Tag: Jeff Flake

Doug Ducey on Tuesday to fill the state’s other U.S. Senate seat. McSally will serve for at least the next two years in the seat that was held by longtime Arizona Sen. John McCain until his death in August. “With her experience and long record of service, Martha is uniquely qualified to step up and fight for Arizona’s interests in the U.S. Senate,” Ducey said in a statement. Ducey had appointed former Sen. Jon Kyl to the seat in September, but Kyl, after serving for several months, announced plans to resign at the end of the year. “I thank her for taking on this significant responsibility and look forward to working with her and Senator-Elect Sinema to get positive things done,” Ducey said. McSally will serve until the 2020 election, when voters will elect someone to serve the final two years of McCain's term. The intense interest in the seat was a factor in Ducey's convoluted decisions. McSally is a two-term congresswoman who was long considered for the Senate by the state's GOP establishment. The first female combat pilot, McSally rose to the rank of colonel in the Air Force before entering politics. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

And things are unlikely to change as long as the political rhetoric continues on both sides. I know two or three other people did the exact same thing," he said. He voted for Trump in 2016 and said he will vote for him again in 2020. She is the first Democrat Senator from Arizona in years," Arnold said. "I think what has to happen is somehow the general public needs to retake control of the political process so it's not the political elites, the political actives, in both parties that are determining who our candidates are supposed to be," Wert said. While she lives three hours from the border, she has been there several times and said we don't need a wall to separate the U.S. from Mexico. "Immigration is definitely going to be around, health care is definitely going to be around because nothing is going to happen in the next two years because the Democrats and Republicans aren't going to work together, and the Democrats certainly aren't going to try to work with Trump," Wert said. But she said 99 percent of the time she sides with Democrats and their views. She hopes people start backing away from Trump's divisiveness. I know a lot of people who are lifelong Democrats that started voting Republican."

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., speaks during the Senate Democrats news conference on tax reform in the Capitol on Nov. 28, 2017.Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call via Getty Images In her farewell speech on the Senate floor, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri on Thursday blasted the body's dysfunction, criticized her colleagues for being afraid to take tough votes, and said there are "too many embarrassing uncles in the United States Senate." "We have too many embarrassing uncles in the United States Senate. Lots of embarrassing stuff." Dec. 13, 201801:42 McCaskill added: "The United States Senate is no longer the world's greatest deliberative body. And everybody needs to quit saying it until we recover from this period of polarization and the fear of the political consequences of tough votes." I believe that we all know well that this is not a normal time, that the threats to our democracy from within and without are real, and none of us can say with confidence how the situation that we now find ourselves in will turn out." Flake, who did not run for re-election after becoming the most prominent GOP senator to routinely criticize President Donald Trump, did not mention the president by name in his address. "I sat there in Africa and read Havel’s speech — an encomium to democracy, a love letter to America, literary and inspiring — and I was overcome by his words," he said. In some ways, that man knows your country better than you do." Flake then turned his attention to some of today's dilemmas.

A second Republican senator, Tim Scott of South Carolina, has said he will vote against Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as a district judge in North Carolina, likely dooming the prospects of Thomas Farr filling the country’s longest court vacancy. Civil rights groups such as the NAACP have heavily criticized Farr for his work defending state laws found to have discriminated against African Americans. Scott announced Thursday that he would not vote for Farr, joining Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona and 49 Democratic lawmakers in opposing the nominee. Farr once served as a lawyer for the re-election campaign of the Republican senator Jesse Helms in 1990. The justice department alleged that about 120,000 postcards sent mostly to black voters before that election were intended to intimidate them out of voting. Farr told the Senate judiciary committee he was not consulted about the postcards and did not have any role in drafting or sending them. The memo said Farr had met with key campaign officials and had advised them “that a postcard mailing like the mailing conducted in 1984 would not be particularly useful” except as evidence in post-election challenges. Scott, who is African American, cited the memo in explaining why he would vote against Farr. Weighing these important factors, this afternoon I concluded that I could not support Mr Farr’s nomination.” Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, had repeatedly criticized Republicans in recent days for moving forward with the Farr vote. Republican senators Thom Tillis and Richard Burr of North Carolina both supported Farr’s nomination.

(Photo: MICHAEL REYNOLDS, EPA-EFE) WASHINGTON – Sen. Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, announced Thursday he would oppose a controversial President Donald Trump judicial nominee, killing the judge's chances of confirmation to be a federal judge In announcing his decision, the South Carolina senator cited a Department of Justice memo obtained by The Washington Post that included information on Thomas Farr's alleged role in the intimidation of black voters by the Sen. Jesse Helms campaign. Scott said the memo "created more concerns" and Thursday afternoon he decided he could not support Farr. Farr has denied that he was involved in the intimidation, according to The Charlotte Observer. Scott had voted to advance the nomination. Democrats have opposed Farr's nomination based on his judicial record, which they say demonstrates a hostility to voting rights. Farr's critics say that as an attorney hired by the state, he defended racially gerrymandered congressional districts in North Carolina, as well as a law that would require photo identification to vote. The Congressional Black Caucus and national civil rights groups have strongly opposed Farr’s nomination, citing concerns about his record on voting rights issues and voter suppression efforts. Johnson said three busloads of NAACP members from North Carolina traveled to Capitol Hill Wednesday to lobby against Farr’s nomination. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a civil rights icon, said "the problems this nominee represents are beyond partisan differences. The judicial opening Farr has been nominated to fill has contributed to the controversy.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) tells CNN's Anderson Cooper why he thinks there should be a vote on a bill to protect special counsel Robert Mueller. #CNN #News

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer reacts to the bill that's backed by Senators Chris Coons, Cory Booker and Jeff Flake. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as…

This is the final part of our four-part series about the results of the 2018 election in the US. Today we look specifically at...

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) joins MTP Daily and says that while the president has the bigger microphone in spreading political rhetoric, elected leaders also need to stand up when Trump goes too far. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC…

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) denounced the tense atmosphere that led to explosives being sent to mostly Democratic political figures and urged President Trump to follow-up his condemnation of that incident with actions. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is…