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Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire and outspoken Donald Trump supporter, is considering a 2018 bid for California governor, according to three Republicans familiar with his thinking. Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, has been discussing a prospective bid with a small circle of advisers, including Rob Morrow, who has emerged as his political consigliere. Morrow has worked at Clarium Capital, the San Francisco-based investment management firm and hedge fund that Thiel started. Those who have been in t

Trump to visit National African American Museum: report © Getty Images President-elect Donald Trump is expected to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, ABC News reported Saturday citing transition sources. NEW: Donald Trump expected to visit National African American Museum in observance of Martin Luther King Day, transition sources tell @ABC. — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 14, 2017 Trump's visit to the museum comes amid backlash from Democrats and some Republicans over Trump claiming in tweets Saturday that Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) was "all talk" and "no action."

The NAACP President Cornell William Brooks is calling on Donald Trump to apologize to Alabama Rep. John Lewis, after attacking the civil rights icon in a series of tweets. “By disrespecting John Lewis, Donald Trump dishonored Lewis' sacrifice & demeaned Americans & the rights, he nearly died (for). Apologize,” Brooks tweeted.

Russia has invited the incoming Trump administration to Syrian peace talks it is sponsoring later this month with Turkey and Iran, part of a process from which the Obama administration pointedly has been excluded. U.S. participation, especially if an agreement is reached, would be the first indication of the enhanced U.S.-Russia cooperation that President Vladi­mir Putin and President-elect Donald Trump have forecast under a Trump administration. The invitation, extended to Trump’s designated national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, came in a Dec. 28 phone call to Flynn by Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador in Washington, according to a transition official.

On the day of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration protesters are planning an anti-capitalist march, road blockades and disruptions to inauguration balls. The protests will likely include property destruction, a source with intimate knowledge of the protest plans told The Daily Caller Friday. The blockades are not limited to roads but will also be at every security checkpoint, the source said. The source added that the protesters blockading each checkpoint will represent a different liberal cause such as climate change or money in politics. A group called #DisruptJ20 is the most active in the planned protests for the inauguration.

House Democrats say they are having trouble getting tickets to inaugural festivities for President-elect Donald Trump, leading some to openly speculate it might be a sign of rancorous partisanship to come. An email list used by House Democratic schedulers has been a flurry of activity over the past couple of weeks, with staffers complaining they’re having a hard time getting tickets for their bosses to the inaugural parade and ball. Story Continued Below “It is not normal,” said Kim Fuller, a scheduler for Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), in an interview after being contacted by POLITICO about the series of staffer...

The question isn't whether Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) will win confirmation. It's how many Democratic votes will he win. Barring a surprise, Sessions is going to be the nation's next attorney general, as no Republicans are expected to oppose him. GOP lawmakers are confident that he will be able to easily clear the upper chamber after undergoing a grilling from his colleagues during a hearing that spanned more than 10 hours. How many votes come from his Democratic colleagues is a bigger question. Here's a look at the key senators who are worth watching. Republicans opposing Sessions (0): No Republican...

Full title......................President Obama reveals that he and the First Family are ready to leave the White House, saying Michelle never liked the spotlight in the first place...............................President Obama said in an interview that the First Family will be happy to be out of the White House, and out of the spotlight. Speaking to Steve Kroft on 60 minutes he said that the 'bubbles' they are in and constraints posed by Secret Service have 'gotten old'. He said: 'Michelle never fully took to the scrutiny. She's thrived as a First Lady, but it's not her preference. 'She was the hardest sell,...

full title.............'I don't apologize:' Toby Keith defends his decision to perform at Donald Trump's presidential inauguration...................................Event organizers announced on Friday that he will be among the artists who will take the stage on Thursday's Make America Great Again! Welcome Celebration. And later that day, Toby Keith responded to critics of his decision to perform for Donald Trump's presidential inauguration. In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, the 55-year-old country singer defended his choice: 'I don't apologize for performing for our country or military.'

President Obama will leave the White House to President-elect Trump on Friday, Jan. 20, and then according to his schedule he and wife Michelle will embark on their final flight board aboard a presidential aircraft to an "undisclosed location." That Friday morning, Obama's final weekly schedule says the president and first lady will "welcome President-elect Trump and Melania Trump to the White House for tea." Afterwards, the Obamas will attend Trump's inauguration at the U.S. Capitol. Then the couple will travel to Joint Base Andrews, via helicopter, where Obama will speak to group of staff gathered there "to bid farewell."

