Розділ: Політика
Trump’s Lawyers to Wrap Up Defense in Impeachment Trial
Lawyers for U.S. President Donald Trump wrap up their presentation in his Senate impeachment trial Tuesday while the question of whether witnesses will be allowed during the proceedings looms.The president’s defense team spent Monday accusing Democrats of improperly using impeachment as a weapon to get rid of a president they simply don’t like.Kenneth Starr, a member of the president’s legal team, called impeachment a political weapon that parties use against one another and said House Democrats impeached Trump without any bipartisan support. Starr described impeachment as “hell.”Starr was the independent counsel whose investigation led to President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment for lying to a grand jury about a sex scandal.”Those of who lived through the Clinton impeachment…full well understand that a presidential impeachment is tantamount to domestic war. It is filled with acrimony and divides the country like nothing else,” he said.Lawyer Patrick Philbin said the House impeachment inquiry was never about taking the time to find out the truth by issuing subpoenas through the courts. With the 2020 election approaching, he accused House Democrats of rushing to a predetermined outcome to meet a timetable.Another White House attorney, Jane Raskin, attacked the Democrats for focusing on Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who they say was at the center of the president’s campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rival, Joe Biden.In this image from video, Kenneth Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 27, 2020.Raskin said Giuliani is a “colorful distraction” from what she says is the lack of evidence that Trump committed a crime. She said if Giuliani is such a central figure, why didn’t the Democrats subpoena him to testify? House committees subpoenaed documents related to Giuliani’s work in Ukraine, but he refused to comply.House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, one of the lawmakers serving as prosecutors in the case, said it was “amusing” for the Trump lawyers to label Giuliani a minor figure, and cited the July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.”It wasn’t the House that was on the phone with Zelenskiy as the president was, saying repeatedly that he wanted Zelenskiy to talk to Rudy,” Schiff said. “Giuliani’s name, I think, came up more than any other person’s name in that call between the two heads of state. You’ve got to ask, why was that if he was such a bit player as the President’s team now would have you believe?”Defense attorney Pam Bondi spent her time attacking Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s lucrative job with a Ukrainian gas company. She said questions about a conflict of interest go back as far as 2014, saying Hunter Biden was paid millions of dollars to sit on the board of Burisma while his father was U.S. vice president.Bondi said Trump had the right to ask Ukraine to investigate the pair even though no evidence of corruption by the Bidens has ever surfaced.Democrats impeached Trump on two articles — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.He is accused of withholding nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine and putting off a White House meeting unless Zelenskiy was publicly committed to investigating the Bidens and a debunked allegation that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that meddled in the 2016 U.S. election.The 100 U.S. senators must decide his guilt or innocence.But a major line of Trump’s defense could fall apart. Former national security adviser John Bolton has reportedly written in a yet-to-be-published book that Trump personally told him he wanted to withhold the aid to Ukraine until Ukraine committed to the investigations.In this image from video, Kenneth Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, walks up to the podium during Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 27, 2020.Trump denies there was any quid pro quo with Ukraine, and Monday called Bolton’s assertion “totally false.”Bolton has said he is willing to appear as a witness if he is subpoenaed and the Democrats say they would like to hear from him. A few Republicans are also expressing that desire.So far, minority Democrats in the Senate have been waging a futile battle to get at least four Republican senators to join them in a simple majority to subpoena Bolton and other Trump officials to testify about their recollections of behind-the-scenes meetings with Trump about Ukraine last year.Trump’s lawyers contend there have been no firsthand accounts of officials who spoke with the president directly about his Ukraine actions. But Bolton often met with Trump until the U.S. leader ousted him last September from his national security post.Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, a Republican who supports calling White House witnesses whom Trump has blocked from testifying, said the Bolton book revelation makes it “increasingly likely” that more Republican senators will agree to hear testimony from Bolton and others.Maine Senator Susan Collins, another Republican who has signaled she is open to witnesses, said news reports about the Bolton book “strengthen the case for witnesses.”But it was uncertain whether Senate Republicans supporting Trump, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have changed their minds. Calling witnesses could significantly extend the length of the trial.
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By Polityk | 01/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Ten Things You Need to Know About Iowa Caucuses
The 2020 U.S. presidential campaign gets under way for real on Monday, Feb. 3, when voters in the Midwestern state of Iowa gather in schools, libraries and private homes to participate in the Iowa caucuses.Iowa does not always determine the eventual party nominees, but the caucus vote does play a key role in shaping the primary races and weeding out contenders with little support.Here are 10 things people should know about the Iowa caucuses.What are the Iowa caucuses?Once every four years, Iowa seizes the national political spotlight with its caucus vote. Party activists head out to local schools and other locations to express their preference for the various Democratic and Republican candidates running for president. The process can take hours, and the results are eventually used to award convention delegates to candidates who do well.How do the caucuses work?Upon arrival at the caucus site, Democrats taking part elect a local chairperson and form groups supporting the various candidates. After an initial round of voting, candidates who do not have at least 15% support among those at the caucus site are considered no longer viable. Their supporters are free to go to another candidate, and caucus-goers who support other candidates are free to try and persuade them. After this “realignment” process is complete, a final vote tally is taken and reported to the state party. The caucus results ultimately are used to allocate delegates to the national nominating convention in July committed to those candidates who draw the most support.Volunteers call potential caucus-goers at a campaign field office for Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, Jan. 13, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa.Do caucus winners always win their party’s nomination?Since 1972, the winner of the Iowa Democratic caucuses has gone on to win the party’s presidential nomination seven out of 10 times. Jimmy Carter got a big boost by finishing second to “uncommitted” in the 1976 caucus voting, and Barack Obama used his victory in 2008 to demonstrate he was a serious threat to favorite Hillary Clinton. But winning in Iowa does not guarantee success in the primary race. Past Democratic winners have included local favorite Sen. Tom Harkin in 1992, Congressman Dick Gephardt in 1988 and Ed Muskie in 1972, none of whom won the nomination. On the Republican side, Bob Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000 got a huge boost in momentum from winning the caucuses, and eventually went on to win the party nomination.Who are some of the recent winners, and how did they fare in later primaries?Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won the caucuses in 2016 over Donald Trump, while Democrat Hillary Clinton narrowly prevailed over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders is one of the top Democratic contenders again this year. In 2012, former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum won a razor-thin victory over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, only to see Romney eventually claim the Republican nomination. Romney was defeated by Obama in the general election.Why doesn’t Iowa hold a presidential primary like most other states?Iowa is one of only a handful of states that still prefers to hold time-consuming caucus meetings to begin the process of selecting national convention delegates. Nevada, Kansas, North Dakota and Wyoming are the others. Iowa has traditionally preferred the caucus model since it became a state in 1846. But several states in recent years have moved away from caucus votes to primaries, where voters simply show up at a polling place and cast a ballot. Primary elections draw a wider cross section of voters compared to caucuses, which are usually attended by the more motivated and committed voters. Caucuses also last hours, compared to the more traditional act of voting at the polls or submitting an early vote by mail.Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld steps off stage after speaking at a the Faith, Politics and the Common Good Forum at Franklin Jr. High School, Jan. 9, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa.Are Republicans holding caucuses in Iowa, as well?They are, even though Trump is a heavy favorite. The Republican caucuses function more simply than the Democratic ones. Voters simply show up at their local caucus locations and cast a vote and leave.Iowa Democrats have announced changes to the caucuses this year. What are they?In the past, Democrats would only announce the total number of delegates each candidate has won at the end of voting. This year, after pressure from Sanders supporters to be more transparent, Democrats have decided to also announce the raw vote totals from the first round of voting in the various caucuses, and from the final round of voting after caucus-goers are permitted to realign behind other candidatesIowa caucuses buttonWho decided Iowa should go first? Iowa began this tradition of holding the first caucuses for Democrats in 1972 and for Republicans in 1976. It has become a point of pride for Iowa to host the first caucuses and for New Hampshire to hold the first presidential primary. New Hampshire’s tradition goes back to 1916 and took on added significance beginning in 1952. Both states have a long-standing pact that they will remain the first contests to the exclusion of all other states, and for the most part, political leaders in both parties have supported them over the years.Who is going to win in Iowa this year?Recent state and national polls show Sanders is surging. He is hoping for a breakthrough in a top tier of candidates that includes former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. In addition, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar is hoping for a strong showing to break into the top tier. But in the final run-up to the vote, Sanders, Warren, Klobuchar and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet have been limited in their ability to campaign in Iowa because as sitting U.S. senators, they are required to attend Trump’s impeachment trial.
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By Polityk | 01/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump’s Lawyers Resume Defense in Impeachment Trial
U.S. President Donald Trump’s lawyers resumed their impeachment defense Monday, as majority Republicans in the Senate weighed how to respond to a former Trump national security adviser’s allegation that the U.S. leader told him he wanted to withhold military aid to Ukraine until it launched an investigation of a key Democratic rival.Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump defender, told reporters he would support a subpoena of national security aide John Bolton’s upcoming book, “The Room Where It Happened,” to “evaluate the manuscript and see if it’s a reason to add to the record.”Bolton’s claim that Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and Biden’s son before he would release $391 million that Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists undercuts a key Trump defense — that he did not engage in a quid pro quo deal with Ukraine, the aid in exchange for the politically tinged investigation.FILE – President Donald Trump, left, is flanked by national security adviser John Bolton, right during a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, July 12, 2018.So far, minority Democrats in the Senate have been waging a futile battle to get at least four Republican senators to join them in a simple majority to subpoena Bolton and other Trump officials to testify about their recollections of behind-the-scenes meetings with Trump about Ukraine in the June-to-September period last year.Trump’s lawyers have contended there have been no firsthand accounts of officials who spoke with the president directly about his Ukraine actions. But Bolton often met with Trump until the U.S. leader ousted him last September from his national security post.As the second day of Trump’s defense opened, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow told the 100 senators acting as jurors that Trump’s actions “at all times” were both legal and within his constitutional authority.Trump defense attorney Kenneth Starr called the Democratic-led House of Representatives “a runaway House” in a rush to impeach the U.S. leader last month, “dripping with fundamental process violations” in its allegedly unfair treatment of Trump.Starr said that rather than removing Trump from office, the Senate should acquit him and “let the people decide” his fate in the November national election when he is seeking a second term in the White House. Starr headed the investigation that led to the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.In this image from video, Kenneth Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 27, 2020.Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, a Republican who supports calling White House witnesses whom Trump has blocked from testifying, said the Bolton book revelation makes it “increasingly likely” that more Republican senators will agree to hear testimony from Bolton and others.Senator Susan Collins of Maine, another Republican who has signaled she is open to witnesses, said news reports about the Bolton book “strengthen the case for witnesses.”But it was uncertain whether Senate Republicans supporting Trump, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who have opposed calling witnesses and subpoenaing Ukraine-related documents had changed their minds. Many Senate Republicans and White House officials are eager to see Trump acquitted of two impeachment charges by week’s end, ahead of next week’s State of the Union address. Calling witnesses could significantly extend the length of the trial.Trump is currently in the second week of his Senate trial on two articles of impeachment, one of them alleging he abused his presidency by withholding the military assistance while pushing Ukrainian leaders to investigate Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company, and a debunked theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 U.S. election. Trump is also accused of obstructing congressional review of his Ukraine-related actions.The president rejected Bolton’s reported account in a series of early Monday tweets.”I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book,” Trump said.I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the…— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) House Democratic impeachment managers, from left, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla.Democrats: Bolton should testify The lead House impeachment manager, Congressman Adam Schiff, told CNN on Monday, “The senators ought to hear him first hand. The senators should see the man testify live.”He said Bolton kept contemporaneous notes of White House meetings, which Schiff said “are more important than the manuscript” he has written. “The president is clearly trying to hide the truth here.”Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the revelation of the Bolton claim “stunning. It goes right to the heart of the charges against the president. How can the Senate vote to not call that witness and his documents?”The White House blocked several current and former administration officials from testifying before House committees during the impeachment investigation, including Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, citing executive privilege to protect the sanctity of White House conversations.Bolton says he is willing to testify at Trump’s impeachment trial if the Senate subpoenas him.U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks during the second day of the Senate impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump in this frame grab from video shot in the U.S. Senate Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S.,…Impeachment rule stipulations
The rules for the impeachment trial blocked any consideration of new witnesses at the outset, leaving only the possibility for a vote after both sides have made their presentations and the 100 senators have had 16 hours to ask them questions. White House counsel Pat Cipollone began his defense Saturday during two hours of arguments.Cipollone said Trump’s legal team does not believe the House Democrats came “anywhere close to meeting their burden” that Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” – the U.S. Constitution’s standard for impeachment and removal from office.Now, Cipollone and other Trump defense attorneys have said they will expand on their defense, in part focusing on why they believe there was nothing wrong with Trump’s request last July to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens and the Ukraine election meddling theory. No evidence has ever surfaced against either of the Bidens.Trump is all but certain to be acquitted by the Senate with its 53-47 Republican majority. A two-thirds vote is necessary for conviction and no Republican has called for his ouster.
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By Polityk | 01/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Elizabeth Warren Seeks Spark in Final Sprint to Iowa
Elizabeth Warren is fighting to regain momentum in the turbulent fight for the Democratic presidential nomination amid lingering questions about her authenticity and electability.Warren was considered a leader in the crowded race through the fall, yet just seven days before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, allies, adversaries and new polling suggest that progressive rival Bernie Sanders has a slight advantage — at least in the battle for the party’s left wing. That’s just as establishment-minded Democrats begin to rally behind former Vice President Joe Biden, who has tried to stoke fears about his more liberal rivals’ ability to defeat Trump this fall.Warren’s uncertain status raises questions about whether any female candidate will emerge from Iowa’s Feb. 3 caucuses with the political strength to go deep into the primary season, a challenge that will almost certainly require early victories to generate the energy and campaign cash needed to continue.As would-be supporters acknowledged concern over the weekend, Warren ignored the shifting political currents and vowed to continue fighting for the kind of transformational change she’s championed for months, even while pressing her final case in Iowa before being forced back to Washington for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.“Since I first got in this race a year ago, I have not focused on polls. And that’s exactly how I’m going to continue to run this race,” she told reporters when pressed about whether she needs to change her strategy.She added: “I’m running a campaign from the heart. That’s what it’s all about to me. This is who I am.”The people paid to focus on politics on Warren’s team insist they’re not worried, and with one week before voting begins, there are no plans to shake up her strategy. The campaign noted that she has already attracted more than 3 million individual donations and assembled a paid campaign operation in 31 states.The 70-year-old Massachusetts senator got a much-needed boost over the weekend by winning the endorsement of Iowa’s largest newspaper. And while she has won a series of coveted newspaper endorsements, Warren has yet to earn the backing of a single member of Congress from Iowa or New Hampshire, the states that host the first two voting contests.The shutout particularly stings given Warren’s proximity to New Hampshire, whose two female senators have so far declined to support their neighbor, who has increasingly evoked her gender as a strength on the campaign trail.New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan is unlikely to support Warren and is instead considering whether to endorse longtime political ally Biden, if anyone, according to Democrats familiar with her thinking who were not authorized to share internal discussions. New Hampshire’s other senator, Jeanne Shaheen, is facing re-election this fall and is not expected to endorse anyone.Meanwhile, Biden was campaigning alongside his newest high-profile female supporter, Iowa Rep. Cindy Axne, as he worked his way across Iowa over the weekend. Biden has won the public backing of both of Iowa’s Democratic congresswomen.Warren’s allies believe she will benefit from her sprawling organization of paid staff and volunteers on the ground in Iowa and other early voting states in addition to an aggressive paid advertising campaign. She’s also expected to earn a wave of new endorsements from local progressive leaders on Monday as her allies work to spark a final-week surge.The Warren-aligned Progressive Change Campaign Committee, the Working Families Party, and Black Womxn For are set to announce more than 3,000 new endorsements for Warren including elected officials, economists, organization leaders, small business owners, and activists, according to PCCC co-founder Adam Green. That’s in addition to the endorsement of more than 40 Iowa Democratic officials and activists, the campaign announced on Sunday.But sensing weakness, Warren’s rivals are actively working to peel off her supporters.Sen. Amy Klobuchar, one of the two other women in the race, sees Warren as one of her best targets as she fights to bump off one of the top four candidates. As Warren allies cheered her Des Moines Register endorsement, Klobuchar’s team touted her endorsement from another one of the state’s largest newspapers, the Quad City Times.Iowa Democrat Deidre DeJear, who served as Kamala Harris’ state chair before the California senator left the race, acknowledged Warren’s uncertain status.“I think there has been some stagnation,” DeJear said of Warren’s support. “I don’t think that she’s struggling by any stretch of the imagination, but I believe as it relates to people’s temperature, poll numbers, folks have either made another decision or we’re not necessarily seeing her support represented in the polls.”The rivalry between the Democratic Party’s most liberal contenders, Warren and Sanders, looms largest as voters finalize their decisions. And in the fight for the left, a series of state and national polls over the weekend suggest Sanders is better-positioned than Warren on the eve of the first voting contest.A New York Times/Siena College poll released Saturday showed Sanders with a slight — but not commanding — edge in Iowa, though polls also show that all four top candidates remain in the hunt there. In New Hampshire, several recent polls put Sanders out front, with Warren and the other top candidates lagging behind. And two polls released Sunday suggest that Warren is running well behind Biden and Sanders nationally.Undecided Iowa voter Tyler Niska says he’s narrowed his choices to Sanders or Warren, yet he fears that Warren would face the same political headwinds that plagued the party’s last female nominee, Hillary Clinton, four years ago.“Warren would probably do a better job, but Bernie has a much better chance of actually winning,” Niska, a 36-year-old Des Moines resident, said as he waited in line outside a weekend Sanders rally in Ames.“I’ll probably go with Bernie,” he said.Warren volunteer Amber Beitzel, of Bettendorf, said she’s aware of recent polls showing Sanders with an advantage, and said it’s something to watch. But she’s seen Warren’s operation up close and feels it’s well positioned.“There’s a concern, obviously,” said Beitzel, 38, who works in nuclear medicine technology. “But I feel like working in her grassroots campaign, I see her organizers, I see the volunteers come. … They’re coming back with lots and lots of people who are interested in what she’s saying. And it’s very exciting.”
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By Polityk | 01/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Bolton Book Undermines Trump Impeachment Defense
The team around U.S. President Donald Trump is turning against his former national security adviser after John Bolton, in an upcoming book, undercuts one of the key points of the president’s defense in his impeachment trial.A senior legal adviser to the Trump re-election campaign, Jenna Ellis, who is also an attorney to the president, accuses Bolton of “willing to sell out America…just to score a book deal or 5 minutes of fame.”Retweeting Ellis on Monday, the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said this was “So true & so unfortunate.”So true, & so unfortunate. But it’s OK because @realDonaldTrump did nothing wrong, & is undeterred as always. He continues to work on behalf of this country, & most importantly – produce real results that benefit Americans & their families. https://t.co/iFpMHvM7De— Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) January 27, 2020At least one senator of Trump’s Republican party is indicating the revelations in the book may compel witnesses, including Bolton, to be called at the impeachment trial.Senator Mitt Romney of the state of Utah says the former national security adviser has relevant testimony to provide and he think “it’s increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton.”
Trump’s defense team has maintained that president had valid reasons for withholding military aid from Ukraine.In their arguments to senators, the president’s lawyers are rebutting Democrats’ allegation of a “quid pro quo.” They say the president was not going to help Kyiv until Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky announced an investigation of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his son who served on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, while his father was in office.Bolton, in “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” to be published March 17, states Trump wanted to freeze military assistance to Ukraine until Kyiv’s government announced the investigation.The New York Times, which revealed online Sunday excerpts from the book, also reported after Trump’s July 25, 2019 phone call with Zelensky, Bolton raised his concerned with Attorney General William Barr that the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was pursuing a shadow Ukraine policy.Trump, early Monday morning, denied Bolton’s account, saying his former adviser “never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.”I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the…— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2020The president later inaccurately stated in a tweet that Democrats never asked Bolton to testify during last night’s impeachment inquiry in the House.Contents of Bolton’s manuscript were submitted to the National Security Council for a standard security review on December 30, 2019.Bolton’s attorney, Charles Cooper, is blaming the White House for disclosing contents of the book. Before Bolton spent 17 months as Trump’s national security adviser, he had a long track record as a hawk on foreign policy, giving him credibility among Republican senators who will have to decide if he should testify in the ongoing impeachment trial.
