Розділ: Політика
Gov. Andrew Cuomo Book on COVID-19 Response Out in October
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has gained a national following through his management of the coronavirus pandemic, is writing a book that looks back on his experiences, and includes leadership advice and a close look at his relationship with the administration of President Donald Trump.
Crown announced Tuesday that Cuomo’s “American Crisis” will be released Oct. 13, three weeks before Election Day, when Trump is expected to face presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
The news comes the day after Cuomo addressed the Democratic National Convention and called the virus’ spread a metaphor for a country weakened by division. New York State has one of the lowest infection rates in the U.S., a welcome contrast to the spring, when it had one of the highest.
“In his own voice, Andrew Cuomo chronicles in ‘American Crisis’ the ingenuity and sacrifice required of so many to fight the pandemic,” according to Crown, “sharing his personal reflections and the decision-making that shaped his policy, and offers his frank accounting and assessment of his interactions with the federal government and the White House, as well as other state and local political and health officials.”
Cuomo had said last month that he was thinking of a book, commenting during a radio interview on WAMC that he wanted to document the “entire experience, because if we don’t learn from this then it will really compound the whole crisis that we’ve gone through.”
In an excerpt from “American Crisis” that Crown shared with The Associated Press, Cuomo emphasized the importance of confronting fear.
“The questions are what do you do with the fear and would you succumb to it,” he wrote. “I would not allow the fear to control me. The fear kept my adrenaline high and that was a positive. But I would not let the fear be a negative, and I would not spread it. Fear is a virus also.”
Financial terms for “American Crisis” were not disclosed. Cuomo was represented by Washington attorney Robert Barnett, whose other clients include former President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush. Cuomo is also the author of “All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life,” which came out in 2014.
Cuomo, currently serving his third term, has been praised for his blunt, straightforward press conferences, and for a time was even mentioned as a possible presidential candidate. His style has differed notably from the more erratic approach of President Trump, a Republican with whom he has clashed often. Cuomo has said that Trump is “in denial” about the severity of the pandemic and has faulted him for ignoring advice from scientists. Trump has blamed Cuomo’s “poor management” for New York’s tens of thousands COVID-19 fatalities.
Cuomo has received some of his strongest criticism for the thousands of virus-related deaths at New York nursing homes. A recent AP investigation found that the state’s death toll of nursing home patients, already among the highest in the nation, could be significantly more than reported. Unlike every other state with major outbreaks, only New York explicitly says that it counts just residents who died on nursing home property and not those who were transported to hospitals and died there.
So far, Cuomo’s administration has declined to release the number. The governor has called criticism of nursing home deaths politically motivated.
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By Polityk | 08/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Democratic Party Foreign Policy Includes China Criticism, International Alliances
The Democratic Party’s proposed platform criticizes China’s trade practices, proposes less spending on national defense, and opposes “forever wars” as it seeks to lay out the party’s foreign policy goals and highlight differences with President Donald Trump. The 80-page platform, which is to be adopted at the Democratic convention this week, is largely symbolic because the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden does not have to endorse its positions. However, the platform provides an official outline of the party’s vision and policy priorities. It was crafted by a panel of Democratic leaders, including Biden’s last remaining challenger for the Democratic nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders, and seeks to bridge the gap between the party’s progressive wing that includes Sanders, and Biden’s more moderate approach. The proposed platform maintains the broad policy priorities of Biden, who is expected to accept the Democratic nomination Thursday from his home state of Delaware.China criticismChina has become one of the central foreign policy issues in the 2020 presidential race, heightened by President Donald Trump’s trade war with the country as well as the coronavirus pandemic, which originated there.Biden: Conflict With China Not InevitableUS vice president’s trip to Asia overshadowed by concerns about China’s recent establishment of air defense identification zone over East China SeaIn their party platform, Democrats took a strong stance against China’s trade policies and sought to portray Trump’s efforts against the country as not tough enough. “Unlike President Trump, we will stand up to efforts from China and other state actors to steal America’s intellectual property and will demand China and other countries cease and desist from conducting cyberespionage against our companies,” the draft platform reads.The platform also criticizes billions of dollars of tariffs Trump imposed on Chinese goods in an effort to negotiate a trade deal with China, calling his trade policies “reckless” and saying they hurt American farmers. Trump has sought to confront China on a number of issues, including trade, currency manipulation, and China’s military aggressiveness in the South China Sea. He has also said China must be held accountable for the coronavirus pandemic. The United States and China signed the first phase of a trade deal in January, but negotiations on a second phase have stalled. Biden has criticized China’s “abusive” trade practices along with its human rights record. He has stressed the need to work with international allies to counter China.International alliancesCharles Stevenson, a professor of American foreign policy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), argues that the most significant foreign policy difference between Trump and Biden is that “Trump has practiced an assertive unilateralism” while Biden has made clear he wants to return to an “international, cooperative, pro-alliance” model of diplomacy that was prominent in previous administrations.Trump has approached foreign diplomacy much differently than most past presidents, publicly questioning the value of international alliances and organizations, including the North American Treaty Organization, the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization. The Democratic Party devotes several pages of its platform to the topic of international alliances. It accuses Trump of having “attacked the sources of our strength, hollowed out American diplomacy, shredded international commitments, weakened our alliances, and tarnished our credibility.”It promises to repair what it sees as broken relationships with governments across the world, including in Europe and Africa. On Africa, it accuses the Trump administration of treating the continent with “neglect and contempt.”Biden has focused many of his foreign policy plans on rebuilding close relationships with allies and cooperating with international institutions.Defense and troop levelsThe Democratic platform calls for reducing military spending, a sharp contrast to Trump, who has championed an increase in defense spending and has warned that Democrats will weaken the military. “We can maintain a strong defense and protect our safety and security for less,” the platform reads, calling for annual audits of the Pentagon and an end to what the party sees as the department’s “waste and fraud.”The platform also calls for bringing “forever wars to a responsible end.”Both Biden and Trump have promised to decrease U.S. troop levels overseas.US Troop Size in Afghanistan Will Reduce to 4,000 ‘Very Soon’, Trump Says Taliban officials say their deputy leader discussed the state of Afghan peace process with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday Trump has reduced troop levels in Afghanistan to 8,600 from about 12,000 as part of a U.S.-Taliban deal signed earlier this year. In June, he announced that he would reduce U.S. troop levels in Germany by 9,500 from a total of 34,500. However, Trump has struggled to fulfill a 2016 campaign promise to reduce overall U.S. troop deployments overseas.Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia, says the Republican Party has routinely been seen as more hawkish than the Democratic Party, but said an argument can be made that Trump was less hawkish than his Democratic challenger in 2016, Hillary Clinton, who was criticized for her vote in favor of the Iraq war. Kondik said the same case could be made by Trump against Biden, who also voted in favor of the Iraq war when he was a senator.On Yemen, the Democratic platform calls for ending support for the Saudi-led war in that country. And on Iran, it rejects “regime change” as a U.S. policy goal there.November electionWhile foreign policy issues can lead to fierce debates between the parties, they seldom are a top issue for U.S. voters. “Given the pandemic, they are even less likely to have an impact” on this year’s election, Stevenson said.The economy was ranked the most important issue in an August poll by the Pew Research Center, with 79% of registered voters saying it was very important to their vote. The next top issues were health care and Supreme Court appointments. Foreign policy issues ranked sixth on the list, with 57% of registered voters saying it was very important to their vote.
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By Polityk | 08/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Democrats Seek Unity in Virtual Convention
Democrats appealed for party unity Monday as they reached out to voters across the United States in the first night of a virtual convention that will name their nominee for the November election. Former Vice President Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris, a senator from California, will get the party’s nod later this week, and as Mike O’Sullivan reports, the televised event is intended to generate excitement as the election campaign enters its final phase.
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By Polityk | 08/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Prominent Republicans Endorse Biden at Democratic Convention
John Kasich, the former Republican governor of Ohio, crossed party lines on Monday to speak at the Democratic National Convention in support of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. “I’m a lifelong Republican, but that attachment holds second place to my responsibility to my country. That’s why I’ve chosen to appear at this convention. In normal times, something like this would probably never happen, but these are not normal times,” Kasich said in his prerecorded speech on the opening night of the four-day Democratic Party convention. Kasich, who was one of President Donald Trump’s toughest rivals for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and was the last to drop out of the race, is perhaps the most prominent Republican to both oppose Trump’s reelection and support Biden. His speech, while clearly welcomed by the Biden campaign, was dismissed as self-serving and disloyal by some conservative Republicans. Even a few progressive Democrats complained Kasich was being given an undeserved spotlight on the first night of the convention. Anti-Trump conservative A lifelong Republican, Kasich was an unbending, brash conservative when he served as a congressman in the 1990s. He became House Budget Committee chairman under Republican Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, and engaged in contentious negotiations with then-Democratic President Bill Clinton to enact welfare reform, tax cuts and a balanced budget. Kasich was also a supporter of the Tea Party movement in 2010 that opposed former Democratic President Barack Obama’s effort to expand Medicaid, a government supported health care program for the poor.In this image from video, former Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks during the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 17, 2020.Later, as a two-term governor of Ohio, Kasich pivoted to a more moderate and practical stance, compromising with the opposition to get legislation passed and ultimately agreeing to expand Medicaid in his state. Kasich has been a frequent critic of Trump’s America First policies, especially protectionist trade practices, restrictive immigration regulations and what he called the president’s “divisive” tactics that have heightened political polarization in the country. Kasich supported President Trump’s impeachment for allegedly holding up aid to Ukraine to get political dirt on Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Trump was ultimately acquitted of the charges in a Senate trial that ended Feb. 5. In 2016, Kasich said he did not vote for Trump, but could not support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton either. Instead, he cast his vote for former Senator John McCain of Arizona, who was the 2008 Republican nominee. McCain died in August 2018. At the opening of this week’s Democratic convention, Kasich along with other disaffected Republicans — former New York Congresswoman Susan Molinari, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and Meg Whitman, CEO of Quibi — came to express support for Biden and try to persuade other Republicans to also cross over to vote for the Democratic candidate. “I know that Joe Biden, with his experience and his wisdom and his decency, can bring us together to help us find that better way,” Kasich said. The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump, Republican-led political action committee, has also released ads supporting Biden’s campaign. “They’re more or less creating this permission gateway for Republicans to feel OK about not voting for the Republican nominee,” Republican strategist Rob Stutzman said in an interview with VOA. No Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Kasich’s home state of Ohio. In the 2016 general election, Trump won Ohio by more than 8 percentage points over Clinton. Recent polls in Ohio indicate a very close race with Biden and Trump within 1 or 2 percentage points of the other.President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he finishes speaking during an event at the Whirlpool Corporation facility in Clyde, Ohio, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020.Kasich’s Critics The Trump campaign has downplayed Kasich’s defection, and critics say Kasich is driven by his future presidential ambitions. “Did he ever stop running for president? Did he officially drop out in 2016 or is he still actually running?” conservative talk show host Ben Shapiro asked during a recent interview with the Associated Press. Barry Bennett, a Republican consultant who worked for multiple Ohio Republicans, described Kasich as an “unemployed politician desperately seeking audience,” in an interview with the newspaper Roll Call. Some progressive Democrats, however, were also upset that the conservative Kasich, who supports abortion restrictions and opposes their expansive agenda to establish universal health care and increase economic assistance programs, was given a prime time speaking slot at the convention. Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rising progressive star in the party who only was given one minute to speak at the convention, on Monday tweeted that while Kasich is welcome to voice his support for Biden, “a Republican who fights against women’s rights doesn’t get to say who is or isn’t representative of the Dem party.” Political crossovers While rare for a prominent party leader to speak at an opposing party convention, it is not unprecedented. Then-Democratic Senator Zell Miller of Georgia endorsed President George W. Bush’s re-election at the Republican National Convention in 2004. Then-Senator Joe Lieberman from Connecticut, who had been the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, spoke at the Republican convention eight years later to support Senator McCain. And in 2016, Michael Bloomberg, who had been a Republican mayor of New York City, gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention supporting Hillary Clinton.
