CNN – US Politics

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN Several state Democratic lawmakers in Connecticut are seeking to ban state agencies from using “Latinx,” — the latest example of political backlash against the term. Members of the Connecticut state House introduced a bill last month that would prohibit state agencies and employees acting on behalf of state agencies from using

By Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler, CNN Members of Congress are urging Secretary of State Antony Blinken to pressure China to do more to curb the flow of fentanyl and synthetic opioids into the United States on his visit to the country which is expected to take place in the next few days. On Wednesday,

By Shawna Mizelle, CNN Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will deliver the Republican response to President Joe Biden‘s upcoming State of the Union address, according to an announcement from GOP congressional leaders. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced Thursday that Sanders will give the Republican address to the nation

By Shania Shelton, CNN Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she will support Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff’s bid for US Senate in California if the state’s longtime senator, Democrat Dianne Feinstein, decides not to run for reelection next year. “If she decides not to run, I will be supporting House Intelligence Committee Chair

By Daniel Dale, CNN Former President Donald Trump, who is now running for president again, made an inaccurate claim on Wednesday about his successor’s response to the Russian war in Ukraine. Trump said in an online video that President Joe Biden is “now doing what he said 10 months ago would lead to World War

By Shawna Mizelle Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said Thursday that he sees Mitch McConnell’s decision to pull him off the Senate Commerce Committee as retribution for challenging the Kentucky senator’s position as leader of the GOP conference. “He completely opposed me putting out a plan,” Scott said to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, referencing his

By Phil Mattingly, Betsy Klein and Maegan Vazquez, CNN President Joe Biden announced Thursday that his National Economic Council Director Brian Deese plans to step down from his role, a long-awaited confirmation of an expected departure. Biden’s statement did not provide any details on a successor or timing of Deese’s departure, but praised his top

By Betsy Klein and Lauren Fox, CNN President Joe Biden offered an olive branch to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday as he gave an interfaith and bipartisan address to the National Prayer Breakfast, remarks on Capitol Hill that come amid pressing issues including the debt limit, a national conversation on justice and policing and

By Marshall Cohen, CNN Washington — President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence are all facing scrutiny regarding their potential mishandling of classified documents. In all three cases, sensitive government materials were found in places where they shouldn’t have ended up. But there are key distinctions that differentiate each

By Tierney Sneed, CNN When the Senate Judiciary Committee meets Thursday to vote on another slate of President Joe Biden‘s judicial nominees, Democrats will be benefiting from more than their two additional years of Senate control. Democrats — with the expansion of their majority in the midterms to a 51-49 margin — have gained new

By Emily Bushey, CNN Federal law enforcement officials are investigating a US Navy veteran’s allegation that Rep. George Santos raised money for a lifesaving surgery for his dying dog only to take off with the money. Rich Osthoff, the veteran, told CNN he spoke to a pair of FBI agents on Wednesday about the incident

By Tierney Sneed Republican attorneys general from 20 states wrote letters to executives at CVS and Walgreens warning the pharmacy chains against using the mail to dispense abortion pills in their states, in a shot against a new Biden administration policy. The letters rebuke recent guidance from the Justice Department — issued in an opinion

By Haley Britzky, CNN The US Navy assisted the French military in seizing thousands of assault rifles and half a million rounds of ammunition that were heading to Yemen from Iran in January, the US military confirmed on Wednesday. The seizure in the Gulf of Oman occurred on January 15, according to 5th Fleet spokesman

By Andi Babineau, CNN The Environmental Protection Agency has blocked a controversial mining project set for development in Alaska over concerns about adverse effects on salmon fisheries in the area, according to a release from the agency. The announcement stops the Pebble Mine project, which would have become the largest copper, gold and molybdenum extraction

By Tierney Sneed The lawyer who will lead the court fights mounted by the newly GOP-controlled House of Representatives is a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas and “seasoned litigator” with years of experience at the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the appointment of Matthew Berry, who most recently

