Politics Election category, Page 140
Mike Johnson, staunch Louisiana conservative, elected House speaker with broad GOP support
WASHINGTON — Republicans unanimously elected Rep. Mike Johnson as House speaker on Wednesday, eagerly elevating a deeply conservative but lesser-known leader to the major seat of U.S. power and ending for now the weeks of political chaos in their majority. Johnson, 51, of Louisiana, swept through on the first ballot...
Biden won’t appear on New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot. But write-ins are still an option
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden won’t file to have his name appear on the 2024 New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot, his reelection campaign said Tuesday, opting to skip a contest that the state plans to hold in defiance of a revamped primary order that the White House has championed. Julie...
Georgia Supreme Court sends abortion law challenge back to lower court, leaving access unchanged
ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a lower court ruling that the state’s restrictive abortion law was invalid, leaving limited access to abortions unchanged for now. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said last November that the ban was “unequivocally unconstitutional” because it was enacted in...
Florida officials ask Supreme Court to block rulings limiting anti-drag show law
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block lower court rulings that prohibit the enforcement of a new law targeting drag shows. Florida officials filed an application with the nation’s highest court Friday asking that the prohibition against enforcing the anti-drag show law only be limited...
Republicans nominate Mike Johnson for House speaker after Emmer’s withdrawal, desperate to end chaos
WASHINGTON — Republicans chose Rep. Mike Johnson as their latest nominee for House speaker late Tuesday, hours after an earlier pick, Rep. Tom Emmer, abruptly withdrew in the face of opposition from Donald Trump and hardline GOP lawmakers. Johnson of Louisiana, a lower-ranked member of the House GOP leadership team,...
In court faceoff, Michael Cohen testifies against Trump in fraud trial. Trump shrugs: ‘Proven liar’
NEW YORK — In a courtroom showdown five years in the making, Donald Trump’s fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen testified Tuesday that he worked to boost the supposed value of the former president’s assets to “whatever number Trump told us to.” Trump’s lawyers — and outside court, Trump himself — by turn...
There’s a long list of candidates for House speaker as Republicans try voting again on a new leader
WASHINGTON — Three weeks now since the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans are meeting privately Tuesday to try nominating a new House speaker to accomplish the seemingly impossible job of uniting a broken, bitter GOP majority and returning to the work of governing in Congress. Having dispatched their speaker...
Jenna Ellis becomes latest Trump lawyer to plead guilty over efforts to overturn Georgia’s electionVideo
ATLANTA — Attorney and prominent conservative media figure Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia, tearfully telling the judge she looks back on that time with “deep remorse.” Ellis, the fourth defendant in the case to enter...
Trump’s lawyers file challenges to Washington election subversion case, calling it unconstitutional
WASHINGTON — Lawyers for Donald Trump are raising new challenges to the federal election subversion case against him, telling a judge that the indictment should be dismissed because it violates the former president’s free speech rights and represents a vindictive prosecution. The motions filed late Monday in the case charging...
It’s Day 20 with no House speaker, and lower-level names are starting to reach for the gavel
WASHINGTON — On Day 20 without a House speaker, Republicans found themselves starting over Monday — bumbling ahead with few ideas about who will lead, what they are fighting over and when they will get Congress working again. Republicans gathered late in the evening to hear quick speeches from the...
These 9 Republicans are competing to be next House speakerVideo
Nine Republicans — from the party’s No. 3 leader to an up-and-coming conservative in his second term — are seeking to become the next House speaker, Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., announced shortly after a noon deadline to get in the race passed Sunday. The exact timing of a...
Donald Trump is dominating the GOP primary and settling into a new role: Defendant
NEW YORK — After turns as a real estate magnate, a New York tabloid mainstay, a reality TV star and president of the United States, Donald Trump is settling into a new role: defendant. The front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination spent two days this week in a Manhattan courtroom...
A new field of would-be U.S. House speakers takes shape after Jim Jordan fails
WASHINGTON — House Republicans have dispensed with Jim Jordan as their nominee for the U.S. speakership, and several more representatives are preparing to enter the fray. The new field began to take shape minutes after the party voted by secret ballot to rescind the nomination of Jordan, who had been...
