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Democrats think President Biden had a great August and they’re hoping it will translate into momentum for the fall — both legislatively and electorally. Congress returns next week after a monthlong recess and Labor Day is considered the unofficial kick-off of the general election campaign season

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden on Monday traveled to Pennsylvania to attend the wedding of their nephew, Cuffe Owens, and Meghan King, a former cast member on the “Real Housewives of Orange County.” The White House said the “small, family wedding” was taking place at the Pennsylvania home of Cuffe Owens’ parents, Valerie and Jack Owens. Valerie is President Biden’s younger sister. King, 37, revealed in an Instagram post last month that she was dating Owens, who is 42. She posted a photo of the two of them hugging with a caption that read: “Trying my best to...

Two hosts of “The View” tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday in advance of a planned sit down interview with Vice President Harris, causing the show to shift gears and announce plans to interview Harris virtually as a precaution. Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro tested positive for the virus, Joy Behar announced live on air Friday morning, after both co-hosts were awkwardly ushered off the set and the program went to a commercial break. Behar said that both Hostin and Navarro have been fully vaccinated and had breakthrough cases.

International opinions of the United States have become markedly more positive since President Biden took over from former President Trump, according to a new survey released as Biden prepares for his debut on the global stage at a Group of Seven (G7) summit. Of 12 nations surveyed by the Pew Research Center, a median 75 percent expressed confidence in Biden, more than four times the 17 percent who said the same of Trump in 2020. Twenty-two percent said they have no confidence in Biden, compared with 83 percent who said so of Trump at the end of his presidency. And...

President Biden departed for his first foreign trip abroad on Wednesday morning, telling reporters that his goal will be to demonstrate to Russia and China that the alliance between the U.S. and Europe is strong. “Strengthening the alliance, making clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight,” Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before departing for the United Kingdom when asked about the goal of the trip. Biden also said he would lay out a coronavirus vaccine strategy for the world and that cyberattacks would be a subject of his discussion with Russian...

President Biden will meet in person with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland, next month. It will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Biden became president. White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced the June 16 meeting in a statement on Tuesday, saying the two leaders "will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the U.S.-Russia relationship." The meeting had been in the works for some time and will take place at the end of Biden's first trip abroad to Europe.

Four months into her time as vice president, Kamala Harris is still finding her footing in the role. Harris is seen as a major reason why President Biden won the White House, and she’s considered an heir apparent for the Democratic nomination in 2024 or 2028. But she has struggled to break through as she juggles an evolving portfolio, adapts to a new staff and builds a relationship with Biden, who has a completely different style than her own.

Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale says that President Trump’s biggest policy error ahead of the 2020 election was showing a lack of public empathy about the novel coronavirus. “People were scared,” Parscale said in an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum that aired Tuesday evening. “I think if he would have been publicly empathetic, he would have won by a landslide there. He could have leaned into it instead of run away from it.” Parscale, who was pushed out of the role of campaign manager over the summer, said Trump’s decision to push for reopening the country instead...

Shift in tone dominates at final Trump-Biden clash BY BRETT SAMUELS AND MORGAN CHALFANT - 10/22/20 11:11 PM EDT President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Thursday clashed for a final time before Election Day, exchanging blows on the public health and economic crises facing the country in what was a decidedly more orderly — though still at times personal — contest than the first debate. The proceedings, which took place in Nashville, Tenn., were aided in part by a mute button that allowed each candidate to speak uninterrupted for two minutes about each of the six topics before...

President Trump plans to resume campaign rallies in the next two weeks as states move forward with reopening businesses and allowing gatherings to resume. The plans were first reported by Politico and confirmed to The Hill by Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh. The details of the rallies, including when and where they will take place and what safety protocols will be implemented, have not yet been decided. Trump’s last campaign rally took place in March, before most states issued stay-at-home orders amid the coronavirus pandemic. DEVELOPING

"President Trump on Wednesday attacked Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) during a campaign rally in Michigan, claiming the Democrat used to “kiss his ass” in the past when Trump was a supporter. Trump’s remarks about Schumer came after a rant on immigration during an at times rambling speech to a crowd in Battle Creek, Mich. “You know, Chuck Schumer. Cryin’ Chuck. Cryin’ Chuck Schumer. I used to be a big contributor,” Trump, a former New Yorker, said. “He used to kiss my ass, Chuck Schumer. He’d do anything. He would have done anything for me.” “I didn’t need anything,...

