Trump's SHOCKING Week: Leaked Plans, Senate Grilling, and a Voter Purge!

2025-03-26 00:03:22.1

• Leaked military plans: President Donald Trump expressed support for his national security adviser and team today as he denied that classified information was shared in a group chat that a journalist was accidentally added to that detailed plans about US military strikes on Yemen. • Grilling in the Senate: Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe also insisted today that no material shared in the chat was classified as they appeared at a heated Senate hearing. The officials shifted responsibility on the defense secretary for sending potentially classified information in the group chat. • EO on voting: Meanwhile, Trump signed an executive order seeking to boost proof of citizenship requirements for voter registration, which critics say could disenfranchise poor and older voters who don’t have easy access to citizenship documents like passports or birth certificates. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his country needs “clear guarantees” for the Black Sea agreement the White House says was agreed to in Riyadh. The agreement stipulates that neither Russia nor Ukraine would use force in the Black Sea, but the Kremlin has said it needs certain sanctions on agricultural export capabilities to be lifted. “We want the grain and fertilizer market to be predictable, so that no one tries to discourage us from it,” Lavrov said in an interview with Russian state media. “We will need clear guarantees. Given the sad experience of the agreements with Kyiv, the guarantees can only be the result of an order from Washington to (Ukrainian President) Volodymyr Zelensky and his team to do this.” The Riyadh agreements also involved a moratorium on attacks on Russian and Ukrainian energy sites. Lavrov said Russia was in favor of a truce but with “nuances.” “We are also in favor of considering ways to avoid causing any damage to the energy infrastructure. This is not in our interests,” he said. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he left a meeting today with Senate GOP Leader John Thune on budget reconciliation “very encouraged” and “very optimistic,” as congressional Republicans look to advance President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda, though he acknowledged that they still need “more details to be ironed out.” “It sounds like it’s moving a lot quicker now than it has been. So I’m pleased with that,” Johnson told reporters following the meeting. Asked about the difference between the House and Senate over spending cuts, Johnson said that they need “more details to be ironed out,” but that the vision “is becoming more and more aligned.” “I think the two chambers are getting very close,” he said. He also claimed that there’s “close alignment” between the two chambers on Trump’s requested tax cuts and said it sounds as though Senate Republicans are “coming around” on including the debt limit increase as part of the reconciliation package. Johnson and Thune met with relevant committee chairs and administration officials this afternoon at the Treasury Department about the budget resolutions and reconciliation process. Separately, Thune said that “everybody’s preferred outcome” would be to include the debt limit in Republicans’ budget resolution after the meeting. The US Senate voted today in favor of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s nomination to lead the National Institutes of Health. The vote was 53-46, with one abstention. Bhattacharya, a health economist and professor at Stanford University who’s well-known for his criticism of Covid-19 lockdowns and mitigation policies, repeatedly told senators at his confirmation hearing this month that he is committed to following the law and ensuring that NIH scientists have the resources they need to do their work. He also said that, even though extensive research has shown there is no link between vaccines and autism, and he doesn’t “generally believe that there is a link,” he is open to supporting more studies on the topic. Bhattacharya will report to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, who has previously promoted false claims about vaccines. President Donald Trump defended his national security adviser, a day after it was revealed in an Atlantic report that some of his top Cabinet officials were talking about plans for strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen on an unsecured platform. He claimed US national security “is stronger than it’s ever been.” Two key officials – Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe – testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. They shifted blame and denied that there was any classified material in the chat. Here’s the latest from the fallout of the report: United Nations staff members in New York have been told to carry their passports and UN credentials with them due to heightened fears of possible run-ins as the US cracks down on immigration. Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, confirmed the measure yesterday, telling reporters that he couldn’t remember it ever happening before. The advisory was intended to “reassure,” he said. “It’s a good reminder for staff members to carry identification with them, including photos of their visas.” UN staffers received an email on Friday, seen by CNN, which advises that they and their families carry “a form of identification at all times” including their “United Nations identification card” or “a copy of your national passport with G-4 visa.” “While the likelihood of a situation requiring you to produce such documents to confirm your identity/employment remains low, we want to ensure that everyone is prepared,” the email also says, including instructions on what to do if detained. In the regular briefing today, Dujarric further emphasized that “there is no indication that there is a targeting of UN staff or diplomatic staff.” President Donald Trump’s newly-signed executive order aimed at revamping the way US elections are run instructs the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Department of Government Efficiency to review state voter rolls in an effort to identify foreign nationals, and to turn over that list to the state and local officials tasked with managing elections. The directive is likely to raise alarm bells among voting rights advocates who