Kendra Kingsbury, 50, of Garden City, Kansas, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in federal prison without parole by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough.

In October, Kingsbury pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawfully retaining documents related to national defense. Similar to the charges facing former President Donald Trump, Kingsbury’s case involved alleged violations of the Espionage Act.

Donald Trump 18 hours ago

Trump's penchant for talking could pose problems for his defense in classified documents case

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Trump Classified Documents Trial Date Set for Aug. 14

Kingsbury, who held a TOP SECRET/SCI security clearance and served as an intelligence analyst for the FBI for more than 12 years, was accused of repeatedly removing sensitive government materials from a secure workspace. Some of the documents she removed and retained in her North Kansas City residence included national defense-related classified documents.

Prosecutors alleged in court documents that Kingsbury improperly removed and unlawfully retained approximately 386 classified documents. The retained documents were stored in various formats, including hard drives and compact discs, prosecutors said.

In their sentencing memo, prosecutors said, “The FBI ultimately determined that over 20,000 documents that originated either at the FBI or some other government agency were found in the defendant’s residence.”

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

U.S. President Joe Biden referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a dictator in comments underscoring the tricky balance of managing ties with an assertive global rival while appealing to domestic audiences as he seeks re-election.

Biden’s comment at a Tuesday fundraiser comes just a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his first official visit to Beijing.

That trip was aimed at mending ties between the two global powers that have hit rock bottom after the U.S. in February shot down what it described as a surveillance balloon — a claim China denies — off the coast of South Carolina.

“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment is he didn’t know it was there,” Biden told a fundraiser in Kentfield, California, in support of his bid for a second presidential term at the 2024 elections.

“That was the great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was,” he added.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be immediately reached for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Blinken postponed the Beijing trip, which was originally scheduled for February, after the stray balloon incident. His visit over the weekend marked a resumption of high-level U.S.-China government meetings after a tense four-plus months.

While his mission was largely seen as successful in getting the two global powers communicating again, Blinken was unable to revive military-to-military talks with China.

“We’re in a situation now where he wants to have a relationship again,” Biden said. “Antony Blinken just went over there … did a good job and it’s going to take time,” Biden said late Tuesday.

The civil rights attorney was nominated by President Joe Biden to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in January and was confirmed to the life-tenured position with a narrow margin of 50-49 votes.

Most recently, Choudhury served as the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and, according to her online bio, has a track record of advancing criminal justice reform, immigrants rights and reproductive care access. She was previous deputy director of the ACLU Racial Justice program.

“Congratulations to Nusrat Choudhury, legal director of the ACLU of Illinois, on her confirmation to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York,” the ACLU tweeted in response to her confirmation. “Nusrat is a trailblazing civil rights lawyer and her confirmation will be an asset to our nation’s legal system.”

On Wednesday, West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin released a statement opposing Choudhury’s nomination given her support for criminal justice reform.

“Law enforcement officers in West Virginia and across the country go above and beyond the call of duty to protect our communities, and I am incredibly grateful for their service,” his statement read. “Some of Ms. Choudhury’s previous statements call into question her ability to be unbiased towards the work of our brave law enforcement.”

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

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To anti-hate researchers, it’s a well-connected extremist group that attacks inclusion in schools.

And to Republicans vying for the presidency, it has become a potential key partner in the fight for the 2024 nomination.

Moms for Liberty didn’t exist during the last presidential campaign, but the Florida-based nonprofit that champions “ parental rights ” in education has rapidly become a major player for 2024, boosted in part by GOP operatives, politicians and donors.

The group that has been at the forefront of the conservative movement targeting books that reference race and gender identity and electing right-wing candidates to local school boards nationwide is hosting one of the next major gatherings for Republican presidential primary contenders. At least four are listed as speakers at the Moms for Liberty annual summit in Philadelphia later this month.

Former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and biotech entrepreneur and “anti-woke” activist Vivek Ramaswamy have announced they will speak at the meeting at the end of June.

The group said it is in talks to bring others to the conference, including Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a fringe Democrat known for pushing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.

The high interest in the event underscores how fights surrounding gender and race have become core issues for Republican voters. It also spotlights Republicans’ eagerness to embrace a group that has drawn backlash for spreading anti-LGBTQ+ ideas and stripping libraries and classrooms of diverse material.

The group was founded in 2021 by Tiffany Justice, Tina Descovich and Bridget Ziegler, all current and former school board members in Florida who were unhappy with student mask and quarantine policies during the pandemic.

In two years, the organization has ballooned to 285 chapters across 44 states, Justice said. The group claims 120,000 active members.

It has expanded its activism in local school districts to target books it says are inappropriate or “anti-American,” ban instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, require teachers to disclose students’ pronouns to parents, and remove diversity, equity and inclusion programs from schools.

The group also has sought to elect like-minded candidates to school boards. In 2022, just over half the 500 candidates it endorsed for school boards nationwide won their races, Justice said.

Moms for Liberty pitches itself as a nonpartisan, grassroots effort started by passionate parents who call themselves “joyful warriors.” Yet the group’s close ties to Republican organizations, donors and politicians raise questions about partisanship and doubts over how grassroots it really is.

Co-founder Ziegler, who stepped down from the board in late 2021 but remains supportive of the group, is married to the chairman of the Florida Republican Party. Still a school board member in Sarasota County, she also is a director at the Leadership Institute, a conservative organization that regularly trains Moms for Liberty members.

Marie Rogerson, who took Ziegler’s place on the Moms for Liberty board, is an experienced political strategist who had previously managed the 2018 campaign of Florida state Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican.

The group also has quickly gained a close ally in DeSantis. In 2021, he signed Florida’s “Parents Bill of Rights,” which identified parents’ rights to direct their kids’ education and health care and was used to fight local student mask mandates. In 2022, he signed a law barring instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade, a ban opponents had labeled the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and which has since been extended through 12th grade. Moms for Liberty had loudly advocated both pieces of legislation.

Ziegler appeared behind DeSantis in photographs of the latter bill’s signing ceremony. When the group held its inaugural summit in Tampa last year, it hosted speeches by DeSantis and his wife, Casey, presenting the governor with a “liberty sword.”

And though the group is a 501(c)4 nonprofit that doesn’t have to disclose its donors, there are other glimpses of how powerful Republicans have helped fuel its rise.

Its summit sponsors, which paid tens of thousands of dollars for those slots, include the Leadership Institute, the conservative Heritage Foundation and Patriot Mobile, a far-right Christian cellphone company whose PAC has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to take over Texas school boards.

Maurice Cunningham, a former political science professor at the University of Massachusetts-Boston who has tracked Moms for Liberty’s growth and relationships, said its ability to draw so many top Republican candidates to its second annual summit is a testament to its establishment support.

“Yes, there are certainly moms that live in their communities and so forth who are active,” Cunningham said. “But this is a top down, centrally controlled operation with big-money people at the top and political professionals working for them.”

Justice said the group’s work with conservative organizations and DeSantis shows they take interest in the group’s cause, but doesn’t mean it isn’t grassroots.

Even as Moms for Liberty has aligned with establishment Republicans, researchers say its activism is part of a new wave of far-right anti-student inclusion efforts around the country.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate and extremism around the country, designated Moms for Liberty as an “anti-government extremist” group in its annual report released last week, along with 11 other groups it said use parents’ rights as a vehicle to attack public education and make schools less welcoming for minority and LGBTQ+ students.

The label comes after some of the group’s leaders and chapter chairs have been accused of harassing community members and amplifying false claims related to gender controversies.

Justice said calling Moms for Liberty’s activities extremist is “alarming” and that the group’s efforts to fund and endorse school board races show it is not anti-government.

She said the group removes chapter chairs who break its code of conduct and that it has members and leaders who are gay, including one member of its national leadership team.

A growing coalition of local organizations that promote inclusivity in education has begun to mobilize against Moms for Liberty and are petitioning Marriott to stop the upcoming conference. Defense of Democracy, a New York organization founded in direct opposition to Moms for Liberty, plans to bring members to Philadelphia to protest in person.

“They’re so loud and so aggressive that people are kind of scared into silence,” Defense of Democracy founder Karen Svoboda said of Moms for Liberty. “You know, if you see bigotry and homophobia, there is a civic responsibility to speak out against it.”

Moms for Liberty, in turn, said it will increase security for its meeting. Marriott hasn’t responded to the petition, and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “extremist” designation hasn’t deterred any Republican candidate who plans to speak.

Haley responded by tweeting, “If @Moms4Liberty is a ‘hate group,’ add me to the list.” Ramaswamy went onstage for a Thursday town hall with Justice and tweeted that SPLC stands for “Selling Political Lies to Corporations.”

Those responses are unsurprising to Cunningham, who said in today’s climate, the “extremist” label is “almost a badge of honor” within the GOP.

Moms for Liberty, for its part, is fundraising off it. After the SPLC report was public, Justice said the group quickly raised $45,000, an amount a larger donor has agreed to match.

___

Here are some key of the key events leading to the 37 criminal charges against Trump, according to the indictment:

Jan. 20, 2021: As Trump leaves the White House, he directs the movement of dozens of storage boxes to Mar-a-Lago, prosecutors say. The boxes, packed by Trump and his White House staff, contain newspaper clippings, letters, photos and other mementos from his time in office, but also hundreds of classified documents that, as a former president, he wasn’t authorized to have.

Donald Trump Jun 9

Donald Trump stored, showed off and refused to return classified documents, indictment says

Donald Trump Jun 9

See photos of the boxes of classified documents at the heart of Donald Trump's 2nd indictment

Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are considered federal, not private property and must be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration. Multiple federal laws govern the handling of classified and sensitive documents, including statutes making it a crime to remove such material and keep it at an unauthorized location.

After Jan. 20, 2021: Some boxes brought from the White House are stored on a stage in one of Mar-a-Lago’s gilded ballrooms. A photo in the indictment shows boxes stacked on a stage.

March 15, 2021: Boxes are moved from the ballroom to the business center at Mar-a-Lago.

April 2021: Some boxes are moved into a bathroom and shower. A photo included in the indictment shows them stacked next to a toilet, a vanity and a trash can.

May 2021: Trump directs employees to clean out a storage room in a highly accessible area on Mar-a-Lago’s ground floor so it can be used to store his boxes, the indictment says. Trump also directs that some boxes be brought to his Bedminster, New Jersey, summer residence.

On or about May 6, 2021: Realizing that some documents from Trump’s presidency may be missing, the National Archives asks that he turn over any presidential records he may have kept upon leaving the White House. The agency makes subsequent, repeated demands.

June 2021: The National Archives warns Trump through his representatives that it will refer the matter to the Justice Department if he does not comply.

June 24, 2021: Boxes are moved to the storage room. More than 80 boxes are kept there.

July 21, 2021: Trump allegedly shows a military “plan of attack” that he says is “highly confidential” to a writer interviewing him at his Bedminster property. Trump remarks, “as president I could have declassified it. … Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” according to the indictment, citing a recording of the interview.

August or September 2021: Trump allegedly shows a classified map relating to a foreign military operation to a representative of his political action committee at his Bedminster golf course, the indictment says. Trump tells the person that he shouldn’t be showing anyone the map and that the person shouldn’t get too close.

November 2021: Trump directs his executive assistant and “body man” Walt Nauta and another employee to start moving boxes from a storage room to his residence for him to review. Nauta is charged in the indictment as Trump’s co-conspirator.

Dec. 7, 2021: Nauta finds that several of Trump’s boxes have fallen, spilling papers onto the storage room floor, the indictment says. Among them is a document with a “SECRET” intelligence marking. According to the indictment, Nauta texts another Trump employee, “I opened the door and found this,” to which the other employee replies, “Oh no oh no.”

Late December 2021: The National Archives continues to demand that Trump turn over missing records from his presidency. In late December 2021, a Trump representative tells the agency that 12 boxes of records have been found and are ready to be retrieved.

January 17, 2022: Trump turns over 15 boxes to the National Archives. According to the indictment, Nauta and another Trump employee load them into Nauta’s car and take them to a commercial truck for delivery to the agency.

The boxes are found to contain 197 documents with classified markings, including 69 marked confidential, 98 secret and 30 top secret. Some documents have markings suggesting they include information from highly sensitive human sources or the collection of electronic “signals” authorized by a court under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Feb. 9, 2022: The National Archives refers the matter to the Justice Department after a preliminary review finds the boxes contain numerous classified documents. The special agent in charge of the agency’s Office of the Inspector General writes, “Of most significant concern was that highly classified records were unfoldered, intermixed with other records” and otherwise improperly identified.

Feb. 10, 2022: Trump’s Save America PAC releases a statement insisting the return of the documents had been “routine” and “no big deal.” Trump insists the “papers were given easily and without conflict and on a very friendly basis,” and adds, “It was a great honor to work with” the National Archives “to help formally preserve the Trump Legacy.”

Feb. 18, 2022: In a letter to a congressional oversight committee, the National Archives reveals the boxes contained classified information and confirms the Justice Department referral. Trump’s Save America PAC releases another statement insisting, “The National Archives did not ‘find’ anything,” but “were given, upon request, Presidential Records in an ordinary and routine process to ensure the preservation of my legacy and in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.”

March 30, 2022: The FBI opens its investigation.

April 12, 2022: The National Archives informs Trump that, at the Justice Department’s request, it intends to provide the FBI with the 15 boxes he turned over on Jan. 17, 2022. Trump’s representative asks for an extension until April 29.

April 26, 2022: The grand jury investigation begins.

April 29, 2022: The Justice Department asks Trump’s lawyers for immediate access to the 15 boxes, citing national security interests and the need for “an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported.” Trump’s lawyers again ask for an extension, saying they need to review the material to “ascertain whether any specific document is subject to privilege.”

May 10, 2022: The National Archives informs Trump’s lawyers that it will provide the FBI access to the boxes as soon as May 12.

May 11, 2022: A grand jury issues a subpoena to Trump and his office requiring that they turn over all classified materials in their possession.

May 23, 2022: Trump’s lawyers advise him to comply with the subpoena, but Trump balks, telling them, “I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes.” Prosecutors, citing notes from one of the lawyers, say Trump wondered aloud about dodging the subpoena, asking his counsel, “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” and ”isn’t it better if there are no documents?”

May 26, 2022: Nauta is interviewed by the FBI and, according to prosecutors, repeatedly lies about his knowledge of the movement of boxes at Mar-a-Lago. Nauta claims he wasn’t aware of boxes being brought to Trump’s residence for his review and says he didn’t know how boxes turned over to the National Archives got to Trump’s residence.

Nauta also lies when asked whether he knew where Trump’s boxes were stored before they went to his residence and whether they’d been in a secured or locked location, prosecutors say. His reply, according to the indictment: “I wish, I wish I could tell you. I don’t know. I don’t — I honestly just don’t know.”

June 2, 2022: One of Trump’s lawyers returns to Mar-a-Lago to search boxes in the storage room and finds 38 additional classified documents — five documents marked confidential, 16 marked secret and 17 marked top secret. After the search, prosecutors say, Trump asks: “Did you find anything? … Is it bad? Good?” and makes a plucking motion that the lawyer takes to mean that he should take out anything “really bad” before turning over the papers.

Prior to the search, prosecutors say, Trump had Nauta move 64 boxes from the storage room to his residence. Of those, 30 were moved back to the storage room, leaving 34 boxes in Trump’s residence and out of the lawyer’s sight.

June 3, 2022: FBI agents and a Justice Department lawyer visit Mar-a-Lago to collect the 38 classified documents from Trump’s lawyer. They are in a single accordion folder, double-wrapped in tape. While there, investigators are allowed to go to the storage room, but are “explicitly prohibited” from looking inside boxes, “giving no opportunity” for them “to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained,” according to a court filing.

Trump tells investigations he’s “an open book,” according to the indictment. Another Trump lawyer, acting as his custodian of records, provides investigators a sworn certification that prosecutors say falsely claimed they had conducted a “diligent search” of boxes moved from the White House and “any and all responsive documents” were turned over.

Earlier in the day, prosecutors say, some boxes were loaded onto a plane so Trump could take them to Bedminster for the summer.

June 8, 2022: The Justice Department sends Trump’s lawyer a letter asking that the storage room be secured, and that “all of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago (along with any other items in that room) be preserved in that room in their current condition until farther notice.”

