January, 2019 | últimas notícias

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, left, Vice President Mike Pence, White House legislative affairs aide Ja’Ron Smith, followed by White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, and others, walk down the steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office building, on the White House complex, after a meeting with staff members of House and Senate leadership, Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON – White House officials and congressional aides emerged from talks to reopen the government without a breakthrough Saturday, though they planned to return to the table the following day.

President Donald Trump tweeted: “Not much headway made today.” Democrats agreed there had been little movement, saying the White House did not budge on the president’s key demand, $5.6 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The White House said funding was not discussed in-depth, but the administration was clear they needed funding for a wall and that they wanted to resolve the shutdown all at once.

Accusations flew after the more than two-hour session led by Vice President Mike Pence. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” accused Democrats of being there to “stall.” Democrats familiar with the meeting said the White House position was “untenable.”

A White House official said the meeting included a briefing on border security by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Democrats sought written details from the Department of Homeland Security on their budget needs, which the White House said it would provide.

With talks stalled, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that House Democrats plan to start approving individual bills to reopen shuttered departments starting with Treasury to ensure Americans receive their tax returns.

“While President Trump threatens to keep the government shut down for ‘years’, Democrats are taking immediate further action to re-open government, so that we can meet the needs of the American people, protect our borders and respect our workers,” Pelosi said.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” set to air Sunday, Mulvaney argued that the administration was willing to deal. He said Trump was willing to forgo a concrete wall for steel or other materials.

“If he has to give up a concrete wall, replace it with a steel fence in order to do that so that Democrats can say, ‘See? He’s not building a wall anymore,’ that should help us move in the right direction,” Mulvaney said.

The president has already suggested his definition of the wall is flexible, referring to slats and other “border things.” But Democrats have made clear they see a wall as immoral and ineffective and prefer other types of border security funded at already agreed upon levels.

Trump had campaigned on the promise that Mexico would pay for the wall. Mexico has refused. He’s now demanding the money from Congress.

Trump, who did not attend the discussions, spent the morning tweeting about border security.

Showing little empathy for the hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed or working without pay, Trump declared — without citing evidence — that most are Democrats. He also asserted: “I want to stop the Shutdown as soon as we are in agreement on Strong Border Security! I am in the White House ready to go, where are the Dems?”

One Democrat, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, said in his party’s weekly radio address that the shutdown “is part of a larger pattern of a president who puts his personal whims and his effort to score political points before the needs of the American people. … He is pointing fingers at everyone but himself.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the freshman Democrat from New York, came to the defense of her fellow freshman colleague Saturday morning for profanity-laced remarks recently made about President Donald Trump.

“We’re gonna go in there and impeach the motherf***er,” Representative Rashida Tlaib told a crowd at a MoveOn.org event Thursday night.

Those remarks led to swift condemnation from Republicans, including the president, who told reporters in the Rose Garden Friday that Tlaib “dishonored herself” and “dishonored her family” with her comments. He added that the Michigan Democrat, who’s the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, was “highly disrespectful to the United States of America.”

Ocasio-Cortez hit back at the president and the GOP in a tweet Saturday, calling their response to Tlaib “Republican hypocrisy at its finest.”

“Saying that Trump admitting to sexual assault on tape is just ‘locker room talk,’ but scandalizing themselves into faux-outrage when my sis says a curse word in a bar,” she said. “GOP lost entitlement to policing women’s behavior a long time ago.”

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, leaves a photo opportunity with the female Democratic members of the 116th US House of Representatives outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 4. SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

Since Tlaib’s remarks, Democrats have pointed to Trump’s past comments in an Access Hollywood tape revealed during the 2016 campaign, where he said, “when you’re a star… you can do anything.”

“Grab ’em by the pussy,” he said. “You can do anything.”

Nearly two dozen women also came forward during the campaign to accuse the president of committing past sexual assaults.

Ocasio-Cortez added she backed Tlaib and her impeachment remarks, saying “the Bronx and Detroit ride together.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an MSNBC town hall that Tlaib’s comments were “nothing worse than what the president has said.”

