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Female Kansas congressional candidate drops out over sexual harassment claim by male subordinate

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Given the months-long stream of allegations of sexual harassment by powerful people, the big political news in Kansas on Friday sounded numbingly familiar: A prominent Democratic congressional candidate quit the 2018 race after journalists unearthed a former subordinate’s claim of sexual harassment.

But there was a twist. The candidate is a woman, Andrea Ramsey, and the alleged victim is a man who said she fired him for refusing her sexual advances more than a decade ago.

Ramsey appears to be the first prominent woman accused of wrongdoing in the “Me Too” era, which ignited after prominent Hollywood actresses accused movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and abuse.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Ramsey said the accusation against her was a “lie” by a disgruntled former employee.

How Wildfires Are Affecting Tourism in Southern California

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What’s open — and what’s not — in San Diego, Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.

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Pacific Beach in San Diego County. Major attractions in the county are open for business.CreditBeth Coller for The New York Times

By Louis Keene and Shivani Vora

Dec. 15, 2017

The tourism industry in Southern California is starting to bounce back, albeit slowly, following the wildfires that materialized seemingly out of nowhere over the last two weeks and affected areas throughout the region.

Although the fires are still burning in less inhabited areas, they’re burning out elsewhere. While some attractions and hotels have reopened, many are still closed.

But where the fire has been extinguished, the gradual reopening of businesses indicates a returning sense of normalcy — or perhaps a desire to move on as the holiday season enters full swing.

San Diego County, where the now-contained Lilac fire burned 4,100 acres, appears to have completely recovered: as of Thursday morning, only the Rancho Monserate Country Club had not reopened. According to Branden Halle, a public information officer for the Thomas fire who lives in San Diego County, people driving across the border to Mexico at Chula Vista will see normal traffic.

Candice Eley, the director of communications for the San Diego Tourism Authority, said that all of the country’s visitor attractions, such as the San Diego Zoo and Legoland, are open for business.

Other areas, too, have returned to their routines. Farther north, at Nobu Malibu, the destination beachfront sushi bar, a host who answered the phone did not know that a fire had affected the city at all. (A minor brush fire was quickly doused by firefighters on Dec. 7, with the help of some quick-thinking residents.) The restaurant is open for business as usual.

But the situation isn’t as positive in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, where the Thomas fire has burned more than 283,000 acres. Although the Red Flag Warning, which indicated Ventura’s peak vulnerability to wildfire, ended Friday morning, the state of emergency declared by California Governor Jerry Brown is still in effect.

Many vacationers who had planned trips to these destinations in the coming week have already canceled their reservations, according to front desk employees at a number of hotels in the region. They may have good reason to: as of Thursday afternoon, many attractions were still closed, the air was toxic, and hotel rooms were being used to house firefighters and residents who have had to evacuate their homes because of the fires.

In Santa Barbara, for example, several outdoor attractions are still closed because of dismal air conditions, including the Santa Barbara Harbor. (The Santa Barbara Zoo reopened today, after a three-day closure, offering free admission.) The Montecito Inn, a beachside hotel, is advising residents and visitors to stay indoors because of the poor air quality.

On the water, though, the smoke doesn’t seem to be as bad, said Glen Fritzler, the owner of Sea Landing, a company that offers fishing trips and whale watching tours out of Santa Barbara. Business was slower than usual and future reservations are down, but Sea Landing stayed open to honor existing reservations.

“Some people do love fishing and whale watching and will do anything to do it, and we’re trying to accommodate them,” Mr. Fritzler said. “To them, it’s a reprieve to get away from it.”

Also, more than three dozen businesses are open in downtown Santa Barbara, according to Visit Santa Barbara’s site, including the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and Sama Sama Kitchen, a popular Southeast Asian restaurant.

Traveling around the area isn’t problematic: flights in and out of Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, which never closed, are running smoothly, and nearly all of the highways are operating at full capacity.

But Joe Rosa, a public information office for Cal Fire, said that the Thomas fire was only 30 percent contained as of Thursday morning and emphasized that drivers on the 101 Freeway, which straddles the Santa Barbara coastline, should make way for fire trucks and other emergency vehicles using the road.

Furthermore, Mr. Rosa said, a wind shift or spot fires across the highway could force firefighters to shut down sections of the 101 and the 126, a small highway that runs east-west through Ventura County, at any time. (State Route 154, an inland scenic route through Santa Barbara, will be closed daily from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. until further notice). “We just want folks to keep their heads up, and their eyes open,” Mr. Rosa said.

South of Santa Barbara, Ventura County is still seeing a significant impact on its tourism industry because of the fires.

In the resort town of Ojai, for example, ashes continue to powder the scorched landscape. Last week, the Thomas fire scalded the town and threatened to close in on its center, forcing evacuations. A few days later, the wind swept the fire back.

Highway 150, which connects Ojai to the coastal city of Carpenteria, is still largely closed; drivers leaving Ojai can travel on Route 33 instead. And the air is still considered to be highly toxic: currently, Ojai’s particulate matter levels place it in the “Very Unhealthy” category on www.AirNow.gov, a national air-quality tracker.

This unhealthy air is part of the reason the Ojai Valley Inn, a 220-acre resort, closed on Dec. 9 and won’t reopen until Jan. 11, said Chris Kandziora, the property’s vice president of sales and marketing. “The fires didn’t touch our grounds at all, but we made the decision to close because they’re still encroaching on our area, and we want the entire town to be ready to welcome visitors,” he said. (The resort will undergo a cleaning and renovation while it is closed, he said).

Ojai Rancho Inn, on the other hand, reopened on Dec. 7 after being closed for three days, but Sheila Piala, the hotel’s manager, said that most of the guests are evacuees.

“I don’t know how much of a tourist attraction we are at the moment, but businesses are open, and they’re feeding people,” Ms. Piala said. “We opened up because so many people needed a place to go, and we’ve been safe, knock on wood.”

The fire isn’t stopping the inn from hosting its annual holiday crafts fair this weekend, although the event certainly will be held indoors.

One rung below Ojai at the “Unhealthy” level on AirNow is Camarillo, a city in Ventura County that is the home of Camarillo Premium Outlets, one of the largest outlet malls in the state.

But the particulate matter didn’t seem to deter Camarillo shoppers on Thursday. “It’s a little bit hazy,” said Jazmine Lucente, who works at an Adidas outlet store. “But no one’s really in danger. People are still shopping.” She added that some shoppers were wearing respirator masks outside.

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The final GOP tax bill is complete. Here’s what is in it.

