Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks to members of the media during a news conference on Capitol Hill on March 4, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The House failed to adopt a war powers resolution that attempted to curtail President Donald Trump’s military actions in Iran.
It failed by a vote of 212-219. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson bucked GOP leaders by voting in favor; four Democrats voted against the resolution, including Reps. Greg Landsman, Henry Cuellar and Jared Golden.
The resolution, which only expresses the sentiment of Congress, called on the president to terminate the use of U.S. armed forces in hostilities against Iran or any part of the Iranian government or military unless a declaration of war or authorization to use military force is enacted.
The measure was non-binding and not subject to the president’s signature or veto.
Speaker Mike Johnson argued Wednesday that the United States is “not at war” but only engaged in a “defensive operation” in Iran.
“We’re not at war right now,” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol. “We’re in — four days into a very specific, clear mission and operation.”
Later on Wednesday, Trump contradicted Johnson, repeatedly referring to the conflict in Iran as a “war” hours after Johnson said it wasn’t.
Sitting next to Johnson during a roundtable on energy prices, Trump said “we’re doing very well on — on the war front, to put it mildly.”
Johnson had said that the “passage of a war powers resolution right now would be a terrible, dangerous idea.”
“It would empower our enemies. It would kneecap our own forces, and it would take the ability of the U.S. military and the commander in chief away from completing this critical mission to keep everybody safe,” he said Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Senate Democrats failed to meet a 51-vote threshold on an alternate Iran war powers resolution sponsored by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine and Republican Sen. Rand Paul. The resolution failed behind a 47-53 tally.
(WASHINGTON) — The House on Thursday failed to override two of President Donald Trump’s vetoes of GOP-backed bills that passed unanimously in the House and Senate, falling short of the necessary two-thirds majority on either vote.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Gavin Newsom, governor of California, during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) — Are there too many Democrats running for governor in California
Corrin Rankin, the chair of the California Republican Party, told ABC News on the sidelines of a Republican National Committee meeting last month, “I think the Democrats should have a few more candidates. I say, if you’re a Democrat, and you feel like running for governor? I say, jump in.”
Rankin’s taunt reflects very real anxiety among some Democrats in the state in the 2026 race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom.
California uses top-two primaries, in which all candidates regardless of party are on the same ballot and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election.
It’s been expected that a Democrat and Republican will advance or, given California’s blue tilt, two Democrats. But a crowded Democratic field increases the chances that two Republicans and no Democrats make it past the June primary.
“The fact that it’s a possibility at all is enough to raise eyebrows and generate concern,” Steven Maviglio, a California-based Democratic operative, told ABC News.
RL Miller, who chairs the California Democratic Party’s Environmental Caucus, told ABC News that the scenario where no Democrats advance is a bit “more of an academic exercise,” but certainly something candidates are discussing in fundraising emails.
The Democratic field was effectively frozen for months until former Vice President Kamala Harris announced she would not run. Around a dozen Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, are vying for the nomination.
For some candidates, it’s been tough to break through, but they say they want to stay in because they feel their experience means they’re best for the job.
Antonio Villaraigosa, a former mayor of Los Angeles and former state representative, told ABC News on the sidelines of a recent candidate forum in the city he once led that he’s pointing to himself as “a proven problem-solver … people are looking for competence, common sense and of course-correction. They want the next governor to focus on the challenges we face.”
Asked more directly how he’s trying to stand out and if he thinks the Democratic field needs to consolidate more before the primary, Villaraigosa did not say anyone should drop out but pointed again to his record.
“I’m running on a vision for California that says we can restore the California Dream… [I’m] the only one in this in this race who’s been a chief executive of a large city,” he said.
Betty Yee, California’s former state controller, told ABC News on the sidelines of that forum in Los Angeles that she is pointing to her statewide job experience and financial acumen as a way she stands out from the pack.
“I think at the end of the day voters really do want somebody who can really just get on the job and begin to do the work,” Yee said.
She also added that Democratic candidates have not had a “long runway” to run, given the focus on the Proposition 50 congressional map election last November and the uncertainty over whether Harris would run for the governorship.
“So now, with all that behind us, we now have the focus on the race… what I did during that time was just to engage and just do as much direct voter engagement as I could,” Yee said.
Among the Republican candidates, front-runners Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco are expressing confidence that either one of them will make it to one of the top two slots in the primary.
Hilton, a business owner and former Fox News host, told ABC News that’s because of what he said is backlash to high costs and other challenges in California, which has been dominated by Democrats in the state legislature and executive branch for years.
“There’s a majority, a clear majority, who think we need change, and that means a change from the Democrats,” he said.
Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, told ABC News that he feels there is a crowded Democratic field because Newsom has not cultivated an heir apparent.
“So the Democrat Party below him is just [in] complete disarray, which is why you see a dozen Democrats — prominent Democrats — jumping in this race, wanting to be the next heir apparent, and it has to benefit Republicans,” Bianco said.
But Hilton expressed some skepticism about the benefits for the GOP of the top-two primary.
“Now on the Democrat side, you’re right, there’s a lot of candidates, but I think we’ve all seen how things work in California,” Hilton said, speculating that unions and donors will at some point coalesce around one candidate.
But Maviglio, the Democratic strategist, cautioned that donors and labor unions are holding back because of the crowded field, and labor groups in particular have multiple allies in the ring.
“It’s splintered,” Maviglio said.
Some Democrats have pointed to the state party’s upcoming convention in late February as a moment of truth — since candidates may drop out afterwards if it becomes clear they don’t have support to gain enough internal votes for the party’s endorsement.
But no candidate is expected, at the moment, to clear the threshold for an endorsement.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks to suppporters at a rally announcing his reelection bid at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center on January 8, 2026, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, in a forthcoming memoir, claimed that the running mate vetting team for Vice President Kamala Harris during her 2024 run for the presidency asked him if he were ever an agent of the Israeli government, ABC News has confirmed.
Shapiro writes in his memoir “Where We Keep the Light,” which is set to be released on Jan. 27, that he was asked last minute by Dana Remus, a former White House counsel and member of the vetting team, if he had ever been an agent for Israel. He said that told Remus he found the question offensive, according to excepts reported by The New York Times.
He wrote that he was also asked by Remus if he ever spoke with an undercover Israeli agent, to which Shapiro said he responded in part, that if they had been undercover, “how the hell would I know?”
Shapiro wrote in his memoir that he understood Remus had to do her job, but criticized the line of questioning, according to the excerpts.
Shapiro — who is Jewish and has been outspoken about his religion, as well as his support of Israel and criticism of the current Israeli government — said he was also asked more general vetting questions about Israel and his handling of campus protests about Gaza.
“I wondered whether these questions were being posed to just me — the only Jewish guy in the running — or if everyone who had not held a federal office was being grilled about Israel in the same way,” Shapiro wrote, according to the excepts.
ABC News has reached out to spokespeople for Shapiro and Harris, and to Remus about the questions she allegedly asked Shapiro.
While Shapiro was a reported contender for Harris’ running-mate spot, amid major debates within the Democratic Party over the Israel-Hamas war and the U.S.-Israel relationship given Israel’s conduct in Gaza, he faced scrutiny from progressives over his pro-Israel views, as well as some previous time spent volunteering in Israel, including on an Israeli army base.
He also faced questions over his college writing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict where he expressed doubts that Palestinians could come to a peace agreement with Israel.
Shapiro and his spokespeople said at the time that his time volunteering did not include military activity, and that his views on the conflict had evolved to support a two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
The vetting process for running mates is known to be intensive and often tries to get ahead of questions that may be asked publicly of candidates.
Harris, in her memoir “107 Days,” wrote that during the vetting process for running mates, she spoke with Shapiro “about how to handle the attacks he’d confronted on Gaza and what effect it might have on the enthusiasm we were trying to build,” and that they discussed the opinion piece Shapiro wrote in college.
“He said he felt he’d been able to deal with critics by stating clearly that his youthful opinion had been misguided and that he was fully committed to a two-state solution. He had also publicly called Netanyahu ‘one of the worst leaders of all time,'” Harris wrote.
She also framed the decision against Shapiro as more about his ambition and fears that he would be frustrated with the vice presidential role — claims Shapiro has rebuffed. Shapiro campaigned as a Harris surrogate even after not getting the running-mate nod.
Some Jewish officials who served in President Joe Biden and Harris’ administration have slammed the alleged vetting question, saying that it ties into antisemitic tropes that American Jews have dual loyalties between the United States and Israel.
Aaron Keyak, former deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism at the State Department and a board member of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, told ABC News on Monday that he was surprised at “how blatant the rhetoric was when it comes to playing into antisemitic tropes.”
“What’s even the point of asking that question in that way? Were they trying to send some sort of message to Gov. Shapiro? Were they trying to intimidate him?” Keyak said.
Keyak, who is Jewish, said he had also been asked questions during the vetting process for his own Biden administration State Department role that he later heard non-Jewish appointees were not. He said he was not able to share the specifics of the questions, but that the implications of the questions were similar to what Shapiro had allegedly been asked.
