President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, Judge Merrick Garland, is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week for his confirmation hearing. His opening statement to the committee was released Saturday.
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Former President Donald Trump will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, next Sunday, according to a source familiar with the matter. The source, who is familiar with the former President’s speech, told CNN on Saturday that “he’ll be talking about the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement.” “Also
Continue Reading President Joe Biden is visiting former Sen. Bob Dole Saturday afternoon after Dole announced earlier this week that he has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, according to the White House. The two served in the Senate together and Dole is a “close friend” of the President, the White House said. The visit with
Continue Reading Sen. Bernie Sanders argued Saturday that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour isn’t “incidental” to the federal budget, despite skepticism from Capitol Hill and the White House of its future in President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 relief package. “I’m very proud of the strong arguments our legal team is making to the parliamentarian that
Continue Reading As far as Jill Biden is concerned, there isn’t necessarily going to be one “first lady platform,” or even two or three. A month into the job, and Biden has heaped a lot on her agenda, unsure at the moment exactly how it will unfold, only that it will “naturally evolve,” she has told her
Continue Reading President Joe Biden has approved a major disaster declaration for Texas, unlocking more federal resources to assist the state struggling to recover from deadly winter storms. “Yesterday, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Texas and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local recovery efforts in
Continue Reading President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget Neera Tanden will carry on with her outreach to senators next week after her confirmation was jeopardized Friday when Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin revealed he would vote against her. So far, Tanden has met with 35 senators on both sides of the aisle,
Continue Reading During New York’s darkest pandemic days, Gov. Andrew Cuomo emerged as one of the country’s brightest political stars. His data-heavy daily news briefings became appointment television for millions of Americans searching for a steady hand and dose of empathy to counteract then-President Donald Trump’s mixture of erratic, dangerous denialism. But Cuomo’s image — of a
Continue Reading It’s not supposed to look this easy. A little more than one month since President Joe Biden entered office, his cornerstone legislative priority — a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package — is on the path to passage by the deadline his administration set, largely mirroring the key elements he originally proposed. While Biden’s hope for
Continue Reading A Pennsylvania police officer is facing criminal charges after posting a video of himself fighting with other officers during the US Capitol insurrection. Federal prosecutors said video footage shows Joseph Fischer, 55, running at a police line outside the Capitol and yelling, “Charge!” A patrolman with the North Cornwall Township Police Department, Fisher allegedly yelled
Continue Reading The Department of Defense Inspector General will investigate the decision to house US Space Command headquarters at Redstone Arsenal in Hunstville, Alabama, announced Assistant Inspector General Randolph Stone Friday. The investigation will look at the extent to which the Air Force complied with Defense Department and Air Force policies in the selection process, used objective
Continue Reading An Arkansas state lawmaker, who is the nephew of Gov. Asa Hutchinson and was expected to run for governor next year, said he is leaving the Republican Party. State Sen. Jim Hendren, in a nine-minute video, cited former President Donald Trump’s incitement of the riot at the Capitol on January 6 as the “last straw.”
