AOC presidential buzz grows amid blockbuster crowds, fundraising

NEW YORK — Buzz is building around a potential 2028 presidential run by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the progressive lawmaker smashes fundraising records and draws record crowds to rallies in red states.

Polling guru Nate Silver on Thursday even predicted Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, will be the next Democratic nominee for the White House.

“I thought I was gonna surprise everyone by taking AOC first,” Silver tweeted, referring to the fact that his colleague Galen Druke also placed Ocasio-Cortez on top of his own early 2028 list. “That was going to be my … first pick,” he added.

Silver and Druke agreed Ocasio-Cortez has the charisma and popularity to make a huge splash in the still-embryonic Democratic White House race, citing her impressive polling and fundraising numbers.

—New York Daily News

Failure to return Abrego Garcia could lead to constitutional crisis, legal scholars say

Litigation over the return of a mistakenly deported Maryland man is testing the limits of an already fractured system of checks and balances, constitutional law professors said this week.

The legal standoff between federal courts and the executive branch over returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S. could lead to a constitutional crisis if the Trump administration continues to flout court orders, legal scholars say.

The next major step would be contempt sanctions — formal ways of enforcing court orders — against U.S. officials.

Contempt proceedings are not certain in Abrego Garcia’s case, but appear to be on the horizon. If a judge finds a party in contempt, compliance can come through civil penalties like fines against an agency or, in more extreme cases, criminal means such as jailing an official.

—Baltimore Sun

Schumer asks DOJ to investigate Shapiro arson attack as possible hate crime

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. on Thursday called on the Department of Justice to investigate whether an early morning arson attempt at Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official residence last weekend was a hate crime.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in the wake of the attack in Harrisburg, Schumer called on the federal government to do “everything in its power to pursue justice and uphold the fundamental values of religious freedom and public safety.”

Authorities have yet to announce a motive in the attack, and Shapiro himself has been careful not to speculate, expressing confidence in local prosecutors and whatever charges they deem appropriate.

“As to Senator Schumer or anybody else, I don’t think it’s helpful for people on the outside, who haven’t seen the evidence, who don’t know what occurred, who are applying their own viewpoints to the situation, to weigh in in that manner,” Shapiro told reporters Thursday. “My trust is with the prosecutor to make the decision.”

—The Philadelphia Inquirer

Trump expects raw materials deal with Ukraine by next week

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government expects to sign an agreement on a strategic raw materials partnership with Ukraine next week, President Donald Trump said on Thursday.

"We have a minerals deal, which I guess is going to be signed on Thursday, next Thursday," Trump said at a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House.

He did not provide further details but appeared to be referring to a final agreement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier Thursday announced an interim step on the way to a raw materials deal with the U.S.

"The memorandum of understanding could be signed online today," Zelenskyy told journalists in Kyiv. Trump referred further questions from the press to his finance minister, Scott Bessent, who was also present at the meeting.

—dpa