In a hearing held Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, members from both parties boldly confronted ongoing disparagement of the U.S. intelligence community by President-Elect Donald Trump. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, NSA Director and U.S. Cyber Commander Admiral Michael Rogers, and Defense Under Secretary for Intelligence Marcel Lattre presented testimony before the […]

Mike Pence, veep-elect and former Congressman, is emerging as the most powerful vice-president ever. I have repeatedly urged maintaining focus on Pence, and the bridge-building between the White House and the GOP Congressional majority with which he would certainly be tasked. And here we are: On the second day of the new Congress, Pence will […]

On Tuesday, House Republicans decided to withdraw a rule that would have gutted the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, and there are already some corporate media outlets who are crediting President-elect Donald Trump for the reversal. But nothing could be further from the truth. Trump and his team defended House Republicans’ secret vote to gut […]

President-elect Donald Trump has received scrutiny for his eyebrow-raising authoritarian proposals, such as stripping citizenship from political protestors and maintaining a private security force to eject anyone he pleases from his events. But he is not the only Republican resorting to authoritarian threats — House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is joining in. In June, a group of Democratic representatives […]

President-elect Donald Trump’s hostility toward federal agencies has already manifested itself in his cabinet selections and other top appointments, and a rule adopted by House Republicans could make the potential damage of a Trump presidency even worse. The so-called “Holman Rule” would give anyone in the Republican-controlled House the ability to propose an amendment that […]

The differences between the two parties are vast and varied, but there is perhaps no issue that more starkly represents their current ideological contention than the Affordable Care Act. Today, the outgoing president and his party huddled to defend his signature healthcare initiative, while the incoming president and his party strategized how to repeal it. […]

We have been closely following the absurd and unpatriotic lengths to which President-elect Donald Trump and his team have gone to deny or deflect blame away from the cyberattacks that 17 intelligence agencies agree were the work of the Russian government, lengths which include open collusion with Vladimir Putin. And thus Trump’s latest move should […]

Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), a Donald Trump supporter and congressman from Michigan’s second district, marshaled an unusual and absurd argument against the Affordable Care Act recently, telling a local paper that patients should be responsible for holding down costs by delaying or foregoing treatment based on costs. But even more repugnant is the story he […]

Congressional Republicans have made repealing the Affordable Care Act a pillar of their agenda, fighting against its passage and voting more than 60 times to erase it from the law books. And President-elect Donald Trump put repealing Obamacare front and center in his campaign, stating in his platform, “On day one of the Trump Administration, […]

Though his nomination by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as U.S. Attorney General may clear Congress, Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions cannot escape his legacy. A new wave of prominent attorneys and public servants with first-hand knowledge of Sessions’ civil rights record have come forward to challenge not only his nomination, but the accuracy of […]

With Congress back in session for the new year, and while America’s eyes are largely fixed on the White House and its impending occupants, numerous state legislators across the country are making good on their threats to curtail civil rights protections and to implement state-sanctioned bigotry toward LGBT Americans, and particularly transgender citizens. Texas Republican Lieutenant […]

On Inauguration Day in 2009, Republicans held a planning session to discuss ways they could completely counteract and hamstring everything President Obama did. By killing compromise immigration legislation, shutting down the government, suing the president over executive actions, holding hearings on the taxpayers’ dime to try to implicate his appointees in scandals and conspiracy theories, illegally writing to the Iranian mullahs […]

Controversy is heating up in the Tar Heel state as the city of Charlotte, N.C., and the lame-duck Republican governor, Pat McCrory, are once again at odds. Throughout 2016, the municipal government in Charlotte has been sparring with the governor, refusing to rescue him from an economic and public relations disaster of his own making. […]

As if the consequences of climate change were not already terrifying enough, the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is creating a dangerous ripple effect with its overt hostility toward climate science. Over the weekend, environmental writer James Rowen noticed something was amiss on a state website in Republican Governor Scott Walker’s Wisconsin: Not content with […]

