Category Archives: Republicans

Anthony Fauci to step down as chief US medical adviser at end of year – as it happened

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The departure of Anthony Fauci comes amid what is looking to be a major shake-up of American public health institutions. Last week, the head of the CDC announced reforms to the agency, which was criticized for its response to Covid-19 and, more recently, monkeypox:

The head of the top US public health agency on Wednesday announced a shake-up of the organization, intended to make it more nimble.

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Cheney vows to fight other Republicans who embrace Trump’s election lie

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Cheney says two Republican US senators – Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley – have both made themselves ‘unfit for future office’

The former top Republican Liz Cheney, who lost her Wyoming seat in Congress last week when she was beaten in a primary by a Donald Trump-endorsed challenger, is threatening to turn her political muscle against other prominent politicians in her party who have embraced the former president’s attack on democracy.

In an interview with ABC News aired on Sunday, she said that some of the best known Republican figures are now within her sights. She name-checked Kevin McCarthy, Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley – all of whom have openly supported Trump’s lie that electoral fraudsters stole the 2020 presidential race from him and handed it to his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

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Americans should focus on Biden’s accomplishments, says chief of staff – as it happened

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Ron Klain argues president has made a historic impact and that focus shouldn’t be on inflation or Afghanistan withdrawal

Democratic leaders went on the attack against Mike Pence, as the former vice-president under Donald Trump heads to Iowa today amid increased speculation of a potential 2024 campaign.

Jaime Harrison, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, sharply criticized Pence’s repeated calls for a national abortion ban in the wake of the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade.

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Republican says comment Garland should be executed was ‘facetious’

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Carl Paladino, a Republican candidate for Congress in New York, recently caused controversy when he praised Adolf Hitler

A Republican candidate for Congress in New York said he was “being facetious” when, in the same interview, he said the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, should be executed for authorising the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida home.

The candidate, Carl Paladino, recently caused controversy when he praised Adolf Hitler, as “the kind of leader we need today”.

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Utah school secretly investigated if winning female student athlete is transgender

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An athletics association scrutinized the winner’s records after parents of two girls who lost the competition complained

A Utah high school athletics association secretly investigated a female athlete – without telling her or her parents – after receiving complaints from the parents of two girls she had defeated in competition questioning whether the girl was transgender.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the Utah high school activities association and the girl’s high school determined she indeed was born female after poring through school records dating back to kindergarten.

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Judge indicates willingness to release redacted Trump search affidavit – as it happened

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Justice department says release of document showing probable cause would jeopardize ongoing investigation

First lady Jill Biden appears to be on the mend following her positive Covid-19 test earlier this week, the White House has told reporters:

The Trump organization’s finance chief just pleaded guilty to tax charges and will soon testify against his former employer, Dominic Rushe reports:

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Florida Republicans targeted Black voters, justice department says in filing

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The agency claims the restrictions, including a ban on providing water and food to those lining up to vote, are racially motivated

Florida Republicans intentionally targeted Black voters when they enacted new voting restrictions last year, the justice department said in a court filing on Wednesday.

The department told a federal appellate court that a lower court had correctly evaluated claims of racial discrimination when it came to Florida’s new law. In March, US District Judge Mark Walker blocked new restrictions on the availability of absentee ballot drop boxes, regulations for third party voter registration groups, and a ban on providing food and water to people standing in line to vote. The US court of appeals for the 11th circuit paused that ruling earlier this year while it considers an appeal from Florida officials.

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Liz Cheney considers run for president after Republican primary defeat

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Wyoming congresswoman says ‘It’s something I’m thinking about’ after losing to Trump-backed challenger

Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney has announced she is considering her own run for the White House in an all-out effort to prevent Donald Trump from winning another term as US president.

Cheney decisively lost her Republican primary race on Tuesday night and will lose her seat in the US Congress.

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Liz Cheney loses Wyoming Republican primary to Trump-endorsed rival

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The vice-chair of the House January 6 panel faced retribution from state voters for going against the former president

Liz Cheney has paid the price for her staunch opposition to Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy by losing her seat in Congress to a challenger backed by the former president.

The vice-chair of the January 6 committee was beaten by a conservative lawyer, Harriet Hageman – who has echoed Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud – in a Republican primary election to decide Wyoming’s lone member in the House of Representatives.

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Biden hails ‘biggest step forward on climate ever’ as he signs Inflation Reduction Act – as it happened

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White House hopes climate and healthcare plan will mark turning point for Biden’s presidency and boost Democrats in the midterms

Meanwhile in Kansas, abortion foes have apparently not given up on the state’s ballot initiative to allow lawmakers to restrict the procedure, which voters resoundingly rejected earlier this month.

The Associated Press reports that an anti-abortion activist and an election conspiracy promoter have teamed up to coordinate a recount of the ballots in nine of the state’s counties, which accounted for more than half of the votes cast on the initiative and all but one of which rejected it. According to the report, the abortion foe, Mark Gietzen put almost all of the $120,000 cost on his credit card to pay for the recount.

