Given his slim majority, holding onto the speakership would almost certainly require Democratic votes. But the unprecedented series of concessions that McCarthy made to the far right all but foreclosed that possibility. Democrats have absolutely no incentive to save his skin, knowing full well that he would, for instance, continue a comical impeachment inquiry as […]
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Actually, I’ll stop there. You can click on the link above to see them all, but you get the idea. In addition, you should watch committee member Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s evisceration of Republican committee member Byron Donalds’s photoshopped text message in her appearance on Chris Hayes’s show Thursday night. Donalds made a text message—which, by […]
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The first hearing in House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden featured their star witnesses testifying that they lacked proof that he committed impeachable offenses, multiple procedural skirmishes the G.O.P. majority nearly lost and, at times, nearly a dozen empty Republican seats. What it did not include was any new information about Mr. Biden’s conduct […]
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Top House Republicans are eyeing potential impeachment charges of bribery and abuse of power against President Biden, according to senior House officials familiar with their plans, as they push forward with an inquiry that seeks to tie him to his son’s foreign business dealings. Building up to the inquiry’s first hearing scheduled for Thursday, Republicans […]
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Frank Bruni, a contributing Opinion writer, hosted a written online conversation with Josh Barro, who writes the newsletter Very Serious, and Sarah Isgur, a senior editor at The Dispatch, to discuss their expectations for the second Republican debate on Wednesday night. They also dig into and try to sort out a barrage of politics around […]
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When it comes to his view of the United States government, Representative Bob Good, a right-wing Republican who represents a Virginia district that was once the domain of Thomas Jefferson, doesn’t mince words. “Most of what Congress does is not good for the American people,” Mr. Good declared in an interview off the House floor […]
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If there was any doubt that the Republican House was no more sophisticated than a preschool playground, last week’s opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden settled it with a nasty kick of sand in Democrats’ face. How else can you describe the pretext for this fishing expedition other than “You started it”? If […]
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Attorney General Merrick B. Garland — a prime target for House Republicans seeking to push unproven claims that the Justice Department is protecting President Biden and his son Hunter Biden — is set to defend himself at a high-stakes, high-volume hearing on Wednesday. Mr. Garland will appear before the House Judiciary Committee for a routine […]
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The dysfunctional dance taking place in the House between Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his right flank has driven me to consider something I never imagined possible: that Matt Gaetz is right. A House speaker can be successful only with the confidence of the members who put him or her in charge, when he or she […]
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Ken Paxton, the embattled attorney general of Texas, survived an impeachment vote in the State Senate over the weekend, but the case is far from behind him: The U.S. Justice Department still has an open investigation over many of the same allegations of corruption and abuse of office. And in October, Mr. Paxton’s lawyers will […]
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Gail Collins: Bret, September is one of my favorite months, and I’ve always kinda wished Congress would stay out on vacation longer. They tend to be a leaky cloud on the horizon. Let’s start with — oh God, the impeachment inquiry. You’re in charge of the Republicans, no matter how you feel about Donald Trump. […]
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Ed Siskel moved from Chicago to Washington last weekend to begin his new role as White House counsel. He had one entire day — last Monday — to settle into his office, in a coveted corner on the second floor of the West Wing. By Mr. Siskel’s second day on the job, top congressional Republicans […]
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The impeachment trial of Ken Paxton that ended in his acquittal on Saturday was about more than the fate of the Texas attorney general. It was also the most dramatic flashpoint in a yearslong struggle among Republican leaders in the Legislature over control of the party and the future direction of the state. The trial […]
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The February letter, which was also shared with TNR, didn’t promise to hand over years of Hunter Biden’s financial records, as Republicans requested, but it did offer a chance to meet directly with his legal team. The letter also argues that the Oversight Committee is overreaching in its investigation of Hunter Biden because he is […]
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Deliberations began on Friday in the impeachment trial of Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, as the jury of state senators weighed allegations of bribery and abuse of office based on complaints made against him by his most senior former aides. Before deliberating, the senators — 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats — heard closing arguments […]
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As Republicans plunge forward with an impeachment inquiry looking into a complex web of allegations against President Biden, his family and his administration, witnesses they have summoned for closed-door interviews in recent weeks have undercut or pushed back against some of their major claims. In testimony this month, three witnesses from the F.B.I. and the […]
