HILLARY CLINTON ENDORSES BIDEN
Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and a political veteran who knows firsthand what it is like to compete against President Donald Trump, threw her support behind Joe Biden on Tuesday, the latest party leader to make the case for returning the White House to Democratic hands in November.
“I’ve been not only a colleague of Joe Biden’s, I’ve been a friend, and I can tell you I wish he were president right now but I can’t wait until he is — if all of us do our part to support the kind of person that we want back in the White House,” Clinton said on Tuesday afternoon during a virtual town hall-style event with Biden about the effect of the coronavirus on women.
Accepting her support, Biden said: “I really appreciate your friendship. What a wonderful personal endorsement.”
The Biden campaign had advertised that the event would feature a “special guest,” and on her Twitter account Tuesday, Clinton all but confirmed the endorsement as she disclosed that she would be appearing with Biden.
Her endorsement follows similar ones from Sens. Bernie Sanderst and Elizabeth Warren, former President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Al Gore.
Ohio’s mail-in primary tests voting during virus outbreak.
OHIO» Joe Biden won COLUMBUS,
Ohio’s presidential primary Tuesday, clinching a contest that was less about the Democratic nomination and more about how states can conduct elections in the era of the coronavirus.
The primary was the first major test of statewide elections via mail amid an outbreak.
There were reports of confusion but no widespread disruption. It wasn’t like Wisconsin earlier this month, when voters were forced to overlook social distancing guidelines to stand in line wearing masks to cast ballots.
“Within the context of the threat of the virus, it’s a decision that we will have made the best of,” Republican Ken Blackwell, a former Ohio elections chief who chairs the bipartisan International Foundation for Electoral Systems, said of mail-in balloting.
Overall turnout was surprisingly strong, said Secretary of State Frank LaRose. While his office said about 1.5 million votes had been cast as of midday Saturday, down sharply from the 3.2 million cast in Ohio’s 2016 presidential primary, he said some larger counties received tens of thousands of additional ballots Tuesday.
“It was better than OK. It was great,” he said.
The primary, originally scheduled for March 17, was delayed just hours before polls were supposed to open. Citing a “health emergency,” Republican Gov. Mike DeWine recommended that in-person balloting not be held until June 2.
Federal inmates battle mixed messages on home confinement. » She never
WASHINGTON thought her husband’s punishment for selling drugs would be a death sentence. But as the new coronavirus rips through the
U.S. prison system and into the facility where he is serving eight years, she fears it could be.
The 24-year-old inmate suffers from severe asthma at the medium-security South Carolina prison. He has tried and failed to get released to home confinement, while his wife on the outside watches high-profile inmates go free.
“He is at a way higher risk and it’s not fair,” said the woman, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because she feared her husband would suffer retaliation. “I don’t want to lose my husband for something he did years ago, to an illness he can’t help.”
The Bureau of Prisons has given contradictory and confusing guidance how it is deciding who is released to home confinement in an effort to combat the virus, changing requirements, setting up inmates for release and backing off and refusing to explain how it decides who gets out and when.