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    Potential McCarthy Replacement To Appear On Two Ballots

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    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    A California appellate court ruled Republican candidate Vince Fong can legally appear on both the state and federal congressional ballots this fall.

    Fong, a mentee and ex-staff member for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), is running for his boss’ vacant seat.

    Prior to McCarthy’s resignation, Fong also filed to run for reelection in the California State Assembly, where he represents the Bakersfield area.

    California Secretary of State Shirly Weber (D) attempted to keep Fong out of the Congressional race, since he’d already declared for the state-level position and California law bars candidates from appearing twice. But, a judge ruled in late December that Fong could run.

    The Hill has more:

    Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang ruled that Weber’s determination was “inapplicable” to Fong and said he could run in the 20th Congressional District. Chang noted that the law only applied to independent candidates for Congress, not partisan primaries.

    The 3rd Court of Appeals agreed Tuesday, ruling that since Fong was not “seeking to utilize the independent nomination process,” the statute did not apply to him.

    “If the Legislature wants to prohibit candidates from running for more than one office at the same election, it is free to do so,” the judges wrote. “Unless and until it does so, however, we must take section 8003 as we find it and enforce it as written.”

    If Fong wins both elections, he would resign from the Assembly and head to Congress. A special election would be held to fill the Assembly vacancy in 2025, Fong spokesperson Ryan Gardiner told the Los Angeles Times.

    Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News.

    Prominent Foreign Politician Meets With Trump

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    Madeleine Jackson
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    Marine One lifts-off after returning President Donald J. Trump to Mar-a-Lago Friday, March 29, 2019, following his visit to the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike near Canal Point, Fla., that surrounds Lake Okeechobee. The visit was part of an infrastructure inspection of the dike, which is part of the Kissimmee-Okeechobee Everglades system, and reduces impacts of flooding for areas of south Florida. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian) [Photo Credit: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

    On Monday, Former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron met with former President Donald Trump in a surprise visit to Mar-a-Lago.

    Cameron serves as the U.K. foreign secretary and is in the U.S. to urge lawmakers to back additional funding to Ukraine in its war against Russia.

    A spokesperson for the British government’s Foreign Office described the Mar-A-Lago meeting as “standard practice” to meet with an opposition candidate, with Trump being the presumptive Republican nominee for this year’s presidential election.

    It is unclear how the meeting went or what exactly was discussed. Trump has previously stated that he would end the war within 24 hours should he be reelected while he has also touted converting the cost of weapons transfers to Ukraine into a loan.

    Fox News has more:

    Cameron will meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday to discuss the $60 billion military aid package which he has held up for months, while the pair will also discuss the Israel-Gaza war.

    Last week, Cameron called on Western leaders to put pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans in Congress to approve the additional aid for Ukraine, as Britain and the European Union have already done.

    “Speaker Johnson can make it happen in Congress,” Cameron said in a video posted on social media platform X. “I’m going to go and see him next week and say, ‘Ukraine needs that money. It is American security, it’s European security, it’s Britain’s security that’s on the line in Ukraine, and they need our help.’”

    Republican Senator Todd Young Declares He Will Not Vote For Trump In November

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    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) has announced that he will not be voting for former President Donald Trump in the upcoming November election.

    “Principled conservatives need to incentivize our party to nominate somebody that principled conservatives can believe in. I’m tired of having my vote taken for granted,” the Indiana Republican announced on Wednesday night. 

    The Washington Examiner’s Emily Jacobs reports:

    Young split from the former president after he refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, though he voted against impeachment. He pledged not to vote for Trump again in 2023 over his conciliatory tone toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine and has remained undeterred by the wave of endorsements from his GOP colleagues.

    …

    Young said it was fair for people to ask if abstaining from casting a vote in November would “reward one person at the expense of the other,” adding, “My response is, at some point, principled conservatives need to incentivize our party, the Republican Party, to nominate somebody that principled conservatives can actually believe in.”

    “Stated differently, I’m tired of having my vote taken for granted,” he explained. “I think a lot of Hoosiers are.”

    Young and his colleagues who don’t support Trump have faced increasing questions about their respective plans for November as the former president became their party’s nominee. 

    Former Vice President Mike Pence said last week that he could not endorse Trump “in this campaign,” citing his conscience. 

