Archives de catégorie : Video Marketing

Senate confirms Jeff Sessions as attorney general

Video Marketing, , , ,

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Jeff Sessions as the next attorney general, following a bitter debate in the chamber that saw Republicans formally rebuke Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for the manner in which she criticized her colleague from Alabama.

Sessions, a four-term U.S. senator, was the first senator to endorse Trump in February 2016, and his conservative, populist views have shaped many of the administration’s early policies, including on immigration.

The vote, 52-47 in favor of confirmation, ran largely down party lines. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) was the only Democrat who supported him. Sessions voted present.

Republicans accused Democrats of seeking to undercut Trump by attempting to derail his cabinet choices. “It’s no secret that our Democrat colleagues don’t like the new president and are doing what they can to undermine the new administration,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Judiciary Committee chairman.

He expressed disappointment in colleagues who, he said, suggested Sessions won’t be able to put aside his policy preferences and enforce the law. “This is especially troubling after he specifically committed to us during his confirmation hearing that, if he’s confirmed, he will follow the law, regardless of whether he supported the statute as a policy matter,” Grassley said.

[Republicans vote to rebuke Elizabeth Warren]

Leading Democrats have argued that Trump’s criticisms of the federal courts over his immigration order makes the need for an attorney general who will be willing to disagree with the president even more urgent.

“What we’ve seen is a president who belittles judges when they don’t agree with him,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “What we’ve seen is a president who is willing to shake the roots of the Constitution and a fundamental premise — no religious test — that’s embodied in our Constitution within his first few weeks in office,” Schumer said. “We certainly need an attorney general who will stand up to that president …. But [Sessions] is not, if you can say one thing about him, he’s not independent of Donald Trump.”

Sessions, 70, advanced out of the judiciary committee last week after a vote along party lines. The hearing took place after then-acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, an Obama administration holdover, had ordered the department’s lawyers not to defend Trump’s immigration order on grounds that she was not convinced it was lawful. Within hours, Trump fired her.

In his confirmation hearing last month, Sessions repeatedly vowed to put the law above his personal views. He said he would abide by the Supreme Court decision underpinning abortion rights and a court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. He said he understood that the waterboarding of terrorism suspects to elicit information is “absolutely improper and illegal” and, though he voted against it, he would uphold a law banning the government’s bulk collection of phone records.

[Trump’s pick for attorney general is shadowed by race and history]

He also declared that he would recuse himself from Justice Department probe of Hillary Clinton’s email practices or her family’s charitable foundation, mindful that his previous comments “could place my objectivity in question.”

But he has repeatedly declined to say whether he would recuse himself from any investigation involving Trump associates and possible links to Russia’s interference in the presidential election, saying he would seek the recommendations of department ethics officials and “value them significantly” in making a decision.

Sessions’ confirmation leaves a vacancy that will be filled by Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican. That term ends in 2018.

A measure of the hostility that has permeated the confirmation process for Trump’s cabinet nominees was reflected in the rare censure of Warren after she read from a letter written by the late Coretta Scott King in opposition to Sessions’ nomination to the federal bench in 1986.

“The senator has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama,” said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of Warren, before the Senate voted along party lines to bar the Massachusetts senator from speaking during the remainder of the nomination debate.

Sessions, who came of age in the Deep South during the darkest days of the civil rights movement, has struggled to reconcile the charged racial politics of his region with the changing national discourse that has lifted longstanding legal barriers for minorities. His career has long been shadowed by charges that he is racially insensitive, which doomed his bid to become a federal judge.

His supporters have pointed to his prosecution as U.S. Attorney of two Ku Klux Klan members for killing a black youth, and his co-sponsoring of legislation to honor civil rights activist Rosa Parks with the Congressional Gold Medal. To underscore the point, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday went to the floor and put on display an enlarged photograph of a “governmental award of excellence” given to Sessions in 2009 by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Alabama chapter–an award that he said Sessions “forgot to tell us about.” The plaque was engraved with the words “for the outstanding work you do.”

