White House blasts 'radical' Republican abortion bans

The White House on Friday blasted the latest set of "radical" abortion restrictions in four more states run by Republicans, signaling President Joe Biden's determination to lean on the issue ahead of tight November congressional elections.

There are now full-scale abortion bans in 12 Republican-controlled states, which had prepared so-called trigger laws ready to be activated when the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision ensuring automatic rights to abortion access nationwide.

"Today marks the latest attack against the fundamental rights of Americans as new abortion bans go into effect in Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

"These near-total abortion bans are part of a growing effort by Republican legislators to roll back the freedoms Americans have relied on for nearly half a century. Today's radical steps take away women's reproductive rights and put personal health care decisions in the hands of politicians instead of women and their doctors," she said.

The Supreme Court ruling two months ago put jurisdiction over abortion access in the hands of individual state legislatures, immediately turning swaths of the country into areas where getting the procedure has become all but impossible.

Jean-Pierre echoed Biden's frequent demand for Congress to pass a new law enshrining nationwide abortion rights and urged "people across the country to make their voices heard" ahead of the November midterm elections, which will decide whether Democrats retain their narrow hold on the legislature.

Republicans have fought for decades to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and finally achieved their goal in a Supreme Court that tilted sharply to conservative interpretations of the constitution after Donald Trump filled three vacancies during his one-term presidency.

Polls show the court's ruling was unpopular with a majority of Americans, however, and Democrats hope the issue will help them fend off a previously predicted sweep by Republicans in the midterms. 

"I think the American people realize this is just beyond the pale, it goes too far," Biden told reporters at the White House.

Meanwhile, the White House is trying to help women who want to circumvent the bans by supporting their travel to states that do allow abortions.

The health department on Friday announced increased federal funding for states where the authorities want to help such women.

"We have seen the gut-wrenching stories of women suffering and not getting the care they need because of newly-enacted laws that restrict abortion care," Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said.

The new federal assistance will "protect women's access to reproductive care, including abortion," he said.

Agence France-Presse

Now Trump says it's wrong to compare coronavirus to regular flu

WASHINGTON, United States — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the risk from coronavirus is emphatically worse than regular flu, reversing his previous statements.

Trump told a White House press conference that "a lot of people" had previously suggested the country should simply let the coronavirus take its course, just like the seasonal flu.

"Ride it out, don't do anything, just ride it out and think of it as the flu," they said, according to Trump, who said: "But it's not the flu. It is vicious."

Trump's clear statement contrasted with numerous recent times when he made the argument himself that the pandemic was comparable to the annual spread of flu.

He appeared to favor this thinking while questioning the need to shut down the US economy through social distancing measures and travel bans.

On March 9, for example, Trump noted that tens of thousands of Americans die from the flu annually.

"Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on," he tweeted. "At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!"

Just a week ago, Trump told Fox News in an interview that despite deaths of about 36,000 people a year on average from flu, "we've never closed down the country for the flu."

"So you say to yourself, 'What is this all about?'"

Projections that at least 100,000 people will have been killed by the coronavirus in the United States, even if social distancing measures are carried out, appear to have prompted a major shift in Trump's outlook.

On Tuesday, he said that with no social distancing, the projections ran as high as 2.2 million deaths.

"If we did nothing, if we just carried on with our life," he said, "you would have seen people dying on airplanes, you would have seen people dying in hotel lobbies. You would have seen death all over."

Agence France-Presse

Facebook exec says it helped put Trump in White House

LAS VEGAS, United States — A senior Facebook executive on Tuesday said the world's biggest social network unintentionally helped put Donald Trump in the White House but warned against dramatic rule changes.

The Trump campaign did effectively use Facebook to rally support for his presidential run, and the social network should be mindful of that without making moves that stifle free political discourse, Andrew Bosworth said in a lengthy post on his personal Facebook page triggered by The New York Times publishing an internal memo he wrote.

"So was Facebook responsible for Donald Trump getting elected?" Bosworth asked.

"I think the answer is yes, but not for the reasons anyone thinks."

Bosworth contended Trump was not elected because of Russia or misinformation or Cambridge Analytica, but rather because he ran "the single best digital ad campaign I've ever seen from any advertiser."

He went on to say that, since Facebook has the same ad policies in place now, the outcome of the 2020 election could be the same as it was four years ago.

