Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of US politics for the day, but we will be back on Thursday. Here are the latest developments:
Senate Republicans on Wednesday voted down an attempt to require Donald Trump to receive Congress’s permission before continuing the war with Iran, batting aside concerns from Democrats that the campaign is illegal and risks plunging the United States into a prolonged conflict.
Pete Hegseth and Karoline Leavitt were evasive when asked about the bombing of an Iranian girls’ elementary school four days ago, which killed 175 people.
A retired US marine was dragged out of a Senate hearing in Washington on Wednesday by the Capitol police and a Republican senator, Tim Sheehy, as he protested the US-Israeli attack on Iran by shouting: “No one wants to fight for Israel!”
As Trump tried to end a bitter Republican primary contest between John Cornyn, a four-term Republican senator, and Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, saying that he would endorse one and call on the other to drop out, Paxton went on a rightwing news channel to say he is not dropping out.
Steve Daines, a Republican senator from Montana, ended his bid for re-election on Wednesday, three minutes before a deadline, and endorsed an ally who filed paperwork to run for the seat just five minutes earlier.
Tony Gonzales, a Republican congressman from Texas who faces a House ethics investigation into a reported affair with a former aide who died by suicide, admitted on Wednesday that he did have the affair.
In victory speech, Talarico offers Texas a vision of Jesus as a radical, anti-corruption activist
Speaking on Wednesday as the Democratic nominee in the US Senate race in Texas, Jame Talarico, a state representative and Presbyterian seminarian, centered his campaign on a vision of Jesus as a radical, anti-corruption activist.
“My grandad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas. He told me at an early age that we follow a barefoot rabbi who gave us two commandments: love God and love neighbor, Talarico said as supporters held up “Love Thy Neighbor” campaign signs behind him.
“My faith teaches me to love my neighbor as myself. Not just my neighbor who looks like me. Not just my neighbor who prays like me. Not just my neighbor who votes like me. I am called to love all of my neighbors the way I love myself,” he continued. “That’s what motivated me to go into public service — first as a public school teacher and now as a public official.”
At the end of his address, Talarico suggested that the story of how Jesus expelled merchants from the Temple was a model for how he hopes to fight against corporate interests.
“We’re running against the billionaire megadonors and their corrupt political system. They’ll call me a radical leftist. They’ll call me a fake Christian,” he said.
“Two thousand years go, when the powerful few at the top hurt those at the bottom, that barefoot rabbi didn’t stay in his room and pray. He walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice,” he said. “It’s time to start flipping tables.”
As Trump calls for one Texas Republican to drop out of Senate runoff, Ken Paxton says he's staying in
Hours after Donald Trump tried to end a bitter Republican primary contest between John Cornyn, a four-term Republican senator, and Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, saying that he would endorse one and call on the other to drop out, Paxton went on a rightwing news channel to say he is not dropping out.
Asked by a Real America’s Voice host, John Solomon, whose pro-Trump pieces Trump has often shared on social media, whether he would drop out without Trump’s endorsement, Paxton said: “I’m staying in this race. I owe it to the people of Texas. I’ve spent a year of my life campaigning for - against John Cornyn, because John has not represented the people of Texas well. He sided with Joe Biden on second amendment restrictions; he sided with Joe Biden on bringing Afghan refugees to settle here.”
Paxton, who tried to keep Trump in office in 2020 by suing four swing states Trump lost over their pandemic-era embrace of vote-by-mail, added that Cornyn “has been against Trump in both of his elections, said he shouldn’t run last time, his day had passed, and of course he fought him on the border wall, he’s been an amnesty guy. Everything that Trump’s stood for, John Cornyn fought, but he was a big help to Joe Biden.”
With the encouragement of Solomon and his pro-Trump co-host Amanda Head, Paxton seemed intent on amplifying his campaign ad, which relentlessly hammers Cornyn for having broken with Trump on a number of issues.
At the end of the interview, Paxton said he looked forward to speaking with Trump and said he would urge him to either not endorse or “endorse someone that’s been a supporter of his and not an opponent”.
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Republican senator Steve Daines ends re-election bid and endorses ally who filed minutes before deadline
Steve Daines, a Republican senator from Montana, ended his bid for re-election on Wednesday, three minutes before a deadline, and endorsed an ally who filed paperwork to run for the seat just five minutes earlier.
Daines, who has served in the Senate since 2014, formally withdrew from the race at 4.57pm local time, five minutes after his ally, US attorney Kurt Alme, entered the Republican primary, the NBC affiliate in Montana KTVH reported.
At 5pm, the window for candidates to register for the election with the Montana secretary of state’s office closed.
“After wrestling with this decision for months, I have decided I will not seek re-election. It is time for a new leader like Tim Sheehy to spearhead the fight for Montana in the United States Senate,” Daines said in a video statement posted online.
Earlier on Wednesday, Montana’s other Republican senator, Tim Sheehy, helped drag an anti-war protester out of a Senate hearing as he denounced the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Daines quickly endorsed Alme’s five-minute-old campaign.
“I’ve known Kurt Alme for years,” Daines told KTVH. “He was appointed US attorney by President Trump in his first term and then reappointed when President Trump was re-elected because he did such a good job cracking down on crime.”
