News Daypop Archives

Rep. John Conyers, the longest-serving current member of the House of Representatives, resigned from Congress on Tuesday, after facing calls to step down over allegations of inappropriate behavior toward female staff members. The 88-year-old civil rights leader announced what he referred to as his “retirement” on Detroit talk radio, while continuing to deny he groped or sexually harassed women who worked for him. He endorsed his son John Conyers III to succeed him. ...Read more

Deputy White House Chief of Staff Kirstjen Nielsen has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to oversee the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  Nielsen, a former Homeland Security official nominated by President Trump, was confirmed by the Senate in a 62-37 vote on Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that Nielsen understands the department’s daily operations due to her previous experience and is ready to lead on her first day.  ...Read more

President Trump announced cuts to two of Utah’s sprawling wilderness national monuments on Monday in a bid to boost development, angering tribes and environmental groups. Trump signed two proclamations after his speech; one would reduce the 1.3 million acre Bears Ears National Monument, while the other would cut to the state’s 1.9 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Tribal leaders representing the five tribes that pushed for the creation of the monument (the Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo of Zuni, Ute Mountain and Ute Indians) said they will take the Trump administration to court.  ...Read more

The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to fully enforce a ban on travel to the United States by residents of six mostly Muslim countries.  The justices say in an order Monday that the policy can take full effect even as legal challenges against it make their way through the courts. The ban applies to travelers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Lower courts had said people from those nations with a claim of a “bona fide” relationship with someone in the United States could not be kept out of the country. Grandparents, cousins and other relatives were among those courts said could not be excluded.  ...Read more

John Dowd, President Trump’s personal attorney, has taken responsibility for a tweet that implied President Trump knew his former national security adviser Michael Flynn had lied to the FBI when he demanded his resignation in February.  On Sunday, Dowd told NBC News he composed the tweet and sent it to White House social media director Dan Scavino for publishing. Dowd told NBC News the tweet was dictated orally.  “I’m out of the tweeting business,” Dowd told NBC. “I did not mean to break news.” ...Read more

ABC News announced that Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross had been suspended for four weeks without pay over a botched “exclusive” about former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Ross’ suspension is effective immediately. During a live “special report” Friday morning, Ross reported that Flynn would testify that Donald Trump had ordered him to make contact with Russians about foreign policy while Trump was still a candidate. The report raised the specter of Trump’s impeachment and sent the stock market plummeting. ...Read more

President Trump wrote a check to the Department of Health and Human Services that will go toward a public information campaign about the opioid crisis, fulfilling part of his pledge not to take a salary in his role in the Oval Office. The donation is part of Trump’s pledge to give his $400,000-a-year presidential salary away. The latest check will go toward paying for a public awareness campaign that will detail the dangers of opioid addiction, which involves prescription painkillers and illegal drugs like heroin. The awareness campaign was one of the recommendations that Trump’s opioid commission made earlier this month. ...Read more

The Trump administration is “considering” a plan to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, according to an administration official.   Though that plan has been discussed inside the White House, it’s unclear when it will happen — or if it will, the source said. Tillerson’s fate has been the subject of much speculation for months amid reports of tension with President Donald Trump. The potential plan also includes filling Pompeo’s slot at CIA with a Republican senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton, though there are differing views on whether Cotton should move to the CIA or stay in the Senate. ...Read more

Former “Today” anchor Matt Lauer on Thursday morning released a statement acknowledging his wrongdoings with women over the years and apologized — but also said some of the charges against him were untrue.  “There are no words to express my sorrow and regret for the pain I have caused others by words and actions. To the people I have hurt, I am truly sorry,” he said in a statement read on the NBC morning show Thursday by his former colleague Savannah Guthrie . Lauer, however, disputed some of the claims that have been raised since his sudden termination was announced on Wednesday. ...Read more

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that it doesn’t matter whether the anti-Muslim videos retweeted by President Trump are real or not, because “the threat is real.”  Trump shared three videos on Twitter early Wednesday from the deputy leader of an ultranationalist, far-right fringe group in Britain.  The group, Britain First, claims to be fighting the “Islamization” of England, and the graphic videos purported to show Muslims committing violent crimes. ...Read more