Kevin mccarthy

The People’s Liberation Army flew 34 aircraft near Taiwan on Tuesday and Wednesday. Twenty of them crossed the “median line,” the de facto border running down the Taiwan Strait between China and Taiwan. The Chinese military also sent nine vessels near Taiwan, the island republic that Beijing claims as its own. (RELATED: GORDON CHANG: China Smiles As America Falls Deeper Into The TikTok Trap) Global Times, a semi-official tabloid, left Washington in no doubt about the meaning of what it called “intense warplane and warship activities.” “This could be seen as a warning to McCarthy that he should not follow his predecessor Nancy Pelosi’s suit in provocatively interfering in China’s internal affairs,” the paper declared . Yes, Beijing is unhappy that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, fulfilling a promise he made while running for the post, is planning to visit Taipei. The Chinese foreign ministry was relatively restrained in its remarks about a possible McCarthy trip to the … [Read more...] about GORDON CHANG: Kevin McCarthy Squares Up Against The ‘World’s Largest Bully’ — China

WASHINGTON — President Biden probably will not put it quite this way when he gets up before Congress to address the nation this week, but the state of America’s union is disunion. To see that, he will need only turn around to find a Republican House speaker seated behind him, determined to block his every move. So Mr. Biden’s message of unity, a hard sell already during his first two years in office, may prove even more out of sync on Tuesday night as he delivers his first State of the Union address of this new era of divided government. Yet for a president who prides himself on working across the aisle, a unity pitch may paradoxically be a useful cudgel to hammer his newly empowered opponents. Mr. Biden plans to present himself to what is likely to be his largest television audience of the year as the adult in the room, willing and able to reach bipartisan compromises in an age of deep partisanship, according to advisers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the … [Read more...] about For Biden, a Chance for a Fresh Start in a New Era of Divided Government

WASHINGTON, March 18 - Congressional leaders, concerned that many nonprofit hospitals are not providing enough charity care to justify their tax-exempt status, say they will set standards for the industry if it does not do so itself. The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who had already been examining nonprofit groups like United Way and the American Red Cross, is broadening his focus to include nonprofit hospitals, with an eye to legislation that would clarify standards for their tax exemptions. Representative Bill Thomas, Republican of California, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, began investigating the financial practices of nonprofit hospitals last year. The commissioner of internal revenue, Mark W. Everson, said tax officials often found little difference between nonprofit and for-profit hospitals "in their operations, their attention to the benefit of the community or their levels of charity care." Huge … [Read more...] about Nonprofit Hospitals Face Scrutiny Over Practices

The downing of a Chinese spy balloon on Saturday afternoon ended America’s fixation on the balloon’s days-long journey across United States airspace and provided “Saturday Night Live” with irresistibly topical subject matter for its opening sketch just a few hours later. This weekend’s “S.N.L.” broadcast, hosted by Pedro Pascal and featuring the musical guest Coldplay, started with a sendup of an MSNBC broadcast anchored by Chloe Fineman, playing the TV journalist Katy Tur. “Tonight, our long national nightmare is over,” Fineman said. “We got the balloon.” She introduced a Pentagon official played by Kenan Thompson, who explained how the balloon was eventually brought down. “The balloon was somehow able to get past our West Coast anti-balloon defense system, the Seattle Space Needle,” Thompson said. “But once it was here, we were able to keep an eye on it with our sophisticated tracking technology. Of going like this.” Here, Thompson simply looked up above him. … [Read more...] about ‘S.N.L.’ Gives Comic Voice to the Downed Chinese Spy Balloon

Impeachment Results: How Democrats and Republicans Voted See how each House member voted on the article of impeachment charging President Trump with inciting violence against the country. The House on Wednesday impeached President Trump for inciting a violent insurrection against the United States government, as 10 members of the president’s party joined Democrats to charge him with high crimes and misdemeanors for an unprecedented second time. Reconvening under the threat of continued violence and the protection of thousands of National Guard troops, the House was determined to hold Mr. Trump to account just one week before he was to leave office. At issue was his role in encouraging a mob that attacked the Capitol one week ago while Congress met to affirm President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, forcing lawmakers to flee for their lives in a deadly rampage. The House adopted a single article of impeachment , voting 232 to 197 to charge Mr. Trump with … [Read more...] about The House impeaches Trump for ‘incitement of insurrection,’ setting up a Senate trial.

