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(NEW YORK) — Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent battle with what he considers the “woke agenda” is pushing Florida further to the ideological right and helping position him as a possible contender for president, pitting him against none other than Donald Trump.

As DeSantis’ popularity rises among Republicans, DeSantis has been closely mirroring the former president’s language. In December, when he announced that battle, DeSantis called critical race theory “state-sanctioned racism” and termed related training “indoctrination.”

Nearly a year before, Trump had slammed the teaching of the origins of slavery in America as “twisted” and a form of brainwashing.

DeSantis is arguably setting himself up to be the most “MAGA”-friendly governor in the Republican pack, a safe position for a potential GOP presidential candidate.

In a recent CNN poll, DeSantis is the only possible Trump-alternative candidate who netted more than 20% approval from respondents.

Over the past several months, DeSantis has mounted a series of conservative legislative proposals, many of which bolster talking points inspired by Trump, with bills that restrict access to abortions, limit classroom discussion about sexual orientation, enable parents to sue schools based on curriculum and eliminate a majority Black voting district with an atypical and aggressive self-submitted redistricting map.

He is asking law enforcement to root out “election fraud,” echoing the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

And just this week, DeSantis doubled-down on an attempt to take his state’s redistricting into his own hands, submitting a new, even more contentious, Republican-leaning map than his initial proposal in January, which still includes the controversial elimination of a majority Black district in the north of the state.

This move comes after the Florida Supreme Court denied DeSantis’ request to issue an advisory opinion on the constitutionality of that Jacksonville-area district, represented by Black member of Congress, Rep. Al Lawson. The introduction of a second map puts DeSantis at odds with members of his own party in the statehouse, who ignored DeSantis’ initial controversial map in favor of their own version.

While veteran Florida-based political analyst Susan MacManus, a professor emeritus at the University of South Florida, says many other DeSantis watchers feel it’s “surely unknown” the degree in which DeSantis may be shaping himself to be a viable Trump replacement given the potential volatility in the news cycle between now and 2024, she says it’s clear that DeSantis has political foresight unique to the average incumbent candidate running for reelection. In the Florida governor, Macmanus says, she can “see someone who is able to look at the bigger picture a little bit further down than just tomorrow.”

McManus adds that other Republicans — especially those outside of Florida — see DeSantis as a rising star and lightning-rod. “Everyone wants him at their annual fundraising dinners,” she said.

Last summer, DeSantis blitzed through a series out-of-state at fundraisers in California, Nevada, and through the Northeast, a lucrative guest of honor guaranteed to rake in extra cash to GOP coffers beyond the Sunshine State.

Hesitant to say that DeSantis is “designing himself” to be the Trump-alternative, MacManus hears Republicans groups have a sort of love affair with DeSantis, and believe he brings something to the table Trump may not.

“Here’s the comment — always: ‘He’s better than Trump. I wish he would tone it down just a little bit, but I love his policies so much that I’m willing to hang with him.”

One policy that has gained steam as DeSantis and other conservatives rally against the instruction of critical race theory is aptly titled the “STOP W.O.K.E Act,” otherwise known as the “Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act.”

The governor is also wading into culture war issues that don’t directly impact Florida, most recently defending podcaster Joe Rogan, who faces major backlash for using a racist slur for Black people in clips now circulating on social media. DeSantis believes Rogan, who has since apologized, should have delivered another more aggressive message to those offended.

“But what I would say is don’t give an inch. Do not apologize. Do not bow to the mob. Stand up and tell them to pound sand; if you do that, there’s really nothing that they’re able to do to you,” DeSantis said in an interview with Fox News. “The only way they have power is if you let them get your goat.”

DeSantis’ response was not a far cry from Trump’s, who urged Rogan to “stop apologizing to the Fake news and Radical Left maniacs.”

“Joe, just go about what you do so well and don’t let them make you look weak and frightened. That’s not you and it never will be!” Trump wrote in a statement.

Earlier this month, DeSantis pushed back against calls to denounce a neo-Nazi protest in Orlando — reminiscent of Trump’s divisive “both sides” remark regarding the 2017 white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.

Despite their parallel messaging, Trump and DeSantis’s bonds seem to be unraveling somewhat. In January, Trump appeared to call DeSantis “gutless” in a veiled criticism of politicians who have dodged disclosing whether or not they received the coronavirus booster. DeSantis, only a few weeks prior, declined to specify to Fox News if he indeed receive his latest jab. Following Trump’s “gutless” remark, DeSantis told conservative podcasters that he regrets not being “much louder” in opposition to early coronavirus lockdowns under the Trump administration.

Democrats have no hesitation taking swipes at DeSantis’ continued lurch to the right.

Rep. Charlie Crist, a Democrat looking to unseat DeSantis, said he was “deeply disappointed” in the incumbent.

“Gov. DeSantis continues to stoke the most divisive elements in our society, from his failure to condemn the Nazis to his promotion of a disgusting racial slur. Florida deserves better,” Crist said in an emailed statement.

