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(CNN) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is still making history, even after her death. Ginsburg, who died last Friday due to complications of metastatic pancreas cancer, will become the first woman to lie in

Jeneva Stone lives with her husband and their two sons in Bethesda, Maryland. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View. (CNN) — My son Rob is 23 years old. He follows politics, enjoys sips of whiskey, and loves baseball. He also has a rare form of dystonia, a feeding tube, and a tracheostomy, among other pre-existing medical conditions. He uses a speech-generating computerized device to communicate with us. If the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were struck down by the Supreme Court after the addition of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a mother of a disabled child herself, Rob would be uninsurable, like so many of his disabled peers.Feeding TubeObamacareDiseaseACAMedicaidThe Supreme CourtHealth CareCNNU.S. Supreme CourtLittle LobbyistsRobHusbandCapitol HillAmy Coney BarrettRead Full Story

(CNN) — Donald Trump on Monday launched a three-week quest to save his presidency, behaving as though the pandemic that has killed 215,000 Americans was already a memory in front of a packed-in crowd -- even amid chilling new warnings about the resurgent virus. In his first rally since his...Mitch McConnellRepublicanCoronavirus Disease 2019Social DistancingElection DayPandemicDemocratic Party (United States)Patient Protection And Affordable Care ActUnited States Senate Committee On The JudiciaryTrump CampaignPresidential CampaignGOP PollsPresidential PollsCapitol HillTrump 's Supreme CourtDonald TrumpJoe BidenMitch McconnellAnthony FauciHillary ClintonJake TapperLindsey GrahamErin BurnettJaime HarrisonJoni ErnstEzekiel EmanuelAmy Coney BarrettRead Full Story

The United States set a new record for daily coronavirus infections on Friday, recording nearly 228,000 new cases. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. added 227,885 new cases on Friday, passing a previous high of 217,000 set on Thursday. The high mark comes just days after...Read Full Story VirusPublic HealthDisease ControlCDCDeath RatesDisease PreventionJohns Hopkins UniversityWhite HouseCOVIDAmericansCapitol HillCoronavirus CasesHospitalizationsPatient CareLimited Hospital CapacityGavin NewsomRobert Redfield

When touting his chief of staff Mark Meadows onstage in North Carolina this month, President Trump gave an unusual compliment for a risky move. “He follows me,” Trump said of his helicopter ride to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after testing positive for the coronavirus. “I said, ‘You know what? I just tested positive.’ He didn’t care. He was in that helicopter.”Read Full Story White HouseMitch McConnellPandemicCDCThe Washington PostFire ChiefFire OfficialsGOP OfficialsMilitary IssuesCongressCNNCapitol HillFDAMedicareSupreme CourtMark MeadowsDonald TrumpJoe BidenMitch McconnellWalter ReedAmy Coney BarrettSeung Min KimAmy SwongerJudd DeereBill ClintonKellyanne ConwayJared KushnerLeon PanettaHope HicksRuth Bader GinsburgScott AtlasNancy PelosiDan ScavinoChris ChristieSteven MnuchinScott Gottlieb

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative groups that allege without evidence that President-elect Joe Biden stole the U.S. election from Donald Trump plan protests nationwide on Saturday, including a Washington rally headlined by Trump’s recently pardoned former national security adviser.Organizers Stop The Steal, which is linked to pro-Trump operative Roger Stone, and church groups urged supporters to turn out to “Jericho Marches” and prayer rallies. These are planned at Washington’s National Mall and in the capitals of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona, where Trump’s campaign has questioned vote counts.More than 50 federal and state court rulings have upheld Biden’s victory over President Trump. The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a long-shot lawsuit filed by Texas and backed by Trump seeking to throw out voting results in four states.Trump has refused to concede defeat, alleging without evidence that he was denied victory by massive fraud.The Washington rally will begin with marches around the U.S. Capitol, the U.S. Supreme Court and Justice Department “with prayers for the walls of corruption and election fraud to fall down,” according to StopTheSteal.com.The plans reference the Biblical miracle of the battle of Jericho, in which the walls of the city crumbled after priests and soldiers marched around it.Retired Army General Mike Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with the former Russian ambassador, is scheduled to speak from the high court steps, his his first public address since Trump pardoned him on Nov. 24.Republican political donors and religious figures, including My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell and radio host Eric Metaxas, are expected to attend.An anti-Trump group called a rally near the White House on Saturday as well, raising the potential for a repeat of clashes that occurred Nov. 14.Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Heather Timmons and Cynthia OstermanElection FraudPoliticsPresidential ElectionPolitical ProtestsPolitical RalliesPolitical GroupsReligious GroupsPro-TrumpReutersThe U.S. Supreme CourtArmyFBIRussianConservative GroupsPresident TrumpJoe BidenDonald TrumpRoger StoneMike LindellEric Metaxas

