the wet sand, never to rise again. I couldn’t take my eyes off of that “heavily laden bundle”, as there were thousands more similar bundles falling all around.

I dare not even think of what must have been going through the minds of those that kept charging, fully aware that the next bullet may have their name written on it. They were ready and willing to embrace death, but their mission must be completed. They were young men, same age as my sons who are serving this nation right now, with the same oath to defend this country, as these bravest of the brave men served their county. I dare not imagine what it feels like to know with complete certainty that the next breath you take, will most likely be your last.

But, there they were, those heroes, present during the ceremonies, dwarfing the rest of the world with their larger than life personas, smiling, saluting, and saying words of encouragement to the rest of us little people who take so many things for granted. These men set the course for the United States to become the quintessential superpower of our day. These men defined what it means to be free, because it was their courage that set the line that no enemy of ours has been able to cross and attack us in our own homeland.

As President Biden said in his speech, “These men knew that there are things worth fighting, and dying for.” I was humbled by their strength, even though most were in wheelchairs, pushed by their helpers, feeble as the time has taken its toll on their bodies. Death will eventually come, but on that day, they willingly went looking for death, and in front of their determination, death was hiding from them.

They are the true heroes, the ones that died are bigger heroes, more so than the ones that lived, but heroes nevertheless. Their willingness to give their lives, and in many cases, to actually give their lives, for this nation, is the epitome of patriotism. True patriotism, not just giving lip service to the idea and taking credit for superficial acts that, by any definition, are actually cowardly acts.

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — President Joe Biden said it’s “self-evident” that Donald Trump is an insurrectionist for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss but stopped short of commenting on a Colorado legal case that would bar him from the state’s ballot.

The Democratic president made the comments about his likely Republican opponent in next year’s election shortly after landing in Milwaukee for an event focused on the economy.

“Whether the 14th Amendment applies or not, we’ll let the court make that decision,” Biden told reporters on the tarmac after stepping off Air Force One. “But he certainly supported an insurrection. There’s no question about it. None. Zero. And he seems to be doubling down on it.”

Biden also criticized Trump for his recent comments that migrants were “poisoning the blood” of the country.

“I don’t believe, as the former president said again yesterday, that immigrants are polluting our blood,” Biden said in a speech at the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce. “The economy and our nation are stronger when we tap into the full range of talents in this nation.”

Biden’s trip to Wisconsin came the day after the Colorado Supreme Court issued a decision declaring that Trump is ineligible to serve as president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It’s the first time in the country’s history that the provision has been used to keep a candidate off the ballot.

Republicans have denounced the court’s decision, and Trump’s lawyers said they plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump has refused to back down from his lies that voter fraud allowed Biden to win in 2020, and he’s pledged to pardon supporters who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Biden has repeatedly condemned Trump and described him as a threat to American democracy. However, he’s been more circumspect when addressing his predecessor’s legal challenges, including several criminal cases against him, and this one is no different.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment when asked by reporters aboard Air Force One.

“The president is not involved; we’re not involved in this,” she said. “This is a legal process and we’re not involved in this.”

Biden’s campaign was similarly circumspect in a call with reporters on Tuesday.

“What I will say is that the president looks forward to defeating Donald Trump or whoever else emerges from the Republican primary on the ballot box in November 2024,” said Brooke Goren, the campaign’s deputy communications director.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Wednesday authorized the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, with every Republican rallying behind the politically charged process despite lingering concerns among some in the party that the investigation has yet to produce evidence of misconduct by the president.

The 221-212 party-line vote put the entire House Republican conference on record in support of an impeachment process that can lead to the ultimate penalty for a president: punishment for what the Constitution describes as “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which can lead to removal from office if convicted in a Senate trial.

Biden, in a rare statement about the impeachment effort, questioned the priorities of House Republicans in pursuing an inquiry against him and his family.

“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” the president said following the vote. “Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.”

Authorizing the monthslong inquiry ensures that the impeachment investigation extends well into 2024, when Biden will be running for reelection and seems likely to be squaring off against former President Donald Trump — who was twice impeached during his time in the White House. Trump has pushed his GOP allies in Congress to move swiftly on impeaching Biden, part of his broader calls for vengeance and retribution against his political enemies.

The decision to hold a vote came as Speaker Mike Johnson and his team faced growing pressure to show progress in what has become a nearly yearlong probe centered around the business dealings of Biden’s family members. While their investigation has raised ethical questions, no evidence has emerged that Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes in his current role or previous office as vice president.

“We do not take this responsibility lightly and will not prejudge the investigation’s outcome,” Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team said in a joint statement after the vote. “But the evidentiary record is impossible to ignore.”

House Democrats stood in united opposition to the inquiry resolution Wednesday, calling it a farce perpetrated by those across the aisle to avenge the two impeachments against Trump.

