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- The United States House of Representatives voted to override Donald Trump’s veto on the defense bill.
- Some Republicans sided with the Democrats against the outgoing president.
- Nancy Pelosi criticized Trump’s veto as “reckless.”
The U.S. House of Representatives dealt a blow to President Donald Trump on Monday by rejecting his veto on a defense bill, setting the stage for the Senate to deliver a humiliating first veto overridden in the final days of his presidency.
READ | Trump signs pandemic aid and spending bill, avoiding government shutdown
The Democratic-controlled House voted 322 to 87 to override Trump’s veto on the $ 740.5 billion defense bill, with 109 members of the president’s own Republican Party siding with the Democrats.
A similar motion will go before the Republican-majority Senate, where it will also have to win the support of two-thirds to override the president’s veto.
In a statement issued after the vote, the Speaker of the Democratic House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, criticized Trump’s veto as “reckless” and called on the president to “end his campaign of last-minute chaos.”
The House vote came a day after Trump gave in to pressure from Republicans and Democrats and reluctantly signed a $ 900 billion coronavirus relief and stimulus package that he had threatened to veto.
Liability protection for Internet companies
Trump’s capitulation on the Covid-19 aid bill and the impending override of the congressional veto are the latest signs of his waning powers as he prepares to leave the White House on January 20.
The Fiscal National Defense Authorization Law 2021 was approved this month by 335 votes to 78 in the House and 84 to 13 in the Senate.
But the president vetoed the NDAA because he did not repeal Section 230, a federal law that provides liability protection for Internet companies.
Trump also opposed a provision that would strip several US military bases of the names of generals who fought for the secessionist and pro-slavery South in the Civil War of 1861-65.
Including the defense bill, Trump has vetoed nine bills during his four years in the White House. Congress has not previously gathered the votes necessary to override any of its vetoes.
For a real estate mogul who prides himself on being a skilled negotiator, the past few days have been an exercise in humiliation.
Trump threatened for days not to sign the Covid-19 spending and relief bill that had been drafted by his own secretary of the Treasury and had received broad bipartisan support in Congress.
His surprise move ran the risk of shutting down the government starting Tuesday and depriving millions of Americans of much-needed economic relief during the pandemic.
He eventually backed down under bipartisan pressure and signed the bill Sunday night at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, out of sight of television cameras.
Filibuster threat
But in an attempt to save face, Trump issued a statement expressing his complaints about the Nov. 3 election and claiming that he had won a series of concessions on the aid bill.
Among Trump’s demands was an increase in direct aid payments to Americans from $ 600 to $ 2,000.
The House, in a vote of 275-134, approved a motion to increase payments to $ 2,000 on Monday, but it is likely to meet resistance from Republicans in the Senate.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders threatened Tuesday night to obstruct the Senate veto override bill if the upper house did not allow a vote on the additional $ 2,000 direct payments to Americans.
That could delay the measure and put additional pressure on Republicans ahead of two key Senate elections in Georgia next month that could determine control of the chamber.
President-elect Joe Biden, who was asked Monday by a reporter if he was in favor of increasing payments to $ 2,000, replied, “Yes.”
Biden, speaking after a briefing by his transition team on national security, also said that political appointees at the Pentagon, whom Trump has filled with loyalties since the election, have refused to provide a “clear picture” on the stance. of the troops or the budget.
“In my opinion, it’s nothing short of irresponsibility,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware, warning that American adversaries could take advantage of the transition.
The bizarre episode about the aid package highlighted the degree to which Trump has isolated himself, spending much of his time playing golf or criticizing his electoral defeat on Twitter.
In a sign of his waning influence, the New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, one of Trump’s most ardent supporters, ran an editorial late Sunday telling him to “Stop the Madness” and acknowledge that he lost the election.
“Mr. President, it is time to end this dark charade,” the newspaper said.
“We understand, Mr. President, that you are angry that you lost.
“But continuing down this road is ruinous,” the Post said. “If you insist on spending your last days in office threatening to burn everything down, that’s how they will remember it.
“Not as a revolutionary, but as the anarchist who supports the party.”
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