Politics and views in the United States.

House Dems back an effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The Senate GOP blocks an effort to limit executive war powers in Venezuela and a federal judge rejects a Republican plan to overturn California s new congressional maps.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we’re following our democracy in historic times.

Secretary Noem has brought her reign of terror to the Chicagoland area, LA, New Orleans, and communities north to south to east to west.

Illinois Democratic Representative Robin Kelly is calling for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's removal from office.

Articles of impeachment claim Noem obstructed congressional oversight, compromised public safety violated due process rights and used her office for personal benefit.

So far 70 members of Congress have signed on.

The killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good at a Minneapolis immigration raid sparked more than a thousand protests nationwide.

The Senate narrowly rejected a War Powers resolution limiting President Donald Trump's ability to further strike Venezuela.

That, after two Republicans who it favored switched their votes under pressure from the White House.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the resolution "unnecessary" after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's capture earlier this month.

Thune says Democrats are giving in to, quote, "anti-Trump hysteria."

Back during the first Trump administration, Democrats were calling for the ouster of Maduro, and were criticizing the president for not going far enough in opposing the Maduro regime.

The vote still signifies an increasing willingness to stand up to Trump's use of the military.

Since Maduro's capture, Trump has increasingly said the U.S. will take control of Greenland from Denmark by force if needed.

North Carolina Republican Tom Tillis calls that, quote, "absurd."

We had as many as 17 military installations in Greenland at our height, And once we get through this tension that we have today, they would be willing to accept us.

A federal court rejected a GOP attempt to block California's new voter-approved congressional maps.

Republicans argued the new districts were racially gerrymandered to favor Hispanic voters.

The court found neither party made that claim during legislative debate and ruled the maps were a partisan, not racial gerrymander, which is allowed under the Voting Rights Act.

The case could go to the Supreme Court.

Despite Trump's repeated claims of widespread non-citizen voting in the last election, preliminary investigations show quite the opposite.

Of nearly 50 million voter registrations checked, only 10,000, less than one quarter of 1 percent, were referred for review as possibly non-citizens, and many of those may have actually been citizens.

Meanwhile, political scientists say scandals seem to be having less negative impact on candidates.

Impeached Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is shaking off the past in his bid for the Senate, and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made a high-profile, though unsuccessful, run for New York City Mayor.

University of Houston Professor Brandon Roddinghouse says that may be due to social media and the 24-hour news cycle.

The zone is completely flooded with information.

People are overwhelmed, and so they retreat to their own tribal attitudes.

They're gonna support the politicians they like and forgive them.

People who are transgender say they have trouble finding a job, even though most Americans say they support policies now in federal law protecting them from discrimination.

Transgender workers report unemployment at twice the rate of the population as a whole.

Tony Newman is with Trans Can Work.

We're not looking for anything else, but what every other American needs is economic and financial security.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.