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Harris to start ‘regular’ lunches with Blinken in bid to beef up foreign policy chops

Vice President Kamala Harris will have her first private lunch with Secretary of State Antony Blinken Wednesday, meetings that are expected to continue with regularity, according to two administration officials. The meetings, which will be worked around their schedules and Covid-19 regulations, continue a tradition of vice presidents in close collaboration with their administration’s secretary

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Investigation opened into Trump’s attempt to influence the Georgia 2020 election

A prosecutor in Fulton County, Georgia, has opened a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump for his “attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia general election.” In a letter sent Wednesday to numerous Georgia state election officials, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis requested that they

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House stimulus bill would expand eligibility for Affordable Care Act subsidies

The latest House coronavirus relief legislation would make more people eligible for Affordable Care Act subsidies for two years, temporarily fulfilling one of President Joe Biden’s campaign promises. The bill, introduced this week by House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Richard Neal, would make the federal premium subsidy more generous and would eliminate the

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Warner and Rubio urge Biden administration to designate a leader on SolarWinds hack response

The top lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee urged the Biden administration on Tuesday to designate a leader to address the US government response to the massive hacking campaign that targeted government agencies and private-sector companies. “The federal government’s response so far has lacked the leadership and coordination warranted by a significant cyber event,” wrote

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Defense Dept. failing to track and prevent sexual harassment and assault of civilian workforce, watchdog warns

The Department of Defense has failed to adequately track and prevent cases of sexual harassment and sexual assault involving its civilian workforce, the Government Accountability Office is warning in a new report, despite taking such measures for service members. The department’s guidance on sexual harassment and assault “only captures a fraction of reported incidents involving

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House managers to make a visceral case against Trump on Wednesday

The House impeachment managers begin their two-day presentation Wednesday looking to convince skeptical Republican senators that former President Donald Trump was responsible for the deadly January 6 riot at the US Capitol where insurrectionists attacked the Capitol and disrupted the peaceful transfer of power. House Democrats’ previewed their case against Trump on the trial’s opening

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This impeachment trial could surprise us

Now that Donald Trump and his defenders have failed (again) to persuade the Senate that an ex-president cannot be impeached, the trial of the former president will begin in earnest. The House managers who foreshadowed their opening argument on Tuesday and will present it in full on Wednesday and Thursday have the best of the

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Why Trump’s defense team failed miserably

The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump got underway on Tuesday with arguments about whether the US Senate has jurisdiction to try the former president now that he has left office. Most legal scholars, regardless of political ideology, believe it does. But impeachment is a political rather than a legal process, so a debate and

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Bill Cassidy joins five other Republican senators who broke ranks to vote that Trump’s impeachment trial is constitutional

Six Republicans joined all of their Democratic colleagues on Tuesday to vote that the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump is constitutional, with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy emerging as the sole Republican to switch his vote after an initial vote on constitutionality last month. The 56-44 final vote marked the closing chapter of Tuesday’s

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Merrick Garland, Biden’s pick for attorney general, has confirmation hearing set for February 22

President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, Judge Merrick Garland, is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 22 and 23 for his confirmation hearing. The dates were announced by Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, who said in a joint news release that the committee will vote

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