Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, on Tuesday called on Congress to extend the unemployment benefit in recent coronavirus stimulus legislation that gives unemployed workers an additional $600 in weekly jobless benefits.

As she and other congressional Democrats rolled out a package of proposed police reforms in response to the May 25 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn., police custody, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi discussed the opportunities and challenges ahead in achieving real social change.

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney's decision to participate in a Black Lives Matter protest was not only a big surprise, but a powerful signal as well.

Rep. James Clyburn forcibly refuted assertions by Donald Trump and his Republican allies that Trump's done great great things for the African American community.

After the Friday release of the federal government's shockingly good jobs numbers, some worried that Trump administration officials were cooking the books in an effort to aid Donald Trump's re-election bid. But that doesn't appear to be the case, according to economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

With the US unemployment rate unexpectedly dropping to 13.3 percent, from 14.7 percent, "now is the worst possible moment to take our foot off the gas," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi advised, calling for swift Senate approval and passage into law for the HEROES Act which the House approved last month.

The issues of systemic racism and police violence which protesters have been filling American streets over since the murder of George Floyd are connected to America's long history of racial oppression and its "original sin" of slavery, but now is an opportunity to solve these problems, according to former president Barack Obama, who also reminded that the nation remains in the grip of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

After Donald Trump had peaceful protesters cleared outside of White House Monday, so that he could take the short walk to St John's Church to hold up a Bible in what emerged as an awkward photo opportunity to try to project strength in the face of national protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with reporters to hold a Bible of her own and ask Trump to help heal the nation in the way that his predecessors have in times of social unrest.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden acknowledged that the work of ending racism and police violence won't be quick. But it could certainly begin now, even before he has a chance to be elected president by passing existing police reform legislation to prevent any future incidents such as last week's murder of African American George Floyd by a white officer in Minneapolis, Biden said.

Charlie Baker, the popular Republican governor of Massachusetts, has lamented Donald Trump's leadership in the midst of the protests against George Floyd's death.