Trump fires acting attorney general
Trump fires acting attorney general
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday after she announced she would not defend his controversial immigration order.
He named Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to serve in her place. Trump picked Sen. Jeff Sessions to lead the Justice Department, but Sessions has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
The White House press office said in a statement that Yates “has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.”
The statement calls Yates an Obama administration appointee “who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.”
Yates, a Democratic appointee, directed Justice Department attorneys not to defend Trump’s controversial executive refugee and immigration ban, declaring Monday she was not convinced the order was lawful.
Still, Yates’ abrupt decision deepened the chaos surrounding Trump’s order. At least three top national security officials — Defense Secretary James Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Rex Tillerson, who is awaiting confirmation to lead the State Department — told associates they were not aware of details of the directive until about the time Trump signed it. Leading intelligence officials also were left largely in the dark, according to U.S. officials.
Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, said that despite White House assurances that congressional leaders were consulted, he learned about the order in the media.
The fallout was immediate: Friction between Trump and his top advisers and a rush by the Pentagon to seek exemptions to the policy. The White House approach also sparked an unusually public clash between a president and the civil servants tasked with carrying out his policy.
A large group of American diplomats circulated a memo voicing their opposition to the order, which temporarily halted the entire U.S. refugee program and banned all entries from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days. In a startling combative response, White House spokesman Sean Spicer challenged those opposed to the measure to resign.
“They should either get with the program or they can go,” Spicer said.
George H.W. Bush released from Houston hospital, returns home
HOUSTON (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush was released Monday from Houston Methodist Hospital where he received treatment for pneumonia for more than two weeks.
Bush, 92, was experiencing breathing difficulties when he was admitted Jan. 14. During his treatment, which included a stay in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.
“He is thankful for the many prayers and kind messages he received during his stay, as well as the world-class care that both his doctors and nurses provided,” Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said Monday.
Bush has been allowed to return to his Houston home, McGrath said.
The nation’s 41st president was joined at the hospital by his 91-year-old wife, Barbara, who spent five days there for treatment of bronchitis until her release a week ago.
UK says Trump visit still on amid outcry about travel ban
LONDON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s order barring U.S. entry to people from seven majority-Muslim nations is “divisive, discriminatory and wrong,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Monday. But he rebuffed calls for the government to cancel Trump’s planned state visit to the U.K. because of the temporary ban.
Britain’s three biggest opposition parties all called on the government to revoke Trump’s state visit, planned for later this year.
Several thousand protesters demonstrated near Prime Minister Theresa May’s Downing Street London residence Monday evening, chanting “Donald Trump has got to go” and “Shame on May.” An online petition opposing the trip has more than 1.5 million signatures. Any petition with more than 100,000 signatures must be considered for a debate in Parliament, though not a binding vote.
But May said during a visit to Dublin that she issued an invitation, “and that invitation stands.”
Johnson also said the visit should go ahead.
“He is the elected head of state of our closest and most important ally and there is absolutely no reason why he should not be accorded a state visit, and every reason why he should,” Johnson said.
Florida airport shooting suspect pleads not guilty
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — One by one, a judge detailed the 22 charges against an Alaskan man accused of killing five people and wounding six others in the Florida airport shooting spree. Then, Esteban Santiago pleaded not guilty.
Santiago, 26, stood in chains Monday in a red “max custody inmate” jumpsuit as U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer took the unusual step of reading the entire 17-page indictment aloud in court — with repeated emphasis on the victims’ names. After each count, Santiago said he understood and was asked if he realized he could get the death penalty if convicted.
“Yes, I do,” he replied.
Santiago, an Iraq war veteran who lived in Anchorage, Alaska, was taken into custody shortly after investigators say he opened fire in a baggage claim area Jan. 6 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
He is being held without bail on charges of causing death or bodily harm at an international airport, causing death during a crime of violence and using a firearm during a crime of violence. His court-appointed attorneys declined comment after Monday’s hearing.
Trump travel ban risks straining Mideast ties
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Just two days after banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations, U.S. President Donald Trump invited the Saudi monarch, whose kingdom includes Islam’s holiest sites, to fly to Washington.
It points to the delicate balancing act Trump faces as he tries to deliver on campaign promises to exterminate “radical Islamic terrorism” without endangering political and economic ties with U.S. allies in the region, including some where the Trump Organization has business interests.
The executive order could upend gains on the battlefields of Mosul, where U.S. forces aid Iraqi commandos, or scuttle billions of dollars’ worth of American aircraft sales to Tehran. Trump has vigorously defended the ban, saying it is only “about terror and keeping our country safe.”
Traditional American allies in the region have kept largely silent about the ban. Many welcome tougher action against Iran, one of the seven countries included in the executive order. But any move to expand the ban to other countries will undoubtedly inflame public opinion and could force them to respond in kind.
“Such selective and discriminatory acts will only serve to embolden the radical narratives of extremists and will provide further fuel to the advocates of violence and terrorism at a critical time,” the Organization of Islamic Cooperation said Monday.
Veterans protest travel ban, saying it hurts interpreters
SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. combat veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan say they are outraged at the temporary ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries and the suspension of the U.S. refugee program that has blocked visas for interpreters who risked their lives to help American troops on the battlefield.
Thousands of veterans have signed letters. One soldier says he has bought a plane ticket for his Afghan translator in case that country is added to the list of banned nations.
Many veterans say they feel betrayed by the executive order that President Donald Trump signed Friday that suspends the admission of all refugees to the U.S. for 120 days and all Syrian refugees indefinitely.
They say the fight feels personal since they gave their word to people who aided American troops that the United States would protect them and their families.
“This administration just made me a liar in a very significant way and I’m not willing to accept this,” said Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran Michael Breen, president and CEO of the Truman National Security Project, a Washington-based nonprofit think tank.
Hugo Chavez returns to life in TV show criticized by allies
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The revolution will now be televised.
The life of Hugo Chavez, who mesmerized Venezuela’s impoverished masses before dying of cancer in 2013, is being dramatized in a Spanish-language TV series that’s generating a backlash even before it airs.
Produced by Sony Pictures Television, “El Comandante” premieres this week throughout Latin America and in the spring will be broadcast in the United States by the Telemundo network.
Conceived by a staunch Chavez critic, the 60-episode series aims to retell the leftist leader’s improbable rise to power from his roots in poor, rural Venezuela while showing how the former tank commander’s authoritarianism laid the groundwork for the country’s current economic mess.
Former Venezuelan Trade Minister Moises Naim said he came up with the idea after spending years trying to explain Chavez’s hold over Venezuelans to friends in Washington, where he now lives.
To be sure, this non-sanctioned retelling of Chavez’s life has drawn fire.
In a state of the nation speech this month, President Nicolas Maduro denounced the series as imperialist “trash.” Chavez’s ex-wife threatened legal action against Sony.