CNN – US Politics

CNN By Alexandra Banner, CNN Nearly 8,000 images from around the world were submitted for the Underwater Photographer of the Year 2026 competition. In the end, an Australian photographer claimed the top prize for capturing a tender moment of elephant seal pups nuzzling in a rockpool. Here’s what else you need to know to get

By Arlette Saenz, CNN (CNN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton deployed his daughter to vouch for him Thursday after a scathing attack ad released by Sen. John Cornyn in their increasingly contentious Republican Senate primary race. Paxton’s campaign released a video from his daughter Mattie Hayworth in which she says: “My dad is a

By Morgan Rimmer, Lauren Fox, Ted Barrett, Ellis Kim, CNN (CNN) — Despite President Donald Trump demanding that Majority Leader John Thune find some way to pass a voter ID bill in the Senate, Republicans in the chamber maintain they do not have the support to change Senate rules to bypass the filibuster. The predicament

By Gabe Cohen, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration is releasing more than $5 billion in long-delayed disaster aid to states – but not to several Democratic-led states where President Donald Trump has clashed with governors, according to four sources familiar with the plan. States rely on these funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency

By Betsy Klein, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge on Thursday rejected the nation’s top historic preservation group’s attempt to block to President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project, but also suggested a possible roadmap for the group to revive the challenge. The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the Trump administration in December over

By Kaitlan Collins, Katherine Koretski, CNN (CNN) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani arrived at the White House Thursday with a game plan in mind and props in hand. During his last sit down with President Donald Trump in November, the two leaders ended their meeting by agreeing on at least one thing: “Let’s

By Annie Grayer, MJ Lee, CNN Chappaqua, New York (CNN) — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defiantly faced lawmakers Thursday who sought to question her about her family’s past ties to Jeffrey Epstein, insisting that she had no information about the late convicted sex offender’s criminal activities and blasting Republicans for conducting the interview

By Devan Cole, CNN Nashville, Tennessee (CNN) — A federal prosecutor in Nashville who secured criminal charges last year against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national who was illegally deported by the Trump administration, attempted to convince a federal judge on Thursday to not toss out the case based on a finding that it was

By Edward Wu, CNN (CNN) — Early voting data ahead of next Tuesday’s US Senate primaries in Texas suggest a sharp rise in Democratic turnout, pointing to a continuing trend of strong enthusiasm among the party’s base. Through Tuesday, about 850,000 ballots had been cast in the Democratic primary, according to data from the Associated

By Piper HudspethBlackburn, CNN (CNN) — The husband of a late staffer to Rep. Tony Gonzales called the congressman a “predator” on Wednesday, and said that the Texas Republican has “continued to lie to the American people” amid affair allegations. “You know, the guy’s a predator. You know, he’s continued to lie to the American

By Tierney Sneed, Sean Lyngaas, Marshall Cohen, CNN (CNN) — A Donald Trump appointee at the Department of Homeland Security told state election officials from around the country Wednesday that federal immigration agents won’t be deployed to polling places during the 2026 midterms, according to multiple sources on the call. The comments, made by DHS

By Evan Perez, Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand, CNN (CNN) — FBI Director Kash Patel ordered the ouster of at least 10 employees involved in the investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, four people briefed on the matter told CNN. The ousters are part of a wider internal

By Adam Cancryn, Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration is withholding more than $250 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota, claiming widespread fraud as it escalates a pressure campaign on the state’s Democratic leadership. Vice President JD Vance announced the extraordinary move on Wednesday, blaming Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for failing to adequately

By Associated Press (CNN) — The Trump administration’s latest policy of deporting immigrants to “third countries” to which they have no ties is unlawful and must be set aside, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in a case that already reached the nation’s highest court. US District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts agreed to suspend

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — The morning after President Donald Trump declared a “war on fraud” during his State of the Union address, senior Justice Department prosecutor Colin McDonald told the Senate Judiciary Committee and said he would steadfastly follow the department’s tradition to focus only on the evidence. “I am a career federal

By Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine has been drafting military options for potentially striking Iran, a steady stream of top officials from the Army, Navy and Air Force have been quietly summoned directly to his office. Typically, sensitive military operations are debated

By Manu Raju, CNN (CNN) — The Department of Homeland Security may again suspend TSA PreCheck by prioritizing “standard” security lanes at the airport amid the partial government shutdown, Secretary Kristi Noem told CNN. It comes after the department walked back its decision over the weekend to pause TSA PreCheck, which allows travelers to get

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN (CNN) — A sprawling Chinese influence operation — accidentally revealed by a Chinese law enforcement official’s use of ChatGPT — focused on intimidating Chinese dissidents abroad, including by impersonating US immigration officials, according to a new report from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The Chinese law enforcement official used ChatGPT like a diary to

By Ariel Edwards-Levy, Jennifer Agiesta, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address drew largely positive marks from a heavily Republican audience, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS. But it didn’t fully convince significant shares of even that friendly audience that he’s focusing on the nation’s most important problems or

By Adam Cancryn, CNN (CNN) — For the first hour of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday, Democrats in the House chamber largely stuck to their plan: Sit in stony, defiant silence. But once Trump began to level attacks on immigrants, that strategy went out the window. Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and