Trump administration live updates: Vance addresses Venezuela intervention, state fraud allegations – NBC News

Venezuela is releasing an “important number” of political prisoners, including foreigners, the head of the country’s legislature said today.

The announcement could be the first sign that the new government is open to returning some freedom of expression to the country, and bending to pressure from opposition groups and the American government.

The move has been taken as “a unilateral gesture to maintain the peace and in order to secure our unbreakable decision to consolidate peace in the Republic, and peaceful coexistence,” Jorge Rodríguez, who is the older brother of the country’s new president, Delcy Rodríguez, told reporters.

Read the full story here.

Trump administration officials briefed lawmakers this week on a new legal opinion justifying the operation to capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who are facing narcotics charges in federal court in New York.

The opinion comes from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, according to lawmakers who spoke to NBC News. The lawmakers hadn’t seen details yet, but said it sought to give legal justification for the raid and capture. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the new opinion.

The office serves as a sort of in-house counsel for the federal government, providing legal justifications and opinions for the federal government. During the George W. Bush’s administration, it produced memos that provided the legal framework for the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding.

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Vance addressed the Senate’s decision to advance a war powers measure that aimed to restrict Trump’s ability to use military force against Venezuela without congressional approval.

“We talked to some of the senators who were going to vote the wrong way, in my view, on this resolution today. Much of their argument was based more on a legal technicality than any disagreement of policy,” Vance said during a press briefing.

“If you look at the people who actually voted, every single one of them has supported the administration’s plan,” he continued, going on to bash the War Powers Act as “a fake and unconstitutional law.”

“It’s not going to change anything about how we conduct foreign policy over the next couple weeks or the next couple of months,” he said.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 lays out how the president must communicate with Congress before or after using the military.

At the briefing, Vance addressed the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE agent.

The vice president at first offered very firm remarks that the woman attempted to ram agents with her car. He said it was a “lie” that this was “some innocent woman” when she was out protesting ICE action in the area.

Asked whether Vance risked pre-empting an investigation by laying out specific claims as a probe was just underway, Vance argued that “what you see is what you get in this case.”

Trump slammed five Republican senators who voted along with Democrats to advance a bipartisan resolution to block him from using military force “within or against Venezuela” unless he gets prior approval from Congress.

The vote of 52-47 on the war powers measure came after an unsuccessful plea by Republican leaders to sink it and preserve Trump’s authority, as he threatens a “second wave” of attacks on Venezuela.

GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Todd Young of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri joined with Democrats to move the legislation forward.

Trump slammed those five Republicans, calling their votes an act of “stupidity.”

“Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This Vote greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief.”

Vance announced at a White House briefing that the administration is creating a new assistant attorney general position to investigate alleged fraud across various states.

“We know that the fraud isn’t just happening in Minneapolis; it’s also happening in states like Ohio. It’s happening in states like California,” Vance said.

“What we’re doing in order to help coordinate this remarkable interagency effort from the Trump administration, but also to make sure that we prosecute the bad guys, and do it as swiftly and efficiently as possible, is we are creating a new assistant attorney general position who will have nationwide jurisdiction over the issue of fraud,” he said.

The top federal prosecutor in the Northern District of New York is serving in the position unlawfully, a judge ruled today.

U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield’s ruling against acting U.S. Attorney John Sarcone III is the fifth time that a judge has ruled that a top prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi was serving in the position unlawfully.

Similarly to other cases, Schofield ruled the Justice Department had tried to use impermissible work-arounds to keep Sarcone in office despite a 120-day limit for U.S. attorneys whose nominations had not been confirmed by the Senate.

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., delivered remarks commemorating the 15th anniversary of a 2011 shooting that left then-Rep. Gabby Giffords injured and six dead.

Giffords, D-Ariz., sat next to Jeffries on the House floor as he made his remarks.

“House Democrats stand with Gabby and with all Americans who say, ‘Enough is enough,’” Jeffries said in remarks on the House floor. “Enough with the gun violence epidemic being the leading cause of death for the children in this country. Enough with mass shootings being as frequent as the common cold.”

Jeffries called for tightening gun background checks and banning assault weapons — two of Democrats’ main priorities in addressing gun violence.

