US

Democrat Kyrsten Sinema wins Arizona US Senate seat
2018-11-13 02:13:52 UTC
PHOENIX (AP) — Democrat Kyrsten Sinema won Arizona’s open U.S. Senate seat Monday in a race that was among the most closely watched in the nation, beating Republican Rep. Martha McSally in the battle to replace GOP Sen. Jeff Flake. The three-term congresswoman won after a slow vote count that dragged on for nearly a week after voters went to the polls on Nov. 6. She becomes Arizona’s first Democratic U.S. senator since 1994. Her win cemented Arizona as a swing state after years of Republican dominance. Sinema portrayed herself as a moderate who works across the aisle to get things done. McSally, a former Air Force pilot who embrac...
Democrats Warn Against Mueller Probe Interference
2018-11-08 00:15:59 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The ouster of Attorney General Jeff Sessions by President Donald Trump on Wednesday drew immediate criticism from Democrats who warned Trump against moving to squash a probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The probe, led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller under the supervision of the Justice Department, has clouded the Trump presidency. The president had long complained about Sessions recusing himself from supervising Mueller. The removal of the top U.S. law enforcement officer raised questions among Democrats concerned about the acting replacement Trump named for Sessions and what mo...
Democratic Victory Signifies Breaking Point in Time of Trump's Nationalism
2018-11-07 05:14:29 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats were gaining significant ground in the battle for House control Tuesday night, while Republicans held their Senate majority as voters rendered a mixed verdict in the first nationwide election of Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency. The results allowed both parties to claim partial victory, but highlighted an extraordinary realignment of U.S. voters by race, sex and education. Republicans maintained their strength in conservative, rural states, while Democrats made inroads across America’s suburbs. With control of Congress, statehouses and the president’s agenda at stake, some of the nation’s top elections ...
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Easily Won Re-Election
2018-11-07 01:46:30 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — Votes were being counted across half the country Tuesday evening as the energy and outrage of the Democratic resistance faced off against the brute strength of President Donald Trump’s GOP in a fight for control of Congress and statehouses across the nation. Fundraising, polls and history were not on the president’s side. But two years after an election that proved polls and prognosticators wrong, an air of uncertainty — and stormy weather across parts of the country — clouded the outcome of high-stakes elections from Florida to Alaska and everywhere in between. Sens. Bernie Sanders of ...
President Obama: If We Don't Vote, Then This Democracy Doesn't Work
2018-11-05 04:05:15 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — No longer reluctant to speak out, former President Barack Obama delivered a closing argument for Democrats that seeks a firm check on President Donald Trump’s policies in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Obama and Trump offered competing visions for the country in a split screen of campaigning on Sunday, seeking to galvanize voter turnout in the fight to control Congress and governors’ mansions. Obama rallied Democrats in Gary, Indiana, on behalf of Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who faces a stiff challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. Later in the day, the former president campaigned in h...
Obama Calls Out the Far-Right Trump's GOP
2018-11-05 04:03:21 UTC
INDIANAPOLIS/MIAMI (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama warned on Friday against rhetoric he said was meant to sow fear as he campaigned in support of Democratic candidates while President Donald Trump hammered a hardline anti-immigration message to energize Republicans. In a packed day of campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s congressional midterm elections, Trump continued a blitz of rallies urging voters to keep his Republican Party in control of Congress, while Democrats appeared to notch a win in their efforts to halt the spread of misinformation online. Twitter Inc said it had deleted more than 10,000 automated accounts post...
Hateful U.S. Politics Target Minorities and Immigrants
2018-11-02 17:57:53 UTC
Last week, several top Democrats were targeted by pipe bombs, two black Americans were killed in what appeared to be a racially-motivated murder, and a terror attack against Jewish Americans in their place of worship that left 11 people dead. Are American growing more violent? Are they regressing into something akin to what we saw in the 1960s, an era marked by assassinations, civil unrest, and political chaos? Has the cocktail of guns, polarization, and alienation made mass shootings a permanent feature of American life? Read the responses of seven experts below: <blockquote><hr class='grey-line'><h4>Joanne Freeman, author of <a ...
Democrats more energized ahead of midterms
2018-11-01 01:27:30 UTC
The entertainment icon Oprah Winfrey, who offered crucial support to President Barack Obama during his 2008 rise, will campaign Thursday for Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who is attempting to become the nation’s first black female governor. Obama plans to campaign Friday for Abrams in Atlanta and in Miami to boost Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, who is running for governor. On Sunday, the former president will be in Gary, Indiana, for Sen. Joe Donnelly, who is among the most endangered Senate Democrats, and in his hometown of Chicago for J.B. Pritzker, who is the favorite in Illi...
Hate Crimes in Trump Era
2018-10-29 01:42:06 UTC
The 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc, the suspected mad bomber who sent possible explosive devices to Democrat leaders attended repeated campaign rallies for Donald Trump and embraced a range of virulent right-wing fringe causes. He’s a true believer in Trump, according to his social media pages. In another crime, the suspect in the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue expressed hatred of Jews during the rampage and told officers afterward that Jews were committing genocide and that he wanted them all to die, according to charging documents. Trump delivered these lines after the attack: "There must be no tolerance for anti-Semitism in Amer...
