NATION/WORLD
Thursday, September 7, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Trump overrules GOP with deal on spending, debt
AP Photo/Carlos Giusti
High winds and rain sweep through the streets of
the Matelnillo community during the passage of
hurricane Irma, in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, Wednesday.
Irma lashes at Puerto Rico,
leaves tiny Barbuda devastated
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico
(AP) — Hurricane Irma
lashed Puerto Rico with
heavy rain and powerful
winds Wednesday night,
leaving nearly 900,000
people without power as
authorities struggled to
get aid to small Caribbean
islands already devastated
by the historic storm.
Florida
rushed
to
prepare for a possible direct
hit on the Miami area by
the Category 5 storm with
potentially catastrophic 185
mph winds.
Nearly every building
on the island of Barbuda
was damaged when the
eye of the storm passed
almost directly overhead
early Wednesday and about
60 percent of the island’s
roughly 1,400 people were
left homeless, Antigua and
Barbuda Prime Minister
Gaston Browne told The
Associated Press.
“Either
they
were
totally demolished or they
would have lost their roof,”
Browne said after returning
to Antigua from a plane trip
to the neighboring island.
“It is just really a horren-
dous situation.”
He said roads and
telecommunications
systems were destroyed and
recovery will take months,
if not years. A 2-year-old
child was killed as a family
tried to escape a damaged
home during the storm,
Browne told the AP.
As the storm moved
west, it tore up the small
islands in its path. On St.
Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin
Islands, Laura Strickling
spent 12 hours hunkered
down with her husband
and 1-year-old daughter
in a boarded-up basement
apartment with no power
as the storm raged outside.
They emerged to fi nd the
lush island in tatters, with
many of their neighbors’
homes damaged and the
once-dense
vegetation
largely gone.
“There are no leaves. It
is crazy. One of the things
we loved about St. Thomas
is that it was so green. And
it’s gone,” said Strickling,
who moved to the island
with her husband three
years ago from Washington,
D.C. “It will take years for
this community to get back
on its feet.”
Signifi cant
effects
were also reported on St.
Martin. Photos and video
circulating on social media
showed major damage to
the airport in Philipsburg
and the coastal village of
Marigot heavily fl ooded.
France sent emergency food
and water rations there and
to the French island of St.
Bart’s, where Irma ripped
off roofs and knocked out
all electricity.
Dutch marines who fl ew
to St. Martin and two other
Dutch islands hammered
by Irma reported extensive
damage but no deaths or
injuries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Donald Trump briskly overruled
congressional Republicans and his own
treasury secretary Wednesday to cut a
deal with Democrats to keep the govern-
ment operating and raise America’s debt
limit. The immediate goal was ensuring
money for hurricane relief, but in the
process the president brazenly rolled his
own party’s leaders.
In deal-making mode, Trump sided
with the Democratic leaders — “Chuck
and Nancy,” as he amiably referred
later to Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer and House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi — as they pushed for the
three-month deal, brushing aside the
urgings of GOP leaders and Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin for a much
longer extension to the debt limit.
Republicans want that longer allowance
to avoid having to take another vote
on the politically toxic issue before the
2018 congressional elections.
The session painted a vivid portrait
of discord at the highest ranks of the
Republican Party. After an angry
August that Trump spent lobbing attacks
at fellow Republicans, specifi cally
targeting Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell for the failure of health
care legislation, the president wasted
little time once Congress came back
this week in demonstrating his disdain
for the GOP House and Senate leaders
charged with shepherding his agenda
into law.
At fi rst, in Wednesday’s Oval Offi ce
meeting, the Republicans lobbied for
an 18-month debt ceiling extension,
then 12 months and then six, but Trump
waved them off. As Mnuchin continued
to press an economic argument in favor
of a longer-term deal, Trump tired of it
and cut him off mid-sentence.
At another point, the meeting totally
lost focus when Ivanka Trump entered
to raise an unrelated issue on child care
tax credits. Details of the meeting were
disclosed by several people briefed on
the proceedings who spoke only on
condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to talk publicly.
One photo taken through the window
of the Oval Offi ce showed an animated
Schumer pointing his fi nger in Trump’s
face as the president smiles with his
hands on his fellow New Yorker’s arms.
