US Elections news

• FBI Director Comey's political firestorm, explained

  13-01-2017 23:51 via rss.cnn.com
  
  FBI Director James Comey is once again finding himself at the center of a political firestorm.
  
  Read more

• U.S. Republicans start framework for Obamacare replacement

  13-01-2017 23:48 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Susan Cornwell and Caroline Humer WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Urged on by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Republican lawmakers rushing to scrap Obamacare said this week they hoped to make some changes intended to stabilize the insurance market while they work at repealing and replacing the law. The beginnings of a framework outlining what a post-Obamacare world could look like came in the same week that Congress approved a resolution instructing key committees of both the House of Representativ
  
  Read more

• After Trump tweet, ethics office to U.S. employees: do not endorse products

  13-01-2017 23:31 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Emily Stephenson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A day after President-elect Donald Trump encouraged supporters to "Buy L.L. Bean," a U.S. ethics watchdog on Friday warned federal employees they must not endorse products or companies. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) said on its official Twitter account: "All executive branch employees must refrain from misuse of position, including endorsements." No mention of Trump was made in the tweet, and many rules for federal employees do not apply to
  
  Read more

• Inauguration irregularity: Porta-potties bearing 'Don' taped over

  13-01-2017 23:27 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Inauguration planners rushed to wipe away a potential controversy Friday after porta-potties on the National Mall happened to be adorned with the President-elect's first name.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Trump Team’s Queries About Africa Point to Skepticism About Aid

  13-01-2017 23:04 via nytimes.com
  The list of Africa-related questions from the transition staff suggests an American retreat from development and humanitarian goals.
  
  Read more

• John Lewis: Trump is not a 'legitimate' president

  13-01-2017 22:56 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis says he doesn't see President-elect Donald Trump as a "legitimate" commander in chief following Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
  
  Read more

• After 2016 campaign, more Americans consider Russia a threat: Reuters/Ipsos poll

  13-01-2017 22:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Chris Kahn NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans are more concerned than they were before the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign began about the potential threat Russia poses to the country, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday. The Jan. 9-12 survey found that 82 percent of American adults, including 84 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of Republicans, described Russia as a general "threat" to the United States. The increased concern comes after a brutal election season during
  
  Read more

• Eight ways this week on Capitol Hill has been like 'Friday the 13th'

  13-01-2017 22:34 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Another Friday the 13th is upon us, and this particular day/date combo is enough to make the superstitious barricade themselves indoors. There was even a full moon!
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Anti-Trump protests to kick off with Washington civil rights march

  13-01-2017 22:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Ian Simpson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A week of protests ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S. president is set to kick off on Saturday with a civil rights march in Washington by activists angry over the Republican's comments on minority groups including Muslims and Mexicans. Civil rights leader the Reverend Al Sharpton plans to lead a march along the National Mall ending at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, about two miles (3 km) from the steps of the U.S. Capitol, where Trump will be
  
  Read more

• House Joins Senate in Approving Groundwork to Revoke Health Care Law

  13-01-2017 22:31 via nytimes.com
  The vote on a budget blueprint sets Congress on a course to fulfill a Republican promise to rescind the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature domestic achievement.
  
  Read more

• U.S. House votes to begin repealing Obamacare

  13-01-2017 22:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans on Friday won passage of a measure starting the process of dismantling Obamacare, despite concerns about not having a ready replacement and the potential financial cost of repealing President Barack Obama's landmark health insurance law. The House voted 227-198 to instruct committees to draft legislation by a target date of Jan. 27 that would repeal the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act, often called Obamacare. The S
  
  Read more

• House takes first step towards repealing Obamacare

  13-01-2017 21:54 via rss.cnn.com
  
  The House of Representatives began the process of dismantling the Affordable Care Act on Friday, approving a budget resolution on a mostly party line vote.
  
  Read more

• Mattis clears hurdle in becoming defense secretary

  13-01-2017 21:50 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Donald Trump's nominee for defense secretary cleared an important legal hurdle on Friday as the House voted largely along party lines to grant him a special exemption from a key law that had been standing in his way.
  
  Read more

• Trump speaks with entertainer Steve Harvey about helping U.S. cities

  13-01-2017 21:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump and Housing Secretary-designate Ben Carson spoke with entertainer and talk show host Steve Harvey on Friday to discuss an effort by the incoming administration to seek positive changes in U.S. inner cities.
  
  Read more

• Public Health: The Biggest Changes Obamacare Made, and Those That May Disappear

  13-01-2017 21:39 via nytimes.com
  A Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would roll back elements of the law but wouldn’t erase the whole thing.
  
  Read more

• U.S. House takes first step toward Obamacare repeal

  13-01-2017 21:36 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a measure making the first move toward scrapping Obamacare, joining the Senate in instructing key committees to write legislation repealing the health insurance law. Eliminating Obamacare is a top priority of the Republican-majority Congress as well as President-elect Donald Trump, who has urged lawmakers to act quickly. The resolution passed on Friday instructs committees of the House and Senate to draft repeal legislation by a
  
  Read more

• Obama to hold final news conference Wednesday

  13-01-2017 21:21 via rss.cnn.com
  
  President Barack Obama will hold his final news conference Wednesday afternoon in the White House briefing room.
  
  Read more

• Trump's top team doesn't all agree with him on Russia

  13-01-2017 21:16 via rss.cnn.com
  
  President-elect Donald Trump's relationship with Russia has never been under closer scrutiny. But this week, for the first time, the views of those who will serve alongside him at the highest level have also come under the spotlight.
  
  Read more

• French leftwinger Melenchon says to stick to presidential bid

  13-01-2017 21:14 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Ingrid Melander PARIS (Reuters) - Far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon on Friday rejected calls to drop out of France's presidential election in favor of a mainstream Socialist candidate, saying those urging him to do so could get lost. Well they can get lost, this won't happen," Melenchon said in the colorful language he is known for. Melenchon's stance matters because he is forecast, in the latest polls, to get 11.5 to 13 percent of the vote in the first round on April 23.
  
  Read more

• Lockheed Chief Pledges Lower Costs for F-35 Fighter Jet and Add 1,800 Jobs

  13-01-2017 21:04 via nytimes.com
  After weeks of talks with the Trump transition team about the high-tech plane, the company said it would add 1,800 jobs to its Fort Worth location.
  
  Read more

• Transition Briefing: Trump National Security Adviser Called Russian Envoy Day Before Sanctions Were Imposed

  13-01-2017 20:30 via nytimes.com
  Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, who will be President-elect Donald J. Trump’s national security adviser, reached out to the Russian ambassador the day before sanctions were imposed for election meddling.
  
  Read more

• Obama to hold final news conference on Wednesday: White House

  13-01-2017 20:30 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Outgoing President Barack Obama will hold his final news conference as U.S. leader on the afternoon of Wednesday, Jan. 18 in the briefing room at the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest said on Friday. He offered no specific time for the event. (Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Eric Walsh)
  
  Read more

• CNN Reality Check round up

  13-01-2017 20:16 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Kellyanne Conway on what intel Trump was given:
  
  Read more

• Afghanistan: US Marines headed back to Helmand Province

  13-01-2017 20:09 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Approximately 300 Marines will deploy to Afghanistan's Helmand Province this spring, returning to the scene of some of the fiercest battles in America's 15-year-long engagement there.
  
  Read more

• Trump adviser Flynn held multiple calls with Russian envoy: sources

  13-01-2017 19:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for national security adviser, held multiple phone conversations with Russia's ambassador to Washington on the day the United States announced retaliation for Moscow's interference in the U.S. presidential election, two people familiar with the issue said. The conversations appear to raise further questions about contacts between Trump's advisers and Russian officials at a time when U.S. intelligence agencies contend that Moscow waged a multif
  
  Read more

• Lockheed Martin CEO meets Trump, says deal to lower F-35 costs is close

  13-01-2017 19:33 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Lockheed Martin Corp is close to a deal to significantly lower the cost of its F-35 aircraft, Chief Executive Officer Marillyn Hewson said on Friday after meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. "I certainly share his views that we need to get the best capability to our men and women in uniform, and we have to get it at the lowest possible price," Hewson said to reporters in Trump Tower. Hewson had previously assured Trump she would drive down the cost of the company's fighter jet, after
  
  Read more

• Trump nominee apologizes to Sen. Feinstein

  13-01-2017 19:19 via rss.cnn.com
  
  CIA director nominee Rep. Mike Pompeo apologized to Sen. Dianne Feinstein in a private meeting Monday for critical comments he made about her in 2014 after she released a controversial Senate intelligence committee report detailing acts of torture by the CIA following 9/11, according to a source familiar with the issue.
  
