Category: Politics

Categories
Politics

GOP congressman says Trump is hurting People

GOP congressman says Trump is hurting Americans

GOP MP Tom Reed told CNBC Thursday that President Donald Trump’s short-term opposition to the coronavirus aid package approved by Congress earlier this week is hurting the struggling Americans.

The $ 900 billion bill, coupled with a government funding measure, was passed with veto-proof majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. But on Tuesday night, Trump attacked the package as a “disgrace” calling for numerous changes, including direct payments of $ 2,000 instead of $ 600.

“If you bring up these last-minute issues like that, it’s very worrying,” Reed said on Squawk Box before his Republicans blocked a move to raise direct payments to $ 2,000. “I understand the president’s frustration … but blind people, and doing this at the last minute, is not conducive to me because the American people are the ones who are losing in this fight.”

Trump has not said whether he will officially veto the bill or not sign it instead. If he took the latter route, the bill would die and no action on an aid package could be taken until the next session of Congress on January 3rd.

The $ 900 billion package would extend an expansion of unemployment benefits in the pandemic before it expires on Saturday. The provision covers 12 million people. The government could also close on Monday if the $ 1.4 trillion piece of legislation is not signed by then.

Trump’s criticism of the bill focused in part on spending on foreign aid, which was included in the larger state finance division.

Reed, a New York Republican co-chair of the non-partisan Problem Solvers Caucus, said he recognized Trump’s concerns about foreign aid. However, he said they shouldn’t be distracted from the need to provide economic aid to Americans affected by the pandemic.

“The people we negotiated that $ 900 billion for are waiting for that relief,” Reed said. “There are people who are hired on Monday waiting for the paycheck protection program. Tens of thousands of people are going back to work. I beg the president: Please think of these people.”

Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Is expected to propose a new temporary spending bill that would separate the State Department and foreign aid funding from the larger spending package. Democrats would likely oppose this plan.

“We should focus on where we can agree – $ 900 billion in emergency aid … have to go out today. We all agree. We worked on it. We found common ground,” Reed said. “We may be able to deal with the idea of ​​increasing checks later.”

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, Reed’s co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, agreed. The New Jersey Democrat said it supports the idea of ​​bigger stimulus checks but does not want a delay in the current deal.

“We worked so hard to bring this package together and bring Democrats and Republicans on board,” Gottheimer said in the same “Squawk Box” interview. “We should get this law signed and then add more … but there is no point in blowing it up and hurting the people and undermining all parts of this law that are so critical.”

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Categories
Politics

Unemployment Help Set to Lapse Saturday as Trump’s Plans for Aid Invoice Stay Unclear

Unemployment Aid Set to Lapse Saturday as Trump’s Plans for Relief Bill Remain Unclear

“Why shouldn’t politicians want to give people $ 2,000, just $ 600?” he said on Twitter, possibly referring to his own party’s move on Thursday to block a House Democratic bill that would have increased the amount of direct payments to $ 2,000. “It wasn’t their fault, it was China. Give the money to our people! “

Updated

Apr. 25, 2020, 7:16 am ET

Mr Trump was largely uninvolved in the legislative negotiations, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is believed to have negotiated on behalf of the President.

The aid bill also includes billions of dollars to help states distribute coronavirus vaccines, a replenished small business loan program, and airline aid. It was passed along with a spending measure to keep government funding going for the remainder of the fiscal year. The cost of the combined package is $ 2.3 trillion.

Treasury officials had expected the president to sign the bill this week and planned to overhaul the Christmas break to restart the small business paycheck protection program and push payments through direct deposit through early next week. However, all of this is now suspended.

The second stimulus

Answers to your questions about the stimulus calculation

Updated December 23, 2020

Legislators agreed to a plan to provide $ 600 stimulus payments and distribute $ 300 federal unemployment benefits for 11 weeks. Here you can find out more about the bill and what’s in it for you.

    • Do I get another incentive payment? Individual adults with adjusted gross income on their 2019 tax returns of up to $ 75,000 per year would receive a payment of $ 600, and heads of household up to $ 112,500 and a couple (or someone whose spouse died in 2020) would receive up to to earn $ 150,000 per year Get double the amount. If they have dependent children, they will also receive $ 600 for each child. People with incomes just above this level would receive a partial payment that decreases by $ 5 for every $ 100 of income.
    • When could my payment arrive? Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC that he expected the first payments to be made before the end of the year. However, it will take a while for everyone to receive their money.
    • Does the agreement concern unemployment insurance? Legislators agreed to extend the length of time people can receive unemployment benefits and restart an additional federal benefit that is on top of the usual state benefits. But instead of $ 600 a week it would be $ 300. That would take until March 14th.
    • I am behind on my rent or expect to be soon. Do I get relief? The deal would provide $ 25 billion to be distributed through state and local governments to help backward tenants. In order to receive support, households would have to meet various conditions: the household income (for 2020) must not exceed 80 percent of the regional median income; At least one household member must be at risk of homelessness or residential instability. and individuals must be eligible for unemployment benefits or face direct or indirect financial difficulties due to the pandemic. The agreement states that priority will be given to support for lower-income families who have been unemployed for three months or more.

Lawmakers in Congress and White House officials have indicated that they are unsure whether Mr. Trump will give in and sign the legislation, formally veto it, or simply not sign it. While Congress could potentially override Mr Trump’s veto, the next Congress would have to reintroduce the legislation early next year and vote on it when it sits on the bill – a so-called pocket veto.

California Democrat spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi said she would hold a roll-call vote Monday on direct payments legislation that would meet Mr. Trump’s $ 2,000 direct payment request and put pressure on Republicans who oppose such high payments. Congress could also be forced to pass another emergency measure to avoid a shutdown.

Official figures released this week showed continued stress on the economy as personal incomes fell and unemployment claims remained high. Another 398,000 people applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, one of two federal programs to expand unemployment benefits that will be phased out.

Categories
Politics

Democrats goal Asian American, Latino voters

Democrats target Asian American, Latino voters

U.S. Senate Democratic nominees Jon Ossoff (R) and Raphael Warnock (L) wave at supporters during a rally in Marietta, Georgia on November 15, 2020.

Jessica McGowan | Getty Images

James Woo grew up in Georgia and was never contacted by political campaigns. His house rarely received flyers or mailers for candidates. There was only one ethnic market where you could buy cultural foods. He could count all the other Asian American kids in his middle school class in Gwinnett County.

Today, Gwinnett is one of the most racially diverse counties in Georgia, with significant populations of islanders and Latinos in Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific – groups that are growing in metropolitan Atlanta and across the state.

