WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance has reverberated across the Democratic Party, forcing lawmakers to grapple with a crisis that could upend the presidential election and change the course of American history.

2. Gathered at Camp David, Biden's family tells him to stay in the race and keep fighting - Friday, June 28, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's family used a Sunday gathering at Camp David to urge him to stay in the race and keep fighting despite his dreadful debate performance, and some members criticized how his staff prepared him for the faceoff, according to four people familiar with the discussions.

3. Biden's Democratic allies admit he had a poor debate but say they're still standing behind him - Friday, June 28, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden strained to quell Democratic anxieties over his unsteady showing in his debate with former President Donald Trump, as elected members of his party closed ranks around him in an effort to shut down talk of replacing him atop the ticket.

4. Biden concedes debate fumbles but declares he will defend democracy. Dems stick by him -- for now - Friday, June 28, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden forcefully tried on Friday to quell Democratic anxieties over his unsteady showing in his debate with former President Donald Trump, as elected members of his party closed ranks around him in an effort to shut down talk of replacing him atop the ticket.

5. Biden awards the Medal of Freedom to Nancy Pelosi, Medgar Evers, Michelle Yeoh and 16 others - Friday, May 3, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 19 people, including civil rights icons such as the late Medgar Evers, prominent political leaders such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. James Clyburn, and actor Michelle Yeoh.

6. Biden will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 politicians, activists, athletes and others - Friday, May 3, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — Clarence B. Jones says he thought a prankster was on the line when he answered the telephone and heard the person on the other end say they were calling from the White House.

7. Meet the five negotiators working to save the US from default - Friday, May 19, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have turned to a select group of negotiators to work out a deal to increase the nation's borrowing authority and avoid the economic carnage that could ensue if the U.S. defaults on its debts.

8. Inside McCarthy's House: Famous friends and hard realities - Friday, January 27, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an almost forgotten slice of marbled real estate at the Capitol, the Kevin McCarthy era is taking shape in Congress.

It was here that the new House speaker was chatting last week with Donald Trump Jr. on the former president's son's podcast, their laughter spilling into the halls from behind closed doors. And it was in this modest outpost, with its grand vistas of the National Mall and easy proximity to the action on House floor, that the Republican leader from California had met with his lieutenants brokering deals in the grueling race to become speaker.

9. Clyburn elected House Dems' assistant leader, averts contest - Friday, December 2, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wrapping up leadership elections, House Democrats unanimously chose Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina for a new role Thursday, as the party whip relinquishes his current job and a younger generation of Democratic leaders takes charge in the new year.

10. Jeffries wins historic bid to lead House Dems after Pelosi - Friday, November 25, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — Emboldened House Democrats ushered in a new generation of leaders on Wednesday with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries elected to be the first Black American to head a major political party in Congress as long-serving Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team step aside next year.

11. Jeffries makes historic bid to lead House Dems after Pelosi - Friday, November 18, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — The day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she would step aside, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York announced his own history-making bid Friday to become the first Black American to helm a major U.S. political party in Congress as leader of the House Democrats.

12. Pelosi to step aside from Dem leadership, remain in Congress - Friday, November 18, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she will not seek a leadership position in the new Congress, making way for a new generation to steer the party after Democrats lost control of the House to Republicans in the midterm elections.

13. 2 House chairs seek probe into airlines' use of federal aid - Friday, September 9, 2022

Two leading House Democrats are asking for a federal investigation into whether airlines used any of the $54 billion they received in government pandemic relief to pay employees to quit.

The lawmakers said Friday that buyouts to employees made a pilot shortage worse and contributed to widespread flight delays and cancellations that have ruined travel plans for millions of people.

14. US failed to stop fraud in COVID loan program, Clyburn says - Friday, June 10, 2022

The U.S. government failed to take basic steps at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic to prevent fraud in a federal aid program intended to help small businesses, depleting the funds and making Americans more vulnerable to identity theft, the head of a congressional panel examining the payouts said Tuesday.

15. Anti-vaccine doctor pleads guilty to joining Capitol riot - Friday, March 4, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — A California doctor known as a leading purveyor of coronavirus misinformation pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge on Thursday for joining the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol last year.

16. Biden nominates Jackson, first Black woman, to Supreme Court - Friday, February 25, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday nominated federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, the first Black woman selected to serve on a court that once declared her race unworthy of citizenship and endorsed American segregation.

17. Biden interviews trio of candidates for Supreme Court - Friday, February 18, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has interviewed at least three candidates for the Supreme Court, according to a person familiar with the matter, and the White House is reiterating that he remains on track to make a final selection by Monday.

