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For Immediate Release
June, 12 2018, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Emma Lydon, 202.225.2661, Emma.Lydon@mail.house.gov
Congresswoman Barbara Lee's Statement on Singapore Summit with Kim Jong-Un
Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement on President Trump's summit with Kim Jong-Un in Singapore:
"As a lifelong advocate for diplomacy, I am pleased that the U.S. has started direct talks with North Korea to denuclearize and deescalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
WASHINGTON
Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement on President Trump's summit with Kim Jong-Un in Singapore:
"As a lifelong advocate for diplomacy, I am pleased that the U.S. has started direct talks with North Korea to denuclearize and deescalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
"Diplomacy takes time. The Trump Administration must be prepared to engage in the hard work of negotiation. President Trump needs to stop sidelining experts and rebuild our diplomatic staff at the State Department, so that we can achieve a verifiable agreement that helps rid the world of nuclear weapons.
"At the same time, we cannot lose sight of the challenges ahead. We must stand firm against the war hawks in President Trump's cabinet who would like to co-opt this chance at peace to pave the way for regime change. If our negotiations don't succeed, we cannot allow the collapse of these talks to be used as a pretext for war.
"We have an opportunity to build permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, stop nuclear proliferation in its tracks, and ensure greater respect for human rights in North Korea. We need to ensure that this summit is more than just a photo opportunity. In the coming months, it is critically important that the U.S. continues the momentum towards a specific, concrete deal to address the many issues before our two nations."
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a Democrat, represents the 13th District in California.
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"It's important that we'll have a government ethics chief in place who serves the American people, not Trump's wallet," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
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As the clock winds down on Democratic control of the U.S. Senate, upper chamber lawmakers on Thursday confirmed President Joe Biden's nomination of David Huitema, head of the State Department's ethics program, to lead the Office of Government Ethics for a five-year term.
Senators voted 50-46 in favor of Huitema's confirmation to head the OGE through the duration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump's tenure, averting at least temporarily a scenario in which the winner of the 2024 election—who has refused to sign required transition-related ethics agreements and whose first term saw thousands of conflicts of interest—would be empowered to fill or stonewall the post.
The OGE has been without a director for more than a year, ever since the term of Trump appointee Emory Rounds expired. In September, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) blocked Senate Democrats' attempt to confirm Huitema via unanimous consent until after the presidential election, alleging "political weaponization of the U.S. government against Donald Trump by the Biden-Harris administration."
As the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said ahead of Huitema's confirmation:
One of the most important roles of the Office of Government Ethics is to oversee and advise the presidential transition process. The selection and nomination of most new administration officials takes place during the transition, in which OGE's vetting of pending nominees for conflicts of interest is most critical. The office needs to be fully staffed and operational during the course of the transition period.
However, Walter Shaub, who led the OGE during the Obama administration and resigned in 2017 after months of conflict with the Trump White House, warned in a Thursday interview with Government Executive that "it might be a hollow victory for government ethics if Trump fires Huitema after the inauguration."
"Even if Trump doesn't fire Huitema, OGE won't be able to prevent Trump's top appointees from retaining conflicting financial interests if the Senate grants Trump's request that lawmakers conspire in skirting or short-shrifting the constitutional confirmation process," Shaub added.
Still, ethics advocates cheered Huitema's confirmation, with the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington hailing what it called the "good news" and "an important step to safeguard ethics compliance ahead of a second Trump administration that threatens to be even more corrupt than the first."
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"Confirming this lunatic would amount to killing people," one journalist warned amid fears Trump will avoid Senate votes for controversial picks.
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U.S. lawmakers, government watchdogs, and other critics responded with alarm to President-elect Donald Trump's long-anticipated announcement on Thursday that he wants Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a clear and present danger to the nation's health," declared Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman. "He shouldn't be allowed in the building at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), let alone be placed in charge of the nation's public health agency."
"Donald Trump's bungling of public health policy during the Covid pandemic cost hundreds of thousands of lives," Weissman highlighted. "By appointing Kennedy as his secretary of HHS, Trump is courting another policy-driven public health catastrophe."
