Biden to meet women’s soccer team for Equal Pay – press conference live

A quick-thinking Starbucks barista hid his 69-year-old co-worker underneath a rubbish bin during the deadly mass shooting in Colorado earlier this week.

Ten people, including a police officer, were killed on Monday afternoon when a man opened fire inside a King Soopers supermarket in the city of Boulder, Colorado, in what was the latest of several high-profile mass shootings in the state over the past 25 years.

Logan Smith, a 20-year-old Starbucks employee working at a kiosk in the supermarket, told Fox 31 on Tuesday that he hid his 69-year-old colleague underneath several bins when the gunman entered the store on Monday.

James Crump has the story.

The White House has defended the firing of five staffers over marijuana use.

Joe Biden’s top spokesperson Jen Psaki said that the employees lost their jobs in the administration after a review that “raised other security issues.”

And she added that Mr Biden had not stepped in to prevent the firings over past marijuana use because although decriminalised in some states the drug remains “illegal federally.”

“What we tried to do as an administration was work with the security service who actually make these determinations about the suitability for serving in government,” said Ms Psaki at her daily briefing with reporters.

Graeme Massie is going deeper on this angle from today’s press briefing.

Asked if the president had plans on visiting Colorado following the mass shooting that left 10 people dead, press secretary Jen Psaki said she didn’t have any updates to share.

“As you all know this tragedy only happened just about 36 hours ago and obviously that would be done in consultation with local officials who I know are still digesting the events in their community, working on healing in their community,” she said.

“I can note that he did speak with the mayor this morning and he had spoken with the governor yesterday and will remain in close touch.”

Press secretary Jen Psaki is “not familiar” with a major and repeated claim made by Senate Republicans and Donald Trump during the presidential campaign.

Psaki was asked at today’s press briefing about the allegations made in a report by the GOP-controlled Senate Finance and Homeland Security committee that Elena Baturina, the widow of a man who had been mayor of Moscow until 2010, had wired $3.5m to an investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden, Rosemont Seneca Thornton.

Trump and his campaign made repeated the allegations continuously throughout the election cycle, citing the report as its source.

Fact-checkers at the time tried to untangle the claims and focused on whether Hunter was a co-founder in the firm, but not whether the firm was paid $3.5m. PolitiFact said Hunter co-founded a firm called Rosemont Seneca in 2009, it couldn’t establish a link with Rosemont Seneca Thornton. The GOP report used a Financial Times story from 2019 that said Hunter was a co-founder of Rosemont Seneca Thornton.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer, George Mesires, did not respond to requests from PolitiFact to support his statements that Hunter was not a co-founder of Rosemont Seneca Thornton.

Psaki was asked today if those claims were accurate and, if so, what the $3.5m was for. While Psaki said she didn’t know anything about the claim, she seemingly already knew enough to say that it was not backed by any evidence.

“I’m not familiar with that claim, doesn’t sound like it’s backed up by a lot of evidence. If you have evidence or specifics I’m happy to discuss it further,” she said.

When pressed that the source came from the Senate Finance and Homeland Security committee report, Psaki responded: “I am not familiar with the report at all.”

The White House was asked why it fired five staff members and disciplined dozens for marijuana use when vice president Kamala Harris herself has admitted to being using the drug that “gives people joy, and we need more joy in this world”.

Press secretary Jen Psaki said the five people terminated had more security issues than just marijuana use.

Five individuals who are no longer employed at the White House,” she said. “A number of them, there were other security issues that were raised and that’s an unfortunate conclusion of course.”

She added: “Additional members of the team who would not have been able to continue serving in past administrations to continue serving by updating our policy.”

Asked if the president would consider looking at the Second Amendment to achieve gun control at the source, press secretary Jen Psaki was adamant overturning the Constitution was not on the table.

“No one is talking about overturning or changing the Second Amendment, what our focus is on is putting in place common-sense measure that will make our communities safer,” she said.

Following the killings of 18 people in mass shootings in Boulder, Colorado and Atlanta within the last week, the White House is mulling executive orders as well as legislative proposals to address the nation’s gun violence.

Joe Biden is “not waiting for anything to fail” in Congress, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday.

“What our team is looking at now is what is the range of legislation out now and whether there are policy gaps that need to be filled or can be revisited,” she said.

The orders will also address “community violence and a range of issues that are root causes and lead to the deaths and impact we’re seeing that is so troubling,” she said.

Alex Woodward is going deeper on this angle.

While Joe Biden has pushed hard on gun control following the loss of 10 lives in Colorado, press secretary Jen Psaki couldn’t say if the president has called any families of the victims killed in the mass shooting.

“I don’t have any calls to read out for you,” Psaki said when asked.

“He is somebody who obviously has a deep connection to loss and we don’t always read out those calls. I can check and see if there’s anything that he has done that he would be comfortable conveying to all of you.”

Jen Psaki said that while Joe Biden agrees it is important to work with Congress to achieve lasting change through legislation, he would use his “leverage” to achieve gun control by executive fiat.

“I know the vice president touched on the fact if we want something to be permanent if we want it to be lasting, we need it to be legislation. He certainly believes that,” she said.

“But there are also executive actions under consideration that we will continue working through internally and there’s lots of leverage you can take, obviously, as president and vice president.”

Asked when Biden would consider executive action, Psaki said he would continue considering while Congress works on legislation: “So he’s not waiting for anything to fail,” she said.

Press secretary Jen Psaki is joined today by chair of the Council of Economic Adviser,s Cecilia Rouse, and Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, Heather Boushey.