National Politics

By Daniel Dale, CNN Washington (CNN) — The Conservative Political Action Conference has been the venue for some of former President Donald Trump’s most dishonest speeches – lengthy, lie-filled addresses in which he has regaled friendly crowds with many of his favorite false claims. He stuck to tradition in his CPAC speech on Saturday, repeating

By Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN (CNN) — Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s pitch to her home state’s primary voters – including arguments about her relative fitness for the presidency and her electability in November – largely failed to win over the conservative, MAGA-friendly electorate, according to the results of CNN’s exit poll for South Carolina’s Republican presidential

By Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — The United States and the United Kingdom carried out strikes against an array of Houthi targets in Yemen, according to two US officials, marking the fourth time the international coalition has launched a combined attack on the Iran-backed rebel group. The strikes hit 18 targets across

By Kristen Holmes and Daniel Strauss, CNN (CNN) — As former President Donald Trump seeks to reshape the structure of the Republican National Committee, there are two resolutions circulating within the RNC that would potentially, if passed by members, slow the process down, according to a draft of the resolutions obtained by CNN. The first resolution would

CNN By Kate Sullivan, CNN Columbia, South Carolina (CNN) — Former President Donald Trump suggested Friday that his criminal indictments and mug shot appeal to Black voters and claimed that “what’s happening to (him) happens to them.” “I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing. They were doing it because it’s election interference and then

CNN By Steve Contorno, Aaron Pellish and Alison Main, CNN National Harbor, Maryland (CNN) — After taking the Conservative Political Action Conference stage Friday to a crisply edited hype video, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik invoked Donald Trump about two dozen times as she heaped praise on the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. The

By Steve Contorno, Aaron Pellish and Alison Main, CNN National Harbor, Maryland (CNN) — After taking the Conservative Political Action Conference stage Friday to a crisply edited hype video, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik invoked Donald Trump about two dozen times as she heaped praise on the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. The day

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — When special counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to reject former President Donald Trump’s immunity claims there was an unmistakable hue of urgency to the request. At the time, Smith cautioned the court against further “delay” more than a dozen times in his brief. Now, two weeks after

By Gregory Krieg, CNN (CNN) — Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign has for weeks been looking ahead to the Republican primary in South Carolina, her home state where she was twice elected governor. After losing to former President Donald Trump in Iowa and New Hampshire, then Nevada and the US Virgin Islands, Haley’s candidacy for the

By Kate Sullivan, CNN Columbia, South Carolina (CNN) — Former President Donald Trump suggested Friday that his criminal indictments and mug shot appeal to Black voters and claimed that “what’s happening to (him) happens to them.” “I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing. They were doing it because it’s election interference and then I

CNN By Daniel Strauss and Brian Rokus, CNN (CNN) — Former President Donald Trump said Friday that he supports women having access to in vitro fertilization in response to the Alabama Supreme Court’s IVF ruling and called on Alabama lawmakers to “act quickly to find an immediate solution” to keep the procedure available in the

By Eric Bradner, Aaron Pellish and Kit Maher, CNN (CNN) — At an influential gathering of conservatives this weekend, the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol is being treated as a rallying cry — with speakers, vendors and attendees fanning the flames of conspiracy over the events of that day. The annual Conservative

By Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — A balloon the US was tracking across the country has now left US airspace and was likely a “hobby balloon,” NORAD said in a statement Saturday. NORAD had initially intercepted the balloon with fighter jets but ultimately continued to track it through ground-based radar systems. “After

By Casey Tolan, Majlie de Puy Kamp and Kyung Lah, CNN (CNN) — A New Orleans street magician who has no fixed address, has never voted and claims to hold a world record in fork bending might seem like an unlikely candidate to be involved in a high-tech political scandal. But on Friday, Paul Carpenter

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN (CNN) — A Wisconsin ethics panel is recommending that local prosecutors pursue criminal charges against one of Donald Trump’s fundraising arms and several other Republican committees that it alleges violated state campaign finance law in an effort to topple a powerful lawmaker who had run afoul of the former president. The Wisconsin Ethics Commission

By Haley Britzky, Sharif Paget and Raja Razek, CNN (CNN) — Two Mississippi National Guardsmen were killed Friday in a military helicopter crash that is under investigation, the Mississippi National Guard said in a news release. The National Guard AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed during a “routine training flight” around 2 p.m. near Booneville, Mississippi, according

By Haley Britzky, Oren Liebermann and Natasha Bertrand, CNN (CNN) — A cargo ship that was struck by a Houthi ballistic missile on Monday has created an 18-mile long oil slick in the Red Sea as it continues to take on water, two US officials said Friday. The M/V Rubymar — a Belize-flagged, UK-registered, Lebanese-owned vessel — was carrying

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom joked Friday that Nikki Haley — the onetime South Carolina governor and the last remaining major rival to Donald Trump in the GOP presidential primary — is a strong surrogate for Democrats. “I think she’s one of our better surrogates,” the Democratic governor said of

By Kara Scannell and Lauren del Valle, CNN (CNN) — A New York judge on Friday formally ordered Donald Trump to pay $454 million, including interest, a move that will give the former president one month to post nearly half a billion dollars to appeal the fraud verdict. Judge Arthur Engoron’s signed judgment was posted to

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge in California said Friday that he believes defense attorneys for Alexander Smirnov may be trying to “facilitate his absconding from the United States.” Smirnov, the former FBI informant indicted for lying about President Joe Biden’s family and their alleged dealings in Ukraine, was released from custody by