Washington and America waited with bated breath on Saturday for the next stage in the Trump-Russia drama: the communication to Congress of the “principal conclusions” of special counsel Robert Mueller.
Related: Mueller report: Trump camp celebrates but danger is not past yet
Continue reading...Weekend of rallies highlight how state’s diverse electorate and new early spot on primary calendar make it a prize for Democratic candidates
Bernie Sanders brought his anti-establishment message and calls for progressive reform to California, no longer as a long-shot presidential candidate but as a frontrunner with a good chance to win it all.
On Friday evening, Sanders kicked off a rally in sunny San Diego by thanking the thousands of supporters who had gathered, alongside a handful of right-wing protesters, for joining his “political revolution”.
Continue reading...President insisted ‘there’s no collusion’ in interview with Fox as Washington braces for release of Trump-Russia investigation findings
Former Vice President Joe Biden may wait until the end of April to announce a run for president, CNN reports.
Biden is expected to make a decision about whether to run in the next week or so, but if he decides to run, his team may take another three weeks to plan a launch.
Iowa Rep. Steve King criticized the victims of Hurricane Katrina at a town hall Thursday, suggesting they sat around waiting for government help.
King has a history of controversial remarks and was stripped of his committee assignments for comments about white supremacy.
These comments are disgusting and disheartening. When communities are affected by disasters, we come together to help each other, not tear each other down. https://t.co/APpg8a82hW
Continue reading...Brazilian president met with Donald Trump at the White House Tuesday, and the two men reveled in their similarities
President Trump has named former Delta Air Lines executive Steve Dickson as his pick to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, the Hill is reporting.
The nomination comes amid criticism over the FAA’s handling of the Boeing’s 737 Max 8 aircraft in the aftermath of the Ethiopian Airlines crash this month that killed 157 people, and the Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October that killed 189.
Hey all, Vivian Ho taking over for Ben Jacobs.
In his lawsuit, California Congressman Devin Nunes claims to be a victim of Twitter trolls like “Devin Nunes’ Mom” and “Devin Nunes’ Cow,” but in taking legal action, he’s actually fallen victim to the Streisand Effect.
Related: Goats, cows and Devin Nunes' mom: how a Republican's Twitter lawsuit backfired
Continue reading...Former vice-president tells Delaware crowd he has ‘the most progressive record of anybody running’ – then corrects himself
Joe Biden has appeared to confirm he will mount another campaign for the White House, telling guests at a Delaware Democratic party dinner he has “the most progressive record of anybody running”. Biden indicated the remark was a slip of the tongue but many in the crowd stood to cheer regardless.
Related: Joe Biden: can a veteran centrist win in the polarised age of Trump?
Continue reading...
Donald Trump has now scheduled a 3:30 pm Oval Office event where it’s expected he will veto the congressional resolution to block his national emergency.
The schedule says he will deliver remarks on national security and the humanitarian crisis at the southern border.
Trump will "VETO!" at 3:30 in the Oval Office, per updated schedule. And will deliver remarks.
Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders got 7 stitches to his head after hitting his head on a glass shower door this morning, his campaign says. He got a “clean bill of health” and plans to continue with his regular schedule.
Just in: @BernieSanders campaign informed the press that the senator will proceed with his schedule after hitting his head on a glass shower door this morning. He went to a walk-in clinic and received 7 stitches. The notice says he was given a "clean bill of health".
Continue reading...Texas Democrat said he has ‘some unique things’ to bring to race on his first day of campaigning to a crowd of about 125 people
Randy Naber is really a Joe Biden man, although he could also see himself voting for Kamala Harris. But here was former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, America’s newest presidential candidate, in Naber’s living room, and the retired teacher wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Related: O'Rourke enters race with natural skills, eager support and some big challenges
Continue reading...Former congressman from El Paso enters a crowded Democratic field – can he solidify his platform and take it to a national level?
Losing a federal election in your home state is not normally seen as a ticket to the White House. But then not everybody is capable of being defeated in the style of Beto O’Rourke.
Related: Beto O'Rourke announces 2020 run for presidency
Continue reading...The Texas Democrat who narrowly lost to Ted Cruz in the 2018 midterms, has announced he is to run for president in 2020. The former congressman gained a national following with his campaign for the Senate, outperforming expectations for any Democrat in the deeply conservative state of Texas
Continue reading...Former congressman plans to formally announce his presidential campaign on Thursday, an El Paso TV station reported
The Democratic rising star Beto O’Rourke is jumping into the race for president, he told a Texas TV station in a text message Wednesday.
The Democrat, who has publicly mulled a run for months, confirmed his plans in a text to KTSM of El Paso, where he served as a US representative.
Continue reading...Plan to shut 21 international offices of USCIS and transfer duties to domestic offices and State Department’s embassies and consulates
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service announced that it will close all 21 of its immigration offices abroad. It will shift the duties performed at those offices which include processing applications from potential immigrants to domestic employees and to the State Department.
The Trump administration is preparing to shutter all 21 international offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a move that could slow the processing of family visa applications, foreign adoptions and citizenship petitions from members of the military.
USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna said in an email to staff Tuesday that he is working to transfer those duties — now performed by employees worldwide — to domestic offices and the State Department’s embassies and consulates. He wrote that if the State Department agrees, the agency would move to close its international field offices in coming months “in an effort to maximize our agency’s finite resources.”
In an interview with Breitbart, Donald Trump hinted at new regulation of big tech companies like Google and Facebook.
“I understand a lot of people wanting to look into it. I mean normally I’d like to say let it be free, let it all be free, but it’s not free. It’s really run by a small number of people,” said Trump.
Continue reading...President’s 2020 plan signals intent to reignite a political fight that has already led to a record 35-day partial government shutdown
Donald Trump’s latest budget request, which demands billions of dollars for a border wall at the expense of social safety nets and environmental protections, was dismissed on Monday as “dead on arrival” and “breathtaking in its degree of cruelty”.
Related: Fox News condemns host Jeanine Pirro's attack on Ilhan Omar – live
Continue reading...The titans of the new Gilded Age must be busted and the idea has bipartisan support. It’s time big tech was brought to heel
The presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren announced on Friday she wants to bust up giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon.
America’s first Gilded Age began in the late 19th century with a raft of innovations – railroads, steel production, oil extraction – but culminated in mammoth trusts run by “robber barons” like JP Morgan, John D Rockefeller, and William H “the public be damned” Vanderbilt.
Continue reading...Nancy Pelosi said she believes recent controversial words said by freshman congresswoman Ilhan Omar were ‘not based on any antisemitic attitude’. Omar, who in January became one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, said Israel’s supporters push lawmakers to pledge ‘allegiance to a foreign country’, a remark that was viewed as playing into the antisemitic cliche of ‘dual loyalty’
Continue reading...
Here’s our man! Trump offers a stout defense of his repeated payments to Michael Cohen, made after the latter paid two women “hush” money to not talk about alleged affairs with Trump.
Cohen has already been convicted of violating campaign finance laws by paying off actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
It was not a campaign contribution, and there were no violations of the campaign finance laws by me. Fake News!
So Michael Cohen could have talked himself into trouble with that very definite “no pardon” statement to the House oversight committee last week.
During the hearing Cohen was asked if he had requested a pardon from Donald Trump.
I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr Trump.
During that time period, he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump.
Continue reading...DNC chairman says New Yorker exposé on Trump ties to Fox News cast doubt on network’s ability to hold ‘fair and neutral’ debates
The Democratic party’s governing body has announced it will not ask Fox News to host any of its televised primary debates during the 2020 US presidential race, citing a recent report detailing the conservative network’s close rapport with Donald Trump.
Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said a New Yorker exposé on the depth of the Trump administration’s ties to Fox News cast doubt on the network’s capacity to hold a “fair and neutral” debate on the Democratic primaries. The decision was first reported by the Washington Post.
Continue reading...The fallout from comments by Ilhan Omar spans identity politics, party politics, geopolitics and a generational divide
An Israeli prime minister who has embraced Donald Trump and taken rightwing populism from his playbook. And a group of fiery young Democrats unafraid to question their elders or challenge the status quo. Put together, the elements were bound to be explosive.
Democrats were expected to offer a resolution condemning antisemitism on the floor of the US House of Representatives on Thursday following the latest provocative comments by Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who in January became one of the first two Muslim women in Congress.
Continue reading...DNC chairman Tom Perez cited New Yorker exposé on depth of administration’s ‘inappropriate’ ties to news network
That’s all for today, folks. Thanks for sticking with us.
Leaked documents show that the US government established a secret database of advocates, attorneys, and journalists who were connected to or covered the caravan of immigrants from Central America who made their way north through Mexico to the United States southern border in 2018, NBC7 is reporting.
In some cases, those who were secretly tracked had alerts placed on their passports.
As the migrant caravan reached the San Ysidro Port of Entry in south San Diego County, so did journalists, attorneys, and advocates who were there to work and witness the events unfolding.
But in the months that followed, journalists who covered the caravan, as well as those who offered assistance to caravan members, said they felt they had become targets of intense inspections and scrutiny by border officials.
Continue reading...An attorney for the president’s former fixer allegedly raised the possibility after FBI raided Cohen’s properties, Wall Street Journal report
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer told Fox News that he will cooperate with the House investigation into Trump’s ties with Russia.
“There’s nothing that I have to hide,” he said in the interview.
Spicer: "There is nothing that I have to hide" pic.twitter.com/dXZsfyHw3z
California congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has hired veteran prosecutor Daniel Goldman to join his panel’s investigation of the Trump Administration.
The New Yorker reported that Goldman, who served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 2007 to 2017, joined the committee’s staff as a senior adviser and the director of investigations. The committee is leading the House’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 Presidential campaign.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Policy adviser claims couple tried to gain grant for Chelsea’s boyfriend
A veteran Democratic foreign policy adviser has accused Bill and Hillary Clinton of nepotism, dishonesty and vindictiveness in an assault on a previously untouched part of the Clinton political legacy – Ireland.
Trina Vargo, who was a behind-the-scenes Washington player in Northern Ireland’s peace process, claims the couple tried to obtain a scholarship to Ireland for a boyfriend of their daughter, Chelsea, and later cut funding for the scholarship to punish Vargo for backing Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination race.
Continue reading...