Senators push to widen inquiry into Russian election hacking

Pressure mounted Sunday for a broader congressional investigation of Russian cyberattacks aimed at influencing the U.S. election, even as a top aide to President-elect Donald Trump said there was no conclusive evidence of foreign interference. The effort was being led by a bipartisan group of senators, including John McCain, R-Ariz., and Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate Democratic leader, who called on Sunday for the creation of a Senate select committee on cyberactivity to take the investigative lead on Capitol Hill.

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Saturday, Jeanine Pirro slammed first lady Michelle Obama on Fox News Channel’s “Justice” for telling Oprah Winfrey that Americans are no longer feeling hopeful since Donald Trump’s election. “You lived a life few can even imagine at the citadel of power and prestige in the world,” Pirro directed at Obama.

‘Full Measure’: Influencing an election new

This week, outgoing President Barack Obama ordered a full review into hacking aimed at influencing this election , and he wants it finished before incoming President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. This week came reports that the FBI differs with the CIA, which had blamed Russia and concluded the motive was to elect Trump.

U.S. Electoral College Set to Confirm Trump’s Presidential Victory

The next chapter in the tumultuous U.S. presidential election plays out Monday, with voting in the Electoral College expected to officially confirm that billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump will become the country’s 45th president. Americans have known since early November that Trump would take over the White House when he is inaugurated January 20. U.S. presidential elections, however, are not determined by the national popular vote, but rather by the individual outcomes in presidential balloting in all 50 states and the national capital city, Washington.

Trump’s pick for budget director has urged big spending cuts

Republican Rep. Mick Mulvaney, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice as his budget director, is a fierce deficit hawk with a record of pushing deep spending cuts across the federal government to balance the budget. The 49-year-old from South Carolina, just re-elected to a fourth term, is a co-founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus that pushed former Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, from power.

NewsMax CEO on CNN: ‘Biased News’ Had a Bigger Impact on the Election than Fake News

NewsMax President and CEO Christopher Ruddy appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources , where he told Brian Stelter that media bias was a more relevant factor to the 2016 election than false news was. In recent weeks, Stelter and other news figures have been concerned about the spread of fake news/conspiracy theories , as well as the possibility that it helped Donald Trump become President-Elect.

Trump camp pushes back on Russian election-meddling claim, calls it a ‘spin job’

Stephen Bannon , senior advisor to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, and Reince Priebus stand as Trump speaks at the USA Thank You Tour event at the Wisconsin State Fair Exposition Center in West Allis, Wisconsin, Dec. 13. Donald Trump’s top aides on Sunday said the president-elect isn’t ready to accept the finding by intelligence agencies that Moscow hacked Democratic emails in a bid to elevate Trump. And that even if it’s true, they said, Trump still won the White House fair and square.

China says it will give drone back, but Trump says a keep ita

In this undated photo released by the U.S. Navy Visual News Service, the USNS Bowditch, a T-AGS 60 Class Oceanographic Survey Ship, sails in open water. The USNS Bowditch, a civilian U.S. Navy oceanographic survey ship, was recovering two drones on Thursday when a Chinese navy ship approached and sent out a small boat that took one of the drones, said Navy Capt.

Trump Cabinet excites his voters: a We have to trust hima

As each Cabinet announcement draws fresh criticism of the wealth, connections or opinions of Donald Trump’s latest appointees, many Americans who voted for him say the president-elect is doing what he promised to do: draining the swamp. To them, the idea of a defence secretary nicknamed “Mad Dog” is bliss.

‘I’m asking you a simple question’: Fox News host confronts RNC chair …

‘I’m asking you a simple question’: Fox News host confronts RNC chair over Trump’s denial of Russia hacks Fox News anchor Chris Wallace on Sunday pushed President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming chief of staff to answer whether Trump believes US intelligence reports that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election through strategically hacked and leaked private emails from the Democratic Party organizations and officials. In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Wallace interjected when Reince Priebus argued first that Trump would accept US intelligence findings if they were made public.

US Secretary of State discusses Yemen war on Saudi trip

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Saudi King Salman and others Sunday to discuss the war in Yemen, a visit to the kingdom that likely will be his last as America’s top diplomat. Kerry’s trip, ahead of the inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, comes as diplomatic ties between the two longtime allies have been strained by the Iran nuclear deal championed by Democratic President Barack Obama and other issues.

Trump action on health care could cost Planned Parenthood

One of President-elect Donald Trump’s first, and defining, acts next year could come on Republican legislation to cut off taxpayer money from Planned Parenthood. Trump sent mixed signals during the campaign about the 100-year-old organization which provides birth control, abortions and various women’s health services.

The New York Times And Me

I gave up reading The New York Times after getting fed up with its biased reporting and the blatant editorializing in its news pages circa the late eighties and early nineties when the Times did everything it could to bring down the Reagan presidency and demolish the presidency of the elder Bush. Yet in the run-up to this most recent presidential election I found myself reading the Times again, partly because a Facebook correspondent called me out on disparaging the Times’s recent coverage when I was no longer a regular reader and partly because a neighbor asked me to take her paper in while she was away.

Trump takes on First Lady’s ‘no hope’ comment

President-elect Donald Trump said first lady Michelle Obama “must have been talking about the past” when she said there’s no sense of hope after his election. Trump, speaking Saturday at the final rally of his post election “thank you” tour, then resisted escalating the spat further, suggesting “she made that statement not meaning it the way it came out.”

Trump says US should let China keep the drone

President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday on Twitter the United States should let China keep the U.S. Navy’s unmanned underwater glider that it seized in the South China Sea. “We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!” Trump tweeted a few hours after the U.S. military announced it had reached an understanding with China for the return of the underwater glider.

