Category Archives: Trump administration

Pence says Trump’s comments praising WikiLeaks are not ‘an endorsement’ – live

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Jared Kushner only registered as a Republican on September 20, 2018, Vice reports.

The presidential adviser and son in law was unenrolled in any party until he changed his New York City voter registration on that date.

Vice President Mike Pence says Donald Trump’s many past comments praising WikiLeaks were “in no way an endorsement” of the organization.

“I think the President always, as you and the media do, always welcomes information,” Pence told CNN. “But that was in no way an endorsement of an organization that we now understand was involved in disseminating classified information by the United States of America.”

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White House considered releasing detained migrants in sanctuary cities – report

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Officials sought to pressure immigration authorities in effort to retaliate against Trump’s political opponents, Washington Post reports

White House officials have tried to pressure US immigration authorities to release migrants detained at the border into so-called sanctuary cities such as San Francisco to retaliate against Donald Trump’s political adversaries, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The Post, which reviewed emails on the issue and spoke to unnamed officials at the Department of Homeland Security, said the White House proposed the measure at least twice in the past six months. Sanctuary cities are those where local officials decline to hand over illegal immigrants for deportation.

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William Barr claims Trump campaign was ‘spied’ on under Obama – live

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Attorney general tells Senate subcommittee he intends to release reacted version of Mueller’s Trump-Russia report itself

Washington Gov. and presidential candidate Jay Inslee has been writing and illustrating children’s books for his grandkids for the last decade, CNN reports.

And they’re very on brand, with several of the books focusing on the warming climate and its effect on the environment.

Senator Elizabeth Warren raised $6 million for her presidential campaign in the first three months of the year.

She got 213,000 contributions from more than 135,000 donors, with an average donation of $28, according to the New York Times.

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Trump on border cages: ‘President Obama separated the children’ – video

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President Trump said on Tuesday that he would not restart child separation at the border, blaming his predecessor President Obama for the policy. Previously footage had shown children being separated from their families in cages at the border. Speaking in the Oval Office, he said: 'Just so you understand, President Obama separated the children. Those cages that were shown – I think they were very inappropriate.' Trump said that he was the one who changed the policy

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William Barr says redacted Mueller report will be made public ‘within a week’ – live

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The attorney general says the Trump-Russia investigation findings will be available and any redactions will be color coded

Barr says he doesn’t not know why members of Mueller’s team might be frustrated with him as reported in several outlets.

No I don’t. I suspect that they wanted more put out but in my view, I was not interested in putting out summaries.”

Barr declines to get into more detail about whether the Mueller report cleared Trump, as the president insists and relies on his letter.

Rep. GRAVES tries to get Barr to agree that his four-page memo concluded "No collusion, no obstruction."

BARR doesn't bite: "Well, the letter speaks for itself."

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Top Republican senator warns Trump to halt apparent homeland security purge

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A top Republican senator has warned Donald Trump to halt an apparent purge of the top ranks of the Department of Homeland Security, amid forced resignations, a renewed hardening of the White House stance over immigration and accusations that the president is manufacturing a declared crisis at the US-Mexico border.

The Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, told the Washington Post he was urging Trump to save the job of Lee Francis Cissna, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, who is reportedly in the president’s crosshairs just two days after the forced resignation of Kirstjen Nielsen as homeland security secretary.

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Nielsen’s exit is another victory for Trump adviser Stephen Miller

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The senior adviser and speechwriter is behind of some of the most restrictive components of Trump’s immigration agenda

As news broke of the abrupt departure of Kirstjen Nielsen, Donald Trump’s second homeland security secretary, reports swiftly followed that the move had been orchestrated by Stephen Miller, one of the administration’s sharpest anti-immigration voices.

Nielsen’s resignation on Sunday, following months of speculation, cast a spotlight on the forces behind the president’s controversial policies on immigration, where Miller has been shown to be squarely at the center of influence.

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Trump removes Secret Service director after ousting Kirstjen Nielsen – live

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Trump ordered firing of Randolph Alles, White House confirms, a day after forcing out Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen

CNN reports Trump tried to order the border closed at El Paso late in March.

Trump eventually talked off of the decision, which would shut down a major port of entry into the United States.

Jerry Nadler, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has agreed to have special counsel Robert Mueller appear before the committee.

Today, Ranking Member Collins called for Special Counsel Mueller to appear before @HouseJudiciary. I fully agree. Special Counsel Mueller should come before the Committee to answer questions in public about his 22 month investigation into President Trump and his associates. 1/2

In order to ask Special Counsel Mueller the right questions, the Committee must receive the Special Counsel’s full report and hear from Attorney General Barr about that report on May 2. We look forward to hearing from Mr. Mueller at the appropriate time. 2/2

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Trump designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as foreign terrorist organization

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Statement marks first time US has formally labeled another country’s military a terrorist group

The United States has designated Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization, Donald Trump said on Monday, marking the first time Washington has formally named a branch of the armed forces of a foreign government as a terrorist group.

In a statement, Trump said this unprecedented step, “recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft”.

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Kirstjen Nielsen resigns as Trump homeland security secretary

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Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary who has been the public face of some of the Trump administration’s most contentious policies, has resigned.

Related: Identifying separated migrant families may take two years, US government says

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Nadler: Barr is ‘biased’ and Mueller’s Trump-Russia report must be released

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  • Democrat: attorney general is ‘agent of the administration’
  • President tweets angrily about leaks to ‘fake news media’

Senior Democrats are keeping up pressure on attorney general William Barr to release the full Mueller report, claiming collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia happened “in plain sight”.

