Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts
UPDATE: Shooting outside US NSA HQ injures one
Shooting outside US NSA headquarters, one hurt
Police tape blocks a visitor's entrance to the headquarters of the National Security Agency (NSA) after a shooting incident at the entrance in Fort Meade, Maryland, February 14, 2018. Shots were fired early Wednesday at the ultra-secret National Security Agency, the US electronic spying agency outside Washington, leaving one person injured, officials said. Aerial footage of the scene from NBC News showed a black SUV with numerous bullet holes in its windshield crashed into concrete barriers at the main entrance to the NSA's headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland./ AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB
Aerial footage of the scene from NBC News showed a black SUV with numerous bullet holes in its windshield crashed into concrete barriers at the main entrance to the NSA's headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.
The images showed what appeared to be police surrounding a man on the ground in handcuffs.
"The situation is under control and there is no ongoing security or safety threat," the NSA said.
"We can confirm there has been one person injured and we don't know how the injuries occurred," an NSA spokesman told AFP.
The local ABC television affiliate put the number of injured at three and said a suspect was arrested.
The Baltimore office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the investigation, said the incident "has been contained."
A law enforcement source told AFP that it was too soon to know whether the incident was an attack on the facility or otherwise.
They are "still trying to ascertain the facts," the source said.
"The president has been briefed on the shooting at Ft Meade," the White House said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone that has been affected."
'Puzzle Palace'
The NSA is the premier US signals intelligence agency, eavesdropping on electronic communications and hacking computers of US adversaries and suspects worldwide, and also protects US communications and information systems from cyber attack.
The agency was thrust into the spotlight in 2013 when former contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of its global surveillance programs, including its collection of data on Americans.
Its compound, known as the "Puzzle Palace" -- located about 32 kilometers (20 miles) northeast of Washington -- is highly secure.
In March 2015, guards at the NSA gate opened fire on an SUV which did not heed orders to stop, killing the driver and wounding a passenger.
The two involved, it turned out, were men dressed as women who made a wrong turn into a restricted lane and may have refused to stop because, it later turned out, there were drugs in their vehicle.
The leading US spy agencies installed heavy security at their facilities after an assault rifle-wielding man opened fire on cars waiting to enter the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters compound in McLean, Virginia in January 1993. Two CIA employees were killed and three wounded.
The man, Aimal Kasi, escaped to his native Pakistan and it took US investigators four years to find him. He was eventually arrested and sent back to the United States, where he was convicted of murder and executed in 2002.
In 2016, a man drove his car into a fence gate at the CIA headquarters, claiming he was an agency recruit. He was arrested but was found to be mentally unstable, and only received 30 days in jail and a fine.
Trump’s ‘vulgar, insensitive, racist language against Africans condemnable – Nigerians in Diaspora
The Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Americas (NIDOA) has expressed outrage at what it called “the vulgar, insensitive and racist language” about Africans and other immigrants allegedly made by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The group, in a statement by Mr Obed Monago, Chairman, NIDO Americas Board of Trustees and Mrs Patience Key, Chairman, NIDO USA Board of Directors, strongly condemned the statement allegedly made by the U.S. president.
The organisation stated that the preference of some immigrants because of the colour of their skin smacked of bigotry.
It also reminded the U.S. leader that in a country built with the laborious contributions of immigrants, aligning propriety and preference to Norway was clearly racist.
NIDOA said Nigerian immigrants were among the most educated, and contributed immensely to the greatness of the United States.
“Nigerians are proud to contribute to the betterment of the United States and will continue to do so.
“It is with enormous pain and outrage, that NIDOA condemns the deplorable, disgusting use of vulgarity to describe a broad set of people who, for the most part, have and continue to add value to the United States.
“We are not going to hold our breath for an apology, which would be proper for this insult on a well-meaning group of people.
“It is unfortunate that we have to voice our disdain and disgust, but we are left, for now, with no other option than this painful reaction.
“We wish the U.S. the very best in the days ahead. The United States needs to stay true to the founding of its democracy and the reason it should be a ‘light upon the hill’ for the world,” it said.
NIDOA stressed that such statement was beneath the dignity of the President of a country marked by the Statue of Liberty, honouring the Preamble to the Constitution and striving to attain a more perfect union.
“We painfully note the statement of Mr Trump that Nigerians will not go back to their ‘huts’ once they see the U.S. and ‘Haitians with AIDS;’ just to name a few,” the Nigerian organisation alleged.
It also noted what it said were Trump’s utterances over the years, including the ‘birtherism’ against former President Barack Obama and his disparaging announcement when he began his quest for the Presidency.
“We note the many immigrants who, as others, have bled and died for the U.S., an example being Emmanuel Mensah, who sacrificed himself for others just a few days ago in New York.
“This racist remark in no way, helps make America great. It does more to damage the cooperative and collaborative manner that other countries engage to help the U.S. in these trying times.
“In a democracy, as against a dictatorship, the checks on the system should rise to denounce, as the rest of the world has, the bigoted utterings from the Oval Office.
“The President should be the responsible leader of the free world, but the uninformed and bigoted statement of the President has caused the majority of the American people pain in more ways than one.”
NIDOA encouraged African countries, Haiti and others to be proud of their nationalities and stay true to their identities.
NAN
Hamas says will not attend Palestinian meeting over Jerusalem
Islamist movement Hamas said Saturday it would not participate in a meeting of Palestinian leaders to debate responses to the controversial US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The decision not to take part in the meeting to begin late Sunday is a further setback to failing reconciliation efforts between leading Palestinian factions.
“We have taken the decision not to participate in the meeting of the (Palestinian) Central Council in Ramallah,” Hamas said in a statement, however stressing its “commitment to the unity of our people”.
“The conditions under which the committee will be held will not enable it to carry out a comprehensive and responsible political review, and will prevent decisions that reach the level of our aspirations.”
The two-day meeting will bring together the heads of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the internationally recognised representative of the Palestinian people.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian Islamist movement, were invited to attend despite not being part of the PLO. Islamic Jihad has also announced it would not take part.
Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, had been pushing for the meeting to be held outside the Palestinian territories but Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas decided instead to host it in Ramallah, the base of his government in the West Bank.
The Hamas statement said this left them subject to the “pressures” of Israel, which occupies the West Bank and regularly arrests Hamas officials.
The meeting is due to discuss responses to US President Donald Trump’s December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The decision infuriated Palestinian leaders, who see at least the east of the city as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Trump’s administration has also not publicly committed to the idea of an independent Palestinian state, and the PLO office in Washington was briefly threatened with closure.
Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah party signed a reconciliation agreement in October that was meant to see the Islamists hand over control of Gaza by the end of the year.
The talks have however broken down, with disputes over the fate of tens of thousands of Hamas civil servants and the future of Hamas’ vast armed wing.
Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, forcing out Abbas’ forces in a near civil war.
It has fought three wars with Israel since 2008 and is considered a terrorist organisation by the Jewish State, the United States and others.
Trump denies 'shithole countries' remark
(FILES) This file photo taken on January 11, 2018 shows US President Donald Trump during a meeting on prison reform in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Outrage mounted on January 12, 2018 over US President Donald Trump's reported description of African nations, Haiti and El Salvador as "shithole" countries, with the United Nations slamming his comments as "racist". During a Thursday meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform, Trump demanded to know why the US should accept citizens from what he called "shithole" countries, according to comments first reported by the Washington Post./ AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB
US President Donald Trump tweeted a denial Friday after he was quoted as describing African and other states as "shithole countries," amid an international furor over the remarks.
