Tom Steyer on Russia: Why Is Trump Not Protecting the American People?
Tom Steyer, the California billionaire behind an aggressive campaign demanding the impeachment of President Trump, accused the president of failing to protect the nation following the indictment of 13 Russians for meddling in the 2016 campaign.
“Why is he not protecting the American people?” he asked in an interview on Cheddar Friday, shortly after the indictment was announced. “Why is he allowing a hostile foreign power to attack us? And his response is to weaken sanctions against Russia at the same time?”
“What is he hiding, and why is unwilling to protect our democracy and the safety of the American people?”
Steyer’s comments come after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian organizations for meddling in U.S. elections.
The charges, which include conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire and bank fraud, and identity theft, are the first to be brought in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. The indictments claim infractions started back in 2014 and don’t suggest the 2016 presidential campaign was affected.
According to the indictment, the Russians ran a well-funded effort to sow political discord in the United States in advance of the 2016 election by creating hundreds of fake social media accounts that were supportive of Trump and critical of Hillary Clinton.
Trump, was briefed on the indictment Friday morning, took to Twitter Friday afternoon to point out there were no findings that his campaign did anything wrong.
But Steyer, who has funneled more than $20 million into an impeachment campaign against the president, says that the commander-in-chief had to be aware of Russia’s role in the election and yet has not taken action against previous or future “hostile attacks.”
“When the head of the FBI was asked two days ago whether they expected the Russians to hack us in 2018, he said ‘Yes, the Russians’ 2016 [attack] was a big success and they were going to continue it and expand it in 2018,’” Steyer said. “When he was asked if the president had ordered him to do anything to protect us against that he said, ‘No, not specifically.’”
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/meet-the-billionaire-backing-impeachment).
Cases of covid-19 are climbing in the Upper Midwest, Southwest, and parts of the Northeast. The seven-day national average is sitting at roughly 82,000 new cases which is an 11 percent jump from the week before. Dr. Amesh Adalja, Infectious Disease, Specialist, Sr. Scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss this recent uptick ahead of the holiday season.
Markets were pointing to a higher open to kick off the third trading week in November. It comes as stocks come off a losing week in reaction to October's consumer price index--which showed inflation at its highest point in over 30 years.
Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist for LPL Financial joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
Harvard Business School Professor Ranjay Gulati joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down the massive challenge the Biden Administration faces in ensuring projects in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill are completed on time and on budget.
Jill is joined by Baker Machado to talk all things infrastructure: where will the money go and who’s in charge? Plus, Sesame Street has its first Asian-American muppet. And a trailer for the trailer for Spiderman. Huh?
In this week's Cheddar Changemakers, Megan Pratz spoke with a 16-year-old climate activist Sarah Goody. She is the founder of a youth-led climate action group 'Climate NOW.'
We toss around the term "democracy is under attack" quite often without thinking too much, but one organization is actually stepping up to do something about it. The Fairness Project is a group that funds and organizes state ballot measures across the country. It has used ballot initiatives on campaigns aimed at expanding Medicaid, adding more paid time off, and raising minimum wage. It recently launched a new direct democracy campaign to fight back against attempts to make ballot measures inaccessible.
Kelly Hall, executive director of The Fairness Project, joined Cheddar Politics to discuss more about the group's efforts to push for economic and social justice, avoiding partisan gridlock.
Doug Flynn, Certified Financial Planner and Co-Founder of Flynn Zito Capital Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says he believes the news of the infrastructure bill was already priced into the market and that inflation continues to loom large on Wall Street.
President Joe Biden signed into law today his landmark $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, and it includes approximately $550 billion in new funding for increased broadband access, improving the power grid, and more. But what does this mean for the American economy, and American workers? Eliza Collins, Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what's included in the bill, which former mayor has been tapped to oversee how the bill is implemented, and how these new infrastructure investments will impact the economy.
The two-week COP26 climate conference has now ended with leaders reaching a deal, but so far the deal is getting mixed reviews from climate experts across the globe. Chloe Demrovsky, president and CEO of Disaster Recovery Institute International, explains that while the agreement is a step forward in some ways, the world still has much more to work on in order to keep warming to below 2 degrees Celsius.
