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

In one of her final public acts as Vice President – Kamala Harris made her mark. Literally. In a tradition that dates back to the 1940s but has been carried out in earnest since the Ford administration, Harris affixed her signature to the inside of the desk in the vice president’s ceremonial desk.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., gave his clearest signal yet Tuesday that Republicans want conditions attached to any new federal aid appropriated to help California recover from the devastating wildfires. Democrats, especially from California, criticized Johnson for politicizing disaster aid.

From serving as the chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee to appointing a Supreme Court justice, President Joe Biden has a unique understanding of the importance of the judicial branch. As he leaves the White House to a president who has promised to undo many of his signature policies, one of Biden's accomplishments is sure to be long-lasting: the federal judges he appointed over the last four years.

Kamala Harris is not the first Vice President that has had to preside over their own election loss, and she is likely not the last.

One week from today, the 119th Congress will be convened, and the first item on the to-do list for House lawmakers will be to elect a speaker - something that proved challenging for House Republicans over the last two years. It doesn't look like things will get easier this time around, as one Republican has already committed to voting against Speaker Mike Johnson in his second bid for the position, and others are keeping their powder dry.

A California Democrat who is part of the Congressional Progressive Caucus' leadership team says he is looking to find common ground with President-elect Donald Trump. “President Trump signed five of my bills in his first term. I think I was the California Democrat who had the most bills signed by him, and it's because I looked for areas of common ground,” Rep. Ro Khanna said in an exclusive interview with Spectrum News. Common ground for Khanna and Trump now may be in the form of tariffs — though Khanna’s vision on tariffs is more narrow than the incoming president’s. “Yes, we need strategic tariffs, but where we need tariffs are on semiconductor chips so that people are buying here we don't need blanket tariffs on every consumer product that's going to increase prices,” argued Khanna. When asked whether he had spoken with the President-elect’s team about tariffs on computer chips rather than blanket tariffs on a wide variety of imports, Khanna said he had. “I've spoken to people who I know in the President's incoming team, and I've spoken to members of Congress — but I'm very concerned about Intel, for example, with the CHIPS Act — keeping our semiconductors here,” he said. “I think we need to do two things: We need to have a 'Buy American' tax credit for companies that are going to buy American chips instead of chips from Taiwan. And we need to have a tariff on those chips coming in from Taiwan so that we don't lose our manufacturing work base in semiconductors. Some of that is in Ohio, so I hope to work with Vice President Vance on that.”

From his swearing in on Monday, to his first votes on the Senate floor, it has been a very busy first week for newly minted Sen. Adam Schiff of California. “It's been really wonderful to celebrate this with my family and friends. It's also been very powerful to sit at the desk on the Senate floor that Senator Feinstein sat at for so long, and to realize that I have to try to take up a small part of the legacy she has left behind, which is immense,” Schiff said, in an exclusive interview with Spectrum News. This is part 2 of a 2 part interview series.

Newly seated Sen. Adam Schiff of California says President-elect Donald Trump's threats to go after him and other political adversaries is “the kind of talk you hear from dictators." In an exclusive interview with Spectrum News, Schiff responded to an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press. Trump claimed without evidence that Schiff and other members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol broke the law and should be put in prison. Schiff said he is “enormously proud” of the committee’s work, and that the panel held "some of the most important public hearings since Watergate to expose what went into that violent attack on the Capitol.” When asked if he had consulted a lawyer and if he was concerned about the incoming administration coming after him, Schiff said he has not sought legal counsel. “I don't know what to make of these threats. Former President Trump makes a lot of threats all the time. It's certainly not the way a president should speak about jailing their political opponents. That's the kind of talk you hear from dictators,” he said. This is part 1 of a 2 part interview series.

Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove of Los Angeles says she has a lot to be proud of as she wraps her first term in office. “I've accomplished a lot as a freshman. I started the Global Migration Caucus with a number of other colleagues. I co-chair the Brazil caucus, I got a bill passed into law, I got a constituent released from a Venezuelan prison,” Kamlager-Dove said in an interview with Spectrum News.

I joined Spectrum News anchor Bree Driscoll to talk about the political headlines of the morning.

A recap of our time covering the Harris and Trump campaigns for Spectrum News.

Kamala Harris told Americans on Tuesday that Donald Trump's efforts to sow division and fear are "not who we are" as she reinforced her campaign's closing argument by delivering it from the same site where the Republican former president fomented the Capitol insurrection in 2021.