Розділ: Політика
US Judge to Rule in Suit Seeking McGahn Impeachment Testimony
A U.S. federal judge is due to issue a ruling Monday in a lawsuit filed by the House Judiciary Committee seeking to compel former White House Counsel Don McGahn to testify in the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump.The Judiciary Committee originally sought McGahn’s testimony in connection with the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and allegations Trump, as president, obstructed justice by working to shut down the probe.The committee argued in a court filing last week that it is now even more urgent it hear from McGahn in light of the public hearings held this month by the House Intelligence Committee into allegations Trump illegally pressured Ukraine to investigate a Democratic rival.Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said she would issue her ruling by the end of the day Monday.McGahn is among a number of Trump administration officials who have ignored congressional subpoenas from committees conducting their various investigations of Trump as the White House argued the officials were immune from being compelled to give such testimony.Others who have refused to testify include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former National Security Adviser John Bolton and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.FILE – Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, D-Calif., questions former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch before the House Intelligence Committee, Nov. 15, 2019.The focus in the House impeachment probe has been on the Intelligence Committee as it held its open hearings with current and former diplomats and officials in recent weeks. Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told CNN on Sunday that more depositions and hearings are possible.Once the committee finishes its hearings, it will write a report on its findings and send it to the Judiciary Committee, which would then hold its own hearings and decide whether to send articles of impeachment to the full House for a vote.Democrats, who control a majority of seats in the House, can impeach the president with a simple majority vote. At that point, a trial must be held in the Senate, where it would take a two-thirds majority to remove Trump from office. No Republicans in either chamber have indicated they will support the impeachment effort.Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and a frequent critic of the impeachment proceedings, refused to answer questions Sunday as to whether he met with a former Ukrainian official to gather information on the son of former Vice President Joe Biden.FILE – This courtroom sketch depicts from left, attorney Kevin Downing, Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, and attorney Thomas Zehnle standing before U.S. Judge Michael Nachmanoff, at federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va., Oct. 10, 2019.A lawyer representing Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has told multiple news outlets since Friday that Nunes met Ukraine’s former top prosecutor, Victor Shokin, in Vienna in 2018.The claim is controversial because Nunes did not disclose any such meeting while leading the Republican defense of Trump during related impeachment inquiry hearings.Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Nunes was asked whether he had met with Shokin. The congressman replied that he wanted to answer questions but could not do so “right now.”Democrats have said that if Parnas’ claim proves credible, Nunes could face an ethics investigation.Parnas, under indictment regarding suspect political contributions, is seeking immunity to testify to the Intelligence Committee.Trump denounced the hearings on Twitter Sunday, claiming that polls “have now turned very strongly against Impeachment, especially in swing states.”Polls have now turned very strongly against Impeachment, especially in swing states. 75% to 25%. Thank you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2019He did not indicate what polls he was referring to, but the latest averaging of polls shows public opinion is fairly evenly split on whether Trump should be impeached.Twelve witnesses testified in Congress over the past two weeks, providing new details on allegations that Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
Witnesses told lawmakers that Giuliani played a key role in pressing for Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation.”We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine. So, we followed the president’s orders,” Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, testified Wednesday.
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By Polityk | 11/25/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
National Democrats Approve Early Caucus Voting for Nevada
The Democratic National Committee has approved a plan by Nevada Democrats to offer the first-ever early voting option for presidential caucuses, a change stemming from a push to make the in-person presidential nominating meetings more accessible.The state party’s chairman, William McCurdy II, and the DNC chairman, Tom Perez, intend to hold a conference call on Monday to announce the approval of the plan, the party confirmed.
Besides offering four days of early voting, Nevada’s plan calls for releasing raw vote totals from the caucus, offering caucus materials in Tagalog for the state’s growing Filipino population and having caucus workers use an app instead of paper to record and transmit results to party officials.
“The primary goal in crafting this plan was to ensure as many Nevada Democrats as possible are given the opportunity to make their voice heard and I believe we will do that in 2020,” McCurdy said in a statement. “Nevada plays a critical role in the presidential primary and we take our role as an early state incredibly serious.”
The shift in Nevada, which votes third in the Democratic presidential primary, comes as Democrats have been encouraging state parties to find ways to increase participation in caucuses or instead hold primaries.
Traditional caucuses require voters show up in person at neighborhood sites at a specific time and break into groups to demonstrate their support for their chosen candidate. Critics have said the format is difficult for people to participate in, especially if they’re homebound, have to work or have young children.
To allow for an alternate way to participate, Nevada and fellow early voting state Iowa had sought earlier this year to allow people to vote in their 2020 caucuses over the telephone. But DNC officials rejected the plan in August, citing security concerns.
Nevada is instead relying on four days of early voting to boost turnout, running Feb. 15-18. The early results will be kept confidential until vote totals are released from the state’s main caucuses on Feb. 22.
The early voting will be an abbreviated version of the in-person meetings, allowing Democrats to stop by caucus sites and fill out forms listing their preferred candidate and up to four alternatives.
It’s unclear whether campaigns will try to encourage early caucusing to lock in support sooner, but the changes likely will force the candidates to spread their intense get-out-the-vote push into multiple days.
The DNC also has signed off on Nevada Democrats’ plan to have workers running the caucus meetings use an app to tabulate results, determine if a candidate has enough support and calculate how many delegates they’ve earned. The app will report the results to the Nevada State Democratic Party.
In past years, results were recorded by hand on paper and transmitted to the party headquarters via telephone and mail.
The party plans to release more information about the app in the coming weeks.
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By Polityk | 11/25/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
First-Year Congressman Makes Every Minute Count
Nearly a year ago, VOA first met with two newly elected US Representatives for a project entitled, “Climbing the Hill.” Through the lives of California Democrat Katie Porter and Minnesota Republican Pete Stauber we hope to show you what it’s like to be a new representative at the US Capitol. In our final installment, we look at the challenges a representative faces during a typical day. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti started the day at 6:30am with Representative Pete Stauber, who’s already been awake for a half hour.
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By Polityk | 11/25/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
First-Year Congressman Looks Back, Halfway Through Term
(Editor’s note: These are the final segments in our series “Climbing the Hill,” in which we followed two new members of Congress. Democrat Katie Porter was featured Sunday. )
WASHINGTON, D.C. — First-term Republican House member Pete Stauber of Minnesota wears his religion on his sleeve.He begins every morning in Washington by attending Mass at a Catholic church near the U.S. Capitol. And, recently, he met a tour of 30 students and a priest from Minnesota on the steps of the Capitol, where they finished their prayer for the nation by making the sign of the cross.“You just said the Lord’s Prayer on the steps of the greatest country in the world, at our Capitol,” the amiable Stauber explained in a brief lesson in religious freedom. “Isn’t that that awesome?”Stauber, a former professional hockey player and retired police lieutenant, is not shy about showing his religion in a secular nation riven by partisanship and a historic impeachment inquiry targeting a Republican president.Stauber is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump and vigorously opposes the Democrats’ move toward impeachment. But he is also a firm believer in bipartisanship, and in less than a year has succeeded in passing two bills in the House with both Democratic and Republican support.“I’ve always been really successful being a member of a team and and being inclusive, having that voice for all,” he said.Stauber arrived in Washington less than a year ago after winning election in the traditionally Democratic 8th congressional district in northern Minnesota. Stauber became only the second Republican in 71 years to represent the district, which includes the Iron Range mining region. The victory gave him an element of political celebrity in the Republican Party.Playing for the minorsWhen he ran for the House seat, Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate, an exciting time for a fledgling Republican candidate.Minnesota Republican Congressman Pete Stauber and his staffer rush back from the Capitol to his office in the Cannon Building. (Carolyn Presutti/VOA News)But Democrats came storming back in the 2018 midterm election, regaining control of the House and consigning the Republicans to a vastly diminished minority role. But Stauber said he wasn’t fazed by the turn of events, and points to his sponsorship this year of 10 bills, including the two that were passed in the House.”Being in the minority, two bills is pretty good and we are not done yet,” he said.A onetime member of the Detroit Red Wings professional hockey team, Stauber said he wishes his fellow legislators would put aside partisan labels.To explain, he used a quote from the hockey coach of the 1980 gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic team.”Herb Brooks says the [team’s] name on the front of the jersey means more than the [player’s] name on the back,” Stauber said. “If we all went into the House of Representatives with ‘USA’ on our sweater, we could move mountains.”Dawn to darkPart of what he learned in this first year is that the pace at the Capitol is nonstop. Rookie members of Congress get a taste of this during orientation, shortly after their November election. But nothing can prepare them for the real thing.VOA joined Stauber for a full day in Washington in late October from sunup to sundown, to see what’s involved.Rep. Pete Stauber (R – Minn) is coached by veteran congressman on usefulness of Capitol ID badges, car license plates. (Photo: Carolyn Presutti / VOA)Stauber rises before 6 a.m. and never gets home before dark. “Home” in Washington is a townhouse he shares with three other congressmen. His wife, Jodi Stauber, remains in Minnesota, where she takes care of their four children, including a teenager