Розділ: Політика
Young Men Accuse Lincoln Project Co-Founder of Harassment
The influential anti-Donald Trump group Lincoln Project is denouncing one of its co-founders after multiple reports that over several years he sexually harassed young men looking to break into politics.
The Lincoln Project in a statement on Sunday called co-founder John Weaver, 61, “a predator, a liar, and an abuser” following reports that he repeatedly sent unsolicited and sexually charged messages online to young men, often while suggesting he could help them get work in politics.
“The totality of his deceptions are beyond anything any of us could have imagined and we are absolutely shocked and sickened by it,” the Lincoln Project, the most prominent “Never Trump” Republican super PAC to emerge during the 45th president’s time in the White House, said in its statement.
The online magazine The American Conservative first reported the sexual harassment allegations earlier this month.
Days later, Weaver, a strategist who advised the late Republican Sen. John McCain and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich in their unsuccessful runs for the White House, acknowledged in a statement to the web site Axios that he had sent “inappropriate” messages he “viewed as consensual, mutual conversations at the time.”
The statement by Weaver came after several men had taken to social media to accuse him of sending sexually suggestive messages, sometimes coupled with offers of employment or political advancement.
The Lincoln Project made its most substantive comments about the mounting allegations against Weaver after The New York Times reported on Sunday that the paper had interviewed 21 men who said they had been harassed by Weaver.
One of the alleged victims told The Times he started receiving messages from Weaver when he was only 14. The messages became more pointed after he turned 18.
The Lincoln Project’s other founders included 2012 Mitt Romney presidential adviser Stuart Stevens, former McCain and George W. Bush strategist Steve Schmidt, and GOP ad maker Rick Wilson.
The group throughout the 2020 election cycle produced some of the most eviscerating broadsides against Trump, questioning the president and his aides’ morality and leadership.
The Lincoln Project said in its statement that at “no time was John Weaver in the physical presence of any member” of the super PAC.
Weaver took medical leave from the Lincoln Project last summer. He told Axios earlier this month that he did not plan to return to the group.
Weaver did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
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By Polityk | 02/01/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Days Before Impeachment Trial, Trump Names New Lawyers
Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced Sunday a new team of lawyers to lead his defense at his second impeachment trial. Defense lawyer David Schoen, a frequent television legal commentator, and Bruce Castor, a former district attorney in Pennsylvania who has faced criticism for his decision to not charge actor Bill Cosby in a sex crimes case, will represent Trump at the Senate trial that begins next week. In a statement issued through Trump’s office, both attorneys said Sunday they were honored to take the job. “The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history. It is strong and resilient. A document written for the ages, and it will triumph over partisanship yet again, and always,” Castor said.U.S. Capitol Police officers stand watch outside the Senate as lawmakers vote on procedures to proceed with the impeachment of former President Donald Trump for inciting the January 6, 2021.Two prominent South Carolina lawyers, Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, had been expected to be Trump’s lead lawyers. The relationship unraveled due to differences over what legal strategy would be appropriate for the trial, including Trump’s insistence on alleging voter fraud, according to media reports citing people familiar with the matter. The former president is facing charges of “incitement of insurrection” in connection with the mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The House impeachment managers serving as prosecutors face a tough task in convincing at least 17 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump. That is how many would be necessary to meet the threshold of two-thirds of the Senate, assuming all the Democratic caucus backs impeachment. Several Republicans have opposed the impeachment trial, arguing it is unconstitutional since Trump is already out of office. Trump is the first U.S. president to have been impeached twice. He was acquitted by the Senate a year ago on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
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By Polityk | 02/01/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump, Lead Impeachment Lawyers Part Ways Week Before Trial
With little more than a week before the start of his second Senate impeachment trial, former U.S. President Donald Trump has a legal team in apparent disarray.Two prominent South Carolina lawyers, Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, had been expected to be Trump’s lead lawyers. However, media reports Saturday said there was a mutual parting of the ways.In addition, three other lawyers reported to have been working with the president are also no longer members of Trump’s legal team, according to information first reported by CNN.Trump and the lawyers are reported to be at odds about what legal strategy is appropriate for the Feb. 9 trial.The former president is facing charges of “incitement of insurrection” in connection with the mob that invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6. He is scheduled to reply to those charges by Tuesday.Trump, media sources say, wants the lawyers to focus on to the false notion that he lost the presidential election to Joe Biden because he is a victim of widespread election fraud, instead of focusing on the insurrection charges.Analysts say the former president will likely be acquitted since 45 Republican senators voted on a recent measure that the upcoming trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office.Trump is the first U.S. president to have been impeached twice. He was acquitted by the Senate a year ago on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
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By Polityk | 01/31/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Fighting Climate Change in America Means Changes to America
Climate isn’t the only thing changing. What comes next in the nation’s struggle to combat global warming will probably transform how Americans drive, where they get their power and other bits of day-to-day life, both quietly and obviously, experts say. So far, the greening of America has been subtle, driven by market forces, technology and voluntary actions. The Biden administration is about to change that.In a flurry of executive actions in his first eight days in office, the president is trying to steer the U.S. economy from one that uses fossil fuels to one that no longer puts additional heat-trapping gases into the air by 2050.The United States is rejoining the international Paris climate accord and is also joining many other nations in setting an ambitious goal that once seemed unattainable: net-zero carbon emissions by midcentury. That means lots of changes designed to fight increasingly costly climate disasters such as wildfires, floods, droughts, storms and heat waves.Think of the journey to a carbon-less economy as a road trip from Washington to California that started about 15 years ago.”We’ve made it through Ohio and up to the Indiana border. But the road has been pretty smooth so far. It gets rougher ahead,” said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, climate and energy director at the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental research center in Oakland, California.”The Biden administration is both stepping on the gas and working to upgrade our vehicle,” Hausfather said.What isn’t visible, and what isThe results of some of Biden’s new efforts may still not be noticeable, such as your power eventually coming from ever-cheaper wind and solar energy instead of coal and natural gas that now provide 59% of American power. But when it comes to going from here to there, you’ll notice that.FILE – A Chevrolet Volt hybrid car is hooked up at a ChargePoint charging station at a parking garage in Los Angeles, Oct. 17, 2018.General Motors announced Thursday that as of 2035 it hopes to go all-electric for its light-duty vehicles, no longer selling gasoline-powered cars. Experts expect most new cars sold in 2030 to be electric. The Biden administration promised 550,000 charging stations to help with the transition to electric cars.”You will no longer be going to a gas station, but you will need to charge your vehicle whether at home or on the road,” said Kate Larsen, director of international climate policy research at the Rhodium Group, an independent research organization. “It may be a whole new way of thinking about transportation for the average person.”But it will still be your car, which is why most of the big climate action over the next 10 years won’t be too noticeable, said Princeton University ecologist Stephen Pacala.”The single biggest difference is that because wind and solar is distributed you will see a lot more of it on the landscape,” said Pacala, who leads a study on decarbonizing America by the National Academy of Sciences that will come out next week.FILE – President Joe Biden signs a series of executive orders on climate change, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Jan. 27, 2021.Less expensive, plus health benefitsOther recent detailed scientific studies show that because of dropping wind, solar and battery prices, Biden’s net-zero carbon goal can be accomplished far cheaper than had been predicted in the past and with health benefits “many, many times” outweighing the costs, said Pacala, who was part of one study at Princeton. Those studies agree on what needs to be done for decarbonization, and what Biden has come out with “is doing the things that everyone now is concluding that we should do,” Pacala said.These are the types of shifts that don’t cost much — about $1 day per person — and won’t require people to abandon their current cars and furnaces but replace them with cleaner electric vehicles and heat pumps when it comes time for a new one, said Margaret Torn, a senior scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, who co-authored a study published recently by Berkeley Lab, the University of San Francisco and the consulting firm Evolved Energy Research.Part of the problem, said study co-author Ryan Jones, co-founder of Evolved Energy Research, is that for years, people have wrongly portrayed the battle against climate change as a “personal morality problem” where individuals have to sacrifice by driving and flying less, turning down the heat and eating less meat.”Actually, climate change is an industry economy issue where most of the big solutions are happening under the hood or upstream of people’s homes,” Jones said. “It’s a big change in how we produce