September, 19 2020, 12:00am EDT
Sanders Statement on Passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Sen. Bernie Sanders issued the following statement on the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
"The passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a tremendous loss to our country. She was an extraordinary champion of justice and equal rights, and will be remembered as one of the great justices in modern American history.
BURLINGTON, VERMONT
Sen. Bernie Sanders issued the following statement on the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
"The passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a tremendous loss to our country. She was an extraordinary champion of justice and equal rights, and will be remembered as one of the great justices in modern American history.
"Unfortunately, we've already heard tonight from Sen. McConnell that he has decided to go against Justice Ginsburg's dying wishes and violate his own past statements in order to bring a judge nominated by President Trump to the floor of the United States Senate.
"That's in direct contradiction of his statement in 2016, when he said Supreme Court nominees should not be voted on during a presidential election year: 'Our view is this: Give the people a voice in filling this vacancy,' he said. McConnell is cementing a shameful legacy of brazen hypocrisy.
"Thankfully not all Senate Republicans agree.
"Just today, Sen. Lisa Murkowski came out against an appointment this close to an election. 'I would not vote to confirm a Supreme Court nominee,' she said. 'We are 50 some days away from an election.' In addition, several of McConnell's other colleagues have previously stated they're against confirming a new justice this close to an election. Sen. Chuck Grassley said in May, 'You can't have one rule for Democratic presidents and another rule for Republican presidents.' Sen. Susan Collins said, 'I think that's too close, I really do,' when asked by The New York Times about appointing a justice in October.
"But no one has been clearer than Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Lindsay Graham. He promised in 2018 that 'if an opening comes in the last year of President Trump's term, and the primary process has started, we'll wait to the next election.'
"The right thing to do here is clear. The Republicans in the Senate know it, and many of them have stated it clearer than I could. We should let voters decide. Period."
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"The humanitarian response in Gaza is already highly restricted, and cannot afford further dismantlement," the renowned organization warned.
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The Israeli government said Tuesday that Doctors Without Borders, one of the largest medical organizations currently operating in Gaza, is among the 25 humanitarian groups that will be suspended at the start of the new year for their alleged failure to comply with Israel's widely criticized new registration rules for international NGOs.
According to the Associated Press, Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs "said the organizations that will be banned on January 1 did not meet new requirements for sharing staff, funding, and operations information." The Israeli government specifically accused Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), of "failing to clarify the roles of some staff that Israel accused of cooperation with Hamas and other militant groups," AP reported.
In addition to providing medical assistance to desperate Palestinians, MSF has been an outspoken critic of what has it described as Israel's "campaign of total destruction" in Gaza. The group said in a report released last December that its teams' experiences on the ground in Gaza were "consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place."
Ahead of Tuesday's announcement, Doctors Without Borders warned that the looming withdrawal of registration from international NGOs "would prevent organizations, including MSF, from providing essential services to people in Gaza and the West Bank."
"With Gaza’s health system already destroyed, the loss of independent and experienced humanitarian organizations’ access to respond would be a disaster for Palestinians," the group said in a statement last week. "The humanitarian response in Gaza is already highly restricted, and cannot afford further dismantlement."
"If Israeli authorities revoke MSF’s access to Gaza in 2026, a large portion of people in Gaza will lose access to critical medical care, water, and lifesaving support," the group added. "MSF’s activities serve nearly half a million people in Gaza through our vital support to the destroyed health system. MSF continues to seek constructive engagement with Israeli authorities to continue its activities."
Pascale Coissard, MSF's emergency coordinator for Gaza, noted that "in the last year, MSF teams have treated hundreds of thousands of patients and delivered hundreds of millions of liters of water."
"MSF teams are trying to expand activities and support Gaza’s shattered health system," said Coissard. "In 2025 alone, we carried out almost 800,000 outpatient consultations and handled more than 100,000 trauma cases."
Israel's announcement came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US President Donald Trump in Florida, where both dodged questions about their supposed "peace plan" for Gaza after more than two years of relentless bombing. The Israeli military has been accused of violating an existing ceasefire agreement hundreds of times since it took effect in October.
Al Jazeera reported Tuesday that "Israeli forces have carried out strikes across the Gaza Strip as they continue with their near-daily violations of the ceasefire agreement, with Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged enclave continuing apace and displaced Palestinians enduring the destruction of their few remaining possessions in flooding brought about by heavy winter rains."
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At a hearing on the fifth anniversary of the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol next week, House Democrats plan to look back as well as forward—countering Republicans' efforts to "rewrite history and whitewash" the attempted insurrection by President Donald Trump's supporters and warning of the GOP's threats to upcoming elections and to US democracy.
The event next Tuesday will be an unofficial one, as Democrats are in the minority and do not have the authority to call formal hearings.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in a Dear Colleague letter to other lawmakers on Monday that the hearing would shed light on the "toxic priorities" of Trump, who after taking office in January issued blanket pardons for nearly 1,600 people who were charged in connection to the January 6 attack.
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"Republicans own the failed economy, their broken promise to lower costs, and the crime spree the dangerous criminals pardoned by the president have visited on our country," wrote Jeffries.
The mob on January 6 attempted to stop the certification of the 2020 election, which Trump had spent weeks at that point insisting had been stolen from him and which the president and his allies continue to deny was won by former President Joe Biden.
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After Trump took office this year, Johnson announced a new congressional subcommittee that would expose "the false narratives peddled by” the previous bipartisan panel that issued a report in 2022 about Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his encouragement of the attack.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who led the bipartisan committee, will also oversee next Tuesday's hearing.
In addition to exposing "the election deniers who hold high-level positions of significance in the executive branch," wrote Jeffries on Monday, the panel "will examine ongoing threats to free and fair elections posed by an out-of-control Trump administration."
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The US Central Intelligence Agency reportedly carried out a drone strike earlier this month on a port facility inside Venezuela, marking the first time the Trump administration launched an attack within the South American country amid a broader military campaign that observers fear could lead to war.
CNN on Monday was first to report the details of the CIA drone strike, days after President Donald Trump suggested in a radio interview that the US recently took out a "big facility" in Venezuela, prompting confusion and alarm. Trump authorized covert CIA action against Venezuela in October.
According to CNN, which cited unnamed sources, the drone strike "targeted a remote dock on the Venezuelan coast that the US government believed was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and move them onto boats for onward shipping."
To date, the Trump administration has not provided any evidence to support its claim that boats it has illegally bombed in international waters were involved in drug trafficking. No casualties were reported from the drone strike, and the Venezuelan government has not publicly commented on the attack.
"This is an act of war and illegal under both US and international law, let’s just be clear about that," journalist Mehdi Hasan wrote in response to news of the drone strike.
Brian Finucane, senior adviser with the US Program at the International Crisis Group, called the reported drone attack a "violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter and the Take Care Clause of the Constitution."
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The Times reported late Monday that "it is not clear" if the drone used in last week's mission "was owned by the CIA or borrowed from the US military."
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