Seven scenarios for McCarthy's Speakership vote — ranked least to most likely  —  All eyes are on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as he negotiates a fragile path to the Speakership next year in the face of opposition from a handful of conservatives within his own conference.

Trump Hoarded Most Of The $147 Million In Small-Donor Money He Raised For Himself  —  The much-touted super PAC he created spent only $15 million on GOP candidates in key Senate races, and nothing at all on Herschel Walker's runoff.  —  WASHINGTON ― Just weeks after touting a new super PAC …

DeSantis Sucks Up to the Anti-Vax Crowd  —  Another stunt aimed at the fringe base.  —  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's record handling the COVID-19 pandemic is nuanced.  After initially locking down the state's businesses and schools and installing highway checkpoints to monitor travel …

Trump Aims to Regroup After Rocky First Month of 2024 Campaign  —  Ex-president plans to focus on smaller, policy-focused events in next few months  —  Kari Lake, Other Trump-Backed Election Skeptics Lose Key Midterm Races  —  Created with sketchtool.

An Alternate Reality: How Russia's State TV Spins the Ukraine War  —  Leaked emails detail how Russia's biggest state broadcaster, working with the nation's security services, mined right-wing American news and Chinese media to craft a narrative that Moscow was winning.

Musk bans Twitter account tracking his jet, threatens to sue creator  —  Twitter suspended, restored and then suspended again the 20-year-old college student's account that for years had shared publicly available data on Musk's private flights  —  Jack Sweeney, a sophomore at the University …

Sam Bankman-Fried's Harsh Bahamas Jail Could Shift His Stance on Extradition  —  The grim conditions FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is encountering in the Bahamas prison where he's currently being held could change his attitude on extradition to face fraud charges in the US.

I Think I Found Kyrsten Sinema's Side Hustle  —  Last week, she ditched the Democrats.  Perhaps this is her real passion?  —  It is 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, and I am exchanging Facebook messages with Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema about a lightly used pair of Badgley Mischka heels.

Five down in Apt. 307: Mass fentanyl deaths test a Colorado prosecutor  —  COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — From the doorway of Apt. 307, District Attorney Brian Mason could see the five bodies inside.  They lay awkwardly on the floor and couch, their arms and legs contorted — a sign of sudden collapse.

Video Footage of Attack on Paul Pelosi Shown at San Francisco Hearing  —  David DePape, the man accused of bludgeoning the husband of Nancy Pelosi, told the police that he also had Gavin Newsom and Tom Hanks on his target list.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — It was as quick as it was brutal …

Kanye West's Love of Hitler Allegedly Goes Back 20 Years  —  The rapper spoke of his admiration for Hitler during the making of ‘The College Dropout,’ and even tried to use propaganda strategies inspired by the Nazis to boost his own fame, sources tell Rolling Stone

‘Nightmare’ Warehouse Fire Erases Evidence in Many Unsolved Cases  —  Lawyers say evidence in cold cases and bids for exoneration disappeared or was ruined when a Police Department storage facility in Brooklyn went up in flames.  —  When a massive Police Department warehouse burned Tuesday …

Jill Biden makes a tidal shift from her thoughts on another run at the White House  —  First lady Jill Biden, despite being so worn out from a recent circuit of White House events that she lost her voice, is now seriously looking ahead to her husband running for reelection in 2024.

Lowest Opinion Of Trump Among Voters In Seven Years, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Biden Approval Rating Climbs  — mail_outline  —  As former President Donald Trump seeks to return to the Oval Office, 31 percent of registered voters have a favorable opinion of him …

White House to restart free Covid home test program  —  The Biden administration plans to reopen a partnership with the U.S. Postal Service to mail free at-home Covid-19 tests to households that request them, four people familiar with the matter told POLITICO.

Tillis Amnesty Deal Is Dead  —  After outcry from conservatives and Republican lawmakers who weren't willing to betray the GOP's commitment to the rule of law, legal immigration, and border security, an attempt to grant mass amnesty to DACA beneficiaries is, according to reporting on Wednesday night, dead.

The Electoral College in the 21st Century  —  Dear Readers: Join the Crystal Ball's Kyle Kondik, J. Miles Coleman, and Carah Ong Whaley for a Twitter Spaces at 2 p.m. eastern today.  They will be wrapping up the best and worst moments from politics in 2022, and listeners will also get the chance …

Man who allegedly threatened to kill Arizona election official facing federal charges  —  An Ohio man who allegedly threatened to kill an Arizona state election official during the 2022 midterm election season is now facing federal charges, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Biden gives Iranian thugs a pass  —  Unsatisfied with beating and molesting them on the streets, Iran has started executing its young citizens over their desperate human rights protests.  —  Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was only the latest to be hanged this week for what the theocrats declared was his “enmity against God.”

Leonard Leo's Latest Supreme Court Play  —  This story was reported in partnership between The Lever and ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  —  Flush with money after receiving the largest-known political advocacy donation in U.S. history …

Chuck Schumer predicts Democrats will hold the Senate majority again in 2024  —  WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, beaming with confidence after having proved his doubters wrong and expanded his majority in the midterm elections, vowed without hesitation that the Democratic Party will keep control again in two years.

Pete's campaign in waiting  —  Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration.  With help from Lauren Egan and Allie Bice.  —  Two years into the Biden administration, infrastructure for another potential PETE BUTTIGIEG bid for office lies in waiting.

Thiel's Red Scare  —  Despite concern that a demoralized and “blackpilled” Peter Thiel might retreat from G.O.P. fundraising after his midterm setback in Arizona, the conservative billionaire has a few thoughts for the Republican Party.  On Tuesday evening, Thiel delivered a searing indictment …

People's Republic of China Citizen Arrested for Stalking  —  For Immediate Release  —  U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts  —  Defendant allegedly stalked an individual promoting democracy in China  —  BOSTON - A Berklee College of Music student, who is citizen …

The L.A. journalist making Americans smarter about politics  —  The man who is perhaps the sharpest observer of America's political divides lives not in Washington but Los Angeles.  He has never interviewed Donald Trump.  His recent book was not a tell-all about the Trump or Biden White Houses …