Politics Election category, Page 372
George W. Bush delivers pizza to his unpaid Secret Service detail and calls for shutdown to end
George W. Bush has been an unintentional beneficiary of the Trump administration, his reputation buoyed with the benefit of time and an unpopular president from his own party. On Friday, he continued to embrace the role of good guy, with a photo of himself delivering pizzas to his Secret Service...
In rare move, Mueller’s office denies BuzzFeed report that Trump told Cohen to lie about Moscow project
WASHINGTON - Special Counsel Robert Mueller III’s office on Friday denied an explosive report by BuzzFeed News that his investigators had gathered evidence showing President Donald Trump directed his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about a prospective business deal in Moscow. “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to...
Democrats vow probe on report that Trump told lawyer Cohen to lie to Congress
WASHINGTON — Democrats are vowing to investigate whether President Donald Trump directed his personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project, calling that possibility a “concern of the greatest magnitude.” Trump’s current lawyer said the allegations sparking the inquiry are “categorically false.” Any evidence...
Sen. Bob Casey ends consideration of a presidential run in 2020
HARRISBURG — U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is ending any consideration of joining a potentially crowded Democratic field running for president in 2020. Casey’s statement Friday comes a couple months after he dropped hints that he was considering a run, fresh off easily winning a third term in the Senate. The...
Melania Trump reportedly takes government jet to Florida hours after president denies Pelosi a plane
There’s no shutting down Melania Trump. The first lady and first son Barron landed in Florida on Thursday, where ABC says the two them are weekending at the president’s private club Mar-A-Lago. Hours earlier, Politico’s Jake Sherman tweeted the first lady was departing Andrews Air Force base on a government...
Romney backs Trump in shutdown showdown, questions Pelosi
OGDEN, Utah — U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said Friday he supports President Donald Trump’s push for a border wall that has led to a government shutdown and questioned why Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won’t agree to “another few miles” of barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border. Romney also...
Michael Cohen hired tech firm to rig polls in Trump’s favor
Michael Cohen paid a tech firm with ties to Jerry Falwell’s evangelical college to rig online polls in President Trump’s favor. Trump’s former fixer paid John Gauger, the IT tech at Liberty University and the head of RedFinch Solutions, with a bag of cash and a boxing glove — and...
House floor erupts when lawmaker shouts ‘Go back to Puerto Rico’
WASHINGTON — The House floor erupted Thursday after Congress adjourned for the week when an unidentified Republican congressman yelled a controversial and potentially racially charged remark across the aisle as Democratic Rep. Tony Cardenas was at the podium. “Go back to Puerto Rico!” the lawmaker shouted, punctuating a stream of...
Government contractors to lose out on shutdown pay, dragging down economy
Like others caught up in the government shutdown, Brent Langdon has been cutting back on spending and is worried about his next mortgage payment. Yet unlike the hundreds of thousands of federal workers affected by the funding impasse, Langdon can’t look forward to eventually getting back pay because he is...
Trump denies Pelosi aircraft for planned trip abroad
WASHINGTON — It took President Donald Trump one day to flex his executive power back at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, denying her an aircraft for a planned trip abroad in apparent response to her attempt to delay his State of Union address amid their government shutdown clash. The nation’s two...
Rudy Giuliani: ‘I never said there was no collusion’ between Trump campaign and Russia
Rudy Giuliani claimed Wednesday night that he “never said there was no collusion” between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia leading up to the 2016 presidential election. In a remarkable, and at times contentious, interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, the president’s lawyer appeared to contradict his own past statements about...
2020 Democrats face a choice: Fight Trump or ignore him?
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — When Sen. Elizabeth Warren took the stage earlier this month at this city’s ornate Orpheum Theatre, Tricia Currans-Sheehan posed a pointed question to the expected presidential contender. “Why did you undergo the DNA testing and give Donald Trump more fodder to be a bully?” the Iowa...
