“He doesn’t like the way the media’s handling him. He doesn’t like how Kelly’s handling him. He’s turning on people that are very close to him.”

The relative dearth of global goodwill, some analysts say, may stem from anger at Trump over his “America First” approach to the world, which has irked even staunch U.S. allies.

...hugging storm victims, directly offering words of encouragement, and dripping sweat as he helped clear debris.

The Trump administration is slashing spending on advertising and promotion for enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, a move some critics charged was a blatant attempt to sabotage the law.

Four companies will build the prototypes in the San Diego area... The companies selected will each have 30 days to complete the projects after the agency gives them the order to proceed.

Tillerson has taken steps toward spending tens of millions of dollars to counter propaganda by Islamist extremists and governments such as Russia.

A series of explosions at a flood-damaged chemical plant outside Houston on Thursday drew sharp focus on hazards to public health and safety from the city’s vast petrochemical complex

Trump has consistently faced questions about his personal donations since The Washington Post reported last year that he has a poor track record of following through on his promises to give money.

GOP leaders had tentatively laid plans to pair a popular disaster relief package with a tough vote to raise the debt ceiling and keep the government open at month’s end. But their strategy is already running into headwinds, as the damage from the storm appears far too large for Congress to wait weeks to act.

The controversial lawman was best known for his frequent Fox News appearances, his firebrand right-wing views, and his unwavering support for President Trump.

...the State Department has ordered the Russian government to close its consulate general in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington, D.C., and a consular annex in New York City.

The Trump administration is looking to buy itself time on a decision on a popular program that protects young undocumented immigrants

The call followed a declaration earlier Wednesday from President Donald Trump that “the U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!”

This is the best photo they could find for "witnessing first hand"

"He met with a number of state and local officials who are eating, sleeping, breathing the Harvey disaster. He talked extensively with the governor, who certainly is right in the midst of every bit of this, as well as the mayors from several of the local towns that were hit hardest. And detailed briefing information throughout the day yesterday talking to a lot of the people on the ground. That certainly is a firsthand account."

His “power to grant reprieves and pardons” only covers “offenses against the United States,” according to Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution.

DeVos has hired a former official at the for-profit college DeVry University to run a unit that investigates for-profit college fraud

The judge’s ruling was only temporary, and prevents the law from taking effect on Friday while a suit against it goes forward.

“It was not an attempt to hide anything. It fully intends to be as transparent as possible. . . . I wanted to convey our apologies and our sincere regret for that.”

The cooperation is the latest indication that the federal probe into President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman is intensifying.

Trump has now drawn scrutiny not simply from critics of his racist rhetoric but from the court itself.

The president laid out several principles for tax reform, including cleaning the code of tax breaks and offering tax relief to middle-class families.

The overwhelming majority of people who wrote unique comments to the Federal Communications Commission want the FCC to keep its current net neutrality rules and classification of ISPs as common carriers

“We are working closely with the fleet to develop this important new capability, and this was a key milestone”

Five days after roaring ashore near Houston — leaving behind disastrous flooding and a mounting death toll that had reached at least 22 people — Harvey made landfall before dawn near tiny Cameron, La.

Peskov said it was one of many emails the Kremlin press office gets — since its email address is available online — and that the Kremlin did not reply to it.

It was a presidential trip to a deluged state where the president didn’t meet a single storm victim, see an inch of rain or get near a flooded street.

A ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation found last year that those who have overseen Houston’s flooding issues discounted scientists’ warnings as “anti-development.” In the coming months and years, the city may pay a high price for such shortsightedness.

Now that Houston and much of southeastern Texas is swamped by Hurricane Harvey, critics (including Northeastern lawmakers) have complained that Texas senators and members of Congress are seeking emergency federal aid but refused to back relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

"Once the panel reports its recommendations and following my consultation with the secretary of Homeland Security, I will provide my advice to the president concerning implementation of his policy direction," Mattis said in the statement. "In the interim, current policy with respect to currently serving members will remain in place."

15 of the individuals facing formal charges are Turkish security officials, who were seen roughing up protesters in various videos posted after the skirmish.

If newfound Kiwi Barnaby Joyce—whose father was born in New Zealand and who has now been confirmed to be a citizen by the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs—loses his seat, he may take the whole government down with him: The Liberal-National coalition holds the government by a one-vote majority.

Even after it became a widely accepted scientific fact that wetlands can soak up large amounts of flood water, the city continued to pave over them.

Trump has yet to brag about his electoral college victory in the state, but the day’s not over yet.

Hello darkness my old friend. / It’s time for him to tweet again,

The nonprofit group Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law requested the site be taken down, pointing to a clause in Network Solutions' policies that disallows sites on their domains "to display bigotry, discrimination or hatred."

Trump, miffed about the optics of empty seats in the Phoenix Convention Center, “later had his top security aide, Keith Schiller, inform Gigicos that he'd never manage a Trump rally again”

Meanwhile, the storm clouds continue to drench the region with an unprecedented deluge — reaching 43 inches since Friday in south Houston and surpassing 40 inches in several other places in around the city

“It’s highly unusual for senior aides and Cabinet officials to openly critique the president. To some degree, they were likely fed up with the current situation and don’t fear the consequences. What’s the worst that can happen? He fires you.”

“Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” Mr. Sater wrote in an email. “I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”

They're interested in learning what Trump knew about the meeting and whether he tried to hide its purpose.

Tillerson wants to eliminate at least 30 special envoy positions at the State Department, including ones dedicated to the Syrian crisis and closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

More specifically, Harvey is what climate change looks like in a world that has decided, over and over, that it doesn’t want to take climate change seriously.

The former Arizona sheriff struck a defiant tone in insisting he "didn't do anything wrong" and questioning whether his judge was fair.

Trump ... claimed he timed it to attract maximum attention as television viewers were glued to storm coverage.

