Politics

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Federal prosecutors on Tuesday sought to portray an attorney who formerly worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as a privileged, high-powered person who abused his connections with the FBI in a bid to harm former President Donald Trump’s campaign just weeks before the election.

In opening arguments in a federal court in Washington, prosecutor Brittain Shaw told a jury that attorney Michael Sussmann misled the FBI about who he represented when he met with the bureau’s top lawyer on Sept. 19, 2016, to provide a tip alleging internet communications between Trump’s business and a Russian bank.

The allegations were investigated and later discredited.

“The evidence will show that this is a case about privilege – the privilege of a well-connected D.C. lawyer with access to the highest levels of the FBI,” Shaw said, adding that Sussmann abused his connections to “use the FBI as a political tool.”

The case against Sussmann is being led by Special Counsel John Durham, who was appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr in 2019 to probe any missteps in the FBI’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign was colluding with Russia.

President Joe Biden’s Justice Department has allowed Durham to finish his work.

The case focuses on a meeting in which Sussmann met with then-FBI General Counsel James Baker to provide evidence of potential secret communications between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank, including thumb drives with technical data.

Prosecutors say Sussmann lied when he claimed he was not passing along information about Trump on behalf of any specific client, when in fact he was representing two clients: Clinton’s presidential campaign and Rodney Joffe, a technology executive who oversaw the research into the alleged connections between Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization.

“The FBI is our institution. It should not be used as a political tool for anyone,” Shaw told the jury, saying they should set aside their political beliefs about Trump and Clinton in this case.

Attorneys for Sussmann said on Tuesday that he did not lie to Baker and did not arrange the meeting on behalf of his clients.

“No one told him to go. No one authorized him to go,” said attorney Michael Bosworth.

Bosworth also poked holes in the government’s case, noting that Baker did not record or document his meeting with Sussmann in any way. “Mr. Baker’s memory is as clear as mud,” he said.

Baker is expected to be called to testify in the trial.

Scott Hellman, one of the FBI agents tasked with vetting the data, testified that he did not find allegations about the secret communications between Trump’s business and Alfa Bank to be credible.

“Whoever had written that paper had jumped to some conclusions that were not supported by the technical data,” Hellman said.

“I did not feel that they were objective in the conclusions that they came to.”

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in WashingtonEditing by Andy Sullivan, Bill Berkrot and Matthew Lewis)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Election Commission has decided not to take action against former President Donald Trump after commissioners deadlocked over whether his campaign broke the law by masking how it was spending cash during the 2020 campaign.

In a letter on Monday, the FEC notified the Campaign Legal Center of the outcome. The nonprofit group first brought the complaint against Trump in 2020, alleging his campaign was “laundering” hundreds of millions in spending from mandatory public disclosure by routing payments through companies that were tied to his former campaign manager, Brad Parscale.

The practice has long been considered against the law. But in recent years, the FEC, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, has frequently deadlocked on major decisions such at this one.

That has effectively set a series of new precedents that have slowly whittled away at the law governing how money can be used in national politics. Still unclear is what sort of legal rationale was used to justify the decision.

Adav Noti, a former FEC attorney who is now the Campaign Legal Center’s vice president and legal director, said the commission won’t release its legal reasoning for several weeks. He said filing an appeal would hinge on more details.

“It depends on what’s in the case file,” Noti said. “All we have is notification of the deadlock.”

In a similar case in March, the FEC found probable cause that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee had violated campaign law by misreporting spending on research that eventually became the infamous Steele dossier.

In that case, the Clinton campaign and DNC agreed to pay $113,000 to settle without conceding they violated the law in order to avoid further legal costs.

During the 2020 campaign, most of the payments by Trump’s campaign committees were made to American Made Media Consultants, which has received at least $780 million between 2018 and 2021, according to FEC records. The other firm, Parscale Strategy, collected at least $32 million during that period, the records show.

The campaign said that American Made Media Consultants was formed to purchase advertising directly — and save money by not relying on a go-between. But the company instead acted as a clearinghouse for spending while still using third-party vendors, which it was ostensibly created to avoid, the complaint states.

