Articles written by Adriana Gomez Licon


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  • Trump says his New York rally was 'an absolute lovefest'

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and MICHELLE L. PRICE|Oct 30, 2024

    ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Urged by some allies to apologize for racist comments made by speakers at his weekend rally, Donald Trump took the opposite approach on Tuesday, saying it was an "honor to be involved" in such an event and calling the scene a "lovefest" — the same term he has used to describe the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Trump gathered supporters and reporters to his Mar-a-Lago resort two days after a massive rally at Madison Square Garden featured a number of crude remarks by various speakers, including a set by com...

  • Trump visits Texas to tape Joe Rogan's podcast and to criticize Harris on immigration

    JILL COLVIN and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Oct 25, 2024

    AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Donald Trump tried Friday to turn a major celebratory event for Kamala Harris into an attack line tied to one of his favorite subjects, immigration. Hours before the vice president was scheduled to appear with superstar Beyoncé in Houston, Trump made his own stop in Texas and accused Harris of hanging out with "woke celebrities" but not with the families of people who have been killed by migrants. With 11 days until the election, Trump and Harris both took a detour from their travels in battleground states for brief forays...

  • Trump heads to Colorado to drive his anti-immigration message

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Oct 11, 2024

    Donald Trump is detouring from the battleground states Friday to visit a Colorado suburb that's been in the news over illegal immigration as he drives a message that migrants are causing chaos in smaller American cities and towns, often using false or misleading claims to do so. Trump's rally in Aurora will mark the first time ahead of the November election that either presidential campaign has visited Colorado, which reliably votes Democratic statewide. The Republican nominee has long promised to stage the largest deportation operation in...

  • Melania Trump calls her husband's survival of assassination attempts 'miracles'

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Sep 27, 2024

    In her first interview in more than two years, former First Lady Melania Trump said she saw her husband's survival in two attempts on his life as "miracles" and offered new details about the former president, including his desire to have more children. The Slovenian-born former fashion model has remained somewhat of an enigma in the 2024 election cycle, staying largely absent from the campaign trail, breaking norms in not speaking at the Republican National Convention and skipping key moments for her husband, Donald Trump, including his...

  • Trump and Zelenskyy meet in New York as election holds high stakes for US support for Ukraine

    MICHELLE L. PRICE and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Sep 27, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met face-to-face with Donald Trump on Friday with public tensions rising between the two over Ukraine's defense against Russia's invasion and in the midst of the U.S. presidential election. "We both want to see this end, and we both want to see a fair deal made," Trump told Fox News, referring to the Russia-Ukraine fighting while standing alongside Zelenskyy after meeting for 40 minutes. "The president wants it to end, and he wants it to end as quickly as possible. He wants a fair t...

  • Trump escalates attacks on Harris' mental fitness and suggests she should be prosecuted

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and COLLEEN LONG|Sep 27, 2024

    ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump escalated his personal attacks on his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, on Sunday by repeating an insult that she was "mentally impaired" while also saying she should be "impeached and prosecuted." Trump's rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, took on similar themes as an event one day earlier that he described himself as a "dark speech." He told a cheering crowd that Harris was responsible for an "invasion" at the U.S.-Mexico border and "she should be impeached and prosecuted for her a...

  • Trump makes false claims about federal response as he campaigns in area ravaged by Hurricane Helene

    CHRISTINE FERNANDO and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Sep 27, 2024

    VALDOSTA, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump repeatedly spread falsehoods Monday about the federal response to Hurricane Helene despite claiming not to be politicizing the disaster as he toured hard-hit areas in south Georgia. The former president and Republican nominee claimed upon landing in Valdosta that President Joe Biden was "sleeping" and not responding to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who he said was "calling the president and hasn't been able to get him." He repeated the claim at an event with reporters after being told Kemp said he had spoken to B...

  • Trump suggests tariffs can help solve rising child care costs in a major economic speech

    JILL COLVIN and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Sep 6, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump suggested to business leaders Thursday that his plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports would solve seemingly unrelated challenges such as the rising cost of child care in the U.S. The GOP presidential nominee promised to lead what he called a "national economic renaissance" by increasing tariffs, slashing regulations to boost energy production and drastically cutting government spending as well as corporate taxes for companies that produce in the U.S. Trump was asked at his appearance before t...

