U.S. President Donald Trump offered some revisionist election recollections on Monday, while predicting that Republicans “will do well” in 2018 when all seats in the House of Representatives are at stake and a third of those in the Senate.

In a Twitter comment, Trump claimed that Republicans had gone 5-0 in congressional races this year and that “the media refuses to mention this.” Actually, Republicans won five of six House races in 2017 and lost a Senate seat. 

Trump claimed to have predicted that Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore “would lose (for very different reasons) and they did.” Trump supported both candidates with numerous Twitter remarks through their respective election days, but after they lost, he said he knew they would.

“I also predicted ‘I’ would win” the 2016 presidential election, Trump said. “Republicans will do well in 2018, very well!”

Republicans, with Trump in the White House and majorities in both the Senate and House, control the U.S. government. But with Trump’s approval rating mired in the 30 to 40 percent range and Democrats winning two gubernatorial races and a Senate seat in the last six weeks, Republican control of Congress could be in play.

With the election of Democrat Doug Jones in last week’s Alabama race, the Republican majority in the Senate will shrink to 51-49 when Jones is sworn in in early January, leaving control of the chamber up for grabs in next November’s mid-presidential-term elections.

Democrats also are contending to take control of the House, where Republicans currently hold a 239-193 edge, with three vacancies. Democrats would need to win 25 more seats to control the chamber.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy will provide the country with a “clear and actionable playbook” to counter the most dangerous and persistent threats, according to senior administration officials.

 

The White House unveiled the strategic document Monday, almost 11 months after his administration began work on it.

President Trump explained how much of the strategy is already impacting U.S. policy during a speech Monday in Washington.

 

Senior administration officials say unlike recent, past strategies, it takes a “clear-eyed view” of the dangers and challenges facing the country, while prioritizing U.S. interests in line with the president’s calls to put “America First.”

 

“The global balance of power has shifted in unfavorable manners to American interests,” a senior administration official said Sunday. “This new strategy presents a plan of how America can regain momentum to reverse many of these trends.”

 

“[It] that will really serve as a foundation for subsequent strategies,” the official added, alluding to soon to be released defense and counterterrorism documents.

 

Administration officials say despite their concerns, the new national security strategy is not meant as a repudiation of the strategies laid out by former President Barack Obama or even former President George W. Bush.

 

Instead, they say the document is an “encapsulation” of the strategy President Trump has advocated, both while campaigning for the presidency and once in office.

 

“We do live in a global competition and how we advance our goals is more critical than ever,” the senior administration official said. “We must compete.”

 

To better compete on the global stage, Trump administration officials are focusing on what they describe as four, vital national interests: protecting the homeland, promoting American prosperity, preserving peace through strength, and advancing American influence.

 

“We have to work together harder than ever to ensure that nations uphold the rule of law, respect the sovereignty of their neighbors and support the post-World War II, post-Cold War order of peace, stability and collective security,” White House National Security Adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster said while previewing the new strategy last week in Washington.

 

The strategy identifies three groups of challengers to that order, officials say.

 

The first group includes nations like Russia and China, which are seeking to create a new global order, both militarily and economically, that officials believe will hurt or hamper U.S. interests.

 

The second group of challengers are rogue regimes, like North Korea and Iran, which are pursuing weapons of mass destruction while also supporting terrorism and other destabilizing activities.

 

The final group includes transnational terrorist groups and crime syndicates.

 

Administration officials say the new national security strategy will confront these different challengers on the global stage.

 

“We vacated a lot of competitive space in recent years and created opportunities,” McMaster said. “You’ll see a big emphasis on competitive engagement.”

 

But exactly how the U.S. will do that remains a bit of a question.

 

“This document is more high-level and over-arching,” said a second senior administration official. “It doesn’t move country-by-country.”

Still, some officials and analysts say elements of the new national security strategy are already evident in Washington’s approach to countries from Russia and China to North Korea, Iran and South Asia.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis “I think, is going to take a different approach to military conflict,” said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and a former Naval military strategist.

