Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, in recent weeks, has found himself on the U.S. Department of Justice's radar in connection with a sex trafficking and corruption investigation — allegations that the far-right GOP congressman vehemently denies. Journalist Roger Sollenberger, in an article published by the Daily Beast this week, describes Gaetz's 2022 campaign as being in total damage control mode. But Sollenberger stresses that the campaign's problems go beyond the DOJ's investigation.

Sollenberger reports, "As Rep. Matt Gaetz combats allegations that he was involved in a sex ring, the Florida Republican's latest campaign finance report reflects a public relations scramble that began even before he acknowledged being the focus of a federal investigation. The filing, which covers the three months between January and March, shows that Gaetz has incurred unprecedented fundraising expenses during a typically quiet period. In that time, Gaetz dropped six figures on a direct mail blitz, shelling out more for fundraising services than he did in all of 2020."

An almost entirely undisclosed program under U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's purview is secretly monitoring social media posts under the guise of needing to protect U.S. Postal Service employees and "infrastructure." The effort is called the Internet Covert Operations Program, or iCOP, and it is raising civil rights issues that one expert calls "serious constitutional concerns."

"The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has been quietly running a program that tracks and collects Americans' social media posts, including those about planned protests, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News," the news site reveals. "The details of the surveillance effort, known as iCOP, or Internet Covert Operations Program, have not previously been made public."

A Republican state lawmaker used a racist slur on the floor of the Arizona state legislature and then called for another lawmaker, who is Black, to be ordered to "be sat down" and "not be allowed to speak."

On Tuesday Rep. Travis Grantham, a Republican, interrupted Rep. Reginald Bolding, a Democrat, who was making a speech against a voter suppression bill.