Said Graham: “His biggest crime is, I think, that he’s very conservative. That to me is not a disqualifier, any more than being liberal is a disqualifier.”

McConnell on Wednesday said, “It’s been tough to watch all this good man has been put through in recent weeks. This is a well-qualified colleague with a deep reverence for the law. He believes strongly in the equal application of it to everyone.”

But Sessions’ critics point to his record on voting rights, same-sex marriage, gender equality and immigration and say they fear he will work to restrict civil rights. They point to his prosecution of voting rights activists in Alabama in the 1980s that resulted in an acquittal for all three defendants, and which was the basis of King’s letter charging him with attempting to “intimidate and frighten elderly black voters.”

He has voted at least twice against comprehensive immigration reform, which was supported by members of his own party. They note he was one of just four senators in 2015 to oppose a Senate resolution affirming that the United States “must not bar individuals from entering into the United States based on their religion.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, said on the floor that her office had received 114,000 calls and emails regarding Sessions, with more than 98 percent opposed. She quoted from constitutents who “deeply oppose this president and this nominee” and have hit the streets in protest Go Here. One doctor, she said, “marched because of the thousands of patients I’ve seen in the community, people of color, immigrants from all over the globe, who are terrified about the loss of their rights and the dramatic explosion of racially and culturally-focused hate crimes we’re reading about.”

She questioned how Sessions would handle the government’s investigation of Russian interference in the election, which could lead to the prosecution of individuals who helped hack the Democratic party in an effort to help Trump win.

“It obviously has the potential to create embarrassment for the president and his people, and to implicate people involved in the campaign,” she said. “Can [Sessions] be independent of the White House? I do not believe he can.”

Trump, judges on collision course

Video Marketing,

President Trump’s criticism of federal judges could color the debate when big issues on his agenda hit the Supreme Court.

The collision appears inevitable, with Trump’s executive order halting travel to the United States by people from seven majority-Muslim countries — a ban a federal judge blocked last week — already moving quickly through the judicial system.

Legal scholars say Trump’s attacks on judges are unlikely to have any effect on a high court ruling. But it will be impossible for the justices to have missed those broadsides, which have extended to Chief Justice John Roberts himself. 

“Judges will and should try not to be influenced by his trashing of the independent judiciary, but judges are only human,” said Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School. 

Roberts has maintained a reputation as an institutionalist who prides himself on staying above the political fray. But many also consider him the savior of ObamaCare after his votes kept the law afloat in two major decisions that conservatives called politically motivated. 

And he made little effort to disguise his vexation when President Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision on political spending.

Trump’s travel order could be on the Supreme Court docket soon.

A federal appeals court heard arguments on Tuesday, and the next stop would be the high court.

Any decision will be interpreted through the prism of Trump’s comments on the judiciary, which critics say threaten the separation of powers.

“This is obviously not helpful to the [Department of Justice], which is dealing with a very challenging legal issue,” said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University. “When you’re trying to convince the courts to respect presidential authority, it’s something incongruous when you don’t show respect for judicial authority.”

The criticism extends beyond judicial scholars.

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) warned that Trump’s attacks, if they continue, threaten not only to undermine the separation of powers but also the president’s own policy agenda.

“We’re a nation of laws and not men, and this idea of ‘follow me because I say so’ is completely at odds with the Founding Fathers’ intent,” said Sanford, a Trump supporter who has also criticized the president on certain issues. 

“I learned a long time ago in politics [that] attacking the person or the group that will decide your fate on a given issue generally doesn’t work out that well,” he added. 

Trump acknowledged Tuesday that the fight over the travel ban could wind up at the Supreme Court.

“We’re going to take it through the system,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with sheriffs at the White House. “It’s very important for the country.”

Separately, his press secretary, Sean Spicer, said the president respected the judicial branch, a different signal than Trump sent.

Trump on Saturday morning lashed out at U.S. District Judge James Robart — an appointee of President George W. Bush who temporarily froze Trump’s travel ban — labeling him a “so-called judge” and later suggesting he should be blamed if anything bad happens as a result of the policy being put on ice.

