Tag: Zelensky

…meanwhile…

Donald J. Trump returned to a Manhattan court Thursday where his defense attorney cross-examined adult film star Stormy Daniels. The criminal case over falsified business records looks likely to be the only case Trump faces before the election. On Wednesday, the Georgia Court of Appeals announced it will review a judge's ruling that allowed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting Trump, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, which means prosecutors will not get their August trial date.

FRIDAY 5/10/24

Netanyahu on Dr. Phil – As Republicans on Capitol Hill have been criticizing President Biden for withholding arms to Israel over its attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, buzz Friday morning centers on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s interview with Phil McGraw on Dr. Phil Primetime. But Israel’s Haaretz led with this quote from Netanyahu in the interview: “The government’s first responsibility is to protect the people, that’s the ultimate enveloping responsibility, and the people weren’t protected, we have to admit that.”

•••

Confederate Leaders Go Back to School – School board members for Virginia’s Shenandoah County district voted 5-1 to restore names of Confederate leaders to two of its schools early Friday, CNN reports. Mountain View High School is to be renamed Stonewall Jackson High School, and Honey Run Elementary will be renamed Ashby Lee Elementary, for General Robert E. Lee and cavalry commander Turner Ashby, according to the report. 

The Confederate leaders’ names were removed from both schools four years ago in the wake of the 2020 police killing of George Floyd. 

Note: Save for the Jim Crow South, we cannot think of any losing military force that has had its “heros’” names applied to public buildings. We’re confident, for instance, there never has been an Adolf Eichmann secondary school nor a Hermann Göring kindergarten.

--TL

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No Shells for Rafah Attack – The Israeli Defense Force has not entered Rafah’s population centers yet, President Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett on AC 360 Wednesday, but when they do, the U.S. will cut off arms to Israel, including artillery shells.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone into Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not going to supply them the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with those cities, to deal with that problem,” Biden said. 

Republicans on Capitol Hill are objecting, CQ Roll Call reports. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a letter to Biden they were “alarmed” by the pause in armament deliveries, that “flies in the face of assurances provided regarding the timely delivery of security assistance to Israel.”

•••

MTG Fail? – The House voted a decisive 359-43 to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) over bi-partisan passage of a $61-billion aid package to Ukraine. The vote, according to CQ Roll Call, breaks down to just 11 Republicans voting against the motion to table, assisted by 32 Democrats, with another seven Democrats voting “present.” 

While considered a major win for Johnson, who replaced ousted speaker and former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) last year, Punchbowl News says the speaker “looks weak,” after “bucking” or ignoring other Republican congressional leaders’ suggestion he rework the motion to vacate available to any single member when he advanced the Ukraine aid package. 

Meanwhile, MTG – known as “Moscow Marj” in some circles – achieved her goal to get GOP House members on the record regarding the Ukraine aid vote, according to Punchbowl News. On the other hand, this could be considered a sign Republican voters are not so much against aid to Ukraine.

And of course, a statement from Donald J. Trump, whom Johnson visited at Mar-a-Lago in April, reenforced the notion that Trumpian loyalty is a one-way street: “With a majority of one, shortly growing to three or four, we’re not in a position of voting on a motion to vacate. At some point, we may very well be, but this is not the time.”

•••

Cruz Control – Republican senators reportedly are joking rather openly about Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) push to authorize the Federal Aviation Administration’s budget for the fiscal year by Friday’s deadline. Their “bemusement” stems from Cruz’s 180-degree turn from his role as a “conservative rabble-rouser” to “playing the leadon authorizing the FAA,” The Hill reports. Cruz is the ranking Republican on the Commerce Committee.

There is precedent for such hypocrisy, not mentioned in the report, when Cruz and his family jetted off to a Cancun vacation in February 2021 as a severe Texas storm left millions of his voters without power and water. 

“It’s been entertaining to watch,” one unnamed Republican senator told The Hill, regarding Cruz’s FAA push. Quoting the classic comedy movie Airplane, the senator added, “What’s the old Hollywood joke? ‘The foot’s on the other hand.’” Or in Cruz's mouth?

