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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday defended acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney amid backlash over his remarks suggesting that Ukraine aid was connected to the president’s call for the country to launch a probe into Democrats. McCarthy noted during a press conference that Mulvaney sought to walk back his remarks later in the day on Thursday, arguing the White House official "clarified his statement" and that he "takes Mick Mulvaney at his word for his clarification." “I think Mick was very clear in cleaning up the statement, that there was no quid pro quo. Everybody...

CNN claimed Thursday that the White House “admits to quid pro quo with Ukraine.” That appeared to be the opposite, in fact, of what happened during a press conference with acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. Mulvaney told reporters that there had been no quid pro quo, as described by those pursuing his impeachment — that President Donald Trump had not withheld aid from Ukraine until it agreed to investigate his potential 2020 presidential rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged that he held up $390 million in security aide for Ukraine in order to pressure the country into pursuing a 2016 election probe being demanded by President Trump. Trump and top administration officials have vigorously denied any 'quid pro quo' with Ukraine following a whistleblower's report that the White House was demanding a probe of the Bidens as well as Trump's conspiracy theory that the DNC server might be in Ukraine's possession. In a rare White House briefing, Mulvaney denied any knowledge of a company linked to Hunter Biden – but...

Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat on the Intelligence and Judiciary committees, reacted to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's remarks that aid to Ukraine was in fact tied to President Trump’s wish for an investigation into the 2016 election. "He co-signed the President's confession, I guess," he told reporters as he left the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility at Capitol Hill. Swalwell reiterated that Trump still deserves a fair process even though he believes the President has confessed. "We have a confession from the President," Swalwell said. "When a suspect confesses you can reduce the number of witnesses you...

FULL TITLE: Bolton wanted White House lawyers alerted to Ukrainian efforts, called it 'drug deal,' witness tells Congress ============================================ Former national security adviser John Bolton was so disturbed by the efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate President Donald Trump’s political opponents that he called it a “drug deal,” former White House official Fiona Hill reportedly told Congress on Monday. Hill, the former top Europe expert in Trump’s White House, testified that Bolton told her he wanted no part of the effort that involved acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, a person in the room for Hill’s testimony...

White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney thinks the impeachment process will turn into a huge political victory for President Trump, according to a new report. In a senior staff meeting last week, Mulvaney reportedly said he believes the president could win 45 states in 2020, three sources who heard his prediction told Axios, noting that “he wasn’t joking or even exaggerating.” Mulvaney also believes that the longer the impeachment process drags on, the better it is, politically, for Trump, these sources added. Mulvaney did not stipulate which 5 states he thought Trump would still lose when he made...

House Democrats have followed through on their threat to issue a subpoena to the White House for documents concerning President Trump's dealings with Ukraine. The chairmen of three House panels notified acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney of the subpoena in a letter on Friday. The subpoena is being issued by the chamber's Oversight and Reform Committee. Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) warned in a memo on Wednesday that he would issue the subpoena if the White House didn't comply by the end of the week. But Cummings and the other two committee chairmen leading the impeachment...

President Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which Trump is said to have pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden, according to three senior administration officials. Officials at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) relayed Trump’s order to the State Department and the Pentagon during an interagency meeting in mid-July, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. They explained that the president...

"We don't know the thoughts of the shooter" Those the words of Dayton, Ohio Mayor Nan Whaley at a news conference following a mass murder attack.... The attack in Dayton within hours of the El Paso mass murder attack where 20 are reported dead and 26 wounded. The attacker, Patrick Cruisus, has expressed views hostile to mass immigration, major corporations and in defense of environmental protection.... The White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on the ABC 'This Week' program Sunday morning that: "crazy people....should not be able to get guns".... Iran says it seized an oil tanker in...

Former Congresswoman Donna Edwards told Chris Matthews tonight that President Donald Trump is engaging in rhetoric from “the Nazi playbook,” after he said Trump’s rhetoric is “Hitlerian.” Matthews showed the clip of Fox News’ Chris Wallace telling Mick Mulvaney that the use of words like “infested” “sounds like vermin” and “sub-human.” He said the use of such rhetoric aimed at Congress members of color shows a pattern. After praising Wallace, Matthews said, “‘Infested.’ It’s ‘vermin.’ It’s a Hitlerian term… He’s obsessed with this thing about cities.”