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Republicans were joyful Friday as they finalized their tax plan, bridging differences between the House and Senate bills and moving another step closer to getting legislation to President Trump by Christmas.

They also appear to have locked down the votes they need to pass the measure through the House and Senate after Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) pledged their support.

Overall, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act represents the largest one-time reduction in the corporate tax rate in U.S. history, from 35 percent down to 21 percent. The bill also lowers taxes for the vast majority of Americans, as well as small-business owners — at least until the cuts expire after eight years.

Last-minute changes to the GOP’s big plan give a larger tax break to the wealthy and preserves certain tax savings for the middle class, including the student-loan interest deduction, the deduction for excessive medical expenses and the tax break for graduate students. A change made Friday morning to win over Rubio would expand the benefits of a child tax credit to give more money to working-class families.

Here’s a rundown of what’s in the final bill. (If you want to read all 505 pages, click here.)

What is changing

A new tax cut for the rich: The final plan lowers the top tax rate for top earners. Under current law, the highest rate is 39.6 percent for married couples earning over $470,700. The GOP bill would drop that to 37 percent and raise the threshold at which that top rate kicks in, to $500,000 for individuals and $600,000 for married couples. This amounts to a significant tax break for the very wealthy, a departure from repeated claims by Trump and his top officials that the bill would not cut taxes on the rich. The new tax break for millionaires goes beyond what was in the original House and Senate bills, with Republicans seeking to ensure wealthy earners in states such as New York, Connecticut and California don’t end up paying substantially higher taxes as a result of the bill.

A massive tax cut for corporations: Starting on Jan. 1, 2018, big businesses’ tax rate would fall from 35 percent to just 21 percent, the largest one-time rate cut in U.S. history for the nation’s largest companies. The House and Senate bills originally had the big-business tax rate falling to 20 percent, but Republicans were not able to make the math work to keep the rate that low and start it right away in the new year, so they compromised by moving the rate to 21 percent. It still amounts to roughly a $1 trillion tax cut for businesses over the next decade. Republicans argue this will make the economy surge in the coming years, but most independent economists and Wall Street banks predict only a modest and short-lived boost to growth.

You can deduct just $10,000 in state, local and property taxes: One of the most controversial parts of the GOP tax plan is the push to greatly scale back how much state and local taxes Americans can deduct on their federal income taxes. Under current law, the state and local deduction (SALT) is unlimited. In the final GOP plan, people can deduct up to $10,000. The House initially restricted the $10,000 deduction to just property taxes, but the final bill allows any state and local taxes to be deducted, whether for property, income or sales taxes. The move is widely viewed as a hit to blue states such as New York, Connecticut and California, and there are concerns it could cause property values to fall in high-tax cities and leave less money for public schools and road repairs.

Working-class families get a bigger child tax credit: Thanks to a late push by Rubio and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the child tax credit would be more generous for low-income families and the working class. The current child tax credit is $1,000 per child. The House and Senate bills expanded the child tax credit, with the Senate going up to a maximum of $2,000 per child. The final bill keeps the $2,000-per-child credit (families making up to about $400,000 get to take the credit), but it also makes more of the tax credit refundable, meaning families that work but don’t earn enough to actually owe any federal income taxes will get a large check back from the government. Benefits for those families were initially limited to about $1,100, but through changes Rubio and Lee pushed for, it’s now up to $1,400.

The individual health insurance mandate goes away in 2019: Beginning in 2019, Americans would no longer be required by law to buy health insurance (or pay a penalty if they refuse to do so). The individual mandate is part of the Affordable Care Act. The provision is unpopular, but it’s what keeps insurance markets stable while making other, more popular parts of the law work, such as the requirement that insurance companies cover people with preexisting conditions. Removing it was a top priority for Trump and congressional Republicans. The final bill does not start the repeal until 2019, though. The Congressional Budget Office projects the change will increase insurance premiums and lead to 13 million fewer Americans with insurance in a decade, while also cutting government spending by more than $300 billion over that period. Some Republicans hope to make other changes to health care to prevent insurance costs from rising dramatically by the time the repeal kicks in.

You can inherit up to $22 million tax-free: In the end, the estate tax (often called the “death tax” by opponents) would remain part of the U.S. tax code, but far fewer families will pay it. Under current law, Americans can inherit up to $5.5 million tax-free (that threshold is $11 million for married couples). The House wanted to do away with the estate tax entirely, but some senators felt that was too much of a giveaway to the mega-rich. The final compromise was to double the threshold, so now the first $11 million that people inherit in property, stocks and other assets won’t be taxed (and yes, that means $22 million for married couples).

“Pass through” companies get a 20 percent reduction: Most American businesses are organized as “pass through” companies in which the income from the business is “passed through” to the business owner’s individual tax return. S corporations, LLCs, partnerships and sole proprietorships are all examples of pass-through businesses. In the final GOP bill, the majority of these companies get to deduct 20 percent of their income tax-free, a large reduction that mirrors what was in the Senate bill. The National Federation of Independent Business initially opposed the House version, arguing that it didn’t do enough for small businesses. But the NFIB later endorsed the House and Senate plans. Service businesses such as law firms, doctor’s offices and investment offices can take only the 20 percent deduction if they make up to $315,000 (for married couples).

No corporate “AMT” tax: The final GOP bill gets rid of the corporate alternative minimum tax, a big relief to the business community. The Senate included the corporate AMT in its version of the bill, but the House did not. The corporate AMT makes it difficult for businesses to reduce their tax bill much lower than 21 percent. CEOs complained that this was a backdoor tax that would make them less likely to build new plants, buy more equipment and invest in more research, since the corporate AMT made the tax credits for those investments essentially null and void.

Fewer families will have to pay the individual AMT: The AMT for individuals started in 1969 as a way to prevent rich families from using so many credits and loopholes to lower their tax bill to almost nothing. But what started out as a way to prevent the wealthiest Americans from tax dodging started to hit more and more families over time. The AMT begins to apply to singles earning over $54,300 and couples earning over $84,500, although nearly everyone who ends up paying the AMT earns six figures. The House wanted to scrap the AMT entirely, but in the end, the final GOP tax plan lifts the threshold.

What is NOT changing:

The bill keeps in place the student loan deduction, the medical expense deduction and the graduate student tuition waivers. The House bill got rid of these popular deductions, but the Senate bill kept them. In the end, Republicans decided it was better to allows millions of middle-class families to continue using these breaks if they qualify for them.

Retirement accounts such as 401(k) plans stay the same. No changes to the tax-free amounts people are allowed to put into 401(k)s, IRAs and Roth IRAs.

