Tag: Donald Trump

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Sunday ripped President Trump's decision to end key ObamaCare payments known as cost-sharing reduction (CSR) benefits, comparing the decision to "arson." "This is the equivalent of health care arson. He is literally setting the entire health care system on fire just because the president is upset that the United States Congress will not pass a repeal bill that is supported by 17 percent of the American public," Murphy said on "Fox News Sunday." "The fact of the matter is the president is trying to sabotage the American health care system, trying to put a gun to the head of our constituents by taking away their health care or raising their costs in order to force us to repeal a bill that the American public does not want us to repeal," he continued. Murphy's comments come after the White House announced on Thursday the administration would stop providing insurers with the CSR payments required under the Affordable Care Act. The payments are designed to help low-income people afford co-pays, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs associated with health insurance policies. The move has been met with fierce, bipartisan backlash. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) described Trump's decision as "devastating," while Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said the move would not lead to more access to health care coverage.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said during an interview on Sunday that she is “very disappointed” in President Trump’s actions on health care. The White House also announced that the president is ending key payments to insurers selling ObamaCare.

President Trump early Sunday blasted The New York Times over a report his administration has struggled to achieve his goals. “The Failing @nytimes, in a story by Peter Baker, should have mentioned the rapid terminations by me of TPP & The Paris Accord & the fast approvals of The Keystone XL & Dakota Access pipelines. Also, look at the recent EPA cancelations & our great new Supreme Court Justice!” Trump tweeted. The Times reported that Trump has focused on repealing former President Obama’s achievements after struggling to reach his own goals, like repealing ObamaCare. It adds that Trump is using executive orders to pressure Congress to follow his agenda. The newspaper does mention Trump’s approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement. Trump ended key ObamaCare payments to insurers last week and also threatened to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal — both landmark achievements for the Obama administration.

A woman who has accused President Trump of groping her in 2007 is subpoenaing his campaign for any documents on “any woman alleging that Donald J. Trump touched her inappropriately,” BuzzFeed News reported Sunday. The woman, Summer Zervos, is a former contestant on Trump’s reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump denied the allegations. Zervos filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump in January, just days before his inauguration. "On Nov. 11, 2016, I called on Mr. Trump to retract his statements about me calling me a liar. I also called upon him to state that what I said about his behavior toward me was true," Zervos said at a press conference at the time.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) this week called for Republicans to acknowledge that President Trump is "unstable." During an interview on MSNBC, Waters went after members of Congress who she says are watching "the damage" Trump is doing in the country and not speaking up. "To watch him just guide us into a possible war and not speak up because they're concerned about their reelection is not responsible," she said during the interview. "I believe it is time for Republicans, especially, to walk over to the White House and tell him, 'enough is enough.'" Waters, a vocal Trump critic, said she continues to believe that lawmakers should pursue impeachment. "Republicans should step up to the plate and confront the fact that this president appears to be unstable, that he appears to be taking us into war, that he has openly obstructed justice in front of our face," Waters said. "I believe that there really has been collusion [with the Russians], and I do think that special counsel Mueller is going to connect those dots. But I think there's enough now that we all know and we all see and we all understand that we should be moving on impeachment." The California Democrat also said Trump has been advised by Republicans and Democrats that he should not be "undoing the Iran deal." "For him, to have America look as if it wants to undo the deal ...

President Trump tweeted Saturday he is "very proud" of his recently-signed executive order on health care. “Very proud of my Executive Order which will allow greatly expanded access and far lower costs for HealthCare,” Trump tweeted. “Health Insurance stocks, which have gone through the roof during the ObamaCare years, plunged yesterday after I ended their Dems windfall!” Trump tweeted. CNBC reported Friday that two large insurance companies, Centene and Anthem, saw their stocks drop after Trump’s announcement. Trump signed an executive order Thursday which seeks to expand the ability of small businesses and other groups to join together in purchasing health insurance through association health plans. The order directs agencies to write new rules. Experts warned the order could destabilize the ObamaCare markets as cheaper, less-effective plans could drive people away from ObamaCare plans. The payments are worth an estimated $7 billion this year and they subsidize insurance plans for low-income people. Insurers have said that, without the payments, they will either have to increase premiums or exit the individual markets.

Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon on Saturday declared a "season of war" against Republican lawmakers, promising to help elect replacements for any Senate Republican who opposes President Trump. "Right now it's a season of war against the GOP establishment," Bannon said at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, an annual conference of evangelical conservatives where Trump himself spoke on Friday. Bannon slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, saying he's been getting calls to find "the Brutus" to his "Julius Caesar," comparing the Kentucky lawmaker to the Roman emperor who was stabbed in the back by his trusted friend. "Yeah, Mitch, the donors are not happy. They've all left ya. We've cut your oxygen off, Mitch, OK?" McConnell has taken much of the blame for the Senate GOP's failure to advance ObamaCare repeal legislation this year, with five conservative activist leaders calling this week for McConnell and his leadership team to resign over the Senate's failure to pass much of Trump's agenda. Bannon told Fox News's Sean Hannity earlier this week that he was declaring "war" on the GOP establishment, saying he would support candidates looking to unseat Republicans who oppose Trump's agenda. The Breitbart News executive declared an early victory last month after backing former judge Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate GOP runoff. Moore defeated Sen. Luther Strange, who was backed by Trump and congressional Republicans.

To view this page ensure that Adobe Flash Player version 10.2.0 or greater is installed. “Maybe this is crazy, but I feel like I could turn him around on a couple of things,” Kimmel said. Kimmel’s foray into politics has been making headlines for months, with viral clips of the host's emotional monologues on health care and gun control intertwined with his usual jabs at the president. “I would guess that he’s not planning to visit me anytime soon,” Kimmel said. "He’s an idiot, let’s just start with that," Kimmel said. "He’s an imbecile whose job seems to be tweeting." Kimmel defended his delay, saying that the news of numerous accusations of sexual harassment and assault against Weinstein came out too late for him to address it on his program that day. Kimmel's focus on politics seems to have paid off in ratings gains.

President Trump reignited the "war on Christmas” on Friday, telling a crowd of supporters that "we're saying merry Christmas again" now that he's president. Speaking to a packed crowd at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., Trump argued political correctness has gotten in the way of celebrating the holiday. “We’re getting near that beautiful Christmas season that people don’t talk about anymore. They don’t use the word Christmas because it’s not politically correct," he said to strong applause and cheers from the audience at the Christian public policy conference, sponsored by the Family Research Council. “You go to department stores and they’ll say 'Happy New Year,' or they’ll say other things and it’ll be red, they’ll have it painted. But they don’t say — well guess what? He's used the argument on the campaign trail as a way to assert that political correctness is preventing Christians from expressing their religious beliefs. And to bring the point home, his campaign held a "thank you" rally in Wisconsin last December where he spoke in front of a row of large Christmas trees.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) blasted President Trump's announcement Friday that he would not certify the multination Iran nuclear deal, saying Trump's comments amounted to "a lot of bluster." Sanders argued that moving away from the Obama-era agreement would lift constraints on Iran's nuclear program and "irreparably harm America’s ability to negotiate future nonproliferation agreements." "If we are genuinely concerned with Iran’s behavior in the region, as I am, the worst possible thing we could do is undermine this nuclear deal. It would make addressing all of these other problems harder. However, the president stopped short of withdrawing the U.S. from the deal, which was established by a United Nations Security Resolution. Trump also did not request that Congress impose additional sanctions on Iran for its nuclear activities, which would have effectively removed the U.S. from the deal. The president instead asked Congress to pass new benchmarks for Iran to achieve in order to avoid nuclear-related sanctions down the road. Despite the president stopping short of withdrawing the U.S. from the deal, Sanders said Trump's announcement on Friday further isolated the U.S. from its European allies, who played an integral role in brokering the deal with Tehran.