The following article by Alan Rappeport was posted on the New York Times website February 15, 2017:
The fast-food executive Andrew F. Puzder withdrew his nomination to be labor secretary on Wednesday as Republican senators turned sharply against him, the latest defeat for a White House besieged by infighting and struggling for traction even with a Republican-controlled Congress. Continue reading “Andrew Puzder Withdraws From Consideration as Labor Secretary”
The following article by Ashley Parker was posted on the Washington Post website February 15, 2017:
President Trump criticized the intelligence community and the media Wednesday for the news reports that ultimately led to national security adviser Michael Flynn’s resignation Monday night, less than four weeks into his White House tenure. Continue reading “Trump says Flynn was treated unfairly, a day after Spicer said he was fired because of a lack of trust”
The following article by Robert Costa and Ashley Parker was posted on the Washington Post website February 14, 2017:
For nearly two full weeks, nobody told Vice President Pence that he had been misled by national security adviser Michael Flynn.
After privately being assured by Flynn that he had never had any discussions about Russian sanctions with that country’s ambassador, Pence went on TV in mid-January and publicly parroted Flynn’s denial. But on Jan. 26, President Trump and a small group of senior aides learned that the Justice Department had evidence that Flynn had, in fact, discussed sanctions and misled the vice president. Continue reading “Pence remains above the fray, but is he outside the inner circle?”
The following article was posted on the TrumpAccountable.org website February 15, 2017:
In 2015 Republicans in Congress overwhelmingly passed a measure to repeal Obamacare. The repeal package, embedded in a budget reconciliation bill, never had a chance to become law as long as President Obama was in office and could veto it.
Now that Republicans have both chambers of the legislative branch and the executive branch, why don’t they simply roll out the same repeal package, that also defunded Planned Parenthood, and vote on it? It seems easy, doesn’t it? Continue reading “Obamacare”
The following newsletter by Ishaan Tharoor was sent February 15, 2017:
The fallout over the resignation of Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s national security adviser, is still settling over Washington. Reporting by my colleagues on Monday night seemed to make Flynn’s position in the White House untenable. They revealed that officials from the Justice Department had warned the Trump administration that Flynn had likely misled the White House regarding his conversations with the Russian ambassador — and that he was potentially vulnerable to Kremlin blackmail. After a steady drumbeat of speculation, Flynn tendered his resignation just before midnight. Continue reading “American extremist”
The following article by Ezekiel Kweku was posted on the MTV website February 13, 2017:
The left’s opposition to the Trump agenda suffered its first serious post-election losses this week, with Betsy DeVos and Jeff Sessions both confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet. While these weren’t the first nominees confirmed over the opposition, they were the first whom Democrats had fully united against. The Democratic base flooded the phone lines of their representatives, showed up en masse at town halls and senatorial offices, tweeted and organized and marched. Democratic congresspeople listened and delivered tough questions in confirmation hearings and (with one exception) held the line. They even flipped two Republican congressmen, convincing them that voting against DeVos was either wise or politically expedient. Continue reading “Beyond Despair: Finding the Will to Fight Donald Trump”
The following column by Jeffrey Frank was posted on the New Yorker website February 15, 2017:
This can’t go on much longer, can it? In the past, the nation has had do-nothing Presidencies, and scandal-ridden Presidencies, and failed Presidencies, but until Donald J. Trump came along there hasn’t been a truly embarrassing Presidency. Trump himself looks out of place (that squinty-eyed frown, meant to bespeak firmness, or serious purpose, doesn’t succeed), and it’s easy to understand why he looks that way. He’s living a bachelor’s life in an unfamiliar house, in a so-so neighborhood far from his home town, surrounded by strangers who have been hired to protect him but cut him off from any sort of real privacy. His daughter Ivanka is close by, in the Kalorama neighborhood, but she has her own life to live, and her own problems—most recently, Nordstrom’s decision to stop carrying her fashion brand. His wife, Melania, is two hundred miles away, in Trump Tower; for the time being, according to the family’s public statements, she’s there to look after her son, Barron, who’s finishing the school year in familiar surroundings. Continue reading “The Embarrassment of President Trump”
The following article by James Hohmann and Breanne Deppisch was posted on the Washington Post website February 15, 2017:
Two days after Trump’s victory, Russia’s deputy foreign minister told a reporter in Moscow that “there were contacts” between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. “Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage,” he said. That prompted a vigorous denial from Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks, who insisted there had been “no contact with Russian officials.” Continue reading “It’s bigger than Flynn. New Russia revelations widen Trump’s credibility gap.”
The following article by Dan Balz was posted on the Washington Post website February 14, 2017:
The presidential campaign was a heady experience for Donald Trump: months of triumph and, better yet, disproving all the so-called experts who said he never had a chance of winning. The early weeks of the new administration have been the opposite: the public humbling of a new president. Continue reading “In the early weeks of the new administration, the humbling of a president”
