Joe Biden said on Thursday he would withhold foreign aid from countries that persecute lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as he joined eight other Democratic presidential candidates at a televised forum on LGBTQ issues.
The Los Angeles event was the second major presidential forum dedicated to LGBTQ issues during the Democratic nominating campaign, following an event in Iowa last month that drew 10 of the 19 candidates vying to take on US President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.
Biden, the front-runner in the Democratic race, struggled during the previous forum to articulate his positions, particularly his vote as a US senator for a military funding bill that included the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, which banned harassment of closeted gay soldiers but barred those who were out from military service..
Biden later backed repeal of that policy and while he voted for a law defining marriage as between a man and a woman, he backed same-sex marriage before President Barack Obama, under whom he served as vice president.
On Thursday night, he defended his record and assailed efforts to curb LGBTQ rights.
"I would curtail foreign assistance to countries who engage in this kind of behavior," said Biden, adding he would establish an office in the State Department with the job of promoting LGBTQ rights around the world.
Biden was followed by South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who if elected would be the first openly gay US president.
Buttigieg was able to speak in the first person about his experience as a gay man. He recounted serving in Afghanistan in the military while he was still closeted and realizing he might die without being able to know what it was like to fall in love and marry.
On the subject of public health rules that bar gay men from giving blood dating from the HIV epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, Buttigieg's personal experience colored his answer.
"My blood is not welcome in this country and it's not based on science," Buttigieg said. "It's based on prejudice."
As president, he said, he would move to change the policy.
CRITICISM OF TRUMP RECORD
US Senator Cory Booker opened the forum, stressing inclusion and acceptance.
"You can’t lead the people if you can’t love the people – all the people," he said.
US Senator Bernie Sanders, a top Democratic contender, missed the event while he recovers from a heart attack.
Gay rights advocates have expressed dismay at the Trump administration's record on LGBTQ issues, including a ban on transgender individuals serving in the US military.
Lawyers for the Department of Justice argued at the US Supreme Court this week that federal civil rights law does not prohibit employers from firing workers based on their transgender identity or sexual orientation.
Ahead of the forum, Buttigieg and US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris released plans to secure equality for LGBTQ people.
All 3 support the Equality Act, like most other Democrats, which would explicitly add LGBTQ protections to federal anti-discrimination law.
They also vowed to make pre-exposure prophylaxis, a drug that helps lower the risk of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus, accessible and affordable to all who want it.
Buttigieg said he would eliminate the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030, in part by restoring the White House Office of National AIDS Policy that has gone dormant under Trump.
All 3 candidates promised to elevate LGBTQ concerns as president. Warren said she would appoint a special envoy at the State Department, while Harris said she would create a White House position, chief advocate for LGBTQ+ Affairs, to coordinate efforts across the entire federal government.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
A bellicose Donald Trump on Wednesday unleashed furious attacks on the impeachment inquiry launched against him by Democrats, amid an intensifying standoff between the president and Congress.
Trump -- accused of leaning on Ukraine's president to dig up dirt on one of his main 2020 election rivals -- resorted to coarse language in his broadsides against the investigation and his adversaries conducting it.
Democrats should be "focused on building up our Country, not wasting everyone's time and energy on BULLSHIT, which is what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected in 2016," Trump tweeted.
Adam Schiff, the impeachment probe's Democratic point man in the House of Representatives, told reporters there is a "real sense of urgency" to press forward.
Trump fought back in terms once inconceivable for a president, including his claim late Tuesday on Twitter that this is "not an impeachment, it is a COUP."
He amplified the message Wednesday standing next to Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in the White House, branding the impeachment process -- announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week -- as "the greatest hoax."
Trump aimed his wrath directly at Schiff, deeming the House Intelligence Committee chairman "a low life" who should be arrested for "treason."
But at the same time Trump acknowledged he may yet cooperate with the latest move by Democrats, who threatened to subpoena the White House for documents related to the president's efforts to get Ukraine to probe a political rival.