In at least two cases, outside firms owned by Trump’s digital director Gary Coby appeared to have been the firm tapped to make purchases or develop digital communication products, though there is no record of payments made to Coby in Trump’s campaign finance disclosures, according to the complaint.

Meanwhile, Parscale Strategy was used to pay the salaries of some Trump reelection officials, including Lara Trump, the wife of Trump’s son Eric, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancee of Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr., the complaint stated.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Karine Jean-Pierre held her first briefing as the new White House press secretary on Monday, crediting “barrier-breaking people” who came before her for making it possible for a Black, gay, immigrant woman like herself to rise to one of the most high-profile jobs in American government.

“I stand on their shoulders. If it were not for generations of barrier-breaking people before me, I would not be here,” Jean-Pierre said. “But I benefit from their sacrifices. I have learned from their excellence and I am forever grateful to them.”

President Joe Biden entrusted Jean-Pierre, 47, and the daughter of Haitian immigrants, with the responsibility of being his chief spokesperson earlier this month. Jen Psaki, who had held the job since the start of the administration, stepped down last Friday.

Jean-Pierre is the first Black woman and openly LGBTQ person to serve as White House press secretary. She had been the principal deputy press secretary and led the briefing on several occasions, making history in May 2021 when she first subbed for Psaki.

She also held regular off-camera “gaggles” with the much smaller group of reporters who travel aboard Air Force One with the president.

Jean-Pierre takes over as the White House faces an uphill battle to help Democrats hold onto the House and Senate in November’s midterm elections, and as the administration struggles to address the public’s concerns about rising consumer prices and the state of the economy.

She also steps up as Biden faces a daunting array of foreign policy challenges, including Russia’s war against Ukraine and North Korea’s escalating nuclear testing program. Biden is set to visit South Korea and Japan later this week, followed by stops in Europe in June.

Jean-Pierre opened Monday’s briefing by sharing brief biographies of the 10 Black people who were killed Saturday during a racially motivated shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket. She will accompany Biden when he visits the city on Tuesday.

“Representation does matter,” Jean-Pierre said as she credited Biden with building a diverse administration, starting with Kamala Harris as the first woman and person of Black and Indian descent to be elected vice president.

She sought to shift attention away from herself, saying the White House and the press briefing room belong to the American people and that she works “for them.”

“It’s not about me. It’s about them,” she said, before pledging to continue to work to make sure the White House press team she now leads meets Biden’s expectations of providing the public with “truth, honesty and transparency.”

Jean-Pierre also spoke Monday of her “tremendous respect” for the work of the journalists seated in the briefing room and waiting to pepper her with questions.

“The press plays a vital role in our democracy and we need a strong and independent press now more than ever,” she said. “We might not see eye to eye here in this room all the time, which is OK. That give and take is so incredibly healthy and it’s a part of our democracy and I look forward to engaging with all of you on that.”

Psaki weighed in on Twitter.

“Proud to know you @PressSec,” she tweeted, using Jean-Pierre’s new Twitter handle. “Representation matters. Great job on day one. Rooting for you from home.”

Jean-Pierre worked on Biden’s presidential campaign before following him to the White House. Before the campaign, she was the chief public affairs officer of the progressive group MoveOn and a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. She also worked on political affairs in President Barack Obama’s White House and on his reelection campaign, as well as numerous other Democratic political campaigns.

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By Jarrett Renshaw

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, the leading Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in the state, will skip his election night party on Tuesday as he recovers in a hospital from a stroke suffered during the final days of the campaign.

Fetterman’s Pittsburgh rally will proceed without him “as he will remain in the hospital resting and recovering,” his campaign said in a statement on Monday. His wife, Gisele Fetterman, and other guests, will make remarks in his absence, it said.

Pennsylvania offers Democrats one of their best chances of picking up a Senate seat currently held by a Republican – the retiring Patrick Toomey – as they seek to retain their razor-thin majority in the chamber in the Nov. 8 midterm elections. Fetterman’s health scare has shaken his campaign and the party.