Ahead of the crucial January 5 Senate runoff election that will rule over control of the upper chamber, Democrats hope to harness the growing political power of AAPI and Latino voters across Georgia to win over incumbent GOP Sens. David Perdue and defeat Kelly Loeffler and choose the challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock.

Woo is the communications manager and Korean outreach director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, a nonprofit that has worked for years to mobilize AAPI voters in Georgia. Advancing Justice-Atlanta and other color community advocacy groups have reached out to voters who have been overlooked by many political campaigns in the past.

A historic surge in voters in Asia, America, and Latin America has helped turn the state blue for President-elect Joe Biden, according to Democratic data firm TargetSmart. Compared to 2016, the AAPI voter turnout increased 91% while the Latino voter turnout increased 72%.

“That kind of turnout didn’t really happen overnight,” said Woo. “We have worked with other black, brown, and immigrant communities and organizations to get them to vote.”

AAPI and Latino advocacy leaders say more investment and grassroots organizations are needed for Democrats to win in January and beyond.

Georgia’s changing political landscape

“Partisan politics in Georgia have long been characterized by black-and-white racial segregation, and Asian-Americans and Latinos obviously don’t fit in properly,” said Bernard Fraga, political scientist at Emory University.

“They’re more convincing than whites or African-Americans, so they’re more of a swing constituency,” said Fraga. “But Asian Americans and Latinos are much closer to being a democratic constituency in the state than even white suburban voters.”

According to NBC News polls, 88% of Georgia’s black voters supported Biden, while 69% of white voters in the state supported incumbent Republican President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, 62% of Georgian Latino voters supported Biden and 63% of AAPI voters across the country supported Biden. (AAPI data were not available for Georgia.)

Fraga said the November election results in Georgia represent a “long-term model for Democrats” that does not rely on shrinking white votes, but instead looks at the turnout rates of Latinos and Asians, and that boosts Americans . “

Asian American and Latin American voters made up about 3% and 5%, respectively, of the Georgian electorate in 2019, but are by far the fastest growing segments of US voters, according to the Pew Research Center.

“People are realizing for the first time that AAPI and Latinx voters are that growing group of people who have the ability to swing a state one way or another,” said Gigi Pedraza, executive director of the Latino Community Fund Georgia.

Preparation for January 5th

In the highly competitive Senate runoff competitions that are expected to get to the point, increasing the turnout among AAPI and Latino voters will be key for Democrats hoping to maximize electoral margins.

Georgia electoral rules required runoffs if no candidate exceeded 50% of the vote in both races during the November 3 election.

After the general election, according to a campaign spokesman, the Ossoff campaign hired constituency directors who focused on public relations for the AAPI and Latino. The Warnock campaign hired an AAPI community coordinator to do political outreach in the summer of 2020 and also has a Latinx voting director and New Americans coordinator on the team, the campaign told CNBC.

The Perdue campaign did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The Loeffler campaign was not available for comment before this story was published.

Historically, turnout in runoff elections in Asia, America and Latin America has declined compared to black and white voters. By December 24, more than 2 million people had voted in the Senate runoff elections. The pace of black voter turnout in the runoff elections is at or above the pace of voter turnout during the November 3 election, while the pace of whites turnout is slightly slower, according to Fraga’s analysis of the early voting data. The fall in voter turnout by Latino and AAPI in the runoff elections is the lowest of the racial groups and is between 80% and 90% of the general election turnout rate.

The campaigns, the Democratic Party and advocacy groups are all working to increase the turnout of AAPI and Latino voters as January 5th approaches. Before the voter registration deadline, they helped register new voters. Voto Latino, a national voter registration organization, said it had registered 12,000 new voters in Georgia for the runoff election, in addition to the nearly 36,000 voters the organization had registered for the general election.

“We know this turnout will be the biggest problem,” said María Teresa Kumar, President and CEO of Voto Latino. “That’s why we started again to register voters.”

Of the nearly 76,000 new voters registered in Georgia since the November election, Latin American and Asian American voters made up more than their total share of the electorate, the Atlanta Journal’s Constitution reported.

Language barriers and gaps in civic education are challenges that particularly affect Asian American and Latin American voters, many of whom are first-time voters, young people, or naturalized citizens. AAPI and Latino advocacy leaders say the misinformation can spread quickly in their communities, particularly on group messaging platforms like WeChat, WhatsApp, and KakaoTalk, and sometimes through ethnic media. Asian-American and Latin American voters are not monoliths either; They encompass different races, languages ​​and experiences between different communities.

The groups hope to address these challenges through multilingual and multicultural public relations: door-to-door advertising, literature drop-outs, telephone and text banking, advertisements and press in ethnic media – together with the aim of reaching out to hundreds of thousands of voters. During the early voting period and on January 5th, stakeholders also organize election protection work and multilingual voter hotlines.

Beyond the runoff

In recent history, the work of mobilizing voters for these color communities has mainly been done by local units. Asian-American and Latin American organizers cite the work of black organizers to pave the way, particularly leaders like suffrage activist and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who has worked with AAPI and Latino groups for years.

“We’ve really built our churches in ways that haven’t really been there in the past. So when we talk about why Georgia turned blue this year, it is in large part because of the organization that has been organized in color communities in recent years, “said Aisha Yaqoob Mahmood, director of the Asian American Advocacy Fund, a grassroots progressive group focused on AAPIs in Georgia. “In recent years it has been clear that Georgia would require an investment in color communities to move forward.”

While Georgians can self-identify their race when registering to vote, making it easier for organizations to use electoral rolls to contact key constituencies, reaching out to eligible voters who may not yet have a voting history can be difficult. Stakeholder leaders say it can be more time-consuming and costly to advertise in AAPI and Latino neighborhoods, as the high percentage of immigrants means there is typically a lower proportion of eligible voters compared to black and white neighborhoods .

To continue the momentum in mobilizing Asian American and Latin American voters, organizers need to keep contacting and building relationships, organizers say. The investment is especially important for the Democratic Party to make AAPI and Latino voters a core part of its base.

Jen Rafanan, AAPI media director for the Georgia Democratic Party, said in a statement, “We don’t take anything for granted.” Rafanan and Karla Alvarado, Latinx media director for the Georgia Democrats, said the party was determined to engage and mobilize the AAPI and Latino communities in the state beyond the runoff elections.

“We struggle to get investment every year,” said Pedraza of Latino Community Fund Georgia. “Now everyone’s watching, which is great … but can you commit for the next five years?”

“Because Georgia might not be sexy next year and it will be sexy again for gubernatorial elections in 2022, but by then it will be too late,” Pedraza said. “We have to keep building next year so that we are ready for 2022.”

