Republicans

The Washington Examiner reports: Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley blasted President Joe Biden on Saturday for giving Democratic megadonor George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Haley called the move to give the award to Soros “another slap in the face of America” after Biden  pardoned his son Hunter and commuted …

CBS News reports: A Republican official who oversees Nassau County on New York’s Long Island has seemingly refused to lower flags to half-staff in memory of the late Democratic President Jimmy Carter, who died last weekend at the age of 100. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, has not publicly explained his reason for not lowering flags at Nassau …

Just in via press release: This Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. CT, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a Louisiana resident and former state representative, will hold a one-hour broadcast “Pray for the Nation” in response to the terrorist attack in New Orleans. Christian leaders including Pastor Carter Conlon, Pastor Jack Hibbs, Michele Bachmann, Dr. …

The Baptist-led site Word & Way reports: Mike Johnson of Louisiana was reelected today (Jan. 3) to lead the U.S. House of Representatives. During his acceptance remarks a bit later, he read what he called a prayer from Thomas Jefferson. But Monticello and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation call it a “spurious quotation,” adding it’s unlikely Jefferson actually wrote or delivered …

Axios reports: The House voted mostly along party lines Friday to adopt a rules package that protects newly reelected Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from a potential ouster. The new rules make it so that a vote on removing the speaker can only be brought if at least nine Republicans support what is called a “motion to vacate.” That is a …

Fox News reports: Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., is receiving medical attention after suffering a fall at the U.S. Capitol on Friday, Fox News has learned. Foxx, who chairs the House Education Committee, reportedly fell on the grand staircases on the GOP side of the Capitol, shortly after the House voted to re-elect Rep. Mike Johnson as Speaker of the …

The Daily Beast reports: Sen. Chuck Grassley, 91, was sworn in as Senate president pro tempore on Friday, making him third in line to the presidency. The position goes to the longest-serving senator of the majority party. The Iowa Republican previously served as president pro tempore from 2019 to 2021, before Democrats took control of the Senate. Even after months …

“I think for them to undermine this on the opening day is almost suicidally stupid. And I can’t explain it except that over the years and Karl watched all this and lived with it in the Bush White House over the years has been a group in the party who have grown more and more hostile, more and more self-righteous. …

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 …