Tag: Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer

Top US Republicans Pledge Peaceful Transition as Trump Sows Election Doubts

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told a news briefing: “The president will accept the results of a free and fair election.”

Washington: US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans on Thursday repudiated President Donald Trump‘s refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, assuring American voters the lawmakers would accept the outcome of November’s election.

Trump declined on Wednesday to embrace a peaceful transfer in response to a reporter’s question and said he expected his election battle with Democrat Joe Biden to be settled by the Supreme Court.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump said he did not know that an “honest” election could be held on November 3, 2020, with this whole situation, unsolicited ballots.

The Republican President’s rhetoric on Wednesday, which largely referred to voting by mail, set off a fury that prompted several republicans in Congress to distance themselves from Trump.

Despite four years of incendiary statements by Trump, members of his own party have been loath to criticise him, as many feared political retribution.

“The winner of November 3, 2020, election will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021. There will be an orderly transition just as there have been every four years since 1792,” McConnell wrote in a morning tweet.

Like other Republicans, McConnell did not directly criticize Trump.

By midday, with the controversy raging, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told a news briefing: “The president will accept the results of a free and fair election.”

But for months, Trump has cast November’s election as being rigged and repeatedly attacked Democrats for promoting widespread use of mail-in ballots for voters who do not want to risk contracting the deadly COVID-19 virus by casting their ballots at potentially crowded polling centres.

Also read: Trump Refuses To Commit To Peaceful Transfer of Power After Election Day

In an interview on Fox News Radio, Trump called mail-in ballots “a horror show,” despite studies showing no significant problems with that method of voting over the years.

Michael Waldman, president of New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, said voting arrangements were steadily advancing. In an interview with Reuters Television, he added: “The system is not broken. States are actually improving their voting rules day by day.”

Democrats accused Trump of threatening American democracy and further politicizing his upcoming choice to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by suggesting the yet-to-be-named nominee would have a role in the election‘s outcome.

Some of McConnell’s fellow Republicans joined the effort to quell election fears, including Senators Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who told reporters: “It will be a smooth transition regardless of the outcome.”

Trump, who trails Biden in national opinion polls, has long sought to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election, asserting without evidence that mail-in voting would be rife with fraud.

“President Trump, you are not a dictator and America will not permit you to be one,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, calling him “the gravest threat” to US democracy.

Senator Bernie Sanders, who lost to Biden in the Democratic Party’s presidential nominating race, called for an independent commission to oversee the upcoming election.

Democratic House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi cautioned against panicking over the remarks of a president who she said admires autocratic leaders. At a news conference, she urged Americans to cast their ballots and admonished Trump: “You are not in North Korea, you are not in Turkey, you are not in Russia.”

Court challenges

If November’s election is close, Trump could contest the results in Federal Courts in hopes of being awarded enough Electoral College votes to retain the White House, according to political analysts.

Only one US presidential election, the 2000 contest between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, has had its outcome determined by the Supreme Court.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally who will play a significant role in whether Trump‘s upcoming Supreme Court nominee will be confirmed, said there could be litigation over the presidential election. “The (Supreme) Court will decide and if the Republicans lose, we will accept that result,” Graham told Fox News. “But we need a full-court.”

If Trump nominates a conservative to serve on the Supreme Court, as expected, and the Republican-controlled Senate confirms the nominee, it will have six justices considered to be conservative and three viewed as liberals.

(Reuters)

Trump Delays Mass Deportation Raids, Seeks Deal With Democrats

The mass deportation raids were expected to target up to 2,000 families in over ten US cities on Sunday.

Washington: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would postpone mass deportation raids for two weeks as he seeks compromise with Democratic leaders on immigration issues.

The president was under pressure from Democrats to call off  Sunday’s roundup, which was expected to target up to 2,000 families facing deportation orders in up to ten US cities, including Houston, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles, the Washington Post reported.

US House of Representatives’ Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, phoned Trump on Friday night to call off the raids and also urged religious leaders the next day to put pressure on Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Republican President has made illegal immigration a centrepiece of his administration and is highlighting the issue in his campaign for the 2020 election.