At the same time, the new strategy seeks to push back against the notion that President Trump’s campaign rallying cry of “America first,” should be interpreted as “American alone.”

Yet some see this as an area in which the Trump administration could struggle, especially given the way the new strategy priorities and emphasizes U.S. economic interests.

“Focusing on protection of American economic interests in a global marketplace painted with rivals, rather than partners, will discourage the use of multilateral trade agreements in a global economy marked by partnership,” said Nicholas Glavin, formerly a researcher at the U.S. Naval War College’s Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups.

Glavin, who is currently studying at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, says  that could actually weaken U.S. attempt to compete against key rivals on the word stage.

“Where Washington won’t lead, others will, most notably Beijing,” he said. “In the long term, this hurts the U.S. much more than multilateralism in the global economy would.

 

But administration officials insist the strategy will reaffirm the United States’ commitment to its allies. They also say it affirms the U.S. commitment to NATO and the United Nations, though they are clear that Trump believes reforms at both organizations are long overdue.

 

Nor will the U.S. rule out working with countries like China and Russia.

 

“The nature of competition doesn’t mean you don’t also cooperate,” said another senior administration official. “We talk about cooperation, about cooperation with reciprocity.”

 

For example, officials said the U.S. sees China as a key partner in the effort to rein-in North Korea’s aggression and nuclear ambitions, despite what they described as Beijing’s economic aggression toward the U.S.

Already, there are some who doubt China will respond well.

“Trump’s words are always illogical,” said Shi Yinhong, the director of the U.S. Center at China People’s University in Beijing. “China doesn’t care much about what he says but what he does.”

“His flattering China visit is pleasing to Beijing, but what concerns Beijing the most is the U.S. doesn’t touch Taiwan,” Shi said.

Officials pointed to Sunday’s phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump, when Putin thanked the U.S. and the CIA for sharing intelligence to thwart a terror plot, as a “great example where there’s a shared interest.”

 

“We’ve seen some of that also this year in Syria against ISIS in deconfliction in trying to set up safe zones,” the official said.

 

“We’re certainly better off right now than we were several months ago when both the secretary of state and the president remarked that the [U.S.-Russia] relationship seemed to be at a low point,” the official added.  “But we still see a lot of areas where our interests just don’t align or directly conflict.”

 

A prime area of conflict with Russia is over what McMaster, the president’s national security adviser, has called “sophisticated campaigns of subversion and disinformation.”

 

And an unclassified U.S. intelligence report released last January concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin waged what it described as an unprecedented “influence campaign” in an effort to sway the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump.

 

Yet when asked, other senior administration officials would not say how the new National Security Strategy will address such concerns, saying other actors, including China and terror groups have also increasingly used such techniques.

 

There are also areas where the new national security strategy departs dramatically from the previous administration’s policies.

 

President Barack Obama’s 2015 National Security Strategy placed an emphasis on promoting and defending democracy and human rights.

 

The new Trump doctrine takes a different tact.

 

“We mention all the components of making a democracy: tolerance, liberty, freedom of religion,” said one of the senior administration officials. “But building on what local partners want so we’re not imposing our way of life, so we’re not imposing democracy.”

 

Obama’s 2105 strategy also called on the U.S. to confront “the urgent crisis of climate change.”

 

The Trump national security strategy does not.

 

“Climate change is not identified as national security threat,” said one of the officials. “The importance of the environment and environmental stewardship are discussed.”

 

The new national security strategy has already gotten the approval of key officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, as well as Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

 
…

Democrat Doug Jones, who won election to the Senate from staunchly Republican Alabama, insisted to both parties in politically divided Washington Sunday that he’ll leave “all the options on the table” when it comes to his votes next year on issues from immigration to infrastructure.

“I’m going to consider anything,” said Jones, explaining that he doesn’t plan on labeling himself a progressive or a conservative Democrat but a “Doug Jones Democrat.”