Continue Reading States will receive more doses of Covid-19 vaccines than they “have ever received before” in the coming days, Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser to the White House Covid-19 response team, said Friday. Slavitt told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that after severe winter weather delayed shipments of vaccines, “things are moving back to normal,” and that 1.85
Continue Reading Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin announced Friday he will vote against Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden’s nominee for the director of the Office of Management and Budget, making her confirmation unlikely given Republican resistance to her nomination. Biden said, “No,” when asked if he planned to pull Tanden’s nomination because of Manchin’s announcement, adding, “I think
Continue Reading Speaking on television last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted April would be “open season” for receiving the coronavirus vaccine, welcome news for a nation entering its second year under pandemic-forced lockdowns and ever-lingering fear of disease. “Virtually everybody and anybody in any category could start to get vaccinated,” Fauci said optimistically. A week later, the
Continue Reading The Justice Department unsealed an indictment Friday tying together nine alleged associates of the right-wing Oath Keepers in the largest insurrection conspiracy charged to date related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Prosecutors say the nine defendants from four states allegedly coordinated plans to travel to Washington to breach the Capitol and
Continue Reading Barring any surprises at his Senate confirmation hearing next week, Judge Merrick Garland appears poised to become President Joe Biden’s first attorney general, bringing a longtime jurist with a steadying hand to a department that’s teetering between crises. From the sprawling investigation into the January insurrection to sensitive probes of presidential allies, the caseload at
Continue Reading A federal judge blocked South Carolina’s so-called “heartbeat” abortion ban on Friday, a day after it was signed into law. The South Carolina law — the first such restriction passed in 2021 as anti-abortion advocates seek to limit access to the procedure — would block the procedure at the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which
Continue Reading HOUSTON, Texas — While Sen. Ted Cruz was dealing with the fallout from his trip to Cancun, two of his Democratic political nemeses — Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — raised money and offered resources to Texans hit hard by this week’s winter storm. Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic congresswoman from New York who has frequently
Continue Reading Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is facing widespread criticism and mockery for taking a trip to Cancun, Mexico, as his constituents suffered through a winter storm disaster. But Cruz is also being criticized and mocked over two things he did not actually say. A fake tweet A screenshot that is being shared on social media purports
Continue Reading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a slate of voting proposals Friday that he wants lawmakers to pass in their upcoming legislative session, including restricting the mass mailing of mail-in ballots and access to ballot drop boxes. At a news conference Friday in West Palm Beach, DeSantis, a Republican, argued that the legislation proposals will increase
Continue Reading House Democrats took another step Friday in their effort to advance a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, releasing the full bill text, which includes an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, $1,400 direct checks for Americans making $75,000 or less a year, an extension of $400 federal unemployment benefits and more money
Continue Reading A married couple from Ohio with ties to the right-wing Oath Keepers are facing conspiracy charges in connection with the Capitol insurrection, according to court documents unsealed Friday. Federal prosecutors said Bennie Parker, 70, and Sandra Parker, 60, “planned their attack in advance and communicated with one another before, during, and after their attack on
Continue Reading House Democrats on Friday released the full text of their $1.9 Covid-19 relief bill, which includes an increase in the federal minimum wage, direct checks for Americans making $75,000 or less a year, an extension of $400 federal unemployment benefits and more money for small businesses struggling amid the pandemic. Read the bill:
Continue Reading President Joe Biden said on Friday that he plans to travel to Texas but does not want a presidential trip to put any additional strain on a state grappling with an extreme weather crisis. “The answer is yes,” Biden said when asked if he would travel to Texas after he addressed the Munich Security Conference.
Continue Reading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a slate of voting proposals Friday that he wants lawmakers to pass in their upcoming legislative session, including restricting the mass mailing of mail-in ballots and access to ballot drop boxes. At a news conference Friday in West Palm Beach, DeSantis, a Republican, argued that the legislation proposals will increase
Continue Reading Georgia voting rights groups are denouncing a sweeping voting bill introduced this week by Republican state legislators as a “direct attack on democracy” and on Black voters. The bill comes as Georgia has become ground zero for election law changes in the wake of the 2020 election. Republicans in the state, citing baseless allegations of
Continue Reading House investigators have received the first batch of documents they requested from the FBI and intelligence agencies as part of their ongoing probe into security failures around the January 6 US Capitol attack, according to an official from one of the committees investigating the matter. The FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center provided materials in
Continue Reading Sen. Lindsey Graham is heading to Mar-a-Lago this weekend to meet with Donald Trump in hopes of bridging a growing rift in the top echelon of the Republican Party, CNN has learned. According to a person familiar with his plans, Graham plans to spend his time on the golf course with Trump — ideally convincing
Continue Reading Senior Republicans are split over how to treat former President Donald Trump, with the No. 2 House Republican making a personal pilgrimage to visit him the day before the top Senate Republican vowed never to “bend the knee” in that way. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana met privately with Trump on Tuesday at the former
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