Page 5 - Us Politics

Rosalynn Carter set for funeral, burial in the town where she was born

Rosalynn Carter will receive her final farewells on Wednesday in the same tiny town where she was born and that served as a home base as she and her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, climbed to the White House and spent four decades thereafter as global humanitarians. The former first lady, who died November 19 at the age of 96, will have her hometown funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where she and her husband spent decades welcoming guests when they were not travelling. The service comes on the last of a three-day public tribute that began on Monday in nearby Americus and continued in Atlanta. Rosalynn Carter will be buried in a plot she will one day share with her husband, the 99-year-old former president who first met his wife of 77 years when she was a newborn, a few days after his mother delivered her. She was born just a few years after women got the right to vote in this small town in the South where people were still plowing their fields behind mules, ...

US lawmakers move to force a vote on expelling Rep. Santos from House

House lawmakers from both parties moved on Tuesday to force a vote this week on the expulsion of Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York who was the subject of a scathing ethics investigation released earlier this month and is facing nearly two dozen charges in federal court. Santos responded to the competing expulsion resolutions by taking to the House floor and asking colleagues to understand what kind of precedent it would set for him to be removed before federal charges against him are resolved. He made clear he would not be resigning beforehand. This expulsion vote simply undermines and underscores the precedent that we've had in this chamber, Santos said. It starts and puts us in a new direction, a dangerous one. Santos has survived two prior expulsion votes. But a report released by the House Ethics Committee following a monthslong investigation has prompted new outrage. The report released November 16 was unsparing in its criticism, concluding that Santos sought to ..

High-stake face-off; Hunter Biden to testify publicly before Congress

Hunter Biden has offered to testify publicly before Congress, striking a defiant note in response to a subpoena from Republicans and setting up a potential high-stakes face-off even as a separate special counsel probe unfolds and his father, President Joe Biden, campaigns for reelection. The Democratic president's son on Tuesday slammed the subpoena's request for closed-door testimony, saying it can be manipulated. But Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, stood firm, saying Republicans expect "full cooperation" with their original demand for a deposition. Hunter Biden's lawyer called the inquiry a "fishing expedition", a response in line with the more forceful legal approach he's taken in recent months as congressional Republicans pursue an impeachment inquiry seeking to tie his father to his business dealings. The early-November subpoenas to Hunter Biden and others from Comer were the inquiry's most aggressive step yet, testing the reach of .

Haley argues Trump always followed by 'chaos' before large Carolina crowd

Nikki Haley argued former president Donald Trump causes too much chaos to be successful in a second White House term, reiterating her argument about the GOP front-runner at a large town hall in her home state of South Carolina. The former governor and United Nations ambassador on Monday drew the largest crowd of her primary campaign so far as she tries to close the gap with Trump just weeks before the Iowa caucuses kick off the Republican nominating calendar. Haley invoked her former boss saying, as she has before, that she believes Trump was "the right president at the right time" but that the time is now right for a new generation in US leadership. "I agree with a lot of his policies, but the truth is, rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him," Haley said. "We have too much division in this country, and too many threats around the world to be sitting in chaos once again." About 2,500 people attended the event at a satellite campus of the University of South Carolina along the state'

The tabloid turns on Rupert Murdoch

For those looking for inside information on how Fox News functions and its position in American politics, Michael Wolff's The Fall is worth a read

US Prez Biden signs stopgap spending bill, averts government shutdown

The two-step plan, a victory for House Speaker Mike Johnson, received bipartisan support in both chambers. It establishes new shutdown deadlines in January and February

US Congress approves temporary funding, averts government shutdown

Ending the threat of a government shutdown until after the holidays, Congress gave final approval Wednesday night to a temporary government funding package that pushes a confrontation over the federal budget into the new year. The Senate met into the night to pass the bill with an overwhelming 87-11 tally and send it to President Joe Biden for his signature one day after it passed the House on an overwhelming bipartisan vote. It provides a funding patch into next year, when the House and Senate will be forced to confront and somehow overcome their considerable differences over what funding levels should be. In the meantime, the bill removes the threat of a government shutdown days before funding would have expired. This Friday night there will be no government shutdown, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech ahead of the final vote. The spending package keeps government funding at current levels for roughly two more months while a long-term package is ...

