Politics

Roll Call reports: Deb Haaland, a former Democratic House member and Interior secretary under Joe Biden, launched a run for New Mexico governor on Tuesday. Haaland would be the nation’s first Native American woman to serve as a governor if she is elected to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, herself a former House lawmaker. In a video message …

The Hill reports: Senate Republicans are urging President Trump to respect the rulings of federal judges who have blocked his executive actions to freeze spending federal grants and loans, dismantle USAID, and ban birthright citizenship. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Tuesday said the growing tensions between the White House and federal judges is a “natural give and take” …

Tennessee’s Greenville Sun reports: Eliminating the minting of new pennies could come at significant cost to Greene County. Tusculum-based Artazn LLC is the U.S. Mint’s sole supplier of cent planchets, the blank discs stamped into pennies.  The former Jarden Zinc Products was purchased in 2019 by a Los Angeles-based private equity firm. Americans for Common Cents, a pro-penny group with Artazn among …

Mother Jones reports: On the House floor Monday night—in a speech that was jarring, graphic, and nearly an hour long—Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) made disturbing allegations of sexual abuse against four men from her home state, one of whom is her ex-fiancé. All of this has, unsurprisingly, attracted ample news coverage. But one aspect of the explosive speech has gone …

The New York Times reports: Representative Nancy Mace, the South Carolina Republican who in recent weeks has floated a run for governor, on Monday night accused her former fiancé and three other men of having drugged and raped her and other women, and of filming and taking lewd photographs of women and underage girls without their consent. In a stunningly …

Forbes reports: Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told CNN on Monday she intends to support the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary—news that comes ahead of the expected Senate-wide vote to confirm one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks after some GOP lawmakers remained on the fence. Collins—one of three GOP senators who …

Alex Isenstadt writes for Axios: Iran’s threat to assassinate Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign was far more serious than publicly known — and led to extraordinary precautions by his team that included using a decoy plane to avert a feared attempt on his life. My upcoming book, “Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power,” reveals the depth …

The Daily Beast reports: Republican congressman Byron Donalds appears to have played hooky and skipped out on his legislative duties for an appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher. Jake Sherman, a political analyst with MSNBC and founder of Punchbowl News, posted to X Saturday that Donalds might have went to see Maher at HBO’s studios in California over voting …

Courthouse News reports: Senate Republicans on Friday offered a retort to months of Democrat scrutiny on the Supreme Court, introducing a constitutional amendment that would block lawmakers from adding more justices to the high court’s bench. The proposed amendment is the GOP majority’s first major legislative foray into the yearslong debate over the Supreme Court — and one that proponents …

NBC News reports: Republican donors at a gathering last week in Palm Beach County openly discussed the prospect of Casey DeSantis’ running for governor in 2026, and for the first time, Florida’s first lady is seriously considering the idea. Gov. Ron DeSantis, her husband, faces term limits and cannot seek re-election. There has long been speculation about whether Casey, a …

Politico Europe reports: Russian bots have driven a dramatic surge of disinformation on the social media platform X days before Germany’s election, according to a government report seen by POLITICO. At the center of the effort to influence German voters is Doppelgänger, a Kremlin-backed operation, according to the German Office of Foreign Affairs. The campaign uses fake news sites, sleeper …

The Daily Beast reports: Neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes has co-signed an anti-Semitic social media tirade from the rapper Kanye West. In the middle of an overnight flood of posts calling for disgraced mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs to be freed following his September arrest on charges of sex trafficking, West also ranted against Jews. “F— ALL OF YOUR F— A– UNFAIR …

The Guardian reports: Benjamin Netanyahu gave Donald Trump a “golden pager” during their meeting in Washington DC this week, in an apparent reference to Israel’s deadly attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon last year. In photos circulating online, the golden pager can be seen mounted on a piece of wood, accompanied by a golden plaque that reads in black lettering: “To …

“There’s no doubt that the president appears to have empowered Elon Musk far beyond what I think is appropriate. I think a lot of it is going to end up in court. I am concerned if the Trump administration is clawing back money that has been specifically appropriated for a particular purpose.” – Sen. Susan Collins, who met with Musk …

The Daily Beast reports: Mitch McConnell was escorted out of the Capitol in a wheelchair at the Capitol on Wednesday after the 82-year-old senator fell twice in short succession. One of McConnell’s falls occurred on stairs outside the Senate chamber, causing “panicked looks to flash across his congressional staff and security detail,” reported The Hill. A group, which included his …

Politico Europe reports: Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede called for an early election on March 11, amid geopolitical tensions caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to acquire the Arctic island. “It’s time for an election to the Inatsisartut [Greenlandic Parliament]. If the Inatsisartut approves my proposal, this will happen on March 11th,” Egede wrote Tuesday in a post on …

Gothamist reports: A bill Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Monday aims to make it harder for authorities in other states to prosecute New York doctors who prescribe abortion medication online. The new law allows doctors to keep their names off of prescription labels for mifepristone and misoprostol, drugs commonly used to terminate early pregnancies. Instead, they’ll be allowed to list their …

“The Gaza thing has not worked. It’s never worked. And I feel very differently about Gaza than a lot of people. I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land and we get some people to put up the money to build it and make it nice and make it habitable and enjoyable. “I think if they …

CBS News reports: The Senate Finance Committee is considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination on Tuesday, with a key vote on whether to advance his confirmation to lead the Department of Health and Human Services after a pair of fiery hearings last week. Kennedy appeared Wednesday before the finance committee for a confirmation hearing, before testifying to the Senate Committee …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) said he would place a “blanket hold” on all of President Trump’s State Department nominees until the administration’s attack on the leading U.S. foreign-assistance agency ends, a move that threatens to stall Trump’s ability to get his foreign-policy team in place. Schatz said he would block any of Trump’s diplomatic …