"As tempting as it is to use the tools available to us to change the outcome, I am confident we must never do that or we will become that which we fear," Bosworth wrote.

That doesn't mean Facebook should not draw a line when it comes to how it is used, he reasoned. Clearly inciting violence, thwarting voting, and other blatant transgressions should be banned, but voters should be trusted to decide what kind of leaders they want to elect, according to Bosworth.

"If we don’t want hate-mongering politicians then we must not elect them," Bosworth wrote.

"If we change the outcomes without winning the minds of the people who will be ruled then we have a democracy in name only. If we limit what information people have access to and what they can say then we have no democracy at all."

source: philstar.com

Trump under fire for attacks on Democratic congresswomen

WASHINGTON, United States — US President Donald Trump came under fire from Democrats and even some members of his own Republican Party on Monday after launching an extraordinary xenophobic attack on four progressive Democratic congresswomen.

"All they do is complain," Trump told reporters at a White House event featuring products "Made in America."

"These are people that hate our country," he said of the four Democratic lawmakers. "If you're not happy here, you can leave."

Trump also accused the four first-term Democratic congresswomen -- who are of Hispanic, Arab, Somali and African-American origin -- of having "love" for US "enemies like Al-Qaeda."

Asked by a reporter whether he was concerned that many people saw his comments as racist, Trump said: "It doesn't concern me because many people agree with me."

Several hours after his remarks, the four -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who is of Puerto Rico origin, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who is of Somali origin, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who is African-American -- hit back at a news conference.

Pressley condemned Trump's "xenophobic and bigoted" comments and said "we will not be silenced."

Omar said Trump made a "blatantly racist attack" on four lawmakers "of color." "This is the agenda of white nationalists," she said.

Omar and Tlaib repeated calls for Trump to be impeached.

'Destructive'

The president first attacked the lawmakers with a series of tweets on Sunday, saying they should "go back" to their countries of origin if they didn't like the United States.

His comments prompted outrage from Democrats -- and, initially, silence from Republicans.

On Monday, several of his party faithful began to speak up.

"My view is that what was said and what was tweeted was destructive, was demeaning, was disunifying, and frankly it was very wrong," said Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah.

"There is no excuse for the president's spiteful comments -– they were absolutely unacceptable and this needs to stop," said Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska. "We must demand a higher standard of decorum and decency."

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she disagreed with the policies espoused by the "far-left" Democratic lawmakers but Trump was "way over the line."

For Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, "the citizenship of all four is as valid as mine." "They are entitled to their opinions, however misguided they may be," he said.

Texan Will Hurd, the only black Republican in the House of Representatives, told CNN that Trump's behavior was "unbecoming of the leader of the free world."

And Senator Tim Scott, a black Republican from South Carolina, criticized the president for using "unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language."

'Cold, hard strategy'

Trump's comments appear to be aimed at galvanizing his mostly white electoral base ahead of the 2020 presidential vote -- while also stoking racial tensions and divisions among his political opponents.

"With his deliberate, racist outburst, @realDonaldTrump wants to raise the profile of his targets, drive Dems to defend them and make them emblematic of the entire party," said David Axelrod, who served as chief strategist for Barack Obama's two White House campaigns.

"It's a cold, hard strategy," Axelrod said on Twitter. "Fasten your seatbelts, it will only get worse as the election approaches."

"The voters will decide," Trump told reporters.

"If (the Democrats) want to gear their wagons around these four people, I think they're going to have a very tough election, because I don't think the people of the United States will stand for it."

In his initial Twitter attack on Sunday, Trump -- who before becoming president pushed the racist "birther" conspiracy theory that Obama was not born on US soil -- said the congresswomen came from corrupt, poorly managed countries to which they should return.

Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley were all born in the United States while Omar arrived from war-torn Somalia when she was a child.

Former vice president Joe Biden, who is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, denounced Trump as the most "openly racist and divisive" president in US history.

"Go home to your country? It's sickening, it's embarrassing," Biden said.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, has had a tenuous relationship with the four left-leaning congresswomen but she jumped to their defense.

"When @realDonaldTrump tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to 'Make America Great Again' has always been about making America white again," Pelosi said.

Pelosi said she was seeking Republicans to co-sponsor a House resolution "condemning the president's xenophobic tweets" and "characterization of immigrants."