Trump, who reportedly made the comment during a meeting with legislators Thursday on immigration reform, drew charges of racism.
"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, people briefed on the meeting told The Washington Post.
The New York Times later reported the same comment, citing unnamed people with direct knowledge of the meeting.
"The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," Trump tweeted early Friday.
The reference was to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shields from deportation nearly 800,000 immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
Thursday's meeting was to discuss a compromise under which DACA would be preserved but a visa lottery and a policy allowing legal immigrants to bring family members into the country would be ended.
"I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level," Trump said in another tweet.
Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said “take them out.” Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018
"I want safety and security for our people," he added, criticizing the proposed bipartisan deal.
"USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly," Trump tweeted.
The Post and the Times said Trump's vulgar remark Thursday was in reference to African countries and Haiti. The Post included El Salvador on its list.
Trump suggested the United States should instead welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday.
United Nations rights office spokesman Rupert Colville said "there is no other word one can use but 'racist'" to describe Trump's remarks.
Democratic congressman Luis Gutierrez called Trump "a racist who does not share the values enshrined in our Constitution."
Most Americans 'don't want' Oprah to run for president
Oprah Winfrey PHOTO:AFP
Americans may love Oprah Winfrey, but most don't want the chat show queen to run for president, although if she did she would beat Donald Trump, a poll revealed Friday.
Winfrey's rousing speech at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards ceremony ignited speculation that the billionaire entertainment mogul, the first black woman to own a television network, is harboring Oval Office ambitions.
Sixty-four percent of respondents have a favorable view of Winfrey, including 43 percent of Trump supporters, according to the NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist survey.
But when asked if they wanted Winfrey to run in 2020, only 35 percent said yes. A majority -- 54 percent -- said no and 11 percent said they were unsure.
Yet if a hypothetical presidential head-to-head was held today, 50 percent of national registered voters said they would vote in Winfrey as a Democrat. Only 39 percent said they would return Trump to office.
Voters were predictably split along party lines. Ninety-one percent of Democrats backed Winfrey. Eighty-five percent of Republicans said they would vote for Trump.
While there is little indication that 63-year-old Winfrey wants the job, Hollywood's loathing of Trump and Democrats' bafflement that a reality TV star could win with no previous government experience has fueled talk of finding their own celebrity candidate.
Trump said Tuesday he doubted Winfrey would run, but if she did, he would win.
The survey was carried out among 1,350 adults earlier this week, after Oprah's speech made headlines. The poll carried a margin of error of 2.7 percent and three percent among registered voters.
Trump, Moon signal openness for talks with N. Korea
President Donald Trump (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Signs of a potential cooling following months of red-hot tensions on the Korean Peninsula came the day after North Korea reached a landmark agreement to send athletes to the Winter Olympics that will be hosted by the South, a move the international community broadly welcomed.
In a phone call with Moon, Trump expressed his openness to talks with Pyongyang "at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances," the White House said.
The two leaders also "underscored the importance of continuing the maximum pressure campaign against North Korea," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders added in a statement confirming a South Korea account of the call.
The Olympics in Pyeongchang next month have long been overshadowed by extreme geopolitical tensions, with the North repeatedly test firing missiles capable of reaching the US mainland and detonating its most powerful nuclear device to date.
But Pyongyang -- which boycotted the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul -- agreed Tuesday to send athletes and officials to the Games as North and South held their first formal talks for two years at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone.
"It is only the beginning," Moon told a press conference. "Yesterday was the first step and I think we had a good start."
"Bringing North Korea to talks for denuclearization is the next step we must take."
He was willing to hold a summit "at any time," he said, "but it cannot be a meeting for meeting's sake. To hold a summit, the right conditions must be created and certain outcomes must be guaranteed."
- Trump claims credit -
Moon has long supported engagement with the North to bring it to the negotiating table over banned weapons programs that have alarmed the US and the global community, and seen Pyongyang subjected to multiple sets of United Nations sanctions.
But the US has said the regime must stop nuclear tests if negotiations with Washington are to take place.
"We have no difference in opinion with the US," Moon insisted, saying they shared an understanding about security, were working together and were both threatened by the North's nuclear weapons and missiles.
But he stressed the aim of sanctions was to bring Pyongyang to talks, and "stronger sanctions and pressures could further heighten tensions and lead to accidental armed conflicts."
Seoul had no plans to ease its unilateral sanctions at present, Moon said.
Trump, who has a much closer relationship with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe than he does with Moon, has claimed credit for the North-South talks.
"If I weren't involved, they wouldn't be talking about the Olympics right now, they'd be doing no talking," Trump said at the weekend.
Moon acknowledged his efforts Wednesday.
"I think President Trump's role in the realization of inter-Korean talks was very big," he said. "I would like to express my gratitude."
- 'Great step forward' -
The US cautiously welcomed the North-South talks but warned the North's attendance at the Games should not undermine international efforts to isolate the regime of Kim.
China -- the North's major diplomatic backer and trade partner -- and Russia, with which it also has strong ties, both welcomed the inter-Korean talks.
And Japan's top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo "highly valued" Pyongyang's expressed willingness to participate in the Olympics.
"But there is no change in our policy of exerting the maximum level of pressure on North Korea until they change their policy, in close cooperation with the US, South Korea, and also involving China and Russia," he added.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said the agreement was a "great step forward in the Olympic spirit."
Bach held talks with North Korea's IOC member Chang Ung on Wednesday on the practicalities of sending athletes to next month's Winter Olympics in the South.
They broached the question of whether the North Korean athletes would be housed in the Olympic village.
"It's an issue up for debate, but their presence in the Olympic village is not certain," a source close to the talks told AFP.
Officials from North and South Korea will meet at the IOC's headquarters January 20 to hammer out details of the North's participation at the Games, the IOC said.
South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-Yon said the North was expected to send "a massive delegation of between 400-500 people" to Pyeongchang.
"Just as the 1988 Olympics contributed to dismantling the Cold War, we earnestly hope that the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics will improve the current state of the Korean Peninsula," he said, and "contribute to world peace by reducing security risks."
Though North Korea stayed away from that year's Games in Seoul, Soviet bloc states and China took part despite the absence of diplomatic ties with the South.
Tillerson says he never doubted Trump's mental fitness
Tillerson says he never doubted Trump's mental fitness
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson takes part in a press conference after his meeting on Libya, at Lancaster House in London on September 14, 2017. HANNAH MCKAY / POOL / AFP
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared Friday he has never had any reason to question President Donald Trump's mental fitness and intends to continue in office.
Tillerson's comments came in an interview to CNN in the aftermath of a bombshell book that cited White House aides questioning the president's ability to serve.
"I've never questioned his mental fitness, I've had no reason to question his mental fitness," Tillerson said.
Anecdotes in the controversial book about Trump's alleged inability to follow briefings or read notes recalled reports last year that Tillerson once called the president a "moron."
The State Department denied that claim, but ever since Tillerson has been dogged by reports that White House officials close to Trump are scheming to oust him.
But Tillerson told CNN that Trump has never sought to push him out and that he himself plans to remain.
"I intend to be here for the whole year," he said. Asked whether the president had given him any indication that he wants him to step down, Tillerson said: "None whatsoever."
Yale psychiatrist briefed members of Congress on President Trump's mental fitness
Yale psychiatrist briefed members of Congress on President Trump's mental fitness.
By Sunlen Serfaty and Ryan Nobles, CNN
Updated 4 hours ago Jan 5, 2018
(CNN) - A dozen lawmakers from the House and Senate received a briefing from Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee on Capitol Hill in early December about President Donald Trump's fitness to be president -- and Lee has been asked to speak with additional lawmakers, worried about the President's mental state, later this month.
