Trump Administration

CNN International reports: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s wife Louise Linton on Saturday showed support for climate activist Greta Thunberg, days after her husband took a jab at the teenager. Mnuchin was dismissive of the 17-year-old Swedish climate activist at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and said Thunberg should go study economics in college before weighing in on US …

Buzzfeed News reports: State Department investigators this week interviewed hundreds of diplomats and employees at the US embassy in Ukraine as part of an investigation into the alleged surveillance of former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch by associates of Rudy Giuliani, two US officials with knowledge of the investigation told BuzzFeed News. One diplomatic source described the investigation as “cynical” and a …

The Guardian reports: Boris Johnson “reiterated the need” for the suspect charged with causing the death of Harry Dunn to return to the UK during a phone call with Donald Trump, a Downing Street spokeswoman said. Dunn, 19, died after a crash outside a US military base in Croughton, Northamptonshire, on 27 August 2019. Anne Sacoolas, 42, was charged with …

USA Today reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used the “F-word” and other expletives after a testy interview with an NPR host on Friday, the news outlet said Friday. Pompeo unloaded on NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly after an interview in which she questioned him on Ukraine and Iran, among other issues. He grew extremely irritated by Kelly’s Ukraine questions. “‘Do …

Bloomberg News reports: Secretary of State Michael Pompeo refused to defend his ousted ambassador to Ukraine despite being pressed multiple times, maintaining his long-running refusal to mention former envoy Marie Yovanovitch by name. “I’ve defended every single person on this team,” Pompeo told National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, when asked why he hadn’t stood up for Yovanovitch. “I’ve done what’s …

From the Jesuit publication America Review: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met Pope Francis in the Vatican at noon on Jan. 24, and the two spoke together in private for an hour, a surprisingly long time for an audience with someone who is not a head of state. It was their first meeting. Pope Francis welcomed the vice president, who …

The New York Times reports: Ivanka Trump, a White House adviser, was presented at this conference of global elites as a principal second only to her father, even as she traveled as part of a delegation that included all of the president’s most important economic advisers. She said that she would “continue to be focused on the areas where I’ve …

The Colorado Times-Recorder reports: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos weighed in on a host of issues during the Colorado Christian University’s annual president’s dinner Wednesday night at the Museum of the Bible, at one point drawing comparisons of the abortion rights debate to the ending of slavery. “Lincoln too contended with the pro-choice arguments of his day. They suggested that …

Politico reports: CMS Administrator Seema Verma plans to issue a letter soon explaining how states could seek waivers to receive defined payments for adults covered by Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, according to seven people with knowledge of the closely guarded effort. An announcement is tentatively slated for the end of next week, more than one year after Verma and her team …

CNBC reports: The State Department on Thursday unveiled new rules that could make it more difficult for pregnant foreign nationals to travel to the United States using tourist visas, citing security concerns. The rules, which will become effective on Friday, are an attempt to crack down on “birth tourism,” or the practice of giving birth in the United States in …

Kyle Mantyla reports at Right Wing Watch: As we have noted several times before, right-wing conspiracy theorist and End Times broadcaster Rick Wiles is deeply anti-Semitic and dedicates many of his TruNews programs to railing against Israel and Jews. Despite this, Wiles and his network still regularly receive press credentials from the Trump administration to join the White House press …

The Independent reports: The White House has live-streamed a church service which saw the US vice-president speak and a bishop claim “the devil” causes homosexuality. After Mike Pence addressed the congregation in Tennessee, the preacher took to the pulpit to talk about same-sex relations in a sermon still available on the administration’s Youtube channel. “It is a demonic spirit that …

The Hill reports: Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said Tuesday that “there’s really not a need” for the Trump administration to put forward an ObamaCare replacement plan at the moment. Azar was asked where the administration’s replacement for the health law is in an interview on the “Kevin Wall Radio Show.” He replied that there is not …

From the conservative Washington Examiner: The White House will add seven new countries to its travel ban, including Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania. Some countries will only face a ban on certain visa categories, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. An updated version of the ban was expected later this month. President Trump confirmed …

CBS News reports: Documents apparently generated by Cambridge Analytica suggest that the political consulting firm had a contractual relationship with Kenneth Braithwaite in the year before he was nominated to be U.S. Ambassador to Norway in 2017. Braithwaite, who President Trump has said will be his nominee for Secretary of the Navy, made no mention of an agreement in his …

Law & Crime reports: The Department of Justice on Friday evening released 176 pages of notes from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s interviews with key witnesses during his office’s investigation into Russian election interference. But the records, produced under a federal court order resulting from dual Freedom of Information Act (FIOA) lawsuits filed by CNN and BuzzFeed, conspicuously withheld all …

The Washington Post reports: The large color photograph that greets visitors to a National Archives exhibit celebrating the centennial of women’s suffrage shows a massive crowd filling Pennsylvania Avenue NW for the Women’s March on Jan. 21, 2017, the day after President Trump’s inauguration. The 49-by-69-inch photograph is a powerful display. Viewed from one perspective, it shows the 2017 march. …

The Sacramento Bee reports: The state of California is suing President Donald Trump’s Bureau of Land Management in an attempt to block the opening of more than 1 million acres of public land to oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing or fracking. The lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, seeks to …

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken another whack at former first lady Michelle Obama’s signature achievement: Establishing stricter nutritional standards for school breakfasts and lunches.  On Friday, USDA Deputy Under Secretary Brandon Lipps announced new proposed rules for the Food and Nutrition Service that would allow schools to cut the amount of vegetables and fruits …

CNN reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday publicly committed to look into the possible surveillance of former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch — more than 48 hours after the evidence of potential monitoring emerged and more than 24 hours after Ukraine announced its own investigation into the matter. “We will do everything we need to do to …