National Politics

By Aaron Pellish Republican Virginia Lt. Gov.-elect Winsome Sears on Sunday refused to say whether she’d received the Covid-19 vaccine while repeating a series of falsehoods and misconceptions about the vaccines and infections. Sears, who did not reveal her vaccination status during her successful campaign for the second-highest seat in Virginia, told CNN’s Dana Bash

By Donald Judd, CNN Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday tried to tamp down the idea that he and Vice President Kamala Harris are starting to quietly compete to be the future standard-bearer of the Democratic Party, saying their focuses are on their roles in the nearly year-old Biden administration. The comments from Buttigieg, who

By Chandelis Duster, CNN Winsome Sears, Virginia’s lieutenant governor-elect, expressed the importance of rural broadband access and her concerns over how funds allocated for broadband access in the newly signed infrastructure law would help Virginians, especially in the southwestern part of the state. “Well, it depends on what else comes with it. … Do we

By Aaron Pellish Beto O’Rourke, who announced his campaign for Texas governor last week, declined to invite President Joe Biden to campaign alongside him, pushing a message of nonpartisan unity in his upcoming bid for the highest office in Texas. O’Rourke said his campaign is “not going to be about anyone from outside of our

By Katie Lobosco, CNN Jamie Ritter can’t connect to the internet from his home in Denmark, Maine, which is at the end of a road, down a dirt driveway and too far away from existing infrastructure. He’s been shepherding a community effort to bring broadband to Maine’s lake region for more than a year. The

By Josh Campbell An Arizona man has been found guilty by a jury of communicating an interstate threat to kill or harm House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Justice Department announced Friday. According to federal prosecutors, Steven Arthur Martis, 77, of Bullhead City, Arizona, called the California Democrat’s office on January 17, 2021, and left two

By Daniel Dale and Tara Subramaniam, CNN House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy gave the longest House floor speech in US history on Thursday night and Friday morning — an 8-hour, 32-minute address that delayed the passage of a $1.9 trillion Democratic bill to expand the social safety net and fight the climate crisis. The House

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN The US Senate unanimously approved Charles “Chuck” Sams III this week to be National Park Service’s 19th director, which will end a nearly five-year lapse in leadership at the agency. The Senate confirmed Sams by voice vote on Thursday to lead the agency charged with preserving America’s national parks, monuments and

By Daniella Diaz, CNN Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas announced her retirement Saturday afternoon after serving nearly 30 years in Congress, according to a statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi said in a statement Saturday that Johnson is “a dedicated and highly effective leader on behalf of Dallas area families and the

By Oren Liebermann and Ellie Kaufman, CNN A senior Pentagon official warned the US military is “not ready” to handle climate change, a national security issue that touches nearly every aspect of Defense Department planning. “We are not where we should be, and now is beyond the time when we need to get in front

By Tami Luhby, CNN While Senate Democrats negotiate what to include in the party’s sweeping $1.9 trillion budget reconciliation package, the price of almost everything is on the rise — or at least feels like it is. The legislation seeks to upgrade the nation’s social safety net by extending several coronavirus relief programs and by

By Donald Judd, CNN President Joe Biden marked Transgender Day of Remembrance in a statement Saturday, paying tribute to “those we lost in the deadliest year on record for transgender Americans.” In a statement shared with CNN, Biden also remembered “the countless other transgender people — disproportionately Black and brown transgender women and girls —

By Shawna Mizelle, CNN Sirius XM radio host Joe Madison, who is engaged in a hunger strike over what he has called a “politically and morally wrong” attack on voting rights, told CNN on Friday that he wants lawmakers to put voting rights “on the front burner” when they return from their Thanksgiving recess. Madison’s