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The Hill
13 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Van Hollen: Netanyahu ‘has always wanted to drag' US into ‘war with Iran'
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of long seeking to 'drag' the United States into conflict with Iran as lawmakers scramble to respond to the Trump administration's handling of the Middle East conflict. The Maryland Democrat, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was asked during a CNN appearance Friday about a comment he made this week that Netanyahu had 'outsmarted' President Trump on Iran. 'Prime Minister Netanyahu has always wanted to drag the United States into a war with Iran. Remember, Prime Minister Netanyahu was a big cheerleader for the war in Iraq. And many people believed that would be 'a cakewalk,'' Van Hollen said. 'This is also why Prime Minister Netanyahu tried to sabotage the JCPOA when President Obama was in office,' Van Hollen added, referencing the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which imposed restrictions on the country's nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions. '[Netanyahu's] goals have always been to take military action against Iran.' 'So, my view is that Prime Minister Netanyahu was on the verge, anyway, of getting Donald Trump to do what he's wanted to do all along, which is drag the United States into a war with Iran.' Van Hollen and a number of other Senate Democrats have raised concerns that Trump might join Israel in carrying out a strike targeting Tehran's nuclear program, without securing congressional approval. A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is seeking a vote on a resolution that would require Congress to authorize any military force against Iran. A parallel resolution has been introduced in the house by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and a dozen Democratic cosponsors. Other prominent Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), however, have avoided signing onto the Senate resolution, saying Iran should not be permitted to have a nuclear weapon. Trump has weighed using an American 'bunker-buster' bomb on Fordow, an Iranian nuclear site located deep underground that Israel seeks to destroy. While The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Trump has been increasingly persuaded by entreaties from Netanyahu, the president announced Thursday he could take up to two weeks to decide whether to plunge the United States into the conflict.
CNN
3 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Foreman-in-chief: With conflict looming, Trump installs 2 massive American flags at the White House
While President Donald Trump weighs the single most consequential decision of his time in office so far — the possibility of US military intervention in Iran — he's also completing a personal project years in the making. Trump on Wednesday morning oversaw the installation of a pair of flagpoles on the White House lawn, one on the south side of the building, the other on the north. 'These are the best poles anywhere in the country or in the world,' the president told a group of reporters assembled to witness construction workers putting one of them up. 'It's a very exciting project to me,' he said. That he's taking on such major White House building projects in his second term – after coming under fire for changes to the space during his first – reflects an emboldened Trump impervious to criticism. Asked what gave him the idea to make the changes, Trump offered a revealing answer. 'I've had it for a long time. In the first term I had it, but, you know, you guys were after me. I said I had to focus. I was the hunted. And now I'm the hunter. There's a big difference,' he said. Trump spent nearly an hour inspecting and commenting on the flagpole's installation, despite heightened international tensions awaiting him. And while he refused to directly answer reporters' shouted questions about whether he would order the US military to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, his presence on the lawn underscored a president operating at his own pace. Hours later, Trump returned outside, flanked by, among others, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who were at the White House for the swearing in of Charles Kushner as ambassador to France. The president saluted the large American flag, which required five men to hoist up the newly erected pole. Trump is still a real estate magnate, enthusiastically consumed with the finer details of construction – including the materials used inside the poles, which he says he paid for himself. The reality of his day job, however, repeatedly cut in to Wednesday's festivities. Trump fielded questions on Iran, Israel, immigration and protests in California. In between, he marveled at the process of lifting the pole, which he said cost 'like $50,000.' 'They put sand inside, and if they use dirt or anything else other than sand, it rots out the pole over a period of years. But sand, for some reason, chemically just works. It gives you flexibility and it doesn't do anything to the cask,' he said as he observed the new, nearly-100-foot pole being put in the ground. 'I love construction,' he added. 'I love it, I know it better than anybody.' Trump greeted the construction workers and crane operators, and turned to consult them repeatedly during a question-and-answer session with press, once on immigration, a second time on the Russia-Ukraine war. 'Russia-Ukraine is so stupid, would've never happened if I was president. You guys agree with that, right?' Trump said as men in hard hats assembled behind him nodded their heads in agreement. Trump is no stranger to large-scale flagpole installations. Back in 2006, he violated Palm Beach town ordinances when he put an 80-foot flagpole on the grounds of his Mar-a-Lago club, according to the Palm Beach Post. Per the newspaper's reporting, Trump sued the town for $10 million 'over repeated demands that he withdraw the pole. He later increased the damage demand to $25 million. The town began fining Trump $1,250 a day on Jan. 6, 2007, for the code violations.' Trump and the town ultimately settled, and he installed a 70-foot flagpole further inland. Wednesday's pole raising is not the only change coming to the White House as the president seeks to make it more like his Florida club. Construction on the White House Rose Garden is underway, and the historic garden's green grass is now completely torn up in preparation for a patio installation over the coming weeks. Trump told Fox News in a March interview he planned to remodel the space with pavers, saying the grass 'doesn't work.' Over the weekend, the patch of grass that has served as a centerpiece for major events since the Kennedy administration gave way to dirt, filled in with gravel by Wednesday. Multiple tractors, along with PVC piping, hardwood, tarps and other construction equipment, filled the space. The garden's iconic roses and other plants, however, remained intact and are not expected to be removed. As for Trump's plans to build a ballroom near the White House East Wing, he said Wednesday that construction will 'start pretty soon.'
