A4 The BulleTin • Friday, FeBruary 5, 2021
TODAY
Today is Friday, Feb. 5, the 36th
day of 2021. There are 329 days
left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Feb. 5, 2020, the Senate vot-
ed to acquit President Donald
Trump, bringing to a close the
third presidential trial in Ameri-
can history, though a majority of
senators expressed unease with
Trump’s pressure campaign on
Ukraine that resulted in the two
articles of impeachment.
In 1631, the founder of Rhode
Island, Roger Williams, and his
wife, Mary, arrived in Boston
from England.
In 1811, George, the Prince of
Wales, was named Prince Regent
due to the mental illness of his
father, Britain’s King George III.
In 1917, Mexico’s present consti-
tution was adopted by the Consti-
tutional Convention in Santiago
de Queretaro. The U.S. Congress
passed, over President Woodrow
Wilson’s veto, an act severely cur-
tailing Asian immigration.
In 1918, during World War I, the
Cunard liner SS Tuscania, which
was transporting about 2,000
American troops to Europe, was
torpedoed by a German U-boat
in the Irish Sea with the loss of
more than 200 people.
In 1922, the first edition of Read-
er’s Digest was published.
In 1937, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt proposed increasing
the number of U.S. Supreme
Court justices; the proposal,
which failed in Congress, drew
accusations that Roosevelt was
attempting to “pack” the na-
tion’s highest court.
In 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts
Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell
stepped onto the surface of the
moon in the first of two lunar
excursions.
In 1983, former Nazi Gestapo of-
ficial Klaus Barbie, expelled from
Bolivia, was brought to Lyon,
France, to stand trial.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton
signed the Family and Medical
Leave Act, granting workers up
to 12 weeks unpaid leave for
family emergencies.
In 1994, white separatist Byron
De La Beckwith was convicted
in Jackson, Mississippi, of mur-
dering civil rights leader Medgar
Evers in 1963, and was immedi-
ately sentenced to life in prison.
In 2001, four disciples of Osama
bin Laden went on trial in New
York in the 1998 bombings of
two U.S. embassies in Africa.
Ten years ago: The leadership
of Egypt’s ruling party stepped
down as the military figures
spearheading the transition
tried to placate protesters with-
out giving them the one resig-
nation they were demanding,
that of President Hosni Mubarak.
Five years ago: President
Barack Obama used a new jobs
report to continue his victory lap
on the economy, declaring the
U.S. had “the strongest, most
durable economy in the world.”
One year ago: With white sheets
covering them, people infected
with the new coronavirus were
led off of a Japanese cruise ship in
the port city of Yokohama, while
the rest of the 3,700 people on
board faced a two-week quaran-
tine in their cabins.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Stuart
Damon is 84. Tony-winning
playwright John Guare (gwayr)
is 83. Financial writer Jane Bryant
Quinn is 82. Actor David Selby
is 80. Singer-songwriter Barrett
Strong is 80. Football Hall of
Famer Roger Staubach is 79.
Movie director Michael Mann is
78. Rock singer Al Kooper is 77.
Actor Charlotte Rampling is 75.
Racing Hall of Famer Darrell Wal-
trip is 74. Actor Barbara Hershey
is 73. Actor Christopher Guest is
73. Actor Tom Wilkinson is 73.
Actor-comedian Tim Meadows is
60. Actor Jennifer Jason Leigh is
59. Actor Laura Linney is 57. Rock
musician Duff McKagan (Velvet
Revolver) is 57. World Golf Hall
of Famer Jose Maria Olazabal is
55. Actor-comedian Chris Parnell
is 54. Rock singer Chris Barron
(Spin Doctors) is 53. Singer Bobby
Brown is 52. Actor Michael Sheen
is 52. Actor David Chisum is 51.
Country singer Sara Evans is 50.
Country singer Tyler Farr is 37.
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
Blumenauer and prominent Senate Dems
push for climate change emergency order
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer
has renewed his push for leg-
islation requiring a presiden-
tial declaration of national
emergency related to climate
change.
The Oregon Democrat
joined two other prominent
figures on Thursday to call
for the declaration, which he
says would mobilize every re-
source available to prepare for
and mitigate the effects of the
crisis.
