Politico reports: Conservatives know they likely don’t have the votes to block President Joe Biden’s pick to run HHS, Xavier Becerra. But they’re launching new ad blitzes and pressure campaigns targeting Senate Democrats up for reelection and others they believe can be swayed, aiming to make a vote to confirm him a political liability. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who has …

Via email from hate group leader Tony Perkins: Ryan Anderson didn’t even know his book had been pulled. There was no warning, no notification from Amazon that the title had been removed. A reader tipped him off when he tried to buy a copy and couldn’t. That’s strange, Ryan thought, logging on to Amazon to see for himself. Sure enough …

The Associated Press reports: For Native Americans, Deb Haaland is more than an elected official on track to become the first Indigenous secretary of the Interior Department. She is a sister, an auntie and a fierce pueblo woman whose political stances have been molded by her upbringing. On Tuesday, Haaland’s confirmation hearing will be closely watched in tribal communities across …

The Washington Post reports: The public inquest into the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol begins a new phase Tuesday when four law enforcement officials — three of whom resigned their posts and some of whom have never before spoken publicly about the attack — face lawmakers aiming to uncover what led to the violence and prevent future unrest. …

The New York Post reports: A dad-to-be in upstate New York was killed when a device he was building for a gender reveal party exploded, state police said Monday. Christopher Pekny, 28, was working on the device for his child’s gender reveal party in the Catskills town of Liberty when it blew up just before noon on Sunday, cops said. …

ABC News reports: Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland will face another day of questioning Tuesday on how he’ll oversee probes ranging from the Jan. 6 Capitol breach to Hunter Biden’s business dealings — along with his stance on left-wing rioters in Portland and Seattle. Garland pledged during Monday’s hearing that handling the investigation into last month’s deadly siege on the …

“I’ve got plenty of ideas. You could save taxpayers $246 billion by canceling unemployment benefits that even the CBO is warning could result in more joblessness. How about this? No funds for schools that do not reopen immediately. Period. My sincerest apologies, President Biden, that we didn’t have time to go through the entire bill but those Ingraham Angle cuts …

Mediaite reports: “You dropped off your daughters in Mexico, you came home in a day, probably less than a day. You’re [in the news] like 24/7, because you dropped somebody off and you came back home. I still think you can be a father and senator at the same time,” Hannity said. Cruz said this in response: “I think the …

“The ability to work was once considered a human right, one of the most basic human rights, but then a lot of things were once considered basic human rights. Remember ‘my body, my choice’? You’ve heard people chant that for 50 years, as recently as 2019 Kamala Harris endorsed that idea. “Yeah, it’s your body, it’s your right, oh sorry, …

The New York Daily News reports: Rudy Giuliani spent a week dodging service of a $1.3 billion lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems after publicly declaring he was ready for the legal fight, a source told the Daily News. “After not responding to requests to waive service, Mr. Giuliani evaded in-person service of process for nearly a week. It took …

Earlier this month the CEO of the far-right social media platform Gab declared that he will no longer respond to interview requests from the “pagan” media and will only speak to Christian outlets. Last night he publicly took his brand of Christian nationalism to the next step: After Gab CEO Andrew Torba posted his ideal view of the nation with …

The Hollywood Reporter reports: George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures will produce a docuseries about a decades-long abuse scandal in the athletic department at Ohio State University. The series, which hasn’t found an outlet yet, is based on an October 2020 Sports Illustrated story by Jon Wertheim, which detailed a long list of allegations against former Ohio State sports …

The Huffington Post reports: Chris Cuomo invited Matt Schlapp, the chair of the American Conservative Union, onto his CNN show Monday to explain why ex-President Donald Trump has been invited to address the organization’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this week. But the interview soon went off-the-rails as Cuomo was forced to debunk Schlapp’s repeated lies about “widespread voter fraud,” …

Deadline Hollywood reports: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said movie theaters in New York City will be brought into line with the rest of New York state as of March 5, when they will be allowed to reopen at 25% capacity with no more than 50 people per screen, masks, social distancing and other protocols. The guidelines include …

The Hill reports: The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has disinvited from its 2021 event a featured speaker with a history of making anti-Semitic remarks. “We have just learned that someone we invited to CPAC has expressed reprehensible views that have no home with our conference or our organization,” CPAC tweeted on Monday. “The individual will not be participating at …

Via press release from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Less than one week after urging House Republicans to block $160 billion in funding for vaccines to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, Minority Whip Steve Scalise is using his position to elevate Republicans who have publicly urged Americans not to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Scalise is scheduled to lead a CPAC panel with …

Buffalo’s ABC News affiliate reports: Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old man seen being pushed to the ground during last June’s protests in Niagara Square, has filed a civil suit against the City of Buffalo, Mayor Byron Brown, Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood, Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia, and Officers Robert McCabe, Aaron Torgalski, and John Losi. Gugino’s attorneys, Richard P. Weisbeck Jr., …

The Texas Tribune reports: At the height of last week’s winter storm that left millions of Texans without access to heat and clean water, Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, were out of state on a “previously planned” business trip to Utah, a spokesman confirmed. On the day of Paxton’s Wednesday meeting, the state’s electrical …

ABC News reports: President Joe Biden plans to mark the milestone of 500,000 Americans killed by the COVID-19 virus with a somber ceremony Monday evening at the White House. First lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will join Biden in a candle-lighting ceremony outside on the White House South Portico at sunset followed by …

The Hill reports: The senators, led by Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), urged Biden in a letter to withdraw the nomination of Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, arguing he is unqualified to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The senators wrote that Becerra has “no meaningful experience in health care, public health, large-scale logistics, or any other areas critical …