Розділ: Політика
Pence Assails Biden on Police Funding Amidst US Racial Unrest
With more racial unrest roiling the United States, Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday night told voters that “you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” attacking the Democratic presidential candidate as a willing partner of those who want to curb police funding.”Joe Biden says America is systemically racist,” Pence said on the third night of the Republican National Convention. “And that law enforcement in America has a quote, ‘implicit bias,’ against minorities. And when asked whether he’d support cutting funding to law enforcement, and he replied, ‘Yes, absolutely.'””The hard truth is…you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” Pence said in an address at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, where U.S. troops repelled a British attack in 1814 in the country’s early years. That battle inspired the writing of the U.S. national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”President Donald Trump and many of his supporters have charged that Biden supports Black Lives Matter and other liberal activists’ call for “defunding” local police departments, an assertion Biden has strenuously denied. But Pence was right in saying Biden and his running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, are open to trimming police spending and using the savings for other community agencies to help curb crime.”I don’t want to defund police,” Biden said earlier this month. “I want to get police more money in order to deal with the things they badly need, from making sure they have access to community policing, that they have also in the departments social workers, psychologists, people who in fact can handle those god-awful problems that a cop has to have four degrees to handle.”NominationPence formally accepted renomination to a second term as Trump’s second in command if they win reelection November 3. With his wife, Karen, and about 130 people listening, Pence vowed that he and Trump “will stand with those who stand on the Thin Blue Line, and we’re not going to defund the police — not now, not ever.”The crowd, many of them older military veterans, were seated in close proximity to each other and were not wearing face masks as health experts have recommended to curb the spread of the coronavirus.In the midst of the convention, racial turmoil has erupted in the 100,000-resident Midwestern city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the police shooting Sunday of a Black man, Jacob Blake, touched off street protests against police while some buildings were set afire. A 17-year-old youth from the neighboring state of Illinois was arrested in the killing of two protesters and the shooting of a third.Trump and Pence, along with numerous convention speakers, have portrayed their administration as a staunch supporter of law enforcement, standing against violent protests that have erupted against racial injustice and police abuse of minorities since the May 25 death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Pence declared: “The violence must stop, whether in Minneapolis, Portland or Kenosha,” and that the Trump administration would guarantee “law and order” for every citizen.In his remarks, he said “President Trump and I know the men and women that put on the uniform of law enforcement are the best of us. They put their lives on the line every day.””The American people know we don’t have to choose between supporting law enforcement and standing with African American neighbors to improve the quality of life in our cities and towns. From the first days of this administration, we have done both. And we will keep doing both for four more years in the White House,” he said.President, first lady make appearanceAfterward, Trump and first lady Melania Trump walked to the stage at Fort McHenry to greet Pence and his wife as they all listened to country crooner Trace Adkins sing the national anthem.Trump is set make his renomination acceptance speech Thursday night at the White House, with a fireworks display on the National Mall marking the moment less than 10 weeks before Election Day.In another convention speech, Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump’s top advisers who is set to leave the White House in days to devote more time to her family with four children, characterized Trump as someone “who picks the toughest fights and will stand up for you.””Everyday heroes have a champion in President Trump,” she said at the vacant Mellon Auditorium in Washington, where numerous Republican speakers have lauded Trump and attacked the Biden-Harris ticket this week, absent a crowd in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.Wednesday’s roster of speakers also included Senators Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Joni Ernst of Iowa, as well as Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence.On Tuesday night, Melania Trump expressed sympathy for the hundreds of thousands of Americans affected by the coronavirus pandemic.”Since March, our lives have been changed drastically,” the first lady said in a late- evening speech in the newly redesigned White House Rose Garden. “My deepest sympathy goes out to everyone who has lost a loved one. My prayers are with those who are ill or suffering.”I know many people are anxious and some feel helpless,” she said. “I want you to know you are not alone.”The Biden campaign criticized the convention content, saying those watching have not heard any plans for controlling the coronavirus pandemic.”Donald Trump’s continual refusal to take this virus seriously has given the United States the worst outbreak in the world, and his convention’s refusal to come to grips with reality or acknowledge the magnitude of the loss is a stark reminder to Americans of his complete failure to lead,” Biden spokesperson Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.By wide margins, polls show Americans disapproving of the way Trump has handled the pandemic, which has killed more than 179,000 people and infected more than 5.8 million in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University. Both figures are the highest for any country.Polls show Biden leading Trump by an average of 7.6 percentage points, according to an aggregation of polls by the Real Clear Politics website. However, Biden’s edge is a bit thinner in several key battleground states that could once again prove decisive in the election.Only two U.S. presidents have lost reelection contests after a single term in office in the past four decades, Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992.
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By Polityk | 08/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Republican Convention Highlights Law and Order, Downplays Coronavirus
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has made “law and order” a central theme of this week’s Republican National Convention, focusing attention on incidents of violence and vandalism that have accompanied widespread racial justice protests. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on what Trump supporters see as a growing threat to public safety and why his opponents say Trump is politicizing the crisis.
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By Polityk | 08/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Pence to Give RNC Speech From Site That Inspired US National Anthem
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will speak to the Republican National Convention Wednesday night from Maryland’s Fort McHenry, site of the 1814 battle that inspired what is now the U.S. national anthem.The National Park Service announced Monday that the site would be closed Tuesday and Wednesday for a “first amendment event.” The choice is in character for Pence, who quoted Abraham Lincoln in a video released Tuesday, and who has previously leaned on themes of American patriotism and the legacy of the nation’s early days.America is the Land of OPPORTUNITY! #RNC2020 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/KIMDm5SKlF
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) In this May 25, 2020, file photo President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump depart after participating in a Memorial Day ceremony at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore.Key’s song gained popularity as a patriotic ditty, especially during and after the American Civil War in the 1860s. It wasn’t until March 3, 1931, that Congress made The Star-Spangled Banner the U.S. national anthem in a resolution signed into law by President Herbert Hoover.The lyrics hide a complicated history with race. While a line in the first stanza of Key’s poem professes admiration for the “land of the free,” a line in the third stanza alludes to “pollution” left by the “foul footsteps” of slaves who fought for the British.Himself a slaveholder from a Maryland plantation family, Key argued cases against the abolitionist movement during his eight-year stint as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He co-founded the American Colonization Society to send free Black people “back” to Africa, a movement that eventually resulted in the founding of Liberia.Played and sung at nearly every major U.S. sporting event, many professional athletes have refused to stand for the anthem, as is customary, in protest of police brutality and racial injustice. The anthem protests have been a common target for Republican critics.Pence himself, one of the Republican National Convention’s Wednesday headliners, is expected to give a robust defense of President Donald Trump with Fort McHenry in the background. His wife, Karen Pence, and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway will also speak Wednesday.Preparations for Pence’s speech hit a snag Tuesday when a forklift damaged a brick walkway at the site. The damage sparked criticism that the National Park Service had pushed through the special use event permit too quickly.This is what they were afraid of: The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks has been warning the NPS cutting corners at Ft McHenry for RNC event could lead to damage…and concerns mounting now that it has. Photos of damaged brick walkway inside the fort. pic.twitter.com/QEZqiMtLnE
— Kate Amara (@kateamaraWBAL) August 25, 2020The Maryland Republican Party, as the permit holder, is liable for damages and the associated costs.It was unclear how many people were set to attend the speech, but the city of Baltimore limits outdoor gatherings to 25 people due to the coronavirus pandemic. Protests, both in car caravans and on foot, are expected.
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By Polityk | 08/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Fired White House Lawyer Alleges Retaliation by Trump, Democratic Lawmakers Say
A former White House lawyer contends he was fired for reporting concerns about President Donald Trump’s efforts to have Ukraine investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden and about alleged legal and ethical breaches by Trump’s national security adviser, Democratic lawmakers said on Wednesday.Army Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Vindman filed an August 18 complaint making the allegations with the Pentagon watchdog, the chairs of three U.S. House of Representatives committees said in a letter to acting Pentagon Inspector General Sean O’Donnell.The lawmakers said Vindman also alleged National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and National Security Council Chief of Staff Alex Gray misused government resources, excluded women from meetings, and made sexist and demeaning remarks to female NSC staffers.They urged O’Donnell to investigate whether Trump fired Vindman as deputy National Security Council legal adviser in retaliation for filing confidential reports with his superiors containing his allegations.White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah said in a statement: “These allegations are ridiculous and false.” Dwrena Allen, a spokesperson for O’Donnell, said his office “has the letter and is reviewing the request.”O’Donnell also should investigate whether Trump and his aides fired Vindman’s twin brother, Alexander Vindman, in retaliation for testifying in House proceedings that led to Trump’s impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress last year, the lawmakers said.Alexander Vindman, then the top NSC expert on Ukraine and an Army lieutenant colonel, served at the White House at the same time as his twin, an Army lawyer. Trump fired both in February and Alexander Vindman retired from the Army.The Democratic-led House found that Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden, a former vice president and Trump’s opponent in the November 3 election, and his son Hunter over unproven conspiracy theories.Trump denied the charges. The Republican-controlled Senate in January acquitted the president without a trial.Yevgeny Vindman’s complaint disclosed for the first time that he raised “reasonable and good faith” concerns in a “protected disclosure” to his superiors about a July 25, 2019, phone call Trump had with Zelenskiy.
