Politics Election category, Page 326
Rudy Giuliani attacks GOP impeachment lawyer after Sondland testimony
NEW YORK — Rudy Giuliani defended himself against damaging allegations in the impeachment inquiry by attacking his own side. After Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, threw him under the impeachment bus in blistering testimony Wednesday, Giuliani lashed out in real time against the GOP counsel co-running the hearing,...
Pence aide denies discussion of link in Ukraine aid holdupVideo
WASHINGTON — A top aide to Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that a conversation described by EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland about a link between military aid for Ukraine and investigations “never happened.” Sondland testified Wednesday that he spoke with Pence before a Sept. 1 meeting with Ukrainian officials “that...
Trump directed Ukraine quid pro quo, key witness Ambassador Sondland saysVideo
WASHINGTON — Ambassador Gordon Sondland declared to impeachment investigators Wednesday that President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani explicitly sought a “quid pro quo” with Ukraine, leveraging an Oval Office visit for political investigations of Democrats. But he also came to believe the trade involved much more. Besides the...
GOP-requested witness rejects Trump ‘conspiracy theories’Video
WASHINGTON — Sought by Republicans to testify, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine spoke up instead for Democrat Joe Biden in Tuesday’s impeachment hearings, rejecting “conspiracy theories” embraced by President Donald Trump and some of his allies. Kurt Volker said he has known Biden as an honorable man for...
Trump spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham says Obama aides left behind mean notes
WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Tuesday that Obama administration aides left behind taunting notes for incoming Trump officials when they handed over their offices in 2017. Numerous Obama aides denounced the accusation as fiction. “We came into the White House. I’ll tell you something, every office...
Trump call ‘improper,’ ‘unusual,’ White House aides testifyVideo
WASHINGTON — A career Army officer testified Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s call with Ukraine was “improper,” as Republicans tried to undercut the national security official with pointed exchanges questioning his loyalty to the U.S. during a remarkable day in the impeachment hearings. Arriving on Capitol Hill in military blue...
Trump backing off banning vaping flavors popular with teensVideo
WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump boarded Air Force One to fly to a Kentucky campaign rally two weeks ago, a plan was in place for him to give final approval to a plan to ban most flavored e-cigarettes. By the time Trump landed back at Joint Base Andrews outside...
House lawyer says committee investigating whether Trump lied to MuellerVideo
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives’ top lawyer told a federal appeals court Monday that the House is investigating whether President Donald Trump lied to special counsel Robert Mueller, and the attorney urged the judges to order the release of still-secret material from Mueller’s investigation. Two of the three judges...
AP report: U.S. officials knew of Ukraine’s Trump anxiety
WASHINGTON — Despite his denials, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was feeling pressure from the Trump Administration to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden before his July phone call with President Donald Trump that has led to impeachment hearings. In early May, staff at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, including then-Ambassador...
Trump suggests he may give written testimony in House probeVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested Monday he might be willing to offer written testimony in the House impeachment inquiry over whether he pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate Joe Biden and his son as he withheld aid to the country. In a pair of tweets, Trump says he will “strongly...
Fact check: Trump’s attack on diplomat, impeachment myths
WASHINGTON — Truth was lost in the first round of historic impeachment hearings as President Donald Trump launched a tweet attack on a senior U.S. diplomat that distorted reality and Republicans cried foul, claiming improper stifling of questioning that wasn’t so. Over two days, the hearings by the House Intelligence...
Nancy Pelosi says Trump has chance to testify to impeachment panelVideo
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Donald Trump can make his case directly to the Intelligence Committee, but she vowed to protect the whistleblower whose complaint triggered the impeachment inquiry of the president’s actions with Ukraine. “The president could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the...
Impeachment rules the day, but Pennsylvania lawmakers push bipartisan initiatives
Impeachment proceedings continue to divide much of the country and seemingly the whole of Congress, with predictable partisan stances sounding loudly in the overarching narrative. Firmly in President Trump’s corner has been U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, a first-term Republican from Peters, Washington County, who has repeatedly dismissed the process as...
