Politics

WASHINGTON (AP) — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is promising to implement President-elect Donald Trump’s “America First” vision as secretary of state, vowing in his confirmation hearing Wednesday that the incoming administration will forge a new path by placing American interests “above all else.”

“Placing our core national interests above all else is not isolationism,” Rubio will tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to an opening statement obtained by The Associated Press. “It is the commonsense realization that a foreign policy centered on our national interest is not some outdated relic.”

“The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us,” Rubio says.

It’s a remarkable opening salvo from Rubio, who was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants, and who, if confirmed, would become the first Latino ever to serve as the nation’s top diplomat.

The confirmation hearing begins a new chapter in the political career of the 53-year-old Florida Republican, whose relationship with Trump has evolved over the last decade. Once rivals trading schoolyard insults as they campaigned for president in 2016, the two men became close allies as Trump campaigned for another White House term last year.

Rubio first came to Washington as part of the “tea party” wave in 2010 and once advocated for allowing a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. But like other Republicans, Rubio’s views on immigration have shifted toward the hardline stance of Trump, who has pledged to aggressively pursue deportations once he takes office on Monday.

Unlike many of Trump’s Cabinet selections, Rubio is expected to easily win confirmation, notching support not only from Republicans but also Democrats who endorse him as a “responsible” pick to represent the U.S. abroad. Many expect he will be among the first of Trump’s Cabinet picks approved.

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz, who served alongside Rubio on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he has high hopes that the Florida Republican will reject the isolationist approach of other Trump allies.

“I think Marco is a hawk, but he’s also an internationalist, and I think the challenge for him will be to maintain the long bipartisan tradition of America being indispensable in world affairs,” the Hawaii lawmaker told AP. “And there are people in the Trump world who want us to run away from being the leaders of the free world. And I’m hoping that Marco’s instincts towards American strength will win the day.”

Rubio’s approach to foreign affairs is grounded in his years of service on the Foreign Relations committee and the Senate Intelligence panel. In his speeches and writings, he’s delivered increasingly stern warnings about growing military and economic threats to the United States, particularly from China, which he says has benefited from a “global world order” that he characterizes as obsolete.

China, Rubio will tell the committee, has “lied, cheated, hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status, at our expense.”

If confirmed, Rubio will become the leader of U.S. foreign policy — though his role will surely remain secondary to Trump, who relishes the global stage and frequently uses the bully pulpit against America’s allies.

Even before taking office, Trump has stirred angst in foreign capitals by threatening to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland and suggesting he will pressure Canada to become the nation’s 51st state.

By winning another term, Trump has won an “unmistakable mandate from the voters,” Rubio will say.

“They want a strong America. Engaged in the world. But guided by a clear objective, to promote peace abroad, and security and prosperity here at home.”

A Biden administration decision to rescind Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism with just days left in office is likely to irk Rubio, who has long supported tough sanctions on the communist-run island.

Rubio’s office did not respond to multiple queries Tuesday about the senator’s reaction to the move, which many believe will almost certainly be reversed by the Trump administration.

Secretaries of state have played a key role in formulating the foreign policy of the country since its founding, starting with the first one, Thomas Jefferson, who served in the top Cabinet position under President George Washington.

Since then, Jefferson, as well as his 19th century successors James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren and James Buchanan, have all gone on to be elected president.

More recent secretaries of state have been less successful in their political ambitions, including John Kerry, who lost the 2004 presidential election to President George W. Bush before becoming the top diplomat, and Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump.

The most successful secretaries of state have been known for their closeness to the presidents whom they serve, notably James Baker under George H.W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice under George W. Bush and, to some extent, Clinton under Barack Obama.

Like Clinton, Rubio was once a political rival to the president-elect who nominated them. However, the Clinton-Obama relationship during the 2008 Democratic primaries was not nearly as hostile as that between Trump and Rubio in the 2016 GOP primaries, which was marked by name-calling and personal insults.

