Live: U.S. Politics
Live U.S. political coverage.
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Palestinian leader to respond to Trump'sJerusalem announcement in TV speech
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will deliver a televised speech on Wednesday in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's anticipated announcement that Washington recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a Palestinian official said."The president (Abbas) will first listen to President Trump's speech, and will then give a response," the official told Reuters, adding that the remarks would be broadcast on Palestine TV.
Trump's announcement on Jerusalem, a city at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was set for 1 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT). Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far held off on commenting explicitly about Trump's planned policy shift.
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British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that he was concerned about reports that U.S. President Donald Trump’s would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“Lets wait and see what the president says exactly. But, you know, we view the reports that we have heard with concern because we think that Jerusalem obviously should be part of the final settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Senior U.S. officials said on Tuesday that Trump will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Wednesday and set in motion the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to the city.
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Campaign promises to score political points, without careful consideration of U.S. national interests, rarely make good policy, and I fear this is a particularly dangerous example of that. It will make the already distant goal of peace in the Middle East that much harder to reach.Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) -
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Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, defying warnings of unrest- President Donald Trump will announce on Wednesday that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will move its embassy there, breaking with longtime U.S. policy and potentially threatening regional stability.
- Trump is set to make the announcement from the White House at 1 pm ET. We will carry it LIVE here.
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Arab League to hold emergency meeting on Jerusalem on Saturday
The Arab League is to hold an emergency meeting on Saturday on U.S. plans to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the head of the Palestinian delegation to the body said on Wednesday.The Palestinians and Jordan had requested the meeting which will take place at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT), Ambassador Diab al-Louh told Reuters by phone.
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PM May to speak to Trump on Jerusalem, says its status should be determined by negotiation
U.S.British Prime Minister Theresa May said she intended to speak to U.S. President Donald Trump about the status of Jerusalem, which she said should be determined as part of a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. -
Interior Dept. recommends changes to boundaries of six U.S. national monuments
U.S.U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended that President Donald Trump change the boundaries of six national monuments designated by past administrations, according to a copy of the recommendations seen by Reuters. -
Trump to shrink Utah monuments, riling tribes and environmentalists
U.S. President Donald Trump will visit Utah on Monday to announce big cuts to the state's sprawling wilderness national monuments, a move that is likely to trigger legal challenges from tribes and environmental groups. -
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The Senate intelligence panel's top Democrat on Friday said lawmakers will want to again interview President Trump's son-in-law turned White House adviser Jared Kushner in the wake of former adviser Michael Flynn's guilty plea as part of the special counsel's investigation.
"There are a number, like Mr. Kushner and others, that we're going to want to invite back," Senator Mark Warner told reporters. He declined to say whether that would include Vice President Mike Pence.
He added that he remained confident in the panel's Republican chairman, Richard Burr. Burr, in a New York Times report on Thursday, said Trump had told him that he was eager to see the committee's probe end.
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The House Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat, Representative Jerrold Nadler, said Flynn's guilty plea should push his panel to investigate. The Senate's Judiciary Committee along with the House and Senate intelligence panels are conducting their own probes along with Mueller's office.
"There is now more than enough evidence to form the basis of a congressional investigation into the President’s obstruction of justice," Nadler said, calling on the panel's Republican chairman Robert Goodlatte to "finally begin our oversight work without delay.” -
"A false statement, made in the White House, by the National Security Advisor, about a call with a foreign adversary, looks like a prison case to me," U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary's Crime and Terrorism subcommittee, said in a statement, adding that Flynn's "behavior constituted a serious risk to national security and a betrayal of the public trust."
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Stocks fell steeply in the morning after ABC News reported Flynn was prepared to testify that before taking office Trump had directed him to make contact with Russians.
But major Wall Street indexes had recouped much of their losses by the afternoon, after U.S. Senate Republicans said they had enough support to pass a sweeping tax overhaul. The benchmark S&P 500 was last down 0.4 percent.Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf -
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Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro is leading the charge among his Democratic peers preparing to shore up protections for borrowers and savers while President Donald Trump follows through on a pledge to defang the powerful Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Reuters' Lisa Lambert reports.
More Trump Effect stories here. -
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Former Trump adviser Flynn pleads guilty to lying to FBI
U.S.Former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn on Friday pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, prosecutors said, adding that he had spoken with a top member of Trump's transition team regarding his communications with Russia's ambassador to the United States. -
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If Flynn testifies that before taking office Trump directed him to contact Russian officials, that might not necessarily amount to a crime. If it were proven that Trump directed Flynn to lie about his contacts to the FBI, that would be a crime.However, legal experts disagree over whether a sitting president can be indicted. Many say the only clear punishment for a president who has committed criminal acts is impeachment by Congress. The Constitution provides that impeachment, which requires a simple majority in the House and a two-thirds vote in the Senate, is warranted for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which Congress is free to define as it sees fit.Reporting by Jan Wolfe
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Shortly after the Flynn news broke, Trump was meeting the Libyan prime minister in the Oval Office. A photo spray of the event had been in the daily schedule that the White House emailed to reporters on Thursday night. The pool assembled outside the Oval Office. But press staff then told the pool to go back into the briefing room and said the event was always supposed to be closed to the press and had accidentally been put on the press schedule. Thus reporters were not able to ask Trump about Flynn.
Reporting by Steve Holland, Reuters' White House correspondent -
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The market is shooting first and asking questions later. But if it turns out to be true it causes volatility. They read those headlines and immediately you got massive activity coming through - it’s not low volume, it’s high volume. You are seeing gold markets react the other way, you are seeing the safety bets come on.Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading, Themis Trading, Chatham, NJ
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"There's political drama swirling around the market now. The market hasn't priced in a former national security advisor testifying against the President. It potentially jeopardizes tax reform and the agenda of the administration and potentially reignites the bitter debate around the election. The Russian interference story never seems to go away."Michael Antonelli, managing director, institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee
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Jens David Ohlin, a professor of criminal law at Cornell Law School, said it is not clearly a crime for Trump to direct his transition team to communicate with the Russian government. “There is a sense that when you are president-elect you are creating a government in waiting,” he said. “Some contacts during the transition period would not be so damaging.”
A crucial political question is whether the Trump administration sought to reward the Russian government for assistance during the election, Ohlin said. “That would of course not only be treasonous but would rise to the level of impeachment,” Ohlin said. “This is a more of an impeachment issue than an issue of the federal criminal code.”
But Trump could face criminal liability he directed Flynn to lie to the FBI, Ohlin said. “If you conspire with someone to lie to the FBI you ae liable as a co-conspirator,” he said. “That would be a major source of liability.”Reporting by Jan Wolfe -
“Today’s admission of guilt by Michael Flynn is extremely grave because it proves beyond any doubt that he lied directly to the FBI while he was in the White House serving as President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor—just four days after the inauguration—in order to conceal his discussions with the Russian government about lifting sanctions," Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on teh House Oversight Committeee, said in a statement. “The next critical question is why President Trump tried to get the FBI to drop its investigation of Flynn and then fired the FBI Director for pressing ahead against the President’s wishes."
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U.S. House passes Hong Kong rights bills, Trump expected to sign
WASHINGTON The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed two bills to back protesters in Hong Kong and send a warning to China about human rights, with President Donald Trump expected to sign them into law, despite delicate trade talks with Beijing. | Video