Author: PolitCens

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee announced contempt proceedings against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, citing his refusal to comply with a subpoena for records into his “transparently political misuse” of department resources.
 
The Democratic chairman of the committee, Eliot Engel, also cited Pompeo’s speech from Jerusalem before the Republican National Convention and said “he has demonstrated alarming disregard for the laws and rules governing his own conduct and for the tools the constitution provides to prevent government corruption.”
 
The committee last month issued a subpoena to Pompeo demanding documents he provided to Republicans investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.“The House Foreign Affairs Committee is seeking documents which the State Department has already produced to Senate Democrats,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We have previously offered to provide copies of these documents to Chairman Engel, with the only condition being that he send a letter explaining what foreign policy issue he is investigating that requires these documents. Once this letter is received, the Department will produce the documents. This press release is political theatrics and is an unfortunate waste of taxpayer resources.”
 
A Republican-led U.S. Senate committee has been gathering information related to Hunter Biden, son of the former U.S. vice president, Republican President Donald Trump’s opponent in the November election.
 
Hunter Biden was a former board member of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The company was thrust into the global spotlight last year in the impeachment inquiry into whether Trump improperly pressured the government in Kyiv into opening a case involving his election rival.
 
“I gave Mr. Pompeo ample opportunity to fulfill my request for documents, which I first made more than three months ago. These documents were already produced to the Senate, and his refusal to provide them to the Foreign Affairs Committee required that I issue a subpoena on July 31,” Engel said in a statement. 
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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered around the White House for a “noise demonstration and dance party” in an attempt to drown out President Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.
 
And later, a crowd enveloped U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky as he left the convention, yelling for him to say the name of police shooting victim Breonna Taylor, who was killed in his state, but there was no indication the protesters were the same.
 
“I hope you hear us, Trump,” the leader of the popular local band TOB shouted near the site of Trump’s speech. The band blared Go-Go music, a distinctive D.C. variant on funk, as it moved in the direction of the White House, where Trump delivered his acceptance speech to a crowd of more 1,500 people on the South Lawn.
 
One protester held up a sign, “Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue” — the street where the White House is located.  
 
There was no indication that Trump heard the protesters, but there were a few points when a mix of sirens, music and blowhorns could be heard in the background and spectators in the back turned to see where the sounds were coming from.
 
Acknowledging the coronavirus pandemic, the demonstrators wore masks but there was no social distancing.  
 
“Make some noise if you want to drown out Trump,” protest organizer Justin Johnson said.
 
After the convention concluded, there were skirmishes as protesters yelled and threw water bottles at police at the historic St. John’s Church near Black Lives Matter Plaza. There were some arrests.
 
Video posted online showed dozens of people confronting Senator Paul and his wife, who were flanked by police officers, on a street after midnight. Protesters shouted “No Justice, No Peace” and “Say Her Name” before one appears to briefly clash with an officer, pushing him and his bike backward, sending the officer into Paul’s shoulder.
 
Paul later tweeted that he had been “attacked” by a “crazed mob” a block from the White House. The senator and his wife kept walking and did not appear to have been touched by any of the protesters or to have suffered any injuries.
 
Videos showed other attendees also being confronted by protesters after leaving Trump’s event.
 
There was a robust police presence, but the noise demonstration outside the White House was generally peaceful. There was a moment of levity at the end.
 
“You guys gotta get some rhythm,” a protester told Secret Service officers.
 
“Would you have rhythm if you were wearing 30 pounds of gear,” one responded.
 
The demonstration was significantly smaller than the protests that rocked the nation’s capital this past spring after George Floyd died at police hands in Minneapolis.  
 
Floyd’s family and the families of other Black Americans who were victims of police violence were expected to participate Friday in a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington that is being led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III.  
 
Before Trump spoke, there was a brief standoff between police and demonstrators, who shouted anti-police slogans. “Free the people, fight the power,” they chanted. Nearby protesters set up a small guillotine, with the District of Columbia flag as the blade.  
 
Lafayette Park, a traditional site of demonstrations across from the White House, was sealed off and there were some street closures.  
 
The groups ShutdownDC and Long-Live Go-Go had put out word in advance about the planned “noise demonstration and dance party” to coincide with Trump’s speech.  
 