Categories
Politics

Scenes From a Pandemic Vacation Highway Journey

Scenes From a Pandemic Holiday Road Trip

The streets in Frostburg, Md., Were icy. In Jolly, Texas, the mood was gloomy. Despite a season full of challenges at every turn, it was clear the vacation was in full swing when I arrived in Snowbird, Utah.

After three months on the east coast over the final stretch of an election turned on its head by a pandemic, it was time for the long drive home to Washington State. When they left Pennsylvania, the campaign signs fell away and the mood improved. I drove through two Bethlehems (NC and Pa.), Antlers, Okla. And Garland, Texas, looking for signs of the season, stopping at holiday events in Asheville, NC, Memphis, and Dallas.

Blowup Snowmen boldly declared that Christmas was coming. The houses were shrouded in twinkling lights. In small towns, people took care of sick neighbors. Tourist spots revered for their year-end celebrations found ways to open up despite the pandemic. Living nativity scenes, menorah lights and Christmas music revues were held outdoors. People put on masks and came to get off and participate.

With the help of generous donors or simply out of sheer willpower, Americans across the country ended this tumultuous year with celebrations of joy, faith, and new beginnings.

In Show Low, Arizona, Aaron Leach created a free display of 42,000 dancing lights, music, and videos in honor of rescue workers and veterans. “As a firefighter, I know what it is like to risk my life for communities,” he said.

Farther south, in Glendale, Arizona, Rabbi Sholom Lew rolled a three meter menorah into an empty parking lot for Hanukkah.

“No matter how dark it is outside,” he said, “if we just try a little, each of us can create a little light and warmth in our lives.”

ASHEVILLE, NC – The Biltmore Estate, a gilded-age mansion in the mountains of North Carolina, typically has about 400,000 visitors between November and early January. There will be fewer guests this season, but most of the 2,200 employees who were on leave in March have returned to work.

CONOVER, NC – Veronica Sherrill was overwhelmed and ready for a big scream – a good scream, she said, not a sad one. Her drive-through performance of Living Nativity had attracted large crowds over nine evenings, with only one performance being interrupted in a flash. The show featured about half of the Oxford Baptist Church congregation, all of whom were temperature tested to disguise themselves before entering the building.

Ms. Sherrill said she was humble about the success and the organizers decided to do it annually.

“A new tradition born in Covid,” she said.

NASHVILLE – The pandemic was the city’s second tragedy this year. A tornado ripped through in March, killing 25 people and causing great damage. Crossroads Campus, a nonprofit that provides shelter and services to both vulnerable youth and animals, was badly hit but recovered in time for the annual Santa Paws event. Alisha Soto, 26, came in a Grinch costume. As a self-described trauma child, she was thrilled when she got a job there.

“Crossroads definitely has a way to heal you whether you know it or not,” she explained. “It has been a very dark year on so many fronts and I look forward to turning the page, continuing the healing process, and making 2021 one of the best years I’ve had. And just keep going. “

MEMPHIS – The Enchanted Forest and Festival of Trees exhibition, featuring mechanical Christmas figurines and community-decorated Christmas trees, is held annually at the Pink Palace Museum to raise funds for La Bonheur Childrens Hospital.

“It won’t increase what it has in the past, but we felt it was important to do so,” said Sarah Fiser, La Bonheur’s event coordinator. There were fewer trees this year, but still enough to enjoy.

Jack Schaefer, 76, dressed as Santa Claus, was sitting behind a round plexiglass sign that was decorated to look like a snow globe when he posed with children. He sometimes asked her to speak. “I can’t hear you through the glass,” he said.

DALLAS – The 12-day Christmas exhibition came to life at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden. Visitors meandered through the playful carousel displays of Lords-a-Jumping and dancing ladies, while children went on a scavenger hunt for cats, owls and rabbits. Many of the guests were rescue workers and their families, courtesy of an arboretum donor, Dan Patterson.

“People have suffered financially. Seeing long lines at grocery banks on the front cover of the Dallas Morning News reminded me of the Great Depression and I thought that just can’t happen here, ”he said. “I’m happy to have resources and I want to make sure I share them.”

OKLAUNION, Texas – Santa Clauses showed up on the 240 miles between Jolly and Nazareth, Texas. Outside Robert Kimbrew’s farmhouse on Route 287, two female mannequins on an old green convertible, wearing only Christmas bows and Christmas hats, stopped traffic. He joked that at least a million people photographed his annual exhibition for more than 20 years.

MAGDALENA, NM – Outside Winston Auto Service, in this dusty village near the Alamo Navajo Reservation, employees set an old Dodge Power Wagon on fire. Clara Winston, the owner, gave the direction, her single hip-length gray braid swinging behind her. Her husband had insisted that she put the display up earlier this year. The corona virus had hit the region hard, she said, and he wanted to “improve everyone’s mood”.

PHOENIX – Michelle Elias, 31, the stage manager who was named security officer for the Phoenix Theater Company, was the last to leave after “Unwrapped,” an outdoor vacation music revue. It was the company’s first production since March. Ms. Elias now monitors the health of the occupation and the cleanliness of the venue – measuring temperatures, wiping doorknobs and washing masks.

The company closed the day after the dress rehearsal of Something Rotten, an original musical comedy about the plague. The coronavirus vaccines launched this month are a weight off her chest, she said. “We plan to do ‘Something Rotten’ as soon as we can get 30 people to sing in one room again. It will be the perfect end to this Covid journey. “

GLENDALE, Arizona – Towards sunset, a car with a ten foot menorah pulled into a parking lot near the State Farm Arena. Rabbi Sholom Lev and his family piled up to climb it before a drive-in Hanukkah celebration. When other vehicles came to them, Rabbi Lev, who was pulling a small cart, was handing out paper bags of donuts and latkes.

After he said a prayer and lit the candles, the cars gradually drove away and lit the menorah on the empty property.

LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON, Utah – The Snowbird Ski Resort has limited attendance this season. Social distancing and masks are required, even with the goggles, helmets, and neck gaiters that most skiers wear. Tram rides are limited to 25, and the elevator is cleaned with a spray gun after every other trip. The resort easily accepts hundreds of thousands of skiers for most years. That day the summit was calm and covered with clouds.

SEATTLE – Jessica Lowery, 36, was an intensive care nurse in 2009 when H1N1 met. She remembers the fear followed by relief when the flu was kept under control. When she first heard about the coronavirus, she thought it would be similar. Instead, the pandemic cost her life last year, she said.

As head of testing sites, she was one of the first at Harborview Medical Center to be vaccinated. “It’s still kind of surreal,” she said. “I didn’t know how stressed I was all year round. It gives us hope that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. “

Categories
Politics

Dominion Voting warns Fox Information lawsuits are imminent

Dominion Voting warns Fox News lawsuits are imminent

Complaints are coming.

