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Senate GOP blocks push for legal action over Epstein law

(Roll Call) Senate Republican leadership blocked a Democrat-backed measure Thursday that would direct the chamber to take legal action over the Justice Department’s much-criticized handling of the Jeffrey Epstein documents. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, on the floor, criticized the Trump administration’s response to the law Congress passed last year that required the release of documents tied to the deceased sex offender. The New York Democrat said millions of pages of documents that have not been released could contain financial records, letters, emails and the names of conspirators.

House Republicans prepare full-court press for voting restrictions

(Politico) The House is set to vote next week on a once-obscure elections bill that has now become a household name among hard-right activists and a major rallying point for an otherwise divided GOP. The SAVE America Act, aimed at tightening voter registration standards, has a difficult path to enactment despite a no-holds-barred pressure campaign from the likes of President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk. But amid growing fears that their party is not doing enough to address Americans’ key concerns — rising prices chief among them — House GOP leaders and key senators have chosen to put the election security push at the center of their agenda.

Democrats Smell Blood in the Water

(Political Wire) Rachel Bade: “If it wasn’t clear before, it’s crystal clear now: Democrats are feeling their power when it comes to ICE enforcement and the looming Department of Homeland Security funding deadline. Republicans, meanwhile, face a no-win situation: Hold the line and eat the blowback from a shutdown — or cave and torch their own base. Consider this: In the past 48 hours, President Donald Trump has extended an olive branch to the left on immigration enforcement ... But instead of returning the good-faith gesture, Democrats have hardened their position.”

Trump posts images of Michelle and Barack Obama as monkeys on Truth Social

(Mueller She Wrote) "Trump has posted on Truth Social about 65 times in the last 90 minutes, including a video he posted at 8:44 PM PT describing election fraud lies that shows racist AI images of Michelle and Barack Obama as monkeys at the end. I’ve confirmed this is real and watched it myself."

Friday's Condensed News Cartoons

Twin Cities tow truck driver returns abandoned vehicles to families after ICE arrests

(CBS News) Juan Leon had only been running his tow truck business, Leo's Towing, for a few months when he noticed a pattern that kept repeating itself. Cars were being left behind across the Twin Cities metro area – parked on streets, in parking lots, sometimes for days at a time. The owners were gone, and in many cases, they had been arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Seeing there was a need for someone to help out, help clear the streets and get the people back their vehicles. So we stepped up and started doing it," Leon said.

Ohio's GOP governor: Ending TPS for Haitians would be 'blow to the economy'

(The Hill) Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) defended Haitians under temporary protected status (TPS) who reside in his state, three days after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from revoking such status from hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Caribbean country. “If they lose temporary protected status and they no longer can work and the companies can’t employ them, that’s a blow to the economy, that’s a blow to the state,” DeWine told host Dana Bash Thursday on CNN’s “Inside Politics.”

Virginia Democrats release long-awaited 10-1 congressional map

(Virginia Mercury) After weeks of buildup and a missed self-imposed Jan. 30 deadline, Virginia Democrats on Thursday evening finally released their long-awaited revised congressional map, proposing an aggressive 10–1 configuration that would tilt 10 of the state’s 11 U.S. House districts toward their party. The proposed congressional map leaves several of Virginia’s largest districts visually intact while concentrating most of its changes in Northern and central Virginia.

Florida push for mid-decade redistricting draws its first lawsuit

(Politico) Florida’s bid to reshape its congressional map — which still hasn’t happened yet — drew its first lawsuit Thursday with the help of a group aligned with Democrats. Two Floridians, with backing from the National Redistricting Foundation, filed a lawsuit Thursday that contends Gov. Ron DeSantis and Secretary of State Cord Byrd lacked the legal authority to alter election laws after the governor called an April special session on mid-decade redistricting.

IN-01: Indiana House GOP candidate withdraws from race, citing state's failure to redistrict

(The Hill) An Indiana Republican running for a competitive House seat announced Thursday that she would be withdrawing from the race, citing the competitive nature of the district and the state’s failure to redistrict ahead of November. “Indiana’s legislature sadly chose not to redistrict Indiana congressional map to counter Democrats’ egregious gerrymandering and their counting of illegal immigrants in the census,” former Indiana Public Safety Secretary Jennifer-Ruth Green said in a statement one day before the state’s filing deadline.