“We’ll be at the White House on Thursday to drown out (Trump’s) racist rhetoric with another vision for the future of our country,” the groups said in a statement.
 
A longtime D.C. signature sound, Go-Go music emerged last year as a battle anthem for activists fighting fast-moving gentrification in the nation’s capital. The music has been a regular presence in recent protests against racial injustice and rolling Go-Go trucks with live bands have appeared frequently at the epicenter of the protests, which was renamed by the city as Black Lives Matter Plaza.
  
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During his White House address Thursday accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, President Donald Trump said the November election “will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.”  Trump, who faces a strong challenge from former Vice President Joe Biden, told a large crowd on the White House South Lawn “this is the most important election in the history of our country.” People watch video screens before President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.The 1,000-plus invited attendees, including many Republican members of Congress, were seated close to each other and most did not wear face masks, defying public health advice amid the coronavirus pandemic.  Trump, who trails Biden in national polls and political battleground state surveys, devoted much of his speech to a blistering attack on his Democratic opponent, denouncing him at one point as a “Trojan horse” for far left radicals and anarchists who want to destroy the country.To rousing cheers from the audience, Trump said the former vice president “is not a savior of America’s soul. He is the destroyer of America’s jobs. And if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness.”“For 47 years, Joe Biden took the donations of blue-collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses,” Trump said. “And told them he felt their pain. And then he flew back to Washington and voted to ship our jobs to China and many other distant lands.”President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.Tough on ChinaThe president, in his 70-minute speech, emphasized what he called his tough approach toward China, in terms of the economy and blaming Beijing for allowing the coronavirus to escape its borders. In fact, Trump enjoyed good relations with China leader Xi Jinping early in his administration while the two leaders engaged in major trade talks, and later, after the coronavirus began to spread, Trump praised Xi for his handling of the crisis.  Once the relationship soured and Trump began blaming China for U.S. public health and economic woes, the president stepped up his criticism of Biden as a dupe of China.“Joe Biden’s agenda is made in China. My agenda is made in the USA,” Trump said.  If reelected, Trump promised, “We will go right after China. We will not rely on them one bit.” Just before the president’ speech, Biden’s campaign attacked Trump as “the weakest president that we’ve ever had when it comes to China.”“He has failed again and again to stand up for American interests to the Chinese government,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.The Democratic Party nominee’s campaign contended that “when coronavirus was emerging, Trump spread Xi’s lies. And his tariff war with China has devastated American farmers, businesses, consumers, and workers. He even begged President Xi to bail out his reelection campaign.”Wrong side of history In his speech, Trump said Biden “has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history.”The president also sought to draw a philosophical and moral contrast between the two parties. “In the left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just and exceptional nation on Earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sin.” Trump declared that “Joe Biden is weak. He takes his marching orders from liberal hypocrites.” Biden, at a virtual campaign event earlier Thursday, criticized the president as “totally irresponsible” for holding a purely political event on the White House lawn, “virtually throwing every major rule in the dust bin.” Ivanka Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)Mix of virtual, live eventsA fireworks display, which spelled out the name “Trump” and “2020” above the Washington Monument and the National Mall immediately followed the president’s speech.  Aside from his speech live in front of the crowd at the White House, and one Wednesday night in Baltimore by Vice President Mike Pence, the Republicans’ four-day convention was mostly a virtual affair, similar to the Democratic conclave a week ago. By turning to virtual conventions, both parties were attempting to limit the spread of the coronavirus that has killed more than 180,000 people in the U.S. and infected 5.8 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.  “We’ll produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner,” Trump predicted Thursday evening.  The president’s key advisers believe he improved his political standing this week with speakers praising his 3½-year tenure in the White House and lambasting Biden, most of them standing on a stage at the empty Mellon Auditorium a short distance from the White House.  Trump was introduced by one of his daughters, Ivanka, who is also a White House adviser. “Dad, people attack you for being unconventional, but I love you for being real,” she said. “And I respect you for being effective.” The National Guard protect the perimeter of government buildings in Kenosha, Wis. on Aug. 27, 2020.Racial unrest During the Republican convention, racial turmoil erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the police shooting Sunday of a Black man, Jacob Blake, touched off street protests against police. Buildings were also set afire in the Midwestern city of 100,000 residents. A 17-year-old youth from the neighboring state of Illinois has been arrested and charged in the killing of two protesters and the wounding of a third.  Trump, in his acceptance speech did not mention the wounding of Blake, who is paralyzed from the waist down, his father said. He re-emphasized his law-and-order approach, condemning agitators, looters and anarchists in several Democrat-run cities.     Trump and Pence, along with numerous convention speakers, portrayed their administration as a staunch supporter of law enforcement, standing against protests, some of which have turned violent, that have erupted since the May 25 death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  From left, Tiffany Trump, President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and Barron Trump stand on stage on the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020.Fact checks & polls The president’s address kept fact-checkers busy. 