Dominion Voting Systems, one of the targets of President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the election he lost, has warned Fox News, great Fox figures, other conservative media outlets, radio host Rush Limbaugh, and conservative attorneys that libel disputes are against them ” imminent. “

The voting machine company this week sent 21 letters to the White House, Fox News, its hosts Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Newsmax news outlets, One America News Network, Epoch Times, and others calling for no defamation Make more claims on Dominion and that they are keeping any documents they have regarding the company.

“We are writing to formally indicate that litigation regarding these issues is imminent,” wrote Dominion attorneys Thomas Clare and Megan Meier in one of the letters to CNBC to Fox News Media General Counsel Lily Fu Claffee .

In their letters to individual news presenters, including Bartiromo, a former CNBC employee, the attorneys called for “no more defamatory claims against Dominion” and said they had “introduced and further introduced” the advocates of this misinformation campaign against. the Company.

Others who have received similar letters warning of impending litigation and requests for document retention include Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani; L. Lin Wood, attorney who questioned Georgia presidential election results, and Newsmax host Greg Kelly.

A Fox News spokeswoman pointed out two segments that aired on Fox News last month. In one case, a Dominion spokesman told host Eric Shawn that no significant electronic fraud or tampering with the company’s voting machine had occurred and that Trump’s claims about the company were false. The spokesman noted that the machines’ printed ballots matched the electronic numbers.

In the second segment, host Tucker Carlson elaborated on his staff’s efforts to get former federal attorney Sidney Powell, who was on Trump’s campaign team at the time, to substantiate their controversial claims about Dominion.

“But she never sent us evidence despite many polite inquiries,” said Carlson in the segment.

The spokespersons for the other objectives of the Dominion legal letters did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

During an interview on Thursday on CNN, Dominion CEO John Poulos said the company would take legal action against several people who “promote and reinforce those lies … on various media platforms since election day”.

“We will not overlook anyone,” said Poulos when asked if the company would sue Trump.

Trump has made a number of false claims since losing the national referendum to Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes to argue that he won the election by a landslide and that the ballot papers for him were fraudulently suppressed while the votes were being held for Biden were artificially added in a handful of states where the results were particularly close.

On November 12, just nine days after election day, Trump tweeted a claim that “DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE”.

One of the most ardent proponents of the Dominion conspiracy theories was Powell, who last month was fired from the team of lawyers working on Trump’s campaign to overturn Biden’s victory because her extreme claims were widely criticized. Since last week, Powell has met with Trump at least once and has visited the White House three times in connection with her efforts.

Dominion attorneys have also sent Powell a letter warning them of libel claims.

In his interview with CNN, Poulos said Powell’s allegations that his company’s voting machine contains software developed “at the direction” of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a boogeyman for right-wing media outlets, and that Dominion has ties to the Clinton Foundation and George has Soros are “complete lies”.

Dominion’s director of security, Eric Coomer, sued the Trump campaign, Giuliani, Powell and a range of conservative media outlets.

Coomer’s lawsuit alleges that he has been the target of death threats and other harmful communications because of the defendants’ false claims about Dominion’s machines.

Dominion said on its website that “disinformation” about the company poses a threat to democracy.

“Baseless claims about the integrity of the system or the accuracy of the results have been rejected by electoral authorities, subject matter experts and outside fact-checkers,” the company says.

“Malicious and misleading false claims about Dominion have created dangerous threats and harassment to the company and its employees, as well as to election officials.”

Last week, another voting machine company, Smartmatic, announced that it had served Fox News, Newsmax and OAN legal notices and cancellation notices “in order to publish false and defamatory statements”.

“The letters of formal notice list dozens of factually inaccurate statements made by each organization as part of a” disinformation campaign “to violate Smartmatic and discredit the 2020 US election,” the company said at the time.

“Smartmatic had nothing to do with the” controversies “that certain public and private figures have posed regarding the 2020 US election,” the company said. “Several fact-checkers have consistently exposed these false statements with astonishing consistency and regularity.”

Smartmatic said that despite false claims to the contrary, it was “only involved in the US 2020 election as the manufacturing partner, systems integrator and software developer for the Los Angeles County’s public voting system.”

Categories
Politics

Behind Trump Clemency, a Case Research in Particular Entry

Behind Trump Clemency, a Case Study in Special Access

Philip Esformes acquired a $1.6 million Ferrari and a $360,000 Swiss watch and traveled around the United States on a private jet, a spending spree fueled by the spoils from what federal prosecutors called one of the largest Medicare fraud cases in history.

“Philip Esformes is a man driven by almost unbounded greed,” Denise M. Stemen, an agent in the F.B.I.’s Miami field office, said last year after Mr. Esformes, 52, a nursing home operator, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the two-decade scheme that involved an estimated $1.3 billion worth of fraudulent claims.

That prison term ended suddenly this week, when President Trump commuted what remained of Mr. Esformes’s sentence.

His rapid path to clemency is a case study in how criminals with the right connections and resources have been able to cut through normal channels and gain the opportunity to make their case straight to the Trump White House.

For Mr. Esformes, that involved support from a Jewish humanitarian nonprofit group that advances prisoners’ rights and worked with the White House on criminal justice issues, including clemency and legislation overhauling sentencing laws that was championed by Mr. Trump and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and adviser.

Mr. Esformes’s family donated $65,000 to the group, the Aleph Institute, over several years starting after his indictment, according to the group.

His name adorns a school in Chicago associated with the Chabad-Lubavitch group of Hasidic Jews, whose leader at the time was involved in the creation of the Aleph Institute in the early 1980s. His father is a rabbi in Florida. His family has also donated for years to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, to which Mr. Kushner has longstanding ties.

In the announcement of the commutation, the White House said Mr. Esformes had been “devoted to prayer and repentance” while in prison and is in “declining health.”

Alan M. Dershowitz, a longtime supporter of clemency who works with the Aleph Institute on a volunteer basis, said the group “played a significant role” in Mr. Esformes’s clemency effort and “put together the papers” for the petition.

Mr. Trump has largely overridden a highly bureaucratic process overseen by pardon lawyers for the Justice Department and handed considerable control to his closest White House aides, including Mr. Kushner. They, in turn, have outsourced much of the vetting process to political and personal allies, allowing private parties to play an outsize role in influencing the application of one of the most unchecked powers of the presidency.

Among those allies is the Aleph Institute, a well-known force in criminal justice issues which beyond Mr. Esformes’s case has also weighed in on less high-profile clemency requests to Mr. Trump.

