Розділ: Політика
US Policing Reforms Can Curb Deadly Encounters, Key Lawmaker Says
The U.S. can curb police killings on American streets with better law enforcement training and more accountability, the lead Senate Republican advocate for policing reforms said Sunday. Sen. Tim Scott, center, accompanied by Sen. James Lankford, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill, June 17, 2020.Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone black Republican in the U.S. Senate, told ABC’s “This Week” show, “I think we can prevent more of these deaths” and enhance “character-driven law enforcement” by approving legislation that cuts off or limits federal aid to city and state police agencies if they do not adopt better training and policies for their officers. Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Washington are in the midst of a legislative debate over U.S. policing practices in the wake of controversial deaths of African American men while in police custody. Scott said the two political parties agree on 70% of what is needed. “We all want to ban chokeholds; that we already know is unnecessary,” Scott said of a policing practice ended by many U.S. police agencies in which police restrain criminal suspects around the neck to subdue them as they are arrested. Both parties are calling for a national registry of police who have engaged in misconduct so they cannot easily move from one police agency to another. But differences remain as the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives head to key votes this week and next. Democrats want to make it easier for people who believe their civil rights have been infringed on by police actions against them to sue police, removing their virtually unlimited protection against liability for their actions. But President Donald Trump says he is opposed to changing the legal protection for police and Republican lawmakers have expressed reservations. U.S. President Donald Trump listens to applause after signing an executive order on police reform during a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, June 16, 2020.“Americans want law and order,” Trump has said on several occasions. Scott said police must be more accountable for their actions and required to report on them to the U.S. Justice Department in order to get federal funding. He said only about 40% of local police actions are now reported to the federal government. Scott said any legislation approved by Congress should be targeted “so we get the outcome we want,” compelling police agencies to adopt training and policies on police encounters with the public “we feel are best for the nation.” He said there is “plenty of blame” among both Republican and Democratic lawmakers about racial sensitivities in the U.S. “We need to be more sensitive in our racial comments,” Scott said. “We should be working toward a more harmonious union.” The move toward adoption of national policing reforms comes in the wake of the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was held down on a city street by a white police officer for nearly nine minutes as he pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck even as Floyd said he could not breathe. The officer was charged with second-degree murder. FILE – Demonstrators march on pavement, Sunday, May 31, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25.Floyd’s death spawned weeks of coast-to-coast protests about police abuse of minorities, some of which turned into violent clashes between police and demonstrators although most were peaceful.
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By Polityk | 06/22/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Campaign Brushes Off Low Turnout at President’s Rally
U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign on Sunday brushed off the underwhelming size of the crowd at his first political rally in three months, blaming “fake news media” reports of the threat of coronavirus infections and the possibility of protests for keeping people away.The 19,000-seat BOK Center arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma, appeared to be a bit more than half full Saturday night, even though the president’s campaign last week boasted that a million people had registered to attend. The Trump campaign said about 12,000 people passed through metal detectors at the entrances.An outdoor rally for an overflow crowd was called off because few were there, while the arena’s upper gallery was largely empty.For the cheering supporters who did show up, Trump gave them what they came to hear: nearly two hours of red-meat political taunts. He railed against his Democratic opponent in the November national election, former Vice President Joe Biden, attacked “radical left” protesters demonstrating in recent weeks against police abuses in the U.S., and blamed China for the spread of what he called the “kung flu,” his derisive term for the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 120,000 people in the U.S. and infected more than 2.2 million. Trump called his sign-waving supporters “warriors” and declared that “the silent majority is stronger than ever before.” He boasted about his conservative judicial appointees, low taxes, the booming stock market, the wall under construction on the southern border with Mexico to keep out undocumented immigrants and adding to the U.S. military budget.FILE – Brad Parscale, campaign manager for President Donald Trump, speaks to supporters during a panel discussion, in San Antonio, Texas Oct. 15, 2019.Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale on Sunday said the crowd size was kept down by several factors.“A week’s worth of the fake news media warning people away from the rally because of COVID and protesters, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire, had a real impact on people bringing their families and children to the rally,” he said.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued warnings that large gatherings such as Trump’s rally are possible breeding grounds for the spread of the coronavirus. The Trump campaign checked the temperatures of rally-goers and handed out face masks to everyone, although it did not require anyone to wear one.As news cameras scanned the crowd, only a small portion of those watching the rally appeared to be wearing a mask.Parscale said protesters “even blocked entrances to the rally at times,” although media reporters on the scene said they saw few protesters and that people who wanted to attend the rally appeared to walk in unimpeded.Demonstrators march near the BOK Center where President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 20, 2020.Parscale dismissed reports that TikTok and K-Pop fans had flummoxed the Trump campaign by registering for tickets to the rally, to make it appear there would be a huge crowd, with no intention of attending.The campaign manager said, “We constantly weed out bogus numbers, as we did with tens of thousands at the Tulsa rally, in calculating our possible attendee pool. These phony ticket requests never factor into our thinking.”He added, “For the media to now celebrate the fear that they helped create is disgusting, but typical. And it makes us wonder why we bother credentialing media for events when they don’t do their full jobs as professionals.”Trump campaign adviser Mercedes Schlapp told “Fox News Sunday” that despite the Tulsa crowd size, 5.3 million people watched on Trump campaign digital channels, giving the rally a much broader reach than might have appeared from the telecast of the event.Biden’s campaign scoffed at the size of the Tulsa crowd, saying, “Donald Trump has abdicated leadership and it is no surprise that his supporters have responded by abandoning him.”National polls show Biden pulling out to an average lead of 9.5 percentage points over Trump less than five months before the election, according to a compilation of polls by Real Clear Politics. Biden has shunned any political rallies, giving television interviews from his home in the eastern state of Delaware and making a few appearances in nearby Philadelphia for speeches before small gatherings. He has not held a news conference in nearly three months.
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By Polityk | 06/22/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
TikTok Users, K-Pop Fans Credited With Helping to Sabotage Trump Rally
TikTok users and Korean pop music fans are being partly credited for inflating attendance expectations at a less-than-full arena at President Donald Trump’s first political rally in months, held in Tulsa on Saturday. Social media users on different platforms, including the popular video-sharing app TikTok, have claimed in posts and videos that they registered for free tickets to the rally as a prank, with no intention of going. President Donald Trump supporters listen to Trump speak during a campaign rally at the BOK Center, June 20, 2020, in Tulsa, Okla.Prior to the event, Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale said there had been more than one million ticket requests for the event. However, the 19,000-seat BOK Center arena had many empty seats and Trump and Vice President Mike Pence canceled speeches to an expected “overflow” crowd. The Trump campaign said that the entry was “first-come-first-served” and that no one was issued an actual ticket. “Leftists always fool themselves into thinking they’re being clever. Registering for a rally only means you’ve RSVPed with a cell phone number,” said Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh in a statement to Reuters. “But we thank them for their contact information.” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, responded to a tweet by Parscale blaming the media for discouraging attendees and cited bad behavior by demonstrators outside. “Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID,” she tweeted on Saturday. “KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too,” she added. “My 16 year old daughter and her friends in Park City Utah have hundreds of tickets. You have been rolled by America’s teens,” tweeted former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt. CNN reported on Tuesday that a TikTok video posted by Mary Jo Laupp, a user who uses the hashtag #TikTokGrandma, was helping lead the charge. The video now has more than 700,000 likes. Demonstrators marching near the BOK Center where President Trump was holding a campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., June 20, 2020.There were some shouting matches and scuffles outside the event between around 30 Black Lives Matter demonstrators and some Trump supporters waiting to enter. A Reuters reporter saw no sign any Trump supporters were prevented from entering the arena or overflow area. Trump had brushed aside criticism for his decision to hold the in Tulsa, the site of the country’s bloodiest outbreaks of racist violence against Black Americans some 100 years ago.
