DHS chief takes heat over Trump furor
January 17, 2018 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Comments Off
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen NielsenKirstjen Michele NielsenDHS chief takes heat over Trump furor Overnight Cybersecurity: Bipartisan bill aims to deter election interference | Russian hackers target Senate | House Intel panel subpoenas Bannon | DHS giving ‘active defense’ cyber tools to private sector Hoyer blasts Trump for ‘racist rhetoric’ MORE faced heated questions from Democratic lawmakers Tuesday over her recollections of a White House meeting in which President TrumpDonald John TrumpDems flip Wisconsin state Senate seat Sessions: ‘We should be like Canada’ in how we take in immigrants GOP rep: ‘Sheet metal and garbage’ everywhere in Haiti MORE questioned why the United States would take additional immigrants from “shithole countries.”
The remarks have set off a days-long firestorm, raising the odds of a government shutdown and emboldening Democrats to demand that a fix protecting certain immigrants brought to the United States as children be included as part of a deal.
Nielsen insisted throughout the more than four-hour hearing that she had not heard Trump use the word “shithole,” earning her withering criticism from some Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I don’t remember the specific words [Trump used],” Nielsen said in response to questions from Sen. Dick DurbinRichard (Dick) Joseph DurbinMcCarthy: ‘No deadline on DACA’ Ex-Sheriff David Clarke: Trump only one who ‘cares about black American citizens’ DHS chief takes heat over Trump furor MORE (D-Ill.), the first senator to publicly accuse Trump of using the phrase to describe Haiti and other countries.
“What I was struck with, frankly, as I’m sure you were as well, was the general profanity that was used in the room by almost everyone,” she said.
While Durbin was relatively restrained in his questioning of Nielsen, two other Democrats on the committee, both of whom are seen as possible presidential candidates in 2020, were much tougher during the televised hearing.Sen. Cory BookerCory Anthony BookerDHS chief takes heat over Trump furor Booker to Nielsen: ‘Your silence and your amnesia is complicity’ Homeland Security secretary grilled over Trump comments MORE (D-N.J.) said he was “seething with anger” and had “tears of rage” when Durbin told him about Trump’s remarks. The New Jersey Democrat pounded his desk and his voice cracked with emotion as he accused Nielsen of providing cover for what he described as racist remarks coming out of the White House.
“Your silence and your amnesia is complicity,” Booker thundered. “I hurt when Dick Durbin called me. I had tears of rage when I heard about his experience in that meeting and for you not to feel that hurt and that pain and to dismiss the questions of my colleagues … that’s unacceptable to me. You can’t remember the words of your commander in chief? I find that unacceptable.”
Sen. Kamala HarrisKamala Devi HarrisDHS chief takes heat over Trump furor NSA spying program overcomes key Senate hurdle Democrats will need to explain if they shut government down over illegal immigration MORE (D-Calif.) criticized Nielsen after the secretary said she had previously heard Trump talk of the need to bring in more immigrants from Norway as opposed to people from poorer countries.
“I heard [Trump] repeating what he had learned in a meeting before,” Nielsen said. “[Norway is] industrious and a hard-working country and they don’t have much crime there, they don’t have much debt. I think in general I heard him giving compliments to Norway.”
Harris replied: “That causes me concern about your ability to understand the scope of your responsibilities and the impact of your words — much less the policies that you promulgate in that very important department.”
Nielsen fired back, saying she did not intend to make a comparison between the countries and arguing that her agency has prioritized cracking down on racially charged violence in the U.S.
Facing the Senate panel days after the controversy broke, Nielsen faced a difficult political challenge while testifying under oath.
It was clear she was doing what she could to avoid angering Trump, who is known to watch and grade toughly the high-profile television appearances of Cabinet members and presidential aides. She also appeared to take pains not to do anything that would jeopardize a deal on immigration and spending four days before a possible government shutdown — all while avoiding saying anything untruthful.
Durbin has said Trump used the term “shithole,” and Sen. Lindsey GrahamLindsey Olin GrahamDHS chief takes heat over Trump furor Overnight Defense: GOP chair blames Dems for defense budget holdup | FDA, Pentagon to speed approval of battlefield drugs | Mattis calls North Korea situation ‘sobering’ Bipartisan group to introduce DACA bill in House MORE (R-S.C.) has essentially backed up Durbin’s account that the president disparaged Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations. But two other Republicans who attended the meeting, Sens. Tom CottonTom CottonMcCarthy: ‘No deadline on DACA’ DHS chief takes heat over Trump furor Lawmakers see shutdown’s odds rising MORE (Ark.) and David Perdue (Ga.), have offered different stories, initially saying they did not recall Trump using those words before saying Trump definitively did not say “shithole.”
Nielsen on Tuesday described the Oval Office meeting about immigration as heated and said many people in the room had used coarse language.
Graham later bemoaned “the two Trumps” during his own questioning of Nielsen.
The first Trump, he said, had spoken a week ago with “compassion” and “love” about the need to find a comprehensive bipartisan fix for those covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which Trump is winding down.
The other Trump showed up at the closed-door meeting a couple days later — after initially signaling he thought a deal outlined by Graham and Durbin sounded positive. In between, Republican senators including Cotton spoke with the president.
“We had a president that I was proud to golf with, to call my friend. … I don’t know where that guy went,” Graham said. “I want him back.”
The controversy over Trump’s remarks has left Democrats feeling that they are in a stronger negotiating position ahead of the deadline to reach a deal on funding the government — in part because of the bickering among Republicans.
The fight has also renewed charges of racism against Trump.
