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Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, called the Russian proposal for a three-day ceasefire next week “absurd” and said the U.S. wants a more lasting peace deal in Ukraine. “A three-day ceasefire is absurd. What the president wants is a permanent, comprehensive ceasefire — sea, air, land, infrastructure — for a minimum of 30 days, and then we can extend that,” Kellogg said in a Fox News interview Tuesday.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said on Sunday he does not think the law would allow President Trump to send United States citizens convicted of violent crimes to Salvadoran prisons, despite the president’s suggestion that he might be open to that possibility. “No, ma’am. Nor should it be considered appropriate or moral,” Kennedy told NBC News’s Kristen Welker when asked on “Meet the Press” whether he thinks such a move would be legal. “We have our own laws,” he continued. “We have the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. We shouldn’t send prisoners to foreign countries in my judgment.” Trump, in a...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said on Sunday said he’s questioning President Trump’s “endgame” in his approach to tariffs, saying the ongoing “volatility” isn’t good for businesses. “One thing I learned in the private sector is unpredictability can work pretty well in the negotiation, but the private sector — businesses want certainty. They want stability. They don’t like to see volatility,” Johnson said in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.” “And, so, I’ve just been questioning exactly what’s the endgame here? What’s the strategy?” he continued. Johnson called himself an “unabashed free trader” and touted what he sees as the...

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said Sunday that forcing Ukraine to agree to a resource deal with the U.S. in exchange for the possibility of support against Russia is akin to “victim extortion.” The moderate Republican said Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the invasion of Ukraine three years ago, should be the one forced to pay. “Putin, and Putin alone, should bear the economic costs of Putin’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” Fitzpatrick said in a post on the social platform X. “To force Ukraine to pay these costs is the epitome of victim-blaming and victim extortion.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he doesn’t approve of President Trump’s pardoning of the Jan. 6 rioters, especially those who “beat up cops” who were defending the Capitol. “No,” Graham said, when asked whether he’s OK with the most violent offenders on Jan. 6 getting pardoned, in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I’ve always said that I think when you pardon people who attack police officers, you’re sending the wrong signal to the public at large, and that’s not what you want to do to protect cops,” Graham continued. “But he has that power.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), former chair of the Jan. 6 committee, said in a Thursday interview that he would accept a preemptive pardon from President Biden if he offered one. CNN’s Jim Acosta asked Thompson whether he wanted Biden to extend the pardon offer — in light of recent reporting that Biden was considering using the pardon power to protect those he feared may be targeted in Trump’s second term. “The president, it’s his prerogative,” Thompson said about whether he wants Biden to preemptively pardon him. “If he offers it, to me or other members of the committee, I think...

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) pushed back against the idea that the Russian war in Ukraine could end in peaceful negotiation, saying those who hold that view “may be deceiving” themselves. In a speech at the Halifax International Security Forum this weekend, Rounds called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “tyrant” and suggested he would be surprised if Putin were satisfied with any concession from the West. “It’s time to take a hard look at this thing and really ask ourselves, do you believe that this tyrant, if you offer him a part of a free country, do you think he’s going...

Veteran journalist Bob Woodward said Monday that President-elect Trump appears to be trying to recreate the “imperial presidency” by selecting appointees with little relevant experience to their nominated posts. Woodward criticized Trump’s selection of Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, in an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.” The former White House press secretary-turned-cable host asked him directly whether he thinks the Fox News host was equipped to do the job. “Somebody should get that job who knows the military and has had also management experience,” Woodward said of Hegseth. “From what I read about him, no, he doesn’t.” He...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the leading candidate for his state’s Senate seat, said he would advise Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike Iranian ballistic missile factories. In an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Schiff said such a response would be “proportionate” after Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles last week aimed at Israel. “If I were advising the Prime Minister of Israel, I would say, go after those ballistic missile factories storage areas,” Schiff said. “That would be proportionate, in my view,” Schiff continued. “But it would also help degrade Iran’s capacity.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) defended her vote against bipartisan legislation that expanded health benefits for veterans, saying Tuesday she didn’t want to spend “$600 billion forever.” Boebert faced off in a general election debate against her Democratic opponent, Trisha Calvarese. The Democrat pressed Boebert to explain why she didn’t support the landmark “Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our PACT Act,” which expanded benefits for millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins during service and are suffering illnesses as a result. “If you’re going to take care of folks, what about our veterans, Lauren? You know, because you’re talking...

