Politics

CNN By Manu Raju, CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent (CNN) — Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, who froze during a news conference Wednesday and earlier this year suffered a concussion after falling down, has also endured two other falls this year, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The first known time, in February, occurred

By Manu Raju and Morgan Rimmer, CNN (CNN) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that he’s “fine,” after freezing during a news conference on Wednesday. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, stopped speaking in the middle of remarks at his regularly scheduled weekly news conference on Capitol Hill. After a 30-second pause, his colleagues crowded

By Kit Maher, Kristen Holmes and Jessica Dean, CNN (CNN) — A staffer for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is no longer with the 2024 presidential campaign just days after he retweeted a video featuring White supremacist imagery. Over the weekend, Nate Hochman, who served as a speechwriter for the DeSantis campaign, according to a source

By Jake Tapper, Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent (CNN) — Former US Marine Trevor Reed is expected to make a full recovery after being wounded in battle approximately two weeks ago serving alongside Ukrainian forces fighting Russia, a source close to Reed told CNN. Reed is currently receiving medical care in Germany after being evacuated

By Jamiel Lynch, CNN (CNN) — A third associate of Steve Bannon was sentenced to 63 months in prison for the “We Build the Wall” online fundraising fraud scheme, according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Timothy Shea was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire

By Katelyn Polantz and Shawna Mizelle, CNN (CNN) — Rudy Giuliani concedes he made defamatory statements about Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in an effort to resolve their lawsuit against him and to satisfy a judge who has considered sanctioning him. The late-night Tuesday filing from Giuliani says he doesn’t contest Moss

By Kaitlan Collins, CNN (CNN) — A top election security official who was fired by President Donald Trump weeks after the 2020 election has confirmed to CNN that he was interviewed in recent months by the special counsel investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. Chris Krebs confirmed to CNN publicly for the first time

By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter (CNN) — Conservative legal activist Leonard Leo is refusing to provide Democratic lawmakers with information regarding his interactions with Justice Samuel Alito, who attended a luxury fishing trip with him in 2008 and took a ride on a private jet owned by a conservative hedge fund manager.

By Shawna Mizelle, CNN (CNN) — A Democratic congressman from Texas is participating in a brief thirst and hunger strike Tuesday to “draw attention to the need for a federal workplace heat standard, including protections for rest and water breaks.” A communications director for Rep. Greg Casar, whose district stretches from Austin to San Antonio,

By Melanie Zanona, Manu Raju and Annie Grayer, CNN (CNN) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy in recent weeks has heard similar advice from both a senior House Republican and an influential conservative lawyer: prioritize the impeachment of President Joe Biden over a member of his Cabinet. Part of the thinking, according to multiple sources familiar with

By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN (CNN) — Public campaign finance disclosures from Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign reveal numerous payments to individuals and groups whose ideologies differ significantly from traditional Democratic Party politics, a review by CNN’s KFile finds. Kennedy’s campaign paid a litany of prominent activists – which includes

By Alayna Treene, Annie Grayer and Donie O’Sullivan, CNN (CNN) — The House Judiciary Committee has announced it will hold a hearing on Thursday to begin contempt proceedings against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for failing to comply with a series of subpoenas to turn over documents related to the panel’s investigation into whether the company

By Terence Burlij and Jack Forrest, CNN (CNN) — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced Tuesday that organizers submitted enough valid signatures to put an amendment on the November ballot to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution. “I hereby certify that petitioners submitted 495,938 total valid signatures on behalf of the proposed statewide

By Haley Talbot and Lauren Fox, CNN (CNN) — House Republicans are bracing for a bruising showdown with the White House and the US Senate this fall as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy once again will have to decide how far he’s willing to go to assuage the demands of the far right members in his

By Betsy Klein, CNN (CNN) — The White House is taking new steps to improve access to online services for Americans with disabilities, working to eliminate disparities with a new rule establishing accessibility standards for state and local governments’ web and mobile app-based services. The new rule, which comes on the 33rd anniversary of the

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN (CNN) — Trevor Reed, the former US Marine who was wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years before being released in a prisoner swap, was injured while fighting in Ukraine, a source familiar with the matter told CNN Tuesday. Reed, who was freed in a prisoner swap in April 2022,

By Lauren Fox, Morgan Rimmer and Nikki Carvajal, CNN (CNN) — The impasse created by GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on military nominations is raising the stakes of the Senate’s final week in session as lawmakers are working frantically behind the scenes to try and find a solution that would get the Alabama senator to

By Marshall Cohen, CNN (CNN) — Hunter Biden’s legal team denied Tuesday night that they lied to court officials to get filings from a senior Republican lawmaker removed from the public docket, blaming the dispute on an “unintentional miscommunication” on the eve of their client’s plea hearing. Their denials came in response to US District

By Natasha Bertrand, CNN (CNN) — US intelligence officials have warned that Russia is building a drone-manufacturing facility in country with Iran’s help that could have a significant impact on the war in Ukraine once it is completed. Analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency told a small group of reporters during a briefing on Friday

By Steve Contorno and Devon M. Sayers, CNN (CNN) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was not injured after being involved in a car accident Tuesday morning in Tennessee, his campaign and police said. The accident involved DeSantis’ four-vehicle motorcade and took place in the Chattanooga area, the city’s police department confirmed. “The motorcade came up

