January 10, 2012  |   MERRIMACK, N.H. | I've traveled all over the state of New Hampshire in the past several days, capturing video for the NewsHour of the candidates vying to show their strength in the Republican presidential primary process. But I've also spoken...

January 3, 2012  |   As Iowans gather for Caucuses around the state to literally stand up for their GOP presidential candidate of choice, we asked several residents about their most pressing concerns of this campaign season and how they view the U.S. political system....

January 3, 2012  |   We've all seen the dramatic coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. What started at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan spread to cities across America. While OWS focused on income inequality and the power of money in politics as a corrupting...

December 16, 2011  |   Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images. Christopher Hitchens -- a critic, author, journalist and habitual slayer of sacred cows -- died Thursday at the age of 62 from cancer. Hitchens' polarizing presence in public debate has spurred a cascade of...

December 15, 2011  |   President Obama speaks at a campaign rally at Ohio State University in October, 2010. Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images. A Harvard University poll released Thursday has potentially bad news for President Obama's hopes of re-election. A plurality of Americans...

December 8, 2011  |   Newt Gingrich speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition 2012 Presidential Candidates Forum Wednesday in Washington. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images. The Newt Gingrich surge has spread beyond Iowa and South Carolina, and now extends to Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania,...

November 30, 2011  |   A Fox5 website shows Ginger White, who claims to have had a 13-year affair with Herman Cain. The GOP presidential candidate has denied the accusation. Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images. A day after an Atlanta woman named Ginger White...

November 10, 2011  |   In a rare showing of bipartisanship in the Senate, a small portion of President Obama's jobs bill designed to help military veterans find employment passed by a vote of 94 to 1 Thursday. Senator Jim DeMint, R-S.C. was the only...

November 4, 2011  |   In a confident but cautious pitch to reporters Friday at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, DCCC Chairman Rep. Steve Israel said his party has a "gentle breeze at our backs" as they try to win 25 seats from...

October 26, 2011  |   FAIRFAX, Va. | Mitt Romney made an about-face Wednesday during a campaign stop for Virginia Republicans and wholeheartedly endorsed an Ohio ballot measure that would restrict the right for public employees to bargain collectively. "With regards to question 2, which...

October 25, 2011  |   Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Getty Images Texas Gov. Rick Perry came out of the gate in the 2012 Republican nomination process with a bang: After announcing his candidacy on Aug. 13, Perry dominated many of the polls by mid-September....

October 24, 2011  |   Senior Correspondents Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill and Political Editor David Chalian discuss Texas Gov. Rick Perry's plans to announce a flat tax proposal -- a policy that Woodruff and Ifill say sounds like a simple...

October 20, 2011  |   Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images. Two of the leading Republican candidates to face President Obama in the presidential election next year cheered the news that ousted Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi had been killed. The development marks the first time...

October 12, 2011  |   Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said Wednesday that after progress on President Obama's jobs bill was blocked Tuesday, Democrats will introduce the jobs plan piece-by-piece in the hopes of finding provisions that Republicans will support....

October 3, 2011  |   Senior correspondents Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill and Political Editor David Chalian are back for another edition of the Political Checklist. This week they consider whether the accelerated Republican primary calendar benefits the front-runner candidates at...

September 28, 2011  |   Updated 1:00 p.m. ET | Republican elected officials at the state and national level are divided over a proposal from Pennsylvania Republican State Senate President Dominic Pileggi that would award the state's Electoral College votes during presidential elections based on...

September 23, 2011  |   Mark Shields and David Brooks join this week's Doubleheader guest host, NewsHour Political Editor David Chalian, to discuss the politics behind President Obama's ongoing campaign to get his jobs plan passed. Chalian asks why, if the plan has little chance...

September 21, 2011  |   Updated Sept. 22, 6:51 p.m. ET Texas Congressman Ron Paul stands out in the Republican 2012 presidential primary field for his strict libertarian politics, his opposition to an interventionist foreign policy and his steadfast commitment to educating the public about...

September 19, 2011  |   President Obama on Monday unveiled his new recommendations to the Joint Select Committee on deficit reduction -- a $3 trillion, 10-year package that would increase taxes on the wealthy and make some changes to entitlement programs....

September 12, 2011  |   Political Editor David Chalian and Senior Correspondents Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff take a look at the politics behind President Obama's new jobs plan: can he successfully frame opposition to his plan as opposition to economic...

September 8, 2011  |   House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., is trying on a new set of rhetorical tools now that Congress is back from its August recess -- a recess that started just as Americans voiced their displeasure in how the entire debt...

September 7, 2011  |   David Chalian and Gwen Ifill preview a big week in American politics: Wednesday night the Republican presidential candidates face off in another debate, which will be frontrunner Rick Perry's first. As Wednesday's Morning Line describes it,...

September 6, 2011  |   Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney unveiled his jobs plan Tuesday -- a series of 59 ideas he claims will update America's economic plan and allow it move past high unemployment while shrinking government. Romney, speaking to a crowd in...

September 2, 2011  |   Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks (plus his son) joined Hari Sreenivasan Friday for another edition of The Doubleheader, where the guys weigh in on the battle for the top spot...

August 24, 2011  |   Texas Gov. Rick Perry campaigns in Iowa on Aug. 14. Photo by AFP/Getty. Gallup released a new poll Wednesday that changes -- at least for the moment -- the dynamics of the budding Republican presidential nomination fight: Texas Gov....

August 15, 2011  |   Fresh off the campaign trail in Iowa, Gwen Ifill and David Chalian talk to Judy Woodruff about their experience covering the Ames Straw Poll, Tim Pawlenty's exit and Rick Perry's entrance into the race. We also...

August 11, 2011  |   House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Thursday her selections for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, rounding out the group with three prominent Democrats who represent the base of the party. Pelosi selected Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn,...

August 10, 2011  |   Republican Congressional leaders announced Wednesday their selections for the powerful Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction charged with putting a plan forward to cut at least $1.5 trillion from the deficit, following Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's selection announcement Monday....

August 8, 2011  |   Political Editor David Chalian and Judy Woodruff discuss the political fallout from Standard & Poor's decision Friday evening to downgrade the U.S. credit rating and examine which political party stands to lose from the downgrade. Chalian...

August 3, 2011  |   A day after signing a compromise debt-ceiling bill into law, President Obama took his economic advisers to lunch at a Capitol Hill burger joint. Good Stuff Eatery features burgers named after the president and the first...

August 2, 2011  |   Updated 4:40 p.m. ET | The White House has released a photo of President Obama signing the debt compromise bill. Photographer Pete Souza has also released more behind-the-scenes images of the negotiations: Updated 2:21 p.m. ET | After...

August 1, 2011  |   Updated 7:49 p.m. ET | The House of Representatives passed a measure Monday evening to increase the U.S. debt ceiling by a vote of 269-161. The bill now heads to the Senate, which will likely vote on it Tuesday, which...