Just after the House impeached him for inciting an insurrection against the United States government, President Trump issued a videotaped statement on Wednesday condemning the violent siege on the Capitol last week and urging his supporters not to riot again as President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. prepares to take office. In the video, released on YouTube and on the @WhiteHouse Twitter account, Mr. Trump did not concede that he had lost to Mr. Biden in a free and fair election or mention the president-elect by name, even as he used his strongest language yet to reject the violence carried out under his name. “I want to be very clear: I unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw last week,” Mr. Trump said. “Violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement. Making America Great Again has always been about defending the rule of law,” and supporting law enforcement officials, Mr. Trump said. Security experts and law-enforcement … [Read more...] about ‘I unequivocally condemn the violence,’ Trump says in a video, minutes after he is impeached.

WASHINGTON — Back at the Capitol for his second inaugural in 1997, Bill Clinton delivered a blunt appeal to the hardened Republican majorities confronting him in Congress. “The American people returned to office a president of one party and a Congress of another,” Mr. Clinton told the lawmakers and the crowd gathered at the Capitol. “Surely they did not do this to advance the politics of petty bickering and extreme partisanship they plainly deplore.” Less than two years later, House Republicans impeached Mr. Clinton, suggesting his words were not exactly taken to heart. With varying degrees of success, presidents have used their inaugural addresses to appeal to the lawmakers they need to enact their agendas. President Biden was no exception on Wednesday, though he was less direct than Mr. Clinton. “To restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: Unity,” Mr. Biden said in remarks with … [Read more...] about Biden’s Calls for Unity Are Already Being Tested in Congress

“The View” co-host Sara Haines pushed back against colleague Sunny Hostin in a debate about the House speakership Thursday. Haines argued that House Democrats should work with their Republicans colleagues to elect a speaker who can potentially obtain the required 218 votes. Hostin said Democrats will not do that because Republican “chaos” should “not reign” in the chamber. “If you can get Democrats to say we will vote for your Republican, if it’s someone we can agree on,” Haines said. “The Democrats are very united and I don’t think that the Democrats are gonna do that and allow their chaos to reign,” Hostin replied. “That’s political though, because that does not help the people,” Haines argued. “This is what I’m saying is, the first vote is symbolic. Democrats come together and you show you’re united, awesome. Now, feed on the opportunity to come in and have a say on who this person is.” “Then Republicans should vote for [Democratic New York Rep.] Hakeem Jeffries,” … [Read more...] about ‘The View’ Co-Host Pushes Back Against Sunny Hostin In Lively Debate On House Speaker

MINOT, N.D. — Heidi Heitkamp, a Democratic Senate candidate, called Leonard Rademacher a few weeks ago looking for his vote, but Mr. Rademacher, a 74-year-old retiree, was feeling ill, so Ms. Heitkamp called him back. “I said: ‘Heidi, save your breath. I’m voting for you,’ ” Mr. Rademacher recalled, marveling at her personal attention. “I don’t necessarily agree with her, but I trust her.” Gary Volk backed Ms. Heitkamp, a former state attorney general, after she sat for four hours on a slab of concrete next to what was once his house, listening to his struggles to recover from catastrophic flooding last year. Larry Windus’s mind was made up by an encounter with her opponent, Representative Rick Berg, a Republican, that ended with the candidate turning his back on him. “He’s not very personable,” said Mr. Windus, 55, a dishwasher at Charlie’s Main Street Cafe here. Senate Republicans considered the state in their column when Senator Kent Conrad, a veteran Democrat, announced his … [Read more...] about ‘North Dakota Nice’ Plays Well in Senate Race

ARLINGTON, Va. — The rise of Donald J. Trump, with his hostility toward free trade and vow to protect entitlements, is a sharp rebuke to the free-market principles long championed by the billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch. But if the Koch brothers have lost the battle for conservative values in 2016, they are also quietly preparing for a long war. Their secret weapon is the Grassroots Leadership Academy: a training program dreamed up by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the political education arm of the Koch network, and intended to groom the next generation of conservative activists to shape the future of the Republican Party. Taking inspiration from icons of the left like Saul Alinsky, the Marxist-inspired Frankfurt School, and even President Obama’s Organizing for Action , the academy offers classes like “Messaging to the Middle” (about reaching not just the conservative base but also persuadable voters), community organizing and how to wage a … [Read more...] about With Koch Brothers Academy, Conservatives Settle In for Long War