Politics

By Kanishka Singh, Katharine Jackson and Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden would veto a Republican energy legislation package if it were to pass Congress, citing cost increases that the legislation could lead to, the White House said on Monday.

“H.R. 1 (Lower Energy Costs Act) would double the cost of energy efficiency upgrades that families need to reduce household bills and would repeal the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that will cut energy costs and boost economic development in rural and urban communities across the country,” the White House said.

“Therefore, if presented to the president in its current form, he would veto it.”

Republicans plan to bring the legislation to the floor of the House of Representatives, where they hold a slim majority, for a vote this week, Representative Elise Stefanik, who chairs the House Republican Conference, said on Monday.

The bill would codify into a law a Trump administration rule that sought limits on reviews and public input on fossil fuel projects and road building, weakening the fundamental conservation law the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.

Even if the bill were to pass in the House, it would face a test in its path to clear the Senate where Biden’s fellow Democrats hold a narrow majority.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the House bill is “dead on arrival” in the Senate. But many senators want more moderate permitting legislation to expand the electricity transmission system and rapid build out of renewable power.

Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat, last week outlined progressive priorities for a permitting bill that include historic levels of funding for environmental justice programs and NEPA implementation.

ClearView Energy Partners, a nonpartisan research group, said the House bill could set up a conversation between the House and Senate on compromise legislation that could be included in a wider bill later this year such as one lifting the debt ceiling or a measure on defense policy.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Katharine Jackson and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Andrea Ricci and David Gregorio)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A group of lawmakers on Wednesday will make a new push for legislation to bar passengers fined or convicted of serious physical violence from commercial flights after a series of recent high-profile incidents.

Senator Jack Reed and Representative Eric Swalwell, both Democrats, and Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick said Monday they plan to reintroduce the “Protection from Abusive Passengers Act.”

Despite the end of the airplane mask mandate in April 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigated 831 unruly passenger incidents in 2022, up from 146 in 2019, but down from 1,099 in 2021, the lawmakers noted.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese)

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday will make a new push for legislation to bar passengers fined or convicted of serious physical violence from commercial flights after a series of recent high-profile incidents.

Three lawmakers said on Monday they plan to reintroduce the “Protection from Abusive Passengers Act,” saying the enhanced penalty is a strong deterrent and needed to improve aviation worker and passenger safety and “minimize disruptions to the national aviation system and restore confidence in air travel.”

Senator Jack Reed and Representative Eric Swalwell, both Democrats, and Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick are introducing the bill after a series of incidents aboard airplanes.

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union opposed creating a no-fly list for unruly passengers, saying the U.S. government “has a terrible record of treating people fairly with regard to the existing no-fly list and other watch lists that are aimed at alleged terrorists.”

During the early stages of the pandemic, much of the passenger anger was sparked by the federal government mask mandate. Despite the end of the airplane mask mandate in April 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigated 831 unruly passenger incidents in 2022, up from 146 in 2019, but down from 1,099 in 2021, the lawmakers noted.

The total number of incidents reported onboard has fallen sharply and returned to pre-COVID levels.

The FAA received 2,456 unruly passenger reports in 2022 and proposed $8.4 million in fines, down from 5,981 reports in 2021, which included 4,290 mask-related incidents. The FAA proposed $5 million in fines in 2021.

At a planned news conference on Wednesday, the lawmakers will be joined by flight attendants from Southwest Airlines Co, Frontier Airlines and American Airlines, as well as unions including the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and the Air Line Pilots Association.

The bill would direct the Transportation Security Administration to create and manage the no-fly list, create guidelines for appeal and removal from the list and grant TSA flexibility in determining how long individuals may be barred from flying depending on the severity of the incident.

Earlier this month, a man was arrested after prosecutors said he tried to open an emergency exit door on a Boston-bound United Airlines flight and attempted to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon.

