the united states senate has delivered a
major rebuke to donald trump in the
final weeks of his presidency
republican and democrat senators united
to override the president's veto
of a major defense bill the vote passed
by more than the required two-thirds
majority
and follows a similar bipartisan motion
in the house of representatives
it's the first time congress has
overridden the trump veto
the move unlocks more than 700 billion
dollars worth of military spending
on this vote straight to dw
correspondent oliver salat in washington
welcome oliver what's the significance
of congress's move
well it's certainly a humiliating blow
phil because simply it has never
happened
since donald trump took office that uh
senate and
and congress uh over rode uh uh such a
veto of donald trump and it's in
particular
it's it's interesting and important
because we have to remind our viewers
that
the the senate is held
by the republicans so the republicans
hold a majority in senate the party of
donald trump of course
and we've seen some extremely partisan
politics throughout donald trump's
presidency
if you just think back of the
impeachment proceedings where a lot of
evidence was
produced damaging evidence against
donald trump
but the republicans and senate decided
to back him to exonerate donald trump in
the end
so now we've seen a different motion
here
the senate approved of a defense budget
that
actually is now against donald trump's
will and that also
challenges donald trump's plans to pull
out 12 thousands of the currently 36 000
troops that are stationed in germany
donald trump wanted to pull
uh those troops out of germany um and
that plan is effectively put on halt now
so another blow
that comes with this decision of senate
the big question is really now what does
that mean for the republican party
and what happens to the republican party
and are we seeing the support
um that the republican party has given
donald trump are we seeing
that crumble now and where does this put
up before the upcoming runoffs in
the state of georgia
well the ranos in georgia phil are part
of the election that took place uh
on november 3rd and as you know a part
of the senate seats
were up for grabs in that presidential
election as well
and there are two very decisive seats
that are
that are up for a run-off election here
in fact and
and those were needed to determine the
majority in senate and they were too
close
to call and those seats are very crucial
because
they decide who controls the senate in
the next presidency and joe biden's
presidency
the democrats will have to win two seats
that are up for grabs there in order to
be able
to have a powerful presidency so
and also another hurdle is that it's a
republican stronghold of course in
georgia so a difficult task a difficult
undertaking and joe biden needs that
victory if he wants to
undo certain trump policies be it
migration or simply america's role in
the world undoing
uh donald trump's america first policy
um
so it's all about the question will joe
biden be able to be a successful
president a powerful president
or will the republicans in senate be
able to obstruct him
by the time he takes office okay oliver
thank you oliver salas in washington
well hours after the u.s welcomed in the
new year it surpassed more than
20 million confirmed coronavirus cases
that's according to data from johns
hopkins university the us is the
epicenter of the pandemic with more
cases than any other country
experts are now warning of a surge in
deaths and new infections
following gatherings over the festive
period