Donald Trump lashes out at defense bill

President Donald Trump is lashing out at Republicans in Congress after the House easily voted to override his veto on a defense policy bill.

A total of 109 Republicans, including Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, a member of the Republican leadership, joined with Democrats in passing the override, which would be the first of Trump’s presidency.

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The Senate is expected to consider the measure later this week.

Trump slammed Republican lawmakers on Twitter, saying: “Weak and tired Republican ‘leadership’ will allow bad Defense Act to pass.”

Trump called the nullification vote a “shameful act of cowardice and total submission of weak people to big technologies. Negotiate a better bill or get better leaders, NOW! The Senate shouldn’t pass the NDAA until let it be fixed !!! “

House members voted 322-87 on Monday to override the veto, well above the two-thirds needed to override. The vote sends the nullification effort to the Senate, although the exact timing is uncertain.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said he will delay a vote on the defense bill until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allows a vote on a Trump-backed plan to increase Covid-19 aid payments. to $ 2000.

“Let me be clear: If Senator McConnell disagrees with a vote for or against to provide the workers of our country with a direct payment of $ 2,000, Congress will not return home by New Year’s Eve,” said Sanders, an independent committee with Democrats, said after the House vote. “Let’s do our job.”

McConnell has not said publicly how he will address the aid payment issue or the defense bill.

Trump rejected the defense measure last week, saying it did not limit social media companies that he said were biased against him during his failed re-election campaign.

Trump also opposes language that allows the renaming of military bases that honor Confederate leaders.

The defense bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, claims 3 percent wage increases for US troops and authorizes more than $ 740 billion in military and construction programs.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after the House vote that lawmakers have done their part to ensure that the NDAA becomes law “despite the president’s dangerous sabotage efforts.”

Trump’s “reckless veto would have denied our service members paying risk obligations,” removed key protections for global peace and security, and “undermined our nation’s values ​​and work to combat racism by blocking the overwhelmingly bipartisan action to rename military bases, “Pelosi said.

Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the bill “absolutely vital to our national security and our troops.”

“Our men and women who volunteer to wear the uniform should not be denied what they need, ever.”

Trump has managed during his four-year term to impose party discipline in Congress, with few Republicans willing to publicly oppose him. The bipartisan vote on the widely popular defense bill showed the limits of Trump’s influence in recent weeks before he left office, and came minutes after 130 House Republicans voted against a supported plan. by Trump to increase Covid-19 aid payments to $ 2000.

The House approved the largest payments, but the plan faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled Senate, another sign of Trump’s fading over Congress.

In addition to social media and the names of military bases, Trump also said the defense bill restricts his ability to conduct foreign policy, “particularly my efforts to get our troops home.”

Trump was referring to provisions in the bill that impose conditions on his plan to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan and Germany. The measures require the Pentagon to submit reports certifying that the proposed withdrawals would not endanger the national security of the United States.

The override of the House veto was supported by 212 Democrats, 109 Republicans and one independent. Twenty Democrats opposed the override, along with 66 Republicans and one independent.

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California missed the vote, but minority whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana backed Trump in his opposition to the override. Republican Mac Thornberry of Texas, the top Republican on the House Armed Services panel, supported the override. Thornberry is retiring this year and the bill is named after him.

The Senate passed Bill 84-13 earlier this month, well above the margin needed to override a presidential veto. Trump has vetoed eight other bills, but all were upheld because supporters did not get the two-thirds of the votes needed in each house for the bills to become law without Trump’s signature.

Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump’s statement that China benefited from the defense bill was false. He also pointed to the shifting explanations Trump had given for the veto.

“From Confederate base names to social media liability provisions … to imaginary and easily rebuttable charges about China, it’s hard to keep track of President Trump’s unprincipled and irrational excuses to veto this bill. bipartisan, “Reed said.

Reed called the December 23 veto “Trump’s parting gift to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and a lump of coal for our troops. Donald Trump is showing more devotion to Confederate grassroots names than to the men and women who defend our nation. “

Republican Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Trump’s veto “made it clear that he does not care about the needs of our military personnel and their families.”

The measure guides Pentagon policy and consolidates decisions on troop levels, new weapons systems and military readiness, personnel policy and other military objectives.

Many programs, including military construction, can only go into effect if the bill passes.

McConnell, in a rare break with Trump, had urged that the defense bill pass despite Trump’s threat of a veto. The Kentucky Republican said it was important for Congress to continue its nearly six-decade streak of passing the defense policy bill.

– AP