Розділ: Політика
Mnuchin Says White House Open to Compromise on COVID Bill
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday the Trump administration will not let disagreements over Democrats’ demands for a national coronavirus testing strategy foil attempts to agree on coronavirus relief legislation.Mnuchin said in an interview with CNBC television he would tell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the administration generally agrees with a strategy to test people for COVID-19 throughout the U.S.“When I speak to Pelosi today, I’m going to tell her that we’re not going to let the testing issue stand in the way, that we’ll fundamentally agree with their testing language subject to some minor issues, Mnuchin said.Mnuchin also clarified remarks he made Wednesday at a conference sponsored by the Milken Institute, when he said it would be “difficult” to reach a stimulus deal before the November 3 presidential election. “What I said was that a deal would be hard to get done before the election but we’re going to keep trying, so I don’t want to say that it’s not likely, it’s just there are significant issues,” Mnuchin added.Mnuchin said the administration, which has a $1.88 trillion proposal on the table, has prioritized a proposal to reallocate $300 billion that legislators approved earlier this year in the CARES Act for another round of emergency aid for airlines and small businesses.The Republican White House and the Democrat-led House of Representatives have struggled for weeks to agree on another comprehensive relief bill after the expiration of earlier Congressionally approved benefits for laid-off workers and other support.Pelosi, whose party approved a $2.2 trillion relief measure in the House, has said the administration’s $1.88 trillion proposal is not enough.Mnuchin’s comments on CNBC came minutes after the U.S. Labor Department reported the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits for the first time rose to 898,000 in the week that ended Oct. 10. It was the highest number since Aug. 22, and another indication the recovery of the U.S. jobs market may be losing momentum. As the White House and lawmakers discuss an economic relief package, the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. reached a world-leading 217,000 on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. There were 59,000 new coronavirus infections in the U.S. on Wednesday, according to Hopkins, a reflection of increased infections in Midwestern U.S. states, boosting the total number of confirmed cases in the U.S. to 7.9 million, the most in the world.
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By Polityk | 10/15/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Confirmation Hearings for Trump Supreme Court Nominee Reach Final Day
Members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee are set to hear Thursday from witnesses supporting and opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett as the panel finishes its confirmation hearings.Democrats are expected to invoke committee rules to push a final vote on Barrett’s nomination by a week to Oct. 22. A vote in the full Senate could come by the end of the month.Wednesday marked the third day of the hearings, with Democrats again pressing Barrett on a key upcoming case that if overturned could impact healthcare for millions of Americans.Barrett reiterated she is not hostile to the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration healthcare law that will face a challenge before the nation’s highest court on Nov. 10.“A judge needs to have an open mind, every step of the way,” Barrett told senators Wednesday. “If I were to just say how I thought I would resolve a case just because I saw the issue, it would be short-circuiting that whole process through which I should go.”Wednesday was the second day of questions for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee after a nearly 12-hour session Tuesday in which Barrett declined to answer a range of questions from senators on how she might rule on legal disputes she would face if confirmed to fill a crucial vacancy on the country’s highest court.Barrett has told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee conducting her confirmation hearing this week that she wouldn’t let her personal and religious views determine how she would decide cases.“I have no agenda,” Barrett said Tuesday. “I’ll follow the law.”Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., listens during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee Oct. 14, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Barrett has repeatedly declined to say how she might rule on the court’s 1973 legalization of abortions in the United States, gun ownership rights sanctioned by the U.S. Constitution and whether, in a case to be heard by the court next month, the country’s national health care law should remain in effect.She has also rebuffed a question on whether she would recuse herself, if she is quickly confirmed by the Senate, from considering any legal disputes arising from the Nov. 3 national election. Trump, who nominated Barrett, is trying to win a second four-year term in the White House and faces Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden.Trump has assailed mass balloting by mail and said he wants a fully staffed court ready to rule on any legal disputes over balloting and election results. With eight current justices, the court could potentially deadlock 4-4.Barrett said she has had no conversations with Trump or his staff “on how I would rule” on election disputes. She said it would have been unethical for her as a sitting federal appellate court judge to have such a discussion.The 48-year-old Barrett is a favorite of U.S. conservatives looking to give the court a commanding 6-3 conservative majority. She has cited the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she served as a law clerk two decades ago, as her philosophical mentor, for his strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution as written two centuries ago rather than interpreting it to address current life in the U.S.Addressing her past association on Wednesday, Barrett told ranking Judiciary Committee member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, “When I said that Justice Scalia’s philosophy is mine too, I certainly didn’t mean to say that every sentence that came out of Justice Scalia’s mouth or every sentence that he wrote is one that I would agree with.”If confirmed, Barrett would replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon who died last month at 87. She would be the fifth woman ever to serve on the court.Democrats fear that Barrett would vote to undo many of the reforms championed by Ginsburg, including the right of same-sex couples to wed and abortion rights.Barrett told senators on Wednesday that in part she could not comment on how she would approach cases on abortion because several cases on the issue are working their way through lower courts.Barrett has said as an appellate court judge she has set aside her devout Catholic beliefs to issue rulings according to U.S. law and could do so again on the Supreme Court.But she made no promises on how she might rule on abortion, which the Catholic Church opposes.She said high court precedent from long-ago rulings is “presumptively controlling,” and that some decisions fall into the “super precedent” category, such as the 1954 decision banning school segregation by races as unequal treatment of Black people and unconstitutional.Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett listens during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Oct. 14, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Scalia dissented against abortion rights, but Barrett declined to say whether she also thinks the legality of abortion was wrongly decided.Earlier this week, Barrett assured Graham that despite her family owning a gun, she could fairly “decide such a case” calling for tighter restrictions on gun ownership sanctioned by the Constitution’s Second Amendment.Barrett said that even as the court has ruled that Americans have a personal right to own a gun, the ruling “leaves room for gun regulation. I promise I would come to that with an open mind. Any issue should be decided by the facts of the case.”At another point in Tuesday’s questioning, Barrett told Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, “I’m 100% committed to judicial independence.”But Klobuchar said she fears that a Justice Barrett “would be the polar opposite” of Ginsburg in the way she votes on key cases. “That’s what concerns me,” Klobuchar said.Barrett did express a willingness to consider breaking the long-held Supreme Court tradition of not allowing cameras into the courtroom.“I would certainly keep an open mind about cameras in the Supreme Court,” Barrett said.Public support for Barrett appears to be rising in the weeks since Trump announced her nomination on Sept. 26. In Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted Oct. 2-4 before confirmation hearings began, 46% of voters said the Senate should confirm Barrett, a nine-point increase in a week-long span.”The hearing to me is an opportunity to not punch through a glass ceiling, but a reinforced concrete barrier around conservative women. You are going to shatter that barrier,” Graham told Barrett on Wednesday.He predicted Monday that the committee’s 12 Republicans will all vote in favor of Barrett’s nomination with all 10 Democrats opposed. Republican leaders say they have enough votes in the full Senate to confirm her nomination.
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By Polityk | 10/15/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Supreme Court Justice Confirmation Flashpoint for Trump, Biden
This week, the U.S. Senate is holding confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat left empty by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away last month. Supreme Court justices receive lifetime positions, and the battle to fill the seat has become a focus of the contest between President Donald Trump and his challenger, Joe Biden. Patsy Widakuswara reports.
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By Polityk | 10/15/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Justice Department Accuses Melania Trump Book Author of Breaking Nondisclosure Pact
The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday accused Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, author of a tell-all book about first lady Melania Trump, of breaking their nondisclosure agreement and asked a court to set aside profits from the book in a government trust.
In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Justice Department lawyers said Wolkoff, a former aide who fell out with the first lady, failed to submit to government review a draft of her book, “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady,” which offers an unflattering portrayal of President Donald Trump’s wife.
“The United States seeks to hold Ms. Wolkoff to her contractual and fiduciary obligations and to ensure that she is not unjustly enriched by her breach of the duties she freely assumed when she served as an adviser to the first lady,” said a copy of the complaint seen by Reuters.
The book was published six weeks ago.
