Democrats Consider Changes to US Senate Filibuster Rule

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U.S. President Joe Biden was a longtime supporter of the Senate supermajority rule known as the filibuster, but with the chamber’s Republican minority blocking parts of his agenda, the former senator said this week he is open to altering the rule in order to try to enact voting rights legislation. The 100-member Senate is currently divided evenly between members who caucus with Biden’s Democratic Party and members of the Republican Party. Democrats can pass bills using the tiebreaker vote Vice President Kamala Harris can cast when necessary. But before a bill can be put to a simple majority vote, theremore

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January 6 Panel Requests Interview With Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy

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The House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection requested an interview and records from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday, shifting their investigation to a top ally of former President Donald Trump in Congress.  Representative Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, requested that McCarthy provide information to the nine-member panel regarding the violence that took place last January and his communications with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the days prior to the attack. “We also must learn about how the President’s plans for January 6th came together, and all the other ways he attemptedmore

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White House Urges Continued Mitigation Efforts Amid Omicron Surge

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The White House COVID-19 response team on Wednesday reminded Americans of the continued need to slow the omicron variant’s spread despite its decreased severity and announced new efforts to help keep schools open. As the omicron variant sweeps across the U.S., Dr. Rochelle Walensky emphasized that wearing masks, getting vaccinated and undergoing COVID-19 testing when necessary are the best strategies to help lower cases of the virus. Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the omicron variant accounted for 98% of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Earlier this week, the U.S. set a recordmore

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Amid Partisan Rancor, US Looks to 2022 Midterm Elections

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As of Wednesday, there were 300 days until the next federal election in the U.S., when voters will cast ballots for all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the members of the Senate, with enormous consequences for the second half of President Joe Biden’s four-year term in office.    While it may seem to people outside Washington that it’s too soon to begin thinking about an election that far away, there is little question that key figures in Washington are already weighing their every move with an eye on how it might affect voters’ feelingsmore

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Former Senate Leader Harry Reid to Lie in State at Capitol

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Former Sen. Harry Reid will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol as colleagues and friends pay tribute to a hardscrabble Democrat who rose from poverty in a dusty Nevada mining town to the most powerful position in the U.S. Senate.  Reid will be honored Wednesday in the Capitol Rotunda during a ceremony closed to the public under COVID-19 protocols. He died last month at 82 after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer.  The longest-serving Nevadan in Congress and the Senate majority leader alongside two presidents, Reid helmed the chamber during one of its more consequential legislative sessions — securing themore

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Biden Pushes Voting Rights Legislation Ahead of Vote

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President Joe Biden is pushing legislation to prevent states from imposing laws that limit access to the vote, arguing that voting rights are a bedrock American value and need to be better protected. His Republican opponents want states to support more rigorous voter identification and ballot security measures to prevent voter fraud. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House. Produced: Bakhtiyar Zamanov  …

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January 6 Committee Subpoenas Trump Aide, 2 Republican Strategists 

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The House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection is demanding records and testimony from a former White House aide they say helped draft former President Donald Trump’s January 6 speech, along with two others it says were in communication with people close to Trump. Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, issued subpoenas on Tuesday to Andy Surabian and Arthur Schwartz, strategists who advised Donald Trump Jr., and Ross Worthington, a former White House official who the committee says helped draft the speech Trump gave at the rally directly preceding last year’s attack. “We have reason to believemore

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Biden Supports Changing Senate Rules to Pass Voting Rights Bills

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U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were in the southern state of Georgia on Tuesday to promote voting rights legislation that would greatly expand federal influence over elections.  The two bills are a top priority for many Democrats but have stalled in the Senate because of Republican opposition.  “Today, we come to Atlanta, the cradle of civil rights, to make clear what must come after that dreadful day when a dagger was literally held at the throat of American democracy,” Biden said, invoking the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former Presidentmore

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Biden to Push for Voting Rights Measures

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U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are headed Tuesday to the southern state of Georgia to promote voting rights legislation that would greatly expand federal purview over elections but has stalled in the Senate.  A White House official said Biden would use an address to advocate for the right to vote in free, fair and secure elections untainted by partisan manipulation, and say that the way to guarantee those rights is by enacting two pieces of voting legislation introduced by Democrats.  “The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning pointmore

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Prospects Dim as US, Russia Prepare to Meet Over Ukraine

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With the fate of Ukraine and potentially broader post-Cold War European stability at stake, the United States and Russia are holding critical strategic talks that could shape the future of not only their relationship but the relationship between the U.S. and its NATO allies. Prospects are bleak. Though the immediacy of the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine will top the agenda in a series of high-level meetings that get underway on Monday, there is a litany of festering but largely unrelated disputes, ranging from arms control to cybercrime and diplomatic issues, for Washington and Moscow to overcome ifmore

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Harry Reid Memorial in Vegas Drawing Nation’s Top Democrats

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The life of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who rose from childhood poverty and deprivation in Nevada to become one of the nation’s most powerful elected officials, will be celebrated by two American presidents and other Democratic leaders on Saturday, a testament to his impact on some of the most consequential legislation of the 21st century. President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are scheduled to speak Saturday during an invitation-only memorial for the longtime Senate leader who died Dec. 28 at home in Henderson, Nevada, at age 82 of complications from pancreaticmore

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Silence Marks First Anniversary of January 6 Capitol Riot 

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The one-year anniversary of the first attack on the U.S. Capitol in two centuries passed in silence Thursday as differences between congressional Democrats and Republicans about the deadly riot were on stark display.  Over the past year, the events of January 6, 2021, have furthered the divide between Democrats who see the day as an attempted coup and Republicans who have largely chosen not to discuss what happened beyond addressing security failures at the Capitol.  Former Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise appearance in the U.S. House chamber, sharing the somber moment with his daughter Representative Liz Cheney. Andmore

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On Anniversary of Capitol Siege, Biden Lays Blame on Trump

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On the first anniversary of the deadly January 6 Capitol riot, U.S. President Joe Biden delivered a forceful speech in defense of American democracy. He laid blame for the insurrection squarely on former President Donald Trump and Republicans who continue to spread the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports. …

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WATCH: Biden Speaks on Anniversary of Capitol Attack

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U.S. President Joe Biden will use the first anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot to speak bluntly about the impact of the shocking event — and to lay responsibility at the feet of former President Donald Trump, the White House said Wednesday.  WATCH LIVE:   In an excerpt released ahead of the address, Biden says the United States “must decide what kind of nation we are going to be.”  “Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn themore

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The Global Legacy of January 6

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Thirty years ago, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, American political scientist Francis Fukuyama wrote in his essay “The End of History?” that the U.S. liberal democracy epitomized the endpoint of humanity’s sociocultural evolution, the superior and final form of government. But one year after the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, Fukuyama — now a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies — says that the example of America as a global beacon of democracy is deeply tarnished. “The U.S. could not effect a peaceful transfer of powermore

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Remorse, Indignation From Those Sentenced in Capitol Attack

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More than 725 people have been arrested since last year’s January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that was aimed at overturning Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. One year later, some of the rioters who have been sentenced for a variety of crimes are speaking out about that day and their actions. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti has our story. Camera: Mike Burke. Contributors: Lynn Davis, Bojan Klima. …

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One Year After the Capitol Riot, Many Americans See US Democracy in Peril 

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For just a moment, immediately following the January 6 assault on the United States Capitol last year, it was possible to imagine that the events of that day would shock the country back to political normalcy.    In the hours after the mob of insurrectionists, spurred on by false assertions from former President Donald Trump about a stolen election, was driven from the Capitol, it was possible to imagine that the shocking scenes of violence in the seat of the American government would force the country to reassess what counts as acceptable political discourse.   It was possible to imagine thatmore

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Biden Pushed to Speak Out More as US Democracy Concerns Grow

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President Joe Biden has gotten the same troubling questions from worried world leaders, ones that he never thought he would hear.  “Is America going to be all right?” they ask. “What about democracy in America?” While Biden has tried to offer America’s allies assurances, he has only occasionally emphasized the gravity of the threat to democracy from the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the repeated lie from the man he defeated, Donald Trump, that the 2020 election was stolen. And he’s not discussed the very real concerns about a growing collection of insurrection sympathizers installed in localmore

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Biden to Speak on Anniversary of Capitol Attack

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U.S. President Joe Biden is set to speak Thursday about the historical significance of last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump.  The address, on the one-year anniversary of the assault, will feature Biden speaking from the Capitol’s Statuary Hall along with Vice President Kamala Harris.  “The president is going to speak to the truth of what happened, not the lies that some have spread since and the peril it has posed to the rule of law and our system of democratic governance,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a Tuesdaymore

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January 6 Panel Seeks Interview with Fox News Host Sean Hannity

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The House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection on Tuesday requested an interview with Fox News personality Sean Hannity, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies in the media, as the committee continues to widen its scope. In a letter to Hannity, Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel wants to question him regarding his communications with former President Donald Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others in Trump’s orbit in the days surrounding the insurrection. A Fox News spokesperson declined to comment on the request. Jaymore

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Hundreds Await Trial for Role in Capitol Insurrection

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One a year after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, hundreds of people are still awaiting trial for their alleged role in the riot, while 155 others have pleaded guilty. As VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, the pending cases are just one part of the effort to hold responsible parties accountable for the attack. Produced by: Katherine Gypson …

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Trump Cancels Florida Press Conference Scheduled for January 6 

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Former President Donald Trump has canceled the press conference he planned to hold in Florida on Thursday, the anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters.  Trump said in a statement Tuesday evening that he would instead discuss his grievances at a rally he had planned for Arizona later this month.  Trump had been expected to use the press conference to repeat his false statements about the 2020 election and rail against the congressional committee investigating the events of January 6, when a mob of his supporters violently stormed the Capitol to halt the peaceful transfermore

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Schumer: Senate to Vote on Filibuster Change on Voting Bill

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Days before the anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the Senate will vote soon on easing filibuster rules in an effort to advance stalled voting legislation that Democrats say is needed to protect America’s democracy.  In a letter Monday to colleagues, Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said the Senate “must evolve” and will “debate and consider” the rule changes by January 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as the Democrats seek to overcome Republican opposition to their elections law package.  “Let me be clear: January 6th was a symptom of amore

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