Senate unlikely to pass Russia sanctions bill ahead of any military action – live | US

In sports news, there was a widely televised football game yesterday. During the Super Bowl halftime show, rapper Eminem took a knee and held his head in apparent tribute to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality during the 2016 season.

After other players followed suit – in other sports as well – the move became a cultural controversy, with many believing that Kaepernick has been blackballed by the league’s teams and owners for taking his stance.

Immediately after Eminem took a knee, rumors began flying that the National Football League had attempted to stop him from doing so ahead of the game – in 2020, following the widespread protests over the police murder of George Floyd, the NFL famously had to apologize for not listening to its players earlier in their peaceful protest.

Today, however, the NFL has come out strong in denying the rumors that it tried to stop Eminem from taking a knee.

“We watched all elements of the show during multiple rehearsals this week and were aware that Eminem was going to do that,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said.

Meanwhile, majority leader Chuck Schumer is saying that a bill looking to reform the post office is set to hit the senate floor.

But Punchbowl News is reporting that senate likely won’t be able to take up the legislation until March: House clerks mistakenly enrolled the wrong version of the bill, meaning that Schumer filed cloture on the wrong version.

Today is the fourth anniversary of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people and wounded 17 more – the deadliest school shooting in the country.

Manuel Olivier, whose son Joaquin was one of the 17 killed that day, is now apparently on top of a construction crane a block from the White House, surrounded by police.

It is unclear if Olivier is staging a protest, but he has been outspoken in the past in his crusade against gun violence.

Joe Biden released a statement today acknowledging that “out of the heartbreak of Parkland a new generation of Americans all across the country marched for our lives and towards a better, safer America for us all”.

“Together, this extraordinary movement is making sure that the voices of victims and survivors and responsible gun owners are louder than the voices of gun manufacturers and the National Rifle Association,” the statement reads.

Biden continued: “I’ve asked Congress to pass a budget that provides an additional half billion dollars for proven strategies we know reduce violent crime – accountable community policing and community violence interventions. I have also requested increased funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the US marshals. And Congress must do much more – beginning with requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers.

“We can never bring back those we’ve lost,” Biden said. “But we can come together to fulfill the first responsibility of our government and our democracy: to keep each other safe. For Parkland, for all those we’ve lost, and for all those left behind, it is time to uphold that solemn obligation.”

Howdy, live blog readers. Happy Valentine’s Day.

All eyes in Washington continue to be on the growing threat that Russia will invade Ukraine, with Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, set to brief House and Senate leaders later today on the situation. Tune into our live blog on the tensions here for updates.

While Senate is in session today, Punchbowl News is reporting that the odds are pretty low on whether there could be any legislative action taken on sanctions against Russia ahead of military action. Though the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, told reporters last week that lawmakers were getting “closer and closer” to agreement on a Russia sanctions bill, the minority leader, Mitch McConnell, downplayed the impact of it, saying it was up to Joe Biden to decide the importance of such action.

Last week, the major hangup was over whether the sanctions would be imposed on all Russian banks and over Nord Stream 2, according to Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee.