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Poll: US Global Standing Rebounds Under Biden

Approval of U.S. leadership around the world rebounded during the first six months of President Joe Biden’s term, after a record low in the last year of President Donald Trump’s administration. This according to a new Gallup survey of people in nearly 50 countries. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.

Produced by: Barry Unger
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Biden, Democrats Aim for Deal on Spending Package in Coming Days 

U.S. President Joe Biden and Democratic lawmakers are edging toward a deal on the scope of their cornerstone economic revival package and hope to reach a compromise as soon as this week, people briefed on the negotiations said Tuesday. 

Scrambling to broker an agreement, Biden met with 19 lawmakers on Tuesday in an unusually busy day of legislative negotiations. He aimed to secure what may be the signature effort of his administration, a multitrillion-dollar, two-bill legislative package that expands social safety net programs and infrastructure spending. 

One source said a deal could be announced midweek if things go well; two others said the White House was hoping for an announcement in coming days. 

“After a day of constructive meetings, the President is more confident this evening about the path forward to delivering for the American people on strong, sustained economic growth that benefits everyone,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a written statement issued Tuesday evening. 

The talks centered on a “shared commitment to the care economy, ensuring working families have more breathing room, addressing the climate crisis, and investing in industries of the future so that we can compete globally,” Psaki said. 

“There was broad agreement that there is urgency in moving forward over the next several days and that the window for finalizing a package is closing,” she said. 

A spending package that was originally estimated at $3.5 trillion over a decade could be reduced to $1.9 trillion to $2.2 trillion, said Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives, after meeting with Biden. 

Biden told Democrats in a private meeting that he believed a deal could be reached between $1.75 trillion and $1.9 trillion, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday evening. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also said Democrats aim to reach a framework deal this week. Speaking to reporters following a closed-door lunch with fellow Democrats, he said: “There was universal agreement in that room that we have to come to an agreement, and we want to get it done this week.” 

A deal is likely to be far less ambitious than Biden’s original plan. Initiatives in that proposal that may see cuts include $322 billion for affordable housing, money for paid family leave and some $400 billion earmarked to increase home-based care for the elderly and disabled, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

Biden has told lawmakers that a program providing free community college is on the chopping block and a child tax credit may be extended for fewer years than planned, according to people familiar with the discussions. 

All of the people who spoke to Reuters warned that negotiations were fragile, still under way and that a deal could still collapse. 

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has set October 31 as the deadline for the House to pass a $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal that the Senate has already approved and has broad bipartisan support. 

Biden met on Tuesday with House progressives, who have been unwilling to pass the infrastructure bill unless it is coupled with the larger budget bill that would fund Biden’s campaign pledges on climate, inequality and social programs. 

“We all feel still even more optimistic about getting to an agreement,” to get a large measure of what they wanted months ago, Jayapal said. 

She said there still weren’t “final” details on major portions of the initiative, including on climate change. Another progressive, Representative Ro Khanna, said Biden’s plan for universal preschool remained a priority. 

The president also met Tuesday with moderate Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who have voiced concern about the size of the bill and pushed Biden to reduce the original cost. They have a virtual veto over his agenda because both chambers of Congress are controlled only narrowly by Democrats. Republicans largely oppose the larger social-spending bill. 

Asked about the size of the spending bill, Manchin yelled, “I’m at $1.5” trillion to reporters in Congress on Tuesday evening. 

Democratic Senator Jon Tester, who attended a White House meeting with another group of moderates, said afterward, “I think we’re making really good progress, better progress than I ever thought we were making.” 

One of Biden’s major selling points in last year’s presidential campaign was his ability to find a middle ground at a time of deep political polarization, touting his 36 years as a moderate Democratic U.S. senator from Delaware. 

Weeks of negotiations nonetheless failed to bridge the gap on the spending bill. Biden said on October 1 that he would find an agreement “whether it’s in six minutes, six days or in six weeks,” but White House officials were increasingly concerned as the weeks ticked by. 
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Indictment Accuses US Congressman of Lying to FBI

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, accusing him of lying to the FBI and concealing information from federal agents who were investigating campaign contributions funneled to him from a Nigerian billionaire. 

The U.S. attorney’s office announced that the grand jury in Los Angeles had indicted the nine-term Republican on one charge of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators. Fortenberry is expected to appear for an arraignment Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Los Angeles. 

The indictment stems from an FBI investigation into $180,000 in illegal campaign contributions from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent. 

