Gabriella Borter

Democrats plan a series of town hall meetings in highly competitive U.S. House of Representatives districts currently held by Republicans, aiming to tap into anger over President Donald Trump's campaign to aggressively slash the federal government.

Two Democrats in Congress said on Friday that Republicans have raised the risk of a government shutdown by insisting on including cuts made by President Donald Trump's administration in legislation to keep the government operating past a mid-March deadline.

President Donald Trump's Republicans are trying to pass a tax cut extension that would reduce federal revenue by about $4.5 trillion over the next decade, while cutting about $2 trillion in spending over that timeline.

The U.S. Senate passed a Republican bill promoting President Donald Trump's immigration, energy and defense policies in the early hours of Friday morning, despite Trump's preference for a House of Representatives version of the bill that would include trillions of dollars in tax cuts.

The U.S. Senate wrangled long into the early hours of Friday morning on a Republican bill to advance President Donald Trump's priorities on immigration, energy and defense, even after he urged lawmakers to scrap the effort in favor of a House of Representatives bill that would include trillions of dollars in tax cuts.

Democratic U.S. Senator Tina Smith said she will not seek re-election in 2026, which leaves an open seat in moderately competitive Minnesota and complicates her party's hopes of winning back control of the chamber in the midterm elections.

Demonstrators rallied for abortion and immigration rights as well as local D.C. issues.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday recognized seven veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars with the Medal of Honor and awarded eight law enforcement officers the Medal of Valor for acts of extreme courage that went "beyond the call of duty."

The number far exceeds the figure US officials have previously provided.

The top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, on Tuesday called on President Joe Biden to pardon some working-class Americans after drawing criticism for pardoning his own son, Hunter Biden.