Obama rallies Democrats in Wisconsin, says GOP and Trump “making stuff up”
2018-10-28 19:49:22 UTC
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former President Barack Obama criticized President Donald Trump’s tenure in office in a fiery speech that took aim at him and other Republicans for “making stuff up.” The speech was one of Obama’s sharpest and most direct takedowns of Trump’s presidency, although the former president was careful to never mention Trump by name Friday. Obama cited a recent Trump comment that he would pass a tax cut before the November election. Obama then told the crowd in a Milwaukee high school gymnasium that “Congress isn’t even in session. He just makes it up.” Obama’s visit in Milwaukee was to urge people to vote for Wisconsin’...
A "MAGA" Terrorist Identified As Mail Bomb Suspect
2018-10-26 21:17:34 UTC
The 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc, the suspected mad bomber who sent possible explosive devices to Democrat leaders attended repeated campaign rallies for Donald Trump and embraced a range of virulent right-wing fringe causes. He’s a true believer in Trump, according to his Facebook Page. The Brooklyn born suspect was arrested at an auto parts store in the nearby city of Plantation. Court records show Sayoc has a history of arrests for theft, illegal possession of steroids and a 2002 charge of making a bomb threat. When he filed for bankruptcy in 2012, he recently lived with his mother. <blockquote><img alt="A_%22maga%22_terrorist_id...
U.S. judge in Trump Foundation case rebuffs political bias defense
2018-10-25 19:15:39 UTC
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York judge said on Thursday that she would not entertain arguments that political bias was at the heart of a case alleging the president unlawfully used his charity to help his 2016 campaign and to benefit his businesses. “I don’t want to get involved with that,” New York Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla said at a hearing that focused on a motion submitted by President Donald Trump’s lawyers in August asking the judge to dismiss the case on the grounds the lawsuit was politically motivated and arguing Trump and his children did not break any laws. <i>Reporting by Nathan Layne in New York; Editing b...
FBI investigating 10 suspicious packages
2018-10-25 19:15:53 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — The mail-bomb scare widened Thursday as law enforcement officials seized three more suspicious packages — two addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden and one to actor Robert De Niro — and said they were similar to crude pipe bombs sent to former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and CNN. None of the devices exploded, and no one was injured. But the packages, sent to prominent Democrats critical of President Donald Trump, heightened nationwide tensions and fears two weeks before major congressional midterm elections. <blockquote><img alt="Fbi_investigating_10_suspicious_packages" src="/system/images/22293/or...
Terror by mail: Pelosi and Schumer accuse Trump of condoning violence
2018-10-24 23:38:20 UTC
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The top two Democrats in Congress on Wednesday (Oct 24) accused President Donald Trump of fanning the flames of political unrest and dividing Americans, as tensions soared on a day of foiled pipe-bomb attacks on high-profile Democrats. Trump, addressing the threats less than two weeks before crucial midterm elections, said acts of political violence "have no place in the United States," but Pelosi and Schumer said the president's words "ring hollow until he reverses his statements that condone acts of violence." <hr class='grey-line'> <i><blockquote> <h2>Joint Statement from Leaders Pelosi and Schumer on Pres...
Is Trump Secretly A White Nationalist?
2018-10-24 17:57:45 UTC
CNN's Acosta: Americans Are Wondering If President Trump Is Secretly A White Nationalist. CNN's Jim Acosta talked about the tussle he had Tuesday afternoon with President Trump in the Oval Office over the migrant caravan crisis in an appearance on 'Anderson Cooper 360.' Acosta grilled the president on his claim that Middle Easterners are in the caravan. Acosta said just because there may be Middle Easterners traveling in the caravan, "it doesn't necessarily mean" there are terrorists among them. He lamented, once again, that the president and vice president may be offended Middle Eastern Americans who are "peace-loving people." "T...
Anti-Trump anger may sweep the US midterm elections
2018-10-24 17:22:40 UTC
(Reuters) - Republican U.S. senators hold growing leads in key races in Texas and Nevada, a Reuters opinion poll showed, dampening Democratic hopes of taking a majority in that chamber in next month’s congressional elections. Eden Stramer, 23, a North Dakota Democrat, says the possibility of abortions becoming illegal again leaves her fuming. And Pattie Blair, 74, a Democratic voter in Phoenix, says anger washes over her every time she sees Trump on television. “It’s the most negative, blackest place to find yourself,” Blair said. “It’s like being in a bucket you can’t get yourself out of – a hand keeps pushing you back in every t...
Obama: When you hear economy is improving, 'remember who started it'
2018-10-22 22:08:07 UTC
NEVADA (Las Vegas) — Former President Barack Obama is delivering a biting critique of Republicans in Washington and President Donald Trump without mentioning his successor by name. Obama said Monday at rally for Democrats in Las Vegas that Republicans were promising to “fight for the little guy” but instead helped corporations and sowed divisions in America. The former president says Republicans in Congress bend over backward instead of being “a check or balance on this kind of corrupt politics.” Obama railed against the GOP tax law, efforts to repeal his health care law, Trump’s attacks on the media, political pressure that the p...
Analysis: With ‘America First,’ where do human rights rank?
2018-10-18 23:04:28 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — If it’s an “America First” presidency, where does that rank human rights? President Donald Trump’s refusal to put public pressure on Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is raising a question that has dogged his foreign policy. In dealing with Russia, across Asia and, this week, in the Mideast, Trump has often appeared comfortable downplaying concerns about rights abuses and dismissing the importance of U.S. moral leadership. The onetime real estate mogul is as likely to let U.S. financial or security interests guide his choices and his words. In an Associated Press interview Tuesday, Tr...
Trump's WH advisers get into heated shouting match
2018-10-18 23:11:51 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two of President Donald Trump’s top advisers got into a heated exchange outside the Oval Office on Thursday as passions boiled over about how to handle illegal immigration, two sources familiar with the incident said. The two advisers were White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who is a former secretary for Homeland Security, and Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, the sources said. One source described the argument as a “tense exchange” but said that it had blown over, and that it involved the job performance of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, a former deputy to Kelly. Another source ...
"Shade - A Tale of Two Presidents" : Obama's former photographer
2018-10-16 23:23:47 UTC
<p><span style="color: rgb(71, 85, 119); font-size: 18px;"><strong>Pete Souza, the former White House photographer under President Obama, has released "Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents," a book filled with archived pictures that may induce nostalgia.</strong></span></p><p><br></p><p>Although pictures may be worth a thousand words, in the Instagram age, it is often the contrast between the image depicted and the few words accompanying them that tell the real story.</p><p>Pete Souza, the former White House photographer during the eight-year tenure of President Barack Obama, knows that all too well. The man who accompanied Obama arou...
Nancy Pelosi outlined 5 agenda items if Democrats retake House
2018-10-16 23:02:56 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — Projecting confidence about her party’s chances, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi outlined five of the top 10 agenda items Democrats will pursue if they retake the House in next month’s election. Lowering health care costs, rebuilding infrastructure and running the House chamber with more transparency and openness are near the top of the Democratic agenda, Pelosi said during a talk Tuesday at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. Democrats would also prioritize giving legal status to young immigrants, known as Dreamers, and strengthening background checks on gun purchases, she said. Democrats need to gain 23 seats to wrest c...
Alec Baldwin Urges To Vote: It's time To Overthrow The Government of Donald Trump
2018-10-15 16:09:39 UTC
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Actor Alec Baldwin followed up his latest parody portrayal of President Donald Trump with a serious call Sunday night for voters to use the Nov. 6 midterm elections to peacefully “overthrow” the government. After reprising his role as Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” Baldwin flew to New Hampshire, where he was the keynote speaker at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s annual fall fundraising dinner. “The way we implement change in America is through elections. We change governments here at home in an orderly and formal way,” he said. “In that orderly and formal way and lawful way, we need to overthrow the gove...
Washington State to abolish death penalty
2018-10-11 21:54:12 UTC
(Reuters) - Washington became the 20th U.S. state to abolish capital punishment when its Supreme Court struck down the death penalty on Thursday, saying in a unanimous decision that its application was arbitrary and racially biased. “The death penalty, as administered in our state, fails to serve any legitimate enological goal,” the Washington Supreme Court said, adding it “is invalid because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.” <blockquote> After the court decision, Democratic Governor Jay Inslee tweeted, “Equal justice is a hallmark of democracy and assuring equal justice is the state’s responsibili...
US Stock Markets In A Free Fall
2018-10-11 21:54:02 UTC
NEW YORK — The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 fell sharply again Thursday after both indexes on Wednesday logged their largest losses on a percentage basis since Feb. 8. The S&P 500 has closed lower for five straight days. The Nasdaq declined on Thursday, a day after the tech-heavy index had its biggest percentage drop since June 2016. <blockquote> Stocks in Asia closed sharply lower on Thursday following the selloff on Wall Street. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 declined 3.9%, and the Shanghai Composite index sank 5.2%. Banks and health care companies are taking some of the worst losses while technology companies are slightly h...
Dominated by men: Amazon scraps tool that showed bias against women
2018-10-11 21:53:47 UTC
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) machine-learning specialists uncovered a big problem: their new recruiting engine did not like women. The team had been building computer programs since 2014 to review job applicants’ resumes with the aim of mechanizing the search for top talent, five people familiar with the effort told Reuters. Automation has been key to Amazon’s e-commerce dominance, be it inside warehouses or driving pricing decisions. <blockquote><h2>Amazon’s experimental hiring tool</h2>The company’s experimental hiring tool used artificial intelligence to give job candidates scores ranging from one to fiv...