Since 2011

Gabe Fleisher, Editor-in-Chief

wakeuptopolitics@gmail.com ● wakeuptopolitics.com ● @WakeUp2Politics

THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL

White House Watch

The President’s Schedule At 10 AM Eastern Time, President Obama will

receive the presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office.

At 10:45, the President will sit down with travel and tourism industry CEOs

and top executives in the Roosevelt Room.

At 1:05 PM, Obama will leave the White House for Cooperstown, New

York.

In Cooperstown, the President will first tour the National Baseball Hall of

Fame and Museum at 3:25 PM, before speaking at the Museum at 3:55.

The President’s remarks will build on his earlier meeting, and will promote

tourism, announcing new steps to make it easier for foreign travelers to

come to the U.S.

Following his speech, President Obama will leave New York for his

hometown of Chicago – where he will attend two DSCC fundraising events.

Obama Defends Embattled VA Secretary President Obama spoke from

the White House Wednesday after an hour-long meeting with Secretary of

Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and deputy chief of staff Rob Nabors,

Obama’s White House point man on the VA scandal.

Embattled veterans affairs secretary Eric Shinseki met

for an hour with the President Wednesday over the

growing VA health scandal.

Since news broke of veterans

waiting at VA hospitals – delays

ultimately resulting in deaths –

Obama has repeated his demand

for answers. Even as he defended

Shinseki, the President quietly

opened the door for the secretary

to exit, even by resignation or

potential, firing.

On the health care scandal,

Obama said “it is dishonorable, it

is disgraceful” and “I will not

stand for it – as a commander-in-

chief, but also as an American.”

Shinseki, 71, is a retired four-star general, who has also served as Army

Chief of Staff, and as a combat Vietnam War veteran, disabled from a foot

injury, making him a patient of his own department, as well as the hospitals

these delays occur in.

Many Republicans, and already a few congressional Democrats, have called

for Shinseki’s resignation. For the moment, however, President Obama has

just demanded an investigation, putting an imperative on answers and

accountability.

“I have said to Ric, and I said it to him today, I want to see what the results

of these reports are, and there is going to be accountability,” the President

said.

Capitol Hill News

Pelosi Appoints Democrats to

Benghazi Panel After weeks of

deliberation, and a meeting with

Speaker John Boehner, House

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

(D-CA) has decided to appoint

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) has been named ranking

member of the Benghazi select committee. Cummings, also

top Democrat on the Oversight committee, is one of 5

Democrats appointed to the select panel Wednesday.

members of her caucus to the select committee on Benghazi.

The debate to do so inside the House Democratic Caucus has been fierce and

ongoing since its ignition upon

the Benghazi panel’s creation.

While Pelosi was initially leaning

towards not lending the

investigation credibility by appointing Democrats, but many in her caucuses

feared what Republicans on the committee might do with no Democrats in

the room. Many Democrats couldn’t bear the thought of the committee

issuing high-level subpoenas, possibly of former Secretary of State Hillary

Clinton, without any Democrats there to slow it down and protect Clinton

during potential testimony.

Pelosi’s five members of the committee are:

o Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), ranking member of the Oversight

Committee. Cummings has butted heads with Chairman Darrell Issa over

the latter’s Benghazi investigation. Cummings will serve as the select

panel’s ranking member, or top minority party representative.

o Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a member of the Intelligence Committee

o Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), ranking member of the Armed Services

Committee

o Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), a member of the Ways and Means

Oversight subcommittee

o Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), an Iraq War veteran who serves on the

Armed Services and Oversight committees.