Cassie Semyon is a Washington correspondent for Spectrum News. She has experience interviewing lawmakers such as Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, acting as pool reporter for the Vice President and the Second Gentleman, and has live breaking news experience. cassie.semyon@gmail.com

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she doesn’t like to use Donald Trump’s name. "It's like a curse word to me," Pelosi says. Pelosi’s feelings about the former – and perhaps future – president were clear in an interview Wednesday with Spectrum News. The two battled when he was in the White House and she was House speaker, and Pelosi said she hopes he doesn’t make it to the Oval Office again.

In a one-on-one interview with Spectrum News, Vice President Kamala Harris made the case that abortion will be one of the top issues at stake in November’s presidential election. “When we've seen it on the ballot … since this case came down over a year ago, from Kansas to California, Ohio to Virginia, red states, blue states, the American people voted in favor of freedom,” Harris said in the interview. “I think that a lot of people who are now coming to realize the harm that has actually resulted from this ruling, do feel a level of compassion and don't believe it's right that people are suffering the way they are.”

Kevin McCarthy likes being considered an underdog. “We never give up. People underestimate us,” Speaker McCarthy said of growing up in his hometown of Bakersfield, CA. It’s part one of our exclusive series, Kevin McCarthy: The Journey to House Speaker: https://t.co/sjUwpm7U3A

As he looks to make an impact during his tenure as Speaker of the House, the balancing act for Kevin McCarthy, who only has a five-seat majority, is just beginning. We look at McCarthy’s leadership style in part 2 of our exclusive series: https://t.co/X2aoNcTuUV

When it comes to 2024, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is keeping his options open, though he told us during our exclusive interview he “checks in” with former Pres. Trump. “I've talked to a lot of people who say they might run for president too.” https://t.co/5mJy6vRsfl

I joined The Big Deal with Errol Louis to discuss the latest on the 2024 presidential race/

Two years ago, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz coasted to re-election, winning the state by nearly eight points. Though he ran up the margins in Minneapolis, Duluth, and other cities, Walz struggled to gain traction with more rural communities, winning just 13 of Minnesota’s 87 counties. Still, Democrats say they are confident that Walz’s presence as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate can help the ticket win over some rural voters in the swing states, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Before he was a politician and long before he was Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was a social studies teacher and football coach at Mankato West High School from 1996 to 2006, when he left to make his successful run for Congress. In the days since he was announced as Harris’ pick for the Democratic vice presidential nominee, a slew of teachers and former students have spoken publicly about his time as a teacher, as the defensive coordinator for the 1999 state championship-winning football team and as the faculty advisor for the school’s first gay-straight alliance. Visiting Mankato, Minn., this week, Spectrum News caught up with two of his former colleagues who recalled working alongside Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, who also taught at the same school.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the newly selected running mate to Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris wasted little time endearing himself to supporters filling Philadelphia’s Liacouras Center at Temple University. "Donald Trump sees the world a little differently than us. First of all, he doesn't know the first thing about service," Walz said. "He doesn't have time for it because he's too busy serving himself again and again and again … he mocks our law. He sows chaos and division, and that’s nothing to say of his record as president. He froze in the face of the COVID crisis. He drove our economy into the ground." "And make no mistake, violent crime was up under Donald Trump — and that's not even counting the crimes he committed," he added, to roaring cheers.

“We have to take ourselves to a place where this rhetoric is not so violent.” In her new book, The Art of Power, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi details how she wielded her power as Speaker, but also urges civility in the wake of January 6th and the October 2022 attack on her husband Paul.

Highlights from our special coverage on Spectrum News networks of President Joe Biden's Oval Office address on 7/24/24

We spoke with some California lawmakers at the RNC about how they feel about Trump choosing Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate.

I joined Erin Billups to talk about the morning's top political headlines for our network's Political buzz segment.

In Donald Trump's immunity case, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that presidents are shielded from prosecution for official acts, but not unofficial ones. The case was sent back to a lower court, further delaying the historic prosecution against the Republican ex-president on charges that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters.

The Congressional Women's Softball game is a summer tradition to raise money for the Young Survival Coalition. The game puts a bipartisan team of female members of Congress up against the women of the Capitol Hill press corps -- and has helped raise $3.7 million dollars since it started in 2009.

During the day, Rep. Robert Garcia of California is immersed in politics and policy. But by night, he’s engaged in a different passion: comic books. “When I immigrated to the U.S., I didn't know English – I was a Spanish speaker only,” explained Garcia. “Comics [are] kind of how I learned to read and write English.”

Reps. Katie Porter, D-Calif. and James Comer, R-Ky. are often at completely opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. But the pair have teamed up to cosponsor the Presidential Ethics Reform Act, a bill that aims to hold executive office holders and their families accountable. Porter now alleges the White House is trying to meddle in the bills future by discouraging three Democrats from co-sponsoring the measure.