In an early sign, Jones reiterated that he would oppose spending money to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, as President Donald Trump insists upon, and expressed concern that a sweeping GOP tax cut proposal that was on track for approval this week was being “plopped into a vote too quickly.” At the same time, Jones said people should not “expect me to vote solidly for Republicans or Democrats.”

The 63-year-old former U.S. attorney made clear he’s ready to move forward even though his Republican opponent in last Tuesday’s special election, Roy Moore, has yet to concede the race. “Alabama has spoken,” Jones said. “I will be ready to go regardless of whether he concedes or not.”

Jones’ election will cut the Republicans’ Senate majority to 51-49, when he takes office in early January.

White House legislative director Marc Short said the administration was eager to see whether Jones will “actually work to represent the people of Alabama” in a bipartisan way or side with liberal Democrats. Trump has also urged Moore to concede the race.

“We hope that frankly Doug Jones will help us change the climate here in Washington,” Short said. During the campaign, Trump chastised Jones as a liberal who would be “terrible” on crime and border security, and a “puppet” for Senate congressional leaders.

But on Sunday, Jones downplayed Trump’s earlier criticism as statements made “in the heat of a campaign,” and described the president’s congratulatory call after the election as “very gracious.”

“I’m going to be looking at issues on both sides,” he said.

Jones defeated Moore, by 20,000 votes, or 1.5 percent, to become the first Democrat elected to represent Alabama in the Senate in a quarter-century. He was lifted by African-American voters, independents and moderate Republicans who turned out to reject Moore, who faced newly raised allegations of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls decades ago.

Making his first Sunday talk show appearances since his win, Jones said he looked forward to meeting with Trump and believed his own mandate was to avoid rigid partisan positions in favor of compromise and “getting things done,” even if meant coming across as “pure pie-in-the-sky” and sometimes disappointing some of his core constituents.

On the one hand, Jones said that he doesn’t think Trump should resign over sexual misconduct claims, as some Democrats are calling for.

But siding with congressional Democrats, Jones made clear he wants to help devise safeguards for immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, but without funding for a border wall. The Obama administration program which provided those protections, the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program is set to expire in March.

“I have said before that I opposed the building of a wall. I think that’s an expense that the taxpayers just don’t have to incur because I do think you can increase border security without having to go to the incredible expense of building that wall,” Jones said. Referring to a broader immigration overhaul that would likely involve questions of a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living here illegally, he said: “I think it’s going to be very complicated. …I’m not as sure it’s as important as health care and some other things right now.”

He pointed to fixing roads and bridges, a priority of Trump’s, as a bipartisan issue that could benefit Alabama. “Let’s get on with the real issues that are facing people of this country right now,” Jones said.

Jones appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and CNN’s “State of the Union.” Short was on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
…

Near the end of his first year in office, President Donald Trump could be on the verge of his first major legislative victory: an overhaul of America’s tax code and a partial repeal of former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

“As a candidate, I promised we would pass a massive tax cut for the everyday working American families who are the backbone and the heartbeat of our country,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Now, we are just days away.”

Congressional Republicans appear to have the votes to permanently slash corporate taxes, temporarily cut taxes paid by wage and salary earners, and increase America’s national debt by up to $1.5 trillion. The thousand-page bill was revealed Friday after days of bicameral negotiations yielded a final version of the legislation that gained the support of several Republican holdouts.

“I have decided to support the tax reform package,” Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee announced in a statement. “This bill is far from perfect … but after great thought and consideration, I believe that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make U.S. businesses domestically more productive and internationally more competitive and is one we should not miss.”

 

Republicans are betting that eight consecutive years of U.S. economic growth can be extended and accelerated with a major dose of stimulus in the form of tax cuts.

Democrats argued the tax package is unfair and unwise.

“The bill is written to give massive, permanent tax breaks to the rich and corporate interests, many of which ship U.S. jobs overseas,” said California Congressman Mike Thompson, delivering the Democratic weekly address. “It does give a handful of temporary tax cuts to some middle-class taxpayers but actually raises taxes on millions of middle and working-class families.”

