What to know today
- The Trump administration and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced today that Ukraine had agreed to move forward with a partial ceasefire with Russia on energy infrastructure. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had discussed the proposal in a lengthy phone call yesterday.
- The White House said Trump is set to sign an executive order tomorrow to shutter the Education Department, fulfilling a campaign pledge to dismantle the agency.
- A federal judge issued a warning today about possible "consequences" after the Justice Department pushed back against his request for more information about the deportation of alleged gang members over the weekend under a rarely invoked wartime act.
- Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., held a town hall tonight and faced a rowdy crowd as Republican members of Congress face backlash from people at their public events over government funding cuts and mass layoffs of federal workers.
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Sen. Michael Bennet casts doubt on Chuck Schumer's leadership during Colorado town hall
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., appeared to cast doubt over Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's continued leadership in response to a question tonight about whether Schumer, D-N.Y., should be replaced as party leader in the chamber after he supported advancing a Republican funding bill.
“Let me just say it’s important for people to know, you know, when it’s time to go,” Bennet said at a nearly two-hour town hall in Golden that he hosted alongside Rep. Brittany Pettersen.
"I do think on the leadership question, it’s always better to, you know, examine whether folks are in the right place, and we’re certainly going to have that conversation," Bennet added.
Bennet cited his role as the first Senate Democrat to publicly warn that President Joe Biden was likely to lose the 2024 race after his poor debate performance against Trump. Biden later dropped his re-election bid.
Bennet said that it “wasn’t clear” Democrats were fighting for the American people during government funding negotiations and that the party needed a new “plan for the future that is compelling.”
The plan is “not going to be with the same old playbook, and it may not be with the same old people, to be honest," he added.
Bennet and Petersen were met with repeated boos and shouting from the audience, one member of which chided Bennet for voting in favor of several of Trump’s nominees, saying to cheers, "None of this feels like you’re fighting for us, for Colorado, for our kids, for our grandkids."
People also shouted for one full minute early on as Bennet tried to quiet them.
“Hey. Hey! We’re not going to do it this way,” he yelled before repeatedly shouting, “Stop it!”
Trump says Federal Reserve 'would be much better off cutting rates'
Trump said tonight that the Federal Reserve "would be MUCH better off CUTTING RATES as U.S.Tariffs start to transition (ease!) their way into the economy. Do the right thing."
He posted on Truth Social hours after the U.S. central bank kept interest rates unchanged but warned that it now sees growth slowing and inflation rising more than it did when it last issued economic projections in December.
Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump has repeatedly clashed with, told reporters earlier today that Trump's tariff policies were at least partly responsible for the increasing "uncertainty" about the direction of the U.S. economy.
Rep. Harriet Hageman faces rowdy town hall crowd in Laramie, Wyoming
Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., was loudly booed and interrupted at tonight's town hall in Laramie as she defended the Trump administration and Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
At one point she commented that "it’s so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with federal government" in response to a question about the recently passed continuing resolution and the whereabouts of money for federal employees who have been fired, which prompted the crowd to grow even rowdier.
"Calm down," Hageman said repeatedly as the crowd interjected angry disapproval. "You guys are going to have a heart attack if you don't calm down."
The Albany Democratic Party chair briefed a group of protesters before heading inside the building and urged attendees to “remain civil” but also press Hageman and demand answers. The packed town hall in Albany County is taking place in a theater with a capacity of 500 people.
Constituents' message to Maryland Democrats at town hall: 'We need a plan'
Democratic Reps. April McClain Delaney and Jamie Raskin of Maryland held a town hall today in Frederick, Maryland, that was met with mixed reactions from residents and calls for a plan to push back against the Trump administration.
Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said, “Of course, you know the Judiciary Committee is where impeachment starts,” a comment that was met by applause.
Toward the end of the town hall, attendees shouted, “We need a plan." One person disputed McClain Delaney's remark that her office is accessible to constituents.
After the event, several constituents told NBC News they were not satisfied with the answers they received.
Juliana Lufkin, 33, a self-employed resident of Hagerstown, said the lawmakers were “tooting their own horns" when she would have liked to hear a path forward.
“I would’ve liked to hear the plan, instead of a little bit of tooting their own horns and saying the things they’re doing and the things that we can do. This is not the leadership that we all hope for,” Lufkin said.
Christine Stafford, 55, a resident of Frederick, said the lawmakers failed to answer the questions substantively.
