Latest news with #MillerCenter
29-05-2025
- General
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, preserver of Virginia history and grandson of 10th US president, dies at 96
CHARLES CITY, Va. -- Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the last living grandson of U.S. President John Tyler born 83 years after his grandfather left the White House in 1845, died. He was 96. The cause of Tyler's death on Sunday was not immediately released. John Tyler was 63 years old when Harrison Tyler's father, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr., was born. And Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928 when that father was 75 years old and the presidential grandfather had been dead for more than 60 years. The grandson was known for preserving his grandfather's plantation and nearby Civil War fort. In a statement, Annique Dunning, the executive director of Sherwood Forest, a national landmark of President Tyler's residence, said the president's grandson, whose brother died in 2020, was a 'beloved father and grandfather, he will be missed immeasurably by those who survive him.' 'He will be remembered for his considerable charm, generosity and unfailing good humor by all who knew him,' Dunning said. Over the course of his life, Tyler preserved Sherwood Forest, his grandfather's plantation that enslaved dozens of people, including 43 people in 1860, just before the Civil War began. The grandson also helped restore and maintain Fort Pocahontas, a Union fort during the Civil War. Tyler's grandfather was a Democrat nicknamed the 'Accidental President' after unexpectedly assuming the presidency when President William Henry Harrison died in office. President Tyler was the first vice president to gain control of the White House in the wake of a death. The University of Virginia's Miller Center described the president as 'the last gasp of the Old Virginia aristocracy in the White House.' He had married twice and had 15 children, including Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr. The time between the president's birth and his grandson's death spans 235 years.
29-05-2025
- Politics
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, grandson of 10th US president, dies at 96
CHARLES CITY, Va. -- Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the last living grandson of U.S. President John Tyler born 83 years after his grandfather left the White House in 1845, died. He was 96. The cause of Tyler's death on Sunday was not immediately released. John Tyler was 63 years old when Harrison Tyler's father, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr., was born. And Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928 when that father was 75 years old and the presidential grandfather had been dead for more than 60 years. The grandson was known for preserving his grandfather's plantation and nearby Civil War fort. In a statement, Annique Dunning, the executive director of Sherwood Forest, a national landmark of President Tyler's residence, said the president's grandson, whose brother died in 2020, was a 'beloved father and grandfather, he will be missed immeasurably by those who survive him.' 'He will be remembered for his considerable charm, generosity and unfailing good humor by all who knew him,' Dunning said. Over the course of his life, Tyler preserved Sherwood Forest, his grandfather's plantation that enslaved dozens of people, including 43 people in 1860, just before the Civil War began. The grandson also helped restore and maintain Fort Pocahontas, a Union fort during the Civil War. Tyler's grandfather was a Democrat nicknamed the 'Accidental President' after unexpectedly assuming the presidency when President William Henry Harrison died in office. President Tyler was the first vice president to gain control of the White House in the wake of a death. The University of Virginia's Miller Center described the president as 'the last gasp of the Old Virginia aristocracy in the White House.' He had married twice and had 15 children, including Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr. The time between the president's birth and his grandson's death spans 235 years.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
White House purges transcripts of Trump's remarks from its website
WASHINGTON — The White House has removed official transcripts of President Donald Trump's public remarks from its government website, replacing them with selected videos of his public appearances. As recently as Sunday, transcripts of Trump's speeches and comments were still showing up in the 'Remarks' section of The next day, they were gone, snapshots of the site from an internet archive show. The only transcript appearing now is of Trump's inaugural address on Jan. 20. Government stenographers are still recording and transcribing Trump's remarks, a White House official said. But in an internal policy change in recent days, the White House took down the transcripts in favor of audio and video of his appearances. The idea behind the move is that people will get a fuller and more accurate sense of Trump by watching and listening to him as opposed to reading a transcript, which they may not be inclined to do anyway, the official said. Purging the transcripts and switching to audio and video of Trump's remarks was intended to create "consistency" across the website, the official said. 'In an effort to maintain consistency, previous transcripts that were available have been removed and replaced with the audio and visual components of that transcript,' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 'The White House continues to work to upload the multitude of public engagements that the president has done and will continue to make sure that the website consists of a full and complete representation of the president's public comments.' In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: 'The president's remarks are live on the website for every person in the world, including journalists, to access and watch for themselves. The Trump White House is the most transparent in history.' Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance's office continues to make public transcripts of his remarks, sending them out to the media. Since last month, Vance's office has shared eight transcripts with reporters, including his comments at a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a speech he gave about U.S. manufacturing and another one that involved the war between Russia and Ukraine. Asked why Vance is putting out official transcripts while Trump is not, Vance's office declined to comment. Historians and former White House officials denounced the move to do away with public transcripts that have long served as the definitive record of what the president says in public. "I hope he and his communications team see the light on this,' said Barbara Perry, a co-chair of the presidential oral history program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. 