Розділ: Політика
‘Third Party’ Threat to the Status Quo of US Politics Faces Long Odds
Rancor within the Republican Party peaked last week between members who remain loyal to former President Donald Trump and those who want the party to repudiate him and his continued false claims of election fraud. First, there was the dramatic expulsion of Congresswoman Liz Cheney from her leadership post in the House of Representatives after she voted to impeach Trump and denounced his claims the 2020 election had been “stolen” by the Democrats. Then came the announcement that more than 100 disgruntled conservatives are exploring the possibility of launching a new political party rededicated to founding ideals. To non-U.S. observers, the creation of a new political party from the shards of one riven by internal discord may seem perfectly natural. Unlike the United States, many democracies around the world operate with a multitude of parties — and new parties can have immediate success. In France, Emmanuel Macron founded the En Marche Party in April 2016. By May 2017, he was elected president of the country. But in the U.S., the history of “third” parties as an alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties that dominate national politics has been less impressive. ‘Spoilers,’ not winners In the modern era, third parties have never been able to do more than act as a “spoiler” in presidential elections by siphoning off votes from one of the two major parties and have sent only a tiny number of lawmakers to the House or Senate in the past 70 years — never achieving significant levels of power. “The history of third-party movements in the United States is that usually, they end up just getting absorbed into one of the two major parties,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “That, or they’re essentially made obsolete by changes from the major party.” The current battle Last week’s announcement of a possible third party came as Republican House members stripped Cheney, daughter of two-term Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, of her position as House Republican conference chair for her continued denunciation of Trump. That same day, a coalition of disaffected Republicans, including former governors, members of Congress, ambassadors and Cabinet officers, signed a letter demanding the Republican leadership either reform the party or face the creation of an “alternative” political home. FILE – U.S. Representative Liz Cheney speaks to the media as she arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington after Republicans ousted her from a leadership post over her criticism of former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.The message they want to deliver to Republican Party leaders is “enough is enough,” said Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff in the Trump-era Department of Homeland Security, who penned an anonymous tell-all book about his time in the administration. “We need to offer a commonsense coalition for this country and a more unifying alternative vision than what we’re seeing from the present GOP, which has now become rotten to its core for the persistent attacks on our democracy,” Taylor told CNN last week. “So, our message is, it is time to either reform or repeal the Republican Party.” But creating a viable third party in the U.S. is easier said than done. ‘Very unusual democracy’Building a successful third party in the United States, if success is defined as having a meaningful role in the operation of the federal government, is extraordinarily difficult because of the way political power is distributed. “I think the first thing that people need to know is that we are a very unusual democracy in a whole series of ways,” said Marjorie Hershey, professor emeritus of political science at Indiana University Bloomington and author of a widely used textbook on American government. The U.S., she said, is one of only a “very few” two-party systems in democratic countries. Part of the reason for that is because election laws are written by state legislatures, which are themselves dominated by the two major parties. They tend to make it very difficult for new political parties to even be listed on the ballot in the first place. Steep hill to climb Further, because every member of the House and the Senate is elected in an individual winner-take-all race, a third party, even one with substantial support, can still be shut out of power. In most other democracies, a party that received 10% of the vote for the legislature would earn a proportionate share of the available seats. In the U.S., though, it is possible for a third-party movement to amass a significant percentage of the overall national vote without securing a single seat in either house of Congress. That would only change if the third party’s support was concentrated in a state or district to the point of giving it a majority of the vote there. FILE – Officials work on ballots at the Gwinnett County Voter Registration and Elections Headquarters, Nov. 6, 2020, in Lawrenceville, near Atlanta, Georgia.Similarly, the way presidential votes are tallied on a state-by-state basis makes it difficult for a third party to compete. For example, when Texas businessman Ross Perot ran for president in 1992, he was extremely successful in terms of winning votes —receiving 19% overall. But because those votes were spread evenly across the country, he didn’t win any states, and therefore received no votes in the Electoral College. Weak threat So, when Taylor and his fellow former Republicans threaten the Republican Party with the establishment of a new party, the threat is seen not as an effort to establish a new center of power in U.S. politics that can operate on an equal footing with Republicans and Democrats. Instead, it seems more like a promise to drain enough votes from Republican candidates to ensure Democratic victories. That there is no viable path for an alternative party to actively participate in governing the U.S. is accepted as a given by most Americans. But there are some who wonder if it ought to be. “In so many other democratic systems, a ‘third’ party could be a major party,” Hershey said. “It’s one of those things that’s so telling — what we regard as normal for a democracy in the United States is not at all normal in the larger democratic world.”
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By Polityk | 05/18/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Congressman Gaetz Associate Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking Charges
A Florida politician who emerged as a central figure in the Justice Department’s sex trafficking investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz pleaded guilty Monday to six federal charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of a plea deal.Joel Greenberg, a longtime associate of Gaetz’s, appeared in federal court in Orlando. He pleaded guilty to six of the nearly three dozen charges he faced, including sex trafficking of a minor, and he admitted he had paid at least one underage girl to have sex with him and other men.Gaetz was not mentioned in the plea agreement or during the court hearing. But Greenberg’s cooperation — as a key figure in the investigation and a close ally of Gaetz — may escalate the potential legal and political liability that the firebrand Republican congressman is facing.Federal prosecutors are examining whether Gaetz and Greenberg paid underage girls and escorts or offered them gifts in exchange for sex, according to two people familiar with the matter. Investigators have also been looking at whether Gaetz and his associates tried to secure government jobs for some of the women, the people said.They are also scrutinizing Gaetz’s connections to the medical marijuana sector, including whether his associates sought to influence legislation Gaetz sponsored.The people had knowledge of the investigation but were not allowed to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.Gaetz has denied the allegations and any accusation of wrongdoing, and has said repeatedly he will not resign from Congress. A spokesman for the congressman has said Gaetz “never had sex with a minor and has never paid for sex.”During the nearly hourlong hearing Monday, Greenberg acknowledged he understood the charges of which he was pleading guilty and the possible punishment he faced, and told the judge he was of a sound frame of mind.U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Hoffman told Greenberg that even though prosecutors may request some leniency from his sentencing judge because of his cooperation, there was no guarantee a judge would agree to the prosecutors’ recommendations and that Greenberg would be unable to change his plea. No sentencing date was immediately set.Monday’s court appearance marked the first time Greenberg has been seen in court since the Gaetz investigation blew into the public spotlight in March. Outside the courthouse, a plane flew over during the hearing pulling a banner that read: “TICK TOCK MATT GAETZ.”After the hearing, Greenberg was taken back to jail in handcuffs and shackles, wearing a dark inmate uniform and looking worn down.As part of his plea deal, Greenberg, a Republican who served as the tax collector in Seminole County, admitted he recruited women for commercial sex acts and paid them more than $70,000 from 2016 to 2018, sometimes through online payment services like Venmo. They include at least one underage girl he paid to have sex with him and others, the plea agreement says.Prosecutors wrote in the plea agreement that Greenberg had introduced the girl to others, who also “engaged in commercial sex acts” with her. The agreement does not identify the men.Greenberg first met the girl online from a website where she was posing as an adult and first paid her $400 after a meeting on a boat, the documents said. He later invited her to hotels in Florida where he and others would have sex with her and supplied her and other people with ecstasy, according to the plea deal.In total, prosecutors say Greenberg had sex with the girl at least seven times.Greenberg’s legal scrutiny began when he was arrested last summer on charges of stalking a political opponent, Brian Beute. Prosecutors said he mailed fake letters to the school where his opponent worked, signed by a nonexistent “very concerned student,” who alleged the opponent had engaged in sexual misconduct with another student.”I wouldn’t want to be him,” Beute, who showed up at the courthouse on Monday, said after the hearing.Greenberg also is accused of embezzling $400,000 from the Seminole County tax collector’s office, according to the indictment filed against him.
