Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse described House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi’s clap during President Trump’s State of the Union speech
as “Lucille Bluth-like in its contemptuousness.”
(20th Century Fox/Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP)
A Washington Post columnist on Wednesday wrote in a column that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's contemptuous clap during President Trump' State of the Union was "Lucille Bluth-like." Bluth
is the matriarchal character in the former TV series "Arrested
Development." Bluth's character, played by, Jessica Walter, is unloving
and, as The New York Times put it, lobs "80-proof Molotov cocktails of
sarcasm" during the show. The House Speaker
was relatively expressionless during Trump’s nearly 90-minute speech.
But an image of the peculiar way she applauded when Trump mentioned
bipartisanship quickly made the rounds on social media. Monica Hesse, the columnist, wrote, "The lasting visual image can only be described as . . . withering? Pitying? Lucille Bluth-like
in its contemptuousness?" She added: "[T]his was a derogatory clap,
make no mistake. This was mockery wearing a half-baked costume of
politeness." BIZARRE STATE OF THE UNION 'FACT CHECKS' FALL FLAT, AS MEDIA ACCUSED OF NITPICKING Hesse
likened Pelosi’s supposed mockery of Trump to a "parent applauding a
kindergartner for tying his shoes when the only goal is to quickly scoot
him out the door." Hesse’s piece also mentioned comedian Patton Oswalt,
who evidently shares her view of the image, having written on twitter
after Trump’s speech: "Congrats to @SpeakerPelosi for inventing the
“f--- you” clap. #sotu."
A long forgotten video clip from ABC's "The View" resurfaced on Wednesday that showed co-host Joy Behar trying to explain a Halloween costume from when she was younger. The clip was shared by The Wrap media editor Jon Levine.
Behar was seen discussing a New York Times op-ed about the resurgence
of curly hair during the show in 2016. Behar showed her colleagues and
the audience a picture of herself with curly hair when she was 29 years
old. The co-hosts appeared surprised by her drastically different look. Raven-Symoné, a former co-host, asked, "Joy, are you black?" "I was so cute," Behar said. "Joy... are you my auntie, Joy?" Raven-Symoné joked. Behar
explained that the picture was taken at a Halloween party where she
dressed up as a "beautiful African woman" and stressed that it was her
actual hair. "Did you have tanning lotion on, Joy?" Raven-Symoné asked. KIMMEL, FALLON HAVE HISTORIES OF USING BLACKFACE FOR COMEDY Behar responded by saying she wore makeup "that was a little bit darker than my skin." The
video resurfaced as Democrats in Virginia face intense scrutiny over
their use of blackface decades ago. On Friday, Governor Ralph Northam
offered an apology after a photograph emerged on his medical school
yearbook page that featured a man in blackface and another in a KKK
robe. He reversed course the next day, claiming he wasn’t in that photo
but did admit to wearing blackface when dressing up as Michael Jackson
for a costume contest. Democratic Virginia Attorney General Mark
Herring, who had previously called on Northam to resign, released a
statement Wednesday that he also wore blackface in college. ABC News has not responded for comment.
Every once in a while a speech is so effective and powerful it changes the trajectory of history. President Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address was that kind of speech. If
you have not seen it, you should watch it online. Reading it will only
convey 10 percent of its power. It was the interaction of the president with the members of Congress and the audience in the galleries that was so compelling. The
emotions of Tuesday night matched anything President Reagan achieved in
his addresses to Congress. From the early mentions of people in the
gallery – which were guaranteed to get even the Democrats to stand and
applaud – to spontaneously singing "Happy Birthday" to a Holocaust and
2018 synagogue shooting survivor to chanting “USA! USA!,” the total
performance and interaction with the members of Congress was vastly more
powerful than the words on paper. Furthermore, the delivery was
presidential. The president interacted with the Democrats in a positive
and cheerful way, which bodes well for bipartisan legislative
initiatives for the rest of this year. By one count, the president was
interrupted 98 times with applause. Both the left-wing Democrats and the
never Trump Republicans found themselves standing and applauding again
and again. As a former Speaker of the House who had to stand and
applaud President Bill Clinton when he said, “The era of big government
is over,” I knew exactly what was going on in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s
mind. She had to sit and be pleasant while her major opponent got her
own party to repeatedly stand with enthusiastic applause. She had to
listen politely to the person she spends every day attacking. The vice
president is always a happy and a solid cheerleader. When I was Speaker,
Al Gore would sit next to me and enthusiastically applaud everything
President Clinton said. Last night, Mike Pence was cheerfully standing
and applauding as often as possible. Having the opposition party’s top
cheerleader sit next to you just makes the Speaker’s job harder. Speaker
Pelosi at times could not help herself. She would conspicuously pick up
the speech text and read it to find out how much longer she had to
remain disciplined and pretend to be a good hostess (the president is
the guest of the House). When even her most radical new members began
standing and applauding, she must have experienced a bit of despair. I
knew the speech would become historic when, even before it ended, I saw
a tweet from Jerry Falwell Jr. proclaiming, “Best State of the Union
speech in my lifetime delivered by the best @POTUS since George
Washington and it’s not even over yet! God bless @realDonaldTrump!” Falwell,
of course, was very enthusiastic about and grateful for President
Trump’s commitment to protecting babies and his condemnation of the
Democrats who believe in infanticide. However, the Falwell
judgment was reflected in a stunning CBS News poll. Of the people who
watched the speech, 76 percent approved and only 24 percent disapproved.
