Politics and views in the United States.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

Certainly we have a clear direction from the president to tear down any barriers, bureaucratic as well as financial, that could affect the timeline of this project.

Following the partial collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore Tuesday, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding won't be easy or cheap.

He says it's too soon to know when the Port of Baltimore will reopen, and adds lawmakers will need to authorize more than the billion dollars in the 2021 infrastructure law for emergency relief.

A new poll shows a majority of Americans now disapprove of Israel's war against Hamas, with support falling from half in November to a third now.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to reschedule the meeting on a possible Rafa ground offensive, which the Biden administration is trying to stop.

His office has agreed to reschedule that meeting that would be dedicated to Rafa, which is a good thing.

On Tuesday, Democrat Marilyn Lands won a special election for a statehouse seat in Deep Red, Alabama.

Hers is the latest Democratic victory in a campaign run on the right to health care, especially abortion.

I want to repeal the bad ban on no exceptions abortion.

I want to protect IVF and contraception, but I also want to be a champion for health care, mental health care, but health care in general.

Republican Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she won't regret it if Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries becomes the next speaker after she filed a motion to boot Speaker Mike Johnson.

We have a speaker of the House right now with Mike Johnson that is supporting Joe Biden's policies.

With several Republicans leaving early, the House will soon have a one-seat GOP majority, making an unprecedented change of party control possible if the speaker's chair is vacated.

A California judge says she favors disbarment for John Eastman, an architect of former President Donald Trump's strategy for subverting the 2020 election results.

The D.C. bar is considering the same penalty for Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark.

And Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani had his license suspended in 2001.

Former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney says the 2024 election is a choice between President Joe Biden and a threat to American democracy.

Democrats, independents, Republicans, that we work together, we vote together, we make clear that Donald Trump is not an acceptable alternative.

Polling shows President Biden is narrowly leading against former President Donald Trump, but the survey also found Trump benefits from the inclusion of independent and third-party candidates.

The New York Times is reporting that a Russian group linked to the Kremlin spread disinformation about Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, before she announced that she has cancer.

Finally, former Senator Joe Lieberman, the first Jewish vice presidential candidate of a major party, died at the age of 82 on Wednesday.

He suffered complications after a fall.

I'm Alex Gonzalez for Pacific Network and Public News Service.

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