Trump’s remarks were all the more notable because it wasn’t the first time he had attacked a judge who disagreed with him.

In June, Trump suggested that District Judge Gonzalo Curiel — an Indiana native who was then presiding over a fraud case involving the now-defunct Trump University — could not rule fairly because of his Mexican heritage.

Speaker Paul RyanPaul RyanTrump, judges on collision course GOP senator: ‘There’s not any real discussion taking place’ on ObamaCare Overnight Healthcare: Freedom Caucus open to new ObamaCare replacement plan MORE (R-Wis.) called it “the textbook definition of a racist comment,” and then-Sen. Mark KirkMark KirkTrump, judges on collision course GOP senator: Don’t link Planned Parenthood to ObamaCare repeal Republicans add three to Banking Committee MORE (R-Ill.) withdrew his endorsement of Trump altogether.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip, said Tuesday that Trump’s repeated attacks on judges — both on the campaign trail and now from the White House — constitute a “dangerous” trend that undermines the public’s faith in its own court system. 

“If I called President Trump a ‘so-called president,’ it would be perceived as a disrespect of the office of the president of the United States, and a question of the election, which I do not do. It was an unfortunate demonstration of [his] lack of respect,” Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol. 

The remarks have put GOP leaders in an uncomfortable spot, caught teetering between their defense of the president and their support for a robust, independent judiciary. 

“We respect an independent judiciary,” Ryan said Tuesday. “This is a separate branch of government.”

But Ryan was quick to emphasize that the administration is also “respecting the process” by complying with Robart’s ruling even as it appeals the decision.

Roberts, who has been somewhat of a focus among conservatives for upholding ObamaCare, has also been the target of Trump’s attacks. The president called him an “absolute disaster” on the campaign trail. 

Those comments could be on display if any of the president’s policies land at the Supreme Court.

“They have vastly different personalities. It’s extremely unlikely that Roberts would engage in any tit-for-tat with any politician,” Turley said. “ I doubt that Roberts has tweeted once in his life.”

While Trump’s stormy relationship with the judicial system is unlikely to directly affect the outcome of a Supreme Court case, legal voices say his open venting from the bully pulpit could undermine Trump’s own agenda.

“[They] cannot avoid taking cognizance of the fact that they are dealing with a rogue chief executive who seems insensitive to our basic system of checks and balances and who … could well bring down that system and the republic built upon it,” Tribe said.

Some constitutional scholars say Trump’s tactics are problematic because they could undercut the public’s faith in the court system by appearing to pressure judges over politically charged decisions.

“You just want [judges] to be completely independent of the other branches and not to feel they’re under pressure from any source to decide the facts before them,” said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor.

It’s highly unusual for a sitting president to personally attack a justice, though legal experts say it’s more common for candidates to criticize judges on the campaign trail. 

Scholars also point out that in his 2010 State of the Union address, as the justices looked on, Obama took aim at the Citizens United ruling, which allows corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. Justice Samuel Alito, sitting near the front of the chamber, appeared to mouth the words “not true.”

Roberts later shot back, calling the comments “very troubling.” But Obama’s critique focused on the way the court ruled, not an individual justice.

“Most presidents leave the criticism to the opinion rather than the judges,” Tobias said. “I don’t remember this issue coming up before, even though the courts, and the Supreme Court, have issued opinions with which presidents have violently disagreed.”

Jordan Fabian and Scott Wong contributed.

The silencing of Elizabeth Warren and an old Senate rule prompted by a fistfight

Video Marketing,

America got a civics lesson Tuesday night when Senate Republicans used an obscure rule to shut down a speech by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that criticized Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the nominee for attorney general.

Republicans took issue when Warren quoted from a pair of letters written by the late Coretta Scott King and the late senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) opposing Sessions’s ill-fated nomination to a federal judgeship in 1986. King’s letter accused Sessions of racial bias; Kennedy’s called him a “disgrace to the Justice Department.”

