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Senate Democrats stayed-up for a second consecutive late-night session Tuesday to highlight their opposition to another one of President Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees. And this time the target is one of their own colleagues, attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions.

Democrats spoke on the Senate floor late into the night, one day after they staged an all-night talkathon against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos a tactic that failed to derail her nomination but succeeded in highlighting the divisiveness of her appointment and slowing the overall confirmation process.

The vote of Sessions, R-Alabama, was critical to DeVos' confirmation, meaning he could not be confirmed until after her.

Unlike DeVos, Sessions faces no Republican opposition, but Democrats are largely united in fighting his nomination. A procedural vote necessary to consider Sessions' nomination got the support of only 52 senators, with Sessions voting "present." The only Democrat to support it was Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

"I do not have confidence that Sessions can fairly and independently safeguard the freedoms" provided in the United States, Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

Senate Republicans, growing frustrated by the delay tactics, have said the Democrats need to accept that Trump is president.

"This level of obstruction at the beginning of an administration is really record setting in a very unfortunate way. It's really time for our friends on the other side to get over the election, let this administration get up and get running," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky.

But Democrats defended their approach.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said that despite DeVos' confirmation, the delay tactic is working.

"When you get millions of calls and demonstrations and a nominee is exposed for being who they are, it's going to have a profound and positive effect, even if she gains office. So, we're very we're very happy with the results, and we're going to continue them," he said.

"We're going to have long debates on Sessions, and we're going to have debates on [health and human services nominee Tom] Price. These nominees are so far afield from what President-elect Trump promised, from what candidate Trump promised and even President Trump promised defend the average person," he added.

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Democrats Pull All-Nighter at Senate to Oppose AG Nominee Sessions - NBCNews.com

Democrats will hold a pair of soul-searching meetings in Baltimore this week as the party looks for an approach to President Donald Trump that can unite supporters still bruised by his upset victory last fall.

House Democrats open their annual retreat Wednesday at the Inner Harbor, a closed-door gathering Democratic leaders will use to craft messaging and strategy for the months ahead. Later this week, 10 candidates running to lead the Democratic National Committee will take part in a public forum to discuss their visions for the party's future.

The meetings this year take on added significance for Democrats a party that is leaderless and still reeling from the November election as they grapple with Trump's whirlwind of executive orders and a running battle over his Cabinet nominees.

Democrats remain divided over whether to embrace steadfast, united opposition, the approach the tea party-driven Republican Party took with President Barack Obama, or to look for common ground.

"Donald Trump is so unpredictable," said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Baltimore Democrat. "I don't think anybody thought he would move as fast as he's moving with as much as he's doing."

Trump shows little sign of taking his foot off the gas or bowing to pressure from Capitol Hill. Calling the executive order to temporarily ban travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries "common sense," the president said Tuesday he is prepared to fight the legal battle over its implementation at the Supreme Court.

"We're going to take it through the system," said Trump, who also reiterated his promise to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. "It's very important for the country."

Trump dismissed efforts by Senate Democrats to hold up his Cabinet appointments as "all politics."

Rep. Andy Harris was asked Wednesday whether he thinks Democrats are treating Trump any differently than Republicans treated Obama during his first weeks in office.

The Baltimore County Republican paused before responding.

"Republicans gave President Obama a hard time, disagreed with some of his policies," Harris said. "Very clearly, the opposite is true with the shoe being on the other foot now."

Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Government and Oversight Reform Committee, has straddled the tactical debate within the party he has criticized the new president while also reaching out.

He condemned Trump for not shedding his ownership of his real estate empire and was among the first lawmakers standing at Baltimore's airport with protesters upset with Trump's temporary travel ban.

But Cummings has also pursued a meeting with the new president to discuss prescription drug prices, an issue on which Cummings believes Democrats can work with the White House. That meeting may now take place as early as next week, Cummings said.

"My position has been, let me dialogue with him about the things that we may have agreement on and, in the course of that conversation, bring up things like voting rights," he said.