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By Polityk | 05/18/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Agreement Reached for Bipartisan Probe into US Capitol Riot
Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee announced an agreement Friday to form a panel to conduct a bipartisan investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. The deal was announced in a statement by committee Democratic Chairman Bennie Thompson and its top Republican, John Katko. The legislators said they would introduce a bill for House consideration as early as next week. The measure will call for an investigative commission similar to the one that probed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., they said. The proposed 10-member commission would consist of five members appointed by each party. The panel would have subpoena power and be required to submit a report by Dec. 31 that includes “recommendations to prevent future attacks on our democratic institutions,” the lawmakers said. The agreement between the lawmakers was reached after both parties disagreed on the scope of the probe for months. The House and Senate must approve the bill before it goes to President Joe Biden for him to sign into law. The Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol building was aimed at preventing the certification of Biden’s election victory over Donald Trump. Critics of Trump say he incited the riot that killed five people, including a federal police officer, when he implored thousands of supporters rallying near the White House to march to the Capitol, where lawmakers were in the process of formally certifying Biden’s win. Trump has shunned any responsibility for the attack on the Capitol.
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By Polityk | 05/17/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
House Republicans Elect Pro-Trump Stefanik to Leadership Role
U.S. House Republicans approved Representative Elise Stefanik on Friday for a top leadership spot, sending a powerful message about the direction of the party by elevating the New York congresswoman noted for her support of former president Donald Trump. The 36-year-old Stefanik takes over the position of House Republican Party conference chair from Representative Liz Cheney, who was removed Wednesday after calling Trump’s allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election “a big lie.” Thank you to my colleagues for electing me to serve as House Republican Conference Chair and to my constituents across FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California speaks during his weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill, April 22, 2021.In February, Cheney was the top-ranking Republican to vote to impeach Trump for inciting that riot. Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy did not vote to impeach but said on the House floor, “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.” But McCarthy endorsed Stefanik for the leadership spot earlier this week, saying Republicans “need to be united.” A four-term member of Congress, Stefanik has a far more moderate voting record than Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Stefanik grew up in upstate New York and was the first in her family to earn a college degree, according to her official biography. Stefanik’s district voted for former President Barack Obama twice before flipping to Trump in the 2016 election. According to her office, Stefanik won ”both 2018 and 2020 by the largest margin of any Republican in the Northeast.” Stefanik is also a top Republican fundraiser, raising $15 million in the last election cycle while campaigning heavily to elect more Republican women into office. The New York lawmaker was also one of 138 House Republicans who objected to the 2020 election results, saying, ”Tens of millions of Americans are concerned that the 2020 election featured unconstitutional overreach by unelected state officials and judges ignoring state election laws. We can and we should peacefully and respectfully discuss these concerns.” But George Washington University’s Brown said Stefanik will have to be careful not to be a top target for a Democratic takeover during the 2022 mid-term election. “She is also still in a very competitive district. And while she may be wooing the Republican base, she is also now distancing herself from the independents and moderates who were in her district who helped her win election,” Brown said.
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By Polityk | 05/14/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
EPA Website Restores Climate Change Data
Data missing from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website is back and updated after a four-year absence under the Trump administration.The EPA’s new Climate Change Indicators website shows that the last decade was the hottest on record; heat waves have increased in frequency from two per year in the 1960s to six per year in the 2010s; and sea levels rose as much as 8 inches in coastal areas.”With this long overdue update, we now have additional data and a new set of indicators that show climate change has become even more evident, stronger, and extreme — as has the imperative that we take meaningful action,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.The site pulls together data from 13 federal agencies, plus academics and other organizations, on everything from greenhouse gas emissions to winter ranges of birds.The usual metrics are here, including rising temperatures and sea levels and shrinking glaciers.The updated version adds a dozen new indicators including the frequency and duration of heat waves, melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, and summer energy use for air conditioning.The website shows “the public and planners the many costs that climate change has on their daily lives, public health and ecosystems that many livelihoods depend upon,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists.The move to update the data is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to undo his predecessor’s sidelining of science and scientists.Former President Donald Trump, who repeatedly called climate change a “hoax,” had disbanded panels of scientists advising the EPA on regulations. He also limited the types of data that the agency could consider when writing rules.Trump dismissed the scientific consensus that human emissions of greenhouse gases are warming the planet. His administration sought to weaken regulations aimed at reducing them. The Trump EPA left the climate indicators website stuck in 2016 with outdated data.But agencies across the federal government continued to record how the climate was changing and the effects those changes were having on the environment and human society.”The science kept going,” Ekwurzel said. “The indicators and the data are always being collected. They were just harder to get to.”
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By Polityk | 05/14/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Number of Unaccompanied Minors at US-Mexico Border Falls This Week
A top immigration official on Thursday pledged a comprehensive response to the influx of unaccompanied minors at the U.S.-Mexico border. In testimony on Capitol Hill, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told concerned lawmakers a migrant crisis early in the Biden presidency has been contained. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.Producer: Katherine Gypson.
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By Polityk | 05/14/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Congressional Hearing on Afghanistan Leaves More Questions than Answers
The U.S. military has completed about 10% of its pullout from Afghanistan. But defense officials left members of Congress with more questions than answers Wednesday, as the U.S. inches closer and closer to President Joe Biden’s Sept. 11 withdrawal deadline. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the latest.
