U.S.
Sen. Rand Paul is intent on blocking a $110 billion arms sale with
Saudi Arabia, which he labeled as a sponsor of terrorism during a
Montana rally with Donald Trump Jr. on Saturday.
Paul, R-Ky., a
member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a crowd in
Missoula that the U.S. can no longer look away from Saudi Arabia’s bad
behavior. His comments came during an event for Republican U.S. Senate
candidate Matt Rosendale, the Hill reported.
“We
have to think through this idea that everything is going to be blindly
for Saudi Arabia. They’re involved in a war in Yemen where tens of
thousands of civilians are dying,” Paul said.
The Saudis are the world’s biggest customer for U.S. military weapons and equipment, and are a key ally in the Middle East.
Paul has repeatedly called for greater scrutiny of the U.S.-Saudi relationship after U.S.-based writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside a Saudi consulate in Turkey on Oct. 2.
He also called for cutting off military aid to the country.
A
letter sent to President Trump from both Republicans and Democrats on
the committee could trigger the Global Magnitsky Human Rights
Accountability Act, which requires the administration to investigate
Khashoggi’s death and report back to Congress within 120 days.
Saudi Arabia could be hit with sanctions if its government officials are found to have violated Khashoggi’s human rights.
Paul called any proposed sanctions a slap on the wrist.
“I
think sanctions are a way of pretending to do something. If you
sanction the 15 thugs that the crown prince sent to [the consulate in
Istanbul], you’re sanctioning 15 thugs and they’ll just get 15 more
thugs,” he said.
“I think sanctions are a way of
pretending to do something. If you sanction the 15 thugs that the crown
prince sent to [the consulate in Istanbul], you’re sanctioning 15 thugs
and they’ll just get 15 more thugs.” — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Instead, he is pushing for a vote to block the arms sale.
“Cutting
off the arms sales will make them wake up,” Paul told the Hill before
he went onstage at the rally. “In fact, their air force would be
grounded in two or three months if they didn’t have spare parts."
Earlier this month President Trump defended the arms deal as an economic boost.
“In
terms of the order of $110 billion — think of that, $110 billion — all
they’re going to do is give it to other countries and I think that would
be very foolish of our country,” he said Oct. 13.
Trump Jr. did not mention Saudi Arabia during Saturday’s rally.
Rather than simply focus on Khashoggi, Paul is also criticizing Saudi Arabia’s support of “violent jihad,” Politico reported.
He
reminded the crowd that 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11
attacks were Saudis, and accused the kingdom of funding terror
activities.
“Anyone remember who attacked us on 9/11?” he said.
“Anybody heard of a madrassa? They have 20,000 madrassas in Pakistan
funded by the Saudis that teach hatred of Christians, hatred of Jews,
hatred of Hindus, throughout the world."
“Why do we have worldwide terrorism? The Saudis fund it,” he added.
A newly created political movement urging liberals to leave the Democratic Party held a march in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.
The
five-month-old #WalkAway movement advocates that those who feel
disillusioned with the party -- which some say uses scare tactics
and identity politics -- to come out publically against it.
Several
hundred supporters attended Saturday’s mile-long march along
Pennsylvania Avenue -- from John Marshall Park near the Capitol
to Freedom Plaza near the White House.
"We're walking away from
the Democratic Party and literally walking toward freedom," #WalkAway
founder Brandon Straka told Fox News.
Straka spearheaded the movement after posting an online video in May explaining why he was abandoning the Democratic Party.
“People
are fed up with what’s happening on the left,” he said, adding that
interest skyrocketed after the hearings into sexual misconduct
allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanauagh. “These were
really the kind of die-hard loyalists. People in their 60s and 70s who
had been Democrats their whole life who said ‘This was the final straw
for me.’”
Scores of video testimonials posted to the #WalkAway
Campaign Facebook page give a variety of reasons for switching political
allegiances.
Some said the Democratic Party has become
hate-filled and hostile to opposing points of view while moving further
to the left. Others say they were tired of the party’s "politically
correct" culture.
The movement caught President Trump's attention. He tweeted about the event before it began.
Straka
said he's most proud that minority groups, such as Hispanics, African
Americans and the LGBTQ community, have embraced his movement.
"These
minority groups that I think the Democratic Party has had sort of a
stranglehold for so long on, they are walking away," he said. "They want
to be self-empowered."
Vice President Mike Pence descended on the southwest as part of a
midterm rallying blitz, bringing with him a warning that the migrant
caravan is being funded by outside, leftist groups, citing intel said to
be provided by foreign partners and a phone call with a Central
American leader.
