As Congress reconvenes, Trump allies are pushing the president-elect's preferences for Republican leadership. As Trump considers his pick for attorney general, questions grow about the future direction of the Justice Department. And, President Joe Biden will meet with world leaders in South America in what could be his final big foreign trip while in office. Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yukhananov, Roberta Rampton, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Julie Depenbrock. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent. And our technical director is Zac Coleman. In a previous version of this episode, we incorrectly said President Biden is in South America. He is not. He will travel to South America later this week. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

We're in a moment of political change. This change often brings with it a reinterpretation of our democratic values. Those values originate with The U.S. Constitution and its 27 amendments. The words in these documents are the foundations of our democracy and the promises made are powerful, like the right to free speech, the right of the people to keep and bear arms and the promise that a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime. But what do these words really guarantee, especially as they are reinterpreted time and again as the world changes? Throughline, NPR's history podcast, has been exploring the long, fraught history of America's constitutional amendments in a series called "We the People" and in this episode they bring us some of the stories they've uncovered in their reporting. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy