Cellphone video captured Vice President JD Vance being approached by a group of pro-Ukrainian protesters while out in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his 3-year-old daughter on Saturday.

Vance can be seen engaging with the group, who voiced concern about the Trump administration’s shift in US policy toward Ukraine. Protesters interjected at times with questions and responses, arguing against the vice president’s statements as he spoke.

Vance later wrote on social media that while it was a “mostly respectful conversation,” some of the protesters had “followed us around and shouted as my daughter grew increasingly anxious and scared” before he stopped to talk to the group. Vance said he engaged with the protesters “in the hopes that I could trade a few minutes of conversation for them leaving my toddler alone.”

Ann Hall, one of the protesters, told CNN that Vance’s post was not a fair representation of the incident.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says he’s “worried about” the Trump administration’s decision to pause military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

“But until we have a ceasefire, I would give Ukraine what they need, and in terms of intelligence and weapons to defend themselves.”

Graham said he talked to national security adviser Mike Waltz “a couple of days ago,” and that the US goal is to “end the war honorably and justly,” adding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “blew it” in his recent tense Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump.

During the meeting, Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelensky over a perceived lack of gratitude for US support, with Zelensky pushing back at several points.

Graham said he thinks US negotiators, who are attending talks with Ukrainian counterparts in Saudi Arabia starting Monday, will find out this week “what a good deal looks like” to Kyiv officials.

Then they can “urge the Russians to sit down with the White House and compare notes and end this war,” the South Carolina lawmaker said.

Graham added that he plans to introduce a bill to sanction Russia’s banking and energy sectors in the coming days to push the country to “get to the table” in negotiations to end the war.

In interviews Sunday, some Democratic lawmakers criticized fellow party members’ behavior during President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress last week, once again highlighting a divide in the caucus over how they should have responded to the moment.

Divergent tactics were on full display from the party during last Tuesday’s speech, with some Democrats holding signs, walking out or boycotting it altogether. Most prominently, Rep. Al Green was removed from the chamber after standing up and shouting during the opening minutes of the speech, prompting a GOP-led censure that was joined by 10 Democrats.

Other party members took a more muted approach, following the guidance of House Democratic leadership, who had urged lawmakers not to mount high-profile protests and to show restraint during the address, warning the GOP could seize on any outbursts.

Here’s what some Democrats said about the issue Sunday:

CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi, Sarah Ferris and Annie Grayer contributed reporting to this post.

Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey said Sunday that a bipartisan short-term government funding bill is the best path to averting a shutdown this week, highlighting the challenges congressional Republicans potentially face in advancing a plan without Democratic votes.

“Republicans are in charge of this process right now,” Kim told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

Kim accused House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose GOP leadership team unveiled a Trump-backed stopgap bill on Saturday, of walking away from “ongoing” bipartisan talks.

The senator said he would prefer to vote for a bill that extends current funding levels for 30 days, so bipartisan negotiations could continue over a longer-term plan, instead of Johnson’s plan to “kick the can down the road” to the end of the fiscal year.

Pressed by Tapper on whether he would vote against the House GOP plan, which also includes $6 billion for defense spending and $13 billion in cuts to domestic spending, if it comes to the Senate floor, Kim said, “That’s not what I’m saying,” adding, “We need to see what happens in the House.”

Kim speculated that Johnson may not be able to secure the GOP votes needed to pass a bill with his narrow majority, saying the speaker is “very bad at keeping his caucus together.”

Senate spending negotiators have been working in recent weeks on a shorter-term bipartisan funding bill, though appropriations legislation must ultimately be launched in the House, where Democratic leaders have already thrown cold water on Johnson’s plan, signaling he can’t afford to lose virtually any Republican votes.

The Republican co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he remains undecided and is still “digging through” the measure.

Fitzpatrick said ideally he would have liked to see a bipartisan bill that did not have such a thin margin for success in funding the government.

CNN’s Aileen Graef contributed reporting to this post.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio chastised his Polish counterpart for “making things up” after the official accused President Donald Trump’s ally Elon Musk of threatening to cut off Ukraine’s access to Starlink internet.

The dispute stemmed from an argument between Musk and an X user over whether the SpaceX CEO was sufficiently critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

Musk replied that his Starlink system is the “backbone of the Ukrainian army” and warned its “entire front line” would collapse if he turned off the system. Musk also contended that Ukraine “will inevitably lose” the war with Russia, urging an immediate end to the conflict.

