First Run News

Democrats said Wednesday that the Trump administration failed to present evidence supporting the claim that a top Iranian general killed in a U.S. drone strike was planning an imminent attack. The frustration boiled over after back-to-back closed-door briefings on the strike that killed Iranian Quds Force leader Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Sen. MORE (D-Va.) called the briefing “sophomoric.”  “I was utterly unpersuaded about any evidence about the imminence of a threat that was new or compelling,” Connolly said.  Sen.

MORE softened his tone toward Iran on Wednesday, claiming Tehran is “standing down” and welcoming de-escalation after growing tensions between Washington and Tehran prompted concerns the two could be on the brink of war. Trump, in an address to the nation on Wednesday, made it clear he was looking for an off-ramp from further hostilities after missile strikes from Iran failed to kill or injure anyone at two Iraqi bases that house U.S.

GOP Sens. MORE's military powers.  Lee, speaking to reporters after a roughly hourlong closed-door meeting with administration officials, characterized it as "the worst briefing I've seen, at least on a military issue." Defense Secretary MORE and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley were dispatched to brief both the House and Senate on Wednesday amid days of concerns from lawmakers that Trump was on a path to war with Iran, which on Tuesday night launched missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S.

Democrats are set for a clash with MORE over war powers and Iran.  House Democrats will vote Thursday on a war powers resolution that would rein in Trump’s ability to take military action against Iran without congressional signoff, a culmination of days of frustration on Capitol Hill with the administration’s strategy.  The vote comes as both Trump and Iranian officials signaled that they were trying to ratchet down tensions inflamed with the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

A number of Republican governors are doing damage control after they approved more refugee resettlement in their states, including Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. For Fiscal Year 2020, President Donald Trump will continue cutting refugee admissions by reducing former President Barack Obama’s refugee inflow by at least 80 percent. This reduction would mean a maximum of 18,000 refugees can be resettled in the U.S.

Former first lady Michelle Obama announced a new higher education initiative on Instagram Tuesday that seeks to help young people achieve success in college. Obama said in a video message her new series, which she is working on in partnership with Reach Higher – an effort she founded during the Obama presidency – is focused on helping students get into and make it through college. Through Reach Higher, Obama sought “to inspire every student in America to take charge of their future by completing their education past high school, w

Fact checkers from a number of different establishment media operations crushed former Vice President Joe Biden this week as the issue of Iranian aggression continues to captivate the nation just weeks from the Iowa caucuses. The shift to foreign policy in the national political debate has not been kind to Biden, who has been hammered by everyone from PolitiFact, to the Washington Post, to even CNN. Just this week, three brutal fact checks came crushing down on Biden–whom Breitbart News and President Donald Trump’s campaign earlier this week

An Arkansas judge ruled on Tuesday that Hunter Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden, is the “biological and legal father” of a child he fathered with a former stripper. The ruling, citing the results of a DNA test, shuts down Hunter’s prior denial that he is the father of the child in the paternity suit that has been proceeding since May 2019. Late on Tuesday, Fox News reported: The New York Post described the mother as a former 

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —At the midway point of his annual Christmas vacation, President Donald Trump huddled at his Florida club with his top national security advisers. Days earlier, a rocket attack by an Iranian-funded group struck a U.S.-Iraqi base, killing an American contractor and wounding several others. Trump’s advisers presented him with an array of options for responding, including the most dramatic possible response: taking out Gen.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military may strike more Iranian leaders if the Islamic Republic retaliates for the Trump administration’s killing of Tehran’s most powerful general last week by attacking Americans or American interests, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday. As Pompeo conducted a round of TV interviews to explain President Donald Trump’s decision to target Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the repercussions from that attack played out: The Iraqi Parliamen t called on the 5,200 U.S. forces in the country to leave; the U.S.