Sanders warns Republicans may take control of Congress next year

Independent US Senator Bernie Sanders has warned Democrats that Republicans will win both the House of Representatives and the Senate next year if Democrats do not renounce obstructionism and work to improve the lives of working families. 

Sanders, who votes with Democrats, made the remarks in an Op-Ed published by CNN website on Friday, amid concerns that Democrats are wasting time on never-ending negotiations and are not delivering on their promises. 

“Without strong and ongoing accomplishments that improve the lives of working families, there is a strong possibility that Republicans will win the House or the Senate or both bodies next year. The American people want action, not never-ending ‘negotiations’ and obstructionism, and they will not come out and vote for a party that does not deliver,” Sanders wrote. 

He warned that “if the Republicans do regain control of Congress, we can be sure that the economy will move steadily forward toward a system in which the rich get richer thanks to increased corporate domination.”

“We can be sure that the climate crisis will intensify, diminishing the likelihood of our children and grandchildren living in a healthy and habitable environment. We can be sure that our government will drift away from democracy, as voter suppression, dark money and conspiracy theories continue to dominate our political system,” he added. 

“This is an unprecedented moment in American history. The Democrats in Congress must move forward boldly, protecting the working families of our country and restoring faith in government. Yes, the future of the country is at stake,” he continued.

US Republican senators back Trump sanctions on Iran, champion failed ‘maximum pressure’ policy

A number of US Republican senators introduce a new bill to preserve the Trump-era sanctions against Iran.

Sanders’s warning came after Democrats also failed to push back former Republican President Donald Trump’s obscurantist foreign policy agenda. 

Oblivious to the failure of the so-called maximum pressure policy that the Trump administration pursued against Tehran, three US senators on Friday introduced new legislation that calls for the preservation of sanctions against Iran while championing the so-called maximum pressure policy.

The bill, called the Iran Sanctions Preservation Act, was introduced by Republican Senators James Lankford, John Cornyn and Tim Scott, with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also expressing his support for the measure.

The legislation requires that the US retain current sanctions targeting Iran’s oil industry, financial sector, and individuals it accused of supporting terrorism until Iran suspends its nuclear program and end what they claimed to be Tehran's “support for terrorism.”

And, ramping up tensions with China, the US Senate passed a resolution on Friday calling for a probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and senators accused Beijing of “cover-up”, amid claims by Washington that the virus originated in a lab in China.

The development comes two days after the Senate passed legislation requiring the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to declassify information about the origins of COVID-19, including on activities in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, which US authorities say is at the center of the lab-leak theory.

The Chinese government said on Thursday that the Biden administration is playing politics by calling for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.

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