Rubio pushed back, saying the Polish official was “just making things up” and that “no one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink.”

The exchange comes as Rubio is scheduled to meet his Ukranian counterparts this week in Saudi Arabia, where the two countries are looking to move forward from a tense Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

It also comes on the heels of a New York Times report that Rubio and Musk clashed during a recent Cabinet meeting, which Trump has denied.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin said Sunday that she’s not opposed to using tariffs to bring back American manufacturing, but President Donald Trump has taken a “reckless” approach.

The Michigan lawmaker, who Democrats tapped to deliver their party’s response to Trump’s address to Congress, warned in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that a trade war sparked by tariffs would be a “gift to foreign automakers.”

Trump on Thursday signed executive actions that delay 25% tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada for nearly one month, after the initial policy spurred threats of reciprocal tariffs by those countries and fear among US consumers.

Slotkin said the way Trump is handling tariffs is “the way he’s handling everything else right now,” warning against “reckless change” versus “responsible change.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday announced new leadership at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with Todd Lyons serving as acting director and Madison Sheahan as deputy director.

“Todd Lyons and Madison Sheahan are work horses, strong executors, and accountable leaders who will lead the men and women of ICE to achieve the American people’s mandate to target, arrest and deport illegal aliens.”

Lyons previously held positions as the executive associate director and the assistant director of field operations for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations. Sheahan serves as the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

“Adding more people to the team with Todd and with Madison is going to allow us to partner with local law enforcement officials to make sure that we truly are following through on enforcing the law, and if you break our law, then there’s going to be consequences,” Noem said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

CNN reported last week that although President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants residing in the United States, the pace of deportations has held steady compared with last year.

Noem told CBS that she wants to see the number of deportations increase and that the administration would help facilitate self-deportations.

“People remember they have an option to go home on their own. Yeah, we are giving them that opportunity to do that, and we will help facilitate that,” she said.

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California criticized his own party for their behavior during Donald Trump’s address to Congress last week — citing how members refused to stand for the president and to celebrate a young boy with cancer.

Khanna asserted that Democrats urgently need to shift from “talking about our own behavior” to focusing on their economic message to “redefine” the party.

The California Democrat said he thought Rep. Al Green’s heckling of the president at the address warranted the lawmaker’s removal, but not censuring, “because he didn’t engage in violence.” Khanna was not among the 10 Democrats who voted to censure Green on Thursday.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick indicated Sunday that planned tariffs on Mexico and Canada will go into effect April 2 and continue until President Donald Trump is “comfortable” with how both countries are handling the flow of fentanyl.

Pressed repeatedly on whether the tariffs would be permanent during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Lutnick said, “If fentanyl ends, I think these will come off. But if fentanyl does not end or he’s uncertain about it, they will stay this way until he is comfortable.”

National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett also tied Trump’s tariffs to drug policy, saying on ABC’s “This Week” that the back-and-forth is due to “a drug war, not a trade war.”

Hassett said the measures against the country’s North American neighbors were “part of the negotiation to get Canada and Mexico to stop shipping fentanyl across our borders, and as we’ve watched them make progress on the drug war, then we’ve relaxed some of the tariffs.”

While Hassett claimed Sunday that Canada is a “major source” of the drug, the country is responsible for a minuscule percentage — 0.2% — of illegal fentanyl imports into the US.

Mexico’s president, meanwhile, reported a dramatic reduction in the amount of fentanyl seized at the southern border in February from January, garnering praise from Trump.

Trump has highlighted fentanyl trafficking and immigration as key issues impacting his trade policy with Mexico and Canada, but has also broadly framed tariffs as a response to what he says are unfair trade terms between the countries.

President Donald Trump downplayed the recent whipsaw of the stock market, stemming from him imposing and then adjusting tariffs, defending his strategy in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” and saying some tariffs “may go up” next month.

Trump, who has frequently pointed to stock market performance as a key measure of his success as president, claimed in the interview that, “You can’t really watch the stock market,” and said he’s trying to “build a strong country” in the long term.

On Thursday, the president signed executive actions that delayed tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada that are covered by the USMCA free trade treaty until April 2. But Trump indicated that tariffs may still increase after that date.

