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What’s happening at Big Bend? The fight to protect one of America’s last wild places

2026-08-20T12:52:00-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/big-bend-national-park-border-wall-fight/

Alpine, Texas— Months after Congress approved billions for infrastructure across one of the least-trafficked stretches of the southern border, bulldozers arrived at Big Bend National Park, West Texas’s wild crown jewel.

What followed was an unlikely revolt against President Trump’s decade-old promise to build a wall. Cattle ranchers, environmentalists, sheriffs, Republican senators and country singers united around a distinctly Texas argument: Secure the border, but don’t tread on us.

Images of bulldozers scraping through the 801,163-acre expanse of Big Bend National Park — a preserve larger than the state of Rhode Island — erupted across social media, turning a construction project in one of America’s most remote landscapes into a political flashpoint.

The pictures left residents and visitors in disarray. They showed heavy machinery driving through scenery defined by an absence of infrastructure, a place boasting thousand-foot cliffs, empty desert and communities so isolated that some residents drive over an hour for groceries or to see a doctor.

More than half a million people visit Big Bend every year. The park hugs 118 winding miles of the Rio Grande, nearly a quarter of the international boundary patrolled by Customs and Border Protection in the much larger Big Bend Sector. The sector itself marks 517 miles along the river — from far West Texas east toward the Del Rio region — and its immense area of responsibility stretches across 77 Texas counties.

Big Bend National Park Nicole Sganga / CBS News

Still, CBP recorded just 3,096 apprehensions in the sector last year — about 1.3% of all Southwest border arrests. The agency reported migrant crossings there plummeted 74% from 2023 to 2025.

With total border security awards across the Big Bend Sector amounting to $7.5 billion, roughly $14.5 million in contracts have been granted for every mile of border in the sector, though the money is not distributed evenly by the mile.

On Monday, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott announced that construction inside Big Bend National Park would be paused while he flew to West Texas for what he called a personal, on-the-ground evaluation and meetings with sheriffs, county officials and residents. He did not cancel the project, and he did not say how long the pause would last.

What Scott encountered was a fight that had become personal in the most literal sense. In West Texas, CBP’s maps run through ranches, water sources, family histories and a deeply rooted belief that land is not something you own — it is something you inherit, work, defend and pass on.

By the time Scott arrived, the argument was no longer simply about how to secure the border. It was about who gets to decide what security should cost — and what Texas will have to surrender in its name.

The failed $1 billion wall

Yolanda Alvarado was too young to understand its full impact when the steel barrier first went up on her aunt’s property near Fort Quitman in far West Texas, part of the border fencing built during the George W. Bush administration.

She remembers the crews descending on the ranch, and then, she remembers the rain.

“This wall is George Bush’s failed billion-dollar wall,” Alvarado told CBS News, while standing near the old barrier. “It took one rain for everything in this entire land, thousands of acres, to get flooded.”

Yolanda Alvarado Nicole Sganga / CBS News

When water arrives in the deserts of West Texas, Alvarado explained, storms that collect over the mountains empty into arroyos, turning chalky washes into brown, gushing rivers that destroy whatever ranchers have placed in its path.

“Water behaves differently out here,” Alvarado said. “It’s arid terrain. Water doesn’t immediately soak in the ground, so it just runs. It’ll pull giant plants, trees, cars, vehicles.”

She recalls debris piling against the fence, while water engulfed nearby fields. “All these fields were underwater for almost 15 years,” she said, gesturing.

Now 38, Alvarado is a fifth-generation cattle rancher who finds the border wall has knocked on her family’s doorstep again.

“It’s the desert. It’s wild and beautiful and extremely vast.”

But Alvarado disputes that her home’s property is unsafe or vulnerable to mass migration, noting that she feeds cattle alone in fields where her great-grandfather planted crops.

“I sleep on the border alone,” she said. “I take my kids out there. We swim in the Rio Grande. I take friends and family there and we celebrate… I work alone all day long, just me, sometimes unarmed, but I don’t feel unsafe at all.”

Questions about what is $7.5 billion going to make safer

In February, the Department of Homeland Security formally declared the Big Bend Sector an “area of high illegal entry.” To support that designation, DHS pointed to more than 89,000 apprehensions across the entire sector over five years, from fiscal 2021 through 2025, along with a wave of drug seizures. The declaration provided there was an acute need for additional barriers and roads, waiving a list of environmental, historic-preservation laws to accelerate the construction timeline.

Still, contemporary numbers tell a different story, with available CBP figures showing only a handful of apprehensions a day across the entire 517-mile sector.

CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott has repeatedly stated that the administration cannot leave Big Bend as an opening for cartels to exploit as walls and enforcement make other portions of the border harder to skirt by.

This logic is common along the border: Harden one route, the smugglers will find another.

But administration officials have fallen short of offering more concrete evidence that the Big Bend sector, with its desolate and torturous terrain, might eventually experience the kinds of mass crossings seen elsewhere along the border, under the Biden administration.

Even within the sparse and widely untouched sector, CBP is not beginning from zero. By late 2025, the agency said it had deployed 55 autonomous surveillance towers and other detection technology across its Big Bend Sector.

Very few amid the growing opposition — including the law-enforcement officials who have spent careers patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border — argue that the boundary should be left unguarded.