The contributions were funneled through a group of Californians from 2012 through 2016 and went to four U.S. politicians, including $30,200 to Fortenberry in 2016. Using an analysis of federal election records, Politico has identified the other three Republican recipients as former U.S. Representative Lee Terry of Nebraska in 2014; Representative Darrell Issa of California in 2014; and Senator Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign. 

Federal authorities haven’t alleged that any of the other three campaigns or candidates were aware that the donations originated with Chagoury. 

Allegations

Chagoury, who lives in Paris, admitted to the crime in 2019, agreed to pay a $1.8 million fine and is cooperating with federal authorities. Prosecutors have said Chagoury made some of the illegal contributions to politicians from smaller states because he thought the amounts would be more noticeable and give him better access. He also drew attention years ago for giving more than $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. 

The indictment alleges that a co-host of the 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles told Fortenberry that the donations probably did come from Chagoury, but Fortenberry never filed an amended campaign report with the Federal Election Commission as required. It says he later “made false and misleading statements” to federal investigators during a March 23, 2019, interview at his home in Lincoln. 

According to the indictment, Fortenberry falsely told investigators he wasn’t aware of an associate of Chagoury being involved in illegal contributions. He also allegedly said that his donors were publicly disclosed, and he wasn’t aware of any contributions from a foreign national, which is illegal. 

In a second interview in Washington in July 2019, the indictment says Fortenberry denied that he was aware of any illicit donation made during the 2016 fundraiser. 

‘Shocked’ and ‘stunned’

In a YouTube video posted Monday night, Fortenberry said he was “shocked” and “stunned” by the allegations and asked his supporters to rally behind him. Knowingly making false statements to a federal agent is a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. 

“We will fight these charges,” he said in the video, filmed inside a 1963 pickup truck with his wife, Celeste, and their dog, against a backdrop of corn. “I did not lie to them. I told them what I knew. But we need your help.” 

Fortenberry’s campaign has insisted that he didn’t know the donations, which the campaign received during a fundraiser in Los Angeles, originated with Chagoury. 

Fortenberry said FBI agents from California came to his home after he had been out dealing with a major storm that had just hit Nebraska. He said they questioned him about the contributions then and in a follow-up interview. 

“I told them what I knew and what I understood,” he said. 

Fortenberry represents the state’s 1st Congressional District, a heavily Republican area that includes Lincoln and parts of several Omaha suburbs, as well as surrounding farmland and small towns in eastern Nebraska. 

According to the Nebraska secretary of state’s office, no other Nebraska congressman or U.S. senator has been indicted since at least 1901. 

Fortenberry was first elected to the seat in 2004. He won his last election in 2020 with 60% of the vote and has generally defeated Democratic challengers by lopsided margins. 

His statement that he expected to be indicted was first reported by the Omaha World-Herald. 

Celeste Fortenberry said her husband spoke with the agents voluntarily, without a lawyer, because he was under the impression that the agents needed his help to get to the bottom of the case. 

She said he later called his friend, attorney and former congressman Trey Gowdy, for legal representation. She said her husband sat for another interview with agents in Washington and was repeatedly assured that he was not a target of the investigation. 

 
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US House January 6 Probe Set to Advance Bannon Contempt Citation

The House of Representatives committee investigating the rioting at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 appears headed Tuesday to initiating contempt of Congress charges against Steve Bannon, one of former President Donald Trump’s longest-standing advisers, for refusing to cooperate with the probe.

The Democratic-controlled panel, investigating how and why hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building as lawmakers were certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated Trump in last year’s presidential election, is expected to approve the contempt citation against the 67-year-old Bannon, sending it to the full House for a vote.

If the House also votes to hold Bannon in contempt, the citation would be sent to the federal prosecutor in Washington for presentation to a grand jury for possible indictment of Bannon. He could, if convicted, be sentenced to up to a year’s imprisonment, but such contempt of Congress charges are unusual and rarely result in prison time.  

Trump, in the waning days of his presidency, urged supporters at a rally near the White House to “fight like hell” to block certification of Biden’s victory. Soon afterward, more than 800 Trump supporters stormed into the Capitol, some of them vandalizing the building and fighting with police. More than 600 have been charged with an array of offenses. The incident left five people dead.

Trump has sought to stymie the committee’s investigation of what precipitated the rioting and his role in it. He has urged Bannon and other former aides subpoenaed by the committee to reject its requests, claiming executive privilege for White House documents, even though he left office January 20. Bannon was Trump’s chief strategist at the White House through the first seven months of 2017 and has remained as one of his most vocal supporters.

