RIYADMEDIA

A six-month budget truce stitched together by Congress in March could unravel if Republican leaders vying to replace U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan indulge party conservatives who want to renege on critical parts of the pact.

At issue is a resurgent move by conservative Republicans to rescind, or cut, about $60 billion in non-defense domestic spending increases that were key to winning Democratic votes.

That deal also significantly raised U.S. military spending this year as demanded by Republicans.

Provocative cuts

Those seeking the cuts would need the support of Republican House leaders, such as Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, both seen as potential rivals to replace Ryan as the No. 1 House Republican and, if the party retains its majority in November elections, as speaker.

McCarthy, the House majority leader, talked up the provocative spending cuts Thursday. In a statement, he said Republicans were “looking at other tools to cut spending” and added: “We have nothing to lose by making big changes.”

One of several Republicans who will have a say in the budding battle, McCarthy explicitly mentioned using a procedural tool known as rescissions in which President Donald Trump could team up with Republicans to kill off the non-military spending increases.

Allowing that to happen could rekindle the budget battles that consumed Congress for much of 2017 and early 2018, a scenario lawmakers had hoped the $1.3 trillion March spending bill had averted through November’s congressional elections.

‘Chilling effect’

Both Democrats and moderate Republicans warned against such an outcome. 

“Bad idea,” said Republican Representative Charlie Dent. “If they want to go down this path, which won’t be successful … we wouldn’t be able to pass an appropriations bill” for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, he said.

More broadly, he added, trashing the spending deal would “have a chilling effect” on all sorts of future legislation.

Ryan and enough rank-and-file Republicans could link arms with Democrats to defend the spending deal enacted into law March 23 and prevent a resumption of hostilities over the budget.

Doing so, however, could risk alienating Republican conservatives such as Representative Jim Jordan, a leading member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, at a politically delicate time given the looming leadership shake-up in the House and November’s elections that have Republicans struggling to persuade voters of their fiscal conservatism.

“Let’s get aggressive,” Jordan told reporters just hours after Ryan said Wednesday that he would quit Congress at the end of 2018, setting up an internal struggle to replace him.

FBI oversight

Jordan urged pushing for the cuts to Democrats’ domestic priorities, along with welfare changes and tougher oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has investigated Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Any ambitious House leader could help his or her cause by agreeing to the conservatives’ demands, in part a response to the huge deficit expansion created by the spending deal and December’s Republican tax overhaul package.
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The U.S. Interior Department will hike fees at the most popular national parks to $35 a vehicle, backing off a plan that would have cost visitors $70 a vehicle to visit Yellowstone and other well-known parks, the agency said Thursday.

The new plan boosts fees at 117 parks by $5, up from the current $30 but half the figure the Interior Department proposed in October for peak-season visitors at 17 heavily visited parks, it said in a statement.

The fee increase would help finance a $11.6 billion backlog of maintenance and improvements. The proposal generated a wave of protests, and the Interior Department had to extend its comment period by 30 days to accommodate the more than 100,000 responses it received.

“This new fee structure addresses many of the concerns and ideas provided by the public regarding how to best address fee revenue for parks,” the department’s statement said.

The new charges go into effect June 1, and more than two-thirds of national parks will remain free to enter, it said.

Federal law requires that 80 percent of revenue generated at a national park remains where it is collected. The remaining funds can be funneled to other projects within the system.
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A federal jury in Washington on Thursday convicted former Texas Republican Congressman Stephen Stockman of numerous counts of fraud, including stealing charitable contributions for campaign and personal expenses.

U.S. attorneys said Stockman used his position as a public servant to defraud donors and break federal law.

They say his conviction shows no one is above the law.

Stockman was charged with 23 counts, including money laundering, mail and wire fraud, and lying to federal election officials.

Among the charges, Stockman solicited more than $1 million in charitable contributions on false pretenses and used much of the money to pay for his election campaign and other personal expenses.

He also spent some of the funds to illegally spy on a political opponent in his failed 2014 campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Two former Stockman aides already had pleaded guilty in their roles in the scheme.

Stockman, a Republican, served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas, from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2013 to 2015.

