Some of Rep. Shontel Brown's colleagues in the Congressional Progressive Caucus are questioning the Ohio Democrat's liberal bonafides — and whether she should have been endorsed by the group ahead of her primary on Tuesday.
Why it matters: Brown, a freshman, didn't receive unanimous support from CPC members to join its ranks back in January, Axios has learned. The revelation comes despite some in the caucus saying Brown was backed unanimously, and using that claim to defend their endorsement.
A number of federal agencies obtained open source data ahead of the Capitol riot that indicated a potential for violence and criminal activity on Jan. 6, according to a new report published Monday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Why it matters: Signs of potential violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, appeared online "months prior to the attack," according to the report, which cites information gathered by several federal agencies in the lead-up to the deadly insurrection.
Recent revelations that former President Trump allegedly called for protesters gathered outside the White House in 2020 to be shot are part of a pattern of calling for violence that the 45th president followed throughout his years in office.
Driving the news: "Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?" Trump allegedly asked about the demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd, according to the forthcoming memoir by former Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) on Monday ordered a halt to all executions through the end of the year and launched a third-party investigation into the state's failures to properly test lethal injection drugs.
Why it matters: The drugs were set to be used on prisoner Oscar Franklin Smith last month, but the execution was stopped at the last minute after it was determined that the drugs were not tested for contaminants that could cause unpredictable side effects if injected. Lawyers have long criticized the drugs as faulty and unconstitutional.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol sent letters on Monday to three House Republicans, seeking their testimony: Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and Ronny Jackson (R-Texas).
Why it matters: The letters mark an escalation in the committee members' efforts to extract information from their Republican colleagues, doubling the total number of members sought out by the panel.
A New York Police Department veteran was convicted by a federal jury on Monday of assaulting an officer during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the AP reported.
Driving the news: Thomas Webster, 56, tackled an officer and grabbed his face mask during the Jan. 6 riot. The jury rejected Webster's argument that he acted in self-defense and found him guilty on all six counts, according to the AP.
Three abortion rights groups on Monday announced they plan to spend $150 million on the upcoming 2022 midterms "to ensure the election of reproductive freedom champions."
Driving the news: Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America and EMILY's List said the investment will be used to fund voter outreach, advertising, mobilization efforts, polling and more to elect officials "up and down the ballot, from state legislatures, to [attorneys general] and governors, to U.S. congressional races."
The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled that Boston violated the First Amendment when it said a local organization could not fly a Christian flag in front of City Hall.
Driving the news: Justice Stephen Breyer, who delivered the opinion of the court, said that Boston "violated the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment" by not allowing Camp Constitution, which says its goal is "to enhance understanding of our Judeo-Christian moral heritage," to fly their flag "based on religious viewpoints."
Mexican officials said last week that they would change plans for a trade railway to keep it from passing through Texas because of the governor's recently revoked inspection rule for truckers coming from Mexico.
Driving the news: Mexican Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier said that the railway, known as the T-MEC Corridor, would go through New Mexico instead, saying: "We can't leave all the eggs in one basket and be hostages to someone who wants to use trade as a political tool," per the Dallas Morning News.
Most Americans support the Biden administration's policies in support of Ukraine while Russia's invasion of the country continues, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
By the numbers: Around 76% of the people who took the poll believe that the U.S. should provide more humanitarian support to Ukraine, and 67% support increasing economic sanctions on Russia.
A federal judge on Sunday rejected a bid from the Republican National Committee seeking to block its email vendor from releasing records to the Jan. 6 select committee.
Driving the news: "It is hard to imagine a more important interest for Congress than to preserve its own ability to carry out specific duties assigned to it under the Constitution," wrote U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly.
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper charges in a memoir out May 10 that former President Trump said when demonstrators were filling the streets around the White House following the death of George Floyd: "Can't you just shoot them?Just shoot them in the legs or something?"
Why it matters: The book, "A Sacred Oath," contains vivid, first-person revelations by a top Cabinet member, bolstering outsiders' accounts of extreme dysfunction in Trump's White House.
Jared Kushner will be out Aug. 9 with "Breaking History: A White House Memoir," with the publisher promising never-before-reported tales from the 2016 campaign, the Russia investigation, impeachment and COVID.
Kushner — one of the most powerful figures in the administration of his father-in-law, former President Trump — takes readers "inside debates in the Oval Office, battles at the United Nations, meetings in Arab palaces, and intense negotiations in North Korea, China, Mexico," says the publisher, Broadside Books.
Russian forces shelled the Azovstal steel plant soon after some civilians were evacuated from the besieged facility, Ukrainian military officials said ahead of fresh evacuations planned for Ukraine's final stronghold in Mariupol on Monday.
Details: Ukraine National Guard brigade commander Denys Shlega said in a TV address Sunday night that "as soon as the last civilian" from the group of evacuees left the plant it "came under fire again" as several hundred remaining civilians were sheltering, including up to 20 children, per Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.
First lady Jill Biden will travel to eastern Europe this week to meet with U.S. service members, diplomats and displaced Ukrainian parents and children, her office announced late Sunday.
The big picture: Biden will visit the refugees in NATO member countries Romania and Slovakia, which both share borders with Ukraine. She will spend Mother's Day in Slovakia "with Ukrainian mothers and children who have been forced to flee their home country because of Putin's war," per the East Wing's emailed statement.
United Nations officials have been "blocked" from accessing "besieged cities like Mariupol, Mykolaiv and Kherson" — raising concerns of mass starvation in the Ukrainian cities that have been devastated by Russia's military invasion.
Driving the news: That's according to UN World Food Program chief David Beasley, who told CBS' "60 Minutes" journalist Scott Pelley in an interview broadcast Sunday that denying civilians in the eastern Ukrainian cities access to food was "just wrong, evil."
A $33 billion Ukraine aid package will include provisions for the U.S. government to seize and sell Russian oligarchs' assets, and give the proceeds to the invaded country, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday.
Why it matters: The U.S. and other governments are moving to financially squeeze oligarchs with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin with the aim of influencing his actions in Ukraine and, in the longer term, curtailing the power of Putin and his circle, per Axios' Emily Peck.
