The FBI is looking for information about the death of 8-year-old Maleeka “Mollie” Boone in Coalmine, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation. (FBI)
(NEW YORK) — An 8-year-old Navajo Nation girl who mysteriously died last month may have been struck and killed by a truck, the FBI said.
Maleeka “Mollie” Boone was “likely struck by a passing vehicle” and it’s possible the driver hit the 8-year-old “without realizing it,” the FBI in Phoenix announced on Wednesday.
The 8-year-old went missing on Jan. 15 in her neighborhood in Coalmine, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, the FBI said.
Mollie was playing late that afternoon and was walking home when authorities believe she was struck, according to the FBI. Her body was found the next morning.
The FBI said it’s looking for information about cars on Cedar Loop Road in the Coalmine Navajo Housing Authority between 5:50 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. on Jan. 15. The driver may have been in a larger car, possibly a pickup truck, the FBI said.
Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov.
People gather in Washington Square Park for a mass snowball fight on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A man has been arrested after a viral incident between New Yorkers and NYPD officers during Monday’s blizzard has snowballed into Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first test with the police brass after he appeared to downplay the issue.
Gusmane Coulibaly, 27, has been arrested for “assaulting” police officers earlier this week in Washington Square Park, the New York City Police Department announced Thursday.
“Coulibaly was previously arrested less than three weeks ago for an attempted robbery in the transit system,” according to the NYPD.
With Mamdani capturing attention on the national stage, the progressive mayor is threading the needle carefully to avoid repeating the mistakes some of his predecessors made to ensure he doesn’t lose that critical police support, according to a political expert.
Mamdani came under fire on Tuesday after the president of the Police Benevolent Association — the union representing NYPD officers — accused the mayor of downplaying the severity of an incident. The NYPD said people playing in the snow on Monday in Manhattan were “attacking” officers with snowballs.
“I’ve seen the videos of this snowball fight. I think that it was a snowball fight,” the mayor said during a news conference when asked repeatedly ifanyone should be charged for the incident.
Mamdani echoed his sentiment on Wednesday at another news conference.
“What I saw was a snowball fight that got out of hand and it should be treated accordingly,” he said.
The incident took place Monday afternoon in Washington Square Park when police were called in about parkgoers playing aggressively, according to the NYPD.
Parkgoer Rahul Nag told WABC 7 that it started off as harmless fun but escalated when several young people began tossing snow from the roof of the park’s restrooms. The officers were confronted after they arrived to investigate.
“It wasn’t supposed to be violent. It started out as a very fun thing to do, and then, you know, it just escalated, and there weren’t any older kids or older people out here,” he told the station.
“It was just young kids having fun. And then it kind of became a back-and-forth thing between NYPD and those young kids,” Nag added.
Police say the crowd began throwing snowballs at them and continued to pelt them and their vehicles with snowballs as they left the park. The mayor and NYPD said two officers were treated for minor injuries, including lacerations.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in an X post Tuesday night that the incident was being investigated. The NYPD also released images of the people who allegedly threw the snowballs at the officers.
“The NYPD is aware of certain videos taken earlier today in Washington Square Park showing individuals attacking cops. I want to be very clear: The behavior depicted is disgraceful, and it is criminal,” Tisch said in her post.
No arrests had been made as of Wednesday afternoon.
Although Mamdani did not describe the incident as an attack, he repeatedly has condemned anyone who would antagonize the police, and praised their work during the snowstorms over the last two months.
“I want to say that officers have been on the front line of helping our city respond to this blizzard. They have been keeping New Yorkers safe, and they have also been at the heart of our efforts of digging New Yorkers’ cars out of these kinds of conditions and ensuring that our ambulances, our MTA buses can keep functioning across this city” he told reporters during the Tuesday news conference.
“They and our entire city workforce deserve to be treated with respect. The only person in our city’s workforce who deserves to be treated with a snowball is me,” Mamdani added.
The mayor’s remarks, however, did not sit well with the leaders of the Police Benevolent Association. The union’s president, Patrick Hendry, released a statement Tuesday calling the mayor’s response “a complete failure of leadership.”
