Tag: Biden

The president singled out “ultra MAGA” Republicans — a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan — calling them a minority but “driving force” of the Republican Party…reports Asian Lite News

Warning that democracy itself is in peril, President Joe Biden called on Americans Wednesday night to use their ballots in next week’s midterm elections to stand up against lies, violence and dangerous “ultra MAGA” election disruptors who are trying to “succeed where they failed” in subverting the 2020 elections.

This is no time to stand aside, he declared. “Silence is complicity.”

After weeks of reassuring talk about America’s economy and inflation, Biden turned to a darker, more urgent message, declaring in the final days of midterm election voting that the nation’s system of governance is under threat from former President Donald Trump’s election-denying lies and the violence Biden said they inspire.

The president singled out “ultra MAGA” Republicans — a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan — calling them a minority but “driving force” of the Republican Party.

Pointing in particular to last Friday’s attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Biden said that Trump’s false claims about a stolen election have “fueled the dangerous rise of political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years.”

“There’s an alarming rise in the number of people in this country condoning political violence or simply remaining silent,” Biden added. “In our bones we know democracy is at risk, but we also know this: It’s in our power to preserve our democracy.”

The president’s speech — focused squarely on the rite of voting and the counting of that vote — amounted to a plea for Americans to step back from the inflamed rhetoric that has heightened fears of political violence and challenges to the integrity of the elections. Biden was straddling two roles, speaking as both a president defending the pillars of democracy and a Democrat trying to boost his party’s prospects against Republicans.

He called out the hundreds of candidates who have denied the 2020 election result and now refuse to commit to accepting the results of the upcoming midterms.

“This driving force is trying to succeed where they failed in 2020 to suppress the rights of voters and subvert the electoral system itself,” Biden said.

“That is the path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And it is un-American.”

The speech came days after a man seeking to kidnap House Speaker Pelosi severely injured her husband, Paul Pelosi, in their San Francisco home in the worst recent example of the political violence that burst forth with the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol and has continued with alarming, though less-spectacular incidents.

Election workers nationwide have questioned whether to go back to work following increased intimidation and harassment ahead of Election Day. At least five people have been charged with federal crimes for harassing workers as early voting has gotten underway.

Reports of people watching ballot boxes in Arizona, sometimes armed or wearing ballistic vests, have raised serious concerns about voter intimidation. Election officials nationwide are bracing for confrontations at polling sites. A flood of conspiracy theorists have signed up to work as partisan poll watchers.

Emphasizing that it is the first federal election since the Capitol riot and Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Biden called on voters to reject candidates who have denied the results of the vote, which even Trump’s own administration declared to be free of any widespread fraud or interference.

Biden asked voters to “think long and hard about the moment we are in.”

“In a typical year, we are not often faced with the question of whether the vote we cast will preserve democracy or put it at risk,” he said. “But we are this year.”

“I hope you’ll make the future of our democracy an important part of your decision to vote and how you vote,” Biden added, asking Americans to consider whether the candidates they are supporting would respect the will of the people and accept the outcome of their election.

“The answer to that question is vital and in my opinion it should be decisive,” he said.

Biden also aimed to get ahead of conspiracy theories about the ongoing vote, saying Americans were voting early, by mail and by absentee ballot and it would take time to tally them “in a legal and orderly manner.” Major changes in voting in 2020 because of the pandemic prompted more early voting and mail-in voting and saw record turnout. It took five days before the results of the 2020 presidential election were final.

“It is important for citizens to be patient,” Biden said.

Some Republicans sharply criticized Biden’s remarks. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who stands to be speaker of the House if the GOP retakes control of the chamber, tweeted, “President Biden is trying to divide and deflect at a time when America needs to unite—because he can’t talk about his policies that have driven up the cost of living. The American people aren’t buying it.”

Biden delivered his remarks from Washington’s Union Station, blocks from the U.S. Capitol, just six days before polls close on Nov. 8 and as more than 27 million Americans have already cast their ballots.

