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Trump's Personal Assistant Is Fired — John McEntee was escorted out of White House for unspecified security issue — WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump's personal assistant, John McEntee, was escorted out of the White House on Monday, two senior administration officials said.
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Trump Eyes Replacing His Veterans Affairs Secretary With His Energy Chief — WASHINGTON — President Trump, fresh off replacing his secretary of state and C.I.A. director, is considering firing his secretary of veterans affairs and installing Energy Secretary Rick Perry in the post, according to two people close to the White House.


‘Rex, Eat the Salad:’ Inside the Awkward Relationship Between Rex Tillerson and Donald Trump — Cabinet post was a sharp change for a former Exxon Mobil CEO who was used to calling the shots — WASHINGTON—In a private room in China's Great Hall of the People in November …


New C.I.A. Deputy Director, Gina Haspel, Had Leading Role in Torture — WASHINGTON — As a clandestine officer at the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002, Gina Haspel oversaw the torture of two terrorism suspects and later took part in an order to destroy videotapes documenting …
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Trump ousts Tillerson, will replace him as secretary of state with CIA chief Pompeo … President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday.
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Longtime Trump aide fired over financial crime investigation — (CNN)President Donald Trump's longtime personal aide John McEntee was fired because he is currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes, a source familiar with his firing told CNN.
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Donald J Trump, Washington Monthly, Mother Jones, ABC News, FOX 61, Vox, NBC News, WPIX 11 New York and Talking Points Memo


Trump fires Tillerson at State, replacing with CIA's Pompeo — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday and said he would nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him, ending Tillerson's difficult tenure by tweeting an ouster …
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Washington Post, New Republic, NBC News, The Atlantic, Washingtonian, New York Times, IJR, Mediaite, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Diplopundit, Politico and Politicus USA

STATEMENT BY SASC CHAIRMAN JOHN McCAIN ON LEADERSHIP CHANGES AT STATE DEPARTMENT & CIA — Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement today on the proposed leadership changes at the State Department and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA):
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Shadowproof


Trump Answers Questions on Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo: Full Transcript
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Politico, Washington Post, Vox, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, ThinkProgress, Shakesville, Boing Boing and Common Dreams

Gina Haspel, Trump's CIA director pick, oversaw the torture of dozens of people
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Politico, CBS News, New York Post, CNBC, New York Times, France 24, TIME and Washington Free Beacon

Rex Tillerson Out as Trump's Secretary of State, Replaced by Mike Pompeo
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Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Weekly Standard, Washington Post, Axios, Quartz, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Talking Points Memo, Algemeiner.com, Breitbart, Online NewsHour, Al Jazeera English, New Republic, TIME, FiveThirtyEight, American Greatness, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY State of Politics, Washington Free Beacon, Vox, IJR, CNN, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, CBS Baltimore, CBS Pittsburgh, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, CBS Miami and KFOR-TV

Pelosi Statement on Firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
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Washington Times, IJR, Washington Free Beacon and National Review

Rex Tillerson has been fired. Experts say he did damage that could last “a generation.”

White House fires top Tillerson aide
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ThinkProgress, CBS News and Shareblue Media

Rex Tillerson gets to keep the big tax break he got as secretary of state
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Raw Story

Why Did Trump Fire Tillerson Now?
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Washington Post, ABC News, Axios, Politico, CNN, Lawfare, CNBC, Breitbart, New York Magazine, Jamie Dupree - AJC, twitchy.com, Joe.My.God. and Outside the Beltway

State Department Staffers Cry ‘Hallelujah’ Over Rex Tillerson's Downfall
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Spectator USA and Washington Post

John McEntee, Trump Aide, Is Forced Out Over Security Issue, but Joins Re-election Campaign
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Politico


Stormy Daniels discussed alleged affair with Trump on 2007 radio show, host says — Radio Host: Stormy Daniels discussed alleged Trump affair on 2007 radio show — (CNN)Stephanie Clifford, the porn star known as Stormy Daniels, discussed her alleged affair with Donald Trump during …
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Raw Story
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Russian exile Nikolai Glushkov found dead at his London home — Close friend of late oligarch Boris Berezovsky claimed political asylum in UK after being convicted of fraud … A Russian exile who was close friends with the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky has been found dead in his London home, his lawyer has said.
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Washington Monthly, NPR and The Daily Caller
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Russian businessman and close associate of Boris Berezovsky found dead in Britain, lawyer says
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Daily Mail, Home Page Rotator, The Daily Caller, RedState and Politico