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By Polityk | 05/13/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Cements Republican Party Control With House Leadership Battle
U.S. House Republicans are expected to pick Representative Elise Stefanik for a top leadership spot Friday, sending a powerful message about the direction of the party by elevating the New York congresswoman noted for her support of former President Donald Trump.Stefanik, 36, would take over the position of House GOP Conference chair from Representative Liz Cheney, who was removed Wednesday after calling Trump’s allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election “a big lie.”Stefanik’s bid for the third most powerful position in the House Republican caucus caps a shift from a largely unknown lawmaker with a moderate voting record representing the once-Democratic New York 21st Congressional District to a media star who earned the attention of Trump during his first impeachment trial.’Better at the show’“Former President Donald Trump does not think that ideology, issues or policy really are what drives elections; he believes that it’s all about the show. And he believes that Representative Stefanik is better at the show than Representative Cheney,” said Lara Brown, director of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University in Washington.Trump endorsed Stefanik on his blog Monday, writing, “The House GOP has a massive opportunity to upgrade this week from warmonger Liz Cheney to gifted communicator Elise Stefanik.”He continued, “We need someone in leadership who has experience flipping districts from Blue to Red as we approach the important 2022 midterms, and that’s Elise! She knows how to win, which is what we need.”Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks to reporters after House Republicans voted to oust her from her leadership post as chair of the House Republican Conference, May 12, 2021.In her first interview since announcing she would run for conference chair, Stefanik told former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon last week that she saw the job as an opportunity “to represent the majority of the House Republicans, and the vast majority of the House Republicans support President Trump, and they support his focus on election integrity and election security.”Cheney’s statements on the presidential vote revived the debate within the Republican Party over Trump’s unsubstantiated claims he won the November election over Democrat Joe Biden. Those claims culminated in his supporters rioting at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to try to prevent the counting of Electoral College votes for Biden. The worst security breach on the Capitol in more than two centuries left five people dead.’War with the Constitution’“The election is over. That is the rule of law. That is our constitutional process. Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution,” Cheney said on the House floor Tuesday. “Our duty is clear. Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy. This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans.”In a Monday letter ahead of the vote, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “These internal conflicts need to be resolved so as to not detract from the efforts of our collective team. Having heard from so many of you in recent days, it’s clear that we need to make a change.”FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California speaks during his weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 22, 2021.In February, Cheney was the top-ranking Republican to vote to impeach Trump for inciting that riot. McCarthy did not vote to impeach but said on the House floor, “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.”But McCarthy endorsed Stefanik for the leadership spot earlier this week, saying Republicans “need to be united.”A four-term member of Congress, Stefanik has a far more moderate voting record than Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.Stefanik grew up in upstate New York and was the first in her family to earn a college degree, according to her official biography. Stefanik’s district voted for former President Barack Obama twice before flipping to Trump in the 2016 election. According to her office, Stefanik won “both 2018 and 2020 by the largest margin of any Republican in the Northeast.”Key fundraiserStefanik is also a top Republican fundraiser, raising $15 million in the last election cycle while campaigning heavily to elect more Republican women into office.The New York lawmaker was also one of 138 House Republicans who objected to the 2020 election results, saying, “Tens of millions of Americans are concerned that the 2020 election featured unconstitutional overreach by unelected state officials and judges ignoring state election laws. We can and we should peacefully and respectfully discuss these concerns.”But George Washinton University’s Brown said Stefanik will have to be careful not to be a top target for a Democratic takeover during the 2022 midterm election.“She is also still in a very competitive district. And while she may be wooing the Republican base, she is also now distancing herself from the independents and moderates who were in her district who helped her win election,” Brown said.
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By Polityk | 05/13/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Hearing on Jan. 6 US Capitol Violence Exposes Stark Partisan Divisions
Republicans sought to shift the narrative on the violent Jan. 6 insurrection during a congressional hearing Wednesday, with some painting the Trump supporters who stormed the building as patriots who have been unfairly harassed, as Democrats clashed with the former Pentagon chief while drilling into the government’s unprepared response.
The colliding lines of questioning, and a failure to settle on a universally agreed-upon set of facts, underscored the challenges Congress faces as it investigates what law enforcement officials have described as a deadly act of domestic terrorism carried out by Trump loyalists bent on overturning the election.
The hearing before the House Oversight Committee unfolded as the House Republicans removed Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post after she rebuked former President Donald Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in inciting the Capitol attack.
Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen testified publicly for the first time about Jan. 6, defending their respective agencies’ responses to the chaos. But the hearing soon devolved into partisan bickering about how that day unfolded, with Democrats accusing Republicans of rewriting history and GOP lawmakers insisting their party had been unfairly vilified for objecting to election results.
“I find it hard to believe the revisionist history that’s being offered by my colleagues on the other side,” Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, proclaimed in exasperation. Other Democrats made similar accusations, with Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland urging his Republican colleagues to stop with the “evasions” and “distractions.”
Republicans sought to refocus attention from the hundreds of Trump supporters who stormed into the Capitol as Congress was certifying the election results. Instead, they suggested that Democrats had failed to forcefully condemn violence in American cities last summer during periods of civil unrest.
In ways that clearly rewrote the facts of the day and the investigations that resulted, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona said the Justice Department was “harassing peaceful patriots.” He described a California woman who was fatally shot by an officer during the insurrection after climbing through the broken part of a door as having “been executed,” even though prosecutors have said the officer won’t be prosecuted.
“It was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day, not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others,” said Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, overlooking that loyalists to the president instigated the riot, smashing through windows and spraying officers with pepper and bear spray.
One Capitol Police officer who was injured while confronting rioters suffered a stroke and died a day later of natural causes. Dozens more were severely injured, some of whom may never return to duty.
Democrats, for their part, clashed with Miller repeatedly over the hours-long delay in dispatching the National Guard to the Capitol, with Rep. Ro Khanna of California saying he was dumfounded “we had someone like you in that role.” After Miller described Lynch’s line of questioning as ridiculous, Lynch shot back that he was ridiculous.
“You were AWOL, Mr. Secretary,” said Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois.
“That’s completely inaccurate,” Miller replied. “That’s completely inaccurate.”
In testimony aimed at rebutting broad criticism that military forces were too slow to arrive even as the pro-Trump rioters violently breached the building and stormed inside, Miller told the committee he was concerned before the insurrection that sending troops to the Capitol could fan fears of a military coup and cause a repeat of the deadly Kent State shootings in 1970.
“No such thing was going to occur on my watch, but these concerns, and hysteria about them, nonetheless factored into my decisions regarding the appropriate and limited use of our armed forces to support civilian law enforcement during the Electoral College certification,” Miller said. “My obligation to the nation was to prevent a constitutional crisis.”
He said that though Trump had encouraged his supporters to protest the election results, he did not believe Trump’s rhetoric — which led to his impeachment — was the “unitary” factor in the riot. Trump was ultimately acquitted by the Senate.
Miller denied that Trump had any involvement in the Defense Department’s response, saying the men did not speak that day. But Democrats made clear their focus on Trump and his role in the riot.
“The failures of Jan. 6 go beyond the craven lies and provocations of one man,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat and the committee’s chairwoman.
Some Republicans sought to attack what they said was a false narrative that Trump had instigated the riot and focused instead on violence that roiled American cities last summer in the days following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. A white police officer had pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the Black man said he couldn’t breathe and went motionless.
“What is wrong is when individuals take to crime, violence and mob tactics,” said Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the committee’s top Republican. “This was wrong on Jan. 6, and this was wrong last summer when several cities across the country were attacked by rioters.”