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By Polityk | 08/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Michelle Obama Calls Trump ‘Wrong President for Our Country’ as Democrats Open Convention
Former first lady Michelle Obama hailed presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as a capable leader for a country of “compassionate, resilient, decent people,” while sharply criticizing President Donald Trump as lacking the ability to understand the feelings and experiences of others. Capping the first of four nights of an extraordinary virtual Democratic national convention on Monday, Obama strongly argued that Trump had failed to adequately respond to economic and social crises and the coronavirus pandemic at home while turning away from international alliances built by previous administrations. “Let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can,” she said in a prerecorded speech. “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head.” “He cannot meet this moment,” she added, in delivering the keynote address of the opening night. “He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us.” Trump ridiculed the Democratic effort during a stop at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport earlier Monday, en route to a political gathering in Mankato, Minnesota. “When you hear a speech is taped, it’s like there’s nothing very exciting about it, right?” Trump said to laughs from his supporters.President Donald Trump waves as he steps off Air Force One upon arrival, Monday, Aug. 17, 2020, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Trump is returning from Minnesota and Wisconsin.Virtual convention The coronavirus pandemic pushed the Democratic Party to abandon its plans to hold this week’s nominating convention in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, shifting instead to a virtual event with a mix of taped and lived remarks with politicians, celebrities and citizens from different parts of the country. Next week, Republicans will hold their convention in much the same manner, with limited convention activity in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Trump making his presidential renomination acceptance speech from the White House. Obama headed a parade of prominent Democrats and lesser-known Americans – as well as a handful of dissident Republicans — who spent more than two hours praising Biden as the man best suited for addressing a historic public health, economic and racial justice crisis while portraying Trump as incapable of meeting the challenges. Biden served as vice president for eight years under Obama’s husband, former President Barack Obama. Michelle Obama cast Biden as capable of meeting the country’s current challenges. “I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man, guided by faith,” Michelle Obama said. “He was a terrific vice president. He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country. She cited the country’s ongoing battle with the novel coronavirus that has killed more people in the United States than any other nation, the millions of people who have lost their jobs, and the protests against racial inequality and police brutality that have taken place in cities all across the country. “Whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy,” Michelle Obama said.In this image from video, former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 17, 2020.Republican figures Monday night featured several Republican figures, including former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and one-time presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, making unusual appearances at the opposing party’s convention to endorse Biden as a better choice for the country than Trump. Former Ohio Governor John Kasich, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, said the country is “at a crossroads” and being led down “the wrong road” by a president who has pitted one person against another. “Joe Biden is a man for our times,” Kasich said. “Times that call for all of us to take off our partisan hats and put our nation first for ourselves, and of course, for our children.” The first night of the four-night convention also included statements of support from many of the Democrats who last year joined in what became a crowded field for the party’s nomination to take on Trump in November.Virtual crowd applauds former first lady Michelle Obama on the all virtual 2020 Democratic Convention hosted from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Aug. 18, 2020.The last candidate opposite Biden in the race, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, said the nation is facing an “unprecedented moment” with a number of challenges, including the coronavirus pandemic, systemic racism and climate change. “We have a president who is not only incapable of addressing these crises but is also leading us down the path of authoritarianism,” Sanders said. In a nod to the role he and his staff have had in shaping the party’s platform since he dropped out of the race, Sanders said, “Many of the ideas we fought for, that just a few years ago were considered radical, are now mainstream.” He highlighted several policy issues, including Biden’s support for a higher minimum wage, making it easier for workers to join unions, paid family leave, universal early education, affordable child care, rebuilding infrastructure and fighting climate change. “The truth is that, even before Trump’s negligent response to this pandemic, too many hard-working families have been caught on an economic treadmill with no hope of ever getting ahead. Together we must build a nation that is more equitable, more compassionate and more inclusive,” Sanders said. “I know that Joe Biden will begin that fight on day one.”In this image from video, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 17, 2020.Mail-in ballots Several of the night’s speakers also addressed Trump’s stated opposition to expanding voter access to casting ballots by mail, something many states are allowing in order to have fewer people show up to polling sites amid the pandemic. Those voicing support for such voting, and the U.S. Postal Service, included Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. “Despite what the president says, voting by mail has been a secure, proven option for decades,” she said. “In 2016, 33 million Americans voted by mail. Even Donald Trump has requested an absentee ballot twice this year.” The convention continues Tuesday with former President Bill Clinton, Biden’s wife, Jill, former Secretary of State John Kerry and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer among the speakers. Biden’s vice presidential running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris — the first Black woman and first South Asian American on a national party ticket in the U.S – anchors the Wednesday night lineup, along with former President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Biden is set to officially accept the party’s nomination Thursday night. He plans to give his address in his home state of Delaware with only aides and political advisers present. Meanwhile, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are visiting several political battleground states this week to try to upstage the Democrats, including a stop Thursday by Trump near where Biden grew up in the northeastern Pennsylvania city of Scranton.
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By Polityk | 08/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Takes Campaign to Midwest as Democrats Kick Off Convention Week
On the day the Democratic Party began its virtual convention, the incumbent Republican president, Donald Trump, brought his campaign to the heart of the upper Midwest. In campaign-style stops at airports in Minnesota and Wisconsin on Monday — replicating the rock music soundtracks of his “Make America Great Again” political rallies — the president, speaking to invited clusters of supporters on the tarmacs, accused his presumptive election opponent of being a clueless puppet of “left-wing fascists.” A victory by the opposition party in November, Trump warned, would mean open borders, economic collapse and other perceived calamities. Supporters cheer as President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Wittman Airport in Oshkosh, Wis., Aug. 17, 2020.“In Joe Biden’s America, the protections of American citizenship will be stripped away, and your community will be left at the mercy of the mob,” the president told the outdoor audience at the airport in Mankato, Minnesota. Later, during a similar event on the tarmac at the airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Trump said “no one will be a safe in Biden-run America” because the former vice president and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, “are pro-crime and anti-cop.” Trump was competitive in Minnesota in 2016; Hillary Clinton barely won the state. “It is clear that to the extent that the president has a strategy, it is the old ploy to play up the fears of white middle class beset by protests, riots and changing demography,” Jennifer Delton, a history professor at Skidmore College, told VOA. “The George Floyd protests, the concurrent riots and resulting property damage, and continued calls to ‘defund’ police are all disturbing and uncomfortable realities” for many in Minnesota of the older baby boomer generation, regardless of their political leaning. Minnesota was, for much of the 20th century, a bastion of the progressive liberal tradition out of which emerged two vice presidents from the Democratic Party: Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale. But since the 1980s, that tradition has been challenged by a variety of conservatives. “At the same time, the state has become incredibly diverse with strong, politically active Hmong and Somali communities,” Delton said. President Donald Trump speaks to a crowd of supporters at Mankato Regional Airport in Mankato, Minn., Aug. 17, 2020.In addition to the airport visits in Minneapolis and Mankato in Minnesota and Oshkosh in Wisconsin, the president is to go to the southwestern border city of Yuma in Arizona on Tuesday. Two days later, he is scheduled to be near Biden’s boyhood home in the northeastern city of Scranton, Pennsylvania. That will occur the same day Biden makes his presidential nomination acceptance speech from neighboring Delaware. In his successful 2016 campaign for the White House, Trump reveled in the cheers from sign-waving supporters at large public rallies. But both the Trump and Biden public campaigns have been sharply curtailed this year by the coronavirus pandemic and the need to keep their adherents socially distanced from each other. The change, which Trump blames on China allowing the coronavirus to escape Wuhan, was lamented by the president Monday. Because of the risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus, the president said that when candidates give speeches now, “you have to stand two football fields away” from the audience. A supporter watches as President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Wittman Airport in Oshkosh, Wis., Aug. 17, 2020.Trump attempted to stage an arena-sized rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June, but the crowd that showed up was far short of his campaign’s expectations. One of the prominent attendees, former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who did not wear a mask at the event, later died of COVID-19. This week’s swing through the four states reflects the new reality of downsized events that are the antithesis of U.S. presidential campaigns of yesteryears. Trump, who for months has been trailing Biden in national polls, is hoping to limit a further political fall-off generated by the virtual Democratic convention, where party luminaries for four days will extol Biden and pillory Trump’s 3½ years as president, particularly his handling of the pandemic and early-2020 predictions that the virus will disappear. “The China plague will fade, but we will not forget,” Trump stated in Mankato on Monday. The United States, with nearly 5.5 million coronavirus cases, also has the most reported COVID-19 deaths of any country –- more than 170,000. The president prefers to dwell on other matters during his campaign-style events. On Monday, he spoke about rebuilding the economy a second time after the pandemic hit. “You know what that is?” Trump asked. “That’s right. That’s God testing me. He said, ‘You know, you did it once.’ And I said, ‘Did I do a great job, God? I’m the only one that could do it.’ He said, ‘That, you shouldn’t say. Now we’re going to have you do it again.’” Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 08/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Democrats Meeting Virtually, United Against Trump