July 31, 2011  |   9:25 p.m. ET | President Obama announced Sunday evening that he had reached an agreement with party leaders in Congress that will cut the deficit, raise the debt ceiling and create a bipartisan, bicameral committee of members of Congress...

July 29, 2011  |   Updated 8:30 p.m. ET with Senate vote House Republicans rallied enough conservatives Friday evening to pass House Speaker John Boehner's debt-limit bill after days of delay that put into question whether the speaker could secure votes in his caucus. The...

July 29, 2011  |   File photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images. Senate Democratic leaders angrily denounced House Speaker John Boehner's new debt-limit bill Friday, saying it was dead on arrival in the Senate, and called on Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to help them...

July 29, 2011  |   Several House Republicans exiting a closed door meeting in the basement of the Capitol Friday morning said that House Speaker John Boehner was altering his debt-limit bill in a way that would allow it to pass, just hours after House...

July 29, 2011  |   House Republicans failed to secure the support necessary to pass Speaker John Boehner's debt-limit increase plan Thursday night, forcing the GOP leadership to delay a vote on the measure as the United States inches toward its borrowing limit Aug....

July 28, 2011  |   Updated 10:48 p.m. ET Republican leaders have announced that there will be no vote on the Boehner debt plan Thursday night, after hours of efforts to corral enough support to pass the measure. Politico reports: The House Rules Committee was...

July 28, 2011  |   House Republicans met Thursday in the basement of the Capitol, consulting each other as they prepare to deliver a judgement on Speaker John Boehner's biggest test yet: can he rally House Republicans to his version of a debt limit deal,...

July 26, 2011  |   Update, 3 p.m. ET | According to a just-released statement, "The Administration strongly opposes House passage of the amendment in the nature of a substitute to S. 627. If S. 627 is presented to the President, the President's senior advisors...

July 25, 2011  |   Updated 5:33 p.m. ET - Reporting from Capitol Hill |House Speaker John Boehner, surrounded by House Republican leaders, unveiled Monday the GOP proposal to raise the debt limit in two steps -- once now and once this winter --...

July 22, 2011  |   With no deal yet on raising the nation's borrowing limit before August 2, the Senate put to rest the possibility that the House Republicans "cut, cap and balance" plan would pass in that chamber by voting 51 to 46 along...

July 21, 2011  |   The leaders of both parties in the House of Representatives gave little reassurance Thursday morning that the two sides were making progress toward raising the debt limit, just 12 days before the Aug. 2 deadline. House Speaker John Boehner said...

July 20, 2011  |   In an interview Wednesday with The PBS NewsHour's Judy Woodruff, Republican presidential candidate and longtime Texas Rep. Ron Paul said "you can't solve the problem of debt by raising the debt limit." Asked why President Obama, Democrats, most of Congress...

July 19, 2011  |   With the United States just two weeks away from defaulting on its debt unless a deal is reached to raise the debt limit, a bipartisan group of senators presented a possible new way forward Tuesday when they introduced a new...

July 18, 2011  |   NewsHour Political Editor David Chalian asks Senior Correspondents Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill why House Republicans are voting for their "cut, cap and balance" deficit reduction plan if they know it has no chance to pass...

July 15, 2011  |   Mark Shields and David Brooks returned to the Doubleheader with Hari Sreenivasan after a summer hiatus and jumped right into the debt limit drama at the center of politics in Washington this month. Shields and Brooks...

July 14, 2011  |   Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks with Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., file photo With no deal in sight as congressional leaders continue debt-limit talks at the White House Thursday, Senate Democrats are spelling out the dire consequences of a...

July 12, 2011  |   Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., laid out a surprise alternative in the debt limit negotiations Tuesday that would essentially leave it up to President Obama to raise the debt ceiling and allow Republicans to vote against the increase. In...

July 12, 2011  |   House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and GOP Whip Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., address the media on November 3, 2010. Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images. House Republican leaders showed Tuesday that they weren't keen on President Obama's invitation to compromise...

July 11, 2011  |   Political Editor David Chalian and Senior Correspondents Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff sat down this week to assess President Obama's Monday news conference, which came ahead of the third round of debt limit negotiations at the...

July 10, 2011  |   President Obama at debt ceiling meeting with congressional leaders. Photo by Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg via Getty Images Congressional leaders left the White House Sunday evening without news of a deal to reduce the federal deficit and raise the debt limit...

July 7, 2011  |   While Republicans in the House and Senate have been declaring for weeks that they won't support any type of tax increase as part of a debt-limit deal, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi drew her own line in the sand Thursday:...

July 7, 2011  |   President Obama speaks Thursday in the Brady Briefing Room following a meeting on the debt ceiling with congressional leaders. Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images President Obama said Thursday that he had a very constructive meeting with congressional leaders about...

July 6, 2011  |   Lawmakers are continuing to stake their claim on two very different solutions to the deficit problem as leaders from both parties in both chambers of Congress prepare to meet with President Obama to continue talks on extending the nation's debt...

June 23, 2011  |   Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., left, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., walk to the budget talk meeting with Vice President Biden and other Congressional leaders in Sen. Reid's office on Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Photo By...

June 22, 2011  |   Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks through the halls of the U.S. Capitol November 15, 2010. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday he wasn't interested in discussing the negative economic consequences that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben...

June 21, 2011  |   Photo By Bill Clark/Roll Call Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced a resolution in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday that would authorize a limited military presence in Libya, heading off an effort in the U.S. House...

May 26, 2011  |   U.S. House of Representatives, Getty Images Just two days after Democrat Kathy Hochul won a special election to the House of Representatives in a solidly Republican New York district, the head of the party's House campaign cited the victory...

May 25, 2011  |   Majority Leader Harry Reid forced his Senate colleagues Wednesday to show where they stand on the House Republican budget blueprint that would end Medicare as a single-payer health insurance guarantee, creating a possible political liability. The resolution failed to...

May 23, 2011  |   In just the past day, the 2012 Republican presidential field has become clearer as Indiana governor Mitch Daniels opted out of the race and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty went all in with a new web...

May 19, 2011  |   A Senate Republican filibuster blocked Democrats from getting the 60 votes necessary to proceed to a vote to approve law professor Goodwin Liu to a lifetime appointment as a judge on the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals,...

May 17, 2011  |   Both major political parties in Congress can agree on at least one thing: The price of gasoline in America -- at $4 a gallon -- is a bad thing. Agreeing on what, if anything, should be done about that reality...

May 16, 2011  |   Mitt Romney fund-raising in Las Vegas. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images. The all-but-formally announced presidential candidate Mitt Romney raised $10.25 million in campaign cash Monday, according to his campaign, via an 800-person phone bank operation headquartered in Las Vegas...

May 16, 2011  |   In this week's edition of the Political Checklist, Gwen Ifill and David Chalian examine why, if the nation has hit its limit for borrowing, has there been no outcry from the markets or the political system?...