"Lawmakers were saying they have been very concerned about this, the President's dangerousness, the dangers that his mental instability poses on the nation," Lee told CNN in a phone interview Thursday, "They know the concern is universal among Democrats, but it really depends on Republicans, they said. Some knew of Republicans that were concerned, maybe equally concerned, but whether they would act on those concerns was their worry."
The briefing was previously reported by Politico. Lee, confirming the December 5 and 6 meeting to CNN, said that the group was evenly mixed -- with House and Senate lawmakers. And included at least one Republican -- a senator, whom she would not name.
Lee's public comments are highly unusual given protocols from medical professional organizations -- including the 37,000-member American Psychiatric Association -- banning psychiatrists from diagnosing patients without a formal examination. Under recent guidance from the APA, it is "fine for a psychiatrist to share their expertise about psychiatric issues in general," but "member psychiatrists should not give professional opinions about the mental state of someone they have not personally evaluated," according to an APA blog post. When asked by CNN about Lee's comments, the APA referred them to this guidance.
Yale declined to weigh in on Lee's remarks when reached by CNN for comment.
"Yale University does not take positions or issue statements regarding the health or medical condition of public officials. However, the University will not interfere with the free expression or academic freedom of faculty members who wish to express their opinions in their areas of expertise or otherwise," Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart said in a statement.
Lee made it clear that she is not in a position to diagnose the President, or any public figure, from afar. But she said that it is incumbent on medical professionals to intervene in instances where there is a danger to an individual or the public. She argues that signs the President has exhibited have risen to that level of danger.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on Lee's remarks on Trump's mental health. During the White House briefing Thursday, press secretary Sarah Sanders called questions about the President's state of mind "disgraceful."
"If he was unfit, he probably wouldn't be sitting there, wouldn't have defeated the most qualified group of candidates the Republican Party has ever seen," Sanders said, before praising Trump as an "incredibly strong" leader.
The meeting between Lee and members of Congress was set up through a former US Attorney with ties to Capitol Hill who approached Lee at the request of a "number of lawmakers," she said. Lee provided them a briefing based on her book on the subject. Dr. James Gilligan -- another psychiatrist -- an expert on studying and predicting violence, also made a presentation.
"Mr. Trump is showing signs of impairment that the average person could not see," Lee said. "He is becoming very unstable very quickly. There is a need for neuropsychiatric evaluation that would demonstrate his capacity to serve."
Lee is scheduled to hold another briefing at the home of Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro later this month with lawmakers on the same topic and is also scheduled to speak at Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin's town hall in Maryland this month as well. Raskin has introduced a bill called the "Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity Act," which would use the 25th Amendment of the Constitution to create a "body" to determine whether the President is unable to execute the powers and duties of his office.
Raskin, who attended Lee's presentation, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday that Trump's behavior is "increasingly delusional" and there should be an independent body to evaluate his fitness.
"Of course we got big public policy crises going on right now," Raskin said on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper." "We've got a gun violence crisis, we've got the tax bill -- which was bought and paid for by the Koch brothers and the Mercers -- so we got some serious stuff to deal with and instead we're caught up every day in what looks like the country debating the mental health of the president, so it's a very dangerous and unstable situation as a number of Republican senators have themselves observed."
No Republican has called publicly for an evaluation of the President's mental fitness.
Lee cited Trump's repeated referencing of conspiracy theories in his public statements as a troubling sign.
"As he is unraveling he seems to be losing his grip on reality and reverting to conspiracy theories," she said. "There are signs that he is going into attack mode when he is under stress. That means he has the potential to become impulsive and very volatile."
Specifically, Lee pointed to Trump's verbal aggressiveness and his boasting about sexual assault on the Access Hollywood tape that was revealed during the campaign. She accused the President of inciting violence at his rallies, and having an "attraction" to powerful weapons. Lee said his threats to ramp up military action and the taunting an unstable leader in North Korean Leader Kim Jung Un are all signs of the President being on the verge of a psychotic breakdown.
In Wednesday's White House press briefing, Sanders also dismissed a question about the President's mental health.
"I think the President and the people of this country should be concerned about the mental fitness of the leader of North Korea," she said.
Lee rejected claims that her research is any way politically motivated.
"I am uninterested in partisan politics, I have never registered for a political party," she said. "Ideology doesn't interest me."
By Sunlen Serfaty and Ryan Nobles, CNN
Updated 4 hours ago Jan 5, 2018
(CNN) - A dozen lawmakers from the House and Senate received a briefing from Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee on Capitol Hill in early December about President Donald Trump's fitness to be president -- and Lee has been asked to speak with additional lawmakers, worried about the President's mental state, later this month.
"Lawmakers were saying they have been very concerned about this, the President's dangerousness, the dangers that his mental instability poses on the nation," Lee told CNN in a phone interview Thursday, "They know the concern is universal among Democrats, but it really depends on Republicans, they said. Some knew of Republicans that were concerned, maybe equally concerned, but whether they would act on those concerns was their worry."
The briefing was previously reported by Politico. Lee, confirming the December 5 and 6 meeting to CNN, said that the group was evenly mixed -- with House and Senate lawmakers. And included at least one Republican -- a senator, whom she would not name.
Lee's public comments are highly unusual given protocols from medical professional organizations -- including the 37,000-member American Psychiatric Association -- banning psychiatrists from diagnosing patients without a formal examination. Under recent guidance from the APA, it is "fine for a psychiatrist to share their expertise about psychiatric issues in general," but "member psychiatrists should not give professional opinions about the mental state of someone they have not personally evaluated," according to an APA blog post. When asked by CNN about Lee's comments, the APA referred them to this guidance.
Yale declined to weigh in on Lee's remarks when reached by CNN for comment.
"Yale University does not take positions or issue statements regarding the health or medical condition of public officials. However, the University will not interfere with the free expression or academic freedom of faculty members who wish to express their opinions in their areas of expertise or otherwise," Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart said in a statement.
Lee made it clear that she is not in a position to diagnose the President, or any public figure, from afar. But she said that it is incumbent on medical professionals to intervene in instances where there is a danger to an individual or the public. She argues that signs the President has exhibited have risen to that level of danger.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on Lee's remarks on Trump's mental health. During the White House briefing Thursday, press secretary Sarah Sanders called questions about the President's state of mind "disgraceful."
"If he was unfit, he probably wouldn't be sitting there, wouldn't have defeated the most qualified group of candidates the Republican Party has ever seen," Sanders said, before praising Trump as an "incredibly strong" leader.
The meeting between Lee and members of Congress was set up through a former US Attorney with ties to Capitol Hill who approached Lee at the request of a "number of lawmakers," she said. Lee provided them a briefing based on her book on the subject. Dr. James Gilligan -- another psychiatrist -- an expert on studying and predicting violence, also made a presentation.
"Mr. Trump is showing signs of impairment that the average person could not see," Lee said. "He is becoming very unstable very quickly. There is a need for neuropsychiatric evaluation that would demonstrate his capacity to serve."
Lee is scheduled to hold another briefing at the home of Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro later this month with lawmakers on the same topic and is also scheduled to speak at Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin's town hall in Maryland this month as well. Raskin has introduced a bill called the "Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity Act," which would use the 25th Amendment of the Constitution to create a "body" to determine whether the President is unable to execute the powers and duties of his office.
Raskin, who attended Lee's presentation, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday that Trump's behavior is "increasingly delusional" and there should be an independent body to evaluate his fitness.
