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*It's still unclear if the messages were deleted intentionally or by accident.* The Secret Service deleted text messages from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, after an internal watchdog requested them as part of a review of the department’s handling of last year’s Capitol riot, the watchdog said this week. A letter sent Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General to the heads of the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees, which was obtained by ABC News, said the messages were deleted “as part of a device-replacement program” despite the inspector general requesting such communications. "First, the Department notified...

Mike Gibbons and Josh Mandel lead the Ohio GOP Senate primary field as Republicans battle for the chance to run for the seat being vacated by Sen. Rob Portman (R), according to a poll released Tuesday. The Fox News poll shows Gibbons, an investment banker, leading the field with 22 percent support among GOP primary voters. Mandel, a former state treasurer, trails just behind with 20 percent, a difference that falls within the survey’s margin of error. “Hillbilly Elegy” author JD Vance is in third with 11 percent, followed by former Ohio GOP Chair Jane Timken at 9 percent and...

Former Rep. Mark Walker announced Thursday that he will stay in the North Carolina Senate race, bucking pressure to drop out and run for the House instead. “The last 45 days have been a whirlwind,” Walker said, according to The News & Observer. “When we stepped away from Congress, it was in our hearts to run across North Carolina to be able to take what we’ve been able to do in central North Carolina, and take it across the state for the U.S. Senate.”

A group of 11 North Carolina voters filed a legal challenge to disqualify Rep. Madison Cawthorn from running for a second term, arguing his involvement in a rally preceding the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill constitutionally bars him from waging another campaign. Lawyers for the 11 voters filed the suit to the State Board of Elections, contending that Cawthorn’s comments in the speech shortly preceding the insurrection violate the 14th Amendment, which states in part that no person “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress ... to support the Constitution of the United States,...

Former President Trump is touting his administration's work in developing life-saving COVID-19 vaccines, putting him at odds with a portion of his base that is skeptical or opposed to the vaccines. Trump in a speech and in a recent interview with conservative pundit Candice Owens defended his administration's work in developing the vaccines, suggesting it is a landmark achievement from his years in office for which he deserves credit. “I came up with a vaccine, with three vaccines,” Trump told Owens. “All are very, very good. Came up with three of them in less than nine months. It was supposed...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said he would decide soon whether to run for governor after his second term as mayor ends. De Blasio, who is in his final week as mayor and is barred from running for a third four-year stint, said he’s focused on fighting the coronavirus pandemic in his final days in office but could make a decision shortly after.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger's (R-Ill.) announcement that he will retire after his current term marks the latest victory in former President Trump’s quest to purge his internal critics from the GOP and mold the Republican Party even more in his own image. Kinzinger's Friday announcement, along with stiff primary challenges facing other Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment earlier this year, underscores the headwinds critics of the former president face in their reelection bids — and just how Trumpian the House GOP conference is expected to be starting in 2023 in the likely absence of at least some of his detractors....

A group of anti-Trump Republicans on Thursday endorsed a slate of Democrats and centrist Republicans in the 2022 midterms to fight against the former president’s hold on the party. The Renew America Movement (RAM) announced it is backing a slew of lawmakers running for reelection. The group was founded by a group of moderates within the GOP after the Jan. 6 insurrection, which was fueled by then-President Trump’s lies about the election being stolen in November. “There is an urgent effort by Republicans and former Republicans to stem the tide of anti-democratic and lie-based Republican leaders in congress before it’s...

Former President Trump and his allies are expanding their political activities across the map, asserting their presence within the Republican Party as the 2022 midterm cycle kicks into high gear. Trump himself is issuing endorsements at a more rapid clip than earlier this year and is planning to barnstorm Georgia and Iowa in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, his allies are dropping millions of dollars to buoy his supported candidates in marquee races, and his affiliated consultants are airdropping into key races to boost backers and knock off incumbents viewed as disloyal. ... Consultants allied with Trump are staffing campaigns against...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) meteoric rise in Republican politics is putting him on track for a possible clash with former President Trump, who is dangling the prospect of a third White House campaign. DeSantis’s popularity among the GOP faithful has mushroomed over his handling of the coronavirus, and he’s found himself at the center of several news cycles, including over his signing of a controversial voting restriction bill and the collapse of a south Florida condominium building. That support and attention, combined with his reelection fight next year, are fueling speculation that DeSantis is gearing up for a 2024...