Trump filed a lawsuit Monday alleging the committee made an illegal, unfounded and overly broad request for his White House records.

Biden’s White House has argued that Trump has no legitimate privilege claim.

“The former president’s actions represented a unique — and existential — threat to our democracy that can’t be swept under the rug,” said spokesman Michael Gwin. “The constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself.”

Senate Republicans blocked the creation of an independent commission to probe the mayhem that would have been modeled on the one that investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

In response, the Democratic-controlled House then created the nine-member investigative panel, which includes two Republican lawmakers who have been vocal Trump critics.

In July, the panel heard vivid, detailed accounts from four police officers who encountered the rioters inside the Capitol on January 6 but has not heard more public testimony since then.
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Gallup Surveys Show Rebound in Approval of US Leadership

Approval for U.S. leadership rebounded during the first six months of President Joe Biden’s administration, according to a Gallup survey of people in nearly 50 countries. 

The increase came after median approval of U.S. leadership in 108 countries where Gallup conducted surveys hit a record low of 30% in 2020, the last year of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Gallup, a Washington, D.C.-based analytics company, said its 2021 data is not yet complete, but in 46 countries where data was available as of early August, approval for U.S. leadership was up to 49%. 

Approval numbers fell in three countries, declining from 18% to 13% in Russia, 20% to 16% in Serbia and 54% to 50% in Benin.

Approval for U.S. leadership was sharply higher in 2021 from 2020 in several European nations, increasing 52 percentage points in Portugal, 45 points in the Netherlands and 41 points in Sweden. U.S. leadership’s approval also jumped from 17% to 55% in U.S. neighbor Canada, with double-digit increases also seen in Germany, Italy, France and Japan. 

Gallup pointed to different U.S. approaches to engaging with the world under the Trump and Biden administrations. Trump promoted his preference for “America first” policies, while Biden has sought to work more closely with other countries. 

“These words and actions likely reassured many longtime U.S. allies and the international community at large and help explain the surge in approval ratings across most of the 46 countries and territories surveyed through the first half of 2021,” Gallup said. 

Even with the higher approval ratings, the United States was still a distant second in several regions when compared to some of its peers.

When Gallup asked whether people approved of the leadership of the U.S., Germany, China and Russia, it was Germany that ranked first among respondents in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The United States ranked first only in Africa, with its 53% approval just ahead of Germany’s 49%. 
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US House Committee Rejects Bannon ‘Privilege’ Argument in January 6 Inquiry

The U.S. congressional committee investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol said Monday that it rejected Steve Bannon’s arguments for failing to cooperate with the inquiry, as the panel pursues a contempt of Congress charge against the longtime adviser to former President Donald Trump. 

Trump has claimed that materials and testimony sought by the House of Representatives Select Committee are covered by executive privilege, a legal doctrine that protects the confidentially of some White House communications. 

Bannon, through his lawyer, has said he will not cooperate with the committee until Trump’s executive privilege claim is resolved by a court or through a settlement agreement. 

In its report released Monday making the case for criminal contempt charges against Bannon, the committee said Bannon “relied on no legal authority to support his refusal to comply in any fashion,” and said his testimony is critical because he appears to have “had some foreknowledge about extreme events that would occur” on January 6. 

According to the report, Bannon in a podcast on January 5 told his listeners, “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. … So many people said, ‘Man, if I was in a revolution, I would be in Washington.’ Well, this is your time in history.” 

The Select Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday evening to vote on the report recommending that the House cite Bannon for criminal contempt of Congress and refer him to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for prosecution. 

The U.S. Justice Department has not said whether it plans to prosecute Bannon for contempt of Congress, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. 

Bannon’s attorney, Robert Costello, did not respond to a request for comment on the committee’s argument. 

The attack on the Capitol by thousands of Trump supporters took place as Congress met to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump, delaying that process for several hours as then-Vice President Mike Pence, members of Congress, staff and journalists fled. More than 600 people face criminal charges stemming from the event. 

The committee also said that Bannon has “had multiple roles” relevant to its investigation, including helping to construct and participate in the “stop the steal” public relations effort that helped motivate the January 6 attack. 

“Stop the steal” refers to Trump’s false claims that Biden’s victory was the result of widespread fraud. Multiple courts, state election officials and members of Trump’s own administration rejected those claims as false. 

