• Police seek suspects in deadly birthday party shooting
  • Lawmakers launch inquires into U.S. boat strike
  • Nov. 29, 2025, 10:07 PM EST / Updated Nov. 30, 2025,…
  • Mark Kelly says troops ‘can tell’ what orders…

Be that!

contact@bethat.ne.com

 

Be That ! Menu   ≡ ╳
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics Politics
☰

Be that!

Judge hears challenge to prosecutor's appointment in James Comey, Letitia James cases

admin - Latest News - November 13, 2025
admin
17 views 21 secs 0 Comments



In a rare joint hearing, lawyers for both James Comey and Letitia James argued that the cases’ lead prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed. NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell reports on the judge’s apparent skepticism and the possible outcomes.



Source link

TAGS:
PREVIOUS
Nov. 13, 2025, 11:57 AM ESTBy Melanie Zanona, Julie Tsirkin and Sahil KapurWASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson says he still has “PTSD” from the GOP’s failed effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act during President Donald Trump’s first term.Now, the party is about to plunge back into the tricky policy debate that once cost them seats in the House.This time around, though, Republicans are mostly stopping short of calling for a full-scale repeal of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, even as they slam the policy as a failure. Instead, the mantra among Republicans is “fix Obamacare.”But the clock is ticking. Open enrollment for health insurance has already begun and enhanced Obamacare subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year, more than doubling insurance premiums for millions of Americans in red and blue states alike, with some seeing increases of thousands of dollars per month.Republicans, under pressure from Democrats after the government shutdown revived the health care clash, have not coalesced around legislation or even an abstract idea, and are only now starting serious discussions about putting proposals together.Trump calls for end of filibuster, takes aim at Affordable Care Act03:16As the party scrambles to craft an alternative, multiple Republicans are vying for Trump’s endorsement of ideas that could alleviate skyrocketing costs that are just around the corner. Two Republican senators have competing plans to create federally funded spending accounts that would help Obamacare enrollees directly, rather than subsidize insurers to keep costs down.Johnson, R-La., said House Republicans have also been brainstorming proposals behind the scenes and will “be rolling out some of those ideas,” but he declined to put a timeline on it.“I haven’t prejudged that or put any dates on it, but I mean, we worked on it today. We’ve been working on it every day. We got more members joining the discussion,” Johnson told NBC News on Wednesday evening. “This is how it works. It’s a deliberative process, where you build out the consensus, and we’ll be working on that in earnest in the days ahead.”Johnson also said he recently traded texts with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., about the possibility of working on a bipartisan solution. But Jeffries is pushing for a three-year extension of the expiring ACA tax credits, which Johnson has said is a nonstarter.If Republicans aren’t able to agree on an alternative solution before the end of this year, they’ll have to decide whether to join with Democrats in extending the ACA tax credits, which risks drawing Trump’s ire, or letting them expire, which risks infuriating voters ahead of next year’s midterm elections.Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who said he talked to Trump at length last week about the importance of health care, warned, “not only is it morally bankrupt, it’s political suicide” for Republicans to let the subsidies expire without an alternative in place.Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told NBC News he pitched Trump on his plan, which would put federal money in health savings account-style accounts for individuals to “increase competition and drive down costs.”Scott hopes to release the text of the bill as soon as possible, citing a mid-December deadline set by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to give Democrats a vote on the expiring ACA subsidies.Scott, who chairs the Senate Republicans’ policy committee, invited health care-focused guest speakers to weekly party lunches over the last six weeks to illustrate why members should oppose extending the ACA subsidies, as Democrats were demanding during the shutdown.“Obamacare has failed us. Cost has skyrocketed,” Scott told reporters in the Capitol on Monday. “The way to fix it is, any Obamacare subsidies go to the individual through an HSA and then allow people to buy whatever plan that fits their family.”It’s an idea that Trump — who stepped up his public attacks on Obamacare last week when Democrats were still digging in on their shutdown demands — seems open to.