Tag: Beto O’Rourke

But it was pretty close. At events across early primary states, voters asked about health care and school shootings and immigration. [Sign up for our politics newsletter and join our conversation about the 2020 presidential race.] “We don’t know what’s in it,” said Alane Sullivan, 63, a retired businesswoman, after attending a town hall meeting with Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota in Rye, N.H. “One thing about people in New Hampshire: They are looking for answers, and they knew she wouldn’t know yet.” The lack of questions at campaign events about the report surprised some of the candidates, who had come prepared with lines about the latest development in the nearly two-year investigation. In South Carolina, the one question Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman, fielded about the Mueller report came from State Senator Marlon Kimpson, a local Democrat and a host of a town hall with Mr. O’Rourke in Charleston. He asked whether Congress should consider impeaching the president “assuming there’s facts and evidence” that President Trump knew about collusion or coordination with Russians who meddled in the 2016 election. 1 focus right now is to get it public,” Ms. Klobuchar, who said she was worried that Mr. Barr would resist releasing details, told reporters after her town hall meeting. He wanted to know as much as possible about the Mueller report’s contents, he said. Yet.” Patricia Shearin, 54, a farmer and a Democrat, said she saw no reason candidates should comment on the report at this stage, and she urged them to refrain from calling for impeachment. I think the report should be made public and hopefully those that are in place to make decisions will be ethical.” Campaigning in South Carolina on Saturday, Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., said Democrats should focus on why Mr. Trump was elected in the first place rather than pin their hopes on impeachment as the way to end his presidency.

The 2020 presidential election will tell us much about the future political direction of Texas. The nation’s political future runs through our state and the other booming southwestern states that are changing just as speedily. Last month, President Donald Trump visited El Paso to build support for the proposed border wall in an effort to shore up his support among the more conservative voters of our state. Other 2020 presidential candidates such as U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and former Massachusetts Gov. These rapid changes also portend serious challenges that need to be met with consensus leadership. Millions of Texans are income insecure, without health care insurance, or denied access to quality medical care. A plurality of Texans embrace the state’s growing diversity with optimism, according to a recent poll by the University of Texas and Texas Tribune. Texans of both parties have come to expect economic progress as a significant feature of government, combined with responsible growth. Political fights about moderation inside our polarized parties sapped significant energy in the 2018 cycle. Candidates also need to balance what voters want with the needs of the state and nation.

When Sen. Elizabeth Warren advocated for the move during a CNN town hall in Mississippi this week, she drew loud applause. The next day Beto O’Rourke seemed to endorse the concept. And Washington Gov. Jay Inslee called the Electoral College a vestige “of a bygone era.” The proposal is seen as a play to win support from younger voters, but it is panned by Republicans, who see it as sour grapes after popular vote winners Al Gore and Hillary Clinton lost the presidency because of the constitutional provision. [Bloomberg] Topping the news: A new ruling by a federal judge is aimed at halting recent oil and gas leases in Wyoming because of the failure to take climate change into account. [Trib] [DNews] -> Utah Sen. Luz Escamilla D-Salt Lake City, said she will join the city’s 2019 mayoral race. After an unexpected withdrawal from incumbent Mayor Jackie Biskupski, Escamilla will join a crowded, otherwise all-male field. [Trib] [Fox13] -> Tribune columnist Robert Gehrke backs up Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski’s claims of a family crisis as the reason she bowed out of a campaign for re-election and gives his perspective on where that decision leaves mayoral hopefuls. [AP] [WaPost] [NYTimes] ->Despite pleas from Republicans to desist, President Donald Trump continued his attacks on the late Arizona senator and veteran of war John McCain. [WaPost][NYTimes][Politico] -> After Trump attacked the husband of one of his top aides, Kellyanne Conway, via a series of twitter posts, Conway defended the president’s right to fire back at her husband’s criticism of him.

We have a prime minister in Israel who has openly sided with racists,” he charged. O’Rourke also jabbed at Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. “On the Palestinian side, we have an ineffectual leader. The candidate was asked during a question and answer session with the crowd about accepting large sums of contributions from pro-Israeli lobbyists during his 2018 Senate election in Texas. O’Rourke once again called for a “two-state solution” between Israel and the Palestinians to achieve peace in the Middle East. During Wednesday's New Hampshire stops, meanwhile, O’Rourke targeted sales of assault weapons, skirted his stance on late-term abortions, called for pre-K starting for four-year-olds, and acknowledged that he has a learning curve as he runs for president. I don’t want to take anyone’s guns from anyone in the country.” But he said the AR-15, “which is a variant of something that was designed for battlefield use, I see no reason for it to be sold into our communities.” Speaking with reporters, O’Rourke was asked by Fox News how he would have voted on a controversial GOP-sponsored Senate bill that would have required doctors to provide medical care to newborns, including those born during failed abortions. The candidate gave a hint of his support for abortion rights by adding that “I’ve seen the effects of regressive women’s health care policies in Texas, the inability to get much needed medical care… I want to make sure at a national level we don’t make those mistakes.” As a three-term congressman representing El Paso in the House, O’Rourke supported a bill in 2017 that would have lifted most state restrictions on abortion, including waiting periods. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who raised $5.9 million in the day after he announced his candidacy last month, had contributions from 223,000 people, with the average donation standing at $27. Discussing the comments – which critics said spotlighted unwelcome gender stereotypes – O’Rourke promised “not only will I not say that again, but I’ll be more thoughtful going forward in the way that I talk about our marriage.” On Wednesday, O’Rourke told the crowd that “Amy and I are raising those kiddos.” Asked if there’s a learning curve on the presidential campaign trail, he quickly answered: “Yeah.

Good Tuesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ • For nearly two decades, President Trump relied on Deutsche Bank to lend to him when others wouldn’t. The bank, eager to expand in the United States, lent him $2 billion over the years — and once he was elected president, employees were told not to utter his name. Here’s what The Times found in an investigation, and here are four takeaways from our reporting. But as House Democrats sit down to draft their vision of health care policy, lawmakers find themselves badly divided on an issue that helped deliver their majority. • Beto O’Rourke raised more than $6 million online in the first 24 hours after announcing his presidential campaign last week, outpacing his rivals for the Democratic nomination and making an emphatic statement about his grass-roots financial strength. • Democratic candidates for president are importing grass-roots activism into their campaign by bringing a new generation of staff members into the fold who are more diverse and issue-driven than in years past. • A long-running federal investigation into a White House counsel in the Obama administration is reaching a critical stage, presenting the Justice Department with a decision about whether to charge a prominent Democrat as part of a more aggressive crackdown on illegal foreign lobbying. to open investigations into the activities of a Chinese-American woman suspected of trying to sell access to Mr. Trump.

O'Rourke's admirers point to his youth (he was born in 1972), making a stark contrast with some of the campaign's front runners. Senators Sanders and Warren, Vice President Biden, and incumbent President Trump were all born in the 1940s.

O'Rourke's admirers point to his youth (he was born in 1972), making a stark contrast with some of the campaign's front runners. Senators Sanders and Warren, Vice President Biden, and incumbent President Trump were all born in the 1940s.

DraftBeto co-founder Nate Lerner asserted that people should look past former Democratic Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s whiteness and look into the issues that matter, in a Friday interview with Tucker Carlson. Lerner asserted that the Republican Party consisted mostly of white men and that the Democratic Party was better because it was more diverse. “The problem is when you have the Republican Party as a great example when you look at a picture of Paul Ryan’s interns, and it’s all just a bunch of white guys, that’s not a great look,” Lerner said. “It was the same thing with the Republican Party in 2016: it’s all a bunch of white guys. That’s not our country, and it doesn’t make sense.” Carlson followed up to that statement with a simple question, “Why are you backing the white guy? Why, when you have such a diverse field, does the white guy get to jump to the front of the line?” “Now it’s about saying ‘Great, we have all these great candidates, we aren’t going to make identity our sole issue, there’s a lot of other issues on the table to consider. (RELATED: Texas Democratic Party Chairman Unable To Name One Beto Accomplishment) “Ok, you can have them run, you just don’t want them to win it, I get it,” Tucker responded. “You want to be able to have them on the stage, you want them in the picture, but you don’t want them to win.” “I think Beto is a better fit for this country at this time,” Lerner concluded. Beto announced late Wednesday with a full interview in Vanity Fair where he discussed the long thought process that led to him deciding he was “born to run” for president. The former congressman has limited success in office, but he experienced national acclaim when he ran against Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and lost in the 2018 mid-term election.

Beto O’Rourke thinks he is born to run for president, and so far, it looks like two members of New York’s congressional delegation agree. In doing so, Maloney and Rice became the first members of New York’s congressional delegation to endorse any of the politicians currently vying for the Democratic nomination. O’Rourke, 46, represented El Paso in Congress for three terms. That, Democratic political consultant Bruce Gyory says, is why moderates Rice and Maloney are backing him. To endorse so early in the race – before candidates have even outlined their national policy platforms – might seem rash, but Kathleen Rice said working with O’Rourke in Congress made her confident in his policy positions. Maloney, arguably the most moderate Democrat in New York’s House delegation, could be attempting to bolster his credentials in a swing district. But it may just be that like Rice, he and O’Rourke already have a relationship. What is perhaps most notable – if not totally surprising – about this pair of endorsements, is that the only 2020 Democratic presidential candidate from New York still has no support from New York’s congressional delegation. Beto O'Rourke represents energy in a Democratic Party that is breaking up into pieces that will hopefully unite during the November general election.” So while Rice and Maloney may not have been likely to support Gillibrand, their endorsements of O’Rourke have drawn more attention to the fact that Gillibrand is still running without home state support. “I have a great relationship with Sen. Gillibrand,” Rice said.

From Beto O’Rourke to the president’s first veto, it’s been a busy week in American politics. Here are some of the biggest stories you might have missed (and some links if you’d like to read further). ___________________ Congress stood up to the president this week. Additional Reading • G.O.P.’s Attempt to Avoid Emergency Showdown With Trump Is Scuttled, by Trump • How Every Senator Voted on Ending Trump’s National Emergency • Impeaching Trump Is ‘Not Worth It,’ Nancy Pelosi Says An even-more-crowded primary. But will Beto O’Rourke, whose near-miss Senate run in Texas last year propelled him to Democratic stardom, change the polls? His entrance into the race on Thursday adds a relentless campaigner with a small-dollar fund-raising army to the crowded field. Policy issues around the Democratic primary are also coming into focus. Additional Reading • Why Texas Is Nearing Battleground Status (It’s Not Just About Beto) • Milwaukee Picked as Site of 2020 Democratic National Convention • As Hillary Clinton Steps Away, a Political Era for Women Wanes Trump’s record-breaking budget proposal. His budget proposal — totaling $4.75 trillion, a record — calls for cuts to domestic programs like education and environmental protection, while increasing military spending. In the first two months of 2019 alone, they have killed 225.