*By Carlo Versano*
There is an unspoken tradition in Washington that the president faces the press a day after a midterm election that revokes power from his party in Congress. When Democrats gained control of both houses in 2006, a humbled President George W. Bush called it a "thumping." In 2010, an equally-chastened President Barack Obama admitted his party took a "shellacking."
No such thing happened on Wednesday.
President Trump vacillated between subdued and combative as he called Tuesday's election ー in which Democrats took control of the House and several pivotal governorships ー a "very close-to-complete victory."
Trump took credit for the GOP's ability to maintain control of the Senate and blamed certain losses of House Republican candidates on their disloyalty. He praised Rep. Nancy Pelosi, calling her "very smart," but then warned House Democrats that he would have Senate Republicans probe their conduct, should they use their newfound subpoena power to investigate him.
In a nearly two-hour-long press conference from the East Room of the White House that began with a low-key statement but quickly deteriorated into a rollicking Q&A, the president ratcheted up his antagonism of the gathered press corps. He called CNN's Jim Acosta a "rude, terrible person" and excoriated PBS' Yamiche Alcindor for asking "a racist question" when she attempted to probe him on whether his rhetoric was emboldening white nationalists.
As the president spoke, the AP called the contested Montana Senate race for Jon Tester, one of the Democrats that Trump was reportedly most hoping to defeat.
Reporters traveling to the United Kingdom ahead of President Joe Biden’s first overseas trip were delayed seven hours after their chartered plane was overrun by cicadas.
A Senate investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection has found a broad intelligence breakdown across multiple agencies, along with widespread law enforcement and military failures.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has announced that he will send proposed legislation to the country’s congress to make bitcoin legal tender in the Central American nation.
California's reservoirs are shrinking quickly as a drought grips the western United States.
Facebook says it will suspend former President Donald Trump's accounts for two years following its finding that he stoked violence ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.
U.S. employers added a modest 559,000 jobs in May, an improvement from April’s sluggish gain but still evidence that many companies are struggling to find enough workers as the economy rapidly recovers from the pandemic recession.
Gas pipelines have long been a vulnerable target due to their value and exposed nature, yet while government agencies have doubled down on physical security, cybersecurity has been overlooked for decades.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fifth straight week to a new pandemic low
Amazon says it will no longer test jobseekers for marijuana use. The e-commerce giant, which is the second-largest private employer in the U.S. behind Walmart, is making the change as several states legalize cannabis.
An emotional President Joe Biden has marked the 100th anniversary of the massacre that wiped out a thriving Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
