Republicans

Politico reports: Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted co-conspirator of the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is asking to postpone her scheduled congressional deposition — and making a series of other demands as conditions of her cooperation with Hill investigators. It comes following a recent vote by a House subcommittee to subpoena Maxwell amid mounting pressure from House Republicans to release materials …

The Washington Post reports: A third whistleblower has come forward to challenge the federal judicial nomination of Emil Bove, sharing evidence with lawmakers suggesting the controversial former attorney for Donald Trump and current top Justice Department official misled lawmakers about his handling of the dismissal of public corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. The whistleblower — whose existence …

NBC News reports: For years, outlandish theories about the U.S. government’s using airplanes to spray harmful chemicals over U.S. homes or powerful elites controlling the weather were relegated to the fringes of society. Not anymore. Republican lawmakers in nearly 20 state legislatures have proposed such legislation, with governors in Louisiana and Florida having signed bills into law. On the federal …

NOTUS reports: After President Donald Trump said on Monday that children are starving in Gaza, Republican senators started to show some daylight between themselves and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, siding with Trump and acknowledging the starvation. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Israel’s closest allies in Congress, blamed Hamas for “it being the way it is,” but acknowledged there was …

The Hill reports: In the immediate hours after at least four people were fatally shot, including an off-duty police officer, after a man carrying a long gun opened fire in Manhattan, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle began taking familiar sides in the gun control debate. On Fox News, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) suggested that gun control laws would …

The Daily Beast reports: Republican Georgia Congressman Mike Collins launched a Senate bid this week, but the campaign kickoff included one cringeworthy misstep: his campaign misspelled Georgia in one of its videos. The Georgia businessman whose family owns a trucking company was first elected to the House to represent the state’s 10th district in 2022. In the post on July …

ERIC BOLLING: “I’d say Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Brennan, Comey, Clapper — send ’em all to Guantanamo Bay. Lock ’em all up.” RON JOHNSON: “It’s been referred and let’s hope they prosecute.” As has been reported here extensively, Johnson falls for and promotes every bit of QAnon batshittery out there, including that COVID vaccines cause AIDS. Here’s …

Austin’s NBC affiliate reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton escalated a brewing conflict between Texas and New York’s abortion laws. On Monday, Paxton announced he filed legal action against New York Acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck for refusing to enforce a $100,000 penalty against Dr. Margaret Carpenter. In February, a Texas district court ruled in favor of the state …

The Hill reports: A House Republican’s bill would strip former President Kennedy’s name from the Washington institution created in the 35th commander in chief’s honor and instead have it known as the “Trump Center for the Performing Arts.” Dubbing the bill the Make Entertainment Great Again (MEGA) Act, Rep. Bob Onder said, “I cannot think of a more ubiquitous symbol …

NBC News reports: Paul Dans, the architect of Project 2025, is launching a Senate bid in South Carolina to oust Lindsey Graham. Dans is set to announce his Republican primary bid with a formal launch Wednesday in Charleston. Graham is a close Trump ally but has for years faced skepticism from his MAGA allies. He is already facing a challenge …

NOTUS reports: Multiple Democratic lawmakers and staffers described to NOTUS a struggle to reserve rooms on Capitol Hill for committee or caucus meetings, shadow hearings and constituent gatherings. “From gutting resolutions of inquiry seeking answers on Trump’s unlawful actions in office to making it harder for Democrats to reserve rooms to hold spotlight hearings,” a Democratic committee aide told NOTUS, …

The Associated Press reports: Georgia Republican Mike Collins on Monday joined the field challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in the state the GOP has named as their top target to add a Senate seat in 2026. A second-term member of Congress from a district east of Atlanta, Collins became the newest top Republican to get into the primary race. …

KRISTEN WELKER: “Now, Senator, as you are well aware, this actually contradicts a bipartisan Senate intelligence report led by Marco Rubio — which found that Russia did in fact interfere in the election. Do you actually believe that former President Obama committed treason?” LINDSEY GRAHAM: “Well, I think somebody needs to look at what we found. The intel committee looked …

The Hill reports: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Sunday called an effort from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “reckless” as controversy over the disgraced financier roils Washington. “House Republicans insist upon the release of all credible evidence and information related to Epstein in any way,” Johnson told …

MULLIN: “Remember, there was a sweetheart plea deal that was struck in 2009, way before I was in office, way before Trump was even considering to be in office, way before Pam Bondi was in office, way before Kash Patel was FBI director. In 2009 there was a sweetheart plea deal that was made underneath the Obama administration with Epstein …

“Even though Anthony Fauci has been pardoned, there is some question whether it’s a legitimate pardon. His pardon wasn’t signed by President Biden. It’s unclear whether President Biden is mentally cognizant enough of the situation to know who he pardoned. Hundreds and hundreds of people were pardoned in a day by a mechanical signature from a machine. “We do know …

The Oklahoman reports: A top Oklahoma lawmaker is calling for state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters to cooperate with an investigation after two State Board of Education members said they saw images of nude women on a TV in Walters’ office during a meeting. Republican House Speaker Kyle Hilbert of Bristow said Walters should “unlock and turn over all relevant devices” …

The Washington Post reports: National parks employees have raised the idea of removing books on slavery, Native Americans and George Washington from their gift shops as part of Trump officials’ efforts to scrub these popular sites of “corrosive ideology” that disparages Americans, according to internal records reviewed by The Washington Post. Agency employees were required to report items for review …

Semafor reports: Rep. Ronny Jackson met with White House officials in recent days about Texas politics — including the state’s 2026 Senate race — according to two people familiar with the meeting. The Republican congressman, a potential candidate for Texas’s already-ugly Senate GOP primary, discussed what he’s hearing about that race as well as the broader congressional map with White …

The Denver Westword reports: According to records obtained from the Windsor Police Department and confirmed by the Weld County District Attorney’s office, Tyler Boebert, 22, the eldest of controversial Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s four sons, was cited on Friday, July 11, and faces a misdemeanor charge of child abuse. Details about the circumstances that led to the criminal citation were …