By Kara Scannell, CNN A top executive of the Trump Organization is expected to appear Thursday before a Manhattan grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s alleged role in a hush money payment scheme, people familiar with the matter said. The executive, Jeffrey McConney, the controller of the Trump Organization, is one of the highest-ranking

By Ella Nilsen, CNN The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday advanced the controversial Willow oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, releasing the final environmental impact statement before the project can be approved. The ConocoPhillips proposed Willow drilling plan is a massive and decadeslong project that the state’s bipartisan Congressional delegation says

By Aaron Pellish and Karl de Vries, CNN Michael Cohen, former President Donald Trump’s former attorney, has handed over his cell phones to Manhattan prosecutors, he told “CNN This Morning” on Wednesday. Prosecutors are zeroing in on the Trump Organization’s involvement in hush-money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels as part of an

By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN Republican lawmakers slammed President Joe Biden’s border policies on Wednesday and laid the groundwork for an impeachment case against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the first of a series of hearings on immigration since seizing control of the House. Over the course of Biden’s presidency, Republicans have repeatedly criticized the

By Lauren Fox, Alayna Treene and Jeremy Herb, CNN Congressional Democrats are betting that a coordinated offense is their best defense against the coming Republican investigative onslaught. Democrats on Capitol Hill, at the White House, in agencies and in outside political groups are gearing up to do battle with the Republican committee chairs probing all

By Phil Mattingly, Chief White House correspondent President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy aren’t friends. Biden’s advisers describe the relationship in bland but respectful terms like “cordial” and “professional.” The president on Tuesday called McCarthy a “decent man” and the speaker said after a November meeting between Biden and congressional leaders he “can

By Gabby Orr, Kristen Holmes, Kaitlan Collins and Kate Sullivan, CNN Six months into his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made a telling admission. “I don’t normally do stops like this,” he told the officers at a local police precinct in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who were there to deliver an endorsement. The political newcomer had

By Maegan Vazquez and Clare Foran, CNN House Speaker Kevin McCarthy did not walk away from his highly anticipated White House meeting on Wednesday with an agreement in hand to address the debt limit, but signaled optimism that both he and President Joe Biden can reach consensus “long before” the United States reaches default. McCarthy

By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN Nine Republican-led states asked a federal judge in Texas on Tuesday to block a rule providing protections to nearly 600,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, a group often described as “Dreamers.” It’s the latest move in an ongoing legal fight over the Obama-era Deferred Action

By Natasha Bertrand and Alex Marquardt, CNN Top Ukrainian officials have in recent days escalated their public lobbying campaign for US-made F-16 fighter jets, arguing they need them urgently to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks. But that push is being met with skepticism by US and allied officials who say the jets would

Sydney Kashiwagi, CNN Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill into law Tuesday that enshrines the “fundamental right” to access abortion in the state. Abortion is already legal in Minnesota, but in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the Protect Reproductive Options Act goes a step further by outlining

By Steve Contorno and Kit Maher, CNN Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that he intends to ban state universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in hopes that they will “wither on the vine” without funding. “It really serves as an ideological filter, a political filter,” the Republican said while speaking

By Paula Reid, Devan Cole, Jamie Gangel and Evan Perez, CNN The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s former think tank office in Washington in November after his team notified the National Archives that they found classified documents there, according to a Justice Department official and another source familiar with the matter. The Justice official told

By Tierney Sneed and Kara Scannell, CNN A video of the August deposition the New York Attorney General’s office took of former President Donald Trump, in which Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions, was released Tuesday. “Anyone in my position not taking the Fifth Amendment would be a fool — an

By Lauren Fox and Clare Foran, CNN House Republican leaders have worked to lock down the votes to remove Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota from the Foreign Affairs Committee after several members of their conference had signaled resistance to the move. One of those Republicans, Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, announced on Tuesday that

By Kara Scannell, CNN The New York attorney general’s office is asking a judge to sanction former President Donald Trump, his adult children and their attorneys after taking issue with their legal responses to the $250 million fraud lawsuit filed last year. Last week, attorneys for Trump and the other defendants filed “verified answers” to