“This was disgraceful. It wasn’t a joke. It wasn’t a game. It was a vicious attack,” he said.
Mamdani told reporters Wednesday that he and Tisch are in constant communication but declined to talk more about the investigation into the incident.
Christina Greer, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University, told ABC News it was inevitable that Mamdani and the police brass would butt heads, given the mayor’s past criticism of the NYPD and the pushback by Republicans across the country against him and his progressive policies.
“Mamdani is cognizant of that and trying to balance what some people felt was pretty innocuous and the NYPD saw it as a different way,” she said. “He’s also cognizant that there are groups that, frankly, do not want him to succeed.”
Greer noted that Mamdani is taking hard lessons from previous Democratic mayors, especially Bill de Blasio and David Dinkins, who had extremely strained relationships with the NYPD.
Greer said that De Blasio’s relationship with the police seemed to crystalize in 2014 when officers turned their back to him during the funeral for two slain officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. That came weeks after protests broke out over the death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died after he was put in a chokehold during an arrest.
“You never want to be in a position where the NYPD turns their back to you and you never regain their trust,” she said.
Greer noted that even though he is extremely early in his tenure, Mamdani has taken smart first steps to show not just the NYPD but also his critics that he cares about his officers. Those moves include apologizing for his previous criticisms and retaining Tisch as his commissioner after his predecessor Eric Adams’ term ended.
Even in his response to the snowball incident, where the mayor repeatedly said that snowballs should be thrown at him, indicated a sense of humility, according to Greer. She said Mamdani is willing to take on New Yorkers’ frustrations, especially over the weather.
“It’s putting the onus on him,” she said. “I think it’s brilliant because it says I’m the one in charge. The NYPD is not in charge, it’s me. It’s hard for people to wrap their heads around, but that’s the truth and a brilliant way to articulate a very real fact.”
Greer said the snowball incident is unlikely to hamper Mamdani’s status or alter his overall “report card” on the local or national level, given fast-paced nature of the city’s politics.
However, she said that the mayor will need to continue to thread the needle with the NYPD for his entire tenure in City Hall, as he is seen as the star figure in the Democratic progressive movement.
“The question behind all of this, really, is can he keep the city safe? That’s not fair to make this situation a real assessment when we’re talking about snowballs and not bullets,” Greer said.
Officials visit Nancy Guthrie’s residence, February 25, 2026 in Tucson, Arizona. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(TUCSON, Ariz) — Three-and-a-half weeks after Nancy Guthrie’s abduction, the FBI is reducing its number of personnel in Tucson and relocating its command post to Phoenix, where it has its largest office in Arizona, sources briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
The FBI will keep agents in Tucson and continue to partner with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, but many agents are returning to Phoenix to work the case from there.
On Wednesday, FBI agents were seen walking Guthrie’s property. For the moment, the sources said there is no additional investigative work the FBI needs to do at the house.
Instead, much of the case is now analytical: perusing Walmart sales receipts and security footage, untangling the mixed sample of DNA found inside the house, and parsing the roughly 1,500 tips that have come in since Nancy Guthrie’s daughter, “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, offered up a $1 million reward on Tuesday.
After the initial surge following the Tuesday Instagram post upping the reward, the number of calls to the sheriff’s department has tapered off, sources said.
Anyone with information is urged to call 911, the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, or the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900.
ABC News’ Alex Stone and Trevor Ault contributed to this report.
Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, takes part in the Munich Security Conference. (Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Russian forces could recover their pre-war capabilities within three to five years in the event of a peace deal in Ukraine, according to Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chair of the NATO Military Committee and the principal military adviser to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“They will be busy on that battlefield for as long as is necessary — we hope very, very shortly that it will come to a point. Right after that, I think that they will rebuild,” Dragone told ABC News during an interview on the sidelines of the Chatham House think tank’s Security and Defense 2026 event in London on Wednesday.
“We are expecting a strong, resilient — because they demonstrate that now they are resilient — conventional force,” Dragone said of the Russian military NATO is preparing to face down along its eastern flank in the years and decades to come.
This week marked the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, a so-called “special military operation” — in the words of the Kremlin — that Russian officials expected to succeed within days.