U.S. Democrats open their national convention Monday night, a four-day virtual affair amid a coronavirus pandemic they hope will help push former Vice President Joe Biden to victory over President Donald Trump in the November election.FILE – Former Vice President Joe Biden.Former first lady Michelle Obama, progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich, a Trump critic, are among those scheduled to make the case for the 77-year-old Biden on the convention’s first night.Months ago, Sanders was the last candidate standing in the way of Biden’s ascendant path to the Democratic presidential nomination.In a segment of Obama’s taped message released ahead of the gathering, she described Biden as “a profoundly decent man, guided by faith.In this image from video, former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 17, 2020.“He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country,” Obama said. “And he listens. He will tell the truth and trust science. He will govern as someone who’s lived a life that the rest of us can recognize.”None of the speakers will be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Democrats had planned to stage their quadrennial convention. Instead, they will appear in taped presentations or live online from their homes across the U.S. Technicians at television control panels will attempt to make it look like a convention of sorts to hold the attention of millions of voters.Watch the convention liveSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE PHOTO: Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) takes the stage at the New Hampshire Democratic Party state convention in Manchester, New Hampshire, Sept. 7, 2019.An array of Democratic luminaries, including former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton, is set to extol the virtues of Biden and his vice-presidential running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris — the first Black woman and first South Asian American on a national party ticket in the U.S.Plans call for Biden to accept the party’s nomination Thursday night in his third run for the White House over three decades. This will be his first time as the party’s nominee.The convention will be a political event unlike any ever seen by living Americans, conducted online without the traditional hoopla of conventioneers cheering their nominee.Biden will accept the nomination in his home state of Delaware, with only aides and political advisers present.Meanwhile, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are visiting several political battleground states this week to try to upstage the Democrats, including a stop Thursday by Trump near where Biden grew up in the northeastern city of Scranton, Pennsylvania.As Biden enters the pivotal week, national surveys continue to show him leading Trump, as he has for months in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election. The aggregate compiled by RealClearPolitics shows Biden ahead by an average of nearly 8 percentage points, but less in key states that are expected to determine the overall outcome.U.S. presidential elections are not determined by the national popular vote but indirectly by the winners in each of the 50 states and the national capital of Washington, D.C., in the Electoral College.The biggest states, such as California with 55 electors and Texas with 38, hold the most sway in the Electoral College with a majority of the 270 of 538 electors needed to capture the presidency. Seven states and Washington, D.C., have the fewest — three electoral votes apiece.President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Aug. 17, 2020.In 2016, Trump lost the national popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes but won the presidency because he narrowly captured three states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — and their electoral votes.Polls show Biden ahead in all three of those states at the moment but by smaller margins than his overall national lead, giving Trump a plausible chance to pull ahead in the final weeks of the campaign, even if he again loses the popular vote.Biden defeated a large contingent of Democratic candidates, including Harris, whom he tapped last week as his running mate. She is the fourth woman to join a major national party ticket in the U.S. and would become the highest-ranking female leader in U.S. history if the Biden-Harris pairing wins.The three previous women on national party tickets — two vice-presidential candidates and Hillary Clinton four years ago — all lost.If Biden wins, he will be 78 on Inauguration Day in January, making him the oldest U.S. leader ever, topping Trump, who is 74.Biden has called himself “a bridge to the future,” and U.S. political analysts are predicting he might serve only one term. That would instantly make Harris a leading Democratic presidential contender in 2024.Democrats are showcasing an array of speakers, with each of the four convention nights organized around different themes: “We the People,” “Leadership Matters,” “A More Perfect Union” and “America’s Promise.”Former President Clinton, Biden’s wife, Jill, former Secretary of State John Kerry and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer are among the speakers Tuesday night.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, former President Obama and Harris are speaking Wednesday night.
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By Polityk | 08/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Q&A: What’s Happening at the US Postal Service, And Why?
The U.S. Postal Service is warning states it cannot guarantee that all ballots cast by mail for the Nov. 3 election will arrive in time to be counted, even if ballots are mailed by state deadlines. That’s raising the possibility that millions of voters could be disenfranchised.
It’s the latest chaotic and confusing development involving the agency, which has found itself in the middle of a high-stakes election year debate over who gets to vote in America, and how. Those questions are particularly potent in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, which has led many Americans to consider voting by mail instead of heading to in-person polling places.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends mail ballots as a way to vote without risking exposure to the virus at the polls. But President Donald Trump has baselessly excoriated mail ballots as fraudulent, worried that an increase could cost him the election.
Democrats have been more likely than Republicans to vote by mail in primary contests held so far this year.
Some questions and answers about what’s going on with the post office and the upcoming election:What’s Wrong With The Post Office?
The Post Office has lost money for years, though advocates note it’s a government service rather than a profit-maximizing business.
In June, Louis DeJoy, a Republican donor and logistics company executive, took over as the new postmaster general and Trump tasked him with trying to make the Postal Service more profitable. Doing so would also squeeze businesses such as Amazon. Its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, has come under criticism from Trump because of the coverage the president has received from The Washington Post, which Bezos owns.
DeJoy cut overtime, late delivery trips and other expenses that ensure mail arrives at its destination on time. The result has been a national slowdown of mail.
The Postal Service is hoping for a $10 billion infusion from Congress to continue operating, but talks between Democrats and Republicans over a broad pandemic relief package that could have included that money have broken down.
On Thursday, Trump frankly acknowledged that he’s starving the postal service of that money to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots. Trump on Saturday attempted to re-calibrate his position. He said that he supports more funding for the postal service but refuses to capitulate to other parts of the Democrats’ relief package — including funding for cash-strapped states.Why Does This Matter in An Election Year?
Mail-in ballots have exploded in popularity since the pandemic spread in mid-March, at the peak of primary season. Some states have seen the demand for mail voting increase fivefold or more during the primaries. Election officials are bracing for the possibility that half of all voters — or even more — will cast ballots by mail in November.
Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington state have universal mail voting, and California, Nevada and Vermont are starting universal mail voting in November. But the rest have little experience with such a volume of ballots cast through the mail.
Timely mail is key to voting by mail. In states without universal mail-in voting, applications for mail ballots are generally sent out to voters by mail. They’re returned, again, by mail. Then the actual ballots are sent to voters by mail, and returned, again, by mail, usually by Election Day.
Late last month, Thomas J. Marshall, the post office’s general counsel and executive vice president, sent states a letter warning that many of them have deadlines too tight to meet in this new world of slower mail.
Pennsylvania, for example, allows voters to request a mail ballot by Oct. 27. Marshall warned that voters there should put already completed ballots in the mail by that date to ensure they arrive by Nov. 3.
This has been a potential problem since the Obama administration, when the post office relaxed standards for when mail had to arrive. But it’s particularly acute when the volume of mail ballots is expected to explode in states such as Pennsylvania, which only approved an expansion of mail voting late last year. It’s also acute when the president has said openly he wants to limit votes by his rivals by keeping them from voting by mail.What Happens Next?
It’s unclear. The first question is whether there will be a coronavirus relief bill that could help fund the post office. Republicans and Democrats are far apart on the measure and Congress has gone home for a few weeks.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling the chamber back into session this week to address the Postal Service.
A vote is expected Saturday on legislation, the “Delivering for America Act,” that would prohibit any changes in mail delivery or services for 2020. Congress is on summer recess and had not been expected to return until September. The Senate remains away.
If there’s no resolution of the coronavirus aid, the matter is sure to come up during negotiations in September to continue to fund the federal government. The government will shut down if Trump doesn’t sign a funding bill by Sept. 30.
States can also act to change their mail balloting deadlines. That’s what Pennsylvania did this past week, with the state asking a court to move the deadline for receiving mail ballots back to three days after the Nov. 3 vote, provided the ballots were placed in the mail before polls close on Election Day.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and some other Democratic lawmakers are also seeking a review of DeJoy’s policy changes. In response to the letter, spokeswoman Agapi Doulaveris of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General said the office is “conducting a body of work to address the concerns raised.” She declined to elaborate.
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By Polityk | 08/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Delaware Residents Welcome Back Joe Biden as DNC Moves Online
The Democratic National Convention this year is entirely virtual, with speakers beamed in from locations around the country. But one small city that rarely gets national media attention is in the spotlight, presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden’s hometown. Esha Sarai reports from Wilmington, Delaware on how residents are anticipating all of the attention.Camera: Esha Sarai Produced by: Esha Sarai
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By Polityk | 08/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
A Century After Gaining Right to Vote, Do Women Still Face Voter Suppression?
