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Spicer: 'Rude, inappropriate' CNN reporter owes Trump an apology

CNN reporter Jim Acosta

Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday that CNN reporter Jim Acosta should apologize to President-elect Trump after Spicer said Acosta was "rude, inappropriate and disrespectful" during Trump's press conference earlier Wednesday.
"I think Mr. Acosta owes the president-elect and frankly the entire press corps an apology for his childish and inappropriate behavior," Spicer told Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
TRUMP SPARS WITH REPORTER FOLLOWING RUSSIA CLAIMS
Acosta repeatedly called on Trump to let him ask a question after the president-elect disparaged reports by CNN and BuzzFeed that Russian spies have collected compromising information about him. Trump refused to call on Acosta, at one point telling him "Don't be rude" before finally blasting CNN's report as "fake news."
After the press conference, Spicer said he approached Acosta and "I informed him that I thought that no one should be treated that ... disrespectfully, and that if he did it again in the future, I would have him removed."
"No one needs to be treated with that level of disrespect and rudeness," Spicer later added.
The former Republican National Committee spokesman added that the contentious nature of Wednesday's presser could be a preview of future briefings under a Trump administration.
"If you want to have a conversation and engage in a polite and respectful manner with the president-elect, he’s gonna treat you in kind," Spicer said. "But if you come in hot and want to be disrespectful and rude, as Jim Acosta was today, he’s not gonna sit back and take it. This is a man who fights and wins."

Republican-led Senate takes first step to repeal Obamacare

Trump: You're going to be proud of plan to replace ObamaCare

The Senate early Thursday passed a measure to take the first step forward on dismantling President Barack Obama's health care law, responding to pressure to move quickly even as Republicans and President-elect Trump grapple with what the replace it with.
The nearly party-line 51-48 vote came on a nonbinding Republican-backed procedural budget vote. Committee action to write repeal legislation could come to a vote next month. A full replacement would follow sometime after that, presuming Republicans can come up with one, the Associated Press reported.
"We must act quickly to bring relief to the American people," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The House is slated to vote on the measure on Friday, though some Republicans there have misgivings about setting the repeal effort in motion without a better idea of the replacement plan.
Trump said at a news conference on Tuesday that his incoming administration would soon reveal a plan to both repeal so-called Obamacare and replace it with legislation to "get health care taken care of in this country."

Tillerson, during confirmation hearing, says Russia poses 'danger' but refuses to call Putin 'war criminal'

Rubio grills Tillerson on if Putin is a war criminal

Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson and Sen. Marco Rubio clashed during a pair of contentious exchanges Wednesday, with an incredulous Rubio pressing the prospective diplomat to brand Russian President Vladimir Putin a "war criminal" and Tillerson coolly blunting Rubio's broadsides by explaining his more deliberative vision.

During the tense back-and-forths at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing, Rubio, R-Fla., cross-examined Tillerson on policy regarding Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. At the end of Rubio's second questioning period, Tillerson sought to allay any concerns the aggressive Rubio may have had.

"There seems to be some misunderstanding that I see the world through a different lens, and I do not," Tillerson said. "...But I'm also clear-eyed and realistic about dealing with cultures."
Tillerson's statement followed a heated initial session during which the ExxonMobil CEO refused to specifically call Putin a "war criminal."
"I find it discouraging your ability to cite that, which I think is globally accepted," Rubio said.
That exchange mirrored later questions by Rubio, who tried getting Tillerson to categorize Saudi Arabia as a "human rights violator" and denounce the practices of controversial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.
Tillerson also wouldn't bite when Rubio, a former opponent of President-elect Donald Trump during the Republican presidential primary, tried to get Tillerson to say Putin murdered political foes.
Still, Tillerson took a noticeably harder line toward Putin and Russia than Trump has done during the transition period and prior to it.

Booker breaks with precedent to testify against Sessions – and earns Republican rebuke

Another Snowflake.

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker cast aside long-standing precedent Wednesday and testified against a sitting Senate colleague, as he urged the chamber not to confirm Jeff Sessions for attorney general – a move that earned him a rebuke from Republicans.
Critics charged the New Jersey senator was merely burnishing his credentials for a presidential run, with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., writing on Facebook he was “disappointed” Booker “has chosen to start his 2020 presidential campaign by testifying against Senator Sessions.”
According to the Senate historian, no sitting senator has ever testified against a colleague at a Cabinet nomination hearing. Cotton said Booker “knows better” than to use the hearing as a “platform for his presidential aspirations.”
The first-term senator countered in his testimony that Senate traditions were not the priority here.
"I believe, like perhaps all of my colleagues, that in the choice between standing with Senate norms or standing up for what my conscience tells me is best for our country, I will always choose conscience and country," Booker told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Testifying during the second day of Sessions’ confirmation hearing, Booker charged that his colleague is incapable of fulfilling the responsibilities of the office of attorney general.
“Senator Sessions has not demonstrated a commitment to a central requisite of the job [of attorney general] -- to aggressively pursue the congressional mandate of civil rights, equal rights and justice for all of our citizens,” Booker said.
The senator asserted that at times during his career Sessions has “demonstrated a hostility toward these convictions.”
Ever since President-elect Donald Trump nominated him to the AG post, Sessions has been battling efforts to revive allegations of past racist comments which helped derail his failed 1986 nomination for a federal judgeship.
Wednesday’s testimony coincided with other civil-rights figures testifying against Sessions including NAACP head Cornell Brooks and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a civil rights icon who marched with Martin Luther King Jr.
Sessions, however, adamantly denied claims of harboring racial animus during the opening day of the hearing Tuesday. He decried the “false charges” and said critics were painting a “caricature” of him.
Jeff Giertz, Booker’s communications director, confirmed to FoxNews.com that the senator “attended parts of yesterday’s Judiciary hearing in-person and watched the hearing throughout the day when he wasn’t able to be in the room.”
Though Booker, a former Newark mayor, came out against a Senate colleague just three-plus years into his term, Democrats came to Booker’s defense -- suggesting his break with tradition pales in comparison to Republican tactics.
“He is taking a stand and is doing so fully recognizing that a lot of his Republican colleagues will be upset. Republicans did not think much of discretion and deference when they refused to give [Obama Supreme Court nominee] Merrick Garland a hearing,” Jim Manley, a former spokesman for ex-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, told FoxNews.com.
Cotton answered Booker’s testimony on Twitter Wednesday afternoon, by joking that his “attacks on Jeff Sessions are so far-fetched I half-expected his make-believe friend T-Bone to be next witness.”
T-Bone is a reference to an individual Booker frequently claimed over the years had threatened his life when he was mayor of Newark. It came to light during his campaign for the Senate that T-Bone was not an actual person.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the only other black member of the Senate, gently chided Booker for his appearance Wednesday.
“I have always respected Senator Booker as a colleague. This is not a decision I would have made,” he said in a statement to FoxNews.com.
Booker’s comments Wednesday stand in contrast to remarks he made less than a year ago.
“I feel blessed and honored to have partnered with Senator Sessions in being the Senate sponsors of this important award,” Booker said of his collaboration with Sessions on a bill honoring participants of the Selma civil rights marches with the Congressional Gold Medal.

