Month: June 2017

Former Vice President Joe Biden has encouraged onetime GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to run for the Senate in Utah if longtime Republican incumbent Orrin Hatch decides to retire next year. Biden made the recommendation to Romney Friday evening at the Utah resort where Romney was hosting an annual invitation-only business and politics summit. The…

Competing protests took place in several cities across the United States Saturday between groups saying they are protesting Sharia and groups saying they are protesting discrimination against Muslims. The “anti-Sharia” protesters were organized by a group called ACT for America, a President Donald Trump-aligned organization that says it protects free speech and defends traditional American…

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Congress Saturday he will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in last year’s presidential election. Sessions said he wanted to appear before the panel to address questions about him that arose last week during former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony. The attorney general, the highest-ranking law-enforcement…

U.S. President Donald Trump will visit NATO ally Poland before he heads to Germany for the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in July, the White House announced. “The visit will reaffirm America’s steadfast commitment to one of our closest European allies and emphasize the administration’s priority of strengthening NATO’s collective defense,” the White House said…

Did President Donald Trump break the law when he allegedly asked then-FBI Director James Comey in February to stop his investigation of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn? The question is at the heart of a legal debate a day after Comey disclosed during closely watched congressional testimony that Trump asked him to end his…

The U.S. Department of Justice Friday called for the dismissal of a lawsuit alleging President Donald Trump violated the constitution by accepting foreign payments at his hotels. The lawsuit, filed in January, said Trump violates the Constitution’s “emoluments” clause, which bars him from accepting gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval, by maintaining ownership over…

Marches against Islamic law were planned Saturday in more than two dozen cities across the United States, but scholars and others say the protesters are stoking unfounded fears and promoting a distorted and prejudiced view of the religion.    The group organizing the rallies, ACT for America, claims Shariah “is incompatible with Western democracy and…

President Donald Trump fired back at former FBI Director James Comey Friday, one day after Comey’s gripping Senate testimony rocked Washington. As VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reports, the aftershocks of Comey’s testimony may be felt for some time to come. …

The United States wants to cut $1 billion from the total United Nations peacekeeping budget for the year from July 1 to shave over 10 percent off Washington’s share of the bill following calls by President Donald Trump for U.S. funding to be slashed. The proposal by the largest U.N. contributor is an opening bid…

An already contentious move by Republican President Donald Trump to block opposition Democratic lawmakers from getting information about his administration received its most scathing criticism yet Friday —from one of the most powerful Republican members of the U.S. Senate. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, in a more than 2,100-word letter to the White…

Asked on Friday if he is willing to give sworn testimony about conversations with the former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, President Donald Trump answered “100 percent,” but then immediately added: “I didn’t say under oath.”    The president made it clear, however, he is willing to answer questions from Robert Mueller, another…

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Friday that the White House social media director broke the law when he used his Twitter account for campaign purposes. The office said Dan Scavino, one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits most federal employees from using their government positions to try to influence…

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony under oath before Congress on Thursday contained statements that weren’t true. Trump took questions from reporters in the Rose Garden outside the White House, in his first question-and-answer session with the media since May 18. In answer to a reporter’s question,…

Former FBI Director James Comey Thursday described what he says is a wide-ranging and repeated effort on the part of President Donald Trump to derail the FBI investigation into his campaign’s alleged ties with Russia. The allegations described by Comey during his Senate testimony are unconfirmed, but if true, would represent a return to the…

The funeral for Polish-born U.S. diplomat and political strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski will be Friday morning at St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Washington. Brzezinski was the national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981, and also served as an adviser to presidents Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy. An international relations expert…

Some Washingtonians built their day around Thursday’s Senate hearing featuring fired FBI Director James Comey. Maybe that’s not surprising because Washington is such a political town. But VOA’s Carolyn Presutti was curious to speak to some out-of-towners, along with those local folks who stood in long lines to see history made. …

Developments in Washington, D.C., on Thursday include fired FBI Director James Comey testifying before a Senate committee about his conversations with President Donald Trump; several Washington bars opening early for viewing parties of the Senate hearing; the president keeping a full schedule including speaking to his evangelical supporters, and some U.S. cities and states saying…