9/12/23 ☀️ Punchbowl News AM  —  THE TOP … McCarthy and the House Republican leadership scheduled a closed-door session for Thursday morning so that members could get an update on the investigations led by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Oversight Committee Chair Jamie Comer (R-Ky.).

Virginia election candidate responds after leak of tapes showing her performing sex acts with husband: “It won't silence me”  —  A candidate in a high-stakes legislative contest in Virginia had sex with her husband in live videos posted on a pornographic website and asked viewers to pay …

Poverty rate jumps in 2022 after end of enhanced child tax credit  —  The share of Americans, particularly children, in poverty rose significantly last year, in large part because Congress did not renew a Covid-19 pandemic enhancement to the child tax credit, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday.

Tim Scott's girlfriend … In June, as Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) began to get a little momentum in the presidential primary, a person working on behalf of one of Scott's Republican opponents messaged me, asking to chat.  —  “Have you seen the video,” he asked over the phone, conspiratorially, “where he says he has a girlfriend?”

Trump faces another 14th Amendment candidacy challenge, this time in Minnesota  —  A liberal group filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block former President Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot in Minnesota, the second major lawsuit in two weeks that hopes to invoke the 14th Amendment's arcane “insurrectionist ban.”

Elon Musk shouldn't be calling the shots on how Ukraine fights  —  I can't feel sympathy for Elon Musk, given the cesspool of antisemitism, hate speech and authoritarian bombast he is creating at X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.  But if he prevented Ukrainian forces …

Mark Meadows lost big on Friday night.  And so did Donald Trump.  —  Back to Fulton County for you!  —  🚨 WE'RE OFFERING FREE TRIALS FOR ALL NEW PUBLIC NOTICE SIGNUPS 🚨 Click the button to support this work and unlock full access to everything we publish.

Iowa 2024: Biden and Trump Remain Frontrunners In Caucuses, But Both Losing Ground  —  Home Polls Iowa 2024: Biden and Trump Remain Frontrunners In Caucuses, But Both Losing Ground  —  Neither Party with Clear Alternatives to Frontrunners  —  A new Emerson College Polling survey …

‘Spying’ scandal shocks Westminster's China circle  —  Decoding transatlantic relations with Beijing.  —  with PHELIM KINE  —  WELCOME TO CHINA WATCHER.  This is Stuart Lau, reporting from Westminster, where a major China spy scandal has erupted over the past 48 hours or so …

River of red wine flows through Portuguese village after storage units burst  —  A river of red wine flowed through the streets of a small town in Portugal this week after an incident at a local distillery.  Video from Anadia, Portugal, shows the wine rushing in the gutters and turning the streets purple.

The Authors of ‘How Democracies Die’ Overestimated the Republicans  —  One of the most influential books of the Trump years was “How Democracies Die” by the Harvard government professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.  Published in 2018, it served as a guide to our unfolding ordeal.

‘I just had another one’: How McConnell scrambled to protect his job after two freeze-ups  —  The GOP leader emerged from a tumultuous 10 days with his internal strength intact, according to interviews with more than a dozen senators.  —  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's apparent health problems …

Whistleblower alleges CIA offered officials money to change view of COVID origins  —  FIRST ON FOX: A CIA whistleblower told Congress that the agency offered officials on a team investigating COVID-19 origins “significant monetary incentive” to change their positions, from that it originated …

Proud Boys leader Tarrio says prosecutors pushed him to implicate Trump  —  After being sentenced to 22 years for seditious conspiracy, Tarrio said he met with government shortly before trial but no deal was cut  —  Before he went to trial on charges of seditious conspiracy and other counts related …

Iranian president says Tehran will spend $6 billion released in prisoner exchange ‘wherever we need it’  —  Biden administration officials have said that the funds, the proceeds of Iranian oil sales to South Korea, can only be spent for humanitarian purposes.  —  Iranian president talks prisoner swap, $6 billion deal with US

Wisconsin Republicans' nuclear option  —  In April, Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court with more than one million votes, defeating her conservative opponent by a wide margin.  Her victory tipped the balance of the court, and the new liberal majority will soon review a case …

Senile Joe Biden rambles about pony soldiers, Vietnam and lies about 9/11  —  In April 1968, after he had run through five draft deferments, a medical board determined Joe Biden was unfit to go to Vietnam.  —  Unfortunately, nobody stopped him this time.  —  The president …