July 2022: The grand jury is shown surveillance video of boxes being moved at Mar-a-Lago.

Aug. 5, 2022: The Justice Department applies for a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago, citing “probable cause” that additional presidential records and classified documents were being stored there. U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart approves the application the same day.

Aug. 8 2022: The FBI searches searches Mar-a-Lago, seizing 102 classified documents — 75 in the storage room and 27 in Trump’s office, including three found in office desks.

The Justice Department says in a subsequent court filing that the results call “into serious question” earlier representations by Trump’s legal team that they had conducted a “diligent search” and that no classified documents remained.

Aug. 12, 2022: Reinhart makes public the warrant authorizing the Mar-a-Lago search. The document reveals that federal agents are investigating potential violations of three federal laws, including the Espionage Act.

Aug. 26, 2022: A highly redacted version of the affidavit laying out the FBI’s rationale for searching Mar-a-Lago is made public.

Aug. 30, 2022: After Trump’s lawyers request a special master to review the documents for possible executive privilege, the Justice Department responds with a filing that reveals new details about the investigation and a photo of seized documents with marking like “TOP SECRET//SCI” splayed out on a Mar-a-Lago carpet.

June 8, 2023: A grand jury in Miami indicts Trump and Nauta. Trump announces the indictment on his Truth Social platform, calling it “a DARK DAY for the United States of America.” In a video post, he says, “I’m innocent and we will prove that very, very soundly and hopefully very quickly.”

June 9, 2023: The indictment is made public. It shows that Trump is charged with 37 felony counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record and willful retention of national defense information. Nauta is charged with six counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the case, makes a brief public statement at his office in Washington, saying: “Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States and they must be enforced. Violations of those laws put our country at risk.”

June 13, 2023: Trump is scheduled to make an initial court appearance at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Miami.

“It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades,” tweeted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., a Trump loyalist. “I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice.

Donald Trump Jun 8

Donald Trump has been indicted in classified documents probe. What that means and what comes next

Donald Trump Jun 8

Donald Trump indicted on 7 charges in classified documents probe

“House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable,” McCarthy wrote.

Thursday’s indictment came out of a probe from Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland has been scrupulous about not getting involved in the probe and said Smith would make his own charging decisions. Biden has also emphasized his distance from the probe and the White House said they learned of the indictment from media reports Thursday evening.

Still, many Republicans allied with Trump echoed the speaker. Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., called it a “sham indictment”: “Let’s be clear about what’s happening: Joe Biden is weaponizing his Department of Justice against his own political rival.”

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., and members of the Senate Republican leadership team remained noticeably silent.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

The White House said Thursday that Polly Trottenberg replaced Billy Nolen, who indicated in April that he planned to leave the FAA.

Trottenberg held a high-ranking job in the Transportation Department during the Obama administration and has most recently been deputy to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. She headed the New York City Transportation Department from 2014 to 2020 and worked as a U.S. Senate aide and at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The FAA, which manages air traffic throughout the nation, has been without a Senate-confirmed leader since March of last year, when Stephen Dickson resigned halfway through his five-year term. Since then, the agency has faced understaffing of air traffic controllers, a technical outage that grounded flights nationwide in January, and several close calls between airline jets.

Biden’s nominee to replace Dickson withdrew this year when it became clear that he would not be confirmed. Republicans said Phil Washington lacked enough aviation experience to run the FAA.

The White House said the administration is conducting a national search for a new nominee.

The former president faces a string of inquiries in various states and venues as he campaigns for a second term in the White House. He’s already been charged in a 34-count indictment in New York in a hush money case. The others include federal and state investigations into his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election and a civil case that threatens his ability to ever again do business in New York.

Trump, a Republican, has denied any wrongdoing and says he is being targeted by Democrats trying to keep him from reclaiming the presidency in 2024.

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Trump Indictment Live Updates: Special Counsel Describes Gravity of Alleged Crimes, Experts Call Charges ‘Damning'

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Trump Was Recorded Acknowledging He Kept Classified Doc After Leaving White House

Here’s a look at the top probes:

HUSH MONEY SCHEME

Trump became the first former U.S. president in history to face criminal charges when he was indicted in New York in March on state charges stemming from hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to bury allegations that he had extramarital sexual encounters.

He pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Each count is punishable by up to four years in prison, though it’s not clear if a judge would impose any prison time if Trump is convicted.

The counts are linked to a series of checks that were written to his lawyer Michael Cohen to reimburse him for his role in paying off porn actor Stormy Daniels, who alleged a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, not long after Melania Trump gave birth to their son, Barron. Those payments were recorded in various internal company documents as being for a legal retainer that prosecutors say didn’t exist.

The former president is next set to appear in court on Dec. 4, two months before Republicans begin their nominating process in earnest.

GEORGIA

For over two years, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies illegally meddled in the 2020 election in Georgia.

She wrote in a letter to the county sheriff that she expects to announce any charging decisions between July 11 and Sept. 1. In a separate letter to a county Superior Court judge, she suggested that any indictments would likely come in August.

The Democratic district attorney’s investigation began shortly after the release of a recording of a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which the then-president suggested that Raffensperger could “find 11,780 votes” — just enough to overtake Democrat Joe Biden and overturn Trump’s narrow loss in the state.

But the investigation’s scope broadened considerably after that, and Willis convened a special grand jury to hear testimony from witnesses including high-profile Trump allies, such as attorney Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and high-ranking Georgia officials, such as Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp.

Prosecutors advised Giuliani and Georgia Republicans who served as fake electors that they were at risk of being indicted. The fake electors signed a certificate asserting Trump had won the election and declaring themselves the state’s electors, even though Biden had won the state and Democratic electors had already been certified.

A court filing in early May indicated that Willis had reached immunity deals with at least eight fake electors, suggesting they may be cooperating with authorities.

The foreperson on the special grand jury indicated publicly that the panel had recommended multiple indictments. It’s now up to Willis to decide whether to convene a regular grand jury and pursue criminal charges in the case.

Trump and his allies have denied wrongdoing, and he has repeatedly described his phone call to Raffensperger as “perfect.”

2020 ELECTION AND CAPITOL RIOT

Special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Trump’s handling of classified documents, has also been leading a team probing efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the election that he falsely claimed was stolen.

Federal prosecutors have been especially focused on a scheme by Trump allies to put forth a slate of fake presidential electors in key battleground states who falsely declared that Trump, not Biden, had won the 2020 election. They have issued subpoenas to a number of state Republican Party chairs.

Federal prosecutors have brought multiple Trump administration officials before that grand jury for questioning, including former Vice President Mike Pence.

In a sign of the wide-ranging nature of the investigation, election officials in multiple states whose results were disputed by Trump have received subpoenas asking for past communications with or involving Trump and his campaign aides.

A House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol recommended that the Justice Department bring criminal charges against Trump and associates who helped him launch a wide-ranging pressure campaign to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.

NEW YORK CIVIL CASES

New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued Trump and the Trump Organization, alleging they misled banks and tax authorities about the value of assets including golf courses and skyscrapers to get loans and tax benefits.

That lawsuit could lead to civil penalties against the company if James, a Democrat, prevails. She is seeking a $250 million fine and a ban on Trump doing business in New York. Manhattan prosecutors investigated the same alleged conduct but did not pursue criminal charges.

A civil trial is scheduled in state court for October.

In a separate civil case in federal court in New York, Trump was found liable in May of sexually abusing and defaming former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s. The jury rejected Carroll’s claim that Trump had raped her in a dressing room.

Trump was ordered to pay $5 million to Carroll. He has appealed and has adamantly denied her accusations.

Syed will be the highest-ranking Muslim official in the U.S. government.

Republicans on the Small Business Committee had blocked his nomination, citing the agency’s payouts to abortion providers and other reasons. President Joe Biden had first nominated the Pakistani-born businessman to the position in March 2021, and he renominated him this year in the new Congress.

Syed was confirmed 54-42.

Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat who chairs the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, said ahead of the vote that the position of deputy administrator at the SBA has been vacant for nearly five years over two presidential administrations.

“It is about time we get this done,” Cardin said.

Syed’s nomination stalled in committee last Congress after Republicans repeatedly failed to appear for votes. Republicans, led by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — then the panel’s top Republican — gave several different explanations, including Syed’s affiliation with a Muslim advocacy group, small-business loans he received and, finally, the agency’s loans to branches of Planned Parenthood.

The stalemate led to Democratic charges of anti-Muslim bias and galvanized some Muslim and Jewish organizations to condemn the delay.

Rabbi Jack Moline, then-president of Interfaith Alliance, argued at the time that the inaction was an “excuse for a lot of issues that have nothing to do with suitability for the position.”

With an increased majority this year that gave Democrats an extra vote on the committee, the panel approved Syed’s nomination in March, two years after he was first nominated. Five Republicans voted to confirm him in Thursday’s final vote.

Republicans on the committee still have objections. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, the new top Republican on the business committee, said she believes Syed was slow to disclose loans he had received and was not forthcoming enough in questioning as the committee has been concerned about potentially fraudulent pandemic loans.

“I’m not convinced Mr. Syed is ready and willing to change the SBA’s culture and bring much-needed accountability to the agency,” Ernst said.

Democrats pointed out during Syed’s 2021 confirmation hearing that at the time, he was not required to disclose the loans in his nominations paperwork.

Lina Khan, the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, is also Muslim.

House Democrats are now accusing O’Boyle of lying to the committee and are referring the matter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, according to a letter obtained by NBC News.

Lawmakers learned about the reason for O’Boyle’s suspension, which was previously unreported, in testimony that Jennifer Moore, executive assistant director of the FBI for human resources, provided to the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Portions of her testimony are included in a letter that top Democrats on the Judiciary and Weaponization panels wrote to Garland, alleging that O’Boyle lied to the committee about leaking information prior to his suspension.

In the letter, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Del. Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, detail several instances of O’Boyle, in interviews with committee staff and in the panel’s public hearing, denying that he had leaked FBI information to the media.

O’Boyle testified that he made Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who chairs the Weaponization subcommittee, aware of his suspension and had provided him with the letter informing him of the FBI’s decision. But O’Boyle described the charge as nothing more than an allegation and claimed that he never provided anyone outside the agency with nonpublic information prior to being suspended. 

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

“I don’t even know where I would begin to budget that money,” said Chanthanouvong, who works in marketing in San Francisco.

Now, after more than three years, the lifeline is being pulled away.

More than 40 million Americans will be on the hook for federal student loan payments starting in late August under the terms of a debt ceiling deal approved by Congress last week. The Biden administration has been targeting that timeline for months, but the deal ends any hope of a further extension of the pause, which has been prolonged while the Supreme Court decides the president’s debt cancellation.

A Republican measure overturning Biden’s student loan cancellation plan passed the Senate last week, but the president vetoed the bill Wednesday.

Without cancellation, the Education Department predicts borrowers will fall behind on their loans at historic rates. Among the most vulnerable are those who finished college during the pandemic. Millions have never had to make a loan payment, and their bills will soon come amid soaring inflation and forecasts of economic recession.

Advocates fear it will add a financial burden that younger borrowers can’t afford.

“I worry that we’re going to see levels of default of new graduates that we’ve never seen before,” said Natalia Abrams, president of the nonprofit Student Debt Crisis Center.

Chanthanouvong earned a bachelor’s in sociology from the University of California-Merced in 2019. She couldn’t find a job for a year, leaving her to rely on odd jobs for income. She found a full-time job last year, but at $70,000, her salary barely covers the cost of living in the Bay Area.

“I’m not going out. I don’t buy Starbucks every day. I’m cooking at home,” she said. “And sometimes, I don’t even have $100 after everything.”

Under President Joe Biden’s cancellation plan, Chanthanouvong would be eligible to get $20,000 of her debt erased, leaving her owing $5,000. But she isn’t banking on the relief. Instead, she invited her partner to move in and split rent. The financial pinch has them postponing or rethinking major life milestones.

“My partner and I agreed, maybe we don’t want kids,” she said. “Not because we don’t want them, but because it would be financially irresponsible for us to bring a human being into this world.”

Out of the more than 44 million federal student loan borrowers, about 7 million are below the age of 25, according to data from the Education Department. Their average loan balance is less than $14,000, lower than any other age group.

Yet borrowers with lower balances are the most likely to default. It’s fueled by millions who drop out before graduating, along with others who graduate but struggle to find good jobs. Among those who defaulted in 2021, the median loan balance was $15,300, and the vast majority had balances under $40,000, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Resuming student loan payments will cost U.S. consumers $18 billion a month, the investment firm Jefferies has estimated. The hit to household budgets is ill-timed for the overall economy, Jefferies says, because the United States is widely believed to be on the brink of a recession.

Despite the student loan moratorium, Americans mostly didn’t bank their savings, according to Jefferies economist Thomas Simons. So they’ll likely have to cut back on other things — travel, restaurants — to fit resumed loan payments into their budgets. Belt-tightening could hurt an economy that relies heavily on consumer spending.

Noshin Hoque graduated from Stony Brook University early in the pandemic with about $20,000 in federal student loans. Instead of testing the 2020 job market, she enrolled at a master’s program in social work at Columbia University, borrowing $34,000 more.

With the payments paused, she felt a new level of financial security. She cut costs by living with her parents in New York City and her job at a nonprofit paid enough to save money and help her parents.

She recalls splurging on a $110 polo shirt as a Father’s Day gift for her dad.

“Being able to do stuff for my parents and having them experience that luxury with me has just been such a plus,” said Hoque, who works for Young Invincibles, a nonprofit that supports student debt cancellation.

It gave her the comfort to enter a new stage of life. She got married to a recent medical school graduate, and they’re expecting their first child in November. At the same time, they’re bracing for the crush of loan payments, which will cost at least $400 a month combined. They hope to pay more to avoid interest, which is prohibited for them as practicing Muslims.

To prepare, they stopped eating at restaurants. They canceled a vacation to Italy. Money they wanted to put toward their child’s education fund will go to their loans instead.

“We’re back to square one of planning our finances,” she said. “I feel that so deeply.”

Even the logistics of making payments will be a hurdle for newer borrowers, said Rachel Rotunda, director of government relations at National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. They’ll need to find out who their loan servicers are, choose a repayment plan and learn to navigate the payment system.

“The volume of borrowers going back on the system at the same time — this has never happened before,” Rotunda said. “It’s fair to say it’s going to be bumpy.”

The Education Department has promised to make the restart of payments as smooth as possible. In a statement, the agency said it will continue to push for Biden’s debt cancellation as a way to reduce borrowers’ debt load and ease the transition.

For Beka Favela, 30, the payment pause provided independence. She earned a master’s in counseling last year, and her job as a therapist allowed her to move out of her parents’ house.

Without making payments on her $80,000 in student loans, she started saving. She bought furniture. She chipped away at credit card debt. But once the pause ends, she expects to pay about $500 a month. It will consume most of her disposable income, leaving little for surprise costs. If finances get tighter, she wonders if she’ll have to move back home.

“I don’t want to feel like I’m regressing in order to make ends meet,” said Favela, of Westmont, Illinois. “I just want to keep moving forward. I’m worried, is that going to be possible?”

Former President Donald Trump has been informed he is a target of the federal criminal probe into his retention of hundreds of classified government records after leaving the White House, NBC News reported Wednesday evening.

Such notification typically occurs before prosecutors decide whether to lodge criminal charges against a target.

Trump’s attorneys were told at a meeting Monday at the Department of Justice with special counsel Jack Smith and other DOJ officials that he is a target of the classified documents investigation, according to two sources briefed on the meeting, NBC reported. It was not clear if they previously had been notified of that status for him.

Targets are people who prosecutors believe committed a crime. Targets often end up being indicted.

DOJ regulations say that a prosecutor, “in appropriate cases, is encouraged to notify such person a reasonable time before seeking an indictment in order to afford him or her an opportunity to testify before the grand jury.”

A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment.

Disclosure of Trump’s status in the investigation came as Taylor Budowich, a top aide of his, testified to a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Miami, which has been gathering evidence for the case.

Smith is probing Trump both for keeping classified records at his residence in his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, and his suspected efforts to hide those documents and keep them from government officials seeking their return. By law, presidents must surrender government records when they leave office.

