For the last six months, Republican leaders walked a careful line supporting Donald Trump. They supported his campaign and loved his running mate, Mike Pence, but they didn’t agree with his positions on banning Muslims or mass deportations, or with the far-right figures who backed them.
That line was easy enough to maintain when it was just campaign rhetoric. But now Trump is signaling that the far right wing of the party will be going with him to the White House, where it will have a chance to influence policy, as well.
Steve Bannon, former president of the incendiary Breitbart News and more recently chief executive of Trump’s campaign, is taking on a role as “chief strategist and senior counselor.” Bannon’s ascension is the clearest sign yet that Trump will maintain his ties to the populist white nationalism that helped propel him to the White House against overwhelming opposition from party leaders and traditional media.
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Steve Bannon – Presidential Campaign Brings the Alt-Right Out of Shadows
A protest in Portland, Oregon, against President-elect Donald Trump boiled over into what police described as a “riot” overnight Thursday after some demonstrators armed with bats smashed stores and cars, and others lit fires.
Police arrested 26 people and responded with pepper spray and rubber bullets, labeling the 1,500-strong demonstration an “unlawful assembly” and a “riot” — a class-C felony.
According to Portland police, many in the crowd were trying to stop those responsible from vandalizing property and spray-painting messages such as “Dump Trump” and “F— Trump.”
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Police detain a demonstrator during an anti-Trump protest in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday. STEVE DIPAOLA / Reuters
Musician, poet and author Leonard Cohen, whose works spanned six decades and inspired numerous other artists, has died aged 82.
“It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away,” a statement on his Facebook page on Thursday said. “We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries.”
His music label, Sony Music Canada, confirmed the death in a statement. “Leonard Cohen was an unparalleled artist whose stunning body of original work has been embraced by generations of fans and artists alike.”
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Leonard Cohen performs on stage at the Isle of Wight Festival on Aug. 30, 1970. Tony Russell / Getty Images
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There are still more votes to be counted, but it looks almost certain that despite losing the presidency, Hillary Clinton will win the popular vote.
And likely by a million or more votes — a much larger margin than Al Gore enjoyed in 2000, when he too was denied by the Electoral College even though he had more votes.
Put more starkly: It appears Americans chose Clinton, but got Trump.
Trump’s popular vote loss likely won’t constrain his effective power as president, especially with unified GOP control of Congress — just as it didn’t seem to hem in George W. Bush.
Republican Presidential nominee Donald J. Trump, a highly divisive first-time candidate who waged a scorched-earth battle for the presidency, shocked the world by narrowly beating his far more experienced Democratic challenger, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The victory, sealed with a concession phone call from Clinton early Wednesday, amounts to one of the most stunning upsets in political history.
“I’ve just received a call from Secretary Clinton,” he told supporters at New York’s Hilton hotel. “She congratulated us, it’s about us, on our victory, and I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard fought campaign.”
“Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time and we owe her a major debt of gratitude,” he continued. “Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division … It’s time for us to come together as one united people.”
Trump’s margin of his victory in rural and suburban counties overwhelmed Clinton’s advantages among more educated, diverse and urban supporters, carrying him to a narrow win. But after relying on intense support from largely white, non-college educated voters to carry him to the White House, President-Elect Trump will now face the difficult task of leading a deeply divided and increasingly diverse United States.
In a forceful rebuke of the American political establishment, Donald J. Trump on Tuesday was elected the 45th president of the United States, NBC News projects. His improbable win followed one of the most wildly unpredictable and bitter campaigns in the nation’s history.
Trump, the billionaire real estate developer and reality TV star, defeated former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton in a stunning upset, running the table in battleground states across the country — from Florida and North Carolina to Ohio and Pennsylvania.
He declared victory Tuesday night before a large crowd of enthusiastic supporters, pledging to help unite the country after his rancorous battle with Clinton.
“I say it is time for us to come together as one united people,” Trump said at the Midtown Hilton in New York City. He said he congratulated Clinton on a “very, very hard-fought campaign.”
Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general and the epicenter of several political storms during the Clinton administration, has died. She was 78.
Reno died early Monday from complications of Parkinson’s disease, her goddaughter Gabrielle D’Alemberte told The Associated Press. A niece of Reno’s, Daphne Webb, later confirmed her death to NBC News. Webb said Reno spent her final days at home in Miami surrounded by family and friends.
Reno, a former Miami prosecutor who famously told reporters “I don’t do spin,” served nearly eight years as attorney general under President Bill Clinton, the longest stint in a century.
One of the administration’s most recognizable and polarizing figures, Reno faced criticism early in her tenure for the deadly raid on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, where sect leader David Koresh and some 80 followers perished.
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President Bill Clinton names Janet Reno as attorney general during a Rose Garden ceremony on Feb. 11, 1993. ROBERT GIROUX / AFP/Getty Images
A 5.0-magnitude earthquake centered near one of the world’s key oil hubs brought down building facades and shattered windows.
The temblor triggered fears that key infrastructure may have been damaged and century-old buildings left unsafe in the latest Oklahoma town rattled by increasingly strong quakes.
Cushing Assistant City Manager Jeremy Frazier told a news conference late Sunday that a few minor injuries were reported. He said the damage appeared to be contained to downtown, where piles of debris sat at the base of some commercial buildings.
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Damage at The Cushing Citizen newspaper building in downtown Cushing, Oklahoma, after an earthquake Sunday night. Cushing Citizen
The body found in a shallow grave on property where Kala Brown was found chained alive has been identified as Brown’s missing boyfriend, a South Carolina sheriff said Saturday.
Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright and county Coroner Rusty Clevenger announced that the body found Friday was Charlie Carver. Clevenger said the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds.
Brown, 30, was found chained inside a metal container on property belonging to Todd Kohlhepp, 45, who has been charged with kidnapping and faces a possible murder charge.
Brown told investigators that there were as many as four bodies buried on the property and said she witnessed her captor shoot and kill Carver, her boyfriend who went missing with her in August, local prosecutor Barry Barnette said at a bond hearing Friday.
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Kala Brown and Charlie Carver Finding Kala and Charlie Facebook Page
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.