Trump Administration

The Associated Press reports: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers Monday that he has warned allies of President Donald Trump that the president’s repeated attacks on mail-in ballots are “not helpful,” but denied that recent changes at the Postal Service are linked to the November elections. DeJoy was testifying for a second day on Capitol Hill, facing tense questions from …

The Wall Street Journal reports: A senior Chinese government official enlisted the help of a top fundraising official at the Republican National Committee to lobby the Trump administration in 2017 to return a Chinese businessman living in the U.S. who has long been sought by Beijing, according to a court document filed in Hawaii last week. Sun Lijun, China’s then-vice …

Reuters reports: TikTok on Monday sued U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration over his executive order banning transactions in the United States with the popular short-form video-sharing app, calling it a pretext to fuel anti-China rhetoric as he seeks reelection. TikTok and its parent ByteDance Ltd rejected what they called the White House’s position that it was a national security threat, …

The Daily Beast reports: White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reacted to the news that Kellyanne Conway is leaving the Trump administration by telling CBS This Morning: “Kellyanne is going to be missed, America loves her. We will certainly miss her here at the White House.” “But listen, this is all about making a priority for family. That’s what …

Courthouse News reports: New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a sealed petition against the Trump Organization on the eve of the Republican National Convention, seeking to compel disclosure on an unspecified topic. Earlier this month, James sought to disband the National Rifle Association in a lawsuit that accuses the gun group of fraud, and her office previously shuttered the …

How utterly unsurprising: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushed concerns about TikTok’s ties to China during meetings with officials and lawmakers, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The Journal reported that Zuckerberg discussed TikTok with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) before the government began its national security investigation into the app owned by the China-based ByteDance. Zuckerberg also made the case to …

The New York Daily News reports: You know what President Trump’s sister says about him. Now America is going to hear it straight from the mouth of his wife. First lady Melania Trump has reportedly been taped making disparaging remarks about Trump, as well as his daughter, Ivanka. An estranged confidant of Melania Trump plans to reveal what she had …

Just in from the Lincoln Project: As the Republican National Convention begins in the midst of the worst pandemic of our lifetime, The Lincoln Project today released a new ad reminding Americans who is actually responsible for the failed response to COVID. The ad, “Evil,” shows that Jared Kushner prioritized the President’s reelection above public health, ignoring testing from states …

CBS News reports: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is testifying before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Monday, amid rising concerns about delays in mail delivery ahead of the November election. Democrats are expecting to grill DeJoy for overseeing a series of recent operational changes, such as eliminating most overtime and ending extra package deliveries. Robert Duncan, the president of …

The New York Times reports: Trump administration officials met with congressional leaders last month and told them they would probably give emergency approval to a coronavirus vaccine before the end of Phase 3 clinical trials in the United States, perhaps as early as late September, according to two people briefed on the discussion. The move would be highly unusual and …

From a statement posted last night by the USPS: The U.S. Postal Service greatly appreciates the efforts of the House of Representatives to assist us. We look forward to continuing to work with Congress on more meaningful reform that will ensure our long-term health, and we remain a vital part of our nation’s critical infrastructure. We are concerned that some …

The New York Times reports: The Food and Drug Administration late on Sunday gave emergency approval for expanded use of antibody-rich blood plasma to help hospitalized coronavirus patients, allowing President Trump, who has been pressuring the agency to move faster to address the pandemic, to claim progress on the eve of the Republican convention. Mr. Trump cited the approval, which …

The Washington Post reports: Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to President Trump and one of his longest-serving aides, is leaving the White House at the end of the month. Conway, whose title is counselor to the president, was Trump’s third campaign manager in 2016 and the first woman to successfully manage a presidential bid to victory. She joined the White …

Axios reports: Former FBI director James Comey argued on Sunday that the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on 2016 Russian interference “blows up” President Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr’s claims that the FBI’s Russia investigation was unjustified and a “hoax.” The 966-page bipartisan report, which goes into more detail than the Mueller report, found that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort …

NBC News reports: White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Sunday dodged questions about President Donald Trump’s embrace of QAnon days after the president said followers of the conspiracy theory “love our country.” “We don’t even know what it is,” Meadows told “Fox News Sunday” after host Chris Wallace asked whether the president would denounce QAnon, which the FBI …

The Hill reports: Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said Sunday that DHS has no authority to send federal agents to oversee polling locations in November, despite President Trump’s vow to have a federal law enforcement presence at the polls on Election Day. “That’s not what we do at the Department of Homeland Security,” Wolf said on CNN’s …

The New York Post reports: The White House is touting a “breakthrough” on a coronavirus therapeutic that President Trump will announce in a news conference Sunday evening. Trump will make the announcement alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and the director of the Food and Drug Administration Stephen Hahn. Earlier Saturday, Trump accused the FDA of delaying possible …

The Washington Post reports: The House voted Saturday on legislation to provide $25 billion to the U.S. Postal Service and explicitly prohibit any operational changes amid widespread Democratic fears that the Trump administration is trying to disenfranchise millions of Americans casting mail ballots this November. The 257-to-150 vote was largely along party lines as Republicans accused Democrats of manufacturing “baseless …

The Texas Tribune reports: A postal workers’ union leader in San Antonio said today that local Postal Service operations are experiencing major delays in mail delivery and that the agency sought to hide evidence of the problems from a congressman when he visited its facility this week. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, toured the main San Antonio post office Wednesday …

The Guardian reports: The attorney general, William Barr, told Rupert Murdoch to “muzzle” Andrew Napolitano, a prominent Fox News personality who became a critic of Donald Trump, according to a new book about the rightwing TV network. Barr’s meeting with Murdoch, at the media mogul’s New York home in October 2019, was widely reported at the time, with speculation surrounding …