By David Lawder
BENGALURU (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday she was willing to negotiate with Republicans in Congress over the Biden administration's budget proposal to be unveiled next month - but not as a condition of raising the debt ceiling.
Yellen told Reuters in an interview that the Biden budget for fiscal 2024 would contain "substantial deficit reduction over the next decade.
"And we're going to show how we're going to accomplish that," she said on the sidelines of a G20 finance leaders meeting. "Republicans need to put a plan on the table, and a negotiation or discussion about that is certainly possible, but it can't be a condition or precondition for raising the debt ceiling."
Republicans who hold a slim majority in the House of Representatives, have demanded that President Joe Biden agree to spending cuts as in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.
Yellen said the United States "can't bargain over whether or not we're going to pay our bills. It's simply a fundamental responsibility a government has."
Yellen said that tax receipts collected around the April 15 filing deadline could allow for some adjustments in the department's estimate of when it would no longer be able to pay all of the government's bills without an increase in the $31.4 trillion debt limit.
The Treasury has not yet changed its early June estimate for that time frame, made last month, although the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the Treasury's' cash and extraordinary borrowing measures could last until September.
"The tax receipts will be informative about when the likely X-date is," she said, referring to a common Washington term for a potential default date. "We felt comfortable and we told Congress that we could at least get to early June."
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
US First Lady Jill Biden arrived in Kenya on Friday, kicking off a visit aimed at focusing attention on the worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa in decades.
Five straight seasons of poor rainfall have killed millions of livestock, destroyed crops and left some 22 million people at risk of hunger in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, with a sixth season also forecast to fail.
Biden travelled to Kenya from Namibia, part of a two-nation tour aimed at deepening ties with the continent, which has become a renewed diplomatic battleground following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.
The first senior White House official to travel to the region since her husband President Joe Biden came to power, the 71-year-old community college professor's visit will also focus on the empowerment of women and youth.
The tour aims to build on the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington late last year where President Biden said his country was "all in" on the hotly courted continent.
During her visit to Namibia, Biden said the United States was committed to helping African nations get a louder voice at the UN and other international bodies.
"We're committed to making sure that African countries not only have a voice in organisations like the UN Security Council and G20, but that those voices are valued as equal partners," Biden said at a luncheon in Windhoek on Thursday.
This is Biden's first trip to Africa as the first lady of the United States.
(AFP)
US President Joe Biden said Friday that he does not "anticipate a major initiative" from China to provide weapons to Russia in its war against Ukraine.
His comments come days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS that China was "considering providing lethal support" to Moscow ranging "from ammunition to the weapons themselves" -- which Beijing denied
In a wide-ranging television interview with ABC News -- covering his bid for re-election and the war in Ukraine -- that aired Friday evening, Biden appeared to backtrack on Blinken's comments.
"I don't anticipate -- we haven't seen it yet -- but I don't anticipate a major initiative on the part of China providing weaponry to Russia," he said.
Biden explained that in a conversation he had with Chinese President Xi Jinping last summer, he made clear what the consequences of providing weapons to Russia would be.
"Without any government prodding, 600 American corporations left Russia -- from McDonald's to Exxon -- across the board," he said he told Xi.
"And I said, 'If you are engaged in the same kind of brutality, of supporting the brutality that is going on, you may face the same consequences.'"
When pressed on whether China would be "crossing a line" if Beijing were to provide weapons to Russia, Biden said the United States "would respond."
"It would be the same line everyone else would have crossed. In other words, we would impose severe sanctions on anyone who has done it."
Ukraine's allies have sought to use sanctions and trade bans to choke off Russia's ability to acquire more weapons or produce them domestically using imported components.
On Friday, the first anniversary of Russia's invasion, leaders of the Group of 7 industrialized nations said any country abetting Moscow by providing "material support" in its war would "face severe costs."
© Agence France-Presse
Mike Pence said in an NBC interview he does not believe former President Donald Trump, his one-time running mate and boss, will be the best standard-bearer for the Republican Party in 2024, Axios reported on Friday.
"Pence, who has made a break from Trump since the Jan. 6 insurrection, is still mulling a rare bid against a former running mate — a face-off that could get ugly if the Indiana conservative takes on the bombastic former president," reported Shawna Chen. "'I think by the spring our family expects to have a very clear sense of our calling,' Pence told NBC News' Ali Vitali when asked when he will decide whether to launch a presidential bid."
