Politics

NBC News reports: A small bloc of conservative bomb-throwers is holding the floor of the House of Representatives hostage, forcing GOP leaders to cancel votes for the rest of the week. For the second straight day, the conservatives blocked several leadership-backed bills from moving forward Wednesday in protest of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s handling of the debt deal he struck with …

Seattle’s NBC affiliate reports: A Sammamish planning commissioner who made anti-LGBTQ+ remarks during a meeting last week has resigned. Sammamish Mayor Kali Clark accepted Wassim Fayed’s resignation immediately Monday. The city strongly condemned Fayed’s comments, but activists say there needs to be more accountability. During a June 1 meeting on the first day of Pride Month, Fayed spoke to his …

The Washington Post reports: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked for more time to file annual financial disclosures following criticism that he failed to report luxury travel and real estate deals with a Texas billionaire and Republican donor. Thomas’s 2022 filing was highly anticipated after ProPublica reported on the justice’s financial dealings with his close friend and benefactor, the …

Puck News reports: After a year of leadership missteps, programming misfires, a disastrous Trump town hall and the near-total decimation of staff morale in the wake of a chilling all-access Atlantic story, Chris Licht will be vacating the C.E.O. position. In the next 48 hours, I’m told, Warner Bros. Discovery will announce that Licht will be stepping down as chairman …

The New York Times reports: Gov. Doug Burgum, the Republican governor of North Dakota who rose from a chimney sweep to become one of the richest men in the state, announced a campaign for president on Wednesday, entering an increasingly crowded race in which he faces exceedingly long odds. “We need a new leader for a changing economy,” Mr. Burgum …

NBC News reports: Former Vice President Mike Pence, who certified the 2020 election results under threat from supporters of then-President Donald Trump, kicked off a bid for the Oval Office on Wednesday. On his 64th birthday, Pence, the former Indiana governor and six-term congressman, released a launch video taking whacks at President Joe Biden by name and Trump by implication. …

The Huffington Post reports: 9/11 Families United, a coalition of families and survivors of the 2001 terrorist attacks, said they are “shocked and deeply offended” by PGA Tour’s merger with Saudi-backed LIV Golf. In a statement, 9/11 Families United said LIV Golf is “bankrolled by billions of sportswashing money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” and that Saudi operatives played …

The New York Times reports: Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey who was eclipsed by Donald J. Trump in the 2016 presidential primaries, filed paperwork on Tuesday saying that he would seek the 2024 Republican nomination, setting up a rematch with the former president and expanding the field of G.O.P. candidates. Mr. Christie’s presence in the race could …

The New York Times reports: The PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the new league founded last year by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, will merge, executives announced Tuesday, ending a bitter split in men’s professional golf. In a surprise announcement on Tuesday, the tour, along with the DP World Tour and the wealth fund, said the recent rivals had agreed …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: A Republican state attorney last May declined to prosecute six voter fraud cases that involved circumstances strikingly similar to the cases later brought against 20 ex-felons by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ election police unit and statewide prosecutors. The office of State Attorney Bill Gladson confirmed six convicted sex offenders in Lake County had voted in the 2020 …

Manchester’s ABC affiliate reports: Gov. Chris Sununu said Monday he is not running for president. The governor was one of a dwindling number of Republican contenders still on the fence about whether to seek the White House. Sununu traveled the country over the last year, testing the waters of a potential presidential campaign. In deciding not to run, the process …

The Associated Press reports: Former Vice President Mike Pence is filing paperwork on Monday declaring his campaign for president in 2024, setting up a challenge to his former boss, Donald Trump, just two years after their time in the White House ended with an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and Pence fleeing for his life. Pence, the nation’s 48th vice …

From last night’s CNN town hall for Nikki Haley: TAPPER: You were the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President Trump, as I’ve noted. On Friday, Mr. Trump congratulated Kim Jong un because North Korea had ascended to a leadership role in the World Health Organization. What was your reaction to that? And were you uncomfortable with how Mr. Trump …

The Daily Beast reports: Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley called transgender teens playing girls’ sports “the women’s issue of our time” during her CNN Town Hall on Sunday night—and perhaps most shocking, blaming trans teens on the high suicide rates of young women. Haley was initially asked to define the word “woke,” but subsequently went into a diatribe about gender identity …

France 24 reports: After a six-month inquiry and more than 50 hearings, the cross-party parliamentary inquiry found that the National Rally (Rassemblement national or RN) party had served as a “communication channel” for Russian power. The text, due to be published next week, was adopted on Thursday by eleven votes to five – to the dismay of the inquiry’s chair …

The New York Times reports: Chuck Todd said on Sunday that he was stepping down from NBC’s “Meet the Press” after nine years in the moderator’s chair and would be succeeded by the network’s chief White House correspondent, Kristen Welker. In remarks at the conclusion of the show on Sunday, Mr. Todd, 50, said he was conscious that many leaders …

The Associated Press reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were among the White House contenders appearing at a rally at the state fairgrounds near Des Moines hosted by U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst. DeSantis, with his wife, Casey, and three young kids in tow, chatted with voters, gave out autographs and signed the Bible of a man who thanked DeSantis for “standing …

The Daily Beast reports: For years, Rep. Lauren Boebert’s mother has maintained that a retired professional wrestler named Stan Lane, with whom she had a fling in the 1980s, was the congresswoman’s biological father. A court-ordered paternity test completed decades ago showed that, in fact, Lane was not the dad. But some doubts on the Boebert side of things persisted …

The Hill reports: Former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis all criticized the former president, who offered his congratulations to Kim in a Truth Social post on Friday. “No one should be praising the dictator in North Korea or praising the leader of Russia who has launched an …

Mediaite reports: Lara Trump – the daughter-in-law of former president and current candidate Donald Trump – guest-hosted Friday’s edition of The Balance on Newsmax. The decision indicates Newsmax is continuing to blur the boundaries of politicking and cable news programming, as the network tapped Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to fill in on Monday’s and last Friday’s editions of Greg Kelly …