more at
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/27/polit...lub/index.html

Washington (CNN) — Former Defense Secretary James Mattis received a standing
ovation Saturday at the annual black-tie Alfalfa Club dinner after delivering a
speech in which he honored the troops and talked about the importance of the US'
standing abroad, according to a source with knowledge of the event.

For the third year running, President Donald Trump skipped the annual event --
but this year, so did the vice president as well as Trump's daughter Ivanka
Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen as well as White House advisers
Ivanka Trump and Kushner were all on the seating chart for the head table but
didn't show at the event, attended by a who's who of prominent political and
business leaders, according to the source.

CNN has reached out to both the White House and Pence's office for comment.

Mattis quit the administration in December and pointedly criticized the
President in his resignation letter.

The rest of the evening was lighter in tone, with former Secretary of State John
Kerry delivering a speech replete with jokes about official Washington and
himself. Kerry, the outgoing president of the club -- a mainstay of
establishment Washington -- handed over his leadership role to newly minted Utah
GOP Sen. Mitt Romney at the black tie event.

"This is the only speech in Washington that hasn't been canceled by Nancy
Pelosi," Kerry joked, according to CNN's source.

The person said the dinner was attended by major business figures including Jeff
Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Tim Cook, Bill Gates and Randall
Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, which owns CNN parent company WarnerMedia.

Political figures at the dinner included former Vice President Dick Cheney and
former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, James Baker,
Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Rex Tillerson.

Aside from Mattis, Kerry and Romney, the list of speakers included Bezos as well
as Chief Justice John Roberts and former Tennessee GOP Sen. Bill Frist.

Among those at the head table currently in the Trump administration were
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Commerce
Secretary Wilbur Ross and acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. They sat
alongside former administration officials Tillerson, Mattis and former White
House chief of staff John Kelly -- all of whom were ousted by Trump in the past
year.


more at
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/27/polit...lub/index.html


*