Politics

The Washington Examiner reports: Maine Sen. Susan Collins said Monday afternoon that she will vote for the final version of the Republican tax bill, likely guaranteeing that it will pass the upper chamber this week. “I rise to express my support for the conference agreement on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” Collins said in a speech on the Senate …

The Washington Post reports: Matthew Petersen, a nominee to the federal judiciary, has withdrawn from consideration days after a video clip showed him unable to answer basic questions about legal procedure, the White House confirmed on Monday. Petersen, nominated for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is the third Trump judicial pick to withdraw …

The Week reports: President Trump tweeted that a devastating train crash in Washington state on Monday illustrates why his infrastructure plan “must be approved quickly.” A timeline for Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure overhaul — one of his major campaign promises — has been unclear, although it remains a possible next step in early 2018 after the GOP votes on a …

The New York Daily News reports: President Trump’s son-in-law’s real estate company has a reputation of siccing lawyers on tenants who are late with the rent — but it doesn’t seem to pay its own bills on time. A law firm that represented Jared Kushner’s real estate company in dozens of eviction and housing court cases is now suing the …

Talking Points Memo reports: Senator-elect Doug Jones (D-AL) on Sunday said “we need to move on and not get distracted by” numerous women’s allegations of sexual misconduct against President Donald Trump. Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether Trump should resign because of the allegations, as some senators have called on him to do, Jones said, “I think we …

ABC News reports: This week’s “Saturday Night Live” once again found fodder from the latest headlines to lampoon in the show’s cold open, including jabs at recently-departed White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman, special counsel Robert Mueller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner. Alex Baldwin reprised his role as President Donald Trump, who kicks off …

Newsweek reports: Democratic Congresswoman Jackie Spier said Friday the “rumor on the Hill” is that President Donald Trump intends to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller next week when Congress is gone for the holidays. Should Trump go through with the unconfirmed rumor, Spier said an “effort” for impeachment would follow. Spier added Republicans are aiming to shut down the House …

The Associated Press reports: A female congressional candidate dropped out of the Kansas race Friday over a 12-year-old lawsuit accusing her of sexually harassing a male subordinate, an unusual case of a woman facing the sort of misconduct allegations that have forced numerous men out of their jobs in recent weeks. Andrea Ramsey announced in a Facebook post that she …

The Washington Post reports: Senior White House official Jared Kushner and his legal team are searching for a crisis public relations firm, according to four people familiar with the matter. Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has quietly called at least two firms, these people said. The inquiries have occurred in the past two weeks, and officials at the firms were asked …

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge in Philadelphia on Friday ordered the Trump administration not to enforce new rules that could significantly reduce women’s access to free birth control. Judge Wendy Beetlestone issued the injunction, temporarily stopping the government from enforcing the policy change to former President Barack Obama’s health care law. The law required most companies to cover …

NBC News reports: Hours before House and Senate Republicans plan to release their joint tax bill on Friday, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., gave their efforts a boost after announcing his support in response to late changes to its child tax credit. Rubio initially came out against bill on Thursday over reports that the deal would include a deeper tax cut …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump on Friday did not dismiss the idea of pardoning former national security adviser Michael Flynn after he pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI about conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the US. Asked whether he would consider a pardon for Flynn, Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn Friday morning …

The Hill reports: White House spokesman J. Hogan Gidley ripped the FBI in an interview with Fox News on Friday, saying the bureau has an “extreme bias” against President Trump in the wake of the release of anti-Trump text messages between two FBI officials. “It is troubling, deeply troubling, that the revelations have now come to light that there is …

The Washington Post reports: Nomination hearings for U.S. district judges tend to be dry affairs that offer little in the way of mass entertainment — in other words, they’re not typically the stuff of viral videos. But a clip of one of President Trump’s federal judicial nominees struggling to answer rudimentary questions about the law garnered well more than 1 …

The Washington Examiner reports: Sen. Ted Cruz sought to burn so-called “snowflakes” Thursday, mocking the Internet outrage over the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to repeal the so-called “net neutrality” regulations of the Obama era. Using a slang label for people who take offense easily to a lack of political correctness, the Texas Republican indicated that the backlash to Thursday’s decision …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump spoke by phone with President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Thursday, talking about how they can work together to resolve the situation involving North Korea’s nuclear program, the White House said. Trump also used the call to thank Putin for “acknowledging America’s strong economic performance in his annual press conference,” according to a White House …

Axios reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin said accusations of President Trump’s collusion with the Russians have “inflicted damage to the domestic political situation” and shows a “lack of respect for voters” who went for Trump in 2016, the AP reports. Putin was speaking at his annual news conference in Moscow. Why it matters: The U.S. intelligence community determined just months …

Talking Points Memo reports: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said Thursday that he won’t vote for his party’s huge corporate tax cut plan unless GOP leaders increase the size of the child tax credit. “I want to see the refundable portion of the child tax credit increased from its current number,” Rubio told reporters as he entered the Senate floor. “If …

The Hill reports: Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says he’s not quitting Congress anytime soon. Asked at the end of his weekly press conference whether he was leaving Congress “soon,” Ryan chuckled and replied as he walked off the stage: “I’m not, no.” Rumors have been swirling for weeks that Ryan — who this October marked his second year in the …

The New York Times reports: The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to dismantle landmark rules regulating the businesses that connect consumers to the internet, granting broadband companies power to potentially reshape Americans’ online experiences. The agency scrapped so-called net neutrality regulations that prohibited broadband providers from blocking websites or charging for higher-quality service or certain content. The federal government …