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York said he planned to do the same in the Senate.

source: philstar.com

Trump home alone for Christmas

WASHINGTON – An angry US President Donald Trump complained on Monday that he was “all alone” in the White House as the US government shutdown hit a third day, even plunging the nation’s main Christmas tree into darkness.

With Congress out of town and the debate over Trump’s demand for a $5-billion US-Mexico border wall at an impasse, the president sat holed up, tweeting no less than 10 times by early afternoon to lash out at opponents and reject responsibility for a plummeting stock market.

“I am all alone (poor me) in the White House,” tweeted Trump, who had to delay his annual Christmas holiday in Florida because of the crisis in Washington.


Trump said he was “waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security.”

However, the Democrats – and some Republicans – have made clear they will not vote for Trump’s cherished border wall. In retaliation, Trump is refusing to sign a broader spending bill, triggering a standoff that has left swathes of the US government temporarily without funding.

Outside the White House, Washington’s National Christmas Tree became a forlorn symbol of the dysfunction gripping Trump’s presidency two years after his surprise election.

The National Park Service tweeted that the tree would remain unlit and closed to the public “until further notice,” with checks being made for damage following an attempt by an intruder on Friday to climb the tree.

The parks service is one of the many federal institutions suffering from the funding suspension.

The budget standoff could drag on into January, when the new Congress is seated, including a House controlled by Democrats. Negotiations, however, were planned for Thursday, offering a glimmer of hope of resolution.

Trump made a Mexico border wall one of his main campaign promises and the idea is popular with many Republicans backing the president’s message that illegal immigration is out of control.

Democrats and some Republicans in Congress oppose the plans as impractical, unnecessary and fuelling xenophobia against Central Americans.

The government shutdown adds to uncertainties spooking global stock markets after a tumultuous week in which respected Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned and the president stepped up attacks on the supposedly independent chairman of the Federal Reserve.

On Monday, in a session shortened for Christmas Eve, the Dow Jones dropped more than 650 points, or 2.9 percent.

But Trump, who has repeatedly taken credit for good days on the markets, blamed the Fed for the growing sense of disarray.

Last week, the central bank hiked rates, infuriating Trump, who has ignored a traditional respect for the Fed’s independence, calling it “crazy,” “out of control” and a greater economic threat than China.

In a tweet Monday, Trump compared the Fed to a blundering golfer “who can’t score because he has no touch – he can’t putt!”

In other tweets, Trump praised Saudi Arabia for pledging money to rebuild Syria (“Thanks to Saudi A!”), denied lashing out at acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker (“This is a made up story, one of many, by the Fake News Media!”), and took another swipe at his newly departed defense secretary James Mattis for failing to worry about the financial cost of maintaining military alliances (“We are substantially subsidizing the Militaries of many VERY rich countries all over the world”).

Believing in Santa at 7 is ‘marginal’

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump on Christmas Eve took calls from children anxious to find out where Santa was on his gift-giving journey.

In one conversation, Trump asked a 7-year-old named Coleman, “Are you still a believer in Santa?” He listened for a moment before adding, “Because at 7, it’s marginal, right?” Trump listened again and chuckled before saying, “Well, you just enjoy yourself.”

Mrs. Trump told a caller that Santa was in the Sahara. Several minutes later, she reported that Santa was far away in Morocco but would be at the caller’s home on Christmas morning.

Mrs. Trump later tweeted that helping children track Santa “is becoming one of my favorite traditions!”

The NORAD Tracks Santa program became a Christmas Eve tradition after a child mistakenly called the forerunner to the North American Aerospace Defense Command in 1955 and asked to speak to Santa.

The program wasn’t affected by the government shutdown. It’s run by volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado using pre-approved funding.

The Trumps later traveled to Washington National Cathedral to attend the Solemn Holy Eucharist of Christmas Eve. The cathedral’s website said the program included readings from Holy Scripture, favorite congregational hymns and seasonal choral and instrumental music as well as Holy Communion. Passes were required.

Trump most likely would have been attending Christmas services at a church near his estate in Palm Beach, Florida. But he scrapped plans to head to Florida for the holidays after parts of the government were forced to shut down indefinitely in a budget stalemate with Congress.

source: philstar.com

Bernie Sanders signals possible 2020 presidential run

WASHINGTON, United States — Bernie Sanders is talking and acting like a once and future US presidential candidate, telling a magazine he will "probably run" in 2020 if he sees himself as the Democrats' best chance to defeat Donald Trump.

