Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sees an “opportunity” to be Speaker of the House of Representatives if Republicans manage to take control of the lower chamber of Congress in the November’s midterms.

He emphasised on Fox News Sunday that the priority is taking back the House not his own elevation to speaker, adding “we’ll be prepared to govern”.

The GOP needs to turn five seats from blue to red to take the House and Mr McCarthy is confident they will be able to do so.

Asked if the party was being over-confident about their prospects in November, Mr McCarthy said no, pointing to President Joe Biden’s low approval rating, high inflation, and rising crime.

“Americans want, need and deserve [a] clear, common sense alternative,” said Mr McCarthy. “And that’s what’s happening with the House Republicans.”

White House Covid-19 response coordinator Dr Ashish Jha tells Fox News Sunday he doesn’t think events like this month’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner need to be cancelled.

He says that we’ve reached the point of the pandemic “where I think we can gather safely” provided people put in “good safeguards” such as making sure people are vaccinated, testing, and improving ventilation.

Former president Donald Trump endorsed author JD Vance for the Republican nomination in Ohio’s Senate race, which the best-selling author and venture capitalist hopes could revive his lagging Senate campaign.

The announcement comes after NBC News had reported on Thursday that Mr Trump was considering endorsing Mr Vance and that surrogates for other candidates – such as businessman Mike Gibbons, former Ohio GOP chairwoman Jane Timken and former treasurer Josh Mandel – intervened to try and get the former president to change his mind.

Eric Garcia reports.

In an interview on Fox News on Sunday morning House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was asked about the 63 Republicans who voted against a resolution of unequivocal support for the Nato alliance and whether they were wrong to do so.

“No, there’s strong support for Nato moving forward — always has been,” he says before pivoting to how alliance members need to increase military spending, a line used on numerous occasions by former President Donald Trump.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tells CNN’s Jake Tapper that he believes President Joe Biden will visit Ukraine.

He adds that it is the president’s decision, but he should come as the leader of the US, pending security arrangements.

According to The Hill, she made the comments during an appearance on Pod Save America after she was questioned about past comments the president made about forgiving some student loan debt.

“Yes, still on the table, still on the table,” she said, which prompted cheers from the live audience listening to the podcast.

Georgia Republican Herschel Walker said Friday that his U.S. Senate campaign had raised $5.5m in the first three months of 2022, a big haul that is still dwarfed by the $13.6m that Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock raised in the same period.

A former football star, Walker is the GOP front-runner, but faces five other Republicans in the May 24 primary. A June 21 runoff, if necessary, would settle the Republican nomination.

Georgia will be a key battleground in the 2022 midterm elections to determine which party controls the US Senate. Republicans had long dominated statewide races until Georgia helped elect Joe Biden to the presidency and enabled Democrats to control the Senate by electing Warnock and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff in a January 2021 runoff.

Walker has raised $14.6m since announcing his run. Campaign spokesperson Mallory Blount said Walker had close to $7.4m in cash.