National Politics

By Kevin Liptak, CNN It was 2014 and Diamond Joe was having a moment. The muscle-car-revving, hair-metal-blasting party animal, conceived as satire by The Onion as Joe Biden’s alter-ego, had suddenly become the toast of Washington — never mind the actual Joe Biden doesn’t drink and has remained happily married for four decades. Still, the

By Annie Grayer and Alex Rogers, CNN Democratic Rep. Kai Kahele of Hawaii is retiring from Congress at the end of his term, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. The congressman has been telling colleagues that he intends to run for governor, according to a person close to him. That source said Kahele

By Paul LeBlanc, CNN Attorneys general from 16 states and the District of Columbia and a coalition of environmental groups are suing the US Postal Service in an effort to stop the purchase of thousands of gasoline-powered trucks. The lawsuits allege that the USPS erred in its decision to replace its current fleet with 90%

By Zachary Cohen, Oren Liebermann, Jim Sciutto and Katie Bo Lillis, CNN Russian forces have made some progress in Moscow’s renewed assault on eastern Ukraine, according to US and NATO officials, as their military tries to fix the myriad problems that plagued the early weeks of the invasion. The US has seen “some evidence” of

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN In the sixth Capitol riot trial, a January 6 defendant’s hope for an acquittal seemingly rests on the jury believing he tackled a DC police officer in self-defense. Thomas Webster, a 56-year-old Marine Corps veteran and retired police officer from the New York Police Department who faces six charges for his

By Katie Lobosco, CNN President Joe Biden has a student loan debt forgiveness problem. Lawmakers within his party continue to put the issue front and center, urging the President to cancel $50,000 for each of the 43 million federal student loan borrowers — something he has shot down repeatedly, including on Thursday. Biden has already

By Lauren Fox, CNN In the four months since West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin torpedoed the President’s signature Build Back Better plan, Democrats have struggled to rally around a cohesive midterm message. Many members facing tough reelections have sought to forge their own paths, run against Washington and at times even distance themselves from

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN The Russian war on Ukraine has “driven US-Russia relations into the depths,” US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan told CNN on Thursday. Although the top envoy did not say that the relationship between Washington and Moscow was at its absolute lowest point, Sullivan noted that it was “about as bad as

By Annie Grayer, Daniella Diaz and Ryan Nobles, CNN Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol Hill insurrection, told reporters Thursday that the committee will hold eight hearings spread out through the month of June. Thompson said the hearings will be a “mixture of some prime time

By Priscilla Alvarez and Christian Sierra, CNN A US-Mexico border state Democrat joined a chorus of Republican lawmakers in knocking the Biden administration’s plan to mitigate a potential surge of migrants at the southern border when a Trump-era pandemic restriction lifts. “Putting more pressure on a system that can’t handle it carries a significant risk

By Lauren Fox, Manu Raju and Daniella Diaz, CNN Republicans and Democrats warn there are many issues that need to be sorted out over President Joe Biden’s Ukraine supplemental funding request that officially came Thursday — including drafting the legislative language — and the whole process could take weeks until there are final votes in