Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Oprah 'Quietly Figuring Out' How to Wield Her Political Clout in 2020
Media mogul Oprah Winfrey, whose opinions can get millions of fans to try a new diet or turn a book into an international best-seller, is figuring out which Democratic candidate she will endorse in the crowded 2020 U.S. presidential race.
Winfrey, who has ruled out running for the White House, told the Hollywood Reporter in an extensive interview released on Tuesday that she was "quietly figuring out where I'm going to use my voice in support."
"I'm sitting back, waiting to see. It'll be very clear who I'm supporting," she said of the 2020 election campaign.
Winfrey campaigned heavily for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 but adopted a lower profile in her support of Hillary Clinton, who lost in 2016 to current Republican President Donald Trump.
Some 20 Democrats are running for president in 2020.
Winfrey said among the Democrats she is researching are South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke and California Senator Kamala Harris.
She said she already knows New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.
Winfrey, a billionaire movie producer, television network owner, magazine publisher and philanthropist, was urged by her supporters to run for the White House herself after delivering a rousing speech at the 2018 Golden Globe awards ceremony. She has repeatedly ruled out the idea.
Winfrey is also an actress who was Oscar-nominated for her supporting role in the 1985 film "The Color Purple." She also had a major role in the 2018 film "A Wrinkle in Time," and appeared in "Selma" and "The Butler" as well as the series "Greenleaf" on OWN TV, the Oprah Winfrey Network.
But with a series of documentaries and interview shows lined up for the upcoming Apple TV+ streaming service, Winfrey said she was no longer interested in acting.
"I think to be really, really good at it, you've got to do it a lot. You've got to work at it. And it's got to be something that you have true passion about. I don't think it's something you can dabble in," she said. "It doesn't feed my soul anymore."
Biden Surges Into Lead in Democratic Primary Race
Former Vice President Joe Biden has surged into a lead in the Democratic presidential field, according to new polls released since his formal announcement last week. Biden is taking on President Donald Trump directly in the early stages of his presidential campaign, as we hear from VOA national correspondent Jim Malone in Washington.
Read More Biden Surges Into Lead in Democratic Primary Race : http://bit.ly/2VbRLXjJudge: Democrats' Suit Against Trump Over Foreign Payment Can Proceed
A U.S. federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Democrats in Congress can move forward with a lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of violating the law by accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments through his businesses.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan denied a motion by Trump to dismiss the lawsuit filed by 198 members of Congress. The lawmakers charge the president violated the Constitution's "emoluments" clause, which prevents federal officeholders from accepting payments from foreign governments without the "consent" of Congress.
The constitutional provision is designed to prevent corruption and foreign influence.
Sullivan said in his 48-page decision that he found Trump's attempt to narrowly define the emoluments clause to be "unpersuasive and inconsistent."
He said he agreed with congressional Democrats who brought the case that the clause should be read more broadly as barring an official from taking any payment of any kind whatsoever from a foreign state without congressional approval.
Justice Department spokeswoman Kelly Laco said: "As we argued, we believe this case should be dismissed, and we will continue to defend the President in court."
Democratic U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler called the ruling "an important milestone in seeking to hold the President accountable for his ongoing violations" of the emoluments clause.
Trump, a wealthy real estate developer who as president regularly visits his own hotels, resorts and golf clubs, maintains ownership of his businesses but has ceded day-to-day control to his sons. Critics have said that is not a sufficient safeguard.
The lawsuit by congressional Democrats is one of two cases against Trump involving the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution.
In the other case, Democratic attorneys general in Maryland and the District of Columbia argued that Trump's failure to disentangle himself from his hotels and other businesses made him vulnerable to inducements by foreign officials seeking to curry favor. The case was later narrowed to focus specifically on Trump's hotel in Washington.
Since his election, the hotel has become a favored lodging and event space for some foreign and state officials visiting the U.S. capital.
A federal judge in that case also rejected Trump's narrow view that emoluments were limited essentially to outright bribes. But an appeals court is reviewing the case and has temporarily frozen evidence-gathering that could force disclosure of Trump's financial records.
DOJ Official: Mueller Frustrated With Barr Over Portrayal of Findings
Special counsel Robert Mueller expressed frustration to Attorney General William Barr last month about how the findings of his Russia investigation were being portrayed, saying he worried that a letter summarizing the main conclusions of the probe lacked the necessary context, a Justice Department official said Tuesday night.
Mueller communicated his agitation in a letter to the Justice Department sent just days after Barr issued a four-page document to Congress and to the public that summarized the special counsel's conclusions about whether President Donald Trump's campaign had conspired with Russia and whether the president had tried to illegally obstruct the probe. Mueller and Barr had a phone call the following day.
"After the Attorney General received Special Counsel Mueller's letter, he called him to discuss it,'' Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement.
"In a cordial and professional conversation, the Special Counsel emphasized that nothing in the Attorney General's March 24 letter was inaccurate or misleading. But, he expressed frustration over the lack of context and the resulting media coverage regarding the Special Counsel's obstruction analysis,'' she added.
Justice Department officials have said they decided it made more sense to release the bottom-line findings of Mueller's report rather than include the detailed legal analysis behind them. They also decided against releasing summaries that Mueller's team had prepared.
The letter lays bare a rift between the Justice Department and the special counsel about whether Barr's summary adequately conveyed the gravity of Mueller's findings. Barr wrote in his letter that Mueller did not establish that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. He also said Mueller had not reached a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice.
The letter is likely to be a central focus at Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Barr. The appearance is Barr's first since he released a redacted version of Mueller's report on April 18. It will bring him face-to-face with Democrats who have accused him of spinning Mueller's findings in Trump's favor and understating their significance.
The Washington Post was first to report the contents of the letter.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which has been negotiating with Barr over a Thursday appearance, demanded the letter by Wednesday morning.
"The Attorney General has expressed some reluctance to appear before the House Judiciary Committee this Thursday,'' Nadler said in a statement. "These reports make it that much more important for him to appear and answer our questions.''
Democrats Vow to Enforce Subpoenas as Trump Resistance Grows
Democrats are steeling for a no-holds-barred fight with President Donald Trump as the White House ignores subpoenas, denies access to witnesses and otherwise stonewalls congressional oversight in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
In the latest case, Trump, his family and the Trump Organization have filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank and Capital One attempting to thwart congressional subpoenas into his financial and business dealings, asserting the requests are out of bounds.
That comes as Trump's Treasury Secretary is declining to produce the president's tax returns, Attorney General William Barr is threatening to back out of his agreement to appear this week before the Judiciary Committee and former White House Counsel Don McGahn and other officials are being told not to testify before Congress.
The standoff pits the legislative and executive branches in a constitutional showdown not seen since the Watergate era. Neither side is expected to back down. Trump says since Mueller finished his report of Russian interference into the election, there's no further need to investigate. And while Democrats say it's their duty to conduct oversight and are adamant that they will win in the end, they are also confronting the limits of their own enforcement powers.
"He's prepared to fight us tooth and nail. And we're prepared to fight him back," said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Ca., the chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee. "He obviously has something to hide."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging the committee chairmen to push forward with their oversight agendas, shelving for now calls from the left flank to launch impeachment hearings against Trump.
Congress has a range of tools available to try to force compliance from the White House, either through civil lawsuits compelling administration officials to testify or produce documents, or by holding others in contempt of Congress with fines or even, in rare cases, jail time.
On Tuesday, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, Adam Schiff, made a criminal referral to the Justice Department about Erik Prince, the founder of the security firm Blackwater, alleging he lied to the committee in 2017.
Schiff said Tuesday there is strong evidence that Prince, a prominent supporter of Trump, "willingly misled" the intelligence committee as it probed connections between Trump's campaign and Russia.
"The evidence is so weighty that the Justice Department needs to consider this," Schiff said.
Congress is buckling in for several actions in the aftermath of Mueller's report, which did not find that Trump or his campaign knowingly conspired with Russia in the 2016 election. But the report pointedly did not clear the president of obstruction of justice and, in fact, recounted 10 instances where Trump tried to interfere with the investigation.
