ELECTION 2020
Trump ‘chose not to act’ as U.S. Capitol underwent attack, Jan. 6 panel says
Donald Trump ignored White House staff, family members and outside advisers who urged the president to call off the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to testimony before the U.S. House panel investigating the insurrection at its eighth and final hearing of the summer Thursday night. Instead, Trump sat in the […]
‘Completely bogus and silly’: Trump spread claims of election fraud debunked by his own legal team
Former President Donald Trump planted the seeds for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by continually promoting theories that he lost the 2020 election through fraud, even though top advisers and officials told him there was no evidence to support the claim, according to testimony a U.S. House committee presented Monday. In its […]
Jan. 6 panel says Trump, far-right groups responsible for insurrection
A hearing Thursday by the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol alleged two groups supporting then-President Donald Trump planned the riot to stop the transfer of presidential power — while Trump tacitly endorsed the insurrection and was indifferent to calls to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence, saying at […]
Virginia elections board will ask prosecutor to investigate claims of irregularities during Richmond vote count
The State Board of Elections voted Tuesday to ask Richmond’s commonwealth’s attorney to look into Republican officials’ accusations that Democratic members of the Richmond Electoral Board may have violated state law by improperly opening sealed result envelopes on election night and completing the vote count at one board member’s home a few days later. The […]
Audit overwhelmingly confirms Virginia’s election results
A statewide audit of Virginia’s 2020 election results verified President Joe Biden’s victory in the state, finding only a 0.00000065117 percent chance the state’s voting system could have produced an inaccurate outcome. “Election officials are over 99 percent confident in the reported outcome,” Karen Hoyt-Stewart, voting technology manager at the Virginia Department of Elections, told […]
Dozens of GOP lawmakers, including at least two Virginians, will reject certifying Biden as president
WASHINGTON — The final step in a turmoil-filled 2020 presidential election is set for Wednesday, when Congress will certify election results showing that Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump. But a series of objections from GOP legislators is expected to stretch that routine process into a much lengthier one — and one that is dividing […]
How state political parties helped big money pay for this year’s elections
WASHINGTON — State parties played an unprecedented role in financing the presidential election this year, making it possible for the national political parties to raise eye-popping sums from individual donors — and keep more money than they might otherwise be allowed. That’s all thanks to a 2014 Supreme Court decision that eliminated the overall limit on […]
Climate change is a winning issue. Let’s work together to solve it.
By Rose Hendricks and Mark Reynolds In the home stretch of the 2020 campaign, presidential candidate Joe Biden leaned hard into the issue of climate change, giving a televised climate speech and running climate-focused ads in swing states. His campaign bet that this issue, once considered politically risky, would now be a winner. That bet […]
Could a Biden White House be just the thing to break the Virginia GOP’s election drought?
Bromides come and go in politics. Conventional wisdom tends to persevere until it’s no longer either conventional or wise. But there’s one truism in Virginia politics that, with one exception over the past five decades, has been validated repeatedly: you don’t want to be running for governor representing the same party as the president. That’s […]
Burning down the house on the way out
It was more than 12 years ago, and it sure feels like a different era in American politics. Stung years earlier during his unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination by a despicable, racist and false whisper campaign during the South Carolina primary, John McCain wasn’t having it in 2008 when an elderly White woman at […]
Newly elected members of the U.S. House converge on Washington
WASHINGTON — They’ve won their campaigns. Now, newly elected members of the U.S. House of Representatives are spending their first days in the nation’s capital, learning how to perform their new jobs. The orientation session for those incoming House freshmen began on Thursday and stretches into next week, covering their office budgets, how to hire […]
As some in GOP amplify election conspiracies, Riggleman says Republicans ‘have a duty to speak out’
On Twitter, former GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock has deemed some conspiracy theories about a stolen election “tin foil hat stuff.” Soon-to-be former GOP Rep. Denver Riggleman agrees. And he’s concerned other Republicans may be validating untruths by staying silent. “If you see things that are false, or you see things that could be damaging based […]