    “I won’t be voting for Biden. I also won’t be voting for Trump,” Young told an Indiana reporter, echoing Pence’s announcement to Fox News’ Martha MacCallum. “So, does that mean I leave it blank? Does that mean I identify another conservative who’s almost certain not to be the next president of the United States and write them in? I haven’t decided that, and I think that’s a largely unimportant point. I don’t know who goes in that line, if anyone.” 

    According to FiveThirtyEight, as of January 2021, Young supported the Trump administration’s legislative position 82.2% of the time.

    This article originally appeared on American Liberty News. Republished with permission.

    Republican Group Planning $50M Campaign To Stop Trump Re-election

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    Madeleine Jackson
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    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    A coalition of anti-Trump Republicans are willing to do whatever it takes to prevent a second Trump term in the White House.

    Republican Voters Against Trump plans to spend $50 million on the anti-Trump campaign.

    The campaign is organized by Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist and longtime Trump critic. The plan is to target “moderate Republican” and Republican-leaning voters in swing states with testimonial videos of past Trump supporters who will share why they won’t be supporting the former president in the next election.

    According to The Hill, the ads featuring the former Trump voter testimonials will be deployed on TV, streaming platforms, billboards, radio and digital media. They will run in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

    “Former Republicans and Republican-leaning voters hold the key to 2024, and reaching them with credible, relatable messengers is essential to re-creating the anti-Trump coalition that made the difference in 2020,” Longwell, the president of the group’s Republican Accountability PAC, said in a Tuesday statement.

    “It establishes a permission structure that says that—whatever their complaints about Joe Biden—Donald Trump is too dangerous and too unhinged to ever be president again. Who better to make this case than the voters who used to support him?”

    The voters who are sharing their testimonies are generally not applauding Biden or arguing why he should be reelected in 2024, but mostly sharing which incidents made them oppose the former president. 

    “I voted for Donald Trump in 2020. January 6 was the end of Donald Trump for me,” Ethan, a Wisconsin resident, says in the video. He will be voting for Biden. “The peaceful transfer of power is one of the defining pieces of our democracy, and I could not believe that someone I had formerly supported would get behind an effort that would throw that under the bus … There is no choice.”

     The group had a similar strategy in 2020 where they shared over 1,000 testimonials during the election.

    George Santos Announces Primary Challenge

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    Madeleine Jackson
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    Ex-Congressman George Santos (R-Ny.) is reportedly planning a political comeback.

    Less than a year after being expelled from Congress, Santos says he plans to mount a primary challenge against Nick LaLota (R).

    During his visit to the Capitol for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, Santos announced on Twitter, that he would challenge LaLota of New York’s 1st Congressional District, on Long Island.

    “Tonight, I want to announce that I will be returning to the arena of politics and challenging Nick [LaLota] for the battle over #NY1,” Santos wrote on Twitter during Biden’s address. “I look forward to debating him on the issues and on his weak record as a Republican. The fight for our majority is imperative for the survival of the country.”

    “New York hasn’t had a real conservative represent them since I left office arbitrarily, thanks to RINO, empty suits like @nicklalota. He is willing to risk the future of our majority and the future of this country for his own political gain,” Santos wrote.

    “God bless you all, and we are off to the races!” Santos concluded.

    “To raise the standard in Congress, and to hold a pathological liar who stole an election accountable, I led the charge to expel George Santos. If finishing the job requires beating him in a primary, count me in,” LaLota told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

    Santos was expelled from the House of Representatives on Dec. 1 after being indicted on multiple felony counts related to alleged campaign finance crimes, following which the House Select Committee on Ethics produced a report corroborating the indictment’s allegations. 

    Glenn Youngkin Finally Endorses Trump

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    Madeleine Jackson
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    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has finally made an endorsement in the 2025 presidential race.

    Youngkin’s endorsement comes after former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley dropped out of the race earlier in the day, leading the Republican National Committee to declare that Trump was the party’s presumptive nominee.

    “Voters in the Commonwealth and across the country have spoken loudly for President Donald J. Trump and I endorse him for President of the United States,” Youngkin said in a statement. “His record on border security, restoring American leadership around the world, reducing taxes and lowering the cost of living for all Americans stands in stark contrast to the open borders, failed leadership on the global stage, rampant inflation and higher costs of today.”

