Sorted by date Results 1 - 17 of 17
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was an hour President Joe Biden would no doubt like to forget. On Friday, the Pentagon acknowledged that a drone strike in Afghanistan killed 10 civilians, including seven children, not terrorists. A panel advising the Food and Drug Administration voted to not recommend COVID-19 booster shots for all Americans over age 16, dashing an administration hope. And France announced it was recalling its ambassador to the United States out of anger for being cut out of a secret nuclear submarine deal Biden had struck with the U...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a call to "save American democracy," the Biden administration has unveiled new efforts to protect access to the ballot amid rising complaints from civil rights activists and other Democrats that the White House hasn't done enough to counter Republican-led state legislatures attempting to narrow voting procedures. President Joe Biden met with civil rights leaders Thursday in the West Wing, while Vice President Kamala Harris announced $25 million in new spending by the Democratic National Committee on actions to p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — With 13 days left in his term, President Donald Trump finally bent to reality Thursday amid growing talk of trying to force him out early, acknowledging he'll peacefully leave after Congress affirmed his defeat. Trump led off a video from the White House by condemning the violence carried out in his name a day earlier at the Capitol. Then, for the first time on camera, he admitted his presidency would soon end — though he declined to mention President-elect Joe Biden by name or explicitly state he had lost. "A new adm...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration threw the presidential transition into tumult on Monday, Attorney General William Barr authorizing the Justice Department to probe allegations of voter fraud and President Donald Trump firing the Pentagon chief and blocking government officials from cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden's team. Despite little evidence of fraud, Barr signed off on investigations into the unsubstantiated claims made repeatedly by Trump. Even as Biden began assembling experts to face the surging pandemic, the federal...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The fate of the United States presidency hung in the balance Wednesday morning, as President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden battled for three familiar battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that could prove crucial in determining who wins the White House. A late burst of votes in Wisconsin from Milwaukee gave Biden a small lead, but it was too early to call the race. Hundreds of thousands of votes were also outstanding in Michigan and Pennsylvania. The two candidates, who have propo...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's return to the White House is poised to reshape the campaign's final four weeks as aides debated Tuesday how to move past an extraordinary setback while grappling with how to send an infected president back on the road. A race that had remained steady throughout the tumult of 2020 now threatens to slip away from the president after he spent 72 hours hospitalized with COVID-19, the very disease that has fundamentally altered the country he leads and the campaign he wanted to run. And as Democrat Joe B...
BEDMINSTER, N.J. (AP) — Seizing the power of his podium and his pen, President Donald Trump on Saturday bypassed the nation's lawmakers as he claimed the authority to defer payroll taxes and replace an expired unemployment benefit with a lower amount after negotiations with Congress on a new coronavirus rescue package collapsed. At his private country club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump signed executive orders to act where Congress hasn't. Not only has the pandemic undermined the economy and upended American lives, it has imperiled the p...
OSAKA, Japan (AP) — A trade war between two economic titans will face a critical junction Saturday, when President Donald Trump meets China's Xi Jinping at a moment when both sides are signaling a desire to de-escalate the year-long conflict, yet seem unwilling to compromise. The meeting, which will take place on the sidelines of the international Group of 20 summit in Japan, was the centerpiece of four days of diplomacy for Trump, whose re-election chances have been put at risk by the trade war that has both hurt American farmers and b...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump tested the limits of his presidential authority and political muscle as he threatened Tuesday to cut off all federal subsidies to General Motors because of its planned massive cutbacks in the U.S. Trump unloaded on Twitter a day after GM announced it would shutter five plants and slash 14,000 jobs in North America. Many of the job cuts would affect the Midwest, the politically crucial region where the president promised a manufacturing rebirth. It was the latest example of the president's willingness t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump bluntly declared on Wednesday his attorney general should terminate "right now" the federal probe into the campaign that took him to the White House, a newly fervent attack on the special counsel investigation that could imperil his presidency. Trump also assailed the trial, just underway, of his former campaign chairman by the special counsel's team. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders scrambled to explain that Trump's tweet was "not an order" and the president was not directing his a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The sudden public airing of Donald Trump talking about paying for a Playboy model's silence marks a turning point in the legal game of cat-and-mouse between the president and the lawyer who once promised to take a bullet for Trump but now seems out to save himself. The feud between Trump and his onetime legal "fixer," Michael Cohen, escalated Wednesday when an audio recording of their 2016 pre-election conversation was released by Cohen, prompting Trump to tweet: "What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad!" As the two...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Embattled Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt met with President Donald Trump on Friday to lay out his case for why he should remain in his post amid a stream of questions about his ethical standing. Pruitt visited the White House to discuss his agency's recent steps to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards for cars, but he also fought for his job in his meeting with the president, according to two administration officials. While White House aides are increasingly fed up with Pruitt and chief o...
WASHINGTON (AP) — With a handshake and a presidential kiss on the cheek, Hope Hicks bid farewell to the White House, the press-shy communications director taking a rare moment in the spotlight on her final day in Donald Trump's administration. The Thursday exit of the president's most trusted aide, coming one day after yet another Cabinet departure, highlights continuing uncertainty among Trump aides and White House staff about who might be the next to go. Hicks departed the administration on her own terms and was given a gracious goodbye by T...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump at last broke his silence Wednesday to explicitly denounce domestic violence in the wake of allegations that a top White House aide had abused two former wives. Chief of staff John Kelly, under fire for mishandling the matter, stayed largely out of sight, his future in doubt and the White House in tumult. The chaos surrounding the departure of aide Rob Porter put a harsh spotlight on Kelly, the retired general who was brought on last summer to instill military-like discipline in the free-wheeling West W...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Beset by poor poll numbers and the grind of the Russia investigation, President Donald Trump will look to reset his term with his first State of the Union address, arguing that his tax cut and economic policies will benefit all Americans. The theme of his Tuesday night address to Congress and the country is "Building a safe, strong and proud America," and the president is looking to showcase accomplishments of his first year while setting the tone for the second. Aides say the president plans to set aside his more combative to...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Already setting turnover records, President Donald Trump's White House is bracing for even more staff departures and an increasing struggle to fill vacancies, shadowed by the unrelenting Russia probe, political squabbling and Trump's own low poll numbers. Entering a grueling year that is sure to bring fresh challenges at home and abroad, Trump faces a brain drain across a wide swath of government functions, threatening to hamstring efforts to enact legislation or conduct even basic operations. Some departures are expected t...
QUANTICO, Va. (AP) — Taking aim at the credibility of the FBI, President Donald Trump unleashed a blistering attack on the bureau's leadership even as he praised state and local police officers as a bulwark against rising violence and crime. Trump denounced the bureau for its handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, calling it "really disgraceful" and continuing his questioning of his country's intelligence and law enforcement institutions as no president before. "It's a shame what's happened with the FBI," the president said. "...