And the national arm of the Democratic party knocked DeSantis’ recent politics as a “shameless ploy.”

“Ron DeSantis’s shameless ploys to cater to the far-right extreme would be laughable if they weren’t costing Floridians their lives and livelihoods. While DeSantis focuses on playing politics and trying to book his next Fox News interview, President Biden and Democrats are stepping up to do the job he can’t, or won’t, do,” Ammar Moussa, Democratic National Committee rapid response director, told ABC News.

“What is happening is our governor is competing with the governor of Texas over who will be the heir apparent to Donald Trump,” Florida House Democratic Whip Ramon Alexander told the Washington Post as DeSantis unveiled “STOP W.O.K.E.” “It’s all about who can go to the farthest extremes of the Republican Party.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence has defended the Republican National Committee censure of GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, arguing that the resolution referring to Jan. 6 as “legitimate political discourse” was misconstrued.

During the Q&A portion of an appearance Thursday evening with Stanford University students, Pence asserted that he believes the committee’s reference to “citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse” referred to “a whole range of people that have been set upon” by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election.

“I just don’t know too many people around the country, including my friends at the RNC and the chairman of the Republican National Committee who have any different views than it was a tragic day,” Pence said. He also added that “the people that ransacked the Capitol were wrong should be held to account in the law.”

Pence also touched on how he and former President Donald Trump may never see “eye to eye” on what happened on Jan. 6, but also how he was proud of the work he and Trump accomplished together.

“I knew what my duty was and I kept my oath even though it hurt,” Pence said. “But I will always be proud of the record that President Donald Trump and I created for the American people and I’m determined to continue to lead our nation to freedom.”

Pence’s remarks come a few weeks after he rebuked Trump for his false claims that Pence had the power to overturn the election in his role counting the electoral votes from the November election before Congress.

“There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress that I possessed unilateral authority to reject Electoral College votes. And I heard this week that former President Trump said I had the right to ‘overturn the election,'” Pence said in a speech to a local chapter of the Federalist Society in Florida.

“President Trump is wrong. … I had no right to overturn the election,” he said. “The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. And frankly there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”

Pence made those remarks just hours after the RNC passed its resolution.

Pence’s event was organized by the university’s College Republicans and marked Pence’s first major public event since declaring that Trump was “wrong” about Pence’s power to overturn the election results.

The event was titled “How to Save America from the Woke Left,” and Pence discussed multiple topics, including the Trump’s administration record, the pandemic, and more.

Pence’s speech at Stanford was one of many recent lectures he has given while traveling and speaking at different universities across the country. He has made previous stops at the University of Iowa and Texas A&M.

ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge has rejected an effort by former President Donald Trump to dismiss a series of lawsuits brought against him by Democratic lawmakers and U.S. Capitol Police officers seeking to hold him liable for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — “This is not a bluff,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday about the potential for a Russian invasion of Ukraine in an exclusive interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

“He has a number of options available to him and he could attack in short order,” Austin told Raddatz in an interview conducted in Powidz, Poland, where Austin had come to visit American and Polish troops.

Raddatz’s full interview with Austin airs Sunday on a special edition of “This Week” from Lviv, Ukraine.

“This is not a bluff?” Raddatz asked Austin about the potential for a Russian invasion.

“I don’t believe it’s a bluff,” Austin replied.

“I think it’s … I think he’s assembled the right kind — the kinds of things that you would need to conduct a successful invasion,” he added.

Tensions over the potential for a Russian invasion in Ukraine have increased as American officials have repeatedly said that a Russian invasion could occur “any day.”

Russia’s defense ministry claimed this week that it had begun withdrawing tank units and other forces from the area at the conclusion of exercises that had been cited as the reason for the massive troop buildup around Ukraine.

But U.S. officials have rejected those claims, saying instead that Russia has continued to flow more troops into the border area while it was claiming a troop withdrawal was taking place.

“He’s got things like medical tents and nurses — you … would never have seen that if you were going to be withdrawing your troops?” Raddatz asked Austin.

“Exactly. If they were redeploying to garrison, we wouldn’t be seeing the kinds of things in terms of, not only combat power, but also logistical support, medical support, combat aviation that we’ve seen in the region,” Austin responded.

On Friday, the American representative to the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe reported to that organization that the U.S. assesses that Russia has “probably” amassed between a force numbering between 169,000 and 190,000 near Ukraine’s borders, a total that includes Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.

The number of Russian separatists forces has not previously been included in estimates of Russian troop levels provided by American officials.

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(WASHINGTON) — The National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) confirmed on Friday that some of the Trump White House documents recently recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort were marked classified, and that the agency had referred the matter to the Justice Department.

In a letter sent Friday to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, National Archives officials said that among the 15 boxes of records retrieved last month from former President Donald Trump’s Florida resort were “items marked as classified national security information within the boxes.”

As a result, the National Archives staff “has been in communication with the Department of Justice,” David Ferriero, the national archivist, wrote in the letter.

