Category Archives: Republicans

‘America, this is a warning’: pro- Trump Maga media in a froth over Europe protests

Posted on by

Fox News and others have toed president’s line – seemingly hoping unrest abroad will make people vote Republican

Donald Trump sought to capitalize on the scenes of unrest in France, telling a crowd in Kansas on Monday that “migrants” and “communists” were responsible, and that the scenes were “what the radical ‘Dumocrats’ want to do to America”.

As Republicans struggle to convince voters across the country ahead of November’s midterm elections, Trump’s allies in the conservative media have followed suit, seemingly hoping that the scenes in France can scare people to the polls.

Continue reading...

Massachusetts lieutenant governor candidate ends campaign after arrest

Posted on by

Police said Shawn Oliver was arrested on suspicion of operating under influence of alcohol after a car crash

The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in Massachusetts announced the suspension of his campaign on Sunday hours after he was arrested in a suspected drunk-driving crash.

Shawn Oliver, a city councilor in New Bedford and a corrections officer, said in a post on X he was ending his campaign because “the election is too important to be overshadowed by personal matters”.

Guardian staff contributed

Continue reading...

Ken Paxton stirs vaccine skepticism to ingratiate himself with Maha movement

Posted on by

Texas AG and US Senate hopeful announced inquiry into alleged conspiracy between pediatricians, vaccine makers and insurance firms

Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas and the Republican candidate for the US Senate, is aligning himself with the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement by investigating pediatricians for giving vaccines – actions that could further restrict access to vaccines as deadly outbreaks unfold.

Paxton announced he would investigate an alleged conspiracy between pediatricians, vaccine makers and insurance companies in January, and at least one Texas pediatrician now says she is under investigation. Paxton linked his efforts to a campaign against vaccines from Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and directly referenced the Maha movement in his announcement. The president endorsed Paxton’s Senate run in May.

Continue reading...

Millions of Medicaid recipients to face draconian requirements as of 1 January

Posted on by

Trump’s reform law that seeks to make coverage harder to get, and to keep, includes working 80 hours per month

It is a date keeping US healthcare providers up at night: 1 January 2027.

As the midterm elections loom, everyone from hospital leaders and to patient advocates are focused on the New Year, when Republicans scheduled the most controversial elements of their healthcare reform law to go into effect.

Continue reading...

Man accused of child rape set to become police chief in small Louisiana town

Posted on by

Republican Christopher Paul is running unopposed for seat despite allegations he raped two girls 20 years ago

A candidate for police chief in a small Louisiana town candidate is on course to be elected unopposed despite two charges of child rape pending against him, leaving his community to weigh whether to convert the position into an appointed office rather than one determined at the ballot box.

Christopher Paul, a Republican who on 6 August signed up to run for chief of police in the south-western Louisiana village of Elizabeth, was arrested on 8 September on allegations that he raped two girls in 2005 and 2006.

Continue reading...

DoJ seeks to charge ex-Trump aide who gave key testimony on January 6 attack

Posted on by

Cassidy Hutchinson told panel she had been told Trump lunged for wheel of SUV to try to join mob at Capitol

Prosecutors in the justice department’s civil rights division are seeking criminal charges against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top Trump White House aide who gave explosive testimony to the committee that investigated the US attack on the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The potential charges involve lying to Congress, the person said.

Continue reading...

USS Lincoln carrier to return to port in San Diego after record-breaking deployment – US politics live

Posted on by

Vessel spent over 260 consecutive days at sea without a port call, a US navy record

As Donald Trump struggled to end the war with Iran, and the Lincoln’s deployment dragged on, reports emerged over the summer of shortages of food and basic supplies, and deteriorating mental health and morale among some crew members, including that two crew members had attempted to jump overboard.

At the time, senior Trump administration officials dismissed the reports. Hegseth claimed they “completely misrepresented” the reality, while Trump, when asked in August whether the deployment had gone on too long, responded, “Not nearly long enough” – a remark that upset some naval families.

Continue reading...

