The Iowa debate ended in a quarrel between the two progressives, but there were other moments to remember
The final Democratic debate before voting begins in the Iowa caucus early next month ended in a testy confrontation between progressive senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Related: Elizabeth Warren's confrontation with Bernie Sanders caps testy debate night
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Hours before the debate on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House would vote to send its impeachment charges against Donald Trump to the Senate the following day.
Even though six Democratic presidential candidates failed to meet the polling requirement for tonight’s debate, one candidate who did manage to cross that threshold will not be onstage tonight: Michael Bloomberg.
Continue reading...A leak of stolen data could potentially affect the impeachment process and the US election contest
Russian military hackers tried to steal emails from the Ukrainian energy firm where Hunter Biden, the son of the Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden, had a seat on the board, a US cybersecurity firm said.
The energy company Burisma Holdings was at the center of attempts by president Donald Trump last July to pressure Ukrainian authorities to announce an investigation into the Bidens for purported corruption, an effort that has led to the Republican being impeached by the US House of Representatives on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Continue reading...Sanders has called reports of his remarks ‘ludicrous’ as tensions between campaigns surge ahead of first votes
Elizabeth Warren has said Bernie Sanders told her during a private meeting that he did not believe a woman could beat Donald Trump in 2020, a version of events that Sanders vehemently denies.
In a statement issued on Monday evening, Warren offered her recollections of their conversation, a one-on-one discussion which took place in Washington at the end of 2018, when each senator was laying the groundwork for a presidential run.
Continue reading...Booker emailed supporters announcing move to shutter his campaign after struggling with fundraising and failing to qualify for debates
Donald Trump is having a busy day on Twitter, including going after the Democrats over their reaction to the assassination of Gen Qassem Suleimani.
“The Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners are working hard to determine whether or not the future attack by terrorist Suleimani was ‘eminent’ [sic – he means “imminent”] or not, & was my team in agreement,” the president wrote, in a tweet that was deleted and reissued, spelling fixed.
Related: Esper contradicts Trump claim Iran planned attacks on four US embassies
The Democrats and the Fake News are trying to make terrorist Suleimani into a wonderful guy, only because I did what should have been done for 20 years. Anything I do, whether it’s the economy, military, or anything else, will be scorned by the Rafical [sic] Left, Do Nothing Democrats!
The corrupted Dems trying their best to come to the Ayatollah's rescue.#NancyPelosiFakeNews pic.twitter.com/a0ksPHeXCy
Related: Iranian police fired live rounds to disperse protesters, say witnesses
Senator Cory Booker announced Monday that he is suspending his presidential campaign.
He sent the following email to supporters announcing the move:
Friend,
Nearly one year ago, I got in the race for president because I believed to my core that the answer to the common pain Americans are feeling right now, the answer to Donald Trump’s hatred and division, is to reignite our spirit of common purpose to take on our biggest challenges and build a more just and fair country for everyone.
Continue reading...Tom Steyer, the billionaire hedge funder, has claimed picking a nominee to face Donald Trump in November is “more about judgment than experience”.
Related: Impeachment: Trump fumes as Pelosi prepares to send articles to the Senate
Continue reading...Whether or not Nancy Pelosi is the “absolute worst Speaker of the House in US history”, as Donald Trump insists, the Democrat said on Sunday her caucus will meet on Tuesday to decide when to transmit two articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial.
Related: John Bolton impeachment testimony will be blocked, Donald Trump says
Continue reading...Andrea Bernstein delivers the goods on the bad business which propelled two New York families to Washington
America’s cold civil war rages, impeachment inches ahead and Donald Trump remains a focal point of conflict. As for Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, he is markedly more unpopular than his wife, her father or her gun-toting brother. Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump are rated among the top Republican contenders for 2024.
Related: Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump ‘knew they were lying’ over ploy to sell condos, book claims
Continue reading...Susan Collins and other Republicans open to allowing witnesses in impeachment trial, a key sticking point in impasse between House and Senate
Kari Paul here, logging off for the weekend! Here is a summary of the key events of the last few hours:
Two parents whose children were separated from them as a result of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” border policies are suing the federal government for $12m, claiming the children were subject to abuse and neglect while in federal custody.
“The United States government tore these families apart pursuant to a cruel and unconstitutional policy: The government intended to inflict terror and harm on these small children and their fathers, as a means of deterring others from seeking to enter the United States”, said the lawsuit, which was filed Friday in U.S. District Court of Arizona.
According to the lawsuit, the fathers were separated from their children for more than two months, and the federal government gave little, if any, information regarding the location and safety of the children.
The families “suffered, and continue to suffer, physical, mental, and emotional harm,” the lawsuit states. More than a year after they were reunited, the lawsuit says the children exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Continue reading...The strike on Suleimani represented a significant victory for Pompeo, his outsize influence on Trump and his Iran fixation
When the US embassy in Baghdad was mobbed on the last day of 2019, a rattled Donald Trump turned to his most hawkish aide, Mike Pompeo, and finally agreed to the extreme measure the secretary of state had long advocated: the assassination of Qassem Suleimani.
The drone strike on the Iranian general a week ago may well turn out to be one of the most consequential decisions of the Trump presidency. It represented a significant victory for Pompeo, reflecting his ascendancy in foreign policy and national security spheres.
