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A vote to amend Fisa’s section 702 to prohibit warrantless surveillance in the House has failed.
The amendment, introduced by Arizona Republican representative Andy Biggs, failed after the yays and nays votes tied at 212-212.
Continue reading...Proposal sails through, with one vocal opponent saying gay first cousins do not risk having a child with birth defects
The Republican-led Tennessee legislature has overwhelmingly voted to send the Republican governor, Bill Lee, a proposal that would ban marriage between first cousins.
The statehouse cast a 75-2 vote on Thursday on the bill after the senate previously approved it without any opposition.
Continue reading...Democrats stymied after state supreme court rules that 1864 law with no exceptions for rape or incest can go into effect
Arizona’s state Republican leadership halted an effort by Democrats on Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law banning almost all abortions, which the state supreme court this week ruled could go into effect.
The move came after Republican lawmakers in the state had denounced the court’s decision, including some who previously expressed support for the law. Donald Trump and other high-profile Republicans, such as the Senate candidate Kari Lake, had also declared their opposition to the ruling with Lake urging lawmakers to “come up with an immediate commonsense solution that Arizonans can support”.
Continue reading...Former president says Arizona abortion ban went too far as Democrats note he appointed justices who ended Roe
The Arizona supreme court decision upended Donald Trump’s gambit on abortion, a day after the former president sought to neutralize the political issue by declining to support a national abortion ban.
Trump had hoped that his announcement on Monday would keep abortion rights mostly out of the conversation ahead of the November elections, but Tuesday’s ruling showed just how difficult it will be to do that, the Washington Post’s Dan Balz writes.
All abortion politics are national, not local. Abortion developments – new laws, new restrictions, new stories of women caught up in heart-wrenching and sometimes life-threatening decisions – are no longer confined to the geography where they take place. They are instantly part of the larger debate.
There is no safe harbor for Trump and the Republicans at this point. The abortion issue is no less complex and no less difficult for many Americans than it was while Roe was in force. But politically the winds have shifted, and done so dramatically.
Continue reading...Ford’s White House photographer resigns from board, alleging it refused to honor Republican over fear of retribution
Gerald Ford’s White House photographer resigned from the board of the 38th president’s eponymous foundation and alleged it refused to honor Liz Cheney, the anti-Trump former Republican congresswoman, for fear of reprisal should Donald Trump return to power next year.
The honor in question was the Gerald R Ford Medal for Distinguished Public Service. Recent recipients include the former defense secretary Robert Gates; the late Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole and his wife, the former senator Elizabeth Dole; and the late secretary of state Colin Powell.
Continue reading...Republican senator says homeland security secretary is following position of party and will not vote to remove him if it goes to trial
Alejandro Mayorkas is not guilty of a high crime or misdemeanour, the Republican senator Mitt Romney said, making clear he will not vote to remove the US homeland security secretary from office if his impeachment goes to a trial.
“Secretary Mayorkas is following the position of his party and of the president who was elected,” Romney, from Utah and his party’s nominee for president in 2012, told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Aimee Harris of Florida sold Ashley Biden’s diary to conservative group Project Veritas in actions judge called ‘despicable’
A Florida woman was sentenced Tuesday to a month in prison and three months of home confinement for stealing and selling Joe Biden’s daughter’s diary four years ago to the conservative group Project Veritas.
Aimee Harris was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Laura Taylor Swain, the judge who called the Palm Beach, Florida, woman’s actions “despicable”.
Continue reading...Sandra Fish, who has covered politics since 1982, was asked to leave by security about an hour into the state party assembly
A politics reporter from the Colorado Sun was removed from the state Republican party assembly this weekend because the state party chair Dave Williams claimed her reporting on the party was “very unfair”.
The reporter, Sandra Fish, who has covered politics since 1982, received a text early morning on Saturday from a Republican party organizer saying she was no longer invited to attend the assembly. Fish went anyway, receiving a credentialed pass at the door until she was asked to leave by security about an hour into the event.
Continue reading...Letter by secretary of state warns party that Democratic National Convention is scheduled past the deadline to certify candidates
The Ohio secretary of state has sent a letter to the Ohio Democratic party warning that Joe Biden could be left off the November election ballot in 2024 unless the Democratic National Convention meets earlier or statutory requirements in the state are changed or exempted.
According to a letter sent from the Ohio secretary of state, Frank LaRose, a Republican, to Ohio Democratic party chair Liz Walters, the Democratic National Convention scheduled for 19 August where the party officially nominates its candidate for president is past the 7 August deadline to certify presidential candidates on the Ohio ballot.
Continue reading...Advocacy groups raise alarm over threat of third-party candidate: ‘anyone who divides the anti-Trump coalition is dangerous’
Celebrating the demise of No Labels as a third-party presidential election threat, two advocacy groups who mobilised against it have said they would now turn their sights on Robert F Kennedy Jr’s independent run for the White House.