For lawmakers, their ability to conduct oversight of the White House is a core responsibility that extends beyond investigating the president into agency actions that can touch the lives of Americans.
"If the executive branch can deny the legislative branch the ability to bring witnesses to testify under oath and for the production of documents, the executive branch will have essentially eliminated the oversight function of Congress," said Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Yet while Democrats have vowed to go to court, those proceedings could last years, possibly past Trump's tenure. And if they chose to hold officials in criminal contempt, which would take a vote of the full House, it would be referred to Department of Justice officials unlikely to side with the Democrats.
Some Democrats have thrown out other options: daily fines for not showing up, for example, or cutting appropriations for an official's agency. But those ideas might not be politically popular.
There's also an option that would be even more contentious and hasn't been used in decades — trial and even imprisonment by Congress. Called "inherent contempt," this process was often used in the country's early years but hasn't been employed in almost a century. While Democrats have vowed to use all of the available legal tools, they have shown no interest in going that far.
Despite drawbacks, Democrats say they will have to fight on multiple fronts to get the witnesses and documents they need.
"If you let them get away with this, then what do you have?" said House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings on Monday. "If the president can get away with blocking any information and anybody from testifying before the Congress, what road are we going down?"
Schiff and Waters, whose committees subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and others in April over the president's finances, said in a joint statement that Trump's "unprecedented stonewalling will not work."
Schiff said he wants to know whether Russians used laundered money for transactions with the Trump Organization. Trump's businesses have benefited from Russian investment over the years.
Eric Trump, executive vice president of The Trump Organization, called Democrats "deranged" and the subpoenas a form of "presidential harassment."
In the other incident stemming from Schiff's committee, Prince testified to the panel that a meeting in the Seychelles islands with a Russian with ties to President Vladimir Putin was a chance encounter.
Mueller's report said investigators couldn't iron out the "conflicting accounts" about the meeting. Prince told Mueller's investigators that he had briefed Bannon about it, but Bannon told them they never discussed it. Part of the problem is that text messages between them were missing.
Read More Democrats Vow to Enforce Subpoenas as Trump Resistance Grows : http://bit.ly/2vtDEgvWhite House, Democrats Agree on Price Tag for Infrastructure
There has been a rare instance of agreement between opposition Democrat leaders in Congress and the administration of President Donald Trump. The two sides are pledging to work together on creating a huge infrastructure package.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, standing alongside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outside the White House, told reporters they and the president on Tuesday agreed on a number — two trillion dollars in funding for infrastructure projects that will include fixing roads, bridges and waterways, as well as improving the power grid and broadband access.
“Building infrastructure of America has never been a bipartisan issue," said Pelosi. "And we hope to go forward in a very non-partisan way for the future.”
The Democrats say they will meet again with the president in about three weeks to discuss how the infrastructure projects will be funded.
Democratic Chairman Plans Criminal Referral for Trump Backer Prince
House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff is making a criminal referral to the Justice Department for the founder of the security firm Blackwater, alleging he lied to his committee in 2017.
Erik Prince testified to the panel that a 2016 meeting in the Seychelles islands with a Russian with ties to President Vladimir Putin was a chance encounter. But special counsel Robert Mueller's report on his Russia investigation said the meeting was set up ahead of time.
Schiff said Tuesday that there is strong evidence that Erik Prince "willingly misled" the intelligence committee. He said at a Washington Post event that the evidence is "so weighty" that the Justice Department needs to consider it.
Prince is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and a prominent support of President Donald Trump.
US Considers Designating Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization
President Donald Trump is considering placing Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on a U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, the White House said Tuesday.
"The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern, and this designation is working its way through the internal process," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders wrote in an email.
Naming Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement a foreign terrorist organization would allow Washington to impose sanctions on any individual or group with links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The announcement comes three weeks after Trump hosted his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Washington, praising him as a “great president” and asserting that U.S.-Egypt relations had never been stronger.
At the same time, many U.S. lawmakers, international politicians and rights groups have criticized Sissi for human rights abuses in the country, and, most recently, for the passing of a controversial referendum extending presidential terms which could allow him to rule until 2030.
Organized opposition to the referendum in Egypt was almost nonexistent, with many leading public figures, businesses and media houses firmly in league with the current government.
The Muslim Brotherhood was outlawed in the country in 2013 when current general-turned-president Sissi ousted President Mohamed Morsi, the country's first freely elected civilian president. Since then, Sissi has overseen a crackdown on both liberal and Islamist opposition in his country, jailing thousands of supporters and much of the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Battle Over Subpoenas Escalates Between Trump, Democrats
The 22-month Mueller probe that investigated possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign in the 2016 election has ended. But the battle continues as the Trump administration tries to block House Democrats’ inquiries by ignoring subpoenas and other information requests from lawmakers. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
Read More Battle Over Subpoenas Escalates Between Trump, Democrats : http://bit.ly/2vCcvs1Monday, April 29, 2019
US Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein Submits Resignation
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017 to investigate links between the Russian government and President Donald Trump's campaign, said on Monday he was resigning from his post.
Rosenstein's departure, effective May 11, was not a surprise. He had been expected to step down in March. The White House had no immediate comment, but noted that Trump had already nominated Deputy Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Rosen to replace him.
Rosenstein ended up staying on the job longer to help Attorney General William Barr manage the public release of Mueller's findings from his 22-month investigation, which was completed on March 22.
In a letter to Trump, Rosenstein echoed two of Trump's signature phrases, writing that he helped staff the department with officials "devoted to the values that make America great"and adding that “we always put America first."
Mueller's investigation did not establish evidence that Trump's campaign illegally conspired with Moscow.
Mueller, in his final report, did not make a determination on whether Trump obstructed justice, but instead presented evidence on both sides.
After receiving the final report, Rosenstein and Barr made their own determination, finding there was insufficient evidence to charge the president.
"We enforce the law without fear or favor because credible evidence is not partisan," Rosenstein wrote in his resignation letter.
Rosenstein, a Republican, was often criticized by Trump and his allies for appointing Mueller. He has also been involved in decision-making at the Justice Department that has been criticized by Democrats.
Democrats have directed most of their anger at Barr for how he chose to selectively release certain details of the Mueller report before making it public and for his decision to declare Trump had not obstructed justice.
But Rosenstein played a prominent role in weighing the evidence Mueller had gathered on obstruction and deciding that Trump should not be charged.
Last autumn, questions swirled about whether Trump might fire him, after the New York Times reported that Rosenstein had suggested in 2017 secretly recording Trump with a wire and recruiting Cabinet members to remove the president from office under the U.S. Constitution's 25th Amendment.
Rosenstein has said the story was "inaccurate." Despite stoking Trump's ire, he remained on the job.
In a speech last week, he blasted "mercenary critics" and defended how the Mueller investigation was handled.
"If lawyers cannot prove our case in court, then what we believe is irrelevant," he said.
Challenge of Georgia Election System Faces First Court Test
A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments Monday on a request by state election officials to toss a lawsuit challenging how Georgia elections are run.
The lawsuit was filed weeks after Republican Brian Kemp narrowly beat Democrat Stacey Abrams in the governor's race in November.
Fair Fight Action, a group founded by Abrams, accuses state election officials of mismanaging the election. The lawsuit seeks substantial reforms and asks that Georgia be required to get federal judge's approval before changing voting rules.
Lawyers for the state officials argue they're not responsible for any alleged harm since elections are run by local officials. They also say Fair Fight Action lacks the standing to sue, and they say a new law addresses many of the issues raised.
Beto O'Rourke Unveils Climate Plan With Yosemite as Backdrop
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke has announced his first major policy initiative, a $5 trillion plan to combat climate change that he says will keep the Earth from sliding past the point of no return in less than a generation.
