Republicans

Axios reports: House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is privately encouraging voting by mail and warned President Trump the party could be “screwed” by his fight against mail-in voting. “We could lose based on that,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told me at a diner in Salt Lake City last week, during a campaign swing that began in the Pacific Northwest. McCarthy said the …

The Texas Tribune reports: The Texas Supreme Court on Saturday rejected an attempt by Republicans to kick 44 Libertarians off the ballot in the November elections. Several Republican Party candidates and organizations had sued to remove the Libertarians, arguing they did not pay filing fees — a new requirement for third parties under a law passed by the Legislature last …

The Times of Israel reports: Laura Loomer, a Jewish Republican congressional candidate in Florida with a history of bigoted statements, got a friendly visit on the campaign trail from Lara Trump, the US president’s daughter-in-law. In 2017, before she was banned from Twitter, she tweeted, “Good. Here’s to 2,000 more,” in response to news that more than 2,000 migrants had …

Media Matters reports: The National Rifle Association released its list of candidate ratings and endorsements for the 2020 elections, endorsing two congressional candidates who support the dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory: Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. On September 3, the NRA’s political action committee Political Victory Fund announced it had released its candidate grades and endorsements for the 2020 election …

Forbes reports: Marjorie Taylor Greene, the House candidate and professed QAnon believer President Trump called “a future Republican star,” posted a photo of herself holding a gun she plans to raffle off saying she wanted to go on the “offense” against the three Congresswomen known as the “Squad” — and her campaign said anyone who takes offense is “paranoid and …

“He exhibited incredible restraint and presence and situational awareness. He didn’t empty a magazine into a crowd.  I think the strongest thing he has for him is the actual video evidence. And if I were on a jury and all I had was the evidence that I have been able to acquire through social media and the videos that are …

USA Today reports: Sen. Ted Cruz came under fire from abortion-rights proponents after saying Wednesday on social media that pregnancy is not a “life-threatening illness” when the U.S. has the highest maternal death rate out of the world’s developed nations. Cruz made the comment in a tweet promoting a letter signed by himself and other Republican senators calling on the …

The Hill reports: The House Democratic campaign arm has filed a formal ethics complaint against Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (La.), who shared a video doctored to alter the wording of a question posed by activist Ady Barkan to former Vice President Joe Biden. The complaint filed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Wednesday alleges that Scalise violated the …

Reuters reports: Nearly 100 Republican and independent leaders will endorse Democrat Joe Biden for president on Thursday, including one-time 2020 Republican presidential candidate Bill Weld and the former Republican governors of Michigan and New Jersey, people involved in the effort told Reuters. The latest Republican-led effort to oppose the re-election of President Donald Trump also includes current and former Republicans …

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: The ACLU of Georgia this morning has released a report that says a 2019 purge of voters from the state’s registration database improperly removed nearly 200,000 on the grounds that they had moved – when they had not. The report is the work of the Palast Investigative Fund, a New York-based nonprofit headed by Greg Palast, …

Media Matters reports: On September 5, Trump supporters nationwide are planning a “Drag the Interstate” rally in which they’ll use their vehicles to “gather together and organize into rolling flag parade caravans within their States.” The event has been promoted with a flyer that contains the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA” an abbreviation for “where we go one, we go all.” Republicans …

The Huffington Post reports: Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) said he’d be more than willing to shoot any armed demonstrators in Louisiana in a Facebook post Tuesday that was accompanied by a picture of Black men with guns. “One way ticket fellas,” he wrote on his campaign account. “Have your affairs in order. Me?… I wouldn’t even spill my beer. I’d …

The Washington Post reports: Federal prosecutors are preparing to charge longtime GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy in connection with efforts to influence the U.S. government on behalf of foreign interests, according to people familiar with the matter, a result of a sprawling, years-long investigation that involved a figure who helped raise millions for Donald Trump’s election and the Republican Party. Broidy …

The Washington Post reports: When a man in the crowd of her Iowa campaign stop told Sen. Joni Ernst (R) on Monday that he believed the number of U.S. coronavirus deaths had been overcounted, Ernst replied that she too was “so skeptical.” “These health-care providers and others are reimbursed at a higher rate if COVID is tied to it, so …

The Washington Post reports: Virginia Republican Bob Good dropped his first congressional campaign ad Monday, showing Cameron Webb, his Democratic opponent, against images of rioting in an unidentified location and trying to paint Webb as a “radical” who supports forced government health care and defunding the police. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee condemned the ad as a “racist dog whistle.” …

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: A federal judge on Monday extended the deadline for absentee ballots to be returned in Georgia, ruling that they must be counted if postmarked by Election Day and delivered up to three days afterward. The decision will likely result in tens of thousands of ballots being counted after Nov. 3 that would have otherwise been rejected, …

Fox News reports: Rep. Steve Scalise on Sunday removed a video he had posted on Twitter of an edited interview between Joe Biden and a disabled liberal activist after backlash that the clip was “doctored” to portray the Democratic presidential nominee as supporting the defunding of police. Scalise’s video was initially marked as doctored by Twitter before it was removed. …

The Verge reports: A Sunday tweet from Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) showing a video of activist Ady Barkan got a “manipulated media” label from Twitter. Barkan has ALS and speaks through voice assistance. In the video, a conversation between Barkan and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Barkan asks “But do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding?” …

Raw Story reports: In a highly contentious interview on CNN Sunday morning, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) repeatedly refused to condemn Kyle Rittenhouse, the Donald Trump fan accused of shooting and killing two Black Lives Matter protestors early this week. Speaking with “State of the Union” host Dana Bash, Johnson repeatedly spoke over her while manically spouting out prepared comments and …

Wisconsin Public Radio reports: Rapper Kanye West is making another effort to get on Wisconsin’s presidential ballot, filing a lawsuit late Friday that argues the Wisconsin Elections Commission violated his constitutional rights when it rejected his nominating petitions. The lawsuit, which was filed in Brown County Circuit Court, argues that the Elections Commission erred when it voted 5-1 that West …