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Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to the late Sen. John McCain's defense after President Trump spent the last week attacking his old critic. Schwarzenegger, 71, the Austrian-born politician who rose to fame with the U.S. by his roles in "Conan the Barbarian" and the "Terminator" movies, said the type of vitriol coming from the president is unbecoming of the office. “[McCain] was just an unbelievable person,” Schwarzenegger told the Atlantic. “So an attack on him is absolutely unacceptable if he’s alive or dead — but even twice as unacceptable since he passed away a few months ago. It doesn’t...

resident Donald Trump’s proposed federal budget for 2020 aims to cut all funding for PBS and NPR, along with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The president’s request, unveiled in its entirety on Monday, calls on Congress to kill $435 million in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and $126 million from the NEA. The budget, which will spend $4.7 trillion on mandatory and discretionary programs, would leave just enough money to wind down operations of the CPB and NEA.

President Trump on Friday morning said he felt “very badly” for Paul Manafort, but that he has not discussed a pardon for his former campaign manager, who was sentenced to 47 months in prison. “I feel very badly for Paul Manafort,” the president told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before departing on a trip to survey the tornado damage in Alabama. He said this “is a very, very tough time” for Manafort, 69, who still faces sentencing in a separate case next week in DC, where a judge could impose as much as 10 more years...

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday defended President Trump's assessment that the situation at the southern border constitutes a national emergency, telling lawmakers that an extended influx in migrants could "overwhelm" the immigration system. Nielsen testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security that illegal immigration "is spiraling out of control and threatening public safety and national security." Democrats pressed her on whether the situation genuinely required Trump's emergency declaration, which the House voted to overturn last week. "Although we may disagree on solutions, I hope there can be a consensus that the current system isn’t working and that...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he expects his chamber will have the votes to pass a resolution blocking President Trump’s national emergency declaration, but an effort to override a presidential veto will fail in the House. “I think what is clear in the Senate is that there will be enough votes to pass the resolution of disapproval, which will then be vetoed by the president and then in all likelihood the veto will be upheld in the House,” McConnell said Monday. He said the Senate vote would happen before the lawmakers go on a one-week recess March 15.

House Democrats opened a huge new avenue Monday in their investigations into President Trump, with the chairman of the Judiciary Committee firing off document requests to dozens of figures from the president's administration, family and business. Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Monday the committee served document requests to 81 agencies, entities and individuals, as part of a new probe into "alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump." In addition to the White House, Nadler is also seeking information from Trump family members, like Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Jared Kushner; from former...

Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz on Monday called on Democrats to make sure controversial Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is defeated in the next primary because she continues to antagonize Jewish lawmakers and Jewish Americans. "The Democrats must marginalize her and distance her from the center of the party," Dershowitz, who is Jewish, said on Fox News. "And I hope she'll be primaried, and she should be beaten in a primary by people who support the United States and people who support American allies, rather than people who support American enemies." Omar has been accused of anti-Semitism after charging that...

If you thought the 2016 U.S. presidential election was ugly, you haven’t seen anything yet. If an interaction this week between former Vice President Joe Biden and actress Cynthia Nixon serves as an indicator, the upcoming 2020 election is going to be far nastier, personal, and vicious. Biden, who’s reportedly mulling yet another White House bid, spoke Thursday at the Chuck Hagel Forum in Global Leadership at the University of Nebraska Omaha. During his address, Biden touched on the international community’s reaction to Pence’s speech this year at the Munich Security Conference.

President Trump suggested Thursday that a resolution may be near to the conflict between India and Pakistan, which appear to be on the brink of war, saying “hopefully” it’s nearing an end. “We have, I think, reasonably attractive news from Pakistan and India,” Trump told reporters during a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam. “They’ve been going at it, and we’ve been involved in trying to have them stop, and we have some reasonably decent news, I think. Hopefully that’s going to be coming to an end.”

More civilians were killed in the war in Afghanistan in 2018 than any other year since the U.S. started fighting there in 2001. The United Nations released a report that said there were 3,804 civilian deaths in 2018, an 11 percent increase from 2017. Of those deaths, 927, or about 25 percent, were children up to age 17. It said 7,189 civilians were injured last year in the armed conflict.