Before the speech, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said he’s reviewed the attack on Pelosi’s husband and believes today’s political climate calls for more resources and better security for members of Congress after a massive increase in threats to lawmakers following the Capitol riot. He also made a rare call to stop the rancorous conspiracy talk that has swirled around the attack.

“Our brave men and women are working around the clock to meet this urgent mission during this divisive time,” he said in a statement. “In the meantime, a significant change that will have an immediate impact will be for people across our country to lower the temperature on political rhetoric before it’s too late.”

Biden last delivered a prime-time speech on what he called the “continued battle for the soul of the nation” on Sept. 1 outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, in which he condemned the “MAGA forces” of Trump and his adherents as a threat to America’s system of government.

The new remarks come as hundreds of candidates who have falsely denied the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election are on ballots across the country, with many poised to be elected to critical roles overseeing elections.

In contrast to the September remarks, which drew criticism from some corners for being paid for by taxpayers, Biden’s Wednesday night speech was hosted by the Democratic National Committee.

Many Americans remain pessimistic about the state of U.S. democracy. An October poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that just 9% of adults think democracy is working “extremely” or “very well,” while 52% say it’s not working well.

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During the call with Lula, President Biden commended the strength of Brazilian democratic institutions following free, fair, and credible elections…reports Asian Lite News

US President Joe Biden has congratulated Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was elected president of Brazil, and reaffirmed Washington’s strong ties with the South American country, the White House said.

Lula was elected for an unprecedented third term after defeating incumbent Jair Bolsonaro by a narrow margin – 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent.

During the call, President Biden commended the strength of Brazilian democratic institutions following free, fair, and credible elections.

The two leaders discussed the strong relationship between the United States and Brazil, and committed to continue working as partners to address common challenges, including combatting climate change, safeguarding food security, promoting inclusion and democracy, and managing regional migration, the White House said in a statement.

Figures released by the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) showed that Lula of the Workers’ Party (PT) obtained more than 60 million votes, or 50.89 per cent of the ballots, cast on Sunday, surpassing Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party, who received over 58 million votes, or 49.11 per cent, reports Xinhua news agency.

This is the smallest margin in a second-round presidential election in Brazil’s history.

In the first round held on October 2, Lula garnered 48.3 per cent of the vote, compared to 43.2 per cent for Bolsonaro.

Lula, 77, served as the President for two terms between 2003 and 2010.

This is a comeback for the former President who could not run in the 2018 election because he was in jail and banned from standing for office.

He had been found guilty of receiving a bribe from a Brazilian construction firm in return for contracts with Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras.

Lula spent 580 days in jail before his conviction was annulled and he returned to the political fray.

In this year’s presidential elections, his strength lay particularly in voters from the impoverished northeast of Brazil.

He focused his campaign on social issues, making pledges including minimum wage increases, strengthening of state-owned companies, and efforts against hunger and poverty.

“The first measures of our government will be to free 33 million people from hunger and more than 100 million Brazilians from poverty,” Lula had said in an open letter last week.

Proposing an economic policy featuring both state actions and private initiatives, he said, “it is possible to combine fiscal responsibility, social responsibility, and sustainable development, and that is what we are going to do, following the trends of the world’s main economies”.

“We will initiate the digital transition … with an industrial policy that supports innovation, stimulates public-private cooperation, strengthens science and technology, and guarantees access to financing at adequate costs.”

Lula also pledged to expand trade and technological cooperation between Brazil and other countries, help enhance regional integration, and promote “fairer and more democratic relations between countries”.

Meanwhile in his victory speech on Sunday, Lula said he would govern for all Brazilians and not just those who voted for him.

“This country needs peace and unity. This population doesn’t want to fight anymore,” he was quoted as saying.

Bolsonaro however, is yet to concede.