    “It’s time to unite around strong leadership and policies that grow our great nation, not four more years of President Biden,” Youngkin added.

    Trump came close to officially clinching the nomination as he now stands at well over 1,000 delegates and he needs less than 200 to hit the 1,215 threshold to officially win. In Virginia, Trump beat Haley by 28 points.

    Nikki Haley has yet to endorse Trump for the nomination.

    Dean Phillips Ends Presidential Bid

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    Madeleine Jackson
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    The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips (D) has suspended his long-shot campaign for the White House.

    He said that “it is clear that alternative is not me” in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

    “I ran for Congress in 2018 to resist Donald Trump, I was trapped in the Capitol in 2021 because of Donald Trump, and I ran for President in 2024 to resist Donald Trump again – because Americans were demanding an alternative, and democracy demands options,” Phillips wrote on X. “But it is clear that alternative is not me. And it is clear that Joe Biden is OUR candidate and OUR opportunity to demonstrate what type of country America is and intends to be.”

    “I ask you join me in mobilizing, energizing, and doing everything you can to help keep a man of decency and integrity in the White House. That’s Joe Biden,” he said.

    “And it is clear that Joe Biden is OUR candidate and OUR opportunity to demonstrate what type of country America is and intends to be,” he wrote.

    Phillips, who mounted a late White House bid in October, was running as an alternative to the embattled frontrunner

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Senator Menendez Faces 12 New Federal Charges

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    Madeleine Jackson
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    Senate Democrats, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

    United States Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) is facing one dozen new criminal charges in his alleged yearslong scheme with the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

    Menendez and his wife, Nadine, face charges of obstruction of justice, among others.

    As CNN reports:

    The new charges come days after one of the New Jersey businessmen who was previously indicted alongside Menendez, his wife Nadine Menendez, and two others agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with the investigation.

    Among the new charges in the superseding indictment are conspiracy, obstruction of justice, public official acting as a foreign agent, bribery, extortion and honest services wire fraud.

    Menendez had faced four counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, and conspiracy for a public official to act as a foreign agent.

    The new charges add the underlying so-called substantive crimes to the conspiracy charges.

    Menendez persists in his innocence and pledges to do whatever it takes to retain his Senate seat.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Sen. Sinema Announces Re-Election Plan

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    Madeleine Jackson
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    Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America

    Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) announced she will not run for re-election.

    Sinema made the announcement in a video on social media.

    “Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year,” she said.

    The move by Sinema means the Arizona Senate race has largely been solidified as a matchup between Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake.

    The Arizona lawmakers changed her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent in 2022.

    The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates Sinema’s seat as “toss up.”

    White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reacted to the news that broke during the daily briefing, noting that the White House has worked “closely” with Sinema on “key, important bills,” including the border security deal out of the Senate.

    “She’s been a partner with us on many critical issues that matter to the American people and we think that’s important,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Michelle Obama Addresses White House Rumors

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    Madeleine Jackson
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    FLOTUS at Fayetteville, N.C. -The Arts Center speech Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian

    There will not be another Obama in the White House any time soon…

    Despite rumors that former First Lady Michelle Obama is eyeing her own bid for the Presidency, her office is quashing those claims once and for all.

    “As former first Lady Michelle Obama has expressed several times over the years, she will not be running for president,” Crystal Carson, the director of communications for Obama’s office, said in a statement provided to ITK on Tuesday.

    Obama “supports President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ re-election campaign,” Carson said.

    The Hill has more:

    The statement rejecting any chance of Obama attempting a return to the White House as president, first reported by NBC News, comes after Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, publicly floated the evidence-free idea that the former first lady could replace Biden on the ballot in November.

    Commentators have also touted Obama as the “best chance” for Democrats to retain the White House in a potential matchup against former President Trump.

    However, despite the Left’s calls for Obama to consider running for public office, she has adamantly tamped down the speculation.

    In 2019, Obama said there was “zero chance” she would run for president.

    “There are so many ways to improve this country and build a better world, and I keep doing plenty of them, from working with young people to helping families lead healthier lives,” Obama, who founded the voter registration and engagement organization When We All Vote in 2018, said at the time.

    “But sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office will never be one of them. It’s just not for me,” she said.

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