Greene County Democrat

Tag: House Foreign Affairs Committee

  • The Constitution and Immigration Chaos

    By April Ryan, NNPA White House Correspondent

    The nation’s democratic state attorney generals are conferring with one another over these unprecedented tense and escalating migrant raids conducted by ICE agents, the FBI, DEA, and other federal and local authorities. Migrant captures happen in hardware stores, construction sites, immigration courts, farms, vacation resorts, and hotels. The most recent chaos surrounds aggressive ice raids on Mexicans, Brazilians, and others who are said to be illegal in this nation by overstaying a visa or being undocumented.
    As for Los Angeles and the recent tensions stemming from the ICE raids, Democratic ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, New York Congressman Greg Meeks, says President Trump “decided to enflame the situation” by sending in the Marines “for what?” Meeks says the president’s actions on the National Guard and military presence in LA are “overreach” and “unconstitutional.” The Constitution is the standard reference Democratic state attorney generals are leaning on amid this current Trump immigration deportation controversy. Aaron Ford, Democratic Nevada State Attorney General, says the focus is to “uphold the law“ and “if they [ICE and Trump administration] are unconstitutional, we have to stand up against that.”
    Over the weekend in Las Vegas, Black Press USA talked to Ford, who laments, “There is a lot of trepidation and fear.” Among the group of democratic state attorney generals is Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who most recently was on a list of lawmakers targeted by the Trump-supporting, right-wing evangelical preacher 57-year-old Vance Boelter, who allegedly shot and killed a state lawmaker and her husband Saturday and wounded another state lawmaker and their spouse as well.
    The horrific events happened at 2 AM on Saturday, the day the president celebrated his birthday with the military review in front of the White House. Amid this immigration raid chaos, the president’s poll numbers are underwater. A recent NBC News poll shows President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating is 55%.
    One of those who actively disapprove of President Trump’s immigration policy is former CNN Anchor and now independent journalist Jim Acosta, who asked, “Where are the ICE raids at the Trump properties? Could somebody call ICE on the Trump golf course in Virginia? You’re telling me there’s nobody in there that is undocumented or has some kind of squirreliness going on with their paperwork?” He commented Saturday on Substack’s Contrarian program. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Acosta, calling him “a disgraceful human being.”

  • Newswire : Trump kicks the Ukrainian President out of the White House

    Zelenskyy and Trump in Oval Office at White House

    By April Ryan, NNPA Special WH Correspondent

    “You are playing cards” and “you’re gambling with World War III” scolded President Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before he kicked Zelenskyy out of the White House today. The Oval Office visit was meant to ease tensions in the Russian war against Ukraine. However, it ended in a shouting match.
    The verbal sparring pit President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D, Vance, in a tag team of sorts, against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Both Trump and Vance kept telling Zelenskyy he should be working towards a peace agreement and be grateful for the United States equipment to fight against Russia in this war that Trump believes Ukraine would have lost within two years without the United States’ help. A former Senior U.S. National Security official who wished to remain anonymous said, “Zelenskyy has acknowledged his gratitude.”
    That same former NSC official also said, “This means the United States is aligning itself with Russia that we set him [Volodymyr Zelenskyy] up and this was a play to appeal to Trump’s base and Putin and to blame Zelenskyy which is to throw Ukraine and NATO under the bus.”
    Ranking Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Gregory Meeks, who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, says he is “incensed and ashamed over the actions of the president of the United States.” During the televised contentious public negotiations, President Trump told Zelenskyy, “Your people need to make a deal. If you don’t make a deal you will have to fight it out.”. Meanwhile, the February 2020 Russian invasion of Ukraine continues. Monday was the third anniversary of the war. Meeks says, “Trump has not asked anything of Russia and said nothing about it on the anniversary” as Ukraine saw one of the worst drone attacks that day.
    After that public disagreement, Zelenskyy was told to leave the White House. He rushed into his waiting van outside of the West Wing where President Trump greeted him with a handshake when he arrived at the door. His departure was minus the presidential escort to the door.
    Zelenskyy and Trump were also expected today to sign a rare earth mineral deal and conduct a joint press conference. Those two events did not happen after that Oval Office conflict. Meeks adds that our European partners “want us to support Ukraine.” President Trump immediately went on social media with his thoughts.
    In his tweet, Trump said, “We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure. It’s amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want an advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”

  • Newswire: Republicans oust Rep. Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee

    Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D – MN)

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    In what many political watchers called hypocritical, vengeful, and a show of strength by the new Republican majority, the House voted to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, citing her past comments about Israel.
    The resolution to remove the Minnesota Democrat from the panel was approved 218-211 along party lines with one Republican member voting “present.”
    The GOP cited Omar’s tweets and comments from 2019 and 2021 in which she criticized pro-Israel politicians as being “all about the Benjamins” and her comparison of the U.S. and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban.
    Both Democrats and Republicans, expressed outrage over the remarks.
The resolution stated that Omar’s remarks had brought dishonor to the House of Representatives and that she had “disqualified herself” from serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, which is seen by nations around the world as speaking for Congress on matters of international importance and national security.
    Since 2021, when Democrats controlled the House and voted to remove far-right GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar from committee assignments over their own controversial comments, Republicans have promised to take action against Omar and other Democrats.
    After McCarthy became speaker last month, he reinstated both members to their previous committee assignments.
    Omar admitted this week that she “may have used words” that she later learned were “trafficking in antisemitism.” She said when others brought the transgression to her attention, she apologized. “I owned up to it,” Omar, 40, asserted.
    House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York pledged to appoint Omar to the House Budget Committee.