Minutes later, Donald Trump also backed Alme in a social media post. “Kurt is exceptional, and I will be giving him, based on Steve’s strongest recommendation, my Complete and Total Endorsement,” Trump wrote. “Governor Greg Gianforte and Senator Tim Sheehy have also Endorsed Kurt.”
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Republican congressman Tony Gonzales admits affair with aide who took her own life
Tony Gonzales, a Republican congressman from Texas who faces a House ethics investigation into a reported affair with a former aide who died by suicide, admitted on Wednesday that he did have the affair.
“I made a mistaken, and I had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith,” Gonzales told the rightwing radio host Joe Pagliarulo, in an apparent admission that he had been unfaithful to his wife.
“I’ve reconciled with my wife, Angel,” he continued. “I’ve asked God to forgive me, which he has, and my faith is as strong as ever.”
The congressman had previously denied misconduct.
The House ethics committee announced a formal investigation into the Texas Republican on Wednesday, the day after he was forced into a runoff in the Republican primary in his district.
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Retired US marine dragged out of Senate hearing shouting 'No one wants to fight for Israel!'
A retired US marine was dragged out of a Senate hearing in Washington on Wednesday by the Capitol police and a Republican senator, Tim Sheehy, as he protested the US-Israeli attack on Iran by shouting: “No one wants to fight for Israel!”
The protester, who was dressed in a marine uniform and had been seated in the audience at the rear of the hearing room, was identified by the activist group Codepink as Brian McGinnis, a former US marine who fought in Iraq and is the Green Party candidate for Senate in North Carolina.
Codepink posted video of McGinnis being carried out of the armed services subcommittee hearing he disrupted as the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps was about to speak on the readiness of the force.
The Codepink video also shows that as McGinnis wrestled with the police, he called out to the marine general in the front of the room, saying: “Commandant, please stand up, as a marine, stand up for America!”
McGinnis began his protest by standing up from his seat at the back of the room and saying: “Israel is the reason for this war; America does not want to fight this war for Israel,” according to video posted on Instagram by another military veteran turned peace activist, Josephine Guilbeau, and a livestream of the hearing on the armed services committee’s website.
After two police officers started to drag McGinnis away, he shouted: “America does not want to send its sons and daughters to war for Israel! Your inability to name that shows your ineptness as leaders.”
“This is wrong, and nobody wants to fight for Israel” the protester continued to shout as he resisted being dragged away and toppled to the ground with the officers.
At that point, CBS News video shows, a third police officer and Sheehy, a former Navy Seal from Montana who served in Afghanistan and was elected to the Senate last year despite questions over his war record, joined the effort to drag the protester out.
Sheehy later derided McGinnis as “an unhinged protestor” and said that his own role in bundling him away was just an attempt to “deescalate the situation”.
In an Instagram video posted before the hearing, McGinnis told his followers he was there to demand accountability for what he called “this betrayal” by elected officials who had promised there would be no war. “Free Palestine. Free America.” he said at the end of the video.
Codepink also shared video recorded on Wednesday of it cofounder, Medea Benjamin, pressing another Republican senator, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, to explain why the US is at war with Iran.
Cramer first made the false claim that the international nuclear deal struck with Iran during the Obama administration, which barred Iran from making a nuclear weapon, “allowed Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.
The senator then told the activist that the US had to support its military ally Israel because “we have a biblical responsibility to them, as well as an allied responsibility to Israel”.
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Senate Republicans on Wednesday voted down an attempt to require Donald Trump to receive Congress’s permission before continuing the war with Iran, batting aside concerns from Democrats that the campaign is illegal and risks plunging the United States into a prolonged conflict.
The 47-53 vote on a war powers resolution introduced by Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine broke largely along party lines. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat to vote against the measure, while Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only member of the Republican majority to support the resolution.
The measure would have forced an end to the US air and naval campaign against Iran and require the president to go to Congress before re-entering the war. Before the vote, Democratic senator Chris Murphy said the resolution was necessary to prevent Trump from repeating in Iran the follies of previous US presidents in Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere.
“The difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Republicans have learned nothing. Decades of American hubris in the Middle East, believing that US troops, US planes, US guns and US bombs could fundamentally change realities in a far off land. Democrats have learned our lesson,” Murphy said.
Trump ordered the military campaign after months of fruitless negotiations with Tehran intended to resolve the question of Iran’s nuclear program. While he notified a small group of top lawmakers beforehand, Kaine argued that the president needs permission from Congress to continue a conflict that has already resulted in the deaths of US soldiers.
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Trump signs 'pledge' calling on AI firms to pay for electricity upgrades
A short time ago, Donald Trump concluded the public portion of an event with big tech executives in Washington, by signing a proclamation calling on AI firms to protect Americans against higher electricity bills tied to datacenter power demand through a non-binding pledge.
The pledge was signed in the ornate, high-ceilinged Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower executive office building.
Reporters were asked to leave immediately after Trump signed the proclamation, denying them to the chance to ask the president any questions about the war in Iran or about the optics of a pledge signed in a room named after the many treaties signed by the US government with Indigenous people that were not honored.