He is to be sentenced August 17.
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A data leak that enabled political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access personal information from about 87 million Facebook users has generated an uproar and concerns over online privacy and the power of the major internet platforms. On VOA’s Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren experts explore the issue and next steps to better protect user privacy while also preserving internet openness. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni has more.
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A data leak that enabled political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access personal information from about 87 million Facebook users has generated an uproar and concerns over online privacy and the power of the major internet platforms. On VOA’s Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren experts explore the issue and next steps to better protect user privacy while also preserving internet openness. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni has more.
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U.S. lawmakers are about to get a glimpse into the world view of the man tapped by President Donald Trump to shape U.S. foreign policy. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, will be on Capitol Hill Thursday for confirmation hearings. Pompeo’s attitudes on perceived global threats posed by North Korea, Iran and Russia are certain to topics of discussion, as VOA’s Robert Raffaele explains.
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U.S. lawmakers are about to get a glimpse into the world view of the man tapped by President Donald Trump to shape U.S. foreign policy. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, will be on Capitol Hill Thursday for confirmation hearings. Pompeo’s attitudes on perceived global threats posed by North Korea, Iran and Russia are certain to topics of discussion, as VOA’s Robert Raffaele explains.
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A decision by U.S. President Donald Trump not to renew sanctions relief for Iran on May 12 would not necessarily mean the United States had withdrawn from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear what Mnuchin meant by his comment, but it appeared to signal the Trump administration believes the agreement will not necessarily collapse if Trump chooses not to extend U.S. sanctions relief to Iran.

The crux of the 2015 agreement between Iran and six major powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — was that Iran would restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions that have crippled its economy.

On January 12, Trump delivered an ultimatum to Britain, France and Germany, saying they must agree to “fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal” or he would refuse to extend the U.S. sanctions relief on Iran that it calls for.

U.S. sanctions will resume unless Trump issues new “waivers” to suspend them May 12, although it is not clear how quickly they would go into effect.

Negotiations underway

European officials saw Trump’s January 12 comments as a threat to kill the deal. They have since been in negotiations with the Trump administration to see if there is a way to salvage it.

Speaking at a congressional hearing, Mnuchin said the Trump administration was in talks with allies and would “not do anything abruptly.”

“If the president decides not to sign that (waiver), it doesn’t mean we’re necessarily pulling out of the deal. What it means is that the primary and secondary sanctions will go back in place,” he told the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.

The political directors of Britain, France and Germany met Brian Hook, the State Department’s director of policy planning, in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the future of the pact, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, two sources familiar with the matter said.

It is not immediately clear how Iran might respond to a Trump decision not to renew the sanctions waivers, but Tehran would be within its rights to argue the United States violated its commitments to ease sanctions even as Iran, as verified by international inspectors, had kept its nuclear commitments.

U.S. nuclear experts say if Trump does not waive the sanctions in May, it effectively kills the nuclear deal.

European diplomats have said that even if U.S. allies decide to remain in the agreement, Western companies would withdraw from Iran because of the threat of U.S. sanctions.

‘All about lifting the sanctions’

Democratic Representative David Price pressed Mnuchin on the issue, saying: “Are you saying that failing to waive the sanctions would not constitute pulling out of the deal? The deal is all about lifting the sanctions.”

Mnuchin did not answer the question directly.

The secretary declined to speculate on what Trump might do, repeatedly emphasizing he could not discuss the issue publicly.

Trump has voiced frustration at having to waive the sanctions again, believing his predecessor, Democratic President Barack Obama, negotiated a bad deal for the United States in agreeing to the accord.

Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. It has said it will stick to the accord as long as the other signatories respect it but will “shred” the deal if Washington pulls out.
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A decision by U.S. President Donald Trump not to renew sanctions relief for Iran on May 12 would not necessarily mean the United States had withdrawn from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear what Mnuchin meant by his comment, but it appeared to signal the Trump administration believes the agreement will not necessarily collapse if Trump chooses not to extend U.S. sanctions relief to Iran.

The crux of the 2015 agreement between Iran and six major powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — was that Iran would restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions that have crippled its economy.

