Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee pressed Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, to explain why her deputy, Joe Kent, said in his resignation letter on Tuesday that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation”, which contradicts weeks of statements to the contrary by Donald Trump.
Senator Markwayne Mullin fielded questions from his colleagues in a confirmation hearing to take over as Donald Trump’s new homeland security secretary.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has started buying location data on Americans, the FBI director, Kash Patel, said under oath at the Senate intelligence committee worldwide threats hearing on Wednesday.
Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, argued that the changes to election law Republicans call the Save America Act will make it more difficult for US citizens to vote
By a vote of 53-47, Senate Republicans blocked a war-powers resolution that would have limited Donald Trump’s ability to prosecute the war on Iran he started last month.
Democrats on the House oversight committee walked out of a closed-door briefing from the attorney general, Pam Bondi, on the Epstein files, leaving what California congressman Robert Garcia called “an outrageous fake hearing”.
Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a measure that aimed to rein in Donald Trump’s power to wage war against Iran without congressional authorization.
The 53-47 vote against taking up the measure fell almost completely along party lines, with no movement from earlier this month when Republicans blocked Democrats’ bid to limit Trump’s war-making power in the days after the joint US-Israeli strikes, known as Operation Epic Fury, began across Iran.
“We do not know Donald Trump’s goals. We do not know Donald Trump’s timeline. We do not know what victory even looks like in his eyes,” Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, said before the vote, urging Republicans to support the effort to force a debate on the war. “Enough is enough.”
The senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has led several war-powers efforts, was the only Republican to vote in support of the measure, while the senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has emerged as a staunch supporter of Israel, was the only Democrat to break with his party and vote against the resolution.
“If there’s anything that is plain in that constitution, it is that a president does not have the power to unilaterally bring a nation and its treasure, to bring a nation and its men and women, into conflict without a say of Congress,” the senator Cory Booker, who led the war-powers resolution, said in a floor speech before the vote.
Booker acknowledged that he would not succeed, but vowed to continue to introduce measures that would force Congress to debate and authorize military action.
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