January 2021 - Newshacker

2020 Election Recap: Most Tumultuous Election of Our Time

With the inauguration of President Joe Biden on Jan. 20, 2021, the 2020 election season officially comes to an end, marking the end of one of the most tumultuous, most defining elections of our lifetimes. A record-breaking 158 million Americans voted in this election, and 74 million of them voted for the Donald Trump-Mike Pence ticket, and 81 million voted for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket. It was the first time in history any ticket surpassed 70 million votes.

DC Statehood Bill Introduced In US Senate

On Wednesday, Democrats once again reintroduced legislation in the House and Senate that would make Washington, D.C., the 51st state. The measure was reintroduced in the House after it died in the 116th Congress when the then-Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold a vote on the bill after it passed the house by Washington, D.C., Democratic Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a nonvoting delegate representing the district in Congress, and in the Senate by Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.

Trump Likely To Be Acquitted In the Senate

Senate Republicans largely voted against trying former President Donald Trump after he was impeached with just a few days left in his term in the House for incitement of insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Only five Republican senators voted against tabling a bill forced by Sen. Rand Paul from Kentucky, which, if passed, would have declared the trial unconstitutional and ended.

Sen. Rob Portman to Retire in 2022, Opening Path For Dems

Sen. Rob Portman, a well-respected two-term Republican senator from Ohio, announced Monday that he will retire when his term ends in 2022 and will not run for reelection, explaining that it is becoming increasingly difficult to “break through the partisan gridlock” in Congress and opening up a major battleground state in what will be a hotly contested midterm election for Senate control.

Arizona GOP Censures Three of Its Top Members

The Arizona Republican Party may have just spelled out its own death sentence. The state GOP approved resolutions on Saturday to censure three of its most prominent members, including Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake, and Cindy McCain, the widow of former Sen. John McCain. Including its previous censure of McCain five years ago, before his death in 2018, the Arizona GOP has now censured almost all of its members who have managed to win statewide in recent years.

Biden Signs Executive Orders On COVID-19 Control, Stimulus

On Thursday, President Joe Biden signed another 11 executive orders to coordinate a better federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was severely mishandled by the Trump administration and has already taken the toll of more than 400,000 Americans to date. He is also expected to sign another two orders Friday to provide some more economic relief to the millions of people affected by the pandemic.

‘Democracy Has Prevailed’: Joe Biden Officially Sworn In

Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Kamala Harris were officially sworn in Wednesday as the 46th President and 49th Vice President of the United States respectively. The historic inauguration took place in a country slashed apart by a deadly pandemic, division, and polarization after the tumultuous Donald Trump presidency, which tested American democracy in unprecedented ways. But ultimately, one thing was clear, in the words of Joe Biden: “Democracy has prevailed.”

A New Day In America: Biden Prepares to Be Sworn In as 46th POTUS

At precisely noon EST on Wednesday, Donald Trump and Mike Pence will cease to be president and vice president of the United States respectively. At the same time, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in as the 46th President and 49th Vice President of the United States. The swearing-in of Biden and Harris will flip open a new page in American history and will also simultaneously mark the end of the Trump era.

Battleground States of the Next Election

The 2020 election has shown us some marked shifts in how some states vote. Some states have made themselves evident as being battleground states, while others have solidified for one political party or the other. In today’s post, we are going to discuss and analyze how the results of the 2020 election tell us which states will be (and will not be) the most hotly contested battlegrounds going forward.

Possible Policy Changes In the Biden Presidency

With the Democratic Party controlling the House, Senate, and presidency for the first time since 2008, a wave of big changes in Washington could soon be upon us. President-elect Joe Biden has made pledges to reverse or remove some policies implemented by the Donald Trump administration, as well as pass aggressive COVID-19 relief and stimulus. Here are some of the major possible policy changes under a Democratic government.

