Politics Election category, Page 216
Conservative firebrand Doug Mastriano enters Pennsylvania’s governor’s race
Doug Mastriano, the state senator from Franklin County who parlayed anger over coronavirus pandemic rules and no-holds-barred support for former President Donald J. Trump into an extended political moment, opened his candidacy for governor Pennsylvania Saturday. Mastriano, who practices his politics with a messianic zeal that has helped him develop...
Sen. Ted Cruz apologizes for describing Jan. 6 attack as terrorism
NEW YORK — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had desperation written on his face. The conservative ideologue and potential 2024 presidential contender appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show Thursday to apologize for describing the Jan. 6 insurrection as “a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol” a day earlier,...
Analysis: Taking on Trump is Biden’s reluctant calling
WASHINGTON — It may not be the fight he sought, but taking on Donald Trump is President Joe Biden’s calling. Biden offered himself as a guardian of American democracy in a visceral speech Thursday discussing the horrors of the Jan. 6 insurrection that sought to overthrow his 2020 election victory....
Biden decries Trump backers as ‘trying to rewrite history’ on anniversary of Capitol breach
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden accused Donald Trump and his supporters of holding a “dagger at the throat of democracy” in a forceful speech Thursday marking the anniversary of the deadly breach of the U.S. Capitol. He warned that though it didn’t succeed, the insurrection remains a serious threat to...
Trump maintains grip on GOP despite violent insurrection
WASHINGTON — As a raging band of his supporters scaled walls, smashed windows, used flagpoles to beat police and breached the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn a free and fair election, Donald Trump’s excommunication from the Republican Party seemed a near certainty, his name tarnished beyond repair. Some...
Big Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial field crowds onto stage together
HARRISBURG — More than a dozen Republican candidates for governor appeared on stage together for the first time, in a question-and-answer session Wednesday sponsored by conservative groups and a statewide business association that inspired agreement and not debate. The questions — such as how would you to reverse brain drain...
17 from Western Pa. charged so far in connection with Capitol riot
The federal government has filed criminal charges against more than 725 people in connection with its ongoing, sprawling investigation into rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Of those charged so far, 59 were from Pennsylvania and 17 came from Western Pennsylvania. Eight of the Western Pennsylvania defendants...
Former Congresswoman Melissa Hart announces bid for governorVideo
Former Congresswoman Melissa Hart outlined her campaign priorities Wednesday as she formally launched her bid to become Pennsylvania’s first female governor. Hart, 59, of Bradford Woods, is entering a crowded field of more than a dozen GOP candidates who so far have declared their candidacies for the state’s highest office....
GOP gubernatorial candidates to square off in first debate
A crowded field of GOP candidates for Pennsylvania governor is set to square off Wednesday in the first debate of the 2022 election season. During the 90-minute debate, which will be broadcast live and live-streamed on PCN, 12 candidates will tackle questions on economic competitiveness, the workforce and jobs, energy,...
Ted Cruz sees ‘multiple grounds’ to impeach Biden if GOP retakes House, border policy at top of list
WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz called it likely that Republicans will impeach President Joe Biden if they win control of the House in November’s elections, citing lax border policies as the most likely of “multiple” justifications. “The Democrats weaponized impeachment. They used it for partisan purposes to go after Trump...
Trump cancels Florida press conference scheduled for Jan. 6
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump has canceled a press conference he had planned to hold in Florida on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters. Trump said in a statement Tuesday evening that he would instead be discussing his grievances at a...
Josh Shapiro backs Pittsburgh-area lawmaker to be running mateVideo
HARRISBURG — Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic Party’s presumed nominee for governor this year, endorsed a Pittsburgh-area state lawmaker, Austin Davis, to be his running mate and lieutenant governor Tuesday. Davis announced his candidacy alongside Shapiro and top Democrats from the area at a park in McKeesport next to...