Some of the president’s comments were false or misleading, according to PolitiFact, which is run by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school and research organization.  Polls show Biden leading Trump by about 7 percentage points, according to an aggregation of surveys by the Real Clear Politics website. However, Biden’s edge is thinner in several key battleground states that could once again prove decisive in the election.      Only two U.S. presidents have lost reelection contests after a single term in office in the past four decades: Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992.
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During his White House address Thursday accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, President Donald Trump said the November election “will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.”Trump, who faces a strong challenge from former Vice President Joe Biden, told a large crowd on the White House South Lawn “this is the most important election in the history of our country.”The 1,000-plus invited attendees, including many Republican members of Congress, were seated close to each other and most did not wear face masks, defying public health advice amid the coronavirus pandemic.Trump, who trails Biden in national polls and political battleground state surveys, devoted much of his speech to a blistering attack on his Democratic opponent, denouncing him at one point as a “Trojan horse” for far left radicals and anarchists who want to destroy the country.To rousing cheers from the audience, Trump said the former vice president “is not a savior of America’s soul. He is the destroyer of America’s jobs. And if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness.”“For 47 years, Joe Biden took the donations of blue-collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses,” Trump said. “And told them he felt their pain. And then he flew back to Washington and voted to ship our jobs to China and many other distant lands.”The president, in his 70-minute speech, emphasized what he called his tough approach toward China, in terms of the economy and blaming Beijing for allowing the coronavirus to escape its borders.President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.In fact, Trump enjoyed good relations with China leader Xi Jinping early in his administration while the two leaders engaged in major trade talks, and later, after the coronavirus began to spread, Trump praised Xi for his handling of the crisis. Once the relationship soured and Trump began blaming China for U.S. public health and economic woes, the president stepped up his criticism of Biden as a dupe of China.“Joe Biden’s agenda is made in China. My agenda is made in the USA,” Trump said.If reelected, Trump promised, “We will go right after China. We will not rely on them one bit.”Just before the president’ speech, Biden’s campaign attacked Trump as “the weakest president that we’ve ever had when it comes to China.”“He has failed again and again to stand up for American interests to the Chinese government,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.The Democratic Party nominee’s campaign contended that “when coronavirus was emerging, Trump spread Xi’s lies. And his tariff war with China has devastated American farmers, businesses, consumers, and workers. He even begged President Xi to bail out his reelection campaign.”In his speech, Trump said Biden “has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Ivanka Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.A fireworks display, which spelled out the name “Trump” and “2020” above the Washington Monument and the National Mall, immediately followed the president’s speech.Aside from his speech live in front of the crowd at the White House, and one Wednesday night in Baltimore by Vice President Mike Pence, the Republicans’ four-day convention was mostly a virtual affair, similar to the Democratic conclave a week ago.By turning to virtual conventions, both parties were attempting to limit the spread of the coronavirus that, according to Johns Hopkins University, has killed more than 180,000 people in the U.S. and infected 5.8 million.“We’ll produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner,” Trump predicted Thursday evening.The president’s key advisers believe he improved his political standing this week with speakers praising his 3½-year tenure in the White House and lambasting Biden, most of them standing on a stage at the empty Mellon Auditorium a short distance from the White House.Trump was introduced by one of his daughters, Ivanka, who is also a White House adviser.