President Donald Trump's push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks was all but dead Wednesday as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed an alternative approach of loading up the bill with other White House priorities that appeared destined to fail.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Thursday that she supports former Vice President Joe Biden in what is likely to be a crowded 2020 Democratic presidential field. That might make things awkward with Feinstein's fellow Californian, Sen. Kamala Harris, who is also considering a run.

Protesters nationwide have called for the protection of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump's campaign. Several hundred demonstrators gathered Thursday in New York's Times Square and chanted slogans like "Hands off Mueller" and "Nobody's above the law" before marching downtown. In Chicago, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin joined several hundred protesters at Federal Plaza. Crowds also turned out at the White House and in Greensboro, North Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Las Vegas and elsewhere across the U.S.

He has been President Donald Trump's most loyal soldier, dutifully backing the unpredictable leader and largely avoiding his ire. Now Vice President Mike Pence finds himself in the most precarious position of his tenure as he prepares to preside over Wednesday's congressional tally of Electoral College votes, the last front in Trump's futile attempts to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the November election.

As a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol last week clamoring to overturn the result of November's presidential election, photographs captured a man in the crowd wearing a shirt emblazoned with “Camp Auschwitz,” a reference to the Nazi concentration camp.

President-elect Joe Biden will speak Tuesday as the nation deals with a COVID-19 surge that’s casting a shadow over the Christmas holiday this week.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been charged with capital murder after telling investigators he killed four female sex workers because he considered them worthless and that he thought he was doing something good for his Texas border city, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said he will seek the death penalty if Juan David Ortiz is found guilty.

The latest on Roger Stone's arrest in the special counsel's Russia probe: the former Trump campaign adviser will be arraigned in Washington, D.C., next week.

The remains of three service members killed in the deadliest attack against American forces in Afghanistan this year have arrived back in the U.S.

The House on Tuesday failed to override President Donald Trump's veto of a resolution that would have terminated his declaration of a national emergency at the southern U.S. border, leaving the matter to federal courts where several lawsuits challenging the decision have been filed. A veto override requires two-thirds support, and the House vote fell short, 248-181. Only 14 Republicans voted with their Democratic counterparts to override the veto.