Wednesday, Jan 22nd
Last update08:35:36 AM GMT
Congressional Glance
Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, acknowledged Tuesday he is “not a perfect person” but was defiant in the face of multiple allegations surrounding his past conduct during a contentious confirmation hearing.
Hegseth dismissed the allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017 as false and part of a “coordinated smear campaign,” claiming that the attacks against him were an attempt to use him to also smear the president-elect.
Former President Jimmy Carter's casket arrived at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday afternoon for a military tribute and to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
The streets of Washington, D.C., with the ground covered in snow from a recent storm, were quiet as his casket passed. Members of Congress, Vice President Kamala Harris, Cabinet secretaries and Carter's family members are paying their respects in a service in the Capitol Rotunda.
"Today, we gather to begin a final farewell to Jimmy Carter — Navy veteran, peanut farmer, governor of Georgia, and president of the United States," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said, opening the service. "Sunday school teacher, Nobel prize winner, advocate for peace and human rights, and first and foremost, a faithful servant of his creator, and of his fellow man."
TVNL Comment: Rest in Peace, President Carter. The world has lost a good man, who devoted his life to making life better for so many.
President-elect Donald Trump officially won a second term in the White House on Monday when the Electoral College votes were read aloud and certified in front of a joint session of Congress led by Trump's 2024 rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
No lawmaker objected during the roughly 30-minute ceremony, which culminated when tellers read out the results from Texas and Trump formally clinched the 270 electoral votes necessary to become the next president of the United States.
Members of the House and Senate clapped politely as the presidential candidates from their party were named victors in each respective state – a marked contrast from four years ago when a mob of Trump supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol during a deadly riot that delayed for several hours the ceremony that declared President Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election.
The Democratic congresswoman Barbara Lee has always stood apart, a matter-of-fact renegade with a long list of firsts.
In high school, she was the first Black student to integrate her southern California cheerleading squad. During her more than two decades in Congress, she has been the only Black woman elected to the US House from California’s regions north of Los Angeles.
But it was Lee’s lonely 2001 vote as the only lawmaker against the authorization for the use of US military force against those responsible for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington that indelibly set her apart.
TVNL Comment: Hail and Farewell, Rep Lee. Thank you for your bravery, your willingness to support the truth, and your refusl to sanction the war against Iraq.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican and self-described “MAGA conservative,” secured the 218 votes he needed to be re-elected speaker on the first ballot. The Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, received 215 votes.
In the end, just one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted against Johnson.
With Johnson’s election, Republicans now officially control both chambers of Congress and they can begin to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration and the ambitious legislative agenda that he has promised voters. Congress is slated to certify Trump’s election victory on Monday, Jan. 6, the fourth anniversary of the Capitol attack.
Mike Johnson’s grip on the House speakership faces a crucial test on Friday, as mounting opposition from within his own Republican party threatens to derail his re-election bid, despite receiving an endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump.
With Republicans holding a razor-thin 219-215 majority in the House, Johnson can only afford to lose one vote – a threshold already reached after the Kentucky representative Thomas Massie publicly declared his intention to vote against the incumbent speaker.
The adult son of the Republican North Dakota US senator Kevin Cramer has been sentenced to serve 28 years in prison in connection with a wild chase in which he fled from a hospital and drove into a deputy’s vehicle, killing the deputy.
Ian Cramer, 43, pleaded guilty in September to all of the charges against him, including homicide while fleeing a peace officer, preventing arrest, reckless endangerment, fleeing an officer and drug- and driving-related offenses. Those charges related to the chase and crash in December last year that killed the Mercer county sheriff’s deputy Paul Martin, 53.
The state court judge Bobbi Weiler handed down the sentence of 38 years with 10 years suspended, three years of probation and credit for more than a year served in jail. She also included recommended treatment for addiction and mental health. But he likely will not serve the full 28 years, the judge said.
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