“Dad, people attack you for being unconventional, but I love you for being real,” she said. “And I respect you for being effective.”During the Republican convention, racial turmoil erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the police shooting Sunday of a Black man, Jacob Blake, touched off street protests against police. Buildings were also set afire in the Midwestern city of 100,000 residents. A 17-year-old youth from the neighboring state of Illinois has been arrested and charged in the killing of two protesters and the wounding of a third.Trump, in his acceptance speech did not mention the wounding of Blake, who is paralyzed from the waist down, his father said. He reemphasized his law-and-order approach, condemning agitators, looters and anarchists in several Democrat-run cities.Trump and Pence, along with numerous convention speakers, portrayed their administration as a staunch supporter of law enforcement, standing against protests, some of which have turned violent, that have erupted since the May 25 death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.The president’s lengthy address kept fact-checkers busy.Some of the president’s comments were false or misleading, according to PolitiFact, which is run by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school and research organization.The New York Times also attempted a comprehensive running fact check during the address and gave the president mixed reviews in terms of adhering to the truth.There were more than 20 false or misleading claims made by Trump in his speech, according to CNN’s Daniel Dale.”This President is a serial liar.”In a lengthy acceptance speech delivered almost entirely from a teleprompter, CNN’s @ddale8 says President Trump made at least 20 false or misleading claims https://t.co/qKSEhb8N6dpic.twitter.com/RfqWW2epYS— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 28, 2020Polls show Biden leading Trump by about 7 percentage points, according to an aggregation of surveys by the Real Clear Politics website. However, Biden’s edge is thinner in several key battleground states that could once again prove decisive in the election.Only two U.S. presidents have lost reelection contests after a single term in office in the past four decades: Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992. 
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President Donald Trump concluded the final night of the Republican National Convention with an acceptance speech delivered in front a live audience of about 1,500 people on the South Lawn of the White House. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this recap.
Camera: Virginia Gunawan
Produced by: Barry Unger 
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Former directors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the world-renowned American agency that has long taken the lead in fighting communicable diseases, are voicing unusual criticism of the U.S. handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the CDC’s limited role in that effort.COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed more than 180,000 people in the U.S., and those are only the confirmed cases. The CDC says the actual number of COVID-19 deaths is much higher and that the virus will be a leading cause of deaths in the U.S. in 2020.Five former CDC directors, appointed by both Republican and Democratic administrations, say the agency should be doing more to lead the effort to contain the pandemic.FILE – Dr. Richard Besser, May 8, 2013, in New York.Among them is Dr. Richard Besser, who as acting director of the CDC held daily televised news conferences during the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2008-09, which infected more than 60 million people in the U.S. and killed 12,469 people. Globally, the World Health Organization estimated that a half-million people died.During the current pandemic, however, the White House Coronavirus Task Force is being led not by the CDC, but by Vice President Mike Pence, prompting questions about the extent to which the task force’s advice may be seen as politically motivated.“It really concerns me that we’re not hearing from CDC every day. We’re not hearing from them about what they consider to be the best practices in terms of isolation and quarantine, what needs to be done,” Besser said in a recent interview with STAT, a health publication run by the publishers of the Boston Globe newspaper.“We’re seeing so much that’s being presented to us by political leaders, and when that’s the case, half the country says, ‘Great, I’m on board,’ and the rest rejects things out of hand because of the messenger. …  The more you can depoliticize the response, the more successful you’re going to be.”FILE – Dr. David Satcher, May 31, 2012, in Atlanta.That concern is shared by Dr. David Satcher, who was appointed to lead the CDC by Democratic President Bill Clinton. “I think it was obvious during the time that we were having daily reports about the pandemic that CDC was being sidelined,” Satcher said in an interview, regarding the task force’s late afternoon briefings earlier this year.He contrasted that with the prestigious role the agency held when he was director. “What I remember is that whenever there was a major issue in the world, people called the CDC before they called the World Health Organization, even though there was a very good working relationship between the CDC and WHO.”The former directors acknowledge shortcomings in the performance of the agency itself, which in the early days of the pandemic rolled out a defective test and advised the public against wearing face masks – advice that was later reversed when the extent of asymptomatic transmission became understood.But medical professionals have learned a lot about the coronavirus since then, according to Dr. Julie Gerberding, who became director of the CDC under Republican President George W. Bush. She is now an executive vice president at the pharmaceutical giant Merck.FILE – Merck Executive Vice President and Chief Patient Officer Julie Gerberding is seen on a screen as she gives a statement during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, June 23, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Gerberding recently told ABC News that she would love to turn back the clock because so much has been learned about the virus since it first appeared. “We know it is incredibly transmissible,” she said, “and we know that most people are still susceptible.”When Dr. Tom Frieden headed the CDC, after his appointment by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, the CDC was highly involved in the Ebola crisis in West Africa, from 2014 to 2016. Frieden now heads a global public health initiative called Resolve to Save Lives.He has been among the most outspoken of the former directors in accusing the Trump administration of dictating health policy to the CDC.FILE – Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), speaks at the New America think tank in Washington, D.C., July 13, 2016.