After the meeting, Trump boarded a
plane to North Dakota with Democratic
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in an effort to
garner bipartisan support for tax legisla-
tion that Republican leaders on Capitol
Hill are crafting on a purely partisan
basis. That continued the day of bizarre
disconnects between the president and
the leaders of his party.
Trump called Heitkamp to the stage
BRIEFLY
Facebook: Accounts from
Russia bought ads during
U.S. campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds
of fake Facebook accounts, probably
run from Russia, spent about $100,000
on ads aimed at stirring up divisive
issues such as gun control and
race relations during the 2016 U.S.
presidential election, the social network
said Wednesday.
Although the number of ads is
relatively small, the disclosure provides
a more detailed peek into what
investigators believe was a targeted
effort by Russians to infl uence U.S.
politics during the campaign, this time
through social media.
The 470 accounts appeared to come
from a notorious “troll farm,” a St.
Petersburg-based organization known
for promoting pro-Russian government
positions via fake accounts, according
to two people familiar with the
investigation. The people were granted
anonymity because they weren’t
authorized to publicly discuss details of
the investigation.
Facebook has turned over its
fi ndings to federal authorities
investigating Russian interference in
the U.S. presidential election. Robert
Mueller, the special counsel, is charged
with overseeing Russian meddling
in the U.S. election and any potential
coordination with associates of
President Donald Trump.
In addition to the 470 accounts that
appeared to be run from Russia, Stamos
said its investigators also discovered an
additional 2,200 ads that “might have
originated in Russia.”
Putin urges North Korea
talks, not more sanctions
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) —
While condemning North Korea
over its latest nuclear test, the leaders
of Russia and South Korea seemed
far apart on the issue of stepping up
sanctions against the country.
Speaking after the meeting
Wednesday with South Korean
President Moon Jae-in in the
Russian port city of Vladivostok,
Russian President Vladimir Putin
called for talks with North Korea,
saying sanctions are not a solution
to the country’s nuclear and missile
development.
Moon had urged Moscow to support
stronger sanctions against North Korea,
which conducted its sixth nuclear test
on Sunday in what it claimed was a
detonation of a thermonuclear weapon
built for missiles capable of reaching
the U.S. mainland.
“We should not give in to emotions
and push Pyongyang into a corner,”
Putin said in a news conference after
the meeting, held on the sidelines of a
conference on economic development
of Russia’s Far East. “As never before
everyone should show restraint and
refrain from steps leading to escalation
and tensions.”
Moon said the leaders agreed that
reducing regional tension and “quickly
solving” the security challenges posed
by North Korea’s nuclear and missile
program were critical. Ahead of his
meeting with Putin, Moon said the
situation could get out of hand if North
Korea’s missile and nuclear tests aren’t
stopped.
GOP, Dem senators
calmly discuss bolstering
Obama health law
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Republicans and Democrats serenely
discussed ways to curb premium
increases for individual insurance
policies on Wednesday at a Senate
hearing that veered away from years
of fi erce partisanship over the failed
GOP effort to revoke President Barack
Obama’s health care law.
Senators and state insurance
commissioners from both parties
embraced the idea of continuing
billions in federal subsidies to insurers
for reducing out-of-pocket expenses for
millions of people, fl outing President
Donald Trump’s oft-repeated threats
to halt those payments. There were
even bipartisan words of support for
proposals to provide money to states
to help insurance companies afford to
cover customers with serious, costly
medical conditions.
Disagreements remain, including
over Republican demands to also
make it easier for insurers to sell
policies that might offer skimpier
coverage than Obama’s statute allows.
But if nothing else, the Senate health
committee hearing underscored both
sides’ willingness to try casting aside
hostility from the GOP drive to repeal
Obama’s 2010 law and seek a modest
pact that would instead bolster that
statute by protecting the affordability of
constituents’ coverage.
Menendez ‘sold his offi ce’
for ritzy trips
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — U.S.
Sen. Bob Menendez “sold his offi ce
for a lifestyle he couldn’t afford” by
accepting luxury trips and other favors
from a wealthy doctor seeking political
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump pauses during a meeting with, from left, Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other
Congressional leaders in the Oval Offi ce of the White House, Wednesday.
at his Dakota event and praised her as
a “good woman.” She will be running
for re-election against a Republican in
November 2018.
Heitkamp later issued a statement
saying she needs to know more about
Trump’s tax plan before offering her
support.