energy and consume energy. It’s not a change in people’s day-to-day lives, or it doesn’t need to be.”One Biden interim goal — “a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035″ — may not be doable that quickly, but can be done by 2050, said study co-author Jim Williams of the University of San Francisco.FILE – Todd Miller stands next to solar panels on the roof of his solar installation business in Ankeny, Iowa, April 15, 2019.Electric vehicles, conservation, wind energyBiden’s executive orders featured plans for an all-electric federal fleet of vehicles, conserving 30% of the country’s land and waters, doubling the nation’s offshore wind energy and funding to help communities become more resilient to climate disasters. Republicans and fossil fuel interests objected, calling the actions job-killers.”Using the incredible leverage of federal government purchases in green electricity, zero-emission cars and new infrastructure will rapidly increase demand for home-grown climate-friendly technologies,” said Rosina Bierbaum, a University of Michigan environmental policy professor.The next big thing for the administration is to come up with a Paris climate accord goal — called Nationally Determined Contribution — for how much the United States hopes to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. It has to be ambitious for the president to reach his ultimate goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but it also has to be doable.His administration promises to reveal the goal, required by the climate agreement but nonbinding, before its Earth Day climate summit, April 22.That new number “is actually the centrally important activity of the next year,” said University of Maryland environment professor Nate Hultman, who worked on the Obama administration’s Paris goal.Getting to net zero carbon emissions at midcentury means about a 43% cut from 2005 levels — the baseline the U.S. government uses — by 2030, said the Rhodium Group’s Larsen. The U.S. can realistically reach a 40% cut by 2030, which is about one-third reduction from what 2020 U.S. carbon emissions would have been without a pandemic, said Williams, the San Francisco professor.All this work on power and vehicles, that’s easy compared with decarbonizing agriculture with high methane emissions from livestock and high-heat industrial processes such as steelmaking, Breakthrough’s Hausfather said.”There’s no silver bullet for agriculture,” Hausfather said. “There’s no solar panels for cows, so to speak, apart from meat alternatives, but even there you have challenges around consumer acceptance.”
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By Polityk | 01/31/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Muslim Advocacy Group Applauds Biden Policy on Travel Ban
American Muslims are welcoming President Joe Biden’s executive order lifting travel restrictions on several Muslim-majority countries, restrictions often referred to as the travel ban or Muslim ban. VOA’s Yuni Salim spoke to American Muslims in this report narrated by Nova Poerwadi.
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By Polityk | 01/30/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Revokes Restrictions on Women’s Reproductive Rights
President Joe Biden reversed several Trump administration health care policies Thursday, including one that restricted access to abortion both inside and outside the United States. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story on what Biden’s actions may mean for women’s reproductive rights around the world.
Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov
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By Polityk | 01/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Orders Expanded Health Care on Two Fronts
U.S. President Joe Biden signed two orders expanding health care on Thursday, saying they would “undo the damage” of policies favored by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump. Biden restored U.S. funding for foreign nongovernmental groups that give information to women about abortions, and also opened a special three-month enrollment period for uninsured Americans who now want to buy health insurance, as well as for those who lost their coverage because of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump, like past Republican presidents, had supported what critics have called the “global gag rule” on abortion information and had refused to reopen the government’s market for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Biden’s order also increased access to health care funding for impoverished Americans under a program called Medicaid. “There’s nothing new that we’re doing here,” Biden said, other than to restore programs as they were before Trump changed them. Biden contended that Trump made them “more inaccessible, more expensive and more difficult for people to qualify for.” Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – The HealthCare.gov website is seen on a computer screen in New York, Oct. 23, 2018.Typically, the program is only open for signups for six weeks a year. “As we continue to battle COVID-19, it is even more critical that Americans have meaningful access to affordable care,” the White House said in a statement ahead of the signing. The order directs federal agencies to reexamine policies that undermine the program’s protections for people who have preexisting conditions, including effects from COVID-19. More than 431,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University, and another 25.6 million have been infected. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters Wednesday that her agency’s forecasts indicated the U.S. death toll would be between 479,000 and 514,000 by February 20.
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By Polityk | 01/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Black LIves Matter Activists Voice Cautious Optimism About Biden Presidency
2020 saw a wave of protests in the U.S. denouncing police brutality and demanding social justice during the final year of the Trump administration. Esha Sarai spoke with activists, protesters and organizers across the country about the future of the movement with a Democrat in the White House.Producer: Esha Sarai. Cameras: Natasha Mozgovaya, Esha Sarai.
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By Polityk | 01/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Effects of Trump-Era Travel Ban Expected to Linger
Coffee shops in downtown Tripoli, Libya, are closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, so Mohammed Abdulwaheb, 37, got his ”to-go” and drank it in the parking lot. Libya and other countries had been subject to the Trump-era “travel ban” for four years before it was lifted last week. Back then, Abdulwaheb had wanted to attend graduate school in the United States. But that was a long time ago, he said. “The ban wasn’t fair,” Abdulwaheb added. “And of course it impacted our lives. The end of the ban will especially improve the lives of Libyans in America.” But experts say it will take time to unravel the regulations that grounded so many travelers. And locals in Libya, Nigeria and Sudan — three impacted countries — say resolving the personal setbacks experienced by individuals may take even longer. FILE – Demonstrators opposed to President Donald Trump’s travel ban listen to speakers during a rally outside the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Richmond, Virginia, Jan. 28, 2020.When former president Donald Trump introduced the policy in 2017, critics quickly dubbed it the ”Muslim ban” because it initially applied to Muslim-majority countries and came after Trump had promised to close U.S. borders to Muslims. The administration had said the ban was needed to keep the country safe. But the measure was introduced so abruptly that travelers were left stranded in airports around the world. It separated families and sparked protests at airports across the U.S. By the time newly inaugurated President Joe Biden declared the ban canceled last week, it applied to 13 countries in various forms. Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and Nigeria were added to the list in 2020, which by then also included Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela. Residents of Sudan and Tanzania were prohibited from immigrating through the U.S. Diversity Visa lottery. “Hopefully, with the removing of this ban, we will see a lot of change now,” said Abdulwaheb in Tripoli. “Hopefully.” Missed chances Thousands of kilometers south in Abuja, Nigeria, Wole Olaoye, a leading local journalist, was less sanguine about the ban. His son had already been accepted to a graduate program in California doing research on artificial intelligence when Nigeria was added to the list in early 2020. His son’s visa was subsequently rejected. “I think America needs to make up its mind on whether it wants foreign students or not,” said Olaoye in a phone interview on Wednesday. “You cannot allow your universities to go through the motions of requesting transcripts from universities, processing applications for students, taking initial deposits, only for you to say the students are a ’no go.'” FILE – Volunteer immigration attorneys organize to help as people grappling with President Donald Trump’s executive order travel ban, at Los Angeles International Airport, Jan. 31, 2017.Besides students, the ban kept out potential workers and tourists, and separated families for years, said Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. “Immigration is one of the greatest resources for the United States,” she argued. “So the idea that we are just indiscriminately blocking certain populations is a huge loss to the United States. It’s a loss of family reunification. It’s a loss of potential workers and a lot of other intangible things that we can’t quite measure.” But the end of the ban will not necessarily mean a quick solution for hopeful visa applicants, Pierce said. Rejected applications will have to be reviewed or resubmitted, and many people in the affected countries are expected to put in new applications as the coronavirus pandemic subsides and travel becomes safer. “It will be difficult,” she said. “But at the very least it is something that the administration is already looking into it.” Long-term impact The lifting of the travel ban is a cause for celebration in Sudan, a country that has long suffered from international isolation. For decades Sudan has not just been on the U.S. travel ban list, but on a list of states the U.S. said sponsored terrorism. In December, Sudan was also removed from the “terror” list. Mohammed Ahmed, a 38-year-old civil servant, says it may take a long time for Sudan to feel the impact of the lifting of the travel ban and other restrictions, in Gadarib, Sudan, Jan. 27, 2021 . (VOA/Yan Boechat)In a crowded cafe in Gadarib, Mohammed Ahmed, a 38-year-old civil servant, said the lifting of the travel ban is of little significance to many Sudanese who are more concerned about rising prices and increasing insecurity. But after decades of sanctions and travel restrictions, it could mean an increase in investment, development and general prosperity. “For me the issue is different,” Ahmed said. “I can see a long-term impact.”
