Politics

By Kristen Holmes, CNN Ken Cuccinelli, a former senior official in the Trump administration, officially launched a super PAC on Thursday urging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president in 2024. The organization, NEVER BACK DOWN PAC, filed paperwork in late February with the Federal Election Commission and is the fourth political committee created

By Casey Gannon, Sara Murray and Katelyn Polantz, CNN Attorneys for former President Donald Trump and special counsel Jack Smith argued in Washington on Thursday over whether a Trump defense attorney must answer more questions from a grand jury. The hearing, before Chief Judge Beryl Howell, ended after roughly three hours without a ruling, according

By Tami Luhby, CNN The Biden administration wants to make sure states are doing all they can to minimize the number of Medicaid enrollees who wind up uninsured once states regain the ability to drop ineligible recipients next month. The Department of Health and Human Services this week sent governors a letter warning them to

By Tierney Sneed and Devan Cole, CNN With a new annual budget request posted Thursday, the Supreme Court told Congress that it needs nearly $6 million in new security funding to expand the protection justices receive following threats to the court last summer. “Ongoing threat assessments show evolving risks that require continuous protection,” the court

By Sam Fossum The US and its allies have blocked or seized more than $58 billion worth of assets owned or controlled by sanctioned Russians in the past year as Western governments continue to dial up the pressure over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a joint statement from a multinational sanctions enforcement task

By Phil Mattingly, Chief White House correspondent The budget blueprint President Joe Biden revealed on Thursday is designed lay out a clear, if aspirational, policy vision for the year ahead. To be clear, Biden’s budget proposal as written is dead on arrival in Capitol Hill. But as a proposal it lays down a strategic marker

By Clare Foran and Chris Isidore, CNN A powerful Senate panel will hold a hearing Thursday on the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle call for answers and action in the wake of the disaster. The hearing is taking place after the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train

By Kate Sullivan and Jeff Zeleny, CNN Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is calling for changing the retirement age for Americans currently in their 20s and limiting Social Security and Medicare benefits for wealthier Americans, staking out a position on the politically controversial issue of entitlement reform that’s already been the subject of attacks from

By Morgan Rimmer and Clare Foran, CNN Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is being treated for a concussion and is staying at a hospital for observation after a fall at a hotel in Washington, DC, on Wednesday evening. “Leader McConnell tripped at a dinner event Wednesday evening and has been admitted to the hospital and

By Shania Shelton The Michigan state Senate on Wednesday voted to repeal the state’s 1931 abortion ban as well as its sentencing guidelines. The bills were passed 20-18, along party lines in the Democratic-controlled Senate after passing the House last week and were sent to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her signature. Democrats control the

By Oren Liebermann, CNN The US transferred an alleged al Qaeda bomb maker from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia, the Defense Department announced Wednesday, part of the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to close the prison facility. Ghassan Al Sharbi, a 48-year-old Saudi native who has been held in detention at Guantanamo Bay for 20 years,