A raid on Mar-a-Lago last August by the FBI uncovered hundreds of classified documents and other government records.

Trump in a social media post on Wednesday said, “no one has told me I’m being indicted.”

He added that he should not be criminally charged in the case “because I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Trump did not directly answer a New York Times reporter, Maggie Haberman, when she asked him if he had been told he was a target, she reported.

Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was indicted by a New York state grand jury in March on charges of falsifying business records in connection with a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels by his then-personal lawyer.

He has pleaded not guilty in that case, which is due to go to trial next year in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Smith separately is overseeing a criminal probe of Trump’s efforts to reverse his loss in the 2020 national presidential election. A state prosecutor in Georgia likewise is investigating him and his allies for such efforts in that state’s presidential election that year.

Trump on Wednesday called the prosecutors in all of those cases “fascists” who were trying to harm him politically.

The measure had been pushed by Republicans, but it garnered a handful of Democratic votes in the Senate as well.

“It is a shame for working families across the country that lawmakers continue to pursue this unprecedented attempt to deny critical relief to millions of their own constituents,” Biden said in a statement when announcing his veto.

Despite the veto, Biden’s plan still isn’t secure. The U.S. Supreme Court, which is dominated by a conservative majority, is reviewing a legal challenge that could eliminate the program. A decision is expected this summer.

If enacted, Biden’s plan would forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year.

Student loan payments were paused at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they will resume in August for anyone whose debt is not wiped out by Biden’s plan.

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Dubbed “Bank Your Vote,” the RNC-led program aims to encourage Republican voters on how to lock in their votes as early as possible “through in-person early voting, absentee voting, and ballot harvesting where legal,” a party press release said. The program will be carried out in conjunction with the National Republican Senatorial Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee.

After an underwhelming midterm election cycle, party leaders ramped up calls to make a stronger effort at getting Republicans to cast early votes, citing a significant disadvantage the party faced in key swing states where Democrats took full advantage of various voting methods.

Former President Donald Trump and aligned candidates, however, continued a years-long crusade to cast doubt over the legitimacy of early and mail-in balloting, limiting how many Republicans felt comfortable casting such votes.

“We’ve got to have a change of culture among Republican voters,” Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., chairman of the NRCC, said on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. “And it’s going to require us all on the same page.”

Even Trump may be slowly coming around. Although he continues to wrongly insist the 2020 election he lost was rigged, he has suggested the party needs to change its attitude toward early voting, and his campaign last month promoted a “ballot harvesting fund.”

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

The lawyer, Joseph Murray, urged a judge to deny a request by news outlets to unseal the names of Santos’ bond suretors, suggesting they could “suffer great distress,” including possible job losses and physical harm, if they’re identified publicly.

“My client would rather surrender to pretrial detainment than subject these suretors to what will inevitably come,” Murray wrote in a letter to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Shields.

Murray asked that she give them time to withdraw as cosigners if she decides to unseal the suretors’ names, which Shields kept off the public court docket at the lawyer’s request.

Murray said he, Santos and Santos’ staff have been receiving threatening and harassing calls and messages, including death threats. The lawyer said he received a call Friday from someone shouting, “Who paid Santos’ bond?” and said he worries Santos’ critics “are just waiting to pounce” on the people backing his release.

“We truly fear for their health, safety and well being,” Murray wrote.

Santos pleaded not guilty on May 10 to a 13-count indictment charging that he duped donors, stole from his campaign, lied to Congress about being a millionaire and cheated to collect unemployment benefits he didn’t deserve. He is due back in court on June 30.

The 34-year-old, who represents parts of Queens and Long Island, has defied calls to resign and has said he won’t drop his bid for a second term.

Prosecutors have not taken a position on the unsealing request.

In a letter last week, a lawyer for news outlets urged the judge to the release the names of Santos’ bond suretors, citing a “compelling public interest in maintaining the greatest transparency possible in these proceedings.”

The New York Times first wrote to Shields on May 23 asking to unseal the names. Other news outlets, including The Associated Press, joined the fight a few days later.

Separately, the House Ethics Committee wrote to Santos on May 16 asking him to identify the people who cosigned his bond.

Murray said Santos originally lined up three financially responsible cosigners as suretors, but one backed out and the other two didn’t show up to his arraignment. That forced them to make “other confidential arrangements” to ensure Santos’ release, Murray said.

In a statement, the FBI said it would produce the document in a secure location inside the U.S. Capitol for the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer, and the panel’s top Democrat, Jamie Raskin of Maryland.

At issue is an internal FBI document known as an FD-1023, which agents use to record unverified tips and information they receive from confidential human sources. The FBI says such documents can contain uncorroborated and incomplete information, and that documenting the tip does not validate it.

“By offering to provide access to the requested document in combination with a briefing to offer context, the FBI has agreed in good faith to give the Committee all of the information it originally asked for and more,” the FBI said. “The commonsense protections the FBI has requested to maintain the confidentiality of that sensitive information are routinely employed both in response to congressional requests and in court in criminal proceedings to protect the physical safety of sources and the integrity of investigations.”

Comer responded to the FBI concession by suggesting it would not be sufficient to prevent him from moving forward with contempt, saying “anything short” of producing the document to the committee would not be in compliance with the subpoena. A contempt of Congress charge would require a full committee vote before going to the House floor.

Comer subpoenaed Wray earlier this month seeking a specific FBI form from June 2020.

In a May 3 letter to Wray with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Comer said that “it has come to our attention” that the bureau has such a document that “describes an alleged criminal scheme” involving Biden and a foreign national “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” when Biden was vice president and includes “a precise description” about it.

The lawmakers used the word “alleged” three times in the opening paragraph of the letter and offered no evidence of the veracity of the accusations or any details about what they contend are “highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures.”

The White House has called the subpoena effort further evidence of how congressional Republicans long “have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically motivated attacks” against the Biden family “without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests.”

Nearly three quarters of U.S. adults (72%) still believe, in May 2023, the country is divided. But that figure is lower than the 81% mark measured last fall, and down more than 20 points from the 93% “divided” response from U.S. adults immediately after the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol.

And more Americans (24%) now say the country is either “somewhat united” or “very united,” a fourfold increase from January 2021, when only 6% of Americans felt the country was united.

Democrats (35%) were more likely to say the country was united today than Independents (20%) or Republicans (19%).

But the sharpest difference in the latest polling was between adults under 45 years old (43% united), compared to those 45 and up (9% united).

Biden Getting Little Credit for Unity

Despite the improved sentiment toward American unity since the inauguration of President Joe Biden, who campaigned on unity and a “return to normalcy” in America, few U.S. adults say the president has had a positive impact on America’s deep divisions.

Only 25% of Americans believe Biden has helped unite America, while 44% believe he has further divided the country.

Through nearly two-and-a-half years in office, Biden has secured a series of landmark bipartisan compromises on gun laws, U.S. manufacturing, a child tax credit and infrastructure. But he’s also been criticized for speeches pointing the finger at “MAGA Republican” politicians and voters.

Forty-two percent of Americans – including a plurality of Independents and Republicans – say Biden should prioritize policies that unite the nation over the policies on which he campaigned. But Democrats remain statistically split between prioritizing policies that unite (38%) over policies that he campaigned on (42%).

student loans May 19

Will the Supreme Court Strike Down Student Loan Forgiveness?

Debt Ceiling May 30

President Biden Calls Lawmakers for Support as Debt Ceiling Deal Goes for Vote

Shifting Opinions on Trump Accusations

LX News has also tracked a shift in whether Republican voters believe Donald Trump committed crimes in office.

Only 64% of adults who identified as Republicans now believe Donald Trump committed no crimes in office, down from 88% when YouGov first asked the question immediately after the election in November 2020.

The steadfast support for Trump among Republican faithful has been steadily fading since then, with contributing factors that likely include the Jan. 6 riots, a public congressional investigation, a criminal indictment in New York and endless coverage of other investigations.

Twenty-two percent of Republicans now believe Trump committed crimes in office, a threefold increase from when the survey question was first asked in November 2020. However, fewer Democrats today (77%) say Trump committed crimes in office, compared to November 2020 (87%).

The newest LX News/YouGov poll surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults from May 17-19, 2023. The overall margin of error for the poll is 3.5%, adjusted for weighting.

Noah Pransky is NBC’s national political editor at LX News, covering Washington and statehouses across the country. His political and investigative work has been honored with national Murrow, Polk, duPont and Cronkite awards. You can contact him confidentially at noah.pransky@nbcuni.com, or on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

The stakes are high for both men — and now each will have to persuade lawmakers in their parties to vote for it. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last week that the United States could run out of cash to pay the bills and default on its obligations if the debt ceiling is not raised by June 5.

The ultimate agreement, hammered out by Biden, McCarthy and a small group of their deputies, is a two-year budget deal that would essentially hold spending flat for 2024, while boosting it for defense and veterans, and capping increases at 1% for 2025. It would suspend the debt limit until January 2025, after the next presidential election. Republicans had insisted on reducing spending and had passed their own bill with much larger cuts last month.

The package would also make policy tweaks, including by adding work requirements for some food aid recipients and streamlining an environmental law that Republicans say has made it harder to build energy projects.

news May 28

Debt Ceiling Deal Will Be ‘Transformational' for Americans, McCarthy Says

Debt Ceiling May 28

What's Next on the Debt Ceiling: Selling the Plan and Making a Deal Into a Law

Takeaways from the deal, and from the negotiations that led up to it:

McCARTHY’S DELICATE BALANCING ACT

Ever since McCarthy won the House speakership on the 15th ballot in January, it was clear that the debt ceiling negotiations would be his first and perhaps biggest test.

Known more for strategy than policy, McCarthy has had a challenge that seemed almost insurmountable, with a narrow majority and a sizable group of hard-right conservatives certain to oppose anything he negotiated with Biden. And he could still find himself in the middle of a crisis if too many in his caucus revolt when the House votes on the package this week.

Through it all, the Californian has exhibited his typical laid-back vibe, projecting confidence about the bill and its success. He said Sunday that he will win a majority of Republicans on the bill and some Democrats.

In a conference call on Saturday night, McCarthy said, more than 95 percent of the members in his conference “were overwhelmingly excited about what they see.”

But some House Republicans were publicly slamming the deal, arguing it did too little to cut the deficit. Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina tweeted a vomit emoji, complaining that some Republicans on the call were praising the speaker for getting what he said is “almost zippo in exchange” for the debt-ceiling hike.

BIDEN’S RELUCTANT COMPROMISE

For months, Biden and his aides had a mantra: There would be no negotiation on the debt limit. But then he negotiated anyway.

It’s not where Biden, a veteran of the nasty 2011 debt-limit battle that saw the nation’s credit rating downgraded for the first time in history, wanted to be. But it was a likely scenario — with a Republican-controlled House that had made it clear from the start that it would not raise the borrowing authority under a Democratic president without extracting spending curbs or other policy concessions.

There was no way Biden, who is running for re-election next year, would want a historic default on his watch.

Biden has continued to insist that he was negotiating on the budget, not the debt ceiling. But pushed by a reporter Sunday evening who noted that was precisely what Republicans were seeking in exchange for lifting the debt limit, the president seemed to break from his talking point.

“Sure, yeah,” Biden said, chuckling slightly. “Can you think of an alternative?”

Now he will have to sell it to House Democrats, who must vote for it in big enough numbers to make up for defecting Republicans. Many progressive members in the House have appeared skeptical of the deal, but they remained mostly quiet over the weekend as they waited for more details.

But the deal won early praise from another key Democratic group. The New Democrat Coalition, which has roughly 100 members, praised Biden as having negotiated “a viable, bipartisan solution to end this crisis.”

LONG-SOUGHT GOP POLICY

Republicans were able to win some policy changes they have sought for years, however modest, including on food aid. The bill would raise the age limit for existing work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. It would also create a new agency to develop and streamline environmental reviews that Republicans have complained about for decades.

The new work requirements for able-bodied SNAP recipients without dependents would phase in by 2025 and expire by 2030. And a provision pushed by Biden would take some vulnerable recipients — like veterans and the homeless — off work requirements entirely. But Republicans made clear that pushing more people to work in exchange for government benefits was a major victory for them, even if mostly symbolic.

The bill also would amend the National Environmental Policy Act and designate “a single lead agency” to develop environmental reviews, in hopes of streamlining the process.

Republicans had hoped for a much broader permitting package that would make it easier to build and develop energy projects. But Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves, a McCarthy ally who was one of the negotiators, said the bill brings “transformational changes into the permitting and environmental review process” for the first time in four decades.

SENATE QUIET, WAITING TO CLOSE

McCarthy has said the House will vote on the package Wednesday. If passed, it will then head to the Democratic-led Senate where leaders will have to get agreement from all 100 members to speed up the process and avert a default by next Monday.

The White House briefed Democratic senators Sunday and McCarthy briefed Republicans. But most senators remained quiet on the deal as they waited for the full text and to see if McCarthy can navigate it through the House.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky cut themselves out of the negotiating process early on, saying it should be a negotiation between the White House and McCarthy.

McConnell issued a statement supporting the legislation on Sunday but some in his caucus have criticized it. The two leaders will have to navigate any potential objections over the coming week as they seek to win full support to move quickly on the deal.

“With Republicans like these, who needs Democrats?” tweeted Utah Sen. Mike Lee on Saturday, aligning himself with the House Republicans who say the deal is not conservative enough.

Negotiators are now racing to finalize the bill’s text. McCarthy said the House will vote on the legislation on Wednesday, giving the Senate time to consider it ahead of the June 5 deadline to avoid a possible default.

While many details are unknown, both sides will be able to point to some victories. But some conservatives expressed early concerns that the deal doesn’t cut future deficits enough, while Democrats have been worried about proposed changes to work requirements in programs such as food stamps.

A look at what’s in and out of the deal, based on what’s known so far:

Two-Year Debt Increase, Spending Limits

The agreement would keep non-defense spending roughly flat in the 2024 fiscal year and increase it by 1% the following year, as well as provide for a two-year debt-limit increase — past the next presidential election in 2024. That’s according to a source familiar with the deal who provided details on the condition of anonymity.

Veterans Care

The agreement will fully fund medical care for veterans at the levels included in Biden’s proposed 2024 budget blueprint, including for a fund dedicated to veterans who have been exposed to toxic substances or environmental hazards. Biden sought $20.3 billion for the toxic exposure fund in his budget.

Work Requirements

Republicans had proposed boosting work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents in certain government assistance programs. They said it would bring more people into the workforce, who would then pay taxes and help shore up key entitlement programs, namely Social Security and Medicare.

Democrats had roundly criticized the proposed changes, saying they would lead to fewer people able to afford food or health care without actually increasing job participation.

House Republicans had passed legislation that would create new work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, but that was left out of the final agreement.

However, the agreement would expand some work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. The agreement would raise the age for existing work requirements from 49 to 54, similar to the Republican proposal, but those changes would expire in 2030. And the White House said it would at the same time reduce the number of vulnerable people at all ages who are subject to the requirements

Speeding up Energy Projects

The deal puts in place changes in the the National Environmental Policy Act that will designate “a single lead agency” to develop environmental reviews, in hopes of streamlining the process.

What Was Left Out

Republicans had sought to repeal Biden’s efforts to waive $10,000 to $20,000 in debt for nearly all borrowers who took out student loans. But the provision was a nonstarter for Democrats. The budget agreement keeps Biden’s student loan relief in place, though the Supreme Court will have the ultimate say on the matter.

The Supreme Court is dominated 6-3 by conservatives, and those justices’ questions in oral arguments showed skepticism about the legality of Biden’s student loans plan. A decision is expected before the end of June.

The nomination of Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. has been long expected. If confirmed by the Senate, he would replace the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley, whose term ends in October.

Biden plans to unveil Brown as his pick during a Rose Garden event Thursday afternoon.

Brown’s confirmation would mean that, for the first time, both the Pentagon’s top military and civilian positions would be held by African Americans. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the first Black Pentagon chief, has been in the job since the beginning of the administration. The only other Black person to serve as Joint Chiefs chairman was Army Gen. Colin Powell.