The former Texas congressman unveiled his proposal on Monday before a tour of California's Yosemite National Park, a dramatic backdrop for a move he hopes can jumpstart a campaign that began to much national fanfare but has seen some of that luster fade in recent weeks.
The plan calls for increasing taxes on "corporations and the wealthiest among us" and "ending the tens of billions of dollars of tax breaks currently given to fossil fuel companies" while offering federal grants to encourage innovative improvements in housing and transportation. It seeks to spend $5 trillion over 10 years to improve aging infrastructure nationwide and to take "significant actions to defend communities" preparing for intensified floods, droughts, hurricanes, fires and other natural disasters fueled by a changing climate.
Like others in the packed field of Democrats seeking the White House, O'Rourke promised to sign climate change-fighting executive orders on the first day of his presidency — including rejoining the 2016 Paris Agreement, from which President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S.
And, aligning with the Green New Deal , an ambitious but longshot initiative backed by some of the most liberal Democrats in Congress, O'Rourke's proposal calls on the U.S. to guarantee net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, while promising to reach half that goal in just the next 11 years.
"The greatest threat we face — which will test our country, our democracy, every single one of us — is climate change," O'Rourke said in a statement.
He has for weeks warned that the U.S. and the world only have a few years to act before damage to the climate becomes nearly irreversible, and he called the issue his top priority.
O'Rourke's plan will find a receptive audience in California. The state has set a goal of generating 100 percent of its electricity from noncarbon sources by 2045 and achieving "carbon neutrality," meaning it takes as much carbon dioxide out of the air as it emits.
The announcement comes amid O'Rourke's first visit as a presidential candidate to California, a state that's experiencing more destructive and deadlier wildfires due in part to climate change. A blaze last summer caused a partial shutdown of Yosemite, and O'Rourke on Sunday met privately with firefighters in Mariposa County who battled it for weeks.
Shunning the lucrative fundraisers that commonly bring presidential contenders to California, O'Rourke drove hours from San Francisco, where he held a town hall on Sunday, to Mariposa, home to fewer than 20,000 people and, in the 2016 presidential primary, only about 6,000 voters.
He was similarly likely to encounter few voters on his early morning walking tour of Yosemite, designed to learn about the effects of climate change on the park, 1,200 square miles(3,100 square kilometers) known globally for breathtaking waterfalls and giant sequoia trees. He then planned to drive to the Central Valley to meet with college students, a staple of his campaign.
The trip is consistent with the do-it-yourself campaign style that gave O'Rourke an unorthodox credibility with supporters in Texas and beyond. Californians contributed more than $5.5 million to his unsuccessful Senate bid last fall, second only to Texans in giving to the campaign.
The state's big donor bases in Silicon Valley and Hollywood often function as ATMs for presidential hopefuls, and candidates such as Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and California Sen. Kamala Harris are already tapping in. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who entered the race Thursday, has planned two fundraisers in May.
"It is unusual to come to California, where there are so many Democratic donors, and decide not to raise money," said Rose Kapolczynski, who managed former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer's campaigns. "Maybe he's doing so well online that he thinks he can not raise money on this trip and try to make a point of wanting to talk to people instead."
O'Rourke opened his campaign last month to large crowds in key early states such as Iowa and New Hampshire but also in battleground areas that included Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio, as well as solid early fundraising . But, as the initial curiosity surrounding the onetime punk rock guitarist has subsided, O'Rourke has seen some of the buzz around his upstart campaign die down.
He may be hoping his I'll-campaign-anywhere style is novel enough to sprawling California to gain fresh buzz. The state moved its 2020 presidential primary to March with the goal of gaining more sway in the nominating contest. But with nearly 40 million people to reach in California alone, breaking through is tough for any candidate.
"We're the black hole of politics," said Bob Mulholland, a Democratic National Committee member from Northern California who is supporting Harris. "Almost anything you do in this state, no one notices."
Read More Beto O'Rourke Unveils Climate Plan With Yosemite as Backdrop : http://bit.ly/2JaKsIbNew Group Launches to Harness Political Power of Women
Three of the nation’s most influential activists are launching an organization that aims to harness the political power of women to influence elections and shape local and national policy priorities.
Dubbed Supermajority, the organization is the creation of Cecile Richards, the former head of Planned Parenthood; Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter; and Ai-jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. The group, which describes itself as multiracial and intergenerational, has a goal of training and mobilizing 2 million women over the next year to become organizers and political leaders in their communities.
The effort comes at a moment when women have emerged as perhaps the most powerful force in politics.
Millions of women marched in cities across America to protest President Donald Trump’s election. Women also comprise the majority of the electorate in the 2018 midterm elections, sending a historic number of female candidates to Congress and helping Democrats retake control of the House. A record number of women are also seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, including four senators.
Richards, who has long been a force in Democratic politics, said women “feel newly empowered and frankly motivated to take action, including so many women who never thought themselves as an activist before.”
Richards, Garza and Poo spent the past year traveling the country talking to women about how to harness their activism. They found that despite increased energy, many women find getting involved in politics intimidating and are unclear about how to do more than just march or protest.
“Women are mad as hell and we’ve been in resistance mode for two years,” Garza said. “Now it’s time to equip people.”
Supermajority isn’t expected to endorse individual candidates. But the group will help educate women about candidates’ positions on issues including pay equity and affordable child care and push politicians to adopt an agenda akin to what Richards called a “women’s new deal.”
The effort will be aided by Libby Chamberlain and Cortney Tunis, co-founders of the Facebook group Pantsuit Nation, which was started in the closing weeks of the 2016 election for supporters of Hillary Clinton. The online community now has more than 3.5 million female members.
Biden Heads to Pennsylvania to Pitch Rebuilding Middle Class
By picking Pennsylvania for his first campaign speech of the presidential race, Joe Biden is signaling he hopes to own what may be the 2020 election's toughest battleground.
Planting a flag in Pennsylvania makes sense for the longtime former senator from Delaware: He was born in Pennsylvania, has numerous ties to it and is using his deep inroads with influential state party figures to his advantage in the primary.
For Democrats it's a late primary state that may have little value in the nomination. But Donald Trump's campaign is already mapping out a strategy to win Pennsylvania a second time, and the Republican won't easily cede a state that forms the core of his likeliest path back to 270 electoral votes.
"It is early in the game, but I just think this imperative in 2020 is such that we have to start early," said Pennsylvania's Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who is endorsing the former vice president. Pennsylvania is "so big and it's so consequential that it's going to take time to make the case here."
Biden's planned speech to an organized labor crowd Monday in Pittsburgh comes days after he announced his candidacy and promptly went to a fundraiser in Philadelphia organized by the area's prominent Democrats. In Pittsburgh, he'll receive the endorsement of the International Association of Fire Fighters and speak about rebuilding the middle class.
No other primary candidate is from Pennsylvania, and it will be the last of the delegate-rich states to vote, except perhaps for New Jersey. It's received limited attention from Biden's rivals .
Among those who have come, former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders each held a well-attended rally in recent weeks, and Sanders made the case for why he can beat Trump in Pennsylvania.
Several others have nibbled around the edges, attending private fundraisers in Philadelphia or doing a low-key meet-and-greet. Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, like Biden, campaigned last year for Casey.
But in the general election, Pennsylvania is tied with Illinois for the nation's fifth-biggest Electoral College prize. And the ``blue wall'' states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan that unexpectedly tipped to Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election may have supplanted Florida and Ohio as the nation's premier presidential battlegrounds.
As Biden prepared to announce his campaign last week, top Trump campaign officials were meeting Pennsylvania's GOP brass two blocks from the state Capitol.
Undoubtedly on their minds is an avalanche of losses, both statewide and in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, since 2016. Their meeting Wednesday emphasized unity, and national officials encouraged the state Republican Party to step up its field and fundraising operation, according to a person familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe it. Republicans said the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee would soon have similar meetings with other target states.
For Democrats, Pennsylvania is an outsized electoral prize: Harry S. Truman in 1948 was the last Democratic presidential candidate to lose Pennsylvania but win the election, and Trump's victory in the state was a shock to their system.