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By Polityk | 06/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Virus Fears, Low Turnout and Cheers at Trump’s Tulsa Rally
President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday evening, his first since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.The event was designed to be a show of political force to reenergize his base ahead of the November election but was marked by coronavirus fears and a lower-than-expected turnout.Declaring “the silent majority is stronger than ever before,” Trump called his supporters “warriors” and hit on familiar campaign themes, including conservative judicial appointees, low taxes, the booming stock market, the wall on the southern border with Mexico, and ramping up the military budget. The 1-hour, 40-minute speech was full of attacks on his Democratic rival and presidential nominee-in-waiting Joe Biden, the “radical left” and “fake news.”Trump defended his administration’s handling of the pandemic, blaming the high numbers — over 2.2 million coronavirus cases and 119,000 deaths nationwide — on extensive coronavirus testing.“When you do testing to that extent, you’re gonna find more people, you’re gonna find more cases. So, I said to my people, slow the testing down, please,” Trump said, adding that his administration “saved millions of lives.”A White House official clarified Trump’s comment after the rally. “He was clearly speaking in jest to call out the media’s absurd coverage. We are leading the world in testing, and we are proud to have conducted 25 million-plus tests,” the official said in a statement.While Trump has often referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus,” for the first time he referred to it publicly as the “kung-flu” and blamed Beijing for the pandemic.Ridiculing calls by some on the left to defund the police, Trump brought back the racially charged term “hombre.”“It’s 1 o’clock in the morning,” Trump said. “A very tough hombre is breaking into the window of a woman whose husband is away as a traveling salesman or whatever he may do. You call 911, and they say, ‘I’m sorry, this number is no longer working.’”Trump first used the term during the 2016 election campaign when he labeled people who came to the U.S. illegally “bad hombres” and called for their deportation.In a speech that mostly focused on domestic issues, Trump boasted about the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps major general Qassem Soleimani. He mentioned China at least 11 times, mostly in the context of laying blame for the pandemic and the trade war, and calling presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden “a puppet for China.”The president disparaged the Black Lives Matter movement and media coverage of the protests that have rocked the country for weeks since the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man who died while in the custody of Minnesota police officers.President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the BOK Center, June 20, 2020, in Tulsa, Okla.“They never talk about COVID,” Trump said. “You see 25,000 people walking down Fifth Avenue or walking down the street of a Democrat-run city, you never hear them saying they’re not wearing the mask,” he said.Slamming movements across the country aiming to remove or replace monuments honoring Confederate generals, Trump told supporters, “This cruel campaign of censorship and exclusion violates everything we hold dear as Americans. They want to demolish our heritage so they can impose a new oppressive regime it its place.”Trump took pains to rebut negative coverage and speculation about his health after his recent appearance at West Point, where he appeared to walk with difficulty down a ramp and used both hands to drink from a glass of water.“The stage was higher than this one and the ramp was probably 10 yards long,” Trump said, likening it to “an ice skating rink.” Saying that his arm was tired from “saluting 600 times” and wanting to avoid spilling water on his silk tie, Trump reenacted drinking from a glass, tossing it aside afterwards to cheers from the crowd.Lower-than-expected turnoutThe Trump campaign canceled speeches from both the president and the vice president to supporters outside the BOK Center as attendance appeared to fall short of expectations. The campaign had hyped the dual speeches from each leader to highlight the massive turnout they were expecting in Tulsa.Steve Phillips, founder of Democracy in Color, a political organization focused on race and politics, and host of a podcast by the same name, called the turnout “embarrassingly small.”Trump’s “high-wire act of defying the political laws of gravity by relying on the support of white nationalism and racial fears is finally crashing to the ground,” said Phillips in an email to VOA. “Even hardcore Trump supporters are not willing to enter a COVID-19 death chamber just to assuage Trump’s ego and make him feel better.”President Donald Trump supporters listen to Trump speak during a campaign rally at the BOK Center, June 20, 2020, in Tulsa, Okla.The campaign blamed protesters and the media for the low turnout. “Sadly, protesters interfered with supporters, even blocking access to the metal detectors, which prevented people from entering the rally. Radical protesters, coupled with a relentless onslaught from the media, attempted to frighten off the President’s supporters,” said campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh in a statement released before the event.Reporters on the scene denied Murtaugh’s account that large groups of people were turned away by protesters.Our @CBSNews team stood at the W Fourth St security barricade for over an hour and watched as state police & national guardsmen blocked it. Trump supporters expressed disappointment when the entrance closed, but none of them appeared shaken or intimidated by peaceful protesters. https://t.co/k12dgdIP9a— Nicole Sganga (@NicoleSganga) June 20, 2020Trump had said earlier in the week that the campaign had received nearly a million ticket requests for the rally.”No doubt, COVID-19 played a role in the depressed turnout,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. But if Trump can’t fill an arena in a state he carried overwhelmingly, Sabato said, “you have to wonder how he’s going to fare in swing states that may have turned against him.”Still, the crowd cheered for Trump, who appeared energetic and eager to bolster a reelection effort battered by a pandemic and nationwide demonstrations against racism.Black comedian and Trump supporter Terrence K. Williams tweeted his support for the president from the rally arena, saying “we are all Americans” and that Trump rallies are for everyone. Yes we are BlackYes we support President TrumpPeople want to know why me, my big brother @DavidJHarrisJr & other blacks are at the rally BECAUSE ITS NOT ABOUT COLOR!WE ARE ALL AMERICANS President @realDonaldTrump rallies are for everyone #TulsaTrumpRally#TrumpTulsaRallypic.twitter.com/BsMVCHFSdG— Terrence K. Williams (@w_terrence) June 20, 2020 While Trump energized supporters in his Tulsa rally, the first since early March, Larry Sabato projected that the boost for his reelection will be small.“This election is a referendum on Donald Trump,” Sabato said. “Maybe rallies pump up the enthusiasm of the Trump troops, but the rallies could backfire if there’s a COVID-19 outbreak among the participants afterwards.”Pandemic fearsThe campaign conducted temperature checks and handed out face masks and hand sanitizer to anyone who wanted them. But many among the thousands of Trump supporters were not wearing masks as they cheered shoulder-to-shoulder for the president in an arena with a capacity of 19,000 people.Rally-goer Josie Saltarelli, 38, a paramedic from Tulsa, said she wasn’t worried about the coronavirus. “People die of other things all the time,” she said.The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request by local residents that rally-goers be required to wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, ruling that the residents did not have a clear legal right to seek such a mandate.Prior to the rally, the campaign announced that six Trump campaign staff members who helped prepare for the event tested positive for the coronavirus. Murtaugh, the campaign spokesperson, said they would not attend the rally and would follow quarantine procedures.In a news conference on Wednesday, the city’s Republican mayor, G.T. Bynum, said he would not be attending Trump’s rally amid fears of the coronavirus.Rally-goers had to sign off on a legal disclaimer on the online registration page of the event acknowledging that they “voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury.”
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By Polityk | 06/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Judge: Bolton Can Publish Book Despite Efforts to Block it
A federal judge ruled Saturday that former national security adviser John Bolton can move forward in publishing his tell-all book despite efforts by the Trump administration to block the release because of concerns that classified information could be exposed.The decision from U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth is a victory for Bolton in a court case that involved core First Amendment and national security concerns. But the judge also made clear his concerns that Bolton had “gambled with the national security of the United States” by opting out of a prepublication review process meant to prevent government officials from spilling classified secrets in memoirs they publish.Trump Unleashes Attacks on Bolton BookUS leader says former national security adviser John Bolton’s account of his 17 months in the White House is ‘a compilation of lies and made up stories’The ruling clears the path for a broader election-year readership and distribution of a memoir, due out Tuesday, that paints an unflattering portrait of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decision-making during the turbulent year-and-a-half that Bolton spent in the White House.Nonethless, Lamberth frowned upon the way Bolton went about publishing the book. Bolton took it “upon himself to publish his book without securing final approval from national intelligence authorities” and perhaps caused irreparable harm to national security, Lamberth said.Trump Engaged World Leaders for His Own Gains, Bolton Says Former national security adviser shares damning allegations against the US president But with 200,000 copies already distributed to booksellers across the country, attempting to block its release would be futile, the judge wrote.”A single dedicated individual with a book in hand could publish its contents far and wide from his local coffee shop,” Lamberth wrote. “With hundreds of thousands of copies around the globe — many in newsrooms — the damage is done. There is no restoring the status quo.’
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By Polityk | 06/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Anti-Racism Protests Continue in US
Demonstrators are again taking to the streets in the U.S. this weekend to call for racial justice and an end to police brutality.Protests across the country have continued since May 25, when George Floyd, an African American man, died in police custody in the central U.S. city of Minneapolis.N Carolina Protesters Hang Confederate Statue From PostDemonstrators used a strap to pull down two statues of Confederate soldiers that were part of a larger obelisk near the state capitol in downtown Raleigh, news outlets reportedSome protests on Saturday and Sunday are also being held in observance of Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the last African Americans who were freed from slavery on June 19, 1865 in the southcentral state of Texas.Demonstrations are taking place in several towns and cities this weekend, including New York, Los Angeles and Miami.Weekend protests are also planned in Washington, where daily protests near the White House have taken place for weeks.Friday night, protesters at Judiciary Square, 3.2 kilometers from the White House, pulled down the statue of Confederate General Albert Pike.DC Protesters Pull Down, Burn Statue of Confederate GeneralCheering demonstrators jumped up and down as the 3.4-meter statue of Albert Pike – wrapped with chains – wobbled on its high granite pedestal before falling backward, landing in a pile of dustConfederate monuments, symbols of southern states that seceded from the U.S. in a failed attempt to preserve the enslavement of African Americans, have been the target of mounting criticism in recent decades, and particularly during this period of protests.Protests against racism are also taking place Saturday in other countries.A fourth weekend of anti-racism protests sparked by Floyd’s death are being held in parts of the United Kingdom. In Scotland, protesters in Edinburgh are calling for the removal of a statue of Henry Dundas, an 18th-century politician who delayed the abolition of slavery.In France, demonstrators are marching in Paris against racism and police brutalityand in memory of black men who died following encounters with French police or under suspicious circumstances.
