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Before ultimately stifling Democrats attempt to pass voting rights legislation Wednesday, multiple Republican senators used their debate time to fearmonger over how theyd retaliate if Democrats were to nuke the filibuster.

Republicans stepped to the Senate lectern to share their own extra-spooky predictions about how theyd wield their power if they were unbounded by the filibuster. Democrats shouldnt give these scare tactics an ounce of weight.

Republicans gon Republican regardless. That wont stop them from fearmongering, but it should stop Democrats from caring.

Weve seen what Republicans can do when they nuke the filibuster. During the Trump administration, they unilaterally passed tax cuts for the rich and installed dozens of judges in lifetime seats, including three Supreme Court justices.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Democrats over the last several months that theyd regret bypassing the filibuster to enact voter protections. But in this weeks voting rights debate, Republicans claimed theres more to fear.

(Read this next paragraph using your best Vincent Price impersonation.)

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said his party could nuke the filibuster to pass a bunch of retaliatory laws if they regain power. Those could include extending the deeply unpopular Trump-era tax cuts for the rich, levying heavier taxes against Democrat-led states, withholding funds from states that provide services to undocumented immigrants, instituting new abortion bans, or passing laws that allow Americans nationwide to carry concealed weapons.

Democrats will soon find themselves ruing the day their party broke the Senate," Cornyn claimed. Its revealing that the nightmare scenario he and other Republicans depict, majority rule, is precisely how the Senate was designed to function.

He even included this super scary poster to drive the point home:

Note to Democrats: If your opponents are taking the time to memorialize their cruel policy ideas on glossy poster paper, its safe to assume these are deeply held beliefs and not contingent on any Senate rules you do or do not uphold.

In short: Republicans gon Republican regardless. That wont stop them from fearmongering, but it should stop Democrats from caring.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota also used some of his speech time on Wednesday to threaten Democrats. The Senates second-ranking Republican claimed the GOP wont eliminate the filibuster if they regain power unless Democrats do.

Were not going to do it, not if you dont, Thune said. If you do, sure. Then its all bets are off.

I appreciate that this supposedly principled stance reads with the maturity of a schoolyard playground negotiation. Thunes vacillating statement conveys the GOPs insincere filibuster defense perfectly.

Senate Republicans have shown, time after time, they dont feel constrained by Senate traditions in any way. The moment they regain power, whether or not they hold a 60-vote majority, they will aim to pass the very policies theyve been holding over Democrats heads.

Knowing this should free Democrats from any remaining fear that their actions in defense of democracy will have dangerous repercussions.

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Head over toThe ReidOut Blogfor more.

Ja'han Jones is The ReidOut Blog writer. He's a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include "Black Hair Defined" and the "Black Obituary Project."

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Republican filibuster threats are hollow. Democrats should ignore them. - MSNBC

Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready (R-Carroll) makes a point during debate on a legislative redistricting plan on Wednesday. Photo by Danielle E. Gaines.

Republicans in the state Senate unsuccessfully attempted to bring back the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commissions state legislative redistricting proposal via an amendment Wednesday.

The Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee on Tuesday advanced a legislative redistricting proposal from the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission, a panel convened by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County). The committee didnt vote on a proposal from the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, a multi-partisan panel convened by Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R).

On Wednesday, Sen. Edward R. Reilly (R-Anne Arundel) attempted to swap out the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission maps with those proposed by the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission but his amendment to do so was ultimately defeated in a party-line 32-14 vote. A final vote on the Democratic plan is expected Thursday.

Democratic lawmakers criticized the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission for scrapping existing maps in its legislative redistricting proposal.

It wipes out years of history in this state, Senate President Pro Tem Melony G. Griffith (D-Prince Georges) said of the decision to start from scratch in the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission map.

The Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission opted to start with existing districts and aimed to keep as many Marylanders in those existing districts as possible. One notable shift included the creation of a single-member, majority-Black delegate district around Owings Mills in District 11 to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act.

Other shifts in the map generally secure potentially vulnerable Democrats for reelection: District 9, for example, would be redrawn to include part of northern Montgomery County with Howard County rather than part of southern Carroll County as in current maps. That move could make reelection easier for Sen. Katie Fry Hester (D-Howard County).

Sen. Michael J. Hough (R-Frederick) said the map essentially means that Democratic-controlled districts wont be competitive in the upcoming election.

We are drawing maps that are completely partisan, Hough said.

While both panels conducted public hearings and voting sessions, Republicans also criticized the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission for holding private work sessions as opposed to the public work sessions held by the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission.