The RFK Jr. decision continued a trend of Trump choosing Cabinet secretaries who have demonstrated loyalty to him, even if their qualifications are questionable. After running for president as a Democrat and then an Independent—without support from many members of his political family—Kennedy suspended his campaign and endorsed the Republican in August.
"RFK Jr. poses a danger to public health, scientific research, medicine, and healthcare coverage for millions."
Leading up to the election last week, Trump acknowledged plans to let Kennedy "go wild on health," sparking speculation that he would let the lawyer and conspiracy theorist lead HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, or National Institutes of Health.
Once lauded for his environmental activism, Kennedy has recently faced criticism for spreading anti-vaccine misinformation, downplaying the climate emergency, and opposing a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. There have also been revelations about a brain worm, a dead baby bear, a whale head, a reported affair with a journalist, and an alleged sexual assault of a babysitter.
Trump—who is known for his love of McDonald's—said in his statement about RFK Jr. that "for too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health."
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Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk cast doubt on the suggestion that Kennedy's appointment would benefit the public.
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent years recklessly promoting unfounded, anti-scientific conspiracies about everything from vaccines to antidepressants," Carrk said in a statement. "Not only does he lack any serious credentials, but his troubling grasp of facts poses a serious threat to the health of millions of Americans."
Journalist Mehdi Hasan compared Kennedy to the far-right founder of the fake news website InfoWars: "It is difficult to overstate just how extreme, conspiratorial, and insane RFK's views are, on vaccines, microchips, and beyond. He's Alex Jones in a suit."
Noting Kennedy's previous pledge to halt research on drug development and infectious diseases, Slate's Mark Joseph Stern called his selection "just a massive 'fuck you' to the millions of families relying on advancements in treatment for loved ones with ALS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancer, and so much more," adding that "confirming this lunatic would amount to killing people."
Some senators are already speaking out. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said Thursday: "Dangerous. Unqualified. Unserious."
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement that "Trump's health agenda isn't a secret: worse healthcare at a higher cost for American families."
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On the fourth day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP29, in Azerbaijan, green groups highlighted how fossil fuel companies "enable and profit from Israel's genocide in Gaza," continuing "a long history of the industry's complicity in mass atrocities worldwide."
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The group—along with others including Friends of the Earth Palestine/PENGON and Tipping Point U.K.—is seizing the opportunity presented by COP29 to draw attention to an aspect of the Gaza war often overlooked amid the staggering death and destruction wrought by Israel's 13-month onslaught, which a United Nations panel on Thursday
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The BTC pipeline runs from Baku—the Azeri capital and COP29 host city on the Caspian Sea—through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey and, according to Oil Change, supplies Israel with 28% of its oil, belying Thursday's claim by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that the country has severed all ties with Israel.
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investigation published in September by Energy Embargo for Palestine showed how oil transported via the BTC pipeline is refined into jet fuel for Israel Defense Forces warplanes.
Oil Change continued:
BP has also been granted gas exploration licenses in occupied Palestinian waters. By providing it with fuel, BP enables the Israeli government to commit genocide in Gaza. Chevron operates and partially owns the two largest Israeli-claimed fossil gas fields, Tamar and Leviathan, making it the main international actor extracting fossil gas claimed by Israel in the Mediterranean. In 2022, 70% of Israel's power was generated from fossil gas extracted by Chevron. Through the millions of dollars it pays Israel for its gas extraction licenses, Chevron is also directly contributing to financing Israel's regime of genocide, apartheid, settler colonialism, and occupation.
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Tipping Point U.K. organizer Sadie DeCost said that "BP originated as a key enabler of the British empire, and continues as one of the top 10 largest carbon emitters in the world."
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Oil Change noted that while many governments have prioritized profit and national interest over human rights in Palestine, Colombia—which is led by leftist President Gustavo Petro—"has set a strong precedent and issued an embargo on coal exports to Israel" as part of a broader suspension of relations due to the Gaza onslaught.
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