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In Alabama, the Republican party nomination for senator provided a surprisingly large victory (over 25% points with 50% of the vote counted) for Jeff Sessions's opponent, Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn football coach. This likely ends the long political career of Sessions after Donald Trump supported Tuberville. It appears that the Trump faithful have determined that the former attorney general's recusal over the Russian investigation cannot be forgiven. Alabamans have decided that a political novice such as Tuberville is preferable for the general election against sitting Senator Doug Jones (D). This is a likely pick-up in the U.S. Senate for...

Dr. Ronny Jackson, President Donald Trump's former chief physician and one-time nominee for Veterans Affairs secretary, won a GOP primary runoff for a Texas congressional seat on Tuesday, CNN projects, defeating cattle industry lobbyist Josh Winegarner. Trump had backed Jackson, who is a Texas native, while Winegarner had the support of outgoing 13th District Rep. Mac Thornberry, who announced last year that he would not run for reelection. The district is heavily conservative and was carried by Trump by more than 60 points. As a result, the Republican nominee is well positioned to keep the seat in GOP hands in...

Lawmakers from both parties told Pentagon leaders on Wednesday that the Defense Department is undermining its own efforts to get military money by diverting billions of dollars for the construction of President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and the committee’s top Republican warned Defense Secretary Mark Esper that overturning congressional funding decisions to shift money for the wall is an enormous problem that will have consequences. The plan to shift money has triggered rare Republican opposition to one of Trump’s priorities. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said the result may be that Congress...

The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee issued a sharp rebuke of President Donald Trump Thursday, slamming the administration's plan to divert $3.83 billion in Pentagon funding to border wall construction as unconstitutional and pledging to take action after lawmakers were notified of the move by the Department of Defense. Rep. Mac Thornberry, a Texas Republican who is the ranking member of the House committee and has announced he will not run for reelection this year, did not mention Trump by name but voiced strong opposition to the diverting of money from various Pentagon accounts for border wall...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other U.S. lawmakers announced late Saturday U.S. time that they had arrived in Jordan for meetings with King Abdullah II and other officials regarding the situation in Syria. Although touted as a "bipartisan" delegation, the group includes just one Republican -- Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, ranking member of the House Armed Services Commitee. Thornberry is among a group of Texas Republicans who've announced they won't seek reelection in 2020. REP. PAUL GOSAR: TRUMP WAS RIGHT TO WITHDRAW TROOPS FROM SYRIA -- WE SHOULD PROTECT US BORDERS INSTEAD “Our bipartisan delegation is visiting Jordan at...

Pelosi and other senior members of Congress held talks in Jordan on Saturday with King Abdullah II and other top Jordanian officials. The U.S. delegation included the heads of key House committees including .. 'Eliot Engel', 'Bennie Thompson', 'Adam Schiff','Mac Thornberry'. Pelosi said in a statement the visit was at “a critical time for the security and stability of the region… With the deepening crisis in Syria after Turkey’s incursion, our delegation has engaged in vital discussions about the impact to regional stability, increased flow of refugees, and the dangerous opening that has been provided to ISIS, Iran and Russia.”

U.S. Congressman Mac Thornberry (TX-13) released the following statement: "It has been a great honor to serve the people of the 13th District of Texas as their congressman for the last 25 years. They have given me opportunities to serve the nation in ways I could have never imagined, including as Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "We are reminded, however, that "for everything there is a season," and I believe that the time has come for a change. Therefore, this is my last term in the U.S. House of Representatives."

Richard Stengel, a former high-level U.S. government official, head of the office for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the State Department from 2013 to 2016, former editor of Time Magazine and a regular pundit on MSNBC, said in April of 2018 at a Council on Foreign Relations forum about “fake news,” that he “supports the use of propaganda on American citizens.” He then continued; “Basically, every country creates their own narrative story and, you know, my old job at the State Department was what people used to joke as the ‘chief propagandist’ job.” Keep in mind, that in 2013,...

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R., Texas) on Sunday said that he would advise President Donald Trump against pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. Thornberry, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, appeared on "Fox News Sunday" to discuss his position on the Iran nuclear deal and what he would advise Trump to do in the next week. "Should President Trump pull out of the Iran nuclear deal next Saturday– by next Saturday, even if the Europeans decide to stay in it and continue to do business with Tehran?" Host Chris Wallace asked. "I would counsel against it. I was...

