Closing summary
Thanks for following our live coverage of the second Trump administration. Stay tuned to our blog dedicated to the US midterm primary elections, where we’ll be watching the latest developments in Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, Virginia and Washington. Here are the highlights for today:
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The US Senate judiciary committee voted along party lines to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general after he confirmed in writing that a planned $1.8bn slush fund for Donald Trump’s allies was dead. Experts say, however, that Trump could easily reverse the deal. More here.
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Max Miller, a US Republican representative from Ohio, is facing a rising groundswell of resignation calls from his own party over domestic abuse allegations after his ex-father-in-law, Bernie Moreno, a GOP senator, said he was unfit to serve in Congress. The House ethics committee announced it will launch an investigation into allegations that Miller “may have engaged in domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use in violation of the code of official conduct or any other applicable standard of conduct” after the embattled Republican said he had “nothing to hide” and welcomed the investigation. More here.
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Jay Clayton has been sworn in as the US’s top spy after a contentious Senate confirmation hearing during which he refused to directly acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. The oath of office was administered to Clayton on Tuesday by the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, in the Oval Office as the president looked on and applauded. More here.
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An attorney for the former Olympic canoeist who was charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool has said that “all options are on table” for legal recourse after prosecutors recently abandoned the case abruptly. David Hearn “has a number of potential remedies” after being prosecuted in connection with pool damage now attributed to faulty work by a contractor, attorney Steven Levin said in a statement. More here.
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A New York law banning US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from wearing face coverings and requiring that they wear visible identification has been put on hold by a federal judge. But a state law prohibiting cooperation between local police departments and ICE has been allowed to stand. More here.
Max Miller: leaked private photos of his daughter 'taken very much out of context'
Answering whether the release of a link containing private photographs of his daughter was reckless, Max Miller said that the incident “is being taken very much out of context.”
“This is once again a very salacious headline,” Miller said. “I didn’t do this. My attorney took full responsibility. I believe that it’s awful. There was never any intent to do that.”
Miller was also pressed by Jake Tapper on whether he believed the three women accusing him of violent behavior were all lying.
“For no second am I going to sit here and continue to be debased by false and baseless allegations and be pushed out of a seat I have worked so hard to represent and done a terrific job for our community,” Miller said. “I’ve been a good legislator. All they’re trying to do is create rumor mills without evidence.”
Asked whether he would consider dropping out of the race for the sake of his own mental health and his daughter’s well-being, Miller said he is “never going to give up.”
“My daughter is going to grow up one day, and she’s going to see all of this, and she’s not going to see that her father caved to political and social media pressures,” Miller said.
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In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, embattled Ohio representative Max Miller rejected claims from Senator Bernie Moreno (his former father-in-law) that Miller withheld his daughter’s favorite stuffed toy during a custody exchange.
“I would agree that if that were true, that would be incredibly disturbing,” Miller told Tapper on Tuesday. “This is nothing more than an individual who’s being politically vindictive.”
Moreno has called for Miller to withdraw from his re-election bid amid allegations of domestic abuse and seek professional help. On Tuesday, he described the experience as “truly the seventh level of hell” for his family.
An instructor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore who only just received a “teacher of the year” award has been arrested by federal immigration agents under the command of the Trump administration.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained Berhanu Kibret, an instructor at the university’s pharmacy school, at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport in Texas, according to multiple news reports. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, confirmed Kibret’s arrest, citing an expired visa – but it stopped short of providing a location.
In a statement, the University of Maryland said Kibret was arrested while returning from a meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, where he received a “teacher of the year” award.
“Dr Kibret has a valid work authorization, so it is our hope that any issues surrounding his status will be quickly resolved and that he will be permitted to continue his work at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy,” the institution added, according to CBS.
The Associated Press is reporting that the Trump administration has revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to the United States in retaliation for Brazil’s denial of visas last month for two American diplomats who sought to visit the country ahead of upcoming elections as well as Brazil’s stalling on approving President Donald Trump’s nominee to be ambassador in Brazil.
