Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev offered Thursday to make further unilateral reductions in the Soviet Union’s large arsenal of tactical nuclear missiles as soon as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agrees to open negotiations on the issue. Challenging NATO’s unity on this and other key disarmament issues, Gorbachev also proposed preliminary talks with the United … Read more
This is the second of four stump speeches by the major presidential candidates who appear on the June 2 California primary ballot. This is an abbreviated version of a speech Democrat Bill Clinton gave in Birmingham, Ala., on April 30–the second night of the Los Angeles riots–as transcribed by his campaign. Normally when I give … Read more
Senators running for reelection in 1988 are raising far more money in the early stages of the election cycle than they did in their previous races and are far more dependent on campaign contributions from political action committees, according to a study released by Common Cause. The Senate’s champion fund-raiser so far, according to the … Read more
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on reproductive freedom at El Rio Neighborhood Center in Tucson, Ariz., on Friday. (Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images) When a group of crossover voters was asked during a focus group about Vice President Kamala Harris, their assessments were brutal: If she is helping Biden, you don’t see … Read more
Matt Whitaker is under pressure to recuse himself from the Russia investigation while serving as acting attorney general. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) House Democrats scrambled Thursday to shield the special counsel investigation after the new acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, signaled he would not recuse himself from supervising the high-stakes probe even though he … Read more
Fred Karger, campaigning in 2012, wants recognition as the first openly gay candidate to seek a major party’s presidential nomination. (Don Leach) Fred Karger wants to set the record straight — no misunderstanding, no doubt, no confusion — once and for all. “I have the distinction of being the first openly gay major party candidate … Read more
The Chevron oil refinery on a stormy day in El Segundo. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) Democratic lawmakers denounced the leaders of the some of the world’s largest oil companies Thursday, accusing executives of Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell and Chevron of spending decades downplaying, or outright denying, the scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels … Read more
When John Edwards admitted Friday that he lied about his affair with filmmaker Rielle Hunter, a former employee of his campaign, he may have ended his public life but he certainly ratified an end to the era in which traditional media set the agenda for national political journalism. From the start, the Edwards scandal has … Read more
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. (Associated Press) As a law professor, Elena Kagan once described Supreme Court confirmation hearings as a “valid and hollow charade,” because modern-day nominees rarely reveal their views on issues to avoid compromising their impartiality in future cases. Then, in 2010, as a nominee … Read more
A student walks into Berkeley High School in 2019. (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press) As fallout over the Israel-Hamas war grows, the head of the embattled Berkeley public school district is being summoned to Washington, D.C., to testify in front of congressional members amid allegations of antisemitism in her schools. Berkeley Unified Supt. Enikia Ford … Read more