Politics Election category, Page 360
Associated Press fact check: Trump’s epic CPAC speech is laced with fabrication
WASHINGTON — President Trump uttered a dizzying number of false statements in his epically long weekend speech, to an audience that didn’t seem to mind at all. He got the unemployment rate wrong. He misstated his winning margin in the election. He reprised some of his most frequently told fictions...
Ivanka Trump jokes being president’s daughter is ‘hardest job in the world’
Ivanka Trump tried to bring some humor to being the president’s daughter, joking it’s the “hardest job in the world.” She spoke at the 134th annual Gridiron Club and Foundation dinner in Washington D.C., the white-tie, get-together of journalists, media members, officials and politicians, on Saturday night. President Trump, who...
Invectives old and new fill Trump’s marathon speech at CPACVideo
OXON HILL, Md. — In a slashing speech packed with braggadocio and grievance, President Donald Trump denounced Democrats as the party of “the socialist nightmare,” relitigated his crowd sizes back to the inauguration and took on “sick,” ”lunatic” and “dirty” foes at every turn, earning him the unvarnished adoration of...
Pa. state rep. Fred Keller becomes favorite in U.S. House election
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Republican state lawmaker survived four rounds of voting Saturday to become the heavy favorite to fill an open congressional seat in northern Pennsylvania. Rep. Fred Keller beat 13 other candidates during closed-door voting at an event hall in Williamsport where 202 party conferees sorted through the...
Trump likes ‘actings,’ experts say permanent staff is better
WASHINGTON — Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has been to Europe, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Mexican border as part of his bid to land the job permanently. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney was one of just two top advisers to join President Donald Trump for dinner with...
North Carolina Democrats see opportunity in do-over election
ELIZABETHTOWN, N.C. — A ballot-fraud scandal that brought down a Republican candidate and led North Carolina to order a do-over congressional election could give the Democrats a strong shot at taking back a seat that has been held by the GOP since John F. Kennedy was in the White House....
Bernie Sanders returns to N.Y. roots, says he can defeat Trump
NEW YORK — Bernie Sanders kicked off his presidential campaign Saturday miles from the rent-controlled apartment where he grew up in Brooklyn and forcefully made the case that he is nothing like fellow New Yorker Donald Trump, proclaiming himself the Democrat best prepared to beat the incumbent in 2020. “My...
Trump delivers a slashing speech that rouses the right
OXON HILL, Md. — In a slashing speech packed with braggadocio and grievance, President Donald Trump denounced Democrats as the party of “the socialist nightmare,” relitigated his crowd sizes back to the inauguration and took on “sick,” ”lunatic” and “dirty” foes at every turn, earning him the unvarnished adoration of...
Virginia’s ‘cotton situation’ misrepresented, some parents and pages say
RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia first lady Pam Northam did not focus on black students as she handed out raw cotton during several back-to-back presentations on slavery at the Executive Mansion, several participants and their parents said in interviews Friday. “Nobody was singled out,” said state Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, whose...
Members of Congress make civil rights pilgrimage in Alabama
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Dozens of members of Congress are making a weekend-long civil rights pilgrimage through Alabama, visiting historic spots and memorials to the struggle for racial equality. The mostly Democratic group made its first stop Friday at Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, where four black girls died in a...
Judge orders Stone to explain imminent release of book that may violate gag order
Republican operative and longtime Donald Trump friend Roger Stone faced fresh legal trouble Friday after a federal judge ordered his attorneys to explain why they failed to tell her before now about the imminent publication of a book that could violate his gag order by potentially criticizing the judge or...
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee joins Democratic presidential field
SEATTLE — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee will seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, mixing calls for combating climate change and highlights of his liberal record with an aggressive critique of President Donald Trump. The 68-year-old governor is launching his bid Friday in Seattle, following recent visits to the first primary...
In America, talk turns to something unspoken for 150 years: Civil war
At a moment when the country has never seemed angrier, two political commentators from opposite sides of the divide concurred last week on one point, nearly unthinkable until recently: The country is on the verge of “civil war.” First came former U.S. attorney Joseph diGenova, a Fox News regular and...
President ordered top clearance for Jared Kushner despite concerns of John Kelly, intel officials
WASHINGTON — President Trump early last year directed his then-chief of staff, John Kelly, to give presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner a top-secret security clearance — a move that made Kelly so uncomfortable that he documented the request in writing, according to current and former administration officials. After Kushner, a senior...
Former governor Paul LePage: Dissolving Electoral College would hurt whites
BANGOR, Maine — Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage says any elimination of the Electoral College would hurt white people. LePage told WVOM radio that allowing the popular vote to choose the president would give minorities more power and that “white people will not have anything to say.” Proposals to eliminate...
Andrew Wheeler, former energy lobbyist, confirmed as nation’s top environmental official
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday approved former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to head the Environmental Protection Agency by a vote of 52 to 47, elevating a veteran of Washington political and industry circles who has advanced President Trump’s push to roll back Obama-era environmental regulations. Wheeler, who began his...
Cohen returns to Capitol Hill after slamming Trump as liar
WASHINGTON — In a damning depiction of Donald Trump, the president’s former lawyer cast him as a racist and a con man who used his inner circle to cover up politically damaging allegations about sex and who lied throughout the 2016 election campaign about his business interests in Russia. A...
Some conservatives are rejecting star-studded CPAC to talk about the national debt
WASHINGTON — Heath Mayo had had enough of CPAC, and now his idea of getting a few friends together to talk conservative issues as an alternative to the star-studded, high-priced event has mushroomed into a national movement to skip the Conservative Political Action Conference altogether. CPAC, the year’s biggest gathering...
Michael Cohen describes a culture of criminality around Trump
WASHINGTON — Michael Cohen, once among President Trump’s most ardent defenders, turned on him in a combative congressional hearing Wednesday, describing a culture of nonstop lying around Trump involving his alleged mistresses, inflated personal wealth and secret efforts to build Europe’s tallest skyscraper in Moscow. Cohen, who worked at Trump’s...
Rep. Matt Gaetz under investigation by Florida Bar over Cohen tweet
WASHINGTON — The Florida Bar has opened an investigation into a tweet sent by Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz on Tuesday that appeared to try to intimidate former President Donald Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen the day before he was to testify against his old boss. The Florida Bar...
Political operative Leslie McCrae Dowless arrested in North Carolina scandal
RALEIGH — The political operative at the center of an election fraud scandal that has engulfed a North Carolina congressional race was arrested Wednesday on charges of illegal ballot handling and conspiracy. Four people working for him were also charged. Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr., 63, was accused of directing workers...
House approves bill to expand gun-sale background checks
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House on Wednesday approved a measure requiring federal background checks for all firearms sales and transfers, the first major gun control legislation considered by Congress in nearly 25 years. Democrats called the 240-190 vote a major step to end the gun lobby’s grip on Washington and...
Cohen sticks to Trump accusations, shaking off GOP criticism
WASHINGTON — Shaking off criticism from House Republicans, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer declared under oath Wednesday that Trump knew ahead of time and embraced the news when told that WikiLeaks had emails damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Michael Cohen also testified that Trump is a “racist,” a...
House panel to subpoena Trump administration officials for records on child separation policy
WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee will subpoena three Trump administration officials for records on the government’s “zero tolerance” policy of separating migrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. The move comes as the administration is facing fierce criticism after acknowledging that many more children may have been...
House OKs Democrats’ bill blocking Trump emergency on wall
WASHINGTON — Democrats ignored a veto threat and rammed legislation through the House Tuesday that would stymie President Trump’s bid for billions of extra dollars for his border wall, escalating a clash over whether he was abusing his powers to advance his paramount campaign pledge. The House’s 245-182 vote to...