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 5/8/24

Haley Gives GOP Hope -- In case one of Donald J. Trump's myriad criminal cases stick before this August's Republican National Convention in Milwaukee (meaning, hurting him in the polls rather than helping him), his former UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, continues to grab primary votes more than two months after she suspended her campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Haley got 128,000 votes in Tuesday's Indiana primary, according to The Hill's Decision Desk HQ, or 21.7% to Trump's 78.3%. In April, 150,000 Pennsylvania Republicans voted for Haley in that state's primary.

•••

U.S. Blocks Arms During Rafah Attack – In response to the Israeli government’s refusal to hold off its long-threatened attack on Rafah at Gaza’s southern border, the U.S. is withholding shipment of 3,000 missiles to Israel, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Israel’s offensive on Rafah launched after Palestinians believed Hamas had successfully negotiated a ceasefire, but Israel refused to sign on to the deal brokered with Egypt and Qatar.

 •••

Cannon Gums Up Trump’s Classified Docs Trial – Quick reminder of the facts: Then-President Trump appointed Judge Aileen Cannon to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in late 2020. In an August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, the FBI recovered boxes of classified documents Trump hoarded after leaving the White House.

The Washington Post reported last year that witnesses in the subsequent case said Trump showed some classified documents to guests at Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s attorneys, meanwhile, have successfully clogged up special counsel Jack Smith’s case accusing Trump of willful retention of classified documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice, among other charges.

On Tuesday, Cannon issued a five-page order that delays indefinitely the classified documents trial once scheduled for May 20 – less than two weeks from now – and which special counsel Jack Smith had hoped would be rescheduled to July 8 (per Politico).

Considering all the issues between prosecutor Smith and Trump’s defense team, “finalization of a trial date at this juncture … would be imprudent and inconsistent with the court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the pre-trial issues,” Cannon’s order says. 

Theoretically, the case could still go to trial before the end of 2024, some legal pundits say, but that would require Cannon to run out of ways to slow the process.

•••

Zelenskyy’s Latest Threat – The narrative behind Ukraine’s resilient efforts to keep Russia from taking over the country tells of a united effort by its military and its public. That ignores the fact that ethnic Russians make up the largest minority in Ukraine, reportedly 17.3% in 2001, according to Wikipedia. What’s more, Ukraine’s military is not impervious to Russian infiltration. 

On Monday, Ukraine’s security service said it had uncovered a network of Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, whose agents were preparing yet another assassination attempt of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to The Kyiv Independent. In addition, two Ukraine state security administration (UDO) colonels have reportedly been detained for leaking classified information to Russia. 

According to the Independent’s report, Zelenskyy told The Sun last November he had survived “at least” five assassination attempts.

--TL

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TUESDAY 5/7/24

Israel Attacks Rafah -- The Israeli government did not agree to the same ceasefire deal Hamas agreed to Monday, so Israeli Defense Forces took control of Rafah anyway and have blocked off aid flow, a border official told The Washington Post. Meanwhile, Egypt has denounced the IDF's military operations in Rafah.

Putin to Out-Stalin Stalin -- It's inauguration day for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's fifth term as president, NPR reports. If he fills out the entire term, Putin will have led Russia longer than Joseph Stalin. Most European Union nations boycotted Putin's inauguration ceremonies, Morning Edition says.

--TL

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MONDAY 5/6/24

UPDATE: Hamas has accepted a 42-day ceasefire deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar that would return 33 hostages, dead or alive, BBC News reports. The deal still awaits response from Israel, which says it will not call off its planned attack on Rafah.

Time is Up for Rafah – Cease fire talks between Hamas and Israel seems to have sputtered to a stall, again, and so the Israeli government Monday morning urged people to evacuate Rafah in southern Gaza (The Washington Post) as its military prepares for its long-threatened assault on the city. Hamas and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government are blaming each other for lack of progress in the negotiations.

