In a new interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, parts of which were released on Wednesday evening, Donald Trump announced his willingness to betray and subvert American democracy, again. Asked what he would do if he were offered foreign dirt on an opponent in 2020, he said he’d take it, and pooh-poohed the idea of […]
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WASHINGTON — Last week, a group of freshman Democrats — primarily from districts long held by Republicans — approached the House majority leader with a seemingly odd demand: Block our pay raises. It has been 10 years since members of Congress have gotten even a cost-of-living increase, and the leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of […]
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Washington shocker: With overwhelming bipartisan support and little public attention, the House of Representatives recently passed the most significant reforms to individual retirement accounts in more than a decade. But while support in the Senate is also strong and bipartisan, a few recalcitrant Republicans, notably Ted Cruz of Texas, are threatening to hold up passage […]
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If the triumph of Trumpism is the most important recent development in American political history, then the second most important is the mobilization of liberal and left-wing voters to challenge the president’s authoritarian politics. This mobilization drove the Women’s March, where a day after Trump’s inauguration, hundreds of thousands came to Washington to protest against […]
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Polling outfits routinely ask historians and political scientists to rate the presidents from worst to best. It’s an inherently frustrating exercise. Does “greatness” depend on what a chief executive accomplished or instead on his ability to bend Congress to his will and influence his successors? How should we evaluate a president like Lyndon Johnson, who […]
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In the past year, Congress has been happy to drag tech C.E.O.s into hearings and question them about how they vacuum up and exploit personal information about their users. But so far those hearings haven’t amounted to much more than talk. Lawmakers have yet to do their job and rewrite the law to ensure that […]
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Members of Congress have several major decisions to make after the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Whether to pursue an impeachment inquiry is the one that’s gotten the most attention — and reasonable people can disagree about that. But Mr. Mueller’s findings leave no room for debate about the […]
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Now we know. The Democratic Party establishment in Washington really believes it is going to get away with running another round of presidential primaries in which the climate crisis is basically hidden in the attic. The proof came this week, when the Democratic National Committee informed one of the candidates, Jay Inslee, that it had […]
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Congressional Republicans have suggested that they might join Democrats in pushing back against President Trump’s vow to use emergency powers to impose a sharp tax increase on Americans when they buy Mexican goods, unless and until the Mexican government does more to stop migrants from reaching and illegally crossing the American border. Mr. Trump’s threat […]
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O.K., throwing this one at you without warning: What’s your opinion of Mitch McConnell? A) Spawn of Satan. B) Sort of pitiful, what with having Donald Trump on his back. C) Can we talk about how he looks like a turtle? Definitely not the last one. It’s true that many Americans think of McConnell as […]
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In 2017, Donald Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA — the Obama administration program that granted a reprieve from deportation to many Dreamers, immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children. At the time, the president issued a challenge on Twitter: “Congress, get ready to do your job.” […]
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It’s early, but this much is true: Elizabeth Warren is running the most impressive presidential campaign in ages, certainly the most impressive campaign within my lifetime. I don’t mean that the Massachusetts senator is a better speaker than anyone who has ever run, nor a more strident revolutionary, nor as charismatic a shaper of her […]
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WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence and other top administration officials will meet Wednesday with Mexico’s top diplomat as both sides try to avert the potentially crippling economic consequences of President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports. Mr. Trump has vowed to impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico […]
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WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence will meet Wednesday with Mexico’s foreign minister as officials on both sides of the border try to avert the potentially crippling economic consequences of President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports. Mr. Trump has vowed to impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico […]
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WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators will try to force nearly two dozen votes rebuking the Trump administration’s decision to declare a national emergency to circumvent Congress and sell billions of dollars of munitions to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The legislation, led by Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the top […]
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The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was recently asked if Congress sees itself as the equal of the presidency in sharp conflicts between the legislative and executive branches. “I think we’re a superior branch,” Ms. Pelosi answered. This drew rebukes from, among others, Rudy Giuliani, who tweeted, “Thank you for the help in convincing a court […]
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ALBANY — The conflict over New York City’s rent laws turned raucous on Tuesday as hundreds of tenant activists flooded the State Capitol, leading to scuffles and dozens of arrests. For months, activists have cast a looming rewrite of New York’s rent laws as a once-in-a-generation battle. The state law that regulates almost one million […]
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LONDON — President Trump on Tuesday said he plans to move forward with imposing tariffs on Mexican imports next week as part of his effort to stem the flow of migrants crossing the southern border, and he called Republican senators “foolish” if they try to stop him. Mr. Trump made the remarks at a news […]
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A Long Island man who threatened to kill two United States senators in retaliation for their support for Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison. The man, Ronald DeRisi, 75, of Smithtown, N.Y., left multiple expletive-laden voice mail messages at the offices of the senators and […]
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WASHINGTON — Averting a potentially devastating default on the nation’s debt, preventing more than $100 billion in automatic spending cuts and keeping the government fully funded would be major tasks in any Congress. In this one, they may be herculean. As lawmakers return to Washington on Monday, they confront a gantlet of fiscal deadlines, and […]
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