Thaddeus Cleveland may be the clearest example yet.

The Republican sheriff of Terrell County spent 26 years in the U.S. Border Patrol and counts Rodney Scott as a personal friend. He believes physical barriers work in some places and supports vehicle barriers, namely where vehicles can actually drive across the Rio Grande. And when Scott flew to West Texas this week to reconsider the project, Cleveland sat across the table from him.

But Cleveland’s prescription is different: better technology, more agents, better access where agents actually need it and barriers only where the geography warrants them.

“We have what I like to call the God-made barrier,” Cleveland said.

If you travel east through Big Bend, the river begins to disappear beneath cliffs rising hundreds of feet above it. Roads thin out. Settlements vanish. Some cliffs climb up 500 feet, while others surpass 1,000.

“If they’re willing to cross that — and they do — then a 30-foot barrier on top of a thousand-foot cliff is not going to stop them,” he said, referencing the number of migrants that brave wild expanses to cross into the United States.

Terrell County is Texas’s tenth-largest county by land area, Cleveland said, but has only around 700 residents. Local revenue can afford just him and two deputies. State border-security funding helps him employ more. The $7.5 billion budgeted for that section of the wall equals roughly 2,800 years of Terrell County’s current annual budget. Asked what he would do if someone handed him that money to improve security for families he represents, Cleveland does not reference steel.

“First and foremost, more boots on the ground,” he said. “No matter how much infrastructure, whether it’s a wall, a barrier, no matter how much road work you do, no matter how much technology you put in, if you don’t have a man or a woman that can go out there and make that arrest, then you’re just wasting your money.”

He stops and thinks for a bit about what serious money can buy, then shakes his head. “We don’t have a doctor,” Cleveland offers of his county of 700 people. “We don’t have a grocery store. We drive an hour, 64 miles to get our groceries.”

“Don’t bulldoze my church”

For months, people who live here among the desert and ranches surrounding Big Bend National Park have struggled to understand what Washington was actually trying to build.

Early federal maps suggested a far more imposing physical wall across portions of the region. Plans shifted, with CBP eventually conceding there would be no 30-foot bollard wall through Big Bend National Park, but there would still be construction: more than 200 paved and repaved patrol roads, detection technology and roughly 17 miles of four to six-foot vehicle barriers. One federal contract tied to the work inside the park came to roughly $1.7 billion. Then, in August, residents began spotting the machines.

Bulldozers rolled just miles away from Santa Elena Canyon, a behemoth limestone cleft where the Rio Grande flows between cliffs that grow from the desert floor. Crews began clearing earth and vegetation for future patrol roads, what CBP called “survey and design work.”

As the machinery arrived, people who disagreed about nearly everything else began nodding their heads in agreement. Environmentalists joined ranchers. Tourism operators joined sheriffs. More than 40 Texas state lawmakers from both parties urged Gov. Greg Abbott to intervene.

Big Bend protest Nicole Sganga / CBS News

Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the GOP primary this year and will not be on the ballot in November, warned the Department of Homeland Security that his constituents believed the region’s 1,000-foot cliffs and remote terrain already provided a form of border deterrence and asked federal officials to take local concerns seriously.

In an Instagram post, country singer Charley Crockett distilled the argument to a few words: “Don’t bulldoze my church. Free Big Bend.”

And then Abbott himself weighed in on the construction inside the national park.

“Every conversation that I had was that they would not be building any wall, any fence, any barrier like that,” Abbott told CBS News on Wednesday. “They had other tools and strategies where they could secure that portion of the border without erecting those types of barriers.”

Pressed on whether that meant no barriers whatsoever inside park land, Abbott repeated the commitment: “They would not be building any wall, any fence, any barrier like that.”

For a governor who has personally advocated for more walls along the southern border, the pushback was notable. But Abbott’s assurance cut against what CBP had publicly described only days earlier. Scott had ruled out a 30-foot wall, but said the agency still intended to build roads, install detection technology and place vehicle barriers in “limited, strategic locations.”

For Alvarado, confusion began months earlier. Around December, she said, contractors began searching near her property for staging areas and contacting residents about their land. By February, her family had received paperwork seeking permission to enter.

Across the broader Big Bend region, Alvarado — who works with the grassroots No Big Bend Wall coalition — says hundreds of property owners have faced requests for access or the possibility that the government could seek their land for border construction. Ranchers began whispering about eminent domain, turning a debate over federal policy into something deeply personal.

A line of wall on a federal planning map can look clean and precise. On a ranch, it can mean cattle on one side and water on the other.

“This is about sovereignty. This is about protecting our land,” Alvarado said. “There’s nothing more Texan than that.”

In Cleveland’s telling, there’s a distinctly Texan absurdity to seizing private land to build a barrier against people who might simply find a way around it.

“A lot of the American people have a false sense of security that a fence or a wall is going to stop everybody,” Cleveland said. “It’s not. There’s still a way over it, under it, or through it, and they’ll find that way.”

“What works in San Diego, what works in the Rio Grande Valley or Arizona, is not going to work here in Big Bend,” he continued. “The border is not a one-size-fits-all.”

