Highlights from Aug. 14, 2025
- NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAPS: California Gov. Gavin Newsom called on state lawmakers to allow a November ballot measure to redraw congressional districts as Democrats seek ways to combat Republicans' mid-decade redistricting efforts in states like Texas.
- TEXAS HOUSE DEMOCRATS' DEMANDS: Meanwhile, the Texas state House Democratic Caucus set demands for Democratic lawmakers to return to the state, including ending the first special session of the Legislature aimed at passing redistricting efforts to benefit Republicans, and for California to introduce redistricting maps to counter Texas.
- ICE COOPERATION: In a significant shift, Washington, D.C., police will begin sharing information about undocumented immigrants they encounter during traffic stops with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The move will allow immigrants who have not been charged with crimes to be reported to ICE for possible arrest and deportation.
- TRUMP-PUTIN SUMMIT: Russian President Vladimir Putin said ahead of tomorrow's summit with President Donald Trump that the U.S. efforts to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine have been "quite energetic and sincere." Trump later said he thinks Putin wants to make a deal.
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'Give me a viable option,' woman says of encampment cleanup
As law enforcement officials posted cleanup notices at an encampment in Washington Circle Park tonight, a woman who lives in one of the tents said she was there because she and her boyfriend can’t afford rent.
“I’m not insane, so I don’t need to be in a hospital,” Meghann Abraham said. “I’m not a criminal, so I don’t need to go to prison. And this is my home, so I’m not leaving the city.”
“Give me a viable option,” she said.
If the officers tell her to leave, she said, she’ll pack up and go peacefully. But she pleaded with people not to view her and others living in encampments as “disgusting” or as charity cases.
“We’re just people,” she said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi appoints DEA administrator as ‘emergency’ D.C. police chief
Attorney General Pam Bondi further cemented the Trump administration’s takeover of D.C. law enforcement today by shifting decision-making authority from its police chief and handing it to Drug Enforcement Administration head Terry Cole.
In an interview on Fox News, Bondi previewed an order by the Justice Department naming Cole as “emergency” commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Department, days after Trump directed the federal government to take control of the local police and deployed the National Guard in an effort to mitigate crime in the nation’s capital.
“Effective immediately, Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terrence C. Cole shall serve as MPD’s Emergency Police Commissioner for the duration of the emergency declared by the President. Commissioner Cole shall assume all of the powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police,” the order from the attorney general’s office read.
Woman pleads guilty to assault for spitting on top D.C. prosecutor during interview
A woman who spit on the top federal prosecutor for D.C. during a videotaped interview pleaded guilty today to assault charges.
Emily Gabriella Sommer, 32, of Washington, D.C., is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 10 for assaulting then-acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin Jr. and two law enforcement officers who arrested her several days after she spit on Martin. Sommer pleaded guilty to three counts of assaulting public officials, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office.
A trial for Sommer had been scheduled to start next Monday. Instead, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb accepted Sommer’s guilty plea and will sentence her.
Zohran Mamdani confirms he got a call from Obama after Democratic primary
New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani confirmed at an event this afternoon that he received a call from former President Barack Obama after he won the Democratic primary.
"It was a call that I was honored to receive," Mamdani said, adding that the conversation was "focused on the campaign that we ran, the importance of hope in our politics and the ways in which we govern to deliver on that."
Mamdani was responding to a reporter's question at his Five Boroughs Against Trump tour in the Bronx today about the call, which The New York Times first reported.
"The lessons of that conversation are ones that I hold close to me, as we continue to build this campaign to win the general election," he said.
Mamdani was also asked whether Obama offered advice about handling xenophobia as he faces anti-Muslim sentiment, attacks related to his background and calls to strip him of U.S. citizenship. He was born in Uganda and moved to the United States with his parents as a child.
"We spoke about the importance, in a moment such as this, where politics is often characterized by a language of darkness, the necessity of hope, and how we speak and how we orient ourselves to the world," Mamdani said.
"I’m lucky to have the example of the president in understanding the ways in which we confront these challenges," he added.