According to an archived White House website page from the administration of George W Bush:
The reason for the room’s name ‘Indian Treaty Room’ is a mystery. It is not clear where it originated, despite extensive research. Some believe it was due to the fact that during the 1930s the War Department stored papers there, including treaties with the American Indian nations. But this is not true, as the State Department used it for storage until the 1940s after the Navy Library moved out.
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Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democratic senator, served as a marine during the Iraq war, losing dozens of members of his battalion, including his best friend. The Iran war is “just a lot of deja vu”, he told the Guardian today.
“You have a war that was hastily joined without any end goal, without any real reasoning, without full transparency with the American public,” he said. “And you know, it sounds and smells potentially like another quagmire we’re walking ourselves into.”
He said the war is illegal – there was no imminent threat, as the White House has said, that allowed the president to circumvent Congress’ role.
Democrats are pushing for a vote this afternoon on a war powers resolution that is likely to fail. Gallego said they should keep working to stop the war and get more answers from the president by leveraging the power of the purse, though he acknowledged there were “very few things we can do” with Republicans in control of Congress and the White House.
“We should be doing everything we can to stop this war,” he said, “to at least figure out how to get it terminated, how to push for a plan from this White House that tells us at least what the victory looks like, what the real angles are, and what Iran is going to look like after we’re done.”
The hasty start to the war and lack of clarity on its goals put civilians, military and US allies in danger, he said.
For active duty military, “it’s a scary situation, when you don’t hear what the plan is, what the victory is, when the president doesn’t lay out what the goals are. You don’t know what part you are in that mission, and what does that mean for your life. Are you likely to get activated? Are you likely to go? Anything of that nature. And that kind of ambiguity really scares members of the military as well as with their families.”
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Here's a recap of the day so far
Pete Hegseth confirmed during a Pentagon press conference that a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka. The defense secretary also said that “America is winning” the war on Iran, and suggested that in under a week the US and Israel “will have complete control of Iranian skies, uncontested airspace”.
The defense secretary was evasive when asked about the bombing of an Iranian girls’ elementary school four days ago, which killed 175 people. “All I can say is that we’re investigating,” Hegseth said, while providing no information clarifying whose munition was responsible for the strike.
During a White House press briefing, Karoline Leavitt was similarly vague about the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school. “I would caution you from pointing the finger at the United States of America when it comes to targeting civilians, because that’s not something that these armed forces do,” the press secretary said.
Leavitt also said that Donald Trump plans to attend the ‘dignified transfer’ of the bodies of the six US service members who have been killed since the war with Iran began. “I understand the Department of War is working on scheduling this transfer, and we will provide updates at the appropriate time,” she added.
The House oversight committee voted 24-19 to subpoena the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, as part of the ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. The motion was introduced by Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace, with five GOP representatives joining all Democrats on the committee to compel Bondi to testify.
Senate Republicans are on Wednesday expected to vote down a Democratic-backed war powers resolution that would prevent Donald Trump from continuing the conflict against Iran. Democrats have condemned Trump for ordering an air campaign against Iran without first seeking permission from Congress, but are unlikely to muster the 50 votes needed for the resolution to advance.
The House ethics committee announced today that it will open an investigation into Texas congressman Tony Gonzales, following accusations that he had an extramarital affair with an aide in his office. In a statement, the committee said it would examine whether Gonzales engaged in sexual misconduct or discriminated unfairly by “dispensing special favors or privileges”.
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett conceded to James Talarico today, after the state representative secured the Democratic Senate nomination in Texas. Crockett said that she called Talarico to congratulate him. “Texas is primed to turn blue and we must remain united because this is bigger than any one person,” she said.
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House oversight committee votes to subpoena Pam Bondi as part of Epstein investigation
The House oversight committee voted 24-19 to subpoena the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, as part of the ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The motion was introduced by Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace, with five GOP representatives joining all Democrats on the committee to compel Bondi to testify.
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At his meeting with tech bosses at the White House on Wednesday, Trump showcased his longstanding ire for wind energy.
The president said he told his environment secretary, Lee Zeldin, that his agency should speed permitting processes for gas plants, but he also told him: “Don’t worry about wind.”
“Forget it. It’s worthless,” Trump said. “You don’t get approvals for wind. We don’t do wind in this because it’s a loser.”
Trump went on to say that China makes “all the windmills”.
“The only problem is, they don’t have windfarms,” he said. “In China, they make the windmills, then they sell them to the suckers over in Europe.”
In reality, China has more wind capacity than any other country, equaling 40% of global wind generation in 2024, according to a 2025 report from the thinktank Ember Energy. It also has twice as much capacity under construction than the rest of the world combined.
The Guardian has repeatedly debunked the president’s baseless claims about China’s wind power – most recently during his remarks earlier this at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
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Green groups remain unimpressed with pledge to mitigate datacenter energy costs: 'This is a pinky promise, nothing more'
As Donald Trump hosts big tech executives in Washington, where they are expected to sign pledges to protect Americans against higher electricity bills tied to datacenter power demand, green groups are largely unimpressed with the plan to mitigate utility price surges.