with special needs.Every morning, Stauber texts his children so they are greeted with a message from their father when they awaken. Later in the morning, while he is returning calls to his constituents, he steals a few minutes to call his wife.The rest of the day is a whirlwind, spent in congressional committee hearings, staff meetings, on the House floor trying to line up support for his bills, at Republican Party headquarters making fundraising calls, and in unnamed rooms attending classified briefings.There is also plenty of time set aside for meeting with visiting constituents to discuss their local concerns. And then he’s back on the House floor for votes and corralling support for legislation he favors.After his work is completed at the Capitol and in his office in the nearby House Cannon Office Building, Stauber has evening ceremonies and events to attend. Throughout it all, Stauber offers a smile and a handshake to all he meets.”I absolutely love it,” he explained. “I have a passion to serve. When you really love what you are doing, it’s not work. It’s a passion.”DisappointmentsIt hasn’t all been rosy. The first bill Stauber sponsored hasn’t made it to the House floor for a vote.The proposed legislation would codify a federal land swap for a copper mine in Minnesota’s Iron Range. He’s a firm supporter of expanding the mining of iron ore and precious metals, which would mean more jobs and income for his northern district, rather than have the country rely on foreign entities for the minerals.”Of course I’m disappointed, but that’s part of the process,” Stauber said, adding he is taking the stalling of the bill in stride. “I think in the end, northern Minnesota, we will be mining copper and nickel very soon.”When asked what he has learned in this past year that he would like to pass on to the next class of first-year representatives, he quickly replied, “In this country, no matter what we are going through, she’s still worth fighting for.”Chaos with impeachmentThe country has been going through a lot since Stauber first arrived in the capital.As soon as his new class of U.S. Representatives was sworn in, they had to deal with a monthlong government shutdown. And now, the impeachment inquiry.Can someone tell Jodi that I caught a ride home today? pic.twitter.com/IlxaeAlsFX— Pete Stauber (@PeteStauber) October 11, 2019Stauber said he is grateful to President Trump, who campaigned for Stauber prior to his election. Stauber recently pinned a photo to his campaign twitter account of him riding on Air Force One last month when Trump visited Minnesota.He says he spent the entire time in disbelief, pinching himself while the President and he “talked about economic drivers for the state of Minnesota.”Report CardStauber has so far received mixed grades from the few U.S. public interest groups that have issued “report cards” for members of Congress. For Stauber, it mainly runs along party lines. Heritage Action for America rates him 85% on backing their conservative stances on issues.
Freedom Works, which ranks members on 33 key votes dealing with free-market economic issues that most Republicans hold dear, only gives him a 49 on a 100-point scale.Progressive Punch compares the votes from a control group made up of 33 of the staunchest progressive legislators, typically Democrats. On that basis, the group gave Stauber an “F” — a failing grade.ReelectionThe two-year terms in the House pass by quickly, unlike in the Senate, where members are elected to six-year terms. Long before the end of the first year of their terms, House members must begin concentrating on reelection. Stauber said a former colleague called to congratulate him a few days after the 2018 election and said, “Welcome to your reelection.””It’s almost perpetual, so it is unfortunate,” he said.He said he will never take any competitor for granted. Two Democrats have filed the necessary papers to run against him, but neither has raised any money for their campaigns. Stauber reported raising $871,188 in third-quarter fundraising to the Federal Election Commission.Trump won Stauber’s district by 15 points in 2016, while Stauber won in 2018 by only 5%.But analysts like Matthew Krayton, who owns Publitics, a political consulting firm, said the impeachment inquiry is the wild card in predicting the outcome of 2020 elections. Publitics specializes in Democratic candidates and has no connection to the 8th district race in Minnesota.If he were consulting Stauber, Krayton said he would suggest Stauber focus on “bread-and-butter” local constituent issues, “without getting too bogged down in the national climate.”
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By Polityk | 11/25/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Congressman Nunes Won’t Say Whether He Met With Ukrainian Ex-Prosecutor
Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the congressional committee investigating President Donald Trump, refused to answer questions Sunday as to whether he met with a former Ukrainian official to gather information on the son of former Vice President Joe Biden.A lawyer representing Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has told multiple news outlets since Friday that Nunes met Ukraine’s former top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, in Vienna in 2018.The claim is controversial because Nunes did not disclose any such meeting while leading the Republican defense of President Donald Trump during related impeachment inquiry hearings.FILE – Then-General Prosecutor of Ukraine Viktor Shokin speaks during news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 16, 2015.Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Nunes was asked point-blank by the Fox news anchor whether he had met with Shokin. The congressman replied that he wanted to answer questions but could not do so “right now.”Nunes has repeatedly denounced the impeachment inquiry proceedings, which are focused on whether Trump inappropriately pressured Ukraine to open investigations, including one that could prove embarrassing to Biden, a top contender for the Democratic Party nomination to run against Trump next year.Democrats have said that if Parnas’ claim proves credible, Nunes could face an ethics investigation.Parnas, under indictment regarding suspect political contributions, is seeking immunity to testify to the House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting the impeachment inquiry.FILE – Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, D-Calif., questions former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch before the House Intelligence Committee, Nov. 15, 2019.Congress will not convene again until Dec. 3. But speaking on CNN Sunday morning, committee Chairman Adam Schiff said that more depositions and hearings related to the impeachment probe are possible.The timeline for an impeachment vote in the U.S. House is still unclear. If Schiff’s committee decides not to hold additional hearings, it would then begin to write a report of its findings. That report would then be sent to the House Judiciary Committee, which would then hold its own hearings to consider articles of impeachment for a vote by the full House.Democrats, who control a majority of seats in the House, can impeach the president with a simple majority vote. At that point, a trial must be held in the Senate, where it would take a two-thirds majority to remove Trump from office. No Republicans in either chamber have indicated they will support the impeachment effort.Trump denounced the hearings on Twitter Sunday, claiming that polls “have now turned very strongly against Impeachment, especially in swing states.”Polls have now turned very strongly against Impeachment, especially in swing states. 75% to 25%. Thank you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2019He did not indicate what polls he was referring to, but the latest averaging of polls shows public opinion is fairly evenly split on whether Trump should be impeached.Twelve witnesses testified in Congress over the past two weeks, providing new details on allegations that Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate domestic political rival Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
Witnesses told lawmakers that Giuliani played a key role in pressing for Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation.“We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine. So, we followed the president’s orders,” Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, testified Wednesday.
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By Polityk | 11/25/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
More Impeachment Hearings Possible; Another Democrat Announces Presidential Bid
The U.S. House of Representatives will continue preparing its report this week in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, as Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff says he won’t rule out the possibility of more hearings. This comes as another Democrat joins the field of candidates running for the presidency. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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By Polityk | 11/25/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Congressman Nunes ‘Can’t’ Answer Whether He Met With Ukrainian Prosecutor
Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the Congressional committee investigating President Donald Trump, refused to answer questions Sunday as to whether he met with a former Ukrainian official to gather information on the son of former vice president Joe Biden.A lawyer representing Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, has told multiple news outlets since Friday that Nunes met Ukraine’s former top prosecutor Viktor Shokin in Vienna in 2018.The claim is controversial because Nunes did not disclose any such meeting while leading the Republican defense of President Donald Trump during related impeachment hearings.Speaking on Fox News Sunday morning, Nunes was asked point blank by the Fox news anchor whether he had met with Shokin. The congressman replied that he wanted to answer questions but could not do so “right now.”Nunes has repeatedly denounced the impeachment proceedings, which are focused on whether Trump inappropriately pressured Ukraine to open investigations, including one that could prove embarrassing to Biden, a top contender for the Democratic Party nomination to run against Trump next year.Democrats have said that if Parnas’ claim proves credible, Nunes could face an ethics investigation. Parnas, under indictment regarding suspect political contributions, is seeking immunity to testify to the House Intelligence Committee which is conducting the inquiry.FILE – Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, D-Calif., questions former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch before the House Intelligence Committee, Nov. 15, 2019.Congress will not convene again until Dec. 3. But speaking on CNN Sunday morning, committee Chairman Adam Schiff said that more depositions and hearings related to the impeachment probe are possible.The timeline for an impeachment vote in the U.S. House is still unclear. Schiff’s committee still must write a report based on its investigation so far, which will be delivered to the Judiciary Committee. The latter committee would then prepare articles of impeachment for a vote by the full House.Democrats, who control a majority of seats in the House, can impeach the president with a simple majority vote. At that point, a trial must be held in the Senate, where it would take a two-thirds majority to remove Trump from office. No Republicans in either chamber have indicated they will support the impeachment effort.Trump denounced the hearings on Twitter Sunday, claiming that polls “have now turned very strongly against Impeachment, especially in swing states.”Polls have now turned very strongly against Impeachment, especially in swing states. 75% to 25%. Thank you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2019He did not indicate what polls he was referring to, but the latest averaging of polls shows public opinion is fairly evenly split on whether Trump should be impeached.Twelve witnesses testified in Congress over the last two weeks, providing new details on allegations that Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate domestic political rival Joe Biden and his son.
