Huizenga skips Michigan Senate race
Why it matters: Huizenga's decision to pass on the Senate opens up a clearer path for former Rep. Mike Rogers, the National Republican Senatorial Committee's preferred candidate.
Huizenga hasn't given a clear indication that he has decided to run for reelection to the House.
"I look forward to announcing my future plans later this year," he said in a statement.
Huizenga raised $747,000 in the second quarter, leaving him with $1.4 million in cash on hand.
Zoom in: The White House has been putting pressure on House Republicans in swing districts to forgo senate or gubernatorial campaigns to help President Trump retain the House majority.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) became the latest House Republican to officially take a pass on a statewide bid when he announced his plans to run House on Wednesday morning.
"I've decided the right thing to do for me, my family and my district is to run for re-election," Lawler said said on "Fox & Friends" after telling the New York Times that he wouldn't be running for governor.
Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) decided to run for House reelection and forgo a governor's bid after pressure from the White House.
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31 minutes ago
Gabbard uses surprise White House appearance to attack Trump's enemies on the Russia investigation
WASHINGTON -- As the national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard is responsible for guarding America's secrets and discovering threats from overseas. But when she made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room Wednesday, her targets were President Donald Trump's political enemies. Escalating her attempts to undermine the long-settled conclusion that Russia tried to help Trump beat Hillary Clinton for the presidency nearly a decade ago, she unspooled what she called unshakable proof that then-President Barack Obama and his advisers plotted nothing short of a coup. 'They conspired to subvert the will of the American people,' she said, claiming they fabricated evidence to taint Trump's victory. Little of what she said was new, and much of it was baseless. Gabbard said her investigation into the former Democratic administration was designed to stop the weaponization of national security institutions, but it spurred more questions about her own independence atop a spying system intended to provide unvarnished intelligence. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who ran for president herself before joining Trump's idiosyncratic political ecosystem, seemed prepared to use her presentation to burnish her own standing. She was trailed by her cinematographer husband, who held a video camera to capture the moment. And Trump, who had previously expressed public doubts about Gabbard's analysis of Iran's nuclear program, appeared satisfied. He posted a video of her remarks, pinning them at the top of his social media feed. It was a display that cemented Gabbard's role as one of Trump's chief agents of retribution, delivering official recognition of Trump's grievances about the Russia investigation that shadowed his first term. The focus on a years-old scandal also served Trump's attempts to shift attention from the Jeffrey Epstein case and questions about the president's own association with an abuser of underage girls. During her White House remarks, Gabbard said she has referred the documents to the Justice Department to consider for a possible criminal investigation. Hours later, the department announced the creation of a 'strike force' to investigate the findings. Obama's postpresidential office declined to comment Wednesday but issued a rare response a day earlier. 'These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,' said Patrick Rodenbush, an Obama spokesman. The White House rejected questions about the timing of Gabbard's revelations and whether they were designed to curry favor with Trump or distract attention from the administration's handling of files relating to Epstein. Still, Trump was quick to reward Gabbard's loyalty this week, calling her 'the hottest person in the room.' On Wednesday, she released a report by the Republican staff of the House Intelligence Committee produced during the first Trump administration. It did not dispute that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, but cites what it says were trade craft failings in the assessment reached by the intelligence community that Russian President Vladimir Putin influenced the election because he intended for Trump to win. Gabbard went beyond some conclusions of the report in describing its findings from the White House podium. She, along with the report, also seized on the fact that a dossier including uncorroborated tips and salacious gossip about Trump's ties to Russia was referenced in a classified version annex of an intelligence community assessment released in 2017 that detailed Russia's interference. The dossier was not the basis for the FBI's decision to open an investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, but Trump supporters have seized on the unverified innuendo in the document to try to undercut the broader probe. Gabbard said she didn't know why the documents weren't released during Trump's first administration. Her office did not respond to questions about the timing of the release. Responding to a question from a reporter about Gabbard's motivations, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused journalists of looking for a story where there wasn't one. 'The only people who are suggesting that she would release evidence to boost her standing are the people in this room,' Leavitt said. Trump, however, has said he wants the media, and the public, to focus on Gabbard's report and not his ties to Epstein. 