Politics Election category, Page 304
Virus leads New York to nix Democratic presidential primaryVideo
ALBANY, N.Y. — In an unprecedented move, New York has canceled its Democratic presidential primary that was scheduled for June 23 amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Democratic members of the State’s Board of Elections voted Monday to nix the primary. New York will still hold its congressional and state-level primaries...
AP-NORC poll: Rising support for mail voting amid pandemicVideo
WASHINGTON — Americans’ support for mail-in voting has jumped amid concerns about the safety of polling places during the coronavirus pandemic, but a wide partisan divide suggests President Donald Trump’s public campaign against vote by mail may be resonating with his Republican backers. A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC...
Cuomo: ‘I dare you’ to let states declare coronavirus bankruptcy in scathing attack on GOP
NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo angrily challenged Republicans to force hard-hit states to declare bankruptcy instead of giving them stimulus aid to cope with the coronavirus crisis. “Pass the law. I dare you,” he said. “You want to send a signal to the markets that this nation is in...
Sizing up Trump’s green-card halt: Is it just temporary?
SAN DIEGO — Pamela Austin, a recruiter at Adventist Health Bakersfield in California, made seven job offers to foreign nurses in February and just finished a first round of interviews with 12 more candidates. They are from all over the world, including the United Kingdom, Philippines, Australia and Malaysia. The...
Trump touts idea of injecting disinfectant, light into the body to combat coronavirusVideo
President Trump suggested that medical experts should somehow try to find a way to inject light or disinfectants into the human body as a means to kill coronavirus — methods that are either not possible or highly dangerous. Trump touted the idea Thursday after William Bryan, who leads the Department...
Congress passes expanded small-business loan funding to address coronavirus shutdowns
WASHINGTON — With unemployment claims topping 26 million in the last five weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic, the House voted Thursday to approve another half-trillion dollars in federal relief to replenish a depleted small-business loan program and provide money for hospitals and testing. The bill includes $310 billion for...
Trump campaign tests lines of attack against Biden
NEW YORK — Air Force One is mostly grounded. Fundraisers are canceled. And the closest thing to a campaign rally is President Trump’s nightly coronavirus briefing. The president’s reelection campaign has been thoroughly upended by the coronavirus. But Trump’s team has revived a plan to quickly define Joe Biden, painting...
Florida Rep. Donna Shalala failed to disclose stock sales in 2019 in violation of federal lawVideo
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala, the lone House Democrat on the committee set up to oversee $500 billion in taxpayer money being used for coronavirus-related payouts to large businesses, violated federal law when she failed to disclose stock sales while serving in Congress. Shalala, of Florida, told the Miami...
Pennsylvania boosting efforts to promote voting by mail
Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is boosting its efforts to get voters to cast their primary election ballots by mail, saying it would help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The administration sent 4.2 million postcards to primary voters and is mounting an awareness campaign on radio, television, social media, streaming...
Senate approves $500B aid for small businesses dealing with coronavirus shutdownsVideo
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a deal to increase funding for a popular small business loan program that ran out of money last week as businesses scrambled for a lifeline during the coronavirus pandemic. The House is expected to pass the measure Thursday, giving members time to...
Senate report says Kremlin support for Trump in 2016 is accurateVideo
WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to back Donald Trump’s campaign over that of rival Hillary Clinton was based on sound intelligence-gathering processes and analysis, the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a report released Tuesday. While reviewing intelligence agencies’ assessment of the Kremlin’s...
Senate panel backs assessment that Russia interfered in 2016Video
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday confirms the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusions that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to sow chaos. Senators warned that it could happen again this presidential election year. The heavily redacted report from the Senate Intelligence Committee is part of the panel’s...
Trump says he’ll ‘suspend immigration,’ offers no details
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that he will sign an executive order “to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States” because of the coronavirus. “In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I...
As mail voting pushed, some fear loss of in-person option
ATLANTA — Scrambling to address voting concerns during a pandemic, election officials across the country are eliminating polling places or scaling back opportunities for people to cast ballots in person — a move raising concerns among voting rights groups and some Democrats who say some voters could be disenfranchised. In...
Trump administration, Democrats near deal for more coronavirus aid to small businessesVideo
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration and congressional Democrats expressed optimism Sunday that more than $450 billion in loans and aid to Americans most affected by the coronavirus outbreak will be enacted this week, providing a measure of financial help as the U.S. death toll passes 40,000. The bulk of the...
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin takes credit for putting Trump’s name on stimulus checksVideo
Since it was announced that President Trump’s name was being added to millions of paper economic stimulus checks, many have wondered how that decision came to be. In a shocking twist, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said it was all his idea. In an interview, Mnuchin said that since it would...
Biden wins mail-in Wyoming Democratic caucus
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Joe Biden has won Wyoming’s Democratic presidential caucus, which had been postponed for two weeks and scaled back to only mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic, state party officials said Sunday. The results were announced less than two weeks after Bernie Sanders dropped out and endorsed...
Battleground power plays rage as everyday politics go quiet
DES MOINES, Iowa — Door-knocking? Over. Local party activity? Some Facebook traffic, if that. Across an arc of vital swing states, the coronavirus has put politics on an uneasy pause. Instead, political fights among state leaders from Iowa to Pennsylvania over the handling of the pandemic’s impact are raging as...
Experts worry politics might guide voters’ virus precautions
WASHINGTON — Laura Herd says she sleeps better because her state’s governor, Michigan Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, imposed one of the nation’s strictest stay-at-home orders to combat the coronavirus pandemic. President Donald Trump’s actions are another story, in her mind. “His goal is to get the economy back up so he...
Governors feel heat to reopen from protesters, president
Stores in Texas can begin selling merchandise with curbside service, and hospitals can resume nonessential surgeries. In Florida, people are returning to beaches and parks. And protesters are clamoring for more. Governors eager to rescue their economies and feeling heat from demonstrators and President Donald Trump are moving to ease...
Trump consults faith leaders on phased-in reopening
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump held a call with faith leaders on Friday that included discussion about a phased-in return to broader in-person worship after weeks of religious services largely shifting online in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump’s call with faith leaders came one day after the White...
Pro-Trump protesters push back on stay-at-home orders
While many Americans are filled with fear, Melissa Ackison says the coronavirus pandemic has filled her with anger. The stay-at home orders are government overreach, the conservative Ohio state Senate candidate says, and the labeling of some workers as “essential” arbitrary. “It enrages something inside of you,” said Ackison, who...
Trump threatens to bypass Senate rules on nomineesVideo
WASHINGTON — Citing the coronavirus, Donald Trump is threatening unprecedented action — adjourning both houses of Congress — to entice the Senate to approve more of his nominees. In recent years, Congress has refused to fully adjourn during most breaks precisely to prevent the president from making recess appointments. Little...
Warren becomes latest ex-presidential rival to back Biden
WASHINGTON — Elizabeth Warren endorsed Joe Biden on Wednesday, the latest of the former vice president’s onetime White House rivals to back him as the Democratic Party moves to project unity against President Donald Trump going into the November election. “Joe Biden has spent nearly his entire life in public...
In nod to governors, Trump walks back total authority claim
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he’s open to some states “reopening” before federal social distancing guidelines expire at the end of month, as he appeared to back off his claim of absolute authority to decide when the time was right to act. Hours after suggesting that the bipartisan concerns...