Fetterman, who will face centrist U.S. Representative Conor Lamb and two other Democrats on Tuesday, said in a statement issued on Sunday from Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital that he suffered the stroke on Friday.

Fetterman, 52, has surged in opinion polls ahead of Tuesday’s primary, surprising political observers who had predicted a close contest with Lamb.

Fetterman said he had not been feeling well but ignored his symptoms until his wife insisted he go to a hospital. Fetterman said in his statement on Sunday that he was “feeling much better” and suffered no cognitive damage.

“I’m well on my way to a full recovery,” Fetterman said. “They’re keeping me here for now for observation, but I should be out of here sometime soon.”

The Democratic nominee will face a Republican opponent who also is set to be chosen on Tuesday. The Republican primary is a close race pitting Mehmet Oz, a television wellness celebrity backed by former President Donald Trump, against David McCormick, a wealthy former hedge fund CEO, and Kathy Barnette, a conservative commentator.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)

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By Alexandra Ulmer

(Reuters) – A former Republican minority leader of the Colorado legislature is among the recipients of a trove of sensitive voting data leaked by a county official working with an activist seeking to prove President Donald Trump’s false stolen-election claims, the secretary of state’s office told Reuters on Monday.

The revelation indicates the breach of ballot data in Elbert County was wider than previously understood. The case, now being investigated by the Colorado secretary of state, is one of at least nine unauthorized attempts to access voting-system data around the United States, at least eight of which involved Republican officials or activists seeking evidence to delegitimize Democratic President Joe Biden’s election victory.

The clerk in Elbert County, Dallas Schroeder, previously testified that he copied voting data from the county’s election server onto two hard drives and gave the drives to two individuals, both of them lawyers. Schroeder, responding to the investigation and a related lawsuit by the secretary of state, disclosed that one of the recipients was his own attorney, John Case, and refused to name the other lawyer.

But Schroeder actually gave the data to two other lawyers, in addition to Case, according to secretary of state’s spokesperson Annie Orloff. Affidavits by the two attorneys were expected to be released on Monday.

One of the lawyers was Joseph Stengel, a former state lawmaker who served as Republican minority leader until he resigned in 2006. Stengel, based in Denver, is a former law partner of Case, who is representing clerk Schroeder in the state lawsuit.

The other was Elbert County-based attorney Ric Morgan, who is also listed as the county’s Veteran Services Officer.

Reached by Reuters, Stengel declined to answer questions about his role in the voting system breach. Morgan did not respond to multiple calls and emails.

Schroeder did not respond to requests for comment. He has stated in legal filings that he believed he had a “statutory duty” to preserve records of the 2020 election.

In a statement to Reuters last week, Schroeder’s lawyer, Case, said that the clerk had acted legally and argued that the information on the hard drives should be public record. The copied material includes ballot images, Case said, but “no voter information.” He said the information could have “immense historical value.”

“Dallas Schroeder violated no law or election rule,” he said in the statement.

Asked for a response to Case’s statement, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office told Reuters that Schroeder had violated rules prohibiting “unqualified individuals” from accessing voting systems equipment. He also violated rules prohibiting the use of certain “removable storage media,” Griswold’s office said, referring to the device Schroeder used to image the systems.

Griswold’s office said it was still examining the data contained on the hard drives.

Schroeder has testified that he was receiving instructions on how to copy the system’s data from a retired Air Force colonel and political activist, Shawn Smith, a Trump supporter bent on proving there was election fraud in 2020.

Smith’s organization, the U.S. Election Integrity Plan (USEIP), has been pressuring local county clerks in Colorado to investigate unfounded allegations of 2020 election fraud and to give USEIP unauthorized access to voting data to perform forensic audits, according to interviews with clerks and the Colorado County Clerks Association.

(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; editing by Jason Szep and Brian Thevenot)

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ATLANTA (AP) — A group of voters who challenged U.S. Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s eligibility to run for reelection said Monday they have filed an appeal of the Georgia secretary of state’s decision that she can appear on the ballot.

