NATION & WORLD BRIEFS

Sanders, 82, announces he will run again for Senate

WASHINGTON – Sen. Bernie Sanders, the 82year-old self-described democratic socialist from Vermont, announced Monday that he plans to seek another term in the U.S. Senate.

In a video statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, Sanders said he would be “in a strong position to provide the kind of help that Vermonters need in these difficult times,” noting his high-level role in multiple committees and in the Senate’s Democratic leadership.

Sanders has emerged as a leading voice of the progressive left. He previously ran to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 2016 and 2020, and he caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate

White House knocks Noem for comments on Biden’s dog

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre hit back Monday at South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s implication that President Joe Biden’s dog should have been killed.

USA TODAY reported in February that Commander, a 2-year-old German shepherd, was involved in at least 25 biting incidents involving White House staff, Secret Service agents and Navy staff.

In her forthcoming memoir, Noem wrote that the first thing she’d do in the White House is make sure Commander was “nowhere on the grounds.”

“How many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog?” Noem said on “Face the Nation” Sunday.

“We find her comments from yesterday disturbing,” Jean-Pierre said in a briefing. “This is a country that loves dogs, and you have a leader talking about putting dogs down, killing them.”

Fewer Black Americans say they will vote in 2024, new poll finds

President Joe Biden may be facing a tougher landscape as a new poll shows that fewer Black Americans – a key Democratic voting bloc – plan to vote this November compared to 2020.

In the Washington Post/Ipsos poll, 62% of Black Americans said they were certain to vote in this year’s election. That’s down by 12 percentage points from June 2020.

The poll also found that only 41% of Black Americans ages 18-39 were certain they would vote, compared to 61% in June 2020.

Black Americans’ support for Biden has fallen to 74% from 92% four years ago, while 14% said they would definitely or probably vote for former President Donald Trump.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. Other polls have found similar results.