Chicago cops laid out their case against "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett Thursday morning, accusing the TV star of orchestrating an elaborate hoax involving two "bogus" hate crimes -- one involving an alleged attack, and one involving a threatening letter -- all in order to get a pay raise. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Smollett orchestrated a "phony attack" in order to take "advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career." Johnson said at a news conference Thursday that Smollett, 36, also sent a racist and homophobic threatening letter to himself at the Fox studio lot...

When TV star Jussie Smollett claimed to be the victim of a racist anti-gay attack at the hands of two Trump supporters, virtually the entire news media and a parade of politicians immediately believed him and demanded the rest of us do so as well. Now, that story is coming completely apart, with police sources saying Smollett likely orchestrated the entire attack himself. But while we wait for the facts to come to light, it is worth remembering that almost 3,000 people were shot in the City of Chicago last year -- women, small children -- sometimes alone and sometimes...

A federal judge on Friday ordered limited gag order for longtime political operative Roger Stone as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s case against the Trump ally. “Counsel for the parties and the witnesses must refrain from making statements to the media or in public settings that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case,” U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said.

Rep. Dan Kildee defended fellow Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s controversial weekend tweets regarding U.S. politicians who defend Israel, saying Monday morning that they were not anti-Semitic. "I wouldn't take it as anti-Semitism,” Kildee told CNN when asked what he thought of the criticism that Omar insinuated that Jewish money was controlling lawmakers. Kildee, who represents a Michigan district, said that he believes Omar was trying to bring light to the fact that there are people who make campaign contributions specifically based on Israel policy.

A lawyer says Tunisian authorities have given seven suspects life in prison and handed out other sentences in the trial over two separate 2015 attacks in Tunisia that killed some 60 people, mainly tourists. Samir Ben Amor, the lawyer for one of the 44 defendants, said the verdicts were handed down Saturday for the deadly attack against the country's famous Bardo Museum and a massacre at a popular seaside resort. He says other defendants received jail terms ranging from 16 years to six months, while the charges against 27 of the suspects were dismissed. No one got the maximum penalty...

President Trump said the U.S. must “build a culture” that will cherish the “dignity and sanctity of human life,” during remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. on Thursday. The president’s pro-life remarks during his annual speech at the gathering, which drew members of his Cabinet and members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, built on his comments during his State of the Union address earlier this week. “We must build a culture that cherishes dignity and sanctity of innocent human life,” Trump said. “All children, born and unborn, are made in the holy image of God....

The French Air Force on Tuesday said it conducted a rare simulation test launch of a nuclear cruise missile just days after the United States announced it will withdraw from a Cold War-era arms control treaty with Russia. The French nuclear missile strike mission-- that included a Rafale warplane-- lasted 11 hours and included aerial refueling. The mission comes as France looks to double down on its own nuclear dissuasion program. French air force officials did not say when the test was carried out.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) is continuing his State of the Union tradition of inviting illegal immigrants to join him. Last year, Gomez invited Itayu Torres, a so-called “Dreamer” from his district who got temporary protection from deportation through former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order. This year, Gomez is more directly targeting President Donald Trump, who is still trying to help DACA recipients and secure the border in a federal spending bill without cooperation from Democrats. Gomez has invited Sandra Diaz, “an immigrant from Costa Rica who worked as an undocumented housekeeper to Donald Trump...

Monday on MSNBC’s “All In,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) said she has no proof, but she believes Paul Manafort, who was campaign chairman for Donald Trump from June to August 2016, was planted by Russians. Waters said, “At the center of this question about whether or not the president colluded with Russia or Putin or the oligarchs et cetera is the question of sanctions. We know that Putin wants these sanctions lifted. I’ve said from the beginning that I believe, and I don’t have the proof, but I believe that Manafort was sent to the campaign to be there to...

Some U.S. troops may remain in Syria at a remote U.S. base to help oppose Iranian activity, according to a new report. Although President Trump said last month that the Islamic State had been defeated and called for the withdrawal of troops in Syria, officials claim that the government’s current draw-down proposal would keep at least some U.S. troops at the remote base known as the al-Tanf garrison, Foreign Policy reports. While most of the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria are stationed in northeast Syria, the troops at al-Tanf are further east and would be the last to depart Syria...