Witnesses told lawmakers that Giuliani played a key role in pressing for Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation.“We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine. So, we followed the president’s orders,” Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, testified Wednesday.
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By Polityk | 11/25/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Michael Bloomberg Launches Democratic Presidential Bid
Michael Bloomberg is running for president of the United States.The former New York City mayor, one of the richest men in the world, formally joined the Democratic presidential field on Sunday. The 77-year-old former Republican announced his plans on a campaign website.He wrote: “I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America.”Bloomberg’s entrance, just 10 weeks before primary voting begins, reflects his concerns that the current slate of candidates is not well-positioned to defeat Trump.Bloomberg’s massive investments in Democratic priorities like climate change and gun control, backed by his extraordinary personal wealth, could make him a force. He’s already reserved more than $30 million in television ads across several states, although he’s bypassing the first four on the primary calendar.
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By Polityk | 11/24/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Porter’s Tough Questioning Earns Attention During Her First Year in Congress
“What do you want government to do for your life?” That’s the question Peggy Huang asks prospective voters at a Starbucks in Yorba Linda, California. Huang is a Republican running against first-term U.S. Representative Katie Porter, who last year became the first Democrat ever elected in California’s conservative 45th district.Since then, Porter has gained national recognition through her sharp questioning of CEOs and government officials during congressional hearings in Washington.“She’s more national,” admits Huang, but says in California, “we know politics and in all things, politics is local.”Republican Challenger Greg Raths meets with his Campaign Manager Blake Allen to plan door-to-door canvassing in California’s 45th District.Greg Raths, a retired United States Marine Corps fighter pilot, is another Republican candidate running against Porter. He says Porter doesn’t “fit the mold” of the area. Raths, the mayor of the largest city in the district, Mission Viejo City, contends it’s a “very conservative” district where “all 10 cities are run by Republican mayors and councils.”Reelection realitiesFor a freshman member of the House of Representatives, it can be a shock having to concentrate on reelection before the first year ends. Already six Republicans and one Democrat have filed election papers to run against her, but one of those Republicans has already dropped out because of lack of funding. According to third-quarter reports from the Federal Election Commission, Porter leads the pack with $2,461,688 raised for her campaign, three times that of her closest competitor.California Rep. Katie Porter is facing a number of challengers. According to third-quarter reports from the Federal Election Commission, Porter leads the pack with $2,461,688 raised for her campaign.Impeachment vs conservative areaDuring her first year, Porter has proved to be a formidable force. In her first interview with VOA at the beginning of this year, she said she wanted to champion “issues of economic opportunity for working families, and for working parents, including thinking about how people can afford homes, build wealth, save for college, and save for retirement.”As she arrived in Congress and was named to the House Financial Services Committee, she carved a niche for herself through tough, blunt questioning, often playing the role of a low- to middle-income American to highlight the witnesses’ inattention to regular citizens. This earned her kudos from the House Democratic leadership and an aspect of fame through regular appearances on cable TV news programs.Porter connected to her constituents by regularly conducting town halls during the first half of the year, but has held them less frequently since then. She told VOA it is a challenge to find “venues that are large enough to accommodate everybody who would like to attend.”WATCH: Rep. Porter Reflects on Successes, Failures of First Year
Rep. Porter Reflects on Successes, Failures of First Year video player.
Embed” />Copy LinkIn June, Porter became the first freshman House member from California to announce her support of an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. Her competitors accused her of sowing seeds of divisiveness with her Twitter announcement. They predict it will cost her the election.Ted Denney owns Synergistic Research, a niche research and technology company that employs 30 and has annual sales of $10 million. He says if Porter wins the district again in 2020, he will move his audio business elsewhere, part because of her support of impeachment.“I don’t want this wall of resistance against the president,” Denney says. “I support his policies. Is he a perfect guy? No, but I don’t care. He’s effective.”In a videotaped message to constituents, Porter acknowledged that launching an impeachment inquiry would be divisive but said she believes it is necessary.“I know deeply what this means for our democracy,” she said. “But when faced with a crisis of this magnitude, I cannot with a clean conscience ignore my duty to defend the [U.S.] Constitution.”Rep. Katie Porter with her guest for the State of the Union speech, constituent Helen Nguyen. Nguyen’s husband Michael — a small businessman in Porter’s district — has been held by the Vietnamese government since June 2018. (Carolyn Presutti / VOA)Courting the young voteHeidi Hu is asking about a clipboard. She’s sitting at an iron table outside a coffee shop in Santa Ana, California, learning about voter registration. She is being trained by Field Team 6, a nationwide group of volunteers, registering new voters for Democrats in 2020.Hu drove an hour south from Los Angeles to sign up college students at the University of California at Irvine. Young voters helped propel Porter to victory in 2018. State figures show voters ages 18 to 24 rose by nearly 20% more than the previous midterm election in 2014.Hu says the key to Porter’s reelection will be again turning out large numbers of college students. “Their values are more aligned with the Orange County of the future,” Hu said.Porter prevailed in Orange County, an historically conservative portion of the 45th Congressional District, but Hu knows that Porter is vulnerable in that area and must build up her Democratic support among college students to offset Republican voters.One of those students is Bryan Pham who will be voting for the first time in 2020. He says even though his family is conservative, “I have certain beliefs of my own and I identify with the Democratic party.”Bills sponsoredIn less than a year, Porter, a former law professor, has sponsored 23 bills in the House. In last year’s congressional session, the average for a first-year representative was 14 and the most introduced was 31, so Porter is well ahead of the curve.One of Porter’s bills has passed the House but has yet to be introduced in the Senate. The “Help America Run Act” would give candidates more freedom to use campaign funds for child care, health care premiums and elder care. Porter, a single mother of three children younger than 12, said the bill would have helped her when she was a candidate. “The goal here is to make our Congress more diverse and to make it possible for any American who’s qualified and wants to serve in the U.S. Congress to have the opportunity to do that,” she said.Porter report cardA number of special interest groups — conservative and liberal — have sharply criticized Katie Porter’s voting record.Nonprofit and special interest groups rate lawmakers’ voting records.For first-year representatives, these are the first grades published during their two-year tenure. For Porter, the first two grades run along party lines. The conservative Heritage Action for America, typically aligned with Republicans, rates members’ votes on key conservative legislation. It gives Porter a zero.Freedom Works, another conservative group, gives her a score of 8 out of 100, based on her votes on issues dealing with economic freedom.The surprise was an “F” given by the group Progressive Punch, based on a formula that compares the voting record of a control group of 33 dominant progressive members of Congress with the representative’s voting record.Most other groups will wait to publish grades at the end of the year.Competitors will typically use the voting record and bills sponsored in their challenge to the incumbent. The incumbent uses the voting record to show how they are supporting the constituent needs in the district.Reflecting on a hectic first year in Congress, Porter said, “I feel like I’m getting my sea legs under me … there is a learning curve to this job. And there should be. This is a big task [legislating] that the American people have trusted us with.”The California primary to determine Katie Porter’s Republican challenger is in early March with the general election in November 2020.
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By Polityk | 11/24/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Immigrants Played Vital Role in Trump Impeachment Hearings
A week of back-to-back impeachment hearings in Washington may have been marred by bickering between Democrats and Republicans and thus unpleasant to watch, but at least in one aspect, they inspired confidence in the American experiment.
