senator

MINNEAPOLIS — U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Thursday she is running for governor of Minnesota, promising to take on President Trump while unifying a state that has endured a series of challenges even before the federal government’s immigration crackdown.

Klobuchar’s decision gives Democrats a high-profile candidate and proven statewide winner as their party tries to hold on to the office occupied by Gov. Tim Walz. The 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, Walz abandoned his campaign for a third term this month amid criticism over mismanagement of taxpayer funding for child-care programs.

“Minnesota, we’ve been through a lot,” Klobuchar said in a video announcement. “These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration — but who are also willing to find common ground and fix things in our state.”

Klobuchar cited Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, federal officers killing two Minnesotans, the assassination of a state legislative leader and a school shooting that killed multiple children — all within the last year. She avoided direct mention of ongoing fraud investigations into the child-care programs that Trump has made a political cudgel.

“I believe we must stand up for what’s right and fix what’s wrong,” Klobuchar said.

Klobuchar becomes the fourth sitting senator to announce plans to run for governor in 2026. The other races are in Alabama, Colorado and Tennessee.

Multiple Minnesota Republicans are campaigning in what could become a marquee contest among 36 governorships on the ballot in November. Among them are MyPillow founder and Chief Executive Mike Lindell, a 2020 election denier who is close to Trump; state House Speaker Lisa Demuth; Dr. Scott Jensen, a former state senator who was the party’s 2022 gubernatorial candidate; and state Rep. Kristin Robbins.

Immigration and fraud will be at issue

The Minnesota contest is likely to test Trump and his fellow Republicans’ uncompromising law-and-order approach and mass deportation program against Democrats’ criticisms of his administration’s tactics.

Federal agents have detained children and adults who are U.S. citizens, entered homes without warrants and engaged protesters in violent exchanges. Renee Good was shot three times and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in early January. On Saturday, federal officers fatally shot intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti during an encounter.

Many Democrats on Capitol Hill, in turn, have voted against spending bills that fund Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. A standoff over the funding could lead to a partial government shutdown.

Trump and other Republicans also will try to saddle Klobuchar — or any other Democrat — with questions about the federal investigation into Minnesota’s child-care programs and its Somali community. Trump also has made repeated assertions of widespread fraud in state government, and his administration is conducting multiple investigations of state officials, including Walz. The Democrat has maintained that Walz’s administration has investigated, reduced and prosecuted fraud.

Demuth was quick to release a new video and a webpage that illustrate what’s likely to be another main line of her campaign: that Klobuchar cannot be trusted to end the fraud in public programs or curb the growth of government. “Minnesotans only need to look at her record to know that she simply cannot deliver the change that our state needs, and would be nothing more than a third term of Tim Walz,” Demuth said in a statement.

Klobuchar has won across Minnesota

Now in her fourth Senate term, Klobuchar is a former local prosecutor and onetime presidential candidate who positions herself as a moderate and has demonstrated the ability to win across Minnesota.

She won her 2024 reelection bid by nearly 16 percentage points and received 135,000 more votes than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Harris outpaced Trump by fewer than 5 percentage points.

Klobuchar gained attention during Trump’s first term for her questioning of his judicial nominees, including now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. At his acrimonious confirmation hearings, she asked Kavanaugh, who had been accused of sexual assault as a teenager, whether he ever had so much to drink that he didn’t remember what happened. Kavanaugh retorted, “Have you?”

The senator, who had talked publicly of her father’s alcoholism, continued her questioning. Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by a single vote, later apologized to Klobuchar. Kavanaugh has denied that the alleged assault occurred.

After Trump’s first presidency, Klobuchar was among the most outspoken lawmakers during bipartisan congressional inquiries of the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol during certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. As Senate Rules Committee chair, she pressed Capitol Police, administration officials and others for details of what authorities knew beforehand and how rioters breached the Capitol.

“It’s our duty to have immediate responses to what happened,” she said after helping write a report focused not on Trump’s role but on better security protocols for the seat of Congress.

2020 presidential bid

Klobuchar sought the presidential nomination in 2020, running as a moderate in the same political lane as Biden. She launched her campaign standing outside in a Minnesota snowstorm to promote her “grit” and Midwestern sensibilities that have anchored her political identity.

As a candidate, Klobuchar faced stories of disgruntled Senate staffers who described her as a difficult boss but also distinguished herself on crowded debate stages as a determined pragmatist. She outlasted several better-funded candidates and ran ahead of Biden in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. But Biden, then a former vice president, trounced her and others in the South Carolina primaries, prompting her to drop out and join others in closing ranks behind him.

