Former Vice President Mike Pence was booed in his home state Friday as he spoke to the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting here, NBC News reports.
Meanwhile, this is hilarious.
Mike Pence called for the quick execution of mass shooters as a solution to gun violence at the NRA’s annual leadership summit, Politico reports.
Said Pence: “I’m tired of the senseless violence and loss of life that could be prevented if our leaders would support law enforcement, protect our schools, institutionalize the obviously mentally ill, and enact legislation that would ensure that anyone who engages in these heinous acts of mass violence meets their fate in months, not years.”
“Federal prosecutors probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have in recent weeks sought a wide range of documents related to fundraising after the 2020 election, seeking to determine if Trump or his advisers scammed donors by using false claims about voter fraud to raise money,” the Washington Post reports.
“The fundraising prong of the investigation is focused on money raised during the period between Nov. 3, 2020, and the end of Trump’s time in office on Jan. 20, 2021, and prosecutors are said to be interested in whether anyone associated with the fundraising operation violated wire fraud laws which make it illegal to make false representations over email to swindle people out of money.”
“The Biden administration is proposing new rules that would allow immigrants covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to qualify for health insurance through Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplaces,” the Washington Post reports.
“The plan, which the White House says would benefit up to 580,000 young people brought to the United States as children would broaden the definition of who qualifies for these two insurance programs in which the federal government has a role.”
A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday rejected a bid by former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro to retain hundreds of government records despite a judge’s order to return them promptly to the National Archives,” Politico reports.
“Green tax credits from last year’s climate law are likely to be far more popular than anticipated, potentially reducing carbon emissions—but also increasing costs to U.S. taxpayers,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Buyers of electric vehicles and clean-energy producers could claim tax credits worth hundreds of billions of dollars more than lawmakers expected when they passed the Inflation Reduction Act.”
New York Times: “Nationwide, candidates for roughly four of every 10 state legislative seats run unopposed in general elections. And across the country, one-party control of state legislatures, compounded by hyperpartisan politics, widespread gerrymandering, an urban-rural divide and uncompetitive races, has made the dysfunction in Tennessee more the rule than the exception.”
“The lack of competition means incumbent lawmakers face few consequences for their conduct. And their legislative actions are driven in large part by the fraction of partisans who determine their fates in primary elections, the only political contests where they face serious opposition.”
“Nine of the top 10 wealthiest congressional districts are represented by Democrats, while Republicans now represent most of the poorer half of the country,” Axios reports.
“The last several decades have ushered in a dramatic political realignment, as the GOP has broadened its appeal to a more diverse working class and Democrats have become the party of wealthier, more-educated voters.”
“Few images captured the visceral violence and horror of Jan. 6 more clearly than the moment Patrick McCaughey — a 23-year-old from Connecticut — pinned a D.C. Police officer, Daniel Hodges, in a Capitol doorway as he howled in pain,” Politico reports.
“On Friday, more than two years later, McCaughey was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for his role in the riot and attempt by supporters of Donald Trump to prevent the transfer of power to Joe Biden. His sentence is among the lengthiest handed down to Jan. 6 rioters so far, though it was less than half of the nearly 16 years that the Justice Department sought.”
A former bodybuilder and romance novel cover model who dragged a police officer down the stairs of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to three years in prison, NBC News reports.
A retired firefighter who went to a “cult deprogramming” expert to figure out how he came to believe Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison on Tuesday for chucking a fire extinguisher at police officers as they protected the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, NBC News reports.
NBC News: “Four departures left residents without a functioning registrar’s office; there was no way to register to vote or certify candidate paperwork, at least temporarily…” “Years after former President Donald Trump began pushing his lies about stolen elections, communities like Buckingham County are grappling with the aftershocks: What happens when election denialism drives out the people needed to keep local democracy running?”
HuffPost: “Republican presidential hopefuls not named Donald Trump are confronting a question that was unimaginable just a few years back: How many criminal accusations must their party’s leader face before using them against him is politically acceptable?”
“Less than 10 months away from when the first primary votes are cast, the coup-attempting former president has so far boxed in his rivals from employing what not that long ago would have been their most potent argument to disqualify him.”
A 25-year-old aide to Florida state Rep. Fabian Basabe (R) is accusing the lawmaker of slapping him across the face and telling him to stand in the corner of a room during a reception in Tallahassee, CBS News reports.
The aide, Nicolas Frevola, said Basabe “had been drinking and was mistaken about something that lead him to slap me in the face in front of other people in the room. He then told me to stand in the corner. I was so embarrassed that I did as he asked.”
Basabe expressed shock at the accusation, saying: “What?! I don’t remember anything like that.”
“North Korea on Thursday conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile launch in a month, possibly testing a new more mobile, harder-to-detect missile for the first time, its neighbors said, as it extends its provocative run of weapons tests,” the AP reports. “Japan briefly urged residents on a northern island to take shelter in an indication of its vigilance over North Korea’s evolving missile threats.”
“Taiwan’s pro-independence ruling Democratic Progressive Party nominated Vice President Lai Ching-te as its candidate in the 2024 presidential election, two days after China concluded large-scale wargames around the self-governed island,” the AP reports.
“President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi of Egypt, one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East and a major recipient of U.S. aid, recently ordered subordinates to produce up to 40,000 rockets to be covertly shipped to Russia, according to a leaked U.S. intelligence document,” the Washington Post reports.
“A conservative group is offering a new service that texts ‘Woke Alerts’ straight to the phones of grocery shoppers who want to know which brands are accused of taking political positions that are offensive to the right,” Axios reports.
A Republican Party donor damaged a $3 million sculpture by Damien Hirst after she crashed her Rolls-Royce into a beachfront property in Florida, the Times of London reports.
Army Times: “A federal watchdog agency in 1978 called for abolishing the practice, known as administrative separations in lieu of court-martial…” “Nearly 50 years later, however, the practice remains. And, in the Army, it is increasingly being used for cases in which soldiers are charged with serious crimes such as sexual assault, domestic violence or child abuse.”
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