May 13, 2011  |   Getty Images Senator Herb Kohl, D-Wis., will announce Friday that he will not seek reelection in 2012, a Democratic Party source told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The retirement will put the Democratic Party in an even tougher position as...

May 12, 2011  |   Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was upbeat Thursday after he and other Republican senators met with President Obama at the White House to discuss the conditions under which Congress will vote on increasing the country's debt limit, but repeated...

May 5, 2011  |   Thursday on Capitol Hill represented a significant shift in narrative, as attention turned from the minute details of the death of Osama bin Laden to the looming debate over the budget, the debt ceiling and gas prices. Gas prices,...

May 2, 2011  |   A day after the dramatic announcement that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden, the world's most-wanted terrorist, David Chalian, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff assess how the news could impact President Obama's political standing. The...

April 27, 2011  |   Washington D.C. metro train by Flickr user Anuska Sampedro Congressional leaders and the White House came to a last-minute agreement April 8 on how to fund the federal government for the remainder of the fiscal year, narrowly avoiding a...

April 27, 2011  |   The White House today released President Obama's long-form birth certificate, hoping to put an end to speculation that he has been lying about where he was born. You can see the White House statement on the...

April 25, 2011  |   Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is ending his nascent campaign for the presidency, his office announced Monday. "A candidate for president today is embracing a ten-year commitment to an all-consuming effort, to the virtual exclusion of all else. His or...

April 15, 2011  |   A united House Republican conference voted overwhelmingly to pass budget Chairman Paul Ryan's sweeping budget plan that would cut $5.8 trillion in spending over the next ten years, lowering corporate tax rates and transforming Medicare into a voucher system for...

April 14, 2011  |   Update 6:10 p.m. ET | The Senate passed the budget bill late Thursday afternoon, sending the legislation to President Obama's desk for a signature. The 81-19 vote ensures the government will remain funded for the rest of the fiscal year,...

April 13, 2011  |   President Obama's deficit-reduction roadmap, a response to the House Republicans' long-term budget plan, was met immediately with support from his fellow Democrats -- and derision from Republicans. A group of House Republicans, who were part of the president's fiscal commission...

April 13, 2011  |   Congressional leaders and the White House averted a government shutdown Friday evening by agreeing to cut almost $40 billion in federal spending on non-entitlement and non-defense projects from current levels. This was a rare move for Congress, which rarely reduces...

April 11, 2011  |   On this week's edition of the Political Checklist, Judy Woodruff and David Chalian explain how last week's near-government shutdown was just a preview to bigger debates over raising the debt ceiling, budgets and entitlement reform. They...

April 6, 2011  |   The White House Office of Management and Budget warned Wednesday that a failure by Congress to appropriate money to fund the federal government before midnight on Friday would have a direct impact on the economy. According to a senior...

April 5, 2011  |   House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., holds a copy of his budget proposal 'The Path to Prosperity' during a news conference on the FY2012 budget resolution on Tuesday, April 5, 2011. Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican...

April 4, 2011  |   In this week's Political Checklist, Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff and David Chalian look at the details of the looming April 8 government shutdown deadline as well as Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's Tuesday budget announcement, which is...

March 30, 2011  |   As the clock ticks once again toward the government shutdown deadline - April 8 - the NewsHour asked Todd Zwillich, Washington correspondent for the Takeaway radio program from Public Radio International and WNYC, to explain the...

March 28, 2011  |   In this week's edition of the Political Checklist, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff take an in-depth look at what President Obama needs to accomplish with his address to the nation Monday evening about the conflict in...

March 25, 2011  |   Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday that he is four or five weeks away from officially jumping into the presidential race, saying he is closer to running than not running, while also rejecting the idea that likability is an...

March 23, 2011  |   The Political Checklist is back this week, and Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff and David Chalian look into how public opinion regarding President Obama's signature health insurance reform law is reverberating in American politics one year after...

March 17, 2011  |   The Senate passed another stopgap spending measure Thursday that will give congressional leaders and the White House another three weeks to work out a longer-term spending agreement. Government funds would have expired on Friday. This is the second stopgap measure...

March 15, 2011  |   The House of Representatives approved another temporary spending measure Tuesday that will cut spending and keep the government operating for another three weeks, provided it also passes in the Senate. The measure would cut $6 billion in spending, mostly from...

March 11, 2011  |   Congressional leaders announced Friday afternoon that they reached an agreement on another measure to fund the government after March 18, delaying any possible government shutdown until at least April 8. The new measure would cut $6 billion in spending and...

March 10, 2011  |   Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., opened his controversial hearings to examine Muslim radicalization in America amid a chaotic atmosphere Thursday on Capitol Hill by offering a defense of the proceedings. "Let me make it clear today that I remain convinced...

March 9, 2011  |   The Senate rejected H.R. 1, the temporary spending measure that would fund the federal government through Sept. 30 while cutting about $57 billion from current spending levels, setting the stage for a new round of negotiations over how to fund...

March 8, 2011  |   Even as the Senate was preparing Tuesday to vote on two different proposals for funding the federal government until Sept. 30, the third-ranking Republican in the House said his party was prepared to pass another short-term spending measure in order...

March 7, 2011  |   Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. Getty Images file photo. Nevada Republican John Ensign announced Monday he will not seek reelection in 2012, ending a Senate career marred by Ensign's admission of an extramarital affair with a former campaign aide Cynthia...

March 7, 2011  |   On this week's edition of the Political Checklist, David Chalian, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff look at how the White House is handling the situation in Libya and the option of opening American oil reserves to keep gas prices...

March 3, 2011  |   Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn visited Capitol Hill Monday to defend his state's perch as the very first place to vote for a candidate to run against President Obama in 2012, highlighting the power the Iowa caucuses have in...

March 2, 2011  |   Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, right, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., conduct a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center to discuss spending cuts. The Senate moved swiftly to pass the House's two-week spending measure...

March 1, 2011  |   The House took a major step toward averting a federal government shutdown Tuesday by passing a bill that would extend government funding until March 18, giving Congress two weeks to hammer out a compromise on a longer-term funding solution....

February 28, 2011  |   Last week, Gwen Ifill and David Chalian discussed the very real possibility that the federal government could face a shutdown if GOP House leaders and Senate Democrats could not come to an agreement on spending. This week, David and...

February 25, 2011  |   The Doubleheader is back this week, and Mark Shields and David Brooks tackle Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's phone call with a blogger who pretended to be billionaire and conservative financier David Koch. Mark and David were at odds, in...

February 22, 2011  |   In this week's edition of the Political Checklist, Political Editor David Chalian and Senior Correspondent Gwen Ifill look at the political standoff in Wisconsin between newly-elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the state's public sector labor unions. Gwen and...

