Pentagon is still investigating misconduct claims that scuppered rear admiral’s attempt to head Veterans Affairs
President Donald Trump has appointed his former doctor to be his assistant and chief medical adviser.
Saturday’s announcement by the White House follows Trump’s decision to re-nominate Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson for a second star due to inaction by the previous Congress.
Continue reading...Judge cautioned Stone against treating trial build-up ‘like book tour’ and said he should not argue his case ‘on the talkshow circuit’
Thanks for tuning in, everyone.
With the government shutdown over, President Trump can finally return to Mar-a-Lago, the Associated Press is reporting.
Trump typically spends many winter weekends at the Palm Beach estate, golfing at another nearby private club he owns and dining on an outdoor terrace at Mar-a-Lago, where he catches up with friends and club members.
But that routine was interrupted by the partial government shutdown, which ended a week ago after a record 35 days.
Continue reading...Image published by conservative website shows person in blackface standing next to person dressed as KKK member
The Democratic governor of Virginia apologized for his appearance in a “racist and offensive” costume in his medical school yearbook, but he defied bipartisan calls to step down Friday evening and intends to serve out his term.
“I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now,” said Governor Ralph Northam in a statement.
Continue reading...Controversial climatologist John Christy, who once said scientists believed Earth was flat, to join advisory board at environment agency
Progressives are preparing to take on Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz — who is considering a run for president in 2020 as an independent — hoping to arm themselves with information about the billionaire’s governmental dealings.
Axios reports that Democratic super PAC, Priorities USA, has requested documents from roughly 70 national and state agencies who may have connected with Shultz or his coffee company over the last 3 decades:
The group is gathering as much potential opposition research as they can on Schultz and his business in anticipation of his decision to possibly run for president as an independent. This is yet another example of liberals trying to push Schultz out of the 2020 race before he begins, in part because they view his candidacy as a “threat” that could be “a major step toward re-electing Donald Trump,” Priorities USA communications director Josh Schwerin told Axios”.
A new poll released by Monmouth University says more than 60% of Americans think the president knew that high-ranking members of his campaign lied to investigators and half believe he asked them to do it.
The survey also found that there’s still significant concern among the electorate that Russia has influence over Trump, and that not enough has been done to stop the Kremlin from meddling into elections.
Was Trump aware of campaign associated trying to mislead investigators or Congress?
62% Yes
32% No
Do you think Trump personally asked people to mislead investigators or Congress?
50% Yes
42% No
Monmouth poll
‘Views of the president’s ties to Russia look like almost any other aspect of public opinion related to Trump. Very few Republicans believe anything negative about him and nearly all Democrats are inclined to accept damaging information, while independents are almost evenly split’, said Murray.
Just over half of Americans (51%) feel that the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference and possible links to the Trump campaign should continue. Another 45% say this investigation should be brought to an end. Support for continuing the special counsel investigation has hovered between 52% and 54% in polls taken between April and November 2018. Prior to that, about 6-in-10 Americans supported continuing the investigation (60% in March 2018 and 62% in July 2017)“.
Continue reading...As the president offers a sympathetic ear – and policies to match – critics see a de facto advisory committee, violating federal law
The US health secretary sat for an interview with a man experts say is the leader of a hate group known for “defaming gays and lesbians”, just two days after Karen Pence, the US second lady, was criticized for teaching at a Christian school that bans homosexuality.
Alex Azar, secretary of health and human services, was interviewed by the Family Research Council President, Tony Perkins, at an anti-abortion event called ProLifeCon in mid-January.
Continue reading...Government employees – especially in science, research and technology – could find higher pay and more stability
The longest government shutdown in US history has come to an end, but experts fear its long-term consequences will include a brain drain among professionals who won’t want to work for a federal government they can’t count on to stay open.
The pain of the shutdown and fear of another one may drive away current and would-be government employees – especially those in highly skilled fields such as science, research and technology who can often command bigger paychecks in the private sector.
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George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign aide who served a brief prison stint for lying to FBI agents in the Russia investigation, has a new job at a medical marijuana company.
Papadopoulos joins a medical marijuana startup https://t.co/oIAw6Jzcqs
Coffee magnate Howard Schultz will take his time to decide to pursue a third party presidential bid. The former Starbucks CEO has become a lightning rod on the left in recent days with his public musing about running as an independent.
New: @HowardSchultz may not decide on a presidential run until "summer or fall," his political adviser Bill Burton tells me.https://t.co/0nYekuZNUD
Continue reading...A day after the former Starbucks chief Howard Schultz said he might run independently for US president, a heckler at a book launch in Manhattan shouted at him: 'Don't help elect Trump.' Schultz has faced fierce criticism from Democrats who say his candidacy may help Donald Trump win re-election in 2020. 'Go back to Davos with the rest of the billionaire elite who think they know how to run the world,' the heckler added before being pulled aside by security
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Thanks for staying with us through another eventful day. We’ll see you tomorrow.
The Guardian’s Erin Durkin is at former Starbucks CEO and possible independent 2020 presidential candidate Howard Schultz’s first stop of his book tour, which has turned into a town hall of sorts.
Speaking at a New York Barnes and Noble, he ruled out any possibility that he would run as a Democrat, despite his life-long affiliation with the party.
