U.S. President Donald Trump blasted media mogul Oprah Winfrey on Twitter on Sunday night over a segment on CBS’s 60 Minutes program and again said he hoped she would face him as an opponent in the 2020 presidential race.

Actress and television host Winfrey, now a contributor to the CBS program, led a panel of 14 Republican, Democrat and Independent voters from Grand Rapids, Michigan in a wide ranging discussion about Trump’s first year in office.

Trump tweeted: “Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes. The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect. Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!”

Winfrey has told various media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, that she is not running for president, but has considered it, after there was much recent media speculation.

The panelists ranged from voters who said “I love him more and more every day,” to others questioning Trump’s stability, saying, “All he does is bully people.”

Winfrey made no declarative statements for or against the president in the program. But she did ask questions ranging from whether the country is better off economically to whether respect for the country is eroding around the world.
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President Donald Trump spent the holiday weekend hunkered down at his Florida estate, watching cable television news, grousing to club members and advisers and fuming over the investigation of Russian election meddling.

In a marathon series of furious tweets from Mar-a-Lago, Trump vented about Russia, raging at the FBI for what he perceived to be a fixation on the Russia investigation at the cost of failing to deter the attack on a Florida high school. He made little mention of the nearby school shooting victims and the escalating gun control debate.

The president has grown increasingly frustrated since the indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday charged 13 Russians with a plot to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.

Trump viewed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s declaration that the indictment doesn’t show that any American knowingly participated as proof of his innocence and is deeply frustrated that the media are still suggesting that his campaign may have colluded with Russian officials, according to a person who has spoken to the president in the last 24 hours but is not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations.

Trump was last seen publicly Friday night when he visited the nearby Florida community reeling from a school shooting that left 17 dead and gave rise to a student-led push for more gun control. White House aides advised the president against golfing so soon after the tragedy. Instead, he fired off tweets Saturday and Sunday and met with House Speaker Paul Ryan Sunday afternoon.

Trump fumed to associates at Mar-a-Lago that the media “won’t let it go” and will do everything to delegitimize his presidency. He made those complaints to members who stopped by his table Saturday as he dined with his two adult sons and TV personality Geraldo Rivera.

Initially pleased with the Justice Department’s statement, Trump has since griped that Rosenstein did not go far enough in declaring that he was cleared of wrongdoing, and grew angry when his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, gave credence to the notion that Russia’s meddling affected the election, the person said.

Amid a growing call for action on guns, the White House said Sunday the president will host a “listening session” with students and teachers this week, but offered no details on who would attend or what would be discussed.

On Monday, 17 Washington students plan a “lie-in” by the White House to advocate for tougher gun laws. Students who survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland are planning a march on Washington next month to pressure politicians to take action on gun violence.

On Twitter, Trump stressed that the Russian effort began before he declared his candidacy and asserted that the Obama administration bears some blame for it. He also insisted he never denied that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 U.S. campaign, although in fact he has frequently challenged the veracity of the evidence.

The president declared “they are laughing their asses off in Moscow”at the lingering fallout from the Kremlin’s election interference.

James Clapper, a former director of national intelligence, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the president was not focusing on the bigger threat.

“Above all this rhetoric here, again, we’re losing sight of, what is it we’re going to do about the threat posed by the Russians? And he never – he never talks about that,” said Clapper. “It’s all about himself, collusion or not.”

Trump tweeted about the nation’s “heavy heart” in the wake of the shooting in Parkland and noted the “ncredible people” he met on his visit to the community. But he also sought to use the shooting to criticize the nation’s leading law enforcement agency.

Trump said late Saturday that the FBI “missed all of the many signals” sent by the suspect and argued that agents are “spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.”

The FBI received a tip last month that the man now charged in the school shooting had a “desire to kill” and access to guns and could be plotting an attack. But the agency said Friday that agents failed to investigate.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican and frequent Trump critic, called that tweet about the FBI an “absurd statement” on CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding that the “FBI apparently made a terrible mistake, and people should be held accountable. But we need leadership out of the executive.”

 
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Washington is refocused on the Russia probe after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russians accused of mounting a massive social media trolling campaign to help Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports President Trump unleashed a tweetstorm claiming personal vindication in the Russia investigation — something Democrats and others strongly contest.
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President Donald Trump said Sunday he believes Russia has been wildly successful in disrupting the U.S. political landscape with its interference in the 2016 election because of the subsequent months-long investigations it spawned.

“If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S.,” Trump said in a Twitter comment, “then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and (Republican) Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!”

In a string of tweets over several hours, the U.S. leader continued to assail the probe into his campaign’s links to Russia.

Trump was also critical of H.R. McMaster, his national security adviser, who said Saturday there was “incontrovertible” evidence of Russian interference in the election, a day after special counsel Robert Mueller charged 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities with conducting an illegal “information warfare” campaign to disrupt the 2016 presidential election and help Trump win.

“I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said ‘it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer,’ Trump tweeted. “The Russian ‘hoax’ was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia – it never did!”

Trump said McMaster “forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia” and his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and other Democrats. Trump said McMaster overlooked Democratic funding of political opposition research in a controversial dossier alleging shady Trump links to Russian operatives.

Trump sarcastically praised one of his political opponents, Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, for saying that the administration of former President Barack Obama could have done more to thwart overseas cyberattacks after the 2014 hack into the files of the entertainment company Sony Pictures.

