CNN's Jake Tapper shaded White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday over her explanation for why the State Department is scrambling to help U.S. citizens leave Iran after the bombing strikes over the weekend.
During a press briefing on Wednesday, Leavitt was asked why the U.S. appeared not to have a plan to evacuate U.S. citizens from the 14 neighboring countries surrounding Iran following the coordinated strikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several top military and political leaders. Leavitt said there were "many signs" put out by the State Department, and she said the media would not report on them.
CNN's Jake Tapper shaded those claims during his opening monologue on "The Lead."
"The White House is aiming to blame the news media, not the most powerful government on earth, for leaving its citizens stranded in a war zone," Tapper said sarcastically. "In any case, the only countries that had the highest travel advisory before the war began were Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. Those are clearly not the only countries that now find themselves on the wrong end of Iranian missiles."
Early Saturday, U.S. forces coordinated more than 100 bombing strikes across Iran. Trump has called on the Iranian people to rise up and form a new government, a goal that some experts have said gave the remaining Iranian regime guards more reason to crack down on protesters.
A GOP pollster issued a stark warning to President Donald Trump after the latest NBC News poll about the decision to bomb Iran was released on Wednesday.
Overall, the poll found that 54% of American voters disagree with the decision to coordinate strikes in Iran with Israel, compared to just 41% who support the move. Support was heavily divided by political ideology and age, with about two-thirds of voters under the age of 35 disagreeing with the decision, according to the poll.
Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies told NBC News that the results also point to a growing problem for Trump.
“This is a lower level of support than in most of the major military action (sic) that we’ve seen,” McIntruff said.
McIntruff's comments came at a time when the president and his allies are still trying to sell a justification for the military operation, which Trump has referred to as a "war." The administration has claimed Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S., although some intelligence assessments came to a different conclusion, according to reports.
Trump said on Wednesday that he would rate the Iran bombing campaign a "15 out of 10."
Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) continues to give signals he's in favor of giving at least partial clemency to imprisoned former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to reduce her prison term — and Democrats in the legislature are enraged, according to The Colorado Sun.
Peters, a proponent of 2020 election conspiracy theories, was convicted of attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit impersonation, official misconduct, violation of duty, and failure to comply with an order of the secretary of state, related to a plot in which she tried to tamper with election equipment to prove the race was stolen from President Donald Trump.
Since her conviction and nine-year sentence, the MAGA sphere has made her a martyr and symbol of their cause, demanding she be freed and trying to concoct harebrained schemes involving the Justice Department fabricating a federal case to use her as a witness. Trump has issued a "symbolic" pardon of Peters, but it doesn't actually have any legal weight because she was convicted on state charges, so only Polis can grant her clemency.
In the meantime, Trump has issued legal threats against Colorado and blocked funding for various federally-backed projects in the state, causing even pro-Trump lawmakers like Rep. Lauren Boebert to protest.
Polis has denied he is considering a pardon for Peters, but this week publicly suggested her sentence was too long in a post to X. He compared the sentence to the much milder sentence of probation and community service for former Democratic state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, who was convicted of influencing a public servant and forgery for sending fake letters to vouch for herself in a state ethics probe against her treatment of subordinates.
“It is not lost on me that she was convicted of the exact same felony charge as Tina Peters — attempting to influence a public official — and yet Tina Peters, as a non-violent first time offender got a nine year sentence,” he wrote. “Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly, you never know when you might need to depend on the rule of law.”
Democrats in the legislature were enraged by this comparison, reported The Sun: "'I don’t see the connection,' said state Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat who thinks the governor should not reduce Peters’ sentence. State Rep. Meg Froelich, an Englewood Democrat, called the comparison 'ridiculous.' State Rep. Steven Woodrow, a Denver Democrat, called it 'strikingly disingenuous.'"
All in all, not a single Democrat contacted by The Sun supported clemency for Peters, and some, like state Rep. Emily Sirota, even suggested the legislature would pass a resolution of disapproval against Polis if he moved ahead with it: “The things she did require a response to demonstrate that interfering with our elections while she was clerk will not be tolerated.”
Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) was accused of breaking the hand of Marine veteran and anti-war activist Brian McGinnis.
During a break in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, McGinnis put his hand through a hole in the wall to prevent Capitol Police from removing him from the room.
A video recorded by another anti-war activist showed Sheehy getting in on the melee by grabbing McGinnis and attempting to force him through the doorway.
"His hand! His hand! Oh!" one onlooker shouted.
"The senator broke his hand!" someone else exclaimed.
"A US Senator just broke the hand of a Marine," another member of the audience yelled. "A US Senator just broke the hand of a Marine; you're a coward."
