Author: PolitCens

The new top U.S. diplomat, Antony Blinken, is pledging to work with core allies and partners to confront complex global challenges, while investing in a diverse and inclusive American Foreign Service.Blinken was officially welcomed to the State Department on Wednesday as secretary of state by approximately 30 of the women and men representing a small cross-section of the larger workforce.  “America’s leadership is needed around the world,” said Blinken, adding he will “put a premium on diplomacy” with allies and partners to meet the great challenges, including “the pandemic, climate change, the economic crisis, threats to democracies, fights for racial justice, and the danger to our security and global stability” posed by U.S. adversaries.  Secretary of State Antony Blinken is sworn in as the 71st U.S. Secretary of State by Acting Under Secretary of State for Management Carol Z. Perez, at the Department of State in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021. (State Department photo)The new top U.S. diplomat also encouraged non-partisanship and transparency.   “I will be forthright with you, because transparency makes us stronger. I will seek out dissenting views and listen to the experts, because that’s how the best decisions are made,” said Blinken at the State Department.  The U.S. Senate confirmed him on Tuesday with a 78-22 vote to serve as the country’s 71st secretary of state, filling the most senior Cabinet position and one that is fourth in the line of presidential succession.   US Senate Confirms Blinken to Lead State Department Former deputy secretary of state has pledged to rebuild US diplomatic corps At a confirmation hearing last week, Blinken said he was ready to confront the challenges posed by China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.   He said China “poses the most significant challenge” to U.S. national interests, while noting there is room for cooperation.   “There are rising adversarial aspects of the relationship; certainly, competitive ones, and still some cooperative ones, when it is in our mutual interests,” he said.   Conservative lawmakers’ opposition to Blinken centered on concerns that he may help the new administration reenter the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and that he would halt former president Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against the Middle Eastern power.    “The policies that Mr. Blinken has committed to implementing as secretary of state, especially regarding Iran, will dangerously erode America’s national security and will put the Biden administration on a collision course with Congress, and I could not support his confirmation,” said Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  During his confirmation hearing, Blinken vowed to rebuild State Department morale and the diplomatic corps. He said he saw the U.S. standing abroad as leadership based on “humility and confidence.”   The “swift and bipartisan confirmation sends a powerful signal to our nation and the world that American diplomacy and development matter — both on the global stage and here at home,” said the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a broad-based network of 500 businesses and NGOs, in a statement.  The 58-year-old Blinken was deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration and has close ties with President Joe Biden. He was staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was chair of the panel, and later was then-Vice President Biden’s national security adviser.    
 
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President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Justice on Tuesday to end its reliance on private prisons and acknowledge the central role government has played in implementing discriminatory housing policies.In remarks before signing the order, Biden said the U.S. government needs to change “its whole approach” on the issue of racial equity. He added that the nation is less prosperous and secure because of the scourge of systemic racism.”We must change now,” the president said. “I know it’s going to take time, but I know we can do it. And I firmly believe the nation is ready to change. But government has to change as well.”Biden rose to the presidency during a year of intense reckoning on institutional racism in the U.S. The moves announced on Tuesday reflect his efforts to follow through with campaign pledges to combat racial injustice. Housing policiesBeyond calling on the Justice Department to curb the use of private prisons and address housing discrimination, the new orders will recommit the federal government to respect tribal sovereignty and disavow discrimination against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community over the coronavirus pandemic.Biden directed the Department of Housing and Urban Development in a memorandum to take steps to promote equitable housing policy. The memorandum calls for HUD to examine the effects of Trump regulatory actions that may have undermined fair housing policies and laws.Months before the November election, the Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era rule that required communities that wanted to receive HUD funding to document and report patterns of racial bias.Stop ‘profiting off of incarceration’The order to end the reliance on privately-run prisons directs the attorney general not to renew Justice Department contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities. The move will effectively revert the Justice Department to the same posture it held at the end of the Obama administration.”This is a first step to stop corporations from profiting off of incarceration,” Biden said.The more than 14,000 federal inmates housed at privately-managed facilities represent a small fraction of the nearly 152,000 federal inmates currently incarcerated.The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had already opted not to renew some private prison contracts in recent months as the number of inmates dwindled and thousands were released to home confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic. Criticism of Biden moveGEO Group, a private company that operates federal prisons, called the Biden order “a solution in search of a problem.””Given the steps the BOP had already announced, today’s Executive Order merely represents a political statement, which could carry serious negative unintended consequences, including the loss of hundreds of jobs and negative economic impact for the communities where our facilities are located, which are already struggling economically due to the COVID pandemic,” a GEO Group spokesperson said in a statement.David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, noted that the order does not end the federal government’s reliance on privately-run immigration detention centers.”The order signed today is an important first step toward acknowledging the harm that has been caused and taking actions to repair it, but President Biden has an obligation to do more, especially given his history and promises,” Fathi said.The memorandum highlighting xenophobia against Asian Americans is in large part a reaction to what White House officials say was offensive and dangerous rhetoric from the Trump administration. Trump, throughout the pandemic, repeatedly used xenophobic language in public comments when referring to the coronavirus.This memorandum will direct Health and Human Services officials to consider issuing guidance describing best practices to advance cultural competency and sensitivity toward Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the federal government’s COVID-19 response. It also directs the Justice Department to partner with AAPI communities to prevent hate crimes and harassment. 
 
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The U.S. Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s nominee Antony Blinken to lead the U.S. State Department on Tuesday. As VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, Blinken faces numerous challenges worldwide as the nation’s top diplomat.