•••

Speaker Under Pressure – House Democrats will join a majority of Republicans to block Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) motion to dismiss Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) this week, says NPR’s Morning Edition. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), told CBS News’ 60 Minutes Sunday, “Our view would traditionally be; ‘Let the other side work its own mess out.’ But when that mess starts to impact the ability to do the job on behalf of the American people, then the responsible thing at that moment might be to make clear that we will not allow the extremists to throw the Congress and the country into chaos.”

MTG has the backing in her threat of Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ), but Donald J. Trump, who received Johnson at Mar-a-Lago last week, is sitting this issue out as he tends to the trial over falsification of business records in connection with hush money payments.

Hindsight… We have to wonder whether former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) would still be speaker and Trump wouldn’t be running for president again if McCarthy hadn’t had his pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago less than two months after the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol.

•••

More Tears Over Trump? – The criminal trial in which former President Trump is charged with falsifying business records in an alleged attempt to put the "hush" into hush money continues Monday, with the alleged recipient of said hush money, adult film star Stormy Daniels, expected to testify this week, according to The New York Times. On Friday, former Trump spokeswoman and close White House advisor Hope Hicks broke down in tears, after describing the effect on Trump’s 2016 campaign when the infamous Access Hollywood tape surfaced.

•••

Feds Investigate Cuellar – Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife were indicted last Friday on federal charges accusing them of accepting $600,000 in bribes from the country of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank in exchange for political favors in Congress. Federal agents raided Cuellar’s office and the couple’s house Friday, just weeks before a runoff between two Republicans to challenge him in the general election, according to The Texas Tribune. Republicans Jay Furman and Lazaro Garza face each other in a May 28 runoff with the winner to challenge Cuellar November 5.

•••

Up on the Hill – Both chambers of Congress are in session Tuesday through Thursday. The full House only is in session Monday, while the full Senate is in session Friday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

(Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the White House, Congress and Pentagon Thursday. On Wednesday, he called on the UN to remove Russia from its Security Council. --UN Photo/Mark Garten)

THURSDAY 9/21/23

Zelenskyy Fights for Aid – After telling the United Nations Wednesday it is not supporting Ukraine sufficiently in its fight against Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Washington Thursday amid growing criticism from a minority of Republicans on the hard-right. Republican leaders are demanding strict accountability of U.S. aid to Ukraine, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has moved to block an additional $24 billion proposed by the White House in the Senate’s spending bill.

Zelenskyy made his case on NPR’s Morning Edition, telling host Steve Inskeep; “Yes, of course we have the same values. Freedom and democracy. That is why we are fighting against Russia.”

The Ukrainian president reiterated that there cannot be any sort of peace plan that does not include Russia’s complete withdrawal. Zelenskyy told Inskeep that Ukraine is “absolutely ready” for elections scheduled for 2024, but he cannot be definite they will take place, depending on conditions of the war.

NOTE: Despite expectations there would be an encounter between the two, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov avoided Zelenskyy's speech before the UN Security Council Wednesday (see Wednesday's ...meanwhile...).

•••

Succession – Rupert Murdoch, 92, has announced he is retiring as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. effective mid-November, Axios reports. His son, Lachlan, becomes chairman of both companies, and he becomes chairman emeritus.

•••

Tuberville Can’t Block Brown – After Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) separated the president’s nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from about 300 military officers, the Senate approved Air Force Gen. Charles Brown Jr. for the Pentagon’s top position, by 83-11 vote (The Washington Post). Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has been blocking assignments over his opposition to a military provision that helps troops travel to a state different from their post for abortion services. 

Brown, who becomes the second Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after Gen. Colin Powell replaces the retiring chairman, Gen. Mark Milley, who has served in the post since 2019.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 9/20/23

Lavrov to Face Zelenskyy – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Wednesday in a special United Nations Security Council session. Russian state media reported Lavrov’s attendance, The Washington Post reports, “setting up a potentially dramatic encounter” 19 months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At the General Assembly: Speaking before the UN’s General Assembly Tuesday, Zelenskyy reiterated Ukraine’s position that it will not accept any peace plan that does not include Russia’s full withdrawal – including from the Crimean region it invaded in 2014.