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By Polityk | 08/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Harris Will Be Democrats’ Main Counter to Trump on Thursday
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Thursday plans a speech condemning President Donald Trump, hours before he is set to accept renomination for a second term, for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Harris will detail a “profound failure of leadership” from Trump and highlight proposals by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to control the virus and confront the economic fallout, Biden’s campaign told The Associated Press.
With Trump planning an evening address from the White House lawn, Harris’ afternoon remarks from Washington will be the Democrats’ main counter to the president on the final day of the Republicans’ convention.
Biden has made similar arguments about Trump for months and Harris picked up on that criticism in both her introductory speech as Biden’s pick and when she accepted the party’s nomination last week during the Democratic convention.
But the California senator’s words on Thursday are billed as her most focused denunciation of Trump since joining the ticket. Her tack will test an argument that the former prosecutor tried last summer, as a White House candidate, to show that she is ready to “prosecute the case” against Trump and his “rap sheet.”
Harris’ address come as she steps up her activity as Biden’s running mate. The two have been mostly quiet since the Democrats’ virtual convention last week. Harris has been in Washington working virtually with Biden’s campaign staff, and on Wednesday was scheduled for three virtual fundraisers and an online discussion focused on Black women in Michigan. Trump narrowly won the state in 2016, in part because turnout among Black Democrats dropped appreciably from 2012.
In a Washington Post op-ed published Wednesday, she detailed the history of women’s struggle to gain voting rights, especially women of color who were not granted suffrage even with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Vice presidential nominees are sometimes seen as designated attackers in a general election campaign, theoretically allowing the presidential nominee to remain above the fray.
But that framing is oversimplified in an election between Trump, who relishes attacking his critics in withering terms, and Biden, the former vice president who has pegged his White House to a moral and competency argument against the Republican incumbent. Trump himself offered the main counter to Biden last Thursday before Biden’s acceptance speech as the nominee. In a move aimed directly at his Democratic rival, the president traveled to Pennsylvania to greet supporters near Biden’s boyhood home, Scranton.
Democrats see Harris as being able to excite Black women and other minority women, but also as a credible messenger to white independents and moderate Republicans unhappy with Trump, especially white college-educated women.
Harris has a reputation on Capitol Hill as a sharp questioner of witnesses during hearings — a skill she memorably wielded against Biden in a primary debate. She drew some criticism last summer, however, for some of her more practiced debate attacks on the president, sometimes laughing awkwardly after their delivery.
“He reminds me of that guy in The Wizard of Oz,” she said on the September debate stage. “When you pull back the curtain, it’s a really small dude.” Trump and his Republican allies have tried to cast Harris as an ultra-liberal helping the far left control the Democratic Party and the more centrist Biden.
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By Polityk | 08/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Pence to Highlight Night 3 of Republican National Convention
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence highlights Wednesday’s third night of the Republican National Convention with a speech from Baltimore’s Fort McHenry.The schedule of speakers also includes Senators Marsha Blackburn and Joni Ernst, as well as Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence.Kellyanne Conway, one of President Donald Trump’s top advisers from his 2016 presidential campaign and throughout his time in the White House, is also set to speak days before stepping down from her position.On Tuesday night, first lady Melania Trump expressed sympathy for the hundreds of thousands of Americans affected by the coronavirus pandemic.“Since March, our lives have been changed drastically,” the first lady said in a late- evening speech in the newly redesigned White House Rose Garden. “My deepest sympathy goes out to everyone who has lost a loved one. My prayers are with those who are ill or suffering. “I know many people are anxious and some feel helpless,” she said. “I want you to know you are not alone.” First lady Melania Trump speaks to the 2020 Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden of the White House, Aug. 25, 2020, in Washington.The tone of the speech marked a noticeable departure from much of the politically charged rhetoric of the first two nights of the four-day national convention, when Trump supporters sharply attacked Democratic challenger Joe Biden while praising Trump’s handling of the pandemic and the devastating effect it has had on the economy. The first lady extended her gratitude to health care workers who have treated millions of people who have contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. “You put your country first, and my husband and I are grateful,” she said. “It has been inspiring to see what people in our great nation will do for each other,” Melania Trump said in the address, the finale of the second night of the Republican National Convention that has nominated her husband for a second four-year term. The convention is mostly being conducted virtually in Washington for fear of spreading the coronavirus. Usually, thousands of delegates pack into an arena every four years during U.S. presidential nominating conventions. Some speakers Tuesday night, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaking from Jerusalem, applauded Trump’s actions as president, while others attacked the Democratic nominee on issues ranging from the economy and foreign policy to law and order and gun control. FILE – Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 20, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del.Biden campaign criticism
The Biden campaign criticized the convention content, saying those watching have not heard any plans for controlling the coronavirus pandemic.“Donald Trump’s continual refusal to take this virus seriously has given the United States the worst outbreak in the world, and his convention’s refusal to come to grips with reality or acknowledge the magnitude of the loss is a stark reminder to Americans of his complete failure to lead,” Biden’s Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.By wide margins, polls show Americans disapproving of the way Trump has handled the pandemic, which has killed more than 178,000 people in the U.S. and infected more than 5.7 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. Both figures are the highest for any country. Earlier this year, Trump dismissed the danger of the virus, saying it would soon disappear, an assessment he repeated recently in contrast to what government and medical experts say. Racial unrest Melania Trump also discussed racial unrest in the United States that was spawned by the May 25 death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Republicans have condemned Floyd’s death but focused most of their convention attacks on Democrats, criticizing them for not calling for an end to the street violence in the U.S. generated by demonstrations against racial injustice. “Like all of you I have reflected on the racial unrest in our country,” the first lady said. “It is a harsh reality that we are not proud of our history. I encourage people to focus on our future, while still learning from our past.” “With that in mind, I’d like to call on the citizens of this country to take a moment, pause and look at things from all perspectives,” she said. “I urge people to come together in a civil manner so we can work and live up to our standard American ideals.” “I also ask people to stop the violence and looting being done in the name of justice, and never make assumptions based on the color of a person’s skin. Instead of tearing things down, let’s reflect on our mistakes,” she declared. Eric Trump, the son of President Donald Trump, tapes his speech for the second day of the Republican National Convention from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, Aug. 25, 2020.On the second night of the convention, two more of the U.S. leader’s four adult children spoke. Eric Trump, an executive with the Trump Organization, the president’s New York-based global real estate and golf resort company, and Tiffany Trump, a recent law school graduate, said their father deserves another term in the White House. Polls show Biden leading Trump by an average of 7.6 percentage points, according to an aggregation of polls by the Real Clear Politics website. However, Biden’s edge is a bit thinner in several key battleground states that could once again prove decisive in the election. Only two U.S. presidents have lost reelection contests after a single term in office in the past four decades, Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992.