Feminists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries fervently campaigned for women’s suffrage in the United States by organizing, petitioning and picketing. One hundred years ago this month they were finally granted the right to vote through passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. From the time the amendment was introduced to Congress in 1878, it took more than 40 years for it to be passed and then ratified by three-quarters of the states. The fight to vote goes back to the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Held at Weslyan Methodist Church, the convention was attended by an estimated 300 people, including abolitionist Frederick Douglass. No women of color were present. The church is now part of the Women’s Rights At the first women’s rights convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the principle author of the Declaration of Sentiments, a document that called for equality with men, including the right to vote.Delegates included Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the principle author of the Declaration of Sentiments, a document written at the convention calling for equality with men, including the right to vote.During the early 20th century, a new generation of women continued the struggle with protests, silent vigils, hunger strikes and parades. This parade took place by the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. in 1913.“They give speeches for women’s suffrage in public to rally male audiences and go into crowds of men at factory gates at lunchtime, and they often win them over,” DuBois said. Renewed momentum, along with President Woodrow Wilson changing his stance and supporting the amendment in 1918, eventually led to its passage two years later. A century later, many women still face voter suppression, says the League of Women Voters, including “forcing discriminatory voter ID and proof-of citizenship restrictions on eligible voters, reducing polling place hours in communities of color, and illegally purging voters from the rolls.” Inequalities like these and others may be alleviated through passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, proponents say, which was introduced to Congress in 1923, three years after women gained voting rights. The ERA was approved by the House of Representatives in 1971 and by the Senate in 1972. It was ratified by three-quarters of the states in January 2020 — years after the deadline. Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, argues that if the deadline was removed, the amendment that says “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex,” could become a part of the Constitution. Like women who fought for voting rights, Smeal said, “the Equal Rights Amendment is very important because it establishes that all women must be treated equally under our Constitution.” Among other things, she explains, it will end pay, education and insurance discrimination, and help prevent violence against women.
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By Polityk | 08/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
America Marks 100th Anniversary of Women’s Voting Rights
Feminists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries fervently campaigned for women’s suffrage in the United States by organizing, petitioning and picketing. One hundred years ago this month they were finally granted the right to vote through passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. From the time the amendment was introduced to Congress in 1878, it took more than 40 years for it to be passed and then ratified by three-quarters of the states. The fight to vote goes back to the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Held at Weslyan Methodist Church, the convention was attended by an estimated 300 people, including abolitionist Frederick Douglass. No women of color were present. The church is now part of the Women’s Rights At the first women’s rights convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the principle author of the Declaration of Sentiments, a document that called for equality with men, including the right to vote.Delegates included Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the principle author of the Declaration of Sentiments, a document written at the convention calling for equality with men, including the right to vote.During the early 20th century, a new generation of women continued the struggle with protests, silent vigils, hunger strikes and parades. This parade took place by the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. in 1913.“They give speeches for women’s suffrage in public to rally male audiences and go into crowds of men at factory gates at lunchtime, and they often win them over,” DuBois said. Renewed momentum, along with President Woodrow Wilson changing his stance and supporting the amendment in 1918, eventually led to its passage two years later. A century later, many women still face voter suppression, says the League of Women Voters, including “forcing discriminatory voter ID and proof-of citizenship restrictions on eligible voters, reducing polling place hours in communities of color, and illegally purging voters from the rolls.” Inequalities like these and others may be alleviated through passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, proponents say, which was introduced to Congress in 1923, three years after women gained voting rights. The ERA was approved by the House of Representatives in 1971 and by the Senate in 1972. It was ratified by three-quarters of the states in January 2020 — years after the deadline. Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, argues that if the deadline was removed, the amendment that says “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex,” could become a part of the Constitution. Like women who fought for voting rights, Smeal said, “the Equal Rights Amendment is very important because it establishes that all women must be treated equally under our Constitution.” Among other things, she explains, it will end pay, education and insurance discrimination, and help prevent violence against women.
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By Polityk | 08/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
100th Anniversary of US Women’s Voting Rights
Feminists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries fervently campaigned for women’s suffrage in the United States by organizing, petitioning and picketing. One hundred years ago this month they were finally granted the right to vote through passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. From the time the amendment was introduced to Congress in 1878, it took more than 40 years for it to be passed and then ratified by three-quarters of the states. The fight to vote goes back to the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Held at Weslyan Methodist Church, the convention was attended by an estimated 300 people, including abolitionist Frederick Douglass. No women of color were present. The church is now part of the Women’s Rights At the first women’s rights convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the principle author of the Declaration of Sentiments, a document that called for equality with men, including the right to vote.Delegates included Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the principle author of the Declaration of Sentiments, a document written at the convention calling for equality with men, including the right to vote.During the early 20th century, a new generation of women continued the struggle with protests, silent vigils, hunger strikes and parades. This parade took place by the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. in 1913.“They give speeches for women’s suffrage in public to rally male audiences and go into crowds of men at factory gates at lunchtime, and they often win them over,” DuBois said. Renewed momentum, along with President Woodrow Wilson changing his stance and supporting the amendment in 1918, eventually led to its passage two years later. A century later, many women still face voter suppression, says the League of Women Voters, including “forcing discriminatory voter ID and proof-of citizenship restrictions on eligible voters, reducing polling place hours in communities of color, and illegally purging voters from the rolls.” Inequalities like these and others may be alleviated through passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, proponents say, which was introduced to Congress in 1923, three years after women gained voting rights. The ERA was approved by the House of Representatives in 1971 and by the Senate in 1972. It was ratified by three-quarters of the states in January 2020 — years after the deadline. Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, argues that if the deadline was removed, the amendment that says “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex,” could become a part of the Constitution. Like women who fought for voting rights, Smeal said, “the Equal Rights Amendment is very important because it establishes that all women must be treated equally under our Constitution.” Among other things, she explains, it will end pay, education and insurance discrimination, and help prevent violence against women.
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By Polityk | 08/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
100th Anniversary of US Women’s Voting Rights
One hundred years ago in August, U.S. women were granted the right to vote through the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment was introduced to Congress in 1878 and took more than 40 years to be passed and ratified by three-quarters of the states. VOA’S Deborah Block looks at the history of the women’s suffrage movement and women’s equality today.Produced by: Deborah Block, Kim Weeks
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By Polityk | 08/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
7 Ways COVID-19 has Changed Politics
No roaring crowd will welcome former Vice President Joe Biden’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, and he may have to keep proper social distance from his vice presidential running mate, Kamala Harris.President Donald Trump, likewise, will not get the arena full of supporters he wanted at the Republican Party convention the following week — complete with colorful balloons cascading from the rafters. He may deliver his acceptance speech from the White House.Packing thousands of cheering, shouting party faithful indoors during a global respiratory pandemic would not be a good idea, both parties concluded. The speeches, parties and fundraisers are going virtual.Beginning Monday, the Democrats will hold four nights of televised speeches and party events from remote spots after abandoning Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as its convention city. The following Monday, August 24, several hundred Republican officials and delegates will gather briefly in Charlotte, North Carolina, to formally nominate Trump for a second term before departing.The disruptions of the biggest spectacles in American politics are just the latest symptoms of a political season upended by the coronavirus pandemic. Big rallies are canceled, as are the smaller fairs, festivals and farmers markets where politicians and party workers normally would be out canvassing.Traditional door-knocking, fundraising cocktail parties, handshaking and kissing of babies have largely gone by the wayside for now, and some of those practices may ultimately vanish. The 2020 pandemic-era election (hopefully) will be a unique experience. But some lessons are likely to carry over.For one, the conventions as grand events “may be a thing of the past,” American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Karlyn Bowman said.”People have argued that conventions are overrated, that they’re not that meaningful. People have argued that in-person rallies are not that meaningful,” senior fellow John Hudak at the Brookings Institution said. “We’re going to see whether that’s true or not this year.”After every election, experts try to parse out what worked and what didn’t. This year’s massive “natural experiment” is unique, Hudak said. “2020 is going to let us ask and answer a lot of really important questions about what is meaningful in a campaign.”Here are seven ways COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has changed the 2020 election so far.1. The top issueFor many voters, COVID-19 has changed what the election is about.Trump’s reelection campaign began the year with a tailwind. Unemployment was low and the economy was strong.”He could point to positive economic numbers and peace and prosperity,” said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.”COVID-19 changed all that.”Unemployment has risen to Great Depression levels, and the economy has contracted sharply. With more than 5.2 million cases and 166,000 deaths from the ailment, most voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Without the economy to run on, critics have said the president has struggled to articulate an argument for reelection.2. Shrunken conventionsThe usual theatrics of the party conventions will be scaled down dramatically, but experts say it may not make much of a difference.The conventions typically boost each candidate’s poll numbers a bit, but the “convention bump” usually is temporary, Bowman said.”I don’t think it has much of an impact on the final outcome,” she added.The impact could be even smaller this year because many voters have already made up their minds, Kondik noted. “All the partisans on both sides are pretty well lined up behind their respective party nominees.”The impacts may be greater for the parties themselves. The conventions are big fundraising events. Also, party activists will miss out on the bonding and “organic conversations” about goals and strategies that would happen at an in-person event, Hudak added.3. Canceled campaigningLike the conventions, big, in-person rallies may do more to fire up partisans than sway undecided voters.”Campaigns are going to need to figure out some other means of generating that enthusiasm,” Hudak said.Losing campaign rallies may hurt Trump more than Biden, he added. Trump enjoys and draws energy from them.”Not having those rallies, I think, not only hurts his ability to generate enthusiasm within his base,” he said, “I think it actually affects him personally.”The Biden campaign may suffer less from canceled rallies but more from the loss of in-person, hands-on campaigning. Biden is “sometimes accused of being a little too touchy-feely in his interactions with people,” Kondik said. “But he’s known as being kind of a warm person and someone who gets close to people, and he just can’t do that.”4. Virtual fundraisingNot only has the coronavirus canceled in-person campaigning, it has moved fund-raising online, too. No more pricey dinners with a chance to get close to the candidate. Donors have to settle for online video chats instead.It doesn’t seem to have hurt.”I see very little impact whatsoever on fundraising,” Bowman said.Neither party is hurting for cash. The candidates and their backers have raised more than $1.6 billion so far, according to a tally by National Public Radio.5. Get-out-the-vote drivesNormally, armies of campaign workers would be fanning out across the country to knock on doors and encourage voters to go to the polls. Those activities have been scaled way back. For example, many labor unions, which usually would provide legions of workers to back Democratic campaigns, have canceled in-person get-out-the-vote activities.While both parties are leaning heavily on television, mail and digital advertising, the Trump campaign is still out knocking on doors. Republicans generally have shown less concern about the pandemic.Door-knocking has a small but significant effect on voter turnout, Kondik said, and “sometimes the margins are what decide presidential elections.”6. Voter registrationVoter registration drives have been largely grounded, too. After starting the year stronger than 2016, registrations dropped sharply in March and April, according to a study of 12 states and the District of Columbia.The study notes that most people register to vote at their local Department of Motor Vehicles, and the pandemic closed many DMV offices.Person-to-person registration drives at festivals, supermarkets, busy street corners and other public locations have also been sharply curtailed.Those efforts “have significant effects not only on how many people vote, but who votes,” Hudak said, adding, “And doing away with that can have some pretty significant effects.”Both parties feel the effects, he added, so it’s hard to know what the net impact will be.7. Vote by mailMany states are embracing mail-in ballots as a safer alternative to in-person voting. Trump has claimed, repeatedly and without evidence, that it will lead to widespread fraud.As a result, Republican voters are much less supportive of casting ballots by mail.With unprecedented numbers of absentee ballots expected to be cast this election, “that can have some really challenging effects for not just the president, but down-ballot Republicans, as well,” Hudak said, referring to others on the ballot.It also could make for a confusing Election Day.”If a lot of Republicans are voting on Election Day and those votes are tallied first, it may look like Donald Trump is leading in the state, when in fact, he might ultimately end up losing the state,” Kondik said.Sorting it out could take days or weeks, during which time, Kondik worries, conspiracy theories could proliferate.”I think it’s important that we all communicate to voters that we may not know (the outcome) on election night the way that we’re used to in the past. And there’s nothing inherently nefarious about that,” he said.