The state department said the decision was a reciprocal response to Brazil’s move and officials said the step had been delayed several times to give Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva room to back down, something he did not do.
Officials said it could be quickly reversed if Brazil takes appropriate action and accepts Trump’s ambassadorial choice.
Lula will face senator Flávio Bolsonaro , whose father once served as Brazil’s president and whose family has many ties with the Trump administration, in the 4 October polls. The administration has numerous issues with the leftist Lula and his policies and has also hosted the younger Bolsonaro, who is seeking to carry on his father, Jair’s, conservative governance.
Joseph Gedeon reporting from Michigan:
While outside a voting site in Dearborn, a confident Abdul El-Sayed not only believes he will win the primary, but has his sights set on Republican opponent Mike Rogers, predicting he “will beat [Rogers] by seven” in November.
He called Rogers “generationally boring and generationally corrupt” adding that he “can’t decide what era of Republicanism he wants to be, so he carries the baggage of both.”
“I’m hoping that that all of the senators who want to see a [Democratic] majority are going to team up, so we can all collectively dunk on Mike Rogers” he told reporters.
The Trump administration is reportedly drafting a ban on US imports of new models of Chinese datacenter components, in the latest sign US authorities are scrambling to respond to the rapid development of AI technology in China.
Four people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which oversees the US telecommunications industry, is developing a measure to bar imports of new Chinese optical transceivers, which allow data to travel over fiber-optic cables at the speed of light within datacenters. Officials hope to publish the measure this year, according to Reuters.
The FCC could still modify or shelve the restriction, Reuters reported. But the deliberations are the latest example the Trump administration is increasingly focused on limiting Chinese technological incursions into cutting-edge US industries.
Ex-Olympian weighing ‘all options’ after reflecting pool charges dropped
An attorney for the former Olympic canoeist who was charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool has said that “all options are on table” for legal recourse after prosecutors recently abandoned the case abruptly.
David Hearn “has a number of potential remedies” after being prosecuted in connection with pool damage now attributed to faulty work by a contractor, attorney Steven Levin said in a statement. Levin added that those could include “civil suits, bar referrals for the prosecutors involved, request for sanctions and reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and expenses”, and requests for investigations by various government entities, including Congress.
Hearn, 67, was arrested on 19 June and faced one felony count of property destruction – a charge that could have resulted in a 10-year prison sentence and a $1,000 fine – which he denied.
Senate majority leader John Thune was asked about embattled House representative Max Miller, who is the ex-son-in-law of Republican senator Bernie Moreno.
“It’s a family matter and, um, I don’t have any observations beyond that,” Thune said.
When asked by a reporter about whether a member of Congress who is accused of domestic violence should continue to serve in their role, the Republican leader said: “It’s a House matter. It’s a family issue too.”
House committee launches investigation into Republican lawmaker amid domestic abuse allegations
The House ethics committee announced Tuesday it will launch an investigation into allegations that Max Miller “may have engaged in domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use in violation of the code of official conduct or any other applicable standard of conduct”.
The announcement comes hours after the embattled Republican from Ohio said he had “nothing to hide” and welcomed the investigation.
Senator Moreno: dealing with Max Miller dispute 'truly the seventh level of hell'
Senator Bernie Moreno told reporters that the dispute between his daughter, Emily Moreno, and her ex-husband, Representative Max Miller, has been “truly the seventh level of hell.”
“This has been a horrific experience for my entire family,” the Ohio senator said.
Senator Moreno feared what could happen to his granddaughter, especially after Miller’s attorney accidentally released a private image of Miller’s child in documents shared by the congressman.
“This has been brutal beyond comprehension, and if there’s any minimum standard for being an elected official, as I said, he fails to meet that minimum basic standard,” senator Moreno said.
Senator Moreno said he had to handle the pickup of his two-year-old granddaughter over the weekend at a police station because he didn’t “want my daughter interacting with this man” and “I don’t know what this guy’s capable of.”
