Politics

Mediaite reports: In the immediate aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999, the leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) gathered on a conference call to discuss damage control and their upcoming conference in Denver, set to take place just miles away and days after the deadly shooting. NPR obtained tapes of that call and revealed their …

NBC News reports: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu announced Tuesday that he will not run for Senate in 2022, delivering a blow to Republicans’ chances of regaining control of the chamber. Sununu, during a news conference in Concord, said he instead would seek a fourth two-year term as governor. “My responsibility is not to the gridlock and politics of Washington, …

The Associated Press reports: New Jersey Republican Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign denied Monday that there was fraud in this year’s governor’s election but his campaign’s attorney said the margin could shrink enough to warrant a recount. The statement from Ciattarelli’s campaign comes after the Associated Press declared Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy the winner last week. Murphy’s lead has grown from less …

The Washington Post reports: Virginians already knew Glenn Youngkin was enormously wealthy when they elected him governor, but now, the governor-elect is offering a peek at how he got that way. Days after Youngkin’s win, his campaign offered The Washington Post a summary covering the past five tax years. It indicates he made $127 million over that period, $59 million …

The Hill reports: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Sunday likened the claims that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was a “false flag operation” to individuals who say the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were an “inside job.” Asked by host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” if there is any truth to arguments that the Jan. 6 attack was …

Forbes reports: SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk just launched a Twitter poll that is literally worth over $25 billion. Musk, who doesn’t take a significant salary and whose wealth is therefore protected from taxation as his companies’ valuations grow, is asking his Twitter followers if he should sell Tesla stock in order to pay tax. This is no idle …

Politico reports: New York City mayor-elect Eric Adams plans to convert his first paychecks into Bitcoin, as he vowed Thursday to make the city more welcoming to cryptocurrency. Adams announced in a Twitter post that he would take his first three paychecks in Bitcoin when he becomes mayor. Adams was responding to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who said he will …

CNN reports: Rep. Adam Kinzinger is actively weighing whether to seek his political fortunes in the Senate, the Illinois governor’s mansion or even the White House, despite serious questions about whether there’s any future at all for a Donald Trump critic like him in today’s GOP. Acknowledging his potential career options and timeline for the first time since announcing his …

The New York Times reports: Federal authorities on Thursday arrested an analyst who in 2016 gathered leads about possible links between Donald J. Trump and Russia for what turned out to be Democratic-funded opposition research, according to people familiar with the matter. The arrest of the analyst, Igor Danchenko, is part of the special counsel inquiry led by John H. …

“What went wrong is just stupid wokeness. Don’t just look at Virginia and New Jersey. Look at Long Island, look at Buffalo, look at Minneapolis, even look at Seattle, Wash. “I mean, this ‘defund the police’ lunacy, this take Abraham Lincoln’s name off of schools. I mean that — people see that. It’s just really — has a suppressive effect …

Law & Crime reports: Hearing oral arguments in a major Second Amendment case on Wednesday, Supreme Court justices considered whether to dramatically loosen gun control restrictions across the county, spiraling into a debate over whether New Yorkers should be able to carry firearms on the subway. From the high court’s right flank, Justice Samuel Alito answered that question in the …

Minneapolis’s CBS News affiliate reports: Incumbent Jacob Frey has been re-elected as mayor of Minneapolis. Minneapolis election officials announced Frey as the winner Wednesday afternoon. According to the Associated Press, Frey secured 56% of the vote, with Kate Knuth getting 44% of the vote. Following the first-round ballot tabulations Tuesday evening, Frey did not have enough votes to be declared …

The Daily Beast reports: The judge presiding over the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial in Wisconsin slammed media coverage of the highly-divisive case on Wednesday. “There are people on the media, on reputable sites, that are saying things that are totally bizarre,” Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder said in a sprawling rant after sending the jurors out of the …

ABC News reports: Last call could come three hours earlier in Miami Beach, where a majority of voters fed up with nighttime violence chose “Yes” to rolling back the 5 a.m. closing time for alcohol sales. The voter referendum was held Tuesday in response to increasingly raucous crowds and public drinking in the South Beach entertainment district, where tension has …

NBC News reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Wednesday that family and medical paid leave is back in the massive social safety net spending package, but its inclusion in the final draft hinges on support from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a key centrist. “I have asked the Ways and Means Committee for its legislation for Paid Family and Medical Leave …

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court, which has not issued a major Second Amendment decision in more than a decade, will hear arguments on Wednesday on a New York law that imposes strict limits on carrying guns outside the home. The question of how the Second Amendment applies to carrying guns in public is an open one. When …

The Daily Beast reports: A gun control nonprofit founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (R-AZ) sued the National Rifle Association on Tuesday, filing a federal lawsuit alleging that the gun rights group carried out an illegal, multimillion-dollar political coordination scheme that went on for years to the benefit of Donald Trump and other Republicans. It could also be a landmark …

CNN reports: Voters in the city rejected a ballot measure to overhaul policing drafted amid the national fury over George Floyd’s murder by a police officer but that went to voters as rising concerns about gun violence drained energy from the protest movement that had launched it. CNN on Tuesday projected that Minneapolis Question 2 had failed, effectively ending a …

The Boston Globe reports: Michelle Wu, the 36-year-old daughter of Taiwanese immigrants and a Boston Public Schools mother who pitched a once parochial city on an unabashedly progressive agenda, captured the Boston mayoralty by a wide margin on Tuesday, shattering barriers to mark a new era in one of the nation’s most durable bastions of white male political power. Wu …

The Associated Press reports: New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Republican Jack Ciattarelli were virtually deadlocked early Wednesday after a campaign centered on the incumbent’s progressive policies and handling of the pandemic. Murphy had been leading in the polls, has a 1 million-voter registration advantage and had more cash in his campaign coffers than Ciattarelli in the final days …