Undeterred by impeachment proceedings Trump says he is winning
WASHINGTON DC: Four Indian-americans, including a Muslim woman and a former White House technology policy advisor, have won state and local elections held in the United States on Tuesday.
Indian-american Ghazala Hashmi, a former community college professor, created history by becoming the first Muslim woman to be elected to the Virginia State Senate, while Suhas Subramanyam, who served as the White House technology policy adviser to former president Barack Obama, has been elected to the Virginia State House of Representatives.
In her maiden attempt, Hashmi, a Democrat, defeated incumbent Republican State Senator Glen Sturtevant for the Virginia's 10th Senate District, drawing national attention.
"This victory is not mine alone. It belongs to all of you who believed that we needed to make progressive change here in Virginia, for all of you who felt that you haven't had a voice and believed in me to be yours in the General Assembly," she said after her historic victory.
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who was the first woman presidential candidate, congratulated Hashmi.
Subramanyam, meanwhile, entered the Virginia State House of Representatives from the Indian-american-dominated district of Loudon and
Prince William.
"My promise to the people of Loudoun and Prince William: I will always listen to you, work tirelessly for you, and do everything I can to empower you. The campaign is over, but my work for you has just begun," he said.
Subramanyam served on Capitol Hill as a healthcare and veterans policy aide, and spent time as a technology and regulatory attorney. Former US president Barack Obama had named him his White House technology policy adviser.
In California, IndianAmerican Mano Raju won his election to remain San Francisco's Public Defender.
Raju, whose parents migrated to the US from Tamil Nadu, attended Columbia University as an undergraduate where he researched Critical Race Theory under Professor Kendall Thomas. After an influential fellowship at the Oxford Center for African Studies, he relocated to Berkeley in the 90s to pursue his Masters in South Asian Studies and later his JD at Berkeley School of Law, where he interned in the San Francisco Public Defender's Office.
In North Carolina, incumbent Dimple Ajmera won a convincing re-election to Charlotte City Council. A former Certified Public Accountant, Ajmera immigrated to the US from India along with her parents when she was 16.
WASHINGTON DC: Undeterred by the initiation of impeachment proceedings against him, Donald Trump has warned Americans that the country will head towards unprecedented "depression" if he is not re-elected in the 2020 US presidential elections.
Addressing a Republican Party rally in Louisiana on Wednesday, Trump told thousands of his supporters that he is winning again.
"We are winning. We are winning like never before .The best is yet to come," Trump told his supporters at the rally ahead of the election of the Louisiana governor, a day after his Republican Party received a drubbing in several state and local elections. Trump asserted that America's economy under his presidency is booming. He warned that the country will be headed towards depression if he is not re-elected in the 2020 polls. "You will have a depression the likes of which you have never seen before," he warned.
While his administration is delivering to the Americans,
Trump alleged that the "radical liberal Democrats are trying to rip the nation apart."
Describing it as a "impeachment witch-hunt," Trump spent the initial part of his remarks to criticise the Democrats and the impeachment inquiry. He also singled out the whistleblower who he said made a "horrible statement" about his phone call with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Earlier on Wednesday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff announced that on November 13 the first open hearings as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump would begin.
Trump, a Republican, is accused of trying to pressure Ukraine into investigating unsubstantiated corruption claims against his political rival, Joe Biden, and his son who worked with Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
On Wednesday, the Committee will hear from Ambassador William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent. Taylor currently serves as the Charge D'affaires for the State Department in Ukraine. Kent serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the European and Eurasian Bureau at the Department of State.