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By Polityk | 01/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
NYT: Bolton Book Says Trump Held Up Ukraine Aid for Biden Investigation
As U.S. President Donald Trump’s lawyers continue their case in his impeachment trial, a yet-to-be-published memoir by John Bolton could blow up one of their major defenses.The New York Times reports that the former national security adviser writes Trump personally told him that he is withholding $391 million in military aid to Ukraine until it announces an investigation into Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden for alleged corruption.The newspaper cites several people who have seen the Bolton manuscript as its source.House Democrats contend Trump froze the congressionally-mandated aid to Ukraine, along with a desired White House visit by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on the promise of a probe of Biden and a debunked theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, which interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the sidelines of the 74th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 25, 2019.While Trump’s legal team says the president had the authority to hold up aid to Ukraine, the freeze had nothing to do with any investigations. They say the president was concerned about corruption in Ukraine and wanted European nations to pitch in more to help Ukraine fight Russian-backed separatists.Trump’s lawyers say the fact that Ukraine eventually got the money it was promised and that there was no investigation of the Bidens proves there was no quid pro quo between Trump and Ukraine.Democrats say Trump released the aid only because “he got caught” by asking Zelenskiy to do a “favor” by investigating the Bidens during a July telephone call.Bolton has said he is willing to appear as a witness if the Senate votes to allow witnesses and additional evidence. House Democratic impeachment managers say they want to hear from him.WATCH: Related video by VOA’s Arash Arabasadi:Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
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“The Senate trial must seek the full truth and Mr. Bolton has vital information to provide,” the managers said in a statement late Sunday. “There is no defensible reason to wait until his book is published when the information he has to offer is critical to the most important decision senators must now make – whether to convict the president of impeachable offenses.”FILE – Then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter are pictured at a college basketball game in Washington, Jan. 30, 2010.There has been no response to the Times report so far from the White House.Trump’s defense team will go into its second day of presenting its case to the 100 senators Monday.Trump claimed Sunday that his lawyers “absolutely shredded” Democrats’ case that he should be convicted of impeachment charges and removed from office after their first day of their defense.”The Impeachment Hoax is a massive election interference the likes of which has never been seen before,” he tweeted.Trump attacked the Democrats’ lead prosecutor in the case, Congressman Adam Schiff, as “a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!”Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) In this image from video, House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff holds redacted documents as he speaks during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, in the Senate at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 22, 2020.”This is a wrathful and vindictive president; I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” Schiff said. “And if you think there is, look at the president’s tweets about me today, saying that I should ‘pay a price.’”White House counsel Pat Cipollone began his defense Saturday during two hours of arguments on the two impeachment charges Trump is facing — that Trump abused his presidency and obstructed congressional efforts to investigate his Ukraine-related actions.Cipollone said Trump’s legal team does not believe that Democrats from the House of Representatives prosecuting the case came “anywhere close to meeting their burden” that Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” — the U.S. Constitution’s standard for impeachment and removal from office.In this image from video, White House counsel Pat Cipollone speaks during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in the Senate, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 21, 2020.Now, Cipollone and other Trump defense attorneys have said they will expand on their defense, in part focusing on why they believe there was nothing wrong with Trump’s request last July to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and the Ukraine election meddling theory. No evidence has ever surfaced against the Bidens.Over three days last week, seven House Democrats laid out their case that Trump endangered U.S. national security to benefit himself politically by asking for the Biden investigations by Ukraine at the same time he was withholding $391 million in military aid that Kyiv wanted to help fight Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.”The evidence against the president is overwhelming,” Congresswoman Val Demings, one of the House impeachment managers, told ABC News’ This Week Sunday.Criminal defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, part of Trump’s legal team, told Fox News Sunday that he will argue that there is not a “legally constitutional” argument that Trump can be impeached. He claimed that the offenses he is accused of have “to be a crime,” a contention disputed by scholars supporting Trump’s impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate.
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By Polityk | 01/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Vote Expected This Week on Allowing Witnesses at Trump Impeachment Trial
The third impeachment trial in American history enters a new phase this week. Experts expect lawmakers in the Republican-majority Senate to vote on whether or not to allow witnesses and documents that so far have been blocked by the White House. As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, senators from the two major parties seem on opposite ends of the issue.
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By Polityk | 01/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Claims His Lawyers ‘Shredded’ Impeachment Case Against Him
U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that his lawyers “absolutely shredded” Democrats’ case that he should be convicted of impeachment charges and removed from office.A day after Trump’s lawyers began their defense of him at his Senate trial, he said on Twitter, “The Impeachment Hoax is a massive election interference the likes of which has never been seen before.” The Impeachment Hoax is a massive election interference the likes of which has never been seen before. In just two hours the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats have seen their phony case absolutely shredded. Shifty is now exposed for illegally making up my phone call, & more!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2020
He attacked the Democrats’ lead prosecutor in the case, Congressman Adam Schiff, as “a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!”Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2020Trump’s trial resumes Monday before the 100 U.S. senators deciding his fate, with his lawyers laying out their argument that he did nothing wrong in asking Ukraine last July to launch an investigation of one of his chief 2020 Democratic rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden.White House counsel Pat Cipollone began his defense Saturday during two hours of arguments on the two impeachment charges Trump is facing — that Trump abused his presidency and obstructed congressional efforts to investigate his Ukraine-related actions.WATCH: Trump Impeachment Defense Closes First Week of Trial Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyCipollone said Trump’s legal team does not believe that Democrats from the House of Representatives prosecuting the case came “anywhere close to meeting their burden” that Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” — the U.S. Constitution’s standard for impeachment and removal from office.Now, Cipollone and other Trump defense attorneys have said they will expand on their defense, in part focusing on why they believe there was nothing wrong with Trump’s request last July to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to undermine Trump’s campaign. No evidence has ever surfaced against the Bidens.Over three days last week, seven House Democrats laid out their case that Trump endangered U.S. national security to benefit himself politically by asking for the Biden investigations by Ukraine at the same time he was withholding $391 million in military aid that Kyiv wanted to help fight Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.WATCH: Democrats Make Case Trump Abused Power of Presidency Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during the second day of the Senate impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump, Jan. 22, 2020. (U.S. Senate TV/Handout via Reuters)But Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are opposed to calling witnesses and subpoenaing documents and instead are hoping to acquit Trump by week’s end, just days ahead of his annual State of the Union address to Congress on Feb. 4.With Republicans holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate, Democrats will need the votes of four Republicans to secure a majority calling for witnesses and more documents, but so far do not have assurances of four Republican votes.If the Democrats’ subpoena efforts fall short, McConnell could move quickly to vote on the two articles of impeachment, which Trump is all but assured of winning since a two-thirds vote is needed for Trump’s removal from office. No Republican has called for Trump’s ouster. On Saturday, Cipollone reiterated the oft-repeated criticism of the Democratic-led impeachment proceedings that they are trying to nullify Trump’s 2016 election win and keep him off the November 2020 ballot when he is seeking a second term in the White House.”They’re here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history and we cannot allow that to happen,” Cipollone said. “It would violate our Constitution. It would violate our history. It would violate our obligations to the future. And, most importantly, it would violate the sacred trust that the American people have placed in you.”In a two-hour session, White House deputy counsel Michael Purpura played a video clip of lead House manager Adam Schiff embellishing the conversation Trump had with Zelenskiy during a July 25 phone call that is central to the impeachment probe.”That’s fake. That’s not the real call, that’s not the evidence,” Purpura said in an attempt to discredit Schiff and other Democrats.Schiff said after the hearing that his recounting of the Trump-Zelenskiy call during the House impeachment investigation was “in character with what the president was trying to communicate.”During the July call, Zelenskiy told Trump that Ukraine sought more U.S. military assistance. Trump responded, “I would like you to do us a favor, though,” and then asked Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens. Trump’s lawyers contend that the “us” refers to the United States, not Trump personally.Even though the aid embargo was lifted in September, Congressman Jason Crow said during the House impeachment managers’ closing arguments Friday, “It was only lifted because President Trump had gotten caught.” Shortly before the release of the aid, a still-unidentified government intelligence official filed a complaint against Trump for soliciting a foreign government’s help in investigating a political rival.But Purpura said Saturday that Ukraine did not become aware of Trump’s hold on the military aid until the latter part of August, well after the fateful July 25 call.”There can’t be a threat without a person knowing he’s being threatened,” Purpura said. “There can’t be quid pro quo without the quo.” Democrats contend that Ukraine was already asking about the delay in the aid around the time of the Trump-Zelenskiy conversation.Trump is only the third U.S. president to be impeached and tried before the Senate. Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 because of a post-Civil War dispute over states that seceded from the union. Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying to a grand jury over a sex scandal. Both Johnson and Clinton were acquitted and remained in office until the end of their terms.
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By Polityk | 01/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump’s Lawyers Defend Him at Senate Impeachment Trial
U.S. President Donald Trump’s legal team began presenting counterarguments Saturday in the Senate after House impeachment managers wrapped up three days of closing arguments in Trump’s historic Senate impeachment trial.White House Counsel Pat Cipollone began presenting Trump’s defense by declaring the Democratic House managers failed to achieve their objective.“We don’t believe that they have come anywhere close to meeting their burden for what they’re asking you to do,” Cipollone said.Cipollone also reiterated an often-repeated criticism of the Democratic-led impeachment proceedings that they would nullify Trump’s 2016 election win and reduce choices for voters before the upcoming November presidential election.“They’re here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history and we cannot allow that to happen,” Cipollone said. “It would violate our Constitution. It would violate our history. It would violate our obligations to the future. And, most importantly, it would violate the sacred trust that the American people have placed in you.”Saturday’s defense of Trump amounts to a preview of the arguments that will be laid out in further detail next week.During his presentation, White House deputy counsel Michael Purpura played a video clip of lead House manager Adam Schiff embellishing the conversation Trump had with Ukraine’s president on July 25 phone call that is central to the impeachment probe.“That’s fake. That’s not the real call, that’s not the evidence,” Purpura said in an attempt to discredit Schiff and other Democrats.Schiff acknowledged after the hearing, during which he recounted the phone call, that his comments were “in character with what the president was trying to communicate.”Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Trump and his lawyers were invited to appear before the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment inquiry, but declined.U.S. Democratic lawmakers closed out their final arguments against the president Friday, arguing that if Trump is not removed from office he will continue to abuse power.“At the heart of Article Two, obstruction of Congress, is a simple troubling reality: President Trump tried to cheat, he got caught, and then he worked hard to cover it up,” said Hakeem Jeffries, one of seven House Democrats serving as managers of the trial.Jeffries said Trump administration officials were aware of the president’s alleged misconduct last year and called the situation in the White House a “toxic mess.”Schiff told lawmakers, “You cannot leave a man like that in office.” He argued that the president will not change and his actions will remain the same. “You know it’s not going to stop. It’s not going to stop unless the Congress does something about it.””He has shown neither remorse nor acknowledgment of wrongdoing,” said Schiff. “Do you think if we do nothing, it’s going to stop now?”In his final argument, Schiff urged senators to “give America a fair trial,” saying, “she’s worth it.”Trump is only the third U.S. president to be impeached and tried before the Senate. Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 because of a post-Civil War dispute over states that seceded from the union. Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying to a grand jury over a sex scandal. Both Johnson and Clinton were acquitted and remained in office until the end of their terms.
