Tag: Trump

  • Trump offered German firm cash for U.S. coronavirus vaccine – Report

    Trump offered German firm cash for U.S. coronavirus vaccine – Report

    The Trump administration offered large sums to a German company working on a coronavirus vaccine to make it available for exclusive use by the U.S., a German newspaper reported on Sunday.

    U.S. President Donald Trump approached scientists employed by CureVac, a German pharmaceutical company based in Tuebingen, and tried to lure them to work for the U.S., Welt am Sonntag reported.

    Trump’s lucrative offer – reportedly of 1 billion dollars – was explicitly made to secure any future vaccine “only for the U.S.,” the newspaper said, citing anonymous sources in the German government.

    According to the report, the German government has countered the U.S. offer with its own funds in an attempt to keep the company in Germany.

    When approached for comment, the German Health Ministry referred dpa to an earlier statement made to the paper:

    “The government is very keen that a vaccine against the novel coronavirus is developed in Germany and in Europe,” a spokesperson said.

    “The government is in intensive discussions to that end with the CureVac company,” the spokesperson added.

    CureVac is reportedly working with the Paul Ehrlich Institute, a German body responsible for approving vaccines and pharmaceuticals, on a coronavirus vaccine.

    In a report due to be published in the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper on Monday, CureVac’s investors said they would never consider working on an exclusive vaccine for the United States.

    “We want to develop a vaccine for the whole world and not for individual states,” Christof Hettich, director and co-founder of dievini Hopp BioTech Holding, which is CureVac’s chief investor, told the paper. (dpa/NAN)

  • As coronavirus chaos spreads globally, Trump declares U.S. emergency

    As coronavirus chaos spreads globally, Trump declares U.S. emergency

    President Donald Trump declared a U.S. national emergency over the quickly spreading coronavirus on Friday, opening the door to more government aid to combat a pathogen that has infected more than 138,000 people worldwide and left over 5,000 dead.

    The impact of the coronavirus on everyday life deepened around the world. It was detected for the first time in several countries, with the World Health Organization (WHO) calling Europe the pandemic’s current epicenter. More schools and businesses closed, the global sporting calendar was left in tatters, and people faced greater restrictions on where they could go.

    “To unleash the full power of the federal government to this effort today, I am officially declaring a national emergency – two very big words,” Trump said in remarks at the White House Rose Garden, adding that the U.S. situation could worsen and “the next eight weeks are critical.”

    Trump, whose action makes available $50 billion in federal aid to states and localities, had faced criticism from some experts for being slow and ineffective in his response to the crisis and playing down the threat.

    The latest steps came two days after Trump announced travel restrictions blocking U.S. entry for most people from continental Europe. While Britain was among the countries exempted, Trump said on Friday that might change because infections there had risen “precipitously.”

    The president, who was photographed last Saturday at his private Florida club with a Brazilian official who has tested positive for the coronavirus, said he himself likely would be tested “fairly soon,” a reversal of his previous stance. But Trump, 73, said he did not plan to isolate himself, noting he was suffering no symptoms.

    Travel bans have hammered airlines and travel companies worldwide, while financial markets have been hit by panic selling this week.

    The three major U.S. stock indexes rallied more than 9% on Friday, rebounding from Wall Street’s biggest daily drop since 1987. But the indexes were still about 20% below record highs hit in mid-February.

    WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Europe now had more reported cases and deaths than the rest of world combined, apart from China, where the coronavirus originated but where new cases have slowed to a trickle. The WHO called the death toll reaching 5,000 globally “a tragic milestone.”

    The WHO’s top emergency expert, Mike Ryan, said social distancing was a “tried and tested method” to slow the spread of a virus but “not a panacea” that would stop transmission.

    “Blanket travel measures in their own right will do nothing to protect an individual state,” Ryan said.

  • Trump fires 2 impeachment witnesses, accused of exacting revenge

    Trump fires 2 impeachment witnesses, accused of exacting revenge

    U.S. President Donald Trump has fired two key witnesses in the impeachment investigation against him, as he started an apparent campaign of retaliation just two days after he was acquitted by the Senate.

    Trump fired Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, just hours after dismissing Ukraine expert Alexander Vindman, a decorated Army lieutenant colonel, according to statements released by Sondland and Vindman’s lawyer.

