Politics Election category, Page 148
GOP Sen. McConnell’s health episodes show no evidence of strokes or seizures, Capitol physician says
WASHINGTON — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s health episodes show “no evidence” of being strokes or seizures, the Capitol physician said in a letter released Tuesday after a medical evaluation and consultation with neurologists. McConnell’s office released the letter from attending physician Brian P. Monahan as the Senate returns from...
Impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton is set to begin in Texas Senate
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Senate is set to gavel in Tuesday for the impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton, a political reckoning of years of alleged corruption that could lead to his permanent ouster from office. The fate of Paxton, a 60-year-old Republican, is in the hands...
The next presidential campaign is coming into focus. It might look a lot like the last one
NEW YORK — The end of Labor Day weekend would typically mark the start of a furious sprint to the Iowa caucuses as candidates battle for their party’s presidential nomination. But as the 2024 campaign comes into greater focus, the usual frenzy is yielding to a sense of inevitability. Among...
Biden draws contrast with Trump in Labor Day pitch to unionsVideo
President Joe Biden contrasted his policies with those of Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump in a Labor Day pitch to union workers, who form a critical part of his electoral bloc but remain skeptical about his stewardship of the U.S. economy. “We’re turning things around because of you. When the...
Rudy Giuliani pleads not guilty in Georgia election case, won’t attend arraignment hearing
ATLANTA — Rudy Giuliani on Friday pleaded not guilty to Georgia charges that accuse him of trying, along with former President Donald Trump and others, to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state. In filing his not guilty plea with the court, the former New York...
Spotlight PA fights to unseal lobbyist communications with the legislature
This story first appeared in The Investigator, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA featuring the best investigative and accountability journalism from across Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Deep within Pennsylvania’s 36-page Right-to-Know Law, a clause says that correspondence between a state lawmaker and a person seeking their help is off-limits to the...
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell can continue with his work schedule, congressional physician says
WASHINGTON — The attending physician to Congress said Thursday that he had cleared Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to continue with his planned schedule after evaluating an incident in which McConnell appeared to freeze up at an event in Kentucky. But the health episode — his second in public this...
McConnell’s latest freeze-up incident highlights seniority of Congress
WASHINGTON — Wednesday’s incident in which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had difficulty speaking in a public setting comes at a time of heightened concern about the health and ages of U.S. political leaders. But the Kentucky Republican is not even among the 10 oldest members of the current Congress....
Groups seek to use Constitution’s ‘insurrection’ clause to block Trump from 2024 ballots
As former President Donald Trump continues to dominate the Republican presidential primary, some liberal groups and a growing number of legal experts contend that a rarely used clause of the Constitution prevents him from being president after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The 14th Amendment bars...
Texas AG Ken Paxton pursued perks beyond impeachment allegations, ex-staffers say
AUSTIN, Texas — Unexplained Caribbean and European trips that cost taxpayers more than $90,000. A $600 sports coat paid for by an event organizer. A $45 office Christmas cake taken as his own. These are among the perks that Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ‘s former employees say he...
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell appears to freeze up againVideo
WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell appeared to briefly freeze up and was unable to answer a question from a reporter at an event in Kentucky on Wednesday, weeks after he had a similar episode in Washington. According to video from a local news station, the 81-year-old McConnell was...
As Trump and Republicans target Georgia’s Fani Willis for retribution, the state’s governor opts out
ATLANTA — Some Republicans in Washington and Georgia began attacking Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis immediately after she announced the Aug. 14 indictment of former President Donald Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. But others, including Gov. Brian Kemp, have been conspicuous in their unwillingness...
Rapper Eminem tells GOP presidential candidate to stop using his music at campaign events
The real Slim Shady is standing up and telling a Republican presidential candidate to sit down. Grammy Award-winning rapper Eminem recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to Vivek Ramaswamy. The GOP presidential candidate, who has been polling in third behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is known...
Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle U.S. government and replace it with Trump’s vision
WASHINGTON — With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White House term for Donald Trump, recruiting thousands of Americans to come to Washington on a mission to dismantle the federal government and replace it with...
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis faces Black leaders’ anger after racist killings in Jacksonville
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Ron DeSantis scoffed when the NAACP issued a travel advisory this spring warning Black people to use “extreme care” if traveling to Florida. The leading civil rights group argued that the state’s loose gun laws and the Republican governor’s “anti-woke” campaign to deny the existence of systemic...
Trump and 18 others charged in Georgia election case scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 6
ATLANTA — Former President Donald Trump and the 18 people indicted along with him in Georgia are scheduled to be arraigned next week on charges they participated in a wide-ranging illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election. All 19 defendants, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani...
Poll: Biden widely seen as too old for office, but Trump has other problems
WASHINGTON — Americans actually agree on something in this time of raw discord: Joe Biden is too old to be an effective president in a second term. Only a few years his junior, Donald Trump raises strikingly less concern about his age. But they have plenty of other problems with...
Trump campaign reports raising more than $7 million after Georgia booking
NEW YORK — For former President Donald Trump, a picture is worth … more than $7 million. Trump’s campaign says he has raised $7.1 million since Thursday when he was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in...
Pa. Public Utilities Commission names Jennifer Berrier as executive director
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on Thursday appointed Jennifer Berrier, the former secretary of Labor & Industry under Gov. Tom Wolf, as the agency’s new executive director. Berrier takes over leadership of the agency on Sept. 11. The PUC regulates electric, natural gas, pipeline, rail, telecommunications, water and wastewater services....
5 takeaways from the GOP debate: DeSantis’ not-so-big night, Trump’s absence
WASHINGTON — Eight Republican presidential candidates faced off Wednesday night in Milwaukee at the first primary debate, which was hosted by Fox News. Former President Donald Trump, the overwhelming front-runner, did not attend, opting instead to release a counter-programmed interview with Tucker Carlson. Here are some takeaways: Trump, the ‘elephant...
GOP candidates tangle in Milwaukee as they vie to be the leading alternative to front-runner TrumpVideo
MILWAUKEE — Nearly all of the Republican presidential candidates vying to be the leading alternative to front-runner Donald Trump said they would support the former president if he is the party’s nominee even if he is convicted in a court of law as they gathered on stage for the first...
Trump praises Jan. 6 crowd, repeats election lies in online interview while skipping GOP debateVideo
NEW YORK — Donald Trump skipped the debate stage typically relished by presidential candidates on Wednesday and instead appeared in an online interview peppered with his election lies, attacks on his rivals and lavish praise for the crowd of supporters he spoke to before they stormed the U.S. Capitol on...
North Dakota Gov. Burgum will participate in the GOP primary debate stage after injuring leg
MILWAUKEE — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum says he plans to participate in the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday after he was injured playing basketball on Tuesday and his campaign wasn’t sure he would be able to appear on stage. The Burgum campaign posted a photo on X, formerly known...
Who takes advantage of Donald Trump’s absence and other things to watch in the Republican debate
NEW YORK — Eight Republican candidates will meet on the debate stage for the first time Wednesday night in what may be the biggest moment in the GOP’s young 2024 presidential primary so far. The overwhelming front-runner in the contest, former President Donald Trump, won’t participate. He says he’s so...
Who’s in, who’s out, who’s boycotting: The 8 candidates expected on-stage for the first GOP debate
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Donald Trump won’t be on the Republican debate stage Wednesday. But the former president is driving the conversation on and off the debate stage anyway. Trump supporters including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will be in Milwaukee. There are questions about how many of his campaign surrogates will...
