From a looming government shutdown and another major spending bill to voter ID laws, permitting reform and the fight over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Matt Delaney looks at what's at stake in Congress's final weeks of Republican control following the 2026 midterms.
On the morning of a Laguna Pueblo village's annual Feast Day, Ashley Sarracino knelt in her family home holding clothespins between her teeth. She straightened her niece's black cotton manta, a traditional one-shouldered dress, and tied a sash around her waist.
Alaska voters have elected a Democrat for governor for the first time since 1998, part of a national midterm elections wave that gave the party sweeping wins in state governments across the country.
House Democrats are steaming after 11 colleagues missed a vote to impeach Pete Hegseth, allowing the Defense secretary’s Republican allies to defeat the measure this week. The debacle is leading to new calls for Democrats to tighten the ship when it comes to demanding attendance for floor votes. And it’s providing new fuel to a...
Palantir CEO Alex Karp revealed he has been criticizing President Trump “in private” over his handling of immigration and the administration detaining a record number of people throughout the summer. "Well, I'm really happy to hear the president, you know, in his words: ‘yeah, we kind of went too far," Karp told Politico’s Adam Wren....
Ohio Republicans passed legislation Tuesday easing restrictions on silencers and short-barreled firearms, moving to roll back certain state gun laws just days after Democrats swept last week’s midterm elections. The measure, which includes loosening rules on “sawed-off shotguns,” passed both chambers of the Republican-controlled legislature largely along party lines and is now awaiting the signature...
Democrats admit they fumbled Tuesday when they allowed House Republicans to block an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Now the question is whether the embarrassing misfire can be chalked up to one-off disorganization or is symptomatic of a larger problem. Among progressives, irritation goes beyond the specifics of the failure of the Hegseth...
Advocates for transgender Americans are trying to pick up the pieces and move forward after suffering significant defeats at the ballot box even amid last week's historic blue wave. Arizona, Nebraska, Washington and Colorado all passed measures seeking to bar transgender women and girls from female sports teams, showing troubles for trans rights even...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's relationship with an alleged Chinese spy is putting a microscope on the company's influence on AI chip policy in Washington and throwing new momentum behind a trio of bills aiming to place restrictions on chip sales abroad. Huang's disclosure of his affair with a Chinese businessperson, who U.S. officials concluded was...
Democrats on Capitol Hill are vowing to probe major banks with ties to deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein once their new congressional majorities become official in January. Those investigations, Democrats say, will provide insight into whether executives at financial institutions, such as JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America, were aware of or...
House Republicans on Tuesday tapped Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to lead their diminished conference in the next Congress, betting that a conservative spitfire — and onetime leadership nemesis — can restore the fight to a party battered by the midterms and scrambling for a path back to power. In brief comments right out of the...
Republicans and Democrats are showing rare unity in their calls for investigations into whether Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang compromised U.S. national security after admitting he had an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. The revelation surfaces a host of concerns that cut across committees related to intelligence, foreign relations and banking and finance, diving deep...
Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) said Tuesday she is “considering” challenging Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) in 2028, as more Democrats weigh bids to unseat the incumbent. “I’m going to be considering it,” Dean said in an interview with Politico. “I have been concerned about, really, two things, which is his family and his health … and...
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) said Tuesday that she and other lawmakers were unable to reach the Capitol in time to vote against a Republican effort to block the impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth because of a traffic incident and a police escort. “Like other Members of Congress, Rep. Stansbury was blocked from entering the...
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is urging the incoming Congress to impeach Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr, accusing him of undermining press freedom by punishing news outlets critical of President Trump and his administration. The organization, which advocates for journalists worldwide, claimed Carr has repeatedly used the FCC’s regulatory authority to pursue politically motivated...
The Senate further advanced a major infrastructure and energy bill Tuesday night, moving it one step closer to the finish line in the upper chamber. The bill — which seeks to speed up the buildout of energy and other projects while curtailing environmental challenges — advanced in a procedural vote 62-21, just one day after...
The Kennedy family has jumped into a legal battle against President Trump’s proposed arch. In a Monday court filing in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, members of the Kennedy family requested that the court bar the Trump administration “from taking any steps to approve, authorize, or construct the Arch absent...
