Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Ahead of his re-election bid in New Jersey this year, Sen. Bob Menendez (D) was “severely admonished” by the Senate Ethics Committee yesterday for the gifts he accepted from a friend and campaign donor.
* In a rather unusual rhetorical twist, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) is now arguing that a large number of House Republicans are retiring this year because they’re afraid of being assassinated.
* In Michigan, state Sen. Patrick Colbeck (R), a Republican gubernatorial candidate this year, was rebuked by his colleagues yesterday after he peddled anti-Muslim conspiracy theories on the legislative floor.
* Just when it seemed Indiana’s Republican Senate primary couldn’t get nastier, Rep. Todd Rokita (R) is now trashing Rep. Luke Messer (R) in a politically themed children’s book.
* To the surprise of no one, Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is using kind words from entertainer Kanye West as the basis for a new fundraising campaign. * Trump is apparently threatening to go after Sen. Jon Tester (D), who’s running for re-election in Montana this year, for having scrutinized Ronny Jackson’s nomination to lead the V.A. * As Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) continues to go in a radical direction — this week she called for Hillary Clinton’s and James Comey’s imprisonment — some Republicans are reportedly nervous that “she’s boxing herself into a posture that won’t play well in her center-right district.” * And like a variety of other prominent Democrats eyeing possible 2020 presidential campaigns, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) announced this week that she will not accept corporate PAC donations.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
