CNN chases down GOP senator after hearing Trump creates 'absolute mess'
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President Donald Trump announced at the G7 Summit that he was "canceling" the confirmation hearing for his nominee for director of national intelligence, which was scheduled for Wednesday. A president can't decide whether or not a congressional hearing is held. Punchbowl News' Andrew Desiderio reported on Wednesday morning that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is still planning to hold the DNI hearing for Jay Clayton anyway. Cotton is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The only reason he wouldn't hold the hearing is if Trump withdrew the nomination or Clayton didn't show up. “And then from there on, we'll just have to take it a day at a time until we get more clarity on what the White House position is on this," said Thune. Desiderio asked Thune why he thought Trump was doing something like this and Thune said, "Good question."His colleague, Jake Sherman, called it an "absolute mess for Trump/The Hill."CNN showed footage of reporters chasing after Cotton to ask whether there would be a hearing on Wednesday as planned and if they intended to vote on Clayton. Trump hasn't indicated whether he will withdraw Clayton's name from nomination, but Trump made it clear he was happy to let his "acting DNI Bill Pulte" continue his work without congressional support. Congressional correspondent Lauren Fox said that congressional officials are just as confused about what is going on as the press seems to be.Fox asked Cotton whether he'd spoken to Clayton and if he had a comment, but Cotton said he didn't have any comment beyond the statement that the committee released. He then tried to run into the member's elevator but was stalled waiting for it. "So, you will proceed. Just to be clear, you will proceed with the hearing. And you expect Jay Clayton to be there despite what the president is saying?" reporter Chad Pergram asked as Cotton stood waiting. "Chad, you have our statement," Cotton said. "It's about as clear as mud about whether this hearing is going forward," Fox said. Democratic ranking member of the committee Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in a statement on Tuesday that Trump's latest social media posts underscore the reality that "the biggest obstacle to resolving these issues has not been Senate Democrats or Senate Republicans. It has been the chaos and confusion coming from the White House."The goal was to hold the hearing quickly with a vote on Thursday.
The Federal Reserve voted Wednesday to hold its interest rate target steady following the first meeting for new Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, meaning that President Donald Trump’s long-expressed desire for the central bank to lower interest rates will be unfulfilled for now. After a two-day meeting in Washington, the Fed’s monetary policy committee announced it […]
"This way, if it works out, I'm going to take the credit. If it doesn't work out, I'm blaming JD. You better be careful, JD," Trump joked at a press conference.
President Donald Trump’s Iran deal is receiving a great deal of scrutiny from his own supporters, including Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade. The details of the Memorandum of […]
President Trump holds a bilateral discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. The media questions about Iran and geopolitical events take up approximately 10 minutes of the video below. President Trump took a variety of questions on a variety of subjects. At 10:37 President Trump is asked about Bill Pulte and FISA (702). WATCH: […]
The post President Trump Holds a Bilateral Discussion with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared first on The Last Refuge.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that President Trump is “holding our national security hostage” by delaying the confirmation hearing for U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to serve as director of national intelligence. In an early morning Wednesday post on Truth Social, Trump said Clayton’s nomination would be delayed to ensure that Federal Housing Finance…
The Trump administration accelerated its assault on the US Education Department on Tuesday by announcing that the agency’s work defending civil rights and students with disabilities will be placed under the authority of other federal departments, a move that teachers, Democratic lawmakers, and advocacy organizations condemned as illegal and disastrous for vulnerable children.Linda McMahon, the billionaire education secretary who has enthusiastically advanced the destruction of her own agency, announced the transfer of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services—which oversees the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—to the US Department of Health and Human Services, headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Additionally, the Justice Department will oversee the work of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, McMahon said, claiming the changes would “break down the bureaucratic barriers and strengthen the coordination of resources to improve programs that serve infants, toddlers, children, and adults.”Critics argued the moves would do the opposite, scattering crucial programs across departments that lack the expertise and resources to fulfill the education offices’ mandates, ultimately depriving children and their families of support.“Moving IDEA out of the Department of Education is not an administrative adjustment—it is an attack on the educational and civil rights foundation of the law,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association. “It would drag us backward by treating disability as a medical issue instead of an educational right and by unraveling decades of progress. The Department of Education is the only federal agency with the expertise, infrastructure, and specialists needed to protect students’ rights and ensure they receive the services they are guaranteed.”“Relocating the Office for Civil Rights to the Department of Justice as part of this scheme would further erode federal oversight and endanger disability-rights enforcement nationwide,” Pringle added.The Arc of the United States, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said that “moving special education to HHS and civil rights enforcement to DOJ would split apart the offices responsible for making disability rights real in schools, leaving families chasing answers across the federal government instead of getting accountability from one education agency.”“Moving IDEA oversight into HHS pushes students with disabilities toward a medical model, where disability is treated as a diagnosis to manage instead of a natural part of human life,” said Katy Neas, the group’s CEO. “When that mindset drives education decisions, students are more likely to be segregated, underestimated, or treated as separate from the school community.”“It’s an outrageous betrayal that undoes decades of hard-won progress for students.”The changes that McMahon announced Tuesday are part of the Trump administration’s effort to completely dismantle the Education Department, which cannot be legally abolished without congressional approval. The Washington Post noted that the newly targeted offices were among the last Education Department segments to “outsource major functions,” underscoring that the administration’s assault “has advanced far more than most observers predicted would be possible.”In addition to displacing agency functions, the Trump administration has gutted the Education Department’s staff, firing nearly half of its workers in what opponents say is an obvious effort to decimate public education.Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the transfer of critical functions out of the Education Department is unlawful, “usurping the power of the purse while the Republican majority stands idly by, forfeiting their authority as a co-equal branch of government.” DeLauro pointed to language in a 2026 appropriations measure enacted earlier this year that prohibits the Education Department from transferring responsibilities to other federal agencies without congressional approval.“This is a disgraceful violation of the law,” DeLauro said Tuesday. “By moving special education from the Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human Services, the administration is taking us back to a dark period in American history. One where individuals with disabilities were viewed not as whole persons deserving of an education, but as medical patients whose education is not a priority.”The top Democratic appropriator in the Senate, Patty Murray of Washington, warned that “the Trump administration is abandoning kids with disabilities and its most basic legal responsibility to protect the rights of every student in the classroom.”“Instead of helping kids get a great education, this administration is spending its time, energy, and taxpayer resources fixated on where employees sit and illegally trying to shutter the...
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) sharply criticized President Trump on Wednesday for the delaying the nomination of Jay Clayton to be director of national intelligence (DNI). “What we’re witnessing is an extraordinary display of dysfunction from a president who seems determined to turn America’s national security into a political bargaining chip,” Warner, the top Democrat on…