have argued that DHS immigration databases are not equipped for vetting voter rolls without proper guardrails, as they pose a risk of identifying naturalized citizens for purges. It is one aspect of the new order that facilitates potentially sweeping changes to election practices long sought by conservatives while capitalizing on Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. The impact of the order won’t be fully clear until it is implemented, and parts of it could be challenged in court. Elections are run by state and local officials, with the federal government playing only a limited role. But Trump’s order uses a number of tools, including the threat of withholding federal funding, to push changes to election policies that Republicans say will make elections more secure. Their opponents counter such changes create needless hurdles for legitimate voters. In his strongest remarks to date on the Trump administration’s Signal group chat, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries penned a letter to President Donald Trump today saying that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “should be fired immediately.” “Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in American history,” Jeffries wrote. “His continued presence in the top position of leadership at the Pentagon threatens the nation’s security and puts our brave men and women in uniform throughout the world in danger.” He continued: “The so-called Secretary of Defense recklessly and casually disclosed highly sensitive war plans — including the timing of a pending attack, possible strike targets and the weapons to be used — during an unclassified national security group chat that inexplicably included a reporter. His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law.” The Trump administration’s nominee to be the State Department’s top lawyer would not give a yes or no answer today as to whether he’d follow the law at his nomination hearing. In a heated exchange with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Reed Rubinstein was asked multiple times to answer, “yes or no” that he would “commit to following the law and to advising against policies or actions that would violate current federal law.” Rubinstein said he didn’t think it was necessarily a “yes or no answer,” claiming that “the law is a conversation.” “I mean yes, the job of the federal government, writ broadly, is to follow the law,” he said. “That is not a controversial proposition at all. The kind of where the rubber hits the road, though, is when you’re looking in at the margins. And particularly, I know this is of interest in talking with staff, talking with your staff, there are questions about the relative legalities, for example, of certain separation of powers issues, on matters that are likely to come up before the department. And there it gets into a gray area. You end up into discussions about what the relative balance is between Congress, say, and the executive with respect to various powers, and often there isn’t an absolutely clear answer.” Vice President JD Vance announced today that he is joining second lady Usha Vance on her upcoming trip to Greenland. The pair will visit Pituffik Space Base and receive a briefing on Arctic security measures, as well as meet with US servicemembers, according to a statement from the vice president’s office. The stop “will take place in lieu of the Second Lady’s previously announced visit to the Avannaata Qimussersu dogsled race in Sisimiut,” according to the statement. In a video on X, the vice president said, “There was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her. I’m going to visit some of our Guardians in the Space Force on the Northwest coast of Greenland and also just check out what’s going on with the security there.” “A lot of other countries have threatened Greenland, have threatened to use its territories and its waterways to threaten the United States, to threaten Canada and of course to threaten the people of Greenland,” Vance continued, saying it is the goal of the Trump administration to “reinvigorate” Greenland’s security. The announcement of the second lady’s visit along with a US delegation including national security adviser Mike Waltz was characterized as “highly aggressive” by Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte B. Egede, plunging relations to a new low after President Donald Trump vowed to annex the autonomous Danish territory. CNN’s Lex Harvey and Alejandra Jaramillo contributed reporting. One of the international broadcasters targeted for termination by President Donald Trump has been granted a reprieve by a federal judge. US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth granted Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s request for a temporary restraining order that will help the broadcaster stay on the air and online for the time being. The broadcasters filed suit last week to contest Trump’s shutdown order, claiming it “would violate the Constitution and federal laws.” Lamberth heard arguments in the case today. Just before the hearing, the Trump administration agreed to pay what it owes Radio Free Europe for the first half of March. But it continued to defend the termination order that took effect March 15. “We’re confident the law is on our side as the US Constitution grants Congress the exclusive power of the purse,” Radio Free Europe CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement after the hearing. “It is unlawful to deny us the funds that Congress has already appropriated to RFE/RL for the rest of this fiscal year.” Lamberth signaled agreement in his restraining order against the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM for short). “RFE/RL has, for decades, operated as one of the organizations that Congress has statutorily designated to carry out this policy. The leadership of USAGM cannot, with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation, force RFE/RL to shut down — even if the President has told them to do so,” Lamberth wrote. The order means that the broadcaster is likely to succeed on the merits of the broader case. Lamberth said he intends to rule “expeditiously” and told the parties to file briefings before the court later this week. Multiple other lawsuits over Trump’s action to dismantle the US Agency for Global Media are also pending. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s suggestion that Congress could eliminate a federal court. “It is outrageous to even think of defunding the courts. The courts are the bulwark against Trump and the Republicans can’t stand it,” Schumer told reporters on Capitol Hill. “But that’s our systems of law. We will fight in every way to keep funding the courts,” he continued. House Speaker Mike Johnson in a Tuesday news conference said that Congress has ”authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court. We have power of funding over the courts and all these other things.” Johnson later clarified that he was “trying to illustrate” that Congress has a “broad scope of authority over the courts,” Punchbowl News reported. His comments come as President Donald Trump has increased attacks on a district judge over his administration’s deportation flights. Some Republican lawmakers expressed concerns and made clear today they support investigations into the report that Trump administration officials sent detailed operational plans about strikes in Yemen to a group chat that a reporter had been inadvertently added to. Here’s some of what they told CNN: President Donald Trump signed an executive order today directing agencies to suspend the security clearances and access to federal buildings of lawyers from the firm Jenner & Block. Jenner & Block is a large law firm with a Washington, DC, office that’s part of several prominent and politically charged cases, and has several well-known courtroom lawyers, regulatory attorneys and Congress specialists in its partnership. The law firm previously employed former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who led the successful prosecution of Trump’s 2016 campaign leader Paul Manafort as one of the top prosecutors in the Russia investigation. In the executive order, Trump claims that Jenner & Block has “abandoned the profession’s highest ideals, condoned partisan ‘lawfare,’ and abused its pro bono practice to engage in activities that undermine justice and the interests of the United States.” The executive order specifically points out Weissmann’s ties to the firm. The move is the latest example of Trump carrying out a political vendetta he has against certain firms that have represented or had ties with his perceived enemies. A federal judge in Washington said recently a similar order against the law firm Perkins Coie is unlawful, restoring that firm’s access. But the White House continues to look at punishing other major law firms in the city, and other restrictions had been ordered against the firms Covington & Burling and Paul Weiss, which cut a deal with Trump. Jenner & Block has in recent weeks taken part in some of the emergency lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive actions, seeking to block the administration from cutting medical research funding to universities, to defend a nonprofit involved in a climate grant program that Trump officials are investigating, and to fight for access to gender-affirming care for minors. In addition to claiming that Jenner & Block engages in “partisan representations to achieve political ends,” and accusing the firm of discriminating against its employees by race, the order states that the law firm was “thrilled” to rehire Weissmann after the Mueller investigation. “Andrew Weissmann is the main culprit with respect to this firm?” Trump asked Will Scharf, an aide who presented him with the order at the White House. “He is one of a number of reasons that we believe this executive order is warranted,” Scharf said. “He’s a bad guy,” Trump said giving his signature. The law firm issued a statement this evening in response to the executive order. “Jenner & Block has had a long history representing clients, paid and pro bono, in their most difficult matters since 1914. Today, we have been named in an Executive Order similar to one which has already been declared unconstitutional by a federal court. We remain focused on serving and safeguarding our clients’ interests with the dedication, integrity, and expertise that has defined our firm for more than one hundred years and will pursue all appropriate remedies.” This post was updated with a statement from Jenner & Block. President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that national security adviser Mike Waltz does not need to apologize after The Atlantic reported Monday that Waltz added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal chain where Cabinet officials discussed detailed attack plans for a forthcoming strike in Yemen. “No, I don’t think he should apologize. I think he’s doing his best,” Trump told reporters. “It’s equipment and technology that’s not perfect, and probably he won’t be using it again, at least not in the very near future.” The president blasted Goldberg — with whom he clashed over a report during his first term that he called America’s war dead “suckers” and “losers” — “a total sleaze bag,” adding that he believes Goldberg is “basically bad for the country.” Just last week, Trump criticized the magazine after he said they submitted an interview request, taking to his Truth Social media platform to call it a “Third Rate Magazine.” On Tuesday, Trump added: “The public understands that [Waltz is] a very good man…he’s a very good man, and he will continue to do a good job. In addition to him, we had very good people in that meeting, and those people have done a very, very effective job.” The Kremlin said it agreed on a list of Ukrainian and Russian energy facilities that would be off-limits to attacks under the agreement Moscow and Washington struck following talks in Riyadh. According to the Kremlin, Russia and the US agreed that Ukrainian and Russian oil refineries, oil and gas pipelines, storage facilities, pumping stations, electricity power plants, substations, transformers and distributors would “fall under the temporary moratorium on attacks on the energy system.” Attacks on Russian and Ukrainian nuclear power plants and hydroelectric dams would also be prohibited, the Kremlin said. “This is quite an important list that was agreed upon by both sides,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. The Kremlin added that the moratorium began on March 18, and would be in effect for 30 days, but could be extended. Also in these meetings: Additionally, the US reached an agreement on a Black Sea initiative, in which Russia and Ukraine would stop using force in the Black Sea. The Kremlin later said this agreement was contingent upon sanctions on Russia being lifted. Peskov told CNN that Russia wants the deal to be fair. “It is important to remember that actually last time we attempted to implement Black Sea deal. We fulfilled all the obligations, but obligations about us were forgotten and were not fulfilled. So this time it’s important it’s a balanced deal,” he said. This post has been updated with comments from Peskov. Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for US ambassador to Israel, reiterated his staunch pro-Israel positions as he questioned the viability of a Palestinian state. “If in fact there is going to be a peaceful direction, we have to accept that something isn’t working,” Huckabee said during his confirmation hearing Tuesday. “The two-state solution — the notion that everyone’s going to live together, toast marshmallows around the campfire singing kumbaya and it’s going to happen in our lifetime — it’s not going to happen if one of the sides doesn’t believe the other one doesn’t have a right to exist,” the former Arkansas governor said. Huckabee has repeatedly questioned the existence of a Palestinian national identity. During his ill-fated 2008 presidential campaign, Huckabee said, “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.” He has also expressed support for Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and support for Israel’s annexation of at least parts of the territory. Acknowledging his own controversial positions, Huckabee said during the hearing Tuesday, “I’m not here to articulate or to defend my own views or policies.” Instead, he said he would advance the policies of the Trump administration. Senate Republican Leader John Thune said he anticipates the Senate Armed Services Committee will hear testimony on the Trump administration’s use of a Signal chat to discuss military strikes in Yemen. He noted that administration officials had faced questions today over the incident in front of another prominent panel, the Senate Intelligence Committee. Thune said he believes everyone has acknowledged, including the White House, that “mistakes were made,” and added, “What we want to do is make sure that something like that doesn’t happen again.” Thune did not explicitly call for a standalone Senate investigation, but said the chamber is looking into the matter as he pointed to today’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. “At least two of the relevant players in that conversation were in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee for a very long period of time in an open setting,” he said, referring to testimony from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who were reportedly part of that chat thread on the Signal app. And Thune said he expects that the Senate Armed Services Committee may also want those involved to testify before the panel. President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that there “was no classified information” shared on the Signal chain that The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg said he was added to, pushing back on Goldberg’s claim that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent “operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen” during the conversation. Trump claimed US national security “is stronger than it’s ever been” and praised national security adviser Mike Waltz, who Goldberg said added him to the chain, calling the official “a very good man.” “He’s a very good man, and he will continue to do a good job,” Trump said. For his part, Waltz, who was also in the room with Trump’s ambassador picks, blasted Goldberg, whom Trump has clashed with in the past. “There’s a lot of journalists in this city who have made big names for themselves making up lies about this president — whether it’s the ‘Russia hoax,’ or making up lies about Gold Star families,” the national security adviser said. “And this one in particular, I’ve never met, don’t know, never communicated with, and we are looking into and reviewing how the heck he got into this room.” “I think it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael [Waltz],” Trump added. President Donald Trump told reporters today that his administration is “looking” at the conditions that the Kremlin has said will need to be met before a Black Sea agreement can be implemented. “We’re thinking about all of them right now. There are five or six conditions. We are looking at all of them,” Trump said at the White House. Earlier today, the White House said both Ukraine and Russia agreed to stop using force in the Black Sea – a deal in principle that the Kremlin then said comes with several conditions before it can be implemented. More on the agreement: US officials held a series of separate meetings with Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Saudi Arabia in recent days. The White House outlined the agreements it said the US struck with Russia and Ukraine in two separate, but very similar statements on Tuesday. Both said that the US and each of the respective countries “have agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed in a news conference in Kyiv that Ukraine has agreed to stop using military force in the Black Sea. However, the Kremlin’s statement added that it would only implement the deal when restrictions on its banks and food and fertilizer exports are lifted. CNN’s Ivana Kottasová, Christian Edwards, Anna Chernova, Svitlana Vlasova, Kevin Liptak and Angus Watson contributed to this report. President Donald Trump said today he would be interested in taking away taxpayer dollars from National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). “I would love to do that. I think it’s very unfair. It’s been very biased,” he said after a reporter asked if he’d like to end that funding. Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called on the CEOs of NPR and PBS to testify before a government efficiency subcommittee hearing, as both organizations had long been under the scrutiny of budget-slashing Republicans. The news media leaders will testify tomorrow. In January, Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr ordered an investigation into the sponsorship practices of NPR and PBS. NPR says its two largest revenue sources are from corporate sponsorships and fees paid by NPR member organizations.