Related: William Barr: attorney general plays Republican spear-catcher again

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Democrats will ‘never’ see Trump tax returns – White House chief of staff

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  • Mick Mulvaney to Fox: ‘That is not going to happen’
  • House ways and means panel wants returns by 10 April

Democrats in Congress will “never” see Donald Trump’s tax returns, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday.

Related: ‘Pete! Pete! Pete!’ Buttigieg fever hits New Hampshire – can he keep up the pace?

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Identifying separated migrant families may take two years, US government says

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  • Trump administration outlines plan in response to lawsuit
  • Thousands of children were taken from their parents at border

It could take the US government up to two years to identify potentially thousands of children who were separated from their parents by the authorities at the southern border, the government said in a court filing.

The filing late on Friday outlined for the first time the Trump administration’s plan for identifying which family members might have been separated by assessing thousands of records using data analysis, statistical science and manual review.

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Trump: Mueller report a ‘total waste of time’ – but it proves no collusion

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Donald Trump said on Saturday he has not read Robert Mueller’s report about contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russia, which his Democratic opponents say should be released in full.

Related: Barack Obama warns progressives to avoid 'circular firing squad'

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Joe Biden jokes about inappropriate touching complaints – live

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Former vice-president makes joke at union event in Washington, while 20 states move to block funding for Trump’s border wall

A source tells CNN Donald Trump is willing to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to block a House Democratic request for his tax returns.

“This is a hill and people would be willing to die on it,” the official said.

California has filed its 50th lawsuit against the Trump administration. This one targets the feds’ withholding of data on the weakening of car emission standards, CNBC reports.

California files 50th lawsuit against Trump administration - Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom just announced state is suing fed govt "for withholding data on efforts to weaken vehicle emission regulations that place the health of millions of kids, families and communities at risk."

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White nationalism a ‘persistent, pervasive threat’, says FBI chief – live

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•FBI director Christopher Wray warned that white nationalism is a “persistent, pervasive threat”, breaking with Donald Trump’s comments in the wake of the New Zealand terror attacks. “The danger. I think, of white supremacists, violent extremism or another kind of extremism is of course significant,” Wray said. Trump played down the threat of white nationalism after a white nationalist murdered 50 people in Christchurch, New Zealand in March.

•Congress has passed a resolution to end US military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, in an unprecedented attempt to curtail the president’s power. The House voted 247 to 175 to send the resolution to the president’s desk, where it is likely to be met with a veto. The Senate passed the resolution last month, with seven Republicans breaking rank to support the resolution.

Lindsay Graham has joined those calling for Donald Trump to release his tax returns, in an extremely rare act of defiance towards the president.

“I think you should release your tax returns if you’re running for president in 2020,” Graham told reporters on Thursday,

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Trump’s taxes: Democrats request president’s returns from IRS – as it happened

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Committee chairman seeks six years of personal returns and some business returns, calling for ‘accountability’

That’s it for me tonight! Here’s what happened Wednesday evening in politics:

Related: Trump’s Federal Reserve pick owes $75,000 in taxes, US government alleges

The President’s son-in-law has been identified as the “Senior White House Official” who appeared in reports to the House Oversight Committee, the Washington Post reports. The documents were released this week after whistleblower Tricia Newbold shared concerns with the committee, over Trump overriding career intelligence officers to grant clearances despite “significant disqualifying factors”.

Kushner was flagged for significant issues raised during his background investigation, including his potential to be swayed by foreign influence, his personal conduct, and business conflicts of interest.

The new details about the internal debate over Kushner’s clearance revives questions about the severity of the issues flagged in his background investigation and Kushner’s access to government secrets.

Last year, President Trump directed his then-chief of staff, John F. Kelly, to give Kushner a top-secret security clearance, despite concerns expressed by career intelligence officers”.

Related: Trump ordered officials to give Kushner top-secret security clearance – report

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Mar-a-Lago: woman with malware and Chinese passports accused of illegal entry

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Yujing Zhang is charged with lying to federal agents and illegally entering a restricted area, and remains in custody

A woman carrying two Chinese passports and a device containing computer malware lied to Secret Service agents and briefly gained admission to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club over the weekend during his Florida visit, federal prosecutors allege in court documents.

Yujing Zhang, 32, approached a Secret Service agent at a checkpoint outside the Palm Beach club early Saturday afternoon and said she was a member who wanted to use the pool, court documents said. She showed the passports as identification.

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Trump shutting Mexico border would ‘cripple’ El Paso, Republican mayor says

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Dee Margo warned Donald Trump that closing the border would have a ‘detrimental, almost draconian’ impact on the region

The Republican mayor of El Paso, the largest American city on the US border with Mexico, has warned Donald Trump that if he goes ahead this week with his threat to close the border it would have a “detrimental, almost draconian” impact on the entire region.

“It would be a critical killer to us, frankly”, the mayor, Dee Margo, said.

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Mulvaney: only ‘something dramatic’ will stop Trump closing Mexico border

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  • Move could have severe consequences for US economy
  • US citizens who cross border for work or family fear hardship

The Trump administration reiterated on Sunday the president’s threat to close the border with Mexico, regardless of potentially severe consequences for the US economy.

Related: Under the bridge: migrants held in El Paso tell of dust, cold and hunger

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