Politics Election category, Page 109
House Speaker appoints 2 Trump allies to a committee overseeing spy agencies
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday appointed two far-right Republicans to the powerful House Intelligence Committee, positioning two close allies of Donald Trump who worked to overturn the 2020 presidential election on a panel that receives sensitive classified briefings and oversees the work of America’s spy agencies. The...
U.S. Senate calls on Russia to release Oakmont teacher Marc Fogel
The U.S. Senate is officially calling for the release of Marc Fogel, an Oakmont teacher arrested nearly three years ago by Russian authorities for possessing medical marijuana. The Senate unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling for Fogel’s release and declaring that the Russian government gave him a disproportionate criminal sentence....
Trump joins TikTok: Which other politicians are on the platform?
After attempting to ban TikTok from the White House, former President Donald Trump created an account — just days after he was found guilty on all 34 felony counts in a hush money trial. His page, @realdonaldtrump, has 5.1 million followers as of Tuesday, and his first and only video...
Jan. 6 cops stump for Biden in Pittsburgh, warn that Trump is ‘threat to democracy’
Two former U.S. Capitol Police officers who were injured responding to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington said during a Pittsburgh campaign stop Tuesday that former President Donald Trump poses a continuing threat to democracy. The officers, Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell, appeared at the Fred Rogers statue on...
Merrick Garland slams attacks on the Justice Department, telling lawmakers: ‘I will not be intimidated’
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland rebuked Republicans Tuesday for what he described as unprecedented attacks on the Justice Department, telling lawmakers who have sought to hold him in contempt that he will “not be intimidated.” Appearing before a House panel led by allies of Donald Trump, Garland condemned as...
Biden rolls out migration order aiming to shut down asylum requests, after months of anticipation
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border as the White House tries to neutralize immigration as a political liability ahead of the November elections. The White House detailed the long-anticipated presidential proclamation signed by Biden,...
After guilty verdict, Trump will appear on the ballot in the last presidential primaries of 2024
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s name will appear on the ballot Tuesday for the first time since his historic conviction on felony crimes as a handful of states hold the last Republican presidential primary contests of 2024. The former president will be on the ballot in Republican contests in Montana,...
Former U.S. Capitol officers injured in Jan. 6 attack to stump for Biden in Pittsburgh
Police officers who were injured in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol will travel to Pittsburgh and other cities in Pennsylvania this week to criticize former President Donald Trump’s alleged role in the attack. Former Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell will visit Pittsburgh...
Trump joins TikTok and calls it ‘an honor.’ As president he once tried to ban the video-sharing app
Donald Trump has joined the popular video-sharing app TikTok, a platform he once tried to ban while in the White House, and posted from a UFC fight two days after he became the first former president and presumptive major party nominee in U.S. history to be found guilty on felony...
From collapsed plea deal to trial: How Hunter Biden has come to face jurors on federal gun charges
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s son was in federal court, prepared to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses. The culmination of a sprawling investigation, the deal between Hunter Biden and prosecutors was going to spare him a politically explosive trial in the middle of his father’s reelection campaign and likely...
Republicans join Trump’s attacks on justice system and campaign of vengeance after guilty verdict
WASHINGTON — Embracing Donald Trump’s strategy of blaming the U.S. justice system after his historic guilty verdict, Republicans in Congress are fervently enlisting themselves in his campaign of vengeance and political retribution as the GOP runs to reclaim the White House. Almost no Republican official has stood up to suggest...
Running for U.S. president from prison? Eugene V. Debs did it, a century ago
NEW YORK — Following his unprecedented felony conviction, former president and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has to wait to find out what his sentence will be. But even if it involves time behind bars, that doesn’t mean his campaign to return to the White House comes to an end....
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia registers as independent, citing ‘partisan extremism’
WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced Friday he has switched his registration to independent, raising questions about his political plans since the move could help his chances should he seek elected office again in a state that has turned heavily Republican. Manchin, 76, has often been...
Federal rule on Title IX is a ruse to require trans sports participation, GOP states say
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Biden administration has put on hold a plan to prohibit across-the-board bans on transgender athletes on school teams during an election year in which Republicans are rallying around restrictions on trans youths. But GOP state leaders are making sure voters know the issue is still...
Trump responds to his guilty verdict by falsely blasting a ‘rigged trial’ and attacking star witness
NEW YORK — Donald Trump launched into attacks on the judge in his criminal trial and continued to undermine New York’s criminal justice system Friday as he tried to repackage his conviction on 34 felony charges as fuel, not an impediment, to his latest White House bid. Trump spoke to...
Western Pa. voters react to Trump’s guilty verdict
Forest Hills’ Joel Johnson said Thursday evening that former President Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts will sway his vote in November. Johnson, 43, described the unprecedented trial as a “hot mess.” As a self-proclaimed independent, he said he usually votes for who he believes is the least dangerous...
Republican lawmakers react with fury to Trump verdict and rally to his defense
WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers reacted with immediate fury on Thursday as a New York jury convicted former President Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records to influence the 2016 election, speaking out with near unanimity in questioning the legitimacy of the trial and how it was conducted. House...
Roberts rejects Senate Democrats’ request to discuss Supreme Court ethics, Alito flag controversy
WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday declined an invitation to meet with Democratic senators to talk about Supreme Court ethics and the controversy over flags that flew outside homes owned by Justice Samuel Alito. Roberts’ response came in a letter to the senators a day after Alito separately...
Impact of Trump conviction uncertain, but even a small shift in Pa. could have big implications
Former President Donald Trump made history Thursday as the first U.S. president to be convicted of a felony, but the impact that will have on the November election is very much up in the air, according to party leaders and political experts across Pennsylvania. Republican and Democratic leaders in Western...
What verdict will voters render after jury finds Trump guilty in hush money case?Video
The sometimes-breathless gavel-to-gavel coverage of former President Trump’s trial was no surprise, as a singularly divisive figure sat for more than a month at the defense table, the first president to face criminal charges and the possibility of a trip to jail. But for all the trial’s spectacle, many political...
Trump becomes 1st former U.S. president convicted of felony crimesVideo
NEW YORK — Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes Thursday as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said...
Pa. attorney general candidates rebuild campaign coffers after pricey primaries
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — The Democratic and Republican candidates competing to be Pennsylvania’s next attorney general first had to survive contested primaries that drained their campaign coffers....
Alito rejects calls to step aside from Supreme Court cases because of flag controversies
WASHINGTON — Justice Samuel Alito is rejecting calls to step aside from Supreme Court cases involving former President Donald Trump and Jan. 6 defendants, saying his wife hoisted the two controversial flags that flew above their homes. “My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not,” Alito wrote Wednesday....
Date errors on Pa. mail-in ballots void votes, spur lawsuit
Pittsburgh resident Otis Keasley has not missed voting in an election in more than five decades. The 2024 primary was no different — except that Keasley, a Vietnam War veteran, decided to mail in his ballot for the first time. His sister-in-law was ill and needed him to help care...
Biden campaign sends allies De Niro and first responders to Trump’s N.Y. trial
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s campaign on Tuesday showed up outside former President Donald Trump’s New York City criminal hush money trial with actor Robert De Niro and a pair of former police officers in an effort to refocus the presidential race on the former president’s role in the Jan....