Asked if he predicts a recession this year, Trump said, “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. And there are always periods of — it takes a little time. It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.”

Republican Rep. Chip Roy defended the GOP-led funding stopgap plan, saying in an interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend” that government should remain open and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency should be given “more power” to continue its overhaul of federal agencies.

The plan, formally unveiled by House Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday, would provide funding through September 30, staving off a potential March 14 government shutdown and buying time for Republicans to steer key pieces of President Donald Trump’s agenda through Congress this summer.

Roy told Fox News that while he’s “no huge proponent” of a continuing resolution — the name for this type of temporary funding measure — he acknowledges this is a chance to “freeze spending at current levels” while “keeping the lights on for Elon to continue to do what they’re doing at DOGE.”

Roy added that the House Republican conference had a positive conversation with Johnson on Saturday, saying there’s “overwhelming” support for the bill, but still “a few folks who don’t like it.”

President Donald Trump’s special envoy for hostages Adam Boehler said Sunday that the US does not know whether freelance journalist Austin Tice, who has been held in Syria since 2012, is alive, but indicated he plans to go to Syria to try to find him.

Months ago as the Assad regime fell, Tice’s family said they had received confirmation he was alive and well, citing a “significant source,” and then-President Joe Biden said he believed Tice was alive.

“Truthfully, I don’t know whether Austin is still alive,” Boehler said in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“For me, in my job, it’s to bring all Americans home, dead or alive. And so Austin is on my list, and I’m going to go to Syria, and I’m going to do the best I can to find out.”

Boehler did not indicate a timeline for his travel to Syria.

Boehler met Austin’s mother, Debra, at a hostage day event at the State Department on Thursday.

Separately, Boehler expressed optimism about a potential truce between Israel and Hamas following direct talks with the US-designated terrorist organization this week.

He described the negotiations as “very helpful” and a starting point to assess what realistic “endgame” Hamas is seeking. Boehler said he believes a long-term truce is possible, and expressed openness to meeting with Hamas again.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott on Sunday defended Elon Musk’s efforts to slash the federal workforce as “part of the process of balancing the budget,” but said Musk “does not have the power to fire people” and is working with agency heads to reduce staff.

“We will not get interest rates down, we will not get inflation under control until we balance the budget. That’s what we have to do, and Elon Musk is part of the process of balancing the budget,” the Florida lawmaker told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

Scott said despite Musk being the face of massive slashes to the federal workforce and programs, agency heads are responsible for the reduction of staff.

This comes after a Cabinet meeting last week in which Trump said that, while he fully backs Musk’s efforts, it’s ultimately up to agency heads to handle staffing at their respective agencies. The question of who is in charge of the cuts has been subject to mounting legal challenges against the administration.

Scott said he believes the administration will “fix” any mistakes they make as they decide on cuts.

“We have got to be very aggressive at figuring out how to do this. So I’m very comfortable that Donald Trump, Elon Musk, their agency heads, they’re going to do the best they can. And if they make a mistake, they will fix their mistake. They’re willing to work really hard to do the right thing,” he said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from Monday through Wednesday this week to meet with his Ukrainian counterparts, the State Department announced Sunday.

During the trip, Rubio will meet with Ukrainian officials “to advance the President’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war,” according to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.

The meeting in Saudi Arabia comes as the two countries work to put their relationship back on solid footing following last month’s Oval Office blowup between US President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Since the meeting — in which Trump and Vance berated Zelensky over the war, and the Ukrainian leader pushed back on several points — top US officials have been working to right ties.

Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff previously told reporters that American and Ukrainian officials plan to meet this week in Saudi Arabia.

“Well, President Zelensky sent a letter to the president. I think the president thought that it was a really good, positive first step … And I think the idea is to get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire,” Witkoff said.

Bruce also announced Rubio will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “to discuss ways to advance shared interests in the region and strengthen the U.S.-Saudi relationship.” The kingdom has been host to key US talks on both the Ukraine conflict and war in the Middle East.

Rubio will then travel to Charlevoix, Canada, to meet with his G7 counterparts at the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting. Bruce said the discussions will “focus on conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, cooperation in Africa and the Indo-Pacific, and stability in the Western Hemisphere.”

Over the past few days, President Donald Trump announced, implemented and reversed some of his tariff threats for Canada, Mexico and China — leading to uncertainty and whiplash on both Wall Street and Main Street.