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By Polityk | 01/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Does Biden Need Repubicans to Get Things Done?
One of the consistent themes during Joe Biden’s campaign for president and since he won and was inaugurated has been a desire to find bipartisan agreement with Republicans on his agenda items.“The American system contemplates that there has to be cooperation to get most things done,” said Chris Edelson, assistant professor in the School of Government at American University.The false claims by former President Donald Trump that the election was stolen and the votes by Republicans in Congress casting doubt on the election “creates a special challenge for President Biden, and one with no easy solution,” he added.“Joe Biden spent 36 years in the Senate and has a very warm relationship with the body and a veneration for it,” said Norm Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “During the campaign and since his election, he said that he believes he can find Republicans to work with. The initial picture is not as rosy.”If the Democrats hold majorities — slim as they are — in both Houses of Congress, why do they need Republicans to get things done?FilibusterMajority parties almost always get their way in the 435-seat House of Representatives. That is because the rules are written to favor the majority party.In the Senate, long-standing rules protect the minority party’s voice. The filibuster is one such rule. It allows a minority of senators to prevent a vote on an issue by continuing to debate it.Senate rules require three-fifths of the Senate — 60 senators — to vote to end the debate.The way the Senate stands now, 10 Republicans need to agree with all 50 Senate Democrats just to hold a vote to get much of Biden’s agenda enacted.But there are rules to allow Biden and Democrats to get around the filibuster: reconciliation.ReconciliationReconciliation is an arcane process that dates to the 1970s, allowing legislation to bypass the filibuster, as long as it deals with budget issues.This includes raising or cutting taxes and changing priorities for government spending.Senate debate for a reconciliation bill is limited, with just a simple majority needed to pass. With Vice President Kamala Harris presiding, Democrats hold the tiebreaker in the split Senate.Reconciliation has its limits. It can only be done once per fiscal year and could leave out key Biden goals like immigration reform and passing a new voting rights act.Kill the filibuster?Preserving the filibuster is so important to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that he held up passage of an organizing resolution seeking a promise that Democrats would not use their slim majority to get rid of it.Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have indicated they will not vote to eliminate the filibuster.While Biden has been quiet about it lately, Republicans tweeted part of his Senate speech from 2005, in which he said the filibuster “is not about stopping a nominee or a bill, it is about compromise and moderation.”But as vice president, Biden saw the filibuster used to thwart President Barack Obama’s agenda and be a useful campaign tool.“When the filibuster was used over and over in 2009 and 2010, in the next midterm election, Republicans won more seats in the House than they had in 100 years,” Ornstein said. “And then after Obama won reelection, it was used again. And in the midterm that followed, they won back the Senate. So, their game plan that’s to obstruct has worked in the past, and it’s likely they’re going to try it again.”Biden navigated those rules of the Senate for 36 years. How he plays by them now will test the success of his presidency.
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By Polityk | 01/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Blinken Cites Yemen, Russia, China Among Top State Dept. Priorities
Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the humanitarian crisis in Yemen — as well as U.S. relations with Russia and China — are among his immediate priorities. VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
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By Polityk | 01/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Blinken Cites Yemen, Russia, China Among Top Priorities
Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the humanitarian crisis in Yemen — as well as U.S. relations with Russia and China — are among his immediate priorities. VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
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By Polityk | 01/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden’s Challenge: Navigating Filibuster and Reconciliation
One of the consistent themes during Joe Biden’s campaign for president and since he won and was inaugurated has been a desire to find bipartisan agreement with Republicans on his agenda items.“The American system contemplates that there has to be cooperation to get most things done,” said Chris Edelson, assistant professor in the School of Government at American University.The false claims by former President Donald Trump that the election was stolen and the votes by Republicans in Congress casting doubt on the election “creates a special challenge for President Biden, and one with no easy solution,” he added.“Joe Biden spent 36 years in the Senate and has a very warm relationship with the body and a veneration for it,” said Norm Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “During the campaign and since his election, he said that he believes he can find Republicans to work with. The initial picture is not as rosy.”If the Democrats hold majorities — slim as they are — in both Houses of Congress, why do they need Republicans to get things done?FilibusterMajority parties almost always get their way in the 435-seat House of Representatives. That is because the rules are written to favor the majority party.In the Senate, long-standing rules protect the minority party’s voice. The filibuster is one such rule. It allows a minority of senators to prevent a vote on an issue by continuing to debate it.Senate rules require three-fifths of the Senate — 60 senators — to vote to end the debate.The way the Senate stands now, 10 Republicans need to agree with all 50 Senate Democrats just to hold a vote to get much of Biden’s agenda enacted.But there are rules to allow Biden and Democrats to get around the filibuster: reconciliation.ReconciliationReconciliation is an arcane process that dates to the 1970s, allowing legislation to bypass the filibuster, as long as it deals with budget issues.This includes raising or cutting taxes and changing priorities for government spending.Senate debate for a reconciliation bill is limited, with just a simple majority needed to pass. With Vice President Kamala Harris presiding, Democrats hold the tiebreaker in the split Senate.Reconciliation has its limits. It can only be done once per fiscal year and could leave out key Biden goals like immigration reform and passing a new voting rights act.Kill the filibuster?Preserving the filibuster is so important to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that he held up passage of an organizing resolution seeking a promise that Democrats would not use their slim majority to get rid of it.Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have indicated they will not vote to eliminate the filibuster.While Biden has been quiet about it lately, Republicans tweeted part of his Senate speech from 2005, in which he said the filibuster “is not about stopping a nominee or a bill, it is about compromise and moderation.”But as vice president, Biden saw the filibuster used to thwart President Barack Obama’s agenda and be a useful campaign tool.“When the filibuster was used over and over in 2009 and 2010, in the next midterm election, Republicans won more seats in the House than they had in 100 years,” Ornstein said. “And then after Obama won reelection, it was used again. And in the midterm that followed, they won back the Senate. So, their game plan that’s to obstruct has worked in the past, and it’s likely they’re going to try it again.”Biden navigated those rules of the Senate for 36 years. How he plays by them now will test the success of his presidency.
