Category Archives: US Politics

Trump praises Bolsonaro’s use of ‘fake news’ in mutual show of admiration – latest news

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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

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Supreme court gives Trump victory on detaining immigrants with criminal convictions

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Court rules 5-4 that authorities can detain immigrants awaiting deportation anytime after they have completed prison terms

The US supreme court on Tuesday endorsed US government authority to detain immigrants awaiting deportation at any time – potentially even years – after they have completed prison terms for criminal convictions, handing Donald Trump a victory as he pursues hardline immigration policies.

The court ruled 5-4, with its conservative justices in the majority and its liberal justices dissenting, that federal authorities could pick up such immigrants and place them into indefinite detention at any time, not just immediately after they finish their prison sentences.

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Joe Biden lets slip that he will run for president – or does he?

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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?

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Trump is cornered, with violence on his mind. We must be on red alert | Robert Reich

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As investigators close in, the president invokes the support of the military, police and vigilantes. This is a perilous moment

What does a megalomaniacal president of the United States do when he’s cornered? We’ll soon find out.

Related: 'It's a small group of people': Trump again denies white nationalism is rising threat

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‘Pay-for-access to Trump club’: Mar-a-Lago faces renewed ethics concerns

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With the winding down of the ‘Winter White House’ comes another season of controversy and scandal that swirl around the president’s resort

At Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s waterfront winter retreat, an end-of-term air hangs over the expansive verandas and perfectly manicured lawns. In barely a month’s time, following the traditional season-closing Easter Sunday brunch gala, the private members’ club will be scrubbed and shuttered for the summer, its wealthy clientele dispersing to residences in the Hamptons or boarding their mega-yachts to cruise the Mediterranean.

Related: Trump's four 2017 Mar-a-Lago trips cost taxpayers nearly $14m, watchdog says

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El Norte review: an epic and timely history of Hispanic North America

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Carrie Gibson has written an exhaustive corrective to historians who seek to whitewash a story of settlement and conflict

The subtitle of Carrie Gibson’s book is The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America. El Norte lives up to it.

Related: These Truths review: Jill Lepore's Lincolnian American history

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Beto O’Rourke apologises for teen writings and joke about his wife

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Democratic presidential contender is forced on to the defensive as he kicks off campaign in Iowa

Democratic presidential contender Beto O’Rourke has acknowledged making mistakes as a teen and as a candidate as he responded to criticism of his campaign rhetoric toward his wife as well as writings he produced online when he was young.

During a taping of the Political Party Live podcast in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he addressed criticism of his campaign-trail joke that his wife, Amy, has raised their three kids “sometimes with my help”.

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US to deny visas for ICC members investigating alleged war crimes

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Washington also threatened economic sanctions if war crimes court goes ahead with inquiry into US troops in Afghanistan

The United States has announced it will revoke or deny visas to members of the International Criminal Court involved in investigating the actions of US troops in Afghanistan or other countries.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said Washington was prepared to take further steps, including economic sanctions, if the war crimes court goes ahead with any investigations of US or allied personnel.

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Jeb Bush calls on Republicans to challenge Trump in 2020 – live

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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".

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Beto O’Rourke kicks off 2020 bid in Iowa – in a voter’s living room

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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

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Preet Bharara: ‘I didn’t call Trump back and it’s one of the best decisions I ever made’

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Fired by the president, the former US attorney has written his first book. He talks about if and when Trump will face justice – and why he fears for his own safety

Preet Bharara is used to dealing with bullies. When he was the US attorney for the southern district of New York, the premier law enforcement body in America, his office prosecuted Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, Crips and Bloods gang leaders and mafia bosses. For going after the infamous arms dealer Viktor Bout he was banned from Russia, and the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once tried to persuade the then US vice-president, Joe Biden, to sack him (he didn’t). The TV series Billions is loosely based on his legal battles with a hedge-fund billionaire. As he puts it himself: “Neither I nor anyone I know was too afraid to prosecute rich men in suits.”

So when Bharara says that even he is now feeling apprehensive about his personal safety, and that his fears relate not to al-Qaida or the Gambino family, but to the president of the United States, it comes as a jolt. “I used to have great confidence that my government would protect me,” he says. “You understood that if you were an American citizen like me, or resident like Jamal Khashoggi, you weren’t going to be rendered somewhere, you didn’t think that if you travelled to Madrid, say, and a BS red notice was issued for you, you’d be on your own. I’m a citizen of the United States and I served my country for 17 years, yet I don’t have that confidence any more. I don’t know that the government at its highest level thinks of Americans first – it’s whether you are on his side, or not on his side.”

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Trump tweets ‘VETO!’ after Senate votes to block national emergency – live

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The Sanders Institute has stopped accepting donations and will shut down during Bernie Sanders’ campaign for president, AP reports, to ensure ethical issues don’t arise. The think tank was founded and is operated by his wife Jane.

Sanders rebuked Hilary Clinton in 2016 for not shuttering her family’s foundation, saying then that the nonprofit provided ways to buy influence from the candidate, who was then expected to win the election.

Jane Sanders said in an interview that the Vermont-based institute has stopped accepting donations and plans to suspend all operations by the end of May.

The move comes as Bernie Sanders, a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination, prepares for a wave of scrutiny into his political network and his family’s role”.

El Pasoans have largely expressed excitement about having their former congressman announcing he’s entering the already-crowded field for the White House in 2020 - though some have questions about his record and his long odds to secure the Democratic nomination.

Among local leaders in El Paso, county commissioner David Stout told The Guardian on Thursday that he’d been waiting for O’Rourke to announce a run for president from the moment of his narrow loss for Ted Cruz’s US Senate seat in the November midterm elections. Stout highlighted O’Rourke’s well-known charisma and ability to connect with ordinary people as his most important qualities.

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Senate rejects national emergency declaration in sharp rebuke to Trump

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Twelve Republicans joined every Senate Democrat in rare move to block president’s effort to divert funds for US-Mexico border wall

The US Senate delivered a sharp rebuke to Donald Trump on Thursday, voting to overturn his declaration last month of a national emergency in order to divert taxpayer funds to the US-Mexico border.

In a 59-41 vote, 12 Republicans joined every Senate Democrat in a rare move to block the president’s effort to divert billions in funding to build his long-promised border wall without congressional approval.

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O’Rourke enters race with natural skills, eager support and some big challenges

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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

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Who is 2020 presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke? – video profile

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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

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Report: Democratic star Beto O’Rourke confirms he’s running for president

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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.

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Trump administration plans to close international US immigration offices – live

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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 Washington Post reports:

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.

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#BreakUpBigTech: Elizabeth Warren says Facebook just proved her point

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The platform briefly blocked some of Warren’s ads attacking it. Her response: ‘Curious why I think FB has too much power?’

Elizabeth Warren could not have asked for a better illustration for her point.

The US senator and Democratic candidate for president took aim at Facebook on Monday evening after the social network briefly blocked her campaign from running advertisements that just happened to call for breaking up Facebook.

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‘Dead on arrival’: Democrats dismiss Trump budget plan with $8.6bn for wall

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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

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