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio also asserted that Republicans were being unfairly maligned for doubting election results when he said Democrats have done so in the past — although a riot at the Capitol aimed at halting the certification of those results was an unprecedented moment in history.
“It’s not about revisionist history,” Jordan said. “It’s about the double-standard that Democrats want to have. That’s the part that bothers me most.”
Rosen in his testimony defended the Justice Department’s preparation and also said there was no evidence of widespread election fraud that could have caused the results to be voided. His former boss, William Barr, has said the same.
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By Polityk | 05/13/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
House Republicans Oust Cheney from Top Party Leadership Post
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives removed Representative Liz Cheney from her party leadership post over her criticism of former President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in last November’s presidential election.The caucus voted Wednesday to oust the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney from her post as chair of the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in A sign bearing the name of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., outside of her office on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 11, 2021.In a speech on the House floor on Tuesday night, Cheney described Trump’s continuing efforts to delegitimize the election results as “ a threat America has never seen before.”“A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence.”Defending her staunch conservative record, Cheney said “the most conservative of conservative principles is reverence for the rule of law.” She said “will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.”FILE – Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., center, accompanied by from left, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, speaks to the media.Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, who has enthusiastically endorsed Trump’s claims, will likely be elected to replace Cheney as party conference chair. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy announced his support for Stefanik during a recent interview on the U.S. cable news network, Fox News.
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By Polityk | 05/12/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
House Republicans Expected to Oust Cheney from Top Party Leadership Post
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are poised to remove Representative Liz Cheney from her party leadership post over her criticism of former President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in last November’s presidential election. The caucus is expected to vote Wednesday to oust the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney from her post as chair of the A sign bearing the name of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., outside of her office on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 11, 2021.Cheney, the lone representative for the western state of Wyoming, has steadfastly denounced former President Trump’s claims that he, and not Democrat Joe Biden, was the legitimate winner of the November election, despite his campaign losing numerous court challenges to overturn the final results in key states that he lost. She first drew fire within the party when she voted for Trump’s impeachment for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when hundreds of his supporters stormed the building to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden’s Electoral College victory. In a speech on the House floor on Tuesday night, Cheney described Trump’s continuing efforts to delegitimize the election results as “ a threat America has never seen before.” “A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence.” Defending her staunch conservative record, Cheney said “the most conservative of conservative principles is reverence for the rule of law.” She said “will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.” FILE – Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., center, accompanied by from left, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, speaks to the media.Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, who has enthusiastically endorsed Trump’s claims, will likely be elected to replace Cheney as party conference chair. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy announced his support for Stefanik during a recent interview on the U.S. cable news network, Fox News.
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By Polityk | 05/12/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US House Republicans Expected to Oust Liz Cheney from Top Party Leadership Post
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are poised to remove Representative Liz Cheney from her party leadership post over her criticism of former President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in last November’s presidential election. The caucus is expected to vote Wednesday to oust the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney from her post as chair of the Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 17, 2019. She first drew fire within the party when she voted for Trump’s impeachment for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when hundreds of his supporters stormed the building to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden’s Electoral College victory. In a speech on the House floor on Tuesday night, Cheney described Trump’s continuing efforts to delegitimize the election results as “ a threat America has never seen before.” “A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence.” Defending her staunch conservative record, Cheney said “the most conservative of conservative principles is reverence for the rule of law.” She said “will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.” Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, who has enthusiastically endorsed Trump’s claims, will likely be elected to replace Cheney as party conference chair. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy announced his support for Stefanik during a recent interview on the U.S. cable news network, Fox News.
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By Polityk | 05/12/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Top House Republican Says He Backs Ousting Cheney From No. 3 Job
Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy on Sunday publicly endorsed Rep. Elise Stefanik for the post of No. 3 leader, cementing party support of the Donald Trump loyalist over Rep. Liz Cheney, an outspoken critic of the former president for promoting discredited claims that the 2020 election was stolen. House Republicans could vote as early as Wednesday to remove Cheney, the highest-ranking woman in the Republican leadership and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and replace her with Stefanik, whose ascension has received Trump’s backing. Asked in an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” whether he supported Stefanik, R-N.Y., for the job of Republican Conference chair, McCarthy responded: “Yes, I do.” “We want to be united in moving forward, and I think that is what will take place,” he said in response to a question about whether he had the votes to oust Cheney, R-Wyo. McCarthy said the leadership post must focus on a message “day in and day out” on what he said were the problems of the Biden administration. FILE – Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the House Republican Conference chair, speaks with reporters following a GOP strategy session on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 20, 2021.Cheney has taken on Republicans, including McCarthy, R-Calif., saying on Twitter that those who indulge Trump’s false claims of a stolen presidential election are “spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.” In an opinion essay Wednesday in The Washington Post, she denounced the “dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality,” and warned her fellow Republicans against embracing or ignoring his statements “for fundraising and political purposes.” She also said McCarthy had “changed his story” after initially saying Trump “bears responsibility” for the January 6 attack on the Capitol. McCarthy initially criticized Trump’s actions, and in a private call during the insurrection, had reportedly urged the then-president to call off the rioters. The GOP leader now says he does not believe Trump provoked the riot. McCarthy said that efforts by Republicans to remove Cheney are not based on her views of Trump or her vote to impeach Trump over the January 6 riot. He said she was distracting from Republicans’ bid to win back the House in 2022 and successfully oppose President Joe Biden’s agenda, goals that McCarthy believes will need Trump’s support. McCarthy complained last week that he had “lost confidence” in Cheney and “had it with her” over her continuing remarks about Trump, according to a leaked recording of his exchange on “Fox and Friends.” Cheney has a more conservative voting record in the House than Stefanik, a onetime Trump critic who evolved into an ardent ally. She previously opposed Trump’s tax cuts. “You have this real battle right now in the party, this idea of let’s just put our differences aside and be unified,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who also voted to impeach Trump. “They’re going to get rid of Liz Cheney because they’d much rather pretend that the conspiracy is either real or not confront it than to actually confront it and maybe have to take the temporary licks to save this party and in the long term this country,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” The second-ranking House Republican leader, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has announced his support for Stefanik.
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By Polityk | 05/10/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
No, Biden Is Not Coming After Americans’ Burgers
Some Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators continue to falsely claim that President Joe Biden’s climate plan will force Americans to eat far less red meat. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara looks at how burgers have become the latest battlefield in the country’s culture war.
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By Polityk | 05/08/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
With Ambassador Picks, Biden Faces Donor vs. Diversity Test
President Joe Biden is facing a fresh challenge to his oft-repeated commitment to diversity in his administration: assembling a diplomatic corps that gives a nod to key political allies and donors while staying true to a campaign pledge to appoint ambassadors who look like America.