"I think the times call for different leadership. I’m confident we’ll have better choices than my old running mate," said Pence, adding that he believes Americans "want to see us and our politics return to the kind of civility and respect that Americans show one another every day."
Pence and Trump have gradually drifted apart ever since he refused to overturn presidential electors for Joe Biden, a moment that triggered the mob storming the Capitol to chant for his hanging.
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Nonetheless, Pence has refused to cooperate fully with January 6 investigations, claiming that the Constitution's Speech and Debate Clause immunizes him from having to testify to federal prosecutors — a theory that has been broadly panned by legal experts.
Pence is far from the only one considering a run for president. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has kicked off a campaign, with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott expected to follow. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also been heavily hinting at ambitions to run.
Washington (AFP) - President Joe Biden indicated Friday that he will indeed be announcing a 2024 bid for a second term -- only not right away.
Speculation has been mounting over Biden's plans. At 80, he is the oldest person ever in the US presidency and while he has repeatedly said he intends to run again, he has yet to commit.
In an interview with ABC News' David Muir, he said "my intention is..., has been from the beginning, to run."
Asked about an earlier interview Friday in which his wife First Lady Jill Biden told the Associated Press that the time and place of a campaign announcement was all that remained to decide, Biden quipped: "As my mother would say, 'God love her.'"
However, he indicated that he is in no hurry.
"There's too many other things we have to finish in the near term before I start a campaign," he said. "I've got other things to finish before I get into a full-blown campaign."
Asked by ABC whether his age is part of his calculation on whether or not to run, Biden said: "No. But it's legitimate for people to raise issues about my age. It's totally legitimate to do that."
"The only thing I can say is 'watch me,'" he added, referring to his record in office.
Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term. Earlier this month, an extensive medical test found him to be "healthy, vigorous" and "fit to successfully execute the duties of the president."
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) - President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Friday to do everything to defeat Russia this year, as the first Leopard tanks arrived in Ukraine on the anniversary of the start of Europe's largest conflict since World War II.
Street protests against the Russian invasion were held in many European capitals to mark the anniversary, and fresh Western sanctions targeted Russia's banks, military industry and semiconductor access.
Meanwhile, the Group of Seven industrialised nations threatened embargo busters with "severe costs".
Poland sent the German-made Leopard tanks to help Ukraine repel Russian troops and deliver a "clear and measurable signal of further support", said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who was visiting Kyiv.
Poland would send more tanks soon, Morawiecki added, and was also offering to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets, as Western allies underlined their unwavering support.
Russia, however, remained defiant, with former president Dmitry Medvedev insisting his country was ready to push its offensive "to the borders of Poland".
Tensions were also building on Ukraine's border with Moldova, as Moscow claimed Kyiv was plotting to invade the breakaway region of Transnistria and promised to respond. Moldova denied any threat from Ukraine.
Zelensky said he was planning to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping after the release Friday of Beijing's 12-point position paper on the conflict, which included a call for peace talks and for respecting all territorial sovereignty.
Zelensky noted that Beijing's paper appeared to show "there is respect for our territorial integrity, security issues".
Earlier Friday, he said in a statement that Ukraine would "do everything to gain victory this year".
A year ago Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stunned the world by sending tanks and troops across the border, a move seen as punishment for Kyiv's pivot to the West.
The war has devastated swathes of Ukraine, displaced millions, turned Russia into a pariah in the West and, according to Western sources, caused more than 150,000 casualties on each side.
Demonstrators protesting Moscow's aggression marched in cities across Europe to mark the invasion anniversary.
In Berlin, activists placed a Russian tank wreck in front of Moscow's embassy.
Crowds fell silent for a minute from Tallinn to London, while key European buildings were draped or lit up in the blue and yellow colours of Ukraine's flag.
A year ago, Russian troops sought to rapidly install a pro-Moscow regime in Ukraine but failed to conquer Kyiv and subsequently suffered defeats in northeastern and southern Ukraine.
Since October, Russia has pummelled Ukraine's energy infrastructure, causing power shortages for millions during winter.