The five voters from Greene’s district in March filed a complaint with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. They alleged that the Republican congresswoman played a significant role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that disrupted Congress’ certification of Biden’s presidential victory. They argued that put her in violation of a seldom-invoked part of the 14th Amendment having to do with insurrection and makes her ineligible to run for reelection.

Georgia Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot last month held a daylong hearing that included arguments from lawyers for the voters and for Greene, as well as extensive questioning of Greene herself. He then sent his decision to Raffensperger May 6.

Beaudrot found that the voters hadn’t produced sufficient evidence to back their claims. Raffensperger affirmed that decision, writing that whether Greene’s political statements and actions disqualify her from office “is rightfully a question for the voters of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.”

Under Georgia law, the voters are allowed to appeal that decision in Fulton County Superior Court.

The Georgia Supreme Court has held that the burden of establishing one’s eligibility to run for office is on the candidate, the appeal filed Monday says. Beaudrot erred by shifting that burden of proof to the challengers and thwarting the voters’ attempts to get evidence from Greene, the appeal argues, adding that Raffensperger’s decision was thus “made upon unlawful procedures and affected by other errors of law.”

The petition for judicial review that the voters said they filed Monday asks a judge to reverse Raffensperger’s decision and conclude that Greene isn’t qualified to be a congressional candidate or to vacate his decision and send the case back to Beaudrot for further proceedings.

The voters are represented by Free Speech for People, a national election and campaign finance reform group, which has filed similar challenges against lawmakers from Arizona and North Carolina.

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By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Liz Cheney called on fellow Republicans to reject white supremacism, days after a teenage gunman motivated by the right-wing “great replacement” theory allegedly killed 10 people in a racist shooting in western New York state.

“The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism,” Cheney, an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump and his allies in the House of Representatives, wrote on Twitter.

“History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse. @GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them,” she tweeted.

Political fallout from the weekend shooting could become a new hurdle for Republicans, as they try to minimize infighting over party fealty to Trump in the run-up to the Nov. 8 midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

A 180-page manifesto that circulated online, believed to have been authored by the 18-year-old white man accused in the killing spree, outlined the “Great Replacement Theory,” a racist conspiracy theory that white people were being replaced by minorities in the United States and elsewhere.

Cheney is one of two Republicans on a congressional committee that has subpoenaed House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and four other party lawmakers to testify about the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of Trump supporters.

Cheney was joined by Representative Adam Kinzinger, a fellow maverick Republican who is also on the committee, in blaming the party’s leadership for not condemning the racism that fueled the attack in Buffalo, New York, where 11 of the 13 wounded were Black Americans.

“Here is my replacement theory: we need to replace @EliseStefanik, @GOPLeader, @RepMTG, @CawthornforNC and a number of others,” Kinzinger said Sunday in a tweet referring to McCarthy, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik and hard-line Trump supporters Marjorie Taylor Greene and Madison Cawthorn.

“The replacement theory they are pushing/tolerating is getting people killed,” said Kinzinger.

Cheney and Kinzinger maintain that House leaders are pandering to Trump allies and supporters who advocate white nationalism as the party tries to take control of the House in November’s midterm elections.

Stefanik’s office in a statement rejected that criticism.

“Any implication or attempt to blame the heinous shooting in Buffalo on the Congresswoman is a new disgusting low for the left, their Never Trump allies and the sycophant stenographers in the media,” said Alex DeGrasse, a senior adviser to Stefanik.

Stefanik, who represents a New York state congressional district, replaced Cheney as the No. 3 House Republican last year after Cheney condemned Trump for the January 2021 Capitol attack by his supporters.

Greene on Twitter said that responsibility for the shooting lay only with the gunman. The offices of McCarthy and Cawthorn did not respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)

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By Daphne Psaledakis and Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday that police officers must deliver both effective crime deterrence and equal justice in a message that balanced two fraught political priorities as his law-enforcement reforms have stalled.

Speaking at a memorial service at the U.S. Capitol for 563 officers who died in the line of duty over the prior year, Biden offered no new indications over how he would resolve a delay in police reform aimed at holding officers to a higher standard after high-profile killings of unarmed Black people.