Still, efforts to tread carefully are running into large crowds of protesters and organizers eager to pull the party to the left.

Protesters have quickened the outrage metabolism among members of Congress and encouraged disruptive tactics, including boycotts of Senate hearings on Trump's nominees.

The Senate has confirmed seven of Trump's top-level nominees. On Tuesday the chamber barely approved Education Secretary Betsy DeVos after all Democrats and two Republicans voted against her. Vice President Mike Pence was brought in to break a tie and put DeVos over the line.

Democrats have come under immense pressure from some within the party to block Trump's picks at all costs.

"Among the grass roots, there's a feeling that we should be in 'nothin' left to lose' mode, throwing everything we can at the president," said Christy Setzer, a Democratic strategist who advised for Al Gore, Chris Dodd and Howard Dean.

"If there's not perceived intensity in our opposition to Trump," she said, "you'll see a 'throw the bums out' mentality."

The debate over tactics is clearly on display in the nomination of Neil Gorsuch, Trump's choice to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Some Democrats have pressed their party's senators to filibuster the conservative appeals court judge a move that would likely backfire and further minimize the power of the filibuster.

It is also not clear that Senate Democrats have the votes to adopt a more radical strategy. As it looks toward the 2018 midterm election, 10 Democratic incumbents are running for re-election in states that Trump won.

"The fight that Democrats picked on DeVos was a good fight," said Pat Murray, a former executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party. "Senate Democrats are going to have opportunities to elevate certain people in certain moments to make a point."

But given Gorsuch's credentials and background, Murray said, it's likely he would ordinarily have had an easy path to confirmation.

"Gorsuch is tough" for Democrats, he said.

House Democrats have frequently held their annual retreat in Baltimore, a heavily Democratic city in a state that gave Hillary Clinton one of her largest margins in the country. Outside the policy discussions, lawmakers are set to hear from NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and comedian Chelsea Handler.

On Saturday, Sen. Ben Cardin, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy are among a long list of Democrats set to speak at the party's public forum. But the main event will be an afternoon discussion among candidates running to chair the national party, including former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez of Maryland and Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota.

Both candidates are progressive. Perez is considered by some to be more of an insider, having served in Obama's administration.

Former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, meanwhile, faces three challengers in her bid to be re-elected as the party's secretary.

Though Democrats lost the White House and failed to make major gains in Congress, the party has plenty to work with. A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday showed that 51 percent of voters disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job an unusually high percentage so early in a presidency. Forty-two percent approve.

Just over half of the respondents said they oppose Trump's travel restrictions.

Rep. Anthony G. Brown, one of two Democratic lawmakers elected from Maryland in November, said he hopes the caucus comes out of the retreat this week with a coherent message.

Read more here:
Democrats meet in Baltimore to assess future, plan of attack - Baltimore Sun

ALBANY, N.Y.

Until recently, the acid rain of dissent that has nagged the young presidency of Donald Trump the rallies and marches, the town-hall heckling, the phone lines jammed with calls from irate constituents was aimed mostly at those in Washington, with no room to duck, even for the likes of Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

On Friday, it found a far more obscure target.

Traitor! Traitor! a crowd of more than 100 protesters screamed outside a town-hall meeting held by state Sen. Jose R. Peralta of Queens. They were loudly venting at an assiduously uncontroversial state legislator who, as a Democrat in New York City, had been accustomed to cozier treatment.

You are empowering the Republicans everyone in this room knows it, one woman inside told Peralta as protesters shut out of the meeting banged on the windows. Your constituents are angry. We are probably going to vote you out.

The mathematics of power in Albany resists simple divisions. There are Democrats. There are Republicans. There are the Independent Democrats, a breakaway group of eight legislators who control the state Senate in partnership with Republicans an arrangement the Independent Democrats say empowers them to sway legislative priorities to the left, but that mainstream Democrats blame for blocking a more uniformly progressive agenda. And there is state Sen. Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat whose alignment with the Republicans has supplied them with a fragile majority.