Biden appoints Indian American Shakuntla Bhaya to key position: Who is she?

US President Joe Biden has appointed Indian American Shakuntla L Bhaya to serve in a key role, the White House said. Bhaya was appointed as a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States. It is among the several new appointments announced by Biden on Wednesday, the White House said. Bhaya is a co-owner of a statewide Delaware law firm, Law Offices of Doroshow, Pasquale, Krawitz & Bhaya. Her practice focuses on representing individuals who are seriously injured as a result of businesses and people making unsafe decisions, the White House said. For the last seven years, Bhaya has been a member of Governor Carney's Judicial Nominating Commission. In addition to practising law, Bhaya is very involved in Delaware politics. She is currently a member of the Delaware Democratic Party's State Executive Committee. Bhaya, past President of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association, continues to be involved in protecting consumers' 7th Amendment Right to a jury ...

Democrats fend off Republican sweep in win for women's right to abortion

Going into the race, Republicans held a narrow majority in the House of Delegates and had ambitions of flipping the Senate

Indian-origin senator re-elected for 3rd term in closely contested election

Indian-American state Senator Vin Gopal has been reelected for a third term in the New Jersey Senate, winning the most expensive legislative races in state history. The 38-year-old Democrat Senator defeated his Republican challenger, Steve Dnistrian, in New Jersey's 11th Congressional District on Tuesday, garnering nearly 60 per cent of the vote over Dnistrian and helping to flip control of both of the district's Assembly seats for Democrats. Gopal is currently the youngest member of the New Jersey State Senate and the first South-Asian American to be elected to the Senate in the state's history, according to his campaign. Polls were open in at least 37 states of the US on Tuesday. New Jersey's legislature comprises the state Senate and Assembly and has 120 members from 40 districts. Each district has one representative in the Senate and two in the Assembly that serve four- and two-year terms. All 120 seats are on the ballot in November's general election, according to The ...

US averts govt shutdown hours before deadline, passing stopgap bill

"The American people can breathe a sigh of relief: there will be no government shutdown tonight," Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the vote

House Republicans set first Biden impeachment inquiry hearing for Sept 28

House Republicans plan to hold their first hearing next week in their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The hearing scheduled for Sept 28 is expected to focus on constitutional and legal questions that surround the allegations of Biden's involvement in his son Hunter's overseas businesses, according to a spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee. Republicans led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have contended in recent weeks that Biden's actions from his time as vice president show a culture of corruption," and that his son used the Biden brand to advance his business with foreign clients. The spokesperson also said Rep. James Comer, chairman of Oversight, plans to issue subpoenas for the personal and business bank records of Hunter Biden and the president's brother James Biden as early as this week. McCarthy appointed Comer to lead the inquiry in coordination with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith. The White House ...

Cut spend by 8%, build wall to avert October 1 shutdown: Kevin McCarthy

McCarthy immediately faced opposition from some GOP ultra-conservatives that could doom the plan

Donald Trump seems inescapable but many Republicans embrace his absence

Donald Trump's decision to skip the first Republican debate may hurt television ratings and put more pressure on the eight contenders who will be on stage. But plenty of rank-and-file conservatives said they were eager to see their options without the former president dominating the conversation. People are just so focused on the circus, said Melissa Watford, a 53-year-old Republican from suburban Atlanta. He's just a distraction. Distraction, distraction, distraction. Watford's husband, Jack, said he would still consider supporting Trump if he wins the nomination, but he described the former president as clickbait and expressed relief that he is yielding the stage Wednesday in Milwaukee. When he's out of the picture, the 61-year-old said, you can actually hear other candidates, actually listen to them. The Watfords represent a notable share of Republican primary voters who, regardless of their feelings about Trump, want the party to wrestle with its identity and choices rather tha

DeSantis defends anti-LGBTQ video shared by campaign, calls it fair game

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is defending an anti-LGBTQ video his campaign shared online that attacks rival Donald Trump for his past support of gay and transgender people, despite some of his fellow Republicans calling it homophobic. DeSantis, in an interview Wednesday on the podcast of conservative commentator Tomi Lahren, did not address accusations that the video was homophobic but said the intent was identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants. I think that's totally fair game because he's now campaigning, saying the opposite, that he doesn't think that you should have men competing in women's things like athletics, DeSantis said. His presidential campaign shared the video on Twitter last week, on the last day of June's LGBTQ+ Pride Month, saying, To wrap up Pride Month,' let's hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate ...