On January 12, Trump delivered an ultimatum to Britain, France and Germany, saying they must agree to “fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal” or he would refuse to extend the U.S. sanctions relief on Iran that it calls for.

U.S. sanctions will resume unless Trump issues new “waivers” to suspend them May 12, although it is not clear how quickly they would go into effect.

Negotiations underway

European officials saw Trump’s January 12 comments as a threat to kill the deal. They have since been in negotiations with the Trump administration to see if there is a way to salvage it.

Speaking at a congressional hearing, Mnuchin said the Trump administration was in talks with allies and would “not do anything abruptly.”

“If the president decides not to sign that (waiver), it doesn’t mean we’re necessarily pulling out of the deal. What it means is that the primary and secondary sanctions will go back in place,” he told the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.

The political directors of Britain, France and Germany met Brian Hook, the State Department’s director of policy planning, in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the future of the pact, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, two sources familiar with the matter said.

It is not immediately clear how Iran might respond to a Trump decision not to renew the sanctions waivers, but Tehran would be within its rights to argue the United States violated its commitments to ease sanctions even as Iran, as verified by international inspectors, had kept its nuclear commitments.

U.S. nuclear experts say if Trump does not waive the sanctions in May, it effectively kills the nuclear deal.

European diplomats have said that even if U.S. allies decide to remain in the agreement, Western companies would withdraw from Iran because of the threat of U.S. sanctions.

‘All about lifting the sanctions’

Democratic Representative David Price pressed Mnuchin on the issue, saying: “Are you saying that failing to waive the sanctions would not constitute pulling out of the deal? The deal is all about lifting the sanctions.”

Mnuchin did not answer the question directly.

The secretary declined to speculate on what Trump might do, repeatedly emphasizing he could not discuss the issue publicly.

Trump has voiced frustration at having to waive the sanctions again, believing his predecessor, Democratic President Barack Obama, negotiated a bad deal for the United States in agreeing to the accord.

Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. It has said it will stick to the accord as long as the other signatories respect it but will “shred” the deal if Washington pulls out.
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U.S. media reports say House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan will not run for re-election this November.

Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, has been House speaker since 2015.

He has served in the House since 1999.
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U.S. media reports say House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan will not run for re-election this November.

Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, has been House speaker since 2015.

He has served in the House since 1999.
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As thousands of National Guard troops deploy to the Mexico border, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to bring his firm stance on immigration enforcement to New Mexico where a group of Southwest border sheriffs are meeting Wednesday.

Sessions will speak in Las Cruces at the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition Annual Spring Meeting with the Southwestern Border Sheriff’s Coalition, which is made up of 31 sheriff’s departments from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. 

Their counties are located within 25 miles (40 kilometers) of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Immigrant rights activists promised to protest Sessions’ visit on Wednesday, as they rejected his past characterization of the border region during a 2017 visit to El Paso, Texas, as “ground zero” in the Trump administration’s fight against cartels, and human traffickers. 

“He treated our home like a war zone, referring to it as ‘ground zero,”’ said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso. “He was wrong then, and he is wrong now.” 

El Paso is some 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Las Cruces.

Sessions’ trip to Las Cruces, a city about an hour north of the border, comes as construction begins nearby on 20-miles (32-kilometers) of steel fencing that officials say is a part of President Donald Trump’s promised wall. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have described the new, heightened barrier as a structure that will be harder to get over, under and through than the old post and rail barriers that has lined the stretch of the border’s El Paso sector. 

Sessions has issued an order directing federal prosecutors to put more emphasis on charging people with illegal entry, citing a “crisis” on the border. 

A 37 percent increase in illegal border crossings in March brought more than 50,000 immigrants into the United States, which was triple the number of reported illegal border crossings in the same period last year. It was still far lower, however, than the surges during the last years of the Obama administration and prior decades. 

The attorney general’s “zero-tolerance” for border-crossing prosecutions calls for taking action against people who are caught illegally entering the United States for the first time. In the past, such offenses have been treated as misdemeanors. 