Biden saw Brown as the right person for the job because of his work modernizing the U.S. fleet of aircraft and its nuclear arsenal and his deep knowledge of China, a senior administration official said. He’s also been deeply involved in the Pentagon’s efforts to equip Ukraine with billions of dollars in U.S. weaponry as Kyiv tries to fend off Russia’s 15-month old invasion.

Brown has commanded at every possible level in the Air Force and in joint commands, including in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He also helped build and lead the U.S. air campaign against the Islamic State militant group.

Brown is a career F-16 fighter pilot with more than 3,000 flight hours and command experience at all levels. He has broken barriers throughout his career. He served as the military’s first Black Pacific Air Forces commander, where he led the nation’s air strategy to counter China in the Indo-Pacific as Beijing rapidly militarized islands in the South China Sea and tested its bomber reach with flights near Guam.

Three years ago he became the first Black Air Force chief of staff, the service’s top military officer, which also made him the first African American to lead any of the military branches.

For the last year Brown has been widely viewed as the frontrunner to replace Milley, as the Pentagon shifts from preparing for the major land wars of the past to deterring a potential future conflict with Beijing.

That effort could depend heavily upon the military’s ability to rapidly meet China’s rise in cyberwar, space, nuclear weapons and hypersonics, all areas Brown has sharply focused on for the last several years as the Air Force’s top military leader, in order to modernize U.S. airpower for a 21st century fight.

Brown’s confirmation, however, could be delayed. Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville has been blocking military nominations due to his objections over the Pentagon’s policy that provides travel funds and support for troops and dependents to seek a range of reproductive health care, including abortions, if they are based in states where they are now illegal.

The Joint Chiefs chairman is the highest-ranking officer in the country and serves as the senior military adviser to the president, the defense secretary and the National Security Council. The chairman commands no troops and is not formally in the chain of command. But the chairman plays a critical role in all major military issues, from policy decisions to advice on major combat operations, and leads meetings with all the joint chiefs who head the various armed services.

As Air Force chief, Brown has pushed to modernize U.S. nuclear capabilities, including the soon-to-fly next-generation stealth bomber, and led the effort to shed aging warplanes so there’s funding to move forward with a new fleet of unmanned systems. He’s also supported the development of the U.S. Space Force, which received many of its first Guardians and capabilities from the Air Force.

U.S. Sen. Tom Carper is not planning to seek reelection to represent Delaware for six more years in Washington, D.C.

The four-term Democrat announced Monday that he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2024. The now 76-year-old first won election to the U.S. Senate in 2000.

Carper’s announcement paves the way for a wide-open contest for the seat he has held since 2001 in heavily-blue Delaware. It also ensures that his unblemished record of never having lost an election during more than four decades in politics remains intact.

“If I ran for a fifth term in the Senate and won, it would be a record 15 statewide elections,” Carper, 76, noted in prepared remarks at a Wilmington news conference. He said he and his wife, Martha, began talking months ago about what the future holds for them.

“After a good deal of prayer and introspection, and more than a few heart-to-heart conversations, we’ve decided we should run through the tape over the next 20 months and finish the important work that my staff and I have begun on a wide range of fronts, many of them begun in partnership with Democrat and Republican colleagues in the Senate and in the House,” he said.

He plans to serve out his term, which expires in January 2025.

Carper is one of several incumbent senators who have announced that they will not seek reelection next year. The others are Democrats Ben Cardin of Maryland, Dianne Feinstein of California and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, and Republican Mike Braun of Indiana.

Carper said his focus over the next year and a half will be helping ensure implementation of environmental provisions in the 2021 infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Implementation of both laws is indispensable if we are ultimately to win the battle against global warming while creating tens of millions of American jobs in the years to come,” he said.

Christy Goldfuss, chief policy impact officer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Carper “has been a voice of reason and a champion for progress’’ on the environment for decades.

Carper said his other priorities include passage of permitting legislation that accelerates clean-energy projects, expanding economic engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, and ensuring federal funding for school-based child mental health services.

“God willing, I’ll continue working 60-hour weeks and coming home on the train most nights as long as this lady will keep leaving the light on for me,” he said, putting an arm around his wife.

Carper indicated that with Democrats in full political control in Delaware, it is an opportune time for him to pass the torch.

“The Delaware Democratic Party is blessed today with a bench as strong as any I’ve ever seen in the last 50 years that I’ve called Delaware home,” he said. Asked whether he had any favorite to succeed him, he mentioned Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is Delaware’s lone representative in the House and once interned for Carper when he held that role. Blunt Rochester also served in Carper’s Cabinet when he was governor.

“I spoke with her this morning,” Carper said. “I said, ‘you’ve been patient waiting for me to get out of the way, and I’m going to get out off the way.’” He said he also told Blunt Rochester that he hopes she runs and hopes she will let him support her.

“And she said, ‘yes, I will let you support me,’ and so I’m going to,” said Carper, deferring any questions on whether Blunt Rochester will indeed run to her.

Blunt Rochester issued a statement touting Carper’s long service to the state and saying she was “thrilled” that he will be able to spend more time with his wife and family, but making no mention of her own political future.

A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Schumer spoke with Blunt Rochester by phone after hearing of Carper’s decision. Schumer told her he believes she could be a really good senator and that he looks forward to sitting down with her soon.

Another possible successor to Carper is Gov. John Carney, who also served as a staff member and Cabinet official for Carper during the latter’s time as governor.

“For me, the senator has been a friend, a mentor, and a constant source of good advice. And I know I’m not alone in that respect,” Carney, whose second and final term ends in 2024, said in a prepared statement.

Carper served five terms in the U.S. House and two terms as governor before being elected to the Senate in 2000. He began his political career as state treasurer in Delaware. In the Senate, he built a reputation as a moderate Democrat with a strong interest in environmental issues. He also has helped lead efforts to shore up the financially struggling U.S. Postal Service.

“The great privilege of my life has been the opportunity to serve the people of the First State and of the United States in so many different roles for so many years,” he said.

Carper also served the U.S. Navy in the Vietnam War.

During his speech Monday, Carper recalled friendship and working relationships with President Joe Biden and former U.S. Sens. John Kerry and John McCain.

He has also served alongside fellow Delaware Democrat Sen. Chris Coons for more than a decade.

“Tom Carper has also mentored a generation of Delaware leaders,” Coons said in a prepared statement. “From my first race for County Council President, he has encouraged and supported my career in service, acting as a source of advice and encouragement when I needed it most, and as a role model for balancing family and service.”

Carper’s last election win came in 2018, when he easily defeated Republican challenger Rob Arlett, who had been Donald Trump’s state campaign chair in 2016. Carper faced off with Arlett after trouncing a progressive challenger in a Democratic primary, stemming an antiestablishment tide hoping to move the Democratic party to the left.

At most tech CEO hearings in recent years, lawmakers have taken a contentious tone, grilling executives over their data-privacy practices, competitive methods and more.

But at Tuesday’s hearing on AI oversight including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, lawmakers seemed notably more welcoming toward the ChatGPT maker. One senator even went as far as asking whether Altman would be qualified to administer rules regulating the industry.

Altman’s warm welcome on Capitol Hill, which included a dinner discussion the night prior with dozens of House lawmakers and a separate speaking event Tuesday afternoon attended by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has raised concerns from some AI experts who were not in attendance this week.

These experts caution that lawmakers’ decision to learn about the technology from a leading industry executive could unduly sway the solutions they seek to regulate AI. In conversations with CNBC in the days after Altman’s testimony, AI leaders urged Congress to engage with a diverse set of voices in the field to ensure a wide range of concerns are addressed, rather than focus on those that serve corporate interests.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.

A friendly tone

For some experts, the tone of the hearing and Altman’s other engagements on the Hill raised alarm.

Lawmakers’ praise for Altman at times sounded almost like “celebrity worship,” according to Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation and co-founder of the AI Now Institute at New York University.

“You don’t ask the hard questions to people you’re engaged in a fandom about,” she said.

“It doesn’t sound like the kind of hearing that’s oriented around accountability,” said Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI Now Institute. “Saying, ‘Oh, you should be in charge of a new regulatory agency’ is not an accountability posture.”

West said the “laudatory” tone of some representatives following the dinner with Altman was surprising. She acknowledged it may “signal that they’re just trying to sort of wrap their heads around what this new market even is.”

But she added, “It’s not new. It’s been around for a long time.”

Safiya Umoja Noble, a professor at UCLA and author of “Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism,” said lawmakers who attended the dinner with Altman seemed “deeply influenced to appreciate his product and what his company is doing. And that also doesn’t seem like a fair deliberation over the facts of what these technologies are.”

“Honestly, it’s disheartening to see Congress let these CEOs pave the way for carte blanche, whatever they want, the terms that are most favorable to them,” Noble said.

Real differences from the social media era?

At Tuesday’s Senate hearing, lawmakers made comparisons to the social media era, noting their surprise that industry executives showed up asking for regulation. But experts who spoke with CNBC said industry calls for regulation are nothing new and often serve an industry’s own interests.

“It’s really important to pay attention to specifics here and not let the supposed novelty of someone in tech saying the word ‘regulation’ without scoffing distract us from the very real stakes and what’s actually being proposed, the substance of those regulations,” said Whittaker.

“Facebook has been using that strategy for years,” Meredith Broussard, New York University professor and author of “More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech,” said of the call for regulation. “Really, what they do is they say, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re definitely ready to be regulated.’… And then they lobby [for] exactly the opposite. They take advantage of the confusion.”

Experts cautioned that the kinds of regulation Altman suggested, like an agency to oversee AI, could actually stall regulation and entrench incumbents.

“That seems like a great way to completely slow down any progress on regulation,” said Margaret Mitchell, researcher and chief ethics scientist at AI company Hugging Face. “Government is already not resourced enough to well support the agencies and entities they already have.”

Ravit Dotan, who leads an AI ethics lab at the University of Pittsburgh as well as AI ethics at generative AI startup Bria.ai, said that while it makes sense for lawmakers to take Big Tech companies’ opinions into account since they are key stakeholders, they shouldn’t dominate the conversation.

“One of the concerns that is coming from smaller companies generally is whether regulation would be something that is so cumbersome that only the big companies are really able to deal with [it], and then smaller companies end up having a lot of burdens,” Dotan said.

Several researchers said the government should focus on enforcing the laws already on the books and applauded a recent joint agency statement that asserted the U.S. already has the power to enforce against discriminatory outcomes from the use of AI.

Dotan said there were bright spots in the hearing when she felt lawmakers were “informed” in their questions. But in other cases, she said she wished lawmakers had pressed Altman for deeper explanations or commitments.

For example, when asked about the likelihood that AI will displace jobs, Altman said that eventually it will create more quality jobs. While Dotan said she agreed with that assessment, she wished lawmakers had asked Altman for more potential solutions to help displaced workers find a living or gain skills training in the meantime, before new job opportunities become more widely available.

“There are so many things that a company with the power of OpenAI backed by Microsoft has when it comes to displacement,” Dotan said. “So to me, to leave it as, ‘Your market is going to sort itself out eventually,’ was very disappointing.”

Diversity of voices

A key message AI experts have for lawmakers and government officials is to include a wider array of voices, both in personal background and field of experience, when considering regulating the technology.

“I think that community organizations and researchers should be at the table; people who have been studying the harmful effects of a variety of different kinds of technologies should be at the table,” said Noble. “We should have policies and resources available for people who’ve been damaged and harmed by these technologies … There are a lot of great ideas for repair that come from people who’ve been harmed. And we really have yet to see meaningful engagement in those ways.”

Mitchell said she hopes Congress engages more specifically with people involved in auditing AI tools and experts in surveillance capitalism and human-computer interactions, among others. West suggested that people with expertise in fields that will be affected by AI should also be included, like labor and climate experts.

Whittaker pointed out that there may already be “more hopeful seeds of meaningful regulation outside of the federal government,” pointing to the Writers Guild of America strike as an example, in which demands include job protections from AI.

Government should also pay greater attention and offer more resources to researchers in fields like social sciences, who have played a large role in uncovering the ways technology can result in discrimination and bias, according to Noble.

“Many of the challenges around the impact of AI in society has come from humanists and social scientists,” she said. “And yet we see that the funding that is predicated upon our findings, quite frankly, is now being distributed back to computer science departments that work alongside industry.”

Noble said she was “stunned” to see that the White House’s announcement of funding for seven new AI research centers seemed to have an emphasis on computer science.

“Most of the women that I know who have been the leading voices around the harms of AI for the last 20 years are not invited to the White House, are not funded by [the National Science Foundation and] are not included in any kind of transformative support,” Noble said. “And yet our work does have and has had tremendous impact on shifting the conversations about the impact of these technologies on society.”

Noble pointed to the White House meeting earlier this month that included Altman and other tech CEOs, such as Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella. Noble said the photo of that meeting “really told the story of who has put themselves in charge. …The same people who’ve been the makers of the problems are now somehow in charge of the solutions.”

Bringing in independent researchers to engage with government would give those experts opportunities to make “important counterpoints” to corporate testimony, Noble said.

Still, other experts noted that they and their peers have engaged with government about AI, albeit without the same media attention Altman’s hearing received and perhaps without a large event like the dinner Altman attended with a wide turnout of lawmakers.

Mitchell worries lawmakers are now “primed” from their discussions with industry leaders.

“They made the decision to start these discussions, to ground these discussions in corporate interests,” Mitchell said. “They could have gone in a totally opposite direction and asked them last.”

Mitchell said she appreciated Altman’s comments on Section 230, the law that helps shield online platforms from being held responsible for their users’ speech. Altman conceded that outputs of generative AI tools would not necessarily be covered by the legal liability shield and a different framework is needed to assess liability for AI products.

“I think, ultimately, the U.S. government will go in a direction that favors large tech corporations,” Mitchell said. “My hope is that other people, or people like me, can at least minimize the damage, or show some of the devil in the details to lead away from some of the more problematic ideas.”

“There’s a whole chorus of people who have been warning about the problems, including bias along the lines of race and gender and disability, inside AI systems,” said Broussard. “And if the critical voices get elevated as much as the commercial voices, then I think we’re going to have a more robust dialogue.”

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WATCH: Can China’s ChatGPT clones give it an edge over the U.S. in an A.I. arms race?

The new rules in Montana will have more far-reaching effects than TikTok bans already in place on government-issued devices in nearly half the states and the U.S. federal government. There are 200,000 TikTok users in Montana as well as 6,000 businesses that use the video-sharing platform, according to company spokesperson Jamal Brown.

Here’s what you need to know:

Why Is Montana Banning TikTok?

Proponents of the law in Montana claim the Chinese government could harvest U.S. user data from TikTok and use the platform to push pro-Beijing misinformation or messages to the public.

That mirrors arguments made by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. Senate, as well as the heads of the FBI and the CIA, all of whom have said TikTok could pose a national security threat because its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance operates under Chinese law.

Critics have pointed to China’s 2017 national intelligence law that compels companies to cooperate with the country’s governments for state intelligence work. Another Chinese law, implemented in 2014, has similar mandates.

TikTok says it has never been asked to hand over its data, and it wouldn’t do so if asked.

How Does Montana Plan to Ban TikTok?

The law will prohibit downloads of TikTok in the state and fine any “entity” — an app store or TikTok — $10,000 per day for each time someone accesses TikTok, “is offered the ability” to access it, or downloads it.

That means Apple and Google, which operate app stores on Apple and Android devices, would be liable for any violations. Penalties would not apply to users.

The statewide ban won’t take effect until January 2024. It would be void if the social media platform is sold to a company that is not based in “any country designated as a foreign adversary” by the federal government.

The governor indicated he wants to expand the bill to other social media apps in order to address some of the bill’s “technical and legal concerns.” But the legislature adjourned before sending him the bill, which meant he couldn’t offer his amendments.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has pointed to technology used to restrict online sports gambling apps as a way to curtail TikTok from operating in the state. Those violations can be reported by anyone. And once the state verifies a breach has taken place, it sends a cease-and-desist letter to the company involved, said Kyler Nerison, a spokesperson for Knudsen’s office. He said different companies use different methods for compliance and it’s up to them “to not allow their apps to work in Montana and other states where they are not legal.”

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So, Could the TikTok Ban Work?