Instead, he answered swirling concerns about rising street violence in an election year by saying there was no tension between reforming law enforcement and deterring crime.

“Folks, the answer is not to abandon the streets; it’s not to choose between safety and equal justice,” Biden said.

“And we should agree it’s not to defund the police – it’s to fund the police. Fund them with the resources, the training they need to protect our communities and themselves and restore trust.”

The remarks came as authorities investigated the shooting of 10 people in a Black neighborhood grocery store in Buffalo, New York, as a hate crime. “We must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America,” Biden said.

It is also just two years shy of the anniversary of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis police custody on May 25, 2020, which inspired mass protests around the country.

Biden promised Floyd’s family – and voters – that he would take action but bipartisan congressional talks on a bill stalled last year. A Democrat-backed bill named for Floyd that passed the House of Representatives in 2020 would have limited officers’ use of chokeholds and held them to higher legal standards for rights violations.

“We haven’t gotten there yet,” Biden said. “We must get there to strengthen public trust and public safety.

He said police groups have played a “constructive” role in reform discussions and said he is “committed to being your partner, as I always have.”

The remarks showed the balancing act faced by Biden as the country heads in to November’s election for control of Congress. His party needs strong support from communities outraged by police violence and those frightened by crime.

Biden aides are drafting a narrower executive order on policing that the president hopes to sign soon, officials have said, after months of internal negotiations.

Biden has been a loyal ally to law enforcement, dating back to his days in the Senate when he crafted a 1994 crime bill with their help.

But his support for broad reforms following the 2020 murder of Floyd by an officer created some tension with police unions opposed to some of the reforms promoted by Democrats. Those groups include the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which sponsored Sunday’s event.

The National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service began in 1982 as a small gathering of approximately 120 survivors and supporters of law enforcement. It has since turned into a series of events, attracting thousands of officers and the families of victims to the nation’s capital each year.

The number of officers dying at work has increased sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, data from police groups shows.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Mary Milliken and Matthew Lewis)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, the leading Democratic candidate in the race to replace retiring Republican U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, said on Sunday he had suffered a stroke but was on his “way to a full recovery.”

Fetterman, who will face U.S. Representative Conor Lamb and two other candidates in the Democratic primary for the Senate seat on Tuesday, said in a statement issued from Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital that he suffered the stroke on Friday.

Fetterman, 52, who eschews suits for hoodies, has surged in opinion polls ahead of the May 17 primary, shocking political observers who had predicted a close contest with Lamb.

The state party establishment views Lamb, a former federal prosecutor and former Marine, as a safer choice to take on whoever Republicans choose to run in November’s general election. Lamb received major endorsements from party stalwarts, while Fetterman received almost none.

Lamb said on Twitter that he found out about Fetterman’s stroke on live television. “Hayley and I are keeping John and his family in our prayers and wishing him a full and speedy recovery,” he tweeted.

The winner of the Democratic primary could face celebrity surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz in the general election. If it is Fetterman, it would be a race of two anti-establishment candidates.

Polls show the Trump-endorsed Oz with a slight lead over his Republican rivals.

Fetterman said he had not been feeling well but ignored his symptoms until his wife insisted he go to a hospital.

“I had a stroke that was caused by a clot from my heart being in an A-fib rhythm for too long,” he said. “The amazing doctors here were able to quickly and completely remove the clot, reversing the stroke, they got my heart under control as well. It’s a good reminder to listen to your body and be aware of the signs.”

Fetterman said in his statement that he was “feeling much better” and suffered no cognitive damage. “I’m well on my way to a full recovery,” he said. “They’re keeping me here for now for observation, but I should be out of here sometime soon.”

(Reporting by Diane Bartz in WashingtonEditing by Tim Ahmann, Matthew Lewis and Jonathan Oatis)

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor and a top Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, is recovering from a stroke he said was caused by a heart condition called atrial fibrillation.

Fetterman said in a statement Sunday that doctors believe he’s on his way to making “a full recovery.”

