Joe Manchin

Joseph "Joe" Manchin III (born August 24, 1947) is the senior United States Senator from West Virginia. Manchin, a member of the Democratic Party, previously served as the Governor of West Virginia from 2005 to 2010 and the Secretary of State of West Virginia from 2001 to 2005. He won the special election in November 2010 to fill the seat of Senator Robert Byrd, the longest serving U.S. Senator, who died in office. Manchin was elected to a full term in office with 60 percent of the vote in November 2012. Manchin became the state's senior Senator when Jay Rockefeller retired in 2015.

Early life and education

Manchin was born in Farmington, West Virginia, a small coal mining town, in 1947, the second of five children of Mary O. (née Gouzd) and John Manchin. Manchin was derived from "Mancini."

His father was of Italian descent and his maternal grandparents were Czechoslovakian immigrants. His father owned a carpet and furniture store, and his grandfather, Joseph Manchin, owned a grocery store. His father and his grandfather both once served as Mayor of Farmington, West Virginia. His uncle, A. James Manchin, was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates and was elected as the West Virginia Secretary of State and West Virginia State Treasurer.

Morning Joe

Morning Joe is a weekday morning talk show which premiered on May 9, 2007, on MSNBC. The show features Joe Scarborough discussing the news of the day in a panel format with co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist. It was created as the replacement for Imus in the Morning, which was canceled in April 2007 after simulcasting on MSNBC since 1996.

The talk show airs airs from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

History

Morning Joe began as a fill-in program after Don Imus' Imus in the Morning was canceled. Former Florida Congressman Joe Scarborough, then host of the primetime MSNBC program Scarborough Country, suggested the idea of doing a morning show instead. He put together what would become Morning Joe with Scarborough Country executive producer Chris Licht and screenwriter John Ridley. On May 9, 2007, the show debuted as one of a series of rotating programs auditioning for Imus's former slot, with Scarborough joined by co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Ridley. Scarborough had personally asked Brzezinski to co-host with him the night before the first audition, while she was a "cut-in" presenter during MSNBC's primetime schedule on a freelance basis.

MSNBC

MSNBC is an American basic cable and satellite television network that provides news coverage and political commentary from NBC News on current events. The network also carries a prime-time 'opinion page' programming bloc with a mostly progressive slant. It is owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of the NBCUniversal Television Group division of NBCUniversal.

MSNBC and msnbc.com were founded in 1996 as separate partnerships between Microsoft and General Electric's NBC unit, hence the network's naming. Although they shared the same name, msnbc.com and MSNBC maintained separate corporate structures and news operations, with msnbc.com headquartered on the West Coast on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, and MSNBC in the NBC headquarters in New York. Microsoft divested its stake in the MSNBC channel in 2005, and divested its stake in msnbc.com in July 2012, rebranding the general news site as NBCNews.com and creating a new msnbc.com as the online home of the cable news channel. As of February 2015, approximately 94,531,000 households (81.2% of those with television) receive MSNBC within the United States of America.

Donald Trump

Donald John Trump, Sr. (born June 14, 1946) is an American businessperson and media personality. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's career, branding efforts, personal life, wealth, and outspoken manner have made him famous throughout the country. Since 2015, he is also a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election.

Trump is a native of New York City and a son of Fred Trump, who inspired him to enter real estate development. After two years at Fordham University and while studying at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Trump worked for his father's firm, Elizabeth Trump & Son. Upon graduating in 1968 he joined the company, and in 1971 was given control, renaming the company "The Trump Organization". Since then he has built hotels, golf courses, and other properties, many of which bear his name. He is a major figure in the American business scene and has received prominent media exposure. The NBC reality show The Apprentice bolstered his fame, and his three marriages were extensively reported in tabloids.

Jeff Sessions

Jefferson Beauregard "Jeff" Sessions III (born December 24, 1946) is the junior United States Senator from Alabama. First elected in 1997, Sessions is a member of the Republican Party.

From 1981 to 1993 he served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. President Ronald Reagan nominated him to a judgeship on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in 1986, but he was not confirmed. Sessions was elected to Attorney General of Alabama in 1994. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 and easily re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2014. He and his colleague Richard Shelby are the state's first two-term Republican Senators since Reconstruction.

Sessions was ranked by National Journal in 2007 as the fifth-most conservative U.S. Senator, siding strongly with the Republican Party on political issues. He supported the major legislative efforts of the George W. Bush administration, including the 2001 and 2003 tax cut packages, the Iraq War, and a proposed national amendment to ban same-sex marriage. However, he was one of 25 senators to oppose the establishment of TARP. He has opposed the Democratic leadership since 2007 on most major legislation, including the stimulus bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act. As the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he opposed both of President Barack Obama's nominees for the Supreme Court.