CNN – US Politics

By Lauren Fox, Patrick Svitek, CNN Wharton, Ohio (CNN) — Amy Acton was talking school budgets, local hospitals and generational farming at a farm event in northwest Ohio when she called on an attendee and asked her if there was anything she wanted to share.Karen Lortz didn’t want to talk about those issues.“My heart goes

By Mary Kay Mallonee, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration told a judge Wednesday evening that construction on the president’s controversial 250-foot triumphal arch could begin in just two weeks, days after the midterm elections.The Justice Department said in Wednesday’s court filing that the National Capital Planning Commission is set to meet on November 5

By Holmes Lybrand, Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to stop certain investigative actions in its hunt for noncitizen voters, writing that the department’s efforts rely on faulty data that includes US citizens legally allowed to vote.Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín wrote in the order that DHS’s data

By Stephen Collinson, Gloria Pazmino, Aaron Blake, CNN (CNN) — Michigan and Kansas held some of the final major Senate debates of the 2026 midterm elections on Wednesday night. And they were a study in contrasts.The Michigan Senate debate between Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers was bitterly personal and ferociously contested —

By Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, CNN (CNN) — The US State Department ordered the departure of non-essential staff and family members at its embassy in Riyadh, a move that comes amid intensifying strikes on Saudi Arabia by the Iran allied Houthi rebels in Yemen.“The U.S. Department of State issued an ordered departure for non-emergency U.S.

CNN By Patrick Svitek, Lauren Fox, CNN Wharton, Ohio (CNN) — Some leading Ohio Republicans began distancing themselves from a controversial new ad from their gubernatorial nominee, Vivek Ramaswamy, even as the president and vice president defended it. Vice President JD Vance warned Republicans on Wednesday not to break ranks over the commercial, telling them

By Jason Morris, Gabe Cohen, Nicky Robertson, CNN Whitfield County, Georgia (CNN) — On his nationwide campaign swing for Republicans, President Donald Trump traveled to Dalton, the self-proclaimed “Carpet Capital of the World,” last week and revived a familiar falsehood: that Georgia’s past elections were rigged.In the rural manufacturing hub, democracy was humming. More than

By Kaanita Iyer, MJ Lee, CNN (CNN) — New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Wednesday filed a civil lawsuit against two of Jeffrey Epstein’s closest advisers, accusing them of having “facilitated and concealed” Epstein’s crimes.The advisers, Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, have faced scrutiny over their ties to the late sex offender since the

By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN (CNN) — The State Department is publicly warning Americans about violent crime in parts of Latin America, but privately, it has given asylum officers new assessments arguing that conditions in some of those same countries are no more dangerous than in some US cities, according to internal documents reviewed by CNN.The

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump from suspending hormone therapy and other treatments for transgender Americans in federal prisons, a rare win for transgender rights at the conservative high court.The court handed down a one-sentence order that did not explain the decision.“This is a critical ruling

By Daniel Dale, CNN (CNN) — No law required Sen. Roger Marshall to file lawsuits against patients who had unpaid medical bills.Marshall, a Republican obstetrician-gynecologist who is in a competitive race for re-election in Kansas, has faced criticism over a New York Times report that he launched hundreds of lawsuits against patients who had outstanding

By Zachary Cohen, Priscilla Alvarez, CNN (CNN) — The Pentagon has given the Department of Homeland Security permission to test a military-grade heat ray and develop tactics to potentially use it in operations at the southern US border, according to a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month and obtained by CNN.The heat

By Jennifer Agiesta, Ariel Edwards-Levy, Edward Wu, CNN (CNN) — The Democratic Party, riding a tide of anti-Donald Trump sentiment, enters the final stretch of the midterm campaign with a 10-point advantage over Republicans nationwide in voters’ choice in their own congressional district, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.More than three-quarters of

By Joan Biskupic, CNN Chief Supreme Court Analyst (CNN) — Two weeks before the midterm elections, liberal Justice Elena Kagan bluntly sized up the Supreme Court handling of election and voting-related cases, saying, “The court has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effects of their rulings on how the political system works.”The court “has

By Adam Cancryn, Kristen Holmes, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump still has two weeks to salvage his Republican congressional majorities and defy expectations of a midterm wipeout. But all around him, aides and allies are bracing for what happens if he fails.Administration officials have grown increasingly convinced that steep GOP losses will trigger major

By Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — As Kansans were waiting for President Donald Trump to arrive at his rally in Wichita this week, they were treated to a new addition to the pre-show program: footage of this weekend’s violent protests in France, most of it clipped from Fox News, aired on large screens.That the unrest

By Patrick Svitek, Lauren Fox, CNN Wharton, Ohio (CNN) — Some leading Ohio Republicans began distancing themselves from a controversial new ad from their gubernatorial nominee, Vivek Ramaswamy, even as the president and vice president defended it.Vice President JD Vance warned Republicans on Wednesday not to break ranks over the commercial, telling them to “stop

By Jeff Zeleny, Eric Bradner, CNN Detroit (CNN) — Abdul El-Sayed often talks about building a new and broad coalition of Michigan voters. A looming question in the state’s pivotal Senate race is whether he can keep the old one intact — particularly with the Black voters who are pivotal to any Democratic victory.The Republican

By Jake Tapper, CNN (CNN) — Investigators have interviewed Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the matter.It comes as the Justice Department is investigating the Democratic congresswoman, focusing on immigration fraud related to suspected false statements made on government paperwork and a potential conspiracy, CNN previously

By Elle Reeve, Samantha Guff, Frank Fenimore, CNN Boones Mill, Virginia (CNN) — Walk into Trump Town USA in Boones Mill, Virginia, and you may marvel at the breadth of human creativity, as long as you’re not distracted by how the merchandise tackles some of the most controversial political issues in the most vulgar way

By Daniel Dale, CNN (CNN) — In the final months of the 2024 presidential campaign, President Donald Trump told an outlandish lie that schools in parts of the US were sending children for gender surgeries without the knowledge of their parents.Trump has now revived the lie for the final weeks of the 2026 midterm campaign.At

By Patrick Svitek, CNN Woodsfield, Ohio (CNN) — Holding a town hall Saturday in the second least populous county in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy seemed further than ever from the presidential campaign trail where he made his political debut three years ago.President Donald Trump barely came up. The war in Iran wasn’t mentioned.Instead, Ramaswamy fielded multiple

By Kit Maher (CNN) — President Donald Trump on Monday used an antisemitic term that he has used publicly at least once before as he​ defended Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall against criticism over medical billing practices.Trump invoked the term “Shylock” while defending Marshall’s​ suing more than 700 patients for outstanding medical bills during his time

By Kit Maher, Tal Shalev, Zachary Cohen, CNN (CNN) — Vice President JD Vance on Monday declined to say whether he endorses Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection, after President Donald Trump recently threw his support behind the Israeli prime minister.“I endorse American candidates, and that’s where I’m focused on is the midterm,” Vance said in an

By Eric Bradner, CNN (CNN) — The Muslim Brotherhood has become a flashpoint in Michigan’s Senate race, with Republicans trying to cast Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed as sympathetic to interests connected to Islamic terror and El-Sayed arguing that he is being unfairly accused of the same “dual loyalties” that former Presidents John F. Kennedy and

By Molly English, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump on Monday called on New Mexico to change its name to “New America” — the latest example of him seeking geographical name changes that fit his political agenda.“New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America. We are not Mexico, we are the United States

By Ellis Kim, CNN (CNN) — Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin is drawing criticism from President Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans after suggesting congressional investigations could deter recent graduates from joining the Trump administration.The controversy stemmed from Slotkin’s remarks at a University of Chicago event last week, when she was asked how Congress could reassert

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — When John Ream got into brewing beer at home nearly two decades ago, starting out was as easy as opening the kit his wife bought for him as a gift.But the Ohio engineer’s plans ran dry when he tried to switch to making whiskey. That’s because a 160-year-old federal

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to review former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to cancel plea agreements with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants accused of plotting the 9/11 terror attack.By denying the appeals, the high court left in place a decision from an appeals court last

By Tierney Sneed, Katelyn Polantz, Michael Williams, CNN (CNN) — One of the tensest showdowns between the Trump administration and the federal bench in Washington, DC, came to a head on Monday in a marathon court hearing over President Donald Trump’s efforts to overhaul a public golf course that has been the subject of months