Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 11-9-18

White House and Political News
White House Pulls CNN Reporter Jim Acosta's Pass After Contentious News Conference
Maxine Waters Taking Over Finance Committee Is Trump’s Worst Nightmare And A Dream Come True For Us
The reckoning is on its way! After calling Rep. Maxine Waters all kinds of dumb, don’t expect our favorite auntie to take her time launching an investigation into President Donald Trump’s finances when she becomes chair of the House Financial Services Com- mittee now that the Dems rule the House of Representatives. She’s ready and so are we.
The venerable California Democrat who won yet another congressional term, is one of the strongest critics of Trump, has battled with the President and endured insult after insult since Trump took office. From referring to Waters as having a low-IQ to calling her crazy and corrupt, Trump has been non-stop in his verbal as- saults against Waters, dishing out disrespect almost daily.
And now the chickens are
CHAIRWOMAN MAXINE WATERS
now coming home to roost and surely Waters is strapping up her boots and gearing up to put the petty President in check. As Chairwoman, Waters now has the power to subpoena Trump’s tax returns and delve into the long-standing mystery of what he’s hiding.
In a stunning break with protocol, the White House said Wednesday night that it's suspending the press pass of CNN's Jim Acosta "until further notice."
The move came just hours after Acosta, CNN's chief White House correspondent, drew the ire of President Donald Trump and his al- lies by asking multiple ques- tions at a post-midterms news conference. Trump in- sulted Acosta and called him a "terrible" person.
White House Press Secre- tary Sarah Sanders an- nounced in a statement that Acosta would be stripped of what's known as a "hard pass," which gives him access to the White House grounds.
The White House Corre- spondents' Association (WHCA), which advocates for the press corps, issued a statement soon after Acosta was denied entry, calling the revocation of his access "un- acceptable."
"Journalists may use a range of approaches to carry out their jobs and the WHCA does not police the tone or frequency of the questions its members ask of powerful senior government officials, including the President," the association said. "Such inter- actions, however uncomfort- able they may appear to be, help define the strength of our national institutions. We urge the White House to im- mediately reverse this weak and misguided action."
Elisabeth Bumiller, the Washington bureau chief for The New York Times, said that "the president should not pick and choose who cov- ers him, and he should cer- tainly not force out a
representative of one of the country's leading news or- ganizations, one that tens of millions of Americans de- pend on for their news."
Acosta has been one of the most aggressive reporters on the Trump beat, winning him huge numbers of fans but also huge numbers of critics.
During Wednesday's news conference, many people on social media thanked Acosta for trying to hold the president accountable for his words and deeds.
But others condemned the correspondent. Some Trump boosters said Acosta's credentials should be revoked. And pro-Trump media outlets ran stories al- leging that the reporter had mistreated the White House aide who tried to take a mi- crophone away from him at the news conference.
Sanders repeated this assertion in her statement.
"President Trump be- lieves in a free press and ex- pects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Ad- ministration," she said. "We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just try- ingtodoherjobasaWhite House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable."
CNN producer Allie Mal- loy responded to Sanders via Twitter: "This is a com- plete lie. The woman grabbed Jim's arm repeatedly. He never once touched her. In fact at one point @Acosta
tells her politely 'pardon me, mam' as she's yanking on his arm."
Acosta also tweeted that Sanders' description of the incident was a "lie."
At the news conference, Trump snapped at the press corps, called reporters "rude" for asking questions, and made baseless claims about political polling.
"Such a hostile media. It's so sad," he said, keeping up his years-long campaign against the people who cover him.
Trump's most con- tentious exchange was with Acosta. Immediately after- ward, CNN said in a state- ment: "This President's ongoing attacks on the press have gone too far. They are not only dangerous, they are disturbingly un-American."
"While President Trump has made it clear he does not respect a free press, he has a sworn obligation to protect it," CNN added. "A free press is vital to democ- racy, and we stand behind Jim Acosta and his fellow journalists everywhere."
The news conference was shown live on CNN and all the other cable news chan- nels and broadcast net- works. Media critics and Democrats said Trump's combative streak — telling reporters to "sit down" and insulting some of them — might be part of a strategy to deflect attention from Dem- ocratic victories in the midterms.
WASHINGTON — Presi- dent Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, replacing him with a loyalist who has echoed the president’s complaints about the special counsel in- vestigation into Russia’s elec- tion interference and will now take charge of the inquiry.
Sessions delivered his res- ignation letter to the White House at the request of the president, who tapped Matthew G. Whitaker, Mr. Sessions’s chief of staff, as acting attorney general, raising questions about the future of the inquiry led by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.
Whitaker, a former college football tight end and United States attorney in Iowa, and a onetime Senate candidate in that state, has previously ques- tioned the scope of the investi- gation. In a column for CNN last year, he wrote that Mueller would be going too far if he examined the Trump family’s finances. “This would raise serious con- cerns that the special counsel’s investigation was a mere witch hunt,” Whitaker wrote, echo- ing the president’s derisive de- scription of the investigation. Mr. Mueller has subpoe- naed the Trump Organization for documents related to Rus- sia.
Until now, Rod J. Rosen- stein, the deputy attorney gen- eral, oversaw the investigation because Mr. Sessions re-
After many months of ex- pressing disappointment with Jeff Sessions through tweets, press conferences and inter- views, President Trump finally pushed out his attorney general.
cused himself in March 2017, citing his active role in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Democrats quickly de- manded on Wednesday that Whitaker also remove him- self from taking charge of the inquiry, citing potential con- flicts of interest, including his criticisms of the Mueller in- vestigation, as well as his con- nections to a witness in that investigation, Sam Clovis, a former Trump campaign aide. In 2014, Whitaker was the chairman of Clovis’s unsuc- cessful campaign to become Iowa state treasurer.
“Given his previous com- ments advocating defunding and imposing limitations on the Mueller investigation, Whitaker should recuse him- self from its oversight for the duration of his time as acting attorney general,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a statement.
Jeff Sessions Is Forced Out As Attorney General As Trump Installs Loyalist
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