For many liberal New Yorkers who assumed their state was thoroughly blue, the Independent Democratic Conferences very existence has come as a nasty, if galvanizing, surprise.

Though the next elections for the state Legislature will not arrive until fall 2018, liberal activists are already pledging to mount primary challenges to the conferences three most recent additions, Peralta, Sen. Jesse Hamilton of central Brooklyn and Sen. Marisol Alcantara of Manhattans West Side.

The mainstream Democrats, who have raged against the defectors at great and ineffectual length, are also eyeing the 2018 races.

Part of the protest is educating people on what is happening in Albany, said Harris Doran, a filmmaker from Washington Heights who is organizing protests at each of the eight conference members offices, starting this Friday with Hamilton. He said he had not known about the Independent Democrats quid pro quo with Republicans until getting involved in anti-Trump organizing efforts.

There is even a website, noIDCny.org, that describes the conference in terms more befitting a grubby conspiracy than a political deal.

If the Independent Democrats hoped they could hold liberal wrath at bay by fervently protesting Trump (Alcantara was arrested outside Trump Tower on Inauguration Day), listing all the bills they have passed (Peralta) or blaming Felder for enabling Republican control (Hamilton), they have been disappointed.

Just weeks ago, Albany insiders were all but taking bets on which mainstream Democratic senator might fall to the independents next. Such talk has dissipated.

For the first time in a very long time, people are paying attention, Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the leader of the mainstream Democrats, said Monday. We are in an awakening moment.

One political player who seems to have outrun the eruption so far is Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whom liberal activists have accused in the past of stumping only halfheartedly for a Democratic majority. (Cuomos aides have always insisted that this is untrue.)

On Friday night, Peralta tried to explain to his constituents that he had joined the independent conference after a lot of soul-searching about what he called the failed leadership of the mainstream Democrats and the new presidency. He later accused mainstream Democrats of inciting some protesters.

Denying this, Stewart-Cousins suggested that the defectors were pursuing perks like larger offices, staffs and committee memberships.

Sen. Jeffrey Klein, the leader of the independent Democrats, said Monday that the idea that his group was siding with Trump couldnt be further from the truth, adding that his members had voiced opposition to many Trump policies.

Any assertion that his members were merely after perks were, he said, nonsense.

I think its a real problem, and I think its sort of a problem with leadership, that all of the sudden when a Jesse Hamilton or a Jose Peralta or a Marisol Alcantara want to be part of the Independent Democratic Conference because they want to get things done and they want to get things from their districts, somehow its some unsavory trade, he said.

Alcantara has said that she joined the conference after it offered support that was not coming from the mainstream Democrats. Over the weekend, she called the backlash racist: She and Peralta are Hispanic, and Hamilton is black.

They also represent districts in New York City that are more liberal than those of the five other members of the conference.

While no protests against Alcantara have emerged, constituents have met with her to press her to fight for liberal legislation on abortion rights and education funding, among other issues.

People have sort of this nascent political awakening happening now after President Trump was elected, and theyre learning these things, and theyre really unhappy about it, said Lisa DellAquila, an Inwood lawyer and activist who has urged Alcantara to join the mainstream Democrats. I think shes got a lot to prove to her district.

One of Alcantaras opponents in last years Democratic primary, Robert Jackson, may challenge her in 2018, according to a person close to him.

Asked Monday whether he had heard any complaints about his defection, Hamilton said no. He then began listing his accomplishments, like stints on the school board and his local block association.

Ive been on the ground for a long period of time and getting things done, he said.

He hastened to add, I have problems with the Trump administration.

Read more:
Breakaway Democrats in New York feel Trump backlash - MyStatesman.com

Democrats are preparing for a battle over President Trumps push to dismantle the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, which analysts said will be difficult to accomplish without bipartisan support.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi vowed Monday to take thecase to the public to try to build opposition to any effort to eliminate or water down protections designed to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.