Hannah Muldavin, a senior spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), said on Sunday that Robert F. Kennedy’s endorsement of former President Trump’s White House bid “changes nothing” about the 2024 race. Muldavin said Kennedy’s announcement on Friday was “not surprising for a second,” pointing to the Trump allies and conservatives who supported Kennedy and their similar messaging against President Biden and Vice President Harris.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican vice presidential nominee, that GOP voters “tried to kill your predecessor,” during remarks at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago. “Remember what the mob chanted as they stormed the Capitol and injured our officers? ‘Hang Mike Pence’,” Raskin said during his Monday night speech, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. “Someone should have told Donald Trump that the President’s job under Article Two of the Constitution is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not that the Vice President is executed,” he...

Video Player is loading. Advertisement: 0:11 Democratic strategist Van Jones said Monday that former President Trump is “freaked out” that he’s not getting as much press attention as Vice President Harris and is responding by sharpening his rhetoric about the threat he says his political opponents would pose on the country. “He‘s failing and flailing. Listen, they‘re saying that these are the worst three weeks of his campaign,” Jones, a CNN contributor, said Monday in an interview with Anderson Cooper. “That‘s what the press is saying.” “This is the year in which he got indicted, convicted, and shot at —...

More voters say they trust Vice President Harris to handle the economy than they do former President Trump, according to a poll released Monday by the Financial Times and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Harris leads Trump 42 percent to 41 percent in the August poll when respondents were asked which candidate they trust to handle the economy, regardless of whom they plan on supporting in November. The finding marks the first time the Democratic candidate has inched ahead of the GOP candidate on the economy question since the monthly poll began tracking voter sentiment on the...

President Biden wrapped up his five-day trip to France with a Sunday visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, where more than 2,200 U.S. soldiers were buried after fighting in World War I. Biden laid a wreath at the headstones of U.S. soldiers in a solemn ceremony marking their sacrifice for their country. In remarks to the press, Biden stressed the importance of alliances and, without mentioning former President Trump explicitly, drew a stark contrast with the former president, who famously skipped his visit to the same cemetery in 2018. Trump cited weather at the time, but subsequent reporting revealed Trump...

"Republican National Committee (RNC) co-Chair Lara Trump said Wednesday evening, without evidence, that debates are always “rigged so heavily” in President Biden’s favor."

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) pushed back on comparisons between the politically damaging dog stories that plagued both his and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s (R) potential bids for the White House. During Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, a decades-old story about him tying his dog Seamus to the roof of his car on a family road trip became a political headache for the then-Republican candidate for the White House. Now, more than a decade later, Noem faces a similar political firestorm that could doom her chances of being selected as former President Trump’s running mate in 2024. But Romney rejected the...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking prison time for Aimee Harris, the woman who stole the diary of the president’s daughter, Ashley Biden, and sold it to conservative media site Project Veritas for tens of thousands of dollars before the 2020 presidential election. According to the DOJ, Harris was temporarily staying at the Delray Beach, Fla., residence of Ashley Biden in September 2020 when she stole the diary “containing highly personal entries” as well as tax records, a cellphone and family photographs. Harris enlisted defandant Robert Kurlander to assist her in selling the collected material. Project Veritas, based in...

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said his hot-mic remark last month predicting GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley would get “smoked” in the race against former President Trump was a “complete mistake,” but he did not apologize for making the comment. In a preview of a “Good Morning America” interview set to air on Tuesday, Christie recounted the hot-mic moment that took place just minutes before he suspended his presidential campaign, when Christie was heard saying about Haley, “She’s gonna get smoked. And you and I both know it, she’s not up to this.”

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday claimed that former President Trump has “cognitive disorders” in response to his apparent mix-up of her name with his GOP presidential primary opponent’s name, Nikki Haley. In an interview on MSNBC during election coverage of the New Hampshire primary, Pelosi responded to a question about the apparent mix-up, saying, “Well, let me just say, I’m not going to spend too much time on Donald Trump’s cognitive disorders.” At a rally this past weekend, Trump repeated a false theory, embraced by some of Trump’s supporters, that blames then-Speaker Pelosi for security failures at the...