The complaint says Wolkoff and Mrs. Trump in August 2017 sealed a “Gratuitous Services Agreement” related to “nonpublic, privileged and/or confidential information” that she might obtain during her service under the agreement.
“This was a contract with the United States and therefore enforceable by the United States,” said Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec.
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By Polityk | 10/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Judge Extends Virginia Voter Registration
A federal judge on Wednesday extended the deadline for registering to vote in the U.S. state of Virginia by 48 hours. The order came one day after an accidentally severed fiber optic cable at a field project site caused the state’s online portal to shut down on the last day of registration before the November 3 general election.U.S. District Judge John Gibney, in the state capital of Richmond, issued the order extending the deadline to make up for several hours of lost time. He said the disruption caused “a tremendous harm” to those who wanted to register.Gibney’s order came after voting rights activists filed a lawsuit seeking an extension, which was agreed to by Virginia officials, who were named as defendants.Virginia residents now have until 11:59 p.m. local time on Thursday to register online or in person.The state’s Department of Elections said in a statement six hours after the system was shut down that the registration portal was back online, but that did not stop voting advocates from noting the technological failure occurred on the registration deadline. The lawsuit filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said the state should also make a “significant effort” to inform the public about the extension.“Absent relief, voters who attempted to register to vote through the online portal on October 13, 2020, but were unable through no fault of their own, will be absolutely disenfranchised in the upcoming elections,” the suit said.Virginia Governor Ralph Northam told reporters Tuesday he supported a deadline extension. Northam also said the state did not have a backup plan for the severed cable but that the disruption highlighted the need for the state to continue efforts to develop a secure network.The disruption occurred as three tight congressional races are under way in Virginia, the outcomes of which could affect the makeup of the U.S. House of Representatives.Democratic freshmen Representatives Abigail Spanberger and Elaine Luria are locked in close races in the state’s 7th District and 2nd District, respectively. Republican Bob Good and Democrat Cameron Webb are vying for the open 5th District seat.In 2016, an undetermined number of Virginia residents were unable to meet the voter registration deadline because of unprecedented demand. A federal judge granted a brief extension of the deadline after a lawsuit filed by the New Virginia Majority Education Fund.The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which filed the 2016 lawsuit on behalf of the fund, swiftly denounced Tuesday’s disruption, saying Virginia election officials “have again failed the public.”
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By Polityk | 10/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Election, Healthcare Dominate First Day of Barrett Questions
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett told the US Senate Tuesday she would not bring her own agenda to the bench if she is confirmed to the nation’s highest court. In the first full day of questioning from senators, Barrett deflected a range of inquiries on issues impacting a wide range of Americans, from abortion to healthcare to gun rights. VOA’s Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.Produced by: Katherine Gypson Camera: Adam Greenbaum
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By Polityk | 10/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Supreme Court Nominee Faces Another Day of Questioning
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett returns to the U.S. Capitol Wednesday for more questioning after a nearly 12-hour session Tuesday in which she declined to answer a range of questions from senators on how she might rule on legal disputes she would face if confirmed to fill a crucial vacancy on the country’s highest courtBarrett told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee conducting her confirmation hearing that she wouldn’t let her personal and religious views determine how she would decide cases. “I have no agenda,” Barrett said. “I’ll follow the law.” Abortion, gun ownership
Barrett, in initial queries from two Republicans, the panel chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, and two Democrats, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy, declined to say how she might rule on the court’s 1973 legalization of abortions in the United States, gun ownership rights sanctioned by the U.S. Constitution and whether, in a case to be heard by the court next month, the country’s national health care law should remain in effect. She also rebuffed a question on whether she would recuse herself, if she is quickly confirmed by the Senate, from considering any legal disputes arising from the Nov. 3 national election. President Donald Trump, who nominated Barrett, is trying to win a second four-year term in the White House and faces Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump has assailed mass balloting by mail and said he wants the court to help decide the election. The president, trailing Biden in national polls, says he wants Barrett confirmed to avoid a 4-4 stalemate on contested election issues. Barrett said she has had no conversations with Trump or his staff “on how I would rule” on election disputes. She said it would have been unethical for her as a sitting federal appellate court judge to have such a discussion. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 18 MB720p | 36 MB1080p | 76 MBOriginal | 231 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioConservative favorite
The 48-year-old Barrett is a favorite of U.S. conservatives looking to give the court a decided 6-3 conservative majority. She has cited the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she served as a law clerk two decades ago, as her philosophical mentor, for his strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution as written two centuries ago rather than reinterpreting it to address current life in the U.S. Barrett said that if she is confirmed as the fifth woman ever to serve on the court, “You would be getting a Justice Barrett, not a Justice Scalia.” If confirmed, Barrett would replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon who died last month at 87. Democratic critics fear that Barrett would vote to undo many of the reforms championed by Ginsburg, including abortion rights and the right for gays to marry and be treated equally in American society. Graham called Barrett’s selection “one of the greatest picks President Trump could make.” He predicted Monday that the committee’s 12 Republicans will all vote in favor of Barrett’s nomination with all 10 Democrats opposed. Republican leaders say they have enough votes in the full Senate to confirm her nomination. Barrett assured Graham that despite her family owning a gun, she could fairly “decide such a case” calling for tighter restrictions on gun ownership sanctioned by the Constitution’s Second Amendment. Barrett said that even as the court has ruled that Americans have a personal right to own a gun, the ruling “leaves room for gun regulation. I promise I would come to that with an open mind. Any issue should be decided by the facts of the case.” Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) questions U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett about her position on court cases involving LGBT rights.Religious beliefs Similarly, Barrett said as an appellate court judge she has set aside her devout Catholic beliefs to issue rulings according to U.S. law and could do so again on the Supreme Court. But she made no promises on how she might rule on abortion, which the Catholic Church opposes. She said high court precedent from long ago rulings is “presumptively controlling,” and that some decisions fall into the “super precedent” category, such as the 1954 decision banning school segregation by races as unequal treatment of Blacks and unconstitutional. Scalia dissented against abortion rights, but Barrett declined to say whether she also thinks the legality of abortion was wrongly decided. “It would be wrong for me as a sitting judge to say,” Barrett told Feinstein. “I have to decide cases as they come before me. I can’t pre-commit to judge a case in any way. I’ll follow the law.” At another point in Tuesday’s questioning, Barrett told Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, “I’m 100% committed to judicial independence.” But Klobuchar said she fears that a Justice Barrett “would be the polar opposite” of Ginsburg in the way she votes on key cases. “That’s what concerns me,” Klobuchar said. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) attends the second day of the U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Oct. 13, 2020.Initial vote planned for Thursday
Graham plans to call for an initial committee vote for Thursday on Barrett’s nomination. That would allow for final approval late next week and a vote by the full Republican-majority Senate before the end of the month, just days ahead of the presidential and congressional elections.
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By Polityk | 10/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Donald Trump and Joe Biden Set Their Sights on Battleground States
It is Presidential Donald Trump’s first week back on the campaign trail since his COVID-19 diagnosis and after his doctor said he is no longer infectious to others. With three weeks left to go until election day, Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden are crisscrossing battleground states this week to energize their supporters. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.