Trump had an acrimonious relationship with his first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. Trump fired him from the position via a social media post less than two years into his term.

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Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.

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LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s top Republican leader in the state Senate announced Tuesday a candidacy for governor, becoming the first high-profile Republican to enter the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

State Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt is the second well-known candidate to enter the race to succeed Whitmer, who has two years remaining in her final term after being reelected in 2022. The open governor’s seat in 2026 is expected to spark competitive primaries.

In December, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan surprised many by announcing his departure from the Democratic Party to run for governor as an independent.

Democrats have yet for a top candidate to enter the race, but those weighing runs include Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — who moved to Michigan in recent years — has also fielded calls pushing for him to run.

Nesbitt called himself a “small town farm boy” raised on “faith, patriotism, traditional family values” in a campaign video announcing his 2026 gubernatorial bid. A southwest Michigan Republican, Nesbitt has served in the state Senate since 2019, following his tenure in the state House.

Nesbitt, who has led Republicans in the Democratic-controlled Senate since 2023, was among the top names many in the party hoped would enter the race. Other potential candidates include U.S. Rep. John James and former state House Speaker Tom Leonard.

Nesbitt and Duggan both criticized inaction in Lansing, the state’s capitol in their announcements. While Democrats spent much of 2023 advancing their agenda after gaining control of all branches of government the previous year, 2024 saw fewer session days and stalled legislation.

The year ended with turmoil in the state House, as Republicans walked out in protest and Democrats struggled to coalesce, hindered by one lawmaker’s refusal to attend sessions.

“Michiganders deserve so much better than what they’re getting from these Democrats up in Lansing,” Nesbitt said in a video. “What we’ve seen is higher taxes, more spending, more debt and less jobs.”

Nesbitt’s campaign video released Tuesday mirrored much of the messaging that brought Republicans success in 2024, including flipping the Michigan state House and securing the state for President-elect Donald Trump.

In the video, Nesbitt called for ending electric vehicle “mandates,” expressed his support for Trump and pledged to pursue “a renaissance on manufacturing here in Michigan.”

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday that the idea is to vote on a budget bill on the floor of the House of Representatives by Easter and send it to the president’s desk by Memorial Day.

Johnson also said as wildfires continue to rage in southern California that disaster relief will be part of the budget reconciliation discussion and debate.

(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Katharine Jackson)

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MSNBC President Rashida Jones says she is stepping down after four years leading the liberal news network, her move coming on the eve of a second Trump administration and after changes in corporate ownership.

Jones, in a memo to staff on Tuesday, said that she is leaving to “pursue new opportunities.” She’ll be replaced on an interim basis by Rebecca Kutler, a former CNN executive who joined MSNBC in 2022.

In Jones’ tenure, MSNBC has generally displaced CNN as the second-rated cable news-focused network behind Fox News Channel. Its ratings are sharply down since Donald Trump’s election.

MSNBC’s lineup has remained fairly consistent since Jones, the first Black executive to lead a cable news network, moved from NBC News to take over there in 2021. Former Biden administration press secretary Jen Psaki is her highest-profile addition.

In November, Comcast announced it was breaking MSNBC and CNBC away from NBC News into its own company, led by executive Mark Lazarus, meaning Jones was answering to new corporate leadership.

At a morning meeting on Tuesday, Jones said she was “excited about what we’ve done. I’m excited about what comes next.” She shed little light on the timing, although corporate changes and political transitions often trigger changes in the news business.

“When Rashida shared this with me at the end of last week, I was surprised,” Lazarus said in the meeting, according to MSNBC. “I was a little saddened for the company but very happy for her to be able to come to grips with a hard decision — a very personal decision.”

Lazarus also told employees Tuesday that MSNBC will keep its name. There had been some talk that it would be changed under new corporate leadership; the name was a result of a partnership with Microsoft when the network started in 1996. There have been few other indications of visible change for viewers yet due to the uncoupling from NBC News.

