The mood on Capitol Hill has turned grim as Democrats wrestled over President Joe Biden’s reelection.

President Joe Biden is standing firm against calls for him to drop his reelection candidacy and calling for an end to the intraparty drama that has torn apart Democrats since his dismal debate performance.

The House has passed legislation that would establish a broader definition of antisemitism for the Department of Education to enforce anti-discrimination laws.

The Biden administration is expected to keep the cap on refugees admitted to the United States at 125,000 for the next fiscal year, which begins Sunday.

U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler has defeated U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney in a Democratic primary after a court forced the two veteran lawmakers into the same New York City congressional district.

Two New York Democrats were ousted from the U.S. House in primary elections Tuesday after redistricting shuffled congressional districts in one of the nation’s largest liberal states.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist has won the Democratic nomination for governor in Florida, putting him in position to challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis this fall in a campaign the Republican incumbent is eyeing as the first step toward a potential White House run.

Tuesday’s primary elections feature two top Florida Democrats squaring off for the right to face Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

President Joe Biden insists he intends to seek reelection in 2024.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York is endorsing Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler in his contentious primary contest with another veteran U.S. House member from New York, Carolyn Maloney.

Two powerful House Democrats from New York are declining to say whether President Joe Biden should run for the White House again in 2024.

Political divides in the U.S. seem deeper than ever, but one of the few shared sentiments right now from voters of all stripes is the desire for something different.

A ban on certain semi-automatic weapons is moving forward in the House.

The House has overwhelmingly approved a bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriages.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection released video on Wednesday of a Capitol tour led by a Republican lawmaker the day before the attack, showing at least one participant taking photos of stairwells and tunnels in the Capitol complex.

The House has approved a “red flag” bill that would allow families, police and others to ask federal courts to order the removal of firearms from people believed to be at extreme risk of harming themselves or others.

Two of New York’s longest-serving members of Congress have turned from allies to rivals after a court redrew the state’s congressional maps.

The House Judiciary Committee has advanced legislation that would raise the age limit for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21.

Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he will run for Congress in a redrawn district that includes his Brooklyn home.

New York’s political landscape for the next decade is being quickly retooled by a rural judge and out-of-state expert after a court ruled Democrats controlling New York's legislature bungled the job.

A court-appointed expert released a draft of new congressional maps for New York that are more favorable to Republicans than the original gerrymandered political maps drawn by Democrats.

The Jan. 6 committee’s remarkable decision to subpoena GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other sitting members of Congress over the insurrection at the Capitol is as unprecedented as the deadly riot itself.

The Jan. 6 committee’s stunning decision to subpoena GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other sitting members of Congress over the insurrection at the Capitol is as unprecedented as the deadly riot itself.

The House has approved a bill decriminalizing marijuana and letting states set their own policies on pot.

Lawmakers have made good on their threat to seek a criminal investigation of Amazon, asking the Justice Department to investigate whether Amazon and its senior executives obstructed Congress or violated other laws in testimony on its competition practices.

U.S. House lawmakers are threatening to seek a criminal investigation of Amazon, saying the tech giant has one “final chance” to correct previous testimony by executives on its competition practices.

Amid a national debate over the use of pandemic relief funds, Alabama lawmakers swiftly approved a plan to tap $400 million to help build two super-size prisons.

Republicans are using money from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package for projects on conservatives' wish lists.

Four members of Congress from New York demanded the release of inmates and the closure of New York City’s troubled Rikers Island jail complex after another inmate was reported dead at the facility this weekend.

The Americans trying to evacuate hundreds of Afghans and American citizens pleaded for action from the Biden administration to get the would-be evacuees aboard charter flights that are standing by to fly them from Afghanistan.

Former White House counsel Don McGahn told lawmakers in a closed-door interview last week that he regarded President Donald Trump’s demand to have special counsel Robert Mueller fired as “a point of no return” for the administration if carried out.

Testimony to Congress from Donald Trump’s former top White House lawyer has “shed new light on several troubling events.”.

Former White House counsel Don McGahn will answer questions in private from the House Judiciary Committee in an apparent resolution of a longstanding dispute over his testimony, according to a court document filed Wednesday evening.

The Democratic-led House has passed legislation to constrain a president’s power to limit entry to the U.S. The vote Wednesday was a response to former President Donald Trump’s travel ban covering five Muslim-majority countries.

Legislation introduced by a group of Democratic lawmakers would to add four seats to the nine-member Supreme Court, in a long-shot bid designed to counter the court’s rightward tilt during the Trump administration.

The reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act passed 244-172 with 29 Republicans joining Democrats in supporting the legislation. The White House announced its support earlier Wednesday for reauthorizing VAWA, which aims to reduce domestic and sexual violence and improve the response to it through a variety of grant programs. AdPresident Joe Biden introduced the original Violence Against Women Act in June 1990 when serving as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A subsequent version was eventually included in a sweeping crime bill that President Bill Clinton would sign into law four years later. Congress has reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act three times since.

A coalition of 150 organizations nationwide is opposing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The Movement for Black Lives argues the bill is entrenched in strategies that have historically failed to address police violence across the country and fails to meet the moment." The bill, designed by the Movement for Black Lives’ Electoral Justice Project, would also redirect funding toward communities to address the nation’s systemic racial injustices. “It’s not just about after the fact accountability,” said Gina Clayton-Johnson, the lead BREATHE Act architect and leadership team member of the Movement for Black Lives’ Policy Table. AdBut the movement faces a significant uphill battle in securing needed political support from lawmakers who will be key in pushing forward the BREATHE Act or revamping the Justice in Policing Act.

The House is trying to push the vice president and Cabinet to act even more quickly to remove President Donald Trump from office. Democrats are set to pass a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke constitutional authority under the 25th Amendment to oust Trump. Trump, meanwhile, warned the lawmakers off impeachment and suggested it was the drive to oust him that was dividing the country. Trump faces a single charge — “incitement of insurrection” — in the impeachment resolution after the most serious and deadly domestic incursion at the Capitol in the nation’s history. Trump was impeached by the House in 2019 over dealings with Ukraine and acquitted in 2020 by the Senate.

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2020, file photo, Attorney General William Barr speaks during a roundtable discussion on Operation Legend in St. Louis. Barr went Monday to the White House, where Trump said the attorney general submitted his letter of resignation. Trump said Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, whom he labeled “an outstanding person,” will become acting attorney general. But Democrats have repeatedly accused Barr of acting more like the president’s personal attorney than the attorney general, and Barr had proved to be a largely reliable Trump ally and defender of presidential power. Trump was also said to blame Barr for comments from FBI Director Chris Wray on election fraud and mail-in voting that didn’t jibe with the president’s alarmist rhetoric.

This image from House Television shows the final vote, 228-164, in the House on passage of a bill to decriminalize and tax marijuana at the federal level. (House Television via AP)WASHINGTON – The Democratic-controlled House on Friday approved a bill to decriminalize and tax marijuana at the federal level, reversing what supporters call a failed policy of criminalizing pot use and taking steps to address racial disparities in enforcement of federal drug laws. The bill also would use money from a new excise tax on marijuana to address the needs of groups and communities harmed by the so-called drug war and provide for the expungement of federal marijuana convictions and arrests. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., called the House bill an important racial justice measure. Instead of allowing a vote on the GOP bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is “actually focused more on legalizing pot,'' Scalise said.

(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)SAN DIEGO – The Trump administration has proposed further slashing the number of refugees the United States accepts to a new record low in the coming year. It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to your state,” Trump told supporters. Trump froze refugee admissions in March amid the coronavirus pandemic, citing a need to protect American jobs as fallout from the coronavirus crashed the economy. Between 2017 and 2019, his wife, Ruta, was interviewed, vetted and approved to be admitted to the United States as a refugee. He hopes his wife will be among the refugees who make it to the United States in 2021.

WASHINGTON – House Democrats on Wednesday proposed a bill to curb presidential abuses, a pitch to voters weeks ahead of Election Day as they try to defeat President Donald Trump, capture the Senate from Republicans and keep their House majority. Each of the bill’s provisions is a response to actions by Trump or his administration that Democrats see as abuses of presidential power. It builds on an elections and ethics reform package the House passed soon after Democrats reclaimed the majority in 2019. Congress has yet to send to the president any legislation to try to curb foreign election interference after Russia meddled on several fronts in the 2016 presidential contest. “The degradation of our democracy over the past 3 1/2 years is not the work of the president alone,'' Schiff said.

(Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON The House Judiciary chairman was closing in on his Perry Mason moment with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Fortified with hot internal company documents, Rep. Jerrold Nadler was building his case at a hearing that seemed almost like a trial for Facebook and three other tech giants over alleged anti-competitive tactics. Looking ahead, the hot documents dont by themselves guarantee successful legal action by regulators, legal experts say. But it can be a violation of antitrust law for a company at the top of the heap to use its power to kick competitors off the hill. The head of the Federal Trade Commission has said that as a result of the review, the government may require tech giants to unwind earlier takeovers and divest assets if the agency finds violations of antitrust law.

