President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday night, hours after she said the Justice Department would not defend Trump’s executive order on immigration.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that Yates had been relieved of her duties. Dana Boente, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was named as acting attorney general.
Spicer’s statement said Yates had “betrayed the Department of Justice” by refusing to defend Trump’s order. The statement added that Yates, a career prosecutor whom Trump named as acting attorney general, is “weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.”
Boente will serve until Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is confirmed as attorney general.
The stunning move was reminiscent of President Richard Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre” in 1973, when his attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned in protest after he ordered them to dismiss Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor in the Watergate case.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
For the second day in a row, protesters came out across the country to rally against President Donald Trump’s executive order issued on Friday to block Syrian refugees and travelers from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
In New York City, two incredible markers of America’s immigrant roots, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, provided a fitting background for protesters gathered in Manhattan’s Battery Park. About 10,000 demonstrators were present, some carrying signs reading, “Refugees welcome here,” and “No hate, no fear.”
Friends, families and individuals of all ages and backgrounds chanted “Let them in!” and “Si se puede!” Speakers fired up the massive crowd with messages of unity and hope, before thousands marched down Greenwich Street toward the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday that bans Syrians from taking refuge in the United States, halts the U.S. refugee resettlement program for four months and temporarily blocks people from a handful of unnamed countries from entering the U.S. at all.
“I am establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. We don’t want them here,” he said at a swearing-in ceremony at the Pentagon for Secretary of Defense James Mattis. “We don’t want to admit into our country the very threats we are fighting overseas.”
Trump approved the refugee ban amid the biggest refugee crisis in history and on Holocaust Remembrance Day, which honors the millions of people killed during World War II, many of whom tried to flee to the U.S. but were turned away.
It’s not the blanket ban on Muslims that Trump advocated for during his campaign, and it does not single out any country by name other than Syria for its refugees.
A Russian company has unveiled commemorative silver and gold coins featuring Donald Trump’s face ahead of his presidential inauguration.
The limited-edition coins ― only 45 have been made ― feature a cherubic mug of the incoming president as well as the Statue of Liberty and the inscription: “In Trump We Trust.”
Vladimir Vasyukhin, director of the metal-works company Art-Grani, recently showcased the nearly two-pound medallion to The Associated Press Television Network.
At least one gunman shot his way into an Istanbul nightclub packed with hundreds of New Year’s revelers on Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding more than 40 in what the provincial governor described as a terrorist attack.
One assailant shot a police officer and a civilian as he entered the Reina nightclub before opening fire at random inside, Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said at the scene. Some reports suggested there were multiple attackers.
“A terrorist with a long-range weapon … brutally and savagely carried out this attack by firing bullets on innocent people who were there solely to celebrate the New Year and have fun,” Sahin told reporters.
The attack again shook Turkey as it tries to recover from a failed July coup and a series of deadly bombings in cities including Istanbul and the capital Ankara, some blamed on Islamic State and others claimed by Kurdish militants.
President-elect Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday afternoon, after the Russian leader said he would not expel any U.S. diplomats from his country.
Trump tweeted, “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!”
It’s shockingly direct praise from an incoming American president for a Russian leader who’s been accused by U.S. intelligence agencies and President Barack Obama of overseeing hacking efforts aimed at influencing the 2016 election.
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Sean Gallup via Getty Images
A woman walks past a mural showing President-elect Donald Trump (R) blowing marijuana smoke into the mouth of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the wall of a restaurant on Nov. 23, 2016, in Vilnius, Lithuania.
President-elect Donald Trump took credit Wednesday for bringing a total of 8,000 jobs to the U.S., when those jobs were part of a previously announced commitment that there’s no evidence Trump was involved in.
During brief remarks outside his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump said 5,000 jobs at Sprint Wireless would be returning to the U.S. from abroad and 3,000 would be created at OneWeb “because of what’s happening and the spirit and the hope.”
“I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they’re going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States,” Trump said. “They’re taking them from other countries, they’re bringing them back to the United States. And also OneWeb, a new company, is going to be hiring 3,000 people.”
Media outlets quickly ran with the news that Trump was bringing jobs back to the U.S., in some cases connecting it to the president-elect’s intervention at Carrier several weeks ago that kept 800 jobs at the company from moving to Mexico.
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Donald Trump Tricks The Media Into Crediting Him For Creating More U.S. Jobs
President Barack Obama sanctioned top Russian officials on Thursday in response to Moscow’s reported hacking during the U.S. presidential election.
“All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s actions,” the president said in a statement.
Obama’s successor, president-elect Donald Trump, has cast doubt on the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia was responsible for unearthing and releasing material damaging to Trump’s Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. On Wednesday, Trump said it was time to “move on” and repeated that he believes it’s impossible to know who targeted Clinton.
But Obama appears committed to proving Russia’s responsibility. His administration wants Congress to receive intelligence reports showing the proof before Trump enters office and is able to call off such investigations. Officials may release some public details on its findings soon, according to The New York Times.
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Sputnik/Kremlin/Alexei Druzhinin/via REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, on Sept. 5, 2016.
Back in 2011, “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane subjected then reality TV personality Donald Trump to one of Comedy Central’s most memorable roasts.
Virtually no topics were out of bounds, as roast-master MacFarlane led celebrities in poking fun at the now president-elect over his multiple wives, the inheritance he received from his father and his mispronunciation of the word “huge.”
Trump “took his lumps like a champ that night,” MacFarlane recalled Thursday on “The Late Late Show with James Corden.”
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Trump Targets Muslims
New human organ
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James' World 2 