Trump became the first Republican presidential nominee to win Pennsylvania since 1988, even though he didn't necessarily need Pennsylvania to secure the White House. In any case, Republicans have proved repeatedly they can win the presidency without Pennsylvania, as George W. Bush did twice.
"Clearly Pennsylvania is in the top tier of states that we want to win,'' said the state's Republican Party chairman, Val DiGiorgio. Trump took the state by less than 1 percentage point, and this time some Republicans are pushing for him to make a strong pitch to Philadelphia and its suburbs, where voters rejected Trump in huge numbers and have since rejected Republicans in historic fashion. "The question is, how do we get suburban voters back into the fold?" DiGiorgio said.
Biden's supporters see in him a candidate who can stanch the massive losses in the rest of Pennsylvania that delivered victory to Trump and flipped some traditionally Democratic counties far from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Biden begins with some advantages, at least among Democrats.
He is backed by influential Philadelphia Democrats who nicknamed him "Pennsylvania's third senator" when they routinely went to him for help that they might not get from the state's two Republican senators.
"He was our senator, we adopted him," quipped Bob Brady, Philadelphia's longtime Democratic Party chairman.
Biden routinely reminds audiences that he was born in northeastern Pennsylvania and spent his boyhood there, a normally Democratic-leaning area where Trump performed particularly well.
In Pittsburgh on Monday, Biden is returning to a city where he has come to be a regular in the Labor Day parade.
"On a national level, nobody has made more visits here than Joe Biden," said Darrin Kelly, president of the Pittsburgh-area branch of the AFL-CIO. "Nobody has called Pittsburgh home more than him."
Sunday, April 28, 2019
US Lawmakers Await Barr Testimony on Mueller Report
After releasing a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia investigation, U.S. Attorney General William Barr takes center stage once again this week with two scheduled appearances before legislative committees on Capitol Hill. VOA's Michael Bowman reports, Democrats are demanding the full, un-redacted Mueller report and are determined to continue investigating President Donald Trump, while Republicans are eager to turn the page and focus on other matters.
Read More US Lawmakers Await Barr Testimony on Mueller Report : http://bit.ly/2L6Fr5FAP FACT CHECK: Trump's Follies on Immigration, Health Care
President Donald Trump stretched the truth on various fronts at his Wisconsin rally and in weekend remarks, asserting that an immigration plan to send migrants illegally in the country to sanctuary cities had begun when it hadn’t.
He also claimed credit for jobs he didn’t create, exaggerated his record on health care and spread untruths about the Russia investigation.
A look at the rhetoric and the reality:
IMMIGRATION
TRUMP: “Last month alone, 100,000 illegal immigrants arrived in our borders, placing a massive strain on communities and schools and hospitals and public resources, like nobody’s ever seen before. Now we’re sending many of them to sanctuary cities. Thank you very much. ... I’m proud to tell you that was my sick idea.” — Green Bay, Wisconsin, rally Saturday.
THE FACTS: There’s no evidence that the Trump administration has begun to send the migrants to sanctuary cities en masse . He proposed the idea in part to punish Democratic congressional foes for inaction on the border, but Homeland Security officials rejected the plan as unworkable.
Trump said this month he was “strongly considering” the proposal, hours after White House and Homeland Security officials had insisted the idea had been eschewed twice.
“Sanctuary cities” are places where local authorities do not cooperate with immigration officials, denying information or resources that would help them round up for deportation people living in the country illegally.
There were no indications federal officials were taking any steps to move forward with the idea or considered the president’s words anything more than bluster. His words to the Wisconsin crowd, suggesting his “sick idea” was in motion, appeared to be no more than that.
People with knowledge of the discussions say White House staff discussed the idea with the Department of Homeland Security in November and February but it was judged too costly and a misuse of money. The people were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Sanctuary cities include New York City and San Francisco, home city of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
TRUMP on U.S. population: “We need people to come in.” — rally.
TRUMP: “We have companies pouring in. The problem is we need workers.” — Fox Business interview Sunday.
THE FACTS: His position is a flip from earlier this month, when he declared the U.S. to be “full” in light of the overwhelmed southern border.
His April 7 tweet threatened to shut down the border unless Mexico apprehended all immigrants who crossed illegally. But it turns out the U.S. is only “full” in terms of the people Trump doesn’t want.
Immigrants as a whole make up a greater percentage of the total U.S. population than they did back in 1970, having grown from less than 5 percent of the population to more than 13 percent now. In 2030, it’s projected that immigrants will become the primary driver for U.S. population growth, overtaking U.S. births.
HEALTH CARE
TRUMP: “The Republicans are always going to protect pre-existing conditions.” — Wisconsin rally.
THE FACTS: He’s not protecting health coverage for patients with pre-existing medical conditions. The Trump administration instead is pressing in court for full repeal of the Affordable Care Act — including provisions that protect people with pre-existing conditions from health insurance discrimination.
Trump and other Republicans say they’ll have a plan to preserve those safeguards, but the White House has provided no details.
Former President Barack Obama’s health care law requires insurers to take all applicants, regardless of medical history, and patients with health problems pay the same standard premiums as healthy ones. Bills supported in 2017 by Trump and congressional Republicans to repeal the law could undermine protections by pushing up costs for people with pre-existing conditions.
A recent poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that Democrats enjoy a 17 percentage point advantage over Republicans in Americans’ assessments of whom they trust more to handle health care, 40% to 23%. That compares with a public more evenly divided over which party would better handle several other major areas of national policy, including the economy, immigration and foreign affairs.
RUSSIA INVESTIGATION
TRUMP, calling special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe a “witchhunt”: It’s “the greatest political hoax in American history.” — Wisconsin rally.
THE FACTS: A two-year investigation that produced guilty pleas, convictions and criminal charges against Russian intelligence officers and others with ties to the Kremlin, as well as Trump associates, is demonstrably not a hoax.
All told, Mueller charged 34 people, including the president’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort; his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn; and three Russian companies. Twenty-five Russians were indicted on charges related to election interference, accused either of hacking Democratic email accounts during the campaign or of orchestrating a social media campaign that spread disinformation on the internet.
Five Trump aides pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mueller and a sixth, longtime confidant Roger Stone, is awaiting trial on charges that he lied to Congress and engaged in witness tampering.
Mueller’s report concluded that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was “sweeping and systematic.” Ultimately, it cleared Trump of criminal conspiracy with the Russians but did not render judgment on whether Trump obstructed justice, saying his investigators found evidence on both sides.
ECONOMY
TRUMP: “Since the election, we have created more than 6 million new jobs. Nobody would have believed that. ... 600,000 manufacturing jobs.” — Wisconsin rally.
THE FACTS: The record is not all his, and it’s not remarkable.
The economy created about 6 million jobs in the roughly two years before the election, then again in the roughly two years after.
By counting since the election, he’s taking credit for jobs created in the last months of the Obama administration. The country has added 453,000 manufacturing jobs, not 600,000, since Trump took office.
Read More AP FACT CHECK: Trump's Follies on Immigration, Health Care : http://bit.ly/2ULb58vBolton: US Ignored $2 Million Bill from North Korea
The U.S. signed a document agreeing to pay North Korea $2 million for the medical care of American Otto Warmbier who had been detained by Pyongyang, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday, but then ignored the bill and never paid it.
"It is very clear to me from my looking into it in the past few days that nobody was paid," Bolton told Fox News Sunday. "That is clear."
Bolton was confirming news accounts in recent days that North Korea demanded the money when it released Warmbier, a comatose college student, to U.S. authorities nearly two years ago so he could be returned to the United States. He died days later.
Warmbier was a University of Virginia student visiting North Korea when he was jailed in January 2016, sentenced to 15 years for trying to steal a propaganda banner from his hotel.
The mainland China travel company that arranged Warmbier's trip, Young Pioneer Tours, specializes in “destinations your mother would rather you stay away from,” according to its website. It describes itself as “safe and fun.” Photos from the company’s website and Facebook page show selfies of happy, smiling, young Westerners in Pyongyang.