“This pledge is like asking the fox to guard the hen house. Datacenter developers have proven time and again that they’re interested in protecting their bottom line only,” said Sierra Club principal adviser Jeremy Fisher. “This is a pinky promise, nothing more.”
Fisher said the tech giants present at the event, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and others, “must now take real actions and show up in state regulatory venues and hold datacenters accountable for every penny of their energy infrastructure costs, making sure datacenters are building lower cost, lower risk clean energy and minimizing impacts to local residents.
“The Sierra Club has fought for years for real, meaningful commitments by big tech, and we will not stop at a flimsy pledge to finally pay their fair share,” he added.
Trevor Higgins, senior vice-president of energy and environment at the liberal thinktank Center for American Progress, said the pledges are “vague and largely meaningless”.
“Unless all datacenters are required to pay their fair share for the costs for their power, companies can opt out or hide the true impacts of their datacenter development,” he said.
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'We're doing very well on the war front,' says Donald Trump
As Donald Trump kicked things off for his roundtable event with tech companies today, he noted that those in the room “probably want to speak about war” rather than energy costs linked to the rapid build-out of datacenters across the country.
“We’re doing very well on the war front,” the president added. “If we didn’t do it first, they [Iran] would have done it to Israel … If we didn’t hit within two weeks, they would have had a nuclear weapon.”
He added that the ongoing military action against Iran is depleting the regime’s leadership. “Everybody that seems to want to be a leader, they end up dead,” the president said.
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We’re due to hear from Donald Trump soon, when he welcomes big tech companies to Washington.
He’ll discuss the “ratepayer protection pledge” – the voluntary agreement which would commit tech giants to paying for or building the electricity needed to operate datacenters across the country.
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, is also at the roundtable event. We’ll bring you the latest lines as things get going.
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A crowdfunding campaign has been launched for the family of Sgt Declan J Coady – the 20-year-old Iowa soldier killed in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait on 1 March after the launch of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Coady, a Drake University student and army reserve IT specialist who was posthumously promoted from specialist, was one of six US service members killed in the attack. Four of them had been from Iowa’s 103rd sustainment command.
The new GoFundMe campaign has so far raised over $55k and describes Coady as “more than a soldier – he was a son, a family member, a friend, and a light in the lives of those who knew him”.
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Spain ‘has agreed to cooperate’ with US after Trump ire, says White House
During the White House press briefing on Wednesday, Karoline Leavitt said that Spain had agreed to cooperate with US operations in the Middle East.
“With respect to Spain, I think they heard the president’s message yesterday loud and clear,” the White House press secretary said. “And it’s my understanding over the past several hours, they’ve agreed to cooperate with the US military. And so I know that the US military is coordinating with their counterparts in Spain.”
But, shortly after, Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said that the Spanish government’s position “on the war in the Middle East the bombings in Iran, and the use of our bases has not changed one iota”.
A government spokesperson added: “It is not true. We categorically deny any change it. Spain’s position has not changed.”
White House doesn't rule out possibility of US boots on the ground in Iran
During today’s press briefing, Karoline Leavitt did not rule out the possibility of US troops on the ground in Iran.
“They’re not part of the plan for this operation at this time,” Leavitt said. “But I certainly will never take away military options on behalf of the president of the United States … and he wisely does not do the same for himself.”
She noted that “many leaders in the past” have taken options off the table “without having a full understanding of how things could develop”.
The question mark around American troops on the ground is in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s campaign, which focused on not embroiling the US in foreign conflicts.
Once again, the White House doubled down on its stance that the president had a “feeling” Iran posed an “imminent and direct threat” to the US, as its basis to launch initial strikes. However, Karoline Leavitt did not provide any detail about those threats at the podium today.
In the Oval Office earlier this week, Donald Trump insisted that it was his opinion that Iran was “going to attack first” after stalled negotiations with the regime.
“These decisions are not made in a vacuum, they are made by the president’s feeling that Iran was going to strike the United States and our assets in the region,” Leavitt told reporters today.
White House pushes back against accusations that evacuation plans for Americans were too made late
A number of reporters today have asked the press secretary whether the administration should have done more, in advance of the weekend strikes, to evacuate more Americans in the Middle East.
The press secretary insisted that there were plans in place, and listed several travel advisories shared by state department in recent weeks. On Monday, Mora Namdar, the US assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, issued the advisory on Monday, urging Americans to “DEPART NOW” from more than a dozen countries, citing “serious safety risks”. However, major airlines have canceled flights to and from the region since Saturday, and several airports paused flights and scaled back operations, leaving thousands stranded.
“We gave notices to leave immediately the countries where these Americans were,” Leavitt said today, despite reports of Americans calling the state department hotline as recently as Tuesday evening and being told they couldn’t receive help to evacuate.
Leavitt said that 17,500 Americans have safely returned home from the Middle East, with more than 8,500 American citizens returning home on Tuesday. She also repeated that US citizens in the Middle East looking to return home should register with the state department to be provided travel options.
You can read more about those left stranded by my colleague, Anna Betts:
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At the press briefing on Wednesday, Karoline Leavitt said that Donald Trump plans to attend the ‘dignified transfer’ of the bodies of the six US service members who have been killed since the war with Iran began.
