Democrat Scott Colom won election to the U.S. Senate representing Mississippi, defeating Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith on Wednesday. Colom will be Mississippi’s first Black senator since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.
Earlier Wednesday, the White House issued a warning to Democrats over their planned probes into the Trump administration, going as far as claiming that such investigations — a standard oversight function of Congress — may
amount to “blatant criminality.” Democrats are preparing a vast oversight agenda to look at how Trump and his family have become wealthier since he returned to office. The Republican president and his White House have long denied any wrongdoing.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, observed Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery. His appearance there came a day after nine Kennedy family members asked a judge to block Trump’s plan to build a towering memorial arch, saying the 250-foot structure would cast a shadow over their relatives’ gravesites at the cemetery.
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The AP on Wednesday declared Colom the winner in the race for U.S. Senate in Mississippi after several counties reported updated results — including those of last-to-count provisional ballots.
Colom led Hyde-Smith, the Republican incumbent, by 43 votes following the final election night update in Mississippi, which arrived at 3:03 a.m. from Pike County.
Not only has Colom’s lead grown larger as counties in Mississippi have completed their vote count and reported on the outcome of their review of provisional ballots in the days since, but he’s won the vast majority of these final updates — in every region of the state and in all but the most Republican counties — by a large margin.
The AP called the race for the Colom after officials in Jackson County updated their vote count with an additional 2,173 votes.
The update put Colom up by 4,669 votes out of 962,237 counted, or 0.5 percentage points. To come back and take the lead, Hyde-Smith needed to win these final vote updates in GOP-leaning counties such as Jackson. Instead, Colom won the update in Jackson by just over 1 percentage point.
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A spokesman for the Mississippi Republican confirmed that she has called her Democratic challenger to concede and congratulate him.
Hyde-Smith has been quiet through more than a week of local officials counting absentee and provisional ballots.
She and her advisers previously had not ruled out legal action if the Colom was declared the winner.
Colom’s victory is a seismic shift in Mississippi, which has been controlled mostly by white conservatives for generations. The outcome adds to a decisive midterm rebuke of Trump, whose party suffered defeats in several Republican-controlled states.
The Associated Press called the contest Wednesday in Colom’s favor after local elections officials spent several days processing absentee and provisional ballots.
The last time Mississippi chose a new Democratic senator was 1947, and the winner then was a staunch segregationist. Colom, a 43-year-old prosecutor, capitalized on the state’s large Black population, discontent with the economy and incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith’s missteps as she sought a second full term.
Colom said during the campaign that he could represent all of Mississippi, a state where racial divisions have long defined its politics and society.
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Democrat Scott Colom won election Wednesday to the U.S. Senate representing Mississippi, defeating Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Colom will be Mississippi’s first Black senator since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.
Colom’s victory also offers Democrats an unexpected boost in their effort to win control of the Senate.
A local prosecutor, he waged an aggressive campaign to take advantage of a tough national environment for Republicans and the fact that Mississippi has a larger share of Black voters than any other state.
Hyde-Smith, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, was trying to win her second full term. She was first appointed to fill a vacancy and then won a 2018 special election.
The Associated Press declared Colom the winner at 5:58 p.m. EST.
The Trump administration wants to sell public lands to states, tribes and local governments as part of an effort to “decrease the size of the federal estate,” according to a new plan presented by the Interior Department.
Agency officials said the sale of federal property would allow the government to focus resources on “nationally significant” lands, which were not defined.
They offered no details on what parcels could be sold, nor the scope or location of potential sales.
The proposal drew quick pushback from some lawmakers, including Trump’s former Interior secretary, Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, showing it faces strong headwinds in Congress even before Democrats assume the majority in January.
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The Trump administration is planning to make it harder to get food aid through the federal government’s grocery assistance program that serves about 1 in 10 Americans.
The administration says the proposed rule would close a loophole by no longer allowing some people who receive benefits under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to automatically qualify for the separate Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
About 6.3 million people could lose eligibility for SNAP by the 2029 fiscal year if the proposed change takes effect, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program. That is on top of 5.5 million people who already have lost SNAP benefits over the past year.
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Trump said on Veterans Day that the towering arch he wants to build would be dedicated to the U.S. military and those who served, saying “They’ve been waiting for it for 200 years.”
But arch discussions didn’t include veterans until late in the process, said Jimi Shaughnessy, the veterans program manager with the National Parks Conservation Association.