Churches, synagogues, mosques and other nonprofits (the Johnson Amendment stays in place) can’t get political and endorse candidates in elections. Trump and conservative Republicans wanted to “totally destroy” (Trump’s words) the Johnson Amendment, which has been in place since 1954 and prevents religious institutions and nonprofits from getting involved in elections via fundraising or endorsements. The House bill included a repeal of the Johnson Amendment, but Democrats were able to get the Senate parliamentarian to determine that including the repeal in the bill didn’t comply with the rules of the Senate.

 

Omarosa’s departure raises questions about White House diversity

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WASHINGTON — Omarosa Manigault Newman knew she stood out in this White House.

“I’m the only African-American woman who sits at the table,” the former “Apprentice” contestant and departing White House senior staffer said in an interview Thursday morning.

Wednesday’s announcement that the controversial aide was leaving her White House post has brought with it new questions about diversity — or lack of it — in the Trump White House.

In the ABC interview, Newman referred to herself as “the only African-American woman in this White House,” adding that she had “quite a story to tell” in the future about her time in an administration that has struggled with racial issues and outreach to minority communities.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Holds Press Briefing At The White House


White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Holds Press Briefing At The White House

That she’s the only at African-American woman at a senior level in the White House is not a stretch of the truth.

Newman, along with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, were the only black voices among more than 30 Cabinet secretaries and senior staff members around President Donald Trump. Though the position is not Cabinet level, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, an African-American, has been serving since September.

In a second interview with ABC, Newman pointed to a “lack of diversity” in the administration, calling it “very, very challenging being the only African-American woman in the senior staff” and even admitting it “was very lonely” working with a predominantly white staff who “had never worked with minorities, didn’t know how to interact with them.”

Asked by NBC News on Thursday how many black senior staffers remained at the White House in the wake of Newman’s departure, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to cite a number or specify who would take over Newman’s outreach to African-American communities.

“We have a really diverse team across the board at the White House,” she said, stressing that there’s also an effort to “continue to grow the diversity here” in the administration.

As for outreach efforts to minorities, Sanders noted that there are voices, including Carson’s, who play a role, but that Trump has also relied on some outside the White House.

“The president met with Senator Tim Scott,” Sanders said, referring to the South Carolina Republican. “I know he wants to continue those conversations as well to look at the best ways to do that and to do outreach to that community.”

The president himself told reporters Thursday afternoon that he liked Omarosa, but ignored a question about how many African-Americans he had in his inner circle.

Meanwhile, Newman said Thursday that the question of who would fill the void she left is one best asked of Trump and his chief of staff, John Kelly, whom she clashed with during her time in the White House.

Despite statements that the White House is “really diverse,” a June release of staff salaries showed that Newman was the only African-American at the top rung of the salary scale.



And while women have seen their profiles raised in this administration, including Communications Director Hope Hicks and Sanders, there are few staffers of color in high-level jobs.

An NBC News review found only a small percentage of nonwhite staffers were appointed as assistants to the president or special assistants to the president. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on these findings.

Last week, former White House strategist Steve Bannon, at a gathering of black conservative leaders, called out the administration that he was once part of for what he cited as a lack of diversity, saying the limited number of black staffers was “inexcusable.”

“You can’t defend it,” Bannon said, adding later, “I hope, and I think, that there’s action … taking place to solve that.”

The president repeatedly pitched himself as a friend to African-American voters during the campaign, asking at several rallies what they had to lose after voting for Democrats and not seeing any changes. In office, he has repeatedly inflamed race relations with his comments. After a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned into a violent clash in August, leaving one person dead, Trump blamed “both sides.”

“There are two sides to a story. I thought what took place was a horrible moment for the country, but there are two sides to a story,” the president said. Trump’s comments sparked swift criticism from lawmakers of both parties, and even members of his own administration.

Publicly, Newman was not one of them, and throughout her White House tenure she had a rocky relationship with black community leaders and activists.

Thursday morning she spoke cryptically about “a lot of things” she saw while in the service of the president —but in the second interview defended Trump, saying “he is not a racist” despite past missteps.

“Yes, I will acknowledge many of the exchanges, particularly in the last six months, have been racially charged,” Newman told ABC. “Do we then just stop and label him as a racist? No.”

“As the only African-American woman in this White House, as a senior staff, and assistant to the president, I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people,” she said.

“And when I can tell my story, it is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear.”

Republicans Hunt for Ways to Pay for Tax Cuts

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Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, right, presided over the House-Senate Conference Committee meeting with Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, left, chairman of the finance committee, on Wednesday.CreditPete Marovich for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — A day after House and Senate Republican leaders said they had reached agreement on a merged version of their tax bill, they continued looking for ways to pay for the tax overhaul and faced the possible defection of a Republican senator, Marco Rubio of Florida.

Republicans plan to unveil a final bill on Friday, with the aim of voting on the legislation early next week and delivering it to President Trump for signing before Christmas.

But many of the changes made to assuage the concerns of businesses and Republican lawmakers are expected to drive up the cost of the bill and will need to be paid for to ensure the legislation does not add more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit over a decade. On Thursday, Mr. Rubio indicated he would vote no on the bill unless the expanded version of the child tax credit that he and another senator, Mike Lee of Utah, have been pushing was included. That change, which would allow families to claim the child tax credit even if they owe no income taxes, would drive up the cost of the bill even more.

“I think my requests have been pretty reasonable and consistent and direct. Right now the refundability level is $1,100, it needs to be higher,” Mr. Rubio said. “It’s a pretty straightforward ask. If the refundable portion of the child credit is substantially increased beyond the $1,100 it currently is, I’ll vote for the bill. If it’s not, I won’t.”

In an online town hall meeting on Wednesday night, Mr. Lee told constituents that negotiations were ongoing to include such an expansion in the conference tax bill.

Among the potential ideas being discussed on Capitol Hill to pay for the bill is allowing the tax cuts for individuals to expire even sooner than the 2025 date already stipulated in the Senate bill. Another idea under consideration, according to Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, is raising the tax rate on profits that companies have parked overseas as a way to pay for the bill.

“We’re literally trying to squeeze about $2 trillion in tax reform into a $1.5 trillion box and that’s been a problem,” Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, who held out on supporting the initial version of the Senate tax bill until it gave more generous tax breaks to “pass through” businesses.

In an early morning cheer on Twitter, Mr. Trump encouraged Republicans to get the job done.

