Republicans

The New York Times reports: Allies of Donald J. Trump are proposing that the United States restart the testing of nuclear weapons in underground detonations should the former president be re-elected in November. A number of nuclear experts reject such a resumption as unnecessary and say it would threaten to end a testing moratorium that the world’s major atomic powers …

Religion News reports: Robert Morris, former senior pastor of the prominent nondenominational Gateway Church headquartered in Southlake, Texas, resigned two weeks ago after Cindy Clemishire accused him of molesting her for four years, beginning when she was 12. The case has prompted calls for reforms not only in the church but at the state Capitol. “These actions demand public exposure, …

The Washington Post reports: Top advisers to Donald Trump have begun to discuss draft language for the 2024 Republican platform that antiabortion leaders expect will abandon the party’s decades-long call to amend the U.S. Constitution to extend personhood protections to the unborn. The escalating behind-the-scenes disagreement over the abortion language has become so tense and acrimonious in recent weeks that …

Playbook reports: Trump campaign manager Susie Wiles has told people that she has called Blake Masters to urge the Arizona Republican to pull or change ads that falsely imply that he has Trump’s endorsement in his congressional campaign. Trump endorsed Abe Hamadeh, Masters’ primary opponent, in December. But Masters, a Peter Thiel protégé and ally of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: A hacker group claims it has breached the Florida Department of Health and gained access to a large amount of potentially sensitive data on Floridians. The RansomHub ransomware group said in a post on the dark web that it will release 100 gigabytes of department data unless the state pays an undisclosed amount of money. …

The pro-weed site Green Markets reports: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc on Monday, alleging the company approved and profited from false Facebook advertisements using his name and image to promote CBD products. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware, claims Facebook ads falsely stated Huckabee was leaving his Trinity Broadcasting Network …

“I worked with four different presidents. That Oval Office is always usually humming. Things are moving and going around at all times. And Biden’s Oval Office, it is the quietest place. No one’s around. The only thing, there are cookies. He offers you cookies every time you’re in there. And he goes and gets them. I mean, it is a …

Courthouse News reports: A Texas judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of a migrant shelter in El Paso, once again blocking state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s efforts to shut it down. In his ruling, El Paso County Judge Francisco Dominguez granted Annunciation House’s motion for summary judgment. Paxton had claimed the nonprofit was assisting migrants regardless of legal status, and …

“The people who are putting Steve Bannon in jail right now are communists or communist sympathizers, or at least we would say radical leftists. The House Committee on Un-American Activities was great. It was fabulous. “There were actual communists, not only in Hollywood – there were communists in the State Department. There were communists who had infiltrated the government who …

The Associated Press reports: Enforcement of a federal rule expanding anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ students has been blocked in four states and a patchwork of places elsewhere by a federal judge in Kansas. U.S. District Judge John Broomes’ decision was the third against the rule from a federal judge in less than three weeks but more sweeping than the others. …

The Texas Tribune reports: Three years after Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas would take the extraordinary step of building a state-funded wall along the Mexico border, he has 34 miles of steel bollards to show for it. That infrastructure — which has so far run up a price tag of some $25 million per mile — isn’t yet a contiguous …

Axios reports: Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to remove the gag order against Donald Trump and to delay the sentencing for Trump’s criminal conviction in New York until after the Nov. 5 election. The long-shot petition seeks to inject Missouri into Trump’s criminal case in New York by claiming that rulings by Judge Juan …

Politico reports: Two hardline anti-abortion delegates to next week’s GOP platform committee have been stripped of their positions, according to several members of the Republican National Committee, underscoring a broader fear among evangelicals and other social conservatives that the party is poised to moderate its stance on abortion at the direction of former President Donald Trump. The Trump campaign’s efforts …

NBC News reports: “The people of our district are reaching out to our campaign demanding that we pursue a recount. Our donors, our volunteers, and our supporters expect it,” Rep. Bob Good’s campaign manager and senior advisor Diana Shores said in a statement to NBC News. Shores’ statement comes ahead of the Virginia State Board of Elections meeting Tuesday afternoon, …

The Houston Chronicle reports: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear an appeal from the adult entertainment industry seeking to upend a Texas law that requires pornographic websites to verify the age of their users. The justices will review an appellate ruling that allowed the age verification to go into effect. Arguments will take place in the fall. In …

Indianapolis’s Fox affiliate reports: Victoria Spartz, the Republican U.S. Representative from Indiana’s fifth district currently running for reelection, has been charged after reportedly bringing a gun into a DC airport. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority confirmed to FOX59/CBS4 on Monday afternoon that Spartz was charged last Friday, June 28, with a weapons violation at Dulles International Airport. According to TSA, officers …

Law & Crime reports: Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes, the Republican former U.S. representative for California, failed in his yearslong efforts to sue the Washington Post for defamation over a 2020 article that said he backed the Donald Trump-amplified notion that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower, a now unsealed opinion shows. The opinion from U.S. District …

The Washington Post reports: House Republicans on Monday filed a federal lawsuit against Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, asking a judge to force him to hand over audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with the special counsel who raised questions about his age and memory. The suit, filed on behalf of the House Judiciary Committee in the U.S. District Court …

The Hill reports: House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) called on the ideological left to “uphold democratic norms” while hailing the Supreme Court decision regarding presidential immunity in the case involving former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. “Hyper-partisan prosecutors like Jack Smith cannot weaponize the rule of law to go after the Administration’s chief political rival, …

“Joe Biden has said he’s not going anywhere. His campaign came out right after that debate and said not only is he not quitting. They have committed to do the debate in September as well, which is shocking to hear. “But Kamala Harris polls just about as bad, if not worse in a lot of cases, than Joe Biden. And …