List of All Articles with Tag 'us politics'

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will not be ordering floating barriers to be removed from the Rio Grande, in defiance of the US Department of Justice.

The United States has surpassed 400 mass shootings in 2023, setting the stage for a record-breaking year in gun violence without any significant federal firearm legislation on the horizon.

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed her successor Kevin McCarthy for plans to expunge former president Donald Trump’s two impeachments, in an interview with CNN on Sunday. Ms Pelosi presided over both impeachments of Mr Trump, first in 2019 for when Mr Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter in exchange for military aid to the country, and the second in 2021 for the January 6 riot. “The president was impeached because we had no choice,” she said on CNN’s State of the Union. “He had undermined our national security, jeopardised our wellbeing of our country.” Ms Pelosi said she was very cautious about bringing forward the two impeachments. “Kevin, you know, is playing politics. It is not even clear if he constitutionally can expunge those things,” she told host Dana Bash. “If he wants to put his members on the spot, his members in difficult races on the spot, that is a decision he has to make. But this is not responsible. This is not about the flag still being there.” The former House speaker, who stepped aside from congressional leadership earlier this year after Democrats lost the majority in the 2022 midterm election, said that Mr McCarthy proposed the idea because he does not want to face the wrath of Mr Trump. “This is about being afraid. As I’ve said before, Donald Trump is the puppeteer and what does he do all of the time but shine the light on the strings. These people look pathetic.” Politico reported last week that after Mr McCarthy had said on CNBC that he did not know whether Mr Trump would be the strongest nominee in the general election, he pledged privately to the former president would vote to expunge the two impeachments. But many moderate Republicans are opposed to voting for the expungement, particularly related to January 6, Politico reported. Read More Trump news – live: Trump lashes out at ‘deranged’ Jack Smith as potential indictment over Jan 6 looms Marjorie Taylor Greene addresses online conspiracy theory linking her to Jan 6 pipe bomber Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained

Former New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte announced a campaign for governor on Monday, entering the race to succeed popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu in 2024.

Donald Trump has gone on the attack over the grand jury investigation into the January 6 Capitol riot and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election – as he could be indicted on criminal charges as soon as this week. In a Truth Social rant on Sunday night, the former president lashed out at special counsel Jack Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland claiming that the investigations are a “coordinated Hoax” and a ploy to “STEAL ANOTHER ELECTION through PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT at levels never seen before in the U.S.”. This comes as former vice president Mike Pence downplayed Mr Trump’s actions leading up to the Capitol riot, claiming that he is not sure if they were criminal or not. “While his words were reckless, based on what I know, I am not yet convinced that they were criminal,” Mr Pence, who is also a Republican presidential contender, told CNN’s “State of the Union”. In one of the clearest signs that Mr Trump could face federal charges for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the former president said last week that he had received a letter saying he is a target of a grand jury investigation. Read More What Donald Trump’s trial date means for the 2024 election Trump demands cameras in courtroom for potential election fraud case Trump legal team tries again to block Georgia election interference grand jury probe Trump calls for ‘immediate’ death penalty for child traffickers after watching QAnon-linked movie

Even if former President Donald Trump is indicted for a third time, his dominance of the Republican White House race is unlikely to be shaken because of his years of shattering its voters' trust in institutions that challenge his power.

Seven Republican presidential candidates have, as of Sunday, met the polling requirements to appear on the August debate stage following new polling from Fox Business in Iowa and South Carolina.

The Biden administration will centre White House efforts to address threats of various transmissible diseases, pathogens and other biological agents in a new permanent office headed by a member of the National Security Council (NSC). The White House announced the creation of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR) on Friday. OPPR will be “charged with leading, coordinating, and implementing actions related to preparedness for, and response to, known and unknown biological threats or pathogens that could lead to a pandemic or to significant public health-related disruptions in the United States”, according to a handout. The new office will shift the White House’s Covid reponse efforts from a standalone team to a broader group that will include experts working on a number of different potential “public health-related disruptions”, including new variants of the influenza (common flu) virus. “Under President Biden’s leadership, the Administration has taken significant steps to ensure all individuals have continued access to lifesaving protections such as vaccines, treatments, and tests, and that the nation is well prepared to manage the risks of COVID-19 or other causes of potential pandemics in the future,” a White House statement read. The office’s inaugural director will be Major General (retired) Paul Friedrichs, special assistant to President Biden and the Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense on the National Security Council. The new office comes three months after Mr Biden formally ended the national emergency declaration over the pandemic. More than 1.1 million Americans have died from Covid since it first emerged in the US in early 2020. Mr Biden lobbied Congress against passing the resolution to end the national emergency but nevertheless signed the bipartisan piece of legislation when it hit his desk in April. The president had previously declared the Covid pandemic “over” in 2022, telling CBS’s 60 Minutes: “We still have a problem with Covid. We're still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one's wearing masks.” Read More The fight over Alabama's congressional redistricting now shifts back to federal court DeSantis downplays Jan. 6, says it wasn't an insurrection but a 'protest' that 'ended up devolving' Biden names CIA Director William Burns to his Cabinet