The White House on Wednesday specifically cited Aleph in announcing Mr. Trump’s commutation of what supporters had contended was a disproportionately severe 20-year sentence given to Daniela Gozes-Wagner, a single mother and midlevel manager in Houston, in a health care fraud and money laundering case.

Clemency efforts represent a small fraction of the work done by the Aleph Institute, which has championed fewer than 50 such cases, a majority of which involve prisoners who are not Jewish and are indigent, according to the group.

“Aleph has worked with more than 35,000 inmates and their families since its inception,” Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar, the institute’s founder, said in a statement on Thursday. “Almost all of the people Aleph works with are destitute, and the same is true for almost all the clemency cases.”

Aleph has helped advance at least five of the 24 commutations handed down by Mr. Trump, including the recipient of the president’s very first commutation — issued in 2017 to Sholom Rubashkin, the chief executive of a kosher meat processing company who was convicted in 2009 on fraud charges — and three commutations announced on Wednesday.

“They are a major, major force of pushing commutations,” said Mr. Dershowitz, who recommended a number of clemency petitions that Aleph supported, and says he personally spoke to Mr. Trump about Mr. Rubashkin’s case.

Mr. Dershowitz said donations to Aleph were “absolutely not” a factor in deciding which clemency cases to support.

“The people who make those decisions are completely independent,” he said. “I can tell you categorically that Aleph is supporting people who A, are not Jewish, and B, who have made no contributions whatsoever.”

Like several of the lawyers who work with the Aleph Institute — including Ken Starr, the former independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton, and the former federal prosecutor Brett L. Tolman — Mr. Dershowitz has ties to the Trump White House of the sort that tend to be coveted by clemency seekers hoping for the president’s attention.

He and Mr. Starr represented Mr. Trump during his impeachment trial, while Mr. Tolman advised the White House on the criminal justice reform overhaul pushed by Mr. Kushner and signed into law by Mr. Trump in 2018.

Mr. Dershowitz, Mr. Starr and Mr. Tolman have all lent their names to clemency efforts championed by the Aleph Institute, as have other prominent Republicans like the former F.B.I. director Louis J. Freeh and the former attorney general Michael B. Mukasey, both of whom are featured on the Aleph Institute’s website endorsing the group’s work.

Mr. Freeh and Mr. Dershowitz have also worked with Gary Apfel, a lawyer who works on a volunteer basis with the Aleph Institute, including on the clemency campaign for Mr. Esformes. The three lawyers were registered lobbyists for Dan Gertler, an Israeli billionaire whose assets were frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2017 because of corrupt mining deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mr. Apfel, Mr. Freeh, Mr. Starr and Mr. Mukasey did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Dershowitz said the Aleph Institute’s effectiveness stemmed from the thoroughness of the clemency applications it submits to the White House.

He said that staff members in the White House Counsel’s Office, which has worked with Mr. Kushner’s team to vet the applications presented to Mr. Trump, told him that “the counsel’s office relies heavily on the credibility of Aleph, and they prove credible repeatedly.”

The Aleph Institute was founded nearly four decades ago by Rabbi Lipskar of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Jews, at the direction of the movement’s leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, who emphasized the rehabilitation of prisoners. The Aleph Institute had a budget of $6.9 million during the 12-month period from fall 2018 to fall 2019. The group takes its name from the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet and supports a range of programs beyond clemency, including criminal justice reforms and expanded religious and social services for prisoners and military personnel.

Rabbi Lipskar said in an interview in August that the organization was working on a commutation for Mr. Esformes but had not yet met with anyone in the White House.

He said he did not remember precisely how he came to learn about the case of Mr. Esformes.

Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have their own connections to Chabad-Lubavitch, having chosen a home in Washington within walking distance to a Chabad synagogue where they attend Shabbat services. The weekend before the 2016 election, they visited the grave site of Rabbi Schneerson. The Kushner family foundation has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to projects and institutions associated with Chabad, according to a tally by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

After Mr. Esformes was indicted, Rabbi Lipskar said he visited Mr. Esformes in prison at least 25 times and “became almost like his personal rabbi.”

Mr. Esformes’s father “ramped up his financial commitment to Aleph,” according to a 2019 court filing by Mr. Esformes’s lawyers. They said the money was donated partly “in appreciation for all that Aleph has done for Mr. Esformes” and was given to the group “generously, if not exclusively selflessly.”

The donations, which began in 2016 and ended in 2019, totaled $65,000, according to Aleph.

Most donors behind Aleph Institute are not public, but its board members include the Miami-based real estate developers Sonny Kahn, Alberto Kamhazi and Russell Galbut, as well as David Schottenstein, a member of the Ohio family that created retail giants like DSW and American Eagle.

Its mission comports with the particular value assigned by the Chabad-Lubavitch tradition on rehabilitating and freeing incarcerated people, stemming partly from the imprisonment of its founding rabbi in late 18th-century Russia on politically motivated charges.

Clemency Power ›

Presidential Pardons, Explained

President Trump has discussed potential pardons that could test the boundaries of his constitutional power to nullify criminal liability. Here’s some clarity on his ability to pardon.

    • May a president issue prospective pardons before any charges or conviction? Yes. In Ex parte Garland, an 1866 case involving a former Confederate senator who had been pardoned by President Andrew Johnson, the Supreme Court said the pardon power “extends to every offense known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment.” It is unusual for a president to issue a prospective pardon before any charges are filed, but there are examples, perhaps most famously President Gerald R. Ford’s pardon in 1974 of Richard M. Nixon to prevent him from being prosecuted after the Watergate scandal.
    • May a president pardon his relatives and close allies? Yes. The Constitution does not bar pardons that raise the appearance of self-interest or a conflict of interest, even if they may provoke a political backlash and public shaming. In 2000, shortly before leaving office, President Bill Clinton issued a slew of controversial pardons, including to his half brother, Roger Clinton, over a 1985 cocaine conviction for which he had served about a year in prison, and to Susan H. McDougal, a onetime Clinton business partner who had been jailed as part of the Whitewater investigation.
    • May a president issue a general pardon? This is unclear. Usually, pardons are written in a way that specifically describes which crimes or sets of activities they apply to. There is little precedent laying out the degree to which a pardon can be used to instead foreclose criminal liability for anything and everything.
    • May a president pardon himself? This is unclear. There is no definitive answer because no president has ever tried to pardon himself and then faced prosecution anyway. As a result, there has never been a case which gave the Supreme Court a chance to resolve the question. In the absence of any controlling precedent, legal thinkers are divided about the matter.
    • Find more answers here.

Mr. Kushner, who had championed a criminal justice overhaul that Mr. Trump signed into law, is seen by supporters of overhauling the criminal justice system as an ally who is willing to consider recommendations on sentencing changes and clemency petitions. The legislation expanded early release programs and modified sentencing laws, including mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, to more equitably punish drug offenders. But it fell short of more expansive measures sought by many activists.

