Tag Archives: US Senate

Politico reports: West Virginia’s secretary of state on Thursday denied Don Blankenship’s bid to appear on the Senate ballot as a third-party candidate, a victory for Republicans hoping to consolidate votes against Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in the general election. Secretary of State Mac Warner said Blankenship’s bid would violate the state’s “sore loser law” preventing a candidate who lost …

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: Nearly a year after he was temporarily booted off of Facebook for raffling off an AR-15 rifle, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate is giving away a machine capable of printing parts for a similar firearm. Austin Petersen, who ran for president as a Libertarian in 2016, issued a press release and a letter to …

The Hill reports: Ex-coal CEO Don Blankenship is preparing to run as a third-party candidate in the West Virginia Senate race after losing his bid for the GOP nomination in a move that is likely to spark a fierce legal battle. Blankenship’s campaign announced that he will file paperwork on Tuesday to appear on the ballot in November as the …

Roanoke’s ABC affiliate reports: The Roanoke Police Department is investigating after they said someone threw a brick into Sen. Mark Warner’s office. Warner’s press secretary said the individual threw the brick through the front office window around 7:30 a.m. Monday, July 23. Police said officers were called to the office on 2nd Street and Kirk Avenue, S.W. after a person …

Politico reports: Rand Paul is one of a handful of senators who’ll determine whether Brett Kavanaugh lands on the Supreme Court — and the Kentucky Republican has every intention of maximizing his leverage. Paul is again inviting fellow senators to play the will-he-or-won’t-he guessing game when it comes to his decision — expressing grave concerns about Kavanaugh’s approach to personal …

CBS News reports: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, is urging President Trump to safeguard the U.S. election process ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, telling the president to “lead this nation to make sure the 2018 election is protected.” Graham, a frequent Trump ally, said that the president often gets the issue of Russian interference “confused” with the accusations of …

From the right wing Townhall: While President Trump has faced widespread backlash from Republicans and Democrats alike over his performance at the Helsinki Summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin — not everyone was displeased. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in fact, liked much of what Trump had to say. He brushed aside criticism Trump received from within the GOP as nothing …

Almost every Republican is running for the hills on this: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday said that Russia is not a friend of the U.S. and that he supports the intelligence community’s finding that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election. “I have said a number of times, I’ll say it again: The Russians are not our friends. …

Just in via press release from Sen. John McCain: Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake. President Trump …

“The Senate Intelligence Committee has reviewed the 2017 IC (intelligence community) assessment and found no reason to doubt its conclusion that President Putin ordered an influence campaign aimed at the 2016 U.S. elections with the goal of undermining faith in our democratic process. Russia has conducted a coordinated cyberattack on state election systems, and hacked critical infrastructure.  They have used …

Roll Call reports: Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, is the target of a new report from Democratic senators who on Friday accused him of “selling access” to the White House through a shell company he formed during the 2016 election campaign. The senators’ report is based on emails they obtained from Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, …

USA Today reports: Secret donors financed more than four out of every 10 television ads that outside groups broadcast this year to influence November’s high-stakes congressional elections, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Kantar Media data. Leading the way: organizations affiliated with billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, whose conservative donor network plows hundreds of millions of dollars into politics and …

“Singing his praises for no good reason sends a terrifying message to our allies. Flattering such a man is simply bizarre. That the admiration comes from an American president, well, that is unconscionable. If the White House is as confused about the nature of the threat we face from Mr. Putin as it seems to be, a meeting between our …

The Helena Independent Record reports: A Helena judge is ordering the Montana Green Party removed from the ballot this fall, saying the group did not submit enough valid signatures to qualify. Helena District Court Judge James Reynolds on Monday signed an order directing the Secretary of State to take the Montana Green Party off the ballot after he invalidated signatures …

From Lambda Legal: Judge Kavanaugh would guarantee 40 more years of Trump’s values on the Supreme Court. Like every other judicial nominee who has a seal of approval from the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, Judge Kavanaugh shares Donald Trump’s same distorted view of the law. We have good reason to fear that Judge Kavanaugh will abuse his power …

The Hill reports: A trio of red-state Democratic senators have turned down invitations to attend President Trump’s announcement of his nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) were invited but declined to attend the event at the White House at 9 p.m. Monday. Donnelly said in …

CNN reports: Alabama Democratic Sen. Doug Jones said Sunday that he could vote either way on President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be announced nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. “I’m open to voting yes. I’m open to voting no. We don’t know who the nominee is going to be yet,” Jones told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union. …

The Louisville Courier Journal reports: A group of protesters confronted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Bardstown Road in Louisville Saturday, calling out “Abolish ICE” and “No justice, no peace.” The interaction was captured on video and shared with Courier Journal. In it, someone asks McConnell, “Where are the children? Where are the babies, MItch?” — an apparent reference to …

Salt Lake City’s CBS affiliate reports: As new tariffs on internationally imported goods go into effect today, Mitt Romney tweeted his disapproval towards the trade wars these tariffs are causing. “I’m not a fan of trade wars,” Romney tweeted. “I hope the new tariffs going into effect today can soon be removed and replaced by a mutually agreeable trade agreement.” …

The Washington Post reports: Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) privately urged President Trump in a phone call earlier this week to nominate federal Judge Merrick B. Garland, then President Barack Obama’s third nominee to the Supreme Court who was summarily shunned by Senate Republicans in 2016, to replace retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Trump had called Schumer on …