DeSantis news – latest: Florida governor most popular with rich Republicans as he defends move to fly migrants to California

When friends of The Independent’s Inside Washington newsletter Jordain Carney and Olivia Beavers over at Politico scooped that Rep Andy Harris (R-MD) said the hard-right House Freedom Caucus had booted out Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, my mind went back to the nascent days of this rambunctious group of conservatives.

Back in 2015, they had just claimed the scalp of House Speaker John Boehner and were making their demands known to Paul Ryan before they would vote to give him the gavel. But some Republicans weren’t impressed, including one House GOP chief of staff who said: “These guys would rather sit around Tortilla Coast eating their boogers than govern. No matter who comes up, they don’t care, it’s totally insane,” in reference to the Tex-Mex restaurant on Capitol Hill where the Freedom Caucus used to meet.

Ms Greene’s trash-talking members of the Freedom Caucus might have sealed her fate with the bomb-throwers – Mr Harris said her calling Rep Lauren Boebert (R-CO) a “little bitch” tickled many in and out of the Beltway. But the real divide is much deeper and shows how in the end, Ms Greene could be more effective at enacting a conservative agenda while the Freedom Caucus would prefer to simply complain and remain ideologically pure.

The Freedom Caucus has largely dined out on their bringing Mr Boehner to his knees. In addition, many of their founding members rose through the ranks to either join the Trump administration or become high-ranking Republicans in their own right.

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A disciplinary committee in Washington DC has recommended Rudy Giuliani be disbarred in the nation’s capital for his spurious efforts to overturn the results for the 2020 presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump.

Mr Giuliani had “no factual basis, and consequently no legitimate legal grounds” to challenge the results of the election in states that Mr Trump lost, while his “frivolous” pursuit to undermine the outcome and disenfranchise voters “seriously undermined the administration of justice,” according to the committee’s report.

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Republican presdential hopeful Chris Christie took aim at his rival Donald Trump over the latter’s legal troubles - suggesting Mr Trump had held on to classfied documents because “he wants to pretend he’s still president”.

Mr Christie made the comments in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, in which a number of people who have had working relationships with Mr Trump weighed in on his legal issues.

The former president, who is running for a second term in the White House, has been indicted on 37 federal charges related to the mishandling of classified documents – some of which pertain to matters of national security. Mr Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has previously described the case against him as “a political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or communist nation”.

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A host at the usually Ron DeSantis-friendly Fox News asked the Florida governor about his low poll numbers as former President Donald Trump still dominates the Republican primary polls.

Mr DeSantis is currently the runner-up in the GOP polling, but he’s behind Mr Trump by a substantial margin with recent polls showing Trump leading by 27 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight.

“Why do you think despite those successes so far, it hasn’t been reflected in your polling for your 2024 run for president of the United States?” host Will Cain asked Mr DeSantis on Fox News Tonight on Thursday evening.

“And while Donald Trump is above 50 per cent – in some of these polls, 60 per cent – your numbers are somewhere between 20 per cent and 10 per cent. And they’ve stayed there for about two months. Why is it in your estimation the numbers have not reflected your success in Florida?” he added.

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A District of Columbia federal judge on Thursday said former president Donald Trump can be made to give evidence in a deposition as part of a lawsuit against the Department of Justice by ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok.

Mr Strzok, who served as the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division and supervised parts of the probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, filed a lawsuit against the department in August 2019, a year after he was fired from his position following what he described as “unrelenting pressure from President Trump and his political allies in Congress and the media” including “constant tweets and other disparaging statements by the President, as well as direct appeals from the President to then- Attorney General Jefferson Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray” to have him terminated.

While the government has said Mr Trump’s public statements had no bearing on the decision, Mr Strzok had sought to depose the ex-president as part of the discovery process.

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Former Vice President Mike Pence, who launched his campaign on June 7, has not yet released a tally of donors, but his campaign said it had raised “well into five digits” in the weeks since his announcement.

“Getting in late made it more difficult, but we’re confident we’ll get there,” said Pence spokesman Devin O’Malley.

As part of that effort, the campaign focused on direct mail, aided by the list it has rented from Pence’s nonprofit, Advancing American Freedom. That group had well over 40,000 donors, and Pence aides are hopeful those donors will also give to the former vice president’s campaign.

He’s also been holding a series of fundraisers, including one in Boston next week that will be hosted by top Massachusetts Republican donor Bob Reynolds, the CEO of Putnam Investments.

While Mr Trump says the US isn’t respected around the world, global opinion of the US is improving.

“In the third year of his presidency, U.S. President Joe Biden receives mostly positive reviews from publics around the world. Across 23 countries in a new Pew Research Center survey, a median of 54% express confidence in Biden, while 39% say they lack confidence in him,” the centre wrote on 27 June. “Similarly, overall views of the United States are largely positive: A median of 59% give the U.S. a favorable rating, including around seven-in-ten or more in Poland, Israel, South Korea, Nigeria, Japan and Kenya. Hungary is the only country surveyed where fewer than half see the U.S. favorably.”