Congress

Minnesota AG: Feds still not cooperating on Pretti and Good investigations

Published

9 months ago

February 12, 2026

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told senators Thursday that federal law enforcement agencies are still blocking state and local authorities from participating in the investigations into the shootings of two U.S. citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis.

“We haven’t had any cooperation up until now, which is very unusual, because in prior cases where there’s been a federal and state interest in a crime, we’ve seen collaboration between federal and state authorities,” Ellison told lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Federal agents shot and killed two Americans — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — just days apart amid public protests over a major expansion of federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis in December and January.

Ellison said that in the case of the shooting of 37-year-old Good in early January, state officials still haven’t had any access to the car she was driving when ICE officers shot and killed her, or the bullet casings.

Ellison said federal officials are not investigating the shootings and added: “We still haven’t received any access to the evidence that is involved in that case. … But we’re with good faith hoping that things will change.”

The FBI declined to comment. The Justice and Homeland Security Departments did not respond to requests for comment.

Ellison’s comments Thursday follow earlier protests from Minnesota officials that they were not being included in the federal investigations that followed the Good shooting. In the immediate aftermath of the killing, prosecutors had begun investigating Good’s widow as opposed to the officers, though that probe appears to have stopped after federal prosecutors resigned in protest.

Meanwhile, White House border czar Tom Homan said Thursday that the surge of thousands of immigration officers into Minneapolis will soon come to an end.

Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee said federal investigators need to be more transparent.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he was “really concerned that the failure to provide this evidence” and collaborate with local law enforcement “in fact, amounts to a cover up.”

Congress

Trump loyalists face off to lead a decimated House GOP

Published

49 minutes ago

November 5, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Republicans are responding to the resounding rebuke of their party by launching headlong into a leadership contest where neither candidate appears willing to break with the person congressional Republicans most blame for the sweeping midterm losses: President Donald Trump.

Both Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise are known to their colleagues as close Trump allies, and neither indicated they intend to put any daylight into their relationships with the president in their initial statements declaring their intention to run for minority leader.

Jordan, the longtime conservative brawler and sitting Judiciary chair, pledged to push back on Democratic excesses including “investigating every facet of the Administration and private entities across the country.”

Scalise, the current majority leader and a fixture of GOP leadership for more than a decade, also raised the prospect of pushing back against Democratic investigations and a possible Trump impeachment while telling colleagues that the president needed a “tested negotiator working alongside him to secure administration priorities.”

Those pledges to fight Democrats on Trump’s behalf came at the same time that other members were musing both publicly and privately about the president’s rapidly waning influence — and the imperative for lawmakers to start taking steps to craft a political future without him in it.

“Let’s start being a separate branch of government,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who is retiring at the end of the year, said in a text message about the election. “We’re not an appendage of the White House.”

Few House Republicans expect Scalise or Jordan to publicly break with Trump, which would be wildly out of character for either of them. Scalise traveled with the president during the final days of the midterm campaign season, and Jordan rose from a hard-right rabble-rouser to a cable-news fixture in part by embracing Trump.

Trump, for his part, said Wednesday he’s not planning to weigh in on the upcoming GOP leadership race that erupted immediately after Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would step aside as top House Republican in the next Congress.

“We’ll stay out of it,” Trump said. “All good people. I guess right now you have two candidates, right?”

Candidates in other House GOP leadership races similarly did not mention the need for the party to chart an independent course, but most stressed party unity and prioritizing members’ nuts-and-bolts concerns.

Members, meanwhile, spent Wednesday talking privately among themselves about the historic electoral wipeout — which could see Democrats win 260 seats, more than they’ve had since the early 1990s — and Trump’s role in bringing it about.

Trump responded to the loss by arguing Republicans simply do not vote if he is not on the ballot — cold comfort for lawmakers who will never appear on a ballot with Trump again.

A House Republican, one of several granted anonymity to speak candidly about the president and the upcoming leadership race, predicted many members would start creating distance from the president “quickly” upon their return to Washington as they come to terms with a post-Trump future.

“I’ve been totally wrong on that before,” the member added. But “I just don’t see how any amount of contorting can polish up this turd.”

Another GOP lawmaker lamented that Trump had not gotten more honest feedback from fellow Republicans sooner.

“They didn’t call him out on things they didn’t like, over fear of retribution,” the member said. “And that’s a real problem.”