Mr. Kushner also had a personal connection to the issue. His father, Charles Kushner, served 14 months in a federal prison in Alabama for tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal donations. The elder Kushner was among those pardoned on Wednesday by Mr. Trump.

Mr. Kushner played a role in recommending that Mr. Trump commute the sentence of Mr. Rubashkin, the former kosher meat processing executive whose commutation in 2017 was supported by Aleph Institute.

At the White House Hanukkah party last year, Mr. Trump praised one of the group’s leaders, Zvi Boyarsky, a Chabad rabbi, for his leadership in generating support among lawmakers, judges, prosecutors and Jewish groups for the criminal justice reform legislation.

Rabbi Boyarsky thanked Mr. Trump for commuting Mr. Rubashkin’s sentence, calling the president “God’s angel.”

In the summer, Rabbi Lipskar said Rabbi Boyarsky might approach the White House regarding Mr. Esformes’s case.

This year, the Aleph Institute hired Mr. Tolman, a former United States attorney from Utah, to lobby on criminal justice issues, including the so-called trial penalty, when defendants who refuse plea deals offered by prosecutors receive far longer sentences after being convicted at trial.

Two of the people whose sentences were commuted by Mr. Trump on Wednesday, Mark A. Shapiro and Irving Stitsky, were each sentenced to 85 years in prison for their roles in a $23 million real estate scheme after they turned down plea agreements of less than 10 years each.

The White House specifically credited Mr. Tolman and the Aleph Institute for supporting the commutations.

Mr. Dershowitz, whose brother’s daughter-in-law has worked with the group on alternative sentencing, called the case “a paradigmatic trial penalty case.”

Mr. Tolman, who was paid $50,000 to lobby for the Aleph Institute this year, did not respond to questions about his work for the group or with the White House, except to say in an email, “I have not done any work on behalf of Philip Esformes.” He referred questions about the case to the Aleph Institute.

Mr. Esformes was convicted of a scheme in which he directed employees to pay doctors kickbacks in cash, using code words like “fettuccine.”

He then took a cut worth about $37 million of the illegal profits, prosecutors said, using the money to pay for items such as escorts, travel expenses and a bribe to a coach at the University of Pennsylvania to help his son gain admission.

At his sentencing last year, Mr. Esformes described himself as “reckless, impulsive” and “arrogant,” and said he had “cut corners without fear of consequences.” He added, “There’s no one to blame but myself.”

The judge overseeing the case called Mr. Esformes’s behavior a violation of trust of “epic proportions.”

But supporters of Mr. Esformes say he was a victim of misconduct by prosecutors in his case, who were found by a magistrate judge to have improperly gained access to dozens of boxes of documents compiled by his lawyers, material that should have been protected under attorney-client privilege.

“It is a litany of the worst prosecutorial misconduct I have ever seen and fatally damaged any chance Esformes had for a fair trial,” Roy Black, a lawyer for Mr. Esformes, said in a statement. “This is why the president decided to commute the sentence.”

In March, Mr. Esformes’s lawyers had asked a federal judge to release him, claiming “pulmonary and upper respiratory problems” as well as the threat of the coronavirus. But federal prosecutors strongly objected to his release, disputing the claims of declining health. The judge rejected the request.

“Virtually every person over the age of 50 has some health condition that could conceivably put that person at a greater risk of succumbing to the coronavirus,” Judge Robert N. Scola Jr. wrote in April, “but this does not entitle every inmate over 50 to be released.”

Categories
Politics

Congress sends Covid aid invoice to Trump, unclear if he’ll signal it

Congress sends Covid relief bill to Trump, unclear if he will sign it

Congress officially began on Thursday to send a massive Covid-19 aid deal and state funding package to President Donald Trump, who has not yet said whether he will sign it.

The Covid relief effort includes roughly $ 900 billion in spending on programs to help businesses and individuals suffering from the recession caused by the public health crisis, as well as spending on measures to contain the virus.

The state funding aspects of the bill are about $ 1.4 trillion and are necessary to keep the government from shutting down from Monday.

“The bipartisan COVID relief and collective bill has been enrolled,” House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Wrote in a post on Twitter. “The House and Senate are now sending this important piece of #ForThePeople legislation to the White House for the President to sign. We urge him to sign this bill to bring immediate relief to hard-working families!”

The bill will be flown to Palm Beach, Florida and is due to depart around 4 p.m. ET, a senior Republican Senate adviser told NBC News.

Located at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, the legislature’s month-long efforts to reach an agreement on the Covid-19 on Tuesday, the day after the legislature passed both houses of Congress Help to get in control.

Trump said the $ 600 direct payments approved by the bill were too small and called for the size of the checks to be increased to $ 2,000. The president also questioned parts of the state funding law related to foreign aid. He did not explicitly threaten a veto.

These comments surprised lawmakers on both parties. It was widely expected that Trump, who did not take part in recent talks leading up to the bipartisan deal, would sign the bill. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin led negotiations for the White House on aid from Covid.

To save the deal at the last minute, House Democrats tried Thursday to increase direct payments to $ 2,000 in line with Trump’s demands. Republicans in the chamber tried to get Congress to reconsider the foreign aid aspects of the spending package. Both steps, which took place in a short pro forma meeting, failed.

Coronavirus legislation would be Congress’s second major effort to provide a lifeline to those economically affected by the downturn after the laws passed in March.

In addition to paying $ 600 to most Americans, the bill would increase unemployment by $ 300 a week, extend the federal eviction moratorium, and allocate nearly $ 9 billion to ongoing vaccine distribution efforts.

While Congress could potentially override a presidential veto, it is not clear whether it would. And some provisions are designed to maintain programs that could end in the coming days while Trump decides whether to approve the legislation. For example, up to 12 million people will currently lose unemployment benefits on Saturday, the day after Christmas.

Democrats have announced they will be pushing for a third auxiliary bill, and President-elect Joe Biden has announced that he will come up with his plan early next year. It will be inaugurated on January 20th.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Subscribe to CNBC Pro for the TV livestream, deep insights and analysis of how to invest over the next president’s term.

Categories
Politics

Democrats Try to Fail to Jam $2,000 Stimulus Funds By means of Home

Democrats Try and Fail to Jam $2,000 Stimulus Payments Through House

WASHINGTON – The fate of the $ 900 billion pandemic aid will remain in the limelight over the Christmas break after House Democrats tried and failed Thursday to more than triple the size of relief checks and then adjourned the House through Monday until they try again.

