41 h. ago Shadow minister worried about Liberal Democrat pacts after local elections

Andrew Griffith said he had concerns about ‘extreme foreign policies’ and veganism being promoted by Liberal Democrats.

Politics

41 h. ago New books chart Biden’s downfall – and the picture is damning for Democrats

Books detail president increasingly unfit to take on Trump, and party infighting that doomed Kamala Harris’s chancesJoe Biden plans to write a book about his presidency which ended in his historic withdrawal from the 2024 election, pushed out by senior Democrats convinced he was too old and infirm and replaced by his vice-president, Kamala Harris.Sources close to Biden told news outlets the book could be published next year, by which time Biden will be 83 and doubtless – like other US presidents’ autobiographies – it will be a self-serving narrative lauding his time in office. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Tim Walz names the three mistakes Democrats made in the last election

Former vice presidential candidate on the road meeting voters already disaffected by Donald Trump’s presidency as he reflects on failure of Kamala Harris campaign

Politics

7 d. ago Virginia elections will test the backlash against Musk – and Democrats are ready with a plan

Democrats in the state view themselves as on the frontlines responding to Donald Trump’s harmful policiesDemocrats have begun plotting the next phase of their electoral revival with a seven-figure spend in Virginia ahead of a vote they hope will turn into a referendum on Elon Musk.The party, which had been despondent since Donald Trump’s victory last year, got off the canvas last week with a convincing win in a Wisconsin supreme court race and two strong congressional performances in Florida. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago North Carolina judges back Republican colleague in bid to toss votes and overturn election

Appeals court sides with Jefferson Griffin, who lost supreme court election and wants thousands of ballots thrown outMore than 65,000 people in North Carolina who believed they were eligible to vote could have their ballots thrown out nearly five months after election day, flipping the results of a supreme court election, a state appeals court ruled on Friday.The 2-1 ruling from the North Carolina court of appeals came in response to Republicans’ months-long effort to overturn the results of the state supreme court election in November. The Democrat Allison Riggs, who currently sits on the court, defeated appellate judge Jefferson Griffin, a Republican, by 734 votes. After the election, Griffin filed a protest seeking to get around 60,000 votes thrown out. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Democrats’ deference to Biden was a disaster. They still haven’t learned their lesson | Norman Solomon

Conformity and fear of party leadership are impairing Democrats’ ability to fight Trump and drive a progressive agendaJoe Biden’s insistence on running for re-election was certainly disastrous. It kept credible contenders out of the Democratic presidential primaries and prevented the selection of a nominee who had gained momentum in the winnowing process. Even after his stunningly feeble debate performance on 27 June last year, Biden took several weeks before finally opting out of the race. That left Kamala Harris a mere 107 days between the launch of her campaign and election day.Ample evidence shows that the Biden team was riddled with obstinate denial and misrepresentation aimed at the public. But tales of tragic egomania in high places can take us only so far. What’s essential is to scrutinize how – and why – the Democratic party, its leaders and its prominent supporters enabled Biden and his inner circle to get away with such momentous stonewalling for so long. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago After months of surrender, the Democrats have finally stood up to Trump – thank you, Cory Booker | Emma Brockes

Watching the New Jersey senator hold court for 25 hours felt radical and catharticOne of the problems beleaguering political opponents of Donald Trump has been finding a form of protest that, given the scale of his outrages, doesn’t seem entirely futile. You can parade outside a Tesla showroom. You can hold up dumb little signs during Trump’s address to Congress inscribed with slogans such as “This is not normal” and “Musk steals”. You can, as Democrats appear to have been doing since the election, play dead.Alternatively, you can go for the ostentatious, performative gesture. On Monday evening, Cory Booker, the Democratic senator for New Jersey who carries himself like someone who’d have been happier in an era when men wore capes, started speaking on the floor of the Senate and carried on for 25 hours and five minutes, breaking the chamber’s record by almost 50 minutes and delivering – finally – a solid, usable symbol of rebellion.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue readi...

Politics

1 week ago ‘Loser’: Musk endures wave of gloating on X after liberal judge wins Wisconsin race

Democrats seize on result as a referendum on Musk and an emphatic repudiation of Trump’s richest supporter and allyDemocrats were tasting unfamiliar triumphalism on Wednesday after the election for a vacant Wisconsin supreme court seat turned into an emphatic repudiation of Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s richest supporter and key ally.Musk endured a wave of gloating on X, his own the social media platform, after Brad Schimel, a Trump-endorsed judge that he spent $25m supporting lost by 10 percentage points to Susan Crawford, whose victory sustained a four-three liberal majority on the court. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Manic Street Preachers fans realise they've been saying band's name wrong for 39 years

Manic Street Preachers fans are only just realising they may have been making a huge mistake with the band's name for almost 40 years - and it's leaving them gobsmacked

Politics

1 week ago Republicans win special elections for two key House seats in Florida

Randy Fine beats Josh Weil in Mike Waltz’s former district, and Jimmy Patronis wins seat vacated by Matt GaetzRepublicans on Tuesday won special elections for two US House of Representatives seats in Florida vacated by Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees, dashing Democratic hopes for an upset victory in the first federal special elections held since the president began his second term.But Democratic candidates Josh Weil and Gay Valimont are on track to lose the solidly red districts by much smaller margins than the more than 30 points that Democrats lost them by in November. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Special elections to give voters’ verdicts on Trump’s chaotic first months – US politics live