Those are probably the best numbers of President Trump’s career to
date. Clearly, there is a bias in asking “those who watched.” More
Republicans watch a Republican president. More Democrats watch a
Democratic president. However, CBS found widespread approval for
Trump’s State of the Union. Among independents, 82 percent approved.
Democrats only gave 30 percent approval while Republicans (as might be
expected) gave the speech 97 percent approval. The 97 percent
approval among Republicans, when combined with the 90-10 Trump over
Kasich numbers from a recent Emerson College poll of Iowa voters, should
end all serious talk of someone challenging him for the Republican
nomination in 2020. He may have been an outsider in 2016, but today
President Trump is the Republican Party (a fact which makes his
relationship with some senators a little difficult). This speech
was designed to move toward unity and bipartisanship – and 56 percent of
the viewers thought it will “do more to unite the country”. Beyond tone, the CBS poll had very good news for President Trump on his issue positions. On immigration, speech watchers agreed with Trump by 72 percent to 28 percent. On American troops and the Middle East strategy, speech watchers were with Trump by 74 percent to 26 percent. An amazing 71 percent of the speech-watchers agreed with the president that there was a crisis on the southern border. When
the president explained the upcoming second meeting with Kim Jong Un,
78 percent of the watchers thought it was a good idea. Even 43 percent
of the Democrats liked the idea of the meeting. The president
entered the House chamber embattled with a divided country and bitter
partisanship. He left it with a lot more humor and happiness. The ice
may be breaking on bitter partisanship. This was a speech that changed the trajectory of history. Now,
we will see if the president and the Congress can build on that new
trajectory of choosing greatness, focusing on the nation, and finding
ways to compromise for the betterment of our country and all Americans.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Wednesday was once again forced to apologize for claiming Native American ancestry on
a 1986 registration card for the Texas state bar, and left the door
open that there may be more documents out there with a similar claim. The
controversy appears to be difficult for the senator to put behind her.
She had been planning to formally launch her presidential campaign on
Saturday. A reporter on Wednesday asked if she would drop out of the
race and she responded, "Thank you." KAYLEIGH McENANY SAYS INSTAGRAM REMOVED HER WARREN POST Fox News' Shepard Smith called Warren's actions "cultural appropriation." A Boston Globe columnist wrote flatly: With latest revelation, Elizabeth Warren can't beat Donald Trump. Questions
about Warren’s heritage date to at least 2012, when her Republican
opponent seized on the issue during her first Senate campaign to wrongly
argue she identified as a Native American to advance her career.
