Politics Election category, Page 177

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr has given extra protection to the prosecutor he appointed to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, giving him the authority of a special counsel to complete the work without being easily fired. Barr told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he had appointed...

A group of state GOP lawmakers contesting the result of the Nov. 3 election is continuing a “forensic investigation,” even as their efforts to bring a resolution seeking to overturn the Pennsylvania election certification failed. The 26 Republican state representatives, including Daryl Metcalfe, Eric Nelson, Eric Davanzo and Cris Dush...

SpotlightPA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and WITF Public Media. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — In their latest attempt at sowing doubt in...

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, says he is leaving the telecommunications regulator on Inauguration Day. President-elect Joe Biden will choose a new Democratic head for the agency. A new administration typically picks a new chairman. Pai has presided over a contentious FCC over the last four years....

WASHINGTON — After months of shadowboxing amid a tense and toxic campaign, Capitol Hill’s main players are returning for one final, perhaps futile, attempt at deal-making on a challenging menu of year-end business. Covid-19 relief, a $1.4 trillion catchall spending package, and defense policy — and a final burst of...

WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, will travel to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week in a bid to ease tensions in the region, including the ongoing rift between Qatar and its neighbors. Kushner, who’s also Trump’s son-in-law, will first go to Noem, Saudi Arabia, according...

WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden will have an all-female senior communications team at his White House, led by campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield. Bedingfield will serve as Biden’s White House communications director, and Jen Psaki, a longtime Democratic spokeswoman, will be his press secretary. Biden also plans to name...

Declaring the results of statewide electoral contests in the 2020 general election to be in dispute, a group of House Republican lawmakers have announced their intention to introduce a resolution calling for Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar to withdraw their certification of the Nov. 3 election...

As vice president in 2012, Joe Biden endeared himself to many LGBTQ Americans by endorsing same-sex marriage even before his boss, President Barack Obama. Now, as president-elect, Biden is making sweeping promises to LGBTQ activists, proposing to carry out virtually every major proposal on their wish lists. Among them: Lifting...

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. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. PITTSBURGH — About...

A Pennsylvania senator cried foul on Friday saying that his personal Twitter account was censored, while the social media platform claimed it was an error. President Donald J. Trump was quick to back state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, who Trump said has done “a great job of leading a hearing...

The Trump administration moved forward Friday on gutting a longstanding federal protection for the nation’s birds, over objections from former federal officials and many scientists that billions more birds will likely perish as a result. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published its take on the proposed rollback in the...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump still won’t bring himself to concede the election he decisively lost to President-elect Joe Biden. But he’s now acknowledging he will leave the White House if Biden’s win is affirmed by the Electoral College, which is firmly on track to do just that in a...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Over four decades, Mary Nichols has been the regulator behind some of the nation’s most ambitious climate policies and, in recent years, she’s been their staunchest defender against President Donald Trump’s effort to dismantle them. With Joe Biden heading to the White House, Nichols hopes she is...

A lawyer who was dropped from President Donald Trump’s legal team filed typo-strewn lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia alleging massive election fraud. Sidney Powell, who has pushed some of the most extreme conspiracy theories around the election of Joe Biden, filed the lawsuits late Wednesday, according to a post on...

WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, expects a role in the incoming administration and would serve in a senior position if called upon by President-elect Joe Biden. In an interview with McClatchy, Fauci said he assumes he will stay in his job as director of...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday, taking direct aim in the final days of his administration at a Russia investigation that he has long insisted was motivated by political bias. “It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn...

WILMINGTON, Del. — In a time of plague and raw division, President-elect Joe Biden appealed for unity Wednesday in a Thanksgiving-eve address to the nation asking Americans to “steel our spines” for a fight against the coronavirus that he predicted would continue for months. But even as he implored Americans...

WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden is slated to deliver a Thanksgiving address to the nation seeking to unify Americans in the face of the coronavirus pandemic as experts warn of a possible spike in cases resulting from the holiday. Biden’s transition team said the president-elect will “discuss the shared...

WASHINGTON — Congress is bracing for President-elect Joe Biden to move beyond the Trump administration’s state-by-state approach to the COVID-19 crisis and build out a national strategy to fight the pandemic and distribute the eventual vaccine. The incoming administration’s approach reflects Democrats’ belief that a more comprehensive plan, some of...

Western Pennsylvania’s Republican congressmen, all ardent supporters of President Trump, are lying low in the wake of the administration’s decision to allow President-elect Joe Biden to formally begin the transition to power. U.S. Reps. Guy Reschenthaler of Peters Township, Mike Kelly of Butler, John Joyce of Blair County and Glenn...

WASHINGTON — Nostalgia was in and jokes were out Tuesday as President Donald Trump offered a reprieve to a pair of meaty turkeys at the traditional Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremony at the White House. The National Turkey Federation presented the White House with two birds, Corn and Cob. Corn was...