“What the president of Honduras told me is that
the caravan was organized by leftist organizations, political activists
within Honduras, and he said it was being funded by outside groups, and
even from Venezuela,” Pence told Fox News in an interview late Friday in
Yuma, Arizona. “So the American people, I think, see through this –
they understand this is not a spontaneous caravan of vulnerable people.”
The
Vice President is barnstorming through the southwest this weekend,
rallying for Republican candidates in New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. SECTION OF TRUMP'S BORDER WALL UNVEILED IN CALIFORNIA AS CARAVAN ADVANCES NORTH THROUGH MEXICO
Frenzied applause followed his declarations in Roswell and Yuma that the southern border is closed to the migrant caravan.
“Anyone
coming up in this caravan should just turn around,” Pence told Fox
News. “They should go home, or they should apply for asylum in Mexico.”
Pence
argues that loopholes in US immigration laws are alluring to human
traffickers involved with organizing the migrant caravan. SMALLER MIGRANT CARAVAN ADVANCES QUICKLY TOWARD US, TREKS 62 MILES IN ONE DAY
And
he blames Democrats for not failing to shore up the laws on the books –
even though Republicans control the House and the Senate.
“We’ve
been blocked by liberals in the United States Senate who have stood in
the way of immigration reform,” Pence said. “That 60 vote margin that
the President talks about all the time has prevented us from really
taking up this issue.”
Central American migrants traveling with a caravan to the U.S.
crowd onto a tractor as they make their way to Mapastepec, Mexico.
Pence also dismisses the idea that the US must help
Central American migrants that make it to the border – because he says
the US is doing a lot to help them in their home countries.
“We’ve
also provided tens of millions of dollars of aid to those countries of
economic development,” Pence said. “The time has come for countries
across central America to step up.” On Friday, part of the caravan was able to travel more than 60 miles.
Exactly
how many remain in the caravan is unknown. The mayor of nearby Huixla
on Wednesday estimated 6,000. Officially, Mexico says there are fewer
than 4,000.
The number reduced after some 1,700 applied for asylum
in Mexico, four busloads returned to Honduras and others decided to go
their own way or stay in Mexico and work.
The group is expected to
further splinter in the next few days as some elect to hop on the
fast-moving and dangerous cargo train known as La Bestia, or “The
Beast”, that stretches from Guatemala to the U.S. border.
President
Trump said that the suspect responsible for killing and injuring
multiple people and police officers at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday
“should get the death penalty,” saying the suspect should “pay the
ultimate price.”
Speaking to reporters ahead of boarding Air Force
One, Trump addressed the “devastating” shooting that occurred Saturday
morning at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill
neighborhood, which is predominantly Jewish.
Multiple fatalities were reported, and there were also injuries, including four police officers.
"People
who do this should get the death penalty,” Trump said. “I think they
should stiffen up laws and I think they should very much bring the death
penalty to anybody who does a thing like this to innocent people.”
He
added: “They should really suffer the ultimate price — pay the ultimate
price. I’ve felt this way for a very long time. People disagree with
me, and I can’t imagine why.”
Later Saturday, the president
ordered that flags be flown at half-staff at federal buildings in
"solemn respect" for the synagogue shooting victims.
Earlier this month, the president called for the death penalty to be brought against “criminals” who kill police officers. The president has issued calls for a stricter death penalty policy since the 2016 presidential campaign.
The
death penalty is legal in Pennsylvania, though current Gov. Tom Wolf
halted the process when he took office in 2015. The last person executed
under the death penalty in Pennsylvania was in 1999--the first since 1962.
Trump was asked about tighter gun laws, which he discounted, saying they had “little to do with it.”
“If
they had protection inside, the results would have been far better. If
they had some kind of protection inside the temple, maybe it could have
been a very much different situation,” Trump said. “They didn’t have
protection. They had a maniac walk in and they didn’t have any
protection.”
He added: "If there was an armed guard inside the temple they would have been able to stop him."
"Maybe
there would have been nobody killed except for him, frankly," Trump
continued. "Isn't it a shame that you have to think of that inside a
temple or inside a church? But certainly, the result would have been far
better."
The president's comments were among the multitude of
reactions from leaders on Saturday, as the story continued to develop.
Those reactions ranged from solemn expressions of sympathy to angry
denunciations of divisive rhetoric and urgent calls for action.
House
Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he was "horrified" by the
shooting, but criticized the president's suggestion to have armed guards
in houses of worship.
“The President’s suggestion that Americans
need to worship under armed guard is absurd," Hoyer said in a statement.
"We must address the ease by which someone can obtain the most
dangerous weapons of war and use them to commit mass violence in this
country.”
