Author: Sarah Fortinsky

President Trump doubled down on his claim that a group of Democratic lawmakers with backgrounds in military or intelligence service have committed sedition by encouraging servicemembers to defy unlawful orders. In a pair of posts on his Truth Social platform late Saturday, the president said those lawmakers should be in jail, rather than defending themselves…

President Trump said Jack Nicklaus, the retired professional golfer, will oversee an overhaul of the golf courses at Joint Base Andrews. Trump told reporters he was tapping Nicklaus as the architect of the project on Saturday before boarding Marine One to head to Andrews, where he later took an aerial tour of the landscape. “We’re…

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday that the weapons testing that President Trump ordered last week will not include nuclear explosions. “I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call noncritical explosions,” Wright said on Fox News’s “The Sunday Briefing.” “So you’re testing all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry, and they set up the nuclear explosion,” Wright, whose agency oversees testing, continued. Trump last week said on social media he directed the Defense Department to begin…

Two-thirds of the American public say the country has gotten off on the wrong track, according to a new poll from ABC News, The Washington Post and Ipsos. The survey, conducted last week, shows 67 percent of respondents say the country has “gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track” while 32 percent say things “are generally going in the right direction” in the country. There is a steep partisan divide in the data. Most Democrats and independents — at 95 percent and 77 percent, respectively — are pessimistic about the direction of the country, while just 29 percent of…

Most voters in a new survey blame either President Trump or Republicans in Congress for the federal shutdown, which has now stretched into its second month. In an NBC News poll, conducted in late October, 52 percent of voters say Trump and/or the Republican Party is responsible for the federal shutdown, including 25 percent who blame congressional Republicans, 24 percent who blame Trump, and 3 percent who say they blame both, even after they were asked to select between the two. Another 42 percent of respondents blame Democrats in Congress for the shutdown. Core party constituencies were most likely to…

Comedian Jon Stewart on Monday took aim at House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for repeatedly saying he does not follow news about President Trump when asked by reporters. In his Monday night broadcast, Stewart flippantly advised Trump critics to “just pretend like you don’t see it, like Speaker Mike Johnson,” before playing footage of Johnson appearing to heed that advice. Asked how comfortable he is with the president apparently seeking $230 million in compensation for wrongful prosecution from the Justice Department (DOJ), Johnson said, “I don’t know the details about that. I’ve just read it. I didn’t talk with him…

Millions of people across the country could see their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance dry up during the government shutdown amid a fight between the Trump administration and Democrats. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released guidance Friday saying it won’t use the SNAP contingency funding, which Congress has allocated for emergency scenarios, if the shutdown extends beyond Friday. Democrats blasted the move, which appears designed to maximize the pressure on ending the shutdown. Here are five takeaways on the unfolding fight. 42 million Americans set to lose support SNAP provided benefits to about 41.7 million Americans in fiscal 2024,…

Argentinian President Javier Milei’s party secured more than 40 percent of the vote in legislative elections on Sunday, delivering a major victory to President Trump, who staked U.S. financial support on the success of the libertarian Latin American ally. “I love that question because that was a big win in Argentina,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, when asked about the election results. “I want to congratulate the victor. And he was a big victor, and he had a lot of help from us. He had a lot of help. I gave him an endorsement, very strong endorsement… People…

Senators from both parties are expressing concerns about President Trump’s unilateral approach to conducting military strikes against alleged drug cartel boats in the Caribbean. On the Sunday show circuit, several lawmakers raised questions about the legality of the U.S. military campaign — which last week carried out its 10th attack in recent months on vessels that officials say are trafficking narcotics with the hope of reaching the U.S. — without congressional authorization. While Democrats took a sharper tone than Republicans, there were members of Trump’s party expressing reservations about the campaign. In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Rand…

Former Vice President Harris was pressed in a BBC interview about why she didn’t raise concerns about former President Biden’s health before he decided to pull out of the race. In an interview with the BBC, Harris was asked about a segment in her new book, “107 Days,” in which she notes that she did not raise the issue of the Biden’s frailty with the former president, nor did he raise the issue with her. Harris made clear that while she now wonders whether she should have raised concerns about the president’s capacity to run for office, she said she…