“We’re gonna pay a lot of money to the people. They’re gonna go out and buy their own health care, and we’re gonna forget this Obamacare madness,” Trump said during a bill signing to end the shutdown Wednesday evening.Earlier this week, Trump suggested naming the replacement plan “Trumpcare.”Despite the president repeatedly railing against Obamacare, a White House official told NBC News that Trump had not ruled out extending the ACA subsidies.“We need to do the right thing policy-wise but also the smart thing politically,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the president’s thinking.Another emerging idea is from Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chairman of the Senate’s health committee, who advocated for flexible spending accounts that, like Scott’s proposal, would help Obamacare enrollees directly.Cassidy has pitched his idea to Republicans and the Trump administration, but also across the aisle as the only tangible solution to address rising health care costs with a chance of passing the House and being signed into law by Trump.“I don’t know if we can get something bipartisan, but you never can unless you at least give it a shot,” Cassidy said. “We actually want to get something that lowers health care costs for the American citizens implemented as quickly as possible. There’s some things we’re going to disagree on that might be really good policy, but if we’re going to get it done quickly, it has to be things that we do agree on.”The viability of those ideas remains to be seen.“While Republicans have talked for years about replacing the ACA, none of these current ideas are fully fleshed out yet. A tweet is not a health care plan,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a nonpartisan research group. “So, it’s hard to tell exactly how these concepts of replacing ACA premium assistance with cash or health accounts would really work in practice.”“If people could use these Trump health care dollars to buy insurance not regulated by the ACA, it would likely cause the ACA to collapse and upend protections for pre-existing conditions,” Levitt continued.There is a third option. Republicans could try to overhaul Obamacare with only GOP votes by using the “budget reconciliation” process for a second time during Trump’s second term. The procedural tool allows Republicans to pass legislation with a simple majority, and Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has advocated doing so, pitching it as an alternative to Trump’s calls to get rid of the filibuster.Graham has even suggested crafting a Republican alternative to Obamacare and passing a package by Jan. 1 — no small feat — to avoid higher premiums from kicking in, according to two people familiar with his private comments. Graham’s suggestion is not being considered as a serious proposal because of the monumental lift required to put together such a plan, these people said. And, it’s an open question what would even be allowed under Senate rules, with multiple senators and aides telling NBC News they would need to run it by the Senate’s parliamentarian, who referees the reconciliation process, before hitting go.Republicans tried multiple times during Trump’s first term to repeal or undo Obamacare. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, and that applies here,” Van Drew said. “I don’t want us to flounder around, say we’re working on something, go back and forth. And then Jan. 1 comes, and some people are not able to pay their bills because their health insurance costs so much, or other folks just give up their health insurance.”Van Drew said if they can’t pass an alternative before the end of the year, then they need to extend the subsidies for another year in order to buy themselves more time.And if Republicans don’t act, then Van Drew said he’d be open to signing a discharge petition to prevent ACA subsidies from lapsing — a tricky and rarely used procedural tool to go around leadership’s head that requires 218 signatures to succeed. Jeffries started a discharge petition Wednesday for a three-year extension of the ACA tax credits; if every Democrat signs on, they’ll need four Republicans to join them to force a House vote. That is unlikely to happen.“If we don’t do anything, we just flounder around, it’s certainly something I would consider,” said Van Drew, who participated in a bipartisan and bicameral health care meeting last week.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans now “own” the health care crisis, previewing the Democratic line of attack ahead of the midterms.In exchange for opening the government, Democrats got a promise for a floor vote in mid-December on an ACA bill of their choosing. But there’s no guarantee about the outcome. Democrats are exploring ways to win over Republicans, such as changing the eligibility requirement or income caps. But another wrinkle has emerged: a battle over GOP demands for stricter abortion guardrails around the ACA money, which Democrats say is a nonstarter.Meanwhile, Johnson has refused to commit to putting any Senate-passed ACA bill on the House floor. The speaker has insisted he needs to build consensus among his members first and has deputized House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., to work with the three chairmen of the committees with relevant jurisdiction over the issue, as well as the GOP doctors caucus, to put together some ideas. The working group will hold listening sessions with members next week.Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told NBC News the ACA money should “absolutely” expire, despite the wishes of some in the GOP to renew it.“There’s not gonna be any deal cut,” Norman said.Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., the chair of the House Republican Policy Committee, said the GOP solution should not require federal money.“We should look at how we’re going to lower costs without having to inject more federal dollars into it,” he said. “The Democrat solution is to throw more federal dollars at it. We don’t have the access to that.”Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has questioned how serious her colleagues are about a health care plan. Greene, the MAGA firebrand, who said her family’s health care costs have risen threefold since the ACA took effect, warned that her party will suffer politically in 2026 if they fail to improve the system.“Republicans must finally come up with a plan to address affordability,” she told NBC News. “Ignoring this crisis will not only leave the American people in a crisis but will likely lead to losses in the midterms. We have the majority; it’s time to solve this problem that the Democrats created.”Melanie ZanonaMelanie Zanona is a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News.Julie TsirkinJulie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.Sahil KapurSahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.Lillie Boudreaux and Gabe Gutierrez contributed.
NEXT
Nov. 12, 2025, 11:16 PM EST / Updated Nov. 13, 2025, 12:17 PM ESTBy Monica Alba, Frank Thorp V, Michael Kosnar and Zoë RichardsMultiple federal agencies have told their employees to report to work Thursday, according to three administration officials. The directive came before President Donald Trump signed a short-term funding bill Wednesday night. Government workers at the Health and Human Services, Justice, Interior, and Housing and Urban Development departments were all advised to come in Thursday, regardless of when the measure was signed.One of the emails referred to the funding lapse as the “Democratic shutdown,” continuing a trend of partisan language on display from various agencies leading up to and during the government’s closure.Trump blames Democrats after end of government shutdown04:40State Department employees also were told to return to work Thursday in an email Wednesday night that referred to passage of the short-term government funding bill, known on Capitol Hill as a continuing resolution, or CR, earlier in the evening. “Now that a CR has been enacted, we can all continue the critical work of advancing our national interests on behalf of the American people,” an undersecretary for management at the department, Jason S. Evans, wrote in email obtained by NBC News. “We look forward to all our people returning to work expeditiously on your next scheduled workday.”The Republican-controlled House on Wednesday night approved legislation in a 222 to 209 vote to reopen the government after 43 days, the longest shutdown in American history. Six Democrats joined nearly all Republicans in favor of the measure, while two Republicans joined a vast majority of Democrats in opposing it.The bill reinstates thousands of government employees who were laid off during the shutdown which began Oct. 1, secures back pay, and protects against additional reductions-in-force through the end of January.It’s unclear when exactly furloughed workers will get their back pay or how fast paychecks might resume, but the White House has urged federal agencies to send paychecks out “expeditiously and accurately,” a senior administration official said.NBC News has reached out to the Office of Management and Budget for details.Health and Human Services employees were told the agency would try to get furloughed employees paychecks with back pay on or before Nov. 21, according to an email obtained by NBC News. The email to State Department employees included a link to frequently asked questions on returning to work and an update on issues related to backpay and bidding for their next positions and overseas posts.The senior administration official said the White House was projecting that employees at some agencies, including the General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management and the departments of Energy, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs, would get their checks as soon as this weekend. Other departments, including Education, State, Interior, Transportation and some agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and the Social Security Administration, could get their backpay by Monday, the official said. Still others, including Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Treasury and DOJ, could receive their checks by the middle of next week, the official said.The shutdown’s effect on air travel, meanwhile, is expected to ease, although the timeline for that is unclear; the Federal Aviation Administration announced flight cancellations will be capped at 6% rather than 10% as the agency assesses a return to full operations. The Smithsonian, too, has announced it will reopen several museums tomorrow, including the Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum, and its annex in Virginia, which houses planes and space artifacts.Other museums and the National Zoo are set to reopen on a “rolling basis by Monday,” the Smithsonian’s website said.Monica AlbaMonica Alba is a White House correspondent for NBC News.Frank Thorp VFrank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.Michael KosnarMichael Kosnar is the Justice Department Producer for NBC News. Zoë RichardsZoë Richards is a politics reporter for NBC News.
