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Essential Washington

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Here’s our look at the Trump administration and the rest of Washington.

Wait — did the president really say, ‘Mission Accomplished’?

Some are recalling the last time a president declared "Mission accomplished," in May 2003 when George W. Bush was talking about Iraq.
(Stephen Jaffe / AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump on Saturday morning thanked his allies in a tweet that declared the airstrikes on Syria “perfectly executed,” but he might have wished he’d stopped there.

Instead, he ended his message with the phrase, “Mission Accomplished!” That’s a line that might have a previous president shaking his head.

On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq under a “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. That war, which began in March 2003, grew into a prolonged conflict that didn’t end until 2011.

In 2008, the White House said it had “paid a price” for the backdrop.

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Auditor says Pentagon is censoring key data on the war in Afghanistan

The Pentagon is blocking the release of data showing how much of Afghanistan’s territory lies outside government control, censoring a key metric used to gauge progress in the 16-year war, a watchdog agency said Tuesday.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, an auditing agency established by Congress, said in its latest report that the Pentagon instructed it not to release unclassified data on how many districts and people are controlled or influenced by insurgent groups.

“This is the first time SIGAR has been specifically instructed not to release information marked ‘unclassified’ to the American taxpayer,” the head of the agency, John F. Sopko, wrote in a letter.

Sopko also said the U.S.-led military coalition, for the first time since 2009, classified information about the size and attrition rates of the Afghan security forces, important indicators of progress in building up army and police forces on which the U.S. already has spent $70 billion since 2002.

The decision to withhold more information from congressional oversight and the public comes amid growing violence in Afghanistan and an intensifying combat mission involving a greater number of American troops.

Following a series of bombings in Kabul that left at least 136 people dead in 10 days, President Trump signaled on Monday that he was focused on trying to win the conflict militarily, saying, “We don’t want to talk with the Taliban.”

But data released by SIGAR since 2015 have shown how the insurgents have gained ground against Afghan security forces. In its previous quarterly report, the watchdog said that only 57% of Afghanistan’s 407 districts were under Afghan government control or influence as of August 2017, the lowest level of control since it began tracking the statistic in December 2015.

The steady decline in government control “should cause even more concern about its disappearance from public disclosure and discussion,” Sopko wrote.

The watchdog also accused the Pentagon of overstating the impact of its efforts to combat drug cultivation and trafficking, among the Taliban’s main sources of revenue. The Pentagon touted airstrikes that destroyed 25 drug labs in November and December, saying it eliminated nearly $100 million of Taliban revenue.

“The labs being destroyed are cheap and easy to replace,” SIGAR said. “According to some estimates, they only take three or four days to replace.”

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Women journalists shunted to rear for Pence’s visit to Western Wall

The view from the women's section.
(Noga Tarnopolsky / Los Angeles Times)

Vice-President Mike Pence’s 48-hour visit to Israel stumbled into a public storm Tuesday when female reporters covering his final stop at Jerusalem’s Western Wall were penned behind four rows of their male colleagues.

White House officials told stunned journalists that the arrangement emanated from a request made by the Western Wall rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, and followed “Western Wall rules.”

Some women journalists said they could not recall such treatment in the past.

In a statement to Israel’s Channel 10 news, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation said it “was exactly as it was during the visit of the U.S. president to the Western Wall last May.” Later in the day, in a statement to the newspaper Haaretz, the foundation blamed the United States embassy in Tel Aviv and Israeli security officials for the segregation, and announced they would reexamine the way they handle such events.

Women who covered previous VIP visits said the Pence arrangements were significantly more onerous than previous visits, when male and female journalists were separated but not offered substantially different work conditions.

The arrangement reflected procedures at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, where on regular days, men have access to two thirds of the area available for prayer.

Tal Schneider, the diplomatic analyst for Globes, a financial newspaper, protested that the separation of men and women “may be valid for the requirements of Orthodox prayer, but no one is praying here. We are here to work.”

“I don’t appreciate being restricted in my ability to work because I am a woman,” she said. “The discriminatory attitude towards women is infuriating and is unbefitting of a modern country.”

Yael Freidson, the Jerusalem affairs correspondent for Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s widest circulation newspaper, said she worried that her editors could choose male colleagues for the next assignment, knowing they would have better access.

Before Pence arrived, journalists were herded onto a specially constructed platform in the middle of the Western Wall’s esplanade, with women guided to the right behind a white fence, and men, many carrying cameras, directed to the left, where they had more than double the space.

Towards the end of the vice president’s 10-minute visit, male journalists were permitted into the VIP tent where he received a gift from Rabinowitz, while the women remained in their enclosure.

None of the men publicly protested the treatment of their female colleagues.

Israel’s Association of Women Journalists filed a formal complaint with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, herself a woman.

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Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, after his pardon from Trump, says he’ll run for Senate in Arizona

(Mary Altaffer / Associated Press)
(Mary Altaffer / Associated Press)

Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who last year was pardoned by President Trump in a case stemming from his enforcement tactics aimed at immigrants, announced Tuesday he will run for the open Senate seat in his home state.

“I am running for the U.S. Senate from the Great State of Arizona, for one unwavering reason: to support the agenda and policies of President Donald Trump in his mission to Make America Great Again,” Arpaio, 85, said on Twitter.

He’ll enter a Republican primary for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Jeff Flake.

Last summer, Trump pardoned Arpaio, who was convicted in July of criminal contempt for violating a federal court order to stop racially profiling Latinos.

It was Arpaio’s roughly quarter-century as sheriff that gave him a national reputation for his tough treatment of people suspected of being in the country illegally. Repeated court rulings against his office for civil rights violations cost local taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

In the early 1990s, Arpaio directed construction of a tent city for immigration detainees, a measure he said was intended both to alleviate overcrowding and to underscore his aggressive enforcement measures. But it was open to the burning Arizona sun, and drew widespread criticism.

After Trump entered the presidential race in July 2015, Arpaio invited him to Phoenix to talk about a crackdown on illegal immigration. He endorsed Trump just before the first votes in the Iowa caucuses in 2016 and frequently spoke out on behalf of Trump’s campaign.

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President Trump ends controversial voter fraud commission

President Trump signed an executive order late Wednesday ending the voter fraud commission he launched last year as the panel faces a flurry of lawsuits and criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Trump signed the order disbanding the commission “rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, created by executive order in May with the stated goal of restoring confidence and integrity in the electoral process, has faced a barrage of lawsuits in recent months over privacy concerns, as the commission sought personal data on voters across the country.

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Congress returns to work with slimmer GOP majority to accomplish Trump’s agenda

Congress returns to work this week with unfinished business on spending, immigration and other crucial issues, but with an even narrower GOP majority that will make it tougher to move on President Trump’s agenda.

The House and Senate will convene Wednesday, swearing in the newly elected Democratic senator from Alabama, Doug Jones, and Minnesota’s Tina Smith to replace a fellow Democrat, Sen. Al Franken, who is resigning as the latest high-profile public figure sidelined by allegations of sexual misconduct. The change gives Republicans only a one-seat margin in the Senate.

Trump, fresh off passage of the GOP tax cuts bill, is pushing lawmakers to pivot quickly on his new year priorities of infrastructure investment and immigration, as well as his foreign policy agenda.

But another legislative victory seems far off. Republicans have struggled to hold their majority together and Congress first must tackle critical stalled agenda items that leaders punted to 2018.

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Trump threatens to cut off U.S. aid to Palestinians

President Trump on Tuesday angrily threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Palestinians as punishment for what he called their failure to show “appreciation or respect” to the United States.

Writing on Twitter, the president compared the Palestinians to Pakistan, a nuclear-armed ally that abruptly drew his ire this week and a similar threat to drastically curtail aid.

He accused the Palestinians of recalcitrance in what he described as their refusal to negotiate a peace deal with Israel.

Palestinian officials have said they can no longer use Washington as a broker to restart peace talks with Israel following Trump’s Dec. 6 decision to overturn decades of U.S. policy and recognize the disputed city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and ultimately to move the U.S. Embassy there.

The Palestinians also claim part of Jerusalem as the capital of an eventual independent state. Until now, the United States and most of the world agreed the city’s political status was a matter to settle in final peace talks.

The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly condemned any effort to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and the Palestinian leadership said it would not meet with Vice President Mike Pence, who had planned a trip to the region. That trip is on hold.

“[W]e pay the Palestinians HUNDRED [sic] OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “[W]ith the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

In response to Trump’s tweet, Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, issued a statement saying: “Palestinian rights are not for sale. By recognizing Occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital Donald Trump has not only violated international law, but he has also singlehandedly destroyed the very foundations of peace and condoned Israel’s illegal annexation of the city.”

“We will not be blackmailed,” she said. “President Trump has sabotaged our search for peace, freedom and justice. Now he dares to blame the Palestinians for the consequences of his own irresponsible actions!”

The United States does not pay large amounts of money directly to the Palestinian Authority, the government that rules over parts of the Palestinian West Bank. Instead, most money goes to the U.N., refugee or aid agencies and even Israel to pay for roads, welfare, schools, security and other Palestinian projects.

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, said Tuesday that the administration was planning to cut off one of those organizations, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, until the Palestinians “return to the negotiating table.”

UNRWA, which receives around $300 million annually from the U.S., for years has been the lifeline to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It was not clear if Haley was threatening to cut all U.S. support for the agency.

Special correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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The White House stops short of calling for government overthrow in Iran

President Trump wants Iran to give its citizens “basic human rights” and “stop being a state sponsor of terror,” his top spokeswoman said, but the White House stopped short of calling for a change of government in Tehran.

“If they want to do that through current leadership, if that’s possible, OK,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.

Sanders praised the “organic popular uprising,” which she said the widespread protests in Iran represented. The protests grew out of years of “years of mismanagement, corruption, and foreign adventurism have eroded the Iranian people’s trust in their leaders,” she said.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump called Iran’s government “brutal and corrupt” and wrote in a tweet: “The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!”

Trump also blamed President Obama for “foolishly” giving Iran money that he said went to fund terrorism. The money he referred to were funds belonging to Iran that had been frozen by the U.S. and were released as part of the deal in 2015, which blocked Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.

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Retirement of Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch clears the way for a Mitt Romney revival

The retirement of Utah’s senior senator, Orrin G. Hatch, opens the way for a widely expected Senate bid by Mitt Romney, the Republicans’ 2012 presidential nominee and a frequent critic of President Trump.

Although Romney previously served for two terms as governor of Massachusetts (and was raised in Michigan, where his father was governor and his mother ran for the Senate), he comes from a prominent Mormon family with strong ties to Utah. He also served as chief executive of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. He’s viewed as a strong candidate for the Senate seat.

Romney’s criticisms of Trump, however, could prompt a challenge in a Republican primary. Trump was widely reported to have tried to convince Hatch to run for a seventh term, in part to head off a Romney candidacy.

Last month, Romney and Trump were on opposite sides of one of the biggest political fights of the fall — the battle over the Senate seat from Alabama. The president strongly supported Roy Moore, the Republican candidate who had been accused of sexual misconduct by several women. Romney called Moore “a stain on the GOP.”

On Tuesday, Romney tweeted praise for Hatch, but did not immediately reveal his own plans.

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Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch announces he’ll retire at end of term, rather than seek reelection

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U.S. calls on Iran to unblock social media sites amid protests

The Trump administration is calling on Iran’s government to stop blocking Instagram and other popular social media sites as Iranians are demonstrating in the streets.

Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein says the U.S. wants Iran to “open these sites.” He says Instagram, Telegram and other platforms are “legitimate avenues for communication.”

The United States is encouraging Iranians to use virtual private networks, known as VPNs. Those services create encrypted links between computers and can be used to access blocked websites.

Goldstein says the U.S. is still communicating with Iranians in Persian through State Department accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. He says the U.S. wants to “encourage the protesters to continue to fight for what’s right.”

Goldstein says the U.S. has an “obligation not to stand by.”

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Trump blasts Democrats in advance of immigration meeting

The day before a meeting of administration officials and congressional leaders on outstanding legislative business, President Trump accused Democrats of “doing nothing” to hammer out an immigration deal to protect from deportation people brought to the country illegally as children.

“Democrats are doing nothing for DACA — just interested in politics,” Trump wrote in a Tweet on Tuesday morning, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program by its acronym.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer along with the Republican leaders, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are scheduled to meet on Wednesday at the Capitol with Trump’s legislative director, Marc Short, and budget director, Mick Mulvaney.

The White House on Tuesday said the meeting is to discuss separate spending caps on military and domestic programs. Yet the Democrats insist the discussion also must include a variety of legislative issues that Trump and Congress punted into the new year — on immigration, the budget, healthcare and more.

That stance reflects Democrats’ leverage: Republicans need Democratic votes to pass a government-funding bill and avert a federal shutdown when the current funding expires Jan. 19. Democrats especially want separate legislation replacing the Obama-era DACA program; Trump in September ordered a phase-out of the program, beginning March 6, and called on Congress to act before then on an alternative way to address the plight of the group.

However, Trump has demanded that any alternative must be part of a package including both money for a border wall and immigration limits. Democrats are opposed.

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Pakistan hits back after Trump accuses its leaders of ‘lies and deceit’

Pakistan lashed out Monday after President Trump accused its leaders of “lies and deceit” and suggested the United States would withdraw financial assistance to the nuclear-armed nation it once saw as a key ally against terrorism.

U.S. Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to discuss the president’s statement, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said. Pakistan lodged a strongly worded protest, according to two foreign office officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shahid Abbasi, called a Cabinet meeting for Tuesday and a meeting of the National Security Committee on Wednesday to discuss Trump’s New Year’s Day tweet.

It was the president’s latest broadside against Pakistan after a speech in August in which he demanded its leaders crack down on the safe havens enjoyed by Taliban militants fighting U.S.-backed forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

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Trump again cheers on Iran protests

President Trump expressed renewed support Sunday for protesters in Iran, declaring that “people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism.”

In a tweet from his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, the president said the nationwide economic protests that began on Thursday – and have taken on wider political overtones as they have grown in size --- were a signal that Iranians “will not take it any longer.”

The president’s earlier hailing of the protests drew condemnation from Iran’s government. A Foreign Ministry spokesman called his comments “deceitful and opportunistic.”

Following an overnight report of the first two fatalities stemming from the protests, Trump raised some eyebrows by expressing concern over human rights violations as authorities move to crack down on the demonstrations. During his first year in office, the president has shown scant inclination to press foreign governments to respect the fundamental rights of their citizens.

“The USA is watching closely for human rights violations!” Trump said in his tweet Sunday.

Some domestic critics have pointed to the president’s inclusion of Iranian nationals in his travel ban, suggesting he was more interested in bashing the Tehran government than in supporting freedom of speech in Iran.

Even some of the president’s allies said that supporting the protesters on social media did not amount to making policy. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he had urged Trump to give a national address laying out his Iran strategy.

“President Trump is tweeting very sympathetically to the Iranian people,” Graham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“But you just can’t tweet here. You have to lay out a plan.”

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Australian diplomat’s tip a factor in FBI’s Russia inquiry

Australian High Commissioner Alexander Downer.
(Alastair Grant / Associated Press)

An Australian diplomat’s tip appears to have helped persuade the FBI to investigate Russian meddling in the U.S. election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos told the diplomat, Alexander Downer, during a meeting in London in May 2016 that Russia had thousands of emails that would embarrass Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, the report said. Downer, a former foreign minister, is Australia’s top diplomat in Britain.

Australia passed the information on to the FBI after the Democratic emails were leaked, according to the Times, which cited four current and former U.S. and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians’ role.

“The hacking and the revelation that a member of the Trump campaign may have had inside information about it were driving factors that led the FBI to open an investigation in July 2016,” the newspaper said.

White House lawyer Ty Cobb declined to comment, saying in a statement that the administration is continuing to cooperate with the investigation now led by special counsel Robert Mueller “to help complete their inquiry expeditiously.”

Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is a cooperating witness. Court documents unsealed two months ago show he met in April 2016 with Joseph Mifsud, a professor in London who told him about Russia’s cache of emails. This was before the Democratic National Committee became aware of the scope of the intrusion into its email systems by hackers later linked to the Russian government.

The Times said Papadopoulos shared this information with Downer, but it was unclear whether he also shared it with anyone in the Trump campaign.

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Trump offers fresh support for protesters in Iran as demonstrations continue

President Trump again offered support Saturday for anti-government protesters in Iran, where a third day of demonstrations, the largest in years, spilled across the country amid fears of a crackdown.

“Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, and the day will come when the Iranian people will face a choice. The world is watching!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump took a break from playing golf near his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to tweet clips from his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September when he called for Iranian democratic reforms.

Iranian authorities warned of potential violence as the street demonstrations, which began over economic conditions, swelled into frustrations with the theocratic rule of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump has maintained a hawkish stance toward Iran, sharply criticizing the landmark nuclear disarmament accord that Tehran reached with then-President Obama and five other nations in 2015.

In October, Trump declined to certify the accord to Congress although the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency says Iran is complying with it.

Several conservative GOP senators signaled their support for Trump’s position and backed the protesters in Iran. Others in Congress did not immediately respond, however, amid conflicting reports over who had organized the demonstrations.

“Even after the billions in sanctions relief they secured through the nuclear deal, the ayatollahs still can’t provide for the basic needs of their own people,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a Trump ally and opponent of the nuclear deal.

“We should support the Iranian people who are willing to risk their lives to speak out against it,” he added.

Trump initially tweeted his support on Friday night. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement at that time as protests spread.

“There are many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with the regime’s corruption and its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad,” Sanders said. “The Iranian government should respect their people’s rights, including their right to express themselves. The world is watching.”

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When it comes to U.S.-Russia relations, ‘it takes two to tango,’ Kremlin says

The deteriorating relationship between the United States and Russia is one of the biggest disappointments of 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman told reporters today.

Russia would like to rebuild relations between the two adversaries, but “it takes two to tango,” Dmitry Peskov said today during a conference call with the press.

“We want and are looking for good mutually beneficial relations based on mutual respect, mutual trust with all countries, primarily with European ones, including the United States, but it is necessary to dance tango, as they say.”

Peskov blamed the ongoing anti-Russian “Russophobia” in Washington for playing a major role in blocking the two countries from moving forward in their relationship. U.S. investigations into the Trump presidential campaign’s alleged collusion with the Kremlin during the 2016 U.S. election and accusations that the Kremlin tried to interfere with the electoral process continue to cast a dark shadow over the relationship, he said.

Peskov told reporters that Moscow was “perplexed” by the investigations. The Kremlin has continued to deny having any involvement with the Trump campaign or doing anything to interfere with the American election.

“This is definitely a U.S. domestic affair, but in this case it naturally hurts our bilateral relations, which is regrettable,” Peskov said.

Relations between the U.S. and Russia have been categorized as the worst they’ve been since the end of the Cold War. This year, Washington and Moscow have engaged in a diplomatic tit-for-tat in which both sides have been forced to reduce diplomatic staff, embassy properties have been repossessed by the hosting countries and visa services have been interrupted. The U.S. diplomatic mission to Russia shrank from 1,200 personnel, including some Russian local staff, to just over 450 across all its three consulates and embassy in Moscow. In the U.S., Russia was forced to vacate its San Francisco consulate.

Moscow has also blamed anti-Russian sentiments on the recent decision by the International Olympic Committee to ban Russian teams from wearing their tricolor uniforms or flags during the upcoming games in South Korea. The international body accused some of the Russian national teams of doping.

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U.S. and Turkey resume reciprocal issuing of visas but frictions remain

The United States and Turkey began issuing reciprocal visas again on Thursday, more than two months after normal visa service was suspended in a dispute over the arrest of two U.S. diplomatic staffers in Istanbul — the latest friction between the two nominal allies.

The State Department said it was lifting the visa restrictions after it was assured by the Turkish government that U.S. Embassy employees would not be arrested when performing their official duties.

But the Turkish Embassy in Washington denied assurances were offered “concerning the ongoing judicial processes,” and suggested that the arrests were legal and justified.

“It is inappropriate to misinform the Turkish and American public that such assurances were provided,” the embassy said in a statement.

The dispute has aggravated the already tense relationship between the United States and Turkey, which is a member of the NATO military alliance. The two countries have clashed over U.S. support for Kurdish rebels in Syria and over Turkey’s demands that the U.S. extradite a Turkish cleric who lives in rural Pennsylvania.

After a failed coup attempt killed more than 250 people in July 2016, Turkey’s autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, launched a harsh crackdown on his political opponents, arresting or firing tens of thousands of teachers, police, journalists, military officers and others.

Erdogan accused Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic educator and former political ally, of orchestrating the coup. Gulen, who has lived in a compound in the Pocono Mountains, has denied any involvement.

The Justice Department has so far denied Turkey’s repeated demands to extradite Gulen.

Erdogan raised the issue again at the White House in May, but his visit ended in a public relations disaster when his security guards brutally beat peaceful protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence.

Two Turkish employees of the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul were arrested this fall for alleged ties to the 2016 coup attempt. The U.S. responded by suspending most visa services at its missions in Turkey in October. The Turkish government reciprocated in November.

State Department officials said they have repeatedly demanded more information about any formal charges against the two employees. They reiterated on Thursday that “serious concerns” about the allegations remained.

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Trump: China caught ‘RED HANDED’ allowing oil to reach North Korea

(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

President Trump isn’t taking a holiday vacation from Twitter. In one of three tweets early on Thursday from his West Palm Beach golf club, he charged that China was “caught RED HANDED” allowing oil shipments to reach North Korean ports.

Pronouncing himself “very disappointed,” Trump in effect was acknowledging the failure of his months-long effort to convince China to clamp down further on energy shipments going to the isolated country, which relies heavily on Beijing, as a way to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Trump’s tweet came after a South Korean newspaper published what it said were U.S. spy satellite images of Chinese ships selling oil to North Korean ships.

The United Nations Security Council, which includes China, has voted repeatedly to restrict fuel shipments to North Korea. Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping in November to cut off North Korea’s oil supply entirely, the American ambassador to the U.N., Nikki R. Haley, said at the time.

It is unclear if Trump’s admonishment of China was based on news reports or classified information he received from U.S. intelligence officials. There was no daily intelligence briefing on Trump’s public schedule Thursday. He is expected to return to Washington next week after spending the Christmas holiday and New Year’s Eve at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.

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President Trump again falsely claims he’s signed more bills than any president

President Trump visits a firehouse in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday.
(Nicholas Kamm / AFP)

After another morning at his Florida golf club, President Trump visited firefighters and paramedics at a West Palm Beach firehouse and praised his own performance as president, including with a false boast.

Trump touted his administration’s work to roll back government regulations and cut taxes and claimed credit for the stock market hitting record highs. He also said he’s signed more bills into law than any other president, which isn’t true.

“We have signed more legislation than anybody,” Trump said, standing in front of a rescue vehicle inside the fire station.

“We have more legislation passed, including — the record was Harry Truman a long time ago, and we broke that record, so we got a lot done,” Trump said.

An analysis by GovTrack, a website that tracks bills in Congress, shows that Trump has signed the fewest bills into law at this point than any president in more than 60 years, back to Dwight D. Eisenhower.

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Trump administration urges Russia to reinstate monitors in Ukraine, ‘lower violence’

Sergei Lavrov
(AFP/Getty Images)

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked Russia on Wednesday to reinstate its military personnel at a monitoring station in eastern Ukraine intended to quell escalating bloodshed.

In a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Tillerson also urged Russia to “lower the level of violence” and underscored the Trump administration’s “concern” over increased fighting in Ukraine, the State Department said in a statement.

Russia last week withdrew its monitors from the Joint Center on Coordination and Control, which is tasked with verifying a much-violated ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists. Moscow cited what it called restrictions and “provocations” from Ukrainian authorities that made it impossible for the observers to do their jobs.

Washington has accused the pro-Russia forces of being responsible for many of the truce violations.

Late last week, the State Department also announced plans to provide Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, a decision that angered Moscow.

The State Department statement did not say whether the weapons deal came up in Tillerson’s conversation with Lavrov.

The two also discussed North Korea, its “destabilizing nuclear program” and the need for a diplomatic solution “to achieve a denuclearized Korean peninsula,” the statement said. Russia has offered to serve as a mediator between Washington and Pyongyang, but direct talks do not seem likely at this point.

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U.S. sanctions two more North Korean officials for ballistic missile program

The Trump administration announced sanctions Tuesday against two more North Korean officials for their alleged role in Pyongyang’s expanding ballistic missiles program.

The Treasury Department “is targeting leaders of North Korea’s ballistic missile programs, as part of our maximum pressure campaign to isolate [North Korea] and achieve a fully denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement.

The nuclear-armed country tested an intercontinental ballistic missile last month that U.S. officials said appeared capable of reaching New York or Washington, a significant milestone in the country’s growing arsenal.

The Treasury Department identified the two North Korean officials as Kim Jong Sik, who “reportedly is a key figure” in the ballistic missile program and led efforts to switch missiles from liquid to solid fuel (which makes them easier to hide before launch), and Ri Pyong Chol, who was “reported to be a key official” in the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The sanctions block banks, companies and individuals from doing any business with the targeted officials. It also allows the U.S. government to freeze any American assets owned by the officials.

On Friday, the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to add more sanctions on North Korea, its third round this year. The new measures order North Koreans working abroad to return home within two years, and ban nearly 90% of refined petroleum exports to the country.

In a statement published Sunday by North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency, the foreign ministry denounced the new U.N. sanctions as “an act of war.”

“We define this ‘sanctions resolution’ rigged up by the US and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the region and categorically reject the ‘resolution,’” it said.

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Salt Lake Tribune calls on Sen. Orrin Hatch to not seek reelection in scathing editorial

Perhaps the most significant move of Hatch’s career is the one that should, if there is any justice, end it.   The last time the senator was up for reelection, in 2012, he promised that it would be his last campaign. That was enough for many likely successors, of both parties, to stand down, to let the elder statesman have his victory tour and to prepare to run for an open seat in 2018.   Clearly, it was a lie.

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Christmas Eve, Trump on Twitter: New attacks on FBI official, decrying ‘Fake News’

President Trump launched a Christmas Eve attack on FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, whom he accuses of favoritism toward his former opponent, Hillary Clinton, and also returned to a longtime favored theme, excoriating the news media for failing to sufficiently extol his accomplishments.

Trump, who is spending the holidays at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, also sent Christmas greetings to deployed military personnel, praising them for success in the fight against terrorism.

The early-morning swipe at McCabe followed a flurry of tweets attacking the deputy FBI chief on Saturday. McCabe, who has been a lightning rod for Republican attacks on the FBI, is expected to retire early in the new year.

Critics say the president and his allies are in the midst of a systematic campaign to denigrate the FBI and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is looking into potential collusion by the Trump campaign in Russia’s attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election.

In a pair of statements on Twitter, Trump again expressed scorn regarding news coverage of his administration. For months, the president has been particularly critical of reports regarding the Russia investigation and more recently has repeatedly complained he does not receive enough credit for a booming stock market.

In his video conference message to troops overseas, the president made apparent reference to the fight against the militants of Islamic State, who over the last year have lost most of the territory they previously controlled in Iraq and Syria, including former strongholds in Mosul and Raqqah.

“We’re winning,” Trump told military personnel deployed in Qatar, Kuwait, Guantanamo Bay and aboard the guided missile destroyer Sampson.

Reporters traveling with the president heard his address, but were ushered from the room before he took questions from the troops. The president often breaks with longtime custom and makes politically charged statements at events in which he addresses military personnel.

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Trump’s Wells Fargo tweet cited in court hearing as reason to remove Mulvaney as CFPB acting chief

A recent tweet by President Trump about possible penalties against Wells Fargo & Co. was cited during a court hearing Friday as a reason for removing White House official Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The attorney for Leandra English — the bureau’s deputy director who has said she is the rightful acting head — said Trump’s tweet showed he was trying to exercise improper influence over the independent consumer watchdog.

“I think that [tweet] shows you this isn’t just some hypothetical concern,” the attorney, Deepak Gupta, told Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia during a nearly two-hour hearing.

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Trump administration recognizes Honduran president’s reelection

The Trump administration on Friday formally recognized the incumbent president of Honduras, conservative Juan Orlando Hernandez, as the winner of a bitterly contested presidential election held last month.

In a statement, the State Department congratulated Hernandez while also acknowledging widespread irregularities in the Nov. 26 vote and calling for a “robust national dialogue” to overcome political discord in the Central American country, a close ally of the administration.

The Organization of American States, which monitored the election, said it was so flawed that only a new round of voting could establish a “fair and transparent” outcome. But the U.S. rejected that determination.

Uproar over the contest led to demonstrations in Honduras that left numerous civilians dead after state security forces opened fire on the protests. Activists and others voiced criticism Friday of the administration’s decision.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), a leading Democratic voice on Central American issues, said he was “angry and deeply disturbed” by the State Department decision.

“The recent elections in Honduras were deeply flawed, chaotic and marred by numerous irregularities,” McGovern said. U.S.-Honduran cooperation on matters such as drug-trafficking, violence and immigration requires “a credible, legitimate government that has the support of its people,” in Honduras, McGovern said.

Hernandez’s victory also was controversial because it was the first time a sitting president was allowed to run for re-election, barred until now by the Honduran Constitution.

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Senate Leader Mitch McConnell says fixing DACA is ‘no emergency’ until March

Amanda Bayer, left with banner, and Marisol Maqueda, right, join a rally in support of so-called "Dreamers" outside the White House.
Amanda Bayer, left with banner, and Marisol Maqueda, right, join a rally in support of so-called “Dreamers” outside the White House.
(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday he’s committed to allowing a vote on a bill for so-called “Dreamers” in January, but sees no rush to resolve the deportation threat posed by President Trump’s decision to end a program protecting immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

“There isn’t that much of an emergency there,” he said. “There is no emergency until March. We’ll keep talking about it.”

Trump called for phasing out by March the Obama-era program that allows the young immigrants, many of them longtime residents, to get two-year deferrals of any deportation threat so they can legally attend school or work. Beneficiaries must be vetted for security purposes.

Trump told Congress to come up with a legislative alternative for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which President Obama created by executive order, to protect those currently eligible.

A bipartisan Senate group has been working with the White House, but talks stalled this week amid administration demands for curbs on legal immigration flows in exchange for protecting the DACA recipients.

Meanwhile, Dreamers and immigrant advocates stormed the Capitol in recent days pressing for the help promised by Trump and Democratic congressional leaders that failed to materialize in the year’s final legislation.

Advocacy groups say more than 120 immigrants each day are falling out of compliance without DACA renewals, putting them at risk of deportation. The number that is projected to swell to more than 1,000 a day in March.

“We’ve been gridlocked on this issue for years,” McConnell said. “We want to have a signature. We don’t just want to spin our wheels and have nothing to show for it.”

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President Trump signs tax bill

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

President Trump on Friday morning signed a sweeping tax-cut measure — his first major legislative achievement — before heading off for a Christmas vacation at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Fla.

The president also privately signed a short-term spending bill to fund government operations through Jan. 19. Congress approved it Thursday, after Republican leaders were unable to bridge differences in their own party as well as with Democrats to get agreement on funding for the full fiscal year. The stopgap bill punts fights on immigration and other issues to January.

The tax bill, approved earlier this week in Congress in largely party-line votes, slashes corporate tax rates from 35% to 21% and also includes a host of other provisions for individuals, all intended to boost the economy.

Critics point to nonpartisan analyses showing that the package, including changes greatly reducing the number of estates subject to taxes, steers the bulk of tax benefits to top earners and the wealthy, including Trump, despite his repeated claims that he’ll take a hit.

Trump signed the bill quietly Friday, but held a public ceremony with Republican lawmakers on Wednesday after the bill’s passage; he also tweeted about the measure extensively. He is expected to hold another public ceremony after the New Year’s holiday.

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Pelosi urges Ryan to prevent Republicans from curtailing House’s Russia probe

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin greets House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin greets House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Friday urging him to ensure the House’s investigation into Russian interference with last year’s presidential campaign is not “cut short.”

“The American people deserve a comprehensive and fair investigation into Russia’s attacks,” wrote Pelosi, of San Francisco, in her letter. “Political haste must not cut short valid investigatory threads.”

The House Intelligence Committee has been probing the issue since March 1, and Democrats have repeatedly warned that Republicans are trying to wrap up its work prematurely. Pelosi said Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, should “take urgent action to ensure this investigation can continue.”

AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, said Pelosi simply wants “to see this investigation go on forever” in order to “suit her political agenda.”

“Whether it concludes next month, next year, or in three years, she will say it is too soon,” Strong said in a statement. She added, “The investigation will conclude when the committee has reached a conclusion.”

The committee’s work is led by Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas). His spokeswoman, Emily Hytha, said he “remains committed to conducting this investigation as thoroughly and expeditiously as possible.”

With more interviews scheduled, the investigation shows signs of extending into next year, Bloomberg reported Friday.

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Congress votes to avert government shutdown, but Senate fails to pass disaster aid package

( (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press))

Congress approved a temporary spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, but failed to complete work on an $81-billion disaster aid package to help California, Gulf Coast states and Puerto Rico recover from wildfires and hurricanes, as lawmakers scrambled Thursday to wrap up business before a Christmas break.

The stopgap measure continues federal operations for a few more weeks, setting up another deadline for Jan. 19. But it left undone a long list of priorities that members of both parties had hoped to finish this year.

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Wells Fargo says raises were not linked to tax bill passage — then backtracks

Wells Fargo & Co.’s move to raise its minimum pay to $15 an hour was part of a long-term plan and not related to the passage of the Republican tax overhaul as the company implied, said a bank spokesman, who later backtracked and stated the hikes were a result of the bill’s approval.

The bank was among several large corporations to publicly announce pay raises or new investments immediately following the final House vote in an apparent public relations offensive to boost the popularity of the tax bill

The San Francisco bank had implied the direct linkage to the tax legislation in a news release Wednesday, shortly after Congress passed the tax overhaul, which slashes the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% starting Jan. 1.

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Obamacare signups beat expectations, despite Trump administration’s opposition

President Trump with Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

Despite Trump administration efforts to discourage people from signing up, the number of people enrolling for Affordable Care Act coverage nearly hit last year’s level, the government revealed Thursday.

The 8.8 million people who enrolled in the 36 states that use the federal government’s healthcare.gov system significantly exceeded most forecasts.

The Trump administration stopped most outreach and other efforts this year aimed at getting people to sign up. The president also repeatedly said publicly that Obamacare was “dead.”

Open enrollment continues in California and several other states that run their own healthcare marketplaces. The figures from the federal government indicate that when those states wrap up for the year, the number of people covered by Obamacare will be nearly the same as in 2017.

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U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly condemns U.S. policy change on Jerusalem despite Trump’s threats

The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted Thursday to condemn President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite Trump’s threats to punish countries that voted against the U.S. position.

The resolution passed in an emergency session at U.N. headquarters in New York with 128 in favor, nine opposed and 35 abstentions.

The nonbinding resolution demands that Washington rescind its declaration, which included a plan to transfer the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in coming years.

The resolution value is mostly symbolic, showing how isolated the U.S. is in the move.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., warned this week that she would be “taking names” of countries that opposed the U.S., and Trump on Wednesday suggested he might cut U.S. aid to governments that voted in favor of the resolution.

”Let them vote against us,” Trump said. “We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”

The U.S. recognition of Jerusalem reversed decades of international consensus on the political status of the divided city. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as their capital in a future independent state.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said the U.N. was facing an “unprecedented test” and that history would remember those who “stand by what is right.”

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Democrats defend Robert Mueller, saying Russia investigation must be allowed to continue

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) speaking during a committee hearing earlier this year.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) speaking during a committee hearing earlier this year.
(Molly Riley / Associated Press)

House Democrats said they will fight Republican attempts to “discredit and undermine” the work of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating whether President Trump’s associates helped Russian meddling in last year’s election.

“There is an organized effort by Republicans, in concert with Fox News, to spin a false narrative and conjure up outrageous scenarios to accuse special counsel Mueller of being biased,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) said.

Trump has said he has no plan to fire Mueller, but Democrats are alarmed by escalating criticism of the special counsel’s work.

“Why is the president afraid of the facts and the truth?” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said.

He added, “No matter what the facts are, we’re satisfied if the investigation is complete.”

A letter of support signed by 171 Democratic members of Congress will be sent to Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller, a former FBI director, and oversees his investigation.

Rosenstein has defended Mueller in the face of Republican criticisms.

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U.S. blacklists Myanmar army general who it says oversaw atrocities against Rohingya Muslims

The Trump administration on Thursday blacklisted a Myanmar army general who it said oversaw human rights abuses committed by security forces against Rohingya Muslims.

Imposing economic sanctions against the general, Maung Maung Soe, was the toughest action the United States has taken in response to a brutal army offensive that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has described as ethnic cleansing.

In a statement, the Treasury Department said it had examined “credible evidence of Maung Maung Soe’s activities, including allegations against Burmese security forces of extrajudicial killings, sexual violence and arbitrary arrest as well as the widespread burning of villages.”

The Rohingya are an ethnic and religious minority of about 1 million people in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, also known as Burma. The United Nations says that more than 640,000 Rohingya have fled the country since August, after the army launched “clearance operations” in response to attacks carried out by a Rohingya insurgent group against security forces.

Rohingya refugees in crowded camps in neighboring Bangladesh have described horrific violence by Myanmar forces, including mass rapes, summary executions and children being burned alive.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders estimates that 6,700 people were killed in the first month of the operation. Myanmar authorities deny committing atrocities and say that only a few hundred “fighters” were killed.

Maung Maung Soe was chief of the army’s Western Command, which carried out the offensive. He was transferred from his position last month, according to news reports.

He was one of 13 individuals worldwide who were blacklisted Thursday under a new U.S. law that gives the Treasury Department authority to target officials for human rights abuses and corruption. Others included former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh; Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the late Uzbekistan dictator Islam Karimov; and Artem Chaika, son of Russia’s prosecutor-general.

“Today, the United States is taking a strong stand against human rights abuse and corruption globally by shutting these bad actors out of the U.S. financial system,” said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin.

The sanctions freeze any assets Maung Maung Soe holds in the United States and bars Americans from doing business with him. It is also a sign of how quickly U.S. relations with Myanmar have soured.

Under the Obama administration, the United States forged closer ties with the former military dictatorship and eased economic and political sanctions as the country began implementing democratic reforms.

But Myanmar, which does not regard the Rohingya as citizens, has lashed out at the international community over the current crisis. It has jailed journalists, blocked access to affected areas in the western state of Rakhine and this week barred a U.N. human rights investigator from entering the country.

Rohingya activists said the U.S. action would not have much effect on a country that survived under economic sanctions for years.

“It is the whole military institution that has a policy to persecute these people,” said Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist and blogger in Germany. “According to the U.S.’s own definition, the army is carrying out ethnic cleansing. They have a responsibility to protect these people. Sanctions on one person are really not enough.”

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‘Dreamers’ will have to wait until next year for Congress’ long-promised protections

Amanda Bayer, left with banner, and Marisol Maqueda, right, join a rally in support of so-called Dreamers outside the White House.
Amanda Bayer, left with banner, and Marisol Maqueda, right, join a rally in support of so-called Dreamers outside the White House.
(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press))

A promised year-end deal to protect the young immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation collapsed Wednesday as Republicans in Congress — fresh off passage of their tax plan — prepared to punt nearly all remaining must-do agenda items into the new year.

Congressional leaders still hope that before leaving town this week they can pass an $81-billion disaster relief package with recovery funds for California wildfires and Gulf Coast states hit during the devastating hurricane season. But passage even of that relatively popular measure remained in doubt as conservatives balked at the price tag.

Rather than finish the year wrapping up the legislative agenda, the GOP majorities in the House and Senate struggled over their next steps.

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Chants of protest drown out any caroling this holiday season at the Capitol

U.S. Capitol Police arrest a man wearing a Santa Claus hat during a protest against the Republican tax bill.
U.S. Capitol Police arrest a man wearing a Santa Claus hat during a protest against the Republican tax bill.
(Alex Edelman / AFP/Getty Image)

Outside the U.S. Capitol, the lights on a towering Christmas tree are flipped on each evening, giving the Engelmann spruce a festive twinkle; inside the marble halls, wreaths and garlands decorate doorways and alcoves ahead of the holidays.

But the spirit of the season has been punctuated by other sights: a Jumbotron parked across from the Capitol reflecting pool broadcasts images of young immigrants who face deportation; Little Lobbyists, children with complex medical needs, were featured in a recent news conference; protesters filed into the visitor galleries to shout against the Republican tax plan.

While it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Capitol, it’s also shaping up to be a holiday season of protest.

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Tax bill simplifies filing for some but complicates it for others — and don’t count on that postcard

A priority of the Republicans’ tax overhaul was simplification, and they drove home the point this fall with an omnipresent prop: a red-white-and-blue postcard.

“We’re making things so simple that you can do your taxes on a form the size of a postcard,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said last month, pulling one from his jacket pocket as he and Republican leaders unveiled their bill.

They gave a couple of the cards to President Trump at a White House meeting a few hours later and flashed them often during news conferences and TV interviews in the coming days.

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Top U.N. human rights official reportedly won’t seek reelection

The top United Nations official for human rights, who has frequently criticized the Trump administration, has reportedly decided not to seek a second term, saying his work had become untenable.

Zeid Raad Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, notified his staff in an email that was obtained by several news outlets, including Agence France-Presse.

Staying when his four-year term is up for renewal at the end of August “might involve bending a knee in supplication,” AFP quoted Hussein’s email as saying.

Hussein is a Jordanian prince who has criticized, among other things, President Trump’s attempts to ban visitors or refugees from six predominantly Muslim countries.

The news comes a day before the U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote on a nonbinding resolution condemning the Trump administration’s formal declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a decision that went against international consensus.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., has warned she will be “taking names” of those who vote against the United States on Thursday.

Trump echoed that sentiment Wednesday, voiced support for Haley and implying to reporters that he would consider cutting off U.S. aid to countries that vote against the U.S.

“Well, we’re watching those votes,” Trump said. “Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”

On Monday, the United States lost a Security Council vote 14-1 on a binding resolution that would have required Washington to rescind its declaration. Haley then vetoed the resolution.

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Top Democrat warns Trump not to fire Mueller or interfere with his investigation

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, one of the top Democrats involved in the congressional inquiries into Russian interference in last year’s election, said Wednesday that any attempt by President Trump to interfere with the separate criminal investigation would be a “gross abuse of power.”

Warner, who is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, delivered his warning from the Senate floor as Republicans escalate their criticism of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team of prosecutors and FBI agents.

Some Democrats believe Trump is laying the groundwork to fire Mueller even though the president has publicly denied it. Mueller was appointed in May after Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey.

“In the United States of America, no one, no one is above the law, not even the president,” Warner said. “Congress must make clear to the president that firing the special counsel or interfering with his investigation by issuing pardons of essential witnesses is unacceptable and would have immediate and significant consequences.”

Some Democrats say the White House may try to in effect short-circuit the Mueller investigation by replacing Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, who is the only official empowered to fire Mueller.

Rosenstein recently told Congress that the special counsel is acting “appropriately” and that he would not dismiss Mueller without just cause.

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‘We have essentially repealed Obamacare,’ Trump says after tax bill passes

President Trump at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday at the White House.
(Chris Kleponis / Getty Images)

President Trump is celebrating Republicans’ passage of the tax overhaul bill as a two-fer: On Wednesday, in addition to tax cuts, he checked off his promise to repeal Obamacare, pointing to a provision in the bill to end the penalty on Americans who don’t get health insurance.

“We have essentially repealed Obamacare,” Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

Other provisions of the 2010 Affordable Care Act are still in place, and Trump and congressional Republicans failed completely on the “replace” half of their vow to “repeal and replace” the program.

In Trump’s view, however, stripping away the law’s “individual mandate” to get insurance or else pay a tax penalty amounts to repeal of the whole law. Congressional analysts have said that millions of people would lose insurance as a result, either by choice or because they cannot afford it without subsidies, and that premiums would increase for others as younger, healthy people drop coverage.

“We will come up with something much better,” Trump said, adding that block grants to states could be one approach.

By his comments, Trump tacitly acknowledged that repeal of the mandate is likely the best he can do following Republicans’ failure this year to agree on a repeal-and-replace bill.

Looking back on his first year, Trump also boasted of his administration’s efforts against the Islamic State and increased immigration enforcement. He said he had not given up on funding a border wall or tightening immigration law to limit citizens’ ability to resettle foreign relatives in the country. He said he would “very shortly” visit the border with Mexico near San Diego to see wall prototypes that have been built.

He didn’t answer a reporter’s shouted question about how he would personally benefit from the tax bill.

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House gives final OK to GOP tax plan, sending it to Trump

Congress gave final approval to the GOP tax plan Wednesday, 224-201, after the House took an unusual do-over vote to clear up differences with the Senate-passed bill.

The $1.5-trillion package now heads to President Trump, who plans to sign it into law.

The House had approved the tax bill on Tuesday but was forced to take another vote Wednesday because a couple of provisions in the version it approved were found to be in violation of Senate procedures. Those provisions were dropped before the Senate gave its approval early Wednesday.

Critics complained the Republicans rushed to pass the sweeping tax plan to deliver Trump a year-end legislative victory, but supporters shrugged off the problems as minor.

The tax plan dramatically cuts corporate rates and provides some individual rate reductions, overhauling the tax code for the first time in 30 years.

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Trump administration effort to block immigrant from having an abortion fails

Scott Lloyd is director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Scott Lloyd is director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
(Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

President Trump’s lawyers rushed to the Supreme Court and U.S. appeals court in Washington on Monday evening to file emergency appeals seeking to prevent an immigrant in detention, dubbed Jane Roe in court, from having an abortion.

That set the stage for a legal showdown on whether the administration can block pregnant minors in custody from choosing to have an abortion.

But the legal clash, which the administration has seemed eager to have, fizzled out Tuesday when the government’s lawyers admitted the “17-year-old unaccompanied minor” in their custody was actually 19. They said they had obtained her birth certificate and realized she was not a minor after all.

As a result, Roe, who is 10 weeks pregnant, will no longer be held in a detention center for immigrant minors, and will not be subject to an administration policy that tries to prevent minors in immigration detention from having abortions.

