El-Sayed Apologizes for March Comment About Michigan Synagogue Attack

© Emily Elconin for The New York Times

© Emily Elconin for The New York Times
Ex-House intel committee chair, now running against Abdul El-Sayed, instead saw photo of Osama bin Laden’s body
In a recent fundraising email, the Republican candidate for Michigan’s open US Senate seat, former congressman Mike Rogers, appeared to mislead supporters about his past by suggesting that he had played an active role in the killing of Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida who was shot and killed in an American military raid on his compound in Pakistan in 2011.
“When I served as a US army officer and an FBI special agent, I swore a sacred oath to defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Rogers wrote, according to a screenshot of the email shared online by Azi Paybarah, a former Washington Post reporter now with Straight Arrow News. “I dedicated my life to keeping our families safe – working in the shadows, hunting down terrorists, and standing on the frontlines of our national security.”
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Paul Sancya/AP

© Photograph: Paul Sancya/AP

© Photograph: Paul Sancya/AP

© Meridith Kohut for The New York Times
Newly obtained records indicate health secretary lied about Samoa trip during Senate confirmation hearings last year
A senior Democratic senator is calling for a criminal investigation into the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, following reporting by the Guardian that indicated he lied during Senate confirmation hearings last year.
Ron Wyden of Oregon said: “RFK’s platform is built on lies and grifts that leave a trail of dead children in their wake. There are consequences for lying to Congress.”
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Michael Swensen/Getty Images

© Photograph: Michael Swensen/Getty Images

© Photograph: Michael Swensen/Getty Images
Representative Mike Collins has been dogged by associations to white nationalism and antisemitism
The US senator for Georgia Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, has slammed a “disgraceful and disqualifying” report that a former staffer for his Trump-backed Republican challenger Mike Collins shared images online of a swastika and depicting himself in Ku Klux Klan robes.
It is the latest instance of someone in Collins’s orbit facing scrutiny over racist or white nationalist conduct. Ossoff called the report “stunning” and said it “should shock the conscience of every Georgian”.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

© Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

© Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

© Meridith Kohut for The New York Times
Letters obtained by Guardian and AP contradict testimony that 2019 visit to Samoa had ‘nothing to do with vaccines’
Newly obtained documents indicate that the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, lied during two congressional hearings last year, when he told lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation that a 2019 visit to Samoa had “nothing to do with vaccines”.
Letters obtained by the Guardian and the Associated Press contradict that testimony. In one he wrote to the Samoan prime minister before the trip, Kennedy explicitly said he wanted to study the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in the Pacific island nation. In it, he used the words “vaccine” or “vaccination” eight times.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

© Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

© Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
This live blog is now closed.
A US military strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean on Tuesday killed four people, officials said.
US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said in a post on X that the strike targeted a vessel “operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean.”
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

© Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

© Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

© Jason Andrew for The New York Times
The incumbent senator Dan S Sullivan has condemned ex-school teacher Dan J Sullivan, claiming he is running at the behest of Democrats to confuse supporters
Dan S Sullivan, the Republican senator, will be joined on the November ballot in Alaska by a challenger with a nearly identical name from the same party, election officials confirmed on Tuesday, adding a twist to what is expected to be one of the most hotly contested races of the midterms.
The Republican senator is running for a third term against Democrat Mary Peltola, a former US House representative whom polls show is neck-and-neck with him in a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 2008.
Continue reading...
© Composite: Sullivan for Senate, CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

© Composite: Sullivan for Senate, CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

© Composite: Sullivan for Senate, CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

© Christopher Miller for The New York Times

© Sean Rayford for The New York Times
Darline Graham, sister of late Lindsey Graham and backed by Trump, overcomes concern about lack of experience
South Carolina voters have chosen Darline Graham as the Republican nominee for US Senate, the seat formerly held by her late brother, Lindsey, on November’s ballot.
Darline Graham, with Donald Trump’s full-throated support, overcame concern about her lack of legislative experience to beat five-term congressman Ralph Norman in Tuesday’s Republican special primary runoff.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters

© Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters

© Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters

© Sean Rayford for The New York Times

© Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times

© Alex Kent/The New York Times

© Will Crooks for The New York Times

© Sean Rayford for The New York Times

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

© Sean Rayford for The New York Times
The Republican Senate candidate announced the plan with a graphic flagged as ‘Made with AI’
Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the US Senate in Texas, has unveiled plans to tackle the “negative impact” of datacenters amid a growing backlash across the political spectrum.
Paxton, endorsed by Donald Trump but facing a close contest against Democrat James Talarico, posted a “Texas first” datacenter plan on X with a graphic that the social media network flagged as “Made with AI”.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Loren Elliott for The New York Times
Republican nominee to face Democrat Annie Andrews in midterm after rushed campaigns for Lindsey Graham’s seat
Reese Boyd, the chair of the Horry county Republican party marveled on Monday afternoon at how little time Senator Darline Graham and Representative Ralph Norman have had to campaign for the Senate primary: “This is not the normal way of things.”
“This is something that usually lasts at least, you know, the better part of a year,” he said. “People normally spend the better part of 18 months getting ready for it. Who knows? This may be the right way to do it? Who knows.”
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Edison Wu/The New York Times

© Meg Kinnard/Associated Press

© Nick Hagen for The New York Times

© The New York Times, left, Reuters

© Alex Kent/The New York Times

© Will Crooks for The New York Times
The Democratic and the Republican candidate each blame the other for the bungled recovery effort after storm struck region
Two years after North Carolina suffered the worst natural disaster in its history when Hurricane Helene struck the state’s western half, life in the hardest-hit areas appears back to normal. Downtowns are lively, blocked roads have been reopened and rivers are flowing below their banks.
But the telltale evidence of the disaster’s expensive impacts can still be seen – from “for rent” signs in storefronts whose businesses never came back to debris from the storm still lurking in some waterways. And in the race for North Carolina’s US Senate seat, it’s almost as if the hurricane never left.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Endorsement of Republican incumbent over challenger with same name adds twist to unusual campaign in Alaska
Dan Sullivan supports Dan Sullivan against Dan Sullivan in Alaska’s US Senate election, says a former Alaskan mayor who recently backed the race’s Republican incumbent over a challenger sharing their name.
That development provided another of multiple absurd elements to Dan S Sullivan’s campaign for a third term in the US Senate, which – beside Mary Peltola, a former Alaska Democratic congresswoman – has drawn opposition from Dan J Sullivan.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Mark Thiessen; Becky Bohrer/AP

© Photograph: Mark Thiessen; Becky Bohrer/AP

© Photograph: Mark Thiessen; Becky Bohrer/AP

© Alex Hecht for The New York Times

© Paul Sancya/Associated Press

© Al Drago for The New York Times
Michigan Senate nominee and others have re-energized one-time Democratic voters who abandoned the party under Biden
Two years ago, Zainab Bibi Ahmed thought she had turned her back on the Democrats for good. Now, she is volunteering for the party’s US Senate nominee in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed.
Ahmed was one of 100,000 people to vote uncommitted in the February 2024 Democratic Michigan primary, in a bid to send a message to then US president Joe Biden about his support for Israel, as people watched what Amnesty International later called a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza on their screens.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

© Aubrey Trinnaman for The New York Times

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

© Madeleine Hordinski for The New York Times
Kassebaum Baker became the first woman elected to the US Senate without following a spouse into office
Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a Kansas governor’s daughter who became the first woman elected to the US Senate without following a spouse into office, has died. She was 94.
Kassebaum Baker died on Friday of natural causes, according to her son, Bill Kassebaum.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

© Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

© Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

© Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

© Saul Martinez for The New York Times

© Alex Kent/The New York Times

© Sean Rayford/Getty Images

© Kerry Tasker/Reuters; Eric Lee for The New York Times

© Saul Martinez for The New York Times

© Ash Adams for The New York Times

© Eric Lee/The New York Times

© Meg Kinnard/Associated Press