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US secretary of state Marco Rubio said there has been progress made in discussions with Iran and Oman on getting more ships through the strait of Hormuz but no final agreement has been reached.
“There’s been progress made in those talks, but not finality yet. We’re hoping that will happen very shortly,” Rubio told reporters at the State Department.
As a reminder, my colleague Lucy Campbell is covering the latest developments in the Middle East. The live updates can be found here:
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Republican lawmaker calls for investigation on himself amid domestic abuse allegations
Embattled GOP representative Max Miller is calling for a House investigation into himself amid domestic abuse allegations made against him by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, daughter of Republican Ohio senator Bernie Moreno.
Miller is seeking a House ethics investigation into his own conduct as he faces growing calls to resign, including from his own party, in light of the accusations.
In light of all the renewed interest in my family affairs I am going to file my own paperwork for an ethics investigation into myself to clear my name from these horrific attacks on myself and family,” the Ohio representative said in a post on social media. “I have absolutely nothing to hide. We will be providing the committee all necessary documents needed for a detail examination. The accusations continue to change, but my facts stay the same. I am looking forward to my colleagues reading everything for themselves.”
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Max Miller faces growing calls to resign over domestic abuse allegations
Max Miller, a Republican representative from Ohio, is facing a rising groundswell of resignation calls from his own party over domestic abuse allegations after his ex-father-in-law, Bernie Moreno, a GOP senator, said he was unfit to serve in Congress.
With a deadline looming for party leaders to choose a potential replacement, Miller, a former White House aide, also came under pressure from Donald Trump on Monday after the president reportedly called and told him “things aren’t looking good” for his re-election campaign against his Democratic opponent, Brian Poindexter.
Pleas for Miller to step down intensified after Moreno – father of Miller’s former wife, Emily Moreno – broke his silence on Sunday after months of refraining from comment on allegations concerning the alleged abuse of his daughter.
“If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them,” Moreno, an ally of Trump, posted. “He should not serve in the House of Representatives.”
Moreno’s comments came after Miller posted a livestream video defending himself against the abuse accusations and saying his former wife had “significant mental-health challenges”.
A series of public statements from Moreno’s fellow Republican senators indicate that their sympathies are with him.
“[Miller] should resign. He should quit,” Roger Marshall, a senator from Kansas, told Politico. “I don’t know Mr Miller’s story, but I trust Bernie [Moreno] so much as a good friend, and his family has such high values.”
The West Virginia senator Shelley Moore Capito said: “I don’t know [Miller]. I haven’t read a whole lot about him, but if [Moreno] thinks he ought to resign, I’m supportive of that.”
The artificial intelligence company Open AI and the justice department reached a settlement in a case involving allegations that the company discriminated against US workers in favor of temporary visa holders during its Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) recruitment process.
The justice department alleged that OpenAI omitted the job listings from its public career website that it sought to fill through the PERM process, which allows employers to hire foreign workers to work permanently in the US. DoJ also alleged the company required paper applications sent by mail and ran recruitment ads on late-night radio to keep US candidates from applying for these positions.
OpenAI and its subsidiary Statsig Inc were accused of violating the Immigration and Nationality Act and will pay a combined $3,200,000.
“It is illegal to discriminate against US workers by preferring temporary visa holders for jobs,” said assistant attorney general Harmeet K Dhillon of the DoJ’s Civil Rights Division. “This substantial settlement ensures that OpenAI redresses harm and changes its recruitment practices so that US workers receive a fair opportunity for highly sought-after technology positions.”
Democrats have continued to express their concerns over Blanche’s agreement, warning that it doesn’t go far enough to prevent the Trump administration from claiming more immunity from tax audits or compensating Trump allies, including people who attacked the Capitol on 6 January 2021.
Illinois senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the senate justice committee, said that the fund “can easily be revived with a new order from the Department of Justice 15 minutes after Mr. Blanche is confirmed as attorney general.”
