No Longer ‘Dead Brad Walking': Georgia's Election Chief Makes a Comeback
Donald Trump blamed the mild-mannered election chief for his narrow 2020 Georgia defeat, branding him a RINO (Republican in Name Only), 'incompetent and strange.' Death threats poured in. GOP senators demanded he resign for reaffirming, after recounts and audits, that Trump lost the battleground state.
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USA Today
5 minutes ago
- USA Today
3 Republican-led states are deploying National Guard troops to DC: What to know
The Republican governors of three states are deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington at the request of the administration of President Donald Trump, who has portrayed the city as awash in crime. The announcements on Aug. 16 of troops from hundreds of miles away in West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio came a day after DC officials and the Trump administration negotiated a deal to keep Mayor Muriel Bowser's appointed police chief, Pamela Smith, in charge of the police department after DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit to block the federal takeover of the department. Trump, a Republican, said this week he was deploying hundreds of DC National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily taking over the Democratic-led city's police department to curb what he depicted as a crime and homelessness emergency. Justice Department data, however, showed violent crime in 2024 hit a 30-year low in Washington, a self-governing federal district under the jurisdiction of Congress. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey's office said in a statement he was deploying 300 to 400 National Guard troops to D.C. in "a show of commitment to public safety and regional cooperation." The statement said he also was providing equipment and specialized training. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster responded to a Pentagon request by announcing that 200 of his state's National Guard troops would be sent. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said he would send 150 military police members in the coming days, adding none of them were "currently serving as law enforcement officers in the state." After the announcements, Mayor Bowser posted on X: "American soldiers and airmen policing American citizens on American soil is #UnAmerican." Troops to other cities? The National Guard serves as a militia that answers to the governors of the 50 states except when called into federal service. The DC National Guard reports directly to the president. Trump, who has suggested he could take similar actions in other Democratic-controlled cities, has sought to expand the powers of the presidency in his second term, inserting himself into the affairs of major banks, law firms and elite universities. In June, Trump ordered 700 Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, against the wishes of California's Democratic governor, during protests over mass immigration raids by federal officials. South Carolina's McMaster said his troops would immediately return to South Carolina if needed to respond to a possible hurricane or other natural disaster. Hurricane Erin, now northeast of Puerto Rico, has become a catastrophic Category 5 storm that could bring ocean swells to the U.S. East Coast early next week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. National Guard troops often respond to natural disasters and rarely police US civilians. Drew Galang, a spokesperson for West Virginia's Morrisey, said the state's National Guard received the order to send equipment and personnel to D.C. late on Friday and was working to organize the deployment. The White House said on Aug. 16 that DC National Guard members have conducted patrols on foot and in vehicles around the National Mall and Union Station. The White House said the National Guard troops are not making arrests now and that they may be armed. It is not clear how the administration could deploy National Guard troops elsewhere. A federal judge in San Francisco is expected in the coming weeks to issue a ruling on whether Trump violated the law with the Los Angeles deployments. (Reporting by AJ Vicens in Detroit, Richard Cowan in Washington and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Editing by Donna Bryson, Matthew Lewis, Paul Simao and William Mallard)
CBS News
6 minutes ago
- CBS News
Texas Democrats who fled the state to block GOP redistricting push begin returning
Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to deny a quorum and prevent a Republican redistricting plan are making their way back, each on their own timeline, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. Dozens of Texas House Democrats fled to blue states earlier this month after President Trump suggested the state should redraw its U.S. House district maps to secure more Republican seats. The Democrats have until now remained out of the state to deny Texas' Republican Gov. Greg Abbott a quorum, temporarily derailing a special legislative session that the governor called to reshape the state's congressional maps. The GOP-led redistricting effort would create five more Republican-leaning House seats ahead of the 2026 midterms. Republicans currently have a narrow majority in the House. Historically, the party that controls the White House typically loses ground in midterm elections. States usually redraw districts each decade to reflect population shifts after the decennial census. After successfully denying Texas Republicans a quorum multiple times in recent weeks, Democrats notched a small victory when the GOP wrapped the initial special session. With a new special session gaveled in on Friday, the Democrats have begun returning. Some are already in Texas, and the caucus is working on a count to tell whether the chamber will have a quorum Monday, the sources told CBS News. GOP officials in the state have threatened to arrest the lawmakers to compel their appearance at the state Capitol, and one Republican senator enlisted the help of the FBI to track down the legislators. The Democrats' return comes after they saw another victory with a push by California Democrats to combat the GOP advantage. Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom formally announced a redistricting plan which, under California law, would require a special election. The California governor said the effort is happening "in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said 'find me five seats.'" "I know they say don't mess with Texas," Newsom said. "Well, don't mess with the great Golden State."
