Tag: Republican

  • Joe Biden quits the US presidential race, endorses Kamala Harris

    Joe Biden quits the US presidential race, endorses Kamala Harris

    Joe Biden on Sunday dropped out of the US presidential election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s new nominee, in a move that upends the 2024 race for the White House.

    The 81-year-old Biden stepped aside after weeks of pressure from Demo­crats following a disastrous debate performance, throwing the election battle against Republican Donald Trump into unprecedented turmoil.

    “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a letter on X while recovering from Covid at his beach house in Delaware.

    Biden said he would “speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision”. He later added that he was backing Harris, who is the first female, Black and South Asian vice president in US history, and will now be aiming to become its first female commander-in-chief.

    “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” Biden said on X. “Democrats – it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.” Biden is the first president in US history to pull out so late in an election race, and the first to bow out because of concerns over his mental acuity and health.

    Biden spent more than three weeks resisting calls to step down following the shock of the June 27 debate, at one point insisting that only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to back out.

    In a bid to show he was up to the job, he gave a number of interviews and what was billed as a “big boy” press conference in which he took numerous questions, but made further gaffes including calling Harris “Vice President Trump”. A tide of voices within his own party calling on him to go, starting with donor and actor George Clooney and ending with former president Barack Obama, sealed his fate.

    Chaotic period for US

    The end finally came shortly after Biden had been diagnosed with Covid, forcing him off the campaign trail and into isolation in Rehoboth Beach.

    Biden’s decision to pull out also caps a tense and chaotic period in the US election, with Trump having survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally on July 13.

    Biden joins a small club of US presidents who have decided to throw in the towel after just one term, with the last being Lyndon Johnson in 1968 — a year also marked by political turmoil and violence.

    Johnson’s replacement as nominee, then-vice president Hubert Humphrey, went on to lose heavily to Richard Nixon. But Democrats are counting on Harris to fare better, and hoping that she can prevent convicted felon Trump from making a sensational comeback to the Oval Office.

    In recent weeks, the Biden campaign has reportedly been quietly carrying out a head-to-head survey of voters measuring how she matched up against Trump.

    While Harris struggled to make an impact in her first years in the White House, she has emerged in the last year as a strong performer on the campaign trail on key messages such as abortion rights. She has also made much of her life story as the first woman in US history to hold the vice presidency, as well as the first person of Black and South Asian origin.

    Barring opposition from her party, Harris is now set to be nominated at the Democratic National Conven­tion in Chicago on August 19 in what promises to be a dramatic moment — and a heartrending one for Biden.

    Biden took office in January 2021 pledging to heal the “soul of America” after four turbulent years under Trump and the shock of the January 6, 2021 Capitol assault by his supporters.

    Overcoming a reputation for verbal flubs, Obama’s former vice president pushed through a massive Covid recovery plan and a green industry scheme.

    US allies welcomed his pledge that “America is back” following Trump’s trampling on international alliances, and his strong support for Ukraine as it battled Russia’s 2022 invasion. But he faced criticism over the catastrophic US withdrawal from Afgha­nistan and inflation that meant overstretched Americans ignored otherwise positive economic numbers.

    Behind it all were the ongoing concerns about his age with a series of senior moments, including tripping up the stairs to Air Force One and falling off his bike, contributing to the doddery image played up by Republicans.

    Biden’s Letter

  • Congressman Andy Ogles introduces bill to send protesting students to Gaza

    Congressman Andy Ogles introduces bill to send protesting students to Gaza

    Republican lawmaker Andy Ogles has decided that the violent detention of college students participating in Gaza solidarity protests isn’t enough of a punishment. Instead, he believes the only way to encourage the students to stop using their right to protest is to ship them off to Gaza.

    Ogles, a Tennessee Representative, introduced a new bill into the House proposing that students who were arrested for protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza should be sent abroad to “provide community service” for a minimum of six months in the war-torn strip.

    He proposed this bill on Wednesday.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/college-anti-israel-agitators-could-173040790.html?

    “Any person convicted of unlawful activity on the campus of an institution of higher education beginning on and after October 7, shall be assigned to Gaza for the purpose of providing community service… for a period not fewer than six months,” the bill reads.

    It is not currently clear what the exact parameters of the proposed community service would be, though the bill points to the term’s definition in U.S. Code, which are identified by universities “through formal or informal consultation with local nonprofit, governmental, and community-based organizations.”

    Even though it’s unlikely to gain momentum, the bill could impact approximately 2,100 students who were arrested while participating in peace protests in recent weeks.

    It’s at least the second time Ogles has hatefully condemned the citizens of Gaza and their American allies who want an end to the war. In February, the Tennessee Republican ruthlessly advocated for the complete extermination of Palestine while engaging in a fiery spat with an activist.

    “You know what? So, I think we should kill ’em all, if that makes you feel better,” Ogles, a self-described Christian, told a protester asking him about dead Palestinian children. “Everybody in Hamas.”

    “Hamas and the Palestinians have been attacking Israel for 20 years. And It’s time to pay the piper,” the lawmaker had remarked.

    Meanwhile, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 77,000 Palestinians have been injured in the conflict, according to data from the Gaza Health Ministry. Most of the victims have been women and children.

  • Trump indicted for racketeering over 2020 election interference

    Trump indicted for racketeering over 2020 election interference

    By Christian Monterrosa with Frankie Taggart in Washington

    Donald Trump was indicted Monday on charges of racketeering and a string of election crimes afer a sprawling, two-year probe into his eforts to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden in the US state of Georgia.

    The case — relying on laws typically used to bring down mobsters — is the fourth targeting the 77-year-old Republican this year and could lead to a watershed moment, the first televised trial of a former president in US history.

