Chris Stein in Washington

Move comes after GOP senator Thom Tillis said he would not vote for loyalist who supports January 6 pardons

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Donald Trump on Thursday said he would look for a new candidate for the role of top federal prosecutor in Washington DC, after a key Republican senator said he would not support the loyalist initially selected for the job.

The president had in February appointed Ed Martin, a former Missouri Republican party chair and ardent supporter of Trump’s baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election, as interim US attorney in Washington DC, an office that oversees both felony prosecutions in the capital city as well as many national security cases.

Measure passes nearly along party lines, with all Democrats opposed and almost every Republican voting in favor

Republicans in the House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation to codify Donald Trump’s policy of renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.

The measure was sponsored by rightwing Georgia lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene and passed nearly along party lines, with all Democrats opposed and almost every Republican, with the exception of vulnerable Nebraska representative Don Bacon, voting in favor.

Steven J Hatfill, who promoted the drug despite scant evidence of efficacy, becomes special adviser at HHS

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A proponent of using the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 despite scant evidence of its efficacy has been named to a top pandemic prevention role at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Washington Post reports.

Steven J Hatfill is a virologist who served in Donald Trump’s first administration, during which he promoted hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus in the early months of the pandemic, when vaccines and treatments were not yet available. He recently started as a special adviser in the office of the director of the administration for strategic preparedness and response, which prepares the country to respond to pandemics, as well as chemical and biological attacks.

The president’s allies ensured a Senate resolution to undo tariffs went nowhere – despite economic warning signs

Warning signs flashed this week that Donald Trump’s tariffs were beginning to destabilize what had, at the start of his term, appeared to be a solid economy. But in Congress, Republican leaders pulled out all the stops to protect his signature trade policy.

The threat appeared in the form of a Senate resolution sponsored by the Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Ron Wyden that targeted the levies and looked like it had a shot at passing a chamber in which the Republican majority had previously shown little inclination of resisting the president. But even before the first votes were cast, Trump and his allies moved to ensure it would go nowhere.

DNC to campaign against Trump’s ‘one, beautiful bill’ to reduce public spending by at least $1.5tn to pay for tax cuts

Democrats plan to put the squeeze on four of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress as the GOP gears up to pass a bill that may slash the social safety net to pay for tax cuts.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Friday announced the Fight to Save Medicaid, a pressure campaign that aims to derail the bill’s passage in the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold only a three-seat majority.

Lawmakers including Chuck Schumer denounce ‘failure’ on economy, costs, foreign policy, democracy and middle class

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers gathered on the steps of the Capitol on Wednesday to accuse Donald Trump of spending his first 100 days damaging the US economy and democracy with the help of “complicit” congressional Republicans.

The speeches by party leaders served as a counterpoint to Trump’s insistence at a rally in Michigan the night before that he has “delivered the most profound change in Washington in nearly 100 years” with an administration focused on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, the dismantling of parts of the federal government and the levying of tariffs on major US trading partners.