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By Polityk | 10/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden, Trump Continue Battle in Swing States
Former Vice President Joe Biden took his campaign to a county in Florida he called crucial for victory in the presidential election just three weeks away. Broward County, the second most populous in the state, is “where this election will be determined,” Biden said Tuesday afternoon at a senior citizens’ center in Pembrook Pines. In 2016, Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump by a 2-to-1 margin in the county. But the Republican candidate edged her out in the state total to capture all of Florida’s 29 electoral votes, helping him to become president. On Monday, Trump held a large rally at an airport in Florida’s Seminole County, which he won four years ago by less than 4,000 votes. It was his first political event since his hospitalization for COVID-19. The president took his re-election campaign on Tuesday evening to what political analysts consider the other key battleground state: Pennsylvania, where Biden was born. Trump in Johnstown appealed to “suburban women — will you please like me? Please, please. I saved your damn neighborhood. OK?” Trump accused Biden of being a “servant of the radical globalists, wealthy donors and big money special interests” who shipped away jobs, shut factories, threw open borders and ravaged America’s cities. As he did the previous evening in Florida, the president accused his challenger of handing control of the Democratic Party to the far left, including socialists and Marxists. “If he was a nice guy, I wouldn’t hit him like this,” said Trump. “But he’s not a nice guy. He’s a bad guy. He’s always been a dummy.”Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Miramar Regional Park in Miramar, Fla., Tuesday Oct. 13, 2020, as supporters watch from their cars.An average of recent major polls shows Biden leading Trump in both Florida and Pennsylvania. Trump, at both his Florida and Pennsylvania rallies, spoke to large outdoor crowds that were packed together. Most attendees did not wear masks. Trump did not wear a mask. He repeated his claim, not backed up by science, that after his recovery for the coronavirus, he and all others who have battled the COVID-19, are now immune from reinfection. Biden, in his third visit to Florida in a month, kept a surgical-style mask on throughout his 30-minute live-streamed stump speech before an invited audience of a handful of retirees and a group of reporters in Pembrook Pines. His campaign handed out N-95 masks to the journalists, not satisfied with the efficacy of the cloth or surgical masks they were wearing. Biden repeated his criticism of President Donald Trump for his response to the coronavirus pandemic. “I prayed for his recovery when he got COVID,” Biden said of the president, who spent 72 hours hospitalized for COVID-19. “I hoped he’d come out of it somewhat chastened.” The president, added the Democratic Party nominee, “hosts super-spreader parties at the White House” where “Republicans hug each other.” Trump, according to Biden, “still thinks he’s on a game show.” In a message tailored to the audience of older Americans in a state where a fifth of the population is age 65 or older, Biden said “the only senior Donald Trump cares about is the senior Donald Trump.” To Trump, “you’re expendable, you’re forgettable, you’re virtually nobody,” Biden told the seniors. Older voters were critical to Trump’s election victory four years ago, but polls show they have increasingly embraced Biden.WATCH: 2020 electionSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 19 MB720p | 41 MB1080p | 75 MBOriginal | 212 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioTrump is 74 and Biden is 77. Biden declined to interact much with the group of reporters traveling with him on Tuesday. He answered only one question from journalists on his departure from Delaware in the morning, which was about when former President Barack Obama could be expected to actively campaign for him. “He’s doing enough for our campaign,” replied Biden. “He’ll be out on the trail and he’s doing well.” Biden’s second event of the day in Broward County was in Miramar, a city where the majority is Black or Hispanic and with an all Jamaican-American city council. There the campaign hosted a drive-in voter rally where honking of horns replaced applause. Biden, on an elevated stage and socially distanced from the crowd, did not wear a mask during his 25 minutes of remarks.
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By Polityk | 10/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Supreme Court Halts Census in Latest Twist of 2020 Count
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday stopped the once-a-decade head count of every U.S. resident from continuing through the end of October. President Donald Trump’s administration had asked the nation’s high court to suspend a district court’s order permitting the 2020 census to continue through the end of the month. The Trump administration argued that the head count needed to end immediately so the U.S. Census Bureau had enough time to crunch the numbers before a congressionally mandated year-end deadline for turning in figures used for deciding how many congressional seats each state gets. A coalition of local governments and civil rights groups had sued the administration, arguing that minorities and others in hard-to-count communities would be missed if the count ended early. They said the census schedule was cut short to accommodate a July order from Trump that would exclude people in the country illegally.Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented. FILE – Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speaks during a panel discussion celebrating Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to be a Supreme Court Justice, Sept. 25, 2019, at the Library of Congress in Washington.”Moreover, meeting the deadline at the expense of the accuracy of the census is not a cost worth paying, especially when the Government has failed to show why it could not bear the lesser cost of expending more resources to meet the deadline or continuing its prior efforts to seek an extension from Congress,” Sotomayor wrote. Last month, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, sided with the plaintiffs and issued an injunction that suspended a Sept. 30 deadline for finishing the 2020 census and a Dec. 31 deadline for submitting numbers used to determine how many congressional seats each state gets — a process known as apportionment. That caused the deadlines to revert back to a previous Census Bureau plan that had field operations ending Oct. 31 and the reporting of apportionment figures at the end of April 2021. When the Census Bureau, and the Commerce Department, which oversees the statistical agency, picked an Oct. 5 end date, Koh struck that down too, accusing officials of “lurching from one hasty, unexplained plan to the next … and undermining the credibility of the Census Bureau and the 2020 Census.” An appellate court panel upheld Koh’s order allowing the census to continue through October but struck down the part that suspended the Dec. 31 deadline for turning in apportionment numbers. The panel of three appellate judges said that just because the year-end deadline is impossible to meet doesn’t mean the court should require the Census Bureau to miss it. With plans for the count hampered by the pandemic, the Census Bureau in April had proposed extending the deadline for finishing the count from the end of July to the end of October and pushing the apportionment deadline from Dec. 31 to next April. The proposal to extend the apportionment deadline passed the Democratic-controlled House, but the Republican-controlled Senate didn’t take up the request. Then, in late July and early August, bureau officials shortened the count schedule by a month so that it would finish at the end of September. The Republicans’ inaction coincided with a July order from Trump directing the Census Bureau to have the apportionment count exclude people who are in the country illegally. The order was later ruled unlawful by a panel of three district judges in New York, but the Trump administration is appealing that case to the Supreme Court. By sticking to the Dec. 31 deadline, control of the apportionment count would remain in the hands of the Trump administration no matter who wins the presidential election next month.
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By Polityk | 10/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Youth Voting Trends Vary by Race
Voters under 30 are a keenly watched voting bloc in the United States, with race being a top issue for many young people. “There are huge differences in who young people support, candidate-wise, by race and gender,” Abby Kiesa, director of impact at the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) based at Tufts University, told VOA. “For example, for a huge portion of young people of color, we are much more likely to see use of color, especially young Black and Latino young people, vote for Democratic candidates. However, when we look at white youth, we don’t see as strong support.” FILE – New voters, including many University of New Hampshire students, stand in line to fill out voter registration forms in Durham, New Hampshire, Nov. 6, 2018.In addition to millennials and Generation Z being 37% of the electorate, according to Marvi Ali and her sister Zara exiting their high school in Wilmington, Delaware. (E. Sarai/VOA)According to data from CIRCLE, young racial and ethnic minorities are more likely than their white counterparts to have advocated for a policy or participated in a demonstration. “Youth of color are much more likely to have advocated for a policy than white youth — 41% versus 34%. Overall, 28% of young people in that age group say they have participated in a march or demonstration, but 37% of youth of color have done so, compared to just 22% of white youth,” Kiesa told VOA via email. Whether these levels of civic engagement will translate to voter turnout will be seen in November. Kathleen Struck contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 10/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Voter Registration in Virginia Inadvertently Halted by Severed Optic Cable
The government elections agency in the U.S. state of Virginia said Tuesday its voter registration system was shut down by a fiber optic cable that had been accidentally severed on the last day of registration before the Nov. 3 general election. The shutdown affected connectivity for the citizens’ registration portal, the election registrar’s office and multiple other state agencies, the Virginia Department of Elections said in a statement. The agency said technicians were working to repair the cable that the Virginia Information Technologies Agency said was cut during a utilities project in Chesterfield County. The state did not say when connectivity would be restored. Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has called for the registration deadline to be extended due to the service outage. In 2016, an undetermined number of Virginia residents were unable to meet the voter registration deadline because of unprecedented demand. A federal judge granted a brief extension of the deadline after a lawsuit by the New Virginia Majority Education Fund. On Tuesday, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, which filed the 2016 lawsuit on behalf of the fund, swiftly denounced the disruption, saying Virginia election officials “have again failed the public.”