It’s an open question whether Jordan or Scalise would be equipped to do that. Jordan, a founder of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, pitched himself in a letter to colleagues as an expert in combating the hard-nosed investigations that Democrats are pledging to launch into Trump and other targets.

“I am battle-tested on the oversight front and I know the Democrats’ playbook,” Jordan said in a letter to colleagues. “I know what it will take to lead our Conference in the minority, to stay unified, and to coordinate and calibrate our response to the Democrats’ tactics.”

Underscoring his support on the right, Jordan won an endorsement from the leader of the hard-line Club for Growth Wednesday. David McIntosh, a former House Republican, called Jordan “principled, politically savvy, [a] prolific fundraiser, and the best communicator” for the House GOP.

Scalise, whom many members see as the more moderate option, emphasized his past fundraising and legislative efforts and focused on the battle to regain the House majority — calling it his “number one goal as Republican leader.”

A third House Republican noted Scalise has to walk a fine line between being a known quantity and part of a leadership team that stayed tied to Trump’s hip.

“If people are looking for the steady hand, again, I think he’s a guy to watch,” the member said. “But we got our asses kicked. And are they going to blame Scalise for that or the president? … Johnson already did, but does his first mate have to walk the plank, too?”

In his letter, Scalise called on House Republicans to “stand united as one team, be smart and strategic to secure conservative policy wins where we can, closely coordinate our defense against aggressive oversight and together develop a clear vision and agenda to earn back the majority in 2028.”

But as the prospect of having to turn 40 or more seats sunk in on Wednesday, Republicans took stock of whether the majority would be back in reach in two years.

A fourth GOP lawmaker said the goal of 2028 flip was not “realistic” and said Republicans were better-served to adopt a battle posture as Democrats threaten investigations and impeachments. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the likely incoming Oversight chair, told targets Tuesday night to “lawyer up.”

“Is there somebody better built for that than Jim Jordan?” the Republican said.

Congress

Capitol agenda: House GOP’s old guard is in for a fight

Published

4 hours ago

November 5, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Republican leadership races after the party’s catastrophic losses are shaping up to be a battle between the old versus new guard.

Party elections are set for Tuesday morning and will test how closely GOP members — angry over Republicans’ deep defeats and eager to chart a different course — tie their existing leadership team to the thrashing.

The ballot appears to be largely set for the House’s top three GOP positions after Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not run for top Republican again. After sending letters to colleagues yesterday, candidates will make their pitches to the rest of the conference before members vote in a secret tally. Friday is the deadline to declare candidacy.

Several members told Mia the race fallout could get ugly between incumbents and challengers. Here’s how the contests are shaking out:

— MINORITY LEADER: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has thrown his hat in the ring against Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan to lead Republicans over the next two years, and the battle is expected to be bitter.

It’s a repeat of a faceoff between the two men in 2023. And Scalise, while seen as the more “steady hand” as one Republican put it, is also the most tied to Johnson.

“We got our asses kicked,” the member said. “And are they going to blame Scalise for that or the president? And are Republicans going to be happy if there are no scalps on the wall? Johnson already did, but does his first mate have to walk the plank too?”

— WHIP: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, as expected, will try to keep his role, and Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger challenged him yesterday. It’s not a surprising move: many knew Pfluger was angling for a leadership perch.

Several House Republicans say Emmer has broad conference support. But Pfluger could try to argue that GOP leadership should have pushed for more in another party-line bill this year.

— CONFERENCE CHAIR: GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain got a surprise challenge Wednesday night from Rep. Erin Houchin for the No. 3 job, focused on messaging.

McClain released a list of 35 members supporting her and her experience yesterday. Houchin’s name, meanwhile, was floated by several Republicans as a potential rising star.

The wild card in the elections? President Donald Trump, whose endorsement could easily sway a race. As of Wednesday, however, Trump said he wouldn’t choose sides in the minority leader fight.

What else we’re watching:

— HOUSE DEM FACTIONS LOOK TO DISARM: After securing a huge majority, House Democrats’ warring factions say they are preparing to collaborate. This time last week, the progressive and moderate wings of the House Democratic Caucus were gearing up to battle for influence in what they thought might be a slim governing majority. But with some estimating the party will win as mean as 260 seats, the prospect of having a 30-vote-minimum margin to pass legislation means no one group will come to the table with an obvious edge that would handcuff the likely incoming speaker, Hakeem Jeffries.

— GOP TRIES TO SALVAGE LAME DUCK — Republicans had a long list of priorities to wrap up in the lame-duck session. But Democrats may not be in the mood to compromise after their midterm election victories. Republicans will have to prioritize what they want to accomplish in their waning days of congressional control once Congress returns next week. Must-pass legislation both parties want to finish includes funding the government to avoid a pre-holiday shutdown and passing the annual defense authorization bill. Also in flux: whether Democrats will vote to enact a permitting deal reached before the election.

Riley Rogerson and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

Congress

Democrats prepare for something new in the House: Teamwork

Published

13 hours ago

November 5, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

This time last week, the progressive and moderate wings of the House Democratic Caucus were gearing up to battle for influence in what they thought might be a slim governing majority. After surpassing expectations to win as many as 260 seats Tuesday night, members are showing signs of detente.

The results of the blowout midterm elections mean that House Democrats’ major ideological contingents will all swell in the next Congress. The centrist New Democrat Coalition is projecting at least 140 members, with the even more moderate Blue Dog Coalition grow to more than 20. The Congressional Progressive Caucus, meanwhile, is expected to have more than 100 members, six of whom identify as democratic socialists.

The prospect of having a 30-vote-minimum margin to pass legislation means no one group will come to the table with an obvious edge that would handcuff the likely incoming speaker, Hakeem Jeffries. If Democrats’ midterm gains had not been so pronounced, members might have more easily weaponized the narrow margins for their own political gains — by withholding their support for party-line bills, for instance, or opposing key procedural votes.

“There’s been so much attention throughout the course of this campaign, because of some really tough primaries that happened very early on in the primary season, about intraparty squabbles among Democrats,” Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona, who runs the centrist New Democrat Coalition’s campaign arm, told reporters Wednesday.

“But what happened last night was a political earthquake,” he continued, “where the American people demanded that checks and balances be restored to government.”

That’s not to say that Democrats won’t disagree next year. The caucus won’t unite overnight on whether to advance Medicare for All or end aid to Israel, and the party infighting over emotionally fraught issues could get ugly. Both moderate and progressive members insisted in interviews and media calls Wednesday that their proposals are best suited to satisfy voter demands to lower costs and tackle corruption.

“I’ve always said that being a progressive just means you’re the first to the best and most just idea, and then everyone else runs to catch up with you,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, adding that it will be “the CPC [that] will continue to be a leading force in driving, accomplishing these ideas across the finish line.”

“Many of the policies [democratic socialists have] been championing just won’t hunt with the average Blue Dog and the district they represent,” said moderate Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, who added there are “plenty of policy areas where we can find common ground.”

Buoyed by their massive new mandate, however, Democrats were starting to talk about a deliberative, consensus-building blueprint for governing that would not involve hard-line tactics like those deployed by House Republicans over the last two years. Thanks to the GOP’s razor-thin majority, just a few members had the power to wrestle control of the floor from leadership and derail legislative business for days.

Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, a member of the New Dems, said there will be a broad imperative to accommodate Democrats’ “big tent” and give some deference to the members who helped build the new House majority in swing districts.

He added, “It’s a leadership challenge for all of us to make room for those folks to find those commonalities and overlap to develop relationships.”

Jeffries was leaning into consensus proposals at a news conference Wednesday morning. When asked about advancing policies like Medicare for All, he talked about legislation that the entire party backs — reversing Republican-led Medicaid cuts and extending enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits.

“We’ll have a family conversation when we get back, and certainly in the new Congress, about what’s the best way to do that beyond what we know we need to do immediately,” Jeffries said about health care.

The House will gavel back into session next week, and sitting Democrats will gather with incoming freshmen for orientation — an early opportunity for members from disparate ideological factions to find common ground. It could help that the next two years will be more about building a platform for 2028 rather than trying to actually pass laws given the likelihood of a presidential veto.

Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois last month said she and her progressive colleagues were coming up with a list of “non-negotiables” for a House Democratic majority platform. In an interview Wednesday she said the party’s vote cushion would work to progressives’ advantage: “There’s no excuse that we can’t, in fact, pass Medicare for All because we can’t put these three frontliners on the line.”

Rep. Greg Meeks of New York, the likely incoming chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and an ally of leadership, said in an interview Tuesday night as the polls were closing that he was optimistic Democrats would “compromise among ourselves for the benefit of the American people.”

“I think that’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “That’s why I think that the candidates that turned red seats into blue seats, that’s why they ran.”