Trump taps critic of Pope Francis for Vatican ambassadorship

President-elect Donald Trump said Friday that he is picking the head of a right-wing Catholic advocacy group and critic of Pope Francis to serve as ambassador to the Holy See, potentially teeing up tensions with the Vatican. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that Brian Burch, head of the group Catholic Vote, “loves […]

Transition would be ‘restricted’ during a shutdown

Hours ahead of the expiration of government funding, the White House warned that a shutdown would disrupt the presidential transition process, hampering preparations for next month’s handoff to President-elect Donald Trump. “Transition activities will be restricted,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday during a White House briefing. “We’re doing everything to ensure a smooth […]

House GOP picks new funding plan that will need wide Democratic support

House Republicans voted in their closed-door conference meeting to pursue a funding plan that will require Democratic votes and strips out a debt limit measure President-elect Donald Trump is pushing, according to more than a dozen Republicans leaving the meeting. The plan will also include a one-year farm bill extension and the $110 billion disaster […]

Johnson lays out two spending paths in House GOP meeting

Speaker Mike Johnson laid out two potential paths to avert a government shutdown in a closed-door meeting with the House GOP Friday morning, according to a slide presented in the closed-door House GOP conference and shared with POLITICO. There’s less than 12 hours left before a shutdown deadline. Option one was moving a stopgap bill […]

Musk vows to fund ‘moderate’ Democratic primary challengers

Elon Musk said he’ll be funding moderate primary challengers to incumbent Democrats in deep-blue seats around the country, as he continues to try to influence a wide swath of government. “Forgot to mention that I’m also going to be funding moderate candidates in heavily Democrat districts, so that the country can get rid of those […]

Jeffries: We’re talking with Republicans again

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries privately told his caucus Friday morning that communication had restarted with Republicans, according to two people familiar with his remarks granted anonymity to discuss the dynamics. “Because of our display of unity, the lines of communication have been reopened,” Jeffries said, according to the people in the room. House Democrats […]

Johnson moves forward on spending Plan C: Breaking up the bills

Speaker Mike Johnson has moved on to a Plan C to avert a government shutdown: Breaking up each piece to pass them separately. Under the House GOP’s latest plan, Republicans will try to pass three separate bills: a short-term funding bill, money for recent natural disasters and a one-year farm bill extension with aid for […]