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If the Republicans win either chamber of Congress in the November 8 elections, President Joe Biden’s foreign policy team would face a grueling two years…reports Asian Lite News

Kevin McCarthy, who could soon be second in line to the White House, startled US allies when he warned that his Republican Party would no longer write a “blank check” to Ukraine.

If the Republicans win either chamber of Congress in the November 8 elections, President Joe Biden’s foreign policy team would face a grueling two years, although any sharp shift in US support for Ukraine looks unlikely.

Republican lawmakers have already made clear they would make full use of their congressional oversight role to scrutinize the Biden administration on topics from immigration to last year’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

But Ukraine could test the united front among Republicans, just as they start gearing up for 2024 presidential elections.

Donald Trump broke with the US mainstream by voicing admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, with the former US president’s first impeachment triggered by his hold-up of military aid for Ukraine.

Some Trump-inspired Republicans have attacked US assistance to Ukraine, which includes $40 billion approved in May on bipartisan lines and a Biden request for another $11.2 billion.

One of the loudest voices has been far-right Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has accused Biden of sending “hard-earned US tax dollars” to help another country “fight a war they cannot possibly win.”

But Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, has vowed to go beyond Biden and “expedite” weapons including those with a longer range, and Mike Pence, who was Trump’s vice president, recently took direct aim at critics of arming Ukraine.

“There can be no room in the conservative movement for apologists for Putin. There is only room in this movement for champions of freedom,” Pence said.

Colin Dueck, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who has written on conservatives’ foreign policy, saw the comments by McCarthy, the top House Republican, as an effort to accommodate a minority view on Ukraine.

A new survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found widespread US support for Ukraine, with two-thirds of Republicans agreeing on the need to send weapons.

“There’s this perception that the average kind of heartland Republican is against this and that is not true,” Dueck said.

“I’m not sure it would be safe to predict that a House Republican majority is going to turn against Ukraine,” he said.

For Republicans, “anything that’s perceived by voters as a personal attack on Trump is taken as a kind of third rail, but on policy issues people feel free to disagree.”

Biden’s Democratic Party has seen near unanimity for arming Ukraine but some 30 left-wing members on Monday also urged direct diplomacy with Russia to end the war, including on security arrangements acceptable to both sides.

One international issue where Republicans have fiercely criticized Biden has been his effort to restore the Iran nuclear deal, but prospects were already slim even before major protests broke out in September against the nation’s clerical leaders.

On China, the two parties have largely been on the same page — in outlook if not tone — on seeing the rising Asian power as the primary long-range challenger of the United States.

When tensions soared with China in August over Taiwan, it was because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — a Democrat — paid a defiant visit to support the self-governing democracy.

Individual lawmakers could make life much more difficult for the Biden administration.

When Barack Obama was president, Republicans relentlessly questioned his secretary of state Hillary Clinton over the 2012 attack on the US diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the ambassador.

One of the fiercest pursuers of Clinton was Mike Pompeo, then a little-known congressman who was tapped by Trump as CIA director and then secretary of state.

Brian Katulis, vice president of policy at the Middle East Institute and co-editor of “The Liberal Patriot” journal, said the Republicans could use hearings to lead the charge on issues dear to their base, such as speculation over the laptop of Biden’s son Hunter.

On Benghazi, the Obama team “actually engaged in the drip, drip, drip and sat through all the hearings.”

“If they fight it, it does present an opportunity cost for advancing a proactive agenda,” he said of the Biden administration.

But Katulis said it was difficult to predict which direction the Republicans would take their foreign policy, saying its members have been “all over the map.”

“On a number of issues including national security, the GOP could change its party symbol from the elephant to the chameleon.”

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The administration could make a decision on future releases a month from now, as it requires a month and a half for the government to notify would-be buyers…reports Asian Lite News

President Joe Biden will announce the release of 15 million barrels of oil from the U.S. strategic reserve Wednesday as part of a response to recent production cuts announced by OPEC+ nations, and he will say more oil sales are possible this winter, as his administration rushes to be seen as pulling out all the stops ahead of next month’s midterm elections.

