Following a historic blue wave of midterm election wins, Democrats gathered Thursday in Denver for the two-day What’s Next conference, hosted by a new group called Majority Democrats.
President Donald Trump told Vice President JD Vance to shift his focus away from the Iran war and toward what he says is corruption and crime in Democratic-controlled cities and states.
Two Democratic senators have launched an investigation into whether Health Secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lied to Congress about his reason for a 2019 trip to Samoa after AP and The Guardian published documents in August refuting his testimony that the trip had “nothing to do with vaccines.”
And Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned days after Trump said the FBI was investigating Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese government agent.
Here's the latest:
The Navy has quietly fired or removed several top officers in recent months but broke with its usual practice of announcing those changes, drawing pushback from Congress.
Two Democratic lawmakers said Thursday that the Navy failed to inform Congress that it fired the entire leadership team of a nuclear-powered attack submarine last month after an underwater collision. Separately, in September, the service fired the commander of a destroyer deployed to the Middle East, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive personnel matters.
Dr. Brian Monahan, a Navy rear admiral and attending physician for Congress and the Supreme Court, also departed his post during a Navy investigation — with no public announcement or confirmation.
All three are a break from the Navy’s longstanding policy of announcing major removals of commanders and other highly visible officials. They also follow increasing secrecy over military operations, especially in the Middle East.
The developments could set up a contentious confirmation hearing next week for acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao.
▶ Read more
— Konstantin Toropin
James Talarico, the Democrat who won the Texas Senate race last week, says Trump can achieve glory on par with Lyndon B. Johnson, and Democrats should work with him to do it.
Talarico spoke Thursday at the What’s Next conference in Denver, where Democrats are discussing what to do with their new congressional majorities.
He said Johnson’s achievements are celebrated all over the U.S. Capitol, where he was a longtime Democrat senator before being elected vice president and president.
“If President Trump wants the same plaques and portraits and busts as LBJ, we can help make that a reality,” Talarico said. “We should make the final two years of his presidency the most productive of any presidency in American history.”
State Rep. K.C. Ohaebosim, of Wichita, was elected Thursday on a ticket with Democratic Gov.-elect Cindy Holscher that narrowly defeated Republican gubernatorial nominee Ty Masterson and his running mate, Jeff Klemp.
Both Ohaebosim and Holscher were elected to the Kansas House in 2016, and Holscher won a Senate seat four years later.
The last Black statewide state official in Kansas was Edward McCabe, a Republican who served as state auditor from 1883 to 1887.
Holscher and Ohaebosim were part of a massive wave of Democratic victories across the country that saw Democrats secure a majority of U.S. governorships for the first time in two decades, even before The Associated Press declared Holscher to winner in Kansas on Thursday.
In the letter reported by the AP and Guardian, dated Jan. 20, 2019, Kennedy addressed then-Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi and described his desire to study Samoa’s use of the MMR vaccine.
Kennedy speculated that the deaths in Samoa may have been caused by issues with different vaccine lots.
The letter did not specifically discuss anti-vaccine activism.
While in Samoa, Kennedy met with anti-vaccine activists, including one who helped arrange the trip with a U.S. Embassy employee, the AP and the Guardian previously reported.
Months later, with vaccination rates still dangerously low, measles broke out, sickening thousands.
Public health experts have said their efforts to address the outbreak were hampered by anti-vaccine activists, some of whom they claim were emboldened by Kennedy’s visit.
Holscher fended off Republican Ty Masterson to keep the office in her party’s hands and extend a massive wave of Democratic victories across the country.
Democrats had already secured a majority of governorships for the first time in two decades, even prior to the narrow win in Kansas, where Holscher had already declared victory following Tuesday’s midterm elections. The AP did not call the race until Thursday.
Holscher, a state senator, promised to halt new data centers and overcame a flood of money that Republicans poured behind Masterson, the president of the GOP-controlled state Senate. She will succeed outgoing Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat who was term-limited.
“Kansans have sent a clear message that they want to keep our state moving forward,” Holscher said in a video posted online Tuesday. “The work of preparing to lead has already begun.”
▶ Read more
As Republicans dig out from under a midterm landslide, they can point to a single bright spot on the nationwide congressional map: Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, the only seat that went from blue to red without the help of redistricting.
It was far from a resounding victory. Even though Trump won the district by 9 points two years ago, it took a former Republican governor, Paul LePage, to squeak out a victory over Matt Dunlap, the Democratic state auditor.
AP called the race Thursday after officials finished the ranked choice voting process to determine the winner.
LePage will replace Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who is retiring from Congress.
The only other seats that went from blue to red were Texas’ 32nd Congressional District and Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District. But both of those flips were enabled by redistricting efforts that made the electorates far more conservative.
▶ Read more
Trump directed Vice President JD Vance to shift his focus away from the Iran war and instead devote himself to fighting what the president says is corruption and crime in Democratic-controlled cities and states.