The popular US senator and self-declared Democratic socialist also has just written a book, entitled "Where We Go from Here," that lands Tuesday, the same night he delivers a speech at George Washington University in the capital.

Sanders, 77, launched an extraordinary run for the 2016 Democratic nomination, and while he came up short against Hillary Clinton many Sanders supporters express confidence that he could have beaten Trump for the White House.


Sanders said he still believes his ideas are best for the nation, but is not openly campaigning for the nomination.

"I'm not one of those sons of multimillionaires whose parents told them they were going to become president of the United States," he told New York magazine in a piece released late Sunday.

"I don't wake up in the morning with any burning desire that I have to be president."

Sanders is widely thought to have popularized liberal positions such as Medicare for all, in which the national health insurance for people 65 and over is expanded to everyone, and a $15 minimum wage.

And who else would be as effective a messenger for such a platform as Sanders himself?

"If there's somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I'll work my ass off to elect him or her," he said.

But "if it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run," Sanders added.

The 2020 election is still 101 weeks away. But many candidates announce their intentions early in the year prior to the election.

Sanders would likely face intense competition. Several other Senate Democrats are considering presidential bids, including Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren.

Mayors like New York's Bill de Blasio and Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles are also in the mix, as are former vice president Joe Biden, New York billionaire and former mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke, who lost his recent bid to oust Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

source: philstar.com

Trump, under pressure to honor McCain, orders flags to half-staff

Washington, UNITED STATES — Donald Trump on Monday bowed to pressure to honor the late John McCain, ordering the lowering of flags across the country to half-staff, as the late senator fired a parting shot at the president in a farewell message to the nation.

Trump's about-face came after he found himself mired in controversy over his rather conspicuous failure to pay tribute to McCain, who died Saturday at 81 after a year-long battle with brain cancer.


When veterans' groups launched appeals for a more fitting salute to McCain, a Navy veteran who was imprisoned for more than five years in Vietnam, the Republican leader -- who had no love lost for the Arizona senator -- blinked.

"Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain's service to our country," Trump said in a statement as he ordered the flag atop the White House and elsewhere to fly at half-staff until McCain's burial on Sunday.

The White House flag was lowered after McCain's death on Saturday -- but it was once again at the top of the flagpole on Monday morning.


Trump's initial silence about McCain underscored the isolation of the US leader and fueled criticism that he is incapable of bringing a divided nation together even as it mourns a man widely seen as an American hero and a political icon.

In Phoenix, where a week of tributes to McCain was soon to get underway, Rick Davis, the two-time presidential candidate's former campaign manager, confirmed that Trump would not be attending the funeral.

The president himself said Vice President Mike Pence would speak at a ceremony honoring McCain at the US Capitol on Friday.

White House chief of staff John Kelly, Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Advisor John Bolton would represent the administration at his services, he added.

'Tribal rivalries'

In Phoenix, Davis read a posthumous statement from McCain that did not spare Trump.

"We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe," McCain said.

"We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been," he said -- -- an apparent reference to Trump's plans for a border wall.

"I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world's greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil," McCain continued.

"Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here," he said, adding that the country "will get through these challenging times."

'Not a war hero'

McCain, who served as a senator from Arizona for more than 30 years, clashed repeatedly with Trump even though they were both Republicans, and the president initially paid scant tribute to the senator after his death.

The Washington Post reported that White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, Chief of Staff Kelly and other senior staff had urged a statement be released referring to McCain as a "hero" -- but Trump opted to tweet instead.

"My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain," Trump tweeted. "Our hearts and prayers are with you!"

That had been the extent of Trump's remarks on McCain's passing until the White House statement on Monday.

McCain's remains will lie in state at Arizona's capitol on Wednesday, before a public viewing Friday in the rotunda of the US Capitol -- an honor reserved for the likes of John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and civil rights champion Rosa Parks.

The two men who defeated McCain in his White House campaigns, Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and Democrat Barack Obama in 2008, are expected to deliver eulogies at a Saturday service at the National Cathedral in Washington.

McCain will be buried Sunday at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in a private funeral service.

Bipartisan praise

In Washington, McCain's death has been a rare occasion for bipartisan praise for his lifetime in public service.

Tributes have poured in from every living former president, honoring the former Navy aviator for his courage, integrity and decency.