Camera: Adam Greenbaum   Produced by: Katherine Gypson
 
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U.S. Senate Republicans appear to be edging away from convicting former President Donald Trump of inciting insurrection in the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of Trump supporters who looked to confront lawmakers as they debated certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the November election.All 100 senators — 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans — are being sworn in Tuesday as jurors in Trump’s impeachment trial, although the heart of the case has been put off until February 9.The Republican lawmakers hold Trump’s fate in their hands, even though the former president’s four-year term in the White House ended January 20 with Biden’s inauguration.A two-thirds vote is needed for conviction, meaning 17 Republicans would have to turn against Trump for a conviction, assuming all 50 Democrats vote as a bloc. If convicted, a separate, simple majority vote could bar Trump from ever holding public office again.Biden, a senator for 36 years and the former vice president in the Obama administration, told CNN on Monday he supports holding the trial but does not think enough Republicans will vote against Trump for a conviction.Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump supporter who has been advising the former president on the upcoming proceedings, said, “There are only a handful of Republicans, and shrinking, who will vote against him.”Numerous Republican senators have said Trump bears some responsibility for the mayhem that unfolded at the Capitol that left five dead, including a police officer whose death is being investigated as a homicide. At a January 6 rally near the White House, Trump continued voicing baseless claims that he had been cheated out of reelection and urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight” to upend Biden’s victory.In the weeks since, authorities have arrested dozens of the rioters who rampaged into the Capitol building, the worldwide symbol of U.S. democracy, ransacked some congressional offices and scuffled with police. The actions of dozens more protesters are still being investigated.FILE – With the White House in the background, former President Donald Trump speaks his supporters during a rally in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021.But several Republican lawmakers, while often admonishing Trump, questioned why the trial is being held since he is now out of office, or suggested that the rioters themselves were to blame for the rampage.“We will listen to [the case against Trump], but I still have concerns about the constitutionality of this, and the precedent it sets in trying to convict a private citizen,” Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said.“He exhibited poor leadership, I think we all agree with that. But it was these people that came into the Capitol. They did it knowingly. So, they bear the responsibility,” she said.Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin asked, “Why are we doing this? I can’t think of something more divisive and unhealing than doing an impeachment trial when the president is already gone. It’s just vindictive. It’s ridiculous.”On Sunday, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida told the “Fox News Sunday” show, “We’re just going to jump right back into what we’ve been going through for the last five years and bring it up with a trial, and it’s going to be bad for the country. It really is.”The lawmaker added, “This is not a criminal trial. This is a political process and would fuel these divisions that have paralyzed the country.”People shelter in the House gallery as protesters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected suggestions by Republicans that Trump should escape a judgment because his term as president has ended.“There seems to be some hope that Republicans could oppose the former president’s impeachment on process grounds, rather than grappling with his awful conduct,” Schumer said. “Let me be perfectly clear: This is not going to fly.”Two major newspapers, The Washington Post and The New York Times, said their surveys showed wide opposition among Republican senators to convicting Trump. The Post said 29 of the 50 in the chamber opposed the former president’s conviction, while the Times said 27 are opposed.With 67 needed for a conviction, that apparently leaves Trump’s fate to the votes of a small number of Republicans unless more evidence emerges linking Trump to the storming of the Capitol, possibly forcing Republicans opposed to conviction to take a new look at the case.Some Republicans, however, remain open to the possibility of voting for conviction, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the losing Republican presidential candidate in 2012, and the only Republican who voted to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial.Romney, while not committing to vote for a conviction, told CNN on Sunday, “I believe incitement to insurrection is an impeachable offense. If not, what is?”He said he believes Trump was “complicit in an unprecedented attack on our democracy.”Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.Whatever happens in the upcoming trial, Trump stands alone as the only U.S. president to be impeached twice in the country’s 245-year history, although the first to face an impeachment trial after leaving office.The House impeached him in late 2019, accusing him of trying to enlist Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of the November election. The Senate acquitted him last February.Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, one of the House Democratic impeachment managers who will present the case in the Senate against Trump, told CNN they will “put together a case that is so compelling” to confront “the big lie” that Trump had been cheated out of reelection.She called Trump’s incitement of insurrection “an extraordinary, heinous crime. The American public saw what happened.”“This was a terrifying moment … incited by the president,” she said. “This cannot go unanswered.”House impeachment managers formally delivered the article of impeachment to the Senate Monday evening, accusing Trump of “incitement of insurrection.”Two weeks ago, the House voted 232-197 in favor of Trump’s impeachment, with 10 Republicans joining all House Democrats in the majority. 
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The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the nomination of Antony Blinken to be the country’s next secretary of state. At a confirmation hearing last week, Blinken said he is ready to confront the challenges posed by China, Iran, Russia and North Korea. He said China “poses the most significant challenge” to U.S. national interests, while noting there is room for cooperation. “There are rising adversarial aspects of the relationship; certainly, competitive ones, and still some cooperative ones, when it is in our mutual interests,” he added.Nominated Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates as US President Joe Biden speaks during a cabinet announcement event in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 24, 2020.He also pledged to rebuild State Department morale and the diplomatic corps. Blinken said he sees U.S. standing abroad as leadership based on “humility and confidence.” Blinken was deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration and has close ties with President Joe Biden. He was staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was chair of the panel, and later was then-Vice President Biden’s national security adviser.  The Foreign Relations Committee approved Blinken’s nomination by a vote of 15-3, sending the matter to the full Senate for final approval. 
