Eric Boehlert

White House wants free rein to end Russia sanctions without say from Congress

Even as the White House remains consumed in scandal headlines about how Donald Trump’s campaign may have worked with Russia to influence last year’s U.S. election, the White House remains focused on trying to thwart would-be sanctions levied against Russia for its meddling. The sanctions bill was passed by the Senate last month 98-2 and […]

By Eric Boehlert - July 11, 2017

Trump’s besieged voter suppression commission hit with ACLU lawsuit

Already hounded by bipartisan criticism and controversy, the White House’s so-called “Election Integrity Commission” took another hit Monday, this time in the form of an ACLU legal filing. The group’s lawsuit accuses the commission of conducting its business in secrecy and of violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Co-chaired by Vice President Mike Pence and […]

By Eric Boehlert - July 10, 2017

White House throws Don Jr. under the bus, claims dad didn’t know of secret Russian meeting

Donald Trump’s unprecedented decision to hire his children to be among his closest advisers was always going to be a wild card move for him. Knowing that they, like him, possessed no special areas of expertise with regards to public policy or even political strategy, Trump was determined to surround himself with close family members […]

By Eric Boehlert - July 10, 2017

George Stephanopoulos destroys Kellyanne Conway’s lies about Don Jr.’s intent to collude

Donald Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway struggled Monday to explain away the latest Trump campaign collusion bombshell, courtesy of The New York Times. During an appearance on “Good Morning America,” Conway attempted to justify a meeting during the 2016 campaign that Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner held with a Kremlin-connected Russian attorney who promised damaging information […]

By Eric Boehlert - July 10, 2017

Russian media openly mocks Trump as lesser man than Putin

The White House might be hoping that Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin will produce glowing press coverage at home. Indeed, the cable news coverage seemed very impressed that the 30-minute scheduled meeting stretched into a one that ran more than two hours between the two leaders. But in Moscow, the Russian media […]

By Eric Boehlert - July 07, 2017

Former intel chief Clapper definitively smacks down Trump’s lies about Russia hacking

Every time Donald Trump tries to obfuscate and misdirect about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, representatives from the U.S. intelligence community collectively knock down the misinformation. Trump keeps trying to suggest there’s dissension or disagreement within the intelligence agencies about Russia’s role, and that the whole question of foreign interference remains unknowable. “Well I […]

By Eric Boehlert - July 07, 2017

“This is not your show, sir.” Katy Tur nails member of Trump’s voter suppression commission

Members of Donald Trump’s commission on “voter integrity” don’t like being reminded that they’re investigating allegations of voter fraud even though election experts have spent years confirming the United States does not have a voter fraud problem. That could be one reason why secretaries of state across the country, including dozen of Republican office holders, […]

By Eric Boehlert - July 07, 2017

Dozens of GOP secretaries of state set an example for their cowardly party in Congress

In a rare bout of bipartisan resistance, almost every secretary of state in America has now informed the Trump administration that their states won’t be fully cooperating with its demand for voter record. The request came from a newly formed commission set up to essentially spread misinformation about the supposedly rampant crime of millions of […]

By Eric Boehlert - July 06, 2017

Men get 73 percent of top-paying White House jobs, women get biggest pay gap since the ’80s

Turning back the clock with astonishing speed, Donald Trump’s White House has embraced a gender pay disparity that reflects trends from the early 1980s, when women in the United States were paid 35 percent less than men. Today, “The typical female staffer in Trump’s White House earns 63.2 cents per $1 earned by a typical […]

By Eric Boehlert - July 06, 2017