TIGER WOODS AWARDED MEDAL OF FREEDOM (BACK ON TOP):
TIGER’S APPEARANCE BEARS THE BATTLE SCARS OF A WOUNDED SOLDIER BUT HE REMAINS NO.1 IN GOLF.
IT IS POSSIBLE TO BOUNCE BACK IN LIFE AFTER EMBARRASSING SCANDALS AND BEING PERSONALLY ATTACKED.
GOD BLESS TIGER & HIS CHILDREN,
Post Sources: AP, ESPN, Youtube
**** Medal of Freedom awarded to 'true legend' Tiger
President Donald Trump awarded golfer Tiger Woods the nation's highest civilian honor on Monday, describing the 43-year-old as a "true legend" who transformed golf and then fought through years of injury to return to the sport's summit.
Trump awarded Woods with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Woods is the fourth golfer to earn that distinction and certainly the youngest.
While he dominated the sport for more than a decade, he won his first major in nearly 11 years at last month's Masters tournament, a comeback that captivated the sporting world.
"Tiger was back on top," Trump declared during the Rose Garden ceremony.
Trump described the litany of victories Woods has obtained during his remarkable career and the injuries that almost derailed it.
"This evening, we are in the presence of a true legend, an extraordinary athlete who has transformed golf and achieved new levels of dominance," Trump said during the presentation. "He's also a great person. He's a great guy."
Jack Nicklaus, a previous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, was among several golfers to congratulate Woods in messages on their Twitter accounts.
Woods was joined at the ceremony by his mother, Kultida; daughter, Sam Alexis, 11; son, Charlie Axel, 10; and girlfriend, Erica Herman.
Woods' father, Earl, passed away more than a decade ago. Woods' longtime caddie Joe LaCava also attended.
Woods became emotional as he spoke of his parents, and he thanked those who have supported him over the years, saying, "You've seen the good and bad, the highs and lows, and I would not be in this position without all of your help."
Woods tweeted after the White House ceremony:
President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Freedom to Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. Obama presented it to Charlie Sifford, sometimes referred to as the "Jackie Robinson of golf." Woods noted that he named his son after Sifford. "He was like the grandpa I never had," Woods recalled.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is given to individuals who have made "especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors," according to the White House.
Presidents have complete discretion over whom they honor with the medal.
CNN’s April Ryan said Omarosa Manigault Newman stabbed her in the back and attempted to end her career when their once-friendly relationship soured.
“It was really ugly. It was so ugly,” Ryan said during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Karen Hunter Show” on Tuesday.
Manigault Newman has been on a media blitz in support of her new book, “Unhinged,” and she has played various secret recordings of Trump and his staffers that she said were collected during her time working in the White House.
Ryan was on “The Karen Hunter Show” to promote her own book, when was asked asked if there's a section on Manigault Newman -- whom she considered a friend before the former Trump aide turned on her.
"I talk about her taping me. I warned everybody. I talk about her taping me. We had that fight between the Oval Office and the press office,” Ryan said. “It probably stemmed from the fact that she was very upset with me because I ...wouldn't be in her wedding and people were telling me she was very upset that I chose not to be in her wedding.”
The CNN contributor said that in addition to the wedding party beef, Manigault Newman turned on her in order to help Trump go after the media.
“She stabbed in the back, the neck, the eyeballs and in the front. She tried to cut my head off and put it on a platter and serve it up to Donald Trump,” Ryan told Hunter.
The feud between Ryan and Manigault Newman goes back to at least February of last year, when The Washington Post published a story headlined, “‘This is . . . Nixonian’: Reporter was taped by White House in heated exchange”. The Post’s Paul Farhi wrote that Ryan then claimed Manigault Newman said the CNN political analyst “was among a handful of journalists on whom the White House was keeping ‘dossiers’ of negative information.”
At the time, Manigault Newman called Ryan a “liar” and admitted to having a tape, while Ryan said she was considering legal action regarding the recording.
Ryan -- she's White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, in addition to her gig at CNN -- then told the SiriusXM host that Manigault Newman attempted to spread lies about her relationship to Hillary Clinton.
“I was very upset about that and we'll take care of what she said and the lies that she was spreading that is career-ending and I was doing this for about 20 years, when she did this,” Ryan said. “She said I was taking money from Hillary Clinton. I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
The Post also reported that Manigault Newman sent Ryan a note citing an unnamed story that tied her to Clinton.
“This story suggests that as a reporter, you are (or were) a paid Clinton surrogate. I pray this is not true! This could be hurtful to your legacy and the integrity of your work,” Manigault Newman reportedly wrote to Ryan at the time.
Ryan told the radio host that Manigault Newman wanted to “kill” her career, and that the truth could be easily proven.
“Now, here I am, a divorced single mother of two girls who works hard, and it's not just about taking food off my table. You are hurting my children. I'm a fierce mama bear. She lied on me,” Ryan said.
Ryan also claimed that Manigault Newman urged Trump's former press secretary, Sean Spicer, not to call on her during White House briefings.
Manigault Newman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And, perhaps, your potential leakers closer yet.
President Donald Trump's political operation has made a regular practice of providing soft landing-pads for discarded staffers, offering nebulous jobs at big salaries to aides who have been pushed out of his West Wing.
The revelation this week that former White Houseassistant Omarosa Manigault Newman was offered a high-paying job on Trump's re-election campaign in return for signing a non-disclosure agreement was the clearest demonstration yet of how a slot in the Trump orbit is being used to take care of loyalists — and protect against potential liabilities.
Manigault Newman, who contends in her new book that she was offered a hush-money contract with the Trump campaign paying $15,000 a month, is hardly the first erstwhile staffer to find a lucrative off-ramp in the expanse of pro-Trump political organizations. The former staff members have found a wide range of rehabilitation within Trump's orbit: his re-election campaign, the Republican National Committee, and outside groups that support both him and Vice President Mike Pence.
Keith Schiller, the president's former bodyguard who served for eight months as director of Oval Office operations, has been paid the same $15,000 by the Republican National Committee as a security consultant for its national convention — in 2020 in Charlotte.