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Less than one week into the administration of President Joe Biden, much of the talk in Washington is focused on the dysfunction on Capitol Hill, a spate of executive orders from the new president, and the looming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. None of the three bodes well for bipartisan cooperation so pessimism might seem justified.   However, when experts look at the major policy areas that Biden identified in last week’s inaugural address, there are at least some areas where agreement across the aisle is a real possibility.    Coronavirus rescue package The Biden administration came out of the gate with a request for $1.9 trillion in spending on various programs related to the coronavirus pandemic, including major economic stimulus spending and a large investment in federal infrastructure to get the vaccine to as many Americans as it can, as quickly as it can.   FILE – Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, left, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer are seen during a joint session of Congress in the House chamber in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.Republicans on Capitol Hill were quick to label the proposal “dead on arrival” because of its price tag, but some observers believe their initial reluctance might be overcome by the reality of the country’s economic situation.   “I think that even though people are calling it dead on arrival, there’s a lot in this bill that’s probably going to make it,” said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Few lawmakers, he said, are going to want to stand in the way of programs meant to get people inoculated against the virus, and while there will probably be some arguing about the size of stimulus payments, the popularity of that part of the proposal will make it difficult to kill off entirely.   On tax policy specifically, Gleckman believes there is considerable bipartisan agreement on a number of proposals that might turn up in the relief package or a follow-on bill. There is support for expanding the tax credit that filers receive for children under their care and for expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit to childless workers.   Gleckman said that Biden’s Made In America tax credit, meant to spur domestic manufacturing, will also likely have bipartisan support.   Immigration policy As with trade policy, Biden will confront a GOP that has made a sharp change of course on matters of immigration over the past several years. The Republican establishment had, for decades, been largely supportive of immigration, seeing it as a driver of economic demand and a source of lower-cost labor.   That began to change even before Trump, but the party took an even more aggressive anti-immigration stance under the former president.    FILE – Demonstrators with the New York Immigration Coalition rally asking President Joe Biden to prioritize immigration reform, Nov. 9, 2020, in New York.However, Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, believes there are still a number of pro-immigration Republicans who have been silent during the Trump years, but who could support some of the changes Biden is proposing.    For example, the Biden proposal would seek to streamline and expand the process for bringing skilled workers into the country — a move that could earn support from Republicans with ties to the business community.    Those less enthusiastic about immigration might support other initiatives, such as a proposal to allow the Department of Homeland Security to vary the number of green cards issued each year depending on economic conditions.   “This is actually something that the Migration Policy Institute has been advocating for years, because it doesn’t make sense that our immigration [volume] is set by law,” Pierce said. “It should be flexible and maintain a relationship with market conditions within the United States.”   Another Biden proposal, to increase the wages paid to temporary workers, could appeal to some who have opposed guest worker programs on the theory that migrant labor tends to drive down the wages of competing U.S. workers. 
 
Potential bipartisan agreement on immigration reform has limits, however. Biden’s most ambitious proposal, an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, mirrors efforts that withered and died in Congress during both the former Obama and George W. Bush administrations.   Climate change With the exception of a few outliers, Republicans in the House and Senate oppose most of the major climate initiatives that Biden and the majority of the Democratic Party are advocating. The announcement that on his first day in office Biden had recommitted the U.S. to the Paris Climate Agreement, for instance, was met with angry denunciations from multiple Republican members of Congress.   FILE – Then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry holding his granddaughter, Isabelle Dobbs-Higginson, signs the book during the signature ceremony for the Paris Agreement at the United Nations General Assembly Hall, April 22, 2016, in New York.However, the GOP’s objections to dealing with climate change are regularly overridden when they conflict with national security interests, said Erin Sikorsky, deputy director of the Center for Climate and Security.   “In the past four years, you’ve actually seen that the House and Senate have passed pragmatic climate security legislation, usually through the National Defense Authorization Act each year, and so I think that’s definitely an area where the Biden administration can find bipartisan consensus with Congress,” she said.   This will be cold comfort to most environmental activists, however, as the measures are largely reactive rather than proactive, including steps like making military bases more resistant to extreme weather and funding programs that allow climate scientists to interact with the intelligence community.   Trade policy The debate over trade has shifted dramatically in the four years since Joe Biden last served in the White House as vice president. Under Trump, the GOP radically reshaped its position on trade, following the former president’s lead by supporting tariffs and protectionism. That, perhaps surprisingly, makes trade one of the areas ripest for bipartisan cooperation.   “Trade is an issue on which, in terms of actual policy, the incoming Biden administration is closer to Trump than on most other, or maybe nearly all other, issues,” said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.    Within the Biden administration, he said, the prevailing view is that “the goal of trade should not be foremost to follow the law of comparative advantage and try to enlarge two-way commerce, but rather to advance labor, environmental and human rights and, as needed, protect jobs.”   FILE – Visitors chat near American and Chinese flags displayed at a booth for an American company promoting environmental sensors during the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, Nov. 7, 2019.Biden has appointed Katherine Tai, a trade attorney who speaks Mandarin and has a history of challenging the trade practices of the Chinese government, as U.S. Trade Representative. Her past support for tough-on-China policies has earned her bipartisan support in Congress. Early indications also suggest that the Biden administration may believe, as many trade economists do, that the center of power in international trade has moved away from the World Trade Organization and toward a network of individual trade agreements, many of them bilateral.   A lingering question will be the U.S. position with regard to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a pact that creates a massive free trade zone in the Pacific region. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the accord, which had been largely negotiated by the Obama administration, a move that was supported by many Democrats.   However, now the United Kingdom and China are both looking to join the CPTPP. The participation of two more major U.S. trading partners in the accord — and especially China — may leave Biden’s team wondering whether it wouldn’t be preferable to have a seat at the table as a counter to Chinese influence. 
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The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the nomination of Antony Blinken to be the country’s next secretary of state. At a confirmation hearing last week, Blinken said he is ready to confront the challenges posed by China, Iran, Russia and North Korea. He said China “poses the most significant challenge” to U.S. national interests, while noting there is room for cooperation. “There are rising adversarial aspects of the relationship; certainly, competitive ones, and still some cooperative ones, when it is in our mutual interests,” he added.Nominated Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates as US President Joe Biden speaks during a cabinet announcement event in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 24, 2020.He also pledged to rebuild State Department morale and the diplomatic corps. Blinken said he sees U.S. standing abroad as leadership based on “humility and confidence.” Blinken was deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration and has close ties with President Joe Biden. He was staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was chair of the panel, and later was then-Vice President Biden’s national security adviser.  The Foreign Relations Committee approved Blinken’s nomination by a vote of 15-3, sending the matter to the full Senate for final approval. 