As Americans watched the House of Representatives conduct contentious public hearings — steps toward the possible impeachment of President Donald Trump — viewers got a reminder of the important role that immigrants have played in the nation’s development and the opportunities the country has afforded them.Four key figures in the impeachment hearings are naturalized citizens, two of them children of refugees. Of the four, two earned positions in the White House itself, working on the ultra-sensitive National Security Council. A third worked her way up to the top of the country’s diplomatic corps. A fourth was seated on the dais, as an elected congressman and a member of the House Committee on Intelligence.Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch is the child of immigrants who fled first from the Soviet Union, and then from the Nazi occupation of Europe. Born in Canada, she grew up in Connecticut and became a naturalized U.S. citizen when she turned 18. She went on to graduate from Princeton University and the National Defense University, and to serve out a distinguished career in the State Department including three ambassadorships.National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman is sworn in to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 19, 2019.Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was born in Ukraine, when it was still part of the Soviet Union. His family fled to the U.S. when he was a small child. Like both of his brothers, Vindman joined the U.S. Army, earning numerous commendations including a Purple Heart for wounds suffered in combat in Iraq. He is now Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council.Fiona Hill, who until recently served in a senior position on the NSC, where she was Vindman’s functional superior, opened her testimony by describing herself as “American by choice.” Born in a hardscrabble coal mining town in Northern England, she came to the U.S. as an adult, attended Harvard University, and became a citizen in 2002.Each of the three, at some point, found themselves being questioned by a fellow immigrant. Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democratic member of the intelligence committee, was born in New Delhi, India, and came to the U.S. as an infant. He went on to earn degrees from Princeton and Harvard universities, and was elected to Congress in 2017.Former White House national security aide Fiona Hill arrives to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 21, 2019.Lieutenant Colonel Vindman’s family came to the U.S. in 1973, with the help of HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees. Melanie Nezer, the senior vice president for public affairs at HIAS, said that watching immigrants and refugees who have assumed high-ranking positions in the federal government “just shows you the benefits that refugees bring to this country.”“It shows the talent, the dedication, the patriotism — all of those things that are contributions that refugees make,” she said. “It’s not just in later generations, but even in the first generation, when they arrive. You see how grateful they are for the opportunity to start new lives in this country and how dedicated they are to giving back.”To be sure, participating in the public sphere also comes with its own dangers.Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, questions a witness during a House Intelligence Committee impeachment inquiry hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Nov. 20, 2019.Yovanovitch was personally singled out by President Trump for attacks on Twitter, and was the focus of a concerted effort by supporters of the president to force her from her post as ambassador to Ukraine. Vindman found himself the target of online abuse so severe that the Army reportedly considered moving him and his family to safe housing on a military base.Nevertheless, both appeared before Congress eager to express their dedication and gratitude to the country that took their families in.“My service is an expression of gratitude for all that this country has given my family and me,” Yovanovitch testified. “My late parents did not have the good fortune to come of age in a free society. My father fled the Soviets before ultimately finding refuge in the United States. My mother’s family escaped the USSR after the Bolshevik revolution, and she grew up stateless in Nazi Germany, before eventually making her way to the United States. Their personal histories—my personal history—gave me both deep gratitude towards the United States and great empathy for others.”Vindman, wearing his dress military uniform, used his testimony to hit many of the same notes. “Next month will mark 40 years since my family arrived in the United States as refugees,” he said. “When my father was 47 years old he left behind his entire life and the only home he had ever known to start over in the United States so that his three sons could have better, safer lives.”“His courageous decision inspired a deep sense of gratitude in my brothers and myself and instilled in us a sense of duty and service,” he added. “All three of us have served or are currently serving in the military. Our collective military service is a special part of our family’s story in America.”
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By Polityk | 11/23/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Prosecutors: Political Donor Sought to Silence Witnesses
A political fundraiser accused of funneling foreign money into U.S. elections offered six witnesses in his case more than $6 million to keep quiet, federal prosecutors said Friday.Prosecutors also revealed new allegations that the donor, Imaad Zuberi, acted as an unregistered agent for the Turkish government and Libyan government officials, among other foreign countries.The allegations came hours before Zuberi pleaded guilty Friday in Los Angeles to charges of tax evasion, campaign finance violations and failing to register as a foreign agent.California, New York scrutinyZuberi has been under scrutiny by federal prosecutors in both California and New York over millions of dollars in political contributions, including big donations to the inaugural committees of both President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump.So far, he has been charged only in Los Angeles. Zuberi’s attorneys had requested a delay of Friday’s hearing, saying they had been blindsided by prosecutors in New York saying they intended to charge him with additional crimes.In a court filing, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles accused Zuberi of stalling. The office told the judge that if Zuberi did not plead guilty as scheduled, his plea agreement would be voided and he would be hit with additional charges, including wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice related to $50,000 Zuberi is alleged to have paid a witness.The filing said prosecutors would present evidence at sentencing that Zuberi had obstructed the investigation “by paying, or offering to pay, $6,150,000 to six witnesses in return for their false testimony or silence.”The papers also said prosecutors would present evidence that Zuberi had acted as an unregistered agent for Sri Lanka and Turkey and Libyan government officials, as well as a Bahraini national, a Ukraine national and Pakistani nationals.Zuberi’s attorney declined to comment on the allegations.Turkey connectionsThe allegation that Zuberi acted as an unregistered agent for Turkey comes about a month after investigators probing his activities questioned a prolific Democratic Party donor who has ties to the administration of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to law enforcement records reviewed by The Associated Press.The records show that prosecutors and FBI agents quizzed the donor, Murat Guzel, a Turkish-American businessman, about his dealings with Zuberi and several U.S. lawmakers and foreign officials. Guzel was granted immunity to speak with authorities, the records show.As part of their investigation, authorities also examined a $50,000 check Zuberi gave to Guzel earlier this year, according to other records reviewed by the AP.It was not clear from those records or Friday’s court filings whether Guzel was among the witnesses Zuberi is accused of trying to pay off.Guzel declined to comment through his attorney. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan also declined to comment. The Democratic National Committee did not respond to a request for comment.’Commercial diplomat’A self-described “commercial diplomat,” Guzel has been an outspoken supporter of Turkey while being active in politics as a member of the Democratic National Committee. He immigrated to the U.S. more than 30 years ago and owns organic fruit companies in Pennsylvania.Guzel’s Facebook account, which featured pictures of him with several prominent Democratic lawmakers at fundraisers and other events, was deleted after he was contacted by The Associated Press.Guzel has actively advocated for policies backed by Erdogan. Last year he led a news conference outside Congress where he criticized U.S. support for Kurdish fighters. Guzel’s emails also appear in a 2016 Wikileaks dump of Erdogan son-in-law’s emails. In one email, Guzel boasted of getting a former congressman to write an op-ed praising Turkey as a key ally.Guzel and Zuberi are also connected through federal campaign finance records and social media postings.Zuberi, 49, was a major donor to former President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton but became a generous supporter of President Donald Trump within hours of his 2016 election.Federal prosecutors in New York scrutinized a $900,000 donation he made to Trump’s inaugural committee and singled him out in a subpoena to the inaugural committee seeking a wide array of records about the $107 million celebration. The inaugural committee has not been accused of wrongdoing.In the Los Angeles case, Zuberi was accused of soliciting donations from foreign nationals and companies and then acting as a straw donor to make donations to several U.S. political campaigns. The charges in that case are unrelated to Trump’s inauguration.
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By Polityk | 11/23/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Amazon Contests Pentagon’s $10 Billion Microsoft Cloud Contract
Amazon.com Inc. Friday filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims contesting the Pentagon’s award of an up to $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft Corp.An Amazon spokesman said the company filed a complaint and supplemental motion for discovery. The filing was under seal. “The complaint and related filings contain source selection sensitive information, as well as AWS’s proprietary information, trade secrets, and confidential financial information, the public release of which would cause either party severe competitive harm,” Amazon said in a court document seeking a protective order. “The record in this bid protest likely will contain similarly sensitive information.”Last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper rejected any suggestion of bias in the Pentagon’s decision to award Microsoft the contract after Amazon announced plans to challenge it.Amazon was considered a favorite for the contract, part of a broader digital modernization process of the Pentagon, before Microsoft emerged as the surprise winner. The company has previously said that politics got in the way of a fair contracting process. U.S. President Donald Trump has long criticized Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos.