Jones generally kept a low public profile as MSNBC leader. She made considerable changes to the network’s weekend lineup and, during the weekday, extended the length of two of MSNBC’s more popular shows: “Morning Joe” and Nicolle Wallace in the afternoon.

She had to deal with the internal fallout over NBC News’ decision last year to hire former Republican National Committee head Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor, which was reversed after an open mutiny among many MSNBC personalities.

MSNBC’s viewership has dropped 57% since Trump’s election. The network notes that the post-election audience for cable networks closely associated with a losing candidate typically sinks, and that there are already signs that things are picking up again. Whether it will to the extent that it happened for MSNBC in 2017 is an open question, particularly with more people eliminating their cable service.

MSNBC announced on Monday that its most popular personality, Rachel Maddow, is returning to host her show five nights for the first few months of the new administration. Since 2022, she has generally done her show one night a week.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Flags at the U.S. Capitol will fly at full-staff “to celebrate our country coming together” for incoming president Donald Trump’s inauguration, House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on X on Tuesday.

Johnson said the flags will then be lowered back to half-staff the following day in honor of president Jimmy Carter.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson)

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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — House Democrats boycotted the opening day of Minnesota’s 2025 legislative session Tuesday in an effort to stop Republicans from exploiting a temporary majority to advance their agenda, but GOP representatives forged ahead and named their leader as speaker in a move that Democrats rejected.

There was applause as Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon entered the chamber to convene the proceedings in accordance with state law. But the Democratic side of the House chamber was empty and only Republicans replied “present” as a clerk took the roll.

Simon announced they had not reached the 68 members needed for a quorum, declared the chamber adjourned and left.

But Republicans stayed in their seats, saying that with 67 members present they had a quorum. They then voted to elect former Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, of Cold Spring, as speaker, a move that Democrats immediately denounced as an “unlawful sham with no legal authority.”

“Make no mistake: the House was adjourned by Secretary of State Simon with no quorum. The actions of the House GOP were illegal and Lisa Demuth is not speaker,” tweeted Democratic former Majority Leader Jamie Long of Minneapolis.

Demuth vowed to “work tirelessly” to foster a “culture of respect and civility” in the House but didn’t directly mention the boycott in her acceptance speech.

“We owe it to the people that we represent to debate passionately, but we also owe them the respect of agreeing that sometimes we do disagree,” she said. “So let’s focus on what unites us.”

Republicans adjourned the session until Wednesday.

What happens next was not immediately clear. Republican Rep. Harry Niska, of Ramsey, told reporters that the GOP was prepared for a legal challenge.

The House came out of the November election tied 67-67, and top leaders from both parties started to work out a power-sharing agreement that presumed a tie. But a judge late last month declared that a newly elected Democrat didn’t live in his heavily Democratic district.

That gave the GOP a 67-66 majority until a special election can take place in two weeks. Republicans declared their intent to take full advantage until the tie is restored.

The GOP lost a round in the power struggle earlier Tuesday when a different judge rejected a Republican effort to force a special election in another race that Democratic incumbent Rep. Brad Tabke, of Shakopee, won by only 14 votes. Republicans had threatened to use their power to refuse to seat him, even if they lost the court case.

Former Speaker Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, indicated in a statement that seating Tabke was the key disagreement that she and Demuth could not resolve in talks Monday and Tuesday.

House Democrats held a secret swearing-in ceremony on Sunday night to try to ensure that Tabke and other members could take their seats, a move Republicans denounced.

“Democrats have no other recourse to protect the will of the voters than to deny quorum,” Hortman said in her statement. “Democrats are united in our will to fight Republican efforts to kick Representative Brad Tabke out of the Minnesota House. We cannot allow Republicans to engage in this unprecedented abuse of power, and we will use every tool at our disposal to block it.”

Hortman had proposed a power-sharing agreement for the start of the session that would let Demuth become speaker but then revert to their original deal, assuming that the special election restores the tie.