The opening stages of the war were characterized by Russian tactical and strategic failures, ultimately prompting Russian forces to abandon swaths of territory captured in the north, northeast and south of the country.
“Their capabilities were way below what we expected at the very beginning,” Dragone said. “But in four years, they reconstituted. They lost a lot of soldiers, but they are able to reconstitute, rebuild and recruit again,” the NATO commander continued. “They are a force which is experienced and trying to modernize as much as they can.”
Four years on, Russia is still struggling to make significant gains and is — according to a mix of Ukrainian, Western and independent analysis — sustaining massive casualties.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to frame Moscow’s grinding advance as inevitable, and demanded that Kyiv cede the entire eastern Donbas — made up of Luhansk and Donetsk regions — as part of any future peace deal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his foreign backers, though, have challenged the characterization, pointing to Russia’s slow progress, mounting casualties and apparent economic strains.
Asked whether one side has the upper hand, Dragone said Russia is making “small gains on the terrain compared to the losses. In November-December, they had 35,000 casualties. This means that for one kilometer, they are losing thousands” of troops killed and badly wounded, Dragone said.
“This is something that they can handle — I don’t know up to when,” he continued. “That’s something that their system allows them to do.”
“They are not winning, except for these small gains,” Dragone said. “It’s an oxymoron to call something a ‘special military operation’ that lasts for five years. It’s nonsense, from the very beginning.”
“They will not be able, at this pace, to conquer the whole of Donbas, for example, by the end of this year,” Dragone said. “They are fighting this attrition war that is not leading anybody anywhere. And this is why it should be time that they sit and they start to find a negotiated solution.”
Moscow says different, though the glacial pace of its invasion is evident. Daily, the Defense Ministry in Moscow claims to have captured new settlements, villages and towns in the so-called “grey zone” all along the 750-mile line of contact. In December, Putin again claimed that his troops were “advancing on all fronts.”
The Kremlin appears fully committed to its war, marshalling the national economy onto war footing and further tightening its authoritarian grip on Russian society.
Moscow’s war-focused economic strategy “means something,” Dragone said. “More than 40% of the national budget is for the war,” he added. “Probably they will keep the war economy even after the war ends, just to rebuild this as soon as possible.”
Russia may seek to generate a military force of “150% of what they had when they invaded Ukraine, because from their point of view, they have to cope with their counterpart, which is NATO,” Dragone said. In the meantime, the admiral added, “They are testing us, of course. In these four years, they have been testing us on our reaction times, how we are able to respond.”
Dragone also acknowledged that Russia is already engaged in a hybrid war against its NATO adversaries. Allied leaders have accused Moscow of a wide range of surveillance, sabotage, assassination and other operations within NATO borders. Meanwhile, Russian drones and missiles targeting Ukraine have also violated the airspace of allied nations.
“We have been reacting” to the hybrid threat, Dragone said, noting that NATO nations have moral, ethical and legal “restraints” that do not bind Moscow.
“This is an unfair confrontation that we need to be ready to face. And this is what we could call a handicap situation, but that’s something that we want to be in place,” he added, stressing that the alliance should not seek to shed such restraints.
“They are more aggressive,” Dragone said. “We are reacting. Our reactions are appropriate. The issue is that we are a defensive alliance, so that’s our mindset.”
Asked whether NATO has been too hesitant, the admiral said such strategic decisions are made at the political level. “It’s up to them to tell us, give us the political direction, what effect they want to have — and we will be the ones who will produce this effect.”
Growing NATO-Russia tensions have, at times, prompted nuclear threats from Moscow. This week, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) accused Kyiv — without providing proof — of trying to obtain nuclear weapons with the assistance of the U.K. and France. Ukraine quickly denied the allegation.
Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving on the country’s Security Council — then threatened a “symmetrical response” from Russia using “any type of weapon, including non-strategic nuclear weapons.”
Dragone said that, though NATO remains “concerned” about Russia’s nuclear capabilities, “nothing has changed.”
Parked cars and trees are covered in snow during a blizzard on February 23, 2026 in the Flatbush neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Showers and thunderstorms are expected to move through the Southeast on Thursday while a wintry mix is possible around Washington, D.C. and Baltimore in the evening.
