Former President Bill Clinton, the only living American president to have gone through the same process, weighed in Tuesday on House Democrats’ bid to impeach President Trump — saying lawmakers are doing “what they believe is right.”
“They’re doing their job as they see it and we should wait to see it
unfold,” Clinton told Fox News while touring a Clinton Foundation
program in New York City. “And the rest of us should go about our jobs
and do them as we see it.”
House
Democrats on Tuesday announced two articles of impeachment against
Trump, accusing him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over
his interactions with Ukraine.
Clinton was impeached in 1998 for perjury and obstruction of justice related to the Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky controversies but was acquitted in the Senate.
WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama offered an unusual warning
to the Democratic primary field Friday evening, cautioning the
candidates not to move too far to the left in their policy proposals,
even as he sought to reassure a party establishment worried about the
electoral strength of their historically large primary field.
Speaking
before a room of wealthy liberal donors, Obama urged Democrats to
remember the long, combative slog of his primary campaign against
Hillary Clinton in 2008, arguing that the 16-month battle ultimately
made him a stronger general election candidate.
“For those who get
stressed about robust primaries, I just have to remind you I had a very
robust primary,” he told the group of several hundred donors and
organizational leaders in Washington. “I’m confident that at the end of
the process we will have a candidate that has been tested.”
Yet,
he also raised concerns about some of the liberal ideas being promoted
by some candidates, citing health care and immigration as issues where
the proposals may have gone further than public opinion.
While Obama did not single out any specific primary candidate or policy proposal, he cautioned that the universe of voters that could support a Democratic candidate — Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans — are not driven by the same views reflected on “certain left-leaning Twitter feeds” or “the activist wing of our party.”
His death was announced by his family Friday night. The president’s health had been in decline in recent months.
“George Herbert Walker Bush, World War II naval aviator, Texas oil pioneer, and 41st President of the United States of America, died on November 30, 2018. He was 94 and is survived by his five children and their spouses, 17 grandchildren, eight great grandchildren, and two siblings,” the former president’s office said in a statement. “He was preceded in death by his wife of 73 years, Barbara; his second child Pauline “Robin” Bush; and his brothers Prescott and William or “Bucky” Bush.”
George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president of the United States, has died at age 94.
His son George W. Bush, who served as the country’s 43rd president, released a statement of his own from the family.
“Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died,” George W. Bush said. “George H. W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens.”
The family said funeral arrangements would be announced “as soon as is practical.”
Former President George H.W. Bush arrives for the coin toss prior to Super Bowl 51 between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots at NRG Stadium on Feb. 5, 2017 in Houston, Texas.
President Donald Trump sent a lengthy statement just past midnight on Saturday on behalf of he and first lady Melania Trump.
“Melania and I join with a grieving Nation to mourn the loss of former President George H.W. Bush, who passed away last night,” Trump wrote. “Through his essential authenticity, disarming wit, and unwavering commitment to faith, family, and country, President Bush inspired generations of his fellow Americans to public service—to be, in his words, “a thousand points of light” illuminating the greatness, hope, and opportunity of America to the world.
“Along with his full life of service to country, we will remember President Bush for his devotion to family — especially the love of his life, Barbara,” he continued. “His example lives on, and will continue to stir future Americans to pursue a greater cause. Our hearts ache with his loss, and we, with the American people, send our prayers to the entire Bush family, as we honor the life and legacy of 41.”
Bush was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital with a blood infection on April 22 — two days after the funeral for his wife of 73 years, former first lady Barbara Bush.
He is survived by his five children, including former President George W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Bush was with there his wife when she died at the age of 92 on April 17.
“He of course is broken-hearted to lose his beloved Barbara, his wife of 73 years. He held her hand all day and was at her side when [she] left this good earth,” a statement from his office said after her death. “But it will not surprise all of you who know and love him, that he also is being stoic and strong, and is being lifted up by his large and supportive family.”
Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush accompanied by family members watch as pallbearers carry the casket of former first lady Barbara Bush following a funeral service at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, April 21, 2018, in Houston.
Bush was a key part of his family’s political dynasty. His father was a senator; and his son George W. Bush was president from 2001 to 2009.
He served two terms as President Ronald Reagan’s second in command and became the first incumbent vice president to be elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836.
But Bush’s tenure in the White House was limited to four years. He was defeated for re-election by Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992. A weakened economy, a limited domestic agenda and a broken promise against raising taxes contributed to Bush’s defeat.
Bush was a one-time oil executive who spent years in government service, including terms as CIA director, ambassador to the United Nations and liaison to the People’s Republic of China. He was also elected to the House of Representatives as a congressman from Texas. Following his time in the White House, he and his wife moved to Houston, where they led a relatively quiet life.