Cybersecurity experts say that, other than avoiding the fine, there’s nothing incentivizing the companies involved to comply and it will be extremely difficult — if not impossible — to adequately enforce the law.

For one, the U.S. doesn’t have anything equivalent to the type of control countries like China have on what their citizens access on the web. Compounding that, internet service providers are out of the picture.

Before the Montana law passed, lawmakers rewrote portions of the bill to let them off the hook after a lobbyist for AT&T said during a February hearing the legislation was “not workable” to put into effect.

Could Tech Companies Block It?

Apple and Google have not spoken out against the law. But a representative for TechNet, the trade group that counts the two tech giants as its members, has said app stores don’t have the ability to “geofence” apps in different states and it would be impossible to prevent TikTok from being downloaded in Montana. The group has also said the responsibility should be on an app to determine where it can operate, not an app store.

Telecoms analyst Roger Entner, of Recon Analytics, says he believes the app stores could have the capability to enforce the law, but it would be cumbersome to implement and full of loopholes. Apple and Google’s address-linked billing could be bypassed with prepaid cards and IP geolocation easily masked by using a VPN service, which can alter IP addresses and allows users to evade content restrictions, said mobile security expert Will Strafach, the founder of Guardian, which makes a privacy protection app for Apple devices.

Oded Vanunu, head of products vulnerability research at the cybersecurity firm Check Point, agreed it would be difficult for app stores to isolate a single state from downloading an app. He suggested it would be more feasible for TikTok to comply since it controls the software and can “adjust the settings based on the geographical location or IP addresses” of users.

Could TikTok Block Itself?

When users allow TikTok to collect their location information, it can track a person to at least 3 square kilometers (1.16 square miles) from their actual location. If that feature is disabled, TikTok can still collect approximate location information – such as the region, city or zip code in which a user may be located – based on device or network information, like an IP address.

But similar to the app stores, cybersecurity experts note that any enforcement measures the company implements could be easily bypassed with a VPN and efforts to use IP geolocating might lead to other issues.

David Choffnes, the executive director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University, said cell providers may use the same types of IP addresses for multiple states, which could mean someone who is not in Montana could incorrectly be blocked from using TikTok.

What’s Going to Happen Next?

Likely a legal battle.

Knudsen, Montana’s attorney general, has already said he expects the law will end up in court.

TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in a prepared statement Wednesday that the law infringes on Montanan’s free speech rights and is unlawful.

“We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana,” Oberwetter said.

Oberwetter declined to say if the company will file a lawsuit but described some of the legal issues at play. She argued Montana is attempting to override U.S. foreign policy by claiming the bill addresses a national security risk. She said foreign policy and national security laws are not made at the state level.

NetChoice, a trade group that represents TikTok and other tech companies, says the bill would violate the First Amendment and “bill of attainder” laws that prohibit the government from imposing a punishment on a specific entity without a formal trial.

Last month, the Department of Education (DOE) and the Biden administration drew criticism from both the left and the right with their new proposal, which would prohibit the blanket bans that more than 20 states have recently passed on transgender girls’ participation in girls’ sports, but would allow similar bans at the local level when issues of competitive “fairness” or health/injury were at stake.

A DOE spokesperson said the department would review every submitted comment before releasing any final rule change.

Cardona, a lifelong educator who joined President Biden’s cabinet in 2021, also discussed how his bilingual background inspired his emphasis on multilingualism and multiculturalism in schools today. And he detailed what he described as governmental “overreach” by some states’ governors and legislatures.

Below are abridged transcriptions from the interview:

Cardona: The Title IX proposed rule: I want to make sure all kids can go to school free from discrimination, period. We have elected bullies right now going after kids. Look, it’s not a black-and-white issue: It’s very difficult; it’s very nuanced — and our proposal just ensures that all students have a fair shake.

NBC: Part of the criticism from progressive groups was that you didn’t do enough to protect transgender girls and women who want to compete in girls and women’s sports. [The proposed changes] allow a carve out that says you can prohibit them at some level, right?

Cardona: Right now, it’s a proposal. So I don’t want to go too much in the weeds of where it’s going to end up. But we’re asking for input on what folks think we should be considering. Part of the flexibility is ensuring that we have input from athletic councils…[and] the NCAA, which oversees college sports. We want to listen to their input to see what they think could be done, to make sure that all students are protected and all students have access to sports.

NBC: What do you say to the parent of a schoolgirl who says, “I don’t want transgender girls competing against my daughter?“

Cardona: It’s a proposal right now; what we want is to make sure our students feel welcome. We’re taking into account the students who are transgender, but we’re also taking into account perspectives of our students who are competing and are concerned that they might not be able to compete because of the rules. All students should be able to connect in all parts of public schools and athletics, extracurricular activities. Those are part of the experience.

NBC: You’ve called being bilingual a ‘superpower.’ Explain that.

Cardona: Growing up, knowing Spanish and learning English — and being bilingual/bicultural — gave me access to so much more. I saw so much more. I experienced so much more… it’s a superpower because it gives you a skill set — not only in language, but in understanding how [our] differences are positive things, too.

When I was a school principal [and] I saw students develop a second language and maintain their first language, their ability to communicate with more people increased. 

There are so many people I know — whether it’s Spanish, Mandarin, or other languages — their job opportunities or career opportunities expand tremendously and their ability to navigate more of the world is greater because of their multilingualism, and in many cases, multiculturalism.

So I share with students that what they bring to the table is valuable, and what makes them different makes them special. Because I think for far too long, they feel like they have to assimilate who they are to be accepted. And I want to tell them, “No, you’re beautiful the way you are. And having another language is only going to help you in life.“

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NBC: How do you resonate with a growing share of Americans who feel that there’s too much government in our schools?

Cardona: I don’t disagree. We need to leave the politics out of it.

When I was a fourth grade teacher, I wasn’t worried about what the secretary of education was doing; I was focused on my children. I understand that, so my job [today] is not to micromanage from D.C.; my job is to make sure they have the resources [and] support, and that we’re giving our schools the tools that they need to do their job. 

I agree with [keeping the government out of our schools]. I think in the states that are really trying to censor or trying to change laws, the state is overreaching into the classroom. Keep the politics out of it. We’ve got to let our educators and our parents decide what’s best for our kids.

Noah Pransky is LX News’ national political editor, covering Washington and statehouses across the country. His political and investigative work has been honored with national Murrow, Polk, duPont and Cronkite awards. You can contact him confidentially at noah.pransky@nbcuni.com, or on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

The fresh set of negotiators means discussions are now largely narrowed to what the White House and McCarthy will accept in order to allow lawmakers to raise the debt limit in the coming days. The speaker said after a meeting with Biden and congressional leaders that a deal was “possible” by week’s end, even as — in McCarthy’s view — the two sides remained far apart for the moment.

Biden was publicly upbeat after a roughly hourlong meeting in the Oval Office, despite having to cancel the Australia and Papua New Guinea portions of his overseas trip that begins Wednesday. Biden will participate in a Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, but then return to Washington on Sunday.

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Here's Where Biden and McCarthy Stand on Debt Ceiling Talks Heading Into Today's Meeting

“There’s still work to do,” Biden said. “But I made it clear to the speaker and others that we’ll speak regularly over the next several days and staff’s going to continue meeting daily to make sure we do not default.”

Senior White House officials, as well as top aides to the four congressional leaders — McCarthy, R-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. — have been meeting daily.

But now, Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young and legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell will take the lead in negotiations for the Democratic side, while Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., a key McCarthy ally who has been a point person for the speaker on debt and budget issues, will represent Republicans.

“Now we have a format, a structure,” McCarthy said as he returned to the Capitol.

Negotiators are racing to beat a deadline of June 1, which is when the Treasury Department has said the U.S. could begin defaulting on its debts for the first time in history and risk a financial catastrophe. The revised itinerary of Biden’s upcoming trip showed the urgency of the talks.

White House officials sought to soften the impact of the trip cancellations. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby noted that Biden will already have met with some of the leaders of the “Quad” — the purpose of the Australia leg of the visit — while in Japan, and the president is inviting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for an official state visit in Washington.

Still, Kirby added, “We wouldn’t even be having this discussion about the effect of the debt ceiling debate on the trip if Congress would do its job, raise the debt ceiling the way they’ve always done.”

Even as the Democratic president and the Republican speaker box around the politics of the issue — with Biden insisting he’s not negotiating over the debt ceiling and McCarthy working to extract spending cuts with the backdrop of a potential default — various areas of possible agreement appeared to be emerging.

Among the items on the table: clawing back some $30 billion in untapped COVID-19 money, imposing future budget caps, changing permit regulations to ease energy development and putting bolstered work requirements on recipients of government aid, according to those familiar with the talks.

But congressional Democrats are growing concerned about the idea of putting new work requirements for government aid recipients after Biden suggested over the weekend he may be open to such changes. The White House remains opposed to changes in requirements for recipients of Medicaid and food stamp programs, although it is more open to revisions for beneficiaries of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance program.

The idea of imposing more work requirements was “resoundingly” rejected by House Democrats at a morning caucus meeting, according to one Democrat at the private meeting and granted anonymity to discuss it.

Progressive lawmakers in particular have raised the issue. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said, “We want to make sure that these negotiations do not include spending cuts, do not include work requirements, things that would harm people, people in rural areas, black, brown, indigenous folks.”

Democratic leader Jeffries’ staff sought to assuage the concerns late Monday, while a separate group of more centrist Democrats signaled to their moderate Republican colleagues they are prepared to work something out to reach a debt ceiling deal, aides said Tuesday.

While McCarthy has complained the talks are slow-going, saying he first met with Biden more than 100 days ago, Biden has said it took McCarthy all this time to put forward his own proposal after Republicans failed to produce their own budget this year.

Compounding pressure on Washington to strike a deal, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday that estimates are unchanged on the possible “X-date” when the U.S. could run out of cash.

But Yellen, in a letter to the House and Senate, left some opening for a possible time extension on a national default, stating that “the actual date Treasury exhausts extraordinary measures could be a number of days or weeks later than these estimates.”

“It is essential that Congress act as soon as possible,” Yellen said Tuesday in remarks before the Independent Community Bankers of America. “In my assessment – and that of economists across the board – a U.S. default would generate an economic and financial catastrophe.”

Time is dwindling. Congress has just a few days when both the House and Senate are in session to pass legislation, although scheduled recesses could be canceled if more time is needed to clear whatever deal the White House reaches with McCarthy.

Congressional leaders will also need time to take the temperature of rank-and-file lawmakers on any agreement, and it’s not at all clear that the emerging contours go far enough to satisfy McCarthy’s hard-right faction in the House or would be acceptable to a sizable number of Democrats whose votes would almost certainly be needed to secure any final deal.

Republicans led by McCarthy want Biden to accept their proposal to roll back spending, cap future outlays and make other policy changes in the package passed last month by House Republicans. McCarthy says the House is the only chamber that has taken action to raise the debt ceiling. But the House bill is almost certain to fail in the Senate, controlled by Democrats, and Biden has said he would veto it.

An increase in the debt limit would not authorize new federal spending. It would only allow for borrowing to pay for what Congress has already approved.

Turkey’s presidential election could be headed for an unprecedented runoff, as neither 20-year incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan nor challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu had secured an outright win Monday morning.

With a battered economy, tensions over its relationship with Russia and NATO, and fears over a slide toward authoritarianism, the election in the sharply divided country of 85 million people could hardly come at a more pivotal time.

A candidate must get more than 50% of the vote to win the highly-charged race. If no one passes that threshold, the vote goes to a runoff election in two weeks, on May 28.

With more than 99% of votes counted as of 8 p.m. ET Sunday, Erdogan is ahead with 49.46% of the vote while Kilicdaroglu, who has pledged to bring change and economic reform,, has 44.79%, according to Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK).

Erdogan and his conservative, Islamic-rooted Justice and Development party (AKP) are confident. “We strongly believe that we will continue to serve our nation for the next 5 years,” he told throngs of supporters late Sunday night.

Meanwhile Kilicdaroglu, who is representing a united front of six different opposition parties all seeking to unseat Erdogan, vowed to win the election in a second round of voting.

“Despite all his slander and insults, Erdogan could not get the result he expected. The election cannot be won on the balcony. Data is still coming in,” Kilicdaroglu said late Sunday night.

Economic crisis, geopolitical tensions

The conservative, religious and nationalist Erdogan served as Turkey’s prime minister from 2003 to 2014 and president from 2014 onward. He came to prominence as mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s, and was lauded in the first decade of the new millennium for bringing Turkey to prominence as an emerging market economic powerhouse. 

But recent years have been far more challenging for the religiously conservative leader, whose own economic policies triggered a cost-of-living crisis that’s seen Turks struggle to afford basic goods.

Tensions between Turkey and the West are on the rise, and international and domestic voices alike criticize Erdogan’s government for implementing increasingly autocratic policies like heavy crackdowns on protesters, forced closures of independent media outlets and dramatic expansions of presidential power.

“It’s a moment of high anxiety,” one political analyst told CNBC, as many in the country worry about the potential for violence or instability if the election results are disputed by the losing candidate or their supporters.

This is a developing story and will be updated shortly.

Since Cardin announced his retirement, a slew of politicians and activists from around Maryland have stated that they will enter the race to represent the state at the federal level.

Here’s the full list of candidates running for Senate in Maryland in 2024. This list will be updated if and when any other candidates announce their entry into the race.

Angela Alsobrooks

Angela Alsobrooks, the chief executive of Maryland’s Prince George’s County and a Black Democrat, announced her candidacy on May 9.

When Alsobrooks won the 2018 election for the chief executive position, she became the first woman to hold that office, according to the Associated Press. She previously served two terms as the state’s attorney for Prince George’s County.

While in office, she has focused on creating jobs, investing in education and expanding access to health care, mental health and addiction treatment, the AP reports.

“There aren’t enough people in the US Senate who live like, think like and look like the people they’re supposed to represent,” Alsobrooks wrote on Twitter when she announced her run for Senate. “My Great-Grandma told me, ‘if you don’t like something, go farther and do better.’ I’m proud to say I’m running for the Senate. Let’s go farther together.”

None of the members of Maryland’s current congressional delegation are women, and no current U.S. Senators are Black women.

You can find Angela Alsobrooks’ campaign website here.

David Trone

Maryland Rep. David Trone, the wealthy founder of Total Wine & More liquor stores who spent more than $12 million of his own money on his House race last year, announced his bid for Senate on May 4.

Trone won a third term to Maryland’s 6th Congressional District in November in a rematch with Republican Neil Parrott, whom he also beat in 2018. The western Maryland district was redrawn with fewer Democrats after a successful court challenge by the GOP to the state’s congressional map.

In the House, Trone has focused on issues including opioid addiction, mental health, medical research and criminal justice reform, according to the AP.

The congressman said he would continue advocating for those issues in the Senate, and added that using his own fortune to pay for the Senate race means he doesn’t take money from political action committees, corporations or lobbyists.

“And the whole key in that is you make your own decisions,” Trone said. “You can do what’s right for the people of Maryland and not be influenced by anybody.”

You can find David Trone’s campaign website here.

Will Jawando

Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando announced his candidacy for Cardin’s senate seat on May 2 — just one day after Cardin announce he would not be running again.

“I’ve been working for the past five years representing over 1.1 million Marylanders — of the 6 million in the state — fighting to make sure rents are stabilized during the pandemic, passing the first-ever criminal justice reform in the county’s history, which was used as a model at the state level,” Jawando said in an interview with News4’s Sean Yancy.

“And I think what we need in the Senate right now is someone who has a bold vision and a track record of success. I think I have that track record.”

You can find Will Jawando’s campaign website here.

Jerome Segal

Jerome Segal, activist, philosopher, president of the Jewish Peace Society and founder of the socialist “Bread and Roses” party, confirmed his entry into Maryland’s Democratic primary in a one-line email to News4 on May 6.

He worked on the staff for Congressman Donald M. Fraser (D-Minn.) in the 1970s, and later worked for USAID. He was also a professor at the University of Maryland until his retirement in 2019.

