Former President Bill Clinton testified Friday before members of Congress who are investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, answering for his connections to the disgraced financier from more than two decades ago.
The closed-door deposition in Chappaqua, New York, marked the first time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress. It came a day after Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sat with lawmakers for her own deposition.
Meanwhile President Donald Trump traveled to Texas to talk about his energy and economic policies amid a red-hot Senate Republican primary race. All three GOP candidates are expected to join him, days before the election.
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Actor Dennis Quaid speaks at Trump rally
Quaid, who played President Ronald Reagan in a 2024 biopic, got a lift on the real Air Force One and a speaking role behind the presidential seal. Trump invited him on stage briefly during his rally in Corpus Christi, Texas.
“I love Corpus Christi, and I love Donald Trump,” Quaid said.
Earlier in the day, Sen. Ted Cruz posted a 14-second video of Quaid, dressed in a suit, seated next to Trump at a conference table aboard the Air Force One.
In addition to playing the 40th president in “Reagan,” Quaid also appeared as President Bill Clinton in “The Special Relationship,” a 2010 film about former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s relationship with his U.S. counterpart.
Trump recognizes Texas Republican Senate candidates but stops short of any endorsement
“We have a great attorney general, Ken Paxton. Hi Ken,” the president said.
“And we have a great senator, John Cornyn,” he added, looking at the seated officials from the stage. “You’re in a little bit of a race.”
The primary is Tuesday, and Cornyn is trying to survive a challenge from Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt, who was also at the event in Corpus Christi.
Trump (backslash)mentioned Hunt, too, after running through the long list of Texas U.S. House members present.
“And another friend of mine who is doing very well, Wesley Hunt. Wesley Hunt, what a good job,” the president said.
In a nod to the competitive primary, Trump noted, “You do have an interesting election.”
Asked by reporters, Trump said he has “pretty much” decided whom to endorse but declined to specify.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he is designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk
That could prevent U.S. military vendors from working with the company. Hegseth spoke a little more than an hour after Trump said he was ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology Friday.
Hegseth’s comments, delivered in a social media post, came shortly after the Pentagon’s deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences — and nearly 24 hours after CEO Dario Amodei said his company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the Defense Department’s demands.
Leader of Scouting America says transgender youth still welcome
Scouting America President and CEO Roger Krone says the organization’s agreement with the Pentagon does not change its existing policies regarding transgender youth and they remain welcome.
“We have transgender people in our program, and we’ll have transgender people in our program going forward,” Krone told The Associated Press.
The Pentagon made the deal with Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, to maintain their century-old partnership.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the agreement refocuses the organization away from “woke” policies he accused it of embracing and put heavy emphasis on the group’s acceptance of transgender youth.
‘Tony Gonzales is here’
The embattled House Republican, who is fending off calls to resign after reports of an affair with a former aide who later set herself on fire, made his way to Trump’s Corpus Christi event.
The president made mention of his presence, saying: “Congressman Tony Gonzales is here.”
Corpus Christi is not in Gonzales’ district.
As Trump gave his shoutout to Gonzales, he added, “Tony, congratulations.” It was unclear what Trump was congratulating him for.
Trump has endorsed Gonzales in his primary.
Trump says he is ‘entitled’ to a third term
The president again floated the idea of running for a third term during an address at the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas.
“Maybe we do one more term, should we do one more?” he asked the crowd, which responded with cheers.
The president added that “we’re entitled to it, because they cheated like hell,” in reference to the 2020 election.
Allegations from Trump of massive voting fraud have previously been refuted by a variety of judges, state election officials and an arm of his own administration’s Homeland Security Department.
Trump hints at endorsement in Texas Senate race
He says he’s “pretty much” decided whom to endorse in the competitive three-way GOP race.
But he’s not ready to give it away, telling reporters “no, not yet,” when asked if he would say.
Trump is visiting Corpus Christi to promote U.S. energy production just four days before the primary.
Joining him is four-term Republican Sen. John Cornyn and the two Republicans challenging him in the Tuesday primary, state Attorney General Ken Paxton and two-term Rep. Wesley Hunt.