 
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Case for COVID Boosters and Vaccine Mandates in US

Recently, a U.S. advisory panel unanimously endorsed booster shots of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for adults over the age of 18. The move comes as vaccines and public health protocols in the United States remain politically charged issues. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports. 

Produced by:  Arash Arabasadi
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‘Democracy Survived’ Capitol Riot Because of Police, Biden Says

Framed by the Capitol, President Joe Biden paid tribute Saturday to fallen law enforcement officers and honored those who fought off the Jan. 6 insurrection at that very site by declaring “because of you, democracy survived.” 

Biden spoke at the 40th Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service to remember the 491 law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty in 2019 and 2020. 

Standing where the violent mob tried to block his own ascension to the presidency, Biden singled out the 150 officers who were injured and the five who died in the attack’s aftermath.

“Nine months ago, your brothers and sisters thwarted an unconstitutional and fundamentally un-American attack on our nation’s values and our votes. Because of you, democracy survived,” Biden said. “Because of these men and women, we avoided a catastrophe, but their heroism came at a cost to you and your families.” 

Hundreds of officers and their families sat on chairs assembled on the Capitol’s west front. Some in the audience dabbed their eyes as the president drew connections with their loss and his own history of grief, including the deaths of his first wife and two children, comparing it to “losing part of your soul.”

Vows ‘more resources, not fewer’

Biden also underscored the heavy burden placed on law enforcement officers, and rebuked the “defund the police” political movement, saying that those gathered before him would get “more resources, not fewer, so you can do your job.”

“We expect everything of you and it’s beyond the capacity of anyone to meet the total expectations,” Biden said. “Being a cop today is one hell of a lot harder than it’s ever been.” 

Biden played up his working-class roots, noting that he had many childhood friends who went on to become police officers, and said he had spoken at the event many times before. But while Biden has throughout his political career sought to identify with the uniformed services, the organization that ran Saturday’s event, the National Fraternal Order of Police, endorsed Donald Trump in the 2020 election and many rank-and-file police officers supported the former president. 

Biden’s efforts to pass a police overhaul bill to tighten practices after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis collapsed, with congressional negotiators announcing in September that talks had ended without an agreement. That was a setback for the Democratic president, who campaigned on the need for policing changes and had declared it an early priority. 

Additionally, his agenda on gun violence has largely stalled and his initial pick to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives stepped aside in the face of staunch opposition. More recently, Biden has expressed hope that he can still sign a comprehensive police overhaul bill into law, while exploring more executive actions to help hold police officers accountable for breaking the law. 

At the ceremony, Biden expressed concerns for all officers in the line of duty and mentioned the three constable deputies shot in an ambush early Saturday while working at a Houston bar. One deputy was killed.
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Biden Touts Child Care Proposal in Stalled Spending Bill

U.S. President Joe Biden touted his proposal for more government investment in child care during a visit to Connecticut on Friday, part of his push for a broader social spending bill that has been stalled in Congress.

“How can we compete in the world if millions of American parents, especially moms, can’t be part of the workforce because they can’t afford the cost of child care or elder care?” he asked at a child development center in the state capital of Hartford.

Biden said his plan would allow lower-income families to receive free child care and would limit child care expenses for many more Americans to less than 7% of their salaries. 

The president spoke about his own difficulties with child care when he was a young congressman after his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. He said he “could not afford child care” for his two sons and commuted to Washington every day from his home state of Delaware so his relatives could help with child care. 

Biden’s child care proposals are part of a $3.5 trillion spending package that also addresses climate change; funds a host of social programs, including prekindergarten and paid leave; and raises taxes on corporations. The plan, called Build Back Better by the Biden administration, has been stalled in Congress over objections to the price tag by centrist Democrats and lockstep opposition by Republicans. 

The dispute over the legislation has also been holding up another bill, a $1 trillion infrastructure package. That legislation passed the Senate this summer with bipartisan support. However, House progressives say they won’t vote for the infrastructure bill unless there is progress on the social spending bill, while Democratic moderates do not want to vote on the larger spending bill until the infrastructure bill passes. 

During his trip to Connecticut, Biden is also attending the dedication of the Dodd Center for Human Rights at the University of Connecticut, which is being renamed to honor Biden’s longtime friend, former Senator Christopher Dodd, as well as Dodd’s father, former Senator Thomas Dodd. 

In additional to being a senator, the late Thomas Dodd was also a lead prosecutor for the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II.

His son, Christopher Dodd, earned a reputation as a human rights advocate for his efforts to end abuses in Central America while serving in the Senate from 1981 to 2011.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 

 
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