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Zelenskiy braces for perilous Trump talks in Washington on Monday
By Tom Balmforth, Yuliia Dysa and Pavel Polityuk LONDON/KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy flies to Washington on Monday under heavy U.S. pressure to agree a swift end to Russia's war in Ukraine but determined to defend Kyiv's interests - without sparking a second Oval Office bust-up with Donald Trump. The U.S. president invited Zelenskiy to Washington after rolling out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin, Kyiv's arch foe, at a summit in Alaska that shocked many in Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands have died since Russia's 2022 invasion. The Alaska talks failed to produce the ceasefire that Trump sought, and the U.S. leader said on Saturday that he now wanted a rapid, full-fledged peace deal and that Kyiv should accept because "Russia is a very big power, and they're not". The blunt rhetoric throws the onus squarely back on Zelenskiy, putting him in a perilous position as he returns to Washington for the first time since his talks with Trump in the Oval Office in February descended into acrimony. The U.S. president upbraided him in front of world media at the time, saying Zelenskiy did not "hold the cards" in negotiations and that what he described as Kyiv's intransigence risked triggering World War Three. Trump's pursuit of a quick deal defies intense diplomacy by the European allies and Ukraine to convince him that a ceasefire should come first and not - as sought by the Kremlin - once a settlement is agreed. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that European leaders had also been invited to Monday's meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy, though it was unclear who would actually attend. Trump briefed Zelenskiy on his talks with Putin during a call on Saturday that lasted more than an hour and a half, the Ukrainian leader said. They were joined after an hour by European and NATO officials, he added. "The impression is he wants a fast deal at any price," a source familiar with the conversation said. The source said Trump told Zelenskiy that Putin had offered to freeze the front lines elsewhere as part of a deal, if Ukraine fully withdrew its troops from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, something Zelenskiy said was not possible. Trump and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff told the Ukrainian leader that Putin had said there could be no ceasefire before that happened, and that the Russian leader could pledge not to launch any new aggression against Ukraine as part of an agreement. Kyiv has publicly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognised Ukrainian land as part of a deal, and says the industrial Donetsk region serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine. Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament's foreign affairs committee, told Reuters by phone that Trump's emphasis on a deal rather than a ceasefire carried great risks for Ukraine. "In Putin's view, a peace agreement means several dangerous things – Ukraine not joining NATO, his absurd demands for denazification and demilitarisation, the Russian language and the Russian church," he said. Any such deal could be politically explosive inside Ukraine, Merezhko said, adding he was worried that Putin's ostracism in the West had ended. SECURITY GUARANTEES Avoiding a repeat of the Oval Office row is critical for Zelenskiy to preserve relations with the U.S., which still provides military assistance and is the key source of intelligence on Russia's military activity. For Ukraine, robust guarantees to prevent any future Russian invasion are fundamental to any serious settlement. Two sources familiar with the matter said Trump and the European leaders discussed potential security guarantees for Ukraine similar to the transatlantic NATO alliance's mutual support pledge during their call. It says, in effect, that an attack on one is treated as an attack on all. One of the two sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said European leaders were seeking details on what kind of U.S. role was envisaged. Zelenskiy has repeatedly said a trilateral meeting with the Russian and U.S. leaders is crucial to finding a way to end the full-scale war launched by Russia in February 2022. Trump this week voiced the idea of such a meeting, saying it could happen if his talks in Alaska with Putin were successful. "Ukraine emphasizes that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this," Zelenskiy wrote on social media on Saturday. Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov told the Russian state news agency TASS a three-way summit had not been discussed in Alaska. Solve the daily Crossword
