Politics Election category, Page 115
North Carolina lawmakers approve mask bill that allows health exemption after pushback
RALEIGH — A new, reworked version of a bill that originally caught flak for removing a pandemic-era health exemption for wearing a mask in public was approved by North Carolina lawmakers on Tuesday. The amended bill still increases punishments for people wearing masks while committing a crime. It was brought...
Federal judge throws out Florida law blocking treatment for transgender children
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a 2023 Florida law that blocked gender-affirming care for transgender minors and severely restricted such treatment for adults, calling the statute unconstitutional. Senior Judge Robert Hinkle said the state went too far when it barred transgender minors from being...
Manhattan DA and Trump prosecutor set to appear before Congress on July 12, AP source says
WASHINGTON — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is scheduled to testify before Congress on July 12, a day after former President Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money trial, according to a person familiar with the matter. Bragg is set to appear before the House Select Committee on weaponization alongside...
Trump tells a group that calls for banning all abortions to stand up for ‘innocent life’
INDIANAPOLIS — Donald Trump on Monday urged a staunchly anti-abortion Christian group to stand up for “innocent life,” ambiguously revisiting an issue that Democrats want to make a focus of this year’s presidential election. The former president and presumptive Republican nominee’s pre-recorded message praised the work of those attending the...
Pennsylvania Senate passes bill to outlaw the distribution of deepfake material
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state Senate on Monday approved legislation that would outlaw the distribution of salacious or pornographic deepfakes, with sponsors saying it will eliminate a loophole in the law that had frustrated prosecutors. The bill was approved unanimously and was sent to the House. It comes as states are...
Sen. John Fetterman and wife in Maryland car crash
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman and his wife, Gisele Fetterman, were in a car crash on a Maryland interstate Sunday morning. They were evaluated at a hospital “out of an abundance of caution” but avoided serious injury, Fetterman’s office said. Fetterman, a Democrat from Braddock, was westbound on Interstate 70 shortly...
Biden hosting early Juneteenth celebration concert on White House lawn
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will celebrate the Juneteenth holiday early with a Monday concert on the White House South Lawn with singers including Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle. The Democratic president signed a law in 2021 that made June 19, or Juneteenth, a federal holiday. It commemorates the day...
Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows pleads not guilty in Arizona’s fake elector case
PHOENIX — Former Donald Trump presidential chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump 2020 Election Day operations director Michael Roman pleaded not guilty Friday in Phoenix to nine felony charges over their roles in an effort to overturn Trump’s Arizona election loss to Joe Biden. Meadows and Roman appeared by...
Trump ally Steve Bannon must surrender to prison by July 1 to start contempt sentence, judge says
WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, must report to prison by July 1 to serve his four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol insurrection, a federal judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington...
From the Newsroom Podcast: Expert insight on Trump’s hush money trial
Former President Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts in his New York hush money trial on May 28, becoming the first former president to become a convicted felon. For many observers, the focus was on Trump’s reaction, while Trump and his supporters claimed the trial was rigged....
Republicans block bill to protect contraception access as Democrats make election-year pushVideo
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans have blocked legislation designed to protect women’s access to contraception, arguing that the bill was just a political stunt as Democrats mount an election-year effort to put GOP senators on the record on reproductive rights issues, The test vote won a 51-39 majority, but that was...
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 June 4 calling for Fogel’s release and declaring that the Russian government gave him a disproportionate criminal...
Republicans who see Trump conviction as politically motivated vow to ‘indict the left’
NEW YORK — In the days since Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in his criminal hush money trial, Republicans who view the case as politically motivated have coalesced around a new rallying cry: Prosecute the left. Candidates, officeholders and members of the former president’s family have amplified Trump’s...
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....
