RSSPresident Trump Meets With Key Senators Ahead of His Nomination for New Supreme Court Justice
RED STATE DEMOCRAT SENATORS IN A TOUGH PLACE FOR SCOTUS VOTE …
As reported at CNN, President Donald Trump met with key senators at the White House on Thursday ahead of President Trump’s nomination of the next Supreme Court Justice. Trump met with three red-state Senate Democrats who are all facing tough re-election fights this year in states that Trump won easily in the 2016 elections: Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. Trump won West Virginia, Indiana and North Dakota, 68.6% – 26.5%, 57.2% – 37.9% and 64.1% – 27.7%, respectively. These Democrat Senators are between a rock and a hard place. President Trump has already begun going to states with important Senate elections in 2018 and telling the voters he needs more GOP Senators to pass his agenda and continue to mane America great again. All three of these Senators voted in favor of President Trump’s previous SCOTUS nominee Neil M. Gorsuch. The vote is expected to be prior to the 2018 midterm elections which means if these Senators hgave any hope of winning, they will have to vote in favor of Trump’s SCOTUS nominee, or face a sure loss this November.
President Trump also met with moderate, pro-choice Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins, of Maine, as well as Chuck Grassley of Iowa. All, also voted in favor of Gorsuch. President Trump is putting his ducks in a row and making sure he has the votes. However, what type of pressure will Democrat Senate Majority Leader Schumer put on Democrats to resist Trump’s nominee, no matter who it is?
President Donald Trump met with key senators at the White House on Thursday as the administration goes into a full-court press to nominate and confirm a new Supreme Court justice before the midterm elections next fall.
Trump met with three red-state Democrats who are all facing tough re-election fights this year: Sens. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly, of Indiana, and Heidi Heitkamp, of North Dakota. The meetings came a day after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced he’ll retire on July 31. The White House plans to nominate a new justice by July 9, CNN reported earlier Thursday.
Trump also met with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, Susan Collins, of Maine, and Chuck Grassley, of Iowa. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump’s team also talked with a dozen other senators.
“Tonight President Trump met with Senators Grassley, Collins, Murkowski, Manchin, Donnelly, and Heitkamp to discuss the Supreme Court vacancy,” Sanders said in a statement. “The President’s team also talked with more than a dozen other Senators today as part of ongoing outreach to get views and advice from both sides of the aisle on this important nomination.”
All three Democratic senators are facing tough votes when Trump nominates a replacement for Kennedy. Their states went overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016 and a vote against the President’s nominee to the court could end up costing them votes from Trump supporters they would have needed to stay in office.
Heitkamp, who was previously praised by Trump as a “good woman” before he campaigned against her in North Dakota on Wednesday, said following the meeting that she’s still willing to hear him out on his court choice.
“Political speeches are just that, but the next day, I’m ready to get to work. As I said, if the President wants to meet with me, I’m ready to participate and advocate for North Dakota. And that’s exactly what happened today,” she said.
As Politico reports, if Trump nominates a woman to the SCOTUS, will that be a game changer? Will it really matter? Female justices can be pro-life too. President Trump said that his nominee will come from his previous released list of 25. This means that Democrats cannot whine about Trump rushing too fasy because they already had the list and would have been previously vetted when Gorsuch was chosen.
No matter whom President Donald Trump picks for the Supreme Court this time around, the nominee is almost certain to come under withering liberal attack as a grave threat to women’s rights. Several conservatives close to the White House, however, say they know just how to blunt that looming assault: Pick a woman for the job.
Of the 25 people on Trump’s public list of potential nominees, six are women. Four — 10th Circuit Judge Allison Eid, 6th Circuit Judge Joan Larsen, Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces Judge Margaret Ryan and 7th Circuit Judge Diane Sykes — were on lists released during the 2016 presidential campaign. Two — 7th Circuit Judge Amy Barrett and Georgia Supreme Court Justice Britt Grant — were added last November.
Justice Anthony Kennedy handed President Donald Trump and the Republicans a major midterm gift by retiring now. Maybe he thinks this is a make up for all of the swing vote decisions that he made when he sided with the liberals on the court. Justices Kennedy’s decision to retire has put further pressure on the other US Senate races like in Missouri, Montana and Florida where Democrat Sens. Claire McCaskill, Jon Tester and Bill Nelson find themselves in tough battles. These three Democrat Senators did not vote for Gorsuch. Trump won these states in the 2016 elections by 19.1, 20.5 and 1.3 percentage points, respectively.
