Republicans

The Des Moines Register reports: The president of The Family Leader, a prominent conservative Iowa organization, endorsed Rep. Steve King’s primary opponent Thursday. Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO for the evangelical group, announced his support for Iowa Sen. Randy Feenstra in the 4th District Republican primary. Vander Plaats’ endorsement is personal and not on behalf of the organization. Vander …

Vice News reports: A group of House Republicans is urging their members to pressure Amazon to resume selling a set of controversial gay conversion therapy books, after the platform announced this month it would no longer carry works by the “father of conversion therapy.” The Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus that includes more than 70% of all GOP House …

USA Today reports: A New Hampshire lawmaker came under fire this week for claiming American slavery was based on economics, not racism. Republican state Rep. Werner Horn stated his case in a now-deleted Facebook post, then reaffirmed his position in multiple interviews with media outlets. Horn initially drew attention for his comments in a Facebook post by former state House …

My money would have been on Cruz or Graham. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is America’s most unpopular senator with voters in his state, with Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) coming in as a close runner-up, a new Morning Consult poll has found. The results show McConnell leading the list of the country’s 10 most unpopular senators with a …

Politico reports: The Palm Beach County GOP disinvited Anthony Scaramucci from addressing its annual fundraising event after the short-lived former White House spokesman criticized President Trump’s “racially charged” statement that four members of Congress who are women of color should leave the United States. “He suggested the president’s comments were racist and that he was becoming a racist. Our board …

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., was hospitalized after falling in his new D.C. apartment and suffering four fractured ribs late Tuesday. The Republican’s office said, one day later, that the 74-year-old senator is “in pain but resting and doing well.” “Senator Isakson looks forward to fully recovering and getting back to work for Georgians,” said spokesperson …

“It’s absolutely outrageous. Pardon me if I’m not impressed in any way by Rand Paul’s fiscal responsibility virtue signaling. At some point, we have to stand up for the people who have always stood up for us, and at this moment in time maybe cannot stand up for themselves due to their illnesses and their injuries. And what Rand Paul …

NBC News reports: The Marine Corps has issued a cease and desist letter to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., for using the official Marine Corps emblem and phrase on campaign mailers that link his likely 2020 opponent and two Democratic congresswomen to terror. In a letter to Hunter obtained by NBC News, the Marine Corps Trademark Licensing Office tells the congressman, …

The New York Daily News reports: Sen. Rand Paul is balking at the $10 billion price tag for the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. The Kentucky Republican derailed a request on Wednesday by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) to fast track the bill that would permanently fund compensation for sick and dying 9/11 responders and victims because the cost was too high. …

“They condemned this president with a smear, calling him racist, when actually it is the other side who has trafficked in anti-Semitism and anti-American rhetoric. She [Omar] proceeds in an interview to distort history, distort the Holocaust, and say that her ancestors gave the Jewish people a safe passage to what she calls Palestine. “Well, the fact of the matter …

The Hill reports: The GOP escalated its feud with four progressive congresswomen known as the “Squad,” releasing a new ad this week accusing the group of wanting “anarchy.” The more than minute-long ad splices together clips of the women likening immigrant detention facilities to concentration camps and declining to comment on a man’s attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement …

Vice News reports: Most rank-and-file Republicans showed little interest in taking on Trump, accusing “The Squad” — freshman congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley — of being anti-Semitic as justification for his remarks or shrugging them off as no big deal. “You know, they talk about people of color. I’m a person of color. I’m white. …

Fox News reports: Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz is questioning whether federal prosecutors are applying a double standard by not bringing charges in connection with a graphic threat against him — and suggesting his criticism of the Russia probe might even be a factor. The conservative Florida congressman told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Tuesday that he received a threatening voicemail …

Sky News reports: President Donald Trump has made yet another attack on “The Squad”, quoting senator John Kennedy, calling them the “four horsewomen of the apocalypse”. Using Twitter, he quotes the Louisiana senator who appeared on Fox News, saying: “‘In America, if you hate our Country, you are free to leave. The simple fact of the matter is, the four …

“There are no more good TV shows on like Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Virginian, Andy Griffith, I Love Lucy. We don’t have those shows anymore. We’re too interested in homosexual activities. We’re too interested in seeing how this family’s finding a way to mess on this family or to see how people are trying to date on TV, or having wife-swapping …

South Carolina’s Post & Courier reports: Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina congressman ousted from office after President Donald Trump urged voters to reject him, is considering a run for president. Sanford, in an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Post and Courier, confirmed he will take the next month to formulate whether he will mount a potential run against Trump …

The Hill reports: Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) on Monday became the first GOP lawmaker to publicly condemn recent tweets from President Trump as “racist.” Speaking to CNN host Christiane Amanpour, Hurd not only said Trump’s tweets were “racist” and “xenophobic,” but also labeled them “inaccurate.” “The four women he is referring to are actually citizens of the United States, three …

“I think the president believes that the more he can get the country to look at the so-called squad, the more he can get them to realize how radical they are and how fundamentally anti-American their views are, in the long run the better off he is. I think he would like to see them as sort of the front …

Mediaite reports: Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) cranked up the Donald Trump sycophancy by blasting the president’s Democratic enemies during his appearance on Fox & Friends Monday morning. “We all know AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists. They hate Israel, they hate our own country. They’re calling the guards along our border, Border Patrol agents concentration camp guards. …

The Washington Post reports: A day has passed without prominent Republicans stepping forward to disagree with President Trump’s notion that four minority congresswomen who have been critical of his approach to immigration enforcement should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Insinuating that people of color are foreigners, the president used …