Politics

Biotech entrepreneur and Republican presidential hopeful on Monday released a list of 16 people he’d nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court or federal appellate courts if he becomes president, making him the first in the party’s field to itemize his possible top judicial appointments.

Ramaswamy’s list includes Sens. of Texas and of Utah as possible nominees for the nation’s top court, as well as elevating federal judges who struck down President Joe Biden’s airplane mask mandate and the FDA’s two-decade-long approval of the abortion pill.

The direction of the was a powerful issue for in his 2016 bid. Conservative voters’ hunger to have a Republican president be the one to appoint a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in early 2016, helped land the former reality TV star in the White House.

Trump in the 2016 primary released his own list of possible appointments to the high court to reassure his new party’s voters that he was in line with their judicial agenda.

In an interview, Ramaswamy, 37, said he was releasing the list of possible appointments to show voters where he stood.

“It’s important, when you’re asking voters to select the next president of the United States, that you be as transparent as you can about what you’re going to do,” Ramaswamy said.

Ramaswamy is the latest Republican candidate trying to recapture conservative enthusiasm around the court as Democrats have become increasingly energized by its conservative rulings.

Florida Gov. has said he’d appoint stronger conservatives to the bench than did Trump, whose three appointees helped form the majority that rescinded the constitutional right for women to have abortions in a ruling last year, a longtime conservative goal. Trump himself has frequently reveled in the court’s rulings and noted that he appointed half of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority.

Ramaswamy said he sees no reason to criticize Trump’s appointments.

“That is a bizarre criticism,” he said of the argument that Trump’s picks weren’t conservative enough.

Ramaswamy’s own list includes prominent conservative legal names. He said he’d only nominate Cruz or Lee if it wouldn’t change the balance of the U.S. Senate, which Democrats currently control by a two-vote margin. Another prominent name on the list for the high court is Paul Clement, who served as former President George W. Bush’s solicitor general.

Ramaswamy also proposes elevating several district court judges to the nation’s appellate courts. He cites Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an Amarillo-based federal judge whose April ruling against the abortion pill was full of language of anti-abortion rights activists and was swiftly put on hold by appellate judges and then the Supreme Court.

The list also includes Kathryn Mizelle, who Trump nominated at age 38 to a judgeship in Florida and who struck down Biden’s air travel mask mandate last year.

An additional prominent conservative judge who makes Ramaswamy’s Supreme Court list is James Ho, another Trump nominee to a position on the Texas-based Fifth Circuit Court of appeals whose rulings are full of conservative political rhetoric. Ramaswamy said Ho first came to his attention because the judge quoted his own book, “Woke, Inc.,” in one of his rulings.

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By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Maverick Democratic Senator Joe Manchin on Monday is set to address a bipartisan group in New Hampshire, a critical early-voting state in the 2024 presidential primary elections, feeding speculation that he could be weighing a third-party candidacy.

The former West Virginia governor, first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, will speak to the “No Labels” organization promoting the possibility of backing a third-party candidate.

Manchin, 75, is arguably the most conservative Democratic senator. He has told reporters that he will wait until late this year before announcing whether he will seek re-election to his U.S. Senate seat representing West Virginia.

Should Manchin seek another term, he would likely face a serious challenge from Governor Jim Justice who is seeking the Republican Party nomination in the Senate race. The state has been leaning heavily Republican, having overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Meanwhile, Manchin has not swatted away reporters’ questions over whether he might consider what would be a long-shot run for the White House as an independent candidate.

“It is clear that most Americans are exceedingly frustrated by the growing divide in our political parties and toxic political rhetoric from our elected leaders,” Manchin said in a No Labels statement last week detailing Monday’s town hall event at Saint Anselm College in Manchester.

Trump, a 77-year-old former president, leads a crowded field of Republican presidential aspirants and many voters express worries about 80-year-old President Joe Biden seeking a second term. But speculation of an independent candidate entering the race generates heartburn among Democratic strategists who want the incumbent re-elected.