3 days ago
- Politics
Lawmakers aim to stop U.S. from joining Israel's military campaign against Iran
As Israel and Iran continue to trade strikes in the Middle East, lawmakers are set to introduce bills and resolution aimed at preventing the United States from getting involved in Israel's military campaign against Iran. While the efforts are in their early stages, the legislation is unlikely to garner sufficient support to override the will of President Donald Trump and his supportive Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress. Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Monday introduced a resolution he says will "prevent war with Iran" as he expresses concern at the idea that the U.S may get involved in Israel's campaign against Iran. 'It is not in our national security interest to get into a war with Iran unless that war is absolutely necessary to defend the United States. I am deeply concerned that the recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran could quickly pull the United States into another endless conflict,' Kaine, D-Va., said. 'The American people have no interest in sending service members to fight another forever war in the Middle East. This resolution will ensure that if we decide to place our nation's men and women in uniform into harm's way, we will have a debate and vote on it in Congress.' Separately, Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced the No War Against Iran Act on Monday to "prohibit the use of federal funds for any use of military force in or against Iran absent specific Congressional authorization." Sanders has several co-sponsors including Democratic Sens. Peter Welch of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Tina Smith of Minnesota. '[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's reckless and illegal attacks violate international law and risk igniting a regional war. Congress must make it clear that the United States will not be dragged into Netanyahu's war of choice,' Sanders wrote in a statement. 'Our Founding Fathers entrusted the power of war and peace exclusively to the people's elected representatives in Congress, and it is imperative that we make clear that the President has no authority to embark on another costly war without explicit authorization by Congress.' Senate Majority Leader John Thune avoided saying whether he would put Kaine's resolution on the Senate floor when asked on Tuesday. He said that any action on the matter would be 'getting the cart ahead of the horse,' but that there could be a more 'fulsome discussion' later on what the role of Congress should be amid the conflict. 'This is something that's happened the last few days. I think the President is perfectly within his authority in the steps that he has taken. You know clearly, if this thing were to extend for some period of time, there could be a more fulsome discussion about what the role of Congress should be, and and and whether or not we need to take action,' Thune said. A resolution is a statement or expression of a sentiment that, if passed, has no legal authority. An act has legal authority, but even if passed by the Republican-controlled Congress, it would have to be signed into law by Trump. In the House, Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie joined California Democrat Ro Khanna to introduce a bipartisan War Powers resolution on Tuesday meant to ensure that Congress asserts its constitutional authority to declare war under 50 U.S. Code Ch. 33. "This is not our war. But if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution," Massie said. "I'm introducing a bipartisan War Powers Resolution tomorrow to prohibit our involvement. I invite all members of Congress to cosponsor this resolution." Khanna, one of the bill's initial cosponsors, quote tweeted Massie's post, calling for "No war in Iran," and equating the current situation in Iran to Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 2003 invasion of Iraq. "No war in Iran. It's time for every member to go on record. Are you with the neocons who led us into Iraq or do you stand with the American people?" Khanna posted. "I am proud to co-lead this bipartisan War Powers Resolution with Rep. Massie that is privileged and must receive a vote," Shortly after Massie's and Khanna's posts, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Squad member Rashida Tlaib of Michigan expressed their support for the effort. Ocasio-Cortez, in a reply to Massie, said that she would be "signing on," to the resolution. In her post, Tlaib, said that the American people wouldn't fall for "it" again, contrasting today's debate on Iran's nuclear capabilities to October of 2002, when Congress approved a bipartisan Authorization for the Use of Military Force ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. "I look forward to supporting this War Powers Resolution. The American people aren't falling for it again," Tlaib said. "We were lied to about "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq that killed millions (plus) forever changed lives. It's (unconstitutional) for Trump to go to war without a vote in Congress."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rich in gold bars but poor in Trump pardons
