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Carl Levin, Lengthy-Serving Michigan Senator, Dies at 87

Carl Levin, Long-Serving Michigan Senator, Dies at 87

Although he had no military experience, Senator Levin served for 10 years – from 2001 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2015 – chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, a platform from which he had a major influence on military appropriation and defense policy.

He exposed lavish and corrupt practices by military companies, voted to close bases, pushed for less government secrecy, and was instrumental in lifting the ban on gays in the military. He argued that military commanders and non-civilian officials should retain authority over sexual assault cases in the armed forces, arguing that doing so would provide more protection for victims.

After the 2001 terrorist attacks, he voted to give President George W. Bush the power to prosecute the perpetrators. But he became critical of the American fighting in Afghanistan and was an early opponent of the Iraq war. He expressed skepticism about the government’s claims that President Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. He welcomed President Barack Obama’s decision in 2011 to withdraw American troops from Iraq.

Carl Milton Levin was born in Detroit on June 28, 1934, one of three children of Saul Levin and the former Bess Levinson. His father was a lawyer and a member of Michigan’s Correction Commission, which operated state prisons. Public affairs dominated the conversation over dinner, with the father asking Carl and his siblings Hannah for opinions on the death penalty, mayor’s decisions, and other issues.

Carl graduated from Detroit Central High School in 1952, Swarthmore College with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1956, and Harvard Law School in 1959.

In 1961 he married Barbara Halpern. They had three daughters, Kate, Laura and Erica. He leaves behind his wife, daughters, brother and six grandchildren.

After serving five years as an attorney in Detroit, he was Deputy Attorney General and General Counsel of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission from 1964 to 1967. He helped set up the Detroit Public Defender’s Office and was its chief defense attorney from 1968-69. From 1969 to 1977 he served two terms on the Detroit City Council, the last four years as president. He also became a close associate of Coleman Young, a Democrat who became Detroit’s first African American mayor in 1974.

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Politics

Michael Enzi, Former Senator From Wyoming, Dies at 77

Michael Enzi, Former Senator From Wyoming, Dies at 77

According to Mr. Enzi, Mr. Simpson encouraged him to run for mayor of Gillette, the city to which he had moved only a few years earlier.

“On the way home from that Cody meeting while my wife was driving, I told her what Senator Simpson had said, and that I was thinking maybe I should run for mayor,” Mr. Enzi said in his retirement speech. “It must have come as quite a shock, because she ended up swerving into the barrow pit and then coming back up onto the road.”

At the time, Mr. Enzi said, Gillette was a place where recent discoveries of oil, gas and coal were drawing more and more people — and putting a strain on municipal services. The city, he said, was in need of three things that would become a recurring theme in Mr. Enzi’s political career: budgets, agendas and planning.

“Not the most exciting topics,” he said in his retirement speech.

Mr. Enzi was elected mayor in 1974 and served two four-year terms, during which time he also traveled to and from Washington as a member of the Coal Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Interior and served as the president of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities.

He soon set his sights on state politics, joining the Wyoming House of Representatives in 1987, and the Wyoming State Senate in 1991. He was first elected to the United States Senate in 1996. He led the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions from 2005 to 2007, and was the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee from 2015 to 2021.

In 2009, Mr. Enzi was a member of what came to be known as the Gang of Six, a group of Senate Finance Committee members — three Democrats and three Republicans — who held lengthy negotiations on a health care overhaul. The talks dragged on, and Republicans ultimately backed away from those compromise efforts amid protests from their constituents. The Affordable Care Act would pass in 2010, without support from Republicans in Congress. Mr. Enzi had sought to repeal the legislation.

In 2017, Mr. Enzi was one of 22 senators who signed a letter asking President Donald J. Trump to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

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Mike Gravel, Unconventional Two-Time period Alaska Senator, Dies at 91

Mike Gravel, Unconventional Two-Term Alaska Senator, Dies at 91

Mr. Gravel drew much more national notice on June 29, 1971. The New York Times and other newspapers were under court injunctions to stop publishing the Pentagon Papers, a secret, detailed government study of the war in Vietnam.