'We caught Hillary Clinton. We caught Barack Hussein Obama ... you ought take a look at that and stop talking about nonsense,' Trump said Tuesday. CIA Director John Ratcliffe served briefly as director of national intelligence during Trump's first term but did not release any of the information declassified by Gabbard. The CIA declined to comment on Gabbard's remarks Wednesday. Gabbard told Congress in April that Iran wasn't actively seeking a nuclear weapon, and Trump dismissed her assessment just before U.S. strikes on Iran. 'I don't care what she said,' Trump said in June on Air Force One when asked about Gabbard's testimony. Gabbard recently shared her findings about the Russia investigation in an Oval Office meeting with Trump, according to two administration officials who requested anonymity to discuss a private conversation. Afterward, one of the officials said, Trump expressed satisfaction that Gabbard's findings aligned with his own beliefs. On Friday, Gabbard's office released a report that downplayed the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 election by highlighting Obama administration emails showing officials had concluded before and after the presidential race that Moscow had not hacked state election systems to manipulate votes in Trump's favor. But Obama's Democratic administration never suggested otherwise, even as it exposed other means by which Russia interfered in the election, including through a massive hack-and-leak operation of Democratic emails by intelligence operatives working with WikiLeaks, as well as a covert influence campaign aimed at swaying public opinion and sowing discord through fake social media posts. Earlier this month Ratcliffe released a report criticizing aspects of the intelligence community assessment and suggesting the process had been rushed. The report did not address multiple investigations since then, including a report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020 that reached the same conclusion about Russia's influence and motives. Lawmakers from both parties have long stressed the need for an independent intelligence service. Democrats said Gabbard's reports show she has placed partisanship and loyalty to Trump over her duty and some have called for her resignation. 'It seems as though the Trump administration is willing to declassify anything and everything except the Epstein files,' Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Wednesday. Warner predicted Gabbard's actions could prompt U.S. allies to share less information for fear it would be politicized or recklessly declassified. But Gabbard enjoys strong support among Republicans. Rep. Rick Crawford, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and Ratcliffe were working to put the intelligence community 'on the path to regaining the trust of the American people.' Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence panel, said Gabbard hasn't offered any reason to ignore the many earlier investigations into Russia's efforts. 'The Director is free to disagree with the Intelligence Community Assessment's conclusion that Putin favored Donald Trump, but her view stands in stark contrast to the verdict rendered by multiple credible investigations,' Himes said in a statement. 'Including the bipartisan report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Lara Trump makes surprise announcement. But not the one NC is waiting on.
Lara Trump made an announcement this week. But not the one North Carolinians were waiting for — on the U.S. Senate race. On Friday, The Telegraph reported, Trump plans to release her fourth single, 'Eyes of God.' The Telegraph wrote that the song, according to Trump, is meant to serve as 'a reminder that we are all more alike than we are different.' 'Everyone is dealing with different highs and lows and, in the era of hiding behind a screen, we should all take a moment to give one another a little grace,' Trump told The Telegraph. 'Instead of turning to a negative comment, maybe it's time we all turn to God.' Trump, and her team, did not respond to an email seeking comment about her new single or The Telegraph's reporting. She began her singing career in 2023, covering Tom Petty's 'I Won't Back Down.' Despite debuting at No. 10 on Billboard's Digital Song Sales, her music has faced heavy social media backlash for using auto-tune. Senate race While Trump releases new music, North Carolina Republicans, and Democrats, are waiting for the president's daughter-in-law to make a decision about whether she will run to replace outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville. NBC News Senior White House Correspondent Garrett Haake reported Trump, 42, told reporters at the White House last week she would make a decision about whether to run by Thanksgiving. Filing for the 2026 primary begins on Dec. 1. Currently, two candidates are running: former Rep. Wiley Nickel, a Democrat from Cary, and former NAVY JAG officer Don Brown, a Republican. Former Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to make an announcement about whether he plans to run in the coming days. That decision has been speculated on for more than a year. Tillis announced his reelection campaign late last year, but said Wednesday he and President Donald Trump had a disagreement over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The piece of legislation included many of the campaign promises President Trump made during the 2024 election. 'We've never really had a testy discussion,' Tillis said at an event held Wednesday morning in Washington. 'It's always been very respectful.' But Tillis said he felt so strongly that the bill would harm North Carolina Medicaid recipients that he needed to take his campaign off the table as a potential bargaining chip. 