By STEPHEN GROVES and MATT BROWN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Trump administration officials briefed a small group of congressional leaders Wednesday on the growing military campaign to destroy alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the waters off South America, providing one of the first high-level glimpses into the legal rationale and strategy behind the strikes.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers who oversee national security issues for roughly an hour in a secure facility in the Capitol.

Republicans emerged either staying silent or expressing confidence in President Donald Trump’s campaign, which has killed at least 66 people in 16 known strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

Democrats said Congress needs more information on how the strikes are conducted and the legal justification for actions that critics say violate international and U.S. law by killing alleged drug smugglers on the high seas.

“What we heard isn’t enough. We need a lot more answers. And I am now asking for an all senators briefing on this issue,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said as he left the meeting.

The briefing occurred the day before senators are expected to vote on a resolution that would require congressional approval for any strikes directly on Venezuela.

The Trump administration has provided a trickle of information to Congress since it began destroying vessels in the Caribbean two months ago, but outside of a few classified briefings, much of the information has come from informal talks with members of Trump’s Cabinet and other officials. Despite Congress’ constitutional responsibility to authorize the use of war powers, the administration has sidestepped lawmakers and declared that members of drug cartels are unlawful combatants that it can kill as terrorists.

At the same time, the U.S. military is building up its naval force off South America, raising the specter of an invasion of Venezuela and the prospect that Trump is trying to depose President Nicolás Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, left, talks to staff as he leaves the U.S. Capitol building on day 36th of the government shutdown, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

What lawmakers learned

The classified briefing was open to the top leaders of both parties in the House and Senate, as well as the Republican chair and ranking Democrat for the committees in both chambers that oversee the military, U.S. intelligence and foreign relations. The Trump administration also made available to senators this week the document in which it explains the legal basis for the campaign.

While lawmakers are not allowed to disclose the details of the briefing, they described it in broad terms.

Sen. Jim Risch, the Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, “The administration has kept me, other members fully advised. (I’m) fully satisfied with what they’re doing. They’ve got good legal justification for what they’re doing. The president really ought to be congratulated for saving the lives of young American people.”

But Democrats ripped into the administration last week when it provided a classified briefing only for Republican senators, saying it was dangerous to inject partisanship when national security and the lives of Americans are put at risk. Following Wednesday’s briefing, Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who had leveled the harsh criticism, expressed some sympathy to the idea that the U.S. should be more aggressive toward Maduro.

But he added that it is a “huge mistake” to carry out the strikes on the boats “without actually interdicting and demonstrating to the American public that these are carrying drugs and full of bad guys.”

Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said U.S. intelligence assets are being used to confirm that the vessels are carrying cocaine, but added that “lots of mistakes could get made.” He said he wasn’t confident that U.S. forces are using the same “architecture” as with counter-terrorism strikes to make sure innocent people aren’t inadvertently killed.

Himes added that the officials gave no indication that the strikes would be stopping but also indicated they were targeting cocaine traffickers and not overtly intending to overthrow Maduro.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives to brief lawmakers on the U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats ordered by President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The secret legal opinion for the strikes

Senators have been able to review a secret opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that gives a legal rationale for the strikes. It runs 40 pages and includes a thorough explanation, according to Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat.

But Kaine criticized the opinion as having “logical fallacies.”

“There is nothing in there about the rationale for Venezuela strikes, so it’s a very elaborate legal rationale for why you can strike a boat in international waters,” he added. Warner also said the document does not specifically mention Venezuela.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said nothing in the opinion or the briefing convinced him that the strikes are legal.

“They made statements and explanations. I still believe, after all of their statements, that the acts are illegal,” he said.

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Will Congress weigh in on Trump’s Venezuela strategy?

The resolution to be voted on Thursday, offered by Kaine and other Democrats, would require congressional approval before Trump makes any strikes directly on Venezuela. Kaine says it’s important for Congress to take back its authority over war powers and have a full debate before deploying U.S. troops to use deadly force.

