May, 12 2015, 03:15pm EDT
![Senator Bernie Sanders](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012641/origin.jpg)
Sanders Statement on Senate Vote on Trade Deal
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after the Senate rejected a motion to take up the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement:
"The Senate vote today was an important first victory in what will be a long battle.
WASHINGTON
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after the Senate rejected a motion to take up the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement:
"The Senate vote today was an important first victory in what will be a long battle.
"A major reason for the decline of the American middle class and the increase in wealth and income inequality in the United State is our trade policies - NAFTA, CAFTA and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China. This agreement would follow in the footsteps of those free trade agreements which have forced American workers to compete against desperate and low-wage workers around the world - including workers in Vietnam where the minimum wage is 56-cents an hour.
"Trade agreements should not just work for corporate America, Wall Street and the pharmaceutical industry. They have got to benefit the working families of our country.
"We must defeat fast track and develop a new policy on trade. Today was a good step forward, but much more needs to be done."
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After RNC Speech, Critics Say: 'Trump Hasn't Changed. He's Only Gotten More Extreme'
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But Donald Trump's record, rhetoric throughout the 2024 campaign, insidious plans for a second term, and remarks as he accepted his party's presidential nomination give the lie to his fleeting attempt to posture as a unifying figure, critics said in the wake of the former president's speech, which came days after an attempt on his life in Pennsylvania.
"What we witnessed tonight were just empty words," said Christina Harvey, executive director of Stand Up America. "This is the same twice-impeached, convicted felon who botched the Covid response, repeatedly tried to take healthcare away from millions of Americans, incited an insurrection to cling to power after voters rejected him, and to this day brags about appointing the justices that 'killed' Roe v. Wade."
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Not long after pledging to "be president for all of America, not half of America," Trump reverted to well-worn falsehoods about his 2020 election defeat, claiming that the Democratic Party "used Covid to cheat."
The former president also decried the supposed "invasion at our southern border" and reiterated his disastrous plan to "launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country" as convention attendees hoisted signs that read, "Mass Deportation Now!"
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While claiming to support the working class, Trump—whose campaign is backed by more than a dozen billionaires—launched into an attack on United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, declaring that the labor leader who helped guide his union to historic contract victories at the nation's largest car manufacturers "should be fired immediately."
The UAW said in response that "Donald Trump is a scab and a billionaire and that's who he represents."
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To progressive observers, Trump's rambling, lie-filled, often incoherent convention address underscored that the November election is very much winnable for Democrats and that fatalism about the outcome is deeply wrongheaded.
"This is a very bad speech by a very weak, beatable candidate," said Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible.
Those who have urged Biden to exit the race and pave the way for a candidate perceived as a stronger matchup against Trump—a deeply unpopular figure—reiterated their case during the former president's speech, which dragged on for more than 90 minutes.
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"Right-wing politicians are using the courts to wreak havoc on the student loan system and put the economic stability of tens of millions of borrowers and their families at risk. Make no mistake: These lawsuits are shameful political gamesmanship designed to hurt President Biden at all costs, and borrowers are merely collateral damage," Yu said. "Unfortunately, today, the special interests have prevailed, imperiling the financial security of millions and throwing the student loan system into an untenable chaos."
An Education Department spokesperson said in a statement Thursday that "we are assessing the impacts of this ruling and will be in touch directly with borrowers with any impacts that affect them."
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The study shows how the world's forests have consistently absorbed carbon dioxide over the past three decades, "even as disruptions chip away at their capacity."
Researchers examined long-term ground measurements combined with remote sensing data and found that "forests take up an average of 3.5 ± 0.4 billion metric tons of carbon per year, which is nearly half of the carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels between 1990 and 2019."
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