Politics Election category, Page 263
Biden seeks to counter doubters on pick for Pentagon chief
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden made his case for retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to be secretary of defense, urging Congress to waive a legal prohibition against a recently serving military officer running the Pentagon. With concern rising in Congress about eroding civilian control of the military, Biden on Tuesday...
Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis reportedly tests positive for coronavirus
Jenna Ellis, a main component on President Donald Trump’s campaign legal team, has reportedly tested positive for covid-19. Axios reported on Tuesday that Ellis, 36, told friends and associates she got the results shortly after attending a White House Christmas party over the weekend. White House aides have been abuzz...
Republicans block inaugural resolution recognizing Joe Biden’s win
WASHINGTON — Republicans on the congressional panel planning inauguration ceremonies blocked a resolution stating that they were preparing for the swearing-in of President-elect Joe Biden, as President Donald Trump’s continues his bitter battle over the election result. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Roy Blunt and House Republican leader Kevin...
Biden expected to pick Marcia Fudge for housing, Tom Vilsack for USDA
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden has selected Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration, according to five people familiar with the decisions. Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, was just...
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey calls Trump’s campaign to overturn Pennsylvania election ‘completely unacceptable’
PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Pat Toomey said Tuesday that it’s “completely unacceptable” for President Donald Trump to pressure state lawmakers to overturn Pennsylvania’s election result, a rare rebuke from a Republican elected official as Trump continues his effort to subvert the will of the voters. “It’s completely unacceptable and it’s not...
Cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs fired by Trump sues over threats
WASHINGTON — The U.S. cybersecurity official who was fired last month by President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Tuesday over threatening remarks by a lawyer for the president that prompted a wave of death threats against him. Christopher Krebs says in the suit that he has been “bombarded” with threats...
High court rejects GOP bid to halt Biden’s Pennsylvania win
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Republicans’ last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral battleground. The court without comment refused to call into question the certification process in Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Wolf already has certified Biden’s victory and the state’s 20...
Trump campaign loses another round in Pennsylvania’s courts
HARRISBURG — President Donald Trump’s campaign has lost another round in a flurry of Republican lawsuits over Pennsylvania’s election, with the state Supreme Court refusing Tuesday to hear its appeal over fewer than 2,000 ballots in a suburban Philadelphia county. The court, which has a 5-2 Democratic majority, denied the...
House approves defense bill amid Trump veto threat
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House on Tuesday approved a wide-ranging defense policy bill, even as President Donald Trump renewed his threat to veto the bill unless lawmakers clamp down on social media companies he claims were biased against him during the election. Trump tweeted Tuesday that he will veto “the...
Trump thought courts were key to winning. Judges disagreed.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his allies say their lawsuits aimed at subverting the 2020 election and reversing his loss to Joe Biden would be substantiated, if only judges were allowed to hear the cases. There is a central flaw in the argument. Judges have heard the cases and...
Trump questions Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler on electoral votes
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is continuing his futile appeal to battleground state lawmakers to subvert the votes of their constituents. The president has reached out twice to Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler, a Republican, to see what might be possible for Trump to do about the state’s presidential vote....
Biden to name retired Gen. Lloyd Austin as defense secretary
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired four-star Army general Lloyd J. Austin to be secretary of defense, according to four people familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Austin would be the first Black leader of the Pentagon. Biden selected Austin over the longtime front-runner candidate,...
Pittsburgh native Tom Vilsack emerges as Biden’s top candidate to lead Agriculture Department
WASHINGTON — Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack has emerged as a leading candidate for secretary of agriculture in the Biden administration, reprising a role he held under President Barack Obama, according to people familiar with the nomination process. The people said that while Vilsack was favored, President-elect Joe Biden has...
As coronavirus relief talks drag, Congress prepares temporary funding fixVideo
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are giving themselves more time to sort through their end-of-session business on government spending and covid-19 relief, preparing a one-week stopgap spending bill that would prevent a shutdown this weekend. House floor leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on Twitter that the temporary government funding bill is slated...
Trump campaign appeals another ballot case in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — President Donald Trump’s campaign continues to press lawsuits over Pennsylvania’s election, appealing another case it lost to the state Supreme Court, this time over fewer than 2,000 ballots in a suburban Philadelphia county. The appeal, filed Friday, is one of at least four pending cases in which Trump...
Biden picks Michigan Gov. Whitmer to help plan inauguration ceremony
President-elect Joe Biden is giving Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer a role in his inauguration on Jan. 20. Whitmer was named a co-chair for Biden’s inauguration along with five other Democrat elected officials who served as advisors to his campaign. Michigan’s governor also was in consideration to be Biden’s running mate,...
Trump cementing death penalty legacy up to Biden inaugural
CHICAGO — As Donald Trump’s presidency winds down, his administration is ratcheting up the pace of federal executions despite a surge of coronavirus cases in prisons, announcing plans for five starting Thursday and concluding just days before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. If the five go off...
Georgia Senate runoff: Loeffler, Warnock face off in heated debateVideo
ATLANTA — U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler and the Rev. Raphael Warnock faced off in their first, and possibly only, one-on-one debate Sunday night at the Atlanta Press Club, trading barbed attacks in their fight for the right to represent Georgia in the Senate for the next two years. Over the...
U.S. Supreme Court moves up deadline in congressman’s bid to upend Pa. election results
PHILADELPHIA — The U.S. Supreme Court moved up a key deadline Sunday for Pennsylvania officials to respond to a last-minute bid by one of Trump’s top boosters in Congress to decertify the state’s elections results. Previously, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who oversees emergency matters arising out of Pennsylvania...
Biden picks California AG Xavier Becerra to lead HHS, pandemic response
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden has picked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to oversee his administration’s coronavirus response. If confirmed by the Senate, Becerra, 62, will be the first Latino to head the...
A bleak outlook for millions facing cutoff of jobless aid
INDIANAPOLIS — Tina Morton recently faced a choice: Pay bills or buy a birthday gift for a child? Derrisa Green is falling further behind on rent. Sylvia Soliz has had her electricity cut off. Unemployment has forced aching decisions on millions of Americans and their families in the face of...
GOP leaders ask Congress to reject Pa.’s electors for Joe Biden
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. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — More than 60 Republicans, including the top...
Pandemic, partisan attacks exposed gaps in Pa.’s new mail-in voting law
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. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — Before any threat of a deadly, fast-spreading...
House votes to decriminalize marijuana at federal level
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House on Friday approved a bill to decriminalize and tax marijuana at the federal level, reversing what supporters called a failed policy of criminalization of pot use and taking steps to address racial disparities in enforcement of federal drug laws. Opponents, mostly Republicans, called the bill...
White House communications boss Alyssa Farah exits in bow to Trump’s defeat
WASHINGTON — Alyssa Farah resigned as White House communications director on Thursday, in one of the first high-profile staff departures since President Donald Trump’s loss in the November election. She said in a statement she is leaving her post in order to “pursue new opportunities” but did not describe her...
