The US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House would launch “a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump,” the Associated Press reports. The request should fine of Trump abused “his presidential powers and sought help from a foreign government for his reelection.” According to Pelosi, “no one is above the law.” The probe comes after reports that Trump asked pf Ukraine’s president to “investigate Democratic foe Joe Biden and his son.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, CNN reports.
This is the biggest confrontation between the Democrats and President Trump. Trump, who addressed the United Nations today said the impending inquiry is a “witch hunt.” CNN reports that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris posted on Twitter that “he must be impeached.” As Harris stated, he “puts his political interest over our national interest.”
Soon after Pelosi made her announcement on
impeachment inquiry, the US Senate unanimously supported “for the
whistleblower complaint to be provided to Congress.” As CBS news
writes, “House Democrats are pressing for an investigation of a
call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.”
During a call, Trump talked about Biden and his son Hunter. Now, the
call is subject of the “whistleblower complaint,” which “the
intelligence community inspector general found as “credible” and
of “urgent concern.” Joseph Maquire, acting director of national
intelligence “determined that was not of urgent concern.”
The U.S. President Donald Trump insisted on funding of the US-Mexico border in his eight-minute address to nation from the Oval Office, which the major TV network aired regardless concerns he would deliver a political speech. The speech came amid 18-day partial government shutdown over the wall with Mexico, funding that Democratic controlled House and some Republicans in the Congress are not eager to support.
Trump missed to
declare an emergency, which would enable him to ensure funding for a steel
barrier with Mexico in attempts to control illegal migration and illegal cross-border
crossings. Trump requested $5, 7 billion for the wall, but the Democrats in the
House refuse to fund it. That led to the ongoing closure of several federal
agencies and leave government workers unpaid.
Trump called
Democrats to pass a spending bill. The Republican president thinks the
situation could be solved “in a 45-minute meeting.” He would visit Capitol on
Wednesday and said he invited “Congressional leadership to the White House tomorrow.”
Trump addressed nation on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET, and he is scheduled to visit
the border on Thursday.
He called the situation at the border “a humanitarian
crisis,” and added “90% of the heroin sold in the US came from Mexico.” Trump
referred that in the past Democrats pledged for a physical barrier.
Mr Trump correctly
pointed out that Democrats have in the past supported a physical barrier. Senators Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton,
and Joe Biden supported the Secure Fence Act in 2006, which introduced fencing
of about 2.000-mile border. Trump pointed out that American citizens were “savagely
murdered in cold blood” by “undocumented immigrants.”
Mr
Trump cited cases of American citizens “savagely murdered in cold
blood” by undocumented immigrants.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader
Chuck Schumer reacted and demanded the end of the shutdown. Pelosi said that
the President
Trump “must stop holding the American people hostage, must stop manufacturing
a crisis, and must reopen the government.” Just over half of Americans thinks Trump is responsible for the government
shutdown, new opinion poll shows. Reuters/Ipsos poll said 77% of Republicans
approved Trump refusal to approve the budget without the wall funds.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg repeated during his testimony before Congress that users of this platform do have control over the information shared via this global social media platform. Zuckerberg suggested, as CNBC reports that, “Every single time that you share something on Facebook or one of our services, right there is a control in line where you control who you want to share with.”
Zuckerberg’s testimony before the Congress attracted enormous media attention not only because of the difference between him and the senators, but also because the growing issue of how to protect the privacy in a time of digital media and rising online presence. While questioned by the senators, Zuckerberg said that he is one of the 87 million Facebook users whose data was shared with Cambridge Analytica.
As CNBC reports, Facebook needs to make their options “much easier to find.” Both Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees and the House Energy and Commerce Committee voiced that request to the company. As the Vox.com states, the Facebook CEO said his information was also compromised. Zuckerberg responded to the question posed by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) on Wednesday while he testified for the second day on the Hill.
Starting this Monday, Facebook has begun notifying the millions of users, which data ended to the Cambridge Analytica, after the users used thisisyourdigitallife application.
The data breach happened after Cambridge academic researcher Aleksandr Kogan used the personality quiz that harvested millions of data for a consulting firm with ties to Trump. More than 70 millions of users, which data were used are in the U.S. Margaret Sullivan, a media columnist for the Washington Post in an article Members of Congress can’t possibly regulate Facebook.
They don’t understand it, points out to the message spoken by Zuckerberg that Facebook “is an idealistic and optimistic company,” but Sullivan writes that it is a company, “whose opacity, whose ability to deny the undeniable and whose straight-up wrongdoing are a major problem in America and in the world.” Sullivan ends that something needs to be done, and “meaningful self-regulation is laughable.”