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Bret Baier: Obama used final speech to fire up his party

President Obama, in his farewell address Tuesday night, focused his speech on gains made during his two-term presidency and used the platform to urge his pary to rally after November's election.
“He’s trying to fire up his party,” Bret Baier, the anchor of “Special Report” said. He continued, “It is a party in the wilderness when it comes to the politics of where it goes.”
Obama issued a rallying cry to his supporters, saying: “If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try to talk with one in real life.”
“If something needs fixing, then lace up your shoes and do some organizing. If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself,” he said. “Show up. Dive in. Stay at it. Sometimes you’ll win. Sometimes you’ll lose,” he said.
WATCH ENTIRE SPEECH: PART 1 | PART 2
He bid farewell to the country in his hometown of Chicago in front of 18,000 inside McCormick Place. His speech was forceful at times, especially when defending his major initiatives.
“If I had told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history," he said, before listing off a series of other achievements, "...you might have said our sights were set a little too high," he said.
READ THE SPEECH
When he made a reference to the next president, Donald Trump, the crowd booed.
“No, no, no, no, no,” he said. One of the nation’s great strengths is the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next.”
Baier, who was interviewed after the speech by Tucker Carlson on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” pointed out that Obama got emotional when he talked about his family.
“No matter what your ideology is, you have to—at this moment—respect the sacrifice that a family goes through, when not only running for president, but being in that office for eight years. It comes with a lot of perks, but it comes with a lot of sacrifice as well.”

Kelly faces tough questions from Senate on border, heroin, cybersecurity in bid to lead Homeland Security

Retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly was pressed Tuesday at a Capitol Hill hearing for answers about how he would address the country’s most pressing security concerns, including heroin trafficking and border protection, in his quest to become the next Homeland Security secretary.
Kelly -- who remains the corps’ longest-serving, active-duty general -- fielded the questions during his Senate confirmation hearing as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the agency.
The 66-year-old Kelly said that heroin pouring in from Mexico and other problems along the U.S.-Mexico border begin “1,500 miles south,” in Central America, and that resolving them requires improving relationships with other countries.
“Physical barriers alone won’t do it,” he testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security. “We have to get after drug transporters. We need better partnerships.”
His call for forging and maintaining relations was a theme throughout the hearing, with Kelly and his supporters citing instances in his career in which he has relied on consensus building to succeed.
“I have led platoons and divisions,” Kelly said in his opening remarks. “I have held senior command positions in Iraq, served as the combatant commander of the U.S. Southern Command and … with our allies, across agencies and the private sector.
“These assignments … shared the common characteristics of working within and leading large, complex and diverse mission-focused organizations, while under great pressure to produce results.”
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, a fellow Naval Academy graduate, who introduced Kelly, each called him “supremely qualified” and adept at managing multiple agencies.
“I’m confident that he would do as well, as secretary of state,” Gates said.
Kelly, having testified numerous times on Capitol Hill, is widely respected among members of Congress and is largely expected to be confirmed by the GOP-led Senate as the Cabinet-level agency’s seventh secretary in its roughly 13-year existence.
However, he faced several tough questions Tuesday that he appeared to struggle to answer, including a request by Ohio GOP Sen. Robert Portman to name his top-three ideas to improve agency morale.
The agency, which has roughly 240,000 employees and 20 major offices, notoriously has low morale and problems recruiting and retaining top employees.
Lawmakers repeatedly asked Kelly about domestic terrorism and cybersecurity, which he acknowledged to be a complex and inter-connected problem that needs to be stopped in large part by “cracking the nut” on people getting self-radicalized on the Internet.
Perhaps the toughest questions were posed by newly-elected California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, who pressed Kelly on the Obama administration's immigration policy known as DACA, which allows deferred deportation for some illegal immigrants who entered the country as minors.
“I don’t know what the incoming administration is doing with that,” Kelly responded. “But I promise you, I will be involved in the process.”
However, he made clear his position about how he would deal with so-called sanctuary cities that don’t enforce U.S. immigration laws.
“The law is the law,” he said.