National Politics

By Natasha Bertrand, CNN CIA Director Bill Burns met with his Russian intelligence counterpart, Sergey Naryshkin, in Ankara Monday as part of an ongoing effort by the US to “communicate with Russia on managing risk” and to discuss the cases of “unjustly detained US citizens,” a National Security Council spokesperson tells CNN. “We have been

By Daniella Diaz, Ted Barrett and Clare Foran, CNN Lawmakers are set to return on Monday after being away for several weeks campaigning for the crucial midterm elections. They face a jam-packed legislative to-do list before the new congressional session begins in January. With that in mind, Democratic leaders are eager to bring several bills

By Kate Bennett, CNN Former First Lady Michelle Obama said she thinks President Joe Biden is “doing a great job,” but stopped short of a full-throated endorsement for another White House run in a recent interview. “You know, I, I — I will have to see,” Obama said when asked if she hoped Biden would

By Paul LeBlanc, CNN Former President Donald Trump repeatedly told his onetime White House chief of staff, John Kelly, that he wanted the Internal Revenue Service to investigate his political foes, Kelly told The New York Times. Among the people Trump wanted to “get the I.R.S. on” were former FBI Director James Comey and former

By Kevin Liptak, CNN When President Joe Biden first declared that the United States had an obligation to protect Taiwan should China move on it, his words were written off by some as a casual, if unfortunate, mischaracterization of American policy. The fourth time Biden made the same statement, it was evident he wasn’t simply

By Kevin Liptak and MJ Lee, CNN President Joe Biden held a three-hour talk Monday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, their first in-person encounter since Biden took office and an opportunity that both sides appeared to hope would lead to an improvement in rapidly deteriorating relations. Emerging afterward, Biden told reporters he was “open

By Gregory Clary, CNN Former Vice President Mike Pence said former President Donald Trump’s words on social media during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol were “reckless” and criticized Trump for being “part of the problem” that day. Pence was asked on ABC News about Trump’s tweet during the attack that said

By Phil Mattingly, CNN Thirty-seven minutes after wrapping up a late-night gala dinner with Asian leaders — punctuated by plates of wild Mekong lobster and beef saraman — an aide handed President Joe Biden the phone. On the other end of the line was David Trone, the millionaire Maryland wine retailer who was thousands of

By Melanie Zanona and Manu Raju, CNN House and Senate Republicans are gearing up for a tense series of closed-door meetings this week as the GOP grapples with what went wrong in the midterms and decides the political fate of its current leaders, who are under fire following last week’s disappointing election results. With the

By Devan Cole, CNN House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Sunday that Republicans’ “horrible response” to the politically motivated attack on her husband last month might have turned off some voters in last week’s midterm elections. “It wasn’t just the attack. It was the Republican reaction to it, which was disgraceful,” the California Democrat told CNN’s

By Michelle Watson, CNN Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said Sunday that former President Donald Trump has cost the GOP the last three elections and it’s past time to reassess what’s important to the party. “It’s basically the third election in a row that Donald Trump has cost us the race, and it’s like,

By Devan Cole, CNN Two Democrats who won gubernatorial races in the swing states of Michigan and Pennsylvania delivered similar messages to their national party on Sunday, saying their keen focus on kitchen table issues helped them secure their wins. “I can tell you we stayed focused on the fundamentals, right, whether it’s fixing the

By Alaa Elassar, CNN Ruwa Romman remembers the sadness she felt as an 8-year-old girl sitting in the back of a school bus watching classmates point to her house and erupt in vicious laughter. “There’s the bomb lab,” they jeered in yet another attempt to brand her family as terrorists. On Tuesday, the same girl

By Eric Bradner and Maeve Reston, CNN The battle for control of the House is now the biggest unanswered question of this year’s midterm elections after Democrats kept their narrow Senate majority. Victories in Arizona and Nevada, according to CNN projections, mean the party will enter 2023 with at least 50 Senate seats — and

By Maeve Reston, CNN Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto will win reelection in Nevada, CNN projects, clinching a critical victory that will allow Democrats to keep control of the US Senate. Cortez Masto had long been viewed as one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents as she fended off a challenge from former Nevada Attorney