While similar legislation aimed at the strikes in international waters previously failed on a mostly party line vote, it did show there is some skepticism among Republicans about the president’s campaign. There is also growing friction between congressional Republicans and the Pentagon over a number of recent policy decisions, including a decrease of U.S. troops in Romania and new limitations on how information can be shared with Congress.

Still, a number of GOP senators said this week they were comfortable with taking action directly in Venezuela.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican who was born in Colombia, said he “absolutely” believes the Venezuelan government is a narco-state and said he wanted the administration to pursue a policy of regime change against the Maduro government.

“If he’s hitting drug labs, I think I would certainly be open to that, but I don’t know what he’s got planned,” said Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican.

Democrats, however, called for an open hearing on the administration’s plans. They also expressed worry about what they see as no cohesive strategy at all.

Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said, “I’m concerned about the lack of clear strategy and policy and paths forward.”

If there’s anything head coach Kevin O’Connell has learned about being around young quarterback J.J. McCarthy after a game, it’s how to handle himself when the 22-year-old is still very clearly fired up and in the zone.

The intensity was on display in the visitor’s locker after the Vikings earned the 27-24 win over the Detroit Lions.

A video clip posted on social media provided a peek behind the curtain. O’Connell is shown giving a speech, while McCarthy looks like a rabid animal ready to pounce.

His head nodding up and down. His eyes peering straight ahead. His nostrils flaring with each breath.

“It never catches me off guard,” O’Connell said with a laugh. “I know to give him the football, deliver the message that I’d like to deliver, and then get the hell out of the way for my own personal safety.”

As his teammates erupted around him, McCarthy gathered everybody in a circle and delivered a message.

“We can’t let this (expletive) be an emotional letdown,” McCarthy said. “We’ve got to come back stronger and keep (expletive) getting better at every little detail, in every little phases.”

That anecdote perfectly encapsulated how McCarthy is able to go to different place in his mind for a few hours.

The war paint he wears on his face became synonymous with him amid his rise up the ranks. The mean mug he unleashes before, during, and after a game is becoming synonymous with him at the highest level.

It’s all part of McCarthy’s alter ego — he refers to that version of himself simply as “9” — that he’s able to channel when he puts on the pads and laces up the cleats. Though he’s always carried himself with a level of intensity, McCarthy’s alter ego was developed last year as a rookie while he was on injured reserve recovering from a torn meniscus.

“It started to show up this year,” McCarthy said. “You want to be out there so frickin bad. It was this built up anger that was kind of ready to explode. I chose to harness it instead of letting it go into a self destructive kind of way.”

It’s a little bit of a change compared to how McCarthy has gone about it in the past. He typically focused on being happy on the field when he was at Nazareth Academy in high school and the University of Michigan in college. He never let himself fully lean into being angry on the field.

“I kind of love feeding that wolf,” McCarthy said. “There’s a lot of power that comes from that built up anger that I can transmute into my performance.”

What do his teammates think of McCarthy’s alter ego?

“A dawg,” running back Aaron Jones said after the Vikings beat the Lions. “He’s somebody who wants it. He’s hungry for more. He’s out to prove a lot of people wrong.”

There’s an authenticity about McCarthy that has gotten his teammates to believe in him. They know it’s not an act when McCarthy’s alter ego comes out. They know it’s simply McCarthy being himself.

“The guys were excited,” O’Connell said of the scene in the visitor’s locker room. “It was a cool moment. We’ve had a couple of them so far. We hope to have more.”

Briefly

There were a number of players who did not participate in practice on Wednesday afternoon at TCO Performance Center, including Jones (shoulder/toe), tight end Josh Oliver (foot), cornerback Jeff Okudah (concussion), and safety Theo Jackson (concussion).

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By STEVE PEOPLES, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — For a day, at least, beleaguered Democrats are hopeful again. But just beneath the party’s relief at securing its first big electoral wins since last November’s drubbing lay unresolved questions about its direction heading into next year’s midterm elections.

