Politics Election category, Page 229
Pa. Senate GOP moves to collect private voter information in controversial review of 2020 election
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 — The state Senate committee undertaking a controversial review of last year’s presidential election results on Wednesday authorized subpoenas for...
Dire warning from Newsom helped turn California recall tide
LOS ANGELES — An ominous four-word message issued by California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s campaign on the morning of Aug. 5 served as the shock Democrats needed to take seriously a recall election that could remove him from office: “This recall is close.” Newsom’s warning in a fundraising email came just...
Arizona Supreme Court allows release of Senate audit records
PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an effort by the state Senate to keep secret records of its ongoing review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County that are in the possession of the contractors conducting the recount. The high court without comment rejected the appeal filed...
‘The medium is the message’: Ocasio-Cortez defends polarizing ‘Tax the Rich’ Met Gala dress
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ruffled lots of feathers with her 2021 Met Gala dress — and not the fashionable kind. After some called the New York Democrat a hypocrite for condemning wealth inequality at the lavish, star-studded red-carpet event, the New York congresswoman defended her decision Monday to attend the...
Book: Top U.S. officer feared Trump could order China strike
Fearful of Donald Trump’s actions in his final weeks as president, the United States’ top military officer twice assured his Chinese counterpart that the two nations would not go to war, according to a forthcoming book. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of...
Biden makes push for California’s Newsom as recall nears end
LONG BEACH, Calif. — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ended his campaign to retain his job in a recall election with a final push from President Joe Biden, who warned that the outcome of the contest could shape the country’s direction on the pandemic, reproductive rights and the battle to...
GOP pushes unfounded fraud claims before California recallVideo
SACRAMENTO — California Republicans were trying to contain a fire of their own making a day before voting ends in the recall election against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, persuading their voters to turn out Tuesday even as party leaders promoted unsubstantiated claims that the race was rigged or compromised by...
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis threatens ‘millions’ in fines for vaccine mandatesVideo
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday threatened local governments with $5,000 fines per violation for requiring their employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus that has overrun hospitals and killed tens of thousands across the state. Local municipalities, such as Orange County and the city of Gainesville,...
Crowds gather to protest President Joe Biden’s Idaho visit
BOISE, Idaho — More than 1,000 protesters gathered in Boise, Idaho, on Monday morning during a visit by President Joe Biden to express their displeasure about his coronavirus plan, the election and other issues. Biden came to Boise as part of a swing through three Western states to promote his...
House Democrats post record August fundraising ahead of 2022
WASHINGTON — The campaign organization aiming to maintain Democratic control of the House in the 2022 midterm races raised $10 million last month, its best August haul ever during a year without a national election. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says that nearly 250,000 grassroots donors provided $6.6 million, accounting...
W.Va. Sen. Joe Manchin favors trimming Biden budget plan by more than halfVideo
WASHINGTON — A Democratic senator vital to the fate of President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion plan for social and environmental spending said Sunday he won’t support even half that amount or the ambitious timetable envisioned for passing it. The stand by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was described as unacceptable by...
Vulnerable Democrats push for local priorities in budget
DES MOINES, Iowa — U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne of Iowa was slow to get behind a $1 trillion infrastructure bill after the Senate passed it last month. It wasn’t the price tag that tripped up the Democrat from a swing House district. It was that none of the money was...
Pa. school mask lawsuit backed by group that challenged 2020 election results
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 — Just before the start of the holiday weekend, the top Republican in the state Senate sued Democratic Gov. Tom...
Biden’s vaccine rules ignite instant, hot GOP opposition
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s aggressive push to require millions of U.S. workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus is running into a wall of resistance from Republican leaders threatening everything from lawsuits to civil disobedience, plunging the country deeper into culture wars that have festered since the onset of...
Justice Department sues Texas over state’s new abortion lawVideo
AUSTIN, Texas — The Justice Department on Thursday sued Texas over a new state law that bans most abortions, arguing that it was enacted “in open defiance of the Constitution.” The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Texas, asks a federal judge to declare that the law is invalid, “to...
Republicans start election ‘investigation’ in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — Republicans in Pennsylvania’s state Senate held their first hearing Thursday in what they call a “forensic investigation” into last year’s presidential election, an underwhelming affair that Democrats nevertheless say is an extension of a national campaign to attack voting rights following former President Donald Trump’s loss. Republicans maintain...
AP source: White House planning to withdraw ATF nomination
WASHINGTON — The White House will withdraw the nomination of a gun-control advocate to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after David Chipman ran into bipartisan opposition in the Senate, a person familiar with the decision said Thursday. Chipman is a former federal agent and adviser at...
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar says she had breast cancer, doing well
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced Thursday that she has been treated for breast cancer and the treatment “went well.” Klobuchar, 61, tweeted that the cancer was found in February during a routine mammogram, and eventually she had a lumpectomy to remove the cancer. She said she completed radiation...
‘Magical thinking’: Gov. Abbott says he will ‘eliminate all rapists,’ defends Texas abortion lawVideo
AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott, responding to a question about how Texas’ new abortion law would impact victims of rape and incest, said the state would employ aggressive tactics to “eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas.” The law, which took effect last week, bans most abortions after about...
Biden moves to oust Trump military academy board appointees
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration moved Wednesday to oust 18 allies of Donald Trump who were named to U.S. military academy boards in the final months of the Republican president’s term in office. Cathy Russell, director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, sent letters to 18 people named to...
Judge: Florida can’t enforce ban on school mask mandates
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida judge ruled Wednesday that the state cannot enforce a ban on public schools mandating the use of masks to guard against the coronavirus, while an appeals court sorts out whether the ban is ultimately legal. Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper lifted an...
Arizona attorney general: Tucson employee vaccine mandate is illegal
PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said Tuesday that Tucson’s vaccine mandate for its employees is illegal, giving the city 30 days to repeal it or risk losing millions of dollars in state funding. Democratic-led Tucson has repeatedly clashed with the state’s Republican leadership over the city’s aggressive efforts...
After unrelenting summer, Biden looks to get agenda on track
WASHINGTON — The collapse of the Afghan government, a surge of covid-19 cases caused by the delta variant, devastating weather events, a disappointing jobs report. What next? After a torrent of crises, President Joe Biden is hoping to turn the page on an unrelenting summer and refocus his presidency this...
Arizona man who wore horns in Capitol riot pleads guilty to felony
PHOENIX — An Arizona man who sported face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns when he joined the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 pleaded guilty Friday to a felony charge and wants to be released from jail while he awaits sentencing. Jacob Chansley,...
Sen. Toomey says it’s ‘completely unacceptable’ for GOP to pick Trump in 2024
Don’t make the same mistake twice, GOP. U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania conservative who is retiring next year, said that Republicans must not back Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee in 2024 because of his “completely unacceptable” effort to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden. “After what...
