McConnell, free from leadership constraints, bucks Trump and the evolving GOP
CNN
Sen. Mitch McConnell was a generational force for the Republican Party — using procedural tactics and political will to stymie much of former President Barack Obama’s agenda, hand President Donald Trump key first-term political victories and deliver a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court majority. Now he’s the odd man out.
Sen. Mitch McConnell was a generational force for the Republican Party — using procedural tactics and political will to stymie much of former President Barack Obama’s agenda, hand President Donald Trump key first-term political victories and deliver a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court majority. Now he’s the odd man out. Weeks after relinquishing his leadership post as a new GOP majority was sworn into office, McConnell finds himself, likely in the final stage of his career, untethered from the party he’d led, in turns as minority and majority leader, since 2007. He has cast a trio of votes against Trump’s Cabinet nominees — putting him at odds with nearly all Senate Republicans. He opposed Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, citing the former Fox News host’s lack of experience and clear vision for how to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan. He was the sole GOP vote against Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, criticizing the former Hawaii Democratic congresswoman’s “history of alarming lapses in judgment.” And on Thursday, McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, cast the only Republican vote against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, saying Kennedy “failed to prove he is the best possible person to lead America’s health agency.” McConnell has also publicly lamented the GOP’s Trump-fueled drift away from positions that he still holds dear – in support of free trade and a muscular foreign policy.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.
Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.
Young Americans are “a generation under profound strain” with little confidence in institutions and widespread economic concerns, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics survey of adults younger than 30 released Thursday.
As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.
The murder trial of Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023 continues. Follow for live updates.
The FBI arrested a person Thursday who investigators believe planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot.
Lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office are expected to appear in federal court in Albany on Thursday to try to disqualify a US attorney from investigating the state’s civil case against President Donald Trump.
A new poll shows more than 70% of Republicans with Obamacare coverage don’t want their enhanced premium subsidies to expire.
A safety volunteer accused of fatally shooting a man taking part in a “No Kings” protest last June in Salt Lake City while firing at another man he believed to be a potential mass shooter has been charged with manslaughter, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
The specter of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown looms over the Somali diaspora in the Twin Cities – home to the nation’s largest Somali population.
Honduras’ former President Juan Orlando Hernández thanked US President Donald Trump for pardoning his US drug trafficking conviction amid criticism from lawmakers that the pardon undermines the White House’s efforts to stop drug trafficking.
President Donald Trump’s name has been installed on the building and signage around the US Institute of Peace (USIP) – an independent agency that the administration gutted earlier this year.
President Donald Trump issued a “full and unconditional pardon” for Oak View Group co-founder Tim Leiweke, who was indicted by the president’s own Justice Department earlier this year, according to a document released online.