Trump Administration

CNN reports: Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said Friday he agrees with former Secretary of Defense Gen. Jim Mattis’ stark warning this week that President Donald Trump is “the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people” as nationwide protests have intensified over the death of George Floyd. “I agree with …

Roll Call reports: Environmental advocates are warning that changes to the way the EPA calculates public health benefits of the rules it writes would make it harder to regulate air pollution, even as industry groups cheer the overhauls they have long sought. The EPA on Thursday evening proposed overhauls to its metrics for weighing the public health and environmental benefits …

Mediaite reports: “For Jim Mattis to have his head in the sand is, quite frankly, appalling,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in an interview with Fox News’ Ed Henry. “This president is trying to unite a country. He has. He’s talked about the death of George Floyd and how sobering and sad he was when he saw the video, …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: In the latest example of the Trump administration seeking to enable legal discrimination against LGBTQ people, the Justice Department is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to allow religious-affiliated adoption agencies to refuse child placement into LGBTQ homes. In a 35-page brief, U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco and other Justice Department attorneys maintain …

The Independent reports: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany today compared Trump to great world leaders like British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for St John’s Church photo. “The president wanted to send a very powerful message that we would not be overcome by looting, by rioting, this is not what defines America,” she said. “Like Churchill we saw him inspecting …

Buzzfeed News reports: The Drug Enforcement Administration has been granted sweeping new authority to “conduct covert surveillance” and collect intelligence on people participating in protests over the police killing of George Floyd, according to a two-page memorandum obtained by BuzzFeed News. Floyd’s death “has spawned widespread protests across the nation, which, in some instances, have included violence and looting,” the …

Reuters reports: The Democrat who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary committee said on Tuesday he will introduce legislation this week to cut $50 million in funding from Attorney General William Barr’s personal office. New York Representative Jerrold Nadler said he would move to reduce funding for Barr’s personal office as a response to what he called “continued defiance …

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General William P. Barr ordered law enforcement officials on the ground to extend the perimeter around Lafayette Square, which is adjacent to the White House, just before President Trump spoke Monday, a Justice Department official said. According to two federal law enforcement officials, the decision had been made late Sunday night or early Monday morning …

Politico reports: Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, expressed dismay at President Donald Trump’s leadership on Monday, criticizing the president’s handling of mass protests that have engulfed cities across the country and singling out an influential member of his family. Jared Kushner was just one of some unnamed “key advisers” who Carlson said “don’t seem to understand the gravity of …

USA Today reports: Attorney General William Barr has deployed federal riot teams to Washington, D.C., and Miami in an attempt to quell violent clashes between protesters and police. Riot teams are being sent from the federal Bureau of Prisons, while the FBI also has directed its elite Hostage Rescue Unit to help in D.C., a senior Justice Department official said …

Mother Jones reports: The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general wants you to know he has the credentials to hold accountable a 240,000-person department responsible for keeping the country safe. Until Thursday, Joseph Cuffari’s official government bio stated, “Dr. Cuffari earned a Ph.D. in philosophy.” That isn’t true. Cuffari’s PhD from California Coast University is in management, and it was …

Vice reports: Far-right extremists are showing up, with guns, to the protests against police brutality that have exploded across the country. Others are egging on the violence from behind their computers, urging followers to carry out acts of violence against black protesters with the goal of sparking a “race war.” For example, the so-called Boogaloo Bois — a group of …

The Hill reports: Michael Flynn urged a top Russian diplomat in late 2016 to make a “reciprocal” response to the Obama administration’s sanctions on the Kremlin for its interference in the recently completed presidential race, arguing against escalating matters. Flynn, who was then President-elect Trump’s incoming national security adviser, warned then-Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak against one country …

“We have no tolerance for racism in America. We have no tolerance for violence inspired by racism. And as President Trump said, justice will be served. We also believe in law and order in this country. We condemn violence against property or persons. We will also always stand for the right of Americans to peacefully protest and let their voices …

CBS News reports: President Trump on Friday called protesters in Minneapolis “thugs” and vowed that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” He tweeted after protesters outraged by the death of a black man in police custody torched a police station. The tweet was quickly flagged by Twitter as “glorifying violence.” Twitter quickly tagged the post, saying, “This Tweet violated …

Talking Points Memo reports: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was put on the spot by CNN’s Jim Acosta, who asked her if she could say that President Donald Trump has “never lied to the public,” and McEnany would not say that. “Shouldn’t the president be fact-checked, especially this president, who has made so many false and misleading statements that …

USA Today reports: A postcard mailed to every American household that included coronavirus social distancing guidelines and also prominently featured President Donald Trump’s name cost the U.S. Postal Service $28 million, USA TODAY has learned. The coronavirus card, which began appearing in U.S. mailboxes in March, drew fire from good-government groups that said it applied a political veneer to the …

The Huffington Post reports: White House aide Kellyanne Conway — who, like her boss, the president, is falsely attacking voting by mail as prone to fraud — cast her own ballot by mail to vote in Bergen County, New Jersey, in the 2018 midterm election. Conway, who with her husband continues to own a home in northern New Jersey, tried …

Courthouse News reports: Three White House cabinet members received pitches last week to dramatically increase trade with Turkey. Capitalizing on the coronavirus pandemic, the letters came from Mehmet Ali Yalçındağ, the chairman of Turkey’s oldest state-sponsored trade group who partnered with Ivanka Trump and the president on the Trump Towers Istanbul deal. “Well before Covid-19 and the new set of …

NPR reports: Marc Short, the chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, owns between $506,043 and $1.64 million worth of individual stocks in companies doing work related to the Trump administration’s pandemic response — holdings that could run afoul of conflict of interest laws. Many of the medical, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies – including 3M, Abbott Laboratories, Gilead Sciences, …