“It’s a strange position to take when the administration did not consult veteran groups or military organizations at the start,” said Shaughnessy, a veteran. “They brought these groups in at the tail end when there was opposition.”
The arch is embroiled in multiple lawsuits from groups challenging its construction.
The plaintiffs now include three Vietnam veterans, an architectural historian, the District of Columbia and Virginia, and members of the Kennedy family.
A soldier guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier issued a verbal reprimand to a group of advisers and staffers with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Video shows Hegseth taking photos on the empty steps in front of the tomb with his wife, Jennifer, chief of staff Ricky Buria, deputy chief of staff Patrick Weaver and senior adviser Tami Radabaugh.
As the group broke from taking photos, a loud laugh can be heard, and the soldier guarding the tomb shouted that “all visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times.”
“The Secretary and the entire Department have always honored — and will always honor — the sacrifices our military men and women have made to keep America safe,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. “While commemorating this solemn day, a soldier correctly and respectfully reminded everyone to maintain decorum.”
Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told Fox Business on Wednesday that there “will likely be subpoenas” for Huang to appear on Capitol Hill if the co-founder of the computer chip company doesn’t respond by day’s end to a request to meet with lawmakers.
Moolenaar, House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Brian Mast and House Intelligence Committee chair Rick Crawford sent a letter last week to Huang, requesting a closed-door briefing on Nvidia’s security protocols and Huang’s interactions with a businesswoman accused of spying for China.
Moolenaar told Fox Business that the Republican lawmakers wanted to know if Beijing was able to access “privileged information” and if it was able to influence U.S. national security policy.
“I think transparency is very important for him at this point,” Moolenaar said.
Nvidia didn’t immediately respond to an AP request for comment.
More than a week after Election Day, Colom leads Hyde-Smith by about 3,800 votes, though Republican-leaning counties like Lee and Jackson have not yet released their final results.
Further updates are expected on Thursday, Nov. 12.
If Colom wins, Democrats will hold 55 seats in the Senate, and will have made the party’s largest midterm gain since 1986, during Ronald Reagan’s second term.
Rep. Robert Garcia, who will likely chair the House Oversight Committee when Democrats take over next year, said Trump “is clearly hiding something” after the White House issued a warning about their planned probes.
“He needs to understand that Congress is a coequal branch of government,” Garcia told reporters outside the Capitol.
GOP Rep. James Comer, the committee’s current chair, said the committee is “very independent” when asked about the White House’s attempt to limit its authority.
“Regardless of who is in the White House, there’s always going to be a strong desire for the Oversight Committee to be a check and balance on the executive branch, regardless of the political scenario,” Comer said.
Trump has told veterans gathered in the amphitheater that service members “are indeed our protection in battle.”
He says military families “are amazing” and are “among the very best of our nation.”
Trump is also recognizing individual veterans and asking them to stand, including a 103-year-old who served in World War II.
It’s business as usual for Trump’s deportation offensive despite the repudiation of voters in a Republican elections wipeout.
In Los Angeles, armored and masked immigration officers blocked a hospital emergency room driveway in a heavily Latino neighborhood. In Alabama, twin 19-year-olds from Venezuela were arrested while driving back to college. And an 8-year-old Haitian boy was taken away from his uncle in San Diego.
After Democrats trounced the GOP, Trump told CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Friday that his crackdown may have been “too tough” and said “I’d love to do something on immigration” with the rival party. But then he announced Stephen Miller, the architect of his hard-line immigration agenda, as his new chief of staff.
“Deportations will continue,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin posted the day after the election. “This includes on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Election Day.”
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was forced to relocate to a military base over concerns for his safety after spending months executing a massive economic campaign against Iran aimed at severing all of Tehran’s remaining financial ties around the world.
A person familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details, said the relocation was partly due to media reports that helped identify Bessent’s home address. The relocation was earlier reported by The New York Times.
Other top Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, live on military bases.
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The president laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier to honor the nation’s veterans. He’ll also deliver remarks at the amphitheater.
Trump’s motorcade took a different route to the revered burial ground instead of traveling over Memorial Bridge and around a traffic circle where he wants to build a triumphal arch.
Trump’s appearance at the cemetery comes a day after nine Kennedy family members joined several lawsuits seeking to block construction, saying the towering 250-foot (76-meter) arch would cast a shadow over their relatives’ grave sites there.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a positive and constructive phone talk with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, Chinese state media reported.
