U.S. Sen. Tim Scott posted a photo of himself manning the phone lines at his office this week ahead of contentious cabinet confirmation votes. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott’s phone lines have been overwhelmed with calls the past few weeks urging the senator to oppose the nomination of Betsy DeVos to lead the federal Department of Education.
Month: January 2017
Sen. Leahy mocks Trumpa s voter fraud…
The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday President Trump’s claims of rampant voter fraud in the 2016 election have been debunked, but said he still expects the ridiculous claims to continue. “The next thing we are going to hear is that unicorns voted,” Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said during a committee hearing where lawmakers were scheduled to vote on Mr. Trump’s nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to be attorney general.
Trump taps executive power on military – with limits
President Donald Trump made the first move toward a major military buildup with a few strokes of his pen at the Pentagon on Friday, but the real work — authorizing money to pay for it — is up to Congress. Lawmakers are in charge of approving the defense budget, and their willingness to fork over tens of billions for a military buildup is far from certain this year as huge political hurdles loom.
James Cameron: a Wea re the biggest freakina idiot civilization in historya
The “Avatar” director told The Daily Beast his fear that Mr. Trump will undo all of former President Obama’s progress on climate change, and the effects could be catastrophic. “A lot of my work that’s not specifically on the Avatar films – my activism – is around climate, and sustainability, and sustainable land use, and sustainable agriculture, but climate is number one,” Mr. Cameron, 62, said.
BAE Systems to modernize USS Roosevelt under $51 million Navy contract
BAE Systems will maintain and modernize the USS Roosevelt, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, under a new $51.3 million U.S. Navy contract. Under the depot maintenance availability contract, BAE Systems first will dry dock the ship at the company’s shipyard and then complete the work at Naval Station Mayport, both located in Jacksonville, Florida.
Democrats boycott markup of key Trump picks
Senate Democrats on Tuesday boycotted a critical markup of President Donald Trump’s nominations to lead the Treasury and Health and Human Services departments, leaving a senior GOP leader aghast and saying there is “no excuse” for “this type of crap.” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican, and fellow GOP members said it was unprecedented and “shocking” for Democrats to skip the planned roll calls on Steve Mnuchin for Treasury and Rep. Tom Price at HHS.
Parties can agree on infrastructure, sort of
The Republicans’ plan to “repeal and replace” Obamacare seems, for the moment, to be going nowhere. President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration have Democrats in a tizzy.
Trump set to name high court pick as Democrats plan fight
President Donald Trump was set to unveil his pick for a lifetime job on the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday as Democrats, still fuming over the Republican-led Senate’s refusal to act on former President Barack Obama’s nominee last year, girded for a fight. Trump said will reveal his choice to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016, at the White House at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
5 Potential Trump Supreme Court Picks
President Donald Trump plans to announce his nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court to the nation on Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST. Conservatives are hoping for someone who can replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, considered to be a strong constitutionalist guided by the original intent of the Founders.
Ex-Iowa senator appeals pay-for-endorsement prison sentence
” Former Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson, who accepted money for endorsing presidential candidate Ron Paul in 2012, is appealing the 15-month prison sentence handed down earlier this month. Judge Robert Pratt shocked Sorenson on Jan. 17 when he sentenced the former lawmaker to prison even though federal prosecutors sought probation.
Russian security agents accused of treason reportedly charged with passing secrets to the CIA
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Russian businessmen in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Dec. 19, 2016. the deputy head of the information security department of the FSB, Russia’s national security service.
Trump Disparages Mainstream Media, Declares Press ‘Opposition Party’
Donald Trump is such a consummate liar that in coming months and years our democracy will depend more than ever on the independent press – finding the truth, reporting it, and holding Trump accountable for his lies. But Trump’s strategy is to denigrate and disparage the press in the public’s mind, convincing the public that it shouldn’t believe the press because it’s engaged in a conspiracy against him.
Senate Panel Backs Zinke, Perry
President Donald Trump’s choice to fill the vacant seat on the United States Supreme Court could “make or break” his bas . . . Mike Huckabee has lashed out at the media for what he says is its nonstop nitpicking over President Donald Trump’s decis .
