Obama, Biden and Clinton speak at funeral for Jesse Jackson; Trump says Cuba 'is going to fall pretty soon'

Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., announced today that he will seek re-election this year as an independent and drop his affiliation with the GOP at the end of his current term.

A spokesperson for Kiley told NBC News that the two-term congressman will go independent if voters send him back to Washington in November.

Kiley has recently bucked his party by voting with Democrats to terminate Trump’s tariffs on Canada. He has also been an outspoken critic of the redistricting effort in California, which drew him out of his current district.

“It is no secret I’ve been frustrated, at times disgusted, by the hyper-partisanship in Congress,” Kiley said in a statement tonight.

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Former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who was the first woman to serve as president of the Hawaii State Senate, has died. She was 74.

Hanabusa died early today after a five-month battle with cancer, said Mike Formby, her friend and former chief of staff in the U.S. House.

In announcing her death today, Gov. Josh Green ordered the U.S. and Hawaii flags to be flown at half-staff until sunrise Monday.

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The Florida Bar said today it is not investigating former Justice Department attorney Lindsey Halligan, walking back an earlier statement saying a probe was underway.

In early February, a Florida Bar official responded to a request for a probe into the Trump loyalist over her time in the administration by writing, “We already have an investigation pending.”

A day after NBC News and other outlets reported on the letter yesterday, the Florida Bar said that while there is a “monitoring file,” there is no investigation into Halligan.

“In response to an inquiry from a complainant, The Florida Bar wrote a letter to the complainant erroneously stating that there is a pending Bar investigation of member Lindsey Halligan,” a Florida Bar spokeswoman said in a statement today. “There is no such pending Bar investigation of Lindsay Halligan.”

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Trump said he'll sign an executive order within the week to kick-start new regulations for college student-athletes, in order to sidestep expected pushback from Democrats in Congress on the SCORE Act.

The SCORE Act, which was introduced in the House in July, would pave the way for the NCAA to cap the amount of money that colleges and universities could spend on Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals. It also outlines new rules for student-athletes to transfer schools.

At a roundtable event with lawmakers, coaches and industry leaders, Trump said he would sign an executive order "based on great common sense, and it's going to let colleges survive and players survive, and let a lot of people be very, very happy."

Democratic senators are probing the three businesses that received a $220 million ad contract featuring outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, asking whether Noem, her senior adviser Corey Lewandowski or any other DHS employee financially benefited from the agreements, according to letters obtained by NBC News.

Sens. Peter Welch and Richard Blumenthal, who is the ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent letters on Friday to Safe America Media, People Who Think, and the Strategy Group, a subcontractor associated with the agreement. The Strategy Group is run by Ben Yoho, the husband of former DHS press secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

In their letters, the senators say that Safe America Media “signed a no-bid contract worth $143 million” and that The Strategy Group was subcontracted as a part of that agreement. In their letter, the lawmakers say People Who Think was awarded a $77 million no-bid contract.

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Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., started his remarks at his father's funeral by stating that Martin Luther King Jr. was not a popular figure at the time of his death and likened people's perception change of King to his father.

Jackson, who is also running again in his former district, said his father would have advocated against the war in Gaza and fought challenges to the Voting Rights and Affordable Care Acts.

Jackson talked about the late Howard Thurman, a civil rights leader and author who wrote about his father in his autobiography saying he restored Thurman's "broken dream."

On a gray, rainy Friday morning, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore arrived in Chicago to pay respects to a longtime hero.

Moore, the first Black governor of Maryland and widely seen as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, was among the scores of high-profile dignitaries who streamed into the House of Hope in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood to honor the life of Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro spoke out about the state of the world at Jackson's funeral, comparing the present moment to 1933, the year Hitler rose to power.

Petro, who said he'd met Jackson briefly when he gave him an award, praised the importance of diversity, and said those opposed to diversity are fascists.

"At this time we do face a challenge," he said through a translator.

"Sometimes when I get up in the morning I feel like we're going through what it was like in Europe in 1933. I'm surprised about the news," Petro continued, before mentioning the U.S. attack on Venezuela in January that resulted in the arrest of the country's president.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage at Jackson's funeral, taking a dig at the Trump administration as she began her remarks.

"You know, so let me just say I predicted a lot about what's happening right now," Harris said. "I'm not into saying I told you so, but we did see it coming."

Harris said that what she "did not predict is that we would not have Jesse Jackson with us right now to help us get through this."

Clinton recalls Rev. Jesse Jackson's support for him and his family

16:39

The former president said Jackson was "my friend when I needed him" — and recounted his kindness during his impeachment proceedings in the late 1990s.

