Skip to Content

CNN – US Politics

Gov. Gavin Newsom says no ‘imminent threat’ to California after FBI memo on possible Iran drone attacks

By Holmes Lybrand, Josh Campbell, CNN (CNN) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday there is no “imminent threat” to the state following reports that federal authorities had alerted state officials of unverified claims by Iranian-affiliated actors desiring to conduct potential drone attacks. The FBI memo sent to local law enforcement and officials in California

Continue Reading

US strike likely hit a school in Iran due to outdated intelligence, sources briefed on initial findings say

By Zachary Cohen, Thomas Bordeaux, Gianluca Mezzofiore, CNN (CNN) — The US military accidentally struck an Iranian elementary school, in an attack that state media said killed at least 168 children and 14 teachers, likely due to outdated information about a nearby naval base, according to two sources briefed on the preliminary findings of an

Continue Reading

Homeland Security pushes for access to restricted federal database on child support, employment information for millions

By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN (CNN) — The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to gain access to a trove of federal information that is intended to support the collection of child support payments but could potentially be used for immigration enforcement purposes, according to three sources familiar with the talks who describe the move as

Continue Reading
Richard Kahn

Longtime Epstein accountant testifies behind closed doors for roughly 7 hours in House Oversight probe

By Annie Grayer, Em Steck, CNN (CNN) — Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime accountant testified his relationship with the late convicted sex offender “was strictly on a professional level,” as he faced investigators on Capitol Hill for roughly seven hours as part of the House Oversight Committee’s probe. Richard Kahn told lawmakers behind closed doors that he

Continue Reading
Pictured is the United States Department of Veteran Affairs headquarters on November 24

VA watchdog finds nearly a million calls from vets seeking care had key tracking data missing

By Brian Todd, CNN (CNN) — The wife of one veteran wanted her husband to be evaluated, fearing his cancer may have spread, and sought a radiology appointment last year with the Department of Veterans Affairs. She made “multiple phone calls that went to voicemail,” last March and received “no follow-up within the promised 24 hours,” according

Continue Reading

House Republicans confront Iran war and gas prices as they struggle to push economic agenda

By Manu Raju, Ellis Kim, CNN DORAL, Florida (CNN) — Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team have been struggling to find consensus behind an election-year agenda to address Americans’ chief concerns over affordability and their cost-of-living. But now they have a new problem: Rising gas prices. After hammering Democrats relentlessly over $5-per-gallon gasoline, a

Continue Reading

Fake explosions, fake missiles, fake troops: AI videos and images of Iran war spread widely on social media

By Daniel Dale, CNN (CNN) — After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, social media was littered with crude fakes that were presented as fresh images of the war but were either photoshopped phonies or mislabeled clips taken from video games, movies, past incidents and unrelated news coverage. Those kinds of old-fashioned fakes are now spreading

Continue Reading

Mamdani walks fine line between his identity and politics in wake of attempted ISIS-inspired attack

By Gloria Pazmino, Katherine Koretski, CNN (CNN) — Three days after an attempted ISIS-inspired terror attack outside his home, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood in a pre-school classroom on Staten Island to announce expanded childcare highlighting one of the key pillars of his agenda. But Mamdani was peppered with questions about Saturday’s attack,

Continue Reading

Democrat Shawn Harris to face Trump-endorsed Republican Clay Fuller in runoff to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene

By Kathryn Squyres, Arit John, CNN (CNN) — Republican Clay Fuller will face Democrat Shawn Harris in a runoff to replace former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. The race to succeed Greene, a former ally turned critic of President Donald Trump, has tested the power of the president’s endorsement –

Continue Reading
A Secret Service agent stands in front of framed images of President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden's autopen signature

Justice Department’s brewing case against former CIA chief tests its efforts to prosecute Trump foes

By Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez, CNN (CNN) — Justice Department prosecutors leading an investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan are facing increasing pressure from top Justice officials to bring criminal charges against him after the department has flailed in trying to punish President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies, people briefed on the matter

Continue Reading
Interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin speaks during a press conference on May 13

Ed Martin, outspoken Justice Department lawyer, is formally accused of ethical violations

