Author: Sarah Fortinsky

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) called President Trump’s behavior “erratic and unhinged” as government funding lapsed overnight. In a joint statement, the top two Congressional Democrats said their party remains “ready to find a bipartisan path forward” but blamed Trump and the Republican party for leading the country into a shutdown. “After months of making life harder and more expensive, Donald Trump and Republicans have now shut down the federal government because they do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people,” the New York Democrats wrote late Tuesday. “Democrats…

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a moderate Republican, raised questions on Monday about the independence of the Justice Department, pointing to the “political pressure from the White House” that preceded former FBI Director James Comey’s indictment. “The Department of Justice has long been insulated from presidential administrations to protect public trust in the rule of law,” Murkowski said in a post on the social platform X. “But that independence is called into question when overt political pressure from the White House leads to unusual personnel changes and criminal charges filed just days after the President calls for them.” Murkowski, who has…

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City, defended his politics in a Monday interview in response to President Trump repeatedly labeling him a “communist.” CNN’s Erin Burnett played a compilation of clips of Trump calling Mamdani a communist and asked Mamdani directly, “Are you?” “No. I’m a democratic socialist,” Mamdani said. “I’ve said that time and again.” Mamdani said it reveals something about the state of American politics that Trump is dissatisfied with amplifying Mamdani’s true identity of “democratic socialist” and instead continues to call him a communist. “I think it reflects the fact that… whereas…

YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit President Trump brought in 2021 over the company’s suspension of his account in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a court filing Monday. Under the terms of the agreement, $22 million would go to Trump, who has directed the funds be contributed to the Trust for the National Mall “to support the construction of the White House State Ballroom.” Trump has touted the work on the new ballroom — construction for which is expected to be completed by the end of his…

Lawmakers from both parties dug in their heels Sunday over government funding demands ahead of a meeting between President Trump and congressional leaders aimed at averting a shutdown this week. During various interviews on the Sunday political affairs programs, Republican and Democratic leaders signaled that health care subsidies set to expire at the end of the year remain a key sticking point. Democratic leaders have been adamant that Republicans won’t get their party’s support without action on Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies — an issue Republicans say they won’t touch until after government funding discussions. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said…

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Democrats will not “write a blank check” to the Trump administration to avert a government shutdown. In a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the Maryland Democrat doubled down on the party’s opposition to a GOP-backed continuing resolution (CR) to extend government funding at current levels unless money is included for health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year. “Look, the president wants a blank check. This is a lawless president. He’s been illegally withholding funds. He promised, on day one,…

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Monday it would not follow California’s new law banning its agents from covering their faces during enforcement operations. “To be clear: We will NOT comply with [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom’s unconstitutional mask ban,” DHS said Monday in a post on the social platform X. DHS suggested the masks provide protection for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who have seen a sharp rise in attacks in recent months. “At a time that ICE law enforcement faces a 1,000% increase in assaults and their family members are being doxxed and targeted, the sitting…

Satisfaction with the direction of the country reached its lowest point of President Trump’s second term in office, according to the latest Gallup poll, though views remain broadly more positive than before he took office. Twenty-nine percent of the country say they’re satisfied “with the way things are going in the United States at this time,” compared to 67 percent who say they’re dissatisfied and 4 percent who say they have no opinion, according to the survey, which was conducted in the first half of September. That marks a slight decline in satisfaction from the 31 percent recorded in August,…

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday slammed Republicans’ “totally partisan” funding bill and reiterated his push to meet with President Trump as “the only way” to avoid a shutdown. “What we are asking very simply is what has always been done in these kinds of budget negotiations: a bipartisan negotiation. The Republican bill is a totally partisan bill with zero — zero — input from Democrats, and that’s not how to get things done,” Schumer said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We had two bills on the floor Friday. Both failed. The Democratic bill…