Catch up on everything that happened here:

Trump’s blanket 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada took effect on Tuesday. The president also doubled the tariff on all Chinese imports to 20% from 10%. The Trump administration said the tariffs were necessary to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States. China and Canada immediately retaliated with tariffs on American goods, threatening to ignite a damaging trade war. Mexico said it would announce retaliatory measures Sunday.

A day later, Trump granted an exemption on auto tariffs on Mexico and Canada for one month. After speaking with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, Trump said he agreed to a reprieve to ensure America’s Big Three automakers aren’t harmed financially.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the automakers should use the monthlong reprieve to work toward the president’s goals of bringing America’s auto production back to the United States — an unlikely scenario, because that would require massive hiring, investment and strategic planning.

Trump then on Thursday signed executive actions that delayed tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada that are covered by the USMCA free trade treaty until April 2. The USMCA is the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, negotiated by Trump during his first term. The executive actions followed a discussion Trump held Thursday with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and negotiations between Canadian and US officials. Sheinbaum also said Thursday that, with the pause in effect, she would not announce the previously planned retaliatory tariffs.

Trump continued to sharply criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Canada said it would pause its planned second round of tariffs on over 4,000 US goods until April 2.

But on Friday, Trump threatened new tariffs on Canadian lumber and dairy products.

“Canada has been ripping us off for years on lumber and on dairy products,” Trump said in Oval Office remarks Friday, citing Canada’s roughly 250% tariff on US dairy exports to the country. Trump said America would match those tariffs dollar-for-dollar.

“We may do it as early as today, or we’ll wait until Monday or Tuesday,” Trump said, adding that more “changes and adjustments” on tariffs should be expected.

As the Pentagon and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency set their sights on climate-related programs at the Defense Department, officials and experts are warning that slashing them could put US troops and military operations at risk.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other senior Pentagon officials have pointed to climate programs as a prime example of wasteful spending in the military.

In response to questions on the issue from CNN, Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot said the department is working with DOGE to identify efficiencies and savings across the department in an effort to “refocus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars.”

“Climate zealotry and other woke chimeras of the Left are not part of that core mission,” Ullyot said.

But some officials and experts argue such thinking is short-sighted.

Dr. Ravi Chaudhary, former assistant secretary of the Air Force for energy, installations and environment, told CNN climate programs are not just important to giving the US military an edge on adversaries like China, but they also help keep service members and their families safe.

Officials who spoke to CNN pointed to a number of programs within the Defense Department that could technically be tagged as climate-related but have real operational impacts on the military.

Making military installations more resilient to extreme weather events, for example, could save the Pentagon billions in the long term as wildfires and hurricanes become more common and more intense. In 2019, the Air Force requested $5 billion to rebuild two major bases after hurricanes and flooding caused severe damage.

House Speaker Mike Johnson formally unveiled plans on Saturdayfor a government funding stopgap through September 30 — a measure intended to stave off a potential March 14 shutdown and buy time for Donald Trump and GOP leaders to steer key pieces of the president’s agenda through Congress this summer.

While GOP leadership aides stressed that the plan includes no partisan policy add-ons, it does include certain White House funding requests, such as some new money intended to help carry out additional deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The president himself on Saturday endorsed the measure, which includes some cuts to domestic spending programs. GOP leadership aides said Saturday that it would increase defense spending by about $6 billion while domestic spending would drop by about $13 billion.

In an ominous sign for Congress’ ability to stave off a shutdown this week, House Democratic leaders quickly slammed the door on supporting the measure, raising the specter of a high-stakes clash.

Top Democrats said they plan to vote against the bill, arguing it “recklessly cuts” domestic spending programs.

Read more on the looming government spending fight here.

Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff on Sunday said the party’s lack of coordinated response to President Donald Trump’s address to Congress last week — with interruptions, walkouts and props — was a “mistake.”

The California lawmaker lambasted Trump for not adequately addressing bringing costs down for Americans during the speech, which ran over an hour and a half.

“There was nothing for American people, and that’s where we need to keep our focus,” he said.

Schiff said the party needs to be focused on “kitchen-table” issues like cost of living, affordable housing and how Americans will be impacted by the Trump administration’s policies. He said deviation from that focus cost Democrats the election.