Politics and views in the United States

Trump pitches Todd Blanche for permanent Attorney General, but Congress is opposing several White House positions. The Supreme Court's allowing Alabama to break up a Black district, while Indiana lawmakers hold town halls on voting rights and other issues.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

We are going to forever barred and precluded from examining or prosecuting the president, his sons, and the Trump organization's current tax filings.

Not true.

Democratic Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro pressed acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on a deal that might protect President Donald Trump's family and business from tax investigations.

Under bipartisan congressional opposition, Blanche confirms that the administration's dropping connected plans for a $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund.

Trump says Blanche should be confirmed to lead the Justice Department, but offered no timeline for a formal nomination for the next U.S. Attorney General.

Senate Republicans are stripping the billion dollars Trump wanted for White House ballroom security from an immigration enforcement funding package.

That budget bill is moving, but Republicans in Congress are showing more willingness to buck the party's dominant figure.

Several in the House voted with Democrats to pass a largely symbolic war powers resolution against the Iran war.

The House has also moved forward new funds for Ukraine.

And a number of GOP members are objecting to having Bill Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence.

They say it's a particularly dangerous position for a man who has used government information to attack the president's enemies.

A new Brennan Center poll says nearly two-thirds of Americans are unhappy with their elected leaders, including Trump, and most voters view Congress as dishonest and unethical.

Democratic activists in Arizona are launching a kick-out corruption tour.

Christina Harvey with Stand Up America says families feel squeezed by rising costs and unfair politics.

This tour is really a response to the fact that working families are struggling right now to pay for groceries, gas, and health care in a system that feels rigged against them.

The Supreme Court will let Alabama redraw congressional maps for the midterms, breaking up one of the state's two districts held by black Democrats.

Civil rights and protecting the vote will be topics in a series of town halls sponsored by the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus, along with education, health care and public safety.

State Representative Earl Harris of East Chicago says one of the best ways to protect the ballot is to use it.

If you are of age and can vote, register and make sure in November you get out there and vote.

Your vote is your voice and it means so much.

Don't give it away for nothing.

Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen says Newark Airport will keep its customs officers if cooperation continues between federal, state and local authorities.

The dispute grew out of protest at a New Jersey immigration detention center, but critics said pulling out the officers would disrupt travel nationwide.

I'm Joe Ulory for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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