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By Polityk | 08/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Melania Trump Headlines Second Night of Republican National Convention
On the second night of the four-day Republican National Convention, first lady Melania Trump offered her case for a second term for President Donald Trump, joining others, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who broke with tradition and delivered his speech from Jerusalem. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this recap.Camera: Laurentius Wahyudi Produced by: Kim Weeks
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By Polityk | 08/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
First Lady Addresses Pandemic, Racial Unrest in Convention Speech
U.S. first lady Melania Trump expressed sympathy Tuesday night for the victims of the coronavirus pandemic, a marked contrast from her husband, President Donald Trump, who often has diminished the impact of the infectious disease and said it will disappear. “Since March, our lives have been changed drastically,” the first lady said in a late- evening speech in the newly redesigned White House Rose Garden. “My deepest sympathy goes out to everyone who has lost a loved one. My prayers are with those who are ill or suffering. “I know many people are anxious and some feel helpless,” she said. “I want you to know you are not alone.” The tone of the speech marked a noticeable departure from much of the politically charged rhetoric of the first two nights of the four-day national convention, as Trump supporters sharply attacked Democratic challenger Joe Biden while praising Trump’s handling of the pandemic and the devastating effect it has had on the economy. By recounting her own story of emigrating from Slovenia as a 26-year-old model and eventually obtaining her U.S. citizenship, Melania Trump may have connected with many people turned off by her husband’s policies targeting undocumented immigrants. The first lady extended her gratitude to health care workers who have treated millions of people who have contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. “You put your country first, and my husband and I are grateful,” she said. “It has been inspiring to see what people in our great nation will do for each other,” Melania Trump said in the address, the finale of the second night of the Republican National Convention that has nominated her husband for a second four-year term.First lady Melania Trump looks on after addressing the Republican Convention during its second day from the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, D.C., Aug. 25, 2020.Mostly virtual convention The convention is mostly being conducted virtually in Washington for fear of spreading the coronavirus. Usually, thousands of delegates pack into an arena every four years during U.S. presidential nominating conventions. Some speakers Tuesday night, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaking from Jerusalem, applauded Trump’s actions as president, while others attacked the Democratic nominee on issues ranging from the economy and foreign policy to law and order and gun control. The pandemic has killed more than 178,000 people and infected more than 5.7 million in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University, with both figures the highest for any country. But President Trump’s handling of the once-in-a-century crisis has threatened his chances in the November 3 national election against Biden. Polls, by wide margins, show Americans disapprove of the way Trump has handled the crisis. Biden has attacked Trump’s claims that he was a “wartime president” in the fight against the virus. The Democrat, in his presidential nomination acceptance speech last week, said the president’s actions were unforgivable and a failure of leadership. Earlier this year, Trump dismissed the danger of the virus, saying it would soon disappear, an assessment he repeated recently in contrast to what government and university medical experts say. Trump has touted unproven remedies, promised that a vaccine would be available sooner than health experts said it would, and for months refused to wear a face mask in public. More recently, he has on occasion worn a face mask in public. Racial unrest Melania Trump also discussed racial unrest in the United States that was spawned by the May 25 death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Republicans have condemned Floyd’s death but focused most of their convention attacks on Democrats, who they say will not end the street violence in the U.S. generated by demonstrations against racial injustice. “Like all of you I have reflected on the racial unrest in our country,” the first lady said. “It is a harsh reality that we are not proud of our history. I encourage people to focus on our future, while still learning from our past.” “With that in mind, I’d like to call on the citizens of this country to take a moment, pause and look at things from all perspectives,” she said. “I urge people to come together in a civil manner so we can work and live up to our standard American ideals.” “I also ask people to stop the violence and looting being done in the name of justice, and never make assumptions based on the color of a person’s skin. Instead of tearing things down, let’s reflect on our mistakes,” she declared. An aide to Melania Trump, chief of staff Stephanie Grisham, said in advance of the first lady’s nationally televised address that, “Every word in this speech is from her.” Melania Trump called for her husband’s reelection, saying, “He doesn’t just speak words. He demands action.” Break with tradition She spoke after a highly unusual convention pitch for Trump from Pompeo, speaking in a message from Jerusalem, where he was on a diplomatic mission to Israel and the Middle East. Typically, the top U.S. diplomat has not played a role in U.S. elections and has been viewed as apolitically representing the United States in overseas relations rather than that of the political party of the president who appointed him or her. A handful of opposition Democrats have assailed Pompeo for breaking the tradition of staying out of the presidential race. Congressman Joaquin Castro, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, announced he would lead “a full investigation” into Pompeo’s participation. During his speech, Pompeo cited foreign policy achievements by Trump, saying, “This president has led bold initiatives in nearly every corner of the world.” The State Department chief said Trump had “lowered tensions” with North Korea even though Trump has not forced Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program. He credited Trump for the recent agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to establish diplomatic relations. On the second night of the convention, two more of the U.S. leader’s four adult children spoke. Eric Trump, an executive with the Trump Organization, the president’s New York-based global real estate and golf resort company, and Tiffany Trump, a recent law school graduate, said their father deserves another term in the White House. Production staffers help Tiffany Trump pre-record a speech for the Republican National Convention in Washington, Aug. 25, 2020.Tiffany Trump declared, “My father built a thriving economy once and he’ll do it again. My father does not run away from challenges. He dreams big dreams for our country.” Eric Trump said, “Every day my father fights for the American people. I’m proud of what you are doing for our country.” Many speakers Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, a couple of state elected officials and rank-and-file party members also made campaign pitches for Trump. But one speaker, Mary Ann Mendoza, the mother of an Arizona police officer killed by an undocumented immigrant who was driving drunk, was pulled from the night’s roster of those supporting Trump after she encouraged her Twitter followers to read through a QAnon believer’s convoluted conspiracy theory about a Jewish plot to control the world. She deleted the tweet and apologized. At the outset of the evening, Trump pardoned a bank robber who since his imprisonment has worked to help inmates rejoin life on the outside. The president also watched as five immigrants pledged allegiance to the U.S. and became naturalized citizens. For Trump, the four days of the Republican convention are crucial. They are a chance, through saturation television coverage, for him to convince enough American voters that he deserves another White House term. He has 10 weeks to make his case before Election Day, but the polls show Biden leading by an average of 7.6 percentage points, according to an aggregation of polls by the Real Clear Politics website. However, Biden’s edge is a bit thinner in several key battleground states that could once again prove decisive in the election. Only two U.S. presidents have lost reelection contests after a single term in office in the past four decades, Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992.
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By Polityk | 08/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
New Supporters of Trump Attend RNC
This week the Republican Party is hoping to pave the way for a repeat of President Donald Trump’s 2016 win by energizing the party faithful and wooing undecided voters. Public opinion polls show the president trailing Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden. At the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, VOA’s Carolyn Presutti spoke with several voters who said they did not back Trump in 2016, but they will this year.Camera: Mary Cieslak
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By Polityk | 08/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Ethics Concerns Raised as Trump Uses White House as Convention Prop
The use of the White House by President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump for events related to this week’s Republican National Convention are legal, according to administration officials. For others working in the White House and the administration, however, there are lines not to be crossed, according to the Hatch Act, a 1939 federal law that prohibits most government officials from engaging in political activities while on the job. Trump administration officials have been cited for breaking the Hatch Act 13 times by federal investigators at the Office of Special Counsel. At least a dozen more investigations are apparently under way, according to executive branch sources and legal watchdog groups. “White House counsel has been very, very strict with us. They’ve sent out many, many one-pagers and emails explaining what can and can’t be done,” Stephanie Grisham, the first lady’s chief of staff, replied to a question Tuesday from VOA. “Everybody needs to do things on their own time. You cannot use government equipment — all of those things. So, it’s being very, very strictly adhered to.” First Lady Melania Trump visits an exhibit of artwork by young Americans in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which afforded the vote to women, at the White House in Washington, August 24, 2020.The first lady is using the newly renovated Rose Garden as the site for her live address Tuesday night to the Republican Party’s convention, which formally renominated her husband Monday. A few meters away, lights, speakers and a stage, with ample space for an invited audience, have been erected on the White House South Lawn for Thursday night’s nomination acceptance speech by the president. Trump’s address is to be followed by fireworks launched from the National Mall. “The president and vice president are not covered by any of the provisions of the Hatch Act. Accordingly, the Hatch Act does not prohibit President Trump from delivering his RNC acceptance speech on White House grounds,” Erica Hamrick, deputy chief of the Hatch Act Unit at the Office of Special Counsel, wrote this month in a written response to the House Oversight Committee. That has not quelled criticism about the unprecedented use of the White House for an explicitly political event. For much of his presidency, Trump has used official events, including news conferences and speeches inside and out of the White House, to repeatedly attack his political foes. Conventions during the pandemicFILE – Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention, August 20, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware.Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans and Democrats significantly scaled back their political conventions. Former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, made their acceptance speeches in Biden’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, with only a few dozen journalists and campaign staff in the room. Trump traveled Monday to Charlotte, North Carolina, the first day of his party’s event, to speak to several hundred delegates. In the evening, the convention’s program contained two events with the president and guests in the White House specifically taped for the telecast. Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to deliver his nomination acceptance speech Wednesday evening at Fort McHenry in Maryland, the site of a battle in the War of 1812 that inspired The Star-Spangled Banner, the U.S. national anthem. Expenses, including travel, that are deemed political are supposed to be paid by the president’s reelection campaign, not the U.S. government. If Trump delivers his acceptance speech on White House grounds, this decision will violate ethics norms established by former presidents, said Georgia Lyon, a communications fellow at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. “There have been a variety of ways the White House has been used in the past for influencing elections that may have run afoul of the law,” Scott Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel from 2003 to 2008, told the Government Executive newsletter. He cited the Bill Clinton administration renting out areas of the White House for fundraisers and the administration of George H.W. Bush using federal funds and resources to help Republican candidates. However, former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama tried to ensure the line was not crossed between their duties as public servants and political candidates. They were observed keeping political activities at the White House limited to the residence area or those that are not regularly used solely in the discharge of official duties, in accordance with the Hatch Act. Pompeo speechThere is one other current significant departure from precedent – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s address to the Republican convention Tuesday night will be from Israel during a diplomatic trip. FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo meets with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem.“It’s a break in tradition – one of many breaks in tradition that we can associate with the Trump presidency,” Matthew Continetti, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA. Pompeo, a former congressman, is doing it, not only to maintain his presence in Republican politics – looking beyond the Trump administration – but “also to remind the viewers that the Trump administration is not without accomplishments in the foreign policy arena,” Continetti said. It is rare for the nation’s top diplomat to engage is such an explicitly political act. The speech by Pompeo during an overseas mission is a “blatant use of office for overtly political purposes” that undermines the critical work being done by the State Department, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, said. A State Department official said Pompeo’s address was being done in his personal capacity. Even if any activities by Trump administration officials result in findings that they violated the Hatch Act, punishment is left to their bosses. Trump has not acted against those working for him already deemed violators. Some of his aides privately scoff at the Hatch Act and say they take pride in violating its regulations, according to The New York Times. Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 08/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Can Trump Deploy Federal Agents to Police the Polls?