After Biden’s victory, Klobuchar would have been well positioned for a Cabinet post, perhaps even attorney general. But the Senate’s 50-50 split made it untenable for Biden to create any opening for Republicans to regain control of the chamber.

Klobuchar announced in 2021 that she had been treated for breast cancer and in 2024 announced that she was cancer-free but undergoing another round of radiation.

Barrow and Karnowski write for the Associated Press. Barrow reported from Atlanta. AP writer Maya Sweedler in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio left the door open Wednesday to future U.S. military action in Venezuela, telling lawmakers that while the Trump administration does not anticipate further escalation, the president retains the authority to use force if Venezuela’s interim leadership or other American adversaries defy U.S. demands.

Rubio’s remarks came hours after President Trump deployed what he called a “massive armada” to pressure Iran back to the negotiating table over its nuclear weapons program, amid broader questions about how recent U.S. tensions with Denmark over Greenland are affecting American relations with NATO allies.

“The president never rules out his options as commander in chief to protect the national interest of the United States,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I can tell you right now with full certainty, we are not postured to, nor do we intend or expect to take any military action in Venezuela at any time.”

The appearance marked Rubio’s first public testimony before a congressional panel since U.S. forces seized former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to New York to face narco-trafficking charges nearly a month ago. Rubio was pressed by Democratic lawmakers over congressional war powers and whether the operation had meaningfully advanced democracy in Venezuela.

“We’ve traded one dictator for another. All the same people are running the country,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). Acting President Delcy Rodríguez “has taken no steps to diminish Iran, China or Russia’s considerable influence in Venezuela.”

Rodríguez, who formerly served as Maduro’s vice president, has committed to opening Venezuela’s energy sector to American companies, providing preferential access to production and using revenues to purchase American goods, according to Rubio’s testimony.

But questions remain about Rodríguez’s own alleged ties to trafficking networks. The Associated Press reported that she has been on the DEA’s radar for years for suspected involvement in drug and gold smuggling, though no public criminal charges have been filed.

And despite Trump’s warning that Rodríguez would “pay a very big price” if she does not cooperate, she has pushed back in public against U.S. pressure over trade policy.

“We have the right to have diplomatic relations with China, with Russia, with Iran, with Cuba, with all the peoples of the world. Also with the United States. We are a sovereign nation,” Rodríguez said earlier this month.

Venezuela is among the largest recipients of Chinese loans globally, with more than $100 billion committed over recent decades. Much of that debt has been repaid through discounted oil shipments under an oil-for-loans framework, financing Chinese-backed infrastructure projects and helping stabilize successive Venezuelan governments.

U.S. military leaders have warned Congress about Iran’s growing strategic presence in the hemisphere, including concerns over ballistic missile capabilities and the supply of attack and surveillance drones to Venezuela.

“If an Iranian drone factory pops up and threatens our forces in the region,” Rubio said, “the president retains the option to eliminate that.”

Democrats also argued that the administration’s broader foreign policy is undercutting U.S. economic strength and alliances, particularly in competition with China.

Despite Trump’s tariff campaign, China posted a record global trade surplus in 2025, lawmakers noted, while estimates show U.S. manufacturing employment has declined by tens of thousands of jobs since the tariffs took effect.

Senators pushed back on the State Department’s assertion that U.S. policy has unified allies against China, arguing instead that tariffs and recent military escalations involving Greenland, Iran and Venezuela have strained relations with key partners. They pointed to Canada as an example, noting that Ottawa recently reached a trade deal with China amid concerns about the reliability of the United States as a partner.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a Republican dissenter on Venezuela, rejected the Trump administration’s framing of Maduro’s capture as a law enforcement operation rather than an act of war.

He pressed Rubio on congressional authorization.

“If we said that a foreign country invaded our capital, bombed all our air defense — which would be an extensive bombing campaign, and it was — removed our president, and then blockaded the country, we would think it was an act of war,” Paul said as he left the hearing.

Congressional Republicans voted to dismiss a war powers resolution earlier this month that would have limited Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks on Venezuela after two GOP senators reversed course on supporting the legislation.

They did so based on informal assurances from the administration that it would consult members of Congress before taking military action.

