President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, a bus promoting Women for Trump, and possibly other supporters of the president are all scheduled to campaign in Wisconsin next week. However, the presumptive Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will make their remarks to the Democratic National Convention from elsewhere due to concerns about the coronavirus.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has a message for the visiting Republicans about limiting the spread of COVID-19
“They have to wear a mask if they’re in buildings. They have to make sure their audience is physically distant from each other. We can’t afford to have these events make it more difficult for us to prevent the virus from being transmitted in the state of Wisconsin,” Evers said. “My expectation is they’re masking up. They’re going to follow the order.”
OSHKOSH (WLUK) — President Donald Trump is expected to visit Oshkosh Monday.
The president confirmed the visit to Wisconsin himself on a phone call with voters Wednesday evening.
[…]
The visit would mark the president’s second trip to Northeast Wisconsin in 2020. Trump traveled to Marinette in June where he gave a speech at Fincantieri Marinette Marine and toured the facility.
Vice President Mike Pence also traveled to Ripon last month and gave a speech at Ripon College.
Across the stands of the world’s biggest cricket stadium, a sea made up of the faces of Donald Trump and Narendra Modi stared out. The 125,000-strong crowd who had gathered to welcome to US president on his first visit to India alongside the Indian prime minister, at a rally dubbed “Namaste Trump”, not only danced and chanted to show their appreciation, but many also donned masks of the two leaders.
“America loves India, respects India,” said Trump as he stepped out to address the rally, to roars of approval. “India gives hope to all of humanity.”
The event, organised in Ahmedabad in Modi’s home state of Gujarat on Monday afternoon, was the pinnacle of Trump’s visit to India and a platform for the two leaders to show off their enthusiastically friendly relationship. Before taking to the stage, Trump rally favourites Madman Across the Water by Elton John and Macho Man by the Village People boomed out across the giant stadium.
The effusive bond between the two leaders was on full display, and Trump delivered a gushing speech paying tribute to an “exceptional leader … and a man I am proud to call my true friend”, while Modi sat behind him looking pleased. “Everybody loves him but I will tell you this, he is very tough,” added Trump, who unusually did not appear to divert from his speech script at all.
by Owen | 1711, 21 Feb 2020 | Politics | 218 Comments
Just say no, folks. We don’t have the money. If you want to spend a trillion dollars on this, find a trillion dollars elsewhere (and more to eliminate a budget deficit) to cut.
In another election year, Trump has outlined a new $1 trillion plan for spending on roads, rails, water systems and other infrastructure. This time, the president is proposing to rely fully on federal spending. That fundamental change from his first plan drew praise from some state transportation officials and industry groups, even though Trump doesn’t spell out how to pay for it all.
Since outlining his budget proposal last week, Trump has done little to promote his new infrastructure plan. A politically divided Congress has no obligation to consider it. In fact, Trump’s prior infrastructure proposals all stalled, even when Republicans controlled both the House and Senate.
Some Republicans already are lowering expectations.
“The Republican House version of the bill won’t be a trillion dollars, I can tell you that right now,” said U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, the ranking GOP member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “It will be a lot farther south than that.”
Awesome. Some folks will deride Trump’s style, but he is meeting Americans where they are – not just at political events and through the snobby media, but at NASCAR races, football games, and WWE events. This is part of Trump’s appeal.
(CNN)President Donald Trump on Sunday welcomed NASCAR fans to the start of this year’s Daytona 500 with a lap around the Florida race track in his presidential limousine.
“There is no greater thrill than to join you at the world center of racing for the 62nd Daytona 500 — so exciting,” Trump said in opening remarks to the crowd.
“To all of the drivers, technicians and pit crews here today, good luck and may the best team win. God bless you, God bless our military, God bless our veterans and God bless America. Have a great race.”
Trump also thanked Gold Star families, who were in attendance at the race, “whose loved ones made the supreme sacrifice to honor our freedom and our flag.”