Make no mistake, the Democrats will be viscous and vile this time around. As if they had been civil in the past. The comical part about this is that Democrats are demanding that trump pick a comparable nominee similar to moderate Justice Kennedy. Ha, like that would have occurred had Hillary Clinton won the election. Elections do have consequences and to all the never-Trumpers, with two SCOTUS pics in less than a year, you need to sit down and shut up at this point. With regards to Democrats demanding that Trump pick a moderate like Kennedy, do you honestly think that when Reagan picked Kennedy, he ever thought that Kennedy would side so much with the liberals on the Court?
Six Months Out to the 2018 Midterm Elections … The 10 Most Vulnerable Senators … 9 Out of 10 are Democrats
TOP 10 SENATOR MOST VULNERABLE IN THE 2018 ELECTIONS … BLUE WAVE? DEMOCRATS LOOK TO LOSE MORE SENATE SEATS.
What do you notice about the Top 10 US Senators listed below who are most vulnerable? None out of ten are Democrats. This election cycle there are an overwhelming number of Democrats up for reelection as opposed to Republicans. Many are in red states that Trump won handily. So before the LEFT starts talking about a blue wave, they have a blue wall to defend. One that came crashing down in 2016.
I agree with the ones on the list; however, I do not agree with the order. The most vulnerable is Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana. With Mike Pence as the VP, Indiana becoming a solid red state and Trump having won by 20% in 2016, Donnelly is all but gone. I would have Tester at #2, McCaskill #3, Manchin #4, Heitcamp #5 and something tells me that Ohio is going red as well in 2018. If Manchin does survive and the GOP gets big wins, look for him to maybe switch parties.
With Democrats all but losing their lead in the Generic ballot polls where even CNN, the all fake news, hate trump news all the time has it at just a 3% lead for Dems or the GOP. In December 2017 CNN has it at 56% Dem and 38% Republican. Reuters is down to 1%.
- Dean Heller, NV, Republican
- Claire McCaskill, MO, Democrat
- Joe Donnelly, IN, Democrat
- Heidi Heitkamp, ND, Democrat
- Joe Manchin, WV, Democrat
- Bill Nelson, FL, Democrat
- Jon Tester, MT, Democrat
- Tammy Basldwin, WI, Democrat
- Sherrod Brown, OH, Democrat
- Bob Casey, PA, Democrat
ROLL CALL PICKS THE TOP 10 SENATORS IN MOST TROUBLE IN THE 2018 MIDTERM ELECTIONS.
Nevada Republican Dean Heller remains in top spot.
Senate Democrats are still defending 10 states that President Donald Trump won in 2016, but six months out from Election Day, the most vulnerable senator remains a Republican.
Nevada Sen. Dean Heller no longer faces a primary threat, but he’s the only Republican up for re-election in a state Hillary Clinton won, and in this national environment that’s a tricky place to be.
The Democrats’ odds of flipping a few GOP-held open seats in Arizona and Tennessee have increased over the past six months, but this list — like the one we did a year out from Election Day — ranks incumbents most likely to lose — not seats most likely to flip. That means nine of the 10 senators are Democrats, with the second and third spots remaining unchanged.
North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III have traded places, with Heitkamp now at fourth and Manchin at fifth. Democrats would have been happy to face Don Blankenship in the West Virginia Senate race, but they’re also not getting Rep. Evan Jenkins, whom they spent nearly $2 million against in the primary.
The biggest change is Florida Sen. Bill Nelson moving up from eighth to sixth with Gov. Rick Scott’s entry into the race. That pushes Montana Sen. Jon Tester and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown down a spot each to seventh and eighth, respectively.
61 Year Old Former White House Chef Walter Scheib Missing Since 6/13/15 in Taos, New Mexico Sangre de Cristo Mountains (Update: Found dead in New Mexico)
61 year old Walter Scheib has been missing since Saturday, June 13, 2015 in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. Scheib was last seen setting out for a hike over the weekend alone on the Yerba Canyon Trail. The local police have found only his vehicle, which was parked at the Yerba Canyon Trail Head in Taos, NM, a town some 70 miles from Santa Fe. Nearly 30 searchers, including teams with dogs and horses, have fanned out across the trails in the area, scouring for any sign of the missing Walter Scheib.
Former White House executive chef Walter Scheib has been reported missing in New Mexico’s rugged Sangre de Cristo Mountains, where he was last seen setting out for a hike over the weekend, police said. For days since, search and rescue teams have been scouring the area to find him.
Scheib has been missing since Saturday. Local police have found only his vehicle, which was parked at the Yerba Canyon Trail Head in Taos, N.M., a town some 70 miles from Santa Fe.
