Politics

Patch reports: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is scheduled to deliver a briefing for reporters Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 Eastern. Sanders’ briefing comes the day after President Trump officially endorsed Roy Moore for the Alabama Senate seat up for a special election on Dec. 12. Moore, who has been accused of child molestation and sexual assault, as well …

The New York Times reports: Representative John Conyers Jr., who faces allegations that he sexually harassed former employees, announced Tuesday that he will leave Congress immediately, and he endorsed his son, John Conyers III, to replace him. Mr. Conyers, the longest-serving current member of the House and the longest-serving African-American in history, called into a local radio show on Tuesday …

The boy does not appear in the clip, presumably because he was a juvenile. Oklahoma City’s ABC affiliate reports: Police have released body-camera footage of the March night when officers found former state Sen. Ralph Shortey in a motel room with an underage boy. Before police entered Shortey’s room at the Super 8 along Interstate 35 near Northeast 12th Street, …

From the Hollywood Reporter: Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon channeled Bruce Springsteen on Monday night to address the recent guilty plea by Michael Flynn to lying under oath to the FBI special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian investigation. Sporting mirrored shades, a red bandana, and no sleeves, Fallon sang a festive, politically-charged version of Springtsteen’s “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” …

The Atlantic has published a lengthy and quite interesting profile of Mike Pence’s road to the Trump administration. When to the story gets to the furor surrounding Trump’s infamous Access Hollywood “pussygate” tape, author McKay Coppins reveals this: Already, Reince Priebus’s office was being flooded with panicked calls from GOP officials and donors urging the RNC chairman to get rid …

The New York Times reports: Representative John Conyers Jr., who faces allegations that he sexually harassed former employees, plans to announce Tuesday that he will not seek re-election, according to a family member who now plans to run for his seat. Mr. Conyers, the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, will make the announcement by calling into a local …

New York Magazine reports: John B. Anderson of Illinois, who died today at the age of 95, served in Congress for 20 years. But what gave him national fame was a briefly sensational independent candidacy for president in 1980, running against President Jimmy Carter and soon-to-be-president Ronald Reagan. By doing so, Anderson represented two milestones in modern political history: He …

USA Today reports: President Trump departed for Utah on Monday to announce what could be the largest rollback of federally protected lands in history. Trump’s decision on the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments would mark an unprecedented use of presidential power to shrink the national monument designations made by two of his predecessors. Secretary of the Interior Ryan …

The Washington Post reports: As Republicans continue to sell the details of their tax bill, some are reaching for more colorful language to liven up complex policies that tend to put the average voter to sleep. Case in point: Over the weekend Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) hashed over the plan with his home state’s Des Moines Register. Turning to …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Chief of Staff John Kelly over the past five months has imposed discipline and rigorous protocols on a freewheeling White House. But President Donald Trump has found the loopholes. The president on occasion has called White House aides to the private residence in the evening, where he makes assignments and asks them not tell Mr. …

The Washington Post reports: Elton John blares so loudly on Donald Trump’s campaign plane that staffers can’t hear themselves think. Press secretary Hope Hicks uses a steamer to press Trump’s pants — while he is still wearing them. Trump screams at his top aides, who are subjected to ­expletive-filled tirades in which they get their “face ripped off.” And Trump’s …

Entertainment Weekly reports: December is here, and Saturday Night Live is getting into the Christmas spirit — by casting Donald Trump as Scrooge. Alec Baldwin’s Trump returned to the show Saturday in the cold open, where he found himself visited by the ghosts of his past, present, and future. But first up was Mikey Day as Michael Flynn, who pleaded …

The Washington Post reports: Alabama’s closely watched U.S. Senate race is a neck-and-neck contest as voter concerns about personal moral conduct weigh on the candidacy of Republican Roy Moore, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll. With less than two weeks to go, support for Democrat Doug Jones stands at 50 percent vs. Moore’s 47 percent support among likely …

The New York Times reports: The Senate passed the most sweeping tax rewrite in decades early Saturday, with Republicans lining up to approve an overhaul that will touch almost every corner of the United States economy, affecting families, small business owners and multinational corporations, with the biggest benefits flowing to the highest-earning Americans. Senators voted 51-49, as Republicans approved the …

CNN reports: Republicans say they have the votes! They’re going to pass a massive tax reform bill Friday night that would permanently lower corporate tax rates and undo the Obamacare individual coverage mandate. And a bunch of other stuff. We’re not exactly sure about everything it would do yet. Why? Because we haven’t read the tax reform bill. Nobody has. …

Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester says he just got handed the 479-page tax and in a video just posted to Twitter, he rages that the bill even includes illegible “hand-scribbled policy changes.” “This is unbelievable. We’re doing massive tax reform on an absolutely incredible timeline. This is going to affect everybody in this country. This is going to shift money …

Reuters reports: U.S. Republican Senator Bob Corker said on Friday he cannot support a sweeping tax bill that Senate Republican leaders have said has enough votes to pass. “At the end of the day, I am not able to cast aside my fiscal concerns and vote for legislation that I believe, based on the information I currently have, could deepen …

Politico reports: Rep. Blake Farenthold used taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim brought by his former spokesman — the only known sitting member of Congress to have used a little-known congressional account to pay an accuser, sources told POLITICO. Lauren Greene, the Texas Republican’s former communications director, sued her boss in December 2014 over allegations of gender discrimination, …

Talking Points Memo reports: When you’re ramming a massive tax bill through Congress at record speed, there are bound to be a few speed bumps. But after some drama on the Senate floor Thursday night, with a handful of Republican deficit hawks withholding their votes over concerns the bill would blow a $1 trillion hole in the federal deficit and …

Oklahoma City’s NBC affiliate reports: A former state senator could face up to life in prison after pleading guilty to child sex trafficking. Former Sen. Ralph Shortey, 35, entered a guilty plea Thursday after being caught with a 17-year-old boy at a motel. On March 9, the Moore Police Department was called shortly before 1 a.m to the Super 8 …