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By RICHARD LARDNER Associated Press WASHINGTON - Congress on Thursday sent President Donald Trump a sweeping defense policy bill authorizing a $700 billion budget for the military, including billions of dollars more for missile defense programs to counter the growing nuclear weapons threat from North Korea.
A supporter of the now dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party wears a poster of party leader Kem Sokha as she stands outside the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Oct. 31, 2017. Cambodia's government faced international criticism Friday after the main opposition party was dissolved ahead of elections and the European Union raised a potential threat to vital trade preferences.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is facing a wave of withering bipartisan criticism that his effort to reform the State Department is instead spurring an exodus of talent that undermines American diplomacy and endangers the nation. The turmoil surrounding Tillerson's stewardship of the State Department deepened this week as lawmakers questioned key elements of his strategy to shrink what he sees as a bloated bureaucracy.
Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, the Republican insurgent running for the U.S. Senate, over the weekend again flatly denied he had initiated a sexual encounter in 1979 with a 14-year-old girl, insisting the accusation was "fake news." In his first public appearance since a Washington Post story on Thursday detailing allegations of sexual misconduct, Moore portrayed himself a victim of a baseless attack on his character.
President Donald Trump tried to have it both ways Sunday on the issue of Russian interference in last year's presidential race, saying he believes the U.S. intelligence agencies when they say Russia meddled and Russian President Vladimir Putin's sincerity in claiming that his country did not. "I believe that he feels that he and Russia did not meddle in the election," Trump said of Putin at a news conference in Hanoi with Vietnam's president.
While President Donald Trump says he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is sincere when he denies that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, the president said he personally believes the conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community - and not Putin - that Russia did in fact meddle in the election. "I believe he believes that," Trump said of Putin's denials during a joint press conference with Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang at the presidential palace in Hanoi and expressed surprise that there was any confusion about what he meant after previously telling reporters that Putin "means it" when he says he didn't meddle.
Days before returning home from a whirlwind trip to Asia, President Donald Trump was back on the defensive over Russian election meddling, saying he considers President Vladimir Putin's denials sincere, dismissing former U.S. intelligence officials as "political hacks" and accusing Democrats of trying to sabotage relations between the two countries. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin had again vehemently insisted - this time on the sidelines of an economic summit in Vietnam - that Moscow had not interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections.
Sen. John McCain issued a sharp rebuke of President Trump after it was reported Saturday that he believed Vladimir Putin's sincerity when Putin asserted that he was not complicit in interfering in the 2016 U.S. election. "President Trump today stated that he believed Vladimir Putin is being sincere when he denies Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election," McCain, R-Ariz., who is also chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., pauses before speaking to reporters during a meeting of the National Defense Authorization Act conferees, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017. Sen. John McCain criticized President Donald Trump on Saturday after Trump said he believed Vladimir Putin's claim that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election.
Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, the Republican insurgent running for the U.S. Senate, on Saturday again flatly denied he had initiated a sexual encounter in 1979 with a 14-year-old girl, insisting the accusation was "fake news." In his first public appearance since a Washington Post story on Thursday detailing allegations of sexual misconduct by the former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice, Moore portrayed himself a victim of a baseless attack on his character.
Military leaders worry that the way Congress is keeping the federal government funded, using continuing resolutions instead of passing an appropriations bill, is having an adverse effect on the military readiness of the United States. In the absence of a new budget, a continuing resolution funds the government for a set period of time at the same level or slightly lower than a previous appropriations bill.
A House Democratic candidate said this week that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has shown an amount of "courage" recently by standing up to President Trump, but lamented that this only happened after his brain cancer diagnosis. "I've been tweeting on occasion about saluting Bob Corker and John McCain and Jeff Flake - men who have shown a little bit of courage speaking truth to their own party," said Dean Phillips, who is running for a House seat in Minnesota.
Borrowing a phrase from Winston Churchill, Keith Olbermann said on Monday's episode of "The Resistance" that it appears America is at the end of the beginning of President Donald Trump's downfall - and what happens next has never been more unclear. With last week's indictments of one-time Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates, Olbermann mused whether we're also at "the end of whatever control of himself Donald Trump has."
Democrats inclined to stuff fingers in their ears, stomp the ground and whine, "I'm not going to listen to anything that man has to say," should read on. You'll find out how a Gene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern Democrat morphed into a registered Independent who voted for the other side.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as he delivers remarks Wednesday from the briefing room of the State Department in Washington. Tillerson will go to Myanmar next week, the State Department said, becoming the most senior U.S. official to visit since the start of the Rohingya crisis.
Congrats are in order, as 'The View's newest cohost, Meghan McCain, is reportedly engaged! Get all the exciting details, here. " Meghan [ McCain ] and her fiance are well into wedding planning," a source told Us Weekly , after claiming she's engaged and getting ready to tie the knot.
That's Sen. John McCain's warning to the country - and his party - about the dangers of submitting to the rising tide of populism, isolationism and nationalism being sold by President Donald Trump. The Arizona Republican's speech - delivered at his alma mater US Naval Academy on Tuesday - was the second time this month he has delivered a broad-spectrum critique of Trump and Trumpism.
Exasperated U.S. senators harshly criticized representatives of Facebook, Twitter and Google at a hearing Tuesday for not doing more to prevent Russian agents interfering with the American political process as early as 2015. At one point, Sen. Al Franken shook his head after he couldn't get all the companies to commit to not accepting political ads bought with North Korean currency.
President Donald Trump is lashing out at Democrats in a new TV ad that incorrectly blames his critics in the opposing party for blocking fixes to the nation's health care system. The new ad, set to begin airing on cable stations nationwide on Tuesday, seizes on "skyrocketing" insurance premiums "all while Democrats in Washington, D.C., block a better plan to repeal and replace Obamacare once and for all - obstructing our president just to score political points with the radical left."