“It’s the height of hypocrisy for Republicans to vote for a tax cut that would add at least $1 trillion to the deficit after spending eight years railing against the national debt,” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California wrote on Twitter.

History provides a less-than-clear picture of the impact of tax cuts. The U.S. economy expanded briskly after tax cuts in the 1980s, but had even higher growth rates after a tax hike in the 1990s. Tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 were followed by several years of moderately robust growth, then a major recession.

Republicans insisted Americans will be better off with a reduced tax burden.

“Everybody is going to benefit, but I think the greatest benefit is going to be for jobs and for the middle class,” Trump told reporters on Saturday. “Our economy is doing fantastically well.  But it has another big step to go, and it cannot take that step unless we do the tax bill.”

Democrats contended the bill’s benefits are heavily skewed to the wealthy and that America’s poor and elderly will pay a heavy price under the Republican agenda.

“Now they [Republicans] have blown a big hole in the debt,” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said on ABC’s “This Week” program. “And if you look at their budget, it is right there — their plan for dealing with that is to cut Medicare by $500 billion and Medicaid by over $1 trillion.”

Barring last-minute defections or absences among Republicans, Congress could send the tax bill to the White House for Trump’s signature as early as Wednesday.  Minority Democrats cannot block the bill on their own, but have pledged to make it a major campaign issue in next year’s midterm elections.   
…

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian contacts with President Donald Trump’s campaign has gained access to thousands of emails sent and received by Trump officials before the start of his administration, according to several people familiar with Trump’s transition organization.

But the investigators did not directly request the records from Trump’s still-existing transition group, Trump for America, and instead obtained them from a separate federal agency that stored the material, according to those familiar with the Trump transition organization.

Transition attorney complains

On Saturday, Kory Langhofer, general counsel for the transition group, sent a letter to two congressional committees arguing that the GSA had improperly provided the transition records to Mueller’s investigators.

In the letter to the Republican chairmen of the House Oversight and the Senate Homeland Security committees, Langhofer contends that the disclosure by GSA was unauthorized, and it considers the documents private and privileged and not government property. 

 

Langhofer also said that a GSA official appointed by Trump in May had assured the transition in June that any request for records from Mueller’s office would be referred to the transition’s attorneys. According to Langhofer, the assurance was made by then-GSA General Counsel Richard Beckler, who was hospitalized in August and has since died. A copy of the letter was viewed by the AP.

 

But late Saturday, another GSA official present for the conversation told Buzzfeed News that there was nothing improper about the disclosure of the emails to Mueller’s team. The GSA has provided office space and other aid to presidential transitions in recent years and typically houses electronic transition records in its computer system. 

GSA responds

 

GSA Deputy Counsel Lenny Loewentritt told Buzzfeed that Beckler didn’t make a commitment to the transition team that requests from law enforcement for materials would be routed through transition lawyers. 

 

Loewentritt said the transition was informed that by using government devices, the agency wouldn’t hold back records from law enforcement. Transition officials signed agreements that warn them that materials kept on the government servers are subject to monitoring and auditing, he told Buzzfeed, and there’s no expectation of privacy.

 

The documents were provided to Mueller’s team by the GSA in September in response to requests from the FBI, but the transition wasn’t informed at the time, according to people familiar with the transition organization. Officials with Trump for America learned last Wednesday that GSA officials had turned over the cache of emails to Mueller’s team. 

 

Among the officials who used transition email accounts was former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to a count of making false statements to FBI agents in January and is now cooperating with Mueller’s investigation. Flynn was fired by Trump in February for misleading senior administration officials about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.​

Emails’ value unclear

It’s unclear how revelatory the email accounts maintained by the GSA will be for Mueller. Several high-level Trump advisers sometimes used other email accounts to communicate about transition issues between Election Day and the inauguration.

