Ex-Obama aide says it’s ‘insane’ to think Cuomo is best choice for New York mayor – US politics live

The polls in New York City’s mayoral race don’t close until 9pm eastern time, but many of the Democratic primary candidates have already cast their ballots.

Speaking to News for New York reporter Melissa Russo this afternoon, former governor Andrew Cuomo said he will only rank himself on his ballot.

This year, New York is implementing a ranked-choice voting system in its Democratic primary. Voters can rank five candidates in order of preference.

Democratic socialist candidates Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander made headlines earlier this week when they endorsed each other, recommending their supporters rank the other second on their ballots.

As we await initial results in New York City’s tight mayoral race, a former aide to Barack Obama questioned the Democratic party’s loyalty to former New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

Speaking on an episode of Pod Save America, Dan Pfeiffer said it “is really unforgivable” and “insane” that the Democratic party establishment has maintained support for Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace amid sexual harrassment allegations in 2021, rather than support a democratic socialist candidate.

“The idea that we are more scared about a democratic socialist as the mayor of New York than Andrew Cuomo, with his record of corruption and sexual harassment, is insane to me,” he said.

Today’s Democratic mayoral primary has come down to a close race between the former governor and Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old Democratic socialist and current state assemblymember.

The Trump administration has approved $30m in funding for the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed group delivering aid to Gaza, according to Reuters and the Associated Press. Since the foundation began operating last month, Palestinian witnesses and health officials have reported Israeli forces repeatedly shooting at Palestinians seeking aid at the food distribution centers. The organization says it has delivered 44m meals to Palestinians.

According to a document Reuters reviewed, the $30m grant was authorized on Friday under a “priority directive” from the White House and state department, and a $7m had already been disbursed.

The White House has dismissed as “flat out wrong” a leaked intelligence report that claims US airstrikes at the weekend set back Iran’s nuclear program only “by months”.

The preliminary assessment by one US intelligence agency of the attacks on three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, reported by CNN, indicates that the targets were not destroyed, as Donald Trump and other administration officials have insisted.

The assessment was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, the news outlet said, citing three unnamed sources. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes, CNN reported one of the sources as saying.

The assessment is ongoing and could change, CNN said.

In an address to the nation on Sunday night, Trump stated: “I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

Two of the sources, however, said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed, and the third said the country’s centrifuges were largely “intact”.

“So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” the source said.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the report as “a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission”.

She said in a statement to CNN:

This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community.

Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.

Donald Trump is expected to meet Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his short stay in the Netherlands.

The two clashed in a fiery meeting at the White House in February, when US vice-president JD Vance belittled Zelenskyy for not thanking Trump for his support for Ukraine as it tried to repel Russia’s invasion; and Trump warned Ukraine’s leader he was “gambling with world war three”.

Ukraine is not part of Nato, so Zelenskyy will not take part in the Nato summit. But he could meet Trump as early as Tuesday night, sources said.

According to Reuters, Zelenskyy has said he wants to discuss with Trump substantial purchases of weaponry including Patriot missile defense systems as well as sanctions and other ways to put pressure on Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyy warned European Nato members on Tuesday that they risked being attacked by Russia if it was not defeated in its three-year war with Ukraine.

“Russia is even planning new military operations on Nato territory,” he told a defense industry event on the sidelines of the summit.

Before landing in Amsterdam, Donald Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One, the president apparently casting doubt on the US commitment to defend Nato partners.

The Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said Tuesday that he had no doubt that Trump was committed to the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defense clause.

But according to Reuters, Trump told the press gaggle that there were “numerous” definitions to the cornerstone of the defense pact.

Asked if he was committed to Article 5, Trump responded: “I’m committed to saving lives. I’m committed to life and safety. And I’m going to give you an exact definition when I get there.”

Air Force One has landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, bringing Donald Trump to a Nato summit at The Hague at which he is expected to take a victory lap over the ceasefire and apparent conclusion of the short Iran-Israel war.

His arrival comes as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian announced the “end of the 12-day war imposed by Israel”, in a message to the nation carried by the official IRNA news agency, reported by AFP.

“Today, after the heroic resistance of our great nation, whose determination makes history, we are witnessing the establishment of a truce and the ending of this 12-day war imposed by the adventurism and provocation” of Israel, Pezeshkian said.

Trump will be formally greeted by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, and will attend a private dinner for Nato leaders later, according to his schedule.

The president’s trip will be brief: he will attend the summit on Wednesday and head straight back to Washington DC to rejoin efforts to persuade senators to pass his wide-ranging spending agenda known as the “big, beautiful bill” before the 4 July holiday.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte also said on Tuesday he had no doubt that Trump was committed to the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defence clause.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte has expressed that he has no problem with Trump disclosing the message he sent to him.

Earlier today, Trump posted a screenshot of a text message he received from Rutte, praising him for striking the Iranian nuclear sites.

In the message, Rutte congratulates and thanks Trump for his “decisive action in Iran”, calling it“ truly extraordinary” and “something no one else dared to do”.

Rutte then says that Trump is “flying into another big success in The Hague”.

On Tuesday afternoon Rutte said that he had no problem with Trump disclosing the message, and said that he believed that the tone of the message was appropriate.

Trump left Washington DC this morning and is currently on his way to the annual Nato summit at The Hague.

This comes as earlier this morning, Trump posted what appeared to be a text message from Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, praising him for striking the Iranian nuclear sites.

In the message, which Rutte’s representatives confirmed as authentic to the New York Times, Rutte congratulates and thanks Trump for his “decisive action in Iran”, calling it“truly extraordinary” and “something no one else dared to do.”

Rutte then says that Trump is “flying into another big success in The Hague.”

House speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday that the War Powers Act passed in 1973 designed to check a US president’s ability to commit US forces to military action without congressional consent is unconstitutional.

The Louisiana Republican made the eye-popping declaration at a late morning press briefing by senior party officials, arguing that he believed Donald Trump has virtually unlimited power to use the military as he saw fit.

Other Republicans, especially Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, have insisted Trump exceeded his authority when he ordered the weekend air strike on nuclear facilities in Iran.

Johnson argued that the 1973 act, passed by lawmakers to balance power after Richard Nixon ordered a bombing campaign in Cambodia during the Vietnam war, contravened the constitution. He said:

It shouldn’t even be in dispute. The framers of our constitution never intended for the president to seek the approval of Congress every time he exercises his constitutional authority.

In an emergent and imminent situation, time is not something we always have the luxury of and so they wanted, in moments of danger and conflict abroad, for one single hand of authority to have that authority to act decisively and effectively.

Many respected constitutional experts argue that the War Powers Act is itself unconstitutional. I’m persuaded by that argument. Many more scholars believe the president is correct to use this executive authority in exactly the manner that he did over the weekend.

Johnson’s position will be seen as an extraordinary move in that lawmakers have traditionally forcefully defended the law in order not to cede too much power to the executive branch.

He seems to be arguing now that it is a good thing that previous presidents, including Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden, ordered the military into action without the approval of Congress.

Numerous Republicans, including firebrand Trump ally Mike Lee of Utah, were livid when Biden ordered strikes on Houthis in Yemen last year.

“The constitution matters, regardless of party affiliation,” he wrote at the time.

The Federal Reserve is well placed to wait and see how tariffs affect US prices before cutting interest rates, its chair, Jerome Powell, insisted, defying renewed demands from Donald Trump.

The US president has disregarded the central bank’s longstanding independence to repeatedly call for rate cuts to spur economic growth and launch a series of personal attacks on Powell.

In an overnight social media post, Trump branded the Fed chair as “very dumb” and claimed the central bank’s refusal to lower rates since December – in part, the result of uncertainty sparked by his own administration’s erratic economic strategy – was damaging the US.

“We will be paying for his incompetence for many years to come,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform.

On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Powell reiterated that Trump’s tariffs were “likely” to increase prices – potentially challenging the Fed’s years-long effort to bring down US inflation. He noted, however, that the administration’s policies frequently shift.

“Policy changes continue to evolve, and their effects on the economy remain uncertain,” Powell told the US House of Representatives financial services committee. “The effects of tariffs will depend, among other things, on their ultimate level. Expectations of that level, and thus of the related economic effects, reached a peak in April and have since declined.

“Even so, increases in tariffs this year are likely to push up prices and weigh on economic activity.”

Read the full story:

Federal immigration agents arrested 11 Iranian nationals during and after the weekend, authorities said on Tuesday.

All were in the US illegally, a statement from the homeland security department (DHS), which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), said. Among them is Mehran Makari Saheli, alleged by Ice to be a former member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He was arrested in St Paul, Minnesota.

Five of those arrested had previous criminal convictions ranging from grand larceny to drug and firearm possessions, the statement said, and those arrested include “an individual with admitted ties to Hezbollah, a known or suspected terrorist, and an alleged former sniper for the Iranian army”.

All 11 have been charged or accused of crimes beyond civil immigration violations.

The Ice arrests follow US airstrikes on Iran on Sunday. There is no suggestion they were related to the US military action, or any identified scheme or plot for an attack inside the US.

Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of DHS, said in the statement: “We have been saying we are getting the worst of the worst out – and we are. We don’t wait until a military operation to execute; we proactively deliver on President Trump’s mandate to secure the homeland.”

One US citizen was also arrested, the statement said, and was charged with threatening law enforcement and harboring one of the Iranians.

Donald Trump has been posting to social media from Air Force One, prolonging his feud with the Republican Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, who opposed the president’s decision to launch airstrikes in Iran at the weekend without congressional approval.

Calling Massie a “Third Rate Congressman”, Trump – who is on his way to The Hague for a Nato summit – lashed out (again) in a lengthy diatribe on his Truth Social platform. He predicted Massie would vote against Trump’s so-called big, beautiful bill, even though Massie already did: he was one of two Republican no votes last month.

Axios reported on Sunday that Trump allies have launched a political action committee dedicated to unseating Massie in the 2026 election. For his part, Massie has brushed off the attacks, telling MSNBC that he has “Trump antibodies” and is immune to the president’s criticism.

Trump has been posting furiously before his arrival in The Hague, which is expected about 1pm ET. In one post he says he was looking forward to “seeing all of my very good European friends” and insists the summit “at worst … will be a much calmer period than what I just went through with Israel and Iran”.

It’s Richard Luscombe in the US taking over from my colleague Tom Ambrose, and I’ll be here to guide you through the day’s political developments.

The conflict consuming Israel and Iran is dominating headlines, and you can follow happenings in our Middle East crisis liveblog here.

We’re also following reaction to Monday’s supreme court ruling allowing the Trump administration to deport migrant detainees to countries that are not their own; and voting Tuesday in New York’s mayoral race primary, in which leftwing candidate Zohran Mamdani appears to be leading the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination.

While all that is going on, US senators are wrangling over the future of Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, for which an unofficial 4 July deadline has been set.

Republican senators are still at odds over many of the provisions, including one that strip healthcare from millions, especially in red states. John Kennedy of Louisiana told CNN on Monday night:

Right now, the bill is held together with happy thoughts and spit. I think we’ll eventually pass something, I just can’t tell you when.

Donald Trump called Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and asked him not to attack Iran, an Axios reporter said in a X post on Tuesday, citing an Israeli official.

Netanyahu told Trump that he was unable to cancel the attack and that it was needed because Iran violated the ceasefire, the Axios reporter said.

The attack would be significantly scaled back and would not hit a large number of targets but only strike one target, according to the report.

President Donald Trump has warned Israel not to drop any more bombs on Iran or it would be a violation of the ceasefire he is trying to broker between the two countries.

“Israel. Do not drop those bombs. If you do it it is a major violation. Bring your pilots home, now!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media site shortly after he left the White House for a trip to the Nato summit in the Hague.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that both Israel and Iran violated a ceasefire he announced hours earlier and he was not happy with either country but especially Israel.

Speaking to reporters before leaving for the Nato summit in The Hague, Trump said Israel “unloaded” right after agreeing to the deal.

He also said Iran’s nuclear capabilities are gone.

We’re covering the latest developments on Israel’s war with Iran in our dedicated live blog here:

New Yorkers are headed to the polls on Tuesday in a primary election that is both likely to decide the city’s next mayor and have major political implications for the future of the Democratic party.

The race pits two drastically different Democrats against one another. Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist endorsed by the progressive wing of the Democratic party, is the main challenger to Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor who has been backed by the party’s centrists and billionaire donors.

Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual harassment, was the clear frontrunner earlier in the year. But Mamdani has enjoyed a meteoric surge in polls in recent weeks, and could benefit from the primary’s ranked-choice voting system.

Voters can rank five candidates in order of preference, and a poll released on Monday showed Mamdani winning the primary after multiple rounds of counting. Last week, Mamdani announced he was “cross-endorsing” with Brad Lander, a fellow progressive who was recently arrested by Ice agents while visiting an immigration court.

The US supreme court on Monday paved the way for the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries they are not from, including to conflict-ridden places such as South Sudan.

In a brief, unsigned order, the court’s conservative supermajority paused the ruling by a Boston-based federal judge who said immigrants deserved a “meaningful opportunity” to bring claims that they would face the risk of torture, persecution or even death if removed to certain countries that have agreed to take people deported from the US.

As a result of Monday’s ruling, the administration will now be allowed to swiftly deport immigrants to so-called “third countries”, including a group of men held at a US military base in Djibouti who the administration tried to send to South Sudan.

The court offered no explanation for its decision and ordered the judge’s ruling paused while the appeals process plays out. The three liberal justices issued a scathing dissent.

The Department of Homeland Security hailed the decision as a “victory for the safety and security of the American people”.

“DHS can now execute its lawful authority and remove illegal aliens to a country willing to accept them,” spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Fire up the deportation planes.”

Read the full story here:

In other developments:

• Donald Trump announced that Israel and Iran had reached a ceasefire in a post published on his social media platform. Iran and Israel had not immediately verified the deal. The news came just hours after Iran launched a retaliatory strike on a US military base in Qatar.

• CIA director John Ratcliffe and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard will brief members of Congress today on US military action in Iran. Top Democrats began calling for a classified briefing after the United States launched military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend. Democratic members of “the Gang of Eight” say they have not been briefed on the situation yet, although Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was briefed this morning.

• Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr met with major health insurers today, extracting pledges that they will take additional measures to simplify their requirements for prior approval on medicines and medical services. Kennedy, who is known for pushing anti-vaccine conspiracies, is set to speak this week at a fundraising event for Gavi, a public-private partnership which helps buy vaccines for the world’s poorest children.

• Canada signed a defense pact with the European Union – the latest sign of the North American country’s shift away reliance on the United States amid strained relations with Donald Trump. Trump is set to attend a two day Nato summit beginning tomorrow. The White House said that at the summit, Trump will push Nato members to increase defense spending.