U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he doesn’t “know” his newly appointed acting U.S. attorney general just two days after he appointed him as the nation’s top enforcement officer.

Speaking with reporters outside the White House, the president said, “I don’t know Matt Whitaker,” but also said the 49-year-old former U.S. attorney from Iowa is “highly respected” among law enforcement officials.

William Gustoff, who co-founded a law firm with Whitaker and remains in contact with the acting attorney general, said Trump’s comment may simply mean that the two don’t know each other “intimately.”

Friends and associates of Whitaker, however, say the former Iowa college football star has forged a close working relationship with Trump since joining the Department of Justice (DOJ) last fall as chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

WATCH: After Scrutiny, Trump Seems to Back Away from Acting Attorney General

​Sessions’​ chief of staff

The relationship developed as Whitaker began accompanying Sessions to White House meetings after Whitaker joined the DOJ from the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), a conservative ethics watchdog that has filed complaints against Democratic politicians.

Just how many times Whitaker and Trump have met remains unclear.

Charles Larson, a former chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, said Whitaker has briefed Trump and done “an impressive job.”

The president “thinks highly” of Whitaker, Larson said.

“My observation is that Matt has a very strong relationship with the president, and this comes with conversations I’ve had with friends and others that work in the administration,” added Larson, who also served as U.S. ambassador to Latvia under former President George W. Bush.

Trump’s choice of Whitaker to take the helm of the Justice Department and oversee special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election sparked a pushback from congressional Democrats and even some prominent Republicans.

On Friday, however, Trump seemed to distance himself from Whitaker, leaving the acting attorney general’s future in doubt.

‘I don’t know Matt Whitaker’

Speaking to reporters at the White House before departing for Paris, Trump said, “I don’t know Matt Whitaker. Matt Whitaker worked for Jeff Sessions and was always extremely highly thought of and he still is. But I didn’t know Matt Whitaker.”

The president’s assertion directly contradicts what he told Fox News last month, when he said, “I mean, I know Matt Whitaker” and that he is “a great guy.” CNN also reported that Whitaker has visited the White House a dozen or more times since becoming Sessions’ chief of staff and that he had a good relationship with the president.

The White House doesn’t release lists of visitors. A Justice Department spokeswoman did not respond to questions about the number of times Whitaker has met with and briefed Trump.

‘A very interim AG’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted Friday that a permanent replacement could be named soon for Whitaker, a conservative activist who has frequently voiced skepticism about Mueller’s probe and insisted there was no evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign officials and the Russians.

“I think this will be a very interim AG (attorney general),” McConnell said.

Candidates for the position include Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, former New Jersey Governor and Trump adviser Chris Christie and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Whitaker’s appointment came Wednesday, shortly after Trump forced out Sessions after months of complaining about the attorney general’s decision, just weeks into taking office, to recuse himself from oversight of the Russia probe. Trump blamed the recusal for Mueller’s appointment.

Mueller investigation

Because Sessions had recused himself, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein supervised Mueller’s investigation. Now, the task has fallen to Whitaker, and Democrats are demanding that he, too, should recuse himself because of his past criticism of the Mueller investigation.

Whitaker was appointed under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, a 1998 law that allows the president to appoint any senior official as acting head of an agency for up to 210 days. But some constitutional scholars have questioned the legality of the appointment, citing a constitutional requirement that the attorney general must be approved by the Senate.

Brenna Bird, a county prosecutor in Iowa who worked at Whitaker’s former law firm, said Whitaker, along with Sessions, briefed the president “several times” and that Whitaker has gained Trump’s trust.

“Obviously, the president has a great deal of trust in him (Whitaker) to put him in charge at this time,” Bird said. “I don’t think President Trump would choose him for this job if he didn’t think he was up to it, and he is.”
…

U.S. President Donald Trump praised his interim replacement for ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday, but aimed to distance himself from the controversial appointee by repeatedly saying he had only heard about Matthew Whitaker’s reputation.

“I don’t know Matt Whitaker. Matt Whitaker worked for Jeff Sessions and he was always extremely highly thought of and he still is. But I didn’t know Matt Whitaker,” Trump told reporters on the south White House lawn before departing for an international gathering in Paris.