Trump brusquely told the vice president in a social media post on Thursday to shift his energies to what he argues is a more pressing — and perhaps more politically salient — issue after Republicans were trounced at the polls.
▶ Read more
Paxton’s divorce from Angela Paxton, a state senator, was finalized a week after the three-term Republican lost his U.S. Senate race against Democrat James Talarico.
Jared Julian, an attorney for Ken Paxton, confirmed that the divorce was final and said the terms would remain private.
Angela Paxton sought to end their 38-year marriage last year, posting on social media that she did so on “biblical grounds.” The initial filing cited allegations of adultery.
Her attorney did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The finalization of the divorce was first reported by The New York Times.
Fresh off the best electoral performance in half a century, Democratic officials and strategists converged on the city Thursday to plot a further course for the party and revel in their gains.
The two-day What’s Next conference, hosted by a new group called Majority Democrats, was put on politicos’ calendars months ago as another steppingstone as the party charted its way out of its post-2024 political wilderness.
Now Democrats will have to figure out what to do with majorities in both chambers of Congress and control of at least 12 new state legislative chambers.
“America tried on hate, and it didn’t fit,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said as he kicked off the event.
The schedule includes some victorious midterm candidates such as Texas Sen.-elect James Talarico and Iowa Sen.-elect Josh Turek.
There will also be potential presidential hopefuls such as former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
▶ Read more
The senior soldier, who was arrested in the U.K. on suspicion of spying for Russia, is expected to be charged in Britain in the coming days, a U.S. official said.
After U.K. charges are filed against Lt. Col. Brandon Tyner, expected Sunday or Monday, the intention is to then prosecute him under the U.S. military justice system, the official said.
A second U.S. official also confirmed his name and said he had been deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and Qatar.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.
Tyner was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service and obtaining or disclosing protected information. He had been assigned to a NATO unit at a base near Gloucester, England.
— Emma Burrows and Konstantin Toropin
Dr. Brian Monahan is no longer serving as the attending physician for the U.S. Congress and the Supreme Court, two U.S. senators said Thursday.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California confirmed Monahan’s departure but provided few other details. The Navy didn’t offer a public comment when asked about the departure.
The Navy, which assigns doctors to the office, has launched an investigation, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter.
Monahan held the top job in the Office of the Attending Physician for nearly 18 years. The office is responsible for providing emergency medical assistance to members of Congress and the Supreme Court as well as congressional staff and visitors.
Monahan was sometimes in the news for discussing matters such as Sen. Mitch McConnell’s health and for administering a COVID-19 vaccine to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
— Ben Finley, Konstantin Toropin and Lisa Mascaro
Smith, who is best known for his commentary on ESPN and has been critical of the president, said they discussed last week’s midterm elections.
“He believes that it was about others and not himself,” Smith said of Trump’s message on Republicans’ midterm trouncing.
Smith joined comedian Bill Maher last month for dinner with Trump at the White House.
Smith had toyed with the idea of running for president, but announced in September that he was ruling out a run because it would lead to an end of his broadcasting career.
Sen. Raphael Warnock said he and Colom spoke by phone Wednesday evening.
“This is a realignment,” said Warnock, who won his own milestone election six years ago in Georgia.
“After last night’s victory, what we saw in South Carolina, what we saw in North Carolina, we now have proof of concept,” Warnock said about the Democrats’ sweep of Southern states.
“When LBJ passed the Civil Rights bill into the law, he said to one of his advisors, I think I’ve signed the South away for a generation,” Warnock recalled. “Well, I think we’re on the other side.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says Congress must demand answers from Jensen Huang and others at Nvidia about how they may have put U.S. national security at risk.
Schumer says the Trump administration also must answer for what it did once it learned about Huang’s relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.
Among the questions that need to be answered is what the president knew when he personally invited Huang aboard Air Force One on a state visit to Beijing earlier this year, Schumer said in his social media post on X.
“Americans deserve to know that those at the highest levels of power are putting America first, not their bottom line or their personal friendships,” Schumer said.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Thursday he received a letter from a U.S. attorney informing him he’s being investigated for conducting a congressional inquiry.
Blumenthal, who is set to chair the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations when the Democratic majority takes control of the Senate next year, said the implied investigation is baseless.
In his own letter to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Aaron Reitz, Blumenthal said the public has a right to know under what circumstances corporations donated millions of dollars to projects Trump supports. He directed Reitz to preserve records and correspondence with the White House and senior Justice Department officials related to Reitz’s letter.
“I will not be intimidated,” the senator wrote.
A message seeking comment from Reitz’s office was sent Thursday.
The development comes days after Attorney General Todd Blanche said Democrats could not “go around threatening” companies and the administration with investigations.
It shows once again how “this administration has repeatedly undermined the free market economy,” said the Democratic leader, who is on track to become the House speaker when the new Congress convenes in January.
“This is just another example of Donald Trump weighing in on behalf of his views connected to corporate America, as opposed to focusing on working class America,” Jeffries said.
