Politics

Paxton Paid Impeachment Lawyers With Donor Money

The Texas Tribune reports: Attorney General Ken Paxton tapped his campaign funds to pay $2.3 million on legal fees related to his impeachment trial over the last six months, according to a new campaign finance report. The report, which was published Thursday, is the first time Paxton has had to disclose his campaign spending since July. The House impeached him …

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Putin Orders Hunt For Assets Of Former Soviet Union

Bloomberg News reports: Vladimir Putin is going on a property hunt, ordering officials to find Russian assets that once belonged to its former empire or were owned by the Soviet Union. An order from the Russian president published late Thursday allocated funding for a state unit to conduct searches for property abroad and ensure Russia’s ownership rights are registered. The …

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Nikki Haley: I’d Only Pardon Trump If He’s Convicted

Fox News reports: GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said that pardoning former President Trump would be “healing for the country” as she took tough questions from voters days ahead of the New Hampshire primary election. During Haley’s town hall on CNN, the former United Nations ambassador said she would pardon Trump if elected, but only if the GOP frontrunner were …

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Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley Released From Hospital

CNN reports: Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa has been discharged from the hospital after being treated for an infection, his office announced Thursday. He is expected to be back at work next week, according to the short statement from the office. At 90 years old, Grassley is the oldest member of the US Senate. He was elected to the …

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LIVE VIDEO: House Votes On Bill To Avert Shutdown

NPR reports: House Speaker Mike Johnson has been under pressure from his right flank to scrap the budget agreement with Schumer, and the bill to keep the government running will need Democratic support to pass the Republican-majority House. Johnson has insisted he will stick with the deal as moderates in the party have urged him not to back out. It …

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No Labels Offers Slot To Nikki Haley, She Says Nope

Politico reports: “If Gov. Haley does not succeed in obtaining the Republican nomination for president and she declares any interest in being part of our bipartisan unity ticket, I’m sure the people at No Labels would give that the most serious consideration, but obviously she’s not done that because she’s an active Republican candidate for president,” said Joe Lieberman, a …

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DeSantis: Haley Should Drop Out If She Can’t Win Her Home State (He’s 39 Points Behind Trump In Florida)

Florida Politics reports: “What is her path in South Carolina? Because I don’t think if you lose your home state that you can continue,” he said of Nikki Haley on Good Morning New Hampshire. However, a quick look at state-level polling shows DeSantis and Haley have the same problem in their respective home states, in that they both trail Donald …

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Fani Willis To Face Hearing Over Misconduct Allegations

The Washington Post reports: A state judge overseeing the election-interference case against former president Donald Trump in Georgia has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 15 to hear evidence regarding accusations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) and her lead prosecutor engaged in an improper relationship and mishandled public money. Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee also wrote in …

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No Labels Files DOJ Complaint Over “Ballot Conspiracy”

The Hill reports: No Labels filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice over what leaders contend are organizations engaging in a “conspiracy” to interfere with its ballot access effort. During a press briefing on Thursday, group leaders alleged a “brazen” attempt among mostly Democratic aligned outside groups to curb its work to build popular support for a unity …

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LIVE VIDEO: House Hearing On Impeaching Mayorkas

CBS News reports: House Republicans are moving quickly on advancing impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. At Thursday’s hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee said, lawmakers will hear from an Arizona sheriff and people whose family members have died as a result of fentanyl overdoses or violent crime. Republicans have repeatedly accused Mayorkas of failing to enforce …

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Absences Bring House GOP Majority To Almost Nothing

The New York Times reports: This week, with lawmakers absent for medical reasons and the recent not-so-voluntary departures of the ousted former speaker Kevin McCarthy and the expelled Mr. Santos, the best G.O.P. attendance that Speaker Mike Johnson can muster as he tries to avoid a government shutdown is the bare-minimum 218 votes. That is before factoring in the impact …

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Missouri Sees Push For Abortion Rights Ballot Measure

St. Louis’s NBC affiliate reports: After months of private deliberations, the abortion-rights campaign Missourians for Constitutional Freedom has launched a new website asking abortion advocates to circulate petitions on a ballot question that would restore some legal abortions in Missouri. The website, which appears to have gone public Thursday night, promotes a plan that would “end the government’s cruel ban …

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Germany Detains Schwarzenegger Over Luxury Watch

The Washington Post reports: Germany has launched criminal tax proceedings against Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is accused of failing to declare a luxury watch upon landing in Munich. The Hollywood star and former governor of California, 76, was held for three hours after disembarking a flight from Los Angeles, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman Daniel Ketchell, who was on the flight, told The Washington …

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Carville Suggests Trump Has “Secondary Syphilis”

“If you go to the Drudge Report, and I think it will still be up, there is a story that talks about Trump having hand cuts and you can link to it. They don’t look like cuts to me. They look like sores. And I’ve asked a number of MDs what medical condition manifests itself through hand sores and the …

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Ex-Rep. Dennis Kucinich Files Ohio Bid For US House

Cleveland.com reports: He’s baaack. Former Democratic Cleveland mayor, congressman and longshot presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich filed paperwork at the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday that indicates he’s running as an independent for the congressional seat held by Rocky River Republican Rep. Max Miller. Kucinich has previously run for office as a Democrat. He missed the December deadline to run in …

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Johnson “Not Worried” About Threats To Oust Him

The Messenger reports: CNN’s Kaitlin Collins asked the House Speaker if he was concerned over threats to his position. “No, I have a job to do,” Johnson said. “We all have to do our jobs. Marjorie Taylor Greene is very upset about the lack of oversight over the funding and over the lack of an articulation of a plan, as …

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Texas Defies Federal Order On Border Patrol Access

NBC News reports: Texas is refusing to comply with a cease-and-desist letter from the Biden administration over actions by the state that have impeded U.S. Border Patrol agents from accessing part of the border with Mexico. In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton rejected the Biden administration’s request for the state to “cease …

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Pakistan Carries Out Strike Inside Iranian Territory

Reuters reports: Pakistan used killer drones and rockets to strike separatist Baloch militants inside Iran on Thursday, Pakistani authorities said, two days after Tehran said it had attacked the bases of another group within Pakistani territory. Iranian media said several missiles hit a village in the Sistan-Baluchestan province that borders Pakistan, killing at least nine people. Earlier reports said three …

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Romney: Cultists Will Believe Anything That Trump Tells Them, They Don’t Care That A Jury Ruled Him A Rapist

“I think a lot of people in this country are out of touch with reality and will accept anything Donald Trump tells them. You had a jury that said that Donald Trump raped a woman. And that doesn’t seem to be moving the needle. There’s a lot of things about today’s electorate that I have a hard time understanding.” – …

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Phillips Drops Diversity Reference From Campaign Site

Politico reports: Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips removed a reference to promoting “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” on his campaign website after one of his top financial backers, a leading DEI opponent, prodded Phillips publicly on the subject. That donor, the hedge fund investor Bill Ackman, has at different times called Phillips’s language about DEI a “mistake” and said the candidate …

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