First responders were seen near the Tree of Life Synagogue in
Pittsburgh, Pa., where a shooter opened fire Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018.
(AP)
The president added that “the world is a violent world.”
“You think when you’re over it, it just goes away,” Trump said. “But then it comes back in the form of a madman—a whacko.”
Trump added that prior to taking office he “watched instances like this,” calling it a “shame.”
“But
it’s even tougher when you’re the president of the United States,”
Trump said. “You have to watch this kind of a thing happen, and it’s so
sad to see.”
Trump tweeted earlier Saturday morning, saying the
events in Pittsburgh were "far more devastating than originally
thought," adding that he "spoke with Mayor and Governor to inform them
that the Federal Government has been, and will be, with them all the
way."
The president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, who converted to the
Orthodox Jewish faith with her husband Jared Kushner, condemned the
events.
"America is stronger than the acts of a depraved bigot and
anti-semite. All good Americans stand with the Jewish people to oppose
acts of terror & share the horror, disgust & outrage over the
massacre in Pittsburgh. We must unite against hatred & evil. God
bless those affected," Ivanka Trump tweeted.
Vice President Pence
also tweeted, "praying for the fallen," while counselor to the
president, Kellyanne Conway, called the event "horrifying."
White
House press secretary Sarah Sanders also reacted, saying she is
"Saddened and appalled by the cowardly act of evil committed at Tree of
Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. We stand in total solidarity with the
victims and all of the Jewish community against bigotry and hate."
First lady Melania Trump also tweeted, saying that "the violence needs to stop."
"My
heart breaks over the news out of #Pittsburgh. The violence needs to
stop. May God bless, guide & unite the United States of America."
Also
issuing a strongly worded condemnation of the shooting Saturday
afternoon was House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who, like so many others,
voiced disgust and dismay over the bloodshed and racist overtones.
"This
morning, a solemn celebration of life and faith turned to horror and
chaos. We are deeply devastated by this tragedy, the roots of which
appear to be especially repulsive," Ryan said in his statement. "The
sickening reality is that anti-Semitism in America continues to rear its
ugly head. It is an ideology of hate that must be eradicated wherever
it may surface. This is a time to mourn and heal, but also to reaffirm
that we will not tolerate this bigotry."
Others, like U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., chided politicians for feeding divisions in society with their rhetoric.
"We
cannot continue down this path -- something must change,” his statement
read. “Certainly, our loose gun laws are to blame, but we are also
dealing with a much more insidious problem. Access to online cesspools
of racial and religious hatred comes too easily today, and too often,
political leaders are trading in the kind divisive rhetoric that caused
people to fear those that look, or worship differently than them, and
then act on those fears.”
FILE
– In this March 13, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks
during a tour as he reviews border wall prototypes in San Diego. (AP
Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
President Trump is again calling on Congress to pass legislation addressing illegal immigration to secure the nation’s borders.
The president said the U.S. spends billions of dollars a year on
illegal immigration, but that will not continue adding Democrats must
vote to pass strong, but fair laws.
The United States has been spending Billions of
Dollars a year on Illegal Immigration. This will not continue. Democrats
must give us the votes to pass strong (but fair) laws. If not, we will
be forced to play a much tougher hand.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen echoed his comments,
while touring the first completed section of the president’s 30 foot
high border wall in Southern California.
“This should not be a partisan issue,” said Nielsen. It seems that
many in Congress are currently suffering from amnesia. In 2006, Congress
passed the Secure Fence Act with broad bipartisan support. Border
security is national security and it is vital to our mission of
protecting the homeland.”
She also commented on a possible executive order to address the
migrant caravan, saying the administration is reviewing all legal
options and everything is on the table.
This comes as two migrant caravans, totaling nearly 10,000 people, are currently advancing through Mexico to the U.S.
President
Donald Trump talks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House
in Washington, Friday, Oct. 26, 2018, before boarding Marine One for the
short trip to Andrews Air Force Base. Trump is traveling to North
Carolina for a rally. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Trump says he deserves no blame in the recent threats made to Democrats.
The president said he heard that the suspect was one of his
supporters, however that doesn’t mean he should take the wrap over the
bomb threats made against a number of prominent Democrats.
The president said threats have nothing to do with party affiliation.
“There’s no blame,” said the president. There’s no anything. If you
look at what happened to Steve Scalise. That was from a supporter of a
different party. You look at what happened in numbers of these
incidents, they were supporters of others.”
The president has condemned the acts and said threats against politicians should not happen in our country.
First responders were seen near the Tree of Life Synagogue in
Pittsburgh, Pa., where a shooter opened fire Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018.
(AP)