The Election Day romp of Republicans stretched from deep-blue New York and California to swing states Georgia, Pennsylvania and Virginia. There were signs that key voting groups, including young people, Black voters and Hispanics who shifted toward President Donald Trump’s Republican Party just a year ago, may be shifting back. And Democratic leaders across the political spectrum coalesced behind a simple message focused on Trump’s failure to address rising costs and everyday kitchen table issues.

The dominant performance sparked a new round of debate among the party’s establishment-minded pragmatists and fiery progressives over which approach led to Tuesday’s victories, and which path to take into the high-stakes 2026 midterm elections and beyond. The lessons Democrats learn from the victories will help determine the party’s leading message and messengers next year — when elections will decide the balance of power in Congress for the second half of Trump’s term — and potentially in the 2028 presidential race, which has already entered its earliest stages.

“Of course, there’s a division within the Democratic Party. There’s no secret,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told reporters at a Capitol Hill press conference about the election results.

Sanders and his chief political strategist pointed to the success of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as a model for Democrats across the country. But Rep. Suzan Del Bene, who leads the House Democrats’ midterm campaign strategy, avoided saying Mamdani’s name when asked about his success.

This combination of photos taken on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, shows Abigail Spanberger in Richmond, Va., left, Zohran Mamdani in New York, center, and Mikie Sherrill in East Brunswick, N.J. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, Yuki Iwamura and Matt Rourke)

Del Bene instead cheered the moderate approach adopted by Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill in successful races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey as a more viable track for candidates outside of a Democratic stronghold like New York City.

“New York is bright blue … and the path to the majority in the House is going to be through purple districts,” she told The Associated Press. “The people of Arizona, Iowa and Nebraska aren’t focused on the mayor of New York.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a likely Democratic presidential prospect who campaigned alongside Democrats in several states leading up to Tuesday’s elections, noted the candidates hit on a common issue that resonated with voters, regardless of location.

“All of these candidates who won in these different states were focused on peoples’ everyday needs,” Shapiro said. “And you saw voters in every one of those states and cities showing up to send a clear message to Donald Trump that they’re rejecting his chaos.”

Intraparty criticism

Amid Democrats’ celebratory phone calls and news conferences, members of the party’s different wings had some sharp critiques for each other.

While Shapiro cheered the party’s success during a Wednesday interview, he also acknowledged concerns about Mamdani in New York.

Signs welcomes voters on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Del Mar, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Shapiro, one of the nation’s most prominent Jewish elected leaders, said he’s not comfortable with some of Mamdani’s comments on Israel. The New York mayor-elect, a Muslim, has described Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks as “genocide” against the Palestinian people and has been slow to condemn rhetoric linked to anti-Semitism.

“I’ve expressed that to him personally. We’ve had good private communications,” Shapiro said of his concerns. “And I hope, as he did last night in his victory speech, that he’ll be a mayor that protects all New Yorkers and tries to bring people together.”

Meanwhile, Sanders’ political strategist, Faiz Shakir, warned Democrats against embracing “cookie cutter campaigns that say nothing and do nothing” — a reference to centrist Democrats Spanberger and Sherrill.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat who defeated democratic socialist Omar Fateh to win a third term, said at a news conference Wednesday that “we have to love our city more than our ideology.”

“We need to be doing everything possible to push back on authoritarianism and what Donald Trump is doing,” Frey said. “And at the same time, the opposite of Donald Trump extremism is not the opposite extreme.”

Democrats win everywhere

Despite potential cracks in the Democratic coalition, it’s hard to understate the extent of the party’s electoral success.

In Georgia, two Democrats cruised to wins over Republican incumbents in elections to the state Public Service Commission, delivering the largest statewide margins of victory by Democrats in more than 20 years.

In Pennsylvania, Democrats swept not only three state Supreme Court races, but every county seat in presidential swing counties like Bucks and Erie Counties, including sheriffs. Bucks County elected its first Democratic district attorney as Democrats there also won key school board races and county judgeships.

