Trump, in Interview, Calls Wall Talks ‘Waste of Time’ and Dismisses Investigations  —  WASHINGTON — A defiant President Trump declared on Thursday that he has all but given up on negotiations with Congress over his border wall and will proceed without lawmakers even as he dismissed any suggestions …

Exclusive: Senate investigators told Trump Jr.'s mysterious calls weren't with his father  —  (CNN)Senate investigators have obtained new information showing Donald Trump Jr.'s mysterious phone calls ahead of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting were not with his father, three sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN.

Senate Rebukes Trump Over Troop Withdrawals From Syria and Afghanistan  —  WASHINGTON — The Senate, in a stinging bipartisan rebuke to President Trump's foreign policy, voted overwhelmingly to advance legislation drafted by the Senate majority leader to express strong opposition …

Bezos' Investigators Question the Brother of His Mistress, Lauren Sanchez, in National Enquirer Leak Probe  —  Michael Sanchez is an outspoken Trump supporter with ties to Roger Stone and Carter Page.  —  Jeff Bezos' top personal security consultant has questioned his mistress' brother …

Retired FBI agent: The Roger Stone raid was totally by the book  —  Trump may ask FBI to review policies after Stone raid  —  James A. Gagliano is a CNN law enforcement analyst and a retired FBI supervisory special agent.  He also is an adjunct assistant professor at St. John's University in Queens, New York.

Why We Are Quitting RedState  —  For more than a decade, RedState was a solid voice in the world of online conservative commentary.  Unfortunately, the allure of Trumpism has left the once great site a shell of its former self.  —  In 2015, before the Republican tide shifted …

‘Whistleblower’ in White House security clearance office gets suspended  —  Tricia Newbold was suspended less than a week after NBC reported Jared Kushner's top secret security clearance was approved over staff objections.  —  WASHINGTON — A White House security specialist …

Howard Schultz Doesn't Understand American History  —  The most effective third-party presidential candidates were polarizers, not centrists.  —  Howard Schultz, the former chief executive of Starbucks, cannot win the presidency as an independent candidate.  But is there someone who could?

Ralph Northam Doesn't Get Why You're Mad at Him  —  Those crazy conservatives, the Washington Post regrets to inform you, are pouncing again.  They're getting their pro-life knickers in a major twist—and all just because the governor of Virginia, a former pediatrician and ostensibly moderate Democrat …

Democrats Must Reach Out to Moderates in 2020 — By Waging a Vicious Class War  —  The Democratic Party's leading lights — from Elizabeth Warren on the party's left flank, to Joe Biden on its right — are all telling versions of the same story: The American people are working hard, but their economy is hardly working.

Trump Is Finalizing a Nuclear Option That Could Split the G.O.P.  —  The president believes he has the upper hand—but he might be walking into a trap.  —  In public, Donald Trump is still talking (and tweeting) about an immigration compromise with Democrats to avert another government shutdown.

Progressive Dems: ‘Not Another Dollar’ More in DHS Funding  —  Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar just threw a wrench in the border wall debate.  —  Four freshman progressive House members are throwing a wrench into government funding negotiations …

Trump Considering Herman Cain for Federal Reserve Board, Sources Say  — President interviewed former Godfather's CEO on Wednesday  — Cain's presidential run ended in sexual misconduct scandal  —  Herman Cain, the former pizza company executive who ran for the Republican presidential nomination …

Kyrsten Sinema Is Not Just a Funky Dresser.  She's a Fashion Revolutionary.  —  In July 2017, Democratic women in Congress organized a protest against the enforcement of an “appropriate attire” dress code that was being used to keep reporters in sleeveless outfits out of certain parts of the Capitol building.

State: All 366 on local list of potential noncitizen voters are citizens  —  By the time local elections officials downloaded a list of 366 registered voters the Texas Secretary of State's Office initially said may not be citizens, the office had called to tell them to disregard the list, Elections Administrator Kathy Van Wolfe said.

