First Run News

Biden, the current 2020 Democrat front runner, told a group of donors gathered for a fundraiser at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City it was vital the next president “be able to reach consensus under our system.” To explain why he was the best candidate in that regard, Biden fondly cited his history of working with two of the Senate’s arch segregationists, the late-Sens. James Eastland (D-MS) and Herman Talmadge (D-GA). “I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland,” Biden said with an attempted Southern drawl.

President Trump kicked off his re-election campaign Tuesday evening in Orlando, nearly four years to the day since he first descended an escalator to announce an improbable run for the Republican nomination for president. Despite the years that have passed since then, Trump returned to many of his favorite topics in the roughly 80 minutes he spoke on stage. Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s rally. Recall Trump’s campaign launch in 2015: The location was in the atrium of his Trump Tower building in New York City, and the announcement did not attract many attendees.

WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee will interview former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks behind closed doors Wednesday, the first time lawmakers will hear from a person linked to the president’s inner circle since the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Obtaining the testimony from Hicks, a close and trusted former aide to President Donald Trump, is a significant victory for Democrats as Trump has broadly stonewalled their investigations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday completed one of its biggest rollbacks of environmental rules, replacing a landmark Obama-era effort that sought to wean the nation’s electrical grid off coal-fired power plants and their climate-damaging pollution. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, signed a replacement rule that gives states leeway in deciding whether to require efficiency upgrades at existing coal plants. Wheeler said coal-fired power plants remained essential to the power grid, somethi

WASHINGTON — Former top White House adviser Hope Hicks on Wednesday refused to answer questions related to her time in the White House in an interview with the House Judiciary Committee, dimming Democrats’ chances of obtaining new or substantive information about President Donald Trump as part of their investigation into obstruction of justice. Frustrated Democrats taking breaks from the meeting said Hicks and her lawyer were following White House orders to stay quiet about her time there working for Trump.

Joe Biden refused calls to apologize Wednesday for saying that the Senate ‘‘got things done’’ with ‘‘civility’’ even when the body included segregationists. The former vice president was particularly defiant in rejecting criticism from Sen. Cory Booker, one of two major black candidates seeking the Democratic nomination. The New Jersey Democrat had called on Biden to apologize for his comments.

MORE Sanders at a rally where he officially announced his 2020 reelection campaign. Trump invited Sanders onstage just under an hour into his speech in Orlando, Fla., to a deafening ovation, calling her a “warrior” who would make a good governor of her home state of Arkansas. “We’re going to miss her,” Trump said. Sanders, who is making her final presidential trip, said that serving as press secretary “has truly been an honor of a lifetime” and predicted Trump would win a second term. “He made America great again and continues to make America great,” she said.

Rep. MORE (D-N.Y.) created a new political firestorm Tuesday, stating that detention centers housing immigrants are “exactly” like concentration camps and then doubling down in the face of GOP criticism. “The U.S. is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are,” Ocasio-Cortez said during an Instagram Live appearance on Monday night. “If that doesn’t bother you ...

The top members of the Senate Appropriations Committee have struck a deal on MORE's request for more funding tied to the U.S.-Mexico border after weeks of stalemate, two aides confirmed to The Hill. The deal — worked out between Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman MORE (D-Vt.), the top Democrat on the panel — would provide Trump more than $4.5 billion for the border funding package. The agreement will be marked up in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, and is expected to get a vote on the Senate floor before lawmakers leave

Acting Defense Secretary MORE abruptly withdrew from consideration Wednesday to lead the Pentagon under a cloud of allegations surrounding domestic violence within his family, leaving senators fuming and the Defense Department rudderless at a time of rising tensions with Iran. Shanahan’s downfall came hours after published reports revealed new details about physical altercations with his ex-wife nearly a decade ago and after he appeared to be working as recently as Monday night to save his nomination with a sit-down interview with The Washington Post. And it raises qu