Politics

“I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book — No Going Back. The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned. “What I learned from my years of …

The Washington Post reports: Former president Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis met privately Sunday morning in Miami, according to people familiar with the matter, breaking a years-long chill between the presumptive Republican nominee and his onetime chief primary rival. Allies brokered the meeting in hopes of a potential détente between the two men, and Trump’s advisers hope DeSantis …

Reuters reports: Iraq’s parliament passed a law criminalising same-sex relationships with a maximum 15-year prison sentence on Saturday, in a move it said aimed to uphold religious values but was condemned by rights advocates as the latest attack on the LGBT community in Iraq. The law aims to “protect Iraqi society from moral depravity and the calls for homosexuality that …

NBC News reports: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell did not say whether he is supportive of a 15-week federal ban on abortions, with exceptions, but told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “I don’t think we’ll get 60 votes in the Senate for any kind of national legislation.” McConnell made clear that he believes it’s an issue that should be decided in …

NBC News reports: Former Rep. Peter Meijer, who lost his House seat after voting to impeach then-President Donald Trump, has dropped out of a crowded Republican Senate primary in Michigan. “I got into this race because I believed I had the strongest chance of winning in November to work to right this ship and reverse trendlines that have only gotten …

The New Times Times reports: The Republican Party sent a letter to the Secret Service on Friday urging the police agency to keep protesters farther away from the venue for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July. The three-page letter, signed by Todd R. Steggerda, counsel to the Republican National Committee, objected to the placement of an area where …

The Texas Tribune reports: Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells wants Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction reinstated, his office announced Thursday. Mason, a Tarrant County resident, was acquitted of an illegal voting charge last month. Sorrells’ office is now asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn the ruling that cleared her. Mason was convicted of illegal voting in …

USA Today reports: Ohio lawmakers voted Wednesday to criminalize marital rape in all situations, ending a years-long fight over a law that critics cast as archaic and harmful to survivors. The Ohio Senate unanimously passed legislation which eliminates a measure that protects spouses from prosecution against rape, unless the perpetrator used force or the couple lives in separate homes. It …

From the New York Times’ live blog: Speaker Johnson is now starting his news conference amid boos after meeting with Jewish students. He is surrounded by a group of House Republicans, including New York lawmakers and Representative Virginia Foxx, chairman of the committee that has been holding the hearings on antisemitism on campuses. Johnson says: “The madness has to stop. …

Quinnipiac Polling reports: Two-thirds of voters (66 percent) think abortion should be legal in either all cases (34 percent) or most cases (32 percent), while 27 percent of voters think abortion should be illegal in either most cases (22 percent) or all cases (5 percent). Support for legal abortion (66 percent) is at the highest level in two decades of …

The Washington Post reports: The Arizona House voted Wednesday to repeal a Civil War-era ban on nearly all abortions that is set to take effect as early as June 8. The measure now heads to the state Senate, which could grant final passage next week. Three Republicans in the House crossed party lines Wednesday to vote with all of the …

Reuters reports: Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he will suspend public duties until next week to decide whether he wants to continue leading the government after a court launched a business corruption probe into his wife’s private dealings. Sanchez, who last year secured another term for his Socialist party as leader of a minority coalition government, said …

The Hill reports: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) endorsed Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) on Wednesday, defending the congressman as he faces criticism from fellow Republicans after dubbing two far-right members of the caucus “scumbags.” Gonzales went after Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Bob Good (R-Va.) over the weekend, saying the Freedom Caucus members “walk around with white hoods,” and referencing …

The New Jersey Globe reports: Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark) – an immensely likable, low-key but effective, progressive six-term congressman from New Jersey with a passion for social justice and constituent service – died today. He was 65. Payne suffered a heart attack on April 6 and had been unconscious and on a ventilator since then at Newark Beth Israel …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports: As Mr. Trump sat in a courtroom in Manhattan on Tuesday during the first criminal trial of a former president in U.S. history, some staunchly Republican voters told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that they could not vote for their party’s standard-bearer. “I’m a pretty strong Republican, but it’s hard to support Mr. Trump,” said Terry Bimle, 68, …

Reuters reports: An Australian senator said on Wednesday that police feared Elon Musk’s decision to ignore a regulator order and leave footage on his social media platform X of a Sydney bishop being stabbed might encourage people to join terrorist groups. An Australian court has upheld a regulator order for the billionaire to take down posts containing footage of the …

SCOTUSblog reports: Less than a month after the justices heard oral arguments in a case seeking to roll back access to one of the drugs used in medication abortions, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday in another case involving abortion. At issue in Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States is whether emergency rooms in …

“I think she is uninformed, she is a total waste of time, and I’m embarrassed to have actually lived geographically in her district at one time before she was there. She is a horrible leader. She is dragging our brand down. She, not the Democrats, are the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority.” – GOP Sen. Thom …

The Verge reports: A bill that would force China-based company ByteDance to sell TikTok — or else face a US ban of the platform — is all but certain to become law after the Senate passed a foreign aid package including the measure. It now heads to President Joe Biden, who already committed to signing the TikTok legislation. Once signed …

Mediaite reports: “I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump’s character,” Sen. Mitt Romney told CNN’s Manu Raju outside the Capitol on Tuesday. “And so far as I know, you don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.” Though Romney is a longtime Trump critic, the comment was a sharp missive from the typically buttoned-up …