Republicans

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas lawmakers have filed at least three bills targeting how racism, current events and the country’s founding principles are taught in K-12 schools — including a senate bill that would strip out upcoming requirements that students learn white supremacy is “morally wrong” and study particular writings by women and people of color. SB 3, filed by …

The Daily Beast reports: Kristi Noem, once the GOP’s shining star, now seems to be trying to find any way to insert herself into the conversation. Noem posted a photo on her official government Facebook last week of a car parked at Mt Rushmore with a message scrawled on the window that said its owner had “escaped communism” and “returned …

The Orange County Register reports: A Laguna Hills event center canceled plans to host an “America First” rally on July 17 after learning the speakers were slated to be two of the most controversial Republicans in Congress: Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene. “We just want to stay clear of that,” Javad Mirtavoosi, general manager of Pacific Hills Banquet …

The New York Times reports: Mississippi health officials, in a stark reversal, announced new recommendations on Friday to combat the spread of the more contagious Delta variant, urging older and chronically sick residents to avoid crowded indoor spaces. The highly contagious Delta variant became the dominant variant in the United States this week, accounting for about 52 percent of infections. …

The Daily Beast reports: South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg is claiming the man he ran over and killed—allegedly while scrolling through his phone on highway at night—wanted to die. In court documents filed Friday, the state’s top lawman claimed victim Joe Boever was depressed and suicidal and may have thrown himself in front of his car as he drove …

Forbes reports: Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) on Friday doubled down on the rhetoric that led a fellow House member to sue him for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, urging attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference to “fight for America” like soldiers during the American Revolution. In a speech to the conservative gathering, Brooks, who is running for …

Huntington’s CBS News affiliate reports: Late today, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw issued a statement saying quote: “I believe Joe Jeffries is an embarrassment not just to the House of Delegates, but to the entire state.” He then stripped Jeffries of his committee vice-chairmanship. This is not Joe Jeffries’ first round of trouble. Last April, he burst into a committee meeting, …

Mediaite reports: White nationalists on Twitter were dealt a blow on Friday when the platform permanently suspended the account of Nick Fuentes for presumably doing Nick Fuentes things such as denying the Holocaust and endorsing Jim Crow segregation. For many, Twitter’s efforts to rid its platform of this kind of vile stuff is a welcome development. But to Ohio Republican …

Via press release from the ACLU: A federal judge today blocked a new law in Tennessee that required businesses and other entities that allow transgender people to use the public restroom that matches their gender to post a government-prescribed warning sign. The lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of business owners Kye Sayers and Bob Bernstein who object to the …

Gothamist reports: A booster of former President Donald Trump who falsely claimed election fraud in the 2020 presidential election without any evidence of wrongdoing is potentially facing charges of election fraud himself. Federal and state investigators are looking at the campaign tactics of Marko Kepi, a former U.S. Marine who ran in the Republican primary election to succeed City Councilmember …

“They’re starting to talk about going door-to-door to take the vaccines to the people. Think about the mechanisms they would have to build to be able to actually execute that massive of a thing. And then think about what else those mechanisms could be used for. They could then go door-to-door take your guns. They could go door-to-door to take …

The New York Post reports: The notorious San Diego home of Mitt Romney, which made headlines in 2012 for having planned an installation of a car elevator, is now in escrow for $23.5 million. The move comes after years of enduring backlash from neighbors for tearing down and demolishing the initial oceanfront structure and building a new, bigger home. Romney, …

The Hill reports: Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) is attacking President Biden’s plans to conduct door-to-door outreach to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations, calling the effort “deeply disturbing.” Biggs and 31 other GOP House members confronted the administration on what he called a serious privacy violation in a letter sent to the president on Friday. “There is no scenario where the …

Salon reports: White nationalist and Unite the Right attendee Nicholas Fuentes, de facto leader of the ultra-far-right “groyper” movement, has announced that he plans to attending a Conservative Political Action Conference gathering this weekend in Dallas, although he has not been welcomed at previous CPAC events. A years-long feud between Fuentes and CPAC organizers appeared to escalate on Wednesday after …

Mediaite reports: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan for a congressional commission to investigated the events leading up to, during, and after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, calling it the least bipartisan commission ever. This may come as a surprise, however, to anyone who recalls how McCarthy led a successful Republican effort to …

Politico reports: A former GOP staffer and Republican National Committee aide pleaded guilty Friday to a child pornography charge and is facing 12 years or more in prison under a plea deal with prosecutors. Ruben Verastigui, 27, entered the guilty plea from jail during a video conference. Verastigui admitted to possession of 152 videos and 50 images of child pornography …

“When you talk about country music, and I know the left is all out now and trying to change country music and make it woke. When I’m talking to my friends who are musicians, I say, ‘If we have a socialistic government—if we have Marxism—you are going to be the first ones who will be cut off because the state …

The Washington Post reports: Attorneys general in four states are looking into the online fundraising practices of both major political parties, according to court documents and a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The practices being examined include the use of pre-checked boxes that lock in recurring donations from political donors who may not intend to sign up for …

The Lakeland Ledger reports: James Ring, president of the Republican Party of Lakeland, says he is blessed to be alive after being “certain I was dying” of COVID-19, saying he contracted it at a national volleyball tournament in which his twin daughters played nearly three weeks ago in Orlando. “I haven’t shared this with many people, but I just spent …

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports: The National Rifle Association on Wednesday went to a federal appeals court after a judge last month upheld a Florida law that prevents people under age 21 from buying guns. The NRA, which challenged the constitutionality of the law after it passed in 2018, filed a notice of appealing the ruling by Chief U.S. District …