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By Polityk | 01/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
NPR Reporter: Pompeo Lashed Out at Her After Testy Interview
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cursed at a National Public Radio reporter and repeatedly “used the F-word” in a shouted diatribe after she questioned him about Ukraine and the ousted American ambassador to Kiev in an interview on Friday, the reporter said.Mary Louise Kelly conducted a testy interview lasting about nine minutes with Pompeo for NPR’s “All Things Considered” program, asking him about Iran and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was ousted by President Donald Trump last May. Yovanovitch’s removal was a key event in the actions that prompted Trump’s impeachment in the House of Representatives last month.“Afterwards, Pompeo proceeded to shout his displeasure at being questioned about Ukraine. He used repeated expletives, according to Kelly,” NPR said in a statement.“He asked, ‘Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?’ He used the F-word in that sentence and many others,” Kelly said in an interview of her own with NPR later Friday.The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Kelly said Pompeo shouted at her “for about the same amount of time as the interview itself.” Pompeo then had aides bring a blank map of the world and asked Kelly to show Ukraine.“People will hear about this,” Pompeo said after Kelly pointed at Ukraine on the map, she said.Questions on UkraineWhen Kelly turned her questioning to Ukraine in the latter part of the interview with Pompeo, he said he had agreed to discuss only Iran.Kelly said she had informed Pompeo’s aides that she would ask also about Ukraine, and posed several questions, including whether Pompeo owed an apology to Yovanovitch, who testified last year in the House impeachment inquiry about her ouster. The incident also has figured in Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate.“I have defended every State Department official. … I’ve defended every single person on this team,” Pompeo replied.In November, Pompeo declined to defend Yovanovitch after Trump attacked her on Twitter.Yovanovitch was removed by Trump following a negative campaign against her by his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and others. Giuliani at the time was pushing to have Ukraine investigate Trump’s political rival Joe Biden.
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By Polityk | 01/25/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Dems Pick Whitmer, Escobar for Trump State of Union Response
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Feb. 4. Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas will deliver the Spanish-language response.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer made the announcement Friday.They praised Whitmer for her efforts to ensure clean drinking water is available in communities across Michigan, which was scarred by the 2014 water crisis in Flint. About 25,000 people have sued over the crisis, in which a change in the source of the city’s water resulted in lead contamination.Whitmer, a former prosecutor who was sworn in as governor last year, defeated Republican state Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Trump ally. She had previously served as Democratic Leader in the Michigan state Senate and was the first woman to lead the Senate caucus.Escobar, of El Paso, attended a protest rally in August ahead of Trump’s visit to the city after a mass shooting at a Walmart killed 22 people. Police said the gunman specifically targeted Mexicans. Escobar spent two decades in local government before coming to Washington. She’s the first Latina to represent her district.Trump has said he intends to deliver the State of the Union as scheduled despite his ongoing Senate impeachment trial.
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By Polityk | 01/25/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Warren Vows her Organization Will Win Primary, Beat Trump
Elizabeth Warren says she has more than 1,000 campaign staffers in 31 states and 100-plus field offices, a show of organizational strength her campaign promises will lift her to the Democratic presidential nomination and hurt President Donald Trump’s chances in key battlegrounds in November.The Massachusetts senator vows that her campaign will be organized in all 57 states and territories before the Democratic National Convention in July. In the meantime, it’s looking beyond Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, which open the primary, and “Super Tuesday” on March 3 when more than a dozen states vote.“We expect this to be a long nomination fight and have built our campaign to sustain well past Super Tuesday and stay resilient no matter what breathless media narratives come when voting begins,” Warren campaign manager Roger Lau wrote in a memo released Friday to supporters offering “Our Roadmap to Win.”It explains how the campaign will clinch the nearly 2,000 Democratic delegates needed to secure the party’s presidential nomination and notes that Warren has already traveled to 30 states and Puerto Rico while building “what even rival campaigns acknowledge is the best organization on the ground.”Warren’s bet is that a far-reaching organization can insulate her against poor performances in the early states, while giving her built-in momentum if she does well. But it also could be risky, since having so many staffers is expensive, and enthusiasm and fundraising could dry up if she doesn’t meet early expectations.Polls show Warren bunched among the primary front-runners with former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.Supporters of President Donald Trump rally outside Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)Still, the memo says Warren’s goal is to win her party’s nomination, beat Trump, hold Democratic-control of the House of Representatives, retake the Senate and even flip some key state legislatures heading into redistricting, when congressional maps will be redrawn based on the 2020 census.That’s why Warren says she’ll leave staffers in place and field offices open in Iowa after its Feb. 3 caucus, and do so after other general election toss-up states have voted in the primary, hoping for a head start against Trump in November.Warren’s campaign is out to build “a critical mass of support in more than enough states to foreclose any path to an Electoral College victory for Donald Trump,” the memo said. It noted that if Trump is denied the popular vote victory in 2020 like he was in 2016, “he’ll join John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Harrison as a one-term president who lost the popular vote on the way in and lost it again, even more badly, on the way out.”Lau said Warren has “had more than 100,000 one-on-one conversations with Americans” during a year of campaigning, referencing the famous “selfie” pictures Warren supporters line up and wait for after nearly every one of her events — even really large ones.The memo notes that the first four states account for 155 delegates our about 4% of the total. Super Tuesday has 1,350-plus delegates, or more than a third of the total up for grabs.Post-Super Tuesday states, including Michigan and Florida, account for 1,091 delegates or nearly a quarter of the total, while April to June states like New Mexico and Wisconsin account for nearly 1,400 delegates or nearly 35% of the total.The memo says that, since last fall, Warren’s campaign has been “putting staff on the ground in critical Super Tuesday states.” Warren’s campaign is also hoping to focus on states that vote between Super Tuesday and the beginning of April, saying it has “several hundred” organizing staffers in places like Alabama and Washington state and “by mid-April, we will have organizers on the ground in the remaining states, completing the full map.”That assumes her candidacy can make it that far, of course, but “We’re only just getting started,” Lau wrote.
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By Polityk | 01/25/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Pompeo Heads to Ukraine Next Week as Impeachment Winds Down
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Ukraine next week, making his first trip to the country at the heart of President Donald Trump’s impeachment.
As Trump’s Senate trial on impeachment charges continues, the State Department announced Friday that Pompeo would travel to Kyiv as part of a five-nation tour of Europe and Central Asia. Since November, Pompeo has twice previously canceled plans to visit Ukraine, most recently just after the New Year when developments with Iran forced him to postpone it. Pompeo will also visit Britain, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on the trip.
Trump’s impeachment on charges of abuse of office and obstruction of Congress hinges on his policy toward Ukraine. Witnesses told House investigators that Trump wanted Ukraine to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son in return for releasing critical military aid to Ukraine.
One of those witnesses, William Taylor, was until Jan. 1 the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Pompeo had appointed Taylor to the post over the summer to take over from Marie Yovanovitch, whose tour was abruptly cut short last May after Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani made unsubstantiated allegations against her.
Taylor departed Kyiv just a day before Pompeo was to have arrived on his previously planned trip. The position was temporary and time-limited by law but his tenure could have lasted until mid-January. His departure prompted complaints from lawmakers that his departure was similar to Yovanovitch’s early recall and sent a poor message to the embassy in Kyiv and career diplomats more generally, as well as to Ukrainian authorities.
In Kyiv, Pompeo will meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose July 25 phone call with Trump triggered the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump’s impeachment. In that call, Trump disparaged Yovanovitch and asked Zelenskiy for “a favor,” suggesting he wanted Ukrainian authorities to investigate Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, for corruption. Trump has said the call was “perfect” and has denied doing anything wrong.
In his meetings, Pompeo will “reaffirm U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” as the country continues to battle Russia-backed separatists in the east, the State Department said. Pompeo also will honor Ukrainians who have died in the conflict, which intensified after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014, in a move condemned and rejected by most of the international community. The senior official said Pompeo would underscore that the U.S. will never recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
A senior official previewing Pompeo’s ultimately postponed trip, said the secretary would discuss Zelenskiy’s anti-corruption efforts but would not comment on whether the secretary would raise Trump’s desire for an investigation into Hunter Biden and his role on the board of a Ukrainian energy company or discredited claims that Ukraine and not Russia was responsible for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
In addition, Pompeo plans to meet Ukrainian religious, civic and business leaders for talks on human rights, investment and economic and political reform, the department said.
Pompeo will begin his trip on Jan. 31 in London, where he will meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson and underscore the administration’s desire to forge a free-trade trade deal with Britain as it exits the European Union.
From Ukraine, Pompeo will travel on to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan before returning home in time for Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress on Feb. 4. Human rights, energy independence and economic reform will top Pompeo’s agenda at each of those stops.
In Minsk, the secretary plans to affirm the U.S. commitment to improving ties with Belarus, which has had a strained relationship with Russia. President Alexander Lukashenko has pursued better relations with the West since Russia’s annexation of Crimea as Belarus is wary that Russia could try to absorb it.
In September, the U.S. and Belarus agreed to upgrade diplomatic ties by returning ambassadors to each other’s capitals after an 11-year break.