North Korean officials said Warmbier fell into a coma the night he was sentenced in March 2016, The Washington Post reported. Doctors have not identified the cause of his brain damage, and say they did not see evidence of him being beaten.
At their last meeting in Hanoi in February, President Donald Trump said he accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's claim not to have known what had happened to Warmbier in prison, despite the case being extraordinarily sensitive.
"I will take him at his word," Trump said.
Following Warmbier's sentencing, the North Koreans did not tell U.S. officials until June 2017 that he had been unconscious for 15 months. The Washington Post said news of Warmbier's condition sparked a frantic effort to get him home. The effort was led by the State Department’s point man on North Korea at the time, Joseph Yun, who signed the agreement to pay the money.
Trump has sought to get Kim to agree to end North Korea's nuclear weapons development program, but talks between the two leaders collapsed in Hanoi after Kim agreed at a summit in Singapore a year ago to move toward denuclearization. Bolton said Trump is willing to meet a third time with Kim.
Trump Fed Pick Moore Cites Smear Campaign, Won't Withdraw
U.S. President Donald Trump's pick to fill a vacant seat at the Federal Reserve said on Sunday a smear campaign was being waged against him, after past writings and comments about women sparked renewed criticism by Democratic lawmakers.
Moore, during an interview on ABC's "This Week," said there were a handful of reporters dedicated to digging up negative information on his personal life and past statements.
Trump has not formally nominated Moore to be a Fed governor, which would give him a role in setting interest rates for the world's biggest economy.
Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, giving them the final say on whether Moore's promised nomination is confirmed.
Democratic Senators have criticized Moore for his policy positions, including his longtime support of tax cuts to stimulate the economy, as well as his comments about women.
"If I become a liability to any of these senators, I would withdraw," Moore told ABC. "I don't think it's going to come to that. I think most fair minded people think this has been kind of a sleaze campaign against me. I just think the perception is very different from the reality in terms of my attitude towards women."
Moore said he had apologized for writing a column 18 years ago in which he jokingly called women's participation in basketball "a travesty," adding he would never write such a "politically incorrect column" today.
Moore also has come under fire for 2014 comments referring to cities in the U.S. Midwest, such as Cincinnati, the armpits of America."
Some economists and Democratic lawmakers have questioned Moore's competence, citing his support for tying policy decisions to commodity prices and his fluctuating views on rates.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Friday, April 26, 2019
Trump, Hannity Discuss Alleged Ukrainian Help for Clinton Campaign
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Fox News that Attorney General William Barr was reviewing allegations that Ukrainian agents provided Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign with damaging information about Trump's then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
After calling the network Thursday night for a lengthy impromptu interview, Trump told host Sean Hannity that the allegations of collusion between Ukraine and Clinton's campaign were "big and incredible."
The 45-minute interview was the latest attempt by the president and Fox News to promote the narrative that Ukrainian agents tried to sway the 2016 presidential election in Clinton's favor.
Hannity explored the issue on his show with a reporter from The Hill, a Washington publication, who interviewed Ukraine Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.
Lutsenko told Hill Television on March 17 that he would launch an investigation into alleged efforts by Ukrainians to meddle in the presidential election. Three days later, Trump, a regular viewer of Hannity's show, tweeted, "As Russia Collusion fades, Ukrainian plot to help Clinton emerges."
Lutsenko announced the probe after U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch criticized the country's handling of corruption, citing a recent high court ruling to decriminalize illicit enrichment by public officials. Lutsenko said investigators would focus on so-called "black ledger" files that resulted in Manafort's abrupt departure from Trump's campaign.
Lutsenko's probe was also prompted by a Ukrainian parliamentarian's release of an audio recording that supposedly quotes a senior law enforcement official as saying his agency leaked Manafort's financial records to help Clinton's campaign.
Manafort, 70, was sentenced on March 13 to 7½ years in federal prison after being convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Manafort was convicted of conspiring to conceal tens of millions of dollars in payments for undisclosed lobbying for a Ukranian politician aligned with Russia. Manafort also conspired to influence witnesses and committed tax and bank fraud.
Cory Booker Offers Plan to Address Environmental Inequality
Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker says it's time to overhaul environmental policies that he says unfairly disadvantage minority and impoverished communities.
The New Jersey senator is promoting what he calls his environmental justice agenda during a campaign stop in South Carolina.
He told students at Allen University in Columbia that the government hasn't done enough to ensure all Americans have equal access to clean, healthy communities.
Booker says addressing environmental inequality is one of today's civil rights battles.
Booker wants to strengthen Environmental Protection Agency and reverse what he says are Trump administration rollbacks of environmental safeguards. He's proposing more EPA workers and resources to ensure safe drinking water.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has said unsafe drinking water is the world's most immediate public health issue.
Trump to Address a Divided National Rifle Association
The nation's largest gun rights organization played a pivotal role in President Donald Trump's victory in 2016.
Three years later, the National Rifle Association is limping toward the next election divided and diminished.
It's a reversal that has stunned longtime observers and that is raising questions about the one-time kingmaker's potential firepower heading into 2020 as Trump and Vice President Mike Pence prepare to headline the group's annual convention in Indianapolis on Friday.
“I've never seen the NRA this vulnerable” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control measures.
In the months after Trump's election, the NRA seemed on top of the world. After pouring tens of millions of dollars into the presidential race, its dark horse candidate occupied the desk in the Oval Office. Republicans controlled both branches of Congress. And the emboldened group had ambitious plans afoot for easing state and national gun regulations.
Instead, much of the legislation the group championed has stalled, due, in part, to a series of mass shootings, including the massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school that left 17 dead and launched a youth movement against gun violence that has had a powerful impact.
At the same time, the group is grappling with infighting, bleeding money and facing a series of investigations into its operating practices, including allegations that covert Russian agents seeking to influence the 2016 election courted its officials and funneled money through the group. Indeed, as Trump is speaking Friday, Maria Butina, the admitted Russian agent, is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Washington.
And then there's the simple fact that, with Trump in office, gun owners no longer fear the Second Amendment is under attack.
“Good times are never good for interest groups because it's much better when Armageddon is at your doorstep,” said Harry Wilson, a Roanoke College professor who has written extensively on gun politics. “Fear is a huge motivator in politics.”
The NRA, said Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor and expert on gun policy, has also dramatically changed its messaging over the last two years, with NRATV advocating a panoply of far-right political views that have turned off some members.
At the same time, public sentiment has shifted. A March AP-NORC poll found that 67% of Americans overall think gun laws should be made stricter — up from 61% in October 2017.
And a June 2018 Gallup poll found overall favorable opinions of the NRA down slightly from October 2015, from 58% to 53%. Unfavorable views have grown, from 35% to 42%.
Views of the NRA have also become increasingly partisan over decades of Gallup polling, and in the last few years as well. In 2018, just 24% of Democrats had a favorable opinion. Favorable views among Republicans in 2018 were at a record high, Gallup found.
Against that backdrop, Democratic politicians have become more comfortable attacking — and even actively running against — the NRA and pledging action to curb gun violence. And gun control groups like Everytown, which is largely financed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and a political action committee formed by Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman wounded in a shooting, have become better organized and more visible, especially at the state level.
That reversal was made clear during the 2018 midterm elections, when those groups vastly outspent the NRA .
During the midterms, the NRA “committed almost a disappearing act,” said Everytown's Feinblatt.
Winkler, the UCLA law professor, allowed that the group had scored some victories under Trump, including the appointment of two Supreme Court justices who may be open to striking down gun laws.
But overall, he said, “On the legislative front, the NRA has been frustrated,” with top priorities like national reciprocity for conceal carry laws and a repeal of the ban on silencers stalled.
Instead, Trump introduced a new federal regulation: a ban on bump stocks after a man using the device opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers on the Las Vegas strip in Nevada, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds.
That didn't seem to bother the NRA members who were beginning to arrive at the convention Thursday and insisted the group remains as influential as ever.