In February 2022, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian urged the U.S. government to place passengers convicted of on-board disruptions on a national no-fly list that would bar them from future travel on any commercial airline.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021 directed federal prosecutors to prioritize investigations of airline passengers committing assaults and other crimes aboard aircraft after a sharp rise in onboard incidents.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in WashingtonEditing by Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who withdrew from his consideration said Monday he did not see a path forward for winning approval.

Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington said in a statement Monday he had written to Biden on Friday to withdraw. “I no longer saw a respectful, civil, and viable path forward to Senate confirmation. I faced cheap and unfounded partisan attacks and procedural obstruction with regard to my military career that would have further lengthened the already delayed confirmation process,” Washington said.

Senate Republicans said Washington was unqualified to serve citing his limited aviation experience. Democrats were forced to cancel a planned committee vote on his confirmation last week after some Democrats had additional questions about his nomination.

(Reporting by David Shepardson)

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By Kanishka Singh and Leah Douglas

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday lawmakers will move forward with legislation to address national security worries about TikTok, alleging China’s government had access to the short video app’s user data.

In the United States, there are growing calls to ban TikTok, owned by China-based company ByteDance, or to pass bipartisan legislation to give President Joe Biden’s administration legal authority to seek a ban. Devices owned by the U.S. government were recently banned from having the app installed.

“The House will be moving forward with legislation to protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party,” McCarthy said on Twitter.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before a U.S. House Committee for about five hours on Thursday, and lawmakers from both parties grilled him about national security and other concerns involving the app, which has 150 million American users.

In Thursday’s hearing, the TikTok CEO was asked if of the app, has spied on Americans at Beijing’s request. Chew answered, “No.”

Republican Representative Neal Dunn then referenced the company’s disclosure in December that some China-based employees at ByteDance improperly accessed TikTok user data of two journalists and were no longer employed by the company. He repeated his question about whether ByteDance was spying.

“I don’t think that spying is the right way to describe it,” Chew said. He went on to describe the reports as involving an “internal investigation” before being cut off.

McCarthy, a Republican, said in a tweet on Sunday, “It’s very concerning that the CEO of TikTok can’t be honest and admit what we already know to be true — China has access to TikTok user data.”

The company says it has spent more than $1.5 billion on data security efforts under the name “Project Texas” which currently has nearly 1,500 full-time employees and is contracted with Oracle Corp to store TikTok’s U.S. user data.

Rather than appease lawmakers’ concerns, Chew’s appearance before Congress on Thursday “actually increased the likelihood that Congress will take some action,” Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told ABC News on Sunday.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump lost a series of court rulings in 2020 when he sought to ban TikTok and another Chinese-owned app, WeChat, a unit of Tencent.

Many Democrats also have raised concerns although have not yet explicitly backed a U.S. ban.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, additional reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman)

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By Nathan Layne

WACO, Texas (Reuters) -Donald Trump used his first election rally in Waco, Texas, to cast the 2024 presidential vote in apocalyptic terms, slam his leading Republican rival Ron DeSantis and rail against prosecutors pursuing him with criminal investigations he likened to a “Stalinist Russia horror show.”

    Speaking to several thousand of his diehard supporters, some flashing signs saying “WITCH HUNT”, Trump spent much of his nearly two-hour speech attacking the multiple investigations that have put him in legal peril as politically motivated.

    Without offering evidence, the leading candidate for the Republican Party nomination accused the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden of orchestrating his criminal prosecution to undermine his bid for the White House. 

    “The Biden regime’s weaponization of law enforcement against their political opponents is something straight out of the Stalinist Russia horror show,” Trump said. “From the beginning it’s been one witch hunt and phony investigation after another.”

Trump is being investigated by prosecutors in Manhattan for campaign finance violations stemming his alleged payment of hush money to an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 election. A special counsel appointed by the Department of Justice is investigating allegations he hoarded top-secret documents and masterminded a plot seeking to overturn the 2020 election. A parallel effort by prosecutors in Georgia is also examining his 2020 actions.

