Trump says he does not believe white nationalism is rising after signing first veto
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump signed the first veto of his presidency after the Senate‘s decision to vote 59-41 in favour of a resolution expressing disapproval at his national emergency declaration over the illegal immigration “crisis” at the southern border.
In a major embarrassment for the president, 12 Republicans voted against his invocation of emergency powers to get his signature US-Mexico border wall built, bringing the resolution to his desk and forcing him to exercise his powers of office to block it. Mr Trump then claimed there was an “invasion” at the border and vetoed the resolution.
Despite the veto, the president’s emergency declaration still faces numerous legal challenges, with cases arguing it was unconstitutional.
American Civil Liberties Union, which filed one of the cases, said the veto was meaningless. “Congress has rejected the president’s declaration, and now the courts will be the ultimate arbiter of its legality,” said executive director Anthony Romero. “We look forward to seeing him in court and to the shellacking that he will receive at the hands of an independent judiciary.”
Meanwhile, top officials from Donald Trump’s administration failed to describe the terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, as acts of terror, including his vice president, White House press secretary, ambassador to New Zealand and more.
When asked during the Oval Office address whether he saw an increase in white nationalism, Mr Trump said: “I don’t really. I think it’s a small group of people.”
He also said he had not seen a manifesto in which the suspected gunman denounced immigrants and praised Mr Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose”.
At least 49 people were killed with dozens more seriously injured after shootings at two mosques in Christchurch. The suspected attacker, Brenton Tarrant, live-streamed the attack and outlined his anti-immigrant motives in a manifesto posted online.
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Following yesterday's Senate vote, the president now has 10 days to veto the resolution.
On 26 March, the House Democrats can then stage a vote to override the veto. When it passes and reaches the Senate, it would then require a two-thirds majority to carry the day.
That would require further Republican resistance.
The 12 Republicans voting with Democrats yesterday were: Tennessee's Lamar Alexander, Utah's Mitt Romney, Ohio's Rob Portman, Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey, Kansas' Jerry Moran, Missouri's Roy Blunt, Maine's Susan Collins, Utah's Mike Lee, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Florida's Marco Rubio, Kentucky's Rand Paul and Mississippi's Roger Wicker.
"This is constitutional question, it's a question about the balance of power that is core to our constitution," Mr Romney said. "This is not about the president. The president can certainly express his views as he has and individual senators can express theirs."
A direct challenge to the 1976 National Emergencies Act, this was also the second Republican rebuke of Mr Trump in a week. On Wednesday, the Senate passed a resolution requiring the president to withdraw US troops not fighting al-Qaeda from the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen.
And here's President Trump, adopting the tone of a Hallmark greetings card:
Although the president has 10 days to veto the national emergency resolution, it looks like he might do so today.
This will be Donald Trump's first in office.
The all-time record for presidential vetoes, incidentally, is held by Franklin D Roosevelt, who vetoed no fewer than 635 bills.
President Trump is again watching Fox and Friends and again tweeting about Jexodus, a website founded by his ex-campaign aide Elizabeth Pipko to create the impression Jewish Democrats are leaving the party in droves in response to the antisemitism row sparked by congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
They aren't.
The Jexodus site describes itself as a group of "proud Jewish Millennials tired of living in bondage to leftist politics. We reject the hypocrisy, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism of the rising far-left".
If you were in any doubt as to how close Ms Pipko is to President Trump, she not only worked on his 2016 election campaign but got married at Mar-a-Lago on Boxing Day.
The site was founded in 2019, seemingly solely to capitalise on/cynically exploit precisely this issue.
The Christchurch shooter's manifesto appears to contain an endorsement for Donald Trump as "a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose", according to AFP journalist Andrew Beatty.
During a meeting of the House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee yesterday, Trump treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said he would comply with any request to hand over Donald Trump's personal and business tax returns and assured Congress the president had never asked him to intervene on the matter.
“The answer is, if I receive a request, which I presume from what I’ve read in the press I will receive, I will consult with the legal department within Treasury and I will follow the law,” he said.
“I’m not aware if there’s ever been a request for an elected official’s tax return, but we will follow the law and we would protect the president as we would protect any individual taxpayer under their rights,” he added, hinting that doing so could risk violating Mr Trump's privacy.
As a candidate, Donald Trump broke with custom in 2016 when he became the first presidential nominee in decades not to release his tax returns, arousing huge suspicion ever since.
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