    Prosecutors in Atlanta charged Trump with 13 felony counts — compounding the legal threats he is facing in multiple jurisdictions as a firestorm of investigations imperils his bid for a second White House term.

    Eighteen co-defendants were indicted in the probe, including Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who pressured local legislators over the result afer the election, and Trump’s White House chief of staf, Mark Meadows.

    With Trump already due to go on trial in New York, south Florida and Washington, the latest charges herald the unprecedented scenario of the 2024 presidential election being litigated as much from the courtroom as the ballot box.

    “Rather than abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result,” Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis told reporters.

    Willis said Trump and his co-defendants had until noon on August 25 to “voluntarily surrender” to authorities, adding that she would like to go to trial within six months.

    “So, the Witch Hunt continues!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

    “Sounds Rigged to me! Why didn’t they Indict 2.5 years ago? Because they wanted to do itright in the middle of my political campaign. Witch Hunt!”

    His lawyers’ statement took issue with the “leak of a presumed and premature indictment before the witnesses had testified or the grand jurors had deliberated”, in what they say has been a “flawed and unconstitutional” process.

    In response to similar allegations by the Trump campaign, Willis said: “I make decisions in this ofice based on the facts and the law. The law is completely nonpartisan.” The twice-impeached Trump was charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as well as six conspiracy counts over alleged eforts to commit forgery, impersonate a public oficial and submit false statements and documents.
    He is also accused of lying in statements and filing fake documents, as well as soliciting public oficials to break their oaths.

    -Most serious threat –

    Georgia, which Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes, presents perhaps the most serious threat to Trump’s liberty as he leads the field comfortably for his party’s nomination to bid for reelection.

    Even if he is returned to the Oval Ofice, he would have none of the powers that presidents arguably enjoy in the federal system to pardon themselves or have prosecutors drop cases. The harsh penalties associated with RICO cases can be an incentive for co-defendants to seek cooperation deals, and the statutes are usually used to target organized crime. Thirty unindicted co-conspirators were mentioned in the indictment.

    Under federal law, anyone who can be connected to a criminal “enterprise” through which offenses were committed can be convicted under RICO. The broader Georgia law doesn’t even require the existence of the enterprise.

    Atlanta-area authorities launched the probe afer Trump called Georgia officials weeks before he was due to leave the White House, pressuring them to “find” the 11,780 votes that would reverse Biden’s victory in the Peach State.

    Meadows, who is accused of trying to get a public oficial to violate his oath, was on the call.

    Secret report –

    Willis empaneled a special grand jury that heard from around 75 witnesses before recommending a raf of felony counts in a secret report in February.

    She alleges that Trump’s team worked with local Republicans on a scheme to replace legitimate slates of “electors” — the oficials who certify a state’s results and send them to the US Congress — with fake pro-Trump stand-ins.

    The indictment lists a litany of telephone calls made by Trump, Giuliani and others to various state oficials for the purpose of unlawfully appointing fake electors to swing the Electoral College in Trump’s favor.

    Giuliani faces 13 felony counts, including over accusations of harassment of two Fulton County poll workers.

    Other Trump allies were charged over the accessing of sensitive data from an election office in a rural county south of Atlanta one day afer the 2021 Capitol riot.

    Trump is already facing dozens of felony charges afer being federally indicted over the alleged plot to subvert the election, and further prosecutions over his alleged mishandling of classified documents and keeping allegedly fraudulent business records.

    Authorities in Atlanta installed security barricades outside the downtown courthouse in anticipation of a potential influx of Trump supporters and counter-protesters in the latest case.

    Lawmakers investigating Trump’s eforts to cling to power heard evidence in a series of congressional hearings last summer that would challenge his potential defense that he genuinely believed he had been cheated of the election.

  • US could default by next month unless debt ceiling is raised

    US could default by next month unless debt ceiling is raised

    Janet Yellen, the United States Treasury Secretary, has written to Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, warning that the federal government may exceed its spending limit by June 1 if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling. Yellen’s letter, which was published on Monday, noted that available data suggests that the government will no longer be able to cover its expenses in early June if Congress does not raise the limit before then.

    Yellen emphasised the importance of Congress taking action to increase or suspend the debt limit as soon as possible, to ensure that the government can continue to make its payments. While Yellen’s letter indicates the US could enter default as early as June 1, she also noted that it is impossible to predict the exact date when Treasury will be unable to pay the government’s bills.

    The potential for a default has raised concerns among experts about its possible impact on the US economy. It could lead to a fall in the US credit rating, resulting in higher interest rates and a possible recession. The process of raising the US spending limits is typically routine, but it has become increasingly contentious in recent years. Republicans in Congress are pushing for steep cuts to social programs in exchange for their support to raise the debt ceiling this year. In contrast, the Biden administration has called for an increase to the debt ceiling without conditions, stating that debates over various programs can be hashed out during negotiations on the yearly budget.

    Last week, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a bill that agreed to raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion in exchange for $4.5 trillion in spending cuts for programs like healthcare for low-income communities, renewable energy and transportation. The bill is considered dead on arrival in the Democrat-controlled US Senate, and Biden has stated that he would veto it. However, its passage in the House is considered a victory for McCarthy, who has since called for Democrats to approve the bill and avoid a default.

    Democrats have called for a “clean” debt limit increase without haggling or addendums. Virginia Senator Mark Warner tweeted on Monday that the US has about a month until it defaults on paying its debt and emphasised that this is not new spending, but about paying bills already incurred. On May 9, US President Joe Biden reportedly called for a meeting with Democratic and Republican leaders to discuss spending and the debt limit. The Congressional Budget Office has also stated that it sees an increased risk of the government running out of funds by early June due to tax receipts that were lower than expected.