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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., narrowly held onto the gavel in a nail-biter vote on Friday afternoon. Republicans eager to swear in President-elect Trump later this month and capitalize on their control of the House, Senate and White House avoided the same fate of the past two drawn-out speaker elections. After some wrangling by both Trump and Johnson, ultimately Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was the lone Republican to defy leadership and vote against Johnson.

President-elect Trump announced several appointments to his administration Thursday, including the team that will work with his nominee for the U.S. Treasury, Scott Bessent.In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced that Ken Kies will serve as assistant secretary for tax policy.Kies, who has worked as a tax lawyer for 47 years, has served as the chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation and the chief Republican tax counsel of the House Ways and Means Committee.

New Orleans attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone and planted “remote detonator” explosives inside coolers in two nearby locations in the French Quarter, just a few hours before he drove a pickup truck at a high rate of speed into a crowd of people celebrating New Year’s on Bourbon Street, President Biden said at a news conference Thursday.

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Before the devastating terror attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day rocked the nation, President Biden and his administration repeatedly stressed that the greatest threat facing the country was White supremacy — even explicitly stating that terrorist organizations such as ISIS could not compare to the danger posed by White supremacists. “According to the intelligence community, terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today.

A U.S. Army soldier has been charged with selling confidential phone records. Cameron John Wagenius, 20, was charged by federal authorities in Texas with two counts of unlawful transfer of confidential phone records information on Dec. 20 and the indictment was unsealed this week. Wagenius was a soldier at Fort Cavazos in Texas. Court records didn’t specify his rank.

The Constitution dictates that the 119th Congress begins at noon et on Friday. And the first order of business in the House is to elect the Constitutional officer for the legislative branch of government: Speaker of the House.Only the House votes for Speaker. And the House can’t do anything – I’ll repeat that, anything – until it chooses a Speaker. It can’t swear-in Members until the House taps a Speaker and he or she is sworn-in.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a warning on Tuesday that the United States must maintain “judicial independence” just weeks away from President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Roberts explained his concerns in his annual report on the federal judiciary. “It is not in the nature of judicial work to make everyone happy. Most cases have a winner and a loser.

Most Americans look at the beginning of a new year as a fresh start, and an opportunity to set goals to better themselves over the next 12 months – and members of Congress are no exception.Like millions of people across the U.S., lawmakers are setting their own New Year’s resolutions, ranging from the professional to the very personal.

Several “winners” and “losers” emerged in 2024 as the year comes to a close after Republicans took control of Congress in the November election and several prominent Democrats ended up on the losing side.WINNER – President-elect Donald TrumpPundits in the media largely wrote Trump off after he left office and argued his political career was over in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and House impeachments.

Politics in 2024 was nothing short of unprecedented. Now that the U.S. has put a bow on the year, Fox News Digital looks back on the biggest political news stories that turned Washington, D.C., on its head. The year kicked off with President Biden in the driver’s seat of the Democratic Party as he keyed up a re-election effort in what was shaping up to be a second matchup against now-President-elect Donald Trump.

Before the International Space Station was launched into orbit in 1998, the U.S. signed a document with several other countries to agree to the peaceful use of the orbital laboratory. The agreement included Russia, Japan, Canada and 11 European countries. China was left out of the plan. Nearly a decade later, China expressed interest in joining those on board the space station. The European Space Agency signaled support for the addition, along with South Korea.

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump transition, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.**NOTE: The Fox News Politics Newsletter will take a break tomorrow for the New Year’s Day holiday. We will return Thursday, Jan. 2.

China was behind a “major” hack of the Treasury Department, the Biden administration said Monday, gaining access to unclassified documents and the workstations of government employees. After a year fraught with hacking across all government agencies, China experts say it’s time to get serious about thwarting adversarial espionage. “The latest intrusion should not come as a surprise.

A controversial immigration program that has been in place for decades has recently become a hot-button issue as it looks likely to be axed or severely limited by the incoming Trump administration, and Democrats are calling on President Biden to take moves to preserve it.Temporary Protected Status is a program established in the 1990s that allows the government to designate countries unsafe for nationals to return to, granting nationals already in the U.S.

A military appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cannot rescind the plea deals of detainees at Guantanamo Bay including alleged 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Fox News has learned.The court opinion, which has not been formally published yet, said the plea deals reached by military prosecutors and defense attorneys were valid and enforceable, and that Austin exceeded his authority when he later tried to nullify them.

Every two years, the period between the November election and when the new Congress begins is often the busiest swath of time for covering Congress.Reporters are trying to figure out who won their elections and who lost. The existing Congress is back, attempting to prevent a government shutdown and often plowing through a landscape of other major legislation. There are often leadership elections. For instance, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., defeated Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., and Rick Scott, R-Fla.

EXCLUSIVE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has ended two programs that provide social services to illegal immigrants who are released into the U.S. interior, telling lawmakers that one brings “immense cost with little improvement” and that another is out of line with ICE’s mission.The agency responded to Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

After announcing his citizen law enforcement group, the “Guardian Angels,” would be returning to patrol the New York subway, Curtis Sliwa is pushing back against New York Mayor Eric Adams and slamming the city’s migrant sanctuary policies, saying: “We’re in a crime crisis.” Sliwa announced the Guardian Angels would be resuming safety patrols on New York subway trains after a woman was burned to death on the New York City subway during Christmas week.

Following the death of former President Jimmy Carter, President Biden on Monday signed an executive order closing all executive departments and agencies of the federal government on Jan. 9.The closures, which Biden described as a “mark of respect” for the 39th president, will be in effect on the day of the late former president’s funeral.Carter will lie in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump transition, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.Here’s what’s happening…-2028 Watch: Here are the Democrats who may eventually jump into the next White House race-U.S. appeals court upholds Trump verdict in E.

World leaders from across the globe are expressing their sincere condolences as the U.S. mourns the death of former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away at the age of 100 on Sunday.Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel took to X to give his commiserations in the wake of Carter’s death, writing, “Condolences to the people and government of the United States, especially to the family and loved ones of President James Carter.

President Biden addressed the nation on Sunday in the wake of former President Jimmy Carter’s death, commending the late statesman while also taking a swipe at the current president-elect during his speech.Biden, who sounded hoarse during the speech, said he “lost a dear friend” on Sunday, noting that he had known Carter for more than 50 years. Carter passed away in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 100, after nearly two years of being in hospice care.

Tributes, including those from all five living presidents, poured in on Sunday after news broke that former President Jimmy Carter died at his home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 100.Carter served as the 39th president of the United States, but he was also a peanut farmer with a vision of a “competent and compassionate” government, which propelled him into the White House.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at 100, is expected to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda in January, Fox News has learned.Though the specific dates have not yet been released, President Biden said in a White House statement Sunday night that Carter’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral is scheduled for Jan. 9, deeming the day a National Day of Mourning.

President-elect Trump and President Biden reacted to the death of former President Jimmy Carter on Sunday, with Trump saying, “we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” and Biden honoring his “dear friend.”Carter, who was the 39th president of the United States and a peanut farmer whose vision of a “competent and compassionate” government propelled him into the White House, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday at the age of 100.

The Republican attorneys general of Virginia and Montana recently filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to require TikTok to sever its ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the fate of the social media platform in the U.S. remains uncertain.The amicus brief, filed Friday, came the same day President-elect Trump filed an amicus brief of his own, asking the Supreme Court to pause the TikTok ban and allow him to make executive decisions about TikTok once he is inaugurated.

President Biden still regrets dropping out of the 2024 presidential race last summer after mounting pressure from Democrats to step aside, according to a report. The president recently told people that he still believes he could have beaten Trump in the November election, despite his rough debate performance in June and his low approval numbers that forced him to leave the race, according to the Washington Post, citing people familiar with the conversations.

President-elect Trump appeared to agree with Elon Musk in support of H-1B visas for skilled workers in the U.S., as the right spars on the ongoing immigration debate.”I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump told the New York Post Saturday.Trump said that he recognizes the visas on his properties, saying, “I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.