President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump spent Christmas Eve attending a service at a West Palm Beach church before dining at the president’s private club.
The Trumps were greeted by applause and cheers as they arrived to Family Church for a 6 p.m. music-filled “Candlelight Christmas Celebration.”
They were welcomed by the Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated church’s pastor, Jimmy Scroggins, and his family. They sat in the third pew.
Scroggins spoke about the birth of Jesus during his homily at the service and made a nod to the president and his family.
“There was no Secret Service. There was no motorcade. There was no gaggle of press,” he said.
After the service, the Trumps went to Mar-a-Lago for Christmas Eve Dinner. At his club, the president was asked by a reporter if he prayed for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the service.
Trump didn’t respond, but said, “We’re going to have a great year.”
Inside the ballroom, Trump was spotted briefly chatting with famed attorney Alan Dershowitz.
Dershowitz, a constitutional scholar, has reportedly been eyed by Trump advisers as a possible addition to the president’s impeachment team.
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump signed sweeping spending bills after he let Washington on Friday that allow the government to operate even as they do little to address the national debt, avoiding the dramatics of a shutdown crisis,
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-NJ, met with President Trump on Friday to discuss going across party lines and joining the Republican Party — after he has spent months criticizing fellow Democrats for their push to impeach Trump.
Placing President Trump in the company of only presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach the 45th president on abuse of power and obstruction articles. Trump can hate-tweet, and House Republicans can rant and lie all they want, but Trump, after what is expected to be a near straight party-line vote in the full House next week, will have gotten his one line in history: “Trump was impeached for abusing his office to pressure a foreign nation to influence a presidential election in his favor and for obstructing Congress’s investigation of the same.”
Politicians’ and civil servants’ entire careers will be defined by this episode. Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) skillfully led the investigation into abuse of Trump’s office, presenting an airtight case to the House. Likewise: Fiona Hill, Marie Yovanovitch, William B. Taylor Jr., David Holmes and other dedicated and fearless foreign policy officials risked personal abuse and career suicide to expose a lawless and corrupt president.
Conversely, former national security adviser John Bolton will be remembered not for his inconsequential tenure as national security adviser but for personal cowardice in refusing to come forward to testify. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and his crew of clownish colleagues will be remembered, if at all, for making a mockery of constitutional government, lying shamelessly and enabling Russian-backed conspiracy theories.
For the Republican Party, this episode is, we can only hope, the final nail in a party that has become a mouthpiece for foreign propaganda and an anti-democratic enabler of a corrupt president. We arrived at this point because Republicans rejected character as a qualification for president; Republicans joined in Trump’s assault on facts; Republicans attacked and smeared the intelligence community; Republicans refused to hold Trump accountable for obstruction of Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation in Russian interference in the 2016 election; and Republicans refused to find fault and perhaps agree on a lesser penalty than impeachment. Without a willing and deceitful right-wing media and “useful idiots” in the House Republican caucus, we would not now be facing the ordeal of impeachment.
Impeachment is not, as some commentators have suggested, designed to “resolve” the matter or provide national catharsis. It is meant to establish, if only for history, that there is a line no president shall cross. It is a flashing red light to future presidents: Do not go there.
It is fitting I suppose that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is already colluding with the White House to conduct a sham Senate trial in which witnesses will be prevented from testifying. McConnell hammers the last nail in the coffin of the Senate’s reputation when, without hesitation nor any concern for the institution and in the role of the trial juror’s foreman, he plots with the defendant to promulgate rules that ensure the least amount of fuss in the march to their predetermined outcome. One could argue that this is no trial at all and that a subsequent Senate, if Trump is — God forbid — reelected, would be entitled to declare a mistrial and proceed with a full, fair and complete trial on the merits.
Anyone not intoxicated by the brew of Fox News-Breitbart-Federalist-Sinclair-talk radio conspiracy theories, out-and-out lies and hysteria would, after only a few minutes of viewing the past two days of House Judiciary Committee proceedings, conclude that one party is utterly unfit to hold office and is collectively off its rocker. The other, however imperfectly, is attempting to lay down a marker, to conduct constitutional hygiene and to leave bread crumbs for history that lead to the conclusion: This was the most corrupt president in history who violated his oath and betrayed his country.
Trump and the GOP’s fate will be decided at the ballot box less than 11 months from now. If after all this the electorate is so reckless as to reelect Trump, then the experiment in constitutional democracy may come to be declared a failure. Trump’s statement of imperial power — “Article II allows me to do whatever I want” — could be the guiding principle of a new autocracy.
I remain still optimistic that a sane, sober, decent and minimally informed majority will send Trump and the GOP packing. The 2018 midterm results give me hope that Trump has awakened a slumbering citizenry that still knows right from wrong and facts from lies. Those who still love democracy, constitutional government, the rule of law and the promise of a multiracial and multiethnic democracy had better choose a Democratic nominee wisely and then work like hell to elect him or her. The alternative is unimaginable.
The vote Friday by the desperate Democratic majority on the House Judiciary Committee to adopt two articles of impeachment against President Trump – falsely accusing him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – is itself a disgraceful abuse of power.