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By Polityk | 10/13/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Senators Question Supreme Court Nominee Barrett
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are questioning U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on a range of issues Tuesday during the second day of her confirmation hearings. Expected topics include health care, her approach to legal precedent and the court’s potential role in sorting out any legal challenges that may arise from the November election. Senators will have 30 minutes each to ask their questions Tuesday, with a similar session to follow Wednesday.Senate Judiciary Committee holds confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 12, 2020.Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham has set an initial vote for Thursday on Barrett’s nomination. That would allow final approval late next week and a vote by the full Republican-majority Senate before the end of the month. What Barrett said Monday
The confirmation hearings opened Monday with Barrett telling senators that courts “should not try” to make policy and should leave that to American presidents and Congress. Barrett laid out a strict interpretation of the high court’s role, saying it is “not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the lead Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, immediately signaled that the minority Democrats plan to sharply question Barrett about one major policy dispute — her view that a 2012 Supreme Court decision upholding the legality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a national health care law affecting millions of Americans, was wrongly decided.Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020.The court is considering a new challenge to the ACA on Nov. 10, by which time Barrett could be a justice on the nine-member court, deciding whether to overturn the statute or allowing it to stand. Possible bias against Affordable Health Care Act
Feinstein noted that before Trump named Barrett to a federal appellate court judgeship in 2017, she wrote a law review article contending that Chief Justice John Roberts cast the deciding vote upholding the health care law with what she claimed was contorted reasoning so that the law would remain in effect. Barrett claimed that Roberts pushed the interpretation of the law “beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.” “I hope you will clarify that in this hearing,” Feinstein said in her opening statement. The 48-year-old nominee, however, has declined in conversations with lawmakers in recent days to tip her hand on how she might vote on any case that might come before her if she is confirmed. The ACA, popularly known as Obamacare, won congressional approval in 2010 over the unanimous opposition of Republicans, who have sought since then to invalidate it. Supreme Court conservative majority
In nominating Barrett, Republican President Donald Trump hopes to cement a 6-3 conservative majority on the court before Election Day. His Democratic challenger in the presidential campaign, former Vice President Joe Biden, insists that either he or Trump should make the Supreme Court appointment after the inauguration in January. “Voting is underway in 40 states,” Feinstein said, adding, “Let the American people be heard” by delaying consideration of a replacement for liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month. More than 10 million voters have cast early ballots in the presidential election. A Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that 44% of registered voters say the Senate should hold hearings and vote on Barrett’s nomination, while 52% say the nomination should be left to the winner of the presidential election and a Senate vote next year. In his opening remarks, Graham said the hearings would be “a long, contentious week,” but added, “I think I know how the vote will come out.” He predicted that all 12 Republicans on the panel would vote for Barrett’s confirmation, with the 10 Democrats uniformly opposed. Trump complained Monday on Twitter about the Democrats’ objections to the nomination. “The Republicans are giving the Democrats a great deal of time, which is not mandated, to make their self-serving statements relative to our great new future Supreme Court Justice,” Trump tweeted. Barrett is a devout Catholic, but Biden said Monday her “faith should not be considered. No one’s faith should be questioned.”WATCH: Katherine Gypson’s report on Barrett conformation hearing Monday Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 13 MB480p | 18 MB540p | 22 MB720p | 42 MB1080p | 92 MBOriginal | 281 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioEnough Republican votes for approval
Republican leaders say they have enough votes in the full Senate to confirm Barrett’s nomination days before the election, a stance at odds with their position in 2016 when they refused to consider former Democratic President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland that came eight months before the presidential election that Trump won. “The bottom line is the Senate is doing its job” in considering Barrett’s nomination, Graham said. “I feel we’re doing this constitutionally.” Republicans say their push to confirm Barrett is in line with 17 of 19 past election-year Supreme Court nominations throughout U.S. history, because the White House and Senate were controlled by the same political party, as is the case now. In her opening statement, Barrett talked about her husband and seven children, two of whom they adopted from Haiti, and then delved into her view of how a judge should rule in cases. She has said a judge should be someone who interprets the words of the U.S. Constitution and laws as written, not as how they personally might like the outcome of a legal dispute to be. Instead, she said in her statement Monday, “The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people. The public should not expect courts to do so, and courts should not try.”
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By Polityk | 10/13/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Remains Popular in Israel as US Election Looms
Israelis and Palestinians are closely following the U.S. elections. For many in Israel, incumbent Donald Trump is the most pro-Israeli U.S. president in history. Some in the Jewish state fear that a Joe Biden victory could mean a change in U.S. foreign policy – one that Palestinians would welcome. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem.Videographer: Ricki Rosen
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By Polityk | 10/13/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Senators Set to Question Supreme Court Nominee Barrett
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are set to question U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on a range of issues Tuesday during the second day of her confirmation hearings. Expected topics include health care, her approach to legal precedent and the court’s potential role in sorting out any legal challenges that may arise from the November election. Senators will have 30 minutes each to ask their questions Tuesday, with a similar session to follow Wednesday.Senate Judiciary Committee holds confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 12, 2020.Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham has set an initial vote for Thursday on Barrett’s nomination. That would allow final approval late next week and a vote by the full Republican-majority Senate before the end of the month. The confirmation hearings opened Monday with Barrett telling senators that courts “should not try” to make policy and should leave that to American presidents and Congress. Barrett laid out a strict interpretation of the high court’s role, saying it is “not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the lead Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, immediately signaled that the minority Democrats plan to sharply question Barrett about one major policy dispute — her view that a 2012 Supreme Court decision upholding the legality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a national health care law affecting millions of Americans, was wrongly decided.Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020.The court is considering a new challenge to the ACA on Nov. 10, by which time Barrett could be a justice on the nine-member court, deciding whether to overturn the statute or allowing it to stand. Feinstein noted that before Trump named Barrett to a federal appellate court judgeship in 2017, she wrote a law review article contending that Chief Justice John Roberts cast the deciding vote upholding the health care law with what she claimed was contorted reasoning so that the law would remain in effect. Barrett claimed that Roberts pushed the interpretation of the law “beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.” “I hope you will clarify that in this hearing,” Feinstein said in her opening statement. The 48-year-old nominee, however, has declined in conversations with lawmakers in recent days to tip her hand on how she might vote on any case that might come before her if she is confirmed. The ACA, popularly known as Obamacare, won congressional approval in 2010 over the unanimous opposition of Republicans, who have sought since then to invalidate it. In nominating Barrett, Republican President Donald Trump hopes to cement a 6-3 conservative majority on the court before Election Day. His Democratic challenger in the presidential campaign, former Vice President Joe Biden, insists that either he or Trump should make the Supreme Court appointment after the inauguration in January. “Voting is underway in 40 states,” Feinstein said, adding, “Let the American people be heard” by delaying consideration of a replacement for liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month. More than 10 million voters have cast early ballots in the presidential election. A Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that 44% of registered voters say the Senate should hold hearings and vote on Barrett’s nomination, while 52% say the nomination should be left to the winner of the presidential election and a Senate vote next year. In his opening remarks, Graham said the hearings would be “a long, contentious week,” but added, “I think I know how the vote will come out.” He predicted that all 12 Republicans on the panel would vote for Barrett’s confirmation, with the 10 Democrats uniformly opposed. Trump complained Monday on Twitter about the Democrats’ objections to the nomination. “The Republicans are giving the Democrats a great deal of time, which is not mandated, to make their self-serving statements relative to our great new future Supreme Court Justice,” Trump tweeted. Barrett is a devout Catholic, but Biden said Monday her “faith should not be considered. No one’s faith should be questioned.”WATCH: Barrett confirmation hearingSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 13 MB480p | 18 MB540p | 22 MB720p | 42 MB1080p | 92 MBOriginal | 281 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioRepublican leaders say they have enough votes in the full Senate to confirm Barrett’s nomination days before the election, a stance at odds with their position in 2016 when they refused to consider former Democratic President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland that came eight months before the presidential election that Trump won. “The bottom line is the Senate is doing its job” in considering Barrett’s nomination, Graham said. “I feel we’re doing this constitutionally.” Republicans say their push to confirm Barrett is in line with 17 of 19 past election-year Supreme Court nominations throughout U.S. history, because the White House and Senate were controlled by the same political party, as is the case now. In her opening statement, Barrett talked about her husband and seven children, two of whom they adopted from Haiti, and then delved into her view of how a judge should rule in cases. She has said a judge should be someone who interprets the words of the U.S. Constitution and laws as written, not as how they personally might like the outcome of a legal dispute to be. Instead, she said in her statement Monday, “The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people. The public should not expect courts to do so, and courts should not try.”