    “The most powerful man in the world – buoyed by the silent, the pliable, and the complicit – has decided to exact revenge,” Vindman’s attorney David Pressman said in a statement, adding his client was “escorted” from the White House.

    It was an astonishing move by Trump to clear his administration of people who have testified in the impeachment probe, which investigated Trump’s attempt to pressure Ukraine to pursue investigations that could help his 2020 re-election bid.

    Sondland – a political appointee who donated 1 million dollars to the Trump’s presidential campaign – testified publicly that he believed there was a quid pro quo in Trump’s demand that Kiev pursue investigations.

    “I was advised today that the president intends to recall me effective immediately as United States Ambassador to the European Union,” Sondland said in a statement, reported by multiple U.S. media outlets.

    “Our work here has been the highlight of my career,” he added.

    Ukraine expert Vindman – who worked on National Security Council – was one of a number of Trump administration officials that listened in on a July 25 call where Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky to do a “favour” and investigate his political rival.

    “It was inappropriate, it was improper for the president to demand an investigation into a political opponent, especially a foreign power,” Vindman said during his testimony.

    Earlier on Friday Trump – who was acquitted this week on all impeachment charges – indicated that Vindman would be removed.

    “You think I’m supposed to be happy with him? I’m not,” Trump said.

    According to multiple U.S. media reports, Vindman will be reassigned to a position in the Defense Department.

    Trump was impeached in December in the House of Representatives.

    He was charged with abusing his office to pressure Ukraine into announcing an investigation of his political rival ahead of elections this year, leveraging military aid to lean on Kiev, and then obstructing the investigation by Congress.

    The Republican-controlled Senate acquitted him earlier this week in a vote that was largely along party lines.

    “As usual, the White House runs away from the truth. Lt. Col. Vindman lived up to his oath to protect and defend our Constitution.

    “This action is not a sign of strength,” Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate said on Friday. (dpa/NAN)

  • Trump to speak after his acquittal in U.S. Senate impeachment trial

    Trump to speak after his acquittal in U.S. Senate impeachment trial

    President Donald Trump, facing a bruising re-election campaign and the possibility of more Democratic investigations in Congress, will make a public statement on Thursday about his acquittal on impeachment charges by a deeply divided U.S. Senate.

    On largely party-line votes, the Republican-controlled Senate cleared Trump on Wednesday of charges of abuse of power and obstruction of congress, keeping him in office and setting up a nine-month battle for the White House against the eventual Democratic presidential nominee.

    Trump quickly celebrated the Senate vote on Twitter, announcing his public statement to discuss what he called “VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax!” and posting a video joking he would remain president forever.

    Trump’s statement from the White House, scheduled for noon (1700 GMT), will be a “vindication speech,” a source close to the president said, combining some magnanimity with an “I told you so” tone.

    Senate Republicans voted to acquit Trump of abuse of power for pressing Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden, a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, and of obstructing a congressional investigation of the matter.

    Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, was the only Republican to join Democrats, voting to convict on the abuse charge but not on obstruction.

    No Democrat voted to acquit.

    The acquittal was Trump’s biggest victory yet over his Democratic foes in Congress, who complained bitterly about Senate Republicans’ refusal to call witnesses or seek new evidence at the trial.

    “This vote is no vindication, it’s no real acquittal, it’s no victory.

    “It’s meaningless in terms of guilt or innocence because the American people will draw their own conclusion from what they saw,’’ Sen. Richard Blumenthal said.

    After the vote, Democrats were uncertain about their next steps in investigating Trump.

    There are several pending court cases related to Democratic efforts to get more information from Trump.

    The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement saying that the House of Representatives would protect the Constitution “both in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion.”

    But Democrats would not say whether they would subpoena John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, to testify to House committees.

    Senate Republicans rejected Democratic efforts to subpoena Bolton to testify during the trial.

    Democrats expressed concern an acquittal would encourage a president who already challenges political norms, painting him as a threat to U.S. democracy and a demagogue who has acted lawlessly.

    Eleven Democrats are vying for the right to challenge Trump in the Nov. 3 election, but Trump heads into the campaign with the advantages of a powerful fundraising machine and near universal support from Republicans.