Administration lawyers told appeals court judges Tuesday night that Roe was being sent to a facility for adults and likely would be released until her immigration status can be resolved.

In a brief order, the D.C. Circuit Court agreed to put the case on hold, but told government attorneys to confirm that “she will be permitted to obtain an abortion.”

The administration had earlier tried to delay another young woman, referred to in court as Jane Poe, from having an abortion, but officials relented on Monday because she was 22 weeks pregnant and nearing the time limit for a legal abortion.

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Senate panel rejects Trump’s pick to lead Export-Import Bank, a leader in the effort to shut it down

A Senate committee on Tuesday rejected President Trump’s nominee to lead the Export-Import Bank, extending the chaos at the embattled agency whose job is to help U.S. companies sell their goods abroad.

Two Republicans joined all Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee in voting against former Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to be the bank’s president.

Garrett had been a vocal critic of the Ex-Im Bank and a leader of a conservative effort that shut the bank down for five months in 2015 by blocking its congressional authorization. He and other bank opponents branded the bank’s aid as crony capitalism.

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Congress proposes $81-billion disaster aid package, including funds for California wildfires

Congress is set to consider an $81-billion disaster aid package that includes wildfire recovery money for California and other Western states as well as hurricane relief with a price tag reflecting a year of record-setting natural calamities.

The legislation, the text of which was released late Monday, would provide almost twice as much as the $44 billion the White House sought last month to cover relief efforts along the Gulf Coast and in the Caribbean.

Republican congressional leaders added more money after California lawmakers objected that the administration had failed to include help for areas damaged by wildfires and Democrats protested that the overall amount President Trump asked for was insufficient.

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Senate investigating Green Party candidate Jill Stein in Russia probe

Jill Stein, then-Green Party presidential nominee, speaks at a rally in Philadelphia on July 27.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

The Green Party’s 2016 presidential nominee says she’s cooperating with a request for documents from a Senate committee probing Russian meddling in the U.S. election.

Jill Stein has acknowledged attending a 2015 event in Moscow celebrating the anniversary of a state-sponsored Russian news organization. The event has attracted investigators’ attention because former national security advisor Michael Flynn also attended and sat beside Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Stein says in a statement Tuesday she’s sharing “all communications relevant” to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s mission.

The Massachusetts physician says she accepted an invitation to attend the Moscow event and that her campaign did not receive payment or reimbursement for the trip.

Stein received about 1% of the popular vote in the 2016 election.

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White House blames North Korea for worldwide ‘WannaCry’ cyber attack

The Royal London Hospital, a victim of the unprecedented global cyberattack in May.
(Niklas Halle’n / AFP/Getty Images)

The White House officially blamed North Korea on Tuesday for the cyberattack in May known as WannaCry that infected hundreds of thousands of computers in 150 countries, affecting healthcare, financial services and vital infrastructure.

Thomas P. Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, noted in a briefing with reporters that the “consequences were beyond economic.” He warned that North Korea’s “malicious behavior is growing more egregious.”

Bossert did not specify what evidence American officials have to blame North Korea, citing security issues, but he cited the country’s prior attacks as revealing hallmarks of how Pyongyang and its network of hackers operates. He said other allied countries had joined the United States in making the determination.

The administration did not announce any penalties on the regime, which is already subject to severe sanctions over its nuclear program.

“They want to hold the entire world at risk,” Bossert said of North Korea’s rulers, referring to the nation’s nuclear and missile provocations as well as its alleged cyberattack.

Given its isolation and international sanctions, North Korea is desperate for funds. Bossert said the country did not appear to make much money on the ransom attack, as word spread that paying a ransom did not result in getting computers unlocked. Its primary goal, he said, was spreading chaos.

Bossert and Jeanette Manfra, assistant secretary of homeland security for cybersecurity and communication, said the United States, through a combination of preparation and luck, escaped the worst of the attack, as a patch to the malware was found before U.S. companies and other interests were severely crippled.

However, Manfra said, “We cannot be complacent.” Bossert added, “Next time we’re not going to get so lucky.”

Manfra praised Microsoft and Facebook for their efforts to combat WannaCry and to block more recent attempts to hack U.S. systems. She and Bossert urged more cooperation and information-sharing from American and multinational companies, arguing a united front is vital to protecting against bad actors who do not differentiate between government and business.

Bossert rejected criticism that the the Trump administration has more aggressively called out North Korean cyberattacks than it has Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. He said the administration has continued the national emergency initiated by President Obama.

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GOP lures some mountain bike groups in its push to roll back protections for public land

When their vision of creating a scenic cycling trail through a protected alpine backcountry hit a snag, San Diego area mountain bikers turned to an unlikely ally: congressional Republicans aiming to dilute conservation laws.

The frustrations of the San Diego cycling group and a handful of similar organizations are providing tailwind to the GOP movement to lift restrictions on the country’s most ecologically fragile and pristine landscapes, officially designated “wilderness.”

Resentment of these cyclists over the longstanding ban on “mechanized” transportation in that fraction of the nation’s public lands presents a political opportunity for Republicans eager to drill fissures in the broad coalition of conservation-minded groups united against the GOP environmental agenda.

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Vice president postpones Israel trip a second time in case his vote is needed to pass tax cut bill

(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Vice President Mike Pence is delaying his trip to Egypt and Israel for a second time in case he is needed to break a tie in the Senate for the tax bill that is expected to pass narrowly this week.

Two White House officials confirmed the changed schedule, which they say is unrelated to to protests in the region over the administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Pence had initially been scheduled to leave last Saturday. Late last week, the White House moved the trip back a few days to Tuesday night, in case Pence was needed to break a Senate tie. But Monday, they decided to postpone the trip further, to January, given the possibility of a late Senate vote and the coming holidays.

“He wants to see it through the finish line,” said a White House official, referring to the tax measure that is a centerpiece of the Republican legislative agenda. “We don’t want to leave anything to chance.”

The mid-January dates will allow Pence more breathing room to merge schedules with embassies and hotels, the official said. Trump still plans to address the Israeli Knesset, a high-profile venue to discuss the Jerusalem decision where it is most popular.

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Trump judicial pick who drew ridicule at hearing withdraws

A White House official says the Trump judicial nominee whose qualifications were questioned by a Republican senator has withdrawn his nomination.

Matthew Petersen, who was nominated by President Trump to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has been the subject of widespread ridicule since he was unable to define basic legal terms during his confirmation hearing Wednesday.

A White House official says Petersen has withdrawn his nomination and that Trump has accepted the withdrawal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the development publicly.

Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy pressed Petersen, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, who testified he had never tried a case, on his qualifications to the bench.

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Trump says McCain will return to Washington if needed for tax vote

President Trump said Sunday that Sen. John McCain, who is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer, was returning home to Arizona for the holidays but would come back to Washington if needed to cast a vote on the Republicans’ tax overhaul bill.

The Arizona Republican’s office announced last week that McCain was receiving treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington for complications from his cancer treatment. McCain’s daughter Meghan tweeted earlier Sunday that her 81-year-old father would be spending Christmas in Arizona.

The Senate is expected to vote early this week on the tax cut legislation, but the GOP appeared to have secured sufficient support without McCain’s vote.

“John will come back if we need his vote,” Trump told reporters as he returned from a weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David. “He’s going through a very tough time.”

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Putin calls Trump to thank him for U.S. help foiling terrorist strike

Vladimir Putin phoned President Trump to thank him for what the Russian president said was CIA help in foiling a terrorist attack, the Kremlin said on Sunday.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the two leaders’ conversation to reporters. It was the second time that the two leaders had talked in four days; Trump called Putin on Thursday to thank the Russian leader for lauding the U.S. economy.

Putin, in his annual year-end news conference, had praised Trump for a strong performance by the U.S. stock market. Perhaps ironically, given his credit to the CIA’s recent help, Putin at that news event dismissed as “hysteria” the consensus among American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign.

In reporting Putin’s call to Trump on Sunday, the official Russian news agency Tass said Putin thanked his American counterpart for “information shared by the US Central Intelligence Agency” that had helped break up a plot to set off explosives in St. Petersburg’s landmark Kazan Cathedral and elsewhere in the city, which is Russia’s second-largest.

Russian authorities last week had credited their country’s counter-intelligence service, the FSB, for foiling the attacks. They reported that seven people affiliated with Islamic State had been detained in St. Petersburg in connection with the plot. The FSB, the successor organization to the KGB, announced Friday that the group had planned to carry out the attacks on Saturday, and that one of those in custody had confessed to the cathedral bomb plot.

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Mnuchin: Government shutdown unlikely but could happen

Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said on Sunday that a government shutdown this week was unlikely but possible.

A two-week stopgap spending bill passed by Congress earlier this month provided enough funding to keep the government running through Friday. A deadlock on another temporary funding measure would open the door to a possible shutdown.

“I can’t rule it out, but I can’t imagine it occurring,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday,” suggesting everyone had an interest in avoiding the government grinding to a halt and federal workers going unpaid, especially in the holiday season.

“I would expect that both the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats, understand if they can’t agree on this, they need to have another short-term extension to move this to January,” the Treasury secretary said. “We can’t have a government shutdown in front of Christmas.”

In May, irate over concessions made to Democrats in hammering out a spending measure, President Trump tweeted that a “good ‘shutdown” might help matters. While both parties agree that a government shutdown involves a degree of disruption that is not beneficial to either side, shutdowns in 1995-’96 and in 2013 mainly caused a backlash against Republicans.

The latest funding measure is to be taken up after a vote on a massive GOP tax overhaul, expected by midweek.

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Trump transition team says sensitive emails should not have been shared with Robert Mueller

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

President Trump’s transition team is crying foul over how special counsel Robert S. Mueller III obtained emails for his investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s campaign and possible Trump campaign complicity.

Kory Langhofer, a lawyer for the transition team, sent a letter to Congress on Saturday saying there was an “unauthorized disclosure” of emails.

While the Trump transition is long over, the transition team remains a nonprofit organization. Its emails were hosted by the General Services Administration, a federal agency. Mueller reportedly obtained the emails directly from the agency.

“There are attorney-client communications,” Langhofer said in an interview. “There are executive-privileged communications.”

He added, “What we’re asking Congress to do is to take some legislative action to make sure this never happens again.”

Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, defended the process for obtaining emails.

“When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner’s consent or appropriate criminal process,” he said.

The letter was first reported by Fox News. A request for comment from the General Services Administration was not immediately answered.

This story has been updated with a comment from the special counsel’s office.

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Virginia house arrest is ending for Paul Manafort

(Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

A federal judge agreed Friday to end Paul Manafort’s house arrest in Virginia, allowing President Trump’s former campaign manager to return to Florida while awaiting trial.

The decision followed a dispute between Manafort’s legal team and prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who accused Manafort of violating a court order restricting public statements about the case.

Under the terms of the judge’s order, Manafort will be allowed to live at his home in Florida as long as he stays within Palm Beach and Broward counties and obeys a curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. If he misses a court appearance, he would forfeit four properties valued at $10 million total.

The deal, which includes GPS monitoring, is not as permissive as Manafort originally sought. He had asked to be able to travel freely among Florida, New York, Virginia and Washington.

Manafort faces criminal charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty.

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GOP negotiators enhance child tax credit to win over Sen. Rubio

Republican negotiators slightly increased the refundable portion of the expanded child tax credit in their tax plan, raising it to $1,400 in hopes of winning back Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) support ahead of next week’s vote.

Rubio announced Thursday he was withholding support after negotiators ignored his push to make the expanded tax credit, which increases from the current $1,000 to $2,000 in the proposed bill, fully refundable for lower- and moderate-income filers.

The refundable portion in the original bill was $1,100.

The Florida senator argued that was not enough to help working-class Americans, many of whom already view the GOP plan as tilted toward the wealthy.

Rubio’s office was waiting to see the final text before commenting on whether the change was enough to win him over.

“We have not seen the bill text, and until we see if the percentage of the refundable credit is significantly higher, then our position remains the same,” Rubio’s spokeswoman said.

Negotiators meeting Friday before unveiling the bill said they thought they had the support they needed from Rubio and other holdouts.

“I’m confident both chambers will pass it next week,” said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

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Sen. Marco Rubio opposes GOP tax bill, depriving leaders of crucial support

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says he is currently opposed to the GOP tax plan because it fails to include his proposed enhancements to the child tax credit, leaving leaders without crucial support ahead of next week’s expected vote.

Republicans can only lose two GOP senators from their slim 52-48 majority as they push the plan forward under special budget rules to prevent a Democratic filibuster.

Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday altered his planned Israel trip so he could be on hand, if needed, to cast a tie-breaking vote.

Rubio, and GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, have fought to increase the child tax credit, doubling it to $2,000 in the GOP plan, but they also want to increase its refundability. They argue it will lower taxes on middle-income families at a time when the tax plan is being criticized as tilted to the wealthy.

“Sen. Rubio has consistently communicated to the Senate tax negotiators that his vote on final passage would depend on whether the refundability of the Child Tax Credit was increased in a meaningful way,” Rubio’s spokeswoman said.

Lee stopped short of opposing the bill, but his spokesman said Wednesday he is undecided.

GOP leaders, though, have said they believe they have the support for passage.

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White House gives Roy Moore a unsubtle shove: Time to concede

(Alex Wong / Getty Images)

The White House sent a clear signal Thursday to the defeated Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama: It’s time to concede.

Roy Moore refused to concede the race on Tuesday night when Doug Jones, the Democrat, was declared the winner. Election night results show Jones winning by about 1.5 percentage points, three times more than the state’s standard for a recount. Although a few absentee and provisional ballots remain to be counted, there’s no indication they would change the result.

On Wednesday, Moore notably did not call to congratulate Jones — even as President Trump and other leading Republicans did. Instead, he released a video declaring “the battle rages on.”

Asked at the daily news briefing whether the White House thinks Moore should concede today, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “It probably sounds like it maybe should have already taken place.”

Sanders also dismissed the idea, pushed by some Moore supporters, that Jones’ victory was tainted in some fashion. Asked if the Democrat had won “fair and square,” she said, “I think the numbers reflect that.”

The state’s Republican senator, Richard Shelby, offered a similar comment in an interview with MSNBC in which he said he was willing to work with Jones. “If I was 25,000 votes behind, it’s not going to change much,” Shelby said.

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House Speaker Paul Ryan says he’s not leaving anytime soon

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan shot down suggestions Thursday that he might soon be retiring.

Stories often circulate that party leaders, especially the House speaker, are stepping aside. Ryan’s tenure has been as rocky as that of his predecessor, Rep. John Boehner, who abruptly resigned in 2015 amid GOP infighting.

Asked Thursday if he would be leaving, Ryan answered a simple “no,” as he left his weekly press conference in the Capitol.

Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who reluctantly took over the speaker’s gavel after Boehner’s departure, had just finished talking up the GOP tax plan, which leaders hope to pass next week. He also outlined his sweeping agenda for his longtime goal of entitlement reform of welfare benefits next year.

Two stories published Thursday suggested Ryan may soon be out.

“This is pure speculation,” said spokeswoman AshLee Strong. “As the speaker himself said today, he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”

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GOP leaders reach tax deal, cutting corporate rate to 21% and top individual rate to 37%

Republican leaders on Wednesday agreed on a revised plan to cut taxes that would lower the corporate rate from 35% to 21% and drop the top individual rate for the richest Americans to 37%, according to GOP senators and others briefed on the deal.

The tentative accord marked a significant step in the Republican push to have a tax bill on President Trump’s desk by Christmas. Leaders did not release details of the compromise or the text of a final bill as negotiations continued.

“It’s critically important for Congress to quickly pass these historic tax cuts,” Trump said Wednesday, promising that Americans could begin to reap the benefits of the plan as early as February, if passed.

Critics, however, said the latest changes — particularly the lowering of the top individual rate from the current 39.6% — only reaffirmed several independent analyses that show the bulk of the savings from the Republican plan would go to businesses and the wealthy.

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Farenthold to retire from House amid harassment accusations

Texas Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold won’t seek reelection next year, two Republicans said Thursday, adding his name to the list of lawmakers leaving Congress amid sexual harassment allegations that have cost powerful men their jobs in politics, the arts and other fields.

The accusations against Farenthold surfaced in 2014, when a former aide sued him alleging sexually suggestive comments and behavior and said she’d been fired after she complained. The lawmaker said he engaged in no wrongdoing and the case was settled in 2015.

But the House Ethics Committee said last week that it would investigate Farenthold after congressional sources said he’d paid an $84,000 settlement using taxpayers’ money. Though Farenthold said he’d reimburse the Treasury Department, such payments have drawn public criticism from people saying lawmakers should use their own money for such settlements.

A House official said Farenthold spoke twice Wednesday to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), while another official said the congressman spoke once with Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) who heads the GOP’s House campaign committee. Those discussions suggested that Farenthold may have come under pressure from leaders to step aside. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

Last week, three lawmakers facing accusations of sexual harassment announced their resignations. Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) have already left Congress while Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has said he will step aside soon.

Mike Bergsma, Republican county chairman in Farenthold’s home county of Nueces, Texas, said Farenthold campaign manager Joseph Walter told him he will not seek reelection. Walter told Bergsma the staff was working on a media statement that would be issued shortly.

“I think it’s a shame. He’s my friend; I think he’s been a good congressman. I wish he had been able to tell his side of the story and that this one issue wasn’t making so much difference,” Bergsma said.

“I don’t think he had done anything that devastating, and the thing that’s really hurting him is that it was public money,” Bergsma said, referring to the use of Treasury money to pay the settlement. “And the way the law is structured, my understanding is, he didn’t have much choice.”

A second Republican who confirmed Farenthold’s retirement spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a decision the lawmaker had not yet made public.

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Pence postpones Israel trip in case he’s needed to vote on tax cuts

(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Vice President Mike Pence will postpone his trip to Israel and Egypt next week by a few days in case he is needed to break a tie vote in the U.S. Senate on the Republican tax cut bill, his office announced.

Pence is scheduled to address the Israeli Knesset on the first major U.S. visit to Israel since President Trump declared on Dec. 6 that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

That broke with decades of U.S. policy and international consensus that viewed the holy city’s political status as one that should be in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, who both claim the city as their capital.

Trump’s declaration prompted protests by Palestinians and other Arabs. At a summit in Turkey on Wednesday, Arab and Muslim leaders “rejected and condemned” Trump’s decision, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas suggested he might not cooperate with White House efforts to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Pence’s office denied reports in the Israeli press that he had delayed his trip because of the Arab reaction, saying Pence may be needed to break a tie in the Senate on Trump’s most important legislative goal,

Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the chamber and are trying to vote next week before Democrat Doug Jones, who won a special election in Alabama on Tuesday, is sworn in, which will shrink the majority by one additional vote.

Adding to the uncertainty, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was hospitalized Wednesday for side effects from his cancer treatment. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) also has missed votes this week due to medical reasons.

Alyssa Farah, Pence’s press secretary, said in a statement that Pence would stay in town to preside over a tax vote because “we are so close to passing pro-growth pro-jobs tax reform for hard working families.”

“The vice president will then travel to Egypt and Israel where he’ll reaffirm the United States’ commitment to its allies in the Middle East and to working cooperatively to defeat radicalism,” she said.

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Roy Moore not conceding; in fact, he sounds like he’s still campaigning

Roy Moore continued to refuse to concede defeat to Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama’s Senate race, issuing a statement urging supporters to “stand against those who would take from us our country.”

In a video statement posted late Wednesday, the former state Supreme Court chief justice declared that “immorality sweeps our land,” and railed against abortion, same-sex marriage and “the right of a man to claim to be a woman, and vice versa.”

“We are indeed in a struggle to preserve our republic, our civilization, and our religion and to set free a suffering humanity. And the battle rages on,” he said. “Today, we no longer recognize the universal truth that God is the author of our life and liberty. Abortion, sodomy and materialism have taken the place of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

In a speech peppered with quotes from Abraham Lincoln and the Bible, Moore mourned the decline of prayer in schools and complained of the nation’s “huge drug problem,” insecure borders, national debt and the “tyranny” of judges and justices ruling over the Constitution.

“No longer is this about Republican or Democratic control,” he said. “It has truly been said that there is not a dime’s worth of difference between them,” he said. “It is about a Washington establishment which will not listen to the cries of its citizenry - and the battle rages on.”

Late Tuesday night, Jones was nearly 21,000 votes ahead of Moore after votes from 100% of Alabama precincts had been counted. Yet in the video, Moore said the final count did not include military and provisional ballots and his campaign continued to wait for the official vote count from Alabama’s Secretary of State John Merrill.

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday night, Merrill, a Republican, said he would certify the final vote count between Dec. 26 and Jan. 3 and it would be “highly unlikely” that Moore would eventually win.

Moore did not mention the possibility of a recount. A mandatory recount is triggered if the margin between the candidates is narrower than a half percentage point, but Tuesday night’s count had Jones leading by 1.5 percentage points: 49.9% to 48.4%.

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In Alabama and across the country, pride swells as black female voters show they matter

(Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

Every election since she was 16, Catrena Norris Carter has gone door to door, urging black Alabama voters to the polls.

In the months leading up to Tuesday’s U.S. Senate race, the community activist and a band of mostly black women registered college students to vote, waved signs on street corners and egged on fellow African Americans at churches, sororities and even football stadiums to be sure to cast their ballots.

“Hey, we worked our butts off,” said Norris Carter, 49, an organizer with Vote or Die, a get-out-the-vote group that canvassed on Democrat Doug Jones’ behalf in Birmingham, Montgomery and black rural communities. “A win’s been a long time coming.”

The mobilization of African American support is a routine part of just about any winning Democratic campaign. But the overwhelming black turnout here Tuesday, the staggering support for Jones and the sense that African American women in particular carried him to an upset victory made for a moment of shining pride.

Not just here in Alabama, but across the country.

The fact that the loser was Roy Moore, a Republican with a long history of racially provocative actions and statements, and that the triumph was eked out in a state with a long, ugly history of racial oppression made victory all the sweeter.

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Politics has veered from one side to the other, but Doug Jones’ win in Alabama suggests the need to hew to the center

The Democratic win Tuesday in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race may have seemed the most striking example yet of the bitterly negative tenor of American politics in the last several decades, as it has veered from one political pole to the other like a frenetic metronome.

Doug Jones’ victory over Republican Roy Moore by little more than 1 percentage point followed by only a year Donald Trump’s 28-point victory in the same state. The two men had almost nothing in common other than their shared good luck in running against a widely disliked member of the opposing party.

Trump’s victory in Alabama and similar states was in great part driven by animosity toward Democrat Hillary Clinton. Jones’ success rested on Democratic anger at Trump, reinforced by opposition to the controversial Republican candidate, Moore. The metronome needle that flew far to the right in 2016 swung back to the left in 2017.

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Omarosa Manigault Newman is leaving the Trump administration. Did she help woo black support?

She is among President Trump’s most high-profile black supporters, a reality television star turned government official.

Now, Omarosa Manigault Newman is set to leave her role as director of communications in the White House Office of Public Liaison, a position in which she was tasked with working on outreach to various constituency groups.

On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that Manigault Newman was resigning to pursue other opportunities effective Jan. 20, one year to the date after Trump’s inauguration.

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Embattled Trump judicial nominee Brett Talley withdraws

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa)
(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

Brett J. Talley, President Trump’s choice to be a federal judge in Alabama, has withdrawn from consideration, a White House official said Wednesday.

He is the first failed judicial nominee for the new administration, but he is likely to be joined shortly by Jeff Mateer, a Texas assistant attorney general who was nominated to be a district judge in his state.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) has moved quickly to approve Trump’s proposed judges, but he said Monday that he would not hold a hearing for Mateer and would oppose confirming Talley in the full Senate.

Talley is a 36-year old lawyer and blogger who had close ties to the White House. His wife, Ann Donaldson, works for White House counsel Don McGahn. But Talley has little legal experience, has never tried a case and was rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Assn.’s screening committee.

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Rod Rosenstein pushes back on Republican criticism of special counsel investigation

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, who oversees special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his investigation into Russian meddling into last year’s presidential campaign, said Wednesday the case has been handled “appropriately.”

Rosenstein’s defense of Mueller came during a House Judiciary Committee hearing as Republicans try to portray the special counsel as tainted by partisan bias against President Trump.

“He was an ideal choice,” Rosenstein said about Mueller, whom he appointed in May.

Democrats have repeatedly warned that Trump could order Rosenstein to fire Mueller. White House lawyer Ty Cobb said in a Tuesday interview that there was no talk of trying to remove the special counsel.

“There are no plans, as we’ve said for months on end, to fire Mr. Mueller,” he said.

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The guru behind Doug Jones’ big win holds forth on Alabama, Trump and the Democrats’ future

Paul Maslin is a veteran Democratic pollster who spent Wednesday traveling home from Alabama and luxuriating in Doug Jones’ upset victory in the state’s special U.S. Senate race.

During a layover at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, he took a victory lap and offered a few thoughts between flights.

On President Trump: “If he can’t figure out a way to turn this around, we’re going to win the Senate, we’re going to kill ’em in the House and we’re going to set up the second half of his presidency where he’s going to be neutered.”

On Democrats going forward: “The lesson is we need to keep being aggressive, fighting him everywhere. There’s no reason we can’t win Tennessee, there’s no reason we can’t win Arizona and Nevada. There’s no reason we can’t win congressional seats all over the place.”

That said, Maslin suggested Democrats have to deliver if they win the House in 2018 and look to taking back the White House in 2020.

On the challenge ahead: “We’re going to have the onus on us, which means we can’t simply be naysayers. We’ve lost credibility in the Midwest, in places like Pennsylvania. The Democratic Party is seen as being out of touch, elitist, without any good ideas on economic or pocketbook issues. We’re going to have to give people a sense we’ve turned the page and we’re not the same old, same old.”

On the bottom line:

“Rallying people against this president, this Congress and the people who are in control of the government remains a tremendous advantage and will continue to be for the next year.”

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Republican leaders still hammering out differences on tax bill, with final votes expected next week

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) answers questions during a news conference earlier this month in Louisville, Ky.
( (Timothy D. Easley / Associated Press))

Ahead of a pivotal meeting Wednesday, House and Senate negotiators swapped new offers on the GOP tax bill as they hurry to resolve differences and regain momentum for passage of President Trump’s top priority.

The focal point of the $1.5-trillion tax plan — the steep reduction in corporate rates from 35% to 20% — is expected to be relaxed slightly in the final deal, perhaps to 21%, as negotiators scramble to generate revenue that can be used to offset tax breaks elsewhere.

Trump indicated he would be open to higher corporate rates than Republicans first agreed to under a GOP framework, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Tuesday that lawmakers also were willing to shift. But others said the reported 21% corporate rate was not yet set.

“We’re still talking,” said the majority whip in the Senate, John Cornyn of Texas, late Tuesday.

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Omarosa Manigault Newman leaving White House

The White House says Omarosa Manigault Newman — one of President Trump’s most prominent African American supporters — plans to leave the administration next month.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Manigault Newman’s resignation is effective Jan. 20, one year since Trump’s inauguration.

Manigault Newman’s decision comes at the start of what’s expected to be a round of departures heading into the new year.

The White House said last week that deputy national security advisor Dina Powell will leave the administration early next year.

Manigault Newman is a former contestant on Trump’s reality TV show “The Apprentice.” She joined the administration as director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison, working on outreach to various constituency groups.

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In stunning 2017 defeats, Republicans see vision of difficulties in 2018

Democrats who opened the year clashing among themselves and lamenting President Trump’s election have closed 2017 with victories that demonstrated their ability to weaponize party enthusiasm and draw a template for success in a sharply competitive battle for Congress in 2018.

For Republicans, Tuesday night’s stunning loss by Roy Moore in Alabama’s Senate race — the first GOP loss in a Senate race there in a generation — underscored a bleak passage of time: A year that began in unified control of Washington has ended with the party bitterly split and redefined in the worst of ways, saddled with an unpopular president and a Senate candidate accused of child molestation.

Certainly, Doug Jones’ victory in Alabama was to some extent a fluke — an outcome made possible by Republicans’ nominating a deeply flawed candidate, Moore, who many of the party’s voters could not stomach. Turnout was tepid in key Republican areas, reflecting conservative voters who chose to sit this one out.

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Watch live: Rod Rosenstein testifies before House Judiciary Committee

Ever since Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March, no Justice Department official has been more important to the case than Rod Rosenstein.

As the deputy attorney general, the No. 2 position at Justice, Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel and he has the sole authority to fire him.

The role has placed Rosenstein under immense political pressure, and on Wednesday he’ll face questions from the House Judiciary Committee at a time when Republicans are raising doubts about Mueller’s investigation.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m.

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Democrat Doug Jones wins Alabama Senate seat, but Roy Moore won’t concede

Democrat Doug Jones, who started the Alabama race for U.S. Senate as a massive underdog, swept to victory Tuesday night in a repudiation of scandal-stained Roy Moore. The upset also dealt a serious blow to President Trump.

The narrow victory slices the GOP’s already-thin margin in the Senate to a single seat, complicating the party’s legislative push and giving Democrats a major boost heading into the 2018 campaign, when control of Congress will be at stake.

The win — which Moore refused to acknowledge — marked the first time a Democrat has captured a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama in a quarter of a century.

More broadly, it signaled the limits of the nation’s political tribalism.

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Trump, after endorsing two losers in Alabama: ‘I was right’

Roy Moore addresses supporters Tuesday night in Montgomery, Ala.
Roy Moore addresses supporters Tuesday night in Montgomery, Ala.
(Mike Stewart / Associated Press)

President Trump, who stuck with Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore despite warnings from fellow Republicans that Moore was sullying their party, defended his decision after Democrat Doug Jones’ historic win on Tuesday.

“I was right!” Trump tweeted early Wednesday, alluding to his earlier endorsement of Luther Strange, the incumbent Republican senator whom Moore upset in a party primary. Moore, who faced allegations of preying on young girls decades ago, had “the deck stacked against him!” Trump wrote.

Trump said he nonetheless worked hard for the candidate, but that Moore’s loss justified his initial endorsement of Strange.

“The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election,” Trump wrote. “I was right!”

The Alabama outcome is likely to hurt Trump politically. Not only did two candidates he endorsed suffer losses — Strange’s support in polls was little changed by Trump’s backing -- but the already slim Republican margin in the U.S. Senate is cut to 51-49. And Republicans who remain will have less confidence that Trump’s political brand will help them with voters.

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Net neutrality’s repeal means fast lanes could be coming to the internet. Is that a good thing?

With federal regulators poised to repeal net neutrality rules this week, your internet service provider would be allowed to speed up delivery of some online content to your home or phone.

Whether those fast lanes are coming, and what they ultimately deliver for Americans, is unclear.

The concept, known as paid prioritization, involves a telecommunications company charging an additional fee to transport a video stream or other content at a higher speed through its network.

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Alabama GOP chief says Moore lost election

A Roy Moore supporter weeps Tuesday at his election-night party in Montgomery, Ala.
(Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

The leader of the Alabama Republican Party recognized Democrat Doug Jones as the winner of Tuesday’s U.S. Senate election even as GOP candidate Roy Moore refused to concede defeat.

State GOP chairwoman Terry Lathan said party leaders were “deeply disappointed” in the close result.

“During this campaign, we heard Mr. Jones repeatedly say he would talk about ‘kitchen table issues’ and that he would ‘reach across the aisle’ to work with Republicans,” she said.

“While these issues weren’t discussed and no other Democratic senator has worked with the Republicans, all eyes will be on his votes. Alabamians will watch the issues he will support or try to stop. We will hold him accountable for his votes.”

If Jones aligns himself with liberal Democrats in Washington, she said, Alabama voters will remember his choices when he is up for reelection in 2020.

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Roy Moore declines to concede in Alabama Senate race

Roy Moore addresses supporters Tuesday night in Montgomery, Ala.
(Mike Stewart / Associated Press)

Roy Moore declined to concede defeat Tuesday night in the Alabama Senate election even after Democrat Doug Jones declared victory.

“It’s not over, and it’s going to take some time,” Moore said, citing the narrow margin between him and Doug Jones in the preliminary count.

Appearing downcast at his election night party in Montgomery, Moore quoted Scripture and bemoaned attacks during the campaign.

“Part of the problem with this campaign is we’ve been painted in an unfavorable and unfaithful light,” he said. “We’ve been put in a hole, if you will.”

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican, told CNN that he would certify the final vote count between Dec. 26 and Jan. 3.

With votes from 100% of Alabama’s election precincts counted late Tuesday night, Jones was nearly 21,000 votes ahead of Moore.

“There’s always a chance of a recount because any candidate can ask for a recount, and if they pay for it, they can receive a recount,” Merrill said.

A mandatory recount is triggered if the margin between the candidates is narrower than a half percentage point, he said. But the count Tuesday night had Jones leading by 1.5 percentage points: 49.9% to 48.4%.

Military ballots and provisional ballots will be counted over the next week, Merrill said, and write-in ballots must be reviewed to make sure the candidates were qualified to be tallied.

Moore campaign officials said a review of write-in ballots could narrow the margin enough to trigger a mandatory recount.

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Trump’s troubles with Congress just got worse: Five takeaways from Democrats’ upset in Alabama

The stunning victory of Democrat Doug Jones over Roy Moore in Alabama’s U.S. Senate election on Tuesday marked an enormous setback for Republicans in a state they have dominated for decades.

It’s a setback with a silver lining, to be sure.

Here are five big takeaways from the Democrats’ capture of the Senate seat vacated by Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions:

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Trump bemoans write-ins as he congratulates Democrat Doug Jones

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Trump suffers big setback in Alabama, but congratulates Democrat Doug Jones

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Meet Doug Jones, the law-and-order man who has won Alabama’s Senate seat

The odds of any Democrat capturing a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama are steep at best, but Doug Jones was uniquely suited to pull off an upset Tuesday over Republican Roy Moore.

Accusations that Moore sexually abused teenage girls played a big part, no doubt, in Jones’ improbable victory over the renowned religious right crusader.

Jones, 63, is a former U.S. attorney who cast himself as a law-and-order man. He is skilled at muting his liberal stands on such issues as abortion and gay rights — a necessity in one of the South’s most conservative states.

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Doug Jones lauds ‘common courtesy and decency’ in Alabama vote

At the end of the day, this entire race has been about dignity and respect. This campaign has been about the rule of law. This campaign has been about common courtesy and decency. ​​​​​

— Democrat Doug Jones of Alabama, in victory speech

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Democrat Doug Jones wins Alabama Senate race in stunning victory

Democrat Doug Jones, whose uphill bid for U.S. Senate gathered strength when Republican Roy Moore was hit with charges of sexual misconduct with teenage girls, won Alabama’s special election Tuesday.

The victory by Jones, a former prosecutor, sliced the GOP’s already thin Senate majority to a bare 51-49.

He will replace interim Republican Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed in February to fill the seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

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Private texts show FBI officials exchanged insults about Trump last year

Two FBI agents involved in the Russia investigation exchanged a series of insults about Donald Trump in private texts during the campaign last year, calling him an “idiot” and “awful,” according to documents released to Congress by the Justice Department on Tuesday night.

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III removed one of the agents, Peter Strzok, from the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as soon as the texts surfaced in July during an inspector general investigation. Strzok also was involved in the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails that concluded last year.

In a March 2016 exchange of texts with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, Strzok wrote: “Omg he’s an idiot,” according to messages obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

“He’s awful,” Page replied.

“America will get what the voting public deserves,” Strzok said.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Page replied.

The texts were sent to several congressional committees late Tuesday, including the House Judiciary Committee. Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein is scheduled to testify before the committee Wednesday morning and is likely to face questions about them.

Republicans in Congress have been pressing the Justice Department to release the agents’ texts, saying they suspect bias in the FBI’s inquiries on Clinton and Russia interference.

The pair apparently were exchanging texts during a Republican presidential debate in March 2016. “Also did you hear [Trump] make a comment about the size of his d--- earlier? This man can not be president,” Page wrote.

After Page remarked that she had seen a Bernie Sanders bumper sticker, Strzok said: “He’s an idiot like Trump. Figure they cancel each other out.”

About a week after the election, they expressed horror at reports that then-Sen. Jeff Sessions was a leading candidate for the job of attorney general.

“Which is the f-ed uppedness of it....Sessions for AG,” Strzok wrote.

“Good god,” Page wrote back.

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Alabama voices: Keeping fingers crossed ‘that what he says is true’

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White House interviews finished in special counsel investigation, Trump lawyer says

(Alex Wong / Getty Images)

Investigators working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III have finished interviewing White House officials, according to Ty Cobb, an attorney on President Trump’s legal team.

“All the White House interviews are over,” Cobb said in an interview on Tuesday, adding that the Trump camp hopes the special counsel’s office brings its probe to “a prompt and appropriate conclusion.”

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment. Mueller was appointed earlier this year to examine whether anyone from Trump’s team coordinated with Russia’s interference in last year’s campaign.

Cobb represents the White House and helped arrange interviews with the special counsel’s team. He declined to say when the last one took place or which administration officials were questioned.

His insistence that the investigation could wrap up soon has prompted criticism in the past. Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, previously called the idea “complete fiction.”

“I can see why that would be political wishful thinking on the part of the White House, but I don’t see how it would be possible,” he said.

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Republican senators torn over whether Roy Moore, if elected, would be invited to caucus

Republican senators appeared torn over whether Alabama’s Roy Moore would be invited to join the GOP caucus in the Senate if he is elected in Tuesday’s special election.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to say whether Moore, who has the support of President Trump but whose candidacy has divided Republicans, would be invited for the almost daily lunches and strategy sessions.

“All of those are good questions for tomorrow and we await the outcome,” McConnell told reporters.

GOP leaders appear increasingly resigned that they cannot block Moore from being seated in the Senate if he defeats Democrat Doug Jones in the special election for the open seat. McConnell recently cited a 1969 Supreme Court ruling as leaving no option but to swear in the candidate, though he said the Senate would likely launch an Ethics Committee investigation into allegations against Moore of sexual misconduct.

“After that, it’s anybody’s guess,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking Republican.

That doesn’t mean fellow GOP senators, though, would welcome Moore into their conference.

”Let’s see what the outcome is and then deal with the outcome,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a Moore critic. ”I’ve been pretty outspoken.”

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) downplayed the importance of the conference meetings, saying he rarely joins for lunch. But pressed on whether Moore should be invited, he said, “I’ve indicated my thoughts about Mr. Moore and my desire that he not seek election.”

And Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who said he understood the anger Moore’s supporters feel at the establishment in Washington, nevertheless indicated he was uncertain whether the Alabamian would join the GOP conference if elected.

“I don’t know how to answer that question,” he said.

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Steve Bannon misfires, mocks University of Alabama. Oops

Steve Bannon at a Roy Moore rally Monday night in Midland City, Ala.
(Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

Stephen K. Bannon made millions of dollars as a Hollywood producer and Wall Street banker, but casts himself as a guardian of blue-collar America now that he leads the right-wing Breitbart News.

That’s no easy balancing act, and Bannon stumbled badly at the closing rally of Republican Roy Moore’s Senate campaign in Alabama.

Bannon, former chief strategist for President Trump, told Moore supporters Monday night that MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough had “called me a Yankee the other day, just because I’m from Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy.”

“That’s right, Joe, I got into some Yankee schools, Georgetown and Harvard, that I don’t think you made the cut on, brother. Just because a Southerner went to a Yankee school, Joe, doesn’t make you a Yankee.”

Oops.

It turns out that Scarborough, like Moore, is a graduate of the University of Alabama, deeply beloved by many Moore supporters.

The “Morning Joe” host, a Georgia native, had a field day on Twitter as he mocked Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs executive who lived for years in Santa Monica, that liberal enclave of the coastal elite.

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Female lawmakers call for investigation into Trump sexual misconduct allegations

(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

A group of House Democrats on Tuesday called for an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by President Trump.

“The #MeToo movement has arrived and sexual abuse will not be tolerated, whether it’s by a Hollywood producer, the chef of a restaurant, a member of Congress or the president of the United States,” Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida said at a news conference. “No man or woman is above the law.”

Frankel and other members of the Democratic Women’s Working Group want the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to investigate claims by more than a dozen women of inappropriate behavior by Trump before he was elected. Three of the accusers on Monday asked for a congressional investigation.

A wave of allegations have been leveled against powerful men in multiple private industries and on Capitol Hill in the weeks since allegations were first made against movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

“I’m sorry, Mr. President, you do not live under a different set of rules,” said Rep. Brenda Lawrence of Michigan.

The White House has dismissed the validity of the claims, with Trump tweeting Tuesday morning that Democrats unable to prove his campaign colluded with Russia are now focused on “false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I don’t know and/or have never met.”

The letter, which had the signatures of 59 female House members when it became public, now has more than 100 signers because male Democrats signed on, Frankel said.

Such an investigation of a Republican president by a Congress controlled by his own party is unlikely.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee, voiced his support for an investigation.

Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) responded in a letter Tuesday afternoon saying that the allegations cited by the Democrats “constitute crimes” and he is forwarding their letter to the Justice Department.

“This committee, nor any other committee of Congress, does not, and cannot, prosecute crimes,” he said in the letter. “Those alleging sexual assault or criminal sexual conduct deserve to be interviewed by law enforcement professionals, and charging decisions should be made by prosecutors based on the quantum and quality of the admissible and provable evidence.”

3:15 p.m.: This post has been updated with response from Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).

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When Trump tweets, Putin is briefed

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November.
President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November.
(Mikhail Klimentyev / AFP/Getty Images)

Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t have a Twitter account, but that doesn’t mean he’s not following every tweet posted by @realDonaldTrump.

In fact, Trump’s tweets are presented to Putin every day in his daily briefings and considered White House statements, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“Moscow considers all statements made on his [Trump’s] official Twitter account to be official, so reports are presented to President Putin about them, as well as about official statements that politicians make in other countries,” Peskov said Tuesday in his daily phone call with the press.

Peskov declined to comment about criticism of Trump’s tweeting habits, saying “it would be wrong” to do so.

Putin has said he does not have time for social media accounts. The Kremlin press department manages the president’s Instagram account but does not intend to open a Twitter account for Putin, Peskov said.

Even if Putin doesn’t tweet, Russia’s political elite frequently use social media to express Kremlin views.

Alexey Pushkov, a senator in Russia’s parliament, Tuesday fired off a series of tweets taking issue with everything from what he called U.S. Russophobia to the World Anti-Doping Agency. In one tweet he suggested Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was trying to boost her career post-Trump by saying the women who have accused the U.S. president of sexual misconduct should be heard.

“The Trump administration is falling apart: Haley calls to listen to those who accuse him of sexual harassment. Preserving her own career after Trump,” Pushkov tweeted.

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Amid the rush to finish GOP tax bill, a sudden slowdown for second thoughts

President Trump discusses tax changes with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in September at the White House.
President Trump discusses tax changes with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in September at the White House.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

The rush to finish the GOP tax overhaul has hit a snag as Republicans grapple with substantial differences between the House and Senate bills, and pause to consider unintended consequences of the most massive rewrite of the tax code in a generation.

Lawmakers are eager to pass the bill, President Trump’s top domestic priority, by Christmas. But they are also increasingly wary of political fallout from the hurried process and want to prevent embarrassing moments, such as the scribbled text hastily added to the margin of the final Senate bill.

The end of any major legislative undertaking is often a sprint. But the final stretch of the GOP tax plan is being complicated by an accelerated process like none other in recent history.

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President Trump slaps back at critic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand with suggestive tweet

President Trump wrote a sexually suggestive tweet on Tuesday about New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, after the Democratic lawmaker called for him to resign over sexual misconduct allegations.

Trump wrote that “Lightweight” Gillibrand “would come to my office ‘begging’ for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them).”

Trump’s tweet was unusually provocative for a sitting U.S. president, and politically risky given national attention to the topic of sexual harassment of women as well as renewed attention to the allegations against him by more than a dozen women complaining of his past misconduct. Social media and cable television talk shows quickly ignited with bipartisan outrage.

Trump also called Gillibrand a “total flunky for” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, her fellow Democratic senator from New York. He also referred to Gillibrand’s statement earlier this month that Democratic President Bill Clinton should have resigned from office, calling Gillibrand “very disloyal.”

Gillibrand hit back at Trump, saying he’s brought “shame” to the Oval Office and telling the president he “cannot silence” her.

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Alabama Senate race churns into final hours, still too close to predict

With the help of two high-profile surrogates, Roy Moore and Doug Jones scrambled Monday to stake their final claims in Alabama’s cliffhanger of a U.S. Senate race.

Moore, who largely disappeared from public view after being accused of sexual misconduct, resurfaced for an election eve rally with Stephen K. Bannon, a political advisor to President Trump, in the rural southeast corner of the state.

“We’re Alabama. We’re Republican. And we’re not going to stand by and let other people from out of state and money from California control this election,” he told cheering supporters in Midland City.

Jones stumped in Birmingham and Montgomery, targeting core Democrats but also inviting Republicans to follow the lead of the state’s senior GOP senator, Richard C. Shelby, who snubbed Moore by writing in another candidate.

“The people of the state, they have elected Richard Shelby for four decades,” Jones said at a breakfast stop in Birmingham. “They’re going to listen to Richard Shelby.”

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Jamie McCourt is sworn in as U.S. ambassador to France

Jamie McCourt
(Nick Ut / AP)

Former Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner and Trump fundraiser Jamie McCourt was sworn in as the U.S. ambassador to France and Monaco at the White House on Monday, a White House official said.

The swearing-in took place inside the Oval Office, said deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters. No reporters were allowed to attend the ceremony. Walters said President Trump was present, and Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath to McCourt.

McCourt, a lawyer and entrepreneur, was one of Trump’s early supporters. She signed a letter in October 2016 with 100 other business executives praising Trump’s economic plans and was listed as a 2016 State Victory Finance Chair for Trump’s campaign in California.

Like every president, Trump has named several past campaign donors to be ambassadors. The Paris posting historically has been among the most coveted. McCourt donated more than $400,000 to the Trump Victory fund, $50,800 to the Trump inauguration and more than $170,000 to the Republican National Committee.

McCourt’s divorce from Frank McCourt was closely followed by Dodger fans. The couple reached a settlement in 2011 with Jamie McCourt reportedly receiving about $130 million and relinquishing her claim to the team.

