Section: US & Canada
News of the day from across the globe, July 11
Major NATO exercises in Eastern Europe began in Bulgaria on Tuesday involving 25,000 military personnel from more than 20 allied and partner countries as the U.S. seeks to reassure NATO’s European allies. The drills aim to increase the interoperability of participating countries and demonstrate resolve and readiness to act in support of...
News roundup: Trump campaign attempted collusion with Russian government
Yesterday evening, it was revealed that not only did Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort not only took a meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian attorney who claimed to have secret information damaging to Hillary Clinton, but that the three of them had been explicitly told, in advance, that the meeting was...
The Everybody-Does-It Defense of Collusion
As evidence continues to mount suggesting the Trump campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election, the president’s allies have shifted to a new defense: Collusion is no big deal. For months, the White House has fervently denied allegations of collusion, with President Trump routinely dismissing Russia stories in the press as...
President Trump is stalling Congress’s push to punish Russia for election interference
While astonishing news is swirling around Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer last June, the Trump administration is quietly trying to put the kibosh on bipartisan legislation to sanction Russia for election interference. The bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and John McCain (R-AZ), would impose new sanctions...
US, Russia To Resume High-Level Talks Initially Scrapped After Trump Admin’s New Sanctions
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Russia are set to resume a series of high-level talks that Moscow scrapped after the Trump administration announced new sanctions. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert says that Undersecretary of State Tom Shannon and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov will meet on Monday in Washington....
Forget Trump Jr.’s Recklessness: The Battle Lines Are Already Drawn
Matt Purple Politics, Americas Whatever Trump Jr. did, the numerous causes of Trump’s election cannot be reduced to some hacked emails and a fruitless klatch with a Russian lawyer. The irony here is that Donald Trump has probably been tougher on Russia than Barack Obama was. Ham-handed efforts at forming a joint cybersecurity unit aside,...
Paul Manafort’s ironclad alibi for his meeting with Donald Trump Jr.: He didn’t read the email
He didn’t read the email. Seriously. That’s his excuse. A source close to Manafort told POLITICO on Tuesday that the campaign manager hadn’t read all the way to the bottom of the email exchanges on his phone and that he didn’t even know who he was meeting with when he attended the 20 to 30-minute session. Kushner’s...
EU Trade Pact with Ukraine to Take Full Effect in September
A broad new trade treaty struck between the European Union and Ukraine will take full effect from September, the European Council said on Tuesday on the eve of an upbeat summit in Kyiv. “This is the final step of the ratification process through which the EU and Ukraine commit to a close, long-term relationship in all main policy areas,” it said...
Trump Jr. says campaign didn’t follow up on collusion efforts with Russia—but is that true?
The Trump campaign’s story—or rather, Donald Trump Jr.’s story, since Jared Kushner and ex-campaign-chief Paul Manafort appear to be deep in hiding—is that Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort met with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer to discuss information damaging to Hillary Clinton. We now know that the campaign knew both that the...
Ted Cruz literally will not answer simple questions on Trump’s ties to Russia
NBC’s Kasie Hunt pressed the senator in the wake of news of Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russia-linked lawyer. Ted Cruz won’t answer straightforward questions about Trump’s relationship to Russia. Approached by MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt on the Hill this morning, the senator was asked a relatively simple question: “Is Russia...