“I think that others around the world watched that and determined that cyber is a cost-free intervention,” Schiff said in an interview on NBC.

Trump tweeted, “Finally, Liddle’ Adam Schiff, the leakin’ monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election. He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!”

Trump added, “Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, led by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election. But wasn’t I a great candidate?

Trump has long contended that his campaign did not collude with Russia, even as the U.S. intelligence community and now Mueller have concluded that Russia conducted a wide campaign to meddle in the election to help Trump win.

Mueller’s indictment of the Russian interests contended that the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based social media company with Kremlin ties, 12 of its employees, and its financial backer orchestrated the effort.

None of the defendants charged in the indictment are in custody, according to a Mueller spokesman. The U.S. and Russia don’t have an extradition treaty and it’s unlikely that any of the defendants will stand trial in the U.S.

The 37-page charging document alleges that the Russian conspirators sought to coordinate their effort with Trump campaign associates, but it does not accuse anyone on the Trump campaign of colluding with the Russians.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said that the Russian conspirators sought to “promote social discord in the United State and undermine public confidence in democracy.”

The indictment marks the first time Mueller’s office has brought charges against Russians and Russian entities for meddling in the 2016 election.

Mueller’s sprawling investigation has led to the indictments of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and associate Rick Gates on money laundering charges in connection with their lobbying efforts in Ukraine that predates Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about their contacts with Russian officials and are cooperating with Mueller’s probe.

In addition to investigating the Russian meddling in the election, Mueller is probing whether Trump has in several ways obstructed justice to undermine the investigation, including his firing of former FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the agency’s Russia probe at the time Trump ousted him. Mueller, over Trump’s objections, was then appointed by Rosenstein to take over the Russia probe.
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The request was simple: organize or attend a sign-waving rally supporting Donald Trump. But some of the Florida Republicans on the receiving end of those requests now know that they didn’t come from Republican allies, but from Russian adversaries.

Caught up in an elaborate Russian plot without their knowledge, a handful of these small-time Trump supporters said their votes were not swayed and they didn’t do anything they weren’t happy to do. Still, their interactions with the Russians highlight the ways, both big and small, that the nation’s campaign process was infiltrated.

“I was going to do what I was going to do anyway. I was a Trump supporter, they didn’t convince me,” said Jim Frishe, a real estate development consultant and candidate for county office, who organized a sign-waving event in Clearwater that was part of a statewide series of rallies promoted by the Russians.

​Russian-organized rallies

The Florida rallies are one small facet of the indictment issued Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller charging 13 Russians and three Russian companies with interfering in the 2016 election. The most detailed allegation of illegal Russian meddling to date, it says they assumed U.S. identities, sowed discord on social media, communicated with “unwitting” Americans and even set up political rallies from afar.

As part of that, the indictment says the Russians used a Facebook group, a Twitter account and other “false U.S. personas” to organize coordinated “Florida Goes Trump” rallies Aug. 20, 2016. They reached out to campaign staff, grassroots groups supporting Trump, and specific individuals to participate.

Frishe, 68, said he was called by someone identifying themselves as with a group called “Florida for Trump” and asked to organize a sign-waving rally. He said between 15 and 18 people showed up and that he didn’t receive any signs or money or other support. He never heard from them again.

He said he was not overly concerned about the indictment, or his minor role in the drama, and that Russian interference is “nothing new.”

“It’s not surprising,” Frishe said. “It doesn’t have a huge impact in this country.”

Effort sizable

Still, the indictment details a sizable effort to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, aimed in part at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. It involved creating internet postings in the names of Americans whose identities had been stolen; staging political rallies while posing as American political activists; and paying people in the U.S. to promote or disparage candidates.

Lilia Morraz was another person who put together an event. She said she got involved after she encountered the (at)March_for_Trump account on Twitter, one of the accounts the Russians used.

“I am really active on Twitter. They were saying Trump was not going to be elected. I happened to write to them and say it’s not true,” said Morraz, 60, of Miami.

Morraz said that from there, she was asked about good places to hold a rally in Miami and then “they told me, yes, go ahead and do it.” So she organized an event outside a restaurant that both she and (at)March_for_Trump promoted. She said hundreds attended and she made signs herself and received no money.

Morraz was skeptical about a Russian plot.

“I just don’t believe it. It’s like everything you see on TV. I don’t believe 90 percent of it,” she said.

Identity used

Another Florida Republican, Betty Trigueiro, says she didn’t attend the Florida Goes Trump rallies. But her name and phone number were included in a Facebook post promoting the event without her permission.

Trigueiro, 62, of Bradenton, said that in August 2016 she started getting some Twitter messages from people she did not know with details on pro-Trump events. She thinks they may have gotten her contact information from her time as secretary of a local Republican club. She said she never attended any of the events.

While she was troubled that there appeared to efforts to “infiltrate and cause chaos,” Trigueiro wasn’t convinced the outcome was impacted.

“There was too many people that wanted him elected,” she said.
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“We are going to be the last mass shooting,” vowed Emma Gonzalez, a survivor of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, who spoke at a gun-control rally Saturday, three days after an armed former student killed 17 of her classmates and teachers.

Gonzalez spoke bluntly to her audience, hundreds of people who gathered at the Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the suburb where the shooting took place. 

“The people in the government who are voted into power are lying to us,” Gonzalez said.”We are prepared to call B.S. [point out a lie].” 

“They say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence,” she said. “They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call B.S.”

Gonzalez said mental health — a factor President Donald Trump and other authorities had pointed to in their responses to the shooting — was not the main problem; she blamed Florida’s lenient gun laws, under which the teenage shooter, Nikolas Cruz, legally purchased his weapon.

“He would not have harmed that many students with a knife,” she said.

Gonzalez elicited a strong response from the audience when she mentioned the amount of money politicians take from the National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful lobbying group. “To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA,” she cried, “shame on you.”

WATCH: At Florida Rally, School Shooting Survivors Argue for Gun Controls

“Shame on you!” the crowd responded, turning the phrase into a chant.

WATCH: ‘People I Know Have Died’

​Gun rally

Meanwhile, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) away at the Dade County fairgrounds, hundreds of gun enthusiasts attended a gun show featuring more than 100 vendors of firearms and accessories.

Show manager Jorge Fernandez told the Reuters news service that the company holding the event, Florida Gun Shows, decided against canceling the show because of financial concerns.

At the show, Adolfo David Ginarte, 30, told Reuters that it would be “un-American” to cancel the gun show because of the mass shooting. “Facts don’t care about your feelings,” he said. “Things are going to happen. … This isn’t the first time and, unfortunately, it’s not going to be the last time.”

Joe Arrington, 29, told Reuters he did not believe more regulation would have stopped the shooting. “I think a lot of agencies didn’t do their job necessarily like they were supposed to,” he said.

On Friday, the FBI — the top national law enforcement agency — admitted that it ignored a tipoff about the gunman.

“Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable,” U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday evening. “They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”

The agency acknowledged it did not follow “established protocols” after receiving information about the shooter on its national tip line. The FBI said someone with a close relationship to Cruz left information on January 5 about the teenager’s desire to kill people and other disturbing details. 

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions responded by ordering an immediate review of how the Justice Department and the FBI respond to warnings about potential mass killers. 

Trump visits with victims

Trump and his wife, Melania, visited Florida on Friday, to meet with law enforcement officials and some of the victims of Wednesday’s shooting.

At a Broward County hospital near the scene of the shooting, Trump praised the medical staff who treated the victims, saying, “The job they’ve done is incredible.” He also praised the speed with which first responders arrived at the school. When asked by reporters whether the nation’s gun laws needed to be changed, Trump did not respond.

Trump was to spend the long Presidents Day weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Parkland.

Cruz, who was being held at the Broward County jail without bond, has admitted carrying out the shootings with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, according to the county sheriff’s office. Cruz, who had been expelled for disciplinary reasons last year from the school, faces 17 counts of premeditated murder.
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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Saturday outside the U.S. Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to rally for more stringent gun-control laws, days after the third most deadly school shooting in American history.

Amid chants of “End gun violence,” group leaders, local legislators and other public figures addressed what they felt was an urgent need for tougher laws governing the ownership of guns.

“I have called out Congress and told them … their job is to work for the people,” one young woman told the throng of demonstrators. “And they’re not working for the people. The country wants gun reform and they refuse to talk about it. They talk about mental health. They talk about bullying. They say it’s not the time. Now is the time! There is no other time!” she said to loud cheers and applause.

Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie, who was expected to attend the rally, posted on Twitter that the deadly shooting might have sparked enough outrage to force legislative action on gun control:

The demonstrators gathered one day after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review of how the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation respond to warnings about potential mass killers. 

That action followed an admission Friday by the FBI that it had ignored a tip about the gunman who killed 17 people and wounded 14 others at a school in Florida on Wednesday.

The agency acknowledged that it had not followed “established protocols” after receiving information about the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, on its national tip line. The FBI said someone with a close relationship to Cruz left information on January 5 about the teenager’s desire to kill people and other disturbing details.

Robert Lasky, special agent in charge of the FBI’s field office in Miami, said the office did not receive the tip. “We truly regret any additional pain that this has caused,” he told reporters.

‘Relentlessly committed’ to improvement

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement Friday that he was devoted to “getting to the bottom” of the matter and that FBI employees were “relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it.”

In a statement, Florida Governor Rick Scott called for Wray’s ouster, saying his agents’ “failure to take action against this killer is unacceptable. The FBI has admitted that they were contacted last month by a person who called to inform them of Cruz’s ‘desire to kill people,’ and ‘the potential of him conducting a school shooting.’ ”

“Seventeen innocent people are dead and acknowledging a mistake isn’t going to cut it,” the governor’s statement said. “An apology will never bring these 17 Floridians back to life or comfort the families who are in pain. The families will spend a lifetime wondering how this could happen, and an apology will never give them the answers they desperately need.”

Scott noted that “we constantly promote ‘see something, say something,’ and a courageous person did just that to the FBI. And the FBI failed to act.” Therefore, he said, “the FBI director needs to resign.”

President Donald Trump made no comment to reporters on Friday as he left the White House for Florida.

Arriving in the state a few hours later, he and first lady Melania Trump drove to a hospital in Pompano Beach, meeting with some victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in nearby Parkland.

Walking with Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Trump praised the medical staff who treated the victims, saying, “The job they’ve done is incredible.” He also praised the speed with which first responders arrived at the school.

When asked by reporters whether the nation’s gun laws needed to be changed, Trump did not respond as he walked into a room.