Despite the daily trials, many Ukrainians refuse to be cowed.
In Bucha, where Russia has been accused of widespread atrocities, 64-year-old Galyna Gamulets recalled coming under fire from Russian troops for more than two weeks.
She voiced pride in her nation and said "we will succeed" in repelling the invaders.
The West, which has imposed increasingly stringent sanctions on Russia and boosted humanitarian aid and arms supplies for Ukraine, unveiled more help Friday.
The United States announced sweeping sanctions aimed not just at Russia but also 200 individuals and entities across Europe, Asia and the Middle East supporting Moscow's war.
After a video call, G7 allies warned: "third-countries or other international actors who seek to evade or undermine our measures" must "cease providing material support to Russia's war, or face severe costs".
Washington's new aid package came days after President Joe Biden arrived in Kyiv for a historic visit and pledged new arms deliveries.
However, Biden on Friday ruled out providing the F-16 fighter jets Ukraine has requested, at least for the time being, telling ABC News in an interview that Zelensky "doesn't need F-16s now".
"Look, we're sending him what our seasoned military thinks he needs now. He needs tanks, he needs artillery, he needs air defence, including Himars," Biden said.
"There are things we're sending him to put him in a position to make gains this spring and summer going into the fall."
The EU also agreed to a fresh round of sanctions, and along with contributions from Sweden and Portugal, Germany said it had managed to assemble a battalion of modern Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine.
The World Bank separately announced an extra $2.5 billion for Ukraine to support essential services and core government functions.
On Friday, after a minute's silence at the Security Council, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced Russia's military action, saying it had made life for Ukrainians a "living hell".
Key player China has sought to position itself as a neutral party while maintaining close ties with Russia.
Responding to Beijing's new position paper, Moscow said it "highly values" China's contribution but insisted any conflict settlement must recognise Russia's control over four Ukrainian regions it annexed.
Western countries gave China's plan a muted reception. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it was "still doubtful" Beijing sincerely wanted to play a constructive role in seeking peace.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Beijing simply "doesn't have much credibility because they have not been able to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine".
-'Miracles happen'-
On eastern Ukraine's frontline, morale remained high among Kyiv's troops.
"God is helping us. Nobody thought that Ukraine would hold," said a soldier who goes by the call sign "Cook" in the eastern region of Donetsk. "I know that miracles happen."
Despite military setbacks and sanctions, Putin, 70, has refused to back down, accusing the West of supporting neo-Nazi forces and claiming Russia's survival was at stake.
His assault on Ukraine and mobilisation of reservists have sparked what might be Russia's largest mass exodus since 1917's Bolshevik Revolution.
But with television propaganda in overdrive, many Russians have rallied behind Putin despite economic trouble and multiplying casualties.
"The country is really changing for the better," said Lyubov Yudina, a 48-year-old security guard in Moscow.
But teacher Ruslan Melnikov, 28, was dejected. "I don't see any future now."
Arkansas educators and parents are openly expressing concerns around Arkansas Governor Sarah H. Sanders' hasty decision to enforce "school choice," across the majority Republican state, ABC reports.
In spite of the push back, the governor is moving forward with the legislation, as promised during her controversial response to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address earlier this month.
"This will be the biggest overhaul in education, I think, anywhere in the country -- certainly in my home state of Arkansas -- and we look forward to setting the standard on how this can be done right and being a blueprint for other states across the country to follow," Sanders said during a recent Fox News interview.
Other GOP leaders, such as Texas Governor Greg Abbott, also hails "school choice" as "one of his top priorities" in 2023, according to The Texas Tribune.
Joshua Cowen, an education policy professor at Michigan State University told The Texas Tribune, like Sanders, "The plan that Abbott is proposing really just resembles a typical voucher program, which is essentially taxpayer-funded tuition. The difference between an [education savings account] and a voucher program is essentially all these other expenses could be tacked on to it or used in place of it."
The Texas Tribune reports:
Public education advocates and rural lawmakers have long opposed the voucher programs most often associated with 'school choice,' saying they siphon funds away from public schools. But supporters of education savings accounts, which have spread across the country in the last decade, see them as their best way to harness conservative parents’ discontent with public schools and expand 'school choice' in the state.
