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Joe Manchin just torpedoed the White House's planned victory lap
CNN
When Joe Manchin stepped to the podium in the US Capitol on Monday afternoon, the hope among Democrats was that he was going to announce that he supported the $1.75 trillion social safety net bill -- a moment that would virtually ensure passage of the bulk of President Joe Biden's first-term domestic agenda.
After all, why else would Manchin call a news conference and tell reporters that he was going to "clear up a lot of things"?
Well, not that, as it turns out.
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The retired Air Force general announced as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump after the abrupt Friday night firing of his predecessor is a respected career F-16 pilot who is described by current and former officials who served with him as a professional with a “strong moral center.”
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Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration’s first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation’s capital.