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Democrats target Paul Ryan, 11 other GOP lawmakers Wichita Eagle A coalition of well-heeled Democratic groups is launching a grassroots-oriented effort targeting a dozen House Republican incumbents, as party operatives prepare for a midterm election cycle they increasingly think will yield big gains for Democrats. Democrats hold their fire on House races as Republicans pump money into preventing disasterDaily Kos Democrat Jon Ossoff will not debate Republican Karen Handell in nationally televised broadcastChattanooga Times Free Press all 39 news articles »

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Democrats target Paul Ryan, 11 other GOP lawmakers - Wichita Eagle

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In response to the London terror attack, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) had an extreme proposal: kill anyone suspected of being an Islamic radical.

On his campaign Faceboook page, Higgins, a former police officer, posted this message:

The free worldall of Christendomis at war with Islamic horror. Not one penny of American treasure should be granted to any nation who harbors these heathen animals. Not a single radicalized Islamic suspect should be granted any measure of quarter. Their intended entry to the American homeland should be summarily denied. Every conceivable measure should be engaged to hunt them down. Hunt them, identity them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.

The post went up early on Sunday morning. On Saturday evening, suspected terrorists killed seven people during an attack on London Bridge. ISIS has claimed credit for these murders.

With his declaration that Christendom is "at war with Islamic horror," Higgins was embracing a theme of the far right: the fight against extremist jihadists is part of a fundamental clash between Christian society and Islam. And in this Facebook post, he was calling for killing not just terrorists found guilty of heinous actions, but anyone suspected of such an act. He did not explain how the United States could determine how to identify radicalized Islamists in order to deny them entry to the United States. It was unclear whether his proposal to deny any assistance to any nation that harbors "these heathen animals" would apply to England, France, Indonesia, Spain, and other nations where jihadist cells have committed horrific acts of violence.

Higgins office refused to allow a Mother Jones reporter to speak to a spokesman for the congressman. But in an email, his spokesman confirmed the Facebook post was authentic.

In late January, Higgins delivered a fiery floor speech attacking Democrats and the "liberal media" for opposing President Donald Trump's Muslim travel ban. He declared that "radical Islamic horror has gripped the world andunbelievablybeen allowed into our own nation with wanton disregard."

Shortly before running for Congress, Higgins resigned from his post as the public information officer of the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office, where he had earned a reputation as the "Cajun John Wayne" for his tough-talking CrimeStopper videos. Higgins abruptly quit after his boss, the sheriff, ordered him to tone down his unprofessional comments. "I repeatedly told him to stop saying things like, 'You have no brain cells,' or making comments that were totally disrespectful and demeaning," the sheriff said.

"I don't do well reined in," Higgins noted at the time. "Although I love and respect my sheriff, I must resign."

Update: Higgins' campaign spokesman, Chris Comeaux, told Mother Jones in an email: "Rep. Higgins is referring to terrorists. He's advocating for hunting down and killing all of the terrorists. This is an idea all of America & Britain should be united behind."

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Republican Congressman on Suspected Islamic Radicals: "Kill Them All" - Mother Jones

President Donald Trump is promising a $1 trillion infrastructure plan and a group of liberal lawmakers want double that.

President Donald Trump has promised a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, but a group of liberal lawmakers want to see twice that investment during the next 10 years, writes the Washington Examiner.

Trump is launching a new infrastructure campaign this week, hoping to capitalize on lawmakers support for rebuilding the nations transportation systems at a time when his tax and health-care legislation are in flux. At the same time, members of the congressional Progressive Caucus have signed on to a plan to spend $2 trillion on infrastructure, a proposal they are calling the 21st Century New Deal for Jobs. At least one aspect of the plan would appeal to Trump, the Examiner writes: an additional emphasis on employing local workers and buying American-made products.

Also read: Trump to shift focus to infrastructure, but who will pay for plan?

Doubts about death threat: Iowa Democrat Kim Weaver is ending her campaign for her states fourth congressional district and the Republican she sought to unseat is saying one of Weavers reasons was likely made up. In a Facebook post on Saturday, Weaver cited death threats, financial security and her mothers ongoing health problems as reasons for her withdrawal, reports the Des Moines Register. GOP Rep. Steve King said in a tweet that he wanted Weaver in the race, not out. Death threats likely didnt happen, he wrote, but a fabrication.

Republicans running out of time for legislative wins: Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump have gotten through nearly half the year without a single major legislative achievement, the Associated Press writes. And if that is going to change it will have to start soon. Seven legislative weeks are left before Congress leaves for a five-week August recess, a period when lawmakers are likely to lose momentum if they havent acted on health care or taxes.

Increased cost for nuclear overhaul: The New York Times reports President Trump has a growing challenge in overhauling the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The first official government estimate of the project, prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, will put the cost at more than $1.2 trillion 20% more than the figure envisioned by the Obama administration. President Barack Obama left the hard budgetary choices for the next administration, the Times says, and it is unclear whether Trumps administration can stomach the rising cost.

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Iowa Republican says death threats against Democrat 'fabrication' | Progressives try to one-up Trump with ... - MarketWatch

Media Matters for America (blog)

Republican strategists say they will run against the media in 2018. Here's why that could work. Media Matters for America (blog) Amid a heated atmosphere of anti-media Republican rhetoric that has at times turned into violence against journalists, McClatchy is reporting that Republican plans for the 2018 elections will feature a deliberate strategy to help GOP candidates win ... Republicans declare war on the media for 2018. Because declaring war on facts doesn't sound so good.Daily Kos all 8 news articles »

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Republican strategists say they will run against the media in 2018. Here's why that could work. - Media Matters for America (blog)

A Republican candidate running in the state of Virginias gubernatorial election has made the bold campaign promise of refusing to remove Confederate monuments, calling them part of our identity here in Virginia, according to Yahoo News.

Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, was not always a major opponent of removing the old Confederate monuments. Last year, Stewart gave a speech at a school ceremony that was celebrating the renaming of the public institution originally named after a former Virginia governor who fought desegregation of the states schools in the 1950s as a state senator, according to Yahoo News.

Are you excited to rename this school? Its been a long, long, long time in coming, thats for sure, Stewart told the audience. But now, Stewart has pivoted in the opposite direction, and has made a promise to preserve the monuments arguing that they playan important historical role.

If you can take down a statue of somebody who fought for the Confederacy because you would argue that the Confederacy stood for the preservation of slavery, then you can easily say we should take down any statue and any monument to any slaveholder, Stewart said. And that in Virginia, and that in America, means our founders: Jefferson, Madison and Washington. And when you take down the founders, you take down the founding documents. . . Over my dead body, when I am governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, are we going to remove a single statue to any Virginian.

When Stewart was asked by Yahoo News to compare his recent statements to the ones he issued at the school ceremony last year, the gubernatorial candidate justified both ends of his rhetoric. Mills Godwin was a racist Democrat quite distinct from the Founding Fathers or Gen. [Robert E.] Lee so to decide to name a school after someone else is a far cry from the leftists destroying historical monuments and the erasing of all dissenting opinion, Stewart said over email to Yahoo.

But it seems that his rhetoric will alter and is contingent upon who he must pander to. He has given more relaxed responses during interviews with reporters, where he justifies keeping the statue as historical relics. Those monuments were erected for a reason so that people remember, and that was during a time when many civil war veterans were still alive, and their families. And they wanted to send a signal to future generations that there was a huge sacrifice here, and its something we should never repeat. And I think once you forget, you do repeat, and that concerns me, he said, according to Yahoo News.

However as he spoke to a small crowd of voters he delivered yet another stark contrast. If we allow them to destroy our history, to try to rewrite history, to sanitize history, we are losing part of our identity here in Virginia, he said, failing to mention his previous points about how the monuments could serve as warnings.

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Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate calls Confederate statues our identity - Salon