Joe Manchin wary of changing Senate rules to advance voting billVideo
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin sounded a skeptical note Tuesday about the prospects of easing the Senate’s filibuster rules, raising doubts about whether he will provide crucial support to the Democrats’ renewed push to advance stalled voting legislation they say is needed to protect democracy. Manchin told reporters it was...
GOP state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe won’t seek reelection
State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe announced Tuesday he will not seek reelection this year. The Republican from Cranberry is in his 12th term representing a district that encompasses part of Butler County, including Adams, Clinton, Cranberry, Forward, Middlesex and Penn townships and Callery, Mars, Seven Fields and Valencia boroughs. “After family...
Biden pushed to speak out more as U.S. democracy concerns grow
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has gotten the same troubling questions from worried world leaders, ones that he never thought he would hear. “Is America going to be all right?” they ask. “What about democracy in America?” While Biden has tried to offer America’s allies assurances, he has only occasionally...
Conspiracy theories paint fraudulent reality of Jan. 6 riot
Millions of Americans watched the events in Washington last Jan. 6 unfold on live television. Police officers testified to the violence and mayhem. Criminal proceedings in open court detailed what happened. Yet the hoaxes, conspiracy theories and attempts to rewrite history persist, muddying the public’s understanding of what actually occurred...
Children coming from border get attention in Pennsylvania governor’s race
HARRISBURG — Lou Barletta, an illegal-immigration hawk and former congressman running for governor, said Wednesday he would take a harder line against the federal government’s yearslong practice of bringing unaccompanied minors found by the Border Patrol to various facilities in Pennsylvania and other states. Some Republican governors have protested the...
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene rants against ‘fake religion’ Kwanzaa as Black holiday begins
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has denounced Kwanzaa as a “fake religion” just as millions of Black people start to celebrate the weeklong holiday. The far-right Georgia lawmaker berated the national College Republicans for “pandering and BS” after the GOP group tweeted a seemingly innocuous happy holiday message. “Stop. It’s a...
Georgia election workers file second suit over fraud claims
ATLANTA — Two Georgia election workers filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing a right-wing cable news channel and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani of defaming them by falsely claiming they engaged in ballot fraud during the 2020 election. It was the second defamation lawsuit by Fulton County election workers...
Hedge fund CEO David McCormick draws high-level support in GOP Senate race
HARRISBURG — David McCormick, CEO of one of the world’s largest hedge funds and a former senior official in President George W. Bush’s administration, is accumulating support from longtime party fundraisers and officials in Pennsylvania even before he has formally announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate. Christine Toretti, Pennsylvania’s longtime...
Trump asks Supreme Court to block release of documents
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump turned to the Supreme Court on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to keep documents away from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol led by his supporters. Trump’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to reverse lower court rulings against the...
Jan. 6 committee seeks interview with GOP Rep. Jim Jordan
WASHINGTON — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection requested an interview and information from Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio on Wednesday, the second time this week the committee publicly sought to interview a sitting member of Congress. In a letter to Jordan, Mississippi Rep. Bennie...
Russian FM: Security talks with U.S., NATO to start next month
MOSCOW — Russian and U.S. negotiators will sit down for talks early next year to discuss Moscow’s demand for Western guarantees precluding NATO’s expansion to Ukraine, Russia’s top diplomat said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia in January will also start separate talks with NATO to discuss the...
Anthony Fauci calls on Fox News to fire Jesse WattersVideo
Anthony Fauci is calling on Fox News to fire host Jesse Watters after the Philadelphia native told a crowd of conservatives to ambush Fauci in public and send the footage to his network. “The guy should be fired on the spot,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy...
Sen. Joe Manchin outlines tax, policy changes he’d want in Biden billVideo
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday outlined possible changes to President Biden’s mammoth $2 trillion economic agenda that might draw his support, while lashing out out at White House staff and fellow Democrats for trying to bully him. Manchin’s interview on a radio station in his home state of West...
