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She imperiled his State of the Union address. He denied her a plane to visit troops abroad.
The shutdown battle between President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is playing out as a surreal game of constitutional brinkmanship, with both flexing their political powers from opposite ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as the negotiations to end the monthlong partial government shutdown remain stalled.
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It seems likely that thousands more migrant children were split from their families than the Trump administration previously reported, in part because officials were stepping up family separations long before the border policy that prompted international outrage last spring, a government watchdog said Thursday.
It's unclear just how many family separations occurred at the U.S.-Mexico border; immigration officials are allowed under longstanding policy to separate families under certain circumstances.
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Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, made several attempts on Thursday to clarify an assertion he made during a Wednesday night CNN interview in which he claimed that he "never said" the Trump campaign didn't collude with Russia, NBC News reported.
That comment runs counter to his and President Donald Trump's past remarks on the matter. Trump has repeatedly asserted that his campaign did not collude with Russian officials. The issue of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia is a question at the heart of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
"I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign," Giuliani told CNN's Chris Cuomo. Giuliani, who has previously claimed "no collusion" but that "collusion is not a crime," was adamant that Trump did not personally collude with Russia.
Thursday morning, Giuliani sought to clear up his remarks. In an interview with NBC News, Giuliani denied that he had reversed himself on the issue of collusion. "I represent the president. I can speak only to the president, not the campaign. The president was not involved in, nor does the president have any knowledge of collusion with the Russians or anyone else. I have no knowledge that anyone on the campaign colluded, but obviously I cannot speak for everyone on the campaign," he added
He later issued a written statement as well.
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Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, confirmed on Thursday that he paid a small tech firm to rig online polls before the 2016 presidential campaign got underway "at the direction of and the sole benefit of" Trump.
"I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it," Cohen added in a tweet.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the payment and attempted poll manipulation. The Trump Organization declined to comment to the newspaper.
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An avalanche rushed down a mountainside at a New Mexico ski resort on Thursday, injuring two people who were pulled from the snow after a roughly 20-minute rescue effort, a resort spokesman said.
The avalanche near the highest peak of Taos Ski Valley happened around 11:30 a.m., initially spurring fears among authorities that more victims may be buried on the mountain before witnesses told them they had not seen any other people on the slope when the slide began.
Still, a precautionary search of the mountain continued through much of the afternoon to ensure no other people remained trapped, said both Chris Stagg, a spokesman for Taos Ski Valley, and Bobby Lucero, the director for emergency management in Taos County.
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Southwest Airlines' yearlong effort to launch affordable flights to Hawaii is stalled. Craft brewers haven't been able to ship their seasonal beers. Hundreds of federal rental assistance contracts with private landlords have expired, putting low-income families and seniors at risk of eviction. Across the country, thousands of unpaid government employees and contractors struggling to make ends meet are turning to food banks for assistance.
As the partial government shutdown moves through its fourth week with no end in sight, the economic blow is hitting not only federal workers but also business people, households and travelers across the country. And experts warn that if the shutdown drags into February or beyond, as the president has suggested it could, the devastating impact would be widespread.
"We'll be in no man's land," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told NBC News.
Here is how the worsening damage could unfold:
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Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday addressed news coverage and criticism regarding his wife’s decision to return to teaching at a Virginia elementary school that explicitly bars LGBTQ employees and students, NBC News reported.
“My wife and I have been in the public eye for quite a while, we're used to the criticism,” Pence said in an interview with EWTN, a cable network that offers “news from a Catholic perspective." But, he added, “to see major news organizations attacking Christian education is deeply offensive to us.”
“We have a rich tradition in America of Christian education, and frankly religious education broadly defined,” he continued. “We'll let the other critics roll off our back, but this criticism of Christian education in America should stop.”
National news outlets, including NBC News, reported Wednesday on the publicly available employment application and parent agreement of Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Virginia, where Karen Pence is now teaching art twice a week.
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A federal judge on Thursday struck down early-voting restrictions Wisconsin Republicans adopted in a December lame-duck legislative session, saying the limits mirror restrictions he blocked two years ago.
Republicans voted in December to limit in-person early voting to no more than two weeks before an election. The move came after a difficult midterm election in November in which the overwhelmingly Democratic cities of Madison and Milwaukee held early voting for six weeks — far longer than in smaller and more conservative communities.
The GOP lost every statewide race but retained majorities in the Legislature and quickly convened the lame-duck session to pass bills that Gov. Scott Walker — also defeated in the election — could sign before leaving office.
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Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
The Treasury Department appears set to lift sanctions on three companies connected to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska despite concerns from lawmakers in both parties who say the Trump administration should be tougher on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies.
Treasury's decision to ease the sanctions narrowly survived a Senate vote Wednesday when Democrats failed to win the 60 votes needed to block it. Still, 11 Republicans joined with the Democrats as some voiced concerns that lifting the financial penalties would send the wrong message to Russia.
On Thursday in the House, 136 Republicans joined Democrats to disapprove of the Treasury deal. The vote was only symbolic, given the outcome in the Senate, but it sent a strong message to President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who had traveled twice to Capitol Hill to explain his department's decision. Congress had until Friday to vote to block the sanctions relief.
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Seth Wenig/AP, File
Harvey Weinstein is recasting his legal team a month after losing a hard-fought bid to get his sexual assault case thrown out.
Weinstein and high-profile defense attorney Benjamin Brafman said in a statement Thursday that they "have agreed to part ways" and that new lawyers would be introduced next week.
The disgraced movie mogul's trial is tentatively scheduled for May 6.
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The man convicted of killing Morgan Freeman's granddaughter on a Manhattan street in 2015 has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Lamar Davenport, 33, was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in a bench trial last May. Prosecutors said he fatally stabbed his 33-year-old girlfriend E'Dena Hines near her Washington Heights apartment building in July 2015 while under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
"Ambitious and driven, E’Dena Hines was deeply loved by family and friends before her life was brought to a horrific and tragic end by her boyfriend, Lamar Davenport," said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
Get More Closed airport terminals. Blank paychecks. Vandalized parks and monuments. Feder... View gallery »
NBC Bay Area
Heavy rain, snow and wind pummeled much of California Thursday, causing at least five deaths, leaving thousands without power and forcing wildfire victims threatened by floods to flee their homes.
In harder hit Northern California, authorities warned of imminent floods and debris flows in the wildfire-ravished city of Paradise and the surrounding region denuded of protective trees and vegetation, telling residents to prepare to flee their homes on a moment's notice.
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Former CBS CEO Les Moonves is fighting the company's decision to deny his $120 million severance package following his firing over sexual misconduct allegations.
Moonves is demanding binding arbitration proceedings to challenge the decision, CBS announced in a filing Thursday with the Security Exchange Commission.
The company's board of directors denied Moonves his severance last month after concluding that he violated company policy and did not cooperate with an investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations.
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Trump admin weighed targeting migrant families, speeding up deportation of children
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More Migrant Families Separated Than Initially Reported
Avalanche Buries Unknown Number of People in NM
How the Shutdown Affects Low-Income Housing
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