National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien walks back to the White House after speaking with reporters outside in Washington, Nov. 17, 2020. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times) White House staff members who work in close quarters with President Donald Trump have been told that they are scheduled to receive injections of the coronavirus vaccine soon, at a time when the first doses are being distributed only to high-risk health care workers, according to two sources familiar with the distribution plans. The goal of distributing the vaccine in the West Wing is to prevent additional government officials from falling ill in the final weeks of the Trump administration. The hope is to eventually distribute the vaccine to everyone who works in the White House, but the effort will begin with some of the most senior people who work around the president, one of the people said. It is not clear how many doses are being allocated to the White House or how many are needed, since many staff members have already tested positive for the virus and recovered. While many Trump officials said they were eager to receive the vaccine and would take it if it were offered, others said they were concerned it would send the wrong message by making it appear as if Trump staff members were hopping the line to protect a president who has already recovered from the virus and bragged that he is now “immune.” The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine left a facility in Michigan early Sunday, with UPS and FedEx teaming up to ship doses to all 50 states for distribution. “Senior officials across all three branches of government will receive vaccinations pursuant to continuity of government protocols established in executive policy,” John Ullyot, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in a statement. “The American people should have confidence that they are receiving the same safe and effective vaccine as senior officials of the United States government.” He would not say whether White House officials who had already recovered would still receive the vaccine, or whether Trump himself would get one. The picture was murkier on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have struggled for months to balance the need to carry on with legislative business despite fluctuating numbers of coronavirus cases in its own ranks. A congressional aide said Sunday evening that leaders on Capitol Hill had not yet been told how many doses would initially be available for lawmakers. Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician of Congress, has overseen the coronavirus response inside the Capitol complex, but he has yet to make public any plans for vaccine distribution there. A spokesperson for President-elect Joe Biden declined to say whether Biden or incoming officials would receive early doses of the vaccine. But the president-elect said in a recent CNN interview that he would take the vaccine to serve as an example once Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said it was safe. “It’s important to communicate to the American people it’s safe; it’s safe to do this,” Biden said. But after months during which Trump and his senior advisers played down the virus, hosting campaign rallies and holiday parties where face masks were encouraged but never required, the news of White House officials suddenly taking the virus seriously enough to claim early doses of a vaccine was greeted by outrage from Democrats as well as the president’s longtime critics. George T. Conway III, a prominent conservative lawyer and a vocal critic of Trump, noted that because the vaccine required a second dose 21 to 28 days after the first injection, there was little public benefit for White House staff members to receive them. The president has only 37 days left in office. “If they were truly interested in protecting staffers,” Conway wrote on Twitter, “they would have been better off not holding super spreader events.” Tim Hogan, a Democratic consultant and a former top aide to Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s presidential campaign, said that Washington “will not come close to covering every health care worker with its first allotment of the vaccine, but a White House that downplayed the virus and held a half-year nationwide superspreader tour gets to cut the line.” He called the White House vaccinations “a final middle finger to the nurses and doctors on the front lines from the Trump administration.” A senior administration official said that vaccinating officials was necessary for “providing visible leadership to the nation and the