•••

House Judiciary to Grill Garland – Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland appears before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday to take questions about the Justice Department’s investigations of Hunter Biden and former President Trump. Hard-right House Republicans have criticized the department for what they say is favorable treatment of the current president’s son compared with the department’s treatment of the former president, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

In Garland’s prepared statement to the Judiciary Committee, he says; "As the president himself has said, and I reaffirm here today: I am not the president's lawyer. I will also add that I am not Congress' prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people. Our job is to follow the facts and the law, wherever they lead. And that is what we do."

--TL

Biden Urges Unity for Ukraine

TUESDAY 9/19/23

UPDATE -- President Biden called for world unity in aiding Ukraine's fight for sovereignty in his Tuesday morning address to the United Nations General Assembly. He also took the opportunity to urge all nations to intensify efforts to reverse climate change.

"The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound up with yours," Biden said. "And no nation can meet the challenges of today alone."

Citing record-breaking heatwaves, wildfires, drought and flooding in various regions around the globe, the president said "these snapshots tell an urgent story of what awaits us if we fail to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and begin to climate-proof our world."

With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looking on from the audience, Biden said; "Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence. But I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the UN Charter to appease an aggressor, can any member state feel confident that we are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?

"The answer is 'no.' We must stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow."

Biden to UN – President Biden tells the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday the U.S. is reversing the Trump administration’s isolationist policies with “more American engagement, more American investment, more American presence” across “all continents, all corners of the world,” White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan says (per NPR’s Morning Edition). This includes enduring support for Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s invasion, of course. The White House has asked Congress for another $24 billion in aid to Ukraine in the face of MAGA-Republican pushback in the federal budget showdown playing out on Capitol Hill.

Zelenskyy attends: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also speaks before the General Assembly in New York, where he will try to win over countries – many in Africa and Latin America -- that have refused to condemn Russia’s invasion, The Globe and Mail reports. Zelenskyy and Biden are scheduled to meet at the White House after their UN appearances in New York. Later, Zelenskyy flies off to Ottawa to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and rally support against the Russian invasion, sources told The Globe and Mail. 

C5+1: Biden also is scheduled to meet with leaders of the C5 nations Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, in an effort to release them from the influence of the superpowers that surround them; Russia and China. 

Absent: Russia and China, as well as France and the United Kingdom are not attending this year’s UN General Assembly. Prior to leaving Kyiv, Zelenskyy questioned why Russia still has a place in the UN.

•••

Trudeau; ‘Credible Intel’ of Killing by India – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons Monday that Canada has “credible intelligence” that the government of India was behind the killing of a Sikh leader in British Columbia (The Globe and Mail). The leader, Hardeep Sign Nijov, was designated a “terrorist” by New Delhi. Trudeau’s charges have deepened a growing crisis between the two countries, with India expelling a Canadian diplomat after Canada ordered an Indian diplomat to leave Ottawa.

•••

CR is DOA – Senate Democrats have “no interest” in House Republicans’ 30-day Continuing Resolution introduced Sunday night, that would keep the lights on in the federal government through the end of October, Roll Call Daily reports. But even a $279-billion, three-bill fiscal 2024 spending package put forth by the Senate’s Democratic majority may be quashed by some Republicans’ procedural objections. The Senate is considering suspending the germaneness rule in order to cut off objections by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and others. Their procedural objections would require 67 votes. 

Upshot: With such disarray in the Senate as well as Republican infighting in the House, a government shutdown after the end of the fiscal year September 30 is likely.

Pushing the speaker?: Aides and allies to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are convinced that conservative House Republicans – you know, the more conservative, MAGA and MAGA-esque ones – are trying to provoke a shutdown in order to push him out as speaker, Punchbowl News reports. Evan after the House Freedom Caucus forced McCarthy to cut $100 billion in spending bills from a deal he made with President Biden earlier this year, Republican leaders remain unable to pass 2024 appropriations bills on the floor because of the continued GOP infighting. 