  • Harris will sit down with CNN for her first interview since launching presidential bid

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Aug 28, 2024

    Vice President Kamala Harris is sitting down with CNN this week for her first interview since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid. She will be joined by her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in a joint interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash in Savannah, Georgia. The interview will air at 9 p.m. Thursday Eastern time. Harris has been criticized for not holding news conferences or granting interviews with news outlets since Biden stepped aside on July 21. Donald Trump's campaign has kept a tally of the days she has gone by as a...

  • Trump uses a stretch of border wall and a pile of steel beams in Arizona to contrast with Democrats

    JONATHAN J. COOPER and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Aug 23, 2024

    SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (AP) — On a dirt road below the shrub-dotted hills of Arizona, Donald Trump used a stretch of wall and a pile of steel beams to draw a visual contrast between his approach to securing the border and that of his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump brought along grieving mothers, the sheriff of Cochise County and the head of the Border Patrol union to echo his tough-on-border security message at Thursday's visit, which was themed "Make America Safe Again." "To my right is what we call Trump wall. This w...

  • Trump zigzags between economic remarks and personal insults at rally in critical Pennsylvania

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and MICHAEL RUBINKAM|Aug 16, 2024

    WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Saturday repeatedly swerved from a message focused on the economy into non sequiturs and personal attacks, including thrice declaring that he was better looking than Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump wound back and forth between hitting his points on economic policy and delivering a smattering of insults and impressions of President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron as he held a rally in northeastern Pennsylvania. The former president has seemed to struggle to adjust to hi...

  • Republican Convention turns to immigration and the border, central issues for Trump's campaign

    MICHELLE L. PRICE and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Jul 17, 2024

    MILWAUKEE (AP) — Immigration took center stage as the Republican National Convention resumed Tuesday, with speakers spotlighting a key element of former President Donald Trump 's political brand that helped endear him to the GOP base when he began his first campaign in 2015. Among speakers slated for Tuesday night were families who've been impacted by violent crime — part of a GOP strategy to link crime to border policies. They include the family of Rachel Morin, a Maryland woman whom prosecutors say was killed and raped by a fugitive from El...

  • A Trump-owned company sells $299 sneakers with an image of his bloodied face after rally shooting

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Jul 17, 2024

    MILWAUKEE (AP) — A company is now selling $299 sneakers showing an image of Donald Trump with streaks of blood on his cheek and pumping his fist in the air after he was the target of an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. The white high tops are being sold as "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT High-Tops" for $299 on a website that sells Trump-branded shoes that is run by CIC Ventures LLC, a company that Trump reported owning in his 2023 financial disclosure. The company says the new shoes are limited edition with only 5,000 pairs available and estimated t...

  • Trump is limited in what he can say about his court case. His GOP allies are showing up to help

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|May 10, 2024

    Former President Donald Trump is limited in what he can publicly say as he fights charges that he made payments to a porn actor to illegally influence the 2016 election. But he's getting help from some GOP allies who are glad to show up and talk. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida was the latest surrogate to accompany Trump, joining him Thursday for the 14th day of his hush money trial in New York. Last week, it was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who joined the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. The Republicans' courtroom presence can help...

  • Trump says Arizona's abortion ban goes too far while defending the overturning of Roe v. Wade

    BILL BARROW and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Apr 10, 2024

    ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump said Wednesday that an Arizona law that criminalizes nearly all abortions goes too far and called on Arizona lawmakers to change it, while also defending the overturning of Roe v. Wade that cleared states to ban the procedure. "It'll be straightened out and as you know, it's all about states' rights," the former president told supporters and journalists after landing in Atlanta for a fundraiser. "It'll be straightened out, and I'm sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason and t...

  • DeSantis launches GOP presidential campaign in Twitter announcement plagued by glitches

    STEVE PEOPLES and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|May 24, 2023

    MIAMI (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched his 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday with firm words but a disastrous Twitter announcement that did little to counter criticism that the 44-year-old Republican may not be ready to take on former President Donald Trump. While he tried to project confidence, DeSantis' unusual decision to announce his campaign in an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk ultimately backfired. The audio stream crashed repeatedly, making it virtually impossible for most users to hear the new p...

  • Midterms full of firsts for female, Black, LGBTQ candidates

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Nov 9, 2022

    A Massachusetts Democrat is the country's first openly lesbian candidate to be elected to the office of governor. In Maryland, voters elected the state's first Black governor. Vermont will finally send a woman to Congress, after being the only state not to ever have female representation in the House. Across the country, women, LGBTQ and Black candidates broke barriers as part of a new generation of politicians elected to governor's offices and seats in Congress. The number of women serving as governors will hit double digits for the first...

