News
CNN, – April 7, 2022
The Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Thursday in a historic vote that paves the way for her to become the first Black woman to serve on the highest court in the nation.
The tally was 53-47, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining Democrats to vote in favor.
The confirmation represents a significant victory for Democrats, which they can tout as bipartisan, and a way for the President to deliver on a campaign promise at a time when the US faces a number of challenges at home and abroad, including soaring inflation and the crisis in Ukraine. Democrats broke out into loud applause and cheers when the vote was gaveled.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a moment 46 days — and more than 46 years — in the making.
President Joe Biden on Friday will celebrate the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to reach the Supreme Court, marking the pinnacle of her legal career and bringing his political story full circle.
As a longtime Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Biden had a front-row seat to some of the most contentious confirmation battles in the Court’s history, as well as the hearings for Justice Stephen Breyer, whose retirement this summer is clearing the way for Jackson to join the bench.
TODAY, (02:56)
Politico, – April 8, 2022
Congress finally came to grips this week with one simple fact about Russia’s war in Ukraine: the U.S. is in it for the long haul.
After weeks of delays, the Senate and House nearly unanimously passed legislation to isolate Moscow from the global economy in ways that some acknowledge could become permanent. It’s also the first time since Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine that lawmakers have sent sanctions measures to President Joe Biden’s desk.
Even though they were staring down a two-week recess, lawmakers aren’t crediting a magic deal or a skilled negotiator with breaking the logjam. Instead, they’re pointing to a shifting belief that Ukraine can actually win the war, not simply hold off the Russians, and that the U.S. ally will need months or even years of U.S. help to do it.
CNBC, – April 8, 2022
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met with G-7 and NATO leaders in Brussels, one day after the U.S. announced new penalties on Russia that included a ban on all new investment in the country and sanctions on President Vladimir Putin’s daughters.
“I came here today to discuss three most important things: weapons, weapons, and weapons,” Kuleba said in a tweet.
Reports of rape and torture against civilians by Vladimir Putin’s forces drew strong condemnation from G-7 members, who voted to remove Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
CNN, – April 8, 2022
Ketanji Brown Jackson’s shattering of a racial glass ceiling, in a week also marked by the naked ambition of the Republicans who smeared her, the delusional demagoguery of an ex-President and a touch of the bizarre, reflected an historic and extreme Washington age.
Like everyone else, those in the nation’s capital will never forget the wrenching horror of images depicting atrocities perpetrated by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops against defenseless Ukrainian civilians.
Yet Washington’s self-absorption, and spot at the confluence of the profound and opposing political forces rocking the United States, meant that life went on as normal in the nation’s capital, in all its polarized and often absurd glory.
April 8, 2022 – 2:00 pm (ET)
Axios, April 8, 2022 – 12:15 pm to 1:00 pm (ET)
Mitch McConnell is at it again.
Asked during an appearance on Fox News Thursday night whether he would allow a Supreme Court nomination to go through if a vacancy opened up and Republicans were in the Senate majority next year, McConnell said this:
“I’m not gonna announce what our agenda might be on appointments before we even become the majority. I hope we’re in a position to make a decision.”
