Aurelia Butler

More stories

  • 125 Shares149 Views

    in Elections

    Hochul Halts Bill Aimed at Weakening Republican Control of House

    Lawmakers were ready to pass a bill to delay a special election in New York State, but Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is in discussions with President Trump on congestion pricing, sidelined it.Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York pressured state legislative leaders on Monday to call off a vote on a bill designed to hobble Republicans’ House majority, frustrating fellow Democrats who were prepared to approve it.Neither Ms. Hochul nor leaders of the State Senate or Assembly gave any public explanation for the 11th-hour postponement. But in private conversations, the governor told them she was seeking to gain leverage in separate negotiations with President Trump over the future of the state’s new congestion pricing program, according to two officials familiar with the matter.If lawmakers had followed through, the vote would almost certainly have antagonized Mr. Trump by giving Ms. Hochul the power to delay until November a special election to fill the House seat that will be vacated by Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, Mr. Trump’s chosen U.N. ambassador, when she is confirmed by the Senate. A monthslong vacancy would deprive House Republicans of a crucial vote as they try to muscle Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda through Congress.Republicans currently control 218 seats in the House, including Ms. Stefanik’s in New York’s North Country, to the Democrats’ 215. (Republicans are expected to pick up two more seats in Florida in special elections in April.)It was not immediately clear if Mr. Trump had expressed dissatisfaction about the bill to the governor, causing her to call off the vote on the special election timing, or if Ms. Hochul was being strategic by wanting to hold a bargaining chit in their talks about congestion pricing. A spokesman for Ms. Hochul declined to comment.The governor’s intervention threw the future of the special election proposal into doubt and risked alienating a key ally: Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top House Democrat who had been aggressively lobbying the governor and state lawmakers to adopt it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 175 Shares169 Views

    in Elections

    Democrats Don’t Need a Perfect Message Against Trump, They Need to Show Some Fight

    I asked Senator Chuck Schumer what Americans want from Democrats right now.“They want us to beat Trump and stop this shit,” he told me. “And that’s what we’re doing.”It was a welcome sign of life. For three weeks now, President Trump and the world’s richest man have ransacked from within a democracy that took 250 years to build. The country faces a second crisis: an opposition party that doesn’t seem to know how to respond.With no obvious party standard-bearer, the job of leading Washington Democrats in the second Trump era has fallen largely to Mr. Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leaders of the Senate and the House. It’s been a rocky start.Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries are seasoned dealmakers. But in the minority and facing a president bent on laying waste to the very meaning of the U.S. Congress, both men have struggled to shed the familiar rhythms of business as usual.On Monday, they sent letters to congressional Democrats about using litigation and oversight inquiries to fight Mr. Trump’s agenda. There was some substance. But it’s hard to convey that America is in peril through a letter.Last week they touted a bill from House Democrats aimed at barring Elon Musk from having access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, even though it was clear — at least to state attorneys general who have sued — that Mr. Musk’s access violated the Constitution as well as existing laws, including the Privacy Act of 1974. At times, Mr. Jeffries has sounded like someone who has given up. “What leverage do we have?” he told reporters at his weekly news conference on Friday. “They control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It’s their government.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 150 Shares119 Views

    in Elections

    If Adams Is Cleared, Other Inquiries in His Orbit Would Face Uncertainty

    The Justice Department has asked prosecutors to drop the criminal charges that had loomed over Mayor Eric Adams, but what about all of the continuing investigations involving his close associates?The short answer: Many of the cases have been thrown into uncertainty, and the next steps will largely be decided by prosecutors.The Adams administration has been engulfed by at least five separate federal corruption inquiries. Over the past six months, several City Hall officials have resigned or have had their phones seized by federal agents, destabilizing the highest echelons of New York City’s government.For the people in the mayor’s orbit who may be cooperating against him in hopes of reducing their own criminal exposure, prosecutors could decide to drop any charges against them as well, to avoid any claims of unfair treatment, legal experts said.“Now that the main guy is gone, there will be some level of pressure to reconsider the less-culpable people and decide whether it makes sense to continue to prosecute them,” said Mark Chutkow, a former federal prosecutor in Detroit who supervised corruption cases against local officials.Rana Abbasova, the mayor’s former liaison to the Turkish community, has been cooperating with prosecutors after federal agents searched her home, The New York Times has reported.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 125 Shares99 Views

