Federal investigators are examining communications between US lawmakers and Capitol rioters  —  (CNN)Federal investigators are examining records of communications between members of Congress and the pro-Trump mob that attacked the US Capitol, as the investigation moves closer …

GOP Wants To Outsource Stalling COVID Relief To Senate Clerks.  The Clerks Have A Plan.  —  Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) proclaimed on Twitter Wednesday that he's “going to make the Senate clerk read the Democrats' $1.9 trillion bill.  All several hundred pages of it.”

Cuomo Advisers Altered Report on Covid-19 Nursing-Home Deaths  —  Changes resulted in a significant undercount of the death toll attributed to long-term-care facility residents  —  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's top advisers successfully pushed state health officials to strip a public report …

The man who put his feet up on a desk in Pelosi's office during the Capitol riot throws a tantrum in court.  —  Richard Barnett, the Arkansas man charged with breaking into Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and stealing her mail during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, threw a tantrum during …

‘Nobody Is in Charge’: Capitol's Secretive Police Board Faces Overhaul After Riot  —  Top lawmakers say the Capitol Police Board, which is beholden to House and Senate leaders, needs significant changes after the security failures of Jan. 6.  —  WASHINGTON — The congressional inquiry …

Biden World gives a shoulder shrug to the raging culture wars  —  There's a war on The Muppets.  And “The Cat and the Hat!”  —  But Biden is busy.  He has no time for all that.  —  Over the past few weeks, Republicans have simmered over the “cancellation” of seemingly innocent family favorites …

Dr. Seuss Books Deemed Offensive Will Be Delisted From eBay  —  E-commerce giant says it ‘is currently sweeping our marketplace to remove these items’  —  Online marketplace eBay Inc. said it is working to prevent the resale of six Dr. Seuss books that were pulled earlier this week …

Trump appointee arrested in connection with Capitol riot  —  The FBI on Thursday arrested Federico Klein, a former State Department aide, on charges related to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, marking the first known instance of an appointee of President Donald Trump facing criminal prosecution …

Scoop: Leaked HHS docs spotlight Biden's child migrant dilemma  —  Fresh internal documents from the Department of Health and Human Services show how quickly the number of child migrants crossing the border is overwhelming the administration's stretched resources.

What Does National Security Even Mean Anymore, After January 6th and the Pandemic?  —  Talking threats, foreign and domestic, with Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  —  Donald Trump's image was flickering on the oversized TV screen in the private cabin of the Air Force jet …

Why Glenn Greenwald Says Tucker Carlson Is a True Socialist  —  Glenn Greenwald's long intellectual journey from center left to far left to, well, somewhere is a subject of fascination in elite circles.  Greenwald comes out of a tradition of progressive journalism that focused primarily …

Fox News' scrappy White House correspondent grills Biden, who plays along  —  Whenever President Biden leaves a stage or lectern after an appearance in front of the media, the last voice viewers hear usually belongs to Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy.

GOP pushes Murkowski to stay in line against Biden's Covid bill  —  Senate Republicans are leaning on Lisa Murkowski to reject President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan, hoping they can get unanimous GOP opposition and prevent Democrats from claiming the bill is bipartisan.

Trump tells Fox News to fire ‘pompous fool’ Karl Rove  —  Former President Donald Trump issued a 700-word statement on Thursday complaining about Fox News analyst Karl Rove.  —  “Karl Rove has been losing for years, except for himself,” Trump began.  —  “Karl Rove's voice on Fox is always negative for those who know how to win.

Volatility Is the New Normal  —  Many of us are wondering if this last year — one of the most tumultuous and consequential in American history — and the last four years of constant political turmoil were ‘outliers’ or if they represent the new normal.  —  A challenge for those of us …

Trump Appointee At VOA Parent Paid Law Firm Millions To Investigate His Own Staff  —  Last summer, an appointee of former President Donald Trump was irate because he could not simply fire top executives who had warned him that some of his plans might be illegal.

Fox News will be ‘loyal opposition’ against Biden, Fox CEO says  —  Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Thursday it is the job of Fox News to serve as the opposition to the Biden administration, stating clearly the political biases of a network that until 2017 billed itself as “fair and balanced.”

In ‘exceedingly rare’ case, Iowa journalist faces charges from reporting on summer protests  —  The trial of a Des Moines Register reporter who was  —  arrested covering racial justice protests last summer is slated to begin next week in what experts said is a rare criminal prosecution of a journalist on assignment in the USA.

Elaine Chao's Mix of Work and Family Drew Early Ethics Scrutiny  —  An inspector general's report provided new details of how ethics lawyers at the Transportation Department raised flags starting in 2017 about efforts to promote her family and its shipping business.

He told the world about his brutal torture in Syria.  Then, mysteriously, he went back.  —  Videos by Marzena Skubatz  —  LONDON — With his gaunt frame, haunted face and copious tears, Mazen al-Hamada became a poster boy for the suffering of Syrian torture victims.

Some Oath Keepers Say Its Founder Has Betrayed The Group's Mission — And Them  —  “Like a moth to the flame,” one former Oath Keeper said of founder Stewart Rhodes.  “He flies in, throws up a PayPal, and then disappears.”  —  Copy  —  In a recent indictment of nine people who stormed …

The Rise of the Biden Republicans  —  The pollster who identified “Reagan Democrats” in the 1980s sees the emergence of a mirror image voting bloc.  And it spells trouble for a GOP dominated by Trump.  —  There are unwritten rules that dictate how American politics works.

Connecticut dramatically rolls back COVID restrictions, allowing full indoor dining, increased entertainment and sports capacity; travel ban lifted  —  Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday announced that he will roll back pandemic-related restrictions in Connecticut starting March 19 …

Biden called off strike against second target in Syria to avoid killing civilians, say officials  —  WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden called off an air strike against a second target in Syria last week after a woman and children were spotted in the area, a senior administration official told NBC News.

Biden primary campaign staffers left waiting for administration jobs  —  Presented by Defending Democracy Together  —  Welcome to POLITICO's 2021 Transition Playbook, your guide to the first 100 days of the Biden administration  —  JOE BIDEN prides himself on being guided by what he has called the “Irish ethic of loyalty.”

QAnon Proves Its Resilience  —  Worries about an enduring, violent conspiracy theory rise anew.  —  Tumbleweeds blew through the House chambers today, after Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved a major vote to Wednesday night, so that lawmakers could skip town a day early.

Republicans Who Voted To Overturn Election Say Congress Should Stay Out Of Elections  —  GOP lawmakers didn't care about leaving elections to the states when they tried to hand victory to Trump on Jan. 6.  —  A stunning 147 Republicans in Congress voted to overturn the results …

Florida's governor in hot water over alleged vaccine-for-campaign cash scandal  —  In a shocking, but hardly surprising report, the Republican Governor of Florida got caught selling vaccines to some of the state's wealthiest country club residents while those who don't donate …

Just Security Obtains Overseas Troop Counts That the Pentagon Concealed from the Public  —  [A note from Just Security's Ryan Goodman and Kate Brannen: Last April, Just Security filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Department of Defense (DoD) seeking U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

“QAnon Shaman” claims he wasn't attacking the country in first interview since Capitol riot arrest  —  Jacob Chansley, the man seen wearing face paint and a fur helmet with horns during the January 6 insurrection, tells 60 Minutes+ he was trying “to bring God back to the Senate.”