The Constitution's authors clearly saw Congress as being the first among equals in the three branches of government. The legislative branch was granted sole authority over some of the most powerful aspects of the state, including taxation and declarations of war. It was left to the first Congress to finish filling out most of the document's details, like determining the size of the Supreme Court and the scope of the executive departments under the president.
The Republican leaders of the 119th Congress seem to have entirely forgotten their place in the federal pecking order. There are few GOP legislators these days who are willing to present themselves as an equal of President Donald Trump, let alone willing to tell him what to do. Their prostration before Trump has reduced the most powerful branch on paper to petitioning the president's court for the means to achieve even Congress' most modest goals.
Trump, in his race to rip out the gears of government and illegally tear down what Congress has established, has made no secret of this new power dynamic.
Demonizing rhetoric from the White House, arrests without due process, deporting immigrants to a brutal prison in a foreign country. This is America today. Read more.
Traumatized and weary, journalists in Gaza file stories between airstrikes, capturing what remains of lives and landscapes before they, too, are erased. Read more.
In a new episode of "Trumpland with Alex Wagner," Alex speaks with students and professors at Columbia University. They discuss how they view the university as caving to the demands of the Trump administration under the threat of losing federal funding, leaving them fearing the loss of academic freedom. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
In the latest episode of "Main Justice," MSNBC Legal Analysts Andrew Weissmann and Mary McCord examine the chilling effect of the Trump administration's actions on law firms, the lack of due process given to Venezuelan migrants who were deported, and legal issues surrounding the now-infamous Signal chat containing national defense information. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
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