Mueller’s spokesman, Peter Carr, declined to comment. Jay Sekulow, an attorney on Trump’s personal legal team, referred questions to the transition group. Neither GSA representatives nor Flynn attorney Robert Kelner were immediately available to respond to AP’s emailed requests for comment.

Officials with Trump for America learned last Wednesday that GSA officials had turned over the massive cache of emails to Mueller’s team. The transition group’s top officials were alarmed because many of the emails that Mueller’s investigators now have are sensitive records ranging from national security discussions about possible Trump international aims to candid assessments of candidates for top government posts, said those familiar with the transition.

Officials with Trump for America had been bracing for months for the prospect that Mueller’s team would demand its emails, but they had been assured that any requests to the GSA would be routed to the transition organization, which claims legal ownership of the records. According to those familiar with the transition group, a top GSA official informed Trump for America last June that any request from Mueller’s office would be referred to the transition.

On Sept. 1, after requests in late August from Mueller’s office, the GSA turned over a flash drive containing tens of thousands of records without informing Trump for America of its move, those familiar with the transition said.

Those records included emails sent and received by 13 senior Trump transition officials.

The media site Axios first reported on the transfer of the emails to Mueller’s team.
…

First-term U.S. Representative Ruben Kihuen, a Nevada Democrat who is at the center of sexual harassment allegations, announced Saturday he would not seek re-election.

Kihuen’s announcement came a day after the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into whether Kihuen “may have engaged in sexual harassment” with a campaign aide and a lobbyist.

“I want to state clearly again that I deny the allegations in question,” Kihuen said. “I am committed to fully cooperating with the House Ethics Committee and I look forward to clearing my name.”

The freshman congressman said the accusations would be a distraction during a re-election campaign.

“Therefore, it is in the best interests of my family and my constituents to complete my term in Congress and not seek re-election,” Kihuen said.

Former aide’s allegations

A former campaign aide said Kihuen propositioned her for dates and sex despite her repeated rejections during his 2016 campaign. A lobbyist told the Nevada Independent that he touched her thighs and buttocks and made unwanted sexual advances while he was a state senator.

Ethics Committee leaders said Friday that the fact the committee was investigating the allegations did not indicate any violation had occurred and that the committee would make no further public statements pending completion of its initial review.

Kihuen’s decision may not be enough for some of his colleagues. The top House Democrat, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, has called on Kihuen to resign, a request that he has resisted. Kihuen also apologized after the first allegation was made public, but said he didn’t remember the events the way the former campaign aide had described.

A native of Mexico and the first Latino to represent Nevada in Congress, Kihuen represents the state’s 4th Congressional District, which stretches north from the Las Vegas metro area into sparsely populated central Nevada.

Kihuen is among a growing number of lawmakers whose political careers have been thrust into uncertainty or ended altogether by allegations of sexual misconduct. On Thursday, Representative Blake Farenthold, a Texas Republican, said he would not seek re-election amid sexual harassment allegations that he has denied.

Representative Trent Franks, an Arizona Republican, abruptly resigned last week over revelations that he’d asked two staff members to act as surrogates to have his child, offering one $5 million.

Also, Representative John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, retired weeks after former aides shared allegations of habitual sexual harassment. Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, announced he would step down after he was accused of improper behavior by at least eight women and his support from fellow Democrats collapsed.
…

The Pentagon acknowledged Saturday that its long-secret UFO investigation program ended in 2012, when U.S. defense officials shifted attention and funding to other priorities.

But whether the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program has continued to investigate UFO sightings since its funding ended five years ago could rank as an unexplained phenomenon.

The New York Times reported Saturday that the hush-hush program, tasked with investigating sightings of unidentified flying objects, ran from 2007 to 2012 with $22 million in annual funding secretly tucked away in U.S. Defense Department budgets worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Its initial funding came largely at the request of former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat long known for his enthusiasm for space phenomena, the newspaper said.

Yet according to its backers, the program remains in existence and officials continue to investigate UFO episodes brought to their attention by service members, the newspaper said.

Other issues pursued

The Pentagon openly acknowledged the fate of the program in response to a Reuters query.