Opinion polling shows that neither Democrats nor Republicans are thrilled with their likeliest 2024 White House candidates, with four in ten Republicans telling a May Reuters/Ipsos poll that they think Trump should not run again in 2024, and a similar number of Democrats citing a similar view on Biden.

On Sunday, No Labels co-chair Joe Lieberman said his group will not field a candidate in 2024 if polling showed that doing so would help elect the Democratic or Republican presidential nominee.

“We’re not in this to be spoilers,” Lieberman said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” program.

With more than a decade in Congress, Manchin at times has complicated legislative initiatives being pushed by his party leaders. But Democratic leaders have treaded softly as Manchin also has been key to the party holding onto its Senate majority.

Since the start of Biden’s presidency in 2021, Manchin has done battle over Democrats’ drive to expand a child tax credit aimed at raising poor families out of poverty and insisted on relaxed permitting rules for fossil fuel energy projects, which would benefit West Virginia.

That has enraged progressives pushing for government policies encouraging a phasing out of oil, natural gas and coal due to climate concerns.

Democrats hold majority control of the Senate by a narrow 51-49 margin. The 2024 Senate races present the party with an uphill battle to hold that control, given challenging races projected in Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other states. The election takes place on Nov. 5, 2024.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Alistair Bell and Howard Goller)

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote next week on legislation to raise the mandatory commercial pilot retirement age to 67 from 65 and make other aviation reforms, Republican House leaders said Friday.

The House bill, approved 63-0 by the Transportation Committee in June, would reauthorize Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aviation safety and infrastructure programs for the next five years. Current authority expires Sept. 30.

The pilot age proposal faces opposition from unions and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg who worry it could complicate operations.

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) says it could cause airline scheduling and pilot training issues and require reopening pilot contracts. Even if approved, current international rules would still prevent pilots older than 65 from flying in most countries outside the United States.

Buttigieg told Fox News Radio Friday that “I would want to see a lot more data before we could feel comfortable with any kind of change” to the pilot age rules.

The Regional Airline Association (RAA) supports the pilot age hike saying it “allows retention of more experienced captains, who can in turn fly alongside and mentor new first officers, helping to stabilize attrition.”

The House bill would also bar airlines from charging family seating fees but would not impose new rules sought by President Joe Biden to compensate passengers for delays. A draft Senate version would boost runway safety, track high-altitude balloons and double U.S. fines for aviation consumer violations.

Neither congressional bill sets minimum airline seat sizes.

The House Rules Committee on Monday is set to consider whether to allow votes on amendments including one to prohibit air carriers from reducing the size of passenger seats until the FAA set minimum passenger seats. Others would mandate passenger compensation for lengthy delays, bar Chinese carriers from flying over Russia and prohibit government purchases of Chinese-made drones.

The Senate bill has been held up by a dispute over whether to change pilot training requirements that were imposed after the February 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 near Buffalo that killed 50 people, the last major U.S. passenger airline fatal crash.

Another unresolved issue is whether to expand the number of longer flights allowed from Reagan Washington National Airport. Delta Air Lines supports expanding flights, while United Airlines, American Airlines and others oppose it.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Susan Heavey)

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By James Oliphant

(Reuters) -Republican U.S. presidential contenders attending a forum of Christian conservatives in Iowa that typically focuses on social issues found themselves on Friday having to explain their support for Ukraine in its war with Russia to a skeptical crowd.

The forum in Des Moines, sponsored by the Family Leader, an influential Iowa evangelical group, is a traditional stop on the Republican presidential campaign trail for candidates seeking to burnish their conservative credentials in Iowa. The state will hold the first contest in the race to determine the party’s nominee to face Democratic President Joe Biden in 2024.

Some of the hardest questions the candidates faced were not on popular conservative social issues such as opposition to abortion and transgender rights but rather on foreign policy.