“Your fallen warriors will live in our hearts forever,” he said, before thanking new military enlistees who “took a solemn oath to put their lives on the line for our country.”
A portion of the presidential motorcade took a lap around the track before pulling aside just before the start of the race. The first couple was riding the car known as “The Beast.”
Trump also served as the Grand Marshal, commanding: “Gentlemen, start your engines.” He is the second American president to do so, behind George W. Bush who attended the Daytona 500 in 2004.
Multiple people associated with NASCAR, manufacturers and race teams made versions of the same joke repeatedly over the past two days, saying that “it’s starting to feel more like a race is breaking out at a Trump rally than the other way around.”
by Owen | 1052, 8 Feb 2020 | Politics | 36 Comments
To be fair… people who crossed Hillary ended up dead.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Exacting swift punishment against those who crossed him, an emboldened President Donald Trump ousted two government officials who had delivered damaging testimony against him during his impeachment hearings. The president took retribution just two days after his acquittal by the Senate.
First came news Friday that Trump had ousted Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the decorated soldier and national security aide who played a central role in the Democrats’ impeachment case. Vindman’s lawyer said his client was escorted out of the White House complex Friday, told to leave in retaliation for “telling the truth.”
“The truth has cost Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman his job, his career, and his privacy,” attorney David Pressman said in a statement. Vindman’s twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, also was asked to leave his job as a White House lawyer on Friday, the Army said in a statement. Both men were reassigned to the Army.
Next came word that Gordon Sondland, Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, also was out.
“I was advised today that the President intends to recall me effective immediately as United States Ambassador to the European Union,” Sondland said in a statement.
The White House had not been coy about whether Trump would retaliate against those he viewed as foes in the impeachment drama. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Thursday that Trump was glad it was over and “maybe people should pay for that.”
Seriously, though, is this a problem? Put yourself in Trump’s shoes. He believes that he was falsely accused of wrongdoing and these two people were among the accusers. They work for him, but he no longer trusts them, their judgement, or their willingness to carry out his administration’s policies. Why would he keep them on board? Are they entitled to the jobs?
Puerto Ricans struggling after a recent earthquake are outraged after a warehouse was discovered to be full of disaster relief supplies from 2017’s Hurricane Maria, which were never distributed.
Desperate locals in the southern city of Ponce broke in to the warehouse after finding hoards of food, water, cots and other unused emergency supplies during checks for damage from the earthquake several days ago.
The governor of Puerto Rico fired the director of the US territory’s emergency management agency after the warehouse was found filled with the likes of diapers and medicine, apparently unused since the island was hit by Hurricane Maria in September 2017.
The warehouse was discovered on Saturday, and police were called in to remove people taking supplies.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has thanked US counterpart Donald Trump for intelligence that helped foil “acts of terrorism” on Russian soil, according to a Kremlin statement.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump spoke on the phone on Sunday, it said.
The Kremlin said the information came via intelligence services, but it provided no further details.
Russian media is reporting the discovery of a plot to attack St Petersburg over the New Year period.
Tass news agency says two Russian nationals have been arrested and plans to attack a mass gathering were seized, according to a spokesperson from the FSB, the Russian intelligence agency.
“You are turning a policy disagreement between two branches of government into an impeachable offence – it is no more legitimate than the Executive Branch charging members of Congress with crimes for lawful exercise of legislative power.”
WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who ran against Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, said in an interview exerpt [sic] released Tuesday that she is “favor of moving toward impeachment” and that “we are in a crisis.”
They’re going to impeach him for Stormy Daniels… no, wait, RUSSIA… no, wait, travel ban… no, wait, the wall… no, wait, firing Comey… no, wait, Ukraine! That’s the ticket! This is going to be entertaining.
US Democrats have opened a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump over allegations he sought help from a foreign power to damage a political rival.
Top Democrat Nancy Pelosi said the president “must be held accountable”.
