Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said Thursday that he will not attend the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum this weekend because President Donald Trump’s “attendance and hurtful policies are an insult to the people portrayed” in the museum.
“After careful consideration and conversations with church leaders, elected officials, civil rights activists, and many citizens of our congressional districts, we have decided not to attend or participate in the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum,” Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement, said in a statement.
Lewis said the president’s “disparaging comments about women, the disabled, immigrants, and National Football League players disrespect the efforts” of civil rights leaders.
“The struggles represented in this museum exemplify the truth of what really happened in Mississippi,” he added. “After President Trump departs, we encourage all Mississippians and Americans to visit this historic civil rights museum.”
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Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) speaking at an event in Washington, D.C., in May. He announced on Thursday that he will not attend the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum this weekend.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday that he will support the Senate tax reform bill.
“After careful thought and consideration, I have decided to support the Senate tax reform bill,” he said in a statement. “I believe this legislation, though far from perfect, would enhance American competitiveness, boost the economy, and provide long overdue tax relief for middle class families.”
The controversial bill would mostly cut taxes for corporations and wealthy Americans. A vote on its final passage could happen as early as Thursday.
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Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) speaking at an event in Arlington, Virginia, earlier this month.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that veteran Democratic Rep. John Conyers (Mich.) should resign in response to multiple sexual misconduct allegations from former female staffers.
“Congressman Conyers should resign,” she said during a news conference on Capitol Hill.
Calling the allegations “serious, disappointing and very credible,” Pelosi told reporters that “the brave women who came forward are owed justice.”
It was a reversal from earlier this week, when Pelosi defended Conyers, calling him “an icon” on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” She refused to say then whether he should resign or whether she believed the women who have come forward with the allegations. She later issued a revised statement affirming that she believed one of the accusers, Melanie Sloan, an attorney who worked for Conyers on the House Judiciary Committee.
NBC has fired longtime “Today” host Matt Lauer following allegations of workplace misconduct, the network announced on Wednesday.
“We are devastated,” “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie said in an emotional statement. “All we can say is we are heartbroken.”
Guthrie said that NBC News chairman Andy Lack informed employees early Wednesday about the decision after having received a complaint about Lauer’s behavior on Monday night. She read Lack’s note on-air, noting that while the network says it had never received a complaint about Lauer before, it has “reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”
Both Guthrie and co-host Hoda Kotb appeared shaken by the news.
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The top nuclear commander in the U.S. said Saturday that he would reject an “illegal” nuclear attack order from President Donald Trump, and would instead steer the commander in chief to other “options.”
“If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail,” Air Force Gen. John Hyten told an audience at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia. “You could go to jail for the rest of your life.”
Hyten, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command who oversees America’s nuclear arsenal, spoke at a forum titled “Nukes: The Fire and the Fury,” as recorded in a video on the event’s Facebook page. He didn’t define what exactly would constitute an illegal launch order. But Hyten said he has been trained for the past 36 years in the law of armed conflict, and mentioned the consideration of such elements as proportional response and unnecessary suffering that would be caused by such a conflagration.
In the event Trump suggests an illegal strike, Hyten described a scenario in which he would present Trump with legal choices.
The women who have accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault are patiently awaiting his undoing.
Three of the 16 women who have accused Trump of some form of sexual assault spoke to People on Thursday. The women discussed what it’s been like for them as more and more men in power are being publicly condemned for accusations of sexual misconduct in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
Journalist Natasha Stoynoff, who accused Trump of assaulting her in 2005 while she was attempting to conduct an interview with him, told People she feels the accusations against him have been “on hold.”
“It’s been simmering on the stove with the lid on, like a pressure cooker,” she said. “But now the heat’s on and it’s going to boil and the lid is going to blast off.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) seemingly chided White House chief of staff John Kelly on Tuesday after the former Marine Corps general claimed that the Civil War was caused by the inability to compromise.
“We need to stop relitigating and referencing the Civil War as if there was some moral conundrum,” Scott, the sole black Senate Republican, said in a statement. “There was no compromise to make – only a choice between continuing slavery and ending it. We need to move forward together, instead of letting the divisions of the past continue to force us apart.”
Kelly on Monday said a “lack of ability to compromise led to the Civil War” and called the removal of Confederate monuments a “dangerous” scrubbing of history. The senior Donald Trump aide made the comments during an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, who asked his thoughts about the removal of two plaques honoring President George Washington and Gen. Robert E. Lee at a church in Alexandria, Virginia.
After months of internal squabbling and doubts, House Republicans passed their tax proposal on Thursday, a major step forward for a House GOP that has thus far been unable to deliver on any major piece of President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The House passed the bill 227-205, with 13 Republicans joining every Democrat in opposing the measure, which would lower individual tax brackets, dramatically cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, and nearly double the standard deduction while eliminating a slew of smaller write-offs.
But even as Republicans celebrated the passage of their tax plan, the public perception of the bill is less than stellar. According to the most recent polling, most Americans believe they won’t see a tax cut from the GOP tax plan. In fact, only about 25 percent of Republicans believe they will pay less as a result of the measure, while 47 percent of Americans believe Trump will pay less.
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Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) led Republicans in passing their tax plan Thursday.
There have been so many horrifying stories about male predatory behavior since the Harvey Weinstein story broke earlier this month, but one quote has truly stood out.
In a damning memo about her boss, a Weinstein Co. employee named Lauren O’Connor neatly explained how the Hollywood producer could get away with sexually harassing so many women.
“The balance of power is me: 0, Harvey Weinstein: 10,” she reportedly wrote.
That one sentence sums up more than the situation with Weinstein, now accused of sexual harassing or assaulting more than 50 women. That same power imbalance exists in every corner of the country, in the White House, Congress, the media, police departments, academia, most big law firms, and nearly every major corporate boardroom, corner office and C-suite.
“Weinstein is the embodiment of the power differential that plays out all over the workplace in the United States,” said Teresa Boyer, the director of the Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women’s Leadership at Villanova University.
In post-Charlottesville America, any large gathering of racists and fascists becomes both spectacle and specter. The threat of violence is omnipresent. Locals must “brace” themselves for “chaos and bloodshed.” Everyone dreads “another Charlottesville.” Dread is what Nazis want.
In two small cities near Nashville in Middle Tennessee, the fear was palpable ahead of two “White Lives Matter” rallies here on Saturday.
“So … what brings you to town?” a wary clerk asked guests as they checked into a hotel in Murfreesboro, home to Middle Tennessee State University and 132,000 residents, where one rally will be held Saturday afternoon outside the Rutherford County Courthouse. I heard some version of this question three times before I’d even found my room.
In nearby Shelbyville, a town of 21,000 south of Murfreesboro in Tennessee horse country, another rally ― organized by the same racists and fascists ― is scheduled for Saturday morning. Many Shelbyville residents will stay indoors or clear out altogether, according to local police.
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Matthew Heimbach, seen here after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, is head of the Traditionalist Worker Party.
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.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
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Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.)
James' World 2 