Republican Derek Merrin launches bid for rematch against Rep. Marcy Kaptur
That's after Republican Derek Merrin, a former four-term Republican state representative, announced Monday that he plans to try again to defeat Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in Congress .
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8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Iowa US Senate candidate ends bid to run against Republican incumbent Joni Ernst
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa Democratic state lawmaker bowed out of the 2026 U.S. Senate primary race on Monday and endorsed a fellow legislator as the 'best hope' to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, who has yet to formally announce her bid for a third term. Rep. J.D. Scholten said in a statement he was suspending his campaign and endorsing Democratic Rep. Josh Turek, who launched his campaign last week. Both represent districts in counties that overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in 2024. Turek joined a crowded primary field that includes state Sen. Zach Wahls, who on Monday announced the endorsement of a northeast Iowa iron workers union; Nathan Sage, a former chamber of commerce president; and Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris. Eyes remain on Ernst as Republicans encountered early headaches in some of the 2026 races that will be pivotal to maintaining the party's Senate majority, including a contentious GOP primary in Texas and a surprise retirement announcement by two-term Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. After flipping pork chops last week at the Iowa State Fair, Ernst told reporters that she'd make an announcement on her own 2026 intentions in the next several weeks, adding, 'I've got a lot more work to do.' In a reelection bid, Ernst would face GOP primary challengers who include former state Sen. Jim Carlin and Navy veteran Joshua Smith. Of her Democratic competitors, Ernst said 'good for them.' 'When we see those Democrats getting in, what they're trying to do is get their name out there, but they cannot deny the fabulous agenda that President Trump has," Ernst said. 'Glad they're engaging but, you know what, they're not going to stand a chance.' Ernst announced a campaign manager in June, an October date for her annual fundraiser and has raised just shy of $1.8 million in the first half of the year. A former Army National Guard member and a retired lieutenant colonel, she was first elected to an open Senate seat in 2014. She served for several years in the No. 3 spot in the Senate GOP leadership and was considered a vice presidential contender for Trump's first White House run. She's since faced some backlash from Trump supporters, including earlier this year after signaling a hesitance to support Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. Democrats meanwhile are capitalizing on a retort Ernst made about Medicaid cuts at a town hall in May. As Ernst explained that the legislation protects Medicaid for those who need it most, someone in the crowd yelled that people will die without coverage. Ernst responded: 'People are not ... well, we all are going to die.'
Yahoo
8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Well-mannered White House welcome for Ukraine leaves many questions
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Gram Slattery WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump gathered European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a hastily arranged White House meeting on Monday to discuss a path to ending Russia's war in Ukraine. Here are takeaways from the talks: WARM TONE, LITTLE SUBSTANCE Seven European leaders, the Ukrainian president, their motorcades, dozens of Trump administration staff and more than 100 journalists swarmed the White House campus on Monday in anticipation of the unusual meeting. Would Trump and Zelenskiy agree on a path to peace? Or would their latest Oval Office session devolve into a bitter squabble as in February? Neither scenario occurred. Zelenskiy, chided for his appearance and manner in February, adjusted both. Wearing more formal clothing and repeatedly expressing his gratitude to Trump, he was greeted by a far more complimentary U.S. president than in the past. But, despite Trump's vow to assist in Ukraine's security after a hypothetical peace deal, there was no immediate sign that any party had substantially changed position on land swaps, security guarantees or sanctions. Instead, Trump ended with promises to host a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to address the many remaining issues. HEAPING PRAISE "Have you said 'thank you' once?" U.S. Vice President JD Vance asked Zelenskiy