Kennedy on Trump: ‘We’re not an authoritarian country’

In this Jan. 6, 2009, file photo, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., left, holds a Bible during the mock swearing-in ceremony for his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., on Capitol Hill in Washington. In a February 2017 interview with the Associated Press, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy speaks about the Donald Trump presidency and what his late father may have thought about it.

We’re not an authoritarian country,’ Patrick Kennedy says about Trump

Former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy says he thinks what President Donald Trump has done so far in office will ”hopefully spark a reexamination of who we are as a people.’ ‘ The member of one of the nation’s most famous Democratic families told The Associated Press in an interview he sees threats to the constitutional form of government, and said his father, the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, of Massachusetts, believed that Americans should never take democracy for granted.

Rancorous Senate ‘silencing’ gives Warren a national boost

The turbulent national debate over race, gender and free speech consumed the normally staid Senate on Wednesday after the GOP majority voted to silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren, abruptly elevating her celebrity status at a moment when liberals are hungry for a leader to take on President Donald Trump. The highly unusual rebuke of the Massachusetts Democrat came as the Senate weighed Trump’s choice for attorney general, GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who secured confirmation on a nearly party-line vote Wednesday evening.

Silencing of Warren throws Senate into turmoil

Democratic senators fighting to derail Jeff Sessions’ nomination as attorney general repeatedly challenged Republicans Wednesday by reading aloud from a critical letter from Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow, a day after the Republicans silenced Sen. Elizabeth Warren for doing the same. Warren was ordered to sit down Tuesday night, throwing the Senate into turmoil as it headed for Wednesday night’s vote on the Alabama senator.

Read Coretta Scott King’s Letter That Got Sen. Elizabeth Warren Silenced

One day after Senate Republicans invoked a conduct rule to end Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s speech against the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general, a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King urging the Senate to reject Sessions’ nomination as a federal judge is gaining new prominence. Warren was reading aloud from the letter by King, the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, when she was interrupted by the presiding chair of the Senate, who warned her of breaking Rule 19 , which forbids members from imputing to a colleague “any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.”

Senate GOP silences Warren over criticism of Sessions

Senate Republicans silenced Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren for criticizing colleague and Attorney General-nominee Jeff Sessions with the words of Coretta Scott King from three decades ago challenging his record on race. Warren, whose name has been prominent in speculation about the 2020 presidential race, was given a rare Senate rebuke Tuesday night for impugning a fellow senator and she was barred from saying anything more on the Senate floor about Sessions, R-Ala.

Senator blocked from speaking in fierce attorney general debate

A Democratic senator has been barred from speaking during debate on the attorney general nominee after Republicans said she violated a Senate rule. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was interrupted, told to sit down and barred from speaking Tuesday during debate on President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, Sen. Jeff Sessions .

Is Trump’s war with the press different from past presidents’?

The difference between the first 44 and President Donald Trump, however, is that they didn’t pick their fights during their first week in office. From Trump denouncing reporters the day after his inauguration as “among the most dishonest human beings on Earth” to White House press secretary Sean Spicer warning that “we’re going to hold the press accountable,” the White House swiftly signaled that the often-hostile relationship between journalists and Trump during last year’s campaign is not going away.

Paid family leave debate continues in Connecticut

Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, right, gestures as state Sen. Len Suzio, R- Meriden, left, speaks with Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr., D-Branford, center, looking on, during opening session at the state Capitol on Jan. 4. less Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, right, gestures as state Sen. Len Suzio, R- Meriden, left, speaks with Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr., D-Branford, center, looking on, during opening session at … more Senate Republican President Pro Tempore Len Fasano, R-North Haven, greets Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, right, during the opening session at the state Capitol.

For better schools, abolish the politicized Department of Education…

President Bush spends time with students at Pierre Laclede elementary school in St. Louis on Jan. 5, 2004, as part of a celebration of the two year anniversary of the “No Child Left Behind Act.” President Bush spends time with students at Pierre Laclede elementary school in St. Louis on Jan. 5, 2004, as part of a celebration of the two year anniversary of the “No Child Left Behind Act.”