More than three months into his administration, Biden has put forward just 11 ambassador nominations and has more than 80 such slots to fill around the globe. Administration officials this week signaled that Biden is ready to ramp up ambassador nominations as the president prepares for foreign travel and turns greater attention to global efforts to fight the coronavirus.
Lobbying has intensified for more sought-after ambassadorial postings — including dozens of assignments that past presidents often dispensed as rewards to political allies and top donors. Those appointments often come with an expectation that the appointees can foot the bill for entertaining on behalf of the United States in pricey, high-profile capitals.
But as he did with the assembling of his Cabinet and hiring top advisers, Biden is putting a premium on broadening representation in what historically has been one of the least diverse areas of government, White House officials say.
“The president looks to ensuring that the people representing him — not just in the United States, but around the world — represent the diversity of the country,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters this week.
Presidents on both sides of the aisle have rewarded donors and key supporters with a significant slice of sought-after ambassadorships. About 44% of Donald Trump’s ambassadorial appointments were political appointees, compared with 31% for Barack Obama and 32% for George W. Bush, according to the American Foreign Service Association. Biden hopes to keep political appointments to about 30% of ambassador picks, according to an administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about internal discussions.
Most political appointees from the donor class, a small population that’s made up of predominantly white men, have little impact on foreign policy. Occasionally, they have been the source of presidential headaches.
Trump’s appointees included hotelier and $1 million inaugural contributor Gordon Sondland, who served as chief envoy to the European Union. Sondland provided unflattering testimony about Trump during his first impeachment, which centered on allegations Trump sought help from Ukrainian authorities to undermine Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Sondland was later fired by Trump.
Trump donor-turned-envoy Jeffrey Ross Gunter left locals in relatively crime-free Reykjavik, Iceland, aghast over his request to hire armed bodyguards. In Britain, Ambassador Robert “Woody” Johnson faced accusations he tried to steer golf’s British Open toward a Trump resort in Scotland and made racist and sexist comments.
In 2014, the American Foreign Service Association called for new guidelines to ensure that ambassadors meet certain qualifications for top diplomatic posts after a series of embarrassing confirmation hearings involving top Obama fundraisers. At least three of Obama’s nominees — for Norway, Argentina and Iceland — acknowledged during confirmation hearings that they had never been to the nations where they would serve.
Another big Obama donor, Cynthia Stroum, had a one-year tour in Luxembourg that was fraught with personality conflicts, verbal abuse and questionable expenditures on travel, wine and liquor, according to an internal State Department report.
So far, Biden has made two political appointments — retired career foreign service officer Linda Thomas-Greenfield for U.N. ambassador and Obama-era Deputy Labor Secretary Christopher Lu for another ambassadorial-ranked position at the U.N. Thomas-Greenfield is Black, and Lu, who is awaiting Senate confirmation, is Asian American.
His other nine nominees are all longtime career foreign service officers, picked to head up diplomatic missions in Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Cameroon, Lesotho, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Somalia and Vietnam.
Jockeying for ambassadorial positions started soon after Biden was elected and has only heated up as administration officials have signaled that the president is looking to begin filling vacancies ahead of his first overseas travel next month.
Cindy McCain, the widow of Republican Sen. John McCain and a longtime friend of the president and first lady Jill Biden, is under consideration for an ambassadorial position, including leading the U.N. World Food Program. Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor, Illinois congressman and Obama chief of staff, is in contention to serve as ambassador to Japan after being passed up for the role of transportation secretary, according to people familiar with the ongoing deliberations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
Biden is also giving close consideration to former career foreign service officer Nicholas Burns, who served as undersecretary of state under George W. Bush and as U.S. envoy to Greece and NATO, to become ambassador to China. Thomas Nides, a former deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, and Robert Wexler, a former Democratic congressman from Florida, are under consideration for ambassador to Israel.
The White House declined to comment about any of the potential picks.
Of the 104 diplomats currently serving or nominated for ambassador-level positions, 39 are women and 10 are people of color, according to the Leadership Council for Women in National Security, a bipartisan group of national security experts.
A group of more than 30 former female U.S. ambassadors, in an open letter organized by the Leadership Council and Women Ambassadors Serving America, urged Biden to prioritize gender parity in his selections for ambassadorships and other high-level national security positions.
“As you build out your diplomatic leadership, we hope you will pay attention to growing allies within the U.S. government who will also focus upon the diversity America’s representatives to the world should demonstrate,” the former ambassadors told Biden.
During the transition, Reps. Veronica Escobar and Joaquin Castro, both Texas Democrats, wrote a joint letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the administration to address the “persistence of grave disparities in racial and ethnic minority representation in the Foreign Service.”
To that end, the State Department last month appointed veteran diplomat Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley as its first chief diversity and inclusion officer. Abercrombie-Winstanley will be the point person in a department-wide effort to bolster recruitment, retention and promotion of minority foreign service officers.
Blinken, in announcing her appointment, noted “the alarming lack of diversity at the highest levels of the State Department” during the Trump administration, but said the issue runs much deeper.
“The truth is this problem is as old as the department itself,” he said.
As a candidate, Biden declined to rule out appointing political donors to ambassadorships or other posts if he was elected. But he pledged his nominees would be the “best people” for their posts.
“Nobody, in fact, will be appointed by me based on anything they contributed,” Biden promised.
Ronald Neumann, a former ambassador to Afghanistan, Algeria and Bahrain, said Biden’s team has made progress in the early going in diversifying the upper ranks of the State Department.
He pointed to the nomination of Donald Lu, a career foreign service officer, as the next assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia and Brian A. Nichols to be the top envoy for Latin America. Nichols would be the first Black assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs since the late 1970s; Lu is Asian American.
In addition, the State Department’s chief spokesperson, Ned Price, is the first openly gay man to serve in that role. His principal deputy, Jalina Porter, is the first Black woman in that job.
“I think the administration is finding a good balance of experienced, accomplished career foreign service officers coming from diverse backgrounds,” said Neumann, who heads the American Academy of Diplomacy.
Finding good picks from Biden’s donor class, however, might be trickier, Neumann said, adding, “I don’t know how you go about finding competent, big donors from a pool that might be limited in diversity.”
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By Polityk | 05/07/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Twitter Suspends Accounts Skirting Trump Ban
Twitter confirmed Thursday that it pulled the plug on several accounts trying to skirt its ban on former President Donald Trump by promoting his blog posts. The ex-president launched a page on his website earlier this week promising comment “straight from the desk of Donald J Trump.” The page was made public just before Facebook’s independent oversight board on Wednesday upheld the platform’s ban on Trump. Twitter accounts with names playing on Trump themes and seeking to amplify the Trump website posts were taken offline, according to the platform. “As stated in our ban evasion policy, we’ll take enforcement action on accounts whose apparent intent is to replace or promote content affiliated with a suspended account,” a Twitter spokesperson told AFP. Twitter said it permanently suspended Trump’s account after the deadly January 6 Capitol riot because there was a risk he would further incite violence, following months of tweets disputing Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.
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By Polityk | 05/07/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden, in Louisiana, Tries to Bridge Troubled Waters
Politicians usually prefer to pose and smile in front of public works projects of pride. U.S. President Joe Biden did the opposite on Thursday — holding photo opportunities with a poorly maintained bridge as the backdrop and then touring a decrepit water treatment plant, with cameras in tow.“We’re standing here in the shadow of the I-10 bridge, which I’ve gone over several times myself in the past. And it’s a perfect example how we’ve neglected as a nation to invest in the future of our economy and the future of our people,” said Biden in Lake Charles, Louisiana, after he was introduced by the city’s Republican mayor.“Mr. President, any members of Congress out there who might be listening — Lake Charles needs help right now, and we’re asking for it,” Mayor Nic Hunter said.Biden proposes spending $2.3 trillion on infrastructure and jobs across the country. His visit, in part, was a challenge to Louisiana’s congressional delegation, which at the moment is exclusively Republican — until Representative-elect Troy Carter takes his House seat May 11 to represent the majority Black 2nd District.Narrower approachRepublicans insist on a narrower approach to infrastructure — repairing roads and bridges, modernizing transit and expanding broadband internet access, rather than spending money on renewable energy and care for the elderly.Biden’s American Jobs Plan is a “budget-busting tax hike spending boondoggle masquerading as an infrastructure bill,” said Republican Steve Scalise, who represents portions of Louisiana in the House. “Raising taxes that will force middle-class jobs overseas is not infrastructure.”Former President Donald Trump beat Biden in the state by nearly 20% in the 2020 presidential election.President Joe Biden is welcomed by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Louisiana Rep.-elect Troy Carter at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner, La., May 6, 2021.Despite the loss in Louisiana, Biden “is the president for everyone,” Karine Jean-Pierre, White House deputy press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One during Thursday’s flight to the state.Republican lawmakers oppose Biden’s plan to fund projects with higher corporate taxes. The president contends such a tax hike would fund $115 billion for roads and bridges, and hundreds of billions of dollars more to modernize the electrical grid, provide better-quality drinking water, rebuild homes and accelerate the manufacturing of electric vehicles.The attempt to sell his package beyond his Democratic base is why Biden was pictured on Thursday at the Calcasieu River Bridge on Interstate 10 in Lake Charles. The bridge opened to vehicular traffic in 1952 and currently carries 80,000 cars and trucks daily. It is considered by structural engineers to be one of the most dangerous bridges in the United States.Operating the bridge beyond its anticipated 50-year life span is “a recipe for disaster,” Biden said.President Joe Biden tours a pumping room at the Sewerage & Water Board’s Carrollton water plant, May 6, 2021, in New Orleans, as New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell listens at right.Later in the afternoon, the president visited the Carrollton Water Plant in New Orleans, which provides drinking water to the country’s 50th-largest city.New Orleans is a major port city on the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast, sitting in bowl-shaped terrain that frequently floods.About half of the century-old plant’s turbines have failed in the past year. One of them exploded in 2019. Many of its pipes for water purification are crumbling.“The whole system could fail,” Ghassan Korban, executive director of the sewerage and water board of New Orleans, warned the president.Biden commented that water infrastructure, frequently overlooked, is a key element for “making life livable for ordinary people.”’Blue-collar blueprint’Biden said his “blue-collar blueprint” would help fix the bridge, the water facility and thousands more like them across the United States.On top of their long-existing infrastructure woes, the areas Biden toured, with quickly vanishing coastlines and wetlands, are fighting a losing battle — one that scientists say is exacerbated by a changing climate.Two devastating hurricanes ripped through southwestern Louisiana last year, and the region is bracing for the start of this year’s hurricane season, which officially begins in less than a month.”I know times have been tough here, and the damage from the hurricanes has been devastating,” Biden said during his remarks in Lake Charles, calling for hardened standards for new infrastructure projects as they “have to be built to withstand heavy winds and hurricanes.”
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By Polityk | 05/07/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Support of Vaccine Patent Waiver is Only the First Step
World leaders welcomed the Biden administration’s announced support for waiving patent restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines, the so-called TRIPS waiver, at the World Trade Organization. While this could be a breakthrough in the global fight against the pandemic, as White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports, it’s just the first step in a long and complicated process.
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By Polityk | 05/07/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Florida Governor Signs Voting Restriction Bill into Law
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a voter restriction bill, making it the latest election battleground state in the south to adopt Republican-backed restrictions since the November presidential election.
DeSantis and his fellow Republicans in the state legislature said the law was necessary to prevent voter fraud, despite the lack of voting irregularities last November.
The new law restricts when ballot drop boxes can be used during an early voting period, who can retrieve ballots, and the number of ballots that can be collected.
Voters requesting absentee ballots now face new identification requirements, and those making changes to their registration information are now required to provide an identification number, possibly from a driver’s license or some other type of acceptable identification.
The law also requires voters to submit new applications for absentee ballots in each general election cycle, instead of once every two cycles as required under the old law.
In addition, the law grants partisan election observers more authority to raise objections, and it requires people assisting voters to remain about 45 meters from polling stations, an increase from about a 30 meters radius.
The bill was approved by both houses of the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature. Democrats, voting rights groups and state elections officials said there was no need for the new restrictions.
Despite claims of voter fraud by state Republican politicians, they previously said they were unaware of such problems in Florida. Election supervisors throughout the state did not request any of the changes and cautioned that some of the new requirements may be expensive to implement and difficult to manage.
The NAACP, Common Cause and other rights groups said they would file a lawsuit in federal court arguing the new law would disproportionately affect disabled voters and those in predominantly Black and Latino communities.
The Democratic Party urged voters to cast ballots early by mail in last year’s November presidential election due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.
Florida Democrats cast 680,000 more mail-in ballots than Republicans, the first time in years they outvoted Republicans by mail.
Lawmakers in Republican-controlled states such as Georgia, Arizona and Texas have sought to explain a series of proposed voting restrictions by citing former president Donald Trump’s unfounded claims that his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden was stolen from him.
Judges have discredited such claims in more than 60 lawsuits across the U.S. that failed to overturn election results.
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By Polityk | 05/07/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Judge Orders Justice Dept. to Release Trump Obstruction Memo
A federal judge has ordered the release of a legal memorandum the Trump-era Justice Department prepared for then-Attorney General William Barr before he announced his conclusion that President Donald Trump had not obstructed justice during the Russia investigation.
The Justice Department had refused to give the March 24, 2019, memorandum to a government transparency group that requested it under the Freedom of Information Act, saying the document represented the private advice of lawyers and was produced before any formal decision had been made and was therefore exempt from disclosure under public records law.
But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, in a sharp rebuke of Barr, said the Justice Department had obscured “the true purpose of the memorandum” when it withheld the document.
