GOP Death Cult

The Texas Tribune reports: The Texas House on Thursday gave an initial OK to a bill that would allow handguns to be carried without a permit, marking a win for gun rights activists who have for years pushed the measure at the Legislature but a blow to El Paso Democrats who have been fighting for gun safety measures since the …

Orlando’s NBC News affiliate reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that vaccine passports will not be required in the state of Florida. DeSantis said he will be issuing an executive order forbidding vaccine passports in the state. The governor is also calling on the Republican-led Legislature to consider a measure addressing “vaccine passports” but did not give specifics. “We are …

And they say it’s not a cult: The Arizona Republican Party escalated its rhetoric by urging people to fight to the death on behalf of President Donald Trump’s attempts to dispute the 2020 Election. The organization, headed by Chairwoman Kelli Ward, continues to dispute the certification of the results in court, even though Trump’s own legal team has never been …

Click Orlando reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis today extended his executive order that bans local governments from enforcing mask mandate violations. The order, first signed in September, prevents cities from fining people for not adhering to mask mandates. It also prevents cities and counties from ordering restaurants to close without economic or health reasons being justified. The order signaled Florida’s move …

Politico reports: President-elect Joe Biden says he’ll personally call red state governors and persuade them to impose mask mandates to slow down the coronavirus pandemic. Their early response: Don’t waste your time. Almost all of the 16 Republican governors who oppose statewide mask mandates are ready to reject Biden’s plea, they told POLITICO even as they impose new restrictions on …

Law & Crime reports: Pro-Trump pundit Jesse Kelly suggested in a tweet that Republicans might “need” alleged Kenosha killer Kyle Rittenhouse on Election Day. On Monday afternoon, Kelly shared a New York Post article about Rittenhouse being held on a $2 million bond, asking, “But what if we need him tomorrow?” Twitter has since removed the tweet. A Twitter spokesperson …

The Washington Post reports: A new study from Stanford University estimates that 18 of Trump’s recent large-scale campaign rallies ultimately resulted in 30,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and probably led to more than 700 deaths among attendees and others infected by them. The study, released Friday by Stanford economics professor B. Douglas Bernheim and three doctoral students, examined rallies …

The Washington Post reports: Donald Trump Jr. declared on Thursday night that coronavirus deaths had dropped to “almost nothing,” questioning the seriousness of the pandemic on a record-breaking day for new cases in which more than 1,000 Americans died of the virus. Speaking to Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump Jr. pointed to data from the CDC that he suggested …

The Washington Post reports: White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows confirmed plans for an outdoor ceremony at the White House on Monday night to swear in Barrett, brushing off questions about whether that would be responsible given the outbreak of coronavirus cases after the Sept. 26 Rose Garden event announcing her nomination. Meadows also sought to clarify comments in …

Talking Points Memo reports: President Donald Trump argued on Monday morning that it ought to be against the law for the news media to cover the pandemic ahead of the elections as the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. surpasses 225,000. Amid his failure to address the pandemic, Trump has publicly griped several times about the media reporting on COVID-19, …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: The Florida House speaker is calling into question the state’s COVID-19 death toll, warning that it was based on compromised data and used a methodology that inflated death rates. Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, sent a memo Tuesday to all House members announcing the findings of an-in house analysis he ordered of the state’s COVID-19 …

Mediaite reports: Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) attended the Senate Judiciary Committee’s first day of confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett on Monday, and he prominently chose to not wear a face mask as he spoke during the proceeding. Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court was thrown into turmoil at the top of the month when President Donald Trump, his allies, …

The Washington Post reports: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) suggested Sunday that testing members of the Senator Judiciary Committee for the coronavirus before the start of Barrett’s confirmation hearings this week is a delay tactic by Democrats playing “procedural games.” Cruz himself is self-quarantining after coming into contact with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who announced that he tested positive for the …

Politico reports: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos pledged Wednesday to use the “bully pulpit” to pressure states to reopen schools for in-person learning amid the pandemic. DeVos said on a Zoom event that she and President Donald Trump have been “very consistent” about the need to reopen schools for in-person learning “in every possible situation.” DeVos used the pandemic as reason …

The Washington Post reports: Vice President Pence is requesting that no plexiglass dividers be placed on his side of the stage at Wednesday night’s vice-presidential debate, after an announcement Monday by the Commission on Presidential Debates that dividers had been agreed to as a safety measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Marc Short, the vice president’s chief of …

The Hill reports: ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday pressed President Trump’s senior campaign adviser, Jason Miller, on the president’s limited mask wearing following Trump’s positive coronavirus test late last week. Miller stood by the president during his appearance on “This Week,” pushing back after Stephanopoulos pointed out that Trump “didn’t have to continue to go to event after event …

The Washington Post reports: The president met with dozens of aides without wearing a mask — even in close quarters and after top aide Hope Hicks had tested positive. He appeared before thousands at a rally in Minnesota. And he held a nationally televised debate with former vice president Joe Biden after holing up with debate preppers. But there was …

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports: Three Minnesota congressman are taking heat over taking a commercial flight home from Washington Friday night just two days after they shared Air Force One with President Donald Trump. Reps. Pete Stauber, Tom Emmer and Jim Hagedorn were on the same Delta Airlines flight despite that airline’s restrictions on passengers recently exposed to COVID-19. Trump announced …

CNN reports: Attorney General William Barr is choosing not to quarantine after recently coming in close contact with members of President Donald Trump’s inner circle who have tested positive for Covid-19, including former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. Conway is among at least seven people who have contracted the virus after attending a Rose Garden event last Saturday where Trump …

The Detroit Free Press reports: In a landmark ruling with far-reaching implications, the Michigan Supreme Court decided Friday that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer violated her constitutional authority by continuing to issue orders to combat COVID-19 without the approval of state lawmakers. The state’s high court ruled 4-3 that a state law allowing the governor to declare emergencies and keep them in …