Meanwhile, on Monday, California senator Adam Schiff said on social media that the deal “doesn’t prevent payouts to violent insurrectionists in the future.” California’s Alex Padilla made similar remarks, saying that “nothing here stops DOJ from using taxpayer money to pay off January 6th insurrectionists. And it leaves the IRS shield protecting Trump and his family from past audits fully intact.”
John Cornyn says 'we have no alternative but to take his word' over Blanche's decision to rescind 'anti-weaponization' fund
Senator John Cornyn said there is “no alternative but to take his word” regarding Todd Blanche’s decision to rescind a controversial “anti-weaponization” fund.
“As to the idea it could be revived in the future, I think it’s highly unlikely that could happen without the cooperation of the department of justice,” Cornyn told reporters. “And I think Mr Blanche gave us the assurances that it was dead and would not be revived, and in this case we have no alternative but to take his word for that.”
Blanche struck the deal with key Republican Senate holdouts, Cornyn and Thom Tillis, to secure support for his nomination. Under the agreement, Blanche formally rescinded the fund and clarified that the broad tax immunity the justice department granted to Trump only applied retroactively to the president, his sons, and businesses.
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Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination will advance to full US Senate vote
The US Senate judiciary committee voted along party lines to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general after he confirmed in writing that a planned $1.8bn slush fund for Donald Trump’s allies was dead. Experts say, however, that Trump could easily reverse the deal.
His nomination will now proceed to the full Senate, where it will probably face intense skepticism from Democrats.
Blanche, one of Donald Trump’s most trusted legal aides and formerly his personal defense lawyer, has faced questions over his suitability to lead the Department of Justice, which is supposed to operate independently of the White House.
He signed an order scrapping the so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund – a roughly $1.8bn pool of money created in May as part of a settlement ending Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service – in a bid to defuse a Republican rebellion over his nomination.
Read the full story by Joseph Gedeon and Sam Levine:
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Commissioners for Tarrant County, which contains Fort Worth, Texas, will vote on Tuesday on a proposal to cut the number of polling locations by nearly half for the November election.
The proposal has drawn sharp criticism from civil rights leaders and democracy activists.
“Let’s call this what it is: voter suppression,” said NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson. “Cutting nearly half the places where people can cast a ballot doesn’t save democracy money, it costs voters their voice. Tarrant County is home to a significant number of Black and Latino voters and is a majority people-of-color county. There is no question that this plan strips away polling access on a scale that will hit Black and Brown voters hardest. That is not a coincidence. It’s an intentional assault on our ability to make our voices heard and we will push back with every tool available.”
The commissioners court for Texas’ third-largest county has a Republican majority. Donald Trump won the county by a 52-47 margin in 2024, with more than 823,000 votes cast. The hearing began at 10am CST.
The midterm election in Texas for the US Senate between Texas’ Republican attorney general Ken Paxton and the Democratic nominee, State Rep. James Talarico of Austin, is unusually tight for Texas politics. Talarico held a five-point lead in the most recent poll.
The proposal reduces polling places in Tarrant County from 316 locations to 176 for this year’s election, and cuts the number of early voting polling places from 50 to 42.
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US Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, ranking member of the senate judiciary committee, said he could not take acting US attorney general Todd Blanche at his word that the Trump administration would not reinstate a $1.8bn fund at issue in Blanche’s nomination.
”We have learned that simply his word is not enough for most of us, not even for some of my Republican friends,” Durbin said. “Even his word under oath is not credible enough.”
Blanche, who negotiated the creation of the fund as part of a settlement with the IRS over a leak of the president’s tax returns, is Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney. Trump’s public commentary defending the settlement undermines Blanche’s assertion that the fund will no longer move forward, Durbin said, noting that Trump had not signed the order Blanche issued on Sunday that terminated the fund.
”Trump responded as we might have guessed, as he always does, by doubling down on his position and personally attacking our colleagues,” Durbin said. “To state the obvious: Mr Blanche’s statement on the slush fund and the IRS immunity agreement are not signed by the parties to the settlement agreement and are therefore unenforceable. The parties could still enforce the agreement, and the cop-beaters fund can easily be revived with a new order from the Department of Justice 15 minutes after Mr Blanche is confirmed as attorney general. Indeed, the president himself has loudly telegraphed that’s his plan.”
