Candidates backed by Trump and Joe Manchin face off in West Virginia – follow live

A round of redistricting in West Virginia has forced two incumbent Republicans to duke it out in a primary for a newly redrawn district – and the two of them have the backing of two very different heavyweight endorsers.

On the one hand is Alex Mooney, who enjoys the support of Donald Trump; he has positioned himself as a hardcore conservative who scorns any attempt at bipartisanship. He is facing David McKinley, a more moderate figure who has been endorsed by the state’s most senior Democrat, Joe Manchin.

Here’s a write-up from the Associated Press.

Mark Esper’s book about the extreme turn of the late Trump presidency has disgusted many on the right, and the hardcore element in particular. Among them is far-right agitator and sometime Trump advisor Steve Bannon, who used his podcast to threaten Mr Esper with “accountability” when the Trump faction take power back:

Brett Baier, One of Fox News’s more level-headed hosts, yesterday interviewed Mark Esper about his incendiary new book on Donald Trump’s more egregious behaviour as president – and gave the author a chance to state plainly that the ex-commander-in-chief was a threat to the future of the US’s democratic system.

Alexander Vindman, who served as a key figure during Donald Trump’s first impeachment over his efforts to extort Volodymyr Zelensky into investigating the Biden family, said last night on MSNBC that the events of January 6 “massively emboldened Vladimir Putin” – and that the possibility of an anti-democratic coup in the US was “probably one of the last tick marks on his checklist” of whether the attack on Ukraine “was going to be a low-cost exercise or not”.

Watch his remarks below.

One America News, the hardline Trump-friendly news network that has long propagated false stories of widespread organised fraud in the 2020 election, has issued an uncharacteristic on-air retraction of claims it made about two election workers in Georgia who were accused of manipulating the result.

Georgia is one of the states central to Mr Trump’s conspiracy theory about his defeat, but despite multiple investigations following up on his and others’ allegations, no evidence to support his various claims has been found. In addition, a grand jury has been convened to hear evidence about Mr Trump’s alleged attempt to pressure state officials into “finding” enough votes to flip the state his way.

Ken Paxton, the right-wing Texas attorney general who appeared at Donald Trump’s “stop the steal” rally before the 6 January Capitol attack, is facing potential disciplinary action from his state bar over his actions after the 2020 election. Specifically, the Texas bar is poised to include him in a lawsuit alleging he made dishonest claims in a petition to have the US Supreme Court overturn Joe Biden’s victory in four swing states.

Mr Paxton is a dogged Trump supporter who has been under indictment on criminal fraud charges for several years.

Jade Bremner has more.

Speaking at an event yesterday, Nancy Pelosi reiterated a point she has made several times before: that the Republican Party has moved so far away from its days representing the centre-right that it now resembles a “cult” – and that this is to the detriment not just of the party itself, but to the country, which would benefit from having a GOP that operated within the bounds of normality.

Take a look at her remarks below.

The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman last night shared some choice Trump quotes from a National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser, where it seems the former president was in an upbeat mood:

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has vowed revenge against Mark Esper for making shocking revelations against Donald Trump in his new book.

“Now let me be brutally frank Esper, ‘cause your book is going to get ripped apart like Bill Barr’s [book]…So don’t think you are skipping away from this. When we come to power, don’t think you can skip away from this,” the far-right political pundit said in his podcast on Monday.

“You are going to be held accountable for this, bro.”

Read more here.

The House select committee investigating the 6 January Capitol riot are inching closer to issuing subpoenas to Republican members of Congress to compel their cooperation.

The panel is expected to make a final decision on the subpoenas over the next couple of weeks ahead of the public hearings in June, sources familiar with the matter told The Guardian.

According to sources, Republican leaders’ refusal to assist the investigation in any form has caused a stir among the members of the committee, prompting them to deliberate issuing subpoenas.