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By Polityk | 01/24/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Study Links Impeachment Beliefs to Regular News Diets
For many Americans, how they feel about issues raised during President Donald Trump’s impeachment has much to do with where they get their news.A study released Friday by the Pew Research Center illustrated these tendencies, along with the growing Republican suspicion of media sources during the Trump administration.Roughly two-thirds of Republicans who got their news exclusively from outlets with a primarily conservative audience like Fox News, Breitbart or Rush Limbaugh’s radio show told pollsters in November they believed Trump withheld aid from the Ukraine to advance a U.S. policy to reduce corruption there, Pew said.Some 10% of these Republicans said Trump did it to help his re-election campaign — the heart of the House’s impeachment case against the president.But the gap between those views narrows among Republicans with a more varied media diet. And Republicans who avoided media with right-leaning audiences were more likely to say Trump was acting for his own political gain (34% to 21%), although 43% said they weren’t sure why he did it, Pew said.Democrats who said they got news from outlets that appeal to liberals (MSNBC, NPR or The New York Times) or a mixed audience (ABC and CBS News, USA Today) overwhelmingly said Trump was acting in self-interest, Pew said.The only place where more uncertainty seeped in was among Democrats who avoided outlets that appealed primarily to the left, although 49% of these still believed Trump was helping himself.Similarly, those who followed a conservative media diet were much more likely to believe the false narrative that former Vice President Joe Biden called for a Ukrainian prosecutor’s removal to protect his son from being investigated.Heading into the 2020 campaign, Pew is launching an Election News Pathways project to help Americans understand the relationship between news consumption habits and political perceptions and beliefs.“We do see the correlation between media diet and what people are hearing, seeing and thinking in terms of perceptions of motivation for actions,” said Amy Mitchell, Pew’s director of journalism research.Trump Impeachment Trial Could Be Election Factor in 2020President Donald Trump has already made history as only the third U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives. He now hopes to make history again by becoming the first impeached president to win re-election, given that he is likely to be acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial, which begins today. The impeachment drama has kicked into high gear just as the 2020 presidential campaign enters a critical phase, as we hear from VOA National correspondent Jim Malone.In probing general attitudes toward the news media, Pew found that Republicans have grown more alienated from many established news sources than they were in a similar study conducted in 2014. Confidence in the media has been more stable among Democrats, and in some cases has increased.Three-quarters of conservative Republicans say they trust Fox News, and two-thirds distrust CNN, Pew found. The numbers essentially flip among liberal Democrats, where 70% say they trust CNN and 77% don’t trust what they see on Fox.Pew noted a “notable growth” in Republicans’ distrust of CNN, The New York Times and Washington Post since its 2014 study. Those outlets have been subject to frequent attacks by Trump.Pew’s poll didn’t specifically ask people how Trump’s attacks on the media affected their attitudes. But its past surveys have shown that no factor studied affects attitudes toward the media more than political party identification and, among Republicans, supporters of Trump have an even greater animosity toward journalists, Mitchell said.About one in five Republicans and Democrats alike say they only get news from sources they feel reflects their political beliefs, Pew said.But there is some overlap, and perhaps some sign that common ground can be reached. Pew found that about a quarter of Democrats say they get some news from Fox, while a quarter of Republicans did the same with CNN.Pew spoke to more than 12,000 Americans last October and November, all of them part of the organization’s regular online survey panel that has been recruited through a national random sample. The margin of error is plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.
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By Polityk | 01/24/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Former Trump Supporters All In for Yang
At one point there were dozens of people running to be the Democratic party’s next presidential candidate. Now there are only about a dozen, and only one of them isn’t a politician: Andrew Yang. The entrepreneur isn’t polling well but he’s still in the race thanks to a unique style and really devoted followers. VOA’s Suli Yi caught up with two former Trump voters who are now part of the Yang Gang. VOA’s Peggy Chang narrates her report.
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By Polityk | 01/24/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Fight Intensifies Over Calling Witnesses for Trump’s Impeachment Trial
As the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump grinds on after a bitter fight over rules, the two sides in the high-stakes proceeding are bracing for another round of partisan bickering over a deeply divisive issue: witnesses.Democrats have a list of four witnesses they say could fill in the blanks in the impeachment case against Trump. The four officials refused to testify for different reasons during the House inquiry that led to Trump’s impeachment on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. At the top of the list is former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who has said he would testify if subpoenaed.On the Republican side, most senators remain opposed to calling additional witnesses, saying the House Democrats’ case against Trump should rise or fall on the 17 witnesses who cooperated with the impeachment inquiry. But if Democrats should somehow prevail in calling Bolton and others to the Senate trial, Republicans have a coveted witness of their own: Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden. With control of only 47 of 100 seats in the Senate, the Democrats would have to persuade four moderate Republicans to side with them in order to call witnesses in the coming week and greatly expand the scope of the proceedings. Ultimately, any additional testimony is unlikely to sway public opinion or make a difference in a trial whose outcome has long been deemed a foregone conclusion. “I think most of us have had enough evidence,” said Mark Graber, a constitutional law professor at the University of Maryland. “I’m ready to vote. I think most people are ready to vote.”Here is a look at the witnesses both sides want to hear from:FILE – Former national security adviser John Bolton gestures while speakings at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Sept. 30, 2019.For the DemocratsJohn Bolton, former national security adviser. He is perhaps the most sought-after of all witnesses on the Democrats’ list. Democrats say he has direct knowledge of efforts led by Trump’s private lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to get Ukraine to investigate the Bidens in exchange for U.S. military aid and a White House meeting between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Bolton, according to a former aide, once called Giuliani a “hand grenade who is going to blow everybody up,” and denounced the Ukraine pressure campaign as a “drug deal.”Mick Mulvaney, acting White House chief of staff. As a member of Trump’s inner circle, Mulvaney is a witness to events at the heart of the impeachment case. Democrats say Mulvaney was a “central figure” in Trump’s pressure campaign against Ukraine, and played a key role in carrying out the president’s order to freeze military aid to Ukraine. Mulvaney defied a subpoena to testify. However, he admitted during an October press conference that the administration had withheld the aid to pressure Ukraine, but he walked back his statement, insisting there had been no “quid pro quo.”
Robert Blair and Michael Duffey, senior White House officials. Serving one rung below Mulvaney, Blair and Duffey are the two officials who were tasked with relaying Trump’s order to freeze the military aid to other administration officials. On June 19, the day after the Pentagon announced $250 million in military aid to Ukraine, Blair, a senior adviser to Mulvaney, emailed the head of the Office of Management and Budget. “We need to hold it up,” Blair said. The same day, Duffey, an OMB associate director, emailed a Pentagon official. “The president has asked about this funding release,” Duffey said.FILE – Then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter are pictured at a college basketball game in Washington, Jan. 30, 2010.For the RepublicansHunter Biden. Throughout the impeachment process, Republicans have said his involvement with Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company with a reputation for graft, would validate Trump’s call for investigations into corruption. Democrats have rebuked the call as an attempt to shift attention from Trump’s misconduct.Joe Biden. Trump and his allies have alleged that Biden, while serving as vice president and the Obama administration’s point man for Ukraine policy, got Ukraine’s top prosecutor fired in order to block an investigation of Burisma and protect his son’s lucrative position at the company. Last month, Biden said he would testify if subpoenaed. However, following a report that Democrats were mulling asking either Biden to testify in exchange for Bolton’s testimony, the former vice president said Wednesday he would not take part in a witness swap.Burisma board member Devon Archer; the unidentified intelligence officer who filed a whistleblower complaint at the heart of the impeachment proceedings; and Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian American operative for the Democratic National Committee, who is at the center of a conspiracy theory pushed by Republicans that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
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By Polityk | 01/24/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Migrant Parents Separated From Kids Since 2018 Return to US
Nine parents who were deported as the Trump administration separated thousands of migrant families landed back into the U.S. late Wednesday to reunite with children they had not seen in a year and a half.The group arrived at Los Angeles International Airport from Guatemala City in a trip arranged under the order of a federal judge who found the U.S. government had unlawfully prevented them from seeking asylum. An asylum advocate confirmed the nine parents were all aboard the flight.Some of the children were at the airport to greet them, including David Xol’s 9-year-old son Byron.David fell to one knee and tearfully embraced Byron for about three minutes, patting the back of his son’s head.“He was small,” David said after rising to his feet. He looked at his attorney — who accompanied him on the flight — raised his hand about chest-high and said, “He grew a lot.”David, Byron and his attorney, Ricardo de Anda, then embraced in a three-way hug and exchanged words in their huddle. Byron was all smiles. Father, son, attorney and family sponsor eagerly left the airport for their hotel.The reunion was a powerful reminder of the lasting effects of Trump’s separation policy, even as attention and outrage has faded amid impeachment proceedings and tensions with Iran. But it also underscored that hundreds, potentially thousands, of other parents and children are still apart nearly two years after the zero-tolerance policy on unauthorized border crossings took effect.“They all kind of hit the lottery,” said Linda Grimm, an attorney who represents one of the parents returning to the U.S. “There are so many people out there who have been traumatized by the family separation policy whose pain is not going to be redressed.”More than 4,000 children are known to have been separated from their parents before and during the official start of zero tolerance in spring 2018. Under the policy, border agents charged parents en masse with illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, then placed their children in government facilities, including some “tender-age shelters” set up for infants.The U.S. has acknowledged that agents separated families long before they enforced zero tolerance across the entire southern border, its agencies did not properly record separations, and some detention centers were overcrowded and undersupplied, with families denied food, water or medical care.In June 2018, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the government to stop separating families and reunite parents and children.At least 470 parents were deported without their children. Some of the kids were held in U.S. government facilities and ultimately placed with sponsors. Others were deported to their home countries.Accounts emerged of many parents being told to sign paperwork they couldn’t read or understand or being denied a chance to request asylum in ways that violated federal law.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security referred a request for comment to the Justice Department, which did not respond.The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the original family separation lawsuit before Sabraw, asked the judge to order the return of a small group of parents whose children remained in the U.S. In September, Sabraw required the U.S. to allow 11 parents to come back and denied relief to seven others.ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said Sabraw made clear he would only order the return of people “who were misled or coerced into giving up their asylum rights.” That will leave other parents who fled violence, poverty and persecution to decide whether to have their children return to their home countries or remain in the U.S. without them.“Many are going to make the decision that generations of immigrant parents have made — to leave their child in the U.S. and endure the hardship of separation, but to do it for their child’s own safety,” Gelernt said.Xol said that after he and his then-7-year-old son, Byron, crossed the border, they were taken to a U.S. Border Patrol processing center in South Texas. Xol was charged with illegal entry on May 19, 2018.Two days later, Xol said an officer told him to sign a document that would allow him and Byron to be deported together. If he didn’t sign, Byron would be given up for adoption and Xol would be detained for at least two years.Xol signed the document, only to have Byron taken away and then get deported to Guatemala. Byron was placed in government facilities for 11 months.The family’s attorney, Ricardo de Anda, persuaded a federal court to force the U.S. to let a Texas family take in Byron. Since May 2019, Byron has lived with Holly and Matthew Sewell and their two children, with regular video calls to his family.Holly Sewell brought Byron, now 9, to meet his father at the airport. They planned to go back to Texas to pack and prepare for Byron to move in with his father once Xol is settled in California. Before the reunion, Byron kept asking Sewell, his caretaker, when his father would clear immigration authorities.“They’re almost here, you’re doing great,” she said. “Count to 1,000.”“999,” Byron responded.She said she was thrilled Byron could see his dad again but sharply criticized the U.S. government’s treatment of asylum-seekers.Esvin Fernando Arredondo was expected to be on the plane. The father from Guatemala was separated from one of his daughters, Andrea Arredondo — then 12 years old and now 13, after they turned themselves in on May 16, 2018, at a Texas crossing and sought asylum legally, according to Grimm, his lawyer. He failed an initial screening and agreed to go back to Guatemala.According to Sabraw’s ruling, the government deported Arredondo even after the judge had ordered families reunited and subsequently prohibited U.S. officials from removing any parent separated from their child. He’s now being given a second chance at asylum under the court order.Andrea was separated from all family for about a month, living in a shelter as the government struggled to connect children with their parents because they lacked adequate tracking systems. She was finally reunited with her mother, who had turned herself in at the Texas crossing with the other two daughters four days earlier than her husband, on May 12, 2018.She and her two daughters passed the initial screening interview for asylum, unlike her husband, even though they were fleeing for the same reason. Their son Marco, 17, was shot and killed by suspected gang members in Guatemala City.Arredondo’s wife, Cleivi Jerez, 41, arrived at LAX less than an hour before the flight landed with their three daughters in tow, ages 17, 13 and 7.“Lots of nerves, last night I couldn’t sleep,” she said in Spanish in an interview after the flight landed.Jerez said she planned to stay up late catching up with her husband. She planned to rest at their Los Angeles home tomorrow as well, catching up on their 17 months apart before he has to report to an ICE office Friday in San Diego. Alison Arredondo, 7, said she missed going to the park with her father and she wanted to go to one with him in LA.While the U.S. has stopped the large-scale separations, it has implemented policies to prevent many asylum-seekers from entering the country. Under its “Remain in Mexico” policy, more than 50,000 people have been told to wait there for weeks or months for U.S. court dates. The Trump administration also is ramping up deportations of Central Americans to other countries in the region to seek asylum there.“People want to make this a heartwarming story, but it’s not. It’s devastating,” Sewell said. “There is just no good reason why we had to do this to this child and this family. And he symbolizes thousands of others who have been put in this exact same position.”
