Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's impeachment proceedings currently underway in the House of Representatives, his job approval rating statisticall
Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings currently underway in the House of Representatives, his job approval rating statistically does not get affected and remains where it has been for weeks, according to a poll.
Consulting company Gallup International’s survey, published on Wednesday, revealed that the impeachment hearings in Congress do not have a noticeable impact on presidential approval.
Trump’s approval rate has risen back to 43%, the number which he had in mid-September, just before news outlets began to report that a whistleblower complaint had been filed regarding a call between Trump and the Ukrainian president.
“On the question of whether Trump should be impeached and removed from office, 48% of Americans say yes while 50% say no, a rate statistically unchanged since mid-October when Gallup last asked the question,” the company said in the survey fielded Nov. 1-14.
Trump also secured approval of his fellow Republicans with 90% during the impeachment inquiry.
Handling of the economy remains the president’s strongest area with 57% approval, improving from his prior two readings — 50% in May and 53% in August.
The poll shows that while four in 10 Americans approve of how the president handles foreign affairs and healthcare policy, 46% are satisfied with his position on guns and 40% on foreign affairs.
But Trump gets the lowest ratings on handling the situation on Syria, where 36% of Americans approve and 57% disapprove, said the Gallup survey.
Gallup results are based on telephone interviews conducted on Nov. 1-14, with a random sample of 1,015 adults living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Democrats in the House of Representatives opened an impeachment inquiry into Trump on Sept. 24 following claims by a whistle-blower that the president tried to pressure Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 presidential elections.
Trump says I will release financial statement before 2020
U.S. President Donald Trump pledged Thursday to release his “financial statement” before the 2020 presidential election amid unrelenting pressure for him to make his tax returns public.The billionaire hotelier-turned-president is the first Republican or Democratic Party candidate in over 40 years to refuse to make his tax returns public. He has been facing legal challenges to force him to do so.Trump continued to bemoan former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, claiming the former FBI director “went over all of my financials, my taxes, and found nothing.”Mueller made no mention of combing through Trump’s financial records in the redacted form of his exhaustive report on the 2016 election that was made publicly available.”Now the Witch Hunt continues with local New York Democrat prosecutors going over every financial deal I have ever done,” Trump fumed on Twitter. “This has never happened to a President before. What they are doing is not legal. But I’m clean, and when I release my financial statement (my decision) sometime prior to Election, it will only show one thing – that I am much richer than people even thought – And that is a good thing.”Trump did not specify what form his “financial statement” might come in. Specifically, he made no mention of his tax return.Fending off criticism at the time, Trump said in September that he would issue an “extremely complete” financial record amid controversy that began with revelations of U.S. Air Force crews staying at his Scotland resort.The state of New York and the House Oversight Committee have sued for access to Trump’s tax returns, and the Supreme Court issued a temporary stay in the congressional case this week after an appeals court ruled in the committee’s favor.The pause is designed to allow the high court time to decide whether it will take up the case.The New York case is centered on the state attorney general’s request that Trump’s accounting firm hand over eight years worth of the president’s personal and business tax returns as the state continues to probe hush-money payments made to an adult film actress and a Playboy model in the run-up to the 2016 election.That case is also now before the Supreme Court.Trump is estimated to be worth more than $3 billion.
Republican US senator blocks 1915 events bill
A Republican U.S. senator blocked a resolution on the 1915 events during the Ottoman era on Thursday, citing ongoing diplomatic engagements between Washington and Ankara.Sen. David Perdue raised objection during an unanimous consent call needed for the bipartisan measure to advance.”This administration continues its engagement with Turkey’s leadership on the heels of President Trump’s meeting with President Erdogan just last week,” Perdue said. “In light of these diplomatic efforts, I respectfully object to this resolution at this time.”Sen. Robert Menendez, the resolution’s co-sponsor along with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, had sought consent to pass the resolution after Sen. Lindsey Graham similarly blocked it last week.On Oct. 29, the anniversary of the Turkish Republic, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 405-11 in favor of a resolution to recognize alleged killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as ”genocide”. The resolution is not legally binding.Turkey’s position is that the deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia in 1915 took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.Ankara does not accept the alleged genocide but acknowledges that there were casualties on both sides during the events of World War I.Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as “genocide” but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy for both sides.
In a July 25 telephone call, Trump allegedly made some $400 million military aid contingent on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky launching a probe into Biden, and his son, Hunter, a businessman, over corruption allegations.
According to Marquette Law School poll released on Wednesday, Trump also topped Democratic presidential hopefuls in Wisconsin, one of the critical states for the 2020 White House competition.