He has railed against an increase in people crossing the US southern border, many from Central America who are seeking refuge in America under US asylum laws. On Saturday he said the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency was focused on getting the transnational street gang MS-13 out of the US.

In fact, many asylum seekers from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador cite gang violence primarily driven by groups like MS-13 as the reason they come to the US for refuge.

On Twitter, Trump stated that if a solution to the “Asylum and Loophole problems” isn’t found, “Deportations start!”

Neither Pelosi nor senator Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, had an immediate comment on the delay. Pelosi said earlier in the day that the expected raids would “inject terror into our communities” and tear families apart. “The President’s action makes no distinction between a status violation and committing a serious crime,” Pelosi added.

Mark Morgan, acting director of ICE, said this week his agency would target for deportation families that have received a removal order from a US immigration court.

(Reuters)

US Government Shutdown Drags Into Fourth Week Amid Stalemate

About one-quarter of federal operations have been partially closed by a lack of funding since December 22.

Washington/New Orleans: President Donald Trump on Monday rejected a Republican call for temporarily reopening shuttered US government agencies in order to encourage negotiations with Democrats on border security issues, as a partial government shutdown limped through its 24th day.

About one-quarter of federal operations have been partially closed by a lack of funding since Dec. 22 after Trump demanded $5.7 billion this year from Congress for building a security wall on the southwest US border.

At a speech to an American Farm Bureau convention in New Orleans, Trump again urged Congress to grant him the money, saying drones, sensors and other technology cannot do what a wall can do to stop illegal border crossings.

Farmers, a key bloc of Trump supporters, have been hit by the shutdown as federal loan and farm aid applications have stalled and key farming and crop data has been delayed.

“If you want to help farmers, re-open the government,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a Twitter posting.

The number of airport security screeners not showing up for work continued to rise since the start of the disruption. Most Transportation Security Administration workers were required to report to work but they are not being paid due to a lack of funds.

TSA spokesman Michael Bilello on Monday said TSA had a 7.6% unscheduled absence rate nationally, compared to a 3.2 percent rate a year ago.

Also Read: As US Gears up for 2020, Elite Politics Is Moving Further Away From the Electorate

Many security officers “are understandably looking for other work to make ends meet, House of Representatives Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Democrats, who control the House, have rejected Trump’s $5.7 billion demand, as have Senate Democrats who are needed to pass most legislation in the chamber even though Republicans hold a majority.

On Sunday, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham urged Trump to reopen the government for a short period of time in an effort to restart talks. It is an idea that Democrats have been promoting for weeks.

“That was a suggestion that Lindsey made but I did reject it,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for Louisiana. “I want to get it solved, I don’t want to just delay it.”

The partial shutdown is the longest in US history and has seen Trump lurch from one idea to another in an attempt to secure money for building a wall that he argues is needed to secure the US against illegal immigrants and drugs.

Democrats say there are cheaper, more effective ways of enhancing border security than constructing a wall that could cost well beyond $25 billion. They have offered $1.3 billion in new border security funds this year to help pay for a range of high-tech and other tools at the border.

When he ran for president, Trump said Mexico would pay for the wall but its government has refused. More recently, he has suggested that a renegotiated trade deal with Mexico could bring in the revenues needed to build the wall or that military funds and US soldiers could be utilized.

Last week, the administration was looking into Trump declaring a “national emergency” and redirecting US Army Corps of Engineers funds to the wall but he has said would not immediately take such action.

In December Trump said he would take responsibility for the shutdown but has since shifted the blame to Democrats. A growing proportion of Americans blame Trump for the closures, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

(Reuters)

Facing Political Backlash Over Putin Summit, Trump Says He ‘Misspoke’

Trump, who had the opportunity to publicly rebuke Putin for meddling in the US elections during the conference in Helsinki, instead praised the Russian leader for his “strong and powerful” denial of the conclusions of US intelligence agencies.

Washington: US President Donald Trump tried on Tuesday to calm a storm over his failure to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for meddling in the 2016 US election, saying he misspoke in a joint news conference in Helsinki.

Trump stunned the world on Monday by shying away from criticising the Russian leader for Moscow’s actions to undermine the election and cast doubt on US intelligence agencies, prompting calls by some US lawmakers for tougher sanctions and other actions to punish Russia.

