May 18, 2017

Paul Ryan: "It was perfectly appropriate" to appoint Special Counsel

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that "it was perfectly appropriate" for Deputy AG Rod Rosentstein to appoint a Special Counsel in the Russia investigation. Just yesterday he said the three ongoing Russia investigations are enough.

  • On whether Trump scandals are slowing down the political agenda: "It's always nice to have less drama" said Ryan, but Congress can "walk and chew gum" at the same time.
  • Would the GOP be better off with Pence as president? "I'm not even going to give credence to that."
  • "Our goal for tax reform is calendar year 2017... I feel very confident we can meet this goal."

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Axios
Updated 46 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

  1. Politics: Fauci: Trump hasn't been to a COVID task force meeting in months.
  2. Sports: The youth sports exodus continues — Big Ten football is back.
  3. Health: Fauci says if people won't wear masks, maybe it should be mandated — America was sick well before it ever got COVID-19 —U.S. hits highest daily COVID-19 case count since pandemic began —AstraZeneca to resume vaccine trial in U.S. — How to help save 130,000 lives.
  4. Retail: Santa won't greet kids at Macy's this year.
  5. World: Polish president Andrzej Duda tests positive for COVID-19.
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Margaret Talev
1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

SurveyMonkey poll: Trump improves, but not enough

Trump and Biden during the final debate. Photo: Xinhua/Liu Jie via Getty Images

President Trump's final debate performance exceeded Americans' expectations, but it wasn't enough to shift the dynamics that left him trailing Joe Biden across most measures, according to a new Axios-SurveyMonkey poll.

What they're saying: "Liar" was the word used most by debate watchers to describe Trump's performance, followed by "lies," "strong," "presidential" and "childish." "Presidential" was the word used most to describe Biden's performance, followed by "liar," "weak," "expected" and "honest."

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Neal Rothschild
2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Hunter Biden saga dominates online debate

Data: NewsWhip; Table: Axios Visuals

The mainstream media turned away. But online, President Trump's charges about Hunter Biden were by far the dominant storyline about the final presidential debate, according to exclusive NewsWhip data provided to Axios.

  • Coverage of business dealings by Joe Biden's son — and pre-debate allegations by one of his former business associates, Tony Bobulinski — garnered more than twice as much online activity (likes, comments, shares) as the runner-up.
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