Democrats are threatening to block funding for the Homeland Security Department when it expires in two weeks unless there are "dramatic changes" and "real accountability" for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement agencies who are carrying out President Donald Trump's campaign of federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota and across the country.
It's unclear if the president or enough congressional Republicans will agree to any of the Democrats' larger demands that the officers unmask and identify themselves, obtain judicial warrants in certain cases and work with local authorities, among other asks. Republicans have already pushed back.
House GOP lawmakers are demanding that some of their own priorities be added to the Homeland Security spending bill, including legislation that would require proof of citizenship before Americans register to vote and restrictions on sanctuary cities. There’s no clear definition of sanctuary jurisdictions, but the term is generally applied to state and local governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
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Sen. Tillis says he ‘didn’t see criminal intent’ from Powell
Sen. Thom Tillis submitted a list of members of the Senate Banking Committee who indicated they didn’t see criminal intent on the part of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who’s been subpoenaed by the Justice Department for his testimony last June related to cost overruns of a central bank building renovation.
“I was actually a witness at the alleged scene of the crime” Tillis said, and “we didn’t see a crime.”
On Wednesday Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican who leads the Senate Banking Committee, broke ranks with the Trump administration and said “ineptness or being incompetent is not a criminal act” to Fox Business.
Tillis has said he won’t vote for Trump’s nominee to head the Fed, Kevin Warsh, until the investigation of Powell is resolved.
Hillary Clinton calls for public hearing in House Epstein investigation
The former secretary of state and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee in its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, but she’s now publicly calling for the testimony to be in a public hearing rather than a closed-door deposition.
Hillary Clinton told the committee chair, Republican Rep. James Comer, on social media that, “You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on.”
Comer has said he’ll insist on having the depositions, scheduled at the end of the month, in private, but video taped and transcribed.
The exchange was the latest bit of acrimony between the two sides since the Oversight panel subpoenaed both Clintons in August.
Vice President JD Vance has arrived to see US women’s hockey team play against the Czech Republic
Vance entered with his family part-way through the first period of the U.S. team’s preliminary round game at the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena.
He was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Sen. Cotton dismisses Gabbard complaint and calls it politically motivated
The Republican leaders of the Senate and House intelligence committees have rejected a complaint that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard withheld classified information for political reasons.
Sen. Tom Cotton gave his assessment in a social media post Thursday morning, saying he agrees with the inspector general’s office, which also found the report to be non-credible.
Democrats say Gabbard’s office delayed handing over the complaint to Congress as required by federal law for eight months. Federal law allows intelligence officers to refer whistleblower complaints directly to Congress even when deemed non-credible, as long as the complaint raises urgent concerns.
Cotton says he believes the complaint was prompted by political opposition to Gabbard and the Trump administration. Rep. Rick Crawford, the House Intelligence chairman, has also rejected the complaint, saying he believes it was an attempt to smear Gabbard’s reputation.
The White House says Trump spoke with Savannah Guthrie on Wednesday
President Trump also posted on social media that he was directing federal authorities to help where they can as law enforcement searches for the “Today” show host’s mother, who’s believed to have been taken from her Arizona home against her will.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen Saturday night, when she was dropped off at her home by family after having dinner with them, the local sheriff's department said. She was reported missing about 14 hours later on Sunday after she didn't show up at a church.
Bessent says ‘its up to the president’ on whether he chooses to sue Fed nominee
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, sparred on Capitol Hill during Bessent’s second day of hearings with lawmakers to talk about the annual report by the Financial Stability Oversight Council.
Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, asked Bessent about Trump’s recent joke that he would sue Kevin Warsh, the president’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, if he failed to lower interest rates. She asked Bessent to commit that Trump’s Fed nominee won’t be sued or investigated by the Department of Justice if he doesn’t cut interest rates.
“That is up to the president” Bessent responded. The two began to argue over each other as Bessent said the president was joking.
“That was supposed to be the softball!” Warren replied.
Taiwan-US ties are ‘rock solid,’ the island’s president says after Trump-Xi call
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te's comments came hours after President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke on the phone about topics that included the self-ruled island's future.
“The Taiwan-U.S. relationship is rock solid, and all cooperation projects will continue uninterrupted,” Lai told reporters during a visit to textile merchants in western Taiwan.