Continue reading...Qassem Suleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad, was widely considered to be the most powerful man in Iran after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – and Iran's leading military figure.
Suleimani’s assassination has plunged the Middle East into a crisis that seems likely to lead to further escalation between Washington and Tehran. The Guardian's Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov examines what motivated Donald Trump to order the assassination
Continue reading...US president calls Qassem Suleimani a ‘blood-thirsty terror’ to cheers from crowd in first campaign rally of the year
President Donald Trump made the killing of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani a theme of his re-election campaign on Thursday, drawing cheers from thousands at a rally when he said the death saved lives and delivered “American justice”.
At the campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio, Trump spent a lengthy part of his stump speech defending his order to kill Suleimani and rejecting criticism from Democrats who say he overstepped his authority with the US military’s drone strike against the commander of Iran’s military al-Quds force at Baghdad airport a week ago.
Continue reading...Nancy Pelosi says she wants to understand the parameters of a Senate trial before sending the articles of impeachment, but adds she does not plan to hold on to them indefinitely. 'I’ll send them over when I’m ready,' she says. 'And that’ll probably be soon.'
The Speaker says she is concerned that senators will not hold an impartial trial to determine whether Donald Trump should be removed from office
Continue reading...Amendment 4 should restore the vote to 1.4 million people. But those affected say the struggle is far from over
One year ago, Florida enacted the biggest expansion of the right to vote in America in a generation.
For 150 years, Florida had upheld a law that banned anyone convicted of a felony from voting, even after they had served the full sentence. The policy, rooted in the Jim Crow south, stood out as a stain on American democracy.
Continue reading...‘Iran appears to be standing down,’ Trump said, in an uncharacteristically sober speech following rising tensions between US and Iran
Donald Trump backed away from further military confrontation with Iran on Wednesday after days of escalating tensions, saying Tehran appeared to be standing down following missile attacks on two Iraqi bases hosting US and coalition troops.
Flanked by the vice-president, Mike Pence, the defense secretary, Mark Esper, and other high ranking military officials in uniform, Trump delivered remarks in the Grand Foyer of the White House, hours after Iran declared the attack to be retaliation for the US drone strike last week that killed the senior Iranian Gen Qassem Suleimani.
Continue reading...The US president announced on Wednesday that Iran appeared to be 'standing down' after it launched more than a dozen missiles at Iraqi bases hosting US and coalition troops.
While Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, showed his support for the US president, other world leaders struck a more cautious note. European commission president Ursula von der Leyen called for dialogue to replace the use of weapons.
In Washington, the US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said Americans now feared for their safety.
Continue reading...US president declares additional economic sanctions on Iran but attempts to de-escalate crisis
The quartet of US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, the still relatively new defense secretary Mark Esper, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Mark Milley and the historically-controversial CIA director Gina Haspel strode across Capitol Hill today to brief members of Congress on the Iran issues.
There is some difference of perspective on how effective the briefing was.
Rep Mark Meadows says the briefing for lawmakers was “compelling and decisive” and left “little doubt” that the president made the right call in killing Qasem Soleimani and there was “clear and present danger.”
Meadows says Director Haspel was very “clear and articulate” that there was an “imminent threat” from Qasem Soleimani. “This general’s absence will not be easily replaced,” he adds and says it will take months if not years to fill the gap Qasem Soleimani leaves.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel said the theme of the Iran briefing "was the administration saying trust us."
"I’m not sure who I trust or what I trust. We’ve been told so many different things that really just bother me."
GOP KY Sen Paul: I think sanctions have actually pushed Iran away from the negotiating table and made it less likely to have a diplomatic solution..I did just speak to the President moments ago, I do believe that the President honestly does not want another war in the Middle East
British prime minister Boris Johnson and his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, had a telephone call with each other earlier in which they discussed the need for urgent de-escalation on all sides in the US-Iran crisis following Iranian missile attacks on military bases housing US troops in Iraq overnight, a spokesperson for Johnson said.
The leaders also discussed working together, and with international partners, to ensure Iran is prevented from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Continue reading...Donald Trump described the missile assassination of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani as 'decisive action to stop a ruthless terrorist', before adding: 'Last week we eliminated the world’s top terrorist.'
Additional economic sanctions on Iran were announced during the White House conference as Trump called for Europe to break away from the 'foolish' nuclear deal
Continue reading...Rumors of Middle East war used to inevitably lead to soaring gas prices but fracking revolution has changed the market landscape
For many older Americans the thought of war in the Middle East will trigger memories of soaring gas prices and long lines at the pumps. But as US relations with Iran sink to a new low there is, as yet, no sign of panic.
Related: By killing Qassem Suleimani, Trump has achieved the impossible: uniting Iran | Dina Esfandiary
Continue reading...As a new Republican president seeks re-election, senior figures in Washington warn history may be repeating itself
A Republican president facing a tough re-election campaign and widely viewed as hopelessly out of his depth. Bureaucrats itching to turn US military firepower on a Middle Eastern regime they claim without evidence is plotting an imminent attack. Compliant sections of the media that put flag-waving jingoism ahead of skeptical scrutiny.
So it was in late 2002, when President George W Bush’s administration built unstoppable momentum towards invading Iraq, promising to destroy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that never existed. Nearly two decades later the potential target is not Iraq but Iran, with many of the same concerns over false pretexts and official lies.
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