President Donald Trump frequently deploys a racial slur to criticize
Warren. Politico reported
that Warren, who apologized last Friday to the Cherokee Nation for
revealing the results of a DNA test last autumn that showed just a trace
amount of Native American lineage, was asked if there are any other
documents where she claimed the ancestry. "So all I know is during
this time period, this is consistent with what I did because it was
based on my understanding from my family's stories," she said. "But
family stories are not the same as tribal citizenship." The
registration card was first reported by The Washington Post. Fox News
has verified the document, which marks the first known instance of
Warren claiming Native American ancestry on an official document. Fox
News reached out to Warren’s office early Thursday about the potential
for more documents and did not get an immediate response. Hillary Chabot, a reporter at The Boston Herald, wrote
that the senator is looking to distance herself from the scandal, but
brought up the wealth issue as another potential headache for Warren. "Warren
has worked hard to craft a narrative as a scrappy Dust Bowl native
ready to take down vast corporations and billionaires like Starbucks CEO
Howard Schultz. But she usually fails to mention her own vast wealth,"
she wrote, pointing out that Warren and her husband are worth as much as
$11 million. Paulette Jordan, a former Democratic state
representative in Idaho and a member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, told
The Associated Press, “It’s not exactly how you’d want to enter the
arena” as a presidential candidate. WARREN WORTH MILLIONS She
apologized in private last week to the principal chief of the Cherokee
Nation for “causing confusion on tribal sovereignty and tribal
citizenship and the harm that resulted,” said tribal spokeswoman Julie
Hubbard. “I am not a tribal citizen. Tribes, and only tribes,
determine citizenship,” Warren said, adding, “I have apologized for not
being more sensitive to that distinction. It’s an important
distinction.”
Top Democrats signaled on Tuesday that President Trump's State of the Union address did little to convince them that a legislative compromise to construct his proposed border wall is possible, as another potential partial federal government shutdown over the White House's long-promised project looms.
In his remarks, Trump made no mention of an emergency declaration
to fund the wall, which his administration has floated as a
possibility. But the president made clear that, one way or the other,
the structure will eventually be completed, declaring: "I will build
it."
"I am asking you to defend our very dangerous southern border
out of love and devotion to our fellow citizens and to our country,"
Trump said, in a speech that variously referred to both "walls" and
"barriers" at the border.
“Simply put, walls work and walls save
lives," Trump added. "So let’s work together, compromise and reach a
deal that will truly make America safe. ... This is a smart, strategic,
see-through steel barrier –not just a simple concrete wall."
But
with the current temporary spending bill funding portions of
the government set to expire Feb. 15, several progressives in Congress
-- both before and after Trump's speech -- registered sharp disapproval
of Trump's comments. EXPLAINER: WHY WERE DEM WOMEN ALL WEARING WHITE AT STATE OF THE UNION?
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, did not applaud even as Trump praised an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, Elvin Hernandez, for breaking up a notorious human trafficking ring.
Ocasio-Cortez
remained stoic through much of Trump's address -- pausing only to
applaud as Trump praised women for their unprecedented representation in
Congress, and as Trump discussed criminal justice reform and his
decision to grant clemency to Alice Johnson, who was serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., center, listens as
President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a
joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb.
5, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
meanwhile, told Fox News she was "saddened" Trump had not discussed gun
violence in his speech, and she condemned what she called his
"fearmongering" on illegal immigrants.
"I’m
optimistic about what the appropriators are doing," Pelosi said, when
asked how she felt Trump's address would impact ongoing bipartisan
negotiations in Congress on border wall funding. "The only problem is if
he would stand in the way of that path."
Still, there were
moments Tuesday night in which Pelosi appeared to warm to some of
Trump's statements. At one point during the address, Pelosi waived off
Democrats who began to groan audibly when Trump mentioned an approaching
migrant "caravan" at the border. And the House Speaker applauded briefly when Trump asserted that the U.S. would never become a socialist country, even as many Democrats remained expressionless.
Also speaking to Fox News, Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons called for more substance from the White House.
"There were a number of potentially engaging proposals," Coons said. Nevertheless, he added, "They lacked details."
New
York Democratic Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand, who has announced she is
planning a White House bid, spotlighted her displeasure with the
address on social media, tweeting out C-SPAN video of her eye roll
reaction GIF and asking for campaign donations.
Gillibrand, once a
moderate when she represented upstate New York in Congress, is now one
of the most outspoken advocates for eliminating ICE. She admitted in
2009 when she was appointed to the Senate that she would have to change her views
because she now represented "the whole state," rather than a
traditionally conservative enclave. (During his speech, Trump praised
the "heroes" at ICE and said the agency will never be abolished.)
Perhaps
most notably, Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader in the Georgia
House of Representatives and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate, blamed Trump for the recently concluded partial federal government shutdown in the Democratic Party's official response to the State of the Union.
The
remarks by Abrams, a rising Democratic star who made history Tuesday
night as the first African-American woman to deliver a formal State of
the Union response, suggested Democrats are confident that any future
shutdown can similarly be blamed on the White House -- and that
compromise may not be necessary.