Rubio in Greece digs into past to tout Trump’s ‘America first’ approach

Posted on by

In the shadow of the Parthenon, the secretary of state gave a selective reading of history as he urged Europe to ‘awaken from its slumber’

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, delivered a classically inspired apologia for Donald Trump’s “America first” foreign policy on Wednesday, giving a sweeping speech to the backdrop of the Parthenon in Athens that appeared tailor-made for campaign ads if he runs for president in 2028.

In the speech, the top US diplomat drew historical parallels from the founders, philosophers and conquerers of antiquity to the modern American spirit – as well as his family’s own journey to the United States – as he called on Europe to “awaken from its long slumber” and reject a “future of atrophy and servitude and decline”.

Continue reading...

‘Not exactly his favorite senator’: Susan Collins distances herself from Trump in Maine debate

Posted on by

Republican challenged by Democrat Troy Jackson in critical Senate race says she opposes Iran war and Canada tariffs

Susan Collins, the Republican senator for Maine, pointedly distanced herself from Donald Trump in a televised debate with Democratic challenger Troy Jackson on Tuesday, as she sought to present an image of independence in a state that has voted against Trump three times.

Proclaiming herself as not the US president’s “favorite senator”, Collins made the highly unusual boast for a Republican that she had voted with Joe Biden, a Democrat, more than 90% of the time when he was president. She also emphasized her differences with her fellow Republicans, saying she voted against her own party more than any other senator.

Continue reading...

Kristi Noem, former Trump homeland security chief, files for divorce

Posted on by

Noem cites irreconcilable differences in filing that comes after husband Bryon Noem involved in tabloid scandal

Kristi Noem, who was fired by Donald Trump after a rumbustious stint as homeland security secretary, is divorcing her husband, Bryon Noem, after 34 years of marriage, citing “irreconcilable differences”.

The divorce claim “for settlement purposes only” was disclosed in court records filed in Hamlin county, South Dakota, the state of which Noem was previously governor.

Continue reading...

Republican says Trump’s support of Ken Paxton in Texas primary was ‘colossal mistake’

Posted on by

Thom Tillis says Trump’s decision to back Paxton over John Cornyn has put the Senate seat at risk for Republicans

US senator Thom Tillis on Sunday criticized Donald Trump, his fellow Republican, for the president’s support of Ken Paxton over incumbent John Cornyn in the Texas Senate Republican primary.

“He made a colossal mistake,” Tillis, a frequent Trump critic from North Carolina, said during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union in reference to the president’s support of Paxton who defeated Cornyn in the May primary.

Continue reading...

‘The weaker he gets, the more dangerous he gets’: Trump lashes out as his power wanes

Posted on by

Trump tries to dominate at the UN as his approval ratings plummet and even some Republicans stray from the script

Donald Trump stood before the United Nations on Tuesday and threatened to “annihilate” Iran. Yet even as the most powerful man on the planet flexed his military muscles, he was powerless to keep the gravitational pull of domestic politics at bay.

Heading into the UN building in New York, the US president was questioned by Kaitlan Collins, an anchor at CNN, which he had banned from the White House before a judge ruled against him. “I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me,” the 80-year-old snapped. “You should not be here covering me.”

Continue reading...

When Trump’s narrative meets voters’ realities

Posted on by

By Donald Trump’s telling, we’re in a US ‘golden age’. Americans may feel differently. Plus: Anger at the elite and a gunfluencer runs in Texas

One of Donald Trump’s greatest talents – deployed during his time as a real estate tycoon, source and subject of tabloid gossip, reality TV protagonist, and president of the United States – is his ability to tell stories. With six weeks until the US midterm elections, he is likely to lean on this instinct more than ever.

Rarely does the US president appear more comfortable than when behind a microphone, speaking without interruption, sometimes for multiple hours. Long before entering the White House, he wholeheartedly embraced social media as a means of crafting his narrative, going so far as to launch his own social network when booted off others.

Continue reading...

Appeals court rules in favor of Trump-backed Missouri congressional maps

Posted on by

Supreme court, which has twice blocked maps from being used in November, likely to have final say in legal fight

A long-running legal fight over Missouri’s congressional map took another turn Monday when a federal appeals panel ruled in favor of new districts backed by Donald Trump, even though the US supreme court has blocked those districts from being used in the November election.

