Today in politics: Latest updates | CNN Politics (2024)

President Trump has commented on the bombings in Austin, calling them terrible and describing the bomber as a “very very sick individual.”

The President added: “Local, state and federal law enforcement working hand in hand to get to the bottom of it. This is obviously a very, very sick individual or maybe these are sick people, and we will get to the bottom of it. We will be very strong. We are searching what’s going on in Austin — a great place, a tremendous place — It is absolutely disgraceful.”

Trump said he spoke to Vladimir Putin today, and he congratulated the Russian President on his recent election win.

“The call had also to do with the fact that we will probably get together in the not-too-distant future so that we can discuss arms, we can discuss the arms race,” Trump said.

“We had a very good call and I suspect that we’ll probably be meeting in the not-too-distant future to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control,” he said.

He continued: “I think probably we’ll be seeing president Putin in the not-too-distant future.”

President Trump in his meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince will discuss a range of topics including “Iran’s aggression” in the Middle East and the support Russia offers to both Iran and Syria, saying that the two countries will look for ways to make “Russia pay a price” for its aggressions, according to senior administration officials.

The Senior Administration officials say Trump still believes unity is critical in the Gulf and still wants to organize a meeting with all of the Gulf Leaders, despite ongoing disagreements over Qatar.

The officials said the two countries will also discuss Saudi’s nuclear ambitions.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $22 million annual investment into the citywide plan to combat the opioid epidemic – an investment that will create peer intervention programs at more hospitals, increase naloxone distribution and training, and connect more people with treatment, his office said in a statement.

With this new investment the city will spend $60million annually to reduce opioid overdose deaths, the city of New York said in a press release. More New Yorkers died from drug overdose in 2016 than they did from suicides, homicides, or motor vehicle crashes combined, the release said.

President Donald Trump will roll out new plans to tackle the country’s opioid epidemic on Monday in New Hampshire, the White House said Sunday.

The plan will include stiffer penalties for high-intensity drug traffickers, including the death penalty for some, Andrew Bremberg, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told reporters Sunday.

Trump’s long-awaited plan will focus on three areas: Law enforcement and interdiction, prevention and education through a sizable advertising campaign, improving the ability to fund treatment through the federal government, and help those impacted by the epidemic find jobs while fighting addiction, Bremberg and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said.

In response to reports that Jared Kushner’s family business skirted New York City laws to quickly profit off of buildings, a Kushner company spokesperson said in a message to CNN:

“Kushner Companies values all of our tenants and takes our legal and ethical responsibilities very seriously. Our development team has renovated thousands of apartments with minimal complaints over the past 30 years.If mistakes or typographical errors are identified, corrective action is taken immediately with no financial benefit to the company. The investigation is trying to create an issue where none exists. Kushner Companies did not intentionally falsify DOB filings in an effort to harass any tenants.”

President Donald Trump on Monday continued his Twitter attack on special counsel Robert Mueller, calling the ongoing investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election a “witch hunt.”

“A total WITCH HUNT with massive conflicts of interest!” Trump tweeted. He hasfrequently slammedthe probe as a “witch hunt,” dismissing it as a frivolous investigation launched by his political enemies seeking to delegitimize his election victory.

A White House spokesman defended counselor Kellyanne Conway over the claim she violated the Hatch Act in two television interviews, saying her “statements actually show her intention and desire to comply with the Hatch Act.”

“Kellyanne Conway did not advocate for or against the election of any particular candidate,” deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said.

Gidley added that Conway was only expressing Trump’s “obvious position” that the President wants “people in the House and Senate who support his agenda.”

“In fact, Kellyanne’s statements actually show her intention and desire to comply with the Hatch Act — as she twice declined to respond to the host’s specific invitation to encourage Alabamans to vote for the Republican,” he said.

Why we’re talking about this now

The US Office of Special Counsel announced today that Conway violated the Hatch Act on two occasions by “advocating for and against candidates” in last year’s Alabama Senate special election.

What is the Hatch Act, anyway?

The Hatch Act is a federal law passed in 1939, which limits certain political activities of federal employees, according to the office of the Special Counsel. (It also covers some state, and local government employees who work with federally funded programs.)

“​The law’s purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation,” according to the office.

This year’s midterm elections officially kick off Tuesday with the Texas primaries, where voters will sift through jam-packed fields of Democratic candidates vying to take on vulnerable Republican members of Congress

Here’s what you need to know:

Late-night comedian Jordan Klepper is taking the gun debate very seriously. He spoke with Brian Stelter:

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is acknowledging the challenges of his role in the Trump administration, telling The New York Times that being responsible for the agency is a complicated undertaking.

“There are more complexities here than in brain surgery,” he told the Times in an interview last week. “Doing this job is going to be a very intricate process.”

The following was obtained by CNN’s Lauren Fox in response to questions about an article distributed by Speaker’s office detailing adverse impact of Trump tariff plans.

“We are extremely worried about the consequences of a trade war and are urging the White House to not advance with this plan,” said AshLee Strong, Paul Ryan’s spokeswoman.

“The new tax reform law has boosted the economy and we certainly don’t want to jeopardize those gains.”

A White House official says Jared Kushner will play a part in talks with Netanyahu today, despite his tenuous clearance status. Kushner has already paid a call to Blair House, where Netanyahu is staying, to check in with him before formal talks begin today.

Officials are downplaying the effect Kushner’s downgraded security clearance will have on the talks today, though acknowledge this will be the first high-profile engagement for Kushner since he lost his “top secret” access.

John Kelly hasn’t been chief of staff to President Donald Trump for even a year yet, but he appears to have learned one of the real estate tycoon’s most central life lessons: Never, ever apologize.

“I have absolutely nothing to even consider resigning over,” Kelly told reporters at the White House on Friday in response to questions over his botched handling of the allegations of domestic abuse against former White House staff secretary Rob Porter.

Kelly’s defense – and defensiveness – simply doesn’t jibe with what we know of the timeline of events surrounding Porter’s firing.

White House chief of staff John Kelly, seeking to defend himself from questions about how he handled the dismissal of Rob Porter, told reporters on Friday that he never considered resigning over the fallout.

Porter, President Donald Trump’s staff secretary, was accused of domestic abuse against two ex-wives, though he denied any wrongdoing.

“I have absolutely nothing to even consider resigning over,” Kelly said.

The State Department announced Friday it will continue to staff its embassy in Havana, Cuba, at the minimum level required to perform “core diplomatic and consular functions,” due to concerns about “health attacks” on staff.

The move comes amid continued uncertainty about the cause of the attacks, which affected at least 24 diplomats and family members in 2016 and 2017.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized President Donald Trump Friday for seemingly reversing his positions on gun control efforts after a meeting with the National Rifle Association.

“When I dealt with the President on immigration, I said negotiating with him is like negotiating with Jell-O. And that’s what happens,” the New York Democrat said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “He believes one thing one day and then seems to contradict himself.”

“Here with guns, it’s a typical pattern,” Schumer said of the President. “With the bipartisan group and the camera lights on, his instincts were to do the right thing.”

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed a tax overhaul bill into law, Deal said on Twitter Friday morning.

“Today I signed HB 918 into law, allowing Georgians to immediately file their 2017 income tax returns. I join members of General Assembly in celebrating this historic $5 billion tax reform deal,” the Governor tweeted.

A Georgia state Senator tells CNN that the bill did not include the lucrative jet fuel tax exemption that would have benefited Delta Airlines.

A source close to the White House says Jared and Ivanka “have to” stay on with Trump.

“They have the President’s back,” the source said. “It comes with some distraction. But their motives are the most pure.”

Ultimately, CNN’s Stephen Collinson writes, unless Kushner is cleared by the FBI to receive a permanent security clearance or gets a waiver from the President his diminished role will spur fresh speculation about his longevity as a White House staffer.

His departure and potentially that of his wife Ivanka Trump, who just controversially led a US mission to South Korea’s Winter Olympics at a time of flaring nuclear tensions with North Korea, would mark a huge earthquake in Trump world.

Jared Kushner’s attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement, “As to his security clearance, Mr. Kushner has done more than what is expected of him in this process.”

“Those involved in the process again have confirmed that there are dozens of people at Mr. Kushner’s level whose process is delayed, that it is not uncommon for these clearance reviews to take this long in a new administration, and that the current backlogs are now being addressed,” he added.“No concerns were raised about Mr. Kushner’s application. As General Kelly himself said, the new clearance policy will not affect Mr. Kushner’s ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the President.”

A source familiar with the matter says the FBI is expected to wrap up the Jared Kushner background check within a month.

The source the FBI would hand the findings to the White House for them to make the ultimate decision on the clearance.

The FBI in recent weeks had added more agents to deal with the backlog and expedite finishing the background checks.

The White House called for “an immediate end to offensive operations” being carried out by the Syrian regime, arguing it is “terrorizing” civilians.

“Syria is terrorizing hundreds of thousands ofcivilians,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. “The regimes use of chlorine gas as a weapon only intensifies this. The UnitedStates calls for an immediate end to offensive operations.”

Sanders said the US wants fighting to stop to allow humanitarian aid to reach those affected by recent fighting.

“The president putthe Assad regime on notice some time ago,” Sanders said. “In terms of any specificaction, as we’ve said before,I’m not going to broadcast what we may or may not do.”

The US call for an “immediate end to offensive operations” comes as Syria, with Russia’s help, has continued to bombard Eastern Ghouta, trapping hundreds of thousands of civilians.

The White Housetried to downplay former Trump deputy campaign managerRick Gates’guilty plea last week, saying hiscriminal action took place before he became involved with President Trump.

“Those are issues that took place long before they were involved with the President. An anything beyond that, because those are active investigations, I’m not going to go any further,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

“The actions that are under review and under investigation took place prior to him being part of the President’s campaign,” she said.

One of the solutions President Trump has brought up in the wake of the shooting is arming some teachers in schools and eliminating gun-free zones.

“It is time to make our schools a much harder target for attackers. We don’t want them in our schools. We don’t want them. When we declare our schools to be gun-free zones, it just puts our students in far more danger. Far more danger,” Trump said.

This comes a day after NRA chief Wayne LaPierre pitched this same solution to this same crowd, saying schools were “targets” because they were gun-free zones.

However, therewasan armed guard at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that day. But instead of entering and stopping the shooting,the officer waited outside for four minutesas the gunman killed students and faculty inside, authorities said.

Trump called him out by name at CPAC today.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the Trump administration is currently working on the Russia sanctions mandated by Congress last year.

“We are working on Russia sanctions,” Mnuchin told reporters at a White House briefing. “I can assure you that is in the process.”

The Treasury Secretary added that the administration is still going to “continue to look at election meddling.”

He added that Treasury is looking at the list of Russians indicted by the Mueller special counsel for election meddling to see if they might be the subject of additional sanctions.

“We will look at sanctioning individuals from the information they had,” Mnuchin said, referring to the FBI. “We already had sanctions against one of the individuals.”

This is thethirdtimeMnuchin has said something similar to this in the past month.

There has been no decision by President Trump to replace embattled White House chief of staff John Kelly, but multiple sources say conversations over who could succeed him have heated up.

CNN had reportedthe President has been calling associates in recent days and discussing possibilities.

While no decision has been made, the scrutiny increased after Tuesday’stestimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray.

President Trumpand first lady Melania Trump hosted a reception at the White House on Tuesday honoring Black History Month.

“Our thoughts turn to the heroes of the civil rights movement whose courage and sacrifices have really totally inspired us all,” Trump said at the event. “From the pews to the picket lines, African-American civil rights champions have brought out the best in us.”

Trump was joined at the event by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Surgeon General Jerome Adams, the only two senior Trump administration officials who are black.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, asked about President Donald Trump’s failure to comment on allegations of physical abuse from the ex-wives of a top White House aide, said, “Clearly we should all be condemning domestic violence.”

“And if a person who commits domestic violence gets in the government then there is a breakdown in the system,” the speaker added. “There’s a breakdown in the vetting system and then that breakdown needs to be addressed.”

Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy informed him that he was launching a probe of the breakdown in the security clearance process for Rob Porter, the former staff secretary to Trump.

White House chief of staff John Kelly,facing a growing swell of internal strife, attempted Wednesday to bring a spiraling crisis under control even as morale has plummeted among West Wing aides who feel misled and leaderless.

Furious at leaks depicting him as a liar, Kelly planned to directly confront the issue during a morning staff meeting, people familiar with the matter said. He was expected to strike a more conciliatory tone than he did at a similar session last week, when he claimed that he’d acted swiftly to fire Rob Porter, the former staff secretary accused of abusing his ex-wives. White House staffers walked away from that session believing Kelly was asking them to lie.

This time around, Kelly was expected to acknowledge to some aides – as two White House spokesmen have conceded from the briefing room – that some things could have unfolded differently, the sources said. But he will insist that staffers come into line instead of airing their grievances in the press.

Budget director Mick Mulvaney said Wednesday that he has seen estimates that a potential military parade requested by President Donald Trump could cost between $10 million and $30 million.

Mulvaney told a congressional hearing that a parade is not included in the administration’s budget proposal because it came up late in the planning process. But if the administration decides to go forward with a parade, the Office of Management and Budget would study the costs.

The wide range between estimates is because parades of different lengths and equipment would have different costs. A one-hour parade, he noted, would cost less than a five-hour parade.

The House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat said Wednesday he’s working with the FBI to try to minimize the number of redactions to the Democratic rebuttal to the GOP’s intelligence memo alleging FBI abuses of its surveillance authority.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor’s breakfast that he said the FBI has flagged everything that wasn’t in the public domain.

“What it appears the FBI did – and I assume this was at the request of the White House – is identify anything in our memo that wasn’t already public,” Schiff said.

This is how we’re expecting today in the Senate to play out:

Senate likely to set up amendment votes after the 10:30 a.m. vote

The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body (the US Senate) has had a bang-up start to its “freewheeling debate” over immigration, with battles over process and which amendment votes destined to fail get taken when. But here’s the key point, according to several senior aides: ignore all of that. It’s noise.

Bottom line:The pathway(s) to 60 votes are all being formed behind the scenes right now. A lot needs to change in the current posture for a true resolution to come to the forefront. These next 48 hours will make or break that effort.

President Trump reiterated his desire for the Senate to pass his proposal on immigration — pressuring Republicans to reject anything else — as lawmakers are set to begin debating legislation.

The President’s statement serves as a fresh layer of difficulty for a Senate already struggling to find the bipartisan 60 votes required to advance legislation on any compromise position.

Here’s the statement:

I want to thank Chairman Grassley for introducing legislation based on the White House Immigration Reform and Border Security Framework. The Grassley bill accomplishes the four pillars of the White House Framework: a lasting solution on DACA, ending chain migration, cancelling the visa lottery, and securing the border through building the wall and closing legal loopholes.I am asking all senators, in both parties, to support the Grassley bill and to oppose any legislation that fails to fulfill these four pillars – that includes opposing any short-term “Band-Aid” approach.The overwhelming majority of American voters support a plan that fulfills the Framework’s four pillars, which move us towards the safe, modern, and lawful immigration system our people deserve.

At the same time, I remain encouraged by developments in the House toward advancing legislation from Chairmen Goodlatte and McCaul that also enshrines our four pillars.

Now that our military is fully funded, and will be rebuilt stronger than ever before, my focus is on enacting responsible and commonsense immigration reform that delivers for the American People.

The House Oversight Committee is investigating the White House’s handling of Rob Porter’s employment, chairman Trey Gowdy told CNN Wednesday.

“We are directing inquiries to people that we think have access to information we don’t have. You can call it official. You can call it unofficial. Those words don’t mean anything to me. What means something to me is I’m going to direct questions to the FBI that I expect them to answer,” Gowdy, R-South Carolina, told CNN “New Day” co-anchor Alisyn Camerota.