Opinion: Op-Eds
View editorials written by the Representative in various publications.
Congress needs to step in, now
Last week was a bad week for President Donald Trump. Special counsel Robert Mueller secured a guilty verdict against Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, while his former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to eight counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud and bank fraud.
It wasn't too long ago when the release of a tape that featured a candidate discussing paying for the silence of a former mistress would be the sort of scandal to end a political career. Instead, we have a president who has so frequently and aggressively breached norms, and potentially laws, that we're becoming accustomed to the chaos. We can't let that happen, and we can't write this off as just another salacious political scandal that Donald Trump can lie his way through.
I was dismayed when I learned that the world's only male northern white rhinoceros, Sudan, died on March 19. Sudan was the last of a sub-species of the White Rhinoceros, which is listed as Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species. Now, two female northern white rhinos are the last of their kind on this planet. It is troubling knowing that, despite our best efforts in conservation and animal science, we are struggling to protect endangered wildlife.
There's nothing I love more than bragging about how great it is to be a Member or Congress in Southern California. Our community is home to some of our country's brightest creators and innovators, and we remain a shining example of the power of progress and smart investments.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/12/opinions/trump-syria-strategy-opinion-lieu/index.html
US Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, is a member of the House Foreign Affairs and House Judiciary Committees. Lieu, who is an assistant whip for the Democratic Caucus, served on active duty in the air force and is a colonel in the Air Force Reserves. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
http://fortune.com/2018/03/29/ted-lieu-donald-trump-transgender-military-ban-twitter/
I initially viewed President Donald Trump's July tweet suggesting we ban transgender military personnel as unimaginably idiotic. I figured there was no way it would be executed. In the face of numerous global threats, why would we kneecap our military by prohibiting willing and able people from serving in our volunteer armed forces?
I went into the State of the Union address trying to keep an open mind. President Donald Trump spent the first year of his presidency spewing hateful ideas and promoting policies harmful to our democratic institutions and Americans. Still, I had hoped the president would take steps to unify our increasingly fractured nation. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.