Tag Archives: Trump administration

CNN reports: The National Association of the Deaf and five deaf Americans are suing the White House in an attempt to force President Donald Trump and other top officials to have American Sign Language interpreters at Covid-19 briefings. They’ve asked a federal judge to order the White House to add live televised ASL interpretation at all public coronavirus briefings. “The …

NBC News reports: The deputy White House liaison to the U.S. Agency for International Development was fired Monday after making a series of comments critical of gay marriage and LGBTQ rights, two former Trump administration officials confirmed to NBC News. The deputy White House liaison to the U.S. Agency for International Development was fired Monday after making a series of …

The Guardian reports: House speaker Nancy Pelosi escalated an attack on Dr Deborah Birx, a senior scientist on Donald Trump’s coronavirus taskforce, in television comments on Sunday as Birx defended the administration’s handling of the pandemic. Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, was asked on ABC’s This Week whether she has confidence in Birx, a renowned public health expert who …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump only agreed to allow Microsoft Corp to negotiate the acquisition of popular short-video app TikTok if it could secure a deal in 45 days, three people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. The move represents an about-face for Trump and prompted the U.S. tech giant to declare its interest in the blockbuster social media …

ABC News reports: A last-ditch effort was mounted by Senate Republicans Thursday evening, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pulling back members — many had already left for home for the weekend — to vote on a plan that would cut the weekly federal benefit to $200, or two-thirds of lost wages. Democrats unanimously opposed the measure. While many Americans have …

Business Insider reports: The White House coronavirus testing czar said Sunday it was time to “move on” from the discussions surrounding hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus days after President Donald Trump again defended the drug. “There may be circumstances — I don’t know what they are — where a physician may prescribe it for an individual, but I …

Law & Crime reports: The office of Vice President Mike Pence used political pressure to get former Missouri governor Eric Greitens reinstated into the Navy despite those in command stating they wanted nothing to do with the scandal-plagued former SEAL, the Kansas City Star reported Saturday. The Star obtained 850 pages of documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) …

CNN reports: The Trump administration is dramatically increasing fees for dozens of immigration and work applications, including a more than 80 percent increase on naturalization applications and a first-time fee for asylum applicants. US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for the country’s immigration and naturalization system, updated and finalized its fee structure after a nearly nine month review. …

The New York Times reports: At the beginning of this week, the Eastman Kodak Company handed its chief executive 1.75 million stock options. It was the type of compensation decision that generally wouldn’t attract much notice, except for one thing: The day after the stock options were granted, the White House announced that the company would receive a $765 million …

The New York Times reports: Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions, as President Trump said on Friday that he was considering taking steps that would effectively ban the app from the United States. It’s unclear how advanced the talks between Microsoft and TikTok are, but any …

Politico reports: The acting chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Matthew Albence, is leaving the government. A career law enforcement officer who filled a number of positions within the DHS, Albence recently sparred with White House officials over how to handle ICE’s mission amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trump officials accused Albence of favoring humanitarian concerns about the treatment of immigrants …

The Hill reports: A report from Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee released Friday finds that the Trump administration overpaid by as much as $500 million for ventilators and was slow to respond to an offer to accelerate shipments in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak. The report finds that the Trump administration paid the manufacturer Philips …

Vanity Fair reports: The prospect of launching a large-scale national plan was losing favor, said one public health expert in frequent contact with the White House’s official coronavirus task force. Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was …

Law & Crime reports: President Donald Trump‘s baseless Wednesday morning question about postponing the 2020 general election has been given new life. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested the final decision on any such postponement hinges upon whether Attorney General Bill Barr and others at the DOJ can find a legal justification to change the date. “Can a president delay …

CNN reports: The White House notified the the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday morning that they will withdraw Retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata’s nomination to become the Department of Defense’s undersecretary of defense for policy, a Senate source tells CNN. Tata was scheduled to testify in front of the committee Thursday at 9:30 a.m. ET, but the hearing was …

Courthouse News reports: A week after a federal judge ordered Michael Cohen’s release, federal prosecutors asked Thursday to close the case and agreed to abandon the gag order that sparked the First Amendment battle. “There is therefore no need for this court to resolve any further dispute about restrictions on [Cohen’s] contact with the media,” the government’s 2-page letter states. …

The New York Times reports: The entire Federal Appeals Court in Washington said on Thursday that it would take up a case involving Attorney General William P. Barr’s decision to drop the prosecution of President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, erasing a split decision by a three-judge panel in June ordering an immediate end to the case. …

Politico reports: A new mandatory Pentagon training course aimed at preventing leaks refers to protesters and journalists as “adversaries” in a fictional scenario designed to teach Defense Department personnel how to better protect sensitive information. The new course was recently launched as part of Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s effort to improve “operational security,” or OPSEC, and clamp down on leaks. …

Reuters reports: U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus surpassed 150,000 on Wednesday, a number higher than in any other country and nearly a quarter of the world’s total, according to a Reuters tally. The United States ranks sixth in deaths per capita, at 4.5 fatalities per 10,000 people. Only the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Peru and Chile have a higher …

The Texas Tribune reports: Vance Ginn, the chief economist for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, is facing fierce backlash for a recent racist tweet that said schools should open since most of the people dying from the coronavirus in Texas are elderly or Hispanic. Ginn later removed the tweet and apologized. “I believe strongly based on my deep faith that …