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By Polityk | 08/16/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump to Withdraw Pendley’s Nomination as Public Lands Chief
President Donald Trump intends to withdraw the nomination of William Perry Pendley to head the Bureau of Land Management, a senior administration official said Saturday — much to the relief of environmentalists who insisted the longtime advocate of selling federal lands should not be overseeing them.Pendley, a former oil industry and property rights attorney from Wyoming, has been acting as the director of the agency for more than a year under a series of temporary orders from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Democrats alleged the temporary orders were an attempt to skirt the nomination process, and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and conservation groups have filed lawsuits to have Pendley removed from office.Trump announced Pendley’s nomination to become the bureau’s director in June. A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, confirmed Saturday that the president intended to withdraw that nomination.“Good!” Bullock, a Democrat, tweeted Saturday. “William Perry Pendley wants to sell off our public lands – and has no business being in charge of them.”The bureau oversees nearly a quarter-billion public acres in the U.S. West and much of the nation’s onshore oil and gas development.The White House did not offer an explanation for the decision, which is not expected to become official until the Senate returns to session. The Interior Department said in a statement that the president makes staffing decisions and that Pendley continues leading the agency as deputy director for programs and policy.Pendley, who in a 2017 essay argued that the “Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold,” spent three decades as president of the nonprofit Mountain States Legal Foundation, which has worked on behalf of ranchers, oil and gas drillers, miners and others seeking to use public lands for commercial gain.Among the cases Pendley worked on was one challenging grizzly bear protections on national forest land. In another, he sought to validate an energy developer’s claim to drill for oil on land considered sacred by the Blackfeet Indian Tribe near Glacier National Park in Montana. A federal appeals court rejected the effort two months ago.The author of books that include “War on the West: Government Tyranny on America’s Great Frontier,” he has criticized environmentalists as extremists and expressed support for Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, whose family has engaged in armed standoffs with federal agents.In his announcement of the nomination, Trump said Pendley had “worked to increase recreational opportunities on and access to our Nation’s public lands, heighten concern for the impact of wild horses and burros on public lands, and increase awareness of the Bureau’s multiple-use mission.”The Interior Department has disputed the notion that Pendley wants to sell off federal lands, saying the Bureau of Land Management has acquired 25,000 acres under his leadership.While acting as director, Pendley has overseen the relocation of most of the bureau’s jobs from Washington to various locations in the West, including its new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colorado — a move conservationists consider an effort to weaken the agency.The agency has also sought to ease rules for oil and gas drilling that were adopted under the Obama administration. One recent proposal, which would streamline requirements for measuring and reporting oil and gas produced from federal land, is projected to save energy companies more than $130 million over the next decade.“William Perry Pendley has been unfit to lead the Bureau of Land Management every day since he was appointed acting director in 2019,” Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said in an emailed statement. “The fact that he was nominated this June and not withdrawn until millions of Americans and elected officials spoke out illustrates the wrongheaded priorities of this administration.”Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, called for the Trump administration to remove Pendley from his job as acting director of the agency.“Withdrawing William Perry Pendley’s nomination confirms he couldn’t even survive a confirmation process run by the president’s allies in the Senate. Keeping him on the job anyway shows the depth of disdain Secretary Bernhardt and President Trump have for the Constitution,” Rakola said. “The Bureau of Land Management director is a Senate-confirmed position for a reason. Whoever is in charge of one-tenth of all lands in America must be approved by the Senate, and these bald-faced attempts to evade the Senate’s advice-and-consent duties cannot stand.”
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By Polityk | 08/16/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Robert Trump, the President’s Younger Brother, Dead at 71
President Donald Trump’s younger brother, Robert Trump, a businessman known for an even keel that seemed almost incompatible with the family name, died Saturday night after being hospitalized in New York, the president said in a statement. He was 71.The president visited his brother at a New York City hospital on Friday after White House officials said he had become seriously ill.It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight,” Donald Trump said in a statement. “He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace.”The youngest of the Trump siblings remained close to the 74-year-old president and, as recently as June, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Trump family that unsuccessfully sought to stop publication of a tell-all book by the president’s niece, Mary.Robert Trump had reportedly been hospitalized in the intensive care unit for several days that same month.’The only guy in my life whom I ever call ‘honey’Both longtime businessmen, Robert and Donald had strikingly different personalities. Donald Trump once described his younger brother as “much quieter and easygoing than I am,” and “the only guy in my life whom I ever call ‘honey.’”Robert Trump began his career on Wall Street working in corporate finance but later joined the family business, managing real estate holdings as a top executive in the Trump Organization.“When he worked in the Trump Organization, he was known as the nice Trump,” Gwenda Blair, a Trump family biographer, told The Associated Press. “Robert was the one people would try to get to intervene if there was a problem.”Robert Stewart Trump was born in 1948, the youngest of New York City real estate developer Fred Trump’s five children.The president, two years older than Robert, admittedly bullied his brother in their younger years, even as he praised his loyalty and laid-back demeanor.“I think it must be hard to have me for a brother but he’s never said anything about it and we’re very close,” Donald Trump wrote in his 1987 bestseller “The Art of the Deal.” “Robert gets along with almost everyone,” he added, “which is great for me since I sometimes have to be the bad guy.”In the 1980s, Donald Trump tapped Robert Trump to oversee an Atlantic City casino project, calling him the perfect fit for the job. When it cannibalized his other casinos, though, “he pointed the finger of blame at Robert,” said Blair, author of “The Trumps: Three Generations that Built an Empire.”“When the slot machines jammed the opening weekend at the Taj Mahal, he very specifically and furiously denounced Robert, and Robert walked out and never worked for his brother again,” Blair said.’He was not a newsmaker’A Boston University graduate, Robert Trump later managed the Brooklyn portion of father Fred Trump’s real estate empire, which was eventually sold.Once a regular boldface name in Manhattan’s social pages, Robert Trump had kept a lower profile in recent years. “He was not a newsmaker,” Blair said.Before divorcing his first wife, Blaine Trump, more than a decade ago, Robert Trump had been active on Manhattan’s Upper East Side charity circuit.He avoided the limelight during his elder brother’s presidency, having retired to the Hudson Valley. But he described himself as a big supporter of the White House run in a 2016 interview with the New York Post.“I support Donald one thousand percent,” Robert Trump said.In early March of 2020, he married his longtime girlfriend, Ann Marie Pallan.The eldest Trump sibling and Mary’s father, Fred Trump Jr., struggled with alcoholism and died in 1981 at the age of 43. The president’s surviving siblings include Elizabeth Trump Grau and Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired federal appeals judge.Authors Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher described Robert Trump as soft spoken but cerebral in “Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45th President”: “He lacked Donald’s charismatic showmanship, and he was happy to leave the bravado to his brother, but he could show flashes of Trump temper.”
