by Julianne McShane | Jul 28, 2026 | Congress, News, Politics
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has asked Sen. Mitch McConnell to “directly and verbally address” their constituents or resign, the Democratic governor’s latest demand for transparency regarding the 84-year-old Republican lawmaker’s condition as he recovers from a fall and pneumonia.
“I am addressing this letter to Senator McConnell under the assumption that he is capable of reading and responding verbally, and not incapacitated by means of consciousness or cognition,” Beshear wrote Monday. “If the Senator is unable to respond for either of those or other conditions, consider this letter a demand for his Senate staff to be honest and transparent with the people of Kentucky.”
The governor also wrote to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., requesting he “fully investigate” McConnell’s condition if the senator is “unwilling to voluntarily show that he still has the capacity to serve.”
Beshear’s letters came on the same day that McConnell released a statement saying he was continuing “intense physical therapy” in the rehab facility where he moved after his hospitalization last month for what he described as a fall and a subsequent “mild case of pneumonia.” The Office of the Attending Physician, which provides medical care to members of Congress, also said in a statement Monday that McConnell is “not yet medically cleared” to leave his rehab facility and return to work. The statement added that the senator “has maintained a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation, including multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls.”
Beshear dismissed those updates, writing in his latest letter to McConnell, “Even the attending physician’s written statement does not discuss your actual condition, including whether
by Zeeshan Aleem | Jul 28, 2026 | Congress, Opinion, White House
The late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, whose funeral services begin Tuesday in Washington, has been praised by his supporters as a man of conviction who never shied away from his belief that America had a duty to project its strength worldwide. Conversely, critics will remember Graham as an ally of President Donald Trump who abandoned his stated principles in order to be closer to the seat of power.
But these accounts miss something vital about the South Carolina lawmaker’s legacy: Graham was an operator who used his carefully cultivated proximity to the president to have a better chance of persuading Trump to adopt his own ultra-hawkish foreign policy goals. Their relationship was a two-way street, one that culminated in Trump’s disastrous decision to launch a war with Iran.
Graham and Trump formed a marriage of convenience based on their distinct but overlapping ideological worldviews.
The consequences of the Graham-Trump collaboration were vividly captured in a recent report by The Wall Street Journal based on unreleased footage from a documentary about Graham that was being filmed before he died. In one scene reported on by the Journal, Graham is outright giddy after Trump started the Iran war:
“Look what we’ve done here. I almost cried,” [Graham] tells the crew, laughing loudly just after U.S. strikes on Iran began in February. “How long have we been pushing this?”
He then tells the crew that Trump was equally happy about the war. “I talked to Trump this morning, he’s jacked, he said, ‘Best thing I have ever done.’ He loves blowing stuff up.”
Graham also goes on to boast about how his view prevailed over those of the isolationists
by Hayes Brown | Jul 28, 2026 | Congress, Opinion
During his 2022 campaign for Senate, then-Lt. Gov John Fetterman of Pennsylvania declared that if elected, he would vote to eliminate the Senate filibuster. At the time, 48 Democratic senators had backed overriding the 60-vote threshold in the name of passing an updated Voting Rights Act and codifying Roe v. Wade. They fell two votes short, though, thanks to Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
Fetterman’s win that November meant Democrats needed just one of Manchin or Sinema to reform the filibuster. Yet neither budged. Now they are retired, but Fetterman declared in a Washington Post op-ed Monday that he intends to take up their cause.
Halfway through his term, Fetterman now claims that he has seen the light: The filibuster is in fact a necessary tool for compromise. Every stale argument Fetterman makes mirrors those made by his former colleagues and shows how much he shares their cowardice.
Every stale argument Fetterman makes mirrors those made by his former colleagues and shows how much he shares their cowardice.
Much of Fetterman’s essay is a counterfactual, highlighting what the GOP would have done had Democrats lifted the filibuster during the Biden administration. “If we win the Senate, we will not have enough votes to override the 60-vote threshold on our own and will once again have to find common ground with our Republican colleagues,” Fetterman declared, before smarmily adding, “assuming the Democratic Party’s narrative on the filibuster remains what it has become under Trump: that we love it.”