Pushed by moderator Tucker Carlson, the ousted former Fox News host, to justify their stances, former Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina both argued that it remains vital for the United States to push back against Russian aggression. The United States has provided billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine following Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

“Let me tell you, if Vladimir Putin overruns Ukraine, I have no doubt that the Russian military is going to cross the border of a NATO country that our armed forces will have to defend,” said Pence, referring to Russia’s president.

Pence appeared visibly frustrated by Carlson’s assertions that the United States lacked a national interest in the Ukraine war.

Scott also defended assisting Ukraine, arguing that “everything that we do that degrades the Russian military is good for America.”

Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the Republican race, skipped the forum and will hold his own town hall-style event next week. But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a distant second in the polls, appeared.

DeSantis earlier this year suggested that the war was simply a “territorial dispute” before backtracking and labeling Putin a “war criminal.” On Friday, DeSantis sought to make the case that Biden’s administration had not done enough to define America’s interests at stake in Ukraine.

“They are doing a blank-check policy without telling us when we have achieved our objective,” DeSantis said.

The ultimate goal for the United States, DeSantis added, should be “a sustainable peace in Europe,” but he was not specific about how achieve that.

By contrast, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, another candidate, called for an immediate end to the war and for Russia to keep its territorial gains.

Most in the crowd seemed to side with Carlson’s view that the United States should force an immediate truce in Ukraine – and most remained quiet when Pence and Scott disagreed.

Trump also has been sharply critical of U.S. support of the war, charging in a statement on Friday that Biden had engaged in “reckless escalation” in Ukraine by calling up 3,000 reservists from the U.S. military. Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.

Republican candidates who have pledged to back Ukraine – including Pence, Scott and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who also spoke on Friday – have failed to gain much traction in opinion polls.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed that a slight majority of Republicans – 56% – backed U.S. shipments of weapons to Ukraine, compared to 65% of Americans overall.

Carlson also pushed Pence on his role in certifying the 2020 election results in the U.S. Congress even as Trump and his allies made false claims that the election had been stolen through widespread voting fraud. On the day of the certification vote, Trump supporters attacked the Capitol after he told them to “fight like hell” to “stop the steal.”

Pence defended his actions and criticized Trump.

“President Trump’s words that day were reckless,” Pence said. “I believe history will hold him accountable.” No applause was heard.

Iowa’s nominating contest is set for Jan. 15. Candidates receiving strong evangelical support have won the state’s caucuses contest in recent years.

(Reporting by James OliphantEditing by Ross Colvin and Will Dunham)

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By Tom Hals

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) -Walt Disney Co asked a Florida judge on Friday to dismiss a lawsuit by a state oversight board as part of the entertainment giant’s effort to pursue its case against Governor Ron DeSantis, the latest development in a year-long feud.

Disney urged Judge Margaret Schreiber in Orlando to dismiss a lawsuit filed in May by the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which controls development around the company’s theme parks.

At the end of an hour-long hearing, Schreiber asked both sides to submit by Wednesday proposed orders to resolve Disney’s request, but she did not say when she would rule.

The district lawsuit seeks to void “backroom deals” favorable to Disney that the district alleges were struck with a prior district board and in violation of state law.

At the same time, Disney is pursuing its own lawsuit filed in April against the governor in federal court that claims DeSantis “weaponized” state government against the company for attacking a law central to the governor’s agenda.

The skirmish began last year after Disney criticized a Florida law banning classroom discussion of sexuality and gender identity with younger children. DeSantis, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, has repeatedly attacked “woke Disney” in public remarks.

DeSantis rallied lawmakers to pass bills that reconstituted the district, formerly known as Reedy Creek Improvement District, and transfer power over the board to the governor from Disney. Lawmakers also retroactively invalidated agreements that Disney reached with the prior board on the eve of it being brought under DeSantis’s control.

Disney’s attorney argued in court that the district’s lawsuit should be dismissed because it was no longer needed since the company’s agreements with the prior board were nullified by the state.

Dismissing the district lawsuit would allow the company to focus on its federal case, which claims DeSantis violated the company’s constitutional right to free speech. Disney wants a federal court order preventing the state from enforcing the laws directed at the company. DeSantis has been dismissive of Disney’s lawsuit and said the company has no right to operate without proper district government oversight or have special privileges.

An attorney for oversight district argued that the district’s case should proceed because it differed from the broad-ranging federal case and was narrowly focused on the validity of several agreements struck this year.

“If Disney’s contracts are void, nearly all of Disney’s claims in the federal case disappear,” the district said in a court filing.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware, editing by Deepa Babington and David Gregorio)

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By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of a sweeping bill setting policy for the Department of Defense on Friday, but the “must-pass” bill’s chances of becoming law were uncertain after Republicans added a series of culturally conservative amendments.

The fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which sets policy for the Pentagon and authorizes $886 billion in spending, was approved 219-210.

The vote was largely along party lines, a departure from the typical bipartisan support for a bill that has passed every year since 1961.

The House measure includes a pay raise for members of the military, initiatives to counter China and an additional $300 million to support Ukraine as it responds to the February 2021 invasion by Russia.

During debate, Democrats warned that most of them would not support the NDAA after the Republican-majority House voted, almost exclusively along party lines, on Thursday night for amendments on hot-button social issues pushed by the party’s hard-right flank.

The House voted 221 to 213 for an amendment that would reverse the Defense Department’s policy of reimbursing expenses for service members who travel to obtain an abortion.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the landmark Roe v. Wade decision establishing a national right to abortion. While some states have since moved to place significant new restrictions on abortion, it remains legal in other states.

The Pentagon travel reimbursement policy is aimed at helping those in the military or family members who are seeking an abortion but stationed in states that have outlawed it.

“House Republicans today passed an NDAA that increases our military’s lethality and decreases the wokeness that has been infused in its ranks in recent years,” said Republican Representative Barry Loudermilk referring to the conservative amendments that were approved.

Representative Adam Smith, the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, warned: “We are going to have fewer qualified people willing to join the military because of what was passed” during the contentious amendment process.

The House also voted 222-211 to prohibit the Pentagon from paying for gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatment.

UPCOMING SENATE DEBATE

House Republicans were able to pass their amendments without Democratic support, but such provisions would die in the Senate, where President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats hold a 51-49 majority.

Debate in that chamber is set to begin on Tuesday.

The Senate is expected to pass its version of the NDAA later this month, after which the two chambers will negotiate a compromise that would come up for a vote later this year.

The NDAA, one of the only major pieces of legislation Congress passes annually, is closely watched by a broad swath of industry and other interests because it determines everything from purchases of ships and aircraft to pay increases for soldiers and how to address geopolitical threats.

The eventual House-Senate “conference” to hammer out a compromise bill is expected to be particularly contentious.

For example, Republican Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene on Friday warned that she will work to delete the authorization of new money for Ukraine. “That’s my ultimate goal,” she told reporters. Senate negotiators were expected to fight hard to retain such funding, however.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan and David Morgan; Editing by Ismail Shakil and David Gregorio)

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That is all the money raised between April 25, when Biden made his announcement, and the end of June, and includes donations to his campaign and to a network of joint fundraising arrangements with the national and state parties. By comparison, President Barack Obama raised $85.6 million during the April-to-June quarter in 2011 when he launched his campaign for a second term, though he announced his candidacy three weeks earlier that April than did Biden. Trump and the Republican National Committee raised $105 million in the second quarter of 2019.

Biden, who has cleared the field of any serious rivals for for the Democratic nomination, has nevertheless been confronting persistent concerns from within the party about voter enthusiasm for an 80-year-old candidate.

The campaign did not detail the sum raised directly by Biden’s campaign. That figure is set to be reported Saturday to the Federal Election Commission.

The campaign said the total came from nearly 400,000 donors, and that 97% of donations were under $200 and more than 30% of donors had not given to Biden in 2020.

