(WASHINGTON) — Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia has died, his office announced Wednesday morning. He was 75 years old.
“It is with immense sadness that we share that our devoted and loving father, husband, brother, friend and public servant, Congressman Gerald E. Connolly, passed away peacefully at his home this morning surrounded by family,” a statement from his family read.
Connolly had served in Congress since 2009. He was a champion for federal workers, pushing back in recent months against the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s overhaul of the government.
“We were fortunate to share Gerry with Northern Virginia for nearly 40 years because that was his joy, his purpose, and his passion. His absence will leave a hole in our hearts, but we are proud that his life’s work will endure for future generations,” his family said.
Just last month, Connolly said he was stepping down from the top Democratic position on the influential House Oversight Committee because his cancer had returned. Connolly had defeated New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the committee chair in December.
He had been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in November.
“When I announced my diagnosis six months ago, I promised transparency,” he said in his statement last month. “After grueling treatments, we’ve learned that the cancer, while initially beaten back, has now returned. I’ll do everything possible to continue to represent you and thank you for your grace.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is ramping up his criticism of Republican senators who are threatening to complicate the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which advances his legislative agenda.
On Tuesday, he railed against Sen. Rand Paul in a social media post after the Kentucky Republican publicly criticized the House-passed megabill.
Paul opposes the bill because of a debt ceiling increase in it that he said would “explode deficits.” Paul said at an event in Iowa last week that the cuts in the bill are “wimpy and anemic” and called for slashes to other entitlements, which Trump has made clear are a red line for him.
“Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming. He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, but it’s not,” Trump said in a post on his conservative social media platform Tuesday morning.
In a separate post, Trump said Paul “never has any practical or constructive ideas.” Over the weekend, Trump said that if Paul votes against the bill, “the GREAT people of Kentucky will never forgive him!”
Paul responded to Trump’s attacks on Tuesday, telling ABC News that he has been “pretty consistent” about his position on the deficit.
“From the very beginning, I’ve been consistent about it,” Paul said. “I pointed it out when we have Republican presidents and we have Democrat presidents, so really, there is no change in this.”
Trump is working the phones and having meetings with senators to try to get his sweeping agenda passed by Congress. The legislation extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and boost spending for the military and border security — while making some cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other assistance programs. It will also add about $3.8 trillion to the federal government’s $36.2 trillion in debt over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House on Monday, according to a White House official. The meeting comes as Thune faces the Herculean task of moving this House-backed bill through the Senate as expeditiously as possible.
Thune has so far not made clear what his strategy will be for moving this package through the upper chamber. But as things currently stand, Thune can only afford to lose three of his GOP members to pass the package, and right now, he has more members than that expressing serious doubts about the bill.
The president’s outreach so far has targeted a number of senators who have publicly expressed a need to see substantive changes to the House-backed bill.
Paul told ABC News that he had a “lengthy discussion” with Trump this week where the president “did most of the talking.” Asked if Trump convinced him to change his mind, Paul quipped: “no.”
Trump also met with Republican Sen. Rick Scott on Monday to discuss the bill, sources confirmed to ABC News. Scott is among a group of Senate hardliners who wants to see larger cuts to government spending in this bill.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson — who also received a call from Trump on Monday, according to the White House — has also been vocal about his concerns that the bill doesn’t go nearly far enough to slash federal spending.
But anyone wishing to change the bill will have to balance the desire for spending cuts from hardliners against the calls from others in the conference who are insisting there be no cuts to Medicaid. Changes to Medicaid are one of the key ways the House bill slashes spending levels.
Trump seems to be targeting this part of the GOP conference as well, speaking with Republican Sen. Josh Hawley by phone, a White House official confirmed. Hawley, who has said he opposes potential cuts to Medicaid benefits, said in a post on X after that call, that Trump “said again, NO MEDICAID BENEFIT CUTS.”
Trump put pressure on Republican senators to fall in line in a post on his social media site on Monday night, emphasizing that he wants the GOP tax megabill on his desk before the Fourth of July holiday.
“I call on all of my Republican friends in the Senate and House to work as fast as they can to get this Bill to MY DESK before the Fourth of JULY,” Trump wrote.
Echoing sentiments from Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday suggested that Republican senators who vote against Trump’s megabill will have a price to pay.
“Their voters will know about it. That is unacceptable to Republican voters and all voters across the country who elected this president in a Republican majority to get things done on Capitol Hill,” Leavitt told reporters.
Despite expressing some displeasures about the large tax bill last week, Leavitt said Trump was keen on keeping the bill largely in-tact.
“Those discussions are ongoing, but the president is not going to back down from those key priorities that he promised the American public, and they are expecting Capitol Hill to help him deliver,” Leavitt said.
(WASHINGTON) — As top Trump administration officials press for more deportations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced it had deported 142 migrants in the Houston, Texas, area illegally in the United States and convicted of crimes to Mexico, over a two week period.
From May 19 to 30, ICE says the agency removed eight gang members from the United States, 11 convicted individuals who committed crimes against children and a man who entered the U.S. illegally 21 times.
In total, the migrants were convicted of 473 criminal offenses and entered the United States 480 times, according to ICE.
ICE says there were also 30 who were convicted of robbery and grand larceny, 43 who were convicted of aggravated assault and 48 who were convicted of drug crimes they removed.
Unfortunately, this is not an anomaly,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford. “For the past few years, there was virtually no deterrent to illegally entering the country. As a result, millions of illegal aliens poured into the country including violent criminal aliens, child predators, transnational gang members and foreign fugitives.”
Bradford said that “many of these dangerous criminal aliens went on to prey on law-abiding residents in local communities right here in Southeast Texas and we’re laser focused on identifying them and removing them from the country before they harm anyone else. This is just a small snapshot of those efforts as it only focuses on deportations to one country over the course of a two-week period, but it gives you an idea of how big this problem really is.”
It comes as in mid-May, Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff at the White House, was at ICE headquarters alongside DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and urged senior leaders at ICE and Homeland Security Investigations to step up their deportation efforts, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
The meeting was attended by senior ICE leaders and the special agents in charge of Homeland Security Investigations. Border czar Tom Homan was absent from the meeting.
Miller told senior ICE leaders that the Trump administration wants to triple the daily number of arrests agents were making up to 3,000 per day, according to sources.
(MIDDLE EAST) — An F/A-18E fighter jet rolled off the side an aircraft carrier and sank to the bottom of the Red Sea, the Navy announced on Monday.
There was one enlisted crew member aboard the jet and a second enlisted crew member inside the tractor when the incident occurred.
Both personnel were able to jump out in time with only one person sustaining a minor injury, according to officials.
In the extraordinary mishap, the $70 million jet was being towed out of the hanger bay of the USS Harry S. Truman when the crew lost control.
“The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” the Navy wrote in a statement.
“Sailors towing the aircraft took immediate action to move clear of the aircraft before it fell overboard. An investigation is underway,” the service added.
The USS Harry S. Truman has been operating in the Red Sea since last September when it was deployed to help protect commercial ships against near-constant attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen.
It’s not clear what contributed to the crew members losing control of the aircraft aboard the carrier, which has previously been targeted by the Houthis. According to a U.S. official, initial field reports suggest a sudden movement of the carrier due to Houthi fire might have been a factor in the incident.
But those reports remained unconfirmed while the investigation plays out.
The Truman carrier was involved in another incident earlier this year when it collided with a merchant ship near the Suez Canal. Its commanding officer was subsequently fired.
The carrier was slated to come home last month, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth extended its deployment while ordering another carrier — the USS Carl Vinson — to the region to bolster military power.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect additional reporting.