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By Polityk | 10/13/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Senate Kicks Off Sprint to Confirm Barrett Before Election Day
U.S. Senate Republicans kicked off a sprint Monday to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. Just three weeks before Election Day, Senate Judiciary Committee hearings began amid continuing concerns about the impact coronavirus infections will have on Barrett’s final nomination vote. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.Produced by: Katherine Gypson, Taameen Mohammed, Tressie Rhodes Camera: Adam Greenbaum
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By Polityk | 10/13/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Election Day Sprint to Confirm Barrett Kicks Off on Capitol Hill
U.S. Senate Republicans kicked off a sprint Monday to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. Just three weeks before Election Day, Senate Judiciary Committee hearings began amid continuing concerns about the impact coronavirus infections will have on Barrett’s final nomination vote. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.Produced by: Katherine Gypson, Taameen Mohammed, Tressie Rhodes Camera: Adam Greenbaum
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By Polityk | 10/13/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump, Biden Fire Verbal Volleys at Each Other in Battleground States
With three weeks until Election Day, a handful of swing states is expected to determine if former Vice President Joe Biden can deny President Donald Trump a second term. That has the rival campaigns focusing on Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania at the start of a critical week. “The corrupt political class is desperate to regain their power by any means necessary,” Trump said Monday night in Sanford, Florida. “We’re the ones standing in their way.” Trump accused Biden of being owned by “radical globalists” and having handed control of the Democratic Party to “the socialists, the Marxists and the left-wing extremists.” It was the president’s first campaign rally since his hospitalization for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. “Everyone is going to have the same damn thing,” Trump said of his coronavirus treatment that included an experimental, hard-to-produce and expensive cocktail of antibodies, as well as an intravenous anti-viral medication currently authorized only for emergency use.Supporters watch as President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Orlando Sanford International Airport, Oct. 12, 2020, in Sanford, Fla.“I feel so powerful. I’ll walk into that audience,” said Trump, the Republican Party incumbent who declared he was now immune from the virus. “I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women.” Few in the airport rally crowd of thousands, which was packed together outdoors for Trump’s hour-long speech, wore a mask. While Air Force One was in flight to Florida, the White House released a memo from the president’s physician, Sean Conley, stating Trump tested negative for the coronavirus for two consecutive days, but he did not specify which days. The medical team’s assessment is “that the president is not infectious to others,” said Conley, who accompanied Trump to Florida on Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump throws a face mask from the stage during a campaign rally, his first since being treated for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Orlando Sanford International Airport in Sanford, Florida, Oct. 12, 2020.Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in Ohio on Monday. Pence’s speech, at a construction company in Columbus, was interrupted several times in the opening minutes by protesters. One man shouted questions to the vice president, including “How do you call yourself a Christian?” before being rebuked loudly by the crowd and escorted out. The demonstration was organized by a progressive group founded by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, according to a political marketing company. Democratic presidential candidate Biden also visited Ohio on Monday.U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden delivers remarks at a Voter Mobilization Event campaign stop at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 12, 2020.“The blinders have been taken off the American people,” Biden told union autoworkers in Toledo at a drive-in rally where the honking of about 30 car horns replaced applause. “They’ve seen what the combination of the pandemic, the economic crisis, the racial inequality we’re facing and what’s going on internationally. They’re ready to step up. They know we have to change.” Later in the day, Biden spoke in Cincinnati, where he talked about the nearly 215,000 people in the country who have died of COVID-19 and predictions that another 200,000 might be dead by the end of January, “all because the president is only worried about one thing — the stock market — because he refused to follow science.” On Tuesday, Biden heads to Florida, while Trump is to hold a rally in Pennsylvania. According to the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls, the challenger enjoys a comfortable 7-percentage-point lead in Pennsylvania, considered one of the most critical states by both campaigns. In Florida, Biden has a smaller 3.7-percentage-point lead over the president. “We’re winning by a lot more now than we were four years ago,” Trump said Monday evening, disputing the polls in Florida. The two candidates are essentially tied in Ohio, based on the average of recent surveys, a state Trump won by 8 percentage points against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.Biden supporters gather outside of a campaign event held by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 12, 2020.In that election four years ago, Trump narrowly beat Clinton in Florida and Pennsylvania. Florida and Ohio are crucial for Trump’s reelection, and Pennsylvania is important for a Biden win, said Spencer Kimball, the director of Emerson College Polling. “No Republican wins the presidency without Ohio and the way Michigan is looking, Florida could give Biden a victory by itself,” Kimball, also an assistant professor at the college, told VOA. “If Pennsylvania stays with Trump, that would be tough for Biden as his native state and likely suggests he will do poorly in the Midwest.” Regardless of which candidate captures the most ballots nationwide, the key to victory for the presidency is earning a minimum of 270 electoral votes, determined by the combined number of the state’s members of the U.S. House and Senate. Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania have a combined total of 67 electoral votes. California has the most electoral votes at 55 — a state in which Biden is assured victory, according to pollsters. Texas has 38 electoral votes and most political observers expect Trump to repeat his 2016 victory there, although Biden is pulling within 5 points in some recent polls.
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By Polityk | 10/13/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Supreme Court Nominee Barrett: Courts ‘Should Not Try’ to Make Policy
Confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett opened Monday in Washington, with Barrett telling senators that courts “should not try” to make policy and should leave that to American presidents and Congress. Barrett laid out a strict interpretation of the high court’s role, saying it is “not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life.” As the hearings started, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the lead Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, immediately signaled that the minority Democrats plan to sharply question Barrett about one major policy dispute — her view that a 2012 Supreme Court decision upholding the legality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a national health care law affecting millions of Americans, was wrongly decided. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett arrives for her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 12, 2020.The court is considering a new challenge to the ACA on Nov. 10, by which time Barrett could be a justice on the nine-member court, deciding whether to overturn the statute or allow it to stand. Wearing a black face mask, Barrett listened as senators made their opening statements regarding her nomination, and when they finished, she offered hers. The stakes for her nomination are high. The Republican-controlled Senate is looking to confirm her appointment just days ahead of the Nov. 3 national presidential election. In nominating Barrett, Republican President Donald Trump hopes to cement a 6-3 conservative majority on the court before Election Day. His Democratic challenger in the presidential campaign, former Vice President Joe Biden, insists that either he or Trump should make the Supreme Court appointment after the inauguration in January. “Voting is under way in 40 states,” Feinstein said, adding, “Let the American people be heard” by delaying consideration of a replacement for liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks during a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 12, 2020.More than 7 million voters have cast early ballots in the presidential election. A Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that 44% of registered voters say the Senate should hold hearings and vote on Barrett’s nomination, while 52% say the nomination should be left to the winner of the presidential election and a Senate vote next year. In his opening remarks, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the hearings would be “a long, contentious week,” but added, “I think I know how the vote will come out.”He predicted that all 12 Republicans on the panel would vote for Barrett’s confirmation, with the 10 Democrats uniformly opposed. Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks to the media during a break in the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill, Oct. 12, 2020.Trump complained Monday on Twitter about the Democrats’ objections to the nomination. “The Republicans are giving the Democrats a great deal of time, which is not mandated, to make their self-serving statements relative to our great new future Supreme Court Justice,” Trump tweeted.Barrett is a devout Catholic, but Biden said Monday her “faith should not be considered. No one’s faith should be questioned.” Republican leaders say they have enough votes in the full Senate to confirm Barrett’s nomination days before the election, a stance at odds with their position in 2016 when they refused to consider former Democratic President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland that came eight months before the presidential election that Trump won. “The bottom line is the Senate is doing its job” in considering Barrett’s nomination, Graham said. “I feel we’re doing this constitutionally.” Republicans say their push to confirm Barrett is in line with 17 of 19 past election-year Supreme Court nominations throughout U.S. history, because the White House and Senate were controlled by the same political party, as is the case now. Feinstein noted that before Trump named Barrett to a federal appellate court judgeship in 2017, she wrote a law review article contending that Chief Justice John Roberts cast the deciding vote upholding the health care law with what she claimed was contorted reasoning so that the law would remain in effect. Barrett claimed that Roberts pushed the interpretation of the law “beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.” “I hope you will clarify that in this hearing,” Feinstein said in her opening statement. The 48-year-old nominee, however, has declined in conversations with lawmakers in recent days to tip her hand on how she might vote on any case that might come before her if she is confirmed. The ACA, popularly known as Obamacare, won congressional approval in 2010 over the unanimous opposition of Republicans, who have sought since then to invalidate it. After opening day remarks by the 22 Judiciary Committee members, they plan to question Barrett on Tuesday and Wednesday. Testimony for and against her nomination is set for Thursday. Democrats, including vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris, will assuredly question her about the health care law, as well as whether Barrett, an abortion rights foe in her writings, will seek to overturn the court’s landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion rights in the United States. Harris, Biden’s running mate, said in her opening statement that Republicans “are trying to get a justice onto the court in time to ensure they can strip away the protections in the Affordable Care Act. And if they succeed, it will result in millions of people losing access to health care at the worst possible time in the middle of a pandemic.” Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks virtually during a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Oct. 12, 2020; Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., listens.In her opening statement, Barrett talked about her husband and seven children, two of whom they adopted from Haiti, and then delved into her view of how a judge should rule in cases. She has said a judge should be someone who interprets the words of the U.S. Constitution and laws as written, not as how they personally might like the outcome of a legal dispute to be. The children of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett arrive on Capitol Hill before she begins her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 12, 2020.Instead, she said in her statement Monday, “The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people. The public should not expect courts to do so, and courts should not try.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing to see Barrett confirmed before the election while his party still holds the Senate and the White House, something that could change with the election, if Biden wins and Democrats take control of the Senate. “President Trump has been trying to throw out the Affordable Care Act for four years. Republicans have been trying to end it for a decade,” Biden said in a statement. “She has a written track record of disagreeing with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding the Affordable Care Act.” Barrett’s confirmation would likely result in a distinct conservative ideological edge on the court that could shape American law for decades on such issues as health care, abortion and gay rights, immigration and gun restrictions. Court analysts say Barrett would likely be a polar opposite vote on the court to Ginsburg, a liberal icon. Referring to Ginsburg in her statement, Barrett said, “No one will ever take her place.” But Barrett held out the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a strict constitutionalist, as her mentor, a jurist who adhered to the words in the U.S. Constitution when it was adopted. Barrett said Scalia, for whom she was once a law clerk, was “devoted to his family, resolute in his beliefs and fearless of criticism.”
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By Polityk | 10/13/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
How a Winner is Declared in US Presidential Election
Many people assume the winner of the U.S. presidential contest is determined once the media calls the race and the losing candidate delivers a concession speech. But the truth is that formally declaring a presidential winner is a months-long process that won’t be completed until January. That process essentially involves Americans voting for electors, the electors voting for the president, and then Congress declaring the winner. FILE – Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, signs an official tally to count Electoral College votes, certifying Donald Trump’s presidential victory, Jan. 6, 2017.“There’s Election Day, where those electors are elected; there’s the date in December where the electors meet and then vote for president; and then there’s the date in January where the Congress certifies that election,” says Amy Dacey, executive director of the Sine Institute of Policy and Politics at American University. In addition to the Electoral College, certifying the winner of the presidential election involves the Senate, House of Representatives and the National Archives. This four-month process is the result of a compromise among the Founding Fathers, who weren’t convinced voters could be trusted to choose a worthy leader. “This was first created because there wasn’t that confidence in the citizenry to make that decision,” Dacey says. “They didn’t believe the American people should directly choose the president and vice president, but they didn’t want to give Congress the sole power of selection, either.” COVID-19 could complicate counting Election experts predict counting the ballots will take longer this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased number of voters that are expected to cast mail-in ballots. FILE – A poll worker wears personal protective equipment as she monitors a ballot drop box for mail-in ballots outside of a polling station during early voting, in Miami Beach, Florida. Aug. 7, 2020.“These are legal procedures that have to be followed,” says Lia Merivaki, assistant professor of American Politics at Mississippi State University. “Pushing for the election to be called on election night will create more confusion and will create distrust and … possibly, many are going to start suing the states because they expect the results to be announced on election night. So it will make the job of election officials and the states harder as they try to keep the process transparent and fair.” Once the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, tally the in-person, mail-in and provisional ballots, each state governor draws up a list of electors. Copies of this list, known as the Certificate of Ascertainment, are submitted to the U.S. Archivist, the head of the FILE – The U.S National Archives building in Washington, D.C.The electors in each of the states complete Certificates of Vote and send them to the U.S. Senate, the National Archives and state officials. Once that is done, the Electoral College has no further duties until the next presidential election. The final step in the process occurs on Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress meets to count the electoral votes and officially certify the winner. The process is ordinarily ceremonial, but there can be objections. There were FILE – President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Duluth, Minnesota, Sept. 30, 2020.“This is uncharted territory and I hope we don’t get to that because you really are overhauling years of democratic norms and procedures,” Merivaki says. “I think that it would be very extreme if the Senate is going to take an action that really cancels the will of the people. I think that will be very problematic for the status of democracy in the United States … I mean, that’s not a democracy anymore.” Dacey thinks complications could arise if the winner of the popular vote doesn’t also win the Electoral College. President Trump won the Electoral College in 2016 but lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton.FILE – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, stands with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton before the first presidential debate at Hofstra University, Sept. 26, 2016, in Hempstead, N.Y.The same occurred in 2000, when Republican George W. Bush won the Electoral College but narrowly lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore. FILE – Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush (R) and Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Al Gore speak during their presidential debate at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Oct. 3, 2000.“I think the biggest question is, ‘Do voters feel like when they cast their ballot on Election Day, it is a deciding factor in who represents them?’ In every other election, it is, because it is that popular vote that’s the determiner,” Dacey says. “I do think that it can diminish people’s faith in the process, and it could diminish the engagement, and I want more people voting. And if they think their popular vote, their vote on Election Day, doesn’t actually make that decision, I think it’s just going to cause a challenge for participation and people’s faith in the system.”
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By Polityk | 10/12/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Ballot Box Restriction Stays in Place in Texas
Texas voters are back to facing limits on places to drop off their absentee ballots while a federal appeals court considers whether Republican Gov. Greg Abbot violated voting rights by his decision to provide Texas voters with only one ballot drop-off location per county for the Nov. 3 presidential election.Late Saturday the appeals court lifted an injunction granted Friday by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman.Abbott said the limit on ballot boxes was meant to discourage voter fraud. His order was issued after multiple ballot box locations had been set up and the dropping off of ballots had begun.Pitman wrote in his 46-page decision, “By limiting ballot return centers to one per county, older and disabled voters living in Texas’s largest and most populous counties must travel further distances to more crowded ballot return centers where they would be at an increased risk of being infected by the coronavirus in order to exercise their right to vote and have it counted.”Voting rights activists have argued that Abbott’s decision was a move to suppress the vote.The U.S. has a long history of absentee ballot voting, but this year Republican President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have vehemently opposed it.
