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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Here's more on the new revelations from the special counsel's court filings on Friday:
Notice any similarities in the statements below? A large handful of top US officials declined to call the attack in New Zealand an act of “terror,” as the nation’s prime minister had done the night before.
Muslim leaders are condemning a spread of white nationalism and extremism after the New Zealand terror attack.
The American Civil Liberties Union has responded to Donald Trump’s administration announcing it would ban personnel from the International Criminal Court from entering the nation’s borders in the event the body chooses to investigate alleged US human rights abuses.
The White House has announced Donald Trump will deliver remarks from the Oval Office at 3:30 pm EST. Expect him to discuss his potential first veto over a national emergency declaration that was rebuked by the US Senate yesterday, as well as remarks on the New Zealand terror attack.
And here's a tweet from Melania Trump that fails to mention terrorism, along with the slate of US officials who declined to name the New Zealand attack as an act of terror as well:
As we await Trump's Oval Office appearance - where he is expected to sign a veto of the congressional measure to end his emergency declaration - let's look back at what congress did yesterday.
Republicans joined Democrats in the Senate to overturn the president's declaration of a national emergency. It was a 59-41 vote with Senate passing a measure to rescind Trump's national emergency declaration. It's worth nothing that 12 Republicans defied the president.
Ahead of the Oval Office appearance, Donald Trump has tweeted about border security, perhaps foreshadowing what we can hear him say at 3.30pmET (7.30pmGMT).
Before he was a member of the El Paso City Council, or a popular Democratic lawmaker in the deeply-red state of Texas, Beto O’Rourke was part of a notorious hacking group that helped create the era of “hacktivism,” in which human rights-driven security work has become the focus of tech savvy benefactors.
The Texas Democrat — who launched a bid for the White House this week — secretly went by the username “Psychedelic Warlord” as a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow, the oldest network of hackers in American history.
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