Aboard Air Force One, Trump told
reporters, “We had a very good meeting
with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.”
He didn’t mention Republicans McCon-
nell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, who
also had been present. “We agreed to a
three-month extension on debt ceiling,
which they consider to be sacred, very
important.”
“I think the deal will be very good,”
Trump added.
Barely an hour earlier, Ryan had
slammed the Democrats’ demand for
a three-month extension as “ridiculous
and disgraceful.” He issued no public
statement on the fi nal deal.
McConnell, in his own reserved
fashion, did not sugar-coat what
happened when he addressed reporters
a short time later.
“In the meeting down at the
White House, as I indicated, the
president agreed with Sen. Schumer
and Congresswoman Pelosi to do a
three-month CR and a debt ceiling into
December, and that’s what I will be
offering based on the president’s deci-
sion,” McConnell said. “CR” refers to a
continuing resolution, which will extend
existing government funding levels into
mid-December, when the prospect of an
enormous new round of deal-making
now looms.
Asked whether he was surprised to
see the president side with Democrats
against his own party leadership, McCo-
nnell responded, “Look, the president
can speak for himself, but his feeling
was we needed to come together, not
create a picture of divisiveness at a time
of genuine national crisis, and that was
the rationale.”
In fact, Trump achieved the opposite.
“The Pelosi-Schumer-Trump deal is
bad,” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said over
Twitter.
“Hopefully we’ll realize that negoti-
ating with Democrats doesn’t normally
produce outstanding results,” said Rep.
Mark Meadows of North Carolina,
chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.
Late Wednesday, with criticism
pouring in from Republicans, Mnuchin
himself made a rare appearance in the
Air Force One press cabin, as the pres-
ident traveled back to Washington from
North Dakota, to defend the deal.
“Our No. 1 priority was getting
money for Harvey. Let me very clear:
That’s the president’s number one
agenda and we accomplished that,”
Mnuchin insisted.
Mnuchin also claimed several times
that the president actually could have
had a one-year package but didn’t want
to lose the opportunity to raise military
spending in new budget bills before
then. Aides to Schumer and Pelosi
responded with incredulous disbelief to
this claim.
The outcome was especially striking
coming just a day after Trump announced
he would be dismantling immigration
protections for younger immigrants.
- EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY -
infl uence, a government prosecutor
told jurors Wednesday during
opening statements of the Democrat’s
corruption trial.
Menendez’s attorney responded
that gifts from Florida ophthalmologist
Salomon Melgen, Menendez’s
longtime friend, didn’t equate to
a bribery agreement. Menendez’s
meetings with government offi cials
— though they could have aided
Melgen’s business interests — were
“what members of Congress do” and
were meant to infl uence future policy,
attorney Abbe Lowell said.
Menendez and Melgen were
indicted in 2015 and face multiple
fraud and bribery charges in a case that
could threaten Menendez’s political
career and potentially alter the makeup
of a deeply divided U.S. Senate if he’s
convicted.
If he is expelled or steps down
before Gov. Chris Christie leaves offi ce
Jan. 16, the Republican would pick
Menendez’s successor. A Democrat
has a large advantage in November’s
election to replace Christie.
Catalonia sets vote for
independence on Oct. 1
MADRID (AP) — Voters in Spain’s
prosperous Catalonia region will be
asked to choose in less than a month
if they want to secede from Spain,
the region’s pro-independence ruling
government announced Wednesday in
a move that puts it in open defi ance of
central authorities in Madrid.
Regional President Carles
Puigdemont signed a decree that
offi cially calls for a “self-determination
referendum of Catalonia” to be held on
Oct. 1.
The referendum clashes with the
Spanish Constitution, which only
gives national authorities the right
to call such a vote. But Catalonia’s
pro-independence lawmakers approved
a bill earlier Wednesday that is meant
to provide a legal justifi cation for the
independence vote.
A central government offi cial told
The Associated Press that Spanish
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy
has urged the country’s top legal
consultative body to review the bill.
The offi cial said Madrid is expected
to challenge the law in the country’s
Constitutional Court on Thursday.
Catalonia’s renewed push for
secession has opened one of Spain’s
deepest political and institutional
crises of recent years. Although
much of the blame has been put on
the pro-independence bloc, Rajoy’s
government has been criticized for
letting the situation build this far.
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