List of All Articles with Tag 'us politics'

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a fervent election denier who lost last year's gubernatorial race, said he's not running for US Senate on Thursday night, a relief for some Republicans who had feared the controversial conservative would complicate their hopes of flipping a Democratic-held seat.

A soft-spoken Republican state lawmaker in Louisiana shot down a bill that would ban affirming healthcare for transgender youth in the state, the sole southern state that has not outlawed gender-affirming care amid a wave of restrictive measures targeting LGBT+ people across the country. State Senator Fred Mills, the chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, cast the committee’s tie-breaking 5-4 vote to block the bill’s progress in the GOP-dominated state legislature on 23 May. Following the vote, Mr Mills has faced a barrage of attacks from anti-trans far-right activists on social media, his businesses have received harassing messages, and the Louisiana Republican Party is pressuring state lawmakers to sidestep the committee process and put the bill on the Senate floor for a vote. Louisiana’s House Republicans also plan to sabotage other legislation to send a message to the state Senate. Mr Mills, who is not seeking re-election and delivered congenial farewell remarks to his Senate colleagues on 25 May, appears unfazed. “Anytime you have to break a tie vote, no matter which way you vote, there’s going to be backlash, and this is a national topic,” Mr Mills told the USA Today Network. “I did like I always do. I listened to the debate and made the vote I thought was right. Why would I want to handcuff a doctor and his or her decision? I think they know more about this than politicians.” Anti-trans self-described fascist pundit Matt Walsh issued a threat to his nearly 2 million Twitter followers and claimed that Mr Mills “sided with the butchers and the groomers,” using the transphobic smear to falsely suggest that the St Martin Parish state lawmaker supports pedophilia. “He will regret it,” Walsh said. “This is the biggest mistake of his political career, and also the end of his career. He’s going to be infamous and disgraced by his own base. We’ll make sure of that.” Far-right activist Greg Price with the State Freedom Caucus Network told his followers to “let Senator Mills know how you feel about him single-handedly killing this bill to ban sex changes for kids.” Louisiana is the only state in the US South that has not banned gender-affirming care for trans youth. Nineteen states have enacted legislation to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth, and at least eight other states are considering similar legislation, against the guidance of major medical organisations, including the Americans Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, that recommend affirming treatment for trans youth experiencing gender dysphoria. House Bill 648, authored by Republican state Rep Gabe Firment, would ban health providers in the state from administering affirming care to patients younger than 18, or face the revocation of their professional licence. That care can include hormone replacement therapy and puberty blockers, which are also often prescribed for cisgender or nontransgender youth, as well as social transitioning measures, mental healthcare, and affirming surgeries, which are not recommended under major medical guidelines. A statewide report from the Louisiana Department of Health found that no affirming surgeries were performed on Medicaid-enrolled minors in the state between 2017 and 2021, and the prescription of affirming medications for trans youth within that same time period was also exceedingly rare. Mr Mills said the witness testimony and reporting from the health department persuaded him to vote against the bill. “All the testimony I heard by the proponents that children are getting mutilated, I didn’t see it in the statistics,” he told the Louisiana Illuminator. “Always in my heart of hearts have I believed that a decision should be made by a patient and a physician. I believe in the physicians in Louisiana,” he added. “I believe in the scope of practice. I believe in the standard of care.” After national backlash from far-right groups, the Louisiana Republican Party issued a statement calling for “procedural action that will result in a Senate floor vote” on House Bill 648 to give “all senators” a “chance to weigh in on this pivotal piece of legislation.” “The Republican Party of Louisiana is deeply disappointed in Senator Fred Mills’ tie-breaking vote” to kill the legislation in committee, according to a statement from the party. The bill passed through the state’s House of Representatives by a vote of 71-24. Louisina Trans Advocates said the GOP’s strategy “would be a complete disrespect of the process and would be undemocratic.” The onslaught of legislation and volatile political debate surrounding the bills have also negatively impacted the mental health of an overwhelming majority of young trans and nonbinary people, according to polling from The Trevor Project and Morning Consult. A separate survey from The Trevor Project found that 41 per cent of trans and nonbinary youth have seriously considered attempting suicide over the last year. “When you prescribe hormone therapies to these kids, they get better,” Louisiana psychologist Clifton Mixon told the state Senate health committee this week. “They want to live. They go to school. They get better grades. Their relationships improve, and they can begin to live a more normal teenage life.” Read More DeSantis wants to model America after Florida. Civil rights groups are sounding the alarm on his ‘hostile’ agenda Senator who voted for anti-trans bill that passed by one vote admits she wasn’t paying attention Trans teen misses high school graduation after judge rejects plea Trans rights groups pledge Texas lawsuit over gender-affirming care ban: ‘Anti-science, discriminatory fear-mongering’