Sherrill escalates Trump fight over voter fiasco day after Mullin praises NJ cooperation

August 20, 2026 1:04pm EDT / Fox News

About 5,100 registrations were deleted after a motor voter software error improperly added noncitizens to rolls

By Charles Creitz Fox News

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New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill criticized the Trump administration Wednesday while releasing findings from her investigation into thousands of ineligible voters improperly registered in the state.

Sherrill’s critique came one day after DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin issued a statement thanking her for agreeing to cooperate with his agency on the matter — an assertion a Democratic source disputed.

Sherrill has faced criticism since mid-July, when she revealed that thousands of noncitizens were found on voting rolls because of a “software error” in the way the state Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) registers voters, commonly called the “motor voter” process. Sherrill’s findings said about 5,100 registrations were placed in deleted status, while thousands of others remain under review.

“My administration has continued to move aggressively to fix the error at the Motor Vehicle Commission under the previous (Trenton) administration, to correct our voter rolls, and to protect the voting rights of eligible New Jerseyans,” Sherrill said Wednesday, adding that her probe is “what accountable government looks like.”

NEW JERSEY REMOVES 6,600 PEOPLE FROM VOTER ROLLS WHO WERE ELIGIBLE TO CAST A BALLOT FOR 2024 ELECTION

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin testifies at a House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., June 25, 2026.(REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon)

“That stands in contrast to the Trump Administration and Republicans, whose only interest has been in trying to use this issue for political gain,” Sherrill said.

Mullin said Tuesday that Sherrill had agreed to participate with DHS in “stopping aliens from illegally voting in your state,” citing correspondence from counsel for the state’s elections chief, Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell.

MORE THAN A QUARTER-MILLION NONCITIZENS MAY BE REGISTERED TO VOTE IN 4 KEY STATES, DHS ALLEGES

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill arrives on the stage during her inauguration ceremony in Newark, N.J., Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026.(Seth Wenig/AP Photo)

“Thank you, Governor Sherrill. We got news from your Secretary of State that New Jersey will participate with DHS in STOPPING aliens from illegally voting in your state,” Mullin tweeted.

“The 35,000 potential registered aliens [DHS] identified may only be the beginning. [I] look forward to helping NJ identify illegal voters and ensure election integrity.”

But a source familiar with the matter said they weren’t sure what Mullin was referencing and reiterated that there is no cooperation agreement between the Sherrill administration and DHS or the Trump administration.

The source said the only correspondence from Trenton to Washington was a response from Caldwell’s office to a letter from House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and fellow New Jerseyan Rep. Jeff Van Drew — and that Mullin may have been referring to it.

Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS DOJ ACCESS TO NJ VOTER ROLLS AMID STATEWIDE CONTROVERSY

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6403391241112

DMV voter registration weaknesses expose ‘raw material for election fraud,’ expert warns

When reached for comment, Sherrill spokesperson Darwin Pham said the governor “remains focused on safe and secure elections in New Jersey, in contrast to Trump and Republicans, who have consistently tried to use this issue for political gain.”

“We will continue working to fully remediate the issue left behind by the previous (Trenton) administration, and ensure the voting rights of every eligible New Jerseyan are protected.”

The White House dismissed Sherrill’s criticism, saying she and Democrats have denied for years that noncitizens are registering and voting in elections.

“It’s laughable for Governor Sherrill to criticize the Trump Administration on election integrity…” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said.

In her announcement, Sherrill said about 5,100 names in the voter registration system were “placed in deleted status” because they had no other eligibility “attestations” beyond their original registration, which the state said was erroneous.

Those names lacked further declarations of eligibility to vote. Sherrill previously said individuals who selected “no” in response to whether they were citizens were still added to the rolls.

DEMOCRAT NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR SAYS THOUSANDS OF NONCITIZENS DISCOVERED ON VOTER ROLLS, PURGED

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6402270365112

NJ senator says motor voter scandal may be ‘tip of the iceberg,’ calls for federal intervention

An additional 1,450 registrants had their status changed to “rejected” pending county officials’ review of their documentation before they can vote. Sherrill’s report said just under 400 people who were wrongfully registered cast ballots in recent elections.

“These individuals have been removed from New Jersey voter rolls because they were placed on the rolls in error,” Sherrill’s office said Wednesday.

Republicans, meanwhile, said Sherrill’s announcement raises more questions than answers about problems in the Garden State’s election system and how the state plans to address them.

“New Jerseyans deserve to know exactly what happened, how it happened, and whether there are other problems we have yet to uncover,” Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco, R-Boonton, told Fox News Digital.

“Restoring confidence in our elections will require complete transparency from the state, cooperation from all necessary parties, and a commitment to leaving no stone unturned.”

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Bucco said he has already proposed forming a bipartisan select committee with subpoena power that would also work with the federal government on the issue.

Senate Majority Leader Nicholas Scutari, D-Scotch Plains, previously told Fox News Digital the legislature will wait until Sherrill’s probe is complete before identifying “any necessary next steps.”

Bucco, however, said Sherrill’s announcement still leaves “many serious questions” about the veracity of her probe and what changes will be made to secure New Jersey elections.

“Like, why is the investigation limited, and how can anyone say with confidence that only 6,600 non-citizens were improperly registered? New Jerseyans deserve to know exactly what happened, how it happened, and whether there are other problems we have yet to uncover,” Bucco told Fox News Digital.