Tlaib has refused to apologize and even doubled down on her profanity-laced reference in an interview with local Detroit TV affiliate WDIV.

“I think President Trump has met his match,” she said. “It’s probably exactly how my grandmother, if she was alive, would say it. Obviously, I am a member of Congress and things that I say are elevated on a national level, and I understand that very clearly.”

Pelosi and House Democrats have, for the most part, balked at condemning Tlaib, with the speaker and others saying they themselves would not personally use the language, but they are “not in the censorship business,” as Pelosi put it.

“I don’t use that kind of language,” Democrat David Cicilline told Newsweek Friday. “But the reality is, there are people who feel very strongly about this administration and the way this president has undermined core American values and consider him to be a real threat to things that we care about in this country.”

However, Eliot Engel, the Democrat from New York, did strongly condemn the remarks, telling Newsweek they were hurtful to the party.

“I don’t think it’s helpful, and it puts, frankly, Democrats on the defense when we should be on the offensive,” he said. “It’s the Republicans and the president who should be on the defensive.”

Democratic leadership and veteran Democrats, including Pelosi, Cicilline and Engel, have agreed that it’s far too soon for talks of impeachment. They believe special counsel Robert Mueller should release his final report and Democrats should conduct congressional investigations before moving forward on such a serious matter.

p:last-of-type::after, .node-type-slideshow .article-body > p:last-of-type::after{content:none}]]>

Crime

A late-night fight at a suburban Los Angeles bowling alley turned deadly late Friday night, killing three men and injuring four.

Police in the coastal city of Torrance responded shortly after midnight to calls of “shots fired” at the Gable House Bowl, which is described on its website as a gaming venue that offers bowling, laser tag and an arcade. They found seven people with gunshot wounds.

Three men were pronounced dead at the scene and two others were taken to a hospital with injuries, said police spokesman Sgt. Ronald Harris. Two other men were struck by gunfire but “opted to seek their own medical attention,” Harris said.

Authorities have not released details about what led to the shooting, but witnesses said it stemmed from a fight between two large groups of people at the bowling alley.

Wes Hamad, a 29-year-old Torrance resident, was at the bowling alley with his 13-year-old niece and cousin when he saw a “huge fight” break out. Hamad said the brawl, which lasted about five minutes, blocked the entrance of Gable House Bowl and devolved into “complete chaos.”

“I grabbed my niece and started running toward the far end of the bowling alley,” he said. “As we were running, we heard 15 shots.”

As he was leaving, Hamad said he saw a woman weeping over a man who was had multiple gunshot wounds in his head and neck.

Brandon Tyre, 31, told the Los Angeles Times that he was inside celebrating a friend’s birthday when he heard fighting, then the sound of gunshots. He turned to find his brother had been shot in the chest. The brother’s condition is unknown.

Witness Dana Scott, whose bowling league was meeting Friday night, told CNN: “A lot of people ran back into the bar area — behind the seats and onto the floor, under the benches. People were crying. It was not comfortable.”

Investigators were at the scene Saturday trying to “identify the suspects and whoever else was involved,” Harris said.

Damone Thomas was in the karaoke section of the bowling alley, a regular stop for him and his friends after work on Fridays, when people ran in saying there was a shooting. The 30-year-old Los Angeles resident said his friend flipped over one of the tables to shield them as they heard gunshots.

Thomas said he didn’t feel scared because he was “just trying to survive.” But when he was driving back home, he said he realized how traumatic the situation was and said he hasn’t been able to fall asleep. “Closing my eyes, all I can see is the women against the wall crying, not knowing what to do,” he said.

Both Thomas and Hamad said they had never witnessed any violence there in the past, but Hamad said he had stopped going for a while because he heard someone with a gun was recently seen there.

“I definitely won’t be going back anymore,” he added.

últimas notícias

Ultimas Noticias

Man Killed by Police Was Armed Rotten Robbie Employee

Download the App

Follow NBC Bay Area

Posted!

Crime

News Tips