Biden Says He Doesn’t Know What’s in Classified Documents

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President Joe Biden said he was “surprised” to learn his lawyers found government records in his former office at a Washington think tank and said he does not know what information is contained in the classified documents. “My lawyers have not suggested I asked what documents they were. I’ve turned over the boxes — they’ve turned over the boxes to the [National] Archives, and we’re cooperating fully with the review, which I hope will be finished soon and will be more detail at that time,” Biden said at a press conference in Mexico City with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopezmore

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House GOP Kicks Off Majority With Vote to Slash IRS Funding

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House Republicans began their tenure in the majority Monday by passing a bill that would rescind nearly $71 billion that Congress had provided the IRS, fulfilling a campaign promise even though the legislation is unlikely to advance further. Democrats had beefed up the IRS over the next decade to help offset the cost of top health and environmental priorities they passed last year and to replenish an agency struggling to provide basic services to taxpayers and ensure fairness in tax compliance. The money is on top of what Congress provides the IRS annually through the appropriations process and immediately becamemore

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US House Adopts Rules Sought by Hardliners to Control McCarthy

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The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Monday adopted a package of internal rules that give right-wing hardliners more leverage over the chamber’s newly elected Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy.    Lawmakers voted 220-213 to approve the legislation. One Republican, Representative Tony Gonzales, joined all 212 Democrats in voting against the rules package. Another Republican did not vote.    The rules package, which will govern House operations over the next two years, represented an early test of McCarthy’s ability to keep his caucus together, after he suffered the humiliation of 14 failed ballots last week before finally being elected speaker on Saturday.    Themore

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Meet the Clerk Who Kept Order While the House Chose Its Leader

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Standing up to nominate Rep. Byron Donalds for House speaker, Republican Rep. Chip Roy addressed the woman presiding over the chamber as “Madam speaker.” The third-term congressman quickly corrected himself. “Madam clerk,” he acknowledged with a smile. The flub, coming on the second day of voting, illustrated the rising stature of House clerk Cheryl Johnson, a central figure in the drama that became a dayslong effort to select a speaker. Round by round, she called for the start of each vote and announced at the end that, once again, no speaker had been elected. That is, until early Saturday morning,more

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McCarthy Finally Wins US House Speakership

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It took 15 tries and five days, but California Congressman Kevin McCarthy has been elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. After the 14th ballot there was a move to adjourn until Monday, but that vote also failed after Republicans changed tactics and decided on a 15th effort to elect a new leader. A band of 20 right-wing lawmakers had blocked McCarthy on previous ballots because they believe he is not conservative enough. In an unusual confrontation, McCarthy had exchanged words with Republican Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida on the floor of the house chamber after the 14th ballotmore

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House Republicans Hold 14th Vote on House Speaker 

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The U.S. House of Representatives has failed on a 14th ballot to elect a new speaker. A band of 20 right-wing lawmakers has successfully blocked California Congressman Kevin McCarthy over four days of voting from becoming speaker because they believe he is not conservative enough. McCarthy gained backing earlier Friday from 15 of the holdouts, coming up just a few votes short of the majority he needs to win the speakership. He must receive 218 votes to win the job, if all 434 current members of the House vote. McCarthy’s path to winning depends on how many lawmakers are presentmore

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Selection of Next US House Speaker Moves to 3rd Day

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After two days of deadlock, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will try again Thursday to agree on who should be the next speaker of the House.  Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid floundered Wednesday when, for a second day, a group of conservative lawmakers withheld crucial support in multiple rounds of voting.         McCarthy, a 16-year lawmaker from California and the House Republican leader in the session of Congress that ended Tuesday, has long sought to become speaker. But he lost three votes on Tuesday in his quest for a 218-vote majority in the 435-member chamber, and he failed inmore

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House Speaker Race May Complicate New Session of US Congress

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The 118th session of the U.S. Congress opens Tuesday with all attention focused on whether Congressman Kevin McCarthy of California can secure enough votes from his fellow Republicans to become the speaker of the House of Representatives and second in line to the U.S. presidency. The 57-year-old McCarthy, who for years has sought to lead the 435-member House, is now tantalizingly close to winning the speakership yet not quite assured of securing the 218-vote majority he needs. Republicans won a narrow 222-213 majority in nationwide House congressional elections in November and will take control of the chamber from Democrats andmore

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Five Takeaways About Trump’s Taxes

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Democrats in the U.S. Congress released six years’ worth of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns following a years-long legal fight in which Trump sought to keep the information private. The newly publicized records amount to nearly 6,000 pages, including the personal tax returns of Trump and his wife, Melania, from 2015 to 2020, as well as tax returns from Trump’s businesses. Here are five key takeaways from the documents: 1. Trump’s personal income varied greatly year by year. Of the six years covered by the documents from 2015 to 2020, Trump’s adjusted gross income ranged from a low ofmore

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US Congressman-Elect Santos Investigated for Lying About His Past

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U.S. Representative-elect George Santos of New York was under investigation by Long Island prosecutors on Wednesday after revelations surfaced that the now-embattled Republican lied about his heritage, education and professional pedigree as he campaigned for office. Despite intensifying doubt about his fitness to hold federal office, Santos has shown no signs of stepping aside — even as he publicly admitted to a long list of lies. Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly, a Republican, said the fabrications and inconsistencies were “nothing short of stunning.” “The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district must have anmore

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Biden Renomination Pursuit Could Be No Sure Thing