"We'll work together with 'shifty' Schiff and Pelosi and all of them and we'll see what happens," he said.
Trump insists he did nothing wrong in a phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and on Wednesday got support from Russia's President Vladimir Putin, who said he saw "nothing compromising" in the conversation.
Given Trump's controversial history with Putin, it was unlikely that the Kremlin leader's backing would do much to calm waters in Washington.
Congress pushes back
Trump is accused of having pressured Zelensky to help him by opening a corruption investigation against leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in a July 25 phone call.
Trump is alleged to have suggested that military equipment Ukraine sought to beef up its defenses against Russia would be contingent on him getting that favor.
A whistleblower, so far only identified as someone from the intelligence services, went to authorities with concerns about the call, triggering the impeachment inquiry.
Trump has likened the whistleblower to a spy and called for his or her identity to be made public, although by law whistleblowers are protected.
He has also retweeted a warning that his removal from office could trigger "civil war."
Schiff on Wednesday called Trump's comments about the whistleblower a "blatant effort to intimidate witnesses."
The intelligence chairman urged Trump and the White House to treat the pending subpoena with the utmost gravity.
"We're not fooling around here," Schiff said, adding that efforts to stonewall the collection of related data will be considered "evidence of obstruction of justice."
Meanwhile, the State Department's inspector general met behind closed doors with a bipartisan group of staffers from House and Senate committees.
The State Department is closely caught up in the probe, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirming Wednesday that he listened in during the Zelensky call.
Pompeo had earlier accused Democrats of trying to "intimidate" and "bully" State Department employees.
First testimony
Pompeo as well as Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have been subpoenaed to provide documents. Five diplomats have so far been summoned to testify.
Pompeo suggested that the committees could be forced to subpoena the five officials, and that State and the White House could seek to limit what they can talk about.
"I will use all means at my disposal to prevent and expose any attempts to intimidate the dedicated professionals whom I am proud to lead," Pompeo said.
The State Department's former special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, will testify Thursday and the ex-ambassador to Kiev, Marie Yovanovitch, appears behind closed doors October 11, according to Schiff.
Volker had been sought by Giuliani to help pressure Zelensky, while Yovanovitch was removed earlier this year as ambassador after she reportedly resisted that effort.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Here are the key points of the anonymous intelligence official's whistleblower complaint about US President Donald Trump's July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
During the call, Trump repeatedly asked Zelensky to conduct an investigation into potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
Revelations about the call prompted the Democratic-led House of Representatives to launch an impeachment inquiry seeking to remove the president for abuse of power:
- 'Urgent concern' -
- In the August 12 complaint, the whistleblower said he or she wanted to report a matter of "urgent concern," namely that the "President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election."
- "This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President's main domestic political rivals," the complaint says.
- The phone call -
The whistleblower's account of the Trump-Zelensky call is largely in line with the transcript of the conversation released by the White House on Wednesday.
- According to the complaint, about a dozen White House officials listened to the calls along with a State Department official, T. Ulrich Brechbuhl.
- "After an initial exchange of pleasantries, the President used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests. Namely, he sought to pressure the Ukrainian leaders to take actions to help the President's 2020 reelection bid," the complaint says.
- Trump specifically asked Zelensky to "initiate or continue" an investigation of the Bidens and meet with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr, the complaint says.
- Trump also sought Ukraine's assistance to prove that allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election originated in Ukraine.
- 'Lock down' -
- The whistleblower said some White House officials were "deeply disturbed by what had transpired in the phone call" because of the likelihood "they had witnessed the President abuse his office for personal gain."
- The whistleblower said he or she had learned from multiple US officials that "senior White House officials had intervened to 'lock down' all records of the phone call," including the word-for-word transcript.
- "White House officials told me that they were 'directed' by White House lawyers to remove the electronic transcript from the computer system in which such transcripts are typically stored," the complaint says. "Instead, the transcript was loaded into a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information of an especially sensitive nature."
