Politics Election category, Page 258
House passes bill to avert government shutdown; Senate next
WASHINGTON — The House passed a two-day stopgap spending bill Friday night to avert a partial government shutdown, trying to buy time for frustratingly slow endgame negotiations on an almost $1 trillion covid-19 economic relief package. Senate action wasn’t guaranteed but appeared likely before the midnight deadline. The House passed...
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey calls for increased funding, jobs creation in economic relief packageVideo
Congressional negotiators are close to a deal on a long-delayed $900 billion covid-19 economic relief bill. But they are not there yet. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat from Scranton, talked to the Tribune-Review about where things stand and whether a partial government shutdown can be avoided before a midnight...
Shutdown deadline looms over covid relief talks
WASHINGTON — Bearing down on a midnight shutdown deadline, top negotiators on a must-pass, almost $1 trillion covid-19 economic relief package are committed to sealing an agreement Friday as they resolve remaining differences in hopes of passing the legislation this weekend. The pressure is on. Government funding lapses at midnight...
Biden picks Regan for EPA nominee, Haaland for interior head
President-elect Joe Biden announced Thursday that he had chosen North Carolina regulator Michael S. Regan as his nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency and New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as his pick for interior secretary. Biden said the selections round out what he said would be an experienced climate...
Close but not yet: Deal near on covid economic aid bill
WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators on the long-delayed $900 billion covid-19 economic relief package worked through a handful of remaining holdups Thursday as they labored to seal a final agreement for more help to businesses and the unemployed and new stimulus payments to most Americans. Top congressional leaders also finally acknowledged...
Turning the page? Republicans acknowledge Biden’s victory
WASHINGTON — More than a month after the election, top Republicans finally acknowledged Joe Biden as the next U.S. president, a collapse in GOP resistance to the millions of voters who decisively chose the Democrat. Foreign leaders joined the parade, too, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Speaking on Tuesday from the...
Biden selects former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to be energy secretary
DETROIT — President-elect Joe Biden has selected former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to be his energy secretary. The Washington-based news website Politico was among the first to report the story, which then appeared to be confirmed in a news release from U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who is...
Trump’s company ordered to give evidence to New York investigators
NEW YORK — A New York judge on Tuesday ordered President Donald Trump’s company to give state investigators documents related to a suburban estate that’s the subject of a civil investigation into the family’s business practices. Judge Arthur Engoron said the Trump Organization must turn over to the New York...
Talks escalate on new covid-19 relief, top lawmakers to meetVideo
WASHINGTON — Talks on a long-delayed covid-19 aid package intensified Tuesday as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi summoned other top congressional leaders for a potentially critical meeting. Pelosi, D-Calif., spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for more than an hour, her office tweeted, and Mnuchin will join the make-or-break meeting of...
Biden to pick Pete Buttigieg as transportation chiefVideo
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden is expected to pick former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg to head the Transportation Department, according to three people familiar with the plans. Buttigieg, one of Biden’s rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, was a breakout star of the primaries, sharing victory in the...
Biden to take oath outside Capitol amid virus restrictions
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take their oaths of office outside the U.S. Capitol building as inauguration planners seek to craft an event that captures the traditional grandeur of the historic ceremony while complying with covid-19 protocols. Biden’s team released some broad details for...
GOP leader McConnell finally acknowledges Biden won election
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated Democrat Joe Biden as president-elect on Tuesday, saying the Electoral College “has spoken.” The Republican leader’s statement, delivered in a speech on the Senate floor, ends weeks of silence over President Donald Trump’s defeat. It came a day after electors met and...
‘Democracy prevailed’: Biden aims to unify divided nationVideo
WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden told Americans on Monday that “democracy prevailed” as electors nationwide cast votes affirming his victory in last month’s election, saying the country’s governing principles withstood being “pushed, tested, threatened” by repeated, baseless claims of fraud championed by President Donald Trump. In a speech from...
Fate of new covid relief legislation may hinge on business liability protection
WASHINGTON — Congressional action on coronavirus relief legislation may hinge on a little-known question that turns out to be political dynamite: Should private businesses be immune from lawsuits involving covid-19? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, has been advocating for such a shield since spring at the urging of business...
Trump says AG William Barr resigning, will leave before Christmas
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, is resigning amid lingering tension with the president over the president’s baseless claims of election fraud and the investigation into President-elect Joe Biden’s son. Barr went Monday to the White House, where Trump said the attorney general...
Michigan GOP lawmaker punished for not denouncing violenceVideo
LANSING, Mich. — A Republican lawmaker was disciplined Monday for not denouncing potential violence at the Michigan Capitol before Democratic presidential electors were to meet to vote for Joe Biden, who defeated President Donald Trump in the swing state. State Rep. Gary Eisen, of St. Clair Township, told WPHM-AM that...
Biden aides hope Electoral College vote is GOP turning point
WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden’s aides have a message for President Donald Trump and his supporters: It’s long past time to move on. With the Electoral College set to formally elect Biden as president on Monday, his aides say they hope Republicans will consider their own long-term interests (and the...
Sen. Kelly Loeffler campaign: She had ‘no idea’ she posed with neo-Nazi
ATLANTA — The campaign of Georgia Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler is disavowing a photo circulating on social media of her posing with a longtime white supremacist at a recent campaign event, with less than a month to go until the runoff elections that will determine the balance of the...
Trump slams Supreme Court for refusing to overturn election, lashes out at Barr
President Trump unleashed an angry tweet storm Saturday at the Supreme Court for dismissing his effort to overturn his election loss — and took a new shot at Attorney General Bill Barr. He repeated his claims about election fraud and blasted the top court for rejecting the long-shot Texas lawsuit...
Trump loses Wisconsin case while arguing another one
MADISON, Wis. — President Donald Trump lost a federal lawsuit Saturday while his attorney was arguing his case before a skeptical Wisconsin Supreme Court in another lawsuit that liberal justices said “smacks of racism” and would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters only in the state’s most diverse counties. U.S....
Trump helicopter buzzes supporters rallying in Washington
WASHINGTON — Thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump returned to Washington on Saturday for rallies to back his desperate efforts to subvert the election that he lost to Joe Biden. They cheered as Trump flew overhead on the Marine One helicopter on his way out of town for the...
As he rails on election, Trump largely mum on toll of virus
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has been highlighting lots of really big numbers this week: New highs for the stock market. The 100-plus House members backing a lawsuit challenging his election loss. The nearly 75 million people who voted for him. All the while, he’s looked past other staggering and...
AP source: Cuomo among contenders for attorney general pick
WASHINGTON — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is one of several contenders under consideration by President-elect Joe Biden for the role of attorney general, a person with knowledge of the search process said Friday. The other three contenders at the moment include former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, federal appeals court...
Paper apologizes for endorsing congressman backing overturn
ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida newspaper apologized Friday for endorsing the reelection of a Republican congressman who supported a lawsuit that tried to have the Supreme Court overthrow the will of the voters in the presidential election. The Orlando Sentinel in an editorial said “to its horror,” U.S. Rep. Michael...
Veterans groups call for Wilkie’s dismissal after scathing audit
WASHINGTON — Three major veterans’ groups on Friday called for the immediate dismissal of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie following a scathing government audit that found he had acted unprofessionally if not unethically in the handling of a congressional aide’s allegation of sexual assault at a VA hospital. Iraq and...
