Розділ: Політика
AP VoteCast: A State-by-State Look at Democratic Primaries
The Associated Press surveyed voters in three of the six states that held Democratic presidential contests on Tuesday. Here’s a snapshot of voters in Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi, who they are and what matters to them, based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast, conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
MICHIGAN
Part of the “blue wall” that flipped to Donald Trump in 2016, Michigan is a top general election battleground, and was a major test for both former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Both men were hoping the results would prove they were best poised to fire up the Democrats that may decide the election in November. Biden came out victorious.
Biden assembled his now-familiar coalition. He won older voters, moderates and women. He showed strength with working-class voters. About 60% of voters in Michigan did not have a college degree, and Biden won the majority of them. He appeared to carry that advantage across race and gender, in the suburbs and cities.
Sanders, meanwhile, failed to expand his coalition or boost turnout among the young people who have powered his campaign. Thirty-seven percent of Michigan voters were under 45. In California and Colorado, states Sanders won last week, the share of those voters was about 45%.
For all Biden’s strength, enthusiasm for his bid wasn’t overwhelming. Biden’s supporters were less likely to say they were very enthusiastic than Sanders’, 45% to 60%.
And a significant slice of Democratic voters in Michigan, 19% said their decision on how to vote in November will depend on who is nominated as the Democratic candidate.
A wide majority, roughly three-quarters, said they think the economic system in this country is unfair. That includes about a third describing it as “very unfair.” Among Michigan voters, Biden was considered the candidate best poised to handle the economy.
New absentee voting rules triggered a surge in early voting in Michigan. AP VoteCast isn’t based on in-person interviews conducted on election days; rather, it’s a survey designed to capture opinions regardless of how and when voters choose to cast their ballot.
MISSOURI
With the race narrowed to two major candidates, voters’ views about electability came into sharp focus. In Missouri, Republican-leaning state, Democratic primary voters were more confident in Biden’s chances of beating Trump than Sanders’. That might have helped the former vice president emerge victorious on Tuesday. The Associated Press called Biden the winner when polls closed.
About 40% think Biden definitely could beat Trump, and roughly another 40% say he probably could.
But just about a quarter say Sanders definitely could defeat Trump in November, with about 40% saying he probably could.
Biden bested Sanders among men and women, college graduates and those without a degree, and white and African American voters. He enjoyed a significant advantage among older voters, while Sanders maintained his edge among voters under 45. Moderates and conservatives lined up solidly behind Biden.
While Sanders appeared to lead among liberal voters, many of them, 43% supported Biden.
Health care, an issue that has intensely divided the field of Democratic candidates this cycle, was named the most important issue facing the country by close to half of primary voters in Missouri. Roughly 2 in 10 considered climate change the top priority, while about 1 in 10 said that of the economy.
Voters divided about evenly over whether Sanders or Biden would be best able to handle health care as president. But on issues related to race, Biden had an advantage over Sanders as the most capable candidate.
MISSISSIPPI
A majority of Democratic primary voters in Mississippi were African American, and Biden won them 86% to Sanders’ 11%. Biden also led among white voters, across age groups, education levels and ideologies. He was called the winner by The Associated Press.
Mississippi voters wanted a nominee that cares about people like them. Voters there ranked that as as big a priority as selecting a candidate who can beat Trump and exhibit strong leadership. About 9 in 10 primary voters in Mississippi said each of the three qualities was very important in a Democratic nominee, and Biden overwhelmingly won the support of those voters.
Health care was named the most important issue by 40% of voters, but 24% pointed to the economy. About 30% of voters overall described their families as falling behind'' financially, compared with 60% who said they are holding steady and just about 10%getting ahead.”
Biden was thought to be the candidate best able to handle health care, as well as issues related to race.
About two-thirds of Mississippi voters expressed support for government-paid reparations to African Americans for slavery and racial discrimination, but there was a significant divide by race. About 75% of black voters expressed support, compared with about 40% of white voters.
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By Polityk | 03/12/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Congress Poised to Tighten Oversight of Federal Surveillance
Congress is taking a first step toward addressing errors made by the FBI during its investigation of the Trump campaign and Russia, setting a House vote Wednesday on legislation that would impose new restrictions on the federal government’s surveillance tools.The measure is a compromise that reflects angst in both parties about the way the surveillance powers have been used but also a reluctance to strip those powers entirely from the government’s arsenal. The bill would renew several provisions the FBI sees as vital to fighting terrorism even as it aims to ensure stricter oversight of how the bureau conducts surveillance.It remained unclear whether the Senate, after House action, would go along and send the bill to President Donald Trump, who has long been critical of intelligence agencies. House Democrats posted the text of a bill online before the floor vote Wednesday. Lawmakers leave town at week’s end and the existing powers expire Sunday.The bill aims at some of the missteps the Justice Department has acknowledged making during the Russia investigation. Applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to eavesdrop on a former Trump campaign aide were riddled with omissions and missteps, according to an inspector general report.FILE – Carter Page speaks at a news conference at RIA Novosti news agency in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 12, 2016.The measure would require that officers responsible for FISA applications certify that the department has been advised of any information that could undercut or contradict the premise of the surveillance. In the Russia investigation, some of the information the FBI omitted from its applications cut against the idea that former Trump adviser Carter Page was a Russian agent, the watchdog found.Page has denied that and was never accused of wrongdoing.Penalties for false statementsThe bill also would institute criminal penalties and other sanctions for making false statements to the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which issues warrants to the FBI to eavesdrop on people it has probable cause to believe are agents of a foreign power. It would require the attorney general to approve in writing of an investigation if the target of the surveillance was a federal candidate or official.Attorney General William Barr was involved in the negotiations with the White House and Congress, and he said Wednesday that he supported the bill.It is of the utmost important that the department's attorneys and investigators always work in a manner consistent with the highest professional standards, and this overall package will help ensure the integrity of the FISA process and protect against future abuses going forward, Barr said.Both Republicans and Democrats in the House want to ensure that civil liberties are not overwhelmed by the tools used to thwart terrorism and other crimes. The bill followed negotiations between Democrats and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California, according to an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and another person familiar with the talks. They were not authorized to publicly discuss the private negotiations and spoke on condition of anonymity.In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has supported renewing the tools. His office did not have immediate comment on the draft the House released Tuesday.Trump has been scornful of the country’s intelligence apparatus, particularly over its assessment that Russia interfered in the last presidential election with the goal of getting him elected. Trump, citing surveillance errors from the Russia investigation, told Republicans last week that he wouldn’t sign a bill unless it incorporated reforms.Expiring provisionsLawmakers worked to incorporate the proposed changes into legislation that would renew three expiring provisions, including one that permits the FBI to obtain court orders to collect business records on subjects in national security investigations.Barr had urged Congress to quickly renew the provisions, which his department uses to fight terrorism and espionage, with or without immediate changes. McConnell and Pelosi have both been supportive of Barr’s request, but some members of their caucuses slowed the process as they made it clear they wouldn’t support an extension without changes.The FBI calls the provisions vital in the fight against terrorism and stresses that none are tied to surveillance problems that the Justice Department watchdog identified during its investigation into the Russia probe.