Under Minnesota law, the secretary of state calls the House to order at the start of a session, declares whether a quorum is present, and hands over the gavel when a speaker is elected. It’s normally a quick formality.

Simon told legislative leaders Friday that the state constitution, statutes and House rules say 68 members must show up for a quorum. He said he had no authority to take further action unless 68 lawmakers are present, so if the 66 Democrats failed to show up, all that lawmakers could do was take attendance and adjourn. He said he would continue to convene and adjourn the House daily until a quorum is present and a speaker is elected.

Republicans disputed his legal analysis, arguing that the vacant seat meant a quorum is just 67, and pressed ahead without him Tuesday.

This is the first time the Minnesota Legislature has faced such a boycott, but similar stalling tactics have been used elsewhere.

Democrats in neighboring Wisconsin went into hiding in 2011 in a standoff with majority Republicans over union rights for public employees. Oregon Republicans staged multiple walkouts in recent years, including a record six-week walkout in 2023 over bills on abortion, gender-affirming care and gun rights. The top Democrat in the Michigan House last month ordered absent members back and barred the doors after a Democrat joined Republicans in skipping out.

The high-stakes poker in the Minnesota House contrasts with calm in the state Senate, which is tied 33-33. Democrats are expected to regain a 34-33 majority after a special election, also set for Jan. 28, to fill the seat of a senator who died last month. Unlike the House, Senate leaders quietly reached a power-sharing deal Sunday.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than a week before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office, a report from special counsel Jack Smith is refocusing attention on the brazen steps he took to cling to power at the conclusion of his first term.

Those allegations have been well documented through criminal indictments and investigative reports, but the report released early Tuesday offers by far the most detailed explanation of the actions Smith took — and did not take — as well as a steadfast defense against the Republican former president’s claims that the prosecution was politically motivated.

Here are some of the highlights:

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Trump may never face trial in court for his efforts to undo the 2020 election after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. But, Smith emphatically noted, that does not mean Trump was exonerated.

Weeks after Trump’s 2024 presidential win, Smith’s team moved to dismiss the case and a separate case charging Trump with mishandling classified documents because of a longstanding Justice Department prohibition against prosecuting a sitting president.

Trump and his lawyers have asserted that that decision proves the cases should never have been brought and that he did nothing wrong. His lawyers said in a letter urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to block the release of the report that Trump had achieved a “complete exoneration.”

But Smith, in his own letter, called that assertion “false” and took pains to note that the dismissal decision was simply a reflection of his team’s adherence to Justice Department policy rather than declaration of Trump’s innocence. In fact, Smith said, he believes Trump would have been convicted at trial had his 2024 election victory not foreclosed a criminal prosecution.

“As the Office explained in its dismissal motions and in the Report, the Department’s view that the Constitution prohibits Mr. Trump’s indictment and prosecution while he is in office is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution — all of which the Office stands fully behind,” Smith wrote.

In that way, his message echoes that of Robert Mueller, who as a Justice Department special counsel during Trump’s first term investigated whether the then-president had obstructed an investigation into Russian election interference. Mueller cited the same Justice Department policy as Smith and, like Smith, made clear that his findings had not exonerated Trump.

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For more than two years, Smith stood silent in the face of blistering personal attacks from Trump and allies, who alleged that he was compromised, that he was in cahoots with the Biden White House, that the investigations he was shepherding amounted to political persecution.

In his final public message, Smith responded.

His report, and in particular a letter he addressed to Garland that accompanied the document, amounts to a full-throated defense of his team and its investigative decisions.

The idea that his actions were influenced by anyone in the Biden administration? “Laughable,” Smith wrote. The suggestion that political appointees at the Justice Department meddled with his work? Simply not so, he wrote.

As for the prosecutors who comprised his team: “The intense public scrutiny of our Office, threats to their safety, and relentless unfounded attacks on their character and integrity did not deter them from fulfilling their oaths and professional obligations. These are intensely good people who did hard things well. I will not forget the sacrifices they made and the personal resilience they and their families have shown over the last two years.”