"Of course we got big public policy crises going on right now," Raskin said on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper." "We've got a gun violence crisis, we've got the tax bill -- which was bought and paid for by the Koch brothers and the Mercers -- so we got some serious stuff to deal with and instead we're caught up every day in what looks like the country debating the mental health of the president, so it's a very dangerous and unstable situation as a number of Republican senators have themselves observed."
No Republican has called publicly for an evaluation of the President's mental fitness.
Lee cited Trump's repeated referencing of conspiracy theories in his public statements as a troubling sign.
"As he is unraveling he seems to be losing his grip on reality and reverting to conspiracy theories," she said. "There are signs that he is going into attack mode when he is under stress. That means he has the potential to become impulsive and very volatile."
Specifically, Lee pointed to Trump's verbal aggressiveness and his boasting about sexual assault on the Access Hollywood tape that was revealed during the campaign. She accused the President of inciting violence at his rallies, and having an "attraction" to powerful weapons. Lee said his threats to ramp up military action and the taunting an unstable leader in North Korean Leader Kim Jung Un are all signs of the President being on the verge of a psychotic breakdown.
In Wednesday's White House press briefing, Sanders also dismissed a question about the President's mental health.
"I think the President and the people of this country should be concerned about the mental fitness of the leader of North Korea," she said.
Lee rejected claims that her research is any way politically motivated.
"I am uninterested in partisan politics, I have never registered for a political party," she said. "Ideology doesn't interest me."
Bronx fire kills at least 12, injures 4
Bronx fire kills at least 12, injures 4
New York (CNN) - At least 12 people, including a child, were killed in a fire Thursday night at a five-story apartment building in the Bronx, one of New York City's boroughs, officials said. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called it the "worst fire tragedy in this city in at least a quarter century."
Four people were critically injured and others were hurt, the mayor said. He added that it's possible that "we may lose others as well."
"This will rank as one of the worst losses of life to a fire in many, many years," de Blasio said in a Thursday press conference.
The fire started on the first floor and spread quickly, said the city's Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro. The victims, ranging in age from 1 to over 50, died on various floors of the apartment building.
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The first call about the fire came at 6:51 p.m. ET and the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) responded within three minutes, Nigro said.
"This tragedy is, without question, historic in its magnitude," he said. "Our hearts go out to every family who lost a loved one here and everyone fighting for their lives."
Shocked residents and family members stood outside the building in frigid temperatures, waiting for news. A local school was opened to shelter those who were displaced by the fire.
A woman, who declined to share her full name with CNN affiliate WPIX, stood anxiously on the street as firefighters wheeled victims out. She said the last text she had gotten from her mother, who lives in the building, was that she was trapped in her third floor apartment.
The walk-up building contained 29 units, according to public property records. CNN attempted to reach the listed property owner several times.
Since 2004, the city received four complaints about the building, which didn't appear to be fire-related. The latest complaint entered Thursday was from the FDNY requesting a structural stability inspection after the deadly, five-alarm fire.
At least 12 people were rescued and are expected to survive, the mayor said. By the time the officials spoke around 10 p.m. ET, the fire had been put out and the building was being searched.
"We are closely monitoring the devastating fire in the Bronx. As always we are thankful for our first responders. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families tonight," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted.
New York (CNN) - At least 12 people, including a child, were killed in a fire Thursday night at a five-story apartment building in the Bronx, one of New York City's boroughs, officials said. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called it the "worst fire tragedy in this city in at least a quarter century."
Four people were critically injured and others were hurt, the mayor said. He added that it's possible that "we may lose others as well."
"This will rank as one of the worst losses of life to a fire in many, many years," de Blasio said in a Thursday press conference.
The fire started on the first floor and spread quickly, said the city's Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro. The victims, ranging in age from 1 to over 50, died on various floors of the apartment building.
inline
The first call about the fire came at 6:51 p.m. ET and the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) responded within three minutes, Nigro said.
"This tragedy is, without question, historic in its magnitude," he said. "Our hearts go out to every family who lost a loved one here and everyone fighting for their lives."
Shocked residents and family members stood outside the building in frigid temperatures, waiting for news. A local school was opened to shelter those who were displaced by the fire.
A woman, who declined to share her full name with CNN affiliate WPIX, stood anxiously on the street as firefighters wheeled victims out. She said the last text she had gotten from her mother, who lives in the building, was that she was trapped in her third floor apartment.
The walk-up building contained 29 units, according to public property records. CNN attempted to reach the listed property owner several times.
Since 2004, the city received four complaints about the building, which didn't appear to be fire-related. The latest complaint entered Thursday was from the FDNY requesting a structural stability inspection after the deadly, five-alarm fire.
At least 12 people were rescued and are expected to survive, the mayor said. By the time the officials spoke around 10 p.m. ET, the fire had been put out and the building was being searched.
"We are closely monitoring the devastating fire in the Bronx. As always we are thankful for our first responders. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families tonight," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted.
Donald Trump doesn't know the difference between climate and weather
Donald Trump doesn't know the difference between climate and weather
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
(CNN) - At 8 p.m. Thursday, after a third straight day of golf at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and the temperature was 72 degrees, President Donald Trump tweeted this:
"In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year's Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!"
The "logic" at work here is simple: How can climate change, aka global warming, be real if it is so cold outside?
Trump tweets that 'cold' East Coast 'could use a little bit of' global warming
It's the same sort of "logic" that led Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe (R) to bring a snowball onto the Senate floor in late February 2015 as a supposed counterweight to claims of global warming. Toting his snowball in one hand, Inhofe, who was the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee at the time, said:
"In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I asked the chair, do you know what this is? It's a snowball just from outside here. So it's very, very cold out. Very unseasonable."
Yes, that really happened.
What Trump (and Inhofe) don't seem to understand -- or choose to ignore -- is that "weather" and "climate" are not the same thing.
Here's a brief primer on the difference between the two, via NASA: "Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere 'behaves' over relatively long periods of time."
That it is cold on any given day -- or week! or month! -- is not indicative of much of anything about the climate and whether it is warming or not. If the "weather = climate" logic held, a series of sweltering summer days could reasonably be concluded as incontrovertible evidence that the planet is getting warmer.
Which, of course, it is. This past October was the second warmest October on record -- and those records date back to the 1880s. The first 10 months of 2017 were, according to NASA, the second warmest 10 months ever -- second only to -- wait for it -- 2016. This year is likely to be among the three warmest years in almost 140 years of record-keeping, according to the Weather Channel. Of the eight warmest years ever, all have come since 1998, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (The eight warmest years, in order: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2010, 2013, 2005, 2009 and 1998.)
You get the idea. All available evidence -- and there are 137 years of it! -- makes very, very, abundantly clear that the climate is changing. There's also this bit of fact: 97% of climate scientists who have published papers on climate change believe not only that the globe is warming but also that the warming is very likely due to human activity.
Trump is free to tweet whatever he likes. And he will continue to do so. But to use cold weather as some sort of rebuttal of broader climatological warming is not even close to accurate, factual or funny.
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
(CNN) - At 8 p.m. Thursday, after a third straight day of golf at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and the temperature was 72 degrees, President Donald Trump tweeted this:
"In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year's Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!"
The "logic" at work here is simple: How can climate change, aka global warming, be real if it is so cold outside?
Trump tweets that 'cold' East Coast 'could use a little bit of' global warming
It's the same sort of "logic" that led Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe (R) to bring a snowball onto the Senate floor in late February 2015 as a supposed counterweight to claims of global warming. Toting his snowball in one hand, Inhofe, who was the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee at the time, said:
"In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I asked the chair, do you know what this is? It's a snowball just from outside here. So it's very, very cold out. Very unseasonable."