The former head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) confronted FBI Director James Comey on Friday during a confidential briefing on Russian hacking that left many Democrats calling for Comey’s scalp, several lawmakers told The Hill. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who was forced to resign last summer as head of the DNC amid the hacking scandal, told Comey that he should have come to her directly once the FBI was aware of the breach, just as he had done with other hacking victims. ADVERTISEMENT Comey, described by lawmakers in the room as unflinching and defiant, retorted that the FBI...

Host Jake Tapper pointed out that Mr. Trump, during the campaign, promised a “deportation force” to round up the more than 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. Ryan dismissed that idea. “I’m here to tell you in Congress, it’s not happening.” Instead, Ryan said Mr. Trump has asked lawmakers to focus on two priorities with respect to illegal immigration: securing the border and deporting immigrants who are violent, repeat criminals. House GOP lawmakers and aides have also said recently they’re working on how to pay for border security to make good on Mr. Trump’s promise of building a wall...

Dulles (United States) (AFP) - US security authorities organizing Donald Trump's inauguration as president next week plan tough barriers against the kinds of jihadist-inspired truck attacks that left dozens dead last year in France and Germany. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Friday the government sees no immediate threats for the January 20 inauguration, during which close to a million people could amass in downtown Washington. Johnson said US authorities have ramped up security preparations in light of the rise of "lone wolf" type attacks, including recent atrocities in Nice, France and Berlin, Germany in which attackers drove trucks into...

This was supposed to be the week President-elect Trump's nominees endured tough grilling and determined opposition in Senate confirmation hearings. "Trump Cabinet picks face extreme vetting ahead of confirmation," USA Today reported last month, predicting that several Trump picks could face a very difficult time on Capitol Hill. Now Week One is ending, and the tough grilling mostly didn't materialize. And all of Trump's first week of nominees seem headed toward confirmation. Seven Trump picks — Attorney General-designate Jeff Sessions, Homeland Security Secretary-designate John Kelly, Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson, Transportation Secretary-designate Elaine Chao, Defense Secretary-designate James Mattis, Housing and...

Journalists from The Huffington Post, Slate and Univision will gather days before Donald Trump’s inauguration to publicly discuss “how the news media can and should proceed to cover” the president-elect. Slate will host the event next Wednesday, called “Not the New Normal.” CNN’s Brian Stelter will moderate the panel at New York University. The focus of the discussion will include "how journalists and media companies at large can play a bigger role in making sure that fact prevails over fiction in the coming months and years," according to Slate.

The YouTube channel of influential conservative politics and law website Legal Insurrection has been removed by the video sharing service, citing copyright infringement claims. “This account has been terminated because we received multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement regarding material the user posted,” explains YouTube, in a notice posted to channel’s page. Legal Insurrection founder and publisher and Cornell University Law Professor William Jacobson voiced his anger and astonishment at the channel’s removal. “It’s very frustrating, it’s very scary, to have 8 years of content removed without a chance to defend yourself,” he told FoxNews.com.

A number of House Democrats left Friday's confidential briefing on Russian hacking fuming over the actions of FBI Director James Comey and convinced he's unfit to lead the agency. "I was nonjudgmental until the last 15 minutes. I no longer have that confidence in him," Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, said as he left the meeting in the Capitol. "Some of the things that were revealed in this classified briefing — my confidence has been shook." Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, delivered a similar condemnation....

President Barack Obama announced Thursday evening the unilateral creation of three new national monuments to honor America’s civil rights history, along with adding tens of thousands of acres to two existing West Coast monuments. Obama announced the creation of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument in and Freedom Riders National Monument in Alabama. Obama also created the Reconstruction Era National Monument in South Carolina using his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act. “They tell the important stories of the citizens who helped launch the civil rights movement in Birmingham and the Freedom Riders whose bravery raised national awareness of segregation...

The Justice Department has “reasonable cause” to believe Chicago police officers use excessive force, the agency announced Friday. Announcing the outcome of a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation first launched in late 2015, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said there was cause to believe the Chicago Police Department “engages in a pattern or practice of using force, including deadly force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.” “The pattern or practice results from systemic deficiencies in training and accountability, including the failure to train officers in de-escalation and the failure to conduct meaningful investigations of uses of force.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest admitted Thursday that President Obama has at times been frustrated by tough and frequent questions from the media during his time in office. A reporter asked Earnest at the White House daily press briefing whether Obama watched Donald Trump’s press conference on Wednesday and what he thought of the president-elect’s strong reaction to some of the questions. Earnest said that he did not know whether Obama had seen the press conference before pivoting to his own experience in the White House press office during the Obama administration. Earnest said there have been several situations...