Category: Senate
Republican senator announces retirement, citing exhaustion: ‘I feel like a sprinter in a marathon’
Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming becomes the latest GOP lawmaker to take a step away from politics.
The freshman senator announced her retirement Friday after several “exhausting session weeks” this Congress. Lummis was first elected to the Senate in 2020 but previously represented Wyoming in the House from 2009 to 2017 as well as in state government prior to her career in Washington, D.C.
‘I feel like a sprinter in a marathon.’
“What a blessing to serve with Senators John Barrasso and Mike Enzi when I was in the U.S. House, and with John and Rep. Harriet Hageman while I’ve been in the Senate,” Lummis said in a statement Friday.
“We all put Wyoming first, which has cemented our cohesive working relationship.”
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Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Lummis reiterated her commitment to the state and her constituents but noted that she no longer has the “energy required” for the job.
“Deciding not to run for reelection does represent a change of heart for me, but in the difficult, exhausting session weeks this fall I’ve come to accept that I do not have six more years in me,” Lummis said. “I am a devout legislator, but I feel like a sprinter in a marathon. The energy required doesn’t match up.”
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
“I am honored to have earned the support of President Trump and to have the opportunity to work side by side with him to fight for the people of Wyoming. I look forward to continuing this partnership and throwing all my energy into bringing important legislation to his desk in 2026 and into retaining commonsense Republican control of the U.S. Senate. Thank you, Wyoming!”
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Senate confirms more Trump nominees, surpassing Biden-era confirmation pace after deploying nuclear option
The Republican-held Senate approved a third batch of nominees Thursday night, surpassing the confirmation pace from previous presidencies.
Under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), the Senate confirmed 97 more nominees in a 53-43 vote. In 2025 alone, the Senate confirmed 417 of President Donald Trump’s nominees, leaving just 15 nominees on the docket.
‘It’s a pettiness that leaves desks sitting empty.’
This confirmation rate greatly outpaced former President Joe Biden, who had 365 nominees greenlit through the Senate in 2021.
This unprecedented confirmation pace came after Thune deployed the nuclear option in September to address the ballooning number of nominees awaiting their confirmations over the summer.
RELATED: John Thune to use Democrats’ own ‘nuclear option’ to defeat Senate confirmation blockade
Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Thune changed the vote threshold in September for sub-Cabinet level positions, allowing nominees to be confirmed in large groups as opposed to individual, tedious votes Democrats consistently tried to obstruct.
“It’s delay for delay’s sake, and it’s a pettiness that leaves desks sitting empty in agencies across the federal government and robs our duly elected president of a team to enact the agenda that the American people voted for in November,” Thune said in an op-ed for Breitbart.
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Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
“Republicans aren’t going to tolerate this obstruction any longer,” Thune added. “We have tried to work with Democrats in good faith to batch bipartisan, noncontroversial nominees and clear them expeditiously, according to past precedent. Democrats have stood in the way at every turn.”
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Trump move to dismantle climate agency blows up Senate funding deal
A potential deal to fund large swaths of the federal government, including the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, collapsed on Thursday night after Colorado senators demanded that Congress stop President Trump’s efforts to dismantle a key climate agency. A Democratic senator involved in the negotiations over passing a five-bill package of appropriations…
Senate GOP passes third en bloc group of nominations
The Senate on Thursday greenlighted 97 lower-level nominees, marking the third tranche advanced by Republicans since they changed the chamber’s rules in September and one of their final acts of the year before departing for the holiday break. Senate Republicans voted 53-43 to put in place dozens of Trump administration choices to fill vacancies across various…
Kansas Senate Candidate Names His Political Inspiration: A Black Panther ‘Soldier’ Working To Destroy the American ‘Empire’
Just before he launched his longshot Senate bid, Kansas Democrat Erik Murray boasted on a podcast about his life-changing experience learning from former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown, an avowed socialist who recently reaffirmed her commitment to topple the “Empire of the United States.”
The post Kansas Senate Candidate Names His Political Inspiration: A Black Panther ‘Soldier’ Working To Destroy the American ‘Empire’ appeared first on .
Fani Willis has ugly meltdown when confronted with how much her office paid her ex-lover to prosecute Trump
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had an ugly meltdown on Wednesday while being questioned by a Georgia state Senate special committee on the topic of her failed prosecution of President Donald Trump.
‘Y’all want to come in and be daddy.’
The presentation of evidence in the hearing highlighting how much money Willis’ office paid her former lover Nathan Wade apparently struck a nerve.
Quick background
On Nov. 1, 2021, Willis hired Nathan Wade as a special prosecutor for an investigation into possible interference in the state’s 2020 general election even though Wade had reportedly never prosecuted a felony case during his time as a prosecutor in Cobb County.
Wade — who had allegedly been romantically involved with Willis for several months prior to accepting the job and filed for divorce against his wife, Jocelyn Wade, the day after securing it — was paid over $650,000 in legal fees before withdrawing from the case in March 2024.
Bank records submitted in Wade’s divorce proceedings revealed that Willis, who authorized Wade’s compensation, went on luxurious trips with Wade while the Trump investigation was ongoing. Wade apparently paid for some of their travel expenses.
Photo by Dennis Byron-Pool/Getty Images
Willis was disqualified from the case in December 2024 due to the scandalous affair.
Last month, Willis’ replacement, Peter Skandalakis, dropped the case, and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ordered the case against Trump and the co-defendants “dismissed in its entirety.”
Unlike Trump, Willis’ problems in Georgia were far from over.
Last year, the Georgia Senate established a special committee to investigate allegations of misconduct against Willis. The Special Committee on Investigations, whose investigation was renewed in January, brought the leftist district attorney in for questioning on Wednesday.
The hearing
In the combative hearing — over the course of which Willis repeatedly tried to pose and answer her own questions and routinely spoke out of turn — state Sen. Greg Dolezal (R) pressed the district attorney about her working relationship with Wade.
When confronted with documents indicating how much her office paid her ex-lover, Willis said, “I don’t review those documents. So you’re asking me to look at documents that I haven’t for the first time.”
Willis then launched into a full-throated defense of Wade and his compensation, stating, “What I can tell you is that I allowed Mr. Wade to bill 160 hours a week and then Mr. Wade would be the first one in the office making sure that my staff arrived. He corrected their behavior.”
“He got there before them. He left after him [sic]. He taught them how to do this case, and he was a leader to that team and a public servant,” continued Willis. “And for that, him, like me, has been threatened thousands of times.”
Evidently desperate to change the topic and keen to exercise a well-used reflex, Willis cried racism, telling lawmakers, “You want something to investigate as a legislature? Investigate how many times they’ve called me the N-word.”
At one stage, the diversion-happy district attorney told the lawmakers, “I know y’all want to come in and be daddy and create QAnon committees that will judge prosecutors.”
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Schumer says ‘sickening events have become far too normal’ after weekend shootings
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that “sickening events have become far too normal” following recent shootings, including at Brown University in Rhode Island and in Sydney, Australia. “The Jewish people have been collectively demonized — increasingly so in the last few years — and this tragedy in Sydney shows the abject danger…
Gingrich: ‘Republicans are in real trouble’ if economy doesn’t ‘recover’
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Thursday that the GOP is “in real trouble” if the economy does not “recover.” “Look, I think it’s pretty straightforward. If the economy recovers, as you and I think it will, Republicans will keep the House and increase their margin in the Senate,” Gingrich told Fox Business Network’s Larry…
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