January 26, 2021 5:59 p.m.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) relinquished his block on the Senate organizing resolution Monday night after demanding that Democrats promise not to abolish the filibuster and dramatically curtail the minority’s power.
While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) publicly refused to make such a promise, McConnell said that reiterated opposition to abolishing it by Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) was good enough.
McConnell backing down allows Democrats to rightfully take over the effective majority, changing over the committee chairmanships and giving the new members committee assignments.
But it did not draw a line under the filibuster fight, which will almost certainly come to the fore again even with Manchin and Sinema’s current posture. (Schumer would need every Democratic senator on board to use the nuclear option on the filibuster, this time extending it to all legislation.)
McConnell is signaling he s in favor of impeachment, GOP source says
From CNN s Jamie Gangel
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives at the US Capitol on January 1. Samuel Corum/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is signaling he is in favor of impeachment, a GOP source familiar with McConnell s thinking tells CNN. Unlike Kevin McCarthy, he doesn t think Trump will just fade away, thinks the party needs to make a clean break to save itself, this person said.
Ultimately, however, it is up to McConnell to say where he stands on impeachment. His silence so far has been deliberate, and he is very careful with what he says.
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With Daniel Lippman
Vaxart has hired
Ricchetti Incorporated’s
Jeff Ricchetti to lobby on “legislative and regulatory policies regarding oral vaccine development and funding,” according to a disclosure filing. Vaxart is developing an oral vaccine for Covid-19, an effort that garnered scrutiny from both federal investigators and the SEC earlier this year after accusations the company may have overhyped its involvement in the White House’s vaccine accelerator Operation Warp Speed. And Ricchetti, of course, is the brother of incoming White House senior counselor