She said the memo from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel contained “strategic, as opposed to legal advice” and that both the writers and the recipients already understood that Trump would not be prosecuted. Though government agencies may withhold from disclosure documents that reflect internal deliberations before a decision is made, that protection does not apply in this case since a conclusion had already been reached, the judge wrote.
“In other words, the review of the document reveals that the Attorney General was not then engaged in making a decision about whether the President should be charged with obstruction of justice; the fact that he would not be prosecuted was a given,” Jackson said in an order dated Monday.
The decision by Barr and senior Justice Department leaders to clear Trump of obstruction, even though special counsel Robert Mueller and his team pointedly did not reach that conclusion, was a significant moment for the president that he touted as vindication.
Barr issued a summary of Mueller’s report a full month before the entire 448-page document was released, helping shape the public perception of the investigation’s conclusions in a way that was favorable to Trump. Mueller subsequently complained to Barr that his summary had not fully captured the investigation’s findings and had caused “public confusion.”
In her order this week, Jackson chastised Barr for his general handling of the Mueller report, saying his “characterization of what he’d hardly had time to skim, much less, study closely, prompted an immediate reaction, as politicians and pundits took to their microphones and Twitter feeds to decry what they feared was an attempt to hide the ball.”
She also noted that another judge had rebuked Barr last year for what he said were misleading public statements that spun Mueller’s findings in the president’s favor.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a public records request seeking communications about the obstruction decision after Barr said that he and other senior officials had reached that conclusion in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal opinions to executive branch agencies.
At issue in a lawsuit pending before the judge were two particular documents the group wanted.
Jackson ruled that one of the documents, described by a Justice Department official as an “untitled, undated draft legal analysis” that was submitted to the attorney general as part of his decision-making, was properly withheld from the group.
But she ordered the release of the other memo, which concludes that the evidence assembled by Mueller’s team would not support an obstruction prosecution of Trump.
In her order, Jackson noted that the legal memo prepared for Barr, and the letter from Barr to Congress that describes the special counsel’s report, were “being written by the very same people at the very same time.
“The emails show not only that the authors and the recipients of the memorandum are working hand in hand to craft the advice that is supposedly being delivered by OLC, but that the letter to Congress is the priority, and it is getting completed first,” the judge wrote.
The judge said the Justice Department has until May 17 to file any motion to stay the order.
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By Polityk | 05/06/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Lawmaker Liz Cheney Drawing Criticism for Attacks on Trump
U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday there is growing concern among Republican lawmakers about the ability of Congresswoman Liz Cheney to lead the party’s caucus in the chamber while she continues to assail former President Donald Trump for inciting his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6. “I have heard from members concerned about her ability to carry out her job as conference chair, to carry out the message” supporting Republicans trying to win control of the House from Democrats in next year’s congressional elections, McCarthy told the Fox News Channel. FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., responds during his weekly news conference at the Capitol in Washington, March 18, 2021.”We all need to be working as one if we’re able to win the majority,” he said. “Remember, majorities are not given. They are earned.” McCarthy’s comments came as Cheney, the No. 3 Republican leader in the House and the daughter of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, continued her barrage of attacks on Trump for his role in the deadly assault on the Capitol as lawmakers were certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. On Monday, Cheney told the annual retreat of the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Sea Island, Georgia, that Trump’s false claim that he was cheated out of a second term in the White House was “poison in the bloodstream of our democracy.” The 54-year-old lawmaker accused Trump of encouraging hundreds of his supporters to confront lawmakers as they were ratifying Biden’s victory, which she described as an attack on the peaceful transfer of power from one president to another. “We can’t whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump’s big lie,” she said. “It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed.” FILE – Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., center, speaks with President Donald Trump during a bill-signing ceremony for the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act in the Oval Office of the White House, Nov. 25, 2019.Earlier Monday, six months to the day he lost the election, Trump said in a statement, “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!” But Cheney, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the insurrection at the Capitol, responded quickly on Twitter, saying, “The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.” Cheney has said she has no intention of quitting her Republican leadership position. In February, she easily defeated an attempt by Republican critics to oust her, but dismay about her attacks on Trump seems to have grown since then. Another Republican Trump critic, Senator Mitt Romney, who voted twice to convict Trump at the former president’s two Senate impeachment trials, voiced support for Cheney’s stance. “Every person of conscience draws a line beyond which they will not go: Liz Cheney refuses to lie,” Romney said on Twitter. “As one of my Republican Senate colleagues said to me following my impeachment vote: ‘I wouldn’t want to be a member of a group that punished someone for following their conscience.'” But other Republican lawmakers have remained beholden to Trump or muted themselves in assessing his role in the attack on the Capitol. Several leading Republican lawmakers, including McCarthy, have traveled to Florida to visit with Trump at his oceanfront mansion and talk politics. Trump has suggested he might run for the presidency again in 2024 but said he won’t decide until after the 2022 congressional elections.
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By Polityk | 05/05/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden’s Ambitious Legislative Agenda Faces Significant Obstacles
With the first one hundred days of his presidency now behind him, Joe Biden faces formidable battles to pass the rest of his legislative agenda on Capitol Hill. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports on the obstacles Democrats face to pass nearly $4 trillion in legislation.Producer: Katherine Gypson
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By Polityk | 05/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Pushes Education Spending at Stops in Virginia
President Joe Biden traveled Monday to coastal Virginia to promote his plans to increase spending on education and children, part of his $1.8 trillion families proposal announced last week. Visiting Tidewater Community College with first lady Jill Biden, the president discussed his $109 billion proposal to provide Americans with two years of tuition-free community college. He’s also seeking more than $80 billion for Pell Grants to help college affordability and $62 billion for programs that could improve completion rates at community colleges and institutions that predominantly serve disadvantaged students. The president said that education was the key to the country’s dominance and that people needed classes beyond high school for the nation to be globally competitive. “When America made 12 years of public education universal in America in the early 1900s, it made us the best educated nation in the world,” Biden said. “The rest of the world has caught up to us. They’re not waiting. And 12 years is no longer enough to compete with the world in the 21st century and lead the 21st century.” Community college is an issue of personal importance to the Bidens. The first lady is an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria. “My students, like all the students here, I’m sure, come from every walk of life,” she said. “They show up, they don’t complain, and all they ask is for one thing in return: the chance to work hard and build a good life for themselves and their families.” Biden joked that advocacy for community colleges was crucial for his own marital happiness. “I have to admit if I didn’t have these positions, I’d be sleeping on Lincoln bedroom,” the president teased. There is uncertainty about Biden getting an ambitious set of spending programs through narrow Democratic majorities in Congress. He has proposed a combined $4.1 trillion to be spent on infrastructure, broadband, new school buildings, electric vehicle charging stations, the power grid, child tax credits and child care, among other programs. All of that would be mostly financed by higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, an idea that has met immediate opposition from Republicans. The Bidens began their trip by touring a fifth-grade class at Yorktown Elementary School. The president went around asking the students, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “A fashion designer,” one student responded. “A chef,” another said, to which Biden replied, “Holy mackerel, I’ll be darned!” “A hairdresser,” one student said. Biden quipped: “I could use some, some hair, I mean.”
