Tag: Sarah Huckabee Sanders

“BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the special counsel’s office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony are not accurate,” said the spokesman, Peter Carr. Both the White House and lawyers for Mr. Trump vigorously denied the BuzzFeed report even before the special counsel’s office weighed in. BuzzFeed News maintained that its report was accurate, its editor, Ben Smith, said after Mr. Mueller’s office disputed the account. One person familiar with Mr. Cohen’s testimony to the special counsel’s prosecutors said that Mr. Cohen did not state that the president had pressured him to lie to Congress. In a December court filing, prosecutors working for Mr. Mueller described how Mr. Cohen had repeatedly lied to Congress both about the length of negotiations over the Trump Tower Moscow deal and about Mr. Trump’s involvement in the project. They also said Mr. Cohen discussed the progress of the Moscow project with Mr. Trump more frequently than he had told the committee and had briefed members of Mr. Trump’s family about the negotiations. When he appeared in court to plead guilty to lying to Congress, Mr. Cohen said he had concealed his interactions with Russian officials and the fact that he asked Mr. Trump to travel to Russia to promote the deal because he wanted to support Mr. Trump’s “political messaging.” That day, Mr. Trump defended his role in the Trump Tower Moscow discussions, brushing aside concerns that he was advancing his business interests at the time he was hoping to become president. Mr. Cohen initially repeated his false statements about the Moscow tower to prosecutors working for Mr. Mueller after he pleaded guilty in August to campaign finance violations and financial crimes. Mr. Cohen said he initially lied because he did not want to contradict his congressional testimony, prosecutors said. Subsequently, he took care “not to overstate his knowledge or the role of others in the conduct under investigation” and provided “useful information” about his contacts with “persons connected to the White House” in 2017 and 2018, the special counsel’s filing said.

Speaking to 'Fox & Friends,' the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders says House Speaker Pelosi needs to get serious about doing her job and not just being a political figure. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news…

Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced late Friday night that it would freeze a pay raise for Vice President Mike Pence, members of the cabinet and other high-ranking political appointees in light of the partial government shutdown. The high-level officials were positioned to receive a raise of about $10,000 a year — which was to go into effect on Saturday — as 800,000 federal employees were entering their third week without pay. But on Friday night, the Office of Personnel Management announced that “it would be prudent for agencies to continue to pay these senior political officials at the frozen rate until appropriations legislation is enacted that would clarify the status of the freeze.” The decision came during an unexpected optics issue for the Trump administration: While correctional officers, Transportation Security Administration agents and other federal employees work without pay during the government shutdown, Mr. Pence’s annual salary would have jumped to $243,500 from $230,700. The administration appeared to be aware of the perception problem and was trying to avoid it. Democratic lawmakers, who are at an impasse with Mr. Trump over his vow to not reopen the government without funding for a wall along the southwest border, earlier on Friday put pressure on the Trump administration, criticizing the potential raises. Representative David E. Price of North Carolina described increasing the salaries of high-ranking officials during a shutdown as “astounding and the height of hypocrisy.” Representative Nita M. Lowey of New York said that the bill passed by the House on Thursday to reopen the government would also block what she described as “lavish raises.” That bill, however, is viewed as a nonstarter in the Republican-controlled Senate. The Government Accountability Office had also received questions about whether the raises could move forward, but responded that the issue was, so far, an unresolved legal question, according to a person familiar with the conversation. The salary increases would have come as the leaders of some of the unions representing federal workers criticized Mr. Trump for what they say is a lack of empathy for the financial problems facing federal employees who have not been paid during the shutdown. Under the provision, high-ranking officials would have their pay rates frozen, even though the federal schedule of pay raises would increase. Last March, Republicans tried to end the freeze, but Democrats succeeded in their efforts to keep it.

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press WASHINGTON — America will get its first taste of divided government under President Trump this week when a Democratic House tries to wrest control of the political agenda from Mr. Trump, who appears determined to keep the focus on border security, immigration and his “big, beautiful” wall. “Border Security and the Wall ‘thing’ and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker!” he said Tuesday on Twitter. But their first order of business will be reopening the government, as Ms. Pelosi said Tuesday on Twitter in response to Mr. Trump. The Democrats plan to pass two bills on Thursday. With the plan facing a shaky future in the Senate and an intransigent president, some rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties are suggesting that a deal to revamp the nation’s immigration laws, pairing border security and protections for some undocumented immigrants, may be the way out of the stalemate. “Democrats, come back from vacation now and give us the votes necessary for Border Security, including the Wall. That bill passed the Senate with 68 votes but did not make it out of the House. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the new chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said in an interview on Tuesday that Democrats would not again broach immigration before the government is reopened. “However, it’s impossible to have a mature conversation about comprehensive immigration reform in the midst of a reckless Trump shutdown sparked by his desire to build a medieval border wall.” Democrats have not forgotten that a year ago, when they talked to Mr. Trump about DACA, he promised to work with them on a “bill of love,” only to back away, prompting Mr. Schumer to declare that negotiating with Mr. Trump was like “negotiating with Jell-O.” Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said the challenge lies with the Republican majority in the Senate. “If you want to get a bipartisan immigration bill in the coming months, you’re going to have to have Republican senators willing to work across the aisle to get things done,” Mr. Van Hollen said.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders speaks out after the House approves a spending bill with $5.7B for the border wall as the clock ticks closer to a possible partial government shutdown. #FoxandFriends #FoxNews FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing…

Press secretary Sarah Sanders addresses reporters after a judge delays the sentencing for the former national security adviser for lying to the FBI. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well…

Expected Live at 1:30 pm ET: White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders takes questions from the media following Michael Flynn's sentencing and a day after James Comey's second closed-door hearing on Capitol Hill. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour…

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders weighs in on looming government shutdown over border security battle. #TheStory #MarthaMacCallum #FoxNews FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and…

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Having been turned down by several previous choices for the job, Donald J. Trump broke with tradition on Monday by picking his television remote to be his new chief of staff. While some in Washington wondered whether an inanimate object was up to the rigors of working for the mercurial Trump, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, defended the unorthodox selection. “The President and the remote have demonstrated an excellent ability to work together, often for ten or twelve hours a day,” Sanders said. But even as the White House touted the remote’s qualifications, its tenure as chief of staff appeared to get off to a rocky start on Monday morning. After the remote got stuck and failed to change the channel when CNN’s Jim Acosta appeared on the television screen, Trump reportedly threw his new chief of staff across the room, narrowly missing Mike Pence’s head. “I’ll be surprised if the remote makes it through the year,” a White House source said. Andy Borowitz is the New York Times best-selling author of “The 50 Funniest American Writers,” and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes the Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news, for newyorker.com. Read more »

CNN's White House correspondent Jim Acosta asks Sarah Sanders about Mueller investigation, President Trump's level of confidence in his advisers. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and…