Democrats planned to introduce a joint resolution honoring the memory of the six people killed in the shooting, the gun violence prevention group Giffords said in a news release. A dozen others were injured in the shooting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said today that the text of a bilateral security guarantee between Kyiv and Washington was “essentially ready” to be finalized with Trump.

As a cornerstone of any postwar settlement, Ukraine has sought strong guarantees that commit the U.S. and other Western allies to come to Ukraine’s aid if Russia invades again.

Ukrainian and U.S. envoys, joined by a coalition of Ukraine’s allies, have been negotiating in Paris this week to iron out remaining disagreements in a peace framework Washington is seeking to hash out with Kyiv before presenting it to Russia. On Tuesday, the U.S. endorsed the idea of providing security guarantees for Ukraine for the first time.

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The International Rescue Committee said today that it stands ready to expand its humanitarian response in Venezuela, Colombia and the surrounding region if the current instability there worsens.

“Recent events in Venezuela create new uncertainty for people long grappling with political and economic instability,” said IRC President and CEO David Miliband in a statement.

Miliband said there are regional implications, including in Colombia, which he noted is “already home to nearly 3 million Venezuelan refugees hosted in neighboring states.”

He said that Colombia is on the IRC’s 2026 Emergency Watchlist “as the potential for a new and major economic crisis and displacement out of Venezuela grows, coupled with risks of escalating internal conflict.”

The Senate fired a warning shot at Trump, voting this morning to advance a bipartisan resolution to block him from using military force “within or against Venezuela” unless he gets prior approval from Congress.

The vote of 52-47 on the war powers measure came after an unsuccessful plea by Republican leaders to sink it and preserve Trump’s authority, as he threatens a “second wave” of attacks on Venezuela. Trump has declared that the U.S. would “run” the country temporarily after he ordered a military operation last week to capture and extradite leader Nicolás Maduro.

The legislation, led by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., was co-sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

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Trump’s deals with pharmaceutical companies are likely to have only a limited impact on Americans’ drug spending, experts say.

Since Sept. 30, the Trump administration has struck deals with 14 drugmakers in exchange for tariff relief, according to the White House.

The agreements — which haven’t gone into effect yet — adopt a “most favored nation” pricing model. They tie U.S. prices to those paid in other wealthy countries, lowering what Medicaid pays for the drugs, as well as offer discounts for people paying in cash through TrumpRx, a new self-pay platform.

Most of the deals, however, don’t affect what people with private insurance or Medicare pay for the drugs. People with Medicaid — who typically have minimal or no copays for prescriptions — already pay very little.

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Spencer Pratt, a reality TV star best known for his role on MTV’s “The Hills,” announced today that he would run for mayor of Los Angeles this year.

Pratt, who married fellow “The Hills” star Heidi Montag, went viral last year for his online commentary about the wildfires that ravaged the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. Pratt and Montag lost their house in the fires.

In a speech he posted on social media this week, Pratt told a crowd, “I have to tell you the most heartbreaking part of the past year wasn’t being displaced or losing everything I own. It was the realization that all of this was preventable.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., reiterated that the clean three-year extension of expired ACA tax credits that the House will vote on today has no future in the Senate without changes, saying, “There’s no appetite to do a straight-up extension.” 

“We’ve had that vote, as you know, already, but we’ll see what happens from the working group, and if they can come up with something that has reforms, and we’ll go from there,” he said.

Separately, Thune said the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the president “greenlit” yesterday would probably originate in the House. Thune added that although Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had not yet said he would bring that bill to the floor, he anticipated that the House leader would do so given that the legislation is a priority for the White House.

The Trump administration is expected to present updated plans for the controversial new White House ballroom at a National Capital Planning Commission hearing this afternoon as part of a formal review process. It comes after growing pressure from historic preservationists and a federal lawsuit objecting to the changes. The ballroom is expected to be completed by the summer of 2028. NBC News’ Peter Alexander reports for “Today.”

California will lose $160 million for delaying the revocations of 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants, federal transportation officials announced yesterday.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy already withheld $40 million in federal funding because he said California isn’t enforcing English proficiency requirements for truckers.

The state notified these drivers in the fall that they would lose their licenses after a federal audit found problems that included licenses for truckers and bus drivers that remained valid long after an immigrant’s visa expired. Some licenses were also given to citizens of Mexico and Canada who don’t qualify. More than one-quarter of the small sample of California licenses that investigators reviewed were unlawful.

