AuthorSpencer Chen

• The Republicans took control of the House of Representatives by removing the metal detectors installed after the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to win the House speakership on the first ballot, due to internal feuding among the Republican conference.
• Extremists tied to former President Trump and right-wing media are demanding outsize influence and power.
• Democrats united around Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), while the Republicans are still deciding whether to accept the extremist Jim Jordan (R-OH) or work to find a compromise candidate.
• Former Republican governor of Ohio John Kasich has called on House Republicans to work with Democrats to pick a speaker and create a coalition government.
• George Santos (R-NY) was conspicuously excluded from the talking and visiting on the House floor today, despite his crucial vote for McCarthy.

Published January 3, 2023. Visit Letters from An American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.

• The 118th Congress is gathering in Washington and GOP minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is struggling to get the votes to become speaker.
• McCarthy has made several concessions to far-right House members, but they still won’t back him.
• Republican representative-elect George Santos of New York is facing fraud charges and his vote for speaker is crucial.
• The Democratic-controlled Senate is confirming judges and rebalancing the Supreme Court, while the Biden administration will be traveling around the country to highlight the laws passed in the last two years.
• The January 6th committee’s transcripts revealed an email from rally organizer Katrina Pierson showing that Trump’s invitation to supporters to march on the Capitol was part of the plan, and Hope Hicks and Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff Julie Radford exchanged horrified texts after the riot.

Published January 2, 2023. Visit Letters from An American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.

• On January 1, 2023, the out-of-pocket cost of insulin for Medicare recipients will be capped at $35 a month.
• Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued the 2022 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, which makes no mention of the leak of the Dobbs decision, popular demands for justices to have a code of ethics or Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife Ginni’s involvement in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated as the new president of Brazil today, replacing Jair Bolsonaro. A 33-year-old garbage collector, Aline Sousa, presented the sash to Lula as a symbol of the peaceful transfer of power.

Published January 1, 2023. Visit Letters from An American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.