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Sherrill instructed county officials to continue reviewing names referred to them before early voting begins for the midterms.

Mullin’s office also identified four noncitizens it said illegally cast ballots in recent elections — an Israeli national, a Jamaican national, a Liberian national and an Indian national — and said each faces charges.

Scott Jennings emerges as early favorite to replace Karoline Leavitt but process is just beginning

2026-08-20T17:46:21.143Z / CNN

Scott Jennings has emerged as an early favorite for next White House press secretary, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN, though all stressed that the process is far from complete.

Chief of staff Susie Wiles recently met with Jennings, who is a CNN contributor, at Mastro’s Steakhouse in Washington, DC, at the request of the White House, two sources familiar with the meeting said, and multiple staffers believe he has her backing.

“He’s competent and good on TV,” one senior White House official said of why Wiles had shown interest in Jennings, a longtime adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell who also served in the George W. Bush administration.

CNN has reached out to Jennings.

The longtime GOP strategist is just one of a few candidates who has piqued the interest of the White House, and one source said Wiles plans to meet with several other potential contenders before making any decisions. With Karoline Leavitt’s departure at the end of the month and the midterms less than three months away, the White House is facing a critical vacancy — but officials have stressed they’re not rushing the process.

And another White House official pushed back on the idea that Wiles is backing anyone at this point, saying the chief of staff will take her time to find the right fit.

Wiles is looking for a “grown up” who understands how the job works and can maintain a level of professionalism as the face of the administration, two sources said, with that the candidate likely to be external.

President Donald Trump has also told his team he is happy to take his time weighing his options, and isn’t in a rush to make a decision, officials said. He’s weighing relying again on a rotating cast of Cabinet officials to handle press briefings for an indefinite period, CNN previously reported.

Still, chatter about Jennings has grown in recent days.

Asked by CNN’s Abby Phillip if he was interviewing for the job, Jennings demurred on Wednesday.

“I don’t have any comment about that,” he said on “NewsNight,” while appearing to use the opportunity to show he understands the importance of the role.

“I think every president deserves a good, solid defense and someone who can go out there and explain what they’re doing, because the government’s doing so much,” Jennings said. “The American people deserve somebody to go out there and tell them what’s going on with their president and with the government as much as they can. That that job is the conduit to transparency in front of the camera and also behind the scenes, and that’s an important part.”

Jennings refused to say if he had been in communication with the White House about the job specifically or if he would take the job if offered. One source insisted that he is not gunning for the job, pointing to the fact that the political operative lives in Kentucky with his four school-aged children.

A big part of the ongoing conversations over who should replace Leavitt is finding someone who can work closely with reporters behind the scenes, in addition to being an attack dog for Trump behind the podium.

Leavitt is part of a small group of advisers whom the president trusts and listens to, and the team would like her replacement to be similarly positioned. Leavitt, for example, regularly weighs in during private meetings with Trump, including on issues outside the scope of communications.

And some officials have raised concerns that selecting a person like Jennings, whom Trump has said “looks the part” and handles himself well on television, may serve primarily as a public face for messaging.

“Can he do all the closed door legwork that has made Karoline so effective? No one knows,” one Trump adviser told CNN.

Meanwhile, there’s growing concern among White House staffers over the imminent departure of Leavitt, who announced last week that she’d be leaving the job at the of the month to spend more time with her young family.

“She’s thoughtful, she’s not impulsive, she actually understands the job. Some outside person doesn’t understand the way it works,” one White House official said. “It feels like her and Susie (Wiles) are the only people holding this place together sometimes.”

At least one name often speculated to be vying for the press secretary job removed herself from the running this week. Alina Habba, a former lawyer and political adviser to Trump who briefly served as acting US attorney for the District of New Jersey, said Wednesday that she’s not seeking the position.

“Flattered by the Kalshi odds, but I’m not in the running for any job,” Habba posted on X.

At the same time, another name has entered the mix. Following the media firestorm around Natalie Harp, the president has joked to advisers that maybe he would tap his executive assistant for the role, according to one source.

New U.S. sanctions target cocaine smuggling network in Ecuador

August 20, 2026 / 2:25 PM EDT / CBS News

By Richard Escobedo

Washington — The U.S. on Thursday imposed fresh sanctions on 15 individuals and entities based in Ecuador, along with 10 vessels, for their roles in an alleged maritime cocaine trafficking operation.

According to the Treasury Department, the network — tied to Ecuadorian groups Los Choneros and Los Lobos, both designated by the U.S. as foreign terrorist organizations — used a fleet of seemingly legitimate fishing vessels operating out of Manta, Ecuador, to move thousands of kilograms of cocaine each month.

The department said the network supplies Mexican cartels with cocaine that is then sold in the U.S.

The vessels allegedly refueled and resupplied smaller “go-fast” boats carrying the drugs north through the eastern Pacific Ocean toward Mexico, where cartels like the Sinaloa cartel and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación took over distribution to the U.S.

“Working alongside our law enforcement partners, we will continue to disrupt the cartels’ drug trafficking operations and protect our borders,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Among those sanctioned are members of the Mero family, who the Treasury Department said ran the fishing company Arcasdenoe S.A. and coordinated fuel, food and medical support for cocaine shipments. Several other Ecuadorian nationals accused of coordinating tens of tons of cocaine per month and controlling a half-dozen additional front companies were also named.

Ten vessels were identified as allegedly providing logistical cover, detection avoidance and, in one case, direct cocaine transport as part of the scheme.

The designations build on the State Department’s September 2025 terrorist designations of Los Choneros and Los Lobos, and on earlier actions by Treasury against those groups and CJNG.

Police and soldiers present 22 tons of drugs that were seized after an operation in Quevedo, Ecuador, on Jan. 22, 2024. DANIEL VITE/AFP via Getty Images

Officials tied the announcement to Operation Pacific Viper, a U.S. Coast Guard-led counternarcotics campaign launched in August 2025 that Treasury said has seized more than 225,000 pounds of cocaine in the eastern Pacific through June 2026.

Under the new sanctions, any U.S.-based assets belonging to the designated individuals and entities are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally barred from doing business with them. Treasury’s statement noted that violations can carry civil or criminal penalties, and that foreign financial institutions facilitating transactions for those sanctioned under one of the relevant executive orders could face secondary sanctions.

Treasury said the action reflects coordination among the Homeland Security Task Force, the DEA, U.S. Southern Command, Naval Intelligence and the Coast Guard, and is one of nearly 30 such actions targeting cartel networks since early 2025.

The State Department said the trafficking operations “generate billions of dollars annually for cartels responsible for a significant share of the deadly drugs flowing into our communities.”

“The United States will continue to use all our tools to dismantle the cartels profiting at the expense of American lives,” the department said.

Earlier this year, U.S. commandos participated in a joint mission with Ecuadorian troops aimed at dismantling a suspected criminal hub linked to Los Choneros.

In 2024, the U.S. deemed Los Lobos the largest drug trafficking ring in Ecuador and said the gang “contributes significantly to the violence gripping the country.”

Alaska was a trial run for Democrats’ Senate majority hopes. How did it go?

2026-08-20T16:42:56.080Z / CNN

The Alaska primary on Tuesday presented us with something unusual ahead of the 2026 midterm elections: An actual matchup between the two candidates who will face off in November in a key Senate race.

That’s because the state uses an all-party primary system and ranked-choice voting. Also, there were no other serious contenders.

The results should be pretty encouraging for Democrats.

With about 80% of votes counted, Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola leads Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, 48.1% to 42.7%. The rest of the vote was split up between also-ran candidates from both parties trying to make the general election by finishing in the top four.

And given most of the votes left to count are advance ballots, which Peltola has done well with so far, she could expand her advantage further, possibly approaching 50%.

So what we appear to have here is an incumbent senator losing pretty handily in the first round of voting.

That doesn’t mean Sullivan will lose in November, when the electorate will be different. But it’s pretty inauspicious for Republicans – and in a very important state for Democrats’ Senate majority math.

A few key points:

• It appears Democrats might have received a majority of votes in the primary. Currently, 49.8% voted for a Democrat, with the Republican vote share trailing a few points behind. (And again, that gap could widen with 1 in 5 votes still not counted.)
• It looks as though the other Dan Sullivan – the one Republicans fought to keep off the ballot by claiming he intended to steal votes from the GOP senator – will make the final four. He’s in third place at 2.4%.
• The other Dan Sullivan (who didn’t have a party affiliation on the ballot) also seemed to do better in Democratic-leaning precincts. That might suggest he actually got support from Democratic-leaning voters who wanted him to advance – but who will ultimately vote for Peltola rather than Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Primaries aren’t predictive, of course.

For example, Peltola actually got 51% in the 2024 primary for her House seat but still lost a close race in November.

But in other years, including the last midterm election in 2022, Democrats actually wound up having a higher share of voters on Election Day than they did in the primary. Four years ago, Republican votes outpaced Democratic ones in the state’s US House primary 61.1%-36.8%, but Peltola went on to win anyway.

Some of that was likely because her final opponent was the polarizing former GOP Gov. Sarah Palin. But the 2026 midterm electorate is looking like it will be more favorable to Democrats than the 2024 presidential electorate was, judging by higher enthusiasm on the Democratic side.

Turnout in the 2026 primary was also high, which suggests an electorate that will be closer to the general election electorate than 2024 was.

There will likely be around 160,000 votes in this year’s primary when they’re all counted. That amounts to about 60% of the votes cast in the last midterm election, in 2022. By contrast, the approximately 110,000 votes cast in the 2024 US House primary was only about 33% of the 330,000 ballots that were ultimately cast in the presidential election.

In other words, there’s likely to be less of a difference between November’s electorate and the one we saw Tuesday than there was two years ago, when Peltola lost ground in the general election.

And the final point is that Sullivan’s current sub-43% showing is just kind of underwhelming.

He is, after all, the incumbent – just like Peltola was in 2024. But more than 57% of voters turned out to vote for someone else.

He could recoup some of those votes thanks to the state’s ranked-choice system, if voters who supported other candidates in the primary at least rank him ahead of Peltola. But that’s low for an incumbent.

And the percentage of voters that voted for a candidate listed as a Republican in the Senate race – around 45.7% right now – is less than in the state’s US House primary (49%) and the gubernatorial primary (51%). That suggests Peltola picked off voters who were otherwise inclined towards Republicans.

There is still much to play out, including the counting of the remaining votes. And Democrats shouldn’t be celebrating just yet.

But a big reason these numbers are encouraging is that this is exactly the kind of state that will decide whether Democrats could win a Senate majority. The need to win at least two states that President Donald Trump carried by double-digits in 2024, with the likeliest candidates being Alaska, Iowa, Ohio and Texas.

So far, the polling has suggested that’s a possibility, with all four states looking pretty competitive. But you never know until the votes were actually cast.

Tuesday was basically a poll featuring actual votes being cast, and it went well for the blue side.

New details of plans for the Kennedy Center and White House ballroom include columns carved in Italy, plaza named for Trump

August 20, 2026 / 2:45 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — While President Trump fights in court over his remaking of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts and construction of the White House ballroom, plans for the two Washington institutions are moving ahead.

Now, the latest court filings in those cases are providing a window into the scope of work taking place at the White House on the site of the now-demolished East Room and Mr. Trump’s visions for the Kennedy Center.

At the White House, the ballroom project involves millions of pounds of steel and rebar, miles of conduit and a crew of more than 200 working nearly around the clock. And at the Kennedy Center, its board of trustees has advanced a plan to put Mr. Trump’s name back on the building following its court-ordered removal and to honor him in at least one other way.

The Kennedy Center

A status report filedWednesday with the U.S. district court in Washington provides a peek into changes to the performing arts center that its board of trustees agreed last week to undertake.

The board is stacked with Mr. Trump’s allies and administration officials, and chaired by the president himself. It voted last week to add Mr. Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center’s facade, a move that came two months after U.S. District Judge Chris Cooper ruled the board acted unlawfully when it put the president’s name on the building last year.

The Kennedy Center, the facade of which remains covered with a tarp, is seen in Washington, D.C., on June 28, 2026. Alex WROBLEWSKI /AFP via Getty Images

On the heels of that decision, construction crews removed the president’s name from the facade overnight on June 13. That area of the center’s front portico has been covered by a tarp since then, though, concealing most of its name.

But the board has again taken steps to put Mr. Trump’s name back on the front of the Kennedy Center. A resolution approved by the board last week calls for the inscription on the front of the building to read: “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”

It also requires recognition of the “president’s contribution” to the center when the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reaches $100 million. Once that happens, the resolution states that the inscription on the building will read: “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

The board-approved measure also requires the “physical site and grounds” of the Kennedy Center to be named “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”

The board has said it will not implement these changes until Sept. 8 at the earliest.

In the filing, submitted jointly by the Trump administration and lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who sued last year over the Kennedy Center overhaul, both sides also addressed the tarp in the front of the building.

The Justice Department said the “protective covering” and scaffolding were erected because of water testing and structural repairs to a roof overhang. One portion of that scaffolding was used to remove Mr. Trump’s name from the building, government lawyers said.

But they declined to say how long the tarp and scaffolding will remain in place, writing instead that its removal “is contingent upon the scope of any repairs required at present to the marble facade, as well as any other necessary repairs.”

They also indicated that the marble may have been damaged.

During removal of Mr. Trump’s name, the tarp “served as a safety barrier for ongoing construction activities and helped safeguard the marble facade of the building in light of reported panel damage,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.

Beatty’s legal team said in the filing that the congresswoman is concerned that the Trump administration may have damaged the marble that lines the center’s facade when it affixed Mr. Trump’s name to it.

White House ballroom

The White House ballroom has been a fixation of Mr. Trump’s for months. But a federal judge considering a legal challenge to the project, brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, issued a preliminary injunction in March that would halt construction of the ballroom. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has allowed below-ground work on national-security facilities to continue.

Construction of the White House ballroom Justice Department/Supreme Court filing

Work above and below-ground has continued, though, as a result of administrative stays — temporary orders — put in place by the district court and a federal appeals court in Washington.

But the Justice Department has now asked the Supreme Court to intervene and freeze the district court’s injunction after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled earlier this month that the White House cannot construct the ballroom without authorization from Congress.

If the high court does not act by Friday, the D.C. Circuit’s decision will take effect and construction of the ballroom must be halted.

As part of the Trump administration’s request for emergency relief, it submitted a declaration from Joshua Fisher, the director for White House Management and Administration who is overseeing the project, that sheds light on the volume of material being used for the project and the amount of work done already.

The site of the new White House ballroom. Justice Department/Supreme Court filing

The ballroom is being funded by private donors, and so far, $355 million of $400 million has been raised, according to Fisher. He said a 250-person crew is working 20 hours per day, seven days a week, and 65% of the project is done. Already installed are all below-grade structures, a grand staircase structure, a kitchen structure and a Colonnade movie theater structure, according to the declaration.

The building will be made of concrete and steel, and Fisher said it will be completed by November. The facade is set to be “substantially” finished by April, and the entire project is expected to be wrapped by August 2028, according to Fisher. By then, Mr. Trump will have five months left in his term.

The superstructure has been built up to roof-level, rising up to 70 feet in some places, and has a footprint of 50,000 square feet, Fisher said. The structural foundation, meanwhile, reaches 50 feet below ground.