  • Hurricane Ian heads for Carolinas after pounding Florida

    MEG KINNARD and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Sep 30, 2022

    CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A revived Hurricane Ian set its sights on South Carolina's coast Friday and the historic city of Charleston, with forecasters predicting a storm surge and floods after the megastorm caused catastrophic damage in Florida and left people trapped in their homes. With all of South Carolina's coast under a hurricane warning, a steady stream of vehicles left Charleston on Thursday, many likely heeding officials' warnings to seek higher ground. Storefronts were sandbagged to ward off high water levels in an area prone to i...

  • Ian lashes South Carolina as Florida's death toll climbs

    MEG KINNARD and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Sep 30, 2022

    CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A revived Hurricane Ian pounded coastal South Carolina on Friday, ripping apart piers and flooding streets after the ferocious storm caused catastrophic damage in Florida, trapping thousands in their homes and leaving at least 17 people dead. The powerful storm, estimated to be one of the costliest hurricanes ever to hit the U.S., has terrorized people for much of the week — pummeling western Cuba and raking across Florida before gathering strength in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean to curve back and strike Sou...

  • Uvalde children grapple with trauma after school massacre

    ACACIA CORONADO and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Sep 4, 2022

    UVALDE, Texas (AP) — One girl runs and hides when she sees thin people with long hair similar to the gunman who stormed into her Uvalde school and killed 21 people. One boy stopped making friends and playing with animals. A third child feels her heart race when she's reminded of the May 24 massacre that killed a close friend — once at such a dangerous pace that she had to be rushed to a hospital, where she stayed for weeks. The 11-year-old girl has been diagnosed with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She and her family sp...

  • For Parkland survivor, a long road to recovery from trauma

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|May 8, 2022

    HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — More than a year after she witnessed a gunman kill three fellow students and injure five others in her Parkland classroom, Eden Hebron came home from lunch to find a strange white car parked in her driveway. Since the shooting, surprise visitors were rare. Eden had struggled to cope, and her family tried to protect her. Now, nearly 20 months after the Valentine's Day massacre where 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a therapist had arrived to send Eden to a mental health facility on the other s...

  • Florida grapples with COVID-19's deadliest phase yet

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and KELLI KENNEDY|Sep 5, 2021

    MIAMI (AP) — Funeral director Wayne Bright has seen grief piled upon grief during the latest COVID-19 surge. A woman died of the virus, and as her family was planning the funeral, her mother was also struck down. An aunt took over arrangements for the double funeral, only to die of COVID-19 herself two weeks afterward. "That was one of the most devastating things ever," said Bright, who also arranged the funeral last week of one of his closest friends. Florida is in the grip of its deadliest wave of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, a d...

  • Virus claims more young victims as deaths climb yet again

    ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and KELLI KENNEDY|Aug 15, 2021

    MIAMI (AP) — A young mother had just celebrated her first wedding anniversary and was one of six members of a Jacksonville church to die over a 10-day span. Another Florida woman had just given birth to her first child, but was only able to hold the newborn girl for a few moments before dying. A California man died a few weeks shy of his 53rd birthday while his wife was on a ventilator at the same hospital in Oakland, unaware of his passing on Aug. 4. The COVID-19 death toll has started soaring again as the delta variant tears through the n...

  • Search of collapsed condo shifts from rescue to recovery

    TERRY SPENCER and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Jul 7, 2021

    SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — Emergency workers gave up Wednesday on any hope of finding survivors in a collapsed Florida condo building, telling sobbing families that there was "no chance of life" in the rubble as crews shifted their efforts to recovering more remains. The announcement followed increasingly somber reports from emergency officials, who said they sought to prepare families for the worst. Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah told families at a private briefing Wednesday afternoon that crews would stop using rescue dogs and list...

  • Death toll in Florida collapse rises to 4; 159 still missing

    TERRY SPENCER and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON|Jun 25, 2021

    SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — With nearly 160 people unaccounted for and at least four dead after a seaside condominium tower collapsed into a smoldering heap of twisted metal and concrete, rescuers used both heavy equipment and their own hands to comb through the wreckage on Friday in an increasingly desperate search for survivors. As scores of firefighters in Surfside, just north of Miami, toiled to locate and reach anyone still alive in the remains of the 12-story Champlain Towers South, hopes rested on how quickly crews using dogs and m...

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