Griffith, who served on the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission, said no formal votes were taken at those work sessions, and instead panelists reviewed testimony and discussed draft maps. That panel included four Democratic legislative leaders and two Republican legislative leaders and was chaired by Karl Aro, a former head of the nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services.

Senate Minority Leader Bryan W. Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel), another member of that panel, said some of the work done in closed-door sessions was consequential like deciding what draft maps would move forward and be presented to the public.

I dont want to minimize what we did in those work sessions, Simonaire said.

Senate Republicans also took issue with population variances in the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission proposal. Lawmakers are generally allowed a plus or minus 5% population deviation in legislative districts; the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission proposal keeps that figure to plus or minus 4%.

Sen. J.B. Jennings (R-Harford) charged that the map packs Republicans in rural districts to dilute their vote. Districts on the Eastern Shore, for example, all have a positive deviation in the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission map.

But the maps population deviations arent uniform: Districts in fast-growing and heavily Democratic Charles and Prince Georges counties, for instance, tend to have a positive population deviation as well.

Griffith said that 4% deviation is the lowest seen in Maryland legislative maps in recent rounds of redistricting.

It is actually one of the most compliant maps in terms of the deviation that weve had in decades, Griffith said, adding that population shifts over the last decade factored into population deviations in the map.

The Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission map kept population deviation to less than 2% for senatorial districts and less than 3% in delegate districts.

Other Republicans took issue with the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commissions configuration of single- and multi-member districts. The Maryland Constitution requires that state delegate districts be nested within senatorial districts and allows the use of both single- and multi-member delegate districts, with some hybrid districts that include both a single-member subdistrict and another two-member delegate subdistrict.

Sen. Jason C. Gallion (R-Harford) said he wanted to introduce an amendment that would stop the use of hybrid districts that include both a single-member subdistrict and two-member subdistrict. Gallions amendment wouldve required that those districts be replaced with three single-member delegate subdistricts.

Since his amendment was still being drafted Wednesday, Gallion requested to delay consideration of the legislative redistricting proposal until Friday. Sen. Delores G. Kelley (D-Baltimore County), however, said the General Assembly needs to move quickly to finalize the maps, citing Tuesday testimony from election officials who said lawmakers need to adopt the map as fast as possible so election staff can educate voters and prepare for the upcoming election.

They have almost no time, Kelley said.

Gallions request to delay the resolution was ultimately rejected. In an interview after the Wednesday morning floor session, Gallion said he was disappointed but expected his request to be rejected.

This outcome was predetermined, Gallion said.

The legislative redistricting process has in many ways mirrored its congressional counterpart, which the General Assembly took up during a special session in December. Republicans in both the House of Delegates and the state Senate attempted similar amendments to resurrect the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commissions congressional maps at the time, but those efforts were likewise rejected.

The Senate is set to return at 10 a.m. Thursday, and will likely take up the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commissions proposal for a final vote then. Unlike congressional maps, Hogan cant veto the General Assemblys legislative maps.

Read more:
Republican Amendments to Legislative Redistricting Proposal Rejected in Senate - Josh Kurtz

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy addresses the House Chamber on January 6, 2021.Amanda Voisard - Pool/Getty Images

Trump's PAC sent House Republicans a note saying leadership "should have never certified" the 2020 election.

The note, signed by Trump, was sent with a copy of conservative writer Mollie Hemingway's book.

All current members of House Republican leadership voted to overturn the 2020 election result.

Former President Donald Trump's political action committee sent House Republicans a book from a conservative writer and a note, signed by Trump, that said House GOP leadership "should have never certified" the results of the 2020 election on January 6, 2021, Politico Playbook reported.

Trump's Save America PAC sent House Republicans a copy of writer Mollie Hemingway's book "RIGGED: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections," according to Politico. The accompanying note repeated Trump's thoroughly debunked lies about fraud in the 2020 election.

"There is no question. American democracy was under siege during the 2020 Presidential election," Trump wrote.

The note went on to say: "Republican leadership should have never certified the election on January 6, and now, Democrats will not stop their assault on America our freedom, faith, family, and values. I will never stop fighting for the country we love. I hope you find this book informative and encouraging in your battle for the heart of our nation."

The gift "just shows how Trump is continuing to pressure members/Republicans to embrace the Big Lie" ahead of the 2022 midterms as many Republicans want to shift focus to criticizing the Democratic leadership in Washington, a House Republican aide told Playbook.

