Page 30 - Us Elections

US House approves over $450 bn spending package to avert shutdown

The 1,050-page package calls for more than $450 billion in funding for the departments of Veterans Affairs, agriculture, interior, transportation, housing and urban development, etc

Trump bulldozes ahead as last Republican standing in 2024 primary

Eight years after Donald Trump outlasted a crowded field of Republican presidential candidates with his pugilistic and sometimes vulgar style, the former reality show star has done it again. The former president is now the last major GOP candidate standing and poised to be the party's nominee for a third time, outlasting all the other hopefuls now that Nikki Haley bowed out Wednesday. Trump bulldozed a field of more than a dozen challengers, many of them with high profiles, by refusing to appear with them at debates and instead attacking the strongest of them on his own social media site and at large rallies where he spoke uninterrupted for hours. Trump retained the support of many early-state Republican voters who saw him as an incumbent, believe he was wrongly denied the White House four years ago based on false theories of voter fraud, and was unfairly targeted by federal and state prosecutors. Other voters skeptical of his personal conduct or legal jeopardy supported his policy

Former Trump CFO Weisselberg pleads guilty to perjury in civil fraud case

Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of Donald Trump's company, pleaded guilty Monday in New York to perjury in connection with testimony he gave in the ex-president's civil fraud case. Weisselberg, 76, pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury and will be sentenced to five months in jail which would be his second stint behind bars after 100 days last year in an unrelated tax fraud case. The pleas related to testimony he gave at a July 2020 deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James' case against Trump, but in court Monday he also admitted, without pleading guilty, to lying on the witness stand at the former president's civil fraud trial last fall. Prosecutors accused Weisselberg of lying under oath in the case about allegations that Trump lied about his wealth on financial statements given to banks and insurance companies. Allen Weisselberg looks forward to putting this situation behind him, his lawyer Seth Rosenberg said in a statement. After The New Y

SC reinstates Trump on ballot, rejecting state attempts to ban him

The Supreme Court on Monday restored Donald Trump to 2024 presidential primary ballots, rejecting state attempts to hold the Republican former president accountable for the Capitol riot. The justices ruled a day before the Super Tuesday primaries that states, without action from Congress first, cannot invoke a post-Civil War constitutional provision to keep presidential candidates from appearing on ballots. The outcome ends efforts in Colorado, Illinois, Maine and elsewhere to kick Trump, the front-runner for his party's nomination, off the ballot because of his attempts to undo his loss in the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, culminating in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Trump's case was the first at the Supreme Court dealing with a provision of the 14th Amendment that was adopted after the Civil War to prevent former officeholders who engaged in insurrection from holding office again. Colorado's Supreme Court, in a first-of-its-kind ruling, had decided that the .

Supreme Court decision likely in case about barring Trump from 2024 ballot

A Supreme Court decision could come as soon as Monday in the case about whether former President Donald Trump can be kicked off the ballot over his efforts to undo his defeat in the 2020 election. Trump is challenging a groundbreaking decision by the Colorado Supreme Court that said he is disqualified from being president again and ineligible for the state's primary, which is Tuesday. The resolution of the case on Monday, a day before Super Tuesday contests in 16 states, would remove uncertainty about whether votes for Trump, the leading Republican candidate for president, will ultimately count. Both sides had requested fast work by the court, which heard arguments less than a month ago, on Feb. 8, The Colorado court was the first to invoke a post-Civil War constitutional provision aimed at preventing those who engaged in insurrection from holding office. Trump also has since been barred from primary ballot in Illinois and Maine, though both decisions, along with Colorado's, are on

US Congress comes out with 6 spending bills to avoid partial shutdown

Congressional leaders on Sunday came out with a package of six bills setting full-year spending levels for some federal agencies, a step forward in a long overdue funding process beset by sharp political divisions between the two parties as well as infighting among House Republicans. The release of the text of legislation over the weekend was designed to meet the House's rule to give lawmakers at least 72 hours to study a bill before voting. And it's a promising sign that lawmakers will avoid a partial shutdown that would kick in at 12:01 am Saturday for those agencies covered under the bill, such as Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Transportation, Justice and others. Congressional leaders hope to complete votes on the package this week and continue negotiations on the remaining six annual spending bills to pass them before a March 22 deadline. House Speaker Mike Johnson highlighted some key policy and spending wins for conservatives, even as many of his GOP colleagues consider the ..

