Booker Takes Stage to Rail Against Jeff Sessions Nomination and More You Missed in Politics Today

It’s difficult to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in this country and to break through the clutter, so we’re here to make it easier. Here’s what we at Countable are reading today:

1. "Cory Booker takes stage to rail against Jeff Sessions nomination"

"New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker gave an impassioned and unprecedented plea to the Senate on Wednesday to vote against Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general and his fellow senator, Jeff Sessions."

"Booker, civil rights legend Georgia Rep. John Lewis and Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Cedric Richmond each delivered* *emotional testimony that Sessions' record on civil rights disqualifies him from serving atop the Justice Department under President-elect Trump. Booker became the first sitting senator to testify against a fellow sitting senator at a confirmation hearing for a Cabinet position."

Read more at CNN.

2. "Trump to CNN reporter at fiery presser: ‘You are fake news’"

"President-elect Donald Trump held his first press conference since winning the November election on Wednesday at Trump Tower, and boy it did not disappoint. Trump bemoaned the lack of honest reporters in today's culture, particularly after a new report from BuzzFeed that suggested Russia had incriminating information on him. The piece was uncorroborated. It was rumored CNN also published the report, but Jake Tapper pushed back at that claim after the press conference."

"BuzzFeed, Trump said matter-of-factly at the presser, is "a failing pile of garbage," while also criticizing CNN. “Since you're attacking us are you going to allow us a question?" CNN reporter Jim Acosta shouted. “I’m not going to give you a question," he said. "You are fake news."”

Read more at Townhall.

3. "Anti-Defamation League blasts Trump for invoking ‘Nazi Germany’"

"The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Wednesday condemned President-elect Donald Trump for invoking Nazi Germany in his criticism of the U.S. intelligence community, arguing his comments trivialize the Holocaust."

"“The President-elect’s use of Nazi Germany to make a political analogy is not only an inappropriate comparison on the merits, but it also coarsens our discourse and diminishes the horror of the Holocaust," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement Wednesday. Trump initially made the comparison Wednesday morning on Twitter, apparently enraged by news reports that intelligence officials briefed him on an unverified dossier claiming the Russians had collected salacious information on him.”

Read more at The Hill.

4. "World Series champion Cubs to visit White House before Obama leaves"

"Normally, the reigning World Series champions don’t make the traditional visit to the White House until sometime during the following MLB season. But normally, those champions are not the Chicago Cubs, and normally the sitting president at the time of the triumph is not a Chicagoan who has just a couple of months left in office."

"Because MLB is in its offseason, it is not clear how many Cubs players will be able to make the trip to the White House, which was first reported by NBC Chicago, especially given the relatively short notice. However, the Chicago Sun-Times, citing a source, reported that a “significant majority" of the Cubs’ roster was ready to travel to Washington.”

Read more at the Washington Post.

5. "Trump will not divest stake in business; sons to take over"

"President-elect Donald J. Trump, insisting he will not divest himself of his vast business empire as he prepares to assume the presidency, plans instead to turn over all of his business operations to a trust controlled by his two oldest sons and a longtime associate, top officials with his company said on Wednesday."

"The long-promised specifics Mr. Trump’s advisers provided on Wednesday left dozens of unanswered questions about whether or how the incoming president would avoid conflicts as commander in chief. And they fell short of the recommendations of ethics experts in both parties who have said the only way for Mr. Trump to genuinely eliminate potential conflicts is to place all his real estate holdings and other business ventures in a blind trust over which neither he nor his family has any control."

Read more at the New York Times.

— Erin Wright

(Photo Credit: Senate Democrats / Creative Commons)