The Washington Post on Thursday, citing sources close to the acting attorney general, reported Whitaker has no intention of recusing himself from overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election because of comments he made about the investigation in his private capacity.

The sources also told the Post they do not believe Whitaker would approve any subpoena of Trump as part of that probe. Trump, however, did not rule out speaking with Mueller if a subpoena was issued.

“I haven’t even thought about it,” Trump said. “Right now, I’m thinking about the world. I’m not thinking about sit-downs and not sit-downs. There was no collusion. It’s a whole hoax. This was, I think, set up by the Democrats.”

Before the media briefing ended, CNN reporter Abby Phillip asked Trump if he wanted Whitaker to be involved in the Russia probe, to which Trump responded, “That’s up to him.” When Phillip asked if he wanted Whitaker to “rein in” Mueller, Trump snapped, “What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions.”

The exchange was at least the second contentious encounter Trump had with a CNN reporter this week. After a testy exchange at the White House earlier this week, the administration took the unusual step of suspending the credentials of CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta. Trump warned that “there could be others” who lose their press credentials.

Trump has frequently criticized CNN and other news organizations, charging they disseminate “fake news” and labeling them as “the enemy of the people.”

U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer cast doubt on the legality of Whitaker’s appointment and sent Trump a list of questions about the move.

Schumer said Trump’s appointment of Whitaker without Senate confirmation “ignored the statutory line of succession and potentially violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, which requires all principal officers of the government to be nominated by the president by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.”
…

Protesters gathered from New York to Los Angeles Thursday to warn the White House not to interfere with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. As Mike O’Sullivan reports, the rallies followed the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions one day earlier.
…

In less than two months, Democrats will take control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is the favorite to assume the party’s leadership role as Speaker of the House, has signaled her willingness to work with President Trump and Senate Republicans. But as VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Capitol Hill, the bi-partisan cooperation may be short-lived.
…

A federal appeals court is weighing whether special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment to lead the Russia investigation was constitutional.

At issue Thursday was whether Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had the authority to appoint Mueller.

The special counsel’s office says yes. But lawyers for a former aide to longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone say no. The aide, Andrew Miller, brought the case because he doesn’t want to testify before a grand jury as part of Mueller’s investigation into whether Donald Trump’s Republican campaign coordinated with Russia in 2016. 

Mueller is focusing on Stone’s connection to WikiLeaks. American intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian agents were the source of damaging information on Democrat Hillary Clinton that WikiLeaks released during her 2016 presidential campaign against Trump.

Stone has denied any wrongdoing.
…

The Trump administration unveiled new rules on Thursday to sharply limit migrant asylum claims by barring individuals who cross the U.S. southern border illegally from seeking asylum. 

Immigrant advocates denounced the move, saying it violated existing U.S. law that allows people fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries to apply for asylum regardless of whether they enter illegally or not. 

The regulations released Thursday, in conjunction with an order expected to be signed by President Donald Trump, would effectively ban migrants who cross the U.S. border with Mexico illegally from qualifying for asylum.

Once the plan goes into full effect, migrants entering at the U.S. southern border would be eligible for asylum only if they report at official ports of entry, officials said. 

More resources, staffing

“What we are attempting to do is trying to funnel … asylum claims through the ports of entry where we are better resourced, have better capabilities and better manpower and staffing to actually handle those claims in an expeditious and efficient manner,” a senior administration official told reporters in a news briefing Thursday, on condition of anonymity. 

The Trump administration has already made it more difficult for migrants to qualify for asylum in the United States. 

Administration officials have said existing U.S. asylum rules encourage illegal immigration and bog down legitimate claims. 

In June, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued an appellate decision that sharply narrowed the circumstances under which immigrants can use violence at home as ground for U.S. asylum. 

Sessions, who resigned at Trump’s request this week, also instructed immigration judges and asylum officers to view illegal border-crossing as a “serious adverse factor” in deciding a case and to consider whether applicants could have escaped danger by relocating within their own countries. 

Trump made his hard-line policies toward immigration a key issue ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, sending thousands of U.S. troops to help secure the southern border and repeatedly drawing attention to caravans of Central American migrants trekking through Mexico toward the United States. 

