Republicans

USA Today reports: A prominent Kentucky banker who is one of the state’s largest Republican donors urged former Gov. Matt Bevin to pardon convicted killer Patrick Baker months before the outgoing governor issued a controversial last-minute order freeing the man. Terry Forcht, founder of Corbin-based Forcht Bank, has given more than $1 million to Republican candidates, committees and super PACs …

From the conservative Washington Examiner: When Mitch McConnell pitches Mike Pompeo on running for the Senate in 2020, a periodic occurrence, the majority leader does not fail to mention that the chamber is a great steppingstone should the secretary of state harbor higher aspirations. Fearing former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach could win the Republican nomination to succeed retiring …

The Associated Press reports: Republican Sen. Susan Collins officially launched her bid for reelection Wednesday, setting up an expensive and closely watched battle that’s starting against the backdrop of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Collins made her formal announcement in an email to supporters, saying her “bipartisan commonsense approach” has been key to many legislative successes and will be …

NPR reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., dismissed the impeachment process against President Trump as a political proceeding rather than a judicial one. “I’m not an impartial juror. This is a political process. There’s not anything judicial about it,” McConnell told reporters on Tuesday. “The House made a partisan political decision to impeach. I would anticipate we will have …

From the pro-Trump Washington Examiner: Maria Butina wore a “foreign agent” T-shirt to promote her new gig as a Russian state television host. Butina, who was not charged with espionage but pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as a foreign agent by infiltrating a gun rights group and cultivating relationships with conservative politicians, was deported in October after an 18-month …

United Press reports: North Carolina Rep. Mark Walker says he won’t seek re-election next year, now that his redrawn district tilts Democratic — but he’s eyeing a run for the U.S. Senate in 2022. The former Baptist pastor-turned-politician was in his third term when courts struck down North Carolina’s gerrymandered congressional districts earlier this year, forcing state lawmakers to redraw …

Same as it ever was: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a key vote in the upcoming Senate impeachment trial, is distancing herself from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) close coordination with President Trump’s legal team. She said McConnell’s plan to let Trump’s legal team dictate the Senate GOP’s position on the trial “would not be the approach that I’ve taken.” …

From the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer: During the2018 campaign, Rep. Jeff Van Drew raised $1.9 million — about half in individual donations, and close to $120,000 in small donations, according to Federal Election Committee data. As a show of gratitude, Van Drew announced last week his intention to switch parties and become a Republican after less than a …

Talking Points Memo reports: Five staffers of Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ) announced their decision to resign from his office in light of his decision to join the Republican Party after declaring that he opposes impeachment. In a letter sent Sunday, the staffers said Van Drew’s decision to defect from Democrats and join the GOP compelled them to resign from …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Rep. Jeff Van Drew, the conservative South Jersey Democrat who has vocally opposed impeaching President Donald Trump, is expected to switch parties in the coming days, according to three New Jersey Democratic sources, leaving a party he has represented for more than 20 years. Van Drew didn’t just oppose the impeachment effort. He repeatedly touted his …

The Kansas City Star reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has launched a personal Twitter account in anticipation of a run for an open Senate seat in Kansas. A source close to Pompeo said that the Republican “needed to set up a personal Twitter account for future plans,” strongly indicating the secretary is laying the groundwork for a run. A …

The Hill reports: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)on Saturday pledged to help impeachment “die quickly” in the Senate as it becomes increasingly likely that the House will vote to impeach President Trump, leading to a Senate trial. “This thing will come to the Senate, and it will die quickly, and I will do everything I can to make …

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports: In twenty tweets Friday evening, the Republican ex-governor defended his decision to issue pardons that ranged from a man convicted of beheading a woman and stuffing her in a barrel, to a man convicted of hiring a hit man to kill his business partner, to a man convicted of raping a 9-year-old. On Friday, Senate President …

The Huffington Post reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday night bragged about blocking President Barack Obama’s attempt to fill federal judicial vacancies for two years. Then, he laughed about it as he discussed the Republican Party’s effort to stack the courts with conservative judges under President Donald Trump. “I was shocked that former President Obama left so …

The Washington Post reports:  Matt Bevin is no longer the governor of Kentucky, but his decisions continued to send shock waves through the state’s legal system this week after he issued pardons for hundreds of people, some of whom committed violent offenses. Bevin issued 428 pardons since his defeat to Democrat Andy Beshear in a close election in November. His …

The Hill reports: Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (R) said Thursday that as many as a half-dozen GOP senators are privately in favor of voting to convict President Trump at a likely impeachment trial. “I know most of the senior Republicans in the Senate,” Weld, a long-shot candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, said in an interview at The Hill’s …

CNN reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to hold a final vote to acquit President Donald Trump, should he be impeached, when a majority of senators believe his trial has run its course instead of holding a vote on dismissing the articles of impeachment, two Republican senators told CNN. Republicans want to have a vote on acquittal — …

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports: The family of a man pardoned by Gov. Matt Bevin for a homicide and other crimes in a fatal 2014 Knox County home invasion raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser last year to retire debt from Bevin’s 2015 gubernatorial campaign. The brother and sister-in-law of offender Patrick Brian Baker also gave $4,000 to Bevin’s campaign on …

NBC News reports: As the Senate begins preparations for an impeachment trial next month, many Republican members are questioning the wisdom of having President Donald Trump call witnesses and are instead discussing a speedy resolution. Republican senators have been holding talks about the likely trial and few see the benefit of a slate of witnesses testifying on behalf of the …

Gothamist reports: A failed attempt to secede is still well-regarded in some quarters of the South, a century-and-a-half after the Civil War. And the failed attempt to secede is apparently still well-regarded in some quarters of New York’s southern-most corner, a generation-and-a-half after the last breakaway attempt failed. So says Staten Island City Councilman Joe Borelli. “Secession is wildly popular …