Exclusive: Robert Mueller met with Trump's pollster  —  Washington (CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller sought information directly last year from one of Donald Trump's campaign pollsters who is also a former business associate of Paul Manafort's.  —  Mueller's team met with pollster Tony Fabrizio …

Trump could take billions from disaster areas to fund wall  —  Under the proposal, Trump could dip into money set aside to fund civil works projects all over the country including storm-damaged areas of Puerto Rico.  —  President Donald Trump has been briefed on a plan that would use …

Prosecutors Examining Ukrainians Who Flocked to Trump Inaugural  —  WASHINGTON — Hours after he was sworn in as America's 45th president, Donald J. Trump and his wife, Melania, swayed together to a rendition of the Frank Sinatra classic “My Way,” as hundreds of their wealthiest …

Progressives Fought for Key Committee Spots, but Centrist New Dems Came Out on Top  —  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez failed in her long-shot bid for a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, according to an announcement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday evening.

At White House, Empty Desks and Unpaid Bills as Trump Shows No Sign of Relenting  —  WASHINGTON — As the partial government shutdown took hold over the holidays, President Trump seemed to express wonder at being alone in the White House with little but the cheeriness of heavily armed guards …

‘Never been more depressed’: Trump kills Graham effort to end shutdown  —  President Donald Trump has rejected a plan proposed by a bloc of Senate Republicans who had hoped to break an impasse over the government shutdown, leaving Congress and the White House with little obvious way out of the extended battle over Trump's border wall.

Steve King asks how terms ‘white nationalist’ and ‘white supremacist’ became offensive  —  Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is questioning how terms such as “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” became offensive in the U.S.  —  “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”

“I Felt Dirty”: Former Employees Of The Veteran Crowdfunding Trump's Wall Say He Pushed Fake News To Get Rich  —  “He never wanted the truth.  It was all just for clicks, and the more inflammatory, the better,” a former employee said.  “I felt dirty writing the stuff.”

Michael Cohen Agrees to Testify to Congress About Work for Trump  —  WASHINGTON — Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's former personal lawyer who implicated him in a scheme to pay hush money to two women claiming to have had affairs with him, has agreed to testify before the House Oversight …

Farm Country Stood by Trump.  But the Shutdown Is Pushing It to Breaking Point.  —  DENVER, Colo. — In Georgia, a pecan farmer lost out on his chance to buy his first orchard.  The local Farm Service Agency office that would have processed his loan application was shut down.

Tarrant County GOP's vice-chairman survives recall vote over his religion  —  County party officials overwhelmingly rejected attempts to remove Shahid Shafi because he's Muslim.  The 139-49 vote came after the state's top Republican officials denounced the failed move to oust the trauma surgeon.

EXCLUSIVE: ‘I killed JonBenét Ramsey!’  Convicted pedophile Gary Oliva has confessed to the murder of six-year-old pageant princess in prison letters to his friend - claiming it was ‘an accident’  — Gary Oliva, 54, has long been a suspect in the murder of JonBenét Ramsey …

Harry Reid: Renewed But Ready to Rumble?  —  Harry Reid retired a little more than two years ago after serving decades in elected office, lastly as a U.S. senator who helped President Barack Obama get the Affordable Care Act through Congress.  —  He's been out of the limelight since, undergoing cancer treatment.

Democrats will object to Senate adjourning amid shutdown  —  Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) plans to object to the Senate adjourning for the week Thursday afternoon amidst a 20-day government shutdown, according to Senate sources.  —  Kaine and his fellow Senate Democrats want to ratchet up pressure …

Newsom promises unemployment insurance to California's federal workers  —  SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed Thursday that thousands of federal workers in California who are furloughed in the partial government shutdown will be made “quickly eligible” for unemployment insurance …

Pompeo's Cairo speech panned as ‘tone-deaf,’ ‘hyper-partisan,’ ‘offensive’  —  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to students at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 10, 2019.  —  WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's stridently partisan speech in Cairo today chiding …

Q13 FOX staffer fired after TV station airs altered Trump video  —  A staffer at local FOX affiliate Q13 has been fired after the station aired what appears to be a doctored video of President Trump's Tuesday night speech from the Oval Office.  —  A staffer at local FOX affiliate Q13 …

The Great Issue of Our Time...  ...is whether, as a people, we are too dumb to sustain a democracy.  This question arises often; for me, most recently, upon seeing this Daily Mail headline: “Twitter user stuns the internet with math that proves one 18-inch pizza has more in it than TWO 12-inch helpings.”

CBS News in Talks to Hire Former Sen. Jeff Flake  —  The moderate former congressman from Arizona was spotted at the network's Manhattan office on Friday.  —  After retiring from the U.S. Senate last week, Jeff Flake is still looking for his “next thing.”  It might just be at CBS News …

‘The story keeps changing’: Trump falsely asserts he never promised Mexico would directly pay for the border wall  —  It was a foundational promise of Donald Trump's historic presidential campaign: Mexico would pay for his 2,000-mile border wall.  But as he desperately fights for $5.7 billion …

Ocean Warming Is Accelerating Faster Than Thought, New Research Finds  —  Scientists say the warming of the world's oceans is accelerating more quickly than previously thought, a finding with dire implications for climate change given that the vast majority of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases ends up stored there.

Early Withdrawal Will Lead to More Terrorism  —  A recent lull in attacks is welcome, but it seems to have made American leaders complacent.  —  America has a new counterterrorism policy: retrenchment.  Declaring victory over ISIS, the Trump administration seeks to bring home the modest number …