"Just a few weeks ago, I joined
volunteers to distribute meals to furloughed federal workers," Abrams
said. "They waited in line for a box of food and a sliver of hope since
they hadn't received a paycheck in weeks. "Making their livelihoods a
pawn for political games is a disgrace."
Abrams continued: "The
shutdown was a stunt engineered by the President of the United States,
one that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our
people--but our values."
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Vice President Mike
Pence, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi looks on, as he arrives in the
House chamber before giving his State of the Union address to a joint
session of Congress, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019 at the Capitol in Washington.
(Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
REPUBLICANS TROLL 'SOUR GRAPES' ABRAMS FOR SUGGESTING HER ELECTORAL LOSS IN GEORGIA WASN'T LEGITIMATE
Abrams
delivered her speech in the metro Atlanta area, surrounded by
Georgia activists, labor leaders, health care professionals, educators,
entrepreneurs, voters and her family, after Trump delivers his message.
Abrams has said she accepts that Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State
Brian Kemp defeated her in last year's election, but she has repeatedly suggested he is not the state's "legitimate" governor -- insinuations she repeated again on Tuesday.
"Let’s
be clear: voter suppression is real," Abrams said. "From making it
harder to register and stay on the rolls to moving and closing polling
places to rejecting lawful ballots, we can no longer ignore these
threats to democracy. While I acknowledged the results of the 2018
election here in Georgia – I did not and we cannot accept efforts to
undermine our right to vote."
President Donald Trump acknowledges women in Congress as he
delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress
on Capitol Hill in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker
of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., watch, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (AP
Photo/Andrew Harnik)
In his statement, Democratic National Committee
(DNC) Chair Tom Perez implied the White House has lost its moral
authority on illegal immigration.
"Separating families does not
unify our nation," Perez said, referring to Trump administration's
increased enforcement of existing immigration law, which resulted in
more illegal immigrant parents being detained even though their children
could not be similarly incarcerated. "Taking away people’s health care
does not unify us. Blocking access to the ballot box does not unify us.
Shutting down the government does not unify us. Building walls does not
unify us." TRUMP CHALLENGES PELOSI: IF BORDER WALLS ARE IMMORAL, WHY NOT DESTROY EXISTING WALLS?
Separately,
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md, charged that Trump had "leaned
on falsehoods and fear to obscure the reality of a presidency lacking
in leadership and harmful to America’s future."
Hoyer, who has previously told Fox News
that border walls "obviously" can work in some cases, vowed to press
ahead with legislation designed to benefit so-called "Dreamers," or
illegal immigrants brought to the country as children.
Trump
announced last month that he was prepared to back a three-year extension
of protections for 700,000 such immigrants, who were were shielded from
deportation under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA) program. But in exchange, Trump demanded $5.7 billion for border
wall and security funding -- making the proposal a nonstarter with House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has called such a wall an "immorality."
"We will bring forward measures to ... protect DREAMers," Hoyer said Tuesday. Hoyer earlier told Fox News he disagrees with Pelosi that walls are necessarily immoral.
"A
wall is -- that protects people is not immoral," Hoyer told Fox News'
Bret Baier in January. "The debate ought to be not on morality or
racism."
Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and a
rising Democratic star, blamed President Trump for the partial
government shutdown in her response to the State of the Union address -- calling the shutdown a "stunt" and its impact on federal workers a "disgrace."
Abrams, who made history Tuesday night as the first African-American woman to deliver a formal State of the Union
response, reflected on her experience volunteering with furloughed
workers during the 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government.
"Just
a few weeks ago, I joined volunteers to distribute meals to furloughed
federal workers. They waited in line for a box of food and a sliver of
hope since they hadn't received a paycheck in weeks," she said. "Making
their livelihoods a pawn for political games is a disgrace."
She
added: "The shutdown was a stunt engineered by the President of the
United States, one that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not
just our people--but our values."
Abrams delivered her speech in
the metro Atlanta area, surrounded by Georgia activists, labor leaders,
health care professionals, educators, entrepreneurs, voters and her
family, after Trump delivers his message.
Abrams' criticism of the
president comes after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history,
which ended just last month when the president agreed to sign a
three-week stopgap spending package to fund the government through Feb.
