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“The most important thing to them is that Trump seems to hate the same people they hate,” Ron Reagan says. The son of former President Ronald Reagan believes Donald Trump’s political base is so consumed by hatred for the Democrats that they would vote for Vladimir Putin to be America’s president instead of virtually any member of that party. “They really aren’t in touch with reality. The most important thing to them [is that Trump] seems to hate the same people that they hate,” Ron Reagan told Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball” on Thursday. “That’s the real Trump derangement syndrome.”...

The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed a defense authorization bill that restricts any drawdown of American troops in South Korea. The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act, which approves $716 billion for defense in fiscal year 2019, passed the House by a vote of 359-54. Upon Senate approval, it will be sent to US President Donald Trump to sign into law. The bill notes that about 28,500 American troops are currently stationed in South Korea as a demonstration of the US commitment to the bilateral alliance. Their "significant removal" is "a non-negotiable item as it relates to...

A sneak peek at the Times’s news analysis from Nov. 4, 2020. Nov. 4, 2020 In the end, a bitterly fought election came down to the old political aphorism, popularized during Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 run against George H.W. Bush: “It’s the economy, stupid.” This time, however, it was the Republican incumbent, not his Democratic challenger, who benefited from that truism. Donald J. Trump has been decisively re-elected as president of the United States, winning every state he carried in 2016 and adding Nevada, even as he once again failed, albeit narrowly, to gain a majority of the popular vote....

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is having a bad week – and it’s about to get worse. On Friday we’re expected to learn from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis that the U.S. economy grew at a blistering pace in the second quarter of this year, further affirming the success of President Trump’s tax cuts and deregulatory efforts. President Trump hinted at the good economic news in a tweet Tuesday, writing: “Our Country is doing GREAT. Best financial numbers on the Planet. Great to have USA WINNING AGAIN!” Economists expect the Bureau of Economic Analysis report Friday will show...

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker on Wednesday blasted President Donald Trump’s repeated praise of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a “talented” leader with a “great personality.” “One in 10 North Koreans are living in slavery today,” Corker said during a Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “One in five children are stunted due to malnutrition. In the face of these realities, the president has called him very talented, and that he loves his people.” “Really?” the Tennessee Republican added. Corker, who is often critical of the president and is retiring at the end of this Congress, described Kim as...

If you blinked, you might have missed it. At a speech in Kansas City to the VFW annual convention on Tuesday, President Donald Trump -- amid one of his trademark anti-media rants -- said this (emphasis mine): "Stick with us. Don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. ... What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."I know I keep saying this, BUT: That is an absolutely remarkable thing for any elected leader to say -- especially when that leader is the most powerful person in the country. And I know I keep...

When I wrote last week that President Trump's capitulatory press conference with Vladimir Putin was a low moment in his tenure thus far, I wasn't out on a limb. Trump's equivocations prompted rebukes from scores of Congressional Republicans, as well as critiques from a number of national figures who are typically supporters and allies. Trump's secret sauce, however, is that the more he's attacked, the more Republican voters feel compelled to circle the wagons and rally to his defense -- hence the polling released last week in which super-majorities of GOP-leaning voters said they approved of his performance with Putin,...

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were greeted at the White House on Sunday by chants of "lock him up" as protesters demonstrated outside the building for a seventh day straight. In video shared on social media, the president and first lady can be seen making their way into the building as protesters bellow "lock him up, lock him up." The activists are holding up signs and banners and playing instruments. Both Trump and Melania appeared to ignore the protesters' calls....

On Friday, first lady Melania Trump responded to Michael Cohen's "Trump tapes," the existence of which was reported earlier in the day. The New York Times reported that Cohen, Donald Trump's former attorney, secretly recorded a conversation wherein the two discussed making payments to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who claims to have an affair with Trump. In a statement Friday, however, Melania refused to address the reports, and made clear that she won't be doing so at any point in the future. "Mrs. Trump remains focused on her role as a mother and as First Lady of the...

It was unremittingly hot at the farm in Natick, Massachusetts, where 1,500 people had gathered on the Sunday after the Fourth of July. Remarkably, this crowd had assembled under a blistering sun not for a free concert, or outdoor theater, or even a protest, exactly. They’d come for an open-air town hall with their sitting senator, a 69-year-old woman widely expected to win reelection to her second term this fall. Standing at the back of the sweaty throng, I’d seen her introduced from the stage, then heard cheers greeting her entrance, but couldn’t for the life of me lay eyes...

