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(The Hill) — President Joe Biden is leading former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in two hypothetical, head-to-head match-ups for the 2024 presidential election, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by Marquette Law School, found that 43 percent of adults nationwide would support Biden if the 2024 presidential election were held today, while 33 percent would vote for Trump in a one-on-one match-up. Sixteen percent said they would choose a different candidate, while 6 percent said they would not vote. In a hypothetical race against DeSantis, 41 percent of adults nationwide said they would...

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, becoming the latest high-ranking individual in the political world to come down with a breakthrough infection amid a nationwide surge in cases. Hogan wrote on Twitter Monday morning that he received a positive rapid test for COVID-19 during his “regular testing routine.” He said he is vaccinated and received a booster shot and is “feeling fine at the moment.” The governor also encouraged individuals to get vaccinated or receive the booster shot “as soon as possible” as the omicron strain “becomes more dominant.”

Officials from the Georgia secretary of state’s office have reportedly been interviewed by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's voting system implementation manager, and Frances Watson, the former top investigator for the secretary of state's office, sat with the panel to discuss former President Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting which cited citing an official briefed on the conversations. The two officials reportedly spoke to the congressional investigators for hours. News of Sterling and Watson speaking to the...

The number of COVID-19 cases reported in Africa last week increased by 83 percent over the previous week, marking the fastest surge the continent has seen this year, though deaths remained relatively low. Africa reported more than 196,000 new coronavirus cases during the week that ended on Dec. 12, compared to roughly 107,000 cases recorded the previous week, according to a statement from the World Health Organization (WHO) released Tuesday. The number of new infections in Africa is doubling every five days, according to the WHO, which is the shortest time span observed this year.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) praised the diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics on Monday after the Biden administration announced that no government officials will be traveling to the Chinese capital for the Winter games. The Utah Republican said the administration's decision was "right." “The Administration is right to refuse diplomatic presence at the Beijing Olympics: America will not turn a blind eye to China’s predation, persecution, and genocide,” Romney wrote on Twitter.

A group led by Sidney Powell, an attorney who claimed last year's election was stolen from then-President Trump, raised nearly $15 million in the months after Trump's defeat while contesting the election, an investigation by The Washington Post reveals. The Post cited a financial statement filed in Florida last month by the Powell group, Defending the Republic, that said it had raked in $14.9 million between Dec. 1, 2020 and July 31 of this year. Roughly $5.6 million of those funds were used to cover legal fees and finance unidentified awards and grants, according to the Post.

Police are investigating antisemitic fliers that were left at homes in Beverly Hills on Sunday, hours before Hanukkah began. The Beverly Hills Police Department revealed in a statement Sunday afternoon that it is investigating a “hate incident” that occurred overnight after a resident reported finding a flyer with hate speech in their front yard. The flyer, which was in a plastic bag with rice “for weight,” featured “propaganda style hate speech related to the COVID pandemic and the Jewish people,” according to police. It was a single 8.5 inch-by-11 inch piece of paper.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said he believes he “did the right thing” when he certified the results of the 2020 presidential election in January, ignoring then-President Trump’s repeated requests that he object to the vote. Pence, in an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network that is set to air on Thursday, said that “in my heart of hearts” he knows he did the right thing on Jan. 6. He added that despite some concerns he had with the vote, his oath of office required him to protect and defend the constitution, which he believes he did by going against Trump’s...

Coronavirus hospitalizations are sharply increasing in a South African province that has been identified as an early hotspot of the omicron variant, raising concerns about the new strain as health officials work to learn more about its transmissibility and severity. The Gauteng province — which includes Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa — has seen hospitalizations spike by almost 400 percent since the beginning of November, according to NBC News. During the week ending Nov. 6, hospitalizations in the province rose from 120 to 580, according to data from South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), cited by...