In claiming that the 2020 election could be “rigged” by the Democrats, U.S. President Donald Trump recently hinted he may deploy federal authorities to polling places around the country on Election Day to root out corrupt practices that would impact the presidential election. Asked during a Fox News interview last week if he planned to deploy federal monitors to polling stations Nov. 3 to prevent fraudulent voting, Trump replied, “We’re going to have everything.” “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys. And we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals,” he told conservative host Sean Hannity. “But it’s very hard.” Trump has steadily stepped up his largely groundless assertions that the U.S. voting system — especially the surge in voting by mail in the face of the coronavirus pandemic — is rife with corruption and needs a watchful federal eye. FILE – Voters drop off ballots in the Washington State primary, in Seattle, March 10, 2020.While it was not clear if Trump was engaging in idle speculation or if he was serious, some observers took his latest remarks to suggest he not only wants “poll watchers” but law enforcement officers posted at voting precincts. Poll watchers, often appointed by political party committees, are deployed by the tens of thousands every election cycle. Their job is to monitor voting irregularities and to challenge the qualifications of a voter if they have suspicions. FILE – A poll watcher watches as voters sign in at the Martha O’Bryan Center community building in Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 8, 2016.But law enforcement presence at U.S. polling places is uncommon. Federal laws prohibit the deployment of troops and armed agents to the polls, while a number of states restrict their presence. Here is a look at the legality of deploying law enforcement officers at the polls. Can Trump send local sheriffs to the polls? The United States has a system of limited government. While the national government is “supreme” under the U.S. Constitution’s “Supremacy Clause,” states are accorded broader “police powers” under the Tenth Amendment. In a landmark decision in 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court “interpreted the Tenth Amendment to specifically mean that the federal government cannot directly order state and local law enforcement officials as if they were agents of the federal government,” said Edward Foley, a constitutional law professor and director of the election law program at Ohio State University. Can the president send armed federal agents to the polls? A FILE – Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf testifies in Washington, March 3, 2020.Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a recent interview with CNN that the Department of Homeland Security lacks the authority to deploy agents to the polls. Hans von Spakovsky, a former federal prosecutor, said it is highly unlikely that Trump will order the deployment of troops and agents to polling places. However, “if the president ordered someone at DHS or DOJ to do something that violated the statute, I don’t think they would follow the (order),” said von Spakovsky, now a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Is there any precedent for sending law enforcement officers to the polls? During the 1981 gubernatorial campaign in New Jersey, the Republican Party posted off-duty sheriffs and police officers at polling places in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. The Democratic National Committee sued, claiming the “ballot security program” was part of a broader voter intimidation effort. Under public pressure, the Republicans agreed to settle the following year by entering a “consent decree.” The decree, in force for 35 years, prohibited the Republican Party from undertaking “ballot security” at polling places in heavily minority communities. Von Spakovsky said that while political parties cannot post armed personnel inside polling places, they should be allowed to hire former law enforcement officers as poll watchers. What do state laws say about police presence at polls? A patchwork of state laws governs law enforcement presence at polling stations, Foley said. While some states such as Iowa allow police officers to provide security on Election Day, others such as Pennsylvania and Florida explicitly prohibit their presence, unless they are there to cast ballots. “There is a sense that sometimes the presence of local police officers carrying their firearms could be an intimidating factor,” Foley said. “The idea is to try to make voting as less of a hostile environment as possible.” Conservatives say they do not object to local jurisdictions using police officers to guard polling stations. “I don’t have a problem if states want to do it. If they simply want to post an officer at the polls to make sure there is no violence, there is no violation,” von Spakovsky said.
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By Polityk | 08/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
UN Security Council Declines Action on US-Sought Return of Iran Sanctions
The president of the U.N. Security Council said Tuesday there is no consensus for restoring international sanctions on Iran in the 15-member council and that he would take no further action on a U.S. demand to re-impose them. “It is clear for me that there is one member, which has a particular position on the issue, while there are significant numbers of members who have contrasting views,” said Council President Indonesian Ambassador Dian Triansyah Djani. “In my view, there is no consensus in the council. Thus, the president is not in the position to take further action.” Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came to New York and personally notified the United Nations that the United States was triggering a mechanism under the U.N. Security Council resolution that enshrined the 2015 nuclear deal into international law and would “snapback” sanctions on Iran dating back to 2006. But other deal participants immediately cried foul, saying the U.S. withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, and therefore gave up its right to initiate the process. Washington rejected their interpretation and said the U.S. can trigger snapback as a named participant in the council resolution. Resolution failedOn August 14, the U.S. sought to have the council adopt a resolution to renew an arms embargo on Iran that, under the terms of the JCPOA, will expire on October 18. The move failed, with only one other council member (the Dominican Republic) voting with Washington. The Trump administration then triggered snapback in order to re-impose the embargo, as well a series of other sanctions. “The Trump Administration has no fear in standing in limited company on this matter, in light of the unmistakable truth guiding our actions,” said U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft on Tuesday. “I only regret that other members of this council have lost their way and now find themselves standing in the company of terrorists.” In the nuclear deal, the original participants – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany – agreed with Iran to gradually lift the sanctions in return for limits on Tehran’s nuclear activities that would prevent it making a nuclear bomb. If snapback is imposed, diplomats say it would almost certainly collapse the deal, which has been struggling since the U.S. left and Iran responded by resuming some of its prohibited nuclear activities. “We are firmly convinced that protecting the JCPOA is of crucial importance,” said Germany’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Günter Sautter. “The nuclear deal with Iran is not perfect, but it continues to be the international community’s best tool to prevent a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said he hoped the council president’s decision would be the end of the matter and that the U.S. would “refrain from further steps to pursue this path.” The remaining JCPOA participants have urged Iran to quickly return to compliance with the deal.
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By Polityk | 08/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden To Be Regularly Tested for Coronavirus, Campaign Says
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, will be tested regularly for COVID-19, an aide said on Monday, as the campaign prepares for the possibility of more public events in the run-up to November’s election.
Since the coronavirus began spreading widely in the United States in March, Biden has done few public events, most of them close to his Delaware home.
But following his formal nomination at last week’s Democratic National Convention, the campaign is expanding its health protocols in a new phase of the race that could see the former vice president in closer proximity to the public.
“Consistent with the transparency Vice President Biden has demonstrated, we will make public if either the Vice President or Senator Harris ever has a confirmed, positive case of COVID-19,” a campaign aide told Reuters.
The aide said Biden, 77, Harris, 55, and key staff who interact with them would be tested “on a regular basis,” in line with the advice of medical advisers.
“This is what responsible leadership looks like,” the person said.
Reporters have frequently asked Biden whether he has been tested for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and he has always answered no.
He has criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the virus, which has killed more than 176,000 Americans, as disastrous.
During campaign appearances, many broadcast online, Biden consistently wears masks and maintains distance to show his adherence to public health guidelines.
By contrast, Trump, 74, who will face Biden in the Nov. 3 election, downplayed the virus in its early stages, once referred to mask-wearing as politically correct and has been reluctant to wear a face covering himself.
Trump in July wore a mask in public for the first time during the pandemic, a shift in his tone to encourage Americans to wear them as the country began to see a resurgence of cases.
