As it winds down, the race could be seen as a measure of Donald Trump’s clout. Mike Bost is a popular incumbent, but he’s running in a time and place where disdain for government is white-hot. Establishment Republicans are angry their man has to face an intraparty challenge, which is the attitude Darren Bailey argues needs to be dislodged.
Congress
Some lawmakers and critics of TikTok have argued the Chinese government could force the company to share data on American users. TikTok says it has never done that and wouldn’t do so if asked. The U.S. government also hasn’t provided evidence of that happening.
The administration, stymied by Republican lawmakers who rejected a negotiated border bill earlier this month, has been exploring options that President Joe Biden could deploy on his own without congressional approval.
In a meeting Thursday with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, Rep. Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, highlighted the bipartisan support for the U.S.-Taiwan partnership, which he described as “stronger and more rock-solid than ever now.”
Election officials face a long list of challenges this year, including potential cyberattacks waged by foreign governments, criminal ransomware gangs attacking computer systems and the persistence of election misinformation that has led to harassment of election officials and undermined public confidence.
The evening roll call proved tight, with Speaker Mike Johnson’s threadbare GOP majority unable to handle many defectors or absences in the face of staunch Democratic opposition to impeaching Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the first Cabinet secretary facing charges in nearly 150 years.
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Chicago), herself the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, weighs in on the situation in Washington and efforts to address immigration.
As the Senate broke for the holidays, due back Jan. 8, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell in a rare joint statement indicated negotiations are progressing.
The vote to expel was 311-114. Expulsion requires support from two-thirds of the House, a purposefully high bar, but a blistering House Ethics Committee report that accused Santos of breaking federal law proved decisive.
“In cities like Chicago dealing with the constant drumbeat of gun violence, it has turned these public health officials into battlefield experts,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said. “They’ve seen the aftermath of bullets tearing through bone like it’s tissue paper.”
Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a lower-ranked member of the House GOP leadership team, becomes the fourth Republican nominee in what has become an almost absurd cycle of political infighting since Kevin McCarthy’s ouster.
It’s been three weeks since Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy as House speaker. Rep. Tom Emmer won a simple majority of his colleagues behind closed doors, but he will need the support of most all Republicans during a House floor vote ahead.
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Chicago, and U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Chicago, joined “Chicago Tonight” to discuss aid to Israel, the House Speaker race and a growing number of migrants arriving to Chicago from the southern border.
Nine lower-level Republican lawmakers are now running to be speaker, leader of the House and second in second in line to the presidency — none with any clear shot for the gavel.
The Republicans have no realistic or workable plan to unite the fractured GOP majority, elect a new speaker and return to the work of Congress that has been languishing since hard-liners ousted Kevin McCarthy at the start of the month.
The prolonged stalemate risks keeping the House intractably shut down for the foreseeable future after the unprecedented ouster of Kevin McCarthy as speaker.