“I was a big fan of [congressional] consultation when I was sitting over there,” Rubio said, joking about his tenure as a senator on the committee. “Now, you know, it’s a different job, different time.”

The War Powers Act dictates how the executive must manage military operations, including that the administration must notify Congress within 48 hours of a military operation.

“And if it’s going to last longer than 60 days, we have to come to Congress with it. We don’t anticipate either of these things having to happen,” Rubio said.

He added that the administration’s end goal is “a friendly, stable, prosperous Venezuela,” and cautioned that free and fair elections would take time as the administration works with Rodríguez to stabilize the country.

“You can have elections all day, but if the opposition has no access to the media … those aren’t free and fair elections,” Rubio said. “There’s a percentage of the Venezuelan population … that may not have liked Maduro, but are still committed to Chavista ideology. They’ll be represented in that platform as well.”

Rubio fell short of providing concrete timelines, prompting skepticism from lawmakers who cited ongoing reports that political prisoners remain jailed and that opposition figures such as Edmundo González Urrutia and María Corina Machado would still be blocked from seeking office. He will meet with Machado this week to discuss her role in the ongoing regime change.

“I’ve known Maria Corina for probably 12 or 13 years,” Rubio said. “I’ve dealt with her probably more than anybody.”

But the reality on the ground remains difficult, he said, adding the administration has hedged its bets on the existing Venezuelan government to comply with U.S. efforts to stabilize the economy and weed out political violence before fair elections can be held.

“The people that control the guns and the institutions of government there are in the hands of this regime,” Rubio said.

Jan. 28 (UPI) — A French court sentenced former Sen. Joel Guerriau to four years in prison after finding him guilty of drugging a minister of the French parliament in November 2023.

Guerrieau, 68, will spend 18 months of his 48-month prison sentence behind bars, but he has appealed the decision and would not be imprisoned if the appellate court overturns his conviction.

The court also ordered him to pay MP Sandrine Josso, 50, the equivalent of $5,975 in the Tuesday ruling.

Guerriau formerly represented the Loire-Atlantique region in western France and was found guilty of spiking a drink with ecstasy and serving it to Josso in November 2023.

Prosecutors accused him of inviting Josso to his flat in Paris and drugging her with the intent of sexually assaulting her, but reports do not indicate whether a sexual assault is alleged in the matter.

Guerriau admitted he spiked her drink but said it was an accident and that he did not intend to commit sexual assault.

Following Tuesday’s verdict, Josso told media that she “had gone to visit a friend” on the night that she was drugged.

Instead of visiting a friend, she said, “I discovered an aggressor,” adding that “he looked at me insistently” and that she never had seen him like that.

“I didn’t want to show him my weakness because I was worried that if I told him I wasn’t feeling well, he would have forced me to lie down,” Josso said.

She left Guerriau’s flat and, with the help of a friend, went to a hospital, which determined her blood contained three times the normal dosage of a recreational MDMA.

Guerriau claimed he had been depressed and was using MDMA to treat it and meant to consume the spiked drink himself.

Instead of drinking it, he told the court that he accidentally served it to Josso, adding that he feels sorry for her.

“I am disgusted with myself, with my recklessness and my stupidity,” Guerriau told the court.

He said not enough is done to discuss “the effects of these drugs enough,” adding that he wants to “speak out on the dangers of these products.”

Guerriau was a member of France’s center-right Horizons Party and was suspended after being charged. He resigned is Senate seat in October.

Josso is a member of France’s center-right MoDem Party and has become a vocal opponent of “chemical submission” after her encounter with Guerriau.

Hollywood heavyweights are joining a mounting wave of resistance against Immigration and Customs Enforcement after federal agents on Saturday fatally shot intensive care nurse and U.S. citizen Alex Pretti.

The shooting occurred in Minneapolis, where protests erupted over the weekend after an ICE agent earlier this month shot and killed another Minnesota resident, Renee Nicole Good, 37, during an enforcement operation. Similar demonstrations started cropping up in weeks prior as the Department of Homeland Security launched a sweeping immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities.

Although government officials have claimed that Good and Pretti were both aggressors in their altercations, footage captured by bystanders appeared to contradict those claims.

Olivia Rodrigo, Pedro Pascal and other film, television and music industry notables condemned ICE on social media in the wake of its operations in Minnesota and across the country. (Likewise, attendees at the Sundance Film Festival, including Edward Norton and Olivia Wilde, criticized ICE’s actions and lauded the public for protesting them.)