Sheehy turned and walked away without successfully dislodging McGinnis.
President Donald Trump's allies in the Department of Justice failed to find "sufficient evidence" to prosecute one of the president's biggest political foes, a new report revealed.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Trump's DOJ failed to build a case against former President Joe Biden concerning his use of an autopen while in office. The case was being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro in Washington, D.C., but was "quietly shelved" around the same time that Pirro failed to indict six Democratic members of Congress for a social media video in which they told military troops they don't have to obey illegal orders, according to the report.
"The department’s failure to build a criminal case against Mr. Biden and his aides is the latest example of its increasing inability to follow through on Mr. Trump’s demands and bring indictments against those he wants to be criminally targeted," the Times reported. "Some of those cases were rejected by grand juries, some were rejected by judges, and some, like the autopen case, were abandoned by prosecutors."
Trump has repeatedly sought to discredit Biden for using an autopen during his presidency. For example, Trump signed an executive order in November that "nullified" any paperwork Biden signed using an autopen.
The failure of Trump's DOJ to indict Biden for his autopen usage is also the latest in a long line of defeats the department has suffered while going after Trump's political foes. Trump has sought to prosecute foes like former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, but courts have rejected the attempts.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced serious questions under oath on Wednesday on Capitol Hill, including one about the long-rumored affair with top Trump administration aide Corey Lewandowski that raised eyebrows among people watching.
Noem, whose husband was seated behind her during the hearing, was asked by Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) why Lewandowski (who is also married) was her top official, citing concerns among lawmakers over his previous misconduct, lack of experience with the Department of Homeland Security, record of physical battery, sexual harassment, bringing a loaded gun into a federal building and illegal lobbying for a Venezuelan oil company. The Democratic lawmaker then dropped an eyebrow-raising question.
"At any time during your tenure, as director of Department of Homeland Security, have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?" Kamlager-Dove asked Noem.
Noem did not explicitly deny or say "no" to the question. Instead, she became defensive in her reaction.
"I am shocked we are peddling tabloid garbage," Noem said. "Ma'am, one thing I would tell you is that he is a special employee who works for the White House — there are thousands of them in the federal government — and is an advisor and has no authority to be making any decisions."
Both Kamlager-Dove and Noem spoke over each other during the heated — and awkward — moment.
"It is OK for you to be offended by the question... but it is also a real question, and you should be able to answer the question, clearly, and without any hesitation if someone is asking if you or any federal official is sleeping with their subordinate," Kamlager-Dove said. "That should be the easiest... You should be wanting to answer that question because it is not about your sex life, it is about your judgment."
Noem said the claim was "offensive" and that the question has been "refuted for years."
But the internet had a different response.
"That’s not a denial," influencer Lucas Sanders wrote on X.
"I didn’t hear a no," nurse Richard Staple, BSN, RN, wrote on X.
"Bill Clinton would like a word," farmer Derek Cressman wrote on X.
"I’ll take that as a ‘yes,'" writer and artist Suanne Laqueur wrote on Bluesky.
"Doesn’t sound like a no…" consultant Stuart Tan wrote on Bluesky.
Kamlager-Dove: During you tenure at DHS, have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?
Attorney General Pam Bondi has been subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee.
The vote, cast on Wednesday, was introduced by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who wants answers on why the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case files have not been released in compliance with federal law.
Per PBS NewsHour's Lisa Desjardins, all Democrats on the committee backed her resolution, as well as four other Republicans: Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Scott Perry (R-PA), Tim Burchett (R-TN), and Michael Cloud (R-TX).
In a statement posted to X before the vote, Mace — a sexual assault survivor herself — vowed to get answers for the public from President Donald Trump's top law enforcement official.
"AG Bondi claims the DOJ has released all of the Epstein files. The record is clear: they have not," she wrote. "The Epstein case is one of the greatest cover-ups in American history. His global sex trafficking network is larger than what is being revealed. Three million documents have been released, and we still don't have the full truth. Videos are missing. Audio is missing. Logs are missing. There are millions more documents out there."
"We want to know why the DOJ is more focused on shielding the powerful than delivering justice," added Mace. "The American people deserve answers, victims deserve justice. HOLD. THE. LINE."
The Office of Congressional Conduct has already found "substantial reason to believe" that Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) engaged in sexual relations with a now-deceased subordinate, Politico reported on Wednesday.
This comes just hours after reports that the powerful House Ethics Committee, whose findings frequently bring down congressional careers, had opened an investigation into Gonzales, who represents a sprawling district that includes most of the Texas border with Mexico.