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By Polityk | 05/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden to Quadruple Refugee Cap
U.S. President Joe Biden, who initially decided to keep intact his predecessor’s historically low number of annual refugee admissions, Monday announced he is quadrupling this year’s total. “I am revising the United States’ annual refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for this fiscal year,” the president said in a statement Monday afternoon. “This erases the historically low number set by the previous administration of 15,000, which did not reflect America’s values as a nation that welcomes and supports refugees. The new admissions cap will also reinforce efforts that are already under way to expand the United States’ capacity to admit refugees, so that we can reach the goal of 125,000 refugee admissions that I intend to set for the coming fiscal year.” President Joe Biden speaks at Tidewater Community College, in Portsmouth, Va., May 3, 2021.Two weeks ago, the White House announced that the cap for the current fiscal year would be kept at 15,000, the level set by former President Donald Trump. That announcement came despite Biden’s promise that after his inauguration in January he would significantly expand the program. The move prompted a backlash from some of his fellow Democrats in Congress, as well as refugee advocates. White House officials have acknowledged that the previous announcement, issued when opposition Republicans were criticizing Biden for an influx of migrants at the U.S. southern border, did not send the right message. Monday’s announcement, they say, reinforces that admitting refugees is critical to America’s place in the world. “It is important to take this action today to remove any lingering doubt in the minds of refugees around the world who have suffered so much, and who are anxiously waiting for their new lives to begin,” said Biden in his statement. “The sad truth is that we will not achieve 62,500 admissions this year. We are working quickly to undo the damage of the last four years. It will take some time, but that work is already under way.” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a joint news conference in London, May 3, 2021.Shortly after the president’s announcement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated: “It is in our DNA as a nation to open our door to those seeking refuge, and it remains in our national interest to treat individuals applying for these programs fairly and with dignity and respect.” Refugees International President Eric P. Schwartz called it “a proud and historic moment.” He added, “At a time of great humanitarian need, welcoming refugees is not only a moral imperative, but also promotes U.S. national security, bolsters our economy, enriches our communities, and demonstrates that we’re willing to work together with other governments on some of the world’s most complex problems.” While raising the refugee cap is welcome, “the reality is that this is coming too late in the year to make a real impact,” according to Alex Nowrasteh, Cato Institute director of immigration studies. “Refugee agencies are so overburdened that we’ll be lucky if one-quarter of the new 62,500 cap is filled this year.”FILE – People are detained by a U.S. Border Patrol agent after crossing the Rio Bravo River to turn themselves in to request asylum in El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, March 29, 2021.There is a “need for systematic reform, expansion and privatization of the refugee system so that a future administration like Trump’s won’t have the ability to kill such an important program at the stroke of a pen,” Nowrasteh told VOA. Republican lawmaker Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, noting Biden had committed last month to keeping Trump’s cap in place, calls the president’s decision to increase the number of refugees “a direct threat to our national security and public health safety.” The Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House of Representatives, objected to the move.”During the highest influx of illegal immigration our country has seen in 20 years, @JoeBiden just raised the refugee cap over 400%. Let’s be clear: this self-inflicted crisis is absolutely intentional,” it posted on Twitter. Trump, during his four years as president, had pared the size of the refugee program, which is distinct from the asylum system for migrants. “The most powerful thing we can do as a country is to lead by example,” said Andrew Albertson, executive director of Foreign Policy for America. “Today’s announcement from President Biden makes it clear that the United States is ready to lead again.” The chairman of the Senate’s foreign relations committee, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, said Biden’s announcement is “an important step in continuing our proud, bipartisan tradition of providing refugees protection through resettlement.”
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By Polityk | 05/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Calls 2020 Election Defeat a ‘Big Lie’
Former U.S. President Donald Trump lost his reelection contest to Democrat Joe Biden six months ago Monday, but he is still claiming he was cheated out of another term in the White House, leaving some Republican officials at odds with one another and Trump over the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.”The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!” Trump said in a new statement.The former president’s commentary from his Atlantic Ocean mansion in Florida appropriated the “big lie” sentiment his political opponents have used to describe his claims that he won. Trump decisively lost the election by a 306-232 margin in the Electoral College, which determines the outcome of U.S. presidential contests, and by more than 7 million votes in the popular vote count.After Trump made his claim Monday, one of his staunchest critics among Republicans, Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, said on Twitter, “The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the House Republican Conference chair, speaks with reporters following a GOP strategy session on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 20, 2021.Cheney was one of 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted to impeach Trump for inciting a mob of hundreds of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol January 6 as Congress was certifying Biden’s Electoral College victory. Five people were left dead.Trump has vowed to endorse any Republican candidate who runs against Cheney in next year’s congressional elections. He has also voiced support for other Republican candidates who are opposing the 10 Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach him in the waning days of his administration or the seven senators who voted to convict him in the Senate impeachment trial in which Trump was acquitted.Shortly after Cheney’s vote to impeach Trump, Wyoming Republicans voted to censure her, and several vocal Trump allies in the House called for her to be ousted as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference. But other Republicans supported her, and she retained the position.In Utah, another Western state, some Republicans on Saturday booed one of the state’s U.S. senators, Mitt Romney, as he spoke at a party convention. Romney was the party’s losing 2012 presidential nominee and voted to convict Trump at both of his Senate impeachment trials. An attempt to censure him failed. Other Republicans have muted their criticism of Trump’s continued unfounded claims that he was cheated out of reelection, and several have traveled to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida mansion, to visit with him and talk politics.Trump lost dozens of court challenges to the election outcome but never formally conceded defeat to Biden, leaving Washington just hours ahead of Biden’s January 20 inauguration.Trump has suggested he might run again for the presidency in 2024 but has also said he would not decide until after the November 2022 congressional elections, in which control of both houses of Congress will be at stake. Democrats currently narrowly control both chambers.
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By Polityk | 05/03/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Secretary of State to Hold Talks in Ukraine About Russian Aggression
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken leaves for Europe on Sunday, where he will hold meetings in London and Kyiv.Blinken’s first stop will be London, where he will meet with the foreign secretaries from the Group of Seven countries. Later in the week, he will travel to Kyiv to show U.S. support for Ukraine’s government as it faces threats to its sovereignty from Russia.The meetings in London with the G-7 ministers are in preparation for the meeting of the G-7 leaders in June in Cornwall.The ministers are also expected to discuss their handling of challenges they are all facing, including the coronavirus outbreak and climate change.Blinken is also scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.In Kyiv, Blinken will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other senior government officials. His appearance is designed to show Washington’s support for Ukraine’s government against Russian threats.While Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Russia has most recently engaged in a military buildup along its border with Ukraine.State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement that Blinken will “reaffirm unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression.”
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By Polityk | 05/02/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
