- Trump stocks new PAC with tens of millions as he bids to retain control of GOP (Politico) – Save America, a leadership PAC created in the aftermath of the 2020 election, is set to play a key role in Trump’s plans to keep a strong hand in party politics — both to boost loyalists and also to seek retribution against Republicans he believes have wronged him.
- Kinzinger launching PAC to challenge GOP’s embrace of Trump (The Hill) – “This is no time for silence, not after the last month, not after the past few years. Someone needs to tell the truth. Someone needs to say what history needs to hear. So here I am. The Republican Party has lost its way,” Kinzinger said in a video posted on country1st.com, the website for his new PAC.
- Trump Names Two Members of Impeachment Defense Team (New York Times) – The lawyers will be deployed immediately: Mr. Trump is due to file a response to the House charges by Tuesday, and the trial is scheduled to start next week.
- Trump names two new lawyers for impeachment trial a day after his defense team collapsed (CNN) – David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor, Jr. will now head the legal team for his second impeachment trial.
- Sanders dismisses Biden ‘unity’ pledge to push COVID relief bill (Fox News) – Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., suggested Sunday that the push to pass President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill without Republican support takes precedence over Biden’s pledge for “unity” and bipartisan lawmaking.
- Parkland victim’s mother says she spoke with Marjorie Taylor Greene about school shooting conspiracies (NBC News) – Victim’s mother, Linda Schulman said Greene declined to join her to publicly disavow them on MSNBC. “It’s wrong. It’s just wrong. She should not be telling lies,” Schulman added.
- Trump’s impeachment defense team leaves less than two weeks before trial (CNN) – It was a dramatic development in the second impeachment trial for Trump, who has struggled to find lawyers willing to take his case. And now, with legal briefs due next week and a trial set to begin only days later, Trump is clinging to his election fraud charade and suddenly finds himself without legal representation.
- 10 Senate Republicans Outline $600B Counteroffer To Biden’s COVID-19 Relief Bill (NPR) – The outreach from more moderate GOP lawmakers, led by Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, came as many Democrats look to a process called budget reconciliation, which would potentially enable Democrats to approve the president’s plan without any Republican support.
- Biden meeting with GOP senators Monday on coronavirus relief (The Hill) – “We appreciate the President’s quick response to our letter, and we are pleased to accept his invitation to the White House tomorrow afternoon to discuss the path forward for the sixth bipartisan Covid-19 relief package,” the GOP senators said in a joint statement. Utah’s Mitt Romney is one of the 10 GOP Senators pushing a compromise bill.
- White House plans to bypass national media (Axios) – Biden officials plan to create more of their own content and revive a version of the “West Wing Week,” a behind-the-scenes video series produced by the Obama White House. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has already answered questions submitted by the public and was trailed by a crew from “The Circus,” a cable program popular with politicos. There are additional plans for outreach through Skype, YouTube and Twitter.
- After Trump’s election loss, Republicans across the US are racing to enact new voting restrictions (Business Insider) – Republican leaders contend that the proposals are about maintaining voter integrity, though fraud is a rare occurrence.