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The Senate on Monday approved President Joe Biden’s nomination of Janet Yellen to be the nation’s 78th treasury secretary, making her the first woman to hold the job in the department’s 232-year history. Yellen, a former chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, was approved by the Senate on a 84-15 vote, becoming the third member of Biden’s Cabinet to win confirmation.  She is expected to play a key role in gaining congressional approval of Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which is running into stiff opposition from Republicans who believe the price tag is too high. FILE – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 30, 2020.Speaking on the Senate floor before the vote, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted the former Federal Reserve chairwoman had bipartisan support.  Schumer said Yellen has a “breathtaking range of experience” and support for her nomination reflected “just how well suited she is to manage the economic challenges of our time … particularly during this moment of economic crisis.”  Before the approval by the full Senate, Yellen had received unanimous backing from the Senate Finance Committee. Republicans on the panel said they had a number of policy disagreements with Yellen and the Biden administration in such areas as raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, but believed it was important to allow Biden to assemble his economic team quickly. FILE – Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, participates remotely in a Senate Finance Committee hearing in Washington, Jan. 19, 2021.At her confirmation hearing before the Finance Committee last week, Yellen had argued that without prompt action the nation faced the threat of a “longer, more painful recession.” She urged quick action on the virus relief package that would provide an additional $1,400 in payments to individuals making less than $75,000 annually as well as providing expanded unemployment benefits, further aid for small businesses and support for cities and states to prevent layoffs. The plan also provides more support for vaccine production and distribution. FILE – Sen. Ron Wyden at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 30, 2020.”She can take complicated economic theories and put them into understandable language — all while showing a real heart for the millions of Americans who are hurting through no fault of their own,” Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said before the vote. During her confirmation hearing, Yellen faced substantial pushback on the coronavirus relief package from Republicans who argued that it was too large, especially at a time that the federal budget deficit has soared above $3 trillion. They also objected to such measures as an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour. FILE – Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 14, 2020.Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, told Yellen that Biden’s plan represented a “laundry list of liberal structural economic reforms.” As Treasury secretary, Yellen, 74, will occupy a pivotal role in shaping and directing Biden’s economic policies. She enters the Treasury job after many years serving in other top economic jobs, including as the first woman to serve as chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018. Previous experienceAn economist by training who was a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Yellen will represent the Biden administration in global financial affairs and lead a sprawling department whose responsibilities cover overseeing IRS tax collections, making policy on banking regulations and serving as the administration’s contact with Wall Street. In her previous roles, Yellen developed an expertise in areas ranging from labor markets to international finance. Publicly, she frequently signaled concern about how economic policies affect ordinary people, especially disadvantaged communities. She drew high marks for her stewardship at the Fed, where she employed record-low interest rates and massive bond buying, two policies begun by her predecessor Ben Bernanke, to support the economy as it struggled to emerge from a deep recession. She will now confront a new crisis brought on by a global pandemic. Since leaving the Fed, Yellen has been a distinguished fellow in residence at the Brookings Institution, a liberal Washington think tank. According to financial disclosure forms she provided during her confirmation, she collected more than $7 million in speaking fees during more than 50 in-person and virtual engagements over the past two years, including with many Wall Street firms. Yellen has agreed to recuse herself from decisions that would affect certain financial organizations. 
 
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The U.S. House of Representatives has officially sent its articles of impeachment to the Senate, charging former President Donald Trump with inciting insurrection in connection with the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters earlier this month.  House lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors in the impeachment trial made the ceremonial walk to the Senate chamber Monday evening to deliver the articles.  Lead House manager Jamie Raskin from Maryland read the charges against Trump, saying Trump “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of the government.”  U.S. House lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin, D-MD, hands over the House article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump, on the floor of the U.S. Senate in this this frame grab from video shot at the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 25, 2021.The trial in the Senate is set to begin the week of February 8, after Democrats and Republicans agreed to a short delay in order to give both the lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors and Trump’s defense team time to prepare. The extra time will also allow the Senate a chance to confirm more of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees. Trump has hired two lawyers from South Carolina for his legal defense in the impeachment case. Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who each run legal firms in Columbia, South Carolina, will have two weeks to prepare a defense for Trump in the Senate. Democrat Patrick Leahy, the Senate’s longest-serving member, said Monday he will preside over the impeachment trial. The U.S. Constitution calls for the chief justice of the Supreme Court to preside over impeachment hearings for a president, however because Trump is no longer in office, officials said Chief Justice John Roberts would not preside.  Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the new president pro tempore of the Senate, pauses in the Rotunda of the Capitol before the article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump is delivered in Washington, Jan. 25, 2021.Leahy, 80, was first elected to the Senate in 1974, making him the longest-serving member. He told reporters at the Capitol his role will be “making sure that procedures are followed” and said his years in the Senate will help him to be seen as impartial.  Aides to Leahy say the lawmaker will still be able to vote in the trial. Republican Senator John Cornyn criticized that arrangement on Twitter, saying, “How does a Senator preside, like a judge, and serve as juror, too?”  Two-thirds majority A two-thirds majority in the Senate would be required to convict Trump. With the Senate politically divided between 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, 17 Republicans would have to turn against Trump for a conviction, assuming all Democrats vote as a bloc against the former president.  If he is convicted, a separate, simply-majority vote could bar Trump from holding federal office again.  