Politics Election category, Page 360
Democrats reject Trump’s domestic spending cuts
WASHINGTON — Democrats controlling the House are proposing to cut back President Trump’s budget hikes for the Pentagon while significantly increasing spending on the domestic programs they favor. Tuesday’s move ramps up a battle with Trump and puts the Democratic House on a collision course with the GOP-held Senate as...
Amtrak wasted $23M on unneeded office space, inspector general says
WASHINGTON — Amtrak wasted at least $23 million by acquiring unneeded office space in Boston, New York, Washington and several other cities, according to a report by the railroad’s inspector general. The report by Stephen Lord, the assistant inspector general for Amtrak, sketches a picture of a quasi-public, federally-subsidized passenger...
North Carolina GOP chair, major donor charged with bribery
RALEIGH, N.C. — The chairman of North Carolina’s Republican Party, an insurance magnate and two of his associates are facing federal charges for a plan to shower the state’s top insurance regulator with campaign contributions to ensure special business treatment, a criminal indictment unsealed Tuesday said. State GOP Chairman Robin...
Administration officials grapple with Trump’s border threat
WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials are reining back the president’s threat to shut the southern border this week as they grapple with a surge of Central American migrants trying to enter the U.S. President Trump said last week he would seal the border with Mexico in the coming days if...
White House official cites problems in security clearances
WASHINGTON — A career official in the White House security office says dozens of people in President Trump’s administration were granted security clearances despite “disqualifying issues” in their backgrounds, including concerns about foreign influence, drug use and criminal conduct. Tricia Newbold, an 18-year government employee who oversaw the issuance of...
Ohio proposal would honor presidential popular vote
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s coveted 18 electoral votes would be delivered to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote under a proposal making its way toward the state’s fall ballot. The proposed constitutional amendment, whose summary language was certified Monday, would force state lawmakers to assure the powerful...
2020 by the numbers: Democrats posting big campaign stats
WASHINGTON — How many ways can you measure the first quarter of the year? For Democratic presidential candidates, it’s 300-plus events, 24 states and hundreds of voter questions. The Iowa caucus is still 10 months away, but the Democratic primary campaign is already an all-out sprint — passing eye-popping markers...
AP source: Trump considers adding ‘immigration czar’Video
WASHINGTON — As he threatens to shut down the southern border, President Trump is considering bringing on a “border” or “immigration czar” to coordinate immigration policy across various federal agencies, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Trump is weighing at least two potential candidates for the post: former...
More officers may be reassigned to help border crush
EL PASO, Texas — The Trump administration says it may pull as many as 2,000 inspectors from border crossings to handle a surge of families arriving at the U.S.- Mexico border, many of them Central American asylum seekers. The temporary reassignments, up from 750 inspectors previously, threatens to slow the...
Official: Trump team overruled 25 security clearance denials
WASHINGTON — A career official in the White House security office says dozens of people in President Donald Trump’s administration were granted security clearances despite “disqualifying issues” in their backgrounds, such as concerns about foreign influence, drug use and criminal conduct. Tricia Newbold, an 18-year government employee who oversees the...
Manhattan tolls, plastic bag ban approved in New York budget
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s Democrat-controlled Legislature on Sunday passed a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags and expected to approve tolls for driving into the busiest sections of Manhattan starting in 2021 as part of a $175.5 billion state budget agreement worked out with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The Assembly...
Biden defends his behavior with women
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday he doesn’t believe he ever acted inappropriately toward women but will “listen respectfully” to suggestions he did. Biden, who is deciding whether to join the 2020 presidential race, released a new statement in response to allegations from a Nevada politician that...
Trump’s battle with ‘Obamacare’ moves to the courts
WASHINGTON — After losing in Congress, President Donald Trump is counting on the courts to kill off “Obamacare.” But some cases are going against him, and time is not on his side as he tries to score a big win for his re-election campaign. Two federal judges in Washington, D.C.,...
Brett Kavanaugh pivots as Supreme Court allows one execution, stops another
It’s difficult to say with certainty why the Supreme Court on Thursday night stopped the execution of a Buddhist inmate in Texas because he was not allowed a spiritual adviser by his side, when last month it approved the execution of a Muslim inmate in Alabama under the almost exact...
‘I was shocked’: Nevada Democrat accuses Biden of touching, kissing her without consent
A onetime Democratic nominee for Nevada’s lieutenant governor accused former vice president Joe Biden on Friday of touching and kissing her without her consent during her campaign in 2014, an experience she says left her feeling mortified, embarrassed and confused. In an essay published by “The Cut,” Lucy Flores wrote...
Poll: Most see women equal to men in politics
WASHINGTON — An all-time high of 84 percent of Americans believe women are just as suited emotionally for politics as men, according to a new survey that comes as the largest-ever field of women are running for president and with a record number serving in Congress. The growing acceptance of...
Donald Trump Jr. points father’s followers to new villain, new rallying cry
At President Donald Trump’s first rally since the end of the 22-month Russia investigation, his supporters shouted about a woman who is guaranteed not to feature opposite him on the ballot in 2020. She’s a Democrat, elected to Congress from New York. It wasn’t only Hillary Clinton - Trump’s adversary...
Harry Reid testifies exercise device injury cost him Senate
LAS VEGAS — Former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid told a Nevada jury Thursday that his career was cut short by injuries he suffered when a TheraBand exercise device slipped from his hand and he fell in his home bathroom in 2015. From a wheelchair on the witness stand in a...
Trump turns Mueller probe’s findings into political weapon
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Presenting himself as both vindicated and vindictive, a fired-up President Trump on Thursday turned the findings of the special counsel’s Russia investigation into a political weapon at a boisterous Michigan rally that was part victory lap, part 2020 campaign push. With Robert Mueller’s investigation largely over,...
McConnell moves to change Senate rules to speed up confirmation of Trump nominees
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is setting up a major fight in the Senate next week over the chamber’s rules, as Republicans plan to deploy a controversial procedural maneuver to speed up consideration of hundreds of lower-level Trump administration nominees. Agitated by Democrats slowing down consideration of...
Trump ditches proposal to slash Special Olympics funding
WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Thursday that he was backing off a budget request to eliminate funding for the Special Olympics, reversing course after his administration weathered days of criticism for the proposed cut. Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for a rally in Michigan, Trump said...
Clash between Republicans and Rep. Adam Schiff overshadows Russia intelligence hearing
WASHINGTON — Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday demanded that Chairman Adam B. Schiff step down from his post in light of his repeated allegations that President Trump’s campaign colluded with Russians in the 2016 election, the latest in growing GOP attacks against the California Democrat. The heated,...
Trump orders Treasury, HUD to develop new plan for how home sales are financed
WASHINGTON — President Trump ordered federal regulators on Wednesday to develop plans to change the way the country finances the majority of its home purchases. The plan could upend decades of housing policy while finally reckoning with a major piece of unfinished business from the financial crisis — the fates...
Mueller report is more than 300 pages, AG tells top Democrat
WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election spans more than 300 pages, a Justice Department official said Thursday. Attorney General William Barr confirmed the report’s length during a Wednesday phone call with Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. During...
Trump turns to health care with an eye on 2020
WASHINGTON — Buoyed by word that the special counsel didn’t find collusion with Russia, President Donald Trump is voicing new interest in policymaking, including a fresh effort to repeal and replace “Obamacare.” But Trump has few detailed policy proposals to back up his words, suggesting he’s as focused on highlighting...