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By Polityk | 08/25/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump’s ‘America First’ Agenda Shapes GOP Foreign Policy
The Republican Party’s foreign policy agenda has been almost entirely shaped in the past four years by President Donald Trump’s approach to international relations, including new trade deals, skepticism of international organizations, and calls to reduce U.S. troop deployments overseas. Because of the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing protocols, the Republican Party this year did not write a new party platform, which traditionally gives an official outline of the party’s vision and policy priorities. However, the party said in a resolution released at this week’s convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, that if it had been able to convene in 2020 to write a new platform, it would have “undoubtedly unanimously” backed the Trump administration’s agenda. The party has rallied around Trump’s foreign policy goals, largely encapsulated by his “America First” slogan, which he debuted during his 2016 campaign and repeated Monday in an outline of his second-term agenda released by his campaign. Other foreign policy goals were to “bring our troops home” and “end our reliance on China.” China China has become one of the central foreign policy topics in the 2020 campaign, heightened by Trump’s trade war as well as questions of China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. FILE – President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He have lunch after signing the ‘Phase 1’ U.S.-China trade agreement, in the State Dining Room of the White House, Jan. 15, 2020, in Washington.The United States and China signed the first phase of a trade deal in January following rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs totaling billions of dollars. The deal has been touted by the Republican Party as evidence that the president can deliver on his trade goals and followed another newly inked trade deal by the Trump administration for North America. However, negotiations on a second phase of the China trade deal have stalled. Trump said in July the accord means “much less to me” because of what he called China’s role in the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, and this month he called off a new round of trade talks with China, saying, “I don’t want to talk to China right now.” Some members of the Republican Party have urged Trump to be even tougher on China. Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, said if Trump is reelected, he would expect the president to become more confrontational with China. “Both parties, but particularly the Republican Party, have come to see China not just as an economic rival, but as a growing security threat,” Alden said. FILE – A cargo truck drives amid stacked shipping containers at the Yangshan port in Shanghai, China, March 29, 2018.Trump’s second-term agenda goals include the pledge to “bring back 1 million manufacturing jobs from China,” as well as to prevent federal contracts to companies that outsource to China. Afghanistan The president’s second-term agenda also pledges to “stop endless wars” and bring U.S. troops home, a sentiment echoing his 2016 campaign. But while Trump has often repeated his desire to end wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, he has struggled to fulfill his goal of reducing overall U.S. troop numbers overseas. FILE – U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army (ANA) Base in Logar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 7, 2018.In Afghanistan, Trump agreed in 2017 to a troop increase at the request of then-top U.S. commander in Afghanistan General John Nicholson, raising U.S. troop levels in that country to around 14,000. The number of U.S. troops there now is back to 8,500, around the same level as when Trump took office in 2017, and the president recently laid out plans for further withdrawals as part of still-unmet conditions outlined in a U.S.-Taliban deal signed earlier this year. Trump has defended his efforts at diplomacy with the Taliban, saying in a 2019 address to the United Nations, “the United States has never believed in permanent enemies.” Charles Stevenson, a professor of American foreign policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), said candidates of both parties often pledge to reduce troop levels but find it difficult to fulfill their promises once taking office. “There are costs from totally pulling out” of a region, including diplomatic and political ones, he said. International alliances Trump has approached foreign diplomacy much differently than most past presidents, publicly questioning the value of international alliances and organizations, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg participate in a round table meeting during a NATO leaders meeting, Dec. 4, 2019.On NATO, Trump has argued that many members do not spend enough on defense to fully meet their commitments under the agreement. “NATO countries must pay MORE, the United States must pay LESS. Very Unfair,” Trump tweeted before attending a NATO summit in 2018. Economic cost is often a key factor in Trump’s foreign policy stances, and he has questioned the costs associated with large U.S. military bases around the world, including in Japan, South Korea and Germany. The president has broken off a host of international agreements since taking office, including the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia and the Iran nuclear deal. Trump has not been afraid to criticize traditional allies, getting into public disputes with a number of world leaders, including those from Germany, France and Canada. Alden said Trump’s “America First” agenda often veers into a policy that is better described as “America Alone.” He said under Trump, “the United States has completely abandoned the notion of allies being important and abandoned the notion of international cooperation as being important.” Trump has defended his approach, telling the United Nations General Assembly in 2019, “Wise leaders always put the good of their own people and their own country first. The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots.” North Korea While Trump is not afraid to have public disagreements with world leaders, his relationships with them often play a key role in his foreign policies. Nowhere has that been more apparent than with North Korea, where Trump early in his presidency called leader Kim Jong Un “little rocket man” and threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” but later said of Kim, “We’ve developed a very good relationship.” Trump has met with Kim three times and the two have reportedly exchanged at least 25 personal letters. FILE – In this June 30, 2019, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, right, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea.At their first summit in Singapore in 2018, the two leaders signed an agreement to work toward the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” but never agreed on the details of what that meant. Despite the lack of specifics, Trump has had some success with his meetings with Kim. Since the summits began, North Korea has refrained from any major missile or nuclear tests. For months, however, negotiations have stalled and North Korea has refused to talk. Kim said in January 2020 that he is prepared for a “long-term” standoff with the United States.
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By Polityk | 08/25/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Takes Center Stage at Republican Convention
Republicans opened their four-day convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, Monday, and unanimously nominated President Donald Trump for a second term. Mike O’Sullivan reports, in a nation battered by COVID-19 and a recession, speakers warned of darker days ahead if Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden is elected. Camera: Mary Cieslak
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By Polityk | 08/25/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Praise for Health Care Workers, Barbs for Biden as GOP Convention Opens
U.S. President Donald Trump took center stage at the Republican National Convention Monday night and immediately signaled that defending his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis is paramount in winning a second term. On the first night of the nationally televised Republican convention, Trump was shown greeting health care workers at the White House who – against the views of many Americans — praised his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. “You’re an incredible group,” Trump told several health care workers and two COVID-19 survivors who recovered from the infectious disease that has killed more than 177,000 people in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University data, the most of any nation in the world. “We have to make this China virus go away,” Trump told the group in the East Room of the White House, an apparent acknowledgement that the unrelenting virus is also a threat to his reelection to a second term. None of the group was wearing a face mask or socially distancing from the others as health experts have advised. Later, in the Diplomatic Room, Trump greeted a half-dozen people who had been held prisoner overseas, all of whom had been released after U.S. diplomatic efforts during Trump’s presidency. Michael White, held for two years in Iran, told Trump, “You were able to get me out of that prison. It was amazing.”White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, left, Vice President Mike Pence and chief of staff Mark Meadows stand off stage as they listen to President Donald Trump speak at the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Aug. 24, 2020.Democrats released an ad mocking the Republican convention just as Republicans staged counter events last week while the Democrats met. “Welcome to the RNC, Republican National Chaos,” the narrator says in the 30-second spot, which opened with a scene of downtown Charlotte. “Because Trump is meeting the COVID moment with job-destroying incompetence and deadly mismanagement, students and teachers are left to themselves, the jobless left without a lifeline, grandparents left to die alone, an economy left to perish.” A parade of Republicans, most speaking from the empty Mellon Auditorium a short distance from the White House, praised Trump and called for his reelection. His oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., described his father’s Democratic opponent in the November 3 election, former Vice President Joe Biden, as “the Loch Ness monster of the swamp,” a reference to the federal government, and a threat to U.S. democracy. The younger Trump called Democrats the party of “rioting, looting and vandalism” during protests against racial injustice in the U.S. “Trump’s America is the land of opportunity,” he declared. For President Trump, the four days of the Republican convention are crucial, a chance through saturation television coverage for him to convince enough American voters that he deserves another four-year term when national polls often show voters disapprove of his performance as the country’s chief executive during the past 3½ years.Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., speaks during the Republican National Convention from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, Aug. 24, 2020.Many voters have voiced their discontent about the chaotic Trump presidency and his uneven response to the coronavirus pandemic. Others have grown weary of his thousands of tweets with barbed comments aimed at anyone he disagrees with or attacks him. He has 10 weeks to make his case before Election Day, but the polls show Biden leading by an average of 7.6 percentage points, according to an aggregation of polls by the Real Clear Politics website. However, Biden’s edge is a bit thinner in several key battleground states that could once again prove decisive in the election. Only two U.S. presidents have lost reelection contests after a single term in office in the past four decades. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 to Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes but won the election by narrowly capturing three states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — that Democrats had usually won. However, polls show Biden is leading in all three states. The U.S. president is chosen in the Electoral College, the country’s indirect form of democracy where the overall national outcome is determined by the winner in each of the 50 states, not the national popular vote. Earlier in the day, the more than 300 delegates who gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the business portion of the convention renominated Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for a second four-year term, with the U.S. leader appearing shortly after that to thank the party stalwarts. Trump called the November 3 vote “the most important election in the history of our country.” He contended that the only way Democrats could defeat him is through a rigged election using mail-in-ballots sent to voters. “They’re trying to steal the election,” Trump declared without evidence. “Suppose they don’t mail them to Republican neighborhoods.” Trump’s visits with the health workers and the freed prisoners marked the first of four straight evenings he plans to speak to the mostly virtual convention, with the focus shifting from Charlotte to Washington, and culminating Thursday with his renomination acceptance speech at the White House. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone Black Republican in the U.S. Senate, and Nikki Haley, an Indian American and a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also spoke on his behalf. Trump, as president, has been a vocal supporter of gun ownership rights as sanctioned by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But as many Democrats call for limitations on gun ownership, Republicans brought the issue to the fore with a pair of controversial speakers, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a St. Louis, Missouri, couple who brandished guns at Black Lives Matter protesters as they walked past their mansion in a June demonstration against racial injustice. The McCloskeys said they felt threatened by the protesters, but a St. Louis prosecutor charged both with a felony, unlawful use of a weapon.Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley leaves after speaking during the Republican National Convention from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, Aug. 24, 2020.Mark McCloskey said, “Donald Trump will protect your God-given right to protect your homes and family.” His wife said, “Your family will not be safe with the radical Democrats’ agenda.” Democrats last week conducted their convention entirely virtually, with a collection of taped and live presentations, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Republican delegates in Charlotte were subject to regular temperature checks and daily testing for COVID-19. All were required to be tested before they left their states, and throughout Monday’s events they were wearing devices to enable contact tracing. A total of 336 delegates gathered at the convention to renominate Trump. The size of the Republican gathering is downscaled from past conventions, just not as much as the Democrats’ conclave. Gone at both party conventions are the thousands of delegates who have crammed into arenas and stadiums at quadrennial gatherings in years past. Biden, as he accepted his party’s presidential nomination last week, contended that Trump had created a “season of darkness in America” in which he had failed to control the unrelenting pandemic while millions of workers have lost their jobs. “We will choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege,” Biden said. Trump claimed that “the Democrats held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history.” He accused them of “attacking America as racist and a horrible country that must be redeemed.” But he wasted no time in attacking Biden after the delegates cast their votes to renominate him. As he has often done in recent times, Trump attacked his Democratic opponent as a puppet of the radical left, warning that if the former vice president is elected in November, “Your American dream will be dead.” Republicans are billing their convention “Honoring the Great American Story.” The Trump campaign said that each night will include remarks from political leaders as well as “everyday Americans whose stories are filled with hope and patriotism.” All three living former Democratic presidents — Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — along with 2004 nominee John Kerry and 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton, spoke on behalf of Biden at the Democratic convention. But neither former Republican President George W. Bush nor 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, who now is a Utah senator and a Trump critic, is on the Republican convention schedule. More than two dozen former Republican lawmakers announced their support for Biden as the Republican convention started.
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By Polityk | 08/25/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Holding Center Stage at US Republican Convention
A parade of Republicans is set Monday night to acclaim President Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention and call for his reelection. But the main event is the finale for the evening, Trump himself unleashing attacks on his Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden. Party stalwarts renominated Trump earlier Monday for a second four-year term, with the U.S. leader appearing shortly after at the convention site in Charlotte, North Carolina. He called the November 3 vote “the most important election in the history of our country.” He contended that the only way Democrats could defeat him is through a rigged election using mail-in ballots sent to voters. “They’re trying to steal the election,” Trump declared without evidence. “Suppose they don’t mail them to Republican neighborhoods.” Trump’s speech Monday night is the first of four straight evenings he plans to speak to the mostly virtual convention, in Charlotte and Washington, culminating Thursday with his renomination acceptance speech at the White House. FILE – Donald Trump Jr. speaks before President Donald Trump arrives, at Dream City Church in Phoenix, June 23, 2020.His oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., one of the U.S. leader’s staunchest defenders, is addressing the convention Monday night, as are Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone Black Republican in the U.S. Senate, and Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Trump, as president, has been a vocal supporter of gun ownership rights as sanctioned by the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But as many Democrats call for limitations on gun ownership, Republicans are bringing the issue to the fore with a pair of controversial speakers, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a St. Louis, Missouri, couple who brandished guns at Black Lives Matter protesters as they walked past their mansion in a June demonstration against racial injustice.The McCloskeys said they felt threatened by the protesters, but a St. Louis prosecutor charged both with a felony, unlawful use of a weapon. Other speakers include three Republican congressmen, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Jim Jordan of Ohio, all of them among Trump’s most fervent conservative advocates on Capitol Hill. Democrats last week conducted their convention entirely virtually, with a collection of taped and live presentations, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Delegates gather for the first day of the Republican National Convention, August 24, 2020, in Charlotte, N.C.Republican delegates in Charlotte are subject to regular temperature checks and daily testing for COVID-19. All were required to be tested before they left their states, and throughout the convention they are wearing devices to enable contact tracing. A total of 336 delegates gathered at the convention to renominate Trump.The size of the Republican gathering is downscaled from past conventions, just not as much as the Democrats’ conclave. Gone at both party conventions are the thousands of delegates who have crammed into arenas and stadiums at quadrennial gatherings in years past.”I live 15 minutes from the arena, and yet I’m not going to be part of it,” Sarah Reidy-Jones, the vice chairman of the Mecklenburg County GOP, told VOA. Reidy-Jones was one of North Carolina’s delegates to the convention, but because of the downscaling, the closest she would get to the convention center was dropping off a fellow delegate there Sunday morning. “It’s really emblematic of everything shutting down right now across the country,” she said.Biden, as he accepted his party’s presidential nomination last week, contended that Trump had created a “season of darkness in America” in which he had failed to control the unrelenting pandemic while millions of workers have lost their jobs. “We will choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege,” Biden said. Trump claimed that “the Democrats held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history.” He accused them of “attacking America as racist and a horrible country that must be redeemed.” But he wasted no time in attacking Biden after the delegates cast their votes to renominate him. As he has often done in recent times, Trump attacked his Democratic opponent as a puppet of the radical left, warning that if the former vice president is elected in November, “Your American dream will be dead.” Republicans are billing their convention “Honoring the Great American Story.” The Trump campaign said that each night will include remarks from political leaders as well as “everyday Americans whose stories are filled with hope and patriotism.” People wait to hear President Donald Trump speak at Asheville Regional Airport, August 24, 2020, in Fletcher, N.C.All three living former Democratic presidents – Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama – along with 2004 nominee John Kerry and 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton, spoke on behalf of Biden at the Democratic convention. But neither former Republican President George W. Bush nor 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, who now is a Utah senator and a Trump critic, is on the Republican convention schedule. More than two dozen former Republican lawmakers announced their support for Biden as the Republican convention started. Democrats released an ad mocking the Republican convention just as Republicans staged counter events last week while the Democrats met. “Welcome to the RNC, Republican National Chaos,” the narrator says in the 30-second spot, which opened with a scene of downtown Charlotte. “Because Trump is meeting the COVID moment with job-destroying incompetence and deadly mismanagement, students and teachers are left to themselves, the jobless left without a lifeline, grandparents left to die alone, an economy left to perish. “Because Trump has no plan for COVID, nothing will change, because Trump won’t change,” the narrator continues. “Enjoy the convention.”
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By Polityk | 08/25/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Amid US Economic Crisis, Trump’s Base Has Faith
As Republicans encourage Americans to vote for President Donald Trump, they are making their case this week from Charlotte, North Carolina, where the pandemic has forced them to dramatically scale back their national convention. Even though the pandemic has shaken American businesses, there are many who say they still have faith in the president’s ability to bring economic prosperity back. Esha Sarai has the story from Charlotte.Camera: Esha Sarai, Mary Cieslak Producer: Esha Sarai
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By Polityk | 08/25/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
AP-NORC Poll: Trump Faces Pessimism as GOP Convention Opens
President Donald Trump is promising to outline an optimistic vision for America at this week’s Republican convention. But he’ll be speaking to a public deeply pessimistic about the direction of the country and overwhelmingly dissatisfied with his and the federal government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Most Americans think there isn’t enough being done to help individual Americans, small businesses or public schools as the pandemic stretches on, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Overall, just 31% of Americans approve of Trump’s leadership on the pandemic, a significant drop from 44% approval in March, when the virus began sweeping through the United States.