“In light of the president’s comments, I’m forced to question whether the decision to terminate protected status for Haitian nationals was in fact racially motivated,” said Sen. Dianne FeinsteinDianne Emiel FeinsteinDHS chief takes heat over Trump furor NSA spying program overcomes key Senate hurdle Democrats will need to explain if they shut government down over illegal immigration MORE (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the panel. “I hope not.”
Feinstein was referring to a separate decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians who came to the United States after a 2010 earthquake in their country.
Cotton and Republicans, including Trump, believe Democrats pushed for too much in the deal when they sought protections not only for the 700,000 or so immigrants protected by DACA, but for thousands covered by the TPS program and parents of DACA recipients.
The White House accused Democrats of simply trying to prevent Trump from getting a deal.
“I think they’re using [Trump’s remarks] as an excuse not to help this president get something accomplished, which I think is a sad day for our country,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters outside the West Wing.
Nielsen defended the administration’s moves to end TPS for Haiti and El Salvador, saying the countries have adequately recovered from natural disasters that occurred there, even if the countries are not prospering otherwise.
She also defended the spirit of Trump’s remarks at last week’s Oval Office meeting, saying he was merely stating that high-skilled workers should get priority over immigrants seeking asylum from dysfunctional governments or extreme poverty.
“What I understood him to be saying is let’s … make sure that those we bring here can contribute to our society,” she said.
Share and Enjoy
Pope Francis arrives in Chile for weeklong trip focused on the poor, the rainforest and indigenous people
January 16, 2018 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Comments Off
Pope Francis arrived here in the Chilean capital Monday evening to start a weeklong swing through Chile and Peru in which he is expected to highlight the plight of indigenous peoples, the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and the precarious status of immigrants and the poor.
In an eleventh-hour schedule shift, Francis stopped in Santiago at the tomb of a Chilean prelate who was known as the “bishop of the poor” and who aided those seeking loved ones detained during Chile’s former military dictatorship.
Francis was welcomed at Santiago’s international airport by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. A children’s orchestra celebrated his arrival on the tarmac as the pope, who was born in neighboring Argentina, listened with a broad smile and an aide held his cassock against a blustery wind.
The 81-year-old pope, known for his low-key style, took the passenger seat of a blue Hyundai sedan. The car traveled from the airport through the streets of the capital in a convoy of white SUVs as tens of thousands of well-wishers, many waving Vatican and Chilean flags, lined the streets.
His first stop, in the working-class Pudahuel district at the tomb of Chilean Bishop Enrique Alvear Urrutia, the bishop of the poor, seemed fitting.
When Francis became pope in 2013, he vowed to lead a “poor church for the poor,” embracing the values that many here say Alvear embodied.
Alvear, who died in 1982 and is a candidate for sainthood, was a fierce defender of human rights, notably during the initial years of the military dictatorship that ruled from 1973 to 1990 and was headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. It was an epoch when many assailed the church leadership for failing to speak out against the abuses of the government.
But Alvear was undeterred, despite death threats and the constant risk of arrest.
He would show up at detention and torture centers — including the notorious Villa Grimaldi in Santiago — in search of the “disappeared.”
The stop at the bishop’s tomb, announced shortly before the papal plane left Rome for Santiago, raised the question of whether Francis will speak about the victims of the dictatorship during his visit.
The Latin American church has long featured both conservative, pro-establishment tendencies and social activist elements, occasionally leading to tension within its hierarchy.
Pinochet’s legacy is still a deeply divisive issue in Chile, which remains a highly conservative, predominantly Roman Catholic country, despite the growth of Protestant evangelical sects.
On Monday evening, Francis switched from the Hyundai to the popemobile during a ride through central Santiago.
Outside the apostolic nunciature, where he was to spend the evening, he embraced and bestowed blessings on adults and children — including a disabled boy — gathered there and received flowers and other gifts from well-wishers. He took off his white skullcap, or zucchetto, to put on one offered by a boy, then returned it to the boy and placed his own back on his head. Ecstatic Chileans who had waited for hours recorded the pope on their cellphones.
Francis begins a full schedule of public events Tuesday, which features a morning Mass at O’Higgins Park in central Santiago. The pope’s homily at the service is expected to be his first major address during the trip.
On Wednesday, he heads to the southern city of Temuco, a center of Chile’s Mapuche indigenous population. The pope is expected to address the Mapuches’ struggle for the recuperation of ancestral lands and other rights.
A series of firebombings at Roman Catholic churches in the Santiago area preceded the pope’s arrival. Authorities downplayed the incidents, which caused minor damage and no injuries. Police have not named suspects in the attacks.
Victims of sexual abuse by priests — an issue that has shaken the Catholic Church at its core over the last two decades — have sought a meeting with the pope. But no such session has yet been scheduled.
On Thursday, the papal visit switches to Peru, where the pope is scheduled to travel to the city of Puerto Maldonado, the gateway to Peru’s Amazon region and a center of illicit gold mining that has ravaged the environment and forced many from their homes.
The weeklong papal visit concludes on Jan. 21 in Lima, the Peruvian capital, where the pope will recite the Angelus prayer at noon in Plaza de Armas, in the city’s historic center.
The trip is the fourth to South America for Francis, the only pope born in the Americas.
On the papal plane en route to Chile, Francis distributed to reporters a disturbing black-and-white photo of a child who, after the U.S. atomic bombardment of Nagasaki in 1945, carries his dead brother on his shoulders to a crematorium. The boy is barefoot, his lips are tightly sealed, and he stands at attention, with his dead brother strapped onto his back. The pope told reporters said he was “very moved” by the photo, taken by a U.S. photographer, Joseph Roger O’Donnell.
The pontiff, who has backed the banning of nuclear weapons, captioned the photo “The Fruit of War.”
Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington and special correspondent Jorge Poblete in Santiago contributed to this report.
patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com
Twitter: @PmcdonnellLAT