House and Senate Republicans agreed in principle on Wednesday to the framework of a consensus bill. Late changes included a slightly higher corporate tax rate of 21 percent, rather than the 20 percent in the legislation that passed both chambers, and a lower top individual tax rate of 37 percent for the wealthiest Americans, who currently pay 39.6 percent. But the bill will still scale back some popular tax breaks, including the state and local tax deduction and the deductibility of mortgage interest.

Breaking from the House bill, the agreement would allow taxpayers to continue to deduct high out-of-pocket medical expenses, and it would retain a provision allowing graduate students who receive tuition waivers to avoid paying taxes on that benefit. Also included is the Senate’s repeal of the Affordable Care Act requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty and a provision that opens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to energy exploration.

How the Final Tax Bill Will Affect Families, Homeowners, Businesses and More

Republicans have resolved the differences between the two versions of their tax bill.

Dec. 8, 2017

Still, the bill contains a host of tax changes that are expected to increase the cost of the bill that passed the Senate, such as repealing the corporate alternative minimum tax and increasing the income threshold at which the individual alternative minimum tax kicks in.

While the late changes to the tax bill were mean to alleviate concerns of skeptical Republicans, it was not clear how they would be paid for while still complying with the strict Senate budget rules that will allow the bill to pass without votes from any Democrats. Republicans can add no more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit if they are to pass the bill along party lines.

On Thursday, Republican leaders continued to express confidence that they were getting close to passing the most sweeping tax overhaul in decades.

“I think there’s going to be strong support in the House and Senate on this or we wouldn’t be moving forward,” Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said on CNN.

Mr. Brady has scheduled a signing of the signature sheets for the conference report — which is the deal that’s been struck between the House and Senate lawmakers on the congressional conference committee — between 10 a.m. and noon on Friday. A majority of the House and Senate lawmakers who are on the conference committee have to sign affirmatively for the bill to move forward.

But other concerns are looming, including the health of two Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona, who is in the hospital, and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who recently received medical treatment for health problems. Republicans, who hold a narrow 52-48 majority, can only afford to lose two senate votes, and Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee has already expressed his opposition to the bill.

Vice President Mike Pence decided on Thursday to delay a trip to the Middle East trip that he was planning to take next week so that he can preside over the tax vote in the event he needs to break a tie between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate.

Democrats have been largely sidelined in the final stages of the tax discussions.

They assailed the single public meeting of the conference committee on Wednesday as a “sham” and a “farce” and they continue to point to polls that show Republicans will likely pay for pushing tax cuts that do not appear to be popular with the general public. Democrats have also been calling on Republicans to delay the vote so that Alabama’s incoming Democratic senator, Doug Jones, has time to be seated.

“It’s the same rushed, awful process as before and it can only result in mistakes and unintended consequences that can wreak havoc on the economy,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, said on Thursday. “Every day, the more people know about the bill, the more they don’t like.”

At his weekly news conference on Thursday, Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, dismissed polls suggesting people are not supportive of the tax plan and predicted that the public would eventually warm to the legislation.

“Results are going to be what sells this bill, not the confusion before it passes,” Mr. Ryan said.

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FCC Repeals Net Neutrality Rules

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The discarding of net neutrality regulations is the most significant and controversial action by the F.C.C. under Mr. Pai. In his first 11 months as chairman, he has lifted media ownership limits, eased caps on how much broadband providers can charge business customers and cut back on a low-income broadband program that was slated to be expanded to nationwide carriers.

His plan for the net neutrality rules, first outlined early this year, set off a flurry of opposition. Critics of the changes say that consumers may have more difficulty finding content online and that start-ups will have to pay to reach consumers. In the past week, there have been hundreds of protests across the country, and many websites have encouraged users to speak up against the repeal. After the vote, numerous groups said they planned to file a lawsuit challenging the change.

The five commissioners were fiercely divided along party lines. In front of a room packed with reporters and television cameras from the major networks, the two Democratic commissioners warned of consumer harms to come from the changes.

What Is Net Neutrality?

The F.C.C. voted to dismantle rules that require internet providers to give consumers equal access to all content online. Here’s how net neutrality works.


By AARON BYRD and NATALIA V. OSIPOVA on November 21, 2017.


Photo by Michael Bocchieri/Getty Images.

Watch in Times Video »

Mignon Clyburn, one of the Democratic commissioners, presented two accordion folders full of letters in protest to the changes, and accused the three Republican commissioners of defying the wishes of millions of Americans.

“I dissent, because I am among the millions outraged,” said Ms. Clyburn. “Outraged, because the F.C.C. pulls its own teeth, abdicating responsibility to protect the nation’s broadband consumers.”

Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner, said it was a “great day” and dismissed “apocalyptic” warnings.

“I’m proud to end this two-year experiment with heavy-handed regulation,” Mr. Carr said.

During Mr. Pai’s speech before the vote, security guards entered the meeting room at the F.C.C. headquarters and told everyone to evacuate. Commissioners were ushered out a back door. The hearing restarted a short time later.

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Despite all the uproar, it is unclear how much will change for internet users. The rules were essentially a protective measure, largely meant to prevent telecom companies from favoring some sites over others. And major telecom companies have promised consumers that their experiences online would not change.

Mr. Pai and his Republican colleagues have echoed the comments of telecom companies, who have told regulators that they weren’t expanding and upgrading their networks as quickly as they wanted to since the creation of the rules in 2015.

“There is a lot of misinformation that this is the ‘end of the world as we know it’ for the internet,” Comcast’s senior executive vice president, David Cohen, wrote in a blog post this week. “Our internet service is not going to change.”

But with the F.C.C. making clear that it will no longer oversee the behavior of broadband providers, telecom experts say, the companies could feel freer to come up with new offerings, such as faster tiers of service for business partners such as HBO’s streaming service or Fox News.

Such prioritization could stifle certain political voices or give the telecom conglomerates with media assets an edge over rivals.

Consumer groups, start-ups and many small businesses say there are examples of net neutrality violations by companies, such as when ATT blocked FaceTime on iPhones using its network.

These critics of Mr. Pai, who was nominated by President Trump, say there isn’t enough competition in the broadband market to trust that the companies will try to offer the best services for customers. The providers have the incentive to begin charging websites to reach consumers, a strong business model when there are few places for consumers to turn when they don’t like those practices.

“Let’s remember why we have these rules in the first place,” said Michael Beckerman, president of the Internet Association, a trade group that represents big tech firms such as Google and Facebook. “There is little competition in the broadband service market.”

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Mr. Beckerman said his group was weighing legal action against the commission. Public interest groups including Public Knowledge and the National Hispanic Media Coalition said they planned to challenge Mr. Pai’s order in court. Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, also said he would file a lawsuit.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers, and some Republicans, have pushed for Congress to pass a law on the issue, if only to prevent it from flaring up every couple of years at the F.C.C. — and then leading to a court challenge.