Rubio says US may invalidate passports for travel to Iran
The secretary of state declared Iran to be a “state sponsor of wrongful detention,” ramping up pressure on the country as tensions rise over the possibility of U.S. military strikes on the Islamic republic.
In a statement, Rubio said the move was due to Iran’s continued arrests and imprisonment of “innocent Americans” and citizens of other countries for use as political leverage.
“This abhorrent practice must end,” he said.
The move does not automatically carry any penalties, but Rubio said if Iran doesn’t stop, he could make it illegal for a U.S. passport to be used for travel to or from Iran. That restriction currently only applies to North Korea.
Top Democrat on Senate Intelligence Committee raises concerns over Anthropic decision
Sen Mark Warner said Trump’s move to cut all government ties with the AI company Anthropic, “combined with inflammatory rhetoric attacking that company, raises serious concerns about whether national security decisions are being driven by careful analysis or political considerations.”
Warner also noted that “Hegseth’s loud insistence on the sufficiency of an ‘all lawful purposes’ standard provides cold comfort against the backdrop of Pentagon leadership that has routinely sidelined career military attorneys and challenged longstanding norms and rules regarding lethal force.”
Energy secretary approves export expansion at Texas LNG terminal
Ahead of Trump’s visit, Energy Secretary Chris Wright authorized a 12% expansion in liquefied natural gas exports at Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi terminal.
The order, signed Thursday as Wright toured the site, makes the terminal the second largest LNG export project in the U.S.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first export cargo of U.S. LNG gas produced from the lower 48 states. The U.S. is now the world’s largest LNG exporter.
Wright said he was proud to be in Corpus Christi, “standing alongside the American workers responsible for unleashing American energy dominance.”
Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental group that opposes LNG exports, said the Trump administration was “doubling down on a harmful energy source at exactly the moment when we should be full speed ahead on safe, clean and reliable renewable energy.”
Trump orders all federal agencies to phase out use of Anthropic technology
Trump’s comments came just over an hour before the Pentagon’s deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences — and nearly 24 hours after CEO Dario Amodei said his company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the Defense Department’s demands.
Anthropic didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment to Trump’s remarks.
At issue in the defense contract was a clash over AI’s role in national security and concerns about how increasingly capable machines could be used in high-stakes situations involving lethal force, sensitive information or government surveillance.
Democrats are ‘closely’ reviewing White House offer on DHS
Aides to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, confirmed that the lawmakers have received the White House’s latest offer on ending the ongoing DHS shutdown.
Earlier Friday, a White House official said the administration had sent a new proposal to Schumer and Jeffries on Thursday, calling the offer “serious.”
In a joint statement to reporters, aides to Schumer and Jeffries said their offices are reviewing the White House proposal “closely” and that Democrats are continuing to push for “real reforms” on the conduct of federal immigration agents.
Democrats on House panel say they’re treating Bill Clinton seriously, putting ‘survivors first’
California Rep. Ro Khanna, a leading advocate to release all Epstein documents, said Democratic members and their lawyers put “survivors first” by asking “difficult questions” and establishing “basic facts” from Bill Clinton.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., described the former president as an important witness.
“It is very well established that President Clinton had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and we are treating this investigation extraordinarily seriously,” she said.
She emphasized that “there are not public files available that accuse (Clinton) of a crime, whereas there are publicly available documents that do allege a crime of President Trump.”
But she described Clinton as being among the figures who can shed light on “why there was a culture around (Epstein) where the rich and powerful turned a blind eye.”
There’s a partisan split on what Bill Clinton testified about Trump
Comer told reporters that Bill Clinton said Trump “has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved.”
The chairman said that came in response to a question from Garcia, the ranking Democrat, about whether Trump should testify before the committee.
Garcia countered that Comer’s account was not “a complete accurate description of what actually was said.”
He said Clinton “did bring up some additional information about some discussions with President Trump” and argued that raises “some very important new questions about comments that President Trump has actually said in the past.”
That’s another reason to compel Trump to testify, Garcia added.
He declined to go into further details Clinton’s testimony, citing committee rules against disclosure -- which he noted with a barb that “Republicans keep breaking the rules.”
Bill Clinton has not invoked the Fifth Amendment, House Democrat says
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, says the former president has answered questions willingly so far in his testimony and “has not taken a pass” by pleading the Fifth Amendment that witnesses use to decline answering in a way that could incriminate them.
Comer: Bill Clinton has taken about two hours of questions
Republicans in the House Oversight Committee majority asked Clinton questions for about an hour, followed by an hour from the Democratic minority, chairman James Comer told reporters outside.
Comer said Republicans would get another hour before a break. He said the day would be at about “the halfway point” by then, suggesting Clinton will spend at least six hours with lawmakers.
Trump misquotes Calvin Coolidge
Trump on Friday put himself among the many who have misquoted a famous sentiment from the 30th U.S. president.
“President Calvin Coolidge: ‘The Business of America is BUSINESS!’” he wrote in a Truth Social post as he headed to Texas aboard Air Force One.
However, this isn’t exactly what Coolidge said. His actual words, said during an address in Washington to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on Jan. 17, 1925, were: “After all, the chief business of the American people is business.”
Coolidge was talking about the “double purpose” of American newspapers -- providing readers with information while also having their own business interests. He concluded that this dual role did not “seem to be cause for alarm.”
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said Trump has failed to explain the rationale or the risks involved in military action.
“President Trump’s saber-rattling for war with Iran is taking the country down a dangerous path without a clear strategy or endgame and putting U.S. national security at considerable risk,” Reed said in a statement.
As the House and Senate prepare for votes next week on war powers resolutions, he said Congress has received “no real briefings” on the administration’s plans.
“The administration has not presented Congress or the American people with any coherent legal or strategic justification for preemptive strikes,” Reed said. “The president is the Commander-In-Chief, but Congress alone holds the constitutional authority to authorize war.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Friday a bipartisan coalition is working to force a vote as soon as next week on a war powers resolution that would attempt to prevent any U.S. action against Iran without approval from Congress.
“The American people don’t want another failed forever foreign war, particularly in the Middle East, when we know the outcome is likely to be disastrous,” Jeffries said on MSNow.
“What we’ve got to do right now, of course, is to do everything we can to prevent that from happening,” he said. “It would be reckless. It would be dangerous. It would be harmful to America’s national security interests.”
As the Department of Homeland Security remains shut down, the White House and Democratic leaders are continuing to exchange proposals to end the impasse.
A White House official said Friday that the administration sent another counteroffer to Democrats on Thursday. The official, granted anonymity to discuss private negotiations, called the offer “serious.”
Federal funding for DHS lapsed Jan. 30, with Democrats calling for more restrictions on the behavior of federal immigration agents in the aftermath of the death of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.
But most of DHS provides critical governments, which means that federal employees are working -- but not getting paid.
— Seung Min Kim
Pam Bondi says federal prosecutors have indicted 30 more people tied to a protest at a Minnesota church over an immigration enforcement crackdown.
Bondi says 25 of those people are already under arrest. The protest on Jan. 18 also led to the arrests of independent journalist Don Lemon and local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong. Both have pleaded not guilty to civil rights charges.
Trump officials have strongly condemned the protest for interrupting a church service. Protesters took the action after learning a pastor there is also an immigration enforcement official.
In comments to reporters as he left the White House, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was negotiating at a high level with the Cuban government.
“The Cuban government is talking with us” the president said. “They have no money. They have no anything right now.” He added: “We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
After his administration ousted Cuban ally and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Trump for weeks suggested Cuba was on the brink of collapse economically.
He did not say what he meant by a “friendly takeover” but suggested that after decades “of dealing with Cuba” something could happen that would be “very positive” for Cuban exiles living in the U.S.
“I’m not happy with the fact that they’re not willing to give us what we have to have. I’m not thrilled with that. We’ll see what happens. We’re talking later,” Trump said to reporters as he left the White House.