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By Polityk | 06/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Supporters Gather in Oklahoma for Large Rally
Tens of thousands of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump are converging Saturday on Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Trump will hold his first large-scale rally since the coronavirus shutdown and nationwide protests of police brutality.The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request to require everyone attending the rally to wear face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.The state court ruled that several local residents who made the request did not have a clear legal right to seek such a mandate.A woman walks with a sidearm in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 19, 2020, while waiting for the following days’s rally with US President Donald Trump.The Trump campaign has said organizers would provide masks and hand sanitizer to all who want them at the rally. Organizers will also be checking the temperature of all attendees to guard against the spread of the virus. The campaign says it is taking “safety seriously” as some health experts have warned that the large gathering could promote the spread of the disease.The managers of the Bank of Oklahoma Center, the indoor multipurpose arena in Tulsa where the rally will take place, have asked the president’s campaign for a written health and safety plan. BOK Center officials said they requested the plan because Tulsa has experienced a recent increase in COVID-19 cases.The arena has seats for 19,000 people, and the Trump campaign says more than a million people have sought tickets.Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum says crowds of 100,000 people or more are expected in the area.Tulsa city workers erected a high metal fence Friday to barricade the rally site.Bynum initially ordered a curfew for the area around the arena because of the unrest that followed some recent protests of police brutality across the country. He later rescinded the order after Trump tweeted Friday that he spoke with the mayor and there would not be a curfew.I just spoke to the highly respected Mayor of Tulsa, G.T. Bynum, who informed me there will be no curfew tonight or tomorrow for our many supporters attending the #MAGA Rally. Enjoy yourselves – thank you to Mayor Bynum! @gtbynum— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020The mayor’s office originally said the curfew would remain in effect from 10 p.m. Friday until 6 a.m. Saturday and would again be in force on Saturday night.Bynum had said in the curfew order, “I have received information from the Tulsa Police Department and other law enforcement agencies that shows that individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive and violent behavior in other States are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally.” Bynum did not identify which groups he was referring to.Trump tweeted on Friday, “Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!”Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020A White House spokesperson, Kayleigh McEnany, said Trump was referring to violent protesters, not peaceful ones.Nationwide protests erupted last month after the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minnesota. Floyd, who was African American, died after a white Minneapolis police officer held his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.The Tulsa rally was originally scheduled for Friday but was pushed back a day after criticism that it fell on Juneteenth, the date that marks the end of slavery in the United States, and takes place in a city that has a history of racial tension. Tulsa was the scene of attacks by a white mob in 1921 that left several hundred African Americans dead.
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By Polityk | 06/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Says He Will Renew Effort to End DACA Protections
President Donald Trump said Friday that he will renew his administration’s effort to end legal protections for young immigrants after the Supreme Court blocked the first try.
In a tweet Friday morning, Trump said, “The Supreme Court asked us to resubmit on DACA, nothing was lost or won. They “punted” much like in a football game (where hopefully they would stand for our great American Flag). We will be submitting enhanced papers shortly.”The Supreme Court asked us to resubmit on DACA, nothing was lost or won. They “punted”, much like in a football game (where hopefully they would stand for our great American Flag). We will be submitting enhanced papers shortly in order to properly fulfil the Supreme Court’s…..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020The high court on Thursday ruled that Trump improperly ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2017. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the four liberal justices in the 5-4 majority, while the conservative justices called DACA illegal.
Trump could still take away the ability for hundreds of thousands of them to live and work legally in the United States. With no legislative answer in sight, that means the uncertainty of the last eight years isn’t over for many who know of nowhere else as home.
Activists are vowing to keep fighting for a long-term solution for 650,000 immigrants who were brought to the country as children. They face a White House that’s prioritized immigration restrictions and a divided Congress that’s unlikely to pass legislation giving them a path to citizenship anytime soon.
Ken Cuccinelli, acting head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Friday that the administration was starting over. “We’re going to move as quickly as we can to put options in front of the president,” but those are executive branch options, he told “Fox & Friends.”
“That still leaves open the appropriate solution which the Supreme Court mentioned and that is that Congress step up to the plate,” he said.
Cuccinelli said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., made some positive comments in that direction on on Thursday so the administration thinks it’s possible for a constructive conversation with Congress.
Trump slammed the court ruling, tweeting: “These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives,” apparently also referring to a ruling this week that said it’s illegal to fire people because they’re gay or transgender.
But experts say there isn’t enough time to knock down the 8-year-old program before the November election and doubt the government would try because DACA is popular with voters.
The court decision elicited surprise, joy and then apprehension from immigrants and advocates who know it’s only a temporary solution.
“This is a huge victory for us,” Diana Rodriguez, a 22-year-old DACA recipient, said through tears.
Rodriguez, who works with the New York Immigration Coalition, said she hasn’t been to Mexico since she was brought to the U.S. at age 2. The ruling means young immigrants can keep working, providing for their families and making “a difference in this country,” she said.
But the work isn’t over, Rodriguez said: “We can’t stop right now, we have to continue fighting.”
Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, appeared satisfied to let the court’s decision stand as the law of the land for now.
While Republicans protested that now, if ever, was the time for Congress to clarify the immigration system, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear that Democrats were done with their legislation before the summer break and had little interest in meeting GOP demands to fund Trump’s long-promised border wall as part of any comprehensive immigration overhaul.
“There isn’t anybody in the immigration community that wants us to trade a wall for immigration,” she said.
Pelosi was reminded that Trump has said he wants immigration reform. “We’ll see,” she said, noting how few days remain on the legislative calendar. “I don’t know what the president meant — maybe he doesn’t either.”
Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden said that if elected, he would send lawmakers proposed legislation on his first day in office to make DACA protections permanent.
The program grew out of an impasse over a comprehensive immigration bill between Congress and the Obama administration in 2012. Under intense pressure from young activists, President Barack Obama decided to formally protect people from deportation and allow them to work legally in the U.S.
Immigrants who are part of DACA will keep those protections, but there are tens of thousands of others who could have enrolled if Trump didn’t halt the program three years ago.
The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, estimates that about 66,000 young immigrants meet the age requirement to join the program — 15 — but haven’t been able to do so because the government has only been renewing two-year permits for those already enrolled.
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights has filed a DACA application for a person who’s not part of the program already, legal services director Luis Perez said, though U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services hasn’t signaled whether it will accept any.
“The circuit courts have already told USCIS you must accept renewals. Now that there’s been a Supreme Court decision, really the instructions are gonna be you need to bring back the program in full effect,” Perez said.
It’s unlikely the Trump administration will take new applications without being forced by the courts.
USCIS deputy director for policy Joseph Edlow said in a statement that the court’s opinion “has no basis in law and merely delays the president’s lawful ability to end the illegal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals amnesty program.”
A spokesperson said the agency was reviewing the decision and had no further comment.
And so the ups and downs continue, many coming from Trump himself. During the 2016 campaign, he vowed to repeal DACA. After his election, he softened his stance, saying at one point that DACA recipients had nothing to worry about. But under pressure from hard-liners, he announced in 2017 that he was ending the program.
Reyna Montoya, a DACA recipient from the Phoenix area who leads an immigrant rights advocacy organization, said she and others will keep pushing Congress to take up legislation addressing young immigrants.
“At this moment, the Senate needs to act, needs to come up with a proposal that will give us a path to citizenship,” Montoya said.
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By Polityk | 06/20/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Report: State Dept. Official Quits Over Trump Race Response
A State Department official resigned Thursday over President Donald Trump’s response to racial tensions sweeping the country over the deaths of black people in police custody, The Washington Post reported.Mary Elizabeth Taylor, the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, said in her resignation letter that Trump’s actions “cut sharply against my core values and convictions.” At 30, Taylor was the youngest person to hold her position, and she was also the first black woman in the job, according to the Post.“The President’s comments and actions surrounding racial injustice and Black Americans cut sharply against my core values and convictions,” Taylor said in her resignation letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, which was obtained by the Post. “I must follow the dictates of my conscience and resign as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs.”Taylor’s resignation follows weeks of turmoil sweeping the United States following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. Protesters demanding justice for Floyd and others, along with reforms to address police brutality, have taken to the streets, and the president has struggled to meet the moment.He has referred to protesters as “thugs,” and his administration forcefully pushed aside peaceful protesters near the White House so he could go to a nearby church and pose holding a Bible.The State Department declined to comment in response to a question from The Associated Press.“We do not comment on personnel matters,” the State Department said in an emailed response to a request for information about Taylor’s resignation. There was no immediate explanation for why State Department officials, including Pompeo and other top aides, had chosen to comment extensively on the decision to fire the department’s Inspector General Steve Linick in May.In her role in the Trump administration, Taylor helped guide more than 400 presidential appointments through the Senate, including those of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and CIA director Gina Haspel, the Post reported.
