McConnell, Mitch
Despite Biden’s Success on Judges, Progressives Demand a Faster Pace
WASHINGTON — With an extended summer recess looming and their majority at risk in November elections, Senate Democrats were facing the prospect of allowing dozens of judicial vacancies to go unfilled by President Biden this year, and under pressure from progressive activists to move more quickly and aggressively to push them through. Mr. Biden and […]
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Senate Passes $280 Billion Industrial Policy Bill to Counter China
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday passed an expansive $280 billion bill aimed at building up America’s manufacturing and technological edge to counter China, embracing in an overwhelming bipartisan vote the most significant government intervention in industrial policy in decades. The legislation reflected a remarkable and rare consensus in a polarized Congress in favor of […]
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Same-Sex Marriage Bill, Considered Dead on Arrival, Gains New Life
WASHINGTON — It began for Democrats as a messaging vote, an election-year political maneuver to show voters that they were doing everything possible to protect marriage equality in the face of new threats from a conservative Supreme Court — and a move to force Republicans to put their opposition on the record. But when the […]
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Biden Drops Plan to Name Anti-Abortion Lawyer Backed by McConnell as Judge
WASHINGTON — The White House is abandoning plans to nominate a Kentucky lawyer who opposes abortion rights and is backed by Senator Mitch McConnell to a federal court seat, citing opposition from Senator Rand Paul, Mr. McConnell’s home-state colleague. The resistance from Mr. McConnell’s fellow Republican marked a new twist over a potential nomination that […]
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What a Reckoning at the Supreme Court Could Look Like
In my view, court packing, the idea that arguably launched the commission, fails that test. That’s not because adding justices would be a radical break from past practice. Adding and removing justices was common practice in the 1800s, partly as a way to manage the court’s workload and partly as a way to control the […]
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Mitch McConnell’s Court Delivers
WASHINGTON — When Speaker Nancy Pelosi refers to the Supreme Court as the “Trump-McConnell” court, she does not mean it as a compliment. Senator Mitch McConnell will take it as one anyway. “I want to thank her for confirming the obvious,” Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, said in an interview. Mr. […]
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Gun Bill’s Progress Reflects Political Shift, but G.O.P. Support Is Fragile
WASHINGTON — As Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, weighed whether she should vote to take up a bipartisan gun reform measure, the phone lines in her offices were being flooded by constituents hoping to sway her. The calls were coming in roughly six to one, she estimated, with an urgent message: “Please do something.” […]
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Trump’s Primary Losses Puncture His Invincibility
Donald J. Trump had cast this year’s primaries as a moment to measure his power, endorsing candidates by the dozen as he sought to maintain an imprint on his party unlike any other past president. But after the first phase of the primary season concluded on Tuesday, a month in which a quarter of America’s […]
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Senate Democrats Warn of G.O.P. Effort to Restrict Abortion Nationwide
WASHINGTON — Democrats rang alarm bells on Sunday about the likelihood that Republicans would try to restrict abortion nationwide, two days after an interview was published in which Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, said a ban was “possible” if his party gained control in Washington. On the Sunday talk shows and in […]
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