Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Punchbowl News reported this morning that the U.S. House’s top two Republican leaders — Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise — are both “quietly working behind the scenes” to oust House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney and replace her with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik.
* On a related note, Donald Trump reportedly spoke to Stefanik yesterday, and this morning offered his “complete and total endorsement” for her bid to become the new #3 in the House Republican leadership.
* The former president also issued a new written statement this morning, lashing out at Cheney, and blaming former Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for his 2020 defeat.
* Politico reported this morning that the American Greatness Fund, a non-profit advocacy group aligned with Trump’s operation, is creating something called the Election Integrity Alliance, which it says will be “focused on ending election fraud and strengthening election safeguards by providing information, resources, endorsements of allies’ efforts, and solutions to secure free and fair elections.” As for what that means in practical terms, I haven’t the foggiest idea.
* During a Fox News interview yesterday, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) was asked whether the 2020 presidential election was “stolen.” The Wyoming Republican — the #3 Republican in the Senate leadership — wouldn’t answer the question directly. * The Ohio Republican Party’s state central committee is scheduled to meet this week to discuss whether to censure Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) for his vote to impeach Donald Trump in January. * Though national Republicans tend to see Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) as vulnerable in 2022, for now, the incumbent senator has only one rival: Jim Lamon, a power company executive and Trump donor, kicked off his statewide candidacy this week.
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."
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