in February, accusing him of failing to show sufficient gratitude for U.S. support. On Monday, Zelenskiy made sure that was not an issue. His opening remarks in the Oval Office included eight thank-yous, mostly for Trump. "Thank you so much, Mr. President ... thank you for your attention. Thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts to stop killings and stop this war. Thank you," Zelenskiy said. He included the U.S. first lady, who sent a letter to Putin about abducted children in Ukraine. "Using this opportunity, my thanks to your wife," the Ukrainian president said. "And thanks to all our partners and that you supported this format. And after our meeting, we're going to have leaders who are around us, the UK and France, Germany... all partners around Ukraine supporting us. Thanks (to) them. Thank you very much for your invitation." Unlike in February, Vance this time sat largely silent. COMBAT FORMAL The stakes of the meeting could not have been higher. But one of the most-asked questions among diplomats in D.C. could not have been more frivolous: Would the Ukrainian president wear a suit? The answer: kind of. Zelenskiy showed up to the White House in what one European diplomat described as "almost a suit." His black jacket had tiny lapels and jetted chest pockets. He did not wear a tie. His attire, which split the difference between the battlefield and the boardroom, could be described as combat formal. Those sartorial details matter when it comes to dealing with the U.S. president, who was upset that Zelenskiy did not wear a suit for their February meeting. Zelenskiy passed the fashion test this time, however. When one journalist in the Oval Office said Zelenskiy looked "fabulous," Trump chimed in to agree. "I said the same thing," Trump told reporters. DIVIDE OVER CEASEFIRE The assembled European leaders, Zelenskiy included, were careful to paper over policy disagreements with Trump, keeping their comments vague and showering the U.S. president with compliments. But one point of disagreement did bubble to the surface. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the assembled leaders and media that he wanted to see Putin agree to a ceasefire. Trump had long pushed for a ceasefire in Ukraine. But he largely jettisoned that goal after meeting with Putin last week in Alaska, a shift that was widely seen as a diplomatic defeat for Ukraine. The U.S. president now says he is fine trying to move directly to a peace deal. "To be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire," Merz said. "I can't imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire, so let's work on that." Trump pushed back, arguing he has solved many conflicts without first reaching a ceasefire. WHOSE BOOTS ON THE GROUND? One of the great mysteries that hung over the summit was what support the U.S. would give to secure any Russia-Ukraine deal long term. Trump hasn't offered U.S. troops' "boots on the ground" to guarantee Ukraine's security from Russia, reflecting American reticence to commit to military entanglements or a head-to-head confrontation with a nuclear power. Instead, he has offered weapons sales and promised that Americans will do business in Ukraine, assurances that Ukrainians see as far less than a security guarantee. Europeans are preparing for a peacekeeping mission backed by their forces. Yet, asked explicitly whether U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine could include U.S. troops in the country, Trump did not rule it out. Instead, he teased an announcement as soon as Monday on the topic. "We'll let you know that, maybe, later today," Trump said. He said Europe was the "first line of defense" but that "we'll be involved." WHAT'S NEXT Trump said he would call Putin and set up a trilateral meeting with Ukraine at a time and place to be determined. Despite some private misgivings, the assembled leaders agreed that such a meeting was a logical next step. Still, the path forward is more complex than Trump and his allies are letting on. For one, Russia has delayed and obstructed high-level meetings with Ukraine in the past, and it was not immediately clear that Putin would actually sit down with Zelenskiy, who he frequently describes as an illegitimate leader. Additionally, it is unclear how much a principal-level meeting would actually advance the cause of peace. The gulf between the Russian and Ukrainian positions is vast. The Kremlin said on Monday the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine is a non-starter, a stance that would be hard for Ukraine to swallow. Russia is also calling for Ukraine to fork over significant chunks of territory that Kyiv controls, another proposal that Ukraine's leaders are not entertaining.