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By Polityk | 01/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Imposes Visa Rules for Pregnant Women on ‘Birth Tourism’
The Trump administration on Thursday published new visa rules aimed at restricting “birth tourism,” in which women travel to the U.S. to give birth so their children can have a coveted U.S. passport.Applicants will be denied tourist visas if they are determined by consular officers to be coming to the U.S. primarily to give birth, according to the rules in the Federal Register. It is a bigger hurdle to overcome, proving they are traveling to the U.S. because they have a medical need and not just because they want to give birth here. Those with medical needs will be treated like other foreigners coming to the U.S. for medical treatment and must prove they have the money to pay for it — including transportation and living expenses.The practice of traveling to the U.S. to give birth is fundamentally legal, although there are scattered cases of authorities arresting operators of birth tourism agencies for visa fraud or tax evasion. And women are often honest about their intentions when applying for visas and even show signed contracts with doctors and hospitals.The State Department “does not believe that visiting the United States for the primary purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a child, by giving birth in the United States — an activity commonly referred to as ‘birth tourism’ — is a legitimate activity for pleasure or of a recreational nature,” according to the new rules, which take effect Friday.President Donald Trump’s administration has been restricting all forms of immigration, but Trump has been particularly plagued by the issue of birthright citizenship — anyone born in the U.S. is considered a citizen, under the Constitution. The Republican president has railed against the practice and threatened to end it, but scholars and members of his administration have said it’s not so easy to do.Regulating tourist visas for pregnant women is one way to get at the issue, but it raises questions about how officers would determine whether a woman is pregnant to begin with and whether a woman could get turned away by border officers who suspect she may be just by looking at her.Consular officers don’t have the right to ask during visa interviews whether a woman is pregnant or intends to become so. But they would still have to determine whether a visa applicant would be coming to the U.S. primarily to give birth.Birth tourism is a lucrative business in both the U.S. and abroad. Companies take out advertisements and charge up to $80,000 to facilitate the practice, offering hotel rooms and medical care. Many of the women travel from Russia and China to give birth in the U.S.The U.S. has been cracking down on the practice since before Trump took office.“An entire ‘birth tourism’ industry has evolved to assist pregnant women from other countries to come to the United States to obtain U.S. citizenship for their children by giving birth in the United States, and thereby entitle their children to the benefits of U.S. citizenship,” according to the State Department rules.There are no figures on how many foreign women travel to the U.S. specifically to give birth. The Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates for stricter immigration laws, estimated that in 2012 about 36,000 foreign-born women gave birth in the U.S. and then left the country.“This rule will help eliminate the criminal activity associated with the birth tourism industry,” according to the rules. “The recent federal indictments describe birth tourism schemes in which foreign nationals applied for visitor visas to come to the United States and lied to consular officers about the duration of their trips, where they would stay, and their purpose of travel.”
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By Polityk | 01/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
DC Sues Trump Inaugural Committee, Alleging Abuse of Funds
The District of Columbia is suing President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee and two companies that control the Trump International Hotel in the nation’s capital, accusing them of throwing parties for the Trump family with nonprofit funds, and overpaying for event space at the hotel.The district’s attorney general, Karl Racine, said the inaugural committee had been “blatantly and unlawfully abusing nonprofit funds to enrich the Trump family.” The lawsuit, announced Wednesday, alleges that the committee abused nonprofit funds and coordinated with the Trump family to “grossly overpay for event space” in the hotel.The committee has maintained that its finances were independently audited, and that all money was spent in accordance with the law.It was the latest allegation that Trump and his family have used public and nonprofit funds spent at Trump-owned properties to enrich themselves — part of the peril of Trump not fully withdrawing from his businesses while he is president. Trump has maintained ownership but turned the reins over to his adult sons, who have bristled at the charge that they are profiting off their father’s presidency.The suit alleges the committee coordinated with the hotel’s management and members of Trump’s family to arrange the events and that committee staffers knew they were paying prices that were “grossly above market rate” but didn’t consider less expensive alternatives.The committee raised an unprecedented $107 million to host events celebrating Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. But the committee’s spending has drawn mounting scrutiny.“District law requires nonprofits to use their funds for their stated public purpose, not to benefit private individuals or companies,” Racine said. “In this case, we are seeking to recover the nonprofit funds that were improperly funneled directly to the Trump family business.”Prosecutors found that Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide who flipped on the president during the special counsel’s Russia investigation, personally managed discussions with the hotel about using the space, including ballrooms and meeting rooms. One of the event’s planners raised concerns about pricing with Trump, Gates and Ivanka Trump, according to the lawsuit. Ivanka Trump is the president’s daughter and a senior White House adviser.Those concerns included a written warning that the price proposal was at least twice the market rate. But Gates went through with it anyway, at a cost of $1.03 million, the suit says.In one instance, Gates contacted Ivanka Trump and told her that he was “a bit worried about the optics” of the committee paying such a high fee, Racine said.Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former adviser to first lady Melania Trump who played a leading role organizing the inaugural parties, had also told Trump, when he was president-elect, and Ivanka Trump that she was uneasy with the offer, Racine said. Winston Wolkoff later followed up with an email to Gates and Ivanka Trump warning that the hotel’s proposal was at least twice the market rate, Racine said.Prosecutors say the committee could have hosted inaugural events at other venues either for free or for reduced costs but didn’t consider those options.Gates pleaded guilty to charges tied to his lucrative political consulting work in Ukraine and was sentenced last month to 45 days in prison, a punishment that a judge said reflected the extensive cooperation Gates had provided to the Justice Department. Racine’s office said investigators did not directly speak with Gates in as they pursued the suit.A lawyer who represented Gates for the criminal proceedings didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment. The White House didn’t immediately return a message nor did the Trump Organization.The suit contends that the hotel went against industry practice and refused to discount the space, and double-booked its largest ballroom with a different organization that was still affiliated with the inauguration, the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast. Both organizations were nonprofits, but the breakfast paid $5,000 for the ballroom. The committee, however, paid $175,000, the suit claims.Prosecutors say the committee also used nonprofit funds to throw a private party on Jan. 17, 2017, the night off the inauguration, for Trump’s family — a $300,000 affair. The reception was for three of Trump’s children — Donald, Jr., Ivanka and Eric.“There will be an after party at the OPO (Trump Hotel) following the inaugural balls on Friday. DJT is not expected to attend but was more for you, Don and Eric,” Gates wrote in an email to Ivanka Trump, according to the suit. DJT is a reference to Donald J. Trump.Event staff within the inaugural committee recognized this would not be a proper use of committee funds and had tried to cancel this event, according to the suit, but Gates and the Trump family went ahead anyway.Racine said his office focused on the inaugural committee and the companies that profited because investigators believe that’s the best option for them to possibly recover the funds.Racine had been sending subpoenas for months related to the investigation. The inaugural committee was also being investigated by New York and state authorities in New Jersey, who are looking into, among other things, whether foreigners illegally contributed to the inaugural events.
