Wake Up To Politics - April 17, 2015
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Friday, April 17, 2015
571 Days Until Election Day 2016It's Friday, April 17, 2015, I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
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Capitol Hill News
Fireworks over Lynch Nomination Continue Loretta Lynch’s nomination to be U.S. Attorney General continues to be controversial, 200+ days after President Barack Obama nominated her.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) requested a vote on the Lynch nomination Thursday, but was rebuffed by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who said he wanted to first pass the human trafficking bill (which could occur early next week), and then “consider the Lynch nomination through the regular order, as I have already committed to doing.”
Frustrated by McConnell’s holding up Lynch’s nomination because of unrelated legislation, Reid threatened to force a vote on the nominee if McConnell doesn’t “very, very soon”.
Although McConnell said, “Sen. Reid can’t force a vote on the Lynch nomination,” the Nevadan maintains that he – or any other senator – can make a motion to move the Senate to the executive calendar, which Lynch is on. He can then call Lynch up – as any senator can do with a nominee set on the calendar. Both of these motions require just a simple majority.
The hold-up on Lynch was originally due to her support of President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, but now the fight over the trafficking bill, which has stretched into six weeks long, has been tied with Lynch as well. The debate over the trafficking proposal lies in an abortion provision opposed by Democrats, although a deal is apparently emerging on the bill.
The debate over Lynch has reached every corner in politics: from the White House to Congress, to the 2016 race. Potential Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush weighed in Thursday, telling congressional Republicans that they should move ahead with Lynch’s nomination, saying “The longer it takes to confirm her, the longer Eric Holder stays,” referring to the current Attorney General, who is even more unpopular among Republicans than Lynch.
The son and brother of two presidents, Bush continued: “I think that presidents have the right to pick their team.”
Race to 45
Dynasty Joke of the Day Jeb Bush, when asked why just two families should be running for president: I’m “not trying to break the tie between the Adams Family and the Bush Family.”
Just like the Bushes, the Adamses have contributed two presidents, a father and a son, although if Jeb wins, it will bring his family’s total to three – while the Adams family will likely remain at two.
Travel Tracker: First in the Nation Summit Nearly every person who may conceivably run for the Republican nomination to be President of the United States, or who has been mentioned in any circle, will descend on New Hampshire today. Such is draw of the First in the Nation Summit, a “leadership summit” in the key early primary stated hosted by the New Hampshire Republican Party as a fundraiser.
The summit is being hyped as the kick-off of the 2016 presidential primary season, and over the course of the next two days will hear from presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio, as well as potential candidates Govs. Bobby Jindal (LA), John Kasich (OH), Chris Christie (NJ), and Scott Walker (WI); former Govs. Jeb Bush (FL), Jim Gilmore (VA), Mike Huckabee (AR), George Pataki (NY), Rick Perry (TX), and Bob Ehrlich (MD); Rep. Pete King (NY); Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC); former Sen. Scott Brown (MA); MSNBC host and former Rep. Joe Scarborough (FL); former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina; businessman Donald Trump; and former UN Ambassador John Bolton.
Each candidate will make a 30-minute speech, and the different audience reactions will be fascinating to watch. Politico look how some candidates in particular play: Chris Christie, whose candidacy has been written off as dead, and Marco Rubio, who is making his first trip to the state as a presidential candidate play with the voters, as well as social conservatives such as Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz, speaking in the more establishment New Hampshire.
Personally, I’ll be watching the more obscure candidates: Gilmore, Pataki, Erlich, King, Brown, Bolton, and Scarborough, to see if they are seriously considering running, as they experience for the first time sharing a stage with almost the entire GOP field.
White House Watch
The President’s Schedule At 10:30 AM, President Obama will sit down for an Oval Office meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Topics on the table for discussion: Ukraine, Libya, ISIS, Europe’s economy, climate change and energy security, and other issues.
At 11:50 AM, the President and Prime Minister will head to the East Room of the White House for a joint press conference, before holding a working lunch in the Cabinet Room at 12:55 PM.
Finally, at 3:50 PM, President Obama will speak at a White House poetry reading. Poets reading will include Elizabeth Alexander, who taught with Barack Obama at the University of Chicago and was selected to read a poem at his 2009 presidential inauguration. First Lady Michelle Obama will also speak at the end of the event.
Question of the Day
Yesterday's Answer On Thursday, I wrote about the campaign to profile a woman on the $20 bill – and asked this trivia question: who is the only woman to be featured on a currently circulating piece of U.S. currency?
The answer is…Sacagawea, who is on the dollar coin. Only two other coins in American history have depicted a woman, and no paper currency: Helen Keller, on the reverse of the 2003 Alabama quarter, and Susan B. Anthony, who used to be on the dollar coin.
GREAT JOB…Marlee Millman, Brad Chotiner, Joe Bookman, Norman Gordon, David Zimmerman, Rebecca Boester, Jim Wilbat, and Marilyn Schapiro! Also: @Matthewstroup_, @SLGuerard, and @jparodi1201, who answered via Twitter!!!
Honorable mention to Laurie Sperling, William Stribling, Rick Isserman, Terry Bloomberg, and Marjorie Melton, who guessed Susan B. Anthony – however, the dollar coin she was on stopped production in 1981.
And…James Woolley, answering from England: who said Queen Elizabeth II, who is on both paper currency and coins and would be correct if not for the REVOLUTIONARY WAR, which WE WON (just as a reminder).