He also recently set quotas for immigration judges to reduce enormous court backlogs, saying they must complete 700 cases a year to earn a satisfactory grade. The quotas take effect Oct. 1. 
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As thousands of National Guard troops deploy to the Mexico border, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to bring his firm stance on immigration enforcement to New Mexico where a group of Southwest border sheriffs are meeting Wednesday.

Sessions will speak in Las Cruces at the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition Annual Spring Meeting with the Southwestern Border Sheriff’s Coalition, which is made up of 31 sheriff’s departments from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. 

Their counties are located within 25 miles (40 kilometers) of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Immigrant rights activists promised to protest Sessions’ visit on Wednesday, as they rejected his past characterization of the border region during a 2017 visit to El Paso, Texas, as “ground zero” in the Trump administration’s fight against cartels, and human traffickers. 

“He treated our home like a war zone, referring to it as ‘ground zero,”’ said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso. “He was wrong then, and he is wrong now.” 

El Paso is some 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Las Cruces.

Sessions’ trip to Las Cruces, a city about an hour north of the border, comes as construction begins nearby on 20-miles (32-kilometers) of steel fencing that officials say is a part of President Donald Trump’s promised wall. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have described the new, heightened barrier as a structure that will be harder to get over, under and through than the old post and rail barriers that has lined the stretch of the border’s El Paso sector. 

Sessions has issued an order directing federal prosecutors to put more emphasis on charging people with illegal entry, citing a “crisis” on the border. 

A 37 percent increase in illegal border crossings in March brought more than 50,000 immigrants into the United States, which was triple the number of reported illegal border crossings in the same period last year. It was still far lower, however, than the surges during the last years of the Obama administration and prior decades. 

The attorney general’s “zero-tolerance” for border-crossing prosecutions calls for taking action against people who are caught illegally entering the United States for the first time. In the past, such offenses have been treated as misdemeanors. 

He also recently set quotas for immigration judges to reduce enormous court backlogs, saying they must complete 700 cases a year to earn a satisfactory grade. The quotas take effect Oct. 1. 
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified on Capitol Hill for the first time Tuesday, answering lawmakers’ concerns about the social media giant’s failure to protect the private information of as many 87 million users worldwide from Trump-affiliated political firm Cambridge Analytica. VOA’s Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from a key day in the internet privacy debate on Capitol Hill.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified on Capitol Hill for the first time Tuesday, answering lawmakers’ concerns about the social media giant’s failure to protect the private information of as many 87 million users worldwide from Trump-affiliated political firm Cambridge Analytica. VOA’s Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from a key day in the internet privacy debate on Capitol Hill.
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Tom Bossert, U.S. President Donald Trump’s top Homeland Security adviser, abruptly resigned Tuesday, the latest in a long line of senior officials to leave the Trump administration.

No reason was given for his resignation, but it came a day after staunch conservative John Bolton took over as Trump’s third national security adviser in the 15 months of his presidency. Both Bloomberg News and CNN reported that Bossert was quitting at Bolton’s request.

The 43-year-old Bossert had served in Trump’s White House since his inauguration, a key adviser to the president on cybersecurity, who also was a prominent official in handling the government’s response last year to devastating hurricanes in Texas, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Bossert appeared often on television news talk shows to represent the Trump administration’s view on terrorism threats. But he was passed over to become national security adviser in favor of Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, when Trump dismissed H.R. McMaster.

“The president is grateful for Tom’s commitment to the safety and security of our great country.” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. “Tom led the White House’s efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well.”

Since the start of the year, Trump has ousted his secretary of state, changed national security advisers, dismissed his veterans affairs secretary, named a new CIA director and watched as other key White House advisers departed, including his top lawyer handling Trump’s response to the ongoing criminal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
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Tom Bossert, U.S. President Donald Trump’s top Homeland Security adviser, abruptly resigned Tuesday, the latest in a long line of senior officials to leave the Trump administration.

No reason was given for his resignation, but it came a day after staunch conservative John Bolton took over as Trump’s third national security adviser in the 15 months of his presidency. Both Bloomberg News and CNN reported that Bossert was quitting at Bolton’s request.