    in Elections

    Eric Trump Said Adams Treated the Trump Family Company Well

    Eric Trump, a son of the president and the top family executive at the Trump Organization, which manages the family’s New York City office buildings, said Mayor Eric Adams of New York had always treated the family company well.His remarks came in a radio interview last week in which he discussed the criminal case against Mr. Adams and the debate over whether the criminal charges against him might be dropped or he would be pardoned by President Trump.“This guy just never, never got in the way,” Eric Trump said in a radio interview last week, referring to Mr. Adams. “He never tried to throw our company out in New York. He was always supportive of everything that we did. And I can appreciate that.”Instead, Eric Trump said in the interview with Sid Rosenberg, on Sid and Friends in the Morning on WABC, that Mr. Adams had been unfairly targeted by the Justice Department because he challenged the Biden administration on immigration issues. Eric Trump did not provide evidence to back up the assertion.“No one believes that they’re indicting somebody over getting an upgraded ticket on Turkish Airways,” Eric Trump said, referring incorrectly to Turkish Airlines. Mr. Adams is accused of receiving thousands of dollars’ worth of travel benefits over several years, including upgrades on Turkish Airlines. “And I can also appreciate somebody that had the guts to go against the Washington, D.C., machine.”Eric Trump participated in the meeting that President Trump had last month at Mar-a-Lago with Mr. Adams. The mayor said after the meeting that the criminal case was not discussed, but people briefed on the meeting said Mr. Trump did speak generally about what he described as the “weaponized” Justice Department. More

  • 100 Shares99 Views

    in Elections

    Trump Pardons Rod Blagojevich, the Former Illinois Governor

    President Trump signed a full pardon on Monday for Rod R. Blagojevich, the former Democratic governor of Illinois who was convicted of corruption in 2011 in a scheme to sell a Senate seat being vacated by Barack Obama.“It’s my honor to do it,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office of the pardon. “I’ve watched him. He was set up by a lot of bad people, some of the same people that I had to deal with.”Mr. Blagojevich, who served as Illinois governor from 2003 to 2009, did not immediately comment.The pardon was the latest overture between the president and the former governor, who is still known in Chicago simply as “Blago.” Just five years ago, Mr. Trump commuted Mr. Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence, allowing him to be released from a Colorado prison after eight years and return to his family home on the North Side of Chicago.“It’s been a long, long journey,” Mr. Blagojevich said in February 2020, speaking to reporters from his front door as he repeatedly dabbed his face with a handkerchief. “I’m bruised, I’m battered and I’m bloody.” (He had nicked himself shaving, unaccustomed to standard razors while in prison.)The former governor insisted then that he had broken no laws and that he was the victim of an overzealous Justice Department during the Obama administration. Federal prosecutors said Mr. Blagojevich’s conduct — trying to benefit from the appointment of a Senate seat, among other actions — was so abysmal that it “would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.”But he found a sympathetic audience in Mr. Trump. While Mr. Blagojevich was awaiting trial 15 years ago, he made appeals to Mr. Trump, appearing on “The Celebrity Apprentice” when Mr. Trump was the host. And Mr. Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, spoke on Fox News while her husband was in prison, a move that seemed calculated to grab Mr. Trump’s attention.Mr. Blagojevich was the fourth governor of Illinois in recent decades to serve time in prison, in a state that has seen its share of corruption charges levied against elected officials from the Chicago City Council to the Statehouse in Springfield.Michael J. Madigan, the former speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, is currently on federal trial in Chicago, facing racketeering and bribery charges. A jury has been deliberating for nine days so far without a verdict. More

