US Elections news

• Obama makes life commitment to mentorship program

  14-12-2016 23:59 via rss.cnn.com
  
  President Barack Obama said Wednesday he will be invested "for the rest of my life" to his mentorship program for young men of color.
  
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• Military report: Trump pick Michael Flynn shared classified intel

  14-12-2016 23:51 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Donald Trump's incoming national security adviser "inappropriately shared" classified intelligence with foreign military personnel, according to a just-surfaced military summary of the inquiry.
  
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• Trump endorses Romney niece Ronna Romney McDaniel for RNC chair

  14-12-2016 23:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Steve Holland NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed a niece of former critic Mitt Romney to be the next chair of the Republican National Committee as he moved to put his stamp on the party leadership. The RNC named Michigan Republican Party chair Ronna Romney McDaniel as its deputy chair, and Trump said he looked forward to her taking over the party leadership.
  
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• Tillerson to hand over reins to Exxon's president Woods

  14-12-2016 23:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Tillerson, 64, will retire at the end of the year and Woods, 51, will take over effective Jan. 1, Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said. Woods, who was named president and elected to the board in January 2015, was widely expected to become the top executive after Tillerson's retirement next year, when he turns 65, the mandatory retirement age for the company.
  
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• Trump supporter and protester reconcile after clashing at rally

  14-12-2016 23:09 via rss.cnn.com
  
  A Donald Trump supporter who punched a protester in the face at a rally earlier this year apologized and shook hands with the protester during a court hearing Wednesday.
  
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• U.S. senators seek to protect banking for pot business vendors

  14-12-2016 22:51 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The U.S. government should keep banks from cutting off the accounts of vendors who work with state-sanctioned marijuana businesses, 10 U.S. senators said in a letter to the Treasury on Wednesday. Guidance it issued in 2014 on how to provide financial services to state-approved marijuana dispensaries without running afoul of U.S. law, has spooked banks and credit unions from taking accounts in the cannabis industry. "Most banks and credit unions have either closed accounts or simply refused to of
  
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• Ronna Romney McDaniel tapped to lead RNC

  14-12-2016 22:51 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Michigan Republican Party Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel is President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be the next Republican National Committee chair, a transition source tells CNN.
  
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• Trump team says Twitter too small to be included in tech meeting

  14-12-2016 22:38 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Ginger Gibson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump left Twitter off the invitation list for a meeting of technology company executives on Wednesday because it is too small, a spokesman for his transition team told Reuters. The omission of Twitter from the meeting surprised some in the industry given Trump's prolific use of the social media platform during his election campaign and the company's high profile in discussions over policy issues such as cyber security and the spread
  
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• Pew poll: High scores for Obamas, mixed views of legacy

  14-12-2016 22:11 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Both President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are leaving the White House on a high note -- both are viewed more favorably now than when the President was re-elected in 2012.
  
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• Labor Secretary Tom Perez to run for DNC chair

  14-12-2016 21:40 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Labor Secretary Tom Perez will announce a bid for Democratic National Committee Chair Thursday on a call with state Democratic party chairs, according to a source with knowledge of his planning.
  
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• Trump team disavows survey seeking names of climate workers

  14-12-2016 21:31 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Timothy Gardner and Emily Stephenson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump's transition team on Wednesday disavowed a survey sent to the U.S. Department of Energy that requested the names of people working on climate change in the agency. "The questionnaire was not authorized or part of our standard protocol," Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said. The survey of 74 questions, which the Energy Department received last Tuesday, asked for the names of workers and contractors who had att
  
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• Trump's tapped the cowboy we can't get rid of

  14-12-2016 21:30 via rss.cnn.com
  
  James Moore says having Rick Perry as Secretary of Energy will replace two physicists with a man who almost failed 'Meats' and has conflicts of interest galore.
  
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• White House: Trump 'obviously' knew Russia hacks were benefiting him

  14-12-2016 21:16 via rss.cnn.com
  
  President-elect Donald Trump was "obviously aware" that Russia meddled in the US election to benefit his own campaign, the White House said Wednesday.
  
