Politics Election category, Page 244
Senate confirms Tom Vilsack for 2nd stint as USDA secretary
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 92-7 on Tuesday to confirm Tom Vilsack as Agriculture secretary, sending the former Iowa governor back to a department he ran for eight years under President Barack Obama. “His deep knowledge of agriculture and rural America is needed now more than ever,” Senate Agriculture Chairwoman...
Capitol defenders blame bad intelligence for deadly breachVideo
WASHINGTON — Faulty intelligence was to blame for the outmanned Capitol defenders’ failure to anticipate the violent mob that invaded the iconic building and halted certification of the presidential election on Jan. 6, the officials who were in charge of security declared Tuesday in their first public testimony on the...
Biden to visit storm-ravaged Texas on Friday
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will visit Texas on Friday as the state begins its recovery from a devastating winter storm that caused serious damage to homes and businesses across the state and left many without power or clean water for days. The White House announced Tuesday that Biden and...
Extremism in military a top concern for key defense lawmaker
Mandatory Pentagon reports will give U.S. congressional overseers more insight into the threat and prevalence of extremism in the military after the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said. Sen. Jack Reed, the Rhode Island Democrat who leads the high-profile panel, said he’s...
Merrick Garland says Capitol siege probe will be top priorityVideo
WASHINGTON — Merrick Garland appeared headed to easy confirmation as attorney general after a hearing Monday during which the soft-spoken federal appellate judge won praise from senators of both parties as he promised to aggressively investigate the U.S. Capitol attack, boost enforcement of civil rights laws and enact other major...
Big factor in covid votes: Would Democrats sink first Biden goal?
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders have a potent dynamic on their side as Congress preps for its first votes on the party’s $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief bill: Would any Democrat dare cast the vote that scuttles new President Joe Biden’s leadoff initiative? Democrats’ wafer-thin 10-vote House majority leaves little room for...
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene calls pro-LGBTQ Equality Act an ‘attack’ on God, people of faith
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is declaring war on the Equality Act, calling the effort to defend LGBTQ rights an attack on people of faith. The Georgia Republican says the act will force Christians to approve abortions and would treat transgender people the same as those born as a boy or...
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s last bid to shield his finances from New York prosecutorsVideo
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for New York prosecutors to obtain eight years of financial records from the accountants and bankers of former President Donald Trump as part of a criminal fraud and tax investigation involving him and the Trump Organization. Trump faces possible criminal...
Oklahoma City bombing provides insights into how Merrick Garland would run Justice DepartmentVideo
WASHINGTON — Arriving in Oklahoma City the night after the worst domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history, Merrick Garland grasped the enormity of the task ahead of him. Downtown resembled a war zone. Military vehicles blocked streets. For blocks, federal agents and police were busy collecting evidence. At the federal...
Trump House creator Leslie Rossi says she is ‘humbled’ at receiving GOP nod for open state House seat
Leslie Baum Rossi said she was “humbled” by her selection Saturday by a group of party confreres from Somerset and Westmoreland counties to be the Republican candidate in the May 18 special election to fill the vacancy in the 59th District state House seat created by the recent death of...
Snubbed as Obama high court pick, Garland in line to be AG
WASHINGTON — The last time Merrick Garland was nominated by the White House for a job, Republicans wouldn’t even meet with him. Now, the once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden’s choice for attorney general. Garland, an appeals court judge, is...
Biden pays a visit to ailing former GOP Sen. Bob Dole
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden paid a visit Saturday to former Sen. Bob Dole, days after the World War II veteran and 1996 Republican presidential nominee announced he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Biden, who served in the Senate with Dole for more than two decades, arrived Saturday...
Trump to speak at CPAC in first post-White House appearance
WASHINTON — Donald Trump will be making his first post-presidential appearance at a conservative gathering in Florida next weekend. Ian Walters, spokesman for the American Conservative Union, confirmed that Trump will be speaking at the group’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 28. Trump is expected to use the...
Pennsylvania State Police will escape legislative scrutiny in 2021 budget process
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — One of the nation’s largest statewide police forces, the Pennsylvania State Police, will not be subject to annual budget...
GOP source: Priebus mulling run for Wisconsin governor
MADISON, Wis. — Reince Priebus, a former White House chief of staff to Donald Trump, has called Republican donors and power brokers in Wisconsin to discuss a possible bid for governor or the U.S. Senate next year, according to a GOP strategist who spoke directly with Priebus about his deliberations....
Texas constituents take to the internet to take down Sen. Ted Cruz’s trip to MexicoVideo
As the state of Texas was in a deep freeze, Sen. Ted Cruz was feeling the heat. Cruz, who took his family this week to sunny Cancun, Mexico, for a vacation while citizens in the Lone Star State struggled during a deadly winter storm, was raked over the coals Thursday...
Democrats consider piecemeal approach to immigration reformVideo
WASHINGTON — After decades of failed attempts to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden are signaling openness to a piece-by-piece approach. They unveiled a broad bill Thursday that would provide an eight-year pathway to citizenship for 11 million people living in the country without legal status....
Philadelphia lawmaker Malcolm Kenyatta to run for U.S. SenateVideo
HARRISBURG — A Philadelphia Democrat, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, said Thursday that he is running for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat in the election next year. Kenyatta, 30, is in his second term in the state House of Representatives. Last year, he campaigned around the country for President Joe Biden...
Georgia House Republicans push to ban early voting on Sunday
ATLANTA — Republican lawmakers in Georgia’s state House on Thursday introduced a sweeping election bill that would place restrictions on absentee voting and ban counties from holding early voting on Sundays, a popular day for Black churchgoers who vote during “Souls to the Polls” events. The bill comes after Black...
Ivanka Trump tells Marco Rubio she won’t run for his Senate seat
WASHINGTON — Ivanka Trump will not be running for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s U.S. Senate seat in 2022 as she settles into life after Washington. The former president’s eldest daughter and ex-senior White House adviser spoke with Rubio several weeks ago and told him she would not be running for...
Sen. Ted Cruz says he went to Mexico amid deadly storm ‘to be a good dad’
DALLAS — With Texas paralyzed by a winter storm, Sen. Ted Cruz took his family on vacation to Cancun, Mexico, drawing criticism from leaders in both parties and potentially damaging his political ambitions. In a statement on Thursday, Cruz said he was returning to Texas. He said he accompanied his...
Arkansas state senator says he’s leaving Republican Party
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A longtime Arkansas legislator and nephew of the state’s Republican governor said Thursday that he’s leaving the GOP, citing former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol by the former president’s supporters. State Sen. Jim Hendren’s announcement closes the door on...
Florida governor threatens to pull coronavirus vaccine from communities that criticize distributionVideo
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested Wednesday that he would divert covid-19 vaccines from communities that criticize his distribution methods, sparking complaints that he is playing politics with lifesaving medicine. DeSantis is facing questions in Manatee County over a decision to give seniors living in two of...
Fact check: Joe Biden and his shifting goalposts on reopening schools
WASHINGTON — How do you define success when it comes to reopening schools in the pandemic? President Joe Biden and his aides are having difficulty settling on an answer to that question. At his town-hall forum Tuesday night, Biden denied that his administration ever thought one day of classroom instruction...
Biden reframes his goal on reopening of elementary schoolsVideo
MILWAUKEE — President Joe Biden is promising a majority of elementary schools will be open five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office, restating his original goal after his administration came under fire when aides said schools would be considered open if they held...