For months, former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez has praised President Donald Trump. The Democrat has explicitly echoed Trump's criticism of the president's own criminal prosecutions, which Trump likes to describe, without evidence, as the political weaponization of the justice system. Now Menendez is reporting to federal prison, beginning his 11-year sentence after these months of attempts to sweet-talk Trump failed to win him the pardon or commutation for which he appeared to be angling. That's even as other allies of the president and those who had cozied up to him saw their prosecutions and sentences dropped. The 71-year-old Menendez, who spent more than 30 years in the House and later the Senate and rose to become the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, resigned in disgrace last year after being convicted of accepting bribes — including gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz and cash — in exchange for helping three businessmen and the Egyptian government. He arrived on Tuesday to the Federal Correctional Institution Schuylkill in Minersville, Pennsylvania. Nine days after Trump's inauguration — the day Menendez was sentenced — the former senator tagged the president in a social media post in which he claimed that 'this whole process has been nothing but a political witch hunt.' 'President Trump is right. This process is political and has been corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores integrity to the system,' Menendez said. Last week, he again took to X and lambasted prosecutors in a series of posts he titled 'How weaponization works.' He noted that the US attorney for the Southern District of New York — the office that prosecuted Menendez — also oversaw 'investigations of the Trump organization, the Trump inauguration committee and others associated with DJT and the Republican Party.' Meanwhile, the Trump administration has gutted the federal government's ability to fight public corruption, shrinking its public integrity section — created in the wake of the Watergate scandal — and stripping it of much of its power. The start of Menendez's prison sentence comes after a federal appeals court last week denied his bid to remain out of prison on bail as he appeals his conviction. A judge did allow Menendez to attend his stepdaughter's wedding in Massachusetts over the weekend and to escort his wife, Nadine Menendez, who was also convicted on corruption charges and is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. (Her own sentencing will take place in September.) The president has issued a flurry of pardons and halted prosecutions for his political allies. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was elected as a Democrat and is seeking reelection this year as an independent, saw his corruption charges dropped by Trump's Justice Department, as Adams helped the Trump administration enact its immigration agenda. Trump in February pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who was removed from office and later convicted of charges that included a scheme to sell an appointment to fill the vacant Senate seat left by then-President Barack Obama. Blagojevich long sought to align himself with Trump and called himself a 'Trumpocrat' — a Democrat who supports Trump. Trump has also pardoned a long list of political allies — including nearly all of the January 6, 2021, defendants. Trump pardoned reality television stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were serving prison sentences following their 2022 conviction on fraud and tax charges, after their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, cozied up to the Trump family and appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. 'No MAGA left behind,' Ed Martin, Trump's short-lived interim US attorney for Washington, DC, said on X after Trump pardoned a former Virginia sheriff, Scott Jenkins, who was convicted of conspiracy, honest services fraud and — just like Menendez — bribery.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
A senator's fall from grace ends in a grim federal lockup
For decades, Bob Menendez had the ear of presidents and prime ministers. He controlled the flow of military aid as the Democratic leader of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee . A son of Cuban refugees, he was a go-to authority on immigration policy. But Tuesday, just after 9 a.m., Menendez became a ward of the same government that he once helped to lead when he entered a federal prison in Pennsylvania to begin an 11-year sentence for political corruption. He will be known as prisoner No. 67277-050 at Federal Correctional Institution Schuylkill in Minersville, roughly three hours away from the home he has shared in New Jersey with his wife, Nadine Menendez, who is expected to be sentenced in September for her role in the scheme. Federal agents found bribes ranging from kilo bars of gold, a Mercedes-Benz convertible and more than $480,000 in cash during a search of the couple's modest split-level home in Englewood Cliffs. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like This Wrinkle Cream Keeps Selling Out At Costco (Find Out Why) The Skincare Magazine Undo A federal spokesperson confirmed that Menendez was in the custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons soon after a red car with New Jersey license plates was spotted entering and exiting the facility. After a nine-week trial in New York City, Bob Menendez, a Democrat, became the only U.S. senator ever to be convicted of acting as an agent of a foreign government. Prosecutors have since called the crimes at the heart of a complex, yearslong bribery conspiracy "stunningly venal" and the most serious "in the history of the republic," as they argued for a sentence even stiffer than the one imposed. Live Events Lawyers for Menendez, who is 71, have called it a death sentence. "It is well-recognized that inmates with a degree of celebrity," they wrote in a legal filing, "are at increased risk of attention, harassment and violence from their fellow inmates." The Schuylkill facility includes a medium-security, 980-person lockup that houses notorious criminals like James Coonan, the onetime head of a New York City gang known as the Westies, and Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa, a gas station magnate serving a life sentence for murder. Menendez is expected to be assigned to an adjacent 225-person minimum-security camp in the complex, where prisoners sleep in dormitory-style rooms, often in bunk beds, according to two people familiar with his prison designation. The two sites have several things in common, according to Brad Troup, who was convicted of distributing heroin that caused a death and served his final years of incarceration at Schuylkill's medium-security prison. Prisoners eat the same meals, can purchase identical items from the commissary and participate in a shared prison industry -- electronics repair and recycling. At the camp, prisoners are taught to fix broken electronics, like computers and electrocardiogram machines. Items that are deemed beyond repair go to the medium-security prison, where they are dismantled, and the metals are separated to be sold for scrap, Troup said. Books can be sent to detainees through approved vendors, and visiting privileges can be adjusted based on behavior. The population of Schuylkill is about 60% Black, 21% Hispanic and 18% white, according to a recent federal report. And during meals and in the yard, it is highly segregated by race, according to Troup, 47. "It's like going back in time," he said. "Whites with whites. Blacks with Blacks. Gangs with gangs. There's constant tension." Menendez's training as a lawyer, and his ability to help other inmates draft appeals and legal motions, is likely to be helpful, Troup said. "The main thing is, you really have to get into the flow of things," he said. "It usually takes about six months for you to get a pattern. It's very humbling once you enter prison." Before his trial began last spring, when Menendez decided against running for reelection to the Senate as a Democrat, he released a nine-minute video chronicling what he saw as his most meaningful congressional contributions. And few people familiar with the long arc of his career in New Jersey would dispute that Menendez was once among the most influential politicians in Congress. He worked relentlessly to provide federal assistance to residents devastated by Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and helped to write the legislation to expand health care coverage that became known as Obamacare. "This is a sad and humbling day," said Michael Soliman, Menendez's longtime political adviser who ran his campaigns. "But the jury verdict does not erase Sen. Menendez's profound and long-standing positive contributions in so many areas affecting New Jersey and the country. "Those, too, will be a part of his earned legacy." Menendez had served as the mayor of Union City, New Jersey, where he was raised, and its representative in the state House before being elected to the U.S. House. He became the first Latino to represent New Jersey in the Senate after being selected for the position in 2005 by Jon S. Corzine, who vacated the seat early to take over as New Jersey governor. Almost immediately, the federal prosecutors' office in New Jersey, led at the time by Chris Christie, a Republican, began an inquiry into Menendez tied to rental income on a building he owned. That investigation was closed with no charges filed, and Menendez went on to beat Thomas Kean Jr. -- now a U.S. representative -- to win a six-year term. Menendez and his Democratic allies maintained that the inquiry had been motivated by nothing other than politics, but about nine years later, after an unrelated investigation, he would be charged for the first time with taking bribes. A trial in New Jersey ended with a hung jury in November 2017, and prosecutors later dropped the case. The bribery scheme that put him in prison Tuesday began only a few months later. Prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York