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By Polityk | 11/23/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Lawmakers Seek to Limit Ambassador Positions for Political Donors
U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland has been a key witness in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Sondland was appointed to his post after donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee. The practice of awarding ambassador positions to wealthy political supporters is not new to either party, but some lawmakers and presidential candidates say it is time to limit the practice. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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By Polityk | 11/23/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Says Pompeo Would Easily Win Senate Seat in Kansas
President Donald Trump appeared to open the door on Friday for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to run for an open Senate seat in his home state of Kansas.”He came to me and said ‘Look, I’d rather stay where I am,’ but he loves Kansas, he loves the people of Kansas,” Trump told “Fox & Friends.” “If he thought there was a chance of losing that seat, I think he would do that and he would win in a landslide because they love him in Kansas.”Many Republicans see Pompeo as their best candidate for preventing the race from becoming competitive in Kansas, where a Democrat hasn’t won a Senate seat since 1932. And talk about his possible run has only intensified as impeachment hearings into Trump’s engagement with Ukraine have scrutinized the State Department.Pompeo has said he’ll remain secretary of state as long as Trump will have him. Asked if he will push Pompeo to run, Trump was noncommittal.”Mike has done an incredible job … Mike graduated No. 1 at Harvard Law, No. 1 at West Point. He’s an incredible guy, doing a great job in a very complicated world. Doing a great job as secretary of state. Mike would win easily in Kansas. Great state, and it’s a Trump state. He’d win easily,” Trump said.Pompeo has given no signal that he intends to leave his current job anytime soon, and aides say he has diplomatic travel planned through at least the end of January. En route to Brussels on Tuesday, Pompeo suggested to reporters accompanying him that he would be returning to the city several more times as secretary of state.”He is 100% focused on being President Trump’s secretary of state,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.On Wednesday, Pompeo brushed off more questions about the impeachment inquiry and dismissed speculation about how long he’ll stay in the Trump administration. Pompeo met with NATO’s secretary general, while lawmakers heard testimony from Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, that he kept Pompeo informed of efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
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By Polityk | 11/23/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Dismisses Impeachment Hearings
U.S. President Donald Trump is doubling down on his claims that the impeachment inquiry is another episode in his political opponents’ long saga to block him from winning the election, and to overthrow his presidency.A day after Democratic lawmakers concluded a second week of public testimony from White House officials and other administration officials, the president renewed his accusations against the Democrats in a nearly hour-long live phone interview with a Fox News Channel program.While speaking with “Fox & Friends” hosts, Trump repeated old claims that Democrats targeted his campaign since the beginning, expressing suspicion that the White House under former President Barack Obama was involved in those attempts.”You’re dealing with the highest levels of government. They were spying on my campaign,” said Trump.The president has alleged in the past that the Obama White House tapped the phones of Trump campaign officials, without offering any evidence. The Justice Department is expected to issue a report on Dec. 9 investigating how the FBI’s probe into Russian election meddling began.Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election remains a focus of the president, who has cast suspicion on the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusions that Moscow alone was responsible. Instead, Trump continues to believe Ukraine was involved, and a Ukrainian company played a key role in holding a computer server with information from the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. He insisted in his interview Friday that he was pressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for information about that theory.”They have the server. I still want to see that server, the FBI still hasn’t got that server. A Ukrainian company got that server. That’s what that call (with Zelenskiy) was about. We’re looking for corruption. I asked him very point blank because we’re looking for corruption,” Trump said.Former White House national security aide Fiona Hill, arrives to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 21, 2019.This week, Fiona Hill, a former senior White House national security official who is an expert on Russia, warned Republicans that repeating the debunked theory that Ukraine was behind election interference played into Russia’s disinformation campaign.”The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016,” she said. “This is the public conclusion of our intelligence agencies, confirmed in bipartisan congressional reports. It is beyond dispute, even if some of the underlying details must remain classified.”Next stepsThe impeachment inquiry has concluded two weeks of public testimony from several witnesses, including current and former White House officials, who have discussed allegations that the U.S. president abused his authority by pressuring a foreign leader to achieve personal political gains.At the center of the investigation is the July 25 call when Trump asked Zelenskiy “to do us a favor” by investigating one of his chief 2020 Democratic rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, as well as the debunked theory that Ukraine worked in 2016 to help Trump’s Democratic challenger, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Democrats are expected to begin drafting articles of impeachment based on the testimony so far, and could vote on them before the end of the year.Present and former administration officials, including the acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former National Security Adviser John Bolton, could provide valuable testimony to the investigation. The House Democrats have requested that they testify, but both have filed for court rulings to determine if they have to comply.
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By Polityk | 11/23/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Klobuchar Makes 1st Hires in Nevada with Ex-O’Rourke Staff
Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar is making her first campaign hires in early voting Nevada, scooping up staffers who worked for Beto O’Rourke’s campaign.
Klobuchar’s campaign announced Friday the Minnesota senator had hired Marina Negroponte to serve as state director and Cameron Miller to serve as Nevada political director. Both held similar roles in the state for O’Rourke’s campaign, which ended this month.
Negroponte helped organize the Hispanic community for the civil rights nonprofit We Are All Human Foundation and spent a decade working in international development for the United Nations.
Miller has worked on several state legislative campaigns in Nevada.
The state is third in line to vote next year on the Democratic presidential field.
Klobuchar has been working to build momentum after strong performances in the last two debates.
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By Polityk | 11/23/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Leading White Democrats Court Black Votes; Some Find Trouble
Coming out of their debate in a key center of black America, the leading Democratic presidential contenders aimed for the party’s crucial black and minority vote, with the scramble putting internal party tensions on display.From black protesters disrupting Elizabeth Warren to the lone black woman in the race chiding white, upstart Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the dynamics in Atlanta highlighted the push for crucial black and other minority support with less than three months before primary voting begins. They further underscored some candidates’ vulnerabilities in trying to assemble the coalition necessary to win the nomination — and defeat President Donald Trump in the general election.Warren electrified a raucous and racially diverse crowd in the Clark-Atlanta University gymnasium as she tries to expand her support beyond the white liberal base that boosted her in the primary polls this summer. But the Massachusetts senator had to endure protests of a black school-choice group that threatened to overshadow her message aimed squarely at black women — Democrats’ most loyal faction.Buttigieg, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor who leads caucus polls in overwhelmingly white Iowa, spent the day defending remarks relating his experience as a gay man to the systemic racism facing African Americans. Kamala Harris, the California senator and only black woman in the race, blasted his approach as “naive.”Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, left, speaks with the Rev. Al Sharpton at a breakfast event in Atlanta, Georgia, Nov. 21, 2019.Like Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders invoked his biography, as the child of an immigrant family with casualties in the Holocaust, to connect with African Americans’ struggle against oppression and white supremacy. Harris, still lagging the front-runners, has not criticized the way Sanders talks about race, but the Vermont senator still must prove he can get more black votes than he did in losing the 2016 nominating fight.All those contenders are trying to catch Vice President Joe Biden, whose considerable lead among black voters leaves him atop most national polls. Biden spent Thursday meeting with black Southern mayors, led by Atlanta’s Keisha Lance Bottoms, one of his top campaign surrogates. But it wasn’t all smooth for Biden, as immigration activists interrupted him in South Carolina demanding he pledge to halt deportations on his first day in office. Biden refused.For those chasing Biden, Warren offered perhaps the strongest display Thursday.Before an energetic crowd at Clark-Atlanta, the senator called for a “full-blown national conversation about reparations” for slavery, and she praised black women for helping build the country and advancing social and economic justice. She bemoaned structural impediments beyond slavery, naming Jim Crow segregation, modern-day mass incarceration and red-lining practices that make it harder for minorities to get mortgage loans.“Black history is American history,” Warren said. “And American history teaches us that racism has for generations shaped every crucial aspect of our economic and political system.”She offered a litany of policy proposals: new spending at historically black schools, legalizing marijuana, overhauling federal housing policy, student loan debt forgiveness, even repealing the 1994 crime law — which Biden sponsored as a Delaware senator.“I am not afraid,” she said to roars. “And you cannot be afraid, either.”Yet for a time, it looked as if Warren might not be able to deliver the rare formal speech that aides had built up as a seminal moment in her campaign. Moments into her address, dozens of black protesters from a school-choice group interrupted. They stood down only after Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley took the microphone from Warren.“The senator is here to talk about fighters like you,” said Pressley, who is black. In drowning out Warren, she said, the group was keeping the senator from telling the story of black women already marginalized.Buttigieg, meanwhile, found no such defender as he enjoys a newfound lead in Iowa, the first-caucus state, but shows negligible black support in more diverse primary states that follow. So, he was left to contend with Harris alone.Their flap spun off the mayor saying Wednesday during a debate segment on race that he has “felt like a stranger” in his own country because his civil rights as a gay man were left to the whims of politicians.During a post-debate event, Harris lambasted Buttigieg for comparing the struggles of black and LGBTQ communities. A Democrat who wants a winning coalition, she said, “should not be … saying one group’s pain is equal than or greater” than another’s.Buttigieg pushed back, telling reporters, “There’s no equating those two experiences,” and maintaining that he hadn’t done so.Sanders understands as well as any candidate that Democratic presidential politics demands more than just enthusiastic white support. The Vermont senator battled Hillary Clinton to a surprise draw in Iowa in 2016 and trounced her in New Hampshire, another mostly white Democratic electorate. Yet with overwhelming black support, Clinton then dominated Sanders in South Carolina and across the Deep South, building an early delegate lead she never relinquished.This time, he’s intent on building black support earlier in the campaign, and on Thursday, he noticeably leaned more on biographical details than he did for much of his 2016 campaign, even as he ticked through his usual list of progressive policy remedies.Now 78, he told the crowd — gathered around a statue of Morehouse alumnus Martin Luther King Jr. — of his 1960s activism, describing himself and his fellow white students as “not quite so brave” as black citizens in the more dangerous Jim Crow South. But, Sanders said, “I was arrested and went to jail fighting housing segregation in Chicago.”And he wanted them to know his family history.“Some of you know, I’m Jewish,” Sanders said. “My father came to this country from Poland. He came fleeing anti-Semitism. A lot of people in my father’s family did not make it out of Poland.“They were murdered by the father of white supremacy, Adolf Hitler,” Sanders continued. “So, I learned at a very young age what racism and white supremacy and Aryanism and all that crap is about.”Far from the campaign trail, former President Barack Obama offered advice to Democrats considering those varied approaches. The first black president, speaking at a party fundraiser in California, warned against absolute judgments as candidates navigate a fraught issue.“There’s a way of talking about race that says we can be better,' and there's a way of talking about race that saysyou are bad’ or that `you don’t get it,”’ he said, later adding, “When we invite people to their better selves, we tend to bring people in.”