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters Monday that the White House sees “no reason” for acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and three other witnesses to testify at a Senate impeachment trial, as requested by the top Democrat in the Senate. “We don’t do things just because Sen. [Chuck] Schumer asks us to do them. That’s very clear,” Conway told reporters at the White House Monday evening. “Starting on Oc. 8, our White House counsel made very clear that he looks at the entire process as unconstitutional, illegitimate, and ill-conceived.” “There is no reason for them to go and...

President Trump on Monday hailed a new report from the Justice Department inspector general, claiming it showed FBI officials attempted an “an overthrow of government” by investigating his 2016 presidential campaign. “This was an overthrow of government, this was an attempted overthrow and a lot of people were in on it and they got caught, they got caught red-handed,” Trump said in the Cabinet Room at the White House during a roundtable event on education. “I think I'm going to put this down as one of our great achievements. Because what we found and what we saw — never, ever...

President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen is postponing his closed-door testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, citing medical reasons due to a recent surgery, his attorney Lanny Davis said Monday. Cohen had been subpoenaed by the committee to testify on Feb. 12 as part of the panel’s ongoing Russian interference investigation. Davis said at the time that he planned to comply but that the parties would need to discuss the details, including his appearance date, given that Cohen had recently undergone major surgery. “The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has accepted Mr. Cohen’s request for postponement of tomorrow’s hearing...

Anticipation is building for special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, bringing to boil a debate over whether it will also be made public. The report took center stage at Attorney General nominee Bill Barr’s confirmation hearing last week, where Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee pressed him to commit to releasing it publicly. It’s far from clear how close Mueller is to ending his investigation; the former FBI director has shown no signs of concluding his investigation. At the same time, there is a growing sense in Washington that a probe that has captivated the political world for most of the...

Special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday rebuked former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for suggesting that FBI agents had duped him into lying about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. “Nothing about the way the interview was arranged or conducted caused the defendant to make false statements to the FBI on January 24,” Mueller wrote in a filing Friday afternoon, asking a federal judge to reject Flynn’s attempt to “minimize the seriousness of those false statements to the FBI.” “The defendant chose to make false statements about his communications with the Russian ambassador weeks before the FBI interview, when he...

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said Thursday that the Senate Intelligence Committee has made "quite a few referrals" to special counsel Robert Mueller of cases where witnesses questioned in the panel’s Russia probe were suspected of lying, adding he expects there will be more. “We’ve made quite a few referrals,” Burr, who chairs the Senate panel, told The Hill on Thursday afternoon. “I won’t get into the numbers, but where we have found criminality, we have made those referrals and I’m sure that they’re not the last." The Senate GOP chairman first revealed in November that the committee had referred cases...

Special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday is expected to file a bombshell report that describes how former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort eviscerated his plea agreement with federal prosecutors. The highly anticipated memo, slated for release as a court filing, will likely shed more light on Mueller’s investigation into whether President Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election. But just how much new information will be made public remains to be seen. Still, whatever information is disclosed is expected to be revelatory in terms of the content and nature of Manafort’s remarks to the special counsel’s...

President Trump on Wednesday threatened to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation that he claimed would be damaging to Democrats if they decide to investigate him when they take control of the House next year. Trump's comments, made in an interview with The New York Post, come two months after he walked back his original plans to declassify and publicly release the documents as a result of concerns from U.S. allies and his own Justice Department. “If they want to play tough, I will do it,” Trump told the Post. “They will see how devastating those pages are.” He...

The breaking down of Paul Manafort’s plea deal has dealt a blow to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. A witness to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., and a Russian lawyer predicated on damaging information about then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Manafort was seen as a valuable potential witness in Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. The decision to call him out as a liar effectively takes his testimony off the table, removing a valuable asset for the government. It comes after a lengthy trial where prosecutors won guilty...