The Associated Press writes on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony: His opening statement did not reveal new information about how data was shared or what Facebook will do. In addition to saying he is sorry, Zuckerberg outlined the steps the company has taken to restrict outsiders’ access to people’s personal information. He also said the company is investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014 — actions that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case. Zuckerberg began a two-day congressional inquisition with a public apology for the privacy scandal, said the AP.
Members of Congress would reconvene on Saturday to review possibility for a three-week version of the budget to finance the government after Congress did not succeed by Friday midnight to diminish differences on immigration and spending.
The failure to produce agreement on former President Barack Obama’s program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals by midnight on Friday could leave thousands government employees on furlough if Congress fails in the weekend to reach temporary agreement only on spending.
During the voting in Congress last night, Senate Republicans failed to ensure 60 votes to break a filibuster imposed by Senate Democrats. In the late-night vote, Senate Republicans gained 50 votes in favor to 49 against the short-term spending bill that would have funded the government for 30 days. On Thursday, the House passed short-term finance bill.
What caused this?
Even though, Republicans and Democrats talked behind the scene to find solution for DACA program that the U.S. President Donald Trump canceled last year, the failure for a common language halted hopes to avoid the shutdown. Both were trying the ways to protect the dreamers and respond to Trump’s requirement for stronger border security and scrutinized process of obtaining citizenship.
To avoid looming shutdown, Trump invited Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer for a discussion at the White House. As Schumer left the White House on Friday and without possible agreement on prospect, Trump tweeted the deal was not possible.
Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border. Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy.
Trump pointed out to Democrats and said, they “want a shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the tax cuts, and what they are doing for booming economy.”
Vice President Mike Pence commented that Trump’s administration worked for a bipartisan deal to “strengthen our borders, end chain migration, eliminate the visa lottery, and deal compassionately with DACA.”
The White House press secretary Sarah Sanders responded with a statement blaming Democrats for putting immigrants above the government. “We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands,” Sanders explained in the statement.
Immigration
Trump campaigned against immigration during his presidential campaign for 2016 Presidential elections. He used harsh language for Mexican immigrants and promised building of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that already exists in parts of the border.
Trump’s approach to immigration differs the way the Republican Party looked at immigration. In 2004, President George W. Bush had 44 percent of the Hispanic votes. Republican nominee Mitt Romney changed his opinion from a “pro-immigration governor” to an official who is promoting “self-deportation.” That cost him a win, as Latino-voters support for Romney was only 27 percent. Democrats use the immigration as a major issue to attract Latino voters. Loosing DACA that is now in the hands of the Supreme Court could be of bigger risk for Democrats amid next year midterm elections.
What is DACA?
DACA is program offered by previous U.S. administration for specific part of the undocumented population in the U.S. that is granting two-year status to those qualifying for the program. Immigrants who were under 31 years of age as of June 15, 2012, could apply for the program. The program offers possibility for employment, but only in the situation if the applicant receives DACA status. With the program, about 700.000 people surfaced from the shadow and registered under the program.
Who is affected?
Many of the thousands of government employees could be affected if the deal would not be reached until Monday. Depending on the internal rules of the government agencies, critical functions would continue with military, health inspectors and law enforcement officers would work without paychecks. Last shutdown of the U.S. government was in October 2013 and lasted 16 days. Even though, Republicans regain control over the Senate after midterm elections in 2014, it is unclear whether the standoff would end or continue after Monday.
References:
Sullivan, Sean, and Ed O’Keeffe. “In spending fight, Republicans embrace Trump’s hard-line stand on immigration.” washingtonpost.com, Nash Holdings LLC, wapo.st/2mWAJJq. Accessed 20 Jan. 2018.
Republican lawmakers announced a probe into the sale of a uranium mining company to Russia’s Atomic Energy Agency – Rosatom, CNN publishes.
Obama administration approved the deal in 2010. The Hill recently reported that Federal Bureau of Investigation was in the early stage of racketeering and extortion investigation into a U.S. subsidiary of Rosatom and that source indicated to the Hill, Russian nuclear officials transferred millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation, which Hillary Clinton and official working for her at the State Department denied.
CNN reports that the FBI investigation was critical for Vadim Mikerin, Tenex executive, who received 48-month prison sentence for conspiracy to commit money laundering. House Republicans want to know if the officials who approved the deal knew about FBI probe, which federal investigators firstly discover in 2009. The FBI said on the indictment after it was unsealed in October 2014, four years after the administration approved the deal.
Aleksandra Dukovska 