Currently, U.S. asylum rules do not bar people who enter the country without authorization, and the Immigration and Nationality Act, which governs the U.S. immigration system, specifically allows people who arrive in the United States, whether or not they do so at a designated port of entry, to apply for asylum. 

Court challenge appears likely

The administration’s plan, which invokes the same authority Trump used to justify his travel ban on citizens of several Muslim-majority nations, is likely to be quickly challenged in court. 

The move would largely affect migrants from Central America’s Northern Triangle — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — who cross the U.S. border with Mexico to flee violence and poverty in their home countries. 

“The vast majority of aliens who enter illegally today come from the Northern Triangle countries,” the regulation’s text says. “Channeling those aliens to ports of entry would encourage these aliens to first avail themselves of offers of asylum from Mexico.” 

Immigrant advocates denounced the administration’s move as unlawful, and said the plan to funnel migrants to ports of entry was just a way to cut asylum claims overall. 

“Congress has directly spoken to this question as to whether individuals can be rendered ineligible for asylum if they cross between ports of entry and has specifically said people are eligible regardless of where they cross,” said Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. 

“Ports of entry … are overcrowded,” said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of RAICES, a Texas-based immigrant defense group. “Asylum-seekers have been left to camp out for days and weeks on bridges at the border, when they should be guaranteed a right to enter the country for a fair hearing.” 
…

The official website of the campaign supporting Amendment 6 in Florida featured a white-and-purple layout, filled with endorsements from local politicians and filmed testimonials from crime victims, who say their personal tragedies could have been prevented by the proposed legislation. The website was identical to others supporting Amendment 4 in Georgia, Question 1 in Nevada, and State Question 794 in Oklahoma.

The campaigns all linked back to the website for Marsy’s Law for All, a nonprofit organization driving what it calls the victims’ rights movement. It recruits and funds local efforts to incorporate Marsy’s Law, a controversial set of protections for crime victims, into state constitutions.

Six states had Marsy’s Law amendments on their ballots Tuesday, all of which passed. Five of these states now will alter their constitutions to include proposed changes that critics say are overly broad and harmful.

Marsy’s Law encompasses a number of provisions based on the idea that victims should have equal rights to those of the accused in criminal proceedings. This includes requiring victims to be notified of proceedings involving their case and the release or escape of the accused; to be heard at plea or sentencing hearings; to obtain reasonable protection from the accused, and to be guaranteed a meaningful role in the criminal justice system.

Critics say the protections hamper the justice system through their vague wording, while undermining due process by pitting defendants’ rights, which are meant to protect defendants from the state, against those of victims. Notably, the American Civil Liberties Union opposes Marsy’s Law, calling it “poorly drafted” and “a threat to existing constitutional rights.”

Marsy’s Law for All national communications adviser Henry Goodwin told VOA News he had never heard a good example of a victim’s rights undermining a defendant’s rights.

“The justice system is very adept at balancing rights within the system,” Goodwin said. “You know, the victim’s rights which Marsy’s Law advocates are complementary to defendant’s rights. We’re not seeking to undermine or take anything away from defendants. It’s not a zero-sum game.”

Marsy’s Law for All was formed in 2009 by Dr. Henry Nicholas, a former Broadcom CEO recently estimated by Forbes to be worth more than $3 billion. Marsy’s Law is named for his sister Marsalee, who was shot to death by her ex-boyfriend in 1983.

After successfully spearheading a 2008 campaign to bring Marsy’s Law to California, Nicholas decided to form a national organization with the goal of bringing the amendments to all 50 states, and eventually the U.S. Constitution. Since then, Marsy’s Law amendments have passed in Illinois, the Dakotas and Ohio.

The movement, on a state and national level, is funded by Nicholas’ personal wealth. The six campaigns backing Marsy’s Law this November all received the vast majority of their money either directly from Nicholas or from Marsy’s Law for All, which Goodwin confirmed to VOA News is entirely funded by Nicholas. In total, the six campaigns amassed a war chest of $60 million. Roughly $30 million was spent in Florida alone.
…

President Donald Trump declared the U.S. midterm elections were “close to complete victory” the day after Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives but maintained their majority in the Senate. Patsy Widakuswara reports on the president’s combative news conference after his party’s mixed performance at the polls.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump forced his controversial Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign Wednesday, setting up a possible showdown with newly energized congressional Democrats over the investigation of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election.