“We grieve for these American patriots and their families as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives, President Trump intends to attend the dignified transfer of these American heroes to stand in grief alongside their families” she said. “I understand the Department of War is working on scheduling this transfer, and we will provide updates at the appropriate time.”
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White House evades responsibility for strike on Iranian girls' school
Karoline Leavitt batted down a question from a reporter about the US involvement in a strike on an Iranian girls’ elementary school, which killed 175 people.
The press secretary did not accept US responsibility for the attack, and noted that the Pentagon is investigating the strike (as Pete Hegseth said earlier).
“I would just tell you very strongly, the United States of America does not target civilians, unlike the rogue Iranian regime,” Leavitt said. “I would caution you from pointing the finger at the United States of America when it comes to targeting civilians, because that’s not something that these armed forces do.”
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Leavitt says Trump had 'good feeling' Iran was going to strike US
Leavitt said that while a reported phone call between Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump about Ayotollah Ali Khamenei’s whereabouts was “important”, she doubled down on the president’s claim that he “had a good feeling that the Iranian regime was going to strike the United States assets and our personnel in the region”.
The press secretary added that while Khamenei’s location “had an impact on the timeline of the operation” it was “not quite the president’s decision in its entirety”.
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Leavitt accused members of the media of “misreporting and intellectual dishonesty” when explaining why Donald Trump decided initiate Operation Epic Fury.
The administration has put out conflicting accounts about the lead-up to the initial attacks on Saturday. While the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that an imminent strike from Israel precipitated pre-emptive action from the US. However, the president said on Tuesday that, “if anything”, he forced Israel’s hand to strike, and rejected any claims that he was pressured by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Leavitt lavishes praise on Trump, touts success of Operation Epic Fury
In her opening remarks on the fourth day of the US-Israel war on Iran, Donald Trump’s press secretary lavished praise on the president.
“President Trump is holding these monsters accountable and permanently extinguishing their nuclear ambitions,” Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House. “Future generations of Americans will look to this moment as the moment where the specter of a nuclear armed Iran ended at the beginning of Operation Epic Fury launched last weekend.”
Leavitt also repeated comments by the defense secretary just hours ago that the US has significantly degraded the Iranian navy.
“So far, we have destroyed more than 20 Iranian ships, including their top submarine, last night using a torpedo,” she said. “It’s safe to say that thus far, operation, Epic Fury has been a resounding success.”
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US Central Command has said that US forces have “struck or sunk to the bottom of the ocean” more than 20 Iranian ships.
“Last night, CENTCOM added a Soleimani-class warship to the list,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.
In another statement on Wednesday, US Central Command said that “US forces continue to aggressively hunt and destroy Iranian missile launchers with precision”.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is due to hold a briefing for reporters shortly.
We can expect questions about the US-Israel war on Iran and the deadly strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed more than 170 people.
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth evaded questions about the attack during his press conference earlier, and repeated the administration’s stance that the conflict could drag on as long as the president deems necessary. A reminder that later today, the Senate will vote on a war powers resolution to curb Donald Trump’s military action in Iran. However, Democrats are unlikely to achieve the votes needed for it to advance.
We will have a live feed at the top of this blog and will bring you the latest updates as we get them.
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Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has criticized the Trump administration’s “chaos and incompetence” in its efforts to to help Americans stranded in the Middle East return to the United States.
The state department said on Wednesday that 8,500 Americans returned on Tuesday. But hundreds are still thought to be in the region as the US-Israel war on Iran intensifies. A statement on the state department website says officials will “actively assist” any Americans who wish to leave the Middle East.
But Schumer blasted those efforts as too little, too late. Writing on X on Wednesday, he said:
Hundreds of Americans, including many New Yorkers, are stranded across the Middle East, and the state department’s message is basically ‘good luck.’ Evacuation warnings were issued three days into the war, with airspace shut down and no U.S. government flights in place. This is what happens when you recklessly gut the State Department under DOGE and rush into a war with no plan. Zero planning, zero strategy, and now Americans are paying the price.
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The US airstrike on an Iranian warship that killed more than 80 crew members is illegal, according to Wes Bryant, a former US air force special operations targeting expert and former chief of civilian harm assessments at the Pentagon.
The Iris Dena, a 1.5-ton warship bearing Iranian missiles, was reportedly transiting home after participating in training exercises hosted by the Indian navy at the time of the strike, according to Indian press. India had convened naval assets from 74 countries for a March exercise.
“Was that warship actively posing a threat or participating in hostilities?” asked Bryant. “You cannot say that this warship was an imminent threat to anyone. By targeting it, is the Trump administration saying that the imminent threat is all of Iran’s government and military?”
“If so, that’s an incredibly dangerous example of military overreach,” Bryant said.
The bigger picture is that lawyers have said that the US operations against Iran are patently illegal, and several have raised concerns about the broader conflict that US aggression has kicked off.
“I’m holding Trump responsible, not just for US military strikes, but for the foreseeable consequences of launching these attacks,” said Brian Finucane, a former state department lawyer. “It was not only foreseeable, but it was also widely predicted that Iran would respond … That’s why aggression is a crime under international law. ”
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House ethics committee opens investigation into Tony Gonzales
The House ethics committee announced today that it will open an investigation into Texas congressman Tony Gonzales, following accusations that he had an extramarital affair with an aide in his office.