But then last week California said it would delay those revocations until March after immigrant groups sued the state because of concerns that some groups were being unfairly targeted. Duffy said the state was supposed to revoke those licenses by Monday.

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Key European allies are criticizing U.S. global leadership in the wake of tensions over Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has a largely ceremonial role, warned of a major realignment in unusually strong remarks at an event in Berlin last night.

Steinmeier said there had been a “breakdown of values by our most important partner, the USA, which helped build this world order,” according to a translation by Reuters.

He added: “It is about preventing the world from turning into a den of robbers, where the most unscrupulous take whatever they want, where regions or entire countries are treated as the property of a few great powers.”

France’s President Emmanuel Macron also criticized U.S. leadership in separate remarks this morning, saying that events in recent days have confirmed “major global powers are seeking to divide the world among themselves.”

Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., announced yesterday that she will introduce articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for what Kelly calls “obstruction of justice, violation of public trust, and self-dealing.” 

Any member of the House can introduce articles of impeachment against a Cabinet official. No action has to be taken on those articles. Republicans, who control the floor and committees, will not bring this impeachment resolution forward.

The State Department said it had paused all U.S. assistance to Somalia’s federal government, citing reports that officials had destroyed a U.S.-funded World Food Program warehouse and “illegally seized” 76 metric tons of food aid meant for civilians in the East African country, one of the world’s poorest.

“The Trump Administration has a zero-tolerance policy for waste, theft, and diversion of life-saving assistance,” the department said yesterday in a post on X.

“Any resumption of assistance will be dependent upon the Somali Federal Government, taking accountability for its unacceptable actions and taking appropriate remedial steps,” it said.

Somali officials have not yet responded to the allegations. It is unclear how much assistance will be affected, as the Trump administration made drastic cuts to U.S. foreign aid last year.

The pause in assistance comes amid mounting White House attacks on Somali immigrants in the U.S., including over unsubstantiated claims of fraud at child care centers in Minnesota. The Trump administration has increased immigration raids in Minneapolis, home to the country’s largest Somali community, and Somalia is one of 19 countries whose nationals are barred from entering the U.S., as well as continuing their immigration applications.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., will announce this morning that he is not seeking re-election, a spokesperson for the congressman confirmed to NBC News.

The 86-year-old is among the longest-serving members of Congress, having held his seat since he won a special election in 1981. Hoyer plans to make his formal announcement when he speaks on the House floor at 10 a.m.

“I did not want to be one of those members who clearly stayed, outstayed his or her ability to do the job,” Hoyer told The Washington Post about his retirement plan. 

Read the full story here.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa., announced in a video this morning that he is running for re-election.

“We’ve gotten s— done all across our commonwealth to make a real difference in people’s lives,” he said in a video posted on X, laying out his credentials for issues including job growth, championing public safety and cutting taxes.

Shapiro won his 2022 race for governor with 56.5% of the vote, while his Republican opponent Doug Mastriano garnered 41.7%. The swing state is often a bellwether for the direction of the country’s politics.

Earlier this week, he announced that his campaign for governor ended last year with more than $30 million on hand.

The governor has often been floated as a potential 2028 presidential contender.

Congress is one step closer to providing some relief to the millions of Americans who saw their health care premiums skyrocket at the start of the year. With a handful of Republicans bucking their party’s leaders, the House approved a procedural step to force a vote on a two-year extension of their Affordable Care Act subsidies. NBC’s Ryan Nobles reports for “TODAY.”

The Senate will vote this morning on whether to advance a resolution that would require congressional authorization before the military can engage in additional hostilities within or against Venezuela.

The resolution, which only needs a simple majority to advance, is the first congressional test of whether Republicans will publicly oppose Trump’s actions against Venezuela after the capture of Nicolás Maduro.

The vote would be to discharge the resolution to the full Senate. It was introduced by Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Rand Paul, R-Ky., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

“This is not the surgical execution of an arrest warrant, it was much bigger than that before last Saturday, and it’s going to be much bigger than that from now for the next few years,” Kaine told reporters yesterday. “So, this is something that shouldn’t happen without Congress.”