Trump stands as the only U.S. president in the country’s 245-year history to be impeached twice. The House impeached him in late 2019, accusing him of trying to enlist Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of the November election, but the Senate acquitted him last February.  Some Republicans have objected to the impeachment trial on the grounds that Trump is no longer in office.  FILE – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 30, 2020.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer argued against that objection Monday, telling the Senate, “The theory that the Senate can’t try former officials would amount to a constitutional get-out-of-jail-free card for any president.”  He said Sunday that the trial would move relatively quickly.  “Everyone wants to put this awful chapter in American history behind us. But sweeping it under the rug will not bring healing,” he said. “The only way to bring healing is to actually have real accountability, which this trial affords.”  Capitol violenceA number of Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have condemned the violence that unfolded on January 6 and criticized Trump, who urged supporters to march to the Capitol to fight for him in confronting lawmakers as they debated certifying Biden’s election win.  FILE – Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Jan. 19, 2021.Republican Senator Marco Rubio told the “Fox News Sunday” show that while he believes Trump “bears responsibility for some of what happened,” he opposes the Senate trial.  “We’re just going to jump right back into what we’ve been going through for the last five years and bring it up with a trial and it’s going to be bad for the country,” he said. “It really is.”  “This is not a criminal trial,” Rubio said. “This is a political process and would fuel these divisions that have paralyzed the country.”  FILE – U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-UT, speaks to reporters in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 16, 2020.Senator Mitt Romney, who was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial, expressed support for bringing Trump to trial again.  “I believe incitement to insurrection is an impeachable offense,” he told CNN. “If not, what is?”  Romney said he believes Trump was “complicit in an unprecedented attack on our democracy.”  The mayhem left five people dead, including a police officer whose death is being investigated as a homicide. Trump supporters — roughly 800, according to officials — rampaged past authorities, ransacked some congressional offices and scuffled with police before order was restored and lawmakers in the early hours of January 7 officially declared Biden the winner.  At the rally before hundreds of his supporters walked 16 blocks to the Capitol, Trump repeated weeks of unfounded complaints that he had been cheated out of reelection by fraudulent votes and vote-counting even though he had lost 60 court challenges to the outcome.  “There is no evidence this election was stolen,” Romney said.  FILE – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-PA., votes on Capitol Hill, Dec. 13, 2019.One of the House Democratic impeachment managers who will present the case in the Senate against Trump, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, told CNN that they will “put together a case that is so compelling” to confront “the big lie” that Trump had been cheated out of reelection.  She called Trump’s incitement of insurrection “an extraordinary, heinous crime. The American public saw what happened.”  “This was a terrifying moment … incited by the president,” she said. “This cannot go unanswered.”  
 
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U.S. President Joe Biden is signing an order Monday strengthening the national government’s commitment to buy American-made goods at a time when the world’s largest economy is slowing because of the coronavirus pandemic.While all U.S. leaders have committed the government to Buy American programs, the White House said Biden’s order would “close loopholes that allow companies to offshore production and jobs while still qualifying for domestic preferences.”The White House said the Biden order “will ensure that the federal government is investing taxpayer dollars in American businesses—both small and large,” including from entrepreneurs and businesses owned by minorities.“The dollars the federal government spends on goods and services are a powerful tool to support American workers and manufacturers,” the White House said, with contracting alone accounting for nearly $600 billion in federal spending.The White House said Biden’s order would direct federal agencies to close loopholes in the definition of American products to make certain they have been sufficiently manufactured in the United States to qualify as an American-made product.It said Biden would name an official in the Office of Management and Budget to oversee the government’s Buy American plan and increase oversight of waivers that in the past have been granted to domestic preference laws.“This order is deeply intertwined with the President’s commitment to invest in American manufacturing, including clean energy and critical supply chains, grow good-paying, union jobs, and advance racial equity,” the White House said.Biden’s Buy America order is the latest in a string of executive orders he has signed in his first five days in office since assuming power last Wednesday from former President Donald Trump.Biden has overturned an array of Trump policies, including announcing U.S. intentions to rejoin the international Paris climate change accord and stay in the World Health Organization, lifting the ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. armed forces and halting funding for construction of Trump’s wall along the Mexican border.In addition, Biden has sought to ramp up production of vaccines to curb the spread of the coronavirus and ordered people to wear face masks while on federal property and while using mass transportation. 
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The Supreme Court on Monday brought an end to lawsuits over whether Donald Trump illegally profited off his presidency.The justices threw out Trump’s challenge to lower court rulings that had allowed lawsuits to go forward alleging that he violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause by accepting payments from foreign and domestic officials who stay at the Trump International Hotel and patronize other businesses owned by the former president and his family.The high court also ordered the lower court rulings thrown out as well and directed appeals courts in New York and Richmond, Virginia, to dismiss the suits as moot now that Trump is no longer in office.The outcome leaves no judicial opinions on the books in an area of the law that has been rarely explored in U.S. history.  The cases involved suits filed by Maryland and the District of Columbia, and high-end restaurants and hotels in New York and Washington, D.C., that “found themselves in the unenviable position of having to compete with businesses owned by the President of the United States.”The suits sought financial records showing how much state and foreign governments have paid the Trump Organization to stay and eat at Trump-owned properties.Other cases involving Trump remain before the Supreme Court, or in lower courts.Trump is trying to block the Manhattan district attorney ‘s enforcement of a subpoena for his tax returns. Lower courts are weighing congressional subpoenas for Trump’s financial records. And the justices also have before them Trump’s appeal of a decision forbidding him from blocking critics on his Twitter account. Like the emoluments cases, Trump’s appeal would seem to be moot now that he is out of office and also had his Twitter account suspended.