After House Republicans voted to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, which investigates ethics and criminal complaints against lawmakers, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted: With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January […]

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has joined Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Jack Reed (D-RI) in requesting, via a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a select, independent investigation into the nature and extent of Russian hacking during the presidential election. Following news of the CIA assessment which concluded Russia intervened […]

President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration have gone to extraordinary lengths to deny and otherwise downplay the Russian interference in the 2016 election that the FBI and CIA agree was intended to help elect him, including dismissing the entire “age of computer” out of hand. Now Team Trump has taken this effort to a […]

In a late-night, secret meeting, House Republicans voted to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics: “Behind closed doors, the caucus voted to approve an amendment to a broader House rules package that would put the office under the House Ethics Committee and significantly restrict its authority. The House will vote Tuesday on the rules […]

Rep. Paul Ryan was reelected as Speaker of the House today, maintaining his position as third in line to the presidency. During remarks following his reelection, Ryan expressed “optimism” for the impending Donald Trump presidency and waxed poetic about the patriotism of House members — despite the fact that his party endeavors to stymie efforts […]

Even though he openly requested that Russia intervene on his behalf in July, President-elect Donald Trump has since denied the existence of Russian interference in our election despite the unanimous conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community. That includes the CIA’s assessment that the attacks were intended specifically to help elect Trump, and more recent reporting […]

President Obama just gave his final press conference of the year, the entirety of which can be viewed here. In his typically unflappable and measured demeanor, he started by recounting many of the successes of his eight years in office, then took questions, many of which focused on Russian interference in the election. Obama reiterated […]

During an interview on CNN’s New Day with Chris Cuomo, Rep. Elijah Cummings addressed the seriousness of Russian interference in our democratic institutions and reminded his Republican colleagues that national security breaches are not a partisan issue. Watch: “This is a struggle for the soul of our democracy” — @RepCummings wants 9/11-type commission to look […]

With the disclosure that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself ordered the cyberattacks on the presidential election, Americans are waking up to threats to our democracy from overseas. But there is a simultaneous war against democracy on the home front as well, and nowhere is this more apparent than North Carolina. A month ago, voters in the Tar […]

Concerned about Donald Trump’s divisive Cabinet nominees, a coalition of faith, family, and community leaders is fervently calling for progressive action against his “cabinet of bigotry.” 2,500 religious leaders across the United States have signed the petition from Faith in Public Life calling on members of congress to reject the cabinet. In a press conference […]

Well in advance of Donald Trump taking office as President, two of his supposedly “former” top advisors have made overlapping trips to Moscow this past week that appear to telegraph the incoming administration’s foreign and economic policy plans. On December 8th, the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik News reported Carter Page had arrived in Moscow to […]

We are in the midst of a national crisis: The U.S. intelligence community has confirmed that Russia interfered in the election, in order to help Donald Trump get elected. They now have evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin was orchestrating the interference. This was not, as Trump has suggested, just some hacker sitting on his […]

NBC News reports that two senior U.S. intelligence officials have disclosed that the intelligence community believes, with “a high level of confidence,” that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed the campaign to disrupt and influence the election. Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how […]

Previously, I have written about the underhanded strategy of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) coming out in favor of a Senate investigation of Russian election tampering while actually taking steps to ensure any investigation goes nowhere. He is not alone: His colleague, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), is adopting the same stance. A month ago, Corker appeared to […]

Governor John Kasich delivered a fake-out punch to reproductive rights in Ohio on Tuesday when he vetoed a ban on abortions at six weeks, only to turn around and sign a ban on abortion after 20 weeks. Both of these prohibitions are unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade, which sets the point of viability for a […]

Two dozen states with Republican state majorities and/or Republican governors have tried to “defund” Planned Parenthood by attempting to block public funds to clinics. It is a cynical ploy to try to further hollow out the right to abortion guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, and the Obama administration is making a last-minute bid to try […]