“I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t,'” Trump told reporters at the White House, more than 24 hours after his appearance with Putin. “The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.'”

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after his news conference with Putin found that 55% of registered US voters disapproved of his handling of relations with Russia, while 37% approved.

Trump, who had the opportunity to publicly rebuke Putin during the news conference in Helsinki, instead praised the Russian leader for his “strong and powerful” denial of the conclusions of US intelligence agencies that the Russian state meddled in the election.

Standing alongside Putin in Helsinki, Trump told reporters he was not convinced it was Moscow. “I don’t see any reason why it would be,” Trump said.

Although he faced pressure from critics, allied countries and even his own staff to take a tough line, Trump said not a single disparaging word in public about Moscow on any of the issues that have brought relations between the two nuclear powers to the lowest ebb since the Cold War.

Republicans and Democrats accused him of siding with an adversary rather than his own country.

Despite a televised interview and numerous postings to Twitter, Trump did not correct himself until 27 hours later. Reading mainly from a prepared statement, Trump said on Tuesday he had complete faith in US intelligence agencies and accepted their conclusions.

He then veered from his script to hedge on who was responsible for the election interference: “It could be other people also. There’s a lot of people out there.”

His backtracking failed to quell the controversy. Democrats dismissed Trump‘s statement as political damage control.

“This has to be recognised for what it is, which is simply an effort to clean up the mess he made yesterday, which is beyond the capacity of any short statement to repair,” said Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump‘s comments on Tuesday were another sign of weakness, particularly his statement that it “could be other people” responsible for the election meddling.

“He made a horrible statement, tried to back off, but couldn’t even bring himself to back off,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “It shows the weakness of President Trump that he is afraid to confront Putin directly.”

The political firestorm over Trump‘s performance in Helsinki has engulfed the administration and spread to his fellow Republicans, eclipsing most of the frequent controversies that have erupted during Trump‘s turbulent 18 months in office.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that Russia was not a friend of the US and warned against a repeat of election meddling in November’s congressional elections.

“There are a lot of us who fully understand what happened in 2016 and it really better not happen again in 2018,” McConnell said.

US President Donald Trump receives a football from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during their joint news conference after a meeting in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

Tougher sanctions

Some lawmakers said they would seek remedies against Russia in Congress.

Several senators from both parties backed tougher sanctions on Russia. McConnell and house speaker Paul Ryan, who called Russia’s government “menacing,” said their chambers could consider additional sanctions on Russia.

Congress overwhelmingly passed a sanctions law last year targeting Moscow for election meddling. In April, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Russian officials and oligarchs in one of Washington’s most aggressive moves to punish Moscow.

Even before the allegations of Russian meddling, tensions were high over Moscow’s concerns about NATO expansion, Russian annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and its military backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.

Some US lawmakers have suggested passing resolutions voicing support for intelligence agencies, or spending more to enhance election security and prevent cyber attacks.

Republican senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said congressional leaders were searching for the most effective response.

“We’re trying to figure out what would be an appropriate way to push back,” Corker told reporters. “You know the president can do more damage in 15 minutes at a press conference than we can undo in six months of passing resolutions.”

Corker said “the first step” would be hearing from US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who will testify next Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senate Democrats said they wanted the American interpreter at the Helsinki meeting to testify to Congress on what was said during the private Trump–Putin session.

US intelligence agencies concluded last year that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election campaign and sought to tilt the vote in Trump‘s favour, which Moscow has denied. Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating that allegation and any possible collusion by Trump‘s campaign.

Trump has denied collusion and casts Mueller’s probe as a witch hunt that aims to detract from his election victory.

Not all Republicans were angry with Trump‘s conduct in Helsinki. “The president did a good thing by meeting with Putin,” senator Rand Paul told CBS’ “This Morning” programme, comments that won him public thanks from Trump on Twitter.

Russia’s political and media establishment heralded the summit as a victory for Putin in breaking down Western resolve to isolate Russia.

“The West’s attempts to isolate Russia failed,” read the headline in state-run newspaper Rossiisskaya Gazeta.

(Reuters)