Politics Election category, Page 305
Pro wrestling ‘essential’ under Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ orderVideo
ORLANDO — Body slams and pile drives can go on in the Sunshine State. With Florida under a lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, there’s one business deemed essential by Florida’s governor that is raising some eyebrows: pro wrestling. Florida’s top emergency official last week amended Gov. Ron DeSantis’ stay-at-home...
Obama endorses Biden, says former VP has ‘qualities we need’Video
WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama endorsed Joe Biden in a video on Tuesday, giving the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee a boost from the party’s biggest fundraiser and one of its most popular figures. “I believe Joe has all the qualities we need in a president right now,” Obama said...
New Trump panel to explore path to reopening economyVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he’s enlisting advisers from business, the medical field and elected office to join a new council that will help shape his plans to reopen the coronavirus-battered economy. The panel will operate separately from the White House task force that’s leading the administration’s public...
Far-right U.S. politicians label lockdowns anti-constitutional
SPOKANE, Wash. — In deeply conservative eastern Washington state, a prominent state lawmaker kicked out of his Republican Party caucus labels the coronavirus as a foreign bio-weapon, accuses Marxists of using the pandemic to advance totalitarianism and rails against lockdown restrictions imposed by the Democratic governor. A California teleconference last...
Liberal Jill Karofsky wins Wisconsin Supreme Court seat
MADISON, Wis. — Dane County Circuit Judge Jill Karofsky defeated conservative Justice Dan Kelly to win a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in results released Monday from last week’s chaotic spring election. The race was officially nonpartisan, but the high court has become heavily politicized in recent years....
Trump says his ‘authority is total’ when to ease coronavirus rules, not governorsVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump claimed the authority Monday to decide how and when to reopen the economy after weeks of tough social distancing guidelines aimed at fighting the new coronavirus. But governors from both parties were quick to push back, noting they have the primary constitutional responsibility for ensuring...
Bernie Sanders formally endorses Joe Biden for president
WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders endorsed Joe Biden’s presidential campaign on Monday, encouraging his progressive supporters to rally behind the presumptive Democratic nominee in an urgent bid to defeat President Donald Trump. “I am asking all Americans, I’m asking every Democrat, I’m asking every independent, I’m asking a lot of Republicans,...
Former Senate staffer accuses Joe Biden of sexual assaultVideo
WASHINGTON — A former aide to Joe Biden is accusing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of sexually assaulting her during the early 1990s when he was a senator. Biden’s campaign denies the charges. In two recent interviews with the Associated Press, Tara Reade alleged the assault occurred in the basement...
Signs missed and steps slowed in Trump’s pandemic response
WASHINGTON — By the time President Donald Trump first spoke publicly about the coronavirus, it may already have been too late. Interviewed at Davos, a gathering of global elites in the Swiss Alps, the president on Jan. 22 played down the threat posed by the respiratory virus from China, which...
Libertarians debate: How to respond to coronavirus pandemic?
NEW YORK — Steve Baker, one of the British parliament’s leading libertarians, was nearly in tears as he addressed the House of Commons in support of a bill that once seemed unthinkable: a massive economic aid package in response to the coronavirus pandemic. “Libertarian though I may be, this is...
Airlines and Trump administration haggle over payroll grants
The Trump administration is proposing that a significant amount of the $25 billion in cash that airlines expected to keep workers on the job will instead be low-interest loans that big airlines will have to repay, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Treasury Department began sending proposals...
Justice Department finds errors in additional warrant applications for national security wiretaps
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has identified what it describes as “material errors” in two applications for national security wiretaps, but also says it has made important strides in overhauling a surveillance system that has come under political scrutiny because of mistakes made during the Russia probe. The department did...
Alaska Democrats hold mail-only presidential primary
JUNEAU, Alaska — Alaska Democrats are deciding their choice for the party’s presidential nominee, as just one major candidate — former Vice President Joe Biden — remains actively campaigning. Results are expected Saturday in the party-run primary, which became an exclusively vote-by-mail affair after concerns with COVID-19 scrapped plans for...
‘Shifting America off its constitutional foundations’: Saint Vincent prof critiques progressivism in new bookVideo
The demise of Democratic presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren does not mean the end of progressivism in the political spectrum, said a Saint Vincent College professor who has written a new book analyzing the movement in the United States. “Even though both (U.S. Senators) Warren and Sanders have...
White House weighs new panel to map post-virus economic recoveryVideo
WASHINGTON — The White House is considering whether to create a working group focused on reviving the U.S. economy after the coronavirus pandemic eases, and whether the panel should include representatives from the private sector. The discussions are in their early stages, according to three people familiar with the matter....
Biden woos skeptical Sanders supporters with new proposals
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled plans to expand eligibility for Medicare and forgive college debt for millions of Americans, as the former vice president begins courting progressives who lost their leader when Bernie Sanders left the presidential race. Biden’s swift move to shore up his left flank underscores...
Point of order: Congress weighs how to govern from afar
WASHINGTON — “Congress” literally means to gather together. But the coronavirus pandemic and election year politics are forcing lawmakers to consider ways of governing from afar, some for the first time in U.S. history. The virus’ continuing spread is raising doubts among lawmakers and aides that the House will reconvene...
Democrats stall Trump’s $250B business virus aid package
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Thursday stalled President Donald Trump’s request for $250 billion to supplement a “paycheck protection” program for businesses crippled by the coronavirus outbreak, demanding protections for minority-owned businesses and money for health care providers and state and local governments. They sidetracked a request by Majority Leader...
Biden vs. Trump: General election battle is now set
The stage is set for November. Barring unforeseen disaster, Joe Biden will represent the Democratic Party against President Donald Trump this fall, the former vice president’s place on the general election ballot cemented by Bernie Sanders’ decision to end his campaign. Biden likely won’t secure the number of delegates needed...
Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler says she will stop trading stocks in individual companiesVideo
ATLANTA — U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler says she will no longer invest in stocks for individual companies, an attempt to push past the criticism she faces about transactions made on her behalf during the coronavirus pandemic. Loeffler made the announcement in an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal....
Bernie Sanders drops 2020 presidential bid, clearing path for Joe Biden
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders, who saw his once strong lead in the Democratic primary evaporate as the party’s establishment lined swiftly up behind rival Joe Biden, ended his presidential bid on Wednesday, an acknowledgment that the former vice president is too far ahead for him to have any reasonable...
Wisconsin voters wait for hours, others stay home amid virusVideo
MADISON — Despite federal health recommendations, thousands of Wisconsin voters waited hours in long lines outside overcrowded polling stations on Tuesday so they could participate in a presidential primary election that tested the limits of electoral politics in the midst of a pandemic. Thousands more stayed home, unwilling to risk...
Trump ousts inspector general set to oversee relief spendingVideo
President Donald Trump has removed the head of a team of U.S. auditors that will oversee the $2 trillion in federal coronavirus relief spending, his latest move against inspectors general who are supposed to serve as independent watchdogs. Trump ousted Glenn Fine from his position as acting Defense Department inspector...
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly reportedly offers his resignation
The acting secretary of the Navy offered his resignation Tuesday because of his handling of the coronavirus outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and the firing of its captain prompted sharp criticism, several news outlets have reported. Thomas Modly submitted his resignation letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper...
Sen. Rand Paul recovered from coronavirus; volunteering at hospitalVideo
FRANKFORT, Ky. — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday that he has recovered from the coronavirus and has started volunteering at a hospital in his Kentucky hometown. The Republican lawmaker tested positive for the virus in March, becoming the first case of covid-19 in the Senate. “I appreciate all the...