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• Kanye West unphased by backlash over Donald Trump meeting

  14-12-2016 20:53 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Kanye West doesn't seem phased by the backlash levied against him by fans and friends for meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.
  
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• Assad: Trump can be a 'natural ally' for Syria

  14-12-2016 20:46 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Donald Trump will become a "natural ally" of Syria if he holds fast to a hard line on terrorists.
  
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• Trump's sons involved in interviewing, vetting Cabinet candidates

  14-12-2016 20:36 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Donald Trump's sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, are actively involved in his transition efforts, sources say -- raising questions about their dual role in his administration and businesses.
  
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• Immigrant to Trump: Deportation would be 'a life sentence'

  14-12-2016 20:17 via rss.cnn.com
  
  A Cambodian legal immigrant who has faced the prospect of deportation for more than a decade because she has a criminal record spoke Wednesday about her harrowing fight to stay in the US.
  
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• Trump to unveil Supreme Court pick close to inauguration: aide

  14-12-2016 20:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  President-elect Donald Trump plans to unveil his choice to fill the lingering U.S. Supreme Court vacancy around the time of his Jan. 20 inauguration after the Republican-led Senate refused to consider President Barack Obama's nominee, a senior Trump aide said on Wednesday. The top U.S. court has been down one justice since the death of long-serving conservative Antonin Scalia on Feb. 13, leaving it ideologically split with four conservatives and four liberals. Obama nominated appeals court judge
  
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• Spicer: Transparency in Trump transition 'has exceeded any modern president'

  14-12-2016 20:03 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer on Wednesday praised the transparency during President-elect Donald Trump's transition process, despite a lack of press conferences and Trump's repeated refusal during the campaign to release his tax returns.
  
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• Did Trump need a Romney apology?

  14-12-2016 19:41 via rss.cnn.com
  
  As President-elect Donald Trump considered Mitt Romney for secretary of state, Trump wanted one thing Romney wouldn't give him: an apology.
  
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• Trump chief of staff Priebus promises busy 'first 9 months'

  14-12-2016 19:12 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus says repealing and replacing Obamacare will be be at the top of the incoming administration's agenda in what they are promising is going to be a very eventful first year.
  
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• Gambia's Jammeh must leave power when term ends: United Nations

  14-12-2016 18:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Emma Farge and Edward McAllister DAKAR/BANJUL (Reuters) - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh will not be allowed to remain head of state if he refuses to go after his elected term ends next month, and will face strong sanctions if he clings to power, the top U.N. official in West Africa said on Wednesday. Jammeh, who took power in a coup in 1994, initially conceded defeat in the Dec. 1 election to little-known challenger Adama Barrow, raising the prospect of an end to 22 years of autocratic rule
  
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• Who is Scott Pruitt, Trump's anti-EPA choice to lead the EPA?

  14-12-2016 17:49 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has led lawsuits against the EPA. He has written the scientific debate over climate change is "far from settled." And he said the US' unnecessary environmental regulations have drained billions from its economy.
  
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• Flynn quietly deletes fake news tweet about Hillary Clinton's involvement in sex crimes

  14-12-2016 17:44 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has quietly deleted a tweet with a link to a fake news story about Hillary Clinton's involvement in sex crimes with minors.
  
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• Trump's Washington hotel a conflict of interest: Democratic lawmakers

  14-12-2016 17:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Ian Simpson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump must divest his luxury Washington hotel in a building leased from the federal government because the arrangement violates conflict-of-interest rules, congressional Democrats said on Wednesday. The General Services Administration, which manages property owned by the federal government, including the Old Post Office housing the Trump International Hotel, has concluded that the lease would violate federal conflict-of-interest r
  
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• Inside Jared Kushner's business interests

  14-12-2016 17:42 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Jared Kushner's web of business interests is much smaller than Donald Trump's -- but could be more difficult to untangle.
  
