Politics
- PoliticsNBC News
House tees up votes on Ukraine and Israel aid as Speaker Johnson defies his right flank
The House advanced four separate bills, including aid for Ukraine and Israel after months of delay and a bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S.
4 min read - PoliticsUSA TODAY
Trump and the RNC say they will recruit 100,000 poll watchers. Experts are skeptical.
Republicans and their affiliates have for years touted efforts to mobilize volunteers to catch election fraud, but never find it.
4 min read - PoliticsCNN
RFK Jr. will appear on Hawaii ballot, third state to include him
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear on Hawaii’s presidential ballot following a Friday ruling that blocked an effort by Hawaii Democrats to disqualify his campaign’s ballot access petition.
2 min read - USAssociated Press
Final jurors seated for Trump's hush money case, with opening statements set for Monday
The final jurors were seated Friday in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, and an appellate judge rejected the former president’s latest bid to halt the case as a hectic day in court set the stage for opening statements to begin Monday. The panel of New Yorkers who will decide the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president took final shape after lawyers spent days quizzing dozens of potential jurors on whether they can impartially judge Trump in the city where he built his real estate empire
6 min read - USNBC News
Trump's defense used a jury consultant to research and help them select jurors
Donald Trump’s defense team in his hush money trial vetted potential jurors using a jury consultant and researchers to dig into their social media profiles.
5 min read - PoliticsThe New York Times
Fearing for Ukraine if Trump returns, some in Europe try outreach now
VILNIUS, Lithuania — As many in Europe worry about the possibility of a second presidency for Donald Trump that they fear could bring an end to U.S. support for Ukraine, some of Russia’s most fervent foes are taking a different tack: making nice with the Trump camp. To that end, the governing party of Lithuania, a steadfast supporter of Ukraine, last month organized meetings between Ukrainians, Baltic politicians who want increases in military spending to counter Russia, and a group of former Tr
7 min read - PoliticsThe New York Times
Johnson has a tough job. McCarthy’s concessions are making it tougher.
WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson’s push to advance an aid package for Ukraine in the face of vehement opposition from his own party was never going to be easy. But it has been made even more politically perilous by a pair of concessions to the far right that he inherited from his predecessor: allowing a single lawmaker to call a snap vote to oust the speaker, and giving ultraconservatives a bloc of seats on a crucial panel that controls what legislation can make it to the House floor. Both of t
5 min read - PoliticsNBC News
Biden's 50-year journey as a skeptic of Roe v. Wade to its ultimate protector
Abortion is at the center of President Joe Biden's re-election campaign — an improbability for a politician who long expressed his personal discomfort with the practice.
11 min read - USNBC News
Opening statements in Trump's historic trial set to begin Monday after tense day of jury selection
Opening statements are set to begin next week in Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial after the final members of the jury were seated Friday, following a dramatic day in which two prospective jurors broke down in tears, an appeals court judge rejected Trump's request for a stay, and a man set himself on fire in front of the courthouse.
10 min read - PoliticsAssociated Press
The House is on the brink of approving aid for Ukraine and Israel after months of struggle
The House is preparing in a rare Saturday session to approve $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, Democrats and Republicans joining together behind the legislation after a grueling monthslong fight over renewed American support for repelling Russia's invasion into Ukraine. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, putting his job on the line, relied on Democratic support this week to set up a series of votes on three aid bills, as well as a fourth that contains sev
6 min read - PoliticsAssociated Press
Senate passes reauthorization of key US surveillance program after midnight deadline
After its midnight deadline, the Senate voted early Saturday to reauthorize a key U.S. surveillance law after divisions over whether the FBI should be restricted from using the program to search for Americans’ data nearly forced the statute to lapse. The legislation approved 60-34 with bipartisan support would extend for two years the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law.
5 min read - PoliticsAssociated Press
Trump is the only choice for Wyoming Republicans in a preference poll to allot the state's delegates
Republicans in Wyoming will decide Saturday which presidential candidate will get their state's votes at the GOP national convention this summer, but they will have only one choice. Former President Donald Trump will be the lone name listed on a presidential preference poll at the state Republican convention in Cheyenne. The poll will decide how all 29 of Wyoming's delegates to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee pledge their first-round votes.