Trump Mocks at China

US President-elect Donald Trump got plenty of attention — but not the kind he was looking for — after a tweet today calling out China for its seizure of an unmanned US naval probe. “China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters — rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act,” the real estate magnate wrote on his favorite platform.

Paul Choiniere

To continue reading up to 10 premium articles, you must register , or sign up and take advantage of this exclusive offer: While many focus on holiday preparations, it is that time of year for a crusty old political writer such as myself to take stock of the political scene and where things may be headed. Not to be a complete pre-recovery Scrooge, however, I tuned the radio to some Christmas tunes while writing.

Op-ed: Red flags over Trump Towers

There is a really good reason to support Senate confirmation of Rex Tillerson to be President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state: Tony Perkins opposes him. Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council, otherwise known as the Bedroom Busybodies.

Trump says Michelle Obama’s ‘no hope’ comment about the past

President-elect Donald Trump said first lady Michelle Obama “must have been talking about the past” when she said there’s no sense of hope after his election. Trump, speaking Saturday at the final rally of his postelection “thank you” tour, then resisted escalating the spat further, suggesting “she made that statement not meaning it the way it came out.”

Indianaa s electors expected to cast ballots for Trump

Indiana’s eleven representatives to the Electoral College will gather at the Statehouse on Monday to formally cast votes to make Donald Trump president. Anti-Trump activists across the country have encouraged citizen electors to reject the Republican, who won a majority of Electoral College votes during the election, but lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Outsiders selected by Trump aim to unnerve Washington

President-elect Donald Trump wishes supporters a Merry Christmas to kick off his “thank you” rally in Hershey, Pa., on Thursday. Seven men and one woman named by Trump to run vast government agencies share a common trait: once confirmed, their presence is meant to unnerve – and maybe even outright undermine – the bureaucracies they are about to lead.

Despite heavy lobbying, Utah electors say theya ll vote Trump

Utah’s six Republican presidential electors say they will all cast their votes next week for Donald Trump, as required under state law, but they’re being flooded with letters, calls and even full-page ads in Salt Lake City’s two newspapers urging them to vote for someone else. Jeremy Jenkins, an elector from Logan, said he’s been inundated with letters and emails from people – almost all out of state – urging him to vote for Clinton, someone else, or abstain.

Kansas electors remain steadfast for Trump, defend college

The six Republican members of the Electoral College from Kansas feel bound to honor the state’s popular vote for Donald Trump in the presidential race and defend the college as a necessary to make sure the wishes of most voters in the nation aren’t ignored. Like their counterparts across the country, the Kansas electors say they received thousands of emails, most from outside Kansas, urging them not to vote for Trump, who received 57 percent of the vote in the state.

Arizonaa s Electoral College voters urged not to back Trump

Arizona’s 11 Electoral College voters have each been inundated with tens of thousands of emails, hundreds of letters and untold numbers of phone calls urging them not to cast their ballots for president-elect Donald Trump. They say the anti-Trump effort is a waste of time, and that’s a generous description of their reaction.

A campaign rival bites on Trumpa s a Evan McMuffina remark, and the comeback is delish

At one point in October, it looked as though independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin might throw a wrench in the whole electoral process, and President-elect Donald Trump has not forgiven him for that. Into early November, the little-known conservative on the ballot in 11 states appeared to be polling close to Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in Utah, according to RealClearPolitics .

With Ivanka Trump, the role of first daughter may evolve

She was a key player in her father’s winning campaign, and people are closely watching the next moves by President-elect Donald Trump’s 35-year-old daughter. She’s attended her father’s transition meetings with high-profile figures, including the Japanese prime minister and technology leaders, and has indicated her interest in working on policy issues such as child care.

Here’s an early, easy GOP win for reform: Republicans should scrap the CFPB

If Republicans want a quick jump-start on government reform with their new electoral mandate in January, a top agenda item would be scrapping the Orwellian-named Consumer Financial Protection Bureau . The CFPB, part of the Dodd-Frank regulatory regime adopted by Democrats in 2010, is an agency meant to stop racism and anti-woman bias, President-elect Donald Trump has promised to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act and, thankfully, this could very well mean the CFPB also.

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Russian meddling is believed to have happened by both FBI and CIA

Donald Trump has won the presidency after narrowly carrying a few states to put him above 270 electoral votes.But according… Senate Republicans refused to give President Obama’s pick to replace Supreme Court Justice Scalia even the courtesy of a… One does not have to believe the the meddling decided the election to believe that 1) it happened 2) it is not a good thing 3) in a close election like this one everything mattered and 4) Donald Trump’s denials are both inappropriate and highly suspicious. He was told before the election this was happened, but denies it and denies it happened at all.

Obama says Putin knew about hacks: President urges Trump to take…

President Barack Obama put Russia’s Vladimir Putin on notice Friday that the U.S. could use offensive cyber muscle to retaliate for interference in the U.S. presidential election, his strongest suggestion to date that Putin had been well aware of campaign email hacking. Caught in the middle of a post-election controversy over Russian hacking, Obama strongly defended his administration’s response, including his refusal before the voting to ascribe motive to the meddling or to discuss now what effect it might have had.

Trump salutes supporters in Florida, names budget director

President-elect Donald Trump, in the latest stop of his victory lap, told a military veteran-laden crowd in Florida that while he would build up the country’s armed forces, he would use them sparingly as commander-in-chief. “For too long, we’ve moving from one reckless intervention to another, to countries you’ve never heard of before,” Trump said at a rally Friday night in Orlando.