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• Trump team disavows climate change questionnaire to Energy Department

  14-12-2016 17:36 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Donald Trump's transition team is disavowing a questionnaire sent to the Energy Department requesting the names of employees working on climate change issues,
  
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• Trump likely to raise reported China auto penalty with Commerce pick Ross: aide

  14-12-2016 17:06 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will likely discuss reports that China plans to penalize an unnamed U.S. auto maker when he meets with his pick for U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross later on Wednesday, Trump's transition team told reporters. "The President-elect has made very clear that he’s going to get out there and fight for American companies and American jobs," Trump aide Jason Miller said in a conference call following reports earlier on Wednesday that Beijing planned to penalize
  
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• White House: ISIS down to 12,000-15,000 fighters

  14-12-2016 16:27 via rss.cnn.com
  
  A campaign of US-led airstrikes has winnowed ISIS' ranks to between 12,000 and 15,000 "battle ready" fighters, a top US official said on Tuesday.
  
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• Trump aide: Scientific community gets 'a lot of things wrong'

  14-12-2016 16:25 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Anthony Scaramucci, a member of Donald Trump's Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee, said the scientific community gets a lot of things wrong during a conversation about climate change.
  
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• Trump's will be most white, male Cabinet since 1989

  14-12-2016 15:36 via rss.cnn.com
  
  By selecting ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to serve as secretary of state, Donald Trump on Tuesday guaranteed that his four most influential departments will, if confirmed, be led entirely by white males for the first time since George H.W. Bush's first cabinet was approved in 1989.
  
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• U.N. envoy says Gambia's Jammeh must leave power by January 19

  14-12-2016 15:11 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The United Nations Special Representative for West Africa said on Wednesday that Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh would be "strongly sanctioned" if he sought to remain in power after his mandate ends next month. Long-ruling Jammeh lost elections to little-known businessman Adama Barrow on Dec. 1 and conceded defeat in a widely celebrated moment of democratic hope for the continent. "For Mr. Jammeh, the end is here and under no circumstances can he continue to be president," the U.N.'s Mohammed Ib
  
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• Obama Bars States From Denying Federal Money to Planned Parenthood

  14-12-2016 14:57 via nytimes.com
  The rule requires that state and local governments distribute federal family-planning funds to qualified health providers, regardless of whether they also perform abortions.
  
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• U.N. chief condemns army takeover of Gambia elections commission

  14-12-2016 14:56 via news.yahoo.com
  
  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned on Wednesday the takeover of Gambia's elections commission headquarters by soldiers and called for them to vacate the building immediately, a spokesman said. "He condemns this outrageous act of disrespect of the will of the Gambian people and defiance towards the international community at a time when a high-level ... delegation was in the country to broker a peaceful transfer of power," UN spokesman Stephane Dujar
  
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• Factbox: Trump to meet tech leaders from Google, Apple, others: sources

  14-12-2016 14:50 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump convenes a gathering of leaders of some of the largest technology companies at his New York headquarters on Wednesday as he continues to form his administration before taking office on Jan. 20.
  
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• Uber, SpaceX/Tesla, and PepsiCo execs join Trump business council

  14-12-2016 14:31 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Elon Musk, the chairman and chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla as well as Uber Technologies CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick and PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi have joined U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's advisory council, Trump's transition team said on Wednesday.
  
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• Longest-serving female lawmaker says goodbye

  14-12-2016 14:19 via rss.cnn.com
  
  When Barbara Mikulski was elected senator 30 years ago, it was REALLY a man's world.
  
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• 'Are you truly incapable of shame?' Samantha Power blasts Syria and its allies over Aleppo

  14-12-2016 14:07 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, unleashed a scathing attack on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies on Tuesday.
  