15. The shutdown, which began on Dec. 22, was over a border security
stalemate. Trump requested $5.7 billion in funding for border security
and construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and Democrats
vowed to block any type of package that included funding for the wall.
In
that 35-day shutdown, more than 800,000 federal workers and contractors
were left working without pay, or furloughed without pay.
Abrams
lost November’s gubernatorial election to Georgia’s Republican Secretary
of State Brian Kemp but has remained a power player in the Democratic
Party.
“My reason for running for governor was simple: I love our
country and its promise of opportunity for all, and I stand here tonight
because I hold fast to my father’s credo—together, we are coming for
America, for a better America,” she said.
Abrams reflected on her
experience leading Democrats in the Georgia House of Representatives as
minority leader, noting that she “didn’t always agree” with
Republicans but “understood that our constituents didn’t care about our
political parties—they cared about their lives.”
“It should be no
different in our nation’s capital,” she said. “We may come from
different sides of the political aisle; but our joint commitment to the
ideals of this nation cannot be negotiable.”
Abrams highlighted the “most urgent work,” which was “to realize Americans’ dreams of today and tomorrow.”
“Children
deserve an excellent education from cradle to career. We owe them safe
schools and the highest standards, regardless of zip code,” she said,
accusing the Trump administration of responding “timidly while first
graders practice active shooter drills and the price of higher education
grows ever steeper.”
Abrams called for lawmakers to tackle gun safety measures, and the “crippling effect of educational loans.”
She went on to blast the Republican tax bill, which she said “rigged the system against working people.”
“Rather
than bringing back jobs, plants are closing, layoffs are looming and
wages struggle to keep pace with the actual cost of living,” she said.
Abrams urged lawmakers to protect expanding health care, rather than “suing to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.”
Abrams
also defended abortion and Roe v. Wade, saying it is "immoral to allow
politicians to harm women and families to advance a political agenda;"
the LGBTQ community, saying they are still "under attack" even after
affirming marriage equality; and voting rights -- an issue she has been
vocal on.
"The foundation of our moral leadership around the globe
is free and fair elections, where voters pick their leaders – not where
politicians pick their voters," she said.
But despite criticizing Trump, Abrams offered general support to the president.
“Even
as I am very disappointed by the president’s approach to our problems—I
still don’t want him to fail,” she said. “But we need him to tell the
truth, and to respect his duties and the extraordinary diversity that
defines America.”
She added: “Our progress has always found
refuge in the basic instinct of the American experiment – to do right by
our people. And with a renewed commitment to social and economic
justice, we will create a stronger America, together. Because America
wins by fighting for our shared values against all enemies: foreign and
domestic. That is who we are – and when we do so, never wavering - the
state of our union will always be strong.”
Abrams, an attorney,
was the first black leader in the Georgia statehouse, having previously
served as House minority leader. She is also an award-winning romance
novelist, penning eight books under the nom de plume Selena Montgomery.
Recently, Democrats have even encouraged Abrams to run for Senate in 2020.
But
Republicans took a swipe at Abrams ahead of the address Tuesday,
nicknaming her “SourGrapesStacey” in reference to her refusal to concede
in Georgia’s hard-fought gubernatorial race last year. The National
Republican Senatorial Committee, which recruits and supports Republicans
for the Senate, released a video ahead of her speech titled “What
Stacey Abrams stands for in less than 30 seconds.”
It
shows her refusing to concede the 2018 race, saying, “This is not a
speech of concession.” It also shows clips of Abrams discussing the
possibility of Trump being impeached and her saying she “wouldn’t
oppose” non-citizens voting.
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren
indicated that her race was "American Indian" in a handwritten
registration form filed in 1986 with the Texas State Bar, according to a
new report on Tuesday that documents the presidential hopeful's efforts
to identify as a minority during her earliest days as a law professor.
The revelation, initially reported by The Washington Post,
is the first known instance of Warren claiming Native American ancestry
in an official document or in her own handwriting. It threatened to add
more ammunition to already-frequent attacks by Republicans, including President Trump, deriding Warren for claiming such ancestry to bolster her academic career.
Warren's office, questioned by The Post, did not dispute the authenticity of the bar card.
Last week, Warren apologized
to the Cherokee Nation for taking a DNA test in an attempt to prove she
had Native-American ancestry, and on Tuesday, she again more broadly
apologized for identifying as Native American "for almost two decades,"
according to The Post.