On Capitol Hill, his desk on the Senate floor was draped with a black cloth, and adorned with a bowl of white roses.

The enmity between Trump and McCain dates from the day the real estate tycoon announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination with an attack on Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump said of McCain: "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured."

In the years since, McCain was Trump's loudest Republican critic, especially as the president disrupted America's long-time alliances.

After Trump met in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, McCain called it "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory."

source: philstar.com

‘Yeah I’ll beat Oprah’ – Trump

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he could beat Oprah Winfrey in a presidential race, while one of Winfrey’s closest friends said the media mogul and actress was “intrigued” by the possibility of running but was not considering it now.

Speculation about a 2020 White House bid by Winfrey blew up on social media and news outlets after her rousing “new day” speech at the Golden Globes awards show on Sunday night, which touched on female and black empowerment, her roots in poverty and support of those who speak up about sexual abuse and harassment.

But some media commentators also injected skepticism into the surge of excitement among fans of the former talk show star, saying the Democratic Party and the country might well reject the notion of another celebrity political novice following Trump’s 2016 election.

Winfrey, long associated with Democratic politics and fundraising, has not commented publicly on the speculation. Known to millions by her first name, Winfrey, 63, has been a cultural force in the country for decades.


Trump, speaking with reporters during a White House meeting with lawmakers, said in response to a question, “Yeah I’ll beat Oprah. Oprah would be a lot of fun.


“I know her very well … I like Oprah. I don’t think she’s going to run,” said the Republican president, 71.


Winfrey confidante Gayle King said earlier on Tuesday there was no change in Winfrey’s past position — that she is not interested in running for president

“I do think she’s intrigued by the idea, I do think that,” King said on the “CBS This Morning” program. “I also know that after years of watching ‘The Oprah (Winfrey) Show’ you always have the right to change your mind. I don’t think at this point she’s actually considering it.”


However, CNN, citing two of Winfrey’s close friends, reported on Monday that the television and movie producer and actress was actively thinking about a White House bid.


Winfrey has raised millions of dollars for various causes, including shelters for battered women but, like Trump when he launched his White House campaign, she has no prior experience in government. Trump, a businessman and former reality TV star, based part of his appeal on the fact he was truly not a Washington insider.


“NOPRAH! Do we really need another celebrity president?” read the front page of Tuesday’s New York Post. A critique in Slate on Monday was headlined “Oprah? Really?” and bemoaned the “impossibly boring” current crop of major political figures, making people more likely to vote for celebrities like Trump or Winfrey.

Former Trump White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who was the public face of some of the Trump administration’s early missteps last year, said on the “Good Morning Britain” show that Winfrey lacked “political infrastructure” and would have a hard time adjusting to the White House.


Winfrey first gained national fame with her TV talk show, which often focused on self-improvement and touched on previously taboo subjects like incest, rape, eating disorders and depression. She used the show’s success to build a media empire encompassing movie production, magazines, cable TV, and satellite radio, becoming one of the world’s richest women.


Winfrey also branched out into acting. She is credited with roles in nearly 30 movie and TV productions, including a role in director Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple” that earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

source: interaksyon.com

Surrounded by military leaders, Trump talks of ‘calm before the storm’

WASHINGTON — After discussing Iran and North Korea with U.S. military leaders on Thursday, President Donald Trump posed for a photo with them before dinner and declared the moment “the calm before the storm.”

“You guys know what this represents?” Trump said after journalists gathered in the White House state dining room to photograph him and first lady Melania Trump with the uniformed military leaders and their spouses. 




“Maybe it’s the calm before the storm,” he said.

What storm?

“You’ll find out,” Trump told questioning reporters.

Classical music played in the background and tables were set in the nearby Blue Room for a fancy meal.

The White House did not immediately reply to a request to clarify Trump’s remark.

Earlier in the evening, while seated with the top defense officials in the cabinet room, Trump talked about the threat from North Korea and preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

“In North Korea, our goal is denuclearization,” he said. “We cannot allow this dictatorship to threaten our nation or our allies with unimaginable loss of life. We will do what we must do to prevent that from happening. And it will be done, if necessary, believe me.”

During his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month, Trump said the United States would “totally destroy” North Korea if needed to defend itself or U.S. allies.

The president on Thursday also had tough words for Iran, saying the country had not lived up to the spirit of an agreement forged with world powers to curb its nuclear program.