The 43-year-old Bossert had served in Trump’s White House since his inauguration, a key adviser to the president on cybersecurity, who also was a prominent official in handling the government’s response last year to devastating hurricanes in Texas, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Bossert appeared often on television news talk shows to represent the Trump administration’s view on terrorism threats. But he was passed over to become national security adviser in favor of Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, when Trump dismissed H.R. McMaster.

“The president is grateful for Tom’s commitment to the safety and security of our great country.” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. “Tom led the White House’s efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well.”

Since the start of the year, Trump has ousted his secretary of state, changed national security advisers, dismissed his veterans affairs secretary, named a new CIA director and watched as other key White House advisers departed, including his top lawyer handling Trump’s response to the ongoing criminal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
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U.S. Sen. Bob Corker says he is donating money to another Tennessee Republican’s campaign to succeed him.

News outlets report Corker tweeted his support Monday for U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn after the Tennessee Republican Party ended the primary over the weekend. Seven Senate candidates and one gubernatorial candidate were removed from the August ballot for lacking voting credentials to justify running as Republicans.

Blackburn thanked Corker in a statement and said her campaign will continue talks with people across Tennessee about getting the Senate to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Corker announced last year that he was retiring and wouldn’t seek a third term.

The other senator from Tennessee, Republican Lamar Alexander, endorsed Blackburn last week. She is expected to run against former governor and former Nashville mayor Democrat Phil Bredesen in the November election.

This story was written by the Associated Press.
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U.S. Sen. Bob Corker says he is donating money to another Tennessee Republican’s campaign to succeed him.

News outlets report Corker tweeted his support Monday for U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn after the Tennessee Republican Party ended the primary over the weekend. Seven Senate candidates and one gubernatorial candidate were removed from the August ballot for lacking voting credentials to justify running as Republicans.

Blackburn thanked Corker in a statement and said her campaign will continue talks with people across Tennessee about getting the Senate to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Corker announced last year that he was retiring and wouldn’t seek a third term.

The other senator from Tennessee, Republican Lamar Alexander, endorsed Blackburn last week. She is expected to run against former governor and former Nashville mayor Democrat Phil Bredesen in the November election.

This story was written by the Associated Press.
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U.S.President Donald Trump is still not letting on whether he intends to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, who appears to have angered the president after getting the court’s permission to search the office of Trump’s personal attorney. VOA’s Michael Brown reports.
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U.S.President Donald Trump is still not letting on whether he intends to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, who appears to have angered the president after getting the court’s permission to search the office of Trump’s personal attorney. VOA’s Michael Brown reports.
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The U.S. military is bracing for a possible strike in Syria. Preparations for a high-risk North Korea summit are barreling forward. The White House staff is on edge, unsure who will be fired next, and when. And the national security team is holding its breath to see whether their new leader will be a shock to the system.

Enter John Bolton, the pugnacious former U.N. ambassador who took over Monday as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser — the third person to hold the job in barely 14 months. Trump’s selection of Bolton last month set off a guessing game in Washington as to just how much of an imprint his take-no-prisoners approach to foreign policy will have on Trump’s team, already beleaguered and exhausted after a tumultuous first year.

If Bolton had any first-day jitters, he had little time to indulge them. A daunting to-do list has awaited him, punctuated over the weekend by a suspected chemical weapons attack by Syria’s government that led Trump to start exploring potential military retaliation.

Although Bolton didn’t formally start until Monday, he was spotted entering the White House over the weekend, carrying an umbrella as he strolled down the driveway toward the West Wing on a rainy Saturday.

And on Monday, he appeared at his first Cabinet meeting, where Trump talked up his forthcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, chided China for taking advantage of the United States and condemned the “atrocious” chemical attack in Syria. Bolton didn’t speak, but was seated prominently behind Trump as reporters were briefly allowed into the meeting.

“I think he’s going to be a fantastic representative of our team,” Trump said later in the day. He pointed out the fact that Bolton was starting in the midst of an urgent situation with Syria, adding: “Interesting day.”

Inevitably, Bolton’s past statements in public jobs and as a Fox News commentator follow him into the job. At the White House press briefing Monday, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about a comment Bolton made in 2013 on Fox and Friends — he said he would have opposed an authorization to use force in Syria.