The public’s negative assessment of how Trump is handling the crisis puts him on the defensive as his November face-off against Democrat Joe Biden nears. One of Trump’s challenges as his convention opens on Monday night is to convince Americans that anything about his response to the pandemic will change or improve if voters give him four more years in office.
Yet Trump has shown little willingness to acknowledge that a course correction of any kind is needed. He’s repeatedly cast the virus as all but defeated, even when cases were sharply increasing, including in states he needs to win in November. He’s also insisted the U.S. has vastly outperformed other countries in tackling the pandemic, despite the fact the U.S. has the most confirmed cases (more than 5.7 million) and most confirmed deaths (more than 176,000) of any country in the world.
“To be persuasive, there needs to be a strategy and not just rhetoric,” Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said of Trump’s challenge this week.
The president heads into his four-night nominating convention with an overall approval rating of 35%. That’s down from 43% in March but still within range of where Trump has been for much of his presidency. Where he falls within that range as Election Day nears could make a difference to his reelection prospects.
His support continues to be driven overwhelmingly by Republicans, with 79% approving of his job performance compared with just 5% of Democrats.
Trump must also contend with Americans’ persistently negative view of the country’s direction as he asks voters to stay the course instead of handing the reins over to Biden. The AP-NORC poll finds that just 23% think the country is heading in the right direction, while 75% think it’s on the wrong path.
Republican strategist Gail Gitcho said the national mood makes it imperative for the president to strike an optimistic tone during his convention.
“The most important time for optimism is when pessimism is rampant,” said Gitcho, who advised Sen. Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. “That’s when it is most needed and works best.”
The president’s highest marks continue to come on the economy: 47% of Americans approve of his stewardship of the economy, though that, too, is down from 56% approval in March. Trump is expected to lean hard into his economic credentials during the convention, arguing that when the pandemic subsides, he can again lead the country into a period of sustained growth and job creation.
Trump’s advisers are also seizing on remarks Biden made last week in which he said he would shut the country down to stop further spread of the virus if that’s what public health experts recommend. They believe Americans are weary of pandemic restrictions and focused instead on ways to safely keep the economy up and running.
Biden, in an interview with ABC News, said he would “be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus.”
As the country grapples with how to keep businesses afloat and open schools for in-person learning, Americans see little help flowing to those who need it most. Two-thirds of Americans say the government is doing too little to help the individuals and small businesses. A similar share thinks the government needs to do more to help public schools with their finances.
The poll was conducted after Congress left for its August recess without passing a new round of pandemic assistance. House Democrats approved a $3 trillion relief package that included money for schools, state and local governments and other entities, but Republicans balked at the price tag and some of the provisions. It’s unclear whether lawmakers can break the logjam when they return to the Capitol in September.
The lack of action on Capitol Hill appears to have contributed to Congress’ sinking approval rating. Just 13% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing during the pandemic, down from 31% in March. The federal government as a whole has also taken a hit with the public, with approval down from 38% in March to 23% now.
Americans remain more positive in their views of how state governments are handling the pandemic, with 44% approving of their state’s performance. Democrats are somewhat more likely than Republicans to approve of state government, 51% to 41%.
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By Polityk | 08/24/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Postmaster DeJoy Appears Before House Committee
U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy returns the Capitol Hill Monday, this time to face the Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee, to defend postal service policies under his watch that Democrats claim are designed to slow mail deliver and hamper voting by mail. DeJoy appeared before the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Friday where he explained his policies were designed simply to make postal service more efficient and cost-effective. He also promised to ensure all mailed-in ballots for the November election would be handled safely and on time, though he offered no details as how he would do that. DeJoy, a donor to U.S. President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, prompted an outcry from Democrats when, shortly after his assumed his post early this summer, began cutting overtime pay, limiting extra trips by mail carriers, and removing sorting machines from post offices. Those policies have led to delays in mail delivery, including medicine, pension checks and bills. Over the weekend, led by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House passed a bill that would block DeJoy from continuing with his changes to Postal Service operations, along with adding $25 billion in postal service funding. The measure was viewed as largely symbolic as the Republican-led Senate is unlikely to consider it. The chairman of the Postal Service’s board of governors, Robert M. Duncan, another Trump appointee, will also be testifying before Monday’s hearing — the first public remarks he has given on the state of the embattled agency.
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By Polityk | 08/24/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Long-serving Trump Adviser Kellyanne Conway Steps Down
Kellyanne Conway, a long-serving advisor to President Donald Trump known for sparring with reporters, announced Sunday she will step down to focus on her family.
Conway, 53, has been at Trump’s side since day one, managing his 2016 campaign that catapulted the reality TV star into the world’s most powerful office.
But the past four years of singular loyalty to Trump, including defending him on TV and with informal “gaggles” with the press, have taken a toll on the combative spin doctor who coined the phrase “alternative facts.”
While she made a name for herself as one of Trump’s sharpest defenders, her husband, prominent Washington lawyer George Conway, is a strident critic of the president, repeatedly and loudly questioning his mental fitness for office.
“I will be transitioning from the White House at the end of this month,” she said in a statement.
“George is also making changes. We disagree about plenty but we are united on what matters most: the kids.”
She said their four children would be starting the new academic year remotely.
“As millions of parents nationwide know, kids ‘doing school from home’ requires a level of attention and vigilance that is as unusual as these times,” she said.
“For now, and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mama.”
Her announcement came a day after her 15-year-old daughter Claudia tweeted that she was “devastated” that her mother would speak at the Republican convention, and pledged to seek legal emancipation “due to years of childhood trauma and abuse.”
‘Alternative facts’
Separately, George Conway said he would be stepping back from the Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump Republicans he co-founded, and taking a break from Twitter, which he frequently used to assail the president.
The dislike was mutual, with Trump calling him the “husband from hell.”
Kellyanne Conway came to prominence just days after Trump took office for coining the term “alternative facts” while defending the debunked White House claim that the 45th president’s inauguration crowd was larger than Obama’s.
In 2017 she referred to a non-existent terrorist attack, “the Bowling Green massacre,” to defend Trump’s immigration ban.
During Trump’s term she was both famous and notorious for sparring with the media, often by finding a way to change the topic, turn the question back on the reporter, or merely complain.
She did all of it with a flamboyant fashion sense — snake-skin pattern dress one day, a bright red one the next — standing out in an often-gray city.
Her work led her at one point to be depicted on the long-running U.S. comedy show Saturday Night Live as “Kellywise”, a spoof of the murderous, sewer-dwelling clown from horror novel and film “It”.
A lawyer and pollster by training, she also stuck out her White House role while a parade of other aides was forced out, quit or left in humiliation.
In her statement, Conway described her time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as “heady” and “humbling” and said her departure was her call.
“This is completely my choice and my voice. In time, I will announce future plans.”
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By Polityk | 08/24/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden: Trump ‘Walked Away’ from COVID Crisis
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says he isn’t blaming President Donald Trump for the coronavirus outbreak, but he does blame him for “walking away” from the crisis. “The idea of saying that this is going to go away, that some miracle is going to happen is unrealistic,” Biden said, adding that Trump has repeatedly promoted “crazy” treatments and “hasn’t listened to the scientists.” Biden and his vice presidential running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, spoke to ABC News television in an interview broadcast Sunday night. It was their first joint interview since teaming up for the Democratic ticket. The interview was conducted last Friday, the day after the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention. On Sunday evening, Trump announced he had helped to end a regulatory logjam and prompted the federal Food and Drug Administration to grant emergency authorization of so-called convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Trump called it a “powerful therapy” with “an incredible rate of success, although government scientists said the treatment needs further study.Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar speaks during a media briefing in the James Brady Briefing Room of the White House, Aug. 23, 2020, in Washington.On Monday, Republicans begin their national convention to nominate Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for a second term. Trump and his supporters are certain to cite the FDA emergency authorization of the treatment, which uses antibodies from the blood of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 to treat the disease in others, as a prime example of Trump’s leadership in fighting the pandemic. Biden said that if elected president, he would follow the advice of public health experts, including shutting down the nation’s economy again if that is what it takes to stem the coronavirus pandemic. “I would be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives. We cannot get the country moving until we control the virus,” Biden said. He also called on governors to require the wearing of face masks. To those who refuse to wear masks, Biden said, “give me a break.” He called the wearing of masks a patriotic responsibility for Americans to protect their neighbors by not passing along the virus. Biden said the president hasn’t listened to public health experts and scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and instead has suggested people do “crazy things” like consuming disinfectant to kill the coronavirus. Biden said he has been pleading with the president to devise a national plan, saying Trump has no notion how to reach Americans.Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden watch fireworks during the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 20, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del.Harris dismissed as a “distraction” any talk about the sharp words she had with Biden during one of the Democratic presidential debates over the matter of school busing. She said Biden understands that Black families own only one-tenth of the wealth that whites do, and that Blacks and Hispanics are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as whites. Harris and Biden also downplayed differences they had on issues such as health care. Harris supported a Medicare-for-all type insurance system while Biden, who as his vice president helped President Barack Obama enact the Affordable Care Act, wants to add a public option to the existing private insurance markets. “We both believe that health care is a right, not a privilege,” Biden said. Harris said she would be honored to serve as Biden’s vice president and says the call to be his running mate was a “surreal” moment. Biden said he did not feel pressure to choose a Black woman to run with him but added that women make up 51% of the country’s population and that “the government should look like the people, look like the country.” When questioned about whether a 78-year-old man is mentally prepared to become president of the United States – and possibly serve until he is 86 years old — Biden said, “watch me.”