Trump said it would be “wonderful” if Iran negotiated “in good faith and conscience,” but said, “They are not getting there.”
Trump was asked about the risks of the U.S. getting involved in a drawn-out conflict in the Middle East if it launches strikes on Iran.
“I guess you could say there’s always a risk,” Trump replied. “You know, when there’s war, there’s a risk of anything, both good and bad.”
Trump said on Friday that he is not pleased with the deposition of former President Bill Clinton in the House Epstein investigation.
“I like Bill Clinton and I don’t like seeing him deposed,” the president told reporters as he departed the White House en route to Corpus Christi, Texas.
“It should be incredibly obvious” that three years between launches is unacceptable, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, urging the space agency to cut the gap between Artemis flights to one year or less if it hopes to return astronauts to the moon on a sustainable schedule.
Isaacman unveiled an Artemis program overhaul Friday that adds an extra mission before any lunar landing by astronauts. Instead of attempting to land astronauts on the moon an estimated three years after the upcoming lunar fly-around, NASA will launch astronauts into orbit around Earth in their Orion capsule and have them practice docking with an orbiting lunar lander.
This new plan has the possibility of securing one and maybe two moon landings in 2028, during Trump’s second term.
The move aims to build momentum after repeated rocket repairs and warnings from a safety advisory panel. Isaacman noted that NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs flew in rapid succession before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s landing on the moon in 1969.
“No one here at NASA forgot their history books,” Isaacman said.
Bill Clinton says in his prepared statement that “no person is above the law, even presidents.” He agreed to testify, he adds, because, “I love my country.”
Bill and Hillary Clinton initially pushed back against subpoenas they called a partisan stunt by Republicans. They yielded but demanded proceedings be opened. Republicans refused.
“The search for truth and justice,” Clinton planned to tell lawmakers, is more important than “the partisan urge to score points and create spectacle.”
He added a wish that political discourse be ratcheted down.
“Democracy requires every person to play their part, and I hope that by being her today, we can bring ourselves a little further away from the brink and back to being a country where we can disagree with one another civilly,” he says, adding, “I’ll do my part, and I hope you’ll do yours.”
“That might be unsatisfying,” the former president says of his plans to answer some questions by saying he has no recollection. “But I’m not going to say something I’m not sure of. This was all a long time ago.”
Clinton adds that he is “bound by my oath not to speculate, or to guess” -- a standard he says “is not merely for my benefit but because it doesn’t help you for me to play detective 24 years later.”
Elsewhere in his prepared opening remarks, Bill Clinton is more emphatic about his own actions.
“I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see,” he says. “I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn’t do.”
“As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing — I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals,” Bill Clinton says in his prepared opening statement.
“We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long.”
The former president says in his prepared opening remarks that his wife — the former secretary of state and first lady — should never have been ensnared by the committee.
“Before we start, I have to get personal,” Bill Clinton says in his statement. “You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing. She has no memory of even meeting him. She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties.”
He continues: “Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right.”
And he tells lawmakers that, just as he’s bound in sworn testimony, “each and every one of you owes nothing less than truth and accuracy to the American people.”
The former president is telling the House Oversight Committee that his “brief acquaintance with Jeffrey Epstein ended years before his crimes came to light.”
That’s according to a printed copy of his opening statement as it was prepared and released by Clinton’s office.
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton says. “I saw nothing that ever gave me pause.”
Clinton’s remarks state that he is testifying “to offer what little I know so that it might prevent anything like this from ever happening again” and because “the girls and women whose lives Jeffrey Epstein destroyed deserve not only justice, but healing.”
The Texas Republican fighting for reelection in a March 3 primary is flying with Trump back to his home state.
Cornyn was spotted at Andrews Air Force Base ahead of Trump’s departure from Washington for an event in Corpus Christi. The other Texas senator, Ted Cruz, is also traveling with the president, but he is not on the ballot this year.
Cornyn is locked in a viciously personal three-way primary with state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt. Missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, all three have been trying to highlight their ties to him as campaigning intensifies ahead of Tuesday’s vote.