Republicans

Portland’s NBC News affiliate reports: Republican state senators who fled the Oregon Capitol to prevent a vote on major climate legislation will be fined $500 a day each if there aren’t enough senators present to vote on the bill. A GoFundMe page to raise money to pay the fines for the 12 Oregon senators had collected more than $6,000 as …

Politico reports: Republicans are promising to do everything they can to obliterate Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate primary. “There will be a lot of efforts made to ensure that we have a nominee other than him and one who can win in November,” said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “He’s already proven he can’t.” “Give me a break. …

Mediaite reports: Donald Trump Jr. tore up Republican Roy Moore after the Alabama Republican announced he was again running for Senate following a stunning loss in 2017. Both President Donald Trump and his son have criticized Moore’s decision to run since it was first reported in May he was considering a comeback bid. Trump Jr. previously blasted Moore, saying, “You’re …

Oregon Live reports: Oregon’s Democratic governor, Kate Brown, has dispatched state troopers to find missing Republican senators and bring them back to Salem to legislate. All 11 Republican senators are in hiding, at least some of them out of state, in order to prevent the Senate from having the quorum it needs to operate. They can’t abide the Democrat-backed carbon …

Politico reports: Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the outgoing White House press secretary, is seriously considering running for governor of Arkansas, according to three people who have spoken to her in recent days. While Sanders and her associates have been quietly talking about the possibility for months, sometimes in jest, she has shown renewed interest in the prospect as she’s started contemplating …

“I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea. We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation, we’ve elected an African-American president. “We’ve had waves of immigrants, as well, who have come …

The Colorado Gazette reports: Kanda Calef, a former Republican candidate, political activist and a hard-line gun rights supporter, faces a felony menacing charge after allegedly brandishing a pistol at a U.S. marshal in Interstate 25’s Gap construction zone. Calef, now free on $2,500 bail, is due in Douglas County’s 18th Judicial District on Wednesday, where she is expected to enter …

Politico reports: It’s far too early to put much stock into 2020 polling, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Monday — unless you’re a Democrat. “It’s way too early to be looking at polls. [Former Wisconsin Gov.] Scott Walker was leading heading into 2016. People come and go and they fade,” she said in an interview on Fox News. But, she …

Mediaite reports: Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-IA) spokesperson said the lawmaker misspoke when she claimed White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is being “removed” from her post in the administration soon. While Ernst made the comments during an interview with NBC’s local Des Moines affiliate WHO-TV Sunday, the network included an editor’s note along with their coverage of Ernst’s comments noting her …

CBS News reports: Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, one of the most hawkish members of Congress, urged the Trump administration to order a military strike against Iran over recent attacks against oil tankers in the Middle East — a move he said will send the government in Tehran a message that the U.S. will not stand idle as commercial …

ABC News reports: A newly elected State Senator held a town hall meeting and while they said everyone was welcome, it did not appear that way on the invite. “I did not win this race. God won this race,” said Brian Dahle during the Town Hall meeting. “If I wasn’t supposed to be in the Senate, I wouldn’t be in …

The Peoria Journal-Star reports: Former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock quickly threw cold water on reports published elsewhere, including by a Peoria TV station, that he was taking steps to run for Congress again in Peoria. The former lawmaker said that a recent Federal Election Commission filing has been misconstrued and does not signal an intent to run for his old …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump took time to praise Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for blocking a Democratic bill that would have mandated reporting foreign election interference. Blackburn blocked Sen. Mark Warner’s (D-VA) attempt to pass a bill requiring campaigns to report any offers of foreign assistance to the FBI. McConnell has long opposed efforts …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump says Vice President Mike Pence doesn’t automatically have his backing should he mount his own run for the White House in 2024. Asked on Friday in an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” whether he would lend his endorsement to Pence in advance, Trump said, “You can’t put me in that …

USA Today reports: Indiana Rep. Susan Brooks, one of only 13 Republican women in the House as well as the head of GOP recruitment for 2020, found someone she could not convince to run: herself. The Carmel Republican will not seek a fifth term next year, she told USA TODAY. “While it may not be time for the party, it’s …

Axios reports: Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) blocked an effort by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to pass a bill via unanimous consent requiring campaigns to report any offers of foreign assistance to the FBI. “We are all for free and fair and honest elections. These reporting requirements are overbroad. Presidential campaigns would have to worry about disclosure at a variety of …

San Diego’s Fox affiliate reports: Rep. Duncan Hunter’s wife, who pleaded not guilty last summer along with her husband to charges of using more than $250,000 in campaign funds for their personal use, changed her plea to guilty in a hearing Thursday morning. Attorneys for Margaret read a brief statement outside the courthouse after the hearing. She said in part: …

The Hill reports: Rep. Justin Amash, the lone Republican in Congress to call for President Trump’s impeachment, says he has no desire to play “spoiler” if he launches a third-party bid against Trump in 2020. “I have no interest in playing spoiler. When I run for something, I run to win,” the Michigan Republican told The Hill on Wednesday as …

The Washington Post reports: Rick Scott, when he was Florida’s governor, made the proclamation a year ago to mark the anniversary of the massacre at the Pulse nightclub two years before. A gunman killed 49 people at the LGBTQ-oriented club in 2016, what was then the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, and Scott, now a Republican senator, noted that …

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports: Margaret Hunter, the wife of longtime East County Congressman Duncan Hunter who was co-indicted with her husband last summer, has agreed to change her plea of not guilty and is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday morning. The announcement was posted on the U.S. District Court docket late Wednesday morning without any supplemental documentation. …