Tag: National News

The House passed a massive bill to fund the government on Friday, staving off a government shutdown just ahead of deadline, after ugly partisan bickering on the House floor that foreshadowed possible dynamics to come in the new Congress.House Republicans hurled full-throated rebukes at Democrats over the $1.7 trillion bill, which provides $45 billion in aid for Ukraine, reforms the Electoral Count Act to clarify procedures for tabulating the presidential vote, includes funding for the PACT Act that bolsters veterans’ health care, and increases money for student Pell Grant recipients, among a number of lower-profile issues – from a ban on TikTok on government devices to an overhaul of cosmetic regulations to protections for the Maine lobster industry. The lawmakers criticized the bill as an...

An attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband at their San Francisco home is spurring renewed concern over politically motivated violence as the midterm elections draw near in a climate of unusually extreme partisan division.David DePape “violently assaulted” Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer early Friday morning, according to San Francisco police. Authorities intend to charge the 42-year-old with attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse and burglary, along with several other felonies.While San Francisco police declined to speculate on a motive for the attack, a spokesman for Pelosi said that the assailant demanded to see the California lawmaker, who is second in line to the presidency and is protected by U.S. Capitol Police. DePape reportedl...

The Senate parliamentarian has left Democrats’ massive climate, health care and tax legislation largely intact, clearing the way for the spending bill to be taken up by lawmakers Saturday after the support of the final Democratic holdouts was secured.“This is a major victory for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said of the parliamentarian’s decision to allow a portion of the legislation – which allows Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices – to proceed.The parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, has been weighing the components of the final bill to see if it is in compliance with the procedural maneuver called reconciliation that allows passage of certain budget-related legislation on a simple majority rather than the 60 votes ordinarily require...

The congressional committee investigating the attack on the Capitol painted a picture Tuesday of how – as door after door closed on President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and even his White House staff understood that he had lost – Trump embraced ever more fantastical conspiracy theories peddled by fringe actors and ultimately took matters into his own hands with a single tweet that would “unleash a political firestorm.”“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump wrote. “Be there, will be wild!”On the heels of stunning testimony last week, the select committee delivered an intimate look into the days leading to the violent attack on the Capitol, as the panel appeared to be positioning itself – with just one hearing likely remaining – to link Trump’s moves in those ...

Republican House leaders are under criticism in the aftermath of a Buffalo shooting over the weekend that officials called a racist attack by a gunman who killed 10 people and wounded three after reportedly writing and sharing a document online promoting far-right conspiracy theories.Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming Republican, did not mince words on Monday, accusing GOP leadership of enabling “white nationalism, white supremacy and anti-semitism,” while urging GOP leaders to “renounce and reject these views and those who hold them.”“The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism,” Cheney wrote in a tweet on Monday. “History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse.”Cartoons on the Republican PartyThe comment comes after the suspect in...