This is how the front page of CNN looks at the hour.. major journalistic enterprises have been blocked from attending the White House briefing Friday afternoon..
Journalists from The New York Times and two other news organizations were prohibited from attending a briefing by President Trump’s press secretary on Friday, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps. Reporters from The Times, CNN and Politico were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for the scheduled briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer allowed in reporters from only a handpicked group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed to attend.
Organizations allowed in included Breitbart News, the One America News Network and The Washington Times, all with conservative leanings. Journalists from ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Fox News also attended.
Reporters from Time magazine and The Associated Press, who were set to be allowed in to the briefing, chose not to attend in protest of the White House’s actions. “Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, said in a statement. “We strongly protest the exclusion of The New York Times and the other news organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national
A federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary nationwide restraining order Friday stopping President Trump's executive order banning citizens of seven countries from entering the United States.Judge James Robart, who was appointed by former President George Bush in 2003, ruled the executive order would be stopped nationwide, effective immediately.“The Constitution prevailed today,” Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement after the ruling. “No one is above the law — not even the President.”"It's our president's duty to honor this ruling and I'll make sure he does," Ferguson added.The ruling, made at the request of Washington and Minnesota, is the broadest to date against Trump's executive order.
Amid the chaos and confusion of President Donald Trump’s new executive order on immigration and refugees, sources tell CNN that White House policy director Stephen Miller spoke with officials of the State Department, Customs and Border Patrol, Department of Homeland Security and others to tell them that the President is deeply committed to the executive order and the public is firmly behind it – urging them not to get distracted by what he described as hysterical voices on TV.
MORE..
White House press secretary Sean Spicer did not respond to a request for comment.Already, Politico reported in December, the US government had quietly begun asking that foreign visitors provide their social media accounts voluntarily. The Obama administration had previously approved asking for much more information from people on terror watch lists, The Intercept reported in 2014.Trump’s executive order bars citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for the next 90 days and suspends the admission of all refugees for 120 days.Trump’s unilateral moves, which have drawn the ire of human rights groups and prompted protests at US airports, reflect the President’s desire to quickly make good on his campaign promises. But they also encapsulate the pitfalls of an administration largely operated by officials with scant federal experience.
President Trump has reorganized the National Security Council by elevating his chief strategist Steve Bannon and demoting the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Now, Bannon will join the NSC’s principals committee, the top inter-agency group for discussing national security. The National Security Council is the staff inside the White House that coordinates decision making by the president on such matters, in coordination with outside departments including the State Department and the Pentagon.
The world is in a flivver… Trump puts earth in a quiver.. A ban on a plane.. The global pain.. At the future we shiver..
Global opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump intensified on Sunday, as world leaders including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel denounced his decision to limit entry from seven predominantly Muslim countries in the name of fighting terrorism.
Trudeau, in a tweet, said Canada would welcome those fleeing “persecution, terror and war. Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith.” Merkel expressed her concerns about the temporary ban during a call with Trump on Saturday, her chief spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.
On Saturday night, Uber’s New York City Twitter account notified riders that the company was turning off surge pricing for trips at JFK Airport, the site of protests against President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking some Middle Eastern travelers and refugees.
Critics swiftly accused the ridesharing company of attempting to undermine or profit from a work stoppage by taxi drivers that had been called by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, an AFL-CIO affiliate that represents many immigrants, and whose work has been largely focused on stopping the encroachment of ride-hailing companies like Uber.
What followed was a firestorm of online anger and calls for a boycott of Uber. Well into Sunday morning, #deleteuber was a top trending topic on Twitter, with many commenters sharing screenshots of their deletions or account cancellations.
And now the newest feature of today’s online world; How to quit UBER.. delete UBER.. get rid of UBER..
Rudy Giuliani said Donald Trump asked him to work out how he could legally implement a “Muslim ban.”
“He called me up, he said, ‘Put a commission together, show me the right way to do it legally,’” the former mayor, who has been advising President Trump, said on “Fox News” Saturday.
Giuliani then said he put a panel together that included former federal Judge Michael Mukasey, Rep. Peter King and Texas Rep. Michael McCaul to come up with a plan that placed the emphasis on threats not religion.
“And what we did was we focused on, instead of religion, danger,” Giuliani said.
“The areas of the word that create danger for us, which is a factual basis, not a religious basis. Perfectly legal, perfectly sensible,” he added.
The president signed an executive order on Friday that bans indefinitely refugees from Syria from entering the US and for 90 days immigrants from seven predominately Muslim countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya.
President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his executive order to severely curb refugees and legal immigration, insisting on Twitter that America needs “extreme vetting” to avoid the “horrible mess” elsewhere.
Trump’s defense of his actions came as he faced escalating pressure to rescind the order. A growing number of Republicans chided Trump for the order, humanitarian groups planned a second round of protests Sunday, and some judges issued rulings halting the deportation of refugees and others caught in the fire.
On Twitter of course…..
“Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world — a horrible mess!” Trump tweeted early in the morning.
A US raid in Yemen killed 41 suspected Al-Qaeda militants and 16 civilians on Sunday, an official said, in what would be America’s first military action in the country under President Donald Trump.
Eight women and eight children were among those killed in the dawn raid in Yakla district, in the central province of Baida, said the provincial official, who did not want to be named, and tribal sources.
Sources in the region said the raid targeted the houses of three tribal chiefs linked to Al-Qaeda.
The provincial official said Apache helicopters also struck a school, a mosque and a medical facility which were all used by Al-Qaeda militants.
IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING.. THE TWEETING WILL CONTINUE.. The president of the United States seems to have the professionals using the @POTUS account.. meanwhile the private Tweetstream continues unabashed.
If he fails or succeeds one thing is clear: This is going to be a transitional president, and for better or worse (depending on your political stance) a very historic figure..
