Republicans

NBC News reports: Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld on Wednesday became the last major Republican primary challenger to President Donald Trump to exit the race, a day after Trump became the party’s presumptive nominee. “I hereby announce that I am suspending my candidacy for president of the United States, effective immediately,” Weld said in a statement. “I am immensely grateful …

The Daily Beast reports: In a Senate floor speech Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul described undocumented immigrants as not “legitimate” people and “non-people” while making the case that they should not be given access to federal child tax credits. Paul was pushing an amendment that proposes several measures to defray the cost of the sweeping responses to the coronavirus. The Kentucky …

CNBC reports: After years of denying any wrongdoing, former Rep. Duncan Hunter has been sentenced to 11 months in prison and three years of supervised probation, according to NBC’s San Diego TV station KNSD. A California Republican who represented the state’s 50th Congressional district, Hunter and his wife were charged with 60 criminal counts of campaign finance violations in August …

Sen. Mitt Romney has formalized a set of proposals that swept Twitter early this morning and posted them to his website.  U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) today called for urgent action on additional coronavirus response measures aimed at providing economic relief for working Americans and families, easing the financial burden for students, and protecting both health workers and patients. Romney …

CBS News reports: Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Monday that he will try to have the state’s in-person voting moved from Tuesday, March 17, to June 2 to comply with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations that older and at-risk Americans stay home to avoid contracting coronavirus. “We cannot conduct this election tomorrow, the in-person voting for 13 …

The New York Times reports: Running out of federal court vacancies to fill, Senate Republicans have been quietly making overtures to sitting Republican-nominated judges who are eligible to retire to urge them to step aside so they can be replaced while the party still holds the Senate and the White House. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, who has used …

The Hill reports: Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) on Sunday urged Americans to “stop panicking” as more cases of the novel coronavirus are reported in the country, and called it “a great time” for those who are healthy to “just go out.” “There’s a lot of concerns with the economy here because people are scared to go out,” Nunes said. “But …

Raw Story reports: Washington Post White House correspondent Josh Dawsey today reported that Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, is being tested for coronavirus after reporting she is feeling unwell. McDaniel’s illness comes after she visited President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club. This afternoon McDaniel is continuing to pump out pro-Trump propaganda on her Twitter feed, presumably …

Via press release from Graham’s office: Senator Graham was at Mar-a-Lago last weekend. He has no recollection of direct contact with the President of Brazil, who is awaiting results of a coronavirus test, or his spokesman who tested positive. However, in an abundance of caution and upon the advice of his doctor, Senator Graham has decided to self-quarantine awaiting the …

Law & Crime reports: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 86 years old and a four-time cancer survivor. Rep. Paul Gosar is an Arizona Republican who’s been thinking about “life” and “mortality” while self-quarantining after meeting a person at CPAC who tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). In a late night tweet on his personal Twitter account, Gosar joked that …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump spurned Jeff Sessions and endorsed Tommy Tuberville in the Alabama Senate race Tuesday, an enormous blow to Trump’s former attorney general, whom he had excoriated for recusing from the Justice Department’s Russia investigation. The endorsement of Tuberville is a major boost for the former Auburn University football coach three weeks before the primary runoff between …

Mediaite reports: Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who is currently under self-quarantine after coming into contact with an individual who tested positive for the coronavirus during CPAC two weeks ago, tweeted that he’d “rather die gloriously in battle” than from the virus, Monday. Gosar announced he would be under self-quarantine on Sunday after coming under “sustained contact” with an individual who …

Axios reports: Rep. Matt Gaetz is the latest member of Congress to go into self-quarantine after coming in contact with an individual at CPAC who has since tested positive for the coronavirus. Gaetz was seen traveling with President Trump on Air Force One about an hour before his office announced that he would go into self-quarantine. Gaetz’s office reports that …

The Dallas Morning News reports: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced Sunday evening that he will undergo self-quarantine this week at his Texas home because he interacted with a person at the Conservative Political Action Conference who has tested positive for coronavirus. Cruz said on Twitter that he had only a brief conversation and shook hands with the person. The interaction …

CNBC reports: Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican, wielded an AR-15 rifle in his office and dared former Vice President Joe Biden and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke to “come and take it” in a jaw-dropping video posted online Friday. “I have a message for Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke, if you want to take everyone’s AR-15s in America, why don’t …

CNN reports: Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah plans to vote in favor of a subpoena as part of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s investigation into Burisma, a key decision that could advance the GOP investigation into the Ukrainian energy firm tied to Joe Biden’s son. Romney had raised concerns that the investigation had the appearance of …

The Lexington Courier-Journal reports: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul voted against an emergency response coronavirus bill Thursday afternoon after his proposed amendment to the bill was turned down. The bill had already received more than 60 affirmative votes, which was more than it needed to pass, when Paul voted against it. The bill passed 96-1. “Earlier today on the Senate floor, …

Just in from Public Policy Polling: New PPP polls find Sara Gideon leading Susan Collins 47-43 in the Maine Senate race and Mark Kelly leading Martha McSally 47-42 in the Arizona Senate race. Additionally a PPP poll for a private client last week found Cal Cunningham leading Thom Tillis 46-41 in the North Carolina Senate race, and when PPP last …

Politico reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to take to the Senate floor this morning to go after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for saying Supreme Court justices would “pay the price” for anti-abortion rulings. On Wednesday, Schumer said this outside the Supreme Court, as justices considered a case about limiting abortion in Louisiana: “I want to tell you, …

Politico reports: Just hours after Joe Biden surged to the top of the Democratic presidential pack, Senate Republicans announced a new phase of their investigation targeting the former vice president and his son Hunter. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told reporters on Wednesday that he is likely to release an interim report within one to two months …