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By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election team said on Friday that it and his Democratic Party raised $72 million during the first quarter since the campaign launched, lending firepower to his efforts to seek a second term.

Biden, who launched his campaign on April 25, had $77 million in cash on hand at the end of June across several affiliated fundraising entities and the Democratic Party.

Those funds give him the ability to push out advertisements in politically competitive swing states and start to build out a campaign team ahead of what could be a $1 billion campaign and the most expensive race in history.

The Republican front-runner, former President Donald Trump, raised more than $35 million during the April-June period, a campaign official had said. Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis raised $20 million in the same period, his campaign said.

Biden has one key advantage that his Republican would-be opponents do not: the backing and fundraising muscle of his party. He is not expected to face a serious challenge for his party’s nomination and his allies run the Democratic National Committee’s operations. Republicans, meanwhile, are spending some of their campaign funds on their fight against each other.

The closely watched Biden fundraising numbers are viewed as a test of enthusiasm among both grassroots and wealthy donors for Biden, 80, who fought doubts about his age in deciding to seek another four-year term in 2024. Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.

His figures compare with $105 million raised by then-President Trump and the Republican National Committee in the second quarter of 2019 as well as $86 million raised by President Barack Obama and the DNC in 2011.

Trump launched his campaign in June that year but had already started raising money, while Obama launched his campaign on April 4. That meant Obama had more time than Biden to raise money for the quarter, though there were lower caps on what donors were allowed to contribute under the law at the time.

The Biden campaign is required to submit more detailed financial records to the Federal Election Commission by Saturday.

“While Republicans are burning through resources in a divisive primary focused on who can take the most extreme MAGA positions, we are significantly outraising every single one of them – because our team’s strength is our grassroots supporters,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, in a statement.

Chavez Rodriguez has been running a lean operation, with just a handful of aides, often working remotely, no ribbon-cutting a headquarters and no spate of operatives fanning out across the dozen or so most decisive states.

The campaign has been holding more fundraising events for the wealthy than political rallies for the public, with 38 such fundraisers as Biden traveled around the country to small group events with top contributors. The campaign named top fundraiser and former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg as a campaign co-chair in a sign of how important cash hauls would be to Biden’s effort.

The decision to run lean could help the campaign weather a grueling 16-month campaign without exhausting its resources, leaving more to the crucial final months.

But the campaign could also miss early opportunities to build an organization, relationships and outreach in key states from Pennsylvania to Michigan and Georgia. Just 40% of Americans approve of Biden’s presidency, with the economy chief among their concerns, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed this week.

The campaign said the second-quarter donations came from 394,000 donors and that 30% were new contributors since the 2020 campaign.

(Reporting by Trevor HunnicuttEditing by Alistair Bell)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of a sweeping bill setting policy for the Department of Defense on Friday, but the “must-pass” bill’s chances of becoming law were uncertain after Republicans added a series of culturally conservative amendments.

The House passed its version of the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which sets policy for the Pentagon and authorizes $886 billion in spending, by a vote of 219-210.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Ismail Shakil)

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By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was among several witnesses to testify before a grand jury in recent weeks about the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing sources.

Testifying at a federal courthouse in Washington last month, Kushner, a former White House adviser to Trump, said it was his impression Trump truly believed the 2020 election was stolen, the Times reported, citing a person briefed on the matter.

Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland last November to take over two Justice Department investigations involving Trump.

In one case, Trump was indicted over his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House in January 2021. He pleaded not guilty. The second is an investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. election that the Republican Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

A spokesperson for Smith’s office declined to comment on the New York Times report. A representative for Kushner could not immediately be reached for comment.

Trump, the front-runner in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, faces other legal problems. Prosecutors in New York City charged him in April in a case involving an alleged 2016 hush-money payment to a porn star.

Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that he won the 2020 election and that Biden’s win resulted from fraud. Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed bid to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s win.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Howard Goller)

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