CNN – US Politics

By Marshall Cohen A New Jersey gym owner deserves more than 3.5 years in prison for punching a police officer while storming the US Capitol, the Justice Department said in a court filing on Wednesday, recommending the harshest punishment to date for one of the January 6 rioters. Scott Fairlamb was the first rioter to

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN Photographs by Elijah Nouvelage for CNN When Patricia Dossie left her senior housing apartment west of downtown Atlanta to vote on Tuesday, she was certain of her destination: a recreation center about 6 miles away. “I’ve been voting there for years,” the 73-year-old said. But she and two of her neighbors

By Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood, CNN US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley will lead US participation in the next round of Iran nuclear talks, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Wednesday, shortly after an Iranian diplomat announced the long-delayed negotiations will restart November 29 in Vienna. Price said negotiations about the Joint Comprehensive

By Ellie Kaufman and Oren Liebermann, CNN A US Air Force investigation into a US drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians at the end of August found that though “execution errors” were made, the law was not broken. “The investigation found no violation of law including the law of war. We did find

CNN By Maegan Vazquez, CNN President Joe Biden called the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s authorization of the Covid-19 vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 “a giant step forward to further accelerate our path out of this pandemic,” saying Wednesday that it’s “a day of relief and celebration” for parents around the

By Maegan Vazquez, CNN President Joe Biden called the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s authorization of the Covid-19 vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 “a giant step forward to further accelerate our path out of this pandemic,” saying Wednesday that it’s “a day of relief and celebration” for parents around the country.

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN Richard Barron, who oversees elections in Georgia’s biggest Democratic county, is announcing his resignation Wednesday — following a tumultuous year that has included death threats against him and his staff and the potential takeover of election operations in the county by state officials. His announcement comes one day after municipal elections

By Rachel Janfaza, Lauren Dezenski and Chandelis Duster, CNN A number of trailblazing candidates made history this week, as CNN projected that people of color across the country were elected to top positions at both the state and city level. Here’s a look at some of the historic firsts from Election Night 2021. Winsome Sears,

By Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN A federal judge has ordered a January 6 defendant to be released from the DC jail after an unannounced inspection by US Marshals last month showed mistreatment of detainees and increased the judge’s concern that a defendant with cancer would not be treated properly. Judge Royce Lamberth said

By Clare Foran, CNN Senate Republicans blocked the John Lewis Voting Rights Act from advancing on Wednesday when the Senate took a procedural vote on whether to open debate on the legislation. The final tally was 50 to 49 with GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voting with Democrats in favor. The John Lewis voting

By Barbara Starr, Oren Liebermann, Ellie Kaufman, and Adam Pourahmadi, CNN The US strongly rejected Iran’s accusation that the US Navy had tried to confiscate Iranian crude oil aboard a tanker in the Gulf of Oman, with Pentagon spokesman John Kirby calling the claims “absolutely, totally false and untrue.” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed it had

By Oren Liebermann, CNN China is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal and may have 1,000 nuclear warheads by the end of the decade as it aims to surpass US global influence by the middle of the 21st century, according to a major Pentagon report released on Wednesday. The estimate, based on the rapid modernization of

By Katie Bo Lillis and Sean Lyngaas, CNN US Cyber Command head and director of the National Security Agency Gen. Paul Nakasone said Wednesday that the US had “conducted a surge” over the past three months to address the problem of ransomware attacks on US interests. Nakasone said the US government had taken aim at

By Annie Grayer, CNN House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a major shift, announced Wednesday that four weeks of paid family and medical leave will be added back into the social spending bill, after Democrats had previously scrapped the provision from the package. The California Democrat is pushing for a vote on both the $1.75 trillion

By Jeff Zeleny, John Harwood, Betsy Klein, Kate Sullivan and Kevin Liptak, CNN President Joe Biden on Wednesday received an unwelcome wake-up call for his still-new presidency as the Democrat arrived back in Washington from a European excursion suddenly facing a transformed political landscape. Republican Glenn Youngkin’s projected gubernatorial victory over Democratic former Gov. Terry

CNN By Eric Bradner, Gregory Krieg and Dan Merica, CNN Republican Glenn Youngkin’s projected win in the Virginia governor’s race Tuesday erased any doubt: Democrats’ slim congressional majorities are in grave danger in next year’s midterm elections. Democratic former Gov. Terry McAuliffe had hoped former President Donald Trump’s continuing unpopularity would halt the pendulum swing

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN US officials issued a sweeping directive on Wednesday requiring federal civilian agencies to promptly update hardware and software that is vulnerable to hacking following multiple breaches of government networks in recent years. The directive gives agencies just two weeks to remediate newly discovered software vulnerabilities, and requires agencies to have a