White House press secretary Sean Spicer yesterday condemned as “pathetic” the widespread backlash against President Trump’s Holocaust statement omitting the Jewish people. In a Friday statement, issued for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the White House noticeably left out any mention of Jews—six million of whom were killed during the Holocaust. During the press conference, Spicer doubled down on the administration’s defense that it did not specifically mention Jews because many other groups were also targeted during Adolf Hitler’s reign. “The statement was written with the help of an individual who is both Jewish and the descendants of Holocaust survivors,” Spicer said. “To suggest that remembering the Holocaust and acknowledging all of the people—Jews, gypsies, priests, disabled, gays and lesbians—I mean, it is pathetic that people are picking on a statement.”
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Yesterday, President Donald Trump defended his recent executive order that—among other actions—bars foreign nationals from seven African and Middle Eastern countries from entering the United States. Trump criticized the media for its coverage of the executive order, which has affected even those who have valid visas or green cards. “To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting,” Trump said in a statement released by the White House. “This is not about religion—this is about terror and keeping our country safe.” On Twitter earlier in the afternoon, Trump went after Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham for their statement which blasted the executive order as a potential threat to America’s national security. “The joint statement of former presidential candidates John McCain & Lindsey Graham is wrong—they are sadly weak on immigration,” Trump tweeted.
Two suspects have been detained by police following a mass shooting at a Quebec City mosque that killed six people and wounded another eight. Witnesses at the mosque said two gunmen wearing black ski masks walked into the mosque and started shooting worshippers around 7:55 p.m. In a statement tonight, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the massacre at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec “a terrorist attack on Muslims.” Police have said the victims were between the ages of 35 and 70. There were 39 others in the building at the time of the shooting who escaped unharmed. Officials would not yet comment on the identity of the attackers and have said it is "much too early" to determine their motives or methods.
Newly appointed CIA director Mike Pompeo was reportedly "blindsided" by a draft executive order that circled yesterday, which could allow for intelligence agencies to begin waterboarding again at newly reopened "black site" prisons overseas. President Trump reiterated in an interview with ABC News the outright false claim that torture “absolutely” works. Pompeo was reportedly never consulted about the impending executive order and was not aware that it even existed until a draft of it was disclosed by The New York Times. White House press secretary Sean Spicer later alleged that it was not an official White House document.
With no evidence to support the claim, President Donald Trump told congressional leaders that he lost the popular vote due to up to five million fraudulent votes, the Washington Post reports. Trump reportedly made the claim during a Monday night reception with congressional leaders, three sources told the Post. Despite the Trump campaign’s frequent insistence that voter fraud cost it the popular vote, no evidence has supported any of the claim. Post-election analysis found little to no fraud during the election, which saw Hillary Clinton win the popular vote by 2.8 million. Prior to the election, the Trump campaign suggested that Democrats, particularly in inner cities would commit voter fraud, and encouraged supporters to “monitor” those polls, a suggestion some interpreted as implying voter intimidation.
Michael Flynn, the National Security Adviser to President Trump, has been under investigation for what has been described as his “repeated contacts” with a Russian official, The Wall Street Journal reported today. Flynn’s communications have been under scrutiny by the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency, and the Treasury Department as part of a counterintelligence probe into ties between the Kremlin and Trump’s team, according to the report. The investigation stems from reports that surfaced this month about the retired general making phone calls to Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak on the very same day the Obama administration announced new sanctions against Russia. While a spokesman for Trump dismissed the phone call as nothing more than a diplomatic formality, sources cited by the Journal say the investigation concerns “repeated contacts” between Flynn and Kislyak, and prior conversations with Russian figures. No further details have been released, and it’s unclear if the investigation is still ongoing.
In one of the largest days of protest in U.S. history, millions took to the streets yesterday, one day after the inauguration of Donald Trump. The largest protest was the Women’s March on Washington, where more than 500,000 packed the streets. According to crowd scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain, the crowd was roughly three times the size of the audience at President Trump’s inauguration a day earlier. Women-led marches took place in over 600 locations spread across seven continents—including Antarctica. In addition to Washington, massive protests took place in Boston; Chicago; Denver; Los Angeles; Madison, Wisconsin; New York; Oakland; Portland; St. Paul; San Francisco and Seattle. According to one count, as many as 4.6 million people took part in the global day of action.
Just minutes ago, Donald Trump was sworn-in as the 45th President of the United States of America. Read his inauguration address here and a quick NPR analysis here.
