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President Biden and congressional Democrats united Tuesday behind a ban on Russian oil and natural gas imports, embracing a politically risky strategy that is expected to drive up already-rising fuel prices while seeking to pin the blame for Americans’ pain at the pump on Vladimir Putin. In a speech announcing the ban, Biden acknowledged it would probably result in more expensive gas for consumers in the United States, a potentially perilous admission for a president who has been scrambling to head off Republican attacks over the rising cost of groceries, rent and other items. Biden frequently named the Russian president...

Democrats’ months-long drive for muscular new federal voting rights legislation hit a new roadblock Wednesday, with options for progress dwindling as Senate Republicans remained united in blocking debate on the issue. ... But the realities of the Senate — with a razor-thin Democratic majority and a united Republican minority empowered by the long-standing filibuster rule requiring a 60-vote supermajority to advance most legislation — continue to make progress difficult and wholly dependent on the willingness of key Democratic senators to change their views on modifying the Senate’s rules. ... The new bill, called the Freedom to Vote Act, keeps some...

President Trump’s order to kill an Iranian commander responsible for hundreds of American deaths has scrambled the politics of impeachment, putting Democrats on the defensive in their bid to remove Trump during a possible escalation into war. Multiple senior congressional Democratic officials predicted that the House in the coming days will transmit to the Senate a pair of charges accusing Trump of abusing his power and obstructing Congress, though Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office says no decision has been made. But some privately worry that the timing will trigger GOP accusations that they’re undercutting the commander in chief during a national...

In a late Wednesday night, post-impeachment tweet completely devoid of all self-awareness, Washington Post congressional reporter Rachael Bade flaunted how she and four other journalists from the paper were celebrating President Trump’s impeachment. “Merry Impeachmas from the WaPo team! [Paul Kane] is buying ... w/[Karoun Demirjian] [Seung Min Kim] [Mike DeBonis],” she gleefully shared in the now-deleted tweet, along with a picture of them around a restaurant table with food and at least two beers. Interestingly, three of the five newspaper writers involved with the apparent celebration (Bade, Demirjian, and Kim) are also CNN political analysts. Rightly, the supposedly objective...

Full title: ‘Schumer Destroyed All Our Leverage’: WaPo Report Reveals Infighting Between House And Senate Democrats On Border Bill See also (But WaPo paywall if you have already looked at WaPo this month)‘A betrayal’: Inside the bitter rift between Pelosi and Schumer over border bill Democrats in the House and Senate are at odds with one another over the passage of a $4.5 billion emergency border funding bill backed by Senate Republicans, a Friday report from The Washington Post revealed. The fact that Senate Democrats went along with the bill “kneecapped the House and marked the most embarrassing defeat for...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her colleagues in a private meeting Thursday that she thought she had a deal this week with her longtime ally, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer: She would ensure passage of a more liberal border funding bill in the House, and he would back her up by persuading Democratic senators to fight for it. Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, she was blindsided. Nearly all Senate Democrats voted for a Republican-backed bill that kneecapped the House and marked the most embarrassing defeat for Pelosi in the six months since Democrats took over the chamber. “Schumer destroyed all...

House Democrats erupted into a full-scale brawl Wednesday, challenging leaders over indirectly sanctioning freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar for alleged anti-Semitic remarks amid an outcry over party inaction to President Trump’s divisive comments on race. In a closed-door session, Democrats protested plans to vote this week on a resolution condemning religious hatred, a measure prompted by Omar’s comments last week suggesting supporters of Israel have “allegiance to a foreign country.” The remarks have exploded into a larger debate over how Congress should respond to individual racial and religious grievances. It also touched off Democratic concerns that the splintering was overshadowing the...

WASHINGTON - The two top-ranking Democrats indicated Tuesday that their confidence is growing that their party will retake the House majority in November's midterm elections, as a new Washington Post-ABC News poll showed voters turning sharply against congressional Republicans. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sent a letter telling colleagues on Tuesday that Democrats "must Be Ready for the prospect that we will be in the Majority in January." Pelosi said that the top Democrats on House committees will write bills reflecting the party's "For the People" campaign agenda, with an emphasis on reining in health care coats, raising wages...

Democrats warned Wednesday that Republican plans to speed ahead with plans to revamp the nation’s tax code could spell more electoral trouble for President Trump and his party next year — especially with young people and suburban families. Just hours after Republicans suffered a humiliating defeat in a special U.S. Senate election in the GOP stronghold of Alabama, party leaders unveiled a compromise on a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax plan that will significantly lower corporate interest rates and slash taxes for upper-income households. But Democrats — now able to tout recent electoral victories in deep-blue New Jersey, swing state Virginia...

Texas Democratic Congressman Al Green sent an out-of-the-blue press release Monday acknowledging the existence of a previous sexual assault allegation against him, but denying it ever happened. Green sent an unprompted joint statement to Washington Post reporter Mike DeBonis signed by himself and Green's former district director, Lucinda Daniels, denying anything untoward happened between the two. "In the present climate, we wish to jointly quiet any curious minds about our former and present relationship with one another. We are friends, and have long been friends," they wrote. Mike DeBonis ✔ @mikedebonis A new, out-of-nowhere statement from @RepAlGreen. Spox: "The attached...

Top Republicans joined with President Obama and other Democrats Tuesday in sharply condemning Donald Trump’s reaction to the nightclub massacre in Orlando, decrying his anti-Muslim rhetoric and his questioning of Obama’s allegiances as divisive and out of step with America’s values. Trump — who just a week ago signaled an intent to snap his campaign into a more measured tone for the general election — showed no sign of backing down from his suggestions that Obama was somehow connected to or sympathetic with terrorists, telling the Associated Press that the president “continues to prioritize our enemy” over Americans. In separate...

AUSTIN -- President Obama defended government efforts to preserve law enforcement access to digital devices Friday, telling a crowd that included many technology innovators that society cannot end up "fetishizing our phones above every other value." Obama made his remarks during a keynote discussion at the yearly South by Southwest Interactive conference here, after being asked by Texas Tribune journalist Evan Smith to comment on the larger implications of the pending fight between the FBI and Apple over access to an iPhone used by one of the shooters in December's terrorist attack in San Bernardino. "The question we now have...

Brian Sandoval, the centrist Republican governor of Nevada, is being vetted by the White House for a possible nomination to the Supreme Court, according to two people familiar with the process. Sandoval is increasingly viewed by some key Democrats as perhaps the only nominee President Obama could select who would be able to break a Republican blockade in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday pledged "no action" on any Supreme Court nomination before November's election, saying the decision ought to be left to the next president. The White House declined to comment Wednesday for this story....

A group of hard-line conservatives threatened to upend the Republican race to succeed outgoing House Speaker John A. Boehner, announcing on Wednesday it will throw its support behind a little-known Florida lawmaker to become the next speaker. The House Freedom Caucus’s backing of Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) ahead of a crucial internal party vote Thursday deeply complicates Majority Leader Kevin O. McCarthy’s bid to succeed Boehner. The group counts enough members — about 40 — to deny McCarthy the majority of the whole House he would need to claim the speaker’s chair. But in an opening for the California Republican,...