world, and maintaining the trust and confidence of the American people.” The official added that vaccinating West Wing officials would help to “continue essential operations, without interruption” to help continue to fight the pandemic nationwide. There have been multiple outbreaks of the coronavirus at the White House in recent months. Trump, the first lady and a half-dozen advisers tested positive at the end of September and in early October. Fauci later called a Rose Garden ceremony to announce Trump’s choice of Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court a “superspreader event.” A few weeks later, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, and a group of other Pence staff members and advisers tested positive. And a third wave hit the West Wing after the president’s election night party at the White House, where supporters gathered indoors and did not wear masks. Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, got sick around that time, as did a number of other Trump advisers. Most recently, Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani tested positive, along with Jenna Ellis, another lawyer on the president’s legal team. For more stories, subscribe to The New York Times. (c) 2020 The New York Times Company. White House StaffThe White HouseU.sUnited States GovernmentPoliticsVaccine DosesHealth OfficialsU.S. OfficialsPfizerUPSCapitol HillCongressCNNAmericanDemocratsDonald TrumpBrian P. MonahanJoe BidenAnthony FauciGeorge T. Conway IiiAmy KlobucharMarc ShortMark MeadowsRudy GiulianiMike PenceAmy Coney Barrett

President-elect Joe Biden brings more Capitol Hill experience than any president in decades, but his transition has stumbled in ways large and small, exposing the challenges of navigating a Congress that is a different place than when he last served in 2009. He rolled out an almost all-white national security team when allies were expecting diversity. He filled top posts with familiar Washington hands rather than fresh newcomers. His team clumsily floated some names and retracted others for the Cabinet. None of the setbacks has been politically devastating. In fact, key Republicans are reaching out for personal calls with Biden, and Democrats are excited about the skilled and savvy professionals poised to join the administration as it battles the COVID-19 crisis and withering economy. But taken together, the slights and slip-ups of Biden’s interactions with Congress leave the impression his team is misreading the Capitol Hill audience he'll be relying on for legislative outcomes. And it calls into question one of the incoming president’s most prized attributes — his presumed ability to work with an often unruly Congress. Biden last walked the marbled halls as a senator more than a decade ago. Only one-third of the senators with whom he served remain in office, forcing the president-elect to create new relationships. “A strong belief that my dad drilled into my head: First impressions are lasting, and you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression,” Rep. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black lawmaker in Congress and a top Biden ally, said in an interview Thursday. Clyburn said people were “raising hell” over what he called the “herky-jerky” rollout of the initial, predominantly white Cabinet picks. Biden's team swiftly adjusted, introducing Black, Latino and Asian American nominees as the president-elect vows to build the most diverse administration in history. “I’m satisfied with what they’re doing," Clyburn said. "I was not satisfied with the way they did it.” It’s often said in Washington that personnel is policy and Biden's team has built an entire infrastructure around his outreach to Congress, drawing input and counsel from its well of seasoned lawmakers and staff. Yet the 78-year-old Biden is confronting the expectations of a younger, more diverse Democratic Party hungry for generational change and Republicans hardened by President Donald Trump who are prepared to play hardball as they eye their next campaign for the White House. Some early developments have set an awkward tone. In nominating retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin for defense secretary, Biden smoothed relations by naming the first Black person to lead the Pentagon, one of the highest Cabinet positions and a historic first. But in doing so, he put Democrats in a difficult position of having to flip-flop on granting a waiver of rules limiting military oversight of the department. Many senators voted against such an accommodation for Trump's Pentagon pick. Biden’s team incensed Hispanic and Asian and Pacific American lawmakers with its handling of Cabinet choices from their communities. He drew eyerolls over tapping former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to return to the job. Progressives heaped scorn on his naming a budget chief who has been a vocal critic of liberal icon Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders is poised to be the top Democrat on the Budget Committee when it considers budget director