Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 4-26-19

Political News
Joe Biden Announces His 2020 Presidential Bid
Joe Biden announced his presidential bid on Thursday with an online video, sources familiar with the plans, fi- nally answering one of the lingering questions hanging over the 2020 Democratic race.
He is scheduled to hold his first campaign event in Pitts- burgh on Monday, a source said, and plans to hit the road to the early-voting states of Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire in the com- ing days.
His political action com- mittee, American Possibili- ties, sent an email to supporters on Tuesday to urge them to sign up for the news.
"We'll cut to the chase," the message said. "There has been a lot of chatter about what Joe Biden plans to do. As one of Joe's top support- ers, we want you to be the first to know!"
JOE BIDEN
This will mark his third run for the White House. But everything is different this time around, as he runs as a popular former vice presi- dent to Barack Obama. It's a far loftier post than running as a Democratic senator from Delaware, which he unsuc- cessfully did in the 1988 and 2008 campaigns.
Trump Showdown With House Democrats Ignites Into All-Out War
The showdown between the Trump White House and House Democrats reached a new level of hostility this week, as several investigative dis- putes veered toward federal court amid scathing rhetoric on both sides.
Three dramatic clashes be- tween White House lawyers and congressional Democrats over the past 36 hours have created an atmosphere of total war between the president and Capitol Hill, suggesting that even modest compromise may be impossible and that pro- tracted court fights likely are inevitable.
House Democrats threat- ened Tuesday to hold in con- tempt a Trump official who oversaw security clearances after the White House in- structed him not to cooperate
President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats have been feuding, putting in question Congress' ability to carry out its constitutional oversight.
with Congress. Later in the day, the Trump administra- tion refused to turn over six years’ worth of President Donald Trump’s personal and business tax returns by a 5 p.m. deadline, instead request-
ing more time to consult with the Justice Department. And later Tuesday, Trump said he was opposed to his current and former aides — most notably, former White House Counsel Don McGahn — testifying on Capitol Hill, escalating the showdown even further.
Those moves came a day after Trump took the dra- matic step of suing the chair- man of the House Oversight and Reform Committee to block a subpoena for his finan- cial records.
White House lawyers said they are guarding the execu- tive branch’s prerogatives against what they call politi- cally motivated congressional inquests. But Democrats see an unprecedented — and inde- fensible — degree of White House defiance.
2020 Democrats Clash Over Impeachment, Felons’ Right To Vote
MANCHESTER, N.H. — California Sen. Kamala Harris joined the call for President Donald Trump’s impeachment as five leading Democratic presi- dential contenders clashed in a series of prime-time town hall meetings that exposed deep divisions in a party des- perate to end the Trump presidency.
Harris’ unexpected support for impeachment follows Mas- sachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s push for Congress to begin the process to remove the Republican president fol- lowing the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted report — a plan all but certain to fail without sig- nificant Republican support.
The impeachment debate, which is raging among De- mocrats nationwide, played out on national television Monday as five 2020 hopefuls representing different wings of the party addressed young vot- ers in first-in-the-nation pri- mary state New Hampshire. While they took turns on stage, the forum, hosted by CNN, marked the first time this young presidential pri- mary season in which multiple candidates appeared on na- tional television for the same event.
The five-hour marathon marked a preview of sorts for
Democrats clashing over many issues.
the party’s first formal presi- dential debate , set for late June. On Monday, they clashed from afar while taking questions from college stu- dents about free college, free health care, gun control and impeachment.
A central question faced can- didates throughout the night: Who is best positioned to deny Trump a second term?
Bernie Sanders, a front- runner in the crowded Demo- cratic field who has pushed much of his party to the left in recent years, was asked to de- fend his decision to embrace democratic socialism.
“It’s a radical idea. Maybe not everyone agrees. But I happen to believe we ought to have a government that repre- sents working families and not just the 1 percent,” he said.
Republicans, led by Trump, have spent much of the last year warning voters that Democrats would take the country toward socialism should they win in 2020.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who has cast herself as a Midwestern prag- matist well positioned to ap- peal to the middle of the country, refused to embrace “Medicare for All,” free college or Trump’s impeachment.
“I wish I could staple a free college diploma to every one of your chairs,” Klobuchar told the audience of college students. “I have to be straight with you and tell you the truth.”
Warren, a champion for her party’s more liberal wing, called for an “ultra-million- aires’ tax” on income over $50 million to help pay for free col- lege, free child care for all chil- dren 5 and younger, free universal prekindergarten and student-debt forgiveness.
“We say good for you that you have now gotten this great fortune,” she said of the na- tion’s wealthiest taxpayers. “But you gotta pay something back so everybody else gets a chance.”
PAGE 6-A FLORIDA SENTINEL-BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019