Politics Election category, Page 343
Trump ends fetal tissue research by federal scientists
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Wednesday it is ending medical research by government scientists that uses human fetal tissue, overriding the advice of scientists that there’s no other way to tackle some health problems and handing abortion opponents a major victory. The Health and Human Services Department said in...
New poll shows Biden, Sanders with sizable leads over Trump in Michigan
A new poll shows both Democratic White House hopefuls Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders with substantial leads in matchups with President Donald Trump in Michigan, one of the Rust Belt states key to his 2016 electoral college victory. Biden, the former vice president, and Sanders, a senator from Vermont, led...
Trump administration prohibits group travel by Americans to Cuba
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department published new regulations Tuesday, ending group travel to Cuba for “people to people” educational purposes and prohibiting visits to the island via cruise ships, personal aircraft or personal boats. The regulations, part of President Trump’s continuing rollback of the Obama-era thaw with Cuba, implement policies...
Biden’s camp admits lifting passages for policy plans
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign lifted language without credit, at times word for word, when crafting its education and climate plans, incidents the campaign acknowledged and said were inadvertent. The incidents appeared to be staff errors when detailing Biden’s policies, and they underscored how hastily his campaign was attempting to put...
House passes immigration bill that would protect ‘Dreamers’
WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday passed a bill that would offer a path to citizenship to more than 2 million undocumented immigrants, including “Dreamers” who were brought to the United States as children. The vote was 237-to-187 for the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019, which would grant...
More Pennsylvania lawmakers are taking a position on impeachment
When The Morning Call surveyed Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation last month on whether Congress should file articles of impeachment against the president, one Democratic lawmaker was in support. A month later, that tally has grown to four House Democrats, as the White House and Congress remain locked in a stalemate over...
Congress finally sends $19B disaster aid bill to TrumpVideo
WASHINGTON — A long-delayed $19.1 billion disaster aid bill sailed through the House on Monday and headed to President Trump for his expected signature, overcoming months of infighting, misjudgment and a feud between Trump and congressional Democrats. Lawmakers gave the measure final congressional approval by 354-58 in the House’s first...
Jared Kushner questions whether Palestinians can govern themselvesVideo
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner said in an interview that the Palestinians aren’t yet able to govern themselves and declined to commit to an independent Palestinian state in the White House’s long-awaited Mideast peace plan. “The hope is that they over time will become capable...
Pentagon tells White House to stop politicizing militaryVideo
Acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan had a message for the White House: Politics and the military don’t mix. Shanahan and Navy officials have faced intense scrutiny over a White House request to hide the USS John S. McCain warship during President Trump’s visit to Japan last month — a moment,...
Hogan will not challenge Trump, leaving president’s GOP critics with limited options
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who was considering an insurgent White House bid that would have championed traditional GOP values, will not challenge President Donald Trump for the Republican Party’s 2020 nomination. “I’m not going to be a candidate for president in 2020,” Hogan said in an interview. Hogan’s choice dashes...
Catfish, rice, Navy ships: Cochran spending leaves legacy
JACKSON, Miss. — Former U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran was a master of the federal budget process, quietly shrugging off criticism about pork-barrel spending while directing billions of dollars back to his home state of Mississippi. Cochran died Thursday at age 81. He was the 10th longest-serving senator in U.S. history...
Sanders, Harris seek Hispanic votes at California forum
PASADENA, Calif. — Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris dueled Friday over Hispanic votes in California, a central front in the nation’s immigration battle where Latinos represent the state’s largest ethnic group. As the nation’s most populous state, California holds a trove of 2020 delegates that are being eagerly sought by...
Trump hitting Mexico with 5% tariff in response to migrants
WASHINGTON — President Trump is preparing to threaten Mexico with sweeping new tariffs as part of an attempt to force the country to crack down on a surge of Central American migrants, administration officials said Thursday, a risky move that could rattle already jittery financial markets and imperil an impending...
Pompeo to Europe to seek backing, easing of Iran tensions
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was off to Europe on Thursday to seek support and a potential diplomatic climb-down to ease rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Even as the Trump administration revels in its “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, Pompeo is traveling to Germany, Switzerland, the...
Census citizenship question was crafted to aid white Republicans, files suggest
WASHINGTON — Just weeks before the Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether the Trump administration can add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, new evidence emerged Thursday suggesting that the question was crafted specifically to give an electoral advantage to white Republicans. The evidence was found in...
Trump lashes special counsel after he says no exoneration
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump angrily assailed special counsel Robert Mueller’s motives on Thursday, a day after Mueller bluntly rebuffed Trump’s repeated claims that the Russia investigation had cleared him of committing a federal crime of obstruction of justice. The president also offered mixed messages on Russia’s efforts to help...
Former US Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi dies at 81
JACKSON, Miss. — Former U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, who served seven terms and used seniority to steer billions of dollars to his home state of Mississippi, has died. He was 81. Cochran’s final chief of staff, Brad White, said Cochran died Thursday at a veterans’ nursing home in Oxford. Cochran...
White House wanted USS John S. McCain covered up during Trump’s Japan visit
The White House asked Navy officials to obscure the USS John S. McCain while President Trump was visiting Japan, Pentagon and White House officials said Wednesday night. A senior Navy official confirmed that he was aware someone at the White House sent a message to service officials in the Pacific...
Health care industry resists White House proposal for pricing transparency
WASHINGTON — President Trump is preparing to issue an executive order to foster greater price transparency across a broad swath of the health care industry while consumer concerns about their costs for medical treatment emerge as a major issue in the leadup to next year’s presidential election. The most far-reaching...
Mueller’s public statement fuels calls for Trump impeachmentVideo
WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller’s first — and possibly last — public statement on the Russia investigation is fueling fresh calls on Capitol Hill to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump, a step that Democratic leaders have so far resisted. Surprising Washington with brief remarks Wednesday, Mueller indicated it’s...
Trump urges Roy Moore not to run for U.S. Senate in Alabama
President Donald Trump on Wednesday discouraged Alabama Republican Roy Moore from running for U.S. Senate again in 2020, saying the GOP must regain the once reliably red state and Moore “cannot win.” Moore, who contends establishment Republicans are trying to keep him from running, disputed the assertion saying, “everybody knows...
McConnell says he would fill a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020
When President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused to consider him, blocking the nominee until after the year’s presidential election. But with his party in the White House, McConnell said Tuesday he’d try to push through any...
Robert Mueller says charging president ‘not an option,’ resigns from DOJVideo
WASHINGTON — In his first public statement on the Russia investigation Wednesday, special counsel Robert Mueller said charging a president with a crime was “not an option” his team could consider in the Russia investigation. Mueller said he was bound by longstanding Justice Department opinions that say a president can’t...
Biden campaign says Trump’s attacks are ‘beneath the dignity of the office’Video
Joe Biden’s campaign swung back at President Trump on Tuesday, calling his attacks on the former vice president while traveling in Japan over the Memorial Day weekend “beneath the dignity of the office.” Members of both parties had criticized Trump in recent days after he tweeted that he has “confidence”...
Disaster aid bill blocked in House by GOP conservative Thomas MassieVideo
WASHINGTON — A second conservative Republican on Tuesday blocked another attempt to pass a long-overdue $19 billion disaster aid bill, delaying again a top priority for some of President Trump’s most loyal allies on Capitol Hill. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said that if Democratic leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi...
