US Politics Mega-thread - Page 1735

Washington (CNN)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday said he plans to hold up attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch's confirmation until the Senate passes a now-controversial human trafficking bill.

"This will have an impact on the timing of considering a new attorney general," McConnell told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union." "I had hoped to turn to her next week, but if we can't finish the trafficking bill, she will be put off again."

Democrats are now holding up the trafficking bill, which glided through the judiciary committee, after they noticed an abortion provision embedded in the bill that would prevent victims of human trafficking from using restitution funds to pay for an abortion.

"We have to finish the human trafficking bill," McConnell said. "The Loretta Lynch nomination comes next."

A vote on Lynch's nomination was slated to take place this coming week, more than two weeks after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Lynch's nomination.

Democrats have pointed out that Lynch's nomination has been held up in the Senate longer than any U.S. attorney general nominee in three decades.

President Barack Obama nominated Lynch to lead the Justice Department in November, but Lynch's committee hearing didn't come until after Republicans took control of the Senate.

The No. 3 Senate Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer responded to McConnell's threat on Sunday, calling on Republicans to "stop dragging their feet" on Lynch's nomination.

"For months and months, Republicans have failed to move forward with‎ her nomination using any excuse they can, except for any credible objection to her nomination itself," Schumer said in a statement. "Loretta Lynch, and the American people, don't deserve this. At a time when terrorists from ISIS to Al-Shabaab threaten the United States, the nominee to be attorney general deserves an up or down vote."

And a spokesman for Minority Leader Harry Reid slammed McConnell for holding up Lynch's nomination.

On March 16 2015 02:05 Souma wrote:

I'd do it but I'm lazy ;; I could see it being pretty funny though.

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On March 16 2015 06:34 GreenHorizons wrote:


lol wp.

The funny thing about republican support of gay marriage rights is, I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than 7 (closeted) gay republican members.

I also don't exactly know who some of them are representing. If ~40% of republicans are ok with gay marriage and more than 50% of likely republican primary/caucus voters in key early states say oppposing gay marriage is a mostly/totally unacceptable position for the republican nominee to have, how could only 7 representatives support it?



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If they were "representing their constituents" shouldn't it be a bit closer to 50% of them supporting gay marriage rights (even if they are against it themselves)?

On March 16 2015 06:54 Millitron wrote:

The anti's are the loudest constituents though, so they get more representation.

On March 16 2015 06:34 GreenHorizons wrote:

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If they were "representing their constituents" shouldn't it be a bit closer to 50% of them supporting gay marriage rights (even if they are against it themselves)?

(CNN)A 20-year-old man from the St. Louis area has been arrested in connection with the shooting of two police officers during last week's protests in Ferguson, Missouri, a prosecutor said Sunday.

Jeffrey Williams was arrested late Saturday, and he has been charged with two counts of first-degree assault, a count of firing a weapon from a vehicle and three counts of armed criminal activity, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch said at a news conference in Clayton.

"The demonstrations were pretty much over (when the officers were shot). People were leaving, and that's when this happened," he said, describing Williams as a demonstrator who had taken part in protests on numerous occasions.

At the time of his arrest, Williams was on probation for receiving stolen property, and McCulloch said he believed Williams had an outstanding warrant after not reporting to his probation officer for several months.

On March 16 2015 07:07 NovaTheFeared wrote:


The constituents probably value the issue differently. The social conservatives care more about it and decide their votes on this issue, where maybe the supporters of gay marriage within the Republican party do want legalization but don't rank it as highly in their priorities. If that's the case the politicians are representing their base accurately, since it's not just raw numbers, it's more like raw numbers times intensity level.

The prosecutor repeatedly thanked the public for the information that led to the arrest. He also said that, because of the public's assistance in the case, police were able to serve a search warrant on Williams' residence where they seized a .40-caliber handgun, "which has been tied to the shell casings that were recovered" at the scene of the shooting.

Investigators are not sure they "buy" Williams' claim that he opened fire after a dispute with other individuals, McCulloch said, but he didn't rule it out.

"It's possible he was firing at someone else," he said, urging any other witnesses with information to come forward.

Bishop Derrick Robinson, an area organizer, challenged the idea that Williams was a well-known protester.

"I asked him (Williams) why would he say that he was a protester because it makes us look bad -- because so many things that we've done to rebuild our community. It sets us like five steps back to say that it was a protester who did it, but he admitted to me that he'd never protested," said Robinson, who spoke to Williams on Sunday.

Robinson added: "We won't allow this to distract us from our mission, and from purpose, because we will continue to fight."

On March 16 2015 07:29 GreenHorizons wrote:


I'm glad the community did the right thing despite not getting the justice they deserve.



Some important bits left out by hunts selection.

On March 16 2015 06:40 Mohdoo wrote:
My favorite thing about the gay marriage issue is how quickly it's coming about. Lots of people assumed they could be bigots without being shamed any time soon once it's legal across the country. Turns out nope, happening pretty soon and everyone will be remembered for being against it.