Russia providing mood music for House impeachment drama
WASHINGTON— For all the talk about Ukraine in the House impeachment inquiry, there’s a character standing just off-stage with a dominant role in this tale of international intrigue: Russia. As has so often been the case since President Donald Trump took office, Moscow provides the mood music for the unfolding...
Transcripts highlight Sondland’s role in pressuring Ukraine
WASHINGTON — Transcripts released Saturday in the impeachment inquiry show Ambassador Gordon Sondland playing a central role in President Trump’s effort to push Ukraine to conduct political investigations as a condition for receiving needed military aid. The fresh details come from hundreds of pages of testimony from Tim Morrison, a...
Louisiana voters pick between Democratic governor and Trump
BATON ROUGE, La. — In a race that has become a nail-biter, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards battled Saturday to defy the partisan odds in the ruby red South and win reelection to a seat that President Donald Trump desperately wants returned to Republicans. Trump has made the runoff election...
Takeaways from Day 2 of House impeachment public hearings
WASHINGTON — Day Two of the House impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump featured a career diplomat with a soft voice and a powerful story. Marie Yovanovitch, under questioning from the Democrats, said she felt threatened by the president as she detailed the story of being abruptly recalled from her...
Trump says impeachment probe has been ‘very hard’ on family
BOSSIER CITY, La. — President Donald Trump said the impeachment probe has been “very hard” on his family, even as he tried to flex his political muscle to flip the governor’s mansion in deep-red Louisiana. Speaking in friendly territory in a state he carried in 2016 by 20 percentage points,...
Trump returns to Louisiana, trying to flip governor’s seat
BOSSIER CITY, La. — President Donald Trump is testing the strength of his political influence in the face of Washington’s impeachment drama, as he returned to Louisiana Thursday to try to oust the state’s Democratic governor. Trump is holding his first rally since the beginnings of public hearings in the...
Pelosi says Trump’s Ukraine actions amount to ‘bribery’
WASHINGTON — House Democrats are refining their impeachment case against the president to a simple allegation: Bribery. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday brushed aside the Latin phrase “quid pro quo” that Democrats have been using to describe President Donald Trump’s actions toward Ukraine. As the impeachment hearings go public,...
Ex-Massachusetts Gov. Patrick announces Democratic presidential bid
WASHINGTON — Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced Thursday he is running for president, making a late entry into the Democratic race less than three months before primary voting begins. In an announcement video, Patrick highlighted his poverty-stricken childhood on Chicago’s South Side, saying he’s running for the “people who...
Fact check: GOP presses empty Ukraine meddling theory during impeachment hearingsVideo
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans pressed the discredited theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election in defending President Donald Trump in Wednesday’s impeachment hearings. A look at some of the remarks in the House Intelligence Committee proceeding: REP. DEVIN NUNES, top Republican on the panel: “The Democrats cooperated in...
Court rejects Trump’s appeal in fight over financial records
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court will not take up President Donald Trump’s appeal of a ruling that his accounting firm must turn over financial records to Congress. The order was handed down Wednesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. It is almost certain...
Diplomats describe Trump’s effort to hijack Ukraine policy for his political benefitVideo
WASHINGTON — Career U.S. diplomats delivered solemn testimony Wednesday about the Trump administration’s alleged misconduct in Ukraine — including a previously undisclosed cellphone call in which President Donald Trump appeared to personally press a senior State Department official to pressure the Eastern European nation. As the historic public impeachment proceedings...
Watch live: Diplomats testify on Trump impeachmentVideo
WASHINGTON — For the first time a top diplomat testified Wednesday that President Donald Trump was overheard asking about “the investigations” he wanted Ukraine to pursue that are central to the impeachment inquiry. William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, revealed the new information as the House Intelligence Committee...
