Trump: I’ll Veto Defense Bill To Keep Confederate Base Names

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FILE - In this March 27, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported, according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence. The assessment was included in at least one of Trump’s written daily intelligence briefings at the time, according to the officials. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is vowing to veto a massive defense bill to keep military bases such as Fort Bragg named after Confederate officers, swimming against sentiment in his own party and imperiling a 3% pay raise for the troops.

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Trump took to Twitter late Tuesday to threaten a veto of a $741 billion annual Pentagon authorization bill because it would require a host of military bases named after Confederate figures to be renamed within three years.

Trump rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., won a bipartisan vote in a GOP-controlled panel to force the bases to be renamed, and it’s clear that opponents of the idea don’t have the votes to remove it during floor debate.

“I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) of Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E. Lee, and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars, is in the Bill!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump’s threat comes as he is increasingly appealing to his core supporters as his troubled reelection campaign has fallen behind former Vice President Joe Biden in opinion polls.

The response by top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer? Make my day.

“I dare President Trump to veto the bill over Confederate base naming. It’s in the bill. It has bipartisan support. It will stay in the bill,” Schumer said Tuesday.

The annual measure has passed every year for almost six decades and typically enjoys veto-proof support, though various controversies often mean that it does not pass until late in the year. Trump’s salvo probably ensures that the issue won’t come to a head until after the November election.

The Senate Armed Services Committee approved Warren’s measure to force the bases to be renamed within three years by a voice vote last month. A commission would be set up to oversee the process.

Since the Senate’s 45 Democrats and two Democratic-aligned Independents are behind the provision, GOP opponents of the idea would have to — at a minimum — summon 50 of the chamber’s 53 Republicans to replace it if everyone votes and Vice President Mike Pence is available to break a tie. As a practical matter it would take 60 votes under filibuster rules.

That means that opponents of Warren’s provision like Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a top Trump acolyte, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., face impossible odds during floor debate. The chamber is debating the bill now but won’t finish it until later this month.

“Instead of mandating the renaming of military bases, including Fort Bragg, we need a thoughtful and constructive process that includes the input of our military communities,” Tillis said.

Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky says that he won’t fight the Warren amendments and that he is “OK” with whatever negotiators on the measure ultimately decide on the issue. That’s a view generally shared by top House Republican Kevin McCarthy of California.

On Wednesday morning, Schumer eagerly returned to the topic.

“Let me predict, President Trump will not veto a bill that contains pay raises for our troops and crucial support for our military,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “This is typical bluster from President Trump. The (defense bill) will pass, and we will scrub from our military bases the names of men who fought for the Confederacy and took up arms against our country.”

A Democratic-controlled House panel is holding a daylong bill drafting session Wednesday in which it is sure to address the topic.


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16 Comments
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PaulinSaudi
PaulinSaudi
3 years ago

Our President is a very odd man.

anonymous
anonymous
3 years ago

“Veto the Defense bill” Veto the DEFENSE OF THE USA? Is there anyone left who believes that he wasn’t elected by Russian Intelligence as the Mueller Report States?

anonymous
anonymous
3 years ago

” Warren won a bipartisan vote on a GOP controlled panel” Hm? Does this mean that the Republican now trust more Senator Elizabeth Warren a Democrat (maybe even a Socialist) than they trust Trump? It sure sound like.

Phineas
Phineas
3 years ago

Why not name the bases after generals who didn’t lose. Bragg got his tuchus handed to him by General Grant and under-performed even the other Confederate generals who were on the losing side. Jefferson Davis relieved him of his command.

So he wasn’t a successful general, wasn’t on the winning side, lost his command, and owned 156 slaves.
Chesty Puller is the most decorated marine in U.S. history and revered by his men, the only Marine to be awarded five Navy Crosses. Fort Puller sounds fine.

anonymous
anonymous
3 years ago

Elizabeth Warren-Donald Trump 1:0
Lets see if anyone here thinks Trump will win this fight.

Milty5T
Milty5T
3 years ago

He wouldn’t know a confederate name from a Union name. Never read a book in his life. Just pandering to his racist, white power base, just like his latest white power tweet. Nazism is bssed on white power fascism, so you can see why so many ‘frum’ yidden support him. Secular American Jews were in the US Armed Forces against fascism, or didn’t you know…

Yaakov Doe
Yaakov Doe
3 years ago

Why does Draft Dodger Donald care so much about keeping the names of Generals who fought against and killed United States Army troops? Does he really think that this pandering to those who bring Confederate flags to his campaign events will help in November? Is he sending a message to those who marched in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us”?
Is this one of Putin’s ideas to divide the nation even further?
How will Educated Arch defend this deranged man’s stand for the Confederacy?

Phineas
Phineas
3 years ago

Maybe we should have a Fort Tojo, Fort Ho Chi Minh and Fort Rommel as well while we name bases after people who fought AGAINST the U.S.

henry reitzenstein
henry reitzenstein
3 years ago

he defends statues of traitors but not actual living soldiers in the field

Richard Blumenthal
Richard Blumenthal
3 years ago

Why don’t you ask the draft dodger Joe Biden? 6 deferments. Let’s see if he even knows the aleph bais of American History.