Neera Tanden's nomination. A blame-game broke out this week as Biden was rumored to be backing off Democratic Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico for the history-making position as the first Native American in the Cabinet. On Thursday, she was selected to be secretary of the Interior Department. “The wrangling that we’re seeing and the tumult that we’re seeing is a Congress and leadership that is grappling with the fact diversity isn’t enough,” said progressive strategist Neil Sroka. Democrats said the coalition of groups and communities that make up the big tent of the Democratic Party wants not just a seat at the table, but also a say in what happens around that table. “Biden’s team understands that,” Sroka said. “Things have changed.” The Biden era promises a turnaround from Trump’s team, which had little experience with the complex rules and relationships that make up the often rambunctious House and insular Senate. The president is proud of his picks, and the rollout of 19 of what will be two dozen Cabinet-level positions so far already fulfills his pledge for the most diverse in history, his team said. The incoming president’s allies say Biden is developing not just a Democratic administration after four years of Trump’s White House, but also a roster of familiar and skilled professionals eager to work with Congress to run the government. Biden's legislative affairs operation on Capitol Hill has enlisted more than a dozen current and former congressional aides to serve as transition liaisons to lawmakers, keeping them informed of developments and open for questions, comments and input. Senators are getting an early heads-up on some of Biden’s choices for his Cabinet. Once a nomination is announced, lawmakers’ offices are flooded with background materials explaining the choice. Several Republican senators including Mitt Romney, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins and Pat Toomey have spoken personally to Biden. Others are taking private meetings with the nominees. To date, the Biden team has connected with almost the entire 100-member Senate and some 300 members of the House, Democrats and Republicans alike. Its agency review teams have conducted some 150 listening sessions with lawmakers as they prepare to take hold of administrative departments. The buildout of the new administration is a test not only for Biden but also for his incoming chief of staff Ron Klain, a longtime adviser to powerful Democrats. Klain’s appointment drew praise across the fractious party, but his performance has not been perfect. The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus lawmakers were upset he was a no-show for a long-sought virtual meeting over lack of representation from their community in Cabinet picks. A first test will come as the Senate begins to consider Biden’s nominees. Transition spokesperson Andrew Bates said now that leaders of both parties recognize Biden as the president-elect, Americans expect that the Senate will confirm Cabinet nominees “as swiftly as possible.” Most Republicans on Capitol Hill still have not publicly acknowledged Biden’s victory as Trump pursues his unusual and long-shot bid to overturn the election results. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, warned in a floor speech Thursday that Republicans are prepared to block Biden’s Cabinet choices the same way Democrats dragged out confirmation of Trump’s picks. “Democrats are always lecturing Republican senators about approving future Biden Cabinet nominees even if we don’t agree with them,” Grassley said. “I want to hear from Democrats why we should not now adopt their standards and vote down nominees based on politics?” ——— Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report. Election ResultsPoliticsPresidential ElectionCapitol HillRepublican LawmakersDemocratic TransitionRepublican SenatorsWhite CabinetLatinoAsian AmericanArmyPentagonHispanicPacific AmericanAgricultureJoe BidenDonald TrumpLloyd AustinTom VilsackBernie SandersNeera TandenDeb HaalandChuck GrassleyLindsey GrahamRon KlainMitt RomneyPat ToomeySusan Collins

(CNN) — President Donald Trump's ability to scramble American political lines continues even from the golf course, with House votes Monday showing that his feverish hold over the GOP -- and US government -- is hurtling toward a humbling end.But be warned: Following along could induce some whiplash.The House of Representatives took a pair of votes Monday night with mixed results for the President: Conservatives joined Democrats in voting to increase coronavirus stimulus checks, but they also joined forces to override his veto of the massive defense spending bill, a solid rebuke and sign of his waning power.Trump's dithering over the size of stimulus relief checks has cost suffering Americans a week of more generous unemployment -- but could also get them more generous relief checks. The gobsmacking part is he had the power all along to insist on larger checks and didn't, until it seemed too late. He drew a line in the sand against his own negotiators and