FiveThirtyEight: How Trump’s Pick Will Alter SCOTUS
Of President Donald Trump’s four shortlisted Supreme Court possibles, Neil Gorsuch of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver would be closest to late jurist Antonin Scalia, someone whose beliefs the commander-in-chief wants echoed in his replacement, FiveThirtyEight.com says. Trump, who will announce his pick to replace Scalia on Tuesday reportedly is considering four names: Gorsuch, Thomas Hardiman of the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia, and William Pryor and Raymond Kethledge, federal judges on the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit and Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit, respectively.
Senate Democrats just made an unprecedented move to delay votes on Trump’s Cabinet nominees
Democratic senators on the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday boycotted votes on President Donald Trump’s picks for Treasury secretary and secretary of Health and Human Services, opening up a new front in the battle over the president’s Cabinet. Not a single Democratic senator on the committee showed up for the votes on Mnuchin or Price, boycotting due to what they consider unanswered questions in regards to Mnuchin and Price.
Who is Sally Yates? Meet the acting attorney general Trump fired for…
Acting attorney general Sally Quillian Yates, a longtime prosecutor from Atlanta, began her tenure as an Obama appointee two years ago by saying that pursuing justice was more important to her than bringing federal cases in court. “We’re not the Department of Prosecutions or even the Department of Public Safety,” Yates said in May, 2015, the week after she was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General, the second-highest ranking position in the Justice Department.
Huckabee: Trump-Slamming Media Like ‘Hyperactive Greyhounds’
Mike Huckabee has lashed out at the media for what he says is its nonstop nitpicking over President Donald Trump’s decisions. “Is everything that President Trump does going to be treated by the media as an unprecedented outrage?” the former Arkansas governor says in a message posted Monday night on his Facebook page.
Trump’s talk about Muslims led acting attorney general to defy refugee ban
Sally Yates speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, June 28, 2016. Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, was fired Monday after she ordered the Justice Department not to defend President Trump’s executive order on immigration in court.
Erickson: Trump’s SCOTUS Pick Could ‘Make or Break’ His Base
President Donald Trump’s choice to fill the vacant seat on the United States Supreme Court could “make or break” his base, according to political commentator Erick Erickson. “A large number of evangelicals backed Donald Trump, many begrudgingly, because of the United States Supreme Court” Erickson wrote for The Resurgent Tuesday.
Homeland Security: 872 Refugees Will Be Allowed to Enter US
Almost 900 refugees who were set to arrive in the U.S. that were not from any of the seven countries in the travel ban will be allowed to enter the U.S. through Thursday, a Department of Homeland Security official announced. The 872 refugees were already cleared and officially on their way to the U.S., Jennifer Sime, senior vice president for U.S. programs at the International Rescue Committee said in a Wall Street Journal report.
Despite Putin’s dark human rights legacy, some US conservatives praise him
Putin has ballooned into a huge issue in the confirmation hearing for Rex Tillerson, nominated by Trump to be secretary of state. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, grilled Tillerson over human rights violations in Russia in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, CNN reported.
Immigration order playing well to Trump’s fans around nation
President Donald Trump’s order temporarily banning refugees and immigrants from seven mostly Muslim countries is playing well in Trump Country, those places that propelled him to the White House. The New York businessman and reality TV star promised to put America first during the campaign, his supporters say, and he’s doing it.
As opposition outcry grows, Trump defends immigration order
Defiant in the face of an international backlash, President Donald Trump pressed into his second week in office defending his sweeping immigration ban. Protests persisted at major airports, and concern mounted from U.S. diplomats and members of his own party.
Hawaii pushes back against presidential immigration order
Hawaii’s native Middle-Eastern and Muslim populations represent only a small faction of its overall demographic, but President Donald Trump’s Executive Order on immigration has inspired backlash among politicians, lawyers and residents of the state – both from those who identify as Muslim and those who don’t. The order, signed by the president Friday afternoon, blocked any citizen of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the United States for a period of 90 days.
In new White House, a look at Trump’s inner circle
Since taking office 10 days ago, President Donald Trump has moved to consolidate power within a small cadre of close aides at the White House. He’s added a senior political adviser to the National Security Council and appears to have cut out Cabinet secretaries from decision making on some of his top policies, including the immigration and refugee order that led to protests, legal challenges and temporary detention of some legal U.S. residents this weekend.
