Rather than issue the typical memorial statement that most human U.S. presidents have issued following the death of political opponents, current President Donald Trump instead apparently nixed a proposed message memorializing Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Instead, he tweeted a brief comment on Saturday evening that said basically nothing at all, raised the White House flags back from half-staff, and went back to whining about the media.
My deepest sympathies and res...
politics
As Trump’s legal entanglements explode, Democrats on the campaign trail stay focused on issues
While America has been living in — and anesthetized to — this never-a-slow-news-day era for quite a while now, there was nevertheless something pulse-quickening about last week’s episodes of our reality-television presidency. Paced primarily by the ongoing legal sagas of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and longtime Trump consigliere Michael Cohen, the flow of the news cycle turned pyroclastic, with Twitter pundits proclaiming it to be a historic week for the T...
Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum brings it home ahead of Election Day
MIAMI, FLORIDA — Andrew Gillum’s campaign slogan, “Bring It Home,” took on a special meaning this weekend.
“Your son has come home,” his wife, R. Jai Gillum, told a crowd of supporters outside The Bethel Church in the Richmond Heights neighborhood of Miami, Florida Sunday evening, before Gillum, the current mayor of Tallahassee and a Democratic candidate for governor of Florida, took the stage.
She meant it, too. As Gillam spoke that night, days ahead of the statewide p...
John McCain, longtime senator and Trump antagonist, dies of brain cancer
Relatives for US Senator John McCain, 81, the Republican stalwart from Arizona, announced on Friday that he would no longer be receiving treatment for terminal brain cancer. Late Saturday, he succumbed to his illness.
Family and friends had gathered to be near him in his final hours as tributes poured in from both Republicans and Democrats for McCain, who in 2008 was his party’s presidential nominee.
John McCain was an American hero, a man of decenc...
Meet the gringo who wants to abolish ICE, establish Medicare For All, and represent Little Havana
MIAMI, FLORIDA —In a strip mall two blocks from Calle Ocho in Little Havana, a gringo is preparing to flip a seat held by a Republican for nearly 30 years.
David Richardson has represented parts of the district since 2012, when he made history by becoming the first elected openly gay member to serve in the state legislature.
In Florida’s Aug. 28th primary, he is running for a seat in the US House currently held by Republican lawmaker Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is retiring...
It’s official: Medicaid expansion will be on the ballot in Nebraska this November
In November, Nebraska residents will get to decide whether or not more people should qualify for public health insurance. Should voters decide to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), roughly 90,000 low-income residents will gain health coverage.
The months-long grassroots campaign to get Medicaid expansion on the November ballot succeeded after activists and volunteers with the Insure the Good Life coalition collected more than 133,000 signatures from the state’...
Republicans who opposed pre-existing condition protections backtrack as midterms near
Ten Republican senators introduced new legislation on Thursday that aims to protect people with pre-existing conditions should an anti-Obamacare lawsuit succeeded in court. But a closer look reveals that the bill doesn’t completely safeguard people’s coverage as current health laws does. Instead, it’s likely an attempt to fend off criticism ahead of the midterm elections.
The new legislation was introduced just two weeks before court hearings begin on the case of ...
Senate Democrats call to halt Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing after Cohen, Manafort news
Several Senate Democrats are calling for the Senate to put a stop to any confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh, after news on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts in federal court in New York, implicating the president as a co-conspirator in those crimes.
At least eight Senate Democrats have already called for a pause, including Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Patrick L...
Republicans who voted for the tax bill now want to cut Medicare and Social Security to pay for it
Slowly but surely, Republicans that supported the trillion dollar Trump tax bill are revealing their true motivations: slashing Medicare and Social Security.
During a Sunday interview with CNBC’s John Harwood, Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH) urged entitlement reform as the deficit continues to balloon as a result of the GOP tax cuts.
“I do think we need to deal with some of our spending,” Stivers said. “We’ve got try to figure out how to spend less....
Sen. Elizabeth Warren announces ambitious plan to upend the lobbying industry
In a Tuesday morning speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) unveiled her Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act. Billed as an effort to “eliminate the influence of money in our federal government,” the proposed bill takes aim at the excesses of K Street and its pernicious “revolving door” ethos, as well as enhancing existing anti-corruption laws and government transparency efforts.
In her presentation, Warren cas...