February 21, 2011  |   Two of the NewsHour's regular historian guests gave us a recommended reading list for the holiday. Richard Norton Smith is a presidential historian and Scholar-in-Residence of History and Public Policy at George Mason University. Ellen Fitzpatrick is a professor at...

February 19, 2011  |   Updated 7:15 a.m. ET Saturday: The House approved a spending plan early Saturday morning that would cut $60 billion in domestic programs, foreign funding and some military projects. The 235-189 passage marked a success for fiscally conservative Republicans and...

February 16, 2011  |   If you've been trying to keep track of Capitol Hill this week, you might be confused: Is the House considering President Obama's budget? How much is being cut from the budget? And what is a CR? What's happening is that...

February 14, 2011  |   After President Obama unveiled his 2012 budget proposal Monday, Political Editor David Chalian spoke with Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff about the limits -- and possibilities -- of a budget that likely will be rejected by House Republicans. Gwen...

February 10, 2011  |   Updated 2 p.m. ET Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., made his decision not to run for reelection official at an event in Phoenix Thursday. In a letter to supporters, Kyl explained his decision: "Simply put, it is time - time to...

February 9, 2011  |   Congress has until March 4th to come to an agreement on how to continue to fund the government, and that job could be difficult, especially for House Republican leaders who have lost two of the past three bill votes on...

February 8, 2011  |   Throughout the 2010 midterm election cycle, one of the most familiar, and accurate, narratives was that social issues had played a very diminished role in the fight for control of Congress. Cultural battles that have divided America since the 1960s,...

February 3, 2011  |   President Obama is 10 days away from releasing his budget proposal, but that isn't stopping Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill from staking out their territory in the coming fight over how to fund the government. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.,...

February 2, 2011  |   Republican efforts to repeal President Obama's signature health care reform law failed in the Senate Wednesday after supporters of repeal failed to garner the necessary 60 votes to overcome a procedural hurdle. An amendment offered by Sen. Mitch McConnell of...

February 1, 2011  |   A Republican and Democratic Senator introduced a bill Tuesday that would force Congress to make difficult long-term spending cuts by capping the amount of money the federal government could spend relative to the country's Gross Domestic Product. Sen. Bob Corker,...

January 31, 2011  |   DetectFlashDecision_Blog; In this edition of the Political Checklist, Political Editor David Chalian and Senior Correspondent Judy Woodruff discuss how a foreign affairs crisis like the popular revolt in Egypt forces a White House to change its script....

January 26, 2011  |   PBS NewsHour Capitol Hill producer Linda J. Scott spoke with lawmakers from both parties at the U.S. Capitol immediately following President Obama's State of the Union address for reactions to the speech. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said it started a...

January 20, 2011  |   Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; Getty Images file photo Members of the Republican Study Committee, the conservative caucus among House Republicans, unveiled Thursday the Spending Reduction Act of 2011, a sweeping list of spending cuts the group...

January 19, 2011  |   The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to repeal last year's landmark health reform legislation -- a mostly symbolic vote since the Democratic-led Senate is unlikely to pass repeal and might not even consider the measure. The final House vote was...

January 18, 2011  |   Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; Getty Images file photo North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad, who has served in the Senate for the last 24 years, said Tuesday that he will not seek re-election next year, marking the first Democratic senator...

January 14, 2011  |   Vice President Joe Biden announced today that Bruce Reed, who was most recently executive director of the Simpson-Bowles debt commission and is a veteran of the Clinton administration, will replace Ron Klain as his chief of staff. The move comes...

January 13, 2011  |   Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2010 Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, announced Thursday that she will not run for a fifth term in 2012, leaving a wide-open Republican primary. Hutchison, who was first elected in 1993 and...

January 8, 2011  |   Updated 2:15 p.m. ET, Monday, Jan. 10 President Obama called for a national moment of silence in honor of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and other victims of the shooting rampage in Arizona Saturday that killed six people. Giffords remains hospitalized...

January 3, 2011  |   DetectFlashDecision_Blog; In this week's edition of the Political Checklist, Political Editor David Chalian and Senior Correspondents Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff discuss the Republican agenda as the party retakes control of the House of Representatives this Wednesday....

December 20, 2010  |   DetectFlashDecision_Blog; In this week's edition of the Political Checklist, Political Editor David Chalian talks with Senior Correspondents Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff about their takeaways from the final weeks of the 111th Congress - known as the...

December 17, 2010  |   President Obama signs bipartisan tax legislation that extends tax cuts signed by former President George W. Bush and renews benefits for the unemployed during a ceremony on Dec. 17, 2010. President Obama signed $858 billion tax...

December 13, 2010  |   Updated 7:00 p.m. By a vote of 83 to 15, the tax cut measure cleared the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate to limit debate and set up a vote on final passage. Updated 5:40 p.m. President Obama gave a...

December 13, 2010  |   DetectFlashDecision_Blog; Political Editor David Chalian and Senior Correspondents Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff tackle the key political question of the week: will the 111th Congress, controlled by the Democrats, be able to pass President Obama's major legislative...

December 9, 2010  |   President Obama's compromise with Republicans on a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts hit a speed bump today: House Democrats took a non-binding vote, where a majority rejected bringing the compromise up for a vote on the House...

December 6, 2010  |   President Obama announced late Monday the "framework" for a compromise deal that would extend existing tax cuts at all income levels for two years and extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed for 13 months. You can read the...

December 6, 2010  |   DetectFlashDecision_Blog; Political Editor David Chalian and Senior Correspondent Gwen Ifill evaluate the new political realities in Washington as Democrats in the lame duck Congress appear ready to concede on a major issue: repeal of the much-debated Bush-era...

December 3, 2010  |   The Department of Justice announced Friday that President Obama has pardoned nine people, the first pardons of his presidency. Six of those pardoned had only been sentenced to probation, while the other three had been confined to jail or prison...

December 3, 2010  |   President Obama delivers remarks and signs an executive order establishing the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on Feb. 18, 2010 at the White House with co-chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. A majority...

December 2, 2010  |   The House of Representatives voted 333-79 Thursday afternoon to censure Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., for violations of House ethics rules. The overwhelming rebuke followed a vote on an amendment to downgrade his punishment to a written reprimand. That failed...

December 2, 2010  |   House Democrats scheduled a vote Thursday on permanently extending the tax breaks for middle-income Americans as a bipartisan group of lawmakers and two top Obama administration officials negotiated a compromise behind closed doors. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said...

November 19, 2010  |   Late Friday afternoon in an almost empty U.S. Capitol, the Senate passed by a voice vote approximately $4.6 billion in payments for black farmers and American Indian tribes who claimed discrimination by the federal government. Included was a $1.25...

November 19, 2010  |   The House Ethics Committee has canceled the Nov. 29 trial date scheduled for California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters, citing "the discovery of materials that may have had an effect" on the ethics investigation subcommittee's work. The committee had just...