“This whole thing is an extreme political stunt. It has no credibility, no legitimacy, and no integrity. It is a sideshow,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said during a floor debate.

Some House Republicans, particularly those hailing from politically divided districts, had been hesitant in recent weeks to take any vote on Biden’s impeachment, fearing a significant political cost. But GOP leaders have made the case in recent weeks that the resolution is only a step in the process, not a decision to impeach Biden. That message seems to have won over skeptics.

“As we have said numerous times before, voting in favor of an impeachment inquiry does not equal impeachment,” Rep. Tom Emmer, a member of the GOP leadership team, said at a news conference Tuesday.

Emmer said Republicans “will continue to follow the facts wherever they lead, and if they uncover evidence of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors, then and only then will the next steps towards impeachment proceedings be considered.”

Most of the Republicans reluctant to back the impeachment push have also been swayed by leadership’s recent argument that authorizing the inquiry will give them better legal standing as the White House has questioned the legal and constitutional basis for their requests for information.

A letter last month from a top White House attorney to Republican committee leaders portrayed the GOP investigation as overzealous and illegitimate because the chamber had not yet authorized a formal impeachment inquiry by a vote of the full House. Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, also wrote that when Trump faced the prospect of impeachment by a Democratic-led House in 2019, Johnson had said at the time that any inquiry without a House vote would be a “sham.”

Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said this week that while there was no evidence to impeach the president, “that’s also not what the vote this week would be about.”

“We have had enough political impeachments in this country,” he said. “I don’t like the stonewalling the administration has done, but listen, if we don’t have the receipts, that should constrain what the House does long-term.”

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who has long been opposed to moving forward with impeachment, said that the White House questioning the legitimacy of the inquiry without a formal vote helped gain his support. “I can defend an inquiry right now,” he told reporters this week. “Let’s see what they find out.”

House Democrats remained unified in their opposition to the impeachment process, saying it is a farce used by the GOP to take attention away from Trump and his legal woes.

“You don’t initiate an impeachment process unless there’s real evidence of impeachable offenses,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, who oversaw the two impeachments into Trump. “There is none here. None.”

Democrats and the White House have repeatedly defended the president and his administration’s cooperation with the investigation thus far, saying it has already made a massive trove of documents available.

Congressional investigators have obtained nearly 40,000 pages of subpoenaed bank records and dozens of hours of testimony from key witnesses, including several high-ranking Justice Department officials currently tasked with investigating the president’s son, Hunter Biden.

While Republicans say their inquiry is ultimately focused on the president himself, they have taken particular interest in Hunter Biden and his overseas business dealings, from which they accuse the president of personally benefiting. Republicans have also focused a large part of their investigation on whistleblower allegations of interference in the long-running Justice Department investigation into the younger Biden’s taxes and his gun use.

Hunter Biden is currently facing criminal charges in two states from the special counsel investigation. He’s charged with firearm counts in Delaware, alleging he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. Special counsel David Weiss filed additional charges last week, alleging he failed to pay about $1.4 million in taxes over a three-year period.

Democrats have conceded that while the president’s son is not perfect, he is a private citizen who is already being held accountable by the justice system.

“I mean, there’s a lot of evidence that Hunter Biden did a lot of improper things. He’s been indicted, he’ll stand trial,” Nadler said. “There’s no evidence whatsoever that the president did anything improper.”

Hunter Biden arrived for a rare public statement outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, saying he would not be appearing for his scheduled private deposition that morning. The president’s son defended himself against years of GOP attacks and said his father has had no financial involvement in his business affairs.

His attorney has offered for Biden to testify publicly, citing concerns about Republicans manipulating any private testimony.

“Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry, or hear what I have to say,” Biden said outside the Capitol. “What are they afraid of? I am here.”

GOP lawmakers said that since Hunter Biden did not appear, they will begin contempt of Congress proceedings against him. “He just got into more trouble today,” Rep. James Comer, the House Oversight Committee chairman, told reporters Wednesday.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has been interviewed as part of an independent investigation into his handling of classified documents, the White House said late Monday.

Spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement that the interview was voluntary and conducted at the White House on Sunday and Monday. The interview concluded Monday, Sams said.

The investigation is being led by special counsel Robert Hur, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the politically sensitive matter to avoid conflicts of interest.

Sams reiterated that Biden and the White House are cooperating. He referred questions to the Justice Department.

“As we have said from the beginning, the President and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, being as transparent as we can consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation,” Sams said. “We would refer other questions to the Justice Department at this time.”

It is hardly unprecedented for sitting presidents to be interviewed in criminal investigations.