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has given insight into the possible scope of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The Republican governor - who survived a Trump-backed attempt to oust him from office last year - told USA Today on Sunday that Mr Smith’s office had contacted him. However it is unclear what stage Mr Smith’s investigation has reached or whether Mr Kemp’s office had provided, or agreed to provide, evidence or testimony. “Our office has been contacted by Jack Smith’s office,” the governor’s spokesman said. Mr Kemp’s office declined to comment further when contacted byThe Independent. News of Mr Smith’s communications with Mr Kemp comes a week after his office reportedly delivered a target letter to Mr Trump’s legal team, a sign that charges are being prepared. The Department of Justice (DoJ) has indicated that the twice-impeached, twice-indicted former president is central to its investigation into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and the broader effort by the Trump campaign to overturn the election. Mr Trump, who is running for re-election in 2024, announced the arrival of that letter on his Truth Social social media platform two days after he supposedly received it. “On Sunday night, while I was with my family...HORRIFYING NEWS for our country was given to me by my attorneys,” he wrote. “Deranged Jack Smith...sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.” The Independent reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the letter delivered to Mr Trump informed him that the DoJ is considering charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States; obstruction of an official proceeding and deprivation of civil rights under colour of law. It set a deadline of midnight on Thursday for Mr Trump to report to the grand jury and declare whether he would testify or offer his own evidence during the pre-trial stage of the investigation. Sources have also told The Independent that an indictment could come anytime, now that deadline has passed. Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election were far from limited to Georgia. His campaign is known to have supported slates of false electors in other states where Mr Trump lost to Joe Biden including Arizona and Wisconsin. For weeks Mr Smith and the DoJ have been largely silent about the status of the Jan 6 investigation which has already led to the conviction of hundreds of rioters. If Mr Trump faces trial, it would almost certainly take place during the 2024 election cycle. A separate trial of the former president, involving the alleged illegal retention of classified materials and presidential records, is set to take place next spring. Read More Nervous Republicans turn to New Hampshire in hopes of stopping Trump The fight over Alabama's congressional redistricting now shifts back to federal court Capitol riot defendant gets probation after rare setback for prosecutors at Oath Keepers trial DeSantis defends Florida curriculum that suggests slaves benefited from forced labour Florida man pleads guilty over Jan 6 riot as state’s governor Ron DeSantis insists there was no insurrection Trump legal team tries again to block Georgia election interference grand jury probe

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado on Sunday challenged Americans to approach political disagreements with respect in their mission to elevate "civic dialogue across the country."

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis defended a hard-right school curriculum that went into effect in his state this week while on the campaign trail for the Republican presidential nomination. At an event in Utah, Governor DeSantis defended how slavery will now be taught in Florida middle schools. Children will now be taught that enslaved persons picked up skills that they later “parlayed” into profitable crafts after slavery was abolished. “They’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life,” Mr DeSantis told reporters on Friday. However at the same press conference, the GOP candidate also appeared to back away from the specific assertions of the teachings, saying of the curriculum: “I didn’t do it. I wasn’t involved in it.” He went on to say that the curriculum was “rooted in whatever is factual”. “It was not anything that was done politically,” he added. The Florida governor’s hard-right record will likely be a key talking point on the 2024 campaign trail - potentially presenting both a boon for Mr DeSantis in the GOP primary but also a challenge as he seeks to woo moderates in a general election. Florida Department of Education’s social studies standards for the 2023-2024 school year provide lesson topics for teachers including a “benchmark clarification” which instructs educators to teach students that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit”. It isn’t clear what “their personal benefit” would be in this scenario. The line is included as part of a broader lesson entitled: “Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agriculturalwork, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation).” The majority of polling puts Mr DeSantis second in the crowded GOP primary field, though he trails former president Donald Trump by a wide margin and faces a number of rivals closing in on his position including Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley. Read More Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teen lynched in Mississippi Southern California school board OKs curriculum after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened a $1.5M fine Florida man pleads guilty over Jan 6 riot as state’s governor Ron DeSantis insists there was no insurrection Trump outstrips nearest Republican rival DeSantis by 30 points in latest poll - live Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teen lynched in Mississippi Southern California school board OKs curriculum after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened a $1.5M fine

Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was "playing politics" with the idea of expunging former President Donald Trump's two impeachments.