Related Post
October 3, 2025
Sean 'Diddy' Combs sentenced to more than 4 years in prison
September 29, 2025
Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleSept. 29, 2025, 12:13 PM EDTBy Freddie ClaytonLONDON — The royals are in turmoil again.It had all been going so well, with the pomp of President Donald Trump’s state visit and Prince Harry’s tea with King Charles III building a sense of a family steadied after a litany of crises. Then came the fallout. Harry has accused unnamed palace figures of “sabotage” and of planting false accounts of his meeting with his father. Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson face renewed scrutiny over ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Meanwhile, Prince William opened up about what he called “the hardest year” of his life.Together, the stories have jolted the palace narrative from triumph to turbulence — with Harry’s latest clash with the British media at the center of the storm.Prince Harry in Nottingham, England, on Sept. 9.Max Mumby/Indigo / Getty ImagesBritain’s The Sun newspaper claimed last week that Harry’s first meeting with the king in two years was “distinctly formal,” claiming the prince had expressed feeling more like an “official visitor” than a son.Harry’s camp rejected that outright. “Recent reporting of The Duke’s view of the tone of the meeting, is categorically false,” a spokesperson told NBC News, referring to Harry’s title, Duke of Sussex. “The quotes attributed to him are pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son.”The public feud over the meeting has only deepened tensions at a moment when the family is seeking to project unity, and it could set back attempts to mend the relationship, according to NBC News royal commentator Daisy McAndrew.“I think the king will be really disappointed,” she said.Harry had earlier sounded eager to build on the brief tea, emphasizing his desire to spend more time with his father while defending his tell-all memoir in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper following that trip to the U.K.The accusations from Harry’s camp came just a week after the family showcased its finest pomp and pageantry during Trump’s state visit — a triumph quickly overshadowed by a return to all-too-familiar controversy.President Donald Trump and Britain’s King Charles III at Windsor Castle on Sept. 17.Kirsty Wigglesworth / AFP – Getty ImagesWhile Trump’s trip was only briefly marred by the Epstein scandal, the subject was soon back on newspaper front pages with new royal revelations.The king has instructed Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the Duke and Duchess of York, that they will not be welcome at the royal Christmas, according to weekend reports in Britain’s Telegraph and Sunday Times newspapers that cited multiple sources.Buckingham Palace did not respond to requests for comment on the report and on the statement from Harry’s spokesperson.That comes after Ferguson was dropped as a patron by a number of charities following a newly surfaced email that revealed she had referred to Epstein as a “supreme friend,” despite the disgraced financier’s conviction on sex offenses. A spokesperson for the duchess said the email was sent to counter a threat Epstein had made to sue her and accuse her of defamation.The disclosure reignited scrutiny of royal ties to Epstein, long centered on Andrew.The palace will hope, McAndrew said, that something else will “come along to take the attention away.”“The problem with Andrew is he’s always grabbing the attention back,” she said.While at odds with itself in recent years, the royal family has also been buffeted by external crises.William described 2024 as the most challenging year of his life in comments that aired Sunday — a period that saw both his wife, Kate, the Princess of Wales, and his father undergo cancer treatment.“I’d say 2024 was the hardest year I’ve ever had,” he said, speaking to “Schitt’s Creek” star Eugene Levy on his show “The Reluctant Traveler.” William, the heir to the throne, added: “Life is said to test us as well, and being able to overcome that is what makes us who we are.”Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. 
November 20, 2025
Thieves use new tech tools to steal vehicles
November 21, 2025
Lando Norris on a potential F1 win in Vegas
Comments are closed.
Scroll To Top
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics
© Copyright 2025 - Be That ! . All Rights Reserved