Trump wins caucuses in Missouri, Idaho and sweeps Michigan GOP convention

Donald Trump has won Missouri's Republican caucuses, one of three events Saturday that will award delegates for the GOP presidential nomination. The former president, who is especially strong in caucuses, was adding to his delegate lead in Republican caucuses in Missouri as well as at a party convention in Michigan. Idaho was scheduled to hold its caucuses later Saturday. Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, meanwhile, is still seeking her first win. There are no Democratic contests on Saturday. The next contest is the GOP caucus Sunday in the District of Columbia. Two days later is Super Tuesday, when 16 states and American Samoa will hold primaries on what will be the largest day of voting of the year outside of the November election. Trump is on track to lock up the nomination days later.

Joe Biden signs short-term spending bill to avoid partial govt shutdown

President Joe Biden on Friday signed a short-term spending measure that keeps one set of federal agencies operating through March 8 and another set through March 22 officially staving off a partial government shutdown that would have started on Sunday. The measure gives lawmakers some more time to draft and pass spending measures to keep the federal government operating for the current fiscal year, which ends on September 30. Washington has been running on a series of short-term measures because Congress, as it routinely does, had failed to enact full-year spending bills on time. This bipartisan agreement prevents a damaging shutdown and allows more time for Congress to work toward full-year funding bills, Biden said in a statement Thursday evening after both the House and Senate cleared the temporary fix. That's good news for the American people. But I want to be clear: this is a short-term fixnot a long-term solution. The House acted first on Thursday. The vote to approve the ...

US Cong okays short-term extension to buy more time for final spending deal

Congress passed another short-term spending measure Thursday that would keep one set of federal agencies operating through March 8 and another set through March 22, avoiding a shutdown for parts of the federal government that would otherwise kick in Saturday. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The short-term extension is the fourth in recent months, and many lawmakers expect it to be the last for the current fiscal year. House Speaker Mike Johnson said negotiators had completed six of the annual spending bills that fund federal agencies and had almost final agreement on the others. We'll get the job done, Johnson said as he exited a closed-door meeting with Republican colleagues. The House acted first Thursday. The vote to approve the extension was 320-99. It easily cleared the two-thirds majority needed for passage. Democrats overwhelmingly voted to avert a partial shutdown. But the vote was much more divided with Republicans, 113 in support and 97 ...

Biden, Trump tour US-Mexico border, highlight immigration as election issue

Three hundred miles apart, President Joe Biden and likely Republican challenger Donald Trump walked the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas Thursday, dueling trips underscoring how important immigration has become for the 2024 election and how much each man wants to use it to his advantage. Each chose an optimal location to make his points, their schedules remarkably similar. They each got a briefing on operations and issues, walked along the border and gave remarks that overlapped. But that's where the comparisons ended. Biden, who sought to spotlight how Republicans tanked a bipartisan border security deal on Trump's orders, went to the Rio Grande Valley city of Brownsville. For nine years, this was the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, but they have dropped sharply in recent months. The president walked a quiet stretch of the border along the Rio Grande, and received a lengthy operations briefing from Homeland Security agents who talked to him bluntly about what more they needed.

Donald Trump to stay on Illinois ballot as he appeals January 6 ban

The decision removes the possibility of a fresh showdown threatening Trump's appearance on a primary ballot, for now

Biden, Trump win in Michigan primaries, edging closer to 2024 rematch

Trump easily defeated his final major challenger, Nikki Haley, according to the Associated Press and other news organizations

Chatbots' incorrect responses on US polls threaten to disenfranchise voters

With presidential primaries underway across the U.S., popular chatbots are generating false and misleading information that threatens to disenfranchise voters, according to a report published Tuesday based on the findings of artificial intelligence experts and a bipartisan group of election officials. Fifteen states and one territory will hold both Democratic and Republican presidential nominating contests next week on Super Tuesday, and millions of people already are turning to artificial intelligence -powered chatbots for basic information, including about how their voting process works. Trained on troves of text pulled from the internet, chatbots such as GPT-4 and Google's Gemini are ready with AI-generated answers, but prone to suggesting voters head to polling places that don't exist or inventing illogical responses based on rehashed, dated information, the report found. The chatbots are not ready for primetime when it comes to giving important, nuanced information about ...