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By Polityk | 06/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Klobuchar Urges Biden to Pick Woman of Color as Running Mate
Amy Klobuchar said she is dropping out of the running to be vice president and is urging Democrat Joe Biden to select a woman of color instead.The white Minnesota senator, who had seen her prospects fall as racial tensions swept the nation, said Thursday that she called the presumptive presidential nominee Wednesday night and made the suggestion. Biden had already committed to choosing a woman as his running mate.“I think this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket,” Klobuchar said on MSNBC. “If you want to heal this nation right now — my party, yes, but our nation — this is sure a hell of a way to do it.”Biden praised Klobuchar in a tweet Thursday, citing her “grit and determination” and saying, “With your help, we’re going to beat Donald Trump.”Klobuchar’s chances at getting the VP nod diminished after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. Klobuchar was a prosecutor years ago in the county that includes Minneapolis, and during that period, more than two dozen people — mostly minorities — died during encounters with police.Floyd’s death last month set off days of protests across the country and criticism that as the county’s top prosecutor, Klobuchar didn’t charge any of the officers involved in citizen deaths. Officer Derek Chauvin, who was charged with Floyd’s murder, had been involved in one of those cases, the fatal 2006 shooting of a man accused of stabbing people and aiming a shotgun at police.Klobuchar, 60, was among a large field of Democrats who had sought the 2020 presidential nomination, running as a pragmatic Midwesterner who has passed over 100 bills. She dropped out and threw her support behind Biden before the crucial March 3 “Super Tuesday” contests after struggling to win support from black voters, who are crucial to Democratic victories. Her best finish of the primary was in overwhelmingly white New Hampshire, where she came in third.The third-term senator had to cancel one of the final rallies of her campaign after Black Lives Matter and other activists took the stage in Minnesota to protest her handling of a murder case when she was prosecutor that sent a black teen to prison for life.Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, a close Biden ally and Congress’ highest-ranking black lawmaker, said in the days after Floyd’s death that he believed it made Klobuchar a less likely pick for vice president, though he said she is “absolutely” qualified for the job.“This is very tough timing for her,” Clyburn said.Even before Floyd’s death, activists were pushing Biden to consider a woman of color, saying it would help build a multiracial coalition behind the Democratic ticket and motivate people — particularly younger voters — who may be underwhelmed by the 77-year-old former vice president’s bid. The founder of She the People, a network of women of color, called news that Biden had asked Klobuchar to undergo formal vetting “a dangerous and reckless choice.”“To choose Klobuchar as vice president risks losing the very base the Democrats need to win, most centrally women of color, and could be a fatal blow to the Democrats’ chance to win the White House,” Aimee Allison said in May.Others wanted Biden to choose a more progressive candidate who could bring in support from voters who backed Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the primary. Like Biden, Klobuchar disagreed with Sanders and Warren during the campaign on major issues such as health care, calling “Medicare for All” unachievable and pushing instead for changes to the Affordable Care Act.Democrats with knowledge of the process told The Associated Press last week that Biden’s search committee had narrowed the choices to as few as six serious contenders after initial interviews. Among the group still in contention: Warren, California Sen. Kamala Harris and Susan Rice, who served as President Barack Obama’s national security adviser. Warren is white; both Harris and Rice are black.Biden has said he will announce his VP decision by August 1.
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By Polityk | 06/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Last Kennedy Sibling’s Death Ends Era
Camelot’s inner circle is just about gone — though its spirit, some say, is very much alive.Wednesday’s death of Jean Kennedy Smith, an acclaimed former U.S. ambassador to Ireland and the last surviving sibling of President John F. Kennedy, virtually erases those who were closest to the assassinated 35th U.S. president.”This is sort of bringing down the curtain on one of America’s three political dynasties — the Adamses, the Roosevelts and now the Kennedys,” said Patrick Maney, a Kennedy scholar and retired professor of history at Boston College.Only Ethel Kennedy, the 92-year-old wife of JFK’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy — himself felled by an assassin’s bullet five years later amid a mighty struggle for civil rights with echoes reverberating now in 2020 — remains with us.”The world seems less bright today,” said Victoria Reggie Kennedy, whose husband, former U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, another JFK brother, died in 2009.Kennedy Smith, who died Wednesday at age 92 at her Manhattan home, is being hailed for playing a pivotal role in the peace process in Northern Ireland.FILE – In this Nov. 22, 2013, file photo, former Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith, center lays a wreath at John F. Kennedy’s grave in Arlington, Virginia.She was the eighth of nine children born to Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy. She married Kennedy family financial adviser and political strategist Stephen Edward Smith in 1956.Several of her siblings tragically preceded her in death by decades.Her siblings included older brother Joseph Kennedy Jr., killed in action during World War II; Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, who died in a 1948 plane crash; the president assassinated in 1963; and the senator slain in 1968.Edward Kennedy, the youngest of the Kennedy siblings, died of brain cancer in August 2009, the same month their sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver died.And the string of tragedies that have befallen the clan never seems to stop. Last summer, Saoirse Kennedy Hill, the 22-year-old granddaughter of Bobby Kennedy, fatally overdosed on drugs at the family’s iconic compound on Cape Cod.”Over the past several years, we’ve been reminded of the Kennedy family’s many tragedies,” Maney said. “[Kennedy Smith’s] death makes us think of some of the triumphs of the family and their great accomplishments that still shape our lives today.”The JFK era was dubbed “Camelot” because the youthful president and his glamorous wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, evoked a sense of national optimism expressed in a line from a Broadway musical: “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.”For a generation of Americans, the Democratic Party clan represented the closest thing the U.S. had to the royalty it has always admired elsewhere.FILE – Jean Kennedy Smith, sister of Sen. Edward Kennedy, attends the funeral of Sen. Edward Kennedy at Our Lady of Perpetual Hope Basilica in Boston, Aug., 29, 2009.To be sure, vestiges of the Kennedy era are all around us.There’s still the sprawling Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate are major draws for visitors to Boston — or they were before the coronavirus pandemic temporarily shuttered them.And Kennedys are still serving in or running for office and engaging in public service, in line with the most enduring quote from JFK’s 1961 inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy III, who is RFK’s grandson and the lone member of the political dynasty currently in elected office, is running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.On Thursday, he called Kennedy Smith an “incredible aunt” who led a “remarkable life.” Amy Kennedy, the wife of former U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, is running for a House seat in New Jersey.Others, like Joseph P. Kennedy II — a former congressional member who runs a program that helps the poor heat their homes in winter — have found different ways to give back.”It’s hard to imagine another family having the broad range of impacts that the Kennedys did,” said Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.But with Jean Kennedy Smith’s death coming at a time of hyperpartisanship, something is gone forever, West said, describing it as “the passing of the guard.””That generation was the greatest generation,” he said. “Since then, there have been so many problems. People worry about our ability to rise to the challenges that we face. It seems a very long time ago when the Kennedys were running the national government.”Maney sees modern American political history divided into two eras: Before Kennedy and Since Kennedy.”The Kennedys still have a hold on us in a way that nobody since that time has held a generation spellbound,” he said. “There’s still something about the Kennedy mystique that remains.”
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By Polityk | 06/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
AP-NORC Poll: Trump Adds to Divisions in an Unhappy Country
Americans are deeply unhappy about the state of their country — and a majority think President Donald Trump is exacerbating tensions in a moment of national crisis, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.With less than five months until Election Day, the survey offers few bright spots for a president confronting a historic pandemic, a sharp economic decline and national outrage over police brutality against black people. Most Americans — including 63% of Republicans — say the country is heading in the wrong direction. And close to two-thirds — including 37% of Republicans — say Trump is making America more divided. “Instead of bringing us all together, he’s pulling us all apart,” said Donna Oates, 63, a retiree from Chino, California. Oates said she was a Republican until March, when her mounting frustration with Trump and the GOP prompted her to change her voter registration to the Democratic Party. Trump’s tenure, she said, has made her “dread getting up to turn on the TV and see any of the news.”That pessimism poses reelection challenges for Trump in his face-off against Democrat Joe Biden. Presidents seeking four more years in office typically rely on voters being optimistic about the direction the country is headed in and eager to stay the course — a view most Americans don’t currently hold. FILE – A protester confronts a line of police in riot gear after a unity march to protest police brutality, in Kansas City, Mo., June 4, 2020.Just 24% say the country is headed in the right direction, down from 33% a month ago and 42% in March. That’s when the COVID-19 pandemic began taking hold in the U.S., killing nearly 120,000 Americans to date and upending most aspects of daily life.Overall, 37% of Americans say they approve of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak — a dip from 44% in March. The fallout from the pandemic has been sweeping. Beyond the public health risks, the economy suffered from a sudden jolt as states implemented strict stay-at-home orders. Though some of those restrictions have started to ease and businesses in many places are now beginning to open, the unemployment rate still sits at 13.3%.The nation has also been jarred by the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans at the hands of police, which prompted protests across the nation. Trump responded aggressively to the protests, some of which became violent, and vowed to send the active-duty military into states that couldn’t contain the demonstrations. The Pentagon publicly opposed that step and it was never carried out. Trump’s overall approval rating during this moment of tremendous upheaval sits at 39%. Though that’s down slightly from the 43% who approved of his job performance in February and March, it’s well within the narrow range where his ratings have stayed throughout his time in office. That suggests that the president’s most enthusiastic supporters have remained loyal throughout the pandemic and other crises.The president’s strongest ratings continue to center on the economy, as has been the case throughout his tenure. About half of Americans say they approve of Trump’s handling of the economy. FILE – A woman checks job application information in front of an Illinois Department of Employment Security WorkNet center in Arlington Heights, Ill., April 9, 2020.Still, that’s down somewhat from 56% approval in March — a warning sign to Trump, who planned to run for reelection on a booming economy. Even with the dip in the unemployment rate as some businesses reopen, economic forecasts for the rest of the year remain uncertain, particularly as new virus hot spots emerge. Trump’s economic argument has shifted to focus on promises about what the nation’s financial situation could look like in 2021 if he’s given a second term in office. The protests over police brutality against black Americans have proven to be a particularly searing moment for the nation, as well as Trump’s presidency. And he gets low marks for his handling of them. A majority of Americans — 54% — say Trump has made things worse during the unrest following the death of Floyd, an unarmed and handcuffed black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly eight minutes. Seventy-two percent of black Americans and 51% of white Americans think Trump has made things worse following Floyd’s death. Floyd’s death has prompted a broad discussion about the legacy of racism in America, with business leaders acknowledging inequality in the workplace, prominent brands reconsidering names rooted in racial stereotypes and statues of Confederate figures being taken down across the country. FILE – A demonstrator carries an image of George Floyd in front of a boarded-up business decorated with a mural reading “All Black Lives Matter,” during a march on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, June 14, 2020.Trump has expressed sadness over Floyd’s death and backed some efforts to reform policing. But he’s also questioned how systemic racism is in America and suggested that inequalities can largely be addressed by boosting the economy. Just 32% of Americans say they approve of Trump’s handling of race relations, while 67% disapprove. Views of Trump are particularly negative among black Americans, a group that votes overwhelmingly for Democrats, but one with which the president has been focused on boosting his support ahead of November. About 9 in 10 black Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling his job overall, and roughly the same percentage disapprove of how he is handling race relations. Among white Americans, 45% approve of how Trump is handling his job overall and 37% approve of how he’s handling race relations.The AP-NORC poll of 1,310 adults was conducted June 11-15 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
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By Polityk | 06/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Supreme Court Rules Trump Cannot Rescind Immigration Program
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday the Trump administration cannot rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that has protected at least 650,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children from being deported to their native countries. Conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts joined the court’s four liberals in the 5-4 ruling. It is viewed as a defeat for President Donald Trump, who has sought to roll back the DACA program for the past two years. The program was created in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama to supply protections for qualified young immigrants to stay in the country and work or attend school. The program became part of what was known as “The Dream Act” proposal, and the young immigrants themselves, “dreamers,” although Congress never passed the legislation. The decision In his decision for the majority, Roberts found, as had lower courts, that the administration did not follow procedures required by law and did not properly weigh how ending the program would affect those who had come to rely on its protections against deportation, and the ability to work legally in the U.S. Roberts wrote, “We do not decide if DACA or its rescission are sound policies. We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it supply reasoned explanation for its action.” Among those who dissented was Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote that DACA was illegal from the moment it was created. “Today’s decision must be recognized for what it is: an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision,” Thomas wrote. Thursday’s ruling was the second time in nearly a year that Roberts and the liberal justices faulted the administration for the way it went about a policy change. Last year, the court forced the administration to back off a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Trump slams decision Trump, on Twitter, criticized what he called “horrible and politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court” that are “shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives.” These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives. We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020″Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?” he asked. Trump claimed that “the recent Supreme Court decisions, not only on DACA, Sanctuary Cities, Census, and others, tell you only one thing, we need NEW JUSTICES of the Supreme Court. If the Radical Left Democrats assume power, your Second Amendment, Right to Life, Secure Borders, and Religious Liberty, among many other things, are OVER and GONE!” …Religious Liberty, among many other things, are OVER and GONE!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020The U.S. leader said that he would produce a list of conservative judges by September 1, from which he would choose future Supreme Court justices if he wins reelection to a second term in the November election. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) praised the Supreme Court ruling on DACA.”The Supreme Court rightly ruled in favor of over 700,000 citizens in waiting, their families, and our country’s future. The courts and the American people agree: It’s time for President Trump and (adviser) Stephen Miller to end their crusade against Dreamers and immigrants writ large,” Andrea Flores, the ACLU’s deputy director of immigration policy, said in a statement.Obama praises ruling From his Twitter account Thursday, former President Obama praised the ruling, saying “Eight years ago this week, we protected young people who were raised as part of our American family from deportation. Today, I’m happy for them, their families, and all of us. We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals…” Eight years ago this week, we protected young people who were raised as part of our American family from deportation. Today, I’m happy for them, their families, and all of us. We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals…— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 18, 2020
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By Polityk | 06/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Unleashes Attacks on Bolton Book
U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed a full-bore attack Thursday on his former national security adviser John Bolton after Bolton in a new book that called the U.S. leader an “erratic” and “stunningly uninformed” commander in chief.Trump, in a string of biting Twitter comments, called Bolton’s book “a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad. Many of the ridiculous statements he attributes to me were never made, pure fiction. Just trying to get even for firing him like the sick puppy he is!”Bolton’s book, which is getting terrible reviews, is a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad. Many of the ridiculous statements he attributes to me were never made, pure fiction. Just trying to get even for firing him like the sick puppy he is!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020The U.S. leader called Bolton “a disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope!”Wacko John Bolton’s “exceedingly tedious”(New York Times) book is made up of lies & fake stories. Said all good about me, in print, until the day I fired him. A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020Trump has only rarely acknowledged missteps during his 3 ½-year presidency. But he tweeted that at one point early on in Bolton’s 17-month tenure in the White House in 2018 and last year he “should have fired him right then & there!” He said Bolton “stupidly” made comments about the U.S. view of North Korea’s future on a news talk show that complicated Trump’s then budding negotiations with the Pyongyang dictator, Kim Jong Un…..He didn’t want Bolton anywhere near him. Bolton’s dumbest of all statements set us back very badly with North Korea, even now. I asked him, “what the hell were you thinking?” He had no answer and just apologized. That was early on, I should have fired him right then & there!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020Court order sought
The White House is seeking a court order to block next week’s scheduled publication of Bolton’s 577-page book, “The Room Where It Happened,” claiming it contains confidential national security information that should be kept secret even though several U.S. news outlets obtained advance copies of it and on Wednesday started writing extensive stories about Bolton’s allegations.White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday called Bolton’s decision to go ahead with the release of a book “absolutely appalling” and “despicable.”She rejected as untrue what perhaps was Bolton’s most damning accusation, that Trump sought help at a Group of 20 summit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping in June 2019 to win re-election to a second term in the U.S. national election in November. Trump Engaged World Leaders for His Own Gains, Bolton Says Former national security adviser shares damning allegations against the US president Bolton revelations
Bolton, who was paid a $2 million advance for his book, said that Trump asked Xi to buy more farm produce from the U.S. agricultural heartland to help Trump shore up electoral support in the rural states.Bolton said Trump “stunningly turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump’s exact words, but the government’s pre-publication review process has decided otherwise.”Based on Bolton’s account, Trump’s Democratic opponent in the Nov. 3 election, former Vice President Joe Biden, accused the U.S. leader of being “willing to trade away our most cherished democratic values for the empty promise of a flimsy trade deal that bailed him out of his disastrous tariff war that did so much damage to our farmers, manufacturers, and consumers.“If these accounts are true,” Biden said in a statement, “it’s not only morally repugnant, it’s a violation of Donald Trump’s sacred duty to the American people to protect America’s interests and defend our values.”Based on his conversations with Trump and watching him in meetings, Bolton alleged that Trump thought Finland was part of Russia and was unaware that Britain possesses nuclear weapons. Bolton said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo passed him a note disparaging Trump in vulgar terms in the middle of his talks with North Korea’s Kim during their 2018 summit in Singapore.Bolton said Trump “second-guessed people’s motives, saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government.” Bolton alleged that Trump was always looking to “personal instinct” and opportunities for “reality TV showmanship.”Criticism from Democrats
Aside from Trump’s attack on the book, Bolton also drew criticism from Congressman Adam Schiff, who successfully led the Democratic effort to impeach Trump late last year for his dealings with Ukraine even though Trump was acquitted by the Senate in February.Schiff tweeted that Bolton’s staff was asked to testify about Trump’s conduct during the impeachment inquiry last year and did.“They had a lot to lose and showed real courage,” Schiff said. “When Bolton was asked, he refused, and said he’d sue if subpoenaed.“Instead, he saved it for a book,” Schiff said. “Bolton may be an author, but he’s no patriot.”
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By Polityk | 06/19/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Supreme Court Rules Trump Cannot Rescind DACA
The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday ruled the Trump administration cannot rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or, DACA, a program which provides protection from deportation for at least 650,000 children of immigrants living in the United States.Conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts joined the court’s four liberals in the 5-4 ruling. It is viewed as defeat for U.S. President Donald Trump who has sought to roll back DACA for the past two years.The program was created in 2012 by then President Barack Obama to supply protections for qualified young immigrants to stay in the country and work or attend school. The program became part of what became known as “The Dream Act” and the young immigrants themselves, “dreamers.”The decision
In his decision for the majority, Roberts found, as lower courts had, that the administration did not follow procedures required by law and did not properly weigh how ending the program would affect those who had come to rely on its protections against deportation, and the ability to work legally.Roberts wrote “We do not decide if DACA or its rescission are sound policies. We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it supply reasoned explanation for its action.”Among those who dissented was Justice Clarence Thomas who wrote that DACA was illegal from the moment it was created.“Today’s decision must be recognized for what it is: an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision,” Thomas wrote.Thursday’s ruling was the second time in two years that Roberts and the liberal justices faulted the administration for the way it went about a policy change regarding immigration. Last year, the court forced the administration to back off a citizenship question on the 2020 census.Trump slams decision
President Trump, on Twitter Thursday, criticized what he called “horrible and politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court” that are “shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives.”These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives. We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) praised the Supreme Court ruling on DACA. “The Supreme Court rightly ruled in favor of over 700,000 citizens in waiting, their families, and our country’s future. The courts and the American people agree: It’s time for President Trump and (advisor) Stephen Miller to end their crusade against Dreamers and immigrants writ large,” Andrea Flores, the ACLU’s deputy director of immigration policy said in a statement.Obama praises ruling
From his Twitter account Thursday, former President Obama praised the ruling, saying “Eight years ago this week, we protected young people who were raised as part of our American family from deportation. Today, I’m happy for them, their families, and all of us. We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals…”Eight years ago this week, we protected young people who were raised as part of our American family from deportation. Today, I’m happy for them, their families, and all of us. We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals…— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 18, 2020
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By Polityk | 06/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US House, Senate Move Toward Votes on Police Reform Bills
Democratic and Republican police reform proposals are moving ahead with both the House of Representatives and Senate planning to hold votes next week. The House Judiciary Committee gave its approval Wednesday to the plan from majority Democrats, sending to the full House a measure that would ban the use of chokeholds, limit qualified immunity for police officers to make it easier for people who feel aggrieved by police actions to sue them for damages and to end no-knock warrants in federal drug cases. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday the Republican plan would move to a procedural vote. That legislation would require state and local governments to report to the U.S. Justice Department on the use of no-knock-warrants in police raids to capture criminal suspects. It also would limit eligibility for federal funding if police agencies do not have policies prohibiting the use of chokeholds “except when deadly force is authorized.”WATCH: Katherine Gypson’s video report Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Minneapolis police officers stand in a line facing protesters demonstrating against the death of George Floyd, outside the 3rd Police Precinct in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 27, 2020.Qualified immunity
Democrats want to eliminate such protections, called qualified immunity, while Republicans and President Donald Trump oppose the move. “By removing qualified immunity, what you’re doing is essentially not allowing police to do their job,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday. “Taking away qualified immunity would make this country much less safe.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the White House position “just wrong” and said Democrats would fight to change it. “For someone who wants to sue everyone he believes wrongs him, President Trump doesn’t want to let American citizens sue police officers who violate their constitutional rights?” Schumer said. McConnell said the police reform bills should be an effort that is above bipartisan squabbling, and Sen. Tim Scott, who led the crafting of the Republican measure, said addressing police reform should not be shaped by binary choices. “Too often we’re having a discussion in this nation about are you supporting the law enforcement community or are you supporting communities of color,” Scott said Wednesday. “The answer to the question of which side do you support is I support America, and if you support America, you support restoring the confidence that communities of color have in institutions of authority. If you support America, that means you know that the overwhelming number of officers in this nation want to do their job, go home to their family.” FILE – Philonise Floyd, a brother of George Floyd, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., arrive for a House Judiciary Committee hearing on proposed changes to police practices and accountability on Capitol Hill, June 10, 2020, in Washington.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said House Democrats “hope to work in a bipartisan way to pass legislation that creates meaningful change to end the epidemic of racial injustice and police brutality in America,” and that the Senate Republican proposal does not go far enough. “The Democratic proposal will fundamentally and forever transform the culture of policing to address systemic racism and put an end to shielding police from accountability,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “During this moment of national anguish, we must insist on bold change to save lives.” WATCH: Which country spends the most on policing?Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 3 MB480p | 4 MB540p | 5 MB720p | 11 MB1080p | 20 MB Embed” />Copy Download Audio
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By Polityk | 06/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
New US Broadcast Chief Fires Agency Heads
The new chief executive of the agency that oversees Voice of America has dismissed the leaders of other agency organizations, including the heads of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe/Free Liberty.U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack made the move in notices issued late Wednesday.The Associated Press reported that Pack did not give specific reasons for each dismissal, only that he was acting consistent with his authority as the new USAGM CEO.The top two officials at VOA, Director Amanda Bennett and deputy Sandy Sugawara, resigned from their posts on Monday.Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized Pack’s actions, saying they confirm “he is on a political mission to destroy the USAGM’s independence and undermine its historic role.”“The wholesale firing of the Agency’s network heads and disbanding of corporate boards to install President Trump’s political allies is an egregious breach of this organization’s history and mission from which it may never recover. This latest attack is sadly the latest – but not the last – in the Trump Administration’s efforts to transform U.S. institutions rooted in the principles of democracy into tools for the President’s own personal agenda,” Menendez said in a statement late Wednesday.USAGM CEO Nominee Michael Pack confirmation hearing, Sept. 19, 2019.Alberto Fernandez, who led the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, said he was proud of the work the networks did during his three-year tenure and honored to have worked with talented journalists in the United States, Dubai, Beirut and elsewhere. He also pointed to the ongoing challenges USAGM agencies face in getting news to the viewers, listeners and readers around the world.“Wish the incoming people at USAGM well,” Fernandez tweeted late Wednesday. “I hope they know what they are doing. They have an immediate opportunity to make a difference. Yesterday the Iraqi government shut down Radio Sawa transmitters in Baghdad, Basra and Karbala and threatened to seize USG property.”Earlier Wednesday, Pack sent his first communication to VOA employees since being confirmed by the Senate last week, pledging in an email to uphold its mandated role of providing independent worldwide journalism even though it is a U.S. government-funded agency.Pack wrote that he is “fully committed to honoring VOA’s charter … and the independence of our heroic journalists around the world.”He was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead USAGM more than two years ago. But with solid Democratic opposition to his appointment, the Republican-controlled Senate voted only two weeks ago to approve a three-year term for Pack to head USAGM.In recent weeks, Trump has criticized VOA for its news coverage of China during the coronavirus crisis. When asked about the Pack nomination on May 15, Trump said, “Voice of America is run in a terrible manner. They’re not the Voice of America. They’re the opposite of the Voice of America.”Pack made no mention of Trump or the controversy in his email to staff. Nor did he say who he plans to name as VOA’s director.Bennett was a staunch advocate for VOA’s independent journalism, rebuffing Trump’s recent criticism and defending the U.S.-funded news agency’s mission and reporting.“We export the First Amendment to people around the world who have no other access to factual, truthful, believable information,” she said. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech.“That’s why more than 80 percent of our 280 million audience in 47 languages in more than 60 countries say they find our work credible,” Bennett said.Some outside watchdogs have voiced fears about Pack’s tenure at USAGM, citing his record as a conservative filmmaker and associate of former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon and suggesting he might not withstand White House pressure for news coverage favorable to Trump.The New York Times said in an editorial Tuesday, “The specter of turning V.O.A. into a propaganda tool of the White House should be frightening to all Americans, regardless of political leanings.” The editorial concluded, “Mr. Trump wants a bullhorn, not a diplomatic instrument, and he insists on loyalty.”As Pack took over as chief executive, the directors of the Broadcasting Board of Governors — which formerly controlled VOA and its sister networks — published their own definition of independent journalism in the Federal Register of government actions.“USAGM-funded networks each enjoy full editorial independence, as that term is defined and understood by best practices of journalism,” the statement said.“Editorial independence includes, but is not limited to, the fact that only individuals within the network may make any decisions with respect to newsgathering or reporting,” the directors said. “USAGM networks and their employees, including the heads of each network, are fully insulated from any political or other external pressures or processes that would be inconsistent with the highest standards of professional journalism.”Pack, in his mid-60s, has held previous executive positions at U.S. government international and public media agencies. But in recent years, he told USAGM employees, he has run a private venture, Manifold Productions, that has produced 15 documentaries that have aired in the U.S. on the Public Broadcasting Service.“These films were also my way of telling America’s story,” he said. “Although making documentaries is very satisfying work, I was eager to return to international broadcasting at this critical juncture in our history.”He said, “America’s adversaries have stepped up their propaganda and disinformation efforts. They are aggressively promoting their very different visions of the world.”Pack said he would seek to improve employee morale at USAGM and “examine some of the problems that have surfaced in the media in recent years.”“Most importantly,” he wrote, “my mission will be to make the agency more effective.”