The House has passed its second veterans bill in two days that’s designed to boost the compensation for roughly 58,000 retired, combat-injured veterans.
The measure is focused on helping those who retired based on a disability with less than 20 years of service. They currently lose some of their military retirement pay when they also receive disability compensation through the Department of Veterans Affairs. The bill would allow them to collect all their retirement and disability pay, which the Congressional Budget Office has estimated would boost total compensation by an average of about $1,450 a month.
The House passed a more comprehensive measure the day before on Veterans Day, but that Republican-led effort would pay for the income boost by changing how the department rates tinnitus or sleep apnea, lowering disability compensation for some future veterans. Democrats and some veterans groups strongly opposed that offset.
The Senate can consider either bill now, or the legislative process will start over next year with the new Congress.
The House Democratic leader is demanding a classified briefing for all members of Congress about the Nvidia situation.
He said Huang’s resignation was the “right thing” to do.
Jeffries said to the extent that national security may have been compromised, Americans deserve answers.
The top Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs and House Intelligence committees, Rep. Greg Meeks and Rep. Jim Himes, are digging into what happened, he said.
In a social media post, photos show Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pinning the award and shaking hands with the service member. Hegseth’s post says, “We love soldiers. We love standards. Well done, Specialist.”
A Pentagon official says Hegseth welcomed the soldiers of the Old Guard — the unit that guards the tomb at Arlington National Cemetery — to the Pentagon and awarded the soldier the Joint Service Commendation Medal “for the execution of his duties at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on November 11, 2026.”
The soldier, who was only identified as Spc. Iglesias, reprimanded Hegseth and his staffers when a loud laugh was heard after they took photos at the site following a Veterans Day ceremony.
The Joint Service Commendation Medal is considered to be one of the higher awards in the military and isn’t typically issued to junior enlisted service members.
The Trump administration says it has returned more than $12 billion, almost 99%, of the revenue obtained from the sales of Venezuelan oil to the nation since the administration ousted former President Nicolás Maduro in January.
In a report released Thursday by the State Department, the accounting firm KPMG said the sales of Venezuelan crude, along with minor amounts of gold, minerals and fertilizer, produced $12.26 billion, almost all of which has been returned to Venezuela under the terms of a broad energy deal concluded with the interim authorities in Caracas earlier this year.
The report said that as of Sept. 30, the end of the 2026 U.S. budget year, only $168.6 million remained in an escrow account managed by the U.S. Treasury.
Under the terms of the deal, Venezuelan crude is sold on the open market with proceeds going into the U.S.-managed account. Venezuelan officials then seek approval for those funds to be returned to the country to pay for infrastructure and humanitarian needs.
He thanked law enforcement responding to the shooting in Washington.
“The Capitol complex as we understand it is safe,” Jeffries said at a weekly news conference.
Five people were shot, one fatally, on Thursday in a Washington, D.C., neighborhood within walking distance of the White House, police said, and the suspected gunman later shot and killed himself as a swarm of officers responded to a nearby apartment building where he was barricaded.
Two Democratic senators are launching an investigation into whether Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lied to Congress about his reason for a 2019 trip to Samoa after The Associated Press and The Guardian published documents in August refuting his testimony.
The new inquiry is one of a vast array of investigations planned into the Trump administration after Democrats regained control of the House and Senate from Republicans in the midterm elections.
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., said in a letter Wednesday to Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit group known for anti-vaccine activism that was formerly chaired by Kennedy, that they were starting an investigation.
The lawmakers asked the group for a broad range of documents related to Kennedy’s Samoa travel, his 2024 presidential campaign and his Senate confirmation process.
▶ Read more
Lawmakers are insisting they still want a briefing from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang despite his resignation Thursday so he can answer questions about his interactions with a Chinese businesswoman who reportedly was also acting as a spy for Beijing.
They also want to ask about the company’s security protocols against foreign adversary espionage as well as other topics.
Rep. Brian Mast, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said the committee was in contact with Huang’s team as recently as Wednesday night about the interview. Lawmakers had made their initial request for the interview Nov. 5. He also said Huang would receive a subpoena if necessary to compel his appearance.
“They made their offer for what they would like to do, and we said, like in any negotiation, ‘no, this is what we’ll accept or your subpoena comes for the day after,’” Mast said.
Mast said Huang has indicated a willingness to appear for the interview and that the committees involved in the inquiry wanted to see him “sooner rather than later.”
President Trump has reacted to the resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang by saying Huang “has done a fantastic job,” and adding, “There is only one man to take his place — TIM COOK of Apple.”
“A Legend replaces a Legend!” Trump wrote on his social media site of Cook, who is Apple’s former CEO.
Huang, who, like a lot of top tech CEOs, was close with Trump, left his post Thursday after his extramarital affair raised national security concerns. Huang faced growing calls to resign after his affair with an alleged Chinese spy.
Late Wednesday, media reports also said Huang had another extramarital affair with an Nvidia employee who reports to him. The FBI is investigating Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese government agent.