He said Jackson called him up one night when "Congress was trying to run me out and I was in that big impeachment fight." He told Clinton, "I don't want to talk to you. I want to talk to Chelsea," he said, referring to the president's daughter.

"He wanted to make sure she had her head in the game" and "prayed with her on the phone," Clinton said. "He didn't know if I was going to be president in six months," he said, but reached out to be kind.

"Those are things you remember," Clinton said.

Former President Bill Clinton reminisced on his memories with Jackson, saying at his funeral that Jackson made him "a better president."

"We did not always agree, but I'll tell you one thing, he made me a better president," Clinton said. "He knew that change came from the outside in and sometimes from the inside out, so he knew how to keep pushing and nagging and wearing you out."

Clinton praised Jackson for his commitment to policy, saying "he always had an agenda."

"Everybody knows how eloquent he was, and everybody knows that he could talk an owl out of a tree, but he actually was interested in policy and specifics," the former president said.

Rev. Al Sharpton remembered Jackson as a man of action — and said he would have given attendees at the service an "assignment."

Sharpton, who has described Jackson as his mentor, said "we're sitting on the brink of some of the most serious Reconstruction behavior being rescinded that we've seen in modern times."

While they’re mourning today, Sharpton said, “people at the same time are killing illegal immigrants, people at the same time are cutting public funding, at the same time, the Affordable Care Act is not being renewed and cities have to deal with premiums."

"Don’t sit here so holy and sanctified and act like you have no assignment yourself. Jesse and Jacqueline Jackson did things," and attendees should as well, Sharpton said, adding people shouldn't "leave here having mourned and mock what Jackson was all about."

Biden: Rev. Jackson 'used his gifts to influence generations'

19:37

Former President Joe Biden spoke of Jackson's generational impact in remarks at his funeral, saying the reverend "believed in his bones in the promise of America."

"He used his gifts to influence generations, generations of Americans and countless elected officials, including presidents, as you see here today," Biden said. "And through his impassioned words on the campaign trail and through moments of quiet courage, he changed history in ways."

The former president commended Jackson's belief that "everybody deserved to be treated equally throughout their lives." Biden then critiqued the Trump administration, saying, "Now we're in a tough spot, folks."

Obama: Rev. Jesse Jackson 'inspires us to take a harder path'

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Obama ripped into the Trump administration during his remarks, saying, "we are living in a time that’s hard to hope."

"Every day you wake up to things you just didn't think were possible," he said.

"Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions. Another setback to the idea of the rule of law. An offense to common decency," Obama said.

"Each day we’re told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other, and that some Americans count more than others, and that some don’t even count at all.

During his remarks, the former president remembered being a young man during Jackson's first presidential campaign and watching the civil rights leader participate in a debate on TV.

"Jesse hadn't just held his own. He had owned that stage. He wasn't an intruder. He wasn't a pretender. He belonged on that stage and the message he sent to a 22-year-old child of a single mother with a funny name, an outsider, was that maybe there wasn't any place, any room, where we didn't belong," Obama told mourners in Chicago.

The former president added, "Jesse didn't just speak to Black folks. He spoke to white folks and Latinos and Asian Americans and the first Americans, he spoke to family farmers and environmentalists. He spoke to gay rights activists when nobody was talking to gay rights activists and blue collar workers, and he gave them the same message: that they mattered, that their voices and their votes counted."

Former President Barack Obama speaks at a public memorial service to celebrate Jesse Jackson today. Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP - Getty Images

Former President Barack Obama is honoring Jackson at his funeral. He was greeted with cheers from attendees before speaking from the book of Isaiah.

"It is an honor to join you today to celebrate the Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, a man who when the poor and the dispossessed needed a champion and a country needed healing, stepped forward again, and again and again," Obama said.

Pritzker, speaking at Jackson's funeral, told attendees, "Reverend Jackson belonged to Chicago and Chicago belonged to him. He was ours, and we were his."

The governor thanked Jackson's family for sharing him with the world.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have arrived at Jesse Jackson's funeral and are expected to deliver remarks.

The public service is taking place at the House of Hope church in Chicago. Several other Democratic leaders were also in attendance, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former first lady Jill Biden and former President Joe Biden attend today's service. Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP - Getty Images

The president fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem yesterday, making her the first Cabinet member to be removed in Trump’s second term. An administration official told NBC News the move was due to a culmination of Noem’s “many unfortunate leadership failures,” most recently a grilling on Capitol Hill over a $220 million border security ad campaign that featured her prominently. NBC’s Garrett Haake reports and "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker joins "ToDAY" with analysis.

What led to Trump firing Kristi Noem?