One Republican commissioner, Mike O’Reilly, said he supported a federal law created by Congress for net neutrality. But he said any law should protect the ability of companies to charge for faster lanes, a practice known as “paid prioritization.”

Any legislation action appears to be far off, however, and numerous online companies warned that the changes approved on Thursday should be taken seriously.

“If we don’t have net neutrality protections that enforce tenets of fairness online, you give internet service providers the ability to choose winners and losers,” Steve Huffman, chief executive of Reddit, said in an interview. “This is not hyperbole.”

Netflix, which has been relatively quiet in recent weeks about its opposition to the change, said that the decision “is the beginning of a longer legal battle.”

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Justice Dept. Official Defends Mueller as Republicans Try to Discredit Him

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Instead, Mr. Rosenstein mounted a step-by-step defense of Mr. Mueller’s conduct. He noted that department rules prevented Mr. Mueller from taking political affiliation into consideration when hiring for career positions, and he distinguished between officials holding political views and making investigative decisions out of bias. He said Mr. Mueller would be careful not to allow the latter.

“We recognize we have employees with political opinions. And it’s our responsibility to make sure those opinions do not influence their actions,” Mr. Rosenstein said after Representative Steve Chabot, Republican of Ohio, read out the names of members of Mr. Mueller’s team and political contributions they had made to Democratic causes.

“I believe that Director Mueller understands that, and he is running that office appropriately,” Mr. Rosenstein added.

Asked by Representative Bob Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who chairs the committee, why he remained satisfied with Mr. Mueller, Mr. Rosenstein replied:

“Based upon what I know, I believe Director Mueller is appropriately remaining in his scope and conducting himself appropriately, and in the event there is any credible allegation of misconduct by anybody on his staff, that he is taking appropriate action.”

Mr. Rosenstein’s stance signaled that despite the mounting assault on Mr. Mueller by Mr. Trump’s supporters, the fundamental dynamic surrounding the special counsel had not changed: If Mr. Trump were to try to fire Mr. Mueller based on any developments so far, the president would likely first have to fire or force the resignation of Mr. Rosenstein and then hunt for a replacement willing to carry out his orders, echoing Richard Nixon’s so-called Saturday Night Massacre during the Watergate scandal.

Republicans repeatedly pressed Mr. Rosenstein to appoint a second special counsel to investigate political partisanship in the department in its handling of the Trump-Russia investigation or in last year’s decision not to charge Mrs. Clinton with a crime over her use of a private email server while secretary of state — an idea that has been promoted heavily by commentators on Fox News and elsewhere in recent days.

Mr. Rosenstein said he could not appoint another special counsel without a credible allegation of a potential crime to investigate.

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The campaign against the special counsel, at the very least, provides a rallying cry for the president’s supporters to counter the drumbeat of news about Russian interference in the election and possible links to the Trump campaign. And a move by the Justice Department to show reporters the text messages that are the subject of an ongoing inspector general’s inquiry served to fuel the Republican campaign against Mr. Mueller.

Mr. Rosenstein confirmed that in addition to sending the messages to Congress the night before his testimony, the Justice Department had invited reporters to view the messages it was giving to lawmakers. That was a rare step, although officials in previous administrations have sometimes done so to avoid selective or misleading leaks from Capitol Hill.

On Wednesday, the deputy attorney general was pressed by Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, about who authorized the messages’ release. Mr. Rosenstein said that he had approved the step after consulting with the department’s independent inspector general, Michael Horowitz. His answers left ambiguous any distinction between merely providing them to lawmakers — who would essentially be free to leak them — and making them directly available to the news media.

“Our goal, congressman, is to make sure that it is clear to you and the American people that we are not concealing anything that’s embarrassing to the F.B.I.,” he said.

Ian Prior, a Justice Department spokesman, said that the texts were released in response to requests from lawmakers and after a review that determined that doing so would be lawful and ethical.

“The department ensures that its release of information from the department to members of Congress or to the media is consistent with law, including the Privacy Act,” he said in a statement.

Mr. Mueller, a registered Republican appointed by President George W. Bush to direct the F.B.I., has long had critics in the most pro-Trump corners of the House and the conservative news media. But in recent weeks, as his investigation has delivered a series of indictments to high-profile associates of the president and evidence that at least two of them are cooperating with the inquiry, those critics have grown louder and in numbers.

Moreover, the voices of doubt are no longer confined to the party’s far-right wing. They include Republican mainstays like Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa.

Representative Louie Gohmert, Republican of Texas, rattled off a list of high-ranking F.B.I. officials and questioned whether they had politically motivations.


Pete Marovich for The New York Times

“I was the lone voice in the wilderness, and now I have a robust chorus behind me,” said Representative Matt Gaetz, a first-term Florida Republican who has emerged as one of Mr. Trump’s most vocal defenders on Capitol Hill.

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The president’s own legal team also appears to be part of the campaign. Jay Sekulow, one of Mr. Trump’s outside lawyers for matters related to the Russia investigation, told Axios that mounting evidence warranted the appointment of a second special counsel to look at conflicts of interest in the Justice Department.

In an interview, Mr. Sekulow cited a Fox News report that Bruce Ohr, a senior Justice Department official, had been demoted for not disclosing meetings with officials from Fusion GPS, the investigative firm behind a controversial dossier of opposition research on the Trump campaign. Republicans have repeatedly charged that the F.B.I. may have relied on the dossier to obtain a warrant to secretly monitor Americans.

Republicans see further evidence of bias in an email sent by Andrew Weissmann, one of Mr. Mueller’s top deputies, in January telling the acting attorney general, Sally Q. Yates, that he was “so proud and in awe” of her decision not to defend Mr. Trump’s travel ban in court.

Democrats say the pattern is becoming clear: As Mr. Mueller moves closer to Mr. Trump’s inner circle, Republicans try to discredit federal law enforcement and undercut the eventual findings of the special counsel. The Republican effort may also be intended to blunt the political repercussions should Mr. Mueller be fired, Democrats say.

Representative Jerrold Nadler, the Judiciary Committee’s senior Democrat, called the new Republican demands “wildly dangerous” to American institutions.

“I understand the instinct to want to give cover to the president,” he said. “I am fearful that the majority’s effort to turn the tables on the special counsel will get louder and more frantic as the walls continue to close in around the president.”

Perhaps more portentous is the restive Senate, a less partisan body where Mr. Mueller’s appointment in May was greeted with relief. Skepticism about the special counsel’s investigation is starting to take root there, too.

