Republicans add to pressure on Senate majority leader after Trump voter ID bill call – US politics live

<p>Republicans join in with US president’s demand for John Thune to push through Save America act </p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/feb/17/sign-up-for-the-breaking-news-us-email-to-get-newsletter-alerts-direct-to-your-inbox?utm_medium=ACQUISITIONS_STANDFIRST&amp;utm_campaign=BN22326&amp;utm_content=signup&amp;utm_term=standfirst&amp;utm_source=GUARDIAN_WEB">Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox</a></p></li></ul><p><strong>Democrat lawmakers have asked the Department of Justice to examine a potential conflict of interest in relation to attorney general Pam Bondi and matters involving her lawyer brother.</strong></p><p>California Democrats Adam Schiff Dave Min said they have been waiting since 16 December to hear whether the Justice Department properly implemented firewalls and screening procedures in relation to her brother Brad, <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/democrats-seek-doj-probe-into-any-bondi-role-in-brothers-cases">Bloomberg reports</a>.</p><p>These decisions were made through the proper channels and the attorney general had no role in them.</p><p>He’s got to be a leader.</p><p>I’ve got colleagues who just simply won’t believe the Democrats will actually do it, just because two of them held out last time - those [two] who’ve been purged from their party</p><p>So let’s get them on the record. Let’s —-[make the] first vote out, ‘let’s end the filibuster’ - and just see what they do.</p><p><strong>Donald Trump</strong> insisted to reproters that the war on Iran he launched from his Florida beach club is going so well that “most people” on the cable news channels he turns to for information, “say it’s already been won”.</p><p>In a political rally in Kentucky, the president urged voters to get rid of <strong>Thomas Massie</strong>, the Republican congressman who co-wrote the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which compelled the justice department to release investigative files of Jeffrey Epstein, the late child sex offender Trump socialized with for nearly two decades.</p><p>The United States bombed an Iranian girls’ elementary school, killing at least 175 people, many of them girls between the ages of 7 and 12, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/us/politics/iran-school-missile-strike.html?partner=slack&amp;smid=sl-share">according to the New York Times</a>.</p><p><strong>Joe Rogan</strong>, the podcaster who hosted and <a href="https://x.com/joerogan/status/1853614670764015762">endorsed</a> Donald Trump in 2024, said that the US military attacks on Venezuela and Iran ordered by Trump were a betrayal of voters won over by his claim to be against regime change wars.</p><p>As video <a href="https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/2031857005111992378">circulating online</a> showed oil tankers filled with Iraqi oil in flames in the Persian Gulf after reported attacks by Iran, Trump assured his supporters in Hebron, Kentucky, that the war on Iran is already over and “we won”.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/mar/12/republicans-trump-iran-senate-majority-leader-john-thune-voter-id-bill-save-america-act-politics-live-news-updates">Continue reading...</a>

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