Biden criticized the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republican members in his Friday speech celebrating the historic confirmation of Jackson, who will take her place as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court upon Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement. Speaking from the White House South Lawn, the president said he knew Jackson would be up against a “painful and difficult confirmation process,” but that even he did not expect the line of questioning she would face during the Senate hearings....

In a new poll conducted by USA Today/Suffolk University, 75 percent of white Americans said it was very or somewhat important to them–in comparison to 60 percent of Black Americans and 81 percent of Hispanics. A majority of the party–7 out of 10 Democrats–think it’s important for Biden to put a woman of color on the ballot this fall. Of the group surveyed, California Senator Kamala Harris generated the most enthusiasm for the potential vice presidential nominee, followed by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren....

The pressing issue of defunding has been debated amongst both Republicans and Democrats across the nation. Biden received a standing ovation for his call to provide police with further funding necessary to fight crime in their communities. “We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police,” Biden said. “The answer is to fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.”...

“The last thing we need is another war in the Middle East,” Biden said on January 5, 2020. “My greatest worry is: Does anyone have confidence that Donald Trump has thought through what the next steps are?” Biden’s remarks last year came after former President Donald Trump ordered a highly controversial airstrike that killed Soleimani in Iraq on January 2. Soleimani was a major general who led Iran’s Quds Force, the foreign branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps....

In an ideal world, President Joe Biden wouldn’t have to pay much attention to Cuba. It certainly wasn’t his top foreign policy priority upon entering office, nor would it have made much sense to elevate Cuba to a top-tier level given the more significant issues on his plate. But the thousands of Cubans demonstrating in cities across the island have thrusted Cuba policy back on the Biden administration’s front-burner. Biden is now trying to find a sufficient response on an issue that has galvanized Washington, D....

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, allowing Vance to access Trump’s taxes. Trump had asked the court to block subpoenas served to his accountant and bankers. His lawyers argued he was immune to criminal investigations as long as he held office. Trump’s two nominees, Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh joined the majority ruling against Trump. Vance is investigating whether Trump concealed hush-money payments to two women prior to the 2016 presidential election....

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden called on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax, which is about 18.4 cents per gallon, for three months through September in an effort to ease the impact of soaring gas prices on Americans. A White House fact sheet on Biden’s call for a federal gas tax holiday estimated that the suspension will cost about $10 billion. The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, says the Highway Trust Fund “finances most federal government spending for highways and mass transit....

Shana Gadarian, chair of the political science department at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, views the bill as a significant American achievement, telling Newsweek that it could prove so monumental that the bill may shift the perceptions rural Americans hold toward the federal government and subsequently how they take in messaging from the Republican Party. With Republicans advocating for a position of governance that limits the scope of federal power and leaves decision-making to communities, Gadarian said their political platform benefits from limited actions being achieved at the federal level....

While the mainstream media was triggered anytime President Donald Trump eschewed any Swamp-y tradition, such as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, President Joe Biden is largely getting a pass for failing to do such basic things expected of a new president as holding a press conference in his first 40 days or giving an address to a joint session of Congress. The fact that Vice President Kamala Harris is making calls to heads of government, including Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and French President Emmanuel Macron, is not merely an interesting factoid—it is a troubling testament to the fact that our chief executive is abdicating his constitutional power....

For four years, Trump was the perfect foil for European ambitions to establish an autonomous EU foreign policy and independence from NATO, which the U.S. still dominates. While Trump imposed tariffs and griped about the EU “taking advantage” of the U.S., European leaders pushed for the EU to end its dependence on the U.S. security umbrella. French president Emmanuel Macron stated last month, “It is vital that our Europe finds the ways and the means to decide for itself to rely on itself, not to depend on others in every area....

Biden delivered what was at times a lighthearted commencement address for the graduating class of 2021 at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. The president praised the cadets for “choosing a more difficult path” amid the COVID-19 pandemic and said the group represented “the most progressive, best-educated, least prejudiced, most open generation in American history.” He also delivered a handful of jokes that were met with mixed reactions....

The two presidents spoke on Sunday just days after President Biden spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for a second time in a month amid tensions along Ukraine’s border. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. and its allies would “act decisively” if Russia invaded its neighbor. In the statement, Psaki said: “President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. “President Biden made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine....

“It’s pretty windy outside. It’s very windy. I almost fell coming up the steps myself,” White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard the presidential plane. Jean-Pierre added that the president is doing “just great” after tripping while going up the plane’s stairs. “All I know is, all I can tell you is, he’s doing fine. He’s doing great,” she said. While climbing the stairs to board the aircraft, Biden drew attention after stumbling several times....

The Senate passed the American Rescue Plan on Saturday after Democrats in the chamber agreed to drop the $15 minimum wage hike, lower the income threshold for the direct payments and reduce weekly unemployment benefits from $400 to $300. Now the legislation will be sent back to the House for approval, before it can be signed into law by Biden. House progressives previously indicated that they may reject the sprawling bill to leverage the party into fighting harder for the $15 minimum wage if Democrats decided to give up on the measure....

After months of speculation, the decision to stay put at 10 teams could have an impact on several schools and conferences in the coming months. Here are five things impacted by the conference’s decision to stay put. MORE: Margin for error continues to shrink in CFP picture Texas, OU marriage So Texas and Oklahoma are still the main influencers in the conference, and that marriage continues. It will be interesting to see if the 10-team conference splits into two divisions, and whether the Longhorns and Sooners would still be in the same division (likely the case)....

To that end, conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby plans to conduct video conferences with as many as 17 schools that have contacted the Big 12 for consideration to join the Power 5 conference, ESPN.com reported Friday, citing unidentified sources. The 17 schools that will make presentations to the Big 12, the sources said: Boise State, BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado State, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, New Mexico, SMU, South Florida, Temple, Tulane, UCF and UConn....

The label responded Friday to a lengthy statement Swift posted to various social media accounts saying that the company has not prohibited the singer from using her old music in any way. In her post, Swift claimed Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta and business partner Scooter Braun have blocked her from using old music both in live performances and in a planned Netflix documentary. Their stipulation, Swift claims, is she can license her music—which they own 100 percent of—if she promises not to re-record the tracks in the future....

So there is a risk in asking Michigan now, following a 75-66 victory over Purdue in the Big Ten championship game, to cool its heels for a week until discovering its circumstance for the NCAA Tournament, and another four to five days to actually play again. On the other hand, it’s a week of practice with no game prep for the brilliant John Beilein. How much can the Wolverines improve with that unfair advantage?...

Second-seeded Michigan State is even money, with Indiana and Purdue (both on the other side of the bracket) behind. The field is listed at 25-to-1, with Michigan and Ohio State the highest seeds in that group. MORE: Full Big Ten schedule, bracket TeamRankings.com gives Sparty a 40 percent chance to win the Big Ten Tournament, which would imply odds of +150, but with the juice accounted for, even money isn’t too far off....

It’s a good thing the action is noisily distracting, because you don’t want any down-time in which to ponder the plausibility, or the sense, of anything that is happening. This nutty paranoid thriller seems to be about a superrich master criminal (John Travolta) who enlists a brilliant, ex-con computer hacker (Hugh Jackman) to pull off an electronic heist of $9.5 billion in dirty government money. Since the penniless superhacker is a Good Guy, he initially wants nothing to do with Travolta’s shady schemes....