DeSantis has put forward a provision that would halt funding for Mueller’s probe six months after the amendment’s passage. It also would prohibit Mueller from investigating matters that occurred before June 2015, when Trump launched his presidential campaign.

The missile flew over the northern island of Hokkaido and landed harmlessly in the sea, after a flight of nearly 1,700 miles.

The dispute to be aired Monday is over orders the Supreme Court issued in June and July outlining who would and would not get a short-term reprieve

“We felt disappointed and surprised by how many people were not in any way discreet about being with antifa — in fact being very bold and prepared to be violent.”

"If we don't begin releasing now, the volume of uncontrolled water around the dams will be higher and have a greater impact on the surrounding communities"

Last week, the Air Force announced major new contracts for an overhaul of the American nuclear force: $1.8 billion for initial development of a highly stealthy nuclear cruise missile, and nearly $700 million to begin replacing the 40-year-old Minuteman missiles in silos across the United States.

...the details of the deal ... provide evidence that Trump’s business was actively pursuing significant commercial interests in Russia at the same time he was campaigning to be president — and in a position to determine U.S.-Russia relations.

The group of more than 100 hooded protesters, with shields emblazoned with the words “no hate” and waving a flag identifying themselves as anarchist , busted through police lines, avoiding security checks by officers to take away possible weapons.

Trump plans to resume the transfer of surplus weapons, vehicles and other equipment from the nation’s military to its state and local law enforcement agencies, reviving a program which was sharply curtailed by President Barack Obama two years ago.

In the weeks leading up to the Charlottesville, Virginia white nationalist march that left one counterprotestor dead, organizers discussed inserting screws into flagpoles to be used as potential weapons and concealing firearms in the case of a “gunfight,” according to chatroom logs.

“I don't believe anyone doubts the American people's values or the commitment of the American government or the government’s agencies to advancing those values and defending those values.”

The giant forward steps we have taken in recent years on civil liberties and civil rights and human rights are being met by a ferocious pushback from the oldest and darkest forces in America.

As the effects of climate change play out, the risks posed by storms like Katrina and Harvey only stand to get worse.

Parts of Harris County, which includes Houston, have seen more than 20 inches of rain in the last 24 hours.

Trump on Twitter plugged a book by controversial Sheriff David Clarke in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

In the face of overwhelming popular and political opposition, a far-right activist canceled a press conference hastily scheduled for Saturday afternoon that some feared would provoke violent confrontations in the heart of San Francisco.

...they cited both specific shortfalls in the administration’s approach to cybersecurity, and broader concerns that Trump and his administration have undermined the “moral infrastructure” of the U.S.

Even the greatest of nations may suffer a catastrophic leader, but the nation can survive the test and protect its resilience — if the public stays true to its values, institutions and traditions. That was true two millennia ago, and remains true today.

Insurers are also awaiting Senate hearings set to start on Sept. 6 for a hint of what steps, if any, lawmakers may take to stabilize the market.

Written by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, the dossier asserted that the Russian government had cultivated Trump for several years, garnering compromising information about him in the process. Some of the dossier’s claims have been verified, others disproved.

Trump thus used his constitutional power to block a federal judge’s effort to enforce the Constitution. Legal experts said they found this to be the most troubling aspect of the pardon, given that it excused the lawlessness of an official who had sworn to defend the constitutional structure.

His effort to see if the case could be dropped showed a troubling disregard for the traditional wall between the White House and the Justice Department

And in mid-August, in the midst of hurricane season and less than two weeks prior to Hurricane Harvey making landfall, Trump rescinded another Executive Order put in place to protect communities from the devastation wreaked by natural disasters.

Images of downed trees and lamposts and darkened streets began trickling in early in the day, after the storm roared ashore at 10 p.m. Central time Friday with 130 mph winds — the strongest hurricane to hit the United States since Wilma in 2005.

Immigration authorities will require an in-person interview for certain applicants for green cards, a change likely to slow the process of obtaining one.

In other words, it's transparent Trump is doing controversial things he knows are controversial, and he and the White House would prefer the public and the media not focus on it.

White nationalism isn’t simply an extremist political ideology. It is an alt-religious movement that provides its adherents with its own twisted version of what all religions supply to adherents: identity, a personal sense of who I am; community, a social sense of where I belong; and purpose, a spiritual sense of why my life matters.

The requests suggest that Mueller’s investigators are looking closely at Manafort and Flynn

...although it defers to the Pentagon on whether to remove those now in uniform and leaves open the door for it to seek changes.

...two of the North's missiles failed in flight after an unspecified distance, and another appeared to have blown up immediately.

"Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he is no longer with the White House"

He ran a jail that he described as a "concentration camp." Prisoners there died at an alarming rate, often without explanation.

...Arpaio, who was convicted last month of criminal contempt for ignoring a federal judge’s order to stop detaining people because he merely suspected them of being undocumented immigrants.

Cohn lashed Trump’s comments earlier this month ... saying ... that “citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.”

Battening down the hatches as the potentially disastrous situation unfolded, Texans braced themselves Friday for President Trump’s response to Hurricane Harvey.

"We're so used to Trump conflicts of interest and abuse of office, that when he promotes his vineyard and lies about it, it's just a blip."

...after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman last week publicly questioned the president's stability and competence.

Extremely dangerous Hurricane Harvey intensified into a powerful Category 2 hurricane overnight Thursday.

On this trip it was able to keep up an average speed of 14 knots despite sailing through ice that was over one metre thick in places.

Even in red America, state-level officials did not want to see their health-care markets fail, and they worked to convince insurers to cover less desirable areas.

Many have declared their intention to stockpile their shitpiles for days in advance, then deliver them in bags for the site.

The group filed a Freedom of Information Act request for “copies of all records concerning authorization for and the costs of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s use of a government plane to travel to Lexington, Kentucky on Monday, August 21, accompanied by his wife Louise Linton.”

Russia's ambassador to Sudan was found dead Wednesday in Khartoum. That's the seventh Russian diplomat to have died since November last year

The White House isn't even pretending that Mexico is going to pay for that wall anymore.

