Tag Archive for: trump

Trump Vetoes Defense Policy Bill Over Base Names, Unrelated Internet Law

/in


President Trump on Wednesday followed through on his long public threats and vetoed the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, citing complaints with provisions to rename military bases named for Confederate generals and the lack of change to an unrelated law governing Internet companies.

The annual defense policy bill passed by overwhelming, veto-proof margins in both the House and Senate earlier this month. The bill also included several provisions improving federal workers’ paid leave benefits.

The bill includes a technical fix to the paid parental leave program adopted as part of last year’s Defense authorization act, to ensure all federal employees have access to up to 12 weeks of paid time off in connection with the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child.

It also increases the cap on the amount of annual leave federal workers can carry over at the end of this year by 25%. That provision came in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has made it more difficult for employees to use their leave. The waiver of the normal leave cap will not apply to lump sum payments made to employees for unused leave when they exit federal service.

Trump vetoed the bill because of a provision requiring the Pentagon to rename military bases named for Confederate military leaders, and the lack of a provision repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a law that shields internet companies from liability for what users post online. Although lawmakers in both parties have dismissed this complaint as unrelated to national security, Trump has insisted the NDAA include changes to the law.

“The act fails even to make any meaningful changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, despite bipartisan calls for repealing that provision,” Trump wrote. “Section 230 facilitates the spread of foreign disinformation online, which is a serious threat to our national security and election security. It must be repealed.”

The House has already scheduled votes for next week to override the veto threat, although it is unclear whether Republicans will continue to support the bill’s passage. Earlier this month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said that…

Source…

Biden assails Trump over handling of Russia hack

/in


The US government has not made a formal assessment of who was behind the attack, but both Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr have said all signs point to Russia. But Trump, who has long sidestepped blaming Moscow for its provocations, has not followed suit and has instead suggested — without evidence — that China may have carried out the hack.

The breach of the Treasury Department began in July, but experts believe the overall hacking operation began months earlier when malicious code was slipped into updates to popular software that monitors computer networks of businesses and governments.

“The truth is, the Trump administration failed to prioritize cybersecurity,” Biden said. “This assault happened on Donald Trump’s watch, while he wasn’t watching.”

Given Trump’s reluctance to publicly blame Russia, it appears likely that any formal US retaliation for the hacking will fall to Biden. The president-elect said he would work with allies to set up international rules to hold nation states accountable for cyberattacks and vowed that his administration would make cybersecurity a top priority.

Biden spoke a day after Congress passed a $900 billion coronavirus aid bill that includes direct payments to many Americans and aid for struggling small businesses. He called the bill a “down payment” on a broader relief bill he plans to introduce when he takes office in January.

“Like all compromises, this is far from perfect,” Biden said. “Congress did their job this week, and I can and I must ask them to do it again next year.”

The president-elect also expressed empathy for families who have struggled this year through the pandemic and resulting economic uncertainty. He singled out in particular front-line workers, scientists, researchers, clinical trial participants, and those with deployed family members during the holiday season.

“Our hearts are always with you — keep the faith,” said Biden, even as he warned that the nation faces a “dark winter” as COVID-19 cases rise across the country. More than 320,000 people have died from the virus in the United States.

He urged Americans to continue to take precautions, particularly during…

Source…

Trump calls John Bolton ‘one of the dumbest people in Washington’

/in


  • President Donald Trump on Sunday blasted his former national security advisor, John Bolton, after he was critical of the president over a report in The New York Times that he was considering martial law to overturn the results of the presidential election.
  • “What would Bolton, one of the dumbest people in Washington, know?” Trump tweeted.
  • Bolton, reacting to the Times report of former national security advisor Michael Flynn suggesting that Trump utilize the military to “rerun” the presidential election, called such an action “appalling.”
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump on Sunday lambasted his former national security advisor, John Bolton after the onetime ally publicly criticized the president over a report in The New York Times that he was considering martial law to overturn the results of the presidential election.

Shortly after midnight, Trump went after Bolton, slamming his intelligence and previous foreign policy decisions.

“What would Bolton, one of the dumbest people in Washington, know?,” Trump wrote. “Wasn’t he the person who so stupidly said, on television, ‘Libyan solution’, when describing what the U.S. was going to do for North Korea. I’ve got plenty of other Bolton ‘stupid stories.'”

On Saturday, Bolton, reacting to the Times report of former national security advisor Michael Flynn suggesting that Trump declare martial law and utilize the military to “rerun” the presidential election, called such an action “appalling.”

“There’s no other way to describe it,” Bolton said on CNN. “It’s unbelievable [and] almost certainly without precedent, but I think it’s important to understand this is just another day at the office, at the Oval … He’s unfit for the job. I don’t think he’s ever read the Constitution. If he has, he clearly didn’t understand it, and if he did understand it at one point, he’s forgotten it.”

Read more: EXCLUSIVE: Jared Kushner helped create a Trump campaign shell company that secretly paid the president’s family members and spent $617 million in reelection cash, a source tells Insider

Trump disputed the Times report on Twitter, describing the publication’s details of the meeting as…

Source…

Donald Trump Is Talking About Everything but the Alleged Russian SolarWinds Hack

/in

As authorities probe a suspected Russia-led hack of government networks, President Donald Trump has been publicly silent on the matter.

Even as a slew of federal agencies acknowledged their computer systems appeared to have been affected by malware spread via Texas-based software company SolarWinds, Trump continued to tweet about a presidential election he had already lost.

With roughly a month left of his first and presumably only term in the White House, Trump claimed on Thursday, without evidence, that the outcome of the November vote was “rigged,” and suggested that the Democratic Party had somehow stolen the election.

The same day, a warning emerged from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), saying that the SolarWinds hack posed a “grave risk” to all levels of the U.S. government, alongside critical infrastructure entities and businesses.

CISA, which operates under Homeland Security, said evidence suggested agencies had been compromised by an advanced persistent threat (APT) actor—another term given to a nation state-level cybersecurity adversary—since at least March 2020.

Trump remained silent as multiple administration officials alluded to the evidence that pointed in the direction of Russia. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted there had been a “consistent effort of the Russians to try and get into American servers.”

Trump remained publicly silent as the Department of Energy, which includes a division overseeing the nuclear weapons stockpile, confirmed it found malware linked to the hackers on its business networks as part of a probe happening in real-time.

And Trump did not respond publicly as his former homeland security adviser Thomas P. Bossert said the “magnitude of this ongoing attack is hard to overstate” and noted that Trump was “on the verge of leaving behind a federal government, and perhaps a large number of major industries, compromised by the Russian government.”

On December 13, then…

Source…