Trump throws Covid relief bill in doubt by asking Congress to amend it

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(CNN)President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he is asking for changes to the coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress, leaving the future of the $900 billion stimulus in doubt.
Trump's position could threaten to torpedo the carefully drafted bill, which his own administration helped negotiate -- a move that could lead to a government shutdown and send the economy into a tailspin if he carried through with a veto.
"I'm asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2000 or $4000 per couple," Trump said in a video released on Twitter. "I'm also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items in this legislation or to send me a suitable bill."
The extraordinary message came after he largely left negotiations over the measure to lawmakers and his Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Trump did not explicitly threaten to veto the bill, but said he was dissatisfied with its final state.
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Struggling Americans blast stimulus bill as too little, too late
Struggling Americans blast stimulus bill as too little, too late
"A few months ago, Congress started negotiations on a new package to get urgently needed help to the American people. It's taken forever," he said in the video.
"However, the bill they are now planning to send back to my desk is much different than anticipated. It really is a disgrace."
Still, Trump's message appeared to be greeted favorably by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who tweeted: "Republicans repeatedly refused to say what amount the President wanted for direct checks."
"At last, the President has agreed to $2,000 — Democrats are ready to bring this to the Floor this week by unanimous consent," she said. "Let's do it!"
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, tweeted, "we're glad to pass more aid Americans need" but stressed that "Trump needs to sign the bill to help people and keep the government open."
"Maybe Trump can finally make himself useful and get Republicans not to block it again," he said.
CNN has reached out to the offices of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Multiple sources told CNN that the President's message isn't going to prompt a renegotiation of the measure, which passed with big veto-proof majorities.
At the moment, the hope among some on Capitol Hill is that Trump won't veto the bill, since he never explicitly said he would.
House Democrats on Thursday will try to pass a bill to increase direct payments by unanimous consent, though any one member can scuttle that effort. It's unclear what will happen when or if such a bill is blocked.
Government funding runs out next Monday.
Trump's statement was filmed by the White House and was not open to the press. Reporters did not have a chance to ask the President questions. It's unclear when the message was recorded.
The President has in the past said he would sign the bill, and earlier Tuesday the White House publicly defended the bill. But many of his allies have spoken out against the agreement passed.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Following months of grueling negotiations, Congress had voted Monday evening to approve the far-reaching $900 billion Covid relief package aimed at delivering layers of financial support to Americans affected by the pandemic.
The legislation includes direct payments of up to $600 per adult, enhanced jobless benefits of $300 per week, roughly $284 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans, $25 billion in rental assistance, an extension of the eviction moratorium and $82 billion for schools and colleges.
"We can finally report what our nation has needed to hear for a very long time: More help is on the way," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday night in announcing the deal.
The deal was reached only after both parties relinquished some of their key demands, with direct stimulus checks proving to be a major sticking point throughout negotiations.
While Trump had told people around him he wanted the direct payments to be much higher, he did not suggest he was unwilling to accept the package containing the $600 amount -- half the $1,200 amount approved in the first relief package, which some lawmakers had been pushing for this time.
When a deal was struck between congressional leaders, Trump's aides signed off believing the President was on board, though two officials said on Tuesday they did not believe he was walked through the package in detail.
In fact, throughout his video message, Trump railed against several provisions that were actually part of the omnibus spending bill, not the Covid relief bill.
"It is called the Covid relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with Covid," the President said at one point.
While the omnibus spending bill -- which appropriates money for all the federal agencies for the rest of the fiscal year -- was combined with the stimulus deal, funds allocated to the omnibus bill don't mean less is available for the Covid relief bill.
White House aides expressed surprise and annoyance about Trump's video message Tuesday.
Few advisers knew the President was even taping the five-minute spot from the garland-bedecked Diplomatic Reception Room, in the basement of the residence, and at least one White House official, deputy press secretary Brian Morgenstern, told reporters an hour before the video posted that Trump had signaled his intent to sign it.
After the video posted, aides scrambled to figure out what the President's official position on the legislation was and whether he was actually threatening to veto the legislation.
One official said Trump had been paying little attention to the negotiations surrounding the stimulus in recent days, focused almost exclusively on his futile attempts to overturn the election.
He was not directly involved in the talks, leaving the task to Mnuchin -- who praised the package in a statement Tuesday morning.