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By Polityk | 11/22/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Obama Warns Against ‘Purity Tests’ in Democratic Primary
Former President Barack Obama warned Democrats on Thursday against adopting “purity tests” in the presidential primary and said any adversity the candidates face in the contest will make whoever emerges an even stronger nominee.Obama spoke to about 100 donors during a question-and-answer session with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez in Los Altos Hills, California. The event came a day after the fifth Democratic presidential primary in Atlanta and as the 17-person field continues to expand, with the expected entry of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the coming days.Until recently, Obama largely refrained from opining publicly on the Democratic contest, and his move from the sidelines comes at a moment of deep uncertainty for the party. Many are jittery about the uneven candidacy of his former Vice President Joe Biden, questioning whether Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren can defeat President Donald Trump next year, and skeptical of whether Pete Buttigieg, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor who is surging in Iowa, can appeal to black voters that are a crucial Democratic voting bloc.”We will not win just by increasing the turnout of the people who already agree with us completely on everything,” Obama said. “Which is why I am always suspicious of purity tests during elections. Because, you know what, the country is complicated.”‘Chill out’Obama urged Democrats to “chill out,” saying, “The truth of the matter is that every candidate on that stage believes we should provide” better health care and education and address climate change.He also noted the historic diversity of the Democratic field, which includes five women, and has three black candidates, a Latino man, an Asian-American man and a gay man. He compared that to his own election as the nation’s first black president.”We have a number of women candidates and we have one gay candidate. And those candidates are going to have barriers if they win the nomination, or they win the general election — just like I did,” Obama told donors. “You can overcome that resistance if the way you are framing these issues and messages indicate, ‘Look, I’m part of an American tradition … of opening up opportunity.'”In recent weeks Obama has sought to play both referee and uplifting elder statesman. He’s cautioned “woke” activists against embracing “cancel culture” and urged the party to not adopt positions that could cost them in the general election.”That’s not bringing about change,” he said during a recent Obama Foundation event. “If all you are doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far.”Advocating broad appeal At the same time, he has offered reassurances that a spirited primary will make the eventual nominee a stronger candidate.It comes amid a fierce intraparty debate that has divided centrists and an ascendant progressive wing, which has advocated for policies like free college tuition and Medicare for All that would dramatically reshape the role of government in peoples’ lives.Elections are ultimately won by offering a message that appeals to voters across the demographic spectrum, Obama said.”We should not be somehow thinking either we’re going for our base voter of young hipsters and African Americans and single women versus Joe lunch-pail, hard-hat guy,” he said. “Because you know what? … I’ve had conversations with all those groups, and they share common dreams and common hopes and a vision for what a fair, just America would look like.”The fundraiser Thursday was held at the home of Karla Jurvetson, a prominent Democratic donor and Silicon Valley philanthropist. The event raised more than $3 million for the Democratic National Committee, according to a senior party official.
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By Polityk | 11/22/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Justice Department Watchdog to Release Russia Probe Report in December
The U.S. Justice Department’s internal watchdog said he expects to be able to release on December 9 a long-awaited report on the origins of investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In a letter sent on Thursday to Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Lindsey Graham, Justice Department Inspector General
Michael Horowitz said that he expected his office to be able to
release the report next month “barring unforeseen circumstances.”Supporters of President Donald Trump have claimed the report
will raise questions about the legitimacy of FBI investigations
into alleged links to Russia by Trump and some of his campaign
advisers.A central issue the inspector general’s office said the
report would examine is how closely the FBI stuck to the law and
rules when it went to a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court beginning in 2016 to obtain authorization to conduct
electronic monitoring of “a certain U.S. person.”Lawsuit by PageCarter Page, a one-time foreign policy adviser to Trump’s
2016 campaign, recently sued the Justice Department, accusing it
of violating his privacy by failing to give him an opportunity
to examine the report before publication.As of Wednesday, Page told Reuters he had not been allowed
to examine a draft of the document.Another individual questioned at length last summer by
representatives of the inspector general’s office in connection
with the forthcoming report was Christopher Steele, a former
British intelligence officer who compiled a controversial
“dossier” on alleged links between Trump and Russia for
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Democratic
Party lawyers. The FBI cited reporting by Steele in documents sent to the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when it sought permission to monitor Page, though other information used by the FBI in such applications remains classified.
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By Polityk | 11/22/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trumps Signs Stopgap Spending Bill
President Trump on Thursday signed a short-term funding bill, averting the threat of a government shutdown until next month.
Trump signed the bill, which will extend funding through December 20, hours before government funding was set to expire. The Senate, by a 74-20 vote, passed the short-term funding bill earlier in the day.
The push to keep the government funded came as the House was in the midst of contentious public impeachment inquiry hearings. House Democrats are probing whether Trump abused his power by pressing Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son’s dealings in that Eastern European nation.
The stopgap spending bill would give negotiators four more weeks to try to break an impasse involving funding for Trump’s border wall project that has gridlocked progress on the 12 appropriations measures that fund about one-third of the government. Rough patch
Talks on the broader full-year appropriations measures hit a rough patch after the administration rejected bipartisan entreaties to add about $5 billion to grease their path.
Negotiations on the full-year measure also could be buffeted by the toxic atmosphere that’s worsening because of the impeachment probe, which could send articles of impeachment to the House floor around the December 20 deadline for averting another shutdown.
The chief holdup is Trump’s demand for up to $8.6 billion more for the U.S.-Mexico border wall. Republicans controlling the Senate have stuck with Trump despite worries that an impasse over his demands could force Congress into resorting to funding the government for the entire budget year at current spending levels.
“The appropriations process can go down one of two paths. On the first path, President Trump stays out of our way and gives Congress the space to work together and find an agreement,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “On the second path, President Trump stomps his feet, makes impossible demands, and prevents his party, the Republicans, from coming to a fair arrangement.” Inefficiency
Both sides on Capitol Hill want to avoid any chance of such a full-year continuing resolution, as it is known. Such an outcome would be an inefficient way to run the government and has particularly negative consequences for the Pentagon budget.
The measure contains an assortment of technical provisions to ensure that spending on the 2020 census can ramp up despite delays in the agency’s full-year funding bill. It also reverses a planned cut in highway spending next year and offers greater assurances about funding a 3.1 percent pay raise for the military that takes effect January 1.
It would extend, for three more months, several surveillance-related provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that expire December 15 and that civil libertarians say are controversial.
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By Polityk | 11/22/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Impeachment Battle Mirrors US Political Divide
Two weeks of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine have deepened the already sharp divide between Democrats and Republicans and have prompted many lawmakers to place more of a premium on party loyalty than the quality of testimony, some political analysts say.
With 2020 presidential and congressional elections looming, the stakes couldn’t be higher for the two parties. And lawmakers are adhering closely to the guidance of their party leaders.
In the recent U.S. House vote setting procedures for the public phase of the impeachment inquiry, not a single Republican defected to vote with the Democrats in favor of formalizing the inquiry. Only two Democrats voted against it.
Those numbers are in stark contrast to the 1998 vote formalizing the impeachment inquiry of then-Democratic President Bill Clinton. In that vote, 31 members of the president’s own party agreed with his Republican opponents’ decision to launch the investigation.