Trump held his rally in Waco as the city marked the 30th anniversary of a raid by federal agents on the Branch Davidians religious sect there that resulted in 86 deaths, including four law-enforcement officers. Many right-wing extremists see the raid as a seminal moment of government overreach, and critics saw the rally’s timing as a nod to Trump’s far-right supporters.

A Trump campaign spokesperson said Waco was chosen for what the former president billed as his first major rally of the 2024 presidential race because it is situated between several major population centers and has the infrastructure to host a large event.

Trump doesn’t just face legal peril. His effort to lock in the Republican nomination faces a potential challenge from DeSantis, the governor of Florida, amid signs that his own support is softening, at least in places like New Hampshire, an early primary battleground.

“I’m not a big fan,” Trump said of DeSantis. “Florida has been tremendously successful for many years, long before this guy became governor.”

The former president is seeking to turn the hush money case in New York to his advantage by raising money off it and using it to rally supporters. On Friday, he said the country faced potential “death & destruction” if he was charged with a crime.

Trump’s escalating rhetoric has repelled at least some within his own party.

“Trump is walking on a high wire without a net, telegraphing that he has nothing to lose and is willing to risk dangerous outcomes to rally support,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist in Washington.

LITTLE RESPONSE

Few supporters have heeded his calls to take to the streets to protest his possible indictment in the Manhattan case and Trump did not repeat any such call on Saturday.

Trump did speak of “demonic forces” trying to demolish the country, which he said was at risk of falling into a “lawless abyss” unless he is voted back into the White House. Trump depicted the United States as a failed state whose economy was in freefall – a description at odds with the country’s record-low unemployment rate.

Trump also found time to nurse old grievances and return to the extreme allegations and name-calling that were a hallmark of his presidency.

Several times Trump repeated the false claim that his election loss in 2020 was due to a systemic fraud orchestrated by the Democrats. He described some American officials and senior U.S. politicians – including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell – as a bigger threat to America than China or Russia and claimed to be fighting Marxists and Communists.

    “Either the Deep State destroys America or we destroy the Deep State,” Trump said.

Speaking ahead of Trump’s speech, Matt Schomburg, 45, said he believed the rally was a way to energize his supporters for the 2024 race.

“We are so divided as a country and Trump did so many good things for the economy, the border – we’d just love to have his leadership again,” said Schomburg, who works in insurance and is from Houston.

While some pundits had expressed concerns about possible violence, the atmosphere was festive and there were no reports of trouble, although some rallygoers struggled with the heat. Medics were called in to assist one woman who passed out near the media pen.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne; Writing by Raphael Satter; Editing by Ross Colvin, Howard Goller and Daniel Wallis)

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WACO, Texas (AP) — Facing a potential indictment, Donald Trump took a defiant stance at a rally Saturday in Waco, disparaging the prosecutors investigating him and predicting his vindication as he rallied supporters in a city made famous by deadly resistance against law enforcement.

With a hand over his heart, Trump stood at attention when his rally opened with a song called “Justice for All” performed by a choir of people imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Some footage from the incident was shown on big screens displayed at the rally site as the choir sang the national anthem and a recording played of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

The extraordinary display opened Trump’s first rally of his 2024 Republican presidential campaign. He then launched into a speech and framed the probes, including a New York grand jury investigation, as political attacks on him and his followers.

“You will be vindicated and proud,” Trump said “The thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system will be defeated, discredited and totally disgraced.”

Trump’s event at the airport grounds in Waco was part of a broader effort by the former president to use the potential indictment as a rallying cry for supporters to maintain his status as the GOP frontrunner in what is expected to be a crowded primary.

Trump declared his innocence in the Manhattan investigation into a hush money payment made during the 2016 election to porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump years earlier. A grand jury hearing the case is expected to meet again on Monday.
Trump said the Manhattan district attorney was investigating him “for something that is not a crime, not a misdemeanor, not an affair.”

