Tag: U.S. Senate

Senate removes measure demanding campaigns report foreign election help

WASHINGTON – A measure requiring presidential campaigns to report any attempts by foreign entities interfering in U.S. elections was stripped by Senate Republicans as a condition of passing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in a “backroom deal” Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA., said Tuesday.

The NDAA, which is being debated on the Senate floor this week, will include the Intelligence Authorization Act but not the amendment requiring campaigns to report foreign help to the proper authorities after that provision was stripped from the bipartisan defense bill.

Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that his Republican colleagues had forced the deletion of the foreign assistance reporting provision as part of a condition to combine the intelligence legislation with the annual defense policy bill. Continue reading.

Jason Lewis Refused to Denounce George Floyd Crisis Actor Conspiracy Theory

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA- Yesterday, in a bizarre press conference, Republican Senate candidate Jason Lewis refused to unequivocally denounce a conspiracy theory that there were crisis actors involved in the video of George Floyd’s murder.

The conspiracy theory has been debunked by FactCheck.org – “Bogus Claims of ‘Crisis Actors’ in Death of George Floyd”

Watch the video (beginning at 5:55) and read the full exchange below where Lewis leaves open the possibility he believes the offensive conspiracy theory:

QUESTIONER: This is kind of a statement, and y’know I don’t want to get into the conspiratorial things, but I have a friend who has been with the local acting community for years. There’s just a lot of very suspicious stuff wrong with this. He stated specifically that his friends in the acting community recognized a lot of people from the George Floyd video that might need to be looked into. The paramedics, he said, were both local actors. Continue reading “Jason Lewis Refused to Denounce George Floyd Crisis Actor Conspiracy Theory”

Senators find $14 billion in unspent funds after Trump says he demanded a slowdown in COVID-19 testing

AlterNet logoFollowing President Donald Trump’s admission during a campaign rally in Oklahoma over the weekend that he ordered administration officials to “slow the testing down” in response to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases, two leading Democratic senators on Sunday slammed the Health and Human Services Department for failing to spend $14 billion in funds Congress approved in April to expand coronavirus testing and tracing.

“While it has been months since these funds were first appropriated, the administration has failed to disburse significant amounts of this funding, leaving communities without the resources they need to address the significant challenges presented by the virus,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter (pdf) to HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Sunday.

“The United States is at a critical juncture in its fight against Covid-19, and now is the time for an aggressive and fast response,” wrote Murray and Schumer. “This administration will put our country at grave risk if it tries to declare an early victory, leave lifesaving work undone, and leave resources our communities desperately need sitting untouched.” Continue reading.

DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin’s Statement on Jason Lewis’ History of Sowing Divisiveness and Racist Comments

Lewis set to denounce police reform in front of Minneapolis Third Precinct Police Headquarters

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement on Republican Senate candidate Jason Lewis’ history of spreading divisiveness and partisanship, including past comments disparaging communities of color.

This comes as Lewis is set to hold a press conference this afternoon denouncing the need for police reform and denying the systemic racism that is embedded in our country.

Lewis has repeatedly circulated a false claim commonly pushed by white supremacists that white people are disproportionately killed by Black people, and he used his past conservative talk show to declare that “White Lives Matter.”

“Once again, Jason Lewis proves he’s not interested in finding solutions to problems we face, but rather exploits them for his own partisan gain,” said DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin “He denies any wrongdoing in our systems, and ignores Minnesotans’ demands for reform. Lewis has repeatedly demeaned communities of color, and his ignorant views of the Black community prove he is unfit to serve all Minnesotans in the U.S. Senate.”

The DFL has previously highlighted Lewis’ racist comments such as claiming that the problem in the Black community is the “gangsta culture,” saying that Black people on welfare “traded one plantation for another,” and comparing progressive income tax brackets to slavery.

Senate at logjam over changing ‘qualified immunity’ for police

The Hill logoQualified immunity is emerging as a key sticking point in the congressional debate over reforming the police.

The legal doctrine, which can protect police officers from civil lawsuits, is facing fresh national scrutiny in the wake of George Floyd’s killing in the custody of Minneapolis police.

But what, if anything, to do to change it is creating deep divisions in Congress, just as lawmakers are trying to find a larger deal. Continue reading.

Senate confirms nation’s first African American service chief

The Hill logoThe Senate has confirmed the U.S. military’s first African American service chief.

In a unanimous 98-0 vote presided over by Vice President Pence, a rare occasion, the Senate voted to confirm Gen. Charles “C.Q.” Brown as the Air Force’s next chief of staff.

In addition to being the first African American military service chief, Brown will be the first African American to sit on the Joint Chiefs of Staff since Colin Powell was chairman from 1989 to 1993. Continue reading.

Grassley says White House response on IG firings insufficient

Washington Post logoA senior Senate Republican criticized the White House late Tuesday for what he deemed an insufficient response to demands from senators to more fully explain President Trump’s controversial recent ousters of two inspectors general.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a longtime defender of the dozens of independent government watchdogs placed throughout the federal government, released the five-page response from White House counsel Pat Cipollone on Tuesday evening.

Senators had raised concerns about the abrupt dismissal of Michael Atkinson, who had served as the intelligence community inspector general and had alerted Congress to a whistleblower’s complaint about Trump pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival — a chain of events that led to Trump’s impeachment and eventual acquittal in the Senate. Grassley also demanded an explanation for the ouster of Steve Linick, the inspector general for the State Department who had started to investigate alleged misconduct on the part of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Continue reading.

Tensions flare over GOP’s Obama probes

The Hill logoTensions are flaring in the Senate as Republicans prepare to ramp up their investigations into Obama-era officials.

Amid public and private pressure from President Trump, GOP senators are increasingly embracing calls to use their congressional power to investigate some of Trump’s biggest grievances stemming from the Obama administration, including the origins of the Russia investigation, the court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and Hunter Biden.

Democrats argue Republicans are using their committee gavels to probe Trump’s political enemies, an effort they say is designed to hunt for political fodder against former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, while inadvertently spreading Russian misinformation. Continue reading.

Senate votes to reauthorize intel programs with added legal protections

The Hill logoThe Senate on Thursday passed legislation reauthorizing three intelligence programs that lapsed earlier this year amid a GOP stalemate.

Senators voted 80-16 on the bill, which pairs the reauthorization of the USA Freedom Act provisions with some changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, also known as the FISA court.

The Senate changed the bill, which originally passed the House in March, as part of a two-day floor debate. Senators added more legal protections for some individuals targeted by the court. Continue reading.

Five takeaways as Senate panel hears from Fauci, Trump health officials

The Hill logoFour members of the White House coronavirus task force were grilled by the Senate Health Committee Tuesday in the body’s first major hearing since the novel coronavirus ravaged the country.

The virus has led to more than 81,000 deaths and more than 1.3 million cases, and has also shut down the economy, triggering fears about Great Depression-level joblessness.

Here are five takeaways from what was a must-watch hearing. Continue reading.