US

Trump’s news conference & confirmation hearings

218px-Jeff_Sessions_by_Gage_Skidmore_3Donald Trump held his first news conference since winning the election. He said that he now believes the Russians were probably responsible for the Democratic National Committee e-mail hacks, but he blasted the report that Russia has compromising information on him, singling out CNN for its reporting and Buzzfeed for publishing the unverified document.

Also, confirmation hearings for Trump’s cabinet are underway. His attorney-general nominee, Jeff Sessions, said that abortion and same-sex marriage are “settled law.” He also expressed positions different from Trump on keeping out Muslims, deporting illegal immigrants, waterboarding, and Russia’s alleged interference with the election.

Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson clashed with Marco Rubio on his Russia ties, but agreed that Russia was a threat. The Exxon CEO also stated his agreement with man-made climate change.

From Trump concedes for first time Russia likely behind DNC hacking: ‘I think it was Russia’ – Chicago Tribune:

In a combative and freewheeling news conference, President-elect Donald Trump said for the first time Wednesday that he accepts Russia was behind the election year hacking of Democrats that roiled the White House race. Looking ahead, he urged Congress to move quickly to replace President Barack Obama’s signature health care law and insisted anew that Mexico will pay the cost of a border wall.

The hour-long spectacle in the marbled lobby of Trump’s Manhattan skyscraper was his first news conference since winning the election in early November, and the famously unconventional politician demonstrated he had not been changed by the weight of his victory.

He defiantly denied reports that Russia had collected compromising personal and financial information about him, lambasting the media for peddling “fake news” and shouting down a journalist from CNN, which reported on the matter. His family and advisers clapped and cheered him on throughout.

[Keep reading. . .]

From Dana Milbank, Washington Post:

Sessions promised to recuse himself from decisions involving the Clinton emails and the Clinton Foundation. He said he would respect legal abortion and same-sex marriage, and he acknowledged that women and gay people are victims of hate crimes. Unlike his new boss, he said Muslims as a group could not be denied entry into the United States, and he didn’t dispute the intelligence community’s findings that Russia interfered in the election.

He said the administration would not seek to deport all immigrants here illegally. He opposed waterboarding. He pledged to enforce gun and environmental laws. He said the NAACP does “tremendous good.” He called the Voting Rights Act “one of the most important” laws, embraced “proper deference to the media” by prosecutors and boasted about working with Ted Kennedy.

“The Department of Justice must never falter in its obligation to protect the civil rights of every American, particularly those who are most vulnerable,” Sessions said, promising to “ensure access to the ballot for every eligible American voter.” The nominee said he would honor the “promise that our government is one of laws, not of men.”

[Keep reading. . .]

From Nicole Gaouette, CNN:

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of state broke with his future boss on key foreign policy issues at his confirmation hearing Wednesday, backing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, denouncing Russian aggression in Ukraine, and affirming his belief in climate change.

Former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson came under fire during the day-long appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from Democrats and, notably, from Republican Marco Rubio. The sometimes hostile questioning from the Florida lawmaker on a variety of topics was significant because if Rubio votes against Tillerson’s nomination that could kill it in committee since Republicans have only a one-vote margin on the panel.

[Keep reading. . .]Photo of Jeff Sessions by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51041266Original Article

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