U.S. News

Texas has been a reliably Republican state since 1994, when Democrats won several state-wide offices. The state hasn't voted for a Democratic president, however, since President Jimmy Carter in 1976. Democratic groups have argued that Texas is at a tipping point where investment and effort can flip things for the Democrats.

While many have poo-pooed the idea, Republicans appear to have bought into the shift, if their congressional gerrymandering and voter suppression laws are any indications.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) suggested that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) wants to get rid of the filibuster.

In an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Tester found McConnell's latest statement about the debt ceiling being the dumbest thing he's ever heard of.

CNN.com reported that former President Donald Trump seems obsessed with proving over and over again how badly he lost the 2020 presidential election.

The ex-president was humiliated at the ballot box but then proceeded to be humiliated in court over 60 times. Trump then held a partisan audit funded by his donors and run by his supporters, and he still ended up losing over 360 votes from his original total.

The Root reported Monday that a FedEx driver was caught refusing to do his job out of partisanship.

A profanity-laced video surfaced on TikTok after the FedEx driver was fired because he refused to deliver to homes showing support for Black Lives Matter, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.

While Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was on television over the weekend, he proclaimed the intentions of his party to host an audit of the 2020 election. It appears that was news to election officials, who had no idea.

DFW's CBS outlet reported Monday that no one seems to know what the next steps are, what the plan will be or when things will move forward.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stood on the Senate floor Monday to proclaim that no Republican will be voting to raise the debt ceiling.

The debt is from the laws passed under President Donald Trump's administration, which Republicans supported then. Now that the bill for those laws is coming due, it appears the GOP no longer supports the cost of those policies.

Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt is wondering why the strategy memo that President Donald Trump's legal adviser crafted to overthrow the government is not a bigger deal.

Revealed in the book Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, the memo outlined a plan for Vice President Mike Pence to stop the congressional acceptance of the Electoral College votes for the 2020 presidential race and throw the election back to GOP state legislatures.

Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) angrily lashed out at the media after an Associated Press report led to accusations that she corruptly abused her office.

According to the AP, Noem's daughter was denied a real estate appraiser license in 2020 by the South Dakota state employee who runs the agency. Noem then called the woman into her office, as well as her daughter.

The main story on "Last Week Tonight's" first show of the season called the GOP's bluff on their voter suppression laws.

State Rep. Matt Schaffer, a Republican from Tyler Texas went on television to tell people upset over the GOP's voter suppression bill to "read the bill. There's no voter suppression. Read the bill and show me what person who is eligible to vote who will not be able to vote. You can't find it."

Fox News host Mark Levin struggled to come up with a reason to oppose President Joe Biden's budget proposal that would include a "human infrastructure" investment as part of the bill.

He began by alleging that everyday Americans don't have access to Congress and they don't even know what's in the budget bill.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) recommended to their members that they strike as companies have refused to agree to employees' demands on wages, healthcare benefits, days off, lunch breaks and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

"Nobody wants to go on strike, but we have been given little choice by companies that are earning record profits off our members' labor but are unwilling to treat those same workers with dignity and respect," said the union director Rebecca Rhine in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

MSNBC host Medhi Hasan shared a tweet from progressive author Stephen King, who said that 70 percent of something is better than 100 percent of nothing. He referred to President Joe Biden's budget that includes a human infrastructure component to help fund childcare, paid family leave, universal pre-K, community college tuition and other things to move the green economy forward.

"We have a potential government shutdown and debt crisis coming down the line," Hasan said. "Oh, and a political stalemate over a $3.5 trillion social and economic policy and climate change bill. The heart of Biden agenda. If you are thinking the Republican Party is the Freddy Kruger of this nightmare, you'd be wrong. It's the left. Apparently, the left is to blame!"

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) responded to critics who said that she shouldn't be participating in the Jan. 6 committee because she is keeping the focus on former President Donald Trump.

Cheney made it clear that Trump isn't going to go away if everyone stops talking about him.