1 min read - PoliticsAssociated Press
Donald Trump will use his weekend reprieve from the courtroom to campaign in North Carolina
On a weekend reprieve from the courtroom, former President Donald Trump will campaign Saturday in North Carolina as he juggles legal troubles and his rematch against President Joe Biden. “They want to keep me off the campaign trail,” Trump insisted earlier this week in Harlem, where he visited a neighborhood convenience store and addressed a throng of media outside. The event Saturday also underscores the importance of North Carolina, a presidential battleground that Trump won by 1.5 percentag
4 min read - PoliticsAssociated Press
Melania Trump, long absent from campaign, will appear at a Log Cabin Republicans event in Mar-a-Lago
Former first lady Melania Trump will attend a fundraiser Saturday for the Log Cabin Republicans, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ members of the GOP, in a rare political appearance after months of being absent from her husband's campaign. The event at the Palm Beach estate she shares with former President Donald Trump will take place behind closed doors. Melania Trump had for months not appeared at her husband’s campaign events, notably being absent at his victory party on Super Tuesday.
3 min read - PoliticsAssociated Press
Trump forced to listen silently to people insulting him as he trades a cocoon of adulation for court
Over the past week, Donald Trump has been forced to sit inside a frigid New York courtroom and listen to a parade of potential jurors in his criminal hush money trial share their unvarnished assessments of him. Now a criminal defendant, Trump will instead spend the next several weeks subjected to strict rules that strip him of control over everything from what he is permitted to say to the temperature of the room. While Trump is occasionally confronted by protesters, generally he lives a life
7 min read - USNBC News
New York AG Letitia James asks judge to void Trump's bond in his civil fraud verdict
New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday asked that a judge void former President Donald Trump's bond in his civil fraud case, questioning whether the company that issued it has the funds to back it up.
2 min read - USAssociated Press
West Virginia will not face $465M COVID education funds clawback after feds OK waiver, governor says
Gov. Jim Justice announced Friday that West Virginia will not face a clawback of $465 million in COVID-19 money from the U.S. Department of Education, alleviating concerns raised by state lawmakers during the final days of the legislative session in March. The Republican governor said in a statement that federal officials approved the state's application for a waiver for the money, which was a portion of the more than a billion dollars in federal aid the state received to help support students
2 min read - USAssociated Press
Kansas has a new anti-DEI law, but the governor has vetoed bills on abortion and even police dogs
Kansas' Democratic governor on Friday vetoed proposed tax breaks for anti-abortion counseling centers while allowing restrictions on college diversity initiatives approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature to become law without her signature. Gov. Laura Kelly also vetoed a bill with bipartisan support to increase the penalties for killing a law enforcement dog or horse, a move that the GOP leader who pushed it called “political pettiness.” In addition, she rejected two elections measure
5 min read - PoliticsThe Guardian
Trump on Trial: Monday, Monday, Monday
A full jury has been selected for former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial, which will start on Monday
3 min read - WorldHuffPost
Israel’s Strike On Iran Prolongs An Excruciating Limbo For Palestinians
An attack on Rafah, the last refuge in Gaza, appears imminent — and ongoing Israel-Iran tensions are complicating hopes President Joe Biden will stop it.
14 min read - USAssociated Press
Man who set himself on fire outside Trump trial dies of injuries, police say
A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said. The New York City Police Department told The Associated Press early Saturday that the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park around 1:30 p.m. Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, off
1 min read - PoliticsNBC News
Biden preps event tying Florida's six-week abortion ban to the 2024 campaign
President Joe Biden will on Tuesday deliver a speech in Florida denouncing that state’s new six-week abortion ban and other efforts to restrict abortion access.
3 min read - USBusiness Insider
Man sets himself on fire outside the courthouse where Trump is standing trial
A man lit himself on fire Friday outside of the courthouse where Donald Trump's criminal trial is taking place, witnesses and police said.
4 min read - USYahoo News
Trump's hush money trial jury is set. Here's why we won't learn much about them.
The jury that will decide whether Donald Trump is guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records is made up of seven men and five women who live in Manhattan.
3 min read - USThe New York Times
This GOP Senate Candidate Says He Grew Up on a Family Farm. Not Exactly.