Competing narratives
Since the start of the public phase of the inquiry into whether Trump tried to pressure the Ukrainian government into announcing an investigation of Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, while withholding nearly $400 million of military aid to Ukraine, Democrats and Republicans seemingly have operated in parallel universes. Testimony has been twisted into competing narratives.FILE – Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the EU, appears before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, Nov. 20, 2019, during an impeachment hearing into President Donald Trump’s actions.Wednesday’s testimony by Gordon Sondland, U.S ambassador to the European Union, illustrated this point.
House Democrats hailed Sondland’s testimony that linked Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others to a campaign to pressure Ukraine’s new president to announce an investigation of Biden in return for a White House meeting and the release of the military aid.
Meanwhile, Republicans and Trump insisted that Sondland had cleared Trump of seeking a quid pro quo with Ukraine.
Cashing in on controversy
Both parties are fundraising robustly off the impeachment inquiry, sending floods of email to supporters in anticipation of impeachment becoming a central issue that mobilizes voters in the upcoming election.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers would argue they are acting according to conscience, not political expediency. But impeachment is not a legal trial but an inherently political process in which the framers of the U.S. Constitution invested the responsibility of impeachment in the legislative body of government.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California has said Democrats entered the impeachment inquiry in a “prayerful” way, mindful of their oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution. Trump accused Democrats of launching the inquiry because they feared losing in the 2020 presidential election.
Pelosi has repeatedly said Democrats see impeachment as a last resort that is part of their oversight responsibilities. FILE – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., talks to reporters on the morning after the first public hearing in the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump.’Sad time for the country’
Democrats who control the House have tried to maintain an attitude of remaining above the political fray.
“This is a very sad time for our country. There is no joy in this,” Pelosi said.
Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, author of the impeachment inquiry legislation, said, “We are not here in some partisan exercise. There is serious evidence that President Trump may have violated the Constitution.”
Republicans have characterized the inquiry not only as an attempt to cripple Trump’s political fortunes but also as a “coup” or an effort to nullify the results of the 2016 presidential election.
Representative Devin Nunes of California, the ranking Republican member on the House Intelligence Committee conducting the public hearings, regularly accuses Democrats of politicizing the process.
‘Impeachment mania’
“Democrats have exploited the Intelligence Committee for political purposes for three years, culminating in these impeaching hearings. In their mania to attack the president, no conspiracy theory is too outlandish for the Democrats,” Nunes said in his opening statement for the Nov. 20 hearing.
High-profile lawmakers on both sides often appear to be looking for a social media-friendly moment that supporters can amplify.
The Trump War Room Twitter account rebuts the hearings in real time with memes, while users who identify as part of the Democratic “Blue Wave” from the 2018 midterm election fight back. This deepens the perception there are two entrenched political perspectives with no room to meet in the middle. FILE – Supporters of President Donald Trump rally outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington to protest his impeachment inquiry, Oct. 17, 2019. (Diaa Bekheet/VOA)
The online war is reflected in real life by alliances of some of the nation’s top political groups. On the conservative side, groups such as the Club for Growth and FreedomWorks have joined forces to raise money and public outcry against impeachment, according to The Washington Post.
On the Democratic side, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee distributes email soliciting donations and grass-roots action in Pelosi’s name, claiming, “I know Trump’s terrified of the work we’re doing every day to hold him accountable for his actions.”
Tight spot for Republicans
Analysts say congressional Republicans are in a tight spot, defending a president who virtually controls their party in a highly polarized political environment.
“The president has demonstrated an ability where he’s most assuredly struck fear in the hearts of every Republican, anybody who goes against him,” said Steven Billet, legislative affairs program director at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management.
“Go ask Jeff Flake. Go ask Bob Corker. Go ask all these other people that have turned against the president,” Billet said, referring to two former Republican senators critical of Trump who retired. “He went after them. He mobilized the base against [them] and struck fear in their hearts. He’s disciplining a party that’s already polarized and already moving to a more ideological place on the spectrum.”
Divided nation
The American public is divided almost evenly, according to a FiveThirtyEight aggregation of opinion polling on impeachment. While support for removing Trump from office has grown since Pelosi’s announcement formalizing the inquiry, 45.5% still do not support the move, while 47.7% do.
The lack of a clear consensus reflects longer-term trends. Polling data collected over recent decades show that Americans have become increasingly divided politically.
In a survey conducted just before Pelosi announced the formalization of the impeachment inquiry, Pew Research found that “both Republicans and Democrats express negative views about several traits and characteristics of those in the opposing party, and in some cases these opinions have grown more negative since 2016.”
Earlier this year, 85% of respondents said in another Pew survey that the tone and nature of political debate in this country had become more negative. FILE – President Richard Nixon waves goodbye from the steps of his helicopter outside the White House after he gave a farewell address to members of the White House staff, Aug. 9, 1974.Trump vs. Nixon
The political polarization does not bode well for Democrats who may hope Trump will eventually face pressure from his own party. In an interview Sunday with CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Pelosi compared Trump’s actions to those of Richard Nixon, the only U.S. president to resign from office.
Nixon stepped down after the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment, avoiding a full floor vote. Nixon reacted partly because he faced considerable pressure from Republicans to sacrifice his own personal political fortunes for the good of the party.
If the House decides to impeach Trump, the vote is again expected to fall along party lines.
The next key test of loyalties will then occur when the House sends the articles of impeachment to the Republican-controlled Senate for a trial. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York will have to set ground rules covering everything from how many days a week the trial is held to how senators can cast their votes.
In today’s intense political environment, even the ground rules for debate will be up for debate.
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By Polityk | 11/22/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Pelosi Says Evidence Is Clear: Trump Used Office For Personal Gain
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said there was clear evidence that Donald Trump used his office for his own personal gain and undermined national security, as lawmakers continue their impeachment inquiry into the Republican president.Pelosi, speaking at a regular weekly news conference, reiterated that it was up to the House Intelligence Committee to determine how to proceed with Democratic-led investigation, adding that no final impeachment decision has been made yet.
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By Polityk | 11/21/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Impeachment Hearings Fuel Democratic President Debate
The 2020 U.S. presidential election was back in the spotlight Wednesday in Atlanta, Georgia, where Democratic presidential contenders gathered for their fifth debate of the primary season. As VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reports from Washington, the impeachment inquiry targeting President Donald Trump was a key focus of the debate.
Trump Impeachment Hearings Fuel Democratic President Debate
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By Polityk | 11/21/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Sondland Confirms Quid Pro Quo Between Trump, Ukraine
Wednesday was the most explosive day yet in the House impeachment hearings and perhaps a crucial moment for the Trump White House when U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland testified that there was a quid pro quo between President Donald Trump and Ukraine.Trump has been denying allegations that he held up nearly $400 million in badly needed military aid to Ukraine until Kyiv promised to investigate Joe Biden, a possible rival of Trump’s in the 2020 presidential election, for alleged corruption.In his opening statement, Sondland said impeachment investigators “have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a quid pro quo? As I testified previously … the answer is yes.”According to the ambassador, “it was no secret” and a number of senior Trump administration officials were “in the loop,” including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and former national security adviser John Bolton.Sondland talked about long and complicated behind-the-scenes machinations that started in April, with the election of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and September, when the aid to Ukraine was finally released after a 55-day delay.House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, center, gives his closing remarks as U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland testifies before the committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 20, 2019.Sondland said he joined Energy Secretary Rick Perry and special envoy Kurt Volker in following Trump’s “orders” to work with the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who was pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden and alleged Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election to help Democrats.“We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani,” Sondland said. “Simply put, we played the hand we were dealt. We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine.”WATCH: Sondland to US Lawmakers: Trump Conditioned Aid to Ukraine on Investigations
Sondland to US Lawmakers: Trump Conditioned Aid to Ukraine on Investigations video player.