Boston Globe
9 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Republican bid to help Trump move past Epstein falls flat
On Monday, Representative James Comer, Republican from Kentucky, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, said the Justice Department would begin sharing its Epstein records with his panel by Friday. He also suggested the release of the documents would take some time, all but ensuring that questions about the Epstein affair will drag on for weeks. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up At the same time, Democrats, in some cases with the help of Republicans, have laid a series of procedural traps that will make it all but impossible for the GOP to avoid confronting the issue again when Congress reconvenes in September. 'We're going to keep the pressure up — 100 percent,' Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat from Arizona, said at an event in Iowa this month. 'As often as we can, until we know exactly what happened, why it happened.' Advertisement Even with Congress in recess, the Epstein case continues to generate attention in Washington. On Monday, William Barr, who was President Trump's attorney general when Epstein died, testified in a closed-door deposition for the Oversight Committee. Lawmakers of both parties concede the Trump administration could quiet the furor over the Epstein files on Capitol Hill and nationwide by simply releasing them to the public. Comer's statement on Monday was the only public indication to date that it might do so. All the while, several efforts connected to Epstein, a disgraced financier who was found dead in his prison cell in 2019, have been percolating and threaten to disrupt a busy month in which Congress also faces a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government and avert a shutdown. Chief among them may be a maneuver led by Representive Thomas Massie, Republican fron Kentucky, who is a frequent Trump critic, to try to force a floor vote on the release of the files. Such a vote would thrust Republicans into a politically thorny position between Trump and constituents who are unhappy with the administration's handling of the case. Before leaving Washington, Massie and Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, filed what is known as a discharge petition, which allows any member of the House to force legislation to the floor if a majority of members — 218 — sign on. Because of arcane procedural rules, the pair cannot start collecting signatures until they return in September, but they appear to have more than enough support to succeed. The timing all but guaranteed that the issue would hang over lawmakers throughout the August recess and that Republican leaders would be forced to address it when they returned. While they could try to table the effort, several rank-and-file Republicans earlier this year blocked a similar attempt to circumvent a measure that had majority support. Advertisement So far, 43 other lawmakers, 11 of them Republicans, have signed on to Massie and Khanna's initiative. Last week, the pair announced plans for a news conference with victims of Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, to be held outside the Capitol on lawmakers' second day back from their break. Democrats on the powerful House Rules Committee, a panel controlled by the speaker that determines which legislation reaches the floor, also plan to continue pressuring Republicans over the issue. Republican leaders never found a solution to the committee's impasse, which led them to send the House home a day ahead of schedule. But they seemed to take solace in the Trump administration's request that federal judges release transcripts of grand jury testimony in three cases related to Epstein and Maxwell. Both House Speaker Mike Johnson and Representative Steve Scalise, the number two Republican, suggested such a move might help alleviate concerns, adding that the House could not address the Epstein files while the courts were weighing in. 'That process is underway right now,' Johnson said last month. 'Now, we've got to zealously guard that and protect it and make sure it's happening. And if it doesn't, then we'll take appropriate action when everybody returns here.' Yet so far, federal judges in two of those three cases have denied the government's requests. A judge overseeing Maxwell's case said that the Justice Department's suggestion that grand jury testimony 'would bring to light meaningful new information' was 'demonstrably false.' A third judge, who oversaw Epstein's 2019 case, is still considering whether to unseal grand jury materials connected to that prosecution. Advertisement And Republicans and Democrats alike have argued that the grand jury testimony falls far short of the promise that Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top officials had made. Instead, they have turned to legal maneuvers meant to force the Justice Department to provide the Epstein files to Congress. This month, the Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to Bondi asking the Justice Department to give the committee its files related to Epstein and Maxwell by Tuesday. Comer, a staunch Trump ally, was forced to send the subpoena after a small group of Republicans joined Democrats in voting to approve it at a subcommittee meeting last month. On Monday, he told reporters he was confident that 'we're going to get the documents,' citing 'productive' conversations with the Justice Department. Senate Democrats have already started to pressure Republicans over the matter using a little-known and infrequently tested maneuver to try to force Bondi to turn over the Epstein files. Under a provision of federal law, government agencies are required to hand over relevant information if any five members of the Senate's chief oversight committee requests it. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat from New York, the minority leader, and seven other Democrats had asked the Justice Department to give them Epstein-related materials by Aug. 15. They also asked that a briefing be held for the committee's staff before the end of the month. So far, the committee has not received any material, and the briefing has not been scheduled, according to two people familiar with the matter who said they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. Advertisement Schumer has said Democrats are prepared to seek legal recourse if the Trump administration does not meet the letter's deadlines. On Friday, he began publicly pressuring Senator John Thune, Republican from South Dakota, the majority leader, to appoint a lawyer who would defend the Senate's legal authority for congressional oversight. 'If he chooses complicity — we'll take them to court ourselves,' Schumer wrote in a social media post. This article originally appeared in .
