Politics

WASHINGTON — As a general rule, the nation’s capital is not a “work from home” kind of town, even though theoretically it could be. It’s not as if a lot of essential goods are created here in some physical plant or factory — not cars, or microprocessors, or beer or, on most days, legislation. We […]

WASHINGTON — When Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin rushed to the Capitol on Tuesday to pitch Senate Republicans on a $1 trillion coronavirus relief package, the chamber had already moved into crisis mode as lawmakers confronted a growing sense of urgency to act before much of the nation shuts down. Senate Democrats abandoned their weekly policy

Earlier in the primaries, they disagreed especially on the role of female representation. Ms. Geye’s mother liked the idea of supporting “a very smart woman” like Ms. Warren, while Ms. Geye’s view on gender was more straightforward: “I truly don’t care.” She wasn’t impressed by Joe Biden’s commitment to selecting a female vice president at

WASHINGTON — A federal government plan to combat the coronavirus warned policymakers last week that a pandemic “will last 18 months or longer” and could include “multiple waves,” resulting in widespread shortages that would strain consumers and the nation’s health care system. The 100-page plan, dated Friday, the same day President Trump declared a national

It was only after Mr. Trump himself on Monday appeared to acknowledge the significance of the crisis and recommended that Americans avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people that the campaign told staff members to work from home. “While Americans can see that President Trump has been leading the whole-of-America coronavirus response, his

Joseph R. Biden Jr. swept the three states that voted Tuesday: Florida, Illinois and Arizona. Bernie Sanders lost ground badly in the delegate count. And the coronavirus pandemic continued to wreak havoc on the most basic facets of American life, threatening to disrupt if not derail the remaining primary calendar. With nearly 60 percent of

WASHINGTON — Representative Dan Lipinski, a conservative Democrat from Illinois whose opposition to abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act made him a pariah in his party, lost a hard-fought primary race on Tuesday night to his progressive challenger, Marie Newman. Ms. Newman, a business consultant and founder of an anti-bullying program, edged out Mr.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to immediately turn back all asylum seekers and other foreigners trying to cross the southwestern border illegally, saying they cannot risk allowing the coronavirus to spread through detention facilities and among Border Patrol agents, four administration officials said on Tuesday. The officials said the ports of entry would remain

These are the instructions now, simple and bleak: Stay home if you can. Only essential personnel report for duty. Do not travel unless absolutely necessary. And here, on Tuesday, were the attendant questions, at least as grim: Are voters essential personnel in a pandemic? Is an election — that grand replenishing of government, where the

Joseph R. Biden Jr. easily defeated Senator Bernie Sanders in the Florida and Illinois primaries on Tuesday, all but extinguishing Mr. Sanders’s chances for a comeback on an Election Day conducted amid a series of cascading disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Biden, the former vice president, was seen as having a strong advantage over