BREAKING: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Cloture Vote Passes 63-33
The Senate just passed cloture on the standalone bill to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by a vote of 63-33. Six Republican Senators joined all but one Democratic Senator in voting yes. The final vote on the bill will be today at 3:00 PM.
This is a developing story and may be updated throughout the day.
After two House votes, two Senate votes, seventeen years of forced lies and witchhunts, over 13,000 discharges, twenty-three military studies — the most recent costing $4.5 million — untold hours and millions of dollars worth of of lobbying and debate, Congress has, albeit reluctantly, come closer to repealing a law already ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge months ago, one that many Americans felt was never a good idea from the start, and now 78% of Americans agree must end.
In what has to be seen as the most-egregious dereliction of their fiduciary duty, Senate Republicans yesterday, in a last-ditch effort and in a continuation of their no-holds-barred hostage-taking and extortion, threatened to defeat the START treaty to regulate and inspect nuclear weapons that exist around the world, potentially putting the very existence of the country at stake.
Republican Senators up until the last minute invoked false concepts, claiming, as Senator John McCain, the leading advocate against repeal, said, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal will cause “great damage” and “harm the battle effectiveness.” McCain actually, falsely, said, as did General Amos earlier in the week, that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal would actually cost limbs and lives.
Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), upset about the perfectly legal procedure the Senate used, called “Rule XIV,” threatened, “this game can be played by both sides…next year we’re going to insist on it.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, commenting about the upset of Republican Senators about procedure, said their comments “bring a big yawn to the American people,” who know the obstruction the Republicans have been practicing all year, and said, “to suggest that there hasn’t been hearing after hearing on this is just nonsensical.”
It’s important for all to remember that with this historic vote, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as a law and policy is closer to coming to an end, but the military and the Commander in Chief would still have to “certify” when — and if — the military is ready to allow openly-gay and lesbian service members to serve.
Justin Elzie, the first U.S. Marine discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” wrote to me about today’s vote. He says,
“I feel hopeful that this vote for cloture today and the final vote in the next day or two will finally get rid of this egregious policy. People need to know that this is an important first step, but this is not over until after a 60 day waiting period, a certification by the President, Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and an implementation plan started by the Pentagon that needs to be rolled out. Most importantly the discharges need to stop and that doesn’t happen yet with today’s vote. This is not over until all of that happens. This vote is happening today thanks to the tireless efforts of many veterans and activists from groups like Servicemembers United to GetEqual. Let’s celebrate after today’s vote but realize we will need to roll up our sleeves and get the discharges stopped and an implementation plan finished before this is over.â€
Lt. Dan Choi, the posterboy for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” who is reportedly now in a Veterans’ Administration facility after suffering from PTSD which he attributes in part to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” fight, released a statement via Twitter as this morning’s debate was taking place. “‘No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.’ Victor Hugo #DreamAct #DADT”
Not voting today were Senators Bunning (R-KY), Gregg (R-NH), Manchin (D-WV) and Hatch (R-UT). The six Republicans voting to move the bill forward were Brown, Snowe, Collins, Murkowski, Voinovich, and Kirk.
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President Donald Trump concluded his executive time Friday morning with a statement announcing he would end the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and laid out his requirements for a deal with Iran, before declaring, “I will be meeting now, in the Situation Room, to make a final determination.”
After a two-hour meeting with his advisors, Trump left without making a decision.
“It was not clear why Mr. Trump did not reach a decision,” The New York Times reports.
“In recent days, the sides have exchanged fire, and Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened a return to full-scale war,” the Times added.
Among Trump’s demands were that the Strait be reopened “immediately,” with no tolls imposed on traffic, and all water mines removed — although he noted, “we have removed, through detonation, numerous such mines with our great underwater mine sweepers.”
“Ships caught in the Strait due to our amazing and unprecedented Naval Blockade, which will now be lifted, may start the process of ‘heading home!’ Say hello to your wives, husbands, parents, and families from me, your favorite President,” he wrote. Trump added: “No money will be exchanged, until further notice.”