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By Polityk | 01/23/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
2020 Democratic Candidates Vow Unity, But Conflict Escalates
Democratic presidential candidates have spent weeks reassuring voters they can unify the party, avoid the divisions that plagued the 2016 primary and defeat President Donald Trump in the fall. Instead, the scars of that battle are being ripped open less than two weeks before the Iowa caucuses.With tensions already escalating between leading Democratic contenders, the party’s last presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, reignited a years-old feud with Bernie Sanders on Tuesday by refusing to say whether she would support her former rival should he win the nomination this year — before later insisting that she will do “whatever I can” to support the eventual nominee. Clinton also said in an upcoming documentary that “nobody likes” Sanders, adding in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter that he has permitted a culture of “relentless attacks” on his competitors, “particularly the women.”Clinton’s criticism is the latest — and perhaps, the loudest — flash point in the Democratic Party’s high-stakes nomination fight that has exposed divisions based on gender, race, age and ideology. Democratic officials fear that such divisions could ultimately make it harder to beat Trump, pointing to lingering bad blood between Clinton and Sanders four years ago that may have helped him eke out a victory.“My No. 1 goal is to win,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez told The Associated Press. “The only way this is possible is if we’re united around our eventual nominee, and I have no doubt that every candidate in this race will do that, no matter who she or he is.”“The stakes get higher on an almost daily basis,” he added, “making it all the more imperative we come together.”Clarifying her earlier comments, Clinton added later Tuesday in a tweet that “the number one priority for our country and world is retiring Trump, and, as I always have, I will do whatever I can to support our nominee.”Trump and his Republican allies, sensing an opportunity to weaken his opponent, have poked at the Democratic infighting from afar in recent days. In particular, the president publicly sided with Sanders in a dispute with Elizabeth Warren and blamed Democrats for treating Sanders unfairly because the Senate impeachment trial prevents him — and three other Democrats seeking the presidency — from campaigning in Iowa.Trump’s concern, of course, isn’t about the party’s treatment of Sanders. He hopes that continued discord among Democrats might push some disaffected supporters of the Vermont senator in Trump’s direction come November, or at least persuade them to stay home on Election Day.That’s in part what happened after the party’s long and bitter nomination fight between Sanders and Clinton.“At the end of the day, no one wants history to repeat itself,” said Democratic strategist Sabrina Singh.Yet healing old resentments — and some new ones — that threaten to divide core factions of the Democratic Party may be easier said than done, especially as the 2020 field jockeys for position in the sprint to the Iowa caucuses.Tensions remain high between Sanders and progressive ally Warren just a week after the Massachusetts senator disclosed the contents of a 2018 private conversation with Sanders in which he allegedly said a woman could not defeat Trump. Warren refused to shake Sanders’ hand after last week’s presidential debate, and microphones captured a fiery confrontation in which Warren accused Sanders of calling her a liar.Warren refused to address the explosive feud as she campaigned in recent days.At the same time, she stepped deeper into the ideological fight between the progressive and moderate wings of the party, raising questions about former Vice President Joe Biden’s commitment to Social Security.Biden, who has been at the center of heated attacks related to race, gender and ideology for much of the last year, is trying to finish the run-up to Iowa highlighting unity as a core element in his closing message, according to senior adviser Anita Dunn. Biden has said repeatedly that should he not become his party’s nominee, he would endorse the person who is and work to help him or her in whatever way he could.“He believes the risk is too high for Democrats to form a circular firing squad,” Dunn said.Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, also embraced an optimistic tone as he courted Iowa voters in recent days, casting himself as best positioned to take down Trump and to unify the nation afterward.“In this most divided moment, there is more unity than you would think,” Buttigieg declared Sunday in Pella, Iowa. “Not that any two people would agree on everything. But we can agree on where we need to head in this country. We can agree on the problems that need to be solved. We can agree to come together to solve them.”Sanders did not face voters on Tuesday, forced instead to join Warren and the rest of his Senate colleagues on Capitol Hill for the first day of Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.Sanders’ chief strategist Jeff Weaver said that unity would also serve as a core plank in his message heading into Iowa, although with 13 days to go before voting begins, he warned that it was too soon to declare a definitive closing message. Sanders has not shied away from attacking his Democratic rivals, particularly Biden, on issues like trade, health care and foreign policy.“In terms of the caucus, we’re still a long ways away,” Weaver said. “Things can change even in the final days.”Indeed, Sanders is trudging toward caucus day through conflicts with several Democratic critics. He has long insisted that he does not engage in personal attacks, but Sanders was forced to apologize Monday for an opinion article penned by a key supporter and promoted by his campaign that described Biden as corrupt.“It is absolutely not my view that Joe is corrupt in any way. And I’m sorry that that op-ed appeared,” Sanders told CBS.Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson, a former Clinton campaign aide, described “vigorous debate over the issues” as a healthy and helpful part of the primary process that can be used to energize the Democratic Party’s diverse coalition.“What can do damage,” Ferguson said, “is when you’re making real character attacks rather than policy attacks — things that will linger into the general election and play into Trump’s message.”Ferguson’s fears were playing out at a Biden campaign event Tuesday in Ames, Iowa, where 70-year-old Democrat Linda Lettow said she was worried about her party’s unity heading into November. Yet she agreed with Clinton’s criticism of Sanders, calling the Vermont senator the biggest threat to party cohesion and blaming him for not working hard enough to help Clinton in 2016.“Why would she like him?” Lettow said of the independent senator. “He’s not even an actual Democrat.”
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By Polityk | 01/22/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Democrats Swarm Industrial Iowa to Prove They Can Beat Trump
Since their surprise loss to Donald Trump in 2016, Democrats have struggled with how to regain territory that long supported the party before suddenly flipping to Republicans. Their answer could lie with voters like Martie Boyd.The 71-year-old retired insurance worker is a lifelong Republican who supported Trump for president in 2016 but says she won’t do it again. Even better for Democrats, she lives in Danville, a tiny town in Des Moines County, one of 31 Iowa counties that backed Barack Obama in 2012 before switching to Trump.
“I wish I hadn’t wasted my vote,” Boyd said Tuesday after watching Pete Buttigieg speak at Iowa Wesleyan University. “Not this time. I’m definitely caucusing for a Democrat and voting for one in the fall.”
As Buttigieg campaigned throughout this swath of southeast Iowa, voters like Boyd were at the front of his mind. He and his fellow Democratic candidates are hoping to lure them not just to win the upcoming Iowa caucuses but to prove to voters in the states that follow that they have the unique ability to win in places that shifted from the Democrat Obama to the Republican Trump.
“I’m not only meeting fellow Democrats who have been working hard for that day here, but independents who can’t wait for that day and an awful lot of what I like to call future former Republicans who are more than welcome to join us,” Buttigieg said at Iowa Wesleyan.
Iowa is home to more counties that pivoted from Obama to Trump than any other state. And over the past month alone, White House hopefuls have made more than a dozen stops in these counties to prove they’re serious about defeating Trump.
“The No. 1 issue on caucus-goers’ minds is who is the best candidate to take on Trump, and campaigning in these counties that switched from Obama to Trump is a good way to show that you’re that candidate,” said Jeff Link, who advised Obama’s successful 2008 Iowa campaign.
The vast majority of these counties are in eastern Iowa and follow a pattern concentrated throughout the upper Midwest, including southeast Minnesota, southwest Wisconsin and northwest Illinois. These regions cover either once-thriving industrial river counties or those whose economies fed and depended on them.
In Iowa, they hug the Mississippi River beginning north of Dubuque County and wind southward to include once-robust industrial river hubs where the big equipment manufacturing that fueled the economy has dwindled with the population. The ensuing anxiety has been a major driver of the partisan shift, according to Norm Sterzenbach, a veteran Iowa strategist who is advising Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s campaign in the state.
“There’s a changing of demographics in some of these counties, there’s a decline in population, there’s a loss in the manufacturing sector, the growing income disparity between blue-collar workers and CEOs and executives — so a number of those things led to voters feeling frustrated and wanting change,” he said.
But part of the problem, Sterzenbach said, was that the party took many of these ancestral Democratic areas for granted. “As Democrats, we haven’t done a great job at communicating our message to these voters in a way that shows that we understand what they’re going through,” he said.
That’s what Buttigieg was aiming to do with his latest Iowa campaign swing. which focused entirely on the state’s 2nd Congressional District. Ten of Iowa’s 31 pivot counties are clustered in the district, and the opportunity for candidates campaigning in the region is twofold: The 2nd District accounts for a little under one-sixth of the overall delegates awarded on caucus night.
Dave Loebsack, a Democratic state representative who has endorsed Buttigieg and introduced him across Iowa this week, noted the possible general election advantage of campaigning across the 2nd District, where he says Democrats have a 20,000-voter registration advantage. He argued that by visiting these struggling cities during the caucus campaign, which offers disproportionate attention than a general election campaign, some Trump-voting Democrats can be brought back into the fold.
“This is a part of the state, just like parts of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where a number of Democrats, far too many, became disaffected and voted for Trump,” Loebsack said. “And I think there’s some chance to get some of them back.”
Beyond Buttigieg, rivals Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have also swung through these counties in recent weeks, making the similar case that they’re the most electable candidate in a general election.
Klobuchar spent part of the weekend in Clinton County, which went from supporting Obama by nearly 23 percentage points to backing Trump by 5 points. She touted the county as a place where Democrats can “make up ground,” and emphasized the need for Democrats to stay “focused on an optimistic economic agenda for this country.”
In a pitch to potential swing voters, Klobuchar also downplayed policy differences between the two parties.
“When you look at this election, for some people who may not agree with everything we’ve said, it’s a patriotism check for them, it’s a decency check, it’s a values check,” she said.
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By Polityk | 01/22/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Wants to Deliver State of Union Even if Trial Underway
President Donald Trump says he wants to deliver the State of the Union as scheduled even if his impeachment trial is ongoing.Trump told reporters in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday that delivering the annual address on Feb. 4 is “very important to what I am doing” in setting his administration’s agenda.
There has been speculation that the White House would push for a postponement so the speech was not overshadowed by the Senate trial. The trial, which began Tuesday, may not conclude by the speech date.
The date for the speech was set by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Trump accepted the invitation. Last year, it was delayed due to a shutdown of the federal government.
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By Polityk | 01/22/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
After Lengthy Rules Debate, Trump Impeachment Trial Moves to Opening Statements
After a marathon day spent debating the rules for U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, the U.S. Senate will convene Wednesday to hear the first day of opening arguments from a group of House of Representatives members making the case Trump should be removed from office.Just before 2 a.m. on Capitol Hill, the Senate voted along party lines 53-47 to adopt the set of rules put forth by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.That vote followed a series of debates about amendments offered by the minority Democrats on whether to subpoena documents and testimony from Trump administration officials whose requested appearances before House committees during the impeachment investigation were blocked by the White House on executive privilege grounds.Republicans used their majority to reject each amendment, with all but one following the same 53-47 split between the two parties in the chamber. A single proposed amendment met a 52-48 defeat.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., waves as the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump concludes on Capitol Hill in Washington, early Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.That party divide is a key factor in the eventual outcome of the trial, because no matter the evidentiary and witness rules, convicting Trump and removing him from the presidency requires a two-thirds vote and none of the Republicans have signaled any plan to vote against him.Trump, who is attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, said Wednesday his legal team is “doing a very good job.””We have a great case,” he said.A lot will happen before the final Senate vote, beginning with the House lawmakers who are serving as prosecutors presenting the case that emerged after their body voted to approve two articles of impeachment against Trump. They accuse him of abusing his power by asking a foreign government to launch an investigation that would benefit him politically, and of obstructing a congressional investigation into those actions.Trump made his requests to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a late July phone call to investigate former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. At the same time, Trump was temporarily blocking the release of $391 million in military aid to Kyiv that it wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.After a 55-day delay, Trump released the assistance in September without Zelenskiy launching the Biden investigations. That was proof, Republicans say, that Trump did not engage in a reciprocal, quid pro quo deal — the Biden investigations in exchange for the military aid.An initial set of rules proposed by McConnell would have limited the opening presentations by both the House impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers to 24 hours each spread over no more than two days. But the majority leader adjusted those parameters Tuesday to allow the 24 hours of arguments to spread over three days.The original set of rules also left open the question of whether the Senate would admit into evidence the materials submitted by the House of Representatives from its various committee investigations. Those materials were accepted, with the stipulation that each side has the ability to make motions during the trial to try to remove certain pieces of information.Trump’s chief lawyer, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, called McConnell’s trial rules “a fair way to proceed,” and one that will result in the president’s acquittal on both articles of impeachment because he has “done absolutely nothing wrong.”Congressman Adam Schiff, the lead House manager and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that not voting on witnesses or subpoenaing documents at the trial’s outset would make a “mockery” of the proceeding.Lead manager House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) speaks during opening arguments in the U.S. Senate impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., January 21, 2020.With no witnesses or new White House documents, Schiff said, “It’s not a fair trial, or even a trial at all. Why should this trial be different than any other trial?”McConnell, who is working with Trump’s lawyers on trial strategy in an effort to acquit him quickly, rebuffed claims his trial parameters are not fair, saying, “Here in the Senate, the president’s lawyers will finally receive a level playing field with the House Democrats, and will finally be able to present the president’s case.”Democrats want to hear testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others.Trump has said he wants to call the Bidens as witnesses, along with the still-unidentified whistleblower who first disclosed Trump’s July 2019 phone call with Zelenskiy. On Twitter Monday, he seemed averse to hearing testimony from Bolton, whom he ousted in September.Democrats, Trump said, “didn’t want John Bolton and others in the House” to testify. “They were in too much of a rush. Now they want them all in the Senate. Not supposed to be that way!”House Democrats had sought testimony from Bolton and others in Trump’s orbit. But the potential witnesses complied with the president’s edict to not cooperate with their investigation, although others ignored it and testified.WATCH: First week of Trump trialSorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyDemocratic lawmakers abandoned efforts to subpoena some witnesses out of fear that the legal fights over their testimony would extend for months.Bolton now says he is willing to testify at Trump’s impeachment trial if he is subpoenaed by the Senate.Two other presidents — Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 — were impeached by the House but acquitted in Senate trials, and remained in office.U.S. President Richard Nixon faced almost certain impeachment in 1974 in the Watergate scandal, but resigned before the House acted.