He read aloud from the papers to a subcommittee hearing that he had quickly called after Republicans thwarted his effort to read them to the entire Senate. He read for about three hours, finally breaking down in tears and saying, “Arms are being severed, metal is crashing through human bodies — because of a public policy this government and all of its branches continue to support.” (In a major ruling on press freedom, the injunction against The Times was overturned by the Supreme Court the next day.)

Mr. Gravel acknowledged many years later that his political ambition had led him to express support for the Vietnam War at the start of his political career, although he said he had personally opposed it.

In his 1968 Democratic primary challenge to Senator Ernest Gruening, one of two senators to vote against the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized President Lyndon B. Johnson to use conventional military force in Southeast Asia, Mr. Gravel said the North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh and not the United States was the aggressor. In 2007, while running for president, he told an NPR interviewer, “I said what I said back in 1968 because it was to advance my career.”

He told Salon magazine the same year that Alaskans did not share Mr. Gruening’s opposition to the war at the time, and that “when I ran, being a realistic politician, all I had to do was stand up and not deal with the subject, and people would assume that I was to the right of Ernest Gruening, when in point of fact I was to the left of him.”

Mr. Gravel won that primary, stressing his youth (he was 38 to Mr. Gruening’s 81) and campaigning in the smallest of villages, where he showed a half-hour movie about his campaign. He went on to defeat his Republican rival, Elmer E. Rasmuson, a banker and former mayor of Anchorage, in the general election.

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John Warner, Genteel Senator From Virginia, Dies at 94

John Warner, Genteel Senator From Virginia, Dies at 94

WASHINGTON — Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, the genteel former Navy secretary who shed the image of a dilettante to become a leading Republican voice on military policy during 30 years in the Senate, died on Tuesday night. He was 94.

He died at his home of heart failure, according to a former staff member.

Mr. Warner may have for a time been best known nationally as the dashing sixth husband of the actress Elizabeth Taylor. Her celebrity was a draw on the campaign trail during his difficult first race for the Senate in 1978, an election he won narrowly to start his political career. The couple divorced in 1982.

In the latter stages of his congressional service, Mr. Warner was also recognized as a protector of the Senate’s traditions and was credited with trying to forge bipartisan consensus on knotty issues such as the Iraq war, judicial nominations and treatment of terror detainees.

A full obituary will be published soon.

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Health

Airline Bars Alaska State Senator Over Masks Coverage Violation

Airline Bars Alaska State Senator Over Mask Policy Violation

Alaska Airlines has suspended an Alaska state legislature from its flights for violating its mask guidelines.

Lawmaker, Lora Reinbold, a Republican Senator, was caught on video discussing the airline’s mask rules with Juneau International Airport staff.

“You have to put on your mask, otherwise I won’t let you on the flight,” said an employee to Ms. Reinbold in the videos that were published on Thursday.

“It’s over,” replies Ms. Reinbold.

“It’s not,” says one employee. “It’s down under your nose. We can’t have it down. “

It wasn’t clear if she was allowed to board the flight and one of the videos showed her exiting the boarding area. In the videos, Ms. Reinbold can be seen wearing a mask. It was not clear what started the confrontation at the airport or what happened immediately before the footage was taken.

Ms. Reinbold said on Facebook that she found out on Saturday that she was not allowed to fly with the airline.

“We have informed Senator Lora Reinbold that she is not allowed to fly with us because she continues to refuse to comply with staff instructions regarding the current mask policy,” the airline said, adding that the suspension is under review.

Ms. Reinbold said she was suspended before she had a chance to speak to someone from the airline and that she did not receive a “yellow card warning under their policy” according to a post on Facebook.

“There was no due process before a temporary decision, which is currently under review, was published,” she wrote. “Alaska Airlines has posted information, including my name, to the media without my knowledge or permission. I believe that corporate policy constitutional rights are at risk. “

The conflict over rule of the company was the last to surface over masks in the country during the pandemic. Mask mandates have become a rallying call and a divisive political topic of conversation for some activists. Disputes over the rules have sometimes led to angry confrontations.

Updated

April 26, 2021, 8:43 p.m. ET

In an interview with Fox News last week, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul suggested that President Biden “go on national television, take off his mask, and burn it” to encourage Americans to get vaccinated.