By Jamiel Lynch and Shawna Mizelle, CNN (CNN) — A 44-year-old Arkansas man who beat a police officer with a flagpole during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol was sentenced Monday to four years in prison. Peter Stager pleaded guilty to “assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a deadly or dangerous weapon,”

By Jedd Rosche, CNN (CNN) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested that House Republicans may be approaching the point where they’d pursue an impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden, the California Republican’s most explicit threat of impeaching the president to date. “We’ve only followed where the information has taken us. But Hannity, this is rising to

By Marshall Cohen, Zachary Cohen and Annie Grayer, CNN (CNN) — US attorney David Weiss, who has led the Hunter Biden criminal probe, has offered to testify at a public congressional hearing this fall, according to a letter sent to lawmakers on Monday. House Republicans have demanded that Weiss – a Donald Trump appointee –

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — The Justice Department announced charges Monday against a third person who allegedly participated in a firebombing attack on a California Planned Parenthood last spring. Xavier Batten, 21, of Brooksville, Florida, was arrested Friday and is being held in custody, according to prosecutors. He is charged alongside Chance Brannon, a

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Americans no longer have to fear the Internal Revenue Service showing up unannounced at their door. The IRS is ending a decades-old practice of having unarmed revenue officers visit households and businesses to help them resolve their account balances by collecting unpaid taxes and unfiled tax returns. These visits

By Kevin Liptak and Jennifer Hansler, CNN (CNN) — The Israeli parliament’s vote stripping the Supreme Court of certain powers is “unfortunate,” the White House says, calling for “consensus” amid major protests. “As a lifelong friend of Israel, President Biden has publicly and privately expressed his views that major democratic changes to be enduring must

By Priscilla Alvarez and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — The US Department of Justice is suing the state of Texas over its use of floating barriers in the Rio Grande, which Gov. Greg Abbott has argued is intended to deter migrants from crossing into the state from Mexico. The Justice Department is seeking an injunction

By Jack Forrest, CNN Washington (CNN) — Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado on Sunday challenged Americans to approach political disagreements with respect in their mission to elevate “civic dialogue across the country.” Cox and Polis, the heads of the National Governors Association, told CNN’s Dana Bash in

By Aileen Graef, CNN (CNN) — Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was “playing politics” with the idea of expunging former President Donald Trump’s two impeachments. “Kevin is, you know, playing politics. It is not even clear if he constitutionally can expunge those things. If he wants to put his members

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN (CNN) — Former Vice President Mike Pence said he’s “not yet convinced” that Donald Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, were criminal, as the former president faces a potential indictment over his actions that day. “I really do hope it doesn’t come to that,” Pence told CNN’s Dana Bash in an

By Natasha Bertrand, CNN (CNN) — The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has “no reason to doubt” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russia has moved a first batch of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, senior DIA officials said on Friday. Putin said last month at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that “the first [Russian]

By Dianne Gallagher, CNN (CNN) — Alabama GOP Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday approved a new congressional map with just one majority-Black district, despite a court order calling for the redrawn lines to create two majority-Black districts or “something quite close to it.” The state’s Republican-controlled legislature gave final passage to the remedial map earlier

By Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden is elevating CIA Director Bill Burns to his Cabinet, a symbolic measure that nonetheless represents the major role he has played in national security amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Under his leadership, the CIA is delivering a clear-eyed, long-term approach to our nation’s top national security

By Jason Morris, CNN (CNN) — Former President Donald Trump’s legal team in Georgia is continuing its efforts to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from pursuing her 2020 election interference investigation, as possible indictments in the state loom. In a new, 650-page filing in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Trump’s lawyers stepped

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — Newly declassified court documents revealed Friday that the FBI improperly searched for the name of a US senator in an intelligence database after indications of a foreign threat against the lawmaker, as the intelligence program has come under a barrage of criticism in Congress and from privacy advocates. The

By Haley Britzky and Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden has selected Admiral Lisa Franchetti to be the Navy’s top officer. If confirmed, she would be the first woman in the Navy’s history to hold the job, and the first woman in the joint chiefs of staff. Franchetti, who is currently serving as

By Rebekah Riess and Shania Shelton, CNN (CNN) — The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, a voting rights group, and several Florida citizens this week filed a federal lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials, alleging they created “a bureaucratic system around the implementation of Amendment 4,” preventing Florida citizens with prior felony convictions

By Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — Media organizations, including CNN, asked a magistrate judge Friday to unseal court filings related to seven search warrants the Justice Department sought in the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents. The existence of the seven warrants – which were sought in addition to the warrant

By Jasmine Wright and Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — Vice President Kamala Harris went headfirst into flashpoint culture war issues Friday when she slammed Florida Republicans for the state Board of Education’s newly approved set of standards for teaching Black history, accusing “so-called leaders” of pushing propaganda and willfully misleading children. It’s the latest example

By Katelyn Polantz, Tierney Sneed and Kara Scannell, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge ordered Friday that the trial in the classified documents case that special counsel Jack Smith brought against former President Donald Trump begin in May 2024. US District Judge Aileen Cannon said that the trial could begin as early as May 20.

By Steve Contorno and Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN (CNN) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is urging the state’s pension fund manager to consider legal action against Bud Light’s parent company amid conservative backlash to the beermaker’s recent marketing efforts, the latest attempt by the Republican presidential candidate to inject himself and the state he runs into