Update: This post was updated to identify the White House spokesperson, who initially declined to be named, and include additional details about the ceremony.

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‘We must talk about the health aspects’ of climate change, Schwarzenegger says

Arnold Schwarzenegger arrives by bicycle to meet Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Monday.
(Thibault Camus / Associated Press)

He showed up at Paris City Hall on Monday on a green bicycle and wearing a green tie to talk climate change with the mayor.

But Arnold Schwarzenegger almost didn’t make the trip from Los Angeles. One of the wildfires scorching Southern California was threatening his home.

“Luckily we have extraordinary firefighters,” he told a group of officials and journalists.

The actor and former governor of California was speaking in Paris as the founder of R20, a nonprofit based in Geneva that aims to help regional, state and local governments reduce their carbon emissions by developing clean energy sources. He met with the mayor, Anne Hidalgo.

The French, like much of the world, were dismayed when President Trump announced in June that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate change accord signed last year to slow emissions and limit global warming. Schwarzenegger did his best to reassure them.

“It doesn’t matter that Donald Trump backed out of the Paris agreement, because the private sector didn’t drop out, the public sector didn’t drop out, the universities didn’t drop out, the scientists didn’t drop out, the engineers didn’t drop out.… No one else dropped out,” he said.

“Donald Trump pulled Donald Trump out of the Paris agreement, so don’t worry about that,” he said. “We at a sub-national level are going to pick up the slack and continue on. We will fight and we will create the kind of future for our children and grandchildren because that is our responsibility and no one will stop us.”

In October, a dozen cities, including Los Angeles and Paris, pledged to dramatically reduce the use of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles by 2030 — a plan that Schwarzenegger said was meant to “inspire the rest of the world.”

He also encouraged people to talk about climate change in terms of air pollution and the toxic fumes that accompany carbon dioxide in exhaust from cars and factories.

“We must talk about the health aspects,” he said. “This is what people can relate to. People want to survive. That is the way the human brain is wired. If you say that eventually our glaciers are melting, the iceberg is melting, the North Pole is going to melt, the sea levels are rising in 20 years ... people can not relate to that.”

“When you talk about how many people die every year, when you tell them 9 million people die every year — 19,000 every day … then they get the message.”

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Doug Jones keeps quiet about Barack Obama and Joe Biden helping his Alabama Senate campaign

President Obama in Selma, Ala., at a 2015 commemoration of the 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.
(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

Former President Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, each provided last-minute help to fellow Democrat Doug Jones in Tuesday’s Alabama Senate election, but the candidate is keeping quiet about it.

Obama and Biden recorded robocalls urging Alabama voters to cast ballots for Jones in his contest against Republican Roy Moore.

But Jones denied knowing whose calls his campaign was placing to voters.

“I don’t know what’s being used,” he told reporters on Monday.

Obama could be especially helpful in motivating African Americans to vote for Jones — and against Moore, who has questioned whether the nation’s first black president was born in the United States.

But Moore and other Republicans have tried to persuade Alabama voters that outsiders who don’t share their conservative values are the driving force behind Jones. President Trump has recorded a robocall promoting Moore.

For the most part, Jones has tried to play down his support from Democrats outside Alabama.

But Biden was the star attraction of a Jones rally in October, and over the weekend, Jones campaigned with Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

Jones and Moore are vying to fill the Senate seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

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Pentagon to allow transgender people to enlist

Protesters demonstrate in New York's Time Square in July over President Trump's ban on transgender people joining the military.
Protesters demonstrate in New York’s Time Square in July over President Trump’s ban on transgender people joining the military.
(Jewel Samad / AFP/ Getty Images)

The Pentagon is allowing transgender people to enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, despite President Trump’s opposition.

The new policy reflects growing legal pressure on the issue, and the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump’s demand to ban transgender individuals from the military. Two federal courts already have ruled against the ban. Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that make it possible, though difficult, for them to join the armed services.

Maj. David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, says the enlistment of transgender recruits will start Jan. 1 and go on amid the legal battles. The Defense Department also is studying the issue.

Eastburn told the Associated Press on Monday that the new guidelines mean the Pentagon can disqualify potential recruits with gender dysphoria, a history of medical treatments associated with gender transition and those who underwent reconstruction. But such recruits are allowed in if a medical provider certifies they’ve been clinically stable in the preferred sex for 18 months and are free of significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas.

Transgender individuals receiving hormone therapy also must be stable on their medication for 18 months.

The requirements make it challenging for a transgender recruit to pass. But they mirror concerns President Obama’s administration laid out when the Pentagon initially lifted its ban on transgender service last year.

The Pentagon has similar restrictions for recruits with a variety of medical or mental conditions, such as bipolar disorder.

“Due to the complexity of this new medical standard, trained medical officers will perform a medical prescreen of transgender applicants for military service who otherwise meet all applicable applicant standards,” Eastburn said.

Last year, then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter ended the ban on transgender service members, allowing them to serve openly in the military. He said that within 12 months — or by July 2017 — transgender people also would be able to enlist.

Trump, however, tweeted in July that the federal government “will not accept or allow” transgender troops to serve “in any capacity” in the military. A month later, he issued a formal order telling the Pentagon to extend the ban. He gave the department six months to determine what to do about those currently serving.

Trump’s decision was quickly challenged in court, and two U.S. district court judges have already ruled against the ban. Part of one ruling required the government to allow transgender individuals to enlist beginning Jan. 1.

The government had asked that the Jan. 1 requirement be put on hold while the appeal proceeds. The Pentagon move Monday signals the growing sense within the government that authorities are likely to lose the legal fight.

“The controversy will not be about whether you allow transgender enlistees, it’s going to be on what terms,” said Brad Carson, who was deeply involved in the last administration’s decisions. “That’s really where the controversy will lie.”

Carson worried, however, that the Defense Department could opt to comply with a deadline on allowing transgender recruits, but “under such onerous terms that practically there will be none.” Carson, who worked for Carter as the acting undersecretary of Defense for personnel, said requiring 18 months of stability in the preferred sex is a reasonable time.

“It doesn’t have any basis in science,” he said, noting that experts have suggested six months is enough. “But as a compromise among competing interests and perhaps to err on the side of caution, 18 months was what people came around to. And that’s a reasonable position and defensible.”

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Former Flynn business associate denies Inauguration Day texts about nuclear project proposal

An energy company that had hired Michael Flynn as an advisor denied a Democratic lawmaker’s report that the incoming national security advisor sent text messages saying the company’s Mideast nuclear reactor project was “good to go” and that U.S. sanctions on Russia would be “ripped up.”

Phone records “flatly contradict” claims that Flynn sent several texts to Alan Copson, an executive at ACU Strategic Partners, during President Trump’s inauguration ceremony last January, the company said in a statement.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had made the claims about Flynn public last Wednesday, citing information from an interveiw with an unidentified witness.

But ACU said that Copson sent and received three text messages on Inauguration Day, none of them to or from Flynn.

“Phone records for Alex Copson’s cellphone flatly contradict the core allegation that Mr. Copson received a text message from Gen. Flynn during President Trump’s inaugural speech — which is the sole basis for other allegations contained in your letter,” another company executive said in a letter to Cummings.

Flynn worked as a consultant for ACU Strategic Partners in 2015 and 2016 as the company prepared an ambitious proposal to build nuclear power plants across the Middle East in conjunction with Russian partners.

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As businesses rush to exploit GOP tax cuts, government revenue may shrink more than expected

As soon as the last major tax overhaul was enacted in the fall of 1986, accountant Edward Mendlowitz remembers working around the clock to convert corporations into partnerships and other so-called pass-through businesses to take advantage of the new tax code.

Now with congressional Republicans drawing closer to passing a package of $1.5 trillion in net tax cuts, mostly for corporations, Mendlowitz reckons he may soon be doing the reverse. The corporate tax rate is expected to fall from 35% to about 20%, its lowest in more than 75 years and considerably less than what pass-through taxpayers are likely to face.

“We’re not taking the pencil and paper out yet, but at some point we’re probably going to switch a lot of them,” said Mendlowitz, a partner with WithumSmith+Brown in New Brunswick, N.J.

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Treasury says tax cuts will more than pay for themselves, in part by factoring in initiatives yet to be proposed

Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin
(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

The Treasury Department on Monday released a one-page analysis of the Senate tax bill, saying the cuts and other changes would more than pay for themselves by stimulating stronger economic growth.

But there’s a catch.

The conclusion, which runs counter to estimates from Congress’ own scorekeeper and outside analysts, assumes the economy also would be boosted by “a combination of regulatory reform, infrastructure development and welfare reform.”

While the Trump administration has been reducing regulations, it has yet to release formal plans for infrastructure and welfare reform.

The white paper released Monday by Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy said the Senate tax bill would generate $1.8 trillion in additional federal revenue over the next 10 years, more than offsetting the legislation’s estimated $1.5-trillion cost.

But that calculation is based on U.S. economic output growing at a 2.9% inflation-adjusted rate, higher than the growth assumed by Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation.

That nonpartisan committee released an analysis on Nov. 30 saying the Senate tax bill would increase the federal budget deficit by $1 trillion over the next decade even after taking into account increased economic growth.

The Treasury analysis, which has been promised for weeks, acknowledges that “some economists predict different growth rates.”

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Black voters are key to Democratic hopes in Alabama’s Senate race. Will they turn out?

Two minutes into Sunday’s invocation, after blessing the sunshine and recent snowfall and its swift melting, the pastor turned to the political contest that has riveted the nation’s attention on the Deep South.

He asked the Lord to lift up the country, from the White House to City Hall, and asked for deliverance of a new U.S. senator for Alabama who “will suit us best and is the one that will meet our needs.”

The minister, the Rev. Arthur Price Jr., didn’t say who he had in mind. But speaking to a predominantly black congregation in the basement of Birmingham’s historic 16th Street Baptist Church, he didn’t have to.

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Roy Moore dismisses sexual misconduct allegations as ‘ritual defamation’

(Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

Republican Roy Moore fought back Sunday against allegations that he sexually abused teenage girls when he was in his 30s, saying they were part of a plot to defame him before Alabama’s special U.S. Senate election on Tuesday.

“Ritual defamation has been around for a long time, and that’s what this is,” Moore, 70, told Bill Britt, anchor of “The Voice of Alabama Politics” television show.

Moore denied ever meeting either Leigh Corfman, who says he molested her when she was 14, or Beverly Young Nelson, who says he bruised her in a sexual assault when she was 16.

“I had no encounter with them,” he said. “I have never molested anyone.”

Moore also denied dating anyone underage, something he previously said he would not dispute.

Contradicting his earlier remarks on the topic, he said he’d never met any of the women who now say he pursued them when they were 16 or 17 years old. The legal age of consent for sex in Alabama is 16.

“It’s inconceivable to think that someone would wait 40 years, because they were embarrassed or ashamed or something, and then less than 30 days before the general election, come out and make allegations,” he said.

In a Fox News interview last month with Sean Hannity, Moore recalled knowing two of the women who said he pursued them when they were teenagers. He described one of them, Debbie Wesson Gibson, as a friend. She says that Moore asked her on a date when she was 17.

Moore also told Hannity that he didn’t recall “dating any girl without the permission of her mother.”

Moore faces Democrat Doug Jones in Tuesday’s special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

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Nikki Haley lauds Trump’s ‘courageous’ stance on Jerusalem

Palestinians demonstrate in Jerusalem on Friday.
(AFP/Getty Images)

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, says President Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel was “courageous.”

Haley has staunchly defended Trump’s recognition last week of the contested city as Israel’s capital, facing a barrage of criticism at the U.N. last week. The United States stood virtually alone as Security Council members described the move as rash, impulsive and prejudicial to the outcome of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

“What you saw was a courageous move by the president,” Haley said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Disputing the notion that Trump had preempted the city’s status as part of any future peace agreement, she said: “He didn’t talk about boundaries; he didn’t talk about borders. He didn’t get into any of that.”

In similarly worded remarks on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Haley asserted that Trump’s move would “move the ball forward for the peace process.”

Critics have said the president gave up a significant bargaining chip without winning any concessions from Israel.

Palestinian leaders have denounced Trump’s designation, which marked a break with decades of U.S. policy. But while Friday saw clashes across the West Bank in response to the president’s action, the Palestinians did not mobilize large-scale protests as they have in the past in response to any change in the “status quo” surrounding Islam’s third-holiest shrine, located in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Demonstrators turned out Sunday in Beirut, staging a raucous protest near the U.S. Embassy, and in Jakarta, the capital of the world’s most populous Muslim-dominated country, Indonesia.

But while Arab and Muslim states have decried Trump’s position on Jerusalem, there have been no dramatic diplomatic repercussions.

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Alabama’s senior GOP U.S. senator says state ‘deserves better’ than Roy Moore

Two days before Alabama’s hard-fought U.S. Senate election, the state’s senior Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby, said “the state of Alabama deserves better” than Roy Moore, who has been accused of multiple instances of sexual misconduct, including an assault on a 14-year-old.

Speaking Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Shelby told interviewer Jake Tapper: “I think the Republican Party can do better.”

The special election campaign in Alabama has been extraordinarily divisive, not only exposing the deep partisan divergence between backers of Moore and his Democratic challenger, Doug Jones, but spotlighting an intraparty rift among Republicans in what has long been a reliably red state.

Many Republican strategists believe the party will suffer regardless of who wins Tuesday’s election.

Shelby had already stated publicly that he would not vote for Moore and would write in another Republican.

His decision to repeat that on television two days before the election raised the ante, coming as both sides make their final appeals to voters. An advertisement featuring Shelby’s earlier statements has been playing heavily on Alabama TV.

After initial hesitation when the multiple allegations about Moore surfaced, President Trump – himself accused of sexual improprieties by a number of women – has wholeheartedly endorsed him. ““Get out and vote for Roy Moore,” the president told a rally last week in Pensacola, Fla., addressing Alabama voters.

With the campaign in its crucial home stretch, Moore’s campaign has increasingly relied on the support of Trump, who overwhelmingly won the state in the 2016 presidential election. Voting against Moore, the campaign pitch goes, would be a betrayal of the president.

“This is Donald Trump on trial in Alabama,” Moore strategist Dean Young said on ABC’s “This Week.” If voters support Jones, he said, “they’re voting against the president.”

The Washington Post first reported allegations that Moore, as a county prosecutor in his 30s, had repeatedly sexually pursued girls in their teens. Many voters have rallied to his side, pointing out that the behavior in question was decades ago, and that one of the accusers did not initially make clear that she had added to an inscription she says he wrote in her yearbook.

Soon after the allegations were made public, Trump’s daughter Ivanka tweeted that there was a “special place in hell” for child predators. The national GOP withheld support for Moore, but then reversed itself, falling into line with Trump.

Moore has branded the accusers liars and said he did not know any of them.

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In Alabama Senate race, Republicans fear they may lose even if Roy Moore wins

With more than 48 hours of campaigning still left in Alabama’s scandal-shrouded U.S. Senate campaign — and the outcome far from clear — some Republicans have already conceded defeat.

From their perspective, Tuesday will yield one of two unhappy results.

Either voters will elect a Democratic U.S. senator from one of the most deeply conservative states in the country, slicing the GOP’s slender majority to a bare 51 to 49; or the Republican Party will seat Roy Moore, an accused sexual predator with a history of outlandish statements who, if Democrats have their way, will effectively serve as running mate for every Republican seeking office in 2018.

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A reporting misstep places CNN back in President Trump’s crosshairs

(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

You can always count on President Trump to bash the media, whether or not the reporting is accurate. But on the occasions when the media makes a mistake, he’s quick to pile on.

The source of his anger on Saturday morning was an error made by CNN on Friday, when the network wrongly reported that the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. may have been notified about hacked emails obtained by Wikileaks before they were publicly released. The notification didn’t come until after they were public, and CNN corrected its story.

That didn’t satisfy Trump, and he drew a comparison to a recent inaccurate report from ABC, which led that network to suspend one of its star investigative reporters, Brian Ross.

CNN has said reporters won’t be disciplined because they didn’t break any newsroom guidelines but received inaccurate information from sources.

Trump continued to criticize the network on Saturday morning, even saying it may be committing “a fraud on the American Public” by calling itself “the most trusted name in news.”

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Trump denies that Wells Fargo may avoid federal penalties for alleged mortgage lending abuses

President Trump on Friday denied a report that the federal consumer financial watchdog might drop sanctions against Wells Fargo & Co. for alleged mortgage lending abuses, and said the bank could face even tougher penalties.

Trump’s comments on Twitter appeared to be in response to a Reuters report that Mick Mulvaney — whom Trump installed last month as acting director of the independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — was reviewing whether Wells Fargo should pay tens of millions of dollars in penalties for charging fees to certain homebuyers to secure low mortgage rates.

Trump tweeted that “fines and penalties against Wells Fargo Bank for their bad acts against their customers and others will not be dropped,” and declared the Reuters report incorrect. If anything, he said, fines and penalties will be “substantially increased.”

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Roy Moore calls accuser a liar after she admits she added to yearbook inscription in sexual assault case

U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama stepped up his attacks Friday on the integrity of a woman who says that he sexually assaulted her when she was a 16-year-old waitress at a restaurant where he often dined when he was a prosecutor in his 30s.

The woman, Beverly Young Nelson, conceded in an ABC News interview that an inscription that she says Moore wrote in her high school yearbook included notes she added under his signature.

“Beverly, he signed your yearbook?” ABC reporter Tom Llamas asked her.

“He did sign it,” she answered.

“And you made some notes underneath,” Llamas said.

“Yes,” she replied.

Moore, whose campaign had already suggested his signature in the yearbook had been forged, said Nelson’s remarks to ABC proved she was lying.

“Let’s count how many national outlets will ignore the fact that she admits to lying,” Moore wrote on Twitter.

A week or two after he signed the yearbook, Nelson alleges, Moore offered her a ride home and she accepted. But instead of driving her there, she says, he parked the car behind the restaurant, groped her breasts, tried to shove her face into his crotch and bruised her neck before she stopped him.

At a news conference Friday in Atlanta, Nelson’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, said a handwriting expert had confirmed that the yearbook signature was Moore’s.

Moore is running against Democrat Doug Jones in a special election Tuesday to fill the seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jess Sessions.

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With the spending fight kicked to Dec. 22, Trump doubles down on his demand for a border wall

(Mandel Ngan / AFP)

President Trump still wants his wall.

Minutes after he signed a stopgap measure to give Congress two more weeks to negotiate a spending deal and avoid a government shutdown, the president renewed his call for lawmakers to fund his signature campaign promise — a large physical wall along the 2,000 miles of border between the United States and Mexico.

“We’re going to get the wall,” Trump said at the White House on Friday after Kirstjen Nielsen was sworn in as the new secretary of Homeland Security. “If we don’t get the wall, then I got a lot of very unhappy people, starting with me.”

Trump added that he wants to overhaul the country’s legal immigration system to make it “merit-based” and to “get rid of chain migration,” which allows U.S. citizens to bring qualified family members from abroad.

His demands to reduce the flow of legal immigrants as well as build a border wall are likely roadblocks to an agreement to keep the government open beyond Dec. 22.

The wall, which could cost tens of billions of dollars, is not popular with either party in Congress.

Moreover, Democrats want the spending bill to include legal protections for more nearly 700,000 people brought illegally to the country as children who will be at risk of being deported starting early next year.

Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in September, and the deportation deferrals issued under the Obama-era program begin expiring on March 6.

Republican lawmakers and Trump are demanding that any measure to help so-called “dreamers” be paired with steep increases in funding for border security, money to build Trump’s wall, and new limits on who U.S. citizens can sponsor for permanent residency.

The White House believes such harsh measures would help prevent future waves of illegal border crossings.

According to government figures released this week, the number of people attempting to cross the border illegally has dropped sharply since Trump came into office, down 25% compared to the previous year, and the lowest since 1971. But arrests of undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. have soared.

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Roy Moore: America was great ‘when families were united – even though we had slavery’

Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks on Sept. 17, 2017 at an event in Florence, Ala.

At a Roy Moore rally in September, one of the only African Americans in the audience asked when Moore thought America was last “great.”

In response, the Republican candidate for Senate for Alabama acknowledged the nation’s history of racial divisions, but said: “I think it was great at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery — they cared for one another…. Our families were strong, our country had a direction.”

At the same event, Moore referred to Native Americans and Asian Americans as “reds and yellows,” and earlier this year he suggested the 9/11 terrorist attacks were divine punishment.

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Tillerson scolds Saudi Arabia over blocking humanitarian aid to Yemen

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday added his voice to growing Trump administration admonitions of longtime ally Saudi Arabia for blocking deliveries of humanitarian aid to war-torn Yemen and other actions in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia declared diplomatic war on neighboring Gulf state Qatar this year and openly supported, and appeared to control, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri against his country’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, which is part of the government.

“I think we would encourage [the Saudis] to be a bit more measured and a bit more thoughtful in those actions to, I think, fully consider the consequences,” Tillerson said in Paris, his latest stop on a visit to Belgium, Austria and France.

He expressed concern about Saudi actions in Yemen, Qatar and Lebanon as the kingdom seeks to counter Iranian influence throughout the region.

In Yemen, Saudi Arabia is backing the government in its civil war against Houthi rebels, who are supported by Iran, Riyadh’s regional arch-rival. The U.S. has supported the Saudi armed intervention with intelligence and military aid.

President Trump, in rare U.S. criticism of Saudi Arabia, called this week for a “complete” lifting of the Saudi-led blockade that threatens food supplies for millions of Yemeni civilians.

“I think we’ve been clear when it comes to Yemen, we have called for, and President Trump himself called for this week, a complete end to the blockade of Yemen, a reopening of all the ports to not just humanitarian assistance but commercial delivery as well, because about 80 % of the food comes in on commercial shipments,” Tillerson said. “We are asking that Saudi Arabia allow that access.”

The White House reiterated that call in a press statement Friday.

“We call on the Saudi-led coalition to facilitate the free flow of humanitarian aid and critical commercial goods, including fuel, through all Yemeni ports and to restore commercial flights through Sana’a Airport,” the statement said.

“We urge all parties to immediately cease hostilities, re-energize political talks and end the suffering of the Yemeni people,” the statement said.

More than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the Yemen war, according to the United Nations.

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Congress approves stopgap funding measure, averting government shutdown threat for now

House Republicans approved legislation Thursday to keep the government running — something they’ve rarely been able to do on their own. The Senate followed suit shortly thereafter, ensuring that a weekend shutdown would be averted.

Most House Democrats refused to support the stopgap measure, which extends government operations through Dec. 22. In a 235-193 vote, only 12 House Democrats voted yes.

Typically, House GOP leaders, even when they hold the majority, have been unable to pass spending measures without significant support from Democrats. They face problems because Republican deficit hawks often refuse to vote for any legislation that adds to the debt without slashing spending elsewhere, while GOP defense hawks demand more money for the military.

The House Democrats’ move put pressure on House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) to assemble the votes from his own party.

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The White House press briefing, always a spin zone, is now approaching uselessness

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
(Alex Wong / Getty Images)

The White House press briefing reached an ignominious milestone this week when a spokesman stood before reporters aboard Air Force One, read a series of prepared statements, then refused to take on-the-record questions during one of the newsiest days of the Trump presidency.

The briefing for decades has been a mix of spin and information. But under President Trump, a practice established to keep the public informed and the president accountable has increasingly failed to do either, according to academic experts and current and former journalists.

“The briefing is just unrecognizable from the days when it was a very useful tool,” said Ann Compton, a former ABC News correspondent who covered seven presidents over a 40-year span from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama.

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Paul Manafort says special counsel wants to unfairly restrict his freedom of speech

(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, is defending his decision to help write an editorial explaining his political work in Ukraine, a decision that the special counsel’s office said violated a judge’s order restricting out-of-court statements on the case.

“All he has tried to do is to correct the public record in Ukraine concerning his consulting activities in Ukraine,” Manafort’s lawyers said in a court filing. Manafort’s freedom of speech was being infringed, and the special counsel wants him to “simply remain silent while his reputation is battered,” the lawyers said.

Manafort is facing multiple charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty.

The issue arose as a federal judge was considering whether to allow Manafort more freedom to travel while awaiting trial. The special counsel had agreed to a bail deal secured with four properties worth $11.6 million, which Manafort would forfeit if he missed a court appearance. But prosecutors backed out of that agreement when they learned about Manafort’s work on the editorial.

In the latest court filing, Manafort asked the judge to move forward with loosening his bail terms.

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Californians might retain a state and local income tax deduction — but with limits

Californians still might retain their ability to deduct state and local taxes from their federal returns under the Republican overhaul — but with a catch.

The total annual deduction would be capped at $10,000, which is the same level as a limited deduction for property taxes that both the House and Senate plans already include.

That cap is only about half the size of the average state and local tax deduction for Californians who claim it.

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In an emotional speech on the Senate floor, Al Franken says he’ll resign amid allegations of sexual misdeeds

Al Franken announced Thursday he will resign his Senate seat, falling to a whirlwind of sexual misconduct allegations like those that have enmeshed other politicians, business leaders and media figures across the country in recent months.

Hours later, Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, a Republican who is the ideological opposite of the Minnesota Democrat, announced his resignation after the House Ethics Committee revealed it had opened an investigation of sexual harassment allegations against him. In a statement, Franks admitted he had asked two female subordinates about bearing a child for him by surrogacy.

In a brief but emotional speech on the Senate floor, with 22 Democratic colleagues and one Republican looking on, Franken invoked the accusations that have swirled around President Trump and the Republican candidate in next week’s special election for an Alabama seat in the Senate, Roy Moore.

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Rep. Devin Nunes cleared by House Ethics Committee after complaint he divulged classified information amid Russia investigation

The House Ethics Committee on Thursday cleared House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes of Tulare of any wrongdoing after a complaint that he had disclosed classified information related to the House’s Russia investigation.

When the complaint was filed, Nunes said he would step away from leading the House investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election, though he did not formally recuse himself.

In a statement, the ethics committee said experts it interviewed determined that the information Nunes disclosed was not classified.

“Based solely on the conclusion of these classification experts that the information that Representative Nunes disclosed was not classified, the committee will take no further action and considers this matter closed,” it states.

Nunes thanked the committee in a statement for “completely clearing me today of the cloud that was created by this investigation, and for determining that I committed no violation of anything — no violation of House rules, law, regulations, or any other standards of conduct.”

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4:26 p.m.: This post was updated with comment from Nunes.

This post was originally published at 3:35 p.m.

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Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona resigns amid sexual harassment investigation

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.).
(Cliff Owen / Associated Press)

Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, one of the most conservative members of the House, resigned Thursday after the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into allegations that he had sexually harassed staff members.

The Ethics Committee separately announced an investigation into sexual misconduct by a second Republican lawmaker, Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas.

In a statement, Franks admitted that he had talked with two women who worked for him about bearing a child for him by surrogacy. He insisted he had done nothing wrong, but said he was stepping down because in the “midst of this current cultural and media climate” an investigation would be “distorted and sensationalized.”

The other lawmaker under scrutiny, Farenthold, used $84,000 in taxpayer money to settle a case, which was revealed last week. He told a Texas television station that he did nothing wrong, but said he would try to repay the money. He has refused calls to resign.

This post was updated with news of Franks’ resignation.

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Legal impact of Trump’s Jerusalem decision still murky

Administration officials sought Thursday to clarify President Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but raised more questions than they answered.

David Satterfield, acting assistant secretary of State for Near East affairs, said that although the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital, it has taken no position on what the contested city’s borders ultimately should be.

That would seem to leave open the possibility that part of the city could still belong to the Palestinians, as they have long claimed -- or not.

Satterfield said Trump’s decision would have no impact on the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem.

Nor, he said, has the U.S. government decided to print passports or maps with the terminology “Jerusalem, Israel.” Currently, such documents refer only to “Jerusalem,” without a country attached.

Asked repeatedly whether he could say categorically that Jerusalem was located in the country of Israel, Satterfield remained noncommittal.

Trump on Wednesday reversed decades of U.S. policy by officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ordering the State Department to start the process of moving the U.S. Embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv, a process the White House said would take several years.

Trump’s announcement provoked anger throughout the Arab world and disagreement by several major U.S. allies, including England and France.

Trump pointedly did not describe Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided capital,” as Israeli Jews routinely do. That too could leave room for maneuvering.

Trump argued in his speech Wednesday that moving the embassy reflected the reality in Israel and that it would not undermine his administration’s efforts to restart negotiations aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He said that he was open to a two-state solution and that he was not taking a position on the boundaries of Jerusalem, a key sticking point in any negotiation because both sides claim the city.

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Rep. John Lewis says he will skip Mississippi civil rights museum opening because of Trump’s attendance

Rep. John Lewis views images of his arrest for leading a sit-in at Nashville's segregated lunch counters on March 5, 1963.
(Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

Rep. John Lewis, a prominent Georgia Democrat and veteran of the civil rights movement, said Thursday that he would boycott the opening of a civil rights museum in Mississippi because President Trump would attend the event.

Lewis is the latest in a growing number of politicians, civil rights groups and activists who have said they will boycott Saturday’s opening ceremony in Jackson, Miss., or have called on Trump to skip it.

“President Trump’s attendance and his hurtful policies are an insult to the people portrayed in this civil rights museum. The struggles represented in this museum exemplify the truth of what really happened in Mississippi,” Lewis said in a statement issued with Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.

Thompson also said he would not attend the opening of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. The congressmen cited racially charged remarks from Trump and “disparaging comments about women, the disabled, immigrants and National Football League.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to the congressmen’s announcements, saying, “We think it’s unfortunate that these members of Congress wouldn’t join the president in honoring the incredible sacrifice civil rights leaders made to right the injustices in our history. The president hopes others will join him in recognizing that the movement was about removing barriers and unifying Americans of all backgrounds.”

In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Lewis said he would reconsider his decision if “the head man” did not attend.

The congressmen’s announcement followed one this week from the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, which said Trump should back down from the event because of his “abysmal” record on civil rights.

2:01 p.m.: This article was updated with a comment from Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

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White House creates confusion over U.S. participation in Winter Olympics in South Korea

The White House created confusion over whether American athletes would compete in the Winter Olympics in South Korea next year, with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying on Thursday that “no official decision has been made on that.”

“The goal is to do so,” she said.

She later attempted to clarify, tweeting an “update” that the “U.S. looks forward to participating.”

Olympic figures are projected on the Gwanghwamun Gate in Seoul. The 2018 Winter Games will be held in PyeonChang, South Korea.
Olympic figures are projected on the Gwanghwamun Gate in Seoul. The 2018 Winter Games will be held in PyeonChang, South Korea.
(Jeon Heon-Kyun / EPA / Shutterstock)

The comments came two days after Russian athletes were banned from attending the Games following a doping scandal.

The U.S. had already committed to attending the games, but U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley cast doubt on the issue Wednesday night when she told Fox News that it was an “open question.”

The concerns appear to be over safety and the ongoing nuclear standoff with North Korea. Sanders had said Thursday that the U.S. position would be determined “closer to the time” by “an interagency process.”

“The president would certainly weigh in,” she added.

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Trump will have a medical exam at Walter Reed next year, White House says

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

President Trump will be examined at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center next year, and records from his physical will be released, Trump’s top spokeswoman said Thursday.

“He does have a physical scheduled for the first part of next year — the full physical that most presidents go through,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters. “That will take place at Walter Reed, and those records will be released by the doctor following that taking place.”

Trump, who is 71, is the oldest person elected to the White House. He bucked tradition during the campaign by refusing to disclose detailed medical records.

Previous presidents typically were examined by a military doctor each year they were in office and released the doctor’s findings. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush both released such records within the first several months they were in office.

Trump repeatedly questioned opponent Hillary Clinton’s strength and stamina during the campaign, particularly when Clinton briefly left the campaign trail after she came down with pneumonia and nearly collapsed while leaving a Sept. 11 memorial event in New York City.

In December 2015, Trump released an enthusiastically worded letter from his longtime physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, which said Trump, if elected, would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

Questions about Trump’s health have come up repeatedly. New ones were raised Wednesday when Trump slurred the final words of his speech recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Such questions were “frankly, pretty ridiculous,” Sanders said, repeating the White House explanation that Trump’s stumbles involved nothing more than a dry mouth. “The president’s throat was dry, nothing more than that,” Sanders said.

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Tax breaks for beer, unborn children are among goodies in Republican bill

As the House and Senate begin to reconcile their different tax bills, they will have to sort through many little-known provisions that appear designed more to achieve policy goals or reward key lawmakers than deliver tax savings.

Here’s a look at some of the standouts, and their prospects for being included in the final legislation.

The Johnson amendment

The House bill essentially does away with decades-old tax code restrictions preventing churches and other nonprofit groups from engaging in political activities.

Opponents of the restrictions say the groups should have free expression, but others worry it will interject politics into philanthropy and open the door to more “dark money” campaigns.

Thousands of churches and charitable organizations oppose the House approach, preferring to keep the restriction, first introduced by then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson in 1954.

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FBI chief defends agency after Trump says it’s in ‘tatters’

(Win McNamee/AFP Getty)

FBI Director Christopher Wray politely, but clearly, disagreed with President Trump’s recent claim that the bureau was in “tatters,” telling members of Congress that there is “no finer institution.”

“What I can tell you is that the FBI that I see is tens of thousands of agents and analysts and staff working their tails off to keep Americans safe,” Wray told members of the House Judiciary Committee when he was asked about Trump’s remark.

“The FBI that I see is tens of thousands of brave men and women,” he continued. “Decent people committed to the highest principles of integrity and professionalism.”

At another point, Wray, who was appointed by Trump to replace James B. Comey, said that “the agents, analysts and staff of the FBI are big boys and girls. We understand that we will take criticism from all corners, we’re accustomed to that.”

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Who really wants Trump to recognize Jerusalem? His evangelical supporters at home

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin listens as President Trump speaks in Jerusalem in May.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin listens as President Trump speaks in Jerusalem in May.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

President Trump summed up a central reason for declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel — one of the most consequential and globally risky decisions of his presidency — in a single statement.

“While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver,” he said from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Wednesday. “Today, I am delivering.”

The decision may have alarmed prime ministers, presidents, kings and their subjects around the world. But it fit neatly into Trump’s political calculus and personal view of his mandate.

In his view, he is the president who pushes through toward “historic” change while those around him urge equivocation. He is the president who bluntly scorns the judgment of elites. And he is the president who tallies “promises kept.”

Especially important are promises to the voters Trump sees as his base, who include a strong majority of evangelical Christians.

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Consumer financial watchdog’s deputy director asks judge for injunction to replace Mick Mulvaney as acting chief

The deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is asking a federal judge for an injunction to install her as the agency’s acting chief in place of President Trump’s appointee, Mick Mulvaney.

The Wednesday night legal filing by Leandra English is the latest in the legal battle for control of the bureau and comes after U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly denied her request last week for a temporary restraining order to remove Mulvaney.

Kelly did not rule on the merits of the case, which centers on a dispute over which statute governs the appointment of an acting director. English’s attorney, Deepak Gupta, had said his client planned to file for an injunction, which, unlike the restraining order, could be appealed if not granted.

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Franken to announce plans as cascade of Democrats demands his resignation over groping allegations

Democratic patience with Sen. Al Franken evaporated Wednesday in the wake of a new accusation of sexual misconduct against him, and in an uprising led by women, more than half of the party’s senators demanded he resign — a decision that could arrive as soon as Thursday.

The cascade of opposition opened when Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said “it would be better for our country” if Franken left office. Within minutes, Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Patty Murray of Washington, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Claire McCaskill of Missouri released similar statements.

“Sexual harassment and misconduct should not be allowed by anyone and should not occur anywhere. I believe the best thing for Senator Franken to do is step down,” Harris said.

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Donald Trump Jr. didn’t want to talk about a key conversation with his father, House Intelligence Committee member says

Donald Trump appears at a campaign rally last year. His son, Donald Trump Jr., is second from left.
(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) was left scratching his head after the House Intelligence Committee’s closed-door interview with Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday.

Trump Jr. claimed attorney-client privilege to avoid discussing a conversation with his father, said Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee.

Why did he make that claim despite the fact that neither man is a lawyer? Schiff said it was because a lawyer happened to be in the room during the meeting.

Schiff said that didn’t wash, and he wants to know more about the conversation, which took place as Trump Jr. was responding to reports of a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer who offered incriminating information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“In my view, there is no attorney-client privilege that protects a discussion between a father and son,” Schiff said.

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) had a different view on the interview, which lasted from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a few breaks along the way.

“From my perspective, all of our questions were answered,” he told reporters.

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White House says Trump slurred during his speech about Jerusalem because his throat was dry

(Alex Brandon / AP)

The White House said President Trump’s slurred speech at the end of his announcement about Jerusalem was no more than a case of dry mouth.

“His throat was dry. There’s nothing to it,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said when asked to explain why President Trump garbled “God bless the United States” at the end of his remarks on Wednesday recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announcing plans to build a U.S. Embassy in the disputed city.

Pressed on whether the slurred words might indicate any health concerns, Shah said: “I know what you’re getting at. I’m saying there’s nothing to it.”

The slurred word prompted questions on social media about why the president stumbled over the phrase at the end of his speech.

Trump regularly ridiculed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over health concerns during the 2016 campaign, repeatedly questioning her stamina and strength.

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Heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem urge retaining city’s ‘international status’

Heads and patriarchs of Christian churches in Jerusalem on Wednesday bemoaned President Trump’s decision to recognize the ancient city as Israel’s capital, and urged its international status be retained.

“We are certain that such steps will yield increased hatred, conflict, violence and suffering in Jerusalem and the Holy Land,” the leaders said in a letter to Trump, “moving us farther from the goal of unity and deeper toward destructive division.”

Thirteen heads and patriarchs signed the letter. They represent various branches of the Christian faith, including Greek, Syrian and Armenian Orthodox churches; Episcopalians, Catholics and Lutherans.

Several are Palestinian, and most share space in the revered Holy Sepulcher Church in Jerusalem’s Old City. Most Christian tradition holds that the church is located at the site of the Crucifixion and burial of Jesus.

“Our solemn advice and plea is for the United States to continue recognizing the present international status of Jerusalem,” the churchmen said. “Any sudden changes would cause irreparable harm.… In this coming Christmas, we plea for Jerusalem not to be deprived from peace.”

Jerusalem contains some of the holiest sites for all three monotheistic faiths.

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Mike Flynn was working on private nuclear power plan while advising Trump, whistleblower says

(Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images)

Michael T. Flynn was helping a former business partner lay the groundwork for nuclear power plants in the Middle East, a plan that involved a partnership with Russia, despite his role as an advisor to President Trump, according to a purported whistleblower who provided an account to a leading Democrat in Congress.

The whistleblower said Flynn sent text messages to Alex Copson, the managing partner of ACU Strategic Partners, from Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20 to say the plan was “good to go.”

Copson said Flynn, who briefly served as Trump’s national security advisor, had promised to end sanctions on Russia that had been imposed by former President Obama in retaliation for the country’s interference in last year’s election, the whistleblower said.

Flynn had worked as a consultant for ACU Strategic Partners but didn’t divulge the relationship until the third version of his financial disclosure report, which was filed in August.

The whistleblower, who has remained anonymous, provided his account to Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

Cummings described the account in a letter as “credible allegations that President Trump’s national security advisor sought to manipulate the course of international nuclear policy for the financial gain of his former business partners.” He asked the Republican chair of the committee, Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, to issue subpoenas that could help verify the whistleblower’s account.

Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about contacts with the Russian ambassador, and he’s cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in his investigation of Russia’s election meddling.

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Reversing U.S. policy, Trump declares Jerusalem capital of Israel, orders embassy move

President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ordered the State Department to move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, upending decades of U.S. policy.

“Jerusalem is Israel’s capital,” Trump said. “It is nothing more and nothing less than a recognition of reality.”

Trump’s decision, announced during a speech at the White House, makes good on an election campaign promise but quickly angered allies throughout Europe and the Arab world -- as well as the Palestinians, who seek to claim East Jerusalem as their capital in an eventual independent state.

Trump, who has also pledged to make the “ultimate deal” to resolve the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict, risks putting those efforts in danger. He insisted, however, that he remains committed to a peace process.

It could take several years to actually move the embassy.

Trump said his administration would no longer follow the “failed policies of the past…. It would be folly,” he said.

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Trump warns a government shutdown ‘could happen’ if Democrats dig in on immigration demands

(Saul Loeb / AFP)

President Trump said a government shutdown “could happen” Saturday and wants any blame to fall on Democrats for refusing to agree to tougher immigration measures.

“It could happen,” Trump told reporters at the beginning of a Cabinet meeting at the White House. “Democrats maybe will want to shut down this country because they want people flowing into our country,” Trump said.

Lawmakers have hit a stalemate on funding government agencies past Friday, when the current appropriation bills expire. Republicans have been trying to reach a stop-gap deal to fund the government to at least Dec. 22.

Democrats have withheld their votes from a short-term measure in hopes of pushing through a bipartisan bill that could protect from deportation immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

“President Trump is the only person talking about a government shutdown, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) tweeted in response. “Democrats are hopeful the President will be open to an agreement to address the urgent needs of the American people and keep government open.”

Trump said he wants Congress to act to protect nearly 700,000 people whose work permits and deportation deferrals begin expiring in March, after he announced in September he was ending the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program. But he has since demanded a laundry list of hard-line immigration measures that must accompany such a bill, including a reducton in legal immigration

In a Tweet in May, Trump seemed to invite a “good ‘shutdown.’”

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Democratic senators call on Al Franken to resign; he plans statement tomorrow

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken
(Michael Reynolds / EPA)

Democratic senators, starting with six women, demanded the resignation of Sen. Al Franken on Wednesday, as another woman surfaced to say that the Minnesota senator had kissed her against her wishes.

Within minutes of each other Wednesday morning, Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Patty Murray of Washington, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Claire McCaskill of Missouri forcefully called on their colleague to leave office.

Shortly after, several other Democratic senators joined the growing calls for Franken to step down.

As the calls grew, Franken’s office announced that he plans to make a statement Thursday about his future.

Until Wednesday, most Democrats had argued that Franken’s alleged acts—kissing women against their will, mock-groping a woman during a USO tour and grabbing other women’s buttocks—deserved an Ethics Committee review. But they had not demanded that he resign.

The senators acted shortly after Politico reported that a former congressional aide had come forward to claim that Franken had kissed her when she accompanied her boss to an appearance on Franken’s radio show. The incident took place almost three years before he won his Senate seat in 2008.

Franken, a comedian before he turned to politics, denied the latest accusation but has acknowledged other misconduct.

But the statements from the senators made clear that they had decided the time for debating the incidents had passed.

“While Senator Franken is entitled to have the Ethics Committee conclude its review, I believe it would be better for our country if he sent a clear message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isn’t acceptable by stepping aside to let someone else serve,” Gillibrand said.

McCaskill was more abrupt.

“Al Franken should resign,” she tweeted.

On Tuesday, the longest-serving member of the House, Democrat John Conyers of Michigan, resigned after facing a raft of sexual harassment allegations and demands that he step down. Republicans have yet to make similar demands of Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold, who paid a settlement to an aide after harassing her.

9:35 This post was updated with Franken’s office saying he plans a statement tomorrow.

9:12 a.m. This post was updated with additional senators joining the call for Franken’s resignation.

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Tillerson says context important in Trump’s Jerusalem announcement

(Atef Safadi / EPA/Shutterstock)

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insisted Wednesday that President Trump’s move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will not ruin efforts to find peace with the Palestinians.

“What I would encourage people to do: Listen carefully to the entirety of the speech, listen to the full content of the speech,” Tillerson said in a news conference in Brussels, where he is attending meetings with European allies — none of which recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“The president is very committed to the Middle East peace process,” Tillerson continued. “He has a team he put into place. That team has been working very diligently. … We continue to believe there is a very good opportunity for peace to be achieved.”

Trump named his 36-year-old son-in-law Jared Kushner to head up peace efforts, which have been largely moribund for years. The president is expected to make the Jerusalem announcement later Wednesday and order the State Department to begin arrangements to eventually transfer the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv.

On another matter, Tillerson was asked about persistent reports that the White House is seeking his ouster.

“You all need to get some new sources,” he said. “Your story keeps being wrong.”

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Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move embassy from Tel Aviv, officials say

(Atef Safadi / EPA/Shutterstock)

President Trump will declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel in a speech at the White House on Wednesday, three senior administration officials said.

He will instruct the State Department to begin a multi-year process for building a U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, asking for funding from Congress, choosing a site and designing the building. In the meantime, Trump will sign a waiver to the 1995 law that demanded the State Department move the embassy from Tel Aviv by May 31, 1999, as every president has done.

The embassy won’t be moved immediately, the officials said. They would not commit to a timetable, but one senior official said that opening a new U.S. embassy routinely takes three to four years.

“We don’t just put a plaque on the door and open a mission,” said the official. “There are major security and structural considerations and very, very strict guidelines anywhere in the world that have to be followed before a flag goes up.”

Trump will have to continue to sign waivers every six months to avoid cuts to the State Department budget that would kick in under the 1995 law. With the president committing to building the embassy in Jerusalem eventually, the White House would like Congress to amend the law to eliminate the waiver requirement.

The president recognizing Jerusalem as the capital doesn’t change U.S. positions on the administration of the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, and on final borders of Israel and a Palestinian state that may be part of a final peace deal, the officials said.

“The president believes this is a recognition of reality,” the official said, noting that the Israeli government has been based in Jerusalem for decades.

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Senate committee advances bipartisan measure rolling back some bank regulations

A Senate committee on Tuesday approved bipartisan legislation that is aimed at easing regulations on smaller banks but also provides significant benefits for many large financial institutions.

Supporters of the bill from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) — including nine Democrats and one independent — called it a sensible step to reduce burdens, mostly on community banks and credit unions, to make it easier for consumers to get mortgages and obtain credit.

Critics complained it goes too far in exempting about 30 banks and other firms from stricter oversight put in place after the 2008 financial crisis.

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‘Country over party,’ writes GOP Sen. Jeff Flake on $100 donation to Democrat in Alabama Senate race

Republican Sen. Jeff Flake put his money behind his principles Tuesday, dashing off a $100 campaign contribution to Democrat Doug Jones in the Alabama Senate race after President Trump endorsed Jones’ opponent, Republican Roy Moore.

Flake has made no secret of his opposition to Moore, who faces accusations of sexual molestation and misconduct decades ago as a young prosecutor who allegedly dated teenagers as young as 14.

And Flake has spoken frequently and forcefully against Trump — penning a book, in fact, loaded with his concerns about the presidency and the party.

Flake had already said he would prefer Jones over Moore, but a day after Trump backed the former judge, the Arizona Republican took out his checkbook for Jones.

On the $100 check, he wrote: “Country over party.”

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NAACP says Trump’s visit to Mississippi civil rights museum is ‘an insult’ to African Americans

(Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)

Calling President Trump’s record on civil rights “abysmal,” the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People said on Tuesday that the president isn’t worthy of attending the Saturday opening of a civil rights museum in Mississippi.

“President Trump’s statements and policies regarding the protection and enforcement of civil rights have been abysmal, and his attendance is an affront to the veterans of the civil rights movement,” Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and chief executive, said in a statement. “He has created a commission to reinforce voter suppression, refused to denounce white supremacists, and overall, has created a racially hostile climate in this nation.”

Trump’s scheduled visit to the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson has ignited controversy among civil rights groups and Jackson residents who have criticized the president’s relationship to African Americans and other racial minorities.

Civil rights groups have called out the president for moves they say are racially charged, including tweets against black athletes who kneel during the national anthem to protest racism and his description of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., as one that included “some very fine people.”

“As a freedom fighter and contemporary of Emmett Till, Trump’s visit is an insult. He has never been a supporter of civil rights or equal opportunity or justice,” Amos Brown, an NAACP board member who is originally from Jackson, said in a statement.

Trump is attending the openings at the invitation of Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant.

Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said planned protests against Trump’s visit would be “very sad.”

“This should be something that brings the country together,” Sanders said.

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Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake contributes to Alabama Democratic Senate candidate

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Trump wants Moore elected over a Democrat despite ‘very troubling’ allegations, Sanders says

(Scott Olson / Getty Images)

The allegations that Roy Moore made unwanted sexual advances to teenage girls are “very troubling,” President Trump’s top spokeswoman said Tuesday, but Trump endorsed Moore’s campaign anyway because the president wants the Senate seat to go to a fellow Republican.

“The president made that decision, and he decided that it was better to have somebody that supports his agenda than a Democrat that doesn’t,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.

“We find the allegations very troubling,” Sanders said, but the “people of Alabama” should decide at the ballot box next Tuesday if Moore should be in the Senate.

Sanders also said that if the multiple reports that Moore abused teenage girls are true, Moore “should step aside, but we don’t have a way to validate that.”

Trump doesn’t back all of Moore’s positions, Sanders said. Moore has said, for example, that “homosexual conduct should be illegal,” a position the president doesn’t support.

After keeping Moore at a distance for months, Trump decided to endorse Moore on Monday after speaking with former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who sees Moore as an ally in a push to upend the Republican establishment.

Recent polls have shown Moore neck and neck with Democratic challenger Doug Jones, making the president’s support that much more critical in the race.

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Tax plan has support of Congress and Trump — but not American voters

President Trump gestures at a Saturday fundraising breakfast in New York.
(Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty Images)

President Trump insists that the tax cut plan now before Congress will be seen as a boon to the middle class, a popular confirmation of a promise he made to those voters in his 2016 campaign.

It’s not seen that way yet.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday found only 29% of voters approve of the tax plan, while 53% disapprove.

Almost two-thirds — 64% — of voters said the plan will benefit the wealthy, compared to 24% who said the middle class would be the winners and 5% who believed low-income Americans would be the beneficiaries.

Strikingly, more than 6 in 10 voters said the plan favors the rich at the expense of the middle class — suggesting that voters are primed for an argument already being put forward by Democrats seeking political advantage in the 2018 elections.

A host of new polls has placed the tax plan in dangerously unpopular territory. In surveys by Reuters/Ipsos, the Huffington Post and Gallup, support was no higher than 30%. Members of the House and Senate are expected to meet in coming days to reconcile somewhat different versions of the plan.

The polls also showed Trump in a difficult position when it comes to boosting the popularity of the tax plan, given that he is nearly as unpopular as the measure.

In the Quinnipiac poll, 35% approved of how Trump is handling the presidency, while 58% disapproved.

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Senate GOP won’t follow Trump’s lead in backing Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore

Senate Republicans are keeping their distance from Roy Moore, the U.S. Senate candidate from Alabama, despite President Trump’s recent endorsement, renewed funding from the Republican National Committee and Tuesday’s rally featuring former White House advisor Stephen K. Bannon.

Moore’s campaign continues to divide Republicans worried that their party may be irreparably damaged by supporting a candidate accused of sexual molestation and misconduct decades ago as a young prosecutor who allegedly dated teenagers, one as young as 14.

Unlike the RNC, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has no plans to resume funding for the Moore campaign that it halted last month after several women made their allegations public.

“The NRSC’s position has not changed and will not change,” Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), the chairman, told NBC.

Likewise, the Senate Leadership Fund, an outside campaign giant allied with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), will stay away from Moore, despite Trump’s push.

“We are following the NRSC’s lead in Alabama,” a spokesman said.

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Senate panel OKs Trump’s pick, Jerome Powell, for the next Federal Reserve chief

A Senate committee has approved Jerome H. Powell’s nomination to replace Janet L. Yellen as chair of the Federal Reserve.

Tuesday’s 22-1 vote by the Senate Banking Committee clears the way for full Senate approval in the coming weeks before Yellen’s term ends Feb. 3. The only “no” vote came from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Powell, 64, who has served as a governor on the Fed board since 2012, is expected to continue Yellen’s policy of gradually raising the Fed’s key short-term interest rate but has signaled more openness to easing financial regulations.

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Special counsel details $3.2 million in spending on Russia case

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III spent $3.2 million in the first 4½ months of his investigation into whether anyone from President Trump’s team helped Russian interference with last year’s presidential campaign.

The spending was summarized in a report released Tuesday, the first of what Mueller’s office said will be twice-a-year updates.

The single biggest cost was $1.7 million for salaries and benefits, including $500,000 for special counsel employees and $1.2 million for Department of Justice staff working under Mueller.

Another $733,969 was spent on equipment, but the report does not provide details.

Mueller was appointed in May after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading the investigation. He has announced criminal charges against four people so far, including Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Mueller’s spending “entirely reasonable given the results we’ve already seen.”

This post has been updated with a statement from Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

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Rep. John Conyers says he will step down following sexual harassment allegations

Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, stepped down today after his support among fellow Democrats collapsed amid accusations of sexual harassment by several female employees.

“I am retiring today and I want everyone to now how much I appreciate the support, incredible undiminished support I’ve received,” Conyers said in a radio interview.

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Trump seeks Democrats’ help on year-end budget, DACA deal

After railing against Democrats for weeks and pushing a sweeping tax plan over their objections, President Trump reached out to the rivals Monday — a subtle acknowledgment that he’ll need their help to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week.

Trump invited congressional leaders to the White House on Thursday for discussions on a year-end budget deal, a do-over after Democrats backed out of an earlier meeting when the president tweeted shortly beforehand that he saw “no deal” to be made.

Trump had little choice but to soften his approach. Because many Republican lawmakers refuse to vote for almost any new spending bill, Trump needs Democrats to provide what House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) calls “the currency of the realm” — the votes needed to approve a bill to keep government running.

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White House spokesman refuses to answer questions on the record from reporters

President Trump has called the news media “the enemy” and routinely labeled reporting he dislikes “fake news.” On Monday, the White House broke another precedent in limiting the press’ ability to ask questions about the president’s decisions.

On a day filled with news, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters traveling with the president aboard Air Force One that he would not take any questions on the record.

While returning from Utah, where Trump announced a rollback of protections for national monuments in the state, Gidley read reporters a brief series of statements on a few news items of the day – including Trump’s endorsement of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore and a Supreme Court decision to allow his travel ban to be enforced for now.

Then he announced that he would be declining to answer any questions on the record.

Reporters traveling with the president declined his offer to entertain off-the-record questions.

The refusal to take questions on the record broke with longtime custom on such trips, when informal press “gaggles” take the place of more formal, televised White House briefings.

Why was the White House refusing on-the-record questions? Gidley said he would not answer that question on the record.

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Mulvaney already is putting his stamp on CFPB — and still sparring over its leadership

Mick Mulvaney is moving quickly to put his stamp on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency he has strongly criticized, even as he continues to spar with the deputy director over who is its lawful acting chief.

Mulvaney, the White House budget director whom President Trump appointed to the post Nov. 24, said he had already started installing some of his aides into bureau positions and was reviewing ongoing legal actions against financial firms. He also expressed support for House legislation introduced last week to repeal the bureau’s recent regulations cracking down on payday and other short-term loans.

The moves come despite an expectation that Deputy Director Leandra English will continue her legal battle and file for a temporary injunction that would seek to oust Mulvaney from his office and reinstate her as acting chief.

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Trump undercuts Obama and Clinton wilderness legacies in Utah. But is it legal?

President Trump’s removal of federal protections from huge portions of two national monuments in southern Utah on Monday threatens to undercut the wilderness-conservation legacies of his Democratic predecessors Presidents Obama and Clinton.

Whether Trump has the legal authority to withdraw 1.1 million acres of land from Bears Ears National Monument and 800,000 acres from nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante will soon be tested in court.

Supporters of the monuments, which cover vast stretches of Utah’s scenic red-rock country, are preparing lawsuits to block Trump from shrinking them.

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Special counsel backs out of bail deal with Paul Manafort, saying he tried to hide a public relations effort

Paul Manafort ghost-wrote an editorial about his political work in Ukraine, violating a court order, according to a new court filing from the special counsel’s office.

The allegation was disclosed Monday as the reason the special counsel was backing out of a deal on bail with Manafort’s lawyers. The deal would have loosened the terms of house arrest for President Trump’s former campaign manager.

Manafort wanted to be allowed to travel among a few states in return for agreeing to forfeit $11.6 million in property if he missed a court appearance.

The special counsel’s office, which is investigating whether anyone in Trump’s orbit helped Russia interfere in last year’s presidential campaign, said Manafort helped draft the editorial in recent days, working with a Russian who has ties to that country’s intelligence services.

That writing violated a Nov. 8 court order “prohibiting such out-of-court statements in order to protect the fairness of the upcoming trial,” the court filing said.

“The editorial clearly was undertaken to influence the public’s opinion of defendant Manafort, or else there would be no reason to seek its publication (much less for Manafort and his long-time associate to ghostwrite it in another’s name),” the court filing said. “It compounds the problem that the proposed piece is not a dispassionate recitation of the facts.”

The court filing said Manafort was involved in the editorial as late as Thursday. It did not say whether the editorial was published or identify the Russian that Manafort supposedly worked with.

A spokesman for Manafort did not immediately return a message requesting comment.

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Supreme Court allows full enforcement of Trump travel ban

The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to fully enforce a ban on travel to the United States by residents of six mostly Muslim countries.

The justices, with two dissenting votes, said Monday that the policy can take full effect even as legal challenges against it make their way through the courts. The action suggests that the high court could uphold the latest version of the ban that Trump announced in September.

The ban applies to travelers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Lower courts had said people from those nations with a claim of a “bona fide” relationship with someone in the United States could not be kept out of the country. Grandparents, cousins and other relatives were among those courts said could not be excluded.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor would have left the lower court orders in place.

The San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., are scheduled to hold arguments on the legality of the ban this week.

Both courts are dealing with the issue on an accelerated basis, and the Supreme Court noted that it expects those courts to reach decisions “with appropriate dispatch.”

Quick resolution by appellate courts would allow the Supreme Court to hear and decide the issue this term, by the end of June.

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Here are the biggest sticking points between the House and Senate tax bills

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
(Timothy D. Easley / Associated Press)

House and Senate Republicans are set to go to work this week to reconcile significant differences between their two tax bills.

Here are the biggest sticking points they need to resolve while making sure the legislation does not reduce revenues by more than $1.5 trillion over the next decade or, under Senate rules, add to the budget deficit after that. If it exceeds that amount, Republicans could no longer pass their tax package with a simple majority vote in the Senate.

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Watch live: President Trump revokes national monument designations in Utah

President Trump, during an announcement at the Utah Capitol today, made a public lands declaration unlike any ever made by a U.S. chief executive.

The president shrank two big national monuments in southern Utah — Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — by nearly 2 million acres.

“Some people think that the natural resources of Utah should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington,” he told a cheering audience at the Utah Capitol. “And guess what, they’re wrong.”

With his redesignation, he said, “Public lands will once again be for public use.”

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Trump: ‘I feel badly for Gen. Flynn’

(Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump said he felt “very badly” for his ex-national security advisor Michael T. Flynn, who pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the investigation into Russian meddling.

“I feel badly for Gen. Flynn. I feel very badly. He’s led a very strong life, and I feel very badly about it,” Trump told reporters Monday as he left the White House for a trip to Utah where he is expected to announce cuts to two national monuments there.

“I will say this. Hillary Clinton lied many times to the FBI and nothing happened to her. Flynn lied, and it destroyed his life, and I think it’s a shame,” Trump said.

Trump has repeatedly said Clinton lied to the FBI without providing any evidence. FBI officials have said publicly they have no reason to believe that Clinton lied during their investigation of her use of a private email server while she was secretary of State.

In tweets over the weekend, Trump tried to cast doubts on the impartiality of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, contrasting the treatment Flynn received with how the FBI handled the Clinton investigation.

After Clinton was interviewed by the FBI in July 2016, then-FBI Director James B. Comey decided not to recommend charging Clinton but called her handling of classified information in her email system “extremely careless.”

Trump has also cited reports an FBI agent had been removed from Mueller’s team over text messages critical of Trump.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted he fired Flynn because Flynn lied to Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI. That assertion that he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI sparked new discussion of whether Trump may have obstructed justice in a discussion with Comey in February.

Comey has testified that Trump told him he hoped he could “see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.” Trump has denied saying that. White House officials now say Trump did not write Saturday’s tweet, claiming one of his lawyers did.

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Trump fully endorses Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore

Roy Moore
(Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

President Trump on Monday fully endorsed Roy Moore, going further in his support of the Alabama Senate candidate accused of making unwanted sexual advances on teenage girls than he had in backing Moore last month.

“Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama,” Trump tweeted early Monday. “We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigration, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, V.A., Judges 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!”

In November, Trump pointed to Moore’s denials of the allegations against the candidate from several decades ago, and the president spoke against voting for Democrat Doug Jones, but did not explicitly endorse Moore.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) have previously called on Moore to step aside, saying they believe the allegations. The Republican National Committee is among several conservative groups to withdraw support.

But in a sign the GOP is warming to the candidate, McConnell said Sunday on ABC News that the decision should be left to the Alabama voters.

Trump is not campaigning for Moore directly but will hold a rally on Friday in the Florida panhandle, which shares a media market with Mobile, Ala. The special election to fill the seat of Jeff Sessions, who is now attorney general, is Dec. 12.

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GOP tax bill is latest example of Senate leader Mitch McConnell breaking the norms he often espouses

The Republican tax bill is poised to become President Trump’s most significant first-year accomplishment, but the Senate success rests largely with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the quiet Washington insider who accomplished the legislative feat only by shattering the very norms he long championed in Congress.

McConnell is known as an institutionalist, less a devotee of a defined agenda than to the traditions of the Senate, which he’s aspired to lead ever since winning his first election in Kentucky more than 30 years ago.

But despite his ascribed allegiance to upholding longstanding Senate rules, including so-called regular order, McConnell’s major achievements, including the tax bill, have come from sometimes abandoning those ideals.

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McMaster defends Trump’s promotion of anti-Muslim videos posted by British far-right group

President Trump announces the appointment of H.R. McMaster, left, as national security advisor in February.
President Trump announces the appointment of H.R. McMaster, left, as national security advisor in February.
(AFP/Getty Images)

H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s national security advisor, on Sunday defended his boss’ retweeting of anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right British group.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” McMaster said Trump’s intention was “to highlight the importance of creating safe and secure environments for our citizens.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May issued an unusual direct rebuke of Trump’s action last week, saying it was “wrong” for him to retweet content promoted by an extremist group, Britain First, whose aim is to stoke hatred and mistrust. British parliamentarians across the political spectrum were also highly critical of the president’s decision to use his Twitter account, with nearly 44 million followers, to give a boost to the group.

Pressed by interviewer Chris Wallace as to how the sharing of videos accompanied by incendiary anti-Muslim captions helped promote national security, McMaster replied that it was important to combat the “false narrative” that the fight against groups such as Islamic State is a “war of religion.”

Britain First’s characterizations of the videos, which purported to show Muslims committing acts of violence, were widely criticized as incomplete or outright false. The Dutch Embassy in the U.S. said the group falsely claimed that an assailant shown beating another person in one of the video clips was a “Muslim migrant.” The perpetrator, who was punished, was born and raised in the Netherlands, the embassy said.

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In series of tweets, Trump targets FBI and the agent reassigned from role in Mueller probe

President Trump on Sunday tweeted criticism of the FBI, saying its reputation was “in tatters” following the tenure of former director James Comey, who was fired seven months ago.

The president also suggested bias against him in the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, after news accounts said an agent was removed from Mueller’s team following an internal investigation of text messages interpreted as critical of Trump.

After 24 hours of silence following Friday’s guilty plea by former national security advisor Michael Flynn to charges of lying to the FBI, Trump on Saturday unleashed a Twitter barrage against the Justice Department and his vanquished presidential rival, Hillary Clinton. Earlier Sunday, the president asserted that he did not ask Comey to halt the investigation of Flynn, although the former director has testified under oath that Trump did so.

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Trump tweets that he didn’t ask Comey to stop investigating Flynn

President Trump said Sunday that he did not ask former FBI director James Comey to refrain from an investigation of fired national security advisor Michael Flynn.

The position, articulated in a tweet sent from Trump’s account, contradicts statements made under oath by Comey, who was subsequently fired by the president after refusing to back down in the probe into possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign.

Comey has told Congress that the president, in a private conversation of which he made contemporaneous notes, asked him to desist in the Flynn investigation.

Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about discussions with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The former Army lieutenant general was fired weeks into his tenure, and the White House said at the time that it was because he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence.

On Saturday, a tweet from the president’s account said Flynn was fired because he lied to both Pence and the FBI.

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Former FBI Director James Comey, fired after he refused to let Flynn ‘go,’ is having some fun on social media

Former FBI Director James B. Comey
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

Someone’s in a good mood.

As the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election moves closer to President Trump’s inner circle, the man reportedly pressured by Trump not to charge ex-national security advisor Michael T. Flynn has been posting online famous quotes about truth and justice.

Former FBI Director James B. Comey posted on Instagram Saturday a photo of sunlight reflecting off the waters of Long Island Sound and paraphrased a saying often attributed to the Buddha: “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun; the moon; and the truth.”

Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts in December with Russia’s ambassador in Washington at the time.

Comey seemed to be feeling vindicated by the news.

Hours after special counsel Robert S. Mueller III announced on Friday that Flynn would cooperate with investigators, Comey shared a photograph of waterfalls and quoted from the biblical book Amos, writing: “But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

Comey was fired as FBI director in May. In February, the day after Trump fired Flynn for lying to the vice president and to the FBI, Trump reportedly asked Comey whether he could see his way “to letting Flynn go.” Comey wrote down Trump’s comments in notes he made after the Feb. 14 meeting.

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FBI agent was removed from Russia probe over anti-Trump text messages

A person familiar with the matter says an FBI counterintelligence agent was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team after the discovery of an exchange of potential anti-Trump text messages.

The agent, who had also worked on the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, was removed from Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election this summer.

The person who discussed the matter with the Associated Press was not authorized to speak about it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The nature of the messages and whom they were exchanged with was not immediately clear. The Justice Department’s inspector general is investigating.

The New York Times first reported the agent’s removal. A spokesman for Mueller had no immediate comment, and an FBI representative did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

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President Trump tells reporters there’s ‘no collusion, no collusion’ after Mike Flynn pleads guilty

(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)

President Trump told reporters Saturday that he wasn’t worried about what his former national security advisor, Michael T. Flynn, might tell prosecutors after agreeing to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia’s ambassador in Washington.

“What has been shown is no collusion, no collusion,” said Trump as he departed the White House for a fundraiser in New York. “There’s been absolutely no collusion, so we’re very happy.”

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GOP quickly reverses tax bill carve-out that would have favored DeVos-aligned Hillsdale College

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in July.
((Alex Brandon / Associated Press )

Amid the flurry of late revisions to the GOP tax bill, a very specific proposal to exempt certain educational institutions from a new endowment tax caught the attention of Democrats.

The provision appeared designed to shield one school, Hillsdale College, a private campus aligned with the wealthy family of Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos who are longtime GOP donors.

DeVos’ brother, Erik Prince, the founder of the Blackwater private security agency, is a graduate.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer held up a copy of the proposed change as “a metaphor for the whole bill” as he railed against the tax plan ahead of voting.

“A single wealthy college, the pet project of billionaire campaign contributors to the Republican Party, was exempted from a tax by a senator who fought to get rid of earmarks,” Schumer said late Friday. “That, unfortunately, is a metaphor for the bill, and how high the stench is rising in this chamber as we debate the bill tonight.”

The proposal from Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) sought to exempt schools from the GOP’s proposed 1.4% excise tax on endowment investment income if they met certain criteria regarding enrollment and the size of their endowment.

Democrats said only Hillsdale qualified under the provision.

Toomey’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The senator has been a longtime champion of ridding Congress of special funding earmarks, particularly as a former head of the conservative Club for Growth.

Late Friday the proposal was revised yet again to raise the endowment threshold so Hillsdale no longer qualified. But then the entire provision was removed from the final bill under an amendment sponsored by Democrats.

------------

FOR THE RECORD

Dec. 4, 2:03 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to Charles E. Schumer as Senate majority leader. He is the minority leader.

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Sen. Jeff Flake secured commitment on DACA fix for his GOP tax plan vote

(Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press)

As Republicans negotiated revisions to the GOP tax plan Friday to win their votes, Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona took another approach.

Flake won a commitment from Republican leaders — and the White House — to work on a permanent fix that would allow young immigrants known as Dreamers to stay in the U.S. as President Trump prepares to end the DACA program next year.

The Arizona Republican, who is retiring at end of his term, had been one of the leading GOP senators warning against rising deficits from the $1.5-trillion tax plan. He said he eliminated one budget “gimmick” as part of the agreement.

But Flake focused his attention late Thursday and Friday — in phone calls with Vice President Mike Pence — on the young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and now face deportation risk under Trump’s plan.

Congress has been working behind the scenes on a legislative alternative to DACA, the Obama-era program that provides recipients with permits to work and remain temporarily in the country.

Trump said he would end the program next year, but the president has also pushed Congress to figure out a solution for the Dreamers. Flake’s said he secured a seat at the table.

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Sen. Bob Corker, perhaps last GOP holdout, opposes tax bill

Sen. Bob Corker, perhaps the last Republican holdout on the tax plan, announced he would oppose the bill ahead of Friday’s expected vote.

The Tennessee Republican had been among the strongest critics warning the $1.5 trillion plan would add to the deficit, rather than pay for itself through economic growth as his colleagues suggest.

“I wanted to get to yes,” he said in a statement. “But at the end of the day, I am not able to cast aside my fiscal concerns and vote for legislation that I believe, based on the information I currently have, could deepen the debt burden on future generations.”

GOP leaders announced earlier Friday they had secured a majority for passage.

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Sen. Susan Collins supports GOP tax bill ahead of vote

Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, announced her support Friday for the GOP tax bill, joining two other holdouts ahead of an expected vote to pass the overhaul.

Collins negotiated several provisions, including one to restore a property tax deduction (capped at $10,000 a year) that is important to residents in California and other states with high-cost real estate and was slated for elimination as part of a repeal of other popular write-offs.

GOP leaders said they had secured the votes for passage, expected later Friday. If so, the bill would need to be reconciled with a House-passed version in the days ahead.

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Trump says Tillerson ‘not leaving’

Donald Trump tweeted Friday afternoon that he is keeping embattled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, though he would not say how long.

“The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon - FAKE NEWS!” he tweeted. “He’s not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!”

The tweet linked to an Instagram post with a picture of Tillerson being sworn in during a ceremony in the Oval Office.

Trump met for lunch Friday with Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis. Earlier in the day, Tillerson called reports of his potential departure “laughable.”

Trump’s tweet came on a day when most attention is focused on the indictment of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor. Trump may be trying to show stability in his administration and undermine the credibility of the news media as it trains its attention on the Russia probe.

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Schiff on Flynn plea: ‘It says to me that Bob Mueller must be getting fairly substantial cooperation from Gen. Flynn’

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Rep. Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called former national security advisor Michael Flynn’s plea deal Friday “shocking” but “not unexpected.”

“Given the much broader exposure Michael Flynn had on a range of other issues, if this is the universe that he is pleading to, it says to me that Bob Mueller must be getting fairly substantial cooperation from Gen. Flynn,” Schiff said.

Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to FBI agents about whether he asked the Russian government in December 2016 to hold off on retaliating against sanctions imposed by then-President Obama for trying to interfere with the presidential campaign. During Friday’s proceeding, the prosecutor said Flynn discussed the 2016 meeting with “a very senior member” of Donald Trump’s transition team.

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is likely reviewing whether any other transition officials made false statements about Flynn’s contacts with Russia. The House Select Intelligence Committee is also investigating Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election, and what the Trump campaign knew, and Schiff said the committee will likely review testimony from other transition officials as well.

“I don’t remember any other administration officials acknowledging that they knew about Michael Flynn’s contacts and the contents of those discussions. So, seems to me, that information the prosecutor relayed to the court is also significant and the fact that he did not identify who those transition officials are is another indication that there is more that the special counsel is working on,” Schiff said.

Schiff said if reports from ABC and the Associated Press are true that Flynn is willing to testify that Trump instructed him to make contact with the Russians, it indicates ”the president would be completely knowing of what Mike Flynn did.”

“It would explain, I suppose, why he was so reluctant to fire Mike Flynn if in fact Mike Flynn was doing what he asked him to do. But, it would also mean that Mike Flynn was fired for lying about something the president knew and condoned,” Schiff said.

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White House spikes Trump’s sole public appearance after Flynn guilty plea

President Trump passes then-national security advisor Michael Flynn at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. on Feb. 6.
(Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

The White House abruptly canceled President Trump’s sole public appearance for Friday, shortly after his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and confirmed that he is cooperating with prosecutors in their investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The White House had no scheduled news briefing on Friday and directed all calls about the investigation to Ty Cobb, the president’s attorney. Cobb issued a statement downplaying the significance of Flynn’s plea deal.

Trump had been planning to briefly allow reporters and photographers into the Oval Office at noon EST at the start of his meeting with Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj of Libya. Trump often responds to shouted questions during such events, but White House aides told waiting journalists that they would not be brought in.

The decision to cancel Trump’s appearance came hours after Flynn — his chief national security advisor throughout the campaign and for the first 24 days of the administration, until forced to resign — pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts in December 2016 with Russia’s ambassador to the United States.

Trump is also scheduled to attend a Christmas reception for members of the media at the White House on Friday afternoon. Though the schedule suggested he would make remarks there privately, the Flynn news cast doubts on those plans, especially because many journalists would demand that Trump address the matter for the record.

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Former national security advisor Michael Flynn pleads guilty to lying to FBI

testRetired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who briefly served as President Trump’s national security advisor, is scheduled to plead guilty Friday morning to a single count of making false statements about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.

Former national security advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI, saying he did so because his actions were wrong and he wanted to “set things right.”

“I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right,” Flynn said in a statement issued by his lawyer minutes after the former Army lieutenant general entered his plea in federal court.

He added, “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”

According to the plea deal, Flynn lied to FBI agents about whether he asked the Russian government in December 2016 to hold off on retaliating against sanctions imposed by then-President Obama for trying to interfere with the campaign. He also lied about how the Russian government had agreed to “moderate its response.”

Flynn lost his job as national security advisor in February, only 24 days after Trump’s inauguration, after the Washington Post revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

“After over 33 years of military service to our country, including nearly five years in combat away from my family, and then my decision to continue to serve the United States, it has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of “treason” and other outrageous acts,” Flynn said.

UPDATE

8:52 a.m.: This article was updated with Flynn’s plea.

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Flynn confirms cooperation with special counsel, says he wants to ‘set things right’

Former national security advisor Michael Flynn said Friday he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI because his actions were wrong and he wanted to “set things right.”

Former national security advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI, saying he did so because his actions were wrong and he wanted to “set things right.”

“I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right,” Flynn said in a statement issued by his lawyer minutes after the former Army lieutenant general entered his plea in federal court.

He added, “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”

According to the plea deal, Flynn lied to FBI agents about whether he asked the Russian government in December 2016 to hold off on retaliating against sanctions imposed by then-President Obama for trying to interfere with the campaign. He also lied about how the Russian government had agreed to “moderate its response.”

Flynn lost his job as national security advisor in February, only 24 days after Trump’s inauguration, after the Washington Post revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

“After over 33 years of military service to our country, including nearly five years in combat away from my family, and then my decision to continue to serve the United States, it has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of ‘treason’ and other outrageous acts,” Flynn said.

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Flynn pleads guilty to lying to FBI; prosecutor says ex-national security advisor discussed Russian contact with senior Trump official

Michael Flynn
(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security advisor, pleaded guilty Friday to making false statements to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador, communications that a prosecutor said Flynn discussed with “a very senior member” of Trump’s transition team.

The actions came in a federal court hearing in which Flynn and prosecutors confirmed that the retired Army lieutenant general had struck a deal to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Flynn made the false statements about his December 2016 conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on Jan. 24, soon after becoming President Trump’s national security advisor. He could face up to five years in prison.

The statement about Flynn’s contacts with a senior Trump official was made by prosecutor Brandon Van Grack.

Flynn, in a statement issued as he made his plea, said that he had wrongly been accused of “treason and other outrageous acts.”

“But I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right. My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel’s office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country,” he said. “I accept full responsibility for my actions.”

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Trump’s lawyer downplays Flynn’s guilty plea

Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn walks through the lobby at Trump Tower on Nov. 17, 2016, in New York.
Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn walks through the lobby at Trump Tower on Nov. 17, 2016, in New York.
(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

President Trump’s lawyer downplayed the guilty plea and promise of cooperation from former White House national security advisor Michael Flynn on Friday, arguing in a statement that “nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn.”

In fact, Flynn’s attorney suggested in court that his cooperation would result in exposure for at least one higher-up within Trump’s orbit.

Trump’s lawyer, Ty Cobb, downplayed Flynn’s role in the administration in his statement, pointing out that he was “at the White House for 25 days during the Trump Administration, and a former Obama administration official.” Flynn was among Trump’s closest advisors throughout his campaign.

“The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year,” Cobb continued. “Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn. The conclusion of this phase of the Special Counsel’s work demonstrates again that the Special Counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion.”

As part of a deal with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The agreement confirmed that Flynn is now cooperating with investigators looking into whether members of Trump’s team had aided Russian interference in last year’s presidential election or had violated other related U.S. laws.

Flynn admitted that he lied to FBI agents about whether he asked the Russian government in December 2016 to hold off on retaliating against sanctions imposed by President Obama because of their interference in the campaign. He also said he lied about how the Russian government had agreed to “moderate its response.”

Flynn, who served for three decades in the Army before retiring as a lieutenant general, was an early and enthusiastic booster of Trump, leading chants of “Lock her up!” against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton at the 2016 Republican convention.

Flynn was fired as national security advisor only 24 days into Trump’s administration after officials said he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Kislyak.

In October, Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and another aide, Rick Gates, were arraigned on a dozen charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. Both pleaded not guilty. Another campaign advisor, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to making false statements about the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia.

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Trump says Democrats will pay after acquittal of immigrant in murder case

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, right, is led into a courtroom by San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi on July 7, 2015
(Michael Macor / Associated Press)

President Trump lashed out in multiple tweets against the acquittal of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate on murder and manslaughter charges, brushing aside the pleas of Kate Steinle’s family, who have asked to end the public battle over their daughter’s death.

Trump had tweeted at least three times on the verdict by Friday morning, including one in which he blamed the “weakly protected Obama border” for the “travesty of justice” and demanded “BUILD THE WALL!”

“The Schumer/Pelosi Democrats are so weak on Crime that they will pay a big price in the 2018 and 2020 Elections,” Trump wrote in another tweet.

Family members of Steinle had previously expressed frustration that the case had been wrapped up in politics and told the San Francisco Chronicle as they awaited the verdict that they hoped the moment would mark an end to their family’s role in public life.

“We’re just shocked — saddened and shocked ... that’s about it,” her father Jim Steinle told the paper.

Trump, who spoke about the case often during the campaign, lamented that the jury was not told of Garcia Zarate’s prior felony record. The Mexican national with multiple convictions had been deported five times; he was free at the time of the shooting after local prosecutors decided not to press charges against him in a marijuana possession case and did not turn him over to immigration officials.

Keeping mum about prior convictions is standard in criminal trials because such information is considered prejudicial, potentially undermining the constitutional right to a fair trial. Judges do, however, consider criminal records during sentencing. Garcia Zarate was convicted on one charge: possession of a firearm by a felon.

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Inspector general launches inquiry into whether Treasury hid Republican tax bill analysis

The Treasury Department’s inspector general has launched an inquiry into whether the department hid an analysis of the Republican tax bill — or even did one at all.

Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin has said economic growth stimulated by the bill’s large tax cuts would offset lost revenue and indicated his department would produce an analysis proving it.

But no analysis has been released as the Senate prepared to vote on its version of the tax legislation. The House approved its tax bill on Nov. 16.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Treasury Inspector General Eric M. Thorson on Thursday asking for an inquiry after a New York Times article said members of the Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy, which would do such an analysis, said they were not working on one.

“Either the Treasury Department has used extensive taxpayer funds to conduct economic analyses that it refuses to release because those analyses would contradict the Treasury secretary’s claims, or Secretary Mnuchin has grossly misled the public about the extent of the Treasury Department’s analysis,” Warren wrote. “I am deeply concerned about either possibility.”

Rich Delmar, counsel to the inspector general, said Thursday the office had launched an inquiry and that it was a “top priority.”

A spokeswoman for Mnuchin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The announcement came as the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation released its analysis Thursday showing that the bill would add $1 trillion to the deficit over the next decade even after accounting for increased economic growth.

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Ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort could regain some freedom while awaiting trial

Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, may soon gain some freedom to travel as he awaits trial in federal court.

Since his arrest Oct. 30 on charges of conspiracy, money laundering and fraud, the once powerful GOP operative and international consultant has been confined to his condominium in Alexandria, Va., outside Washington, where he’s under GPS monitoring.

His lawyers now have reached an $11.6-million bail agreement with the special counsel’s office, which is pursuing the criminal case against Manafort, according to a motion filed Thursday.

The proposed deal is being presented to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson for her approval.

The deal involves the pledging of four properties: Manafort’s condo in Alexandria; his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; another condo in Manhattan; and a beachfront property in Bridgehampton, N.Y.

Under the proposal, Manafort would be permitted to travel in Virginia, New York, Florida and Washington, D.C., with other domestic travel requiring permission from the court.

Manafort would still be barred from leaving the country. He turned over his three U.S. passports to prosecutors after his arrest.

If Manafort doesn’t appear in court as required, he would forfeit the four properties. His lawyers said they were worth $11.6 million after existing mortgages are deducted.

“Simply put, Mr. Manafort’s family would face severe economic consequences if he were not to appear as required,” Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, wrote in a court filing.

Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His trial is scheduled to start in May.

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Reported plans to fire Tillerson roil State Department

(Cliff Owen / Associated Press)

Buffeted by multiple reports that President Trump will replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in another of the top-level shakeups that have roiled the administration, the State Department struggled Thursday to portray business as usual.

Trump is considering replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo by Jan. 20, a year after Trump’s inauguration, a source close to the administration told The Times, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal workings at the White House.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who is close to Trump, would replace Pompeo at the top of the CIA, the source said.

Tillerson participated in two meetings at the White House on Thursday, returning between them to a State Department where his leadership as America’s top diplomat has been widely criticized as lackluster.

At one point, Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, telephoned Tillerson’s chief of staff, Margaret Peterlin, to assure the staff that media reports of Tillerson’s imminent ouster were not true.

Tillerson earlier had breakfast with his frequent ally, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, according to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

In a news briefing, Nauert was asked how Tillerson will conduct normal diplomatic work next week when he meets his counterparts on a visit to Europe given the growing reports that he is a short-timer and does not enjoy the president’s confidence.

“The secretary is someone whose feathers don’t get ruffled very easily,” Nauert said. “He brushed it off. He’s heard these stories before.

“He remains secretary of State,” she added. “He serves at the pleasure of the president.”

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Senate tax bill would swell deficit by $1 trillion even with economic growth, analysis says

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), left; Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

The Senate Republican tax bill would increase the federal budget deficit by $1 trillion over the next decade even when taking into account increased economic growth, according to a congressional analysis released Thursday.

The so-called dynamic score from the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the tax cuts and other changes in the bill would boost the nation’s economic output by an average of 0.8% over the 10-year period.

That would reduce the bill’s earlier estimated $1.5-billion deficit impact, which was calculated without taking into account potential economic growth, by about $408 billion.

But the bill still would add $1 trillion to the deficit, undercutting assertions by Republican leaders and Trump administration officials that the additional growth spurred by the bill’s large tax cuts would pay for themselves over time.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who pushed for the analysis to be released ahead of a vote on the bill this week, said the report “ends the fantasy about magical growth and claims the tax cuts pay for themselves.”

“It is the total opposite of what the Senate sponsors and Trump administration have been claiming now for months,” Wyden told reporters.

The report could create problems for some Republicans, including Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona, who have said they would not vote for a bill that adds to the deficit.

Julia Lawless, a spokeswoman for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), said the analysis does not reflect the final tax bill, which is still being considered and likely to be amended.

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Key senator says tax bill likely to keep property tax deduction — a partial win, but still a big loss for Californians

A key Republican indicated Thursday that the Senate’s tax bill was all but certain to keep a limited deduction for property taxes — a partial victory, but at the same time, a major loss for Californians.

Like residents of other high-tax states, Californians would benefit from being able to continue to deduct some of the cost of property taxes on their federal returns. The Republican bill headed to a final vote in the Senate this week proposes to eliminate that deduction.

But the bill would still axe the current deduction for state and local income or sales taxes. That is a bigger loss for California, which has the highest top state income tax rate in the nation, but ranks in the bottom third by one measure for property taxes.

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Democratic pressure mounts on Rep. John Conyers Jr. to resign over sexual harassment allegations

House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the longest-serving member of Congress, Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, should resign due to “serious, disappointing and very credible” accusations of sexual harassment leveled against him.

Pelosi’s announcement signaled a remarkable reversal after a public outcry and was quickly followed by similar statements by other prominent Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, who, like Conyers, is a longtime leader of the Congressional Black Caucus.

As recently as Wednesday, Clyburn had questioned the veracity of Conyers’ accusers. Clyburn’s change of position was first reported by Politico.

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Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff says Jeff Sessions wouldn’t level with congressional committee on Russia investigation

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) speaks to reporters in the Capitol.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) speaks to reporters in the Capitol.
(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions dodged questions about whether President Trump tried to interfere with the investigation into Russian interference in last year’s campaign, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday.

“I asked the attorney general whether he was ever instructed by the president to take any action that he believed would hinder the Russia investigation, and he declined to answer the question,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Sessions.

His remarks were reported by the Hill.

Schiff criticized Sessions for not answering.

“If the president did not instruct him to take any action that he believed would hinder the Russia investigation, he should say so,” Schiff said. “If the president did instruct him to hinder the investigation in any way, in my view, that would be a potentially criminal act and certainly not covered by any privilege.”

Sarah Isgur Flores, a Department of Justice spokeswoman, said Sessions had simply reiterated his previous refusal to discuss his private communications with the president.

“But he also said, same as he’s said before, that he’s never been directed to do anything illegal or improper,” she added.

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Tom Steyer is leading a campaign to impeach Trump. Why does that annoy so many Democrats?

Tom Steyer's drive to impeach President Trump includes a billboard in New York's Times Square.
Tom Steyer’s drive to impeach President Trump includes a billboard in New York’s Times Square.
(Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

From its very founding, California has been a land of reinvention. The creed is practically written in the state Constitution: If you don’t like who you are, or your place in life, start over.

Gold was the first lure. Since then, countless have sought fame. Others, acceptance.

Tom Steyer has no end of wealth, a measure of fame and a seeming appetite for political office.

That requires his own bit of reinvention.

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Nancy Pelosi calls on Rep. Conyers to resign amid sexual harassment probe

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Speculation picks up about Tillerson’s departure as secretary of State

(AFP / Getty Images)

Speculation has circulated for weeks that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on his way out. He has publicly contradicted, and been contradicted by, his boss the president. He reportedly called President Trump a “moron” in a private meeting, and never denied that when asked by reporters.

Tillerson, 65, the former chief of ExxonMobil, has repeatedly said he has no plans to step down, while adding that he serves at the president’s pleasure.

But tension between Foggy Bottom and the White House has not subsided. Thursday, the speculation kicked up again when the New York Times reported the White House had drawn up a plan for CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson.

In addition to Pompeo, Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who is now the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been often discussed as a possible Tillerson’s replacement. The hawkish Halley has seemed in sync with Trump on issues including Iran and the Middle East.

Tillerson, who took the Cabinet post with no government experience, has indicated he wanted to stay at least long enough to finish a State Department “redesign” that he is overseeing. That has been widely panned, however, for causing low morale in the agency and an exodus of talented diplomats.

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Rep. John Conyers hospitalized as new sexual harassment accuser comes forward

U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.)
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

A woman who alleges she was fired because she rejected Detroit Rep. John Conyers’ sexual advances broke a confidentiality agreement Thursday to tell NBC’s “Today” show that the longest-serving member of the U.S. House subjected her to years of sexual harassment.

The Democratic congressman also was hospitalized Thursday in Detroit, according to political consultant Sam Riddle, who said he’d talked with Conyers’ wife. Riddle said he didn’t know why Conyers went to the hospital or his condition.

Marion Brown, 61, said the Democratic congressman propositioned her for sex multiple times over more than a decade. She said she stayed on the job because she needed to support her family and found the work rewarding.

“It was sexual harassment ... violating my body,” she said. “Propositioning me. Inviting me to hotels with the guise of discussing business and then propositioning me ... for sex.”

The Associated Press left messages Thursday seeking comment from Conyers’ lawyer, who has said the 88-year-old will fight the misconduct allegations.

Last week, BuzzFeed News reported Conyers had settled a complaint in 2015 for $27,000 from a female staffer who alleged she was fired because she rejected his sexual advances. BuzzFeed didn’t disclose her name in its initial report and said the settlement was confidential.

Brown’s lawyer, Lisa Bloom, confirmed to The Associated Press after the NBC interview aired that Brown was that former employee. She said Brown worked for Conyers in a variety of capacities from 2003 until 2014, mostly in the Detroit district office.

Brown said she was putting herself “at risk” of violating the confidentiality agreement, but she spoke out to say she’s “not a liar” and to request an apology from Conyers. She said she reported some allegations to Conyers’ chief of staff in Detroit, but nothing happened.

Some fellow Democrats are pushing Conyers to resign, but Detroit-area attorney Arnold Reed told the Associated Press on Wednesday that Conyers is innocent and has no plans to step down.

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Expel Roy Moore if he wins? Not so fast, some senators say

(Scott Olson / Getty Images)

A few weeks ago, when a series of women first stepped forward to accuse Roy Moore of sexual misconduct, Republican senators said confidently that if he won the Senate seat from Alabama for which he is running, they would expel him.

Now, with the Alabama election less than two weeks away, second thoughts have begun setting in.

Republican senators continue to say that they would subject Moore, a fellow Republican, to an Ethics Committee investigation. But questions are mounting about whether it would be appropriate for the Senate to oust Moore over allegations that were known to voters before the election.

Thursday, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine became the latest Republican to voice those doubts.

“I never endorsed Roy Moore,” Collins said at a breakfast with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. She had opposed Moore even before the recent allegations because of his history, which included defying U.S. Supreme Court rulings, she noted.

But “if the voters of a state, fully knowing these allegations … nevertheless choose to elect Roy Moore, is it appropriate for the Senate to expel him?”

That’s a “very difficult question,” Collins said.

Expulsion would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate.

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Trump’s spread of British far-right group’s anti-Muslim videos draws condemnation in U.S. and abroad

(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

President Trump extended his flirtation with racist extremists internationally on Wednesday — and drew a rare rebuke from two European allies — by retweeting three anti-Muslim videos from a far-right fringe group in Britain.

“It is wrong for the president to have done this,” said James Slack, spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May. He described the group, Britain First, as one that “seeks to divide communities by their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tension.”

Compounding the sudden diplomatic muddle with the United States’ closest ally, Trump hit back at the prime minister Wednesday night, again on Twitter, telling her, “Don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!”

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Are consumer advocates just delaying the inevitable in fight over CFPB acting director?

They waved signs. They banged drums. And they chanted their opposition to Mick Mulvaney’s appointment as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“For six years this agency has fought for working people and now it is time for us to fight for the agency,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at a rally this week in front of the bureau’s headquarters. “Are you ready to fight?”

The crowd of about 50 protesters roared “Yeah!” in unison.

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Analysis: As corporate America fires alleged sexual harassers, Washington stumbles over how to punish its transgressors

Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, one of the elected officials accused of sexual harassment
(J.Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

American corporations in recent weeks have scythed through the ranks of alleged sexual harassers, dispatching personalities as powerful as movie producer Harvey Weinstein and television anchor Matt Lauer, who was swiftly fired on Wednesday after a credible accusation of sexual misbehavior.

But in Washington, the growing public intolerance for harassment has tied politicians in partisan pretzels and left them grappling for a way to assess guilt and mete out consequences.

Several factors have slowed the political response.

In the sharply divided Capitol, partisanship inevitably affects how cases are viewed. So does a reluctance to sit in judgment of peers who are longtime friends and allies. Congress also has more than a whiff of entitlement, accustomed to operating by its own rules while other organizations rush to protect themselves from liability.

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Congress is caught up in the sexual misconduct scandals. Will it police its own?

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) in 2015.
(Alex Wong / Getty Images)

With a spate of sexual harassment allegations stirring trouble on Capitol Hill, Congress faces a new test of how well it can police itself.

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, accused of demanding sex from women who worked for him, is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. Some fellow Democrats have urged him to resign.

Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, another Democrat fighting to save his career, is bracing for a Senate Ethics Committee inquiry of groping allegations.

And GOP lawmakers have threatened to expel Republican Roy Moore of Alabama if he wins a Senate seat in a Dec. 12 special election. He stands accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old decades ago.

The raft of allegations of abusive conduct by powerful men in politics, business, news and entertainment — President Trump among them — has put pressure on Congress to improve its system for punishing misconduct in its own ranks.

The swift downfalls of NBC anchor Matt Lauer, comedian Louis C.K., actor Kevin Spacey and others in the private sector have highlighted the lumbering pace of the disciplinary process for Congress.

Revelations of secret payments of taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment complaints against Conyers and possibly other lawmakers have sparked calls for more transparency.

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House approves sexual harassment training for all representatives and staff

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.)
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.)
(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

All members of Congress and their staff will now take anti-sexual harassment training after the House voted Wednesday to make it mandatory.

It’s the opening salvo in what House leaders promise will be a complete overhaul of how sexual harassment claims are handled since a wave of accusations have rocked Capitol Hill.

“The fact that some people [who] end up walking these halls are subjected to a threatening or hostile work environment when they came here to serve their country, to serve their ideals, that’s wrong, that’s a disgrace. We cannot and we will not tolerate that kind of behavior,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters Wednesday prior to the vote. “We need to have a comprehensive review of all of these things so that we can have a comprehensive response.”

The House Administration Committee will hold a second hearing next week about the sexual harassment claims process on Capitol Hill.

Half a dozen female representatives have come forward to tell stories about being harassed on Capitol Hill, or to relate stories told to them by staff.

For someone who works on Capitol Hill to pursue a harassment administrative hearing or a lawsuit against a lawmaker or staff member, they currently must first go to counseling through the little-known Office of Compliance. The counseling can last up to 30 days and informs accusers of their legal rights. Then, there is 30 days of required mediation with the person they are accusing. During this process, the accuser must sign a nondisclosure agreement and provide their own legal counsel. The person accused is represented by House lawyers.

Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Whittier) said that process is riddled with “outdated, onerous hurdles for complainants to try to overcome before they can ever have their day in court.”

Sanchez, who handled sexual assault claims as a labor attorney before being elected to Congress, has described being subjected to unwanted advances by a still-serving House colleague, whom she has declined to name.

“The process needs to be fair for all parties involved. In needs to be fair for the complainant and it needs to be fair for the person being accused. They need to have due process,” Sanchez said. “You don’t want character assassinations, nor do you want victims that don’t get their day in court.”

Among the measures being considered is an overhaul introduced by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) that would speed up the complaint process, as well as require more transparency about the accused and about how much harassment settlements cost taxpayers. After Speier shared her own harassment story about being forcibly kissed when she was a staff member on Capitol Hill, more than 1,500 current and former Hill staffers signed a letter asking Congress to change the process.

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Trump was wrong to share anti-Muslim videos tweeted by far-right leader, British prime minister spokesman says

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman says President Trump was wrong to share anti-Muslim videos tweeted by a U.K. far-right leader.

Trump retweeted three videos posted by Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of Britain First. Fransen has been convicted of a hate crime in Britain and currently faces more charges.

May’s spokesman, James Slack, said Britain First seeks to divide communities through its use of “hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions.” He said “it is wrong for the president to have done this.”

But May’s office said an invitation for Trump to pay a state visit to Britain was not being withdrawn. Opposition politicians are calling for the visit to be canceled after the far-right retweets.

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Trump threatens new sanctions, a policy that has failed to stop North Korea’s nuclear advances

President Trump is threatening to ramp up sanctions against North Korea, a strategy that so far has proved ineffective against its nuclear development, in retaliation for the latest ballistic missile test.

Trump tweeted Wednesday that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the test, after speaking late Tuesday with South Korea’s president. The test came days after Trump’s return from Asia, where the subject of North Korea was a primary focus of talks with both leaders as well as Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Trump already had stepped up sanctions and last week put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The “major sanctions” that Trump said would be imposed are a reminder of how limited American options are in facing off with a nuclear foe that now claims, with the new test, to have the capacity to reach Washington, D.C.

“This situation will be handled!” Trump tweeted, echoing words he used Tuesday after the nuclear test was revealed.

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Trump posts provocative anti-Muslim videos from a leader of far-right U.K. fringe group

President Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos from the account of a leader of a far-right British fringe group known for conducting “Christian patrols” in predominantly Muslim neighborhoods and arrested recently for inciting hatred and violence.

The videos, which purport to show Muslims engaged in acts of violence and anti-Christian incitement, came from the Twitter account of Jayda Fransen, a deputy leader of the group Britain First who was convicted last year of religiously aggravated harassment against a Muslim woman wearing a head scarf.

Trump apparently posted the videos from Fransen’s account on Wednesday morning in between tweets about the economy and calling for a boycott of “Fake News CNN” after the cable news network’s decision to not attend the annual Christmas party at the White House.

In response, the husband of British parliamentarian Jo Cox, who was killed last year by a man shouting “Britain First,” accused Trump of “spreading hatred” and trying to legitimize the far right in Britain.

Fransen praised Trump for retweeting her, writing “GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

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GOP tax bill gains momentum despite skepticism from Republican holdouts

After a flurry of last-minute concessions by President Trump to win over reluctant Republicans, the GOP tax plan cleared a key committee vote Tuesday and appeared better positioned for passage when the full Senate votes, probably later this week.

Even so, with Republicans’ slim 52-seat majority in the Senate, it would take only three of the remaining half a dozen or so GOP holdouts to block the bill, which Republicans hope will be their signature legislative achievement of Trump’s first year in office. The bill, which still needs to be reconciled with a House version, remains a work in progress.

Many of the latest changes were aimed at winning support from Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine centrist who helped kill the GOP’s Obamacare repeal earlier this year.

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Democratic leaders Pelosi, Schumer call off meeting with Trump after he tweets ‘I don’t see a deal’

Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill announced Tuesday they would no longer attend a meeting with President Trump, responding to his tweet earlier in the day that “I don’t see a deal” with “Chuck and Nancy.”

“Given that the President doesn’t see a deal between Democrats and the White House, we believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our Republican counterparts in Congress instead,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) wrote in a joint statement.

They said they would instead request a meeting with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Congress’s Republican leaders.

“We don’t have any time to waste in addressing the issues that confront us, so we’re going to continue to negotiate with Republican leaders who may be interested in reaching a bipartisan agreement,” Pelosi and Schumer wrote.

“If the President, who already said earlier this year that ‘our country needs a good shutdown,’ isn’t interested in addressing the difficult year end agenda, we’ll work with those Republicans who are, as we did in April,” they continued.

McConnell tweeted that he still plans to meet with the president.

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‘I don’t see a deal!’ Trump changes tone on working with ‘Chuck and Nancy’ on immigration, taxes

(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

Hours before a bipartisan meeting Tuesday at the White House on the packed year-end legislative agenda, President Trump attacked the two Democratic leaders in a tweet and announced “I don’t see a deal” with “Chuck and Nancy.”

Trump wrote, falsely, that Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi “want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE taxes. I don’t see a deal!”

Trump plans to meet Congress’ two top Democrats as well as Republican leaders in the Oval Office in late afternoon to discuss a long to-do list of must-pass legislation, most significantly a bill to fund government operations before the current spending authority expires Dec. 8.

Republicans need Democrats’ votes to pass the spending bill and avoid a government shutdown, given the number of Republicans who routinely oppose any spending. But Democrats for months have said they would not provide support unless the legislation included protections from deportation for so-called “Dreamers,” the hundreds of thousands of mostly younger immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

Those beneficiaries of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals would begin losing their two-year work permits and deportation deferrals in March because Trump in September ordered the program to be phased out.

Back then, however, Trump sided with “Chuck and Nancy” after a similar bipartisan meeting with congressional leaders. They left the Oval Office meeting in September saying they had an agreement with the president to seek continued protection for Dreamers in exchange for more border security funds. Trump confirmed that in his own remarks and tweets at the time, saying he was looking forward to working with them on immigration.

But in recent weeks, negotiations between the two parties over protecting Dreamers from deportation have stalled over demands from Trump and Republican lawmakers to include tougher measures on legal and illegal immigration.

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Trump pushes Republicans on tax overhaul as Congress faces a busy month

With a renewed push from President Trump, GOP Senate leaders on Monday scrambled to revise their tax reform plan to win over skeptics ahead of this week’s crucial vote.

Several Republican senators voiced new reservations about the tax bill, a $1.5-trillion package that could become the most significant achievement of Trump’s first year in office, but has low public support among voters.

Some senators fear the bill is too heavily tilted in favor of corporations and the wealthy, and does not do enough for small-business owners or ordinary Americans.

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Trump makes ‘Pocahontas’ jab about Elizabeth Warren to elderly Native Americans in ceremony honoring code talkers

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP-Getty Images)

President Trump used a ceremony on Monday honoring Navajo code talkers’ service in World War II to insult a favorite target, Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Trump noted that Native Americans had been in North America longer than other groups, then segued into a crack about Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who has been the subject of controversy for her undocumented claims of partial Native American ancestry.

“We have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas,” Trump said to the elderly men.

Trump has used the insult, which many Native Americans find offensive, before, tweeting or retweeting the name 12 times. But doing so at a White House event honoring Native American service to the country crosses a new threshold for the president.

Warren, an Oklahoma native, has credited family lore for her belief that she has some Native American ancestry. But she has no documented proof and is not a member of any tribe. The issue became controversial during her 2012 campaign, when it was learned that academic publications had included Warren, a former Harvard law professor, in publications touting diversity. Warren at one point also listed herself as a minority in a major legal directory.

In an interview on MSNBC, Warren responded that “it is deeply unfortunate that the president of the United States cannot even make it though a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House press briefing said that she did not think that Trump’s use of the nickname for Warren was a racial slur.

“What most people find offensive is Sen. Warren lying about her heritage,” Sanders said.

This post was updated with comments by Sen. Warren and the White House press secretary.

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Returning to Capitol Hill, Sen. Al Franken repeats apologies, says he will remain in Senate

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

“I know that I’ve let a lot of people down,” Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said Monday, repeating his apology to women who have accused him of touching them inappropriately.

“I am embarrassed. I feel ashamed,” Franken said during a brief news conference outside his Senate office. “I’m going to try to learn from my mistakes.”

“I know there are no magic words I can say to regain your trust,” he added. “That is going to take time.”

Franken apologized a week and a half ago after Leeann Tweeden, a news anchor on KABC’s “McIntyre in the Morning,” said that he had aggressively kissed her during a rehearsal for a comedy skit in 2006, when the two were on a USO tour.

Since then, additional women have said that Franken inappropriately touched them during photos, accusing him of grabbing their buttocks. Franken repeated Monday that he does not recall those incidents, but that he would not dispute what the women said.

“You have to respect women’s experience,” he said, adding that he realized he needed to be “more careful, much more sensitive” to ensure that “this will not happen again.”

Franken has agreed to an Ethics Committee review of his conduct. On Monday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Franken should consider resigning.

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Mulvaney moves to take reins as acting CFPB director amid legal dispute

( Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)

Mick Mulvaney arrived at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday morning to take the reins as acting director amid a legal dispute over the leadership of the independent agency.

Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget who was tapped by President Trump to be acting bureau director, arrived at the agency’s headquarters about 4:20 a.m. Pacific time, according to Ed Mierzwinski of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Mulvaney made the short walk from the White House carrying a bag from Dunkin’ Donuts, said Mierzwinski, who was among the first of about a dozen consumer advocates and bureau supporters to arrive to protest Mulvaney’s appointment.

John Czwartacki, an OMB spokesman, said Mulvaney was given access to the director’s office and the staff was cooperative.

But Leandra English, who was promoted to deputy director Friday, filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sunday, challenging Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney as unlawful. She requested a temporary restraining order to block him from taking the position. A decision could come later Monday.

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Consumer bureau’s deputy director sues to stop Trump appointee from taking temporary control of agency

The battle over control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau escalated Sunday as the deputy director sued to stop President Trump from installing his own appointee as temporary head of the agency.

Leandra English, who was promoted to deputy director Friday, filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, saying Trump’s appointment of Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the bureau was unlawful. She requested a temporary restraining order to block him from taking the position.

The nine-page filing said English is “the rightful acting director of the bureau” because the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the agency in 2010, specifically states that the deputy director shall “serve as acting director in the absence or unavailability of the director.”

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Trump reiterates support for Alabama’s Roy Moore

President Trump on Sunday reiterated support for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, despite numerous allegations against him of sexual misconduct and harassment.

“We can’t let Schumer-Pelosi win this race,” Trump tweeted Sunday morning from his Mar-a-Lago golf resort, where he has been spending the Thanksgiving holiday. He was referencing Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who head the Democratic contingents in their respective chambers of Congress.

Numerous women have come forward to accuse Moore, an ultra-conservative Republican, of various degrees of sexual harassment, including assault, when he was in his 30s more than 30 years ago. One of the accusers was 14 years old at the time.

Trump backed Moore’s opponent, Luther Strange, in the Republican primary, but Strange lost to Moore. Now, says Trump, the party cannot afford to allow Democratic candidate Doug Jones to win. A Jones victory could threaten upcoming Senate votes, Trump’s aides have argued, even though whoever wins in the Dec. 12 special election would likely not be seated in time for the crucial tax reform bill.

“Liberal Jones would be BAD,” Trump continued. “The last thing we need in Alabama and the U.S. Senate is a Schumer/Pelosi puppet who is WEAK on Crime, WEAK on the Border, Bad for our Military and our great Vets, Bad for our 2nd Amendment, AND WANTS TO RAISES TAXES [sic] TO THE SKY. Jones would be a disaster!”

Trump’s insistence on supporting Moore puts him at odds with many in his party, who believe his candidacy has become untenable.

Even Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, harshly condemned Moore’s alleged behavior.

Trump noted last week that Moore has denied the allegations, and that seemed to be good enough for the president.

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Conyers leaves House committee post amid sexual misconduct allegations

Rep. John Conyers Jr. announced Sunday he was relinquishing his House committee position amid allegations he sexually harassed female staffers.

The announcement came shortly after House minority leader Nancy Pelosi repeatedly called on the Michigan Democrat to “do the right thing.” At the same time, she said he deserved due process.

Conyers, who has denied the allegations, said in a statement he was stepping down as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee while he faces an ethics investigation.

He said the investigation and the allegations are a distraction to the “important” work of the committee, which he noted handles civil rights cases and voters’ access to the ballot box.

Pelosi, of California, defended Conyers as an “icon” who had worked in defense of women over the years. Asked if she believed his accusers, she said it was up to the ethics committee to determine that.

“I believe he will do the right thing,” she told NBC News’s Meet the Press.

The news website BuzzFeed reported last week that Conyers’s office paid $27,000 to settle a complaint from a women in 2015 who said she was fired after rejecting the congressman’s sexual advances.

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White House says it’s on solid legal ground in making Mulvaney acting consumer bureau chief

Mick Mulvaney
(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

White House officials said Saturday that President Trump was on solid legal ground in naming Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau despite the departing chief’s last-minute designation of a new deputy to temporarily run the agency.

The dueling claims to the bureau’s temporary leadership — until a permanent director is nominated and confirmed by the Senate — could put the controversial consumer watchdog in legal turmoil.

Senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saturday that Mulvaney’s appointment was consistent with the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 and they hoped to avoid a court fight.

The move also was cleared by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which will publicly release a formal opinion soon, the officials said.

President Trump on Friday night named Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, as the bureau’s acting director in the wake of the resignation of its first chief, Richard Cordray.

Earlier Friday, Cordray wrote to Trump saying his resignation would be effective at midnight. Cordray also appointed his chief of staff, Leandra English, to be deputy director.

The Dodd-Frank law, which created the bureau in 2010, says the deputy director becomes the acting head “in the absence or unavailability of the director.” In an email to bureau staff, Cordray said English would take over as acting director.

But senior administration officials said the 1998 vacancies act gives Trump the power to instead install an official who already has been confirmed by the Senate to be the acting director.

Mulvaney was confirmed by the Senate to lead OMB and will remain in that job while also serving as acting director of the consumer bureau, senior administration officials said.

“I believe Americans deserve a CFPB that seeks to protect them while ensuring free and fair markets for all consumers,” Mulvaney said in a written statement. “Financial services are the engine of American democratic capitalism, and we need to let it work.”

Mulvaney has been a vocal critic of bureau, which most Republicans oppose. He has called it a “sick, sad joke,” with lending rules that are “absolutely absurd.”

Lauren Saunders, associate director of the National Consumer Law Center, said Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney was unlawful.

“In an attempt to install a wrecking ball at the helm of the consumer watchdog, President Trump has ignored the law that dictates that the consumer bureau’s deputy director takes over until Congress can confirm a new director,” she said.

“The law is designed to protect the consumer bureau’s independence and to make sure that the qualifications and biases of a new director are examined through the regular confirmation and hearing process,” Saunders said.

The dispute could be headed for court. Senior administration officials said that would be determined by English, who must decide whether she will assert that she is the acting director or defer to Mulvaney.

A bureau spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.

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Trump names Mulvaney as acting CFPB chief as Richard Cordray departs

President Trump on Friday named White House budget director Mick Mulvaney as the acting chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as Richard Cordray prepared to depart the agency.

Cordray announced that Friday would be his last day as the bureau’s director and appointed a new deputy in hopes of keeping an ally in charge until the Senate confirms for the job a nominee from President Trump.

But a few hours after Cordray sent his resignation to Trump, the president announced he was installing Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to be the bureau’s acting chief during what could be a lengthy confirmation process for a yet-to-be named nominee, setting up a potential legal fight over temporary leadership of the bureau.

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Sen. Al Franken apologizes — again — as new misconduct allegations emerge

Sen. Al Franken has apologized again for alleged inappropriate conduct as two more women emerged to accuse him of groping.

The Democrat from Minnesota said he was attempting to “regain trust” of his constituency even as some colleagues called for his resignation.

Following allegations that broke last week involving Franken’s inappropriately touching two women, another two women told Huffington Post that that senator displayed similar behavior with them. The latest two women were not identified.

Franken has already apologized, saying that no offense was intended or that he did not recall the incidents in question.

Franken said he was a “warm person” that may have been too effusive in meetings with women. He said he had met tens of thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs, “often in crowded and chaotic situations.”

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Trump addresses troops, takes credit for ‘win’ in Afghanistan

President Trump on Thursday used a gratitude message to American troops overseas to take credit for a “win” in Afghanistan and to “give thanks to God” for freedom.

The unusual Thanksgiving message was delivered by Trump from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida over an internet connection to military men and women stationed near Kabul.

“I have to say just directly to the folks in Afghanistan: Everybody’s talking about the progress you’ve made in the last few months since I opened it up,” Trump said, according to pool reports.

“We opened it up. We said, ‘Go ahead; we’re going to fight to win.’ We’re not fighting anymore to just walk around. We’re fighting to win, and you people are really, you’ve turned it around over the last three to four months like nobody’s seen. And they are talking about it. So thank you very much.

“Brave, incredible fighters.”

Trump later visited a Coast Guard station Earlier via Twitter, Trump spoke of what he sees as his accomplishments in office: “Jobs coming back, highest Stock Market EVER, Military getting really strong, we will build the WALL”

The last was a reference to a barrier Trump wants to build along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

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Roy Moore’s Senate campaign is a train wreck. So why does he still have a decent shot at winning?

Roy Moore, the flailing Alabama candidate for U.S. Senate, has been abandoned by the national Republican Party and most of its leaders.

He’s being vastly outspent by his Democratic rival, pummeled on the television airwaves and battered in the state’s newspapers. “Stand for Decency, Reject Roy Moore,” Alabama’s three leading papers thundered in a joint editorial emblazoned on Sunday’s front pages.

And yet with just about two weeks to go until the Dec. 12 vote, the race is far from over.

Moore has been accused of multiple incidents of sexual misconduct, including molestation of a 14-year-old girl and assault of a 16-year-old when he was an assistant district attorney in his 30s. Moore, 70, adamantly denies the charges, saying they have been conjured up by enemies and a political establishment that cannot abide his staunch Christian conservatism.

While President Trump has effectively endorsed Moore, questioning the allegations, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan are among the many GOP high-ups urging Moore to step aside. The Republican National Committee and its Senate campaign arm have walked away from his campaign.

But even some who believe the allegations are sticking by Moore. To their mind, there is something even worse than elevating an accused sexual predator to the United States Senate: electing a Democrat.

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Texas Rep. Joe Barton apologizes for nude photo on Twitter

Texas Rep. Joe Barton is apologizing after a nude photo of him circulated on social media.

Barton released a statement Wednesday to the Texas Tribune acknowledging that while separated from his second wife, prior to their divorce, he had sexual relationships “with other mature adult women.”

The 68-year-old Republican from Ennis says each relationship was consensual and since has ended. He says, “I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down.”

Barton announced his reelection bid this month. The photo appeared on an anonymous Twitter account.

His spokeswoman told the Dallas Morning News that Barton has no plans to step down.

Barton joined the U.S. House in 1985. He is the longest-serving member of Congress from Texas.

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Republican tax bill may add to deficit in violation of Senate’s Byrd rule, report says

The Senate Republican tax bill might have a so-called Byrd rule problem by adding to the federal deficit after 10 years, according to a report released Wednesday.

Forecasters at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania agreed that during the first decade, the tax plan stays within the $1.5 trillion in additional deficit spending allowed by Senate budget rules.

But by 2028, they said, the model shows $29 billion in additional deficit, and red ink continues for several more years. Eventually, the model shows revenues from expiring tax cuts and growth making up for the shortfall.

It’s a problem because under a rule named after former Sen. Robert Byrd, the Senate may not use a special budget reconciliation process to pass the tax bill if it adds anything to the deficit after 10 years.

Republicans, working hard to avoid any violation, remain confident their final bill will comply with all budget rules, as senators prepare to consider the tax package next week.

Previous outside analyses showed similar deficit concerns, but Republicans said that as they revise the bill, official congressional scorekeepers are unlikely to find similar problems.

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Trump calls LaVar Ball, father of freed UCLA player, an ‘ungrateful fool’

LaVar Ball, father of the Lakers' Lonzo Ball and UCLA player LiAngelo Ball, watches a Lakers game in Vegas in July.
(John Locher / Associated Press)

In a way, it’s the matchup sports fans have been waiting for.

In one corner: famous sports dad LaVar Ball, who has risen to notoriety by being the father of the NBA Lakers’ Lonzo Ball, UCLA player LiAngelo Ball and high schooler LaMelo Ball.

In the other corner: the president of the United States, Donald Trump (who also has famous kids, but that’s for another story).

Both are brash. Both are highly quotable. Both seem to make news no matter what they say or do. And now they’re both fighting.

Early Wednesday morning, the president called Ball an “ungrateful fool” on Twitter, continuing the pair’s public spat after Ball’s son LiAngelo was detained in China along with two other UCLA players on suspicion of shoplifting.

Ball has refused to give Trump credit for helping secure the players’ return to the U.S., even suggesting that Ball himself helped secure his son’s release — which apparently infuriated the president.

“It wasn’t the White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence - IT WAS ME,” Trump tweeted early Wednesday morning.

“Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair,” Trump continued, referring to the flamboyant boxing promoter. “Just think LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you. But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It’s a really big deal, especially in China. Ungrateful fool!”

Trump had previously vented his frustration with Ball on Sunday, tweeting of the UCLA players, “I should have left them in jail!”

UCLA players LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill had traveled with their team for an exhibition game in China when they were placed under house arrest at their hotel in Hangzhou, China, on Nov. 6 in connection with a shoplifting report at a luxury store near their hotel.

The players were released Nov. 14, and Trump credited the intervention of Chinese President Xi Jinping. But in recent interviews, Ball has expressed skepticism about Trump’s role.

“Who?” Ball told ESPN when asked about Trump. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

Ball added to CNN, “If I was going to thank somebody I’d probably thank President Xi.”

If Trump had helped, “you shouldn’t have to say anything,” Ball told the television network. “Let him do his political affairs and let me handle my son and let’s just stay in our lane.”

Ball added: “Tell Donald Trump to have a great Thanksgiving.”

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Accused Manhattan terrorist will face murder and terrorism charges in a New York courtroom

A photo of accused terrorist Sayfullo Saipov is displayed at a news conference after his arrest.
(Craig Ruttle / Associated Press)

The man accused of driving a van onto a crowded Manhattan sidewalk in an attack inspired by Islamic State, killing eight people and injuring 12 others, will face murder and terrorism charges in federal court in New York.

Immediately after the attacks, President Trump said he would consider detaining Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov at the prison camp on the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but later backed off and said it would be better to allow him to face justice in New York, where prosecutors have become practiced at terrorism trials.

A grand jury in New York on Tuesday indicted Saipov, 29, on eight counts of murder and 12 counts of attempted murder in the Oct. 31 attack. He also faces charges of providing support to a terrorist group and causing death with a vehicle.

“Like many terrorists before him, Saipov will now face justice in an American court,” said Joon H. Kim, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, adding that “we expect justice in this case will be swift, firm and resolute.”

Saipov, a truck driver who emigrated from Uzbekistan in 2010, told investigators he was inspired to carry out the attack by watching Islamic State videos on his phone, according to court papers in the case. He rented the truck a week earlier so he could practice making turns, then drove it down a crowded bikeway along the West Side Highway before he collided with a school bus.

He shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great,” as he jumped out of the truck, authorities said. He was shot by a New York police officer.

In a tweet after the attack, Trump noted that Saipov had asked to hang the Islamic State flag in his hospital room. “SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!” Trump wrote.

Trump was immediately criticized for potentially interfering in a criminal case, traditionally considered off limits for presidents. Prosecutors have not said whether they plan to seek the death penalty.

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Trump endorses Roy Moore’s denial of sexual misconduct

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Trump backs Roy Moore: ‘He denies it’

President Trump backed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, avowing his support for the first time since Moore was accused of making advances against teenage girls years ago and molesting at least two.

“He totally denies it. He says it didn’t happen,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House to spend Thanksgiving at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “I do have to say, 40 years is a long time.”

Trump also criticized Moore’s Democratic rival, Doug Jones, in the special election Dec. 12 to fill the seat held by Jeff Sessions before he became Trump’s attorney general.

“I can tell you one thing for sure. We don’t need a liberal person in there, a Democrat, Jones,” Trump said. “I’ve looked at his record. It’s terrible on crime. It’s terrible on the border. It’s terrible on the military.”

Trump even left the door open for campaigning on behalf of Moore. “I’ll be letting you know next week,” he said.

The issue puts the president in a potentially awkward position, given that the “Access Hollywood” recording nearly derailed his campaign and that more than a dozen women have accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior.

“Women are very special,” Trump said of the broader issue. “I think it’s a very special time. A lot of things are coming out and I think that’s good for our society and I think it’s very, very good for women.”

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House opens ethics investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Rep. John Conyers

The House Ethics Committee said Tuesday it has opened an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.).

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) other and top Democrats had called for the probe.

“As members of Congress, we each have a responsibility to uphold the integrity of the House of Representatives and to ensure a climate of dignity and respect, with zero tolerance for harassment, discrimination, bullying or abuse,” Pelosi said. “As I have said before, any credible allegation of sexual harassment must be investigated by the Ethics Committee.”

Conyers said he will cooperate with an investigation, but denied wrongdoing. The 27-term congressman, and top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, settled with a former staff member who alleged she was fired after refusing his advances, according to a report Tuesday by BuzzFeed.

“In this case, I expressly and vehemently denied the allegations made against me, and continue to do so,” Conyers said in a statement. “My office resolved the allegations — with an express denial of liability — in order to save all involved from the rigors of protracted litigation. That should not be lost in the narrative.”

The Ethics Committee announced late Tuesday it opened an investigation.

Pelosi and the No. 2 Democrat, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, also pushed for swift reforms to the process used on Capitol Hill for reporting sexual misconduct, as proposed by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough).

“This report is very disturbing,” Hoyer said. “The House ought to observe a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to harassment and discrimination, and I believe an ethics investigation is an appropriate next step.”

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U.S. puts more sanctions on North Korea backers

(AFP / Getty Images)

The Trump administration Tuesday slapped new sanctions on companies and transport systems that support North Korea as part of a campaign aimed at punishing the country for its nuclear program.

A day after President Trump reinstated Pyongyang to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, the administration sanctioned one person, 13 companies and 20 vessels for their “long-standing commercial ties to North Korea” or as “transportation networks that facilitate North Korea’s revenue generation and operations.”

Most of the vessels were cargo ships with North Korean flags. One of the companies, the South-South Cooperation Corporation, supplied workers to China, Russia, Cambodia and Poland. The United States has called on countries the world over to stop hiring North Korean workers, whose salaries mostly go to their government.

The sanctions are the latest in a long line that have yet to deter Kim Jong Un from pursuing nuclear weapons.

“As North Korea continues to threaten international peace and security, we are steadfast in our determination to maximize economic pressure to isolate it from outside sources of trade and revenue while exposing its evasive tactics,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in announcing the new sanctions.

On Monday, Trump put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, along with Iran, Syria and Sudan, and threatened to continue to tighten punishment of the isolated government.

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Former Trump campaign aides facing criminal charges won’t need to be home for the holiday

Paul Manafort, left, leaves the federal courthouse in Washington last month.
Paul Manafort, left, leaves the federal courthouse in Washington last month.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, two of President Trump’s former campaign aides who are under indictment in the special counsel investigation, will be able to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, a federal judge decided Tuesday.

The two men have been under house arrest since last month, when they were arrested on charges of conspiracy, money laundering and fraud.

Manafort served as Trump’s campaign manager, and Gates was his deputy. They’ve pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors said after their arrests that with their extensive connections overseas, the men might be flight risks.

There are some conditions to their holiday travel. They must report where they’re going, continue wearing GPS devices and abstain from drinking, the judge ruled.

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Revised Senate plan would raise taxes for some, add to long-term debt, new reports find

Almost one in 10 taxpayers would initially see a tax hike under the revised Senate Republican tax plan, and the proposal would add as much as $2.4 trillion in long-term debt, according to two new analyses raising fresh concerns ahead of next week’s expected Senate vote.

The Tax Policy Center said that while taxes on average would be reduced across all income groups under the plan, 9% of taxpayers would pay more in 2019 and half would pay more by 2027, as the tax cuts for individuals expire. Lower-income households would initially see average tax cuts of $50 a year, about 0.3% of after-tax income, while upper-income households would see cuts of more than $12,000, or 3.5% of after-tax income.

At the same time, a Penn Wharton budget model released Tuesday said revenues would fall between $1.3 trillion and $1.5 trillion by 2027, on par with other outside analyses, but in the next decade, revenues would fall between $1.1 trillion and $2.1 trillion, increasing the federal debt by $1.7 trillion to $2.4 trillion by 2040.

That’s less than earlier projections of up to $7 trillion in debt, before Senate Republicans revised the bill to keep costs down, in part by allowing the individual tax cuts to expire. But it may still concern some budget hawks.

Under both the House and Senate bills, the corporate rate cut, from 35% to 20% would be permanent, because, Republicans argue, lower business taxes will spur economic growth.

Tuesday’s Penn Wharton report said growth would be between 0.3% and 0.8% higher in 2027 than without the Senate package, also similar to earlier projections.

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FCC chairman proposes repeal of net neutrality regulations

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday proposed repealing tough net neutrality rules for online traffic, following through on a promise earlier this year to roll back the controversial Obama-era regulations.

Ajit Pai, a Republican appointed by President Trump, opposed the rules when they were enacted in 2014, when the FCC was controlled by Democrats.

“Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the Internet,” Pai said in a written statement.

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Trump and Putin to speak today, White House says

President Donald Trumpchats with Russia's President Vladimir Putin as they attend the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on November 11, 2017.
President Donald Trumpchats with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin as they attend the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting on November 11, 2017.
(Mikhail Klimentyev / AFP/Getty Images)

The White House says President Donald Trump plans to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

Trump and Putin spoke informally several times last week when they attended a summit in Vietnam. They agreed on a number of principles for the future of war-torn Syria.

Trump’s conversation with the Russian president will follow Putin’s Monday meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad (bah-SHAR’ AH’-sahd). Putin hosted Assad at a Black Sea resort ahead of a summit later this week with Russia, Turkey and Iran, as well as U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva.

The Kremlin said Tuesday that Assad was called to Russia to get him to agree to potential peace initiatives drafted by Russia, Iran and Turkey as Russia prepares to scale back its military presence in Syria’s six-year war.

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59,000 Haitians living in U.S. must leave within 18 months, Trump administration says

(Hector Retamal / AFP-Getty Images)

Some 59,000 Haitians living in the U.S. under temporary status must leave within 18 months, the Trump administration announced Monday.

More than 30,000 of the Haitians affected by the order live in Florida, with another large concentration in New York City.

Haitians who entered the U.S. illegally have been protected against deportation since 2010 under a program known as Temporary Protected Status, which Congress created during the 1990s to avoid sending large numbers of people back to areas suffering from wars or natural disasters.

In Haiti’s case, the temporary status was granted in 2010, after a powerful earthquake devastated the island, which has long been among the poorest places in the Western Hemisphere.

In May, John F. Kelly, who was the secretary of Homeland Security at the time, said that conditions in Haiti had improved enough that the U.S. would be unlikely to continue extending the temporary protection. At the time, he extended Haitians’ protected status for six months, but urged them to prepare to leave the U.S.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine C. Duke reaffirmed that decision Monday, but provided an 18-month delay, until July 22, 2019, before the order to leave will become effective. Some of the Haitians currently covered by temporary status will be able to stay if they have other claims for legal immigration status, administration officials said.

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White House says Trump spoke rhetorically on Twitter; does not regret helping UCLA players come home

UCLA freshmen, from left, Cody Riley, LiAngelo Ball and Jalen Hill admitted to shoplifting while in China in a press conference at Pauley Pavilion.
UCLA freshmen, from left, Cody Riley, LiAngelo Ball and Jalen Hill admitted to shoplifting while in China in a press conference at Pauley Pavilion.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

President Trump does not regret his role in helping to free three UCLA basketball players from detention in China last week, his spokeswoman said on Monday, though his weekend complaint on Twitter suggested otherwise.

“It was a rhetorical response to a criticism by the father,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said at a press briefing in response to questions about Trump’s tweet on Sunday that he “should have left them in jail!”

Trump posted that message on Twitter after LaVar Ball, the father of one of the players detained on suspicion of shoplifting, LiAngelo Ball, publicly downplayed Trump’s role in securing their release. The three players had expressed thanks to Trump, among others; even before that, however, Trump had tweeted his expectation that they show their gratitude to him.

Sanders said, “The president was happy to see the release of these individuals and have them back in the United States.”

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Tillerson disputes reports of low morale in State Department

(AFP / Getty Images)

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday defended his department against mounting reports of low morale and unease among staff with its direction.

Tillerson has launched a major “redesign” of the unwieldy agency but was blasted last week by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for his handling of the process, which some blame for driving out many veteran diplomats.

Tillerson’s spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, acknowledged on Friday for the first time that there were morale problems at the department.

But Tillerson disputed that characterization on Monday and, as he has had to do several times this year, defended his management.

”The redesign is going to address all of that,” Tillerson said during a brief appearance with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheik Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani.

“And this department is performing extraordinarily well, and I take exception to anyone who characterizes otherwise,” Tillerson said. “It’s just not true.”

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Yellen to step down from Fed board when her successor as chair is sworn in

(Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press)

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen submitted her resignation Monday, effective when her successor is sworn in, providing President Trump another seat to fill on the central bank’s board.

Trump decided not to renominate Yellen, 71, to lead the Fed, opting this month to tap Fed Gov. Jerome H. Powell instead.

Yellen’s four-year term as the first woman to chair the Fed Board of Governors expires on Feb. 3. Her term as a board member doesn’t end until January 2024 and she could have stayed on the Fed board until then.

But it’s standard practice for a Fed leader to step down once his or her term as chair ends. Yellen’s decision was expected and now will give Trump four seats to fill on the seven-member board.

One of Trump’s picks, Randal Quarles, took office last month.

In her resignation letter to Trump, Yellen said it was a “great privilege and honor” to serve at the Fed in different roles dating back to her first stint on the board from 1994-97. Yellen also was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2004-10.

She joined the board again in 2010 in the aftermath of the financial crisis and served as vice chair under Chairman Ben S. Bernanke.

Yellen was a strong ally of Bernanke as he kept interest rates near zero and had the Fed purchase trillions of dollars in bonds to try to stimulate the economy. She took over as chairwoman in 2014 after being nominated by former President Obama and continued to strongly advocate for the tougher financial regulations adopted after the crisis.

“As I prepare to leave the board, I am gratified that the financial system is much stronger than a decade ago, better able to withstand future bouts of instability and continue supporting the economic aspirations of American families and businesses,” she wrote to Trump. “I am also gratified by the substantial improvement in the economy since the crisis.”

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Trump re-designates North Korea as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’

(AFP / Getty Images)

President Trump says he is putting North Korea back on the small list of official “state sponsors of terrorism,” a move that could lead to additional sanctions against the nuclear-armed government.

Trump said the designation is part of a sanctions regime that would include “a very large” new sanction on Tuesday and increase in intensity over the next two weeks. By then, he said, sanctions would be at their highest level ever.

“It should have happened years ago,” Trump said at the start of a Cabinet meeting, calling North Korea “a murderous regime.”

Trump said that “in addition to threatening the world with nuclear devastation,” the North Korean government had sponsored terror on foreign soil.

North Korean “must end its unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile development, and cease all support for international terrorism -- which it is not doing,” Trump said.

U.S. officials cited the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged half brother in a Malaysian airport this year as an act of terrorism.

Most of the punishments that Washington could mete out under the state sponsor of terrorism legislation are already in place against North Korea, or are irrelevant since they would involve suspending aid programs that don’t exist.

North Korea joins only three other countries on the state-sponsor list: Iran, Sudan and Syria.

President George W. Bush removed North Korea from the list in 2008 in an unsuccessful bit to halt its nuclear weapons program, and President Obama removed Cuba in 2015 when diplomatic relations were renewed.

Discussions to restore North Korea to the list began last year on Capitol Hill under the Obama administration.

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Second woman accuses Sen. Al Franken of inappropriate touching

A second woman has accused Minnesota Sen. Al Franken of inappropriate touching.

Lindsay Menz tells CNN that Franken placed his hand on her bottom as they posed for a photo at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010, two years into Franken’s first term.

The 33-year-old Menz told CNN that the interaction made her feel “gross.” She says she immediately told her husband that Franken had “grabbed” her bottom.

Franken told CNN he didn’t remember taking the photo with Menz, but that he feels badly that she felt disrespected.

Los Angeles broadcaster Leeann Tweeden accused Franken last week of forcibly kissing her during a USO tour in 2006, before he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Franken’s office has not responded to Associated Press messages seeking comment Monday.

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Trump says NFL should suspend Oakland Raiders’ Marshawn Lynch

Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch rushes against New England Patriots linebacker David Harris during a game in Mexico City on Nov. 19.
(Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press)

President Trump says the NFL should suspend Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch.

Lynch sat during most of the U.S. national anthem and stood for the Mexican anthem before Sunday’s game against the Patriots at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.

Lynch hasn’t stood for the national anthem since returning from retirement this season.

Trump tweeted early Monday: “Great disrespect! Next time NFL should suspend him for remainder of season. Attendance and ratings way down.”

Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the movement last season when he refused to stand during the anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality.

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Trump rages after LaVar Ball downplays his role in freeing UCLA basketball players held in China: ‘I should have left them in jail!’

President Trump said Sunday he should have left three UCLA basketball players accused of shoplifting in China in jail.

Trump’s tweet came after the father of player LiAngelo Ball minimized the president’s involvement in winning the players’ release during an interview Saturday with ESPN. Trump has said he raised the players’ detention with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the leaders’ recent meeting in Beijing.

The players returned to the U.S. last week. They have been indefinitely suspended from the team.

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Trump names five more Supreme Court contenders

( Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

Looking ahead to a future vacancy on the Supreme Court, President Trump on Friday named five conservative judges to his list of potential nominees to the high court.

They include Notre Dame law professor Amy Coney Barrett, 45, who was confirmed two weeks ago to a seat on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago and D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh, 52, a White House lawyer for President George W. Bush and a former clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

“The president is refreshing his list,” White House counsel Donald McGahn told an enthusiastic crowd at the Federalist Society convention at the Mayflower Hotel.

Kavanaugh’s name drew a loud response. “He’s winning on the applause meter,” McGahn said.

It was something of surprise that Kavanaugh was left off Trump’s lists last year. He had been seen as a strong candidate for the next Supreme Court vacancy in a Republican administration, particularly if Kennedy were to retire. But legal experts from the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society who helped draft the list chose then not to name any prominent Washington figures.

But last month, Kavanaugh took the side of the Trump administration in a dispute over whether a 17-year-old immigrant held in a refugee center could obtain an abortion. He wrote a 2-1 decision that put her abortion on hold for several days, but he was then overruled by the D.C. Circuit in a 6-3 decision. The young woman then had the abortion.

As for Barrett, the “the dogma lives loudly in her,” McGahn said jokingly. “A prominent Democrat suggested she couldn’t be trusted because she is a practicing Catholic,” he added.

He was referring, if not entirely accurately, to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who questioned Barrett at her Senate hearing over whether she could separate her personal beliefs from her legal duties. Feinstein said at one point the “dogma lives” in her.

Barrett, then a law professor, said she had written that all judges must be able to follow the law and set aside their personal views where there was conflict.

The other new names on Trump’s list were Judge Kevin Newsom, a former Alabama solicitor general who was recently confirmed to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta; Georgia Supreme Court Justice Britt Grant; and Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Patrick Wyrick.

During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump pledged to appoint conservative judges and took the unusual step of issuing two lists of his top-10 contenders. The second list included Judge Neil M. Gorsuch of Colorado, who in turn was appointed to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

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President Trump will pick up the tab for his legal fees, lawyer says

President Trump won’t rely on the Republican National Committee to pay his legal bills during the special counsel investigation into Russia’s interference with last year’s campaign, one of his lawyers said Friday.

“He pays his legal fees now,” said the lawyer, John Dowd. “He’s working out a way to square the account.”

Trump’s decision was first reported by Reuters. The Republican National Committee previously paid $231,250 to the offices of Dowd and Jay Sekulow, another one of Trump’s lawyers, in August.

The next question, Dowd said, is whether Trump can financially support the legal fees incurred by members of his administration, many of whom have hired their own lawyers to handle the special counsel investigation.

“The question is, can he kick into that fund?” Dowd said. “That’s being put to the experts” to ensure nothing violates ethics rules.

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Democratic candidate for Ohio governor defends Sen. Al Franken — then brags about his own sexual history

(Amy Sancetta / Associated Press)

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O’Neill publicly defended Sen. Al Franken against allegations he groped a woman while she was asleep — but then went too far.

In a now-deleted Facebook post Friday, O’Neill – who recently launched a Democratic campaign to run for governor of Ohio – detailed his own sexual history in defense of Franken and “all heterosexual males.”

“Now that the dogs of war are calling for the head of Senator Al Franken I believe it is time to speak up on behalf of all heterosexual males. As a candidate for Governor let me save my opponents some research time,” he wrote.

“In the last fifty years I was sexually intimate with approximately 50 very attractive females. It ranged from a gorgeous blonde who was my first true love and we made passionate love in the hayloft of her parents barn and ended with a drop dead gorgeous red head from Cleveland,” he added.

“Now can we get back to discussing legalizing marijuana and opening the state hospital network to combat the opioid crisis. I am [so] disappointed by this national feeding frenzy about sexual indiscretions decades ago.”

Many viewed the post as remarkably tone-deaf in the national debate over sexual misconduct allegations and evidence against a series of powerful men in Hollywood, the media and in politics.

The three women running as Republicans for Ohio governor – former Rep. Betty Sutton, Dayton Mayor Nan Whiley and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor – have called on O’Neill to quit the race. So has the other Democrat, Joe Schiavoni.

But in an interview this morning with NPR affiliate WOSU, O’Neill said he stood by his statement and had no intention of backing down.

About six hours after his initial post, O’Neill hid or deleted it from his Facebook page. His new post makes no mention of his past sexual experiences, nor does it address his previous comments.

“As a 15-year jurist, I like to think I speak with clarity. So let me try again. When a United States Senator commits a non-criminal act of indiscretion; and when it is brought to his attention he immediately has the integrity to apologize; and the apology is accepted by the victim: IT IS WRONG for the dogs of war to leap onto his back and demand his resignation from the United States Senate. It is morally wrong,” he wrote.

“And as an aside for all you sanctimonious judges who are demanding my resignation, hear this. I was a civil right lawyer actively prosecuting sexual harassment cases on behalf of the Attorney General’s Office before Anita Hill and before you were born. Lighten up folks. This is how Democrats remain in the minority.”

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House passes its tax reform plan as Senate version comes under new attack

House Republicans approved their sweeping tax-cut package Thursday, setting up a showdown with the Senate, where Republicans are struggling to win support for their own significantly different approach.

Senate GOP leaders, after making some revisions this week, are facing mounting dissent and criticism that their tax plan favors corporations and the wealthy. An analysis by Congress’ bipartisan tax experts on Thursday concluded the Senate plan would raise taxes for some of the poorest Americans by 2021.

House Republicans had an easier time, passing their measure by a vote of 227 to 205, though 13 Republicans voted no.

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Kayla Moore, wife of Roy Moore, defends husband as he fights sexual assault allegations

The wife of Republican Roy Moore tried Friday to help him recover from sexual assault allegations that have imperiled his campaign for U.S. Senate, saying Alabama voters could count on him to fight abortion, gun control and transgender rights.

Kayla Moore did not directly address accusations that her husband decades ago molested a 14-year-old girl, sexually assaulted a 16-year-old waitress, grabbed the buttocks of a 28-year-old woman and made unwanted advances on teenagers.

But at an event in Montgomery, Ala., with women who back her husband, she said that attacks on him were part of a plot by liberals in the media, the Democratic National Committee and the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group.

“The very same people who were attacking President Trump are also attacking us,” she said. “I personally think he owes us a thank you. Have you noticed you’re not hearing too much about Russia?”

With a new Fox News poll showing that Democrat Doug Jones has pulled ahead in the Dec. 12 special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, Moore went on the attack.

She said Jones — a lawyer who prosecuted the case against the Ku Klux Klan members who killed four girls in a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham — “is against everything we and Alabama stand for.”

She questioned Jones’ record on abortion, guns and transgender military service and bathroom access.

Roy Moore, a champion of religious-right causes when he was chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct.

“He will not step down,” his wife said.

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Watch: Sen. Orrin Hatch to Democrats who say tax cuts are for the rich: ‘Bull crap’

A debate between two senators over whether Republican tax cuts are aimed at helping the rich escalated into raised voices, interruptions, a banging gavel and the use of a decidedly un-senatorial noun.

“I’m telling you, this bull crap that you guys throw out here really gets old after a while,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the oldest and longest-serving Senate Republican, said to a Democratic colleague.

The dispute flared Thursday night as Republicans pushed a $1.5-trillion tax cut for businesses and individuals through the Senate Finance Committee over Democrats’ objections. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a potential 2020 presidential candidate, said everyone knew Republicans aim to help the wealthy because “it’s in their DNA.”

Hatch, 83, a senator since 1977 and the committee chairman, decided he’d had enough.

“I come from the poor people, and I’ve been working my whole stinking career for people who don’t have a chance,” said Hatch, looking down the committee’s U-shaped table at Brown. “And I really resent anybody saying I’m just doing this for the rich.”

Hatch is generally soft-spoken and has a history of working with Democrats, and his display of emotion was unusual. He has not said whether he will seek reelection next fall as his latest term expires.

As Brown tried interjecting and the decibel level rose, Hatch told him, “I’m not through,” and said he gets “sick and tired” of that argument.

“I get sick and tired of the richest people in the country getting richer and richer and richer,” Brown said.

“I come from the lower middle class originally. We didn’t have anything,” Hatch said. “So don’t spew that stuff on me. I get a little tired of that crap.”

Republicans have sold their tax package in part as a way to help the middle class. Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation projected Thursday that the Senate measure eventually would raise taxes on people earning $75,000 or less because the bill’s tax cuts for individuals will expire and other changes.

Brown said the GOP plan isn’t for the middle class, “no matter how many times they sing that song.” He disputed the Republican argument that tax breaks for businesses will produce higher wages and compared it to a difficult shot in basketball.

“Spare us the bank shots,” Brown said. “Spare us the sarcasm, the satire.”

Brown faces reelection next November to what would be his third six-year Senate term.

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Florida Democratic Party chairman resigns over sexual comments

The Florida Democratic Party chairman is resigning after a report that he makes women feel uncomfortable.

Stephen Bittel released a brief statement on the party’s Twitter account Friday shortly after four of his party’s candidates for governor called for him to step down.

Bittel apologized and said he didn’t want his personal situation to be a distraction ahead of next year’s elections.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham and businessman Chris King all issued statements demanding Bittel leave the post he’s held since January.

It was a response to a Politico report quoting anonymous women saying that Bittel would leer at them, make comments about their appearances or breasts and exhibit other behavior that made them uncomfortable. He also had a breast-shaped stress ball in his office.

None of the women said he groped or assaulted them.

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U.S. calls for swift return to civilian rule in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe speaks at a Nov. 17 university graduation ceremony in Harare, his first public appearance since he was ousted in a coup
(AFP/Getty Images)

The United States on Friday called for a swift return to civilian rule in Zimbabwe, where longtime leader Robert Mugabe was abruptly ousted in a military coup.

“Zimbabwe has an opportunity to set itself on a new path — one that must include democratic elections and respect for human rights,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in remarks to a ministerial summit on security and governance in Africa.

“We all should work together for a quick return to civilian rule in that country in accordance with their constitution,” he said.

Mugabe was placed under house arrest earlier this week by the Zimbabwe military after a long succession crisis in which the 93-year-old strongman fired his vice president.

These were the first extensive comments on the Zimbabwe conflict by the Trump administration.

Tillerson also called on African nations to do more to cut their extensive business ties with North Korea.

North Korea “presents a threat to all of our nations,” Tillerson said.

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In Orange County, fear and loathing for the GOP’s “Screw California” tax bill

Chris Keena feels obliged to explain: He really is a Republican — honest! — before launching his critique of the Republican tax bill that just passed the House.

“I don’t believe in trickle-down theory,” said the 70-year-old retired attorney from Irvine. “The money they save — I’ve seen it in business — the money they save at the top, they keep at the top. It doesn’t trickle down.

“I hate to sound like a radical,” he went on, “and I guess it doesn’t go with being a Republican, but it’s a reality. There are a lot of people struggling here. The image is everyone is fat and happy. They’re not. They’re not.”

The sweeping tax-cut package, which passed Thursday with overwhelming support from California’s GOP House members, seems almost singularly designed to punish the state and its Democratic legion of Trump tormentors.

Eliminating most of the deduction for state and local taxes would be a hefty blow to millions of Californians. The same for a proposed cap on deducting property taxes and mortgage interest — write-offs that make the purchase of that charming $750,000 “starter home” a bit more attainable, if no less insane.

It goes on.

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Trump, who has avoided talk of Roy Moore allegations, weighs in on accusations against Al Franken

President Trump has said little about allegations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

President Trump, whose own campaign was rocked by sexual harassment allegations, has declined to publicly discuss accusations that Roy Moore, the Republican nominee in the Alabama Senate race, made inappropriate advances toward teenage girls several decades ago.

His reticence disappeared Thursday night when it came to Sen. Al Franken, the Minnesota Democrat who was accused earlier in the day of groping and sexual hectoring during a 2006 USO tour.

“The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?” read the president’s first tweet, sent just after 10 p.m. in Washington.

Ten minutes later, he added: “And to think that just last week he was lecturing anyone who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for women. Lesley Stahl tape?”

The first referred to a photograph of Franken putting his hands near the breasts of a sleeping Leeann Tweeden, a Los Angeles radio news anchor who accused Franken of groping her and of an aggressive kiss during a rehearsal for a skit he had written.

The second appeared to refer to a skit Franken had discussed while working on “Saturday Night Live” that involved drugging and raping CBS reporter Lesley Stahl. The reference was included in a 1995 New York magazine article.

Franken, who joined the Senate in 2009, apologized to Tweeden on Thursday in two statements and said he would fully cooperate with an ethics investigation. Tweeden said in a CNN interview that she accepted the apology.

Trump’s criticism of Franken was notable because the president has so far declined to offer a specific response to allegations by several women that Moore, as a prosecutor in his 30s, approached them while they were teenagers. Two women have alleged physical assaults.

Trump said during his recently concluded Asia trip that he would have more to say about Moore when he returned home. But he left it to Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday to offer a bare-bones comment.

“The president believes that these allegations are very troubling and should be taken seriously, and he thinks that the people of Alabama should make the decision on who their next senator should be,” she said.

Sanders said Trump believes Moore should step aside if the allegations are true, but she would not say what the president would take as proof.

During the presidential campaign, Trump was accused by more than a dozen women of sexual harassment, many instances of which involved unwanted physical contact. He continues to contend that all of the women who have accused him are liars, Sanders said last month.

Trump also was captured in a video released one month before the election in which he bragged about grabbing and kissing women against their will.

Asked why Trump finds allegations against Moore troubling while contending the ones against him are to be dismissed, Sanders said that the president “has certainly a lot more insight into what he personally did or didn’t do.”

“And he spoke out about that directly during the campaign. And I don’t have anything further to add beyond that,” she said.

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Sen. Al Franken, accused of sexual harassment from 2006, apologizes and agrees to an ethics investigation

Sen. Al Franken apologized Thursday after a Los Angeles radio show anchor said that he had forcibly kissed her and later groped her on a 2006 USO tour, and amid a blizzard of criticism said that he would “gladly cooperate” with a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into his actions.

“I respect women. I don’t respect men who don’t,” said Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who joined the Senate in 2009 after a career as a comedian. “And the fact that my own actions have given people a good reason to doubt that makes me feel ashamed.”

Leeann Tweeden, a news anchor on KABC’s “McIntyre in the Morning,” said in a post on the station’s website Thursday and in interviews throughout the day that Franken had written a skit for the USO tour in which they kissed, and he demanded that they rehearse the scene.

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Jared Kushner didn’t turn over message about a ‘Russian backdoor overture,’ senators say

(Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press)

Senators said Thursday that President Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, had failed to turn over some documents Congress sought as it investigates Russian interference in last year’s presidential election.

One of the missing documents was a message referencing a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” according to a bipartisan letter to Kushner’s attorney from Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the panel’s senior Democrat.

Kushner forwarded the message, the letter said, without providing further information, including how he received it or where he forwarded it.

Senators became aware of the message when other people turned it over to the committee, the letter said.

Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that they have provided the Judiciary Committee “with all relevant documents” from the campaign and the transition but are “open to responding to any additional requests.”

1:45 p.m.: This post was updated to include a statement from Kushner’s lawyer.

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25 GOP senators have disavowed Roy Moore. How does that compare to the 2016 Trump tape?

At least five women have accused Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers. With Alabama’s special election runoff slated for Dec. 12, many GOP senators have withdrawn their endorsements of Moore or issued strong statements condemning him.

How does that compare with what GOP senators said about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump after an “Access Hollywood” tape portrayed him speaking crudely about women and bragging about his behavior with women that some have characterized as sexual assault?

Trump dismissed the 2005 tape as “locker room talk,” but the incident sparked ample discussion about past sexual misconduct allegations. Several Senate Republicans spoke out.

After the tape surfaced, 12 of the 53 Republican senators in office at the time disavowed Trump and withdrew their backing. There were 14 senators who maintained support for Trump, and the rest offered partial criticism, rebuking his comments without explicitly rescinding their endorsements.

Of the 52 current GOP senators, 25 have disavowed Moore and say he should step aside. Another 26 have offered partial criticism – calling for him to quit with an “if true” caveat – and one has not yet commented.

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New Jersey Sen. Menendez’s bribery trial ends in a hung jury

The federal bribery trial of Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez ended in a mistrial Thursday when the jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked on all charges against the New Jersey politician and a wealthy donor.

Prosecutors can seek to retry the lawmaker.

U.S. District Judge William Walls declared the mistrial after more than six full days of deliberations that had to be re-started midway through when a juror was replaced.

There was no immediate word on which way the jury was leaning — toward conviction or toward acquittal.

The inconclusive end to the 2-month trial could leave the charges hanging over Menendez as he gears up for an expected run for reelection next year to the Senate, where the Republicans hold a slim edge and the Democrats need every vote they can get.

Menendez, 63, is accused of using his political influence to help Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen in exchange for luxury vacations in the Caribbean and Paris, flights on Melgen’s private jet and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to organizations that supported the senator directly or indirectly.

UPDATES

10:20 a.m.: This story has been updated with the mistrial.

This story originally published at 9:17 a.m.

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L.A. radio anchor says Al Franken forcibly kissed her during USO tour

Sen. Al Franken apologized Thursday after a Los Angeles radio show anchor said that he had forcibly kissed her and later groped her on a 2006 USO tour, actions that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said should trigger a sexual harassment investigation.

Leeann Tweeden, a news anchor on KABC-AM’s “McIntyre in the Morning,” said in a post on the station’s website that Franken, then a professional comedy writer and performer, had written a skit for the USO tour in which they kissed, and he demanded that they rehearse the scene.

After Franken aggressively kissed her, Tweeden said, “I immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again I wouldn’t be so nice about it the next time ... I felt disgusted and violated.”

Tweeden said she found out later, from a CD of photographs taken of the tour, that Franken had groped her while she was sleeping on the plane ride from the Mideast to the United States. It is not clear from the photo whether Franken touched her, but Tweeden said he had.

“I couldn’t believe it. He groped me without my consent while I was asleep,” she said.

Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who was elected senator in 2009, apologized in a statement released Thursday.

“I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann,” he said. “As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”

McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said the Senate Ethics Committee should review the matter.

“Regardless of party, harassment and assault are completely unacceptable — in the workplace or anywhere else,” he said in a statement.

The Franken episode followed repeated claims by women on Capitol Hill that they have been the target of groping and unwanted advances from men and that Congress lacks sufficient protections for them.

The issue of sexual aggressiveness has also marked the Alabama Senate race. Republican Roy Moore had been the frontrunner until a series of women came forward and asserted that he had made advances toward them when they were teens and he was a local prosecutor in his 30s.

UPDATES:

9:05 a.m.: This article was updated with Sen. Al Franken’s apology and other staff reporting.

This article was originally published at 8:25 a.m.

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Senior Democrat wants information from FBI on security clearance for Flynn’s son

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), right, talks with Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) in the Capitol.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), right, talks with Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) in the Capitol.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) wants the FBI to turn over information to Congress on any security clearance application filed by Michael Flynn Jr., the son of President Trump’s former national security advisor.

Flynn Jr. served as the chief of staff at his father’s private consulting company, the Flynn Intel Group, and also worked with the president’s transition team.

Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, requested information a year ago from Trump’s transition team on security clearance applications, but Vice President Mike Pence did not respond, he said.

Cummings said the lack of a response and reports of foreign entanglements by Flynn and his son raised questions about “the lack of truthfulness” of Flynn Jr.

“These actions raise serious questions about the information Michael Flynn Jr. submitted in his security clearance application relating to his foreign contacts and foreign sources of funding,” Cummings said in a statement.

A lawyer for Flynn Jr. declined comment.

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GOP, Democratic senators back bill to bolster FBI gun checks

Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn.
(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Republican and Democratic senators have joined forces on legislation to strengthen the FBI database of prohibited gun buyers after the Air Force failed to report the criminal history of the gunman who slaughtered more than two dozen people at a Texas church.

Congress has taken no steps on guns in the weeks after deadly shootings in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas. The bill, which has the backing of the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, would ensure that federal agencies, such as the Defense Department, and states accurately report relevant criminal information to the FBI.

The Air Force has acknowledged that the Texas shooter, Devin P. Kelley, should have had his name and domestic violence conviction submitted to the National Criminal Information Center database.

The bill would penalize federal agencies that fail to properly report required records and rewards states that comply by providing them with federal grant preferences.

Cornyn said agencies and state governments have for years failed to forward legally required records without consequences.

“Just one record that’s not properly reported can lead to tragedy, as the country saw last week in Sutherland Springs, Texas,” Cornyn said. “This bill aims to help fix what’s become a nationwide, systemic problem so we can better prevent criminals and domestic abusers from obtaining firearms.”

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a fierce proponent of gun restrictions, said much more needs to be done on the issue of gun violence, but he believes the bill will help ensure that thousands of dangerous people are prevented from buying guns.

“It represents the strongest update to the background checks system in a decade, and provides the foundation for more compromise in the future,” Murphy said.

The measure’s prospects in the Senate are unclear despite Cornyn’s backing, and it faces an uncertain future in the GOP-run House.

The bill would penalize agencies that fail to forward required information by prohibiting political appointees from receiving any bonus pay. The legislation also seeks to improve accountability by publicly reporting which agencies and states fail to provide the required records.

Anyone who purchases a gun from a federally licensed dealer must pass a background check. People convicted in any court of domestic violence are prohibited from buying a gun, but the Air Force has acknowledged that it failed to tell the FBI about the assault conviction for Kelley, a former airman who killed more than two dozen in the Texas church on Nov. 5. That failure made it possible for Kelley to acquire weapons that federal law prohibited him from buying or possessing after his 2012 conviction.

The Army has also said it failed to alert the FBI to soldiers’ criminal histories in a “significant amount” of cases.

Peter Ambler, executive director of an organization named for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), the victim of a shooting, said the bill was a step in the right direction.

“It’s an important signal to states and federal agencies that Congress means business when it comes to ensuring a strong, effective background check system,” said Ambler, whose organization works to strengthen gun laws.

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Lower-income earners face tax increases under revised Senate bill, new congressional analysis says

Low-income earners would pay more in taxes starting in 2021 under a revised Senate Republican bill, according to a congressional analysis released Thursday.

People with incomes between $10,000 and $30,000 a year would see their overall taxes decrease in 2019 along with all earners, but that would reverse in 2021, according to a report from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

By 2023, people with incomes below $10,000 also would see increases.

All other income categories, including those earning more than $1 million a year, would see tax decreases through 2025.

But in 2027, taxes would go up overall for every income group under $75,000 because the revised Senate Republican bill calls for tax cuts and other changes to the individual code to expire at the end of 2025.

The large cut in the corporate tax rate, to 20% from 35%, would be permanent under the Republican bill.

The new analysis created another problem for Senate Republicans in their effort to pass a tax overhaul.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who drafted the bill, and other supporters have touted a Joint Committee on Taxation analysis of the original bill that showed tax decreases in all income categories to dispute Democratic criticism that the plan is tilted toward corporations and the wealthy.

Changes to the bill this week altered its overall effects. The revised Senate bill added a repeal of the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act that requires all Americans to have health insurance.

The Joint Committee on Taxation projected in its score of the revised bill that without that mandate, some low-income earners would opt not to buy healthcare coverage, so would not receive the Affordable Care Act’s federal tax credits, Hatch said. Without those credits, their taxes would increase, Hatch said.

“We’re seeing some taxes go up because of a scoring assumption, not because of tax rates or policies,” Hatch said at the start of a Finance Committee hearing Thursday. “Anyone who says we’re hiking taxes on low-income families is misstating the facts.”

But Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), called the report “jaw-dropping news.”

“According to the latest figure in 2021, families earning $30,000 and under are going to get clobbered by a tax hike of nearly $6 billion to pay for this handout to multinational corporations,” he said. “I believe this process ought to end right here and now.”

In 2021, the analysis said, total federal taxes paid by people with incomes between $10,000 and $20,000 would increase by $2.8 billion. And taxes paid by people with incomes between $20,000 and $30,000 would increase by $3 billion.

Those figures would rise in 2023 and 2025, the analysis said. Also, in 2023, taxes on people with incomes of less than $10,000 would increase by $178 million overall.

12:55 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details from the Joint Committee on Taxation report.

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Ivanka Trump: There’s a ‘special place in hell for people who prey on children’

Ivanka Trump believes “there’s a special place in hell” for people who do the things that GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore is accused of.

While President Trump ignored shouted questions from reporters about Moore on Wednesday, the first daughter weighed in on the scandal surrounding the firebrand former Alabama judge, telling the Associated Press that she has seen no evidence discrediting his accusers.

Moore has been accused of pursuing sexual and romantic relationships with teenage girls — one as young as 14 — when he was in his 30s.

“There is a special place in hell for people who prey on children,” Trump told the AP. “I’ve yet to see a valid explanation, and I have no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts.”

Multiple women have come forward to say that Moore either pursued relationships with them or sexually assaulted them when they were teens. Moore has denied the charges. Trump did not call on Moore to exit the race to fill the Senate seat left vacant when Jeff Sessions became U.S. attorney general.

The president — who during the 2016 campaign was accused of sexual misconduct by over a dozen women — has yet to comment on the situation.

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Some GOP senators raising doubts about revised Republican tax overhaul

A gambit by Senate Republicans to make a large corporate tax cut permanent by having benefits for individuals expire at the end of 2025 created new problems for the legislation Wednesday as lawmakers were still grappling with the controversial decision to add the repeal of a key Obamacare provision.

The decision by Republican leaders to double down on risky maneuvers to overcome budgetary hurdles with their tax overhaul threatened to put the entire effort in jeopardy.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) declared he would not support the bill because it treats large corporations differently than many small businesses, which pay taxes through the individual code.

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By inserting Obamacare repeal into tax plan, Senate GOP may complicate passage

Senate Republicans took a big gamble Tuesday with their tax reform bill, adding a partial Obamacare repeal provision that would free up more money for tax cuts, but also inject significant new political hurdles.

The change, backed by President Trump and a handful of senators, would end the mandate under the Affordable Care Act that all Americans have health coverage. Senate GOP leaders had previously rejected the idea as too risky to include in their tax package, particularly after the repeated failed efforts earlier this year to repeal and replace the 2010 law.

Repealing the mandate would save the government an estimated $338 billion over 10 years, but only because millions of people would stop buying insurance and therefore would no longer receive subsidies to help pay for their premiums.

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Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby joins GOP leaders in shunning Roy Moore

Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore.
(Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

Republican establishment support for Roy Moore, the embattled Senate candidate in Alabama, eroded further Wednesday as the state’s senior senator, Richard Shelby, said he planned to write in the name of another candidate on his ballot.

Facing accusations that he sexually assaulted teenage girls -- assertions he has denied -- Moore should seriously consider withdrawing from the Sept. 12 election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, Shelby told reporters.

“I wish we had another candidate,” Shelby said, naming Sessions as the ideal contender.

But even as national Republican leaders continued pulling their support for Moore, Alabama’s GOP was sticking by him. A party committee for the 5th Congressional District in northern Alabama adopted a resolution supporting Moore on Tuesday night.

A steering committee of the statewide party organization was planning to meet Wednesday to consider its support for Moore. State party chairwoman Terry Lathan warned over the weekend that any Republican official or candidate who publicly backs a Senate candidate other than Moore would be making “a serious error.”

Rush Limbaugh and some other conservative media figures have stood beside Moore. But with Moore’s financial support from national Republican groups drying up, his Democratic rival Doug Jones has now outspent him on television advertising by 11 to 1, according to Advertising Analytics.

Also troublesome for Moore: Fox News personalities have begun casting doubt on his denials of the sexual misconduct allegations.

On Tuesday night, Fox host anchor Tucker Carlson faulted Moore for using his Christian faith as a shield against the women’s accusations by saying his adversaries were trying to stifle religious conservatives.

And Sean Hannity, who interviewed Moore last week, issued an ultimatum giving Moore 24 hours to clear up “inconsistencies” in his denials.

Moore remained defiant. At a church rally Tuesday night in Jackson, Ala., he tapped into the state’s long history of racial conflict. After faulting the Supreme Court for banning prayer in public schools in 1962, he said “they started to create new rights in 1965,” an apparent reference to passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act under President Lyndon Johnson.

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Sean Hannity: Roy Moore has 24 hours to explain ‘inconsistencies’ in allegations response

Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity has given Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore 24 hours to explain “inconsistencies” in his response to allegations of child molestation or else exit the Alabama race.

During his show Tuesday night, Hannity called on Moore to “immediately and fully come up with a satisfactory explanation” for “inconsistencies.” Moore has repeatedly denied allegations of sexual misconduct years ago.

Keurig announced Saturday that it had pulled advertising from “Hannity” after several Twitter users questioned the host’s coverage of the allegations against Moore. The move drew anger from conservatives, some of whom posted videos of themselves smashing Keurig coffee-makers

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Trump suggests UCLA basketball players released from China owe him thanks

President Trump suggested Wednesday that three UCLA players accused of shoplifting in China owed him public thanks after their release from confinement and return home.

“Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!” the president tweeted early Wednesday, hours after he returned from a 12-day Asia trip.

Trump said Tuesday that he had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the three athletes, who were taken into custody while in Hangzhou for a game against Georgia Tech.

Their teammates left China after the game, but freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley were held until Tuesday, when they boarded a plane in Shanghai. When they arrived in Los Angeles, the three ignored reporters’ questions. They planned to speak at a news conference Wednesday.

The players have not explained the circumstances of their confinement, but Trump on Tuesday said that “what they did was unfortunate.”

“You know, you’re talking about very long prison sentences,” he said, then added of the Chinese: “They do not play games.”

After the players’ release, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott thanked Trump and administration officials for working to free the athletes.

“We are all very pleased that these young men have been allowed to return home to their families and university,” Scott said.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said the school is weighing how to respond to the incident.

“Both Athletics and the Office of Student Conduct will review this incident and guide any action with respect to the involved students,” he said in a statement, noting that the proceedings would be confidential.

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Republicans consider expelling Roy Moore if he does win a Senate seat — a rare and severe punishment

Expulsion from the U.S. Senate is rare, but Roy Moore’s refusal to drop his run for an Alabama seat amid sexual assault allegations has led fellow Republicans to suggest kicking him out of Congress before the election even takes place.

If he wins the Dec. 12 election to fill the seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and winds up expelled, Moore would become the first senator bounced from office for sexual misconduct.

Only 15 senators have been tossed out by their colleagues. The last expulsion was in 1862.

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Roy Moore invokes God as he rejects mounting calls to quit Alabama Senate race

Alabama’s besieged GOP Senate hopeful Roy Moore lashed out at his party’s leaders on Tuesday night, saying they were uniting with Democrats in trying to drive him out of the race with false accusations that he sexually assaulted teenage girls when he was in his 30s.

“I’m now facing allegations -- that’s all the press want to talk about,” Moore told an audience at a “God Save America” conference in Jackson, Ala. “But I want to talk about the issues. I want to talk about where this country’s going. And if we don’t come back to God, we’re not going anywhere.”

Moore’s campaign rally came as more national Republican leaders dropped their support for him in the Dec. 12 election to fill the Senate seat formerly held by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

“If he cares about the values and people he claims to care about, then he should step aside,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said.

In congressional testimony Tuesday, Sessions said he had no reason to doubt Moore’s accusers and did not rule out a Justice Department investigation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), at a conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, floated the idea of Sessions running as a write-in candidate.

“He’s totally well known and extremely popular in Alabama,” McConnell said.

Sessions’ aides say he’s uninterested. To run, he would need to give up a job he loves in order to take on a race he would be uncertain to win for a three-year stint in his old Senate seat.

An Alabama television station reported that at least one person had received what appeared to be a recorded message from a person impersonating a Washington Post reporter, offering money in return for damaging information about Moore. The impersonator claimed his name was Bernie Bernstein.

Washington Post editor Martin Baron issued a statement saying the Post was “shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism.”

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McConnell turns to Trump as GOP’s Roy Moore refuses to quit Alabama Senate race

Senate Republicans are hoping President Trump will intervene in the Alabama Senate race after GOP candidate Roy Moore refused repeated calls to step aside amid accusations of sexual misconduct.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke to Trump during the president’s trip to Asia and has been in contact with other White House officials. Moore is “obviously not fit to be in the United States Senate,” McConnell said Tuesday.

“We’ve looked at all the options to try to prevent that from happening,” McConnell said. “Once the president and his team get back, we’ll have further discussions about it.”

Moore has denied the allegations raised by five women that he pursued them when they were teenagers. One has alleged a sexual assault.

He shot back at McConnell in a series of tweets mocking the GOP leader’s track record for having backed a failed candidate in the primary election.

Republicans’ options are limited because it is too late to remove Moore’s name from the ballot ahead of the Dec. 12 election to fill the seat formerly held by Jeff Sessions, now Trump’s attorney general.

One option is to back a write-in candidate. McConnell and other Republican senators have suggested Sessions could run, but the attorney general has not indicated he would do so.

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House to require sexual harassment prevention training for all lawmakers and staff

Speaker Paul Ryan has announced that the House will adopt a policy requiring all members of Congress and their staffs to undergo training to prevent sexual harassment.

The announcement comes shortly after the Committee on House Administration held a hearing during which two female lawmakers shared stories about current members of Congress engaging in sexual harassment.

Ryan (R-Wis.) says in a statement, “Our goal is not only to raise awareness, but also make abundantly clear that harassment in any form has no place in this institution.”

Earlier Tuesday, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), who introduced a bill to make training mandatory, said two sitting lawmakers — one Republican and one Democrat — engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) said a trusted source told her a lawmaker exposed himself to a staffer.

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House hearings: A platform for pressuring Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, as much as questioning him

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

Sometimes a turn onstage at a televised hearing gives a House member an opportunity to ask questions; sometimes it’s just an opportunity to deliver a monologue.

For Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), question time on Tuesday turned into a chance to deliver a screed against Hillary Clinton and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is leading the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, an effort that has already ensnared Trump campaign officials.

President Trump has been angered by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from involvement in the investigation. Franks had a suggestion: Force Mueller to recuse himself.

Franks argued that the probe into the Trump campaign’s activities was a “snipe hunt,” a colloquial reference to a wild goose chase. He said that there was more evidence of Clinton’s involvement with Russians than there was of Trump’s.

“I’m afraid Mr. Trump would have been burned at the stake by now” had the president acted the way Clinton did, Franks said.

Franks insisted that Clinton was guilty of collusion with Russia because years ago, while she was secretary of State, the Obama administration approved a Russian company’s purchase of access to some U.S. uranium.

Republicans have increasingly made that argument. The State Department was represented on the multi-agency committee that approved the so-called Uranium One purchase, but despite much investigation, there’s been no evidence that Clinton was involved with the deal, nor that it had any negative implications for U.S. security.

Still, the issue has served as a distraction from the troubles surrounding the president.

Mueller was FBI director when the uranium deal was reached.

“What do you think the Justice Department can do to correct … what appears to come to be an injustice?” Franks asked Sessions, in what seemed to be more a rhetorical question than a request for an answer.

Sessions replied that he had already asked investigators to look into the uranium deal “so I can look you in the eye and tell you we’ve done the right thing.”

“I don’t believe that is giving into politics. I believe we should evaluate on the merits,” Sessions said.

“That sounds pretty good to me,” Franks replied happily, having gotten his opportunity to make his point.

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A friendly member of Congress gives Sessions an opportunity to deny accusations

(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP/Getty Images)

Sometimes a friendly face can offer a welcome respite from a contentious House hearing, as Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions can now attest.

Rep. Martha Roby, a Republican from Alabama, opened her 5 minutes of House Judiciary Committee questioning by lauding Sessions’ four terms of service in the Senate and his earlier work as a prosecutor.

“Have you ever worked with Russia to influence an election?” she asked.

“No,” Sessions said.

She followed up by asking whether Sessions had ever “in any capacity” done anything to harm U.S. security.

“I don’t believe I have,” he said. “I’ve tried to protect our national security.”

Roby finished with a fond sign-off.

“Thank you so much,” she said. “We appreciate you.”

“Thank you for your excellent service to Alabama -- and the United States,” he replied.

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Sessions said his omission of meetings from a security form was not intended to mislead

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions insisted Tuesday that he omitted mention of meetings with the then-Russian ambassador when he filled out security forms because he had been advised that senators need not list official meetings.

Sessions said he was told by his executive assistant that, given the volume of meetings senators take part in, “we were not required to list” them on forms that asked for any communication with foreign officials.

The attorney general said he thought that approach “was reasonable.”

Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Los Angeles, retorted that nothing on the form, known as an SF-86, said senators should be treated differently than any other person seeking a security clearance.

The exchange was part of Lieu’s effort to remind the audience of something that had been acknowledged repeatedly during the House Judiciary Committee hearing: Sessions told a Senate committee that he never met with Russians, but later acknowledged two meetings with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. One of those meetings was nearly an hour long and occurred in his office, Sessions said.

Sessions also has acknowledged that he did not mention at least two meetings in which other Trump campaign aides talked about Russia.

Sessions has insisted throughout the day that he did not change his story, but merely adjusted it after his memory was refreshed by news accounts of the meetings. He said he had not considered the Kislyak meeting germane because it concerned policy matters he was involved in as a senator.

“I have not had any private dealings” with Russians, he said.

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Those email pseudonyms Loretta Lynch used? Everyone does it, Sessions says

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

Conservative opponents of the Obama administration have had a field day with reports that former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch, her predecessor Eric H. Holder Jr. and others used email pseudonyms when they were serving in government.

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions undermined that talking point by letting loose an inside secret during his appearance Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee:

Everyone does it.

“In defense of Lynch, I use a pseudonym too, all Cabinet members do,” Sessions said, adding that he thought the act was common among high-ranking political appointees.

Lynch used the pseudonym Elizabeth Carlisle, the name of an ancestor, when she was attorney general. What angered opponents was that she used the name in emails related to her meeting with Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport when the Department of Justice she headed was investigating his wife, Hillary Clinton.

Among Holder’s fake names was Lew Alcindor, the birth name of the basketball star later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Left unstated by Sessions on Tuesday: What is his pseudonym? The attorney general did not say.

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Senate GOP will add Obamacare mandate repeal to tax plan

Senate Republicans will add a partial Obamacare repeal to their tax plan, using the revenues gained to further lower tax rates for the middle class.

Republicans announced the decision Tuesday after their policy lunch, saying they had widespread support among the Senate GOP for the proposal. A revised bill, which would do away with the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that all Americans carry insurance, was expected to be released later Tuesday.

“We’re optimistic,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The third-ranking Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said the revenues would be used to push down tax rates.

“It’ll be distributed in the form of middle income tax relief,” he said.

A repeal of the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act would save $338 billion in revenue from federal subsidies that would no longer be paid to help low- and middle-income Americans buy insurance policies.

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Sessions says he hasn’t ‘done anything dishonest’ and he’s not keen on WikiLeaks

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that he did nothing wrong when he did not respond to an announcement by Carter Page, a Trump campaign aide, that he planned to go to Russia during the heart of the 2016 campaign.

Questioned by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin), about meetings with campaign advisors Page and George Papadopoulos, Sessions acknowledged that Page told him about his travel plans after a meeting at the Capitol Hill Club.

“I made no response,” Sessions said. “What does that mean? I don’t think it means I’ve done anything dishonest.”

He reiterated his assertion that he had brushed back Papadopoulos’ suggestion that the campaign send an emissary to meet with Russian officials. Sessions said he “was concerned that he not go off somewhere pretending to represent the Trump campaign.”

None of those conversations, he said, contradicted his previous testimony to the Senate that he had not been part of any campaign talks about Russia.

Asked by Swalwell whether his current recollections contradicted his Senate testimony, he replied, “I’m prepared to answer the question, but I just will not answer it in a way that suggests that I misled.”

Swalwell also reminded Sessions that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., has acknowledged that he communicated with WikiLeaks, which published emails that hackers had taken from Democratic campaign aides to injure Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

He declined to answer whether it was appropriate for the younger Trump to exchange messages with the group, which U.S. intelligence officials have said is a representative of hostile powers.

The president said during the campaign that he loved WikiLeaks and hoped it would release more anti-Clinton information.

Do you love WikiLeaks, Swalwell asked?

“I’m not a fan of WikiLeaks,” Sessions replied.

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Sessions again denies he intended to mislead during his Senate testimony — a standard he denied the Clintons

U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions angrily denounced accusations that he had intentionally misled members of Congress about any Russian interference in the presidential campaign.

“Mr. Jeffries, nobody, not you or anyone else, should be prosecuted ... nor accused of perjury for answering the questions the way I did in that hearing,” Sessions said after Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, reminded him that he had once bragged of prosecuting a police officer for making false statements that he later corrected.

Sessions said that when former Trump campaign aide Carter Page mentioned that he was traveling to Russia, “I made no response to it.”

When a second aide, George Papadopoulos, suggested that the campaign meet with Russians, he “pushed back,” Sessions said — the second time in the hearing that he made that assertion.

“I don’t think it’s right to accuse me of doing something wrong,” he said.

Sessions had not mentioned either of those conversations in earlier Senate hearings but said news reports triggered memories of them.

Jeffries noted that Sessions had set a tough standard on false statements in the past — voting to remove then-President Clinton from office after he was impeached on charges of perjury in the 1990s. During that time period, Jeffries said, Sessions spoke of his earlier prosecution of a police officer on the same charge.

The congressman also reminded Sessions that he had suggested to Fox anchor Lou Dobbs that Hillary Clinton was guilty of perjury when, in a conversation with the FBI about her email server, she said that she did not recall the answers to some questions.

Sessions insisted that he had not changed his testimony but had “added things I did not recall at the time. My statement at the time was my best recollection of the circumstances.”

Sessions also mocked the idea that in talking about Russia with campaign aides such as Page, he was somehow colluding with a foreign nation.

“Does that establish some sort of improper contact with Russians? He’s not Russian, you know,” Sessions said.

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Tech start-ups fight Senate plan to change the way stock options are taxed

Senate Republicans have touted their tax bill as business-friendly, but technology start-ups — including Hyperloop One, Airbnb, Uber and Vimeo — are fuming over a provision that would make a major change to how stock options are taxed.

A key tool for start-ups to attract employees, stock options are currently taxed when they are cashed in. The Senate Republican tax bill unveiled last week would tax the options on the date they vest, meaning when the employee is allowed to begin cashing them in.

The difference is significant because employees often hold on to their options, hopefully until those options’ value rises with the growth of the company. Under the proposed change, employees could face large tax bills before they realize the income from cashing in the stock options to pay them.

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Atty. Gen. Sessions fields Democrats’ questions on treatment of African Americans at Department of Justice

While Russia has garnered most of the attention in Tuesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, Democrats also have questioned the Justice Department’s treatment of African Americans.

When Democrats repeatedly raised questions about voter identification laws, which critics argue disenfranchise black and Latino voters, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions defended the use of such laws as appropriate.

He also defended the department’s record in prosecuting drug sellers. Democrats, and some Republicans, have long argued that prosecutors have been far tougher on African Americans accused in drug crimes than white Americans.

Rep. Karen Bass of Los Angeles, a Democrat who is African American, challenged Sessions on the subject of an FBI report that said “black identity extremists” were intent on killing law enforcement officers.

Bass suggested the report, which was made public in October by Foreign Policy magazine, was racially biased because it cited only organizations active decades ago. Sessions appeared unaware of the details of the FBI report.

“It would be interesting to see the conclusion of that report, but I’m aware there are groups that do have extra commitment to their racial identity,” he said.

He confirmed that the Justice Department had no parallel report on actions by whites motivated by racial identity, such as the armed white supremacists who protested in Charlottesville, Va., in August, chanting that Jews should be removed from the country.

When Bass then named several white supremacist groups now active, Session replied that “there are racial identity white movements ... for sure.”

But he said that he would not name them except in writing, so that he was not relying on memory.

Later, under questioning by Rep. Cedric Richmond, an African American Democrat from Louisiana, Sessions confirmed that he had not hired African American aides.

“I do not have a senior staff member at this time that is African American,” Sessions said.

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Sessions confirms Trump could pardon allies and family members involved in Russia probe

(EPA / Shutterstock)

Democrats asking questions of Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions during the House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday often used their five minutes of time to raise the specter of President Trump interfering in the special counsel’s investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election.

Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida repeatedly asked Sessions whether Trump had the power to pardon any of those allegedly involved in Russia’s meddling in the election. He cited as possible beneficiaries both former aides and family members, including Donald Trump Jr.

After repeatedly saying he “was not able to express an opinion,” Sessions eventually said that Trump did have the option of pardoning.

“I believe the president has the power to pardon, no doubt about that,” he said.”I think it’s maybe settled law.”

Democrats have often used the matter of pardons to raise a comparison with the Watergate scandal and to suggest that the president is willing to operate outside the norms of political behavior.

“We should be worried if you are telling us the president should be able to pardon in advance all of those being investigated,” Deutch said.

“The attorney general should not be giving legal opinions from the seat of his britches,” Sessions replied.

Deutch opened his questioning with a statement that it was “reasonable to conclude” that Trump had obstructed justice by firing FBI director James B. Comey.

“I don’t believe that’s a fair conclusion,” Sessions said, but added that judgment belonged to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

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Sessions tells angry GOP lawmaker: no special counsel to probe Clinton without a ‘factual basis’

Rep. Jim Jordan tells Atty. General Jeff Sessions it “looks like” there’s enough evidence to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton. “‘Looks like’ is not enough basis to appoint a special counsel,” Sessions replied.

An hour and a half into the House Judiciary Committee hearing with Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions it became very clear that not only Democrats were irked at him.

In an angry series of questions, Rep. Jim Jordan, a conservative Republican from Ohio, demanded to know why the Justice Department has not named a special prosecutor to investigate actions by Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey.

“What’s it going to take to get a special counsel?” Jordan asked repeatedly. He cited leaks about a dossier gathered by a former British intelligence officer and paid for in part by Democrats and the FBI.

Sessions said that it would require “a factual basis” and “the proper standards” to put the matter before a special counsel.

Republicans have increasingly demanded such a move in recent weeks, but Sessions brushed those aside as Jordan grew angrier.

“You can have your idea, but sometimes we have to study what the facts are,” Sessions told Jordan.

When Sessions noted that Comey is no longer the head of the FBI--he was fired in spring by President Trump--Jordan interrupted loudly.

“Thank goodness,” he said.

To Jordan’s point that a number of events gave the impression of wrongdoing, Sessions added: “I would say ‘looks like’ is not enough basis to appoint a special counsel.”

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Unlike Trump’s tweets, Nixon ‘had the courtesy’ to talk about Congress behind closed doors, Rep. Conyers says

At a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee, Sessions said he has not been improperly influenced by the president.

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Sessions says he has ‘no reason to doubt’ women who have accused Roy Moore

Asked whether he believed the women accusing Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct, Atty. General Jeff Sessions said he had “no reason to doubt these young women.”

The contentious race for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama surfaced in the House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday when Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions was asked whether he believed the women who have alleged improper acts by the Republican nominee, Roy Moore.

“I have no reason to doubt these young women,” Sessions said of those who have accused Moore of harassing or touching them when he was in his 30s and they were teenagers.

Moore is seeking a seat Sessions held for four terms before he was confirmed as attorney general earlier this year. Moore defeated Sessions’ appointed replacement, Sen. Luther Strange, in the Republican primary.

Sessions would not say whether he believed Moore should be seated if he wins the December runoff. He said he has been advised by Department of Justice ethics officials to “not be involved” in the campaign.

“I have steadfastly adhered to that,” he said.

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Sessions says he ‘pushed back’ at Trump campaign aide’s overtures to Russia

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

Minutes after he blamed conflicting testimony on his inability to recall events that took place more than a year ago, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions did recall making an effort to distance the campaign from contacts with Russia.

He did not recall much about two meetings at which Russia was discussed, “to the best of my recollection,” Session said.

But he offered an explicit memory of brushing back one campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, who had suggested reaching out to Russia.

“I pushed back, I will just say it that way,” Sessions said during a brittle exchange with Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York in questioning Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee.

As for the rest, he added: “I don’t recall.”

Earlier, Sessions said that it was “a lie” to suggest he had given false statements in Senate testimony in which he said that the campaign had not been in touch with Russians.

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GOP leaders threaten to expel Roy Moore from Senate if he wins Alabama race

Amid new allegations that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore molested teenage girls decades ago, Republican leaders intensified their calls Monday for him to quit the race, even threatening to expel Moore if he wins.

The accusations against Moore have thrown the GOP into a crisis, splintering the party and risking defeat in the Dec. 12 special election, for which polls show Democrat Doug Jones now has a narrow lead in the Deep South state.

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Sessions denies being influenced by Trump to investigate Hillary Clinton

During testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 14, 2017, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions could not disclose whether he was recused from an investigation involving Hillary Clinton. 

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that he has not been improperly influenced by President Trump to investigate Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Under questioning by Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, Sessions said “that would be wrong.”

The question stemmed from news Monday night that Sessions had asked senior aides to determine if the department should probe an Obama administration decision that allowed Russia to acquire a financial interest in U.S. uranium supplies.

Republicans have argued that Clinton was improperly involved in the approval, although they have not offered evidence.

Sessions said he was aware of Trump’s repeated suggestions that the Justice Department should investigate Clinton, but that his actions did not follow from the president’s words.

“The president speaks his mind; he is bold and direct in what he says,” Sessions told members of the House Judiciary Committee.

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Speaker Paul Ryan says Roy Moore should ‘step aside’

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday that Alabama Republican Roy Moore “should step aside,” joining top GOP leaders who are trying to push the Senate candidate facing sexual misconduct accusations out of the race.

“These allegations are credible,” Ryan said. “He should step aside.”

Five women have said Moore, now 70, pursued them when they were teenagers and he was a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office in his 30s.

Moore has denied any misconduct -- though not that he dated teen girls -- and his campaign called the allegations a “witch hunt.”

The accusations have upended the Dec. 12 special election as Democrat Doug Jones now has the lead in the state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in 20 years.

Other top Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have called on Moore to step aside, but he shows no signs of doing so.

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Sessions denies that he ever gave false statements on Russia: ‘That is a lie’

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that he had “no clear recollection” of being alerted by two former campaign aides to contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential election.

Sessions told members of the House Judiciary Committee that after reading news reports, he now recalls a March 2016 meeting that was attended by Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos. He made a similar statement regarding the presence of another advisor, Carter Page, at a Capitol Hill Club meeting.

Both men have said that they discussed contacts with Russians with Sessions or in his presence. Their statements contradicted previous testimony by Sessions that no such communications took place.

Sessions said that after reading the account of Papadopoulos, who has pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, he remembered telling the advisor that he was not authorized to represent the campaign.

“But I did not recall this event, which occurred 18 months before my testimony of a few weeks ago,” he said.

Similarly, he said he had no recollection of meeting Page.

“In all of my testimony, I can only do my best to answer all of your questions as I understand them and to the best of my memory,” he said, growing visibly angry.

“But I will not accept and reject accusations that I have ever lied under oath. That is a lie.”

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Watch Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions’ opening statement: ‘My answers have never changed’

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions testified again before the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 14, 2017.

“Lastly, I would like to address the false charges made about my previous testimony. My answers have never changed. I have always told the truth, and I have answered every question as I understood them and to the best of my recollection, as I will continue to do today.

“I would like to address recent news reports regarding meetings during the campaign attended by George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, among others. Frankly, I had no recollection of this until I saw these news reports.

“I do now recall the March 2016 meeting at Trump Hotel that Mr. Papadopoulos attended, but I have no clear recollection of the details of what he said during that meeting. After reading his account, and to the best of my recollection, I believe that I wanted to make clear to him that he was not authorized to represent the campaign with the Russian government, or any other foreign government, for that matter. But I did not recall this event, which occurred 18 months before my testimony of a few weeks ago, and would gladly have reported it.

“As for Mr. Page, while I do not challenge his recollection, I have no memory of his presence at a dinner at the Capitol Hill Club or any passing conversation he may have had with me as he left.

