When the Biden administration relaxed some travel restrictions on Americans visiting Cuba in May of last year, Senator Robert Menendez was having none of it. “I am dismayed,” Mr. Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said in a statement. Anyone who believed the measure might help bring democracy to Cuba was “simply in a state of…
Month: September 2023
If the Government Shuts Down, What Will It Take to Reopen?
The federal government is careening toward a shutdown at midnight on Saturday. That’s because Congress has not yet passed any of the 12 yearlong spending bills that fund the federal government, and it remains jammed on a temporary stopgap measure to keep funding flowing while lawmakers pass those annual spending bills. Here’s what you need…
Where Would a Government Shutdown Immediately Be Felt Most?
Washington braced for a government shutdown over the weekend as Congress remained mired in dysfunction on Friday. Federal agencies planned to send home hundreds of thousand workers, who would not be paid until the shutdown ended. Hundreds of thousands of others deemed essential, like air traffic controllers, would be ordered to work. They, too, would…
McCarthy’s Stopgap Bill Fails in House, Pushing Government Toward Shutdown
Hard-line conservatives on Friday tanked Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s long-shot bid to pass legislation to avert a government shutdown, in an extraordinary display of defiance that made it clear that Congress would almost certainly miss a midnight deadline on Saturday to keep federal funding flowing. It appeared evident even before the vote that the stopgap bill…
Trump Loyalist in Georgia Is Suspended by His Republican Caucus
A Republican state senator in Georgia who pushed to investigate and potentially impeach Fani T. Willis, the Atlanta-based district attorney who is prosecuting former President Donald J. Trump for election subversion, was suspended indefinitely on Thursday by his G.O.P. caucus. The Georgia Senate Republicans said in a statement that they had taken disciplinary action against…
How Gen. Charles Brown Became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. is known for being steady in a storm. There was the time in 1991 when his F-16 was struck by lightning and he had to eject into the alligator-infested Everglades, earning the call sign “Swamp Thang.” The time in 2020, just days before his Senate confirmation vote to be Air…
As McCarthy Seeks to Shift Shutdown Blame, Border Takes Center Stage
As Congress barrels toward a government shutdown instigated by his own hard-right members, Speaker Kevin McCarthy is toiling to turn a fight over federal spending into a battle over President Biden’s handling of the border. By floating a stopgap funding bill that would slash spending while imposing stringent immigration restrictions demanded by conservatives, Mr. McCarthy…
Republican Group Running Anti-Trump Ads Finds Little Is Working
A well-funded group of anti-Trump conservatives has sent its donors a remarkably candid memo that reveals how resilient former President Donald J. Trump has been against millions of dollars of negative ads the group deployed against him in two early-voting states. The political action committee, called Win It Back, has close ties to the influential…
Trump’s Legal Defense Effort Comes Under Financial Strain
The call came out of the blue. A lawyer representing former President Donald J. Trump in the investigation into his handling of classified documents reached out, unsolicited, to a former employee of Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate who was about to face questioning. “It’s my understanding that you got a grand jury subpoena,” the lawyer, John…
In Michigan, Biden and Trump Offer a Preview of 2024
It’s going to be a long road to next November. And the first steps started this week. President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump traveled to Michigan, one day after the other, to speak directly to working-class voters in what amounted to a preview of a likely 2024 campaign. Their dueling styles were on…