Maine voters defeated a Republican-backed measure that would have mandated showing an ID at the polls. Colorado approved raising taxes on people earning more than $300,000 annually to fund school meal programs and food assistance for low-income state residents. And California voters overwhelmingly backed a charge led by Gov. Gavin Newsom to redraw its congressional map to give Democrats as many as five more House seats in upcoming elections.

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Key groups coming back to Democrats

Trump made inroads with Black and Hispanic voters in 2024. But this week, Democrats scored strong performances with non-white voters in New Jersey and Virginia that offered promise.

About 7 in 10 voters in New Jersey were white, according to the AP Voter Poll. And Sherrill won about half that group. But she made up for her relative weakness with whites with a strong showing among Black, Hispanic and Asian voters.

The vast majority — about 9 in 10 — of Black voters supported Sherrill, as did about 8 in 10 Asian voters.

Hispanic voters in New Jersey were more divided, but about two-thirds supported Sherrill; only about 3 in 10 voted for the Republican nominee, Jack Ciattarelli.

The pattern was similar in Virginia, where Spanberger performed well among Black voters, Hispanic voters and Asian voters, even though she didn’t win a majority of white voters.

Democrats will soon face a choice

The debate over the party’s future is already starting to play out in key midterm elections where Democrats have just begun intra-party primary contests.

The choice is stark in Maine’s high-stakes Senate race, where Democrats will pick from a field that features establishment favorite, Gov. Jan Mills, and Sanders-endorsed populist Graham Platner. A similar dynamic could play out in key contests across Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Michigan.

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is aligned with the progressive wing of the party, said the people he speaks to are demanding bold action to address their economic concerns.

“Folks are so frustrated by how hard its become to afford a dignified life here in Michigan and across the country,” he said.

“I’m sure the corporate donors don’t want us to push too hard,” El-Sayed continued. “My worry is the very same people who told us we were just fine in 2024 will miss the mandate.”

Associated Press reporter Mike Catalini in Newark and Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed.

A now-former treasurer of two Lakeville gymnastics booster clubs is accused of stealing over $80,000 from the groups’ bank accounts.

Holly Nichole Flood, 46, of Lakeville, was charged by summons in Dakota County District Court with two counts of felony theft in connection with allegedly embezzling from the Lakeville South High Gymnastics Booster Club and Lakeville Gymnastics Booster Club.

Flood was treasurer of one club from April 2019 to March 2024, the other from February 2019 to June 2024, when she resigned after a financial review of the clubs’ accounts, the criminal complaint said.

Flood is scheduled to make a first court appearance Dec. 9. An attorney is not listed in the court case file, and a message left for Flood asking for comment was not returned Wednesday.

According to the Oct. 31 complaint, Lakeville police received a report in July 2024 about missing funds from the clubs. The reporting party told officers that Flood, the clubs’ former treasurer, may have used club funds for personal purposes.

The reporting party said Flood had recently stepped down as treasurer after a financial review showed a large number of checks written to Flood, ATM withdrawals at casinos and other spending not tied to the clubs.

When club members asked Flood for account information and financial documents, she refused to cooperate, the complaint said.

In an interview with police, Flood said she sometimes paid for things for the clubs out of her personal finances and would later reimburse herself for those expenses. She said she retained some documentation of the clubs’ finances, including for her reimbursement as her time as treasurer.

Officers asked Flood for the documentation, which she provided about a week later. However, in a follow-up interview the same day, Flood “became emotional” and said she had taken money from the clubs after getting into personal financial problems, the complaint said.

She said she “never tried to hurt the clubs and attempted to pay back what she had taken,” the complaint read.

When questioned about the ATM withdrawals, Flood said she gambled to pay her expenses and pay back the clubs’ money.

Officers later received Flood’s casino gaming records and discovered she had lost an estimated $41,000 between 2022 and 2023.

A police analysis of the clubs’ financial records showed Flood stole nearly $51,000 from one club account between March 2021 and 2024. With the other club, police determined Flood took just over $32,000 between August 2022 and June 2024, the complaint said.

Flood did pay back one club about $30,300, mostly through a cashier’s check after she resigned as treasurer, the complaint said.

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