“All of you have been in a campaign. But most of you have not participated in a presidential campaign. And none of you had a part in the Trump campaign. It was a brilliant campaign in many ways. But it was a form of chaos every day from day one. We traveled all the time, sometimes to several places in one day. Sleep was in short supply.

“And I was still a full-time senator keeping a very full schedule during this time.

“During this year, I have spent close to 20 hours testifying before Congress before today.

“I have been asked to remember details from a year ago, such as who I saw on what day, in what meeting, and who said what when.

“In all of my testimony, I can only do my best to answer all of your questions as I understand them and to the best of my memory. But I will not accept and reject accusations that I have ever lied under oath. That is a lie.”

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Atty. Gen. Sessions to again explain his incorrect statements on contacts with Russia during 2016 campaign

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, shown during June testimony on Capitol Hill
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

Few weeks have gone by this year without President Trump’s least favorite topic, the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, surfacing in some form.

On Tuesday, even as the president flies back from his 12-day Asian trip, the subject will rise again.

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions is scheduled to testify at 10 A.M. Eastern to the House Judiciary Committee. He will try to square his past assertions that he knew of no contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians with new claims in court documents and congressional testimony alleging that he did.

Sessions, who was Trump’s first senatorial endorser and a key foreign policy advisor during the campaign, got an early hint of the treatment he is likely to face when Democrats castigated him Monday from the Senate floor.

“Regrettably, Atty. Gen. Sessions, our nation’s chief law enforcement officer, seems to have a real problem with telling the truth” about his actions and those of the Trump team, Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota said.

Franken went through a litany of statements Sessions had made that have now been contradicted by others in the Trump orbit. He accused the attorney general, a four-term senator from Alabama until his Cabinet appointment, of “convenient amnesia.”

“He has responded not by coming clean and admitting that his initial testimony was inaccurate but by shifting his story and moving the goalposts,” Franken said.

Vermont’s Sen. Patrick Leahy, like Franken, demanded that Sessions return to the Senate to explain the contradictions in his previous testimony.

“It’s clear that the Kremlin tested the waters with Sen. Sessions as it did with so many other Trump campaign officials,” Leahy said. “It’s equally clear the attorney general has concealed his contacts with Russian officials…He needs to come back again, and testify again, under oath.”

On three occasions Sessions has appeared before the Senate to issue denials of activity, only to have it proved later to be incomplete or wrong.

Most recently, former Trump campaign aides Carter Page and George Papadopoulos have said that they informed Sessions of their meetings with Russians, something Sessions denied in his earlier testimony.

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Trump says he’s hopeful UCLA basketball players in ‘very rough situation’ in China will be allowed to go home

Security guards walk through the hotel in Hangzhou, China, where three UCLA basketball players are staying.
( Gaochao Zhang / For The Times)

President Trump said he was hopeful that three UCLA basketball players detained in China will be released and sent home.

“I had a great conversation with [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping],” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday afternoon, just as his plane was about to take off from Manila, the final leg of his 12-day trip to Asia. “What they did was unfortunate. You know, you’re talking about very long prison sentences. They do not play games.”

Xi “was terrific, and they’re working on it right now,” Trump continued. “And hopefully everything is going to work out.”

Trump called it “a very, very rough situation” that “was not something that should have happened.”

The White House had previously confirmed that Trump, while visiting Beijing last week, asked Xi to help resolve the case quickly. The players — LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hillare — are being held at a hotel in Hangzhou, accused of shoplifting.

1:45 a.m.: This post was updated to include more expansive comments from President Trump.

This post was originally published at 12:07 a.m.

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Former waitress says Roy Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16

A fifth woman has come forward to accuse former Alabama chief justice Roy Moore of inappropriate sexual conduct.

A fifth woman has come forward to accuse former Alabama chief justice Roy Moore of inappropriate sexual conduct.

Beverly Young Nelson, 55, said Moore, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate, assaulted her when she was a 16-year-old high school student working as a waitress in Gadsden, Ala.

Speaking at a news conference in New York, Nelson said Moore was then a 30-year-old deputy district attorney in Etowah County and a regular customer at Olde Hickory House restaurant in Gadsden. He often complimented her on her looks and pulled on the ends of her long, red hair, she said.

Initially, she said, “I did not attach any significance to Mr. Moore’s behavior towards me and I did not respond to any of Mr. Moore’s flirtatious behavior.”

A few days before Christmas in 1977, Nelson said, she brought her high school yearbook into the restaurant and Moore asked if he could sign it. She said yes, and he wrote, “To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say ‘Merry Christmas.’”

He signed it, “Love, Roy Moore D.A.,” according to photocopies of the page provided to reporters by Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing Nelson.

About a week or two later, Nelson said, Moore offered her a ride home. Unable to reach her boyfriend, who was supposed to pick her up, she accepted.

“I trusted Mr. Moore because he was the district attorney,” she said. “I thought that he was simply doing something nice.”

But instead of driving to the highway, Nelson said, Moore drove to the back of the restaurant and began to grope her, putting his hand on her breasts and later squeezing the back of her neck, attempting to force her head toward his crotch.

“I thought that he was going to rape me,” she said. “I was twisting and I was struggling and I was begging him to stop.”

Nelson said he eventually allowed her to open the car door and she either fell out or was pushed out. She said Moore told her that “no one will ever believe you” if she told anyone about what had happened.

Monday was the first time Nelson disclosed the allegations publicly, though she said she had previously told her sister, mother and husband about her encounter with Moore.

Nelson’s remarks follow a report by the Washington Post last week detailing the accounts of four women who say Moore had sexual or romantic encounters with them when they were minors. One of the women was 14 years old at the time.

The allegations have upended the Senate race in Alabama, threatening President Trump’s agenda in Congress and leaving Republicans split over how far they’re willing to go to save the seat from a Democrat.

Democrat Doug Jones, a former prosecutor, could be expected to pick up votes from the unfolding controversy, though he has declined to raise the issue in his campaign so far.

Moore’s Senate campaign immediately responded to the new allegations, insisting again that all of the reports are unfounded.

“Gloria Allred is a sensationalist leading a witch hunt, and she is only around to create a spectacle. Allred was the attorney who claims credit for giving us Roe v. Wade which has resulted in the murder of tens of millions of unborn babies,” campaign chairman Bill Armistead said in a statement.

“We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: Judge Moore is an innocent man and has never had any sexual misconduct with anyone. This is a witch hunt against a man who has had an impeccable career for over 30 years and has always been known as a man of high character.”

Moore has refused to quit the campaign despite mounting political pressure, most recently from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Anticipating claims that her disclosure was politically motivated, Nelson said she and her husband had supported Donald Trump for president.

“This has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats,” she said. “It has everything to do with Mr. Moore’s sexual assault when I was a teenager.”

UPDATES:

1:36 p.m.: This post was updated with additional details from the press conference.

12:31 p.m. This post was updated with details of the new accusation.

This post was originally published at 11:32 a.m.

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After new revelations, Sessions faces another grilling on Russia contacts in Trump campaign

For Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, questions about the Trump campaign and Russia have become a nagging headache that won’t go away.

Three times, he has appeared before his former colleagues in the Senate and answered questions about what he knew about contacts with Russians during the campaign. Three times, Sessions stumbled, issuing denials that later proved to be incomplete or wrong.

On Tuesday, the nation’s highest lawman will face another grilling on Capitol Hill, this time prompted by claims in court documents and congressional testimony that he was told of at least two aides’ meetings with Russian officials — despite his claim last month that he was unaware of any such contacts.

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Roy Moore responds after Mitch McConnell calls on Alabama Senate candidate to ‘step aside’ after sexual misconduct allegations

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama “should step aside” in light of allegations he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl decades ago.

Speaking to reporters after visiting a plant in Kentucky, McConnell said he believes the women who were quoted in a Washington Post story about Moore’s past relationships with them as young women.

Previously, McConnell had said Moore should step aside if the allegations proved to be true.

He said Republicans are looking at a write-in option in Alabama.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) weighed in on Moore’s statements as well, Tweeting Monday that she thought he should withdraw.

Soon after, Moore responded to McConnell’s statement.

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Wealthy Americans sign letter asking Congress not to cut their taxes

Hundreds of rich American taxpayers have signed a joint letter calling on Congress to reject Republicans’ proposed tax plan, saying it would disproportionately benefit wealthy people and corporations at the expense of everyone else.

The 400-plus signers are all in the top 5% of Americans by income or wealth, according to a press release by United for a Fair Economy’s Responsible Wealth project. Signers include recognizable last names like Rockefeller and Disney as well as financiers and former CEOs.

“Tax reform should be, at a minimum, revenue neutral – without using gimmicks like dynamic scoring,” the letter reads, a reference to what economists say are Republicans’ overly optimistic estimations that economic growth will offset the loss in tax revenue. The Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the House tax plan estimates that it would add $1.7 trillion to the federal deficit over the first decade.

“It is neither wise nor just to give wealthy people more tax breaks at the expense of working families, and it would be especially egregious to fund tax cuts for the wealthy by cutting or dismantling programs that help people meet fundamental human needs like healthcare or nutrition assistance,” the letter continues. “We call on Congress to raise our taxes to bring in much-needed revenue and to restore investments in vital services.”

“Under no circumstances should tax reform lose revenue, especially to provide tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations,” the letter concludes.

Among the signators are filmmaker Abigail Disney, former Rockefeller Brothers Fund chairman Steven Rockefeller, former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall, professor Neva Rockefeller, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, billionaire activist and financier George Soros and clothing designer Eileen Fisher. Though the Responsible Wealth website is currently down, you can see a cached version of the letter here.

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Social media responds to Roy Moore accusations with #MeAt14

After the allegations of sexual misconduct by Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore with a 14-year-old girl when he was 32, the internet responded with posts including the #MeAt14 hashtag.

The hashtag was started by Raleigh, N.C., lawyer Catherine R. L. Lawson last week.

Twitter users quickly began posting their own photos and experiences.

Comedian Sarah Silverman tweeted a photo with her math teacher, not before making a joke about him being her much older boyfriend.

Alyssa Milano tweeted her photo, remarking how innocent she was.

Twitter user @OliviaResists tweeted about her own personal abuse story at that age.

Baking cookies, having crushes, these are some of the interests that author Jenny Han shared when she was 14.

Besides celebrities, there were other women who tweeted their own photos and personal experiences, some noting their lack of interest in dating older men, while others shared stories of being accosted by men.

Katie Couric posted her photo and commented about her likes at 14.

Lizz Winstead, co-creator of “The Daily Show,” shared a photo of herself at 14 and encouraged her followers to share their stories.

Another Twitter user shared an excerpt of a diary entry from when she was 14 and was afraid of dancing with boys.

Men also joined the conversation on Twitter and shared their experiences at 14.

For the record

2:19 p.m. Nov. 13: An earlier version of this article mistakenly said that a post from @OliviaResists was from “Scandal” actress Olivia Pope, which is the name of the fictional character. It was from a Twitter user using that name.

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Trump asks China’s Xi to intervene in case of detained UCLA players

(Andy Wong/AP)

While in Beijing, President Trump asked China’s leader Xi Jinping to look into the detention in eastern China of three UCLA basketball players on suspicion of shoplifting, a top White House spokesman said Monday.

Trump, who left Beijing on Friday for Vietnam and now the Philippines, requested that Xi ensure that the case is resolved quickly and that the three freshman players are treated fairly, U.S. Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said in a telephone interview.

The UCLA men’s basketball team flew back to the U.S. over the weekend without forwards Jalen Hill and Cody Riley and guard LiAngelo Ball, brother of Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball. The three players have not been allowed to leave China after being accused of stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store near the team’s hotel in Huangzhou last week.

The fact that Trump raised the issue with Xi was first reported by the Washington Post.

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Trump’s agenda at stake as sexual misconduct allegations against Roy Moore turn Alabama race into a tossup

Roy Moore speaks during a Veterans Day event on Nov. 11 in Vestavia Hills, Ala.
Roy Moore speaks during a Veterans Day event on Nov. 11 in Vestavia Hills, Ala.
(Wes Frazer / Getty Images)

Three days after allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls hit Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, the race here has become a tossup that threatens President Trump’s agenda in Congress and has split Republicans over how far they’re willing to go to save the seat from a Democrat.

The accusations that Moore, when he was in his 30s, dated teenagers and had sexual contact with a 14-year old have created an almost existential crisis for some Republicans.

The allegations come amid a national uproar over sexual harassment by high-profile leaders in entertainment and business, and many GOP senators and other officials swiftly called for Moore to leave the race. Others, including White House officials and Senate leaders, have equivocated.

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Trump to nominate former pharmaceutical executive Alex Azar as Health and Human Services secretary

in a tweet from Manila, President Trump on Monday announced that he will nominate Alex Azar, a former pharmaceutical executive and healthcare official during the Bush administration, to be his new secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

If confirmed by the Senate, Azar would replace Tom Price, who resigned as secretary under pressure on Sept. 29 after a series of stories in Politico documented his repeated use of private jets and government aircraft instead of commercial planes, at a cost of more than $400,000. Investigations into Price’s actions are ongoing.

Price, a Republican who represented a Georgia district in Congress before he was named to the Cabinet, also presided over the failure of the president’s effort to make good on a campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.

The nomination of Azar represents a shift for Trump, who in his Cabinet picks to date often has not selected candidates with experience in the department they would oversee.

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Here are the 5 major differences between the House and Senate versions of the GOP tax plan

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Republicans have repeatedly noted that it’s been more than 30 years since Congress enacted a major tax overhaul — and within the span of a couple of hours last week, they unintentionally demonstrated why.

As a House committee prepared to pass one version of a tax bill on a party-line vote Thursday, Republicans on a Senate panel unveiled their own legislation, which contained major differences in key areas involving individual and business taxes.

Trump administration officials and Republican congressional leaders downplayed the disparities even as the differences loomed as significant hurdles in the rush to pass legislation by the end of the year.

They noted that the bills are largely the same at their heart. Each is centered around a huge cut in the corporate tax rate and makes revisions designed to provide a break to middle-class earners — although independent analyses of the House bill say it benefits the wealthy more than average Americans.

“Yes, the Senate bill is going to be different than the House bill because, you know what, that’s the legislative process,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters Thursday.

“But what’s encouraging in all of this is … we have a framework that we established with the White House and the Senate, and these bills are being written inside that framework,” he said.

Here are five major differences between the two bills.

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Trump praises his ‘great relationship’ with Duterte, ignores questions about human rights

(Jim Watson /AFP/Getty Images )

President Trump touted a “great relationship” with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been condemned by human rights organizations for overseeing a deadly war on drugs.

The brief comments came as the two men held their first official one-on-one meeting Monday morning, though they had already met informally since Trump’s arrival on Sunday.

Trump ignored reporters’ questions about human rights and instead joked with Duterte and talked about the weather in the Philippines and Duterte’s hospitality in hosting world leaders for the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations summit, which Trump said was “handled beautifully by the president and the Philippines.”

“We’ve had a great relationship. This has been very successful,” Trump said.

“We very much appreciate the great treatment you’ve given us. Last night’s event was fantastic — tremendous talent,” Trump added, referring to an opening dinner held for the conference.

As reporters shouted questions, Duterte cut them off, deriding the press while holding out the possibility of a news conference later in the day.

“We will be talking on matters of interest to both the Philippines and — with you around, guys, you’re the spies,” he said.

After the meeting ended, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that human rights came up in the discussion briefly as Trump and Duterte discussed the Islamic State, illegal drugs and trade.

Philippine government spokesperson Harry Roque denied that human rights came up at all.

“No, that issue was not raised,” Roque said. “However the president [Duterte] explained at length his war on drugs. President Trump seemed to be appreciative.”

“From the body language of the U.S. president, he seemed to be in agreement,” Roque added.

Special correspondent Simon Roughneen contributed.

1:15 a.m., Nov. 13: This article was updated with a statement from the Philippine government spokesperson.

This post was originally published at 9:19 p.m., Nov. 12.

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Alabama Senate race a toss-up, new poll finds

Roy Moore
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama, has lost his lead in the race in the aftermath of allegations that he had sexual contact with teenagers years ago, and the election is now a toss-up, a new poll indicated Sunday.

Moore trails Democratic candidate Doug Jones 46% to 42% among Alabama voters, a lead for the Democrat that is well within the poll’s margin of error of 4.1 points in either direction, according to the new survey by Louisiana-based JMC Analytics. That finding is consistent with two overnight polls that were released since the allegations first came to light Thursday.

Before the news broke, Moore had an eight-point lead in the race, reflecting Alabama’s heavily Republican tilt. The election is scheduled for Dec. 12.

Republican leaders nationally have been scrambling to try to prod Moore to quit the race. But the former Alabama Supreme Court justice, a staunch religious conservative, has insisted he will not quit, saying the allegations against him by four women are politically inspired.

Some Republicans have talked about mounting a write-in campaign for another candidate. Others fear that would merely split the party’s vote and hand the election to Jones.

The poll showed Democrats united behind Jones, but Republicans split over whether to support Moore. It also showed that Moore’s campaign had largely failed to persuade the state’s voters that Jones is too far to the left — only 31% of poll respondents said they saw him as a “liberal,” with 26% calling him moderate and 37% saying they did not know.

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Democrat Doug Jones charts an unlikely path in Alabama Senate race as scandal isolates GOP’s Roy Moore

Many politicians might seize on allegations that Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore pursued sexual relations with teenage girls. But Democrat Doug Jones isn’t going there.

The former prosecutor, who won convictions against Ku Klux Klan members for killing four young girls in the infamous1963 Birmingham church bombing, has his own story to tell as his unlikely campaign gains sudden momentum.

At a Friday night fish fry in a modest, working-class neighborhood outside Mobile, Jones spent more time talking about his own record and what he would do in Washington than about the scandal engulfing Moore.

“Those are issues that he has to address, not me ... serious allegations that he needs to face the people of Alabama and talk about,” Jones told reporters afterward.

“Our message is the same.… Kitchen-table issues — jobs, the economy,” he continued. “Healthcare is such an important issue for the state. We’re a poor state, we’re an unhealthy state and healthcare is probably the biggest issue that’s causing folks to take a look at this race and hit a political reset button.

“My history has been of trying to be a unifying force to reach across the aisle, to find common ground so that we can move the state forward,” he said.

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Sexual molestation allegation puts Alabama Senate seat in play as Moore’s GOP support fades

Pressure mounted Friday on U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama to drop out of the race amid growing Republican angst over potential damage to the party after a woman accused him of molesting her when she was 14.

GOP senators began pulling their endorsements of Moore as it became more apparent that his Democratic rival, Doug Jones, could now win a Senate seat in one of America’s most reliably Republican states.

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Trump and Duterte meet in Manila -- in matching formal shirts

(Andrew Harnik / AP Photo)

President Trump is attending a gala in the Philippines celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte greeted Trump and other leaders one by one as they arrived at a convention center in Manila for the glitzy event.

Trump and Duterte shook hands twice and exchanged pleasantries before the leaders posed for a group photo and everyone filed into dinner.

Trump joined his fellow leaders in wearing Philippine formal attire — the Barong Tagalog, or long-sleeved white shirt.

Duterte sat to Trump’s left at dinner and they engaged in conversation before the first course was served.

Trump and Duterte will hold formal talks on Monday.

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Trump’s chief of staff noncommittal on Duterte’s reported human rights abuses

As President Trump headed to a controversial meeting in the Philippines with President Rodrigo Duterte, the White House chief of staff declined to weigh in on Duterte’s human rights record.

Philippine police, at Duterte’s direction, have killed thousands of people accused of drug crimes without trials, incurring condemnations from human rights groups, the United Nations, the U.S. Congress and the European Union.

John F. Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff, said human rights would be a “hot topic” in the Philippines but declined to make definitive statements about Duterte’s possible role in abuses--or whether reports of abuses were true.

“I mean there’s an awful lot of reported extrajudicial heavy-handedness,” Kelly told a group of reporters after a presidential news conference in Vietnam on Sunday morning, hours before Trump was set to fly to the Philippines.

Reporters asked Kelly whether he believed those reports. “Well, we’ll have to see,” he replied.

A reporter pressed him again: “You’re not sure?”

“I’m not sure,” Kelly responded.

Kelly downplayed Trump’s scheduled meeting with Duterte, saying the president’s primary purpose for traveling to the country is to attend two conferences that will attract leaders from around the world.

“I would say the conference is the most important thing in the Philippines,” Kelly said. “And, obviously, since the president’s there, he’ll meet with [Duterte] but nothing formal.”

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Trump’s chief of staff: ‘I do not follow the tweets’

Hours after President Trump provoked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Twitter, suggesting he is “short and fat,” the White House chief of staff said he tells aides not to react to Trump’s comments on social media.

“Someone, I read the other day, said we all just react to the tweets,” said Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, speaking with a group of reporters after a presidential news conference Sunday in Vietnam. “We don’t. I don’t. I don’t allow the staff to. We know what we’re doing.”

Kelly said, “Believe it or not, I do not follow the tweets.”

“I find out about them,” he continued. “But for our purposes, my purpose, is we make sure the president is briefed up on what he’s about to do.”

Referring to Trump’s tweets, Kelly said, “They are what they are.” And, in response to a question about whether he needs to take them into account to develop policy, Kelly insisted he does not.

“We develop policy in the normal traditional staff way,” he said.

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Trump says Putin again denies meddling in 2016 election

(Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik, Kremlin)

President Donald Trump said Russia’s Vladimir Putin once again vehemently denied interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections during their discussions on the sidelines of an economic summit Saturday. Trump declined to say whether he believed Putin, but made clear he’s not interested in dwelling on the issue.

“He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did,” Trump said of Putin, speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to Hanoi, the second-to-last stop of his Asia trip.

“Every time he sees me, he said: ‘I didn’t do that.’ And I believe, I really believe that when he tells me that he means it,” Trump said, noting that Putin is “very insulted” by the accusation. Trump called the accusation an “artificial barrier” erected by Democrats — once again casting doubt on the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia did try to interfere in the election to help Trump win.

Trump and Putin did not have a formal meeting while they were in Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, but the two spoke informally several times on the event’s sidelines and reached an agreement on a number of principles for the future of war-torn Syria.

But Trump made clear that the issue of Russian meddling in the election hovers over the leaders’ relationship and said it jeopardized their ability to work together on issues including North Korea’s escalating nuclear program and the deadly conflict in Syria.

“Having a good relationship with Russia’s a great, great thing. And this artificial Democratic hit job gets in the way,” Trump told reporters. “People will die because of it.”

Trump danced around the question of whether he believed Putin’s denials, telling reporters that pressing the issue would have accomplished little.

“He said he didn’t meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times,” said Trump.

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Mitt Romney calls on Roy Moore to quit Senate race after teen molestation charge

(Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)

Mitt Romney emerged Friday as one of the few Republicans calling unconditionally for Roy Moore to quit the U.S. Senate race in Alabama following allegations that Moore molested a 14-year-old girl when he was 32.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich also broke with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and many other fellow Republicans who have urged Moore to drop out of the campaign only if the alleged 1979 incident turns out to be true.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona was the first major Republican to call on Moore to step aside Thursday following the explosive allegation by Leigh Corfman, the woman who told the Washington Post about the alleged sexual encounter when she was a teen.

In a Twitter post, Romney said Corfman’s account was “too serious to ignore.”

“Moore is unfit for office and should step aside,” Romney wrote.

The Post also reported that Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, pursued three other girls from 16 to 18 years old when he was a prosecutor in his 30s.

Moore has denied all the allegations and vowed to stay in the race.

But the Post report has left Republicans fearing that a safely Republican Senate seat might now be vulnerable in the Dec. 12 special election, which pits Moore against Democrat Doug Jones.

Republicans are defending a narrow 52-seat majority in the Senate.

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Frustrated, Kremlin blames U.S. for lack of substantial meeting between Putin and Trump

President Trump shakes Russian President Vladimir Putin's hand before a group photo session at the APEC summit in Vietnam.
(Michael Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin pool/Pool/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

President Trump approached Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday evening before a scheduled group photo at the APEC summit in Vietnam.

As Trump stuck out his hand to shake the Kremlin leader’s hand, he patted Putin on the shoulder. Both men were dressed in traditional Vietnamese shirts. The two leaders exchanged brief pleasantries before returning to their places in the photo shoot.

It wasn’t the meeting the Russians had hoped for.

But after several days of what one Kremlin aide frustratingly called “contradictory signals” from the White House, the brief meeting might be the only one-on-one time the Russian and U.S. presidents get during Trump’s Asia trip.

For days, both sides had reported that a Putin-Trump sideline meeting would most likely happen at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. But by Friday morning, there was still no confirmation about when or if the meeting would happen.

“Our conflicting information is coming from our American colleagues,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made an offhand comment to a Russian journalist that blamed the uncertainty about the meeting on U.S. bureaucrats.

“Why are you asking me this?” Lavrov told the journalist. “President Trump himself has expressed his desire to meet. I don’t know what his pencil-pushers are saying. Ask them!”

The White House has said there were scheduling conflicts on both sides.

Putin and Trump had their first meeting a the G20 summit in Germany in July. That meeting did not improve deteriorating relations between Washington and Moscow, and the diplomatic standoff continues.

The Kremlin this week expressed hope that a meeting in Vietnam between the two leaders would be a step toward improving bilateral relations, as well as provide a venue to discuss topics such as North Korea and Syria.

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Mueller’s investigators reportedly looking into Flynn’s meeting with Turkish officials

The FBI is seeking to determine if former national security advisor Michael Flynn met with senior Turkish officials ahead of President Trump’s inauguration to discuss the possibility of Flynn secretly carrying out directives from Ankara while in the White House, according to published reports.

As part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe into Russian interference with U.S. elections, witnesses have been questioned about an alleged December 2016 meeting between Flynn and senior Turkish officials at the 21 club in New York, not far from Trump Tower, sources told NBC.

The questions were part of a criminal inquiry into Flynn’s paid lobbying efforts for Turkey after he was fired as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and joined the Trump campaign as a senior advisor.

Mueller is said to be investigating whether Flynn discussed orchestrating the return to Turkey of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric who is a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and who lives in exile in Pennsylvania, four sources told NBC.

Investigators are also reportedly examining whether Flynn and other participants discussed a deal to free Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who is jailed in the U.S. on federal charges that he helped Iran skirt U.S. sanctions.

Mueller is looking into whether such a deal, if successful, would have led to up to $15 million in secret payments to Flynn, sources told NBC.

In a statement, Flynn’s lawyers dismissed the allegations as false.

“Out of respect for the process of the various investigations regarding the 2016 campaign, we have intentionally avoided responding to every rumor or allegation raised in the media,” they wrote.

“But today’s news cycle has brought allegations about General Flynn, ranging from kidnapping to bribery, that are so outrageous and prejudicial that we are making an exception to our usual rule: they are false.”

Flynn was forced out as Trump’s national security advisor in February after only 24 days due to his failure to disclose meetings with the Russian ambassador amid the inquiries into Russian meddling in the presidential election.

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U.S. looking to agreements with Russia over Syria

Eastern Syrian city of Dair Alzour as government forces battle Islamic State in early November.
Eastern Syrian city of Dair Alzour as government forces battle Islamic State in early November.
(AFP / Getty Images)

The U.S. is nearing agreement with Russia on establishing additional ceasefire zones in Syria, a key step to finally resolving that country’s brutal civil war.

Some officials had suggested agreement could be announced in a meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the margins of Friday’s Asia summit in Vietnam. Moscow announced the meeting would take place, but the White House has said no “formal” encounter is planned.

Nevertheless, State Department officials said that as the battle in Syria shifts from fighting the largely defeated Islamic State, more attention is focusing on the festering civil war and post-war reconstruction. Russia backs the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad while the U.S. at least nominally supports an armed opposition.

The U.S. and Russia in July agreed on a ceasefire region in southeastern Syria that has more or less held fast.

“If we can get to another ceasefire zone, that helps get us closer to the Geneva process,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, alluding to the Geneva-based peace process for Syria led by the United Nations special envoy Staffan de Mistura.

The U.S. and Russia have also been working together on “deconfliction,” meaning establishing procedures for avoiding running into each other on the battlefield or on bombing runs in the skies over Syria.

And the U.S. is taking steps to attempt to contain Iran’s influence in the region, inviting Saudi Arabia, archrival of Iran, to pay for and oversee large-scale reconstruction in parts of Syria and Iraq once controlled by Islamic State. Iran has been allied with Russia and Assad in the Syria war.

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Tillerson cautious on Saudi crackdown

(AFP/Getty Images)

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that the mass arrests in Saudi Arabia by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are a matter of concern and should be watched carefully for broader repercussions throughout the region.

Tillerson, speaking to reporters onboard a flight from Beijing to Vietnam as part of President Trump’s Asia tour, struck a more cautionary note than his boss, who has expressed unconditional support for the de facto Saudi leader.

Tillerson told reporters he had spoken to Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir, who allayed some of his concerns, but added: “How disruptive it’s going to be remains to be seen.”

Outside experts have cautioned that the unprecedented crackdown on scores of Saudi royals and prominent businessmen for alleged acts of corruption could send investors scurrying and stock markets crumbling.

“It raises a few concerns until we see more clearly how these particular individuals are dealt with,” Tillerson said.

Tillerson also said Jubeir had assured him that Lebanon’s recently resigned prime minister, Saad Hariri, was safe in Saudi Arabia and not being held against his will, as some reports have suggested.

Hariri’s abrupt resignation also threatens to destabilize the region, leaving the militant group Hezbollah, which is part of the Lebanese government, to take a more prominent role. Saudi Arabia and the United States consider Hezbollah to be an Iranian-controlled terrorist organization.

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Californians strongly oppose Trump — and 53% say state’s members of Congress should ‘never’ work with him

A year after his election, President Trump remains wildly unpopular in California, and the state’s voters are split over whether members of Congress should work with him when possible, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll has found.

The percentage of voters seeking cooperation overall — 47% — dropped somewhat when it came to Trump’s immigration policies, which the state’s Democratic officeholders have fought with legislation and lawsuits.

Most California voters praised immigrants and rejected negative characterizations of them that have come from the president and some of his supporters. Eight in 10 said immigrants here without proper documentation were seeking work, not “a handout,” and that they improve the communities in which they live.

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White House calls molestation claim against Roy Moore a ‘mere allegation,’ but says he should step aside if true

Senate candidate Roy Moore in Montgomery, Ala., in September.
(Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

President Trump, under pressure to respond to an allegation that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore nearly four decades ago molested a 14-year-old girl, issued a noncommital statement through his press secretary Friday.

“Like most Americans the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One. “However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside.”

Sanders said Trump, on his way to address a summit of Pacific Rim nations in Vietnam, wanted to “remain focused on representing our country on his historic trip to Asia.”

The allegation against Moore, first reported in the Washington Post, has put pressure on Trump and other Republicans who have endorsed Moore for a crucial seat in the closely divided Senate. It’s an especially tricky issue for Trump, who has faced allegations of sexual harrassment and charged that his accusers were lying. During the campaign, he threatened to sue them, but did not follow through.

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Trump and Putin have no meeting scheduled but an informal chat is ‘certainly possible and likely’

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(AFP/Getty Images)

The White House announced Friday that President Trump would not hold an official meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday, though Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said an informal pull-aside is “certainly possible and likely.”

Any meeting with Putin could attract unwanted attention to a White House that is dealing with the intensifying investigation over potential collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government.

Trump said on his way to Asia last week that he “expected” to meet with the Russian leader during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit\in Vietnam. A Putin aide told Russian media that the meeting was confirmed.

However, Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday that no meeting had been confirmed, citing “scheduling conflicts on both sides.”

“Now, they’re going to be in the same place,” she added. “Are they going to bump into each other and say hello? Certainly possible and likely. But in terms of a scheduled, formal meeting, there’s not one on the calendar and we don’t anticipate that there will be one.”

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Russia threatens retaliation against U.S. media after RT network told to register as a foreign agent

Russia said Thursday it could begin next week to take measures against U.S. media outlets working in Russia in retaliation for a decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to make the Kremlin-funded RT news agency register as a foreign agent.

The Justice Department set a deadline of Nov. 13 for RT to register as a foreign agency based on accusations that the Russian government-funded cable news network and website was a Kremlin propaganda outlet. The decision came in the wake of investigations into Kremlin attempts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

RT’s chief editor, Margarita Simonyan, said the outlet would register by the deadline but planned to challenge the decision in a U.S. court. Failure to register could result in the seizure of RT’s U.S. bank accounts and the arrest of the senior editor, Simonyan told Russian news outlets.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a news briefing that Russia was now considering retaliatory measures against U.S. media outlets.

“I think that our patience that is nearly run out will take some legal shape. I don’t rule out it will be done next week,” Zakharova told the Rossiya 24 television channel in an interview, the Russian news agency Tass reported.

In the past, Russia has threatened to target Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America, both of which receive U.S. government funding. In the past, the ministry also has mentioned CNN, which does not receive U.S. government funds, but is a frequent target of criticism by the Russian government for what it says is anti-Russian bias in its reporting.

RT, formerly known as Russia Today, was started in 2005 with a large budget provided by the Kremlin. The news channel broadcasts in several languages and in dozens of countries around the world, promoting what it calls an alternative view to Western media. Critics have said RT’s programming promotes conspiracy theories and anti-Western ideas.

In a statement posted to its Facebook account Thursday night, the Russian Embassy in the United States said the Justice Department’s decision “created a dangerous precedent.”

“Blatant pressure on the Russian mass media confirms that the United States pursues the course of deliberately hurting our relations,” the statement said. “We consider its demand as a wish to eliminate an alternative source of information, which is an unacceptable violation of the international norms of free press.”

The threat of retaliation against U.S. media from the Kremlin is the latest in a diplomatic standoff that has resulted in both Moscow and Washington being forced to reduce embassy staff and give up diplomatic compounds.

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House committee approves revised tax overhaul bill

A House committee voted along party lines Thursday to approve the Republicans’ sweeping tax overhaul bill -- with some last-minute changes -- a crucial step toward seeking the chamber’s full passage by Thanksgiving.

“Americans deserve a new tax code for a new era of prosperity, and today we deliver,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committte.

The panel’s approval by a 24-16 vote came as the Senate unveiled its own version of tax legislation that contains the same centerpiece -- a large cut in the corporate rate -- but has significant differences that will have to be worked out in the coming weeks.

Republicans scrambled Thursday to revise the House measure after changes the committee made this week pushed the cost of the bill over the limit needed to pass it through the Senate on a simple majority vote.

Brady proposed a last-minute package of changes to raise more revenue and address concerns by groups such as the National Federal of Independent Business.

Among the changes were restoring the tax credit for parents who adopt children, creating a new lower 9% tax rate for the first $75,000 in business income for small pass-through businesses that currently pay the individual rate, and a number of other changes to corporate tax provisions.

Jack Mozloom, a spokesman for the NFIB, said the group supported Brady’s change and now intends to back the House bill “barring any surpises.”

Last week, the NFIB said it could not support the bill because the new top rate of 25% for pass-through businesses wouldn’t be a benefit to most of its members, who already pay no more than that rate.

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GOP’s Alabama Senate hopeful accused of sexual encounter with 14-year-old girl, report says

Roy Moore, the conservative Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, was accused Thursday of initiating a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl in 1979, when he was a 32-year-old prosecutor.

The explosive allegation, in a Washington Post report, comes against one of the GOP’s most outspoken Christian conservatives less than five weeks before a special election that Moore is favored to win despite his long history of inflammatory rhetoric.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that if the allegation is true, Moore “must step aside.”

Leigh Corfman, now 53 years old, told the Post that Moore first approached her when she was sitting with her mother on a bench outside an Alabama courtroom down the hall from his office.

Moore got her phone number and, days later, took her on a 30-minute drive to his home in the woods, where he kissed her and told her she was pretty, according to Corfman.

On a second visit, he took off her shirt and pants, stripped to his underwear, touched her over her bra and underpants, and guided her hand to touch his crotch, she told the Post.

She said she asked him to take her home, and he did.

Moore, now 70, told the Post in a written statement: “These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign.”

His campaign also said that if the allegations were true, they would have come up before. This “garbage is the very definition of fake news,” the campaign told the Post.

Moore is a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. He was removed from the bench for defying a federal court order to remove a granite Ten Commandments monument from a judicial building.

He is running against Democrat Doug Jones in a Dec. 12 special election to replace Republican Sen. Luther Strange.

Strange, who was appointed to the Senate seat to replace Jeff Sessions when President Trump named him attorney general, lost a Republican primary to Moore, whose candidacy was promoted by Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon.

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Signups for Obamacare insurance coverage surge, despite Trump administration attacks

Large numbers of Americans signed up for health coverage through the Affordable Care Act in the first days of this year’s open enrollment period, according to new federal figures that show Americans flocking to insurance despite the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on the healthcare law.

In the first four days of the 2018 enrollment period -- which began Nov. 1 -- more than 600,000 people selected health plans through the HealthCare.gov insurance marketplace, which serves residents of 39 states.

That represents a daily average of more than 150,000 signups, outpacing the beginning of last year’s open enrollment period under the Obama administration, when an average of 84,000 people a day signed up through the first 12 days.

The pace of signups cheered supporters of the healthcare law, many of whom feared that President Trump’s criticism of the law, coupled with major cuts in federal funding for advertising and outreach efforts, would depress enrollment.

At six weeks, the enrollment period is also only half as long this year, running until Dec. 15.

The new enrollment figures released Thursday do not include signups in 11 states that operate their own marketplaces, including California.

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Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte says he won’t run for reelection

((AFP/Getty Images) )

Another House committee chairman is planning to retire.

Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a 13-term congressman from Virginia.

In a statement Thursday, he says it’s “the right time for me to step aside and let someone else serve the 6th District.”

Goodlatte’s tenure as chairman of the judiciary panel ends in December 2018 due to term limits. He describes the marker as the “natural stepping-off point” and a chance to begin a new chapter.

The 65-year-old Goodlatte is among several other longtime House committee chairmen who have announced plans to retire at the end of their term, including Jeb Hensarling of Texas, who heads the financial services panel, and Lamar Smith of Texas, the science committee chairman.

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House makes final tweaks to tax bill before committee vote

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

As they await the unveiling of the Senate GOP tax plan Thursday, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee were scrambling to revise their own bill after changes made this week pushed its cost over the limit needed to pass it through the Senate on a simple majority vote.

The committee was expected to approve the House bill later Thursday on a party line vote after making additional changes.

An amendment approved Monday and offered by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the panel’s chairman, gutted a complicated excise tax for foreign transactions of multinational companies that was in the original bill.

The excise tax, designed to stop multinational companies from using transactions with foreign affiliates to reduce their U.S. taxes, would have generated $155 billion over the next decade. After pushback from businesses, Brady made technical changes to the proposal that cut that revenue by $148 billion.

Brady’s amendment, passed on a party line vote, pushed the cost of the bill to $1.574 trillion over 10 years — $74 billion over what’s allowed to pass the bill through the Senate on a simple majority vote.

Brady’s change didn’t satisfy one of the leading opponents of the excise provision, Freedom Partners, which is funded by the Koch brothers and its network of donors. The group pushed for the Senate tax bill to exclude the excise tax entirely.

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Ahead of Senate tax bill rollout, House signals openness to delaying cut in corporate tax rates

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan opened the door Wednesday to delaying the implementation of a new 20% corporate tax rate — the cornerstone of President Trump’s plan — amid worries that the GOP proposal will exceed its target of adding no more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit.

Postponing the tax cut for a year or two would diverge from Trump’s insistence that corporate rate reductions be made immediately. But Senate Republicans floated the idea this week as they frantically search for ways to pay for the corporate tax cuts and still provide relief to middle-income households.

Senators plan to introduce their bill Thursday. Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) said one revenue-raiser that will probably be included is a full repeal of all state and local tax deductions, including property taxes, a big blow to many residents in California and other high-tax states.

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Trump makes strong statement on Chinese trade: ‘It just doesn’t work’

President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

President Trump stood next to Chinese President Xi Jinping and said the Chinese had taken advantage of America to build a trade imbalance that is not sustainable.

“I don’t blame China,” Trump said. “Who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens? I give China great credit.”

Instead, Trump blamed past American presidents.

“We have to fix this because it just doesn’t work,” he went on. “It is just not sustainable.”

The comments, which came amid a ceremony involving U.S. and Chinese business leaders celebrating $250 billion in trade deals, were far more blunt than typical for such diplomatic pageants.

Xi spoke in far different terms, celebrating a Chinese economy that is entering a new phase, from “high-speed growth” to “high-quality growth.”

He acknowledged “some frictions” between the two nations, but added that “we hope we can solve all these issues in a friendly and consultative way.”

Xi did not discuss North Korea, but Trump also challenged the Chinese leader on that front, referring to his long-standing demand that China exert more pressure on the North Korean government to end its nuclear program.

“China can fix this problem easily and quickly, and I am calling on China and your great president to hopefully work on it very hard,” Trump said. “If he works on it very hard there’s no doubt it will happen.”

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Chinese leader declares ‘new starting point’ in meeting with Trump, who touts personal bonds

Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump.
(Nicolas Asfouri / AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed a “new starting point” for the U.S.-China relationship while President Trump declared that “we have a capacity to solve world problems for many, many years to come” on Thursday, as the two men held their first official business meeting after a raft of ceremonies.

Xi, who comes into the meetings flush with new authority in his country, was more detached in his comments than Trump, who spoke in personal terms about a terrific initial meeting Wednesday night and a dinner that went longer than expected because the men were having such a great time.

Trump’s language, putting the U.S. and China on near-equal footing, could play to Xi’s favor. The Chinese president is eager to assert China as a dominant world power rivaling America.

But Trump hinted, without specifics, that he would be pushing Xi on North Korea and trade. He said part of the solution to the trade imbalance with China could include changes in U.S. trade laws or practices.

“I have great respect for that because you’re representing China,” Trump said. But he blamed prior administrations for creating a trade imbalance that has become “so far out of kilter.”

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Trump gets official Chinese welcome, begins meetings with Xi

President Trump talks to opera performers Wednesday in the Forbidden City.
(Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump began his first full day in China on Thursday with an elaborate welcome ceremony ahead of a series of talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Trump’s meetings with Xi begin as Chinese police hold three UCLA students accused of shoplifting in a hotel in Hangzhou.

Trump began his day at the Great Hall of the People, an imposing government building that sits by Tiananmen Square. Normally brisk Beijing traffic was halted as the American president’s motorcade made its way from the St. Regis Hotel for the short journey. The tourists that normally pack the square were also missing.

When Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived, they were greeted by Xi, his wife, Peng Liyuan, an honor guard and a Chinese military band that played the U.S. and Chinese national anthems. Cannons fired 21 shots from Tiananmen Square.

Schoolchildren waved flags of both countries as the leaders chatted.

Just to the north of the square, crowds of thousands of tourists were still lined up to enter the Forbidden City, passing through the Gate of Heavenly Peace under the portrait of Chairman Mao Tse-tung.

On the streets of Beijing were red banners inscribed with white Mao-era Chinese characters encouraging citizens to study and follow “Xi Jinping thought.”

The two leaders are scheduled to hold several meetings, deliver statements, share a state dinner and view a cultural performance.

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Democratic surge in suburbs forecasts a potentially rough 2018 for Republicans

Republicans awoke Wednesday facing a tortuous road ahead for their candidates in the 2018 elections, particularly in suburban areas where animosity toward President Trump overwhelmed his party in Tuesday’s elections.

In the northern Virginia suburbs near Washington, D.C., Democrat Ralph Northam captured 69% of the vote in winning Tuesday’s race for governor, five points better than Hillary Clinton did against Trump in the same area last November. In Hampton Roads, the southern end of an urban crescent that has helped reshape Virginia into a reliably Democratic state in presidential elections, Northam finished seven points stronger than Clinton.

The view from the suburbs is key because it points to the central problem for Republicans in 2018: Control of the House will be decided in large part in districts similar to those that retaliated against Trump on Tuesday.

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Senate Republican tax plan may eliminate property tax deductions and delay corporate cut

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas)
( (Michael Reynolds / EPA/Shutterstock))

As they prepare to unveil their own sweeping tax plan, Senate Republicans are revisiting key provisions of the House GOP proposal, including possibly eliminating property tax deductions as well as state income tax deductions, increasing the size of child-care credits, offering more help to small businesses and having corporate tax cuts phase in or expire, according to those familiar with the negotiations.

The final outline of the Senate plan, scheduled to be released Thursday, remained a work in progress, officials cautioned.

“Everything is on the table,” one Republican official who did not want to be identified discussing the talks said Tuesday evening.

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House GOP tax plan will add $1.7 trillion to deficit over decade, CBO estimates

The federal deficit would grow by $1.7 trillion under the House Republican tax plan, according to a nonpartisan analysis released Wednesday, raising fresh concerns for passage because budget rules in the Senate don’t allow for so much red ink.

The assessment from the Congressional Budget Office comes as Republicans are muscling the bill for a vote in the House as soon as next week.

House GOP officials had no immediate comment.

Republicans in Congress are relying on special budget rules to avoid a Senate filibuster and allow for simple majority passage. But under those rules, the deficit may not rise more than $1.5 trillion by 2027.

Senate Republicans are taking a different approach ahead of their rollout of legislation Thursday.

But one Republican idea for lowering the deficit -- repealing portions of the Affordable Care Act -- also ran into problems Wednesday when CBO estimated it would produce $338 billion in savings, less than the $416 billion earlier projected.

House and Senate Republicans want a bill that meets President Trump’s priorities of lowering corporate rates to 20% and reducing taxes for middle-class Americans, though critics say the bill is more heavily tilted in favor of corporations and the wealthy.

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U.S. sets new restrictions on business ties and travel to Cuba

(AFP / Getty Images)

The Trump administration announced new rules Wednesday to make it tougher for U.S. businesses to work in Cuba and for Americans to travel to the island.

The restrictions are aimed at finally enacting what Trump in June described as plans to reverse the Obama-era diplomatic opening with the communist-ruled island.

Effective Thursday, businesses will be required to obey a new set of regulations that are “intended to steer economic activity away from the Cuban military, intelligence and security services,” a senior White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to brief reporters.

