Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 4-11-17

White House And Government News
Neil Gorsuch Confirmed To Become 113th Justice Of The Supreme Court
Pres. Trump Will Be Back In Florida For Easter
Judge Neil M. Gorsuch
was confirmed by the Senate on Friday to become the 113th justice of the Supreme Court.
The moment was a triumph for President Trump, whose campaign appeal to re- luctant Republicans last year rested in large part on his pledge to appoint another committed conservative to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016.
However rocky the first months of his administration may have been, Mr. Trump now has a lasting legacy: Judge Gorsuch, 49, could serve on the court for 30 years or more.
The final tally was 54-45 in favor of confirmation.
The confirmation was also a vindication of the bare- knuckled strategy of Senate
Judge Neil M. Gorsuch was confirmed on Friday. Friday’s vote was possible only after the Republican Senate discarded longstanding rules meant to ensure mature deliberation and bipartisan coopera- tion in considering Supreme Court nominees.
On Thursday, after Democrats waged a filibuster against Judge Gor- such, denying him the 60 votes required to advance to a final vote, Republicans invoked the so-called nuclear option: lowering the threshold on Supreme Court nominations to a simple majority vote.
President Donald Trump plans on returning to Mar-a-Lago, his luxury resort in Palm Beach, Fla., this com- ing Easter weekend.
“Yes, I’ll be here for Easter,” he said at his Trump Interna- tional Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Fla., according to The Palm Beach Daily News.
Is Easter next week?” Trump added when pressed on his schedule. "Well then, I guess I’ll be back next week.”
The Daily News said Trump played at Trump Inter- national early Sunday as part of two foursomes that were ac- companied by Secret Service agents.
The newspaper added about 30 members were also
President waves as he leaves his resort in Palm Beach, FL.
dining or socializing at the club that morning, including Patrick Park, Trump’s choice for ambassador to Aus- tria.
Trump was spotted twice at his golf course in West Palm Beach over the weekend fol- lowing a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago last week.
Republicans, who refused even to consider President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Judge Merrick B. Garland, saying the choice of the next justice
should belong to the next president.
On Monday, April 10, Gor- such was publicly sworn in at 11 a.m. ET at the White House.
Republicans Targeting Democrats
With Digital Billboard Attacks
Using Obamacare Issue
Russia And Iran Warn U. S. About Future Attacks On Syria; U. S. Sends Mixed Message Prior To G7 Summit
The House GOP's campaign arm is targeting five vulnerable Democrats over ObamaCare while they're back in their home districts over the two- week recess.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is launching digital billboards in their targets’ dis- tricts during the Easter recess.
The billboards highlight the Democrats' support for Oba- maCare and urge constituents to contact their lawmakers.
The NRCC will unveil a new target each day this week, which started with freshman Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D- N.J.) on Monday.
Gottheimer is a top GOP target in 2018 after ousting seven-term Rep. Scott Gar- rett (R-N.J.) in the 2016 elec- tion.
The billboards are the NRCC's first major activity within their Democratic targets' districts of the 2018 cycle as Republicans seek to defend their House ma- jority.
Russia and Iran have warned the U. S. they will “re- spond with force” if their own “red lines” are crossed in Syria.
Following Friday’s cruise missile strike on a Syrian air- base, in retaliation for the chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun earlier in the week, the alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a joint state- ment threatening action in response to “any breach of red lines from whoever it is”.
President Donald Trump said the strike on al Shayrat airbase, near Homs, with some 60 Tomahawk missiles was “representing the world”. The base was al- legedly used by Syrian forces to conduct the attack, which killed more than 70 people.
On Sunday the U.K’s De- fense Secretary, Sir Michael
Fallon, demanded Russia rein in Assad, claiming that Moscow is “responsible for every civilian death” in Khan Sheikhoun.
Foreign ministers of lead- ing US allies were meeting Monday amid mixed signals from the Trump administra- tion on the future of Syrian President President Bashar al-Assad.
At a summit in Italy, for-
eign ministers of the G7 group of industrialized na- tions were expected to seek clarity from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on whether the U.S. is now committed to deposing the Assad regime.
At the weekend, U. S. am- bassador to the UN Nikki Haley suggested regime change in Syria was in- evitable in the wake of last week's chemical weapons at- tack that was widely blamed on the Assad regime.
But Tillerson was more equivocal, saying that the pri- ority was the defeat of ISIS. Asked on CBS's "Face the Na- tion" whether deposing Assad was a priority, he replied: "I think the president has been quite clear. First and foremost, we must defeat ISIS." He went on to say that the Syrian people would de- termine the future of Assad.
Healthcare has also be- come a hot-button issue in 2017 as Republicans sought to dismantle ObamaCare.
House GOP leadership un- veiled a bill that would repeal and replace ObamaCare with full support from President Trump’s administration.
But after the moderate and conservative wings of the party disagreed with certain parts of the bill, the legislation was ul- timately pulled from a vote on the House floor.
Since then, Republicans are trying to revive the bill. Trump is looking to make compromises with both of those factions within this party, but lawmakers headed back home for recess with no deal.
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