It was all too much for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said Warren had “impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama.” In an extraordinary move, the Senate voted on party lines to shut her down, as The Washington Post’s Paul Kane and Ed O’Keefe reported.

The mechanism used to silence Warren is known as Rule 19, an arcane and seldom invoked provision in the rules of the Senate. The rule states that senators may not “directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.”

What, exactly, does it mean for one senator to “impugn” or “impute” another? That’s a matter of perspective, as congressional Democrats and other Warren defenders made clear when they rallied behind her on Twitter, launching the hashtag #LetLizSpeak to the top of the site’s trending list.

One thing’s for sure, however: The circumstances surrounding Rule 19’s creation were quite different than Tuesday’s exchange on the Senate floor.

[Republicans vote to rebuke Elizabeth Warren, saying she impugned Sessions’s character]

Since its founding, the Senate has maintained an evolving list of rules governing civility and decorum in the chamber. As vice president, Thomas Jefferson included 10 rules in his Manual of Parliamentary Practice that dictated how senators were to behave.

“No one is to disturb another in his speech by hissing, coughing, spitting, speaking or whispering to another,” reads one passage in the manual, “nor to stand up or interrupt him; nor to pass between the Speaker and the speaking member; nor to go across the chamber, or to walk up and down it, or to take books or papers from the [clerk’s] table, or write there.”

Those rules were published in 1801. The incident that paved the way for Rule 19 came more than a century later.

It was February 1902 and a feud was escalating between the two Democratic senators from South Carolina. Benjamin Tillman, the senior senator and something of a political boss in the state, had grown angry that John McLaurin, his protege, was allowing Senate Republicans to court him on some issues, including the annexation of the Philippines.


(Library of Congress)

Furious that McLaurin was colluding with the other side of the aisle, Tillman used a Feb. 22, 1902, speech on the Senate floor to harangue the younger senator. Gesturing toward McLaurin’s empty chair, Tillman accused his counterpart of treachery and corruption, saying he had succumbed to “improper influences,” according to a Senate history of the dispute.

When McLaurin caught wind of Tillman’s remarks, he rushed into the chamber and shouted that Tillman was telling a “willful, malicious and deliberate lie.”

A fistfight erupted. As Senate historians recounted, “The 54-year-old Tillman jumped from his place and physically attacked McLaurin, who was 41, with a series of stinging blows. Efforts to separate the two combatants resulted in misdirected punches landing on other members.”

When the fight ended, the Senate voted to censure the two men. A panel found that their behavior was “an infringement of the privileges of the Senate, a violation of its rules and derogatory to its high character, tending to bring the body itself into public contempt.”

The episode prompted the senate to tighten its rules governing decorum in floor debate. Rule 19 (sections 2 and 3, to be precise) was adopted later that year.

In the time since, the rule has rarely come up. One instance flagged by Bloomberg’s Greg Giroux occurred in 1979, when Sen. Lowell Weicker (R-Conn.) called Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.) “an idiot” and “devious” in a debate on the Senate floor. Heinz reportedly stormed to the front of the room with a rule book and showed him Rule 19. Majority Leader Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) defused the situation and asked them to shake hands. Other examples are hard to come by.

In Warren’s case, Senate Republicans balked at her use of the word “disgrace,” as quoted from the Kennedy letter, in reference to Sessions. But it was during her reading of the letter from King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., that Republicans warned her that she was violating Rule 19.

Warren seemed taken aback.

“I’m simply reading what she wrote about what the nomination of Sessions to be a federal court judge meant and what it would mean in history for her,” Warren said. The letter said Sessions “lacks the temperament, fairness and judgment to be a federal judge,” and accused him of pursuing a “shabby” voter fraud case against African American activists when he was a prosecutor.

[Read the letter Coretta Scott King wrote opposing Sessions’s 1986 federal nomination]

“You stated that a sitting senator is a disgrace to the Department of Justice,” responded Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who was presiding during the speech.

About 25 minutes later, McConnell came in and said her quotes from King crossed the line. She was ordered to sit down.

“Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation,” McConnell said later. “Nevertheless, she persisted.”

As the exchange spread on social media, some were quick to point out that McConnell was recently the target of a personal attack on the Senate floor. In 2015, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) accused him of lying to his colleagues and the press, saying “he is willing to say things that he knows are false.” There was no Rule 19 invocation then.

The vote against Warren means she’ll be barred from speaking further in the floor debate over Sessions’s nomination. But that didn’t stop her from reading the text of King’s letter and streaming it live Tuesday night.

“I am surprised,” Warren said, “that the words of Coretta Scott King are not suitable for debate in the United States Senate.”

Read more: 

ACLU: Delay Sessions confirmation vote until ‘Muslim ban’ is stopped

Fact Checker: Does Sen. Jeff Sessions have a ‘strong record’ on civil rights enforcement?

Trump’s hard-line actions have an intellectual godfather: Jeff Sessions

Razberi Technologies hires industry veteran Joe Vitalone as Chief Sales and Marketing Officer

Video Marketing,

Joe Vitalone has more than 30 years of sales, marketing, and business development experience

Razberi Technologies, a provider of video surveillance appliances and software, has hired Joe Vitalone as Chief Sales and Marketing Officer worldwide. In this role, Vitalone will have executive responsibility for growing Razberi’s sales revenues as well as expanding the company’s partnerships and distribution channels globally.

Seasoned veteran with ample knowledge

Vitalone is a seasoned veteran with more than 30 years of sales, marketing, and business development experience in the telecom and security industries. He will report to Razberi CEO Tom Galvin.

“Joe’s proven track record of growth combined with his channel expertise and strong partnering abilities align well with Razberi’s strategic direction, » said Galvin. “Under his leadership, many more channel partners will realise the value that Razberi’s solutions offer their businesses.”

Previous work experience

Vitalone joins Razberi from Arrow Systems Integration, a division of Arrow Electronics, where he most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer. Previously, Vitalone was Executive Vice President and President of Mitel Networks for the Americas region. He has also held executive level positions at ShoreTel, LifeSize, CoVi Technologies, and Polycom.

“Razberi is known for its innovation and technology leadership in the security industry, which they have translated into major partnerships and customers around the world,” said Vitalone. « They have great momentum in a fast-growing market, and I am eager to use my contacts and experience to take Razberi to the next level.”

Security integrators and enterprises use Razberi video surveillance solutions across the world, in industries such as energy, education, finance, retail, government, and more. 

The Inside Story of How Mr. Peanut Learned to Dab, and Got Nominated for a Shorty Award

Video Marketing,

It’s not often that a peanut makes news, but just in case you missed it, it happened over Thanksgiving.

Mr. Peanut—Planters’ monocle-wearing, top-hatted mascot—had taken his place atop the Nutmobile in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Like countless other brand mascots at the event, Mr. Peanut spent his time bowing, waving and variously acknowledging the 3.5 million people lining the parade’s two-mile route through Manhattan.

Unlike those other mascots, however, Mr. Peanut had been practicing a special move—right as the Nutmobile rolled past the Macy’s store in Herald Square, Mr. Peanut did the dab.

It happened in an instant: a slight head bow into the crook of one elbow with the other arm extended. That might have been the end of it, too, were it not for a spectator who created a GIF of the moment and posted it.

Now, after months of getting shared all over the web, that GIF is up for a Shorty Award, and Planters has mobilized once again. Today, the brand’s marketing team is unveiling an Academy Award-style “for your consideration” video and related promotional posters, all in hopes of upping Mr. Peanut’s chances of winning.

“When we found out about the Shorty nomination, we were excited,” said senior assistant brand manager Brandon Bhagat, “and we figured we’d have some fun with it. It’s Oscars season, and you have all these superstars promoting themselves—so why not Mr. Peanut?”