...the secretary recommended reducing the size of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, as well as Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

...despite arguments that doing so would impinge on their First Amendment rights and stifle online political discourse.

...shortly after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) introduced a bill that would let Mueller appeal his firing in court, Trump called up Tillis, signaled he was “unhappy” with the bill and said he didn’t want it to pass.

How partisan Twitter users saw and shared different narratives of Charlottesville and the aftermath.

While many details around the Dearborn email are unclear, its existence suggests the Russians may have been looking for another entry point into the Trump campaign

Kelly initiated a new policymaking process in which just he and one other aide ... will review all documents that cross the Resolute Desk.

Right before his departure, he was profiled ... as the staffer the White House pays “$89,000 a year to spot and distribute positive stories from the mainstream media.”

Like many of North Korea's foreign partners, Egypt's relationship with Pyongyang goes back to the Cold War, when North Korean fighter pilots helped train their Egyptian counterparts ahead of the 1973 war with Israel.

Trump is preparing to give the Defense Department formal authority to expel transgender people from the military in an upcoming order

“They’re trying to take away our culture. They are trying to take away our history,” Trump said. “And our weak leaders, they do it overnight . . . Weak, weak people.”

...to signal the city mourning the death of Heather Heyer, who was killed August 12 when a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters who had gathered to oppose a rally of white nationalist and other right-wing organizations.

A federal judge has ruled that changes Texas made to its voter identification law earlier this year did not go far enough to render the state's policy constitutional.

Is Trump trying to heal the wounds of a country torn over this month’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville? Or is he trying to pull it further apart?

Perhaps the most interesting part of the letter, however, is the way the first letter of each paragraph forms an acrostic that spells out "impeach."

Initial reports from Cairo were that a scheduled meeting between Kushner and Foreign Ministry Sameh Shoukry was cancelled in a show of Egypt’s displeasure. But State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the reports were wrong

The Secret Service has agreed to stop erasing White House visitor log data while a lawsuit demanding public access to some of the information goes forward.

Trump’s vow Tuesday to close down the government if he doesn’t get money for the border wall mirrors private comments he has made to advisers in recent days

This follows an incident Monday in which the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with a merchant ship.

Egypt’s top diplomat, Sameh Shoukry, was to meet with the U.S. delegation headed by Kushner, but a modified version of the minister’s schedule showed the meeting had been called off, shortly after the Americans landed in Cairo.

Sources with knowledge of the August 9 call said the exchange quickly devolved into a shouting match as an irate Trump expressed his frustrations about the congressional investigation into Russian interference with the US election last year and fumed about a Russia sanctions bill

“China especially opposes any country conducting ‘long-arm jurisdiction' over Chinese entities and individuals”

For Richard Spencer, ... the Kremlin stands as the “most powerful white power in the world.”

...the Trump ecstasy tablets, known to have high levels of MDMA, have been spreading around Europe, selling for more than $10 a pill.

“I can’t describe a Trump rally other than they’re the most fun things to go to”

“The only people giving a platform to these hate groups is the media itself and the fake news”

...as a sign of displeasure over human rights concerns and a new law placing strict restrictions on aid groups working in the country.

What was once an uneasy governing alliance has curdled into a feud of mutual resentment and sometimes outright hostility, complicated by the position of Mr. McConnell’s wife, Elaine L. Chao, in Mr. Trump’s cabinet

The new sanctions affect six individuals and 10 organizations with financial ties to Pyongyang’s weapons program.

...when he travels to Arizona for his first campaign rally since he caused an uproar with his remarks about a white nationalist demonstration in Virginia.

Kushner departed on Sunday and is set to arrive in Israel Wednesday night for meetings on Thursday. The traveling American delegation was meeting with leaders from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia in the days before.

North Korea routinely issues such warlike rhetoric or conducts weapons tests to respond to the U.S.-South Korean exercises.

Gianforte (R-Mont.) wasn’t arrested after he slammed a news reporter to the ground on the eve of his special election in May. ... But a county judge has ruled that the Republican congressman still has to come in to be photographed and fingerprinted for his crime

Only one thing was clear after President Trump’s vague speech: Nobody knows what to do.

A banner headline blasted the president’s decision to extend the U.S. military commitment in Afghanistan as a “flip-flop” that “reverses course.”

I witnessed a terrorist attack in Charlottesville. Then the conspiracy theories began.

The spouses of recent Treasury chiefs rarely traveled on official business with their husbands

In the end, these officials said, Mr. Trump accepted the logic that a “big military” approach was needed to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a launching pad for terrorism against the United States.

As a candidate, Trump denounced Afghanistan as a “total disaster” and railed that the costly conflict in Central Asia drained enormous resources at a time of more pressing needs at home for American taxpayers.

Trump eventually put on special viewing glasses and watched the solar eclipse for about 90 seconds.

“What would you do if we asked you to write something that wasn’t true?”

Trump, who has been accused by lawmakers of dragging his feet on Afghanistan, has settled on a new strategy to carry on the nearly 16-year-old conflict there

The U.S. embassy in Russia says it will suspend issuing nonimmigrant visas in Moscow for eight days and will stop issuing visas at its consulates elsewhere in Russia in response to the Russian decision to cap embassy staff.

...more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.

...the latest example of how GOP political committees are generating a steady income stream for President Trump’s private business

The two worked out a mutually amicable departure date for mid-August, with President Trump’s blessing.

The long view of the Russian active measures program is chaos and disunity among the American government. Anytime there is a rift - it doesn't matter if it's at the White House or the local level - they want to amplify those rifts.

...the unrest in Charlottesville last week showed that the statues had become rallying points for white supremacists instead of educational tools about the nation’s history.

The charter for the 15-person Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment ... expires Sunday. On Friday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s acting administrator, Ben Friedman, informed the committee’s chair that the agency would not renew the panel.