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — David McCormick’s origin story goes something like this: He grew up in rural Pennsylvania, southwest of Scranton. He baled hay, trimmed Christmas trees and otherwise worked on his family’s farm. And from those humble beginnings, he rose to achieve the American dream. “I spent most of my life in Pennsylvania, growing up in Bloomsburg on my family’s farm,” McCormick, now a Republican candidate for Senate, told Pittsburgh Quarterly in 2022. “I’ve truly lived the American dream,” h
8 min read - PoliticsAssociated Press
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton can be disciplined for suit to overturn 2020 election, court says
A Texas appeals court has ruled that Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton can face discipline from the state bar association over his failed effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. A disciplinary committee of the State Bar of Texas accused Paxton in 2022 of making false claims of fraud in a lawsuit that questioned President Joe Biden's victory. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeals said Paxton can be sanctioned by the committee because the lawsuit s
2 min read - USAssociated Press
Republican Wisconsin Senate candidate says he doesn't oppose elderly people voting
The Republican candidate in Wisconsin's closely watched U.S. Senate race emphasized this week that he doesn't oppose elderly people voting after initially saying that “almost nobody in a nursing home" is at a point in life where they are capable of voting. Eric Hovde faces Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in the race that is essential for Democrats to win in order to maintain their majority in the Senate. A Marquette University Law School poll this week showed the race is about even among likely
4 min read - WorldAssociated Press
Northern Ireland prosecutor says UK soldiers involved in Bloody Sunday won't face perjury charges
Fifteen British soldiers who allegedly lied to an inquiry into Bloody Sunday, one of the deadliest days of the decades-long Northern Ireland conflict, will not face perjury charges, prosecutors said Friday. There was insufficient evidence to convict the soldiers or a former alleged member of the Irish Republican Army about their testimony before an inquiry into the 1972 killings of 13 civilians by Britain’s Parachute Regiment in Derry, also known as Londonderry, the Public Prosecution Service s
3 min read - WorldAssociated Press
US sanctions fundraisers for extremist West Bank settlers who commit violence against Palestinians
The Biden administration on Friday imposed sanctions on two entities accused of fundraising for extremist Israel settlers already sanctioned, as well as the founder of an organization whose members regularly assault Palestinians. The Treasury Department announcement comes as the West Bank has seen some of its worst violence perpetrated by extremist settlers against Palestinians since the war in nearby Gaza began. There is also friction between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Ben
2 min read - USAssociated Press
NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week
CLAIM: New York Judge Juan M. Merchan told former President Donald Trump on the first day of his hush money case that he can’t attend his son Barron’s May 17 high school graduation because he must be in court that day. THE FACTS: Merchan said on Monday that he was not prepared to rule on a request that court be adjourned on May 17 so that Trump can attend the ceremony. Despite that, Trump said as he left court following the trial’s first day, “it looks like the judge will not let me go to the
8 min read - PoliticsHuffPost
Bill Barr Says He'll Back 2024 GOP Ticket, Claims Biden Is More Dangerous Than Trump
"Trump may be playing Russian roulette but a continuation of the Biden administration is national suicide in my opinion," the former attorney general said.
3 min read - USPolitico
Education Department boosts legal defenses for transgender students
The Biden administration is touting the rule as the “most comprehensive coverage” students will receive in the nearly half-century of Title IX.
6 min read - PoliticsAssociated Press
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Pennsylvania's presidential and state primaries
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will go before voters Tuesday in Pennsylvania’s presidential primaries, a prelude to the November general election, when the commonwealth is expected to once again play a critical role in the race for the White House. Biden clinched the Democratic nomination and Trump clinched the Republican nomination on March 12, and neither faces serious opposition on the primary ballot. Biden just completed a three-day campaign swing that began Tuesday
7 min read - WorldReuters
Factbox-Iran oil sanctions in US aid package for Ukraine
U.S. lawmakers have tucked sanctions on Iran's oil exports in the House of Representatives' aid package for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific after Tehran's missile and drone strike on Israel last weekend. If passed through both the House and Senate and signed by President Joe Biden and then implemented and enforced, the measures could eventually impact Iran's oil exports.
2 min read - USThe Guardian
‘This is a violent attack against women’: Florida Senate candidate seeks to channel abortion outrage
Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is challenging incumbent Rick Scott and highlighting his ‘unapologetic and proud’ support for the state’s six-week ban
4 min read - WorldAssociated Press
If Congress passes funding, this is how the US could rush weapons to Ukraine for its war with Russia
The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. Moving fast is critical, CIA Director Bill Burns said Thursday, warning that without additional aid from the U.S., Ukraine could lose the war to Russia by the end of this year. Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said, “We would like very much to be able to rush the security assistance in the volumes we think they need to be able to be successful.”