The others are Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an in-
dependent who sought the
Democratic presidential nom-
ination in 2016 and 2020, and
New York Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez. They advo-
cated a similar resolution two
Bentz
Continued from A1
“I find Representative
Greene’s previous comments
and actions deeply offensive
and totally unacceptable,” said
Bentz, the first-term congress-
man from Oregon’s 2nd Con-
gressional District. “However,
she went to the House Floor to
say she regrets her comments
and actions.”
Bentz said Democrats
should have gone to House
Ethics Committee first.
“I cannot support an un-
precedented vote by House
Democrat majority to strip the
congresswoman of her com-
mittee assignments.”
The House debate included a
10-minute address by Greene,
trying to reassure her new col-
leagues that she was not dan-
gerous and disconnected from
reality, as some claimed.
Her defense included state-
ments that hinted at how far
she had gone in the past.
“I also want to tell you, 9/11
absolutely happened,” said
Greene, who wore a “Free
Speech” face mask. Also real:
mass shootings at schools.
Democrats said the vote was
about blocking an advocate
of bizarre conspiracy theories
from a key role on legislation.
Republicans said that while
Greene’s comments were odi-
ous, racist and bizarre, Georgia
voters had sent her to Con-
gress. Democrats were over-
stepping their authority of how
elected Republican members
serve in the House.
Oregon’s four other House
members, Suzanne Bonamici,
D-Beaverton; Earl Blume-
nauer, D-Portland; Peter De-
Fazio, D-Springfield; and Kurt
Schrader, D-Salem; voted in
favor of her removal.
The showdown over Greene
was the second major test of
Republican unity in less than
24 hours.
The House Republican
Conference on Wednesday
night turned back an effort
by some members to remove
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming,
as its chair. Some Republicans
wanted to punish Cheney for
being among 10 GOP House
members who voted for the
impeachment of President
Donald Trump.
House Minority Leader
Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.,
versing Trump’s ex-
years ago, when Don-
ecutive orders in the
ald Trump — a denier
first days of his pres-
of climate change —
idency, notably hav-
was still president.
ing the United States
“Last Congress, I
rejoin the 2015 Paris
worked with Oregon
accord that com-
environmental activ-
mitted nations to set
ists to draft a climate
voluntary targets for
emergency resolution Blumenauer
reduction of green-
that captured the ur-
house gases.
gency of this moment,” Blu-
The new measure would
menauer said in a statement
go further than the 2019 pro-
Thursday.
posal (House Concurrent
“President Biden has done
Resolution 52), which was co-
an outstanding job of pri-
sponsored by 102 members,
oritizing climate in the first
including Oregon Democrats
days of his administration,
Suzanne Bonamici and Peter
but after years of practiced
DeFazio. The 2019 resolution
ignorance from Trump and
never advanced beyond the
congressional Republicans,
House Energy and Commerce
an even larger mobilization is
Committee.
needed.”
It would require the presi-
Democrat Joe Biden has
dent to invoke a 1976 law gov-
taken several steps toward re-
erning national emergencies
and report annually until the
emergency is over about spe-
cific actions he has taken to
deal with it.
Among the potential ac-
tions are investments in large-
scale mitigation and resiliency
projects, upgrades to public
infrastructure, moderniza-
tion of millions of buildings to
cut pollution, investments in
public health, protections for
public lands, and regenerative
agriculture investments that
support local and regional
food systems.
Blumenauer said there are
plenty of incentives to act.
Damage from climate-re-
lated natural disasters has cost
the United States more than
double the long-term average
from 2014 through 2018, at
an estimated $100 billion per
year. The National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administra-
tion estimated that 22 events,
each causing at least $1 billion
in damage, cost the nation a
total of $95 billion in 2020.
According to the fourth Na-
tional Climate Assessment,
released in 2018, climate
change increases the risk to
public health from air and wa-
ter pollution, wildfires and in-
sect infestations.
The latest effort has drawn
support from dozens of orga-
nizations.
Its fate is uncertain. Demo-
crats have tenuous majorities
in the House and the Senate,
where Vice President Kamala
Harris holds the tie-breaker in
a 50-50 chamber.
had asked members during
the closed-door vote to retain
Cheney. He also advocated for
them to oppose the Democrat-
ic-led effort to remove Greene
from committees.
Bentz declined to say which
way he voted in the Cheney
matter. NBC News, citing
House members at the meet-
ing, reported Cheney won 145-
61 in the secret ballot.
Greene has a long history
of statements calling school
shootings and the 9/11 at-
tacks hoaxes. She had backed
the conspiracy group QAnon,
which has been linked to vio-
lence, and she had posted her
approval online of a post call-
ing for the murder of House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
with a “bullet to the head.”
She has speculated that
“space solar generators” were
used to ignite wildfires in the
western United States.
Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made
a rare comment on a House
member, saying Greene would
damage Republicans’ credi-
bility.
“Looney lies and conspiracy
theories are cancer for the Re-
publican Party and our coun-
try,” McConnell said Monday.
No Republican House mem-
bers defended Greene’s state-
ments, but said that as a duly
elected member of the House,
she should not be removed
from her assignments due to
statements made prior to being
sworn-in last month.
Democrats had called on
McCarthy to remove Greene,
and were joined by a mob of
Trump supporters who had
marched from a rally where
President Trump repeated his
false claims that Democrats
had stolen the election from
him.
Security teams rushed mem-
bers of Congress to safe ar-
eas moments before the van-
guard of the assault entered the
House and Senate chambers.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mas-
sachusetts, led the argument
that Greene should be re-
moved from her assignments,
saying her incendiary com-
ments had helped drive the
mobs at the Capitol.
“I never want to see that
again,” he said.
Defending herself on the
House floor, Greene echoed
arguments by her GOP House
colleagues that it was unfair
that she was being punished
for statements she made prior
to her election.
“During my campaign, I
never said any of these things,”
she said. “Since I have been
elected for Congress ... . These
were words of the past, and
these things do not represent
me. They do not represent my
district, and they do not repre-
sent my values.”
Greene claimed that her
positions had been misrepre-
sented by the media, which she
equated with QAnon.
“I’m a very regular Ameri-
can, just like the people I repre-
sent in my district and most of
the people across the country,”
she said.
Greene said she had been
apolitical until Trump ran for
president in 2016.
“He was someone I could
relate to. I enjoyed his plain
talk — not the offensive things
— but just the way he talked
normally.”
After the election, she felt
“CNN and Fox News were not
reflecting what I saw going on.”
“So I start looking things up
on the internet, asking ques-
tions, like most people do, ev-
ery day, use Google,” she said.
That’s when she found QAnon.
“I got very interested in it,”
she said. “So I posted about it
on Facebook. I read about it.
I talked about it. I asked ques-
tions about it. And then more
information came from it.”
For reasons she didn’t spec-
ify, Greene said she “stopped
believing it.”
“I was allowed to believe
things that weren’t true,” she
said.
It was an involvement “that
is absolutely what I regret.”
Greene blamed the “can-
cel culture” of “big media” for
drawing attention to things she
said prior to running for Con-
gress last year.
but when he refused, they
made the rare motion on the
floor to have the entire House
vote on her assignments.
Democrats were especially
enraged by Greene’s appoint-
ment to the House Education
Committee, which helps set
national policy for schools.
Greene has said that school
shootings had been staged by
gun-rights opponents.
Greene had harangued Da-
vid Hogg, a survivor of the
February 2018 shooting at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School in Parkland, Flor-
ida, that killed 17 people.
“He is very trained. He’s like
a dog. He’s completely trained,”
Greene said in a 2019 video
interview with a gun-owners
website. “I confronted David
Hogg twice, and he ran away
from me.”
Greene also said the Decem-
ber 2012 at Sandy Hook Ele-
mentary School in Newtown,
Connecticut, that killed 26
people, including 20 children,
was a hoax.
Within the past three years,
Greene has also supported
the conspiracy group QAnon,
saying the content on their
websites was nothing but “pa-
triotic.”
QAnon adherents were a
significant presence during the
Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capi-
tol that left a police officer and
four demonstrators dead and
more than 140 police injured.
Right-wing groups, includ-
ing QAnon, the Proud Boys,
the 3 Percenters and others
launched the violent assault
gwarner@eomediagroup.com
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