A federal mandate issued in January requires travelers to wear masks on airplanes and airports, as well as on other public transport, including trains.

According to the federal mandate, the only travelers who are exempt from wearing a mask are children under 2 years of age, a person with a disability who cannot wear a mask or “for whom wearing a mask poses a health, safety or risk represents the workplace in the workplace. ”

“I test negative weekly,” wrote Ms. Reinbold. “I hope that through the misrepresentation of the media, people can learn the truth about my actual actions.”

Ms. Reinbold’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

On Sunday, Ms. Reinbold announced on Facebook that she had traveled by road and ferry to Juneau, Alaska. Without a flight, the drive from the Anchorage area to Juneau takes more than 19 hours.

Last week’s episode is not the first confrontation Ms. Reinbold has had with Alaska Airlines. She previously complained about the company on Facebook.

“Mask thugs in full force,” Ms. Reinbold said of a flight on Alaska Airlines. “Unfortunately, Alaska Airlines is part of the mask tyranny and does not provide any legal evidence to stop the spread (I can show that it causes health problems).”

In February, Alaska Republican Mike Dunleavy sent a letter to Ms. Reinbold urging her not to disclose any more misinformation about the pandemic.

“It is clear that as a civil servant you have renounced the principles of your oath,” wrote Dunleavy. “You have challenged the motivation of unelected and apolitical employees who work for the state of Alaska with baseless allegations that have been proven to you to be false on several occasions.”

In March, Ms. Reinbold said on Facebook that she was asked to leave a committee hearing for not wearing an approved face shield. Thereafter, Ms. Reinbold was expelled from the State Capitol until she followed health and safety protocols.

“My actions are to protect my constitutional rights, including civil liberties and those I represent, even under immense pressure and public scrutiny,” said Ms. Reinbold.

Ms. Reinbold has since returned to the State Capitol with a clear face mask.

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Health

‘I completely disagree with you,’ Fauci tells GOP senator in fiery change over masks

'I totally disagree with you,' Fauci tells GOP senator in fiery exchange over masks

The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci, urged Republican Senator Rand Paul back on Thursday that people are not at risk for Covid after their recovery or vaccination.

In a fiery exchange during a Senate hearing examining the country’s efforts to respond to coronavirus, Paul told Fauci that Americans should not wear masks after vaccination due to the likelihood of getting Covid-19 is “practically 0%”.

“Isn’t it just theater?” The Kentucky junior senator, an ophthalmologist, asked during a hearing on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

“You’ve been vaccinated and you hit around in two masks for the show. You can’t get it back,” Paul said. “There’s practically a 0% chance you’ll get it, and you tell people who had the vaccine have immunity – you defy everything we know about immunity by telling people they are wearing vaccinated masks should.”

In response, Fauci said: “Here we go again with the theater.”

“”All I can say is that masks are no theater, “said Fauci.” I totally disagree with you. “

The emergence of new, highly contagious variants poses a threat to people who have recovered from Covid or have been vaccinated, he said.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) speaks during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing on the federal response to the coronavirus March 18, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Susan Walsh | Pool | Getty Images

It has been shown that new variants, especially the strain B.1.351 identified for the first time in South Africa, escape the protection of vaccines.

“In the South African study of [Johnson & Johnson]They found that people who were wild-type infected and exposed to variant 351 in South Africa felt like they had never been infected before, they had no protection, “Fauci said.

Fauci agreed that it was unlikely that anyone would become infected with the original strain for at least six months. “But we in our country now have variants.”

The exchange took place a little over a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new guidelines that those who are fully vaccinated can safely visit other vaccinated people indoors without a mask or social distance.

However, the CDC also recommended that vaccinated individuals should continue to wear masks in public settings, when meeting with unvaccinated individuals from more than one different household, and with individuals at increased risk of developing serious illnesses.

While growing body of evidence suggests that people vaccinated against Covid are less likely to spread the disease to others, it is still not known how long a person’s protection could last or how effective the shots are against emerging variants said the CDC on March 8th.

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Business

GOP senator says Covid reduction ‘determine shouldn’t be foreordained’ after Biden assembly

GOP senator says Covid relief ‘figure should not be foreordained’ after Biden meeting

Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy suggested that the Covid relief figure should not be “predetermined” and based on data shortly after his meeting with President Joe Biden.

“If we are driven by data, we will get the right number,” Cassidy told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” during an interview Monday night. “That number shouldn’t be predetermined.”

Biden had a face-to-face meeting with 10 Republican senators, including Cassidy, on Monday. GOP Senators have introduced a $ 618 billion bailout bill, less than a third the price of Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion bailout.

The direct payments are lower, and those payments expire at a lower income threshold of $ 40,000 for individuals. There is also no funding for state and local governments, which was a major sticking point for Democrats.

Republicans have advocated a “targeted approach” when it comes to relief. Cassidy told host Shepard Smith that he was “a great advocate for state and local aid” but “needs to have data”.

“The Republicans offered something a little more focused, but another thing they have in common is that it’s data,” Cassidy said. “What does the data show that we need? And the president will have his staff come back to us and we will compare our data points.”

If 10 Republican Senators join the Democrats on an aid package from Covid, they would overcome the filibuster.

Cassidy told host Shepard Smith that after meeting Biden, Americans should be “more optimistic” about a two-party deal, but noted that “nothing is guaranteed in this process, as our founding fathers set it up”.

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Business

‘I do not know that McConnell has a number of energy,’ says GOP senator

'I don't know that McConnell has a lot of power,' says GOP senator

North Dakota Republican Senator Kevin Cramer told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that he does not know of many Senate “wimps” who would follow Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell when it comes to impeachment Donald Trump is leaving.

“Mitch McConnell is a lot of influence, I don’t know he’s got a lot of power,” Cramer said during an interview on Wednesday night. “He has a lot of power over the schedule and the process, of course, but I don’t know of many wimps in the United States Senate who will vote one way or another just because Mitch McConnell does.”

McConnell said earlier that impeachment proceedings would not take place until President-elect Biden was inaugurated. McConnell also said he remains undecided how he will vote.

The House of Representatives voted 232-197 in favor of the indictment against President Donald Trump, and 10 Republicans voted in favor of the indictment against Trump. The House voted to charge Trump with “inciting insurrection” after a crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, killing five people, including a police officer. The unprecedented charge was brought just seven days before the end of his term, and now Trump stands alone in America’s 244-year history as the only president to be charged twice.

Cramer said he thought the House “rushed to the court” and referred to it as “a much more political organ than the Senate”. When host Shepard Smith asked Cramer if he would vote to condemn Trump, Cramer argued about due process.

“I’ve read my constitution many times and due process in the country I think unless you are Donald Trump and so I am not guilty because that is against everything the constitution stands for and due process Procedure, “said Cramer.

In a Wednesday night interview on The News with Shepard Smith, Ohio State University law professor Edward Foley explained when due process would occur during the impeachment process.

“What happened in the House today is essentially an indictment and the trial is in the Senate. So there will be due process and it seems the Senate is acting on purpose.” Speed ​​to make sure it’s a fair trial. “

In the impeachment proceedings, it is said in part that Trump “threatened the integrity of the democratic system, disrupted the peaceful transfer of power and endangered an equal branch of government.”

House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi said impeachment and conviction are the “constitutional tool” for Trump’s actions, “which will ensure the republic is safe from this man who is determined to tear down the things that matter to us lie and hold us together. ” “”

However, Cramer told Smith he did not realize that Trump’s rhetoric was inciting the violent mob in the Capitol.

“The president’s rhetoric, while inconsiderate, could at some level be accused of causing anger and bad behavior. However, it is also clear that the exact words he used did not, in my opinion, lead to criminal incitement In my opinion, we should be as political as it is in this process, “said Cramer.

At the Save America rally on January 6, Trump told thousands of spectators on Capitol Hill that “we will never admit” and added strength to his supporters.

“We’re going to go down to the Capitol and cheer for our brave senators and congressmen,” Trump told a crowd near the White House. “We probably won’t cheer some of them as much because you will never retake our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”

Minutes later, a crowd of his supporters stormed Congress and terrorized it. Trump has since taken no responsibility for the deadly uprising and has defended his speech.