Republicans

Common Dreams reports: Just one Republican — Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — joined a united House Democratic caucus on Friday to pass what rights groups hailed as “historic” legislation to restore and expand voter protections that were gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013. Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs for Public Citizen, said passage of the Voting …

San Diego’s ABC News affiliate reports: Days after pleading guilty to misusing campaign funds, Congressman Duncan Hunter has announced he will resign from Congress. Hunter, who represented the 50th District, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of conspiracy to misuse campaign funds for personal use. Though after the plea, it wasn’t clear if the embattled Congressman would resign. “Shortly …

Hypocrisy is their hallmark. Also cruelty. But also also hypocrisy: Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called out House Democrats for trying to impeach President Donald Trump “on the eve of Christmas,” Friday, but on December 19 1998, when Gingrich was speaker, the House of Representatives impeached former President Bill Clinton. “Really, on the eve of Christmas it is …

Mediaite reports: Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, appeared to claim that mass shooter Dylann Roof “hijacked” the Confederate flag, and that it was seen as “service, and sacrifice, and heritage” before the 2015 Charleston Church Shooting, during an interview with the Blaze’s Glenn Beck this week. “There is this guy that comes out with this manifesto, …

Roll Call reports: Rep. George Holding announced Friday that he will not run for Congress again in 2020 in his own district or a neighboring one. The North Carolina Republican’s district became more Democratic on a new congressional map. Holding’s decision comes after he said earlier this week that he would not run in a district that he could not …

Politico reports: On Wednesday, a conservative backbencher in the House issued an explosive request to Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham: Subpoena the phone records of House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff. On Thursday, Graham had a succinct response: “We’re not going to do that.” President Donald Trump has joined in as well, tweeting on Thursday that he wants to call Schiff, …

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports: In an interview with the Union-Tribune editorial board, former Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican insider who once chaired the powerful House oversight committee, talked seriously about presidential clemency should Hunter be sentenced to prison on March 17. “It’s not my decision. It’s the president’s decision,” Issa said when asked about a pardon. “But I would …

Roll Call reports: The House Ethics Committee notified Rep. Duncan Hunter that his recent guilty plea means he should no longer cast votes in the House. The instruction is not mandatory, but the panel threatened action against him if he continues to vote. Hunter last voted on Wednesday, in favor of a measure to crack down on robocalls. He did …

Politico reports: Rep. Tom Graves announced Thursday he will not seek reelection in 2020, joining the growing ranks of House Republicans heading for the exits in the current election cycle. Citing “a new season in life,” Graves said he will join his family members “in their new and unique journeys” as his wife nears retirement and his three children enter …

Knoxville’s ABC News affiliate reports: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee says if residents pray to God to favor the state, God will answer those prayers. Lee said he prays that Tennessee does not experience a school shooting, that the state’s opioid epidemic will diminish and that Tennessee’s educational outcomes improve. If thousands of people offer similar prayers, he believes God will …

Louisville’s NPR affiliate reports: Matt Bevin lost to Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear last month by a little more than 5,000 votes. During an interview on 55KRC in Cincinnati, Bevin said that the election was a “surprise” that defies logic. “The left, those who think of a different ideological bent, they are getting so good at harvesting votes in the …

Politico reports: Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) is showing no signs of stepping down from office despite his guilty plea Tuesday on a felony campaign finance charge in federal court. When asked Wednesday about whether and when he intended to resign, Hunter blew off the question. “Good talk,” Hunter told a POLITICO reporter. Former Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who pleaded guilty …

Kansas City’s ABC News affiliate reports: A Kansas congressman is tangled in voter fraud and perjury allegations for what he calls a mistake. It all has to do with U.S. Rep. Steve Watkins and a UPS store in Topeka, Kansas. The Shawnee County district attorney is asking the sheriff’s office to investigate whether Watkins committed fraud. Watkins is the freshman …

From the right wing Washington Examiner: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff spied on the top Republican on his panel by obtaining his phone records and publishing them in an impeachment report, Minority Whip Steve Scalise said Wednesday. “It raises a lot of serious questions,” the Louisiana Republican said. “I want to know all the people Adam Schiff is spying …

Politico reports: “Lindsey was good company, he was funny, he was self-deprecating,” the former Secretary of State told Howard Stern on his morning radio show. “He also believed in climate change back in those days,” she continued, taking aim at the Republican for toeing party lines in recent years. “I saw him as somebody who, you know, had been working …

Axios reports: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to name Kelly Loeffler as interim U.S. senator has generated lots of political buzz, due to some Trump loyalists claiming betrayal. The intra-GOP skirmish has obscured the big business story, in that Loeffler will become one of precious few senators with a working knowledge of technology and, in particular, blockchain technology. Loeffler is …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: A fundraising letter sent last week by the campaign of George Buck, a Republican running for Congress in St. Petersburg, suggested a member of the House of Representatives and other Democrats should be executed. The lengthy email dated Nov. 26 repeated an unsupported accusation that U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali-born Democrat representing Minnesota, secretly …

Uh oh. We might see a Trump cultist catfight. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday said he is “1,000% confident” that Russia, not Ukraine, meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, breaking from President Donald Trump and others in his party who have pushed the discredited conspiracy theory. “It was the Russians. I’m 1,000% confident that the hack of the …

McClatchy reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has reached out to Sheldon Adelson, the Republican Party’s largest donor, in recent weeks to “gauge interest” in his potential run for an open Senate seat in Kansas next year, three sources familiar with the matter told McClatchy. It is the latest evidence of Pompeo’s outreach campaign to rally donor support around a …

From the right wing Washington Examiner: Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has filed a $435 million defamation suit against CNN over a story that alleged Nunes met with a fired Ukrainian prosecutor in an effort to dig up dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The story — “Giuliani associate willing to tell Congress …