Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday asked the remaining 46 U.S. attorneys appointed by President Obama to resign āin order to ensure a uniform transition,ā Reuters reported. āUntil the new U.S. attorneys are confirmed, the dedicated career prosecutors in our U.S. attorneyās offices will continue the great work of the department in investigating, prosecuting, and…
The Senate has confirmed retired neurosurgeon and former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson as housing secretary. The vote was 58-41. Carson will lead an agency of some 8,300 employees and a budget of about $47 billion. Carson has no government or housing policy experience. Despite that, his nomination cleared a Senate committee in January on…
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign after The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday evening that he spoke with the Russian ambassador during Donald Trumpās campaign. In a statement released late Wednesday, Pelosi said Sessions is ānot fit to serve as the top law-enforcement officer…
In a tweet Thursday morning, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to “recuse himself” from investigations of the Trump administration’s ties to Russia. Chaffetz also urged Sessions to “clarify his testimony” in light of recent reports that Sessions twice spoke to Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the United…
The Democratic National Committee met in Atlanta on Saturday and chose former Labor Secretary Tom Perez as the new DNC chair, an important step of self-definition for a party seeking new direction after its unexpected loss of the White House in November. Seven candidates were in contention for the position, but Perez, the preferred candidate…
Several major news outlets found themselves blocked from attending a Friday White House press briefing with Sean Spicer, the Press Secretary, the latest sign of worsening relations between the Trump administration and the media attempting to cover it. The New York Times, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and Politico were among the…
Trump administration officials asked intelligence officials and members of Congress to help them downplay and speak out against news reports about the Trump campaign’s connections to Russian intelligence, according to a Washington Post report. These individuals reportedly called journalists attempting to āchallengeā stories in the New York Times, CNN and elsewhere about top Trump advisersā…
A judged ordered Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency pick to release thousands of emails between his office and fossil fuel companies. Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons from Oklahoma County District said to Pruitt’s office that it would have to hand over the emails to the Center for Media and Democracy, or CMD,…
U.S. national security officials are reportedly ready to āgo nuclearā after President Donald Trumpās latest attack on the intelligence community. In a series of tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump insisted that the āreal scandalā was not that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn lied about his contact with Russia. Instead, the president blasted what…
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced attorney Alexander Acosta as his next labor secretary pick, just one day after fast-food executive Andrew Puzder withdrew his bid over controversies seen as likely to upend his confirmation. Acosta, who is Latino, is an attorney who has served in the Justice Departmentās civil rights division, and is the…
President Donald Trump on Thursday said former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was ājust doing his jobā when he reportedly spoke numerous times with Russiaās ambassador about the sanctions levied on the country by the Obama administration, and then misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. The president gave contradictory messages about Flynn, saying…
U.S. intelligence officials have withheld some sensitive intelligence from President Trump because of concerns about the information being leaked or compromised, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. This purported move underscores distrust between the intelligence community and the new administration as a result of reports that Trumpās campaign team had contacts with…
Andrew Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants and President Trump’s nominee to lead the Labor Department, withdrew his name from consideration Wednesday. “I am honored to have been considered by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Labor and put America’s workers and businesses back on a path to sustainable prosperity,” Puzder said in…
The Today showās Matt Lauer on Tuesday morning confronted top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway over the White Houseās remarkable inconsistencies in defending the handling of a scandal involving Michael Flynn. The national security adviser resigned late Monday over his pre-inauguration calls with a Russian ambassador that included discussion of lifting U.S. sanctions; and over his…
Michael Flynn resigned late Monday as President Trump’s national security adviser, after just over three weeks on the job. Flynn quit hours after The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department had warned the White House that Flynn had discussed sanctions with Russia’s ambassador before Trump’s inauguration, and could be subject to blackmail. Flynn, a…
On Monday, the Senate is expected to confirm two of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees, Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary and David Shulkin to head the Department of Veteran Affairs. The vote on Mnuchin, a former top Goldman Sachs executive and Hollywood financier, will be much closer than Shulkin’s confirmation. Republicans argue that Mnuchin is well-qualified…
On Monday the Senate voted 52 to 47 to confirm Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to lead the Health and Human Services Department. The party-line vote was the fourth contested Cabinet vote in a row. Democrats argued before the vote that Price, a seven-term congressman and former orthopedic surgeon, had failed to come clean about some…
Senator Jeff Sessions was confirmed as the next attorney general in President Trump’s administration on Wednesday night, earning a simply majority by around 7:20 p.m. with the vote total at 52 yes to 47 no. The night before Senator Elizabeth Warren made headlines for attempting to read a letter written by Coretta Scott King criticizing…
GOP Turtle-Man Mitch McConnell inadvertently created a rallying cry for supporters of Sen. Elizabeth Warren when he rebuked her after the Senate voted to prevent her from speaking. As Democrats held the Senate floor overnight to protest Sen. Jeff Sessions’s (R-Ala.) nomination for attorney general, Warren quoted a 1986 letter that the late Coretta Scott…
Regardless the attemps by Democrats in the final hours, the U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Betsy DeVos as the next secretary of education. DeVosā nomination faced fierce opposition from Democrats, and two Republican senatorsāLisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maineāhad previously said they would vote against DeVos. After those GOP defections,…
The Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on President Trump’s education secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos. Democrats made a last-ditch effort to hold the floor for 24 hours as they tried to persuade a third Republican to join them in opposition to DeVos to break what appeared to be a 50-50 tie. Barring another defection, Vice…
Senate Democrats are going to try to bring down President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick no matter who the president chooses to the fill the current vacancy. With Trump prepared to announce his nominee on Tuesday evening, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said in an interview on Monday morning that he will filibuster any pick that…
President Trump is hosting his first world leader Friday, holding talks and a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May. May and Trump separately addressed congressional Republicans on Thursday, with May touting the benefits of a strong United Nations, NATO alliance, and European Union, all organizations Trump has disparaged. Britain is looking to…
The second day of Senate confirmation hearings started Wednesday morning with President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, former ExxonMobil executive Rex Tillerson facing heavy questioning, especially due to his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Tillerson has downplayed his relationship with Russia, though, and his prepared remarks claim “Russia today poses a danger,…
Before the confirmation hearing for Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald Trumpās choice for U.S. attorney general, protesters shouted and interrupted the proceedings. āNo Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA,ā many demonstrators in the room yelled Tuesday morning before they were escorted out. Others held signs that said āEnd RacismāStop Sessions.ā The proceedings continued despite…
The Senate is scheduled to launch three days of confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks on Tuesday. First up in the morning is Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Trump’s nominee for attorney general. WATCH LIVE CONFIRMATION HEARING OF TRUMP NOMINEE SESSIONS Sessions is expected to tout his conservative legal credentials; Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)…
Several protesters, including NAACP President Cornell William Brooks, were arrested Tuesday after an hours-long sit-in by about two dozen civil rights activists at the Mobile, Alabama, office of Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominee for attorney general. The protesters criticized Sessions’ record on voting rights and race relations, and Brooks said he was…