A senior administration official said on Thursday

that Trump was expected to announce soon he would decertify the landmark agreement.

Trump has filled top posts within his administration with military generals, including his chief of staff, retired General John Kelly, and national security adviser, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster. McMaster, who normally dresses in civilian clothes at the White House, wore his uniform for the meeting.

Without being specific, Trump pressed the leaders to be faster at providing him with “military options” when needed.

“Moving forward, I also expect you to provide me with a broad range of military options, when needed, at a much faster pace. I know that government bureaucracy is slow, but I am depending on you to overcome the obstacles of bureaucracy,” he said during their cabinet room meeting.

source: interaksyon.com

Trump’s son met Kremlin-linked lawyer after promise of damaging info about Clinton – NYT

President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. agreed to meet with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during the 2016 campaign after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing three advisers to the White House.

Trump’s then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also attended the meeting at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, two weeks after Trump won the Republican nomination, the Times reported.

The Times quoted a statement from Donald Trump Jr. in which he acknowledged meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

“After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton,” the Times quoted Donald Trump Jr. as saying. Clinton was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

“Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

The Times said Veselnitskaya then turned the conversation to the adoption of Russian children and a U.S. law blackisting Russians linked to alleged human-rights abuses.

President Trump was “not aware of and did not attend” the meeting reported by the Times, Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team, said in an emailed statement.

Trump Jr. was quoted saying he believed information on Clinton was only a pretext for the meeting. The Times said it was unclear whether Veselnitskaya produced the promised compromising information about Clinton.

Trump Jr. told the Times he did not tell Manafort and Kushner what the meeting was about when he asked them to attend.

Representatives for Manafort and Kushner did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

Allegations of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia have cast a shadow over Donald Trump’s first five months in office, distracting from attempts by his fellow Republicans in Congress to overhaul the U.S. healthcare and tax systems.

The Kremlin has denied U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Moscow tried to tilt the election in Trump’s favor, using such means as hacking into the emails of senior Democrats.

Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion.

The allegations came up during Trump’s meeting on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin but the two agreed to focus on better ties rather than litigating the past.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Trump accepted Putin’s assertions the allegations of Russian meddling were false.

Trump said on Sunday he and Putin had discussed forming a cyber security unit, an idea harshly criticized by Republicans who said Moscow could not be trusted after its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

source: interaksyon.com

Trump signs repeal of US broadband privacy rules

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump on Monday signed a repeal of Obama-era broadband privacy rules, the White House said, a victory for internet service providers and a blow to privacy advocates.

Republicans in Congress last week narrowly passed the repeal of the privacy rules with no Democratic support and over the strong objections of privacy advocates.

The signing, disclosed in White House statement late on Monday, follows strong criticism of the bill, which is a win for AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc.

The bill repeals regulations adopted in October by the Federal Communications Commission under the Obama administration requiring internet service providers to do more to protect customers' privacy than websites like Alphabet Inc.'s Google or Facebook Inc.

The rules had not yet taken effect but would have required internet providers to obtain consumer consent before using precise geolocation, financial information, health information, children's information and web browsing history for advertising and marketing.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai praised the repeal in a statement late on Monday for having “appropriately invalidated one part of the Obama-era plan for regulating the internet." Those flawed privacy rules, which never went into effect, were designed to benefit one group of favored companies, not online consumers."

Pai said the FCC would work with the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees websites, to restore the "FTC’s authority to police internet service providers’ privacy practices."

Republican FCC commissioners have said the Obama rules would unfairly give websites the ability to harvest more data than internet service providers.

The action is the latest in a string of reversals of Obama administration rules. On Monday, the FCC reversed a requirement that Charter Communications Inc extend broadband service to 1 million homes that already have a high-speed provider.

On Friday, Comcast, Verizon AT&T Inc. said they would voluntarily not sell customers’ individual internet browsing information.

Verizon does not sell personal web browsing histories and has no plans to do so but the company said it has two advertising programs that use "de-identified" customer browsing data, including one that uses "aggregate insights that might be useful for advertisers and other businesses."

The American Civil Liberties Union said last month Congress should have opposed "industry pressure to put profits over privacy" and added "most Americans believe that their sensitive internet information should be closely guarded."

Trade group USTelecom Chief Executive Jonathan Spalter in a statement praised Trump for "stopping rules that would have created a confusing and conflicting consumer privacy framework."

Last week, 46 Senate Democrats urged Trump not to sign the bill, arguing most Americans "believe that their private information should be just that."

Republicans later this year are expected to move to overturn net neutrality provisions that in 2015 reclassified broadband providers and treated them like a public utility - a move that is expected to spark an even bigger fight.

source: interaksyon.com

Trump son-in-law met with Russian bank sanctioned by US

WASHINGTON -- A Russian bank under US economic sanctions over Russia's incursion into Ukraine disclosed on Monday that its executives had met Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a top White House adviser, during the 2016 election campaign.

Kushner, 36, married to Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, has agreed to testify to a Senate committee investigating whether Russia tried to interfere in the election.

Allegations by US intelligence agencies that Russian actors were behind hacking of senior Democratic Party operatives and spreading disinformation linger over Trump's young presidency. Democrats charge the Russians wanted to tilt the election toward the Republican, a claim dismissed by Trump. Russia denies the allegations.

But there has been no doubt that the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, developed contacts among the Trump team. Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was forced to resign on February 13 after revelations that he had discussed US sanctions on Russia with Kislyak and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.

Executives of Russian state development bank Vnesheconombank had talks with Kushner during a bank roadshow in 2016 when it was preparing a new strategy, the bank said.

"As part of the preparation of the new strategy, executives of Vnesheconombank met with representatives of leading financial institutes in Europe, Asia and America multiple times during 2016," VEB said in an emailed statement.

It said roadshow meetings took place "with a number of representatives of the largest banks and business establishments of the United States, including Jared Kushner, the head of Kushner Companies."

There was no immediate comment from Kushner.

In an article posted on December 18, Forbes estimated that Jared Kushner, his brother Josh and his parents, Charles and Seryl, have a fortune worth at least $1.8 billion, more than half of which Forbes estimates is held in real estate.

Forbes did not provide a specific estimate for Jared Kushner’s net worth on his own.

VEB declined to say where the meetings took place or the dates. US officials said that after meeting with Russian Kislyak at Trump Tower last December, a meeting also attended by Flynn, Kushner met later in December with Sergei Gorkov, the CEO of Vnesheconombank. White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed the meetings.

On Monday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters that Kushner is willing to testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee chaired by US Senator Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican.

“Throughout the campaign and the transition, Jared served as the official primary point of contact with foreign governments and officials ... and so, given this role, he volunteered to speak with Chairman Burr's committee, but has not received any confirmation regarding a time for a meeting," Spicer told reporters at his daily briefing.

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate panel also said Kushner had agreed to be interviewed.

Simply meeting with representatives of a US-sanctioned entity is not a violation of sanctions or against the law.

Evgeny Buryakov, 41, a Russian citizen who worked at Vnesheconombank and whom US authorities accused of posing as a banker while participating in a New York spy ring, pleaded guilty to a criminal conspiracy charge on Friday. Buryakov admitted in federal court in Manhattan to acting as an agent for the Russian government without notifying US authorities.

Classified information
Also on Monday, a mystery rooted in Trump's claim that he was wiretapped by then President Barack Obama during the election campaign deepened with the disclosure that a top congressional Republican reviewed classified information on the White House grounds about potential surveillance of some Trump campaign associates.

US Representative Devin Nunes, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, visited the White House the night before announcing on Wednesday that he had information that indicated some Trump associates may have been subjected to some level of intelligence activity before Trump took office on Jan. 20.

Democrats have said Nunes, who was a member of Trump's transition team, can no longer run a credible investigation of Russian hacking, the US election and any potential involvement by Trump associates. Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi last week called Nunes "a willing stooge of Trump."

Nunes spokesman Jack Langer said in a statement that Nunes "met with his source at the White House grounds in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source."

White House spokesman Spicer did not shed any light on who at the White House helped Nunes gain access to a secure location.

It was the latest twist in a saga that began on March 4 when Trump said on Twitter without providing evidence that he "just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory."

FBI Director James Comey told Congress last Monday he had seen no evidence to support the claim.

Trump's mention of wiretapping drew attention away from US intelligence agencies having said that Russia tried to help Trump in the election against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Nunes told reporters on Wednesday that he had briefed Trump "on the concerns I had about incidental collection and how it relates to President-elect Trump and his transition team and the concerns that I have."