Later, Trump traveled to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, meeting with several law enforcement officers. “Thank you all very much. Fantastic job. Thank you,” he told the officers.

Trump also met with Officer Mike Leonard, who said he was the one to locate and apprehend Cruz.

Speaking to Leonard, Trump said, “That was so modest. I would have told it much differently. I would have said, ‘Without me, they never would have found him,’ ” prompting laughter in the room.

Trump is to spend the long Presidents Day weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Parkland.

17 murder counts

Cruz, who was being held at the Broward County Jail without bond, has admitted carrying out the shootings with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, according to the county sheriff’s office. Cruz, who had been expelled for disciplinary reasons last year from the school, faces 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Some members of Congress from Florida, including Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Ted Deutsch (who represents the district where the killings took place), called for congressional investigations into how the FBI fumbled the tip about Cruz.

VOA White House correspondent Steve Herman contributed to this story.
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A California man has pleaded guilty to inadvertently selling bank accounts to Russians who were indicted Friday by a federal grand jury for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Richard Pinedo pleaded guilty to using stolen identities to set up bank accounts that were then used by the Russians, according to a February 12 court filing.  

The special counsel investigating Russian meddling on Friday announced charges against 13 Russian citizens and three Russian entities for interfering in the election.  

The indictment alleges that the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based social media company with Kremlin ties, 12 of its employees, and its financial backer orchestrated an effort to influence the 2016 election campaign in favor of President Donald Trump. 

Prosecutors charged Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a businessman with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with funding the operation through companies he controls, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, Concord Catering and a number of subsidiaries.  

Prigozhin and his businesses allegedly provided “significant funds” for the Internet Research Agency’s operations to disrupt the U.S. election, according to the indictment. 

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said that the Russian conspirators sought to “promote social discord in the United State and undermine public confidence in democracy.”

“We must not allow them to succeed,” Rosenstein said at a news conference in Washington. 

The conspiracy was part of a larger operation code-named Project Lakhta, Rosenstein said. 

“Project Lakhta included multiple components – some involving domestic audiences within the Russian Federation and others targeting foreign audiences in multiple countries,” Rosenstein said. 

Mueller, who has made no public statements about the Russia investigation since his appointment last May, did not speak at the news conference. 

Charges against Russian nationals

The indictment charges all the defendants with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Three defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, and five individuals with aggravated identity theft.

None of the defendants charged in the indictment are in custody, according to a spokesman for the Special Counsel’s office. 

The U.S. and Russia don’t have an extradition treaty and it’s unlikely that any of the defendants will stand trial in the U.S.

The 37-page charging document alleges that the Russian conspirators sought to coordinate their effort with Trump campaign associates, but it does not accuse anyone on the Trump campaign of colluding with the Russians.

Trump took to Twitter after the indictment was announced to again deny his campaign worked with the Russians.

“Russia started their anti-U.S. campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for president,” Trump tweeted. “The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong – no collusion!”

The indictment marks the first time Mueller’s office has brought charges against Russians and Russian entities for meddling in the 2016 election.  

Mueller’s sprawling investigation has led to the indictments of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and associate Rick Gates.Former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about their contacts with Russian officials.

Details of indictment

The indictment says the Russian campaign to “interfere in the U.S. political system” started as early as 2014 and accelerated as the 2016 election campaign got underway. 

During the 2016 campaign, the Russian operatives posted “derogatory information” about a number of presidential candidates.  But by early to mid-2016, the operation included “supporting” Trump’s presidential campaign and “disparaging” Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Taking on fake American identities, the Russian operatives communicated with “unwitting” Trump campaign associates and with other political activists “to seek to coordinate political activities,” the indictment says.

The indictment describes how Russian operatives used subterfuge, stolen identities and other methods to stage political rallies, buy ads on social media platforms, and pay gullible Americans to “promote or disparage candidates.”

To avoid detection by U.S. law enforcement agencies, the Russian operatives used computer networks based in the United States, according to the indictment.

“These groups and pages, which addressed the divisive U.S. political and social issues, falsely claimed to be controlled by U.S. activists when, in fact, they were controlled by defendants,” the indictment reads.

A number of the operatives are alleged to have traveled to the United States under “false pretenses to collect intelligence to inform the influence operations.”
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Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies, accusing them of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The indictment claims the Russians tried to help U.S. President Donald Trump and hurt his opponent, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports.
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White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, under pressure to act, strengthened the process for security clearances for President Donald Trump’s aides on Friday in response to a scandal involving a former official accused of domestic abuse by two ex-wives.

Saying that recent events had exposed some “shortcomings,” Kelly decreed that any interim security clearances for staffers whose background investigations have been pending since June 1 or before would be discontinued in a week.

The aim is to avoid a repeat of the case of former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who worked for Trump for a year under a temporary clearance despite red flags raised by his government background check but not widely known.

Kelly has been under fire from some in the West Wing for his handling of the Porter case, and Trump confidants say the president has been sounding out his friends on possible replacements.

Dozens of officials, including Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are working under temporary clearances in the absence of final security clearance.

A new background system will also establish a process for updating senior officials on the end of a background investigation, Kelly said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said earlier this week that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had completed its background investigation of Porter in July and submitted the findings to the White House.

The White House has yet to outline a clear timeline on who knew what and when about Porter’s past, which includes accusations by his two former wives of domestic abuse. 
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President Donald Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House next month.

White House spokesman Raj Shah confirms that Netanyahu will meet with the president on March 5.

