Biden news – live: President hails Monterey Park’s ‘unbreakable spirit’ as he issues gun control order

President Joe Biden issued an expansive executive order on gun control Tuesday as he traveled to Monterey Park, California, where 11 people were killed in a mass shooting in January this year.

The order directs the president’s cabinet and federal agencies to enforce and expand background checks for most purchases under the gun reform law the president signed last year. It also takes aim at gun manufacturers and directs agencies to raise awareness of so-called “red flag” laws and measures that mandate safe storage.

Speaking from Monterey Park, the president hailed the community’s “unbreakable spirits” and urged members of Congress to renew the federal ban on assault weapons. He also demanded lawmakers to tackle legislation to “eliminate gun manufacturer immunity from liability” following dozens of mass shootings within the first few months of 2023.

Gun reform advocacy groups have welcomed the order, which the group Brady hailed as “major progress” as the president gets the US “closer” to universal background checks.

Key Points

• Biden calls on lawmakers to hold gun industry accountable as he issues executive order

• ‘Major progress’: Gun reform advocates welcome Biden’s executive order

• Biden hails Monterey Park’s ‘unbreakable spirits’ in wake of mass shooting

• Monterey Park, an Asian cultural hub, still shaken by mass shooting

‘The ghosts of the 2008 financial crisis loom over Biden’s response to Silicon Valley Bank'

04:00 , Alex Woodward

“The 2008 financial crisis gave birth to our current hyper-polarized moment. Staving off a political backlash is just as important as preventing economic fallout,” Eric Garcia writes:

Ghosts of the 2008 financial crisis loom over Biden’s response to Silicon Valley Bank

ICYMI: Biden says US partnership with UK and Australia puts nations ‘in the strongest possible position’

03:00 , Alex Woodward

President Joe Biden announced the next steps of the United States’ partnership with the United Kingdom and Australia with plans to bolster the group’s ability to respond to global threats.

Mr Biden made the announcement at Naval Base Point Loma with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The three leaders announced that Australia would obtain conventionally armed and nuclear-powered submarines.

The Independent’s Eric Garcia writes:

Biden announces next step of submarine deal with UK and Australia

The big obstacle in Biden’s move to control guns

02:00 , Alex Woodward

Joe Biden’s executive order addressing gun violence is likely the strongest – and last step – that the president can take without Congress stepping up to meet his challenge to pass additional gun reform laws.

The Independent’s Eric Garcia writes:

The big obstacle in Biden’s move to control guns

Joe Biden condemns Florida’s ‘cruel’ treatment of young transgender people

00:00 , Alex Woodward

President Joe Biden condemned Florida’s “cruel” treatment of transgender young people in an interview with The Daily Show as Governor Ron DeSantis and Republican state lawmakers advance a series of policies targeting gender-affirming care for trans Americans in the state.

“What’s going on in Florida, is, as my mother would say, close to sinful. It’s terrible what they’re doing,” the president said during an interview with The Daily Show’s Kal Penn that aired on Monday.

State lawmakers across the US this year have introduced more than 400 measures identified by the Human Rights Campaign as harmful to LGBT+ Americans, what the organisation has called a “historically bad” year of legislation following 2022’s unprecedented wave of anti-LGBT+ proposals.

At least 175 measures would specifically restrict the rights of transgender people, the highest number of bills targeting trans Americans in a single year to date, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

At least eight states have enacted laws banning or restricting gender-affirming care for trans youth. More than 20 others are considering similar laws. At least three states are targeting care for trans people up to the ages of 21 and 26.

Joe Biden condemns Florida’s ‘cruel’ treatment of young transgender people

Biden’s climate legacy in jeopardy with Willow oil project approval, furious environmentalists warn

Tuesday 14 March 2023 23:00 , Alex Woodward

President Biden is jeopardising his climate legacy by signing off on a vast oil project in Alaska, environmentalists and members of his own party warned.

