TV News LIES

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Monday said the Senate will attempt to pass an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) enhanced surveillance powers without the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act attached, rebuffing President Trump’s demand to link the two bills.

Thune, who has repeatedly warned that letting Section 702 of FISA expire poses a risk to national security, said he would try to move an extension of the controversial surveillance law as a stand-alone measure. The provision, which allows the U.S. to spy on foreigners located abroad without a warrant, lapsed over the weekend.

“We will try and move 702 as soon as we feel like we have the votes to do it,” Thune told reporters.

The GOP leader told Punchbowl News on his way into the Capitol earlier Monday that it would be “unrealistic” to get the SAVE America Act passed simply by attaching it to an extension of FISA authorities.

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The House passed legislation Thursday that would aid Ukraine and sanction key segments of the Russian economy, overriding objections from Republican leaders who warned the bill would undermine negotiations designed to achieve a comparable but stronger result.

The 226-195 vote is a sign of impatience with Donald Trump’s approach to the war and represents the House’s second major foreign policy break with Trump this week. The day before, the House, for the first time, approved a war powers resolution aimed at halting US military action against Iran.

The legislation, sponsored by the Democratic representative Gregory Meeks, seeks to cement US assistance for Ukraine by providing more than $1bn in security and reconstruction aid. It would make another $8bn available for Ukraine’s defense through loans.

Once rarely successful, House members have used the petition tool this Congress to pass bills on releasing the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein and to extend healthcare subsidies to many people who get health coverage through the Affordable Care Act, though the latter measure faltered in the Senate.

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The SAVE America Act, a far-reaching Republican election overhaul that President Trump said should be his congressional allies' top priority, has officially failed in the Senate.

The measure was voted on Thursday as an amendment as part of lengthy debate over an immigration funding package. The election bill has languished in the Senate for months, after the House passed a version in February on a near party-line vote.

The election proposal would have taken effect immediately, even as voting is underway in congressional primaries.

Notably, the legislation would have required voters to show a document proving their U.S. citizenship, like a passport or a birth certificate, when they registered to vote.

Research has shown millions of Americans don't have easy access to those documents. And experts say such a provision is unnecessary, as noncitizens have never been shown to vote at anything but microscopic numbers in American elections.

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Adam Hamawy, an Egyptian-American surgeon who gained national attention for his harrowing 2024 medical mission to Gaza, is now all but assured a congressional seat in Washington next year after he handily won the Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 12th district on Tuesday.

With more than 93 percent of the vote counted at nearly 10am local time on Wednesday, Hamawy secured more than 28 percent of ballots, far ahead of his nearest opponent.

The 12th district, which encompasses the elite Princeton University, has been a solid blue district for at least 15 years, meaning voters will most likely be sending Hamawy to the US Congress when he runs against his Republican opponent in November’s midterms.

He will then become the first Muslim to become a statewide representative for New Jersey, where he grew up and still lives today.

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The White House is pushing Congress to approve a $250 bill bearing Donald Trump’s portrait, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said, which would require changing longstanding federal law that prohibits any living person from appearing on US currency.

Speaking from the White House at a news conference, Bessent said the bill would be in celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary of independence, and that the treasury has already started preparing for the possibility of the new currency.

“As treasury secretary, I have two mandates for US currency at present: that no living person can be on US currency, and the currency must say ‘In God we trust’,” Bessent said. “So, right now, there isproposed legislation in front of the House, in front of the Senate, to change the first requirement, so that a living person – Donald J Trump – could be on the $250 bill.”

The Washington Post reported that two of Trump’s political appointees at the treasury had pushed staff to start preparing prototypes of a $250 bill with Trump’s image, raising concerns that doing so would breach federal law.

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Key Senate Republicans are raising concerns about a reported peace deal being negotiated with Iran, arguing it would be a disaster for the United States that would make meaningless the war launched by President Trump nearly three months ago.

“The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a post on social platform X.

He said the effects of the joint military operation between the U.S. and Israel titled “Operation Epic Fury” would “be for naught” if the deal as he understood it went forward.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of President Trump who for years has pushed for U.S. military action against the Iranian regime, said a premature deal could fundamentally shift the balance of power in the Middle East in Iran’s favor.

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