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Jill Biden, the wife of recently inaugurated President Joe Biden, has made it clear that education policy will be a priority for her in the White House. Jill Biden is familiar with life in Washington as her husband spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as vice president under Barack Obama. VOA’s Esha Sarai and Carolyn Presutti bring us more about the new U.S. first lady in this profile.Video editors: Marcus Harton, Esha Sarai 
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The U.S. House of Representatives is set to officially send its articles of impeachment to the Senate on Monday, charging former President Donald Trump with inciting insurrection in connection with the storming of the Capitol by a mob of his supporters earlier this month.The trial in the Senate is set to begin the week of February 8 after Democrats and Republicans agreed to a short delay in order to give both the lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors and Trump’s defense team time to prepare.  The extra time will also allow the Senate a chance to confirm some of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Pro-Trump protesters storm the U.S. Capitol to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.”There is no evidence this election was stolen,” Romney said.One of the House Democratic impeachment managers who will present the case in the Senate against Trump, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, told CNN that they will “put together a case that is so compelling” to confront “the big lie” that Trump had been cheated out of reelection.She called Trump’s incitement of insurrection “an extraordinary, heinous crime. The American public saw what happened.””This was a terrifying moment … incited by the president,” she said. “This cannot go unanswered.” 
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Two key U.S. Republican senators — Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney — disagreed sharply Sunday about the merits of the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of former Republican President Donald Trump, who is accused of inciting insurrection in the storming of the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of his supporters on January 6.At a rally near the White House that day, Trump urged supporters to march to the Capitol to fight for him in confronting lawmakers as they debated whether to certify the Electoral College vote showing he had lost reelection to President Joe Biden. Biden was inaugurated last week as the country’s 46th president.Rubio, a Florida lawmaker, told the “Fox News Sunday” show that Trump “bears responsibility for some of what happened.” But Rubio said he opposes the Senate trial after the House of Representatives impeached Trump.FILE – Republican Senator Marco Rubio speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 19, 2021.The mayhem left five people dead, including a police officer whose death is being investigated as a homicide. Trump supporters — roughly 800, according to officials — rampaged past authorities, ransacked some congressional offices and scuffled with police before order was restored and lawmakers in the early hours of January 7 officially declared Biden the winner.
“We’re just going to jump right back into what we’ve been going through for the last five years and bring it up with a trial and it’s going to be bad for the country,” he said. “It really is.”“This is not a criminal trial,” Rubio said. “This is a political process and would fuel these divisions that have paralyzed the country.”    Romney, a senator from Utah and the losing Republican presidential candidate in 2012, told CNN, “I believe incitement to insurrection is an impeachable offense. If not, what is?”Romney said he believes Trump was “complicit in an unprecedented attack on our democracy.”FILE – Supporters of then-U.S. President Donald Trump storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.At the rally before hundreds of his supporters walked 16 blocks to the Capitol, Trump repeated weeks of unfounded complaints that he had been cheated out of reelection by fraudulent votes and vote-counting even though he had lost 60 court challenges to the outcome, including in rulings by some judges he had appointed.“There is no evidence this election was stolen,” Romney said.FILE – Republican Senator Mitt Romney speaks with members of the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 16, 2020.The Senate trial starts the week of February 8. A two-thirds majority in the Senate would be required to convict Trump. With the Senate politically divided between 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, 17 Republicans would have to turn against Trump for a conviction, assuming all Democrats vote as a bloc against the former president.If he is convicted, a separate, simply-majority vote could bar Trump from holding federal office again.Already, Trump stands as the only U.S. president in the country’s 245-year history to be impeached twice. The House impeached him in late 2019, accusing him of trying to enlist Ukraine to dig up dirt against Biden ahead of the November election, but the Senate acquitted him last February.Romney was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial, but several Republicans have said they are open to convicting him of inciting insurrection after the January 6 melee that forced lawmakers to scramble for their safety as the rioters rushed into the halls of Congress.  One of the House Democratic impeachment managers who will present the case in the Senate against Trump, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, told CNN that they will “put together a case that is so compelling” to confront “the big lie” that Trump had been cheated out of reelection.She called Trump’s incitement of insurrection “an extraordinary, heinous crime. The American public saw what happened.”“This was a terrifying moment … incited by the president,” she said. “This cannot go unanswered.” 
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It’s taken only days for Democrats gauging how far President Joe Biden’s bold immigration proposal can go in Congress to acknowledge that if anything emerges, it will likely be significantly more modest.As they brace to tackle a politically flammable issue that’s resisted major congressional action since the 1980s, Democrats are using words like “aspirational” to describe Biden’s plan and “herculean” to express the effort they’ll need to prevail.A cautious note came from the White House on Friday when press secretary Jen Psaki said the new administration views Biden’s plan as a “first step” it hopes will be “the basis” of discussions in Congress. Democrats’ measured tones underscore the fragile road they face on a paramount issue for their minority voters, progressives and activists.Immigration proponents advocating an all-out fight say Democrats’ new hold on the White House and Congress provides a major edge, but they concede they may have to accept less than total victory. Paving a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally, the centerpiece of Biden’s plan, is “the stake at the summit of the mountain,” Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-immigration group America’s Voice, said in an interview. He said proponents might have to accept “stepping stones” along the way.Immigration reduction aidThe citizenship process in Biden’s plan would take as little as three years for some people, eight years for others. It would make it easier for certain workers to stay in the U.S. temporarily or permanently, provide development aid to Central American nations in hopes of reducing immigration and move toward bolstering border screening technology.FILE – Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., speaks during a news conference about the “Dream Act” on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec, 18, 2010.No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Richard Durbin of Illinois said in an interview this week that the likeliest package to emerge would start with creating a path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers. They are an estimated 1 million immigrants who’ve lived in the U.S. most of their lives after being brought here illegally as children.More than 600,000 of them have temporary permission to live in the U.S. under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Former President Barack Obama created that program administratively, and Durbin and others want to protect it by enacting it into law.Durbin, who called Biden’s plan “aspirational,” said he’d push for as many other elements as possible, including more visas for agricultural workers and others.’Political reality'”We understand the political reality of a 50-50 Senate, that any changes in immigration will require cooperation between the parties,” said Durbin, who is on track to become Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. He said Senate legislation likely “will not reach the same levels” as Biden’s proposal. The Senate is split evenly between the two parties, with Vice President Kamala Harris tipping the chamber to Democrats with her tiebreaking vote. Even so, passing major legislation requires 60 votes to overcome filibusters, or endless procedural delays. That means 10 Republicans must join all 50 Democrats to enact an immigration measure, a tall order.FILE – Ifeoma Eh, a citizen candidate from Nigeria, stands with others socially distanced and wearing protective face masks, during a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization ceremony in New York, July 22, 2020.”Passing immigration reform through the Senate, particularly, is a herculean task,” said Senator Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who will also play a lead role in the battle. He said Democrats “will get it done” but the effort will require negotiation.Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who’s worked with Democrats on past immigration efforts, said “comprehensive immigration is going to be a tough sale” this year.”I think the space in a 50-50 Senate will be some kind of DACA deal,” he said.Illustrating the bargaining ahead, Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, a moderate who’s sought earlier immigration compromises, praised parts of Biden’s plan but said she wanted changes, including more visas for the foreign workers her state’s tourism industry uses heavily.Biden’s other prioritiesDemocrats’ hurdles are formidable. They have razor-thin majorities in a House and Senate where Republican support for easing immigration restrictions is usually scant. Acrid partisan relationships were intensified by former President Donald Trump’s clamorous tenure. Biden will have to spend plenty of political capital and time on earlier, higher-priority bills battling the pandemic and bolstering the economy, leaving his future clout uncertain.Democrats also must resolve tactical differences. Sharry said immigration groups prefer that Democrats push for the strongest possible bill without concessions to Republicans’ demands, like boosting border security spending. He said hopes for a bipartisan breakthrough are “a fool’s errand” because the GOP has largely opposed immigration overhauls for so long.But prevailing without GOP votes would mean virtual unanimity among congressional Democrats, a huge challenge. It would also mean Democrats would have to eliminate the Senate filibuster, which they may not have the votes to do, or concoct other procedural routes around the 60-vote hurdle.”I’m going to start negotiating” with Republicans, Durbin said. He added that a bipartisan bill would be better “if we can do it” because it would improve chances for passage.Democrats already face attacks from Republicans, eyeing next year’s elections, on an issue that helped power Trump’s 2016 victory by fortifying his support from many white voters.FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., gives his assessment of the GOP’s performance in the general election as he speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 4, 2020.House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Biden’s proposal would “prioritize help for illegal immigrants and not our fellow citizens.” Senator Rick Scott, R-Fla., who heads the Senate Republican campaign committee, said the measure would hurt “hardworking Americans and the millions of immigrants working their way through the legal immigration process.”Democrats say such allegations are false but say it’s difficult to compose crisp, sound-bite responses on the complex issue. It requires having “an adult conversation” with voters, Representative Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., said in an interview.”Yeah, this is about people, but it’s about the economy,” too, said Spanberger, a moderate from a district where farms and technology firms hire many immigrants. “In central Virginia, we rely on immigration. And you may not like that, but we do.” 
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Prominent Iran-based and Iranian diaspora critics of Tehran’s Islamist rulers have differing expectations about how far U.S. President Joe Biden will go to implement his promised new approach to dealing with Iran’s objectionable behavior.Biden, who took office on Wednesday, has vowed to use diplomacy in coordination with U.S. allies to try to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 deal in which world powers offered Iranian leaders sanctions relief in return for curbs on nuclear activities that could be diverted into weapons production.Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, saying it was not tough enough on Iran, and unilaterally tightened U.S. sanctions aimed at pressuring Tehran into scrapping its nuclear program and other activities deemed a threat to the U.S. and its allies. Tehran has vowed to defy what Trump called his “maximum pressure” policy and has denied seeking nuclear weapons.The Biden administration has said Iran must stop the escalating series of JCPOA violations that it began in retaliation for the 2018 pullout and return to compliance before the U.S. also returns to the deal. Tehran has said Washington should make the first move by easing sanctions. Other world powers, including U.S. allies in Europe, have called on both the U.S. and Iran to fully recommit to the 2015 agreement.Some of Tehran’s Iran-based and Iranian diaspora critics who appeared in VOA Persian’s TV coverage of Biden’s Wednesday inauguration said they expect him to be more aligned with European powers than was Trump in responding to Iran’s nuclear deal violations.Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Biden is likely to take the initiative by signing an executive order rescinding Trump’s 2018 nuclear deal pullout.FILE – US President Donald Trump holds up a proclamation declaring his intention to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement after signing it in the Diplomatic Room at the White House in Washington, May 8, 2018.“We can expect Iran to do the same and start the process of returning to its full compliance under the JCPOA,” Vaez said. “Eventually, the JCPOA’s joint commission can set a two- to three-month timeline for both sides to take steps to return to their commitments, for example by Iran sending its enriched uranium stockpile overseas and the U.S. restoring access to some of Iran’s blocked bank accounts on the same day,” he added.Ghasem Sholeh-Saadi, a Tehran University law professor and former Iranian lawmaker, said he expects Biden to usher in a “remarkable” change in U.S. coordination with its European allies on Iran.“Biden has the international credibility to be able to form a significant coalition against Iran if he wants to pursue that path,” Sholeh-Saadi said.Other Iranian diaspora commentators said they expect Biden to build on, rather than abandon, Trump’s maximum pressure policy toward Tehran.Abbas Milani, director of Iran studies at Stanford University, said the escalation in U.S.-Iran tensions in the years since the JCPOA was signed makes it impossible to return to the deal.“I don’t see President Biden and his team returning to an agreement from which Iran has effectively withdrawn,” Milani said.Bijan Kian, who worked with Trump’s 2016 presidential transition team on intelligence issues said he expects Biden to negotiate any new deal to stop objectionable Iranian behavior from a position of strength built by the Trump administration. Under such an agreement, Iran’s ruling clerics would have a “very tough road ahead,” he said.FILE – Iranian protesters gather around a fire during a demonstration against an increase in gasoline prices in the capital Tehran, Nov. 16, 2019.Iranian diaspora rights activists also differed in how they said Biden should respond to Iran’s suppression of anti-government protests and its imprisonment and executions of dissidents in recent years.Amir Hossein Etemadi, a Washington-based member of pro-democracy group Iran Revival (Farashgard), said the Biden administration should support Iranians’ desire for democracy in the same way that he believes the Trump administration did. Biden “must stand with the Iranian people against their government, because Iranians are peace-loving and seek friendship with the U.S.,” he said.Roya Boroumand, co-founder of the rights group Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, said Biden should go further than Trump in helping the Iranian people to raise their voices.She said the Trump administration erred by not including its calls for Iran to stop domestic repression of dissent as one of multiple U.S. conditions for ending “maximum pressure” against Tehran. Most of those conditions involved Iran stopping its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and ending its support for Islamist militants who have fought the U.S. and its allies in the region.“Trump’s approach conveyed a bad message to the Iranian regime that changes in its foreign policy would be enough to remove the maximum pressure,” Boroumand said. “It also enabled Iranians who have no respect for human rights to tell others that the U.S. also disregards human rights and uses them just to promote political agendas.”This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. 
