Politics Election category, Page 253
Fact check: Joe Biden and his shifting goalposts on reopening schools
WASHINGTON — How do you define success when it comes to reopening schools in the pandemic? President Joe Biden and his aides are having difficulty settling on an answer to that question. At his town-hall forum Tuesday night, Biden denied that his administration ever thought one day of classroom instruction...
Biden reframes his goal on reopening of elementary schoolsVideo
MILWAUKEE — President Joe Biden is promising a majority of elementary schools will be open five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office, restating his original goal after his administration came under fire when aides said schools would be considered open if they held...
Trump slams Mitch McConnell as GOP divide deepens post-impeachmentVideo
WASHINGTON — In the most caustic sign yet of deepening GOP divisions, former President Donald Trump blistered Mitch McConnell as a “political hack” on Tuesday, days after the Senate’s top Republican denounced him as the inciter of U.S. Capitol attack. “The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong...
Western Pa. GOP focuses ire on Pat Toomey, as Republicans battle for control of the party
The border separating Allegheny County from the surrounding metro area is beginning to look more like the fault lines shaking a Republican Party trying to come to terms with the aftermath of a second impeachment trial of former President Trump. County GOP chairs in Westmoreland, Washington, Fayette, Lawrence, York and...
Delay in census data could put transparency in Pa.’s redistricting process at risk
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, including TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and Votebeat, a project focused on election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — The data needed to redraw Pennsylvania’s political...
5 Republicans seek party nod for special election in 59th state House district
Five Republicans — four from Westmoreland County and one from Somerset County — are seeking the party’s nod to run in the May 18 special election to fill the vacancy in the 59th District State House seat created by the death of Mike Reese. The 42-year-old Republican from Mt. Pleasant...
Democrat’s lawsuit accuses Trump of inciting deadly Capitol riotVideo
WASHINGTON — The House Homeland Security chairman accused Donald Trump in a federal lawsuit Tuesday of inciting the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and conspiring with his lawyer and extremist groups to try to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election he lost to Joe Biden....
N.C. GOP votes to censure Sen. Richard Burr for impeachment vote
RALEIGH — The North Carolina Republican Party unanimously approved a resolution Monday to censure Sen. Richard Burr over his vote to convict former President Donald Trump during Trump’s second impeachment trial. Michael Whatley, the state party chairman, said the central committee’s decision serves as a symbolic gesture of the party’s...
Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson downplays attack on U.S. Capitol
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson downplayed the storming of the U.S. Capitol last month, saying on conservative talk radio Monday that it “didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.” Johnson’s comments on WISN-AM in Milwaukee came after he voted Saturday to acquit former President Donald...
Pelosi says independent commission will examine Capitol riot
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Congress will establish an independent, Sept. 11-style commission to look into the deadly insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol. Pelosi said the commission will “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic...
The inside story of how Pennsylvania failed to deliver millions in coronavirus rent relief
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 — It was late August, just past noon, and time was running out. Bryce Maretzki was in charge of a...
Biden faces questions about commitment to minimum wage hike
WASHINGTON — Union activist Terrence Wise recalls being laughed at when he began pushing for a national $15 per hour minimum wage almost a decade ago. Nearly a year into the pandemic, the idea isn’t so funny. The coronavirus has renewed focus on challenges facing hourly employees who have continued...
Support grows for Capitol riot inquiry after Trump acquittalVideo
WASHINGTON — After what one called a “heartbreaking” verdict, House prosecutors who argued for Donald Trump’s conviction of inciting the U.S. Capitol riot said Sunday they had proved their case and railed against the Senate’s Republican leader and most of his colleagues for “trying to have it both ways” in...
Impeachment isn’t the final word on Capitol riot for Donald TrumpVideo
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s acquittal at his second impeachment trial may not be the final word on whether he’s to blame for the deadly Capitol riot. The next step for the former president could be the courts. Now a private citizen, Trump is stripped of his protection from legal liability...
Trump remains dominant force in GOP following acquittal
NEW YORK — The Republican Party still belongs to Donald Trump. After he incited a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol last month, the GOP considered purging the norm-shattering former president. But in the end, only seven of 50 Senate Republicans voted to convict Trump in his historic second impeachment...
California GOP pumps $125K into recall against Gov. Newsom
LOS ANGELES — The California Republican Party announced Saturday it is giving $125,000 to the campaign aimed at recalling Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. The infusion of cash comes at a critical time for organizers, who are required to collect 1.5 million valid petition signatures by mid-March to qualify the proposal...
Trump acquitted, denounced in historic impeachment trial
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday of inciting the horrific attack on the U.S. Capitol, concluding a historic impeachment trial that spared him the first-ever conviction of a current or former U.S. president but exposed the fragility of America’s democratic traditions and left a divided nation to come to...
AP: GOP leader Mitch McConnell will vote to acquit Trump
WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell will vote to acquit Donald Trump in the former president’s impeachment trial. That’s according to a source familiar with McConnell’s thinking who was not authorized to publicly discuss the decision and spoke on condition of anonymity. Word of McConnell’s decision came Saturday before...
Trump lawyers argue impeachment based on ‘hatred,’ not facts
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s impeachment lawyers accused Democrats of waging a campaign of “hatred” against the former president as they sped through their defense of his actions and fiery words before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, hurtling the Senate toward a final vote in his historic trial....
Cuomo administration ‘froze’ over nursing home data requests
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide told Democratic lawmakers that the administration took months to release data revealing how many people living at nursing homes died of covid-19 because officials “froze” over worries the information was “going to be used against us.” Republicans who term the...
Trump lawyer mistakenly refers to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger
Fumble! It has not been a great week for former Montgomery County district attorney Bruce Castor. The lead lawyer of former President Donald Trump’s defense team during an unprecedented second impeachment trial before the U.S. Senate committed a gaffe Friday afternoon that brought some humor to the serious charges against...
Philadelphia-area lawyer defending Trump accustomed to political disaster
HARRISBURG — Bruce L. Castor Jr. answered his cellphone, but he had no time to talk. “I’m 12 minutes from prime time,” he said, before heading to the well of the U.S. Senate to defend his client, Donald Trump, as one of the defense lawyers in the ex-president’s second impeachment...
Trump impeachment trial: Defense wraps up case in 3 hoursVideo
WASHINGTON — The defense attorneys for Donald Trump have wrapped up their presentation in the former president’s impeachment trial. Lawyers argued for three hours Friday that former President Donald Trump didn’t incite the Jan. 6 rally crowd to riot at the U.S. Capitol and that his words were merely figures...
John Fetterman: ‘Race played no role’ in shotgun-wielding chase of Black jogger he mistook for criminalVideo
Lt. Gov. John Fetterman on Thursday rebuffed criticism stemming from a 2013 decision to grab his 20-gauge shotgun and chase after someone he thought might be a shooter on the run but turned out to be an unarmed jogger. The incident resurfaced this week with the ambitious, progressive Democrat’s newly...
White House says it will defer to CDC on reopening schoolsVideo
Facing criticism that President Joe Biden has not acted aggressively enough on reopening schools, the White House on Thursday said it’s aiming for a full reopening but will defer to science experts on how to achieve it in the middle of a pandemic. The White House drew criticism this week...
