Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” former U.S. Senator from Virginia, and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb said there was “a campaign” underway on Capitol Hill, in the media and academia “to personally discredit” President Donald Trump. Webb said, “You know, there is a campaign going on on the Hill in the media, in the academia to personally discredit not only Donald Trump, but the people who are around him. You know, the end result is to slow down the process. You and I were talking about the confirmation process, slow it down so that by ‘18 when the Democrats are vulnerable particularly in the Senate there would not be a record of accomplishment that they can run against and at the same time, the Democratic Party, over the past five or six years has moved very far to the left. When you can’t have a Jefferson-Jackson dinner which was the primary celebratory event of the Democratic Party for years because Jefferson and Jackson were slaveholders they were also great Americans in their day, something different has happened to the Democratic Party.” (h/t Grabien) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
Author: Pam Key
Schumer: Trump’s Seeming Constitutional Violation ‘Demands a New Standard’ For Gorsuch Nomination
Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court Judge Neil Gorsuch should be subject to “a new standard” of proving judicial independence because he said Trump seemed “to violate the Constitution in his first three weeks.” Schumer said, “What is particularly new is that we have a president who is overreaching dramatically, who shows little respect for rule of law, who seems to violate the Constitution in his first three weeks and intimidates the judges who have cases before them. This demands a new standard, a much more independent justice than in the past because after all, the Supreme Court is our last refuge against a president who overreaches, who doesn’t respect the balance of power. Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
Miller: We Have Provided ‘Enormous’ Evidence of Voter Fraud
Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller said the White House had provided “enormous evidence” to make a case there was a “serious problem” of voter fraud in American elections. Miller said, “I actually, having worked on a campaign before in New Hampshire, I can tell you that this issue of busing voters into New Hampshire is widely known by anyone working in New Hampshire politics. It’s very real, very serious. This morning, on this show, is not the venue for me to lay out all the evidence. I can tell you this — voter fraud is a serious problem in the country. You have millions of people who are registered in two states, who are dead who are registered to vote. You have 14 percent of noncitizens, according to academic research, at a minimum, are registered to vote, an astonishing statistic.” He added, “The White House has provided enormous evidence with respect to voter fraud, with respect to people being registered in more than one state. Dead people voting, non-citizens being registered to vote. George, it is a fact and you will not deny it that are massive numbers of non-citizens in this country who are
Sanders: Trump’s Immigration Policies Are ‘Racist’
Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) declared that President Donald Trump’s immigration policies were “racist.” Sanders said, “Well, I think the vetting mechanisms are very, very strong. If there say way to make them stronger, let’s go forward. I don’t think there is any debate that we want to keep the United States safe and we want to be 100 percent clear that anybody who comes into this country should not be coming into this country to do us harm, but what you just heard Mr. Miller say is a shell game.” “While there is a whole lot of discussion about the racist, in my view, immigration policies of the Trump administration which are based on anti-Muslim ideology, which are doing us enormous harm all over the world, something else is going on at the exact same moment,” he continued. “That President Trump is backtracking on every economic promise that he made to theAmericann people when he told workers and senior citizens he was not going to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
Franken Calls for ‘Independent Investigation’ Into Trump’s ‘Putin Crush’
Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” in reacting to reports about President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn’s phone conversations with a Russian ambassador, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) said, “We need to have an independent investigation on it” because what he said was Trump having a “Putin crush.” Partial transcript as follows: FRANKEN: There is a lot here that we need to look at, and we need to have an independent investigation on it. TAPPER: When you say independent, what do you mean, independent counsel, select committee? FRANKEN: I think an independent counsel would be terrific but I know that Lindsey Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse in Judiciary are doing — did doing hearinngs and investigation. I trust those guys. There’s something going on in intelligence and that’s opaque. We need something transparent and we need an investigation because we don’t know what he owes Russia. We don’t know how many Russian oligarchs have invested in his business. He has saddled up to Putin in so many ways. What he’s doing in Syria is great. TAPPER: Yeah. FRANKEN: He didn’t, you know, annex Crimea and going after NATO. There’s something — he’s got a bit of a Putin crush,
Stephen Miller on 9th Circuit Ruling: ‘There’s ‘No Such Thing as Judicial Supremacy”
Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” reacted to the 9th Circuit Court ruling upholding the blocking of President Trump‘s executive order halting immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States senior advisor to President Donald Trump Stephen Miller said, there was no such thing as “judicial supremacy.” Partial transcript as follows: TODD: Let me start with the decision by the 9th circuit and the president himself saying to reporters that a new order may be drafted. Is that what you and others are doing right now? Drafting a new order since essentially the 9th circuit seemed to give you a road map of how to draw up something slightly more narrow that would accomplish your goal? MILLER: We are considering all of our options right now, Chuck. That includes you can continue the appeal on the 9th and seek an emergency stay in the Supreme Court, and you can have a trial hearing on the merits at the district level or a hearing also at the 9th circuit and pursue additional executive actions. The bottom line is we are pursuing every single possible action to keep our country safe from terrorism. I want to be clear. We heard
Report: Iranians Chant ‘Death to Trump’
Friday in Tehran, CNN reported on Iranians marching on Revolution Day to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution. According to the report, the demonstration took on an anti-American theme with protesters chanting, “Death to Trump. Death to America.” (h/t Grabien) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
Lena Dunham: Feminists Must Enlighten White Women Who Voted for Trump
Friday on ABC’s “The View,” actress Lena Dunham said being that “a part of feminism” is almost like “being a parent” and that the white women who voted for Donald Trump need to be enlightened “with the rhetoric of self-empowerment.” Partial transcript as follows: DUNHAM: I think it’s really important to remember that it is an incredible problem that 53% of women in this country — 53% of white women in this country voted for Donald Trump which means that they’re not only voting against the interests of their sisters, of women who may not look like them, who they may not understand but whose rights are just as important, but also remember that they are in that case voting against their own best interest. To me a part of feminism — it’s almost like being a parent to a teenager where they’re so mad at you, they think you’re such a piece of crap and you’re like, I know you hate me right now but the reason I’m doing this is because I love you and I want us all to be safe. BEHAR: But those women to their defense believe he’s going to bring back jobs, a lot
Trump: New Steps Next Week to ‘Keep Country Safe’
“We’ll be doing something very rapidly, having to do with additional security for our country. You’ll be seeing that sometime next week.”
Dem Rep Crowley: People Around the World ‘Frightened’ by Trump ‘Regime’ Military ‘Junta’ Style
Friday at the House Democratic Retreat in Baltimore, House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) said millions of Americans and people around the world are “frightened” by the “Trump regime,” who have “appointed several former generals,” which is “junta-like.” Crowley said, “You know, these are millions and millions of Americans, people around the world who are really concerned, maybe that’s an understatement. They’re nervous. They’re frightened about what they see happening to the American government. And this Trump regime—I don’t call it an administration, I call it a regime. That’s how they act. They have appointed several former generals, that’s very junta-like to the rest of the world. They have billionaires who have been appointed to cabinet positions, some of whom have no experience whatsoever in the field in which they are now in charge. That’s very frightening to people.” “Cronyism at the highest levels has many people in this country nervous and around the world as well,” he continued. “So I think there’s going to be plenty of opportunities in the future, unfortunately, for the American people to express themselves, and I think we as Democrats will be able to support that effort when we believe it’s warranted.”