Yes, that really happened.
What Trump (and Inhofe) don't seem to understand -- or choose to ignore -- is that "weather" and "climate" are not the same thing.
Here's a brief primer on the difference between the two, via NASA: "Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere 'behaves' over relatively long periods of time."
That it is cold on any given day -- or week! or month! -- is not indicative of much of anything about the climate and whether it is warming or not. If the "weather = climate" logic held, a series of sweltering summer days could reasonably be concluded as incontrovertible evidence that the planet is getting warmer.
Which, of course, it is. This past October was the second warmest October on record -- and those records date back to the 1880s. The first 10 months of 2017 were, according to NASA, the second warmest 10 months ever -- second only to -- wait for it -- 2016. This year is likely to be among the three warmest years in almost 140 years of record-keeping, according to the Weather Channel. Of the eight warmest years ever, all have come since 1998, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (The eight warmest years, in order: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2010, 2013, 2005, 2009 and 1998.)
You get the idea. All available evidence -- and there are 137 years of it! -- makes very, very, abundantly clear that the climate is changing. There's also this bit of fact: 97% of climate scientists who have published papers on climate change believe not only that the globe is warming but also that the warming is very likely due to human activity.
Trump is free to tweet whatever he likes. And he will continue to do so. But to use cold weather as some sort of rebuttal of broader climatological warming is not even close to accurate, factual or funny.
Obama Unlikely To Get Invited to Prince Harry’s Wedding Because of Trump
Obama Unlikely To Get Invited to Prince Harry’s Wedding Because of Trump
The United Kingdom (UK) parliament has exercised fears of setting Trump off if Obama attends Harry’s wedding despite Obama’s close relationship with Prince Harry.
The UK already has a shaky relationship with the Trump who is yet to visit the UK and the Royal family. Recently, the prime minister of UK, Theresa May, called Trump's action wrong when he retweeted anti-muslim videos from a British far-right group, Britain First.
Unlike Prince Harry and Kate's wedding, the wedding's guest list is compiled by the Buckingham Palace and not the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. This is because a few dignitaries are expected to be at the event.
Trump unveils national security plan, touts economy
Trump unveils national security plan, touts economy
Washington (CNN) - President Donald Trump on Monday framed his foreign policy as an extension of his populist economic message, lambasting past presidents and trumpeting his own achievements during a speech meant to outline the guiding principles of his national security strategy.
In a speech that closely resembled a campaign address, Trump offered a laundry list of accomplishments and a reiteration of his view that Americans have been left behind as a result of decisions made by past administrations, including on immigration, the Iran nuclear deal, and trade pacts.
And while Trump repeated some core aspects of the foreign policy strategy document that his aides have spent the past eleven months preparing, he reserved much of his address for touting domestic economic growth and lambasting his predecessors for damaging American security.
"For many years, our citizens watched as Washington politicians presided over one disappointment after another; too many of our leaders -- so many -- who forgot whose voices they were to respect, and whose interest they were supposed to defend," Trump said in a speech to collection of uniformed military personnel and members of his cabinet assembled at an auditorium in downtown Washington.
"On top of everything else, our leaders drifted from American principles, they lost sight of America's destiny, and they lost their belief in American greatness," Trump said. "As a result, our citizens lost something as well. The people lost confidence in their government and eventually even lost confidence in their future."
Trump said his election last year was an indication that Americans yearned for another direction.
"We will stand up for ourselves, we will stand up for our country like we have never stood up before," Trump said. "We know that American success is not a foregone conclusion. It must be earned and it must be won. Our rivals are tough, tenacious and committed to the long term, but so are we."
Speech skipped strong references from policy
The congressionally-mandated strategy document spells out overarching themes for Trump's foreign policy.
National security aides to Trump began preparing the strategy statement shortly after he entered office, and drew from his public speeches during the campaign and as President to craft the 48-page document. Trump formally endorsed it during a meeting with cabinet members last week.
During his remarks, however, Trump avoided the more specific references contained within the strategy document, including to Russia's attempts to influence elections.
Instead, Trump called Russia and China "rival powers" who "seek to challenge American influence, values and wealth," but stopped short of calling out Moscow for its election meddling.
"We will attempt to build a great partnership with those and other countries, but in a manner that always protects our national interest," Trump said, recounting a conversation he held with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday about shared US intelligence that helped thwart a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg.
"They were able to apprehend these terrorists before the event with no loss of life and that's a great thing, and the way it's supposed to work," Trump said. "But while we seek such opportunities of cooperation, we will stand up for ourselves and we will stand up for our country like we have never stood up before."
That's a softer approach than what's contained within the national security strategy, which was released in full shortly before Trump began his remarks. The document describes China and Russia as "revisionist powers" who "want to shape a world antithetical to US values and interests."
The doctrine envisages a world in constant rivalry for economic and security influence, but downplays global agreements signed during past administrations meant to bring the world's nations into better agreement on issues like trade and climate change.
Congress requires the President to deliver a National Security Strategy that outlines the guiding principles of the administration's foreign policy. Trump's two immediate predecessors did not present their strategies in person, opting instead to present them in writing to lawmakers and the public.
Trump determined that a major address would help underscore the document's adherence to his campaign promises of protecting American interests, aides said. They hoped the speech would help provide coherence to a foreign policy that's been viewed as confused by some lawmakers and foreign governments.
Didn't mention election meddling
Trump offered a view of America's role that discounted the country's role in achieving global agreements like the Paris climate accord or the Iran nuclear deal. Instead he characterized US foreign relations as competitive and pitted with rivalries.
"We know that American success is not a foregone conclusion. It must be earned and it must be won. Our rivals are tough. They're tenacious and committed to the long term, but so are we," he said. "To succeed, we must integrate every dimension of our national strength, and we must compete with every instrument of our national power."
Many of the strategy's central tenets are familiar aspects of Trump's political agenda, including his insistence that trade with other countries be fair and reciprocal. But other aspects of the strategy seem discordant with Trump's own insistence that ties with Russia be improved.
While the President's strategy doesn't directly address Russian attempts to influence the US presidential election last year, it does make reference more broadly to attempts by Moscow to interfere in democratic contests.
"Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data," the document reads. "The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life."
Trump did not mention those lines during his remarks, instead sticking to broad declarations of American superiority on the global stage.
"With this strategy, we are calling for a great reawakening of America, a resurgence of confidence, and a rebirth of patriotism, prosperity and pride," he said.
Washington (CNN) - President Donald Trump on Monday framed his foreign policy as an extension of his populist economic message, lambasting past presidents and trumpeting his own achievements during a speech meant to outline the guiding principles of his national security strategy.
In a speech that closely resembled a campaign address, Trump offered a laundry list of accomplishments and a reiteration of his view that Americans have been left behind as a result of decisions made by past administrations, including on immigration, the Iran nuclear deal, and trade pacts.
And while Trump repeated some core aspects of the foreign policy strategy document that his aides have spent the past eleven months preparing, he reserved much of his address for touting domestic economic growth and lambasting his predecessors for damaging American security.
"For many years, our citizens watched as Washington politicians presided over one disappointment after another; too many of our leaders -- so many -- who forgot whose voices they were to respect, and whose interest they were supposed to defend," Trump said in a speech to collection of uniformed military personnel and members of his cabinet assembled at an auditorium in downtown Washington.
"On top of everything else, our leaders drifted from American principles, they lost sight of America's destiny, and they lost their belief in American greatness," Trump said. "As a result, our citizens lost something as well. The people lost confidence in their government and eventually even lost confidence in their future."