However, given temperatures are hovering around freezing, there could be snow mixing in with the rain but likely with no accumulation.
On Friday, the snow will move into Montana from Canada and, on Saturday, more snow will be in a band from Montana to South Dakota to Iowa and into northern Illinois where 1 to 4 inches of snow will be possible.
Chicago could get snow on Saturday in the afternoon until the late evening with an inch of two possible in the region as snow becomes widespread across northern Indiana, much of central and northern Ohio and southern Michigan.
On Sunday morning, more snow will push through the Northeast but is expected to end midday or in the afternoon as accumulation totals could be up to 2 inches in some areas along the coast.
Meanwhile next week, snow could form over the Midwest from Iowa and Missouri through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, before reaching the mid-Atlantic midday or in the afternoon on Monday.
There is also a chance for snow across the mid-Atlantic Monday with Washington D.C. and Baltimore possibly seeing a few inches of accumulating snow.
Another system on Tuesday night and Wednesday could bring rain and snow to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, depending on temperatures.
The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier docks at Souda Bay on Crete Island, Greece on February 24, 2026. (Stefanos Rapanis/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Officials from Iran and the United States opened high-stakes negotiations in Geneva on Thursday, a third round of nuclear talks that are arriving amid heightened tensions and that could prove pivotal in President Donald Trump’s decision about whether to order a military intervention.
The White House previously said it would accept nothing short of a full stop for Tehran’s uranium enrichment efforts. Trump in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night warned that Iran sought to restart that program after the United States “obliterated” it in strikes on the nation in June.
The White House in recent weeks ordered a major U.S. military buildup in the Middle East, as Trump has weighed options for possible strikes against Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Iran poses a “very great threat” to the United States, but added that the president would prefer to deal with Tehran through diplomacy. He also said Tehran appeared to be attempting to restart its nuclear program.
“You can see them always trying to rebuild elements of it,” Rubio told reporters during his trip to St. Kitts and Nevis. “They’re not enriching right now, but they’re trying to get to the point where they ultimately can.”
Officials from Oman are facilitating the indirect talks in Switzerland. The White House’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are representing the United States.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said early on Thursday that Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, arrived in Switzerland on Wednesday evening and met with Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, his Omani counterpart.
Araghchi during that meeting “stressed that the success of the negotiations depends on the seriousness of the other side and its avoidance of contradictory behavior and positions,” according to Iran.
Questions remained about the current state of Iran’s nuclear program, despite Trump saying it had been “obliterated” in June. Senior Israeli officials told ABC News in July that some enriched uranium may have survived the powerful U.S. strikes. Washington maintains that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons, a claim that Tehran has denied.
Araghchi on Tuesday appeared to agree with the White House’s efforts to stop it from building a nuclear weapon, but stopped short of saying there would be no future enrichment of any kind.
“Our fundamental convictions are crystal clear: Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon; neither will we Iranians ever forgo our right to harness the dividends of peaceful nuclear technology for our people,” Araghchi said in a social media post.
Witkoff in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News said that Tehran was “probably a week away from having industrial-grade, bomb-making material, and that’s really dangerous.”
Witkoff and Kushner have been given an extensive remit by the White House, which has also tapped them as lead negotiators for other high-stakes talks, including those related to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
That approach has drawn some criticism, including from Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina, who said on Wednesday that it was “suspect” that “the same two people” would have the time to effectively manage the workload.
“It’s just not the way to project steady, strong leadership which the world needs from the United States on these very dangerous hot spots,” Tillis said.
Iran has a “positive outlook” on the talks and hopes to “move beyond this ‘neither war nor peace’ situation,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in public remarks in Farsi on Wednesday in Sari, Iran.
“Hopefully, we can move beyond this ‘neither war nor peace’ situation,” he added. “If that happens, we will then be able to remove obstacles from our path much more easily.”
Former President Bill Clinton and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive prior to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump at the United States Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Melina Mara – Pool/Getty Images)
(CHAPPAQUA, NEW YORK) — Former President and first lady Bill and Hillary Clinton are facing lawmakers this week over their ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Clintons are scheduled to participate in closed-door depositions with the House Oversight Committee in Chappaqua, New York, after months of continuous negotiations over their appearance.