November 18, 2010  |   The House Ethics Committee has recommended, by a vote of 9-1, that Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., be censured by the House of Representatives. The decision marks the end of an almost two-year investigation into...

November 18, 2010  |   Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senate Foreign Relations ranking Republican Dick Lugar, R-Ind., discuss New START at the Capitol on Wednesday. Photo by Douglas Graham/Roll Call. President Obama will meet on...

November 17, 2010  |   House Democrats chose Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the next minority leader, despite opposition from within the party following losses in the midterm elections. Pelosi, along with the newly selected leaders of the House Democrats for the 112th Congress, addressed...

November 16, 2010  |   A House ethics subcommittee found Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., in violation of 11 of 13 ethics charges stemming from disputes over his personal finances and solicitation of charitable donations. The subcommittee will now have...

November 15, 2010  |   Rep.-elect Kristi Noem, R-S.D., talks with reporters during freshmen orientation at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 15, 2010. Monday was the first day of new member orientation on Capitol Hill, where a huge class...

November 11, 2010  |   A new study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that the public is less satisfied with the outcome of the 2010 midterm election when compared to public sentiment after the Congressional power shifts that...

November 8, 2010  |   DetectFlashDecision_Blog; What message were voters trying to send to the political establishment in last week's midterms elections? And how will President Obama respond to his party's losses? Political Editor David Chalian and Senior Correspondent Judy Woodruff discuss how the...

November 5, 2010  |   Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg released a poll Friday that provides yet another look at what message voters wanted to send when they voted a new Republican majority to the House of Representatives and six new Republicans to the U.S. Senate....

November 5, 2010  |   View all Incumbent Losses [Google Spreadsheet] Fifty-three members of the House of Representatives lost their jobs Tuesday in an election that moved 60 seats into Republican control. Excluding the freshmen and sophomore House members...

November 3, 2010  |  

November 1, 2010  |   From Florida to Ohio to California, voters go to the polls for midterm elections Tuesday. They'll cast ballots against a backdrop of economic woes, anti-incumbent sentiment and an ongoing debate over the definition of "change" in politics. Here on the...

November 1, 2010  |   DetectFlashDecision_Blog; One day before voters go to the midterm polls, Political Editor David Chalian and Senior Correspondents Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff wrap up the 2010 midterm cycle with a special election week installment of the Political...

October 30, 2010  |   Was it humor or was it politics? We may never fully know, but crowds came to Washington by the busload Saturday for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear." Some rally-goers said they were there...

October 27, 2010  |   _pap_embeddable; In 2010, all the polls and predictors indicate it will be a good year for the Republican Party: they have a good chance to regain control of the House of Representatives and stand to gain at...

October 26, 2010  |   DetectFlashDecision_Blog; Political Editor David Chalian and Senior Correspondent Gwen Ifill take a look at the national dynamics a week before the 2010 midterms in this edition of the Political Checklist. David and Gwen highlight the fact that,...

October 21, 2010  |   The head of University Democrats at the University of Virginia tries to register voters for the upcoming midterm elections. AFP photo by Saul Loeb In 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama won the support of a large majority of voters ages...

October 19, 2010  |   Republican Sharron Angle is running for the U.S. Senate seat in Nevada. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images. For the second time in two days a controversial video has surfaced of Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle addressing a group of...

October 18, 2010  |   _pap_embeddable; On this week's Political Checklist, Gwen Ifill is back from a reporting trip to Florida, where she saw Republican candidate Marco Rubio leading the polls in the state's three-way Senate race while the Democratic candidate for...

October 11, 2010  |   In this week's Political Checklist, Judy Woodruff and David Chalian explore the Democratic Party's decision to make a major issue of the political advertising coming from pro-Republican groups, particularly groups that are not affiliated with the official GOP. Woodruff tells...

October 6, 2010  |   First lady Michelle Obama told listeners Wednesday on a conference call aimed at getting out the Democratic vote in November to remind voters that "change is difficult and we are just beginning to see the results of our work." The...

October 5, 2010  |   In this week's Political Checklist, Judy Woodruff previews a story that will air on Tuesday's NewsHour about the U.S. Senate battle in Wisconsin between incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold and Republican Ron Johnson. Woodruff tells Political Editor David Chalian that as...

October 1, 2010  |   It's now official. President Obama's chief of staff, the fiery former congressman Rahm Emanuel, has stepped down from his post. In an East Room ceremony, the president said Emanuel will be replaced by Pete Rouse, a long-time Obama aide. Emanuel...

September 30, 2010  |   House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi spoke with the NewsHour's Judy Woodruff Thursday about tax policy and the 2010 midterm elections. In this clip, Pelosi describes what she sees as the choice facing voters in the November elections. Her Democratic Party...

September 28, 2010  |   Earmarks are an oft-maligned process by which members of Congress can request that appropriated federal dollars be spent in a specific way, and that money often winds up spent in the district of the member making the request. Sen. John...

September 23, 2010  |   A Pew Research poll focusing on independent voters released Thursday afternoon has dire news for the Democratic Party: Republicans have a 13 percentage-point advantage among independents likely to vote in the 2010 midterms. Pew President Andrew Kohut told the NewsHour...

September 22, 2010  |   First lady Michelle Obama. Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images. A handful of Democratic candidates will get a visit this fall from the Obama they've been asking for: first lady Michelle Obama. Mrs. Obama will hit the campaign trail in...

September 21, 2010  |   The Senate could not reach the 60-vote threshold to start debate on a defense spending bill Tuesday, effectively blocking an attached repeal of the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" ban on gay people serving openly. Although the defense bill would...

September 21, 2010  |   Gay rights activists protest against the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images. A bill authorizing defense spending next year may once again need...

September 20, 2010  |   On this week's Political Checklist, Political Editor David Chalian talks with Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff about the possible impact of Sarah Palin's appearance at the Iowa GOP's Ronald Reagan Dinner and Indiana Republican Rep. Mike Pence's straw poll victory...

September 15, 2010  |   Amid chatter on how tea party candidates might influence the GOP in November's elections and bleak poll numbers for incumbent Democrats, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine continued the refrain Wednesday heard from Democratic politicians and party officials alike: vote for us...

September 15, 2010  |   In an immediate effort to heal the Republican party's divisions on display in the Delaware Senate race, RNC Chairman Michael Steele offered his full throated support for the tea party backed victor in the race, Christine O'Donnell. Steele urged party...

September 9, 2010  |   President Obama, file photo, Getty Images President Obama denounced a Florida pastor's plan to burn the Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks this Saturday. Mr. Obama called the proposed burning "a recruitment bonanza for al-Qaeda" in an...

September 8, 2010  |   President Obama challenged Congressional Republicans during a speech on the economy at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland Wednesday, saying the opposition party is obstructing good economic policy for political gain, while supporting policies that contributed to the recent recession. The...

September 7, 2010  |   In this week's edition of the Political Checklist, Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill spoke with political editor David Chalian about new polls that bring more bad news for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, as well as President Obama's...

September 6, 2010  |   In the lead up to Labor Day, labor unions, a critical component of the Democratic Party's base, began to reveal their political plans for the fall campaign season. The AFL-CIO, for instance, promised again this Labor Day to activate its...

August 27, 2010  |   Democratic congressman Chris Van Hollen sought Friday to tamp down the increasingly loud chatter among the political punditry that Democrats' chances of maintaining their majority in the House of Representatives this fall are quickly dwindling. "I can assure you that...

August 16, 2010  |   In the wake of the landmark Citizens United v. FEC campaign finance ruling, unions and corporations are now allowed to spend unlimited amounts of their own money to support candidates via advertising. But those are not the only changes to...

August 12, 2010  |   If you turn on C-SPAN 2 Thursday morning, you'll be able to catch a very quick pause in the Senate's August recess. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., worked out a deal with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to pass, by...

August 11, 2010  |   The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee and the White House joined Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., in scoring a big victory last night. The incumbent appointed senator was able to fend off a feisty and strong challenge by...

August 10, 2010  |   The House of Representatives Tuesday approved a bill that will provide $26.1 billion in aid to states for teachers and Medicaid after making a rare return from August recess for the emergency vote. The bill passed 247-161, with most Democrats...

August 10, 2010  |   Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., used a House rule to allow himself an hour of uninterrupted time to speak on the floor. Rangel has been formally charged by the House ethics committee with 13 counts of breaking House rules related to...

August 10, 2010  |   That was fast. The House of Representatives concluded its work for the summer nearly two weeks ago and members thought they wouldn't have to be back in Washington until September 14. With a universe of nearly 60 highly competitive House...

August 9, 2010  |   After a bachelor weekend that included playing a round of golf with old friends on Saturday and basketball with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony on Sunday, President Obama welcomes the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints to the...

August 6, 2010  |   Liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org delivered a direct message to Target Corp. Friday: stop spending money on political campaigns. MoveOn.org delivered a petition with 260,000 signatures to company headquarters in Minneapolis demanding that it stop influencing campaigns. Watch video from the...

August 5, 2010  |   The U.S. Senate voted 63 to 37 Thursday afternoon to approve Elena Kagan as an associate justice to the Supreme Court, making her the fourth woman to become a justice on the nation's highest court and the third woman on...

August 5, 2010  |   Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday defended his party's decision to obstruct the Democrats' agenda in the Senate as best he could by forcing their rivals to get 60 votes for nearly every measure. He described the conflict in...

August 3, 2010  |   Rock the Vote, a non-profit group that encourages and mobilizes young Americans to register to vote, announced Tuesday that it is mobilizing in five states for its biggest midterm election year voting drive since its founding in 1992. Executive director...

August 2, 2010  |   As the 2010 campaign season heats up, we'll check in with our political experts Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff every Monday for their analysis of the big political stories in the week ahead. NewsHour Political Editor David Chalian sat down...

July 30, 2010  |   New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus -- who's sitting in for Mark Shields this week -- stopped by The Rundown Friday to discuss the debate over the expiring Bush tax cuts and what impact...

July 30, 2010  |   <!-- _pap_embeddable; //--><!]]> President Obama rallied autoworkers at a Chrysler plant in Detroit Friday, telling workers that his administration's decision to rescue the ailing auto industry in 2009 kept their jobs alive and was the right decision, despite "naysayers...

July 29, 2010  |   The NewsHour has learned that Rep. Charles Rangel's attorneys have presented the House ethics committee with a tentative plea agreement related to 13 charges of ethical misconduct allegedly committed by the New York Democrat. According to a Democratic source with...

July 29, 2010  |   Freshman House Democrats Gerry Connolly, who represents Northern Virginia's eleventh district, and Tom Perriello of the rural fifth district are in a tough spot. Elected to office as part of the Obama wave, they are now selling themselves to voters...

July 27, 2010  |   Updated 2:11 p.m. In the past 48 hours, Democrats have been working feverishly behind the scenes to figure out a way to get Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., to strike a deal with the House ethics committee in order to...

July 26, 2010  |   President Obama spoke in the White House Rose Garden Monday to urge the U.S. Senate to join the House of Representatives in passing the DISCLOSE Act -- aimed at making political advertising more transparent after the Supreme Court's Citizens United...

July 23, 2010  |   Photo by Steve Stearns Leaders of the Democratic establishment are headed to Las Vegas this weekend to woo the online liberal activist wing of the party in hopes of energizing some of their most loyal supporters and even some...

July 20, 2010  |   Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, chairman of the committee charged with putting Republicans back in control of the U.S. House of Representatives, told reporters Tuesday that the 2010 midterm elections were going to be all about President Obama's agenda before the...

July 20, 2010  |   The Senate Judiciary committee voted 13-6 Tuesday to recommend that the full Senate approve Solicitor General Elena Kagan to be the next Supreme Court justice. The vote was along party lines with one exception -- South Carolina Republican Lindsey...

July 16, 2010  |   West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin announced Friday that he has appointed Carte Goodwin, his former chief counsel, to succeed the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd until the state holds a special election. Voters will then choose who will serve in...

July 15, 2010  |   <!-- _pap_embed_custom; //--><!]]> House Speaker Nancy Pelosi worked Thursday to dispel the notion that she is furious with the White House for not helping House Democrats politically after those members cast tough votes to enact President Obama's agenda. A reporter...

July 14, 2010  |   The North Iowa Tea Party recently purchased a billboard in downtown Mason City, Iowa, that tied together the images of President Obama, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. Each were labeled with the words "change" and...

July 13, 2010  |   The White House announced Tuesday it was nominating Jacob J. Lew to be the next Director of the Office of Management and Budget. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Lew will replace outgoing OMB Director Peter Orzag. <!-- _pap_embed_custom; //--><!]]>...

July 12, 2010  |   A poll by the Pew Research Center released late Monday shows that 63 percent of Americans think it is very important for Congress to address national immigration policy, while a slim plurality disapprove of the Justice Department's decision to sue...

July 8, 2010  |   Updated at 5:15 p.m. President Obama rallied a friendly crowd at Carnahan's fundraiser at the Marriott Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri Thursday, telling the audience that Carnahan would be a faithful servant to the people of Missouri and not...

July 7, 2010  |   West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said Wednesday that he would not appoint himself to fill the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd's Senate seat -- but added that he wanted the state's attorney general to reevaluate a secretary of state's opinion...

July 6, 2010  |   Updated 4:10 p.m. ET | The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday to block the enforcement of Arizona's new immigration law, which gives police power to detain and question people they suspect of being in the...

June 29, 2010  |   <!-- _pap_embeddable; //--><!]]> Marcia Coyle, a regular NewsHour analyst and Washington Correspondent for the National Law Journal, spoke with Hari Sreenivasan during the lunch break in Tuesday's Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. Coyle is answering some...

June 28, 2010  |   Updated 12:09 p.m. | The Supreme Court delivered a victory to proponents of gun ownership rights Monday, ruling that Constitution's "right to keep and bear arms" applies nationwide. The narrow 5 to 4 decision in McDonald v. Chicago follows the...

June 28, 2010  |   The Supreme Court will mark two pivotal moments on Monday: the start of the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings and the official end to the tenure of one of its longest-serving justices, John Paul Stevens. Stevens will take his seat...

June 24, 2010  |   The Supreme Court ruled Thursday to apply more narrowly a law used to prosecute white-collar crime in response to three separate cases involving the so-called "honest services" law. The decisions were unanimous. In Skilling v. United States, former Enron CEO...

June 23, 2010  |   President Obama relieved Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, from command Wednesday after the general and his aides disparaged Obama administration officials and policy in a magazine article. President Obama announced that he was nominating Gen....

June 21, 2010  |   In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that a federal law making it a crime to provide "material support" to organizations designated as terrorist groups by the State Department is not unconstitutionally vague. The case, Holder v. Humanitarian...

June 17, 2010  |   The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that the city of Ontario, Calif., did not violate a police officer's Fourth Amendment rights when it searched his work pager for text messages. The case, Quon v. City of Onatrio, involved Onatrio SWAT...

June 8, 2010  |   Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., speaks with a constituent while campaigning; NewsHour file photo. Tuesday marks the latest "big primary day" in the 2010 midterm election cycle, and voters in several states could start to make an impact on how...

June 1, 2010  |   The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision Tuesday that suspects under interrogation must tell police that they wish to remain silent, as opposed to simply remaining silent. Van Chester Thompkins challenged his murder conviction on the grounds that by...

May 28, 2010  |   <!-- _pap_embeddable; //--><!]]> President Barack Obama said Friday that the U.S. government is doing everything it can to permanently stop the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and to mitigate the damage done to the local ecosystem and...

May 28, 2010  |   The House of Representatives voted Thursday night to end the U.S. military ban on openly gay and bisexual service members, but the U.S. Senate and the military must act before the law known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" becomes history....

May 27, 2010  |   UPDATED: 6:13 PM: The New York Times is reporting that the top kill procedure has been halted by BP Thursday afternoon "when engineers saw that too much of the drilling fluid they were injecting into the well was escaping along...

May 24, 2010  |   The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that the National Football League could face an antitrust lawsuit over its exclusive apparel contract with Reebok. The court reversed the decision of two lower courts, which had dismissed the lawsuit from American Needle,...

May 20, 2010  |   <!-- _pap_embeddable; //--><!]]> In an address to a joint session of Congress, Mexican President Felipe Calderon described the flow of immigrants from his country into the United States as a shared problem and asked the Congress to consider comprehensive...

May 19, 2010  |   Incumbent Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter will face each other again in a June 8 runoff after neither candidate received 50 percent of the vote in Tuesday's Democratic primary. Lincoln, elected to the Senate in 1998,...

May 18, 2010  |   Updated 11:58 p.m. ET | Despite the backing of President Barack Obama, Gov. Ed Rendell and much of the Democratic Party apparatus, five-term Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter lost a close primary challenge from Rep. Joe Sestak. "It's no surprise...

May 17, 2010  |   Tuesday, May 18, marks the first big voting day in the 2010 Congressional midterm primary season, with primaries being held for Senate seats in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. Those contests could show establishment politicians losing to challengers in a political...

May 13, 2010  |   Polls from the Pew Research Center and the Wall Street Journal/NBC show broad support for the new Arizona immigration law that critics said would lead to racial profiling of Hispanics. The Pew Poll, conducted in early May, shows that...

May 12, 2010  |   Senators Joseph Lieberman and John Kerry (D-Mass.) unveiled a much-anticipated energy and climate bill Wednesday, aimed at reducing carbon emissions and encouraging the development of clean energy sources. The American Power Act, the Senate version of sweeping legislation already...

May 5, 2010  |   Voters in Indiana, Ohio, and North Carolina selected candidates in party primaries for three contested Senate seats Tuesday - the first multistate primary day in this year's midterm elections. Tuesday's races were a chance to see if primary voters were...

April 28, 2010  |   A divided Supreme Court ruled today that a Latin cross honoring American soldiers who served in World War I can remain in a federal park in California. In writing for the plurality of the court, Justice Anthony Kennedy validated a...

April 20, 2010  |   The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 1999 federal law banning videos of animal cruelty violates the First Amendment's free speech protections. The court voted 8-1 to overturn the law. Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal explained the argument...

April 19, 2010  |   Marcia Coyle, NewsHour regular and Washington correspondent for the National Law Journal, spoke with us Monday afternoon about oral arguments heard before the Supreme Court earlier in the day. Here is an excerpt of our conversation. On Monday's NewsHour, Judy...

April 16, 2010  |   <!-- _pap_embeddable; //--><!]]> If you watched any television news Thursday, you likely saw swarms of Americans -- some holding signs, some dressed as 18th century revolutionaries and others in casual wear -- protesting government spending. The Tax Day protests...

April 12, 2010  |   Florida is used to visitors - some come to see Disney World, while others relocate to the Sunshine State after they retire. According to University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith, the state's economy has depended on constant population growth...

April 9, 2010  |   The PBS NewsHour is gearing up for the latest in its "Spotlight City" reporting series. We've been to Pittsburgh, Albuquerque, St. Louis and Kansas City exploring issues that reverberate on both the local and national stage. Now we're headed to...

March 25, 2010  |   In a major policy shift, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced at a news conference Thursday that the military will make it more difficult for gay service members to be expelled as part of a broader review of the...

March 24, 2010  |   Fresh off the passage of sweeping health care reform legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke with Jim Lehrer Wednesday about the political battle over the bill, what it means for the American public and why lawmakers were so sharply divided...

March 23, 2010  |   As President Obama prepares to sign health care reform into law, the U.S. Senate still has steps to take to consider a package of revisions to the legislation - a promise made to House Democrats who wanted changes made to...

March 17, 2010  |   As Democratic lawmakers work to push health care legislation over the finish line, millions of dollars are being spent on television ads in the districts of Democratic members who could cast the deciding vote. Evan Tracey, president of Campaign Media...

March 11, 2010  |   Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts made headlines Tuesday when he said at the University of Alabama that President Obama's criticism of the Court's decision on a landmark campaign finance case during January's State of the Union speech was...

March 3, 2010  |   Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., temporarily stepped down as chairman of the House Ways and Means committee Wednesday. Rangel was recently admonished by the House Ethics Committee for taking trips to the Caribbean paid for by private companies, a violation...

March 2, 2010  |   Updated 4:15 p.m. ET | The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments in McDonald v. City of Chicago, a gun rights case that could redefine the constitutionality of firearms regulation across the country. In the McDonald case, 76-year-old Chicago...

February 22, 2010  |   At this year's Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, we spoke with journalists and attendees about the future of the Republican Party after the emergence of the Tea Party movement. Conservatives said that the Tea Partiers were making a big...

February 19, 2010  |   We caught up with RedState.com editor-in-chief Erick Erickson in the hallway at the Conservative Political Action Conference, which is billed as the nation's largest annual gathering of conservatives. Erickson spoke with us about the goal of his site, how conservatives...

February 18, 2010  |   President Obama Thursday morning signed an executive order to create a commission tasked with helping the nation reduce its debt. Mr. Obama selected Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson to head the commission, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform....

February 15, 2010  |   <!-- _pap_embed_43; //--><!]]> UPDATED: 4:00 p.m. Indiana Democratic Senator Evan Bayh announced his retirement Monday, marking another big setback for Democrats trying to hold onto their control of the U.S. Senate. Bayh will not seek reelection to a...

February 12, 2010  |   A new Pew Center for People and the Press poll released Friday shows that President Barack Obama's favorability rating has held steady at 49 percent for the past few months and that members of Congress running for re-election face the...

February 10, 2010  |   Washington, D.C., has a chance to break its record for the most snow in a season as the second crippling snowstorm in a week descended on the capital Tuesday into Wednesday. The blowing winds have forced the U.S. Congress, already...

February 8, 2010  |   Nineteen-term U.S. Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania died Monday, according to a statement from his office. Murtha had been in intensive care in a Washington-area hospital after suffering from an infection following gallbladder surgery. He was 77. The Democratic...

February 3, 2010  |   President Obama gave a pep talk to and answered questions from Senate Democrats Wednesday, imploring them to keep working for their agenda despite the rough political climate. He urged his former Senate colleagues to continue fighting for their agenda despite...

February 2, 2010  |   Top U.S. military officials on Tuesday echoed President Obama's call for a repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, telling a Senate panel that they were preparing for an eventual undoing of the rule that prohibits gays from serving...

January 29, 2010  |   In a nearly 90-minute televised appearance at a House Republicans retreat in Baltimore, President Obama implored the caucus, which has opposed much of his agenda, to define their political battles by what is best for the country, not what's best...

January 28, 2010  |   Several lawmakers spoke with us in the U.S. Capitol immediately after President Obama's State of the Union address Wednesday night. Here's what they had to say about the speech and the road ahead: Rep. Mike Pence, R- Ind., is a...

January 22, 2010  |   New York Times columnist David Brooks and syndicated columnist Mark Shields stopped by the Rundown Friday to talk with Hari Sreenivasan about what this week's political upset in Massachusetts says about independent voters; David's column about what hasn't worked with...

January 21, 2010  |   UPDATED 5:15 p.m. ET| In a much-anticipated decision in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court in a 5-to-4 decision Thursday removed the distinction between individuals and corporations as it applies to spending on federal...

January 20, 2010  |   <!-- _pap_embed_custom; //--><!]]> On the heels of a stunning GOP victory in the Massachusetts Senate race, Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post explains how the Democrats managed to lose a reliable U.S. Senate seat and what it may mean politically...

January 19, 2010  |   <!-- _pap_embed_43; //--><!]]> Republican state Sen. Scott Brown will become the next U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, a stunning outcome that could cause major problems for President Obama's push to enact health care reform legislation. The Associated Press projected Tuesday night...

January 19, 2010  |   Polls across Massachusetts closed at 8 p.m. EST tonight in the special U.S. Senate election that few people expected to be much of a contest. Republican state Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley now await the...

January 18, 2010  |   The White House announced Monday evening that President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 9:00 pm EST. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says the speech...

January 18, 2010  |   President Obama has taken to the stump to help save state Attorney General Martha Coakley's Massachusetts Senate campaign, which could have a significant impact on his signature domestic issue - health care reform legislation. President Obama rallied Coakley supporters...

January 15, 2010  |   Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post spoke with Hari Sreenivasan about this week's big political story: the special election in Massachusetts to fill the U.S. Senate seat previously held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Democrats are scrambling amid fears...

January 14, 2010  |   President Obama spoke in the diplomatic room of the White House for the second time in as many days Thursday to address the U.S. government's ongoing response to the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti this week. He announced that U.S....

January 13, 2010  |   The top coordinator for the U.S. response to the massive earthquake in Haiti said the government's first priority is to direct resources toward finding and rescuing people trapped by the earthquake. The U.S. Agency for International Development's Administrator Rajiv Shah...

January 13, 2010  |   President Barack Obama pledged this morning that the United States would offer a rapid response to help Haiti dig out from the "especially cruel and incomprehensible" 7.0 earthquake that shook the Caribbean nation on Tuesday. "I have directed my administration...

January 12, 2010  |   The race for Massachusetts' first open U.S. Senate seat in 22 years is entering its final week, but the outcome in one of the country's bluest states is far from assured. Republican Scott Brown is raising big money and...

January 6, 2010  |   The man accused of trying to detonate an explosive on a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday in Michigan on charges including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. The seven-page indictment...

January 5, 2010  |   President Obama spoke late this afternoon about his meeting with top national security advisers about a wide-ranging review he ordered of the homeland security and intelligence systems. The message was clear: the U.S. government's intelligence and air travel security systems...

January 5, 2010  |   The White House, via spokesman Robert Gibbs, announced Tuesday that it would stop the transfer of detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp back to Yemen, a country recently under the spotlight in Washington. "While we remain committed to closing...

December 31, 2009  |   The White House has issued a waiver for John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, to bypass its own ethics rules and participate in the review of the nation's terrorism watch list system, which he helped...

December 17, 2009  |   Speaking to the Senate press corps Thursday, a group of Republican lawmakers offered a warning to the Obama administration that any long-term pledge of U.S. money for climate aid at the Copenhagen summit would need approval from Congress. Responding to...

December 14, 2009  |   The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will hear a case that could influence how much privacy employees have when sending electronic messages with work devices. The Court will hear arguments in City of Ontario v. Quon, an...

December 11, 2009  |   The NewsHour's Judy Woodruff spoke with Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Research Center about their Pew's new study on Hispanics in America. The study reveals a complex portrait of the largest minority population in the United...

December 9, 2009  |   It's been a big week for the NewsHour organization. Last week, we unveiled the redesign of our homepage and launched The Rundown blog. On Monday, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer relaunched as the PBS NewsHour and we welcomed our new...

December 7, 2009  |   Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal spoke with The Rundown about the Supreme Court's busy week ahead. <!-- _pap_embed_custom; //--><!]]>...

December 7, 2009  |   On Tuesday, Massachusetts Democrats will choose the likely Senate successor to late Edward M. Kennedy when they go to the polls to select the winner of the party's primary. The seat is currently held by a placeholder, Kennedy family friend...