Live Updates
DHS funding set to expire tomorrow as Congress remains deadlocked
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Watch live: Border Czar Tom Homan holds news conference
• Source: CNN
Watch live: Border Czar Tom Homan holds news conference
• Funding stalemate: Democrats are unlikely to accept a new White House offer to rein in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics ahead of a deadline tomorrow to fund the Department of Homeland Security, according to Democratic sources. Senate GOP Leader John Thune has said a stopgap bill is the only way to avoid a DHS shutdown.
• Immigration crackdown: Border czar Tom Homan is holding a news conference right now in Minneapolis. Minnesota and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials will testify before a Senate committee this morning. .
• Bondi’s defiant testimony: Attorney General Pam Bondi clashed with lawmakers during a heated House hearing yesterday. She testified amid ongoing controversies related to the Jeffrey Epstein files release, investigation into President Donald Trump’s political foes and the handling of the fatal shootings of two US citizens in Minnesota by immigration enforcement officers.
Border czar Tom Homan is speaking at a news conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Stay with us as we bring you updates.
The White House fired the interim US attorney in Albany on Wednesday, according to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, just hours after he was sworn into the role following an appointment by a panel of judges.
The firing by the White House is the latest move underscoring the hostile relationship President Donald Trump has had with federal courts that have blocked the administration’s policies, with the president often taking to social media to rail against judges involved in those cases.
“Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does,” Blanche wrote on X Wednesday, adding: “You are fired, Donald Kinsella.”
The district court judges contacted Kinsella, who previous served as chief of the criminal division, Wednesday morning and asked him to serve as US attorney, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. A vacancy was created last month when a federal judge found John Sarcone was serving unlawfully as US attorney. Sarcone continues to work in the US attorney’s office under the title First Assistant US attorney.
Kinsella, who is 79, agreed and was sworn in during a virtual ceremony with the chief judge and others that afternoon. Later that day, Kinsella was notified by an email from the White House that Trump had removed him from the position.
Reached by CNN Thursday, Kinsella confirmed the events and declined further comment.
Kinsella has spent 50 years in criminal and civil litigation, according to the court’s announcement of Kinsella’s appointment.
Trump previously appointed his personal lawyer and an administration official to key US attorney positions in New Jersey and Virginia. Judges found the appointments of both women — Alina Habba and Lindsey Halligan — to be unlawful, along with appointments in Nevada and the Central District of California.
Democrats are unlikely to accept a new White House offer to rein in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and expect efforts to provide funding for the Department of Homeland Security to fail before Friday night’s shutdown deadline unless something dramatically changes, according to Democratic sources familiar with the talks.
The Senate is slated to hold a procedural vote at 1:30 p.m. ET today to fund DHS, and that is expected to fail. It’s unclear whether lawmakers will then leave town for the weeklong recess slated to begin next week.
The DHS shutdown would affect a wide range of critical agencies, such as TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard.
On Capitol Hill this morning, lawmakers will be addressing immigration enforcement and the attempted indictment of Democrats in various hearings and meetings.
Here’s what to look out for:
- At 9 a.m. ET, House Democratic Steering & Policy Committee members will hold a special meeting on “ICE accountability.” Participants will include House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and the family attorney of Renee Good, among others.
- Also at 9 a.m. ET, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold an oversight hearing. Those called to testify include Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Corrections Paul Schnell, as well as US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott and Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting chief Todd Lyons. It comes after the three immigration enforcement officials appeared at a congressional committee hearing on Tuesday.
- Meanwhile, Senate Democrats will hold a special caucus meeting this morning to discuss the Trump administration’s attempt to indict the six Democratic lawmakers over a video urging service members and intelligence officials to disobey any illegal orders, according to a person familiar. Sen. Mark Kelly continued to criticize President Donald Trump last night, after federal prosecutors failed to secure an indictment against him and those other Democratic lawmakers. “Donald Trump doesn’t like how I’m doing my job, and for that, he wants me to go to prison,” Kelly told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source.”
We’ll be providing updates as we get them.
CNN’s Aleena Fayaz contributed to this reporting.
With the Department of Homeland Security poised to shut down by tomorrow at midnight, Republicans are warning President Donald Trump: Don’t feel public pressure to relent on an issue central to his campaign.
Even as the White House has engaged with Democrats over reforms to DHS, a growing chorus of members have urged Trump and his team to play hardball and instead fight for GOP priorities, like cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities in exchange for any Democratic demands on federal immigration enforcement.
What Republicans are saying: Senate Majority Leader John Thune made clear on the Senate floor yesterday that in order to avoid a shutdown and continue negotiations on federal immigration enforcement, lawmakers will need another continuing resolution.
“The renegotiation that Democrats demanded with the Trump administration last month is unsurprisingly, taking some time,” Thune said, adding that Democrats took a week to provide Republicans their demands.
Last night, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that the White House planned to send over new details to Democrats in their ongoing DHS negotiations, but it remains unclear if a deal can happen before the department’s funding expires.
Johnson added that he has advised members to be ready in Washington in case the House needs to vote tomorrow — a day on which votes were not originally scheduled.
What Democrats are saying: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is signaling his members are unlikely to back even a short-term spending bill to fund the agency while talks continue because such little progress has been made.
“We’re three days away from a DHS shutdown and Republicans have not gotten serious about negotiating a solution that reins in ICE and stops the violence. Democrats will not support a CR to extend the status quo,” Schumer posted yesterday morning.
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Takeaways from Pam Bondi’s fiery testimony on Capitol Hill
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday was some of the tensest and most combative testimony we’ve seen to date from a Trump Cabinet official. CNN’s Paula Reid breaks down some of the critical moments.
02:23 • Source: CNN
Takeaways from Pam Bondi’s fiery testimony on Capitol Hill
02:23
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s testimony wrapped yesterday after more than five hours of often-heated exchanges between her and mostly Democratic representatives.
These are some of our main takeaways from the hearing:
- Bondi’s strategy of being combative to avoid answering Epstein questions was a dicey one.
- While Democrats struggled to get her on the record on Epstein, an exchange with GOP Rep. Thomas Massie landed.
- There was a brief reprieve from the nastiness, as the subject turned to concerns about threats against lawmakers of both parties.
- Bondi clearly sought to avoid direct answers, which reflected how many problems she and the administration face.
- And a few of her attempts to attack Democrats fell flat.
Read more about our takeaways here.
The National Governors Association said yesterday that a traditionally bipartisan meeting at the White House next week is back on after invitations were extended to all of its members, even as President Donald Trump continued to rage against two of the nation’s Democratic governors and the organization’s co-chair, GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt.
The Oklahoma Republican told his fellow governors in a letter that all members — including Democratic governors initially excluded from NGA’s business meeting at the White House — are invited to the event, citing a “misunderstanding in scheduling.”
The apparent reversal comes after Stitt told NGA members Monday that the organization would no longer facilitate the White House meeting, citing the decision to only invite Republicans and to further exclude from a White House dinner two governors who have publicly quarreled with Trump: Maryland’s Wes Moore, who co-chairs the NGA with Stitt, and Colorado’s Jared Polis.
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