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The Telegraph
Republican senators deal a blow to Donald Trump, overturning his veto for the first time
Donald Trump received a harsh reprimand from Republican senators last night when Congress overturned his veto on a radical defense bill. It was the first time in Trump’s four years as president that Congress blocked his veto power. Many Republican senators joined Democrats in an 81-13 vote to nullify, well above the required two-thirds majority. As a result, the annual $ 740 billion National Defense Authorization Act to fund the military in 2021 will become law. Trump had called the result, which was expected, a “shameful act of cowardice” and the Republican leadership in Congress “weak.” The bill will provide a three percent salary increase for US troops and included elements related to defense policy, troop levels, weapons systems and military construction. Trump had vetoed it, arguing that it allowed the renaming of military bases that honor Confederate generals and that it limited their ability to bring troops home from Afghanistan and Germany. It also tried to link the bill’s approval to measures targeting social media companies. During Trump’s tenure, Republican senators had been very reluctant to break so publicly with him. He had vetoed eight previous bills and none were overturned. But with less than three weeks in office, Trump’s influence with Republican senators appeared to have receded markedly. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, said: “It is time that we deliver this bill. It is our opportunity to remember the brave service members and their families that we stand behind them.” It came as Republicans also faced a deepening divide over Trump’s latest desperate attempt to overturn the outcome of the US presidential election. More than 140 Republicans in the House of Representatives may be willing to back a measure not to certify the result in a joint session of Congress on January 6, it emerged. But even with that level of support, the attempt to block the outcome still had no chance of success. McConnell privately urged his colleagues to accept the election result, calling his own Jan. 6 vote “the most momentous he has ever cast.” In an open letter Ben Sasse, the Republican senator from Nebraska, accused his colleagues of “playing with fire.” He said: “Let’s be clear on what is happening here. We have a group of ambitious politicians who think there is a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without causing any real long-term damage. But they are wrong.” do not point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government. “Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri, initiated the decision to oppose the election results. He will oppose, forcing a two-hour debate, followed by a vote in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. The session in Congress will take place one day after two second-round elections in Georgia, which will determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the Senate. David Perdue, one of the two Republican candidates, announced that would spend the final days of the campaign in quarantine after possible exposure to the coronavirus. Meanwhile, it emerged that personnel changes would be made at the Secret Service presidential detachment when Joe Biden takes office on January 20. He said he expressed his support. Concern that current agents might support Trump politically. Trump cut short a trip to Florida and returned to Washington on New Year’s Eve. New Year’s video message, praised “historic victories” in the economy and the fight against the pandemic. He said, “We have to be remembered for what has been done.” In the closing weeks of his term, the president also faced an ongoing battle with Republicans in Congress, including McConnell, after he called for an increase in stimulus controls for Americans. He also faced growing friction with Iran.
