Denounced on social media and by fellow Republicans, Ohio Rep. Max Miller is telling allies he's not quitting for a simple reason: It would be tantamount to admitting he beat his ex-wife and their child, which he denies.
Why it matters: The Washington summer scandal is a case study in whether Miller — one of Donald Trump's understudies — can successfully employ the president's playbook of never backing down and never quitting.
The author of the Democratic National Committee's 2024 election "autopsy" confirmed an Axios report that he concluded the war in Gaza hurt Kamala Harris politically — and that he'd privately shared that assessment with a pro-Palestinian group.
He said he drafted that finding late last year but never submitted it to party leadership.
Why it matters: Democrats have spent months debating whether the Biden administration's support for Israel during its war on Hamas contributed to Harris' defeat.
A Senate panel voted Thursday to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt for repeatedly declining to answer questions last week from lawmakers investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why it matters: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has said he will refer the contempt resolution to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution.
A Stanford-led research team has used generative AI to design a synthetic virus — the first time artificial intelligence has been harnessed to create an organism that has never been seen in nature.
President Trump signed two executive orders Thursday seeking to narrow birthright citizenship in several circumstances and intensify the federal crackdown on commercial "birth tourism."
Trump also is seeking to deny birthright citizenship for children born of some foreign diplomatic staff in the U.S. and, potentially, U.S. territories in the future.
Why it matters: It's Trump's second attempt to curb birthright citizenship in the U.S. and is sure to be challenged in court as a violation of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to nearly everyone born in America.
Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Bank of America allegedly helped enable convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by delaying the screening and reporting of his financial transactions, according to a Senate Finance Committee report published Tuesday.
The big picture: The report raises questions about how the three banks failed to stop Epstein from moving hundreds of millions of dollars while he was under investigation for sex trafficking.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was discharged from a rehab facility and has returned home amid his lengthy absence from Congress, he said in a statement released Thursday by his office.
The big picture: The 84-year-old lawmaker was hospitalized in June and has not been seen in public since, outside of images released by his office.
The years-long saga of prosecuting the Jan. 6 attack effectively came to an end this week, when a judge dismissed a remaining indictment against Oath Keepers members already freed by President Trump.
The big picture: Not only has Trump erased the legal consequences for many Jan. 6 defendants, but his administration has moved to rewrite the history of a deadly day — and oust federal employees who worked on related cases.
President Trump on Thursday publicly defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and said reporting suggesting any friction between the two was "treasonous."
Why it matters: The Washington Post and others reported this week that Trump had reached his limits with Hegseth over the state of the country's weapons stockpile and the impact on the war with Iran.
Abdul El-Sayed's victory in Michigan's Democratic primary for Senate raises the prospect of a rare new addition to the upper chamber: a progressive doctor — albeit one who doesn't practice medicine.
Why it matters: El-Sayed's medical degree and his experience in public health could bring a powerful new perspective to Washington health care debates — particularly those around Medicare for All, which he staunchly supports.
A work slowdown by the Trump administration's immigration offices has exploded the backlog of applications for citizenship, green cards and work permits to an unprecedented 7.5 million people, according to the latestagency data.
Add the millions of immigrants waiting on decisions for asylum, work visas and permission to stay in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons, and the total backlog soars to more than 12.1 million.
Why it matters: The delays have put potentially millions of people in legal immigration limbo — vulnerable to being arrested by ICE agents and deported, even if they've followed the rules to try to stay in the U.S.
Four scandal-plagued House Republicans whose seats should be gimmes for the GOP have instead turned their races into unexpected battlegrounds.
Why it matters: These aren't districts you'd expect to be in play — Donald Trump carried all four comfortably in 2024. But the incumbents' ethical troubles are making Republicans spend time and money defending the seats — in a cycle where neither party has any room for error.
OpenAI asked a federal judge Wednesday to dismiss Apple's lawsuit accusing the AI giant and two former Apple employees of stealing trade secrets and soliciting confidential information from job candidates.
Why it matters: The motion is an early step in a legal fight that could stretch for years. If the case survives, discovery could expose sensitive details about both companies' hiring, hardware development and data-security practices.
The FBI opened an investigation into whether President Trump was acting as a Russian asset after he fired FBI Director James Comey in 2017, newly declassified memos show.
Why it matters: The release of the files on the probe, known as "Oxferd Comma," revives one of the most consequential episodes in the Trump-Comey saga and comes months after Trump's Department of Justice again put the former FBI director under criminal indictment.
Tucker Carlson used a highly promoted livestream Wednesday to unveil a 10-point vision for America — defining the worldview of a breakaway MAGA faction increasingly at odds with President Trump.
Why it matters: After vowing last month to "help build a third party," Carlson fueled further speculation this weekend by hosting MAGA dissidents at his home in Maine, where they urged him to run for president in 2028.
American taxpayers would pay about $2,358 each for President Trump's mass deportation push, according to a new calculator tool from the Economic Policy Institute.
Why it matters: The estimate fuels debate over whether billions of federal dollars devoted to deportations could instead fund other public priorities such as food assistance, health care or housing.