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By Polityk | 03/11/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Needs Top Cyber Coordinator, Better Hacker ‘Deterrence’: Panel
The US needs a top-level cybersecurity coordinator and a better strategy of “deterrence” to protect against hackers and other cyber threats, a congressionally mandated commission said Wednesday.Defense in cyberspace requires a series of government reforms and policies to strike back at attackers, according to the report by the Cyberspace Solarium Commission.The bipartisan panel which included lawmakers and private sector experts made more than 80 recommendations ranging from reforms in the executive and legislative branches to better cooperation with allies to secure cyberspace.”The reality is that we are dangerously insecure,” said a statement from Senator Angus King and Representative Mike Gallagher, co-chairs of the panel which took its name from an Eisenhower-era foreign policy project.”Your entire life — your paycheck, your health care, your electricity — increasingly relies on networks of digital devices that store, process and analyze data. These networks are vulnerable, if not already compromised.”Panel members described the required effort as equivalent to preventing another 9/11 attack.The panel recommended the establishment of White House cabinet-level “national cyber director” to direct coordination within government and the private sector.Additionally, the panel cited the need for a stronger deterrence strategy to demonstrate that attackers in cyberspace would pay a price.”Deterrence is possible in cyberspace,” the report said.”Today most cyber actors feel undeterred, if not emboldened, to target our personal data and public infrastructure… through our inability or unwillingness to identify and punish our cyber adversaries, we are signaling that interfering in American elections or stealing billions in US intellectual property is acceptable.”It said the US government and private sector must “defend themselves and strike back with speed and agility.”The commission said cyber defense should rely on a “layered” strategy that imposes costs on attackers.”A key, but not the only, element of cost imposition is the military instrument of power,” the report said.”The United States must maintain the capacity, resilience, and readiness to employ cyber and non-cyber capabilities across the spectrum of engagement from competition to crisis and conflict.”
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By Polityk | 03/11/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Wins Michigan Primary, Cementing Democratic Nomination Lead
Former Vice President Joe Biden has cemented his status as frontrunner in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, with wins in party preference votes in key states Tuesday. Biden won in Missouri, Idaho and Mississippi, and scored a decisive victory over rival Sen. Bernie Sanders in the crucial Michigan vote. Mike O’Sullivan reports, the two were locked in a tie in Washington State as votes were being counted.
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By Polityk | 03/11/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
2020 Primary Takeaways: It’s Joe Biden’s Nomination to Lose
Joe Biden’s path to the Democratic presidential nomination widened significantly Tuesday with commanding victories in Mississippi, Missouri and Michigan, a state that his rival Bernie Sanders won four years ago. Key takeaways:
Biden’s nomination to lose
Biden has become the reliable Buick of this race.
His momentum accelerated as he broadened his delegate lead over Sanders with a series of decisive victories. The former vice president’s solid win in Michigan came in a state Sanders was depending on both to bolster his case going forward and for the practical delegate math involved. He came into the day about 96 delegates behind Biden, and Michigan was his best shot at preventing that lead from getting any wider. (Democrats require 1,991 delegates for nomination.)
As it is, Sanders lost a big state where his upset of Hillary Clinton four years ago gave him reason to continue his presidential bid through the end the nominating calendar in June. This time, the first round of voting after Super Tuesday ended the same way as last week’s surprise outcome: with a Biden celebration and an increasingly steep climb for Sanders.
Biden isn’t just leaning on his base of African Americans. AP VoteCast surveys in Michigan and Missouri also show he topped Sanders in suburbs and, notably, across small-town and rural counties, where Sanders had led Clinton in 2016.
“We need you, we want you, and there’s a place in our campaign for each of you,” Biden said Tuesday night. “I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and their passion. We share a common goal, and together we’ll beat Donald Trump.”
Sanders’ bad March can be explained this way: Biden’s net delegate gains out of Alabama last week and Mississippi on Tuesday _ two Republican-dominated states _ essentially cancel out the delegate advantage that Sanders pulled out of California, which has the largest delegate trove.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., visits outside a polling location at Bow Elementary in Detroit, March 10, 2020.Does Bernie have a path or a protest?
Sanders stayed in the race until June four years ago, fueled in no small part by his Michigan primary victory. This time, the path going forward looks much different.
The Vermont senator faces a fraught choice. Does he try something new: going after Biden even more aggressively as an establishment figure, a relative foreign policy hawk, a budget centrist who threatens Social Security? There’s little evidence over the last two weeks that any of that would change the fundamentals of the contest.
Another option: Sanders can continue advocating for the issues that his supporters hold dear, like “Medicare for All” and free college, not explicitly ceding the nomination but using his base to pressure a Biden-led party to move as far left as possible.
He was back at his home in Vermont Tuesday night.
Black vote again proves unattainable for Sanders
It can’t be emphasized enough. Black voters are as crucial for picking Democratic nominees as any demographic in the party’s coalition.
And Sanders just can’t get over the hump. It happened again in Mississippi on Tuesday, just like Southern Super Tuesday states last week and South Carolina before that. According to AP VoteCast, about 70% of Mississippi’s Democratic primary voters were African American; 86% of them supported Biden.
The reality remains: Sanders has not made enough inroads in that critical Democratic constituency to have a clear path to becoming the nominee.
Biden has an edge on Sanders’ biggest issue
Sanders has made universal health care his main policy focus. But when it comes to whom people trust on health care, voters on Tuesday were somewhat more comfortable with Biden.
When asked who would best be able to handle health care as president, 41% of Michigan voters said they preferred Biden, according to AP VoteCast. Just 31% liked Sanders. Biden also led on health care in Mississippi, while Missouri was evenly split between both of them.
Coronavirus curveball
Biden and Sanders cancelled campaign rallies because of the spread of coronavirus, a rare example of an external event bringing a presidential race to a temporary halt. Both men had planned to address supporters Tuesday night at watch parties, but cited public health warnings. And their plans going forward are up in the air.
Their debate scheduled for Sunday in Arizona is still on, but will not have an audience as previously planned.
That likely affects Sanders more, since the Vermont senator, much like President Donald Trump, campaigns as a populist who addresses large rallies with thousands of supporters. But Biden has just started to draw large crowds as well.
At the least, Biden and Sanders now have plenty of money to continue television and social media advertising in coming primary states. They will need it for a lineup of states that includes Illinois, Ohio, Florida and Arizona.
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By Polityk | 03/11/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Defeats Sanders in 4 Democratic Presidential Contests
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden swept to victories Tuesday over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential nominating contests in four states, including pivotal Michigan in the Midwest heartland of the country.Biden, in his third run for the presidency over three decades, increased his lead in the race to oppose Republican President Donald Trump in November’s national election with the wins in the U.S. auto manufacturing hub of Michigan, along with victories in Missouri in the Midwest, Mississippi in the South and Idaho in the West.The victories make it ever more difficult for Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, to overtake Biden for the party’s presidential nomination.After a slow start in last month’s voting, Biden told reporters in Philadelphia late Tuesday that he believes his campaign is “taking off,” and he said Democrats will come together to retake the White House and unite the nation.Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally at Renaissance High School in Detroit, Monday, March 9, 2020.”I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and their compassion. We share a common goal, and together we’ll defeat Donald Trump,” Biden said.He and Sanders were both scheduled to hold Tuesday night rallies in Cleveland, Ohio, but canceled the events due to the coronavirus outbreak. Those cancellations may presage a dramatic change in campaigning practices, with both the Democratic candidates and Trump under pressure to limit the use of mass rallies to excite and motivate their supporters. Sanders did not make any public appearance Tuesday night.The two candidates are scheduled to debate each other Sunday ahead of the March 17 primary elections in Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Arizona. The Democratic National Committee announced there will be no live audience for the debate.Election officials were still counting results from two other states that held Democratic nominating contests Tuesday: North Dakota and Washington. Sanders and his strategists were looking for better results in those states to ease the sting of his big losses elsewhere.Based on pre-election polls, the results in Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi states had been expected, especially in Mississippi with its significant African-American population, a bloc of voters who have favored Biden in other states. In Missouri, voter exit polls showed that Biden also won the African American vote, as well as those who called themselves political moderates or conservatives.The AP says former Vice President Joe Biden won the Democratic presidential primaries in Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, and Idaho. Contests in Washington and North Dakota are too close to call.But Michigan was the key prize among six states that voted Tuesday, with 125 delegates at stake to the Democrats’ national presidential nominating convention in July.The state could also prove pivotal in the presidential election since it was one of a handful of Midwest “rust belt” states Trump unexpectedly won in 2016 on his path to a four-year term in the White House.Biden entered Tuesday leading with 670 pledged national convention delegates so far, ahead of Sanders’s 574 delegates, according to delegate trackers, with 1,991 needed to outright claim the nomination at the party convention.Exit polls of voters Tuesday conducted by the U.S. cable news network CNN indicated about half of Democratic voters in Michigan and Washington said they would trust Biden more than Sanders to handle a major crisis as president. In Missouri, the spread was wider, with about 60% saying they trusted Biden more in such a situation.The exit polls in Michigan and Washington also indicated Democratic voters considered themselves angry at the Trump administration.The formerly long list of Democratic presidential candidates thinned markedly in the last 10 days, with challengers to Biden and Sanders dropping out of the contest just ahead of Super Tuesday voting a week ago or just after failing to win any states.Gone from the race are former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Another former candidate, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, endorsed Biden Tuesday night on CNN shortly after Biden sewed up his victory in Michigan.”The math says Joe is our prohibitive nominee,” Yang said. “We’ve got to start pulling the party together.”