After an uproar over the allegations and the fact that he briefed Trump first before members of his own committee, Nunes apologized on Thursday for the way he handled the information.

source: interaksyon.com

Trump expected to slash foreign aid, environmental spending in first budget plan

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is set to propose drastic cuts to America's foreign aid and environmental programs in a security-heavy first budget blueprint to be released Thursday.

In a plan designed to translate bold campaign promises into dollar and cent commitments, the Republican leader is expected to propose steep cuts in State Department funding.

That could be a harbinger of reductions in foreign aid and funding to UN agencies, with knock-on effects around the world.

The Pentagon is expected to be the major winner with a nearly 10 percent boost -- shoveling more cash toward a defense budget already greater than that of the next seven nations combined.

Trump's broad-brush proposal covers only a fraction of the $3.8 trillion federal budget -- which is dominated by healthcare, pension and other baked-in costs.

The text will be heavily revised and fleshed out by Congress, before a full budget is released around May.

In that sense, the plan is as much a political statement as a fiscal outline: a fact not lost on the White House.

Playing to the base

The budget is a signal to Trump's supporters that he is a "man of action" and not a "typical politician."

Trump is looking to rally his base, amid multiple controversies over his Twitter outbursts, Russian meddling in the election that brought him to power and a simmering rift with Congressional Republicans over healthcare reform.

According to Gallup, Trump has approval ratings of 40 percent, a low for any modern president weeks into his tenure.

But security has been a major vote winner. An Economist/YouGov poll found that 51 percent of Republicans believe the United States will be safer from terrorism at the end of his term.

The budget may also be seen as a signal to the world that Trump's United States may be less engaged and will put "America first."

Diplomats and some former defense officials have already warned that less spending on things like democracy promotion and humanitarian aid will spell more trouble, and military spending, down the road.

More than 120 retired generals and admirals recently signed a letter warning "that many of the crises our nation faces do not have military solutions alone."

They cited Jim Mattis, now defense secretary, as once saying "if you don't fully fund the State Department, then I need to buy more ammunition."

'Drastic cuts'

The Environmental Protection Agency, which helps monitor air, water and other standards, is also likely to see significant cuts.

That is in keeping with Trump's promise to gut regulation.

On Wednesday, Trump traveled to Michigan, the home of the American auto industry -- and announced he will freeze targets to limit future vehicle emissions.

Trump's top advisor Steve Bannon has promised a broader "'deconstruction of the administrative state."

But Trump's plan is already coming under fire from Democratic lawmakers.

"It will prescribe drastic cuts in many of the programs and agencies that keep America safe, whether it's environmental programs, whether it is food safety, drug safety," said Kentucky representative John Yarmuth.

The ranking member on the House budget committee speculated that the proposal could be a negotiating position, an opening salvo in Trump's "art of the deal."

"If they want to negotiate with the health and safety and future of the American people, then that's pretty cynical," he said.

source: interaksyon.com

Senators question Goldman Sachs on its role in Trump banking policy

WASHINGTON - Two US senators are seeking details from Goldman Sachs Group Inc's (GS.N) chief executive on the extent to which the bank's employees were involved in drafting of the recent executive orders on banking and fiduciary regulations.

In a letter to CEO Lloyd Blankfein dated Feb. 9 and made public on Friday, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin asked for details on "lobbying" activities in the bank related to review of the Dodd-Frank Act and the Obama-era fiduciary rule on financial advice.

Blankfein was also asked to detail the profits Goldman would make if these reforms came into effect.

"We've had no involvement in the drafting of any executive orders," a Goldman spokesman said on Friday.

In December, Trump appointed Gary Cohn, former Goldman president and chief operating officer, to head the White House National Economic Council, a group that coordinates economic policy across agencies.

Trump last week ordered reviews of major banking rules that were put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, drawing fire from Democrats who said his order lacked substance and squarely aligned him with Wall Street bankers.

"The executive orders released by President Trump on Friday last week raise our concerns about the degree to which Cohn's advice to Trump is good for Wall Street, but bad for Americans," the senators wrote on Thursday.

"Goldman Sachs would be a major beneficiary of these efforts to deregulate the financial industry," they added in the letter.

Trump also named former Goldman partner Steven Mnuchin as his pick for Treasury secretary in December.

The senators have asked for any communication between the bank's employees and Cohn, Mnuchin, nominee for the SEC chair Jay Clayton and chief strategist Steve Bannon.

source: interaksyon.com