Sanders' critics, such as Chair of the Rural Caucus of Arkansas, Steve Grappe said the plan will likely "devastate" Arkansas, convinced "efforts to slow or stop the legislation" is their "only shot."
However, according to ABC News, during her Fox News interview, the governor brushed off critics saying, "the left mad that they're losing control of the system."
But Grappe contends, "Sanders isn't necessarily thinking about what's best for Arkansas but what's best for her resume."
He continued, "School choice is a national Republican ambition, and I think that Sarah Huckabee Sanders has higher ambitions than a governor. She's trying to prove that Arkansas is the most conservative MAGA state in the country. And I don't think it has anything to do with the welfare of our citizens."
ABC reports:
[Sanders'] bill lumps together dozens of policy changes, such as lifting teachers' starting salaries from the lowest to among the highest in the nation, banning teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity before fifth grade, as well as Critical Race Theory at all levels, and includes an ambitious proposal to install a universal school voucher program in Arkansas within three years -- a move advocates hail and critics warn against.
In December, shortly after Sanders took office, the governor received backlash from Arkansas residents for nominating Florida education official Juan Oliva to head the Arkansas Department of Education, which clearly indicated her intention to mirror the conservative education policies of Florida Governor and potential 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.
Arkansas' 2019 "Teacher of the Year," Stacey McAdoo, wonders whether "teachers were involved in writing the legislation," according to ABC.
"People need time to digest it. I'm still processing everything, " McAdoo said. "I don't think that I've had adequate time to be as prepared and comfortable with what exactly this is and what it means."
Parent of two Little Rock elementary school-aged children, Veronica Paulson, notes "With a bill of this size that fundamentally changes the entire public school system in Arkansas, to give less than 48 hours for the public to review it before brought to the Senate Education Committee for testimony is not fair to the taxpayers of this state."
Per ABC, Paulson protested earlier this week with a handful of others in front of the Arkansas governor's mansion, holding signs that read, "public $ for public schools" and "teacher over vouchers."
Democratic Arkansas State Rep.Tippi McCullough, like Grappe, would like to make changes to Sanders' plan before it's passed into law.
The former private school educator said, "she hopes there will be time for amendments in the House before the bill heads to Sanders' desk for signing."
McCullough continued, "This complex bill has been rushed, but after only two days of bipartisan questioning that pointed out serious problems, sponsors promise they are open to amendments. Even though Democrats and educators haven’t been included in the process up to this point, in the spirit of the collaboration that the sponsors continue to tout, it is our hope that there will be a robust process to accept our clarifying and substantive amendments."
When President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday, February 20 and expressed his solidarity with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson — a Never Trump conservative and former GOP strategist — praised Biden’s "alpha move" and slammed MAGA Republicans for not being on "the right side of history." Wilson is a scathing critic of the MAGA movement, and the affinity that so many MAGA Republicans have for Russian President Vladimir Putin is one of the reasons why he holds Trumpism in such low regard.
It was a year ago, on February 24, 2022, that Russian forces acting on orders from Putin launched a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine. That war has brought the worst fighting in Europe since World War 2, yet Putin's admirers in the MAGA movement haven't soured on him. They view Putin as a symbol of the type of nationalist machismo that, as they see it, the American left and non-MAGA conservatives lack.
Liberal economist and New York Times opinion columnist Paul Krugman examines MAGA Republicans' "creepy" fixation with Putin in his February 23 column. Those Republicans, according to Krugman, believe that identifying with Putin makes them "tough guys" when in reality, it makes them "losers."
"How can any American, a citizen of a nation that holds itself up as a beacon of freedom, not be rooting for Ukraine in this war?" Krugman argues. "Yet there are significant factions in U.S. politics — a small group on the left, a much more significant bloc on the right — that not only oppose western support for Ukraine but also clearly want to see Russia win. And my question, on the first anniversary of Russia's invasion, is what lies behind right-wing support for Vladimir Putin?"
