Joe Biden

On Friday, writing for The Bulwark, retired physician William Steiner described the ongoing fanatical devotion to former President Donald Trump in The Villages, a sprawling Florida retirement community that backed the former president over Joe Biden 68 to 32 — and the bizarre, authoritarian political structure that holds this community together.

"Here, within the confines of a quiet, retirement neighborhood, residents have nothing to gain by promoting the lie that Trump won. They truly believe it. And they are not afraid to show it, sometimes in angry and disturbingly uncivil ways," wrote Steiner. "There is a retiree who has turned the family garage into a showcase of pro-Trump/anti-Biden banners and paraphernalia. The Villages has an ordinance that prohibits political signage displays in residential yards. So, in order to comply to the letter with that ordinance, the shrine to Donald sits in the garage and the garage door is left up so that all who pass by can marvel at the level of Trumpian devotion."

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough laid out a closing argument to nail Donald Trump on a seditious conspiracy charge, if he's ever prosecuted for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Oath Keepers co-founder Stewart Rhodes and 10 others were hit with that charge for their role in organizing the assault on the U.S. Capitol, and the "Morning Joe" host and guest George Conway agreed that Trump's actions also meet the standards of that charge.

The Travis County (Texas) district attorney on Thursday found that Attorney General Ken Paxton violated the state's open records law by not turning over his communications from last January when he visited Washington, D.C., for a pro-Trump rally that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The district attorney's office gave Paxton four days to turn over the documents or face a lawsuit. The action was prompted by a Jan. 4, 2022, complaint by the top editors at five of the state's largest newspapers: the Austin American-Statesman, The Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News. The journalists argued that Paxton was withholding communications from the days surrounding Paxton's trip to Washington last year that are subject to public release under the state's open records law.

"Stop the Steal" organizer and MAGA rioter Brandon Straka is continuing to cooperate with federal prosecutors — and may avoid jail time as a result.

In a sentencing memo filed Thursday, prosecutors recommended four months of home confinement for Straka, who pleaded guilty in October to one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.

For nearly four decades the Commission on Presidential Debates has managed and organized every presidential debate, but the Republican National Committee has just announced it will ban any GOP candidate from participating in any debate the Commission holds.

The New York Times reports the RNC is preparing to require any GOP candidate seeking that party's nomination for President to "sign a pledge to not participate in any debates sponsored by the Commission."

Wholesale prices for US goods and services surged to a record last year amid the supply snarls that have battered the global economy, but data released Thursday showed the inflation pressures eased in December.

The producer price index (PPI) jumped 9.7 percent in 2021, the largest calendar-year increase since the data was first calculated in 2010, the Labor Department reported.

President Joe Biden Thursday afternoon will make a rare trip to Capitol Hill, where he will attend a regular Democratic luncheon with the singular purpose of shaking hands and twisting arms, hoping to convince the lawmakers to pass his voting rights legislation: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Conspicuous in her absence likely will be U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema who may be on the Senate floor when the President of the United States comes to meet with members of her own party.

If the GOP wins the 2022 midterms, Republicans will seek to muddy the facts over Trump supporters storming the Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

"Members of the far right are already agitating to launch impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden if the GOP is in power in Congress next year. Some leading Republicans want to spotlight former President Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud. And key House and Senate Republicans are vowing to probe the security failures surrounding last year's January 6 attack on the US Capitol -- and turn the attention to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi," CNN's Melanie Zanona and Manu Raju reported Thursday.

Arizona Republican State Representative Jake Hoffman made news this week when it was revealed he signed a forged "certification" falsely stating Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, won his state's Electoral College electors.

Video that's gone viral of Hoffman shows him defending signing the forged documents in which he falsely identifies himself as a duly elected elector for Trump.

The former GOP chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee urged Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to back Donald Trump, even as the former president demands Republicans push his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud that have resulted in voter suppression legislation.

"Republican Senator Lindsey Graham urged Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to rekindle a 'working relationship' with former president Donald Trump after the pair fell out over Trump’s conduct in the wake of his defeat in the 2020 election," the Guardian reported Thursday. "Graham suggested that collaboration with Trump will be a prerequisite for the GOP in the future, and that McConnell will cease to be a viable candidate or party leader if he refuses to engage with Trump."