Who is Jeff Sessions? Alabama Senator is poised to be Attorney General in Trump administration
The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet today to decide on the nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to become the next U.S. Attorney General. The vote comes as the White House faces what could be a series of challenges over its controversial immigration order and just a day after President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she refused to defend his directive.
Trump Immigration EO wasn’t ‘extremely vetted’: Darcy cartoon
Americans can rest easy. President Donald Trump signed a discriminatory Executive Order banning Muslims from 7 countries, while allowing non-Muslims from the same countries in.
GOP pushing Price, Sessions, DeVos a step toward Senate OK
Republicans are muscling more of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees to the cusp of Senate confirmation over Democratic objections, with committees poised to advance his picks to head agencies in the thick of partisan battles over health care, legal protections, education and the economy. Senate panels were expected Tuesday to advance Trump’s picks of Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to be health secretary; Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to be attorney general; wealthy conservative activist Betsy DeVos to head the Education Department and Steve Mnuchin to lead Treasury.
Focus on Laois TD and Foreign Affairs Minster as he undertakes key engagements in Washington
The focus is on Laois TD and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Charles Flanagan this week as he travels to Washington DC for a 3 day visit. The Portlaoise based Minsiter will undertake a number of business engagements, as well a number of meetings with Congressional leaders.
Trump’s Immigration Crackdown is Dangerous for Workers
Relatives and supporters, left, of Swift & Co. meat processing plant workers, face off with Immigration Police at the entrance of a Swift & Co.
Bob Ferguson, Jay Inslee Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson,…
Washington became the first state to sue the Trump administration with a filing Monday over the president’s executive order restricting refugees and immigration. It likely will not be standing alone for long.
It s Tough When Your Base is Crazy
Sometimes you wonder why Democratic politicians are so crazed. But then you see stories like this that make it clear: Protesters shouted down Rhode Island Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse during a community event as they protested his vote in favor of President Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director and pushed him to vote against other nominees.
Trump’s Supreme Court choice comes today
Nearly a full year after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death left the Supreme Court shorthanded, President Trump is poised to nominate a replacement who’s three decades younger, setting off a pitched battle over the direction of the nation’s highest court. Trump’s Supreme Court choice comes today Nearly a full year after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death left the Supreme Court shorthanded, President Trump is poised to nominate a replacement who’s three decades younger, setting off a pitched battle over the direction of the nation’s highest court.
Why Yates Had to Go
It is a very simple proposition. Our Constitution vests all executive power – not some of it, all of it – in the president of the United States.
Next 25 Articles
The Manhattan District AttorneyA s Office is looking into the decades-old suspicious death of a reporter who at the time was investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Newspaper columnist and TV game show star Dorothy Kilgallen, 52, was found dead of an alleged drug overdose in her Manhattan townhouse on November 8, 1965 – just weeks before a trip she had planned to New Orleans to meet with a secret informant relating to an 18-month investigation she was conducting about KennedyA s assassination for a tell-all book.
Nation-Now 11 mins ago 5:27 a.m.”White privilege” essay contest…
When the town sponsored a student essay contest on the topic of white privilege, it was intended to provoke discussion in this wealthy, overwhelmingly white community on Connecticut’s Gold Coast. Contest organizers have been surprised by the reaction from some who say the question wrongly suggests race plays into the good life enjoyed in Westport.
Clash over refugee ban brings firing of Justice Dept. head
In an extraordinary public showdown, President Donald Trump fired the acting attorney general of the United States after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court. The clash Monday night between Trump and Sally Yates, a career prosecutor and Democratic appointee, laid bare the growing discord and dissent surrounding an executive order that halted the entire U.S. refugee program and banned all entries from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days.
Trump sacks attorney general Yates after rejection of executive order
Donald Trump has fired the acting US attorney general Sally Yates after she refused to enforce an executive order from the President to ban immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Trump sparked anger over the weekend after he issued the order, which prevents citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the US until further notice.
India IT stocks slip amid worries about stricter H-1B visas
The shares of top Indian IT companies sank Tuesday in response to news of proposed U.S. legislation that would require salaries for H-1B visa holders to be doubled. The aim: to make it harder for companies to replace American workers with those from countries like India.
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Top House Republicans say their outline for replacing President Barack Obama’s health care law is a pathway to greater flexibility and lower costs for consumers. Democrats see a road to ruin for millions who’d face lost coverage and higher medical expenses, particularly the poor.