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” anchor Chris Wallace questioned White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on President Donald Trump’s attacks on Rep Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and the city of Baltimore. Wallace said, “This goes back to what happens with the four members of ‘The Squad.’ Nobody objects to the president defending his border policy, but this seems to be the worst kind of racial stereotyping.” He continued, “Black congressman, majority-black district, I mean, no human being would want to live there? Is He saying people who live in Baltimore are new, not human beings?” (snip) Wallace...

United States Secret Service director Randolph "Tex" Alles is being removed from his position, multiple administration officials tell CNN. President Donald Trump instructed his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to fire Alles. Alles remains in his position as of now but has been asked to leave. The Secret Service director reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, who resigned on Sunday amid growing pressure from the President. The director oversees the Secret Service's work on both protection and investigations. "There is a near-systematic purge happening at the nation's second-largest national security agency," this official says. United...

United States military forces stationed in Libya have been pulled out of the country. The United Nations also moving personnel out of the country as the Libyan National Army forces press their attack on the US-UN backed government that controls a small part of the country mostly around the capital city of Tripoli.... US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling for an end to the fighting and for negotiations between the warring factions..... As early as Monday, the United States is expected to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran as a "terrorist organization"..... Seven were killed in a...

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that Democrats will "never" see President Trump's tax returns. "Nor should they. That’s an issue that was already litigated during the election. Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns, they knew that he didn’t, and they elected him anyway," Mulvaney said during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." He added that Democrats "know they're not going to" get the tax returns. "They just want attention on the issue because they don’t want to talk to us about policy," he said. Last week, House Democrats formally requested Trump's...

Yes, the compromise $1.38 million for 55 miles of border wall construction offered by the House and Senate conference committee is an insult to anyone who cares about border security. Nonetheless, President Trump should take it, let Chuck and Nancy crow and Ann Coulter rail, and then get moving on adding the many other sources of funds available to him to construct hundreds more miles of border barrier at the highest-priority locations identified by the Border Patrol. Another partial shutdown of the federal government would do nothing to prod the Democrats into offering more money.  They think they have won and...

Acting White House chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney with Chris Wallace a few hours ago... https://youtu.be/l_Z0xx_zS0M Mulvaney: Trump can ‘move money around’ to get wall funding Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says that President Trump will pull from several pots of money to fulfill his pledge to build a Southern border wall, indicating the White House is prepared to accept a deal from Congress that doesn’t fully meet the president’s full $5.7 billion border request. “We’ll take as much money as you can give us and then we’ll go off and find the money someplace else, legally,...

WASHINGTON - Two House Democrats are requesting that the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, revoke the security clearance for President Donald Trump's senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kusher. In a letter to Mulvaney on Thursday, Reps. Don Beyer of Virginia and Ted Lieu of California requested that Kushner's clearance be pulled, citing a recent NBC report that a supervisor overruled the recommendation he not be approved for clearance. "The White House's pattern of hiding the truth and devious behavior with regard to Mr. Kushner's security clearance suggests that the Administration does not take information security seriously," the...

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney strongly suggested on "Fox News Sunday" that President Trump will construct a border wall using his emergency powers if Congress cannot agree on a compromise to fund the construction in the next three weeks. Trump on Friday signed a short-term spending bill to re-open the government through Feb. 15, ending the longest partial federal government shutdown in U.S. history. But the president insisted the move was not a "concession," writing in a tweet that "in 21 days, if no deal is done, it’s off to the races!" -- a message Mulvaney emphasized...

Services typically suspended during government shutdowns have continued to operate under the Trump administration, with insiders pointing to acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought as the reason why. Agencies impacted by government shutdowns are forced to severely cut back on operations, suspend services and often send workers home without pay. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has been using creative solutions to blunt the burden, according to a senior administration official and several prominent Republicans. Vought joined the OMB in early 2018 and assumed the role of acting director Jan. 3 after Director Mick Mulvaney became...

(CNN) President Donald Trump lashed out at acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney during a Situation Room meeting with Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, earlier this month, a White House official said Sunday. According to the official, Trump cut Mulvaney off toward the end of an unproductive meeting on re-opening the federal government, as Mulvaney was attempting to negotiate up from the $1.3 billion Democrats offered the White House. "Stop, stop, just stop -- What are you doing? You're f---ing it all up, Mick," Trump said, according to the official who was in...