  • Impeachment: U.S. Senate squashes cases against Trump

    Impeachment: U.S. Senate squashes cases against Trump

    U.S. President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate on both articles of impeachment on Wednesday. The acquittal allows him to remain in office after Democrats failed to muster the two-thirds supermajority needed for the removal of the Republican president.

    One Republican senator, Mitt Romney, bucked his party line and voted to convict the president on the first article of the charge of abuse of power, yielding a vote of 52 in favour of aquittal and 48 for a conviction. The Democrats voted as a bloc against the president. The second article, the charge of obstruction of Congress, also failed to pass, with 53 voting to acquit and 47 voting to convict. Trump was impeached in December in the House of Representatives. He was charged with abusing his office to pressure Ukraine into announcing an investigation of his political rival ahead of elections this year and then obstructing Congress’ investigation. The president said he did nothing wrong.

  • In political triumph, Trump acquitted in impeachment trial

    In political triumph, Trump acquitted in impeachment trial

    President Donald Trump was acquitted by the US Senate on Wednesday following a historic impeachment trial that shone a harsh light on America’s divisions, without ever shaking the loyalty of his voter base.

    In a political triumph for the US leader, Trump drew on staunch Republican support to easily defeat a Democratic effort to expel him from office for pressuring Ukraine to help bolster his re-election effort.

    The president immediately claimed “victory” while the White House declared it a full “exoneration” — and Democrats rejected the acquittal as the “valueless” outcome of an unfair trial.

    But the vote in the Senate showed just how solid a grip the former real estate mogul holds over the Republican Party — an asset nine months before he seeks a second four-year-term.

    Even though several conceded Trump’s behavior was wrong, Republicans ultimately stayed loyal in voting to clear the president of charges of abuse of power, by 52 to 48, and of obstruction of Congress, by 53 to 47 — far from the two-thirds supermajority required for conviction.

    Two thirds of the senators present not having found him guilty of the charges contained therein, it is therefore ordered and adjudged that the said Donald John Trump be, and he is hereby, acquitted,” said Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who presided over the trial.

    One Republican, Senator Mitt Romney, a longtime Trump foe, risked White House wrath to vote alongside Democrats on the first count, saying Trump was “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.” He voted not guilty on the second charge.

    Trump’s impeachment and trial will leave a permanent stain on his record, as it did for the only two presidents to have encountered the same fate, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998.

    But the Senate verdict was never truly in question since the House of Representatives formally impeached Trump in December, and it has now cleared out a major hurdle for the president to fully plunge into his campaign for re-election in November.

    – Trump to speak Thursday –

    Responding to the verdict, Trump announced he would deliver a formal statement Thursday from the White House “to discuss our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax!”

    The president had earlier tweeted a montage depicting a fake cover of Time magazine declaring him president for all eternity. Trump later tweeted a video attacking Romney, the first senator in US history to support convicting a president from his own party.

    While the White House declared that Trump had obtained “full vindication and exoneration,” Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, warned that by clearing Trump Republicans had “normalized lawlessness.”

    There can be no acquittal without a trial, and there is no trial without witnesses, documents and evidence,” said the top Democrat in Congress — who a day earlier ripped up her copy of Trump’s State of the Union address on live television.

    “Sadly, because of the Republican Senate’s betrayal of the Constitution, the president remains an ongoing threat to American democracy, with his insistence that he is above the law and that he can corrupt the elections if he wants to.”

    Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said the acquittal was “virtually valueless” since Republicans refused witnesses at his trial, something which Democrats said had never happened before at any impeachment trial.

    – ‘Forever impeached’ –

    The Democrats’ intense 78-day House investigation faced public doubts and high-pressure White House stonewalling, a tactic which led to the obstruction charge.

    Concerned about the political risk for the party, Pelosi rejected a call early last year to impeach Trump on evidence compiled by then-special counsel Robert Mueller that he had obstructed the Russia election meddling investigation.

    But her concerns melted after new allegations surfaced in August that Trump had pressured Ukraine for help in his 2020 campaign.

    Though doubtful from the outset that they would win support from Republicans, an investigation amassed with surprising speed strong evidence to support the allegations.