The Hill reported that Former Vice President Joe Biden, Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and South Bend, Mayor Pete Buttigieg all trail the president in Wisconsin, where all of these candidates — except Buttigieg — beat Trump last month.
Trump topped Biden, 47% to 44%, while holding a 3-point edge over Sanders in Wisconsin, 48% to 45%.
The president’s lead is wider against Warren, 48% to 43%, and Buttigieg, 47% to 39%.
Wisconsin, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania states, brought Trump the presidential office in the 2016 elections, and it is Democrats’ primary goal for the approaching elections.
The Marquette Law School poll surveyed 801 registered voters in Wisconsin on Nov. 13-17.
Turkey needs to ‘get rid of’ S-400s to overcome impasse: State Dept official
Turkey needs to “get rid of” the Russian S-400 missile defense system it purchased, a senior State Department official said on Thursday, to overcome a standoff with Washington, which says the procurement poses a threat to NATO defense capabilities.”There is room for Turkey to come back to the table. They know that to make this work they need to either destroy or return or somehow get rid of the S-400,” the official told reporters at a briefing.Ankara and Washington have been at loggerheads over Turkey’s purchase of the S-400s, which Washington says are not compatible with NATO defenses and pose a threat to its F-35 stealth fighter jets.Turkey to activate S-400 missile defense systemsTurkey to open Syrian border gate ‘as soon as possible’In response, the United States suspended Turkey from the F-35 program and warned of possible U.S. sanctions over the deal, although it has yet to impose them.Last week, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump met at the White House to discuss mounting differences ranging from the S-400s to Syria policy. During the talks, Trump urged Erdogan to drop the S-400 systems in lieu of U.S. Patriot systems.
Who becomes President if Trump is removed?
The U.S. House of Representatives is wrapping up public hearings in its impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump and moving closer to charging him with “high crimes and misdemeanors.”The following explains the basics of impeachment, what happens next, and why Trump is unlikely to be removed from office.WHY IMPEACHMENT?The founders of the United States feared presidents abusing their powers, so they included in the Constitution a process for removing one from office.The president, under the Constitution, can be removed from office for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.””High crimes and misdemeanors” has historically encompassed corruption and abuses of the public trust, as opposed to just indictable violations of criminal statutes.Former President Gerald Ford, while in Congress, famously said: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”No president has ever been removed as a direct result of impeachment. One, Richard Nixon, resigned before he could be removed. Two, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, were impeached by the House but not convicted by the Senate.HOW DOES IT WORK?Impeachment begins in the House, the lower chamber, which debates and votes on whether to bring charges against the president via approval of an impeachment resolution, or “articles of impeachment,” by a simple majority of the body’s members.A trio of House committees are currently interviewing witnesses and issuing subpoenas for documents to build a case against Trump — what they have called an “impeachment inquiry.”If the House approves articles of impeachment, a trial is then held in the Senate. House members act as the prosecutors; the senators as jurors; the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides. A two-thirds majority vote is required in the Senate to convict and remove a president.CAN THE SENATE REFUSE TO HOLD A TRIAL?There is debate about whether the Constitution requires a Senate trial. The Constitution states that the Senate has the “Sole Power to try all Impeachments.”Senate rules currently in effect require a trial, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has publicly stated that he will allow one to proceed.Republicans could seek to amend those rules, but such a move is politically risky and considered unlikely, legal experts said.WHAT ABOUT OPENING A TRIAL AND QUICKLY ENDING ITThis scenario is more conceivable. The Senate rules allow members to file, before the conclusion of the trial, motions to dismiss the charges against the president. If such a motion passes by a simple majority the impeachment proceedings effectively end.Clinton’s Senate impeachment trial, which did not end in a conviction, lasted five weeks. Halfway through the proceedings, a Democratic senator sympathetic to Clinton introduced a motion to dismiss, which was voted down.CAN THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURN?No. Trump has said on Twitter that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats tried to impeach him. But the founders explicitly rejected allowing an appeal of a Senate conviction to the federal judiciary.WHAT’S THE PARTY BREAKDOWN IN CONGRESS?The House currently comprises 431 members, 233 of whom are Democrats. As a result, the Democrats could impeach Trump with no Republican support.In 1998, when Republicans had a House majority, the chamber voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.The Senate now has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with the Democrats. Conviction and removal of a president would require a two-thirds majority. So, for Trump to be removed from office via impeachment, in the case of all 100 senators voting, at least 20 Republicans and all the Democrats and independents would have to vote against him.WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT IF TRUMP IS REMOVED?In the unlikely event the Senate convicted Trump, Vice President Mike Pence would become president for the remainder of Trump’s term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2021.