Rep. Trey Gowdy disagrees with GOP colleagues in House probe, says Russia wanted to hurt Hillary Clinton — Rep. Trey Gowdy , R-S.C., says Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election was motivated at least in part “by a desire” to hurt Hillary Clinton's candidacy.
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The Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, Congressman Trey Gowdy, The Hill and Al Jazeera English
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The Republican coverup for Trump just got much worse
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CBS News, Vox, Talking Points Memo, Politico, CNN, Daily Kos, Towleroad, IJR and Politicus USA


Manafort could face ‘rest of life in prison,’ judge says — Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, runs a significant risk of spending the rest of his life in prison and the evidence against him by special counsel Robert Mueller's office seems strong, a federal judge declared in an order made public on Tuesday.


Dog dies after United flight attendant forces it into overhead bin — On Monday night, a dog died in a plane after a United Airlines flight attendant forced the dog into an overhead bin. — Maggie Gremminger, a passenger on a flight from Houston to New York's LaGuardia Airport, uploaded a photo of the dog's owners on Twitter.
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Dallas Morning News, twitchy.com, CBS Denver, CBS New York, The Daily Caller, KTLA, WGN-TV, KFOR-TV, WGNO, FOX 61, fox13now.com and CBS Los Angeles


Etowah sheriff pockets $750k in jail food funds, buys $740k beach house — Etowah sheriff pocketed over $750,000 in inmate-feeding funds — In September, Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin and his wife Karen purchased an orange four-bedroom house with an in-ground pool and canal access …
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Mother Jones, National Review and The Root


Shia LaBeouf Is Ready To Talk About It — The actor sets out to save his career—and his soul. — PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATTHEW BROOKES — Shia LaBeouf is nervous about this story—"I have so much fear about this thing," he confesses to me when we first meet—and it drives him to do what he's always done …
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Breitbart, IJR and The Daily Caller


Elon Musk Wanted to Buy ‘The Onion,’ Now He's Hiring Its Staffers for a Secret Project … Early in February, the satirical news publication The Onion published a story about Elon Musk, titled, “Elon Musk Offering $1.2 Billion in Grants to Any Project That Promises to Make Him Feel Complete.”
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New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »


How Conservative Activists Catfished Twitter — Mo Norai has worked in Silicon Valley for a decade. He's done stints at Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Apple, but only as a contract worker, meaning he has missed out on the tech giants' storied perks, benefits and job security.
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Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »


ICE spokesman resigns, citing fabrications by agency chief, Sessions, about Calif. immigrant arrests … The San Francisco spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has resigned over what he described as “false” and “misleading” statements made by top-ranking officials …
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CNN, ThinkProgress, Above the Law, Media Matters for America, New York Times, National Review, Common Dreams and NBC News


Roger Stone claimed contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2016, according to two associates … In the spring of 2016, longtime political operative Roger Stone had a phone conversation that would later seem prophetic, according to the person on the other end of the line.
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New York Magazine, Shareblue Media, Daily Kos, ThinkProgress, Roger Stone, Politicus USA, Boing Boing and Reuters


Abortion debate is over inside the Democratic Party — Conor Lamb is a Marine, talks tough on crime, and sounds downright Republican on an issue like natural gas fracking — exactly the type of politician Democrats have traditionally turned to when contesting elections in deeply conservative areas.


‘The Trains Are Slower Because They Slowed the Trains Down’ … In the summer of 2014, New York City Transit intern Philip Betheil was finishing up his master's in urban planning at Columbia University when his boss, David Greenberger, gave him a project. The two worked for NYCT's operations …


TWP chief Matthew Heimbach arrested, top spokesman quits — Matthew Heimbach, the leader of the Traditionalist Worker Party, is free on bond after being charged with strangulation and battery in southern Indiana. — In the wake of the arrest, the organization's top spokesman and Heimbach's father-in-law …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Splinter


Confused voters try to figure out who's voting in Pennsylvania's special election — Of The Morning Call — Voters in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District are heading to the polls in a neck-and-neck special election that's caught national attention.
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Political Wire