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John Cornyn, Republican senator for Texas, says he is satisfied by Todd Blanche's assurances that $1.8bn 'anti-weaponization' fund is dead
US Senator John Cornyn of Texas said at the confirmation hearing for acting US attorney general Todd Blanche’s nomination that he is now satisfied by Blanche’s assurances that the $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund at issue is now dead.
”I’ve been very clear, as others have, that in other order to support Mr Blanche’s nomination, I needed specific assurances in writing about a release signed by the acting attorney general … that clarifies the scope of the parties to the IRS audit agreement and it permanently ends the [anti-weaponization] fund,” Cornyn said. “While this may sound like nitpicking to some, it’s critically important not only to me but to other members of the Senate. What Mr Blanche said under oath in his nomination hearing on these topics was important.”
Cornyn and other Republicans have been holding up the nomination of Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney in order to obtain sufficient assurances that the fund proposed in a settlement to the president’s lawsuit stemming from the agency’s leak of his tax records would not go forward. Critics suggested that the “anti-weaponization” money would be used to reward January 6 rioters for their loyalty to the president.
The Department of Justice issued a written order formally withdrawing the fund late on Sunday after negotiations between the Justice Department and outgoing Republican senators Cornyn and Thom Tillis of Kentucky.
“They’ve been consistent about their assertion on behalf of the United States of America that the weaponization fund is dead,” Cornyn said. “Of course, I expect them to live up to that in any future litigation.”
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White House calls emergency summit of AI business leaders over voluntary compliance system
The White House has called an emergency summit of artificial intelligence business leaders on Tuesday to finalize details of a voluntary compliance system for safety breaches, following reports that two major AI tools had breached their digital containment and hacked external computer systems.
Anthropic reported last week that models of its Claude tool successfully hacked into the infrastructure of three separate companies during red-teaming tests by exploiting weak passwords and unauthenticated endpoints. Anthropic said an external evaluation partner mistakenly granted the testing agent unfiltered internet access.
That followed an announcement from ChatGPT developer OpenAI that an autonomous tool powered by its AI hacked the US startup Hugging Face and four other unnamed firms during an internal cybersecurity test.
Both Anthropic and OpenAI have been invited to the summit, as have leaders from Google and Meta, according to Reuters.
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US Senator Darline Graham, sister of the late US Senator Lindsey Graham, said in a televised debate on Monday evening in Columbia, South Carolina that she would vote to end the filibuster in order to pass the Save America Act imposing additional federal rules on voting practices.
While much of America’s political world is watching primary elections today in five states – Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Virginia, and Washington – the special election for a successor to serve the remainder of Lindsey Graham’s term lands next Tuesday. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, a Republican, appointed Graham’s sister to serve until a new election is held. Darline Graham has the endorsement of Donald Trump, a point she made repeatedly at the debate.
“I completely support the president’s agenda,” Graham said. “I’m 100 percent behind him. I’m honored to have his endorsement. I’ve been working with him on the Russia sanctions deal. I’ve co-sponsored the Save America Act.”
Graham narrowly trails congressman Ralph Norman in the latest polling for the Republican nomination. Congressman Russell Fry, former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and businessman Mark Lynch are among 10 candidates in the contest.
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The death of immigration detainee Edwin Jovanny López Cornejo in custody on Saturday at Delaney Hall continues to reverberate among activists and political leaders critical of the ICE facility’s conditions.
US representative Analilia Meija, a Democrat from northern New Jersey, said in a statement that her “gravest concerns about conditions for medically vulnerable people at Delaney Hall are now confirmed.”
Meija, who won her seat in a special election earlier this year, said that “Edwin’s family has serious concerns about the medical treatment he received in detention, and I share those concerns. … This is not the first life we’ve lost inside that facility. New Jersey’s own health inspectors have been denied full access, including the medical unit, again and again. If there’s nothing to hide, there’s no reason to keep them out.”
