White House reversed more than 25 security clearance denials, says whistleblower – live

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Joe Biden’s spokesman hit back at media coverage of the former vice president’s treatment of women, stating photos alleging to show inappropriate behavior on Biden’s part are a smear campaign led by “right wing trolls”.

These smears a...

One of Trump’s health reform picks says he actually wants to improve Obamacare

It’s pretty obvious that the Trump administration has no real plan for what to do next should the federal courts overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — just look at who the president put in charge of the replacement plan.

Last week, President Donald Trump said a team of GOP senators will craft legislation that will replace the ACA, including Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). But on Monday, Scott said he’s actually more interested in improving the current health law.

Donald Trump’s ‘party of health care’ has spent a decade failing to repeal and replace Obamacare

After a bruising midterm election in which widespread insecurity over the future of health care helped pace extraordinary gains for Democrats, allowing them to retake the House of Representatives, President Donald Trump has decided to re-up this failed strategy.

This week, the White House let it be known that the administration would not defend the Affordable Care Act in a case that could end in the wholesale invalidation of the Obama-era health care reform law. Such a result would ...

From victory to vengeance: Trump scents blood in 2020 fight

The president celebrated the Mueller report – but then his latest effort to invalidate Obamacare left some feeling he ‘stepped all over that message’

It felt like a victory lap. At a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday night, surrounded by a sea of red Make America Great Again hats, a defiant Donald Trump held the podium before a raucous crowd.

Related: Trump Fed pick was held in contempt for failing to pay ex-wife over $300,000

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At Trump rallies, the new ‘lock her up’ is ‘AOC sucks’

If a person were to get all of their political information from Fox News — take, for example, the president of the United States — that person could very well believe that the most potent threat to America’s delicate democracy is not the rise in white supremacist violence within its borders nor the alleged electoral interference from without. Enemy number one has been anointed, and it’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Fox News’ fixation with Ocasio-Cortez is undeni...

Trump just gave a huge gift to an alleged billion dollar Medicare fraudster

Monday night, the Trump administration informed a federal appeals court that it would no longer defend the Affordable Care Act after a judge in Texas declared that the entire law must be struck down. The judge, Reed O’Connor, is a former Republican Senate staffer with a history of striking down policies opposed by conservatives. O’Connor’s opinion is widely viewed as ridiculous, even by conservative legal scholars and health policy experts.

Yet, while O’Conno...

2020 Democrat Amy Klobuchar to White House: This is what an infrastructure plan should look like

Recurring plans to hold an “Infrastructure Week” have amounted to naught during the Trump administration, and have become something of a running joke even as the nation’s road and bridges continue to crumble and fall into disrepair.

Democratic presidential contender Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) unveiled a comprehensive plan on Thursday to show them how it’s done.

The Minnesota senator introduced a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan — her first majo...

Trump wishes immigrants were greeted by machine guns at the border

In a wide-ranging 45-minute live interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity Wednesday night, President Donald Trump defended the $25 to $35 billion dollars he hopes to spend on a wall for the southern border. He bemoaned, however, that it would be far more effective if armed soldiers could just point machine guns at immigrants as they tried to enter the country.

“You go to a lot of the generals, they will tell you, this is a national emergency,” Trump claimed, arguing t...

Trump’s push to repeal Obamacare prompts Republican turmoil – live

“I’ll take the usual please, Donald”:

The Fake News Media is going Crazy! They are suffering a major “breakdown,” have ZERO credibility or respect, & must be thinking about going legit. I have learned to live with Fake News, which has never been more corrupt than it is right now. Someday, I will tell you the secret!

Mexico is doing NOTHING to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to our Country. They are all talk and no action. Likewise, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have taken our money for years, and do Nothing. The Dems don’t care, such BAD laws. May close the Southern Border!

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the day’s political news.

•Republicans are said to be in turmoil over the Donald Trump’s push for Obamacare to be dismantled in the courts. Vice-president Mike Pence and new attorney general Bill Barr are among the skeptics, according to the New York Times, with concerns that scrapping the Affordable Care Act could be a boon for Democrats in 2020. On Wednesday House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly told his colleagues that Trump’s push made no sense. McCarthy is holding his weekly press conference at 11.30am, and may elaborate.

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Judge blocks work requirements for Medicaid in Arkansas and Kentucky

Judge strikes blow to Trump administration, citing unresolved obstacles to getting healthcare in the states

A federal judge has ruled that Medicaid work requirements undermine the program’s mission of providing healthcare for the needy, dealing a blow to the Trump administration.

The US district judge James E Boasberg in Washington DC blocked work requirements for low-income people in two states, Arkansas and Kentucky, on Wednesday. He found that the states’ requirements pose numerous obstacles to getting healthcare that have gone unresolved by federal and state officials.

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