“The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program ended in the 2012 time frame,” Pentagon spokeswoman Laura Ochoa said in an email.

“It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding and it was in the best interest of the DoD to make a change,” Ochoa said.

But the Pentagon was less clear about whether the UFO program continues to hover somewhere in the vast universe of the U.S. defense establishment.

“The DoD takes seriously all threats and potential threats to our people, our assets, and our mission and takes action whenever credible information is developed,” Ochoa said.

What is less in doubt is Reid’s enthusiasm for UFOs and his likely role in launching the Pentagon initiative to identify advanced aviation threats.

“If you’ve talked to Harry Reid for 60 seconds then it’s the least surprising thing ever that he loves UFOs and got an earmark to study them,” former Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman said in a message on Twitter.

Or as Reid himself said in a tweet that linked to the Times’ story: “The truth is out there. Seriously.” 
…

President Donald Trump frequently casts his first year in office as a string of successes and campaign promises fulfilled. But less than a quarter of Americans think Trump has made good on the pledges he made to voters while running for president, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Among Republicans, just half say Trump has kept his promises, which included vows to overhaul his predecessor’s health care law, withdraw the United States from a nuclear accord with Iran and invest millions in new projects to fix the nation’s aging infrastructure. None of those steps have been taken.

“Everything has stalled out,” said Mark Krowski, 37, an independent from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who leans Republican but didn’t vote for Trump last year.

​Worrisome signs

As 2017 comes to a close, the majority of Americans painted a broadly pessimistic view of Trump’s presidency, the nation’s politics and the overall direction of the country. Just 3 in 10 Americans said the United States is heading in the right direction, and 52 percent said the country is worse off since Trump became president, worrisome signs for the White House and Republicans heading into a midterm election year where control of Congress will be at stake.

Along with the 23 percent who think Trump has kept his promises, another 30 percent think he has tried and failed and 45 percent think he hasn’t kept them at all.

In a second AP-NORC poll conducted this month, Trump’s job approval rating sits at just 32 percent, making him the least popular first-year president on record. A quarter of Republicans say they’re among those who disapprove of the president.

​Bit of a bright spot

One relative bright spot for Trump? The improving economy.

With a soaring stock market and unemployment hovering around 4 percent, 40 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the economy. That’s higher than the 3 in 10 Americans that approved of the president’s handling of health care, foreign policy or taxes.

Still, Trump continues to talk about his presidency with lofty rhetorical flourishes, declaring that his first months in office outshine those of his predecessors. But there’s no doubt that 2017 has been devoid of any significant legislative accomplishments, though Republicans are urgently trying to pass a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s tax system. The package would give generous tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest tax cuts to low- and middle-income families.

“We’re very, very close to a historic legislative victory, the likes of which rarely has this country seen,” Trump said during a meeting with lawmakers earlier this week.

Republicans are banking on the tax overhaul being enough to carry them through next year’s House and Senate contests, elections that will largely be a referendum on Trump’s first two years in office and the GOP’s stewardship as the majority party on Capitol Hill. But with the legislation rushed through Congress and negotiated largely in private, Trump and lawmakers may have more work to do to sell the public on its benefits.

“There’s so much back and forth and so many adjustments being made. It’s just so uncertain,” Edward Hale, a 72-year-old independent, said of the tax legislation.

One thing Hale, a retired federal government employee from Clarion, Pennsylvania, is certain of in the proposal? “It definitely favors Mr. Trump and his wealthy friends,” he said.

The survey results suggest that with or without a tax overhaul, Trump has work to do in convincing the public that his presidency is benefiting them. Just 25 percent of Americans think the country is better off since Trump took office, and only 20 percent say they personally are doing better.

By contrast, an AP-NORC poll conducted a year ago found that Americans were more likely to think the country had become better off over the course of Barack Obama’s presidency than worse off, 46 percent to 33 percent.

