Republicans

Politico reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin says he’s pleased that the “political battles” in Washington have put on the back-burner accusations that Russia interfered in U.S. elections. “Thank God,” he told an economic forum in the Russian capital on Wednesday, “no one is accusing us of interfering in the U.S. elections anymore; now they’re accusing Ukraine.” Some Republicans have used …

The Toledo Blade reports: A farmer from rural Ohio who voted for President Trump but has condemned his agricultural policy and since resigned from the Republican Party is testing a bid to challenge one of the President’s biggest defenders in Congress. Chris Gibbs, a 61-year-old grain and cattle farmer in Shelby County, is launching an exploratory committee to weigh a …

Roll Call reports: Rep. Louie Gohmert has three daughters. Caroline, the middle child, is a musician who lives in California under the artist name BELLSAINT. And her latest single is called Much Like My Father. “Everybody loves you / But there’s poison in the water / You get away with everything / Much like my father,” BELLSAINT begins. “I don’t …

San Antonio’s ABC News affiliate reports: Hours after Chick-fil-A announced it will no longer donate funds to organizations known for their anti-LGBTQ stances, Gov. Greg Abbott said he’s eating elsewhere. Abbott wrote on Twitter Monday evening that he’s “headed to Bill Miller’s tonight,” doubling down on his devotion to the San Antonio-based barbecue chain. Abbott reversed his preference to the …

The Pensacola Daily News reports: Amanda Kondrat’yev, the woman who threw a red slushie drink on U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz at a campaign event in June, was sentenced Monday to 15 days in prison for assaulting a U.S. congressman. The 35-year-old wife and mother of two, who briefly ran against Gaetz as a Democratic challenger in the 2016 election, will …

The Argus Leader reports: Gov. Kristi Noem has a message for South Dakota: “Meth. We’re On It.” Noem launched her new anti-meth campaign on Monday to bring awareness to the meth epidemic in South Dakota that will include a new TV ad, billboards, posters and website. The campaign’s motto features the phrase, “Meth. We’re on it,” over an outline of …

The Associated Press reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to announce on Monday that the U.S. is softening its position on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the latest in a series of Trump administration moves that weaken Palestinian claims to statehood. Pompeo plans to repudiate a 1978 State Department legal opinion that held that civilian settlements …

Fox News reports: The impeachment inquiry against President Trump has triggered a wave of charges, countercharges, court battles, subpoenas and legal threats. Now it has produced its first libel suit. A White House official on Monday sued Politico and one of its reporters over stories and tweets that he says falsely accuse him of “lying, deceit and unethical conduct.” Kash …

Rapid response damage control to this morning’s expose: The Republican National Committee (RNC) said it cut ties with billionaire Doug Manchester, President Trump’s former nominee for ambassador to the Bahamas, after his “decision to link future contributions to an official action” as his nomination was at a standstill in the Senate. In a statement to CBS News, the RNC said …

“It’s going to be very difficult for future presidents to have a very candid conversation with a world leader because now we’ve set the precedent of leaking transcripts,” he said. “The weakening of executive privilege is not good. And by the way, these individuals that leaked this. “If their interest was a stronger relationship with Ukraine, they did not accomplish …

The Washington Post reports: The Republican National Committee will hold its winter meetings at President Trump’s Doral golf course in Florida next year — awarding another of the party’s most lucrative events to the president’s private business, a party spokesman said Thursday. The multiday event will be held in January at the Trump National Doral. Last month, Trump briefly chose …

The Hill reports: The Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating Rep. Ross Spano (R-Fla.) over allegations of campaign finance violations, the House Ethics Committee announced Thursday.The committee said it had agreed to defer the review of the allegations to the DOJ at the DOJ’s request. The Ethics Committee had been reviewing the allegations since September. “The Department of Justice has …

Mediaite reports: Rep. Steve King (R-IA) posted photos of the son of left-wing billionaire George Soros on Thursday, absurdly accusing him of being the White House whistleblower. “Adam Schiff said, ‘I do not know the identity of the whistleblower.’ @RepAdamSchiff here are four strong clues,” posted King, along with four pictures of Soros with Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, …

The Pensacola News-Journal reports: Rep. Matt Gaetz is asking the federal court to sentence Amanda Kondrat’yev — the woman who threw a drink on the congressman after a Pensacola campaign event in June — to “some time of incarceration,” saying that the message needs to be sent to supporters and opponents that violence won’t be tolerated. Kondrat’yev, 35, is scheduled …

Fox News reports: Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman announced Thursday morning that he is running for his old job once again. Huntsman left the governorship in the middle of his second term in 2009 to serve as ambassador to China in the Obama administration. He recently finished a two-year stint as ambassador to Russia under President Trump, which ended when …

The Lexington Courier-Journal reports: All 120 county boards of elections began a recanvass of the votes in Kentucky’s race for governor at 9 a.m. today. Gov. Matt Bevin requested the recanvass last week after he came up roughly 5,189 votes short of Democrat Andy Beshear. In a recanvass, a county reviews printouts of their vote totals to make sure they …

Politico reports: The Republican National Committee is pouring another $1 million into the Louisiana governor’s race ahead of Saturday’s runoff — a move that comes amid mounting GOP concerns about losing a second major election in a conservative state in as many weeks. The last-minute spending doubles the committee’s investment in the race, where Republican Eddie Rispone is trying to …

The Hill reports: Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (R) filed paperwork Wednesday declaring himself a candidate in the Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire next year. Weld, along with former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), is waging a longshot challenge to President Trump in the 2020 GOP primary for the presidential nomination. Former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) dropped his primary bid …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Last month’s visit to the University of Florida by President Donald Trump’s oldest son is still reverberating through campus, with some student leaders pushing to oust the student body president who invited him. For only the second time in the school’s 115-year history, a student president faces impeachment — and this time it’s happening with …

The Lima News reports: “I’ve stood up against the Speaker of the House from own party in my own state. I’ve stood up against the IRS, stood up against the FBI, stood up against Adam Schiff, fought the Justice Department when the whole Trump-Russia thing — what they had done. The idea I’m not going to defend our athletes when …