Embed” />Copy LinkSondland said Giuliani was acting at Trump’s behest when the lawyer told Ukrainian officials that the president wanted Zelenskiy to publicly commit to investigating the Bidens and the Democrats.Sondland said efforts to push for the investigations were a quid pro quo in arranging a White House meeting for Zelenskiy.Sondland said that while Trump never told him directly that military aid to Ukraine was conditioned on the investigations, he later concluded that had to be the reason because Sondland said there was no other credible reason Ukraine was not getting the money it had been promised.WATCH AMBASSADOR SONDLAND HEARING ON-DEMANDAid released after whistleblower complaintRepublicans on the impeachment inquiry have argued there could not have possibly been a quid pro quo with Ukraine because the military aid was eventually released and there were no investigations of Biden and the Democrats. They also say Ukraine was unaware that the money was being held up.But in later testimony Wednesday, Pentagon official Laura Cooper said Ukrainian officials began asking questions about the aid in July. “It’s the recollections of my staff that they likely knew,” she said.Trump released the aid to Ukraine on September 11 after reports emerged that an intelligence community whistleblower told the inspector general he was concerned about a July phone call in which Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate Biden. That whistleblower complaint is what led to the impeachment probe.White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said that Sondland’s testimony “made clear” that in his calls with Trump, the president “clearly stated that he ‘wanted nothing’ from Ukraine, and repeated ‘no quid pro quo’ over and over again. The U.S. aid to Ukraine flowed, no investigation was launched, and President Trump has met and spoken with President Zelenskiy. Democrats keep chasing ghosts.”Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Ukraine got the money and there were no investigations only because Trump got caught.FILE – President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani speaks to reporter’s on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, May 30, 2018.No evidence of Biden wrongdoingTrump has alleged that when Biden was vice president, he threatened to withhold loan guarantees to Ukraine unless it fired a prosecutor looking into corruption in Burisma, a gas company where Biden’s son Hunter sat on the board.No evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens has ever surfaced. Allegations that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to help Democrats are based on a debunked conspiracy theory that likely originated in Russia.Two more witnesses are set to testify in the impeachment inquiry Thursday, including David Holmes, an aide to the U.S. ambassador, who says he overheard Trump talk about investigations in a telephone call the president had with Sondland.July call central to inquiryTrump’s July 25 White House call with Zelenskiy, in which the U.S. leader asked Zelenskiy to “do us a favor,” to undertake the politically tinged investigations, is at the center of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against Trump.It is against U.S. campaign finance law to solicit foreign government help in a U.S. election, but it will be up to lawmakers to decide whether Trump’s actions amount to “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the standard in the U.S. Constitution sets for impeachment and removal of a president from office. Trump could be impeached by the full Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in the coming weeks, which would be similar to an indictment in a criminal trial. He then would face a trial in the Republican-majority Senate, where his conviction remains unlikely.Sondland confirmed the essence of a cellphone conversation he had with Trump on July 26, the day after Trump’s conversation with Zelenskiy, as he sat at a Kyiv restaurant with other State Department officials.David Holmes, a career diplomat and the political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine leaves Capitol Hill, Nov. 15, 2019, in Washington, after a deposition before lawmakers.Late last week, David Holmes, an aide to William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Kyiv, told impeachment investigations in private testimony that he overheard the Trump-Sondland call because Trump’s voice was loud and Sondland held the phone away from his ear.Holmes said Sondland in the call assured Trump that Zelenskiy “loves your ass,” which Sondland said “sounds like something I would say.””So, he’s gonna do the investigation?” Holmes quoted Trump as asking. Sondland, according to Holmes, replied, “He’s gonna do it,” while adding that Zelenskiy will do “anything you ask him to.”Holmes said he later asked Sondland if Trump cared about Ukraine, with the envoy replying that Trump did not “give a s**t about Ukraine.” Sondland said he did not recall this remark but did not rebut Holmes’ account.”I asked why not,” Holmes recalled, “and Ambassador Sondland stated that the president only cares about big stuff. I noted that there was ‘big stuff’ going on in Ukraine, like a war with Russia, and Ambassador Sondland replied that he meant ‘big stuff’ that benefits the president, like the Biden investigation.”‘President Donald Trump talks to the media on his way to the Marine One helicopter, Nov. 20, 2019, as he leaves the White House in Washington, en route to Texas.Disdain from TrumpBefore Sondland revised his testimony last month to say there had been a quid pro quo — the military aid for the Biden investigation — Trump had called Sondland a “great American.” But after Sondland changed his testimony, Trump said, “I hardly know the gentleman.”Trump has repeatedly described the July 25 call with Zelenskiy as “perfect” and denied any wrongdoing. Trump has often assailed the impeachment inquiry but did not immediately comment on Twitter about Sondland’s testimony.
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By Polityk | 11/21/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Democratic Debates: Comments by Each Candidate
The fifth Democratic presidential candidate debates took place Wednesday in Atlanta. Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the U.S. Democratic presidential candidates debate at the Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Nov. 20, 2019.Former Vice President Joe Biden, in answering a question about recent “Lock him up!” chants directed at Trump, said, “I don’t think it’s a good idea that we mock that, that we that we model ourselves after Trump and say, lock him up.’ … It’s about civility. We have to restore the soul of this country. That’s not who we are. That’s not who we have been. That’s not who we should be.”Senator Cory Booker, in arguing against a “wealth tax” being pitched by Senator Elizabeth Warren, said, “I don’t agree with the wealth tax the way Elizabeth Warren puts it,” saying the Democratic Party should discuss how to “give people opportunities to create wealth, to grow businesses. … That’s what our party has to be about as well.”Democratic presidential candidate South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg points to his wedding ring from his marriage to his husband, Chasten, as he talks about civil rights in the United States during the U.S. Democratic presidential candidates debate.Mayor Pete Buttigieg, in talking about Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, in criticizing the Democratic Party, said, “It is a party that has been and continues to be influenced by the foreign policy establishment in Washington, represented by Hillary Clinton and others’ foreign policy, by the military industrial complex and other greedy corporate interests. I’m running for president to be the Democratic nominee that rebuilds our Democratic party, takes it out of their hands and truly puts it in the hands of the people of this country.”Senator Kamala Harris, in answering whether she would make concessions to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said, “In all due deference to the fact this is a presidential debate, Donald Trump got punk’d. He has conducted foreign policy since day one borne out of a very fragile ego.”Senator Amy Klobuchar speaks during the U.S. Democratic presidential candidates debate at the Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Nov. 20, 2019.Senator Amy Klobuchar, in addressing Billionaire activist Tom Steyer speaks during the U.S. Democratic presidential candidates debate at the Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Nov. 20, 2019.Tom Steyer, a billionaire hedge fund manager and environmentalist, discussed his plan to implement “structural reforms” to put power back in the hands of the American people through election reform and break the corporate stranglehold over government. “It’s time to push power back to the American people and take power away from the corporations who bought our government,” he said. “And I’m talking about structural reform in Washington, D.C. — term limits. You’re going to have to have new and different people in charge. I’m the only person on this stage who will talk about term limits.”Senator Elizabeth Warren, in discussing her proposed “wealth tax,” a tax on the country’s wealthiest people to pay for, among other things, her health care plan, said, “Doing a wealth tax is not about punishing anyone. It’s about saying, You built something great in this country? Good for you’ … All of us helped pay for it.”Democratic presidential candidate and entrepreneur Andrew Yang speaks during the U.S. Democratic presidential candidates debate at the Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Nov. 20, 2019.Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, in answering a question about child care and paid family leave, said, “There are only two countries in the world that don’t have paid family leave for new moms: the United States of America and Papua New Guinea. That is the entire list and we need to get off this list as soon as possible.”
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By Polityk | 11/21/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
US House Panel Backs Marijuana Decriminalization
A divided U.S. House committee approved a proposal Wednesday to decriminalize and tax marijuana at the federal level, a vote that was alternately described as a momentous change in national cannabis policy and a hollow political gesture. The House Judiciary Committee approved the proposal 24-10 after more than two hours of debate. It would reverse a long-standing federal prohibition by removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, while allowing states to set their own rules on pot. The vote marks a turning point for federal cannabis policy and is truly a sign that prohibition's days are numbered,'' Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, said in a statement. Cannabis Trade Federation CEO Neal Levine called the votea historic step forward for cannabis policy reform.” State measuresThe vote came at a time when most Americans live in states where marijuana is legal in some form, and committee members from both parties agreed that national cannabis policy lagged behind changes at the state level. That divide has created a host of problems. Loans and other banking services, for example, are hard to get for many marijuana companies because pot remains illegal at the federal level. The House bill’s future is uncertain. It wasn’t immediately clear if the proposal would be reviewed by other committees, nor was it clear when or whether a vote would take place in the full House. The proposal has better chances of passing in the Democratic-controlled chamber than in the Republican-held Senate. The House passed a bill earlier this year to grant legal marijuana businesses access to banking, but it hasn’t advanced in the Senate. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee complained that the proposal to decriminalize cannabis had never had a hearing and lacked the bipartisan support needed to become law. It's going nowhere,'' said Representative Doug Collins, a Georgia Republican. Sales taxAmong its provisions, the legislation would authorize a 5% sales tax on marijuana products to fund programs aimed at assisting people and communities harmed in the battle against drugs, such as job training and legal aid. It also would require federal courts to expunge prior marijuana convictions. Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said the nation has for too longtreated marijuana as a criminal justice problem, instead of a matter of personal choice and public health.” Arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating users at the federal level is unwise and unjust,'' he said.The racial disparity in enforcement of marijuana laws has only compounded this mistake with serious consequences, particularly for minority communities.”
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By Polityk | 11/20/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