Only 9 percent think the country has become more united as a result of Trump’s presidency, while 67 percent think the country is more divided because of Trump. That’s far higher than the 44 percent of Americans who said in a poll one year ago that Obama’s presidency had served to divide the country further.

Even Republicans are more likely to say Trump has divided America than united it, 41 percent to 17 percent.

Notably, the deep-seated pessimism about the president and national politics doesn’t extend to local communities. Overall, about half of Americans said they feel optimistic about their local communities. And that feeling is shared across the political spectrum: 55 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans feel optimistic about the way things are going locally.

Poll details

The AP-NORC polls surveyed 1,444 adults from Nov. 30-Dec. 4 and 1,020 adults from Dec. 7-11 using samples drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points for the first survey and plus or minus 4.3 percentage points for the second.

Interviews were conducted online and using landlines and cellphones.
…

Alabama Republican Roy Moore on Friday told supporters that the “battle is not over” in Alabama’s Senate race even though President Donald Trump and others have called on him to concede.

Moore sent a fundraising email to supporters asking for contributions to his “election integrity fund’ so he could investigate reports of voter fraud.

“I also wanted to let you know that this battle is NOT OVER!” he wrote.

Democrat Doug Jones on Tuesday defeated Moore by about 20,000 votes, or 1.5 percent, according to unofficial returns. But Moore, who has been accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls when he was in his 30s, has not yet conceded the heated Alabama race to fill the seat that previously belonged to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Moore told supporters that the race was close and some military and provisional ballots had yet to be counted. Those are expected to be counted next week.

Moore said his campaign is collecting “numerous reported cases of voter fraud” to send to the secretary of state’s office.

Secretary of State John Merrill has said it is unlikely that the last-minute ballots will change the outcome of the election or even trigger a recount.

Merrill said his office has investigated reports of voting irregularities, but “we have not discovered any that have been proven factual in nature.”

Trump, who had endorsed Moore, called Jones to congratulate him on his win. Trump on Friday said that he believed Moore should concede the race.

The results of Alabama’s Senate race will be certified between Dec. 26 and Jan. 3 after counties report their official totals.
…

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday looked to clear any confusion regarding the U.S. position on negotiating with North Korea. During a special U.N. Security Council meeting focused on Pyongyang’s Nov. 28 missile launch, the top U.S. diplomat said North Korea must choose between giving up its “unlawful” nuclear weapons program or continuing to condemn its own citizens to poverty and isolation. VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department.
…

The House Ethics Committee said Friday it had opened an investigation into Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen over allegations of sexual harassment.

A former campaign aide said Kihuen, a freshman congressman, propositioned her for dates and sex despite her repeated rejections during his 2016 campaign. This week, a lobbyist told the Nevada Independent that he touched her thighs and buttocks and made unwanted sexual advances while he was a state senator.

In a statement, the Ethics panel said it was “aware of public allegations that Representative Ruben Kihuen may have engaged in sexual harassment.”

The top House Democrat, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, has called on Kihuen to resign, a request that he has resisted. Kihuen also apologized after the first allegation was made public, but said he didn’t remember the events the way the former campaign aide had described.

“As I’ve said previously, I intend to fully cooperate, and I welcome an opportunity to clear my name,” Kihuen said in response to the Ethics Committee one-page statement.

The announcement came from Republican Rep. Susan Brooks of Indiana, the panel’s chairwoman, and Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida, the ranking Democrat. They said the fact the committee was investigating the allegations does not indicate any violation has occurred and that the committee would make no further public statements pending completion of its initial review.

Kihuen is among a growing number of lawmakers whose political careers have been thrust into uncertainty or ended altogether by allegations of sexual misconduct.

On Thursday, Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, said he would not seek re-election amid sexual harassment allegations that he has denied.

Last week, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., retired weeks after former aides shared stories of habitual sexual harassment. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., announced he would step down after he was accused of improper behavior by at least eight women and his support from fellow Democrats collapsed.

On Friday, Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., abruptly resigned over revelations that he’d asked two staff members to act as surrogates to have his child, offering one $5 million.
…