Politics Election category, Page 202
Giuliani, Graham testimony sought in Trump election probe
ATLANTA — The Georgia prosecutor investigating the conduct of former President Donald Trump and his allies after the 2020 election is trying to compel U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and other members of Trump’s campaign legal team to testify before a special grand jury. Fulton...
From one July Fourth to the next, a steep slide for Biden
WASHINGTON — Last Fourth of July, President Joe Biden gathered hundreds of people outside the White House for an event that would have been unthinkable for many Americans the previous year. With the coronavirus in retreat, they ate hamburgers and watched fireworks over the National Mall. Although the pandemic wasn’t...
Abortion ruling puts spotlight on gerrymandered legislatures
In overturning a half-century of nationwide legal protection for abortion, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Roe v. Wade had been wrongly decided and that it was time to “return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives” in the states. Whether those elected officials are truly representative of...
‘Revolutionary’ Supreme Court term on abortion, guns and more
WASHINGTON — Abortion, guns and religion — a major change in the law in any one of these areas would have made for a fateful Supreme Court term. In its first full term together, the court’s conservative majority ruled in all three and issued other significant decisions limiting the government’s...
Pennsylvania’s state budget is officially late. Here’s what you need to know.
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Despite weeks of private negotiations between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and legislative Republicans, Pennsylvania’s budget is officially late. A...
Trump’s vulnerabilities for 2024 mount after new testimony
SIOUX CENTER, Iowa — Stunning new revelations about former President Donald Trump’s fight to overturn the 2020 election have exposed growing political vulnerabilities just as he eyes another presidential bid. A former White House aide this week described Trump as an unhinged leader with no regard for the safety of...
Supreme Court to hear case on state authority over elections
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a case that could dramatically change the way elections for Congress and the presidency are conducted by handing more power to state legislatures and blocking state courts from reviewing challenges to the procedures and results. The justices will consider whether state...
Pennsylvania to begin fiscal year without a budget
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s new fiscal year will begin without a state budget in place, as Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration and top Republican lawmakers haltingly worked through Thursday’s deadline to hammer out a roughly $42 billion spending plan whose details were still largely being kept secret. Negotiators had yet to fully...
Trump painted in testimony as volatile, angry president
WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump learned his attorney general had publicly rejected his election fraud claims, he heaved his lunch at the wall with such force that the porcelain plate shattered and ketchup streamed down. On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, consumed by crowd size concerns, he directed...
Supreme Court justices nix 2nd mostly Black district in Louisiana for 2022
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday put on hold a lower court ruling that Louisiana must draw new congressional districts before the 2022 elections to increase Black voting power. With the three liberal justices dissenting, the high court short-circuited an order from a federal judge to create a second...
Pennsylvania House targets colleges’ fetal research in bill
HARRISBURG — A proposal to require Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities to promise they are not conducting research or experiments with fetal tissue from elective abortions was added to a state budget bill by House Republicans on Monday. The chamber voted 108-92, with three Republicans crossing party lines, for the amendment...
Jan. 6 panel calls surprise hearing to present new evidence
WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 panel is calling a surprise hearing this week to present evidence it says it recently obtained, raising expectations of new bombshells in the sweeping investigation into the Capitol insurrection. The hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. on Tuesday comes after Congress left Washington for a...
Rep. Mary Miller’s ‘white life’ comment is latest controversy in her short 2 years in CongressVideo
MENDON, Ill. — When freshman U.S. Rep. Mary Miller took to a county fair stage Saturday night to thank former President Donald Trump for appointing conservative justices who led the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, she called it a “historic victory for white life.” Miller, who has...
Poll: Majority of Americans disapprove of Supreme Court’s Roe decisionVideo
WASHINGTON — A CBS News poll found that a majority of Americans disapprove of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion, which is inflaming a partisan divide on display in comments by senior lawmakers. The poll, conducted Friday and Saturday, found 59% disapproved of the...
Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade; states can ban abortion
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away women’s constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans’ lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The court’s overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the...
Senate OKs landmark gun violence bill, House passage is next
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill that seemed unthinkable just a month ago, clearing the way for final congressional approval of what will be lawmakers’ most far-reaching response in decades to the nation’s run of brutal mass shootings. After years of GOP procedural...
Allegheny County GOP chair interviewed by FBI in probe of Trump and 2020 election
FBI agents interviewed Allegheny County Republican Chairman Sam DeMarco at his North Fayette home on Thursday as part of an investigation into whether President Trump tried to send alternate electors in several states to Washington in an attempt to reverse the 2020 election. DeMarco, who also is a county councilman,...
1/6 panel to hear of Trump’s pressure on Justice Department
WASHINGTON — The Jan. 6 committee will hear from former Justice Department officials who faced down a relentless pressure campaign from Donald Trump over the 2020 presidential election results while suppressing a bizarre challenge from within their own ranks. The hearing Thursday will bring attention to a memorably turbulent stretch...
John Fettterman lands major endorsement from National Education Association
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman landed a key endorsement on Wednesday from the National Education Association with the “strong support” of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. “John Fetterman is a proven leader on education issues in Pennsylvania,” Rich Askey, president of the PSEA, the state’s largest teachers’ union, said...
GOP Senator Ron Johnson wanted to intervene for Trump on Jan. 6Video
WASHINGTON — Ron Johnson, a staunch ally of Donald Trump and the most vulnerable Senate Republican, attempted to intervene on the former president’s behalf just moments before Congress met to certify the election results on Jan. 6, 2021, the House panel investigating the attack on the Capitol that day revealed...
‘Blue slip’ problem hangs up veterans toxic exposure bill
WASHINGTON — A Senate-passed bill to expand health care and disability benefits to veterans exposed to burn pits or other toxic substances during their service has run into a constitutional objection from the House. The bill, which would make it easier for veterans to access benefits by presuming that certain...
Lawmaker wants Penn State to report location, condition of Joe Paterno statue
Rep. Aaron Bernstine (R-Butler/Beaver/Lawrence) is attempting to force Penn State University to provide information regarding the location and condition of the Joe Paterno statue by tying it as an amendment to Senate Bill 1283, which would provide the school’s funding for the fiscal year. Bernstine, who is a Penn State...
The Pennsylvania primary election set voter turnout records. Here’s what else the data show
The 2022 Pennsylvania primary election — finally filed away in the history books after a recount — wasn’t just a wild political saga. It also set voter turnout records. More Democrats and Republicans voted than in any midterm election primary in the last 25 years. Who those voters are, where...
Pa. House eyes expanding who can bring sexual misconduct complaints against lawmakers
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania House leaders are quietly negotiating a deal to close a loophole in the chamber’s rules that protects lawmakers...
1/6 panel: Local ‘heroes’ rebuffed Trump, then faced threats
WASHINGTON — The House 1/6 committee heard chilling, tearful testimony Tuesday that Donald Trump’s relentless pressure to overturn the 2020 presidential election provoked widespread threats to the “backbone of our democracy”— election workers and local officials who fended off the defeated president’s demands despite personal risks. The panel investigating the...