Meng Hongwei, the president of the international law enforcement agency Interpol who mysteriously disappeared last week, was missing because he was detained by the Chinese government. On Sunday night, three days after Meng was reported missing, the Chinese Communist Party announced that he had been detained as part of an investigation by the party’s corruption and loyalty watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. which suspected him of “violating the law.’ ” On Saturday, Interpol had demanded that China provide information about Meng’s whereabouts, but officials in the country, which is currently celebrating a weeklong holiday, did not reply. On Sunday, after Meng’s detention was confirmed, Interpol then announced that he had resigned from his post effective immediately.
A journalist holds the mobile phone of Grace Meng, the wife of the missing Interpol president Meng Hongwey, showing what she says is the last message exchanged with her husband, during a press conference Saturday in Lyon. Photo: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images
The last person in contact with the 64-year-old Meng was his wife,
Grace, who told reporters before China’s announcement that she had received a WhatsApp message from him containing nothing but a knife emoji after he had arrived in China, which came several minutes after a message which said, “wait for my call.” When she heard nothing more, she alerted French police and reported him missing on Thursday.
The secretary general of Interpol heads the agency, while Meng had the symbolic but powerful position of running its executive committee, which works on official strategy. He was the first Chinese national to hold the position, which he was appointed to in 2016. And though Meng lives with his family Lyon, France, where Interpol is headquartered, he also retained an official role in China as the country’s vice minister of public security. In the end, China clearly decided that his role at Interpol did not prevent them from detaining him and not even admitting it for days. China has been known to carry out such detentions for years. It is not yet clear what Meng did to make himself a target.
Interpol still hasn’t confirmed whether or not he was visiting China on agency business. CNN reported earlier Sunday that the way Meng went missing was, in fact, pretty common when senior officials of China’s ruling Communist Party are accused of violating its rules. The South China Morning Post, a newspaper known for its connections to China’s government, itself reported that Meng had been detained for questioning by upon landing in China last week, and indicated he may have been the target of an ongoing anti-corruption campaign in the country — a campaign which Chinese president Xi Jinping has used to consolidate his power. In fact, according to the Times, Meng’s presidency had alarmed some human rights groups at the time he was appointed, as they worried he would use Interpol resources to help China go after dissidents abroad.
OTTAWA—Quebec MP Maxime Bernier is calling his new political venture The People’s Party of Canada.
Bernier says the name — which will be PPC for short — fits a party that represents people who are tired of Canadian politics being hijacked by special interest groups, cartels and lobbyists.
He says that if people do not like his ideas “that’s OK, don’t vote for me.”
“The politicians, they try to please everybody and when you want to please everybody, you won’t please everybody. That’s not my way of doing politics.”
The maverick MP quit his party last month after spending much of the year butting heads with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer over supply management. Scheer removed him from the Conservative shadow cabinet in June.
Bernier says the new party will be registered with Elections Canada over the next several weeks but that it takes time to do all the required steps.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg were in Washington DC today (Sept. 5) to testify before a US Senate Intelligence Committee on how their platforms could be manipulated by foreign actors ahead of the midterm elections in November. But social media isn’t the only thing being manipulated, it seems.
Dorsey chose to appear before the committee wearing a suit with a button-down shirt, but instead of wearing a tie or leaving the top button casually undone—the two socially acceptable ways shirts are worn in formal settings—Dorsey raised some eyebrows by foregoing the tie and wearing what appears to be a popped shirt collar, or a collar designed to stand that way. The effect fell somewhere between Count Dracula and a Confederate general.
Popped collars have a connotation of rakishness, the affectation of choice for self-styled rebellious types from James Dean and The Fonz, through the preppy 1980s, to rapper Kanye West. Perhaps Dorsey was paying homage to the former Federal Reserve chair, Janet Yellen, who was known for her popped collars.
• Senator John McCain is lying in state in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol, the 31st person to receive that honor.
• Elected officials and the cabinet had a chance to pay their respects in a ceremony at 11 a.m. Vice President Mike Pence spoke on behalf of the Trump administration at a Capitol ceremony honoring Mr. McCain, who did not want President Trump to attend his funeral remembrances.
• The Rotunda is now open for public viewing: A line snaking three rows of barricades stretched down the street by noon, as hundreds waited to pay their respects to the senator. Groups of sailors, wearing their dress whites, dotted the crowds and many held umbrellas aloft to shield themselves from the sun.
Vice President Pence said the president sent him.
Vice President Pence opened his speech by crediting the president who was excluded from the proceedings with his presence: “The president asked me to be here on behalf of a grateful nation, to pay a debt of honor and respect to a man who served his country throughout his life.”