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN (CNN) — Ed Martin, an outspoken Trump administration official, is facing attorney discipline proceedings in Washington, DC, for a letter he sent to Georgetown Law about its diversity programs, the district’s professional conduct investigator announced on Tuesday. Martin is formally accused of violating his ethical codes as an attorney for telling

Continue Reading

How the special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene is testing the power of Trump’s endorsement

By Jeff Zeleny, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s sway over the Republican Party faces a fresh test Tuesday with a free-for-all special election in northwest Georgia to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump ally-turned-critic who vacated her seat in Congress in January. Clay Fuller, a former prosecutor and Air Force veteran, won Trump’s endorsement

Continue Reading

‘A shell of our former self’: How Trump and Musk’s spending cuts are hampering US government readiness amid the Iran war

By Jeremy Herb, Annie Grayer, Jennifer Hansler, Sean Lyngaas, Gabe Cohen, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump began his second term with a promise to cut “billions and billions of dollars” in government spending, empowering Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate programs and fire workers it deemed wasteful. One year later, cuts to

Continue Reading
Alexander Butterfield testifies before the Senate Watergate Committee on July 16

Alexander Butterfield, former top Nixon White House aide whose testimony transformed Watergate investigation, dies

By Sydney Kashiwagi, CNN (CNN) — Alexander Butterfield, a former top aide to President Richard Nixon whose disclosure of a secret taping system in the White House dramatically shaped the Watergate scandal, ultimately leading to Nixon’s resignation, has died. He was 99. His wife, Kim, along with John Dean, who served as White House counsel

Continue Reading

Kavanaugh and Jackson appearance gets testy when emergency docket comes up

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Monday said the Supreme Court’s handling of emergency cases has created a “warped” process that effectively signaled the outcome of high-profile controversies prematurely, describing that as an “unfortunate” departure from how the justices handled short-fuse appeals just a few decades ago. “This uptick in

Continue Reading

Capturing Iran’s highly enriched uranium would require a large US ground force, sources say

By Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, Haley Britzky, Avery Schmitz, CNN (CNN) — Recovering Iran’s remaining highly enriched uranium stockpile believed to be sitting in a storage facility deep underground, an objective the Trump administration has been discussing, would require a significant number of US ground troops beyond a small special operations footprint, seven current and

Continue Reading

FBI obtains records related to Arizona Senate audit of Maricopa County 2020 election results, state lawmaker says

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — The Arizona state Senate complied with a federal subpoena about its review of the 2020 presidential election in the Phoenix area, according to the Senate president. That review of the election confirmed Joe Biden’s win in the state. “Late last week I received and complied with a federal grand

Continue Reading

Key 2020 election denier is still working to prove it was stolen — now from inside the White House

By Jeremy Herb, Tierney Sneed, Kristen Holmes, Sean Lyngaas, Zachary Cohen, CNN (CNN) — Kurt Olsen became a key player in some of President Donald Trump’s most far-fetched 2020 election reversal schemes because he believed “that something was not right” in how he saw election officials handle the presidential count in Fulton County, Georgia, and

Continue Reading
Motorists drive along a street as smoke rises from a reported Iranian strike in the area where the US Embassy is located in Kuwait City on March 2.

Russia is aiding Iran’s war effort by providing intel on US military targets, sources say

By Natasha Bertrand, Jim Sciutto, Zachary Cohen, Jennifer Hansler, CNN (CNN) — Russia is providing Iran with intelligence about the locations and movements of American troops, ships and aircraft, according to multiple people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue, the first indication that Moscow has sought to get involved in the war. Much

Continue Reading

GOP lawmakers push for charges against former White House aide for Jan. 6 testimony

By Annie Grayer, Katelyn Polantz, Evan Perez, CNN (CNN) — Republicans on Capitol Hill are asking the Justice Department to consider bringing criminal charges against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide in President Donald Trump’s first administration who became a star congressional witness about the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, according to two sources familiar with

Continue Reading

Justice Department posts FBI interview memos related to Trump sex abuse allegation

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Casey Tolan, Paula Reid, Isabelle Chapman, CNN (CNN) — The Justice Department has posted online three FBI memos describing interviews related to unverified sexual assault allegations against President Donald Trump that had been missing from the massive trove of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice. A CNN analysis discovered dozens

Continue Reading

FBI investigating ‘suspicious’ cyber activities on critical surveillance network

By Paula Reid, Sean Lyngaas, Evan Perez, Katelyn Polantz, CNN (CNN) — The FBI has identified a suspected cybersecurity incident on a sensitive network used to manage wiretaps and intelligence surveillance warrants, and officials are working to determine the seriousness of the incident, according to an FBI statement and a source familiar with the investigation.

