News

Politico reports: Rep. Blake Farenthold used taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim brought by his former spokesman — the only known sitting member of Congress to have used a little-known congressional account to pay an accuser, sources told POLITICO. Lauren Greene, the Texas Republican’s former communications director, sued her boss in December 2014 over allegations of gender discrimination, …

Talking Points Memo reports: When you’re ramming a massive tax bill through Congress at record speed, there are bound to be a few speed bumps. But after some drama on the Senate floor Thursday night, with a handful of Republican deficit hawks withholding their votes over concerns the bill would blow a $1 trillion hole in the federal deficit and …

Via Mediaite: Morning Joe opened up a particularly whimsical Friday-in-December show by covering President Donald Trump’s Christmas Tree lighting at the White House — and ruthlessly mocked him for his lackluster crowd at the typically busy event. “So a beautiful, balmy evening in D.C., no excuse to get outside,” MSNBC’s Katty Kay started, describing the night. “And you go to …

The Hill reports: Former President Barack Obama joked Friday that if he watched Fox News, he wouldn’t have voted for himself. Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi, Obama took shots at the network, which is widely criticized for its negative coverage of Democrats. “If I watch Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me,” he said. “I …

The Dallas Morning News reports: Rep. Joe Barton, whose private life came under national scrutiny after sexual images he shared in an extramarital relationship were made public, won’t seek re-election. The Ennis Republican announced his retirement in an interview with The Dallas Morning News on Thursday, three weeks after saying he would seek an 18th term. He’s faced crushing pressure …

NBC News reports: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday upped the pressure on Rep. John Conyers, who is facing multiple accusations of sexual misconduct and a House Ethics Committee probe, by calling on him to resign from office — a change in her position from just days ago. Pelosi’s comments are a stark turnaround from her stance on Sunday …

Ars Technica reports: Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice has been claiming that we got the story wrong. But a further examination of how Comcast’s net neutrality promises have changed over time reveals another interesting tidbit—Comcast deleted a “no paid prioritization” pledge from its net neutrality webpage on the very same day that the Federal Communications Commission announced its initial plan to …

TechCrunch has tracked down the former Twitter staffer (technically a contract employee) who early this month briefly took down Trump’s Twitter account on his last day on the job. From their deep-dive interview: We were among those looking for the contractor, and through a string of events found out his name, Bahtiyar Duysak, and got him to agree to talk …

Politico reports: Staffers for Senate Republicans’ campaign arm seized information on more than 200,000 donors from the House GOP campaign committee over several months this year by breaking into its computer system, three sources with knowledge of the breach told POLITICO. The unauthorized raid on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s data created a behind-the-scenes rift with the National Republican Senatorial …

CNBC reports: A scheduling glitch that allowed American Airlines pilots to take vacation at the same time has left thousands of flights during the busy holiday travel period next month without pilots assigned to them. American Airlines, the largest U.S. airline, is now offering pilots 150 percent of hourly pay to work those dates, an airline spokesman said. The scheduling …

InfoWars and Breitbart turn on Trump in the same day. From Breitbart senior editor Joel Pollak: Even without knowing more about [Jayda] Fransen or Britain First, the president was wrong to retweet what she had posted. There is no way of knowing whether the videos are authentic, and — most important — when and where they were made. That is …

The Associated Press reports: Garrison Keillor, the former host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” says he’s been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behavior. Keillor told The Associated Press of his firing in an email. In a follow-up statement, he says he was fired over “a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than …

The Guardian reports: A former Bosnian Croat general has died after drinking a phial of poison at a UN tribunal in The Hague, where his war crimes sentence of 20 years was upheld on Wednesday, a court spokesman has confirmed. Seconds after his sentence was upheld at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Slobodan Praljak, shouted out …

Will this never end? The New York Times reports: NBC has fired its leading morning news anchor Matt Lauer over sexual harassment allegations, the network’s president for news said in a memo to staff on Wednesday. “On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer,” Andrew Lack, the …

“Donald Trump now knows that his verbal abuse will no longer be tolerated. His empty chair photo opp showed he’s more interested in stunts than in addressing the needs of the American people. Poor Ryan and McConnell relegated to props. Sad!” – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Earlier today Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer canceled their White House …

CNN International reports: North Korea fired what the US military believes to be an intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday as the Pentagon confirmed that it detected and tracked a single North Korean projectile at 1:17 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. “The missile was launched from Sain Ni, North Korea, and traveled about 1,000 kilometers before splashing down in the Sea of …

Oddly, I’m totally OK with this. From World Net Daily founder Joseph Farah: Is she or isn’t she? That’s the question about Michelle Obama’s intentions regarding a possible run for president in 2020. While she has consistently denied any interest in running, how plausible does that really sound? If the Democratic Party needed her and pleaded with her to run, …

USA Today reports: Democratic leaders pulled out of a meeting scheduled with President Trump after the president tweeted that he didn’t see any possibility of striking a deal with them on immigration or other issues. “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 …

Here’s what today’s Doug Jones ad is about: Many states and localities are looking to expand the availability of preschool, but Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore apparently believed this push was misguided and could result in the Nazi-style indoctrination of America’s children. In 2007, Moore wrote an op-ed on the conservative site WorldNetDaily saying preschool was “detrimental to children …

The Associated Press reports: California Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra is resigning immediately following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. The Los Angeles Democrat had previously said he wouldn’t seek re-election and would leave office at the end of the next legislative session. He said Monday that he’s decided to leave immediately following reflection over the Thanksgiving weekend and conversations with family, friends …