‘Everything stays on the table’: 2020 Dems weigh killing the filibuster  —  Democrats have a lot of big ideas if they win back the White House and Congress in 2020.  But it's not clear they are willing to do a key thing needed to implement them: eliminating the filibuster.

Trump Returns This Weekend to Mar-a-Lago, His Gilded Comfort Zone  —  WASHINGTON — After two months spent scorching the earth in Washington and complaining about being cooped up in the White House, President Trump is planning to return this weekend to the one place where he knows he will receive …

Steve Schmidt no longer a paid MSNBC contributor after he begins advising ‘spoiler’ Howard Schultz on presidential run  —  Political analyst Steve Schmidt is no longer a MSNBC contributor because he is advising billionaire Howard Schultz on a possible independent bid for the U.S. presidency.

If Howard Schultz Wants To Run For President, He Should Run Against Donald Trump  —  Howard Schultz's clumsy and damaging entry into the 2020 presidential race this week offers a lesson for billionaires who would like to replace Donald Trump: They should consider running against Donald Trump.

The Latest YA Twitter Pile On Forces a Rising Star to Self-Cancel  —  The world of young-adult fiction is no stranger to controversy, whether it's a weeks-long war against a problematic book or a whisper network accusing a badly behaved male author.  But even against this backdrop …

Second Trump-Kim summit planned for Vietnam, source says  —  (CNN)President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are planning on meeting in Vietnam in late February, according to a source familiar with the matter.  —  Vietnam had been widely believed to be the location.

GOP defections boost Democratic ranks in 3 legislatures  —  TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Democratic gains in state legislatures didn't end with last November's elections.  —  Over the past two months, as lawmakers were sworn in to office and this year's legislative sessions got underway …

Trump Allies Think Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is Hiding or Dead.  It Started on QAnon.  —  She's kept a low profile while recovering from cancer surgery.  Right-wing sickos turned that against the liberal Supreme Court justice.  —  Top figures in the pro-Trump media are claiming Supreme Court …

The Six Forms of Media Bias  —  A media critic inveighs against the bias toward centrism, which inspires me to come up with my own list.  —  “Impartiality is still a value worth defending in mainstream news coverage,” writes Margaret Sullivan, the Washington Post media critic.

Until this week, Del. Kathy Tran was known for nursing her daughter on the House floor.  Now Republicans are calling her a baby killer.  —  Del. Kathy Tran arrived in Richmond last year as part of a wave of Democratic women whose electoral victories in Northern Virginia leveled the balance of power in the General Assembly.

Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior From Iran  —  Today we removed multiple Pages, groups and accounts that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram.  This activity was directed from Iran, in some cases repurposing Iranian state media content …

How the relationship between Trump and Bloomberg went into a tailspin  —  NEW YORK — On an autumn day in 2013, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg traveled to the Bronx to hail the transformation of a massive garbage dump into a world-class golf course.  Donald Trump stood nearby …

America colonisation 'cooled Earth's climate'  —  Colonisation of the Americas at the end of the 15th Century killed so many people, it disturbed Earth's climate.  —  That's the conclusion of scientists from University College London, UK.  —  The team says the disruption …

Trump to throw spotlight on abortion in State of the Union  —  President Donald Trump is telling conservative allies he wants to incorporate firm anti-abortion language into his State of the Union address Tuesday, and potentially include an anti-abortion figure among his list of invitees …

This Is What Anti-Christian Bigotry Looks Like  —  A progressive private academy says it's ‘unsafe’ to play games at a Christian school.  —  The first thing you have to understand about the battle for free speech, religious freedom, and freedom of association in this nation is that it is primarily cultural, not legal.

Bitter cold shows reliable energy sources are critical  —  Coal, natural gas, nuclear power largely delivered.  We should think twice about leaning too much on intermittent forms like wind, solar.  —  TEXT SIZE  —  This week's bitter cold had the potential to be deadly.