Approval of the $8bn Willow Project, on Alaska‘s North Slope, was announced by the Biden administration on Monday.

Democratic officials, climate activists and Indigenous groups argue that the development flies in the face of Mr Biden’s promise to stop new drilling on public lands, and cut the US carbon footprint in half by 2030.

Biden’s climate legacy in jeopardy with Willow oil project approval, activists say

Full story: Biden calls on lawmakers to hold gun industry accountable as he issues executive order

Tuesday 14 March 2023 21:38 , Alex Woodward

Two months after 11 people were killed and nine others were injured in a mass shooting that has rocked the city of Monterey Park, California, President Joe Biden acknowledged the mostly Asian American community’s “unbreakable spirits” as he announced a sweeping executive order to “accelerate” his administration’s work on gun reform.

While Congress remains deadlocked, the president’s executive order intends to “get as close to universal background checks as possible” without legislation.

Biden issues executive order on gun sale background checks from site of mass shooting

Biden calls on Congress to ‘do something big’ and tackle gun control and hold firearms manufacturers accountable

Tuesday 14 March 2023 21:02 , Alex Woodward

President Biden closed his remarks from Monterey Park on Tuesday calling on Congress to renew the federal assault weapons ban and “eliminate gun manufacturer immunity from liability” following waves of mass shootings and daily gun violence.

“Let’s finish the job … Ban assault rifles. Do it again. Do something. Do something big,” he said.

After communities demand Biden to ‘do something,’ he says he’s here ‘to act'

Tuesday 14 March 2023 20:53 , Alex Woodward

Following cries of “enough” and “do something” in the wake of routine massacres and daily acts of gun violence across the US, President Biden said that “we remember and mourn today” in the community of Monterey Park, California, “but I’m with you here today to act.”

Following last year’s passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the “most significant gun safety law in almost 30 years,” the president is signing an expansive executive order to “accelerate and intensify this work to save more lives, more quickly.”

Joe Biden speaks from California’s Monterey Park after mass shooting rocked tight-knit community

Tuesday 14 March 2023 20:50 , Alex Woodward

President Joe Biden is addressing the community of Monterey Park in the wake of January’s mass shooting at Ballroom Dance Studio, where 11 people were killed and nine others were injured.

“This is a tight knit community with intergenerational households and deep reverence and respect for its elders,” he said, acknowledging the largely Asian American community.

“Pushing forward together, healing together people from all faiths and backgrounds rallying to show their love and support,” he added.

“Proving that even with heavy hearts we have unbreakable spirits,” he said, noting that the community is made up of immigrants from China, Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.

Joe Biden briefed on Russian fighter jets’ encouter with US drone over Black Seas

Tuesday 14 March 2023 20:44 , Alex Woodward

President Joe Biden was briefed on Tuesday following news that a pair of Russian fighter jets forced down an American surveillance drone over the Black Sea.

The report was confirmed by US officials, claiming that the a jet collided with the propeller of the unmanned aircraft after both jets dumped fuel on it.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan briefed the president on the incident, according to White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby.

“This one obviously is noteworthy because of how unsafe [and] indeed reckless that was in causing the downing of one of our aircraft,” he said on Tuesday.

Mr Kirby said that the Black Sea is “an enormous body of water” and US aircraft have been flying in international airspace there “consistently” for a year.

“We’re going to continue to do that,” he added “And we don’t need to have some sort of check-in with the Russians before we fly in international airspace.”

More on the incident from The Independent’s Josh Marcus:

‘Reckless’ Russian fighter jet forces down US Air Force drone flying over Black Sea

Hero who disarmed Monterey Park mass shooter greets Biden at airport arrival

Tuesday 14 March 2023 20:00 , Alex Woodward

Among the people who greeted President Joe Biden at his arrival at Los Angeles International Airport this afternoon were recently elected Mayor Karen Bass and Brandon Tsay, who disarmed the Monterey Park mass shooter at his family’s dance studio in January.