A look at what happened, the diagnosis, the future of Fetterman’s campaign and what can cause A-fib.

WHAT HAPPENED?

It was on Friday morning when Fetterman’s campaign first canceled an event. The campaign’s communications director, Joe Calvello, told scores of people waiting to see Fetterman at Millersville University that he hadn’t been feeling well that morning and had to cancel.

The campaign canceled more events Friday and through the weekend, saying nothing about his condition or whereabouts. They revealed Sunday afternoon that he had suffered a stroke and was hospitalized.

In a 16-second video released by the campaign with the statement, Fetterman and his wife, Gisele, appear together, with Fetterman seated and speaking clearly.

“As you can see, we hit a little bump on the campaign trail,” she begins.

WILL THIS AFFECT HIS CANDIDACY?

Fetterman, 52, maintains that his candidacy will continue, that he’s feeling much better and that he’s expected to make a full recovery.

However, it’s not clear when he will get out of the hospital in Lancaster or whether he will attend the primary night event that his campaign had scheduled in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

Fetterman suffered the stroke in the busy sprint in the last days of the primary campaign, when he had a full schedule of travel and public events around the state.

While campaigns can slow down a bit in the weeks after a primary, the campaign did not say whether this will affect Fetterman’s schedule or what sort of doctors’ visits or medication will be required in the future.

Fetterman said the campaign itself “isn’t slowing down one bit.”

Nothing else changes. Fetterman remains in the race and on the ballot along with the three other Democratic candidates.

WHAT’S THE DIAGNOSIS?

Fetterman said in the statement that he had a stroke that was caused by a clot from his heart being in “an A-fib rhythm for too long.” The doctors quickly and completely removed the clot, reversing the stroke, Fetterman said.

Blood can pool inside a pocket of the heart, allowing clots to form. Clots then can break off, get stuck and cut off blood, often in the brain, which receives substantial blood flow.

Fetterman did not say by what method the doctors removed the clot, or what sort of follow-up treatment will be required.

Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, a cardiologist and chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University, said clots can be removed with “clot-busting” drugs or, more commonly, by extracting the clot “mechanically” by inserting a catheter through a big artery in the groin.

The longer a clot blocks an artery, the more brain cells can die, so it is critically important to recognize the symptoms of a stroke, said Lloyd-Jones, who is president of the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association

People who develop A-fib are almost always put on a blood-thinning medication for the rest of their life to help prevent the stroke-causing blood clots that untreated A-fib can create, Dr. Lloyd-Jones said.

WHAT IS A-FIB?

A-fib — or atrial fibrillation — occurs when the heart’s top chambers, called the atria, get out of sync with the bottom chambers’ pumping action. It’s a type of irregular heartbeat that’s potentially serious but treatable.

In that abnormal rhythm, the upper chambers beat so fast that they can’t contract like they normally do. As a result, they don’t move blood effectively, so the blood can stagnate in the upper chambers and form a clot, Lloyd-Jones said.

Sometimes patients feel a flutter or a racing heart but many times they’re not aware of an episode. Sometimes the heart gets back into rhythm on its own. Other patients get an electric shock to get back into rhythm.

A-fib causes 130,000 deaths and 750,000 hospitalizations a year in the U.S. Between 2% and 3% of adults in the U.S. in Fetterman’s age range have had a stroke, and a substantial number of those are caused by atrial fibrillation, Lloyd-Jones said.

HOW DO DOCTORS CHECK FOR IT?

A-fib is most common in older adults, and other risks include high blood pressure, sleep apnea or a family history of arrhythmias. Obesity is also a significant risk factor, as is being taller, Lloyd-Jones said.

Fetterman is 6-foot-8, has been open about his push to lose weight in the past. He weighed in at over 400 pounds before losing nearly 150 pounds in 2018.

Routine screening isn’t recommended for people without symptoms. Studies haven’t yet proved that early detection from screening would prevent enough strokes to outweigh risks from unnecessary testing or overtreatment.

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Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ap_politics.

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timelywriter

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