Trump said his election last year was an indication that Americans yearned for another direction.
"We will stand up for ourselves, we will stand up for our country like we have never stood up before," Trump said. "We know that American success is not a foregone conclusion. It must be earned and it must be won. Our rivals are tough, tenacious and committed to the long term, but so are we."
Speech skipped strong references from policy
The congressionally-mandated strategy document spells out overarching themes for Trump's foreign policy.
National security aides to Trump began preparing the strategy statement shortly after he entered office, and drew from his public speeches during the campaign and as President to craft the 48-page document. Trump formally endorsed it during a meeting with cabinet members last week.
During his remarks, however, Trump avoided the more specific references contained within the strategy document, including to Russia's attempts to influence elections.
Instead, Trump called Russia and China "rival powers" who "seek to challenge American influence, values and wealth," but stopped short of calling out Moscow for its election meddling.
"We will attempt to build a great partnership with those and other countries, but in a manner that always protects our national interest," Trump said, recounting a conversation he held with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday about shared US intelligence that helped thwart a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg.
"They were able to apprehend these terrorists before the event with no loss of life and that's a great thing, and the way it's supposed to work," Trump said. "But while we seek such opportunities of cooperation, we will stand up for ourselves and we will stand up for our country like we have never stood up before."
That's a softer approach than what's contained within the national security strategy, which was released in full shortly before Trump began his remarks. The document describes China and Russia as "revisionist powers" who "want to shape a world antithetical to US values and interests."
The doctrine envisages a world in constant rivalry for economic and security influence, but downplays global agreements signed during past administrations meant to bring the world's nations into better agreement on issues like trade and climate change.
Congress requires the President to deliver a National Security Strategy that outlines the guiding principles of the administration's foreign policy. Trump's two immediate predecessors did not present their strategies in person, opting instead to present them in writing to lawmakers and the public.
Trump determined that a major address would help underscore the document's adherence to his campaign promises of protecting American interests, aides said. They hoped the speech would help provide coherence to a foreign policy that's been viewed as confused by some lawmakers and foreign governments.
Didn't mention election meddling
Trump offered a view of America's role that discounted the country's role in achieving global agreements like the Paris climate accord or the Iran nuclear deal. Instead he characterized US foreign relations as competitive and pitted with rivalries.
"We know that American success is not a foregone conclusion. It must be earned and it must be won. Our rivals are tough. They're tenacious and committed to the long term, but so are we," he said. "To succeed, we must integrate every dimension of our national strength, and we must compete with every instrument of our national power."
Many of the strategy's central tenets are familiar aspects of Trump's political agenda, including his insistence that trade with other countries be fair and reciprocal. But other aspects of the strategy seem discordant with Trump's own insistence that ties with Russia be improved.
While the President's strategy doesn't directly address Russian attempts to influence the US presidential election last year, it does make reference more broadly to attempts by Moscow to interfere in democratic contests.
"Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data," the document reads. "The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life."
Trump did not mention those lines during his remarks, instead sticking to broad declarations of American superiority on the global stage.
"With this strategy, we are calling for a great reawakening of America, a resurgence of confidence, and a rebirth of patriotism, prosperity and pride," he said.
ISIS Threatens U.S. Attacks Over Jerusalem Decision
Islamic State has threatened attacks on U.S. soil in retaliation for the Trump administration’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
One of the group’s social media accounts reported on Thursday without much details on one of its accounts on the Telegram instant messaging service titled: “Wait for us” and “ISIS in Manhattan”.
The group said that it would carry out operations and showed images of New York’s Times Square and what appeared to be an explosive bomb belt and detonator.
“We will do more ops in your land, until the final hour and we will burn you with the flames of war which you started in Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Syria and Afghan. Just you wait.
“The recognition of your dog ‘Trump’ (sic) Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will make us recognise explosives as the capital of your country,” it said.
Washington triggered widespread anger and protests across the Arab world with its decision on Jerusalem.
The disputed city is revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, and is home to Islam’s third holiest site.
It has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades.
Islamic State was driven out of its Iraqi and Syrian capitals this year and squeezed into a shrinking pocket of desert straddling the border between the two countries.
The forces fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria now expect a new phase of guerrilla warfare there.
Militants including people claiming allegiance to Islamic State have carried out scores of deadly attacks in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the U.S. over the past two years.
Dollar, stocks drop in Asia as Fed fails to inspire
Dollar, stocks drop in Asia as Fed fails to inspire
PHOTO: OSCAR SIAGIAN/AFP/Getty Images
The fall in the greenback was mirrored in a broad sell-off in regional equities as traders ignored another record finish for the Dow on Wall Street.
The dollar was hit by selling after the much-anticipated central bank meeting, which provided little to excite buyers, despite tentative hopes US lawmakers are on course to push through market-friendly tax cuts.
The Fed lifted borrowing costs as expected and said economic growth would be stronger than initially forecast, while inflation would also improve. It also said its projections for three more rate rises next year were on course.
However, Marvin Loh, senior global market strategist at Bank of New York Mellon, told Bloomberg News: "Markets are generally interpreting the meeting as a dovish hike.
"The improved view in 2018 may be driven by tax reform, which will not have a long-lasting impact."
A below-par reading on inflation added to selling in the dollar, which retreated against most other currencies in New York. It fell through the 113 yen mark, while the pound was above $1.34 and the euro broke $1.18.
And in Asia it continued to struggle, while the Australian dollar surged 1.4 percent, supported by a better-than-expected jobs reading from Canberra. There were also healthy gains for the South Korean won, South African rand and Mexican peso.
The yuan rose 0.1 percent, with some help from news that People's Bank of China had lifted the interest rates it charges lenders. It similarly followed a Fed hike in March in a bid to prevent cash from flowing out of the country to chase better investment returns.
Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader, said the weakness in the dollar "suggests (investors) don't believe the Fed's outlook nor its rate projections".
- Tax-cut hopes -
Adding to nervousness among traders was the Republicans' shock loss in the Alabama senate election, which narrowed their majority to just two -- fuelling concern that Donald Trump will struggle to push through many of his promised reforms.
However, there is hope his much-vaunted tax cuts will be passed before the Democrats' newest senator takes his seat.
Reports said Wednesday that Republicans in both chambers of Congress had reached an agreement in principle on the massive tax bill, setting the stage for its final passage next week.
On equity markets Tokyo ended 0.3 percent lower as exporters were weighed by a stronger yen, while Shanghai dipped 0.3 percent and Singapore fell 0.8 percent.
Hong Kong gave up 0.2 percent, Sydney eased 0.2 percent and Seoul dropped 0.5 percent.
However, Taipei, Manila and Wellington were all in positive territory.
Oil prices edged up but only made a small dent in Wednesday's losses, which came despite another report showing US inventories had fallen.
"That suggests a lot of, perhaps all, the current news about tightness in the oil market is already priced," said McKenna.
There are also worries that an output cap agreed by major producers in OPEC and Russia could be lifted next year.
In early European trade London fell 0.2 percent, while Paris and Frankfurt each lost 0.1 percent.
- Key figures around 0820 GMT -
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 22,694.45 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.2 percent at 29,166.38 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.3 percent at 3,292.44 (close)
London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 7,482.16
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1832 from $1.1828 at 2200 GMT
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3430 from $1.3415
Dollar/yen: UP at 112.67 yen from 112.56 yen
Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP 14 cents at $56.74 per barrel
Oil - Brent North Sea: UP 41 cents at $62.85 per barrel
New York - DOW: UP 0.3 percent at 24,585.43 (close)
Alabama Senate election: Inside story of the GOP meltdown
By Rebecca Berg, CNN
Dec 14, 2017
(CNN) - Mitch McConnell was worried about Alabama.
Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions was now President Donald Trump's attorney general, opening up a Senate seat McConnell would need to focus on in November 2018.
Early this year, he started seeing reports in local Alabama press that gave him pause, someone close to the senator told CNN. The Alabama governor was considering holding a special election this year, rather than next. Should he be concerned about a possible date change that could add new pressure on the party? Sen. Luther Strange, appointed to replace Sessions, said not to be.
Had that conversation gone differently, McConnell might have sought to persuade Gov. Kay Ivey to keep the 2018 election date. He might have called upon the White House to intervene. Instead, Washington Republicans were caught flat-footed when Ivey announced in April that she would schedule the special election early, for this year.
The decision was the first in a series of unimaginable missteps and miscalculations that led to one of the biggest Republican political disasters in recent years, culminating in Republican Roy Moore's defeat Tuesday to Democrat Doug Jones. The result marked the first time in more than two decades that a Democrat had won a Senate seat in deep-red Alabama.
"The remarkable thing is, it's one big, gigantic self-inflicted wound," said Josh Holmes, McConnell's former chief of staff and campaign manager. "The election itself did not need to happen."
From that first fateful decision until Tuesday, the race unfolded for the Republican Party as a political case study in Murphy's Law: whatever could go wrong, did.
And GOP strategists now fear the party could remain stuck in the morass into 2018 and beyond, symbolically linked to Moore even as they try to put his loss behind them.
The race will be remembered as much for Moore as for the test he posed to Washington Republicans, and the divisions he exposed among them, especially between McConnell and the White House.
This is the story of how the Alabama Senate race unfurled and ultimately unraveled, as told to CNN in conversations with nearly a dozen people aligned with the Trump administration, Senate Republicans and the political wing of Steve Bannon, the President's former chief strategist who bucked the party and backed Moore.
A White House divided
Judge Roy Moore was no national Republican's first choice. During the first round of the Republican primary, influential conservatives coalesced behind Rep. Mo Brooks, while McConnell and the National Republican Senatorial Committee favored Strange.
But the President's team was on the fence. Some White House advisers strongly favored endorsing Strange, including Rick Dearborn and the legislative affairs team, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and the vice president's advisers, according to multiple sources inside and outside of the administration. They argued that Strange had been loyal to the President and would be a key vote on major legislation like tax reform.
Dearborn, a former chief of staff to Sessions, also maintained deep Alabama connections. His wife, a GOP strategist in the state, is staunchly anti-Moore.
The President's political office, however, which at the time included Bannon, cautioned against intervening in the primary, fearing the move would carry unnecessary political risk and, possibly, provoke a backlash among Trump's core supporters.
"To me, getting behind Luther was inconsistent with who we are and how we got here," said one source familiar with the internal discussions.
In the end, one administration official said, there wasn't extensive debate or hand-wringing.
"The President ultimately wanted to do the right thing" and endorse Strange, the official said, "because Luther had been with him on every vote without even asking."
If Strange's loyalty to Trump was a selling point, however, he was weighed down politically by his initial appointment to the Senate by Gov. Robert Bentley, who afterward left office under the cloud of a sex scandal involving a top aide. Plus, Brooks and then Moore sought to frame Strange as a creature of the Republican establishment -- at a moment when that label was toxic in Alabama.
Meanwhile, efforts by national Republicans to help Strange were backfiring. The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund spent tens of millions of dollars to boost him -- furthering attacks by Strange's rivals that he was bought and paid for by Washington Republicans.
Bannon sees an opportunity
When Bannon departed the White House in August, he and his allies saw McConnell's investment in the race as an opportunity to score points for his own populist-nationalist movement by waging a proxy fight against the Senate leader.
"I was with Steve at his dining room table, and he looked at me and said, 'Surabian, we've got to do this,'" recalled Andy Surabian, Bannon's former deputy in the White House, now a senior adviser to the pro-Trump Great America PAC. "If it wasn't for Mitch McConnell, there's a good chance Steve Bannon would have never gotten involved in this race at all."
With the President still backing Strange, Bannon threw his support to Moore -- ensuring that some of his allies would follow. By the end of September, just before Election Day, they had organized dual rallies in support of Moore: Sebastian Gorka and Sarah Palin appeared at one in Montgomery, and Nigel Farage, Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson and Bannon headlined another in Fairhope.
"That was a shot across the bow to not only the President, but also Bannon's detractors, including Matt Drudge, who claimed if Steve was fired he would not have any influence," said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump campaign aide who is in Bannon's circle. "There's more power on the outside."
A few days earlier, the President had traveled to Alabama for a rally of his own -- a decision he reached as a result of a meeting with Sen. Bob Corker, in which the President indicated to Corker that he believed Strange would win. Corker warned Trump that the race was not going as smoothly as he thought.
To settle the debate, "they got some consultants on the phone," including former National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Ward Baker, "and confirmed what Corker was saying," said a source briefed on the conversation. "At the end of the conversation, (Trump) committed to go to Alabama."
But by the time the President stood on stage in Huntsville on September 22, even as he heaped praise on Strange, Trump also seemed uncertain about his decision.
"I'll be honest, I might have made a mistake," Trump said.
Washington meets Roy Moore
The morning after the runoff election when Moore defeated Strange, McConnell called Moore to congratulate the new Republican nominee. The conversation lasted just a minute, said one source familiar with the call, and Moore said little.
But his victory spoke volumes -- and Republicans in Washington were getting the message.
Bannon hailed the victory as the start of a "revolution." The President expressed his support for Moore, and deleted some of his earlier tweets supporting Strange. In early October, Moore made the rounds in Washington, meeting with lawmakers including Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, the NRSC chairman.
As Trump and Republican groups lined up behind Moore for the general election, however, few believed they would need to actively support him. There was little doubt he would be the next senator from Alabama. And one month later, the race seemed to be progressing as expected.
The Story
After the GOP runoff, Brian O. Walsh, president of the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action, said he had put a note on his calendar to poll the race November 9. That morning, he called the group's pollsters -- and, a few hours later, he urgently called them back. They would need to rethink their questions.
A Washington Post story had just published, featuring four women who alleged Moore had pursued sexual relations with them when they were teenagers, including one who said she was just 14 years old at the time.
Among Republicans in Washington, "there was a lot of shock, a lot of awe, a lot of confusion as to how nobody discovered it before that day," said one party strategist familiar with the Senate race. "Everyone just sighed and said, 'Well, here we are.'"
As the Republican National Committee and the NRSC cut ties with Moore's campaign, McConnell and other Republicans called for Moore to step aside. Behind the scenes, party operatives assessed possible scenarios: they could attempt to circumvent Moore with a write-in candidate, persuade Ivey to delay the election, or run Moore out of the race altogether.
Although McConnell would in the following days float Sessions as a potential write-in ringer, that idea quickly fizzled.
"Short of (University of Alabama football coach) Nick Saban or Jesus Christ, you were going to have a really tough time," said the Senate Republican campaign official. "So it kind of took the write-in off the table."
Strategists in McConnell's orbit soon landed on an obscure legal precedent, which suggested that Ivey could call a new special election if Strange stepped down and another replacement was appointed, the official said. Sen. Richard Shelby and Vice President Mike Pence, in addition to the vice president's staff, were in communication with Ivey — but the governor wouldn't budge.
Meanwhile, McConnell's allies pitched the White House on the plan, "and initially they were interested," said a Senate campaign official.