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Krugman goes on to answer his own question, explaining why Putin is "the subject of" a "creepy personality cult" on the "American right." And he points out that the MAGA far right also admires another authoritarian figure in Eastern Europe: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The columnist writes, "I'd argue that many people on the right equate being powerful with being a swaggering tough guy and sneer at anything — like intellectual openness and respect for diversity — that might interfere with the swagger. Putin was their idea of what a powerful man should look like, and Russia, with its muscleman military vision, their idea of a powerful country…. The key to understanding right-wingers' growing Ukraine rage is that Russia's failures don't just show that a leader they idolized has feet of clay — they also show that their whole tough-guy view about the nature of power is wrong. And they're having a hard time coping."
In contrast to the praise that President Biden's Kyiv visit received from anti-Trump conservative Wilson, MAGA figures ranging from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) responded by claiming that Biden cares about Ukraine more than he cares about the United States.
Krugman is hoping that the United States will continue to aid Ukraine militarily but warns that many MAGA Republicans are hoping for a very different outcome.
"None of this means that Russia can’t eventually conquer Ukraine," Krugman writes. "If it does, however, it will, in part, be because America's Putin fans force a cutoff of crucial aid. And if this happens, it will be because the U.S. right can't stand the idea of a world in which woke doesn’t mean weak and men who pose as tough guys are actually losers."
Taiwan's military said it alerted aviation authorities after spotting a balloon floating in its airspace Friday, one week after the self-ruled island found remnants of what was believed to be a crashed Chinese meteorological instrument.
According to its initial analysis, the air force said the object in "northern airspace" on Friday afternoon was for meteorological and scientific research purposes.
"As it could affect aviation safety, we have notified the aviation control units to remind air planes to beware," the air force statement said.
"We will continue to monitor until the target disappears."
The statement did not say where the balloon came from or provide a more detailed location.
The sighting comes after an order by President Joe Biden to shoot down what the United States has since called a "sophisticated high-altitude spying vehicle" that sparked the latest row between Washington and Beijing.
US officials said it was part of a fleet allegedly floating around the globe, while China has said the balloon was an errant weather observation aircraft with no military purpose. Both sides have since accused each other of espionage.
Taiwan, a self-governed democracy claimed by China, said last week that it had found the remains of a suspected Chinese meteorological balloon and would increase patrols at military facilities.
Taiwan's defence ministry revealed on February 14 that Chinese balloons have previously flown over the island, without providing details on the number or frequency.
At that time, the ministry said it would shoot down any targets that pose a "high level of threat", but added that it had not encountered any such threats.
Beijing has ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure in recent years on Taiwan, which China has vowed to seize one day, by force if necessary.
With Democrats hoping to confirm dozens more federal judges following President Joe Biden's milestone of appointing 100 new members of the judiciary, progressives on Friday said the party has no choice but to eliminate a tradition they say has been exploited by Republicans to block the president's nominees.
Advocacy group Alliance for Justice said Democratic leaders, particularly Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) must make a choice: They can "transform our federal courts by confirming so many more judges with a respect for the rights of all of us," or they can allow Republicans to continue the tradition of using so-called "blue slips" to reject nominees.
The Senate "can't do both," said the group.
Under the blue slip practice, which is not an official Senate rule, senators can unilaterally block federal district court judge nominees from being considered by the committee if the nominee is from their home state. Only if they submit a "blue slip" for the judge can the nomination proceed.
Prior to last year's midterm elections, Durbin said the party has "made it work" and would continue to abide by the blue slip tradition, but earlier this month he said he will no longer honor the withholding of a blue slip if he believes it "discriminates because of race, gender, or sexual discrimination."
Republicans including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have protested, with the latter claiming the practice is "essential to the Senate's constitutional obligation to provide advice and consent."
But as NBC News reported this week, Durbin noted Republicans have made clear that they're intentionally using the tradition to block Biden's nominees, submitting only 12 blue slips since Biden took office, compared to the 120 Democrats submitted under the Trump administration.
Also under former President Donald Trump, Republicans in control of the Judiciary Committee at the time did away with the use of blue slips for circuit nominees and as a result rapidly confirmed 54 judges to the circuit court.
Demand Justice noted that under the Obama administration, Republicans blocked 17 judicial nominees using the practice.
