The House on brink of approving aid for Ukraine and Israel Los Angeles Times

Table Of Content

• Congress is threatening to ban TikTok. Here’s what you should know
• Conservatives don't like the CR, but most like Johnson
• Ukrainians contemplate the once unthinkable: Losing the war with Russia
• From New York to Arizona: Inside the head-spinning week of Trump’s legal drama
• WATCH: House authorizes Biden impeachment inquiry along party lines
• Russian Foreign Ministry says US foreign aid package will "exacerbate global crises"
• The House passed a key foreign aid package. Catch up on what happened

Many Ukrainians, whose days and nights are punctuated by air alerts that send people scurrying into basement bunkers or taking makeshift shelter behind a “second wall” at home, were eager to make the point that not only their own safety was at stake. “I think this support will really strengthen the armed forces of Ukraine, and we will have a chance for victory,” Zelensky said through an interpreter. Some U.S. lawmakers said coming to Ukraine’s aid now had helped avert sending a dangerous signal of U.S. weakness to Moscow. The House vote “will make the United States of America richer, further ruin Ukraine and result in the deaths of even more Ukrainians, the fault of the Kyiv regime,” Peskov said, according to official Russian media.

Congress is threatening to ban TikTok. Here’s what you should know

While Republicans say their inquiry is ultimately focused on the president himself, they have taken particular interest in Hunter Biden and his overseas business dealings, from which they accuse the president of personally benefiting. Republicans have also focused a large part of their investigation on whistleblower allegations of interference in the long-running Justice Department investigation into the younger Biden’s taxes and his gun use. Democrats and the White House have repeatedly defended the president and his administration’s cooperation with the investigation thus far, saying it has already made a massive trove of documents available. "I've said from the beginning I'm going to be responsible with this," Greene said. On Friday, a third Republican member signed onto the effort to remove Johnson as speaker. Mr. Mayorkas is the first sitting cabinet secretary to be indicted by the House.

Conservatives don't like the CR, but most like Johnson

Of that total, about $23 billion would be used to replenish US weapons, stockpiles and facilities, and more than $11 billion would fund current US military operations in the region. One of the bills would provide nearly $61 billion to assist Ukraine and others in the region fight Russia – about the same that was included in the Senate bill. “I'm pretty sure one will come to the floor, if he doesn't resign at some point, but we're trying to avoid that,” he said. Austin added that the package of bills will “save lives” and that the “world is watching” what the United States does. “When faced with the question of whether to provide offensive aid to further this conflict, we believe there is a moral imperative to find another path," the statement said.

Ukrainians contemplate the once unthinkable: Losing the war with Russia

Democrats impeached President Trump twice, once over his dealings with Ukraine and a second time in the days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who is facing a tough reelection bid in Ohio, called the impeachment trial a “distraction,” arguing that Republicans should instead support a bipartisan border compromise they scuttled earlier this year. Since then, Johnson has delayed sending the articles to the Senate for weeks while both chambers finished work on government funding legislation and took a two-week recess. Johnson had said he would send them to the Senate last week, but he delayed again after Senate Republicans said they wanted more time to prepare. The House narrowly voted in February to impeach Mayorkas for his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border.

On the eve of the vote, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who led the push to remove Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker last year, said he doesn’t plan on filing a motion to vacate Johnson. Whether or not we can avoid a government shutdown solely depends on a small number of Senate Republicans, and whether they will drag this out through the weekend,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said on MSNBC. On a vote of 252 to 175, the House voted overwhelmingly to pass the bipartisan Jan. 6 commission. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who co-sponsored the Jan. 6 commission bill, said the 35 Republicans who voted in favor of the legislation "took a principal vote." The House approved legislation to create an independent and bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.

From New York to Arizona: Inside the head-spinning week of Trump’s legal drama

Other concessions will have to be made to other opponents who have raised different concerns. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy’s team has made an offer to his conservative opponents filled with “substantive” rules changes and other process issues they have demanded, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Follow the latest US political news here or read through the updates below. In a dramatic setback, House Republicans fail to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after a few GOP lawmakers refused to go along. In any case, Republicans would not be able to win the support of the two-thirds of the Senate that is needed to convict and remove Mayorkas from office. Democrats control the Senate, 51 to 49, and they appear to be united against the impeachment effort.

WATCH: House authorizes Biden impeachment inquiry along party lines

“If we had the vote today in our conference, he would not be speaker today. He's already a lame duck, he can't raise money, everyone knows it,” Greene claimed. Massie, a Kentucky Republican, added that they are giving Johnson the chance to resign, although the speaker has insisted he won’t. Massie added he believes a motion to vacate — a rarely used procedural tool to remove the House speaker — will happen eventually.