Like many of his own aides, Republicans on Capitol Hill were not given a heads up that Trump was going to rail against the stimulus bill. A GOP leadership aide told CNN "no" when asked if this was expected.

Donald Trump has pardoned four security guards from the private military firm Blackwater who were serving jail sentences for killing 14 civilians including two children in Baghdad in 2007, a massacre that sparked an international outcry over the use of mercenaries in war.

The four guards – Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Nicholas Slatten – were part of an armoured convoy that opened fire indiscriminately with machine-guns, grenade launchers and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed people in a square in the Iraqi capital.

The Nisour Square massacre was one of the lowest episodes of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Slough, Liberty and Heard were convicted on multiple charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in 2014, while Slatten, who was the first to start shooting, was convicted of first-degree murder. Slattern was sentenced to life and the others to 30 yearsin prison each.
Trump pardons ex-campaign aide, Blackwater contractors and disgraced lawmakers
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An initial prosecution was thrown out by a federal judge – sparking outrage in Iraq – but the then vice-president, Joe Biden, promised to pursue a fresh prosecution, which succeeded in 2015.

At the sentencing, the US attorney’s office said in a statement: “The sheer amount of unnecessary human loss and suffering attributable to the defendants’ criminal conduct on 16 September 2007 is staggering.”

After news of the pardon emerged on Tuesday night, Brian Heberlig, a lawyer for one of the four pardoned Blackwater defendants, said: “Paul Slough and his colleagues didn’t deserve to spend one minute in prison. I am overwhelmed with emotion at this fantastic news.”

The pardons are one of several the US president has granted to American service personnel and contractors accused or convicted of crimes against non-combatants and civilians in war zones. In November last year, he pardoned a former US army commando who was set to stand trial over the killing of a suspected Afghan bomb-maker, and a former army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to fire at three Afghans.
(L-r) Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Paul Slough, Nicholas Slatten.
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(L-r) Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Paul Slough, Nicholas Slatten. Photograph: AP

Supporters of the former contractors at Blackwater Worldwide had lobbied for the pardons, arguing that the men had been excessively punished.

Prosecutors asserted the heavily armed Raven 23 Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine-guns and grenade launchers. Defence lawyers argued their clients returned fire after being ambushed by Iraqi insurgents.

The US government said in a memorandum filed after the sentencing: “None of the victims was an insurgent, or posed any threat to the Raven 23 convoy.” The memorandum also contained quotations from relatives of the dead, including Mohammad Kinani, whose nine-year-old son Ali was killed. “That day changed my life forever. That day destroyed me completely,” Kinani said.

Also quoted in the memorandum was David Boslego, a retired US army colonel, who said the massacre was “a grossly excessive use of force” and “grossly inappropriate for an entity whose only job was to provide personal protection to somebody in an armoured vehicle”.

Boslego also said the attack had “a negative effect on our mission, [an] adverse effect … It made our relationship with the Iraqis in general more strained.”

FBI investigators who visited the scene in the following days described it as the “My Lai massacre of Iraq” – a reference to the infamous slaughter of civilian villagers by US troops during the Vietnam war in which only one soldier was convicted.

After the convictions, Blackwater – which changed to Academi after being sold and renamed in 2011 – said it was “relieved that the justice system has completed its investigation into a tragedy that occurred at Nisour Square in 2007 and that any wrongdoing that was carried out has been addressed by our courts.

“The security industry has evolved drastically since those events, and under the direction of new ownership and leadership, Academi has invested heavily in compliance and ethics programmes, training for our employees, and preventative measures to strictly comply with all US and local government laws.”

The 14 victims killed by the Blackwater guards on trial were listed as Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia’y, Mahassin Mohssen Kadhum Al-Khazali, Osama Fadhil Abbas, Ali Mohammed Hafedh Abdul Razzaq, Mohamed Abbas Mahmoud, Qasim Mohamed Abbas Mahmoud, Sa’adi Ali Abbas Alkarkh, Mushtaq Karim Abd Al-Razzaq, Ghaniyah Hassan Ali, Ibrahim Abid Ayash, Hamoud Sa’eed Abttan, Uday Ismail Ibrahiem, Mahdi Sahib Nasir and Ali Khalil Abdul Hussein.