‘Where’s Mitch?’ As shutdown grinds on, Dems accuse McConnell of ducking members of Congress
WASHINGTON — Furloughed federal workers have displayed their unpaid bills at Mitch McConnell’s Senate office in protest. House freshmen marched to his office Wednesday to urge a vote. And he’s drawn the ire of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the newest star of the Democratic Party. Yet through it all, the Senate majority...
Watchdog: GSA ignored emoluments in OKing Trump hotel lease
WASHINGTON — The General Services Administration improperly “ignored” the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments provision outlawing foreign gifts when it green-lit President Trump’s management of his Washington, D.C., hotel after his 2016 election, the agency’s inspector general said Wednesday. In a 47-page report, GSA watchdog Carol F. Ochoa concluded that the “president’s...
GOP senators protect Trump administration plan to lift Russian sanctions
WASHINGTON — Republican senators on Wednesday successfully defended the Trump administration’s plan to lift sanctions on companies controlled by a Vladimir Putin ally — despite the defection of nearly a dozen Republicans who broke ranks to vote with the Democrats. The Democratic effort to block the relaxation of sanctions on...
Chris Christie: Trump surrounded by ‘amateurs, weaklings’ – but it’s not really his fault
The latest in a growing line of tell-all books from within President Trump’s political orbit is hitting the shelves soon. And judging by what we’ve seen so far about Chris Christie’s book — and what we know about him as a person — there will be plenty of score-settling. But...
Mike Pence declares ‘ISIS is defeated’ hours after attack kills U.S. troops
WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence told U.S. diplomats Wednesday that the Islamic State caliphate has collapsed in Syria, but he made no mention of the U.S. military personnel confirmed killed in the country shortly before he spoke. In remarks filled with praise for the leadership of President Trump, Pence...
Real fake news: Bogus editions The Washington Post claim Trump resigns
Fake editions of The Washington Post claiming that President Donald Trump was leaving office were handed out Wednesday morning at multiple locations in Washington, D.C. The print papers - dated May 1, 2019, and looking strikingly similar to actual copies of The Post - were filled with anti-Trump stories, which...
Battles expected in many states over abortion-related bills
NEW YORK — On each side of the abortion debate, legislators and activists emboldened by recent political developments plan to push aggressively in many states this year for bills high on their wish lists: either seeking to impose near-total bans on abortion or guaranteeing women’s access to the procedure. For...
Pelosi asks Trump to delay State of Union speech
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked President Donald Trump to postpone his State of the Union address to the nation — set for Jan. 29 — until the government reopens. The White House hasn’t immediately responded to a request for comment about Pelosi’s request, which she made in...
Paul Manafort misled grand jury on Trump administration contacts, filing says
WASHINGTON — Prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller have intensively scrutinized Paul Manafort’s activities after President Trump’s election — including after Manafort was criminally charged — and indicated they have extensive details not yet made public about Manafort’s interactions with former Russian aide Konstantin Kilimnik and others, a Tuesday...
Democrats remain unified in border wall fight, confounding Trump and GOP
WASHINGTON — Hoping to make a crack in Democratic unity as the partial government shutdown reached Day 25, President Trump invited a handful of moderate Democrats to the White House on Tuesday for lunch and a chat. None showed up. That despite the fact that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,...
Florida official faces backlash for saying Muslim lawmaker may ‘blow up’ Congress
WASHINGTON — A rookie commissioner from a South Florida beach city is facing calls for her resignation after she called newly elected Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib a “danger” and said the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress may decide to become a “martyr and blow up Capitol Hill.” From Washington to...
Kirsten Gillibrand to enter presidential race featuring record number of women
WASHINGTON — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., a central figure in the Democratic Party’s debate about the #MeToo movement, is preparing to join a 2020 presidential primary contest that features a record number of women in the wake of the midterm election tidal wave of female candidates. Gillibrand, 52, will announce...
IRS recalling 46,000 workers to handle taxes
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is recalling about 46,000 of its employees furloughed by the government shutdown — nearly 60 percent of its workforce — to handle tax returns and pay out refunds. The employees won’t be paid. With the official start of the tax filing season coming Jan....