John McEntee, Trump's former personal aide, is paid 14,000 a month by the Trump re-election campaign.
One-time Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski joined Pence's Great America PAC in May, and former press secretary Sean Spicer was announced in June to replace him as the "senior advisor and spokesman" for pro-Trump super PAC America First Action.
Manigault Newman told MSNBC's "Hardball" on Monday, "They told me I could work from home, I didn't have to come in if I didn't want to. ... I could choose between the RNC, America First or the Trump campaign." She says she said no.
Now she has released a book filled with unsavory White House inside stories — Trump says the ones about him are false — and has been playing recordings of the president and others on TV.
That's exactly what he wanted to avoid, and his presidential campaign filed an arbitration action against her on Wednesday, alleging she had breached a confidentiality agreement she had signed.
The outside groups have also become magnets for Trump backers who were not brought into the administration, like Katrina Pierson and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
The all-in the-family approach to taking care of stalwarts is nothing new. But the systematic approach with which Trump White House veterans have been offered plush gigs is.
According to aides, it reflects a reality that for some the lucrative private sector jobs that are typically available to exiting White House officials never materialized, while for others, it serves as a way keep them nearby and quiet.
Some current and former staffers have struggled to find post-White House jobs — given the conflicted feelings on the Trump administration in Washington — making the campaign or a super PAC an attractive paycheck.
And Trump, despite his reality-television catch-phrase, is loath to fire anyone from his inner circle, preferring to keep receiving their public and private adoration.
"When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems," Trump tweeted about Manigault Newman on Monday. "I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me - until she got fired!"
OMAROSA SAID "EVERYONE WILL BOW DOWN TO TRUMP" BEFORE SHE WAS FIRED BY JOHN KELLY.
OMAROSA CALLED TRUMP "TRAILBLAZER FOR WOMEN" BEFORE SHE WAS ESCORTED BY SECRET SERVICE OUT OF TRUMP'S ADMINISTRATION.
IF OMAROSA WILL TURN ON TRUMP.....A MAN WHO MADE HER FAMOUS, SHE WILL TURN ON ANYONE....SHE CAN'T BE TRUSTED & GIVES BLACK WOMEN A BAD NAME.
Post Sources: CNN, Twitter, MSNBC, Youtube
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
..."really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me - until she got fired!"
Omarosa Manigault Newman and April Ryan traded barbs Sunday after the former reality TV star said the White House exploited American Urban Radio Networks' Washington bureau chief by leaking a colorful, unflattering story about her departure from the Trump administration.
"Don’t reference me or use my name. Keep my name out of your mouth," Ryan wrote on Twitter. "You have done enough. Your lies and crazy behavior are catching up to you. Can you say National Security breach? Lawyer up!"
Ryan's comments follow Manigault Newman's explosive interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," which aired a tape the former star of "The Apprentice" recorded in the Situation Room of White House chief of staff John Kelly talking to her about "leaving" her role in the Trump administration. The tape has raised concerns that Manigault Newman breached national security protocol by taking a recording device into what is supposed to be among the most secure parts of the presidential complex.
"He knew that John Kelly was going to take me into the Situation Room, and lock me in there, threaten me, and say that things were going to get ugly for me, and there would be damage to me reputation," Manigault Newman said Sunday, referring to President Trump. "And you know what, the next day there was damage to my reputation because they then put out a story using and exploiting an African-American reporter to say that I was running around the residence and trying to break into a Christmas party, which is ludicrous."
Ryan additionally slammed Manigault Newman as "evil" during a Sunday appearance on CNN's "Reliable Sources."
"She was complicit, but she was doing all this knowing that there was going to be a payoff in the end for her, and then once she got upset with him or he got upset with her or whatever happened, she decides to turn on him," Ryan said of Manigault Newman's initial support of Trump, despite now calling him "a racist, a bigot and a misogynist.” "She’s not a friend, she’s a liar, and I would say she’s evil," Ryan added.
Manigault Newman is promoting her book, "Unhinged," which is set to be released Aug. 14. Ryan also has a memoir coming out. Ryan's "Under Fire" will be widely available from Sept. 1.
April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks and a CNN contributor, called former Trump administration aide Omarosa Manigault Newman a "liar" and "evil" on Sunday.
Ryan, a frequent critic of the Trump administration, appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources" where she told host Brian Stelter about her own dealings with Newman.
The former Trump aide and reality TV contestant said earlier on Sunday that she had provided NBC a recording she made of her firing from the administration. Newman had worked on Trump's campaign and then in the administration for about a year before White House Chief of Staff John Kelly fired her.
She had previously known the president from being on "The Apprentice," the reality TV show hosted by Donald Trump before he was won the 2016 presidential election.
Ryan first explained her current relationship with the former Trump aide.
"I've known Omarosa for years and we are not friends anymore," she said.
The CNN contributor said that while working in the Trump administration, Newman made moves to derail her career and reporting.
"She's not a friend; she's a liar and I would say she's evil," Ryan said.
"I hope she can respond to that at some point soon, calling her ‘evil,’" Stelter said.
"She will. I'm sure she will," Ryan said.
Newman has been making media appearances to promote her new book, Unhinged.
Ryan is not the only one to criticize Newman recently. Trump himself called her a "lowlife" on Saturday. The president followed up his comments on Monday via tweet, saying "Wacky Omarosa" was "vicious, but not smart" and "People in the White House hated her."
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway's husband, George Conway, a Democrat, also said that claims Trump made racial comments about him were untrue. Pollster Frank Luntz also said Newman's claims he heard Trump make racial slurs were "flat-out false."
Hillary Clinton just can’t face the fact that Donald Trump is in the White House and she’s not.
Ten months after her stunning defeat in the 2016 presidential election, the Democratic nominee held out the possibility of challenging the results if there’s solid proof of Russian interference beyond what has already been made public.
“I wouldn’t rule it out,” Clinton told National Public Radio on Monday.
That seemed to floor the interviewer, Terry Gross.
“So what are the means, like, this is totally unprecedented in every way,” Gross said, grasping for a follow-up.