“Why do you think Trump and Pence are coming here?” said Roger Frasz, a lifetime NRA member and gun shop owner in Prescott, Michigan, who was wearing a red “Trump 2020” hat.
Alan Jacobson, 24, an airport worker who lives in Downers Grove, Illinois, said he relies on the NRA to inform him about issues and considers them not only relevant, but essential.
“We're just average people that congressmen won't listen to. The NRA is our voice,” he said.
Still, Mike Cook, who works at a shipyard in Alabama, said he's been disappointed that gun rights haven't seen much movement under Trump. The bump stock ban, in particular, upset him because it was done administratively by Trump officials.
He's uncertain if the millions spent on Trump's campaign in 2016 were worth it. But, he said, Trump is “better than the alternatives.”
Exactly how much influence the group will wield in 2020 remains unclear. The NRA, its policy arm and its political committee did not respond to requests for comment this week. But Andrew Arulanandam, the NRA's managing director of public affairs, has said recent reports of turmoil and financial troubles have been exaggerated and are fueled by anti-gun forces.
Still, the NRA is having financial issues, according to an analysis of tax filings by The Associated Press. The tax-exempt organization's 2016 and 2017 filings, the most recent years available, show combined losses of nearly $64 million. Income from membership dues plunged about $35 million in 2017. And revenue from contributions, grants and gifts dropped about $35 million.
NRA insiders and longtime observers have described an organization at war with itself — a divide that erupted very publicly recently when the NRA sued its longtime public relations firm, Ackerman McQueen, accusing it of refusing to hand over financial records to account for its billings. That could affect the group's messaging heading into 2020.
But even if the group cuts back from the record $412 million the NRA's nonprofit wings spent during the 2016 election year (that's in addition to the $30 million two NRA political action committees invested in electing Trump), the group is expected to be an active spender in the election.
Read More Trump to Address a Divided National Rifle Association : http://bit.ly/2L80EMENearing End of His Tenure, Rosenstein Hits Back at Critics
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is taking swipes at his critics as he prepares to leave the Justice Department. In a speech, Rosenstein made barbed remarks in the direction of former FBI Director James Comey, political pundits and the media
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is taking swipes at his critics as he prepares his exit from the Justice Department.
In a speech Thursday night before a lawyers' group, Rosenstein made barbed remarks in the direction of former FBI Director James Comey, political pundits and the media.
He suggested there were decisions made before he arrived at the Justice Department two years ago that he didn't agree with, likening himself to a man who lies down in a burning bed but doesn't know how the fire started.
He also said "there was overwhelming evidence that Russian operatives hacked American computers and defrauded American citizens."
Rosenstein is expected to leave his position now that special counsel Robert Mueller has submitted his Russia investigation report .
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Judges: Michigan Must Redraw Congressional, Legislative Maps
Michigan must redraw dozens of congressional and legislative districts for the 2020 election because Republicans configured them to guarantee their political dominance over the last decade by unconstitutionally diluting the power of Democratic voters, federal judges ruled Thursday.
In a 3-0 ruling - which will be appealed - the panel gave the GOP-led Legislature and new Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer until Aug. 1 to enact new maps for nine of 14 congressional seats and 25 of 148 legislative districts. The number of newly cast seats would be higher, though, because of the impact on adjacent districts.
The judges also ordered that special state Senate elections be held in 2020, halfway through senators’ normal four-year terms. The panel said it would draw its own maps if new ones are not submitted or if those that are proposed do not comply with constitutional requirements.
The decision was the latest development in a series of lawsuits alleging unconstitutional gerrymandering in a dozen states. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to set limits on partisan mapmaking.
Judge Eric Clay of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood of Michigan’s Eastern District and U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist of Michigan’s Western District said mapmakers, political consultants and lawmakers involved in the Republican-controlled 2011 redistricting effort elevated “partisan considerations” at every step.
“Their primary goal was to draw maps that advantaged Republicans, disadvantaged Democrats and ensured that Republicans could enjoy durable majorities in Michigan’s congressional delegation and in both chambers of the Michigan legislature for the entire decade,” they wrote.
GOP legislators vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.
“We will prepare to comply with this most recent ruling while we await the outcome of the appeal,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey said in a statement. The state Republican Party said the pending appeal is needed to “uphold the will of Michigan voters.”
The suit was filed by the League of Women Voters of Michigan and Democratic voters who claimed districts were shaped by Republicans to ensure the party’s supremacy in the state Capitol after the 2010 census. They said constitutional rights were violated when Democratic areas were packed in certain districts or diluted elsewhere.
The court agreed, ruling that oddly shaped seats - such as the Democratic-held 9th Congressional District in suburban Detroit — were drawn to strategically wrap around and exclude, “in a snakelike fashion,” Republican areas, contributing to the packing of Democratic votes.
“A wide breadth of statistical evidence indicates that the enacted plan’s partisan bias has proven severe and durable; it has strongly advantaged Republicans and disadvantaged Democrats for eight years and across four separate election cycles. Moreover, the enacted plan represents a political gerrymander of historical proportions,” the judges wrote. Two were nominated by former President Bill Clinton; the other was appointed by then-President George H.W. Bush.
New Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson had attempted to settle the case by proposing that the Legislature redraw 11 of 110 state House seats - excluding state Senate and congressional districts - but the panel rejected her proposal and held a trial in February.
“The court’s ruling confirms that these Michigan state House and Senate and U.S. congressional districts are unconstitutional,” Benson said in a statement. “I respect that decision, as should we all. As the state’s chief election officer, I’m committed to working with the Legislature, citizens and the court to ensure the new districts comply with our U.S. Constitution.”
The suit pertains only to 2020. Michigan voters in November approved a constitutional amendment creating an independent commission to handle the typically once-a-decade redistricting process after the 2020 census, which will affect the 2022 election and beyond.
Michigan is among five states where Republicans retained control of the state House even though Democratic candidates won more votes statewide last fall, an analysis by The Associated Press found.
“Today is a great victory for the voters of Michigan and for our democracy,” Judy Karandjeff, president of the League of Women Voters of Michigan, said in a statement. “The state will now draw new district lines before the next federal election, which now will better reflect the makeup of the voters - not the interests of the politicians.”
Soul of Nation at Stake, Biden Says, as he Launches Presidential Bid
Former Vice President Joe Biden made it official Thursday: He is a candidate for president in 2020. Biden is at the top of the 20-person Democratic presidential field, according to public opinion polls. But Biden has failed in two previous runs for the White House and now faces serious questions about his age, his policy positions, and whether he can draw support from a younger, more diverse Democratic Party. VOA National Correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
Read More Soul of Nation at Stake, Biden Says, as he Launches Presidential Bid : http://bit.ly/2GBn1VrFederal Judge Blocks Trump Administration Abortion Rules
A federal judge in Washington state on Thursday blocked new Trump administration rules that could cut off federal funding for health care providers who refer patients for abortions.
The Washington attorney general's office said Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima granted the injunction following about three hours of argument in a case brought by the state and abortion rights groups.
The ruling came two days after a federal judge in Oregon said he intended to at least partly block the rules.
The lawsuits said the administration's new rules were a transparent attack on Planned Parenthood and would curb access to care such as contraception and breast and cervical cancer screening for millions of low-income people.
US House Democrats Probe Homeland Security Firings
Democratic lawmakers on Thursday sought documents on Trump administration firings of top officials at the Department of Homeland Security, saying they were concerned the dismissals were prompted by the
officials' refusal to break the law.
Three U.S. House of Representatives committee chairmen sent a letter to DHS asking for documents related to actions by Republican President Donald Trump and top aide Stephen Miller to remove senior leaders at the agency.
They expressed concern that the firings and forced resignations this month put U.S. national security at risk.
"We are also concerned that the president may have removed DHS officials because they refused his demands to violate federal immigration law and judicial orders," the lawmakers said in a statement.
They said they were troubled by reports that Trump wants to put Miller, who has spearheaded many of his hard-line immigration policies, in charge of all immigration and border affairs.