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By Polityk | 08/16/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Evictions Across US Raise Concerns About Voting Process
Over the past decade, Alison Eisinger has helped more than 1,000 people experiencing homelessness in Seattle register to vote. This year, despite the stakes involved in the U.S. presidential election in November, Eisinger isn’t making the same effort.Seattle already has 7,000 individuals who lack shelter, a number that could swell if a moratorium on evictions is lifted.“It would be irresponsible for us to think that voter registration is a top priority for someone who is wondering where they’ll get their next meal, or lay their head,” said Eisinger, who directs the King County Coalition on Homelessness, a nonprofit group. “Even for those of us who deeply, profoundly believe in the power of organizing and voter registration, we’re focused on other things, because that’s the nature of a crisis.”The same dynamic holds true across the country. Between 30 and 40 million American households may face eviction this year, according to one recent study. A federal program to block evictions for a third of the renting population has expired, as have eviction moratoriums in more than half the 50 United States. Others may run out just weeks before the election.It’s worth noting that eviction is not an immediate process. Evictions can drag on for months, fought out in local courts. A significant share of people clear out immediately when served with eviction notices; however, they are often unaware of their legal rights as tenants, housing advocates say.Voter registration processThat could have a profound effect on voting. Homeless individuals, like other citizens, have the right to vote. The voting registration process, however, generally depends on having a permanent address.“People’s voting rights are being taken away from them at the same time their homes are taken away from them,” said Claire Tran, an organizer with Right to the City Alliance, a progressive advocacy group based in Brooklyn, New York.Registration rules vary widely by state. Nineteen states have automatic voter registration systems to sign people up when they interact with state agencies (usually, the department of motor vehicles, or DMV). All those systems are fairly new, however, with the oldest dating back only to 2014.In most states, individuals still have to make an active effort, with registrations tied to their current place of residence.They’re supposed to update their information when they move, whether voluntarily or not. Often, people forget until an election is coming up, when it may be too late. Some states require individuals to register at least 30 days ahead of an election; fewer than half allow people to register as late as Election Day itself.“People don’t think about their voter registration when they’re moving, they think about it when they vote,” said Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, the top election official in the state.Voter registration in the U.S. lags well behind other nations.During the last presidential election, in 2016, of the 245.5 million Americans of voting age (those 18 and older), only about 157.6 million (64%) reported being registered to vote, according to the Census Bureau. Of those Americans of voting age, however, just over 137.5 million (56%) said they had actually voted, according to the census.By contrast, more than 90% of adults are registered in Canada and the United Kingdom. Nations such as Germany and Sweden automatically register people to vote.Hurdles in 2020People who lack stable housing always have a hard time voting in the U.S., but the hurdles will be higher this year. The county agencies that administer elections are facing nearly universal budget problems, with many shutting polling sites due to a shortage of temporary poll workers, even as they cope with a pandemic.The cottage industry that normally springs up in election years to register people has gone dormant, with the coronavirus pandemic canceling the type of large gatherings such as concerts and fairs where political parties and voting rights groups usually sign people up. (The wave of anti-racism protests across the country has been an exception.) Many DMV offices are closed, too.“Texas is the most difficult state in the country to register people to vote on a good day, and now we’re on the worst day,” said Charlie Bonner, spokesman for MOVE Texas, which promotes participation in elections. “We’ve seen the numbers drop dramatically, compared to the last presidential election, which is exceptionally frustrating because there was so much momentum.”Registration efforts are taking place online, but that’s of no use to people without computers or internet access – an increasing problem for homeless and low-income individuals, with many public libraries, which provide free use of computers, shuttered by the pandemic.In order to vote in most states, individuals need a form of government-issued photo identification. Getting a photo ID, however, usually requires having another form of identification. People who are homeless have often lost important documents or had them seized or stolen.Many homeless individuals list shelters as their mailing addresses, but some shelters have been shuttered since March.In all 50 states, individuals are allowed to register without an address (in some states, they can list an intersection or the bridge they sleep under as a domicile). In practice, however, people who are visibly homeless often find themselves turned away at the polls by ill-trained workers.“A homeless person is able to register and vote, but if people don’t know that, that’s unfortunately a means of voter suppression,” said Louis Bedford IV, an election protection fellow at the nonprofit Texas Civil Rights Project.Absentee ballot request formsThis year, eight states and the District of Columbia are sending all registered voters absentee ballot request forms to encourage more people to vote by mail; all but eight states are allowing every voter to send in absentee ballots by mail, without needing an excuse for being unable or unwilling to vote in person. If a person has been evicted and left no forwarding address, however, they won’t receive those forms or their ballots.“Mailing ballots is meant to increase participation and decrease exposure to COVID, but it requires an address to participate,” said Paru Shah, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.Shah is coauthor of a study that found foreclosures dampen voter turnout.Losing a home through foreclosure or eviction is always a traumatic event. Navigating the registration process won’t be a top-of-mind concern for most people who are coping with eviction in the middle of a pandemic. That will exacerbate long-standing inequities.Americans who own their own homes are more likely to vote than renters, while higher-income individuals vote more often than the poor, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. A majority of homeless individuals are Black, Hispanic or members of other minority groups, according to the National Homelessness Law Center.“Unemployment rates and disproportionately poor health outcomes are falling, unfortunately, on Black and brown people,” said Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the voting rights project at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Evictions are going to be another chapter in that story of problems falling on voters of color.”Americans elect lawmakers based on where they live. When they lose their homes, they may miss their chance to express their political will.“If people’s basic needs with food, housing and health care are not met, it’s going to be hard for them to focus on their civic duty,” said Franccesca Cesti-Browne, a Democratic candidate for the Florida House of Representatives, “and that’s a big concern.”
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By Polityk | 08/15/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Postal Service Warns States of Voting by Mail Delays
The U.S. Postal Service is warning states that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will be counted as the country ramps up preparations for larger numbers of mail-in votes amid the coronavirus pandemic.The Washington Post reported Friday that the Postal Service sent warning letters to 46 states and the District of Columbia.In letters sent to at least several states, including the key battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania, the Postal Service said there is “significant risk” voters will not have enough time to complete their ballots and return them on time under current state laws.In its letter to Pennsylvania, the Postal Service recommended that completed ballots be mailed no later than October 27, a week before the November 3 election, to ensure they can make the Election Day deadline and be counted. Pennsylvania has said voters can request a ballot as late as October 27.In response to the Postal Service’s letter, Pennsylvania election officials late Thursday asked the state Supreme Court for permission to count ballots delivered three days after Election Day.This illustration photo shows a Virginia resident filling out an application to vote by mail ahead of the November Presidential election, on Aug. 6, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia.Many states have made it easier to vote by mail to address voters’ concerns about public gatherings at election precincts during the coronavirus pandemic.The Washington Post reports there are more than 60 lawsuits in the courts of a least two dozen states over the mechanics of mail-in votes.Trump has repeatedly said, without evidence, that the November election could be rigged because of mail-in votes, claiming that Russia and China could forge U.S. paper ballots.“This is going to be the greatest election disaster in history,” Trump told reporters at the White House last month.Trump has also said he does not want to wait “weeks, months or even years” for the results of the election because of problems he predicts will occur with mailed-in ballots.Representatives for the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) told VOA in July that if there is any evidence to support Trump’s claims of potential mail-in ballot fraud, the administration has yet to share it with them.On Thursday, Trump said he opposes emergency funding for the Postal Service to make voting by mail easier. However, on Friday he told reporters at a White House news briefing that he would agree to additional funding for the Postal Service if Democrats made concessions as part of a larger coronavirus stimulus bill. Talks on a new stimulus bill have largely broken down between Republicans and Democrats over sharp policy differences.Most states already offer some form of mail-in voting, so-called “absentee” ballots, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, some states have moved to expand the use of mail-in ballots for the November election.
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By Polityk | 08/15/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
AP Fact Check: Harris Eligible to Serve as VP, President
False claims that Kamala Harris is not legally eligible to serve as U.S. vice president or president have been circulating in social media posts since 2019, when she first launched her Democratic primary campaign.
On Thursday, after Harris was selected by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to serve as his running mate, President Donald Trump elevated the conspiracy while speaking to reporters from the White House podium.
A look at the claim:The Claim: Harris is ineligible to serve as vice president or president because her mother is from India and her father is from Jamaica. Trump said he “heard” the California senator doesn’t meet the requirements, adding, “I have no if idea that’s right.” The Facts: That’s false. Harris was born on Oct. 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, according to a copy of her birth certificate, obtained by The Associated Press.
Her mother, a cancer researcher from India, and her father, an economist from Jamaica, met as graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley.
Since she was born on U.S. soil, she is considered a natural born U.S. citizen under the 14th Amendment, and she is eligible to serve as either the vice president or president, Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, told The Associated Press Thursday.
“Full stop, end of story, period, exclamation point,” Levinson said.
There is “no serious dispute” in the legal community around the idea that someone born in the U.S. can serve as president, said Juliet Sorensen, a law professor at Northwestern University.
“The VP has the same eligibility requirements as the president,” Sorensen said. “Kamala Harris, she has to be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 years old, and a resident in the United States for at least 14 years. She is. That’s really the end of the inquiry.”
Trump was asked directly about the social media posts by a reporter Thursday. “I heard today that she doesn’t meet the requirements,” Trump said in response.
The false claims first started circulating on social media in 2019, during Harris’ presidential campaign, and they were revived against last week, days ahead of her selection as Biden’s running mate. Facebook posts falsely said she would not be eligible to take over for Biden, because her parents were both immigrants.
“I can’t believe people are making this idiotic comment,” Laurence Tribe, a Harvard University professor of constitutional law, told The Associated Press at the time. “She is a natural-born citizen and there is no question about her eligibility to run.”
Trump was a high-profile force behind the so-called “birther movement” — the lie that questioned whether President Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, was eligible to serve. Only after mounting pressure during his 2016 campaign did Trump disavow the claims.
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By Polityk | 08/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump’s Ex-Lawyer Michael Cohen Says to Reveal President’s ‘Skeletons’ in Upcoming Book
Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, on Thursday promised to show how Trump cheated in the 2016 election with Russian help in an upcoming book titled “Disloyal, A Memoir.”
“Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything — and I mean anything — to ‘win’ has always been his business model and way of life,” Cohen writes in the book’s foreword, which was published online on Thursday.
The 3,700-word foreword does not reveal anything new about Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, and it was not clear if the book would.
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller last year concluded that Russia waged a major campaign to help Trump to victory in 2016.
Mueller did not find evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia, but he did detail extensive contacts between the campaign and Russian operatives.
Cohen worked closely with Trump for years before turning against him, most publicly in testimony to Congress last year prior to Trump’s impeachment.
Cohen said he knows where Trump’s metaphorical “skeletons” are buried because he buried them.
White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern responded by attacking Cohen’s credibility.
“He readily admits to lying routinely but expects people to believe him now so that he can make money from book sales. It’s unfortunate that the media is exploiting this sad and desperate man to attack President Trump,” Morgenstern said.
Trump has called Cohen “a rat,” and a liar, and Cohen said he faced repeated death threats from Trump supporters.
Cohen, 53, is serving a three-year sentence for tax evasion, false statements and campaign finance violations, the last related to payments to silence women who alleged affairs with Trump before the 2016 presidential election.
Cohen was released to home confinement in May given the risks of catching COVID-19 in prison, but then was briefly imprisoned again last month.
A federal judge last month ruled Cohen had been subjected to retaliation for planning to publish his book, and ordered him released again.
A lawyer for Cohen declined to comment.