Hillary Clinton is scheduled to appear on Thursday, with Bill Clinton appearing the day after. Friday’s deposition will be the first time a former president has appeared in front of a congressional panel since former President Gerald Ford in 1983.
The committee first attempted to subpoena the Clintons in July of last year as Republicans demanded more information on the former president’s travels on Epstein’s private aircraft and what the committee called the “family’s past relationship” with Epstein and his convicted associate Ghislaine Maxwell, as part of their probe into Epstein.
The Clintons were subpoenaed to appear under oath in front of the committee for a deposition in January, but failed to comply, arguing the subpoenas were without legal merit. Rather, they proposed a four-hour transcribed interview instead.
David Kendall, the Clintons’ lawyer, argued that the couple has no information relevant to the committee’s investigation of the federal government’s handling of investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, and should not be required to appear for in-person testimony. Kendall contends the Clintons should be permitted to provide the limited information they have to the committee in writing.
Former Secretary of State Clinton “has no personal knowledge of Epstein or Maxwell’s criminal activities, never flew on his aircraft, never visited his island, and cannot recall ever speaking to Epstein. She has no personal knowledge of Maxwell’s activities with Epstein,” Kendall wrote in an Oct. 6 letter to the committee. “President Clinton’s contact with Epstein ended two decades ago, and given what came to light much after, he has expressed regret for even that limited association.”
Republican House Oversight Chairman James Comer responded that the committee was “skeptical” of the claim that the Clintons only had limited information.
“[T]he Committee believes that it should be provided in a deposition setting, where the Committee can best assess its breadth and value,” Comer responded in October.
Comer had long threatened to hold the Clintons in contempt if they failed to appear before the committee, so when they didn’t, a contempt resolution was drafted and put to a vote. The Oversight Committee passed the contempt resolution, with nine Democrats voting in favor of it, teeing it up for a full House vote.
At the last minute, before the resolution was brought for a full House vote, the Clintons agreed to sit for a deposition, postponing further consideration of a contempt vote.
This week’s interviews with committee investigators will be video recorded and transcribed in accordance with the House’s deposition rules.
“We look forward to questioning the Clintons as part of our investigation into the horrific crimes of Epstein and Maxwell, to deliver transparency and accountability for the American people and for survivors,” Comer said in a statement when the deposition was agreed upon.
While the Clintons have agreed to speak with the committee behind closed doors, they have still pushed for public hearings as part of the committee’s probe into Epstein.
“I will not sit idly as they use me as a prop in a closed-door kangaroo court by a Republican Party running scared,” Bill Clinton wrote in a lengthy post on X. “If they want answers, let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing, where the American people can see for themselves what this is really about.”
Hillary Clinton has echoed her husband’s sentiments while also continuing to call for the full release of the Epstein files, which they have accused the Department of Justice of selectively releasing.
“It is something that needs to be totally transparent,” Hillary Clinton said during a panel appearance at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month. “I’ve called for, many, many years, for everything to be put out there so people can not only see what is in them, but also — if appropriate — hold people accountable. We’ll see what happens.”
Neither Bill Clinton nor Hillary Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing and both deny having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. No Epstein survivor or associate has ever made a public allegation of wrongdoing or inappropriate behavior by the former president or his wife in connection with his prior relationship with Epstein.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia (R) and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura (L) attend a prayer vigil before he enters a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in Tennessee will hear arguments Thursday over whether the government is being vindictive in pursuing a human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The hearing comes after the judge, Waverly Crenshaw Jr., canceled the trial in the case in December and wrote in a court order that there was enough evidence to hold a hearing on the question of vindictive prosecution.
The government is currently blocked from deporting Abrego Garcia, who was released from immigration detention in December. In a separate case last week, a federal judge ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot re-detain him because his 90-day detention period had expired and the government lacked a viable plan for his deportation.
The Salvadoran native, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution. The Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he and his attorneys deny.
He was brought back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, to which he pleaded not guilty.
After being released into the custody of his brother in Maryland pending trial, he was again detained by immigration authorities before being released in December.
