Secretary of State Antony Blinken and King Abdullah II of Jordan discussed the "horrific Hamas terrorist attacks" and the "devastating impact" of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which has resulted in at least 2,700 deaths and thousands of injuries. Blinken has been meeting with Israeli officials and those affected by the violence, and is now working with King Abdullah II to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Posts published in “Politics”
On Thursday night, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., announced his withdrawal from the race for the vacant House speaker role. This leaves the Republican party without a clear frontrunner for the role, and they are now tasked with holding another vote in the coming days to select a new speaker. The House remains closed until a new speaker is chosen.
House Republicans are struggling to decide on a new Speaker of the House after the ousting of Rep. Kevin McCarthy last month. Rep. Steve Scalise has been the front-runner, but has failed to gain the necessary votes to become Speaker. House Republicans have been unable to come to an agreement on a plan to replace McCarthy, leaving the House in a state of disarray with no clear path forward.
Key takeaways: House Republicans remain divided and unable to elect a new speaker. Rep. Mike Rogers expressed concern that the party’s narrow majority may never…
Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) has won the majority of votes in the House GOP conference to become the new House Speaker, but he faces difficulty in uniting the 217 Republicans necessary to vote for him due to petty and more esoteric disagreements. This follows previous Republican rebellions, such as the battles between then-Speaker John Boehner and the House Freedom Caucus. Meanwhile, a traumatic event recently struck the immediate family of a TPM writer, involving a car accident and a sailing accident. These events have been difficult for both the family and Scalise as he attempts to gain the necessary support.
President Joe Biden expressed shock at images depicting what he said were militants chopping off the heads of young children, but the White House has since clarified that he was referring to news reports about beheadings, which have not included or referred to photographic evidence. Reports of baby beheadings have spread across social and mainstream media, prompting the White House to urge both sides to de-escalate the conflict and work towards a peaceful resolution.
President Joe Biden acknowledged the 25th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death, a tragic hate crime that has fueled the LGBTQ+ rights movement since 1998. The Shepard family and activists have worked tirelessly to ensure that Matthew's death was not in vain, and Biden condemned the recent uptick in anti-LGBTQ threats and acts of violence. Progress has been made since 1998, such as the scrapping of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and the striking down of a Texas law criminalizing consensual gay sex.
Key takeaways: The article details a critical mass of “chatter” the night before the attacks, including phone consultations at the highest levels of the army…