Protesters, many from the former encampment at City Hall Park, march for social justice in New York, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Protesters, many from the former encampment at City Hall Park, march for social justice in New York, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. Bystander videos of 18-year-old Nikki Stone's arrest spread quickly on social media, along with comments such as “nypd is out here KIDNAPPING protesters off of the street." Another tweet compared the police to an African terrorist group, saying: “When Boko Haram does this there is international outrage. The warrant squad typically “uses unmarked vehicles to effectively locate wanted suspects,” the department said. In Portland, federal agents were accused of failing to properly identify themselves as they took people into custody, allegedly without probable cause.

WASHINGTON House Democrats will try to rein in President Donald Trumps clemency powers on Thursday as they advance legislation that would discourage pardons for friends and family and prevent presidents from pardoning themselves. Trump this month commuted Stone's prison sentence for crimes related to the Russia investigation. The move to shield Stone from prison was a dramatic example of Trump's willingness to exert presidential power over criminal cases, including ones prosecuted by his own Justice Department. The House Judiciary Committee will vote on two bills and an amendment that would try to dissuade Trump or any future presidents from abusing their pardon powers. And he has granted clemency in a host of other controversial cases, commuting the 14-year prison sentence of former Illinois Gov.

At 1:34 a.m. people lit a fire within the portico in front of the federal courthouse. Gas was used at least twice to remove protesters, the statement said, but Portland officers were not present during any of the activity or deploy any "CS gas." Speaking on CNNs State of the Union, Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler said federal officers are not wanted here. These were not merely protesters, these are the real deal!Late Saturday, Portland police declared demonstrations near the federal courthouse a riot after saying protesters broke into the Portland Police Association building and started a fire. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum sued Homeland Security and the Marshals Service in federal court late Friday.

Speaking on CNN's ‘State of the Union,’ Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler said federal officers “are not wanted here. “As the crowd was dispersed, several people in the crowd were arrested and officers were able to extinguish the fire. But Wheeler said the federal presence in the city is now exacerbating a tense situation. "What we're seeing is a blatant abuse of police tactics by the federal government, Wheeler said Sunday. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum sued Homeland Security and the Marshals Service in federal court late Friday.

Berman's office is looking into the business dealings of Rudy Giuliani, Trumps personal lawyer and a former New York mayor. Berman, a Republican lawyer and donor to Trump, was tapped by the administration in 2018 as the U.S. attorney for SDNY. He reportedly met with Trump before being assigned as the top federal prosecutor job in Manhattan. Trump told reporters it was all up to the attorney general. At the time, Trump added: I wasnt involved.It's not the first ouster of a U.S. attorney from the SDNY. Preet Bahara, a former federal prosecutor appointed by President Barack Obama, announced that he was fired in March 2017, shortly after Trump took office.

WASHINGTON The ousted former U.S. attorney for Manhattan will sit down with the House Judiciary Committee next week for a closed-door interview as the panel investigates politicization in the Justice Department. Berman left his job last month after an extraordinary standoff in which he refused to resign until Trump himself fired him. Attorney General William Barr had attempted to force him to resign under pressure, but he refused to go. The Judiciary Committee is investigating the politicization and is scheduled to hear from Barr himself at the end of the month. The White House nominated Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton, a well-connected Wall Street lawyer with virtually no experience as a federal prosecutor, to replace Berman.

Attorney General William Barr listens during a roundtable with President Donald Trump about America's seniors, in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Monday, June 15, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

As the hearing began, Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec tweeted that Barr would accept the panel's invitation to testify July 28. The testimony features the extraordinary spectacle of a current prosecutor castigating decisions made by the leadership of the Justice Department where he still serves. The panel subpoenaed Zelinsky and John Elias, a career official in the department’s antitrust division, as part of its probe into the politicization of the department under Barr. The Democratic-led panel and Barr have been feuding since shortly after he took office in early 2019, when he declined to testify about Mueller's report. A Judiciary Committee aide said the Justice Department restarted negotiations over the hearing in the last few days after Nadler's threat.

