Politics

By Devan Cole, CNN Transgender Americans can now more easily change the sex marker on their US passports, the State Department announced Wednesday, promising to unveil more gender-inclusive changes to passport applications in the future. The department said in a statement it will be updating its procedures to allow applicants to self-select their sex marker

By Daniella Diaz, CNN Former President Donald Trump still wants a wall on the southern border. And he said it’s Democrats’ fault it hasn’t happened yet. On this wet, humid Wednesday on the South Texas border, Trump met with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and more than 20 House Republicans and

By Marshall Cohen, CNN Friends and family members of a US Capitol rioter charged with dragging a police officer into the violent mob told a federal judge that he was actually trying to help the officer despite video of the harrowing incident showing him pulling the officer away from the police line. Kentucky resident Clayton

By Kristen Holmes and Kaitlan Collins, CNN A federal agency announced Wednesday evening that it will launch an investigation into what caused the building collapse in Surfside, Florida. The announcement of the full technical investigation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a small agency within the Commerce Department, follows an initial assessment and

By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN Attorneys are still trying to reach the parents of 368 migrant children who had been separated at the US-Mexico border under the Trump administration, down from 391 last month, according to a federal court filing Wednesday. The filing from the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union is part of

By Kate Sullivan, CNN President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a bill repealing a Trump-era rule that rolled back regulations on methane emissions — a particularly potent greenhouse gas believed to contribute significantly to the climate crisis — from the oil and gas industries. The President described the bill as an “important first step” to

By Zachary Cohen and Geneva Sands, CNN Department of Homeland Security officials are warning that the same sort of rhetoric and false narratives that fueled the January 6 attack on the US Capitol could lead to more violence this summer by right-wing extremists. A growing belief among some Donald Trump supporters that the former President

By Tami Luhby, CNN While states feared the coronavirus pandemic would wreak havoc on their budgets and force them to slash services, it turns out that many are doing far better than they predicted. So instead of cutting spending in the wake of the pandemic, many states are cutting taxes. Nine states have passed legislation

By Katie Lobosco, CNN The Internal Revenue Service still had more than 35 million tax returns to process at the end of this year’s filing season, a backlog four times bigger than at the end of the 2019 filing season. About 23 million of those returns were filed by individuals who may be waiting on

By Kristin Wilson and Clare Foran, CNN Only two House Republicans — Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — voted Wednesday to create a select committee to investigate the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Both GOP lawmakers, who are frequent critics of former President Donald Trump, were among the

By Jamie Gangel and Alex Rogers, CNN Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney sharply criticized Republican leaders ahead of a vote Wednesday to create a select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, which she said she supported. It was the latest attempt by the high-profile Republican to hold former President Donald Trump

By Jake Tapper, Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has died at the age of 88, according to a statement from his family. No cause of death was immediately provided. “It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman and

By Clare Foran, CNN House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated on Wednesday that she stands by her assertion that the House won’t take up a bipartisan infrastructure deal until the Senate passes a more sweeping package through budget reconciliation, a position that has drawn criticism from Republicans and caused some anxiety among moderate House Democrats. “The

By Dianne Gallagher and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday vetoed a Republican-backed election overhaul bill that would tighten election deadlines and expand voter identification requirements, among other changes, in the latest battle between Democrats and Republicans over voting rights. “I made it clear I wouldn’t sign a bill that creates barriers

By Daniel Dale, CNN On Tuesday, President Joe Biden repeated a vivid story he has been telling since at least his 2020 presidential campaign. Biden’s story serves to illustrate both his connection with average workers and his fondness for Amtrak, the rail service he famously used for years to commute between Washington and his home

By Gregory Krieg and Ethan Cohen, CNN A day after the New York City Board of Elections botched a dry run of its new ranked-choice vote-counting process, the beleaguered office released an updated results that found Brooklyn Borough Eric Adams narrowly in the lead. Former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia and civil rights attorney Maya Wiley

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN A member of the Oath Keepers has cut a plea deal with prosecutors and is testifying secretly against others in the right-wing group, according to a criminal case unsealed Wednesday in Washington, DC. The newly public case is the latest known move by the Justice Department to prosecute the extremist group