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GOP governors rebuke party members’ ‘outrageous rhetoric’ over Trump search

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Larry Hogan describes comparisons of the FBI to Nazi Germany’s secret police, made by Florida senator Rick Scott, as dangerous

A handful of Republican governors have criticized the “outrageous rhetoric” of their party colleagues in the US Congress, who have accused federal law enforcement officers of a politicized attack on former president Donald Trump after executing a court-approved search warrant on his Florida home this week.

Maryland governor Larry Hogan, a Republican moderate, described attacks by party members as both “absurd” and “dangerous”, after a week in which certain Republicans have compared the FBI to the Gestapo and fundraised off the slogan: “Defund the FBI”.

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Trump under criminal investigation for potential violations of Espionage Act – live

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FBI was seeking evidence about whether the mishandling of documents violated three criminal statutes, search warrant shows

Further evidence that things are looking up for Democrats: Joe Biden’s approval rating is above 40 percent for the first time since early June, per RealClearPolitics’ polling average:

Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned attacks by Donald Trump and other Republicans on the FBI following their search this week of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

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Progressive Ilhan Omar wins closer-than-expected House primary in Minnesota

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Democrats select progressive Becca Balint for Vermont House seat while Trump-backed candidate nominated for Wisconsin governor

Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a member of the select progressive group in the House of Representative dubbed the Squad, eked out a closer-than-expected Democratic primary victory on Tuesday night against a centrist challenger who questioned the incumbent’s support for the “defund the police” movement.

The evening went far smoother for another progressive, Becca Balint, who won the Democratic House primary in Vermont – positioning her to become the first woman representing the state in Congress.

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Republicans pounce on FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago to solicit campaign funds

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Trump and other candidates’ fundraising emails foment outrage and urge donations to stop the ‘Radical Left’

Republican and rightwing groups have swiftly used the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s winter home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida to raise money from their supporters by bombarding them with fundraising emails and appeals for donations.

In public the former US president, his allies and nearly all senior Republicans have expressed deep outrage at the raid, which is linked to Trump apparently keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago from his time in the White House. But the same figures have also seen the moment as a clear opportunity to urge supporters to dig deep into their pockets.

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Congressman and Trump ally Scott Perry says FBI seized his cellphone

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Republican’s phone could be relevant to bid to overturn 2020 election and mishandling of official records

Federal investigators seized the cellphone of the Republican congressman Scott Perry on Tuesday, his office said, suggesting the justice department is examining the communications of a close ally of Donald Trump and person of interest to the House January 6 select committee.

The move by the FBI to take Perry’s phone came a day after federal agents executed a search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and seized boxes of documents, though it was not clear whether the two events were connected.

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Oklahoma lawmakers urge pause amid fears innocent man to be executed

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Bipartisan group calls for new hearing over lack of evidence in case of Richard Glossip, 59, as state rushes to speed up executions

A letter signed by 61 Oklahoma lawmakers – most of them pro-death penalty Republicans – has been sent to the state’s attorney general calling for a new hearing in the case of Richard Glossip, a death row inmate scheduled to be executed next month.

Forty-four Republican and 17 Democratic legislators, amounting to more than a third of the state assembly, have written to John O’Connor pleading for the new hearing.

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Landmark US climate bill will do more harm than good, groups say

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Bill makes concessions to the fossil fuel industry as frontline community groups call on Biden to declare climate emergency

The landmark climate legislation passed by the Senate after months of wrangling and weakening by fossil-fuel friendly Democrats will lead to more harm than good, according to frontline community groups who are calling on Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency.

If signed into law, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) would allocate $369bn to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions and invest in renewable energy sources – a historic amount that scientists estimate will lead to net reductions of 40% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.

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Republican who voted to impeach Trump projected to win primary

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Dan Newhouse, one of 10 members of Congress to vote for impeachment, set to beat Trump-backed Loren Culp in Washington state

Dan Newhouse, one of the few Republican House members to vote in January in favor of the impeachment of Donald Trump, is poised to move forward to the general election in Washington state, according to a projection by the Associated Press.

Newhouse was one of 10 Republicans who voted in January to have Trump impeached, even ahead of explosive revelations about the former president’s support and endorsement of the January 6 riots just a year prior.

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Kansas’s vote to protect abortion rights upends US midterm elections – as it happened

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Following her visit to Taiwan and China’s furious response, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reiterated her commitment to standing up for the country and said it’s shared by lawmakers across the US Congress.

“Our Congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as a strong statement that America stands with Taiwan. We came to Taiwan to listen to, learn from and show our support for the people of Taiwan, who have built a thriving Democracy that stands as one of the freest and most open in the world,” Pelosi said in a statement after the trip.

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Democrats prepare for showdown over key spending and climate bill – as it happened

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Antony Blinken, secretary of state, said at global nonproliferation discussions at the United Nations today that a return to the 2015 nuclear deal remains the best outcome for the United States, Iran and the world.

Reuters is reporting that Blinken made a point to repeat a warning from the US that North Korea is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test.

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