Author: Press Room
New Quinnipiac University polls show Donald Trump gaining in the Rust Belt states central to Kamala Harris’ campaign, including taking a slight lead in Michigan. The polls, conducted Oct. 3-7 and released on Wednesday, found that in a hypothetical two-way match-up, Harris leads Trump by 3 percentage points in Pennsylvania, 49 percent support to 46 percent. Trump, meanwhile, leads by 3 percentage points in Michigan, 50 percent to 47 percent. The race is even closer in Wisconsin, with the candidates neck and neck: Trump at 48 percent and Harris at 46 percent. All three results are within the margins of…
Speaker Mike Johnson is blasting Democrats for being “hypocritical” when it comes to standing with Israel after Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Tuesday. The GOP leader kicked off a planned Tuesday speech before the New York Stock Exchange by calling on the Biden administration to send a clear message to Iran that their attacks against Israel won’t be tolerated. He urged the Biden administration “to fully enforce the Iran sanctions on the books and reimpose the U.N. sanctions lest they expire.” There are widespread concerns that the escalating battle between Israel and Iran could turn into an even broader international…
The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the government of Mexico can sue the leading gun manufacturers in the U.S. for allegedly fueling drug cartel violence south of the border. The justices announced Friday that they will hear the gunmakers’ challenge to an appeals court ruling that would allow the unusual, $10 billion lawsuit to proceed in federal court in Boston. A district court judge threw the case out two years ago, citing a 2005 law Congress passed to block an increasing number of suits seeking to hold gun manufacturers liable for violence and deaths involving firearms. However, the…
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson refused Sunday to condemn comments from former President Donald Trump and his family that suggest Democrats were behind assassination attempts on Trump. “I don’t think they’re saying that the Democratic Party tried an assassination attempt. I think what they’re alluding to is what they’ve all been saying. They have got to turn the rhetoric down,” Johnson said in an interview with host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” “For years now, the leading Democrats in this country, the highest elected officials and the current nominee for president have gone out and said that Donald…
Senate Republican spending is heavily concentrated in just a handful of races — a distribution that doesn’t match the reality of the battleground map. That dynamic is the result of poor fundraising from some key candidates and the party’s reliance on fickle big donors to close the gap. The playing field is ripe with inviting targets, but the advertising from the GOP and its allies is heavily lopsided instead of spread across them. And some of the places where they’re more involved are not the most obvious pickup opportunities. Instead, a combination of individual candidate strengths and weaknesses, donors’ preferences,…
On Wednesday, a federal judge unsealed special counsel Jack Smith’s 165-page legal brief detailing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s alleged criminal activities related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. On Sunday, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton called the move “a temper tantrum from a deranged fanatic” on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “This is unverified, un-cross-examined hearsay from grand jury testimony, which usually isn’t revealed publicly for that reason,” Cotton (R-Ark.) told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker. “He went to court. He asked for special permission to file a brief that’s four times as long as a normal brief and to…
The leader of an effort among conservative senators to shape the race to elect the next Senate GOP leader — and push the chamber further right — is finally putting his ideas down on paper. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on Monday night laid out a series of proposals meant to decentralize power inside the Senate Republican Conference, taking it away from the office that outgoing Leader Mitch McConnell has occupied for nearly two decades. In a letter sent to Senate Republican offices Monday night and obtained by Playbook, Lee doesn’t explicitly refer to his proposals as demands. But in the…
TOLEDO, Ohio — Republicans excitedly declared in July that Donald Trump’s decision to pick Sen. JD Vance as his running mate would help them win battleground congressional districts in Ohio. Three months later, that doesn’t seem to be playing out in one of the state’s toughest elections — where the GOP is looking for any boost it can get as it tries to oust the longest-serving woman in the House. Republicans had seen Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s seat as one of their top pickup opportunities. And several factors went their way this cycle: The party drew a redder district in recent…
TOLEDO, Ohio — Republicans excitedly declared in July that Donald Trump’s decision to pick Sen. JD Vance as his running mate would help them win battleground congressional districts in Ohio. Three months later, that doesn’t seem to be playing out in one of the state’s toughest elections — where the GOP is looking for any boost it can get as it tries to oust the longest-serving woman in the House. Republicans had seen Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s seat as one of their top pickup opportunities. And several factors went their way this cycle: The party drew a redder district in recent…
Hurricane Milton, a monstrous storm set to hit western Florida Wednesday night, is poised to deplete the finances of the government’s chronically indebted flood insurance program. Congress is already bracing for a fight over what to do about it. Key lawmakers and aides are beginning to game out the likely impact on the National Flood Insurance Program, which is the primary option for millions of American homeowners to protect their finances from catastrophic flooding. The emerging view from several lawmakers and staffers is that NFIP claims spurred by Milton and last month’s Hurricane Helene will likely exhaust the program’s nearly…