A group of alumni from one of the country's most influential evangelical Christian universities is condemning their school's president for his continued alignment with President Trump.

The white supremacists, nationalists and far-right trolls who starred in last weekend’s violent Charlottesville rallies have suffered no lack of humiliation in the days since.

“The entire mainland United States is within our range!”

“Let’s be honest, the people who are currently outraged are the same people who have always been outraged,” said Ms. Hicks, 35, a lifelong Republican who lives in Boston. “The media makes it seem like something has changed, when in reality nothing has.”

“At what point does a principled party stand up for its principles?”

“What it does not do is remove the person who’s creating the most drama in the White House, and that’s Donald Trump,” the strategist added. “He’s going to continue to do what he’s going to do.”

—Merriam-Webster

Tens of thousands of counterprotesters crammed Boston Common and marched through city streets Saturday morning in efforts to drown out the planned “free speech” rally that many feared would be attended by white-supremacist groups.

...an unlikely surge of Republican lawmakers has begun taking steps to distance themselves from the GOP’s hard line on climate change.

It requires a big leap in logic to presume an ad in North Carolina has anything to do with protesters clashing in Virginia. We rate this statement False.

...probably...

Alex Jones—the infamous conspiracy theorist/snake-oil peddler who runs Infowars—visited the largely liberal city of Seattle Friday.

“Now I’m free,” he said. “I’ve got my hands back on my weapons. Someone said, ‘It’s Bannon the Barbarian.’ I am definitely going to crush the opposition.”

“We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over.”

“There was a deepening conflict of values between myself and the administration”

More than half of the members of the 15-person Digital Economy Board of Advisors, an expert board set up last year by the Obama administration to help the federal government navigate the digital economy, are known to have resigned this week

The members of Trump’s Arts Council left an intentional hidden message in their resignation letter: the first letter of each paragraph spells out R-E-S-I-S-T, a reference to a popular anti-Trump rallying cry.

The Juggalo March on Washington, a protest against the government’s classification of Juggalos as a gang, will take place at the National Mall on Sept. 16, the same day as the pro-Trump “Mother of All Rallies.” There’s no love lost between the two sides.

—Nihilist Arby's

“White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day”

"The President has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful,"

The gilded and glittering Mar-a-Lago has been a favorite spot for holding charity events and a money maker for the Trump Organization.

The Secret Service said it is “looking into the comments,” adding that all threats made against the president, vice president and other protected persons are investigated, whether the threats are direct, implied or made in passing

He’s only a fascist of convenience: For the guy in charge, “fascism” just means everybody pays attention to him all the time.

For every meter the neo-Nazis marched, local residents and businesses pledged to donate 10 euros (then equivalent to about $12.50) to a program that helps people leave right-wing extremist groups

The latest from the Economist depicts the president bellowing into a white, conical megaphone — with eye holes that lend the appearance of a Ku Klux Klan hood. The clear implication is that Trump has amplified the message of white supremacists

...making clear that it is focused on diplomatic and economic pressure, and that American military action is currently contemplated only in response to an attack by Pyongyang.

Unlike most of the counterdemonstrators in Charlottesville and elsewhere, members of antifa have shown no qualms about using their fists, sticks or canisters of pepper spray to meet an array of right-wing antagonists whom they call a fascist threat to American democracy.

“President Trump has failed the presidential test of moral leadership. No moral president would ever shy away from outright condemning hate, intolerance and bigotry.”

Most people who are on the Trump train say they are definitely, absolutely never getting off -- no matter what.

The idea that pig’s blood could serve as a weapon against Muslims has been around in popular culture for decades.

“At this highly divisive political moment, especially as many Trump decisions are likely soon to reach the court’s docket, one just days later, a healthy respect for public confidence in the court should have led Justice Gorsuch to demur”

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the violence

Most of the statues were erected in the 1890s, as Jim Crow laws were being established, and in the 1950s, during a period of Southern resistance to the civil rights movement.

The gesture remained symbolic when law enforcement officials declined to take anyone who hadn't had a warrant issued for their arrest into custody

Trump’s decision to double down on his argument that “both sides” were to blame ... was driven in part by his own anger — and his disdain for being told what to do.

Despite the militias’ public statements of neutrality, evidence has mounted over the past six months that the militias have gravitated decisively toward one side in the street battles that have played out recently in cities across the country.

Among other things, he is rolling back an Obama-era order that infrastructure projects, like roads and bridges, be designed to survive rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change.

A case study in how a cluster of websites managed to pose as legitimate sources and, despite being exposed, got away with it

Shortly thereafter, the site that takes its name from Der Stürmer, a newspaper that published Nazi propaganda, disappeared again. Anglin said he was struggling to find a domain registry service whose terms of service allow for the content he produces.

“You cannot be against General Lee and be for General Washington,” the email reads, “there literally is no difference between the two men.”

Although members of the “alt-right” insist they're not racist, from a practical standpoint it's been tricky, if not impossible, to find any daylight between the views they espouse and plain old white supremacy.

But Bannon was in high spirits when he phoned me Tuesday afternoon to discuss the politics of taking a harder line with China, and minced no words describing his efforts to neutralize his rivals at the Departments of Defense, State, and Treasury.

The doctored photograph ... turned out to be a Getty Image shot in 2009 during clashes between police officers and protesters in Athens, Greece.

“I see no equivalence between those who propound fascist views and those who oppose them,"

The sudden breakout of leaks as President Donald Trump blusters dangerously about meeting Kim’s threats with “fire and fury” has led well-intentioned observers to see echoes of the run-up to the Iraq war.

The defections left Mr. Trump all but isolated from the business leaders whose approval he covets.

"I believe the initiative is no longer an effective vehicle for 3M to advance" its goals, Thulin said

"But when I saw the images of those white men in polos carrying Party City tiki torches and weapons, it’s pretty clear American white tribal politics are alive and well, explicitly fueled by President Trump’s regime."

“I stand with the president, and I stand by those words.”

A combative and unrestrained President Donald Trump opened his authentic political soul, in possibly the most memorable news conference in presidential history, that is certain to become a defining moment of his administration.

...we have taken the position that the term “alt-right” should be avoided because it is meant as a euphemism to disguise racist aims.

“We must be clear,” Ryan said after Trump’s remarks. “White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity.”

The president used many of their talking points, condemning the left-wing groups that animate their rage and defending monuments to Confederate leaders who tried to protect slavery.

“What about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt right? Do they have any semblance of guilt?”

“We’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon,” Mr. Trump said, consigning him to the same purgatory recently occupied by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, another loyalist who ran afoul of his boss.

The decision to rescind the grant highlights the fundamentally different approach between Mr. Trump and his predecessor, Barack Obama, over whether Muslim extremists or white supremacist groups pose a greater domestic threat.

Paul is joining Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of major pharmaceutical company Merck; Kevin Plank, the CEO of Under Armour; and Brian Krzanich, the CEO of Intel, who all resigned from the president’s council Monday.

“Nothing can stop the #TrumpTrain!!"

"He's a fascist, so not unusual"

After failing to win the popular vote, President Trump has instead governed on behalf of an increasingly vocal but diminishing minority.

What we witnessed Saturday was the terrifying but logical outcome of our escalating, toxic politics of hate. I’ve seen it happen before.

A campaign to name and shame people who marched at a bloody right-wing rally in Charlottesville has so far prompted two universities to condemn white supremacy — even as the outed students defend their decisions to attend.

The statue, which depicts a uniformed and armed Confederate soldier, stood atop an engraved pedestal that read, “In memory of ‘the boys who wore the gray.’ ”

"Don’t Be a Sucker’s" viewers thought Americans were too smart to be taken in by fascists, and they were reluctant to draw parallels between Nazi rhetoric abroad and racist, anti-immigration rhetoric at home.

The adviser, George Papadopoulos, offered to set up “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump,” telling them his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity

“I have never felt like the government or police were against me,” said white nationalist leader Richard Spencer

Trump told Fox News he is “seriously considering” issuing a pardon for former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted last month of criminal contempt for ignoring a judge’s order to stop detaining people because he merely suspected them of being undocumented immigrants.

"He has not apologized. He's quite frank about his concerns and expressed them openly"

“In essence, the Search Warrant not only aims to identify the political dissidents of the current administration, but attempts to identify and understand what content each of these dissidents viewed on the website”

Trump, after two days of issuing equivocal statements, bowed to overwhelming pressure that he personally condemn white supremacists who incited bloody weekend demonstrations in Charlottesville.

...criticizing “racist violence” in remarks that were much more direct in their condemnation than his initial, widely panned response.

“Hahahaha love this, maybe people shouldn’t block roads.”

—Kenneth C. Frazier, Chairman and CEO, Merck

North Korea’s success ... was made possible by black-market purchases of powerful rocket engines probably from a Ukrainian factory with historical ties to Russia’s missile program

"I believe that people become radicalized, or extremist, because they're searching for three very fundamental human needs: identity, community and a sense of purpose."

Old-guard groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations and the Nazi skinheads, which had long stood at the center of racist politics in America, were largely absent.

For Signer, Trump’s repeated failure to “condone, denounce, silence, put to bed” the white supremacist voices that invoked his name during the campaign and after he won the White House is why Charlottesville was besieged with violence on Saturday.

Protesters began to mace one another, throwing water bottles and urine-filled balloons — some of which hit reporters — and beating each other with flagpoles, clubs and makeshift weapons.

The Trump administration is giving health insurance companies more time to calculate price increases for 2018 because of uncertainty caused by the president’s threat to cut off crucial subsidies

A United States-Mexico treaty prohibits building a wall or levee in the Rio Grande floodplain, so the map shows the wall being built well north of the river. But that means it will slice through countless pieces of private property and bisect several major wildlife refuges.

In his remarks Sunday, the vice president made it clear that he also had no sympathy for the groups that confronted the white supremacists as they marched.

In March, in response to Native Americans demonstrating against Trump’s support for the Dakota Access Pipeline, Daily Caller editor Katie Frates tweeted, and then deleted, “I wonder how many #NativeNationsRise #NoDAPL protestors I could run over before I got arrested #getoutofmyway”.

The Trump administration tried to reframe the president’s earlier, vague statement that blamed “many sides” for violence in Charlottesville

He then accused Bannon ... of being a bad influence on the president and advised Trump to distance himself from him.

Police said the U.S. national is under investigation for violating German laws prohibiting Nazi symbols

“The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice," Sessions stated. "When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.”

The efforts come as the GOP push to repeal and replace the law is in disarray and state officials in both red and blue states seek ways to shore up their shaky markets.

The more convincing explanation for Trump’s moral failure is that he is, and always has been, completely disconnected from any understanding of the American political tradition. ... For Trump, there is no past; only himself, rising as a self-creation out of the mist. He feels no need to speak against the poison of bigotry because he has no clue about how that poison has infected our past, and still infects our present.

'Trump comments were good, He didn't attack us. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him,' says white nationalist

Republican and Democratic political leaders swiftly condemned white supremacists in the aftermath. But there was one curious exception from the near-universal censures: the president currently facing the most serious domestic crisis of his administration.

For the extreme right, ... the entire Unite the Right rally was potentially a false flag perpetrated by the Democrats and their enablers in the Deep State

Trump’s allies are particularly concerned about Mr. Mueller’s interest in talking to Mr. Priebus ... Mr. Trump’s confidants at the White House say Mr. Trump was never fully convinced that Mr. Priebus would be loyal to him.

White nationalists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday and Saturday to protest the city’s decision to take down Confederate monuments. But not only have the protests done nothing to change Charlottesville’s mind on this issue, it’s apparently prompted at least one other city to speed up action to remove its Confederate statues as well.