In all, seven GOP Senators and 138 Republican members of the House voted to object to counting slates of Electoral College votes from Arizona, Pennsylvania, or both states. Neither objection secured the majority necessary to throw out an Electoral College slate in either chamber, and only one member of Senate Republican leadership, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, voted to sustain an Electoral College objection.

Story continues

Every current member of Republican House leadership, however, voted to sustain the objections to Congress counting the electoral votes from one or both states during the joint session on January 6 when Congress reconvened after the violent siege on the Capitol.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Steve Scalise, and Republican Policy Committee Chairman Rep. Gary Palmer voted in favor of the objection to both Arizona and Pennsylvania's slates, and now-GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik voted to sustain the objection to Pennsylvania's electoral votes. Rep. Jim Banks, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, also voted in favor of both objections.

The GOP Conference Chair at the time, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, voted against objecting to electoral votes, and was subsequently voted out of her position leading the Republican conference. Cheney, now a top Trump foe, is now the vice-chairwoman of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Trump sent House Republicans copies of conservative writer Mollie Hemingway's book with a note saying GOP leadership 'should have never certified the...

The field for the Republican primary in Maines sprawling 2nd Congressional District has shrunk to three after a little-known contender from Newburgh quit the race Wednesday.

I am no longer thinking about running for anything during this election cycle and decided to just throw popcorn and tomatoes from the sidelines, U.S. Army veteran Sean Joyce said.

His departure leaves two challengers trying to snatch the nomination from former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Orrington, who has by far the most campaign money and the support of national Republican organizations that want to see the GOP win the closely contested district in November.

Hoping to shock their party establishment and send Poliquin into political retirement are Liz Caruso of Caratunk, who has been making the rounds of county Republican committees recently, and Garret Swazey of Bangor.

Joyce, a fan of former President Donald Trump, said he would like to see Caruso do well. She is a longtime foe of the New England Clean Energy Connect project to bring hydropower from Quebec through a new transmission corridor in western Maine.

She brings a lot of energy to the GOP, he said, adding that he agrees with her about the hydropower project.

Maine power should come from Maine sources even if that means building a new generation nuclear plant and certainly not rely on a foreign dependence, Joyce said.

The winner of the Republican primary will get the chance to take on two-term U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Lewiston Democrat, assuming Golden wins a potential primary from Bangors Michael Sutton.

In addition to the major party candidates, the race has attracted two independents who are aiming for a spot on the November ballot: Tiffany Bond of Portland and Jordan Borrowman of Lewiston.

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Republican congressional candidate drops out to 'throw popcorn and tomatoes from the sidelines' - Press Herald

A political ad campaign from a group of Republicans and conservatives is singling out GOP House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy over his refusal to cooperate with an investigation into the events leading up to and surrounding the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021.

The Republican Accountability Project formerly Republican Voters Against Trump, a project of conservative anti-Donald Trump organisation Defending Democracy Together is paying for 50 billboards in Washington DC and in Mr McCarthys California district, asking, What are you hiding, Kevin McCarthy? Testify about January 6th.

The ads are set to run for the next four weeks.

Kevin McCarthy was one of the few people who spoke to Trump during the January 6 attack, Republican Accountability Project executive director Sarah Longwell said in a statement. Its time for him to tell the American people what he knows.

In a letter dated 12 January, the House select committee investigating the assault on Congress formally requested the cooperation of Mr McCarthy, who was in close contact with then-president Trump before, during and after the attack.

Congressman Bennie Thompson, who chairs the committee, said the panel obtained contemporaneous text messages from multiple witnesses expressing significant concerns about Mr Trumps state of mind and his ongoing conduct following the attack.

It appears that you may also have discussed with President Trump the potential he would face a censure resolution, impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment, wrote Mr Thompson, referring to a Constitutional provision that allows for Cabinet members to convene for the removal of the president.

It also appears that you may have identified other possible options, including President Trumps immediate resignation from office, Mr Thompson added.

Mr McCarthy who rejected the creation of a bipartisan committee to investigate the attack, led opposition to the formation of a select committee and pulled GOP members from it, then routinely criticised its work said in a statement that the committees only objective is to attempt to damage its political opponents.

It is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have concluded to not participate with this select committees abuse of power that stains this institution today and will harm it going forward, he said in a statement last week.

The Independent has requested comment from Mr McCarthys office.

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What are you hiding? Republican groups billboard campaign targets McCarthys rejection of Jan 6 committee - Yahoo News