Republicans characterized Warren's apologies as politically motivated and insincere.
“For
the seven years this has been in the news, Elizabeth Warren has refused
to apologize. Now, four days before her formal presidential launch,
she’s issued a politically opportunistic apology that doesn’t go nearly
far enough," Republican National Committee (RNC) spokesman Mike Reed
said in a statement, referring to Warren's plan to formally begin her
campaign for the White House on Saturday. "Warren pretended to be a
minority to climb the Ivy League ladder – a lie that will continue to
haunt her presidential ambitions.” can add if possible?"
The
bright-yellow bar card is dated April 1986, when Warren was a professor
at the University of Texas School of Law. Past reporting by several
outlets, including CNN,
had indicated that Warren "had not" listed herself as a minority in her
"student applications and during her time as a teacher at the
University of Texas." Records unearthed by The Boston Globe found that
in 1981, 1985, and 1988, personnel forms at the University of Texas
showed that Warren had called herself "white."
The State Bar
document, which functions as a kind of directory entry for lawyers, is
among multiple instances in which Warren described herself as a Native
American. She indicated that she was Cherokee in an Oklahoma cookbook
called " Pow Wow Chow" in 1984, and listed herself as a minority in the
Association of American Law Schools Directory of Faculty from 1986 to
1995 -- a move she said later was an effort to "connect" with
other “people like me."
Warren dropped off the list in 1995, after
moving to Harvard Law School. But in 1996, an article in the
student-run Harvard Crimson apparently indicated that faculty members
and administrators still believed Warren was Native American.
"Although
the conventional wisdom among students and faculty is that the Law
School faculty includes no minority women, Chmura said Professor of Law
Elizabeth Warren is Native American," the article stated, referring to Harvard spokesman Mike Chmura.
And
a 2005 document obtained by The Hill indicated that the University of
Pennsylvania Law School considered Warren among its past minority
faculty members. Warren, who had resigned by the time the university
published that document, taught at the law school in the 1980s and 1990s
before taking a professorship at Harvard.
Through it all, Warren has maintained that she did not use her claims of ancestry to advance her academic career. An extensive investigation by the Globe
did not support the contention that Harvard had relied on Warren's'
claims of Native American heritage in deciding whether to hire her.
Randall
Kennedy, a law professor in charge of recruiting minority candidates at
Harvard at the time, told the Globe that Warren was never considered a
minority for hiring purposes.
“She was not on the radar screen at
all in terms of a racial minority hire,” Kennedy said. “It was just not
an issue. I can’t remember anybody ever mentioning her in this context."
Warren's prospective presidential candidacy has had a rocky start since she announced that she had formed an exploratory committee for a White House bid on Dec. 31. That evening, Warren was widely mocked for appearing in an Instagram live feed and awkwardly telling the audience, "Hold on a second -- I'm gonna get me a beer."
Warren's'
husband later walked into the kitchen, prompting Warren to tell him,
"Thank you for being here." He replied, matter-of-factly: "Enjoy your
beer."
Trump later savaged the episode as "the Elizabeth Warren beer catastrophe."
On Tuesday, filings revealed
that Warren is worth more than $4 million -- complicating her effort to
appeal to working-class voters with proposals like an unprecedented tax
on wealth. in January, Warren proposed an unprecedented tax of 2
percent annually on all assets belonging to households worth more than
$50 million, as well as a 1 percent tax on households with $1 billion or
more.
Critics have charged
that the idea is both dangerous and unconstitutional because it
directly taxes wealth that is not transferred, invested, or earned as
income, without ensuring the tax is evenly distributed across states.
And
over the weekend, Harry Reid, the longtime Democrat who represented
Nevada in the Senate for three decades and served as the Senate majority
leader for eight years, declined to endorse Warren's nascent presidential run.
Although
he called Warren a "good person" in an interview with The Boston
Globe, Reid, 79, asserted that "my Nevada politics keep me from publicly
endorsing her." He added that "anything I can do to help Elizabeth
Warren short of the endorsement, I will do.”
Reid
helped catapult Warren into the national spotlight by appointing her in
November 2008 to the Congressional Oversight Panel, a five-member
committee responsible for overseeing the federal bailout provided by the
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.