Sessions, in a resignation letter to Trump, wrote that he was stepping down at “your request,” accepting a fait accompli he’d long sought to avert despite Trump’s repeated public humiliations of the attorney general over his recusal from oversight of the Russia probe.

The forced departure of Sessions, a former Republican senator and early supporter of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, capped a turbulent tenure that hit a rough patch in early 2017 when he stepped aside from the Russia investigation shortly after taking office.

WATCH: Trump Asks Attorney General to Resign

Trump blamed Sessions’ recusal for the speedy appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and, over the course of the attorney general’s 20-month tenure, repeatedly castigated Sessions for failing to rein in what he called a “witch hunt” being led by Mueller and “17 Angry Democrats.”

While undertaking a wholesale repeal of Obama-era policies and implementing Trump’s tough-on-crime and immigration agenda, Sessions was increasingly shunned by the president, to the point that Trump told an interviewer earlier this year, “I don’t have an attorney general.”

In a pair of tweets Wednesday afternoon announcing Sessions’ resignation, Trump thanked the attorney general for his service and said Matt Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff and a former U.S. attorney under former President George W. Bush, would take over as acting attorney general. A permanent replacement would be announced later, Trump said.

Though long expected, Sessions’ departure fueled Democratic fears that Trump may be maneuvering to assert control over the Mueller investigation through a trusted appointee or possibly shut down it all together.

Congressional probe urged

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee and a frequent Trump critic, urged Congress to investigate “the real reason” for the attorney general’s “termination.”

At a testy White House news conference earlier Wednesday, Trump said he could end the Mueller investigation “right now,” but “I stay away from it … I let it just go on.”

Other Democratic congressional leaders, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senate Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Mark Warner issued nearly identical tweets urging Whitaker to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, citing his vocal criticism of the probe.

“Given his previous comments advocating defunding and imposing limitations on the Mueller investigation, Mr. Whitaker should recuse himself from its oversight for the duration of his time as acting attorney general,” Schumer tweeted.

Whitaker served as U.S. attorney for the southern district of Iowa from 2004 to 2009. According to his LinkedIn profile, he headed Foundations for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), a self-described ethics watchdog, until September 2017, shortly before joining the Justice Department.

In an opinion piece for CNN.com in July 2017, two months after Mueller’s appointment, Whitaker wrote that he agreed with Trump that investigating the president’s finances fell outside Mueller’s mandate, and he urged Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to limit the special counsel’s authority.

‘In charge of all matters’

Asked whether Whitaker would take control of the Russia probe, Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said, “The acting attorney general is in charge of all matters under the purview of the Department of Justice.”

Flores did not directly answer questions about whether Whitaker had consulted or planned to consult Justice Department ethics experts on whether he should recuse himself from the Russia probe.

“We’re following regular order here,” she wrote via email.

John Malcolm, a former federal prosecutor now with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group, said he saw no reason for Whitaker to step aside.

“He is the acting attorney general. He has no reason to recuse himself,” Malcolm told VOA.

Malcolm said Sessions did “a solid job of implementing the president’s law enforcement priorities,” and he praised the attorney general for “protecting the integrity of the department and trying to keep it above politics.”

It remains to be seen whether Trump will tap Whitaker for the job permanently and send his name to the Senate for confirmation.

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and close Trump ally, tweeted that he looked “forward to working with President Trump to find a confirmable, worthy successor.
…

Results were disappointing for two Democratic candidates who vied to become the first African American governors in Florida and Georgia, after closely contested campaigns where race and identity politics were highly divisive issues. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on these two close races in traditionally conservative states.
…

Shouts of “Beto 2020!” filled the air in El Paso’s 7,000 seat-capacity baseball stadium, after their underdog candidate for U.S. Senate — Beto O’Rourke — had already lost the race.

On Tuesday night, “Beto,” a 46-year-old congressman from Texas’ 16th district, lost his bid to unseat the incumbent Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, by a three-point margin, with 92 percent of precincts counted.

​AP called the race at 9:27 p.m. local, but in West Texas’ Southwest University Park, the crowd of faithful El Pasoans stayed another hour, awaiting the hometown favorite.

