National Politics

It’s been months of haggling, backing away from negotiations, getting the gang back together and still a stimulus deal has proven elusive for Capitol Hill. The forces of partisanship aren’t going to make that any easier now. Republicans are dug in and very much aware that Democrats would prefer a deal now in an effort

President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team are preparing for an early, all-out push to pass an ambitious new stimulus bill, while also drawing up plans for a flurry of executive actions aimed at delivering on campaign promises and undoing the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine key government agencies. Biden will be inaugurated in January

‘Tis the holiday season at the White House. All of the halls, from the East Room to the Red Room, were decked by over 125 volunteers this weekend and unveiled Monday to feature classic holiday décor with an “America the Beautiful” theme for the Trumps’ final Christmas in office. Highlights of this year’s display —

Despite what President Donald Trump is tweeting and saying publicly in the wake of Arizona and Wisconsin certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory Monday, Trump sees the scoreboard and understands he has no chance of hanging on to the presidency, two White House advisers told CNN. Asked whether the President realizes that he’s been defeated, a

Joe Biden‘s transition team is bracing for a tough Senate confirmation battle for the President-elect’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, who is already facing fierce opposition from Senate Republicans. Neera Tanden, the CEO and president of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, was announced on Monday as Biden’s choice for the

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is scheduled to meet with Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn in the West Wing Tuesday, as President Donald Trump has privately demanded to know why the agency hasn’t granted emergency use for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine yet, according to two sources. Meadows summed Hahn for a progress

Former President Barack Obama is prominently featured in a new television ad for Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff, pitching him as an injustice-fighting crusader who will pass a new Voting Rights Act and “listen to the experts” in combating the coronavirus pandemic. The ad is a clear appeal to motivate Black voters, a crucial

A wide range of Republican senators are shrugging off President Donald Trump’s evidence-free claims that mass voter fraud cost him the election, ignoring their party leader’s relentless attacks against a foundation of American democracy amid their growing expectation that the matter will be resolved within two weeks — without their involvement. As they watch Trump

Arizona certified its election results on Monday, awarding the state’s 11 electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden and clearing the way for Senator-elect Mark Kelly, a Democrat, to be sworn in this week. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, certified the election results Monday morning, saying the elections process was the most secure

The federal government must take “urgent actions” in its response to the coronavirus pandemic, a new report from the US Government Accountability Office finds. Medical supply shortages persist, despite efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to mitigate shortages and expand the supply chain, the report found.

The top official leading the Pentagon’s Defeat-ISIS Task Force resigned Monday, becoming the latest senior official to be fired or asked to resign in recent days, part of a White House-directed post-election purge that saw some of the senior-most Defense Department civilians ousted in a matter of days. “Today, Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller

The Justice Department on Monday released a copy of President Donald Trump’s pardon of former national security adviser Michael Flynn — giving Flynn far-reaching absolution from lying and foreign lobbying crimes he admitted to in 2017 and any other possible related crimes. The Department also formally asked a federal court to dismiss the case against

More than 940,000 mail-in ballots have been requested in Georgia for the January 5 runoff election that will decide which party controls the Senate, Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting systems implementation manager, said Monday. That includes 604,255 people who are eligible to receive mail-in ballots automatically, according to Sterling. For comparison, 1,322,529 absentee ballots were

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Monday formally certified Joe Biden’s victory, signing the paperwork to award the state’s 10 electoral votes to the President-elect after a recount in Wisconsin’s two most populous counties. “Today I carried out my duty to certify the November 3rd election, and as required by state and federal law, I’ve signed

President-elect Joe Biden enters the month of December with a question still looming over one of the most critical decisions in his Cabinet: Who will he nominate to be Secretary of Defense? Three candidates are in final contention to lead the Pentagon, people familiar with the matter told CNN, as Michele Flournoy, Jeh Johnson and

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, on Monday rebuffed President Donald Trump’s calls to overturn the state’s election results more than a week after they certified Joe Biden as the winner. The statements by the two officials amount to an unusual public rejection of Trump, who continues to exert

A federal judge postponed the trial for Rudy Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman citing the backlog of criminal trials as courts grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re almost certainly not going to get on the calendar for March 1 given the number of detained defendant trials, which take priority,” said Judge Paul Oetken

Several conservative justices on Monday seemed to suggest they could avoid immediately ruling on whether President Donald Trump’s attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted when seats in Congress are divvied up between the states next year is lawful. In over an hour of telephonic arguments, the justices seemed extremely skeptical that in the

Sen. Chuck Grassley returned to his Senate office Monday after testing positive for Covid-19 and completing a quarantine earlier this month, and he called on Congress to pass additional coronavirus relief legislation. Grassley, who is 87 and the most senior Republican in the chamber, tested positive for the virus on November 17, but remained asymptomatic

Former astronaut Mark Kelly will be sworn in as a US senator for Arizona at noon ET on Wednesday, a senior Democratic aide told CNN. Kelly defeated Republican Sen. Martha McSally in a special election by more than 78,000 votes. A retired Navy captain and NASA astronaut, Kelly was widely viewed as one of the