Closing summary
This concludes our live chronicle of the second Trump administration for the day, but we will be back on Wednesday. Here are the latest developments:
Donald Trump is en route to Beijing, but he made time before he left to call a Black reporter “dumb” for daring to ask him why he was so concerned about the cost overrun in the Federal Reserve renovation, overseen by his nemesis Jerome Powell, and not about the ballooning cost of two projects he is overseeing: the White House ballroom and the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, responded to questions from Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen about reports that he has a drinking problem by lying that Van Hollen drank margaritas with a wrongly deported man in El Salvador and falsely claimed that a holiday party for the senator’s staff, paid for by campaign funds, was proof the senator was ‘drinking on taxpayer dime during the day’.
A slew of national green groups are throwing their support behind Graham Platner, the progressive populist challenging longtime Republican senator Susan Collins in Maine.
Marty Makary resigned from his position as commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday, concluding a 13-month tenure at the regulatory agency.
The Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to a 14-year term as Federal Reserve governor, marking an important step toward Trump’s nominee succeeding Powell as the US central bank’s next chair.
Polls have closed across Nebraska, where the fate of the state’s “blue dot” — a small, but significant factor in presidential politics — took center stage Tuesday as Democrats selected a congressional nominee in the state’s high-profile 2nd District, the Associated Press reports.
State senator John Cavanaugh and political activist Denise Powell were seen as the top contenders in the Democratic primary as their party looks to the Omaha-area district, where Republican congressman Don Bacon is retiring, as one of its top targets in the November general election.
The winner will face Republican Brinkner Harding, who ran unopposed in the GOP primary. The Omaha City Council member is endorsed by President Donald Trump.
The district draws national attention because Nebraska is one of just two states that splits its electoral votes in presidential elections. The 2nd District has gone to Democratic presidential candidates three out of five times since 2008 — a “blue dot” in an otherwise sea of red.
Some Democrats contended that the very survival of the “blue dot,” a point of intense local pride, was at stake on Tuesday.