  • 125 Shares149 Views

    in Elections

    Trump Muses About a Third Term, Over and Over Again

    The president’s suggestion that he would seek to stay in office beyond the constitutional limit comes as he has pushed to expand executive authority.Standing inside the Capitol for the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Trump declared his plans to resurrect an idea he had in his first term: to create a national garden filled with statues of notable Americans.The choice of who would be included would be “the president’s sole opinion,” Mr. Trump said, chuckling. And he was giving himself “a 25-year period” to make the selections.A short time later, at a breakfast at a Washington hotel, Mr. Trump flicked again at the prospect that his time in office could extend beyond two four-year terms.“They say I can’t run again; that’s the expression,” he said. “Then somebody said, I don’t think you can. Oh.”At the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Mr. Trump spoke of giving himself a “25-year period” to choose statues for a national garden.Eric Lee/The New York TimesJust eight days after he won a second term, Mr. Trump — whose supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to prevent Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory from being certified — mused about whether he could have a third presidential term, which is barred by the Constitution.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 138 Shares129 Views

    in Elections

    Trump Argues That Courts Cannot Block Musk’s Team From Treasury Systems

    Lawyers for the Trump administration argued late Sunday that a court order blocking Elon Musk’s aides from entering the Treasury Department’s payment and data systems impinged on the president’s absolute powers over the executive branch, which they argued the courts could not usurp.The filing by the administration came in response to a lawsuit filed Friday night by 19 attorneys general, led by New York’s Letitia James, who had won a temporary pause on Saturday. The lawsuit said the Trump administration’s policy of allowing appointees and “special government employees” access to these systems, which contain sensitive information such as bank details and social security numbers, was unlawful.Members of Mr. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is not actually a department, have been combing through the databases to find expenditures to cut. The lawsuit says the initiative challenges the Constitution’s separation of powers, under which Congress determines government spending.A U.S. district judge in Manhattan, Paul A. Engelmayer, on Saturday ordered any such officials who had been granted access to the systems since Jan. 20 to “destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems.”Judge Engelmayer said in an emergency order that the officials’ access heightened the risk of leaks and of the systems becoming more vulnerable than before to hacking. He set a hearing in the case for Friday.Federal lawyers defending Mr. Trump — as well as the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the Treasury Department — called the order “markedly overboard” and said the court should dismiss the injunction, or at least modify his order.They argued that the order violated the Constitution by ignoring the separation of powers and severing the executive branch’s right to appoint its own employees. The restriction, they wrote, “draws an impermissible and anti-constitutional distinction” between civil servants and political appointees working in the Treasury Department.The filing followed warning shots over the weekend. Vice President JD Vance declared that the courts and judges aren’t allowed “to control the executive’s legitimate power,” although American courts have long engaged in the practice of judicial review.On Saturday, Mr. Trump called the ruling by Judge Engelmayer a “disgrace” and said that “No judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision.”This is a developing story and will be updated. More

  • 113 Shares149 Views

    in Elections

    Eagles Fans Celebrate Super Bowl Win in New Orleans

    Philadelphia’s loyal supporters made themselves at home, with joyous fans partying outside the Superdome and others making their way to Bourbon Street.As the clock ran out at the Super Bowl on Sunday night, and the Philadelphia Eagles ran onto the field in New Orleans, confetti filled the Superdome and the team’s fight song, “Fly Eagles Fly,” blared over the speakers.Chants of “E-A-G-L-E-S” came from all corners of the 83,000-seat stadium. But now, fans went into overdrive, dressed in beads and sequins, flapping their arms like birds, and hoisting one another onto their shoulders.There was plenty for those Eagles fans to cheer as Philadelphia beat Kansas City, 40-22, stopping the Chiefs from becoming the first team in N.F.L. history to win three consecutive Super Bowls.Lit with green lights, Eagles fans spilled out of the stadium whistling, high-fiving strangers and dancing to a drum band, as Chiefs fans walked by sadly and serenely.Throughout the game, the excitement had extended beyond the field.President Trump, who was a guest of Gayle Benson, the owner of the New Orleans Saints, watched some of the game from a suite alongside members of his family, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump. He was also joined by members of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson. In another suite, the former first lady Jill Biden cheered on the Eagles with help from her grandson, Robert Hunter Biden, among others.Taylor Barber, left, Bria Bryant, center, and Jessie Ulmer, teachers from Texas, planned to party with the winning team. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More