Republicans

NBC News reports: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said today that while he stands by Rep. George Santos, the freshman congressman from New York would be removed from office if the Ethics Committee finds he broke the law after he admitted fabricating parts of his background. Asked whether he is standing by Santos because his resignation would cut into the House …

The Miami Herald reports: Almost a million Floridians are slated to lose their Medicaid coverage starting in April once the federal COVID-19 emergency comes to an end. Florida is one of 11 states that did not expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act, which means tens of thousands of Florida families are expected to fall into the Medicaid access gap. …

The Washington Post reports: George Santos graciously welcomed his three guests to Il Bacco Ristorante in Queens. Restaurant staff took their coats at the door and escorted them to a private dining room upstairs. Santos had with him business cards from Harbor City Capital. He was ready to make his pitch. Over wine and caprese salad, Santos laid out a …

The LGBTQ news site Qburgh Magazine reports: Republican Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano plans to introduce legislation that would ban drag shows on public property or in areas where minors could see, effectively banning Pride events across Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh Pride. In a memo published Tuesday, Mastriano plans to categorize drag shows as “adult-oriented business” which would put restrictions such …

NBC News reports: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., is angling to be Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024, according to two people who have spoken to the firebrand second-term congresswoman about her ambitions. “This is no shrinking violet, she’s ambitious — she’s not shy about that, nor should she be,” said Steve Bannon, the former top Trump aide who hosts …

New York City’s CBS affiliate reports: Nassau County legislator Joshua Lafazan will introduce new measures Wednesday to prevent candidates who lie about their qualifications from running for Congress in the future. It will be called the G.E.O.R.G.E. package, which stands for “Get Egregious Officials Removed from Government Elections.” Lafazan says the series of laws would make background checks mandatory for …

Little Rock’s NBC affiliate reports: A controversial bill reclassifying drag performances as adult entertainment and placing limits on where performances can happen has been approved by Arkansas senators. Tuesday afternoon, the full Senate passed SB43 29 to 6, with the split going straight down party lines with the majority Republican caucus solidly behind the measure. The proposed law would add …

The New York Times reports: Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday unilaterally exiled Representatives Adam B. Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee, making good on a longstanding threat to expel the California Democrats in his first major act of partisan retribution since taking the majority. The move was a much-anticipated tit-for-tat after Democrats, then in the majority, voted …

Politico reports: Republican National Committee members are set to vote on a resolution this week condemning not just antisemitism, but Ye, better known as Kanye West, and other conservative provocateurs who have made antisemitic remarks. The resolution was filed by California national committeeman Shawn Steel, an Orange County attorney and past California Republican Party chair who said in an interview …

The Daily Beast reports: Late Tuesday afternoon, Santos’ political operation filed a flurry of amended campaign finance reports, telling the feds, among other things, that a $500,000 loan he gave to his campaign didn’t, in fact, come from his personal funds as he’d previously claimed. However, while the newly amended filing told us where the funds did not come from, …

The Hill reports: “I don’t know what the hell is going on around here. It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The Hill. “I have no reason to believe it’s nefarious in any way, but clearly at the executive branch they’re just packing boxes.” “I don’t get …

The Associated Press reports: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, along with the state’s Republican attorney general, said Tuesday the state will prosecute pharmacists who dispense abortion-inducing pills following a recent Food and Drug Administration rule change that broadens access to the pills. The Republican governor and South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley released a letter to South Dakota pharmacists saying …

“For clear disclosure, I wasn’t a plaintiff but I was very involved. There’s a good saying that says ‘pigs eat, hogs get slaughtered.’ So the Democrats acted like hogs and I acted like a good ole farmer and I slaughter them. We got really, really lucky this time around. We can’t allow luck to play a part in redistricting in …

Axios reports: Several House Republicans are declining invitations to attend a White House reception for freshman House members on Tuesday evening in protest of the event’s COVID rules. “I am forgoing a historic trip to the White House to raise awareness of this punitive policy in hopes that President Biden will reverse it and other arbitrary, outdated, and unscientific restrictions …

Reuters reports: U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican and China hawk, said on Tuesday that he would introduce a bill to ban the short video app TikTok in the United States. TikTok, whose parent is the Chinese company ByteDance, already faces a ban that would stop federal employees from using or downloading TikTok on government-owned devices. TikTok said in a …

CNN reports: A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence discovered about a dozen documents marked as classified at Pence’s Indiana home last week, and he has turned those classified records over to the FBI, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The FBI and the Justice Department’s National Security Division have launched a review of the documents and …

From a January 11th Ars Technica report: Microsoft is rolling out an update to Xbox consoles starting today that will automatically switch them to a power-saving Shutdown mode, instead of the usual energy-hungry Sleep mode. It’s part of a broader effort by Microsoft to make Xbox the “first carbon aware console.” Blaine Hauglie, technical program manager at Xbox, writes in …

Politico reports: It’s about to be budget season in Tallahassee and that means Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will begin rolling out his recommendations on how to spend the billions in surplus money the state has accumulated the last few years. But as DeSantis preps for another session — and an expected presidential run — he has a familiar nemesis who …

CNN reports: Rep. Greg Steube, a Florida Republican, announced Monday that he will be “sidelined” in his home state for several weeks as he recovers from multiple injuries suffered in an accident at his Sarasota property last week. Steube wrote on Twitter that he is recovering from “a fractured pelvis, a punctured lung, and several torn ligaments in my neck.” …

Deadline Hollywood reports: George Santos has been having quite the year so far as the embattled congressman’s credentials have come into question. Late-night television has impersonated him and the U.S. representative is not impressed by any of them. RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 3 winner Trixie Mattel joined the conversation and replied to Santos, “Maybe the source material was …