.By Mary Clare Jalonick and Eric Tucker
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., stepped aside as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday after the FBI served a search warrant for his phone as part of an ongoing insider-trading investigation tied to the coronavirus pandemic.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the move, saying he and Burr had agreed it was in the Senate's best interests.
FBI officials showed up at Burr's home with the warrant on Wednesday, marking a significant escalation into the Justice Department's investigation into whether Burr broke the law with a well-timed sale of stocks before the coronavirus caused markets to plummet,
The Justice Department declined to comment. His attorney did not respond to phone and email messages, but said last month that the law is clear that any senator can participate in stock market trading based on public information "as Sen. Burr did."
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Carlos Sanchez, news and politics editor at Texas Monthly, said that Ted Cruz has a "likeability" problem, showing low approval rankings in the Lone Star State.
Omarosa Manigault Newman, author of "Unhinged" and former White House staffer, said that President Trump won't be able to handle a blue wave in the midterms. Omarosa and Trump have been at odds since she was fired from the administration and wrote a book calling him unfit to lead
Victor Santos is what America is all about: Brazilian born, he came to the U.S. with his parents, graduated from Berkeley, worked at Google, and founded his own company to help "unbanked" people in the third world get access to basic banking infrastructure. But because of his status as a Dreamer, he could be deported.
Bettis, known as "The Bus" when he was an unstoppable running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, voiced support for the NFL player protests but also said he thought the league was "doing the right thing" in a tense situation.
The Vice President walks a fine line between unbreakable devotion to the president and keeping himself above the multiple scandals ensnaring the White House. Pete Eisner, co-author of "The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence," said that's no coincidence.
Marc Molinaro, the Republican candidate running to replace Andrew Cuomo as New York's governor, said his first action items would be cleaning up Albany and lowering property taxes. Molinaro trails Cuomo by more than 20 points.
Obama will be a galvanizing force on the trail for Democrats but could also rally the more moderate GOP base against the sitting president, said Eric Boehm of Reason.com.
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The Congressman who represents Silicon Valley told Cheddar that the new legislation he's co-authored with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is intended to force massive, profitable companies like Amazon to help lift workers at the bottom of the economic ladder. Otherwise, he said, Uncle Sam ends up footing the bill.