The president has moved to expose hardworking Americansto unfair, deceptive and predatory practices, perpetuating a massive con on those who thought he would stand up for them against the powerful interests, Pelosi told reporters.

Dodd-Frank, which was passed with almost no Republican support in the wake of the financial crisis, toughened capital requirements for financial firms,set up a powerful panel of regulators to watch for threatsand created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureauto oversee credit cards, mortgages and other financial products.

Trump signed an executive orderFriday ordering a review of Dodd-Frank, which he has vowed to dismantle.Republicans and businesses say the law has restricted bank lending and consumer choices.

After the signing, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said the move represented the beginning of the end of the Dodd-Frank mistake.

Althoughsome of the laws rules can be weakened by regulators appointed by Trump, key provisions cannot be eliminated without legislation. That sets up a looming political battle between the administration and congressional Democrats.

To get legislation through the Senate, Republicans would need the support of at least eight Democrats to break an expected filibuster. The chances of that dont look good right now, said Jaret Seiberg,an analyst with brokerage and investment bank Cowen & Co.

Democrats have promised to defend the 2010 law, one of former President Obamas signature accomplishments.

The lesson of history is that when faced with a danger like Donald Trump, opposition needs to grow. Most of all, opposition needs to be willing to fight, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), an ardent supporterof Dodd-Frank, told theProgressive Congress Strategy Summit in Baltimore on Saturday.

Giveaways to giant banks so they can cheat people and blow up our economy again? said Warren, who came up with the idea for the consumer bureau. We will fight back.

Seiberg noted in a report Monday that even moderate Democrats boycotted last weeks Senate Finance Committee vote to advance the nomination of Steven Mnuchin to be Treasury secretary. Mnuchin, a wealthy Wall Street executive,would help lead the effort on an overhaul of financial rules.

If these trends continue, it will be hard to see the president driving legislation forward, particularly as it relates to reforming Dodd-Frank and providing banks with regulatory relief, Seiberg said.

Republicans could try to use the budget reconciliation process, which requires only a simply majority in the Senate,to make changes to Dodd-Frank regulations that affect federal spending and taxes.But that would limit how much of Dodd-Frank could be changed, Seiberg said.

For example, a reconciliation provision could eliminate the independent funding stream for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and subject it to the congressional appropriations process. But reconciliation couldnt be used to replace the bureaus single director with a bipartisan commission, which Republicans have advocated.

Likewise, Trump could not repeal the Volcker Rule, whichprohibits federally insured banks from trading for their own profit and limits their ownership of risky investments. Instead, Trump would have to try to change the rules provisions through the five regulatory agencies that are in charge of it.

Strong Democratic opposition to Trump so far means there are substantial obstacles to bipartisanlegislation overhauling financial, health and energy regulations, Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a report Monday.

While we have not expected a sweeping overhaul of regulation in any of these areas to become law, recent developments lower the probability somewhat that even incremental changes could pass in the Senate, the report said.

On Friday, at a White House meeting with top corporate chief executives including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Trump signaled his intention to rely on Wall Street for advice on reducing financial regulations.

Theres nobody better to tell me about Dodd-Frank than Jamie, Trump said before the meeting began, adding that we expect to be cutting a lot out of Dodd-Frank.

One of the administration officials helping to direct the overhaul of Dodd-Frank is National Economic Council DirectorGary Cohn, who recently stepped down as chief operating officer at Goldman Sachs. Mnuchin also used to work at the Wall Street investment bank.

Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said Monday that Trumps campaign rhetoric about being tough on Wall Street amounted to a pack of lies.

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Democrats dig in to fight Trump's takedown of Dodd-Frank financial regulations - Chicago Tribune

The battle over Neil Gorsuchs nomination to the Supreme Court will likely hinge on the votes of 10 Democratic senators who face re-election next year in states President Donald Trump won in November.