A 21-year-old Kansas state lawmaker was arrested on Saturday for the second time in a month, prompting more calls for his resignation or ouster from office. State Rep. Aaron Coleman (D), who represents Kansas City, Kansas, in the state legislature, was arrested by a state trooper at around 1 a.m. on Saturday on suspicion that he was driving while intoxicated, according to The Associated Press. He was detained on Interstate 70 near Lawrence and taken to the Douglas County Jail. He was released after posting bond, according to the AP.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) knocked former President Trump on Monday, pointing to the former president’s loss in Old Line State during the 2020 presidential election. “Personally, I'd prefer endorsements from people who didn’t lose Maryland by 33 points,” Hogan wrote on Twitter shortly after Trump announced that he was endorsing Maryland state Del. Daniel Cox (R) for governor in next year’s GOP primary. Hogan, who is barred from running for reelection due to term limits, is backing state Secretary of Commerce Kelly Schultz in the Maryland race. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election in Maryland to Democratic-nominee Joe Biden...

Afederal judge knocked former President Trump on Monday for his repeated claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, arguing that former Vice President Al Gore "was a man" and accepted his election loss in 2000. "Al Gore had a better case to argue than Mr. Trump and he was a man about what happened to him," Senior U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said, according to CNN. "He accepted it and walked away." Walton was referring to Gore's decision to concede the race to President George W. Bush after weeks of legal battles, which were triggered due to an extremely...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced that all new homes and buildings in England will be required to have electric car chargers installed beginning next year. The legislation, which Johnson announced at the annual Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference, will install up to 145,000 extra charging points throughout Europe every year, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. The requirement will also apply to buildings undergoing renovation. Facilities that are left with more than 10 parking spaces will be compelled to install electric vehicle charging points.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is seeking reelection as the chief law officer of the Gopher State, after making headlines earlier this year when a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of the murder of George Floyd. The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party announced in a statement that Ellison will officially announce his reelection plans during a news conference Monday afternoon. Sen. Elizabeth Klobuchar (D-Minn.), St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter III and Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish are all set to throw their support behind Ellison, according to the state party.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) on Sunday said congressional Democrats “blew the timing” on passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill and social spending package, suggesting that the timeline could have contributed to the party’s loss in Tuesday’s Virginia gubernatorial race. Kaine, who represents Virginia and previously served as governor of the Old Dominion, said Democrats on Capitol Hill should have passed the two bills in October instead of letting internal party disagreements delay the vote.

Cuomo fires back at sheriff, AG James over criminal charges 'At 38,000 feet, we are all you have' - flight attendants are fed up with a growing… President Biden said during a meeting with top German leaders on Saturday that Russia cannot be able to manipulate natural gas for political purposes. iden met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the Group of 20 summit in Rome on Saturday and emphasized the importance of working to implement the U.S.-Germany Joint Statement on Support for Ukraine and European Energy Security in an effort to "ensure that Russia...

Fiona Hill says Trump was fixated on Putin, not Russia © Greg Nash Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official and White House adviser who served in the Trump administration, said former President Trump’s “fixation” was on Russian President Vladimir Putin and not the country itself. Hill, during a Tuesday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said Trump saw qualities in Putin that he wanted to emulate. “For Trump, his fixation was on Putin. It wasn't on Russia it was on Putin himself, it's what he saw in Putin that he saw many qualities that he wanted to have himself,”...

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham took on Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in her new book, writing that the veteran lawmaker “was using Trump to mop up the freebies like there was no tomorrow.” Grisham in her new book “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” set to be released on Tuesday, writes that Graham would use the president to receive free rounds of gold, food and access to celebrities. “It struck me that he was using Trump to mop up the freebies like there was no tomorrow (seems that he still is). He would show up at Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster...

More Texas voters believe Gov. Greg Abbott (R) does not deserve to be reelected, according to a poll released on Tuesday. The survey conducted by Quinnipiac University found that 51 percent of registered voters in Texas believe Abbott does not deserve to be reelected, compared with 42 percent who said the governor deserves a third term. The opposition to Abbott’s reelection was up from June, when a separate Quinnipiac poll found that 46 percent of Texas voters supported Abbott’s 2022 reelection bid, compared with 48 percent who did not.

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Girsham in a new book sheds light on former President Trump’s mysterious visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in November 2019, suggesting that the president was undergoing a colonoscopy. She did not, however, use the term colonoscopy. Grisham wrote that Trump in-part did not disclose the details of his visit because he did not want to transfer authority to then-Vice President Mike Pence during the procedure — like what former President George W. Bush did when he underwent a colonoscopy 2002, briefly passing powers to then-Vice President Dick Cheney. Grisham also said...