Republicans

The Washington Post reports: Republicans are showing increasing loyalty to the former president as he campaigns for reelection and fights criminal charges over his attempt to stay in power after losing in 2020. They are now less likely to believe that Jan. 6 participants were “mostly violent,” less likely to believe Trump bears responsibility for the attack and are slightly …

The Florida Trident reports: Sarasota police are investigating whether Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler unlawfully videotaped the sexual encounter at the heart of a rape allegation against him, a third search warrant affidavit obtained by the Florida Trident reveals. Based on the newly released Dec. 8 police affidavit, Circuit Judge Thomas Krug issued a search warrant for Ziegler’s Instagram account …

NBC News reports: Republican presidential candidates and outside groups have blanketed the Iowa airwaves ahead of the first-in-the-nation caucuses, spending nearly $105 million on ads there in 2023. And that figure is set to grow by at least another $7.5 million before the Jan. 15 caucuses. It’s being driven by former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s late push for a strong …

Axios reports: “Asa’s Normal Express” — a push by the campaign of former governor Asa Hutchinson to convince Iowa voters there’s an alternative to Donald Trump — launches tomorrow in Des Moines. “People are looking for normal after the chaos that we’ve had … I offer normal. I’m sort of building on that,” Hutchinson told Axios. Hutchinson, a former DEA …

The Daily Beast reports: Unlike his opponent Donald Trump, DeSantis spent the week between holidays in Iowa, puttering around looking for last-minute straggler votes. DeSantis has hinged the continued legitimacy of his campaign on the Iowa caucuses, and told the event’s guests that he hoped they could beat the odds together. The Florida governor took his stalwart campaigning to a …

Via press release from the New Jersey city of Secaucus: Yesterday morning the Secaucus Police Department and town officials received word from the Hudson County Executives’ Office that several buses transporting migrants in route for New York had arrived at the train station at Secaucus Junction. The first bus arrived the morning of December 30th. From what we understand after …

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: In a statement, the city of Chicago said a private Boeing 777 from San Antonio, coordinated by Eastern Airlines, landed in Rockford carrying 350 people seeking asylum. After landing, the passengers were put on eight buses chartered by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, according to a city of Chicago spokesperson. The buses dropped the migrants in the …

“We have to shut down the Hollywood elites who are trying to buy my current district. There has been close to $10 million poured into this district to buy this seat. Colorado’s 3rd District is not for sale. But with my announcement running in the 4th District, that shut down the dark money that was flowing into our district. “They …

The Hill reports: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday appeared to backtrack on earlier criticism of former President Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 and suggested instead that his presidential immunity defense was “a legitimate claim” as he moves forward with various court battles. In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Graham was pressed on whether he stands by …

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports: Piaf Kitchen + Wine + Bar had promoted a “drag show” Dec. 31 as part of a circus act at a premium-priced party that also will include a fire thrower, a magician, a palm reader, dinner, music and a DJ. The restaurant posted Friday on social media, the lineup was changed, “For the safety of …

Newsweek reports: Republican Senator Ron Johnson is leading efforts to block a deal on border security, the Wisconsin congressman recently said, adding that voters should be the ones deciding on the issue. Talking on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle on Thursday about a border security deal reportedly in the works between Senate Democrats and Republicans, Johnson, who’s part of the …

NBC News reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis offered the clearest indication yet that he would pardon former President Donald Trump if he were to be convicted on the multiple criminal charges he faces, clarifying previously murky answers on how the Republican governor would use his pardon powers if elected president. “I think we got to move on as a country …

“In any state where Donald Trump is forcibly removed from the ballot in this way, I’ll also remove myself. And I challenge Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, and Ron DeSantis to do the same thing, or else they are also complicit. If every Republican removes themselves from the ballot in Maine, that automatically stops this election interference in our GOP primary. …

“I’ve just come to the conclusion this is the new COVID for 2024. In 2020, they had us locked down. We couldn’t get out and vote. We could do all this absentee voting. Everything was built around fear. So now the new fear and what the Democrat Party is trying to do here is to tear Trump down and say …

From the office of GOP Rep. Tim Walberg: Despite inaccurate reports circulating, the transcript clearly shows that Congressman Walberg never endorsed any legislation or law while in Uganda. He did call out the World Bank for repeatedly holding Uganda, a Christian nation, to a different standard than much of the rest of the world. There is an undeniable double standard …

The Daily Mail reports: Nancy Reagan convinced the future president, Ronald Reagan, to marry her after getting pregnant by him in 1952, their first-born, Patti Davis, reveals in a new memoir. “I tend to doubt that getting pregnant was a result of carelessness,” writes Davis in her new book, Dear Mom and Dad: A Letter About Family, Memory, and the …

Politico reports: California Assembly member Vince Fong’s congressional hopes remain alive after a judge ruled Thursday he could proceed as a candidate to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). The ruling by Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne W.L. Chang caps off a chaotic start in the race to succeed the former House speaker. The decision rejects the argument by California Secretary of …

Florida Politics reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis is giving carnivores something to cheer about, as he promises to protect animal products from the left. “A lot of this ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) movement has agriculture in the crosshairs. They don’t want people eating meat,” DeSantis said at a “meet and greet” event in Clayton County, Iowa. The Governor promised …

Oklahoma City’s Fox affiliate reports: A bill has been filed in the Oklahoma legislature that would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms. Rep. Jim Olsen (R-Roland) filed the bill for consideration during the 2024 legislative session. He wants every public school to display the Ten Commandments in a “conspicuous place in each classroom of the …

Yahoo News reports: While campaigning in New Hampshire, Nikki Haley refused to reject the idea of becoming former President Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024. During a town hall in Lebanon on Dec. 28, an attendee asked the former South Carolina governor, “Would you be able to say categorically that you will not accept being Trump’s vice president?” “I could …