White House

Coming off a brutal Trumpcare defeat, delivered by members of his own party no less, Trump has decided to return to a strategy of progressing his policy initiatives through executive order.  As such, later today President Trump is set to sign a sweeping new "Energy Independence" executive order aimed at promoting domestic oil, coal and natural gas production by reversing much of Obama's efforts to address climate change via his "Clean Power Plan".

Update: Nunes has refused to step down from the Russia probe, The Hill reports. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee told reporters Monday evening he will not step down from the committee's investigation into Russia's interference in the United States presidential election, despite a chorus of Democratic lawmakers demanding he recuse himself. 

"Everything is politics here," Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said, as reported by a journalist from Voice of America.

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The mystery surrounding President Donald Trump's claim that he was wiretapped by Barack Obama during the 2016 election campaign deepened on Monday, when it was revealed that House Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes was on the White House grounds where he reviewed classified information the day before he announced he had seen intelligence that showed members of President Trump's transition team had been caught up in surveillance operations.

On its 'Today Show' earlier this morning, NBC revealed that it has signed former Obama White House press secretary Josh Earnest as a political analyst.  Earnest is expected to provide political commentary on NBC and MSNBC.

And, in an hilarious welcoming statement, the Today Show's Savannah Guthrie warned Earnest that he would now have to disavow himself of his political bias to provide impartial political analysis...just before inviting him to take shots at Republicans.

A couple of weeks ago we wrote several notes about German Chancellor Angela Merkel's painfully awkward visit to the White House.  After meeting in private, the pair sat down in the oval office for a brief press conference where you could cut the tension with a knife.  At one point someone from the media asked for a handshake but the request was promptly ignored.

"Can we get a handshake?"

*Merkel looks at Trump*

*Trump grins*