Republicans

“With the absurd catastrophic policies they’ve put in place, California is a disaster. Those same people weren’t concerned about the people in North Carolina or the people in Florida who we’ve tried to help. “So this is really important though, they’ve caused this problem. These people are obstructionists. They also, by the way, tried to cap insurance under Proposition 103. …

NBC News reports: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, according to an official involved with the planning of the event. They will have a prominent spot at the ceremony, seated together on the platform with other notable guests including Trump’s Cabinet nominees and elected officials. In a post on his social …

Raw Story reports: During a Tuesday confirmation hearing for defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, Sen. Eric Schmitt complained about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the military. “This stuff is insane,” Schmitt said after claiming that “5,800 white officers” would be fired if the Air Force had quotas. “And people wonder why recruiting is dropped off.” “They’ve lowered their …

Axios reports: Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has been making calls and telling people she is likely to make a bid for governor, D.C. and Tennessee sources tell Axios. Blackburn would be a formidable contender in the 2026 gubernatorial race. She would be running to be the first female governor in the state’s history. State and federal elected officials have been …

“There’s a lot of senators here I wouldn’t have on my board because there’s no qualifications except your age and you’ve got to be living in the state and you’re a citizen of the United States to be a senator. How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night? Have any of you guys asked them to step …

Florida Politics reports: President-elect Donald Trump is weighing in on the debate regarding a Special Session called by Gov. Ron DeSantis, slated to start on Jan. 27. “Thank you Ron, hopefully other Governors will follow,” Trump posted to Truth Social as he backed the call. DeSantis explained his reasoning for a Special Session on social media, saying “officials in Florida …

Axios reports: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has been removed from the House Rules Committee after being the lone vote against Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) reelection. Massie’s departure from the influential panel could make it easier for Johnson to get legislation to the House floor. He has been replaced with Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), a low-key member of the right-wing House …

The Hill reports: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Tuesday that flags will fly at full-staff at the Capitol on the day of President-elect Trump’s inauguration and then will be lowered back to half-staff to honor the late President Jimmy Carter’s death last month. “On January 20th, the flags at the Capitol will fly at full-staff to celebrate our country …

Alabama Politics reports: Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday ordered flags at the state capitol and state offices be returned to full staff on Jan. 20 in honor of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump to office. The flags are currently flying at half-staff as the nation mourns the death of former President Jimmy Carter, and President Joe Biden ordered that …

“They got 40 million people in that state and they vote in these imbeciles in office, and they continue to do it. And it’s just a very small part of them in that state that’s doing it. If you go to California, you run into a lot of Republicans, a lot of good people. And I hate it for them. …

CBS News reports: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has directed that American flags on state property be flown at full staff to mark President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week, bypassing the national mourning period for former President Jimmy Carter. The move has sparked both praise and criticism on social media. On Dec. 29, President Biden ordered flags across the country to …

“We’ve got to have a serious conversation about that. Obviously, there has been water resource mismanagement, forest management mistakes, all sorts of problems. And it does come down to leadership. And it appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty and in many respects. “So that’s something that has to be factored in. I think …

The editorial board of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Gov. Ron DeSantis needs to work his way back into Donald Trump’s good graces. To do that, he will call the state Legislature into a special session on Jan. 27 to help Trump carry out “the largest deportation program in American history.” To that end, DeSantis needs new laws to force county …

The Daily Beast reports: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has made it abundantly clear that she didn’t study atmospheric sciences in college, launching an unhinged suggestion that officials could end the Los Angeles wildfires by manipulating the weather. “Why don’t they use geoengineering like cloud seeding to bring rain down on the wildfires in California?” the Republican asked Sunday in …

The Meidas Touch reports: As wildfires rage across California, a number of the state’s Republican lawmakers have drawn criticism for abandoning their the state during the crisis, opting instead to join Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The entire California House Delegation was there except David Valadao who voted to impeach Trump after January 6th. Instead of coordinating aid, offering a presence, …

“When you see what’s being shown on television, in addition to the tragedy on the ground, you’re also seeing gross mismanagement in California by elected officials, and it’s heartbreaking to hear the fire chief say that they’ve diverted all of this money away from the fire department to be used for social programs when they were already stretched too thin. …

NBC News reports: Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., on Sunday dismissed President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to acquire Greenland by military force, saying, “The United States is not going to invade another country. That’s not who we are.” Trump “speaks very boldly on a lot of things,” Lankford said, adding: “We’ve seen this over how he’s done negotiations, whether it be for …

The Guardian reports: Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward forcefully denied making statements attributed to him by James Comer, the Republican chair of the powerful House oversight committee, in which Woodward supposedly said Joe Biden was financially corrupt. “The statements attributed to me in what is apparently his book are false,” Woodward said. “I made none of those statements he attributes …

The Associated Press reports: Senate hearings are scheduled this coming week for several of Trump’s picks for the Cabinet. Many have met with senators individually. Now, they will go before the committees overseeing the agencies that Trump wants them to run. Here’s a look at the schedule for Senate hearings set so far, in Eastern time. Tuesday 9 a.m.: Doug …

Bloomberg News reports: Vice President-elect JD Vance tempered his boss’s promise to pardon all the protesters involved in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, saying those who behaved violently should “obviously” not receive pardons. Five people died as a result of the violence and the hundreds injured included 174 police officers. “If you protested peacefully on January 6, …