The death of Jean Wilson Brutus in December 2025 at the ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey began a round of protests which has led to a hunger strike by some detainees. Allegations of physical abuse by guards, medical neglect and spoiled food persist.
Meija called for a full investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.
“Abolishing and replacing ICE is the only way to correct this – a system that lets this happen again and again cannot be reformed,” she said. “It must be rebuilt around human dignity.”
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A far-right Republican candidate in Florida’s governor’s race has been accused of stiffing a high school debate champion over the better part of $11,000 in scholarship money she won from a company he founded.
Student Briana Whatley landed the awards as regional and national champion of Incubate Debate, a league-style competition set up by the candidate, James Fishback, to encourage youth to engage in political discourse.
A recording posted to Substack by Fishback in May 2024 shows Whatley, now a second-year history student at Florida State University, accepting a $10,000 check for besting seven other finalists in the 2024 Incubate Debate national championship, adding to two $500 area awards she previously won.
According to Florida Politics, Whatley is suing Fishback for not delivering $8,000 of the money that a letter from the company promised would be paid to her in full on the day she graduated high school in May last year.
The filing names Incubate Foundation Inc, the parent of Incubate Debate, and Fishback, 31, who is challenging front-running US congressman Byron Donalds and Jay Collins, the lieutenant governor of Florida, for the Republican nomination for state governor in November.
The candidates face off in an 18 August primary.
Trump makes rare western trip in bid to shore up support for midterm elections
Donald Trump is making a rare visit to California and Nevada this week to try to draw contrasts with Democrats on the economy, border security and crime , seeking to shore up support for Republicans in November elections that will determine whether his party keeps control of Congress.
The Republican president has struggled to connect with voters on the economy as elevated inflation and feelings of uncertainty have overshadowed the stock market gains he often talks about along with a low national unemployment rate, AP reports.
Trump will visit the Los Angeles area on Tuesday to speak at a fundraising dinner for the Republican National Committee at a golf club his family owns in the suburb of Rancho Palos Verdes.
On Wednesday, Trump will discuss the economy during an event at Red Rock casino in Las Vegas.
New York cannot ban federal agents from wearing face coverings or require that they wear visible identification, a federal judge ruled on Monday.
The ruling comes after a federal judge earlier this year blocked a similar law in California that was enacted after the Trump administration aggressively worked to increase immigration arrests, AP reported.
For the Northern District of New York, US District Judge Mae D’Agostino wrote that while New York “appears to be well-intentioned in its pursuit of transparent policing,” that’s not what the court is deciding.
“The issue now before the Court is about constitutionality—not transparency or preferable policy decisions,” she wrote.
The federal government has shown a likelihood that the measures go against the supremacy clause of the US Constitution, which bars state governments from regulating federal law enforcement, D’Agostino wrote.
The measures were included in a slate of law enforcement policies as part of the state budget bill that was signed into law by Democratic governor Kathy Hochul in May.
Congressional seats, including one in Slotkin’s former district, are also in the mix in Michigan, with further tests of progressives’ rise.
The progressive US senator Bernie Sanders has boosted El-Sayed and two progressive challengers in congressional races.
In the Lansing-area seventh district, Sanders backed William Lawrence, a community organizer who co-founded the Sunrise Movement, over former US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and Matt Maasdam, a former US Navy Seal.
Maasdam received Slotkin’s endorsement in the race for the purple district, currently held by Republican Tom Barrett.
In the 13th district, Sanders boosted state representative Donavan McKinney, who is running against incumbent Democratic representative Shri Thanedar in the Detroit-area district.
On the right, Republicans will figure out if they want to nominate John James, a US representative with Donald Trump’s endorsement, or businessman Perry Johnson to face Jocelyn Benson, the secretary of state and likely Democratic nominee for the governorship.