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By Polityk | 01/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden’s Pick for UN Envoy Grilled on China at Confirmation Hearing
U.S. lawmakers Wednesday expressed concern about China’s growing influence at the United Nations during their questioning of President Joe Biden’s intended U.N. ambassador, seeking assurances that she would vigorously push back against Beijing’s “malign influence.” “Despite the fact that the United States is by far the largest donor to the United Nations, the Chinese Communist Party is attempting to reshape the U.N. to serve the needs of the Party,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch said at the opening of Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s confirmation hearing. “And it has had some successes in that regard.” FILE – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James RischSenators from both parties repeatedly grilled the 35-year State Department veteran about a speech she gave as a retired diplomat in 2019. The focus was on the U.S. and China’s investment in Africa, and several senators criticized her for being soft on Beijing. Thomas-Greenfield was invited to speak by the historically Black Savannah State University in Georgia, with which she had a long relationship. The event was at the campus’ Confucius Institute, which is funded by the Chinese government. “I accepted the invitation as a response to the university,” Thomas-Greenfield explained. “I truly regret having accepted that invitation and having had my name associated with the Confucius Institute.” Firm stance on China But she pushed back against accusations by some senators that she has gone easy on China, saying she has spoken out about its behavior throughout her career, including what she called China’s “self-interested and parasitic development goals” in Africa. “And I see what they are doing at the U.N. as undermining our values, undermining what we believe in,” she told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “They are undermining our security, they are undermining our people, and we need to work against that.” Thomas-Greenfield was also asked whether she believes China’s treatment of minority ethnic Uighur Muslims is genocide. FILE – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio”Absolutely,” she told Senator Marco Rubio. “What is happening with the Uighurs is horrendous and we have to recognize it for what it is.” She briefly mentioned her experience as a U.S. diplomat in Kigali, Rwanda, in April 1994 as ethnic Hutu extremists began their 100-day genocide against minority Tutsis. “I lived through and experienced and witnessed a genocide in Rwanda,” she said in speaking about the atrocities committed against the Uighurs. “So I know what it looks like, and what it feels like. This feels like that, we just have to call it for what it is.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken is sworn in as the 71st U.S. Secretary of State, at the Department of State in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021. (State Department photo)The only Middle East country the longtime diplomat was questioned in any depth about was Israel, and what she would do to protect America’s ally at the United Nations, where it often comes in for sharp criticism over its treatment of the Palestinians. “It goes without saying, that Israel has no closer friend than the United States, and I will reflect that in my actions at the United Nations,” she said. The Trump administration also pulled out of the controversial U.N. Human Rights Council, which then-U.N. envoy Nikki Haley called a “cesspool of political bias” over its treatment of Israel. Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration will run for a seat to rejoin the HRC, saying, “If we are on the outside, we have no voice.” She also told the only female senator to question her that she would work to restore funding to the U.N. Population Fund, which was cut by the Trump administration. UNFPA provides reproductive and maternal health care to millions of women worldwide. Diplomatic styleThomas-Greenfield grew up during the civil rights era in the state of Louisiana. She graduated from a segregated high school and went to Louisiana State University, which had to be forced to accept Black students by a court order. Parts of her Southern culture are embedded in her diplomatic style. She has spoken of inviting her counterparts at foreign postings to her home to cook a spicy Cajun stew of chicken, sausage and shrimp, known as gumbo. She has said her “gumbo diplomacy” was a way to break down barriers and forge relations.FILE – U.S. Senator Tim KaineDuring one light moment in Wednesday’s confirmation hearing, Senator Tim Kaine told her that he and his wife had tried her gumbo recipe and really liked it. “I’m so glad it’s good because we made such an enormous quantity of it that we are going to be eating it for the next month,” he said. “It freezes well,” she assured him. Thomas-Greenfield’s nomination must now be approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before going to the full Senate for a vote.
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By Polityk | 01/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Facebook Says it Will Permanently Stop Recommending Political Groups to Users
Facebook Inc’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday the company would no longer recommend civic and political groups to users of the platform.The social media company said in October that it was temporarily halting recommendations of political groups for U.S. users in the run-up to the presidential election. On Wednesday, Facebook said it would be making this permanent and would expand the policy globally.On Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Ed Markey wrote to Zuckerberg asking for an explanation of reports, including by news site The Markup, that Facebook had failed to stop recommending political groups on its platform after this move.He called Facebook’s groups “breeding groups for hate” and noted they had been venues of planning for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.Speaking on a conference call Wednesday with analysts about Facebook’s earnings, Zuckerberg said that the company was “continuing to fine-tune how this works.”Facebook groups are communities that form around shared interests. Public groups can be seen, searched and joined by anyone on Facebook.Several watchdog and advocacy groups have pushed for Facebook to limit algorithmic group recommendations. They have argued that some Facebook groups have been used as spaces to spread misinformation and organize extremist activity.Zuckerberg also said that Facebook was considering steps to reduce the amount of political content in users’ news feeds.
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By Polityk | 01/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Newly-Confirmed US Secretary of State Pledges Cooperation on Global Challenges
The new top U.S. diplomat, Antony Blinken, is pledging to work with core allies and partners to confront complex global challenges, while investing in a diverse and inclusive American Foreign Service.Blinken was officially welcomed to the State Department on Wednesday as secretary of state by approximately 30 of the women and men representing a small cross-section of the larger workforce. “America’s leadership is needed around the world,” said Blinken, adding he will “put a premium on diplomacy” with allies and partners to meet the great challenges, including “the pandemic, climate change, the economic crisis, threats to democracies, fights for racial justice, and the danger to our security and global stability” posed by U.S. adversaries. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is sworn in as the 71st U.S. Secretary of State by Acting Under Secretary of State for Management Carol Z. Perez, at the Department of State in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021. (State Department photo)The new top U.S. diplomat also encouraged non-partisanship and transparency. “I will be forthright with you, because transparency makes us stronger. I will seek out dissenting views and listen to the experts, because that’s how the best decisions are made,” said Blinken at the State Department. The U.S. Senate confirmed him on Tuesday with a 78-22 vote to serve as the country’s 71st secretary of state, filling the most senior Cabinet position and one that is fourth in the line of presidential succession. US Senate Confirms Blinken to Lead State Department Former deputy secretary of state has pledged to rebuild US diplomatic corps At a confirmation hearing last week, Blinken said he was ready to confront the challenges posed by China, Iran, Russia and North Korea. He said China “poses the most significant challenge” to U.S. national interests, while noting there is room for cooperation. “There are rising adversarial aspects of the relationship; certainly, competitive ones, and still some cooperative ones, when it is in our mutual interests,” he said. Conservative lawmakers’ opposition to Blinken centered on concerns that he may help the new administration reenter the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and that he would halt former president Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against the Middle Eastern power. “The policies that Mr. Blinken has committed to implementing as secretary of state, especially regarding Iran, will dangerously erode America’s national security and will put the Biden administration on a collision course with Congress, and I could not support his confirmation,” said Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During his confirmation hearing, Blinken vowed to rebuild State Department morale and the diplomatic corps. He said he saw the U.S. standing abroad as leadership based on “humility and confidence.” The “swift and bipartisan confirmation sends a powerful signal to our nation and the world that American diplomacy and development matter — both on the global stage and here at home,” said the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a broad-based network of 500 businesses and NGOs, in a statement. The 58-year-old Blinken was deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration and has close ties with President Joe Biden. He was staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was chair of the panel, and later was then-Vice President Biden’s national security adviser.
