Politics

Axios reports: Congressional Republicans are getting ready for hell. Axios has obtained a spreadsheet that’s circulated through Republican circles on and off Capitol Hill — including at least one leadership office — that meticulously previews the investigations Democrats will likely launch if they flip the House. Why this matters: Publicly, House Republicans are putting on a brave face about the …

Arizona Central reports: Kelli Ward suggested Saturday that the statement issued Friday by U.S. Sen. John McCain’s family about ending treatment for brain cancer was intended to hurt her U.S. Senate campaign. McCain died Saturday hours after her remarks. Ward, a conservative former state senator from Lake Havasu City, is in a three-way race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination …

The Hill reports: Fox News analyst Brit Hume took a swipe at President Trump over his tweet offering condolences to the family of GOP Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who died Saturday at the age of 81. Hume pointed out that Trump’s tweet avoided praising McCain himself, setting it vastly apart from the dozens of tributes to the late senator posted …

Politico reports: Sen. John McCain held his seat in the Senate for nearly 32 years. After McCain’s death Saturday, it will fall to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to name his successor. State law gives Ducey, a Republican, the power to fill the Senate vacancy for the next two years, until a special election in 2020 for the right to complete …

Via press release from President Obama: John McCain and I were members of different generations, came from completely different backgrounds, and competed at the highest level of politics. But we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher-the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed. We saw our political battles, even, …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences to the family of Sen. John McCain, who died Saturday at age 81. Some of Trump’s most explosive remarks in his campaign came early on in July 2015, when he mocked the senator’s time as a tortured prisoner of war in Vietnam.  “He was a war hero because he was captured. I …

The Washington Examiner reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been in plenty of public battles with President Trump, but this week’s tense exchange between the two now have some thinking that Sessions may be on the way out. One Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., talked openly about the clock running out on Sessions after more than a year of …

CNN reports: A former Trump World Tower doorman who says he has knowledge of an alleged affair President Donald Trump had with an ex-housekeeper, which resulted in a child, is now able to talk about a contract he entered with American Media Inc. that had prohibited him from discussing the matter with anyone, according to his attorney. On Friday, Marc …

“Remember, the president first said he did not know about the hush money payments in advance. His then-aide, Hope Hicks, said we know nothing of the payments. Both of his spokespersons Raj Shah and Sarah Sanders said that the president denied knowledge of the payments. Michael Cohen said the president knew nothing of the payments. “Cohen’s attorney, David Schwartz, said …

Buzzfeed News reports: Michael Avenatti, the self-described potential 2020 contender and lawyer representing Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Donald Trump, is launching his own federal PAC to support Democratic candidates with “the size and the presence to really fight back and advocate from a position of strength as opposed to weakness.” The organization, formed Thursday, will be called Fight …

Courthouse News reports: A federal judge in Texas threw out a closely followed lawsuit Thursday accusing Dallas County of drawing voter district lines to dilute the influence of white voters. U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, wrote the plaintiffs “failed to prove” the lack of a second county …

The New York Times reports: Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has been battling brain cancer for more than a year, will no longer be treated for his condition, his family announced on Friday, a sign that the Republican war hero is most likely entering his final days. “Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family …

Newsweek reports: Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter pleaded not guilty to charges of illegally using campaign funds for personal expenses on Thursday and blamed his wife Margaret Hunter, saying she handled his finances. “She was also the campaign manager, so whatever she did that’ll be looked at too, I’m sure,” Hunter told Fox News on Thursday. “But I didn’t do it. …

The BBC reports: Scott Morrison has become Australia’s new prime minister after Malcolm Turnbull was forced out by party rivals in a bruising leadership contest. Mr Turnbull had been under pressure from poor polling and what he described as an “insurgency” by conservative MPs. Mr Morrison, the treasurer, won an internal ballot 45-40 over former Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton …

TechCrunch reports: A massive trove of voter records containing personal information on millions of Texas residents has been found online. The data — a single file containing an estimated 14.8 million records — was left on an unsecured server without a password. Texas has 19.3 million registered voters. It’s the latest exposure of voter data in a long string of …

The Hill reports: Political analyst Bill Schneider said Thursday that white, suburban women increasingly want nothing to do with President Trump, and are “fleeing the Trump party” ahead of November’s midterm elections. “My gut is that you’re seeing a lot of affluent, white suburban voters, well-educated, particularly women, fleeing the Trump party,” Schneider told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on “What America’s …

The Associated Press reports: U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter and Margaret Hunter, the congressman’s wife and former campaign manager, arrived to court separately but stood together while pleading not guilty Thursday to charges of illegally using the congressman’s campaign account for personal expenses. The California Republican was met with chants of “Lock him up” by protesters when he arrived at the …

Of course Breitbart is all over this: Prominent conservative commentator Candace Owens tweeted Thursday morning that the media were attempting a “public lynching” of fellow black conservative Paris Dennard because he had proven an effective advocate for President Donald Trump. On Wednesday evening, the Washington Post‘s Aaron Davis published a story revealing that Dennard had been dismissed in 2015 from …

Politico reports: Arizona Senate hopeful Martha McSally hasn’t locked up the GOP nomination just yet — but she’s turning to the general election with a searing new TV ad hammering Democratic candidate Kyrsten Sinema for “protesting us in a pink tutu” rather than serving in the military after 9/11. “While we were in harm’s way in uniform, Kyrsten Sinema was …

Posted to former Sen. Al Franken’s Facebook page: Sean Spicer, who served President Trump for a very limited amount of time, described Paul Manafort as someone “who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time” in the Trump campaign. That “very limited role,” of course, was “campaign chairman.” And during Manafort’s “very limited time” with the …