President Trump’s approval rating jumped up to 45 percent, the highest it has been throughout his presidency, according to a new poll released by the Wall Street Journal and NBC. The poll left an MSNBC panel shocked Sunday night by the improvement. WATCH: (VIDEO-AT-LINK) “President Trump has shown throughout his campaign and polling what I took away from the 2016 election is the American people authenticity,” said Kevin McLaughlin of Cogent Strategies Principle. “May not like what authenticity is, what he’s saying or how he’s doing it, but he doesn’t back down from it. When he goes out and does...

President Donald Trump is making his first visit to Illinois since becoming president, making a stop in Granite City on Thursday where he is expected to tout the reopening of a U.S. Steel Corp. mill. The White House announced Sunday night Trump will swing through Granite City, in southern Illinois near St. Louis and Dubuque, Iowa, on Thursday. The Trump administration has been highlighting U.S. Steel’s Granite City mill as a trade war success story even as the tariffs have sparked concerns in other sectors, with alarms sounded by Illinois farmers whose main crop is soybeans. The visit will have...

The Russia conspiracy theory hinges on the single creaky claim that the Democratic National Committee hacks were a Russian plot to elect Trump. The theory and all its illegitimate stepchildren, including Robert Mueller and his infinitely expanding corps of prosecutors, lives or dies by the DNC hacks. Trying to elect Trump by releasing damaging insider information from the DNC never made any sense. The DNC was already a dysfunctional organization that was being run by the Clinton campaign. Undermining its leadership had little impact on the election, but a great deal on control of the DNC. There has never been...

NEW YORK (AP) - Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have joined New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in calling on the U.S. Senate to reject Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh because of his expansive interpretation of gun rights and the Second Amendment. Cuomo, a Democrat, said Saturday that Kavanaugh's past opinions show that he believes it is a constitutional right to carry "even the most dangerous assault weapons." Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, called Kavanaugh's nomination "a grave threat to reasonable gun control measures enacted by states." Meeks and other lawmakers joined Cuomo at a Manhattan news conference...

Hillary Clinton was cheered Saturday in Central Park when she took the stage as part of a star-studded summer festival of conversation, music and food. The former Democratic presidential candidate, secretary of state and U.S. senator from New York told a crowd at the OZY Fest that she'll be tweeting in coming days, helping to organize transportation for immigrants trying to reunite with their families after crossing the U.S. border illegally and being separated. She was interviewed by Laurene Powell Jobs, founder of the Emerson Collective, a nonprofit advocate of liberal causes that organized the two-day festival in the park's...

Former Vice President Joe Biden, mulling a possible 2020 presidential run, ripped into the Trump administration’s immigration policies on Friday -- calling them “one of the darkest moments in our history” at a rally held by a Latino civil rights organization. Biden made his fiery remarks in Phoenix, Arizona, at an event for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). He specifically targeted the Justice Department’s “zero tolerance” policy on prosecuting all illegal border crossers. “Grotesque lies, lies about immigrants, about crime, about costs to the community,” said Biden. “This administration’s policies that literally rip babies from the arms...

Rep. Maxine Waters warned supporters on Wednesday of potential "armed protests" against her after an extremist group called for ongoing demonstrations outside her office in Los Angeles. In a lengthy statement issued late Wednesday, Waters, D-Calif., said she’d been notified about forthcoming protests by the Oath Keepers, which she described as "an anti-government militia" that's staged armed protests in cities across the country. She warned her supporters against being "baited" into counter-demonstrations or confrontations with the organization, which she said has a track record of "violent and provocative behavior." "I am requesting those individuals and groups planning a counter-protest to...

New York Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez caused a stir for criticizing Israel’s "occupation” of Palestine in a recent interview. Ocasio-Cortez, who surprisingly won a New York Democratic primary on a socialist platform, made the remark during an interview on PBS’s "Firing Line" on Friday. The 28-year-old political newcomer was roundly criticized for making the statement then admitting that she is "not the expert at geopolitics on this issue." It wasn't the only controversial thing Ocasio-Cortez said during the "Firing Line" interview...

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting to get a different result, which is one of the many reasons President Donald Trump’s news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed so insane. Trump is trying to do something that both of his immediate predecessors tried to do: turn over a new leaf with Russia. They both failed, and so will he. Recall that George W. Bush entered the White House promising to end the “dead ideological rivalry” of the Cold War. At a 2001 summit with Putin in Slovenia, Bush declared, “I looked...

Instead of simply trading in one bad party for a slightly less bad one, frustrated voters need to use this moment to push for credible alternatives. Last weekend’s Politico Magazine featured an historical retrospective of the rise and fall of major American political parties during the mid-1850s. Written by professor Joshua Zeitz, a historian and one-time Democratic candidate for Congress, the piece urges “Never Trump” Republicans to give up on the GOP, cast aside ideas of independence and join the Democratic Party. While deeply steeped in historical examples and context, Zeitz presents a false dichotomy to erstwhile Republicans. “Today’s Never...