Donald Trump wins South Carolina, beating Nikki Haley in her home state

Donald Trump won South Carolina's Republican primary on Saturday, beating former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state and further consolidating his path to a third straight GOP nomination. Trump has now swept every contest that counted for Republican delegates, with wins already in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The former president's latest victory will likely increase pressure on Haley, who was Trump's former representative to the UN and South Carolina governor from 2011 to 2017, to leave the race. A 2020 general rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden is becoming increasingly inevitable. Haley has vowed to stay in the race through at least the batch of primaries on March 5, known as Super Tuesday, but was unable to dent Trump's momentum in her home state despite holding far more campaign events and arguing that the indictments against Trump will hamstring him against Biden. South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary has historically been a

March Fed pivot ruled out, May rate cut less likely: Vikram Sahu

Sahu says the US elections and Fed pivot will benefit emerging markets (EMs) this year

Stalled US aid for Ukraine shows GOP's shift away from confronting Russia

At about 2 a.m. last Tuesday, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin stood on the Senate floor and explained why he opposed sending more aid to help Ukraine fend off the invasion launched in 2022 by Russian President Vladimir Putin. I don't like this reality," Johnson said. Vladimir Putin is an evil war criminal. But he quickly added: Vladimir Putin will not lose this war. That argument that the Russian president cannot be stopped so there's no point in using American taxpayer dollars against him marks a new stage in the Republican Party's growing acceptance of Russian expansionism in the age of Donald Trump. The GOP has been softening its stance on Russia ever since Trump won the 2016 election following Russian hacking of his Democratic opponents. There are several reasons for the shift. Among them, Putin is holding himself out as an international champion of conservative Christian values and the GOP is growing increasingly sceptical of overseas entanglements. Then there's ...

US cannot be the last nation to ban Chinese app TikTok, says Nikki Haley

Describing Chinese-owned app TikTok as dangerous, Republican presidential aspirant Nikki Haley has said that when countries like India and Nepal have banned this social media platform, the US cannot be the last nation to do the same. What everybody needs to know is China is controlling all of that, Haley, the Indian-American former US Ambassador to the UN, said during a Fox News town hall. If you want to know how it affects you, just imagine by having that app on your phone, China can now see your finances, they can now see who your contacts are. They can see what you click on, why you click on it and how it affects you. They can impact what you see. And they can impact what you hear. That is the dangerous part of TikTok, Haley, 52, said on Sunday. And India has banned it. You had Nepal just banned it because it was causing social disruption. America can't be the last country to ban TikTok. Let's end it now and stop it so it doesn't hurt our children any further, Haley said in ...

US electoral financing based on pvt fundraising, transparency: Top official

America's electoral financing system is based on private fundraising and emphasis on transparency, with a candidate allowed to accept up to USD 3,300 from any individual while the limit for party committees is USD 41,300, according to a top US Federal Election Commission official. Ellen L Weintraub, Vice Chair of the US's Federal Election Commission, spoke to PTI in an interview taken following the recent landmark ruling by India's Supreme Court to scrap the central government's electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordering disclosure of the bond's donors, amount and recipients by March 13. We have a system that is based on private fundraising, but public transparency. Most of the money is raised privately, but it does have to be disclosed on a regular basis, Weintraub said. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is the independent regulatory agency charged with administering and enforcing the federal campaign finance law. The FEC,

US elections 2024: Donald Trump clinches victory at Virgin Islands caucus

Donald Trump amassed another win at a Republican caucus held Thursday in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where officials flouted several GOP party rules, including holding the contest earlier than allowed. The caucus is the third Republican contest held this election season with delegates at stake, with Trump receiving 73.98% of the votes and Nikki Haley 26.02%. I want to thank you all. We had a tremendous victory, Trump said in brief remarks by phone to those who gathered in St. Thomas to hear the results. We expected to win, but we didn't expect to win by that much. You are incredible people I will never forget. Voters in St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John flocked to a variety of venues, including a rum bar, to nominate their candidate using ranked-choice voting. 'The weather is terrible, but we've had a great turnout, said Valerie Stiles, a 71-year-old who works in retail sales and voted early on Thursday. Stiles, who has lived 31 years on St. Croix, said many voters are angry about l

Biden wins primary in Nevada, while votes still being counted for GOP race

Nevada's dueling presidential caucuses and primaries this week are creating confusion among voters, and those who cast ballots in the first contest Tuesday had the option of supporting none of these candidates. Nikki Haley ran in Tuesday's Republican primary, which won't count for the GOP nomination, while Donald Trump is the only major candidate in Thursday's Republican caucuses, which does. The split races have undercut the influence of the third state on the GOP calendar. It also may have brought a ho-hum approach to Tuesday's contests, where the day started with lower-than-expected voter turnout. In the first two hours after polls opened, officials said 183 people had voted in person in Washoe County, the state's second-largest county by population. In Clark County, home to Las Vegas and Nevada's most-populated county, 2,298 people voted in person during the same two-hour period. Nevada voters also have the option to vote by mail or before election day. There was also a Democrat