WASHINGTON - Personal insults. Chaos on stage. More interruptions than anyone can count.

The country has never before seen a presidential debate like the one that took place between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio, the first of three scheduled showdowns between the two candidates.

A night that began ugly stayed ...Read more

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump offered Judge Amy Coney Barrett the nomination to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 21, three days after Ginsburg's death, according to a questionnaire prepared for Senate confirmation hearings.

Trump said publicly he was still selecting his nominee from a pool of "five women" up until the ...Read more

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden faced off Tuesday night in Cleveland for their first of three debates. We've tracked where each candidate strays from the facts. What follows are checks on the candidates' statements.

___

No, Trump isn't protecting coverage for preexisting conditions.

"We guaranteed ...Read more

ATLANTA - Former Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall and former Morehouse College President Robert Franklin, both Democrats, are headed to a runoff to determine who will complete the late Congressman John Lewis' term in office.

The Associated Press called the race for Hall and Franklin, who were among seven candidates running in the 5th ...Read more

Well that was ugly.

After a series of world-shaking events, President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden grappled face to face (sort of) in their first presidential debate Tuesday night - a scabrous spectacle that held out the prospect of dramatically upending their seemingly immovable contest.

Or not.

Typically, debates like ...Read more

Democratic nominee Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris released their latest tax returns ahead of Tuesday night's presidential debate, showing that the Democratic candidates and their spouses paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to the federal government in 2019.

The disclosures come as President Donald Trump, whose family owns ...Read more

The Trump administration has yet to announce how many refugees will be admitted into the United States during the upcoming fiscal year, which starts Thursday.

Without a "presidential determination," which dictates how many refugees can come to the United States each fiscal year, refugees cannot be resettled in the country, except for a few ...Read more

Back in the 1980s, during a holiday get-together, one of the family elders, who was known for sweeping declarations, made a sweeping declaration:

"You can't be a Republican," she said, "and be a good Catholic."

From couch to couch, we looked at each other and smiled gently. This woman in her 70s was upset with the efforts of GOP politicians at...Read more

WASHINGTON - The Senate on Tuesday voted to limit debate on short-term agency spending through Dec. 11, clearing the way for a final vote Wednesday that could bump up fairly close to a midnight deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.

The 82-6 cloture vote signals that the continuing resolution is all but certain to clear the Senate and...Read more

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats are calling for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett to pledge to recuse herself from future cases related to the 2020 election, after President Donald Trump said the court might decide the outcome and he expects her to break a tie.

While there is virtually nothing Congress can do to force a Supreme Court ...Read more

CLEVELAND - President Donald Trump and Joe Biden will clash Tuesday night in their first face-to-face debate as the president urgently tries to close a persistent polling gap and move past damaging new revelations about his years of tax avoidance.

The debate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland could be one of the most-watched ...Read more

Judge Amy Coney Barrett met privately with several Republican senators Tuesday as they kick-started the process of trying to confirm her controversial nomination to the Supreme Court before the November election.

Barrett, nominated by President Donald Trump last week to fill the seat left vacant by the Sept. 18 death of Justice Ruth Bader ...Read more

WASHINGTON - Amy Coney Barrett's Capitol Hill path to the Supreme Court began on Tuesday with courtesy calls unlike any other Supreme Court nominee's - sans handshakes, amid the homestretch of a heated presidential campaign and without the traditional veteran politician who serves as a guide, or sherpa, to the ways of the Senate.

Barrett, ...Read more

WASHINGTON - The Census Bureau's new "target date" to end in-person census counting on Oct. 5 could leave as many as 10 states less than fully counted, according to agency documents released in court Tuesday.

The new date, announced Monday by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a Census Bureau tweet, would allow the agency to meet a Dec. 31 ...Read more

NEW YORK - Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance indicated Tuesday he would hold off on enforcing subpoenas for President Donald Trump's taxes, despite an appeals court judge's suggestion the prosecutor could go ahead and demand the paperwork.

Vance attorney Carey Dunne wrote that the office would not demand the documents from Trump's longtime ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA - A new wave of polls shows Joe Biden is still winning Pennsylvania, the state that could decide the election, as some Pennsylvanians start voting and the campaign reaches its final stages with the first presidential debate Tuesday.

And his lead appears substantial.

Three new polls all found Biden leading President Donald Trump by...Read more

In our March primary endorsement of Joe Biden, we cited his moderation as a value Americans could embrace. In a field of diverse, left-leaning candidates promising free public college, student loan forgiveness, "Medicare for All," universal child care, free rural broadband access - at times the Democratic primary resembled an Oprah Winfrey show ...Read more