The video purports to tell the backstory of how Mr. Peanut learned to dab. It takes viewers into a dance studio where a demanding instructor is putting the anthropomorphic legume through a torturous rehearsal that isn’t going well. In frustration, Mr. Peanut takes a break and gazes out the window down to the street, where he spots some teenage girls dabbing. That, of course, gives him an idea.

Questioned as to whether this scenario is a strictly factual recounting of how Mr. Peanut actually learned to dab, Bhagat responded, “You have to take some poetic license.”

One thing is sure: When Mr. Peanut was putting together some new moves last summer (which was also his 100th birthday), dabbing was nearing the apogee of its popularity. Tom Hanks, Prince Harry, LeBron James, Ellen DeGeneres and Hillary Clinton all have been spotted dabbing in the past year or so.

Most notoriously, U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall’s teenage son Cal fouled up his father’s swearing-in ceremony in January by dabbing for photographers and confusing the hell out of House Speaker Paul Ryan.

But nobody was in doubt about what Mr. Peanut was up to during the parade on Thanksgiving. According to Planters’ tally, some 45,000 people tweeted about Mr. Peanut’s dab, helping to create a total of 200 million media impressions. That kind of reception is a big reason why the GIF wound up in Shorty contention. Founded in 2008, the awards salute the influencers who’ve created the year’s best social-media content. Past honorees have included DJ Khaled, Hannibal Buress, J.K. Rowling and Taylor Swift.

With voting set to close on Feb. 16, Planters hopes to whip up more enthusiasm among the voting public by deploying its video and posters across its social-media platforms. If Mr. Peanut winds up as a finalist, Planters will dispatch the Nutmobile to New York (presumably with Mr. Peanut inside.)

Regardless of how things turn out for Planters, the contest is a textbook example of how brand marketing has moved away from campaigns planned in office towers and into the realm of pure happenstance. Planters still doesn’t know who shot the video of Mr. Peanut dabbing and, while the dance move had been deliberately incorporated into the mascot’s repertoire of moves, Bhagat says nobody thought it would ever turn into something this big. (Just for the record, Squidward of SpongeBob fame also dabbed during the parade, but that didn’t generate the buzz Mr. Peanut did.)

“It was 100 percent organic how this took off, totally user-generated, and we found out about it very recently,” Bhagat said. “Mr. Peanut just wanted to nail something that was on trend, and the parade seemed like the right moment.”

Intermission Film and Think Jam form equity partnership to evolve entertainment-marketing industry

Video Marketing,

Video production company, Intermission, and entertainment-marketing agency, Think Jam, have launched a new business partnership and will each take an equity share in each other’s business.

The companies plan to enable expansion and enhance content services to clients, marking the exciting launch of a new entertainment-marketing powerhouse.

In a meeting of like minds, Intermission’s company director, Sam Cryer, and Think Jam’s founder and chief executive, Daniel Robey, have a shared vision for the future of entertainment marketing and strive to provide an all-encompassing solution to offer fully integrated marketing services to clients, driving best in class content creation and innovation.

The businesses will initially be aligned through the UK entertainment landscape, with rapid expansion plans underway for the US. The two businesses will continue to operate independently, with Robey being appointed to the board of intermission and Cryer joining the executive management board of Think Jam.

Sam Cryer said of the partnership: “Intermission has always aimed to be, and work with, the best. We’re therefore extremely excited at the prospect of partnering with them, allowing us to extend the services we can collectively offer clients with full confidence that everyone is working at the forefront of their field to deliver world-class campaigns. We look forward to building on this opportunity with Dan Robey and his team, and continuing to find the most innovative and imaginative ways to market outstanding films. »

Daniel Robey commented: “Video content is, and has always been, at the centre of marketing engagement. With audience platforms constantly developing to support a greater range of quality video content, there is a rapid need to create advanced solutions to produce smart and effective AV. I am enormously excited about this new business venture with Sam, it is so important for me to align Think Jam with a like minded business which is creative, innovative and continuously pushes boundaries in its field.”

Think Jam’s managing director, Daniel Noy, will oversee the new operation on behalf of the two companies.