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By Polityk | 03/11/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Defeats Sanders in Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi Democratic Presidential Contests
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden swept to victories Tuesday over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential nominating contests in Mississippi, Missouri and Michigan, increasing his lead in the race to oppose Republican President Donald Trump in November’s national election. The outcomes in the Southern state of Mississippi and the Midwestern state of Missouri, projected by news media exit polls, could set the stage for possible Biden wins in other states that voted Tuesday, in the latest in a string of Democratic party primaries.Based on pre-election polls, the results in Mississippi and Missouri had been expected, especially in Mississippi with its significant African-American population, a bloc of voters who have favored Biden in other states. In Missouri, exit polls showed that Biden also won the African American vote as well as those who called themselves political moderates or conservatives.But the Midwestern state of Michigan was the key prize among six states that voted Tuesday, with 125 delegates at stake to the Democrats’ national presidential nominating convention in July.The AP says former Vice President Joe Biden won the Democratic presidential primaries in Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi. Voting continues in Idaho and Washington, and no call has been made in the North Dakota caucuses.Michigan, the U.S. auto manufacturing hub, could also prove pivotal in the presidential election since it was one of a handful of Midwest “rust belt” states Trump unexpectedly won in 2016 on his path to a four-year term in the White House.Pre-election polls in Michigan showed the 77-year-old Biden, in his third run for the presidency over three decades, significantly ahead of the 78-year-old Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist.Three other states voted in Democratic nominating contests Tuesday: North Dakota, Idaho and the Western state of Washington.
Voters drop off ballots in the Washington State primary in Seattle, March 10, 2020. Washington is a vote by mail state.Biden won 10 of the 14 party primaries last week on “Super Tuesday.” Additional Biden victories Tuesday could make it difficult for Sanders to overtake Biden for the party’s nomination. Convention delegates are won in the state-by-state nominating contests on a proportional basis according to the vote outcome, not winner take all.Biden entered Tuesday leading with 670 pledged national convention delegates so far, ahead of Sanders’s 574 delegates, according to delegate trackers, with 1,991 needed to outright claim the nomination at the party convention.Advance polling showed Biden also doing well against Sanders in North Dakota and Idaho, while splitting the vote with him in Washington state. In all, 365 convention delegates were at stake in the voting Tuesday that also included Democrats living overseas. Sanders scored a surprise victory in Michigan’s 2016 primary over former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that revived his campaign. However, Clinton went on to win the nomination but lose the 2016 election to Trump.
Workers transport sorted Democratic Party ballots into bins to be opened and scanned during the presidential primary at King County Elections ballot processing center in Renton, Washington, March 10, 2020.The growing threat of the coronavirus epidemic in the U.S. disrupted the presidential campaign for the first time, with both Biden and Sanders canceling large rallies Tuesday night in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the biggest cities in a state set to vote March 17. Those cancellations may presage a dramatic change in campaigning practices, with both the Democratic candidates and Trump under pressure to limit the use of mass rallies to rev up their supporters.CNN exit polls of voters Tuesday showed that about half of Democratic voters in Michigan and Washington said they would trust Biden more than Sanders to handle a major crisis as president. In Missouri, the spread was wider, with about 60% saying they trusted Biden more in such a situation.The exit polls in Michigan and Washington also showed that Democratic voters considered themselves angry at the Trump administration.The formerly long list of Democratic presidential candidates thinned markedly in the last 10 days, with challengers to Biden and Sanders dropping out of the contest just ahead of Super Tuesday voting a week ago or just after failing to win any states.Gone from the race are former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.The Super Tuesday voting started a string of three straight weeks of Democratic contests. In February, four states voted one at a time — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Biden lost the first three of those states, a resounding win in South Carolina boosted him to even more success a week ago, even as Sanders won the country’s biggest state, California.”You know, just over a week ago, the press and the pundits had declared the campaign dead,” Biden told a crowd Monday in Detroit, Michigan’s biggest city. “Then South Carolina spoke. Then Super Tuesday spoke, and the turnout was incredible. And now [Tuesday], Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Idaho, Washington state, you will be heard. And Michigan, I’m counting on you in a big way.”Sanders says his progressive campaign is what the country needs more than the moderate positions of Biden, and that he is the best challenger to Trump in the national election eight months from now.”My point here is to ask you to think that in a general election, which candidate can generate the enthusiasm and excitement and the voter turnout we need?” Sanders asked his supporters in Missouri. “So, if you want to defeat Trump, which all Democrats do, and a majority of independents and some Republicans do, we are that campaign.” Biden and Sanders are scheduled to debate each other next Sunday ahead of the March 17 primary elections in Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Arizona.
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By Polityk | 03/11/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden, Sanders Cancel Rally Amid Coronavirus Scare
Democratic presidential candidates Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden canceled primary night rallies Tuesday, due to coronavirus concerns.”Out of concern for public health and safety, we are canceling tonight’s rally in Cleveland,” said Mike Casca, a campaign spokesman for Sanders. “We are heeding the public warnings from Ohio state officials, who have communicated concern about holding large, indoor events during the coronavirus outbreak. Sen. Sanders would like to express his regret to the thousands of Ohioans who had planned to attend the event tonight.”Casca added that all future Bernie 2020 events will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.The Biden campaign sent out a similar statement late Tuesday afternoon.Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden walks across the airport tarmac to his campaign plane with his wife, Jill, to depart after canceling his primary night rally over coronavirus concerns in Cleveland, Ohio, March 10, 2020.”In accordance with guidance from public officials, and out of an abundance of caution, our rally in Cleveland, Ohio, tonight is canceled,” said Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s communications director. “We will continue to consult with public health officials and public health guidance and make announcements about future events in the coming days. Vice President Biden thanks all of his supporters who wanted to be with us in Cleveland this evening.”The Tuesday rallies were not the first campaign event to be canceled due to COVID-19 fears. Over the weekend, the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of unions, scrapped plans for a presidential forum on Thursday in Orlando, Florida, where Biden and Sanders were scheduled to appear. CDC guidelinesThe CDC has issued guidelines to avoid being exposed to the virus, including avoiding close contact with people who are sick, and distancing oneself from other people if COVID-19 is spreading in the community. The CDC also recommends postponing large gatherings.On Monday, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, declined to comment specifically about campaign rallies.”It really depends,” he said. This is “an evolving thing,” and it will take a “judgment call” on whether a campaign holds a rally in a place where there is community spread.”If someone decides they want to cancel it, I wouldn’t publicly criticize them,” Fauci said.President Donald Trump’s last rally was held on March 2. As of this weekend, he said he intends to continue having them.”We’ll have tremendous rallies, and we’re doing very well,” Trump said March 7 at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. “We’ve done a fantastic job with respect to that subject on the virus.”The Trump campaign has not responded to VOA’s questions regarding campaign plans during the coronavirus crisis.
