Trump’s aggressive moves on immigration protests put Democrats in a political bind
CNN
President Donald Trump’s deployment of military troops to California is forcing Democrats back onto politically perilous turf.
President Donald Trump’s deployment of military troops to California is forcing Democrats back onto politically perilous turf, as they look for ways to condemn his actions without being drawn into a broad debate over immigration or tying themselves to the chaotic scenes emerging from Los Angeles. Republicans are relishing a fight that directs attention away from their monthslong, intraparty debate over tax and spending legislation, and the messy political breakup of Trump and Elon Musk, and toward what they view as Democrats’ biggest vulnerabilities: immigration, law enforcement and public disorder. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman warned his fellow Democrats about the images emerging from California, where protests erupted Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and escalated into outbreaks of violence. Some protesters have thrown objects at law enforcement, looted businesses, blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars ablaze — while police in riot gear fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds. While much of the protest activity has been peaceful, images of burning cars and chaos have been widespread across social media and traditional news coverage. “You can’t defend when people start setting things on fire or they start damaging buildings or going after members of law enforcement. That’s not free speech. That is not peaceful protest,” Fetterman said Tuesday. Fetterman, who was lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania during racial justice protests around the country in 2020, said Democrats “should have learned the lesson back in 2020. Absolutely, there was righteous outrage over what happened to George Floyd, but that never means that you can support or be quiet if there’s destruction or rioting and destroying and looting and those kinds of things.” He said he was “not judging any of my other colleagues in my party,” but warned: “You can’t be quiet on those things. You have to just call it really what it is.”
Following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro during a US military operation in Venezuela, the command of the South American country has fallen into the hands of a woman: Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.
The detailed timeline and the revelation that a CIA team has been operating inside Venezuela for so long sheds new light on the administration’s pressure campaign on Maduro for the past several months.
Embattled Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan, who was convicted of obstruction last month for helping an immigrant evade federal officers, has sent her resignation letter to the governor.
More than two decades ago, on January 24, 2004, I landed in Baghdad as a legal adviser, assigned an office in what was then known as the Green Zone. It was raining and cold, and my duffle bag was thrown into a puddle off the C-130 aircraft that had just done a corkscrew dive to reach the runway without risk of ground fire. Young American soldiers greeted me as we piled into a vehicle, sped out of the airport complex and then along a road called the “Highway of Death” due to car bombs and snipers.
CNN’s David Culver sees massive crowds building up in Doral, Florida, outside of Miami, a place where there are a lot of Venezuelans celebrating President Nicolas Maduro’s capture Saturday.
On November 2, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair that land strikes in Venezuela would require the approval of Congress. She said that if Trump “were to authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then (we’d need) Congress.”
A federal judge in Kentucky has dismissed Louisville’s proposed settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over police reforms after the department withdrew its support of the plan earlier this year.
In the days since the Trump administration announced it would freeze federal child care payments to Minnesota amid an alleged fraud investigation, fear and confusion have spread almost as fast as the viral video that launched the scandal.
President Donald Trump wants to tamp down on public debates about his health.
A US appeals court ruled on Friday that California’s ban on openly carrying firearms in most parts of the state was unconstitutional.
A CNN team witnessed several explosions on Saturday night in Caracas, and reported that some areas of the city were without electricity. Follow for live updates.
Thousands of people gathered for a New Year’s Eve celebration in Seattle this week, anticipating the annual fireworks show at one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, when a man stopped on a lawn and opened his coat to reveal a loaded shotgun, police said, alarming witnesses and an officer nearby.
The US Coast Guard announced Friday night it has suspended its search for people in the water after US strikes on alleged drug boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean earlier this week.