Russian Foreign Ministry says US foreign aid package will "exacerbate global crises"

He told reporters he did not want another vote Wednesday, saying lawmakers have not yet reached a deal. The House has pushed a $95-billion national security aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies closer to passage. House Freedom Caucus chair Bob Good, R-Va., told reporters on Friday that although he doesn't defend Johnson's performance as speaker, he thinks it's not in the interest of the Republican Party to go through another speakership fight six months before an election. Republicans passed the rules that govern how the House operates, just days after a marathon round of ballots to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Mr. McCarthy and his top lieutenants had labored to secure the votes needed to pass the package of rules, after making a series of concessions to a group of opponents in the party’s right flank.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks to the press after the chamber passed a major aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan on April 20. A first attempt to impeach Mr. Mayorkas failed last week after the same three Republicans broke with their party and voted against the impeachment. (A fourth member changed his vote to “nay” in order to file a motion for the House to reconsider.) Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who is battling cancer, was not present for last week’s vote, and Tuesday’s vote was scheduled for after he returned.

The decision by House Republicans to include TikTok as part of a larger foreign aid package, a priority for President Biden with broad congressional support for Ukraine and Israel, fast-tracked the ban after an earlier version had stalled in the Senate. A standalone bill with a shorter, six-month selling deadline passed the House in March by an overwhelming bipartisan vote as Democrats and Republicans voiced national security concerns about the app’s owner, the Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd. The “two-step continuing resolution” would fund some federal agencies until late January and others through early February, a strategy employed to appease hard-right lawmakers wary of passing bills that fund the entire government in one go. On Tuesday, House Democratic leaders endorsed the measure, which needed bipartisan support to pass. Notably, the bill contains no aid for Ukraine or Israel, which would have to be passed separately. Instead of a six-month deadline, TikTok would have roughly nine months, which could be extended by President Joe Biden by 90 days if he determines there’s been progress toward a sale.

House Republicans release aid bills for Israel and Ukraine, eyeing weekend House votes - NBC News

House Republicans release aid bills for Israel and Ukraine, eyeing weekend House votes.

Posted: Wed, 17 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The House is reconvening to potentially vote for a seventh time for speaker. The House cannot continue with any other business until a speaker is elected — including swearing in of new members. Sources said the talks Wednesday between McCarthy allies and holdouts have been the most productive and serious ones to date. And in one sign of a breakthrough, a McCarthy-aligned super PAC agreed to not play in open Republican primaries in safe seats -- one of the big demands that conservatives had asked for but that McCarthy had resisted until this point. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said last week he wasn’t sure what he would do if there were a move to dismiss the trial. “I think it’s virtually certain that there will not be the conviction of someone when the constitutional test has not been met,” he said.

The House voted resoundingly on Saturday to approve $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as Speaker Mike Johnson put his job on the line to advance the long-stalled aid package by marshaling support from mainstream Republicans and Democrats. The House also voted Saturday to force TikTok’s parent company to sell it or be banned in the U.S. According to the bill, China-based ByteDance would have to sell TikTok within nine months — which the president could extend to a year — or face a nationwide ban.

After months of resisting putting a foreign aid bill on the House floor, Speaker Mike Johnson finally moved to advance a package this week, drawing ire from some hardline members of the Republican Party who are now supporting an effort to oust him. Some House Republicans, particularly those hailing from politically divided districts, had been hesitant in recent weeks to take any vote on Biden’s impeachment, fearing a significant political cost. But GOP leaders have made the case in recent weeks that the resolution is only a step in the process, not a decision to impeach Biden. Reaching an endgame has been an excruciating lift for Johnson that has tested both his resolve and his support among Republicans, with a small but growing number now openly urging his removal from the speaker’s office.

"I hope the speaker does not yield to the demands of the hard right as we try to keep the government open," Schumer continued. "Instead, I hope the speaker continues to recognize he will need Democratic votes in order to avoid a shutdown." Then, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., tried to start a physical fight with a committee witness, the president of the Teamsters union, Sean O’Brien. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had to break it up, yelling at both men and banging his gavel.

While CNN has projected Republicans will control the House, the results of some House races remain unknown. Voting laws that govern when and how ballots are counted differ in each state, allowing some states to finish relatively quickly, while others may not finish for several days. GOP lawmakers said that since Hunter Biden did not appear, they will begin contempt of Congress proceedings against him. “He just got into more trouble today,” Rep. James Comer, the House Oversight Committee chairman, told reporters Wednesday. "Our process, in the end, ensured that each member was able to consider the individual supplemental elements on their own merits, which is exactly how the House is supposed to work," Johnson said after the vote on Saturday afternoon.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, has said the Senate needs to hold a full trial at which it can examine the evidence against Mayorkas and come to a conclusion. The House Homeland Security Committee chairman, Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican who is one of the impeachment managers, read the articles aloud as most senators sat in their seats, following along with their own paper copies. Nadya Okamoto, a content creator who has roughly 4 million followers on TikTok, said she has been having conversations with other creators who are experiencing “so much anger and anxiety” about the bill and how it’s going to affect their lives. The 26-year-old, whose company, August, sells menstrual products and is known for her advocacy around destigmatizing menstrual periods, makes most of her income from TikTok. Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union have backed the app.