got a few Republicans to cross it.Forty-four House Republicans voted, after the President's badgering, to help Democrats approve more generous $2,000 Covid-19 relief checks. The party had rejected Democratic attempts to make the checks more generous before Christmas. It's not clear if the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, will have a similar change of heart. For now, $600 relief checks are the law.But Trump suffered a clear setback when more than 100 House Republicans, moments after approving the larger direct payments to Americans, voted for the first time to help Democrats override a Trump veto, passing the annual defense authorization over his objection and sending that, too, to the Senate.Further thrusting defense and national security policy into the political sphere was President-elect Joe Biden's allegation that his transition team has run into new roadblocks from the Trump administration as they try to read in."We just aren't getting all the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas," Biden said during an appearance in Wilmington, Delaware, after receiving a virtual national security briefing from aides."It's nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility," he said.Biden also outlined his view of threats at the appearance and placed climate change near the top of his list, the latest indication the US will have a very different posture after he is inaugurated. But while the President-elect mentioned climate change as an existential threat, the relief checks feel more immediate, as does the news that the US may be falling behind on its goal of vaccinating tens of millions of Americans this year. The relief bill also includes billions for vaccine distribution.Empty threatTrump had already blinked over the $2,000 checks Sunday. After lobbying from Republicans and intense backlash, he backed down on a promise to shut down the government and delay Covid-19 relief in part over the checks, which Capitol Hill Republicans had previously opposed.Trump's ability to get these few Republicans to buy into the $2,000 checks is notable since, as he prepares to leave office, many are beginning to find anew the gospel of fiscal responsibility they largely abandoned during his presidency. His last-minute insistence on more generous relief checks, which temporarily threatened the possibility of any relief checks at all, seemed destined to fail. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scheduled a vote to put Republicans on the record against both the relief, which she supports, and their President, who she doesn't. Because the process was rushed through the House, majority support wasn't enough under House rules to pass the more generous measure. But just enough Republicans backed the measure to give Pelosi a supermajority and approve the proposal, which now heads to the US Senate.Trump's election objections are about to divide the party again. The tough votes are just getting started for Republican lawmakers. Stalwart conservatives could add an element of drama to the official counting of electoral votes January 6 on Capitol Hill, but the star-crossed effort is expected to end when lawmakers in both houses vote to accept the election results Trump baselessly denies.The question of the day is whether the veto vote signals waning Trump influence among GOP lawmakers, who could face a reckoning from the committed base of followers for whom the President is a hero.There was still evidence of Trump's power over the party in the defense veto, too. The top Republican in the House, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, was among the GOP lawmakers who supported the defense bill -- which includes a pay raise for service members -- but voted against overriding the veto out of deference to the outgoing President.No party lineWhile the majority of Republicans supported the defense bill when it passed the House earlier in December, McCarthy did not rally support either for or against it after Trump's veto. Trump, as part of his frustration with internet companies he says are unfair to conservatives online, wanted to use the bill as leverage to alter an unrelated portion of US law that exempts companies such as Facebook from liability for content produced by others but socialized on their sites.There's bipartisan agreement that the law deserves scrutiny, but changing the provision without debate was beyond his powers and a strange fit for Republicans who have long sought less liability for companies, not more.In fact, it was GOP insistence on exempting some companies from liability from workers during the Covid pandemic that had delayed the relief bill Trump finally signed Sunday, after earlier saying he would not.Republicans had abandoned the liability protections and Democrats had abandoned aid for cash-strapped states to agree on continued additional help for the unemployed and $600 checks for millions of Americans, in addition to many other provisions.Trump's weeklong tease that he would veto the bill and shut down the government because the $600 checks weren't