Here is a list of celebrities who have spoken out.

Olivia Rodrigo

The pop rock singer slammed ICE in an Instagram story on Sunday, writing that the agency’s “actions are unconscionable, but we are not powerless.”

“Our actions matter,” Rodrigo continued. “I stand with Minnesota.”

The “Vampire” songstress also reposted a call to action by political commentator and digital creator Ben Sheehan, which called ICE a “murderous federal agency terrorizing an American city.”

“If you support this, you’re on the wrongest side of history you could possibly be on,” Sheehan wrote, urging social media users to call their senators and encourage them to filibuster an upcoming Homeland Security appropriations bill that would keep ICE funded at $10 billion for the rest of the fiscal year.

Pedro Pascal

“The Last of Us” star has shared several anti-ICE posts to his Instagram feed and stories. Earlier this month, Pascal described immigration enforcement activities as “unspeakable s— after unspeakable s—.”

Following Pretti’s shooting death, the actor wrote on Instagram, “Truth is a line of demarcation between a democratic government and authoritarian regime. Mr. Pretti and Rene Good are dead. The American people deserve to know what happened.”

Jamie Lee Curtis

The Academy Award winner has repeatedly condemned ICE’s actions in Minnesota, writing Saturday on Instagram, “Let the ICE storm of resistance ring loudly.”

Curtis also shared a statement from Pretti’s parents, which pleaded with readers to “get the truth out about our son.”

“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the statement said.

“Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact.”

Katy Perry

The pop singer in a Monday Instagram post encouraged her followers to “turn anger into action” by calling their senators.

“The power is in your hands,” the post read, followed by a script encouraging senators to block the DHS funding bill.

Billie Eilish

The “Birds of a Feather” singer this week called out her industry peers’ silence on the immigration crackdown. Eilish herself has regularly reposted anti-ICE statements on her Instagram story.

“Hey my fellow celebrities u gonna speak up?” she wrote in an Instagram story Monday.

Eilish also shared a video from her brother and frequent collaborator, Finneas, in which he called the government hypocritical for allegedly shooting Pretti because he had a gun despite yearslong defense of gun owners’ rights.

“You’ve spent 30 years straight telling us that children have to die so that we’re allowed to legally carry weapons everywhere in the United States,” the artist-producer said. “This guy was being beaten to a pulp on the ground, he didn’t draw his weapon. He had a weapon on him legally.”

Eilish also spoke out against immigration enforcement earlier this month while receiving the 2026 MLK Jr. Beloved Community Environmental Justice Award.

“We’re seeing our neighbors being kidnapped, peaceful protesters being assaulted and murdered, our civil rights being stripped, resources to fight the climate crisis being cut for fossil fuels and animal agriculture destroying our planet, and people’s access to food and health care becoming a privilege for the wealthy instead of a new basic human right for all Americans,” the singer said.

“It is very clear that protecting our planet and our communities is not a priority for this administration,” she continued. “And it’s really hard to celebrate that when we no longer feel safe in our own homes or in our streets.”

Florence Pugh

The “Thunderbolts” star in a Monday Instagram story reshared a post from NBC News listing the people who have been fatally shot by DHS since September.

“1 person being murdered is harrowing enough. 12? Killed by masked people with guns,” Pugh wrote. “Morals. Even that seems too light a word to use when it’s actually ‘are you okay with people being killed or not’?”

“No matter which way you voted, what you politically believe, is death truly the option that you support?” she wrote.

Mark Ruffalo

In a pair of Bluesky posts, Ruffalo called Pretti a “hero.”

“Cold blooded murder in the streets of the USA by an occupying military gang, creating havoc,” the actor-activist wrote. “We have fought wars in other countries for less than this.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda

The “Hamilton” creator on Sunday collaborated with his parents, Luz Towns-Miranda and Luis A. Miranda Jr., on an Instagram post translating Pretti’s parents’ statement into Spanish.

“This cowardly violence cannot remain silent. We share his parents’ words en español because they deserve to be understood by everyone. Alex was a hero. And we demand justice,” the caption reads.

Glenn Close

The veteran actor in a Sunday Instagram post said she is “outraged and sickened” by the Trump administration’s actions: “The sickening hypocrisy, the blatant manipulation of facts and now the cold-blooded murder of American citizens.”

“I have felt for a long time that there are thousands and thousands of American citizens with cellars full of guns,” Close said. “I fear that ICE is giving them the excuse to pull the trigger.”