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By Polityk | 01/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Orders End of Federally Run Private Prisons
President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Justice on Tuesday to end its reliance on private prisons and acknowledge the central role government has played in implementing discriminatory housing policies.In remarks before signing the order, Biden said the U.S. government needs to change “its whole approach” on the issue of racial equity. He added that the nation is less prosperous and secure because of the scourge of systemic racism.”We must change now,” the president said. “I know it’s going to take time, but I know we can do it. And I firmly believe the nation is ready to change. But government has to change as well.”Biden rose to the presidency during a year of intense reckoning on institutional racism in the U.S. The moves announced on Tuesday reflect his efforts to follow through with campaign pledges to combat racial injustice. Housing policiesBeyond calling on the Justice Department to curb the use of private prisons and address housing discrimination, the new orders will recommit the federal government to respect tribal sovereignty and disavow discrimination against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community over the coronavirus pandemic.Biden directed the Department of Housing and Urban Development in a memorandum to take steps to promote equitable housing policy. The memorandum calls for HUD to examine the effects of Trump regulatory actions that may have undermined fair housing policies and laws.Months before the November election, the Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era rule that required communities that wanted to receive HUD funding to document and report patterns of racial bias.Stop ‘profiting off of incarceration’The order to end the reliance on privately-run prisons directs the attorney general not to renew Justice Department contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities. The move will effectively revert the Justice Department to the same posture it held at the end of the Obama administration.”This is a first step to stop corporations from profiting off of incarceration,” Biden said.The more than 14,000 federal inmates housed at privately-managed facilities represent a small fraction of the nearly 152,000 federal inmates currently incarcerated.The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had already opted not to renew some private prison contracts in recent months as the number of inmates dwindled and thousands were released to home confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic. Criticism of Biden moveGEO Group, a private company that operates federal prisons, called the Biden order “a solution in search of a problem.””Given the steps the BOP had already announced, today’s Executive Order merely represents a political statement, which could carry serious negative unintended consequences, including the loss of hundreds of jobs and negative economic impact for the communities where our facilities are located, which are already struggling economically due to the COVID pandemic,” a GEO Group spokesperson said in a statement.David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, noted that the order does not end the federal government’s reliance on privately-run immigration detention centers.”The order signed today is an important first step toward acknowledging the harm that has been caused and taking actions to repair it, but President Biden has an obligation to do more, especially given his history and promises,” Fathi said.The memorandum highlighting xenophobia against Asian Americans is in large part a reaction to what White House officials say was offensive and dangerous rhetoric from the Trump administration. Trump, throughout the pandemic, repeatedly used xenophobic language in public comments when referring to the coronavirus.This memorandum will direct Health and Human Services officials to consider issuing guidance describing best practices to advance cultural competency and sensitivity toward Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the federal government’s COVID-19 response. It also directs the Justice Department to partner with AAPI communities to prevent hate crimes and harassment.
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By Polityk | 01/27/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Senate Confirms Biden Nominee as Secretary of State
The U.S. Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s nominee Antony Blinken to lead the U.S. State Department on Tuesday. As VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, Blinken faces numerous challenges worldwide as the nation’s top diplomat.
Camera: Adam Greenbaum Produced by: Katherine Gypson
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By Polityk | 01/27/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Senate Republicans Edge Away from Trump Impeachment Conviction
U.S. Senate Republicans appear to be edging away from convicting former President Donald Trump of inciting insurrection in the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of Trump supporters who looked to confront lawmakers as they debated certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the November election.All 100 senators — 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans — are being sworn in Tuesday as jurors in Trump’s impeachment trial, although the heart of the case has been put off until February 9.The Republican lawmakers hold Trump’s fate in their hands, even though the former president’s four-year term in the White House ended January 20 with Biden’s inauguration.A two-thirds vote is needed for conviction, meaning 17 Republicans would have to turn against Trump for a conviction, assuming all 50 Democrats vote as a bloc. If convicted, a separate, simple majority vote could bar Trump from ever holding public office again.Biden, a senator for 36 years and the former vice president in the Obama administration, told CNN on Monday he supports holding the trial but does not think enough Republicans will vote against Trump for a conviction.Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump supporter who has been advising the former president on the upcoming proceedings, said, “There are only a handful of Republicans, and shrinking, who will vote against him.”Numerous Republican senators have said Trump bears some responsibility for the mayhem that unfolded at the Capitol that left five dead, including a police officer whose death is being investigated as a homicide. At a January 6 rally near the White House, Trump continued voicing baseless claims that he had been cheated out of reelection and urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight” to upend Biden’s victory.In the weeks since, authorities have arrested dozens of the rioters who rampaged into the Capitol building, the worldwide symbol of U.S. democracy, ransacked some congressional offices and scuffled with police. The actions of dozens more protesters are still being investigated.FILE – With the White House in the background, former President Donald Trump speaks his supporters during a rally in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021.But several Republican lawmakers, while often admonishing Trump, questioned why the trial is being held since he is now out of office, or suggested that the rioters themselves were to blame for the rampage.“We will listen to [the case against Trump], but I still have concerns about the constitutionality of this, and the precedent it sets in trying to convict a private citizen,” Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said.“He exhibited poor leadership, I think we all agree with that. But it was these people that came into the Capitol. They did it knowingly. So, they bear the responsibility,” she said.Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin asked, “Why are we doing this? I can’t think of something more divisive and unhealing than doing an impeachment trial when the president is already gone. It’s just vindictive. It’s ridiculous.”On Sunday, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida told the “Fox News Sunday” show, “We’re just going to jump right back into what we’ve been going through for the last five years and bring it up with a trial, and it’s going to be bad for the country. It really is.”The lawmaker added, “This is not a criminal trial. This is a political process and would fuel these divisions that have paralyzed the country.”People shelter in the House gallery as protesters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected suggestions by Republicans that Trump should escape a judgment because his term as president has ended.“There seems to be some hope that Republicans could oppose the former president’s impeachment on process grounds, rather than grappling with his awful conduct,” Schumer said. “Let me be perfectly clear: This is not going to fly.”Two major newspapers, The Washington Post and The New York Times, said their surveys showed wide opposition among Republican senators to convicting Trump. The Post said 29 of the 50 in the chamber opposed the former president’s conviction, while the Times said 27 are opposed.With 67 needed for a conviction, that apparently leaves Trump’s fate to the votes of a small number of Republicans unless more evidence emerges linking Trump to the storming of the Capitol, possibly forcing Republicans opposed to conviction to take a new look at the case.Some Republicans, however, remain open to the possibility of voting for conviction, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the losing Republican presidential candidate in 2012, and the only Republican who voted to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial.Romney, while not committing to vote for a conviction, told CNN on Sunday, “I believe incitement to insurrection is an impeachable offense. If not, what is?”He said he believes Trump was “complicit in an unprecedented attack on our democracy.”Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.Whatever happens in the upcoming trial, Trump stands alone as the only U.S. president to be impeached twice in the country’s 245-year history, although the first to face an impeachment trial after leaving office.The House impeached him in late 2019, accusing him of trying to enlist Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of the November election. The Senate acquitted him last February.Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, one of the House Democratic impeachment managers who will present the case in the Senate against Trump, told CNN they will “put together a case that is so compelling” to confront “the big lie” that Trump had been cheated out of reelection.She called Trump’s incitement of insurrection “an extraordinary, heinous crime. The American public saw what happened.”“This was a terrifying moment … incited by the president,” she said. “This cannot go unanswered.”House impeachment managers formally delivered the article of impeachment to the Senate Monday evening, accusing Trump of “incitement of insurrection.”Two weeks ago, the House voted 232-197 in favor of Trump’s impeachment, with 10 Republicans joining all House Democrats in the majority.