“Look at all the people here,” said 21-year-old Karla Amador, a student at the University of Texas at El Paso. “El Paso never votes; we’re the lowest of voter turnout. Look at the turnout. This is amazing.”

A little after 10 p.m., O’Rourke came on stage, and so did the tears. 

“It hurts. … I worked for Beto harder than I’ve worked for anyone,” said Alta Compton, who spent a year-and-a-half volunteering for the O’Rourke campaign. “It made me realize that I wasn’t alone in Texas, that there are democrats, there are liberals, and we have a voice.”

​‘A battle of ideas’

In Houston, 1,182 kilometers southeast of El Paso, Senator Cruz called the election “a battle of ideas” during his victory speech. Among his own ideas: “more jobs, more security, more freedom.”

“It was a contest for who we are and what we believe,” Cruz told his supporters. “It was a contest and the people of Texas decided this race.”

An intimate crowd of constituents at the El Paso County Republican headquarters gathered in confidence and ate cake as the night unfolded.

In interviews with VOA, Republicans shared the same priority: an opposition to “open borders.”

“This is dead wrong. You come to a place, whatever country, and you have to do it correctly, or you just don’t get in,” El Paso resident Cynthia Lyman said.

“I think seniors such as myself are frankly not going to allow this country being thrown off the cliff, and it didn’t start with O’Rourke,” Lyman added. “It started with [former President] Obama.”

Cruz, who emerged as a beneficiary of the Tea Party movement, said O’Rourke “poured his heart” into the campaign. The senator has held the position for one term after he won the seat in 2012.

He did, however, criticize the amount of money funneled into his opponent’s campaign. 

“We saw a $100 million race with Hollywood coming in against the state, with the national media coming in against the state. But all the money in the world was no match for the good people of Texas and their hard work,” Cruz said. 

Politifact, a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials, reported that O’Rourke did not receive money from private corporations.

“Cruz’s victory means everything to me,” said David Zamora. “I’m a proud Texan, and I believe he represents everything that this state is all about.”

‘A future for Beto’

“When Beto entered this race a year or so ago, we were all horrified that he would give up his seat in Congress to run for a position that he couldn’t possibly won,” said Martha Hood, at the O’Rourke rally. “And look what he’s done.”

​I think there’s a future for Texas. I think there’s a future for Beto,” Hood added.

O’Rourke lost the battle, but voters’ showing at the polls reverberated in down-ballot races. Texas democrats picked up two seats in the Texas state Senate, wearing away at its conservative base majority. 

Nationwide, democrats were on track to secure enough seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to shift the balance of power in Congress, and provide a check on President Trump’s presidency.

Driven by a record-setting war chest of $70 million in donations, many of them contributions of $25 or less, supporters in the democratic town of El Paso feel “Beto’s” name is about to become more common.

With more than 90 percent of precincts counted, O’Rourke received 74.4 percent of votes in his hometown of El Paso to Cruz’s 25 percent, as reported by The Texas Tribune.

By night’s end, O’Rourke’s election night party became a rally of hope for the party’s future. In his concession speech, O’Rourke reminded his followers to define themselves by hard work and a willingness to achieve goals.

“To build a campaign like this one solely comprised of people from all walks of life, coming together, deciding what unites us is far stronger than the color of our skin, how many generations we can count ourselves an American, or whether we just got here yesterday, who we love, we pray to, whether we pray at all, who we voted for last time, none of it matters,” O’Rourke said. 

As some speculated O’Rourke’s chances for president in 2020, the defeated candidate offered few clues with regard to his future. 

“We will see you out there, down the road,” O’Rourke said.
…

The balance of power shifted in Washington Tuesday as opposition Democrats won back control of the U.S. House of Representatives, dealing a political blow to President Donald Trump and his Republican Party. But Republicans expanded their majority control of the Senate, bolstering the president and setting the stage for more confrontational politics in the year ahead. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has a wrap up of the election results from Washington.
…

Riding solid gains for Democratic candidates in the U.S midterm elections are two candidates now set to make history in January, when they become the first Muslim American women in the U.S. Congress. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, expectations are high for both Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar as they seek to influence U.S. policy on issues ranging from immigration reform to foreign policy.
…