President George W. Bush sat for a 70-minute interview as part of an investigation into the leak of the identify of a CIA operative. President Bill Clinton in 1998 underwent more than four hours of questioning from independent counsel Kenneth Starr before a federal grand jury.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team negotiated with lawyers for then-President Donald Trump for an interview but Trump never sat for one. His lawyers instead submitted answers to written questions.

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WASHINGTON — The Biden-Harris administration released the president’s budget for fiscal year 2024. This budget proposes critical resources to help VA serve all Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors as well as they have served their country.

This is the largest budget proposal in U.S. history for Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors. The total FY 2024 request for VA is $325.1 billion, a $16.6 billion (+5.4%) increase above the FY 2023 budget enacted level. This includes a discretionary budget request of $142.8 billion, a $3.0 billion (+2.1%) increase over FY 2023. The 2024 mandatory funding request is $182.3 billion, an increase of $13.6 billion (+8.1%) above 2023.

“As President Biden often says, our nation has a sacred obligation to support Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors — and this proposed budget will help us do exactly that,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “With these historic investments, we at VA can continue to deliver more care and more benefits to more Veterans than ever before in our nation’s history.”

President Biden has made supporting Veterans a key pillar of his Unity Agenda, and his budget request demonstrates the Biden-Harris administration’s focus on ensuring Veterans have timely access to world-class care and benefits. At the Department of Veterans Affairs, the budget will:

Expand health care and benefits for toxic-exposed Veterans: The PACT Act, landmark legislation which President Biden signed into law last year, expands VA health care and benefits to millions of Veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxins. The budget requests $20.3 billion in 2024 for the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund — $15.3 billion above 2023 — for health care, research and benefits delivery associated with exposure to environmental hazards for Veterans and their survivors.

• Invest in preventing Veteran suicide: Suicide prevention is VA’s top clinical priority and a top priority of the Biden-Harris administration. This budget provides $16.6 billion in 2024 for mental health efforts, including suicide prevention — up from $15.0 billion in 2023. As a part of that, the budget includes $559 million for Veteran suicide prevention outreach programs and an estimated $2.5 billion in suicide-specific medical treatment. Among other efforts, these funds will support VA’s initiatives to provide free emergency health care to Veterans in suicidal crisis at VA or non-VA facilities and help fund local organizations that provide or coordinate suicide prevention services for Veterans and other eligible individuals and their families.
• Bolster efforts to end Veteran homelessness: Veteran homelessness has decreased by 11% since 2020 and VA permanently housed more than 40,000 homeless Veterans in 2022, but VA and the Biden-administration will not rest until every Veteran in America has a good, safe home. The budget invests $3.1 billion in providing homeless Veterans — and Veterans at-risk of homelessness — with permanent housing, access to health care and other supportive services.
• Support women Veterans’ health care: More women Veterans are choosing VA health care than ever before, with the number of women Veterans using VA services tripling over the last 20 years — growing from 160,000 in 2002 to more than 627,000 today. The budget invests $257 million for women’s health and childcare programs to increase access to infertility counseling and assisted reproductive technology, eliminate copayments for contraceptive coverage, and support full-time women veteran program managers at all 172 VA medical centers. These investments support provide comprehensive specialty medical and surgical services for women Veterans, including $1.0 billion for women’s gender specific care.
• Invest in Veteran medical facilities: Veterans deserve world-class health care facilities, but the median VA’s hospital was built nearly 60 years ago – compared to just 13 years ago in the private sector. The budget makes a historic investment of $4.1 billion (discretionary and mandatory) for construction to begin restoring VA’s aging infrastructure and providing Veterans with state-of-the-art health care facilities, as well as a $5 billion investment in medical care funding (discretionary) for non-recurring maintenance to improve medical facility infrastructure.

Learn more about President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget and information on the VA budget.

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“CMS is proud to be leading the President’s new initiative to improve the safety and quality of care at the nation’s nursing homes. For months, my team and I have met with industry experts, nursing home workers, resident advocates, and – most importantly – nursing home residents and their family members. I have been deeply moved by these conversations, which informed the vision outlined yesterday. People living in nursing homes deserve to be treated with dignity and to receive the care they need. Tragically, nursing home residents and staff have made up roughly one-fourth of all COVID-19 deaths in the country. Without the hard work, dedication and sacrifices of our frontline care workers, we know the number of deaths from COVID-19 would be even more staggering. I am deeply grateful to the nursing home staff who are doing this critical work every day.

“COVID-19 has also highlighted the need to address unmet mental health needs that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. At CMS, we are committed to implementing these provisions and engaging Congress and our stakeholders on these essential investments in the mental health of America.

“Over the last year, CMS made history, and we will continue the work to expand health care coverage and access to care, improve quality, and build a better health care system for the American people.”

CMS.gov | Contributed

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