In 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up re-electing the President. That's a risk I refused to run in 2016 and we can't afford to run it now. https://t.co/SmHM6cYUg7 pic.twitter.com/iQ2CK5o2k6
Howard Schultz doesn’t have the “guts” to run for President! Watched him on @60Minutes last night and I agree with him that he is not the “smartest person.” Besides, America already has that! I only hope that Starbucks is still paying me their rent in Trump Tower!
Continue reading...Kamala Harris drew a bigger crowd at her presidential campaign launch in Oakland than Barack Obama did when he launched his run for president in Illinois in 2007. At least 20,000 people turned up to hear the California senator outline her plan for winning the White House in 2020, according to an estimate from local police. She would be the first African American woman and first South Asian American to be chosen as a presidential nominee
Continue reading...If estimates are correct, Kamala Harris drew a bigger crowd at her presidential campaign launch in Oakland than Barack Obama did when he announced his run for president in Illinois in 2007.
Harris, the second African-American woman elected to the US senate, has drawn comparisons to Obama since early in her political career. And on Sunday, at least 20,000 people flooded the streets of downtown Oakland to hear the California senator outline her plan for winning the White House in 2020, according to an estimate from local police. Obama’s 2007 campaign launch attracted an estimated 15,000 people.
Continue reading...The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on three companies, including the aluminum giant Rusal, linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Democrats had led a push in Congress to continue the restrictions.
Related: 'Sex trainer' who said she could prove Russia meddled in US election freed
Continue reading...Measure will fund government for three weeks after US economy lost more than the $5.7bn funding president requested for wall
Donald Trump has signed legislation to end temporarily the longest-ever partial shutdown of the US government, which has left hundreds of thousands of federal employees without pay for more than a month.
The US economy lost $6bn during the month-plus hiatus because of lost productivity and business, according to a finance industry estimate – more than the $5.7bn of taxpayer funding the president demanded for his long-promised wall along the US-Mexico border but failed to get Congress to agree to.
Continue reading...Beginning with Richard Nixon in the early 1970s, the former adviser for Donald Trump has made a career of ruthless campaigning
The raid happened before dawn, a Swat team of heavily-armed FBI agents in camouflage uniforms rushing between Florida palm trees to confront their target. The spectacle was laden with melodrama, surprisingly so given who had ordered it: Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia investigation who has turned understatement into an art form.
Related: Roger Stone says he won't testify against Trump after Mueller indictment
Continue reading...Roger Stone, a longtime ally of the US president, says he has been falsely accused of lying to the House intelligence committee and will plead not guilty to the charges filed against him. Stone told reporters outside Fort Lauderdale courthouse in Florida: 'There is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president, nor will I make up lies to ease the pressure on myself'
Continue reading...Longtime Trump ally appeared in federal court on Friday after being arrested in Florida on seven charges including obstruction
Roger Stone has apparently called into InfoWars, the website-cum-radio show of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The InfoWars website seems to be having some problems, so I couldn’t listen in. But Paul Joseph Watson, InfoWars editor-at-large and noted crank, says Stone told the website:
Stone says just before 6am 29 agents burst into home w weapons, allowed him to dress, scared death out of his wife, taken to FBI Miami Dade, where he says agents treated him very well, then did bond hearing - shackled hands and feet - Special Counsel and US atty there, $250k bail https://t.co/HyKA5Fmmlt
Of course, Roger Stone wasn’t the only Trump ally appearing in federal court this morning.
Around the same time Stone was shuffling into Fort Lauderdale court in chains, Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was in the US District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington DC.
His eyes tired and his hair streaked with grey, Paul Manafort looked morose and walked gingerly, with a limp, during his first court appearance in months on Friday.
The former Donald Trump campaign chairman, imprisoned in Virginia as he awaits sentencing, wore a suit and was not handcuffed during the hour-long hearing at the US District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, which focused mainly on procedure.
Continue reading...White House says arrest of Trump’s adviser ‘has nothing to do with the president’ but analysts warn it may thrust him into legal jeopardy
It was time once again on Friday morning for Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, to go on television and say that the arrest of a Donald Trump campaign associate had nothing to do with the president.
This time the arrestee was Roger Stone, a longtime Trump political adviser, taken into custody in a 6am raid by FBI agents on his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Stone was charged with lying to Congress, obstructing an investigation and witness tampering. In the past, Stone has denied all wrongdoing.
Continue reading...Filmed in July 2016, Roger Stone tells the Guardian's Oliver Laughland 'I have access to all the right people,' and rejects the idea that he's Trump's fixer: 'I'm just an FOT – friend of Trump'
Continue reading...Senator Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, delivers a powerful speech on the impact of the US government shutdown, having been provoked by the Republican Ted Cruz's apparent concerns for emergency workers
Gabrielle Canon here, taking over for Lauren Gambino for the rest of the evening.
As negotiations with top Democrats over funding for the border wall continue at an impasse, CNN is reporting that the Trump Administration has already drafted a backup plan.
Trump has not ruled out using his authority to declare a national emergency and direct the Defense Department to construct a border wall as Congress and the White House fight over a deal to end the government shutdown. But while Trump’s advisers remain divided on the issue, the White House has been moving forward with alternative plans that would bypass Congress.
‘The massive amount of aliens who unlawfully enter the United States each day is a direct threat to the safety and security of our nation and constitutes a national emergency’, a draft of a presidential proclamation reads”.
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