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By Polityk | 06/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Engaged World Leaders for His Own Gains, Bolton Says
U.S. President Donald Trump engaged in interactions with various world leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, to undermine national interests for his own political gains, according to Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton.In an op-ed in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, Bolton writes that during the 2018 G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Trump asked Xi to increase China’s purchase of American agricultural products to help Trump secure votes in farm states in the November 2020 U.S. election, in return for a more favorable tariff rate on Chinese goods.Bolton writes that in their meeting of June 29, 2019, during the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Xi told Trump that the U.S.-China relationship was the most important in the world.Trump, Bolton writes, “stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win.”The same account of the Trump-Xi interaction is laid out in Bolton’s 592-page upcoming book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, copies of which were obtained by The New York Times and The Washington Post.“He (Trump) stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump’s exact words, but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.”The book is scheduled to be released next week, but it is embroiled in an escalating legal battle, with the Justice Department filing a lawsuit on Tuesday to potentially stop its publication. The administration argues that Bolton breached nondisclosure agreements and was risking national security.Speaking to reporters at a White House event on Tuesday, Trump said that Bolton’s book is a “criminal liability.”“That to me is a very strong criminal problem,” Trump said. “And he knows he’s got classified information. Any conversation with me is classified, but then it becomes even worse if he lies about the conversation.”Trump and Attorney General William Barr allege that Bolton did not complete the White House manuscript review process. Bolton’s lawyer says the book does not contain classified material and that it underwent a review process that was concluded in April.White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany during a briefing with reporters Wednesday repeated the administration’s claim. She said Bolton “should know all too well that it’s unacceptable to have highly classified information from the government of the United States in a book that will be published.”Beyond UkraineIn his book, Bolton says that the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives should have expanded their 2019 Trump impeachment inquiry beyond whether the U.S. president pressured Ukraine’s leader to dig up political dirt on his presumed rival, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, in exchange for military aid. Bolton says Democrats should have looked at other instances where the president allegedly intervened in law enforcement matters for political reasons.Bolton describes situations where Trump appeared willing to stop criminal investigations “to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked,” citing cases involving major firms including Turkey’s Halkbank to curry favor with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Chinese telecom giant ZTE to benefit Xi.“The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn’t accept,” writes Bolton, adding that he reported his concerns to Barr.Bolton’s book also describes how in Osaka, Trump signaled his approval of China’s internment of as many as 1 million Uighur Muslims, an ethnic minority in Xinjiang.During an opening dinner of the 2019 G-20 meeting in Osaka attended only by interpreters, Xi explained to Trump “why he was basically building concentration camps” in the northwest Chinese province. According to Bolton, the American interpreter said that Trump expressed that Xi should go ahead with building them. Bolton writes that he was told by National Security Council official Matt Pottinger that Trump had said something similar during a 2017 trip to China.Bolton’s book also provides highlights on other foreign policy decisions, including how poorly Trump handled his 2018 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to the book, declared Trump’s strategy on North Korea as having “zero probability of success” while Bolton says the president saw the denuclearization effort in the Korean Peninsula merely as a “an exercise in publicity.”The book includes examples of disdain from Trump’s closest advisers speaking behind the president’s back. According to the book, after Trump completed a phone call with South Korean President Moon Jae-In ahead of the 2018 Singapore summit with North Korea, Pompeo told Bolton he was “having a cardiac arrest” as he listened to the conversation, while Bolton described it as a “near death experience.”Bolton also alleges that Trump offered to reverse criminal prosecution against Chinese telecom firm Huawei if it would help in the trade deal with Beijing.“These and innumerable other similar conversations with Trump formed a pattern of fundamentally unacceptable behavior that eroded the very legitimacy of the presidency,” Bolton writes in his op-ed. “Had Democratic impeachment advocates not been so obsessed with their Ukraine blitzkrieg in 2019, had they taken the time to inquire more systematically about Trump’s behavior across his entire foreign policy, the impeachment outcome might well have been different.”Criticism of BoltonBolton is a conservative who has worked in Republican administrations including those of Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W. Bush. In his tenure as W. Bush’s United Nations ambassador as well as Trump’s adviser, Bolton advocated for a hardline foreign policy, supported the Iraq war and favored military action against rogue states such as North Korea and Iran.While other former Trump administration officials have spoken against the president, Bolton’s account is one of the most scathing to come from someone who was once part of Trump’s closest circle of foreign policy advisers.Bolton resigned in September after he clashed with the president over foreign policy decisions pertaining to Iran, North Korea, Ukraine and attempts for a peace deal in Afghanistan with the Taliban. The president said that he fired Bolton.Bolton continues to be scorned by Democrats for not coming forward during impeachment proceedings and instead saving his account for a $2 million book contract.Bolton’s staff were asked to testify before the House to Trump’s abuses, and did. They had a lot to lose and showed real courage.When Bolton was asked, he refused, and said he’d sue if subpoenaed. Instead, he saved it for a book.Bolton may be an author, but he’s no patriot.— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 17, 2020Trump was impeached in January by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over the Ukraine affair but was acquitted a month later by the Republican-controlled Senate. Bolton declined to testify in the inquiry, saying he would only do so if the court ruled that former aides should provide testimony over White House objections.Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer released a statement Wednesday in response to reporting on Bolton’s book. “It was clear then and could not be any clearer now: the vote to convict and remove Donald Trump from office was absolutely the right vote. The revelations in Mr. Bolton’s book make Senate Republicans’ craven actions on impeachment look even worse – and history will judge them for it.”Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Bolton’s book is “riddled with factual errors.””It is actually precious and adorable, how pro-John Bolton you all are now,” Conway said to members of the media, dismissing scrutiny over allegations in the book. “It’s really cute.”
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By Polityk | 06/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Would Beat Trump by a Landslide, New Reuters Poll Shows
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden would beat U.S. President Donald Trump in a landslide if the election were held today, a new poll shows. The new survey by Reuters-Ipsos has 48% of respondents saying they would cast their ballots for Biden and 35% for Trump. The poll shows 40% approving of the way Trump has handled the coronavirus outbreak, with 55% giving him a thumbs down. Overall, the survey gives Trump a 38% approval rating. But there is some good news for the president. The Reuters poll shows respondents believe he would be better for the economy than Biden, 43% to 38%. Separately, a CNBC-Change Research poll has Biden leading the president in six so-called swing states — states likely to decide the outcome of the November election — Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But Biden’s lead over Trump in those states is relatively slight — 48% to 45%.
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By Polityk | 06/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Bolton Claims Trump Pleaded With China for Re-Election Help
Donald Trump pleaded with China’s leader Xi Jinping for help to win re-election in 2020, the U.S. president’s former aide John Bolton writes in an explosive new book, according to excerpts published Wednesday.Trump met with Xi at a summit last June when he “stunningly turned the conversation to the US presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win,” former national security adviser Bolton claims in his upcoming tell-all.In excerpts published by The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, Bolton writes that Trump stressed the importance of America’s farmers and how “increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat” could impact the electoral outcome in the United States.
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By Polityk | 06/18/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
How Vote by Mail Works
With the coronavirus threat, the US is taking an urgent look at vote-by-mail in this presidential election year
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By Polityk | 06/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Senate Republicans Propose Their Own Policing Reforms
U.S. policing reforms are taking center stage Wednesday in Congress, as Senate Republicans offer their legislation promoting police accountability for their actions on the streets of America, while House Democrats advance their more far-reaching measure to curb abusive police conduct. Whether the divided lawmakers can reach common ground less than five months before the presidential and congressional elections in November is uncertain. But there is a certain urgency to the debate uncommon to Washington politics in the immediate aftermath of controversial police actions in which black men have again died while in the custody of police officers. Police move toward demonstrators, May 31, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25.The debate is occurring after nationwide, coast-to-coast protests against the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, three weeks ago in Minneapolis after a white police officer held him face down on a city street for nearly nine minutes by pressing his knee on his neck. Then, last Friday, a white Atlanta police officer shot a black man, Rayshard Brooks, to death in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. Senate Republicans, led by Tim Scott, the lone black Republican senator, are calling for new reporting requirements on the use of deadly force by police across the country and to limit federal funding for state and local departments that fail to comply. The Republican legislation would require state and local governments to report to the U.S, Justice Department on the use of no-knock-warrants in police raids to capture criminal suspects. It also would limit eligibility for federal funding if police agencies do not have policies prohibiting the use of chokeholds “except when deadly force is authorized.” Like Democrats, the Republicans want to create a Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, an effort aimed at studying some of the root causes of crimes committed in minority communities. Such a bipartisan effort would provide a report on the circumstances most affecting the lives of African American men, such as education, health care and the criminal justice system. The Republican-controlled Senate could vote on its measure as soon as next week. What Democrats are proposing
Meanwhile, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is advancing its more far-reaching measure that would ban the use of chokeholds, limit qualified immunity for police officers to make it easier for people who feel aggrieved by police actions to sue them for damages and to end no-knock warrants in federal drug cases. President Donald Trump holds up an executive order on police reform after signing it in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, June 16, 2020.President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to create a database of police misconduct. He promised a “big moment” if lawmakers could act to pass legislation and said he was “committed to working with Congress on additional measures.”But he also declared his support for police, saying, “Americans want law and order.” At a Senate hearing Tuesday, one key Republican, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, seemed open to the idea of curbing police immunity protecting them from lawsuits brought by people who contend their civil rights have been abused by police. “We don’t want to deter people from going into law enforcement. But we also want to have a sense of accountability,” Graham said. “And to the extent that qualified immunity fosters a sense of ‘It’s really not my problem,’ let’s take a look at it.” “Qualified immunity is an intriguing idea to me,” he said. “I don’t want the cop to lose their house, but I do want people to think twice if they’ve got a police force about how to organize it and how to train. ‘Cause that’s when change will happen, when people feel the sting of bad policies.” Trump, however, has said he won’t consider any changes to legal protections for officers from lawsuits.
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By Polityk | 06/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
GOP Submits Petitions to Block Presidential Ranked Voting
The Maine GOP submitted petitions Monday designed to stop the use of a ranked voting style for president, setting up an Election Day fight over the future of the method.
Maine became the first state in the country to adopt ranked choice voting when residents approved of it in 2016. The rollout of the voting method has since been bumpy, with legal challenges and attempts to reduce its use or scrap it altogether.
But Maine voters were set to use ranked voting for president for the first time in U.S. history in November. The Republicans’ signatures, if verified by the Maine Secretary of State, would instead force a veto vote on the ballot-casting method on Election Day. Voters would decide on Nov. 3 whether to keep ranked voting for president in future elections.
The Republicans submitted more than 72,000 signatures, several thousand above the number they needed to force the veto vote, said Maine GOP executive director Jason Savage. Ranked voting cost the Republicans a seat in Congress in 2018 when Democratic Rep. Jared Golden defeated incumbent Bruce Poliquin, and the GOP has long criticized the method as confusing, unnecessary and unfair.
“The people’s veto has always been about restoring the sanctity of our election process, preserving the bedrock American principle of ‘one person, one vote’ and ensuring that Ranked Choice Voting does not interfere with Maine’s Presidential elections,” Savage said.
Republicans contend the new voting method violates the principle of one person, one vote. Democrats have said it simply gives voters more choice. Proponents also say the voting method eliminates spoiler candidates and ensures the winner earns a majority of votes.