In the 1989, Segal founded the Jewish Peace Lobby, which according to its website is “an American Jewish organization which seeks to promote a just and lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

decision 2024 May 6

Activist Jerome Segal Enters Race for US Senate

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United States Senate May 2

Montgomery County Council Member Running for Sen. Cardin's Seat

He also founded the Bread and Roses party in 2019, after an unsuccessful Senate run against Cardin in 2018. That party advertises itself on its website as “A Humanist Organization with a Strong Utopian and International Orientation, One in Pursuit of a New American Dream and a World of Peace and Justice.”

As of 4:30 p.m. on May 12, 2023, Segal does not appear to have launched a website for his 2024 Senate run.

Rep. George Santos, whose lies about his life story have drawn deep scrutiny, pleaded not guilty to charges he duped donors, stole from his campaign and lied to Congress about being a millionaire, all while cheating to collect unemployment benefits he didn’t deserve.

The embattled 34-year-old Republican, whose district covers part of Long Island and Queens, was charged with making false statements, fraud, money laundering and other crimes in the 13-count federal indictment unsealed during his arraignment Wednesday at the Central Islip federal court building. The web of fraud and deceit overlapped with the New York lawmaker’s fantastical public image as a wealthy businessman, prosecutors alleged, a fictional biography that began to unravel after he won election last fall.

The indictment includes seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the U.S. House of Representatives. A grand jury returned the indictment on Tuesday, prosecutors said a day later as they publicly released the court papers. Read it here.

The 20-page document alleges Santos induced supporters to donate to a company under the false pretense that the money would be used to support his campaign. Instead, it claims, he used it for rent and personal expenses, including luxury designer clothes, and to pay off his credit cards.

Additionally, investigators said that Santos took two different $25,000 political donations and moved that money into his own account for personal spending.

Santos also is accused of lying about his finances on congressional disclosure forms and applying for and receiving unemployment benefits while he was employed as regional director of an investment firm and running for Congress. The FBI alleged that he claimed to be unemployed during the COVID-19 pandemic when he was really earning $120,000 with a Florida-based investment firm.

Prosecutors allege that Santos lied to Congress about his finances, falsely claiming he had received between $1 million and $5 million in dividends from his company, Devolder Organization LLC, from which he also earned a $750,000 salary. In his House Disclosure, Santos said he had between $100,000-$250,000 in a checking account, and $1 million to $5 million in a savings account — both of which the Justice Department said were untrue.

Santos has described the Devolder Organization as a broker for sales of luxury items like yachts and aircraft. The business was incorporated in Florida shortly after Santos stopped working for Harbor City Capital, the company accused by federal authorities of operating an illegal Ponzi scheme.

In Nov. 2021, Santos formed Redstone Strategies, a Florida company that federal prosecutors say he used to dupe donors into financing his lifestyle. According to the indictment, Santos told an associate to solicit contributions to the company and gave the person contact information for potential donors.

Emails to prospective donors falsely claimed the company was formed “exclusively” to aid Santos’ election bid and that there would be no limits on how much they could contribute, the indictment said. Santos falsely claimed the money would be spent on television ads and other campaign expenses, it said.

But a month before his election, Santos transferred about $74,000 from the company to bank accounts he maintained, the indictment said. He also transferred money to some of his associates, it said.

If convicted on the top counts, Santos faces up to 20 years in prison.

The indictment intends to hold Santos accountable for “various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement.

“Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself,” Peace added. “He used political contributions to line his pockets, unlawfully applied for unemployment benefits that should have gone to New Yorkers who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and lied to the House of Representatives.”

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll echoed similar sentiments.

“As today’s enforcement action demonstrates, the FBI remains committed to holding all equally accountable under the law,” Driscoll said. “As we allege, Congressman Santos committed federal crimes, and he will now be forced to face the consequences of his actions.”

Santos appeared in court sporting his usual crewneck sweater, white shirt, blazer and khakis with an overcoat as he walked quickly to the defense table and sat down. He conferred with his attorney Joe Murray who put his arm on his back as Santos read the charges during the arraignment, which lasted about 15 minutes.

When asked how he pleads he said firmly: “Not guilty.” He was released on $500,000 bond about five hours after turning himself in.

Santos must submit to pretrial services, have random monitoring at his home, surrender his passport, and keep his travel to limited to New York, Long Island, and D.C. — where he was heading back to Wednesday evening to vote. However, as long as he receives permission from the court and pretrial services, he can travel elsewhere. His defense attorney said since Santos is running for re-election and travels by car to campaign events, he promises to give advance notice. 

Additionally, Santos must not have contact with individuals that the government has identified but not made public. 

After leaving the courthouse Wednesday, Santos appeared combative amid a circus-like atmosphere of a media scrum that has been a constant during his four-month tenure in Congress. He adamantly said “I will not resign” while insisting he will not drop his reelection bid. Santos added that he is prepared to face the charges, which he labeled a “witch hunt.”

“This is the beginning of the ability for me to address and defend myself…The reality is, it’s a witch-hunt. It makes no sense that in four months I’m indicted,” he said outside of court. “I’m going to prove myself innocent…this is about innocent until proven guilty. I have my rights.”

His lawyer, Murray, was more circumspect, saying: “Any time the federal government comes after you it’s a serious case. We have to take this serious.”

As for the claim he cheated taxpayers by claiming unemployment during the pandemic despite drawing “an annual salary of approximately $120,000,” as regional director of an investment firm that the government shut down in 2021 over allegations that it was a Ponzi scheme, Santos said it was “inaccurate information” and he would clear his name during the trial.

Santos didn’t directly address the specifics of the charges to reporters, but when asked why he received unemployment benefits while employed, Santos cited a job change and confusion during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m going to fight my battle. I’m going deliver. I’m going to take care of clearing my name and I look forward to doing that,” he said.

His next court appearance is scheduled for June 30.

What Is DOJ Looking at in Santos Case?

A Long Island prosecutor had previously been investigating whether Santos defrauded supporters and the New York attorney general’s office had previously said it was looking into possible violations of the law.

The Federal Election Commission has repeatedly flagged problems with Santos’ campaign finance reports. Sources familiar with the matter previously told NBC News that Santos was being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s office for possible campaign finance violations.

The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center lodged a complaint with the FEC and urged regulators to investigate Santos. The “mountain of lies” Santos propagated during the campaign about his life story and qualifications, the center said, should prompt the commission to “thoroughly investigate what appear to be equally brazen lies about how his campaign raised and spent money.”

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Is Santos Even Allowed to Stay in Office?

Legally speaking, Santos is allowed to stay in office as he fights the charges. Even if he is convicted, and the charges call for two or more years in prison, the rules of the House of Representatives state that he wouldn’t technically have to leave office, he just would not be allowed to vote on the House floor or in committee.

House Speaker Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy said during a press conference Tuesday that Santos is not on any committees, and likened the situation to the one New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez was in when he was indicted. McCarthy said that Menendez was able to stay on as part of the Senate and voted during the time, so it did not appear likely that McCarthy would be looking to expel Santos any time soon.

McCarthy has said Santos should have his day in court — and that process started Wednesday. It’s been months in the making.

The Nassau County Republican Committee, which had supported his candidacy in 2022, said it would not support him again. In a statement on Wednesday, the GOP group said that “disgraced Congressman George Santos has no future with the Nassau County Republican Party.”

A Democratic PAC is spending $45 million in New York state alone for the 2024 cycle, focusing intently on Santos’ district and a half-dozen others as the party works to regain majority control of the chamber.

CNBC reported that Santos may soon face his first Democratic challenger: former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, who previously represented the district.

What Other Investigations and Allegations Is Santos Facing?

In March, the House Ethics Committee announced that it was launching an investigation into Santos. That investigation appeared to be far-reaching, seeking to determine whether Santos “may have engaged in unlawful activity with respect to his 2022 congressional campaign” among other actions, the committee said in a statement.

The panel was also said to be looking into whether Santos “failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House, violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services, and/or engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office,” the statement said.

Santos had already removed himself from his committee assignments but otherwise has refused calls from many (including Republicans) in New York to step down from office.

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The committee could recommend expulsion, the sternest form of punishment the House can impose, an action it has used only five times in more than two centuries and never when it comes to conduct that took place before a member was sworn into office. At least two-thirds of the House must vote for expulsion for it to occur.

Santos’ legal troubles date to his late teens, when he was investigated in Brazil for allegedly using stolen checks to buy clothes — a case that authorities say they’ve since reopened.

In 2017, Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania for allegedly using thousands of dollars in bogus checks to buy puppies from breeders. That case was dismissed after Santos claimed his checkbook was stolen and someone else took the dogs.

Federal authorities have separately been looking into complaints about Santos’ fundraising for a group that purported to help abused pets. A New Jersey veteran accused Santos of failing to deliver $3,000 he raised to help his dog get needed surgery.

Not only has Santos refused to resign, he has spent much of his time in Congress rewriting the narrative surrounding him — even saying boldly and without a hint of irony in March that “I think truth still matters very much.”

In April, Santos announced that he would seek reelection. The release from his team didn’t mention any of the many controversies, instead portraying him as a “dependable conservative vote” and noting he is the first openly gay Republican elected to the House.

Swift Reactions to George Santos’ Indictment

Reactions to the news has been swift, as well as bipartisan. (To read more of the reactions, click here.)

However, although politicians from both sides of the aisle have asked for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to call for Santos to resign, McCarthy is standing by his side — to an extent. While he isn’t demanding a resignation, McCarthy told reporters that he would not support Santos for reelection.

“No, I’m not going to support Santos,” McCarthy said, almost with a laugh. “I think he’s got some other things to focus on in this life than running for stuff.”

The Speaker said earlier in the day that he hadn’t seen the charges himself, he did say that a criminal trial “always concerns me.” On Tuesday, McCarthy alluded to New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s own legal problems, stating that Menendez was allowed to stay in office as he was indicted, and is now a committee chair.

“Santos was never put on committee, so he won’t serve on committee,” McCarthy told reporters. “He will go through his time in trial and let’s find out how the outcome is.”

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Feinstein has been recovering from shingles. At 89 years old, she is the oldest member of the Senate.

Feinstein’s last Senate vote came on Feb. 16. She missed a total of 91 floor votes during her absence, according to an NBC News tally, and is expected to make her next one on Wednesday.

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Feinstein’s absence made it difficult for Democrats to confirm some of President Joe Biden’s nominees. On the Judiciary Committee, a 11-10 advantage for Democrats became a 10-10 split with Republicans, halting attempts to confirm certain judges.

Democrats attempted to temporarily move Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., into Feinstein’s place on the Judiciary Committee, but Republicans kept that from taking shape. There were also calls for her to resign so California Gov. Gavin Newsom could name a Democratic replacement.

Feinstein said in a statement last month that her absence did not create a “slowdown.”

“I’m confident that when I return to the Senate, we will be able to move the remaining qualified nominees out of committee quickly and to the Senate floor for a vote,” she said.

Feinstein announced in February that she won’t run for reelection in 2024. Her current term ends in early 2025.

“Donald Trump is a risk America can never take again,” Cheney narrates in the 60-second ad funded by her political organization, Great Task PAC.

Cheney does not appear on camera in the ad, but with footage of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol playing, she continues, “Donald Trump is the only president in American history who has refused to guarantee the peaceful transfer of power … There has never been a greater dereliction of duty by any president.”

Airing in New Hampshire, the first GOP primary state, the ad will coincide with the former president’s televised town hall on Wednesday at Saint Anselm College, just outside of Manchester.

Cheney was the No. 3 Republican in the House but was booted from her party leadership position by colleagues in 2021 after repeated criticism of Trump following her vote to impeach him in January of that year. Then, Cheney lost her seat in 2022 to Trump-backed Republican primary challenger Harriet Hageman.

Read the full story here on NBCNews.com.

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The White House said it was the latest example in the yearslong series of “unfounded, unproven” political attacks against Biden by Republicans ”floating anonymous innuendo.”

Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee and Accountability, is seeking a specific FBI form from June 2020 that is a report of conversations or interactions with a confidential source. Comer, in a letter to Wray with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said that “it has come to our attention” that the bureau has such a document that “describes an alleged criminal scheme” involving Biden and a foreign national “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” when Biden was vice president and includes “a precise description” about it.

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The subpoena seeks all so-called FD-1023 forms and accompanying attachments and documents.

The lawmakers used the word “alleged” three times in the opening paragraph of the letter and offered no evidence of the veracity of the accusations or any details about what they contend are “highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures.”

Comer and Grassley said those “disclosures” demand further investigation, and they want to know whether the FBI investigated and, if so, what agents found.

To the White House, the subpoena is further evidence of how congressional Republicans long “have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically motivated attacks” against the Bidens “without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests.”

A White House spokesperson, Ian Sams, said Biden “has offered an unprecedented level of transparency” about his personal finances with the public release of a total of 25 years of tax returns.

The FBI and Justice Department confirmed receiving the subpoena but declined to comment further. The president’s personal lawyers had no comment.

Republicans claim they have amassed evidence in recent years that raise questions about whether Biden and his family have used their public positions for private gain.

House Republicans have used the power of their new majority to aggressively investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including examining foreign payments and other aspects of the family’s finances. Comer has obtained thousands of pages of the Biden family’s financial records through subpoenas to the Treasury Department and various financial institutions since January.

Comer has not revealed much about the findings of his investigation so far. Most recently, Comer claimed one deal involving the Biden family resulted in a profit of over $1 million in more than 15 incremental payments from a Chinese company through a third party.

Both Comer and Grassley have accused both the FBI and Justice Department of stonewalling their investigations and politicizing the agency’s yearslong investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes.

Last month, an IRS special agent sought whistleblower protections from Congress to disclose a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition” of a criminal investigation related to the younger Biden’s taxes and whether he made a false statement in connection with a gun purchase.

Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat who is running in the competitive 47th congressional district, said in a Facebook post that he was cited with a misdemeanor for driving under the influence. Min was released Wednesday morning after being arrested by California Highway Patrol, the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department said. It wasn’t clear if he would have to appear in court.

“My decision to drive last night was irresponsible. I accept full responsibility and there is no excuse for my actions,” Min posted Wednesday. “To my family, constituents and supporters, I am so deeply sorry. I know I need to do better. I will not let this personal failure distract from our work in California and in Washington.”

A spokesperson for Min’s Senate office declined to comment.

Min was arrested around 10:50 p.m. near the Capitol, according to a police report. He was driving without headlights, then ran a red light, the report says.

Min showed “signs and symptoms of alcohol intoxication,” a California Highway Patrol officer noted in the report. Min was booked in the Sacramento County jail.

Many state lawmakers stay overnight in Sacramento during the week rather than returning home to their districts.

Min is vying for the competitive Congressional seat in Orange County now represented by Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, who is leaving her post to enter a race to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Min, who has secured Porter’s endorsement, is the most prominent Democrat in the race. Former Assemblyman Scott Baugh, a Republican, is also running.

Min, a Harvard-educated lawyer and a former congressional aide to U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, was elected to the state Senate in 2020. He chairs the Senate’s Committee on Natural Resources and Water.

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The Trump campaign indicated to the Republican National Committee that he had no intention of participating in a potential August debate, but despite that communication, the sources said that the party’s debate committee went forward with its plans and announced a debate in Milwaukee. 

A source familiar with the RNC’s planning disputed that characterization, saying the Trump campaign’s objection came after the first debate was already announced.

The New York Times first reported on Trump’s lack of interest in the early debates.

The second debate is presently scheduled to be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, but one source said that Trump has bristled at the idea of going there because, in part, the library has never invited him to speak — unlike a cast of other Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who spoke there Monday night.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

Donald Trump’s fast-track reviews drew sharp criticism from internal government watchdog agencies as the percentage of people who passed those “credible fear interviews” plummeted. But the Biden administration has insisted its speedy screening for asylum-seekers is different: Interviews will be done exclusively by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, not by Border Patrol agents, and everyone will have access to legal counsel.

The decision to use fast-track screenings comes as COVID-19 asylum restrictions are set to expire on May 11 and the U.S. government prepares for an expected increase in immigrants trying to cross the border with Mexico.

Normally, about three in four migrants pass credible fear interviews, though far fewer eventually win asylum. But during the five months of the Trump-era program, only 23% passed the initial screening, while 69% failed and 9% withdrew, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Those who get past initial screenings are generally freed in the United States to pursue their cases in immigration court, which typically takes four years. Critics say the court backlog encourages more people to seek asylum.

