News

Mediaite reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden reacted to comments made today by President Trump about the outgoing White House aide accused of domestic abuse by two ex-wives. During a speech in Indiana talking about sexual assault, Biden read the statement from Trump that, while not mentioning the victims, did say the White House wishes Porter well. The former VP …

Politico reports: Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.) said Friday he won’t seek reelection this year, a blow to Democrats’ chances at holding his battleground seat in November. Nolan, 74, was first elected to Congress in the Watergate midterm election of 1974. After serving three terms in the House, he retired ahead of the 1980 elections. Nolan surprised many when he announced …

The Washington Post reports: For much of the past year, President Trump has declined to participate in a practice followed by the past seven of his predecessors: He rarely if ever reads the President’s Daily Brief, a document that lays out the most pressing information collected by U.S. intelligence agencies from hot spots around the world. Trump has opted to …

Reuters reports: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday told the International Criminal Court (ICC) to go ahead and investigate him for crimes against humanity, and said he would prefer to face a firing squad than be jailed. However, the firebrand leader notorious for his defiance of international pressure questioned whether the ICC had jurisdiction to indict him over the deaths …

The Austin Statesman reports: Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Thursday said that, if he can help it, the planned movie on former state Sen. Wendy Davis’ 2013 filibuster won’t be shot in the Texas Senate chamber. “If I have anything to do with that, I’m not going to let them use the Senate chamber to shoot because they have …

USA Today reports: President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were thrown out of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Friday night after causing a scene at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium. OK, full disclosure, it was a pair of hysterically accurate impersonators who had heads turning everywhere they went, with the Trump lookalike clad in a …

CBS News reports: Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former reality show star who went to work in the White House and then went back to reality television after being fired, said on CBS’ “Celebrity Big Brother” on Thursday that she wouldn’t vote for President Trump again “in a million years, never.” Newman said she found it hard to separate her long-time …

The Daily Beast reports: Facebook is testing a “downvote” button with certain users, effectively creating the “dislike” button long predicted by memes and articles since inception of the Like button. The test appeared for several users on Thursday in the comment section of posts within Facebook groups and on old Facebook memories content. Users shared screenshots with The Daily Beast. …

The Huffington Post reports: White House spokesman Raj Shah dismissed former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman’s recent disparaging comments about President Donald Trump, telling reporters during a Thursday press conference that she was forced out of the role. “Omarosa was fired three times on ‘The Apprentice,’ and this was the fourth time we let her go,” Shah said, referencing Newman’s previous …

The Associated Press reports: Dow Jones industrials plunged over 1,000 points Thursday, bringing the index down 10 percent from the record it reached two weeks ago. Stocks started to fall in early trading and extended their losses throughout the morning. The market’s turmoil began last Friday and has continued this week as investors worried about early signs of inflation. Analysts …

Heavy.com reports: White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah will fill in for Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders today in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House. Before joining the administration, Shah called President Trump a “deplorable,” and also worked on campaign ads against him. During high school, Shah volunteered for Representative Chris Shays and interned …

Raw Story reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested President Donald Trump may be compromised by Russia and its president. Biden sat down Thursday for an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who asked the former vice president why Trump was “so reluctant to take on Vladimir Putin.” “Look, you know, I want to give every American, including the president, the …

The Hill reports: Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman said she was “haunted” by President Trump’s tweets during her time in the White House in a new clip from “Celebrity Big Brother.” In the teaser, posted by the show’s Twitter account, Manigault-Newman, who also starred in the first season of The Apprentice with Trump, breaks down in tears opening up …

CBS News reports: In a sign of increasing partisan hostilities, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee plan to construct a wall – a physical partition – separating Republican and Democratic staff members in the committee’s secure spaces, according to multiple committee sources. It’s expected to happen this spring. For now, some Republican committee members deny knowing anything about it, while …

Reuters reports: Twitter shares surged 22 percent at the market open on Thursday after it reported its first quarterly profit and better-than-expected revenue, helped by ads that better targeted users and sales growth outside the United States. Investors shrugged off zero growth in Twitter’s users from a quarter earlier, which the company blamed in part on seasonal weakness and its …

NBC News reports: House Democrats are stepping on the gas, with plans to target over 100 Republican-held congressional districts in the November midterm elections. At House Democrats’ annual conference Thursday, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is expected to tell colleagues the committee is expanding the battleground to include 101 Republicans — the …

Politico reports: Former President George W. Bush said Thursday that there is “pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled” in the 2016 presidential election, a seeming rebuke of President Donald Trump, who has at times questioned the intelligence community’s assessment that the Kremlin is to blame. “Whether (Russia) affected the outcome is another question,” Bush said at conference in Abu …

Mediaite reports: Smith spoke with Fox News White House Correspondent Jennifer Griffin about how the plans for a military parade have landed with a dud in the defense community, and they began discussing more frugal alternatives. “He could go see the tanks at a military base if he wanted to,” Smith offered. “And they do have parades on those bases,” …

The Washington Post reports: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took the rare step Wednesday of giving a marathon speech supporting Democrats’ attempts to legalize the status of young immigrant “dreamers,” in a bid to pressure Republicans to act. Pelosi (D-Calif.) began talking shortly after 10 a.m., using her right as minority leader to speak for as long as she wants. …

NBC News reports: The U.S. official in charge of protecting American elections from hacking says the Russians successfully penetrated the voter registration rolls of several U.S. states prior to the 2016 presidential election. In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Jeanette Manfra, the head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, said she couldn’t talk about classified information publicly, …