HS News Post

Hillary Clinton on Wednesday said hoaxes and false news stories on Facebook contributed to her loss in last year's U.S. presidential election, adding to a list of factors she blames for her defeat. The former Democratic candidate said earlier this month that interference by Russian hackers and then-FBI director James Comey helped tip the election to Republican President Donald Trump. Speaking at a technology conference near Los Angeles, Clinton on Wednesday mentioned Facebook by name and said that fake stories spread on the social network influenced the information that people relied on. "The other side was using content that was just flat-out false and delivering it in a very personalized way, both sort of above the radar screen and below," Clinton said during an on-stage interview at the Code conference. A representative for Facebook could not immediately be reached for comment. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said just after the November e...

​The investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia is serious, and becoming more so. But it is not what is imperiling Donald Trump’s presidency. What’s imperiling Donald Trump’s presidency is, well, Donald Trump. Washington Republicans never liked or trusted Trump, but they hoped to be won over by his administration, to be persuaded that he was more disciplined and strategic than he appeared to be during the campaign. Those hopes have been dashed by the lawless, reckless way he has responded to ongoing inquiries. Trump has scared his allies, enraged his bureaucracy, undermined his credibility, and publicly admitted to using the power of his office to obstruct ongoing investigations. In doing, he has reminded Republicans what they feared a Trump presidency would be like — unconstitutional, unfocused, scandal-plagued, and damaging to both America’s standing in the world and the GOP’s brand at home. “Republicans may soon lose a generation of voters through a combinati...

Pesident Donald Trump's maiden international trip, a five-stop marathon across the Middle East and Europe, has long loomed as a crucial first test abroad for the chaos-courting president. That was before he fired his FBI director — and the chain reaction of scandal that followed. Now, with the eyes of the world upon him, the president will embark on his big trip carrying the baggage of dire troubles at home. As he tries to calm allies worried about his "America First" message, he'll be followed by fallout from his firing of FBI Director James Comey and the appointment of a special counsel to probe the president's campaign ties with Russia. "There has never been a president taking his first international trip being dogged by scandal like this," said Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. "He's already a president viewed skeptically by much of the world. And while the pictures from the trip may be great, the...

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said Tuesday that despite all the controversies surrounding Donald Trump’s presidency, the House still has to “pass meaningful legislation and get it to the president’s deak.” Chaffetz, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, told NBC News that the government is “always full of crisis.” Trump set forth an ambitious agenda from taking on the country’s health-care system and tax code, but his administration has been ensnarled in a series of controversies. “I am worried, concerned, that continual political drama will drain the energy away from real accomplishments,” Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. A spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan said that it is “appropriate” for the House Oversight Committee to request the memo that was reportedly written by James Comey, the ousted FBI ...

Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Bernie Sanders agreed that the latest bombshell development involving the Trump White House is "sad" for the country and called for more answers, but they disagreed on what to do next. The two 2016 presidential candidates sat down for a CNN town hall Tuesday night, just hours after the New York Times and CNN reported that then-FBI Director James Comey wrote in a memo in February that President Donald Trump asked him to end the investigation of national security adviser Michael Flynn. Kasich, a Republican governor from Ohio, said "this is not a time for Republicans to hide" but also argued it's not a "time for Democrats to exploit." "I saw that Speaker (Paul) Ryan said some things tonight about getting to the bottom line," he said. "Frankly, I think he should be more aggressive. I think he should speak out more and hopefully he will." A spokesperson for Ryan released a statement earlier Tuesday nig...

In his wildest dreams, Russian leader (and former Soviet intelligence officer) Vladimir Putin could have never imagined the extent of his success during President Donald Trump’s first five months in office. Trump’s move on Tuesday to terminate FBI Director James Comey puts another huge point on the scoreboard for Putin — especially given the FBI’s lead role in probing possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Truth be told, though, Russia’s already doing pretty well. In just a few months, Putin’s intrigues have probably influenced the outcome of an American presidential election and produced a basket of spoils for Mother Russia, including bitter feuds between the White House and the CIA, rifts between the US and its allies, damage to the American press’s legitimacy and public standing, a standoff between the White House and the federal courts over immigration orders, and the slow  sabotage  of American government through neglect and mismanagement. ...