Rep. Susan Wild, one of the country's most politically vulnerable Democrats, made her displeasure known over the White House's handling of talks to raise the debt ceiling with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, now officially a candidate for president, is no longer tiptoeing around former President Donald Trump -- nor is he being shy about his plans to flex the powers of the presidency like never before if he wins the White House.

Nearly five months before the US was projected to hit the debt ceiling, a small team inside the Treasury Department began alerting top officials to early effects already being felt in the US financial system.

Two employees of Donald Trump moved boxes of papers at Mar-a-Lago a day before the Justice Department visited the former president's residence to collect classified documents , The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Inadequate medical screening and uninformed medical staff contributed to the death of a Navy SEAL candidate hours after he had completed a brutal part of the training course known as "Hell Week," a Navy investigation found.

Judge Amit Mehta on Thursday handed down an 18-year prison sentence for the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election that ended with the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

President Joe Biden on Thursday vetoed a Republican-led measure that would overturn police reforms enacted in Washington, DC, writing the legislation "would overturn commonsense police reforms," such as chokehold bans, standards for use of force, rules around the use of body cameras and officer training programs.

Former President Donald Trump wants to "defund" the FBI and Department of Justice. Republicans, alleging the FBI and DOJ have been weaponized against them, have held hearings featuring disgruntled former agents and are also gaming out ways to restrict funding for the federal law enforcement agency.

Two members of Donald Trump’s staff moved boxes of documents just a day before the Department of Justice visited Mar-a-Lago, according to a report. The files were moved the day before FBI agents and a prosecutor visited the private club in Florida’s Palm Beach. The timing of the move is suspicious and a sign that obstruction may have taken place, according to The Washington Post. Mr Trump and his associates are alleged to have conducted a “dress rehearsal” for moving the sensitive files even before getting a subpoena in May last year. More follows...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday said he would “aggressively” use presidential pardons to free people who’ve been charged or convicted of crimes stemming from participation in the January 6 attack on the Capitol as well as former president Donald Trump. Speaking during an interview with hosts Buck Sexton and Clay Travis, Mr DeSantis claimed that the Department of Justice has been “weaponised” under the Biden Administration, and cited a laundry list of GOP grievances about federal law enforcement targeting conservative activists and other GOP figures who have allegedly violated federal laws. “What I’m going to do is — I’m going to do on day one – I will have folks that will get together and look at all these cases, who people are victims of weaponization or political targeting, and we will be aggressive at issuing pardons,” he said. Mr DeSantis downplayed what he described as “technical violations of the law” and suggested he’d issue pardons for January 6 rioters because Black Lives Matter protesters have not been prosecuted to the same extent by the federal government. “If there are other people who did the same thing, but just in a context like BLM and they don’t get prosecuted at all, that is uneven application of justice, and so we’re going to find ways where that did not happen. And then we will use the pardon power — and I will do that at the front end,” he said. Asked whether he’d look at granting blanket reprieves to Mr Trump, who is currently the target of multiple federal criminal probes including one looking at his alleged unlawful retention of national defence information and his efforts to obstruct that probe, the Florida governor said “any example of disfavoured treatment based on politics or weaponization” would be included in his review of charges brought under the Biden Administration, including the twice-impeached ex-president. Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement