“We have to take ourselves to a place where this rhetoric is not so violent.” In her new book, The Art of Power, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi details how she wielded her power as Speaker, but also urges civility in the wake of January 6th and the October 2022 attack on her husband Paul.

In a one-on-one interview with Spectrum News, Vice President Kamala Harris made the case that abortion will be one of the top issues at stake in November’s presidential election. “When we've seen it on the ballot … since this case came down over a year ago, from Kansas to California, Ohio to Virginia, red states, blue states, the American people voted in favor of freedom,” Harris said in the interview. “I think that a lot of people who are now coming to realize the harm that has actually resulted from this ruling, do feel a level of compassion and don't believe it's right that people are suffering the way they are.”

Kevin McCarthy likes being considered an underdog. “We never give up. People underestimate us,” Speaker McCarthy said of growing up in his hometown of Bakersfield, CA. It’s part one of our exclusive series, Kevin McCarthy: The Journey to House Speaker: https://t.co/sjUwpm7U3A

As he looks to make an impact during his tenure as Speaker of the House, the balancing act for Kevin McCarthy, who only has a five-seat majority, is just beginning. We look at McCarthy’s leadership style in part 2 of our exclusive series: https://t.co/X2aoNcTuUV

When it comes to 2024, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is keeping his options open, though he told us during our exclusive interview he “checks in” with former Pres. Trump. “I've talked to a lot of people who say they might run for president too.” https://t.co/5mJy6vRsfl

More than three months after wildfires ravaged parts of Los Angeles County, California’s request for nearly $40 billion in federal aid to help the recovery has stalled in Washington, largely because Republicans insist on tying conditions to the assistance. A Spectrum News analysis of major natural disasters over the last 20 years shows that the delay in providing disaster aid for California this year is a historical outlier when it comes to the typical federal response time for providing funds to impacted regions.

When Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., released his first episode of the “This is Gavin Newsom Podcast” last month, backlash was swift. And not just from social media, but from members of his own party. We spoke to a number of Democrats on Capitol Hill who told Spectrum News they aren't fans of Newsom's podcast. “I haven’t listened to it, and I don’t think I will listen to it,” said Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt. Balint, like many Democrats we spoke with, says she is alarmed by the people Newsom is choosing to boost with his podcast, such as Bannon and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk. Bannon is a right-wing populist who pushed for the rally that led to the Capitol Hill riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and Kirk’s organization rallies young conservatives on high school and college campuses. “I don’t think that it is the right strategy to platform those people,” she explained. “I think it’s fine to be engaging with the folks who are listening to those voices. I don’t think, personally, that he should be giving them yet another platform.”

I joined Capital Tonight alongside my colleagues Reuben Jones and Kevin Frey to discuss the delicate balance Democratic Governors are trying to strike between working with the Trump administration while also trying to push back on its policies.

Three-year-old panda bears Bao Li and Qing Bao made their official public debut Friday at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute to great fanfare from the Washington, D.C., community.

In one of her final public acts as Vice President – Kamala Harris made her mark. Literally. In a tradition that dates back to the 1940s but has been carried out in earnest since the Ford administration, Harris affixed her signature to the inside of the desk in the vice president’s ceremonial desk.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., gave his clearest signal yet Tuesday that Republicans want conditions attached to any new federal aid appropriated to help California recover from the devastating wildfires. Democrats, especially from California, criticized Johnson for politicizing disaster aid.

From serving as the chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee to appointing a Supreme Court justice, President Joe Biden has a unique understanding of the importance of the judicial branch. As he leaves the White House to a president who has promised to undo many of his signature policies, one of Biden's accomplishments is sure to be long-lasting: the federal judges he appointed over the last four years.

Kamala Harris is not the first Vice President that has had to preside over their own election loss, and she is likely not the last.

One week from today, the 119th Congress will be convened, and the first item on the to-do list for House lawmakers will be to elect a speaker - something that proved challenging for House Republicans over the last two years. It doesn't look like things will get easier this time around, as one Republican has already committed to voting against Speaker Mike Johnson in his second bid for the position, and others are keeping their powder dry.

A California Democrat who is part of the Congressional Progressive Caucus' leadership team says he is looking to find common ground with President-elect Donald Trump. “President Trump signed five of my bills in his first term. I think I was the California Democrat who had the most bills signed by him, and it's because I looked for areas of common ground,” Rep. Ro Khanna said in an exclusive interview with Spectrum News. Common ground for Khanna and Trump now may be in the form of tariffs — though Khanna’s vision on tariffs is more narrow than the incoming president’s. “Yes, we need strategic tariffs, but where we need tariffs are on semiconductor chips so that people are buying here we don't need blanket tariffs on every consumer product that's going to increase prices,” argued Khanna. When asked whether he had spoken with the President-elect’s team about tariffs on computer chips rather than blanket tariffs on a wide variety of imports, Khanna said he had. “I've spoken to people who I know in the President's incoming team, and I've spoken to members of Congress — but I'm very concerned about Intel, for example, with the CHIPS Act — keeping our semiconductors here,” he said. “I think we need to do two things: We need to have a 'Buy American' tax credit for companies that are going to buy American chips instead of chips from Taiwan. And we need to have a tariff on those chips coming in from Taiwan so that we don't lose our manufacturing work base in semiconductors. Some of that is in Ohio, so I hope to work with Vice President Vance on that.”

From his swearing in on Monday, to his first votes on the Senate floor, it has been a very busy first week for newly minted Sen. Adam Schiff of California. “It's been really wonderful to celebrate this with my family and friends. It's also been very powerful to sit at the desk on the Senate floor that Senator Feinstein sat at for so long, and to realize that I have to try to take up a small part of the legacy she has left behind, which is immense,” Schiff said, in an exclusive interview with Spectrum News. This is part 2 of a 2 part interview series.

Newly seated Sen. Adam Schiff of California says President-elect Donald Trump's threats to go after him and other political adversaries is “the kind of talk you hear from dictators." In an exclusive interview with Spectrum News, Schiff responded to an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press. Trump claimed without evidence that Schiff and other members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol broke the law and should be put in prison. Schiff said he is “enormously proud” of the committee’s work, and that the panel held "some of the most important public hearings since Watergate to expose what went into that violent attack on the Capitol.” When asked if he had consulted a lawyer and if he was concerned about the incoming administration coming after him, Schiff said he has not sought legal counsel. “I don't know what to make of these threats. Former President Trump makes a lot of threats all the time. It's certainly not the way a president should speak about jailing their political opponents. That's the kind of talk you hear from dictators,” he said. This is part 1 of a 2 part interview series.

Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove of Los Angeles says she has a lot to be proud of as she wraps her first term in office. “I've accomplished a lot as a freshman. I started the Global Migration Caucus with a number of other colleagues. I co-chair the Brazil caucus, I got a bill passed into law, I got a constituent released from a Venezuelan prison,” Kamlager-Dove said in an interview with Spectrum News.