No Consensus Reached in US–Russia Talks; Republican Matt Van Epps Wins Tennessee Special Election | NTD Good Morning (Dec. 3)

The push for a negotiated end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine hit a stalemate this week, after a five-hour meeting in Moscow between U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Russian President Vladimir Putin ultimately produced no results. The Kremlin described the talks as constructive, but said compromises had not yet been found.

Republican Matt Van Epps was projected to win a special election on Dec. 2 to fill a vacant U.S. House seat. Van Epps thanked Trump multiple times following his projected victory. Van Epps is a former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services and defeated the Democratic Party’s state Rep. Aftyn Behn.

Trump held his ninth Cabinet meeting of the year on Dec. 2, as scrutiny grows over a deadly boat strike in the Caribbean. Some lawmakers claim a second strike on an alleged drug boat was a war crime. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Admiral Frank Bradley made the call and that it was the right decision under the “fog of war.” Trump defended the strikes, saying they have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives, and warned that land strikes on cartels are coming soon, not just in Venezuela, but in any country sending illicit drugs into the United States.