barack-obama

Updated 6:57 p.m. | Bowing to public pressure, President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive action ending the practice of separating migrant children from their parents amid a firestorm that saw congressional Republicans break with him.

The president contends Congress must pass legislation addressing the matter for it to be permanently solved given existing laws and court rulings his administration says mandates a process under which migrant children are separated from their parents when caught trying to illegally enter the United States. And it appears families can only be held together for 20 days, unless a federal judge alters a previous ruling placing a limit on detaining migrant families together.

Facing an ever-widening swath of criticism, including from senior Republicans, Trump administration officials dug in Monday on their decision to separate migrant parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border, signaling they will only end the practice if lawmakers pass immigration legislation.

“Congress and the courts created this problem, and Congress alone can fix it,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said during a contentious press briefing at the White House. “Until then, we will enforce every law we have on the books to defend the sovereignty and the security of the United States.”

Democrats in Congress accused Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen of lying amid intensifying outrage over a Trump administration policy requiring border agents to separate migrant children from their parents.

Several members of Congress called Nielsen out after she tweeted Sunday evening “we do not have a policy of separating families at the border.”

Updated 3:03 p.m. | Senior White House officials worked with House Republicans for weeks on a compromise immigration measure, but were careful to avoid saying anything publicly that would sink the measure. That changed Friday morning when President Donald Trump walked out to the White House’s North Lawn.

House Republicans reached agreement on a sweeping immigration overhaul measure after conservatives, moderates and leaders negotiated behind closed doors for weeks — with White House legislative affairs director Marc Short also involved. Members said Thursday they had reached a deal to vote on two measures: a measure favored by conservatives and a compromise version in which all sides gave some ground.

It’s fast-paced, decentralized and occasionally sweaty. Working in D.C. is a lot like playing soccer, according to author Peter Loge.

The former congressional staffer drew on his careers on and off the Hill to write “Soccer Thinking for Management Success: Lessons for Organizations From the World’s Game.”

The Obama administration sidestepped economic sanctions to allow Iran to more easily access some of its foreign assets in accordance with the 2015 nuclear agreement, a new report from Senate Republicans published on Wednesday found.

In February 2016, Obama’s Treasury Department issued a license to Bank Muscat in Oman that would have allowed Iran to convert $5.7 billion in Omani rials into euros by first converting them into U.S. dollars.

President Donald Trump said pharmaceutical industry executives have been summoned to the White House to announce “voluntary, massive drops in prices.”

He said the CEOs will deliver that news in a few weeks, contending the alleged reduction in drug costs is the product of pressure applied by his administration.

Flanked by a trio of Republican congressmen, President Donald Trump ventured to his native New York on Wednesday to accuse Democrats of coddling violent gangs and being soft on immigration and provided one of the members with a photo-op as he fends off a tough primary foe. 

One week after a White House event led to an extensive back and forth of the president's use of the term “animals” to describe, depending on whom was interpreting, MS-13 gang members or undocumented immigrants writ large, the trio of New York House Republicans — Peter T. King, Dan Donovan, and Lee Zeldin — showed no reluctance to being seen with Trump as they participated in the Bethpage, N.Y., roundtable.

We all know that the fastest way to diffuse tension or end a fight is to say “I’m sorry.” Not “I’m sorry if …” or “I’m sorry that you …” Just a simple, clean, “I’m sorry.”

It’s obvious to nearly everyone that an apology would have been the fastest way to end the controversy last week over a head-snapping leaked comment from White House staffer Kelly Sadler, who said ailing Sen. John McCain’s refusal to support President Donald Trump’s pick for CIA director won’t matter because “he’s dying anyway.”

Sarah Palin is disputing revelations from Sen. John McCain’s new book that he regrets choosing her to be his running mate on the GOP ticket in 2008.

“That’s not what Senator McCain has told me all these years,” the former Alaska governor told the Daily Mail on Thursday. “I attribute a lot of what we’re hearing and reading regarding McCain’s statements to his ghostwriter or ghostwriters.”