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South Dakota governor says she met North Korean dictator in same book in which she describes killing her dogThe South Dakota governor, Republican vice-presidential hopeful and self-confessed dog-killer Kristi Noem’s bizarre claim in a new book to have met the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been dismissed by experts as “dubious” and not “conceivable”.The Dakota Scout first reported Noem’s claim, which is in...

South Dakota governor includes bloody tale in campaign volume – and admits ‘a better politician … wouldn’t tell the story here’In 1952, as a Republican candidate for vice-president, Richard Nixon famously stirred criticism by admitting receiving a dog, Checkers, as a political gift.In 2012, as the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney was pilloried for tying a dog, Seamus, to the roof of the family...

Nikki Haley got 21% despite not being on the ballot, indicating level of Republican discontent with TrumpJoe Biden and Donald Trump both won their primaries in Pennsylvania shortly after polls closed.Pennsylvanians had gone to the polls on Tuesday to cast ballots in the state’s primary races – the results provide a window into where voters in the crucial battleground stand roughly six months out...

Far-right representative says Mike Johnson’s speakership is ‘over’ but has not followed through on threat to try to remove himRepublican infighting over the US House finally approving $61bn in military aid for Ukraine continued to roil the party on Sunday as the far-right representative Marjorie Taylor Greene renewed attacks on the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson.Johnson had betrayed his party and was working for the...

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Trump’s criminal trial, read our full report:All 12 jurors seated in Trump hush-money trial after two dismissalsJudge Merchan, in directing the press not to use physical descriptors to describe jurors, complained specifically about mentioning one of the jurors had an Irish accent.“We just lost” what would have been a good juror for the case,...

Bridget Thorne, a Republican elected in Fulton county in 2022, has spread election fraud lies and accused county employees of crimesA Fulton county commissioner in Georgia has been operating a private Telegram channel for years, propagating debunked claims about the 2020 election, and spreading accusations of crimes by county employees, including Ruby Freeman, an election worker defamed by Rudy Giuliani in the wake of...

Monday’s day in court indicated that jury selection could take weeks – and that Trump could yet be held in contemptDonald Trump struggled through the opening day of his New York criminal trial on Monday as the jury selection process formally got under way in Manhattan in the first criminal trial of a current or former US president.Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34...

Republican presumptive nominee struggles to articulate position on divisive issue after meeting with House speakerFacing the press alongside the House speaker, fellow Republican Mike Johnson, Donald Trump bragged: “We broke Roe v Wade.”The former president made the stark admission about his dominant role in attacks on abortion rights at the end of a week in which the rightwing Arizona state supreme court ruled that...

Proposal sails through, with one vocal opponent saying gay first cousins do not risk having a child with birth defectsThe Republican-led Tennessee legislature has overwhelmingly voted to send the Republican governor, Bill Lee, a proposal that would ban marriage between first cousins.The statehouse cast a 75-2 vote on Thursday on the bill after the senate previously approved it without any opposition. Continue reading...

Sandra Fish, who has covered politics since 1982, was asked to leave by security about an hour into the state party assemblyA politics reporter from the Colorado Sun was removed from the state Republican party assembly this weekend because the state party chair Dave Williams claimed her reporting on the party was “very unfair”.The reporter, Sandra Fish, who has covered politics since 1982, received...

Letter by secretary of state warns party that Democratic National Convention is scheduled past the deadline to certify candidatesThe Ohio secretary of state has sent a letter to the Ohio Democratic party warning that Joe Biden could be left off the November election ballot in 2024 unless the Democratic National Convention meets earlier or statutory requirements in the state are changed or exempted.According to...

Far-right Republican says motion intended as ‘more of a warning than a pink slip’ and stops short of forcing vote to eject himThe far-right Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene filed a motion to remove Mike Johnson as House speaker on Friday but did not pull the trigger on a move that would probably pitch Congress into a repeat of chaos seen last October, when the...

