TV News LIES

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, a frequent critic of President Joe Biden, said on Tuesday that he is seeing "encouraging" signs from the administration about its approach to deterring further Russian aggression towards Ukraine.

McConnell said Biden now appears to be adopting the right approach to Ukraine following a weekend meeting with his security team at Camp David. McConnell last week said Biden had "telegraphed passivity and weakness" on the issue.

"What I've been hearing since then is encouraging, that they're prepared to take steps before an incursion, not afterwards," McConnell said at a news conference in Frankfort, Kentucky.

"It appears to me the administration is moving in the right direction," he added.

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A U.S. court rejected on Monday the Alabama legislature's redrawn U.S. congressional district map for November elections, saying it likely violated the Voting Rights Act and stood to deny Black voters an additional representative.

The ruling, which can be appealed, addresses an issue of contention between the two major political parties, in which Democrats accuse Republicans of exploiting their relative strength in state legislatures to diminish Black voting power.

A former member of President Donald Trump’s legal team told the Jan. 6 committee that former Army colonel Phil Waldron first came up with the idea of Trump issuing an executive order to seize voting machines, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Earlier this month, Bernie Kerik — who worked with Rudy Giuliani on Trump’s legal efforts to find evidence of voter fraud — told the select committee that Phil Waldron originated the scheme, which would almost certainly have been illegal. A person familiar with Kerik’s testimony, who was not authorized to discuss it publicly, described it in detail to POLITICO.

Last week, the select committee obtained a copy of a draft executive order written for Trump. The order, which Trump did not issue, would have directed the Defense secretary to seize voting machines. It also would have given the secretary 60 days to write an assessment of the 2020 election — a timeline that would have expired a month after Biden’s inauguration day. POLITICO published the text of the draft order last week.

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge by Republican lawmakers to pandemic-related proxy voting rules set by Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the Democratic-led House of Representatives that were tailored to limit exposure to COVID-19.

The voting rules, implemented in May 2020, allow members of the 435-seat House to serve as proxies for colleagues in quarantine or otherwise unable to cast floor votes in the chamber. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and other lawmakers had asked the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision that allowed the remote voting rules to remain in effect.

The resolution passed by the House enabled lawmakers to act as a proxy for up to 10 colleagues at any one time, requiring that they disclose which members they intended to represent. The proxy voting system was embraced early in the pandemic and was intended to be temporary, but has been extended several times. The most recent extension is in effect until Feb. 13.

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The Georgia prosecutor investigating then-U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state will be allowed to seat a special grand jury to subpoena witnesses to testify against him.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis last week sought to have a special grand jury aid her investigation into the Republican leader's efforts to pressure officials in a state where he lost to Joe Biden. read more

The Fulton County Superior Court approved the request on Monday, according to a court filing. The grand jury will commence on May 2 and convene for up to a year.

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