Tag: Iowa

Rather than follow succession protocol and appoint Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as the Acting Attorney General, Trump bypassed Rosenstein to install a relative unknown, former Iowa U.S. Attorney Matthew Whitaker. Having spent 24 years at the Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor, I didn’t think Trump could reach any lower than Sessions, but it appears Whitaker was hiding in the false-bottom of the president’s barrel of applicants. Whitaker brought the FBI in and charged McCoy with using his elected office to extort money. McCoy recently said his two year fight against Whitaker’s charges ruined him financially and emotionally and he is convinced being a Democrat and an openly gay lawmaker is what motivated Whitaker’s decision to charge him. After Whitaker left the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he took a paid position on the advisory board of a Florida company that is now under FBI investigation and that the Federal Trade Commission says “bilked thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars.” According to court documents obtained by the Miami New Times, when people tried to get their money back, Whitaker used his position as a former federal prosecutor to scare them off. Last year, he authored an article slamming Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation as “going too far.” Whitaker did this without ever reviewing the evidence in Mueller’s possession. With his appointment as Acting Attorney General, Mr. Whitaker now will be in charge of the very investigation he trashed. Federal prosecutors have the power to begin or end an investigation against someone. They have the power to charge someone with a crime. For attorneys at the Department of Justice, every day brings opportunities to do the wrong thing.

Republican Senator Ernst from Iowa is the first woman elected to Senate GOP leadership position since 2010. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The…

The Centre for American Women and Politics and Rutgers University, which has been keeping track of the number of women elected, showed that even before all the races had been called, women had broken previous records in the Congress. Many of these women are trailblazers in other respects too. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Abby Finkenauer of Iowa are both 29 years old, making them the youngest women ever elected to Congress. Davids will also make history as the first openly gay woman of colour in Congress, and forms part of what the New York Times has described as an “LGBT wave” who hope to counter the threat posed to civil rights by legislation such as the so-called “bathroom bill” and the Trump administration’s attempts to define transgender out of existence. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota will together be the first Muslim women in Congress. Their stories are both remarkable: Tlaib is a social justice attorney who grew up in Detroit, the eldest of 14 children born to Palestinian parents, and ran on a progressive platform including a $15 minimum wage and Medicare-for-all. Omar is a refugee from Somalia, who spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before arriving in the US aged eight and is similarly running on a left-wing platform. Ayanna Pressley has become the first black woman to represent to Massachusetts in Congress, and Jahana Hayes the first black woman to represent Connecticut in Congress. Things are looking less hopeful in Georgia, where progressives had high hopes that Stacey Abrams could become the first black woman appointed to governor. Analysis by ABC suggests that minorities, women and young people are voting in higher numbers than usual, which boosts the Democratic vote and could help explain voters’ support for diverse candidates with non-traditional backgrounds.

Trump train travels to Florida Happy Halloween! Read more DeSantis is running against Democrat Andrew Gillum, the first African American nominee for governor in the state’s history. With Gillum slightly ahead of DeSantis in recent polling, the GOP is hoping the president can successfully encourage Republicans to go to the polls. On the flipside, Trump’s full-throated support for DeSantis might get out the Democratic vote. The national Republican party withdrew support for King’s campaign on Tuesday, and Land O’Lakes, a large dairy and animal feed company in King’s district, said it would no longer offer its support. Steve Bannon is struggling for relevance … and company Trump’s former chief strategist is on a tour of the US, notionally to drum up support for Republican midterm candidates. The latest example of Bannon’s dwindling relevance came on Tuesday, when 25 people showed up at one of his rallies in North Topeka, Kansas. Bannon was campaigning for Republican Steve Watkins, running for congress in Kansas’ second district. Fitzpatrick has 47% in the poll, conducted over three days at the end of October, with Wallace on 46%. Sen. Aaron D. Ford (@AaronDFordNV) This campaign has always been about Nevada families.

Washington (CNN)Land O'Lakes and Purina, the two companies that dumped Iowa Rep. Steve King this week over his incendiary comments, learned what a growing number of corporate interests are discovering in a hyper-partisan America: It doesn't always pay to play in politics. On Twitter, Trump himself encouraged his supporters to "Buy L.L. "The environment today is hyper-polarized and really very toxic," said Bruce Freed, who runs the Center for Political Accountability, a nonprofit that promotes greater political transparency at publicly traded companies. "They'll move jobs or move dollar-wise in terms of their own spending" if they disagree with a company's politics. Officials with Intel, which announced over the weekend that it would no longer support King, declined to comment on the reasons behind the company's move. Political action committees associated with corporations long have donated to King, despite the immigration hard-liner's long history of racially and ethnically insensitive comments. In all, the Minnesota-based company has contributed $12,000 to King since Jan. 1, 2008, including $2,500 this year, according to the Center's data. Judd Legum, who writes the political newsletter Popular Information, said that endorsement sparked him to lead a social media campaign, urging companies to abandon King. As for Nike, the ad campaign demonstrates it knows its audience, despite the conservative backlash, Levick said. Nike is selling to millennials "who expect their companies to be socially involved," he said, not to "60-year-old guys like me who don't need to buy multiple pairs of shoes."

John Yang: In the heart of corn country, President Trump made good on a campaign pledge to farmers. Ethanol is a biofuel made from corn. Also against the move, oil companies. The Trump administration's EPA has waived some rules requiring ethanol's use in gas at the behest of oil producers. Grant Gerlock: Well, corn prices have been down in the dumps for a few years now. John Yang: And explain to us why E15, why these higher ethanol blends were banned in the summer months. That's one reason E15 wasn't allowed to be sold during that time of the year. But the trick, especially when you talk to ethanol — ethanol groups about this, is that during those summer months, when you can't buy E15, you could still buy E10, the 10 percent blend of ethanol, which has about the same impact on ozone and those smog issues. Grant Gerlock: Well, one thing they argue is that ethanol was supposed to be the lower-carbon fuel. And that's 5 percent of ethanol that you're using, instead of gasoline made from oil.

A critical swing district in Iowa could turn from red to blue, giving hope to Democrats on the ballot. CNN's Kyung Lah has the story.

Defense attorney Allan Richards discusses the case against Cristhian Rivera on 'The Story with Martha MacCallum.' FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The number…

24-year-old Cristhian Rivera is charged with the murder of Iowa college student. Sebastian Gorka and Geraldo Rivera react on 'Hannity' FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and…

The body of the missing University of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts was found bringing an end to the five week search. Murder suspect Cristhian Bathena Rivera was charged with first-degree murder. Here is a timeline of the events since…