spent weeks laying out an audacious , yearslong plot involving a halal meat certification company and the governments of Egypt and Qatar. A jury convicted Menendez of acting as an agent of Egypt, including ghostwriting a letter for Egyptian officials to influence his Senate colleagues and steering arms to the country. He was also found guilty of trying to quash state and federal criminal prosecutions on behalf of New Jersey allies. "You stood at the apex of our political system," the trial judge, Sidney H. Stein, said before sentencing Menendez to 11 years. "Somewhere along the way, I'm sorry to say, you became a corrupt politician, helping to feed the unfortunate cynicism of many people," he added. It was the longest sentence ever issued to a U.S. senator. Only five of the 13 senators to be charged with crimes since 1807 were convicted, according to court filings. Until Menendez's case, the longest sentence imposed had been three years -- a penalty issued to Sen. Harrison Williams Jr., also of New Jersey, for his role in a bribery conspiracy that became known as Abscam. Menendez's fall from grace led to sweeping changes in his state's political life. Hours after he was indicted, a young member of the House, Andy Kim, jumped into the race for Menendez's Senate seat. Kim vanquished the state's first lady, Tammy Murphy, and, after filing a lawsuit, ended a practice that gave political bosses who thrived during Menendez's era outsize power to select candidates. Kim became the first Korean American member of the Senate after being elected in November by nearly 10 percentage points. Last week, a federal appeals panel voted 2-1 to reject Menendez's request to delay the start of his sentence, pending the outcome of his appeal. That same day, Menendez took to social media to again plead his case to an audience of one: President Donald Trump, who has granted a flurry of pardons to political allies during the first five months of his second term. Menendez, in posts on social platform X, has mimicked many of the president's complaints about a "weaponized" Justice Department. In some, he has tagged Trump. In others, he refers to the president as "DJT." "President Trump is right," Menendez wrote, minutes after he was sentenced. "This process is political and has been corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores integrity to the system." Such lobbying efforts have paid off for others, including Mayor Eric Adams of New York, a Democrat, whose indictment on corruption charges was dropped by federal prosecutors. The Justice Department has made clear that some of the offenses for which Menendez was convicted are no longer even a priority. Long before Tuesday, Menendez had become a pariah in New Jersey. A former close friend declined to discuss his longtime ally's fate. His lawyers, Adam Fee and Avi Weitzman, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who in 2017 was willing to vouch for Menendez's character during his first corruption trial. For the last year, Menendez and his wife have been keeping their own counsel in New Jersey, former associates say. After Stein granted a weeklong delay to the start of his sentence, Bob Menendez attended Nadine Menendez's daughter's wedding in Massachusetts. On Tuesday, just before 9 a.m., as a heavy fog shrouded the roadway leading into the prison complex, a red car with New Jersey license plates turned into the facility. The car carried a single passenger in the back seat and accelerated as it passed a handful of news reporters waiting at the perimeter of the prison. The car left about 15 minutes later with only a driver. There was no sign of Nadine Menendez or either of the former senator's two adult children. Soon after, a federal spokesperson confirmed in an email that "Robert Menendez is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (B.O.P.) at the Federal Correctional Institution (F.C.I.) Schuylkill in Minersville, Pennsylvania." Menendez is the last of the three men convicted last summer in the corruption scheme to enter prison. (Jose Uribe, who pleaded guilty to trying to bribe Menendez by giving his wife a Mercedes, cooperated with prosecutors and is expected to be sentenced in the fall.) Fred Daibes and Wael Hana, who were found guilty at trial of bribing the senator in exchange for political favors, began serving sentences last month at a federal prison in New Jersey. Even before Trump's blitz of pardons, their lawyers had argued that Daibes' seven-year sentence and Hana's eight-year sentence were disproportionate to other recent penalties for political corruption. "Excessive and brutal," said Lawrence S. Lustberg, who represented Hana, the founder of a halal meat certification business that was granted a lucrative monopoly by the government of Egypt and was used to funnel bribes to Menendez and his wife. "Anyone who has ever been to a prison knows that even a day, a week or a month is horrible. But seven, eight and 11 years -- that is way beyond what is required for either punishment or deterrence." This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