Think Jam is an entertainment marketing agency based in London.

Trump’s First 100 Days: Waiting for court ruling, but pipeline and DeVos move forward

Video Marketing, , , ,

Here’s where things stand heading into day 20 of the Trump administration:

Will President Trump’s entry ban go back into effect, with all of its attendant controversies?

For now, that is up to three federal judges.

A panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit heard arguments Tuesday over Trump’s executive order, which temporarily bars entry to the United States for people from seven predominantly Muslim countries and refugees from around the world.


From left, judges Richard Clifton, William C. Canby Jr. and Michelle Taryn Friedland. (Court photos via AFP/Getty Images)

The judges aggressively questioned both sides: Trump’s lawyers on what evidence the president used to come up with his policy, and the lawyers challenging the order on whether a lower-court judge’s freeze on the ban was too broad.

A decision is expected this week. As our colleagues wrote, the issue is “likely to end up at the Supreme Court. But it will be harder for the Trump administration to prevail at the high court if the appeals court rules that a nationwide halt is warranted.”

Army to grant final Dakota Access permit

Looks like another campaign promise will soon be in the bag for Trump.

Army officials indicated Tuesday they will grant the final permit needed to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline, scrapping plans to prepare an environmental-impact statement on how the project would affect land and water along its 1,170-mile route from western North Dakota to the Midwest.


Heavy equipment at a site where sections of the Dakota Access Pipeline were being installed in Morton County, N.D., in October 2016. (Tom Stromme/Bismarck Tribune via AP)

The decision comes despite continued opposition from environmental activists and members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who argue that the pipeline will disturb the environment and ancient burial grounds. The Trump administration sees the pipeline as an important component of its domestic energy and infrastructure agenda.

The Army’s decision, which clears the last bureaucratic hurdle for the project, could lead to new confrontations between activists and law enforcement at key construction points, including at North Dakota’s Lake Oahe.  As our colleagues wrote, “While tribal leaders have urged their supporters to go home as the weather worsens, a few hundred protesters have remained. Last week, authorities arrested 74 activists who had decamped from the tribal reservation to land owned by Energy Transfer Partners.”

DeVos confirmed, Sessions on his way

The latest on Betsy DeVos? She got by with a little help from Mike Pence.

The new U.S. secretary of education was confirmed by the Senate in a historic vote of 51 to 50 on Tuesday, with Vice President Pence providing the tiebreaker. Democrats had spent the previous 24 hours on the Senate floor protesting her nomination, but they ultimately failed to produce the one additional “nay” vote needed to block DeVos from Trump’s Cabinet.

A few minutes later, the Senate voted to invoke cloture — or limit debate — on the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) for attorney general, setting up his final confirmation vote for later in the week. In the end, only one Democrat joined Republicans in voting to advance the nomination: Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.).

It’s getting heated ahead of that final vote on Sessions. On Tuesday night, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) of impugning Sessions’s motives as she criticized him during a speech on the Senate floor. McConnell reprimanded her by setting up a series of roll-call votes on her conduct.

Warren, who is now forbidden to speak on the floor for the rest of the debate over Sessions’s nomination, responded later on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/829140184692305923

As a quick recap, here’s where things stand for Trump’s nominees: seven have been confirmed, 11 are waiting for final votes on the Senate floor, and three still are waiting to testify at initial committee hearings.

Keep up with the full confirmation schedule here.

Trump exaggerates U.S. murder rate, again

It is no secret that Trump sometimes struggles with facts. But there is one area where you can almost count on him to misstate what is real: the U.S. murder rate.


Trump speaks at a meeting with sheriffs at the White House on Feb. 7, 2017. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

This happened on Tuesday as the president met with members of the National Sheriffs’ Association. He falsely stated, as he has in the past, that the rate is “the highest it’s been in 47 years.”

As our colleague wrote, the country’s murder rate is “not the highest it’s been in 47 years. It is almost at its lowest point, actually, according to the FBI, which gathers statistics every year from police departments around the country.”

Follow the author @eliseviebeck.