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“He’s got a tough job to do, but it seems he’s running far afield,” said Senator Richard C. Shelby, a long-serving Republican from Alabama. “Maybe it’s part of what he can do, but I thought he was going to investigate the Russian influence in the election, and it seems like he is going after a lot of other places, too.”

Mr. Graham, who a year ago was a leading Republican voice for a thorough investigation of Russian campaign interference, seems to have shifted his focus as well.

“I will be challenging Rs and Ds on Senate Judiciary Committee to support a Special Counsel to investigate ALL THINGS 2016 — not just Trump and Russia,” he wrote on Twitter.

Adam Goldman contributed reporting.


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Republicans’ Tax Bill Nears the Finish Line

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The looming loss of the Republican seat in the Senate from Alabama adds to the pressure that party members in Congress face to ensure that their tax overhaul faces no last-minute hiccups that push the bill into next year. On Wednesday, they will look to keep the momentum going in the face of Democrats who are feeling newly emboldened.

The conference committee met and Democrats expressed displeasure

The conference committee that was created to merge the House and Senate tax bills began its one public meeting on Wednesday afternoon and Democrats immediately denounced the gathering as an exercise in trying to make the tax overhaul look transparent.

“Let’s understand what’s happening today is a sham,” said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. “Nobody ought to mistake this conference for real debate.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, said the “so-called conference committee,” as he put it, “is a farce.”

Members of the committee assembled for their public session in a basement meeting room in the Capitol, and the partisan skirmishing began right at the outset.

Representative Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, asked that the conference committee postpone its work until Doug Jones, the winner of Tuesday’s special election for Senate in Alabama, is sworn into office.

The lawmaker presiding over the meeting, Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the motion was not allowed.

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Representative Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas, quickly clashed with Mr. Brady over his handling of the meeting, reminding him that the session was not being conducted under “Putin rules.”

Democrats also denounced the substance of the tax overhaul.

“The American people are witnessing a master class in how one political party, relying on secrecy, distortion and brute force, can muscle an unpopular, deficit exploding corporate giveaway to passage,” Mr. Wyden said. “This is the ultimate betrayal of the middle class.”

The gathering will be one of the final times that Democrats will be able to publicly criticize the tax legislation while being face-to-face with the Republicans who are crafting it. Thus far, they have largely assailed the partisan process and argued that the bill benefits the rich and corporations and doesn’t do enough to help the middle class.

For Republicans, the public meeting is largely for show, as the final negotiations happened behind closed doors and the major details have already been agreed upon. Republicans are planning to pass the bill along party lines and have so far rebuffed Democrats’ requests to change the bill.

Alabama’s election is unlikely to derail the tax bill

The odds remain strong that congressional Republicans will send a consensus tax bill to Mr. Trump, despite Democrats’ upset Senate victory in Alabama on Tuesday.

The news that Doug Jones, a Democrat, had defeated Roy Moore, a Republican, in the election immediately sent many liberal activists dreaming of another improbable win: blocking the tax bill.

Math and momentum fueled that activist optimism. Once Mr. Jones is seated in the Senate, Republicans’ majority in the chamber will narrow to a single seat. The tax bill passed the Senate on a 51-49 vote, with one Republican, Bob Corker of Tennessee, defecting. The hope among liberals was that Mr. Jones’ victory would give other Republicans pause and delay the process of reconciling the bills.

That seems unlikely to happen, however. Lawmakers have agreed on the contours of a final deal and an influential Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, said she saw no reason to wait for Mr. Jones to be seated before voting on the tax bill.

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However, Republicans still need to tread carefully and ensure they have enough support to get the bills over the finish line. If another Republican senator were then to defect — for example, Ms. Collins, who extracted concessions from party leadership in order to vote yes on the bill initially, but has watched some of those concessions go as yet unfulfilled — then the bill could stall.

Graphic

House vs. Senate: The Tax Changes Up for Debate and How Different Taxpayers Would Fare

Republicans must resolve the differences between the two versions of their tax bill before they can pass a final version.


Those scenarios still appear highly unlikely. Republican leaders are prepared to hold votes early next week on the measure, well before the Alabama results are expected to be certified, making Mr. Jones eligible to be seated. Party leaders remain confident Mr. Trump will sign the bill before Christmas — most likely before Mr. Jones enters the Senate.

The one wrinkle from Tuesday night, for Republicans and the bill, is that the results empower individual senators to demand even more from the leadership for their votes. Ms. Collins and Marco Rubio of Florida have both raised concerns this week about the compromise bill as it is shaping up. Party leaders may be forced to address their concerns or apply more pressure to keep them, and possibly others, in line.

But even if Republicans were to defect en masse in the Senate, the tax bill could still sail to Mr. Trump — if House Republicans were to approve the version that passed the Senate. That version included some apparent drafting errors that have upset business interests, most notably the rate of the corporate alternative minimum tax. But in a worst-case scenario, party leaders could decide that bill is better than no bill at all, and promise to return to fix the provisions later — an echo of how Democrats proceeded to pass the Affordable Care Act after they lost a similarly stunning Senate special election, in Massachusetts, in 2010.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine spoke with Vice President Mike Pence at the Capitol on Tuesday. Ms. Collins has watched some of the concessions for her “yes” vote on the tax bill go as yet unfulfilled.


Pete Marovich for The New York Times

Democrats tell Republicans to hit pause on tax bill

Democrats are mounting a concerted, though likely fruitless, effort to get Republican leadership in the Senate to delay the tax bill vote until Mr. Jones is seated as a senator from Alabama.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, called on Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, to “hit pause on his tax bill” after the Democratic candidate won the special election for Senate in Alabama on Tuesday.

“It would be wrong for Senate Republicans to jam through this tax bill without giving the newly elected senator from Alabama the opportunity to cast his vote,” Mr. Schumer said at a news conference at the Capitol on Wednesday morning.

Mr. Schumer drew a parallel with the election of Scott Brown, a Republican, in a special election in Massachusetts in 2010 as Democrats were trying to enact their health care overhaul.

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Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon similarly said the bill should be delayed until Mr. Jones arrives, saying in a tweet “The people of Alabama have spoken.”

Trump dines with Republican lawmakers

Mr. Trump hosted Republican lawmakers working on tax legislation for lunch at the White House. Flanked by Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, Mr. Trump gave brief remarks on the tax plan.

“We’re very close to getting it done, we’re very close to voting,” he said.

