Politics Election category, Page 300
Senate panel approves subpoena in Hunter Biden probeVideo
WASHINGTON — A Senate committee has voted to issue a subpoena as part of its investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, a move that met immediate opposition from Democrats who said the panel should be focused on overseeing the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Senate Homeland...
Largest yet: $1.3 billion contract for border wall awarded to Trump-preferred firmVideo
PHOENIX — A North Dakota construction company favored by President Donald Trump has received the largest contract to date to build a section of Trump’s signature wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Republican U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota confirmed the $1.3 billion contract for building the 42-mile section of...
Supreme Court blocks House from Mueller grand jury material
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily prevented the House of Representatives from obtaining secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The court’s unsigned order keeps previously undisclosed details from the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election out of the hands of Democratic...
Mike Pompeo denies retaliation but won’t explain watchdog ousterVideo
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday adamantly denied that he recommended firing the State Department’s independent watchdog in retaliation for investigations into Pompeo’s conduct as America’s top diplomat. But Pompeo again declined to provide specific reasons for Steve Linick’s dismissal as inspector general. Pompeo took an unusually...
Democrats decry ‘pandemic of pollution’ under Trump’s EPA
WASHINGTON — Democrats on Wednesday blasted the Trump administration’s moves to roll back environmental regulations during the coronavirus crisis, with one senator saying a “pandemic of pollution” has been released. The Environmental Protection Agency has weakened regulations dealing with fuel efficiency and mercury emissions and has allowed companies to determine...
Trump threatens funds for states easing voting in pandemicVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to hold up federal funds for two election battleground states that are trying to make it easier and safer to vote during the coronavirus pandemic. The president’s tweets targeting Michigan and Nevada marked an escalation in his campaign against voting by mail,...
Mississippi governor pranked during graduation shout-outsVideo
Bart Simpson would be proud. Someone pranked Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves so smoothly that it has the rest of the nation — well, cracking up. The Republican governor was recognizing many of the state’s thousands of 2020 seniors who are missing out on a normal graduation due to the coronavirus....
Federal judge orders expansion of mail-in voting in Texas
AUSTIN — A federal judge Tuesday ordered Texas to allow any of the state’s 16 million voters to cast a ballot by mail over fears of the coronavirus, paving the way for what would be one of the most dramatic expansions of mail-in voting in the country. The decision is...
Battle over how quickly Kansas reopens increasingly bitter
TOPEKA — A battle in Kansas between the Democratic governor and Republican-controlled Legislature over reopening the economy has grown increasingly bitter, clouded by election year politics present and past. Gov. Laura Kelly has joined Democratic colleagues in other states including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in facing a GOP backlash over...
Trump allies lining up doctors to prescribe rapid reopening
WASHINGTON — Republican political operatives are recruiting “pro-Trump” doctors to go on television to prescribe reviving the U.S. economy as quickly as possible, without waiting to meet safety benchmarks proposed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. The plan was...
Steven Mnuchin and Jerome Powell push differing priorities to aid economyVideo
WASHINGTON — Facing the gravest U.S. economic crisis in decades, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell offered Congress contrasting views Tuesday of what the government’s most urgent priority should be. Striking a theme frequently pushed by President Donald Trump, Mnuchin warned that prolonged business shutdowns would...
My ‘decision to make’: Trump defends criticized use of malaria drugVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump emphatically defended himself Tuesday against criticism from medical experts that his announced use of a malaria drug against the coronavirus could spark wide misuse by Americans of the unproven treatment with potentially fatal side effects. Trump’s revelation a day earlier that he was taking hydroxychloroquine...
Sen. Lindsey Graham plans vote to subpoena Russia probe officials
WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is scheduling a vote that would allow him to subpoena more than 50 current and former officials who were involved in the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, as President Donald Trump and his allies have...
Who got what? Details scant on small-business relief effortVideo
WASHINGTON — A small, overlooked federal agency is shouldering a massive relief effort for the nation’s small businesses and their workers left reeling by the pandemic. The Small Business Administration has committed to auditing every sizable emergency loan it approves. But six weeks after the $600 billion-plus program was launched,...
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio named acting chair of intelligence panel
WASHINGTON — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will temporarily become chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican leaders announced Monday, taking charge of the panel at a time of turnover and tension in the nation’s intelligence community. Rubio will replace North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, who said last week that he...
AG William Barr says he doesn’t expect criminal probe into Obama or BidenVideo
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr said he doesn’t expect the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into former President Barack Obama or former Vice President Joe Biden, despite prodding to do so by President Donald Trump. Barr told reporters at a news conference on Monday that he won’t...
Democrats: Fired State Dept. watchdog was looking into Saudi arms saleVideo
WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats say the State Department watchdog fired by President Donald Trump last week was investigating possible impropriety in a massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia last year, adding new questions to the watchdog’s abrupt dismissal. Democrats said Monday that ousted Inspector General Steve Linick was probing how...
Kelly Loeffler’s campaign hoped for a reset. But senator’s stocks came under new scrutiny
WASHINGTON — Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s campaign was seeking a reset after a rocky first few months in the Republican’s tenure as a Georgia senator. Instead, an FBI investigation of a fellow senator suddenly placed Loeffler’s own stock sales front and center again. Even before that development, several high-placed Republicans had...
Joe Biden’s VP search puts spotlight on how long he’ll serve
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden has longed to win the White House for more than three decades. If he finally makes it there after November’s election, he’s already talking about leaving. In an effort to ease concerns about his age, the 77-year-old presumptive Democratic nominee has said he wouldn’t seek reelection...
Pandemic throws campaign challenges in way of candidates looking to win June 2 primaries
When he decided to run for state auditor general, Pittsburgh City Controller Michael Lamb thought he had retail politics down to an art form. After all, the 57-year-old was born into a political family. The affable Democrat had run seven successful campaigns in Allegheny County, made his bona fides as...
Democrats investigating Trump firing of State Department watchdogVideo
WASHINGTON — Democrats demanded on Saturday that the White House hand over all records related to President Donald Trump’s latest firing of a federal watchdog, this time at the State Department, and they suggested Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was responsible, in what “may be an illegal act of retaliation.”...
Dems push $3T coronavirus relief bill toward House vote
WASHINGTON — Democrats began pushing Congress’ biggest coronavirus relief bill yet toward expected House passage Friday, a $3 trillion behemoth they said a beleaguered country badly needs but that Republicans called a bloated election-year wish list. Democratic leaders were pressing ahead despite grumbling from party moderates leery of the measure’s...
Appeals court reinstates lawsuit over Trump’s hotel profitsVideo
RICHMOND, Va. — A lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of illegally profiting off the presidency through his luxury Washington hotel was revived Thursday by a divided federal appeals court. The lawsuit brought by the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia alleges that Trump has violated the emoluments clause...
Trump says he’ll restock stockpile for future pandemics
ALLENTOWN — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he intends to prepare the country for future pandemics by restocking the national stockpile and bringing critical manufacturing back to the U.S. His comments came the same day a whistleblower testified that the Trump administration had failed to properly prepare for the...
Sen. Lindsey Graham to probe origins of Russia inquiry; won’t call ObamaVideo
WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said Thursday his committee is opening a wide-ranging investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, but rejected President Donald Trump’s call to bring in former President Barack Obama to testify. “I am greatly concerned about the precedent that would be set...