The report was released just days before Trump is to take office again, with plans to pardon supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to halt the certification of the election results. Trump has sought to rewrite the violent history of that day in remarks as recently as this month, when he said incorrectly that none of the rioters at the Capitol had guns.

“While we were not able to bring the cases we charged to trial, I believe the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters,” Smith wrote. “I believe the example our team set for others to fight for justice without regard for the personal costs matters. The facts, as we uncovered them in our investigation and as set forth in my Report, matter.”

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The abandoned prosecution leaves unresolved questions around the scope of presidential immunity from criminal charges following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last year.

The court’s conservative majority said former presidents have absolute immunity for official acts that fall within their core constitutional duties and are at least presumptively immune from prosecution for all official acts but do not enjoy immunity for unofficial, or private, actions. The Supreme Court sent it back to the trial court to figure out which acts in the indictment could move forward. But the case was dismissed before the trial court could decide that question.

Without that further legal wrangling, questions remain about how the Supreme Court’s interpretation would be applied, Smith wrote.

Smith made clear his team takes issue with the Supreme Court’s ruling, which he said put a greater emphasis on “protecting the independence and fearlessness of the President as opposed to the risk that immunity would encourage lawless behavior.”

“While the lower courts and the dissenting Justices placed greater emphasis on rule of law considerations, the majority found that the need for Presidents to act ‘boldly and fearlessly’ in executing their duties of office was of paramount importance,” Smith wrote.

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The report provides fresh details about the team’s decision-making on what charges to bring — and not to bring.

Smith said his team explored charging Trump with violating the Insurrection Act, under which a person convicted of inciting, assisting or engaging in “any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States” would be barred from holding public office.

Smith noted that while federal judges overseeing the more than 1,500 cases against the rioters who stormed the Capitol have described the violence as an “insurrection,” no one has been charged under that Civil War-era law.

Smith’s team believed it would have been legally risky to bring charges under “this long-dormant statute.” Prosecutors found no prior case against a government official accused of trying to cling to power — “as opposed to overthrowing it or thwarting it from the outside,” Smith said.

Applying the law “in this way would have been a first, which further weighed against charging it, given the other available charges, even if there were reasonable arguments that it might apply,” Smith wrote.

Furthermore, Smith said prosecutors could prove Trump “incited or gave aid and comfort to those who attacked the Capitol,” but they did not have evidence that Trump “directly engaged in insurrection himself.” The only prior cases prosecutors could find under that law were against those who directly engaged in insurrection.

While the evidence showed the “violence was foreseeable” to Trump and that he caused it, prosecutors did not have “direct evidence — such as an explicit admission or communication with co-conspirators — of Mr. Trump’s subjective intent to cause the full scope of the violence that occurred on January 6,” Smith wrote.

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Even if Smith didn’t charge Trump with inciting the riot, or with leading an insurrection against the U.S. government, his report nonetheless blames the president-elect for the violence on Jan. 6, 2021.

It accuses him of having directed “ an angry mob to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification of the presidential election and then leverage rioters’ violence to further delay it.”

The report includes pages of color photographs of the clash outside the Capitol between law enforcement and the rioters and is unsparing in its characterization of the violence, quoting police officers who said they feared they would be killed in the melee as well as rioters who said they went to Washington at Trump’s direction.

“’We were invited here! We were invited by the President of the United States!’” the report quotes one rioter as saying. ”Inside, another rioter yelled at officers to ‘stand down. You’re outnumbered. There’s a (expletive) million of us out there. And we’re listening to Trump, your boss.’”

Trump has repeatedly pointed to the fact that he told supporters to march “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol that day.

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By Ryan Patrick Jones, David Lawder

(Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will create a new government agency called the External Revenue Service “to collect tariffs, duties, and all revenue” from foreign sources as he readies new import tariffs ahead of his inauguration next week.