Among those items that were not preserved, NARA said, were records related to social media accounts.

“NARA has identified certain social media records that were not captured and preserved by the Trump Administration,” Ferriero wrote.

Trump White House staff also “conducted official business using non-official electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded into their official electronic messaging accounts,” according to the letter.

The National Archives said that they it has already “obtained or is in the process of obtaining some of those records.”

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(WASHINGTON) — In his quest to keep Republicans united and become House speaker, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has supported and given money to many of the Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump last year — with one exception.

In an interview with The Federalist, McCarthy officially endorsed Rep. Liz Cheney’s primary opponent, Harriet Hageman, in her upcoming August primary after hard-right House GOP members pushed him to expel her from the GOP conference.

“After spending time with Harriet, it is readily apparent she will always listen and prioritize the needs of her local communities and is focused on tackling our nation’s biggest problems,” McCarthy, R-Calif., told The Federalist. “I look forward to serving with Harriet for years to come.”

Hageman welcomed McCarthy’s endorsement, releasing a statement saying that she’s “very grateful for Leader McCarthy’s strong support,” and pledges that when she’s Wyoming’s member of Congress, she’ll stand up for the state and do the job she was sent to do.

Hageman continued saying that Cheney, R-Wyo., “has completely lost the ability to do her job of representing Wyoming as [their] only member of the House of Representatives.”

Following McCarthy’s endorsement of Hageman, a Cheney’s spokesperson said in a statement, “Wow. She must really be desperate.”

Party leaders rarely get involved in primaries, especially when it’s an incumbent from their own party seeking reelection.

The endorsement from McCarthy comes as one of the latest attacks on Cheney as she faces a tough reelection year. It was only a few weeks ago the Republican National Committee voted to censure Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., for their roles on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Before that, Cheney was censured by her own state party and voted out of her role as the number three Republican in the House.

“There’s a reason why Liz Cheney is no longer in leadership and has very low poll rating in Wyoming,” McCarthy recently told reporters.

On Friday, Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney on the House Republican’s leadership team, announced her endorsement of Hageman.

Stefanik said Cheney has “abandoned her constituents to become a Far-Left Pelosi puppet” and “sadly belongs in an MSNBC or CNN news chair, not in Congress representing Wyoming—a state that voted for President Trump by over forty points.”

Last September, Hageman has also received support from Trump, who is part of the larger effort to get Cheney elected out of office.

Even though Hageman has received endorsements from major players in the Republican party, she still lags behind Cheney in fundraising. Cheney raised a total of $7.2 million in 2021, breaking her own fundraising record. Moreover, as the 2022 election year ramps up, Hageman’s cash on hand is just $381,000 compared to Cheney’s $4.7 million war chest, according to filings.

The effort to get Cheney out of federal office is at the national and state levels. There’s a push from state lawmakers in Wyoming to pass SF0097 which would end same-day party affiliation change on a primary day.

This could make it more difficult for Democrats and independents who might want to vote for Cheney in the primary. If enacted, voters would need to change their party affiliation three months before the Wyoming primary, scheduled for Aug. 16.

ABC News’ Soorin Kim and Alisa Wiersema contributed to this report

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(WASHINGTON) — Following weeks of speculation about what President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address on March 1 would look like — amid pandemic safety concerns — all members of Congress have been invited to attend the speech this year, signaling a softening of restrictions.

The House sergeant-at-arms announced in a memo on Thursday that all 535 members of the House and Senate could safely gather in the House chamber on March 1 as pandemic restrictions continue to ease across the country.

The decision to extend the invitation to all members of Congress was made in consultation with the Capitol’s Office of the Attending Physician, according to the memo.

Per the memo, anyone attending the address in person will be required to present a negative PCR test, wear a K/N95 mask, and fill out a health attestation form. Social distancing will still be required. Boosters are “strongly recommended.” Members will also not be permitted to bring guests, as is usually customary in the pre-COVID era.

The memo also noted: “failure to follow guidelines or removal of the mask in the House Chamber will result in the attendee’s removal from the event and/or fines.”

Biden made a speech to a limited audience due to Covid concerns in April 2021. At the time, the chamber was filled to approximately only 20% capacity, and Republicans largely skipped the event altogether.

Typically, there are more than 1,600 people attending presidential speeches. Last year, there were roughly only 200 people in the chamber.

It’s unclear how many, if any, Republicans will attend the address in person this year.

Republicans have loudly complained about the ongoing mask mandate that still exists for anyone entering the House chamber.

Several Republican lawmakers including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Thomas Massie of Kentucky have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for refusing to wear masks on the House floor but have characterized the rebukes as badges of honor.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this month expressed her desire to see a more traditional State of the Union this year.

“There’s a great interest on the part of members to have more full — fuller participation in the State of the Union,” she said.

“With vaccinations and so much happening since last year, I think the people are ready to pivot in a way that shows to the American people we largely have been vaccinated here,” she said. “We think that many more people can participate.”

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