Politics Election category, Page 331
Aide says ambassador on ‘political errand’ for Trump
WASHINGTON — In riveting testimony, a former national security official declared Thursday that a U.S. ambassador carried out a controversial “domestic political errand” for Donald Trump on Ukraine, an allegation undercutting a main line of the president’s defense in the impeachment inquiry. Fiona Hill told House investigators she came to...
Jefferson Hills Council race comes down to 1 vote
The recent Jefferson Hills Borough Council race proved that every vote does count. One vote could be the difference in who wins the third of three open four-year seats on borough council, according to the latest results released on Nov. 20 by the Allegheny County Elections Division, which puts Democrat...
Buttigieg, 2020 front-runners avoid attacks: Takeaways from the 5th Democratic debate
The Democratic presidential debate Wednesday was supposed to be a sharp-elbowed argument about the future of the party and how best to defeat Donald Trump. Surprisingly, the candidates had other ideas. In a stark reversal from the tense moments of previous debates, the 10 Democratic White House hopefuls gathered in...
Biden: ‘Keep punching’ to curb domestic violence
Former Vice President Joe Biden had an ironic reply Wednesday night when asked how he would address sexual violence and harassment against women in today’s “MeToo” era. Biden started off with a solid statement citing that he wrote the legislation in the original Violence Against Women bill. “No man has...
Trump makes false claim of opening Apple plantVideo
Call it a case of mistaken facility. On Wednesday, President Trump toured a manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas, that makes the Mac Pro computer for Apple. Trump was joined by Apple CEO Tim Cook, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his daughter, Ivanka. Once the tour was over, Trump took to...
Defense Official: Ukraine asked about aid on day of Trump callVideo
WASHINGTON — In a blow to GOP defenses of President Donald Trump, a Defense Department official said Wednesday the Ukrainian government asked “what was going on” with U.S. military aid as early as July 25 — the very day that Trump asked Ukraine’s president to investigate Democrats. Testifying in an...
AP source: FBI has asked for interview with whistleblower
WASHINGTON — The FBI last month requested an interview with the whistleblower whose complaint fueled the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump and Ukraine, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday. An agent from the FBI’s Washington field office reached out to the whistleblower’s lawyers last month to seek...
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,...