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By Polityk | 08/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Shirley Chisholm’s Groundbreaking Run for President
“I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am Black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement in this country, although I am a woman, and equally proud of that… I am the candidate of the people of America.”Those were the words the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress, Shirley Chisholm, uttered in her 1972 announcement that she was running for president, using the campaign slogan “Unbought and Unbossed.” The move was highly unusual and unlikely to succeed. But Chisholm was unusual, and her bid for the presidency is cited by many women of color who enter politics as inspiration for their own careers.In announcing her presidential run last year, California Senator Kamala Harris included nods to Chisholm’s leadership, using the slogan “For the People” and a red-and-yellow color scheme that echoed some of Chisholm’s campaign materials. Harris is now presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate.Paving the wayGlynda Carr, president and CEO of Higher Heights for America, a political action committee dedicated to promoting Black women in politics, said Thursday in a statement that Harris “stands on the shoulders of the late great Shirley Chisholm and her ‘unbought and unbossed leadership.’ Congresswoman Chisholm and many other Black women political leaders have paved the way for this moment and for Black women to step into their power and take democracy into their own hands.”Carr went on to praise Harris for being a trailblazer and breaking “a major barrier, much like Shirley Chisholm did 48 years ago.”Born in 1924, Chisholm spent her early years living in Barbados with her grandmother. She was extremely bright, and it was clear early on that she had things to say. The New York Times quoted her as saying, “Mother always said that even when I was 3, I used to get the 6- and 7-year-old kids on the block and punch them and say, ‘Listen to me.”‘When she attended Brooklyn College, she excelled at debate. Some of her instructors suggested she consider politics.But Chisholm first went into education, as a teacher and then as an educational consultant for New York City’s Bureau of Child Welfare. But in the 1950s she began joining political clubs, where she pushed for more involvement by women and people of color in the nation’s discourse. She is known as a fighter both for both civil rights and the feminist movement.Fighting sexism and racismShe won a seat in the New York state legislature in 1965 and served three years. Then, with the lines of her local congressional district redrawn to ensure more representation of her neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Chisholm secured a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first black woman to do so. In winning her seat, she beat out a male rival who had once mocked her as being only a “little schoolteacher.”In Congress, Chisholm fought sexism and racism. In a 2004 documentary on her life, “Chisholm ’72 – Unbought & Unbossed,” Chisholm describes being taunted by a white male member of Congress who could not accept the fact that she made the same salary as he. Chisholm was characteristically unapologetic, recounting the incident with a touch of glee.Reelected six times, she used her seven terms in Congress to help found the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Women’s Political Caucus, strengthen the nation’s food program for the poor, and speak out with blunt honestly about what she felt were the ills of the American political system.When assigned to the Agriculture Committee during her first term in office, she complained, saying the focus of the committee had nothing to do with her urban constituents. Her obituary in The New York Times quotes her as saying at the time, “Only nine black people have been elected to Congress, and those nine should be used as effectively as possible.”When Chisholm announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination in 1972, she knew she probably wouldn’t get the nomination. But Chisholm campaign worker Jo Freeman said, in her written history of the campaign, that Chisholm ran “to give a voice to the people the major candidates were ignoring.”Chisholm also spoke of her candidacy as a means of paving the way for future candidates. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table,” she advised her followers, “bring in a folding chair.”Presidential Medal of FreedomChisholm won no national primaries, and the Democrats lost the election to Republican Richard Nixon, who resigned two years later in a political scandal. But Chisholm cemented her name in history as the woman whose campaign opened minds and doors for other women of color in politics.Chisholm died in 2005. Ten years later, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.To date, 47 Black women have served in the U.S. House of Representatives. Only two, including Kamala Harris, have served in the U.S. Senate.Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics says in 2019, women of color made up 8.8 percent of all members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 4 percent of the Senate.Among the nation’s 7,383 state legislators, 7.3 percent are women of color.And in the nation’s 100 largest cities, 10 women of color serve as mayors, including in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.
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By Polityk | 08/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Rejects Biden’s Calls for National Mask Mandate
Presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden is calling for a national mask mandate to cut the number of future deaths from the coronavirus in the United States. “It doesn’t have anything to do with Democrats, Republican or independents,” Biden said, but “every single American should be wearing a mask when they are outside for the next three months at a minimum.” Hour later, President Donald Trump accused Biden of politicizing the pandemic with the request, asserting that a mask mandate would cripple the economy, leading to a depression by wanting to “lock all Americans in their basements for months on end.”The former vice president, in Wilmington, said the governors of every U.S. state “should mandate mandatory mask wearing,” adding that experts estimate such compliance “will save 40,000 lives in the next three months.” Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, speaks to the press after receiving a briefing on COVID-19 in Wilmington, Delaware, on Aug. 13, 2020.The Trump administration has repeatedly rejected calls for a national mask mandate, leaving such decisions to state governors. “It’s not about your rights,” Biden said to a group of reporters in his home state of Delaware. “It’s about your responsibility as an American. This is America. Be a patriot. Protect your fellow citizens. Step up. Do the right thing.” The president, at an evening news conference, responded that he had emphasized that wearing a mask is a patriotic thing to do.“Maybe they’re great and maybe they’re just good, maybe they’re not so good,” Trump said of masks. “But frankly what do you have to lose?”Trump said, however, there is an issue of freedom when it comes to wearing masks — which has become a politically divisive issue in the United States.“We want to have a certain freedom. That’s what we’re about,” the president said.Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, said it is important that Americans looking at the upcoming election “ask the current occupant of the White House, ‘When am I going to get vaccinated? When am I actually going to get vaccinated?’” Most public health officials expect no vaccine ready for mass inoculations in the United States prior to 2021. Trump, however, has spoken of a vaccine possibly being ready by the time of the presidential election in early November. Biden and Harris made their remarks inside a luxury Wilmington hotel after receiving two virtual briefings — one on the COVID-19 public health crisis, and the other on the economic downturn. The presumptive Democratic Party nominees sat at desks in a hotel ballroom, facing each other without wearing masks but socially distanced. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., receive a virtual briefing on COVID-19 from public health experts in Wilmington, Del., Aug. 13, 2020.The other participants joined via video links, and their faces were displayed on a large screen behind Biden and Harris. Among those briefing the candidates about the coronavirus pandemic were Dr. Vivek Murthy, a former U.S. surgeon general, and Dr. Nicki Lurie, a former assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The participants in the economic briefing included Janet Yellen, former chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 08/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Refuses to Reject Claims Harris Ineligible to Run for VP
President Donald Trump is refusing to reject false claims circulating on social media that Kamala Harris may not be legally eligible for the vice presidency because of questions surrounding the immigration status of her parents at the time she was born.“I heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements,” Trump said, responding to VOA’s question. “And by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer. I have no idea, that’s right. I would have thought, I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president.”Trump was referring to John Eastman, a law professor at Chapman University who floated the theory in an opinion piece published in Newsweek. A tweet containing the op-ed was retweeted earlier Thursday by Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign adviser.Harris was born in Oakland, California. Constitutional scholars and Supreme Court precedent have long maintained that anyone born in the U.S. is an American citizen, which makes them eligible for the presidency and the vice presidency.“Harris is clearly eligible,” said Georgetown University Law Center professor Josh Chafetz. “She was born in the United States, and under the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, that means she was a citizen at birth, which makes her a natural-born citizen for presidential eligibility purposes. No serious scholar thinks otherwise.”This is not the first time Trump has made an issue of his opponent’s citizenship. After years of promoting the “birther conspiracy” and calling for President Barack Obama to release his birth certificate, Trump acknowledged in 2016 that Obama was born in the United States.Trump’s floating of similar birther claims about Harris was “entirely predictable” and “total nonsense,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.Trump has succeeded in politics because he is very good at defining his opponents as “the other,” Sabato added.“Leading the birther movement against President Obama was Trump’s baptism, and his constant attacks on immigrants have continued to enthuse his base,” Sabato said. “Kamala Harris is Black, partly South Asian, and has immigrant parents, and all of this will automatically raise suspicion among the Trump blue-collar whites.”The Biden campaign has not responded to VOA’s request for comment.
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By Polityk | 08/14/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
For Americans Waiting on Virus Aid, No New Relief in Sight
Americans counting on emergency coronavirus aid from Washington may have to wait until fall.
Negotiations over a new virus relief package have all but ended, with the White House and congressional leaders far apart on the size, scope and approach for shoring up households, re-opening schools and launching a national strategy to contain the virus.
President Donald Trump’s top negotiator, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, tried to revive stalled talks Wednesday, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer dismissed the “overture,” saying the Trump administration is still refusing to meet them halfway. Congressional Republicans are largely sitting out the talks.
“The White House is not budging,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement.
With the House and Senate essentially closed, and lawmakers on call to return with 24-hours notice, hopes for a swift compromise have dwindled. Instead, the politics of blame have taken hold, as the parties head into August focused on the presidential nominating conventions and lawmakers’ own reelection campaigns.
Trump said the Democrats are “holding the American people hostage.”
All indications are talks will not resume in full until Congress resumes in September, despite the mounting death toll, surpassing 161,000 in the U.S., and more than 5 million people infected.
For Americans, that means the end of a $600 weekly unemployment benefit that has expired, as has a federal ban on evictions. Schools hoping for cash from the federal government to help provide safety measures are left empty handed. States and cities staring down red ink with the shattered economy have few options.
Trump’s executive actions appeared to provide a temporary reprieve, offering $300 in jobless benefits and some other aid. But it could take weeks for those programs to ramp up, and the help is far slimmer than what Congress was considering. More than 20 million Americans risk evictions, and more are out of work.
Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows briefed GOP senators privately on Wednesday. But congressional Republicans, who have left the negotiating largely to Democrats, seem satisfied there is enough money still available from previous aid packages, for now.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put in motion the procedural steps to recess, possibly Thursday. The House is already gone.
Because McConnell has such cool support from his ranks for any bill, Democrats are trying to push the White House to go bold. They want to maintain the $600 jobless benefit and provide nearly $1 trillion to the states and cities, nonstarters for the White House.