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• Trump's energy pick Perry likely a boost for oil, worry for environmentalists

  14-12-2016 13:58 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday formally named former Texas governor Rick Perry to lead the Department of Energy, adding to the list of oil-drilling advocates skeptical about climate change filling out his Cabinet selections. The choice of Perry, first disclosed on Monday, is likely to further worry environmentalists concerned about the incoming Trump administration's impact on the climate, while an eager energy industry ready for expansion welcomes the selection. "Rick Perry crea
  
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• Ex-CIA chief says Trump risks blame for an attack if he skips briefings

  14-12-2016 13:34 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Noah Browning DUBAI (Reuters) - Former CIA director Leon Panetta said on Wednesday that President-elect Donald Trump risked being blamed after any potential attack on the United States if he refused to receive more regular intelligence briefings. U.S. officials told Reuters that Trump is receiving an average of one presidential intelligence briefing a week - far fewer than most of his recent predecessors - but that his deputy Mike Pence gets briefings around six days a week. Panetta, a former
  
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• Turkey under attack from terror groups, must respond in kind: Erdogan

  14-12-2016 12:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is facing the biggest attack in its history from terrorist groups and needs to retaliate in kind, President Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech to local administrators in the presidential palace on Wednesday. Turkey has been hit by a series of bombings blamed on Islamic State and Kurdish militants this year and is pursuing a crackdown on the followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for a failed coup attempt in July. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Tuva
  
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• Trump formally names ex-governor Perry of Texas to lead Energy Department

  14-12-2016 12:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday formally announced Rick Perry, a former Texas governor and Trump's one-time presidential rival, as his choice to lead the U.S. Department of Energy. If the nomination is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the move would put Perry in charge of a federal department that he had proposed eliminating during his bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. "Rick Perry created ... a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy pr
  
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• How Trump's election reignites the abortion wars

  14-12-2016 12:07 via rss.cnn.com
  
  As Donald Trump mulls over a list of potential justices, his promise to reshape the Supreme Court is energizing opponents of abortion and galvanizing some state legislators to advance and defend more restrictions on the practice.
  
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• How Democrats lost Dubuque, and middle America

  14-12-2016 12:02 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Once a week, a dozen or so grandmothers trickle into an elementary school to spend an evening enjoying one of their favorite hobbies: Basketball.
  
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• The good, bad and ugly of warmer US-Russia relations

  14-12-2016 11:52 via rss.cnn.com
  
  George W. Bush tried it. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tried it. Now Donald Trump is vowing to reset relations with Russia.
  
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• French lower house of parliament votes to extend state of emergency

  14-12-2016 07:58 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The French lower house of parliament voted early on Wednesday to extend the country's state of emergency until July 15, 2017, as France remains on high alert against the threat of terror attacks. The extension of the state of emergency had already been proposed on Dec. 10 by France's new prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve. Political parties are keen to show they are getting a grip on the threat of attacks as France prepares for presidential elections in 2017.
  
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• Google extends conservative outreach as Trump calls tech meeting

  14-12-2016 07:14 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Julia Love and Ginger Gibson SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alphabet’s Google is racing to hire more conservatives for its lobbying and policy arm, trying to get a foothold in President-elect Donald Trump’s Washington after enjoying a uniquely close relationship with the administration of President Barack Obama. In the weeks since the Nov. 8 election, Google has ramped up efforts to hire Republican lobbying firms and in-house lobbyists to change the composition of its Washin
  
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• Trump chooses congressman, former SEAL Zinke as interior secretary

  14-12-2016 06:01 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump has chosen first-term Republican U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke of Montana, a former Navy SEAL commander, as his interior secretary, a senior transition official said on Tuesday. Zinke, 55, will be nominated to head the Interior Department, which employs more than 70,000 people across the United States and oversees more than 20 percent of federal land, including national parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite. Zinke's choice was s
  
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• Goldman Sachs expected to name Solomon, Schwartz as Cohn successors: WSJ

  14-12-2016 04:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The hire, expected to be announced as early as Wednesday, comes after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he would appoint Goldman Sachs President and Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn to head the White House National Economic Council, a group that coordinates economic policy across agencies. Reuters earlier reported that Cohn's role as Goldman's president was likely to be split.
  
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• Trump's inauguration chief: Kanye will not perform

  14-12-2016 04:28 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Kanye West will not perform at Donald Trump's inauguration in January, despite his high-profile meeting with the President-elect on Tuesday, the chairman of Trump's presidential inaugural committee, Tom Barrack, told CNN's Erin Burnett on Tuesday.
  
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