Six Nevada Republicans, including state party Chair Michael McDonald, pleaded not guilty in a Clark County court on Monday to felony charges brought after their attempt to pledge the state’s electoral votes to Donald Trump following the 2020 election, despite President Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

The charges came nearly three years after the defendants participated in a fake signing ceremony outside the Legislative Building in Carson City on the same day the state’s actual electoral votes were cast for Biden — part of a nationwide Trump campaign strategy to subvert 2020 election results in swing states over myriad unsupported claims of massive voter fraud.

The six fake electors are deeply ensconced in the state Republican Party leadership — aside from McDonald, they include Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid, Clark County Republican Party Chair Jesse Law and state party Vice Chair Jim Hindle, who is also the elected clerk and treasurer in rural Storey County. The other two fake electors are Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice.

All six appeared virtually in Clark County District Court for the arraignment. Their trial date is set for March 4.

“The top three House Democrats — Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark, and Chair Pete Aguilar — endorsed Rep. David Trone on Monday in the competitive Democratic primary for Maryland’s open Senate seat,” Politico reports.

https://politicalwire.com/2023/12/18/top-house-democrats-back-david-trone-for-senate/

From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise, and this is “The Daily.”

This week, a major abortion case in Texas drew attention to one of the most contentious fights since the overturning of Roe v. Wade over the question of who can get exempted from an abortion ban. Most of the states that have banned abortion allow for rare exceptions — for example, if the mother’s life is in danger.

But while that might seem clear on paper, in practice, it’s far more ambiguous. As a result, that ambiguity is increasingly ending up in court. Today, I speak to the woman at the heart of the case in Texas and to my colleague, Kate Zernike, about its surprising effect.

It’s Thursday, December 14.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/podcasts/the-daily/texas-abortion-ban.html?showTranscript=1

Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have come to the defense of a one time social media influencer who has been convicted of election interference and has a well-known history of pushing deeply racist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim and homophobic content online.

In a video posted by his campaign in early December, former President Trump blasted President Joe Biden and “his henchmen” for allegedly trampling on the First Amendment rights of Douglass Mackey, a longtime supporter of the former president who ran an anonymous, notorious Twitter account in 2016. Trump accused Biden of seeking to jail Mackey for “sharing a joking meme about Hillary Clinton several years ago. Nobody ever heard of anything like that.”

While the former president criticized the legal action taken against Mackey, Trump Jr. lauded the content featured on Mackey’s Twitter feed. He praised Mackey on his December 7 podcast as “maybe my favorite Twitter account of all time” and said the Biden administration wanted the former influencer in prison.

Mackey, however, was under federal investigation for conspiracy to suppress votes in the 2016 presidential election during Trump’s administration. Mackey was charged seven days after Biden took office and convicted earlier this year. He was sentenced to seven months in prison but is currently out pending an appeal of his case.

The night before President Biden departed Washington to celebrate Thanksgiving on Nantucket, Mass., he gathered his closest aides for a meeting in the White House residence.

After pardoning a pair of turkeys, an annual White House tradition, Biden delivered some stern words for the small group assembled: His poll numbers were unacceptably low and he wanted to know what his team and his campaign were doing about it. He complained that his economic message had done little to move the ball, even as the economy was growing and unemployment was falling, according to people familiar with his comments, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

For months, the president and first lady Jill Biden have told aides and friends they are frustrated by the president’s low approval rating and the polls that show him trailing former president Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination — and in recent weeks, they have grown upset that they are not making more progress.

driver faces DUI charges after a crash involving a Secret Service SUV that was providing security to President Joe Biden's motorcade in Wilmington, Delaware, according to a report.

A Wilmington Police spokesperson said the driver would face an inattentive driving charge, as well, CNN White House producer Donald Judd reported.

The president and First Lady Jill Biden had just left his campaign headquarters in Wilmington about 8 p.m. Sunday when the crash took place.

The president was responding to a reporter's question when a sedan with Delaware plates hit a Secret Service SUV at the intersection across from the campaign headquarters.

There was a loud bang from the crash and the president, 81, stopped to look with a surprised expression on his face.