California Gov. Gavin Newsom begins a two-day tour of South Carolina, meeting voters in rural and Republican-leaning areas. The trip over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday includes eight stops at coffee shops, small businesses, and churches. Newsom's visit to this early-voting state signals potential interest in a 2028 presidential run. On Wednesday, he plans to visit Seneca, a conservative town in a county where Donald Trump won over 75% of votes in 2024. South Carolina holds significant influence in Democratic primaries due to its diverse electorate. Newsom's efforts reflect a strategy to broaden his appeal beyond his liberal California image.
By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press
House Republicans have missed another deadline to produce a massive budget package of tax cuts and slashed spending. Instead, Senate Republicans on Friday jumped ahead, unveiling a more tailored $340 billion blueprint focused on President Donald Trump's deportation agenda and bolstered U.S. defense spending. Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledges his own chamber's plan will slip into the weekend but insists it has just a few details to iron out. At stake is the Republican president's priority legislation that includes some $4 trillion in tax breaks, massive program cuts and a possible extension of the nation's debt limit. Republican senators are headed to Trump's private Florida club to discuss.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said after the 2020 election that then-President Donald Trump was "stupid as well as being ill-tempered" and a "despicable human being." That's according to a new biography of McConnell that'll be released this month. McConnell made the remarks in private as part of a series of personal oral histories that he made available to Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief of The Associated Press. Tackett's book, "The Price of Power," draws from almost three decades of McConnell's recorded diaries and from several years of interviews with the normally reticent Kentucky Republican.