The mother and girlfriend of the late Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick said they were disappointed that Republicans decided to filibuster a bill to form a bipartisan commission looking into the Jan. 6 insurrection, with his girlfriend saying the votes against the legislation speak "volumes." In an appearance on CNN, Gladys Sicknick, Brian Sicknick’s mother, and Sandra Garza, his girlfriend, expressed dismay that the bill was defeated, saying it would have provided more details on the Jan. 6 riot that precipitated Brian Sicknick’s death. “A lot of them would default to the ‘Well, it’s very partisan.’ Well, that’s baloney,” said...

“As withdrawal of foreign forces from #Afghanistan by agreed upon May 1st deadline has passed, this violation in principle has opened the way for [Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan] Mujahidin to take every counteraction it deems appropriate against the occupying forces,” tweeted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid. “The Mujahidin of IEA will now await what decision the leadership of Islamic Emirate takes in light of the sovereignty, values and higher interests of the country, and will then take action accordingly, Allah willing,” he added.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) reportedly bragged to people involved in Florida politics that he had met women through a county tax collector who has since been hit with federal sex trafficking charges. Two people who heard his comments directly told The Washington Post that Gaetz had also showed them videos of nude women on his phone. Some of the videos were from parties with former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg. The sources said the women in the videos appeared to be adults. “Matt was never shy about talking about his relationship to Joel and the access to women that...

The Trump campaign released a new ad Saturday featuring infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci as it looks to present a positive portrait of the White House's pandemic response. In a 30-second ad titled "Carefully," a narrator notes Trump's own recovery from the coronavirus and includes a clip of Fauci, the director of the National Institutes for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, touting the administration's efforts to blunt the virus's spread

A watchdog group is requesting that media outlets release their plans for election night coverage amid heightened scrutiny over vote counting and the prospect that a winner in the presidential race may not be named until days after Election Day. The (*SELF DESCRIBED*) National Task Force on Election Crises, a group of election experts and academics, released a letter Thursday that it sent to The Associated Press, Fox News and the National Election Pool, which includes the three broadcast networks and CNN, urging them to explain to the public how they intend to incorporate the expected avalanche of mail ballots...

GOP group the Lincoln Project says it raised $16.8 million in the second quarter of 2020 as it ramps up its anti-Trump efforts ahead of the general election. In a filing with the Federal Election Commission posted Wednesday, the group said it spent $7.2 million and has $10.8 million cash on hand. It also owes more than $263,500 in debt. Among the organization's most prominent donors are billionaire hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel, who gave $1 million, business magnate David Geffen, who gave $100,000, and Bain Capital chairman Joshua Bekenstein, who also gave $100,000. The Lincoln Project was founded late...

President Trump on Friday during a Fourth of July event at Mount Rushmore lambasted protesters calling for the removal of Confederate statues, accusing them of wanting to “overthrow the American Revolution” and fundamentally change the country. “There is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished. Not going to happen to us,” he told a packed crowd. “Make no mistake, this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so...

President Trump’s reelection campaign has announced a staff shakeup just over four months before the general election as polls show him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden. Michael Glassner, who organizes Trump’s rallies, is being reassigned to a legal role within the campaign, and Jeff DeWit, a former Arizona state treasurer and Trump's 2016 Arizona chair, will come on as chief operating officer. The shakeup, which was first reported by Axios and confirmed by a campaign official to The Hill, comes after a rally two weekends ago in Tulsa, Okla., where the president garnered embarrassing headlines after being unable to...

Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams says she has not heard from Joe Biden’s presidential campaign as it starts its vetting process to pick a nominee for vice president. “I have said many times that if called I will answer, but I have not received any calls,” Abrams, who rose to prominence when she narrowly lost Georgia’s gubernatorial race in 2018, said Wednesday night on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Abrams, also a former leader in the Georgia state House, has been frequently floated as a possible running mate for Biden, particularly as pressure ramps up for the former vice president...

Harvard University admitted Friday that Jeffrey Epstein had his own office and phone line at the university and also made several visits there even after he was convicted in 2008 of soliciting sex from minors. According to a new report from the university, Epstein, the disgraced financier who killed himself in jail last year while awaiting sex crimes charges, visited Harvard more than 40 times after his 2008 conviction and unveiled deep ties between him and the university, with which he had no official affiliation. University President Lawrence Bacow said in a letter to the Harvard community that Harvard accepted...