Republicans

The New Republic reports: House Speaker Mike Johnson lost the first floor vote Friday to retain the gavel. A handful of aimless Republican votes for other candidates (who weren’t running for the House’s most prized position) made it mathematically impossible for Johnson to win. Johnson had faced near-impossible margins from the jump: With a full House floor and a unified …

Politico reports: Mike Johnson came up short in his bid to remain speaker on the first ballot. Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Keith Self (R-Texas) voted against Johnson in the alphabetical roll call vote. Johnson can only afford to lose one GOP vote and still reclaim the gavel, meaning he needs to flip at least two of …

The New York Times reports: As Speaker Mike Johnson labors to lock down enough support to be re-elected to his post, every vote is critical. That has prompted speculation that former Representative Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican who engineered the ouster of Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, could play a role in the outcome this time as well. Mr. Gaetz resigned his …

“The first thing we’ve got to do is starting on Jan. 6, we’ve got to start going through committee by committee and get Pam Bondi out of the committee, get Pete Hegseth out of committee, to get every nominee done as quickly as possible. Then on Jan. 20, we’ve got to stay here and just be voting on these nominees. …

Politico reports: Rudy Giuliani’s legal problems are about to get even worse. Two federal judges are mulling whether to hold him in contempt — a punishment that could potentially include throwing him in jail — for defying court orders. And the former New York City mayor is facing a trial later this month about whether he must turn over his …

Last night on Fox News… Rep. James Comer: “It’s a slap in the face to all the good Americans who actually deserve to be recognized for their public service or for their sacrifice or for their community activism. You think about all the first responders that risk their lives every day, all the military frontline soldiers who risk their lives …

“I’ve been primaried three times. I think there’s some real threats [from Musk]. But, by the way, what he said was not true. So, for example, Elon Musk put out that we were gonna give ourselves a $66,000 pay raise. That was not true. That we’re protecting Liz Cheney. That was not true. That we were gonna build a new …

“Oh no. You can pull all my fingernails out. You can shove bamboo up in them. You can start cutting off my fingers. I am not voting Mike Johnson tomorrow. And you can take that to the bank. You know that, Matt. I don’t know how to say this without cussing. If they thought I had no Fs to give …

The Daily Mail reports: The debut of Matt Gaetz’s talk show on One America News Network had more people talking about the former Congressman’s appearance than his guests. Gaetz made his debut on the conservative network with former colleague Lauren Boebert as his headline guest on The Matt Gaetz Show. The former Florida representative has been taunted by liberals for …

The Hill reports: Vice President-elect JD Vance took to the social platform X on Thursday to share an op-ed by Elon Musk in which the tech mogul expressed support for the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany, or AfD. Quoting Musk’s English version of the opinion piece, Vance said it was an “interesting piece.” The paper’s commentary editor resigned …

Axios reports: House Republicans’ mainstream wing is warning Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) not to repeat his predecessor’s mistake of giving away the store to his right-wing detractors to retain his gavel, Axios has learned. Johnson is facing roughly a dozen right-wing holdouts on the eve of Friday’s speaker election — in which he will only be able to afford a …

The New York Times reports: A federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s landmark net neutrality rules on Thursday, ending a nearly two-decade effort to regulate broadband internet providers like utilities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, said that the F.C.C. lacked the authority to reinstate rules that prevented broadband providers from slowing …

Roll Call reports: Like others who defended the Capitol that day, Walter Pingoen does want some acknowledgement of what transpired on Jan. 6, 2021. In the lead-up to the fourth anniversary of the mob attack, some are again calling for the dedication of an overdue plaque to honor police, though they aren’t holding their breath. “At this point, I have …

Florida Politics reports: Sweetwater Rep. David Borrero is again carrying legislation to limit flag use at public facilities. He just filed a bill (HB 75) that would prohibit local or state government offices, schools and universities from displaying banners that represent a “political viewpoint.” That includes a “politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint,” the measure …

“I don’t know if enough attention is being paid to this, but we all know that for the last four years the Biden administration has been completely derelict in its duty. “The congressional Republicans, we here in the House and the Senate have repeatedly asked the DHS under the Biden administration about the correlation, the obvious concern about terrorism and …

Axios reports: House Democrats are pushing back furiously against a proposed change to House rules that would allow only Republicans to force a vote on removing the speaker of the House. “This makes it clear that they have no intention of working together to find common ground,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said …

“Donald Trump received a mandate from the American people in November. Chip Roy did not. It is the America First Agenda, not the Chip Roy First Agenda. It is Make America Great Again, not make Chip Roy Great. President Trump is fighting for America, Chip is fighting to keep his brand marketable. “Some people apparently need to understand that in …

404 Media reports: Almost two years ago, Louisiana passed a law that started a wave that’s since spread across the entire U.S. south, and has changed the way people there can access adult content. As of today, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina join the list of 17 states that can’t access some of the most popular porn sites on the …

“Terrorist attack in NOLA similar to the one in the German Christmas market. What did we expect would happen with wide open borders and millions of gotaways? The problem is no one trust the FBI under the current leadership, so everyone is questioning every detail they can find in their own. What an absolute disaster America is in.” – Rep. …

Axios reports: House Republicans on Wednesday released their proposed rules package for the 119th Congress, which includes several notable changes to the rules that governed the lower chamber for the last two years. The most crucial alteration raises the threshold to introduce a motion to vacate — a measure to force a vote on ousting the House speaker. Instead of …