Political News

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and diplomat Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, spoke at a virtual discussion convened by the think tank in the week before the U.S. presidential election about the... Read More

WASHINGTON — Americans rely on public infrastructure like buildings, roads, bridges, and power supply lines every day. Some of the groundworks needed to operate society are handled by the federal government, some maintained by states, and a large portion owned... Read More

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court Monday evening, marking the first time in 151 years that a justice was confirmed without the support of a single member of the minority party. Shortly afterward,... Read More

ATLANTA — The race for president in Georgia is deadlocked in the final week of the campaign, with President Donald Trump and Joe Biden in a statistical tie in a state that hasn't voted Democratic for president since 1992. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll of likely voters released Monday showed... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to extend the Election Day deadline for mail ballots in Wisconsin, rejecting appeals from Democrats who said the Postal Service may not be able handle the flood of election mail by Nov. 3. The justices by a 5-3 vote left in place a... Read More

WASHINGTON — Delivery by the U.S. Postal Service remains slow despite the intervention of federal judges and some voting advocates say ballots not in the mail now may not arrive in time to be counted and should instead be dropped off at voting... Read More

WASHINGTON — The American electorate, often apathetic and cynical about politics, is experiencing a great awakening, with the 2020 election inspiring extraordinary levels of engagement in both parties. People are enduring hours-long lines to cast ballots, early voting is shattering records,... Read More

WASHINGTON — Senators prepared to leave town Monday night for their October recess with virtually no prospect of passing new COVID-19 aid legislation before the Nov. 3 elections. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke by phone for 52 minutes on Monday in what has... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday denied President Donald Trump's request that the United States replace him as the defendant in a defamation lawsuit alleging he raped a woman in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has his eye on hosting an election night party at his own hotel in the nation’s capital. Over the past several days, the campaign has pushed out fundraising emails in the president’s name offering... Read More

RICHMOND, Va, - Virginia’s General Assembly passed a jury sentencing reform bill this week that is revolutionary for the state but is already being done nearly everywhere else. The bill allows juries to decide whether a criminal defendant is guilty... Read More

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber could pass a pandemic relief plan this week, though a deal with the White House remains elusive and the Republican-led Senate might not act before the Nov. 3 U.S. election. Pelosi and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows accused each other of "moving the... Read More

President Donald Trump was in his element. Standing before more than 1,000 supporters who had jammed a large hanger facility at Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon, Ga., he promised a "red wave" would crush Democrats in November. He had... Read More

Yesterday, Reps. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and Michael Waltz, R-Fla., sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray, National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe and Attorney General Bill Barr requesting an official briefing on Russian and Iranian interference... Read More

WASHINGTON — Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, made an appearance at the National Association of Counties’ Virtual Policy Summit to explain her current prioritization of developing a critical understanding of virus spread on... Read More

This week, the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank based in Washington, D.C, hosted Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. and Dave Joyce, R-Ohio,  for a discussion of rural broadband access in connection with telehealth and education. The discussion was part of... Read More

WASHINGTON — States that claim changes by the U.S. Postal Service will threaten mail-in voting failed again to get an independent monitor appointed to observe the agency's compliance with a court order. U.S. District Judge Gerald Austin McHugh in Philadelphia on Wednesday denied a request from Pennsylvania's attorney general, Josh... Read More

WASHINGTON — Likely everyone has a personal opinion on the outcome of the upcoming election, but not many are as in-tune with the ins and outs of the current — and historic — political climate as the analysts brought together... Read More

Gallup has released a new survey showing President Trump’s job approval rating at 43.3%, marking one of the lowest approval ratings for an incumbent during his 15th quarter in office. The Gallup poll comes ahead of the last presidential debate... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court put the brakes on a lower court order that would have allowed curbside voting in Alabama in November. The underlying lawsuit was filed by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Southern Poverty Law... Read More

WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee voted to subpoena the chief executives of Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. Thursday over what its chairman called censorship of information potentially embarrassing to presidential candidate Joe Biden. The social media giants limited the sharing... Read More

WASHINGTON - Consider it another sign of an increasing partisan divide -- heading into the final week of the 2020 election cycle, only 4% of registered voters in states with a Senate contest say they will support Donald Trump or... Read More

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday approved the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court, nearly guaranteeing she will be confirmed by a vote of the full Republican-controlled Senate. “How could anybody in their right... Read More

WASHINGTON - The GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to advance the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the full Senate, despite a Democratic boycott on the hearing. The 12-0 vote by the committee virtually assures... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Senate's escalating partisan tug-of-war over judicial confirmations has frayed relationships in the chamber for decades, but Thursday's committee vote on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett threatens to sever the rope. The vote is expected to unfold as it did for previous judicial nominees... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Amtrak’s president asked Congress for a nearly $5 billion bailout Wednesday as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to scare passengers away. The result has been a dramatic drop in fare revenue, furloughs and layoffs for thousands of workers and... Read More

WASHINGTON – Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., introduced a bill in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support that would guarantee access to the future novel coronavirus vaccine at no cost to Medicare beneficiaries. The bill, entitled the “Securing Affordable Vaccines... Read More

Public skepticism about coronavirus vaccines and enthusiasm on the right for so-called herd immunity are colliding as the U.S. outbreak is worsening, developments that could dash hopes for containing COVID-19 in the months ahead. Herd immunity aims instead to expose more people... Read More

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. - In the final throes of an increasingly daunting reelection campaign, President Donald Trump is revving up his rally schedule and whipping his supporters into a frenzy with the type of nonstop outrage that helped make him the most... Read More

WASHINGTON - Amid ongoing COVID-19 economic aid negotiations and the approaching election, the Senate shot down on Tuesday a standalone measure authorizing a second round of forgivable loans to small businesses. Republicans were unified in their attempt to push forward the bill while nearly... Read More