The lawmakers — Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi — cited reports that Miller called several DHS officials to exert pressure on them to follow on "extreme immigration policy decisions."
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned under pressure this month, followed by several other leaders at the sprawling department that includes the Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies.
Meet the Democratic candidates Running for President
With the entrance of former Vice President Joe Biden into the 2020 Democratic presidential contest on Thursday, the field is largely set, with all the big names included.
The sprawling Democratic field features candidates ranging from 37 to 77 years old; liberals and moderates; senators, governors and mayors; and an unprecedented number of women and minorities. Democrats view the upcoming election as a must-win, and they're looking to nominate someone who is their best hope to beat President Donald Trump.
Here are the 20 candidates:
Joe Biden
Age: 76
Best known for: Being former President Barack Obama's vice president from 2009 to 2017 and U.S. senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009.
Biggest strength: He's well-known nationally and popular in some places Democrats have lost recently, such as working-class swing states Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, his birthplace.
Biggest weakness: Biden would be the oldest person ever elected president, with a nearly five-decade record for opponents to comb through, at a time many in his party are clamoring for a new generation to take the reins. The notoriously chatty former senator also tends to commit verbal gaffes and faced recent accusations by some women of uninvited, though nonsexual, touching.
Cory Booker
Age: 49
Best known for: Serving as mayor of Newark and, currently, U.S. senator from New Jersey. He made headlines last year during his self-proclaimed "`I am Spartacus' moment" as he flouted Senate rules against disclosing confidential documents during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation fight.
Biggest strength: His optimistic, unity-first attitude could resonate at a time of deep political divisions.
Biggest weakness: Trying to convince voters that he's tough enough to take on Trump.
Pete Buttgieg
Age: 37
Best known for: Serving as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and being a former Naval intelligence officer.
Biggest strength: He's won over voters and many skeptics with his intelligence and an articulate yet plain-spoken speaking style. He's also shown an ability to inspire voters of different ages with a message of hope and "a new generation of leadership" and has been able to raise millions more than many of his Democratic rivals.
Biggest weakness: His youth and lack of political experience _ his only public office has been leading the community of about 100,000 people _ will give some voters pause. He also will need to ramp up his campaign operations and do more to appeal to minority voters in order to maintain his early momentum.
Julian Castro
Age: 44
Best Known for: Serving as Health and Human Services secretary during President Barack Obama's second term and as the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, for five years.
Biggest strength: His youthfulness and status as the only Latino in the race could help him win the votes of Democrats looking for a new face of their party.
Biggest weakness: His fundraising lags well behind other contenders.
John Delaney
Age: 56
Best known for: Being a former congressman from Maryland.
Biggest strength: He has rolled out a rural-focus policy that includes proposals to strengthen family farmers and rural infrastructure, a plan that could play well in the battleground Rust Belt states won by Trump.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition.
Tulsi Gabbard
Age: 38
Best known for: Serving as a U.S. representative for Hawaii; the first American Samoan and first Hindu to be elected to Congress.
Biggest strength: Her military service in Iraq and Kuwait with the Hawaii National Guard.
Biggest weakness: She has been criticized for traveling to Syria in 2017 to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has been accused of war crimes and even genocide. She was also forced to apologize for her past work advocating against gay rights.
Kirsten Gillibrand
Age: 52
Best known for: The senator from New York is one of her chamber's most vocal members on issues of sexual harassment, military sexual assault, equal pay for women and family leave.
Biggest strength: Not being afraid to defy her own party in the (hash)MeToo era, calling early for Democratic Sen. Al Franken's resignation over sexual misconduct allegations and saying Bill Clinton should have voluntary left the presidency over an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
Biggest weakness: Sluggish campaign fundraising in the wake of some unpleasant #MeToo headlines of her own, with Gillibrand acknowledging there were "post-investigation human errors" made when her Senate office investigated allegations of sexual misconduct against various staffers.
Kamala Harris
Age: 54
Best known for: The former California attorney general is now the junior U.S. senator from California, known for her rigorous questioning of Trump's nominees.
Biggest strength: As the one black woman in the race, she's able to tap into networks like historically black colleges and universities and her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority that haven't been fully realized before.
Biggest weakness: Her prosecutorial record has come under scrutiny amid a push for criminal justice reform.
John Hickenlooper
Age: 67
Best known for: Being a quirky brewpub owner who became a politician late in life, rising to governor of Colorado.
Biggest strength: An unorthodox political persona and successful electoral track record in a swing state. He's one of the few governors in a race heavy with senators and D.C. stalwarts.
Biggest weakness: He's previously joked that he was too centrist to win the Democratic nomination. As governor he disappointed some environmentalists by not regulating the energy industry more. He's another white male baby boomer in a party filled with younger and more diverse candidates that better reflect its base.
Jay Inslee
Age: 68
Best known for: Being governor of Washington state and a former congressman.
Biggest strength: His campaign emphasis is on combating climate change, which he frames as an economic opportunity in addition to a moral imperative.
Biggest weakness: He risks being labeled a one-issue candidate.
Amy Klobuchar
Age: 58
Best known for: The three-term Minnesota senator raised her national profile during a Senate committee hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when she asked him whether he had ever had so much to drink that he didn't remember what happened. He replied, "Have you?"
Biggest strength: She's known as a pragmatic lawmaker willing to work with Republicans to get things done, a quality that's helped her win across Minnesota, including in rural areas that supported Trump in 2016. She says her Midwestern sensibilities would help Democrats reclaim critical battlegrounds like Wisconsin and Michigan.
Biggest weakness: Her pragmatism may work against her in a primary, as Democratic voters increasingly embrace more liberal policies and positions. There have also been news reports that she has mistreated staff.
Wayne Messam
Age: 44
Best known for: Serving as the mayor of Miramar, Florida, and playing on the Florida State University Seminoles' 1993 national championship football team.
Biggest strength: He touts his mayoral experience balancing government regulations needed to protect the environment while allowing room for companies to prosper.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition and funding.
Seth Moulton
Age: 40
Best known for: The Massachusetts congressman and Iraq War veteran gained national attention for helping lead an effort within the party to reject Nancy Pelosi as House speaker after Democrats regained control of the chamber.
Biggest strength: Military and congressional experience.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition, late start on the fundraising necessary to qualify for the summer debate stage.
Beto O'rourke
Age: 46
Best known for: The former congressman narrowly lost the 2018 Senate race to Republican Ted Cruz in Texas, the country's largest conservative state.
Biggest strength: A do-it-yourself campaign style that packs lots of travel and multiple events into long days and encourages off-the-cuff discussions with voters that still allow O'Rourke to talk up his days as a onetime punk rock guitarist and his love for his home on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Biggest weakness: He's longer on enthusiasm and vague, bipartisan optimism than actual policy ideas, and the style-over-substance approach could see O'Rourke's strong early fundraising slip once the curiosity begins to fade.
Tim Ryan
Age: 45
Best known for: The Ohio congressman made an unsuccessful bid to replace Nancy Pelosi as House Democratic leader in 2016.
Biggest strength: Ryan has touted himself as a candidate who can bridge Democrats' progressive and working-class wings to win the White House.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition, late start on grassroots fundraising.
Bernie Sanders
Age: 77
Best known for: A 2016 presidential primary campaign against Hillary Clinton that laid the groundwork for the leftward lurch that has dominated Democratic politics in the Trump era.
Biggest strength: The Vermont senator, who identifies himself as a democratic socialist, generated progressive energy that fueled his insurgent 2016 campaign and the best fundraising numbers of any Democrat so far.
Biggest weakness: Expanding his appeal beyond his largely white base of supporters.
Eric Swalwell
Age: 38
Best known for: The California congressman is a frequent guest on cable news criticizing President Donald Trump.
Biggest strength: Media savvy and youthfulness could appeal to young voters.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition, late start on grassroots fundraising.
Elizabeth Warren
Age: 69
Best known for: The senator from Massachusetts and former Harvard University law professor whose calls for greater consumer protections led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under then-President Barack Obama.
Biggest strength: Warren has presented a plethora of progressive policy ideas, including eliminating existing student loan debt for millions of Americans, breaking up farming monopolies and mammoth technology firms, implementing a "wealth tax" on households with high net worth and providing universal child care.
Biggest weakness: She is viewed as one of the most liberal candidates in the Democratic field, which could hurt her among moderates. Her policy-heavy approach also risks alienating voters at a time when other candidates are appealing to hearts as much as to minds.
Marianne Williamson
Age: 66
Best known for: Best-selling author and spiritual leader.
Biggest strength: Outsider who could draw interest from voters who are fans of her books.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition, little political experience.
Andrew Yang
Age: 44
Best known for: Entrepreneur who has generated buzz with his signature proposal for universal basic income to give every American $1,000 a month, no strings attached.
Biggest strength: Robust policy agenda, tech savvy.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition, no political experience.
Read More Meet the Democratic candidates Running for President : http://bit.ly/2ZxDORIPioneers of Women's Voting Rights Highlighted in New Exhibit
In 1920, American women gained the right to vote. The historic milestone was the culmination of decades of struggle by women working on both state and national levels for political empowerment. Now a major new exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington examines that complex history ahead of the 100th anniversary of that momentous event. VOA's Julie Taboh has more.
Read More Pioneers of Women's Voting Rights Highlighted in New Exhibit : http://bit.ly/2IWdfzOBiden Announces Presidential Run
Former Vice President Joe Biden has announced he will seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, instantly catapulting him to the top of an increasingly crowded Democratic field vying to challenge U.S. President Donald Trump.
The veteran Delaware senator and two-term vice president in the Obama administration has rivaled Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and other Democratic presidential aspirants in recent polls, although it’s uncertain whether he will be able to match their fundraising prowess. His experience in the areas of foreign affairs, criminal justice and domestic policy is unmatched by other presidential candidates.
But the 76-year-old politician’s old-school style of glad-handing recently came back to haunt him, when at least seven women, including a one-time candidate for lieutenant governor in Nevada, accused him of inappropriate touching, hugs and kissing at public events. While Biden has defended his past behavior as consistent with his lifelong effort to make a “human connection” with women and men alike, he pledged in a recent video to be “mindful” of people’s boundaries going forward.
Biden, who was born in Scranton, Pa., and later moved to Delaware, has been in national politics almost his entire career. After Biden won his first Senate race in 1972, he spent the next 36 years in the chamber, commuting by train most days more than 100 kilometers from Wilmington to Washington. He then served as President Barack Obama’s vice president for eight years.
Biden has twice before run for president, seeking the nomination in 1988 and 2008, but failed to gain much support from voters either time.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Source: Deutsche Bank to Hand Over Trump Loan Documents
Deutsche Bank has begun to provide documents on financing for some of President Donald Trump's projects to New York State authorities, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Wednesday.
In mid-March, New York Attorney General Letitia James subpoenaed the German bank, demanding records related to loans and lines of credit granted to the Trump Organization.
The money was intended to finance projects such as Trump hotels in Washington, D.C., Miami and Chicago, another source told AFP last month on the condition of anonymity.
No comment on CNN report
It was unclear whether Deutsche Bank had provided all the documents requested.
"We remain committed to cooperating with authorized investigations," a bank spokesman told AFP, while declining to comment on a CNN report that the company was handing over the documents.
James' office also declined to comment on the status of the documents regarding financing for the Trump Organization, the holding company that has been run by Trump's sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. since he entered the White House.
New York authorities also wanted records related to the Trump Organization's failed attempt in 2014 to buy the Buffalo Bills football team, the source said on condition of anonymity.
James demanded the information from Deutsche Bank after Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen testified before Congress, saying among other things that Trump wildly inflated his net worth in order to secure loans from Deutsche Bank.
Bank a source of funding
Deutsche Bank was one of the few major banks to continue to lend to Trump following the bankruptcies of his casinos and other businesses in the 1990s. The German bank in recent years has loaned Trump more than $300 million.
That put the bank at the center of investigations and congressional scrutiny.
When opposition Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in January, they sought information on interest rates granted to the Trump Organization, as well as details on a huge Russian money laundering case that earned Deutsche Bank a $630 million fine in January 2017.
House Oversight Chairman Cites 'Massive' Obstruction by Trump, Barr
The Democratic chairman of the House oversight committee accused the Trump administration of a "massive, unprecedented and growing pattern of
obstruction" for ordering federal employees not to comply with congressional investigations.
President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr "are now openly ordering federal employees to ignore congressional subpoenas and simply not show up — without any assertion of a valid legal privilege," Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland said in a statement.
The Justice Department on Wednesday rebuffed the House Oversight and Reform Committee, which had sought to interview an official involved in the Trump administration's decision to put a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. Census.
The department said John Gore, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, would not participate in a deposition scheduled for Thursday if he could not have a Justice Department lawyer at his side. The committee had offered to allow a lawyer to sit in a different room.
Cummings said the subpoena issued to Gore was adopted on a bipartisan basis and that there was no privilege asserted by the White House or Justice Department that would preclude him from appearing.
"This is a massive, unprecedented and growing pattern of obstruction," Cummings said, warning the federal employees to "think very carefully about their own legal interests" in refusing to comply with the panel's requests.
Trump's Fed Pick Moore Draws Fire From Democrats; Republicans Silent
Stephen Moore, the economic commentator that U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will nominate to the Federal Reserve Board, is drawing new fire from top Democrats for his comments denigrating, among other targets, women and the Midwest.
But Republicans, whose 53 to 47 majority in the U.S. Senate gives them the final say on whether Moore's pending nomination is confirmed, have not weighed in since news surfaced this week documenting Moore's long history of sexist remarks, some of which he says were made jokingly.
As a Fed governor, Moore would have a say on setting interest rates for the world's biggest economy. Some economists and Democratic lawmakers have questioned his competence, citing his support for tying policy decisions to commodity prices and his fluctuating views on rates. This week though, it is his comments about gender and geography that are drawing criticism.
"What are the implications of a society in which women earn more than men? We don't really know, but it could be disruptive to family stability," Moore wrote in one column in 2014.
In 2000, he opined that "women tennis pros don't really want equal pay for equal work. They want equal pay for inferior work." The New York Times among others has documented many other instances where he expressed similar viewpoints.
It's just added evidence that Moore is unfit for the Fed job, vice chair of the joint economic committee Carolyn Maloney told Reuters.
"Those include his reckless tendency to politicize the Fed as well as his bizarre and sexist comments about women in sports that came to light this week," she said.
Republicans, she said, "should also take note that Moore has said capitalism is more important than democracy. That's a dangerous comment that further confirms my belief that Moore shouldn’t be allowed on the Fed Board.”
Maloney earlier this month sent a letter urging Republican Senator Mike Crapo and Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown to oppose Moore's nomination. Crapo and Brown are the chair and vice chair, respectively, of the Senate banking committee, which would be Moore's first stop in any confirmation hearings.
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Charles Schumer, both Democrats, have also publicly criticized Moore as well as businessman Herman Cain, who withdrew his name from consideration for the Fed this week amid mounting objections.
Cain said he stopped the process because he realized the job would mean a pay cut and would prevent him from pursuing his current business and speaking gigs.
The Senate banking panel's 13 Republican members, contacted by Reuters about their views on Moore's suitability for the Fed role after his derisive commentary about women came to light, all either did not respond or declined to comment.
But Brown on Wednesday blasted Moore for comments he made in 2014 calling cities in the Midwest, including Cincinnati, the "armpits of America." Brown demanded an apology.
"It would be your job to carefully consider monetary and regulatory policies that support communities throughout the country” even those you apparently consider beneath you," Brown wrote in a letter to Moore. "Based on your bias against communities across the heartland of our country, it's clear that you lack the judgment to make important decisions in their best interest.”
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