Congressman once considered a rising Republican star to leave in April, further weakening party’s slim majorityThe Republican majority in the US House of Representatives is set to dwindle further with the early exit of Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, once a rising star of the party.A former US marine who twice deployed to Iraq, Gallagher, 40, is a relatively moderate voice in party at the...

Michele Morrow, the far-right Republican running to oversee public schools in the state, said she is facing ‘radical extremists’A far-right Republican candidate running to oversee public schools in North Carolina decried “extreme agendas that threaten our children’s future”, after being confronted by reporters over tweets in which she called for the executions of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.“Don’t let extreme agendas threaten our children’s...

Ohio Republicans choose their nominee in key Senate race while California seeks to replace former speaker Kevin McCarthyWith a rematch set between Joe Biden and Donald Trump after both candidates crossed the delegate threshold needed to clinch their parties’ presidential nominations, suspense around the next wave of Tuesday primaries shifts to a handful of key down-ballot races.Five states – Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and...

Colorado congressman Ken Buck’s abrupt resignation has left the far-right member with two tough choices, upsetting her re-election plansAs well as further reducing US House speaker Mike Johnson’s already threadbare majority in his legislative chamber, last week’s abrupt departure of Colorado congressman Ken Buck has the potential to significantly damage another prominent Republican figure: Lauren Boebert.The far-right firebrand seized on Buck’s declaration last year...

Judge agrees to month-long postponement after Trump lawyers say they need more time to sift through newly released documentsA judge on Friday delayed Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial until at least mid-April after the former president’s lawyers said they needed more time to sift through a profusion of evidence they only recently obtained from a previous federal investigation into the matter.Judge Juan Manuel Merchan...

Jonathan Katz accuses Britt of being ‘dishonest’ in State of the Union rebuttal with story about Karla Jacinto RomeroDoubts have been cast on the accuracy of a story about horrific child sex abuse told by the Republican senator Katie Britt in her widely ridiculed speech delivered in rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.The journalist and author Jonathan Katz has accused...

Britt, 42, third youngest serving senator, spoke on the heels of her state’s supreme court ruling that frozen embryos are ‘children’Republicans chose first-term Alabama senator Katie Britt, the youngest Republican woman ever to serve in the Senate, to deliver the rebuttal to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday.The 42-year-old presented a counterpoint to the oldest sitting president at her kitchen table...

Neither Biden nor Trump have secured the nomination of their respective parties, but both are likely to do so within the next two weeksLive results and delegates trackerJoe Biden and Donald Trump largely cruised to easy victories on Super Tuesday. In early results, Biden and Trump captured wins in their respective primaries in California, Virginia, North Carolina, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama,...

Congressman and ex-Dodgers player emerge as top two contenders, boxing out progressives Katie Porter and Barbara LeeAdam Schiff, the centrist Democratic congressman, is poised to be the next US senator from California after securing enough votes to advance to the November election. He will face off with Republican Steve Garvey, a former professional baseball player, who also performed well in the nonpartisan primary on...

Mark Robinson, who has history of making inflammatory comments, will face Democrat Josh Stein, in what’s expected to be a close race in NovemberLive results and delegates trackerMark Robinson, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor who has a history of making inflammatory comments and has said he would abolish abortion rights, has won the state’s Republican nomination for governor.Robinson, North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor, will...

Trump’s last remaining Republican primary challenger says ‘I don’t think there should ever be a president that’s above the law’Asked if she thought Donald Trump would follow the US constitution if he is elected for a second term as president, Nikki Haley said: “I don’t know.”“I don’t know. I don’t – I don’t know,” the former South Carolina governor, Trump’s last opponent for the...

Supreme court rejects Democratic lawsuit challenging new maps drawn by Democratic governor Tony Evers The liberal-controlled Wisconsin supreme court on Friday rejected a Democratic lawsuit that sought to throw out the battleground state’s congressional maps, marking a victory for Republicans who argued against the court taking up the case.The decision not to hear the congressional challenge comes after the court in December ordered new...