Though it is hard to make solid predictions, a high-profile third-party run in 2024 unnerves both Republicans and Democrats who fear it might siphon off their votes. But the nervousness is especially pronounced among supporters of Joe Biden, who worry such a campaign could split the center and left and allow Donald Trump and his highly motivated rightwing base to win a return to the Oval Office.
Continue reading...Both candidates have clinched nominations, but Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin turnout may hint at 2024 results
Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump won primary elections in four states, including the crucial battleground state of Wisconsin.
Hundreds of delegates were up for grabs in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Wisconsin on Tuesday, and Biden and Trump have already amassed enough delegates to win their respective nominations. But the turnout could provide more clues about the general election in November.
Continue reading...Voters cast ballots in four states including key battleground for Trump and Biden. Get up to speed with the results as they come in
Voters in Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin cast ballots in the presidential primaries on Tuesday. Much attention will be paid to Wisconsin, where voters will signal strength and weaknesses in the critical swing state for Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
There are also options in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Wisconsin for voters to choose “uncommitted” in a show of protest against Biden’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza.
Continue reading...Voters will also potentially enshrine two state amendments that some say could have a negative impact on elections administration
Voters in Wisconsin cast their ballots today in an election that will test voter enthusiasm for Joe Biden and Donald Trump – and potentially enshrine two amendments in the state constitution impacting election administration across the state.
The president and former president are already the presumptive nominees and will almost certainly face off in the general election in November, and it seems that the threat of prosecution, general unpopularity and advanced age can’t stop them.
Continue reading...Former White House adviser and white nationalist Stephen Miller plans to reinterpret civil rights laws should Trump return to power
The former Trump White House adviser, anti-immigration extremist and white nationalist Stephen Miller is helping drive a plan to tackle supposed “anti-white racism” if Donald Trump returns to power next year, Axios reported.
“Longtime aides and allies … have been laying legal groundwork with a flurry of lawsuits and legal complaints – some of which have been successful,” Axios said on Monday.
Continue reading...Civil rights group denounces congressmember Tim Walberg’s calls to ‘get it over quick’ as a ‘clear call to genocide’
Rather than provide humanitarian aid in Gaza, the US should ensure it is subjected to atomic bombing the way that “Nagasaki and Hiroshima” were at the end of the second world war, a Republican congressman said in shocking remarks that by all indications were recorded recently at a gathering with a relatively small group of his constituents.
The comments by US House representative Tim Walberg of Michigan drew condemnation from progressive political quarters, including from some who expressed disbelief that a former Christian pastor would advocate for what they called the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Continue reading...Pushback against Oklahoma’s Judd Blevins transcending partisanship, says organizer: ‘It’s a Nazi and not-Nazi thing’
Voters in the north-west Oklahoma city of Enid are being asked to decide whether a councilmember who attended the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 should be removed from his post.
Iraq war veteran Judd Blevins, 42, was elected to Enid’s city council to be the commissioner of its first ward last year. He soon faced an effort by the Enid social justice committee, which claimed Blevins “embraces the same Nazi ideology [the US] defeated almost 80 years ago” during the second world war.
Continue reading...Colorado Republicans chose former mayor Greg Lopez, who plans to step down, leaving no incumbent or favored primary candidate
A Colorado Republican panel made the surprising decision on Thursday night to choose a former mayor, Greg Lopez, to be congressman Ken Buck’s likely replacement until the November general election, a saving grace for Lauren Boebert’s bid for another term in Congress.
Lopez will now run as the Republican candidate in the 25 June special election after Buck’s resignation at the same time GOP primary candidates are vying to be the congressman’s successor.
Continue reading...Campaign ad shows clips of Trump disparaging Republican rival as president courts ‘broad and diverse coalition of voters’
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign released an ad targeting Republicans who supported Nikki Haley in her losing primary against Donald Trump.
“If you voted for Nikki Haley, Donald Trump doesn’t want your vote,” the president’s campaign ad says. “Save America. Join us.”
Continue reading...Shasta county’s Kevin Crye fought off recall effort, but a far-right official who pushed election conspiracies lost the race for his seat
Shasta county voters returned a mixed verdict on the ultra-conservative politics the rural enclave in northern California has become known for, ousting one far-right local official and offering another a political lifeline.
County residents on 5 March resoundingly declined to re-elect Patrick Jones to the board of supervisors, the county’s governing body. Jones, a leader of the local far-right movement, had repeatedly, and baselessly, argued that county and US elections are being rigged. Jones’s opponent, Matt Plummer, won the race for the seat with nearly 60% of the vote.
Continue reading...Lieberman, Connecticut senator for four terms, was Al Gore’s Democratic running mate in 2000
The former US senator Joe Lieberman, who ran as the Democratic nominee for vice-president in the 2000 election and became the first Jewish candidate on a major-party ticket for the White House, alongside presidential candidate Al Gore, has died at the age of 82.
Lieberman died in New York due to complications from a fall, according to a statement from his family. He was a Connecticut senator for four terms.
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