President Trump vowed during his State of the Union address on Tuesday that "America will never be a socialist country," in an apparent rebuke to self-described Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
and Sen. Bernie Sanders that drew loud cheers and a standing ovation
from Republicans in the House chamber -- as well as supportive applause
from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In response, Ocasio-Cortez told Fox News after the speech: “I thought it was great. I think he’s scared."
The
progressive firebrand pointedly did not applaud as Trump praised an
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, Elvin Hernandez, for breaking up a notorious human trafficking ring,
and she often stared ahead expressionless during the
president's remarks. In an interview later Tuesday night, Ocasio-Cortez
said she was asking herself, "Is this a campaign stop or is this a State
of the Union?"
Trump cited the economic decline and civil disorder in Venezuela as a cautionary tale, after his administration last week imposed sweeping sanctions against the regime of Nicolas Maduro.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., center, listens as
President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a
joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb.
5, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The country's government in recent years
limited citizens' access to foreign currency, implemented substantial
subsidies and price controls on food and other items, and fell victim to
sweeping corruption -- before effectively collapsing last month.
"Two
weeks ago, the United States officially recognized the legitimate
government of Venezuela, and its new interim president, Juan Guaido,"
Trump began. "We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest
for freedom -- and we condemn the brutality of the Maduro regime, whose
socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in
South America into a state of abject poverty and despair. BERNIE SANDERS ACKNOWLEDGES ECONOMY IS A 'DISASTER' IN VENEZUELA
"Here,
in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in
our country," Trump continued, prompting boos from Republicans in the
chamber. "America was founded on liberty and independence -- not
government coercion, domination and control. We are born free, and we
will stay free."
President Donald Trump arrives to deliver his State of the Union
address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington,
Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Then, after a prolonged chant of "USA" broke out,
Trump concluded, "Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never
be a socialist country."
Democrats largely remained seated as
Republicans resumed the "USA" chant and applauded for several seconds.
Sanders kept his head in his hand and grimaced, while Pelosi clapped in
her seat.
Pelosi has already sparred publicly several times with Ocasio-Cortez, who sought last month
to reject a Pelosi-backed rules package that would have effectively
curbed some spending. Democratic leaders quashed that attempted revolt
overwhelmingly. And Ocasio-Cortez last year personally joined
environmentalist protesters conducting a sit-in at Pelosi's office.
"Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialst country." — President Trump
The effective collapse of Venezuela has forced some far-left progressive Democrats into an awkward position. In a series of social media posts
in January, Sanders -- who is considering another run for the White
House -- acknowledged that "the economy is a disaster" in Venezuela, but
he largely blamed the Maduro government for conducting what he called
a "violent crackdown" on dissidents and the rule of law.
For her part, Ocasio-Cortez is set to unveil a massive "Green New Deal" with
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey next week, and on Monday she
told her fellow representatives in a letter that the proposal calls for
a "national, social, industrial and economic mobilization at a scale not
seen since World War II."
Democratic leaders, including Pelosi, have not yet signed onto the expansive plan.
President Trump delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday
night, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
The Green New Deal proposal would lead to national
net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, according to Ocasio-Cortez's letter,
“through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers,”
while also generating millions of “good, high-wage jobs."
Through
it all, the Green New Deal would additionally “promote justice and
equity by preventing current and repairing historic oppression to
frontline and vulnerable communities," according to Ocasio-Cortez.
Several analysts have
cautioned that the liberal firebrand is in over her head, even though
the as-yet vague and uncertain details about the Green New Deal render a
precise calculation impossible. Physicist Christopher Clack has warned
that the cost could easily be into the trillions.
“It’s a daunting
task, and I’m not sure that the authors of the Green New Deal fully
comprehend how much they’ll need,” Clack said in an interview with The
Hill.
Institute for Energy Research president Tom Pyle was more
blunt: “One hundred percent renewable energy defies the laws of physics.
It would be impossible to achieve.”
And Paul Bledsoe, a strategic
adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute, said progressives were
overcompensating. “I understand the value of aspirational goals,”
Bledsoe said. “My personal view is, that undermines the credibility of
the effort.”
Nevertheless,
some 70 Democratic lawmakers have so far tentatively endorsed a Green
New Deal plan, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and
California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, both of whom are looking at
2020 presidential campaigns.
President Donald Trump arrives to deliver his State of the Union
address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington,
Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Trump delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday
night, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