  Read more

• The Run-Up: Obama’s Last Battle: His Legacy

  13-01-2017 18:53 via nytimes.com
  We speak with former Representative Barney Frank and New York Times colleagues about how Barack Obama will be remembered.
  
  Read more

• Obama's advice to Trump on being president

  13-01-2017 18:52 via rss.cnn.com
  
  As President Obama prepares to turn the White House over to President-elect Donald Trump, he's offering some advice to his successor.
  
  Read more

• Brother of Jared Kushner Is Thrust Into the Spotlight

  13-01-2017 18:51 via nytimes.com
  Joshua Kushner, 31, managed to keep a low profile while building his venture capital business. That may be about to change.
  
  Read more

• House Oversight chair asks government ethics official to appear before committee

  13-01-2017 18:36 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Rather than investigate potential conflicts of interest posed by Donald Trump's businesses, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz has asked the head of the Office of Government Ethics, who has been vocally critical of Trump, to meet with the committee to discuss his views on President-elect's plan to settle any potential conflicts of interest.
  
  Read more

• Hedge fund founder Scaramucci to join Trump's White House as liaison

  13-01-2017 18:29 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Jonathan Allen NEW YORK (Reuters) - Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge fund founder who was a fundraiser in Donald Trump's election campaign, will join the president-elect's White House staff as an advisor and public liaison to government agencies and businesses, he said on Friday. Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital hedge fund and a former employee at Goldman Sachs , is a member of Trump's transition team.
  
  Read more

• African Union will not recognize Gambia's Jammeh from Jan. 19

  13-01-2017 17:43 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Aaron Maasho and Lamine Jahateh ADDIS ABABA/BANJUL (Reuters) - The African Union will cease to recognize Yahya Jammeh as Gambia's president as of Jan. 19, the date he is due to hand power to the winner of the December election, the AU's Peace and Security Council said on Friday. Jammeh, whose authoritarian rule began with a 1994 coup, lost the Dec. 1 election to Adama Barrow by a slim margin. Whether Gambia can install Barrow as president is seen as a test for African democracy in a region ac
  
  Read more

• A push in Congress for Ivanka Trump's child care plan

  13-01-2017 17:35 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Trump transition officials held a conference call with House Ways & Means Committee staff Thursday to make clear that the President-elect and Ivanka Trump want to push their childcare reform proposal through a broader tax reform package in Congress, a Trump transition source told CNN.
  
  Read more

• Justice Clarence Thomas to swear-in Mike Pence

  13-01-2017 17:30 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will administer the oath to Vice President-elect Mike Pence next Friday.
  
  Read more

• Trump, AT&T CEO discussed jobs, not Time Warner deal: Trump spokesman

  13-01-2017 17:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's meeting with AT&T Inc's chief executive this week focused on job creation and government regulations, not the company's planned merger with Time Warner Inc , Trump spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters on Friday. Trump and AT&T's Randall Stephenson met at Trump Tower on Thursday amid the pending merger, which Trump has said he opposes.
  
  Read more

• Democrats and Allies Wage Fight to Derail Labor Secretary Pick

  13-01-2017 17:00 via nytimes.com
  Andrew Puzder has been a lightning rod as an outspoken foe of the Obama administration’s overtime regulation and the Affordable Care Act.
  
  Read more

• Trump's top team don't all agree with him on Russia

  13-01-2017 16:52 via rss.cnn.com
  
  President-elect Donald Trump's relationship with Russia has never been under closer scrutiny. But this week, for the first time, the views of those who will serve alongside him at the highest level have also come under the spotlight.
  