READ MORE: Judge: Trump Cannot Rename Kennedy Center
Were an agreement to be reached, the Times noted, “it could give Mr. Trump an off-ramp from a war that has driven up oil prices and grown deeply unpopular at home. It could also eventually allow Iran to regain access to frozen overseas assets and provide a route for Tehran to get billions of dollars of oil revenue flowing again.”
Even if the Strait reopened immediately, experts warn, replacing the lost oil could take months.
“The spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said in a telephone interview with Iranian state media on Friday that current negotiations were limited in scope and did not include ‘the nuclear issue,'” the Times reports. Trump did specifically state that “Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb.”
He also mentioned “nuclear dust,” writing that it “is buried deep underground with virtually collapsed mountains, caused by our powerful B2 Bomber attack 11 months ago, sitting on top of it.”
The president said that it “will be unearthed by the United States (which, it is agreed, is the only Country, along with China, with the mechanical capability of doing so!), in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and destroyed.”
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Image via Reuters
A federal judge has ordered that President Donald Trump cannot rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, nor may he close it for what the Trump administration said were two years of renovations.
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” the judge wrote, CNBC reports. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
Just weeks after he was sworn into office, Trump removed members of the board of the Kennedy Center and replaced them with allies and administration officials, including Richard Grenell, Pam Bondi, and Susie Wiles. The new board then voted for Trump to become chairman of the Kennedy Center.
In December, after the White House announced that the board of the Kennedy Center — the official, “living memorial” to the late president — had voted to rename the iconic cultural institution the Trump-Kennedy Center, several members of the Kennedy family took the opportunity to denounce the move.
Maria Shriver, the former First Lady of California, wrote: “The Kennedy Center was named after my uncle, President John F Kennedy.”
She called the renaming “beyond comprehension,” “beyond wild,” “downright weird,” and “obsessive in a weird way,” while explaining that the Kennedy Center was named in honor of a man who was interested in the arts, culture, education, language, and history.
“Next thing perhaps he will want to rename JFK Airport, rename the Lincoln Memorial, the Trump Lincoln Memorial,” she said. “The Trump Jefferson Memorial. The Trump Smithsonian. The list goes on.”
May 17 is President John F. Kennedy’s birthday, he was born in 1917.
This article has been updated.
Image via Reuters
The Villages in Florida is deep red Trump country — it’s called the “largest retirement community in the world,” where nearly seven out of 10 county residents voted for Trump in 2024. It’s roughly four hours to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and resort, and it’s not unusual to see Trump flags on the backs of residents’ golf carts.
Trump visited The Villages just a few weeks ago, where one resident told BBC News, “we’re as red as red gets.”
“The Village are very Republican and very Trumpster,” said another.
“Trump 2028!” declared another, waving his fist.
But the tide appears to be turning in Florida, where several polls spell bad news for Trump. His approval is underwater in one poll from April, and one released on Thursday shows a majority of Florida voters hold a negative view of the president.
Still, some may find a letter to the editor in The Villages local news declaring “MAGA has abandoned core Republican principles” surprising.
The letter declares MAGA is “not conservatism,” but rather a “betrayal” that has “embraced indulgence.”
“The irony is cruel,” says the letter writer, Carl Young. “Those who once railed against ‘big government’ now defend its excesses when it serves their side. The philosophy of restraint has been replaced by the politics of spectacle. Rome is burning, and the arsonists call the flames freedom.”
Young scorches Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that he says “produced the highest deficit spending in history.”
Citing dystopian and totalitarian works by George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, and Ayn Rand, he writes: “This is not renewal but regression. America has been dragged into an alternate 1984, where responsibility collapses and chaos parades as strength. The political temperature has risen to 451. The pigs now rule the farm.”
“These were never meant as prophecies. They were warnings,” he continues. “Atlas has finally shrugged.”
Image via Shutterstock
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