for getting the first word on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's recommendations on the fates of two dozen federally protected land and ocean sites under review at the request of President Trump. Zinke told AP he will not rescind their status as national monuments but may allow other changes. http://bit.ly/2w2K0Ey
for their efforts to score an exclusive all-formats interview with Ivanka Trump during her four-day visit to Africa that yielded high-demand video as well as strong text and photos on the eve of the Mueller report.https://bit.ly/2VLihTrhttps://bit.ly/2V9YHTU
for exclusively reporting that President Donald Trump greatly exaggerated his State of the Union story about a homeless veteran who turned his life around thanks to a job at a company using Opportunity Zone tax breaks. Condon used federal records and interviews with both veteran Tony Rankins and his employer to show that although the man has recovered from poor circumstances, the central point of Trumpâs story â that Rankins turned his life around because of investment in the tax incentive program â was false. Rankins does not work at a site taking advantage of the program and never has done so. https://bit.ly/2HBuF2L
for beating other media outlets to a letter from the Trump administration rescinding Obama administrationâs transgender bathroom guidance for schools. http://apne.ws/2mIs3DW
for breaking the news that the Trump administration is making a new push to get so-called sanctuary cities to cooperate with ICE on immigration enforcement. https://bit.ly/3azEmwd
for exclusively obtaining documents that expose a potential conflict of interest for Kelly Craft, President Donald Trumpâs nominee for United Nations ambassador, on the topics of climate change and fossil fuels. When senior Environmental Protection Agency officials sent an email to Craft, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, the acknowledgment email they received wasnât from the ambassador. It was from her husband, coal magnate Joseph Craft, a wealthy GOP donor who has joined the coal industry in pressing for access and regulatory relief from the EPA and the Trump administration. It wasnât the first time the Crafts had blurred roles â and email accounts â raising questions as senators consider her nomination to the U.N. Knickmeyer found several other examples of potential conflicts. https://bit.ly/2LugYWy
It was supposed to be a 15-minute interview. Instead, Associated Press Chief White House Correspondent Julie Pace kept President Donald Trump talking for an hour in a wide-ranging Oval Office discussion that was exclusive, illuminating and full of news.
Pace's sit-down with the president â resulting in multiple stories that others scrambled to follow and a transcript that readers devoured despite its 8,000-word length â earns the Beat of the Week.
for an impactful look at the connection between President Donald Trumpâs words and the misinformation as well as sexist and racist content that circulates online. The collaboration between the fact check and White House teams showed how Trump has elevated incendiary rhetoric against four freshman Democratic congresswomen, playing into a conspiratorial feedback loop that has reared its head repeatedly during his campaign and presidency. https://bit.ly/2OjmMWa
worked sources to reveal that a year earlier than originally believed, officials briefed President Donald Trump on intelligence reports of Russian bounties on American troops in Afghanistan. Coming on the heels of The New York Times scoop on the reported bounties, Laporta's reporting dramatically changed the storyâs timeline. He further advanced the story with news that then-National Security Advisor John Bolton told colleagues that he personally briefed Trump on the matter, and Laporta also broke the news that the military was investigating the death of three Marines killed in an ambush last year. https://bit.ly/2O3FtKn
for using foresight, strong preparation and coordination to provide AP members with a next day, cross-format follow-up to the Trump administrationâs announcement rolling back endangered species protections, illustrating the potential impact by focusing on the beloved monarch butterfly.https://bit.ly/33vM9aKhttps://bit.ly/33MvCze
for weaving into a single strong narrative the story of how Donald Trump became only the fourth American president to be the subject of an impeachment inquiry. By pooling reporting efforts, the reporting team provided a comprehensive, and highly readable, account of how we got to this place. in presidential history. https://bit.ly/32tuleM
for a data analysis story showing that despite tough talk on trade, President Donald Trumpâs administration has granted hundreds of companies permission to import millions of tons of steel made in China, Japan and other countries â without paying the hefty tariff he put in place to protect U.S. manufacturers and jobs. https://bit.ly/2DVf5wE
Last November, more than 200 counties across America, scores of them in the upper Midwest, turned from blue to red on the electoral map. Why did voters in once-Democratic strongholds support Donald Trump?
An all-formats AP team of Claire Galofaro, Martha Irvine, David Goldman and Angeliki Kastanis set out to find the answer by focusing on one rural Wisconsin county and getting into the lives and mindset of its people. The result was a revealing package that earns the Beat of the Week.
for being the first to report that Ivanka Trump lived in a Washington home for two months before the owner obtained a license to rent it to her, and that neighbors, including Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, have complained about parking problems caused by her family. http://apne.ws/2ntl2Ke
for breaking the story that while Rudy Giuliani was pushing Ukrainian officials last spring to investigate one of Donald Trumpâs main political rivals, a group of his business associates was also active in the former Soviet republic, trying to install new management at the top of Ukraineâs massive state gas company. Two people with knowledge of the plans told AP that these businessmen and Republican donors, touting connections to Giuliani and Trump, were prepared to steer lucrative contracts to companies controlled by Trump allies. https://bit.ly/2IteINg
for a detailed and well-written examination of falsehoods, exaggerations and disputed statements in the first year of the Donald Trump presidency. http://abcn.ws/2rCpfQe
for an exclusive all-formats package eight months in the making. The AP team illuminated how Ivanka Trumpâs business practices and lack of any reaction to the arrests of three investigators had very real, human consequences in China. http://bit.ly/2nCWygJhttp://bit.ly/2FFp3BI
scooped everyone with news that the Justice Department was moving for dismissal of the case against Michael Flynn, President Donald Trumpâs former national security adviser who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Balsamo, acting on a tip, worked sources and obtained exclusive access to court documents showing the case was being dropped, before they were even filed in court. Tucker, APâs Mueller investigation expert, drafted the story, pulling together details and information from other sources on how this case could have ended in such a spectacular and unusual way.The AP exclusive forced virtually every major news outlet to use the story, including CNN. Even Trump proclaimed he didnât know it was coming â and heâd been railing for weeks about the case, mulling whether to pardon Flynn.https://bit.ly/2ArlBNRhttps://bit.ly/2WRm8Ae
for reporting exclusively that FBI Director James Comey accepted a lifetime achievement award from a nonprofit law enforcement organization whose board includes several people with longtime ties to Donald Trump. Democrats had criticized Comey for injecting himself into the final days of the presidential campaign with his now-concluded review of Hillary Clinton's email practices. http://bit.ly/2gelZ7Z
President Donald Trump has long asserted that his tax cuts and other policies would accelerate job growth, which, in turn, would serve the âforgottenâ men and women who had helped propel him to the White House in the 2016 election.
Washington, D.C.-based economics reporter Josh Boak wondered: Had that actually occurred so far? And how much was job growth a motivating force for Trump supporters?
Boak hit on a possible way to hold the presidentâs claims to a fair test. He turned to a relatively obscure report issued by the governmentâs Bureau of Labor Statistics, then merged those economic figures with the APâs 2016 election returns, broken down by county.
The result, under multiple calculations, was clear: The bulk of U.S. hiring under Trump had so far occurred in Democratic counties.
Boak then spent three days in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, an area that had voted decisively for Trump and had lost jobs in the past 12 months. He reported that Republican voters appeared to be motivated more by social issues â opposition to gun control, for example. âOur No. 1 motivating factor,â the county Republican chairman told Boak, âis Second Amendment issues.â
For exclusively documenting how job growth under Trump has disproportionately underserved his geographic base and for illustrating that trend in a community that reflects it, Boak earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