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By Polityk | 10/11/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Judge Throws Out Trump Campaign’s Pennsylvania Lawsuit
A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Saturday threw out a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump’s campaign, dismissing its challenges to the battleground state’s poll-watching law and its efforts to limit how mail-in ballots can be collected and which of them can be counted.The ruling by U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan — who was appointed by Trump — in Pittsburgh also poured cold water on Trump’s election fraud claims.Trump’s campaign said it would appeal at least one element of the decision, with barely three weeks to go until Election Day in a state hotly contested by Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.The lawsuit was opposed by the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, the state Democratic Party, the League of Women Voters, the NAACP’s Pennsylvania office and other allied groups.”The ruling is a complete rejection of the continued misinformation about voter fraud and corruption, and those who seek to sow chaos and discord ahead of the upcoming election,” Wolf’s office said in a statement.The state’s attorney general, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat whose office fought the Trump campaign’s claims, called the lawsuit a political stunt designed to sow doubt in the state’s election.No proof”We told the Trump campaign and the president, ‘Put up or shut up,’ to his claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro told The Associated Press. “It’s important to note they didn’t even need to prove actual voter fraud, just that it was likely or impending, and they couldn’t even do that.”Trump’s campaign said in a statement that it looked forward to a quick decision from the appeals court “that will further protect Pennsylvania voters from the Democrats’ radical voting system.”The lawsuit is one of many partisan battles being fought in the state Legislature and the courts, primarily over mail-in voting in Pennsylvania, amid concerns that a presidential election result will hang in limbo for days on a drawn-out vote count.FILE – An employee of the Philadelphia Commissioners Office examines ballots at a satellite election office at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, Oct. 1, 2020.In this case, Trump’s campaign wanted the court to bar counties from using drop boxes or mobile sites to collect mail-in ballots that are not “staffed, secured and employed consistently within and across all 67 of Pennsylvania’s counties.” Trump’s campaign said it would appeal the matter of drop boxes.More than 20 counties — including Philadelphia and most other heavily populated Democratic-leaning counties — have told the state elections office that they plan to use drop boxes and satellite election offices to help collect the massive number of mail-in ballots they expect to receive.Trump’s campaign also wanted the court to free county election officials to disqualify mail-in ballots where the voter’s signature may not match their signature on file and to remove a county residency requirement in state law for certified poll watchers.In guidance last month, Wolf’s top elections official told counties that state law does not require or permit them to reject a mail-in ballot solely over a perceived signature inconsistency. Trump’s campaign had asked Ranjan to declare that guidance unconstitutional and to block counties from following it.Just ‘uncertain assumptions’In throwing out the case, Ranjan wrote that the Trump campaign could not prove its central claim: that Trump’s fortunes in the Nov. 3 election in Pennsylvania are threatened by election fraud and that adopting changes sought by the campaign will fix that.Ranjan wrote Trump’s campaign could not prove that the president has been hurt by election fraud or even that he is likely to be hurt by fraud.”While plaintiffs may not need to prove actual voter fraud, they must at least prove that such fraud is ‘certainly impending,’ ” Ranjan wrote. “They haven’t met that burden. At most, they have pieced together a sequence of uncertain assumptions.”Ranjan also cited decisions in recent days by the U.S. Supreme Court and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in hot-button election cases, saying he should not second-guess reasonable decisions by state lawmakers and election officials.The decision came as Trump claims he can lose the state only if Democrats cheat and, as he did in 2016’s campaign, suggests that the Democratic bastion of Philadelphia needs to be watched closely for election fraud.On Friday, Trump’s campaign lost a bid in a Philadelphia court to force the city to allow campaign representatives to monitor its satellite election offices.Democrats accuse Trump of trying to scuttle some of the 3 million or more mail-in votes that are expected in the election in Pennsylvania, with Democrats applying for mail-in ballots by an almost 3-to-1 rate over Republicans.
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By Polityk | 10/11/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Former Trump Fundraiser Charged with Illicit Lobbying on 1MDB, China
A former leading fundraiser for President Donald Trump has been indicted on a charge that he illegally lobbied the U.S. government to drop its probe into the Malaysia 1MDB corruption scandal and to deport an exiled Chinese billionaire.Elliott Broidy was charged in Washington federal court with one count of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent after allegedly agreeing to take millions of dollars to lobby the Trump administration.The indictment, made public Thursday, said Broidy was recruited in 2017 by an unnamed foreign national, understood to be Malaysian Low Taek Jho, to pressure U.S. officials to end their investigation of a scandal engulfing Malaysia’s then-prime minister, Najib Razak.The scandal involved the theft of over $4.5 billion from state investment fund 1MDB, and Low was allegedly central to moving and hiding some of the stolen funds.At the time Broidy was national deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee after having been a major fundraiser for Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign.After being recruited by Low, Broidy personally asked Trump to invite Najib to play golf during the Malaysian leader’s September 2017 visit to the United States, the indictment said.The goal was to give Najib a chance “to attempt to resolve the 1MDB matter” with the US leader, the document said.The golf game never happened, and Low was indicted in 2018 for his role in siphoning off billions from 1MDB.Low, who has also been charged in Malaysia over the scandal, has consistently denied any wrongdoing. His current whereabouts are unknown.In addition, in May 2017 Low introduced Broidy to a Chinese state minister, and they discussed Beijing’s desire that Washington deport an exiled Chinese tycoon, the indictment said.It did not name either person, but the tycoon is known to be Guo Wengui, a prominent dissident businessman.According to The Wall Street Journal, the Chinese official was Sun Lijun, at the time Beijing’s powerful vice minister of public security.The indictment describes Broidy’s intense lobbying of the White House, the Justice Department and law enforcement on behalf of the Chinese, including contacts with but not direct discussions with Trump.The object of the lobbying conspiracy, the indictment said, was “to make millions of dollars by leveraging Broidy’s access to and perceived influence with the president and his administration.”The indictment came just weeks after a key partner of Low and Broidy, Hawaii businesswoman Nickie Mali Lum Davis, pleaded guilty to a charge of illegal lobbying both on the 1MDB case and the Guo case.Guo remains in the United States, where he has continued to campaign against Beijing authorities, working closely with another longtime Trump associate, Steve Bannon.Bannon was arrested in August while aboard Guo’s yacht off the coast of Connecticut and charged with defrauding donors to a Mexican border wall project.
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By Polityk | 10/10/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump to Host White House Event Despite COVID-19 Questions
President Donald Trump is scheduled to host hundreds of people Saturday on the South Lawn of the White House and deliver remarks, a senior administration official confirmed to VOA. This would be the president’s first in-person event since he announced a week ago that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, triggering a multiday hospital visit and aggressive medical treatments for COVID-19.As first reported by ABC News, the event will feature “remarks to peaceful protesters for law and order” by the president. Trump is expected to deliver his speech from one of the balconies of the White House.The latest update from the president’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley, on Thursday evening said that Trump’s “physical exam has remained stable and devoid of any indications to suggest progression of illness.” Conley’s memo also noted that “Saturday will be day 10 since Thursday’s diagnosis and based on the trajectory of advanced diagnostics the team has been conducting, I fully anticipate the president safe return to public engagements at that time.”Trump ended his four-day stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday and since then his doctors have provided the public with upbeat updates on his condition. Still public health experts question the judgment of holding a public event so soon after his diagnosis.“I would certainly be very cautious and suggest that people err on the side of caution rather than on the side of boldness,” said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “I would certainly not recommend that anyone who has recently recovered, even 11 days after having a positive test, be out in any sort of a crowd,” he added.President Donald Trump, center, stands with Judge Amy Coney Barrett as they arrive for a news conference to announce Barrett as his nominee to the Supreme Court, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, Sept. 26, 2020.According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, “available data indicate that persons with mild to moderate COVID-19 remain infectious no longer than 10 days after symptom onset.” But questions remain on the timeline of the president’s illness. While his physicians say that Trump was diagnosed on Thursday, White House officials have refused to say when the president had last tested negative. Questions also remain about the severity of Trump’s illness, particularly as the drugs he was given are generally administered only to those with moderate to severe symptoms.In another development Friday, the U.S. Commission on Presidential Debates confirmed that the Oct. 15 presidential debate is officially canceled after Trump said he would not participate in a virtual format.The commission announced earlier this week that the debate would take place virtually because Trump had contracted the coronavirus. Trump rejected that plan, and the White House later argued that since Trump’s doctor cleared him to hold public events, the debate should be held in person. However, the commission said it would not reverse its decision.A debate scheduled for Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tennessee, is still scheduled between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.Trump’s Saturday event will come two weeks after a Rose Garden event marking Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court. Officials are looking into the Sept. 26 ceremony as a potential source of a coronavirus outbreak. More than 30 staffers and Trump campaign aides have been infected since then, including first lady Melania Trump, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and adviser Stephen Miller.Two Republican senators who attended the event have also tested positive.There are also concerns for Trump’s own health if he were to resume public duties too soon. COVID-19 is often unpredictable, with some patients’ condition deteriorating during the second week of illness.“We would always urge patients who are recovering from an illness that’s as severe as COVID to take it easy and recover gradually for the benefits of their own health and the people around them,” Schaffner said. “Remember, it can have some long-term effects, even in people who have mild symptoms.”While convalescing, Trump has sought to project the image of an active president on a swift road to recovery, spending some time in the Oval Office every day since Wednesday and releasing several video announcements that highlight his physical well-being.TO MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD! pic.twitter.com/38DbQtUxEu— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2020In a telephone interview Thursday night on Fox News, Trump said that he wants to hold a rally in Florida on Saturday and another in Pennsylvania on Sunday. He is scheduled to have an in-person interview with the same network Friday night, where the outlet’s resident medical expert would examine him.The New York Times reports that the crowd for the Saturday White House South Lawn gathering would include people attending an event elsewhere in Washington, organized by a Trump supporter, Candace Owens. Owens is an activist from the group Blexit, a campaign to urge Black Americans to leave the Democratic Party.After the Republican National Convention in August, during which Trump delivered his acceptance speech on the South Lawn in front of supporters, he was criticized for using the White House grounds for political purposes.According to a source with knowledge of the event’s planning, attendees must wear a mask and submit to a COVID-19 screening, which consists of “a temperature check and a brief questionnaire.”