In a statement, the committee said it would examine whether Gonzales engaged in sexual misconduct or discriminated unfairly by “dispensing special favors or privileges”.
Last month, the San Antonio Express-News reported that it had obtained text messages in which former staffer Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, 35, wrote to a colleague that she had an affair with Gonzales.
Santos-Aviles died by suicide in September last year, after she set herself on fire in the back yard of her home in Uvalde, Texas.
Gonzales is now facing a runoff in the Republican primary race for his district after he failed to secure 50% of the vote, amid the allegations of his affair. He’ll now face Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer and YouTube personality, again in May.
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During a particularly tense exchange with ranking member Jamie Raskin, the homeland security secretary once again refused to retract her comments calling the two US citizens shot by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis “domestic terrorists”.
“You told a lie about them,” the top Democratic on the judiciary committee said, while Noem offered her condolences to Renee Good’s and Alex Pretti’s families. She also noted that their are “ongoing investigations” into their deaths.
“You stated the conclusion two hours after they were killed,” Raskin said. “I wanted to give you an opportunity to correct the record, not just for their family, but for everybody in America who believes in the truth and fairness and honesty in every situation.”
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The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, is back on Capitol Hill today, this time for a hearing before the House judiciary committee.
She’s answering questions from lawmakers, a day after she refused to retract or apologize for her comments branding Renee Good and Alex Pretti “domestic terrorists”, after they were fatally shot by federal immigration officers.
One quick note, while responding to a line of questioning by Tom McClintock, Noem said that “70% of those in our detention centers have criminal records, roughly over half a million”.
However, a Guardian analysis that ranking member Jamie Raskin just entered into the record shows that 77% of people who entered deportation proceedings for the first time in 2025 had no criminal conviction.
The latest data collated by the Guardian also finds that 24,500 people in immigration detention have no criminal record as of 7 February 2026. This is the single largest group among the 68,290 people currently detained.
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Jasmine Crockett concedes to James Talarico after he secures Democratic Senate nomination in Texas
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett conceded to James Talarico this morning, after the state representative secured the Democratic Senate nomination in Texas. Crockett said that she called Talarico to congratulate him.
“Texas is primed to turn blue and we must remain united because this is bigger than any one person,” she said. “This is about the future of all 30 million Texans and getting America back on track. With the primary behind us, Democrats must rally around our nominees and win.”
Crockett added that she is “committed” to working to elect Democrats “up and down the ballot”.
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Senate to vote on war powers resolution to prevent Trump from continuing Iran conflict
Senate Republicans are on Wednesday expected to vote down a Democratic-backed war powers resolution that would prevent Donald Trump from continuing the conflict against Iran, with John Thune, the majority leader, arguing the president is “acting in the best interest of the nation”.
Democrats have condemned Trump for ordering an air campaign against Iran without first seeking permission from Congress, while offering shifting explanations of its objectives. The war powers resolution introduced by Democratic senators Tim Kaine, Adam Schiff and Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, would force an end to US participation in the current hostilities and require the president to go to Congress before re-entering the war.
The resolution will require 50 votes to advance. Democrats control 47 seats, but John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania senator, said he will oppose the resolution, meaning they’ll need at least five Republicans to join with them for it to succeed.
The odds of that happening dimmed on Tuesday when Thune told reporters he believes Trump has the proper authorization for the campaign, which the US military is carrying out alongside Israel.
“The president has the authority that he needs to conduct the activities, the operations that are currently under way there,” Thune replied at a Tuesday press conference, when asked if Trump should at some point seek congressional approval to continue the conflict.
A reminder, we were watching for opinions in three highly anticipated cases today.
Louisiana v Callais: A high-stakes voting rights case in which the court’s conservative majority appears poised to gut one of the most powerful provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
Trump v Cook: Donald Trump’s case for firing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, as he continues to exert greater control over the US central bank.
Trump v Slaughter: A case which examines the legality of Trump’s firing of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) member, Rebecca Slaughter.
None of these rulings were issued, so we’ll make sure to bring you the latest when the court sets its next decision day.
Supreme court to issue opinions
We’re poised to bring you the latest from the supreme court, where it’s decision day.
One box has been brought out, which usually suggests we can expect up to two rulings.
We’ll also hear from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, as she holds a briefing for reporters at 1pm ET.
I’ll bring you the latest lines, particularly with regard to the latest developments on the US-Israel war on Iran.
Trump to host tech giants in Washington for pledge to cover data center energy costs
Donald Trump is in Washington today. We won’t hear from the president until 3pm ET, when he will hold a roundtable event with some of the country’s biggest tech companies. Those present are expected to sign on to Trump’s “ratepayer protection pledge” – a voluntary agreement he discussed at his record-breaking State of the Union speech – which would commit tech giants to paying for or building the electricity needed to operate energy-guzzling data centers across the country.
It comes as consumers are increasingly concerned about the strain that data centers place on the electrical grid, and what that means for their individual energy bills.