18. Who's who among some possible top Supreme Court contenders - Friday, January 28, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement gives President Joe Biden a chance to make his first nomination to the high court. It's also a chance for Biden to fulfill a campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman to be a justice.

19. At least 3 judges eyed as Biden mulls Supreme Court pick - Friday, January 28, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is eyeing at least three judges for an expected vacancy on the Supreme Court as he prepares to quickly deliver on his campaign pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the nation's highest court, according to aides and allies.

20. Democrats seek swift confirmation to fill Supreme Court seat - Friday, January 28, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats who have played defense for the last three Supreme Court vacancies plan to move swiftly to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, using the rapid 2020 confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett as a new standard.

21. Justice Breyer to retire, giving Biden first court pick - Friday, January 21, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — Liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring, giving President Joe Biden an opening he has pledged to fill by naming the first Black woman to the high court.

Breyer, 83, has been a pragmatic force on a court that has grown increasingly conservative in recent years, trying to forge majorities with more moderate justices right and left of center.

22. Democrats eye swift confirmation of Biden high court pick - Friday, January 21, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats who have played defense for the last three Supreme Court vacancies plan to move swiftly to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, using the rapid 2020 confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett as a new standard.

23. House Dems plan budget vote next week, defying moderates - Friday, August 13, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Democrats plan House votes next week on a budget resolution that could clear a path for future passage of a $3.5 trillion, 10-year social and environment package, suggesting a showdown ahead with rebellious party moderates.

24. Judicial nominees, perhaps a potential justice, face Senate - Friday, April 23, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ketanji Brown Jackson is heading to Capitol Hill for an audition of sorts. Lawmakers will be grilling her about her nomination to become a federal appeals court judge. But if the hearing goes well, the 50-year-old could someday get a callback for an even bigger role: Supreme Court justice.

25. Breyer mum as some liberals urge him to quit Supreme Court - Friday, March 19, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — Forgive progressives who aren't looking forward to the sequel of their personal "Nightmare on First Street," a Supreme Court succession story.

The original followed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's decision to forgo retirement from the high court, located on First Street in Washington, when Democrats controlled the White House and the Senate during six years of Barack Obama's presidency, until 2015.

26. Eager to act, Biden and Democrats leave Republicans behind - Friday, March 5, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress are jamming their agenda forward with a sense of urgency, an unapologetically partisan approach based on the calculation that it's better to advance the giant COVID-19 rescue package and other priorities than waste time courting Republicans who may never compromise.

27. Pelosi asks top general about curbing Trump's military power - Friday, January 8, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she has spoken to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about preventing President Donald Trump from initiating military actions or a nuclear strike.

28. Pelosi, Democrats lay plans for swift Trump impeachment - Friday, January 8, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats laid plans Friday for impeaching President Donald Trump, even as he's headed out of the White House, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had spoken to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about preventing an "unhinged" Trump from ordering a nuclear strike in his final days.

29. Probe: Trump officials attacked CDC virus reports - Friday, December 18, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration political appointees tried to block or change more than a dozen government reports that detailed scientific findings about the spread of the coronavirus, a House panel investigating the alleged interference said Monday.

30. Biden to pick Rep. Haaland as interior secretary - Friday, December 18, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary, according to two people familiar with the decision, a historic pick that would make her the first Native American to lead the powerful federal agency that has wielded influence over the nation's tribes for generations.

31. Biden facing growing pressure over secretary of defense pick - Friday, November 27, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is facing escalating pressure from competing factions within his own party as he finalizes his choice for secretary of defense.

Black leaders have encouraged the incoming president to select an African American to diversify what has so far been a largely white prospective Cabinet, while others are pushing him to appoint a woman to lead the Department of Defense for the first time.

32. GAO says weekly unemployment benefits report flawed - Friday, November 27, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government watchdog has found that the Labor Department's widely watched weekly unemployment benefits data are providing an inaccurate reading on the number of newly laid off workers because of flaws in the government's data collection.

33. Dems head toward House control, but lose incumbents to GOP - Friday, October 30, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Disappointed Democrats drove Wednesday toward extending their control of the House for two more years but with a potentially shrunken majority as they lost at least seven incumbents and failed to oust any Republican lawmakers in initial returns.

34. US vetted stars' politics to showcase Trump virus response - Friday, October 23, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Public relations firms hired by the Department of Health and Human Services vetted political views of hundreds of celebrities for a planned $250 million ad blitz aimed at portraying President Donald Trump's response to the coronavirus outbreak in a positive light, according to documents released Thursday by a House committee.

35. Barr under fire over comparison of virus lock-in to slavery - Friday, September 18, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr drew sharp condemnation Thursday for comparing lockdown orders during the coronavirus pandemic to slavery.

In remarks Wednesday night at an event hosted by Hillsdale College, Barr had called the lockdown orders the "greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history" since slavery.

36. Barr under fire over comparison of virus lock-in to slavery - Friday, September 11, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr drew sharp condemnation Thursday for comparing lockdown orders during the coronavirus pandemic to slavery.

37. Mnuchin says Trump still wants virus deal with Democrats - Friday, August 28, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pressed by Democrats to quickly negotiate a new coronavirus relief package, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday the administration remains willing to work on a bipartisan agreement to help small businesses, the unemployed, children and schools. Democratic leaders in Congress are holding it up with hardened positions, he said.

38. Mnuchin spars with Democrats on new virus aid, economy - Friday, August 28, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pressed by Democrats to quickly negotiate a new coronavirus relief package, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday the administration remains willing to work on a bipartisan agreement to help small businesses, the unemployed, children and schools. Democratic leaders in Congress are holding it up with hardened positions, he said.

39. Biden ally Clyburn brings civil rights legacy to DNC - Friday, August 14, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — In October 1960, a young James Clyburn gathered with other students and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as frustrations mounted over civil rights protests in what was becoming a tumultuous, dangerous year.

40. Lee defends COVID-19 response to oversight chair - Friday, August 7, 2020

NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee on Wednesday defended Tennessee's response to the coronavirus pandemic after receiving criticism from a top Democratic congressional leader, arguing that his decisions have been "data driven" despite not adhering entirely to White House recommendations.

41. How Biden chose Harris: Inside his search for a running mate - Friday, August 7, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gretchen Whitmer wanted out. The Michigan governor had caught the interest of Joe Biden and his vice presidential vetting committee, who were drawn to her prominence in a crucial battleground state and her aggressive response to the coronavirus outbreak there.

42. Fauci confident virus vaccine will get to Americans in 2021 - Friday, July 31, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that he remains confident that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by early next year, telling lawmakers that a quarter-million Americans already have volunteered to take part in clinical trials.

43. House COVID oversight panel demands docs from TN, 3 other states - Friday, July 24, 2020

NASHVILLE (AP) — The head of a congressional coronavirus oversight panel on Wednesday demanded Tennessee's Gov. Bill Lee and three other Republican governors provide documents showing how their states are combating the pandemic.

44. Nursing homes represent more than 1 in 4 COVID-19 deaths - Friday, June 19, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nursing home residents account for nearly 1 in 10 of all the coronavirus cases in the United States and more than a quarter of the deaths, according to an Associated Press analysis of government data released Thursday.

45. House demands coronavirus loan info from Treasury, banks - Friday, June 12, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House subcommittee investigating billions of dollars in coronavirus aid is demanding that the Trump administration and some of the nation's largest banks turn over detailed information about companies that applied for and received federal loans intended for small businesses.

46. Senate GOP to restrict police chokeholds in emerging bill - Friday, June 12, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Driven by a rare urgency, Senate Republicans are poised to unveil an extensive package of policing changes that includes new restrictions on police chokeholds and other practices as President Donald Trump signals his support following the mass demonstrations over the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans.

47. Grim blame game over virus deaths in besieged nursing homes - Friday, June 12, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — A grim blame game with partisan overtones is breaking out over COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents, a tiny slice of the population that represents a shockingly high proportion of Americans who have perished in the pandemic.

48. Scott's challenge: Uniting Senate GOP behind police overhaul - Friday, June 5, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — The GOP is looking for an answer on how to respond to national outrage over the police killing of George Floyd. And they are looking to Sen. Tim Scott to provide it.

49. Civil unrest could influence Biden's search for running mate - Friday, May 29, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden's search for a running mate could be reshaped by the police killing of George Floyd and the unrest it has ignited across the country, raising questions about contenders with law-and-order backgrounds and intensifying pressure on the presumptive Democratic nominee to select a black woman.

50. GOP leader names picks for House panel overseeing virus aid - Friday, May 8, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday named five Republicans, including his top deputy and one of Congress' most combative defenders of President Donald Trump, to a new panel tracking federal coronavirus and economic relief spending.

51. Pelosi retreats on House proxy voting during virus pandemic - Friday, April 17, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called off a Thursday vote on whether to allow House members to cast votes by proxy and is instead forming a bipartisan group to review options for reopening the House during the coronavirus pandemic.

52. In time of crisis, Trump-Pelosi relationship remains broken - Friday, April 3, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two of the most powerful people in Washington have not spoken in five months at a time when the nation is battling its worst health crisis in a century, one that has already killed more than 6,000 Americans and put 10 million others out of work.

53. Pelosi: 6.6M more unemployed boosts need for new jobs bill - Friday, April 3, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — The new report that a knee-buckling 6.6 million more Americans filed for unemployment insurance makes it more urgent for Congress to approve a fresh jobs package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.

54. Pelosi creating House committee to oversee economic bailout - Friday, April 3, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she will establish a special House committee with subpoena power to oversee the government's spending of the more than $2.2 trillion approved to bolster the economy hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

55. Record jobless claims but Dems, GOP divide over rescue bill - Friday, April 3, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fresh data on Thursday that detailed a record avalanche of unemployment claims offered no signs of easing the rift between Democrats and Republicans over the need for new legislation financing infrastructure and other job-creation programs.

56. Analysis: Biden positions himself as leading moderate - Friday, February 28, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden bought himself time. It's unclear how much.

Biden's victory in South Carolina on Saturday was emphatic enough to let him make the claim that it had reordered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He can now credibly argue he is the overwhelming favorite of black voters who are the backbone of the Democratic Party. And he is positioning himself as moderates' best alternative to blocking Bernie Sanders' path to the nomination.

57. Sanders' rise fuels Dems' angst over keeping House control - Friday, February 21, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Bernie Sanders' ascendancy as Democrats' leading presidential hopeful fueled growing unease as lawmakers openly expressed anxiety that the self-proclaimed democratic socialist could cost them House control and questions abounded over what party leaders should do.

58. Democrats push impeachment rules package toward House OK - Friday, October 25, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats pushed a package of ground rules for their impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump toward certain House passage on Thursday as the chamber neared the first formal vote on an epic clash that could well stretch into next year.

59. Congress bids tearful farewell to 'sweet Elijah' Cummings - Friday, October 25, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of Congress bid a tearful farewell Thursday to Rep. Elijah Cummings , hailing the son of sharecroppers as a "master of the House" as the Maryland Democrat became the first African American lawmaker to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol.

60. Trump likens House impeachment inquiry to 'a lynching' - Friday, October 18, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump triggered outrage Tuesday by comparing the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry to a lynching, assigning the horrors of a deadly and racist chapter in U.S. history to a process laid out in the Constitution.

61. Border security brawl seems near a serene resolution - Friday, February 8, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is set to resolve its clattering brawl with President Donald Trump in uncommonly bipartisan fashion as lawmakers prepare to pass a border security compromise providing a mere sliver of the billions he's demanded for a wall with Mexico and averting a rekindled government shutdown this weekend.

62. House GOP leader says border deal doesn't need word 'wall' - Friday, January 25, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — A border security compromise that Congress hopes to produce doesn't have to include the word "wall," the top House Republican said Tuesday, signaling a rhetorical retreat from a term that President Donald Trump made a keystone of his presidential campaign.

63. House approves measure rebuking Rep. King - Friday, January 11, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has approved a Democratic measure disapproving of Republican Rep. Steve King's comments about white supremacy.

64. Pledge to limit tenure as speaker wins over Pelosi critics - Friday, December 7, 2018

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Nancy Pelosi all but ensured that she will become House speaker next month, quelling a revolt by disgruntled younger Democrats by agreeing to limit her tenure to no more than four additional years in the chamber's top post.

65. Analysis: Budget balance in eye of the beholder - Friday, March 22, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to budgets, balance is in the eye of the congressional beholder.

To House Republicans, it means a balanced budget in a decade, achieved by $4.6 trillion in spending cuts and without any tax increases.

66. Democrats want debt-cutting panel to address jobs - Friday, September 2, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on a special congressional debt-reduction supercommittee want it to include jobs creation as part of its work, a task that would complicate the newly created panel's already formidable assignment.

67. Debt commission members rake in health money - Friday, September 2, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors, drugmakers, hospitals and health insurers have spent millions over the years wooing lawmakers who now are on the powerful congressional panel charged with finding a formula to control deficits and debt, a new analysis finds.

68. Deficit panel members had moments of independence - Friday, August 26, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even lawmakers most loyal to their leaders and political party on occasion buck them with a flash of independence or bipartisanship. That includes some of the six Republicans and six Democrats given the task of finding up to another $1.5 trillion deficit savings over the next decade.

69. Democrats say Obama should invoke 14th Amendment - Friday, July 22, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats said Wednesday that President Barack Obama should invoke a little-known constitutional provision to prevent the nation from going into default if Congress fails to come up with a plan to raise the debt ceiling.

70. GOP retools plan as Congress seeks debt fix - Friday, July 22, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — Six days away from a potentially calamitous government default, House Republicans appeared to be coalescing Wednesday around a work-in-progress plan by House Speaker John Boehner to increase the U.S. borrowing limit and chop $1 trillion in federal spending. But the White House dismissed the proposal as a waste of time, and it got a thumbs-down from Senate Democrats and tea party activists, too.