President Joe Biden is meeting with the top four members of Congress to negotiate a resolution to the looming debt ceiling crisis. Republicans want spending cuts in exchange for raising the borrowing limit, while Democrats, including Mr. Biden, want to increase the debt limit without conditions. The White House has refused to negotiate over the debt ceiling itself, but both sides agree a resolution is essential to avoid the economic calamity of a default.
Posts tagged as “Hakeem Jeffries”
A U.S. District Judge appointed by former President Donald Trump has suspended the FDA's approval of abortion pills, sparking outrage among Congressional Democrats. Chuck Schumer has urged Republicans to speak out against the ruling, while President Joe Biden has said his administration will file an appeal. Republicans in Congress have yet to respond to the ruling.
Six people were killed in a mass shooting at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, prompting a heated exchange between Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and freshman Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz during a House hearing. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries echoed the frustration of those who believe the logical response to multiple shootings with assault-style weapons should be to restore a ban on such weapons, urging Republicans to bring the bipartisan universal criminal background check legislation and an assault weapons ban to the floor for debate. The exchange between Greene and Moskowitz highlights the divide between those who believe gun safety should be a priority and those who do not, and Jeffries has called for debate on the issue.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has been searching for a basis to bring charges against former President Donald Trump for years, leading to a heated debate between House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). On Monday, three House Republican committee chairmen sent a letter to District Attorney Alvin Bragg requesting he testify before Congress about the potential indictment of Trump in the prosecutor's hush money probe. The District Attorney's Office has yet to comment on the letter, but the debate has brought the potential indictment of Trump to the forefront of the news.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has expressed doubt over House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) statement that footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol riots will be screened by the Capitol Police before being released to the public, questioning whether the police have done so yet. Jeffries said that any material footage must be vetted before it is released into the public domain, and McCarthy's office has not yet responded to his comments. It is unclear when the Capitol Police will finish screening the footage or when it will be released.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have written a letter to Fox Corp. and Fox News executives, urging them to stop pushing baseless claims and “grave propaganda” about the 2020 presidential election. Documents from a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems revealed that Fox News commentators endorsed false claims about the election. Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged this in the documents, and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, warned of possible shareholder lawsuits and an SEC investigation.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have agreed to create a bipartisan task force to establish a process to remove members from committees. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina has been offered the position of chair, while Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas have also been asked to serve. The task force is a response to the fallout from McCarthy's decision to call for a vote of the full House that removed Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the Foreign Affairs Committee, and will be an important step in ensuring the U.S. continues to provide support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
In his 2021 State of the Union address, President Joe Biden congratulated the new members of Congress and the new Speaker of the House, and expressed his desire to work together. He discussed the progress the United States has made in the past year, and the need for further progress in areas such as infrastructure, climate change, and immigration. He concluded his speech by expressing his optimism for the future of the United States and was well-received by members of Congress.