Politics

By Clare Foran, CNN Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave a combative speech Tuesday evening in response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, drawing a sharp contrast with Biden as she delivered a series of blistering criticisms of the president. Sanders called Biden “unfit to serve as commander in chief,” said his

By Oren Liebermann, CNN China refused a conversation with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin following the downing of the suspected Chinese balloon, the Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday. The Defense Department submitted a request for a call between Austin and China’s Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe immediately after the US fighter jets shot

By Haley Britzky, CNN The US Navy released photos Tuesday of its recovery effort of a suspected Chinese spy balloon, which US fighter jets shot down over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday. The photos from Sunday show sailors from a Navy explosive disposal team pulling debris from the deflated balloon onto a boat. The debris

By Haley Britzky, CNN A senior American military officer notified lawmakers in January that China has more land-based fixed and mobile intercontinental ballistic missile launchers than the US, according to a letter sent to Congress. The letter from Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of US Strategic Command which oversees the US nuclear arsenal says that as

By Phil Mattingly, Kevin Liptak and Shawna Mizelle, CNN Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is expected to depart the Biden administration soon, according to two people familiar with the matter, marking the first Cabinet secretary departure of President Joe Biden’s presidency. Walsh has been offered a job heading the NHL’s Players’ Association, the people said. His

By Ella Nilsen, CNN As the Colorado River sinks further into crisis and tensions rise between Western states over how to divvy up painful water cuts, a bipartisan group of senators are formalizing a new caucus to examine how Washington could help. What began as an informal group convened by Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of

By Annie Grayer and Melanie Zanona, CNN After House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced his Democratic appointments to a select committee on the threat posed by China, the top Republican chairing the panel, GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, gave Jeffries some surprising feedback: his stamp of approval. Gallagher felt like the roster was made

By Jeremy Diamond and Priscilla Alvarez, CNN The White House tried to flip the script on border security politics, accusing House Republicans of “staging political stunts” and undermining border security ahead of a House Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday that probed the Biden administration’s handling of the US southern border. In a memo obtained by CNN,

By Sonnet Swire, CNN President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver his second State of the Union address Tuesday night at the US Capitol. His remarks will provide an opportunity to speak to a politically polarized Capitol Hill and nation as his administration faces an uncertain economic picture, renewed calls for police reform, a war

By Fredreka Schouten, Kara Scannell and Gregory Krieg, CNN In the fall of 2020, then-New York Rep. Lee Zeldin’s campaign submitted a report to federal regulators with a series of unusual expenses: 21 payments on a single day of exactly $199.99 each. The outlays — each just one penny below the dollar figure above which

By Betsy Klein and Arlette Saenz, CNN Paul Pelosi, Tyre Nichols’ parents, U2 star Bono, Monterey Park shooting hero Brandon Tsay, Ukraine’s ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova and a Holocaust survivor are among those headed to the US Capitol Tuesday evening where President Joe Biden is set to deliver his State of the Union