'It's not only good for history, which they may not care about, but they do care about how he's viewed by history. And second, they should also realize that it is his very communication style and substance that won him the presidency twice.' A public transcript also provides some protection for Trump if he feels misquoted or misunderstood. He can point to the document to settle the issue. Transcripts coming out of the White House have at times become points of contention. Days before the 2024 election, President Joe Biden made a comment that seemed to disparage Trump voters. A comedian speaking at a Trump rally had referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage." Speaking to a Latino audience, Biden said, "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters." That comment had the potential to alienate millions of voters on the eve of the election and potentially harm Democratic nominee Kamala Harris' chances. The Biden press office, however, altered the stenographer's transcript and instead released a document that changed the meaning of his remarks, adding an apostrophe so that the quote read "supporter's" — an apparent reference to the comedian who had made the remark, according to The Associated Press. President Barack Obama once mistakenly used the word "abortion" in an interview when he meant to say, "aberration," said Beck Dorey-Stein, who was a White House stenographer during his presidency and in the first couple of months of Trump's last term. Obama aides flagged Obama's bit of misspeak, but the transcript was allowed to stand, Dorey-Stein said. In another transcript kerfuffle, in 2007, President George W. Bush talked about how "childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured." The official transcript, however, changed the word to "children." The White House insisted it had not asked for the edit and had it changed back to Bush's actual words. Withholding transcripts 'seems really irresponsible and a self-inflicted wound,' Dorey-Stein said. 'With a transcript he can say, 'This is exactly what I said.'' 'How many times in the press briefing room would someone say, 'President Obama said this,' and the press secretary would say, 'No, he didn't. Check the transcript'? Now, there's no way for anyone to check the transcript,' she added. Others questioned the rationale the White House official put forward. The real motivation may be that Trump's frequent digressions — which he calls 'the weave' — can come off as gibberish in written form, critics said. Perhaps the White House 'didn't want 'the weave' exposed,' said Mike McCurry, a press secretary in Bill Clinton's White House. The last presidential event that the White House transcribed and made public happened more than two months ago — an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Though some videos of Trump's appearances are available on the White House's website, many are not. The site shows 10 videos in April, including events with Ohio State University's football team, the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, the Philadelphia Eagles football team and the Italian and Norwegian prime ministers. Not shown are videos of more than two dozen events Trump participated in last month. Among them is an Oval Office meeting on April 14 with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who is accepting migrants deported from the United States and putting them in a maximum-security prison. In the meeting, Trump said he wanted Bukele to take in as many criminals 'as possible.' Also missing are videos of Trump's various interactions with the media. There is no record, for example, of a Q&A with reporters on April 17 covering issues involving a school shooting at Florida State University ('The gun doesn't do the shooting; the people do,' he said) and Harvard University's tax-exempt status ('I think Harvard is a disgrace. They're obviously antisemitic."). This month, the White House website has posted 11 videos of Trump's appearances. That accounts for less than half of the Q&A sessions with the media and other events Trump has participated in so far. The left-out events include a meeting with Canada's new prime minister, Mark Carney, who batted down Trump's interest in making Canada the 51st state. 'Canada won't be for sale, ever,' Carney said. Past White Houses routinely publicized the official transcripts of the president's remarks. Indeed, in the first four months of Trump's first term, the White House posted more than 100 transcripts of his remarks. By contrast, in Trump's new term, his White House posted only 30 before they disappeared. Dorey-Stein said that in her brief stint at the start of Trump's first term, the new president's aides were wary of the stenographer corps. A former press officer said that the stenographers were positioning their microphones too close to Trump's face and that he did not like it, Dorey-Stein recalled. 'At the time, there was an overwhelming feeling of distrust,' she said in an interview. 'They really felt we were an extension of the press rather than a safeguard.' This article was originally published on
NBC News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
White House purges transcripts of Trump's remarks from its website
WASHINGTON — The White House has removed official transcripts of President Donald Trump's public remarks from its government website, replacing them with selected videos of his public appearances. As recently as Sunday, transcripts of Trump's speeches and comments were still showing up in the 'Remarks' section of The next day, they were gone, snapshots of the site from an internet archive show. The only transcript appearing now is of Trump's inaugural address on Jan. 20. Government stenographers are still recording and transcribing Trump's remarks, a White House official said. But in an internal policy change in recent days, the White House took down the transcripts in favor of audio and video of his appearances. The idea behind the move is that people will get a fuller and more accurate sense of Trump by watching and listening to him as opposed to reading a transcript, which they may not be inclined to do anyway, the official said. Purging the transcripts and switching to audio and video of Trump's remarks was intended to create "consistency" across the website, the official said. 'In an effort to maintain consistency, previous transcripts that were available have been removed and replaced with the audio and visual components of that transcript,' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 'The White House continues to work to upload the multitude of public engagements that the president has done and will continue to make sure that the website consists of a full and complete representation of the president's public comments.' In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: 'The president's remarks are live on the website for every person in the world, including journalists, to access and watch for themselves. The Trump White House is the most transparent in history.' Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance's office continues to make public transcripts of his remarks, sending them out to the media. Since last month, Vance's office has shared eight transcripts with reporters, including his comments at a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a speech he gave about U.S. manufacturing and another one that involved the war between Russia and Ukraine. Asked why Vance is putting out official transcripts while Trump is not, Vance's office declined to comment. Historians and former White House officials denounced the move to do away with public transcripts that have long served as the definitive record of what the president says in public. "I hope he and his communications team see the light on this,' said Barbara Perry, a co-chair of the presidential oral history program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. 'It's not only good for history, which they may not care about, but they do care about how he's viewed by history. And second, they should also realize that it is his very communication style and substance that won him the presidency twice.' A public transcript also provides some protection for Trump if he feels misquoted or misunderstood. He can point to the document to settle the issue. Transcripts coming out of the White House have at times become points of contention. Days before the 2024 election, President Joe Biden made a comment that seemed to disparage Trump voters. A comedian speaking at a Trump rally had referred to Puerto Rico as a " floating island of garbage." Speaking to a Latino audience, Biden said, "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters." That comment had the potential to alienate millions of voters on the eve of the election and potentially harm Democratic nominee Kamala Harris' chances. The Biden press office, however, altered the stenographer's transcript and instead released a document that changed the meaning of his remarks, adding an apostrophe so that the quote read "supporter's" — an apparent reference to the comedian who had made the remark, according to T he Associated Press. President Barack Obama once mistakenly used the word "abortion" in an interview when he meant to say, "aberration," said Beck Dorey-Stein, who was a White House stenographer during his presidency and in the first couple of months of Trump's last term. Obama aides flagged Obama's bit of misspeak, but the transcript was allowed to stand, Dorey-Stein said. In another transcript kerfuffle, in 2007, President George W. Bush talked about how " childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured." The official transcript, however, changed the word to "children." The White House insisted it had not asked for the edit and had it changed back to Bush's actual words. Withholding transcripts 'seems really irresponsible and a self-inflicted wound,' Dorey-Stein said. 'With a transcript he can say, 'This is exactly what I said.'' 'How many times in the press briefing room would someone say, 'President Obama said this,' and the press secretary would say, 'No, he didn't. Check the transcript'? Now, there's no way for anyone to check the transcript,' she added. Others questioned the rationale the White House official put forward. The real motivation may be that Trump's frequent digressions — which he calls ' the weave ' — can come off as gibberish in written form, critics said. Perhaps the White House 'didn't want 'the weave' exposed,' said Mike McCurry, a press secretary in Bill Clinton's White House. The last presidential event that the White House transcribed and made public happened more than two months ago — an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Though some videos of Trump's appearances are available on the White House's website, many are not. The site shows 10 videos in April, including events with Ohio State University's football team, the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, the Philadelphia Eagles football team and the Italian and Norwegian prime ministers. Not shown are videos of more than two dozen events Trump participated in last month. Among them is an Oval Office meeting on April 14 with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who is accepting migrants deported from the United States and putting them in a maximum-security prison. In the meeting, Trump said he wanted Bukele to take in as many criminals 'as possible.' Also missing are videos of Trump's various interactions with the media. There is no record, for example, of a Q&A with reporters on April 17 covering issues involving a school shooting at Florida State University ('The gun doesn't do the shooting; the people do,' he said) and Harvard University's tax-exempt status ('I think Harvard is a disgrace. They're obviously antisemitic."). This month, the White House website has posted 11 videos of Trump's appearances. That accounts for less than half of the Q&A sessions with the media and other events Trump has participated in so far. The left-out events include a meeting with Canada's new prime minister, Mark Carney, who batted down Trump's interest in making Canada the 51st state. 'Canada won't be for sale, ever,' Carney said. Past White Houses routinely publicized the official transcripts of the president's remarks. Indeed, in the first four months of Trump's first term, the White House posted more than 100 transcripts of his remarks. By contrast, in Trump's new term, his White House posted only 30 before they disappeared. Dorey-Stein said that in her brief stint at the start of Trump's first term, the new president's aides were wary of the stenographer corps. A former press officer said that the stenographers were positioning their microphones too close to Trump's face and that he did not like it, Dorey-Stein recalled. 'At the time, there was an overwhelming feeling of distrust,' she said in an interview. 'They really felt we were an extension of the press rather than a safeguard.'
