WASHINGTON -- Democrats say Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's own words show he would shield President Donald Trump from special counsel Robert Mueller's criminal inquiry. The reality is a bit more complicated.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Trump "chose the candidate who he thought would best protect him from the ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- For the second consecutive day since he broke with America's spy agencies over Russia's election meddling, President Donald Trump on Wednesday will not get an intelligence briefing.

The daily presidential guidance email sent out each evening by the White House initially featured only one item, an 11:30 a.m. Cabinet meeting. It was...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Eager for a win after his controversial summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump on Wednesday took credit for an incumbent Republican's primary victory.

Alabama Rep. Martha Roby easily won her Republican primary runoff Tuesday evening by 36 percentage points.

Her victory came after she initially ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Even as lawmakers and staff work to reconcile legislation passed by the House and Senate to curb sexual harassment on Capitol Hill, a timeline for enacting the bills is unclear, months after they were fast-tracked for floor votes.

"We're confident we are going to get there at some point. We're not quite there," House ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Conservatives are lining up behind Marco Rubio's plan to automatically sanction Russia for any future election meddling a day after President Donald Trump's meeting in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian President Vladimir Putin drew widespread derision from the entire political spectrum.

Trump supporters such as Fox News host Laura ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The senator who once dubbed Donald Trump an "orange-faced windbag" and the president -- who derided Rand Paul as "truly weird" -- are now fast friends, thanks to Paul's support for Trump's performance in talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Trump and Paul had clashed bitterly during the presidential campaign but they've ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump, seeking to stanch a national furor, said on Tuesday that he misspoke in Helsinki, Finland, and meant to say that he indeed does see Russia as the culprit that interfered in the 2016 presidential election, just as U.S. intelligence agencies have found.

The president's comments were unlikely to satisfy his ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The fight over who will lead House Democrats next year got its first public entrance Tuesday as Rep. Linda T. Sanchez made her bid official to lead the House Democratic Caucus.

Sanchez, of California, currently vice chairwoman of the Democratic Caucus, sent a letter to her colleagues Tuesday confirming her interest in moving up ...Read more

Top Republican lawmakers on Tuesday attacked one of the legal protections most prized by social media companies such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Facebook Inc., questioning whether they should be held liable for content posted by users.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte asked representatives from the companies and Twitter Inc. at a ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- It used to be normal for fundraising by Senate candidates to dwarf that of House candidates. Not this year.

New Jersey's Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat trying to flip a longtime Republican stronghold, raised nearly $1.9 million during the second quarter of the year.

That's more than at least one Democratic senator facing a ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Conservative groups and jurists, including U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, have long advocated restricting the latitude of the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies to set rules and regulations, beyond what Congress has specifically authorized.

They may have that chance this fall. The Supreme Court...Read more

WASHINGTON -- In 2011, Judge Brett Kavanaugh was selected at random to rule on whether President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, was constitutional.

It was a career-defining moment for the aspiring Supreme Court justice, who was 46 at the time. The case promised to be a political bomb splitting two ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- With the addition of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court could have a conservative majority to strike down bans on semiautomatic weapons in liberal states and to decree that law-abiding Americans have a right to carry a gun in public.

Although the fight over Kavanaugh's nomination has mostly focused on abortion and health ...Read more