'I thought it was a good time just to tell the president that he should start looking for a replacement,' Tillis said Wednesday. Tillis said those interviews for a replacement began about 10 minutes later. Lara Trump's political career Tillis wouldn't comment on whether he would help Lara Trump campaign, saying Republicans need to first figure out their candidate. He does want a Republican to succeed him, as long as it's not former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, he said Wednesday, and multiple times previously. President Trump has said that his daughter-in-law would be his 'first choice.' Lara Trump's candidacy has been rumored before in 2022. She's a native of Wilmington, attended Laney High School, and received a communication degree from N.C. State. She named her daughter, Carolina, after the state she grew up in. In 2022, she turned down a Senate run to replace retiring Sen. Richard Burr, to join Fox News as a contributor. Within a year, the network separated from Lara Trump, after her father-in-law announced his third reelection campaign. Lara Trump is in the exact same position now, with Fox recently hiring her to host her own news show, while she also considers whether to replace Tillis. She's currently registered to vote in Florida, and would need to switch to North Carolina. Her background lends itself to both careers. She began in 2012, at 'Inside Edition,' where she worked until 2016. During that time she married Eric Trump, the president's third child. She's worked on her father-in-law's campaigns and in 2024 co-chaired the Republican National Committee, with Michael Whatley, the former North Carolina Republican Party chairman, who is also rumored to be considering a Senate run.
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
House resolution seeks to stop plan to shoot nearly half a million owls
Rep. Troy E. Nehls, a Republican from Texas, backed by 17 co-sponsors from both political parties, introduced a resolution Wednesday that could mark the end of a plan to protect spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest. The plan calls for shooting roughly 450,000 barred owls over 30 years in California, Oregon and Washington, because they are outcompeting spotted owls, pushing them out of their native territory. The spotted owls are in rapid decline. Northern spotted owls are listed as threatened under California and U.S. endangered species laws, and there may be as few as 3,000 left on federal lands. Federal wildlife officials have proposed endangered species protection for two populations of California spotted owls. In a statement, Nehls called the owl-culling plan, approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Biden administration, 'a waste of Americans' hard-earned tax dollars.' He estimated it will cost $1.35 billion, based on a $4.5-million contract awarded to the Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California last year to hunt about 1,500 barred owls over four years. That is about $3,000 per owl. The bipartisan alliance says killing the owls is also inhumane and unworkable. Co-sponsors of the resolution consist of 11 Republicans and six Democrats, including three California representatives — Josh Harder (D-Tracy), Adam Gray (D-Merced) and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), according to Nehls' office. The effort makes use of the Congressional Review Act, a tool sometimes employed by new presidential administrations to reverse rules issued by federal agencies in the final months of prior administrations. In late May, the Government Accountability Office concluded the plan was subject to the act. To stop the owl-culling plan, both chambers of Congress would need to pass a joint resolution by majority vote and President Trump would need to sign it. If successful, the resolution would preclude the Fish and Wildlife Service from pursuing a similar rule, unless explicitly authorized by Congress. The plan already faced setbacks. In May, federal officials canceled three related grants totaling more than $1.1 million, including one study that would have remove barred owls from over 192,000 acres in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. Another would have removed them from the Mendocino National Forest. Some scientists and conservationists say nixing the plan would mean the end for northern spotted owls. The raptor, dark brown with bright white spots, prefers old-growth forests. It became the central symbol of the so-called timber wars in the 1980s and '90s when environmentalists and logging interests fought over the fate of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. Barred owls are slightly larger, more aggressive and less picky when it comes to habitat and food — giving them an advantage in competition for resources. 'If we don't move forward with barred owl removal, it will mean the extinction of the northern spotted owl, and it will likely mean the extinction of the California spotted owl as well,' Tom Wheeler, executive director of the Environmental Protection Information Center, told The Times last week. He pointed to a long-term field experiment that showed spotted owl populations stabilized in areas where barred owls were killed. Barred owls originated in eastern North America and expanded west along with European settlers who planted trees and suppressed fires, biologists believe. Government scientists see barred owls' presence in the Pacific Northwest as invasive, but some argue that it's natural range expansion. 'Protecting spotted owls is an imperative, but assaulting other native wildlife occupying the same forests is not ethical or a practical means of achieving that goal,' said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy, who has helped galvanize opposition to the culling plan.
