President Donald Trump speaks Tuesday during a meeting at the White House. Last Saturday the president took to Twitter to defend his mental fitness and boast about his intelligence saying he is “like really smart” and “a very stable genius.”
Contradictory early morning tweets by President Donald Trump sparked confusion prior to the House vote.
The GOP-led House renewed Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows the government to spy on foreigners overseas by a vote of 256 to 164.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday night issued a statement asking lawmakers to vote against the legislation with the changes.
Trump later tweeted what seemed to be a clarification of his position in favor of renewing the law, saying that "today's vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land".
Efforts by Democrats and some conservative and libertarian Republicans to ensure that the agencies be required to get specific warrants for exploiting U.S. citizens' data acquired through so-called "incidental collection" failed to gain support.
In his Twitter post, Trump was referring to an explosive and largely uncorroborated dossier that details claims about ties between Russian Federation and Trump and his aides.
The ACLU characterized House leadership as having "caved to irresponsible fearmongering from the intelligence agencies", calling out House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for acting "in direct opposition to the interests of their constituents to be free from warrantless government spying". He suggested that a vote on the bill should be delayed, but it went forward.
Wyden told reporters "there is a lot of nonsense being circulated by opponents of the House efforts" to pass a warrant requirement, including that FISA reformers want new rights for suspected terrorists or that they do not want to prosecute criminals. Warrantless surveillance of a suspected terrorist in the USA who's not an American citizen could go on for a year before the Department of Justice (DOJ) and related watchdog agencies like the National Security Administration (NSA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation were forced to obtain judicial authorization.
Pep Guardiola Breaks Another Premier League Record
Manchester City coach, Pep Guardiola has won the English Premier League EPL Manager of the Month award for December. Guardiola played down City's poor record at Anfield , where they have not won in years.
Barack Obama Shares Story About Malia's Emotional Move-In Day at Harvard
The Washington Post's Hank Stuever panned the interview as "flat", criticizing Letterman as too much "in thrall" of his guest. You could appreciate the irony: A recent President explaining show business to a late night legend.
Trump accused of racism over alleged immigration remarks
The ministry also pointed out a US Congressional delegation is due to visit the country at the end of January. They sparked bipartisan backlash to the president, with many lawmakers calling them un-American or unhelpful.
But in his first tweet Thursday, Trump wrote: "House votes on controversial FISA ACT today".
Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to legalize a warrantless surveillance program that was created after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, according to The New York Times. "Now it is time for Leader McConnell to do what Speaker Ryan did, and allow Senators a chance to vote and offer amendments on the Section 702 reauthorization debate". Some privacy groups said it would actually expand the NSA's surveillance powers.
But as a prelude to final action, the House of Representatives voted 233-183 to defeat an amendment that would have limited its extension to four years and added a series of privacy protections.
The bill as passed by the House would extend the NSA's spying program for six years with minimal changes.
The reason that critics of the law are so upset is that the program essentially gives law enforcement agencies a "backdoor" to search Americans' data without having to get a warrant.
On Twitter, former intelligence personnel and commentators described the President's second tweet as an embarrassing "walkback". However, it has become disturbingly routine for the government to search through the communications of Americans whose information has been inadvertently swept up under this surveillance program.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said section 702 of the FISA Act is a "valuable tool to fight terrorism".
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