Mr Trump has denied impropriety and called the efforts “garbage”.
While there is strong support from Democrats on impeachment, if the inquiry moves forward it is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate.
The row was sparked by reports an intelligence whistleblower lodged a formal complaint about a phone call President Trump made with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
What exactly was said remains unclear but Democrats accuse Mr Trump of threatening to withhold military aid to force Ukraine to investigate corruption allegations against former Vice-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Mr Trump has acknowledged discussing Joe Biden with Mr Zelensky but said he was only trying to get Europe to step up assistance by threatening to withhold military aid.
Donald Trump is set to attend the United Nations headquarters during Monday’s key summit on the climate crisis – but will be there to take part in a meeting on religious freedom instead.
A senior UN official confirmed to the Guardian that the White House has booked one of the large conference rooms in the New York headquarters on Monday so that the president can address a gathering on religious freedom.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Log Cabin Republicans chairman Robert Kabel and vice chair Jill Homan credited Trump with “removing gay rights as a wedge issue from the old Republican playbook” and “taking bold actions that benefit the LGBTQ community.”
“He has committed to end the spread of HIV/AIDS in 10 years, through the use of proven science, medicine and technology to which we now have access,” they wrote. “Trump has used the United States’ outsize global influence to persuade other nations to adopt modern human rights standards, including launching an initiative to end the criminalization of homosexuality.”
“While we do not agree with every policy or platform position presented by the White House or the Republican Party,” they added, “we share a commitment to individual responsibility, personal freedom and a strong national defense.”
Donald Trump has become the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea, after meeting Kim Jong-un in the area dividing the two Koreas.
Mr Trump and the North Korean leader posed for handshakes before talking for nearly an hour in the heavily fortified demilitarised zone (DMZ).
Both countries agreed to set up teams to resume stalled nuclear talks.
Their last summit broke down in February with no progress on denuclearisation in North Korea.
Critics have dismissed the occasion – the two leaders’ third face-to-face encounter in just over a year – as a political theatre and say North Korea still needs to show that it is serious in getting rid of its nuclear weapons.
I completely agree that it was theater and that NK needs to demonstrate its sincerity. I disagree that the encounter was meaningless. Symbols and images can be very powerful. Certainly, the evil butterball (as Jay Weber calls Jong-un) is susceptible to it. So we’ll see… maybe this is another step toward peace. Maybe it is one more in a decades-long series of false starts.
by Owen | 2045, 22 May 1919 | Politics | 25 Comments
If I were a Democrat, I’d be pretty ticked at the stupidity of my own party. Perhaps more than any other modern president, Trump loves to make a deal and isn’t guided by an overriding ideology. The Democrats could actually isolate the Republican Senate and push some of their own initiatives through if they would actually try to work with the president. Instead, they crap all over him and don’t get anywhere.
President Donald Trump abruptly walked out of a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at the White House on Wednesday, telling reporters moments later that he would not negotiate on legislation with Democrats while he was still under investigation by several committees.
Wednesday’s meeting was supposed to be the second official sit-down between the president and Democratic congressional leadership specifically focused on infrastructure.
“I walked into the room and I told Sen. Schumer and Speaker Pelosi, ‘I want to do infrastructure’ … but we can’t do it under these circumstances,” Trump said at a last-minute Rose Garden event.
Trump’s anger appears to have been sparked by comments Pelosi made earlier in the day when she said, “We believe the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up” by blocking White House aides from giving testimony and responding to document requests from ongoing congressional investigations.
by Owen | 0818, 25 Mar 1919 | Politics | 21 Comments
As I mentioned, I was over the pond when this came out, so my original view was through the European lens. But after returning and reading a bit more, the European lens appears to be fairly accurate… this is pretty much a complete exoneration of Trump.
A summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report released on Sunday found the Trump campaign had not conspired with Russia.
However it was inconclusive on whether Mr Trump had obstructed justice.
