Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
Todd Blanche, the former defense lawyer for Donald Trump now serving as acting US attorney general, announced two charges against James Comey, the former FBI director and deputy attorney general for allegedly “knowing and willfully making a threat to kill” the president of the United States in a social media post.
Patrick Fitzgerald, a former US attorney for the northern district of Illinois who now represents James Comey, said that his client, “vigorously denies the charges” filed against him.
Democrats on the House judiciary committee responded to news of the indictment by asking if charges would soon be brought against Trump for threatening them.
King Charles and Queen Camilla returned to the White House for a state dinner hosted by Donald and Melania Trump. It was far from the first such event attended by Charles.
The state dinner at the White House was probably awkward for UK ambassador Sir Christian Turner, who reportedly said America’s only “special relationship” is “probably Israel”, not the UK, and that it was “extraordinary” that the scandal over the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “hasn’t touched anybody” in the US.
Eight candidates vying to replace the term-limited California governor, Gavin Newsom, clashed on Tuesday night as they scrambled to break out in a race that remains up for grabs.
The 90-minute debate, held at Pomona College and hosted by CBS News, was the second chance in as many weeks for the candidates to distinguish themselves, with more than a quarter of voters remain undecided less than a week before ballots are mailed out.
“Wow, that was a bit of a mess,” said a political science student who asked the candidates about their plans to make college more affordable.
In an unusual format, the moderator for the second segment cut in multiple times, speaking over the candidates and challenging them in real time. At one point, she warned former LA mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, one of the Democratic hopefuls, that she would ban the candidates from invoking the president’s name if “I hear it too many times”.
Questions on whether to suspend the gas tax, how to address the insurance crisis, and homelessness, helped draw out the ideological division between the six Democrats – billionaire Tom Steyer, former health secretary Xavier Becerra, former congresswoman Katie Porter and Villaraigosa, San Jose mayor, Matt Mahan and California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond – and two Republicans – Steve Hilton, the former Fox News host and director of strategy to former UK prime minister David Cameron, and Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside county.
As the debate neared its end, the candidates began to jab one another more sharply. Mahan assailed Becerra over his record as Joe Biden’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, while Porter criticized Steyer for his wealth and past investments. At another point, the crowd applauded when Thurmond blasted Bianco for his seizure of more than half a million ballots.
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