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By Polityk | 03/11/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Court: House Entitled to Mueller Probe Grand Jury Testimony
The Justice Department must give Congress secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday — giving the House a win in a separation-of-powers clash with the Trump administration.The three-judge panel said in a 2-1 opinion that House Democrats were entitled to the material as part of their ongoing investigation into President Donald Trump’s conduct. The ruling upholds a lower court opinion from last year.In her opinion, Judge Judith Rogers wrote that because Mueller himself “stopped short” of reaching conclusions about Trump’s conduct to avoid stepping on the House’s impeachment power, “the Committee has established that it cannot ‘fairly and diligently’ make a final determination about the conduct described in both volumes of the Mueller Report ‘without the grand jury material referenced’ therein.”FILE – Former special counsel Robert Mueller, checks pages in the report as he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on his report on Russian election interference, on Capitol Hill, July 24, 2019.The ruling softens the blow of a loss the House endured two weeks ago when judges on the same court said they would not force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress. The split decisions leave neither the administration nor Congress with a clear upper hand in their inter-branch dispute.Even so, the practical impact of the decision is unclear.Though lawyers for the Democrats had said the grand jury material could be used for additional articles of impeachment against Trump, the Senate impeachment trial over the president’s interactions with Ukraine ended weeks ago in an acquittal.The case is one of several disputes between the Trump administration and Congress that courts have grappled with in recent months.The two sides had been similarly at odds on the question of whether McGahn could be forced to testify about Trump’s behavior during the Russia investigation. The appeals court ruled in a recent 2-1 decision that judges had no role to play in that dispute and dismissed the case.Grand jury testimony is typically treated as secret, in part to protect the privacy of people who are not charged or are considered peripheral to a criminal investigation. But several exceptions allow for the material to be turned over, including if it is in connection with a judicial proceeding.The House argued that the impeachment inquiry met that definition, and it sought copies of testimony referenced in Mueller’s 448-page report on Russian election interference and potential obstruction by Trump. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sided with the House last October in ordering that the material be turned over.The Justice Department appealed that decision, with lawyers arguing that the material sought by the House had no relevance to the impeachment inquiry and that the House already had ample information about the investigation.Several dozen witnesses appeared before Mueller’s grand jury, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
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By Polityk | 03/11/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Plans Payroll Tax Relief in Response to Coronavirus
President Donald Trump says his administration will ask Congress to pass payroll tax relief and other quick measures as a public health and economic maelstrom brought on by the coronavirus drew closer to him personally.Intending to calm the fears of financial markets over the impact of the epidemic, Trump told reporters Monday he is seeking “very substantial relief” to the payroll tax. Trump also said he was seeking help for hourly-wage workers to ensure they’re “not going to miss a paycheck” and “don’t get penalized for something that’s not their fault.”He stepped forward with the contours of an initiative after markets dropped sharply and as the outbreak spread. Several Trump confidants in Congress disclosed they were isolating themselves after potential exposure to the virus; one traveled with the president from Florida on Air Force One on Monday; another was his just-tapped new chief of staff.Trump said he would hold a press conference Tuesday to outline the proposals, saying his administration and Congress would be “discussing a possible payroll tax cut or relief, substantial relief, very substantial relief, that’s big, that’s a big number. We’re also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they’re not going to ever miss a paycheck.”As Trump grappled with an epidemic whose consequences he has repeatedly played down, the White House asserted it was conducting “business as usual.”But the Securities and Exchange Commission, which monitors financial markets, encouraged employees at its Washington, D.C., headquarters to work from home after an employee there had respiratory symptoms and was referred for coronavirus testing.On Capitol Hill, handshakes were discouraged and a Pentagon meeting was broken into sub-groups to minimize the number of people in the same room.On his flight back to Washington Trump was accompanied by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who later went into a voluntary quarantine. He was one of several GOP lawmakers who were exposed to a person at last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference who tested positive for the virus. His office said he was “mid-flight” on Air Force One when CPAC informed his staff that he had been in contact with the attendee who had the virus.Once the plane landed, Gaetz was immediately tested.Vice President Mike Pence, who also spoke at CPAC, said he has not been tested for the virus. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Trump has not been tested because he has not had “prolonged close contacts” with any patients and “does not have any symptoms.”In Monday morning tweets, Trump vented about the market drop and news that large public gatherings were being called off because of the virus.“At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths,” Trump tweeted, comparing it to seasonal influenza and the thousands of deaths that causes. “Think about that!”Scientists at this stage don’t know what the death rate of the new coronavirus actually is and whether it will wind up being about the same as flu or worse.At the same time, administration officials were insistent that they weren’t trying to dismiss public concerns. “This is a very serious health problem,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Fox News.At the Pentagon, officials have begun “social distancing” measures.On Monday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s regular meeting with senior staff, which normally would be held face-to-face in a single room with 40 to 50 participants, was broken up into three rooms, with video-teleconferencing among the rooms, according to the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman. He said Esper and the 15 to 20 people in his room, including Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sat at least six feet apart, in line with health guidance.The White House has been convening meetings with an array of travel and healthcare industry representatives, and was set to host Wall Street executives at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the economic fallout of the epidemic.Futures in the S&P 500 index, which can indicate how Wall Street will open Tuesday, picked up 3.9% early Tuesday.On Capitol Hill, where many lawmakers are older and have frequent contact with the public, leaders were fielding questions from members and staff about how the complex will be secured. Leaders have so far shown little willingness to close the Capitol, but meetings were scheduled throughout the day to discuss preparations.On Monday, Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Gaetz put themselves in voluntary quarantine because of their contacts with someone at the Conservative Political Action Conference.Both said they did not have any symptoms but would wait out the remainder of the 14 days since the contact at home. Gaetz last week wore a gas mask to the House vote on the emergency funding bill for the virus response and said he wanted to highlight how Congress could become “petri dish” for the virus.Collins had met with Trump last Tuesday night at the White House and shook hands with him Friday when the president visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Atlanta headquarters.Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., whom Trump named Friday as his incoming chief of staff, also went into self-quarantine. “A precautionary test came back negative & he feels great,” his spokesman tweeted late Monday. Meadows has not yet resigned his congressional seat and has not yet assumed his new role at the White House, but he is a frequent visitor.Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., also placed themselves in quarantine after coming in contact with the same person at the conservative conference.Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., said she met last week with a person who has since been diagnosed with the virus. She closed her office and said she and her staff are “self-monitoring and maintaining social distancing practices.”Vast numbers of visitors come to the Hill, especially at this time of year when advocacy groups arrange “fly-in” trips to lobby and speak to lawmakers, and school groups descend for tours.In one manifestation of lawmaking in the age of the coronavirus, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., approached a Republican colleague on the House floor Monday for a routine congratulatory handshake after the chamber approved a bill expanding a visa program. “Shake or bump?” Neal asked Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D.The two men bumped elbows.Offices on Capitol Hill also advertised they were holding “no contact meetings” and asked guests to refrain from shaking hands.The chairman of the Democratic caucus, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, said the House’s chief administrative officer and the sergeant at arms are expected to brief Democrats at their regular caucus meeting Tuesday. The discussion was expected to address whether the Capitol will be restricted to visitors, he said.It was not immediately clear how Trump was aiming to provide assistance to employees weighing whether to stay home because of illness — a crucial aim of public health officials seeking to curtail the spread of the virus.One mechanism, backed by the Trump-allied National Association of Manufacturers, involves a proposed tax credit for employers who pay employees who are quarantined.Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow, the director of the national economic council, were expected to bring the White House proposal to Senate Republicans on Tuesday afternoon, at which point officials planned to release more publicly.Lawmakers on Capitol Hill had barely started to contemplate the economic implications of the spread of the virus and what might be needed to stimulate the economy as people cancel vacations and business trips and stay away from stores. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley told reporters that “everything’s on the table.”But members of the Senate Republican leadership, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn played down the need for an economic stimulus package of any kind, be it tax cuts or aid for workers. “It’s premature to be talking about that,” Cornyn told reporters. “I usually love tax cuts but I think it’s a little premature.”Democrats panned — for now — Trump’s proposed payroll tax cut. They said it was not specific enough to the core problem and are preparing their own package of aid, including affordable testing, unemployment benefits and paid leave for working families affected by the virus.“Unfortunately at the president’s press conference today, he really did not address the coronavirus issue,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, standing alongside Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer after a late meeting at the Capitol. “This is about the kitchen table of America’s working families.”While they did not completely oppose Trump’s proposed payroll tax cut, they said they prefer their approach as a better way to instill confidence in families and the economy.“Unless you deal with the pandemic the stock market’s going to keep getting worse and worse and worse,” Schumer said. “If there’s going to be relief it ought to be aimed at the families that are most affected.”