Xi, in his first call with Trump since November, warned the U.S. president to be “prudent” about supplying arms to the self-ruled island, according to a readout of their call provided by China’s Foreign Ministry.
Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. Beijing prohibits all countries it has diplomatic relations with — including the U.S. — from having formal ties with Taipei.
Trump says he doesn’t sleep during long plane flights — but not for the reasons you’d think
Recalling a past trip to Iraq during his first term, Trump mused that he doesn’t like to sleep during long flights.
“I don’t sleep on planes. I don’t like sleeping on planes,” he told the audience at the National Prayer Breakfast.
“You know,” the president added “I like looking out the window watching for missiles and enemies, actually.”
Trump also frequently spends long flights overseas talking to advisers, posting things on his social media site and frequently heading to the press cabin to answer reporters’ questions.
Trump calls GOP lawmaker a ‘moron’ at the National Prayer Breakfast
He was talking about Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who sometimes votes against the party.
Early in his remarks Thursday, Trump turned to the topic of legislation and said Republicans will typically rally together after some finagling — all of them, he said, except for Massie.
“No matter what we do, this moron, no matter what it is,” Trump griped.
“We’ll get a 100% vote except for this guy named Thomas Massie. There’s something wrong with him.”
Massie, a libertarian-leaning representative, has drawn the president’s ire for saying he lacked the authority to attack Iran’s nuclear sites without congressional approval, voting against Trump’s massive tax and spending cuts bill and fighting for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Trump now says he ‘probably should make it’ to heaven
Addressing the National Prayer Breakfast, the president said his past suggestions that he might night make it to heaven were actually in jest.
He blamed the media for writing his exact past words about the afterlife, suggesting his sense of irony didn’t come through in the reporting.
It’s a tactic Trump often uses when comments cause a stir he wasn’t expecting, trying to soften them without hinting that he might have misspoken.
“I was just having fun,” Trump said of his past comments.
He added of heaven: “I really think I probably should make it. I mean, I’m not a perfect candidate, but I did a hell of a lot of good for perfect people.”
A half-century of US-Russian arms control ends with the expiration of the New START nuclear pact
The Kremlin said Thursday it regretted the expiration of the last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States that left no caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century.
Arms control experts say the termination of the New START Treaty could set the stage for an unconstrained nuclear arms race.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last year declared his readiness to stick to the treaty's limits for another year if Washington followed suit, but President Trump has been noncommittal about extending it. He's indicated he wants China to be a part of a new pact — something Beijing has rebuffed.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Trump has made clear “in order to have true arms control in the 21st century, it’s impossible to do something that doesn’t include China because of their vast and rapidly growing stockpile.”
Vance, in Milan, says the Olympics are ‘one of the few things’ that unite Americans
Vice President JD Vance arrived in Milan with his family Thursday, telling U.S. athletes competing in the Milan Cortina Winter Games that the competition "is one of the few things that unites the entire country."
It's the first stop for Vance on a trip combining diplomacy and sports. He's leading President Donald Trump's delegation to the 2026 Winter Olympics and later stopping in Armenia and Azerbaijan in a show of support for a peace agreement brokered by the White House last year.
Vance, who plans to watch the U.S. women's hockey team take on the Czech Republic in a preliminary game Thursday, told athletes the trip is a highlight of his time in office. "The whole country — Democrat, Republican, independent — we're all rooting for you and we're cheering for you," Vance said.
The weeklong trip may be one of only a few international trips Vance makes this year. Trump and his Cabinet members are taking a tighter focus on domestic issues — and domestic travel — heading into the November midterm elections, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said last month.
US and Russia agree to reestablish military-to-military dialogue after Ukraine talks
The U.S. and Russia have agreed to reestablish high-level military-to-military dialogue following a meeting between senior Russian and American military officials in Abu Dhabi, the United States European Command said in a statement.
The agreement was reached following meetings in Abu Dhabi between Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Commander of U.S. European Command -- also NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe -- and senior Russian and Ukrainian military officials, the statement said.
Grynkewich was in the capital of the United Arab Emirates for talks between American, Russian and Ukrainian officials on ending the war in Ukraine. The channel “will provide a consistent military-to-military contact as the parties continue to work towards a lasting peace,” the statement said
High-level military communication was suspended in 2021, just before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.