The Cuban military is deeply enmeshed in much of the island’s economy, including the tourism industry.

Individuals will be prohibited from traveling to Cuba under the new rules but can continue as part of groups resistered with the U.S. government and following the so-called “people-to-people” plan, which generally requries the trip to have an educational component.

Travel by Americans to the island had exploded in the months since President Obama renewed diplomatic ties with Cuba in 2015, following a half-century of Cold War-era hostility.

Advocates of better ties with Cuba reacted with anger.

“At a time that President Trump is meeting with communist leaders in China and Vietnam, these regulations show the absolute hypocrisy and political pandering of the Trump administration on Cuba,” said Collin Laverty, president of Cuba Educational Travel, a group that arranges trips to the island.

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Trump vs. Clinton: Why are we still obsessed a year later?

It’s the election America just can’t quit.

One year later, much of the country continues to obsess over Trump vs. Clinton, as though still seated on the couch, eyes agoggle, watching the final decisive returns trickle in from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

This is not normal.

Normally, campaigns have an expiration date, a day or two after the TV networks strike their sets and the newspapers stuffed with election returns hit the recycling bin.

But the biggest upset in modern political history has overturned that convention, along with so much else that once seemed customary.

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Trump voters disappointed by his presidency threaten the GOP

Anthony Miles figured that Donald Trump, rich as he was, could not be bought off. Now he regrets voting for him.

“He said he was going to drain the swamp,” said Miles, 62, a computer programmer who lives in Middletown, Conn. “All he’s done is restocked it.”

Miles was especially appalled by President Trump’s appointment, since withdrawn, of a drug czar who took pharmaceutical donations as a congressman and wrote a law that thwarted federal power to punish companies that fuel opioid abuse.

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Democrats seize Virginia and New Jersey governorships in elections seen as precursors of 2018 fights

Gov.-elect Ralph Northam, right, and Lt. Gov.-elect Justin Fairfax greet supporters at a Democratic election night rally in Fairfax, Va.
( (Win McNamee / Getty Images))

Democrat Ralph Northam swept to victory in the race for Virginia governor on Tuesday in a night of political retaliation against President Trump that also saw a Democratic gubernatorial win in New Jersey.

Northam’s victory sketched out a path that Democratic strategists hope other candidates can follow in next year’s contest for control of Congress.

He piled up big margins in the suburbs of northern Virginia, the most populous and voter-rich area of the state, where animosity toward the president runs deep. At the same time, Northam, the lieutenant governor, also fared better than many Democrats have in more rural areas, preventing the Republican candidate, Ed Gillespie, from running up the score in the southern and western areas of the state, where Trump trounced Hillary Clinton one year ago.

Democrats also picked up more than a dozen seats in the Virginia House of Delegates, putting them close to a majority in the lower house with several races undecided — a result that few political analysts or state Democrats had thought likely.

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Democrat seizes early lead in Washington Senate race, boosting bid for one-party control

Democrats staked an early lead Tuesday night in their bid to control the Washington state Senate and establish single-party reign over the West Coast.

Manka Dhingra, a King County prosecutor, pulled ahead 55% to 45% over Republican Jinyoung Englund, a former congressional aide, in initial returns.

Although Democrats claimed victory, final results in Washington’s all-mail election will not be known for several days.

At stake is control of the state Senate, which has been the only legislative chamber Republicans hold on the West Coast. The election in the suburbs east of Seattle was held to replace a GOP lawmaker who died last year in office, leaving the chamber evenly divided.

The contest became a major fight between the national political parties, the costliest legislative race in state history and a long-distance test of President Trump’s effect on candidates running down-ballot.

Democrats hold the governorship and statehouse in Washington and, together with one-party control in Oregon and California, hope to build a solid blue wall of opposition to Trump extending the length of the Pacific Coast.

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Trump’s plan to make surprise visit to the Korean DMZ is foiled by bad weather

A North Korean army officer looks out at the Demilitarized Zone.
(Wong Maye-E / Associated Press)

President Trump tried to make a dramatic surprise visit to the highly fortified border between North and South Korea on Tuesday, but his helicopter had to turn back because of bad weather, his spokeswoman said.

Trump intended to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in and stand together at the Demilitarized Zone in a “historic moment” for the presidents of the two nations, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters traveling with the president.

But fog prevented Trump’s helicopter from making the trip, she said. The president’s retinue waited about an hour to make a second attempt, but the fog got worse instead of better.

Visiting the DMZ was “something the president wanted to do,” Sanders said, adding that the closely held stop had been planned “for a little while” before Trump left for his five-country tour of Asia. Yet last week, ahead of the trip, aides repeatedly told reporters that Trump would not be going to the area, with one going so far as to dismiss such visits by presidents as “cliche.”

President Reagan and every successor except one has visited the DMZ. Vice President Mike Pence and members of Trump’s Cabinet also have done so.

Reporters were hastily called together by Sanders early Tuesday for the unexpected trip. In a moment that highlighted the secrecy surrounding Trump’s plans, Sanders held up a paper with the letters “DMZ” and said, “This is where we’re going.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks to reporters after President Trump's helicopter turned around en route to the DMZ.
(Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images)
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U.S. drops case against woman who laughed at Sessions hearing

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions is sworn in during his confirmation hearing in January.
(Molly Riley / AFP/Getty Images)

Federal prosecutors have decided to drop a case against a woman arrested in the U.S. Capitol after she laughed during the confirmation hearing for Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

Desiree Ali-Fairooz, an activist with the Code Pink organization, was one of three protesters arrested by Capitol Police during the opening statements of Sessions’ January hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In court filings, prosecutors alleged she let out bursts of laughter after Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) praised Sessions during his opening remarks.

She was convicted of a misdemeanor in District of Columbia court, but a judge threw out the conviction in July and ordered a new trial. After Ali-Fairooz rejected a plea deal, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington continued to press the case. But prosecutors filed a notice dismissing the charges on Monday, a week before the second trial was to begin.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment, saying the office typically does not discuss charging decisions.

“Guess they’ve got enough “laughing” matters to deal with,” Ali-Fairooz tweeted after the decision.

Two other protestors arrested during the hearing drew 10-day jail terms, but the time was suspended on condition they complete six months of probation.

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After Texas massacre, Republicans wade into gun control debate with proposal to bolster background check compliance

In the aftermath of the mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican said Tuesday that Congress would begin working on legislation to tighten background-check compliances for gun purchases.

The proposal announced by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the GOP whip, could become one of the rare times congressional Republicans have responded with legislative action following a shooting that caused mass casualties. Twenty-six people were killed when a gunman opened fire on Sunday church services.

“Obviously if things like this can happen in spite of the law, then we need to look at that and try to fix it as best we can,” Cornyn said. “This seems to be an area where there is bipartisan support.”

Officials said the gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, was wrongly able to purchase guns after the Air Force failed to report his domestic violence court-martial to an FBI database.

Republicans are considering ways to prevent mistakes or oversight in background checks, including offering incentives to states to comply.

“This man should not have gotten a gun,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Tuesday.

Republicans pushed back against previous attempts to clamp down on gun purchases, particularly after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn.

After the nation’s deadliest mass shooting, which left 58 dead when a gunman opened fire last month on a country music concert in Las Vegas, Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, backed off legislation from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein to ban the sale of “bump stock” devices that can turn rifles into automatic-style weapons like the shooter used in Nevada.

Republicans said they would prefer an administrative, rather than a legislative, fix for bump stocks, an approach favored by the National Rifle Assn.

Cornyn said Tuesday that he has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing on bump stock devices.

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For the record

2:16 p.m. An earlier version of this post referred to the 2012 Sandyhook school shooting in Newtown, Mass. The shooting took place at the the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Conn.

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Republicans reject Democratic attempt to save full state and local tax deduction

Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday defeated a Democratic attempt to restore the full deduction for state and local taxes, which would be scaled back in the GOP tax overhaul legislation.

The Republican bill would eliminate the deduction for state and local income and sales taxes while allowing individuals to continue deducting local property taxes up to $10,000.

Under the legislation, businesses still would be allowed to deduct all their state and local taxes.

Residents of California and other high-tax states would be hardest hit by the change.

An amendment from Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) would have restored the full state and local tax deduction. The amendment was defeated 23-16 on a party line vote by the tax-writing committee.

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GOP tax bill would end deduction for wildfire and earthquake victims — but not recent hurricane victims

The House Republican tax bill would eliminate the deduction for personal losses from wildfires, earthquakes and other natural disasters, but keep the break for victims of the recent severe hurricanes.

If the bill becomes law, the deduction would disappear next year but would be available for victims of the massive wildfires that struck Northern California last month — as long as they can figure out their uninsured losses and include them on their 2017 tax return.

The legislation specifically repeals the deduction for personal casualty losses. The Internal Revenue Service describes casualty losses as including those from “natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes. It can also include losses from fires, accidents, thefts or vandalism.”

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Americans optimistic about jobs, but say incomes lagging

Americans increasingly say jobs are plentiful in their communities, but they continue to worry that their incomes are lagging, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

As with most questions, partisanship strongly shapes how people see the economy. Republican views about the availability of good jobs suddenly improved with President Trump’s election, while Democrats’ views soured, new figures from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center showed.

Even allowing for that, however, the public view of the job picture is at its best level since 2001, Pew found.

The picture is more mixed regarding incomes. About half of those surveyed said their incomes were falling behind the cost of living. Four in 10 said they were staying about even. Only 1 in 10 said their incomes were rising faster than the cost of living.

Positive feelings about the overall economy appear to have bolstered Trump’s standing, several surveys have indicated. About 3 in 10 people in Pew’s survey said Trump’s policies had improved the economy, about half said they have had no significant effect while about 1 in 5 said they had made things worse.

The Pew survey was conducted October 25-30, 2017, among a national sample of 1,504 adults. The results have a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points in either direction.

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Trump, diminished at home, is feted abroad, as Asian leaders employ flattery to stay on America’s good side

President Obama made his last trip to Asia, in September 2016, from a position of relative strength. His approval ratings were reliably high, both at home and abroad. He deepened collaboration with China on climate change, doubled American aid to Laos, and lifted an arms embargo on Vietnam.

But in terms of decorum, the trip was a disaster. When Obama arrived in China, no staircase awaited Air Force One, causing a flurry of embarrassed confusion. He canceled a meeting with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after the strongman disparaged him profanely.

As President Trump begins a 12-day, five-country trip to Asia, his situation is essentially flipped. Trump arrived in Japan on Sunday as a diminished figure at home — legislative setbacks are piling up, his approval ratings are historically low, and his campaign is under investigation on suspicion of colluding with Russia. According to the Pew Research Center, the U.S. presidency’s favorability ratings abroad are at the lowest point since the George W. Bush era.

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Paul Ryan on the Texas shooting: ‘This man should not have gotten a gun’

Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan commented on the Texas shooting that killed 26 people Sunday, calling for enforcement of existing gun laws.

He also called for prayers for the victims.

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Trump: ‘Hundreds more’ would have died in Texas shooting if there was more vetting for gun buyers

President Trump said that even with tighter vetting of gun buyers, “there would have been no difference” for those killed in the mass shooting at a South Texas church on Sunday.

Trump made the comments during a news conference in Seoul with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in response to a question about why his promised “extreme vetting” for visa applicants shouldn’t also be applied to gun purchases.

“If you did what you’re suggesting, there would have been no difference three days ago, and you might not have had that very brave person who happened to have a gun in his truck and shoot him, and hit him and neutralize him,” Trump said, referring to a neighbor who chased down the gunman.

“Instead of having 26 dead, he would’ve had hundreds more dead,” he said.

Trump seemed to chafe at being asked about gun policy so soon after the deadly rampage that killed 26 people on Sunday and appeared annoyed the topic was brought up while he was in South Korea building tougher measures against the North Korean nuclear program.

Trump pointed to the high murder rate in Chicago, which has limits on gun sales, as an example of why vetting gun purchases might not prevent shootings. Chicago is “a disaster, a total disaster,” Trump said.

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Trump administration ending protections for thousands of Nicaraguan migrants, and defers decision on Hondurans

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

The Trump administration said Monday it would end a special reprieve from deportation for thousands of Nicaraguans who have been allowed to stay in the U.S. for years, but delayed a decision on similar protections for tens of thousands of Hondurans.

The Department of Homeland Security announced that it would not renew temporary protected status for about 5,300 Nicaraguans whose protections under the program expire on Jan. 5. They will be allowed to stay in the U.S. only until Jan. 5, 2019, unless they qualify to stay under other provisions of immigration law, senior administration officials told reporters.

But the administration gave a six-month reprieve to some 86,000 Hondurans also covered by the program. The officials said that acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke needed more time to determine if conditions in Honduras had improved enough to allow them to return home.

The temporary status program was originally set up to protect immigrants from countries that were badly hurt by hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters. Many have lived in the U.S. for as much as 20 years, with large numbers in Southern California.

The administration’s actions have been closely watched for any signal about similar protections for larger groups of people who came from other troubled countries, including Haiti and El Salvador. Deadlines come due soon for deciding on whether to renew protections for those groups.

Administration officials have been signaling their desire to end the protections, arguing that a program that was supposed to provide a temporary respite after disaster and civil wars has instead become a permanent benefit. People with temporary protected status can’t be detained by immigration agents, can obtain work permits and even obtain permission to travel outside the country.

After Hurricane Mitch wrecked much of Central America in 1998, the U.S. extended the temporary protection to immigrants who had entered the country illegally from Honduras and Nicaragua. The program’s protections have been routinely renewed ever since.

The next deadline will involve whether to renew protections for about 50,000 Haitians whose protection will expire on Jan. 22. In all, about 325,000 residents from 10 countries, including El Salvador, Sudan and Syria, are protected under the program.

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The wealthy get the biggest benefit from House Republican tax plan, analysis finds

3:39 p.m.: The Tax Policy Center said it has found an error in its analysis and planned to revise the numbers in this report.

The greatest benefit from the House Republican tax bill would go to upper-income households, according to an analysis released Monday by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

Middle-income taxpayers -- those earning between $48,600 and $86,100 annually -- would receive an average tax cut of $700 next year, or about 1% of their after-tax income, the analysis said.

The top 20% of the nation’s earners -- those making more than $149,400 a year -- would receive an average tax cut of $4,850, or about 1.4% of after-tax income.

Those top earners would also receive 60% of the total tax benefits under the plan. Of that, the top 1% of earners, defined as those making more than $730,000 a year, receive about 22% of the total amount of tax cuts in 2018, the Tax Policy Center said.

By contrast, middle-income earners would receive about 12% of the tax benefit under the plan. Those making less than $48,600 would get 3.9%.

By 2027, when the estate tax is fully phased out, the top 1% of earners would receive 48% of the benefit of the bill’s cuts. Middle-income earners would get 8% of the benefit.

On average, taxes would decline across all income groups initially and for most income groups after a decade, the analysis said.

But not all taxpayers would see a cut.

At least 12% of filers would face higher taxes next year. In 2027, 28% would have higher tax bills because some provisions in the legislation, such as the new family tax credit, are temporary, the analysis said.

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U.S. will continue participation in climate talks, senior diplomat says

(Sean Gallup / Getty Images)

A senior U.S. diplomat says Washington will continue to take part in talks about implementing the Paris climate accord, despite President Trump’s threat to pull out of the pact.

Trump announced in June that the United States will withdraw from the 2015 Paris agreement unless he can get a better deal for the United States.

Trigg Talley, the U.S. deputy special envoy for climate change, told delegates at the opening of the United Nations climate talks in Bonn on Monday that “we will continue to participate in international climate change negotiations and meetings, including ongoing negotiations related to guidance for implementing the Paris agreement.”

He added: “We look forward to working with colleagues and partners to advance the work here over these two weeks and beyond.”

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With Washington statehouse at stake, Democrats seek to build a West Coast wall of Trump resistance

One year ago, Manka Dhingra was preparing for a celebration, a gathering of family and friends to mark Hillary Clinton’s election as the nation’s first woman president.Today, she is bearing the hopes and dreams of Democrats crushed by Clinton’s loss and trying to help the party pull itself from a deep hole.

A state Senate race pitting two campaign novices in the upscale suburbs east of Seattle has turned into a major battle between the two national parties, becoming the costliest legislative contest in state history and serving as a test of the Trump effect far from the other Washington.

At stake is control of the state Capitol in Olympia. Democrats, who run the governments in California and Oregon, hope to build a blue wall of resistance the length of the West Coast and get a shot of momentum ahead of 2018 by extending their legislative winning streak under Trump.

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The Republican tax bill’s small-business problem — most won’t benefit from the special new rate

The House Republican plan to cut taxes for small businesses has a big problem: Most apparently won’t benefit from it.

The typical small business, whether it’s a sole proprietorship, partnership or limited liability company, doesn’t pay taxes itself, but its owners do as individuals.

And already about 86% of these so-called pass-through businesses pay no more than 25% under the individual code, the new top rate proposed for small-business income in the tax bill unveiled this week. So they won’t get the legislation’s much-hyped small-business tax cut.

On top of that, the bill makes it very difficult for lawyers, engineers, doctors, consultants and other personal services providers, who make up a good share of small businesses, to qualify for the 25% rate.

“The whole thing doesn’t work for most small businesses,” said Jack Mozloom, spokesman for the National Federation of Independent Business, which has declared it does not support the bill at this point.

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With election stakes high, even local Virginia contests draw national volunteers and attention

Virginia House of Delegates candidate Elizabeth Guzman applauds volunteers in Woodbridge, Va.
(Cathleen Decker / Los Angeles Times)

The test of whether the nation’s Democrats can turn enthusiasm into tangible victories rested on a ping pong table in the basement of a home in Leesburg, Va., where breakfast sweets vied for space with scores of election packets that dozens of volunteers gathered to deliver to homes of potential voters.

The candidate the volunteers were there to support in a race for the commonwealth’s lower legislative chamber was Wendy Gooditis, one of scores of first-timers drawn to the 2017 state races out of frustration over the presidential election and the conservative bent of Virginia’s Republican-controlled Legislature.

Though her campaign is decidedly local, it and others like it around the state carry weight: Virginia represents a nationally watched early test of whether Democrats can halt a series of ignoble defeats and craft a template for the 2018 congressional and gubernatorial elections.

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‘This isn’t a guns situation’: Trump says Texas shooter was ‘deranged’

President Trump said Monday that the South Texas shooting that killed at least 26 people wasn’t “a guns situation,” and blamed it instead on the gunman’s mental health.

During a news conference in Tokyo, where he’s on the first leg of a five-nation Asia trip, Trump was asked if he thought stricter gun laws could help prevent such mass shootings.

“I think that mental health is your problem here,” Trump said. “Based on preliminary reports, a very deranged individual, a lot of problems for a long period of time,” he said.

It is unclear if the alleged shooter, Devin P. Kelley, 26, showed signs of mental illness. The Texan received a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force in 2014 and had a history of domestic violence.

Trump said more people in the church might have been killed if the gunman himself had not been shot by a neighbor with a gun.

“Fortunately, somebody else had a gun that was shooting in the opposite direction,” Trump said.

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‘He will shoot them out of the sky’: Trump urges Japan to buy U.S. technology to stop North Korean missiles

(Kiyoshi Ota / Associated Press)

President Trump called Monday for Japan to buy U.S. anti-missile batteries to counter the growing ballistic missile threat from North Korea, saying buying more U.S. military equipment would create more jobs for Americans and increase security for Japan.

“He will shoot them out of the sky when he completes the purchase of a lot of military equipment from the United States,” Trump said during a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Trump also called on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to return the Japanese citizens Pyongyang has abducted, saying doing so would be “a tremendous signal” and the “start of something very special.”

During the news conference that followed meetings, lunch and the feeding of fish in a koi pond together, Trump pointedly teased his friend Abe over the trade deficit between the two countries, and seemed to advocate a military buildup as a way to close the gap.

The Japanese government already buys a lot of U.S. military hardware, Abe replied, but agreed that the country should “enhance our defense capability.”

“Missile defense is something based on cooperation between Japan and the U.S.,” Abe said. “If it is necessary” to shoot down a missile, he said, “of course we will do that.”

North Korea provocatively fired a ballistic missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido in September, and U.S. and Japanese military officials are concerned that North Korea may launch a similar provocation during Trump’s tour of Asia.

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Man identified as Texas shooter was court-martialed for assault on his spouse and child

The man authorities have identified as the shooter in the massacre at a Texas church was given a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force three years ago after being court-martialed for assault, a military spokesperson confirmed Sunday.

Federal law prohibits a person who has been dishonorably discharged from buying a firearm. Whether Kelley’s discharge would trigger the law was not immediately clear.

Devin P. Kelley, who served in logistics readiness at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico starting in 2010, was court-martialed in 2012 for two counts alleging assault on his spouse and assault on their child, Ann Stefanek, the chief of Media Operations for the Air Force, said in a statement.

Kelley was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in custody and given a bad conduct discharge, Stefanek said. He was discharged in 2014.

The 1968 Gun Control Act made it unlawful for a licensed firearms dealer to sell a weapon to a person with a dishonorable discharge or for such a person “to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.”

Officials have said they found multiple weapons in Kelley’s vehicle when he died. They have not said how he obtained them.

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Brazile says ‘no evidence’ Democratic primaries rigged but tells Clinton-allied critics to ‘go to hell’

Donna Brazile, the former interim head of the Democratic National Committee, said on Sunday that she had found “no evidence” of rigging of the 2016 Democratic presidential contests in Hillary Clinton’s favor, though excerpts from her new book have been seized upon by Clinton critics to make that case.

Brazile, who temporarily headed the party late in the election cycle, caused a stir with previews of her forthcoming book, “Hacks,” in which she strongly criticizes Clinton and her staff over a joint fundraising agreement with the party committee. She said it gave the Clinton forces too much say over the party apparatus and unfairly hampered Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in his bid for the Democratic nomination.

In an interview aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Brazile appeared to soften that slightly, telling interviewer George Stephanopoulos that “I found no evidence, none whatsoever” that the state primaries were rigged to benefit Clinton.

But she also said she has no regrets about her scathing assessment of the Clinton campaign’s flaws or her account’s overall critical tenor, despite strong pushback from Clinton allies. Referring to “those who are telling me to shut up,” Brazile said: “You know what I tell them? Go to hell. I’m going to tell my story.”

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Trump silent on Saudi purge even after speaking to King Salman

As reports mount about Saudi Arabia arresting Saudi princes, including a prominent billionaire investor, President Trump and his administration have been silent about the ruling family’s purge even after he spoke with the king late Saturday on other matters.

It is unclear if the arrests in Saudi Arabia were part of an anti-corruption investigation or a move by King Salman to consolidate power around his own family, or both. Among the princes and current and former ministers arrested was Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the Middle East’s richest people, with large investments in numerous U.S. and global companies.

Trump repeatedly has expressed his admiration for the powerful Saudi monarch and promised to support Saudi Arabia’s moves against Iran in the region.

He spoke to the king from Air Force One while en route to Asia for a five-nation tour, but the White House’s statement on the call said nothing about the intrigue in Riyahd. Later, when Trump spoke briefly to reporters on the plane, he said only that he’d urged the king to list the Saudi national oil company, Aramco, on an American stock exchange.

Pressed by reporters, the White House on Sunday released the detailed description of Trump’s phone call with Salman. It said Salman expressed condolences for the terrorist attack in New York City that left eight people dead, and that the two leaders discussed the fight against Islamic State, the foiling of a missile attack against Riyadh from territory in neighboring Yemen, Saudi purchases of U.S. military equipment, and the expected public offering of Aramco.

A senior administration official briefing reporters on Trump’s visit to Japan would not answer a reporter’s question Sunday about whether the arrests came up in the phone call.

“I appreciate the question, but it’s — I’m not even going to be able to give you a useful answer,” the official said.

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Trump and Abe bond in Tokyo over golf, steaks and trucker hats that say ‘great again’

Shinzo had a something special for Donald.

When President Trump arrived on Sunday at the Kasumigaseki Country Club outside Tokyo to play golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Japanese leader surprised Trump with the sort of trucker hats Trump favors, embroidered in his preferred color — gold — and borrowing from Trump’s signature slogan: “Donald & Shinzo, Make Alliance Even Greater.”

The hats symbolized how foreign leaders have quickly learned to play to Trump’s pride, and the Donald-Shinzo love-fest didn’t end there.

After nine holes of golf, joined by the fourth-ranked golfer in the world, Hideki Matsuyama, the leaders complimented each other on Twitter. Trump called Abe and Matsuyama “wonderful people.” Abe said Trump is a “marvelous friend” and the round was “full of spirited conversation.”

Later, as the two leaders and their wives walked into an expensive teppanyaki grill for dinner in downtown Tokyo, Abe was silent but Trump told reporters, “Our relationship is really extraordinary.” He added a typical hyperbolic flourish: “I don’t think we’ve ever been closer to Japan than we are right now.”

Trump said he and Abe were having “very major discussions on many subjects” including North Korea and trade. “I think we’ll insult everybody by continuing to talk about trade,” he added.

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As Trump begins Asia trip, only one in three Americans trust him to handle North Korea

(Kazuhiro Nogi / Associated Press)

As President Trump arrived in Japan to start a five-nation trip to Asia that will be heavily focused on the nuclear standoff with North Korea, most Americans have little faith in his ability to handle that problem, according to a poll published Sunday.

Only one in three Americans said they had a “great deal” or even a “good amount” of trust in Trump’s ability to “act responsibly in handling the situation involving North Korea,” the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll found. Half said they did not trust him at all, with the rest expressing little trust.

The rating on that issue is slightly lower than Trump’s overall job approval: The poll found 37% approving Trump’s job performance and 59% disapproving. That’s in line with recent surveys from Fox News, Gallup, Rasmussen, YouGov, SurveyMonkey and other organizations.

Trump gets his highest marks on the economy, on which 44% rate him good or excellent and 53% fair or poor, the new poll found. He gets his lowest ratings on handling race relations and healthcare, where only about one quarter of Americans say his work has been good or excellent.

Just over half those surveyed said America’s leadership in the world has grown weaker since Trump took office; one in four say it has grown stronger.

The Post/ABC poll was conducted Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 among 1,005 adults. The margin of error is 3.5 points in either direction.

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House Republicans produced an ambitious tax overhaul, but now the hard work begins

House Republicans produced an ambitious proposal to overhaul the tax code, but as lawmakers sift through the pages, sorting out winners and losers, any concerns they might have are being overpowered by the political momentum to deliver on one of President Trump’s top priorities.

The legislation is on a fast track to pass in the House in a matter of weeks, despite criticism that it’s heavily tilted toward corporations and the wealthy, does little for the middle class and will pile $1.5 trillion onto the deficit.

Instead, Republicans see in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act an opportunity to salvage their legislative agenda, after limited accomplishments during Trump’s first year in the White House, and reshape the federal tax code to align with their low-tax, small-government goals.

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U.S. scientists’ report contradicts Trump team on global warming

(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

A massive U.S. report concludes that evidence of global warming is stronger than ever and that more than 90% of it has been caused by humans.

The conclusion contradicts a favorite talking point of senior members of the Trump administration.

A 477-page report released Friday said it’s “extremely likely” — meaning with 95% to 100% certainty — that global warming is man-made, mostly from carbon dioxide through the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

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Trump responds to Twitter account shutdown

President Trump commented Friday morning on the closure of his account for 11 minutes the day before.

“I guess the word must finally be getting out-and having an impact,” Trump said, though it was unclear what ‘the word’ was.

The account was deactivated just before 4 p.m. EDT

Twitter’s first explanation was that someone accidentally deleted it — someone who was not Trump. A few hours later, the company announced that a customer service employee was the culprit.

Though the account was quickly reactivated, it continued to do strange things into the evening. At one point, the president’s followers had all but disappeared.

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Cuba accuses U.S. of ‘lying’ about attacks on Americans in Havana

Cuba is denying that a “deliberate attack” caused mysterious ailments reported by U.S. personnel stationed in Havana, and accuses the Trump administration of refusing to cooperate in the investigation of the episode.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said U.S. officials who claimed 24 Americans suffered hearing loss and other ailments from some sort of acoustic attack were “deliberately lying.”

Rodriguez said the Trump administration was “politicizing” the case as part of a broader strategy to spoil relations between the two nations, only recently improved during the last two years of the Obama presidency.

Despite Cuba’s decision to allow the FBI on the island to investigate with Cuban authorities, American officials have offered no evidence, medical data or other information, Rodriguez said in a news conference Thursday evening in Washington.

“Whoever affirms this was caused by a deliberate attack is deliberately lying,” Rodriguez said.

In addition to reports from the 24 Americans, a number of Canadians based in Havana have also complained of health problems. The U.S. has expelled 17 Cuban diplomats from Washington and removed more than half of its Havana-based staff.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration reversed the course set by former President Obama and voted against a United Nations resolution condemning the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. The nonbinding resolution was approved 191-2, with Israel joining the U.S.

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On last day of work, Twitter employee deactivates President Trump’s account

For a brief moment Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump’s Twitter account disappeared from the internet.

Just before 4 p.m., searching for @realDonaldTrump on Twitter resulted in an error.

Twitter’s first explanation was that someone accidentally deleted it — someone who was not Trump. A few hours later, they announced that a customer service employee was the culprit.

Still, when tweeters first found out about the incident, they had conclusions of their own. Had Hillary Clinton finally made good on her most memorable tweet? Had Twitter banned the president? Was Russia involved?

Minutes after the account disappeared, it came back, just like that. The rest of Twitter wasn’t sure what to think. Some people seemed to think the site was better off without him.

Most of Trump’s fans on Twitter seemed unmoved by the news – either that, or they just happened to not be looking at Twitter for a few minutes. His account was offline just long enough for Gateway Pundit to assert that he’d been banned. (Getting suspended/banned on Twitter and having your account deleted/deactivated result in different error messages; the one on Trump’s account was the deactivation screen.)

For the time being, it seems Trump is on Twitter to stay, although the account continued to do strange things into the evening. At one point, the president’s followers had all but disappeared.

8:48 p.m.: This post was updated with a statement from Twitter that an employee had deactivated Trump’s account.

10:07 p.m.: This post was updated with information about Trump’s followers.

This post was originally published at 5:29 p.m.

Brian De Los Santos and Christina Bellantoni contributed to this report.

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In new book, Donna Brazile assails Hillary Clinton campaign for taking ‘control’ of DNC

(Paul Sancya / Associated Press)

Donna Brazile has torn open an old, persistent wound within the Democratic Party.

In her new book, the former interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman makes a bold — if not previously suspected — allegation: Before she took over the organization in the summer of 2016, leaders within the party showed considerable favoritism toward Hillary Clinton during the primary election.

From the start, Brazile writes, the scale was tipped in favor of former secretary of State Clinton — and against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). It centers on a fundraising agreement that Clinton’s campaign signed with the DNC that essentially kept the committee afloat and allowed her aides to control the party.

“The funding arrangement with HFA [Hillary for America presidential campaign committee] and the victory fund agreement was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical,” Brazile writes in an excerpt of the book published by Politico. “If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead.”

Brazile writes that shortly after becoming chair, she called Sanders to explain how Clinton had exerted a “control of the party long before she became its nominee.”

“Had I known this, I never would have accepted the interim chair position, but here we were with only weeks before the election,” writes Brazile.

Sanders’ campaign also signed an agreement, but decided against raising money for the DNC and state parties.

Throughout the primary, Sanders, whose populist message resonated with the party’s liberal base, battled with the DNC, saying the organization was showing favoritism toward Clinton by, among other things, offering a limited number of debates.

Jeff Weaver, who served as Sanders’ campaign manger, said Thursday that Brazile’s book “confirms what many understood to be the case.”

“We saw throughout the campaign a pattern from the DNC that was favorable to Clinton. They wanted her to be the nominee,” he said.

Brazile took over as head of the DNC in July 2016 after the then-DNC chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned following the release of leaked emails from WikiLeaks that showed DNC staffers discussing strategies that could be used against Sanders.

While Brazile jabs Clinton in her new book, she, too, has faced considerable criticism since last year for her actions during the primary.

Leaked emails also published by WikiLeaks showed that Brazile, who before becoming interim chairwoman was a CNN analyst, shared questions with Clinton ahead of a town hall event that the network was hosting in March 2016.

Brazile was fired from CNN and apologized for sharing the questions.

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Republicans toughen position on legislation to protect ‘Dreamers’

(Chris Kleponis / Getty Images)

Republican senators, emerging from a meeting with President Trump on Thursday, said they opposed the idea of including legislation to provide legal status for “Dreamers” as part of a must-pass year-end spending deal.

That stand could lead to a standoff in Congress next month. Democratic leaders have pushed to include legislation on the Dreamers as part of the year-end measure that lawmakers have to pass to keep government agencies from shutting down.

Republicans have been unable to pass bills to fund the government without support from at least some Democrats, a fact that gives the Democratic minority considerable leverage in the year-end negotiations.

Earlier this fall, Trump announced that he was canceling the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shields from deportation some 700,000 young immigrants, known as Dreamers, who came to the U.S. illegally as children. Trump said the DACA program exceeded the president’s authority and kicked the issue over to Congress.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said a consensus had been reached at the meeting to search for a small-scale fix that would deal with the Dreamers but not to pursue a comprehensive immigration overhaul, which some conservatives have pushed.

But, he added, the group also agreed that the issue should be dealt with separately, not as part of the year-end spending measure.

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Rick Perry suggests connection between fossil fuels and preventing sexual assault

Secretary of Energy Rick Perry stirred a controversy Thursday when he appeared to suggest a connection between burning fossil fuels and preventing sexual assault, a lesson he said he had learned on a recent trip to Africa.

“A young girl told me to my face, ‘One of the reasons that electricity is so important to me is not only because I’m not going to have to try to read by the light of a fire and have those fumes literally killing people,’ ” the former Texas governor said, according to The Hill.

“But also from the standpoint of sexual assault. When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will, on those types of acts,” he added.

When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will, on those types of acts.

— Energy Sec. Rick Perry

He continued, “So from the standpoint of how you really affect people’s lives, fossil fuels is going to play a role in that. I happen to think it’s going to play a positive role.”

The Sierra Club released a statement calling for Perry to resign over the comments.

“To suggest that fossil fuel development will decrease sexual assault is not only blatantly untrue, it is an inexcusable attempt to minimize a serious and pervasive issue,” the environmental group said.

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Trump pushes again for restrictions on visa program used by alleged New York attacker

(Chris Kleponis / Getty Images)

President Trump pushed again Thursday for canceling the green card lottery program under which the alleged New York City attacker entered the country in 2010, as well as for changing immigration rules that give priority to family members of those living in the United States.

Speaking in the White House after a meeting with Republican senators, Trump called the diversity visa lottery “a disaster for our country.”

“The people put in that lottery are not that country’s finest,” he said, adding that the program created “significant vulnerabilities” for national security.

Sayfullo Saipov gained entrance to the United States via the lottery, arriving in 2010 from his native Uzbekistan. He has been charged with driving a rented truck down a bicycle path in Manhattan on Tuesday, killing eight people in an attack reportedly inspired by Islamic State.

The lottery program, created during the George H.W. Bush administration, was meant to allow individuals to enter the United States from countries that had low levels of immigration. It had particular support from Irish American and Italian American groups.

Trump cast new restrictions on the arrival of family members as ensuring “that we can have a system that is security-based, not the way it is now.”

“We want to select people based on their ability to contribute to our country, not choose people randomly when you have no idea who they are or be based on extended family connections,” Trump said. “You have people bringing in 24, 25, 26 people when they come in.”

Trump’s claims appeared exaggerated. While residents of other nations enter under a variety of immigration programs, they are vetted by U.S. authorities. Relatives are not automatically allowed into the country, but must apply, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

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Watch live: President Trump announces his pick to lead the Federal Reserve

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Watch live: White House briefing with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, national security advisor H. R. McMaster

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Watch live: President Trump makes announcement on jobs

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Ex-Trump campaign official withdraws nomination for USDA post

Sam Clovis speaks during a news conference as then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, watches before a campaign rally in Dubuque, Iowa, on Aug. 25, 2016.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)

A former Trump campaign official who has been linked to the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller has withdrawn his nomination for a Department of Agriculture post.

Sam Clovis said in a letter to President Trump dated Thursday that he does “not want to be a distraction or a negative influence.” He cites “relentless assaults on you and your team” that “seem to be a blood sport.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the administration respects his decision to withdraw.

This week, it was revealed that Clovis had communications with George Papadopoulos, who has admitted to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian intermediaries. Questions have been raised about Clovis’ qualifications to serve as the Agriculture Department’s chief scientist. He is a self-described skeptic of climate change.

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House GOP tax plan would place new limits on mortgage interest deduction

House Republicans are proposing to place new limits on the tax deduction for mortgage interest in their soon-to-be-released overhaul.

A summary of the plan says it would reduce the cap on the popular deduction to interest on mortgages of $500,000 for newly purchased homes. The current mortgage cap is $1 million.

The idea is sure to generate opposition from the real estate lobby, but it’s being used to help pay for tax cuts elsewhere in the plan.

The plan also limits the deductibility of local property taxes to $10,000 while eliminating the deduction for state income taxes.

The child tax credit would rise from $1,000 to $1,600, though the $4,050 per child exemption would be repealed.

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Trump backs down from call to send New York terrorism suspect to Guantanamo. Instead, ‘DEATH PENALTY!’

President Trump backed down from his threat to send New York City terrorism suspect Sayfullo Saipov to the military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant and instead called for a quick death sentence.

In a tweet early Thursday, Trump said that he “would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically the process takes much longer than going through the Federal system.”

Trump also called for the “DEATH PENALTY!,” using all capital letters and an exclamation point as a signal that he was not softening his position. He was repeating the call he’d made hours earlier on Twitter, just before midnight Wednesday and also in capital letters -- a presidential intervention against the defendant that could complicate prosecutors’ efforts, by allowing his defense team to argue he cannot receive a fair trial.

“There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed,” Trump continued on Thursday.

With that, he somewhat echoed arguments of President Obama and others for using the American justice system, and thereby underscoring its principles and avoiding constitutional questions. And he contradicted much-criticized comments he’d made Wednesday describing the U.S. judicial system as “a joke” and “a laughingstock” to justify his support for using Guantanamo.

Trump had never committed to sending Saipov to Guantanamo. “I would certainly consider it. Send him to Gitmo,” he said on Wednesday.

Federal authorities charged Saipov on Wednesday with providing support to a terrorist organization, Islamic State, signaling their intent to use the federal court system.

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Reversing course, U.S. votes against U.N. resolution condemning Cuba embargo

Reversing another Obama-era policy, the Trump administration on Wednesday voted against a United Nations resolution that condemned the half-century-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba.

Only Israel voted with the United States against the resolution, which called for an end to the economic embargo imposed by Congress early in the Cold War.

A total of 191 countries approved the resolution at a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.

The U.S. ambassador always voted against the annual, nonbinding resolution since it was first introduced 25 years ago — until last year.

After President Obama restored diplomatic relations with Cuba and took steps to improve relations with the Communist-ruled island, the U.S. last year abstained. Obama urged Congress to lift the embargo.

The Trump administration cited Cuba’s human rights abuses as reason to keep the embargo. President Trump has vowed to roll back other improvements in economic and political ties with Cuba, although he has left the diplomatic opening largely intact.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said the embargo would remain in place “as long as the Cuban people continue to be deprived of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Only Congress can lift the trade embargo.

Trump has also blamed the Cuban government for what the U.S. calls mysterious attacks that have injured the hearing and caused other ailments to 24 U.S. diplomatic personnel in Havana.

A U.S. investigation in Cuba has yet to determine the source of the ailments, and the State Department said Wednesday that it was not a factor in the U.N. vote. Cuba has denied responsibility for the alleged attacks.

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Fed stands pat on interest rates, offers upbeat assessment of economy

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington. Federal Reserve policymakers on Wednesday held a key interest rate steady.
(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday provided an upbeat account of the economy, saying that economic activity has been “rising at a solid rate despite hurricane-related disruptions.”

That bullish assessment will reinforce expectations that the Fed -- while it held interest rates steady this week, as expected -- will nudge up its benchmark rate next month.

In its statement Wednesday upon concluding a two-day meeting, the central bank said that the labor market has continued to strengthen, with the jobless rate falling even further, to 4.2% in September. (October’s unemployment and hiring report will be released Friday.)

Moreover, the Fed noted that consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, has continued to expand moderately, while business investment has been gathering steam in recent quarters.

The Fed has lifted its key interest rate twice this year, in March and June, and that so-called federal funds rate is in a range of 1% to 1.25%. The central bank has held off on making a rate move since then, in large part because inflation has been stubbornly below the Fed’s 2% target.

Measures of inflation remain low, but the Fed said it expected inflation to move up to its target level over the medium term.

The Fed under its chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, has charted a path of gradually raising interest rates, and last month the central bank began shrinking its holdings of bonds that were purchased in recent years to stimulate lending and economic activity.

Yellen’s term as chair expires in early February, and President Trump is not likely to nominate her for a second term. Instead, Trump on Thursday is expected to name Jerome Powell, a member of the Fed Board of Governors, to succeed Yellen. When fully occupied, the Fed’s seven-member board, along with five Fed district bank presidents, is responsible for making monetary policy decisions.

At their last scheduled meeting of the year, on Dec. 12-13, Fed policymakers are widely expected to make another quarter-point rate hike. They also will update their economic forecast and projections for future rate hikes. The last time they did so, in September, most Fed officials predicted continued moderate economic growth of about 2% for the foreseeable future and at least three rate increases in 2018.

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Trump wants to insert Obamacare repeal into tax bill -- giving Republicans a new headache as rollout stalls

As House Republicans struggle to produce their ambitious tax overhaul, President Trump weighed in Wednesday with an off-topic suggestion: How about repealing part of Obamacare and use the money saved on healthcare for tax cuts?

The idea is not original. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Okla.), who often has the president’s ear, floated as much during a tweet storm over the weekend.

Cotton, joined by GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, argue that repealing the mandate that all Americans carry health insurance would save $300 billion over the decade.

Not only would Republicans be able to find more revenue needed to pay for tax cuts without having to eliminate popular deductions, but they would also score a political win after their failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, supporters reason.

But the idea creates headaches for GOP tax bill writers who are already struggling to rally lawmakers around a stand-alone tax bill. Adding Obamacare repeal to the mix would force them to wade through an additional political and procedural morass.

The savings from ending the Obamacare individual mandate comes largely if people cancel their once-required insurance coverage. Since most Obamacare recipients receive federal subsidies to lower their premiums, the government would save money if they dropped coverage.

But Republicans in the Senate have already shown, in their failed repeal votes this year, that they are unwilling to change the Affordable Care Act in ways that leave more Americans uninsured.

Trump’s proposal has not appeared to gain traction. But as the president spitballs ideas -- and Republicans struggle to figure out a way to pay for their tax plan -- it may become something more for them to talk about.

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Rollout of Republican tax plan is delayed as talks continue

President Trump meets with business leaders at the White House on Tuesday.
President Trump meets with business leaders at the White House on Tuesday.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

Republicans delayed the long-awaited introduction of their tax-cut bill Tuesday as members continued to argue over key elements, including how fast to cut corporate rates, which state tax deductions to eliminate and whether to impose new caps on popular 401(k) retirement accounts, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

After promising that the bill would be released on Wednesday, the chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), announced late in the day that the unveiling would have to wait another day.

Although Republicans remained divided on some issues, particularly how to pay for the cuts they favored, other details were coming into focus.

At a private meeting with outside conservative groups Tuesday afternoon, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (-Wis.) said the plan would keep the current top tax rate of 39.6% for the most affluent Americans, but would make that bracket apply only to “substantially” higher incomes than the current $470,700 for couples, according to participants at the gathering.

The plan will also delay the repeal of the estate tax — long sought by the GOP — for two to three years, the speaker told the group.

And Ryan said that though he wanted the House bill to immediately slash the corporate tax rate to 20% from the current 35%, the final version may phase in the cut.

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Virginia tests a likely 2018 election strategy: Racially fraught appeals

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie, right, debates Democratic rival Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie, right, debates Democratic rival Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.
(Steve Helber / Associated Press)

Virginia has been swamped by fearful images as Tuesday’s state elections near: heavily tattooed and handcuffed Latinos staring balefully at the television camera, a mug shot of a convicted pedophile set loose on the state.

Versions of those ads may be headed to other states in the 2018 elections, as Republicans seek to maximize the turnout of the burgeoning Trump wing of the party with themes known to appeal to them.

The strategy in Virginia by Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie has played heavily on themes of race and crime — itself an issue that has historically conjured racial stereotypes — in the style employed by President Trump last year.

Both sides believe the outcome likely will turn on which candidate — Gillespie or Democrat Ralph Northam — can best deploy their base voters on Nov. 7. Democrats, who have won statewide in elections since 2009, are counting on Trump’s unpopularity to pull their voters to the polls. Republicans have sought to energize their voters with issues including gangs, sanctuary cities and Confederate monuments.

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Trump calls for ‘merit based’ immigration in wake of New York attack

President Trump quickly seized on Tuesday’s deadly attack in New York to promote immigration restrictions and to criticize his chief Democratic rival, New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer.

Trump’s immediate labeling of the attack as a terrorist act and his calls for policy actions contrasted with his responses to the violence and a killing by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., in August — Trump wouldn’t blame the neo-Nazis solely and said then he doesn’t rush to discuss incidents without the facts — and to the mass killings in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, after which he said it was too soon to discuss gun laws.

Trump’s Wednesday morning tweets followed a report from ABC News that the man apprehended in the New York attack, Sayfullo Saipov, came to the United States in 2010 through the diversity lottery program, which is designed to increase legal immigration from countries with lower numbers of migrants.

Trump is trying to end the program, and many conservative outlets have seized on Tuesday’s attacks to criticize the program and Schumer.

Two of Trump’s Wednesday tweets referenced Fox News, an indication he probably was watching the cable news channel, his routine in the morning.

He first tweeted Tuesday night, soon after the incident, saying he “ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program,” the subject of extensive litigation since Trump took office. Trump did not offer specifics, and it is unclear how different vetting procedures would have affected Saipov’s case.

Schumer responded on Twitter hours later:

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