The pair met last month in Davos, Switzerland weeks after the Trump administration rejected international criticism of its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and its announcement to begin preparations for moving the U.S. embassy there.

Word of the visit comes days after Israeli police recommended that Netanyahu be indicted over allegations of bribery in a long-running corruption investigation.

 
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A senior State Department official cast doubt Thursday on the idea that the U.S. can carry out a limited military strike on North Korea, a proposal that has become known as the “bloody nose” strategy. VOA State Department Correspondent Nike Ching reports.
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The U.S. Senate rejected four immigration reform proposals Thursday, after lawmakers spent a week weighing competing plans addressing the protection of young undocumented immigrants, increased funding for border security and changing the rules for family-based immigration. VOA’s Congressional reporter Katherine Gypson has more on the political fallout from Capitol Hill.
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The suspect in the mass school shooting in Florida made his first court appearance Thursday. Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz faces 17 charges of premeditated murder in connection with Wednesday’s shooting rampage in Parkland, Florida, which also sent 15 others to the hospital. The Florida shooting has rekindled the long-running debate over gun violence in the United States and what, if anything, can be done to stop it. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
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 U.S. Senate deliberations on immigration reform descended into chaos Thursday as a war of words erupted between the White House and a bipartisan group of lawmakers over a proposal to help young undocumented immigrants and boost border security.

The White House signaled its intention to veto the measure if it ever got to the president’s desk. “That bill is officially, if it wasn’t already obvious, DOA (dead on arrival),” said a senior administration official in a background call with reporters referencing the bipartisan #ImmigrationReform proposed legislation.

In an earlier statement, the White House said the measure “would produce a flood of new illegal immigration” and “undermine the safety and security of American families” by “weakening border security and undermining existing immigration laws.”

Late Wednesday, 16 senators unveiled compromise legislation that would offer a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, boost border security funding by $25 billion, and focus immigration enforcement efforts on criminals, threats to national security, and those arriving illegally after the end of June.

“This is the one and only bill that deals with immigration issues with broad bipartisan support,” Republican Susan Collins of Maine said at a news conference.

“This is a narrow bill designed to confront two (immigration) issues,” Maine Independent Angus King said. “Let’s not kid ourselves. This is the only bill that has a chance to get through the United States Senate.”

Hours earlier, the Department of Homeland Security slammed the Senate proposal’s directive on which undocumented immigrants should be targeted for removal as “the end of immigration enforcement in America.”

“Who the hell wrote this?” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said. “It sounded like it came from a political hack, not DHS.”

Graham added that so long as immigration hardliners dominate in the Trump administration, “We’re going nowhere fast (on immigration reform) at warp speed.”

President Donald Trump backs sweeping reforms that include limits on family-based immigration and prioritizing newcomers who have advanced work skills.

Trump’s immigration agenda is encapsulated in legislation Republican lawmakers introduced earlier this week. Democratic senators countered with a proposal that pairs help for young immigrants with limited border security enhancements.

Neither partisan bill is expected to get the three-fifths backing required to advance in the chamber, and conservative Republicans joined the Trump administration in criticizing the bipartisan compromise, calling it a de facto amnesty for million of current and future undocumented immigrants.

“The race is on,” Oklahoma Senator James Lankford said. “If you can get into the country and across the border by June 30 of this year, you are in and you have amnesty. That (covers) every single individual in the country unlawfully.”

Democrats, meanwhile, accused Trump of blocking bipartisan solutions.

“President Trump … has stood in the way of every single proposal that has had a chance of becoming law,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said. “Now President Trump seems eager to spike (defeat) the latest bipartisan compromise, potentially, with a veto. Why? Because it isn’t 100 percent of what the president wants on immigration.”

Schumer added: “That’s not how democracy works. You don’t get 100 percent of what you want in a democracy, maybe (you do) in a dictatorship.”

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, argued the president’s case for major changes to immigration law.

“The DACA issue is just a symptom of our broken immigration system,” McConnell said. “So the president has made clear, and I strongly agree, that any legislation must also treat the root causes and reform legal immigration. And it must also include common sense steps to ensure the safety of the American people.”

Last year, the president rescinded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, an Obama administration policy that allowed young undocumented immigrants to work and study in the United States. Trump gave lawmakers six months to craft a permanent legislative replacement.

Trump put an end to DACA benefits beginning March 5. While two courts have acted to extend the deadline, DACA beneficiaries could be at risk of deportation unless Congress acts.
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The US Senate began debate on a multitude of immigration proposals Wednesday but appeared no closer to a solution for the 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. With a March 5 deadline for those DACA recipients and a limited pledge to keep debate open from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, time appears to be running out. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.
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2018 is a congressional election year in the United States with all 435 seats in the House of Representatives at stake and 34 of the 100 Senate seats. Midterm elections historically have not been kind to sitting presidents. On average, the president’s party loses 30 House seats and about two Senate seats. As VOA National Correspondent Jim Malone reports from Washington, President Donald Trump is urging his supporters to defy history, much as they did when he won the White House in 2016.
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2018 is a congressional election year in the United States, and President Donald Trump is urging his supporters to get motivated to vote as both parties prepare for November.

“The people who voted for us become complacent a little bit, they are happy,” Trump told supporters during a recent speech on tax reform in Cincinnati. “They sort of take it for granted, they sit back and then they get clobbered because the other people are desperate and they get out, and they have more energy.”

