National Politics

At least two members of the US House of Representatives announced Monday that they tested positive for Covid-19 and another member announced he was isolating after possibly being exposed, a sign of the looming threat of coronavirus on Capitol Hill. Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois and Republican Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan each separately

Michelle Obama has weighed in on the refusal of President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump to move forward with a transition of power to the incoming administration, reflecting on where she was four years ago and how — though the process of ceding responsibility to the Trumps was difficult — she persisted. “I

“I WON THE ELECTION!” President Donald Trump tweeted just before midnight on Sunday night. Trump did not win the election. So this was a fitting conclusion to his lie-filled weekend barrage of tweets, in which he continued to invent imaginary evidence in support of his attempt to deny Joe Biden’s victory. Almost nothing Trump is

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell strongly opposed the Trump administration’s plan to remove more troops from the Middle East in a Senate floor speech on Monday, hours after CNN and other organizations reported that the Pentagon had issued a notice to commanders to begin planning a drawdown in Afghanistan and Iraq by January 15. McConnell

US military commanders are anticipating that a formal order will be given by President Donald Trump as soon as this week to begin a further withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq before Trump leaves office on January 20, according to two US officials familiar. The Pentagon has issued a notice to commanders known

President-elect Joe Biden warned that President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to accept the outcome of the 2020 election could hamper the incoming Biden administration’s ability to rapidly distribute a coronavirus vaccine. “More people may die if we don’t coordinate,” Biden told reporters Monday in Delaware, in a news conference after he met with labor and business

Voters in four states who had brought longshot lawsuits to disrupt President-elect Joe Biden’s win and went nowhere in court dropped their cases Monday morning. The cases were short-lived in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania federal courts, and fed into a pro-Donald Trump legal strategy to block Biden’s presidential win before the Electoral College formalizes

The Trump administration on Monday started a leasing process for oil and gas drilling sites off the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, something environmental groups feel is a potential last-minute giveaway to the energy industry before the Biden administration takes over. It is unclear if the Bureau of Land Management, which organizes the auction and leasing,

National security adviser Robert O’Brien promised that there will be a professional transition from the White House National Security Council “if” President-elect Joe Biden is officially determined the winner of the 2020 election, acknowledging “obviously things look that way now” despite President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede. “If there is a new administration, they deserve

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday urged his fellow Republicans to reject the extremes of his party and for President Donald Trump to accept the results of the election. Hogan’s comments during a speech and interview at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute signal how the Maryland Republican will look to cast himself as

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to leave Friday for Europe and the Middle East in a seven-country, legacy-burnishing trip that will include a stop at a West Bank settlement, making him the first top US diplomat to visit one of the Israeli settlements considered illegal under international law. Pompeo is leaving a Washington

Kathleen Sebelius, a former Health and Human Services secretary under President Barack Obama, offered some praise for the Trump administration’s vaccine efforts on Monday but said the administration has shirked other critical responsibilities in mitigating the spread of coronavirus. “There’s no question that Operation Warp Speed has been a great success getting to the point

Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue has declined an invitation to debate Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff ahead of the January runoff election for his seat, CNN has learned, and will instead be represented by an empty podium. Perdue declined an invitation to participate in a December 6 debate with his Democratic rival, said MaryLynn Ryan, the

The 2020 election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden is perhaps the craziest, most controversial election in US history. We say perhaps because we don’t want to bog you down with superlatives when there have been so many truly zany moments in American elections. Who could forget Howard Dean screaming like

President Donald Trump has put his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in charge of his campaign’s long-shot post-election legal challenges, according to a tweet from the President Saturday night. “I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell,

When it comes to health policy, President Donald Trump made it his mission to undo many measures his predecessor put in place. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to do the same. In their four years in office, the Trump administration made sweeping changes that affected the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, abortion and transgender rights, in

House Republicans turned their dinner for freshman members scheduled for Sunday night in the Capitol into a carry out meal, a person in the room told CNN, following the path of House Democrats, who last week modified plans for their own indoor dinner after facing criticism for planning such a gathering amid surging coronavirus cases.

Barack Obama directly confronts the racist politics of President Donald Trump in the first volume of his post-presidency memoir, bluntly suggesting how he believes his historic election in 2008 opened a wave of bitter and divisive turmoil that fueled Republicans’ obstructionism and ultimately changed the party, according to a copy of the book obtained by

Former President Barack Obama said the election results, in which each candidate received more than 70 million votes, show the nation remains bitterly split. “What it says is that we are still deeply divided. The power of that alternative worldview that’s presented in the media that those voters consume — it carries a lot of

As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office in January, nearly half of the transition team laying the groundwork for his administration is made up of people of color, and women are in the majority. Forty-six percent of the transition staff are people of color, according to new diversity data of the transition team provided

President Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time on Sunday that Joe Biden won the presidential election, but the President refused to concede and blamed his loss on a string of conspiracy theories. Most news networks declared Biden the victor more than a week ago. Since the call was made, Biden has given a victory

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that “it would be better” if government health officials could start working with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team, underscoring the importance of a smooth transition process as the country grapples with the worsening coronavirus pandemic. “Of course it would be better if we could start working with them,” Fauci, the