With his upcoming selection of former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to lead the Department of Agriculture, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to make it official that his Cabinet will be the first without a single Latino member since the Reagan White House. According to The Washington Post, every administration has had a secretary or top ambassador of Latino heritage in their Cabinet, beginning with Reagan’s appointment of Lauro Cavazos to be education secretary in the waning months of his presidency in 1988. All in all, the Post wrote, “Trump’s Cabinet won’t have a Democrat, just three women, one African-American man—and no Latino.” During a Thursday morning press conference, incoming press secretary Sean Spicer defended the lack of Hispanic secretaries, telling reporters that Trump has selected a “tremendously diverse” cabinet.
According to a new CNN/ORC poll, Donald Trump will take office this week with the lowest approval ratings for any recent president and his transition efforts. The president-elect will be sworn in while his approval rating is 44 percentage points below outgoing President Barack Obama’s; and while approval ratings for his transition efforts are more than 20 percentage points below Obama’s, George W. Bush’s, and Bill Clinton’s. Across the board, approval ratings for various aspects of Trump’s transition have plummeted since November. Nearly 53 percent of Americans surveyed now say Trump’s handling of his transition since Election Day has made them less confident in his ability to handle the highest office in the land—a 10 percentage-point increase in disapproval since November.
Singer Jennifer Holliday has pulled out of performing at Donald Trump’s inauguration and apologized to LGBT fans over what she called a “lapse of judgment” made clear to her by a Daily Beast article. The Grammy award-winning singer released an open letter apologizing for being “uneducated on the issues that affect every American at this crucial time in history and for causing such dismay and heartbreak to my fans.” “In light of the information pointed out to me via the Daily Beast article on yesterday, my only choice must now be to stand with the LGBT Community and to state unequivocally that I will not perform for the welcome concert or for any of the inauguration festivities!” she wrote.
In his first press conference as president-elect yesterday, Donald Trump addressed the unverified documents published the prior evening alleging that Russia had blackmail materials about his financial and sexual life. The reports alleged Trump paid prostitutes to perform “golden showers” in a hotel room during one of his visits. The president-elect denied that claim by remarking, “I’m also very much a germaphobe, by the way.” Trump, whose inauguration is this month, also said he believes it’s a “disgrace that information would be let out” from his recent U.S. intelligence briefing. As for the contents of the reports about Russia obtaining information on his sexual habits, he said, “It’s all fake news. It’s phony stuff. It didn’t happen. It was gotten by opponents of ours. It was a group of opponents who got together—sick people, and they put that crap together.” He added, “I read what was released and I think it’s a disgrace.”
Senator Jeff Sessions’s confirmation hearing for the post of U.S. Attorney General will pit him against civil-rights advocates Representative John Lewis (D-AL), Representative Cedric Richmond (D-LA), and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ). Sessions has Donald Trump’s backing for the Cabinet post, and the support of Republican colleagues in Congress, including Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee where Sessions will have his confirmation hearing. But that same committee previously rejected Sessions for a federal judgeship in 1986, when his behavior was deemed too racist for the post. Sessions’s alleged bigotry is expected to be front and center when his confirmation hearing begins Tuesday.
President Barack Obama said he believes his signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, will survive after he leaves office later this month. In an interview with ABC News that aired tonight, Obama implored Republicans to not “undo things just because I did them,” and echoed his belief that millions of people will suffer if Republicans move to repeal Obamacare.
“It is true theoretically that all that progress can be undone, and suddenly 20 million people or more don’t have health insurance,” Obama said. “But, as I think Republicans are now recognizing, that may not be what the American people—including even Trump voters—are looking for.”
Obama added that he will rally behind Republicans if they propose a better healthcare plan, but said he is skeptical because they “wouldn’t cooperate” when the legislation was initially passed in 2010. Congressional Republicans have already moved to repeal the law, but it is unclear when a replacement plan will be put up for a vote. Some Republicans, notably Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, are pushing for a replacement to be approved “the same day” Obamacare is repealed.
“If in fact the Republicans make some modifications—some of which I may have been seeking previously, but they wouldn’t cooperate because they didn’t want to make the system work—and re-label it as Trumpcare, I’m fine with that,” Obama said.
U.S. intelligence agencies have found conclusive evidence that Russia provided hacked documents from the Democratic National Committee to WikiLeaks via a third party. The news agency reportedly interviewed three U.S. officials with knowledge of the situation, who contend that intelligence agencies obtained the evidence of the Kremlin’s role in the wake of the November election–not before. Months earlier, authorities had concluded that Russia had directed the hacking, but it had not been clear if it had played a bigger role in the release of the leaked information. The report comes as top U.S. intelligence officials head to Capitol Hill on Thursday to testify before a special Senate hearing about the alleged hacking. Despite public statements released by both the CIA and the FBI, President-elect Donald Trump has voiced continued skepticism about the Kremlin’s role in the breach. Party leaders on both sides of the aisle have since called for a probe on the Russian role in the hack, and President Obama has taken heat from within the Democratic Party over failing to respond to the breach before the election.