The Russia allegations had cast a shadow over Mr Trump’s presidency and his chances of re-election in 2020.
Opposition Democrats are demanding full access to Mr Mueller’s report, which was summarised for Congress by Attorney General William Barr.
The report was the culmination of two years of investigation by Mr Mueller which saw some of the president’s closest former aides prosecuted and, in some cases, imprisoned, although not for collusion with Russia.
Since one can’t prove a negative, it makes sense that there are parts of the report that end with, “eh… we can’t say for sure either way!” Bearing in mind that this entire investigation was launched and being run by anti-Trump zealots, if there was even a hint of something being there, they would have trumpeted it.
So now the real question is… why did we spend tens of thousands of hours of labor, millions and millions of dollars, and put the country through this? Why did the FBI even start the investigation on such flimsy probable cause? As soon as the dossier that launched the investigation was discovered to be a partisan fabrication, why didn’t they break off? Was is bureaucratic inertia or something more sinister?
President Donald Trump landed back in Washington after the sudden collapse of his nuclear summit with Kim Jong Un – after saying in an interview he appreciates that North Korea spent ‘a lot of time’ building up its nuclear arsenal.
In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News, conducted in Hanoi before Trump told the world why he failed to reach a deal with the North Korean dictator, Trump said he and Kim did not see eye to eye on what North Korea would have to give up for sanctions relief.
‘Well, they wanted to denuke certain areas and I wanted everything,’ Trump told Hannity.
‘And the sanctions are there and I didn’t want to give up the sanctions unless we had a real program. And they’re not ready for that and I understand that fully, I really do. I mean, they spent a lot of time building it and that doesn’t mean the world has to be happy,’ Trump said.
by Owen | 2219, 19 Jan 1919 | Politics | 2 Comments
He sure got a lot of attention for his letter criticizing Trump a few weeks ago. Where is that attention now?
He said: ‘You (Pelosi) and your fellow Democrats have voted for over 600 miles of border fence in the past, why won’t you vote for another few miles now?
‘I don’t understand their position, I really don’t.’
Romney said he plans to keep working with other senators to find interim solutions, such as legislation that would make sure essential government employees still working get paid now.
Romney was speaking in the northern Utah city of Ogden after visiting with county commissioners about the shutdown’s impact on the community.
He implored the two sides to ‘make a deal’ and end the suffering of federal workers who aren’t getting paid, suggesting Pelosi should offer a certain amount of money for the border wall and make a proposal to the president about border security. He said Trump is willing to allow participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to stay in the country.
‘On policy, it strikes me like there’s not a big gap but the politics have drawn people into different corners,’ Romney said.
Romney said the country deserves border security, which includes more barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border. He said there is ‘humanitarian pain’ being suffered by people entering the country illegally and being stopped at the border.
by Owen | 2016, 19 Jan 1919 | Politics | 1 Comment
One thing is clear: Trump in in Washington and is offering concessions. He’s willing to make a deal and is offering the Democrats several things that they claim they want. Meanwhile, the Democrats have left town and aren’t even offering a counteroffer. Tell me again which side is prolonging the shutdown? Aren’t we told that a divided government necessitates compromise? Frankly, I think Trump is offering too much, but at least he’s showing flexibility and a willingness to compromise. Pelosi and Schumer? Not so much.
President Donald Trump outlined a plan to end the government shutdown on Saturday, offering congressional Democrats three years of legislative relief for 700,000 DACA recipients — including protection from deportation — and an extension of legal residence for people living in the country under ‘Temporary Protective Status’ designations.
He also offered $800 million in urgent humanitarian assistance and 75 new immigration teams to reduce the court backlog of 900,000 cases, which he called an ‘impossible nightmare’ in his late-afternoon remarks.
Speaking in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Trump said he wants $5.7 billion for the ‘strategic deployment of physical barriers, or a wall,’ that he will use to put ‘steel barriers in high-priority locations’ along the U.S.-Mexico border.
