Why it matters: Christie was one of just a few Republican hopefuls who repeatedly criticized former President Trump during his campaign, and he often said that his raison d'être was to prevent a Trump presidency.
Hunter Biden made a surprise appearance at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday geared towards holding him in contempt of Congress.
Why it matters: The committee was trying to hold the president's son in contempt for refusing to testify at a closed-door deposition last month as part of their impeachment proceedings against President Biden.
President Biden was advised last year by the White House Counsel office that giving big-dollar donors tours of the Oval Office might raise legal issues and he has since stopped the practice, according to people familiar with the matter.
Why it matters: Biden has been hosting donors inside the White House residence for private meals and briefings, to help energize them and convince them that he has a plan to beat former President Trump.
Nearly 21 million children are set to have easier access to food thanks to a permanent summer nutrition program, the USDA announced on Wednesday.
Why it matters: The initiative comes amid food insecurity impacting millions of households in the U.S. and as the summer months can create gaps for kids who rely on nutrition programs during the school year.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was caught on a hot mic talking about his fellow GOP presidential candidates Wednesday shortly before suspending his campaign.
Driving the news: Christie was heard saying former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, who has solidified her second-place polling in New Hampshire, is going to get "smoked."
An inmate in Alabama will be the first person executed with nitrogen gas, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.
Why it matters: This untested hypoxia execution method, the first of its kind in the U.S., could prove to be "painful and humiliating," human rights experts said.
Fox News is betting that it won't fall into the same Trump trap as pretty much every other network that's attempted to interview the former president live.
Why it matters: Moderators Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier told Axios in an interview ahead of their live town hall with former President Trump that they're hoping to draw him into a substantive discussion around foreign policy.
The big picture: Lawyers for Trump last week wrote that the former president "plans to present argument at closing," prompting a lengthy and at times tense back and forth between the two parties.
Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) on Wednesday became the first Democratic member of Congress to call for Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to step down over the secrecy around his recent hospitalization.
A group of right-wing House Republicans sabotaged their own party's bills on Wednesday in protest of a spending deal between Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Democrats.
Why it matters: The shock move marks a return to the hardball tactics hardliners employed under former Speaker Kevin McCarthy to retaliate against bipartisan deals before they ultimately removed him.
Why it matters: While former President Trump has dominated polling, many will be watching how his main rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, perform.
The New York judge overseeing President Trump's civil fraud trial rejected a bid by the former president on Wednesday to deliver his own closing argument in the trial.
Why it matters: The trial, stemming from a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James last year, will determine whether Trump must pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and his future ability to do business in the state.
House Republicans launched an effort Wednesday to make Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.
Why it matters: The first committee hearing in the impeachment push took place as Republicans are seeking to leverage their border-security demands to hold up military aid for Ukraine, possibly shut down the government andblame President Biden for the crisis at the southern border.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called behind closed doors on Wednesday for his fellow Republicans to stop criticising him and his budget negotiations on social media, per two sources inside the room.
Why it matters: With just days to avert a partial government shutdown, conservatives are slamming Johnson's topline budget agreement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), alleging it does not go far enough to include GOP priorities and cut spending.
Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. have more than tripled in the three months following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, according to new Anti-Defamation League (ADL) preliminary data.
Driving the news: Antisemitic cases involving incidents like physical assault, harassment and vandalism, were higher than the total number of antisemitic episodes tracked in almost every year since ADL started monitoring this data in the late 1970s, the group said Wednesday.
Why it matters: While the 50-year-old event has historically skyrocketed lesser-known candidates to a national foothold, there are strong signals that the state's first-in-the-nation process has been forever diluted, Iowa political scientists tell Axios.
More than 550 migrants,including about 100 children, are sleeping in CTA warming buses in the South Loop, near the city's "landing zone" for new arrivals, according to city data.
Why it matters: The "landing zone" isn't designed to shelter migrants, and some told the Sun-Times that the buses are overcrowded and lack sufficient food and supplies as winter storms hit the region.
Indicted Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) took to the Senate floor on Tuesday and criticized federal prosecutors after he was hit with a superseding federal indictment last week alleging that he took bribes in exchange for helping the government of Qatar.
Why it matters: Menendez, the former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, has faced immense pressure from the public and lawmakers, including fellow Senate Democrats, to resign over the allegations.
The American and British navies shot down at least 21 drones and missiles in the Red Sea that the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels launched from Yemen as commercial ships were passing through the region, U.S. Defense officials said Tuesday.
Why it matters: Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the key shipping route that began in protest of the Israeli offensive in Gaza threatens supply chains and the global economy, and prices of goods around the world are spiking due to the disruptions.
The U.S. Department of Education is withholding more than $2 million in payments to three student loan servicers for failing to send timely billing statements to borrowers.
Why it matters: Affected borrowers will go into forbearance until the issues are resolved, and so they will not owe payments in that time and any accrued interest will be adjusted to zero, the department said Friday.
The late U.S. Sen. John McCain lives on in former President Trump's head in a new musical, and it's not a place Arizona's iconic senator wants to be.
Driving the news: McCain is the subject of "The Ghost of John McCain," which will have an invitation-only reading at Sunlight Studios in New York on Thursday.
Then-candidate Donald Trumpfamously remarked two weeks before the Iowa caucuses in 2016 that he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" and he "wouldn't lose any voters."
On Tuesday, Trump's lawyer suggested in federal court that a president could order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival and — unless he was impeached and convicted by Congress — be immune from criminal prosecution.