“It is,” replied Clinton.
But when asked how she would file such a challenge, Clinton was stumped.
“I don’t know if there’s any legal, constitutional way to do that,” she admitted.
“There are scholars, academics, who have arguments that it would be, but I don’t think they’re on strong ground. But people are making those arguments. I just don’t think we have a mechanism,” she said.
Clinton got 3 million more popular votes than Trump but lost the presidency in the Electoral College, an institution she said should be eliminated.
“I do believe we should abolish the Electoral College, because I was sitting listening to a report on the French election and the French political analyst said, ‘You know, in our country the person with the most votes wins, unlike in yours.’ And I think that’s an anachronism. I’ve said that since 2000,” she told NPR.
Clinton insisted that if the roles were reversed — and Trump won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College — she would still be pushing for a full probe of Russia’s involvement in the election.
“Let me just put it this way — if I had lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College and in my first day as president the intelligence community came to me and said, ‘The Russians influenced the election,’ I would’ve never stood for it. Even though it might’ve advantaged me, I would’ve said, ‘We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.’ I would’ve set up an independent commission with subpoena power and everything else,” she said.
The NPR interview was part of a tour for Clinton’s new book, “What Happened,” in which she claims then-FBI Director James Comey cost her the election by announcing a new investigation into her e-mails 11 days before voters went to the polls.
In her chat with NPR, Clinton charged that Comey held her to a higher standard than Trump.
“Where I part company with him — and think he violated every rule in the book as a FBI director — was what he did on Oct. 28 [2016], because what he did then was to send a letter acting like he was reopening an investigation that had been closed to Congress, knowing it would be immediately leaked. And later on when asked, Well weren’t you also conducting an investigation into the Trump campaign and their connections with Russia? Yes. Well, why didn’t you tell the American people that?
Because it was too close to the election,” she claimed.
Kelly spent 40 years as a Marine, and six months as Homeland Security secretary where he cracked down on illegal immigrants.
Donald Trump is said to have been recently taken with the desire to have a “general” as his chief of staff to sort out a White House beset by internal warfare, not to mention its external problems.
While some advisers have questioned the wisdom of the move, the president has got himself a bona fide retired four-star US Marine Corps general in the shape of John F Kelly.
Kelly’s appointment, announced in a late afternoon Friday tweet by the president, as his new White House chief of staff, sees him move from his role as the secretary of homeland security, where the president says he has done a “spectacular job” and is a “true star” of his administration.
Kelly, aged 67 and a native of Boston, stepped down in 2016 from US southern command, where he was responsible for US military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean, including the controversial detention facility at Guantánamo Bay.
While at homeland security, Kelly has presided over a crackdown on illegal migrants and a more aggressive posture for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Kelly has won Trump’s praise for a fall in the numbers of recorded crossing along the southern border, even though there has still been no construction of the president’s promised border wall with Mexico.
Kelly had told lawmakers during his confirmation hearings in January that he supported Trump about the need for a wall, though he also spoke about the need for extra border agents and better technology. A hiring spree of agents is under way, despite concerns over vetting of candidates.
Kelly, who had enlisted in the Marines in 1970, served as commander of US southern command under Obama from 2012.
While in that role, he differed with Barack Obama on key issues, and had warned of vulnerabilities along the United States’ southern border with Mexico.
At the time Trump picked him for Homeland Security, he was the third general tapped for a high-level job in the new administration. Trump had also nominated retired Gen James Mattis to lead the Department of Defense and picked retired Lt Gen Michael Flynn to be his national security adviser – a shortlived move ended when he resigned over his misleading account of his Russian contacts.
Kelly, who is from an Irish Catholic family, is the most senior US officer to have lost a child in the “war on terror”. His son Robert, a first lieutenant in the marines, was killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2010.
At Southcom, Kelly quickly developed a reputation for opposition to Obama’s intended closure of Guantánamo Bay.
Kelly will hope to have a better relationship with Anthony Scaramucci, the White House’s new communications director, whose relationship this month appears to have spelled the end for Reince Priebus in the chief of staff role.
SEAN SPICER'S DEPARTURE MEANS TRUMP IS ROLLING UP HIS SLEEVES TO MAKE AMERICAN GREAT AGAIN (WHITE HOUSE SHAKE - UP):
WHO IS ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI?
TRUMP IS PREPARING TO ACHIEVE ALL HIS AGENDA OBJECTIVES WITH CONGRESS' HELP.
SPICER WILL MOST LIKELY REMAIN ONBOARD BEHIND THE SCENE BECAUSE HE IS STILL VALUABLE TO THE TEAM.
WHO WILL REPLACE SPICER??
IT WILL NEED TO BE SOMEONE TOUGH AS NAILS, SHARP WITH A CALM STEELY DEMEANOR.
Sources: Fox News, Washington Times, Youtube
***** Shake-up underway: Sean Spicer leaving White House podium for behind-the-scenes role
White House press secretary Sean Spicer plans to move out of his role as the president’s daily spokesman, while President Trump is souring on often-hostile televised media briefings and is limiting traditional press access in favor of taking his message to audiences directly.
After only five months on the job, the embattled Mr. Spicer is searching for a replacement to take his place at the podium to conduct press briefings and allow him to shift into a less visible role managing White House communications.
Mr. Spicer, whose combative exchanges with reporters at daily briefings have become legendary, has been easing out of the daily briefing job for a month. He has increasingly shared that duty with White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders.
But asked about his reported move, Mr. Spicer said from the press briefing podium Tuesday, “I’m right here.”
“It’s no secret we’ve had a couple vacancies, including our communications director, who’s [been] gone for a while,” Mr. Spicer said, referring to Michael Dubke, who resigned in late May after only three months on the job. “We’ve been meeting with potential people that may be of service to this administration. I don’t think that should come as any surprise.”
“And when we have an announcement of a personnel nature, we’ll let you know,” he said.
It was his first televised press briefing in eight days.
However long Mr. Spicer remains in the high-pressure job, Tuesday was his 152nd day as press secretary.