But, internally, the President's political shop worried that such a Hail Mary would be "the kind of scheme that voters in Alabama would see right through," according to two sources familiar with their discussions.
"None of it was realistic," said an administration official.
Moore rebounds
Crucially, as Republicans processed and sought to work through the crisis, the President was out of the country completing an extended swing through Asia -- leaving a vacuum at home, with no clear guidance to his allies.
Meanwhile, the talk among Republicans of ousting Moore was energizing Bannon and his network anew. In one internal discussion, "we all agreed that McConnell was trying to kill two birds with one stone and take down Steve with Moore, and we weren't going to let that happen," said Nunberg.
But Bannon first needed to bring some of his influential allies onto the same page.
On November 14, Fox News anchor Sean Hannity stunned some conservatives when he delivered an ultimatum to Moore: "remove any doubt" about the allegations against him, or "get out of this race." Hannity's bold and unexpected stand drew a phone call from Bannon, who urged Hannity to tone down his rhetoric and let Alabama voters decide, a source told CNN at the time. The following evening, Hannity softened his tone, saying the issue "shouldn't be decided by me."
There were still other fires to extinguish. That same week, in an interview with the Associated Press, Ivanka Trump said of Moore: "There's a special place in hell for people who prey on children. I've yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims' accounts." The statement would be featured prominently on mailers and in television ads against Moore.
Through intermediaries and directly, Bannon and his network warned the White House that the President could anger his political base were he to call for Moore to step aside, multiple sources familiar with those discussions said. Bannon remained in semi-regular contact with Trump by phone.
Franken changes the landscape
An unrelated event soon convinced some Republicans that the landscape was shifting. On the morning of Nov. 16, as the White House political team met, news was breaking of a woman accusing Sen. Al Franken of sexual misconduct.
Watching the story unfold, White House political director Bill Stepien predicted a pivot point, telling his colleagues, "This changes the conversation, and this will dramatically change public opinion and open the door for Moore," according to sources who were present.
"The light bulb went on for everyone," recalled one official who was in the meeting. Suddenly, the public discussion of sexual misconduct was bipartisan.
Trump's endorsement and rally
Following the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump marked a new phase of the campaign as he began to hint at an endorsement of Moore, attacking Jones in a public statement on Twitter.
Trump "(knew) that this is not a sure thing," said a source familiar with the President's endorsement. "He was willing to put his own political capital on the line."
A few days later, Bannon announced to CNN that he would return to Alabama for a rally December 5 to kick off the final week of the campaign, saying he "(looked) forward to standing with Judge Moore and all of the Alabama deplorables in the fight to elect him to the United States Senate and send shockwaves to the political and media elites."
It had become clear that Moore would not be challenged by a last-minute write-in candidate or persuaded to leave the race, and some Senate Republicans grew quieter. On December 3, McConnell said on ABC's "This Week" that he would "let the people of Alabama make the call" on Moore.
McConnell's circle insisted he was not softening his previous stance on Moore, so much as "(acknowledging) that despite our best efforts, Moore will be on the ballot," said one source familiar with McConnell's thinking.
The next day, Trump explicitly endorsed Moore and later called him from Air Force One en route to Utah, saying, "Go get 'em, Roy!"
Groups aligned with the President, including the Republican National Committee and America First Action, followed his lead, announcing they would spend money on the race. Walsh said the decision by America First was a "clinical" one, informed by data on the race, the President's posture, and the legislative implications.
"You can't simply write off a US Senate seat," Walsh said.
But the President's endorsement violently ruptured the GOP, with McConnell's wing of the party standing on the other side of the chasm. The NRSC and SLF announced they would not re-engage in the race.
Following Trump's decision to endorse Moore, the President on one occasion attempted to speak about the race with McConnell, said a Senate campaign official familiar with the conversation. "And McConnell indicated they're going to have to agree to disagree on that issue, and they should talk about other issues instead," the official said.
'You can lose basically everywhere'
The reckoning is likely just beginning.
With Moore's defeat, the President suffers one more political bruising that could cause Republicans to question his broader political strategy moving into 2018.
McConnell could be pressed by donors and party loyalists to defend his decisionmaking that resulted in the party losing a crucial Senate seat.
And Bannon's allies have promised to continue taking on McConnell into the midterm elections. "The war inside the Republican Party is only going to get more vicious and more bloody," said a source familiar with Bannon's plans.
Ultimately, however, all three camps will be forced to grapple with a historic failure in the race for an impossibly safe Senate seat.
"If you can figure out how to screw up a state as red as Alabama," Holmes said, "you can lose basically anywhere."
Tillerson: My failure if US resorts to force on North Korea
Tillerson: My failure if US resorts to force on North Korea
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.HANNAH MCKAY / POOL / AFP
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed confidence Tuesday that Washington is doing all it can to force North Korea to negotiate its nuclear disarmament.
And he added that if diplomacy and sanctions fail and the US military is forced to take pre-emptive action, it will have been a personal failure.
"You know, we can only do our part in this, and the regime in Pyongyang is going to have to come to some decision about their future," Tillerson said.
The United States has mobilized the world community to impose stringent economic and diplomatic sanctions on Kim Jong-un's regime to halt its nuclear drive.
But Pyongyang has continued to test ever more powerful ballistic missiles and boasts it can now target the US mainland with its nuclear arsenal.
Washington has pledged to deliver a denuclearized Korean peninsula, but the strategy hinges on China maintaining pressure and Kim agreeing to talk.
"We want them to make the right choice, which is to stop and say: 'Let's sit down to talk about it'," Tillerson said, in a year end speech to staff.
"Because if they keep going, they can cross a point at which there's nothing left for us in the diplomatic community to do," he warned.
"We've done everything we can do, as we don't want to get to that point," he said, stressing that he works closely with US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
"And I've said to my partner Secretary Mattis many times: 'If we get there, I've failed. And I don't want to fail'," he promised.
Thousands of Muslims in Asia protest against Trump’s Jerusalem plan
Thousands of protesters in Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia joined rallies on Friday to condemn Washington’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, as authorities tightened security outside U.S. embassies.
Leaders in both Asian countries have joined a global chorus of voices condemning U.S. President Donald Trump’s move.
Several thousand protesters, some shouting anti-U.S. slogans and burning an effigy of Trump, gathered in front of the American embassy in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
In Indonesia, hundreds of protesters mostly clad in white were arriving outside the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, capital of the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country.
Some wore checkered scarves and waved Palestinian flags, while others shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).
“We have prepared personnel and patrols to secure the U.S. embassy. We are expecting between 500 and 1,000 demonstrators,” said Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono.
The U.S. embassy in Jakarta advised its citizens to avoid areas where there were demonstrations and said its consulate in Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya had suspended public services on Friday.
Indonesia has been a long-running supporter of the two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and there have been public demonstrations in support of Palestine in recent years.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Thursday urged the United States to reconsider its decision and instructed his foreign minister to summon the U.S. ambassador for an explanation.
In Malaysia, leaders from the ruling party United Malay National Organisation and the popular right wing Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, led the rally and representatives of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas are expected to join.
Protests are also expected in South Asia.
Pakistan’s major Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami has announced rallies in all major cities after Friday prayers.
President Trump said on Wednesday that the United States would move its embassy to Jerusalem in the coming years.
Protests have already broken out in the West Bank and the Gaza strip as the Islamist group Hamas urged Palestinians to launch a fresh uprising against Israel.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest barriers to a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Its eastern sector was captured by Israel in a 1967 war and annexed in a move not recognised internationally. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem for the capital of an independent state they seek.
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