Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Kurt Volker, the U.S. special representative to Ukraine, resigned Friday amid fallout from a whistleblower complaint against President Donald Trump regarding his phone call in July with Ukraine’s president. Volker was one of five State Department officials that House Democrats said they want to depose as part of an impeachment inquiry. The whistleblower complaint focuses on Trump’s July…
A federal judge has issued a tentative order against the Trump administration’s plan to detain migrant families for the entire duration of their court proceedings. In a major blow to President Donald Trump’s agenda to curb illegal immigration, Judge Dolly Gee of the federal District Court in Los Angeles issued a preliminary ruling Friday that, at least temporarily,…
President Donald Trump accused House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of lying to Congress in a Sunday evening Twitter post. The president added that he wants the identity of the whistleblower who filed a complaint regarding his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss former Vice President Joe Biden's dealings with Ukraine while his son, Hunter Biden,…
Banners waved in the morning breeze as Climate Strike protesters filled McPherson Square Park at 7:00 a.m. Friday. More than 300 people prepared to march from the small park, with those on megaphones leading chants as a couple of homeless people were lying on park benches. The voices of the protesters echoed off the solid…
Republican lawmakers opposed Planned Parenthood’s call to remove restrictions on at-home abortion drugs in a Wednesday letter provided to The Daily Caller News Foundation. Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks joined other lawmakers in calling on the Food and Drug Administration to “mandate collecting complete, accurate information on all adverse events related to” mifepristone—a drug used…
The Senate confirmed a son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as labor secretary Thursday afternoon. Corporate litigator Eugene Scalia will succeed former Secretary Alex Acosta, who resigned on July 12 amid renewed criticism of a nonprosecution agreement he negotiated with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The 53-44 vote followed party lines. Scalia’s service as labor secretary will…
KYIV, Ukraine—Since April 2014, Ukraine has been locked in a land war in its eastern Donbas region against a combined force of Russian regulars, pro-Russian separatists, and foreign mercenaries. During that time, Russia has used Ukraine as a testing ground for its modern warfare doctrines and technologies—in terms of both conventional and so-called hybrid military…
A Maryland county sheriff told members of Congress on Thursday that the United States’ immigration system has reached a “crisis point.” “We’re at a crisis point in this country,” Sheriff Chuck Jenkins of Frederick County, Maryland, said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing called “The Expansion and Troubling Use of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Detention.”…
Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, as the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives moves ahead with a broad multi-committee impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. Maguire explained the procedure for why a whistleblower’s complaint about the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President…
The Trump administration signed an asylum agreement with the Honduran government Wednesday, marking the latest in a string of asylum deals with Latin American countries aimed at controlling the immigration crisis. The Department of Homeland Security announced it reached a deal with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, allowing the U.S. to send some asylum-seekers from “third” countries…
The company that created Barbie launched a new line of gender-neutral Barbie dolls released in Walmart and Target stores Wednesday. Mattel Creatable World released a new line of Barbie dolls in efforts to create “more inclusive” dolls, available online at Target, Walmart, and Amazon, according to Time magazine. The dolls are designed to meet the needs of children…
President Donald Trump used a press conference at the United Nations to strike back Wednesday at House Democrats who are moving forward on an impeachment inquiry. “The witch hunt continues. But they’re getting hit hard on this witch hunt,” Trump told reporters. The president spoke hours after the White House released an official transcript of…
Despite the recent troubles facing the Southern Poverty Law Center, House Democrats are considering stripping tax-exempt status from organizations labeled as “hate groups” by the liberal organization. Earlier this year, top SPLC leadership resigned after allegations that they turned a blind eye to sexual harassment and racial discrimination within the organization. Nevertheless, some Democrat lawmakers…
A transcript of the July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shows the two leaders did talk during their brief conversation about an investigation involving Joe Biden and his son. Neither man, however, mentioned military aid to Ukraine that might hang in the balance. The White House released the…
The U.S. health and human services secretary condemned efforts to provide international access to abortion at a United Nations conference Monday. Secretary Alex Azar spoke Monday morning at the U.N. General Assembly in New York and told the gathered nations abortion is not an international right. Azar also condemned the use of “ambiguous terms and expressions such…
Invoking the Founding Fathers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that existing investigations of President Donald Trump would continue “under that umbrella” of an impeachment inquiry. Pelosi, D-Calif., who has long resisted the push by the left wing of her party to impeach the president, was moved by the recent questions surrounding Trump’s admission that…
KYIV, Ukraine—Ukraine is at a crossroads. After more than five years of war against Russian forces in its eastern Donbas region, the former Soviet republic is finally inching toward a peace deal with Moscow. Yet a political scandal in the U.S.—in which Ukraine plays a central role—threatens to complicate matters, some Ukrainian experts say. The…
The fourth-ranking Republican in the Senate called on colleagues Tuesday to pass her legislation to reduce wasteful government spending and rein in agencies’ spending practices. “Government agencies are going on their annual ‘Christmas in September’ use-it-or-lose-it shopping spree,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said in remarks prepared for delivery on the Senate floor. “If not spent…
Planned Parenthood advised Hollywood on more than 150 productions since 2014 as part of an effort to influence the abortion dialogue, a director at the nonprofit said. The nation’s largest abortion provider is losing the abortion battle in Washington but is upping its game through Hollywood, freelance journalist Nora Caplan-Bricker wrote Monday in The Washington Post…
Justice Elena Kagan said Monday night that concerns about the politicization of the Supreme Court are “overblown," pushing back against suggestions that the court’s increasingly conservative makeup will strain public confidence in the judiciary. Kagan told law students at the University of California, Berkeley, not to despair over current conditions, even as she agreed the…