The White House is being implored to step in and help Congress extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after negotiations have been upended by President Donald Trump’s appointment of housing finance guru Bill Pulte as the nation’s spy chief. Fresh from Republican blowback over the White House’s proposed $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund, […]
Rep. Terri Sewell claims the GOP probe into ActBlue and CEO Regina Wallace-Jones is part of a pattern of Trump DOJ harassment of Black women in power.
One of the richest men in the world, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, testified about his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Wednesday. Gates told lawmakers he never saw Epstein engage in criminal conduct. Nikole Killion reports.
The Microsoft co-founder spent hours talking to lawmakers behind closed doors, where he also said Epstein used his marital infidelities to pressure him.
Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune was noticeably absent from Wednesday’s Oval Office bill signing ceremony — but top House and Senate leaders — including Speaker Mike Johnson — were present, cheering on the president. Thune did take time to talk with reporters, where he tied Wednesday’s surging inflation numbers to Trump’s Iran war.The Washington Examiner’s David Sivak asked Thune directly why he wasn’t present at the president’s signing of the $70 billion reconciliation bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol, or to talk about FISA legislation with Trump. Thune noted that Speaker Johnson is “down there anyway” and that he and Johnson “talk regularly,” Sivak reported. Thune appeared to suggest that there might not have been an invitation, adding, “I don’t know that we got asked, but I’ve got stuff going on here, as you know.”Thune spelled out the inflation connection to reporters, as Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio reported. “The sooner we get the situation in Iran stabilized, the Strait [of Hormuz] opened up, those [inflation] numbers will trend in a better direction,” he said. “But obviously right now there are important national security objectives we’re trying to achieve.”“The American people realize that if we’re heading in the right direction and the trendlines are good and the confidence is good long-term — which I [think] it will be because of all the other things we’ve done on the economy — then obviously people will start to see improvement,” he also said. “It may not happen overnight, but it will. But at least for now, we’ve got to do everything we can to keep the pressure on [in] getting the situation in the Middle East resolved.”Getting the situation in Iran resolved was not how President Trump appeared to approach Iran on Wednesday. “Iran’s Military is a complete and total mess,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore – They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is dead!!! They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!”In that Oval Office meeting, Trump also slammed Iran, saying that the U.S. would hit Iran hard again on Wednesday, and insisted the Iranian government is “playing us for suckers.”Thune has distanced himself from the president over time, refusing his repeated demands to pass the controversial SAVE America Act — legislation some call voter suppression — to kill the filibuster, and to fire the Senate parliamentarian. He has also opposed Trump’s intelligence nominee. Thune tried to persuade Trump to back Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), but the president endorsed Ken Paxton instead — and Paxton went on to defeat Cornyn in the May primary runoff.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced that the House will vote Thursday morning on extending the nation’s foreign spy powers through July 2, a move that comes amid a partisan clash over President Trump naming Bill Pulte to be the acting director of national intelligence (DNI). The expected vote comes after Democrats in the Senate largely…
The escalating attacks threatened to derail efforts to end the war, with President Trump warning that Tehran would "pay the price" for stalled negotiations.
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates testified about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein in a closed-door House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Wednesday, claiming that Epstein tried to use extramarital affairs to pressure him into maintaining their relationship. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the top Democrat on the oversight committee, told MS Now that as part of […]
Lawyer Alan Dershowitz on Wednesday said he wants “complete transparency” if he testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of its probe into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The committee’s chair, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), said earlier in the day that he would like to have Dershowitz and Acting Attorney General…