My colleague Dharna Noor has been reporting on the pushback to the pledges, noting how some climate experts feel that it’s a “toothless” promise “based on backroom deals with his own billionaire donors”. Other experts she’s spoken to say that while the agreement is “a good start”, the pledges don’t go far enough, and they’re not enforceable.
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The Pentagon briefing today was similar to the defense secretary’s last public update on the military action in Iran. He was bellicose, and portrayed an image of the US in complete control of the situation.
“Iran cannot outlast us,” Hegseth said in closing. “Ultimately, we set the pace in the tempo the enemy’s is off balance, and we’re going to keep them off balance.”
While speaking to reporters, Hegseth noted that Middle East allies, such as Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait, “are all defending their people with their own combat capability with precision and restraint”.
He noted that these neighboring nations are “reaching out to the US” in order to counter Iran’s attacks. “Whether they’re going on offense, which they are, whether they’re giving us additional access basing and overflight, we’re working very closely and collaborating with them.”
Hegseth said there is 'no sense' that Iran's targeting of Turkey could trigger Article 5
Following reports that a missile launched from Iran, and heading towards Turkish airspace, was shot down by Nato air defence systems, Hegseth said there was “no sense” that this would trigger Article 5 of the Nato treaty.
This is the core tenet of the organization that an attack on one member of Nato is an attack against all member countries. Article 5 has been invoked only once – in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
During today’s Pentagon briefing, Hegseth claimed that US forces “quietly ensured that our defensive posture and power was in place” before building up “offensive combat power”.
He said that the US moved “over 90%” of troops on American bases “out of the range of Iranian fire”.
However, his claims come a day after his defense department identified four of the six US service members killed during a drone strike on an American base in Kuwait.
Pentagon says Trump assassination‑attempt suspect killed in strikes
Killed in the strikes on Iran is the person who led a plot to assassinate Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth confirmed on Wednesday morning.
“The leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing.
The plot dates back to 2024, when federal prosecutors under the Biden administration charged 51-year-old Iranian national Farhad Shakeri and two New York men with running a murder-for-hire operation on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The aim, the department of justice said at the time, was revenge for Trump’s killing of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani in 2020.
Shakeri had been personally directed by an IRGC official to assassinate Trump during the presidential campaign, prosecutors said.
Hegseth says US 'investigating' strike on Iranian girls school that killed more that 170 people
The defense secretary was evasive when asked about the bombing of an Iranian girls’ elementary school four days ago, which killed at least 175 people according to Iran’s state media.
“All I can say, is that we’re investigating,” Hegseth said, while providing no information clarifying whose munition was responsible for the strike.
My colleagues Tessa McClure and Deepa Parent have reported that the missile directly hit Shajareh Tayyebeh school, in Minab, southern Iran, demolishing its concrete building and killing dozens of seven to 12-year-old girls.
Hegseth, however, said that US forces “never target civilian targets” at his press conference today.
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Gen Caine said today that the US will “now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory”, after forces were able to establish air superiority.
“The throttle is coming up,” Caine said, “as opposed to ramping down”.
Caine also confirmed that the US has hit more than 2,000 Iranian targets, and more than 20 Iranian naval vessels.
The chairman also said that Iran’s military command and control is “in a bad way” but did not go into details.
Hegseth confirms sinking of Iranian warship
Hegseth confirmed that a US submarine sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian ocean as he declared that the Iranian navy “rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf” and that it was “ineffective, decimated, destroyed…pick your adjective, it is no more.”
He said that on Tuesday, an American submarine in the Indian ocean “sunk an Iranian war ship that thought it was safe in international waters.”
“Instead it was sunk by a torpedo, a quiet death – the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II. Like in that war, back when we were still the war department, we are fighting to win.”
This press conference comes just a day after the Department of Defense (DoD) identified four of the six American soldiers killed in a drone strike on a US base in Kuwait.
The soldiers were named as Captain Cody Khork, 35; Sergeant Nicole Amor, 39; Sergeant Declan Coady, 20; and Sergeant Noah Tietjens, 42.
Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, listed their names, and expressed condolences to their families while speaking at the Pentagon today.
Hegseth says Iran can no longer shoot volume of missiles as before
Hegseth noted that the US is able to continue the military action against Iran for as long as it needs.
“The enemy can no longer shoot the volume of missiles they once did – not even close,” he said. “We can sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to.”
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Hegseth holds press conference on Operation Epic Fury
Kicking off today’s Pentagon press conference, Pete Hegseth said “America is winning” the war on Iran. “Decisively, devastatingly and without mercy,” he added.
Hegseth noted that in under a week the US and Israel will have “complete control of Iranian skies”.
He repeatedly touted that the US’s success, and the road ahead: “Our rules of engagement are bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it.”
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Senate to vote on war powers resolution to prevent Trump from continuing Iran conflict
Senate Republicans are on Wednesday expected to vote down a Democratic-backed war powers resolution that would prevent Donald Trump from continuing the conflict against Iran, with majority leader John Thune arguing the president is “acting in the best interest of the nation”.