Trump predicted that Republicans will do better than expected in November when all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are at stake and 34 of the 100 Senate seats.

“I think because of what we’ve done, because of the tremendous success we’ve had, I have a feeling that we are going to do incredibly well in ’18, and I have to say this, history is not on our side,” he said.

Midterm blues

The president is right. History is not on his side. Midterms are typically unkind to the president’s party, which on average loses about 30 House seats and a handful of Senate seats.

The losses are worse if the president’s approval rating is below 50 percent, which could be the case this year. Trump’s approval rating has ticked up in recent weeks, but the average has him just above 40 percent, not a strong position with a midterm looming.

“You know, you have a very unpopular president. And if Democrats take a broad path, they should win lots and lots of seats,” said Jim Kessler of Third Way, a center-left advocacy and research organization.

Presidential approval

Gallup has noted historically that presidents with an approval rating above 50 percent lose an average of 14 House seats in midterms, while those below 40 percent can expect to lose about 36 seats.  Democrats need to gain 24 seats in the House and two seats in the Senate to regain the majority in both chambers.

Trump hopes to rebound from a year of historically-low poll ratings by emphasizing the strong economy and boasting about the impact of his tax cut bill, something Republicans agree with.

“My view of this is, if we can’t sell this to the American people, we ought to go into another line of work,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in the wake of the passage of the tax bill.

Democrats energized

But Democrats believe they have more than history on their side this year. They are especially encouraged after statewide victories last year in Alabama, New Jersey and Virginia.

Party activists are making Trump the central issue in this year’s campaign, including Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmentalist who has launched a $30-million effort to help Democrats retake the House.  Steyer hopes that will result in Trump’s impeachment.

“My fight is in removing Donald Trump from office and from power and that starts with taking the House back in 2018,” Steyer said at a recent news conference.

Republicans are counting on the economy to boost Trump’s poll ratings over time, and they hope he takes a more measured approach to his Twitter account.

“And he’s taking an optimistic tone. He’s following up on the indications that the economy is growing at a pretty healthy rate,” said Michael Barone of the American Enterprise Institute.

Referendum on the president

But many voters, especially the president’s critics, are likely to see the midterms as a referendum on Trump, fitting the historical pattern.

“The president will be the defining factor in the 2018 election,” said Brooking Institution analyst John Hudak. “There are many out there who argue that Democrats won’t be successful in 2018 because they don’t have this broad, well-defined agenda. But in reality, ‘out’ [opposition] parties don’t need to.”

Republicans did get some good news in the latest Morning Consult Politico poll, which found the president’s approval rating had risen to 47 percent, with an equal 47 percent disapproving of his performance. That is Trump’s lowest disapproval mark in that survey since April.

The poll also found Republicans with a 39-to-38 percent edge in the so-called generic ballot question, which asks voters which party they would support if the election were held today.

Democrats have held a big advantage on that question in several polls in recent months, though the margin has dropped into the single digits in several recent surveys.
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The House Oversight Committee launched an investigation Wednesday into why President Donald Trump’s staff secretary Rob Porter was able to keep his White House job for months after the FBI handed officials reports of Porter’s two former wives accusing him of domestic violence.

Porter resigned last week, but Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers earlier this week that investigators had briefed White House officials as far back as March 2017 about the spousal abuse allegations against Porter, who helped oversee an array of documents and policies sent to Trump for review.

In an acknowledgement of a White House shortcoming, Vice President Mike Pence said, “I think the White House could have handled this better.”

At the center of the new investigation is the role played in the oversight of Porter by White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general and Porter’s boss, and when he first knew of the accusations against Porter. The White House says Kelly only learned of the abuse allegations last week after they were detailed in a British tabloid, the Daily Mail.

Pence praised Kelly’s “remarkable job” as chief of staff, but dodged answering a question whether he felt Kelly had been “fully transparent” in disclosing what he knew about the accusations against Porter and when.

In a letter to Kelly, Congressman Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight panel, asked for information on “the date on which any White House employee became aware of potential derogatory or disqualifying information on Porter … and which individual was so notified.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that at the time Porter resigned, the allegations and recommendations on Porter’s bid for a permanent White House security badge were still being reviewed by the White House personnel security office and had not been sent to higher-level officials. The Oxford- and Harvard-educated Porter was working at the White House under an interim security clearance.

In an interview on CNN, Gowdy said, “I have real questions about how someone like this could be considered for employment whether there’s a security clearance or not. I’m troubled by almost every aspect of this.

“I didn’t hire him,” Gowdy said, “but who knew what, when and to what extent” about the abuse allegations? “If you knew in 2017 and the bureau briefed them three times, then how in the hell was he still employed?

“The chronology is not favorable to the White House,” said Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican who has announced he is not seeking re-election in the November congressional elections.

Trump publicly praised Porter after his resignation and wished him a successful career in the years ahead, but had not made any public comment about the allegations made by Porter’s former wives or domestic abuse more generally. Sanders had said during a daily press briefing earlier this week that Trump condemns such violence.

On Wednesday, however, Trump finally condemned domestic violence. Answering reporters’ questions at the end of a meeting in the Oval Office, he said, “I’m opposed to domestic violence and everybody here knows that. I’m totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. Everyone knows that and it almost wouldn’t even have to be said. So now you hear it, you all know it.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan, the leader of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, said, “Clearly we all should be condemning domestic violence.” He added, “If a person who commits domestic violence gets in the government, then there’s a breakdown in the system.” Such a breakdown, Ryan said, needs to be “addressed.”