- "This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call," the complaint says.
- The whistleblower said it was "not the first time" a Trump phone call was filed in this manner "solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive -- rather than national security sensitive -- information."
- Rudy Giuliani -
- The whistleblower complaint provides extensive detail about the efforts of Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, to pursue the allegations against the Bidens with Ukrainian officials.
- "Starting in mid-May, I heard from multiple U.S. officials that they were deeply concerned by what they viewed as Mr. Giuliani's circumvention of national security decisionmaking processes to engage with Ukrainian officials and relay messages back and forth between Kiev and the President," the complaint says.
- Military aid to Ukraine -
Trump has been accused by Democrats of withholding millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine as a quid-pro-quo in exchange for its agreement to investigate the Bidens, a charge the president denies.
- The whistleblower complaint does not delve deeply into this accusation but notes that on July 18 the White House budget office ordered a suspension of security aid to Ukraine at Trump's order.
- "Multiple US officials told me that the Ukrainian leadership was led to believe that a meeting between the President and President Zelensky would depend on whether Zelensky showed willingness to 'play ball' on the issues that had been publicly aired by (former Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuri] Lutsenko and Giuliani," the complaint says.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON—A report by a U.S. whistleblower released on Thursday alleged that President Donald Trump used his office to solicit Ukraine's interference in the 2020 election, risking U.S. national security.
The report was made public shortly before the scheduled start of a House of Representatives Intelligence Committee hearing at which acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, is to testify after refusing for weeks to share the report with Congress.
The report was declassified and released by the committee after weeks of controversy over the matter, which helped lead House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch a formal impeachment inquiry into the Republican president.
Trump has denied wrongdoing.
A law required that the report be sent to lawmakers after an inspector general determined that it was urgent and credible.
Shortly before the hearing, the intelligence committee's chairman, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, announced that it had received the declassified complaint and released it to the public.
"This complaint should never have been withheld from Congress. It exposed serious wrongdoing, and was found both urgent and credible by the Inspector General," Schiff said in a statement.
The whistleblower complaint concerns a July 25 telephone call in which Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential front-runner, and his son Hunter, who had worked for a company drilling for gas in Ukraine.
Reports about the call prompted Democrats on Tuesday to launch a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump, accusing him of seeking foreign help to smear Biden, the former U.S. vice president. There is no evidence the Bidens acted improperly. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Roberta Rampton Editing by Leslie Adler and Peter Graff)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders teamed up with rapper Cardi B Monday to encourage young voters to turn out for the 2020 election.
The unlikely duo met at a nail salon in Detroit to film a campaign video aimed at younger voters -- a fitting spot for Cardi B, who is known for her elaborate manicures in addition to chart-topping hits.
"We (are) working on a way to involve more young people in the political process," Sanders, 77, told CNN before filming began.
"They are voting in large numbers, but not enough numbers."
Democratic polling shows Sanders is the number 2 candidate in a crowded field seeking the party's nomination to defeat Donald Trump, although Sanders has about half the support of the leader Joe Biden.
After the shoot, Cardi B posted a picture on Instagram of her interviewing the Vermont senator in the salon.
"Thank you Senator Bernie Sanders for sitting with me and sharing your plans on how you will change this country," the Grammy-winning artist captioned the image.
She added she had asked her followers to suggest questions for the left-wing Sanders and advised them to "stay tuned to see how he will fight for economic, racial and social justice for all."
According to Sanders, he and the 26-year-old rap superstar discussed a range of issues, including raising the minimum wage, canceling student debt, and climate change.
This is not Cardi B's first foray into the political arena. Earlier this month she was vocal in her support for Sanders, tweeting, "We let him down in 2016," when he lost to Hillary Clinton.
In January, Cardi B, born Belcalis Almanzar, posted a profanity-laced video on Instagram blasting Trump and the US government shutdown.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
