The Democratic Party on Tuesday took control of the US House of Representatives in a midterm rebuke to US President Donald Trump, but Trump escaped a feared “blue wave” as his Republican Party bolstered their majority in the US Senate after a polarizing, racially charged campaign.
Heralded by Trump as a “tremendous success,” the Republican Senate victories would all but end any immediate talk of impeachment, even as the Democratic-led House would enjoy investigative powers to put new checks on his roller-coaster presidency.
Just after polls closed on the west coast and again early yesterday, Trump took to Twitter to hail his party’s performance and declare victory.
Photo: AFP
“Received so many Congratulations from so many on our Big Victory last night, including from foreign nations (friends) that were waiting me out, and hoping, on Trade Deals,” Trump wrote. “Now we can all get back to work and get things done!”
However, network projections said that the Democrats would take control of the House for the first time in eight years, upending the balance of power in Washington where Trump enjoyed an easy ride following his shock 2016 election with Republican dominance of both chambers.
Democrats were on course to flip at least 27 seats from Republican hands, with strong performances among suburban white women who had narrowly turned to Trump two years ago and in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania.
In the 100-member Senate, with final, complete results not yet tallied, news reports said that the Republicans had won at least 51 seats.
US Representative Nancy Pelosi, who is likely to return as speaker of the House, despite opposition from some centrist Democrats, promised that the party would serve as a counterweight — but also work with Trump.
“Today is more than about Democrats and Republicans. It’s about restoring the constitution’s checks and balances to the Trump administration,” Pelosi told a news conference, but added: “A Democratic Congress will work for solutions that bring us together, because we have all had enough of division.”
Democrats would now be able to block legislation and light a fire under Trump’s feet with investigations of his opaque finances and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The rosiest expectations of some Democrats for Tuesday’s contest — that they could create a “blue wave” even when playing defense on the Senate map — proved unfounded.
Republicans were forecast to have defeated several Democratic senators in states won by Trump — Florida, Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota.
Trump boasted a growing economy, but campaigned aggressively in the closing days on a hardline anti-immigration message.
He seized on scenes of a caravan of Central American migrants heading through Mexico for the US, mused on ending the constitutional guarantee of citizenship to all people born in the US and ran a television advertisement, deemed too provocative to air by mainstream networks, that linked Democrats to a criminal who was an undocumented immigrant.
Trump also has sent soldiers to the Mexican border and threatened to have illegal immigrants shot if they throw stones.
“It’s a consequential election,” Yorgo Koutsogiogasi, a 64-year-old immigrant from Greece and CEO of a hospitality company, said as he voted in Chicago.
“Divisiveness is really tearing the country apart,” Koutsogiogasi, a Democrat, said as he voted with his wife. “I’m voting for candidates that I believe have the capacity to unite people rather than divide.”
Republican voter James Gerlock, 27, said that he wanted to see more of the soaring economic growth that Trump says is the fruit of his business-friendly policies.
“I am extremely happy with the economy,” Gerlock said as he cast his ballot in Chicago. “I just want to keep everything moving, because I’m loving it.”
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS