CNN – US Politics

By Eric Bradner, CNN Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United States ambassador to the United Nations, launched her bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination Tuesday. But the primary is still in its early stages, and it could take months before the field fully rounds into form and candidates make more than

By Kara Scannell, CNN A New York appeals court upheld sanctions against former President Donald Trump totaling $110,000 for failing to respond to a New York state attorney general subpoena for documents. Trump appealed an order from New York state Judge Arthur Engoron, who last year ordered Trump be sanctioned $10,000 per day for failing

By Holmes Lybrand and Devan Cole, CNN The man who used a stun gun to attack Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone on January 6, 2021, tasing him in the neck during the US Capitol riot, pleaded guilty Tuesday to several counts connected to his involvement in the deadly attack, including using a dangerous weapon to

By Kate Sullivan, Terence Burlij and Kaitlan Collins, CNN Former South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley announced Tuesday in a video that she will run for president in 2024, becoming the first major rival to challenge former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination. “The Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over

By Kaitlan Collins, Kristen Holmes and Tierney Sneed, CNN Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to fight a recent subpoena from the special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump’s post-2020 election activities based on the grounds that he was president of the Senate at the time and therefore shielded from the order, sources familiar

By MJ Lee and Kevin Liptak, CNN The leading explanation among US intelligence officials is that three objects shot down over North America last weekend were balloons being flown for benign purposes, the White House said Tuesday, the furthest the administration has gone in describing the as-yet-unidentified crafts. The three mystery aerial devices have consumed

By Sydney Kashiwagi, CNN South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem on Monday signed a bill into law that will ban both surgical and non-surgical gender-affirming treatments for transgender minors in the state. HB 1080 outlaws the prescription and administration of puberty-blocking medication in patients under the age of 18, as well as sex hormones and

By Steve Contorno, CNN Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will soon have new authority over Disney’s iconic Florida theme parks, leeway to transport migrants from anywhere in the country and fewer hurdles to put people behind bars for voting errors — all top priorities that have animated conservatives who may decide the next Republican nominee for

By Zachary Cohen and Jeremy Herb, CNN The unidentified flying object shot down in Canadian airspace on Saturday appeared to be a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it,” according to what sources described as a Pentagon memo sent to lawmakers on Monday and obtained by CNN. The memo offers the first official

By Holmes Lybrand and Devan Cole, CNN The man who allegedly assaulted Rep. Angie Craig in her Washington, DC, apartment last week made his initial appearance in federal court Monday. Kendrid Hamlin was charged last week with assaulting a member of Congress. During a brief public hearing at DC District Court, Hamlin did not enter

By Manu Raju and Melanie Zanona, CNN The White House and Senate Democrats have calculated that Speaker Kevin McCarthy won’t have enough votes to raise the national borrowing limit and will end up caving to their demands to avoid a first-ever debt default — with no strings attached or any conditions whatsoever. House Republicans are

By MJ Lee and Kevin Liptak, CNN Three airborne objects in North American airspace were shot from the sky by the American military in the span of three days over the weekend at President Joe Biden‘s direction, an unprecedented series of events that is leading to fresh questions about what exactly is transpiring high in

By Paul LeBlanc, CNN It’s been a busy weekend for US fighter jets. The US military shot down another high altitude object over Lake Huron on Sunday afternoon, the Pentagon said. Another unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday, marking the third time in a week that US fighter jets have taken

By Stephen Collinson, CNN A deepening national security mystery is threatening a political storm after US fighter jets scrambled three days in a row to shoot down a trio of unidentified aerial objects high over the North American continent. The flurry of attacks on the unknown crafts came a week after the highly public tracking

By Paula Reid and Zachary Cohen, CNN One of Donald Trump’s lawyers said Sunday they have completed their searches for classified material at the former president’s properties and handed over what they found to the Justice Department. Timothy Parlatore, who represents Trump in both the special counsel investigation into the former president’s handling of classified

By Paul LeBlanc, CNN House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner said Sunday he prefers how the US shot down unidentified objects over North American airspace in recent days to allowing them to traverse the country. A US fighter jet shot down an unidentified object over northern Canada on Saturday, marking the third time in a

By Tierney Sneed, CNN Advocates for domestic violence survivors are worried that a controversial federal court ruling striking down a gun control measure will discourage victims from coming forward. Earlier this month, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals said that those under domestic violence restraining orders have a Second Amendment right to bear arms,

By Kaanita Iyer, Jamie Gangel and Zachary Cohen, CNN A research firm commissioned by former President Donald Trump‘s 2020 campaign team to prove his electoral fraud claims instead failed to substantiate his theories, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The Berkeley Research Group was commissioned to look into voting data from six states, according to the

By Paula Newton and Haley Britzky, CNN Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that an “unidentified object” had been shot down by a US fighter jet over Canadian airspace on his orders. “I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian

By Haley Britzky, Natasha Bertrand and Aaron Pellish, CNN An unidentified object was shot down 10 miles off the frozen coast of Alaska on Friday afternoon, US officials announced, but details about the object are scarce. US military pilots sent up to examine the object gave conflicting accounts of what they saw, which is part

By Kaitlan Collins, Paula Reid and Kristen Holmes, CNN Former President Donald Trump‘s legal team turned over more materials with classified markings and a laptop belonging to an aide to federal prosecutors in recent months, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CNN. The Trump attorneys also handed over an empty folder marked “Classified Evening

By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN The number of unlawful crossings of the US-Mexico border in January marked the lowest levels of encounters since February 2021, administration officials said Friday. In January, US Border Patrol made more than 128,000 apprehensions, down 42% from December, according to administration officials. The handling of the US-Mexico border has been a