    The evidence showed that from early in 2019, Trump’s private lawyer Rudy Giuliani and a close political ally, Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, were scheming to pressure Kiev to help smear Democrats, including Trump’s potential 2020 rival Joe Biden, by opening investigations into them.
    We must say enough — enough! He has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again,” Adam Schiff, who led the House prosecution, argued on the Senate floor this week.

    – ‘Colossal’ mistake –

    In the trial, Trump’s defense was not seen as having undermined the facts compiled by Schiff’s probe, and several Republican senators acknowledged he did wrong.

    But his lawyers and Senate defenders argued, essentially, that Trump’s behavior was not egregious enough for impeachment and removal.

    And, pointing to the December House impeachment vote, starkly along party lines, they painted it as a political effort to “destroy the president” in an election year and insisted voters should be allowed to decide Trump’s fate.

    As he wound down the Senate proceedings, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was confident impeachment would ultimately benefit Republicans.

    “They thought this was a great idea. At least for the short term, it has been a colossal political mistake.” (AFP)

  • Within hours of vote, Trump launches scathing attack on Romney

    Within hours of vote, Trump launches scathing attack on Romney

    Senator Mitt Romney warned that he would face blowback from U.S. President Donald Trump after he decided to vote to convict the leader of his party on abuse of power in the impeachment trial.

    Within hours, the attacks started to come in.

    Trump posted a minute-long video in which the voice-over accused the conservative politician of being a “secret asset” of the rival Democratic Party, while denouncing him as “slippery” and “stealthy.”

    “Posing as a Republican, he tried to infiltrate President Trump’s administration as the secretary of state,” the attack ad charged, referring to speculation in 2017 that the president was considering Romney for his cabinet.

    Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts ran as the Republican nominee for president in 2012, losing to Barack Obama, who was re-elected that year for a second term.

    He is deeply conservative and has largely voted in line with Trump’s objectives in the Senate.

    In an interview with Fox News just before he cast his vote against Trump in the Senate, becoming the lone Republican to buck his party’s line, Romney warned he would face repercussions but insisted he was going with his conscience.

    “I understand there’s going to be enormous consequence,” the senator from Utah told the network, adding, “and I don’t have a choice in that regard.”

    Calling the vote the “most difficult decision I ever made,” Romney said: “I can’t let personal considerations, if you will, overwhelm my conscience and overwhelm my oath to God.”

    Romney said he had suffered sleepless nights over the impeachment vote and worried about the implications for his wider family.

    “I have spoken a good deal with my family because this will have consequence.

    “The blowback will have consequence, not just for me, but for my family, for my wife, for my sons, for my daughters-in-law, for my 24 grandkids,” said Romeny.

    “It’s going to get very lonely,” he admitted.

    Donald Trump Jr, the president son’s, called for expelling Romney from the Republican Party.

    “Mitt Romney is forever bitter,” he said, referring to the failed 2012 bid to be president.

    “He was too weak to beat the Democrats then so he’s joining them now,” he added.

    The president has often been called a bully by his rivals, and even some of his allies have been at the receiving end of his caustic tweets.

    Trump remains hugely popular within the Republican Party membership, given him tremendous influence, though his aura of invincibility was broken in the last election cycle, when his endorsements failed to push key candidates over the finish line. (dpa/NAN)

  • Nancy Pelosi rips up copy of Trump’s State of union address

    Nancy Pelosi rips up copy of Trump’s State of union address

    As President Donald Trump finished his State of the Union Address on Tuesday night, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was seen ripping up a copy of the President’s speech.

    Asked immediately after Trump’s speech why she tore up the transcript, Pelosi told reporters: “Because it was the courteous thing to do,” adding that it was “the courteous thing to do considering the alternative.” It isn’t clear what she meant by an “alternative.”

    The White House responded quickly, accusing Pelosi of disrespecting the Americans that Trump had praised during his State of the Union address

    Pelosi and Trump have long had an awkward relationship; tensions only rose after Pelosi came to embrace the idea of impeaching Trump. Earlier in the evening, Trump appeared to dodge an attempted handshake from the House Speaker. At the end of last year’s State of the Union, Pelosi’s clap and pursed lips led to widespread speculation about whether her applause was sarcastic. She later said that her actions were in support of Trump’s call for bipartisan cooperation.

  • Trump to restrict immigration from 6 new countries

    Trump to restrict immigration from 6 new countries

    U.S. President Donald Trump is issuing a directive to restrict immigration from six additional countries, citing security concerns, administration officials said on Friday.

    The six nations are: Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania.

    The countries will face tailored restrictions, the official said.

    The new rules come into effect on February 22.

    The new rules stop short of a blanket travel ban and will still allow certain visits to the U.S., notably those for non-immigration purposes, which raised questions about how the administration was defining security concerns.

    The restrictions are largely focused on immigration visas that can lead to the ability to settle permanently in the U.S., and not on visits for familiar purposes or for business, in most cases.

    The rules are being imposed ahead of elections later this year and come three years after Trump slapped a travel ban on several Muslim-majority nations, sparking an uproar.

    The ban, which was modified, was later upheld by a court ruling.

    The problems facing the latest six countries to be hit with restrictions largely stem from deficiencies in sharing intelligence with the U.S. and Interpol, in addition to technological issues pertaining to passports and databases, the officials said.

    Officials said the nations could make moves to improve their status.

    One country that nearly ended up on the list was able to improve its systems in advance of the new directive and sidestep the restrictions, the officials said.

    Trump has made restricting immigration, particularly from Muslim and poorer countries, a cornerstone of his policy as president.

    When he launched his campaign for the White House in 2015, Trump called for a shutdown of all Muslim migration to the U.S.

    The president is expected to formally sign and issue the new directive as early as Friday. (dpa/NAN)

  • Woman who has accused Trump of sexual assault is seeking his DNA

    Woman who has accused Trump of sexual assault is seeking his DNA

    A woman who accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her decades ago is asking him for a DNA sample to compare to male genetic material found on the dress she says she wore during the alleged encounter.

    E. Jean Carroll, an advice columnist, alleged in a lawsuit filed in November that Trump attacked her at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store in Manhattan, in the 1990s. Trump has repeatedly denied the allegation, saying last June that he had “never met this person in my life.”
    Her lawyers served an attorney for Trump with papers on Thursday requesting the President’s DNA be obtained on March 2.
    The papers included test results from a black Donna Karan dress Carroll says she wore the day of the alleged assault, from which a lab collected biological material.
    The results note that “acid phosphatase activity, a presumptive indication of the presence of semen, was not detected in any of thirty-three fluorescent stains tested on the dress.” However, samples tested from the dress sleeve contained genetic material that analysts described as coming from at least one “male,” according to the filing.After Carroll went public with her account last year, Trump denied the incident had occurred, calling it “totally false.” Carroll’s lawsuit, filed in New York state Supreme Court, said his responses were “false” and “defamatory.”
    “After Trump sexually assaulted me, I took the black dress I had been wearing and hung it in my closet. I only wore it once since then and that was at the photoshoot for the New York Magazine article about my book,” Carroll said in a statement Thursday.
    “Unidentified male DNA on the dress could prove that Donald Trump not only knows who I am, but also that he violently assaulted me in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman and then defamed me by lying about it and impugning my character.”
    Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, added that “testing unidentified male DNA on the dress she wore during that assault has become standard operating procedure in these circumstances given the remarkable advances in DNA technology, particularly where, as is the case here, other potential contributors have been excluded.” Referring to a request to sample Trump’s saliva to test his DNA, Kaplan said, “There really is no valid basis for him to object.”
    An attorney for Trump, Lawrence S. Rosen, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
    Carroll, who has been an advice columnist for Elle magazine for 26 years, first detailed her accusations against Trump last year through an excerpt of her book published in New York magazine.
    In the excerpt, Carroll claims that she encountered “one of New York’s most famous men” in the fall of 1995 or spring 1996 at Bergdorf Goodman, where, she says, he attacked her in one of the dressing rooms after pressing her to try on lingerie. She said Trump pushed her against the dressing room wall, where he “unzips his pants, and, forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me.” She says she fought against Trump.
    After Trump denied the initial accusations last June, she sued him for defamation in November over what she says were his lies denying her public accusation.