U.S. House of Representatives candidate Katie Arrington speaks to a crowd during a rally with former President Donald Trump at the Florence Regional Airport on March 12, 2022, in Florence, South Carolina. - Sean Rayford/Getty Images North America/TNS
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Escalating her criticism of U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace's focus on cannabis reform, Republican Katie Arrington said Friday that her opponent in the 1st Congressional District should not only take a drug test but make the results public, insinuating that Mace may have been "high" while representing South Carolina in Congress. "While residents of the Lowcountry continue to be crushed by skyrocketing inflation and record high gas prices, Nancy Mace opted to spend 4/20 at a pot conference in Miami rather than with her constituents," Arrington said in a statement issued through her camp...
Fox News host Howard Kurtz argued on Sunday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) should not have been at a "drinking party with young women" when he was a teacher.
During a panel discussion about former President Donald Trump's attacks on DeSantis, Kurtz noted that the Florida governor faced criticism over allegations that he partied with students when he was a teacher in Florida.
"Trump is actually questioning DeSantis' sexuality and recycling a two-decade-old suggestion about grooming young girls when he was a high school teacher again 20 years ago," Kurtz said. "Maybe he shouldn't have been at a drinking party with young women when he was a teacher, but there hasn't even been a whisper of an allegation... Did he have any relationship with any of these students?"
Kurtz argued that the media should come to DeSantis' defense because there were no claims that he had a relationship with the women.
During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Sunday Show," former Republican advisor Tara Setmayer went off on Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for their defense of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists at a Waco rally on Saturday night, saying it made her 'stomach turn over."
Speaking with host Jonathan Capehart about Trump's first major gathering as he makes a third run for the presidency, Setmayer dismissed the speeches she heard as "whining"' and "yawning."
After calling the whole situation a "pity party," she continued, "All he did last night, and the same thing that Marjorie Taylor Greene and all of them are doing, this is the memo: they are whining and complaining and this grievance and this victimization-- that is their entire campaign."
"And what it is doing is that it implanting and indoctrinating these people into believing that it is us versus them; you heard him talk about that last night," she continued. "He said something else on top of that, 'I'm your justice, I'm your retribution,' all of those things are very cult leader-like, very dictator and very un-American for a potential presidential candidate."
"You know, the whining and there was yawning," she added. "That's what happened last night, because it was the same rehash of these grievances, but it continues to gin these people up until they make decisions like, 'well, we don't like our government.' These people don't like America."
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) said "both sides" were to blame after former President Donald Trump glorified Jan. 6 defendants at a rally in Waco, Texas over the weekend.
In an interview on CBS News, host Margaret Brennan pointed to Trump's
Saturday rally in Waco.
"When he walked on stage, he played a recording made by some of those who are being prosecuted for attacking the Capitol on January 6th," Brennan said. "He also had footage seeming to glorify the attack that day. He's calling for protests. He said things like death and destruction if he's indicted."
"I know you've supported him in the past," she added. "Do you support statements like this?"
"Look, January 6th was a terrible day. We have to make sure that never happens again," Gonzales replied. "But it was great to have President Trump back in Texas. And it was a reminder that Trump's policies, President Trump's policies worked. Right now, we're in a time where Biden is failing us. And so, I welcome any serious presidential candidate to come to Texas, see it firsthand."
"But what the former president was talking about was not policy or substance," Brennan countered. "Don't you see some danger from lionizing those who are being prosecuted for breaking the law and attacking the place where you and other lawmakers work? Isn't that part of it something that must give you pause?"
"The rhetoric is absolutely out of control," Gonzales insisted. "On both sides, on all sides."
"But I'd also see, you know, I see President Trump honestly being attacked, being demonized on all these different fronts," he continued. You know, things that are happening to him in regards to the classified documentation, similar things happen to President Biden. You don't see those things."
Brennan pressed Gonzales on his support for Trump.
"This is a line that you feel you can't cross when it comes to criticizing what the former president did with lionizing January 6th attackers?" she said.
"I'm always going to fight for what I believe is right," Gonzales asserted. "And what I see right now is people are fed up with the environment that is happening. They're fed up with the rhetoric. They're tired of inflation. They're tired of the border crisis. They're tired of the national security policy. And they want real action."
"And whoever delivers that for them is going to get their vote, whether that's President Trump or anyone else," he concluded.