The White House on Wednesday released a name of those dining with Mr. Trump, including Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, eight Republican senators and Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas and chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Democrats make a last-ditch effort to pressure Republicans

Ahead of the Conference Committee meeting, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee will be joined by House Democratic leaders for a noon “forum” on the Republican tax legislation.

House Democrats have invited economists including Mark Zandi, of Moody’s Analytics, and Jason Furman, former chairman of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, to participate.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has come under attack from Democrats for using “fake math” to defend the Republican tax plan, was also invited. He is not expected to attend.

Progressive groups hold protests in the Capitol

Liberal activists are planning to fan across the Capitol on Wednesday to try to flip Republican members of Congress who they think could be persuaded to change their minds on the tax bill.

Members of Housing Works, the Center for Popular Democracy, Women’s March, Hedge Clippers, People for Bernie, Strong Economy for All Coalition are planning to stage sit-ins at the offices of Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona.

Ady Barkan, a progressive activist with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis who confronted Mr. Flake on an airplane last week, is headlining the rally. According to one of its organizers, he is also hoping to have a meeting with Ms. Collins.

#FlakesonAPlane Ady talks to Jeff Flake about the #GOPTaxScam Video by Shawn Sebastian

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Democrats call on GOP to hold off on tax bill until Jones is seated in the Senate

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Democrats warned Wednesday that Republican plans to speed ahead with plans to revamp the nation’s tax code could spell more electoral trouble for President Trump and his party next year, especially with young people and suburban families.

Just hours after Republicans suffered a humiliating defeat in a special U.S. Senate election in the GOP stronghold of Alabama, party leaders unveiled a compromise on a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax plan that will significantly lower corporate rates and slash taxes for upper-income households.

But Democrats — now able to tout recent electoral victories in deep-blue New Jersey, swing state Virginia and Republican-leaning Alabama that all showed signs of voter discontent with GOP policies — called on Republicans to wait to vote on their tax plan until Democrat Doug Jones, the winner of the Alabama race, arrives in Washington.

Mired in the minority and sapped of any control of Capitol Hill, Democrats crowed about the implications of the Alabama contest, touting how the party’s base — young people, black women and, increasingly, suburbanites — turned out at higher rates than normal in off-year elections. Jones also cut into Republican advantages in counties that overwhelmingly backed Trump in last year’s presidential election.

If the Republicans move ahead with their plans to rush tax reform, “there will be many more Alabamas in 2018,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “Many more.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speak before the House-Senate Conference on tax reform starts on Dec. 13, 2017, on Capitol Hill. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

“The suburbs are swinging back to us,” he told reporters, adding that the GOP tax plan is “an anti-suburban tax bill” because it would reduce how much homeowners can deduct in state and local taxes.

[As Democrats add Senate seat, GOP left to bicker over what happened in Alabama]

Republicans, however, ignored the Democrats and said they did not expect any slowdown in he tax push, citing a Christmas deadline for action that had been set months in advance.

“The people back home want to get it done, now,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), a member of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee.

In closed-door meetings of Republican lawmakers Wednesday on both sides of Capitol Hill, the Alabama results were not even a topic of official discussion. Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.), leaving a Senate Republican lunch meeting, said the topic simply hadn’t come up.

“Changing the entire 10 million-word tax code is of great magnitude, too, so that’s what we spent our time talking about,” he said.

The House and Senate are poised to vote on the GOP tax plan by the end of next week.

When exactly Jones will join the Senate remains unclear. Alabama’s secretary of state, the state’s senior elections official, said Tuesday that the soonest the election will be certified is Dec. 26 or 27. The Senate’s holiday break is scheduled to begin Dec. 22, and senators are not expected to return until Jan. 3, although that schedule could change.

Calls to slow down the tax reform plan are only the most immediate consequences of Jones’s unlikely victory. His arrival will cut the Republican majority in the Senate from two votes to one, making it even harder to move the GOP legislative agenda forward without some bipartisan cooperation. Possible efforts to cut back entitlement programs or replace current health-care policy with a more conservative alternative, already difficult, could be impossible in a Senate divided 51 to 49.

One veteran Democrat played down the notion that Jones could scramble the Senate’s political dynamics in a significant way, citing his lack of a voting record that would indicate that he is a reliable supporter of the Democratic agenda and the pressures he may face from his conservative state.

“I don’t know what he wants to do, and he’ll have to decide what he wants to do,” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the Senate’s longest serving member, said. But, he added, the mere presence of Jones could shape the way Republicans and the White House craft their priorities for the coming year.

During the campaign, Jones ran as a centrist, and in his victory speech, he spoke of the need for politicians in Washington to find “common ground.”

Schumer conceded that he doesn’t know whether or not Jones would back the GOP tax plan, saying, “He will make a decision based on what he believes is best for the people of Alabama.”

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who has become friendly with Trump and frequently plays golf with him, said he has spoken to the president in recent weeks about working on bipartisan deals next year and expects more willingness to reach out to Democrats after a year of focusing on GOP concerns.

“In terms of base politics, he’s done a lot — regulatory reform, [confirming Supreme Court Justice Neil] Gorsuch, the tax cut. In the bipartisan portfolio, there’s not a whole lot in it,” Graham said. “There needs to be both. He gets it. Infrastructure is a bipartisan project; immigration is bipartisan.”

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), a key moderate Democrat who stands to see his clout build in a closely divided chamber, also urged Trump and Republicans to seek new ways to work with Democrats.

“Every time I’ve been around the president I’ve always felt he’s more comfortable working on something bipartisan than on something partisan,” he said in an interview. “The push he’s getting from his party is, it’s all for the base.”

In calling for a delay in the tax debate, Democrats pointed to their party’s decision to slow down controversial health-care legislation in 2010 — after a Republican, Scott Brown, won a special election to fill the Senate seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy in liberal Massachusetts.

Democrats cited comments that Sen. Mitch McConnell, now the majority leader, made in January 2010 in the immediate aftermath of Brown’s win, calling on Democrats to slow down passage of the Affordable Care Act until he was sworn in.

“I think the message of the moment is that the American people, all across the country, are asking us, even in the most liberal state, Massachusetts, to stop this health-care bill,” he said the day after Brown was elected.

The Massachusetts election was squarely focused on the Democratic health-care bill, however, while the Republican tax bill was only an ancillary issue in an Alabama election that was more squarely focused as a referendum on the character of the Republican candidate, Roy Moore.

Ultimately, Democrats ended up using special procedures to pass the health-care bill without Brown’s vote — the same “reconciliation” rules Republicans are now using to pass the tax bill along party lines.

