Author: Heather Cox Richardson

Republican control of the House of Representatives has fed a changing dynamic. After decades of playing defense, the Democrats are going on offense. President Joe Biden visited Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he talked about protecting Medicare and Medicaid. He was careful — as he always is — to differentiate between “an awful lot of really good Republicans” and the “MAGA Republicans.” “There’s kind of like, in my view, sort of two Republican Parties.” The MAGA Republicans, he said, “want to eliminate a lot of healthcare coverage,… increase costs for millions of Americans, and make deep cuts in programs that...

We awoke on February 20 to news that President Joe Biden was in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he pledged “our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” Air raid sirens blared as Biden and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky walked through the streets during the U.S. president’s five-hour stay. As National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters, Biden’s visit was the first time a U.S. president has visited “the capital of a country at war where the United States military does not control the critical infrastructure” … in other words, an active war zone. Biden traveled in...

Republican leaders are recognizing that the sight of Republican lawmakers heckling the president of the United States did not do their party any favors. It not only called attention to their behavior, it prompted many news outlets to fact-check President Biden’s claim that Republicans had called for cuts to Social Security and Medicare or even called to get rid of them. Those outlets noted that while Republicans have repeatedly said they have no intention of cutting those programs, what Biden said was true: Republican leaders have repeatedly suggested such cuts, or even the elimination of those programs, in speeches,...