He provided further details on three major components of the project: the concrete structure, the facades and mechanical, electrical and plumbing.

As to the concrete structure, 6.4 million pounds of rebar has been placed and 18,000 cubic yards of concrete has been poured. Fisher described the concrete as “the hardest and strongest concrete there is, the type used in nuclear power plants — it is impermeable, and virtually impossible to deconstruct.”

By Friday, when the district court’s injunction takes effect absent Supreme Court action, Fisher said the White House expects to install another 1 million pounds of rebar and pour another 3,000 cubic yards of concrete.

Three million pounds of steel has also been obtained and is being readied for installation, according to Fisher’s declaration.

A rendering of the White House ballroom Justice Department/Supreme Court filing

For the facades, the White House has acquired 1 million pounds of steel and 60,000 pounds of aluminum finishes. It has also quarried nearly all of the limestone required, Fisher said. Renderings provided to the Supreme Court show gold-plated presidential seals affixed to the outside of the building.

As to mechanical, electrical and plumbing work, the construction crew has installed five miles of conduit, obtained 1,700 linear feet of plumbing pipe and installed 500 linear feet of that piping.

By Friday, the White House expects to install another mile of conduit and to put in place another 200 linear feet of plumbing pipe.

Mr. Trump’s East Wing project will also feature Corinthian columns like those at the Supreme Court. Fisher said the columns at the White House are being made from “the highest-grade” Indiana limestone, which was shipped to Italy, and are being carved “by some of the greatest artists anywhere in the world.”

According to the White House, the structure will include bomb shelters; hospital and medical facilities; top-secret military facilities; drone-proof ceilings, walls, windows and roofs; bullet, ballistic and blast-proof glass; and a drone port on top.

The “drone port” that will sit on top of the White House ballroom. Justice Department/Supreme Court filing

El-Sayed makes Jesus comparison when pressed on socialist views: ‘Radical in his time, too’

August 20, 2026 12:39pm EDT / Fox News

Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee compared his “radical” policy positions to Jesus Christ’s teachings during a podcast appearance earlier this year.

During an episode of the Progressive Christians Podcast that aired in May, Abdul El-Sayed was asked how his faith as a Muslim spurs his policies and positions in his campaign for the Senate.

Rev. Blair Stowe, one of the podcast’s hosts, noted that through many progressive races during the midterm election cycle where policies like Medicare for all, being anti-war and resisting corporate money in politics, from the Christian lens, appeared to be “very similar to the teachings of Jesus.”

EL-SAYED INVOKES JESUS WHILE ACCUSING MIKE ROGERS OF HIDING BEHIND ‘SIMULACRUM OF FAITH’

Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a press conference in Detroit on Aug. 5, 2026, after narrowly winning the Michigan Democratic Senate nomination.(AFP via Getty Images)

“And yet, those platforms and those policies are being named radical. And we know that you have been referred to as a radical,” Stowe said. “So what do you think about that title, that these things that are, that seem to come very easily from the Christian faith that are shared in the Muslim faith? Like, why is that considered so radical?”

“Well, you know, Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him, was considered radical in his time too,” El-Sayed responded. “And there is a radical nature to being willing to stand forthright in a time of corruption, and I think it’s important for all of us to realize that popularity and zeitgeist don’t make truth. And we live in a time where people are trying to normalize corruption.”

DEMS’ LEFTWARD LURCH GETS LEGS AS EL-SAYED’S MICHIGAN SENATE VICTORY SPARKS PARTY DEBATE

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6403297593112

El-Sayed is currently locked in a contest that could determine the balance of power in the Senate, and one where his victory against Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., shook the Democratic establishment in Washington, D.C.

Republicans see Michigan as a winnable opportunity on their path to maintaining and growing their thin majority in the upper chamber and believe former Rep. Mike Rogers, who narrowly lost in his bid for the Senate in 2024 against Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., can topple the insurgent progressive El-Sayed.

And as the campaign has heated up between the two of them, both have used faith as a political cudgel.

UNEARTHED INTERVIEW REVEALS EL-SAYED’S SHARIA ‘OBLIGATION’: ‘NOT BECAUSE OF FEAR’

Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers is making a direct pitch to Michigan Democrats following Abdul El-Sayed’s primary victory.(Sarah Rice/Getty Images; Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

“A radical Muslim with a self-proclaimed ‘obligation’ to Sharia law has gone from excusing violent attacks on Jewish Michiganders to comparing himself to Jesus Christ,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Bernadette Breslin told Fox News Digital.

“Abdul El-Sayed is unfit to represent Michigan, and he proves it every time he attacks other faiths,” she continued.

During an appearance on the “I’ve Had It” podcast earlier this month, El-Sayed was asked by host Jennifer Welch about Rogers going after him for his Muslim faith, where she accused him of being a “complete Christian hypocrite” over reported ties between members of his faith coalition and the Living Word Church franchise, which has been rocked by child sex abuse scandals.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

El-Sayed said Rogers was ignoring the “essential teaching” of Christianity.

“He’s going to hide behind this simulacrum of faith, which clearly, you know, if you followed the teachings of Jesus Christ, it was about upending the system against the richest and most powerful in the ways that they used their power and their money to subjugate other people,” El-Sayed said. “Like, that was the essential teaching.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

US Justice Department opposes immediate hearing in Disney ABC license lawsuit

2026-08-20T16:39:55.946Z / Reuters

By David Shepardson

August 20, 2026 4:39 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

Disney+ logo is seen in this illustration taken August 5, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

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WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department urged a judge on Thursday not to ​schedule an urgent hearing on Disney’s suit that seeks to block the ‌Federal Communications Commission early review of licenses for the entertainment giant’s eight company-owned ABC stations.

Disney asked U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan in Washington to hold a hearing ​by Tuesday on its request for a temporary restraining order ​while the government said that was not necessary. The FCC ⁠has agreed to provide at least 48 hours’ notice before issuing ​an order to refer Disney’s ABC licenses for a hearing.

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President Donald ​Trump has repeatedly urged broadcasters to drop comedy or news programs he dislikes or which have been critical of him or his administration, and has pressed the ​FCC on numerous occasions to revoke ABC’s licenses.

Disney said that ​the FCC was seeking to coerce and retaliate against “a network that refuses to ‌bow ⁠to the administration’s demands,” calling the agency’s actions an “extraordinary assault on free speech.”

Disney said the FCC is “effectively seeking permission to impose draconian sanctions with only 48 hours’ notice.” The Justice Department said issuing a ​hearing designation order ​was not ⁠a sanction but would set in place a further administrative process in which Disney and ABC “would have ​the opportunity to make their case.”

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Trump has waged ​an aggressive ⁠series of attacks on the news media and the latest move follows a two-year-long battle between Trump and Disney. Last month, Trump again ⁠called for ​ABC stations to lose their licenses because ​the network refused to air a prime-time speech on elections.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr ​calls the Disney lawsuit meritless.

blob:https://www.reuters.com/f91ab4c7-c0cd-42de-a192-3bec5d46607b

Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter

Donald Trump once called Michael Cohen a ‘rat.’ Now they’re sitting down for a public conversation

2026-08-20 12:10 PM ET / CNN

By Kevin Liptak

First, Michael Cohen was Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and self-described “pit bull.”

Then he became a bitter foe, exposing what he called “dirty deeds” and earning him the level “rat” by a president scorned.

Now, after burying the hatchet, Cohen is set to become something else: a radio interviewer seeking public détente.

Trump’s taped phone interview for Cohen’s WABC program — which Cohen told CNN lasted 40 minutes — will be their first open conversation since the collapse of their professional and personal relationship more than eight years ago when it airs Thursday evening.

It was on August 21, 2018, that Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to eight criminal counts — and implicated Trump — in a payment scheme designed to silence women who claimed affairs with the then-candidate in the 2016 election.

Thus began the two men’s downfall. Cohen, after serving time in prison, would go on to act as the star witness in Trump’s criminal trial in New York. In 2024, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, an adult film performer, to keep her quiet about an alleged past tryst with Trump. (Trump, who has denied the affair, was sentenced to no jail time and has appealed the conviction.)

Trump was wounded by the betrayal and for years called Cohen — who once claimed he would take a bullet for Trump — a rat and a liar.

Cohen, meanwhile, made little secret he felt Trump and his associates had left him out to dry. He was the only person to serve prison time for the hush money scheme. He wrote two books in the years after his release: “Disloyal” and “Revenge.”

Once Trump returned to office, however, things began to shift. Cohen claimed New York prosecutors, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, had pressured and coerced him into testifying against Trump.

And a quiet reconciliation with Trump got underway.

It started with an unexpected text from someone Cohen has described as a “White House friend and an insider,” who relayed a message from the president, Cohen said on a radio show this year.

Cohen declined to name the insider, but said the person “expressed to me the president’s genuine empathy for the hell that I was being dragged through, yet again, and I deeply appreciated that text.”

“I thanked him, expressed my sincere hope that this long, exhausting feud between the two of us could finally end, and what was, I found, even more interesting is that he replied almost immediately, agreeing that it was actually time for us to meet,” Cohen said, adding he was “very surprised” by the text.

The two men have met in private over the past year at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Their conversation Thursday will cap the remarkable rapprochement.

“After years of betrayal, heartbreak, fury, and silence, two men who once stood together against the world face the impossible question: Can forgiveness resurrect what hatred destroyed?” Cohen wrote on social media, previewing his interview.

This 2016 photo shows Donald Trump with Michael Cohen during a campaign stop at the New Spirit Revival Center church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/File

CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this report.

Dan Green wins crowded GOP primary in Florida’s 9th District

August 20, 2026 / 3:45 PM EDT / CBS News

Dan Green narrowly won a crowded GOP primary in Florida’s 9th Congressional District, the Associated Press projected Thursday, two days after the election.

Green will face Democratic Rep. Darren Soto, who has held the central Florida seat since 2017 but is facing a tough reelection bid after gerrymandering reshaped the district. Soto’s district, which had been protected under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, was one of four in the state that were redrawn to favor Republicans.

The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics rates the race as likely Republican.

Seven candidates were vying for the GOP nomination.

https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/video/cbs-news-miamis-jim-defede-shares-his-commentary-on-the-florida-primary-results/