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By Polityk | 03/10/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Michigan Top Prize as Six States Hold Democratic Nominating Contests
Voters in six U.S. states cast ballots Tuesday in the race for who will be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. The focus will be on the key Midwestern state of Michigan, where polls show former Vice President Joe Biden leading Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.Michigan is the biggest prize in Tuesday’s voting with 125 delegates at stake.Sanders won Michigan’s 2016 primary, but numerous polls in recent days show him trailing Biden by a double-digit margin.Elections are also being held in Washington, Missouri, Mississippi, Idaho and North Dakota.The contests are the first since last week’s Super Tuesday batch of states when the selection process transformed from smaller states holding votes one at a time to multiple states spread across the country voting at the same time.Sanders won California, the biggest state, but it was Biden who emerged as the front-runner by winning 10 of the 14 states last week.Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign stop in Flint, Michigan, March 9, 2020.”You know, just over a week ago, the press and the pundits had declared his campaign dead. Then South Carolina spoke. Then Super Tuesday spoke and the turnout was incredible,” Biden told a crowd Monday in Detroit. “And now tomorrow, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Idaho, Washington State you will be heard. And Michigan, I’m counting on you in a big way.”Biden entered Tuesday leading with 670 pledged delegates so far, ahead of Sanders and his 574 delegates, according to Associated Press estimates.Sanders says his progressive campaign is what the country needs more than the moderate positions of Biden, and that he is the best challenger for Trump in the November national election.”My point here is to ask you to think that in a general election, which candidate can generate the enthusiasm and excitement and the voter turnout we need? So if, if you want to defeat Trump, which all Democrats do, and a majority of independents and some Republicans do, we are that campaign,” Sanders told his supporters in Missouri.A candidate needs 1,991 delegates to secure the nomination, which will not be officially decided until Democrats hold their national convention in July.Biden and Sanders are scheduled to debate each other next Sunday ahead March 17 elections in Florida, Illinois and Ohio.
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By Polityk | 03/10/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
‘Odd’ Quirk Raises Delegate Stakes in Tuesday’s Elections
A quirk in how delegates are won under Democratic Party rules is raising the stakes for Tuesday’s elections, allowing a candidate to make up ground in the race quickly — or fall further behind.
Five states — Michigan, Washington, Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho — hold Democratic primaries on Tuesday, while North Dakota has a caucus. All told, there are 352 delegates up for grabs. A candidate needs 1,991 delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
That makes for only the fourth-largest delegate night on the primary calendar. But the intricate arithmetic of how delegates are won under Democrats’ rules makes it possible for a candidate to reap a bigger haul of delegates with a smaller margin of victory on this Tuesday than on any other night.
For Bernie Sanders, it’s an opportunity to catch up to Joe Biden, who enters the day ahead by 96 delegates. For Biden, it’s a chance to open up what could become an insurmountable lead.
How this happens may seem complicated, but it’s nothing more than some basic math and an odd'' quirk of how delegates are won under party rules.even” bucket as the candidate who finishes first.
Most delegates awarded Tuesday — 65% — will be won based on how the candidates perform in individual congressional districts. Think of each district as holding a bucket of delegates. There are also two buckets of delegates in each state awarded based on the overall statewide vote.
On Tuesday, that makes for 51 buckets of delegates across the six states. A candidate needs to win at least 15% of the overall vote in a bucket to be "viable" — or to qualify to win delegates. (That 15% threshold means it's all but assured that only Biden and Sanders win any delegates from this point forward.)
First, the math. Party rules say each viable candidate wins a proportion of the delegates in each bucket based on his share of the votes cast for the viable candidates in that bucket.
Second, the quirk. Buckets that have an odd number of delegates are impossible to split evenly, meaning either Sanders or Biden is guaranteed to win at least one more than the other.
Say, for example, there are seven delegates in a bucket, and Sanders gets 51% and Biden gets 49% of the viable votes. In delegates, that's 3.57 to 3.43 — a difference of just 0.14 delegates. But thanks to rounding, Sanders gets four and Biden gets three.
Nearly two-thirds of the 352 delegates at stake on Tuesday are in buckets with an odd number of delegates — more than on any other night with more than one primary.
Democratic National Committee member Elaine Kamarck, who was Walter Mondale's delegate hunter during his campaign for president in 1984, said it's "odd" how the odd-even districts work out, but it all adds up to whoever does best on Tuesday waking up Wednesday with "a comfortable haul."
But wait: It gets better — or worse, if you're the candidate who ends up behind. After the primaries on March 17, most of the delegates to be won come from buckets with an even number of delegates.
Why does that matter? It means Biden or Sanders will need to win far more than 50% of the vote in a bucket to win more delegates than his rival. From a bucket holding six delegates, a candidate needs more than 58.3% to win four delegates. In a district with eight delegates, the leader needs 56.3% to get five.
Put another way, a candidate could keep coming in second in the overall vote, but so long as he keeps the race relatively close, he'll still end up with the same number of delegates in an
And that means whoever does best on Tuesday, and next week when Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Illinois get their turn, could end up with a delegate lead that can’t be beat.
“It’s just funny how the numbers just work out,” Kamarck said Monday, and that means Tuesday night is “a big deal.”
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By Polityk | 03/10/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Warren’s Exit Ends Hope for Woman US President — Again
Senator Elizabeth Warren’s exit from the Democratic Party’s nomination race last week has left many in the United States disappointed that the presidency seems to be out of reach for a woman. VOA’s Brian Padden reports that Warren was the last viable female candidate in a historic field of six Democratic women contenders and her departure reinforces concerns that gender bias still remains a major obstacle for women in America.