Biden will deliver remarks Wednesday to announce the drawdown from the strategic reserve, senior administration officials said Tuesday on the condition of anonymity to outline Biden’s plans. It completes the release of 180 million barrels authorized by Biden in March that was initially supposed to occur over six months.

That has sent the strategic reserve to its lowest level since 1984 in what the administration called a “bridge” until domestic production could be increased. The reserve now contains roughly 400 million barrels of oil.

Biden will also open the door to additional releases this winter in an effort to keep prices down. But administration officials would not detail how much the president would be willing to tap, nor how much they want domestic and production to increase by in order to end the drawdown.

Biden will also say that the US government will restock the strategic reserve when oil prices are at or lower than $67 to $72 a barrel, an offer that administration officials argue will increase domestic production by guaranteeing a baseline level of demand. Yet the president is also expected to renew his criticism of the profits reaped by oil companies — repeating a bet made this summer that public condemnation would matter more to these companies than shareholders’ focus on returns.

It marks the continuation of an about-face by Biden, who has tried to move the U.S. past fossil fuels to identify additional sources of energy to satisfy U.S. and global supply as a result of disruptions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and production cuts announced by the Saudi Arabia-led oil cartel.

The prospective loss of 2 million barrels a day — 2% of global supply — has had the White House saying Saudi Arabia sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin and pledging there will be consequences for supply cuts that could prop up energy prices. The 15 million-barrel release would not cover even one full day’s use of oil in the U.S., according to the Energy Information Administration.

The administration could make a decision on future releases a month from now, as it requires a month and a half for the government to notify would-be buyers.

Biden still faces political headwinds because of gas prices. AAA reports that gas is averaging $3.87 a gallon. That’s down slightly over the past week, but it’s up from a month ago. The recent increase at prices stalled the momentum that the president and his fellow Democrats had been seeing in the polls ahead of the November elections.

An analysis Monday by ClearView Energy Partners, an independent energy research firm based in Washington, suggested that two states that could decide control of the evenly split Senate — Nevada and Pennsylvania — are sensitive to energy prices. The analysis noted that gas prices over the past month rose above the national average in 18 states, which are home to 29 potentially “at risk” House seats.

Even if voters want cheaper gasoline, expected gains in supply are not materializing because of a weaker global economy. The U.S. government last week revised downward its forecasts, saying that domestic firms would produce 270,000 fewer barrels a day in 2023 than was forecast in September. Global production would be 600,000 barrels a day lower than forecast in September.

The hard math for Biden is that oil production has yet to return to its pre-pandemic level of roughly 13 million barrels a day. It’s about a million barrels a day shy of that level. The oil industry would like the administration to open up more federal lands for drilling, approve pipeline construction and reverse its recent changes to raise corporate taxes. The administration counters that the oil industry is sitting on thousands of unused federal leases and says new permits would take years to produce oil with no impact on current gas prices. Environmental groups, meanwhile, have asked Biden to keep a campaign promise to block new drilling on federal lands.

Biden has resisted the policies favored by U.S. oil producers. Instead, he’s sought to reduce prices by releasing oil from the U.S. reserve, shaming oil companies for their profits and calling on greater production from countries in OPEC+ that have different geopolitical interests, said Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute.

“If they continue to offer the same old so-called solutions, they’ll continue to get the same old results,” Macchiarola said.

Because fossil fuels lead to carbon emissions, Biden has sought to move away from them entirely with a commitment to zero emissions by 2050. When discussing that commitment nearly a year ago after the G-20 leading rich and developing nations met in Rome, the president said he still wanted to also lower gas prices because at “$3.35 a gallon, it has profound impact on working-class families just to get back and forth to work.”

Since Biden spoke of the pain of gas at $3.35 a gallon and his hopes to reduce costs, the price has on balance risen another 15.5%.

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