Trump declared Saturday that his “enemies are desperate to stop us” and that “our opponents have done everything they can to crush our spirit and to break our will.”

He added: “But they failed. They’ve only made us stronger. And 2024 is the final battle, it’s going to be the big one. You put me back in the White House, their reign will be over and America will be a free nation once again.”

Trump could be indicted soon by a Manhattan grand jury investigating a $130,000 payment that Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, made as Trump was in the throes of his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump later reimbursed Cohen and his company logged the reimbursements as a legal expense. Cohen has already served time in prison after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress, among other crimes.

Trump criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to run for president and is seen as his strongest potential challenger for the GOP nomination. Trump called his onetime ally disloyal and said he was “dropping like a rock.”

Audience members were holding red and white signs handed out by the campaign that said “Witch Hunt,” “Trump 2024” and “I stand with Trump.”

Hours before Trump arrived, hundreds of his supporters began streaming into the airport past vendors selling merchandise including Trump flags, bumper stickers and action figures.
Among them was Eugene Torres, 41, who said he was unfazed by the prospect that Trump could be indicted.

“It’s just another political attack on him to keep him from running and winning this race again,” said Torres, who is from the Texas coast city of Corpus Christi.

Alan Kregel, 56, traveled with his wife from Dallas to see Trump in person for the first time. While he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, he said he felt the former president’s “methods and vocabulary” often detracted from his policies. But now, two years out of office, he said he is more supportive of Trump than he was before.

“He’s an innocent man, just persecuted,” said Kregel, arguing an indictment would help Trump win in 2024.

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By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Mark Warner said on Sunday he was briefed by the FBI on Donald Trump’s rhetoric after the former president verbally lashed out at a New York prosecutor overseeing a grand jury investigation into alleged hush-money payments.

“I have been briefed by the FBI. They say they are fully prepared,” Warner, a Democrat and the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN on Sunday. “They have seen no specific threats but the level of rhetoric on some of these right-wing sites has increased.”

Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential elections, has ramped up his rhetoric against New York prosecutors probing his hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors have said they would not be intimidated.

Trump has specifically condemned Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in multiple posts on his Truth Social media site since March 18 when the former president wrongly predicted he would be arrested three days later. Trump has warned of potential “death & destruction” if he faced criminal charges.

Trump falsely claims his defeat in 2020 was the result of fraud – a claim that inspired his followers to launch a deadly Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to stop Congress from certifying the election of Democratic President Joe Biden, who bested the Republican Trump by more than seven million votes.

Trump’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said on Sunday that some of Trump’s online attacks against Bragg were ill-advised.

“I’m not his social media consultant. I think that was an ill-advised post that one of his social media people put up & he quickly took down,” Tacopina told NBC News in reference to a post by Trump of his image holding a baseball bat next to Bragg.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams also said on Sunday the city was prepared for any fallout from a potential Trump indictment.

“We are just going to be ready no matter what happens,” Adams told PIX11 on Sunday.

Daniels, an adult film actress and director whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she received money in exchange for keeping silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006.

Trump has denied ever having an affair with Daniels, and has called the payment a “simple private transaction.” He has said he did not commit a crime and has called the investigation, one of many legal hurdles that he faces, politically motivated.

The Manhattan grand jury probing Trump is expected to reconvene in the coming week.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Scott Malone and Andrea Ricci)

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By Nathan Layne

WACO, Texas (Reuters) -Donald Trump used his first election rally in Waco, Texas, to rail against the prosecutors investigating him, employing dark and conspiratorial language to fire up his base ahead of next year’s Republican primary elections.

Trump told supporters gathered at Waco’s airport on Saturday that the investigations swirling around him were “something straight out of the Stalinist Russia horror show.”

“From the beginning it’s been one witch hunt and phony investigation after another,” he said.

The legal threats hanging over the former president were front of mind for some attendees, many of whom flashed signs saying “WITCH HUNT.”

