The Latest on the response to President Donald Trump's racist tweets targeting four Democratic congresswomen of color (all times local):
5:15 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he has no regrets about his tweets that four Democratic freshmen should "go back" to their home countries — though all are citizens and three were born in the United States.
Trump claims the political fallout has benefited him, saying, "I'm winning a lot."
Trump insists he's "not relishing the fight," but says he is enjoying it because he has to get the message out to the American people.
He is pleased that only four Republican House members voted to condemn his comments about the Democratic lawmakers.
Trump made the remarks Wednesday as he departed the White House for a campaign rally in North Carolina.
12:30 a.m.
House Democrats have issued a remarkable rebuke against President Donald Trump, passing a resolution condemning what they called Trump's "racist comments" aimed at four liberal congresswomen of color.
Four moderate Republicans joined Democrats in Tuesday night's 240-187 vote in spite of lobbying by Trump and Republican leaders trying to keep the vote along party lines. GOP leaders insist Trump's comments were not racist and accused Democrats of political game-playing.
Trump himself continued to claim that his exhortations against the congresswomen were not racist and repeated his challenge that they leave the U.S. if they aren't happy. He originally urged the women to return to their home countries, though three of them are native-born Americans and all are citizens.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination.
While U.S. officials believe Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death — which came soon before the Russian president's reelection — or directly ordered it, according to the official.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
Soon after Navalny’s death, U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of directly ordering it.
At the time, Biden said the U.S. did not know exactly what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”
Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated.
He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.
In March, a month after Navalny’s death, Putin won a landslide reelection for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt.
The Wall Street Journal first reported about the U.S. intelligence determination.
FILE - Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking during his interview to the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 18, 2017. U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't order the death of Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, in February of 2024. An official says the U.S. intelligence community has found "no smoking gun" that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death or directly ordered it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