While there is some common ground over $100 billion for schools and new funds for virus testing, Democrats also want other emergency funds that Trump rejects, including to shore up the U.S. Postal Service and election security ahead of the November election.
“Democrats have compromised,” Pelosi and Schumer said, noting that they dropped their initial $3 trillion-plus proposal by $1 trillion and expect Trump’s team to raise its $1 trillion offer by a similar amount to $2 trillion. “However, it is clear that the Administration still does not grasp the magnitude of the problems that American families are facing.”
Their joint statement said Mnuchin made an “overture” to meet. The treasury secretary called the Democratic leaders on Wednesday, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private call.
The Democrats said they are waiting for the White House to put a new offer on the table. “We have again made clear to the Administration that we are willing to resume negotiations once they start to take this process seriously.”
But Mnuchin shot back with his own statement, saying, “The Democrats have no interest in negotiating.”
Mnuchin said Pelosi’s statement was “not an accurate reflection of our conversation. She made clear that she was unwilling to meet to continue negotiations unless we agreed in advance to her proposal, costing at least $2 trillion.”
McConnell said the American people need help and “are not done fighting this virus.”
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By Polityk | 08/13/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Warning on Russia Adds Questions About Senate’s Biden Probe
Even before last week’s intelligence assessment on foreign election interference, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson was facing criticism from Democrats that his investigation of presidential candidate Joe Biden and Ukraine was politically motivated and advancing Russian interests.
But the stark warning that Russia is working to denigrate the Democratic presidential candidate adds to questions about the probe by Johnson’s Senate committee and whether it is mimicking, even indirectly, Russian efforts and amplifying its propaganda.
The investigation is unfolding as the country, months removed from an impeachment case that had centered on Ukraine, is dealing with a pandemic and confronting the issue of racial injustice. Yet allegations about Biden and Ukraine remain a popular topic in conservative circles, pushed by Russian media and addressed regularly by President Donald Trump and other Republicans as a potential path toward energizing his supporters.
Johnson’s own interest in the topic, from his perch as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has drawn concerns during a presidential election that U.S. intelligence officials warn is ripe for foreign disinformation.
“Particularly as a public official and somebody who’s responsible for keeping the country safe, you should always be suspicious of narratives that are trying to sort of damage or target the electoral process in your country,” said former CIA officer Cindy Otis, a foreign disinformation expert. “You should always be suspicious of narratives that foreign countries are pumping out.”
The intelligence assessment has put Johnson on the defensive, with the Wisconsin Republican issuing a 5,000-word open letter Monday in which he laid out what he said was the basis for scrutinizing both the FBI’s Russia investigation and the dealings of Biden and his son Hunter with Ukraine.
In an interview Wednesday, Johnson said his investigation was rooted in facts, not Russian propaganda, and that the “American people deserve the truth” about his probe and what he said were its damning findings. He said he hoped to get the information out, in report form, before November’s vote.
Johnson said that though he was sensitive to the threat of Russian interference, he was not responsible for peddling any disinformation in his investigation and described as “completely false” the idea that he is pushing foreign propaganda.
“I completely reject this entire narrative, this coordinated attack on me,” he said. “It’s ridiculous if it weren’t so serious.”
The statement last Friday from William Evanina, the government’s top counterintelligence official, made no reference to Johnson in particular but did allude to foreign efforts to smear Biden that in some ways parallel Johnson’s own probe. That includes the work of Andrii Derkach, a member of Ukraine’s parliament and 1993 graduate of a Russian spy academy, who has disclosed leaked recordings of Biden meant to cast the candidate in a negative light.
Johnson suggested he was not willing to unequivocally trust the assessment without seeing the underlying intelligence. In his open letter, he distanced himself from Derkach, saying he had never received any information from him and “almost all of the documents we are seeking and will make public are from U.S. sources.”
But, Otis said, given how easily Russia launders its information, and how swiftly material originating in Russia can get picked up and spread to English-language forums, “it is very difficult to peel back the origination point for this stuff, even with the aid of having technology on our side.”
Johnson’s preoccupation with Biden has dismayed Democrats on the committee who view it as a politically motivated distraction at a time when the panel, which oversees the response to national disasters, should be focused on the coronavirus outbreak.
“At a moment when Americans need us to work together, this extremely partisan investigation is pulling us apart,” Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the committee’s top Democrat, said at a May 20 meeting at which the panel authorized a subpoena related to the Biden investigation.
Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California, now Biden’s running mate, at the same session accused Johnson of shirking his oversight responsibilities related to the pandemic response in favor of forcing a vote on “a purely political matter that will do absolutely nothing for those at risk of contracting COVID-19.”
Johnson said those attacks were unfair because his committee has taken up multiple pandemic-related bills and devoted most of its time to the outbreak. Saying that “a couple of investigators” were devoted to the Ukraine probe, he added, “We literally can chew gum and walk at the same time.”
Democrats have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the committee’s work, including by requesting briefings from law enforcement and intelligence officials, given the extent of Russia’s own interest in pushing the anti-Biden narrative.
Central to that narrative are allegations that Hunter Biden used his influence with his father to aid a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma, and that Joe Biden, as vice president, pressured the Ukrainian government to fire its top prosecutor, who had led an investigation into Burisma.
Hunter Biden, with no expertise in the country or the natural gas industry, had joined the Burisma board in 2014 during the latter part of his father’s tenure in the Obama administration.
Biden has said he never speaks to his son about his overseas business dealings. His position on Ukraine’s prosecutor, who was seen by critics as soft on corruption, was the official position of the U.S. government and was also supported by other Western governments and many in Ukraine. Evanina said Russia disapproved of Biden because of his role in shaping Obama administration policies supporting Ukraine and opposing Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Though the allegations of corruption have not been substantiated, they have long been of interest to Trump. His request last year to Ukraine’s president that he announce an investigation of Burisma and the Bidens, tying it to U.S. support of the fledgling democracy, formed the basis of the impeachment case against him.
In the Senate, the Johnson-led investigation has proceeded this election year, but with some delay.
In May, the committee authorized a subpoena for Blue Star Strategies, a lobbying firm that was a consultant to Burisma. But just months earlier, Johnson scrapped a vote on a subpoena to interview and obtain documents from Andrii Telizhenko, a consultant to Blue Star, “out of an abundance of caution” after classified briefings for committee staff.
Johnson, meanwhile, announced this week a subpoena for the FBI for documents in its investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia.
His committee isn’t the only one undertaking such a probe. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump ally and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has for months scrutinized the Russia investigation. He has released a series of previously secret documents, most targeting the legitimacy of a dossier of research on Trump’s ties to Russia compiled by a British ex-spy that was financed by Democrats.
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By Polityk | 08/13/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden, Harris Make Their Case to US Voters
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden took note of the historic moment Wednesday when introducing Senator Kamala Harris, his vice presidential choice, at a campaign event in Delaware.Biden and Harris, who both came onstage wearing face masks because of the coronavirus pandemic, spoke from the stage of a high school in Biden’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.Their speeches focused on the theme of their campaign, stressing their leadership in helping Americans during the crises of the pandemic and growing economic turmoil, as well as the inspirational message of choosing Harris.“This morning,all across the nation, little girls woke up — especially little Black and brown girls, who so often feel overlooked and undervalued in their communities — but today, just maybe they’re seeing themselves for the first time in a new way,” Biden said.Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, joined by his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, speaks during a campaign event at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del., Aug. 12, 2020.About 100 people, most of them Wilmington residents, gathered outside Alexis DuPont high school on Wednesday for just a glimpse of the candidates.Janice Nelson, left, brought her 14-year-old son to the high school in hopes of catching a glimpse of the first Black vice presidential nominee, August 12, 2020. (E. Sarai/VOA)“I thought it was important to come out to see history,” Janice Nelson, a Delaware native standing alongside her 14-year-old son, told VOA.“We don’t know if I’ll get a glimpse of them or not. It doesn’t matter. We just want to be here to say that we’re voting,” she said.A few attendees wore Biden shirts or hats. One man had fashioned his own “Biden Harris” sign, just hours after Harris was named Biden’s running mate when little merchandise featuring both names has been made available. About 100 people now at the back of the high school – including a handful of people protesting Biden for his stance on abortion. Unclear who is already inside. Shealese Russell-Reams, left, and Melanie Daniels, co-workers and members of Kamala Harris’ sorority, AKA, spent their lunch break hoping to catch a glimpse of the newly named VP candidate, August 12, 2020. (E. Sarai/VOA)“We are coming out to support this monumental experience,” Melanie Daniels, an AKA member dressed all in pink, told VOA outside the high school.”And as a Delaware native and a graduate, class of ’88, Alexis DuPont High School, it’s just an awesome moment in time for us,” her colleague, Shealese Russell-Reams, who was dressed all in green, added. The two women were among more than a dozen people who stopped by over the lunch hour in hopes of catching a glimpse of Biden and Harris entering the high school, where a virtual fundraiser was scheduled to take place later Wednesday afternoon.After winning enough primaries to secure the nomination earlier this year, Biden, 77, committed himself to picking a female running mate. There was much speculation he would choose a Black woman to run with him. A number of familiar and respected names surfaced in the press as potential candidates. Harris delivered stinging criticism of Biden during the primary debates but had high praise for him during a campaign event several weeks ago. “Joe has empathy. He has a proven track record of leadership, and more than ever before, we need a president of the United States who understands who the people are, sees them where they are, and has a genuine desire to help and knows how to fight to get us where we need to be,” Harris said. Harris, 55, was born in Oakland, California. She is the daughter of immigrants — her father is from Jamaica, and her mother is from India. She graduated from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and was elected district attorney for San Francisco in 2003 and California attorney general in 2010. Harris arrived in Washington less than four years ago as a U.S Democratic senator from California. In her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris was briefly the Democratic front-runner after success in the early debates.Harris is only the third woman ever picked for vice president by a major party. Semocratic Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro was Vice President Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984 when they lost by a landslide to the Republican ticket of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin ran with Republican John McCain in 2008 but lost to Democrats Barack Obama and Biden.
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By Polityk | 08/13/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