A Look at Biden’s Final Cabinet Picks

With President-elect Joe Biden taking office in just five days, he has confirmed his final nominees to serve in his Cabinet and other cabinet-level positions. Biden has picked a very diverse cabinet, with almost all races having some representation in his Cabinet. Among the 15 Cabinet-level department secretaries, five are female and seven are nonwhite.

Impeached Again: Trump Impeached for a 2nd Time

President Donald Trump has become the first president (and first-ever federal official for that matter too) in history to be impeached by the House of Representatives for a second time, this time for “incitement of insurrection.” In the most bipartisan impeachment ever, 10 Republicans bucked the party line and voted to impeach a president from their own party.

Trump’s Presidency Will End With Second Impeachment

Representatives in the House said they would move to impeach the president on Wednesday, after formally calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office Tuesday. The sole article of impeachment accuses the president of “willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States,” after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week.

First Look at the 2022 Midterm Senate Elections

Although the 2022 Midterms are still two years away, it is never too early to start thinking about them. In today’s post, we are going to take a look at where things stand in the 2022 Senate elections. Like in every American election, there will be some key battleground races to focus on, which will once again determine which party will gain (or retain) control of the Senate.

Silicon Valley Bans Show Where Power Truly Lies

On Jan. 8, Twitter announced that effective immediately, President Trump’s Twitter handle, @realDonaldTrump, would be permanently banned from the platform for inciting the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Other platforms later jumped onto the bandwagon. Later that day, Google and Apple announced bans over the Parler app, a popular platform for conservatives, and Amazon stopped hosting the website beginning today. The removal of Trump’s megaphone and a conservative hotbed by Big Tech in Silicon Valley shows where power truly lies.

Donald Trump Could Be Impeached Again

While Congress certified the electoral votes to affirm Joe Biden’s victory on Wednesday, an armed insurrection, egged on by President Trump’s claims of voter fraud, of the United States Capitol Building took place. Insurgents and rioters attempted to stop Congress certifying Biden’s victory after Trump called for people to go to the Capitol Building. Now, the president is now being accused of causing the insurrection, and Democrats floating the idea of impeaching Trump for the second time.

Violent Rioting Mob Storms Into US Capitol

After a proud moment for the Democrats and the country yesterday as the party took back the United States Senate for the first time in six years, yesterday, Wednesday, January 6, 2021, marks a sad and disgraceful day in the history of the United States. A violent mob, encouraged by the words of President Trump, rioted in the nation’s capital city, eventually breaking into the U.S. Capitol and causing the building to be evacuated, just as Congress began certifying electoral votes for President-Elect Joe Biden.

Democrats Poised to Gain Control of US Senate

In a fairly surprising turn of events since November, both Democratic challengers, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, are expected to unseat incumbent Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in Georgia’s two U.S. Senate election runoffs, giving the Democrats a slim majority in the Senate and a trifecta for the first time in a decade.

US Senate Majority to Be Decided Today In Georgia Runoffs

This is it, folks. The last official race of the 2020 election season, and arguably one of the most important set of races. Voters in Georgia will be deciding which party controls the United States Senate in two runoff elections today, Jan. 5. Incumbent Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing off against Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, and the Democrats must win both races in order to win the Senate majority.

Trump Demanded Georgia Officials to ‘Find’ Votes So He Wins

In a stunning hour-long phone call on Saturday afternoon made public by The Washington Post, President Trump demanded Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes in order to overturn the results of the election after his decisive loss to President-Elect Joe Biden. The call raised legal questions from experts and is causing issues for the GOP in the Georgia runoffs, which are just two days away.

GOP Plans To Challenge Electoral College Vote Will Fail

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is planning to object to Congress certifying the Electoral College vote for President-Elect Joe Biden when on Jan. 5, after the 117th Congress is sworn in. He is expected to be joined by over 140 House Republicans in objecting to the vote, citing voter fraud, which has already been debunked thoroughly, including Trump-loyalist former Attorney General William Barr and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The move, though has attracted criticism not just from across the aisle but also from fellow Republicans.