Pro-amnesty GOP Senators are working hand-in-glove with Democrats to block a government budget until President Donald Trump agrees to break his campaign promise and his presidency by amnestying millions of wage-lowering illegal immigrants. The hostage-taking is being fronted by a group of GOP legislators, led by Sen. Jeff Flake and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who announced Wednesday they would not allow 2018 funding for the Pentagon until Trump approves an amnesty, saying:

The U.S. military must rebuild in Europe to face a more aggressive Russia, whose advanced submarines, weapons systems and geographic advantage have the U.S. “playing zone defense,” the top U.S. commander in Europe said Thursday. “We have about 20 years of a different paradigm to correct,” Gen. Philip Breedlove, commander of U.S. European Command, said during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. Breedlove, who has led EUCOM during the command’s biggest transformation in a generation, said he did not foresee a need to return to a Cold War-style military posture. But the era of trying to make a partner...

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), the first Congressman to endorse presumptive GOP presidential nominee billionaire Donald Trump and one of the leaders rallying support to his side on Capitol Hill, is specifically calling on his defense-minded colleagues to get on the Trump Train. In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Hunter also outlined a very specific yet simple plan Trump has for defeating the Islamic State. Hunter called for House Armed Services Committee (HASC) chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) among others to endorse Trump so they can start advising him on critical matters of national defense. “Specifically, the defense guys,” Hunter,...

This week, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz joined an amicus brief on behalf of 22 members of the Texas congressional delegation in support of private landowners along the Red River. The Bureau of Land Management has recently made waves by claiming thousands of acres of privately owned Texas land along the Red River. It has done so by utilizing — in apparent violation of a nearly 100-year-old Supreme Court precedent and tradition — an arbitrary and bizarre gradient boundary survey method that has adversely impacted private landowners. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) joined Cruz in the brief...

The House Armed Services Committee noted Tuesday that the Obama administration missed their February 15 deadline to deliver a strategy to counter violent extremist groups in the Middle East, such as ISIS and al Qaeda, as required by the National Defense Authorization Act. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, harshly criticized President Obama's failure to meet the deadline. [...] Section 1222 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY16, signed by President Obama in November, "requires the Secretaries of State and Defense to deliver a strategy for the Middle East and countering violent extremism no...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned his fellow Republicans on Wednesday not to place too much emphasis on Syrian refugees following the terrorist attacks in Paris last week, calling their focus misguided. “I believe the overwhelming focus on the refugee program in recent days is misplaced,” said McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a written statement. “I especially encourage my fellow Republicans to recognize that refugees are not the problem – they are the symptom of the problem.” Since attacks credited to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) killed at least 129, Republicans have called for...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday panned the idea of favoring Christian refugees from Syria over Muslims, delivering a rebuttal to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a GOP presidential candidate. McCain said using a religious test on Syrian refugees, especially children, makes no sense. “I don’t think any child, whether they are Christian or whether they are atheist or whether they are Buddhist, that we should make a distinction,” McCain said. “My belief is that all children are God’s children.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday panned the idea of favoring Christian refugees from Syria over Muslims, delivering a rebuttal to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a GOP presidential candidate. McCain said using a religious test on Syrian refugees, especially children, makes no sense. “I don’t think any child, whether they are Christian or whether they are atheist or whether they are Buddhist, that we should make a distinction,” McCain said. “My belief is that all children are God’s children.” It’s a rare example of McCain siding with President Obama, who defeated him in the 2008 presidential election, on a hot-button...

With Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s comments about immigration Sunday, the top two Republicans in Congress have now declared dead the prospects of an overhaul before the 2016 elections. In the aftermath of 2012, when Latinos made up 10 percent of the electorate and President Barack Obama was re-elected resoundingly, Republican lawmakers and strategists predicted the GOP’s White House ambitions were directly tied to the passage of comprehensive immigration legislation. Many of those voices haven’t changed their tune. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of the four “gang of eight” Republicans who successfully navigated an immigration overhaul through the Senate in 2013,...

One of the loudest backers of the government’s spy operations is taking his voice from Congress to the radio waves. And already ambitious colleagues are vying to replace him. Mike Rogers’s surprise announcement early Friday morning that he was not seeking reelection in November—and instead starting a new career as a talk-radio host—left congressional aides scrambling to figure out who might succeed him at the helm of the House Intelligence Committee. The unexpected vacancy already has attracted the attention of at least two other Republicans who may soon jockey for the top slot. All eyes Friday were on Rep. Mac...

Leading members of the House Armed Services Committee emerged from a classified briefing on the Edward Snowden leaks this afternoon “shocked” at the amount of information he reportedly leaked beyond the NSA surveillance programs. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the Armed Service panel’s Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee and also a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the briefing on the defense consequences of Snowden’s leaks was “very highly classified,” and therefore details couldn’t be discussed. …