That is setting off a furious battle between liberal and conservative groups for the votes of senators, including Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana. Liberals plan an all-out campaign to argue that working-class voters will lose with Gorsuch on the court, while the conservative Judicial Action Network is running a $10 million ad campaign geared toward persuading those Democrats to back him, or at least allow a final Senate vote.

Theyre going to have to pick a side, said Carrie Severino, the Judicial Action Networks chief counsel and policy director. If they dont appeal to their states as a whole, theyre not going to be able to win re-election.

Senate Democratic leaders face intense pressure from their energized party base to oppose Trumps nominees, particularly for the high court. They also want to protect the 10 members in Republican-leaning states, even though they have little chance of taking Senate control in 2018. Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority but have only two incumbents -- Jeff Flake of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada -- in competitive races next year.

Senate rules require 60 votes to advance a Supreme Court nomination. While Trump publicly urged Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to go nuclear and end filibusters if Democrats try to block Gorsuch, the administrations strategy has shifted to seeking the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster, said Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society. Hes on leave to advise the White House on the confirmation.

There are senators who have generally been open to hearing what Republicans have to say and offer, said Leo. And theyll be weighing carefully their options in relation to the 2018 cycle.

Gorsuch, 49, nominated to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, is meeting individually with senators this week to seek their support. Two of the Trump-state Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, have already met with Gorsuch and say theyre swayable.

I have not made a decision yet on that, but I am open, Tester said. He said he and Gorsuch discussed issues related to the Clean Water Act, abortion and campaign finance.

Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer met with Gorsuch Tuesday and told reporters he was a "very smart" and capable man who likes being a judge.

"But his nomination comes at a perilous time in the relationship between the executive and judicial branches," said the New York Democrat, who said it was "more imperative than ever" that the Supreme Court will serve as a check to the Trump administration.

Leo said theres an all-out push to convince Trump-state Democrats to provide 60 votes to advance Gorsuch to a confirmation requiring a simple majority, even if they ultimately dont back him.

Curtis Levey, a constitutional law attorney for FreedomWorks, a Tea Party group backing Gorsuch, called such a split of votes a halfhearted filibuster, and that may be the likely path for Gorsuch to reach the high court.

Thats how Justice Samuel Alito was confirmed in 2006, Levey said. Then, 19 Democrats voted with Republicans to end a last-minute filibuster of Alito on a 72-25 vote. Minutes later in the final vote, just four Democrats joined Republicans and Alito was confirmed, 58-42.

Trying to fend that off, liberal groups, including the Leadership Council for Civil and Human Rights and NARAL Pro-Choice America, are holding rallies and visiting local offices of the Trump-state Democrats.

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Of the 10 senators, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin have said theyll oppose Gorsuch, at least in a final vote. Brown said his decision centered on his view that Gorsuch would only add to a high court that under Chief Justice John Roberts has issued decisions tilted too much toward corporations.

In interviews this week, two others said they are apprehensive about Gorsuch but havent made a decision. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania said he has real concerns about some of Gorsuchs rulings, but said hes still in the early stages of review.

Bill Nelson of Florida said hell meet with Gorsuch soon, but also noted that hes hearing from constituents who are concerned that the addition of another judge to the courts conservative wing will harm minority voting rights.

People in Florida are petrified that theyre going to make it harder for them to vote, he said.

Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said last week she was also undecided but was deeply angered that Senate Republicans refused to consider former President Barack Obamas nomination of Merrick Garland to fill Scalias seat for the last 10 months of Obamas presidency.

Heitkamp of North Dakota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri will meet with Gorsuch Wednesday. McCaskill says shes taking a time-out in talking about the confirmation, after being accused of folding to Trump for saying on Twitter that she believes Gorsuch deserves a hearing and a vote.

Im not talking about the Supreme Court nominee at all, in any way, McCaskill said. I just dont think its a good idea at this point. I just want to wait and learn and I dont want to get out ahead of it. There is way too much interest in trying to gin up opposition.

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Gorsuch Supreme Court Fight Puts Heat on Trump-State Democrats - Bloomberg