Republicans

The Associated Press reports: Before the November presidential election, Ohio’s secretary of state and attorney general announced investigations into potential voter fraud that included people suspected of casting ballots even though they were not U.S. citizens. “The right to vote is sacred,” Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, said in a statement at the time. “If you’re not a U.S. …

Politico reports: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is taking aim at his party’s isolationist wing — including Donald Trump — faulting them for undermining tough-on-Russia policies and sending mixed signals to allies. The Kentucky Republican delivered a rare critique of the president-elect in a Foreign Affairs essay on Monday, warning against the “right-wing flirtation with isolation and decline.” McConnell urged …

Mediaite reports: In a post to X late Saturday, the Georgia Republican declared without explanation, “The government is in control of the drones and refuses to tell the American people what is going on. It really is that bad.” Sunday morning, Greene also shared a video that went viral on X after it was shared by Joe Rogan of a …

“I’ve been pretty clean throughout my life. I’m not particularly worried about criminal investigations and I don’t know how much of what the president says is hyperbole, because there was a lot of this person ought to be jailed and that person ought to be jailed. That was said during the last two campaigns. “But I think President Trump is …

“I’m in a good place with Pete, unless something I don’t know about comes out. These allegations are disturbing, but they’re anonymous. I asked him point blank, ‘Were you drunk in a bar and got up and, said, ‘Let’s kill all the Muslims’? He said, ‘No.’ “But about mismanagement of money, about, you know, having a drinking problem and saying …

The Washington Post reports: President-elect Donald Trump has communicated to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that he wants his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to become the Sunshine State’s next senator — but it’s far from clear that DeSantis will acquiesce and appoint her, people familiar with the matter said. Lara Trump’s interest in replacing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) — who is set …

“RFK is obviously a unique and diverse choice, a lifelong Democrat, one of the major figures in the Kennedy family. Obviously, he has a lot of views that Donald Trump appreciates and supports, but at the end of the day, Donald Trump is the president. “At the White House, RFK is going to work for him, whether it’s putting agriculture …

Politico reports: One week out from the Dec. 20 government shutdown deadline, top lawmakers are still working through disagreements over funding and policies getting added onto the funding patch they’re trying to finalize. Leaders hope to release bill text of the stopgap spending measure over the weekend. But they’re currently locked in a battle over what to do about farm …

ABC News reports: No women will lead a House committee for the first time in two decades after House Republicans revealed their list of committee leaders for the 119th Congress on Thursday. The 17 standing committees, whose leaders were selected by the House Republican Steering Committee, will be dominated by white men when the new Congress is seated on Jan. …

“We will talk about electric charging stations, electric cars, but we’ll also be talking about government funding for ice skating drag queens. We’ll be talking about taxpayer funded magic. I can tell you the total will be in the hundreds of billions for the entire Festivus report. I don’t have the breakdown on each individual one, but I can tell …

Florida Politics reports: Patrick Bailey, the former Treasurer for the Hillsborough County Republican Party, has been arrested on charges of third-degree grand theft and false entry in books of business. Bailey is accused of illegally transferring funds and writing himself personal checks from the GOP’s business account. He was arrested Thursday in Brandon by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office’s Economic …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit accusing a New York doctor of prescribing abortion drugs to a Texas resident in violation of state law. This lawsuit is the first attempt to test what happens when state abortion laws are at odds with each other. New York has a shield law that protects providers …

CNN reports: Trump has chosen Ed Martin, a hardline, socially conservative activist and commentator, to serve as the next chief of staff at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). As CNN first reported in July, Martin has publicly advocated for a national abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest and has raised imposing criminal penalties on women and …

The Huffington Post reports: A handful of South Carolina Republicans plan to reintroduce a bill that would define abortion as homicide — a crime punishable by death under state law. State Rep. Rob Harris (R) pre-filed the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act and it will be introduced in the judiciary committee when the legislative session begins in January. The …

The Hill reports: Vice President-elect JD Vance (R-Ohio) confirmed Friday that he invited Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran recently acquitted of murder charges in New York, to be his guest at the Army-Navy football game over the weekend. The defendant had originally been charged with manslaughter in the death of 30-year-old Jordan Neely, a homeless man who had been shouting …

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: Senate Republicans on Wednesday passed legislation that would enable patients to force hospitals into administering drugs for off-label use if the hospital’s own physicians refuse. The legislation comes after a COVID-19 pandemic when conservatives came to believe that drugs like hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin, neither of which have been proven to benefit COVID-19 patients, would cure, …

St. Louis’s Fox affiliate reports: A Missouri representative is proposing a repeal of a state law that currently prevents citizens with a felony history from running for a local and state office. Republican Rep. Michael Davis of Belton, a suburb of Kansas City, pre-filed House Bill 318 on Dec. 3. The bill, named the “Donald J. Trump Election Qualification Act,” …

Lone Star Live report: Hillary Hickland, member-elect of the Texas House of Representatives’ District 55, is determined to “protect the children” by moving to ban the sale of “obscene devices” in stores that are not considered “sexually oriented businesses.” Hickland recently proposed legislation to be considered in the next legislative session, in 2025, that would prevent major retailers such as …

“I’m going to call it total bullshit that no one knows what these are. They can track down a guy that just killed a CEO, but they can’t identify what these nightly drones are and where they’re coming from. I think the Pentagon absolutely knows, but they’re full of crap. “Secondly, if they’re telling the truth, then this country is …

The Associated Press reports: A newly elected state lawmaker in West Virginia is facing at least one felony and is accused of making terroristic threats. Joseph de Soto, 61, was arrested by state police Thursday in Martinsburg following an investigation that found he made “several threatening/intimidating threats against government officials,” according to a statement from Lt. Leslie T. Goldie Jr. …