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By Polityk | 01/27/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
On Key Biden Priorities, There is Room for Bipartisan Agreement, Experts Say
Less than one week into the administration of President Joe Biden, much of the talk in Washington is focused on the dysfunction on Capitol Hill, a spate of executive orders from the new president, and the looming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. None of the three bodes well for bipartisan cooperation so pessimism might seem justified. However, when experts look at the major policy areas that Biden identified in last week’s inaugural address, there are at least some areas where agreement across the aisle is a real possibility. Coronavirus rescue package The Biden administration came out of the gate with a request for $1.9 trillion in spending on various programs related to the coronavirus pandemic, including major economic stimulus spending and a large investment in federal infrastructure to get the vaccine to as many Americans as it can, as quickly as it can. FILE – Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, left, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer are seen during a joint session of Congress in the House chamber in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.Republicans on Capitol Hill were quick to label the proposal “dead on arrival” because of its price tag, but some observers believe their initial reluctance might be overcome by the reality of the country’s economic situation. “I think that even though people are calling it dead on arrival, there’s a lot in this bill that’s probably going to make it,” said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Few lawmakers, he said, are going to want to stand in the way of programs meant to get people inoculated against the virus, and while there will probably be some arguing about the size of stimulus payments, the popularity of that part of the proposal will make it difficult to kill off entirely. On tax policy specifically, Gleckman believes there is considerable bipartisan agreement on a number of proposals that might turn up in the relief package or a follow-on bill. There is support for expanding the tax credit that filers receive for children under their care and for expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit to childless workers. Gleckman said that Biden’s Made In America tax credit, meant to spur domestic manufacturing, will also likely have bipartisan support. Immigration policy As with trade policy, Biden will confront a GOP that has made a sharp change of course on matters of immigration over the past several years. The Republican establishment had, for decades, been largely supportive of immigration, seeing it as a driver of economic demand and a source of lower-cost labor. That began to change even before Trump, but the party took an even more aggressive anti-immigration stance under the former president. FILE – Demonstrators with the New York Immigration Coalition rally asking President Joe Biden to prioritize immigration reform, Nov. 9, 2020, in New York.However, Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, believes there are still a number of pro-immigration Republicans who have been silent during the Trump years, but who could support some of the changes Biden is proposing. For example, the Biden proposal would seek to streamline and expand the process for bringing skilled workers into the country — a move that could earn support from Republicans with ties to the business community. Those less enthusiastic about immigration might support other initiatives, such as a proposal to allow the Department of Homeland Security to vary the number of green cards issued each year depending on economic conditions. “This is actually something that the Migration Policy Institute has been advocating for years, because it doesn’t make sense that our immigration [volume] is set by law,” Pierce said. “It should be flexible and maintain a relationship with market conditions within the United States.” Another Biden proposal, to increase the wages paid to temporary workers, could appeal to some who have opposed guest worker programs on the theory that migrant labor tends to drive down the wages of competing U.S. workers.
Potential bipartisan agreement on immigration reform has limits, however. Biden’s most ambitious proposal, an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, mirrors efforts that withered and died in Congress during both the former Obama and George W. Bush administrations. Climate change With the exception of a few outliers, Republicans in the House and Senate oppose most of the major climate initiatives that Biden and the majority of the Democratic Party are advocating. The announcement that on his first day in office Biden had recommitted the U.S. to the Paris Climate Agreement, for instance, was met with angry denunciations from multiple Republican members of Congress. FILE – Then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry holding his granddaughter, Isabelle Dobbs-Higginson, signs the book during the signature ceremony for the Paris Agreement at the United Nations General Assembly Hall, April 22, 2016, in New York.However, the GOP’s objections to dealing with climate change are regularly overridden when they conflict with national security interests, said Erin Sikorsky, deputy director of the Center for Climate and Security. “In the past four years, you’ve actually seen that the House and Senate have passed pragmatic climate security legislation, usually through the National Defense Authorization Act each year, and so I think that’s definitely an area where the Biden administration can find bipartisan consensus with Congress,” she said. This will be cold comfort to most environmental activists, however, as the measures are largely reactive rather than proactive, including steps like making military bases more resistant to extreme weather and funding programs that allow climate scientists to interact with the intelligence community. Trade policy The debate over trade has shifted dramatically in the four years since Joe Biden last served in the White House as vice president. Under Trump, the GOP radically reshaped its position on trade, following the former president’s lead by supporting tariffs and protectionism. That, perhaps surprisingly, makes trade one of the areas ripest for bipartisan cooperation. “Trade is an issue on which, in terms of actual policy, the incoming Biden administration is closer to Trump than on most other, or maybe nearly all other, issues,” said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Within the Biden administration, he said, the prevailing view is that “the goal of trade should not be foremost to follow the law of comparative advantage and try to enlarge two-way commerce, but rather to advance labor, environmental and human rights and, as needed, protect jobs.” FILE – Visitors chat near American and Chinese flags displayed at a booth for an American company promoting environmental sensors during the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, Nov. 7, 2019.Biden has appointed Katherine Tai, a trade attorney who speaks Mandarin and has a history of challenging the trade practices of the Chinese government, as U.S. Trade Representative. Her past support for tough-on-China policies has earned her bipartisan support in Congress. Early indications also suggest that the Biden administration may believe, as many trade economists do, that the center of power in international trade has moved away from the World Trade Organization and toward a network of individual trade agreements, many of them bilateral. A lingering question will be the U.S. position with regard to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a pact that creates a massive free trade zone in the Pacific region. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the accord, which had been largely negotiated by the Obama administration, a move that was supported by many Democrats. However, now the United Kingdom and China are both looking to join the CPTPP. The participation of two more major U.S. trading partners in the accord — and especially China — may leave Biden’s team wondering whether it wouldn’t be preferable to have a seat at the table as a counter to Chinese influence.
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By Polityk | 01/26/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Senate to Vote on Blinken Nomination as Secretary of State
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the nomination of Antony Blinken to be the country’s next secretary of state. At a confirmation hearing last week, Blinken said he is ready to confront the challenges posed by China, Iran, Russia and North Korea. He said China “poses the most significant challenge” to U.S. national interests, while noting there is room for cooperation. “There are rising adversarial aspects of the relationship; certainly, competitive ones, and still some cooperative ones, when it is in our mutual interests,” he added.Nominated Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates as US President Joe Biden speaks during a cabinet announcement event in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 24, 2020.He also pledged to rebuild State Department morale and the diplomatic corps. Blinken said he sees U.S. standing abroad as leadership based on “humility and confidence.” Blinken was deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration and has close ties with President Joe Biden. He was staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was chair of the panel, and later was then-Vice President Biden’s national security adviser. The Foreign Relations Committee approved Blinken’s nomination by a vote of 15-3, sending the matter to the full Senate for final approval.