Allegations from ex-wives

Porter’s two former wives, Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, have said they told FBI investigators details of their troubled marriages to the 40-year-old Porter in January 2017. Holderness provided a photo alleging that she sustained a black eye when Porter punched her in the face while they were on a vacation to Italy in 2005 and Willoughby offered proof that she obtained a restraining order against Porter in 2010.

Wray, in testimony Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, declined to discuss the content of the FBI’s reports on Porter sent to the White House, but said investigators “submitted a partial report on the investigation” in March last year, and then a completed background check in late July.

He said the White House asked for “follow up inquiry” and that the FBI provided that information in November. Wray said the FBI administratively closed its investigation file in January, but “received some additional information” it passed on to the White House earlier this month.

“I am quite confident that in this particular instance the FBI followed the established protocols,” Wray said.

After the story about Porter was published, Kelly and Sanders both released effusive statements about Porter’s White House performance. But Porter’s tenure at the White House unraveled quickly after publication a day later of a picture of Holderness with her black eye.

Steve Herman at the White House contributed to this report.
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U.S. Budget Director Mick Mulvaney estimates President Donald Trump’s proposed military parade would cost taxpayers as much as $30 million.

“I’ve seen various different cost estimates of between $10 and $30 million depending on the size of the parade,” he told the House Budget Committee Wednesday.

The administration reportedly is considering holding the parade on Veteran’s Day, observed annually in the U.S. on November 11.

Mulvaney told lawmakers funding for the event was not included in Trump’s proposed 2019 budget because discussions about it had just recently begun. Mulvaney said the Trump administration would have to collaborate with Congress “if we decide to move forward” with the parade.

Last week, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters the Pentagon is in the early stages of planning and still considering options. Trump proposed holding a parade in Washington after seeing a Bastille Day military demonstration in Paris in July.

There is bipartisan opposition to the proposal in Congress, much of it from lawmakers who say a parade would be perceived around the world as dictatorial.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he would agree to a parade that honors members of the armed forces, but that a “Soviet-style” parade featuring large military weapons would be a sign of “weakness.”

Senator John Kennedy, also a Republican, told reporters one week ago, “I think confidence is silent and insecurity is loud.” Kennedy added: “America is the most powerful country in all of human history; you don’t need to show it off.”

Other lawmakers who oppose a parade have said money for a parade would be put to better use on services to help disabled veterans.

 
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President Donald Trump’s personal attorney said Tuesday he paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to a porn actress who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006.

Michael Cohen said in a statement to The New York Times that he was not reimbursed by the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign for the payment to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Cohen wrote, “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

Cohen told the Times he had delivered a similar statement to the Federal Election Commission in response to a complaint filed by Common Cause, a government watchdog group. 

Common Cause had asked the FEC to investigate the source of the $130,000 payment and determine whether it represented an excessive campaign contribution. Cohen told the Times, “The allegations in the complaint are factually unsupported and without legal merit.”

The Wall Street Journal reported in January that Cohen had arranged the payment to Clifford in October 2016 to keep her from publicly discussing the alleged sexual encounter during the presidential campaign.

A week later, In Touch magazine published a 2011 interview with Clifford in which she claimed she and Trump had a sexual encounter after meeting at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, a year after Trump’s marriage to his third wife, Melania.

At the end of January, Daniels said in a statement that the alleged affair never occurred. But in a TV appearance the same day, Daniels appeared to disown the statement, saying she didn’t know where it came from and the signature didn’t look like hers.
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The Senate is beginning its immigration debate with a bill that encapsulates all of President Donald Trump’s immigration priorities.One of those is a shift from an immigration system based largely on family reunification to a policy that would be points-based, sometimes called merit immigration.

Points-based systems are not new. Britain has one, and Germany is starting a pilot immigration program based on points.The two oldest points-based systems are in Canada and Australia.

Here is what those programs look like and how they stack up against the current U.S. system and the one Trump proposes:

Canada, Australia, U.S.

In 1967, Canada became the first nation to establish a points-based system. It allows 100 possible points for education, work experience, job offer, age of applicant and family adaptability. In the Canadian system, applicants can get the greatest number of points, 28, for language proficiency in English and French.

WATCH: Points-Based Immigration: How It Compares

To qualify as one of Canada’s skilled immigrants, an applicant must accrue 67 points and pass a medical exam.

In 2017, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada planned for more than half of its total immigrants to come through its workers’ program (172,500) and a smaller number (84,000) to be admitted as family members.

Australia’s points system was instituted in 1989 as a departure from the country’s previous racial- and ethnic-based policy. 

To gain entry, applicants must accrue 60 points for such attributes as English proficiency, skilled employment, educational background and ties to Australia. Australia awards the greatest number of points (30) to people of prime working age. Applicants must also pass a medical exam and character test.

In 2016-17, the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection reported that “123,567 places were delivered in the skill stream; 56,220 places were delivered in the family stream.”

In contrast, the United States has had a system based on family reunification since the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. There are 480,000 family visas allotted every year, while work visas are set at 140,000.

Pluses, minuses

Supporters of Trump’s plan argue the family-based approach brings in low-skilled workers compared with a point system. His proposal and one in the Senate would reward points based on high-salary job offers, past achievements, English language ability and education. The plans would also cut legal immigration by about 50 percent.

