Politics

By Manu Raju, Alison Main, CNN (CNN) — Sherrod Brown stood in front of dozens of supporters at a suburban watering hole, talking glowingly about his final day in the US Senate in 2024. Then he caught himself. “Well, I thought it was my last night,” said Brown, eliciting applause in the room. “There are

By Steve Contorno, Kristen Holmes, CNN (CNN) — James Blair has six months to defend Republican power in Congress — but first he needed to send a message to his party. Blair, the White House deputy chief of staff, spent weeks plotting to crush a group of Republican lawmakers in Indiana who defied the president’s

By Aleena Fayaz, CNN (CNN) — An all-day prayer event on the National Mall on Sunday — backed by the White House through a mix of taxpayer funds and private donations — marked the latest flashpoint in the Trump administration blurring separation of church and state. The event, dubbed “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of

By Patrick Svitek, CNN (CNN) — Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy wanted his reelection campaign to be about the “present and the future.” President Donald Trump had other plans. Five years after Cassidy voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment, the senator lost his primary for reelection to a Trump-endorsed challenger – and a

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN (CNN) — Amid ongoing foreign policy crises around the globe and as the Trump administration struggles to reach a deal to end the war with Iran, the State Department last week finalized the firings of nearly 250 foreign service officers in a brief, impersonal email. “Your reduction in force separation will

By Eric Bradner, CNN (CNN) — Spencer Pratt might be a candidate uniquely suited for the moment: An elder millennial with everywhere-all-the-time social media instincts, bluntly spelling out Los Angeles’ challenges with homelessness, crime and mismanagement and laying blame at the feet of its entrenched Democratic establishment. The 42-year-old former reality television star’s willingness to

By Patrick Svitek, CNN (CNN) — Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, has lost his bid for a third term in a remarkable defeat, after two primary challengers — including one backed by President Donald Trump — finished ahead of him in Saturday’s primary and headed to a runoff for his seat. Rep. Julia Letlow,

By René Marsh, Audrey Ash, CNN (CNN) — A long-abandoned proposal at the Department of Homeland Security – one so ambitious the agency had never gone through with it before – was revived under the leadership of then-Secretary Kristi Noem. Officials spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to buy the department its own fleet

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN (CNN) — The USS Gerald R. Ford, America’s largest and newest aircraft carrier, returned to port in Virginia on Saturday after nearly a year at sea that included participating in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Iran war, a shipboard fire and repeated plumbing issues. It goes down

By Alayna Treene, Adam Cancryn, CNN (CNN) — As Donald Trump grew increasingly frustrated with diplomatic efforts to end the war with Iran, administration officials were closely watching whether the president’s trip to China — a nation with close ties to Tehran — would yield a significant breakthrough. But Trump landed stateside Friday with seemingly

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Friday tossed out an emergency request from Virginia officials to reinstate a congressional map that would have benefited Democrats in this year’s midterm election, a widely expected decision that represented the court’s latest foray into a nationwide redistricting war. The decision thwarts Democratic plans to

By Edward-Isaac Dovere, Marshall Cohen, CNN (CNN) — Tina Peters, the Republican former election clerk imprisoned for crimes related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, will receive clemency from Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and soon be released from custody, Polis exclusively told CNN. The decision followed a statement in Peters’ clemency application, obtained

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — It was two years ago when a pregnant teenager first reached out to a Tennessee couple on Instagram who had desperately been trying to adopt a baby for nearly a decade. Their relationship would eventually devolve from designing a nursery over the phone to threats of murder and a

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez, CNN (CNN) — The US Justice Department is working to secure criminal charges against former Cuban president Raúl Castro, according to sources familiar with the matter. The scope of the investigation is unclear. But federal prosecutors have examined a number of possible charges, including some related to the Cuban military’s

By Lauren Fox, Ellis Kim, CNN (CNN) — When Rep. Emilia Sykes met with Democratic leaders about the pervasiveness of sexual harassment on Capitol Hill, she made one thing very clear to Hakeem Jeffries: this could not just be a women’s issue. “This could all be eliminated and we wouldn’t even be here if these