The 26-year-old also appeared at the president’s State of the Union address as a guest of the president and First Lady Jill Biden.

Gun control group praises Biden for ‘important’ reform measure

Tuesday 14 March 2023 18:45 , Alex Woodward

Gun control advocacy groups have praised President Joe Biden’s executive order to direct federal agencies to better enforce background check measures and expand the scope of bipartisan legislation aimed at combatting the proliferation of high-powered weapons in the US.

“Today I want to give credit where it is due,” Guns Down America founder and executive director Igor Volsky said in a statement. “Since he took office Guns Down America has urged the president to live up to his campaign promises by doing everything in his power to address our gun violence epidemic. With these executive actions, President Biden has taken an important step toward a safer future with fewer guns.”

The organisation also has urged the White House to create an Office of Gun Violence Prevention to “address the full scope of this crisis.”

Tuesday 14 March 2023 18:30 , Alex Woodward

Most Americans support so-called “universal” background checks on all prospective gun buyers, meaning that any type of gun purchase would require a seller to perform a background check through law enforcement before a firearm could be sold to them.

Under current federal law, buyers do not have to obtain a background check for online gun sales or private sales like those at a gun show.

Eighty-four per cent of voters, including 77 per cent of Republicans, support the idea, according to a 2021 poll from Morning Consult and Politico.

Roughly 80 per cent of all firearms used for crimes are obtained via unlicensed sellers, according to the Giffords Law Center, a gun reform advocacy group. The centre also reports that a vast majority of people convicted of gun offenses who were already prohibited from possessing firearms had obtained their firearm from an unlicensed seller.

US reached 100 mass shootings earlier this month

Tuesday 14 March 2023 17:54 , Alex Woodward

There were at least 17 mass shootings in the US within the first days of March, bringing the total number of mass shootings this year to more than 100.

The Gun Violence Archive’s count reported 52 mass shootings in January and 40 in February.

By that point last year, there were 85 mass shootings.

The organisation also found that the number of non-fatal shootings in the US has reached 6,000 within the first two and a half months of 2023.

At least 3,549 people were killed by gunfire.

Biden calls on Congress to renew federal assault weapons ban

Tuesday 14 March 2023 17:01 , Alex Woodward

In the text of his executive order, the president has once against urged congressional lawmakers to renew a ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004.

The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, known as the federal assault weapons ban, was enacted in 1994 and expired in 2004, with several failed attempts in Congress to renew the ban after a series of massacres involving high-powered rifles that were previously impacted by the law.

A study from Northwestern University found that the ban prevented 11 public mass shootings within the decade it was in effect. The study also estimates that keeping the ban in place until 2019 would have prevented 30 public shootings that killed 339 and injured 1,139 people.

Last year, the Democratically controlled House of Representatives narrowly voted to renew the ban, which stalled in an evenly divided Senate.

“I continue to call on the Congress to take additional action to reduce gun violence, including by banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, requiring background checks for all gun sales, requiring safe storage of firearms, funding my comprehensive Safer America Plan, and expanding community violence intervention and prevention strategies,” the president wrote in his executive order.

“In the meantime, my Administration will continue to do all that we can, within existing authority, to make our communities safer,” he added.

Biden is throwing the White House behind gun reform, but he can’t get far without Congress

Tuesday 14 March 2023 16:26 , Alex Woodward

The expansive executive order that President Joe Biden will sign on Tuesday will expand provisions of bipartisan gun control legislation signed into law last year and will direct his cabinet and federal agencies to come up with a plan to enforce background checks and hold firearm dealers accountable to them.

But to close critical loopholes in the background check system and achieve a so-called “universal” background check process for firearm sales, not to mention renewing a federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004, the president needs the help of Congress.

A newly Republican-controlled House of Representatives is unlikely to move any of those matters forward despite a thin Democratic majority in the US Senate.

“In the meantime, he wants the federal government to be doing all we can with existing authority to reduce gun violence and that’s what this executive order does,” a senior administration official told reporters in advance of the president’s visit to Monterey Park on Tuesday.

The city was the site of a mass shooting that killed 11 and injured nine others in January. Two days later, another shooting in Half Moon Bay, California killed seven people.

There have been more than 100 mass shootings in the US within the first three months of 2023. There were more than 600 last year.

Biden to meet with families of Monterey Park victims

Tuesday 14 March 2023 16:00 , Alex Woodward

President Joe Biden will meet with the families of the victims of the Monterey Park mass shooting while visiting California on Tuesday as he delivers remarks and signs an executive order in an effort to combat gun violence and the proliferation of firearms in the US.

A senior administration official told reporters ahead of the visit that the president’s order “will mean fewer guns will be sold without background checks, and therefore fewer guns will end up in the hands of felons and domestic abusers.”

Biden accidentally reveals Jimmy Carter asked him to deliver his eulogy

Tuesday 14 March 2023 15:15 , Alex Woodward

Former president Jimmy Carter entered home hospice care last month with “the full support of his family and his medical team,” according to a statement from his Carter Center.

The announcement followed the oldest-living former president’s serious health problems, including a 2015 diagnosis for melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. His centre announced later that year that he was cancer-free.

The Carter Center’s announcement did not indicated whether the cancer returned or if the 98-year-old former president was enduring another medical issue that prompted a decision to enter home hospice care.

Speaking at a fundraiser in California on Monday night, President Joe Biden said he has “spent time with Jimmy Carter and it’s finally caught up with him, but they found a way to keep him going for a lot longer than they anticipated because they found a breakthrough.”

“He asked me to do his eulogy,” he added. “Excuse me, I shouldn’t say that.”

His accidental revelation is not necessarily a surprise; Mr Biden has had a long relationship with the oldest-living former president, who received then-Senator Biden’s endorsement in 1976.

Many years later, Mr Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter endorsed Mr Biden, with their video announcement at the 2020 Democratic National Convention describing the Democratic nominee as his “first and most effective supporter in the Senate.”

Just in: Biden administration proposes limits on dangerous ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

Tuesday 14 March 2023 14:37 , Alex Woodward

President Joe Biden’s administration is proposing the first-ever national standard for drinking water to protect Americans from dangerous “forever chemicals”.

The plan, laid out by the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, would establish legally-enforceable levels for six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that are known to occur in drinking water.

US proposes first limits on dangerous ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

‘Major progress’: Gun reform advocates welcome Biden’s executive order

Tuesday 14 March 2023 14:04 , Alex Woodward

Gun reform advocacy groups have welcomed the executive order announced by the Biden White House on Tuesday, which Brady hailed as “major progress” on the path towards universal background checks.

“While we ultimately can only achieve universal background checks through legislative action from Congress, President Biden’s announcement today gets us closer to that reality than any other President that has come before,” Brady president Kris Brown said in a statement.

Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt and mass shooting in 2011, said in a statement that “more must be done, but there’s no telling how many lives will be saved thanks to the meaningful actions announced today.”

Everytown for Gun Safety said Biden’s executive order will improve “community safety, hold the gun industry and rogue gun dealers in our communities accountable, and save lives.”

Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, called the order “lifesaving”.

White House demands Mike Pence apologise for ‘homophobic joke’ about Pete Buttigieg

Tuesday 14 March 2023 13:34 , Alex Woodward

The husband of transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg sent Mike Pence a photo of his hospitalised baby in his angry response to the former vice president’s “maternity leave” joke.

The White House has called for Mr Pence to apologise for what it called a “homophobic” joke about the transportation secretary’s decision to take paternity leave when his twins were born.

Buttigieg’s husband sends Pence a photo of his hospitalised baby in response to joke

Biden condemns Florida’s ‘cruel’ treatment of young transgender people

Tuesday 14 March 2023 12:50 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

President Joe Biden lamented Florida’s “cruel” treatment of transgender young people in an interview with The Daily Show as ogvernor Ron DeSantis and Republican state lawmakers advance a series of policies targeting gender-affirming care for trans people in the state.

“What’s going on in Florida, is, as my mother would say, close to sinful. It’s terrible what they’re doing,” the president said during an interview with The Daily Show’s Kal Penn.

“It’s not like a kid wakes up one morning and says, ‘You know, I’ve decided I want to become a man’ or ‘I want to become a woman’ … I mean, what are they thinking about here? They’re human beings. They love, they have feelings, they have inclinations,” he added. “It just, to me, is, I don’t know. It’s cruel.”

Alex Woodward reports.

Joe Biden condemns Florida’s ‘cruel’ treatment of young transgender people

Biden expected to sign executive order on gun control during visit

Tuesday 14 March 2023 12:27 , Megan Sheets

President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday aiming to increase the number of background checks to buy guns, promote better and more secure firearms storage and ensure US law enforcement agencies are getting the most out of a bipartisan gun control law enacted last summer.

The Democratic president plans to unveil his latest efforts at curbing gun violence in a speech from Monterey Park, California, said a senior White House official, who discussed the order ahead of its signing on the condition of anonymity. In January, a gunman stormed a dance hall in the community near Los Angeles and shot 20 people, killing 11, following a Lunar New Year celebration.

Biden’s rhetoric has only grown stronger around guns — he routinely calls for banning so-called assault weapons in his speeches — and Democrats didn’t push such a vocal anti-gun platform even during the Obama administration, when Biden was vice president. But Biden has been emboldened by the midterms after his regular talk of gun control didn’t result in massive losses, and he’s expected to continue to push for strong changes as he inches toward a 2024 run, his aides say.

Read more from the Associated Press:

Joe Biden expected to sign surprise gun control executive order in Monterey Park

ICYMI | LA County passes gun control measures

Tuesday 14 March 2023 11:50 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a series of gun control measures in February following the mass shooting in Monterey Park.

The package included nearly half a dozen measures aimed at curbing fatal shootings within the county. However, most will be passed through additional vetting before they become county law.

Two of the ordinances that were expected to be implemented soon include a ban on the sale of .50-caliber handguns and ammunition in unincorporated areas of LA County.

Biden pleads with Congress to pass gun control

Tuesday 14 March 2023 10:50 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

President Joe Biden with Congress to pass gun control in February following a spate of mass shootings.

“Enough,” the president’s statement said, pointing out that there had been at least 73 shootings in which at least four victims were wounded or killed in less than two months since the beginning of the year.

“Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough. Gun violence is an epidemic and Congress must act now.”More than 44,000 firearm deaths were reported last year across the US.

Shootings were a leading cause of death among children under 18 last year, with nearly 1,700 cases, including 314 under 11 years old, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Man who wrestled gun from Monterey Park shooter recounts heroic act

Tuesday 14 March 2023 09:50 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Brandon Tsay, who disarmed the Monterey Park gunman before he could shoot more people, has recounted his harrowing experience.

At least 11 people were killed when suspect Huu Can Tran, 72, opened fire at a dance studio in California before the gun was wrestled away from him.

“I’m not going to lie, I did freeze up when I saw him with the gun,” Mr Tsay said.

“I had many thoughts where I would think ‘I’m going to die, this is it. This is the end for me’. But then something came over me.”

Watch here.

‘I froze up’: Man who wrestled gun from California shooter recounts heroic act

Monterey Park shooting 911 calls reveal panic and confusion

Tuesday 14 March 2023 08:50 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

A gunman had fired his first deadly shots outside a dance hall when Monterey Park police got a call for help from a man trying to make sense of what happened to his partner sitting in the car next to him.

“Is your girlfriend awake?” the dispatcher asked.

“I’m not sure,” the caller said.

Audio from the 911 recordings released Thursday give a sense of the confusion and chaos that unfolded on 21 January at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio on a night that had been full of celebration for the Lunar New Year.

The 911 calls overlap as several people phoned for help around the same time and dispatchers can be heard speaking with others about a shooting.

Brian Melley has more.

Monterey Park shooting 911 calls reveal panic and confusion at dance studio

Ballroom shooting victims planned for night of fun, dancing

Tuesday 14 March 2023 07:50 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Those killed by a gunman who opened fire at a Los Angeles-area dance hall are being remembered by friends and family for the zest for life that brought them out that night to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Eleven people were killed when a gunman opened fire at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, a dance hall in Monterey Park that is popular with older Asian Americans.

“It’s always happy, people just come and have fun, they just love dancing,” said Peter Phung, a singer who has performed there and frequently stopped by to sing karaoke as well.

Read more here.

Ballroom shooting victims planned for night of fun, dancing

Biden and allies unveil nuclear-powered submarine plan for Australia

Tuesday 14 March 2023 06:50 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

President Joe Biden announced the next steps of the United States’ partnership with the United Kingdom and Australia, saying it will bolster the group’s ability to respond to global threats.

Mr Biden made the announcement at Naval Base Point Loma with UK prime minister Rishi Sunak and Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese. The three leaders announced that Australia would obtain conventionally armed and nuclear-powered submarines.

The president made clear that the submarines would not be armed with nucelar weapons.

Eric Garcia reports.

Biden announces next step of submarine deal with UK and Australia

Monterey Park, an Asian cultural hub, shaken by shooting

Tuesday 14 March 2023 06:00 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

For decades, Monterey Park has been a haven for Asian immigrants seeking to maintain a strong cultural identity — and a culinary heaven worth visiting for anybody near Los Angeles craving authentic Asian cuisine.

Signs across the vibrant suburb are written in English and Chinese. Families raise bilingual children. And residents in their golden years enjoy karaoke, the Chinese tile game mah jong and — as the outside world learned last week after a horrific mass shooting — ballroom dancing.

“It’s a very quiet, humble place. And we mind our own,” says Denny Mu, a second-generation American who runs the popular Mandarin Noodle House started by his grandfather.

That sense of peace was shattered after a gunman killed 11 people in their 50s, 60s and 70s and wounded nine others.

But while residents of the tight-knit community work through the trauma — just as they did during the coronavirus pandemic, when anti-Asian sentiment rose nationwide — the tragedy has only sharpened their feelings about what makes Monterey Park so special, and worth protecting.

Read more here.

Monterey Park, an Asian cultural hub, shaken by shooting

Families of Monterey Park shooting victims remember loved ones

Tuesday 14 March 2023 05:10 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Eleven people were killed and another nine wounded when a gunman opened fire inside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, California, shortly after thousands of members of the Asian American community had gathered for Lunar New Year celebrations in the city outside Los Angeles.

Ten of the victims – five men and five women – were pronounced dead on the spot while the eleventh victim succumbed to their injuries.

Suspected gunman Huu Can Tran, 72, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound when police closed in on him in his white van, according to authorities.

“It is comforting to know that she enjoyed her last dance, even though it was her last dance,” victim Mymy Nhan’s niece Fonda Quan told AP.

Read more here.

Families remember Monterey Park shooting victims as all 11 are identified

Biden to visit Monterey Park today

Tuesday 14 March 2023 04:32 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

US president Joe Biden will visit Monterey Park in California today, where 11 people were killed in a mass shooting this year.

Mr Biden is expected to call for tougher gun control measures following a spate of mass shootings throughout the country.

However, it is unclear if he will visit the spot of the gun violence or meet the families of the victims.

The president has repeatedly called on Congress to enact stricter gun control measures, including reinstating the assault weapons ban.

Tuesday 14 March 2023 03:44 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Welcome to The Independent’s live blog on US president Joe Biden’s visit to Los Angeles today.