(CNN) — Embattled GOP Rep. George Santos has so far remained defiant in the face of a renewed effort to expel him from Congress after a damning House Ethics Committee investigation into the New York congressman. Santos has said repeatedly that he will not resign and will face an upcoming expulsion vote, which is on track to take place Friday. The congressman has announced plans for what he has billed as a news conference Thursday morning as the vote looms. Santos has survived previous attempts to remove him from the House, but momentum is building for the latest ..read more

While GOP presidential hopefuls duke it out on stage at the fourth Republican primary debate in Alabama next week, former President Donald Trump will attend a fundraiser in Hallandale Beach, Florida, to raise money for MAGA, Inc., the super PAC supporting his candidacy, multiple sources told CNN. A text message sent from his campaign to supporters Sunday announced the “VIP reception” and told recipients that if they donated to Trump’s campaign, they would be automatically entered to win a trip to meet the former president at an end-of-year reception on December 6, the same ..read more

(CNN) — Ryan Fournier, a co-founder of the political organization Students for Trump, was arrested and charged with assault last week in North Carolina after allegedly hitting a woman with a gun, court records show. Fournier was charged with misdemeanor assault on a female and assault with a deadly weapon on November 21, according to online court records from Johnston County. He was released on a $2,500 bond later that day, the documents say. He is accused of grabbing a woman by her arm and hitting her in the forehead with a firearm, according to the charging documents ..read more

Gov. Maura Healey is “absolutely” comfortable with President Joe Biden, who is already the oldest person to occupy the Oval Office, running for reelection in 2024 and said the fact that Donald Trump is consistently outperforming Biden in polling shows that next year’s election is about “the fate of our democracy.” “Donald Trump has been about Donald Trump. I mean, that’s the one thing that he’s been true about. He’s been about himself. And the level of selfishness, narcissism has revealed itself in really dangerous ways. And I think about this election, it’s really the fate of our democracy an ..read more

As private disagreements between top House and Senate Democrats continue to hold up funding for the strained emergency shelter system and collectively-bargained pay raises for state workers, the Legislature gaveled into a four-day Thanksgiving weekend with no signs of an immediate deal. “We’ll be working on it all weekend,” Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues told the News Service after Wednesday’s sessions had adjourned. “There are no holidays with us,” he added. Rodrigues and other top Democrats have been unable to agree on an annual bill that’s supposed to just wrap up fiscal l ..read more

Lawmakers are interrupting their session-long push for new gun laws to give the finally public a chance to weigh in on a series of bills. Senate Democrats plan in the new year to unveil and debate a bill they want to put on Gov. Maura Healey’s desk this term, and the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday on firearms bills that have been idling all year. The committee, chaired by Rep. Carlos Gonzalez of Springfield and Sen. Walter Timilty of Milton, plans to gather in Gardner Auditorium to accept testimony on 56 gun-related bills. H ..read more

Former Sen. Dean Tran’s legal troubles expanded Friday when he was arrested and charged in federal court for allegedly collecting fraudulent unemployment benefits and failing to disclose income to the IRS. Federal prosecutors announced a 28-count indictment against the Fitchburg resident alleging that after he departed the Massachusetts Senate in 2021, he collected $30,120 in pandemic unemployment benefits while also working as a paid consultant for a New Hampshire automotive parts company. Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy’s office also alleged that Tran, 48, failed to disclose more ..read more

The Massachusetts Legislature ended formal sessions for the year early Thursday morning with no agreement on a spending bill to steer money toward the emergency shelter crisis, a negotiating collapse among Democrats that douses the state’s response to that situation in uncertainty. After keeping sessions open for roughly 13 hours over the course of the day while top Democrats traded proposals via email and phone, the House and Senate abruptly pivoted after midnight to naming a conference committee to embark on more formal negotiations. Ways and Means Committee Chairs Aaron Michlewitz and Micha ..read more

Top House and Senate Democrats have reached an agreement on a tax relief bill, and plan to send it to Gov. Maura Healey next week as an opening act for their fall session. The accord, announced without details in a two-sentence statement Thursday evening, could bring to end a debate that began nearly two years ago in an effort to put a dent in the state’s high cost of living and make Massachusetts more competitive for residents and businesses. In July, legislators broke for a summer recess without a deal on tax relief, instead allotting $581 million to cover tax relief impacts in fiscal year 2 ..read more

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump is planning to skip the first Republican presidential debate on Wednesday and is instead expected to sit for an interview with former Fox News Host Tucker Carlson, multiple sources familiar with his plans tell CNN. Over the last 24 hours, Trump has increasingly been informing those close to him that he has made his decision, and will not be on the debate stage next week. The timing for the Carlson interview has yet to be determined, the sources said, but it is expected to air around the same time as the debate. The New York Times f ..read more