Publicly, Democrats cite the need to wait for Jones as a reason to slow debate on tax reform. But they also know that a delay could help build opposition — just as the summer-long fight among Republicans over how to repeal the ACA derailed the effort as closer scrutiny sparked broad public opposition.

Republicans offered their own reasons why Luther Strange, the outgoing Republican placeholder, should vote on the bill rather than Jones.

“He doesn’t know anything about it,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said of Jones. “He’s been on a campaign; he’s not been studying the bill. . . . Ideally, you want somebody who’s more informed than not, and Luther’s informed.”

For moderate Democrats like Manchin facing reelection in 2018 in states that Trump won handily last year, waiting might give them more time to rewrite the tax plan.

“There’s no economic meltdown. The stock market’s doing fine. There are 17 Democrats who are ready to work on a bipartisan tax bill if they slow things down,” Manchin said.

Manchin and at least 16 other members of the Senate Democratic caucus have tried at various points to work with Republicans on tax reform. But they have rebuffed pressure from Trump, McConnell and other Republicans to support the tax plan given its generous tax cuts for high earners and the repeal of the ACA’s mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance.

Earlier this month, the Senate passed the GOP tax plan by a single-vote margin, 51 to 49. Had Jones been seated then, however, Republicans still would have been able to pass the measure, albeit with Vice President Pence casting the tiebreaking vote.

Democrats are hoping that at least two Republican senators will step away from the fast-moving legislation in the coming days, forcing GOP leaders to pull back. But on Wednesday, key GOP senators Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) said they saw no reason for delay.

But one potential complication arose for GOP leaders: The office of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has an aggressive brain tumor and missed Senate votes Wednesday, issued a statement explaining he being treated at Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland.

“Senator McCain looks forward to returning to work as soon as possible,” said the statement, which not did say when he might return.

Erica Werner and David Weigel contributed to this report.

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‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Embraces the Magic and Mystery. Read Our Review.

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One of the truisms of the “Star Wars” series is that its battle between good and bad has always uneasily and sometimes openly mirrored the attendant struggle between good and bad filmmaking. Mr. Lucas’s 1977 foundational movie mostly transcends its flaws with slick looks, hooky effects, old-school heroics and loads of marketable material that helped turn fan love into an ecumenical cult. The second trilogy, entirely directed by Mr. Lucas, began in 1999 with “The Phantom Menace” (infamous for the minor scandal called Jar Jar Binks) and is pretty much a drag outside of some fleet light-saber duels and the arresting black-and-red patterning that distinguishes one villain.

Mark Hamill’s moody Luke Skywalker has retreated to a lovely, isolated island.


Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Part of what has already made the new trilogy more successful is that its directors, J.J. Abrams (“The Force Awakens”) and Mr. Johnson, are technically adept, commercially savvy “Star Wars” true believers who came of age in the post-Lucas blockbuster era. Each has had to navigate the intricacies of Mr. Lucas’s sprawling fiction while handling the deep imprint created by Darth Vader’s heavy-breathing menace, R2-D2’s amusing beeps, Mr. Ford’s insouciance, Mr. Hamill’s earnestness, and Ms. Fisher’s smarts and latter-day screwball charm. Unlike Mr. Lucas, though, Mr. Abrams and Mr. Johnson don’t feel burdened by that legacy; they’re into it, charged up, despite the pressures of such an industrial enterprise. They’re resolving their cinematic father issues with a sense of fun.

Mr. Johnson can make you forget about those issues as well as the franchise’s insistent obligations; it also seems like he had a good time at work. He brings lightness to his banter, visual flair (not simply bleeding-edge special effects) to the design, and narrative savvy to Rey and Kylo Ren’s relationship. Mr. Johnson’s use of deep red is characteristic of how he turns ideas into images, most vividly with a set that looks like something Vincente Minnelli might have dreamed up for a Flash Gordon musical with Gene Kelly. When that set becomes the backdrop to a viscerally exciting fight, all the red abruptly evokes the spilled blood that this otherwise squeaky clean series insistently elides.

Carrie Fisher’s Leia plays a critical role in “The Last Jedi.”


Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Like “The Force Awakens,” “The Last Jedi” engages with the first “Star Wars” movie less as a fetish than as a necessary point of departure. And, like Alec Guinness’s Obi-Wan Kenobi once did, Luke comes off as a brooding monastic loner. With a hooded robe, beard and inexplicable moodiness, he has retreated to an eerily lovely, isolated island where imaginatively designed critters roam and trill. The cutest (right in time for Christmas tie-ins) are Porgs, saucer-eyed mewling creatures with plump, puffin-like bodies that are mainly on hand for easy laughs. The creature design throughout is so inventive — there are less-fuzzy whatsits on the island, too — that you wish more had been added.

You feel Mr. Johnson periodically reining himself in, yet the movie cuts loose when he does, as when he embraces the galaxy’s strangeness, its non-humanoid beings as well as its magic and mystery. There’s a trippy scene in which a character floats into a resurrection, an ethereal drift that borders on the surreal. It’s a fleeting bliss-out in a series that knows how to bring the weird but has too often neglected to do so amid its blaster zapping, machinations and Oedipal stressing and storming. This is, after all, a franchise in which the most indelible character remains Yoda, the wee, far-out philosophizer with the tufted pate and syntactically distinct truth telling: “Wars not make one great.”

Wars do, however, make warehouses of money as this franchise has been affirming for decades. It’s instructive how normalized its permanent war has become, with its high body count, bloodlessness and fascist chic (the black uniforms evoking the Nazi SS). Given this, it’s notable, too, that while Mr. Johnson manages the big-canvas battles well enough, he’s better with smaller-scaled fights, in which the sweat, vulnerabilities and personal costs of violence are foregrounded. With Mr. Driver — who delivers a startlingly raw performance — Mr. Johnson delivers a potent portrait of villainy that suggests evil isn’t hard-wired, an inheritance or even enigmatic. Here, it is a choice — an act of self-creation in the service of annihilation.

Mr. Johnson has picked up the baton — notably the myth of a female Jedi — that was handed to Mr. Abrams when he signed on to revive the series with “The Force Awakens.” Mr. Johnson doesn’t have to make the important introductions; for the most part, the principals were in place, as was an overarching mythology that during some arid periods has seemed more sustained by fan faith than anything else. Even so, he has to convince you that these searching, burgeoning heroes and villains fit together emotionally, not simply on a Lucasfilm whiteboard, and that they have the requisite lightness and heaviness, the ineffable spirit and grandeur to reinvigorate a pop-cultural juggernaut. That he’s made a good movie in doing so isn’t icing; it’s the whole cake.


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