By Kevin Liptak, CNN President Joe Biden will visit Poland this month to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, returning to the region as the war enters a volatile new phase without a clear path to peace. The president is planning to visit Poland from February 20-22. The White House said he

By Steve Contorno, CNN Florida lawmakers on Friday gave final approval to a proposal to give Gov. Ron DeSantis more control over the future of Disney’s Orlando-area theme parks, the latest escalation in the Republican leader’s feud with the entertainment giant. The GOP-led state Senate voted 26-9 Friday on a bill to let the state

By Junko Ogura, CNN Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged then-President Donald Trump not to relent with North Korea and to keep up the threat of military pressure, according to his memoir. In his posthumously published book “Abe Shinzo: Kaikoroku,” Abe details his meetings with Trump and exposes the then-president’s thought process when it

By MJ Lee and Kevin Liptak, CNN Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, is leaving the White House and is expected to play a role in President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign. Ben LaBolt, a top Democratic communications professional who served in the Obama White House, will replace Bedingfield as communications director, the White

By Tami Luhby, CNN In his latest move to differentiate himself from House Republicans on entitlement programs, President Joe Biden is making a pretty big promise. He is vowing to shore up the shaky finances of Medicare’s trust fund, extending its solvency to the middle of the century instead of the expected depletion date of

By Andrea Cambron, David Wright and Gregory Krieg, CNN The Federal Election Commission is asking New York Rep. George Santos to declare whether he plans to run again in 2024 after the Long Island Republican crossed a post-election fundraising threshold that now requires him to make a formal declaration. In a letter to Santos, the

By Maegan Vazquez and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN President Joe Biden used his meeting on Friday at the White House with a bipartisan group of governors to reiterate his call to “get the job done” with the help of states and called out congressional Republicans’ bluff over their threats to send United States into default. Biden’s

By Katie Lobosco, CNN In January, the US reached its $31 trillion debt limit, a borrowing cap set by Congress, setting up a political battle between Democrats and Republicans over government spending — with each side blaming the other for running up the federal debt. But both parties have played a role in adding to

By Kevin Liptak, CNN When Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, met President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday, the two hoped to reset relations after an era defined by right-wing populists and threats to democracy in both nations. The talks, expected to center around efforts to combat climate change and

By Phil Mattingly, Chief White House correspondent As Marine One lifted off from the South Lawn of the White House, President Joe Biden had a last-minute question for his aides seated nearby. Riding the momentum of a strong State of the Union address and the elevation of a political battle he and his top advisers

By Eric Bradner and Steve Contorno, CNN Florida Sen. Rick Scott has emerged as Joe Biden‘s top Republican foil in the days since the president’s State of the Union address, with the White House seizing on a year-old Scott proposal that even GOP leaders recognized at the time as politically toxic. As a spending fight

By Fredreka Schouten, Eva McKend and Andrew Kaczynski, CNN US Rep. George Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania in 2017 after several bad checks written in his name went to dog breeders in Amish country, according to a lawyer friend who helped him navigate the case. The case was confirmed as “theft by deception”

By Kaitlan Collins, Evan Perez and Katelyn Polantz, CNN Former Vice President Mike Pence has been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating Donald Trump and his role in January 6, 2021, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Special counsel Jack Smith’s office is seeking documents and testimony related to January 6, the source

By Zachary Cohen and Paula Reid, CNN Former national security adviser Robert O’Brien has been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith in both his investigation into classified documents found at former President Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago residence and the probe related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to a source familiar with the matter.

By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed support for privatizing Medicare and Social Security during his first campaign for Congress in 2012, giving political rivals who have pledged to protect the programs an opening to attack him ahead of DeSantis’ expected run for president in 2024. Former President Donald Trump

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN North Korean government-backed hackers have conducted ransomware attacks on health care providers and other key sectors in the US and South Korea and used the proceeds to fund further cyberattacks on government agencies in Washington and Seoul, US and South Korean officials warned Thursday. Some of those follow-on hacks have specifically

By Karl de Vries and Clare Foran, CNN Police have arrested and charged a man in connection with the assault of Rep. Angie Craig, who was attacked in the elevator of her apartment building in Washington, DC, Thursday morning, the DC Metropolitan Police Department said in a news release. Kendrick Hamlin, also known as Hamlin

By Joan Biskupic, CNN Senior Supreme Court Analyst For decades, Supreme Court justices have dodged questions related to conflicts of interest by saying essentially “Trust us” or “We’re different.” They’ve refused to be bound by an official ethics code and grievance procedures that cover other federal judges. But mounting public pressure may finally spur changes.

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN The US and UK governments on Thursday sanctioned six Russians and one Ukrainian for their alleged involvement in an infamous Russia-based cybercrime network that infected millions of computers worldwide, including those in American hospitals. The sanctions target seven alleged core members of a cybercrime gang known as Trickbot, whose eponymous hacking

By Natasha Bertrand Iran appears to be modifying the attack drones it’s providing to Russia so that the explosive warheads can inflict maximum damage on infrastructure targets inside Ukraine, according to a new investigative report obtained exclusively by CNN. Iran has given Russia hundreds of drones to use in its war in Ukraine, many of

By Priscilla Alvarez, Steve Contorno, Phil Mattingly and Betsy Klein, CNN President Joe Biden on Thursday made a forceful argument against Republicans by highlighting his support for Social Security and Medicare, an appeal to the senior-rich Sunshine State as he makes moves toward a 2024 reelection announcement. Biden took his State of the Union argument

By Jessica Dean, CNN Sen. John Fetterman did not have another stroke, his office said Thursday evening, but the Pennsylvania Democrat remains in a Washington, DC, hospital after being admitted Wednesday after feeling lightheaded. “The results of the MRI, along with the results of all of the other tests the doctors ran, rule out a