President Trump’s implicit threat on Tuesday to reject an auxiliary compromise that both houses overwhelmingly passed unless lawmakers agreed to raise the law’s $ 600 direct payment checks to $ 2,000 has continued to mess up Congress and at the same time an already volatile economic recovery shattered. Mr Trump retired Wednesday for his Florida home in Mar-a-Lago without saying another public word about the fate of the relief bill, leaving both parties to guess whether he really intended to oppose the long-belated move who also owns the pandemic aid, vetoed and funds to keep the government open last Monday.

The Democrats’ Christmas Eve gambit on the floor of the house was never going to pass, but party leaders hoped to bond Republicans – choosing between the president’s desires for far more and their own propensity for modest spending.

Republicans rejected the motion of Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Maryland Representative Steny H. Hoyer, for unanimous consent to pass a measure that meets Mr. Trump’s demand for $ 2,000 checks. Without the support of both Republican and Democratic leadership, such inquiries cannot be answered on the floor of the House. Republicans then failed to make their own request to review the foreign aid provisions of the spending legislation, which Mr Trump had also objected to, although most of the items came almost dollar for dollar from his own budget request.

California spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi issued a statement Thursday promising to hold a roll-call vote on the direct payments law on Monday, saying that voting against it would “deny families’ financial plight and deny them the necessary relief. ”

With government funds set to expire at the end of the day on Monday, House lawmakers are also considering the possibility of another emergency bill – which would be the fifth such spending measure this month – to prevent a shutdown, Hoyer said.

On Thursday, the Government Publishing Office was due to finish printing the nearly 5,600-page package and send it to Capitol Hill for congressional signatures. The legislation was due to be flown to Mar-a-Lago by the afternoon for Mr. Trump to sign, according to a person familiar with the plan.

Meanwhile, Republican leaders wondered aloud why Congress was still grappling on Christmas Eve with a matter they believed had finally settled on Monday night.

“There’s a long list of positive things we’d talk about today if we didn’t talk about it,” Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, a member of the Republican leadership, told fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill. “And I think it would be to the president’s advantage if we talked about his performance instead of questioning decisions made late in the administration.”

The law on pandemic and government spending, passed in both chambers this week with overwhelming support from both parties, contains the first significant federal aid since April. If the president doesn’t sign it, millions of Americans will lose access to two federal unemployment programs on Saturday that were expanded by $ 2.2 trillion under the $ 2.2 trillion stimulus bill passed in March.

Updated

Apr. 24, 2020 at 1:58 am ET

A number of additional relief efforts, including an eviction moratorium, expire later this month, and other temporary relief efforts that are protecting millions of Americans from the brunt of the economic fallout from the pandemic will expire with no action shortly after the New Year.

Ahead of two runoff elections in Georgia’s Senate, Mr Trump also forced a difficult situation for his party and instituted yet another loyalty test for his most dedicated voters, which depends on a $ 2.3 trillion package being rejected, in part by senior officials White House representatives negotiated.

The president “doesn’t care about people,” said Michigan Democrat Representative Debbie Dingell, who got more emotional after telling calls from voters asking for federal assistance during the holiday season. “He sowed more fear. He threw kerosene in the fire. “

Ordinary Republicans are also frustrated. On Wednesday evening, Ohio Republican Anthony Gonzalez argued that House Republicans stood by Mr. Trump for four years.

The second stimulus

Answers to your questions about the stimulus calculation

Updated December 23, 2020

Legislators agreed to a plan to provide $ 600 stimulus payments and distribute $ 300 federal unemployment benefits for 11 weeks. Here you can find out more about the bill and what’s in it for you.

    • Do I get another incentive payment? Individual adults with adjusted gross income on their 2019 tax returns of up to $ 75,000 per year would receive a payment of $ 600, and heads of household up to $ 112,500 and a couple (or someone whose spouse died in 2020) would receive up to to earn $ 150,000 per year Get double the amount. If they have dependent children, they will also receive $ 600 for each child. People with incomes just above this level would receive a partial payment that decreases by $ 5 for every $ 100 of income.
    • When could my payment arrive? Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC that he expected the first payments to be made before the end of the year. However, it will take a while for everyone to receive their money.
    • Does the agreement concern unemployment insurance? Legislators agreed to extend the length of time people can receive unemployment benefits and restart an additional federal benefit that is on top of the usual state benefits. But instead of $ 600 a week it would be $ 300. That would take until March 14th.
    • I am behind on my rent or expect to be soon. Do I get relief? The deal would provide $ 25 billion to be distributed through state and local governments to help backward tenants. In order to receive support, households would have to meet various conditions: the household income (for 2020) must not exceed 80 percent of the regional median income; At least one household member must be at risk of homelessness or residential instability. and individuals must be eligible for unemployment benefits or face direct or indirect financial difficulties due to the pandemic. The agreement states that priority will be given to support for lower-income families who have been unemployed for three months or more.

“If he thinks he’s going on Twitter and destroying the bill that his team negotiated and that we supported on his behalf, more people will be brought to his side in this election fiasco, I hope he’s wrong, although I think we’ll see, “said Mr. Gonzalez wrote on Twitter.

On behalf of the Republicans, Virginia Representative Rob Wittman attempted and failed Thursday to consider a separate motion for a review of annual foreign affairs spending because Mr. Trump had also objected to the use of those funds. (That legislation had also secured the support of 128 Republicans when it passed the house on Monday.)

But the Republican leaders were also not particularly keen to renegotiate the spending portion of the bill. Senator Blunt said he believed Mr Trump was confused about the separation between the pandemic aid part and his own administration’s proposed foreign aid part in the state spending part.

“Certainly the negotiated foreign aid rules would not benefit if that part of the bill were opened, and frankly, if you start opening part of the bill, it is hard to defend not opening the entire bill. It took us a long time to get to where we are. I think reopening this bill would be a mistake, ”Blunt told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday.

“The best way out is for the president to sign the bill, and I still hope he decides that.”

Speaking at a press conference following the unsuccessful petitions, Hoyer said House Democrats only approved the $ 600 economic compromise checks because Republicans, including President’s Representative Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary, insisted on that number.

“Mr. Mnuchin suggested that a lower number might have been appropriate,” Hoyer told reporters. When asked if it was a mistake to tie the aid package and spending omnibus together as different spending provisions were merged, Hoyer noted : “Perhaps the only mistake in believing President and Secretary Mnuchin was when we were told that the bill should be passed and would be signed by the President of the United States.”

Categories
Politics

Trump vetoes $740 billion NDAA protection invoice

Trump vetoes $740 billion NDAA defense bill

President Donald Trump listens during a White House video conference call with military personnel on November 26, 2020.