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President Joe Biden, currently vacationing in the U.S. Virgin Islands, has said he would take time over the holidays to discuss with family members whether he should seek re-election in 2024. White House and Democratic Party officials say it is almost certain Biden will run again. But will he secure his party’s nomination? An ideal place to explore that question is Prince George’s County, Maryland, where Biden received 89% support — his highest percentage in the 2020 general election. Only about one-fourth of the 400,000 eligible voters in Prince George’s County usually cast ballots in major elections. Regardless of themore

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US House Bans TikTok on Official Devices

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The popular Chinese video app TikTok has been banned from all U.S. House of Representatives-managed devices, according to the House’s administration arm, mimicking a law soon to go into effect banning the app from all U.S. government devices. The app is considered “high risk due to a number of security issues,” the House’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) said in a message sent on Tuesday to all lawmakers and staff and must be deleted from all devices managed by the House. The new rule follows a series of moves by U.S. state governments to ban TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd,more

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Lake Loses Suit Over Her Defeat in Arizona Governor’s Race

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A judge has thrown out Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, rejecting her claim that problems with ballot printers at some polling places on Election Day were the result of intentional misconduct. In a decision Saturday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson, who was appointed by former Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, found that the court did not find clear and convincing evidence of the widespread misconduct that Lake had alleged had affected the result of the 2022 general election. Lake will appeal the ruling, she said in a statement.more

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Georgia Special Grand Jury Wraps Up Probe of Trump, Allies

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A special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies illegally tried to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election in the southern U.S. state of Georgia appears to be wrapping up its work, but many questions remain. The investigation is one of several that could result in criminal charges against the former president as he asks voters to return him to the White House in 2024. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who began investigating nearly two years ago, has said she will go where the facts lead. It would be an extraordinary step if she choosesmore

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Final Report on Jan. 6 Attack Points Finger at Trump

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The committee formed by the House of Representatives to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol on Thursday released its final report, an 845-page set of documents supporting the committee’s claim that the attack was directly caused by former President Donald Trump and represented the final act in a “multipart conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 Presidential election.” The product of more than 17 months of investigation, the report is the distillation of evidence gathered from thousands of witness interviews, documents and subpoenaed electronic communications. According to the committee, “That evidence has led tomore

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Biden White House Navigates Jan. 6 Committee Recommendation to Prosecute Trump

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The House select committee probing the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol is scheduled to release its final report Thursday, referring former president Donald Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation and potential prosecution for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by President Joe Biden. As Attorney General Merrick Garland considers whether to accept the recommendation, the White House has been treading carefully to avoid the appearance it is targeting a potential political opponent in the 2024 election. On numerous occasions White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has emphasized that the Whitemore

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US Senate Passes $1.7 Trillion Bill to Fund Government, Ukraine Aid

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The Senate passed a massive $1.7 trillion spending bill Thursday that finances federal agencies through September and provides another large round of aid to Ukraine one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dramatic address to a joint meeting of Congress. The bill, which runs for 4,155 pages, includes about $772.5 billion for domestic programs and $858 billion for defense and would finance federal agencies through the fiscal year at the end of September. The bill passed by a vote of 68-29 and now goes to the House for a final vote before it can be sent to President Joe Bidenmore

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US Congressional Leaders Unveil New Spending Plan to Avert a Government Shutdown

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U.S. congressional leaders early Tuesday unveiled a more than $1.6 trillion spending and policy plan to fund the government through the end of next September, including billions of dollars in new aid for Ukraine to fight its war against Russia, a 10% boost in defense spending and revised controls on certifying the election of U.S. presidents. The measure, which also includes about $40 billion to help U.S. communities recover from drought, hurricanes and other natural disasters, is likely to be the last major piece of legislation that lawmakers will consider in the current session of Congress. But the 4,155-page billmore

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Kari Lake Challenges Her Defeat in Arizona Governor’s Race

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Kari Lake, the Republican defeated in the Arizona governor’s race, is formally challenging her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, asking a court to throw out certified election results from the state’s most populous county and either declare her the winner or rerun the governor’s election in that county. The lawsuit filed late Friday by Lake centers on long lines and other difficulties that people experienced while voting on Election Day in Maricopa County. The challenge filed in Maricopa County Superior Court also alleges hundreds of thousands of ballots were illegally cast, but there’s no evidence that’s true. Lake has refusedmore

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Viktor Bout, Arms Dealer in Prisoner Swap, Remembered as ‘Monster’

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Viktor Bout, the former Russian military officer convicted of illegal arms trafficking in U.S. courts in 2012, and who was serving a 25-year prison sentence, has had his sentence commuted and is being repatriated as part of a prisoner exchange that freed United States basketball star Brittney Griner from prison in Russia. Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” started an air freight business in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, which prosecutors alleged he used to transport military-grade weapons around the world, often supplying arms to combatants on opposing sides of the same conflicts. In an indictmentmore

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Democrats Secure 51-Seat Majority in US Senate With Georgia Runoff Win

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U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Wednesday that Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock’s runoff election win was an important boost for Democrats. “The practical effects of the 51-seat majority — it’s big. It’s significant,” he said. “We can breathe a sigh of relief.”  The Senate had stood for the past two years at a 50-50 tie with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote. But with Warnock winning re-election to his first full six-year term in office, Democrats have now gained a seat and secured a clear majority for the rest of President Joe Biden’s first term inmore

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