Posted on 07/07/2020 9:07:30 AM PDT by RandFan
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is warning that Congress would likely override President Trump if he vetoes a mammoth defense policy bill amid the fight over a plan to rename Army bases named after Confederate figures.
Grassley, during a call with Iowa reporters on Monday, said he hoped Trump wouldn't veto the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which is set to pass the Senate later this month, over the base renaming.
"If it came to overriding a veto, we’d probably override the veto," Grassley told Iowa reporters on a conference call this week.
A spokesman for Grassley confirmed the remarks, which were reported by the Des Moines Register and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
Trump has issued eight vetoes since taking over the White House in 2017. Neither the House nor Senate have been able to successfully override one.
Trump has warned that he will veto the bill, which has passed Congress for 59 consecutive years, if it includes a provision, which is currently in the Senate version, on renaming military installations named after Confederate-figures.
“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 tweeted last week.
The Senate's bill includes a provision that states that within three years the Defense Secretary "shall implement the plan submitted by the commission ... and remove all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America ... or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America from all assets of the Department of Defense."
The House Armed Services Committee separately voted to include a provision in its NDAA requiring the names to be changed within a year. Once the House and Senate pass their versions of the defense bill, they'll need to hash out an agreement on a final version of the legislation.
GOP senators, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), have urged Trump to back down from his veto threat of the defense bill, which isn't expected to reach his desk until after the November election.
"Well, I would hope the president really wouldn't veto the bill over this issue. ... I hope the president will reconsider vetoing the entire defense bill, which includes pay raises for our troops, over a provision in there that could lead to changing the names," McConnell said last week during an interview with Fox News.
Statues and monuments honoring the Confederacy have come under renewed criticism amid ongoing protests against racial inequality and police brutality. Trump has defended the statues as an integral part of American history and says it would dishonor the soldiers who trained at bases named after Confederate officers to rename the installations now.
This is the idea!
Congress has the right to override a presidential veto.
Probably?
You RINOs are going to hang together.
Make the cowardly bastards go on record.
VETO!!
Pretty sure Trump can fire Vindman after the fact.
VETO!!
+10000
Good for them. Let them override it and put their cowardly names on it.
Another example of why I’m not a republican. Most of them blow hard, and when Trump no longer is part of their club, they’ll become a permanent minority party.
Trump is doing a great job of showing them to us. It is up to us to primary them.
So the Senate wants to go along with this renaming BS the liberals are all gung ho about? Talk about spineless weasels (the GOP-e RINOs)...
They do. However, unlike the President of the United States, Congress is nothing but a bunch of pandering, crooks.
Admittedly, I don’t pay much attention to this because ever since he was elected it has been shown that the folks in DC could give two sh*ts about the American people.
Wondering if any changes were made with regards to FISC, FISA and curtailing the ability of the government to surveil US citizens just because a small group don’t like you.
If none of that has changed and the President gets on Twitter and elsewhere, the veto threat might dissipate a bit, if not more. Folks in this country are getting more and more frustrated and angry with the abuses Congress and bureaucrats have been and are allowed to get away with.
And what better time to threaten it, with 120 days before the election!!!
Veto it, if they override it run against them all. Screw the uniparty
John Cornyn spoke out for renaming the bases a week or so ago. He is likely to face a liberal male military veteran who is predicting her victory.
When it happens, we'll have little voice to counter the progressives as they rule the country
And that’s different from what we have today how?
Last night my caller ID indicated the RNC called me twice. This is why I will never ever answer again, let alone give these stooges any money. Happy to donate to Trump, but never to the cowardly lion types.
Imagine how much Trump could do if her had a party which fights the left
At least the Senate GOP put up enough resistance during the impeachment trial to shut things down. If the DEMs had control of both the House and the Senate, the impeachment trial would have lasted months, with testimony from anyone willing to say something bad about Trump.
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