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By Polityk | 01/26/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US House Lawmakers Deliver Article of Impeachment to Senate
U.S. senators will be sworn in Tuesday as judges and jurors in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. The trial itself will not begin until the week of February 8, after Democratic and Republican leaders agreed to a short delay in order to give both the lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors and Trump’s defense team time to prepare. The extra time will also allow the Senate a chance to confirm more of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees. House lawmakers who will serve as trial prosecutors made a ceremonial walk to the Senate chamber Monday evening to deliver the articles of impeachment charging Trump with inciting insurrection in connection with the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters earlier this month. The assault sent lawmakers scrambling for safety and resulted in the deaths of five people. Lead House manager Jamie Raskin from Maryland read the charges, saying Trump “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of the government.” U.S. House lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin, D-MD, hands over the House article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump, on the floor of the U.S. Senate in this this frame grab from video shot at the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 25, 2021.Trump has hired ethics and election lawyer Butch Bowers to lead his defense along with Deborah Barbier, a former federal prosecutor who works as a defense attorney specializing in white-collar crime. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who holds the largely ceremonial role of Senate president pro tempore, said Monday he will preside over the impeachment trial. The U.S. Constitution calls for the chief justice of the Supreme Court to preside over impeachment hearings for a president, but because Trump is no longer in office, officials said Chief Justice John Roberts would not preside. Leahy, 80, was first elected to the Senate in 1974, making him the longest-serving member. He told reporters at the Capitol his role will be “making sure that procedures are followed” and said his years in the Senate will help him to be seen as impartial. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the new president pro tempore of the Senate, pauses in the Rotunda of the Capitol before the article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump is delivered in Washington, Jan. 25, 2021.“When presiding over an impeachment trial, the president pro tempore takes an additional special oath to do impartial justice according to the Constitution and the laws. It is an oath that I take extraordinarily seriously,” Leahy said in a statement. Aides to Leahy said the lawmaker will still be able to vote in the trial. Republican Senator John Cornyn criticized that arrangement on Twitter, saying, “How does a Senator preside, like a judge, and serve as juror, too?”Cornyn also suggested Trump has already faced punishment at the ballot box, one of several arguments Republicans have made in opposition of holding the trial. “One way in our system you get punished is losing an election,” Cornyn said. Senator Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, said that while Trump “exhibited poor leadership,” it’s the people who assaulted the Capitol who “bear the responsibility.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said the Senate will conduct “a timely and fair trial.” He dismissed Republican opposition to the process, saying the trial is “certainly and clearly constitutional.” “There is only one question at stake. Only one question that Senators of both parties will have to answer, before God and their own conscience: is former President Trump guilty of inciting an insurrection against the United States?” Schumer said. Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley said the Senate’s responsibility is to hear the evidence and render a judgment.Vice President Mike Pence administers the oath of office to Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., during a reenactment ceremony in the Old Senate Chamber at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 3, 2021.“This is about the most serious crime against the constitution one could imagine,” he tweeted. “Every senator was a witness; every senator experienced the threat to the very foundation of our democracy. We must treat it with absolute seriousness and conduct the trial accordingly.” Two-thirds majority A two-thirds majority in the Senate would be required to convict Trump. With the Senate politically divided between 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, 17 Republicans would have to turn against Trump for a conviction, assuming all Democrats vote as a bloc against the former president. Biden told the U.S.-based cable news network CNN on Monday he did not think there would be enough Republican support for a conviction. He said the trial “has to happen,” and that there would be “a worse effect if it didn’t happen.” At a January 6 rally near the White House, Trump repeated weeks of unfounded complaints that he had been cheated out of reelection by fraudulent votes and vote-counting even though he had lost 60 court challenges to the outcome. He urged his supporters to march to the Capitol to fight for him in confronting members of Congress as they debated certifying Biden’s election win. The mayhem left five people dead, including a police officer whose death is being investigated as a homicide. Trump supporters — roughly 800, according to officials — rampaged past authorities, ransacked some congressional offices and scuffled with police before order was restored and lawmakers in the early hours of January 7 officially declared Biden the winner. If he is convicted, a separate, simple-majority vote could bar Trump from holding federal office again. Trump stands as the only U.S. president in the country’s 245-year history to be impeached twice. The House impeached him in late 2019, accusing him of trying to enlist Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of the November election, but the Senate acquitted him last February.
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By Polityk | 01/26/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US House Delivers Impeachment Articles to Senate
The U.S. House of Representatives has officially sent its articles of impeachment to the Senate, charging former President Donald Trump with inciting insurrection in connection with the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters earlier this month. House lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors in the impeachment trial made the ceremonial walk to the Senate chamber Monday evening to deliver the articles. Lead House manager Jamie Raskin from Maryland read the charges against Trump, saying Trump “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of the government.” U.S. House lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin, D-MD, hands over the House article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump, on the floor of the U.S. Senate in this this frame grab from video shot at the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 25, 2021.The trial in the Senate is set to begin the week of February 8, after Democrats and Republicans agreed to a short delay in order to give both the lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors and Trump’s defense team time to prepare. The extra time will also allow the Senate a chance to confirm more of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees. Trump has hired two lawyers from South Carolina for his legal defense in the impeachment case. Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who each run legal firms in Columbia, South Carolina, will have two weeks to prepare a defense for Trump in the Senate. Democrat Patrick Leahy, the Senate’s longest-serving member, said Monday he will preside over the impeachment trial. The U.S. Constitution calls for the chief justice of the Supreme Court to preside over impeachment hearings for a president, however because Trump is no longer in office, officials said Chief Justice John Roberts would not preside. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the new president pro tempore of the Senate, pauses in the Rotunda of the Capitol before the article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump is delivered in Washington, Jan. 25, 2021.Leahy, 80, was first elected to the Senate in 1974, making him the longest-serving member. He told reporters at the Capitol his role will be “making sure that procedures are followed” and said his years in the Senate will help him to be seen as impartial. Aides to Leahy say the lawmaker will still be able to vote in the trial. Republican Senator John Cornyn criticized that arrangement on Twitter, saying, “How does a Senator preside, like a judge, and serve as juror, too?” Two-thirds majority A two-thirds majority in the Senate would be required to convict Trump. With the Senate politically divided between 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, 17 Republicans would have to turn against Trump for a conviction, assuming all Democrats vote as a bloc against the former president. If he is convicted, a separate, simply-majority vote could bar Trump from holding federal office again. Trump stands as the only U.S. president in the country’s 245-year history to be impeached twice. The House impeached him in late 2019, accusing him of trying to enlist Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of the November election, but the Senate acquitted him last February. Some Republicans have objected to the impeachment trial on the grounds that Trump is no longer in office. FILE – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 30, 2020.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer argued against that objection Monday, telling the Senate, “The theory that the Senate can’t try former officials would amount to a constitutional get-out-of-jail-free card for any president.” He said Sunday that the trial would move relatively quickly. “Everyone wants to put this awful chapter in American history behind us. But sweeping it under the rug will not bring healing,” he said. “The only way to bring healing is to actually have real accountability, which this trial affords.” Capitol violenceA number of Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have condemned the violence that unfolded on January 6 and criticized Trump, who urged supporters to march to the Capitol to fight for him in confronting lawmakers as they debated certifying Biden’s election win. FILE – Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Jan. 19, 2021.Republican Senator Marco Rubio told the “Fox News Sunday” show that while he believes Trump “bears responsibility for some of what happened,” he opposes the Senate trial. “We’re just going to jump right back into what we’ve been going through for the last five years and bring it up with a trial and it’s going to be bad for the country,” he said. “It really is.” “This is not a criminal trial,” Rubio said. “This is a political process and would fuel these divisions that have paralyzed the country.” FILE – U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-UT, speaks to reporters in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 16, 2020.Senator Mitt Romney, who was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial, expressed support for bringing Trump to trial again. “I believe incitement to insurrection is an impeachable offense,” he told CNN. “If not, what is?” Romney said he believes Trump was “complicit in an unprecedented attack on our democracy.” The mayhem left five people dead, including a police officer whose death is being investigated as a homicide. Trump supporters — roughly 800, according to officials — rampaged past authorities, ransacked some congressional offices and scuffled with police before order was restored and lawmakers in the early hours of January 7 officially declared Biden the winner. At the rally before hundreds of his supporters walked 16 blocks to the Capitol, Trump repeated weeks of unfounded complaints that he had been cheated out of reelection by fraudulent votes and vote-counting even though he had lost 60 court challenges to the outcome. “There is no evidence this election was stolen,” Romney said. FILE – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-PA., votes on Capitol Hill, Dec. 13, 2019.One of the House Democratic impeachment managers who will present the case in the Senate against Trump, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, told CNN that they will “put together a case that is so compelling” to confront “the big lie” that Trump had been cheated out of reelection. She called Trump’s incitement of insurrection “an extraordinary, heinous crime. The American public saw what happened.” “This was a terrifying moment … incited by the president,” she said. “This cannot go unanswered.”
