Rex Tillerson makes rare public appearance in Houston  —  Russia interfered with the 2016 U.S. elections, former Secretary of State and Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said during a Thursday evening visit to Houston.  —  Making his first public appearance in nearly nine months …

White House chief of staff John Kelly expected to resign soon  —  Washington (CNN)John Kelly is expected to resign as White House chief of staff in the coming days, two sources familiar with the situation unfolding in the West Wing tell CNN.  —  Seventeen months in, Kelly and President Donald Trump …

Inside the frantic decision to open a Trump obstruction probe before Mueller got the job  —  Washington (CNN)In the hectic eight days after President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and top FBI officials viewed Trump as a leader who needed to be reined in …

North Carolina Republican Owes $34,310 for Disputed Absentee Ballot and Turnout Work, Records Show  —  LUMBERTON, N.C. — The congressional campaign of Mark Harris disclosed late Thursday night that it owed more than $34,000 in connection with an absentee ballot and voter turnout operation …

Democrats speeding up their 2020 campaign launches  —  NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats are hitting fast forward.  —  The first major presidential campaign announcements could come before year's end.  The Democratic National Committee plans to announce a debate framework by then featuring 15 to 20 candidates.

Only the Best Candidates for Federal Courts  —  We should stop bringing candidates with questionable track records on race before the full Senate for a vote.  —  Over the past two years the Senate has confirmed a record number of judicial nominees.  I have proudly voted for more than 99% of them …

Trump is not capable  —  Weekday nights Fox News Channel star, Tucker Carlson, can be found merrily berating hapless guests, grilling liberal pundits, and defending America's working and middle classes.  Puckish and pugilistic, the 49-year-old insists the Washington elites among whom he grew up despise America's “normal people.”

Kevin Hart Refuses to Apologize, Despite Academy Ultimatum, for Past Anti-Gay Comments  —  It appears the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences may be looking for a new host for the upcoming Oscars ceremony very soon.  —  In a new Instagram video, Kevin Hart, who was tapped to emcee …

Millennials aren't breaking traditions.  They're just broke.  —  Millennials are a murderous bunch, a generation of homicidal maniacs.  —  At least that's the impression you get from reading news stories about my generation.  —  According to the headlines, we've wreaked carnage across the economy with our fickle, selfish tastes.

State GOP chairman warns California is ‘canary in the coal mine’ for national party  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The outgoing chair of the California GOP — the nation's largest state Republican Party — has issued a dire warning that his state represents “the canary in the coal mine” …

Poll: Republicans Are Only Group That Mostly Sees Mueller Probe As A ‘Witch Hunt’  —  President Trump continues to rail against special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

I'm not calling to revive WASP culture.  Just to learn from it.  —  The death of George H.W. Bush has occasioned a fair amount of nostalgia for the old American establishment, of which Bush was undoubtedly a prominent member.  It has also provoked a heated debate among commentators about that establishment …

Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch, who signed letter opposing Rep. Nancy Pelosi's speaker bid, reverses course and announces support  —  The Massachusetts congressman said Friday that after several days of conversations, he will cast a vote for Pelosi when the full House votes on Jan. 3.

Trump advisers fear 2020 nightmare: A recession  —  President Donald Trump's economic officials are reassuring investors about recent white-knuckle stock market volatility, while Trump's political advisers are increasingly alarmed that the economy could present a stiff 2020 campaign headwind.

Missouri Secretary of State Ashcroft launches investigation into Josh Hawley  —  • Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has launched an investigation into the way Attorney General Josh Hawley ran his attorney general's office, Ashcroft's deputy general counsel wrote to the Democratic-allied American Democracy Legal Fund on Thursday.

Anti-Zionism Isn't the Same as Anti-Semitism  —  American Jews have nothing to fear from the new congressional critics of Israel.  —  On Monday, in an interview with The Intercept, Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat who in November became the first Palestinian-American elected to Congress …

We're now seeing the Trump economy  —  I'm old enough to remember when President Trump boasted about the stock market.  No more.  As of this writing, the Dow Jones industrial average is sharply down, again, the fall triggered this time by the arrest in Canada of Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou.

At ‘60 Minutes,’ Independence Led to Trouble, Investigators Say  —  For decades, “60 Minutes” has reigned at the top of television news, bringing in hundreds of journalistic awards, not to mention weekly ratings for CBS that are the envy of the industry.  The success has allowed “60 Minutes” …

No deal on infrastructure without addressing climate change  —  Chuck Schumer,a Democrat from New York, is Senate minority leader.  —  Now that Democrats will soon control one branch of Congress, President Trump is again signaling that infrastructure could be an area of compromise.

Trump is a political vampire  —  They wander the halls of public buildings and haunt receptions like the ghosts of the GOP past — the cohort of Republican senators and House members who will be leaving office with the arrival of the new Congress.  Some chose retirement because they did not …