Critics say a points system would cost more; the government would have to review the applications and pay resettlement costs that are currently covered by sponsoring families. 

Results

In 2016, the United States admitted almost 1.2 million immigrants.The top five countries they came from were Mexico, China, Cuba, India and the Dominican Republic.

That same year, Canada took in about 296,000 immigrants. The top five countries of origin were the Philippines, India, Syria, China and Pakistan.

In 2016-17, Australia admitted 184,000 immigrants. India, China, Britain, the Philippines and Pakistan were the leading countries of origin.

The Australian Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in November 2016, “The unemployment rate for recent migrants and temporary residents was 7.4 percent, compared with 5.4 percent for people born in Australia. Migrants with Australian citizenship had an unemployment rate of 3.3 percent, temporary residents 8.6 percent and recent migrants on a permanent visa 8.8 percent.”

Statistics Canada reported an overall unemployment rate of 5.4 percent in 2017. For immigrants who had just landed it was 6.4 percent, and for those in the country for five years or less, it was 9.6 percent. For those in the country more than 10 years, the unemployment rate approached the national average at 5.6 percent.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said that in 2016, the unemployment rate for the foreign-born population, both new and longtime residents, was 4.3 percent, which was lower than the 4.9 percent rate for the population in general.
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Partisan sniping dominated U.S. Senate deliberations one day after the chamber voted to launch debate on immigration reform, including the fate of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, on Tuesday signaled his intention to conclude the immigration debate by week’s end and accused Democrats of needlessly delaying floor action.

“If we’re going to resolve these matters this week, we need to get moving,” McConnell said.

Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York objected when McConnell moved to begin floor debate on legislation cracking down on so-called “sanctuary cities” — municipalities that do not cooperate with federal authorities in identifying and handing over undocumented immigrants.

Schumer said the proposal “doesn’t address Dreamers, nor does it address [U.S.] border security,” and “would be getting off on the wrong foot.”

Hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, sometimes referred to as Dreamers, received temporary permission to work and study in the United States under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama administration program that President Donald Trump rescinded last year.

Trump challenged Congress to pass a law addressing DACA beneficiaries’ legal status, reigniting an immigration debate that reached the Senate floor this week.

“The key here is an immigration debate, not a DACA-only debate, not an amnesty-only debate,” Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley said. “An immigration debate has to include a discussion about enforcement measures … how to remove dangerous criminal aliens from our country.”

Trump has proposed a path to eventual citizenship for 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants, but also demanded funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a reduction in the number of legal immigrants America accepts, and prioritizing newcomers with advanced work skills.

“Republicans want to make a deal and Democrats say they want to make a deal,” Trump tweeted early Tuesday. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could finally, after so many years, solve the DACA puzzle. This will be our last chance, there will never be another opportunity! March 5th.”

‘We’re on the verge’

Trump set March 5 as the termination date for DACA, after which former beneficiaries would be at risk of deportation unless Congress acts.

Any immigration proposal will need three-fifths backing to advance in the Senate, and Democrats argued that only a narrowly-tailored bill focusing on areas of general bipartisan agreement — a DACA fix and boosting border security — can pass.

“We can get something done, we’re on the verge,” Schumer said. “Let’s work toward that.”

Senate Republicans have unveiled a proposal that encompasses Trump’s immigration priorities, including “merit-based” legal immigration that gives preference to those who can best contribute to U.S. economic output.

Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin said such criteria would have excluded his relatives who came to America from Lithuania.

“My grandparents and my mother didn’t come to this country with any special skills or proficiency. They came here with a determination to make a better life, and they did — for themselves and for me,” Durbin said. “That’s my family’s story. That’s America’s story.”
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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned Tuesday of the need to remain focused on an “enduring defeat” of the Islamic State group, even though the militants have largely been ousted from the areas the once controlled in Iraq and Syria.

Tillerson spoke at a conference in Kuwait for members of the coalition the United States set up in late 2014 with a multi-prong strategy of countering Islamic State, including through U.S.-led airstrikes and working to cut off the group’s financing and flow of foreign fighters.

“ISIS remains a serious threat to the stability of the region, our homelands and other parts of the globe,” he said, using an acronym for the group.

Tillerson said the militants are no longer in control of 98 percent of the territory they held at their height in 2014 when they declared the establishment of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria, but that they now pose a different threat.

“In Iraq and Syria, ISIS is attempting to morph into an insurgency. In places like Afghanistan, the Philippines, Libya, West Africa and others it is trying to carve out and secure safe havens,” he said.

Tillerson announced $200 million in new aid to liberated areas of Syria. Later Tuesday, he is taking part in a donor conference aimed at rebuilding areas of Iraq.

Ahead of the meeting, a senior State Department official said “the eyes have to be on the prize” when describing the need to focus on defeating Islamic State, and highlighted recent conflicts in the Afrin area of northern Syria between Turkish forces and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces as a distraction from that goal.

The official, and Tillerson in his Tuesday comments, recognized Turkey’s concerns about Kurdish militants it considers a threat.

“We believe there’s a way to work through, walk through, these problems, and that’s why the secretary is going to Ankara, to have those discussions,” the official told reporters.

Tillerson is on a five-nation trip in the region, which began in Egypt and includes stops in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
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