Trump impeachment leader Schiff says he’s seeking seat in Senate
LOS ANGELES — Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who rose to national prominence as the lead prosecutor in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, said Thursday he is running for the Senate seat held by long-serving Democrat Dianne Feinstein.
The 2024 race is quickly emerging as a marquee Senate contest, even though the 89-yearold Feinstein, the oldest member of Congress, has yet to announce if she will seek another term, though her retirement is widely expected.
Schiff is jumping in two weeks after Rep. Katie Porter became the first candidate to declare her campaign for the safe Democratic seat.
Schiff, a former federal prosecutor, made clear he intends to anchor his candidacy to his role as Trump’s chief antagonist in Congress.
In his campaign kickoff video, Schiff said the “biggest job of his life” was serving as impeachment manager, and he promised to continue to be a “fighter” for democracy.
“If our democracy isn’t delivering for Americans, they’ll look for alternatives, like a dangerous demagogue who promises that he alone can fix it,” Schiff said of Trump, who has announced his 2024 campaign for the presidency.
Feinstein, a former San Francisco mayor who joined the Senate in 1992, said this week that she will make a decision about 2024 in the “next couple of months.”
In recent years, questions have arisen about Feinstein’s cognitive health and memory, though she has defended her effectiveness in representing a state that is home to nearly 40 million people.
Schiff said Thursday that he had spoken to Feinstein a day earlier to inform her about his plans.
Schiff was first elected to Congress in 2000 and represents parts of Hollywood. The 62-year-old has been a frequent target of conservatives and Trump in particular.
The National Archives has asked former U.S. presidents and vice presidents to recheck their personal records for any classified documents following the news that President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence had such documents in their possession, two people familiar with the matter said Thursday.
The Archives sent a letter to representatives of former presidents and vice presidents extending back to Ronald Reagan to ensure compliance with the Presidential Records Act, according to the two people who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The act states that any records created or received by the president are the property of the U.S. government and will be managed by the archives at the end of the administration.
The Archives sent the letter to representatives of former Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Reagan, and former Vice Presidents Pence, Biden, Dick Cheney, Al Gore and Dan Quayle, they said.
Classified docs check:
Haiti police protest: Outraged rebel police officers paralyzed the Haitian capital city of Port-auPrince on Thursday, roaring through the streets on motorcycles in protest killings of police officers by gangs.
More than 100 protesters blocked roads, shot guns into the air, and broke through gates in the capital’s airport and the prime minister’s house, with tensions escalating during the day.
Gangs have killed at least 10 officers in the past week. A video likely recorded by gangs and acknowledged by police Thursday shows the naked and bloodied bodies of six officers stretched out on the dirt with their guns on their chests.
The deaths enraged members of Fantom 509, an armed group of current and former police officers that has demanded better conditions for officers.
The Caribbean nation has been gripped by gang wars and political chaos following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
Pelosi’s husband: Footage of the attack on former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband will be released to the public after a judge denied prosecutors’ request to keep it secret.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Stephen
Murphy ruled on Wednesday that there was no reason to keep the footage secret, especially after prosecutors played it in open court during a preliminary hearing last month, according to Thomas Burke, a San Francisco-based lawyer who represented several news agencies in their attempt to access the evidence.
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office handed over the evidence to Murphy on Wednesday following a court hearing. Murphy asked the court clerk’s office to distribute it to the media.
Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s husband, was asleep at the couple’s San Francisco home on Oct. 28 when someone broke in and beat him with a hammer. Prosecutors have charged David DePape, 42, in connection with the attack.
U.S. forces have killed a senior Islamic State group official and 10 other terrorist operatives in northern Somalia, the Biden
IS official killed:
administration announced Thursday.
The operation carried out Wednesday targeted Bilal al-Sudani, a key financial facilitator for the terror group, in a mountain cave complex.
President Joe Biden was briefed last week about the proposed mission, which came together after months of planning.
He gave final approval to carry out the operation this week, according to two officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Sudani, who has been on the radar for U.S. intelligence officials for years, played a key role in helping to fund IS operations in Africa as well as the ISIS-K terrorist branch operating in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
Race and ethnicity: A Middle Eastern and North African category could be added to U.S. federal surveys and censuses, and changes could be made to how Hispanics are able to self-identify, under preliminary recommendations released Thursday by the Biden administration in what would be the first update to race and ethnicity standards in decades.
The federal government’s standards haven’t been changed since 1997, two decades after they were created as part of an effort to collect consistent race and ethnicity data across federal agencies when handling censuses, federal surveys and application forms for government benefits.
Questions about race and Hispanic ethnicity are asked separately using the 1997 standards. They would be combined into a single question under the initial proposals.
Using the 1997 standards, U.S. residents from Middle Eastern and North African countries were encouraged to identify as “white.” But under the new proposal, there would be a separate category for people often referred to by the acronym MENA.