Stephen Dinan

Senate flips to Democrats as new senators, VP Harris change balance of power

Three new senators were sworn in Wednesday afternoon, delivering control of the chamber to Democrats and cementing the party's grasp on all the reins of political power in Washington for the first time in a decade. Published January 20, 2021

EPA chief orders last-minute pardon to agency’s research rabbits

Outgoing EPA chief Andrew R. Wheeler issued a last-minute reprieve he hopes will set free rabbits that have been used for testing at agency labs. Published January 20, 2021

Joe Biden plan expands legal immigration, offers citizenship to illegal immigrants

President-elect Joseph R. Biden is proposing a significant increase in legal immigration as part of his new legislation that would also legalize most illegal immigrants. Published January 20, 2021

Joe Biden announces Day One erasure of Trump legacy

A few strokes of President Biden's pen on Wednesday put a stop to much of former President Trump's legacy. Mr. Biden, in a first-day series of executive orders, memos, directives and proclamations, halted border wall construction, nixed the travel ban, canceled the commission to celebrate the country's Founding Fathers and erased the presidential approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. Published January 20, 2021

Alejandro Mayorkas says Biden wants to grant citizenship to most illegals

Abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a nonstarter and the fate of the border wall is uncertain, but the Biden team does want to grant citizenship rights to most illegal immigrants and to pump money into Latin America as the way to discourage illegal immigration, Alejandro Mayorkas, the pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, told senators Tuesday. Published January 19, 2021

Donald Trump grants deportation amnesty to Venezuelans

President Trump issued a directive Tuesday creating a temporary deportation amnesty for Venezuelans in the country illegally, saying it was a way to protect them from the chaos the South American country has been facing. Published January 19, 2021

Post office takes victory lap, says vote-by-mail election went smoothly

The U.S. Postal Service released an after-action report Tuesday detailing its successes in delivering mail ballots during the 2020 election and the Georgia Senate runoffs, saying the average time to get ballots to voters was about two days, and even faster in getting filled-out ballots back to election officials. Published January 19, 2021

Alejandro Mayorkas, DHS nominee, rejects defunding ICE

President-elect Joseph R. Biden's pick to lead Homeland Security flatly rejected defunding ICE, telling senators on Tuesday he is committed to enforcing the laws on the books. Published January 19, 2021

Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s DHS nominee, says ‘cages’ were built on Obama’s watch

Alejandro Mayorkas, President-elect Joseph R. Biden's pick to lead Homeland Security in the new administration, acknowledged Tuesday that the so-called "cages" where migrant children were held on the border were first erected under President Barack Obama. Published January 19, 2021

Trump stress test leaves all institutions of American democracy battered, some broken

President Trump's tenure turned into a fundamental stress test for all the institutions of American democracy: the courts, the Congress, the administrative agencies within the executive branch, the states and even the press. Published January 18, 2021

Donald Trump reveals more than 200 ‘heroes’ to be immortalized in new statues

President Trump on Monday announced the names of more than 200 statues to be built as part of his plan for a new "National Garden of American Heroes," which he says will vanquish a "reckless attempt to erase our heroes" that swept the country surrounding last year's racial justice protests. Published January 18, 2021

Liz Cheney becomes hero of Never Trumpers, suffers dire consequences back home

Never-Trump Republicans crowned a new hero last week with the emergence of Rep. Liz Cheney, the party's No. 3 leader in the House, who accused President Trump of the biggest "betrayal" in White House history and voted for his impeachment. Published January 18, 2021

Donald Trump, Washington to bid bitter goodbye

Oil and water. Dogs and cats. And Donald Trump and Washington. Published January 17, 2021

Pelosi mum on when impeachment will reach Senate

President Trump was impeached Wednesday afternoon and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a ceremony to sign the article of impeachment hours later. But the document still hasn't been sent to the Senate, which would hold the actual trial. Published January 15, 2021

Jeff Sessions blamed for Trump border policy that separated families: Audit

The Justice Department knew families would be separated when it pushed the Zero Tolerance border policy in 2018 but had no concrete plans for dealing with the fallout, an inspector general said in a new report Thursday, and years later some children and parents are still struggling to reunite. Published January 14, 2021

Nancy Pelosi wants $5,000 fine for lawmakers who won’t submit to metal detectors

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday she wants to impose new rules that would slap a $5,000 fine on lawmakers who refuse to go through new metal detectors on their way to the chamber floor. Published January 13, 2021

Impeachment proxy voting opens potential legal loophole for Trump

With President Trump's fate at stake, dozens of House members on Wednesday cast their votes by proxy, under special coronavirus rules allowing them to offer their input through the use of a designated voter. And in doing so, they may have given Mr. Trump a legal angle to challenge the move. Published January 13, 2021