Votes in several states on Tuesday could offer a glimmer of hope to DemocratsWisconsin and Florida voters head to polls in test of Trump’s popularityDonald Trump’s executive order seeking to overhaul the nation’s elections faced its first legal challenges Monday as the Democratic National Committee and a pair of nonprofits filed two separate lawsuits calling it unconstitutional.The Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund brought the first lawsuit Monday afternoon. The DNC, the Democratic Governors Association, and Senate and House Democratic leaders followed soon after with a complaint of their own. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago ICE says a University of Minnesota student's visa was revoked for drunk driving, not protests

Federal officials say a University of Minnesota student was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement because of drunken driving, not student protests

Events

2 w. ago A Wisconsin state supreme court race will test whether abortion can still tip an election

Two years after the fall of Roe v Wade, it is no longer clear whether voters will show up for the singular issueThe United States on Tuesday will face its first major election of the Trump 2.0 era: a race for a single state supreme court seat in Wisconsin that could not only rewrite abortion access in the state, but test whether the issue of abortion rights can still drive voters to the polls.On Tuesday, Wisconsin residents will decide whether to elect liberal Susan Crawford or conservative Brad Schimel, two county judges, to the state supreme court, which is poised to weigh in on two major abortion cases. Abortion rights advocates are trying to use the threat to the procedure to convince people to head to the polls, but, more than two years after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, it is no longer clear whether abortion can tip an election. Democratic candidates talked about outrage over Roe constantly during the 2024 election – and fell short, losing both the White House a...

Politics

2 w. ago Tim Walz's daughter sparks backlash after revealing entitled reason she's turning down graduate school offer

Her comments sparked outrage among critics who said she was acting 'performatively' and 'setting feminism back 50 years.'

Politics

2 w. ago Lib Dems take aim at Tory place as ‘party of Middle England’ in local elections

The Liberal Democrats are hoping to erode the Conservative vote at the local elections in May.

Politics

2 w. ago Let's put it in language the Signal leakers will understand: what a bunch of pathetic sleazebags | Emma Brockes

The leaking of top-level military secrets was bad enough, but I’m obsessed with Maga’s fratboy lexiconThe Maga-fication of American political discourse, which started, arguably, with Donald Trump mocking a disabled reporter in 2015, peaked this week with news of Pete Hegseth referring to European countries in the leaked Signal chat as “PATHETIC”, and enjoyed a detour last Tuesday when Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota and former running mate of Kamala Harris, appeared at a town hall in Wisconsin and called Elon Musk “a dipshit”. (This is not the first time he has referred to Musk this way. Right before the election last year, Walz told a crowd: “Look, Elon’s on that stage, jumping around, skipping like a dipshit.”)Parking for a moment the perfection of the phrase “skipping like a dipshit” to capture Musk’s very particular style of movement and speech, the range of what can and can’t be said in politics has clearly, radically changed. When you look back on the phrase that caused Hi...

Politics

2 w. ago MAGA activist issues blunt response to Elon Musk after shock Democratic election win in Pennsylvania

Scott Presler earlier asked the tech billionaire for a ‘discussion’ amid calls for Republicans to support a tightly-run Pennsylvania state Senate race

Politics

3 w. ago ‘They hate us’: Democrats now fear midterms could result in their ouster as voters want candidates to take on Trump

Democrat voters are frustrated with the results of the 2024 election and growing angry with Democrat leaders for rolling over to Republicans

Politics

3 w. ago Hegseth says Musk did not see China war plan as Trump announces new jet fighter program – US politics live

Defense secretary says Musk was at Pentagon to talk about efficiencies; president says new F-47 jet has state-of-the-art stealth technologyTrump awards Boeing contract to build next-generation US fighter jetIn Tempe on Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez praised Arizona voters for electing two Democratic senators. She then swiped at the state’s former one-term senator, Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic party to become an independent while in office and declined to seek re-election. “One thing I love about Arizonans is that you all have shown that if a US Senator isn’t fighting hard enough for you, you’re not afraid to replace her with one who will,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Sinema recently resurfaced old comments by Ocasio-Cortez attacking the then-senator over her refusal to abolish the filibuster, a Senate rule requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation. Last week, House Democrats implored their Senate counterparts to use the filibuster to block a Republican-drafted funding bill. “Change of...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump could announce new jet fighter program; Musk visits Pentagon – US politics live

President and Pete Hegseth are due to address reporters in the Oval Office amid reports new jets are feared towards fending off ChinaIn Tempe on Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez praised Arizona voters for electing two Democratic senators. She then swiped at the state’s former one-term senator, Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic party to become an independent while in office and declined to seek re-election. “One thing I love about Arizonans is that you all have shown that if a US Senator isn’t fighting hard enough for you, you’re not afraid to replace her with one who will,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Sinema recently resurfaced old comments by Ocasio-Cortez attacking the then-senator over her refusal to abolish the filibuster, a Senate rule requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation. Last week, House Democrats implored their Senate counterparts to use the filibuster to block a Republican-drafted funding bill. “Change of heart on the filibuster I see!” Sinema posted. “Still no. In fact, the sa...

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