National Politics

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were both vaccinated against Covid-19 by Capitol Attending Physician Dr. Brian Monahan, the two congressional leaders announced separately Friday. “Today, with confidence in science & at the direction of the Office of the Attending Physician, I received the COVID-19 vaccine,” Pelosi tweeted. “As

President-elect Joe Biden and incoming first lady Jill Biden will receive the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday in Delaware, transition spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on a briefing call Friday. The transition team did not have details on where exactly the vaccination would take place. Psaki said that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris

American restaurants are dying and Covid is killing them. More than 110,000 US restaurants have closed during the pandemic — and more are likely to shut, with winter limiting outdoor options, cases surging and states imposing new restrictions. While Congress is negotiating a package that would include new relief money to keep the airline industry

President Donald Trump lauded Tommy Tuberville this week after the Republican Alabama senator-elect said he is not ruling out joining a House member to object to the election results when Congress meets in a joint session to accept the votes of the Electoral College. Trump is continuing to push senators to overturn the election while

Former President Barack Obama appeared in three digital campaign ads urging Georgians to vote for Rev. Raphael Warnock ahead of the Senate runoff election in January. “If we want Joe Biden to succeed in tackling this virus and getting folks back to work, we need Raphael Warnock in the Senate,” Obama said in one of

The Supreme Court on Friday threw out a challenge for now to President Donald Trump’s bid to exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted when seats in Congress are divvied up between the states next year, but left open the possibility the issue could be revisited at the nation’s highest court. Friday’s ruling is a narrow

In a year that saw many traditions upended, former President Barack Obama is keeping up with one annual custom: sharing his favorite books of the year. The former President, in a Twitter post Thursday, highlighted 17 titles — including Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste,” Brit Bennett’s “The Vanishing Half” and C Pam Zhang’s “How Much of These

As Covid-19 cases surge throughout the country, no place has been immune from infection — including Capitol Hill. The spike in cases nationwide sees a parallel in Congress, with at least four members of the Senate and at least 20 members of the House of Representatives testing positive for coronavirus or for its antibodies after

Vice President Mike Pence received the coronavirus vaccine Friday morning — an on-camera event that the Trump administration says is part of federal efforts to build confidence among the public in the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. Along with the vice president, second lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams were administered the vaccine, which

An alarming new alert issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber arm Thursday revealed that Russian hackers suspected of a massive, ongoing intrusion campaign into government agencies, private companies and critical infrastructure entities used a variety of unidentified tactics and not just a single compromised software program. Specifically, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Jill Biden was surprised by a recent newspaper op-ed piece suggesting she stop using the “Dr.” title before her name, she told TV host Stephen Colbert on Thursday evening. “That was such a surprise,” she said, seated next to her husband, President-elect Joe Biden. “It was really the tone of it … He called me

US Rep. Katie Porter said Thursday evening that she is self-quarantining after being exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. “I think it’s an experience that’s all too familiar for all too many Americans at this point. I was exposed to someone who has tested positive. I’m doing my very best to quarantine

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, said Thursday evening it’s time to accept that Joe Biden won the 2020 election as the President continues to push baseless conspiracy theories that his second term is being stolen. “Whenever anybody loses an election — party, an individual — there is

Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, who will join the incoming Biden administration as a White House senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement, tested positive for Covid-19, Biden transition spokesperson Kate Bedingfield said Thursday in a statement. Richmond recently traveled to Atlanta for a Tuesday campaign event for the Senate runoff elections in

Microsoft has identified more than 40 of its customers around the world that had problematic versions of a third-party IT management program installed and that were specifically targeted by the suspected Russian hacking campaign disclosed this week, the company said in a blog post Thursday. The tech company said that 80% of those victims are

President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team on Thursday announced New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as his nominee for interior secretary. If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland would be the first Native American Cabinet secretary. “A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior,” Haaland wrote in

President-elect Joe Biden’s selection of Rep. Deb Haaland to lead the Interior Department marked a historic victory for an alliance of progressives and Indigenous leaders who campaigned relentlessly to elevate one of their own to a powerful federal seat that oversees natural resources, public lands and Indian affairs. A member of Pueblo of Laguna, Haaland

A federal inmate scheduled for execution next month has tested positive for Covid-19, adding a new wrinkle in the Trump administration’s unprecedented execution push in the weeks before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. The legal team for Dustin Higgs — who was convicted of ordering a triple homicide in 1996 — said that they were notified

When President Donald Trump convened his Cabinet at the White House Wednesday as Washington absorbed news of a massive data breach, the heads of most agencies relevant to the intrusion — including the Department of Defense, the State Department, the Justice Department, the director of national intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency — were absent.

The deliberations among President-elect Joe Biden’s tight circle of advisers about whom he should nominate as attorney general have emerged as some of the more complicated of the transition, sources familiar with the process tell CNN, with possible investigations into President Donald Trump, a federal probe into Hunter Biden’s business dealings and pressure from powerful

Valerie Ponomarev sealed the envelope of her ballot and walked to the silver drop box in Alpharetta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. “I’ve been looking forward to this day for so long,” she exclaimed. Her absentee ballot disappeared down the narrow metal opening. The excitement she felt in the simple delivery of the early ballot

Six men involved in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were indicted Wednesday on a federal kidnapping conspiracy charge. Daniel Harris, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Adam Fox and Brandon Caserta pleaded not guilty to the indictment in proceedings on Thursday. Each of the defendants has been in custody since being arrested in