The latest political battle over the Supreme Court is not about filling an open seat, but about how many seats there should be. Several Democratic lawmakers in Congress have introduced legislation to expand the court to 13 justices, up from its current nine. One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., told PolitiFact that […]
Confused by what people are saying about H.R. 1, the hotly contested voting and elections bill? We can’t blame you. The 791-page Democratic-backed bill — which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on a mostly party-line vote and awaits action in the Senate — is complex and wide-ranging. It combines proposals for voter registration, absentee […]
President Joe Biden blamed Donald Trump for the surge of migrants at the southwest border, saying his predecessor dismantled the country’s immigration system and failed to provide enough beds for child migrants. At the first press conference of his presidency, Biden downplayed the number of migrants crossing the border, saying past years had seen similar […]
In recent years, it’s been rare to see prosecutors file sedition charges. But there are signs that participants in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot could face such charges in the coming months. Michael R. Sherwin, the federal prosecutor who until recently led the Justice Department’s investigation into the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, […]
One of the most common Republican criticisms of President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, even after it passed, was that the $1.9 trillion spending plan discriminates against states that reopened their economies relatively early on. In a March 14 appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said that Biden’s relief bill “punished the […]
Hours after President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, he gave his first prime-time presidential address to mark the anniversary of shutdowns across the nation — and to give Americans hope that the pandemic-era losses would soon come to an end. “This country will be vaccinated soon,” Biden said. “Our economy will […]
Tens of millions of Americans who have received their COVID-19 vaccines can now entertain the prospect of boldly going places, seeing people and doing things again, even if a return to normal life remains a ways off. The first set of public health recommendations for vaccinated people, released March 8 by the U.S. Centers for […]
Democrats are nursing a razor-thin majority in the Senate, and they’ve increasingly blamed the filibuster — a tool a minority can use to stall a bill unless 60 senators vote to take up the measure — for bottling up new legislation in the Senate. So Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., historically a defender of the filibuster, […]
Ever since the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, lawmakers have been trying to get to the bottom of what exactly happened on that day. A Senate hearing on March 3 focused on why it took National Guard troops so long to arrive on scene after the Capitol Police requested assistance. The bipartisan hearing featured […]
A recent Facebook post offered a hopeful scenario for supporters of former President Donald Trump: It laid out a plan by which Trump could be president again in 2023, and then run again in 2024. The Feb. 25 post offered a photograph of a smiling Trump at a lectern in the White House, with the […]
There’s been chatter online recently about the recent spike in gasoline prices — and whether President Joe Biden is to blame. One Facebook post features a photograph of Biden with the caption, “Gas prices going up? How do you like me now?” Figure 1: Biden gas meme 1 Another Facebook post uses a different picture […]
President Joe Biden and others in his administration have said it repeatedly and definitively: Pass the coronavirus relief bill and child poverty will be cut in half. Biden said it on Feb. 23, when he hosted Black essential workers for a roundtable at the White House. Referring to the refundable child tax credit that’s part […]