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By Polityk | 08/24/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Releases Commercial Aimed at Indian American Voters
U.S. President Donald Trump has released a campaign commercial, undoubtedly aimed at winning support from the country’s Indian American voters.Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, has chosen a woman of South Asian descent as his vice presidential running mate. Kamala Harris, a U.S. senator from California, is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants. Her late mother was from India and her father is Jamaican.Biden’s choice has been widely celebrated by Indians around the world.Trump senior adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle posted the commercial on Twitter on Saturday and tweeted: “America enjoys a great relationship with India and our campaign enjoys great support from Indian Americans.”The video features footage of Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi walking hand in hand and quick clips of each speaking.
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By Polityk | 08/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Melania Trump Hosts Official Reopening of White House Rose Garden
U.S. first lady Melania Trump hosted the official reopening of the White House Rose Garden on Saturday. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence attended the event.“The changes you see tonight are the result of a thoughtful and collaborative process carefully crafted with the help of scholars and experts in architecture, horticulture, design, and historic preservation,” said the first lady, who is scheduled Tuesday to deliver her Republican National Convention speech from the garden.“The Rose Garden layout we have all come to know and treasure was designed during the [former U.S. President John F.] Kennedy administration by Bunny Mellon,” she said. “For 60 years, this space has served as the backdrop for many important events. The garden has also served as a peaceful outdoor escape for many administrations and their guests.”The late Mellon was a famed American horticulturalist and philanthropist.The revamping of the garden includes the planting of more pastel flowers and a limestone walking path. Other changes make the grounds more accessible to people with disabilities.The project was paid for by private donations, but the White House has not revealed the costs.
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By Polityk | 08/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Pompeo, Kushner to Mideast as US Presses Arab-Israeli Peace
The Trump administration will send two top officials to the Middle East this week in a bid to capitalize on momentum from the historic agreement between Israeli and the United Arab Emirates to establish diplomatic relations.Three diplomats say Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner plan to make separate, multiple-nation visits to the region in the coming days to push Arab-Israeli rapprochement in the aftermath of the Israel-UAE deal.Pompeo is expected to depart on Sunday for Israel, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Sudan, according to the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the itinerary has not yet been finalized or publicly announced. Kushner plans to leave later in the week for Israel, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, the diplomats said.Neither trip is expected to result in announcements of immediate breakthrough, the diplomats said, although both are aimed at finalizing at least one, and potentially more, normalization deals with Israel in the near future.Pompeo also plans to meet in Qatar with members of the Talban to discuss intra-Afghan peace talks that are key to the withdrawal of remaining U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the diplomats said.The White House and State Department had no comment on the planned trips, which will come as the administration steps up efforts to push for Arab-Israeli normalization even without a resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.They also come as the administration has taken the controversial step of triggering the restoration of all international sanctions on Iran, something that only Israel and the Gulf Arab nations have publicly supported.Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced on August 13 they would establish full diplomatic relations, in a U.S.-brokered deal that required Israel to halt its contentious plan to annex occupied West Bank land sought by the Palestinians.The historic agreement delivered a key foreign policy victory to Trump as he seeks reelection and reflected a changing Middle East in which shared concerns about archenemy Iran have largely overtaken traditional Arab support for the Palestinians.U.S. and Israeli officials have suggested that more Arab nations may soon follow the UAE’s lead, with Bahrain and Oman believed to be closest to sealing such deals.
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By Polityk | 08/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Says Democrats’ Convention Was ‘Gloomiest’ in History
President Donald Trump sought to cast a more positive light on his presidency Friday after four days of bashing at the Democratic National Convention, saying that where Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden sees “American darkness,” he sees “American greatness.”The four-day Democratic National Convention culminated with Biden describing “a perfect storm” hitting the nation under Trump’s watch as a result of the pandemic, the jolt to the economy that it delivered and racial unrest after the death of George Floyd. It comes as Republicans are still finalizing plans for Trump’s four-night show next week — in part in response to the virtual Democratic event.”Over the last week, the Democrats held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history,” Trump said in a speech to the GOP-aligned Council for National Policy in Arlington. “They spent four straight days attacking America as racist, a horrible country that must be redeemed.”Biden, in his nomination acceptance speech, portrayed Trump as someone who tries to divide Americans. “United we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America,” he said.Trump, in recent speeches, has referenced unrest and violence in American cities and positioned himself as a defender of law and order. He did so again Friday, saying that if he loses, “no one will be safe in our country and no one will be spared.”Trump and the Democrats agreed on one thing, however. Just as the Democrats had repeatedly contended Thursday night, Trump declared, “The future of our country and indeed our civilization is at stake on Nov. 3.”He chided the Democrats, saying their convention did not address the threat that China posed to the U.S. or bringing safety to Democratic-run cities. He also jabbed at former President Barack Obama, saying, “You can’t be a great president when much of what he has done we have undone.”President Donald Trump speaks to the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting, Aug. 21, 2020, in Arlington, Va.As preparations for Trump’s unprecedented acceptance speech were underway on the South Lawn of the White House, Republican Party planners were still finalizing the sequencing of next week’s Republican National Convention. Organizers and Trump himself were said to be closely monitoring the Democratic event for what worked and what didn’t, hoping that will provide them an advantage in putting together the Republican convention.While most of the program has yet to be announced, some details were emerging. First lady Melania Trump is to speak on Tuesday evening from the White House Rose Garden, while Vice President Mike Pence will speak Wednesday from Baltimore’s Fort McHenry. Other speakers include Trump-allied GOP lawmakers, as well as the St. Louis couple who waved firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home in June.Patricia and Mark McCloskey, who are white, have claimed they were protecting themselves from protesters marching on their private street, but they were each charged by a local prosecutor with one felony count of unlawful use of a weapon. Trump has been critical of their treatment and has spoken out in defense of the couple.Trump, a former reality television host, has high production standards, though meeting them will be a challenge for the GOP. Trump resisted efforts to move to a virtual convention, going so far as to shift venues in an effort to carry on with an in-person gathering, so Republicans have had less time to plan than the Democrats did.Trump repeatedly criticized Democrats’ reliance on pretaped videos, rather than live addresses, and GOP organizers were adjusting their plans to accommodate. “Live, by the way, is always much more exciting,” he said Tuesday.Vice President Mike Pence listens to a reporter’s question during a meeting with President Donald Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in the Oval Office of the White House, Aug. 20, 2020.Pence said in an interview Friday that the RNC next week will focus on what Trump has accomplished, including on the economy and with his coronavirus response.Pence promised a heavy focus on GOP support for law and order and said the Democrats had failed to acknowledge violence plaguing some U.S. cities.”We’re going to make sure that the American people see the choice here,” Pence said.Both Trump and Pence have blamed outbreaks of violence on a radical left, which they have sought to associate with Biden and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris.Trump made clear after the death of Floyd, a Black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis, and the protests that called for changes to policing that he sides with law enforcement. He said there are always going to be “bad apples.””We’re with them and they’re with us, and they’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump said.Trump also gave his starkest warnings yet about the impact that mail-in voting could have on the election, saying the final results may not be known for an extended period.”I don’t think you’ll know two weeks later. I don’t think you’ll know four weeks later,” Trump said.Pence appeared on morning TV talk shows to counter Democrats and promote the Republican viewpoint hours after Democrats wrapped their virtual four-day convention. He promised a “great lineup of leaders” next week, along with a “great number of voices from all across the country to talk about what this president has done.”The Democrats argued at their convention that Trump is unfit to lead the country for another four years. Obama, a frequent target of Trump’s broadsides, warned that democracy itself is at risk under Trump.
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By Polityk | 08/22/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