To pass screenings, migrants must convince an asylum officer they have a “significant possibility” of prevailing before a judge on arguments that they face persecution in their home countries on grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.

Under the Biden administration’s fast-track program, those who don’t qualify will be deported “in a matter of days or just a few weeks,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday.

The expedited screenings will be applied only to single adults, Mayorkas said.

Despite the administration’s assurances that people will have access to legal services, some immigrant advocates who were briefed by the administration are doubtful. Katherine Hawkins, senior legal analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, noted that advocates were told attorneys would not be allowed inside holding facilities.

The Trump administration used fast-track reviews from October 2019 until March 2020, when it began using a 1944 public health law known as Title 42 to expel immigrants on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The speedy screenings were among Trump-era immigration polices that Biden rolled back in a February 2021 executive order.

Unlike the Trump administration, the Biden administration won’t limit migrants to just one phone call. But it’s unclear how many calls U.S. authorities can facilitate, especially if there is no answer and attorneys call back, Hawkins said.

Screenings initially will be limited to Spanish-speaking countries to which the U.S. has regular deportation flights, according to Hawkins and others briefed. The administration began limited screening this month in Donna, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, and later expanded to large tents in other border cities, including San Diego; Yuma, Arizona; and El Paso, Texas.

Mayorkas, a former federal prosecutor, didn’t speak in detail about access to legal counsel in remarks Thursday about a broad strategy that, in addition to the screenings, includes processing centers in Guatemala, Colombia and potentially elsewhere for people to come legally to the U.S. through an airport.

“We have expanded our holding capacity and set up equipment and procedures so that individuals have the ability to access counsel,” Mayorkas said.

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general took issue with lack of legal representation under Trump’s expedited screening. There were four cordless phones for migrants to share when screenings began in El Paso. Guards took them to a shack to consult attorneys.

Phone booths were later installed but didn’t have handsets for safety reasons, forcing migrants to speak loudly and within earshot of people outside, the inspector general said.

Facilities built under Biden are more spacious with plenty of phone booths, according to people who have visited.

“There are rows of cubicles, enclosed,” said Paulina Reyes, an attorney at advocacy group ImmDef who visited a San Diego holding facility in March.

The administration has not said how many attorneys have volunteered to represent asylum-seekers. Hawkins said officials told advocates they are reaching out to firms that offer low- or no-cost services to people in immigration detention centers.

Erika Pinheiro, executive director of advocacy group Al Otro Lado, which is active in Southern California and Tijuana, Mexico, said she has not been approached but would decline to represent asylum-seekers in expedited screenings. They arrive exhausted and unfamiliar with asylum law, hindering their abilities to effectively tell their stories.

“We know what the conditions are like. We know people are not going to be mentally prepared,” she said.

The Biden administration aims to complete screenings within 72 hours, the maximum time Border Patrol is supposed to hold migrants under an agency policy that’s routinely ignored.

It’s a tall order. It currently takes about four weeks to complete a screening. Under Trump’s expedited screenings, about 20% of immigrants were in custody for a week or less, according to the GAO. About 86% were held 20 days or less.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has identified 480 former asylum officers or those with training to assist about 800 on the expedited screenings, said Michael Knowles, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 119, which represents asylum officers.

“All hands will be on this deck for the foreseeable future,” Knowles said. “We don’t know how long.”

One of the sources emphasized that it would be an exploratory committee, with the official launch coming soon after.

Some of his backers are urging him to declare as early as May 11, in an effort to counter the creeping national narrative that former President Donald Trump is the overwhelming front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination. Others in the governor’s orbit, however, have argued that that date would be too soon, according to two of those sources. All emphasized, however, that mid-May is the target.

DeSantis, long viewed as Trump’s strongest Republican challenger in 2024, has traveled far outside Florida in recent weeks to raise his profile. But some of DeSantis’ allies have started to question his readiness as his poll numbers have lagged and he has fell victim of a series of self-inflicted wounds.

In a clear sign of movement on the campaign front, national political vendors descended on Tallahassee this week, vying for work on DeSantis’ forthcoming campaign. 

Brian Kolfage, a decorated Air Force veteran who lost both of his legs and an arm in the Iraq War, previously pleaded guilty for his role in siphoning donations from the We Build the Wall campaign.

A co-defendant, financier Andrew Badolato, was also sentenced to three years for aiding the effort. He had also pleaded guilty. A third man involved in siphoning funds from the wall project, Colorado businessman Tim Shea, won’t be sentenced until June.

Kolfage and Badolato were also ordered to pay $25 million in restitution to the victims.

Absent from the case was Bannon, Trump’s former top political adviser. He was initially arrested aboard a luxury yacht and faced federal fraud charges along with the other men, but Trump pardoned him during his final hours in office.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought new, state charges against Bannon last year. He is awaiting trial. Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses. Bannon has called the case “nonsense.”

Kolfage, Badolato and Shea were not pardoned by Trump, leaving them to face the prospect of years in prison.

Prosecutors said the scheme was hatched by Kolfage, who served as the public face of the effort as it raised more than $25 million from donors across the country. He repeatedly assured the public he would “not take a penny” from the campaign.

As money poured into the cause, Kolfage and his partner, Shea, turned to Bannon and Badolato for help creating a nonprofit, We Build the Wall, Inc. The four defendants then took steps to funnel the money to themselves for personal gain, prosecutors said.

An attorney for Badolato, Kelly Kramer, described Bannon as “a leader and primary beneficiary” of the scheme, noting that his own client received a much smaller payout than the pardoned associate.

While prosecutors acknowledged that Badolato profited the least of the four defendants, they described him as the “connective tissue” between Kolfage and Bannon, helping to direct the kickbacks between the two parties.

Kolfage, 41, told Judge Analisa Torres that he was “remorseful, disgusted, humiliated.” He said he had not anticipated the scale of donations that would flood in for the cause and soon found himself drifting away from his initial goal, which he said was “putting a spotlight on the country’s broken immigration system.”

“I made a promise not to personally benefit and I broke that promise,” he said.

Torres said the defendants not only cheated their donors but contributed to a “chilling effect on civic participation” by tarnishing the reputation of political fundraising.

“The fraudsters behind We Build The Wall injured the body politic,” she said.

Kolfage received more than $350,000 in donor funds, which he spent on personal expenses that included boat payments, a luxury SUV and cosmetic surgery, prosecutors said in a court filing.

Bannon was accused of taking more than $1 million through a separate nonprofit, then secretly paying some of it back to Kolfage.

Badolato, 58, and Shea also stole hundreds of thousands from fundraisers as well, prosecutors said.

As part of a plea deal, Kolfage and Badolato agreed not to challenge a sentence within the agreed-upon range: between four to five years for Kolfage and 3 1/2 to four years for Badolato.

An attorney for Kolfage previously argued that his client should avoid prison time given his lack of criminal history and severe disability.

Some sections of a border barrier were built by We Build the Wall on private lands, but the nonprofit is now defunct.

The Democratic president primarily wants higher taxes on the wealthy to lower deficits; the GOP congressional leader favors sharp spending cuts.

Staring down a fast-approaching deadline to raise the U.S. government’s debt limit, they have to find some version of common ground as they jostle in public over the nation’s $31.4 trillion in red ink. But how can they reconcile their competing visions while also achieving the levels of deficit reduction both say they want?

Playing Chicken

McCarthy wants House Republicans to vote this week on a proposal that would shave an estimated $4.8 trillion off deficits, mostly through spending caps on “discretionary spending.”

By having the House pass his plan, McCarthy hopes to goad Biden into negotiations. Biden is insisting on a “clean” increase in the government’s legal borrowing authority. No negotiations on that. But what Biden has offered Republicans is the chance to negotiate about the yearly budget — provided the speaker produces a detailed spending outline.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre laid out the administration’s thinking at Tuesday’s news briefing.

“We’re not going to negotiate on something that they should be doing, which is avoiding default,” Jean-Pierre said. “But when it comes to the budget, when it comes to how they want to see spending cuts for the American people, we will have that discussion.”

Which side will give ground? Will both have to?

On Monday, McCarthy’s spokesman, Chad Gilmartin, sent out an email listing quotes from 11 Democratic lawmakers who have suggested talks should start.

“Biden must decide between recklessness or responsibility,” Gilmartin wrote.

Kent Smetters, faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, said the fight over government finances amounts to a game of chicken.

“We know games of chicken tend to lead to extremism,” he warned.

What Are the Opposing Plans?

This is the simple summary of what McCarthy has proposed: In exchange for voting to raise the government’s borrowing authority by $1.5 trillion or however much is needed until March 2024, discretionary spending would fall back to 2022 levels next year. There would be a 1% cap on future spending increases; tax breaks to address climate change would be gutted; student debt forgiveness and more generous repayment plans would be canceled, and there would be work requirements for people who get government aid.

That list could change as the legislation gets discussed in the House and McCarthy tries to line up 218 votes for passage. The White House opposes the current iteration, saying it would cause a 22% cut in spending for programs that would hurt schoolchildren, poor families and veterans.

Biden offered his own budget proposal in March that would cut deficits by about $2.9 trillion over a decade. It would raise $4.7 trillion from higher taxes on corporations and wealthy households, with an additional $800 billion in savings from changes to programs. Accompanying that would be $2.6 trillion worth of new spending. There would be a $35-a-month cap on insulin prices and restoration of the expanded child tax credit that would give families as much as $3,600 per child, compared with the current $2,000.

What Would the Plans Do to the Economy?

The Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday said that McCarthy’s plan would cut deficits by $4.8 trillion over 10 years, but its estimates do not look at the possible impacts on the economy. Private estimates are starting to be released that indicate the U.S. economy would be hurt by the GOP’s proposed spending cuts next year.

Moody’s Analytics on Monday released estimates showing there would by 780,000 fewer jobs at the end of 2024 if the House GOP plan became law. Expected growth in the overall economy would slow to 1.6% from 2.25%.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said his company did not analyze Biden’s budget because he views “the clean debt limit scenario as consistent with his policies, particularly in the next 2-3 years.”

By way of comparison, the White House estimates growth next year of 2.1% if Biden’s budget plan becomes law. The conservative Tax Foundation in its analysis says that Biden’s tax hikes would eliminate 335,000 jobs in the long run, an estimate based on multiple years. The Tax Foundation’s model says that the higher corporate tax rates in Biden’s plan would be the biggest long-term drag on growth.

Why does Moody’s Analytics think the Republican cuts hurt the economy? The spending caps would likely cause programs that aid the poor to be slashed. Lower-income households tend to “quickly spend any support they receive from the government,” which then circulates through the economy and supports growth and consumer activity, according to the Moody’s estimates.

Would either Plan Fix the Debt?

Not really.

The problem is that both Biden and McCarthy have declared Social Security and Medicare off limits. Those two programs, along with Medicaid, are what will likely keep driving up government spending and the debt.

“We still have a growing debt path because discretionary spending is growing smaller over time with mandatory spending becoming bigger,” said Smetters, faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model. “Even if we phased out all discretionary spending, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are driving the debt going forward.”

Spending on these three programs is equal to about 11% of the total economy right now, a figure that will grow to 15.4% by 2050, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model. The national debt would more than double, largely as a result of these expenditures outstripping tax revenues.

The savings claimed by McCarthy could also be significantly less than advertised, if Republicans are in a position in 2025 to renew the expiring tax cuts from the 2017 overhaul of the tax code that former President Donald Trump signed into law. Continuing all those tax cuts — some of which Biden also wants to preserve — would add about $2.7 trillion to deficits over 10 years.

Is There Common Ground?

Both Biden and McCarthy say they don’t want to default, though they’ve been willing to blame each other for the possibility that the U.S. government might not be able to pay all of its bills at some point this summer. Both lawmakers have expressed interest in streamlining permitting for energy production and infrastructure.

Is It Time to Get Worried?

If you follow the financial markets, there is one revealing sign that investors are starting to get concerned. There has been an increase in the cost of buying insurance in the event that Treasury fails to pay its debts as scheduled.

Known as “credit default swaps,” this insurance on six-month and one-year U.S. Treasury notes already costs more than it did in 2011, the last major debt ceiling showdown, according to data from the Intercontinental Exchange. Still, this is a lightly traded financial instrument, and there are not signs yet that fears have seeped into the stock market.

Brian Michael Gaherty, 60, was charged in the indictment with four counts of making threats in interstate communications and four counts of threatening a U.S. official, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said in a statement.

Gaherty was arrested April 13 after prosecutors filed a criminal complaint alleging that he had threatened Waters, other elected officials and a news reporter in Houston.

The indictment says Gaherty called the congresswoman’s office four times — twice in August and twice in November — and each time left a threatening message.

Prosecutors said that in one, he told the congresswoman he intended to “cut your throat.”

The indictment alleged Gaherty “knowingly threatened to assault and kill” Waters while she was engaged in the performance of her official duties.

There was no immediate response to messages requesting comment from an attorney who was believed to be representing Gaherty.

After Gaherty was arrested at his residence in Houston, he made a court appearance Monday and was ordered released on $100,000 bond.

He is expected to appear for an arraignment in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

Each count of making a threat to a federal official carries a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. The charge of making threats in interstate communications carries a maximum penalty of five years.

Raab’s announcement on Friday came the day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak received findings into eight formal complaints that Raab, who is also justice secretary, had been abusive toward staff during a previous stint in that office and while serving as foreign secretary and Brexit secretary.

Raab, 49, denied claims he belittled and demeaned his staff and said he “behaved professionally at all times,” but had said he would resign if the bullying complaints were upheld.

Sunak received the report Thursday morning and was carefully considering the findings but didn’i immediately make a decision, spokesperson Max Blain said.

Elder, 70, made the announcement on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and followed up with a tweet.

“America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable. We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. That’s why I’m running for President,” he wrote.

The long-shot candidate joins a Republican field that includes former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has said he plans to seek reelection.

Elder made his first bid for public office in 2021, when he received the most votes out of 46 people who were hoping to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall effort. But a majority of voters ended up voting against removing Newsom, making the vote count in the replacement contest irrelevant.

Some Democrats say Elder’s role as a foil to Newsom helped the Democratic governor inspire voters in liberal California to turn out and reject the recall. Newsom attacked Elder for his support of Trump and his conservative positions, such as opposing abortion rights and restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, such as mask mandates.

But Elder said the experience of running for office — and the millions of votes he received — showed he had a message that resonated with voters. A lawyer who grew up in Los Angeles’ rough South Central neighborhood, Elder attended an Ivy League college and then law school. He has a following among conservatives through his radio programs and has been a frequent guest on Fox News and other right-wing media.

Elder, who is Black, has criticized Democrats’ “woke” agenda, Black Lives Matter and the notion of systemic racism, positions that have put him at odds with many other Black people.

During the recall campaign, a former fiancée said Elder showed her a gun during a 2015 argument. Elder denied the allegations.

In a decision dated Wednesday, the panel found software developer Robert Zeidman had won Lindell’s 2021 contest challenging experts to prove that data he had was not from the 2020 election, and directed the MyPillow founder to pay him the reward money he’d promised in the next 30 days.

Sep 14, 2022

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Lindell told NBC News on Thursday that the ruling was “a horrible, wrong decision.”

The contest took place in August 2021 at a cyber symposium that Lindell — an outspoken election denier and conspiracy theorist — was hosting in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

As part of the symposium, Lindell announced a contest called the “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge” in which participants were asked to find proof that his cyber data was not valid data from the November election, the ruling said. The announcement said: “For the people who find the evidence, 5 million is their reward.”

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

The event, which is being organized by the Democratic National Committee, is not a fundraiser, but is meant to energize the top party donors for Biden’s campaign, the people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Biden is expected to meet for dinner with the assembled donors, who are also set to hear from some of his top political advisers. The summit comes days after the four-year anniversary of Biden’s April 25, 2019 launch of his first successful presidential campaign.

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Biden has repeatedly said he intends to run for reelection, but aides say he feels little pressure to formally launch a campaign, especially since he’s warded off any serious challenge from within his party for the nomination.

“We are here and ready,” said Michael Smith, who along with his partner, James Costos, hosted Biden’s first Hollywood fundraiser of the 2020 primary, and will be meeting with Democratic officials and strategists in Washington next week.