The former staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, headed up his branch office in Uvalde. She died in a gruesome suicide last year, and people close to her have alleged that her mental health began to decline around the time of the relationship. Text messages also appear to indicate she was at least somewhat uncomfortable with the pressure Gonzales was putting on her.
"The OCC investigation found 'a substantial reason to believe that Rep. Gonzales engaged in a sexual relationship with an employee of the House of Representatives who was working under his supervision,' according to the report," Politico said. "In one exchange with a fellow staffer, known as Witness 1, Santos-Aviles texted: 'I had an affair with our boss and I’m fine. You will be fine.' The staffer, in an interview with the OCC, described personal conversations with Santos-Aviles wherein she described text messages with Gonzales that 'were sexual in nature, that were romantic in nature.'"
Gonzales has denied the affair, or any wrongdoing, and has said of the Ethics Committee probe that “I welcome the opportunity to present all the facts to the committee."
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) lashed out at several of her Republican colleagues for opposing a motion that would require Congress to release information on payouts that silence victims of congressional sex scandals.
During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) moved to release information about payouts for sexual misconduct.
Boebert spoke out in support of Mace's motion in committee after a majority of Republicans in the full House voted down a similar effort.
"And I want to thank Congresswoman Nancy Mace for introducing this privileged motion," the Colorado Republican said. "I think at this point, this is something that should be introduced on a weekly basis. I am absolutely disgusted that we could even get to 50 members of Congress who want immediate transparency. Don't we all campaign on transparency? Don't we all go out and tell the American voters that we are leaders and that we are going to get justice for them, that we are going to do right by them?"
"And then we hire their daughters to come work for us," she continued. "And your tax dollars, millions and millions of dollars, has been used in this slush fund as hush money to silence victims who have been sexually harassed, sexually abused by members of Congress."
Boebert noted that attention had been focused on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the misconduct was "happening right here in our nation's capital."
"And to every member who voted to send this to committee, where you know this was sent to die on the House floor just moments ago," she remarked. "I hope you have a darn good reason to tell your constituents why you were not going to stand up for the victims."
"And I'm glad that we are doing something about it here in the Oversight Committee," the lawmaker added. "And to the members who voted against this, go home and tell your daughters what you did today! Go home and tell your daughters what happens in the workplace, no matter where it is, in your hometown, in your nation's capital, and tell them what you did to help continue to cover up decades of corruption!"
President Donald Trump made it known on Wednesday that he wants to take a major election decision away from Republican voters in Texas — and the internet had serious reactions to his comments.
Trump has threatened to interfere in elections before, or flat out cancel them, but after a tight primary race in the Lone Star state between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the president promised an endorsement — but only on the condition that the loser of his choice drop out. A GOP runoff election was slated for May 26, as neither candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote.
"The Republican Primary Race for the United States Senate in the Great State of Texas, a State I LOVE and won 3 times in Record Numbers (the HIGHEST vote ever recorded, by far!!!), cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer," Trump posted Wednesday. "IT MUST STOP NOW!"
Republican strategists have indicated that Trump was likely to endorse Cornyn, according to a report from The Atlantic.
People responded to Trump's threat on social media:
"They sound nervous about Texas," Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko wrote on Bluesky.
"Good thing there's nothing dictatorial-sounding about that," progressive political activist Carol Norris wrote on Bluesky.
"Sure, why have people vote?" Retired Professor Emeritus of Immunology and Genomic Medicine, Jim Hagman, Ph.D., wrote on X.
"This might sound crazy, but what about just letting voters decide instead?" Napp Nazworth, Executive Director of American Values Coalition, wrote on X.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stopped short of ruling out ground troops during the first briefing since the military campaign launched.
"I know there's many leaders in the past who like to take options off of the table without having a full understanding of how things could develop. So again, it's not part of the current plan, but I'm not going to remove an option for the president that is on the table," Leavitt said."
The carefully worded statement suggests the administration is keeping all options on the table as airstrikes continue pummeling Iranian targets.
Since Saturday, U.S. and Israeli forces have unleashed a devastating campaign against Iranian military infrastructure, targeting nearly 2,000 sites and killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared the campaign a decisive victory, telling Pentagon reporters: "I stand before you today with one unmistakable message about Operation Epic Fury. America is winning — decisively, devastatingly and without mercy." He later added that Iran was "toast" and if they didn't realize as such already, they would "soon enough."
Leavitt's remarks led to immediate reaction on social media.
Alexander Clarkson, lecturer for European politics and history at King's College London, wrote on X, "This probably means that US special operations units are already there."
