Republicans boost pressure on Tuberville over nominations
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is slamming a fellow Republican in the Senate for waging an unprecedented attempt to change Pentagon abortion policy by holding up hundreds of military nominations and promotions.
Representative Michael McCaul of Texas told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is “paralyzing the Department of Defense.”
“The idea that one man in the Senate can hold this up for months, I understand maybe promotions, but nominations,” McCaul said. He added, “I think that is a national security problem and a national security issue. And I really wish he would reconsider this.”
Tuberville’s move has forced less experienced leaders into top jobs and raised concerns at the Pentagon about military readiness. Defense officials say Tuberville is jeopardizing American national security. Senators in both parties, including Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, also have criticized Tuberville.
Tuberville has refused to budge, saying he will not drop the holds unless majority Democrats allow a vote on the policy. Democrats do not want to give in to Tuberville’s demands and encourage similar blockades of nominees in the future.
McCaul said on CNN that the House would be tackling the issue of abortion in the military as part of a sweeping defense spending bill making its way through Congress.
Special election will decide if Democrats hold Pa. House
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Majority control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives will again come down to a special election later this month, when Republican voters attempt to flip power back to their caucus while facing a strongly Democratic lean in a Pittsburgh district.
The race pits a former Democratic congressional staffer against the daughter of two local officials who were politically active.
Democrat Lindsay Powell, 32, and Republican Erin Connolly Autenreith, 65, will face off for the Allegheny County state House seat on Sept. 19, one week before the chamber is scheduled to return to session in Harrisburg.
They are vying to replace a progressive Democrat, former state representative Sara Innamorato, who resigned in July to seek the county executive job. Her departure left the House at a 101-101 tie.
The district is a stronghold Democratic strategists predict their party will be able to retain. A previous special election in which the Republican candidate lost by a wide margin may be why the GOP hasn’t drained its coffers to try to flip the seat, said Trevor Southerland, House Democratic campaign strategist.
At Iowa’s biggest game, football and politics collide
AMES, Iowa — Two ardent rivals faced off Saturday. Thousands of fans cheered and jeered from the sidelines. Tension and hope, celebration and outrage all around.
There was also a college football game.
The event itself was highly anticipated, as is normal for the Iowa-Iowa State game. But this year’s matchup also featured a bitter head-to-head clash of a political kind that started even before kickoff occurred.
Former president Donald Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, the front-runners in the Republican primary, both appeared at the game: Trump, in a private suite, and DeSantis, in the stands alongside the state’s popular governor, Kim Reynolds.
It was the first time the two were at the same event since the Iowa State Fair, at which Trump and his supporters taunted DeSantis, who was heckled and cursed at as he strolled the fairgrounds with his family.
A month later, at Jack Trice Stadium, the roles appeared to be reversed, with Trump on the receiving end.
The former president entered the game to a mix of applause and audible boos, as a plane with a banner reading “Where’s Melania?” flew overhead — a nod to the absence of his wife from the campaign trail.
Some attendees gave him the middle finger from the stands while he looked on from the glass-paneled box from which he watched the game.
Still, Trump is dominating Iowa in the polls, despite eschewing the town-to-town retail politicking that is tradition in the state.
Before the game, DeSantis appeared for roughly 15 minutes at a tailgate for the Iowa State wrestling team, where Cyclones fans played cornhole and sipped beer from red and gold koozies.
Asked by a reporter about Trump, who is leading him by double digits in the state, DeSantis made a glancing reference to the former president’s four criminal indictments, saying that “Iowans don’t want the campaign to be about the past or to be about the candidates’ issues.” Instead, he continued, “They want it to be about their future and the future of this country. And that’s what I represent.”
But even voters who are strongly considering supporting DeSantis questioned whether he could beat Trump.
“How do you overcome this deficit?” said Richard Abrams, 38, a middle school teacher from Iowa City. “How do you persuade these Trump voters to come to your side? You’ve got to win some of those people over.”
Trump and DeSantis weren’t the only candidates who vied for attention at the game. Vivek Ramaswamy, a political newcomer who has drawn considerable attention in recent weeks, strolled through the tailgate after several earlier appearances in the state.
Asa Hutchinson, a former Arkansas governor running on a stridently anti-Trump platform, also appeared briefly at the tailgate.
Hughes decides against run for N.Y. congressional seat
NEW YORK — Olympic gold medalist Sarah Hughes has decided not to run for Congress, in a race for a Long Island seat where several other Democrats are also vying to unseat the Republican in office.
Hughes, an ice skater who took the top spot in figure skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics, announced her decision Friday about running for New York’s Fourth Congressional District in a social media post.
Word that she had filed paperwork for a run had come out in May. Long Island Republican Anthony D’Esposito is the incumbent.
“For those interested, I have decided not to run for Congress at this time,” she said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Like many Americans, I have become increasingly frustrated with the state of our politics and politicians over the last several years. I will continue to advocate for reducing healthcare costs, promoting the effective use of our tax dollars, and implementing progrowth and innovative economic policies for our country.”
An email was sent seeking comment.
Hughes was 16 when she won her medal at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. She went to Yale University for her undergraduate degree and then got her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
She was an associate at Manhattan-based corporate law firm Proskauer Rose for three years and is currently studying for an MBA through Stanford University.