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By Polityk | 01/26/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Justice Department Watchdog to Probe Possible Election Meddling
The independent watchdog at the U.S. Justice Department said Monday he is launching an investigation into whether anyone at the agency “engaged in an improper attempt” to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. Inspector General Michael Horowitz said he would examine the actions of current and former Justice Department officials, but not those elsewhere in the government. FILE – U.S. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz testifies on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Sept. 18, 2019.Former Attorney General William Barr, who headed the Justice Department before leaving office a month ago, said the agency had “not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome” than Biden’s victory. But Trump, whose four-year term in the White House ended last Wednesday when Biden was inaugurated as the country’s 46th president, for weeks made unfounded claims of voting and vote-counting irregularities that cheated him out of reelection, even as judges dismissed about 60 court cases claiming fraud in the key states that Biden won and proved decisive in the election. Horowitz’s announcement of an investigation came after The New York Times reported that Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark had been discussing a plan with Trump in late December to oust Jeffrey Rosen, the agency’s acting attorney general after Barr left Trump’s Cabinet, and then claim there had been widespread fraud and challenge the election results. The conversations reportedly occurred in the days ahead of Congress’s January 6 meeting to certify Biden’s victory in the Electoral College that is determinative of U.S. presidential elections. FILE – Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Clark speaks as he stands next to Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Oct. 21, 2020.In a statement, Clark denied he had tried to oust Rosen, and Rosen declined to comment to The Washington Post. With Biden in the White House, Clark and Rosen, both Trump appointees, have now left the Justice Department. The challenge would have focused on the southern state of Georgia, where Biden won by just under 12,000 votes out of the 5 million ballots that were cast, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992. Even had Georgia, with 16 votes in the Electoral College, flipped to Trump, it would not have been enough to change the overall outcome. FILE – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference at the State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, Nov. 6, 2020.But Trump was so fixated on the Georgia outcome, unexpected as Biden’s victory was, that at one point in early January he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the 11,780 votes he would need to overtake Biden by a single vote. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a staunch critic of Trump, had demanded that Horowitz start an investigation “into this attempted sedition” by Clark. The New York Democrat said it was “unconscionable a Trump Justice Department leader would conspire to subvert the people’s will.” The Times report said that Trump decided not to dismiss Rosen in favor of Clark after top Justice Department officials said they would stage a mass resignation if he fired Rosen. The former president has not yet commented. Clark has said the newspaper’s account of his conversations with Trump was inaccurate but declined to detail the inaccuracies.
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By Polityk | 01/26/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Janet Yellen Wins Senate Approval as Treasury Secretary
The Senate on Monday approved President Joe Biden’s nomination of Janet Yellen to be the nation’s 78th treasury secretary, making her the first woman to hold the job in the department’s 232-year history. Yellen, a former chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, was approved by the Senate on a 84-15 vote, becoming the third member of Biden’s Cabinet to win confirmation. She is expected to play a key role in gaining congressional approval of Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which is running into stiff opposition from Republicans who believe the price tag is too high. FILE – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 30, 2020.Speaking on the Senate floor before the vote, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted the former Federal Reserve chairwoman had bipartisan support. Schumer said Yellen has a “breathtaking range of experience” and support for her nomination reflected “just how well suited she is to manage the economic challenges of our time … particularly during this moment of economic crisis.” Before the approval by the full Senate, Yellen had received unanimous backing from the Senate Finance Committee. Republicans on the panel said they had a number of policy disagreements with Yellen and the Biden administration in such areas as raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, but believed it was important to allow Biden to assemble his economic team quickly. FILE – Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, participates remotely in a Senate Finance Committee hearing in Washington, Jan. 19, 2021.At her confirmation hearing before the Finance Committee last week, Yellen had argued that without prompt action the nation faced the threat of a “longer, more painful recession.” She urged quick action on the virus relief package that would provide an additional $1,400 in payments to individuals making less than $75,000 annually as well as providing expanded unemployment benefits, further aid for small businesses and support for cities and states to prevent layoffs. The plan also provides more support for vaccine production and distribution. FILE – Sen. Ron Wyden at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 30, 2020.”She can take complicated economic theories and put them into understandable language — all while showing a real heart for the millions of Americans who are hurting through no fault of their own,” Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said before the vote. During her confirmation hearing, Yellen faced substantial pushback on the coronavirus relief package from Republicans who argued that it was too large, especially at a time that the federal budget deficit has soared above $3 trillion. They also objected to such measures as an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour. FILE – Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 14, 2020.Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, told Yellen that Biden’s plan represented a “laundry list of liberal structural economic reforms.” As Treasury secretary, Yellen, 74, will occupy a pivotal role in shaping and directing Biden’s economic policies. She enters the Treasury job after many years serving in other top economic jobs, including as the first woman to serve as chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018. Previous experienceAn economist by training who was a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Yellen will represent the Biden administration in global financial affairs and lead a sprawling department whose responsibilities cover overseeing IRS tax collections, making policy on banking regulations and serving as the administration’s contact with Wall Street. In her previous roles, Yellen developed an expertise in areas ranging from labor markets to international finance. Publicly, she frequently signaled concern about how economic policies affect ordinary people, especially disadvantaged communities. She drew high marks for her stewardship at the Fed, where she employed record-low interest rates and massive bond buying, two policies begun by her predecessor Ben Bernanke, to support the economy as it struggled to emerge from a deep recession. She will now confront a new crisis brought on by a global pandemic. Since leaving the Fed, Yellen has been a distinguished fellow in residence at the Brookings Institution, a liberal Washington think tank. According to financial disclosure forms she provided during her confirmation, she collected more than $7 million in speaking fees during more than 50 in-person and virtual engagements over the past two years, including with many Wall Street firms. Yellen has agreed to recuse herself from decisions that would affect certain financial organizations.
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By Polityk | 01/26/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Supreme Court Ends Trump Emoluments Lawsuits
The Supreme Court on Monday brought an end to lawsuits over whether Donald Trump illegally profited off his presidency.The justices threw out Trump’s challenge to lower court rulings that had allowed lawsuits to go forward alleging that he violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause by accepting payments from foreign and domestic officials who stay at the Trump International Hotel and patronize other businesses owned by the former president and his family.The high court also ordered the lower court rulings thrown out as well and directed appeals courts in New York and Richmond, Virginia, to dismiss the suits as moot now that Trump is no longer in office.The outcome leaves no judicial opinions on the books in an area of the law that has been rarely explored in U.S. history. The cases involved suits filed by Maryland and the District of Columbia, and high-end restaurants and hotels in New York and Washington, D.C., that “found themselves in the unenviable position of having to compete with businesses owned by the President of the United States.”The suits sought financial records showing how much state and foreign governments have paid the Trump Organization to stay and eat at Trump-owned properties.Other cases involving Trump remain before the Supreme Court, or in lower courts.Trump is trying to block the Manhattan district attorney ‘s enforcement of a subpoena for his tax returns. Lower courts are weighing congressional subpoenas for Trump’s financial records. And the justices also have before them Trump’s appeal of a decision forbidding him from blocking critics on his Twitter account. Like the emoluments cases, Trump’s appeal would seem to be moot now that he is out of office and also had his Twitter account suspended.
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By Polityk | 01/26/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
