The House of Representatives on Saturday passed a package of controversial foreign aid and geopolitical security legislation.
That $95 billion package included foreign assistance for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, in addition to a bill that could see TikTok banned bundled with legislation allowing for the seizure of assets owned by Russian oligarchs.
The U.S. Capitol is seen in Washington on March 24, 2024. Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images
The most controversial of these bills was a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine, which ultimately passed the House in a broad bipartisan 311–112 vote. A majority of the House Republican conference opposed the legislation.
The Israel support package, meanwhile, won opposition from both sides of the political aisle, but was ultimately approved in a 366–58 vote. Many progressives were among the 58 who opposed the funding, citing concerns about Israel’s handling of its military operation in Gaza.
Just moments before authorizing the disbursement of $95 billion to the United States’ global allies, the House rejected a pared-down version of Republicans’ H.R. 2 border bill, which failed in a 215–199 vote. All but five Democrats opposed the bill, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass as it was being considered under suspension of the rules.
This infuriated Republicans like Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), who pointed out in comments to The Epoch Times that the Ukraine support package included $300 million for Ukraine’s border patrol force.
“We’re sending $300 million for the state border guard services of Ukraine ... yet won’t spend the same kind of money here to secure our own border,” Hageman said.
Others dismissed the border bill as “theatrics.”
“It’s a theatric, shiny object; it’s the shiny object for Republicans that are saying, ‘We got to do something for the border,’” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told the media following the bill’s unveiling.
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, called it “a joke,” “pretend,” and “theater.”
Now that it’s been passed by the House, the legislation will go to the Senate as a single package, where it’s expected to easily pass in a Tuesday vote later this week.
President Joe Biden has expressed support for the package, and urged the Senate to swiftly send it to his desk.
Biden said of the legislation that members of both parties “came together to answer history’s call, passing urgently needed national security legislation that I have fought for months to secure.”
However, the package has further angered conservatives in Johnson’s House conference, who were already frustrated with the passage of a $1.2 trillion spending package and, later, the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without a warrant requirement.
So far, three lawmakers have come out in support of using a motion to vacate Johnson from the speaker’s chair: Greene, who filed a resolution to that end, joined now by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.).
Greene on Sunday threatened to activate her motion vacate if Johnson doesn’t resign.
“Mike Johnson’s speakership is over. He needs to do the right thing to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process. If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated,” she told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Johnson has said he won’t resign. If Greene makes good on her threat, Johnson would almost certainly need Democrats’ help to keep his job—given Republicans razor-slim one-vote majority.
—Joseph Lord
TRUMP’S JURY
Jury selection in former President Donald Trump’s New York trial has concluded, offering a glimpse into the types of people who will determine whether to convict him of felony counts of falsifying business records before the 2024 presidential election.
Former President Donald Trump (R) sits with his attorney Todd Blanche during his criminal trial as jury selection continues at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on April 19, 2024. Mark Peterson/Pool via Getty Images
By April 19, the fifth day of the trial, the court had finalized all 12 jurors—seven men and five women—and six alternates. Of note, two of the jurors are lawyers, raising questions about how their judgment and decision-making might differ from others observing the trial.
The jury is composed of a sales professional, two engineers, an English teacher, an investment banker, a retired wealth manager, a speech therapist, an e-commerce professional, a physical therapist, an employee at an apparel company, and two lawyers.
The alternates include an IT worker and a woman who works for a fintech company.
That only came after a lengthy process of trying to determine which jurors were able to be impartial and which thought that they could not render a fair judgment on the former president.
Lawyers spent days quizzing dozens of New Yorkers to choose the panel that has vowed to put their personal views aside and impartially judge whether the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is guilty or not.
However, some doubt whether people can be genuinely impartial in judging such a controversial figure as Trump.
The jurors were asked about the news sources they used. Mainstream outlets like Reuters, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal came up in many of the answers.
Both sides had a series of peremptory strikes, or opportunities to remove jurors without showing cause. The jurors also had to respond to a questionnaire covering topics such as whether they worked for Trump’s campaign.
The trial will focus around payments that Trump made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. Those payments were marked as “legal retainer” fees, which Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg claims were meant to cover up a crime.
However, the sheer act of making hush money payments is not illegal, and it will be up to Bragg to convince the jury that Trump was attempting to conceal otherwise unlawful behavior.
The venue of the trial, the highly liberal Manhattan—in which Biden received 84.5 percent of the vote in 2020 to Trump’s 14.5 percent—has raised questions among critics of the jurors’ ability to truly be impartial.
Trump himself has made this argument, writing in a social media post that Manhattan is the “2nd Worst Venue in the Country.” He previously tried to have the venue changed.
Trump has raised similar concerns about his ongoing trial in Washington, D.C.
Arguments in the case are scheduled to start on Monday.
—Sam Dorman and Joseph Lord
President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the United Steelworkers Headquarters in Pittsburgh, Penn., on April 17, 2024. President Biden is urging a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum, citing "unfair competition" while seeking to win blue-collar votes in November's election. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP
CAMPAIGN FINANCE ROUNDUP
As the 2024 election cycle gets well and truly underway, Biden and the Democrats maintain a strong fundraising lead over Trump and Republicans.
Ahead of the April 20 deadline, political action committees (PAC) filed their quarterly and monthly public disclosure statements. The slew of documents released from these filings showed that the collection of committees backing Biden held at least $77.3 million more than those supporting Trump.
By the end of March, Biden had a total of $187.6 million in his war chest between his primary campaign organization, Biden for President, and other affiliated PACs.
In March, Biden For President took in about $43.8 million in donations while spending about $29.2 million. It had about $85.5 million in cash on hand at the end of the month.
In the first three months of 2024, the Biden joint fundraising committees raised about $130.7 million and sent out about $118.6 million, according to their April 15 FEC filings.
$25 million of that haul came in from a joint fundraiser hosted by Biden and his Democratic predecessors, Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton—a fundraiser that temporarily held a record before being superseded by a later fundraiser hosted by Trump.
By the end of March, by contrast, Trump’s official campaign PACs and allied groups held about $110.3 million.
That figure includes a gigantic boost that Trump got in April, when he hosted a fundraiser that drew in $50 million—a haul that holds the U.S. record for the largest political fundraising haul ever.
Some of the money in Trump’s war chest, meanwhile, is slated for use on Trump’s legal fights. In March, the former president and his associated PACs paid $4.2 million in legal fees, roughly a quarter of the $16 million he’s spent in total on legal expenses.
Trump has decried his ongoing legal cases as being politically motivated and intended to draw money away from his campaign.
The situation is much the same among all Democrat fundraising, as Democrats maintain a strong lead in fundraising across the board.
According to filings, the Republican National Committee collected about $20.6 million and spent about $10.3 million. At the end of March, the committee had about $21.6 million in cash on hand.
Meanwhile, the DNC brought in about $34.6 million and sent out about $15.9 million. It closed the month with about $45.2 million in the bank.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent candidate for the White House, also filed disclosures with the federal government. In March, Kennedy and his associated PACs raised $6.6 million and spent $6.7 million. That includes a $2 million check made out to Kennedy’s campaign by his running mate, Nicole Shanahan.
Kennedy ended the month with roughly $23.6 million on hand—an amount dwarfed by the war chests of Trump and Biden.
But while Democrats and Biden hold an edge in funding, Trump has for months maintained a clear lead in many crucial swing state polls. According to RealClearPolling, Biden has been behind Trump in the polls since Sept. 11, 2023.
Nevertheless, the race has narrowed in recent weeks, and Trump currently has only a 0.4 point edge over Biden. Kennedy, meanwhile, has consistently polled around 10 percent.
—Austin Alonzo and Joseph Lord
BOOKMARKS
As Trump’s “hush money” trial gets underway with opening arguments today, a lawyer for the former president predicted a full acquittal for Trump if the jury is “impartial,” The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reported. Trump has pleaded not guilty, saying that the 34-count indictment is politicized and meant to derail his 2024 Republican campaign for president while keeping him off the campaign trail.
A group of 15 financial officials from 13 states sent a notice to Bank of America, raising concerns about the institution’s “de-banking” of Christians, The Epoch Times’ Naveen Athrappully reported. The letter addresses the bank’s “troubling track record of politicized de-banking,” including de-banking Christian groups.
Kennedy’s campaign may not have the wide support that Biden or Trump enjoys but Kennedy’s voters remain enthusiastic for him. An article by The Epoch Times’ Jeff Louderback explored why Americans are backing the longshot candidate. “Bobby is our voice,” one Kennedy supporter said. Others dismissed the notion that a vote for Kennedy is “a waste.”
Former Attorney General William Barr hasn’t always seen eye to eye with Trump, his former boss. But, The Epoch Times’ Neveen Athrappully reported, Barr doesn’t buy the contention that Trump is a threat to American democracy or norms—instead, that threat, Barr argued, “is from the far left.”
Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ former attorney, said he has been communicating with former President Donald Trump’s lawyers and that he may testify against his former client, The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reported. Avenatti represented Daniels when she made her initial allegations about an affair between herself and the former president. Avenatti is currently serving a lengthy sentence for extortion, tax evasion, fraud, embezzlement, and other crimes.