Continue Reading

‘Soulless hotel conference space’: Approval for Trump’s East Wing ballroom delayed amid scathing public feedback

By Betsy Klein, Sunlen Serfaty, Casey Tolan, CNN (CNN) — Approval for President Donald Trump’s massive East Wing ballroom project – from a government commission that oversees planning for federal buildings and land in the nation’s capital – is delayed after it received over 32,000 comments from the public overwhelmingly opposing the construction. The National

Continue Reading

How each senator voted on an effort to rein in Trump’s Iran war powers

By Annette Choi, CNN (CNN) — Republican senators rejected a war powers resolution on Wednesday that would have required the Trump administration to seek congressional approval before continuing military action against Iran. One Republican, Kentucky’s Sen. Rand Paul, joined Democrats in voting for the resolution. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania joined Republicans to vote

Continue Reading

Trump, tech companies sign voluntary pledge to protect consumers from rising electricity costs

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump unveiled a voluntary pledge with major tech companies on Wednesday that the administration said will protect consumers from rising electricity costs spurred by artificial intelligence development. At a White House roundtable — another attempt to assuage voters’ affordability concerns ahead of the 2026 midterms — Trump

Continue Reading
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to media outside of a briefing for lawmakers on the strikes against Iran

Analysis: What Kristi Noem and Marco Rubio said vs. what they claimed they said

By Daniel Dale, CNN (CNN) — Two of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet secretaries claimed Tuesday that their comments on high-profile subjects were being described inaccurately. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem denied she had previously called Alex Pretti, the nurse killed by the Border Patrol in Minneapolis in January, a domestic terrorist; she claimed she had

Continue Reading

US Rep. Tony Gonzales and activist Brandon Herrera will head to a runoff for Texas’ 23rd District, CNN projects

By David Wright, CNN (CNN) — US Rep. Tony Gonzales and conservative activist Brandon Herrera will advance to a runoff in the Republican primary for Texas’ 23rd District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, prolonging a contentious campaign in which Gonzales denied allegations that he had an affair with a former staffer who died by suicide. It’s a rematch

Continue Reading

US military launches anti-drug trafficking operation in Ecuador

By Rocio Muñoz-Ledo, CNN (CNN) — The US military began conducting operations with Ecuador targeting “designated terrorist organizations” in the Latin American country, the Pentagon announced Tuesday, marking a new front in the Trump administration’s efforts to curtail drug trafficking. US Southern Command said in a statement that the actions represent “a powerful example of

Continue Reading

Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley will advance to a marquee North Carolina matchup for US Senate, CNN projects

By Dianne Gallagher, CNN (CNN) — Democrat Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley will advance to November’s general election for an open US Senate seat in North Carolina, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, setting up a marquee contest critical for both parties. Cooper, a former two-term North Carolina governor, and Whatley, who served as Republican National

Continue Reading

Texas Supreme Court stops Dallas County from counting late votes after confusion over new rules

By Fredreka Schouten, Arlette Saenz, Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN (CNN) — Changes to Election Day voting procedures in two Texas counties on Tuesday led to hundreds of voters being turned away from polling places, angry recriminations from candidates and an 11th hour scramble to delay poll closings. In a rollercoaster day, Democratic voters in the Dallas

Continue Reading

Lutnick to appear voluntarily before House Oversight Committee about relationship with Epstein

By Annie Grayer, CNN (CNN) — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to appear voluntarily before the House Oversight Committee about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, as the panel issued a raft of new requests for testimony from people once associated with the late convicted sex offender. Lutnick’s expected appearance sets up a clash between

Continue Reading