Only three White House press secretaries since 1960 have worked shorter stints: Jerald terHorst served 31 days under President Gerald Ford, George Stephanopolous served 138 days as de facto press secretary at the start of the Clinton administration, and Jake Siewert held the post for 112 days in the final months of the Clinton presidency.
Mr. Spicer has been carrying out dual roles as communications director and press secretary before Mr. Dubke was hired in February — and again since he quit. He interviewed candidates to replace him at the podium, including conservative radio host Laura Ingraham and Daily Mail editor David Martosko, Politico reported Monday.
Beyond Mr. Spicer’s changing role, there are other signs that Mr. Trump and his aides are fed up with coverage by the White House press corps that is heavy on questions about Russia and the special counsel investigation into possible collusion with the Trump campaign. Mr. Spicer and Ms. Sanders have scaled back the frequency and duration of televised press briefings.
After Mr. Trump openly suggested last month that it would be a “good idea” to stop press briefings altogether, the White House also has shifted its media strategy in recent weeks to include Cabinet secretaries who limit questions to topics such as reform of the Veterans Affairs Department.
“The White House press briefing on-camera has worn out its welcome with the Trump White House,” said a Republican ally familiar with the thinking in the West Wing. “Trump understands that he’s not getting the value out of it.
Because of the crises and the inability of the administration to get their message out through the televised briefings, they decided to change it up in a variety of ways.”
This Republican emphasized that the White House is “not abandoning the on-camera briefings.”
“But they are getting away from the addiction that cable news TV had to feeding its audience with ‘gotcha’ questions,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s not working for the Trump folks. Why put his press secretary out there to take the arrows when it’s unnecessary?”
One White House reporter sympathized with the White House’s move to limit televised briefings, saying “there’s some rationale for it on their part” to want to avoid “stumbling or friction in the briefing room.”
The problem for the media, this reporter said, is that journalists get hit with a “double-whammy” when there are fewer briefings and the president also doesn’t take questions from reporters at a given event.
To get his message out, Mr. Trump is continuing to communicate with his millions of followers on Twitter and holding occasional campaign-style rallies in battleground states.
On Wednesday he will travel to Iowa to visit a community college and hold a rally.
Ms. Sanders rejected the suggestion that the White House is restricting press access, saying the White House is making a more concerted effort not to distract from Mr. Trump’s message when he holds public events.
On Monday, when Mr. Spicer chose to give a 32-minute briefing off camera, Mr. Trump had a routine schedule that included an Oval Office meeting with the president of Panama and a session with CEOs of technology companies.
“It’s less about limiting [press access] and more about highlighting these events,” she said. “No one is a better advocate of the president’s policies and agenda than the president himself.”
The curtailed press access is rankling the White House press corps, particularly TV journalists who are chafing at the infrequency of televised briefings. Jim Acosta, a veteran White House reporter for CNN, blasted the Trump communications team on air this week, referring to Mr. Spicer as “getting to a point … where he’s just kind of useless.”
“If he can’t come out and answer the questions, and they’re just not going to do this on camera or audio, why are we even having these briefings or these gaggles in the first place?” Mr. Acosta said.
On Twitter Mr. Acosta said, “Make no mistake about what we are all witnessing. This is a WH that is stonewalling the news media.”
The president infamously referred to Mr. Acosta and CNN as “fake news” at a press conference during the transition when Mr. Acosta tried to ask a question about Russia.
In the first weeks of his presidency, Mr. Trump showed an eagerness to engage with the media, sometimes inviting reporters to observe his meetings at the White House for 30 minutes or more, far longer than the usual “photo-ops” held by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
But those lengthy sessions of presidential press access are rare now. And as reporters ask repeated questions about Russia or the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey, the number of televised briefings has dwindled.
Asked again Tuesday whether Mr. Trump believes that Russia interfered in the presidential election last year, Mr. Spicer replied, “I have not sat down and talked to him about that specific thing. Obviously, we’ve been dealing with a lot of other issues today.”
Mr. Acosta, whom Mr. Spicer didn’t call on for a question Tuesday, called out, “Didn’t he say it was ‘fake news,’ Sean?”
White House aides say Mr. Trump has granted the press generous access, conducting many individual interviews with various media outlets.
Mr. Spicer said the daily press briefing is merely “one aspect of what we do.”
“We’re here really early in the morning and really late at night, available to [answer] all of your questions, whether it’s email or in person,” he told reporters.
TRUMP ANSWERS APRIL RYAN'S QUESTION; MEETS WITH CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS LEADERS:
TRUMP HAS DONE MORE FOR BLACK VOTERS IN 88 DAYS THEN OBAMA DID IN 8 YEARS.
Sources: Washington Post, CNN, The Hill, YouTube
Kudos to Pres Trump!
The substance of his meeting today with Black Congressional Caucus members is yet another reason why so many Black voters took a leap of faith and chose to cast their ballots for Trump on Nov 8, 2016.
MSM tried to falsely report that Hillary & DEMS secured a majority of the Black vote.
Not true!
If Hillary and DEMS had a lock on the Black vote why isn't she sitting in the Oval Office as Madam President?
I'm just saying.
***** Congressional Black Caucus leaders meet with Trump, push for policy proposals not photo ops
President Trump met with leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday, pulling reporters into the room to hear him praise African Americans.
“They’ve lifted up the conscience of our nation in the march toward civil rights, enriched the soul of America in their faith and courage, and they’ve advanced our country in the fields of science, arts and medicine,” the president said.
As he spoke, the CBC’s six-member executive board was sitting on the other side of a table — out of the TV cameras’ shot. That was no accident. The CBC, many members of which boycotted Trump’s inauguration, agreed to meet with the president only if the meeting was substantive.
“The Congressional Black Caucus is not going to be a potted plant or a photo opportunity,” said Rep. Donald A. McEachin (D-Va.), a CBC member who did not attend the meeting. “He did a photo op with the presidents of historically black colleges, and they got nothing.”
After eight years of working hand in glove with the first black president, the CBC is facing off against a president who portrayed that presidency as a disaster for black Americans — and spent years demanding Barack Obama’s birth certificate and college records. On the trail, speaking before largely white audiences, Trump would ask black voters “what the hell do you have to lose” by voting Republican.