Curt Mills, executive director of The American Conservative, chided on X, "Sneering intellectuals literally less than a week ago: 'no one is talking about boots on the ground.'"
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, wrote on X: "Iran is nearly four times the size of Iraq. Its population is over 3.5 times that of Iraq’s when the US invaded in 2003. An invasion would be another costly and bloody quagmire. Lawmakers should vote to disengage US forces from the war and oppose any supplemental funding of it."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt directly attacked CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday during the first press briefing since the United States and its ally Israel launched military strikes against Iran.
Leavitt had made several comments criticizing media coverage of the Trump administration and went after reporters at the White House, specifically Collins and CNN.
The Trump administration has presented several different objectives since launching its military operation five days ago — with Cabinet members and even President Donald Trump giving conflicting information over what prompted the attacks and led to the regional conflict that has now left six American troops dead.
"Is it the position of this administration that the press should not prominently cover the deaths of U.S. service members?" Collins asked Leavitt.
"No, it's the position of this administration that the press in this room and the press across this country should report on the success of Operation Epic Fury and the damage it is doing to the rogue Iranian regime that has threatened the lives of every single American in this room," Leavitt said. "If the Iranian regime had their choice, they would kill every single person in this room, and so we can all be very grateful that we have an administration, that we have men and women in our armed forces who are willing to sacrifice their own lives for the rest of us in this room and for every American across the country, and for every troop that is based in the Middle East."
Collins pushed back on what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had said earlier Wednesday. When Leavitt started to clash with her, things became personal.
"But Secretary Hegseth was complaining that it was front-page news about these six service members who were killed," Collins said.
"That's not what the secretary said, and that's not what he meant, and you know it!" Leavitt said, appearing visibly upset by Collins' statement. "You are being disingenuous. There is not — we've never had a secretary of defense who cares more..."
Collins then interjected and read the statement directly from Hegseth, who had claimed that the press had purposefully tried to speak badly about Trump.
"The press only wants to make the president look bad," Leavitt said. As you know, the press, the deaths of U.S. service members under every president. The press does only want to make the president look bad. That's a fact. Especially, you know, listen to me, especially you, and especially CNN, and the secretary of defense cares deeply about our warfighters and our men and women in uniform. He travels all across this country to meet with them, to connect with them. And your network has hardly ever probably reported on that."
Collins responded again to Leavitt's attacks — pointing out that covering the slain military members was not an attempt to attack Trump.
"That's not making the president look bad, that's showcasing that," Collins said.
"And I just told you that the president of the United States will be attending their dignified transfer. So please. So, please," Leavitt said. "We expect you to cover that as you should, Kaitlan. But you and your network know that you take every single thing this administration says and tries to use it to make the president look bad. That is an objective fact."
Collins pushed back again.
"I don't think covering troop deaths is trying to make the president look bad," Collins said.
"If you're trying to argue right now that CNN's overwhelming coverage is not negative of President Donald Trump, I think the American people would tend to agree, and your ratings would tend to disagree with that as well," Leavitt said.
Speaking to Raw Story on Wednesday in the immediate aftermath of her loss to state Rep. James Talarico, Crockett pivoted away from her primary setback to focus fire on Republicans, claiming their tactics were actively undermining Democratic chances in the general election.
"Listen, I think that it was an exciting election. I think it's clear that the trends are that we can win in November, and so we just got to keep the energy up and make sure the terrible tactics of the Republicans don't cost us votes and disenfranchise voters as we saw in Dallas County," she said.
Crockett added: "Obviously, I know you're very well aware of everything that took place. I don't know where the party is going with the litigation, because they were the ones who had been pending litigation, but this is something that needs to be fixed.”
When asked what comes next for her political future, Crockett replied, "I am going to continue to serve."
Dallas and Williamson County Republican Parties opted not to hold joint primaries, which, under Texas law, forced both parties to abandon countywide vote centers on Election Day and return to assigned precinct polling places.
Many Dallas voters, accustomed to countywide centers since 2019, showed up at their usual or convenient locations and were turned away or redirected, leading to mass confusion, long lines, and reports that large shares of voters initially went to the wrong place. Dallas County Democrats have said this amounted to voter suppression and sought emergency relief to keep polls open longer for their primary.
A Dallas judge ordered Democratic polling places in the county to stay open two extra hours, until 9 p.m., with ballots cast after 7 p.m. to be counted as provisional. The state Supreme Court quickly issued a stay, instructing that ballots cast by voters not in line by 7 p.m. be separated while it decides whether those late votes are valid. The saga threw the final tally into chaos.