A three-judge panel of the 8th US circuit court of appeals said Missouri should use the new Republican-drawn US House districts in the November election, just as the state did in its August primary. To revert to its prior districts for the general election would violate the US constitution, the appeals judges said.

Continue reading...

House Republican doubles down on jab at Trump’s immigration enforcement

Posted on by

Florida’s María Elvira Salazar warns Trump that advisers are ‘compromising his legacy’ and not showing ‘whole picture’

María Elvira Salazar, the Republican congresswoman who has accused the president of going too far on immigration enforcement, doubled down on her criticism of the administration on Sunday, warning Donald Trump that some of his advisers were “compromising his legacy”.

In an interview with CBS News’s Face the Nation, the Florida representative who is locked in a tight race for re-election pleaded with the US president not to “squander” his relationship with Hispanic voters. Though she couched her remarks as criticism of top administration advisers, it was clear that her focus was on Trump’s much-vaunted ambition to carry out the largest mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in US history.

Continue reading...

Leftists make waves and Trump flexes muscles: US primary season takeaways

Posted on by

Candidates have been selected for November’s midterms – have Republicans and Democrats made the right choices?

Primary season has official concluded in the United States, with Democrats leading the polls among voters amid widespread economic anxieties, a war with Iran and Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda continuing into the end of the year.

Democratic and Republican voters have selected contenders for key races in the 3 November midterms that will decide the balance of power in Congress, and the future of both parties. Democrats have been rocked by the primary victories of leftwing candidates. Republicans have doubled down on backing the president’s policies, despite his low approval ratings. And both parties are navigating the fallout from a series of scandals that have forced some candidates from the race, while others decided to press on.

Continue reading...

House Republican releases campaign ad critical of Trump’s immigration policies

Posted on by

María Elvira Salazar says some enforcement has ‘gone too far’ as GOP seeks distance from Trump before midterms

A Republican congresswoman has released a campaign ad criticizing Donald Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement, in the latest sign that a key plank of the president’s 2024 re-election campaign has become a liability for his congressional allies ahead of November’s midterm elections.

“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Florida’s María Elvira Salazar says in a 30-second ad. “In July, 50% of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal record. Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy.”

Continue reading...

More Republicans are turning on Iran war as midterms come into view

Posted on by

Three more GOP members voted for war powers resolution to force withdrawal from the conflict as election looms

As the US war with Iran drags on, the ranks of Republicans signaling the conflict is a liability for their party continues to grow.

When the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening considered its sixth war powers resolution intended to force Donald Trump to withdraw troops from the conflict, three Republicans who had not supported the previous efforts broke with their party to vote this one to passage. Earlier that day, a Republican who had lost his primary after repeatedly clashing with Trump proposed impeaching the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, alleging a variety of constitutional transgressions including prosecuting the war against Iran without congressional authorization.

Continue reading...

Republicans criticize racist social media post by Texas member running for office

Posted on by

Karl Rove, a respected GOP consultant, further said he would vote for ‘bigot’ Bo French’s Democratic opponent after post

A senior Republican has called a party colleague running for office in Texas “a bigot” over a racist social media post attacking college football fans – and said he is so outraged by the comments that he will vote for the candidate’s Democratic rival.

Karl Rove, who was former president George W Bush’s longtime political adviser and is a respected Republican consultant in Texas, told a private event in Austin on Sunday that he could not support Bo French’s candidacy for a seat on the state’s railroad commission, the Texas Tribune reported.

Continue reading...

Republicans criticize racist social media post by Texas member running for office

Posted on by

Karl Rove, a respected GOP consultant, further said he would vote for ‘bigot’ Bo French’s Democratic opponent after post

A senior Republican has called a party colleague running for office in Texas “a bigot” over a racist social media post attacking college football fans – and said he is so outraged by the comments that he will vote for the candidate’s Democratic rival.

Karl Rove, who was former president George W Bush’s longtime political adviser and is a respected Republican consultant in Texas, told a private event in Austin on Sunday that he could not support Bo French’s candidacy for a seat on the state’s railroad commission, the Texas Tribune reported.

Continue reading...