GOP lawmaker: Former Trump prosecutor declined to provide details on hush-money investigation
A Republican lawmaker says the ex-prosecutor who once oversaw Manhattan’s yearslong investigation of former President Donald Trump repeatedly declined to substantively answer questions at a closed-door meeting of the House Judiciary Committee.
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Rescue groups: US tally misses hundreds left in Afghanistan
Veteran-led rescue groups say the Biden administration’s estimate that no more than 200 U.S. citizens were left behind in Afghanistan is too low and also overlooks hundreds of others they consider to be equally American: permanent legal residents with green cards.
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Biden getting 1st shot at making mark on federal judiciary
FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2020, file photo the Supreme Court is seen at sundown in Washington. Barring an improbable expansion of the Supreme Court, Biden won’t be able to do anything about the high court’s entrenched conservative majority any time soon. That’s because Republicans who controlled the Senate in the final two years of the Obama White House confirmed relatively few judges. Biden already has pledged to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court if a seat opens up. But some Republicans and conservative groups are wary about what Democrats might try to do now that they control Congress and the White House.
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GOP captures second Democratic US House seat in California
LOS ANGELES – Republican Young Kim defeated U.S. Rep. Gil Cisneros on Friday in a Southern California district, the second GOP candidate to snatch a Democratic-held seat in the state this year. Kim overcame President Donald Trump’s poor performance in heavily Democratic California, where he got only one-third of the votes. Steel, a Republican, claimed the 48th District in Orange County on Tuesday from Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda. The seat was vacated earlier this year by Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter after he pleaded guilty to a federal corruption charge. “The Orange County comeback is here,” Fred Whitaker, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County, said in a statement.
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Republican wins back US House seat in Southern California
Rouda captured Orange County’s 48th District in 2018 from longtime Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, part of a Democratic sweep of seven House seats in California. Steel won about 51% of the votes in a year when Joe Biden trounced President Donald Trump in the state. Steel, who heads the Orange County Board of Supervisors, benefited from the district’s Republican registration edge and also surmounted widespread distaste for Trump in the strongly Democratic state. In the 25th District north of Los Angeles, Republican Rep. Mike Garcia is narrowly trailing Democrat Christy Smith. Orange County this year is one of the crucial House battlegrounds in California and the U.S.
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California Republican Darrell Issa headed back to Congress
FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2019, file photo, former Republican congressman Darrell Issa speaks during a news conference in El Cajon, Calif. Former California Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa made a successful comeback bid and will return to Congress after defeating Democratic opponent Ammar Campa-Najjar. Issa gave up his seat two years ago and then ran this year in the neighboring 50th District anchored in San Diego County. The former nine-term congressman and ardent supporter of President Donald Trump trailed early in the San Diego-area 50th District. Issa ran this year in the neighboring and more conservative 50th District anchored in eastern San Diego County. Issa was among a group of Republican congressional candidates who fared well even though President Donald Trump was trounced in California by Democrat Joe Biden.
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Drubbed in 2018, California GOP looks to regain House seats
And GOP candidates need to win back suburbanites who recoiled from the Trump agenda in 2018 and helped return the House to Democratic control. But Issa’s once strongly Republican district became increasingly friendly for Democrats and he nearly lost his seat in 2016 before deciding not to run in 2018. Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda captured the district in an upset of longtime Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in 2018, as suburban voters nationally rejected the Trump label. First-term Democratic Rep. Gil Cisneros is looking to hold off Young Kim, the Republican he narrowly defeated two years ago to snatch the seat long held by Republican Rep. Ed Royce. Kim, a former legislator who was born in South Korea and grew up in Guam, has depicted the congressman as subservient to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.