Politics Election category, Page 274
Shapiro preparing for additional court battles as election nears
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said he has teams preparing for any election law challenges that may be filed between now and after polls close Nov. 3, even as he awaits court rulings on several GOP challenges. With 26 days remaining until the election and about 2.5 million mail and...
Mitch McConnell hasn’t been to White House in months, citing lax covid-19 measures
Sen. Mitch McConnell has been avoiding the White House like the plague. The Republican majority leader said Thursday that has purposely refused to see President Donald Trump in person at the White House, citing lax precautions against the spread of covid-19. “Their approach to how to handle this was different...
Vice presidential debate draws more than 50 million TV viewers, a major spike over 2016Video
The vice presidential debate drew more than 50.7 million viewers on Wednesday, a significant jump over the last meeting of running mates in 2016. Preliminary Nielsen data showed the total audience across the major broadcast and cable networks for the showdown between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris...
Prominent GOP fundraiser charged in covert lobbying effort
WASHINGTON — Elliott Broidy, a prominent fundraiser for President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, has been charged in an illicit lobbying campaign aimed at getting the Trump administration to drop an investigation into the multibillion-dollar looting of a Malaysian state investment fund. Broidy is the latest person accused by...
Takeaways from the vice presidential debate between Harris and PenceVideo
SALT LAKE CITY — For 90 minutes, the understudies had their moment. Vice President Mike Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris faced each other behind plexiglass partitions in a low-key debate that was peevish but generally polite. Their clash probably won’t have much effect on who wins the White House,...
Pence, Harris face off on covid-19 in VP debate
SALT LAKE CITY — Vice President Mike Pence defended the Trump administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 210,000 Americans Wednesday night, while his Democratic challenger, Kamala Harris, condemned “the greatest failure of any presidential administration” during a largely civil debate dominated by the coronavirus. With...
‘A blessing in disguise’: Trump hails experimental treatment for his coronavirus recoveryVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday credited an experimental drug treatment with helping his recovery from covid-19 and suggested his diagnosis could be a “blessing in disguise” in the nation’s battle against the pandemic. But there is no way for the president or his doctors to know whether the...
Facebook braces for contested election, voter intimidation
OAKLAND, Calif. — Facebook said it’s readied new safeguards for the 2020 U.S. elections that have it better prepared to deal with candidates who prematurely declare victory or contest official results and the possibility of voter intimidation by alleged — and potentially armed — “poll watchers.” In the former case,...
Now a covid-19 hot spot, White House struggles to workVideo
WASHINGTON — In a tableau befitting a surreal election season, there may be more raccoons around the White House than actual staff now — and a contagious president sneaking into the West Wing. With the iconic white-columned building now a coronavirus hot zone, and a pack of hungry raccoons near...
‘Naked Celebs’ star in political PSA about ‘naked ballots,’ following example of Allegheny County polsVideo
It’s not enough for Pennsylvania elected officials to get naked to promote proper voting procedures in the November election. Celebrities are getting in on the action, too. In a viral video released today, titled “These Naked Celebs Have an Important Message for Voters,” well-known comedians and actors are shown naked...
In about-face, Trump seeks to salvage parts of virus aid
WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday tried to salvage its favorite items lost in the rubble of COVID-19 relief talks that President Donald Trump blew up, with his administration pressing for $1,200 stimulus checks and a new wave of aid for airlines and other businesses hard hit by the...
Appeals court: Trump must turn over taxes to prosecutor
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s accountant must turn over his tax records to a New York state prosecutor, an appeals court ruled Wednesday in a decision that likely sets up a second trip to the U.S. Supreme Court over the issue. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in...
Airline shares get a boost from Trump’s late tweets
SILVER SPRING, Md. — Shares in major U.S. airlines were poised for gains Wednesday after President Donald Trump tweeted his support for a relief package for the struggling industry and prodded Congress to take action. “The House & Senate should IMMEDIATELY Approve 25 Billion Dollars for Airline Payroll Support,” Trump...
Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden endorses Joe Biden for presidentVideo
Retired Gen. Michael Hayden needed to get some things off his chest about the current presidential campaign. Hayden, the Pittsburgh native who served as director of the CIA under former President George W. Bush and director of the National Security Agency, released a video late Tuesday which boiled down to,...
Biden in Gettysburg: ‘Once again, we are a house divided’Video
GETTYSBURG — Joe Biden on Tuesday made an impassioned plea for national unity and bipartisan cooperation in a speech casting the 2020 election as a “battle for the soul of the nation,” with the Civil War’s most famous battlefield as his backdrop. “There’s no more fitting place than here today...
Rendell and Toomey join in congressional term limits proposalVideo
If past is prologue, a proposal from U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell seeking 34 states to force a Constitutional Convention to consider congressional term limits may be as unlikely as the partners who put out the call for it Tuesday. Just one day...
Trump halts covid-19 relief talks until after electionVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday called an abrupt end to negotiations with Democrats over additional covid-19 relief, delaying action until after the election despite ominous warnings from his own Federal Reserve chairman about the deteriorating conditions in the economy. Trump tweeted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was “not...
Supporters mirror Trump’s rosy projection of virus infection
CANTON, Ohio — As an infected President Donald Trump urged Americans not to fear the virus that has killed more than 1 million people worldwide, many of his supporters were already in sync with that message. In interviews with Republican voters at Trump events and campaign offices, very few saw...
Lines long as early voting begins amid pandemic precautions
NORWOOD, Ohio — Long lines developed early and stayed that way at election boards as early voting began Tuesday in Ohio, which again was looming as a potential swing state, but this time in a pandemic-altered election. Hundreds waited outside board offices in Hamilton, Franklin and Cuyahoga counties, which serve...
Pence and Harris to debate through plexiglass because of coronavirus concerns
Vice President Mike Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris will debate Wednesday separated by plexiglass shields, one of a handful of changes debate officials are making in response to concerns about covid-19. President Donald Trump was hospitalized after falling ill late last week. Pence met with the president in the...
Supreme Court reinstates South Carolina ballot witness requirement
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a requirement that South Carolina residents voting by mail in November’s election get a witness to sign their ballots. Democrats had sought to have the requirement put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, but Republicans had defended it as deterring fraud....
Timeline: Pat Toomey’s rise from Lehigh Valley congressman to the U.S. Senate
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who became the Lehigh Valley’s most powerful elected official, will return to private life when his current term ends in 2022, he announced Monday. “Representing the people of Pennsylvania, this big, beautiful, complicated, diverse state, has been an extraordinary honor,” Toomey, 58, said at a news...
Pat Toomey’s announced exit sends Pennsylvania politicos scrambling
Monday’s confirmation by U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, that he will call it quits in 2022 and not run to become the next governor of Pennsylvania set the stage for an early scramble among candidates now that two statewide seats will be open. “All of the Republican politicos just...
Texas Republican calls on state attorney general to resign
DALLAS — A Republican congressman from Texas became the most prominent member of his party to call for the resignation of the state’s Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, after Paxton’s top deputies reported him to law enforcement for alleged crimes including bribery and abuse of office. Rep. Chip Roy, who...
Trump seizes on small election issues to spread concern
WASHINGTON — Nine ballots discarded in Pennsylvania. A mail carrier who altered a handful of affidavit ballot applications. People being sent double ballots. In the run up to Election Day, President Donald Trump is seizing on small, potentially routine voting issues to suggest the election is rigged. But there is...
