Politics

Reuters reports: Exxon Mobil Corp sued the U.S. government on Thursday, blasting as “unlawful” and “capricious” a $2 million fine levied against it for a three-year-old oil joint venture with Russia’s Rosneft. The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday morning slapped the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer with the fine for “reckless disregard” of U.S. sanctions in dealings with Russia …

Newsweek reports: Stephen Colbert is on a one-man mission to find a recording that allegedly shows President Donald Trump watching two prostitutes urinate on a bed in a Moscow hotel presidential suite. Or, as Colbert dubbed the fabled video, “the pee pee tape.” On Thursday’s episode of The Late Show, Colbert continued his Russia Week string of episodes, showing highlights …

CBS News reports: One of President Trump’s attorneys is denying a Washington Post report that Mr. Trump’s legal team has been “discussing the president’s authority to grant pardons” with respect to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Jay Sekulow tells CBS News chief White House correspondent Major Garrett, “Pardons are not being …

The Associated Press reports: U.S. officials say the Trump administration will ban American citizens from traveling to North Korea following the death of university student Otto Warmbier who passed away after falling into a coma into a North Korean prison. The officials said Friday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had decided to impose “geographic travel restriction” for North Korea, …

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports: A Kentucky Republican Party county chairman has resigned after he was arrested in Tennessee on charges of indecent exposure and resisting arrest in a department store, the GOP and police said. David Narramore, 54, of Whitesburg was arrested Saturday night in a Belk department store in Kingsport, Tenn., according to police there. A store employee told …

Oh good grief: White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday befuddled members of the press corps when she shared visual aids at a briefing where video cameras had been banned. While touting President Donald Trump’s so-called “MAGAnomics”, Sanders directed reporters to two large monitors behind the podium. “Is this still off-camera?” MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson reportedly asked the …

The Daily Beast reports: The Trump administration has spent taxpayer money meant to encourage enrollment in the Affordable Care Act on a public relations campaign aimed at methodically strangling it. The effort, which involves a multi-pronged social media push as well as video testimonials designed at damaging public opinion of President Obama’s health care law, is far more robust and …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday said it was fining global oil company ExxonMobil Corp $2 million for violating sanctions on Russia in May 2014. The heads of the company’s U.S. subsidiaries signed eight documents between May 14 and May 23, 2014 with Igor Sechin, the head of Russia’s largest oil producer, Rosneft, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets …

The Hill reports: About one in eight people who voted for President Trump in the 2016 presidential race said they would make a different decision today, according to a new poll. A Reuters/Ipsos poll of 2016 voters found 12 percent of respondents said they would not cast their votes for Trump “if the 2016 presidential election were held today.” Still, …

During yesterday’s instantly infamous interview with the New York Times, Trump digressed into a rambling lesson on French and Russian history, leading one internet wag to call it his version of Comedy Central’s hilarious Drunk History. An excerpt: “They froze to death. How many times has Russia been saved by the weather?” Trump remarked. “Same thing happened to Hitler.” TRUMP: …

Reuters reports: The Kremlin said on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not have “a secret meeting” at the G20 summit earlier this month, but confirmed they did chat informally over dinner. The Kremlin was responding to questions about a previously undisclosed conversation between Trump and Putin that caused alarm among some U.S. politicians …

NBC News reports: Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, has been diagnosed with brain cancer, the Mayo Clinic said Wednesday in a statement released on behalf of the senator and his family. “Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot,” the Mayo Clinic said in the statement. “The Senator and his …

ABC News reports: A majority of Americans prefer to see the next Congress controlled by the Democrats to counter President Donald Trump rather than the Republicans to support him — but without the level of anti-Trump motivation the opposition party may be banking on. Despite Trump’s historically low approval rating, opposition to him is not producing appreciably more 2018 voting …

USA Today reports: A group of 20 House Democrats is calling on the FBI to review Ivanka Trump’s security clearance as her husband and presidential adviser, Jared Kushner, is under scrutiny for failing to disclose meetings with Russians during and after her father’s presidential campaign. Kushner has updated his disclosure forms multiple times, including to account for a meeting at …

Mediaite reports: Corey Lewandowski appeared on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning to offer optimistic words for President Donald Trump and his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  Lewandowski opened by informing the Fox & Friends hosts that the “president is a great dealmaker,” and that he is “very, very close on this piece of legislation.” “I think this bill …

The Dallas Voice reports: Dallas businessman Jeffery Payne on Friday, July 14, announced that he is running for governor of Texas, challenging Republican incumbent Greg Abbott, who he characterizes as a “disaster for Texans” and a governor who “offers nothing in the way of new ideas.” “Texas needs a governor who believes in real Texas values, like integrity, honesty, freedom …

Michael Musto writes for Out Magazine: My time spent on social networks has been way more gratifying since I decided to block anyone who’s tried to crawl out from under a rock and chirp about how Trump isn’t really bad to LGBTQs at all. (“After all, everyone said we’d be in death camps, and we’re not” is a typically lame-brained …

“I imagine many Democrats were celebrating last night. I hope they consider what they’re celebrating. The American people are hurting, they need relief, and it’s regretful that our Democratic colleagues decided early on that they did not want to engage with us seriously in the process to deliver that relief.” – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, blaming Democrats after the …

The HuffPost reports: Former Vice President Al Gore says he’s given up hope that President Donald Trump will act on key climate issues. Gore recounted to “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert his optimism after his meeting with Trump to discuss climate change and the landmark Paris Accord. Trump had promised supporters during the campaign that he would pull out of …

Chicago’s ABC affiliate reports: After serving a little more than a year in a federal prison hospital, former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Il) is nearly home free. Hastert, 75, an admitted sexual molester of young boys and purveyor of hush money, will be released from prison within the next month. The ex-Illinois congressman pleaded guilty to bank fraud in …