Congress Overrides Trump’s Veto of NDAA
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised an override of Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and he delivered it.
The bipartisan vote came after Trump’s veto, objecting to the renaming of Confederate military bases.
Trump also demanded a repeal of the legal immunity social-media companies enjoy for users’ content, a provision that has nothing to do with NDAA.
Wall Street Journal Comments
Mr. Trump has vetoed eight other bills during his time in the White House, with several of them focused on foreign policy and national-security issues, such as U.S. military activity in Yemen, the use of force against Iran, and arms sales to Saudi Arabia. While Republicans had joined Democrats to initially pass those measures, supporters couldn’t muster enough GOP votes to override the vetoes from a Republican president.
The Trump administration’s recent effort to cut troop levels in Afghanistan in half, to roughly 2,500, by Jan. 15, has alarmed some Republicans. The NDAA requires the administration to submit to Congress a comprehensive assessment of the withdrawal before it can use funds to pull out troops.
In addition to creating a commission for removing or changing names of bases, symbols, displays, monuments and paraphernalia honoring Confederate commanders, the bill also limits the president’s authority to use emergency military construction funds. Other measures in the legislation include requiring companies in the U.S. to register their true owners and restricting employees or former employees of the defense-industrial base from working directly for Chinese government-owned or -controlled companies.
The above clips from the WSJ.
The Override Vote
- The Senate voted 81-13 to override the veto today.
- The House’s voted 322-87 override on Monday
It takes 2/3 (66.7%) majority in both houses of Congress to override.
The override percentages were 86.1% in the Senate and 78.7% in the House.
McConnell Not Afraid to Buck Trump
On December 28, I commented If McConnell Gives In to Trump’s Demands, Trump Will Own Him.
McConnell Is At Bat
If the Senate caves in, Trump will own McConnell and the party in general. For that reason, I suspect Trump will strike out.
Unlike other Republican leaders, McConnell has proven he is not afraid to buck Trump. McConnell delivered his override and the NDAA is now law.
Three Trump Demands
In addition to delivering this override today, McConnell also angered Trump by lumping three of Trump’s “demands” into a single package in a way to purposely guarantee defeat.
Trump’s three demands were boosting the size of the Covid stimulus checks to $2,000 from $600, changes to online-speech rules, and an investigation of purported election fraud.
I commented on Trump’s trio of demands in $600 Covid Checks are In the Mail, McConnell Blocks Increase to $2,000
McConnell lumped all of Trump’s “demands” into one package in a way neither the House nor Senate will approve the bill.
Thus, McConnell gives Trump the vote Trump wants but in a way that Democrats or Republicans or both will kill it, possibly by debating it to death.
The kill date is Noon on January 6. All pending legislation dies because Congress adjourns.
Time will expire in 5 days. Trump’s demands are going nowhere.
Mish
You are a hampster rapist,
YOU cunt, they are coming for you
You are a god damn faggot
If Mitch gave Trump the vote he wanted, what can Trump do before 1/6/21?
Some good things in that bill so kudos to Mitch on the override and about time we stop celebrating the confederate generals AKA traitors who worked to tear this country apart. Let’s agree that we should celebrate those who work for the common good.
“aka traitors who worked to tear this country apart.”
That is ignorance talking.
The generals who fought in the Civil War, both for the North and the South, had far more in common with each other than they had in the way of differences. They were almost all a bunch of civil engineers who left their lucrative jobs building out the Western railroads and returned to their respective states to serve in what they thought was a just cause.
You can make cogent arguments that the many Confederate monuments and things named after Confederate Generals in the South are tied to Jim Crow and the racism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I wouldn’t argue against that, or make any case for hanging on to them now. I frankly don’t much care.
But I hate to see the names of good men dragged in the dirt, and many of your so-called “traitors” , maybe most of them…..were good men, and many of them died very bravely. Some of them were outstanding tacticians whose influence is still respected.
When they renamed Austin’s historic Robert E. Lee Road after the first black (female) US Treasurer….( a woman whose named you will now surely have to look up, since you don’t know who she is and I’m not going to tell you)….I just thought…..”that’s a little too far.”
slow clap
All my ancestors fought for the North and they had no problem honoring Southern soldiers for their courage. They showed that they were not pushovers and therefore were respected. If Greenmountains’ people fight with the same tenacity and brilliance as the Southerners then they too will be honored when they are defeated.
When the United States emerged as a world power in the years before the Civil War, the men who presided over the nation’s triumphant territorial and economic expansion were largely southern slaveholders. As presidents, cabinet officers, and diplomats, slaveholding leaders controlled the main levers of foreign policy inside an increasingly powerful American state. This Vast Southern Empire explores the international vision and strategic operations of these southerners at the commanding heights of American politics. link to amazon.com
It’s a damn shape that the Afghan war continues into its 4th presidential administration.
I’d like to rename all the overseas bases with the same sign, “Closed”.
Mitch has made the calculations about answering this question: How can Fat Donnie from Queens help me in the next 2,4,6 years?
The answer is: not at all.
Therefore, bye Felicia.
yeah, I think Mitch f*d up his calculations on whether he could both remain majority leader and prevent the $2000 buyoff.
not sure why he wanted to die on that mountain. just cut the check and buy the GA votes.
Turtle will have two bung holes this time tomorrows
Mitch counts the votes first and then decides how how much backbone he has…..but we saw this one coming….Trump was never going to hold up the NDAA over some BS about Confederate generals.
I had two GG grandfathers who died fighting for the South….and if I don’t care, nobody should care. It’s ancient history, and if renaming bases helps everybody get along, it’s worth it.
Somehow I doubt it will satisfy the anti-racists though. They’ll keep looking for more windmills with which to tilt.
“if renaming bases helps everybody get along”
there’s nothing you can give less than everything that will be accepted, by either side.
everybody won’t get along, ever, short of genocide.
Renaming bases is nothing to get excited about as long as they are renamed after someone who actually did something. You have to be careful when it comes to renaming bases. It’s not like renaming a street and if done all at once would create confusion.
Since we are the subject of renaming I have a pet peeve. Although I am not an atheist I do believe in separation of religion and government and there are grave problem above all in California and Texas. So many of their cities are named after Catholic saints and I find that intolerable. They should all be renamed. All you have to do is drop the “San” part and it’s ok. San Diego would become just Diego. San Francisco would become Francisco and San Antonio would become Antonio or just Tony for short. Los Angeles is a big problem though but I could consider pandering to the Satanist wing of politics and rename it Los Diablos or Los Diablas if you want to honor women.