CNN – US Politics

By Dan Merica, CNN If there was a silver lining for Democrats’ disastrous Tuesday night, it was learning a year ahead of time just how imperiled their hold on power really is. Democrats suffered a demoralizing defeat in Virginia, losing all three top statewide offices in a commonwealth that President Joe Biden won by 10

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN Photographs by Elijah Nouvelage for CNN When Patricia Dossie left her senior housing apartment west of downtown Atlanta to vote on Tuesday, she was certain of her destination: a recreation center about 6 miles away. “I’ve been voting there for years,” the 73-year-old said. But she and two of her neighbors

By Ellie Kaufman and Oren Liebermann, CNN A US Air Force investigation into a US drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians at the end of August found that though “execution errors” were made, the law was not broken. “The investigation found no violation of law including the law of war. We did find

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN Richard Barron, who oversees elections in Georgia’s biggest Democratic county, is announcing his resignation Wednesday — following a tumultuous year that has included death threats against him and his staff and the potential takeover of election operations in the county by state officials. His announcement comes one day after municipal elections

By Rachel Janfaza, Lauren Dezenski and Chandelis Duster, CNN A number of trailblazing candidates made history this week, as CNN projected that people of color across the country were elected to top positions at both the state and city level. Here’s a look at some of the historic firsts from Election Night 2021. Winsome Sears,

By Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN A federal judge has ordered a January 6 defendant to be released from the DC jail after an unannounced inspection by US Marshals last month showed mistreatment of detainees and increased the judge’s concern that a defendant with cancer would not be treated properly. Judge Royce Lamberth said

By Clare Foran, CNN Senate Republicans blocked the John Lewis Voting Rights Act from advancing on Wednesday when the Senate took a procedural vote on whether to open debate on the legislation. The final tally was 50 to 49 with GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voting with Democrats in favor. The John Lewis voting

By Barbara Starr, Oren Liebermann, Ellie Kaufman, and Adam Pourahmadi, CNN The US strongly rejected Iran’s accusation that the US Navy had tried to confiscate Iranian crude oil aboard a tanker in the Gulf of Oman, with Pentagon spokesman John Kirby calling the claims “absolutely, totally false and untrue.” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed it had

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN US officials issued a sweeping directive on Wednesday requiring federal civilian agencies to promptly update hardware and software that is vulnerable to hacking following multiple breaches of government networks in recent years. The directive gives agencies just two weeks to remediate newly discovered software vulnerabilities, and requires agencies to have a

By Oren Liebermann, CNN China is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal and may have 1,000 nuclear warheads by the end of the decade as it aims to surpass US global influence by the middle of the 21st century, according to a major Pentagon report released on Wednesday. The estimate, based on the rapid modernization of

By Katie Bo Lillis and Sean Lyngaas, CNN US Cyber Command head and director of the National Security Agency Gen. Paul Nakasone said Wednesday that the US had “conducted a surge” over the past three months to address the problem of ransomware attacks on US interests. Nakasone said the US government had taken aim at

By Annie Grayer, CNN House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a major shift, announced Wednesday that four weeks of paid family and medical leave will be added back into the social spending bill, after Democrats had previously scrapped the provision from the package. The California Democrat is pushing for a vote on both the $1.75 trillion