Trump is being investigated by prosecutors in Manhattan for campaign finance violations stemming his alleged payment of hush money to an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 election. A special counsel appointed by the Department of Justice is investigating allegations he hoarded top-secret documents and masterminded a plot seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in Congress, told the crowd it was time to “take back” the Department of Justice.

“You have to understand: they are not just coming after President Trump, they are coming after you, and President Trump is just the only one standing in their way,” she said.

Trump’s rally is happening in Waco as the city marks the 30th anniversary of a raid by federal agents on the Branch Davidians religious sect there that resulted in 86 deaths, including four law-enforcement officers. Many right-wing extremists see the raid as a seminal moment of government overreach, and critics saw the rally’s timing as a nod to Trump’s far-right supporters.

In an email, a Trump campaign spokesperson said Waco was chosen for what the former president has billed as his first major rally of the 2024 presidential race because it is situated between several major population centers and has the infrastructure to host a large event.

Trump doesn’t just face legal peril. His effort to lock in the Republican nomination faces a potential challenge from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis amid signs that his own support is softening, at least in places like New Hampshire, an early primary battleground.

The former president is seeking to turn the hush money case in New York to his advantage by raising money off it and using it to rally supporters. On Friday, he issued an apocalyptic warning, saying the country faced potential “death & destruction” if he was charged with a crime.

Trump’s escalating rhetoric has repelled at least some within his own party.

“Trump is walking on a high wire without a net, telegraphing that he has nothing to lose and is willing to risk dangerous outcomes to rally support,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist in Washington.

LITTLE RESPONSE

Few supporters have heeded his calls to take to the streets to protest his possible indictment in the Manhattan case. Those calls will likely invite closer than normal scrutiny of how many people attend Saturday’s rally – which the city of Waco said was expected to draw 15,000 people.

It is also likely to draw closer than usual scrutiny of Trump’s speech, which is due to start at 5 p.m. CDT, and is expected to rail against the potential prosecutions.

Matt Schomburg, 45, said he believed the rally was important to energize his supporters for the 2024 race.

“We are so divided as a country and Trump did so many good things for the economy, the border – we’d just love to have his leadership again,” said Schomburg, who works in insurance and is from Houston.

Schomburg said he thought Trump was trying to send a message by holding the rally in Waco.

“I think the message is hey we are not going to be handcuffed by the people that are pulling the strings behind the curtain. We want transparency. We don’t want big government anymore.”

In an editorial, the Houston Chronicle said the decision to host the event in Waco during the anniversary of the Waco siege represented more than a dog-whistle message to far-right and conspiratorial Trump supporters.

“The more apt metaphor is the blaring air horn of a Mack 18-wheeler barreling down I-10,” the newspaper said, adding that Waco had become “a shrine for the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers and other anti-government extremists and conspiracists.”

Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University, said he would be watching to see whether Trump explicitly references conspiracy theories related to the siege, similar to how he promoted lies about a stolen 2020 election in the run-up to his supporters’ assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“He still has the power to create more wreckage and his choice of venue allows him to do more damage if he wishes. We’ll see,” Naftali said.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne; Editing by Ross Colvin, Howard Goller and Daniel Wallis)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is withdrawing his nomination after Republican criticism that he was not qualified to serve as the top aviation regulator, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday.

Last year, Biden nominated Denver International Airport Chief Executive Officer Phil Washington to serve as FAA administrator.

The agency has faced questions in recent months after a series of close-call safety incidents and the Senate Commerce Committee earlier this week delayed a vote on his nomination citing outstanding questions by some lawmakers.

One of the sources, a White House official, told Reuters that “an onslaught of unfounded Republican attacks on Mr. Washington’s service and experience irresponsibly delayed this process, threatened unnecessary procedural hurdles on the Senate floor, and ultimately have led him to withdraw his nomination today.”

(Reporting by David Shepardson, editing by Deepa Babington)

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