Donald Trump’s parade to be shorter, less diverse than Barack Obama’s

Four years ago, President Barack Obama’s second inaugural parade featured participants from all 50 states. That won’t be the case with Friday’s Pennsylvania Avenue celebration for Donald Trump, according to the Boston Globe:

Trump’s parade will feature representatives from 20 states and has no participants from New England. This year’s parade will also feature a higher percentage of law enforcement groups, and the overall make up of the participants will mirror the largely white electorate that voted Trump into office.

 

One school performing in Trump’s parade, West Monroe High School from Louisiana, was recently embroiled in controversy because, according to local reports, the school continues to permit a Confederate flag to be flown at sporting events.

 

Trump’s parade will also be significantly shorter, featuring about 20 fewer marching groups than Obama’s 2013 parade, which featured more than 60 performers.

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In case you missed it: Click here to read a post on the Atlanta architect who helped plan Jimmy Carter’s inauguration in 1977.

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President-elect Donald Trump has decided to press his feud with U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, for at least one more day. In an interview that aired this morning on Fox News, Trump accused Lewis of lying when the congressman said he had never failed to attend a presidential inauguration before.

Lewis’ office confirmed Tuesday that he had skipped the 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush as well, to protest Bush’s controversial victory over former vice president Al Gore. This was the Fox News promo clip:

Said Trump:

“[Lewis] conveniently doesn’t remember. How do you forget if you go to an inauguration? I can tell you when I was at the inauguration. You don’t forget something like that. So he got caught, and it’s pretty bad. And it’s making him look bad, frankly.

 

“….I think he just grandstanded, John Lewis. And then he got caught in a very bad lie. Let’s see what happens. As far as other people not going, that’s okay, because we need seats so badly….”

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At least Donald Trump didn’t slam John Lewis on Twitter again. Or hasn’t yet.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans say that Trump’s use of Twitter is a bad idea. Only nine percent say they strongly support his use of the 140-character medium to announce policy positions and express his personal point of view, according to a fresh NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

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U.S. Rep. Tom Price’s second and final Senate confirmation hearing has been set. The Senate Finance Committee will take its turn publicly vetting the Roswell Republican next Tuesday, Jan. 24. Price’s first hearing begins at 10 a.m. today, before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. You can catch it here.

But back to next week’s Senate Finance committee hearing. Much of the audience will be friendly there, too. The committee’s chairman  had strong words Tuesday about Democrats’ latest attacks on the health nominee’s stock trades.

“Total B.S.,” said Utah Republican Orrin Hatch.

“Everybody here knows he’s an honest guy. He’s disclosed everything. What more can he do?” Hatch said when we asked him about Price. “I’m just ashamed of the way my colleagues on the other side are treating him.”

Meanwhile, Price’s former press secretary Ellen Carmichael laid out in the Independent Journal Review why she thinks Democratic claims against Price are bogus. And former congressman Phil Gingrey took to the pages of The Hill to write about why Price should be confirmed.

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We wrote last month about how a bill authored by U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, may be the first that soon-to-be President Donald Trump signs. It looks like Pooler Republican Buddy Carter may have beat him to the punch.

The Senate on Tuesday passed Carter’s “GAO Access and Oversight Act,” a bill that would give Congress’ anti-waste arm more access to information such as Social Security records for its audits. It now goes to Trump’s desk for his signature.

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Remember how, back in November, Cobb County was won by Hillary Clinton? It was the first time since Jimmy Carter that Cobb had gone Democrat in a presidential election. Many have said it was a one-time reaction to Donald Trump’s locker-room talk about women.

But there may be more to it than that. It may be purely anecdotal, but take a look at this crowd shot from a Cobb County Democratic party meeting held this week in Marietta, sent to us by chairman Michael Owens:

That’s a lot of people.

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