“I don’t think there’s ever been a time before when people from the White House or HHS are dictating what goes on technical documents on the CDC website,” he said Thursday during a webinar sponsored by Vital Strategies, a global health organization. “This is dangerous. This is a big problem. It’s a big problem for a lot of reasons, as some of you know the CDC.”Satcher and the others are critical of President Donald Trump’s push to open schools and businesses when, they say, the virus is not yet under control. They say rushing to get things back to normal will only spread the virus.A number of universities have had to close after the virus spread when students returned to campus for the fall semester. A judge in Florida ruled that public schools don’t have to abide by the state’s requirement for in-person instruction because it “arbitrarily disregards safety” and denies local school boards the ability to decide when students can safely return.Besser, now president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest health philanthropy in the U.S., says CDC guidance needs to be followed for the public good and that it should not be seen as “a barrier to getting children back into school instead of a road map for doing it safely.”Satcher, who founded the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, told VOA that “the priority in any pandemic ought to be prevention.” He also said fighting a pandemic requires leadership from the president.The former directors have been critical of what they called misleading information coming from the White House. Trump has touted the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which the health specialists say does not cure COVID-19 and may be harmful.Although Trump later said he was being sarcastic, a remark he made about injecting disinfectants as a means to treat the virus prompted companies that produce them to run televised advisories warning people that their products could be deadly if injected or ingested.FILE – Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, August 29, 1999.Dr. Jeffrey Koplan spent 26 years at the CDC. He was the director from 1998 to 2002, and later established the Atlanta-based Emory Global Health Institute.”We need to feed truth back to the American public and to use those truths with our scientific evidence to control this disease,” he said.All agree that pulling together and following the science is the best course. They also recommend following standard disease prevention methods like avoiding crowds, practicing good hand hygiene, staying at least two meters from others, and wearing masks when in public.Trump has been seen wearing a mask in public only twice. An audience at the White House Rose Garden did not wear masks during first lady Melania Trump’s speech during the Republican National Convention.When VOA asked for a response from the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere told VOA, “The White House and CDC have been working together in partnership since the very beginning of this pandemic to carry out the president’s highest priority: the health and safety of the American public.”The CDC is the nation’s trusted health protection agency and its infectious disease and public health experts have helped deliver critical solutions throughout this pandemic to save lives,” Deere said. “We encourage all Americans to continue to follow the CDC’s guidelines as we responsibly continue to open up America.”The CDC has reversed its recommendations on testing for COVID-19. The agency had been recommending that those who have been exposed to the virus get tested, even if they did not have symptoms. On August 25, the CDC said people who don’t have symptoms “do not necessarily need a test,” even though it’s known that people without symptoms can pass the virus to others.Several U.S. news organizations claim the CDC was pressured to revise its testing guidelines by Trump administration officials.The American Medical Association issued a statement saying “COVID-19 is spread by asymptomatic people. Suggesting that people without symptoms, who have known exposure to COVID-positive individuals, do not need testing is a recipe for community spread and more spikes in coronavirus.”The leading U.S. doctors group also asked the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services to provide the scientific justification for this change in testing guidelines.In an email to VOA, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said the agency is placing emphasis “on testing individuals with symptomatic illness”; those “with a significant exposure,” such as people in nursing homes, health care workers and first responders; or people “who may be asymptomatic when prioritized by medical and public health officials.”Redfield said, “Testing may be considered for all close contacts of confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients.”Redfield’s statement said the new guidelines were “coordinated in conjunction with the White House Coronavirus Task Force.”
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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is rejecting calls that he not formally debate President Donald Trump.  “I’m going to debate him. I am going to be the fact-checker on the stage while I’m debating him,” Biden said Thursday during an interview with MSNBC. The former vice president added, “I think everybody knows that this man has a somewhat pathological tendency not to tell the truth.”  Trump and Biden are scheduled for debates on September 29, October 15 and October 22. Biden made the statements shortly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she did not think there should be any presidential debates this year.  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Aug. 27, 2020.“I wouldn’t legitimize a conversation with him, nor a debate in terms of the presidency of the United States,” Pelosi said.  She predicted that during the debates, Trump would “probably act in a way that is beneath the dignity of the presidency,” recalling what she termed his “disgraceful” actions during the 2016 debates with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when he loomed over the Democratic nominee during a town hall-style encounter.   