Scheib, 61, earned his reputation in Washington for his New American-style cuisine, cooking for, among others, White House guests Nelson Mandela, Boris Yeltsin, Princess Diana and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He served for 11 years under President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush.
Crews will resume Scheib’s search and rescue mission Friday morning both on the ground and in the air, New Mexico State Police spokeswoman Sgt. Liz Armijo told The Washington Post. Authorities have been working with search and rescue dogs and using helicopters to view areas too rough and remote to reach on foot.
UPDATE I: Walter Scheib found dead in New Mexico.
The Taos News reported that Scheib’s body was found in a river approximately 20 to 30 feet off a hiking trail in the mountains above the Taos Ski Valley. The New Mexico State Police said the spot where the body was found was approximately 1.7 miles from the Yerba Canyon trail head where Scheib’s car was located.
Authorities said that they did not believe Scheib had not informed anyone of his hiking plans and was not believed to have been prepared for more than a day outdoors. Scheib had recently moved from Florida to New Mexico, and reportedly went for a hike June 13. His girlfriend reported him missing the next day. The 4-mile Yerba Canyon trail follows a canyon bottom before climbing to 3,700 feet in elevation, according to the U.S. Forest Service website.
Artist Nelson Shanks Says He Included a Shadow of a Blue Dress in Former Presidents Bill Clinton’s 2006 Portrait … Metaphor that Represents a Shadow on the Office He Held, or on Hiim
Monica Lewinsk’s blue dress strikes again …
Hmm, seems that the official presidential portrait of for President William Jefferson Clinton has a cryptically image in it. According to the artist, Nelson Shanks, the painting has a shadow at the left hand side of it that literally represents a shadow from a blue dress that I had on a mannequin. OMG, too funny. All these years and no one ever questioned it? The artist stated that the shadow is a metaphor “in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him.” If that’s the case, with regards to a shadow of scandal and a metaphor, then Barack Obama’s official portrait, with the shadow of lies and scandals might look like Spinal Tap’s album cover.
I am no art expert, but who finds this official airport somewhat lacking? Maybe Clinton should have been holding the blue dress, or a cigar in his hand? Remember when this portrait first came out, the uproar was that Clinton was not wearing a wedding ring. Looks like the artist compensated with other things.
An artist who painted a portrait of former President Bill Clinton says there’s more to the piece than one might see at first blush.
Pennsylvania artist Nelson Shanks told the Philadelphia Daily News that he included a shadow of a blue dress in the 2006 portrait, which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. It’s an apparent reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, with Shanks adding that the 42nd president is “probably the most famous liar of all time.”
“If you look at the left-hand side of it,” there’s a mantel in the Oval Office and “I put a shadow coming into the painting and it does two things,” the painter said.
“It actually literally represents a shadow from a blue dress that I had on a mannequin, that I had there while I was painting it, but not when he was there. It is also a bit of a metaphor in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him.”
Barack Obama Shakes Hands with Cuban President Raul Castro … What’s a Hand Shake Among Commie Friends?
NOTHING SURPRISES ME ANY MORE FROM THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE YURI OBAMA …
This morning in Soweto, Johannesburg President Barack Obama shook hands with Cuban leader Raúl Castro at the memorial for the late President Nelson Mandel. Hmm, I am not quite sure why anyone is surprised, this is the man who has embraced America’ enemies and made deals with them, bowed to Saudi princes and other foreign leaders, while treating our closest allies like dirt. What’s in a hand shake? A lot.
But like I said, what is a handshake among communist comrades, water does seek its own level now, doesn’t it? It would appear that Hot Air agrees as they opine, “One’s a communist who’s reduced his country to ruins, the other’s Raul Castro”.
But of course CNN was quick to defend and make excuses for Ovama’s actions. Hmm, guess it was a good thing Adolf Hitler was not attending.
Obama knew, of course, that Castro would be on stage. But refusing to shake Castro’s hand would not have been in keeping with Mandela’s legacy of reconciliation. And it was not the first handshake between American-Cuban leaders. In 2000, at the United Nations, then-President Bill Clinton shook hands with Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban Revolution, its first revolutionary president, and Raul’s brother.
Obama says he wants to improve relations with Cuba, but disagreements over human rights violations and other issues continue to keep the countries apart.
The handshake came before Obama’s speech, in which he made remarks about reconciliation.
“It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailer as well – (applause) – to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth,” Obama said.
The President also made sure to include a comment about freedom, which seemed directly aimed at dictatorial regimes.