“I am very angry they didn’t answer any questions, any substance of questions,” Stafford said. “I came in here as an educated individual, and I think most these people did, and we didn’t learn anything new. And that was the frustrating part.”
Isabelle Doucet, 49, a project manager at Johns Hopkins University and a resident of Germantown, said she "learned a few more things" from the town hall but agreed that little was new to her.
Angry constituents await GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman at town hall in Wyoming
Angry constituents, most of them Wyoming residents voting in Albany County, are lined up around the block outside Rep. Harriet Hageman’s town hall in Laramie.
Democratic residents from all over the state are waiting with signs in hand, some reading “Defund DOGE!” or “Liz Cheney was right,” awaiting Hageman’s arrival for a town hall set to begin at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Hageman is one of the only congressional Republicans who has continued to hold town halls against the suggestion of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who urged his members to refrain from holding in-person public meetings amid public backlash.
While Hageman, who defeated Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in a 2022 primary, is in a politically safe seat, attendees lined up tonight expressed concerns about cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency, fear over the possibility of Social Security’s being slashed and frustration overall with the Trump administration’s policies.
In deep red Wyoming, Albany County, home to the University of Wyoming, leans more to the left than its surrounding areas. Joe Biden won the county by less than 1,000 votes in 2020, but Trump won it last year, also by a small margin.
Brother of man who killed Laken Riley to be deported after federal prison sentence
Diego Jose Ibarra, the brother of the man who killed nursing student Laken Riley last year, will be deported after he completes a four-year federal prison sentence for possessing a fraudulent green card, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia announced in a news release.
Authorities approached Ibarra in the investigation into Riley's death because he matched the description of the man they were seeking. He presented officers with the fake identification, according to the attorney's office release.
During the investigation, he pleaded guilty to having the fraudulent green card, according to the release.
Officials said he illegally entered the United States on April 30, 2023.
Trump set to sign executive order shuttering the Education Department
Trump is expected to sign an executive order tomorrow to close the Education Department, fulfilling a yearslong pledge to dismantle it, the White House confirmed.
Trump will hold an event at the White House to sign the order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
Federal judge Trump targeted for impeachment is a bipartisan appointee with a three-decade career in Washington
The federal judge at odds with the White House over its immigration enforcement and now the target of impeachment calls driven by Trump is a bipartisan appointee whose three-decade career in Washington, D.C., has included cases that have favored Trump.
James Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia since 2023, drew Trump’s ire after he temporarily blocked the administration’s effort to carry out migrant deportations by plane over the weekend under a rarely used wartime law.
In an interview that aired yesterday on Fox News, Trump mentioned impeaching Boasberg, whom he slighted as a “local judge.” Trump earlier pressed for Boasberg’s impeachment in a social media post and branded him a “radical left lunatic, a troublemaker and agitator.”
Those who know Boasberg and his record insist he is anything but.
Energy secretary says he had 'no discussion' with Trump about taking over Ukrainian nuclear plants
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said today there’s been “no discussion” of the United States' taking over Ukraine’s power plants or utilities, despite the administration’s readout of Trump’s call with Zelenskyy indicating the two leaders discussed such a possibility.
"No discussion about that right now," Wright told reporters at the White House when he was asked about Trump's discussion of the nuclear plants detailed in the readout.
"The United States and this president’s agenda is more energy. More energy, ideally produced in the United States, but more energy to better lives and lower prices," Wright added.
The comments contrast with a statement in which Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz said that in addition to ceasefire discussions, Trump and Zelenskyy "also discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants" and that Trump "said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants."
Trump fundraising email touts calls to impeach federal judge
Trump made his call to impeach a federal judge the focus of a fundraising email sent to his supporters today.
"This Radical Left Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, should be IMPEACHED!!!" the fundraising email reads. "Am I right friend? — Should deranged, power-hungry judges who let violent criminals roam free—putting your life and your family in grave danger—be impeached?"
The email directs readers to "respond to Trump" through a financial contribution to the Trump National Committee JFC.
The language of the fundraising email mirrored an earlier social media post in which Trump he called for U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to be impeached for ruling against one of his deportation efforts. Musk, too, has increased his calls to impeach judges who have blocked implementing Trump's agenda.
The rhetoric by Trump and Musk led in part to a rare statement by Chief Justice John Roberts yesterday rebuking calls to impeach judges over their rulings.