Devin Nunes tells Fox News he doesn't 'recall' Giuliani associate Lev Parnas -- they spoke at least 4 times

President Joe Biden reaffirmed Wednesday the United States' commitment to defend Japan in his first phone call with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, striking a note of reassurance after the Trump era.

During Donald Trump's administration, America's Asian allies often questioned whether Washington would uphold long-standing promises to defend them in the event of attack.

Before President Joe Biden was sworn into office a week ago, liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman predicted that Republicans in Congress would "magically rediscover fiscal conservatism" and oppose any coronavirus relief package he proposed. Sure enough, some Republicans are claiming that the new president wants to spend too much. And Krugman, in a Times column published this week, argues that Republicans in Congress are more interested in playing partisan politics than helping the millions of Americans who are still hurting financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"President Biden is proposing a large relief package to deal with the continuing fallout from the coronavirus," Krugman explains. "The package is expansive, as it should be. But it is, predictably, facing demands that it be scaled back. Which, if any, of these demands have some validity?"

Although Democrats now control the White House and both houses of Congress, there is one branch of the federal government where their ideas presently have very little influence: the U.S. Supreme Court. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi find themselves saddled with the most right-wing Supreme Court in generations. But writer Keshav Poddar, in an article published by Slate this week, offers a possible Supreme Court coping strategy for Biden's administration and Democrats in Congress: essentially, backup plans for their legislation.

"Against all odds, an ideologically reinvigorated Democratic Party has won the House, Senate and presidency," Poddar observes. "Democrats have the opportunity to finally deliver long-overdue reforms to address structural economic inequality, provide every American with adequate health care and take aggressive action to save our environment before it is too late. But (Senate) Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has left Democrats with one big problem: the courts."