•••

Today is … Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yet we’ve refrained from doing so, until now. Arrrrrrg, matey.

--TL

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...meanwhile...

MONDAY 9/18/23

U.S., Iran Swap Prisoners -- Five American citizens held in Iran are to fly to the United States, with a brief stop in Qatar, in exchange for five Iranians held by the U.S., plus the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil funds held in South Korea. The agreement reached overnight is described by The Washington Post as a "high-stakes" prisoner swap indicating a thaw in relations between Iran and the U.S.

•••

House GOP Whips Up Deal to Avert Shutdown – The Main Street Caucus and the House Freedom Caucus, both consisting of House Republicans, reached a short-term spending deal they plan to bring to the floor as a continuing resolution (CR), this week, The Hill reported late Sunday night, saying it would have “slim odds” of passing the Senate and of being signed by the White House. In fact, the GOP’s majority may be too slim to get it off the House floor.

The federal government's fiscal year ends September 30.

Discretionary spending cuts: The deal would keep Department of Defense, and Veterans Affairs spending at the current level, but would cut all discretionary spending by 8%. 

And, a border crackdown: The deal also would include the House GOP’s H.R. 2 Border Crackdown Bill, minus its provision to require E-verify. 

It leaves out… disaster relief funds and a request for supplemental funding for Ukraine that the White House requested in August to be added to the CR.

•••

Preventing WWIII – People in Ukraine are dying every day to prevent World War III, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS News’ 60 Minutes. When Scott Pelley asked about recent drone strikes on the Kremlin, Zelenskyy said that foreign drones supplied by NATO nations were not used but added this warning to Russia and Vladimir Putin; “your sky is not as well protected as you think.” 

Zelenskyy, President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu are scheduled to speak to the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York.

•••

Trump’s Art of the Peace – Former President Trump declined to give details on how he would end the war in Ukraine Sunday on NBC News’ Meet the Press, telling moderator Kristen Welker, “if I tell you exactly, I lose all my bargaining chips.”

Welker later asked Trump for his reaction to a recent Putin statement that, “We surely hear that Mr. Trump says he will resolve all the burning issues within several days, including the Ukrainian crisis. We cannot help but feel happy about it.”

“Well, I like that he said that,” Trump told Welker. “Because that means what I’m saying is right. I would get him into a room. I’d get Zelenskyy into a room. Then I’d bring them together. And I’d have a deal worked out. It would have been a lot easier before it started.”

Up on the Hill – Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are in session Monday through Thursday. The Senate only is in session Friday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

WEDNESDAY 1/25/23

Tanks to Ukraine – Germany will now deliver a supply of its Leopard 2 tanks (above) to Ukraine to support its effort to push back Russian forces. The NATO country initially had resisted sending its own tanks in favor of Poland delivering its German-made Leopard 2s, but an apparent reversal by the Biden administration on sending American-made M1 Abrams tanks prompted Germany’s decision, The Recount says.

Strategy: The Leopard 2 tanks are considered more crucial to Ukraine’s defense against Russia in that they’re much easier to train on and better-suited for Ukrainian terrain. 

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy Tackles Corruption: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has removed “nearly a dozen” top officials to contain a number of corruption scandals as the West continues to send military and humanitarian aid. The Wall Street Journal notes that corruption under Zelenskyy’s administration is “small compared with the previous Ukrainian governments – some accused of stealing billions of dollars in public funds…” 

U.S. Aid Last Year: The White House approved about $48 billion in aid to Ukraine in 2022, the Council on Foreign Relations says https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts

Republican Resistance: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has said his caucus is not interested in writing a “blank check” to Ukraine, which seems as much a nod to sympathy among MAGA-right Republicans for Russian President Vladimir Putin as it is more traditional GOP fiscal conservatism.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news