Latest news with #Republican
The Hill
17 minutes ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Minnesota state lawmaker to resign after burglary conviction
A Minnesota lawmaker is expected to resign from the state Senate after being criminally convicted of burglary on July 18. Democratic state Sen. Nicole Mitchell's departure will dissolve the party's one-seat majority in the upper chamber and comes after months of Republican criticism regarding her criminal record. 'Senator Mitchell's constituents deserve for her legislative projects to be finalized or ready to hand off to her successor before she resigns,' her attorney Dane DeKrey said in a statement to USA Today. 'Mitchell's constituents also deserve to have their outstanding issues handled before her resignation… It was the honor of her lifetime to serve her District and the State of Minnesota,' he added. She's slated to resign 'no later than Aug. 4.' Dekrey did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment on the matter. Mitchell, a former lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard and a meteorologist, was arrested last year while visiting her estranged stepmother to collect her deceased father's belongings. She used burglary tools to enter the home in the Detroit Lakes area. Minnesota Senate Republican Leader Mark Johnson (R), in a statement, once again condemned Mitchell's actions, stating 'her continued participation in the Minnesota Senate leaves the body with a stain on its record for every time her vote was the deciding vote in passing legislation.' Mitchell's resignation comes weeks after two Democratic lawmakers in the Minnesota legislature were shot at their respective homes. Rep. Melissa Hoffman (D) succumbed to gunshot wounds, as did her husband and Golden Retriever.
The Hill
17 minutes ago
- Business
- The Hill
Trump is marooned on Epstein's island
It was the best of times and the worst of times for Donald Trump. He celebrated the passage of his big budget bill and his rescission package which enriched the wealthy and threw Medicaid patients, hungry American kids and starving Africans under the bus. Then the Epstein list came back around to bite him. Instead of basking in the reflected Republican glory of his defeat of the Democratic New Deal, he currently wallows in the mud of a sordid sex scandal. The intense speculation about Donald Trump's relationship to Jeffrey Epstein and his sexual escapades with young girls reveals two key problems with 47's second term. First, the president has broken a series of promises he made to the American people during the 2024 campaign. Second, he has always relied heavily on his most loyal supporters in times of trouble, but the once solid MAGA base is in is danger of coming undone. Trump's refusal to release the infamous Epstein list is just one of the many promises he made while he was soliciting votes for his return to the White House last year. He has become the typical politician who will say anything to get elected and fail to deliver when he wins. The Consumer Price Index rose by 2.7 percent in June after he told voters in 2024 that he would bring consumer costs down on Day One. Trump also claimed he could broker a peace between Ukraine and Russia in one day. The war there still drags on six months into his second term with no end in sight. The president's refusal to honor his pledge to release the Epstein list has alienated many of his strongest supporters such as right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson. Trump's betrayal of his base will come back to haunt him and other Republicans in 2026 and in 2028. He has torn the sheets with his biggest booster and most generous financial supporter, Elon Musk, over the tech magnate's hostility towards the big bad budget bill. Finally former Trump White House counselor Steve Bannon (no relation) has criticized the budget bill's tax cuts for bankers and billionaires at the expense of low-income white voters who were steadfast Trump supporters in 2024. The sorry state of the economy will eventually be Trump's undoing as it was Joe Biden's. But the Epstein scandal gives Trump great grief in the here and now. His failure to follow up on his promise to release the infamous Epstein List of sexual predators has painted a giant kick me sign on his backside. Trump's failure to redeem his campaign promises could undermine support with the independents who voted for him last year even though they had doubts about his personal peccadillos. But the bottom line for Trump's success has always been his ability to galvanize the base and he has made that difficult to do with the divisions emerging within MAGA. To defend himself against the charge that he is on the list of the Epstein sexual predators, he has resorted to desperately ridiculous explanations. He has denied the existence of the list that he once promised to release. He has claimed that the list that doesn't exist was fabricated by Biden, Barack Obama and others. His director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, a prominent player in Trump's theater of the absurd, has tried to deflect attention from Epsteingate with the unsubstantiated claim that Obama tried to mount a coup against Trump. The only factor that keeps Trump's approval rating from sinking underwater into the deepest crevices of the Pacific Ocean is the blind allegiance of MAGA members who have stuck with him through hell and high water. He sued Rupert Murdoch the Fox News jefe and owner of The Wall Street Journal after the paper published a report that Trump had drawn and given Epstein a pornographic 50th birthday card. He even belittled MAGA members when he tweeted 'My PAST supporters have bought this bulls– hook, line and sinker…Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work. …I don't want their support anymore…' Wow. The accumulation of broken campaign promises and MAGA splits could present serious problems for the president, GOP candidates in 2026 and the 2028 Republican presidential contenders. Democratic control of the House and the subsequent investigations into corruption within the Trump administration could cripple the last two years of his term. The divisions with MAGA could force a bloody Republican presidential primary fight in 2028 that could open the door for a Democrat to win the White House. Trump is marooned on Epstein's island and he is in for much more than a three-hour tour.
Winnipeg Free Press
18 minutes ago
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times says he will take the newspaper public in the coming year
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times since 2018, said this week that he intends to take the newspaper public in the coming year. During an interview on Monday's 'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,' Soon-Shiong said the move would allow the Times 'to be democratized and allow the public to have ownership of this paper.' Soon-Shiong said he's working with 'an organization that's putting that together right now.' He didn't identify the organization or say whether the deal would involve an initial public offer to sell shares of the company or another investment arrangement. FILE - Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong arrives in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, Jan. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, file) 'Whether you're right, left, Democrat, Republican, you're an American. So the opportunity for us to provide a paper that is the voices of the people, truly the voices of the people, is important,' he said. Soon-Shiong, a biotech billionaire, acquired the Times as part of a $500 million deal, returning it to local ownership two decades after the Chandler family sold it to Tribune Co. Soon-Shiong's purchase raised hopes after years of cutbacks, circulation declines and leadership changes. Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter But like much of the media industry, the Times has continued to face financial difficulties, losing money and subscribers. Last year the company said it would lay off at least 115 employees — more than 20% of the newsroom — in one of the largest staff cuts in the newspaper's history. Also in 2024, executive editor Kevin Merida suddenly stepped down after a 2 1/2-year tenure at the newspaper that spanned the coronavirus pandemic and three Pulitzer Prizes, as well as a period of layoffs and contentious contract negotiations.
Hindustan Times
18 minutes ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Epstein files fight leads US House Republicans to start summer break a day early
* Epstein files fight leads US House Republicans to start summer break a day early House Republicans avoid vote on Epstein files resolution * Democrats, some Republicans push for Epstein document release * Bondi asks federal judge to unseal grand jury transcripts By David Morgan WASHINGTON, - The top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Tuesday he would send lawmakers home a day early for a five-week summer recess to avoid a political fight over files on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The move averts a push by Democrats and some Republicans for a vote on a bipartisan resolution to require the Justice Department and FBI to release all government documents on Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019. "What we refuse to do is participate in another one of the Democrats' political games. This is a serious matter. We are not going to let them use this as a political battering ram," House Speaker Mike Johnson, of Louisiana, told reporters. Many of President Donald Trump's supporters who embraced a slew of conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein saw their hopes raised when the administration vowed to release a slew of new documents on the case, only to backtrack and say it had concluded that there was no evidence to support the theories. That opened a rare breach between Trump and parts of his Make America Great Again base of support. Majorities of Americans and Trump's Republicans say they believed the government is hiding details on the case, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. On Monday, Democrats sought to use a House Rules Committee meeting to force a vote on the Epstein resolution introduced by Republican Representative Thomas Massie and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna. The panel serves as gatekeeper for floor-bound legislation. Republicans instead suspended the hearing, preventing the panel from approving bills for floor consideration this week. The House had been expected to hold the week's final votes on Thursday. But House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the chamber's No. 2 Republican, told reporters there would be votes on Tuesday and Wednesday for less important legislation considered under suspension of the rules. A subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and Epstein's longtime girlfriend, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted of sex trafficking in 2021. Under mounting pressure from Trump supporters for the release of material, Attorney General Pam Bondi has asked a federal judge to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases of both Epstein and Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of five federal charges related to her role in Epstein's alleged sexual abuse of underage girls. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Int'l Business Times
18 minutes ago
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
'Just Release It': Trump Pal Ron DeSantis Breaks From Admin on Epstein File Handling
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis broke from President Donald Trump's administration on the handling of the files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, calling for top officials to "just release it." DeSantis advocated for the release of the files and a continued push of finding and arresting others connected to the sex trafficking scandal involving Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell during a Sunday appearance on Fox News' "One Nation." "What I would say is release it and let people see. But I think there's a desire for justice because Jeffrey Epstein and [Ghislaine] Maxwell did not just do this amongst themselves. I mean, there were obviously other people involved, and yet no one's been brought to justice," he said. In February 2024, DeSantis signed a bill alongside two of Epstein's victims allowing the grand jury documents from Epstein's 2006 case, which ended with him being spending 13 months in jail after pleading guilty to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution in 2008, to be released to the public, USA Today reported. Epstein was found dead in his cell in August 2019 after being arrested the month prior for federal sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was arrested in July 2020 for similar charges, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 after she was found guilty. DeSantis has previously expressed support for releasing the Epstein files, pledging to "do full disclosure" while campaigning for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in New Hampshire, Florida Politics reported in 2023. "Why do we not know about all the stuff with Epstein? You know, neither Trump or Biden were willing to [or] are willing to do that. I think that's important," DeSantis told the crowd. Epstein's new statement comes after Trump has continued to face intense backlash for his administration's handling of the Epstein files after the Department of Justice and FBI released a memo declaring that Epstein had killed himself and had no client list, going against prominent conspiracy theories. The scrutiny only intensified after the Wall Street Journal published a report alleging that Trump gave Epstein a drawing of a naked woman in a message for his 50th birthday. Trump has repeatedly denied the report and filed a lawsuit against the publication over the weekend. Meanwhile, Democrats and even some Republican lawmakers have continued to push for the release of the files, with some pushing for resolutions while others called for Trump officials to testify about the recent reports. Originally published on Latin Times