With 67 days left until the 2020 election, Democrats are continuing to assail Trump for his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed 180,000 people in the United States — the most reported by any country, according to Johns Hopkins University data.  In some of the most searing language yet by the opposition party’s ticket, Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, said that while the threat from the virus increased, “Donald Trump stood idly by, and folks, it was a deadly decision.“Donald Trump froze. He was scared. And he was petty and vindictive,” she said in a livestreamed speech from George Washington University in Washington. Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks in Washington, Aug. 27, 2020.In her first solo outing of the campaign, Harris said that while Biden has proposed a plan to combat COVID-19, the current president still does not have a plan. “You can’t stop it with a tweet,” she said. Harris said Trump has failed miserably to carry out a president’s most fundamental duty, which is to protect the American people.  Trump has repeatedly emphasized his decision at the end of January to ban entry to anyone who had been in China during the previous 14 days, a decision that came immediately after the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency.   The president credits his action with saving potentially millions of American lives, and says Biden criticized it at the time. On the day after the China ban, Biden called Trump xenophobic and said the president should make decisions based on science. But Democrats contend the former vice president was criticizing Trump in general, not the specific policy.  
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The White House and congressional Democrats made no progress Thursday on a coronavirus financial relief package that has been stalled for weeks, as benefits ran out for millions of unemployed Americans.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a Thursday afternoon call with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows “made clear that the White House continues to disregard the needs of the American people as the coronavirus crisis devastates lives and livelihoods.”Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer last met with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Meadows at the end of July, just as $600 a week in supplemental federal unemployment benefits expired for millions of Americans put out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic.White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, center, waits in the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 3, 2020.Commenting Tuesday on Pelosi’s negotiating position to Politico, Meadows said, “I think privately she says she wants a deal, and publicly she says she wants a deal, but when it comes to dealing with Republicans and the administration, we haven’t seen a lot of action.”In a statement Thursday, Pelosi said negotiations would resume “once Republicans start to take this process seriously.”Pelosi and other Democrats have proposed an extension of those benefits, while Republicans have countered with a measure that would set aid at 70% of what a worker was paid before being laid off.U.S. lawmakers are running out of days in the session to negotiate an agreement. The congressional schedule includes more district work periods, allowing members to campaign for approaching elections in their home districts.Agreeing on an overall price tag for a second massive relief package will also be difficult in an election year. Democrats are calling for $3 trillion in new spending, while Republicans have proposed $1 trillion.The Republican-majority Senate is working on a smaller, so-called “skinny relief” bill that would provide some temporary aid and that could be tied to the upcoming September 30 government funding deadline. But Pelosi and other Democrats have rejected a “piecemeal” approach to more coronavirus relief aid.Earlier this year, Congress quickly passed a $2.2 trillion measure, one of the largest relief packages in U.S. history, to address the economic and health crises caused by the pandemic.
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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence accepted the nomination for a second term in office as Republicans met for a third day in a mostly virtual national convention. Mike O’Sullivan reports that, in the midst of civil unrest in many American cities, Pence offered an upbeat message with warnings about his Democratic Party opponents.
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President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has made “law and order” a central theme of this week’s Republican National Convention, focusing attention on incidents of violence and vandalism that have accompanied widespread racial justice protests. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on what Trump supporters see as a growing threat to public safety and why his opponents say Trump is politicizing the crisis.
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President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has made “law and order” a central theme of this week’s Republican National Convention, focusing attention on incidents of violence and vandalism that have accompanied widespread racial justice protests. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on what Trump supporters see as a growing threat to public safety and why his opponents say Trump is politicizing the crisis.
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President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has made “law and order” a central theme of this week’s Republican National Convention, focusing attention on incidents of violence and vandalism that have accompanied widespread racial justice protests. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on what Trump supporters see as a growing threat to public safety and why his opponents say Trump is politicizing the crisis.
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