First off, senator, speak for yourself. Second, I must have missed the great feats of legislative compromise that have taken place with Republicans
by Erum Salam | Jul 26, 2026 | Congress, News, White House, World
President Donald Trump is giving fragile U.S.-Iran diplomacy “some space” before deciding whether to resume strikes, United Nations Ambassador Mike Waltz said Sunday.
Hours later, however, Trump posted images to social media depicting the U.S. attacking Iran.
Waltz also dismissed concerns over the United States’ diminished munitions stockpiles, even as he conceded that “a lot” of weapons have been depleted, which he said was because of the Russia-Ukraine war and fighting with the Houthis.
“I want to be crystal clear: The U.S. military — and I’ve verified this every which way — has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be,” Waltz told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Waltz’s comments came on the second consecutive day of paused fighting between the United Sates and Iran amid reports of a dwindled U.S. stockpile of Patriot antimissile interceptors, among other munitions.
The New York Times reported Sunday that the depletion of interceptor stockpiles is among the reasons why the administration is wary of resuming major combat operations in a war launched without congressional authorization and which has grown exceedingly unpopular.
But Waltz underscored that the pause in fighting is to allow for an opportunity for peace — not because of an insufficient weapons supply, and warned that those leaking information to the press about the U.S. not having sufficient weaponry “deserve to be in jail.”
“What the president is doing right now, as we’ve seen all along, is giving some talks some space. Talks are ongoing,” Waltz told NBC. “They’re happening at every level, from the more technical aspect of it all the way to the highest levels, of course, within
by Ryan Teague Beckwith | Jul 26, 2026 | Business, Congress, Opinion
Residents of Washington, D.C., don’t have voting members of Congress, so we have no say in what happens on Capitol Hill. And if DoorDash gets its way, we will have even less say at City Hall.
The San Francisco-based company, worth about $73 billion, objected to a 20-cent fee on food deliveries that the D.C. Council recently enacted.
But rather than make its case to the district’s elected leaders or persuade voters the fee was a bad idea, DoorDash went nuclear, publicly backing Republican legislation that would require Congress to approve any future local taxes or fees in the district.
I’ve never used DoorDash, but this decision made me wish I’d signed up just so I could dramatically cancel my account.
I’ve never used DoorDash, but this decision made me wish I’d signed up just so I could dramatically cancel my account. As a D.C. resident, I don’t have much power to do anything else.
Congress already exercises sweeping authority over the district. Under the 1973 Home Rule Act, it can block laws passed by the D.C. Council during a review period through a joint resolution. Even after that period ends, Congress can still overturn local laws through ordinary legislation or — more commonly — by attaching riders to must-pass appropriations bills.
Over the years, Republicans in Congress have repeatedly used that power to block policies supported by D.C. voters, including needle-exchange programs during the AIDS crisis, medical marijuana and funding for abortions for low-income women. Congress has even barred D.C. from using its own funds to lobby for statehood.
(To be fair, former President Barack Obama agreed to restrictions on D.C. abortion funding during budget negotiations,
by Zeeshan Aleem | Jul 26, 2026 | Congress, elections, Opinion
Maine Democrats on Saturday selected former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson to replace Graham Platner as the party’s U.S. Senate nominee. Jackson now has just three months to make his case that Mainers should pick him to represent them in Washington over five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
The Democrats’ scramble echoes the 2024 presidential election, when Kamala Harris ran for president after President Joe Biden withdrew. In this case, Jackson is the one taking the reins toward the end of a tight high-stakes race after his predecessor imploded and dropped out. But considering the disastrous circumstances, the nomination of Jackson looks like a pretty decent outcome for Democrats. There’s reason for cautious optimism that he could prevail in his race, given his unique position as a progressive insider with something to offer voters looking for populist outsiders.
This may end up being the smoothest passing of the baton Democrats could have hoped for.
It all came together shockingly fast. Platner’s campaign collapsed after a sexual assault allegation, and Democrats had less than two weeks to figure out how to replace him on the ballot. And the outcome of the convention held on Saturday had, in fact, been determined by the quickly cobbled-together process leading up to it.
The week before the state convention, registered Democrats voted in county-level mini-conventions in which they selected delegates to send to the state convention. The process was rushed and ad hoc, and the participation in the state conventions was less than a tenth of the primary, but the results were clear: Jackson dominated, winning 478 of 500 delegates up for grabs. Saturday’s state convention was a mere formality.
This may