Democrats have adulterated the impeachment process. They don’t have the facts. They don’t have the law. So they have manipulated the process in an obscene way to advance their obsession to impeach President Trump based solely on their opposition to him and his policies – not because he has done anything wrong.
The three-year Democratic Party attack against President Trump began the night he was elected in November 2016. It has been remarkable for its persistence as well as the duplicity of its proponents.
The Democrats’ case is so thin – based only on rumors gossip, and innuendo – that they are already planning a second impeachment of President Trump after his highly likely reelection. Blind political rage drives them to ignore the facts and press onward with their fanatical impeachment crusade.
While the numbers aren’t good for the White House, the split won’t generate any pressure on Republicans in the House or Senate.
The House Intelligence Committee held their first hearings on the Ukraine matter in November, and the House Judiciary Committee started hearings early this month. By the measuring stick of expanding the public support for removal, those hearings must be declared a failure.
U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb will vote for both articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, the western Pennsylvania congressman told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 on Thursday.
The breakup of the Office of Personnel Management was conceived as a template to shrink government, but the president worried the failing plan would bring him bad reviews.
In his closing statement, Rep. Doug Collins comes to President Trump’s defense, and says the Democrats have not revealed sufficient evidence to support the impeachment inquiry. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC
On a surprise trip to Afghanistan on Thursday, President Trump said that the United States has reopened peace talks with the Taliban – just three months after the president scuttled negotiations between Washington and the Afghan insurgents following a terror attack that killed 11 people, including one U.S. soldier.
Trump, who made his first trip to Afghanistan under a veil of secrecy for security reasons, told troops gathered at the Air Force base for Thanksgiving dinner that the Taliban “wants to make a deal very badly.”
“We’re going to stay until such time as we have a deal, or we have total victory, and they want to make a deal very badly,” Trump said. “The Taliban wants to make a deal — we’ll see if they make a deal. If they do, they do, and if they don’t they don’t. That’s fine.”
President Trump’s Tuesday night rally near Miami, billed by his campaign as a “homecoming” extravaganza, follows his recent decision to move his formal residence from New York to Florida — and underscores the state’s importance to his reelection efforts as he grapples with the impeachment proceedings that threaten his presidency.
Florida is now not only Trump’s home but what Republicans hope is an emerging GOP bastion. His strategy in the state reflects his broader push to galvanize his core voters ahead of next year’s election by unleashing an incendiary defense of his conduct, be it on Twitter, cable news or in front of thousands in an arena.
Economists warn that a prolonged trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies is elevating risks to the global economy by disrupting supply chains, curtailing investment and curbing business confidence.
Completion of a phase one deal could slide into next year, trade experts and people close to the White House have told Reuters, with Beijing asking for more extensive tariff rollbacks and Washington countering with increased demands of its own.
“We want to work for a ‘phase one’ agreement on the basis of mutual respect and equality,” Xi told representatives of an international forum, according to a pool report.
President Donald Trump on Thursday approved a measure that would temporarily stave off the threat of a government shutdown.
But the spending bill expires on December 20.
The White House and Congress have struggled to negotiate a bitter dispute over border security, preventing longer-term legislation to fund the government.
Eight current and former officials are scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee this week to testify about Trump’s pressure on Ukraine for investigations that could benefit him politically.
President Trump said Monday that he will “strongly consider” testifying in writing as part of the impeachment inquiry at the outset of a week in which eight current and former officials are scheduled to publicly testify about his controversial actions regarding Ukraine.
In morning tweets, Trump said he might take up House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on a suggestion she made over the weekend. Trump also claimed that the rules of the inquiry had been “rigged” by Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who has summoned four witnesses to appear before his panel on Tuesday alone.
Former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch is no doubt sincere in her belief that President Trump has weakened U.S. relations with Ukraine to the benefit of Russia. But there’s one thing: Ambassadors don’t determine what our international relations are like. The president makes that determination, and his name is Donald Trump.
During her opening testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee on Friday, Yovanovitch talked at great length about her harrowing life as a career foreign service officer, even describing the time she dodged bullets in Eastern Europe. I’m sure she did a fine job, but what did any of it have to do with the price of tea in China?
We’re talking about the way Trump did his job. We’re talking about the way the president of the United States spoke with a foreign leader on the phone and what he wanted out of their relationship.
Yovanovitch suggested that there was corruption at play. But so far, we haven’t seen any proof of Trump attempting to enrich himself or anyone close to him.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sent impeachment articles to the Senate, weeks after the House voted to impeach President Donald Trump.
Ron Howard responded to a fan’s question about Hollywood’s perception of Donald Trump, whom the director called “morally bankrupt”
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-NJ, met with President Trump on Friday to discuss going across party lines and joining the Republican Party — after he has spent months criticizing fellow Democrats for their push to impeach Trump.
U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb will vote for both articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, the western Pennsylvania congressman told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 on Thursday.
The breakup of the Office of Personnel Management was conceived as a template to shrink government, but the president worried the failing plan would bring him bad reviews.
Eight current and former officials are scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee this week to testify about Trump’s pressure on Ukraine for investigations that could benefit him politically.
