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Investigative political reporter Tara Palmeri sparked an uproar on Thursday after a Democratic congressional candidate abruptly ended an interview with her over questions on her indictment.

Palmeri briefly interviewed Kat Abughazaleh on her podcast, "The Tara Palmeri Show." The interview occurred a day after Abughazaleh found out President Donald Trump's administration had indicted her on one count of "forcibly" impeding an officer on duty and one count of conspiracy.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was confronted on Thursday with an open letter from the victims of the late billionaire financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, calling on him to stop obstructing the swearing in of Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ).

Grijalva was elected weeks ago to the seat vacated when her father, Rep. Raul Grijalva, passed away earlier this year. Johnson has refused to seat her, insisting the House won't reconvene until the government shutdown ends. Many critics have speculated his real motive is to stave off the final vote needed for a bipartisan discharge petition to compel the Trump administration to release the Epstein case files, at least until he can get a Republican who signed on to back off.

Progressive Democrat Kat Abughazaleh, who is running for a Congressional seat in Illinois' 9th District in 2026, abruptly ended an interview with a journalist after being asked about a federal indictment she faces.

Abughazaleh was charged with one count of "forcibly" impeding an officer on duty and one count of conspiracy after she was arrested during a protest of an immigration raid in Broadview, Illinois. Abughazaleh has said she will plead not guilty and plans to surrender to authorities next week.

Progressive Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh spoke out against President Donald Trump's administration for prosecuting her after she participated in a protest against an immigration raid in her home state of Illinois.

The indictment, which was filed on Oct. 23, accuses Abughazaleh of one count of conspiracy and one count of forcibly impeding an officer. Abughazaleh told NBC News that she plans to self-surrender to authorities next Wednesday and described the incident as "political prosecution."

Former Republican Tim Miller, who hosts a podcast for the conservative anti-Trump news outlet The Bulwark, discussed with MSNBC host and former Republican Nicolle Wallace that the GOP is stiffing its own voters with slashes to food stamp benefits.

"I know food stamps is like a 90s era right-wing racist smear, but SNAP, which is sort of the new EBT — this is food assistance. [It] knows no partisan affiliation. If anything, it disproportionately benefits households in Trump voting counties and districts," said Wallace. "And it feeds a whole lot of kids who don't have any responsibility for any of the political decisions that adults make."

A longtime former employee at one of President Donald Trump's golf clubs was mistakenly deported to Mexico, The New York Times reported — sending U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement into a mad scramble to correct the error and bring him home.

"Alejandro Juarez stepped off a plane in Texas and stood on a bridge over the Rio Grande, staring at the same border that he had crossed illegally from Mexico 22 years earlier," reported Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Hamed Aleaziz. "As U.S. immigration officials unshackled restraints bound to his arms and legs, Mr. Juarez, 39, pleaded with them. He told them he was never given a chance to contest his deportation in front of an immigration judge after being detained in New York City five days before."

A panel on MSNBC shamed a few former officials who refused to speak out publicly against President Donald Trump.

National security analyst Michael Feinberg, a fired FBI agent who was pushed out for his friendship with Peter Strzok, spoke to host Nicolle Wallace on Thursday, specifically name-checking former Justice Department official Lisa Monico and ex-FBI Director Christopher Wray.

President Donald Trump's federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., refused to answer questions from reporters on why the Justice Department whitewashed a sentencing memo for a violent Jan. 6 rioter who was charged for an incident in which he livestreamed himself near former President Barack Obama's house with a stash of illegal guns and ammunition.

Tyler Taranto, during his heavily armed stream in 2023, also made a fake bomb threat against a government building. He separately received a pardon for his involvement in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Former FBI Director James Comey asked a court to dismiss charges against him for allegedly lying to Congress, noting that the statements highlighted in the government's indictment were "literally true."

In the indictment last month, the Department of Justice claimed Comey falsely told Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that he never gave anyone permission to leak details about an FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton.

President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. will resume testing its nuclear weapons, stating that the move is necessary because America's adversaries have done so.

While the U.S. has the top military equipment in the world, spending several times more than other countries, Trump wants the U.S. to start blowing things up again. The problem, however, is that the government shutdown means the people who deal specifically with nuclear issues are furloughed.