House committee approves $547 billion surface transportation package
By Manu Raju and Veronica Stracqualursi The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a $547 billion surface transportation package aimed at pouring money into the country’s roads, bridges and transit systems over the next five years. The bill is one piece of President Joe Biden’s larger infrastructure package and marks the beginning of Democrats’ efforts to go it alone on infrastructure, while a bipartisan agreement tries to be reached in the Senate over the larger proposal. The House proposal includes many of the same provisions that Biden proposed in his own initial $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan, known as the American
Ex-officer, Trump impeachment manager and now Senate candidate: Who is Rep. Val Demings
By Veronica Stracqualursi Rep. Val Demings’ Senate run provides Democrats with a prominent, nationally recognized candidate to challenge Republican incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio, a formidable opponent, in next year’s general election. The Florida Democrat sought to highlight her resume, which includes serving as a chief prosecutor of President Donald Trump’s actions in office during his first impeachment trial and experience running a large city’s police force. With a pitch of expanding her “unlikely story of opportunity” to other Floridians, Demings in her campaign video spoke of her humble beginnings, to her rise to the top of the Orlando Police Department
NYC mayoral candidate Eric Adams insists he lives in city amid residency controversy
By Gregory Krieg Does one of the front-runners to be the next mayor of New York City live in New York City — and if so, where exactly? Those were the questions Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams addressed on Wednesday as he spoke to reporters in front of the three-unit building he called “my primary residence.” Adams then allowed the press inside, where he offered tours of his basement apartment on Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. “This is my block, my neighbors,” Adams said. “I’m proud to be a resident of Bed-Stuy.” The news conference had been called hours
Harris invites all female senators for dinner at Naval Observatory amid infrastructure negotiations
By Jasmine Wright Vice President Kamala Harris has invited every female senator to the Naval Observatory for dinner next Tuesday, according to a Harris aide and Senate aide, in a show of bipartisanship among a deeply divided Congress. If everyone invited attends, the guest list would consist of 24 female senators — 16 Democrats and eight Republicans. It would be the first known time the former California senator hosts lawmakers in the Naval Observatory since moving in April, a process that was delayed due to renovations. The dinner marks a resurgence of what was once regular dinner parties among the
Administration officials perplexed by Harris’ border answer and worry it will overshadow her trip
By Nikki Carvajal, Kate Sullivan, Dana Bash, Phil Mattingly and Jeremy Diamond Vice President Kamala Harris endured a rocky first foreign trip since taking office, with sources telling CNN her two-day swing through Mexico and Guatemala left some administration officials quietly perplexed about what they perceive as her bumpy answers to questions about whether she will go to the US-Mexico border. Several sources say there was a real hope inside the White House that Harris’ first trip abroad would be a success, and worry that what looked like ill-prepared answers to that inevitable question would overshadow it. But officials made
Tim Scott on policing overhaul negotiations: It will be ‘very hard’ to meet June deadline
By Ted Barrett and Ali Zaslav The top Republican negotiator of a broad policing reform bill said that the two sides remain far apart on a number of issues that go beyond the key sticking point of qualified immunity and include many other issues that they’re finding “really hard” to resolve. GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina also said the bipartisan group needs to have legislative text in the next two weeks, or it’ll be “very hard” to meet their deadline to have an agreement before the end of June, when a two-week July Fourth recess begins. “It’s a
Biden takes the lead role he’s always craved in his high-stakes first trip abroad as president
By Kevin Liptak, Jeff Zeleny and Kaitlan Collins When President Joe Biden told officials this spring that he wanted to meet soon with his Russian counterpart for a summit, his team quickly set out to make it happen — even if some wondered what he really hoped to achieve. The last two administrations — including the one Biden served as vice president — had tried and failed to develop better ties with Moscow. Experienced foreign policy advisers had watched as Russian President Vladimir Putin hijacked meetings before with outlandish whataboutism. They wondered what Biden could possibly gain from meeting him
Obama criticizes Republicans for embracing 2020 falsehoods
By Dan Merica Former President Barack Obama said Republicans have been “cowed into accepting” a series of positions that “would be unrecognizable and unacceptable even five years ago or a decade ago,” telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper he is worried about the state of democracy in the United States in an exclusive interview that aired Monday. Obama, in an interview that comes after his latest memoir, “A Promised Land,” was published in late 2020, said he never thought some of the “dark spirits” that began rising within the Republican Party during his tenure would get this dark and reach the epicenter
Harris faces first major diplomatic test
By Jeremy Diamond and Nikki Carvajal Vice President Kamala Harris is facing the first major diplomatic test of her vice presidency as she looks to tackle the root causes of migration toward the US in her full day of meetings in Guatemala. Harris has been eager to burnish her foreign policy credentials after entering office with little experience in that realm. Harris and her team see this first foreign trip as an opportunity to advance that effort after weeks spent laying the groundwork for meetings in the region. Speaking in Guatemala City, Harris said her trip and President Joe Biden’s
Democrat calls Manchin ‘the new Mitch McConnell’ and says he is working to thwart Biden’s agenda
By Chandelis Duster New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Monday compared fellow Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and said he is trying to thwart President Joe Biden’s agenda after the West Virginia lawmaker stood by his decision to vote against a sweeping voting rights bill and opposition to gutting the filibuster. “Joe Manchin has become the new Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell during Obama’s presidency said he would do everything in his power to stop (then-President Barack Obama),” Bowman told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day.” “He’s also repeated that now during the Biden presidency by