June 28, 2019

Friday Night Massacre: DeVos Trashes Rule That Protected Students from Predatory Colleges

In an all-too-familiar turn, Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos chose a Friday afternoon to formally rescind a regulation that protected consumers and taxpayers — in this case the gainful employment rule, issued in 2014 by the Obama administration. The rule was aimed at denying federal dollars — in the form of student grants and loans
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April 22, 2019

Swampy Ex-Trump Officials Scott Pruitt and Ryan Zinke: They’re Back!

Former top Trump environmental officials Scott Pruitt and Ryan Zinke, both forced out of their jobs last year under the weight of, for each, an absurdly large number of ethics scandals, have now resurfaced, with each accepting influence-peddling jobs in industries they previously regulated. The two also appeared jointly at a recent Texas Republican event
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April 18, 2019

No Mr. Barr, Trump Did Not “Fully Cooperate” with Mueller

Attorney General William Barr’s press conference this morning in advance of his release of the redacted Mueller report was more like the warmup act at a Trump campaign rally. Playing to his audience of one, Barr repeatedly invoked Trump’s “no collusion” branding. And on the issue of obstruction, Barr’s conclusion was utterly false. Barr indicated
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April 16, 2019

Ryan Zinke Turns Trump Tenure Into Goldmine, Literally

As the Department of the Interior’s inspector general did the right thing and began a conflict-of-interest investigation of newly-confirmed Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, the previous Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, continued his own egregious course of doing the wrong thing. As the AP reported Tuesday, Zinke has accepted a job with Nevada-based U.S. Gold
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March 26, 2019

Trump Interior Nominee David Bernhardt Is the Swamp

In October 2016, candidate Donald Trump unveiled a package of government ethics reforms that he said would “drain the swamp” in Washington, DC; it included a ban on former federal employees lobbying the government for five years and stricter rules on what constitutes lobbying. He seemed to be promising to undermine the power of special
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February 27, 2019

Cohen: I Fear Trump Won’t Leave If He Loses Election

Michael Cohen chose to conclude his dramatic Capitol Hill testimony today with a pointed warning about President Trump. “I fear,” Cohen said, “that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power.” In other words, Cohen raised the concern that Trump would refuse to leave the White
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February 9, 2019

Certainly the President, By Sarah Huckabee Sanders

SANDERS: Certainly the President wants, in moments where our country is hurting, like we’ve seen in the last several days, to find ways to bring our country together, and we’ve seen him do exactly that. SANDERS: Certainly the President is calling on everyone to come together and if you have a problem with one another, let’s
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December 30, 2018

Say It With Me: Donald Trump is Weak

One evening when I was in high school, a friend’s hard-edged, Republican mother revealed to me her preference for the 1980 GOP candidate to challenge a president, Jimmy Carter, who was struggling with the economy, energy policy, and the hostage-taking in Iran. “I like Connally,” she said, referencing former Texas governor and Nixon Treasury secretary
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