American Constitution Society President Russ Feingold, a former Democratic senator, toldNBC News the Democrats "would be chumps to not get rid of [blue slips] for this Congress, in order to allow them some opportunity to make up for the very aggressive tactics used by Republicans over the prior four years.""When Republicans had the advantage, they just didn't hesitate to eliminate blue slips for the courts of appeals, which are an even higher court," he said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said he wants his party to top the 234 federal judges the Republicans confirmed in four years. There are currently 72 district court vacancies and nine open seats on appeals courts.
To secure judicial seats, said Meagan Hatcher-Mays, director of democracy policy for Indivisible, Democrats must "be for real" and recognize that the question of whether to continue to allow blue slips is "existential."
"Republicans have used [blue slips] to successfully keep seats open on the federal bench in their states, not because they have an objection to Biden's nominees on the merits, but because they want to hold seats open in the hopes that a future MAGA president will install even more anti-abortion, anti-democracy federal judges instead," said Hatcher-Mays.
"President Biden’s judicial nominees have been exceptional and among his signature achievements throughout his presidency," she added. "Senate Democrats should eliminate every barrier possible to continue to confirm his nominees at a historic pace, including getting rid of blue slips."
Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) called out Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) for directing "racist" and "xenophobic" comments towards her during a Fox News interview, asserting the congresswoman's security clearance and access to classified briefings should be revoked, NBC reports.
Per NBC, in response to Chu's defense of President Joe Biden-appointed U.S. member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council, Dominic Ng, Gooden posited the congresswoman is both disloyal to the United States and incapable of doing her job. Right-wing website Daily Caller previously "alleged [Chu] has ties to a Chinese Communist Party front group."
During the interview, the Texas congressman suggested "Judy Chu needs to be called out," saying, "I question her either loyalty or competence. If she doesn’t realize what’s going on, then she's totally out of touch with one of her core constituencies."
Gooden continued, "I’m really disappointed and shocked that someone like Judy Chu would have a security clearance and entitled to confidential intelligence briefings until this is figured out."
Chu, who is also chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, denounced Gooden's comments stating, "Rep. Gooden’s comments on Fox News questioning my loyalty to the USA is absolutely outrageous. It is based on false information spread by an extreme, right-wing website. Furthermore, it is racist. I very much doubt that he would be spreading these lies were I not of Chinese American descent."
NBC reports:
Daily Caller publisher Neil Patel defended the article in a statement, saying: "It was well researched, fairly reported and based largely on direct Chinese language source materials. Rep. Chu is lashing out wildly instead of engaging substantively since she can’t refute the facts presented."
House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) blasted Gooden in a statement this week, noting his Democratic colleague is "a hardworking, patriotic American public servant who is an important part of the gorgeous mosaic of our diverse country."
He continued, "Lance Gooden's slanderous accusation of disloyalty against Rep. Chu is dangerous, unconscionable and xenophobic."
The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus also expressed its support of Chu via Twitter, sharing its "full statement" and saying, "Rep. Lance Gooden's comments questioning @RepJudyChu's loyalty to the United States are categorically false. This type of racist targeting and profiling of Chinese Americans by right-wing extremists is incredibly dangerous."
According to NBC, Chu and fellow Asian Pacific American Caucus members Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) also released a statement rebuking Gooden's assertion.
"As with every presidential appointee, Dominic Ng, who is Chinese American, has undergone an extensive vetting process and sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution and serve the American public," the representatives wrote. "No Chinese Americans — indeed no Americans — should face suspicions of disloyalty or treason based on their ethnicity, nation of origin, or that of their family members."
The same kind of classified folder turned over by Donald Trump's lawyers to federal officials earlier this month is on full display in the lobby bar at Manhattan's Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue — and has been there for at least several months.
Trump's lawyers earlier surrendered an empty "Classified Evening Summary" folder that Trump had stashed in his Mar-a-Lago bedroom after the Justice Department issued a subpoena for it.
A Trump attorney claimed the former president was simply using the folder to block light from a phone from shining on his bed. Yet Trump has boasted in a post on Truth Social that he snatched “hundreds of folders” marked “confidential” or “classified” as a "cool keepsake" — but claimed he didn’t keep the documents they had held.
The same kind of Classified Evening Summary folder remained this week on open display behind glass next to a small table at the 45 Wine and Whiskey Bar in the Trump Tower lobby. Next to it is a Situation Room brochure marked FOUO — For Official Use Only.