Rep. Norma Torres holds up a photo of Minnesota shooting victim Alex Pretti who was killed during an immigration enforcement operation during U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address during a Joint Session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump did not mention their names in his speech, but Alex Pretti and Renee Good loomed over the State of the Union address.
Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, and Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, were both fatally shot in January by federal law enforcement deployed to Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge” immigration crackdown.
While the deaths of Good, who was killed on Jan. 7, and Pretti, who was killed on Jan. 24, were captured on video and garnered national attention, the president did not broach the subject of their demise.
But some Democrats attending the State of the Union attempted to invoke their names during Trump’s hour-and-48-minute speech.
During the address, Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., held up photos of Pretti and Good that included a caption in all capital letters, reading, “PREMEDITATED MURDER.”
Trump has previously lamented the deaths of Good and Pretti and instituted a drawdown in federal law enforcement in Minneapolis in the wake of their deaths.
During his speech Tuesday, the president blamed the Democrats for the current partial government shutdown stemming from an impasse over immigration enforcement. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security ran out on Feb. 14.
“Now they have closed the agency responsible for protecting Americans from terrorists and murderers,” Trump said of the Democrats. “Tonight, I’m demanding the full and immediate restoration of all funding for the border security, homeland security of the United States, and also for helping people clean up their snow.”
At one point, Trump prompted heckling from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., when he said the Democrats should be “ashamed.”
“One of the great things about the State of the Union is how it gives Americans the chance to see clearly what their representatives really believe,” Trump said in his speech. “So, tonight I’m inviting every legislator to join with my administration in reaffirming a fundamental principle. If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
While it appeared that all of the Republican lawmakers in the chamber stood up and applauded, most of the Democrats remained seated.
While seated next to each other, Omar and Tlaib repeatedly shouted at Trump. Omar was heard yelling, “You have killed Americans! You have killed Americans!” in an apparent reference to the deaths of Good and Pretti.
Tlaib shouted “liar” and referenced the Epstein files.
The barbs from Tlaib and Omar continued as Trump said, “I’m also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens, in many cases, drug lords, murderers, all over our country. They’re blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of yourself.”
During her rebuttal address for the Democrats, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said the nation’s “broken immigration system is something to be fixed — not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities.”
“And yet, our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities, where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans — and they have done it without a warrant,” Spanberger said.
She added, “They have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies, they have sent children — a little boy in a blue bunny hat — to far-off detention centers, and they have killed American citizens on our streets.”
In a statement released immediately after the State of the Union, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., also mentioned the killings of Good and Pretti.
“Here in Minnesota, we have seen what happens when President Trump gets his way and a Republican majority in Congress goes along,” McCollum said. “We’ve seen the damage from masked, unidentifiable federal agents invading and occupying our communities to sow chaos, violence, and division. We’ve seen Minnesotans racially profiled and assaulted. We’ve seen the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents.”
The Cuban flag waves outside of the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, DC on October 3, 2017, in Washington, DC. The U.S. orders on Tuesday the expulsion of 15 Cuban Diplomats from the Washington DC Embassy. (Photo by Olivier Douliery/Getty Images)
(CUBA) — Four people on a speedboat were killed and another six injured in a “confrontation” near Cuba’s coast after those on board the United States-registered vessel opened fire on Cuban troops, according to the Cuban Ministry of the Interior.
As Border Guard troops approached the boat for identification after it was detected in Cuban waters, those on board the speedboat “opened fire,” injuring the commander of the Cuban vessel, the ministry said.
“As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six were injured,” the ministry said in a statement released by the Cuban Embassy in the United States.
Those injured were evacuated and received medical assistance, it said.
The speedboat was registered in Florida, according to the ministry. It approached Wednesday morning about 1 nautical mile northeast of the El Pino channel, in Cayo Falcones in the Villa Clara province, the ministry said.
When reached for comment, the U.S. Coast Guard, White House and other related agencies referred ABC News to the State Department.
“In the face of current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its determination to protect its territorial waters, based on the principle that national defense is a fundamental pillar of the Cuban State in safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region,” the Cuban Ministry of the Interior said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
