Politics Election category, Page 68
Republican Mike Johnson reelected House speaker in dramatic floor vote
WASHINGTON — Republican Mike Johnson won reelection to the House speakership on a first ballot Friday, pushing past GOP hard-right holdouts and buoyed with a nod of support from President-elect Donald Trump. A collection of hardline Republicans convened in the back of the House chamber during a tense roll call...
Read Biden’s statement about decision to block sale of U.S. Steel
Statement from President Joe Biden As I have said many times, steel production—and the steel workers who produce it—are the backbone of our nation. A strong domestically owned and operated steel industry represents an essential national security priority and is critical for resilient supply chains. That is because steel powers...
Biden’s final actions as president leave some transgender people feeling unsupported
President Joe Biden began his term in the White House with a broad promise to protect transgender Americans against Republican policies that painted them as a threat to children and sought to push them out of public life. “Your president has your back,” Biden assured trans people in his first...
Republicans’ trust in accuracy of U.S. elections jumps after Trump’s win, AP-NORC poll finds
WASHINGTON — A majority of Republicans say they are confident in the 2024 vote count after Donald Trump’s win, according to a new poll that finds a sharp turnaround from GOP voters’ skepticism about U.S. elections after the president-elect spent four years lying about his loss to President Joe Biden....
FCC’s net neutrality rules struck down, in another blow to Biden administration
A federal appeals court on Thursday dealt a blow to President Biden’s Federal Communications Commission, striking down the agency’s hard-fought and long-debated open internet rules. The FCC had sought to reinstate a sweeping policy established under President Obama that was designed to treat internet service as an essential public service,...
Why Mike Johnson’s bid to remain House speaker could be a struggle despite Trump’s support
WASHINGTON — Mike Johnson is fighting for his political life, again. The Louisiana Republican’s hold on the House speaker’s gavel and his position as second in line to the presidency will be tested Friday when a new Congress convenes and House Republicans weigh whether to reelect him to the post....
Biden giving 2nd highest civilian award to leaders of Jan. 6 congressional panel
President Joe Biden is bestowing the second highest civilian medal on Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson — the lawmakers who led the congressional investigation into the violent Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot by Donald Trump’s supporters, and who Trump has said should be jailed. Biden will award the Presidential...
Pennsylvania’s political pendulum swung to Republicans this year. Will it stay there?
PHILADELPHIA — Republicans had a major political comeback in Pennsylvania in 2024 after a series of disappointments in recent elections. President-elect Donald Trump won the state by a margin of 1.7 percentage points. Republicans swept the row offices, and ousted two incumbent Democrats in the U.S. House along with longtime...
Trump calls it the ‘center of the universe.’ Mar-a-Lago is a magnet for those seeking influence
PALM BEACH, Fla. — The cars begin lining up early in the morning to be screened by Secret Service agents under white tents near the fence that surrounds President-elect Donald Trump’s vast south Florida estate. Famous figures such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Tesla...
Trump’s nomination returns Mehmet Oz to the spotlight, puts him on track to oversee health care for 160M Americans
Mehmet Oz stood in front of a camera in July and filmed a TikTok about “how to conquer your constipation.” “Here’s the scoop on the poop brain loop,” Oz said confidently, delving into an enthusiastic pitch for probiotic supplements to keep you regular. In the two years since losing his...
Elon Musk living in $2K per night Mar-a-Lago cottage, report says
Elon Musk is reportedly staying in a cottage at President-elect Donald Trump’s estate that rents for $2,000 a day. The world’s richest man, who holds substantial government contracts and appears to have spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump and his surrogates elected to office,...
Biden announces nearly $2.5 billion more in military aid for Ukraine
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States will send nearly $2.5 billion more in weapons to Ukraine as his administration works quickly to spend all the money it has available to help Kyiv fight off Russia before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The package includes $1.25...
Trump endorses Mike Johnson to stay on as House Speaker despite government funding turmoil
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday endorsed House Speaker Mike Johnson, providing crucial backing for the Louisiana Republican as he prepares for what is expected to be another contentious speakership race this week. Trump said in a post on his social media platform that Johnson “is...
Kansas once required voters to prove citizenship. That didn’t work out so well
TOPEKA, Kan. — Republicans made claims about illegal voting by noncitizens a centerpiece of their 2024 campaign messaging and plan to push legislation in the new Congress requiring voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. Yet there’s one place with a GOP supermajority where linking voting to citizenship appears to...
New York Rep. Mike Lawler warns Republicans against ousting House leader
New York Representative Mike Lawler warned fellow Republicans against moving to topple House Speaker Mike Johnson, saying they’d be “playing with fire” and wasting time just as President-elect Donald Trump takes office. With the speakership vote scheduled for Jan. 3, Johnson has faced criticism from some ultraconservative lawmakers after backing...
2050 look-ahead: Pennsylvania’s influence may shrink in next 25 years as political winds shift
Editor’s note: One-fourth of the way through this century, TribLive is looking ahead to the next 25 years, using the events of the past 25 as a roadmap of what possibly is to come. This installment of the occasional series looks at politics. In late December 2000, America waited for...
Trump appears to side with Musk, tech allies in debate over foreign workers roiling his supporters
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump appears to be siding with Elon Musk and his other backers in the tech industry as a dispute over immigration visas has divided his supporters. Trump, in an interview with the New York Post on Saturday, praised the use of visas to...
Judge signals contempt hearing for Rudy Giuliani over assets might not go well for him
NEW YORK — A federal judge is signaling Rudy Giuliani’s contempt hearing next Friday might not end so well for the former New York City mayor and onetime personal lawyer for President-elect Donald Trump as two Georgia election poll workers try to collect a $148 million defamation award they won...
Georgia Republicans can subpoena Fulton DA Fani Willis, judge rules
ATLANTA — Georgia Republicans can subpoena Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis about her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the outside attorney she hired to lead her 2020 election interference case against former and future President Donald Trump and his allies, a judge has ruled. The decision by Fulton County...
Scrutiny, secrecy defined Pa. debates over how to spend opioid settlement billions in 2024
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — This was a crucial year for opioid settlement money in Pennsylvania. For the first time, counties across the state faced serious accountability from...
Bill creating Chesapeake National Recreation Area dies in Congress
After passing the U.S. Senate, a bill that would have established the Chesapeake National Recreation Area fell short in the 118th Congress, but advocates are hoping to ride the momentum into next year. The bill would have linked natural and historical sites in the Chesapeake Bay watershed under the banner...
Americans are exhausted by political news and tuning out, a new poll and ratings show
NEW YORK — As a Democrat who immersed himself in political news during the presidential campaign, Ziad Aunallah has much in common with many Americans since the election. He’s tuned out. “People are mentally exhausted,” said Aunallah, 45, of San Diego. “Everyone knows what is coming and we are just...
Trump has pressed for voting changes. GOP majorities in Congress will try to make that happen
ATLANTA — Republicans plan to move quickly in their effort to overhaul the nation’s voting procedures, seeing an opportunity with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress to push through long-sought changes that include voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements. They say the measures are needed to restore...
Pa. lawmakers passed fewer laws than in recent sessions, but leaders say quality is better than quantity
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — The divided Pennsylvania legislature passed fewer laws and held fewer voting days over the past two years than in most sessions in recent...
Fate of Trump’s Cabinet picks unclear as Republicans prepare to take power in Senate
WASHINGTON — The fate of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet is still unclear after Republican senators spent much of December carefully dodging questions about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s views on vaccines, accusations of sexual misconduct against Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard’s 2017 meeting with then-President Bashar Assad of Syria. While...