James has led in polls, but late grassroots energy has given Johnson some momentum. Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, served for eight years and faced term limits preventing another run for the high office.
Michigan is not the only state with primaries on Tuesday.
In Missouri, voters will weigh whether to nominate former US representative Cori Bush, who is running to return to the chamber against Wesley Bell in a race punctuated by the war in Gaza and outside spending by pro-Israel groups.
And in Washington state, voters will decide which two candidates to elevate in the third congressional district, where blue-dog Democratic representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is seeking re-election amid challengers from both sides of the aisle.
Michigan votes in key Senate primary as Democrats battle over party’s future
The Democratic party faces a crucial test of its direction today as voters in the midwestern swing state of Michigan decide whether to nominate for US Senate a progressive candidate advocating for universal healthcare or an-establishment-backed moderate.
The state’s Democratic primary is the latest high-profile battle over the party’s future, as it seeks to chart a course back to power in Washington following Donald Trump’s victory in 2024.
Leftwing candidates have surged in Democratic primaries in solidly blue areas across the country in recent months.
Some congressional primary races in Michigan will also offer a sense of where the party is headed as it looks to take back control of US Congress from the Republicans.
Progressive Abdul El-Sayed, a 41-year-old former public health official, has led in recent polls against his moderate rival, US representative Haley Stevens, a 43-year-old who first came to Congress after flipping a red seat.
A flood of more than $40m in outside spending has come into the race to support Stevens or attack El-Sayed, including from groups associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), a pro-Israel lobby.
The winner of Tuesday’s Democratic primary will face Mike Rogers, a former congressman from the state who was also the Republican nominee for US Senate in 2024, when he lost to Elissa Slotkin.
The Michigan US Senate seat is critical for Democrats in their dark-horse quest to retake the upper chamber, where Republicans currently hold 53 of the 100 seats.
GOP senators say they will back Blanche as attorney general following deal over fund
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche appears on track to become the next US attorney general after two Republican senators drop their opposition to his nomination.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is due to meet for a vote this morning on Blanche’s nomination following last week’s delay.
Republican senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis had sought concessions from the Department of Justice and White House relating to President Donald Trump’s settlement agreement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Cornyn and Tillis had refused to back Blanche’s bid for the permanent post without official confirmation killing the fund meant to compensate people who believe they were unfairly prosecuted by the Justice Department.
Blanche’s written order, issued late Sunday, came after the days of negotiations between the Justice Department and the Republican senators who are leaving Capitol Hill when their terms end in January.
“We want to express our gratitude to Mr Blanche and his staff for working with us on this, and we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon,” Cornyn, of Texas, and Tillis, of North Carolina, said in a statement.
Blanche has repeatedly said that the Justice Department was scrapping plans for the fund, which sparked bipartisan outcry over the possibility that violent rioters who attacked police at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, could be considered for payments.
But skeptical lawmakers said they were concerned that could be revived without a commitment in writing, especially because Trump has continued to defend the idea.
Read the reaction to the story here:
In other developments:
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Trump declined to call for Rep Max Miller’s resignation following allegations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife, Emily Moreno. Trump said he has always known Miller as “a good person” and called the situation “a very sad thing.”
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In an 89-4 vote, the Senate voted to take up a measure that would temporarily keep the government funded and help avoid a shutdown in the fall. The measure, known as a continuing resolution, would maintain government funding at current levels through 11 December, with some adjustments for specific programs. The Senate is slated to debate the funding bill and move it closer to a final vote.
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A coalition of 25 US states sued the Trump administration over new tariffs pegged at 10% to 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, calling them a pretext for replacing import taxes struck down by the supreme court in February. The states are asking the US Court of International Trade to halt the tariffs, declare them unlawful and order refunds of duties that have already been paid. More here.
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Trump accused US attorney Jeanine Pirro of having “folded like an umbrella” amid reports that he was considering removing her from her post. Trump criticized Pirro on Monday after she dropped vandalism charges against a former Olympian accused of damaging the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. More here.