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By Polityk | 10/10/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Plot Puts Focus on Governors’ Safety Amid Threats, Protests
An alleged plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor has put a focus on the security of governors who have faced protests and threats over their handling of the coronavirus pandemic. While the alleged plot against Gretchen Whitmer is the most specific and highest profile to come to light, it’s far from the first threat against state officials, particularly Democrats who imposed business closures and restrictions on social gatherings. In New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said this week that news of the arrest of 13 men accused of planning the overthrow of Michigan’s government rattled members of her family. “I started to get calls from both my daughters who were terrified and who were often included in some of the negative messaging,” Grisham said this week. “Early on in this pandemic, one of the threats that we got was ‘I hope your grandchildren, get COVID.'” FILE – New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham puts on her face mask when not speaking during an update on the COVID-19 outbreak in the state during a news conference in Santa Fe, N.M., April 15, 2020.In August, a man pleaded guilty to making threats against the Democratic governor on social media and was sentenced to 14 months in prison. During the pandemic, the state Capitol that houses her office has been closed to the public. But its grounds have been the site of protests, including by some who carried weapons and are militia members. Even with the glass doors locked, State Police have at times deployed additional security measures, such as putting up opaque screens inside the doors to hide their exact location from protesters. Across the country, armed protesters have rallied this year against coronavirus-related shutdowns. In Michigan, some protesters with guns were allowed inside the statehouse in April after passing temperature screenings. Some lawmakers wore bulletproof vests. Protests both against virus restrictions and racial injustice this year have targeted not just the offices but also the homes of government executives. Fourteen unarmed protesters calling for the release of prison inmates, for instance, were arrested outside the gates of the residence of California Gov. Gavin Newsom in July. The offices of governors and those in charge of protecting them have declined to say how security has changed because of specific threats they face or the Michigan case. Pointing finger at TrumpBut some governors are linking the threats to President Donald Trump, who on Twitter late Thursday condemned “extreme violence” while also blasting Whitmer, saying she has done a “terrible job.” Whitmer herself pinned some of the blame on the president and his remarks. However, there is no indication in the criminal complaint that the men arrested were inspired by Trump. At a briefing Friday, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, said elected officials “but especially at the top, must realize that words matter” and that rhetoric can lead to violence. FILE – Vermont Gov. Phil Scott speaks to reporters in his offices at the State Legislature in Montpelier, March 13, 2018.”We are reaching a boiling point in this country,” he said. “So it’s up to all of us to lower the temperature.” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee singled out the president, who has often criticized Whitmer, for responsibility. “It is very unfortunate that she has been troubled not just directly by these threats, but constant barrage of, frankly, incendiary criticism from the president, and I think that’s been very unfortunate,” Inslee said. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who also serves as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, called on Trump to denounce extremist groups. FILE- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks at Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J., Aug. 25, 2020.”This shocking development is the most disturbing of the increasingly violent threats being made against Democratic governors by some of the most extreme and violent fringes of the right,” Murphy said in a statement. “Unless and until President Trump openly denounces such right-wing extremism, groups like the Michigan Militia will continue to act as if they hold a permission slip from him to openly engage in such terrorist plots.” Addressing threatsThe threat this year against public employees has risen enough that the bipartisan National Governors Association sent its members a memo in August laying out ways to try to discourage and deal with threats. Among them: Encouraging civil discourse with protesters, personally complying with mask and social distancing orders and prosecuting threats. Over the nation’s history, violence against governors has been rare. The only time a sitting U.S. state governor was assassinated was in Kentucky in 1900, when Kentucky Gov. William Goebel was shot in the chest near the state capitol building just three days after he was sworn into office. In the same area this spring, current Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, was hanged in effigy from a tree on the state Capitol grounds in Frankfort. In April, a man was charged after being accused of making threats against Beshear and Kentucky State Police troopers online. This week, a fence began going up around the state’s executive mansion.
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By Polityk | 10/10/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Pelosi Introduces 25th Amendment Measure After Questioning Trump’s Fitness to Serve
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin unveiled legislation Friday to create a commission that would be empowered by the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to act in concert with the Vice President Mike Pence to strip the president of his duties.
Pelosi announced the legislation after she called on the Trump administration earlier this week to disclose more information about the health of President Donald Trump, who was recently diagnosed with COVID-19.
“Clearly he is under medication. Any of us who is under medication of that seriousness is in an altered state,” Pelosi told reporters Friday on Capitol Hill. “He has bragged about the medication he has taken and, again, there are articles by medical professionals saying this could … have an impact on judgment.”
Pelosi also said the introduction of the measure was not directed at Trump but rather an effort to codify procedures to help protect the security of the country in the future.
“This is not about President Trump,” she said. “He will face the judgment of the voters, but he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents.”
Raskin, who is also a constitutional lawyer, said Trump’s COVID-19 infection “has focused everybody’s mind on the need for following through on this suggestion in the 25th Amendment that Congress set up its own body. And I think again in the age of COVID-19, where a lot of government actors who have been afflicted by it, we need to act.”
Trump took to Twitter after the legislation was unveiled, saying “Crazy Nancy Pelosi is looking at the 25th Amendment in order to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris. The Dems want that to happen fast because Sleepy Joe is out of it!!!”FILE – President Donald Trump walks out of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to return to the White House after receiving treatments for COVID-19 in Bethesda, Maryland, Oct. 5, 2020.Opponents of the president have for some time considered invoking the amendment. Introducing the measure at this time, however, appears intended to focus public attention on Trump’s health and his administration’s handling of the coronavirus just weeks before the Nov. 3 presidential election.
Congress is not in session, casting doubt on whether lawmakers will seriously consider the legislation and bring it to a vote in the House or in the Senate, where Trump’s Republican party is in the majority. Nor is there any indication that Pence would be willing to participate in a move to replace Trump.
The 25th Amendment, which provides for continuity of government, includes a provision under which the vice president and a majority of cabinet secretaries can declare the president unable to perform his duties. In that case the vice president immediately becomes acting president.
The amendment also allows for the Congress to create a new body in place of the cabinet secretaries which, together with the vice president, could declare the president unable to perform his duties. In either case, the president can challenge the declaration and reclaim his office.
If the vice president and the cabinet secretaries or the new body created by Congress again declare the president unable to perform his duties, the Congress can again transfer his powers to the vice president with a two-thirds vote.
25th Amendment, Article 4
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
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By Polityk | 10/10/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