—Anne Frank Center

"We condemn in the strongest most possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides," Trump said.

Three people died and about 35 were injured in a day of violence that began with clashes at a white nationalist rally on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.

The demonstration, which both organizers and critics had said was the largest gathering of white nationalists in recent years, turned violent almost immediately and left several people injured.

But the rhetoric and imagery of Charlottesville, in which the tropes of the Ku Klux Klan — including the burning torches of Friday’s protest — and the trappings of Nazism collide, is particularly unsettling.

After a week of threats and counter-threats between Washington and Pyongyang, Xi urged both sides not to do anything that would aggravate tensions

“He possesses the judgment to stay away from things that can create problems later”

Chanting “White lives matter!” “You will not replace us!” and “Jews will not replace us!” several hundred white nationalists and white supremacists carrying torches marched in a parade through the University of Virginia campus Friday night.

“Science should not be something that’s just thrown about to try to dictate policy in Washington, D.C.”

Manigault, director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison and an assistant to president under Donald Trump, repeatedly received jeers and groans from the crowd from her comments, many of them attempts to sidestep questions about her role in the Trump White House

Doors to the floor are now frequently locked, and employees have to have an escort to gain entrance. Some employees say they are also told to leave behind their cellphones when they meet with Mr. Pruitt, and are sometimes told not to take notes.

The list of people he has been willing, even eager, to publicly attack includes not just Mitch McConnell, his latest target, but Jeff Sessions, Chuck Schumer, Paul D. Ryan, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

“The latest statements by the President of the United States of America adopt a tone almost indistinguishable from the threats emanating from North Korea. While no doubt intended to project strength and resolve, they risk taking the world yet closer to the precipice of conflict.”

Trump on Monday will call for an investigation into China over allegations that the nation violated U.S. intellectual property rights and forced technology transfers

Trump said he has “many options” for Venezuela, “including a possible military operation, if necessary.”

When Congress returns in September the House will have just 12 legislative days to raise the federal borrowing limit to avoid default — and the same amount of time to approve a spending deal to avert a government shutdown.

“I hope you suffer the same painful fate as those millions that you have voted to remove health care from,” one constituent told LaMalfa. “May you die in pain.”

The chief White House strategist is increasingly isolated in the West Wing as new chief of staff John Kelly tries to clamp down on negative news stories.

China won’t come to North Korea’s help if it launches missiles threatening U.S. soil and there is retaliation, a state-owned newspaper warned on Friday, but it would intervene if Washington strikes first.

At the root of investors’ nervousness was a jump in the VIX, the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index. Known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, the index measures investor expectations that stocks will experience sharp moves in the future.

Lord’s responded by tweeting back “Sieg Heil!,” a phrase used by Nazi-party members at political rallies. It means “hail victory” and is so closely associated with Adolf Hitler that its use is banned in Germany.

“I haven’t given it any thought. Well, I’ve been reading about it from you people. You say, ‘Oh, I’m going to dismiss him.’ No, I’m not dismissing anybody. I mean, I want them to get on with the task.”

“They’ve been doing this to our country for a long time, for many years, and it’s about time that somebody stuck up for the people of this country and for the people of other countries. So if anything, maybe that statement wasn’t tough enough.”

"I want to thank him because we're trying to cut down our payroll and as far as I'm concerned I'm very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll."

In a press conference later in the day, a reporter asked Trump whether McConnell should step aside as majority leader. "Well, I'll tell you what, if he doesn't get repeal and replace done and if he doesn't get taxes done, meaning cuts and reform, and if he doesn't get a very easy one to get done, infrastructure, if he doesn't get them done, then you can ask me that question"

Part of the reason Manafort is getting intense early scrutiny is that Mueller is drawing on investigations that were well underway, including one by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, when he was appointed in May.

If Donald Trump were to say that the 2020 presidential election should be postponed until the country can make sure that only eligible American citizens can vote, would you support or oppose postponing the election?

North Korea said Thursday that it was drawing up plans to launch four intermediate-range ballistic missiles into waters near Guam in the Western Pacific to teach President Trump a lesson

...likening the present-day US to the "escalating steps of oppression" that led to Holocaust in the 1930s and 1940s.

On one level, the officials said, he is something of a laughing stock among Europeans at international gatherings.

A 1992 agreement known as the Treaty on Open Skies allows each country to conduct surveillance flights over the other's territory

People started freaking out on Wednesday afternoon when a giant inflatable chicken resembling Donald Trump appeared outside the White House.

If America wants peace it has one option. Better journalism. Stop talking about what NK is capable of and start talking about what NK wants: the status quo.

A lawsuit contending that President Donald Trump's business dealings with and in foreign countries violate the Constitution is set to get a public airing in October in a New York federal courtroom.

While the last thing Republicans on the Hill need is another example of their total incompetence, the White House seems to be cheering on a confrontation.

Democrats have vowed to oppose funding for a border wall, making it probably the biggest threat to an early October closure.

The piece of paper, as it turned out, was a fact sheet on the opioid crisis he had come to talk about, and his ominous warning to Pyongyang was entirely improvised, according to several people with direct knowledge of what unfolded.

Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26

“I am worried those comments are not helpful when the situation is so tense, and I think you are seeing reaction from North Korea that indicates that kind of comment is more likely to escalate than to settle things" —New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English

“I think what the president was doing was sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong-un would understand, because he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language,” said Tillerson.

Trump could quietly publish the special report this year and the broader assessment when the final version is due in 2018. He could also make the case that the findings should be tempered by the economic effects that fighting climate change could have on American workers and businesses. Or, as some scientists fear, he could try to alter or suppress the special report before it is actually released.

Trump's comments drew a counter threat from North Korea, which said it is 'carefully examining' a preemptive strike on Guam.

—Donald J. Trump 2:46 AM - 31 Aug 2013

Trump used his harshest language yet to warn North Korea on Tuesday that it will be “met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before,” if it does not stop threatening the United States.