Erin Schaff | The New York Times | Bloomberg | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed the comprehensive defense bill, which authorizes a $ 740 billion ceiling on spending and outlines Pentagon policy.

“Unfortunately, the law lacks critical national security measures, contains provisions that our veterans and our military history disregard, and contradicts my administration’s efforts to put America first in our national security and foreign policies,” Trump wrote in a long statement to Congress.

“It is a ‘gift’ to China and Russia,” added the president, without giving any specific details.

Earlier this month, the National Defense Authorization Act passed both Houses of Congress with veto-proof margins, meaning any veto by Trump would likely be overridden.

Congress must now vote again to override Trump. The house is expected to return from a vacation break on Monday, and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said his chamber would vote on lifting the veto on Tuesday.

This year’s 4,517-page defense law, which is usually passed with strong support from both parties and veto-proof majorities, finances America’s national security portfolio. It was legally signed for nearly six consecutive decades.

The passage of the law will at least secure pay increases for soldiers and keep important defense modernization programs going.

“Donald Trump has just vetoed a raise for our troops so he can defend dead Confederate traitors,” Senator Chuck Schumer wrote on Twitter, highlighting one of Trump’s problems with the must-pass defense law.

“The Democrats will vote for it,” added Schumer.

“Worryingly, Trump is using his final hours in office to sow chaos, including denying our service members a long overdue raise and risk levy; our families paid family vacations, childcare, shelter and health and our veterans the benefits they need and deserve.” House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi wrote in a statement.

“Next week, on December 28th, the House, with the support of both parties, will override the veto,” she wrote.

Other senior democratic lawmakers also criticized Trump.

“The Kremlin is actively attacking our cyber networks. Instead of advocating our national security, the president is playing down Russia’s involvement – which contradicts the US secret service – and has now only vetoed laws that contain actionable points we can hold Putin accountable for this kind of belligerent behavior, “Senator Jeanne Shaheen, DN.H., a senior member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, wrote in a statement.

“This is not about politics, this is about the security of the United States and the safety of our men and women in uniform,” added Shaheen.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Wrote in a statement that he was speechless following Trump’s decision to withhold signature on the NDAA.

“Immediately after what is possibly the most massive cyber attack in our country’s history, the President will remove the new instruments and authorities that we need for our country’s cyber defense,” wrote Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee.

“I urge Republican colleagues not just to speak up, but to stand up and look forward to a strong, bipartisan vote,” he added.

Trump’s ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., wrote on Twitter that he would not vote to overturn the president’s veto. Graham didn’t vote for the bill for the first time.

Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, passed a law on December 15 that would end the protection of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act by January 1, 2023. Section 230 protects technology giants like Facebook and Twitter from being legally liable for what is published on their platforms.

Trump threatened to veto the mammoth defense law earlier this month if lawmakers failed to take action to remove Section 230.

He has repeatedly accused Twitter, his favorite social media platform, of unfairly censoring him.

Trump renewed the threat on Thursday.

In his message to Congress, Trump wrote that the NDAA “made no significant changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.” He called on Congress to lift the measure.

The president previously said the move posed a serious threat to US national security as well as electoral integrity, but gave no further explanation. Trump has also claimed that the bill is in favor of China.

The President’s problem with Section 230 came to light this summer after Twitter added warnings to several of its tweets that alleged mail-in polls were fraudulent. Trump has still not granted election as President-elect Joe Biden.

The NDAA in its current form does not include any Section 230 action.

Legislators on both sides of the aisle have pushed back Trump’s 11th hour demand, stating that the repeal of Section 230 is irrelevant to the passage of the Pentagon’s top bill.

“”[Section] 230 has nothing to do with the military, “James Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, R-Okla., Told reporters on December 2nd.” I agree with his views that we should get rid of 230 – but you can’t do it on this bill, “added Inhofe, an ally of Trump.

On the same day, John Thune, RS.D., the Senate majority whip said, “I don’t think the Defense Act is the place to sue the fight against Section 230,” according to The Hill.

Trump has also insisted that the Defense Spending Act include language that prevents military bases from being renamed to commemorate numbers from the Confederate era.

The Republican-led Senate Armed Forces Committee approved a ruling by Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. That summer urging the Pentagon to rename military assets named after symbols of the Confederation, the group of states made up of the United States separated and fought the union in civil war.

Trump rejected the idea in a multi-part Twitter post in June, claiming that the Confederate names of the bases have become part of the nation’s great “legacy”.

“It has been suggested that up to 10 of our legendary military bases be renamed, such as Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Benning in Georgia, etc. These monumental and very powerful bases are part of a great American heritage and a history of winning, victory and freedom, “wrote Trump on Twitter.

“The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES in these sacred fields and won two world wars. Therefore, my administration will not even consider renaming these great and fabulous military facilities,” the president wrote.

– CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.

Categories
Politics

How Trump’s Assault on Aid Invoice Has Divided GOP

How Trump's Attack on Relief Bill Has Divided GOP

“Republicans are in great danger if they continue to do the very same mire the president ran against,” said Texas representative Chip Roy in an interview, noting that it is more difficult as a socialist to go up against Democrats when “Republicans Massive establishment bypassing “issues and programs that they then complain about. “

Mr Roy said if Mr Trump vetoed the move, lawmakers could draft a bill to expand corporate paycheck protection, work out a compromise on unemployment benefits and direct payments, and pass laws that will keep the government open until the new one Congress will decide on the amount of expenditure next year. But few other lawmakers said they believed Congress would gather to work out a new measure over the vacation.

Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a critic of the president, noted that the foreign aid proposals that the president objected to were proposed by his own administration.

“Republicans are getting beaten up again by the guy they choose, who doesn’t care about their interests or some principle they stand for,” Steele said. “He made a four-minute video in the White House ranting about things his own administration did while a mother tries to figure out how to avoid eviction and get Christmas presents for her children under the tree. That’s the heartbreaking part. “

The Republicans in the two houses were already divided over the election results.

Many of the Senate Republicans are poised to step out of the Trump era while House Republicans, including top leadership, signed a brief signing of a lawsuit in Texas in hopes that the Supreme Court would turn the results upside down .

Mr McConnell has tried to end the prospect of blocking the Senate Electoral College results next month, but the House Republican leaders have done nothing in public to discourage hardliners from attempting such a move in the Democratically controlled chamber . After Republican No. 2 Senator John Thune of South Dakota told reporters this week that such a Senate effort “would go down like a slug,” Mr. Trump tweeted Tuesday, “South Dakota doesn’t like weakness. He will be in primary school in 2022, his political career is over !!! “

The coverage was contributed by Jonathan Martin from Washington, Ben Casselman and Nicholas Fandos from New York, and Rick Rojas from Atlanta.