Trump said in a social media post he would create the department on Jan. 20, the day he takes office as president for a second term, adding that Americans have been taxed for too long by the Internal Revenue Service.

“Through soft and pathetically weak Trade agreements, the American Economy has delivered growth and prosperity to the World, while taxing ourselves. It is time for that to change,” the Republican said in a post on Truth Social.

“We will begin charging those that make money off of us with Trade, and they will start paying, FINALLY, their fair share.”

A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team could not be immediately reached for comment to clarify Trump’s statement or explain how the new agency would work.

Trump did not specify whether the new agency would replace collections of tariffs, duties, fees and fines by U.S. Customs and Border Protection or collection of taxes on foreign corporate and individual income by the IRS.

It also was unclear whether the move would create additional government bureaucracy, which would appear to go against the plans of Trump’s informal Department of Government Efficiency, an effort led by billionaire Elon Musk and former biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy aimed at finding trillions of dollars in budget savings by streamlining government operations.

During his presidential campaign, Trump often mused about replacing U.S. income taxes with tariff revenue, but the numbers do not add up, according to private economists and forecasters.

The conservative-leaning Tax Foundation estimates that a 20% universal tariff on all imports into the U.S. would generate $4.5 trillion over 10 years before negative economic effects that would cut net collection to $3.3 trillion over a decade. This compares to IRS tax collection of $16 trillion to $18 trillion every year.

Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, blasted Trump’s proposal.

“No amount of silly rebranding will hide the fact that Trump is planning a multi-trillion-dollar tax hike on American families and small businesses to pay for another round of tax handouts to the rich,” Wyden said.

Trump has proposed a 10% tariff on global imports, a 25% punitive duty on imports from Canada and Mexico until they clamp down on drugs and migrants crossing borders into the U.S. and a 60% tariff on Chinese goods.

Trade experts say the duties would upend trade flows, raise costs and draw retaliation against U.S. exports.

(Reporting by David Lawder and Ryan Patrick Jones; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Paul Simao)

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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The 2025 session of the Minnesota Legislature could be headed for a rocky start when it convenes Tuesday, with House Democrats threatening to boycott opening day and House Republicans saying they’ll try to recall lawmakers who fail to show up.

The messy power struggle is unusual for a state that historically has prided itself on clean politics, but where Republicans chafed at being frozen out in 2023 and 2024, when Democrats controlled both chambers and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz completed the trifecta of power.

The House came out of the November election tied 67-67, though, and top leaders from both parties worked out most of a power-sharing agreement that presumed a tie. But a judge late last month declared that a newly elected Democrat didn’t really live in his district. So the GOP has a 67-66 majority until a special election in two weeks. It’s in a heavily Democratic district, so the election likely will restore the tie.

House Republicans have declared that they’ll have an “organizational majority” on opening day and that they intend to use it to elect their leader, Lisa Demuth of Cold Spring, as speaker for two years, name the committee chairs, and pursue an agenda that includes preventing fraud in government programs. They’ve also threatened to use their power to prevent the seating of another Democrat who won reelection by only 14 votes, Brad Tabke of Shakopee. A court ruling on that race, where 20 ballots went missing, remained pending Monday.

House Democrats, led by former speaker Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park, reject what they’re calling a GOP power grab. They’re threatening not to show when the House convenes at noon on Tuesday, saying there won’t be a quorum without them. They even held a secret swearing-in ceremony for their members Sunday night to make it harder for Republicans to deny anyone their seat.

“It’s outrageous that they’re trying to use this two-week, one-vote edge that they have to potentially kick out newly elected members and to try to seize control for two years, which would completely ignore the will of the voters,” Hortman said at a news conference Monday.

Hortman said she planned to meet with Demuth on Monday evening to offer a compromise that would allow Republicans to elect Demuth as speaker and control the House until after the special election, when they would return to their previous power-sharing agreement. She said one condition would be that Republicans drop their threat to refuse to seat Tabke.

