House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy in the days after the Capitol riot feared that comments made by far-right members of Congress were "putting people in jeopardy," according to audio recordings obtained by the New York Times.
Driving the news: In a phone call with Republican leaders on Jan. 10, 2021, McCarthy specifically named certain members of his conference, including Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, for using dangerous rhetoric, per the recordings.
Oklahoma has become the first state in the U.S. to explicitly ban nonbinary gender markers on state birth certificates, AP reports.
Driving the news: Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed the bill into law on Tuesday, months after the Republican leader ordered the state Department of Health to stop issuing birth certificates with a nonbinary option.
Why it matters: If approved, it would be the first booster accessible to children of this age group, who have been hit hard in recent months. Infections rose most sharply among children and adolescents during the Omicron surge, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Lael Brainard as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday in a 52-43 vote.
The big picture: Brainard, a Democrat, has served on the Fed board since 2014. She previously served in the Treasury Department during the Obama administration.
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) on Tuesday was cited for traveling with a gun at a security checkpoint at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
The big picture: This is the second time Cawthorn has been caught with a gun at an airport. He was stopped in February 2021 for trying to go through security with a gun at the Asheville airport, the Charlotte Observer reports.
The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday outlined its plan to secure the southern border for when the pandemic-era public health policy Title 42 is lifted on May 23.
Driving the news: A federal court on Monday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from removing the order after several states filed a lawsuit to keep it in place, arguing that revoking it would "result in an unprecedented crisis at the United States southern border."
The Department of Energy on Tuesday unveiled new efficiency standards to phase out high-energy incandescent lightbulbs, marking a reversal of a Trump-era policy.
Driving the news: The new guidelines require lightbulbs to emit 45 lumens, a measure of brightness, per watt. The new rules also expand energy-efficiency requirements to more types of lightbulbs, the department said.
Robert Santos, the first Latino director of the U.S. Census Bureau,says he wants to remedy the severe undercount of Hispanics by returning to old-school ways, including more door-to-door contact.
Why it matters: The undercount of Latinos in the 2020 census was three times higher than in 2010. Many Black and Native Americans were also omitted from the population tally.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday tested positive for COVID-19, according to her office.
The big picture: Harris, who is fully vaccinated and has received twobooster shots, has no symptoms, the White House said. She is the highest-ranking administration official to contract the virus.
Harvard University faculty, staff and leaders enslaved more than 70 individuals during the 17th and 18th centuries, according to a long-awaited report out Tuesday that details the university's ties to slavery.
Driving the news: "Harvard benefited from and in some ways perpetuated practices that were profoundly immoral,” Harvard president Lawrence S. Bacow said in a statement.
President Joe Biden has pardoned three people the administration says "have demonstrated their commitment to rehabilitation," and has commuted the sentences of 75 others serving long sentences for non-violent drug offenses.
Driving the news: Biden announced Tuesday he was granting clemency to 78 individuals as part of his broad rollout to help formerly incarcerated people during Second Chance Month.
President Biden announced on Tuesday that he is pardoning three individuals and issuing 75 commutations, making the first use of his clemency powers in his administration.
Why it matters: The president campaigned on a promise to use his clemency power specifically for non-violent and drug crimes.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his first public appearance since returning from Kyiv, will be questioned by members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday morning about the Biden administration's response to the war in Ukraine.
Why it matters: Blinken is expected to shed more light on the administration's plans to send American diplomats back to Ukraine this week, as well as President Biden's decision to nominate Bridget Brink, the current U.S. ambassador to Slovakia, to fill the ambassadorial post in Kyiv that’s been vacant since 2019, a senior State Department official tells Axios.
Russia's top diplomat said in a TV interview with state media late Monday that NATO "in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy."
The big picture: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also warned against provoking a third world war and said the threat of a nuclear conflict "should not be underestimated," according to a transcript from Russia's Foreign Ministry.
Satellite imagery has detected another mass grave outside Mariupol, the besieged strategic port city in southeast Ukraine that has been bombarded by Russian forces for weeks, Radio Free Europe first reported on Monday.
Driving the news: The third mass grave site detected by U.S. firm Planet Labs' satellite imagery around Mariupol was captured from March 24 to April 24 in the Russian-occupied village of Staryi Krym, some five miles from the city, according to dates on the images and local officials.
Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus response coordinator, told ABC News Monday that then-President Trump's suggestion at a 2020 news conference that disinfectants might be used to treat COVID-19 was a "tragedy on many levels."
Driving the news: Trump insisted later he was speaking "sarcastically" when he said, "I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute ... is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?"
Driving the news: Some commentators have raised concerns of potential Chinese government interference if Musk owned Twitter, given he has a Tesla factory in China. Bezos responded to one of these points on Twitter, raised by New York Times journalist Mike Forsythe's post:
A screenshot of Jeff Bezos' tweet. Photo: Twitter
Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
Republicans have grown increasingly concerned about illegal immigration during the past two decades, while Democrats have been less consumed by the issue, new Gallup survey data shows.
Why it matters: Policy disagreements and competing political pressures in Washington reflect the nation's polarized reality: The country’s views on immigration are about as divergent as possible.
Enthusiasm for impeaching top Biden officials has spread from the fringes of the House Republican conference to its mainstream — foreshadowing the intense pressure Kevin McCarthy will face from his colleagues if he's Speaker next year.
Why it matters: For the first year of President Biden's term, it was mostly the hard right of the GOP who entertained impeaching the president and his Cabinet secretaries. But those deliberations are now happening among a much larger group — even with virtually no precedent or legal justification.
A citizens group in Llano County, Texas, filed a lawsuit Monday accusing county officials of violating the First Amendment when they removed books from public libraries.
Driving the news: "Public libraries are not places of government indoctrination. "They are not places where the people in power can dictate what their citizens are permitted to read about and learn," a group of anti-censorship activists wrote in a court filing.