04:29

Anthropic said the Defense Department has designated it a threat to national security, a striking move that bans it from doing business with the U.S. military and could send shock waves through America’s AI industry.

The designation, which the company said it received yesterday and specifically labels Anthropic a “supply-chain risk to national security,” requires the Pentagon and its contractors to stop using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence services for all defense business.

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In a phone interview with CNN today, the president, unprompted, said, "Cuba is going to fall pretty soon, by the way — unrelated, but Cuba is going to fall. They want to make a deal so badly."

CNN's Dana Bash, who spoke with the president, reported that she then asked how Cuba will fall, and he responded: “They want to make a deal. So I’m going to put Marco over there, and we’ll see how that works."

Trump added that the administration is "really focused" on Iran, she said.

This is the second day in a row that the president has mentioned Cuba, telling Politico yesterday that the administration is actively talking to Cuban leaders amid instability on the island following the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January.

During an event at the White House yesterday, Trump also said it would be “just a question of time” before Americans can visit Cuba again. He also repeatedly suggested that Cuba would be the next focus of the administration.

Oregon and 23 other states are suing the Trump administration in the first legal challenge against the 10% global tariff the president imposed in an effort to replace previous tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court.

The 10% global tariff, which took effect Feb. 24 under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, can remain in effect for 150 days without congressional authorization.

“The president has once again exercised tariff authority that he does not have— involving a statute that does not authorize the tariffs he has imposed — to upend the constitutional order and bring chaos to the global economy,” the states write in the lawsuit.

The White House said it would “vigorously defend” the tariffs in court. “The president is using his authority granted by Congress to address fundamental international payments problems and to deal with our country’s large and serious balance-of-payments deficits,” spokesperson Kush Desai said.

The president last night praised Sen. John Cornyn as an “underrated person,” telling NBC News that he was impressed by the incumbent senator’s performance in Tuesday’s primary after polls has consistently showed him trailing challenger Ken Paxton, who is Texas' attorney general.

“He was supposed to lose by 10 points and he won,” Trump said. “He’s a good man.”

That was as close to tipping his hand on his pending endorsement in the Cornyn-Paxton runoff as the president would get during a 10-minute phone call. The president has said he will reveal his endorsement in the race soon, and whichever candidate doesn't get it should drop out of the race. 

The president expressed no concern about the Democratic nominee in Texas, State Rep. James Talarico, carrying the Lone Star State. 

“He’s a radical left lunatic. He’s worse than Crockett,” Trump said, referring to Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who lost to Talarico in Tuesday's primary. Trump noted newly surfaced videos of Talarico discussing multiple genders, which the president considered disqualifying in Texas. 

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden are scheduled to speak at the funeral for civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, which is taking place later this morning in Chicago.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also plan to speak and honor Jackson, who died last month at the age of 84.

The president indicated yesterday that he wants to see Iran’s leadership structure fully removed and that he has some names in mind for a “good leader.”

“We want to go in and clean out everything,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period."

Read the full story here.

Trump wants to be involved in selecting Iran's next leader

02:10

Kristi Noem may be out at the top of the Department of Homeland Security, but Democrats are still demanding a “reckoning.”

Democrats met news of Noem’s ouster yesterday with a cascade of calls for accountability. They ranged from a potential probe into the legality of contracts cut during her tenure to a perjury investigation after her congressional testimony to even a push for impeachment to keep her from holding public office in the future.

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Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, announced last night that he will drop his bid for re-election but will serve out the rest of his term in Congress following a tumultuous set of weeks for the congressman, who admitted having had an affair with an aide who later died by suicide.

"After deep reflection and with the support of my loving family, I have decided not to seek re-election while serving out the rest of this Congress with the same commitment I’ve always had to my district,” Gonzales said in statement on X.

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The Justice Department yesterday released previously unseen documents from the Epstein files that included new summaries and notes from interviews the FBI conducted with a woman from South Carolina who made allegations against the late sex offender and Trump, according to an NBC News analysis.

In a series of 2019 interviews with the FBI, the woman said she was a sexual assault victim of Jeffrey Epstein. She also alleged that she was assaulted by Trump in the 1980s when she was between the ages of 13 and 15.

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DOJ Releases Missing Epstein Files Related to Trump Accuser

00:45

The president suggested last night that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s ouster was less about her job performance and more about elevating Sen. Markwayne Mullin to the Cabinet post.

In his first public comments since he fired Noem, Trump was complimentary of her year-plus tenure, while he also praised Mullin, R-Okla.

“She’s a fine person. She did a good job. I’m a big fan of the senator from Oklahoma. It wasn’t a hard choice,” Trump said in a phone call with NBC News.

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