Raw Story Exclusive

WASHINGTON — The nation’s capital is in mourning. But in Trump’s Washington, rumors, racism and finger-pointing are as plentiful as tears.

“Sad day in D.C. My heart goes out to them,” a Capitol Police officer said as he passed a handful of congressional reporters Thursday. “Sad day.”

WASHINGTON — Senators questioned two appointees from President Donald Trump who aim to oversee top national security posts on Thursday and some of those members have serious concerns.

Kash Patel, nominated to serve a 10-year term as the head of the FBI, faced a combative committee where he was forced to explain his conspiracy theories and pledge of retribution against his enemies list.

WASHINGTON — Republicans confessed their own constituents are concerned after President Donald Trump issued a total freeze across all government spending.

Raw Story spoke to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) before the White House tried to retract its letter from the Office of Management and Budget announcing the freeze.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) on Thursday previewed what he has in his crosshairs now that he’s been charged to lead a new House select committee to reexamine the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Loudermilk, who spent much of the last two years attacking the findings of the previous congressional panel that investigated Jan. 6, is set to continue the GOP-lead House investigation into the events of the deadly riots incited by President Donald Trump four years ago.

A social media account connected to the teenage shooter who killed a 16-year-old student at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee, before taking his own life on Wednesday was flagged to the FBI more than a month before he carried out the attack.

A now-suspended X account connected to Solomon Henderson was cited in a Dec. 17 post by another X user who tagged the FBI, stating that the user and another individual “need to be locked up for knowing about” a school shooting one day earlier. That shooting was committed by Natalie Rupnow, a 15-year-old student who killed another student and a teacher before taking her own life.

WASHINGTON — The threats are back.

Since President Donald Trump issued sweeping pardons — along with 14 communications — on Monday for the roughly 1,500 people convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol and attacking law enforcement four years ago, there’s been an uptick in threats to the members who served on the January 6 Select Committee.

WASHINGTON — Some members of the House Select Committee investigating the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attacks are responding now that the Justice Department has published special counsel Jack Smith's final report.

Speaking to Raw Story on Wednesday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said the committee did "good work" that "pointed out Donald Trump's criminality" around the election.

WASHINGTON — With the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack coming this Monday, steel fencing is now once again wrapping the Capitol, which has had some Democrats in tears and many Capitol Police officers reliving the horror they endured that day.

But the GOP now controls both sides of the Capitol, and the party’s hoping to change the debate.

— Republicans in Congress kick the can down the road to March. Democrats in the House and Senate pitched in and helped pass a stopgap funding continuing resolution to keep the government open until March. It does not include the lifting of the debt ceiling which Trump and Musk wanted to prepare for the next round of borrowing trillions from American taxpayers to give to their billionaire friends as tax cuts. Nor did it cut entitlement programs, which so pissed off rightwing Republicans that 34 of them voted against the bill.

But those corrupt Republicans who love the morbidly rich and hate average Americans haven’t given up hope; here’s the operant sentence from the article in today’s Washington Post about the vote: “[Johnson] proposed a handshake deal with fiscal hawks in his own party to try next year to slash mandatory spending — programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ health care and food stamps — by at least $2.5 trillion while raising the debt cap by $1.5 trillion, according to three people familiar with the details.”

WASHINGTON — Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) exclusively told Raw Story that she isn't at all concerned about tech billionaire Elon Musk's interference with the legislative process that caused a government shutdown threat and days of chaos as Republicans scuttled a bipartisan continuing resolution.

And more broadly, she isn't concerned about Democrats' efforts to needle Trump's ego over the matter.

A California Democrat gave Republicans a piece of his mind following a vote Friday night on a temporary spending bill, echoing a profane sentiment felt by millions of Americans: "Get your s--- together."

The House voted at the 11th hour to temporarily fund the government with a new bill following the collapse of their own revised bill, which became necessary when President-elect Donald Trump and ally Elon Musk torpedoed their first effort. The latest funding bill passed in the House by a vote of 366-34. A two-thirds vote was needed in the House to avert a shutdown. The legislation now heads to the Senate, which has until midnight to pass the bill.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) predicted Friday that Speaker Mike Johnson would hold on to his job when the next Congress convenes in January – but he still has a tall order to win over a majority of member votes.

Johnson faced a chaotic week in Washington but managed to wrangle enough congressional support to push through a temporary spending bill and avert a government shutdown during the midst of the holiday season.

Rep. Jamie Raskin took a moment to cheer Friday night on the steps of the Capitol following a much-anticipated vote in the House on what turned out to be a contentious back-and-forth on a spending bill to avert a holiday shutdown.

The House's last-ditch effort to temporarily fund the government led to a sigh of release for millions of federal workers whose paychecks were thrust into uncertainty. The funding bill passed by a vote of 366-34. A two-thirds vote was needed in the House to avert a shutdown. The legislation now heads to the Senate, which has until midnight to pass the bill.