Butler’s Mike Kelly again votes against Jim Jordan for House speaker
A Republican congressman from Western Pennsylvania again voted against U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, being named House speaker. U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, instead voted for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. Jordan for a third time failed to garner the necessary votes to become speaker. This comes about two...
Former Florida lawmaker who sponsored ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law gets prison for covid-19 relief fraud
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The former Florida lawmaker who sponsored the controversial law critics call “Don’t Say Gay” was sentenced to six months in federal prison Thursday for defrauding a federal coronavirus relief loan program for small businesses. Former state Rep. Joe Harding, a 36-year-old Republican, resigned in December after being...
Judge temporarily lifts narrow gag order on Trump in 2020 election case
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan temporarily lifted her narrow gag order in Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case in Washington on Friday to give lawyers time to file more briefs on the matter. Chutkan made that ruling shortly after Trump’s lawyers urged the judge to pause the gag order while...
Another guilty plea entered in Trump Georgia election interference probe
ATLANTA — Another defendant has reached a plea deal in the Fulton County election interference case, ending a trial that was set to begin with jury selection Friday. Attorney Kenneth Chesebro — one of the authors of a plan to use Republican presidential electors to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory...
House Republicans drop Jim Jordan as their nominee for speaker, falling back to square one
WASHINGTON — Republicans dropped Rep. Jim Jordan on Friday as their nominee for House speaker, making the decision during a closed-door session after the hard-edged ally of Donald Trump failed badly on a third ballot for the gavel. The blocked-House impasse deepening, Republicans have no realistic or workable plan to...
Biden will deliver a rare Oval Office address as he seeks billions of dollars for Israel and Ukraine
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will deliver a rare Oval Office address Thursday night as he prepares to ask for additional billions of dollars in military assistance for Israel and Ukraine, deepening American involvement in two very different, unpredictable and bloody foreign conflicts. The speech will be an opportunity for...
GOP’s Jordan says he’s still running for House gavel, but there’s no plan for next action
WASHINGTON — Refusing to drop out, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan told GOP colleagues Thursday he would back a temporary U.S. House speaker for the next several months as he works to shore up support to win the gavel himself. Jordan delivered the message at a closed door meeting at the...
Sidney Powell vowed to ‘release the Kraken’ to help Donald Trump. She may now testify against him
NEW YORK — The Kraken has cracked. Lawyer Sidney Powell, who famously vowed to unleash a mythical sea monster of litigation to prove that Donald Trump didn’t lose the 2020 election, has now struck a deal with Georgia prosecutors admitting she conspired to wrongly interfere with the state’s election results....
U.S. Supreme Court notched big conservative wins. It’s a key issue in Pennsylvania’s fall election
HARRISBURG — The U.S. Supreme Court’s current conservative majority has delivered major victories for conservatives — and now liberal discontent over those rulings is playing a major role in Pennsylvania’s top-of-the-ballot election this fall. The Democrat running for an open seat on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has told audiences over and...
U.S. resumes deportation flights to Venezuela with more than 100 migrants onboard
MAIQUETIA, Venezuela — Deportation flights of Venezuelans from the U.S. resumed Wednesday with a first plane of more than a hundred migrants landing back in their economically troubled country under the Biden administration’s latest attempts to deal with swelling numbers of asylum-seekers. This is the first time in years U.S....
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee joins resolution calling for ceasefire in Israel-Hamas war
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee has joined a group of progressive lawmakers in calling for Congress to support a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Lee, a Democrat from Swissvale, is a co-sponsor on the Ceasefire Now Resolution that urges “an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine.” Initial co-sponsors...
GOP’s Jim Jordan fails again to win vote to become House speaker as colleagues seek optionsVideo
WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Jim Jordan failed again Wednesday on a crucial second ballot to become House speaker, the hard-fighting ally of Donald Trump losing even more GOP colleagues who are refusing to give him the gavel. Next steps were highly uncertain as angry, frustrated Republicans looked at other options....