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The FBI has declined to comment on the situation in the past.
Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said after the existence of the Trump Tower classified folder was reported last year that it was sign of the former president's “contemptuous attitude” about the national security system and his belief that he “doesn’t have to follow the rules."
Classified materials are supposed to be turned over to the National Archives at the end of a presidential administration, though Trump moved several boxes of secret information to his Mar-a-Lago home. Since then, a smaller volume of classified information has also been turned over by former vice president Mike Pence and President Joe Biden from his time in the Obama administration.
While the Situation Room brochure next to the classified folder in the bar is not classified, federal rules regulate the handling of papers marked “for official use only.” FOUO information “should be handled in a manner that provides assurances that unauthorized persons do not gain access,” according to federal guidelines.
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After the brochure was reported, former FBI official Peter Strzok quipped that a bar “sure isn’t an 'official use."
It’s not entirely certain if the Trump Tower display is authentic, though the folder and brochure both appear to have been used, and the folder has the same label as the one turned over to the Justice Department from Mar-a-Lago. The Trump Tower bartender has said she was unaware of the history of the display.
The Trump Organization could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, what far-right Fox News pundits say on the air and what they are actually thinking can be two very different things. Dominion, the Washington Post reports, has uncovered actual e-mails and text messages that Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity sent during the lame duck period of late 2020 and early 2021 — when attorney Sidney Powell and other allies of then-President Donald Trump were falsely claiming that Dominion's voting equipment was used to help now-President Joe Biden steal the election.
In those e-mails and texts, Fox News pundits acknowledge that Trump lawyers' claims of a stolen election were nonsense. And Dominion alleges that despite knowing the truth, Fox News shamelessly promoted the Big Lie anyway. Fox's attorneys, fighting the lawsuit, have maintained that the cable news outlet's hosts were simply asking questions in late 2020/early 2021 — not going out of their way to promote defamatory lies.
Defamation, under the standards the U.S. Supreme Court laid out in New York Times v. Sullivan in 1964, is extremely difficult to prove. Defamation, according to the late Chief Justice Earl Warren and his colleagues, must involve "actual malice."
Sloppy reporting and careless mistakes, according to the Sullivan standard, do not constitute actual malice. Nor does inflammatory rhetoric. And ironically, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his GOP allies in the Florida State Legislature are trying to weaken Sullivan’s protections for journalists at the same time that Fox News' lawyers are trying to use them for protection in a major lawsuit.
In an opinion column published on February 24, the Washington Post's Paul Waldman argues that Fox News — like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) — is being eaten alive by the very extremism it has been promoting.
Looking back on that lame duck period of late 2020/early 2021, Waldman recalls, "On air, Fox was spreading lies about supposed election fraud and bringing on guests without concern for their credibility, including Rudy Giuliani and GOP lawyer Sidney Powell. Meanwhile, Fox's stars and executives privately belittled those same people and the claims they were making…. At the same time, Fox News tried to suppress the truth. Reporters for the organization who corrected false claims were reprimanded and threatened."
Waldman notes some of the things that Fox News hosts said in private, according to Dominion. Hannity, for example, wrote that Giuliani was "acting like an insane person," and Carlson wrote, "Sidney Powell is lying."
The Post columnist argues, "These documents make clear not only that Fox News stars and executives think their audience is a bunch of half-wits, but also, that they live in fear that the audience will turn on them unless they tell viewers exactly what they want to hear regardless of the facts. Who taught that audience to believe conspiracy theories and to assume that any unwelcome information must be a sinister lie? Fox News, of course."
Similarly, Waldman emphasizes, McCarthy is afraid to be honest about the events of January 6, 2021 because he fears offending the MAGA conspiracy theorists he has been encouraging. But by doing so, according to Waldman, the House speaker is sending out a message that the GOP is comprised of "extremists and loons who are far more interested in the obsessions of a spectacularly unpopular ex-president than in the genuine problems the country faces."
"Like the trembling dissemblers of Fox News," Waldman laments, "McCarthy must feel that he has no choice: Feed the beast or be eaten by it. Winning the future is an idea they cannot latch on to because they are so frantic to survive one more day. Republican elites are not powerless. They helped make this mess and could nudge their base back toward reality if they chose. But they're too afraid to try."
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