Politics Election category, Page 273
House Intelligence panel to subpoena DHS over whistleblower
WASHINGTON — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Tuesday he will subpoena the Department of Homeland Security after a department whistleblower wasn’t allowed access to documents and clearance he needs to testify. Brian Murphy said in a whistleblower complaint earlier this month that he was pressured by more senior...
White Oak ditches $75 yard sign deposit after ACLU warningVideo
The same day that White Oak officials received a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania that their political yard sign ordinance is unconstitutional, they agreed to suspend enforcement. The ordinance, passed in 2000, requires anyone wishing to place a political sign in the borough — even on...
Shale Insight conference focuses on fossil fuels’ impact on economy, tech and election
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, on Tuesday lauded President Trump’s support of the fossil fuel industry during the opening day of the annual Shale Insight conference, being held virtually this year because of the covid-19 pandemic. “Everyone in the room knows that President Trump, Vice President Pence and Republicans...
Joe Biden has a clear lead over Trump in all-important Pennsylvania, polls find
A new wave of polls shows Joe Biden is still winning Pennsylvania, the state that could decide the election, as some Pennsylvanians start voting and the campaign reaches its final stages with the first presidential debate Tuesday. And his lead appears substantial. Three new polls found Biden leading President Donald...
GOP senators praise Trump pick Amy Coney Barrett ahead of confirmation fightVideo
WASHINGTON — Key Republican senators praised President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, as the conservative judge met privately on Capitol Hill Tuesday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others in preparation for her fast-track confirmation before the Nov. 3 election. Joined by Vice President Mike Pence,...
Biden, Harris release 2019 tax returns before 1st debate with Trump
WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden paid nearly $288,000 in federal income taxes last year, according to returns he released just hours before his debate Tuesday night with President Donald Trump. The move came after a report from The New York Times that Trump paid just $750 in income...
Wisconsin justices weigh removal of 130K from voter rolls
MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Supreme Court weighed Tuesday whether to go along with conservatives who argue that 130,000 voters should be removed from the rolls in the hotly contested presidential battleground state, while the Democratic attorney general defended not purging them. The Wisconsin case is one of several lawsuits...
Some in NYC get absentee ballots with wrong return address
NEW YORK — Mail-in voting has gotten off to a rocky start in New York City, where election officials sent out a large number of absentee ballots with the wrong names and addresses on the return envelopes. The faulty ballots were sent to an unknown number of voters in Brooklyn...
Michael Cohen says Trump’s scared he’ll go ‘straight to prison’ amid tax return scandal
NEW YORK — Donald Trump is likely terrified he could become the first American president to end up behind bars once he’s out of office, his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, said Monday on the heels of a bombshell report about the commander in chief’s finances. Cohen, who was himself...
Ethics experts see national security concern in Trump’s debtVideo
WASHINGTON — Revelations that President Donald Trump is personally liable for more than $400 million in debt are casting a shadow over his presidency that ethics experts say raises national security concerns he could be manipulated to sway U.S. policy by organizations or individuals he’s indebted to. New scrutiny of...
GOP surrogates dismiss tax report as political jab during Trump bus tour stop in Monroeville
Reports claiming President Trump paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years aren’t likely to sway voters toward Democratic challenger Joe Biden, former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta said Monday in Monroeville. “Oh, ho hum, here we go again. It’s election time. He’s had four years of...
Trump’s choice of Amy Coney Barrett may not sway female voters he lacksVideo
President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett would give the Supreme Court its most conservative female justice in history but is unlikely to accomplish one thing that could help seal his reelection — a surge in support from women, a segment of the electorate he’s struggled to attract. The...
Cindy McCain joins Biden’s transition advisory board
PHOENIX — Cindy McCain, the widow of Republican Sen. John McCain, will advise Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential transition team as it prepares for him to take office if he wins in November, the team announced Monday. McCain is the second Republican on the 16-member transition advisory board, joining Bob McDonald,...
Could the Pa. GOP bypass the popular vote regardless of who wins? Here’s what we know.
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 weekly newsletter. HARRISBURG — It is the nightmare scenario Pennsylvania election officials have fretted over for months: a knock-down, drag-out fight over...
Debates 2020: Trump to woo suburban voters while Biden shows he’s more than ‘not Donald Trump’
President Donald Trump told thousands of cheering supporters outside Pittsburgh International Airport that he’s looking forward to facing off with “Hidin’ Biden” on Tuesday. Speaking to a mostly unmasked, tightly packed crowd outside a hangar in Moon Township, Trump mocked Democratic challenger Joe Biden for rarely being seen on the...
New York Times: Trump paid $750 in U.S. income taxes in 2016, 2017
President Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for president and in his first year in the White House, according to a report Sunday in The New York Times. Trump, who has fiercely guarded his tax filings and is the only president in modern...
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge endorses Joe Biden for president
Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania Republican governor and first secretary of Homeland Security, plans to vote for President Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, he announced Sunday. Ridge, who served in former President George W. Bush’s administration, said it will be his first vote for a Democratic...
How Trump, Biden are preparing for first presidential debate
WASHINGTON — Ahead of the first debate-stage matchup between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, each campaign is promising a stark contrast in policy, personality and preparation. Trump has decided to skip any formal preparation. And while Biden’s team believes the significance of the debate may be...
Biden to Dems: Focus on health care, not court expansion
WILMINGTON, Del. — Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden wants voters to see Republicans’ push for a speedy Supreme Court confirmation as an end-run of Congress and the 2010 health care law. In remarks on Sunday, the former vice president sidestepped any talk of expanding the court to counter conservative gains...
Lockdowns are fading, but GOP outrage isn’t in campaigns
AUSTIN, Texas — When the coronavirus pandemic slammed the U.S. economy this spring, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther became an overnight symbol of rebellion against lockdown measures, spending two days in a Texas jail for refusing to close her doors. Nearly $500,000 poured into a donation fund set up by...
Congressman Conor Lamb, GOP challenger Sean Parnell spar over ACA, civil unrest in WPXI debate
U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and Republican challenger Sean Parnell sparred Saturday night over the Trump administration’s push to gut the Affordable Care Act in their first in-person debate. “My opponent favors overturning that law that protects you,” Lamb, 34, D-Mt. Lebanon, told viewers during the debate hosted by Trib news...
If Barrett joins, Supreme Court would have six Catholics
Roman Catholics account for a bit more than 20% of the U.S. population, yet they are on track to hold six of the Supreme Court’s nine seats now that President Donald Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill its vacancy. It’s a striking development given that the high court,...
How Amy Coney Barrett rose from law professor to high court in 4 years
WASHINGTON — Four years ago, Amy Coney Barrett was a little-known law professor in Indiana. Within weeks, she is likely to be the newest associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Barrett’s fast-track rise, set to drive the nation’s highest court to the right for a generation or longer, is...
Trump picks conservative Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Saturday, capping a dramatic reshaping of the federal judiciary that will resonate for a generation and that he hopes will provide a needed boost to his reelection effort. Republican senators are already lining up for...
Amy Coney Barrett, high court pick, is Scalia’s heir
CHICAGO — Although Amy Coney Barrett is the president’s choice to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she is more aptly described as heir to another departed Supreme Court justice: conservative hero Antonin Scalia. Like Scalia, for whom she once clerked, she is a committed Roman Catholic as well as a...