In an interview later Monday, Demuth didn’t reject a deal along those lines — but didn’t say she’d accept it, either.

“I would absolutely be open to having a conversation with Representative Hortman,” Demuth said. “That’s what we have done all along.”

This would be the first time the Minnesota Legislature has faced a boycott to prevent a quorum, but similar stalling tactics have been used elsewhere.

For example, Democrats in neighboring Wisconsin went into hiding in 2011 in a standoff with majority Republicans over union rights for public employees. Oregon Republicans staged multiple walkouts in recent years, including a record six-week walkout in 2023 over bills on abortion, gender-affirming care and gun rights. The top Democrat in the Michigan House last month ordered absent members back and barred the doors after a Democrat joined Republicans in skipping out.

The high-stakes poker in the Minnesota House contrasts with calm in the state Senate, where Democrats are expected to regain a 34-33 majority after a special election Jan. 28 to fill a vacancy caused by a senator’s death late last month. Unlike the House, the top Senate Democratic and GOP leaders quietly worked out a power-sharing deal Sunday.

Under Minnesota law, the secretary of state calls the House to order at the start of a session, declares whether a quorum is present, and hands over the gavel when a speaker is elected. It’s normally a quick formality.

Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon told legislative leaders Friday that his reading of the state constitution, statutes and House rules is that 68 members must show up for a quorum. Republicans argue that the vacant seat means a quorum is just 67. But Simon said he has no authority to take further action unless 68 lawmakers are present, so all they could do would be to take attendance and adjourn. He said he’ll continue to convene and adjourn the House daily until a quorum is finally present and a speaker is elected so that normal business can begin.

Republican leaders threatened Monday to seek recalls for “nonfeasance” of any Democratic representatives who aren’t present for the roll call on Tuesday, a cumbersome process that requires state Supreme Court approval.

“We are committed to holding every legislator accountable,” state GOP Chairman Alex Plechash told reporters. “If you don’t show up for the job, you shouldn’t keep it.”

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Associated Press reporters Kathleen Foody in Chicago; Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; and Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this story.

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By Andrew Goudsward and Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON(Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday released Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, the last act of a prosecutor whose historic criminal cases were thwarted by Trump’s November election victory.

The report is expected to detail Smith’s decision to bring a four-count indictment against Trump accusing the Republican president-elect of plotting to obstruct the collection and certification of votes following his 2020 defeat by Democratic President Joe Biden.

A second section of the report details Smith’s case accusing Trump of illegally retaining sensitive national security documents after leaving the White House in 2021. The Justice Department has committed not to make that portion public while legal proceedings continue against two Trump associates charged in the case.

Smith, who left the Justice Department last week, dropped both cases against Trump after he won last year’s election, citing a longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president. Neither reached a trial.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. Regularly assailing Smith as “deranged,” Trump depicted the cases as politically motivated attempts to damage his campaign and political movement.

Trump and his two former co-defendants in the classified documents case sought to block the release of the report, days before Trump is set to return to office on Jan. 20. Courts rebuffed their demands to prevent its publication altogether.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who presided over the documents case, has ordered the Justice Department for now to halt plans to allow certain senior members of Congress to privately review the documents section of the report.

It’s unclear how much new information the public portion of the report will contain.

Prosecutors gave a detailed view of their case against Trump in previous court filings. A congressional panel in 2022 published its own 700-page account of Trump’s actions following the 2020 election.

Both investigations concluded that Trump spread false claims of widespread voter fraud following the 2020 election, pressured state lawmakers not to certify the vote and ultimately sought to use fraudulent groups of electors pledged to vote for Trump, in states actually won by Biden, in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s win.

The effort culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol when a mob of Trump supporters stormed Congress in a failed attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the vote.

Smith’s case faced legal hurdles even before Trump’s election win. It was paused for months while Trump pressed his claim that he could not be prosecuted for official actions taken as president.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority largely sided with him, granting former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Lincoln Feast.)

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