“The point of view that matters most here at the White House, as you well know, is the president’s,” Sanders replied.

Next to go?

Apprehension outside the White House about Bolton’s influence has been matched by hand-wringing in the West Wing about whose fortunes will rise and fall as the new national security adviser takes charge.

In Trump’s reality-show-infused White House, it’s become a truism that when a powerful aide departs — like the chief of staff, national security adviser or a Cabinet secretary — others who were considered aligned with that aide are often the next to go. There have been many such shake-ups, even in just the past few weeks. And Bolton, in his former jobs at the U.N. and at the State Department, developed a reputation as someone who doesn’t suffer fools quietly.

Even before Bolton started, rumors were circulating about potential exits on the national security team. The night before Bolton started, the White House said National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton would be departing, a high-profile public face of national security team. The White House said Trump thanked Anton for his service, but his departure marked another moment of upheaval in an administration marked by months of in-fighting and high-level departures.

Although it’s unclear whether Bolton will “clean house,” two U.S officials and two outside advisers to the administration said that the White House has been considering a significant staff shake-up in the part of the NSC that handles the Middle East. That comes as Trump prepares for a key decision next month on whether to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, the 2015 accord that Bolton has long derided.

Traffic cop

In the weeks since being named to the post, Bolton has quietly sought to calm concerns that he would push a more militaristic, hawkish approach on the president, considering his previously expressed support for pre-emptive military action against North Korea and regime change in Iran.

Although he stayed out of the public eye, showing deference to outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Bolton privately told some foreign embassies and influential foreign policy experts that he planned to approach the job more like a traffic cop, guiding a decision-making process in which the president can hear competing views, said individuals familiar with those conversations who weren’t authorized to discuss them and requested anonymity.

Frank Gaffney, a longtime Bolton associate and former Reagan administration official who runs the far-right think tank Center for Security Policy, said Bolton views his role as “to help the president get his program implemented.” Bolton has been “preparing his whole life to be in this job,” Gaffney said.

Yet in his 2007 book Surrender is Not an Option, Bolton reflected on his decision to take a job at the U.S. Agency for International Development after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated rather than work at the White House, out of concern his own voice would not be heard.

“Being on the White House staff was fun,” Bolton wrote. “But I wanted ‘line’ responsibility — to manage something and to change it, not simply to be ‘staff,’ even at the White House.”

Bolton’s start comes after the tortured exit for McMaster, Trump’s second national security adviser, a three-star general who never developed a strong personal bond with the president. While the White House said McMaster’s exit had been under discussion for some time and stressed it was not due to any one incident, it came after months of speculation about his future in the administration.
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Senator Tammy Duckworth has given birth to a baby girl, making her the first U.S. senator to give birth while in office.

The Illinois Democrat announced she delivered her second daughter, Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, on Monday. Her office says Duckworth is recovering well and asked for privacy.

Duckworth, a 50-year-old veteran who lost her legs in the Iraq War, is one of only 10 lawmakers who have given birth while in Congress. Her first daughter, Abigail, was born in 2014.

Duckworth says Maile’s middle name is in honor of Duckworth’s husband’s great aunt, Pearl Bowlsbey Johnson, who was an Army officer and nurse in World War II.

She says she’s grateful to friends and family and “our wonderful medical teams for everything they’ve done to help us in our decades-long journey to complete our family.”
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Senator Tammy Duckworth has given birth to a baby girl, making her the first U.S. senator to give birth while in office.

The Illinois Democrat announced she delivered her second daughter, Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, on Monday. Her office says Duckworth is recovering well and asked for privacy.

Duckworth, a 50-year-old veteran who lost her legs in the Iraq War, is one of only 10 lawmakers who have given birth while in Congress. Her first daughter, Abigail, was born in 2014.

Duckworth says Maile’s middle name is in honor of Duckworth’s husband’s great aunt, Pearl Bowlsbey Johnson, who was an Army officer and nurse in World War II.

She says she’s grateful to friends and family and “our wonderful medical teams for everything they’ve done to help us in our decades-long journey to complete our family.”
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