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By Polityk | 01/22/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Battle Over Witnesses Launches First Full Week of Trump Trial
The impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump got fully underway in the Senate Tuesday with a battle over the rules governing how the case moves forward. For just the third time in U.S. history, senators will vote to decide if a president should be removed from office. Congressional Democrats argue witnesses should be allowed to testify to help make their case Trump abused the power of the presidency. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.
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By Polityk | 01/22/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
AP FACT CHECK: Trump Spreads Distortions at Davos
President Donald Trump spread distorted information about the U.S. economy and his administration’s involvement with historically black colleges in a preening performance Tuesday at the Davos economic conference in the Swiss Alps.A sampling of his remarks:TRUMP, on historically black colleges and universities: “I saved HBCUs. We saved them. They were going out and we saved them.”THE FACTS: That’s a big stretch.Trump signed a law in December restoring money that lapsed for several months when Congress failed to reauthorize some $255 million in financing on time. The money came back because Senate education leaders reached a compromise on a broader dispute that had entangled financing for black schools.Neither the lapse nor the restoration was directly tied in any way to the Trump administration.The Trump administration generally has supported historically black colleges, as previous administrations have done, and it’s true that such schools have faced financial struggles and some have closed. The Trump administration has expanded access to federal support for black schools with religious affiliations and in 2018 forgave federal loans given to several of them after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.But this segment of university education was not vanishing and Trump is not its savior.___TRUMP: “We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had in the history of our country. And I’m in Europe today because we’re bringing a lot of other companies into our country with thousands of jobs — millions of jobs, in many cases. ”THE FACTS: His persistent depiction of the U.S. economy as the greatest ever is false. As for jobs pouring into the country, investment by foreign companies has slumped under Trump, according to a report by the Organization for International Investment, a Washington-based association that represents foreign businesses.Foreign companies directly invested $268 billion into the U.S. economy in 2018, a decrease of nearly $220 billion from its record-breaking level in 2016 when Barack Obama was still president.On the broader picture, economic growth under Trump is not nearly the greatest ever.In the late 1990s, growth topped 4% for four straight years, a level it has not reached on an annual basis under Trump. Growth reached 7.2% in 1984. The economy grew 2.9% in 2018 — the same pace it reached in 2015 under Obama — and hasn’t hit historically high growth rates.The unemployment rate is at a 50-year low of 3.5%, but the proportion of Americans with a job was higher in the late 1990s. Wages were rising at a faster pace back then, too.This much is true: The Obama-Trump years have yielded the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. But not the greatest.___TRUMP: “Just last week alone, the United States concluded two extraordinary trade deals — the agreement with China and the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement — the two biggest trade deals ever made.”THE FACTS: No, there have been larger trade deals.For instance, 123 countries signed the Uruguay Round agreement that liberalized trade and produced the World Trade Organization in 1994. The organization’s initial membership accounted for more than 90% of global economic output, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found, and that was before China joined the organization.Also bigger: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have joined North America with Pacific Rim countries in freer trade. Trump took the U.S. out after the deal was negotiated and before the U.S. ratified it. The European Union, with its liberalized trade regimen, was itself formed from a giant deal.The China deal leaves tariffs in place on about $360 billion in imports from China and pushes substantial remaining disputes ahead to a second phase of negotiations. Trump’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement is much larger, though it’s an update of the long-standing North American Free Trade Agreement worked out by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
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By Polityk | 01/22/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Democrats Accuse McConnell of Rigging Trump’s Impeachment Trial
Democrats on Tuesday accused the top Senate Republican of rigging U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial with proposed rules that would prevent witnesses from testifying and bar evidence gathered by investigators.Trump’s trial on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges begins in earnest in the Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday in a rare use of the constitutional mechanism for ousting a president. The Democratic-led House of Representatives approved the charges last month on a party-line vote.Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has vowed to coordinate the televised trial with the White House, proposed on Monday rules that would execute a potentially quick trial without new testimony or evidence.
He unveiled a resolution that would give House Democratic prosecutors and Trump lawyers 48 hours, evenly split, to present their arguments over four days. Opening arguments are expected to begin this week and could well run into each night.
Under the resolution, lawyers for Trump could move early in the proceedings to ask senators to dismiss all charges, a senior Republican leadership aide said, a motion that would likely fall short of the support needed to succeed.
“That is not a fair trial. In fact, it is no trial at all,” the seven House Democrats who will set out the case against Trump said in a statement on Tuesday.”A White House-driven and rigged process, with a truncated schedule designed to go late into the night and further conceal the President’s misconduct, is not what the American people expect or deserve,” they wrote.FILE – Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y. leaves after speaking at a news conference, Dec. 16, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told CNN that Democrats would seek amendments.McConnell has repeatedly said the rules for the trial would mirror those the Senate used in the 1999 impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton, and Republican senators have not ruled out the possibility of further witness testimony and evidence.Votes could take place as early as Tuesday on the rules, including deciding whether the Senate should at a later date consider subpoenas for witnesses, such as Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a statement, said the Republicans’ plan would force the trial into the “dark of night” and accused McConnell of choosing “a cover-up for the president, rather than honor his oath to the Constitution.”
“Every Senator who supports this sham process must be held accountable to the American people,” added Pelosi, who formally kicked off the House impeachment investigation in September.Republican Senator John Cornyn said on Twitter that the House’s investigation had been “tainted and half-baked” and that Democrats were to blame for any issues in the Senate trial.The Senate proceedings are due to start at around 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT) and the trial is expected to continue six days a week, Monday through Saturday, until at least the end of January.At the heart of the impeachment trial is Trump’s request to Ukraine in July to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a top Democratic contender to face Trump in the 2020 election, and his son Hunter.Democrats accuse Trump of pressuring a vulnerable ally to interfere in U.S. elections at the expense of American national security and say he needs to be removed from office because he is a danger to American democracy and national security.
Trump and his legal team, which includes White House counsel Pat Cipollone, say there was no pressure and that the Democrats’ case is based on hearsay. They say the president did nothing wrong and that Democrats are simply trying to stop him from being re-elected.In a separate letter on Tuesday, the seven House Democratic “managers” prosecuting the case demanded that Cipollone disclose any first-hand knowledge he has of evidence he will present in the Senate’s impeachment trial, calling him a material witness.Trump support firm Trump has sought to rally his base with the impeachment issue, fund-raising off it and at raucous election rallies painting himself as the victim of a witch hunt.Televised congressional testimony from a parade of current and former officials who spoke of a coordinated effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens has done little to change support for and against Trump’s impeachment.
Reuters/Ipsos polling since the inquiry began shows Democrats and Republicans responding largely along party lines.According to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted Jan. 13-14, 39% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s job performance, while 56% disapproved. It also found 45% of respondents said Trump should be removed from office, while 31% said the
impeachment charges should be dismissed.The impeachment drama has consumed much of Trump’s attention even as the United States faces a series of international challenges, including tensions with Iran that nearly boiled over into open war and an on-again, off-again trade war with China.
Trump is attending the annual gathering of world business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday to project an air of business as usual and tout the strength of the U.S. economy.Asked whether Trump was planning to watch the impeachment trial from Davos, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, “He has a full day here in Davos, but will be briefed by staff periodically.”Acquittal almost certain The trial of a U.S. president could be a moment freighted with drama, huge political risk and the potential unraveling of a presidency. But financial markets have shrugged it off, and the revelations in the months-long impeachment investigation thus far have done little to boost anti-Trump sentiment among undecided voters or shift away moderate Republican voters.
This is only the third impeachment trial in U.S. history. No president has ever been removed through impeachment, a mechanism the nation’s founders — worried about a monarch on American soil — devised to oust a president for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”With a two-thirds majority needed in the 100-member Senate to remove Trump from office, he is almost certain to be acquitted by fellow Republicans in the chamber. But the impact of the trial on his re-election bid is far from clear. Twelve Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination to face Trump in November, including Biden.A pivotal event in the impeachment case is a July 25 call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens, as well as a discredited theory that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 election.Hunter Biden had joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma while his father was vice president. Trump has accused the Bidens of corruption without offering evidence. They have denied wrongdoing.
Democrats said Trump abused his power by initially withholding $391 million in Ukraine security aid intended to fight Russia-backed separatists, and a coveted White House meeting for Zelenskiy, to pressure Ukraine to announce the
investigations into the Bidens. Trump’s legal team says there is no evidence he conditioned the aid on getting that help.The obstruction of Congress charge relates to Trump directing administration officials and agencies not to comply with House subpoenas for testimony and documents related to impeachment.
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By Polityk | 01/21/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