By Manu Raju, Melanie Zanona, Fredreka Schouten and Gregory Krieg, CNN Rep. George Santos told the House GOP conference on Tuesday behind closed doors he wants off of his two committees until his issues are resolved, three members told CNN. The New York Republican who has faced calls for his resignation for false statements —

By Katie Lobosco, CNN Long-needed improvements are coming to train travel along the nation’s busy Northeast Corridor, thanks in part to the federal infrastructure funding package that President Joe Biden signed into law in the fall of 2021. The president is making two big funding announcements this week to address bottlenecks at century-old train tunnels

By Mary Kay Mallonee and Katie Lobosco, CNN The federal government gave $5.4 billion in Covid-19 aid to small businesses with “questionable” Social Security numbers, according to a report released by a watchdog overseeing pandemic aid. The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) issued a fraud alert Monday identifying nearly 70,000 questionable Social Security numbers used

By Kevin Liptak and MJ Lee, CNN President Joe Biden is fine-tuning his argument for reelection in an intensive stretch of travel and fundraising, homing in on the newly powerful House GOP as a threat to the rebounding economy as the pieces of his expected campaign come together. With several weeks to go before Biden

By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter When the Supreme Court reconvenes at the end of February, it will hear a headline-grabbing case concerning President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program that will affect the finances of millions of Americans. Critics, including the Republican-led states that have sued, say the initiative amounts to an

By Mary Kay Mallonee, CNN The Justice Department has closed an investigation into whether retired Marine Gen. John Allen lobbied the US government on behalf of Qatar during the Trump administration without bringing any charges against him, according to his attorney. “We have been informed by the Department of Justice National Security Division and the

By Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN Lynda Bennett, who was backed by then-President Donald Trump and Mark Meadows in her run for the latter’s former House seat in North Carolina, has agreed to plead guilty to accepting an illegal campaign contribution during the 2020 primary election cycle, court filings show. Bennett accepted an illegal

By Fredreka Schouten Freshman Rep. George Santos, whose finances and fabrications are under investigation, is facing new questions about the accuracy of the campaign reports filed during his unsuccessful 2020 bid for Congress. Someone named Stephen Berger, for instance, is described in the New York Republican’s campaign filings as having contributed $2,500 on July 31,

By Kate Sullivan, CNN A group of Southern Democrats is urging President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee to host its presidential nominating convention in Atlanta, arguing in a letter sent Monday that Biden owes his 2020 victory and a Democratic majority in the Senate to Georgia. Atlanta is one of the top three

By Maegan Vazquez, CNN President Joe Biden and senior administration officials are embarking on a travel swing this week, showcasing what they see as successful measures to rebuild America’s ailing infrastructure. In what’s been described as a preview of some of the messaging for next week’s State of the Union address, Biden, Vice President Kamala

By Zachary Cohen, CNN The Justice Department told Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio on Monday that it will not provide most of the information he requested about the ongoing special counsel investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified material until that probe is complete, according to a new letter obtained by CNN. In

By Aaron Pellish, Annie Grayer and Jack Forrest, CNN Lawmakers have invited the parents of Tyre Nichols and the man who disarmed a gunman in a Southern California mass shooting to attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on February 7. Nichols’ death days after being beaten by police in Memphis on January

By Arlette Saenz, Jasmine Wright and Paul LeBlanc, CNN President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet Wednesday, a White House official confirmed, the first such gathering since the California Republican captured the speakership earlier this month. The meeting comes as the Treasury Department continues to take extraordinary measures to keep the government

By Paul LeBlanc and Kit Maher, CNN GOP Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire said Sunday he is considering a White House bid in 2024, citing the Granite State’s “live free or die” spirit as a model for the Republican Party. “Yes,” Sununu said when asked by CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union”

By Melanie Zanona and Kristin Wilson, CNN When Susan Collins first arrived in the Senate in 1997, a male colleague approached her about committee assignments and assumed that the Maine Republican would want to serve on education and child care panels. “I said, ‘Yes, those are really important,’” Collins recalled. Then she told her colleague: