Republicans

ABC News reports: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Wednesday that he has tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the first governor since the start of the pandemic to publicly announce a positive diagnosis. Stitt’s diagnosis came several weeks after President Donald Trump held a controversial campaign rally in Tulsa, where Stitt was photographed without a mask alongside thousands of the president’s …

The Washington Post reports: The Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights advocacy organization, is opposing Sen. Susan Collins’s reelection bid in Maine and endorsing her Democratic opponent, Sara Gideon. It’s the first time that the HRC has opposed Collins, a key Republican vote on LGBTQ rights, for reelection. The endorsement comes a day after Gideon, speaker of the …

Orlando’s NBC News affiliate reports: Florida has surpassed 300,000 cases of COVID-19 with 10,181 new cases reported on Wednesday. The state added another 112 deaths on Wednesday bringing the statewide death toll to 4,521. Florida’s rolling seven-day average for deaths is now 92 per day, triple the 31 posted a month ago just before the toll began creeping up and …

Oklahoma City’s ABC News affiliate reports: Governor Kevin Stitt said that he has tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. Stitt made the announcement from his home during a joint press conference with Interim Commissioner of Health Lance Frye on Wednesday. Stitt said that he “feels fine” and does not exhibit many symptoms other than feeling “achy.” Stitt last appeared on …

“I think that wearing a mask is a personal choice, and I don’t particularly want my government telling me that I have to wear a mask. “And so I think that’s a choice that I can make. I think you have to look at your personal circumstances and look at your surroundings and decide if that’s right for you. “I’m …

The Washington Post reports: They stood center stage before a cheering crowd of thousands five years ago, shaking hands in a half embrace that seemed to cement a political and ideological bond that would serve as the foundation for Donald Trump’s presidency. “Donald, welcome to my hometown, Mobile, Alabama,” then-Sen. Sessions (R-Ala.) said, donning a white “Make America Great Again” …

Topeka’s CBS News affiliate reports: U.S. Rep. Steve Watkins faces criminal charges of voter fraud. Shawnee Co. District Attorney Mike Kagay said Tuesday he filed four counts against Watkins: Interference with Law Enforcement, Providing False Information; Voting without being Qualified; Unlawful Advance Voting; and Failing to Notify the DMV of Change of Address. The first three are felonies, while the …

PBS NewsHour reports: Jeff Sessions is hoping to regain the seat he held for 20 years before stepping down in 2017 to serve as President Donald Trump’s attorney general, a position he was pushed out of 18 months later. In the Republican runoff, he’s facing former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, who finished 2 points ahead of Sessions in …

The Dallas Morning News reports: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is facing backlash over a photo on social media of the Texas Republican aboard an American Airlines flight without a required face mask. But the senator’s office said Cruz wasn’t flouting airline mandates and public health safeguards by taking off a mask, but “he temporarily removes the mask while eating or …

The New York Times reports: More than a dozen Republican National Committee members from across the country told The Times in interviews that they were still planning to attend the party’s convention next month in Florida, despite the surge in cases. “It’s a risk you have to take,” said Morton Blackwell, 80, an R.N.C. member from Virginia. “You take risks …

Law & Crime reports: On July 8 the mayor of Houston canceled the Texas Republican Party’s scheduled in-person convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The Texas GOP promptly sued and eventually petitioned to the state’s Supreme Court, asking the court to order the enforcement of the contract that was signed. The GOP lost that bid on Monday. The …

Politico reports: Last month, the National Republican Senatorial Committee prepared a slideshow for Senate chiefs of staff full of bleak numbers about the party’s failure to compete with Democrats on digital fundraising. For anyone not getting the message, the final slide hammered home the possible end result: a freight train bearing down on a man standing on the tracks. The …

The New York Times reports: As tensions between the two sides mount, the Chinese government announced on Monday that it would impose sanctions on three American lawmakers and a diplomat in retaliation for similar moves last week by the Trump administration against four officials in China. The largely symbolic sanctions targeted Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Senator Ted Cruz of …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he would call former special counsel Robert Mueller to testify about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, a day after Mr. Mueller broke nearly a year of public silence through an opinion article defending his probe and the related conviction of Trump adviser …

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: Wisconsin congressman Glenn Grothman broke out into an unmasked coughing fit at the microphone of his speech at the GOP state convention in Green Bay on Saturday. “Let’s talk about Donald John Trump,” Grothman said as he began to cough uncontrollably. After several seconds, Grothman regained composure and adjusted his tie. Grothman, who is 65, falls …

The Hill reports: President Trump late Saturday lashed out at a pair of Republican senators after they criticized his decision to commute the prison sentence of longtime confidant and former campaign adviser Roger Stone. Romney and Toomey are so far the only Republican senators to publicly rebuke Trump’s move to commute Stone’s sentence. The former Republican operative was due to …

Raw Story reports: Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday said calls for a boycott of Goya Foods because its CEO praised President Donald Trump were an attempt to “silence free speech.” But one year ago, the Texas Republican encouraged people to boycott Nike after the company halted plans to sell shoes featuring the Betsy Ross flag that some say glorifies slavery …

WTF Florida reports: St. Johns County Commissioner Paul Waldron caught the coronavirus and went into septic shock after voting against a motion to mandate masks for county employees last week. His daughter posted on Facebook on July 9 that Waldron “went into septic shock and has many organs struggling.” “He is currently in the most critical of conditions,” she wrote. …

Mediaite reports: Ann Coulter, who wrote the book In Trump We Trust, has been far more critical of the president recently, calling him a “moron” and a “blithering idiot” just two months ago. Now Coulter is calling for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to lose in November to Democratic opponent Amy McGrath, who recently won the nomination in a close …

The Texas Tribune reports: With Texas continuing to break records for new coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations this week, Gov. Greg Abbott reiterated Friday afternoon that things will continue to get worse. And if people keep flouting his new statewide mask mandate, he said, the next step could be another economic lockdown. “Things will get worse, and let me explain why,” …