Month: April 2021

Sen. Joe Manchin, the powerful West Virginia Democrat, made clear Thursday that the aggressive vision for the federal government that President Joe Biden laid out to the nation must first face scrutiny in Congress, signaling the long slog ahead facing the White House’s sweeping domestic agenda. “Oh, most certainly,” Manchin told CNN in a one-on-one

Eighteen months ago, media reports indicated that Rudy Giuliani, former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, was under scrutiny by federal prosecutors at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for actions related to his involvement in the Ukraine scandal that led to Trump’s first impeachment. Given the time that has passed,

On Wednesday night, President Joe Biden unveiled his “American Families Plan,” which calls for $1.8 trillion to be invested in education, child care and paid family leave. This investment is essential to ensure that all who want join the American workforce have the opportunity. But even more importantly, it is aimed at helping women, who

When President Joe Biden drops by Jimmy Carter’s two-bedroom ranch house in Plains, Georgia, on Thursday — a pilgrimage to visit a man he vocally supported as a young senator decades ago — it will be at least the fourth time he’s spoken with one of his presidential or vice-presidential predecessors this month. He phoned

About half of Americans who watched President Joe Biden’s address to Congress had a very positive reaction to the speech, and 71% said they walked away feeling more optimistic about the country’s direction, according to a CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. By a wide margin, speech-watchers said that Biden’s policy proposals would move the country

President Joe Biden laid out a far-reaching agenda to Congress on Wednesday night, one that implored his former Senate colleagues and the House of Representatives to get to work and close out nearly a dozen issues that he has worked on for most of his career. But the wish list faces a harsh reality in

Federal prosecutors unveiled new charges on Wednesday against three men who have been accused in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. Adam Fox, 40, Barry Croft, 45, and Daniel Joseph Harris, 23, were charged with knowingly conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction,

In the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said Biden and Democrats were “pulling” the US apart and took time to praise former President Donald Trump. Scott’s nearly 15-minute rebuttal to Biden’s hour-long speech was largely accurate, but some of his claims could have benefited

Brendan Hunt — whose father is a retired judge and who allegedly threatened the lives of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, now-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — was found guilty of one count of threatening to assault or murder US officials by a jury in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday, according to

White House aides were prepping President Joe Biden to virtually tour an electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant last week when the President suddenly shifted the conversation to something else entirely: China and the fate of democracy. Sitting in the Oval Office, one of Biden’s economic advisers had just pointed out that China was dominating the

As President Joe Biden used the grand Washington stage to bemoan the Capitol insurrection as the worst attack on US democracy since the Civil War, a flurry of Trump-era flashbacks underscored the depth of the still unvanquished threat. Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night was a ritual rooted in tradition

After several hours of contentious debate, the Republican-controlled Florida House passed its version of a controversial bill that would add new restrictions to the voting process. The bill, SB 90, passed on a party-line vote of 77-40 on Wednesday. The bill now goes back to the Senate with a slew of changes, after the House

President Joe Biden went off-script during his first joint address to Congress on Wednesday to thank Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for a tribute the Kentucky Republican made to Biden’s late son, Beau, in 2016. The year after Biden lost his 46-year-old son to brain cancer, McConnell called on the Senate to rename a bill

President Joe Biden delivered the biggest speech of his presidency to date on Wednesday night — an address to a joint session of Congress. Things looked and sounded a little different, with just 200 people in attendance and everyone but Biden masked due to Covid-19 protocols. I watched the entire thing, which ran just over

In his first joint address to Congress, President Joe Biden struck an optimistic tone, speaking for more than an hour and pushing his expansive vision of building America “back better” by touting his vast infrastructure plan and praising the progress the country has made against Covid-19. While Biden’s speech was, for the most part, factually

A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here. When Vice President Kamala Harris was walking into the House chamber on Wednesday, a reporter asked her about the significance of the day’s historical milestone — having two women, Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,

President Joe Biden spoke directly to working- and middle-class Americans who “feel left behind and forgotten” in a rapidly changing economy in his first address to a joint session of Congress, promising that his ambitious economic and infrastructure plans amounted to a “blue-collar blueprint to build America.” Addressing many of the voters who abandoned the

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina criticized President Joe Biden and argued he is failing to deliver on his promises in the GOP rebuttal to the President’s first address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening. “President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership,” Scott said in his remarks. “He promised to

President Joe Biden made a sweeping case Wednesday for massive new programs that would transform the government’s role in Americans’ lives, claiming nothing less than the future of the country is at stake as he delivered his first address to Congress. Coming later than usual, on the eve of his 100th day in office, Biden

President Joe Biden, addressing a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night for the first time, called for America to overcome division as he spoke in the building that was overrun during a violent insurrection months before. And he sought to build on the trust he engendered by accelerating the nation’s response to the Covid-19

President Joe Biden opened his first address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night by declaring that “America is on the move again.” The President, in his first prime-time speech to lawmakers, is hoping to build on the trust he engendered by accelerating the nation’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic to convince Americans

Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made history during President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress just by taking their seats — marking the first time two women would be sitting behind the President. Harris entered the House chamber Wednesday night to a round of applause for Biden’s first

President Joe Biden opened his first address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night by declaring that “America is on the move again.” The President, in his first prime-time speech to lawmakers, is hoping to build on the trust he engendered by accelerating the nation’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic to convince Americans