North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles, crossing a key threshold on the path to becoming a full-fledged nuclear power

Ayers had for months been quietly warning the vice president that Trump’s troubles could cause collateral damage and that he needed to take a more aggressive posture on a range of issues to ensure he enters the post-Trump era on solid ground

...the folders are filled with screenshots of positive cable news chyrons (those lower-third headlines and crawls), admiring tweets, transcripts of fawning TV interviews, praise-filled news stories, and sometimes just pictures of Trump on TV looking powerful.

“There’s a great rule: All initial reports are false,” Gorka said. “You have to check them and find out who the perpetrators are. We’ve had a series of crimes committed, alleged hate crimes by right wing individuals in the last six months that turned out to be prop propagated by the left.”

“We are wondering why President Trump has not tweeted about this. He seems to want to tweet about security and terror issues.”

It’s basically the opposite of a major government infrastructure program.

Without adding any comment of his own, Trump, who regularly decries leaks to the media, retweeted to his more than 35 million followers a link to the day-old story, which was featured Tuesday morning on “Fox & Friends”

How the Fox morning show evolved into Donald Trump’s posse.

After the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, other nations launch 27 separate negotiations to undercut U.S. exporters.

"Thank you for joining us as we provide the news of the week from Trump Tower here in New York."

Indeed, walking away from the Iran deal ... would not only open up a now dormant nuclear crisis with Tehran, it would also close down perhaps the only option that might prevent a far more dangerous crisis with North Korea.

The National Academy of Sciences has signed off on the draft report, and the authors are awaiting permission from the Trump administration to release it.

On Sunday, Twitter suspended the Mincey account, known as @ProTrump45, after several other users revealed that it was probably a fake, created to amplify pro-Trump content.

This was an underwhelming way to attract local job-seekers. But that wasn’t the point. The ads were actually part of Mar-a-Lago’s efforts to hire foreign workers for those 35 jobs.

Both men received multiple draft deferments during the Vietnam War

Russian-linked bots and trolls have caused a surge in use of the hashtag #ResignPaulRyan on Twitter over the last 48 hours

He is both faulting the media for allegedly downplaying the size and intensity of support from his base and accusing them of trying to deliberately weaken that support for him.

The U.S. has yet to decide on what retaliatory steps it would take, Tillerson said, only that those steps would be taken by Sept. 1.

This year, on the first day of its term, the Supreme Court will consider the much-anticipated Gill v. Whitford. That case brings up the hot-button question of whether a state legislature may draw electoral districts that favor one party over another.

North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho blamed the US for the current situation on the Korean Peninsula and said Pyongyang's "possession of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles is a legitimate option for self-defence in the face of a clear and real nuclear threat posed by the US"

This projection of vice, claiming of victimhood, and complaining about vanishing privileges make Trump an ideal front man for the kind of cultural anxiety, desperation and anger that disguises itself as a benign debate about public policy.

In a series of tweets from Bedminster, N.J., where Trump is on what aides describe as a 17-day “working vacation,” he ticked off a number of factors that he said have “driven the Trump base even closer together.”

The change will allow Sinclair — a company known for injecting "must run" conservative segments into its local programming — to reach 72 percent of U.S. households after buying Tribune’s stations. That’s nearly double the congressionally imposed nationwide audience cap of 39 percent.

During the Obama administration, the Interior Department seized on the issue of climate change and temporarily banned new coal leases on public lands as it examined the consequences for the environment.

“The special counsel is subject to the rules and regulations of the Department of Justice, and we don’t engage in fishing expeditions”

Calling it "disgraceful and offensive," Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday denounced a New York Times report that he is quietly building his own shadow campaign for 2020.

“We don’t prosecute journalists for doing their jobs,” Mr. Rosenstein said on “Fox News Sunday.” “That’s not our goal here.”

...the man of the moment here ... was the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, a dashing diplomat who unlike Mr. Tillerson held a news conference and direct talks with his North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong.

Pence’s schedule is so full of political events that Republicans joke that he is acting more like a second-term vice president hoping to clear the field than a No. 2 sworn in a little over six months ago.

Hiroshima’s appeal of “never again” on the anniversary Sunday of the world’s first atomic bomb attack has gained urgency as North Korea moves ever closer to acquiring nuclear weapons

Fox News Channel suspended longtime host Eric Bolling on Saturday, amid a report that he sent lewd texts to female co-workers at the network.

Miller, a senior policy adviser to President Trump who is known for his hard-line views on immigration policy and his fiery exchanges with reporters, could expand his portfolio to include communications

The occasion is the annual ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean

The resolution ... could reduce the isolated country’s already meager annual export revenue by $1 billion, or about a third of its current total.

Conway said Friday the Justice Department might consider using lie detector tests to find out who has been leaking information to media

We organized the high-profile members of President Trump's West Wing staff into six key groups, based on their backgrounds and allegiances. Many are members of two or three of these groups.

"Taxes" is circled in red and has three exclamation points. ... "Offshoring," "illegal immigration," "crime," and "welfare," are also listed as top priorities on the whiteboard.

...a SuperPAC linked to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says it will spend seven figures to defend him — including fending off any primary challenge.

Hey, it works in Canada.

With Obama gone and Clinton back home in Chappaqua, that role is now filled by the “violent left” and the media. Since the violent left is a bit nebulous, it seems that the media will enjoy the majority of the NRA’s focus.

Though not a formal subpoena, the document request is the first known instance of Mr. Mueller’s team asking the White House to hand over records.

Insurers have warned for months that they need certainty from Washington in order to decide where they will sell Obamacare plans and how much to charge.

The White House had been preparing for a Friday announcement in which Trump planned to urge his administration to open a trade investigation into China’s alleged violations of U.S. intellectual property rights and forced technology transfers

Under the terms of the Paris deal, the U.S. can’t fully withdraw until Nov. 4, 2020 — one day after the next presidential election.

“Very few people know who’s going to get axed next, but if you’re viewed as a Flynnstone it’s a liability”

Sessions has come under harsh criticism from President Trump, who accuses him of (among other things) not doing enough to plug leaks.

McMaster has angered the political right by pushing out several conservatives on the national security staff and cautioning against ripping up the nuclear agreement with Iran negotiated by President Barack Obama without a strategy for what comes next.

Two Republican House Intelligence Committee staffers traveled to London earlier this summer to track down the former British intelligence operative who compiled a controversial dossier on President Donald Trump and Russia

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), doing wrap up for the entire Senate, locked in nine "pro-forma" sessions — brief meetings that normally last roughly a minute.

...bringing a historically unproductive period of governance to a close for Republicans, who failed to produce any major legislative achievements despite controlling Congress and the White House.

Senate leaders want to just drop the issue altogether. Conservatives say they’re still fighting for repeal. Moderates want to launch a bipartisan effort to fix the shaky Obamacare system.

Trump made clear that he thinks he deserves credit for the latest record high, tweeting, “That doesn’t just happen!”

Kelly cuts off rambling advisers midsentence. He listens in on conversations between cabinet secretaries and the president. He has booted lingering staff members out of high-level meetings, and ordered the doors of the Oval Office closed to discourage strays.

So what is a “cosmopolitan”? It’s a cousin to “elitist,” but with a more sinister undertone. It’s a way of branding people or movements that are unmoored to the traditions and beliefs of a nation, and identify more with like-minded people regardless of their nationality.

maybe "local milk people" is what Trump calls cows

"But the fact is we are both in a little bit of a political bind because I have to have Mexico pay for the wall – I have to."

Competing bipartisan Senate bills introduced Thursday put President Donald Trump on further notice that any move to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller wouldn’t go down without a serious fight.

It means Mueller believes that there is sufficient evidence that a crime was committed to warrant a criminal investigation.

“The Statue of Liberty says, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’”

...the United States on Wednesday tested an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, sending it 4,200 miles to a target in the Marshall Islands.

In the wake of Scaramucci’s departure, Spicer ... briefly considered staying on at the White House

Trump administration officials ... are imploring Congress to raise the $19.8 trillion debt limit with no strings attached by the end of September.

The funding “will work out in the formula somehow,” Trump said, adding later that “it will come out in the wash, and that is okay.” But “if you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that.”

The Supreme Court allowed parts of the travel ban to go forward, in a victory that would not have happened without Neil Gorsuch on the court

“As stated on the call earlier today, you and your staff are NOT to engage with the media or Congressional representatives at this time,”

When the story was deleted in May, a statement was left in its place that said the network would "continue to investigate" the situation and "provide updates as warranted." More than two months have gone by, but no updates have been made available.

Trump objected to several provisions that he argued intruded into his constitutional powers to conduct foreign affairs.

The latest to go was Ezra Cohen-Watnick

Arguing that the United States has taken in too many low-skilled immigrants for too long, Mr. Trump ... put his weight behind their bill that would judge applicants for legal residency on the basis of education, language ability and job abilities that would benefit the country.

Then along came Vladimir Putin... He promised to make Russia great again

"I wouldn't say it was a lie," Sanders told reporters

The president issued two statements outlining his concerns with the bill, which he called “seriously flawed,” primarily because it limits his ability to negotiate sanctions without congressional approval.

Tillerson aide R.C. Hammond suggested the money is unwelcome because any extra funding for programs to counter Russian media influence would anger Moscow

A top official of the National Security Council was fired last month after arguing in a memo that President Trump is under sustained attack from subversive forces both within and outside the government who are deploying Maoist tactics to defeat President Trump’s nationalist agenda.

...to chop up American politics into a collection of basic ideologies that shape people’s political lives, and then see how ideas like “political party” sit uncomfortably on top of them

Instead of transforming the Republican Party, Trump has assembled the most conservative administration and agenda of any modern president.

..as Trump put it in a tweet in 2011, “plays golf to escape work while America goes down the drain.”

Greg Andres started on Tuesday, becoming the 16th lawyer on the team

“Anybody else just love leaking information to the press, or have any fun leaking stories they want to tell? It’s totally cool if you do; everybody’s doing it”

...the reason he frequented the golf property so often was because "that White House is a real dump."

“The Chief Scout Executive’s message to the Scouting community speaks for itself,” the organization said, referring to a July 27 statement from Michael Surbaugh, ... who apologized to anyone in the scouting community who could have been offended or alarmed by the political rhetoric in the speech.

“And I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful.”

North Korea test-fires a new missile. Some of the Pentagon’s most advanced warplanes fly over South Korea in a grim display of strength. Seoul’s new government nervously starts buying new weapons. And here at home, President Donald Trump bashes China for failing to press Pyongyang to rein in its nuclear program.

But what was more notable was his public acknowledgment that "bad" officers were contributing to a lack of community trust.

The last health care plan standing, at least for now, is one offered by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee ... announced that his panel would begin work in early September on legislation to “stabilize and strengthen the individual health insurance market” for 2018.

First, it describes an organized effort to mislead the public... Second, it implicates the president himself.

...filling the critical post that has remained vacant since President Trump fired James B. Comey in May.

...and said it would come up with a new proposal aimed at improving customer service for student loan payments.

...even though he has “concerns” about the measure

...amid growing worries in the United States over a Chinese government-led effort to make the country a global leader in microchips, electric cars and other crucial technologies of the future.

The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department’s civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants

"Most are military officers who were stationed at an airbase where fighter jets took off and bombed Parliament on the night of the attempted coup last summer."

Because they apparently can't prevail upon him in person and they think he simply doesn't get what kind of jeopardy he is putting himself in.

The draft statements under review right now are similar to the old mission statement, except for one thing — any mention of promoting democracy is being eliminated.

The Fox News Channel and a wealthy supporter of President Trump worked in concert under the watchful eye of the White House to concoct a story about the murder of a young Democratic National Committee aide