The Justice Department moved abruptly Friday, June 19, 2020, to oust Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan overseeing key prosecutions of President Donald Trumps allies and an investigation of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. His statement came hours after Attorney General William Barr said Berman was stepping down from his position. The standoff set off an extraordinary clash between the Justice Department and one of the nations top districts, which has tried major mob and terror cases over the years. Democrats have repeatedly accused Trump's Justice Department of political interference, and those concerns have also been pervasive among some rank and file officials in the agency. But as U.S. attorney, he won over some skeptics after he went after Trump allies, and had a direct hand in other investigations that have angered the president.

WASHINGTON – House Democrats have subpoenaed two Justice Department lawyers to testify before the Judiciary Committee about the politicization of the agency in the Trump administration, the committee’s chairman said Tuesday. The subpoenas set up a potential showdown between Congress and Attorney General William Barr about whether the prosecutors would be allowed to appear before the committee and what they would be permitted to discuss. Barr told the AP last year that the Justice Department would seek to block any attempt by Congress to subpoena members of the special counsel’s team. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the subpoenas. A former official — Donald Ayer, who served as deputy attorney general under President George H.W.

Philonise Floyd, a brother of George Floyd, arrives to testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on proposed changes to police practices and accountability on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, June 10, 2020, in Washington. Stop the pain,” Philonise Floyd told the silenced hearing room. Twenty dollars?” Philonise Floyd asked. “I think it was personal,” Philonise Floyd testified. Underwood Jacobs, a former Republican candidate for Congress, called for justice for Floyd and for her brother.

WASHINGTON A sweeping overhaul of police oversight and procedures is being proposed by Democrats in response to the deaths of black Americans at the hands of law enforcement, according to a draft outline obtained by The Associated Press. It is the most ambitious changes to law enforcement sought by Congress in years. Bass said the package from House and Senate Democrats will be bolder than any law enforcement changes of the past decade. It is unclear if law enforcement and the powerful police unions will back any of the proposed changes or if congressional Republicans will join the effort. Booker and fellow one-time presidential hopeful, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, are co-authors of the package in the Senate.

She said t he package from House and Senate Democrats will be bolder than any law enforcement changes of the past decade. The package would also change “qualified immunity” protections for police “to enable individuals to recover damages when law enforcement officers violate their constitutional rights,” it says. It is unclear if law enforcement and the powerful police unions will back any of the proposed changes or if congressional Republicans will join the effort. At least one Republican, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who has long pushed for a criminal justice overhaul, has said he'd like to review the package coming from Democrats. The presumed Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has backed a ban on chokeholds and other elements of the package.

Pelosi invoked Biblical scripture to reject Trump's clampdown on peaceful protesters outside the White House and she drew on past presidents including George H.W. Gone are the days when Black Lives Matter protests were met simply with Blue Lives Matter retorts in support of law enforcement. Instead, Congress seems to have heard the protesters outside its doors. One House Democrat probed the Secret Service for any communication about Trump's ordering the clampdown on protesters outside the White House. With the Capitol still partly closed due to the coronavirus, a pandemic that is disproportionately striking black Americans, Congress is now confronting another deepening crisis.

WASHINGTON House Democrats say they will hear testimony from Justice Department whistleblowers and attempt to slash the agency's budget, efforts they say are in response to Attorney General William Barrs defiance of Congress and improper politicization of his job. Nadler did not say who the whistleblowers are, and the hearing has not yet been scheduled. He was scheduled to testify in March, but that hearing was canceled when Congress left town due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Justice Department sent Nadler a letter this week citing White House guidance that cabinet-level officials are not permitted to participate in congressional hearings during the month of June without approval from White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, according to a person at the Justice Department familiar with the message. Tensions have been high between Barr and the House panel ever since the attorney general declined to show up at a 2019 hearing on special counsel Robert Muellers report.

(Senate Television via AP)WASHINGTON, D.C. – Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' admonishment of House impeachment prosecutors and President Donald Trump's defense team followed a handwritten note by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. Collins penned a note after House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler's comment about a “cover-up” by Senate Republicans for Trump, her spokeswoman confirmed. Collins told WCSH-TV in Maine that the partisan debate had become “too personal” and went beyond simply arguing the facts. "I had heard both sides impugn the integrity of one another and also cast aspersions on the Senate," she said. “That is just not appropriate.”After receiving the note, Roberts admonished both sides around 1 a.m. Wednesday.

But while Democrats do allege Trump engaged in some criminal acts, the constitutional grounds for impeachment do not require any crime to have been committed. That was bribery, they say, since Trump was withholding nearly $400 million in military aid that Ukraine depended on to counter Russian aggression. As they draft articles of impeachment, Democrats are also alleging crimes involving obstruction of justice as part of their case that Trump abused his office. Actually, the rough transcript came out first, confirming the whistleblower's description of Trump pressing Ukraine for political favors. ___EDITOR'S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures___Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bdFollow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck

WASHINGTON, DC – The House is rapidly headed toward the real work of impeachment this week, with articles expected to be introduced and voted on in the House Judiciary Committee. What’s next in impeachment:HEARING THE EVIDENCEThe House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing Monday to hear evidence from the House intelligence committee, which investigated President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine. Judiciary committee lawyers will also be laying out evidence, an indication that special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation could somehow be incorporated into the articles of impeachment. In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone defiantly wrote that “House Democrats have wasted enough of America's time with this charade." Obstruction articles could be broken up into obstruction of Congress and obstruction of justice, or the two could be combined.

“We’ll bring articles of impeachment presumably before the committee at some point later in the week," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., instructed the committee to write articles of impeachment — formal charges — against Trump for pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic rival. If the committee approves articles by Friday that would set up a final impeachment vote in the days before Christmas. A vote to convict requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 of 100 seats. It is unlikely that any Republican senators would cross party lines and vote to remove Trump from office. White House counsel Pat Cipollone informed the Judiciary Committee late Friday that the administration would not be participating in upcoming House hearings.

WASHINGTON, DC – The White House will not participate in the House Judiciary Committee's next impeachment hearing, a senior Trump administration official said Friday in another sign the president has accepted that he is likely to be impeached by the House. The decision came in a letter from White House counsel Pat Cipollone ahead of a Friday evening deadline set by the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York. The two-paragraph letter did not expressly state the White House's refusal to participate. The White House had faced a Friday evening deadline to inform the House Judiciary Committee whether it intended to have legal representation at a hearing scheduled for Monday that will focus on the recently released House Intelligence Committee report outlining its findings against Trump. The White House also declined to attend the Judiciary Committee's first hearing, held Wednesday, that featured legal experts outlining the history of impeachment and its constitutional role.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)WASHINGTON, DC – The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee asked President Donald Trump on Friday to say whether he’ll send his attorneys to participate in impeachment proceedings before the panel. Rep. Jerrold Nadler also is asking Republicans on his committee which witnesses they plan to ask permission to subpoena. The letters from the New York Democrat came as the House impeachment probe enters a new phase with a hearing next week on whether Trump’s actions might constitute impeachable offenses. Two weeks of Intelligence Committee hearings produced a mountain of testimony but didn’t seem to move the needle on Capitol Hill, where not a single House Republican supported establishing the chamber’s impeachment process. Trump has labeled the proceeding by House Democrats a sham, in part because he could not have his lawyers cross-examine intelligence committee witnesses during hearings and depositions.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Judiciary Committee is set to take over the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump next week, scheduling a Dec. 4 hearing on the question of “high crimes and misdemeanors” set out in the Constitution. The hearing, announced Tuesday, will feature legal experts who will examine the constitutional grounds for impeachment. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said that it will “explore the framework put in place to respond to serious allegations of impeachable misconduct.”The Judiciary hearing will come as the House intelligence committee is expected to submit a report compiling evidence of its probe into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. Trump and his lawyers are invited to attend the hearing and make a request to question witnesses, according to Democratic rules approved by the House last month. The Judiciary panel gave the White House until Dec. 1 to decide whether Trump or his lawyers would attend.

A divided House panel has endorsed a proposal to decriminalize and tax marijuana at the federal level. Groups supporting an end to the national prohibition on pot call the 24-10 vote by the House Judiciary Committee historic. However, even if passed in the House, the proposal faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled Senate. The House Judiciary Committee approved the proposal 24-10 after more than two hours of debate. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee complained that the proposal to decriminalize cannabis had never had a hearing and lacked the bipartisan support needed to become law.

"Impeachment is not 'lynching,' it is part of our Constitution," the former vice president said in a tweet on Tuesday. In an appearance on CNN in October 1998, however, Biden said the impending impeachment proceedings against then-President Bill Clinton could be viewed as a "partisan lynching." The Washington Post reported Tuesday that at least five House Democrats had invoked lynching during the 1998 Clinton impeachment proceedings. One of those House members was Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, who called the Clinton impeachment process a "lynch mob." This story has been updated with additional context surrounding the 1998 impeachment of President Clinton.