Trump is set to travel to Asia next week and meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Wang told Rubio that China is willing to strengthen communications and cooperation with the U.S. and properly handle differences and sensitive issues.
The State Department didn’t immediately release a readout of the call.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent extolled the U.S.-China bond as “one of this century’s most consequential relationships” at a Tuesday night gala in New York with Chinese ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng.
Democrat Scott Colom was about 3,000 votes ahead of Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith on Wednesday with 98% of the votes counted.
Tuesday was the deadline for receiving mail-in absentee ballots. Counties are required to submit their certified election results — including tallies of provisional ballots — to the state by Friday. It is unclear exactly how many ballots are left to count.
Unlike in some other states, there is no central vote reporting system for Mississippi, and few counties release election results online. Instead, Associated Press journalists and analysts communicate with each of the state’s 82 counties directly for the latest available information on vote counts.
The state will certify its results on Dec. 3.
The AP may declare a winner if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
A legal filing by nine members of the Kennedy political dynasty argues that Trump’s plan to build a towering, 250-foot (76-meter) high memorial arch would cast a permanent shadow over their relatives’ grave sites at Arlington National Cemetery, fundamentally altering the experience for visitors.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s health and human services secretary, did not join his relatives’ motion before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who temporarily prohibited the Trump administration last week from breaking ground.
Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy were buried close to the eternal flame marking the grave site of their slain brother, President John F. Kennedy. The trio of memorials draw millions of visitors each year.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said it’s unfortunate that “some members of the Kennedy family” are seeking “to politicize a structure designed to unite our nation.”
Kyiv’s delegation was expected to meet later Wednesday with representatives of Europe and NATO who were closed out of the talks. Moscow doesn’t want European countries, which are concerned about Russia’s conduct and broader intentions on the continent, involved in the direct negotiations.
Kushner said a goal of his Moscow meeting Thursday is to get Europeans added to the talks. Both Ukraine and Russia need clarity on postwar security arrangements, and European countries, the EU and NATO have to be involved to build consensus, Kushner said.
“Ukraine’s priority is to end the war as soon as possible with a dignified peace,” Zelenskyy said on X. “We believe that Europe must be represented at every stage of real diplomacy. It is essential that the United States have a strong position and exert influence on the source of this war — that is Russia.”
The session was the first such meeting since February on Russia’s invasion, which analysts and humanitarian organizations say has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians.
“One of the positives is we agreed that we’re going to have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners, which we’re going to finalize the numbers tomorrow,” said Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, and Rustem Umerov, who led Kyiv’s contingent, confirmed the planned POW exchange, although Medinsky noted that the agreement was “in principle.”
Kushner said he and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, then fly to Dublin, Ireland, to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Two days of U.S. mediated talks in Abu Dhabi concluded Wednesday without a major breakthrough announced on ending the conflict that began after Moscow’s full-scale invasion nearly five years ago.
Hopes had been low for any significant development in the first meeting in nine months between the delegations. Russia and Ukraine have from time to time swapped POWs but have remained far apart in their demands for accepting a peace settlement.
U.S. officials say they are determined to revive Washington’s peace efforts that so far have failed to deliver significant results. As well as postwar security guarantees for both countries, other key hurdles are the fate of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory and the role European countries will play in an eventual settlement.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a CNN interview that aired Sunday that “there could be” a crime to investigate if rhetoric from Democrats turned threatening, but appeared to strike a more conciliatory tone during an appearance in Missouri this week.
“Congress has oversight authority. It always has, it always will. The Department of Justice, the federal government, works with Congress to address questions they have — whether it’s through subpoenas or letters — so we’re not going to stop working with Congress,” Blanche said. “Nothing I’ve said this weekend, or in the past, should suggest otherwise.”
Democrats have said they want to look into Trump’s real estate projects around the nation’s capital and his crypto dealings with special envoy Steve Witkoff, among other matters.
Rep. Robert Garcia responded to Scharf’s letter, saying that “it appears Donald Trump has something to hide.”
“Congress has wide latitude to conduct investigations and oversight, an authority inherent in the power to legislate,” Garcia wrote.
“The American people voted overwhelmingly for us to pass laws to root out corruption and abuse,” Garcia added.
