Politics Election category, Page 247
Manhattan prosecutor gets Trump tax records after long fight
NEW YORK — A New York prosecutor has obtained copies of Donald Trump’s tax records after the Supreme Court this week rejected the former president’s last-ditch effort to prevent them from being handed over. The Manhattan district attorney’s office enforced a subpoena on Trump’s accounting firm within hours of the...
U.S. Reps. Marie Newman, Marjorie Taylor Greene feud over LGBTQ rights
Illinois U.S. Rep. Marie Newman’s push to pass a law that would ban discrimination against LGBTQ Americans has put her at the center of a feud with controversial Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a pro-Trump freshman congresswoman from Georgia who has espoused baseless conspiracy theories. On Tuesday, Newman, a Democrat from...
Republicans rally solidly against Democrats’ coronavirus relief package
WASHINGTON — Republicans rallied solidly against Democrats’ proposed $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief bill as lawmakers awaited a decision by the Senate’s parliamentarian that could bolster or potentially kill a pivotal provision hiking the federal minimum wage. Despite their paper-thin congressional majorities, Democratic leaders were poised to push the sweeping package...
Biden nominations suggest course shift for Postal Service boardVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced three nominations to the board of the U.S. Postal Service, signaling confidence in voting by mail and a possible change of course after months of turmoil over slowed delivery under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Biden named Ron Stroman, a former deputy postmaster general; Anton...
In Trump farm bailout, top 1% reaped nearly one-fourth of aid
The Trump administration’s farm bailouts steered an expanding share of subsidy payments to the nation’s biggest farms, according to an analysis by an environmental advocacy group that highlights issues of equity as the Biden administration designs potential new climate-related financial incentives for farmers. Just 1% of farm aid recipients collected...
Kevin McCarthy, Liz Cheney spar over Trump CPAC speech and his future in the GOPVideo
The Republican civil war over former President Donald Trump is far from over. House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., briefly sparred at a news conference Wednesday over Trump and his future role in the GOP. Asked about Trump’s upcoming speech at the Conservative Political...
Pa. Republicans say Gov. Wolf is trying to sabotage ballot question
HARRISBURG — Republican leaders of Pennsylvania’s Legislature said Wednesday that Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is trying to sabotage ballot questions to amend the constitution to shift authority over the length of emergency declarations from governors to lawmakers. The measures arose from Republican lawmakers’ strident disagreement with how Wolf, a Democrat,...
House Democrats prepare changes to coronavirus relief packageVideo
WASHINGTON — A $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief bill continued to take shape Tuesday, with suspense building over whether a minimum wage increase would survive. House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth has assembled an initial 138-page draft manager’s amendment full of changes to the 592-page version his committee approved on Monday, including...
Audits find no problems with Arizona election equipment
PHOENIX — Two independent audits of election equipment in Arizona’s most populous county found no modified software, malicious software or incorrect counting equipment, and none of the computers or equipment were connected to the internet. However, the state Senate wants its own audit and a judge will decide if it...
No CPAC invitation for Mitch McConnell this year
WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s Republican leader, has not been invited to this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, two sources familiar with the event’s organizing tell McClatchy. The annual conference, set to kick off this Thursday in Orlando, Fla., and run through Sunday, will feature speeches by former President...
Senate confirms Tom Vilsack for 2nd stint as USDA secretary
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 92-7 on Tuesday to confirm Tom Vilsack as Agriculture secretary, sending the former Iowa governor back to a department he ran for eight years under President Barack Obama. “His deep knowledge of agriculture and rural America is needed now more than ever,” Senate Agriculture Chairwoman...
Capitol defenders blame bad intelligence for deadly breachVideo
WASHINGTON — Faulty intelligence was to blame for the outmanned Capitol defenders’ failure to anticipate the violent mob that invaded the iconic building and halted certification of the presidential election on Jan. 6, the officials who were in charge of security declared Tuesday in their first public testimony on the...
Biden to visit storm-ravaged Texas on Friday
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will visit Texas on Friday as the state begins its recovery from a devastating winter storm that caused serious damage to homes and businesses across the state and left many without power or clean water for days. The White House announced Tuesday that Biden and...
Extremism in military a top concern for key defense lawmaker
Mandatory Pentagon reports will give U.S. congressional overseers more insight into the threat and prevalence of extremism in the military after the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said. Sen. Jack Reed, the Rhode Island Democrat who leads the high-profile panel, said he’s...
Merrick Garland says Capitol siege probe will be top priorityVideo
WASHINGTON — Merrick Garland appeared headed to easy confirmation as attorney general after a hearing Monday during which the soft-spoken federal appellate judge won praise from senators of both parties as he promised to aggressively investigate the U.S. Capitol attack, boost enforcement of civil rights laws and enact other major...
Big factor in covid votes: Would Democrats sink first Biden goal?
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders have a potent dynamic on their side as Congress preps for its first votes on the party’s $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief bill: Would any Democrat dare cast the vote that scuttles new President Joe Biden’s leadoff initiative? Democrats’ wafer-thin 10-vote House majority leaves little room for...
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene calls pro-LGBTQ Equality Act an ‘attack’ on God, people of faith
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is declaring war on the Equality Act, calling the effort to defend LGBTQ rights an attack on people of faith. The Georgia Republican says the act will force Christians to approve abortions and would treat transgender people the same as those born as a boy or...
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s last bid to shield his finances from New York prosecutorsVideo
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for New York prosecutors to obtain eight years of financial records from the accountants and bankers of former President Donald Trump as part of a criminal fraud and tax investigation involving him and the Trump Organization. Trump faces possible criminal...
Oklahoma City bombing provides insights into how Merrick Garland would run Justice DepartmentVideo
WASHINGTON — Arriving in Oklahoma City the night after the worst domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history, Merrick Garland grasped the enormity of the task ahead of him. Downtown resembled a war zone. Military vehicles blocked streets. For blocks, federal agents and police were busy collecting evidence. At the federal...
Trump House creator Leslie Rossi says she is ‘humbled’ at receiving GOP nod for open state House seat
Leslie Baum Rossi said she was “humbled” by her selection Saturday by a group of party confreres from Somerset and Westmoreland counties to be the Republican candidate in the May 18 special election to fill the vacancy in the 59th District state House seat created by the recent death of...
Snubbed as Obama high court pick, Garland in line to be AG
WASHINGTON — The last time Merrick Garland was nominated by the White House for a job, Republicans wouldn’t even meet with him. Now, the once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden’s choice for attorney general. Garland, an appeals court judge, is...
Biden pays a visit to ailing former GOP Sen. Bob Dole
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden paid a visit Saturday to former Sen. Bob Dole, days after the World War II veteran and 1996 Republican presidential nominee announced he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Biden, who served in the Senate with Dole for more than two decades, arrived Saturday...
Trump to speak at CPAC in first post-White House appearance
WASHINTON — Donald Trump will be making his first post-presidential appearance at a conservative gathering in Florida next weekend. Ian Walters, spokesman for the American Conservative Union, confirmed that Trump will be speaking at the group’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 28. Trump is expected to use the...
Pennsylvania State Police will escape legislative scrutiny in 2021 budget process
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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 — One of the nation’s largest statewide police forces, the Pennsylvania State Police, will not be subject to annual budget...
GOP source: Priebus mulling run for Wisconsin governor
MADISON, Wis. — Reince Priebus, a former White House chief of staff to Donald Trump, has called Republican donors and power brokers in Wisconsin to discuss a possible bid for governor or the U.S. Senate next year, according to a GOP strategist who spoke directly with Priebus about his deliberations....
