Politics Election category, Page 235
House looks to remove Roger Taney bust, Confederate statues
WASHINGTON — The House is expected to approve a bill Tuesday that would remove from the Capitol a bust of Roger Taney, the U.S. chief justice best known for an infamous pro-slavery decision, as well as statues of Jefferson Davis and others who served in the Confederacy. A similar bill...
Maricopa County won’t reuse subpoenaed ballot counters
PHOENIX — Maricopa County officials said Monday they’ll never again use voting machines turned over to contractors hired by Arizona Senate Republicans to audit the 2020 election. The county’s Republican-controlled Board of Supervisors responded to Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who said in May that she would seek to...
California bans state travel to Florida, 4 other states
SAN FRANCISCO — California added five more states, including Florida, to the list of places where state-funded travel is banned because of laws that discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community, the state attorney general announced Monday. Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta added Florida, Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota and West...
Germany’s Merkel defends idea of summit between EU and Putin
BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday defended the idea of holding a European Union meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, arguing that it would offer an opportunity to confront Putin with European concerns. The idea was rejected last week by eastern EU members. At a summit on Friday,...
Bill Barr reportedly had profanity-laden split with Trump over election fraud claims
WASHINGTON — Former Attorney General William Barr told then-President Donald Trump that there was no evidence of election fraud, an assertion that was met with profanity from the president, according to a report in The Atlantic. Barr met with Trump in early December, weeks after Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch...
Bipartisan infrastructure deal back on track after walk-backVideo
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan deal to invest nearly $1 trillion in the nation’s infrastructure appeared to be back on track Sunday after a stark walk-back by President Joe Biden to his earlier insistence that the bill be coupled with an even larger Democrat-backed measure in order to earn his signature....
Mike Gravel, former U.S. senator for Alaska, dies at 91
SEASIDE, Calif. — Mike Gravel, a former U.S. senator from Alaska who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record and confronted Barack Obama about nuclear weapons during a later presidential run, has died. He was 91. Gravel, who represented Alaska as a Democrat in the Senate from 1969 to...
Arizona election audit enters new phase as ballot count ends
PHOENIX — Technology consultants hired by Arizona Senate Republicans to probe the 2020 election have finished counting and photographing nearly 2.1 million ballots from Maricopa County. A final report of the findings is still weeks to months away, said Ken Bennett, a former Republican secretary of state working on the...
Justice Department suing Georgia over voting laws
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is suing Georgia over the state’s new election law, alleging Republican state lawmakers rushed through a sweeping overhaul with an intent to deny Black voters equal access to the ballot. “Where we believe the rights of civil rights of Americans have been violated we will...
Mike Pence: Idea of overturning election results is ‘un-American’
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Former Vice President Mike Pence has defended his role in certifying the results of the 2020 election, saying he’s “proud” of what he did on Jan. 6 and declaring there’s “almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American...
On border tour, VP Kamala Harris cites ‘progress’ in ‘tough’ situation
EL PASO, Texas — Vice President Kamala Harris asserted Friday that the Biden administration had made progress tackling a migration spike that’s drawn fire from Republicans and made fellow Democrats uncomfortable. Her first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border as head of the Biden administration’s response is being closely watched on...
‘We have deal’: Biden, bipartisan senators on infrastructure
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that “we have a deal,” signaling a bipartisan agreement on a $953 billion infrastructure plan that would achieve his top legislative priority and validate his efforts to reach across the political aisle. Biden made a surprise appearance in front of the cameras...
Biden administration extends eviction moratorium for a month
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has extended the nationwide ban on evictions for a month to help tenants who are unable to make rent payments during the coronavirus pandemic, but it said this is expected to be the last time it does so. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers...
Pelosi creates panel to ‘seek the truth’ on Capitol attack
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it official Thursday that she is creating a special committee to investigate the attack on the Capitol, saying it is “imperative that we seek the truth.” The new committee comes after Republican senators blocked legislation that would have set up a bipartisan commission...
New York court suspends Rudy Giuliani’s law license
NEW YORK — An appeals court suspended Rudy Giuliani from practicing law in New York Thursday because he made false statements while trying to get courts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the presidential race. An attorney disciplinary committee had asked the court to suspend Giuliani’s license on the grounds...
Senators to pitch bipartisan infrastructure plan to Biden
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators is seeking President Joe Biden’s support for a $953 billion infrastructure plan, raising hopes for a breakthrough agreement after arduous negotiations on his top legislative priority. Biden has invited members of the group of 21 senators, Republicans and Democrats, to the White House...
Florida Gov. DeSantis: Universities ‘intellectually repressive,’ survey on beliefs is needed
TALLAHASSEE — Civics education will be expanded in Florida, including instruction about communist and totalitarian governments, and state universities will be prevented from quashing conservative ideology under bills Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed this week. DeSantis signed three bills at a Lee County middle school, two of which dealt...
Missouri special session on Medicaid funding begins
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri senators on Wednesday returned to the Capitol to work out a deal on a critical piece of Medicaid funding that’s entangled in a fight over family planning services. Republican Gov. Mike Parson called the last-minute special session after threatening to cut $722 million from the...
Mitch McConnell killed election reform in Senate. Democrats will now take it to the people
WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell held his entire Republican caucus together to effectively kill the Democrats’ highest legislative priority of the year, a transformative 888-page bill intended to make it easier to vote, rein in the wealthy’s impact on elections, and outlaw the gerrymandering process that constructs partisan congressional districts. But...
Michigan Senate GOP probe: No systemic fraud in election
LANSING, Mich. — State Senate Republicans who investigated Michigan’s 2020 presidential election for months concluded there was no widespread or systemic fraud and urged the state attorney general to consider probing people who have made baseless allegations about the results in Antrim County to raise money or publicity “for their...
Biden faces growing pressure from the left over voting bill
WASHINGTON — When New York Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones was at the White House for the signing of the proclamation making Juneteenth a national holiday last week, he told President Joe Biden their party needed him more involved in passing voting legislation on the Hill. In response? Biden “just sort...
Panel agrees to put guardrails on how Pa. lawmakers draw congressional maps, but not their own
This article is part of a yearlong reporting project focused on redistricting and gerrymandering in Pennsylvania. It is made possible by the support of Spotlight PA members and Votebeat, a project focused on election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — A key state Senate committee agreed Tuesday to put guardrails...
House will form new committee to investigate Jan. 6 attack
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Democratic colleagues on Tuesday that she is creating a new committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, according to a person familiar with her remarks. Pelosi made the announcement at a private leadership meeting and did not give additional details....
GOP filibuster halts Democrats’ signature voting billVideo
WASHINGTON — The Democrats’ sweeping attempt to rewrite U.S. election and voting law stalled Tuesday in the Senate, blocked by a wall of Republican opposition to what would have been the largest overhaul of the electoral system in a generation. The bill, known as the For the People Act, would...
Republicans condemn election reform bill as an ‘extreme power grab’
U.S. Senate Republicans used a filibuster to block the Democrat-backed “For the People Act” — an election reform bill — Tuesday in Washington. Pennsylvania lawmakers voiced opinions on the legislation ahead of a test vote needed to begin debate on the bill in the Senate. “This would be the most...
