The Washington Post has joined human rights advocates in condemning the Biden administration's argument that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has immunity in a lawsuit filed against him over the 2018 killing of Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
The latest: Fred Ryan, the Post's publisher and CEO, said in a statement Friday that President Biden is "granting a license to kill to one of the world's most egregious human-rights abusers who is responsible for the cold-blooded murder of Jamal Khashoggi."
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Friday that he is appointing veteran prosecutor Jack Smith as a special counsel to oversee the federal criminal investigations into former President Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and handling of classified documents.
Why it matters: The appointment of a special counsel is intended to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, and comes three days after Trump launched his 2024 presidential campaign.
Democrat Adam Frisch conceded Friday to rival Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), a high-profile conservative firebrand and ally of former President Trump.
Driving the news: AP has not called the race yet as of early Friday afternoon. But with 99% of votes counted, Boebert had 50.1% of the vote and Frisch had 49.9%.
An Ohio man who said President Trump gave "presidential orders" to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been sentenced to three years in prison, the Department of Justice announced Friday.
Why it matters: Dustin Byron Thompson, who was convicted in April, was among the first Capitol riot defendants to argue that Trump is ultimately to blame for the large mob that breached the Capitol.
The Biden administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to lift the lower court ruling that blocked the student loan relief program.
Why it matters: The move marks the latest attempt from the Biden administration to revive its student loan forgiveness plan following numerous legal challenges. Its pause on repayments is set to expire in December.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, on Friday formally announced his bid to succeed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-N.Y.) as the House Democratic leader.
The big picture: Jeffries, a Brooklyn native and former New York state legislator, would be the first Black leader of a party in Congress.
No other state knows how to do a runoff like Georgia lately, but this year's overtime contest between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Republican Herschel Walker is confounding many political operatives.
Driving the news: With Senate control no longer at stake, a shortened, four-week timeframe without a voter registration window, confusion over early voting schedules and roughly 200,000 split-ticket voters in the general, strategists in both campaigns are scrambling to model just how many — and which — Georgians are likely to show up on Dec. 6.
Misinformation about voting and election denialism didn't swamp the midterms as many experts had feared — and many election deniers on the ballot, particularly for the crucial secretary-of-state roles, lost their races.
How it works: Platforms, governments and the media took countermeasures that were at least partially effective, based on their lessons from 2016, 2018 and 2020.
A former senior aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was convicted Thursday after being found guilty of helping to funnel illegal foreign campaign contributions from a Russian national into former President Trump's 2016 campaign.
Driving the news: Jessie Benton, 45, orchestrated a scheme to conceal the illegal foreign donation with another GOP operative, per the Justice Department. Benton, the husband of Paul's niece and a veteran Republican staffer, faces up to 20 years in prison. His attorney told the Washington Post Benton "maintains his innocence and plans to appeal."
Republicans who defended or flipped seats in districts that President Biden won in 2020 have a message for their party leaders: focus on the economy, not impeachment.
Why it matters: Some rank-and-file Republicans and leadership aides fear overly politicized investigations — including impeachment — may backfire on a party seeking to rebuild credibility among independents after an underwhelming performance in the midterms.
House Democrats want their longtime leader and the first female speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to break history one more time — and stay intimately involved in House operations.
Why it matters: Pelosi has a store of institutional knowledge on how to govern a sometimes unruly caucus. Democrats will look to her to guide the next generation of leaders while exploiting the GOP's deep divisions and paper-thin majority.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the iconic San Francisco liberal who has led congressional Democrats for two decades and broke the glass ceiling as the first woman to control the House of Representatives, said on Thursday she'll step aside as leader at the end of the 117th Congress.
Driving the news: "Never did I think I’d go from homemaker to House Speaker," Pelosi said, wearing her Mace of the Republic broochand a suffragette white suit.