The “Fatal Attraction” star said the country is “waking up” to the threats posed to American democracy: “Mark my words: there will be hell to pay.”

Kerry Washington

The “Scandal” alum in a Monday Instagram post encouraged viewers to call their senators as she modeled the behavior on camera.

“The time to take action is now,” Washington captioned her video. “Let’s do it together. Because if you think what’s happening in Minneapolis cannot happen in your city or your state, it can.”

Cynthia Nixon

The “Sex and the City” star on Saturday claimed that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was spreading “morally reprehensible and disgusting lies” about Pretti and his killing.

Nixon also shared the statement from Pretti’s parents and encouraged viewers to do the same.

Busy Philipps

Philipps in a Saturday Instagram post reshared statements demanding justice for Pretti as well as the defunding of ICE.

“They will just keep murdering people and lying as long as they can,” the “Girls5eva” actor said, encouraging her followers to “take to the streets” and “boycott the businesses and people that support this.”

Martha Stewart

The television personality shared Monday on Instagram that her 14-year-old granddaughter — who is “sensitive to what is going on in our country as we all should be” — over the weekend messaged her, “I’m not sure it’s excusable to not be speaking up right now.”

Stewart said she took the sentiment to heart, writing, “I am disheartened and sad each and every day that we cannot demonstrate our sympathy for the beleaguered, that we are told immigrants, which most of us are or descended from, are unwelcome, that we cannot show our frustration in peaceful demonstrations and that we can be attacked and even killed by federal troops.”

“Things must and have to change quickly and peacefully,” she wrote.

Hannah Einbinder

The “Hacks” star in a Tuesday Instagram story said, “I’ve been trying to put my finger on why I have such a deep seated resentment towards people who haven’t used their platform to speak up against ICE.”

“I think it’s because, as a Jewish American in the diaspora, my entire life has been in the shadow of the Holocaust. I was given an in-depth education of exactly how a thing like that happens,” Einbinder wrote.

“I am watching the beginning of what took place in Germany before the Holocaust here in America and I take it incredibly personally when I see people with massive platforms refrain from using their voice to organize and rally their followers to try and stop it,” she continued, encouraging her industry peers and followers alike to stand up for immigrants.

The Chicks

“It’s happening right in front of us. They are killing Americans, disappearing human beings, and breaking up families,” country band the Chicks captioned a photo of a protest sign referencing their song “Not Ready to Make Nice.” (The group penned the ballad after lead singer Natalie Maines was widely slammed for criticizing then-President George W. Bush during a concert.)

“We cannot stand by and watch democracy disintegrate,” the band wrote. “Human decency isn’t Republican or Democrat. It’s American.”

Jonathan Van Ness

The “Queer Eye” star in a Saturday post on Threads wrote, “They charged tax payers $85 BILLION for ice to terrorize America. Tear gassing, beating, detaining innocent protestors / people, and they just killed another human being.”

Kristen Schaal

In an X post thanking fans for birthday well wishes, the comedian and “Bob’s Burgers” voice actor wrote, “I will remember this birthday as the day that Alex Pretti was held down on the street by 6 ICE agents and murdered. Shot to death. After he was sprayed in the face.”

Schaal continued: “I will remember @realDonaldTrump & everyone who works for & worships him saying this didn’t happen.”

Matt Rogers

The “Las Culturistas” co-host in a Monday Instagram story called for the abolishment of ICE: “This is too much collective pain for us to handle. It must stop.”

“Stop the terror and violence now,” Rogers wrote.

Kate Berlant

Berlant, who has previously spoken against ICE action in her native L.A., in a Tuesday Instagram story encouraged her followers to boycott the federal agency’s corporate collaborators, including Amazon, Whole Foods and Palantir.

Walton Goggins

“The White Lotus” star shared several anti-ICE posts over the weekend, writing in one Instagram story, “Alex Pretti was murdered. Renee Good was MURDERED. This isn’t about what political party any of us are affiliated with. This is about Humanity… this is … wrong.”

Mandy Moore

The “This Is Us” actor reshared media coverage of the events in Minnesota, writing, “We have eyeballs. We’ve seen the video. They executed someone else. I’m not sure how this ends. This is terrifying territory.”

Others including Ariana Grande, Jennifer Aniston, Amanda Seyfried, Hilary Swank and Justin Theroux have reshared anti-ICE content and resources for protesters on social media.