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The enemies list: Trump takes a page from Nixon's playbook
"We're all afraid . . . " Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told a gathering of nonprofit and tribal leaders in her home state on April 14. "We are in a time and a place where I have not been before. I am oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real — and that's not right." Murkowski, one of few Republican senators to have publicly opposed President Donald Trump, was voicing concern about his administration's wide-ranging effort to seek revenge against a lengthy list of individuals perceived as political enemies. The New York Times listed more than 50 individuals who have been "targeted for retribution" by the Trump administration. The president and his appointees have attacked these people by firing them, stripping them of Secret Service protection and security clearances, ordering federal investigations against them and even threatening criminal prosecution. The list of Trump's targets includes former President Joe Biden, his son, Hunter Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as members of the first Trump administration who later turned against him such as John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. Trump isn't the first modern president to assemble a list of political enemies to be targeted for revenge. After he won the presidency in 1968, Nixon spent hours plotting revenge against his enemies. Ken Hughes, a researcher with the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, as well as the author of two books on Nixon, said there were three groups Nixon fixated on in particular: Jews, Ivy Leaguers and intellectuals. "He believes that members of all those groups are arrogant, and that they put themselves above the law." In 1971, Charles Colson, a special counsel, known as Nixon's "hatchet man," organized a 20-person list soon approved by John Dean, then chief White House counsel. Dean wrote a confidential memorandum addressing "how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies." The planned methods included leveraging IRS tax audits, phone-tapping, the cancellation of contracts and even criminal prosecution. Colson's roster featured a diverse group of adversaries: two Democratic congressmen, several reporters, a labor leader, as well as the actor Paul Newman. On June 17, 1972, a team of burglars was arrested at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. The five-member team, nicknamed "the plumbers," was created by the Nixon White House to conduct espionage against perceived foes. After the arrest, the White House stopped harassing opponents and began the long, complicated cover-up of its covert espionage operations. In June 1973, during the opening days of the Senate Watergate Hearings, John Dean revealed the list of "enemies," which had by then expanded to a file "several inches thick." There was bipartisan shock and disgust at the existence of the administration's organized effort to silence political opponents. William F. Buckley, a leading conservative and the editor of The National Review, wrote that the "stealth and brutality" made it "an act of proto-fascism." Because he faced several major restraints, Nixon moved slowly in taking retaliatory actions. For his entire six years in office, the Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress. He was also faced with a powerful and often critical media. The three TV news networks then in existence — ABC, CBS and NBC — all fielded skilled reporters who questioned Nixon directly and cultivated leads in the administration. The Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize for its fearless reporting on the Watergate scandal. Trump has no such restraints. Today, he enjoys Republican control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as something Nixon could have only dreamed of: the unconditional support of Fox News, the most-watched TV news outlet. Not to mention the small universe of radio talk show hosts, podcasters and social media personalities who relentlessly cheer Trump on and spew vitriol at liberal opponents. In contrast to Nixon's secret planning, Trump has been boasting about how he would retaliate against his enemies since his first presidential campaign. In 2016, he vowed to prosecute his Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clintion. Trump applauded as crowds of supporters chanted, "Lock her up! Lock her up!" After winning his first election, however, he ultimately did not pursue any legal action against Clinton. Rick Wilson, a veteran Republican campaign advisor, now a vocal Trump critic, compared the two presidents vengeful instincts. "Richard Nixon is typically considered the modern exemplar of a dark and vindictive president," Wilson wrote for The Daily Beast in 2016. "President Trump would be Nixon minus the keen intellect and work ethic." Amid his 2020 campaign, Trump made more than 100 threats against his political opponents. During his 2024 campaign, he repeatedly ranted against Biden. A year prior, he told supporters, "I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family." Trump would later amplify false allegations of Rep. Lynne Cheney, R-Wyo. — then the head of a committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021 — being a traitor who should face a military tribunal. In the first 100 days of his administration, Trump has wasted no time taking action against his perceived enemies, including prominent universities, major media outlets and top law firms. He has drastically cut budgets and reportedly fired at least 121,000 workers across 30 federal agencies. The Washington Post reported on April 10 that Trump had crossed "the Rubicon" when he ordered federal investigations of two senior executives from his first administration. The two former security officials, Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor, had spoken out against Trump's false claims of a stolen election in 2020. Most observers expect Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has displayed fierce loyalty to Trump, to follow through. The courts, the third branch of government, remain as one possible check against Trump's campaign of political suppression. So far, the administration has been hit with more 100 lawsuits. On April 19, the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration, halting the deportation of Venezuelan migrants. Another factor may be the public's increasing disenchantment with Trump. Noting his falling approval ratings, Karl Rove, the chief political advisor to former President George W. Bush, observed in an April 16 Wall Street Journal editorial that the nation is experiencing "Trump fatigue." "There's way too much retribution," he warned. "Most of the president's revenge attempts will end badly for him. Republicans could rue the day they set a new justification for retaliation from Democrats."