Democrats have condemned Trump for ordering an air campaign against Iran without first seeking permission from Congress, while offering shifting explanations of its objectives. The war powers resolution introduced by Democratic senators Tim Kaine, Adam Schiff and minority leader Chuck Schumer would force an end to US participation in the current hostilities and require the president to go to Congress before re-entering the war.
“We shouldn’t be at war without a debate and vote. That was what the framers intended,” Kaine told reporters Tuesday. “We protect our troops when we do it the right way. We put them at risk when we do it the wrong way.”
The resolution will require 50 votes to advance. Democrats control 47 seats, but the Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman said he will oppose the resolution, meaning they’ll need at least five Republicans to join with them for it to succeed.
Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine to brief media on Iran
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth, and Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, are set to begin speaking momentarily at a news conference at the Pentagon about Iran.
We’ll be covering their comments as part of our live coverage on the Middle East. To follow along, click here.
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What a Republican runoff could mean for the US senate seat in Texas
Neither John Cornyn nor Ken Paxton were able to secure 50% of the vote on Tuesday, meaning that the two Republicans must face again in a runoff election on 26 May.
The four-term Republican US senator Cornyn has maintained throughout his campaign that a victory for attorney general Paxton – a scandal-scarred Maga darling and conservative culture warrior – could “risk everything we’ve worked so hard to build over these many years”.
It’s a sentiment that national Republicans also appear to hold, with some warning that Paxton would force the party to divert resources away from other key Senate contests to protect a seat long viewed as safely red. “Honestly, if you look at the polling in a general election setting, I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that the seat [flips], depending on who the Democrats nominate,” the Senate majority leader John Thune told Politico in a recent interview.
Read more here:
What does a Talarico primary win mean for the future of the Democratic Party?
The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino reported from Austin, Texas last night that the Democratic contest between James Talarico and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was an early test of competing political playbooks for challenging Donald Trump and the Republican dominance that has gripped the state for three decades.
Throughout his campaign, Talarico, a 36-year-old former middle school teacher and seminary student, pushed for a “politics of love” that roots progressive policy in the teachings of his Christian faith. He argued that the central divide in American politics is “not left v right” but “top v bottom” and contended that Democrats can rebuild trust in rural and suburban communities without abandoning their core values.
Crockett, on the other hand, has built a reputation as a rhetorical brawler with her unsparing attacks on Trump and Republicans. The 44-year-old former public defender and progressive firebrand leaned into “proven fighter” image during the campaign but also contended that high turnout among young voters and voters of color – not ideological moderation – is the key to winning statewide.
Read more here:
Midterm primary season begins with Talarico winning the Democratic race in Texas
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
As the war in the Middle East rages on half a world away, the midterm primary season kicked off with James Talarico winning the Democratic nomination for a US Senate seat in Texas – and a Republican runoff.
The contest between Talarico and firebrand Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was an early test of competing political playbooks for challenging Republican dominance.
“We are not just trying to win an election,” Talarico told supporters in Austin before the race was called. “We are trying to fundamentally change our politics. And it’s working.”
Meanwhile, the messy Republican primary between the four-term Republican US senator John Cornyn and the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, ended in a runoff. A runoff is declared in Texas if neither candidate are able to capture 50% of the vote with just over two-thirds of the ballots counted, Cornyn led Paxton by less than two percentage points, with a third candidate, the rightwing congressman Wesley Hunt capturing about 13% of the vote.
Paxton and Cornyn will now face that election on 26 May. National Republicans have been openly fretting that a win by Paxton – a scandal-plagued conservative culture warrior and darling of the Maga movement – would provide Democrats with the opening they need to finally win over the staunchly red state that they have not carried in more than three decades.
Meanwhile, in North Carolina, former Democratic governor Roy Cooper and former Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley won their respective primaries. In deep red Arkansas, where Republican incumbents like US senator Tom Cotton and governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders are expected to hold onto their seats, results came back as expected, with Cotton winning his primary and Sanders, who is running uncontested, always moving forward in the race.
In other developments:
Senate Republicans are expected today to vote down a Democratic-backed war powers resolution that would prevent Donald Trump from continuing the conflict in Iran. “The president has the authority that he needs to conduct the activities, the operations that are currently under way there,” majority leader John Thune said Tuesday.
The vote comes one day after Trump attempted to counter a simmering anti-Israel backlash in Congress and among his own Maga supporters by denying suggestions that he had ordered the attack on Iran because Israel had already decided to do so – a claim that appears to counter comments made by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in a classified briefing for all members of Congress.
In more Iran news, Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, are scheduled to hold a news conference at the Pentagon this morning to discuss the conflict.
Minnesota is set to be front and center on the Hill with governor Tim Walz and attorney general Keith Ellison scheduled to go before the House oversight committee this morning over their state’s fraud scandal.
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem is then set to go before the House judiciary committee, one day after she was grilled before the Senate judiciary committee and refused to retract her statements calling the two US citizens who were killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis earlier this year “domestic terrorists”.
In more Minnesota news: The Department of Homeland Security has opened an internal investigation into allegations that Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official who became the face of the state’s highly scrutinized federal immigration crackdown, the New York Times reported. Bovino is being investigated for allegedly making disparaging remarks about the Jewish faith of Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor.
