Exclusive: Robert Mueller met with Trump's pollster  —  Washington (CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller sought information directly last year from one of Donald Trump's campaign pollsters who is also a former business associate of Paul Manafort's.  —  Mueller's team met with pollster Tony Fabrizio …

White House Memo: At White House, Empty Desks and Unpaid Bills as Trump Shows No Sign of Relenting  —  At White House, Empty Desks and Unpaid Bills  —  The pain of the partial government shutdown bit into all corners of America — even the White House, where there is often very little sympathy …

Trump could take billions from disaster areas to fund wall  —  Under the proposal, Trump could dip into money set aside to fund civil works projects all over the country including storm-damaged areas of Puerto Rico.  —  President Donald Trump has been briefed on a plan that would use …

Prosecutors Examining Ukrainians Who Flocked to Trump Inaugural  —  WASHINGTON — Hours after he was sworn in as America's 45th president, Donald J. Trump and his wife, Melania, swayed together to a rendition of the Frank Sinatra classic “My Way,” as hundreds of their wealthiest …

Progressives Fought for Key Committee Spots, but Centrist New Dems Came Out on Top  —  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez failed in her long-shot bid for a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, according to an announcement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday evening.

‘Never been more depressed’: Trump kills Graham effort to end shutdown  —  President Donald Trump has rejected a plan proposed by a bloc of Senate Republicans who had hoped to break an impasse over the government shutdown, leaving Congress and the White House with little obvious way out of the extended battle over Trump's border wall.

Michael Cohen Agrees to Testify to Congress About Work for Trump  —  WASHINGTON — Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's former personal lawyer who implicated him in a scheme to pay hush money to two women claiming to have had affairs with him, has agreed to testify before the House Oversight …

“I Felt Dirty”: Former Employees Of The Veteran Crowdfunding Trump's Wall Say He Pushed Fake News To Get Rich  —  “He never wanted the truth.  It was all just for clicks, and the more inflammatory, the better,” a former employee said.  “I felt dirty writing the stuff.”

Tarrant County GOP's vice-chairman survives recall vote over his religion  —  County party officials overwhelmingly rejected attempts to remove Shahid Shafi because he's Muslim.  The 139-49 vote came after the state's top Republican officials denounced the failed move to oust the trauma surgeon.

EXCLUSIVE: ‘I killed JonBenét Ramsey!’  Convicted pedophile Gary Oliva has confessed to the murder of six-year-old pageant princess in prison letters to his friend - claiming it was ‘an accident’  — Gary Oliva, 54, has long been a suspect in the murder of JonBenét Ramsey …

Farm Country Stood by Trump.  But the Shutdown Is Pushing It to Breaking Point.  —  DENVER, Colo. — In Georgia, a pecan farmer lost out on his chance to buy his first orchard.  The local Farm Service Agency office that would have processed his loan application was shut down.

Trump White House urging allies to prepare for possible RBG departure  —  The White House is reaching out to political allies and conservative activist groups to prepare for an ailing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's possible death or departure from the Supreme Court — an event that would trigger …

Democrats will object to Senate adjourning amid shutdown  —  Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) plans to object to the Senate adjourning for the week Thursday afternoon amidst a 20-day government shutdown, according to Senate sources.  —  Kaine and his fellow Senate Democrats want to ratchet up pressure …

Q13 FOX staffer fired after TV station airs altered Trump video  —  A staffer at local FOX affiliate Q13 has been fired after the station aired what appears to be a doctored video of President Trump's Tuesday night speech from the Oval Office.  —  A staffer at local FOX affiliate Q13 …

Newsom promises unemployment insurance to California's federal workers  —  SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed Thursday that thousands of federal workers in California who are furloughed in the partial government shutdown will be made “quickly eligible” for unemployment insurance …

Test of steel prototype for border wall showed it could be sawed through  —  NBC News obtained a photo showing results of a test on a steel wall prototype.  —  President Donald Trump has repeatedly advocated for a steel slat design for his border wall, which he described as …

Pompeo's Cairo speech panned as ‘tone-deaf,’ ‘hyper-partisan,’ ‘offensive’  —  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to students at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 10, 2019.  —  WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's stridently partisan speech in Cairo today chiding …

Harry Reid: Renewed But Ready to Rumble?  —  Harry Reid retired a little more than two years ago after serving decades in elected office, lastly as a U.S. senator who helped President Barack Obama get the Affordable Care Act through Congress.  —  He's been out of the limelight since, undergoing cancer treatment.

The Great Issue of Our Time...  ...is whether, as a people, we are too dumb to sustain a democracy.  This question arises often; for me, most recently, upon seeing this Daily Mail headline: “Twitter user stuns the internet with math that proves one 18-inch pizza has more in it than TWO 12-inch helpings.”

China offers Elon Musk permanent residency  —  Tesla boss Elon Musk has been offered a “green card”, China said Thursday, a privilege enjoyed by an elite group of foreigners, including several Nobel laureates and a former NBA star.  —  Musk was in China for the ground-breaking of Tesla's …

‘The story keeps changing’: Trump falsely asserts he never promised Mexico would directly pay for the border wall  —  It was a foundational promise of Donald Trump's historic presidential campaign: Mexico would pay for his 2,000-mile border wall.  But as he desperately fights for $5.7 billion …

What Real Border Security Looks Like  —  Republicans and Democrats should agree to build an Israeli-style “smart fence.”  —  ON THE ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER — Other than the Korean Peninsula's DMZ, there's probably no border in the world as fraught with the potential for sudden violence as this one, known locally as the Blue Line.

Ocean Warming Is Accelerating Faster Than Thought, New Research Finds  —  Scientists say the warming of the world's oceans is accelerating more quickly than previously thought, a finding with dire implications for climate change given that the vast majority of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases ends up stored there.

Early Withdrawal Will Lead to More Terrorism  —  A recent lull in attacks is welcome, but it seems to have made American leaders complacent.  —  America has a new counterterrorism policy: retrenchment.  Declaring victory over ISIS, the Trump administration seeks to bring home the modest number …