Democratic senator says Putin has played Trump like a 'fiddle' ahead of Alaska meeting
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told NBC News that while he supports Trump's efforts to further dialogue with Putin amid efforts to end the war in Ukraine, he is concerned that Putin has been playing Trump like a "fiddle."
"I’m always in favor of talking, and we’d all like to see peace, but I’m very worried because, from day one, while Donald Trump said he was going to end the war in Ukraine, he has been played like a fiddle by Vladimir Putin," Van Hollen said.
"All Putin sees is Trump’s weakness, and so I’m very worried that he will throw our allies and the people of Ukraine under the bus, which is what he’s done from day one," he added.
Van Hollen spoke to NBC News after a town hall at Chesapeake College in Wye Mills, Maryland, where he tackled a variety of topics, from efforts across the country to redraw congressional districts before the 2026 midterms to Trump's deployment of the National Guard in Washington D.C., an act Van Hollen called a "gross abuse of power."
The event lacked the fireworks both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have faced at other town halls across the country.
'You gotta root for him': Alaskans share thoughts on upcoming Trump-Putin summit
Several Alaska residents told NBC News today that they generally support Trump's decision to meet with Putin in Alaska tomorrow as Trump seeks to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting will be their first in-person sit-down in more than six years.
"I am not a Trump supporter. I’m not a Trump voter, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not rooting to see the death stop," said Tim Petumenos, of Anchorage. "If he can facilitate it, you gotta root for him."
Other Alaskans said Trump has touted his relationship with Putin in the past and may be positioned to extract concessions.
"He seems to converse and talk to Putin pretty frequently," said Richelle Johnson, who was born and raised in Alaska. "Seems like he has a pretty decent expectation of the relationship that they have, leader to leader."
The summit, a resident suggested, holds higher stakes for Alaskans, who are geographically closer to Russia than any other American state.
"I think Sarah Palin kind of said it best: You can see it from your yard or whatever she said," said Tali Birch, an Anchorage-based attorney. "It’s not necessarily true, but definitely we’re, you know, we’re closer to Russia than we are to the lower 48."
More than 800 National Guard personnel have been activated to assist in D.C. crime prevention
A defense official told reporters today that more than 800 personnel have been activated as part of the effort Trump has framed as a crackdown on crime in Washington, D.C., including about 680 members of the Army National Guard and 130 members of the Air National Guard.
There are no plans to bring on additional resources, the official said, adding that the National Guard’s key role is to help reduce crime and ensure safety of D.C. residents and visitors by assisting local and federal law enforcement with community safety patrols, traffic control points and crowd flow.
The official said that National Guard soldiers will be deployed across D.C., including downtown and in residential, and commercial areas, and that missions so far have included patrols on the National Mall and Union Station.
Soldiers have been directed to follow D.C. National Guard rules about the use of force, and guard members are not armed, the official said, adding that they “always retain the inherent right to self-defense when faced with hostile act or demonstrated hostile intent.”
“Military members may also take actions to provide for the defense of others, as well as the defense of property, using the minimum necessary force,” the official added.
Secret Service makes arrest in front of White House this afternoon
The Secret Service said today that officers arrested a person in front of the White House at Lafayette Square on suspicion of simple assault and resisting arrest.
Officers detained the person, who was not identified publicly, in connection with "harassing a water vendor" outside the White House at about 3:15 p.m., the agency said in a statement.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said 45 of the arrests overnight in Washington had been for assault.
Obama, Holder speak with Texas Democrats who fled the state over redistricting
Former President Barack Obama and his former attorney general, Eric Holder, thanked Texas Democratic lawmakers who left their state to block Republicans' redistricting efforts during a virtual briefing today, two sources familiar with the call said.
“It was a congratulatory moment for their work nationalizing a debate in this country around stealing congressional seats,” one of the sources said.
A lawmaker on the call said of Obama’s message to the group, “One of the great things that he did was contextualize what Texas Democrats have done, both historically and in the current moment.”
That was, according to the lawmaker, rejecting what Republicans were trying to pass off as a norm and “calling it what it is, an assault on democracy.”
"It was a huge deal," state Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said. "Some members were in tears. It reminded us what leaders are supposed to sound like."
