Political Watch 3/9/17

• California Sen. Kamala Harris (D) and her Democratic colleagues called on U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign after it was revealed that he spoke to the Russian ambassador to the United States twice last year and failed to disclose this information during his confirmation hearing with the U.S. Senate in February. The revelation came from The Washington Post, which broke the story on March 1, and weeks after former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn resigned after admitting to misleading top officials in President Donald Trump's administration about communicating with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December. According to the Post, U.S. Justice Department officials said Sessions��"who was a U.S. senator from Alabama at the time��"met with Kislyak once in July and then again in September for a private conversation in the senator's office. At the time, Sessions was a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and one of Trump's top foreign policy advisers, according to the Post. When asked by Minnesota Sen. Al Franken (D) what he'd do if he learned that anyone from Trump's campaign communicated with anyone from the Russian government, Sessions replied that he wasn't "aware of any of those activities." Sessions was an early supporter of Trump and joined his campaign in February 2016. "Attorney General Sessions deceived Congress and the American people," Harris said in a statement, "and is therefore ineligible to serve as the top law enforcement official of our country. He must resign immediately." Harris' Senate colleague from California, Diane Feinstein (D), said Sessions must recuse or resign. As of March 2, Sessions recused himself from any investigation but didn't resign.


• While President Trump invited grieving Navy SEAL widow Carryn Ownens to his first speech before a joint session of Congress on Feb. 28, Central Coast Congressman Salud Carbajal (D) hosted UC Santa Barbara student and first generation Mexican-American Izeah Garcia at the same speech in Washington, D.C. The invitation comes just as the Trump administration steps up enforcement of deportations for undocumented immigrants and following the "A Day Without Immigrants" protest on Feb. 16, a general strike that called for immigrants to not go to work in order to show the impact that immigrants have on the economy. "Izeah is an exceptional example of the value that immigrants and their families have to offer our communities," Carbajal said in a statement. "As the son of Mexican immigrants and the first in his family to attend college, Izeah's success encapsulates the American dream and the threat that the President's xenophobic policies pose to America's continued success and strength." Izeah is a fourth-year history of public policy major. Carbajal himself is Mexican-American and was the first in his family to attend college and currently represents California's 24th Congressional District.


• On March 2, California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) appointed Monique Limon (D-Santa Barbara) to the newly created Select Committee on the Nonprofit Sector. The committee will serve as the nexus between the state's elected officials, government agencies, philanthropists, and nonprofit organizations. Its goal is to collaborate on programs that deal with the economic and social well-being of Californians, according to Limon's office. "I believe it is vital the Assembly take a role to ensure public awareness about how these entities operate and how they benefit the economy," Limon said. Limon herself worked with several nonprofits before being elected, including the Santa Barbara City College Foundation, the Katherine Harvey Fellows Program of the Santa Barbara Foundation, and the McCune Foundation. Limon currently represents the state's 37th Assembly District, which includes Buellton, Solvang, and the Santa Ynez Valley.

Comments (0)
Add a Comment