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By Polityk | 03/10/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Michigan Primary Look Ahead
In 2016, Michigan gave Sen. Bernie Sanders one of the most surprising primary wins in U.S. political history.In 2020, the self-described democratic socialist will need another boost from Michigan to revive his campaign to secure the Democratic presidential nomination over his lone remaining major rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. With 125 delegates, Michigan is the biggest prize up for grabs among the six states holding primaries Tuesday. Sanders signaled the importance of Michigan to his campaign, abandoning a planned rally in Mississippi to hold five campaign events in the state over the weekend, including one in Dearborn, where the nation’s largest Muslim community strongly supports him.Dearborn was one of the areas that helped Sanders secure his 2016 victory in the Michigan primary over eventual Democratic party nominee Hillary Clinton by a narrow margin of 49.8% to 48.3%. After trailing Clinton significantly in the polls, Sanders won by just 17,000 votes. Sanders aims to improve on that narrow margin of victory in 2020, even though in some states to date, he has struggled to turn out voters in the same numbers he did in 2016. A Detroit Free Press poll released Monday does not look promising for him. The survey of 400 Michigan voters shows Biden outpacing Sanders by a significant margin — 51% to 27%.”If Bernie doesn’t score a big victory in Michigan, you’re really starting to see the end of the possibility of his candidacy,” said Jim Kessler, a senior vice president at public policy think tank Third Way, and former legislative director for then-Congressman Charles Schumer.Watch: Michigan Primary Looms as Showdown for Biden and Sanders Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders greets supporters after speaking during a rally in St Louis, Missouri, March 9, 2020.African American voteSanders’ weakness with African American voters could be the blow that kills his chances in Michigan. Democratic delegate math in Michigan is anything but straightforward. Democrats allocate their delegates according to the statewide vote and the vote by congressional districts. Because of this weighting system, winning boils down to securing large population areas such as the predominantly African American city of Detroit. Sanders failed to win the city in 2016, and his poor 2020 performances in southern states with African American electorates does not bode well for his chances in the Motor City. Hutchings said African Americans make up about 15% of the Michigan electorate overall, and an even larger share of the Democratic voters controlling the results Tuesday. “I would be very surprised, extremely surprised, if Sanders were to win the black vote in the state. And because that vote typically votes in the bloc fashion, that means that it’s going to be difficult, not impossible, but difficult. If that remains the case, it’s going to be difficult for Sanders to win,” said Hutchings.Meanwhile, Biden heads into the primary with major endorsements from two former African American presidential candidates, senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, who were campaigning with him Monday in Detroit.The impact of endorsements In addition to the Harris and Booker endorsements, Biden also gained the support of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Sanders endorsed Whitmer’s progressive Democratic challenger, Abdul El-Sayed, in 2018, but campaigned for her in the general election. Analysts differ on the impact of endorsements. Conventional political wisdom holds that endorsements usually do not dramatically alter political races. That appears to have been upended this election cycle with the boost Biden received from Congressman James Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina who gave the former vice president his stamp of approval just days before the do-or-die primary in his home state, which Biden won handily.Biden had pinned his hopes on his ability to mobilize the African American vote in South Carolina after severely disappointing showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, two smaller states that do not reflect the demographic diversity of the United States. Both Dulio and Hutchings said Whitmer’s endorsement of Biden in Michigan was significant.“It certainly is a highly visible endorsement for the Biden campaign, and it can’t hurt him,” Hutchings said. “It probably helped him increase the (vote) margins.” Trade warsSanders’ campaign does have a strength that is uniquely suited to Michigan: outreach to blue-collar factory workers, which has been a central point of his presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020. Nowhere is that more important than in Michigan, the center of the auto industry. Sanders has been savaging Biden’s record on trade, citing his support for NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) on the campaign trail and in numerous advertisements airing locally, according to Dulio. He said that argument could resonate with the all-important suburban women demographic, swinging some of their votes to Sanders. “Michigan is a unique place, because so many people are tied to the auto industry. Whether it’s in a place like Macomb County, where you’re talking about folks who work in manufacturing and do the manufacturing at Ford, GM and Chrysler plants, or part of the auto manufacturers supply chain, or if you’re talking about folks in, say, Oakland County right next door, who are part of the white-collar contingent of auto company employees,” said Dulio.If Sanders can convince those key voters their livelihoods are at stake in this election, his campaign may be able to survive past Michigan.
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By Polityk | 03/10/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Michigan Primary Looms as Showdown for Biden and Sanders
In the Democratic presidential race, another round of primaries on Tuesday looms as a crucial test in what has become a two-man nomination race between former vice president Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. A total of six states hold nominating contests on Tuesday, and VOA National correspondent Jim Malone in Washington has more on what is at stake.
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By Polityk | 03/09/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
New Jersey Sen. Booker Endorses Biden
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker voiced support Monday for former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, his latest former challenger to endorse him just ahead of six state primary elections he faces Tuesday against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.Booker, who dropped out of the party’s presidential contest in January before voting began a couple weeks later, said in a Twitter comment, “The answer to hatred & division is to reignite our spirit of common purpose. @JoeBiden won’t only win – he’ll show there’s more that unites us than divides us. He’ll restore honor to the Oval Office and tackle our most pressing challenges. That’s why I’m proud to endorse Joe.”Booker’s endorsement came a day after California Sen. Kamala Harris, who dropped out of the contest in December, endorsed Biden, saying that she felt that he was best prepared to “steer America through these turbulent times.” Harris, often mentioned by U.S. political analysts as one of several possible vice-presidential running mates with Biden, said the U.S. needs a president “who reflects the decency and dignity of the American people, a president who speaks the truth; and a president who fights for those whose voices are too often overlooked or ignored.”Former Foe, Sen. Kamala Harris, Endorses Biden Presidential BidVanquished Democratic opponents are supporting the former vice president’s campaign against TrumpSeveral former rivals have now endorsed Biden, a list that also includes former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar. They both dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination just ahead of last week’s Super Tuesday voting, when Biden won 10 of the 14 state party nominating elections over Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who lost all 14 states to Biden and Sanders after spending more than $500 million of his own money on his campaign, also endorsed Biden last week.A new CNN poll, taken after last week’s party primary elections, shows U.S. Democratic voters favor Biden by a wide margin over Sanders, 52% to 36%. In Michigan, the auto-manufacturing hub in the U.S. where Biden and Sanders square off in a party primary election on Tuesday, several state-wide polls show Biden with a commanding lead.The Democratic contest is to face Republican President Donald Trump in the November national election as he seeks a second term in the White House.Biden on Sunday praised Harris as a political figure who has “spent your whole career fighting for folks who’ve been written off and left behind.”Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson endorsed Sanders, saying that “with the exception of Native Americans, African Americans are the people who are most behind socially and economically in the United States and our needs are not moderate. A people far behind cannot catch up choosing the most moderate path.””The most progressive social and economic path gives us the best chance to catch up and Sen. Bernie Sanders represents the most progressive path,” Jackson said.Michigan has the most Democratic national convention delegates at stake in the Tuesday voting. The fivethirtyeight.com political forecasting site is predicting that Biden will win 81 of the state’s 125 pledged delegates to 44 for Sanders.The fivethirtyeight site gives Sanders a slight edge in the western state of Washington, where 89 delegates are at stake, with Biden ahead in the Midwestern state of Missouri and the Southern state of Mississippi. Forecasters say the two candidates are virtually even in two smaller states, Idaho and North Dakota.Just a week ago, before the Super Tuesday voting, FiveThirtyEight.com predicted that no Democratic candidate would be able to win the party nomination with a majority of delegates on the first convention ballot to face Trump.Now, however, it predicts that Biden will cruise to victory on the first ballot, although neither Biden nor Sanders is close yet to a majority of delegates.Sanders predicted on the “Fox News Sunday” show that he would win the Michigan vote.”Joe Biden is a friend of mine,” Sanders said. “Joe Biden is a decent guy.”But Sanders said the contest with Biden comes down to “which candidate is stronger in defeating Trump.” He said he expects to win the key Michigan vote Tuesday and “certainly would not consider dropping out” if he loses.”We won California, the biggest state in the country,” Sanders said of last Tuesday’s vote.Sanders attacked Biden’s vote as a senator for the American war in Iraq and trade deals with Canada and Mexico and another with Pacific Rim countries that Trump abandoned when he became president.Biden and Sanders are scheduled to debate each other next Sunday.
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By Polityk | 03/09/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump to skip St. Patrick’s Day Hill luncheon, blames Pelosi
Irish eyes at the U.S. Capitol will not smile on President Donald Trump on St. Patrick’s Day.Trump is skipping an annual bipartisan luncheon with House and Senate lawmakers celebrating the ties that bind the U.S. and Ireland, a White House spokesman said.Trump blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.“Since the speaker has chosen to tear this nation apart with her actions and her rhetoric, the president will not participate in moments where she so often chooses to drive discord and disunity,” spokesman Judd Deere said in an emailed statement.The House speaker traditionally hosts the luncheon.Trump instead will celebrate with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at the White House on Thursday — five days before St. Patrick’s Day.Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi, said congressional support for the U.S.-Ireland relationship has never been stronger.“One would think that the White House could set petty, partisan politics aside for this historic occasion,” Hammill said in an email.Trump attended the luncheon in 2017 and 2018 when Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was speaker, and in 2019, after Pelosi, D-Calif, won back the gavel.Trump remains incensed at Pelosi for leading the Democratic-controlled House in December to impeach him after he asked Ukraine’s leader to investigate Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden while delaying delivery of military aid Congress had approved to help the country defend against Russian aggression. The Senate’s Republican majority voted in February to acquit Trump.Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, D-Mass., hosted the first St. Patrick’s Day lunch in 1983. President Ronald Reagan and other House and Senate lawmakers attended the gathering, which had been arranged to ease tension between the two Irish-American leaders, according to the House.The lunch became an annual event on Capitol Hill in 1987, missed by presidents just four times since then. Bill Clinton sent regrets after having knee surgery two days before St. Patrick’s Day in 1997. George W. Bush passed on the 2003 lunch, held days before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.Last year, Pelosi said the lunch is “a tradition where we dispense with our differences, whether they’re political or whether they’re competitive in any other way.”Politico first reported Trump’s decision.
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By Polityk | 03/09/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
White House Gets Taller, Tougher Fence to Stop Intruders
President Trump is finally getting a bigger, stronger barrier — not along the U.S. southern border with Mexico but in his own front and backyard. The U.S. Secret Service and the National Park Service have teamed up to replace the current White House fence after a series of security breaches, including a 2014 incident when an intruder scaled the fence and made it into the White House before being stopped. VOA’s Dora Mekouar (Meh-kw-are) reports
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By Polityk | 03/09/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Sanders, Biden Face off in Narrowed Race
Voters in six states will cast ballots Tuesday for the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, with just two of the leading candidates still in the race, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden. Mike O’Sullivan reports that Sanders faces an uphill challenge after Biden won 10 contests last week
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By Polityk | 03/08/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Former Foe, Sen. Kamala Harris, Endorses Biden Presidential Bid
Vanquished opponents of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden are continuing to line up behind his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination as he heads to six more state primary elections on Tuesday against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.California Senator Kamala Harris, who dropped out of the contest in December, endorsed Biden on Sunday, saying that she felt that he was best prepared to “steer America through these turbulent times.”Harris, often mentioned by U.S. political analysts as one of several possible vice-presidential running mates with Biden, said the U.S. needs a president “who reflects the decency and dignity of the American people, a president who speaks the truth; and a president who fights for those whose voices are too often overlooked or ignored.”She is the sixth former rival to endorse Biden, a list that also includes former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, both of whom dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination just ahead of last week’s Super Tuesday voting, when Biden won 10 of the 14 state party nominating elections over Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist. After losing all 14 states to Biden, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, after spending more than $500 million of his own money on his campaign, also endorsed him.Biden praised Harris as a political figure who has “spent your whole career fighting for folks who’ve been written off and left behind.”On Tuesday, Biden and Sanders face voters in Michigan, the auto-manufacturing hub in the U.S. and the state with the most delegates at stake this week to July’s national Democratic presidential nominating convention. The fivethirtyeight.com political forecasting site is predicting that Biden will win 69 of the state’s 125 pledged delegates to 56 for Sanders.The fivethirtyeight site gives Sanders a slight edge in the western state of Washington, where 89 delegates are at stake, with Biden ahead in the Midwestern state of Missouri and the Southern state of Mississippi. Forecasters say the two candidates are virtually even in two smaller states, Idaho and North Dakota.Just a week ago, before the Super Tuesday voting, the fivethirtyeight site was predicting that no Democratic candidate would be able to win the party nomination with a majority of delegates on the first convention ballot to face Republican President Donald Trump in November’s national election.Now, however, it predicts that Biden will cruise to victory on the first ballot, although neither Biden nor Sanders is close yet to a majority of delegates.Sanders predicted on the “Fox News Sunday” show that he would win the Michigan vote.”Joe Biden is a friend of mine,” Sanders said. “Joe Biden is a decent guy.”But Sanders said the contest with Biden comes down to “which candidate is stronger in defeating Trump.” He said he expects to win the key Michigan vote Tuesday and “certainly would not consider dropping out” if he loses.”We won California, the biggest state in the country,” Sanders said of last Tuesday’s vote.Sanders attacked Biden’s vote as a senator for the American war in Iraq and trade deals with Canada and Mexico and another with Pacific Rim countries that Trump abandoned when he became president.Biden and Sanders are scheduled to debate each other March 15.
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By Polityk | 03/08/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
El Paso Voters Divided and Energized
Texans are taking the right to vote seriously in 2020, as the secretary of state says a flood of new voters have signed up. VOA’s Celia Mendoza reports from El Paso Texas.
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By Polityk | 03/08/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
House of Representatives, Federal Agencies Prepare to Telework
The U.S. House of Representatives is preparing for the possibility congressional staff members may have to telework because of the coronavirus outbreak.The preparations are being launched “in light of the unique and unusual circumstances presented by the coronavirus.”U.S. financial regulators are also preparing contingency plans, as there are COVID-19 cases in suburban Washington, New York, San Francisco and New Jersey, all places where regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and banking regulators have offices.The Reuters news agency reports the financial watchdogs are allowing more telework, limiting travel and canceling conferences.
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By Polityk | 03/07/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Names Meadows as New White House Chief of Staff
In the midst of managing the country’s coronavirus outbreak and preparing for the beginning of his presidential campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a major personnel change at the White House.Representative Mark Meadows from North Carolina is the new White House chief of staff, replacing Mark Mulvaney who has been the acting chief for more than a year.The president, who announced the change on Twitter Friday, said Mulvaney will become the U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland.Meadows, a four-term lawmaker, has been a loyal defender of the president and was a staunch supporter of Trump during the impeachment process.“I have long known and worked with Mark, and the relationship is a very good one,” the president tweeted.Meadows announced earlier this year that he would be retiring from Congress at the end of his term. He is Trump’s fourth chief of staff in a little more than three years.FILE – White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney speaks to reporters in Washington, Oct. 17, 2019.Trump did not give his reasoning for making the personnel change at this time.“I want to thank Acting Chief Mick Mulvaney for having served the Administration so well,” Trump tweeted.Mulvaney, the outgoing chief, a former lawmaker from South Carolina, is probably best remembered as saying at a news conference that foreign policy quid pro quos are common.That statement, however, was in direct contrast with the president, who has maintained that he never engaged in any quid pro quo arrangement with Ukraine.Trump was accused of holding back congressionally approved money from Ukraine in an effort to have the country launch an investigation into Joe Biden, Trump’s rival.
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By Polityk | 03/07/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Struggles to Communicate Calm in Coronavirus Crisis
As cases of the new coronavirus grow in the U.S., President Trump has been criticized for what some view as inaccurate and misleading statements regarding the coronavirus threat. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara looks into why some say the president’s unique style of communication is not helpful during a public health crisis.
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By Polityk | 03/07/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
A Promising 2020 Presidential Campaign for Women Falls
If 2019 was the Year of the Woman, with a record number of women sworn into Congress and a record number launching presidential campaigns, 2020 was another Year of the Man in presidential politics.
Polling during a string of primaries has revealed the durability of doubts about female candidates and electability. At least half of Democratic primary voters believe a woman would have a harder time than a man beating Trump, according to AP VoteCast polling in four states that voted Tuesday. What’s more, women are somewhat more likely than men to say so. That comes even as solid majorities of those voters say it’s important to elect a woman president in their lifetime.
The message is clear: We want a woman, but not this time.
As she announced her departure on Thursday, Warren’s voice cracked when she talked about meeting so many little girls while campaigning around the country the past year, knowing they “are going to have to wait four more years,” at least, to see a woman in the White House.
And she addressed what she called the “trap question” of gender in the race. “If you say, Yeah, there was sexism in this race,' everyone says,Whiner!’” she said. “And if you say, No, there was no sexism,' about a bazillion women think, 'What planet do you live on?'' (L-R) Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) greet each other prior to the start of the Democratic presidential primary debate on Feb. 7, 2020.How different things had looked back in the summer, when Warren and five other women - a record number - appeared on the primary debate stage over two nights in late June, demonstrating the depth and diversity of the female field. Warren and California Sen. Kamala Harris earned top reviews for their debate skills.How did Donald Trump happen?’ And this caution and fear has largely motivated us to the place we are right now.”
At the time, Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, had ventured to hope the female candidates could shake up the age-old electability question left hanging by Hillary Clinton's stinging loss to Trump in 2016: Is the country ready to elect a woman president?
But this week, Walsh was left to muse on how early Democratic primary voters were acting out of fear and caution and were buying "a false narrative out there that women candidates are too risky."
“This was the year that the Democrats were hell-bent on winning,” Walsh said. “A woman was defeated in 2016. There was all this talk after that, trying to explain,
All this, Walsh said, despite the great political success by female candidates in 2018, in Congress and in statewide races, showing that “as we have always said, when women run they win at about the same rate as men do in comparable races. We saw it across the board in 2018 and frankly in 2016, when more people voted for Clinton than Trump.’”
But the women in the race this time could not compete. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar peaked with a third-place finish in New Hampshire but fell fast after failing to build the sort of racially diverse coalition needed to win a Democratic primary. Warren’s third-place showing in Iowa was her best, despite building a large national operation and surging last summer to the top tier. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard remains in the race but has picked up only two delegates, hundreds behind the two men leading the race, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Warren in particular came to embrace her role as the choice for voters, particularly female voters, who thought it time for a woman to be president. But there was little evidence that female voters were prioritizing gender this time around; Biden pulled ahead with female voters in most states Tuesday _ including in Massachusetts, Warren’s home state.
As they carpooled over to a Klobuchar event earlier this week in Denver, next to the football stadium where the Broncos play, Linda Dee and Linda Rosales wondered when their candidate might leave the race.
By the time they arrived at Monday’s rally, Klobuchar had dropped out.
“It looks like we’re coming down to two old white guys,” said Rosales, a 64-year-old retired lab worker. “I’m disappointed.”
She and Dee left with a free green Amy 2020 T-shirt.
To be sure, many voters say progress still has been made, even though a woman won’t be at the top of the ticket. And there is a broad expectation that both Sanders and Biden will feel pressure to name a woman as their running mate.
Still, the frustration among some voters was palpable. A younger Warren supporter, LaShyra Nolen, the first black woman to be elected student council president at Harvard Medical School, said it’s not enough to have women on the ballot. Voters then need to step up and support them, she said.
“I still do believe we are living in a society that is ridden by patriarchal control and inequality,” said Nolen, 24, of Los Angeles.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., greets a young supporter as she walks from her home with husband Bruce Mann, left, to the nearby polling location to vote on March 3, 2020, in Cambridge, Mass.For some, the dimming of women’s political fortunes felt like a marker of a fading movement. The #MeToo movement may have toppled powerful figures across industries, but some of the momentum behind gender equality is tapering off, believes Kaitlin Cornuelle, a 29-year-old director and writer in Los Angeles.
That may have an impact on how engaged women, voters critical to Democrats’ calculus in November, will be next fall, she said.
“It makes me really frustrated that we have three men who are in their late 70s, early 80s that cannot relate to me and cannot relate to most of the people in this crowd,” Cornuelle said, referring to those gathered around her at a Warren rally ahead of Super Tuesday.
Others were quick to point out one of Warren’s clear contributions to the race _ a sharp confrontation with billionaire former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg over his treatment of female employees.
“Of course, she was the one to eviscerate Bloomberg,” said Iris Williamson, a 26-year-old teacher from Brooklyn, who noted with sadness that Warren didn’t seem to get credit with voters for the move. “Leave it to women to expose people for who they are and then not be rewarded for their work.”
Williamson worried how students at her all-girls school will process the results of the primaries. “I think they would question why there is such a bent toward choosing a white man all the time,” she said.
It’s not only women mourning the loss of female presidential candidates. Axel Marc Oaks Takacs, a 36-year-old religious studies professor at Seton Hall University and Warren supporter, prompted an online debate as the results came in Tuesday evening, questioning why voters think Biden has a better chance against Trump than Clinton did in 2016.
“Let’s be honest, Biden and Clinton are both establishment Democrat candidates with effectively the same policies,” he wrote, asking if “patriarchy, sexism and misogyny” weren’t largely to blame.
Lucienne Beard, executive director of the Alice Paul Institute, a Mount Laurel, New Jersey, nonprofit, feels that female presidential candidates still struggle to attract the same money, visibility and media coverage as men. And when they do, the focus is too often on their delivery.
“It just seems like we can’t accept hearing a woman’s voice talking about these things. Instead we focus on her presentation: `Is she a nasty boss?’ Or being ‘too teacherly?’ It’s like we can’t win for trying,” she said.
“I wish I could say it surprised me,” she said. “The further we come, the goalposts just keep moving. We’ll elect anything before a woman.”
If anyone knows about painful losses it might be Clinton, who won popular vote in 2016 but not the job.
“There still is a double standard. There are still a lot of biases about women becoming president. But I made a lot of progress, and I was thrilled that so many women ran this time,” Clinton, who did not endorse anyone in the primary, told The Associated Press on Wednesday at a New York screening of an upcoming documentary on her life. “We just have to keep going until we crack that final big glass ceiling.”
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By Polityk | 03/06/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Comic Books Explore Origin Stories of Democratic Candidates
Super heroes have special powers. People who can get on the debate stage and raise enough money to run for president are considered super politicians and also have special powers. A comic book series called “Political Power” tells the stories of Democratic candidates running in the 2020 elections. While a few of them are no longer in the race, Democratic voters who did not or have not voted in a primary yet can read about the top contenders in the race to run against Trump. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.
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By Polityk | 03/06/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