5 min read - PoliticsReuters
US House Speaker Johnson risks fellow Republicans' wrath with Ukraine vote
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson looks set to push forward this weekend on a $95 billion aid bill for Kyiv, Israel and other allies, despite a firestorm of protest from hardline Republicans that could lead to an attempt to oust him. His performance, six months after the 52-year-old Louisiana Republican acquired the speaker's gavel, has won him accolades from centrist Republicans who worry that party infighting could erode U.S. status on the world stage. Johnson was elected speaker after a small
4 min read - USNBC News
Judge denies Trump co-defendants' motions to dismiss charges in classified documents case
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday denied motions by two of former President Donald Trump's co-defendants to dismiss charges in the classified documents case.
2 min read - PoliticsReuters
Biden's tariff warnings signal sharp anti-China election battle
The Biden administration's threat to impose more tariffs on China is the latest election-year signal that frostier relations with China are likely to follow regardless of who wins the U.S. presidency. U.S. President Joe Biden traveled to the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday to call for higher tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum products, and top administration officials have signaled those are unlikely to be his last salvo against China this election season. This week, the adm
4 min read - USAssociated Press
US deports about 50 Haitians to nation hit with gang violence, ending monthslong pause in flights
The Biden administration sent about 50 Haitians back to their country on Thursday, authorities said, marking the first deportation flight in several months to the Caribbean nation struggling with surging gang violence. Authorities didn't offer details of the flight beyond how many deported Haitians were aboard. Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data, said a plane left Alexandria, Louisiana, a hub for deportation operations, and arrived in Cap-Hait
4 min read - PoliticsYahoo News
Trump trial update: Trump rebuked by judge for speaking during jury selection — and 7 jurors are seated
On Tuesday, the second day of former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial, Judge Juan Merchan rebuked defense lawyers after Trump was heard muttering his disapproval of an answer given by a potential juror in the case.
2 min read - USReuters
Maine lawmakers pass gun bills in wake of October mass shooting
Maine lawmakers on Thursday sent a draft of gun safety measures to the governor to sign into law, fulfilling a promise to take swift action designed to prevent mass shootings such as a rampage last year that killed 18 people in the city of Lewiston. Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat who sponsored some of the legislation, was expected to sign the bills. Among the measures approved this week by legislators before ending their session was a bill establishing a 72-hour waiting period on gun purchas
2 min read - PoliticsNBC News
How young people see the matchup between two senior citizens: From the Politics Desk
A new Harvard poll shows how young voters are viewing the rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
4 min read - WorldAssociated Press
US committee releases sealed Brazil court orders to Musk's X, shedding light on account suspensions
A U.S. congressional committee released confidential Brazilian court orders to suspend accounts on the social media platform X, offering a glimpse into decisions that have spurred complaints of alleged censorship from the company and its billionaire owner Elon Musk. The Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee late Wednesday published a staff report disclosing dozens of decisions by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordering X to suspend or remove around 150 user profil
6 min read - PoliticsNBC News
Kennedy family members endorse Biden over RFK Jr.
More than a dozen members of the Kennedy family endorsed President Joe Biden for a second term Thursday, passing over family member Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
6 min read - USThe Guardian
Trump on Trial: ‘We have our jury’
After hours of jury selection in former president Donald Trump’s first criminal case, presiding Judge Juan Merchan had good news
5 min read - PoliticsAssociated Press
Senate advances renewal of key US surveillance program as detractors seek changes
The Senate advanced legislation Thursday that would reauthorize a key U.S. surveillance tool as lawmakers and the Biden administration rushed to tamp down fresh concerns about the program violating Americans' civil liberties. The bipartisan legislation would reform and extend a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known as Section 702, which U.S. officials say is vital to preventing terrorism, catching spies and disrupting cyberattacks. A bill renewing the program passed the Ho
4 min read - PoliticsThe Guardian
A silent Trump glowers and stares during third day of criminal trial
This was not Donald Trump the business mogul or Donald Trump the 45th president – it was Donald Trump the defendant
3 min read - PoliticsAssociated Press
Trump loses bid to halt Jan. 6 lawsuits while he fights criminal charges in the 2020 election case
Donald Trump lost a bid Thursday to pause a string of lawsuits accusing him of inciting the U.S. Capitol attack, while the former president fights his 2020 election interference criminal case in Washington. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington denied defense lawyers' request to put the civil cases seeking to hold Trump responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on hold while the criminal case accusing him of conspiring to overturn his election defeat to President Joe Biden plays out.
2 min read - USBusiness Insider
There's a conservative 'great migration' from blue states — and one place is the big winner
Conservatives are increasingly moving from blue states to Republican-stronghold South Carolina, in what some are calling "the great migration."
4 min read