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Prominent Iran-based and Iranian diaspora critics of Tehran’s Islamist rulers have differing expectations about how far U.S. President Joe Biden will go to implement his promised new approach to dealing with Iran’s objectionable behavior.Biden, who took office on Wednesday, has vowed to use diplomacy in coordination with U.S. allies to try to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 deal in which world powers offered Iranian leaders sanctions relief in return for curbs on nuclear activities that could be diverted into weapons production.Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, saying it was not tough enough on Iran, and unilaterally tightened U.S. sanctions aimed at pressuring Tehran into scrapping its nuclear program and other activities deemed a threat to the U.S. and its allies. Tehran has vowed to defy what Trump called his “maximum pressure” policy and has denied seeking nuclear weapons.The Biden administration has said Iran must stop the escalating series of JCPOA violations that it began in retaliation for the 2018 pullout and return to compliance before the U.S. also returns to the deal. Tehran has said Washington should make the first move by easing sanctions. Other world powers, including U.S. allies in Europe, have called on both the U.S. and Iran to fully recommit to the 2015 agreement.Some of Tehran’s Iran-based and Iranian diaspora critics who appeared in VOA Persian’s TV coverage of Biden’s Wednesday inauguration said they expect him to be more aligned with European powers than was Trump in responding to Iran’s nuclear deal violations.Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Biden is likely to take the initiative by signing an executive order rescinding Trump’s 2018 nuclear deal pullout.FILE – US President Donald Trump holds up a proclamation declaring his intention to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement after signing it in the Diplomatic Room at the White House in Washington, May 8, 2018.“We can expect Iran to do the same and start the process of returning to its full compliance under the JCPOA,” Vaez said. “Eventually, the JCPOA’s joint commission can set a two- to three-month timeline for both sides to take steps to return to their commitments, for example by Iran sending its enriched uranium stockpile overseas and the U.S. restoring access to some of Iran’s blocked bank accounts on the same day,” he added.Ghasem Sholeh-Saadi, a Tehran University law professor and former Iranian lawmaker, said he expects Biden to usher in a “remarkable” change in U.S. coordination with its European allies on Iran.“Biden has the international credibility to be able to form a significant coalition against Iran if he wants to pursue that path,” Sholeh-Saadi said.Other Iranian diaspora commentators said they expect Biden to build on, rather than abandon, Trump’s maximum pressure policy toward Tehran.Abbas Milani, director of Iran studies at Stanford University, said the escalation in U.S.-Iran tensions in the years since the JCPOA was signed makes it impossible to return to the deal.“I don’t see President Biden and his team returning to an agreement from which Iran has effectively withdrawn,” Milani said.Bijan Kian, who worked with Trump’s 2016 presidential transition team on intelligence issues said he expects Biden to negotiate any new deal to stop objectionable Iranian behavior from a position of strength built by the Trump administration. Under such an agreement, Iran’s ruling clerics would have a “very tough road ahead,” he said.Iranian diaspora rights activists also differed in how they said Biden should respond to Iran’s suppression of antigovernment protests and its imprisonment and executions of dissidents in recent years.Amir Hossein Etemadi, a Washington-based member of pro-democracy group Iran Revival (Farashgard), said the Biden administration should support Iranians’ desire for democracy in the same way that he believes the Trump administration did. Biden “must stand with the Iranian people against their government, because Iranians are peace-loving and seek friendship with the U.S.,” he said.Roya Boroumand, co-founder of the rights group Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, said Biden should go further than Trump in helping the Iranian people to raise their voices.She said the Trump administration erred by not including its calls for Iran to stop domestic repression of dissent as one of multiple U.S. conditions for ending “maximum pressure” against Tehran. Most of those conditions involved Iran stopping its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and ending its support for Islamist militants who have fought the U.S. and its allies in the region.“Trump’s approach conveyed a bad message to the Iranian regime that changes in its foreign policy would be enough to remove the maximum pressure,” Boroumand said. “It also enabled Iranians who have no respect for human rights to tell others that the U.S. also disregards human rights and uses them just to promote political agendas.”This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. 
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