Author: Ashleigh Fields

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Friday criticized the Trump administration over the indictment against former national security adviser John Bolton.  Bolton was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of transmitting and retaining national defense information, making him the latest Trump critic to be criminally charged.  “It’s hard to know what to say about this other than there is no way that had Bolton not broken with Donald Trump, he would be facing these charges today,” Raskin said during a Friday appearance on CNN’s “News Central.” The Maryland representative said Bolton would have a very strong claim of “selective”…

FBI Director Kash Patel doubled down on statements that FBI agents will receive pay following previous remarks in the Oval Office. “FBI special agents will keep getting paid, because we prioritize the people who protect this country,” Patel wrote in a statement on X on Thursday. “President Trump made sure our men and women in law enforcement and the military won’t miss a paycheck during the shutdown. America’s security doesn’t stop. Neither do we,” he added. His post included a screenshot of a CBS article that referenced his Wednesday remarks to President Trump. The FBI director told Trump the agency…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said President Trump’s ability to successfully broker a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas provides hope for an end to the war in Eastern Europe.  “If a war can be stopped in one region, then surely other wars can be stopped as well—including the Russian war,” Zelensky wrote in a statement on the social platform X, after a congratulatory call to Trump.  Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to the Middle East, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner both worked alongside the Qatari and Egyptian governments to help solidify a peace deal. The president is expected…

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Friday rejected the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which would have required sweeping changes on campus in exchange for a funding advantage in federal grant awards. The 10-point memo was provided to nine higher learning institutions last week, requiring reforms such as a rewiring of the admissions process by adjusting the consideration of race or ethnicity, student grading and demanding that transgender women be excluded from women’s locker rooms and sports teams.   The document “includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression…

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung accused the Norwegian Nobel Committee of putting “politics over peace,” early Friday, after the panel did not select President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. “He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” Cheung wrote in a statement on social platform X, referring to Trump. “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” he added. Trump and several of his allies have for weeks campaigned for the president to win the prestigious award, citing his…

The government shutdown has now lasted for about four days in a faceoff between Republicans standing strong on their non-negotiables and Democrats holding firm to their demands to prioritize funding for health care. House GOP lawmakers returned to their districts on Friday for designated “work periods” at the direction of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who reaffirmed Republicans’ commitment to resume legislative sessions when Senate Democrats vote to fund the government. “The House will come back into session and do its work as soon as Chuck Schumer allows us to reopen the government,” Johnson said on Friday, blaming the Senate minority…

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) on Saturday said the Trump administration will federalize the state’s National Guard to aid in law enforcement efforts in Chicago and elsewhere in The Prairie State. “This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will. It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will,” Pritzker wrote in a statement on the social platform X. “In the coming hours, the Trump Administration intends to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard,” he added. …

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Democrats will caucus virtually on Monday after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent his colleagues home for the next week amid the government shutdown.  “People will die. If the Affordable Care Act tax credits are not renewed in short order, millions will lose their healthcare coverage, and the cost of premiums, co-pays and deductibles will skyrocket,” Jeffries wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter uploaded to his website on Saturday. “We are in this fight to win this fight for the American people. To that end, the House Democratic Caucus will meet virtually on…

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller railed against a Saturday ruling that temporarily blocked President Trump’s attempts to deploy 200 National Guard soldiers to Portland, Ore. “Legal insurrection. The President is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, not an Oregon judge … ,” Miller, an architect of many Trump administration immigration policies, wrote in a Saturday statement on the social platform X. He accused local law enforcement of failing to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers facing “relentless terrorist assault.” “This is an organized terrorist attack on the federal government and its officers, and the deployment of…

A new poll shows most Americans say they believe the government shutdown will last for two weeks or less, as Congress grapples with the public fallout from the first shutdown in about six years. The YouGov survey, published on Friday, found that 41 percent of Americans think the federal closure will last for two weeks or less. Within that share, 16 percent of respondents expected the shutdown to last for less than a week, while 25 percent said the shuttering could last for one to two weeks. Thirteen percent said they expect the shutdown to last three to four weeks and…