Ranked choice voting is used in some municipalities around the country, including Portland, Maine’s largest city. It essentially functions as an instant runoff. Voters rank their candidates, and their second choices come into play in ranked rounds if no candidate breaks 50% of the vote in the initial vote count.
Maine Democrats characterized the veto push as an attempt by Republicans to undermine the will of voters. Mainers reaffirmed their desire for ranked choice voting in a 2018 vote, they said.”Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike report that it’s important elections reflect the will of a majority of voters — exactly what RCV achieves, and what its opponents are trying to undermine,” said Kathleen Marra, chair of the Maine Democratic Party.
Maine uses ranked choice voting for U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. That isn’t changing, as the veto attempt applies only to the presidential election.
Recent history suggests ranked voting would have a chance to impact Maine’s presidential election results in 2020. In 2016, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won the state, but failed to crack 50% of the vote, which would have triggered the ranked round of voting. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson performed better in Maine than he did in most Democratic-leaning states.
The state also apportions electoral votes by congressional district, and President Donald Trump won the more conservative 2nd District in 2016. That district is expected to be in play again in 2020. Ranked voting could tip the balance in either direction.
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By Polityk | 06/17/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Obama to Hold Joint Fundraiser for Biden Next Week
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is getting some help from his “former boss,” Barack Obama, as he looks to fill his campaign coffers and unify the Democratic Party ahead of the November election. The former president and Biden will appear together next Tuesday for a “virtual grassroots fundraiser,” the former vice president announced on Twitter. It will be the first time the two have appeared together since Obama endorsed Biden in April. Biden’s tweet linked to a campaign fundraising page and to a form for those who want to ask a question of the two Democrats. The announcement Monday came hours after Biden said that his campaign and associated Democratic groups had raised $81 million in May — his strongest-ever fundraising haul. President Donald Trump’s campaign has yet to release its fundraising total for the month.
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By Polityk | 06/16/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Don’t Ask Tulsa’s Mayor About Trump Rally Plans
For most mayors in deep-red states like Oklahoma, the prospect of hosting the first rally for President Donald Trump in months would be a delight. It would showcase the city on an international stage and draw revenue for local businesses that have been shuttered for months amid the coronavirus outbreak.But G.T. Bynum, the first-term mayor of Tulsa, isn’t celebrating Trump’s planned rally Saturday at the city’s 19,000-seat downtown BOK Center arena. While other Oklahoma GOP officials are hailing the event, Bynum finds himself in a precarious position, balancing partisan politics, the city’s deep racial wounds and a COVID-19 infection rate that is suddenly spiking.Trump announced the rally in Tulsa as the kick-off of a tour to rev up his political base and show the nation’s economy reopening after the long quarantine. Trump said in a tweet that almost 1 million people have requested tickets, although party officials haven’t announced the total. Oklahoma has followed a Trump-friendly aggressive schedule for its economic reopening, ticking through a series of phases that now have almost all businesses free to resume operations.G.T. Bynum, mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is seen speaking in a photo dated Nov. 18, 2019. (Source – Facebook – Mayor GT Bynum)But the announcement comes as Tulsa’s infection rate is rising steadily after remaining moderate for months. The four-day average number of new cases in the city has doubled from the previous peak in April. The city’s own health department director, Dr. Bruce Dart, has said he hopes the rally will be postponed, noting that large indoor gatherings are partially to blame for the recent spread. Meanwhile, many leaders in the city’s black community have lashed out at Trump’s visit as provocative after the death of black Minneapolis resident George Floyd and mass protests around the world. Tulsa was the site of the nation’s deadliest race massacre in 1921, when up to 300 black residents were killed by a white mob and the city’s thriving Black Wall Street district was burned to the ground. The massacre was covered up in subsequent years, “and I’m not sure we’ve ever really even gotten over the hump,” said state Rep. Monroe Nichols, an African American Democrat who represents the city’s largely black north side. “I think the fact that the president is coming annoys folks in the African American community just as much as other folks in the community who don’t subscribe to his brand of politics.”Bynum has maintained an awkward balancing act — not joining Dart’s plea to postpone the rally to avert a health emergency, even though both have been strident about avoiding large groups, and not joining other Republican officials in celebrating with the popular Trump. Bynum said he would not attend the rally.”I think he’s trying to bring people together to find that middle ground and common purpose. And that’s never going to be satisfying for the people at the ideological extremes, and they tend to be noisy,” said David Holt, the mayor of Oklahoma City and a friend of Bynum’s.FILE – People stream into the BOK Center, site of President Donald Trump’s Saturday rally, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Oct. 12, 2017.Bynum, 43, who did not respond to a request for an interview, is part of a political dynasty in Tulsa. His uncle, grandfather and great-great-grandfather all served as mayor. The city of 400,000 has long been Republican country, and he served as a staff member for GOP U.S. Sens. Don Nickles and Tom Coburn before defeating a fellow Republican in the nonpartisan mayor’s race in 2016.He campaigned on public education but also on investing in the black community, traditionally a Democratic cause. After the shooting of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man, by a Tulsa police officer in 2016, Bynum pushed for independent oversight of the police department, but was thwarted by fierce opposition from the police union. He has also pushed for publicly coming to terms with the race massacre, earning him credit in the black community that may have helped the city avert violence after Floyd’s death at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis. Bynum did draw the ire of many for comments in a national interview in which he blamed drug use, not race, for Crutcher’s death. Bynum later walked back the comments, writing in a post on social media: “When your friends start calling you and repeatedly using the phrase, ‘I know your heart,’ it’s a good indicator you’ve screwed up.”I would hope that my work during 8 years on the City Council and 4 years in the Mayor’s Office would speak louder than one dumb and overly-simplistic answer to a complex question, but I understand if it doesn’t.”Other Oklahoma Republican officials insisted the Trump rally can be good for the black community — Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said he has invited Trump to join him on a walking tour of the Greenwood district, where the massacre occurred, to build understanding. And the head of the Oklahoma Republican Party, David McLain, insisted the rally can be safe. He said all rally goers will be provided with masks, although there will be no mandate to wear them. He said party officials would like to see every seat filled. Holt said he’s confident Bynum will navigate the situation because he’s “very collaborative.” “I think mayors across the country have got a lot on their plates, and we’re all challenged right now to find the right balance of a lot of competing interests in the midst of generational crises happening one after the other, but I think obviously in Tulsa you have an even more complicated history with race,” Holt said.
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By Polityk | 06/16/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
China-backed Hackers Target Biden Campaign in Early Sign of 2020 Election Interference
Google announced earlier this month that Chinese-backed hackers were observed targeting former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign staff. The internet giant said that hackers did not appear to compromise the campaign’s security, but the surveillance was a reminder of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Analysts say China’s primary motive for breaking into a campaign is to collect intelligence such as Biden’s proposals for U.S. policy on China, although hackers could later try to use stolen intelligence to interfere in the campaign itself. APT31 Shane Huntley, director of Google’s Threat Analysis Group twittered on June 4 that the company has discovered a “China APT group targeting Biden campaign staff with phishing,” but there was “no sign of compromise.” Recently TAG saw China APT group targeting Biden campaign staff & Iran APT targeting Trump campaign staff with phishing. No sign of compromise. We sent users our govt attack warning and we referred to fed law enforcement. https://t.co/ozlRL4SwhG
— Shane Huntley (@ShaneHuntley) FILE – Then-Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, and then-Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, talk during a presidential debate, October 15, 2008, at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.During the 2008 presidential election campaign, a group of hackers believed to be supported by the Chinese government was FILE – Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, stands with then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton before the first presidential debate at Hofstra University, September 26, 2016, in Hempstead, New York.Many political observers believe those emails undermined Clinton’s campaign, contributing to her loss in the 2016 election. Information operations Apart from hacking, foreign forces also use social media to spread misinformation that can mislead people or exacerbate political divisions among voters. This is referred to as “information operations” in the intelligence community. Chinese officials are increasingly taking advantage of social media platforms that are banned in China, such as Twitter and Facebook, to conduct information operations overseas. Michael Daniel, the president and CEO of Cyber Threat Alliance, an independent group of cyber security advisers, told VOA Mandarin he expects China to use information operations to promote policies and politicians that would seem more friendly to China. “That’s very different than trying to disrupt the electoral process and have us wonder who actually won a particular race,” he told VOA Mandarin. FireEye’s McNamara agreed. He added that China has been building its capability of employing information operations, and whether it will use it to interfere the U.S. election is one of the things to look for in the future. Yet CSIS’s Lewis offered a more concerning perspective. He said that in the past few years, China has taken a much more overtly political campaign in Australia, Taiwan, Canada and some Southeast Asian countries. “China is using all the tools it has to interfere with politics there. And I think they’re experimenting with a good way to do this in the U.S.,” he said. “I think the Chinese have decided they need to get into this game of political interference.” China has been repeatedly accused of attempting to influence the American elections. A Senate investigation in 1998 revealed that the Chinese government had illegally donated to the Democratic Party in the 1996 presidential election. The U.S. National Intelligence Agency reported China tried to spread misinformation in the 2018 midterm elections. Chinese officials have repeatedly denied that Beijing any intention of interfering with the internal affairs of other countries, and in April, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters during a daily briefing, “The U.S. presidential election is an internal affair, we have no interest in interfering in it.” Lin Yang contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 06/16/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