Audio emerges with details of Trump's conversation on classified documents

An audio recording that includes new details from a 2021 meeting at which former President Donald Trump discusses holding secret documents he did not declassify has been released. The recording, from a July 2021 interview Trump gave at his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort for people working on the memoir of his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, is a critical piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith's indictment of Trump over the mishandling of classified information. The recording first aired Monday on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. The special counsel's indictment alleges that those in attendance at the meeting with Trump a writer, a publisher and two of Trump's staff members were shown classified information about a Pentagon plan of attack on an unspecified foreign country. These are the papers, Trump said in a moment that seems to indicate he was holding a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran. This was done by the military, given to me. Trump's reference to

Joe Biden returning to his union roots as his 2024 campaign gears up

Joe Biden opened his 2020 presidential run at a Pittsburgh union hall, declaring, I'm a union man. Period." As he gears up for reelection, the president's first political rally is being held at a union gathering on the other side of Pennsylvania, punctuating just how much Biden is counting on labor support to carry him to a second term especially in a critical battleground state. The symmetry is no accident. Rallying labour activists on Saturday at Philadelphia's convention center can help Biden's campaign spark enthusiasm and tap early organizing muscle. That may eventually boost Democratic voter turnout in the city's suburbs and other key parts of Pennsylvania, which in 2020 helped him flip the state where Biden was born from Donald Trump. It speaks to this president's visceral understanding that, when the labor movement in the United States is strong, the economy and our democracy are strong, said Mary Kay Henry, international president of the 2-million-member Service Employees

Trump's prosecution threat follows years of attacking democratic traditions

As Donald Trump became the first former president to face federal charges, he and his supporters went through a familiar routine of mounting a victimhood defense in the face of unprecedented allegations of wrongdoing. But this time, the stakes are higher. Trump upped the level of his claims and threats as he faces the potential of years in prison if convicted on 37 charges of obstruction, illegal retention of defense information and other violations. Hours after pleading not guilty, Trump claimed he is being targeted by the special prosecutor, who is nonpartisan, for political reasons and vowed to retaliate against President Joe Biden if he is elected president in 2024. There was an unwritten rule to not prosecute former presidents and political rivals, Trump told supporters in a speech at his golf club in New Jersey. I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of America, Joe Biden, and go after the Biden crime family. The vow is

Democrats and Republicans share core values but still distrust each other

Americans on the right and the left have a lot more in common than they might think including their strong distrust of each other. A survey published on Wednesday finds that when asked about core values including fairness, compassion and personal responsibility, about nine in 10 Democrats and Republicans agreed they were very or extremely important. Yet only about a third of either group said they believed the same was true for the opposing party. The results of the survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago and the nonprofit group Starts With Us, reveal a stark truth at the source of the polarization that has a powerful grip on American politics: While most Americans agree on the core principles underlying American democracy, they no longer recognise that the other side also holds those values. This is a hidden opportunity for Americans to reestablish a sense of shared values, said Tom Fishman, chief executive at Starts With Us, a nonpartisan organisation that works to

US troops evacuating 70 diplomats from Sudan amid fierce fighting

US troops are carrying out a precarious evacuation of American embassy staffers in the African nation of Sudan, shuttering the US embassy there as fighting rages for a ninth day, according to a senior Biden administration official. Biden ordered American troops to evacuate embassy personnel after receiving a recommendation earlier on Saturday from his national security team with no end in sight to the fighting, according to the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the mission. The evacuation order was believed to apply to about 70 Americans. US forces were airliftng them from a landing zone at the embassy to an unspecified location. The State Department has suspended operations at the embassy due to the dire security situation. It was not clear when the embassy might resume functioning.