Biden in recent months has been focused on implementing the massive infrastructure, technology investment and climate laws passed during his first two years in office and drawing a sharp contrast with Republicans as Washington gears up for a fight over raising the nation’s borrowing limit. Aides believe those priorities will burnish his image ahead of his reelection campaign.

Some Biden donors have grumbled about what they perceive to be a lack of outreach by Biden’s team ahead of the campaign.

News of the gathering was first reported by The New York Times.

McCarthy announced that House Republicans were introducing their legislation just as President Joe Biden was taking the stage at a union hall in Maryland to warn of a looming fiscal crisis if Congress fails to take action to raise the debt ceiling, now at $31 trillion, to keep paying the nation’s bills.

The 320-page “Limit, Save, Grow Act” unleashed by House Republicans has almost no chance of becoming law, but McCarthy is using the legislation as a strategic move, a starting point to draw Biden into negotiations that the White House has, so far, been unwilling to have over the debt crisis.

“President Biden is skipping town to deliver a speech in Maryland rather than sitting down to address the debt ceiling,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a speech on the House floor.

The package was swiftly embraced by leading Republicans as McCarthy has worked intently to unite his often fractious majority. A vote in the House is expected in a matter of days, in hopes of pressuring Biden to respond. Democrats in the House and Senate are almost certain to be opposed.

Among the bill’s highlights:

— It would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion into next year, putting the issue squarely into the middle of the next presidential election.

— It would roll back spending to 2022 levels, and impose a 1% cap on future federal spending for the next decade, with likely exceptions for some defense accounts. It claws back unspent COVID-19 funds.

— Republicans want to rescind some of Biden’s top policy achievements, including his executive action that provided student loan payment relief for millions of college students, a Democratic party priority.

— The House GOP measure would also roll back elements of Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act — particularly the provisions that the White House and Democrats put in place to fight climate change — and halt money to the Internal Revenue Service that was designed to conduct audits of potential tax cheats.

Loading the bill up are other Republican priorities, including their marquee H.R. 1, a sweeping energy bill that aims to boost oil, gas and coal production while overhauling permitting regulations to ease such developments.

The package includes a long-sought Republican effort to impose tougher work requirements on recipients of government aid, including people dependent on food stamps, Medicaid for health care and general cash assistance.

Missing from the bill are reductions for the Medicare or Social Security programs used mainly by older Americans. Democrats had warned that Republicans wanted to gut those programs. It also steers clear of rescinding the $35 monthly cap on insulin for Medicare recipients and other provisions for lowering prescription drug prices that Biden signed into law last year.

Overall, the legislation is a designed to be a marker for Republicans, a bill that could unite what McCarthy’s team has called the “five families” — the often warring factions of conservatives and hard-right Republicans in the House GOP majority.

What remains to be seen is if McCarthy’s effort will satisfy the House Freedom Caucus and others on the speaker’s right flank who have pushed for even steeper reductions and revisions in federal spending.

Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., the chairman of the Republican Main Street Caucus, said the final product included his group’s priorities for spending caps, work requirements and other provisions.

With the nation in debt and the deadline looming in six weeks, “we are duty-bound to address both of those crises. Republicans have a reasonable plan to do so,” Johnson said.

Raising the nation’s debt limit, once a routine vote, has become politically treacherous in Congress, often used particularly by Republicans as leverage to extract priorities that they otherwise have been unable to pass into law.

For now, the Treasury Department is taking “extraordinary measures” to allow continued borrowing to pay off already accrued bills, but that will eventually run out, likely this summer.

This week, Goldman Sachs warned that the date when the federal government runs out of maneuvering room on its cash flows could be as early as “the first half of June.”

“We must address record spending now,” said a joint statement from McCarthy’s leadership team, including Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas.

While the Republican leaders claimed the package would save money, some proposed changes would actually cost taxpayers.

Previously, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had projected that rescinding the extra IRS funding would increase deficits over the coming decade by more than $114 billion.

A full CBO cost analysis of the new package is not expected for some time.

The plan has been in the works for weeks, if not longer, but came together quickly in recent days.

Roslynn R. Mauskopf, the director of the Judicial Conference of the United States, said in a letter to a pair of Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday that she had passed along their concerns about Thomas and a recent report from ProPublica to the committee.

“I have forwarded your letter to the Judicial Conference Committee on Financial Disclosure, which is responsible for implementing the disclosure provisions of the Ethics in Government Act and addressing allegations of errors or omissions in the filing of financial disclosure reports,” she wrote in the letter, obtained by NBC News.

The letter came in response to one sent last week to the Judicial Conference by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., who outlined ProPublica’s reporting about Thomas not disclosing gifts and luxury travel from Crow as well as the sale of properties related to Thomas to the billionaire.

In response to the ProPublica story, Thomas said in a statement that he and Crow are friends and that, “Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.”

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, objected to a resolution offered by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that would have allowed another senator to take Feinstein’s place on the panel while the Democrat recuperates from a case of shingles. Republicans have argued that Democrats only want a stand-in to push through the most partisan judges, noting that many of Biden’s nominees have bipartisan support and can move to the Senate floor for a vote.

As he objected, Graham said Democrats were trying to “change the numbers on the committee in a way that I think would be harmful to Senate, and to pass out a handful of judges that I think should never be on the bench.”

Democrats could still hold a roll call vote on the request. But with what appears to be unified GOP opposition to the move, it would likely be rejected.

Feinstein, 89, made the unusual request last week after pressure from Democrats who are concerned about the judicial nominees and amid some calls for her resignation. She has been absent from the Senate since February and has given no date for a return, creating a headache for Democrats who are hoping to use their majority to confirm as many of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees as possible.

Ahead of the vote, Schumer said the replacement for Feinstein would be Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, a lawyer and third-term senator from Maryland. Schumer would not answer questions about whether he thinks Feinstein should consider resigning, but said he had spoken to Feinstein and “she and I are both very hopeful that she will return soon.”

Earlier Tuesday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called the effort to place a substitute on the panel as Feinstein recovers from a case of shingles “an extremely unusual” request with no known precedent.

“Let’s be clear,” said McConnell in remarks on the Senate floor. “Senate Republicans will not take part in sidelining a temporarily absent colleague off a committee just so Democrats can force through their very worst nominees.”

McConnell’s comments came after several Republican senators said on Monday that they wouldn’t support the Democratic plan — both because they don’t want to help Democrats confirm liberal judges and because they don’t think senators should try to push out one of their own.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Chuck Grassley of Iowa said they think Democrats are pressuring Feinstein unfairly.

Collins said that she and Feinstein are good friends, and she thinks there has been a “concerted campaign” to push her off the judiciary committee. “I will have no part of that,” Collins said.

Feinstein has come under increasing pressure to resign or step down from her duties. While she has defended her effectiveness, she has faced questions in recent years about her cognitive health and memory, and has appeared increasingly frail.

In 2020, she said she would not serve as the top Democrat on the judiciary panel after criticism from liberals about her handling of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation. Earlier this year, she said she would not serve as the Senate president pro tempore, or the most senior member of the majority party, even though she was in line to do so. The president pro tempore opens the Senate every day and holds other ceremonial duties.

Grassley, a longtime member of the panel who is the same age as Feinstein, chastised Democrats for denying Feinstein the opportunity to become chairman of the committee and trying to force her out of office “because she’s old.”

“I don’t intend to give credence to that sort of anti-human treatment,” Grassley said.

If Feinstein were to resign immediately, the process would be much easier for Democrats, since California Gov. Gavin Newsom would appoint a replacement. The Senate regularly approves committee assignments for new senators after their predecessors have resigned or died. But a temporary replacement due to illness is a rare, if not unprecedented, request.

Some Democrats have called for her full resignation. Her statement asking for a temporary substitute came shortly after Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., called on her to resign from the Senate, saying it is “unacceptable” for her to miss votes to confirm judges who could be weighing in on abortion rights, a key Democratic priority.

Another member of the California delegation, Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar, said Tuesday that Feinstein is “a legend in California politics and a legend in the Senate chamber” but that her vote will be needed as Congress tries to figure out how to raise the debt ceiling this year.

“I will say that our expectation as House Democrats is that every senator is going to need to participate,” he said, adding that “she should get to choose that timeline.”

Asked if Feinstein should resign, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said Monday, “I’m not going to push her into any other decision.” Durbin had previously expressed frustration about his committee’s stalled nominees.

Durbin appealed to his Republican colleagues to “show a little kindness and caring for their colleague.”

If the Senate votes to replace her on the panel, “I think we can take care of this issue, do it very quickly,” Durbin said. “I hope we can find 10 Republicans who will join us in that effort.”

The 2014 real estate deal shines a new light on Thomas’s decades old relationship with Crow, a real estate magnate and longtime financier for conservative causes. That relationship and the material benefits received by Thomas have fueled calls for an official ethics investigation.

ProPublica previously revealed that Thomas and his wife Ginni were gifted with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of annual vacations and trips by Crow for decades — including international cruises on his mega-yacht, private jet flights and stays at Crow’s invitation-only resort in the Adirondacks. But the 2014 real estate deal is the first public evidence of a direct financial transaction between the pair.

Supreme Court Apr 7

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Citing state tax documents and property deeds, ProPublica reported that one of Crow’s companies paid $133,363 for the home in Savannah, Georgia where Thomas’ mother was living, along with two nearby vacant lots that belonged to Thomas’ family members. Thomas mother remained living in the home, which soon underwent tens of thousands of dollars in renovations.

Federal officials, including Supreme Court justices, are required to disclose the details of most real estate transactions with a value of over $1,000. Thomas would not be required to report the purchase if the property was his or his spouse’s primary personal residence, but this stipulation does not apply to this purchase, which Thomas did not report.

Both Thomas and Crow have released statements downplaying the significance of the gifts, with Thomas maintaining that he was not required to disclose the trips. Crow responded to the latest disclosure with a statement to ProPublica saying that he approached Thomas about the purchase with an eye on honoring his legacy.

“My intention is to one day create a public museum at the Thomas home dedicated to telling the story of our nation’s second black Supreme Court Justice,” the statement said. “Justice Thomas’s story represents the best of America.”

Thomas’ office did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

A spokesperson for Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker told NBC 5 the city has been selected for the big event, topping bids from Atlanta and New York.

The Democratic National Committee announced the news in a release Tuesday morning, saying the Midwest continued to be a “critical Democratic stronghold.”

“Chicago is a great choice to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “Democrats will gather to showcase our historic progress including building an economy from the middle out and bottom up, not from the top down. From repairing our roads and bridges, to unleashing a manufacturing boom, and creating over 12.5 million new good-paying jobs, we’ve already delivered so much for hard working Americans – now it’s time to finish the job.”

The convention is scheduled to take place Aug. 19-22, 2024, at the United Center.

Last year, officials announced a bid to bring the convention to Chicago. The video announcement was accompanied by endorsements from top Illinois Democrats, including Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

“The 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago will welcome people from across the nation to an unforgettable event highlighting our party’s vision for lifting up working families and those who too often have been left out and left behind,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Our great global city and its diverse communities, unparalleled hospitality, and world renowned venues shows off the best of America and its people represent the heart of our country.”

Lightfoot said the convention will create “once-in-a-generation opportunities for job creation and business growth here in our city.” Meanwhile, Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, who will be in office at the time of the event, said he looks forward to working with the DNC “to facilitate a spectacular convention that showcases Chicago’s diverse culture, our beautiful lakefront, our renowned hospitality sector, and our best asset: our amazing people.”

Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth said Chicago’s “union labor advantage, hotel capacity” and the city’s location played key roles in its selection over other cities.

“We’re right in the middle of the battleground states,” she told NBC 5 shortly after the announcement was made.

Republicans last year chose Milwaukee in swing state Wisconsin for their 2024 national convention.

The DNC also noted the city will “showcase President Biden’s economic agenda that is rebuilding our roads and bridges, unleashing a manufacturing boom, and creating good-paying middle-class jobs.”

Chicago last hosted a convention in 1996.

State Rep. Webster Barnaby had lashed out at transgender people earlier in the day at a Commerce Committee hearing on the Safety in Private Spaces Act, a bill that would criminalize using restrooms that match people’s gender identities when the restrooms don’t match their “biological sex.”

“We have people that live among us today on planet Earth that are happy to display themselves as if they were mutants from another planet. This is the planet Earth with God-created men, male, and women, female,” he said.

“That’s right, I called you demons and imps who come and parade before us and pretend that you are part of this world,” he added.

Barnaby later offered an apology. “I would like to apologize to the trans community for referring to you as demons,” he said.

Read the full story at NBCNews.com

President Joe Biden, the host of Monday’s festivities on the South Lawn, said he plans to participate in “at least three or four more Easter egg rolls, maybe five.”

Biden was alluding to his expected reelection bid but when pressed for news by Al Roker of NBC’s “Today” show, the president gave no ground. He repeated what he’s been saying for months.

“I’m planning on running, Al, but we’re not prepared to announce it yet,” Biden told Roker.

After making an early appearance on the lawn to speak with Roker after the gates opened at 7 a.m., Biden and first lady Jill Biden will also address the crowd from the White House balcony before joining the “egg-citement.” Some 30,000 people, mostly children, were expected, in nine waves of participants, ending at 7 p.m.

“Anything’s possible in America,” Biden said in brief remarks welcoming guests to the South Lawn, “if we remember who we are and we do it together.”

The first lady’s theme is “EGGucation.” Jill Biden is a teacher and she has incorporated numerous learning opportunities into the event. “Learning doesn’t only happen in a classroom, there are so many fun opportunities to learn around us every day,” she said, explaining that’s why they turned the South Lawn into a “school community.”

The White House Easter Egg Roll dates to 1878, when President Rutherford B. Hayes opened the White House lawn to children after they were kicked off the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.

Kennedy filed a statement of candidacy Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.

The 69-year-old’s campaign to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination is a long shot. Self-help author Marianne Williamson is also running in the Democratic race.

Kennedy, a nephew of President John F. Kennedy and the son of his slain brother Robert F. Kennedy, was once a bestselling author and environmental lawyer who worked on issues such as clean water.

But more than 15 years ago, he became fixated on a belief that vaccines are not safe. He emerged as one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement, and his work has been described by public health experts and even members of his own family as misleading and dangerous.

Kennedy had been long involved in the anti-vaccine movement, but the effort intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic and development of the COVID-19 vaccine.

His anti-vaccine charity, Children’s Health Defense, prospered during the pandemic, with revenues more than doubling in 2020 to $6.8 million, according to filings made with charity regulators.

His organization has targeted false claims at groups that may be more prone to distrust the vaccine, including mothers and Black Americans, experts have said, which could have resulted in deaths during the pandemic.

Kennedy released a book in 2021, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” in which he accused the U.S.’s top infectious disease doctor of assisting in “a historic coup d’etat against Western democracy” and promoted unproven COVID-19 treatments such as ivermectin, which is meant to treat parasites, and the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

His push against the COVID-19 vaccine has linked him at times with anti-democratic figures and groups. Kennedy has appeared at events pushing the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and with people who cheered or downplayed the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A photo posted on Instagram showed Kennedy backstage at a July 2021 Reawaken America event with former President Donald Trump’s ally Roger Stone, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and anti-vaccine profiteer Charlene Bollinger. All three have promoted the lie about the 2020 election being stolen.

Bollinger has appeared with Kennedy at multiple events. She and her husband sponsored an anti-vaccine, pro-Trump rally near the Capitol on Jan. 6. Bollinger celebrated the attack and her husband tried to enter the Capitol. Kennedy later appeared in a video for their Super PAC.

Kennedy has repeatedly invoked Nazis and the Holocaust when talking about measures aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19, such as mask requirements and vaccine mandates. He has sometimes apologized for those comments, including when he suggested that people in 2022 had it worse than Anne Frank, the teenager who died in a Nazi concentration camp after hiding with her family in a secret annex in an Amsterdam house for two years.

Kennedy has at times invoked his family’s legacy in his anti-vaccine work, including sometimes using images of President Kennedy.

His sister Kerry Kennedy, who runs Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the international rights group founded by their mother, Ethel, said her brother has at times removed some of the content at her request.

She told the Associated Press in a 2021 interview her brother is “completely wrong on this issue and very dangerous.”