| | | | Obama commutes Chelsea Manning's sentence | | President Barack Obama this afternoon commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks. Manning, a transgender woman and former US Army soldier, was serving a 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, an all-male Army prison in eastern Kansas, despite her request to transfer to a civilian prison. Her prison sentence is now set to expire on May 17.
The President pardoned James Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who pleaded guilty in October to a single charge of making false statements to federal investigators in 2012 when he was questioned about leaking top secret information on US efforts to cripple Iran's nuclear program to two journalists. More from CNN's Laura Jarrett and Gloria Borger. | | T-minus three days until the inauguration | | What's the weather going be like? Expect some rain on President-elect Donald Trump's parade. The weather forecast looks gray and damp. Rain will be moving in from the south and could reach Washington around the noon hour Friday, when Trump is putting his hand on the Bible to become president.
And the hearings continue. Up next tomorrow will be Wilbur Ross for secretary of commerce, Scott Pruitt for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Nikki Haley to be the US ambassador to the UN and Tom Price for HHS secretary. | | Report: 18 million could be left without insurance | | Repealing major provisions of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act without a replacement plan in place would quickly strip 18 million Americans of their insurance and cause premiums to skyrocket, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office. The report said the number of uninsured people could climb to 32 million by 2026.
This report reveals the challenges facing Republican leaders and President-elect Donald Trump as they attempt to carry out their campaign promise to repeal the law, CNN's Tami Luhby reports. | | Schumer: Price may have broken the law | | | Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said today that Trump's pick to quarterback the replacement of Obamacare, Tom Price, may have broken the law with a questionable stock purchase. "If he knew about it, it could very well be a violation of the law," Schumer told CNN. "Now they say there's a broker, it's kind of strange that this broker would pick this stock totally independently of him introducing legislation that's so narrow and specific to this company." More from CNN's Manu Raju, MJ Lee and Tom LoBianco. | | "A lot of what you see by previous presidents are platitudes: 'I'm going to go and pretend I'm supportive of a particular entity and serve food at a soup kitchen.' Donald Trump wants to bring jobs back so we don't have soup kitchens." | | | | Donald Trump will become president Friday with an approval rating of just 40%, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll, the lowest of any recent president and 44 points below that of President Barack Obama, the 44th president. More from CNN's Jennifer Agiesta. | | Schumer opens door for Senate Dems to skip inauguration | | Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said it was up to each individual senator to decide whether to attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration -- leaving the door open to potentially more Democratic protest. Schumer told CNN's Manu Raju that he "respects" the almost four dozen House Democrats who have said they are boycotting Trump's inauguration and did not say that anyone is obligated to attend.
"I respect where they're coming from. There have been so many irregularities in this, especially with Russian interference, so I respect where they're coming from," Schumer said. "I think each person has to make the choice on their own, but I don't begrudge those who have said they're boycotting. Each person can make his or her own decision."
Trump once again attacked John Lewis this morning on Twitter -- bashing Lewis for saying it was the first time he'd skipped inauguration when, in reality, he had also boycotted George W. Bush's swearing-in. | | The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza summarizes the problem with Lewis's forgetting he'd boycotted Bush here, writing: "Lewis's forgetfulness about not attending the inauguration of the 43rd president for the same stated reasons as his taking a pass on the inauguration of the 45th president -- and the fact that both presidents are Republicans! -- undercuts not only the 'principled opposition' argument but also the 'Trump is fundamentally different/worse than everyone who has come before' argument. The more Democrats look like pure partisans blocking Trump solely because he is a Republican, the less success they will have in opposing him in a way that reaches beyond their party base. That's why Lewis's memory glitch is damaging."
But this was worse. Maine Gov. Paul LePage had this to say, per the Bangor Daily News' Christopher Cousins: "John Lewis ought to look at history. It was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves. It was Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant who fought the Jim Crow laws. A simple thank you would suffice." | | | President Barack Obama's stay at the White House doesn't officially end until Friday, but he's already getting a head start on moving into his new home. CNN's Betsy Klein went to the Obamas' new spot in Washington's Kalorama neighborhood to check it out. | | Pentagon readies ISIS proposals for Trump | | The Defense Department is prepared to provide President-elect Donald Trump's administration with military options to accelerate the war against ISIS in Syria that could send additional US troops into direct combat, CNN's Barbara Starr reports.
The options will be ready for Trump to consider as soon as he takes office and would be presented by retired Gen. James Mattis, set to become the new defense secretary, and Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. | | Putin dismisses Trump dossier claims as 'rubbish' | | | Russian President Vladimir Putin said that a damning dossier on President-elect Donald Trump was "false" and dismissed allegations that his country's security services had been monitoring Trump as "rubbish." Putin made clear he was familiar with some of the unsubstantiated allegations in a dossier prepared by a former British intelligence agent. | | | President Barack Obama surprises Josh Earnest during his last press briefing. ... HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell is signing up for Obamacare. ... Edward Snowden didn't request clemency. | | | Correction: Monday's edition of Nightcap mistated the time for President-elect Donald Trump's pick for interior secretary, Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke. It was at 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday. | | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
Post a Comment