In the News
Lawmakers introduced a bill in both houses of Congress Tuesday that would prevent the president from launching a nuclear first strike without a congressional declaration of war. A policy that was long debated — but never seriously pursued — during the Obama administration has now become anything other than abstract after the election of Donald Trump.
Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) introduced legislation meant to pry the nuclear football out of the president's hands.
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump's temperament was hotly debated, with critics contesting whether he was properly suited to be in control of the country's nuclear arsenal. But regardless of those reservations, Trump is in office now, and his ability to make use of the nuclear codes is virtually unrestricted.
You're a Democrat.
You represent Southern California in Congress.
The world has just been turned upside down, and you're on the bottom.
What do you do now?
Rep. Tony Cardenas of Pacoima is chanting. He skipped President Trump's inauguration and asked constituents to join him in an hour of meditation. "Keep calm and say om," said the news release.
Two Democrats are pushing Congress to restrict President Trump's ability to launch nuclear weapons, reintroducing a bicameral bill Tuesday that would prohibit the president from launching a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war by Congress.
Saying they fear President Trump with his finger on the nuclear trigger, two congressional Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday that would prevent the White House from launching a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war from Capitol Hill.
Sen. Edward J. Markey and Rep. Ted W. Lieu said their bill was designed to put a check on Mr. Trump, who during the presidential campaign had sent mixed signals on his thoughts about nuclear proliferation and the possibility of a U.S. first strike.
Treaties and official agreements between nations designed to solve a particular problem are notoriously tricky to create and then police, but measuring their success is normally pretty simple. Either they work well, or not at all.
What has come to be called the U.S.-China Cyber Agreement, however, has not fallen neatly into either category. The general consensus in government and private circles is that the number of cyberattacks emanating from China appears to have declined, though in fact thosere attacks are still taking place.
Senator Ed Markey and Rep. Ted Lieu introduced legislation intended to prevent President Donald Trump from using nuclear weapons in a first-strike scenario without the explicit approval of Congress on Tuesday.
The legislation is titled the "Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017." The two legislators issued a press statement on the bill co-signed by William Perry, who served as secretary of defense in former President Bill Clinton's administration.
A Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that President Trump is violating the U.S. Constitution by illegally receiving foreign payments through his businesses.
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, drew widespread criticism Sunday after she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's press briefing on inauguration crowd sizes, saying the newly minted spokesman had given "alternative facts" to those cited in media reports.
Chuck Todd, of NBC's "Meet the Press," asked Conway early Sunday morning why Mr. Trump had Spicer utter a "falsehood" the first time he formally faced reporters from the White House briefing room.
Miami is not where Jon Cowan expected to be on Inauguration Day.
He was certain he would be holding a champagne glass and toasting the nation's first female president alongside the inaugural parade route at the Washington pub Elephant & Castle. "It was this unbelievable space where we were going to have this large gathering of Democrats," said Cowan, who runs the left-of-center think tank Third Way.