The CBC’s leaders arrived at Wednesday’s meeting with a policy memo titled “A Lot to Lose.” Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.), the CBC’s chairman, was joined by Reps. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.), André Carson (D-Ind.) and Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.).
“We never thought we’d agree on everything in this meeting, but the one thing we did ask is for both sides to be candid,” Richmond said afterward. “He listened, and we talked, and we proposed a lot of solutions, many of which I think he had not heard before, and we’re going to keep advocating.”
Wednesday’s meeting grew out of an awkward incident last month, when during a 77-minute news conference Trump asked April Ryan, a black reporter with the American Urban Radio Networks, if she could set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus.
friends of yours?” Trump asked.
Ryan noted that she was a journalist, and not part of the CBC. “I’m sure they’re watching right now,” she said.
That gaffe started negotiations about a possible meeting, one that CBC members wanted to avoid turning into presidential PR. Since winning the presidency, Trump has had several awkward moments involving African Americans. At a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump thanked black voters who decided to sit out the election: “That was big.”
At an event he held to mark the outset of Black History Month, Trump rambled about his 80-point defeat among black voters, hypothesized about what could get him to a majority of the black vote in 2020, and mentioned the abolitionist Frederick Douglass as “an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.” Douglass died in 1895.
“He has not surrounded himself with people who can keep him informed,” said Lawrence, whose state broke for Trump in part because of weakened black turnout. “He painted us as one homogenous group — broke, being shot at, uneducated. He needs to be given the opportunity to learn.”
The CBC’s proposals for Trump did sync with what he’d occasionally promised on the trail. During the press scrum, Trump said that “every American child has a right to grow up in a safe community, to attend great schools, to graduate with access to high-paying jobs,” implying that African Americans had been denied this. But CBC members are waiting for actual policy proposals.
“There could be something, perhaps, in the area of infrastructure, or in better employment opportunities,” said Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.). “I can’t point to anything he’s done so far.”
Instead, in the White House’s “skinny budget,” spending for domestic programs was cut to make the math work on increased defense funding. In a Wednesday article for the political journal Democracy, Matthew Colangelo, deputy assistant to the president for economic policy in the Obama administration, listed other Trump decisions that disproportionately hurt black voters, such as an executive order that weakened the Federal Housing Administration and a Justice Department decision to abandon a legal challenge — which had been winning in court — against alleged racial gerrymandering in Texas.
“In just two months, the Trump Administration has already made it harder for African Americans to buy a house, to vote, to enjoy clean air and water, and to retire with dignity,” wrote Colangelo. “The President’s campaign pledge was correct: The results of his policies for African Americans have in fact been ‘amazing’ — it is amazing how much harm can be done so quickly.”
And CBC members did not quite dodge the photo op. Late Wednesday evening, White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted a photo of CBC members sitting around Trump in the Oval Office. The people in the photo shrugged it off.
“Our objective is to walk away having given the president an opportunity to hear, to be enlightened, and to start a dialogue for the next four years — if he stays in office,” said Lawrence.
WHITE HOUSE FIRES CNN, NY TIMES, LA TIMES & POLITICO VIA BRIEFING EXCLUSION:
MAINSTREAM MEDIA LIBERAL BIAS vs TRUMP.
TRUMP WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL BECAUSE HE'S A FEARLESS NY MEDIA GENIUS.
Sources: CNN, Alex Jones, Washington Post, NY Times
****** White House blocks CNN, New York Times from press briefing hours after Trump slams media
The White House on Friday barred news outlets — including CNN, the New York Times, Politico and the Los Angeles Times — from attending an off-camera press briefing held by spokesman Sean Spicer, igniting another controversy concerning the relationship between the Trump administration and the media.
The Wall Street Journal, which did participate in the briefing, said in a statement that it was unaware of the exclusions and "had we known at the time, we would not have participated, and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future."
The Washington Post did not have a reporter present at the time of the gaggle.
CNN's Sara Murray went on air to describe what happened:
We lined up.
We were told there was a list ahead of time, which is sort of abnormal, but we put our name on a list. And then when we went to enter, I was blocked by a White House staffer, who said we were not on the list for this gaggle today.
Now, normally, if you were going to do something like this — an extended gaggle, off camera — you would have one person from each news outlet.
As you know, we have multiple people from CNN here every day. So, if you're going to do something beyond a pool, which is sort of the smallest group of reporters that then disseminates the information, you would have one person from every news outlet.
That is not what the White House was doing today. What the White House was doing was handpicking the outlets they wanted in for this briefing.
So Breitbart, the Washington Times, the One America News Network — news outlets that maybe the White House feels are more favorable were all allowed in, whereas I was blocked from entering, Politico was blocked from entering, the New York Times, the L.A. Times. All of these news outlets were blocked from going to a gaggle.
White House Correspondents' Association President Jeff Mason called in to CNN to say the organization is “still getting information about” the decision, adding:
They clearly wanted to have a gaggle that was not on camera and was not the full press corps today. We don't object to there being briefings like that that aren't always on camera, but we have encouraged them when they want to do something like that ... [to] still do it in the press room and do it in a place where all the reporters have a chance to ask questions.
So, we've made that clear, and we're going to continue to have discussions with them about that. And we're not happy about how this happened today.
The Post's Executive Editor Marty Baron issued the following statement:
“It’s appalling that the White House would exclude news outlets like the New York Times, CNN, Politico, the Los Angeles Times, and BuzzFeed from its publicly announced briefings. This is an undemocratic path that the administration is traveling. There is nothing to be gained from the White House restricting the public’s access to information.
We are currently evaluating what our response will be if this sort of thing happens again.”
White House deputy communications director Raj Shah insisted this was all much ado about nothing.
But New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet declared that “nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties.”
BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith, whose outlet also was excluded, added this: "While we strongly object to the White House's apparent attempt to punish news outlets whose coverage it does not like, we won't let these latest antics distract us from continuing to cover this administration fairly and aggressively."
Ben Wizner, director of the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union called the White House's move "yet another disturbing example of the Trump administration’s contempt for the vital role a free press plays in our democracy."
White House press secretary Sean Spicer himself had previously criticized the idea of limiting media access to the White House.
Two months ago, in a panel discussion, he said open access for the media is “what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.”
recent days, the president has grown increasingly critical of what he calls the "fake news media. Hours before the limited-access gaggle, Trump devoted much of an address at the Conservative Political Action Conference to bashing the media.
“A few days ago, I called the fake news media the enemy of the people, and they are,” the president said. “They are the enemy of the people.”
Fox News anchor Bret Baier quickly discouraged gloating on the right, noting that his network's rivals showed solidarity when the Obama White House tried to freeze out Fox News eight years ago.
In 2009, the Obama administration attempted to exclude Fox News from a round of TV interviews with “pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg. Jake Tapper (then of ABC, now of CNN) stood up for one of his network's “sister organizations” during a press briefing.
“Can you explain why it's appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one?” Tapper asked Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary at the time.
Rival networks refused to conduct interviews with Feinberg unless Fox News was granted one, too.
Fox Business Network told The Post that one of its reporters, Blake Burman, also was blocked from participating in the gaggle.
Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts said on air that his network will join others in protesting the exclusion of certain outlets.
CNN INTENSIFIES ATTACKS AGAINST TRUMP AS DIRECTED BY OBAMA & SOROS TO UNDERMINE HIM.
TRUMP STRIKES BACK; WARNS WH LEAKERS; DEFEATS ELIZABETH WARREN IN 2020 POLLS.
Sources: Fox News, Boston.com, CNN
******* Trump blasts ‘out of control’ media, defends agenda at heated press conference
President Trump’s feud with the media turned into an all-out war Thursday afternoon.
His early presidency beset by damaging leaks and a burst of staff turmoil, Trump used a hastily called press conference to blast the media’s coverage of his administration in his strongest terms yet. He claimed the press is “out of control,” reports on his team’s ties to Russia are “fake,” and news outlets are attacking him because they oppose his agenda.
"The media’s trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on the pledges that we made, and they’re not happy about it," Trump declared at the White House.
The president spoke and took questions for more than an hour and 15 minutes, even joking with some reporters toward the end and saying he was having fun. In a bid to preempt negative coverage of his remarks, Trump insisted he was not "ranting and raving." But he lamented that the "tone" of coverage of his administration is one of "such hatred."
"The public doesn't believe you people anymore," he said.
Trump, who is dealing with the roughest stretch of his nascent presidency so far, unleashed the battery of accusations after first announcing his newest pick for labor secretary. After his original nominee withdrew, Trump nominated law school dean and former federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta for the post Thursday.
has had a tremendous career," Trump said, noting he's been through Senate confirmation three times for past positions.
But Trump pivoted to tout his administration's record so far and to blast the media for allegedly underplaying progress made.
"The press honestly is out of control," Trump said, vowing to take his message "straight to the people."
Amid a court fight over his controversial immigration executive order, which he maintained is “lawful,” Trump said he would announce a "new and very comprehensive order to protect our people."
He also staunchly defended his administration’s work on everything from the economy to energy to security. "This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine,” he said.
The press conference was held days after Michael Flynn resigned as national security adviser over a controversy regarding his past contacts with Russia’s ambassador. Those contacts emerged in news reports. Fast food chain CEO Andrew Puzder also withdrew from consideration for labor secretary on Wednesday amid deepening scrutiny of his personal and professional past.
Trump on Thursday personally denied having any contact or connections with Russia, saying: "I have nothing to do with Russia. I have no deals there. I don't know anything."
While acknowledging he sought Flynn’s resignation, he also said Flynn was just doing his job by contacting Russia. He said Flynn was asked to resign because he was dishonest about the details of the call with Vice President Mike Pence.
And he dismissed recent reports that campaign aides had been in contact with Russian officials before his election. Trump called the reports a "ruse" and said he had "nothing to do with Russia." Trump added, "Russia is fake news. This is fake news put out by the media."
In a free-wheeling event that, before Trump, would have been unprecedented in a modern presidential news conference, the president by turns teased and lambasted members of the press corps.
Toward the end of the press conference, Trump summed up his complaints by suggesting he was being blamed for problems that have existed for years: “I didn’t come along and divide this country. This country was seriously divided before I got here.”
He also blasted Senate Democrats for holding up his Cabinet nominees.
His latest pick for Labor Department might have an easier time. If confirmed, Acosta would be Trump’s first Latino Cabinet member. According to top GOP sources, Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and other Hispanic leaders are enthused about the pick.
Acosta currently is dean of Florida International University College of Law. He previously served as the first Hispanic assistant attorney general and as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, as well as on the National Labor Relations Board.
In the wake of the Flynn reports and other damaging stories, Trump also has vowed to root out those leaking sensitive information.
“We’re going to find the leakers. ... They’re going to pay a big price for leaking,” Trump said at a meeting ahead of the press conference.
****** Rudy Giuliani out of contention for Cabinet
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has removed his name from consideration for a position in President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet, the transition team announced Friday.
Giuliani, who is currently a vice chairman on the presidential transition team, had been rumored to be in consideration for secretary of state.
"My desire to be in the Cabinet was great but it wasn't that great and he had a lot of terrific candidates and I thought I could play a better role being on the outside and continuing to be his close friend and adviser," Giuliani told Fox News' Neil Cavuto.
Trump met with Giuliani on Nov. 29., when the matter was discussed. He confirmed to Fox News that he had only been interested in being secretary of state.
"Honestly, the other positions I didn't have an interest in, so that really was the only one I had any real interest in," he told Cavuto.
Giuliani said he now intends to continue his work in the private sector. He also warned against the selection of Mitt Romney for the position, saying the former Massachusetts governor had "gone over the line" in previous criticisms he made about Trump.
"I will support [Trump's] decision, but my advice would be that Mitt went a little too far. You can make friends and make up but I would not see him as a candidate for the Cabinet," Giuliani told Cavuto.
Trump praised Giuliani in a statement, calling him “an extraordinarily talented and patriotic American.”
"He is and continues to be a close personal friend, and as appropriate, I will call upon him for advice and can see an important place for him in the administration at a later date."
Reince Priebus, tapped to be Trump’s chief of staff, said that Giuliani was “was vetted by our team for any possible conflicts and passed with flying colors."
TRUMP'S EXECUTIVE CABINET TEAM OF RIVALS SHOWS STRONG LEADERSHIP:
TRUMP DOESN'T WANT A TEAM OF "YES MEN" AND BUTT KISSERS.
MSM NETWORKS (CNN) APPLAUDED OBAMA'S "TEAM OF RIVALS", SILENT WHEN TRUMP DID LIKEWISE.
CAN YOU SAY MEDIA BIAS??
Sources: The Economist, Fox News, YouTube
The late Pres Abraham Lincoln received notoriety for creating a "Team of Rivals" when selecting members of his executive cabinet.
Barack Obama was hailed and lauded by the Mainstream Media for following in Lincoln's footsteps, especially when Obama nominated his former 2008 opponent Hillary Clinton for the role of Secretary of State.
Now in the year 2016, President-Elect Donald J. Trump is building his own executive cabinet "Team of Rivals" leadership fleet.
But wait!
Where is the Mainstream Media?
Obama was praised for his "Team of Rivals".
So why is the MSM silent when Trump practices the same brilliant leadership strategy?
----------------------------------------------
***** The next administration
Donald Trump has a team of rivals too
THE president-elect’s first administration hires had all been middle-aged white men who had backed him to the hilt when others wrinkled their noses.
But with a pair of nominations announced on November 23rd he rang the changes. He named Nikki Haley, the Indian-American governor of South Carolina, to be his ambassador to the United Nations, and Betsy DeVos, a billionaire Republican benefactress, as his education secretary.
As The Economist went to press, he was also reported to have invited Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon whom he defeated in the Republican primaries, and who is black, to be his secretary of housing and urban development.
All three possible appointments are intriguing, perhaps Mrs Haley’s especially. She is a first-generation American—her parents migrated from the Indian state of Punjab in the 1960s—who converted from Sikhism to Christianity before her marriage, yet still occasionally attends gurdwara.
Sparky, personable and, at the age of 44, an acknowledged Republican star, she could be the first Indian-American to hold a cabinet office. She is also a former opponent of Mr Trump’s.
She criticised him implicitly last January, when giving the official Republican rebuttal to Barack Obama’s last state-of-the-union speech. “It can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices,” she warned:
Americans “must resist.” She then criticised Mr Trump explicitly after he failed to disavow the support of a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Having distinguished herself by the alacrity with which she had lobbied to remove the Confederate flag from government buildings the previous year, after a racist massacre of black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, Mrs Haley’s condemnation carried moral weight.
It is smart of Mr Trump, who once derided her for her criticisms, to try to harness that. Her nomination is evidence that he can in fact bury a grudge. There is speculation he might also be trying to head off a potential challenger in 2020; that would be smart, too.
Mrs DeVos, an heir by marriage to the Amway direct marketing fortune, is another former critic of Mr Trump. She gave money to three of his rivals in the primaries—including Jeb Bush, an establishment figure Mr Trump humiliated—and said the reality television star did “not represent the Republican Party”.
In some ways the epitome of the well-heeled Republican elite he railed against on the trail, Mrs DeVos is also a crusader for the pro-choice school reforms, including an expansion of charter schools and vouchers to make private education more widely accessible, he has called for.
Amid uncertainty about what Mr Trump means to do with power, given the sketchiness of his platform and his apparent abandonment of a couple of big campaign promises, Mrs DeVos’s appointment is a rare clue to a Trump policy agenda. Teachers’ unions decried it; Mr Bush, one of Mr Trump’s most indefatigable Republican opponents, warmly applauded.
Mr Carson’s nomination, if he agrees to it, would be rather odd, but that is now expected of the retired medical whizz.
Backed by a devoted following of evangelical Christians, he briefly led the Republican primary field, yet seemed unaware of what the job of president entailed; his brilliant brain seemed resistant to remembering almost any detail of foreign policy. When reported to be in the reckoning for a cabinet role, his business manager said that was the “last thing he would want”, because he “feels he has no government experience.”
This was not a great recommendation for a job that includes responsibility for the federal government’s efforts to alleviate urban poverty.
EXCELLENT CHOICE.....REINCE WILL PROTECT THE GOP PLATFORM.
Sources: ABC News, CNN, Youtube
***** Trump Names Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff, Steve Bannon as Senior
Donald Trump has named Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as chief of staff to his new administration and former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor to the president.
A once unthinkable idea is now the Republican Party's new political reality: Donald Trump is its presumptive presidential nominee.
Ted Cruz's sudden exit from the 2016 race Tuesday night following a devastating loss in Indiana all but brought to a halt the hard-fough battle for the GOP nomination, virtually ensuring Trump will garner the 1,237 delegates needed before the Republican convention this summer.
Now, a party fractured by more than a year of campaigning, personal insults and threats of third-party runs has to figure out how to move forward.
From congressional leaders to top donors to veteran strategists, the GOP establishment has been deeply skeptical of Trump's candidacy and motives. As Trump began to amass delegates and gain momentum, his feud with his GOP rivals grew increasingly acrimonious and the "Never Trump" campaign -- a rare inter-party movement aimed at stopping its own front-runner -- failed.
Here are five questions facing Republicans as they absorb Trump's victory:
Can #NeverTrump Republicans back Trump?
Moments after Trump was projected the winner in Indiana, the chairman of the Republican National Committee sent out a telling message.
".@realDonaldTrump will be presumptive @GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton," Reince Priebus tweeted, using the hashtage "#NeverClinton."
Even after Trump had solidified his position as the party's clear front-runner, prominent Republicans openly revolted against the billionaire, vowing to never endorse his candidacy. Top Republicans have said they will sit out of the Republican convention if Trump is the party's nominee, and some major GOP donors are expected to keep their wallets shut if Trump is at the top of the party's ticket.
Our Principles PAC, an anti-Trump super PAC, said Tuesday that its efforts will continue until a candidate has won the support of a majority of delegates in Cleveland.
Tim Miller, a former spokesman for Jeb Bush's campaign who has been working on the "Never Trump" campaign, tweeted Tuesday night: "Never ever ever Trump. Simple as that."
One looming question is whether Cruz will ultimately endorse Trump. Just hours before bowing out of the race, the senator lashed out at Trump, calling him a "pathological liar" and "narcissist."
Trump on Tuesday had rare complimentary words about his rival Tuesday night, as he repeated in his victory speech that he was surprised to see Cruz drop out of the race. He also called on the party to come together.
"What Ted did is really a brave thing to do. And a great thing to do because we want to bring unity to the Republican Party," Trump said. "We have to bring unity. It's so much easier if we have it."
Has Trump permanently damaged the party's relationship with minority voters?
From Day 1, Trump stirred up controversy with the Hispanic community.
As he launched his White House bid last summer in the lobby of Manhattan's Trump Tower, the first-time political candidate vented about the importance of securing U.S. borders. To prove his point, he lamented the kinds of Mexican people who were entering the country.
"They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists," Trump said -- explosive comments that he stood by in the weeks and months to come.
Those remarks were troubling for Republican leaders, whose party has urgently worked to broaden its base and court minority voters, including Hispanics, in recent years. The concerns only intensified as Trump showed surprising endurance in the 2016 race and started to train his fire on other ethnic groups, such as Muslim-Americans.
In a victory speech Tuesday night at the same midtown skyscraper, Trump said that he would work to win over minorities.
"We're going to have unbelievable great relationships with the Hispanics. The Hispanics have been so incredible to me. They want jobs," Trump said. "The African-Americans want jobs."
But he will have to show how he can do this before GOP insiders believe it.
And what about women?
Another huge constituency that Republicans worry about with Trump at the top of the ticket: Women.
Throughout the 2016 campaign, Trump has been repeatedly criticized for his controversial statements about women, including public figures like Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina.
There's no escaping the role gender will play in a general election between Trump and Hillary Clinton, who is vying to become the country's first female president. Trump has ratcheted up his attacks against Clinton by accusing her of playing the "woman card" for political expediency, saying last week that the former secretary of state would be polling terribly if she were not a woman.
Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she would get 5% of the vote. And the beautiful thing is, women don't like her," Trump said.
Trump could try to use members of his family to boost his credentials with female voters as he gears up for the general election. On the campaign trail, his wife, Melania, and daughter, Ivanka, have defended Trump's record with women.
exuded nothing but confidence on Tuesday night as he spoke about winning women voters.
"I won with women," he said. "I love winning with women."
Chaos in Cleveland?
Trump likes to boast about the thousands of supporters who turn up at his campaign rallies.
But his events also frequently attract other impassioned voters: protesters.
With his penchant for inflammatory comments and tough rhetoric about immigrants, Trump has emerged one of the most polarizing presidential candidates in recent history.
What began earlier on in the campaign as protesters yelling at the GOP front-runner escalated in recent months to violent clashes between Trump supporters and detractors, as well as riots where protesters have collided with police. Last week, hundreds of protesters gathered outside a Trump speech in California, forcing the candidate and his entourage to exit their motorcade and walk to a back entrance to gain access to the event.
Republican leaders fear that some of the recent violence and protests will play out at the Republican National Convention, to be held in Cleveland, in July.
As a part of its efforts to prepare for the convention, Cleveland is looking to buy riot gear, according to one local report.
Who will Trump choose as his VP?
Trump has one critical decision to make ahead of Cleveland: choosing his running mate.
His campaign is likely to face pressure from party leaders to choose someone who can broaden the candidate's appeal -- perhaps a woman or a person of color -- as he gets ready to go up against Clinton.
Senior Trump officials said Tuesday that an official search for a running mate has not yet begun. But the GOP-frontrunner has previously said he wants to pick a political insider as his partner, particularly someone who understands the ins and outs of Congress.
"I do want somebody that's political, because I want to get lots of great legislation we all want passed," Trump saidin February.
The White House is defending President Obama’s decision not to attend the funeral of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and pushed back on critics who called it a deliberate snub.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday it makes sense to send Vice President Biden to the funeral instead because his “security footprint is a little bit lighter” and he has a longtime relationship with Scalia’s family.
"We believe we have settled on an appropriate and respectful arrangement," the spokesman said.
Earnest called it disrespectful for Obama’s critics to use the funeral “as some sort of political cudgel."
"The president doesn't think that that's appropriate, and in fact, what the president thinks is appropriate is respectfully paying tribute to high-profile patriotic American citizens even when you don't agree on all the issues," he said. "And that's what he's going to do."
In lieu of attending the funeral, the president and first lady Michelle Obama are paying their respects to Scalia and his family on Friday while his body lies in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court.
But Republicans have slammed Obama for not attending the funeral of the longtime conservative justice, interpreting it as a sign of disrespect to someone who was often at odds with the president.
The criticism comes at a crucial time for the president, who is making a long-shot bid to get nominee confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate in an election year.
Republican senators have already vowed to block any nominee Obama puts forth, but his decision not to attend the funeral further inflamed the debate.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a 2016 presidential candidate, on Thursday dubbed Obama “a lawless and faithless president who's eager to travel to Cuba but unwilling to attend the funeral of Justice Scalia.”
The White House hasn’t said what the president will be doing during Scalia’s funeral on Saturday, which will be held at the Basilica of the National Shrine in Northeast Washington.
Biden was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee when President Ronald Reagan nominated Scalia in 1986. He joined 98 other senators who voted to confirm him. He said seven years later it was the vote he most regretted "because he was so effective."
The vice president said Saturday that Scalia would be remembered as "one of our most influential justices."
Obama also honored Scalia's contributions to the high court during a statement on Saturday after his death.
"He influenced a generation of judges, lawyers, and students, and profoundly shaped the legal landscape," the president said. "He will no doubt be remembered as one of the most consequential judges and thinkers to serve on the Supreme Court."
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