Trump Administration

Axios reports: White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow criticized President Trump’s response to last week’s U.S. Capitol siege and his treatment of Vice President Mike Pence in the aftermath of the 2020 election, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Friday. Kudlow said he considered resigning after the Capitol violence, but spoke with other senior White House officials …

NBC News reports: Alex Azar, the Health and Human Services Secretary, resigned earlier this week, citing the violent Capitol riot inflamed by President Donald Trump in his resignation letter obtained by NBC News. Azar said his resignation would become effective on Jan. 20th — the same date he would have been leaving office once President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in. …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Operation Warp Speed leaders waited more than two months to approve a plan to distribute and administer Covid-19 vaccines proposed by U.S. health officials, administration officials said, leaving states with little time to implement a mass-vaccination campaign amid a coronavirus surge. State and local officials had been clamoring for months for help preparing for the …

The New York Times reports: Vice President Mike Pence telephoned Vice President-elect Kamala Harris Thursday to congratulate her and offer his belated assistance — filling a leadership role all but abdicated by President Trump, who is planning to fly out of the capital shortly before Joseph R. Biden Jr. is sworn in next week. The Pence-Harris conversation, relayed by two …

The New York Post reports: Four movers were seen unloading pallets of flatpack cardboard boxes outside the Executive Office Building on the White House grounds as the Trump family prepares to leave the executive residence and decamp to Florida. Furious preparations are underway with just one week until President-elect Joe Biden takes the oath of office and moves into 1600 …

The Washington Post reports: Instructed not to use any of the half-dozen bathrooms inside the couple’s house, the Secret Service detail assigned to President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law spent months searching for a reliable restroom to use on the job, according to neighbors and law enforcement officials. After resorting to a porta-potty, as well as bathrooms at the nearby home …

The New York Times reports: As America slogs through this grimmest of winters, there is no relief in the daily tabulations of Covid-19 deaths: More than 4,400 were reported across the United States on Tuesday, according to a New York Times database, a number once unimaginable. Yet even as the disease touches thousands of families, the nation is distracted by …

“I want to send a clear message to anyone contemplating violence, threats of violence or other criminal conduct: We will have no tolerance whatsoever for any attempts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 20 that our Constitution calls for. We will have no tolerance for any attempts to forcefully occupy government buildings. There will be no excuse …

The New York Times reports: Mr. Trump was enraged that Mr. Pence was refusing to try to overturn the election. In a series of meetings, the president had pressed relentlessly, alternately cajoling and browbeating him. Finally, just before Mr. Pence headed to the Capitol to oversee the electoral vote count last Wednesday, Mr. Trump called the vice president’s residence to …

ABC News reports: Vice President Pence on Tuesday rebuffed calls from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democrats to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office. “I do not believe such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with the Constitution,” Pence wrote in a letter to Pelosi released Tuesday …

Reuters reports: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelled his Europe trip at the last minute on Tuesday after Luxembourg’s foreign minister and top European Union officials declined to meet him, European diplomats and other people familiar with the matter said. The Europeans snubbed Washington’s top envoy days after the storming of the U.S. Capitol by thousands of supporters of …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence had a “good conversation” at the White House on Monday evening, a senior administration official said, marking the end of a silent period in their relationship after the riot at the Capitol last week. The conversation was their first since the Republican president lambasted Pence on Wednesday for not seeking …

Mediaite reports: “Do you believe the president is able to discharge the duties of his office?” Stephanopoulos asked. Azar said the insurrection at the Capitol was an “assault on democracy,” but he sidestepped the core question with a call for a peaceful transfer of power. Stephanopoulos stayed on the topic by noting that Trump faces impeachment if not removed through …

Axios reports: Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf will step down from his position, Fox News first reported and Axios has confirmed. Word of Wolf’s departure comes a week before the inauguration and the massive security concerns following the Capitol siege. Wolf’s announcement follows last week’s departure of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, among numerous administration …

Politico reports: The Treasury Department announced a new spate of sanctions on Monday targeting the “inner circle” of Andrii Derkach, the pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker who aided Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to probe unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing by President-elect Joe Biden and his family. The department had previously designated Derkach himself for sanctions related to foreign interference in the 2020 election in …

USA Today reports: Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” TV show Sunday that he doesn’t currently know “what’s going on inside the Oval Office now” and “inside the president’s head” following riots this week in Washington, D.C. Mulvaney announced his resignation Thursday as President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland after …

CNN reports: Vice President Mike Pence has not ruled out an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment and wants to preserve the option in case President Donald Trump becomes more unstable, a source close to the vice president says. The source said there is some concern inside Pence’s team that there are risks to invoking the 25th Amendment or even …

The Wall Street Journal reports: White House officials pushed Atlanta’s top federal prosecutor to resign before Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoffs because President Trump was upset he wasn’t doing enough to investigate the president’s allegations of election fraud, people familiar with the matter said. A senior Justice Department official, at the behest of the White House, called Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Byung …

The New York Times reports: Reports of a highly contagious new coronavirus variant in the United States, published on Friday by multiple news outlets, are based on speculative statements made by Dr. Deborah Birx and are inaccurate, according to several government officials. The erroneous report originated at a recent meeting where Dr. Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus …

CNN reports: The US reported more than 4,000 Covid-19 deaths Thursday — the most virus-related deaths the country has reported in one day since the pandemic’s start. It’s the third day in a row of record daily deaths from the disease, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, while the number of people who have been infected topped more than …