Donald Trump’s sudden firing of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and surprise nomination of the White House’s top physician, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, to take his place has raised concerns among lawmakers and veterans groups. Some, who question Jackson’s limited qualifications to lead the embattled agency, have credited the appointment to his glowing -- and skeptical -- review of the Trump’s health during a press briefing in January. There was no mention of the staff shake-up during Wednesday’s daily White House press briefing. However, WH Reporter April Ryan did ask Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders why Trump hasn’t released a statement about Louisiana’s failure to indict the officers who killed Alton Sterling or the fatal police shooting of Stephon Clark. Sanders dismissed the question, calling both local issues. NBC News’ Kristen Welker followed up, pointing out that “a lot of African American moms all across the country feeling as though their sons are dying, so doesn’t the president feel like he needs to do something about that?” Sanders then pivoted to Trump’s school safety plan. A quick roundup of POTUS45 news: he tweeted about his desire to regulate Amazon; he called actress Roseanne Barr to congratulate her on the reboot of her show, which scored huge ratings; and his lawyers are said to have broached the idea of Trump’s pardoning two former top advisors, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort. In SCOTUS news, Justices were torn during their second look at the issue of gerrymandering on Wednesday. After considering a Republican-drawn plan from Wisconsin that hurt Democrats and, now, a Democratic-drawn plan in Maryland that undermined a Republican Congressman, there was a sense the conversation was moving in circles. In HBCU news, six Howard University employees were fired for "gross misconduct and neglect of duties" following an independent auditor's investigation into the misappropriation of financial aid funds amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The firings took place in September 2017, but were just made public Wednesday in a statement by university President Wayne Frederick. Lastly, get ready for walk-up Wednesdays at the Blacksonian in the nation’s capital. The National Museum of African American History and Culture is opening its doors to those who do not have passes on a first-come, first-served basis every Wednesday during the month of April. And with that, The Beat DC is taking a spring break. Sort of. We’ll be hard at work revamping our website, bringing on new staff, and getting ready to embark on our second round of financing. So we’ll have lots of news when we return on Monday, April 9th. Until then, we’re leaving you with all this...
- Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) wants a hearing on banking bill for weed industry.
- CBC members refuse to sign a letter for Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO).
- Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-OH) intros gun safety bill.
- Congressman Jim Costa (D-CA) tells ICE to get their priorities straight.
- Harvard taps Obama alumnus and former Morehouse College President for Senior Advisor role.
- FCC Chairman Ajit Pai faces questions over CPAC appearance.
- Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s name floated for AG job.
- Trump admin does an about-face on Obama’s prison program and a row ensues between Jared Kushner and AG Jeff Sessions.
- Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) cries foul over proposed HHS religion rule.
- Hawaii lawmakers vote for a statue of native son Barack Obama.
- Conservative vet announces congressional run in PA.
- The Collective PAC makes endorsements in key races.
- Meet the new film critic at Vanity Fair.
- The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce adds to its Board.
- Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice joins the Board of Netflix.
- Lawmakers want DOJ to publicly commit to hands off Mueller investigation.
- Former AG Eric Holder wins another one against WI Governor Scott Walker.
- HUD scaling back fair housing enforcement.
- NYT Co. releases first iteration of staff and leadership diversity data.
- Senators push Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to not rescind Obama-era guideline on school discipline.
- Can Barack Obama save the Dems? Check out Vanity Fair's take in Blogs!