Mr. Pence and Senator McCain joined together in the past to fight earmarks and on other fiscal issues while Mr. Pence was a conservative leader — and a bit of a maverick himself — in the House.
The vice president, who almost always begins his remarks bringing greetings from Mr. Trump, was in the awkward position of having to eulogize a man whom the president has studiously avoided praising in the days since his death.
With Mr. McCain’s grief-stricken daughter Meghan McCain looking on with an icy gaze, Mr. Pence mustered one positive comment, referencing a remark from Mr. Trump during an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday: “As President Trump said yesterday,” he offered, “we respect his service to the country.”
For his own part, Mr. Pence praised Mr. McCain for his “iron will,” and called him a “patriot,” while alluding to the fact that they had many differences.
Cindy McCain, back right, walks with her son Jack McCain, back left, as the follow the military honor guard carrying the casket of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., after a memorial service at North Phoenix Baptist Church Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
“In my years in Congress and as vice president, we didn’t always agree either, and he almost always noticed,” Mr. Pence said. “But his support for limited government, for tax reform, and support for our armed forces surely made our nation more prosperous and more secure, and he will be missed.”
During a week when former colleagues and aides have spoken admiringly of Mr. McCain’s stamina, Mr. Pence also recalled traveling with the senator — more than 20 years his senior — in Iraq and falling asleep in the middle of a dinner with Iraqi officials.
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CARL HULSE and EMILY COCHRANE
Sen. McCain, 81, died Aug. 25 at his ranch near Sedona, Ariz., his office announced in a statement. The senator was diagnosed last July with a brain tumor, and his family announced this week that he was discontinuing medical treatment.
During three decades of representing Arizona in the Senate, he ran twice unsuccessfully for president. He lost a bitter primary campaign to George W. Bush and the Republican establishment in 2000. He then came back to win the nomination in 2008, only to be defeated in the general election by Barack Obama, a charismatic Illinois Democrat who had served less than one term as a senator.
A man who seemed his truest self when outraged, Sen. McCain reveled in going up against orthodoxy. The word “maverick” practically became a part of his name.
Sen. McCain regularly struck at the canons of his party. He ran against the GOP grain by advocating campaign finance reform, liberalized immigration laws and a ban on the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” — widely condemned as torture — against terrorism suspects.
BURLINGTON, Vt. — On a cloudy afternoon this summer, Christine Hallquist, a former utility executive from Vermont, listened closely as Danica Roem, the Virginia state delegate who won national recognition when she became the first transgender person elected to her state’s Legislature, offered tips as the pair canvassed a stark residential neighborhood here.
Ms. Hallquist is transgender, too, but Ms. Roem’s advice had nothing to do with gender identity. Try a light, rhythmic knock. Leave a handwritten note with campaign literature if no one is home. Try to earn every vote.
“I have so much to learn,” Ms. Hallquist said, duly incorporating Ms. Roem’s lessons with each new knock.
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On Tuesday, those lessons paid off, and Ms. Hallquist, a Democrat, made history of her own. She became the first transgender candidate to be nominated for a governorship by a major party, beating three other candidates in Vermont’s Democratic primary, according to The Associated Press.
“Tonight, we made history,” Ms. Hallquist said, addressing supporters at an election night party in Burlington. She added, “I am so proud to be the face of the Democrats tonight.”
It is a remarkable milestone, even for an election year already dominated by an influx of women and a record number of candidates who identify as lesbian, gay, transgender or queer.
“Christine’s victory is a defining moment in the movement for trans equality and is especially remarkable given how few out trans elected officials there are at any level of government,” said Annise Parker, the chief executive of the L.G.B.T.Q. Victory Fund, which trains and supports gay and transgender candidates, in a statement on Tuesday evening. “Yet Vermont voters chose Christine not because of her gender identity, but because she is an open and authentic candidate with a long history of service to the state, and who speaks to the issues most important to voters.”
Several NFL players took a knee, raised fists or did not take to the field while the National Anthem was played Thursday night before preseason games.
The actions came weeks after the league shelved its new policy regarding conduct surrounding the anthem until it reaches an agreement with the NFL Players Association.
The Miami Herald reported that Dolphins wide receiver Kenny Stills, along with wide receiver Albert Wilson, knelt during the anthem before a home game against Tampa Bay.
WTVJ Miami reported that Dolphins defensive end Robert Quinn raised his fist during the song.
The Philadelphia Daily News reported that Eagles defensive end Michael Bennett walked out of the tunnel during the playing of the anthem and headed to the team bench. The Daily News said Eagles captain Malcolm Jenkins and cornerback De’Vante Bausby raised their fists.