large enough confounded his own administration and Republicans on Capitol Hill who had talked Democrats down.Real world consequences Trump's delay on the bill negotiated in large part by his own emissaries on Capitol Hill cost many suffering Americans a week of expanded unemployment.Meghan Meyer is a single mom of two teenage boys in Lincoln, Nebraska, who said Monday on CNN that she's been trying to live on $154 per week since August, after not working since March because her job was in retail and she is at high risk for Covid-19."It's been really tough," she told CNN's Brianna Keilar. "I had to make a decision for my family, you know, do I take a health risk that could be detrimental to my family, or do I listen to my doctor's advice and financially change my whole scenario?"After Trump changed his mind, $600 stimulus checks could go out to individuals who make less than $75,000 and $1,200 could go to couples who make twice that as soon as this week. It's not clear if a change to $2,000, if the Senate approves it, would delay them further.Retired Rep. Charlie Dent, a Pennsylvania Republican who's a CNN political analyst, talked about the frustration of watching Trump's leadership before the House votes Monday."You almost need a therapist to explain it," Dent said. "He's almost like this little boy who holds his breath and then waits for everyone else to turn blue, and sometimes he's successful." But the President's antics are wearing thin even with some usually friendly audiences. The normally Trump-backing New York Post implored the President with its tabloid cover Monday to "Stop the Insanity."Us SenateElection ResultsPoliticsPresidential ElectionGOP LawmakersRepublican LawmakersGOP DebateRepublican DebateDemocratsCNNAmericansThe US SenateNew York PostCapitol Hill RepublicansFacebookDonald TrumpJoe BidenNancy PelosiBrianna KeilarCharlie Dent

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is nominating Denis McDonough, who was President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff, as secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, a sprawling agency that has presented organizational challenges for both parties over the years. Biden is continuing to stockpile his incoming administration with prominent members of the Obama’s team, and McDonough is the latest choice, according to a person familiar with the selection. This person was not authorized to discuss the nomination before the formal announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.Biden was expected to make the official announcement Friday, along with his nominations of Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Katherine Tai as U.S. trade representative and Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary. Vilsack filled that same role during Obama’s two terms.Although Biden has insisted his administration will not simply be a retread of Obama’s presidency, he is bringing back numerous familiar faces. His team has defended the moves as a nod toward experience and the need to hit the ground running in tackling the pressing issues facing the nation across multiple fronts. McDonough is an experienced manager who was chief of staff throughout Obama’s second term. McDonough was previously Obama’s deputy national security adviser, including during the Navy SEAL raid in 2011 that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and was a longtime congressional staffer. McDonough was credited with helping Obama try to bridge divides on Capitol Hill, including around one of his most substantial second-term legislative achievements: the Veterans Choice Act. The legislation, for which President Donald Trump tries to take credit, gave former service members more options to seek care and the VA secretary more authority to fire underperforming staffers.The bill came about following exposes during the Obama administration into mismanagement at some VA hospitals and mounting complaints by advocacy groups. As chief of staff, McDonough was also deeply involved in an overhaul of VA leadership after the scandals, which led to the ouster of the department’s secretary. Biden is balancing numerous priorities as he fills out his Cabinet, including making good on his pledge to have a diverse group of top advisers. That’s created some tensions over top jobs, including agriculture secretary. Allies of Fudge made no secret of their desire for her to lead the department, given its oversight of food stamps and other programs meant to address food insecurity — one of her longtime priorities. Instead, Biden went with Vilsack, a longtime friend and advocate for Democrats paying more attention to rural America. A transition official said Vilsack and Fudge spoke Wednesday to lay the groundwork for cooperation between their two agencies on those and other initiatives.Va HospitalsPoliticsPresidential ElectionU.S. SecretaryCabinet SecretaryAPWhite HouseNavyAl-QaidaThe Veterans Choice ActDemocratsVA LeadershipChiefWASHINGTONU.S. Trade RepresentativeJoe BidenDenis McdonoughBarack ObamaMarcia FudgeTom VilsackOsama Bin LadenDonald Trump