Read MoreThis content comes from the latest installment of our weekly Breaking the Vote newsletter out of VICE News’ D.C. bureau, tracking the ongoing efforts to undermine the democratic process in America. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. The real stakes of impeachment Republicans are going to impeach Joe Biden, no […]
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The February letter, which was also shared with TNR, didn’t promise to hand over years of Hunter Biden’s financial records, as Republicans requested, but it did offer a chance to meet directly with his legal team. The letter also argues that the Oversight Committee is overreaching in its investigation of Hunter Biden because he is […]
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Most importantly, however, the impeachment inquiry allows Biden to reset the political narrative. Voters have been wary of his leadership for some time—his poll numbers cratered in the late-summer of 2021 and have hardly recovered. One possible explanation is the lack of a serious alternative or rival. Donald Trump remains the leader of the Republican […]
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In Entertainment Weekly, Maureen Lee Lenker reviewed the new movie “Saltburn,” a tale of sexual obsession set among Britain’s upper crust: “If you did a line of coke off a copy of ‘Brideshead Revisited,’ you might approximate the ‘Saltburn’ viewing experience.” (Jack Keegan, Oxford, Ohio) In The Times, Charles Blow questioned many of Trump’s political […]
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As House Republicans kick off an impeachment inquiry against President Biden, the White House is executing a long-planned strategy to meet politics with politics. Forget the weighty legal arguments over the meaning of high crimes and misdemeanors or the constitutional history of the removal process. Mr. Biden’s defense team has chosen to take on the […]
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The Republican-led prosecution rested its case on Wednesday for impeaching the attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, ending on a central claim: that an Austin real estate investor paid for Mr. Paxton’s home renovations in exchange for favors. The testimony about countertops and cabinetry — and bills for $121,000 — came on the seventh day […]
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Is it just me, or did Kevin McCarthy look a little rough around the edges on Tuesday when announcing his decision to open an impeachment investigation into President Biden? I realize that Mr. McCarthy, the House speaker, needed to convey a dignified solemnity on such an occasion. “I do not make this decision lightly,” he […]
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When Democrats declared in 2019 that they were moving ahead with an impeachment inquiry into President Donald J. Trump without a House vote, Representative Kevin McCarthy, then the minority leader, railed against the move. “Speaker Pelosi can’t decide on impeachment unilaterally. It requires a full vote of the House of Representatives,” he wrote on Twitter. […]
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On a sweeping patio overlooking the golf course at his private club in Bedminster, N.J., former President Donald J. Trump dined Sunday night with a close political ally, Marjorie Taylor Greene. It was a chance for the former president to catch up with the hard-right Georgia congresswoman. But over halibut and Diet Cokes, Ms. Greene […]
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Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday directed top congressional Republicans to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, reversing his previous stance that such an investigation should be initiated only with a vote of the House. In doing so, Mr. McCarthy leveled a series of accusations against Mr. Biden that he said amounted to a “picture […]
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There is a certain pattern to modern impeachment inquiries. They typically begin after the discovery of blatantly incriminating evidence. In 1998 the House of Representatives began its impeachment inquiry only after DNA tests on Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress exposed that Bill Clinton had lied under oath about their affair. In 2019 the House opened its […]
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From the start, the courtroom drama in the impeachment trial of Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, has centered on a confrontation between the larger-than-life Houston lawyers brought in by each side to argue the case. In Mr. Paxton’s corner, there is Tony Buzbee, a well-tanned orator and onetime candidate for mayor of Houston, who […]
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Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday directed top congressional Republicans to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, blowing past G.O.P. divisions as he worked to appease far-right lawmakers who have threatened to oust him amid a pitched fight over spending. Mr. McCarthy said he would task three committees — Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means […]
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Unfortunately, even despite Canady’s refusal to recuse himself, the rest of the court does not offer much more hope. Another justice, Meredith Sasso, is married to DeSantis loyalist Michael Sasso. DeSantis appointed Michael Sasso as vice chairman of the controversial Disney oversight board. Sasso resigned in May, although he did not explain why. While the […]
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Unfortunately, even despite Canady’s refusal to recuse himself, the rest of the court does not offer much more hope. Another justice, Meredith Sasso, is married to DeSantis loyalist Michael Sasso. DeSantis appointed Michael Sasso as vice chairman of the controversial Disney oversight board. Sasso resigned in May, although he did not explain why. While the […]
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