  Read more

• House Republicans to vote on Obamacare repeal

  13-01-2017 16:36 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. House Republicans were moving ahead on Friday with legislation aimed at dismantling Obamacare, despite concerns about not having a replacement for the healthcare program and the potential financial costs in repealing President Barack Obama's landmark law. Moderate Republican Representative Charlie Dent said he had reservations about voting for the effort to start a repeal but would not say whether he would vote for or against it. Dent and other House Republicans on Friday speculated there w
  
  Read more

• Trump, Lockheed Martin CEO to meet on Friday: transition official

  13-01-2017 16:30 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will meet with Lockheed Martin Corp Chief Executive officer Marillyn Hewson on Friday, a Trump transition officials said. Trump, who takes office next Friday, said last month he viewed costs for the aerospace company's F-35 fighter as too high and would ask Boeing to price out an upgraded F-18. (Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Writing by Washington Newsroom)
  
  Read more

• UK PM May says Trump dossier author has not worked for Britain for years

  13-01-2017 16:10 via news.yahoo.com
  
  British Prime Minister Theresa May said the person who wrote reports containing details of compromising material Russia allegedly collected on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has not worked for the British government for years. "It is absolutely clear that the individual who produced this dossier has not worked for the UK government for years," May said at a news conference on Friday. The author of the dossier has been named as Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer who once worked under dip
  
  Read more

• Trump scorns probe into FBI pre-election handling of Clinton emails

  13-01-2017 16:07 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Donald Trump responded with derision on Friday to news of an investigation into the FBI decision to make public an inquiry into Hillary Clinton's emails days before the Nov. 8 presidential election, a decision that Clinton said was a factor in her defeat. The Justice Department said on Thursday it would investigate the FBI actions. FBI Director James Comey said on Oct. 28 the agency was reviewing emails that might be relevant to a previous inquiry into Clinton's use of a private emai
  
  Read more

• African Union says it will stop recognising Jammeh as Gambian president from January 19

  13-01-2017 15:59 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The African Union will cease to recognise Gambia's Yahya Jammeh as the West African nation's legitimate president as of Jan. 19, the date he is due to hand power to the winner of a December election, the AU's Peace and Security Council said. In a statement issued after a meeting in the Ethiopian capital, the council also warned of "serious consequences in the event that his action causes any crisis that could lead to political disorder, humanitarian and human rights disaster, including loss of i
  
  Read more

• GOP congressman: 'Warmongers' in Congress are wrong to call Putin a 'war criminal'

  13-01-2017 15:54 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from California, said in a radio interview Thursday that "warmongers" like Sen. Marco Rubio are setting the wrong tone by calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a "war criminal."
  
  Read more

• House set to vote on Obamacare repeal step

  13-01-2017 15:40 via rss.cnn.com
  
  The House is set to vote Friday on a resolution that will begin the process of repealing Obamacare, though disagreement continues within the Republican Party on how best to proceed.
  
  Read more

• Trump's other Supreme Court decision

  13-01-2017 15:08 via rss.cnn.com
  
  It's the most coveted legal post in Washington, but few people outside of the Beltway know it even exists.
  
  Read more

• Trump, reprising campaign attacks, declares Clinton 'guilty as hell'

  13-01-2017 13:53 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Friday reprised his election campaign attacks on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, declaring her "guilty as hell" and deriding her supporters' criticism of how the FBI handled an investigation into her emails. The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it would investigate an FBI decision to announce an inquiry into Clinton's emails shortly before the Nov. 8 election, a move she has blamed as a factor in her defeat. "What are Hillary Clinton's p
  
  Read more

• Defense chief: ISIS leader 'moves around'

  13-01-2017 13:42 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, in unusually revealing comments, told Charlie Rose in an interview broadcast Thursday that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi "moves around" and that his "days are numbered."
  
  Read more

• Trump blames 'both Democrats and Republicans' for allegations

  13-01-2017 12:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Friday accused his political opponents, "both Democrats and Republicans," for putting together a dossier of unverified claims linking him to Russia and said the document was probably released by intelligence agencies. "Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans - FAKE NEWS! Russia says nothing exists," Trump said in a series of posts on Twitter. On Wednesday, U.S. spy chief James Clapper said that media
  
  Read more

• Turkey's Erdogan says Greeks avoiding solution in Cyprus

  13-01-2017 12:36 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday the Greek side was once again avoiding a solution to the Cyprus problem, warning that a solution without Turkey should not be expected. "We have told Cyprus and Greece clearly that they should not expect a solution without Turkey as guarantor. Speaking a day after U.N.-hosted talks broke up in Geneva, Erdogan said it was out of the question for Turkish troops to pull out of Cyprus unless both sides pulled out.
  
  Read more

Follow @NewsUSElections on Twitter!