An analysis of the states that have redrawn congressional districts for partisan advantage found that Republicans are winning the battle.
CBS News elections analyst Anthony Salvanto looked at the midterm elections map with Crystal Ball managing editor Kyle Kondik on Tuesday.
'My best guess ... is a Republican gain of seven seats, but there's a range on that. It could be a little lower, it could be a lot higher than that.'
Texas, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri have redistricted in favor of Republicans and garnered the party between 10 and 16 extra seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Democrats have only been able to gain seats in California and Utah, for a possible gain between four and six seats, according to the analysis.
Overall, Republicans could have as many as 12 extra seats, while Democrats could only whittle down the advantage to four for the Republicans if everything went their way.
In addition, there are three states where efforts are pending and Republicans could pick up more seats. Those are Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina.
"The argument sort of goes back and forth. Is it maybe nine seats? Is it maybe six seats when this all nets out?" Salvanto said.
According to their analysis, there are only about 16 actual toss-up seats to be determined, and Republicans have an estimated 211 to 208 seat advantage. Whichever party gets to 218 seats will determine control of the House.
"Obviously we got to have the election first to determine what the actual effect of the redistricting was," Kondik responded. "My best guess ... is a Republican gain of seven seats, but there's a range on that. It could be a little lower, it could be a lot higher than that."
Salvanto pointed out one possible weakness for Republicans were Hispanics in Texas districts who had moved to the Republican Party in 2024 but may not show up in as significant numbers for the midterms.
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"Just because you change a map to benefit yourself, it's not necessarily gonna do that," Kondik added.
"I would specifically look at the Republican redraws because 2026 is gonna stress test those maps in a way that they won't necessarily be tested for Democrats because this is probably gonna be a Democratic-leaning year."
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A former pastor known for leading a gay conversion therapy ministry was caught trying to meet what he thought was an underage boy for sex, according to Florida police.
Alan Chambers, 54, allegedly sent lewd messages including sexual photographs to an undercover police officer he believed to be a 14-year-old child.
He apologized to the gay community for 'years of undue suffering and judgment at the hands of the organization and the church as a whole.'
Prosecutors say Chambers sent the sexually explicit messages via Telegram and Snapchat between February and May while trying to arrange a meetup with the fake underage child.
Chambers allegedly talked about "forbidden love" and sent a photograph that showed a "white [male's] torso laying in bed where the end of their penis was visible."
The detective pretending to be a boy said that on April 10, Chambers asked him to take an Uber and meet with him. He also allegedly deleted many of the messages out of fear of getting in trouble.
Chambers made headlines in 2013 when he turned against conversion therapy after admitting that he was attracted to men despite being married to a woman. He also shut down the conversion ministry and said he was going to work to build bridges between Christians and gay people.
He apologized to the gay community for "years of undue suffering and judgment at the hands of the organization and the church as a whole" and said his new ministry would have "peace to be at the forefront of anything we do in the future."
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Chambers was arrested on Tuesday during a traffic stop at Aloma Avenue and Strathy Lane.
The man was booked on charges of solicitation of a minor, transmission of harmful material to a minor, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
His bond was set at $15,000, and he was ordered to not have any communication with anyone under the age of 18 years old.
"Today our detectives stopped a predator before he had the chance to harm a child. ... Parents, please monitor your children's internet and social media activity — you are the first line of defense," reads a statement from the Orange County Sheriff's office.
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Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos ripped into many of the policies on the left in a recent interview that was clipped widely on social media.
Bezos took aim at schemes to raise taxes on the wealthy and advocated lower taxes on Americans at the bottom of the economic ladder. He made the comments from the factory floor of his Blue Origin aerospace company during an interview on "Squawk Box" with CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin released Wednesday.
'We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington. They should be sending her an apology!'
When pressed on the issue of taxes, Bezos said half of Americans shouldn't pay federal income taxes at all. He cited the example of a theoretical nurse in Queens who earns $75,000 a year and pays about $12,000 in federal income taxes.
"People talk about making the tax system more progressive. How about we start by having the nurse in Queens not pay taxes? At all," he said.
"Why is a nurse in Queens who makes $75,000 a year paying more than $1,000 a month in taxes? That's $1,000 a month that could help with rent or groceries or anything. And by the way, do you know what that all adds up to? The bottom half of income earners in this country pay only 3% of the taxes," Bezos added.
"It's only 3%. We can find 3%. It's a small amount of money for the government," he continued. "And the more I thought about it, to me it's kind of absurd that we're doing this. You know, we shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington. They should be sending her an apology! It really makes no sense!"
Bezos said it was fine to debate what the wealthy should pay in taxes but went on to accuse politicians of distracting voters by vilifying the wealthy. He added that politicians were ignoring the root problems causing inflation and other economic problems.
"If you're really being honest about it, we don't have a revenue problem in this country. We already have the most progressive tax system in the world," Bezos said. "The top 1% of taxpayers pay 40% of all tax revenue, the bottom half pay only 3%, and I think it should be zero."
"We actually have a spending problem," he added and cited the $44,000 that is spent on every child in the New York City school system with worse outcomes than other cities.
"If we ran Amazon the way New York City runs their school system," Bezos joked, "packages would take six weeks to arrive, we would charge you a $100 delivery fee, and when the package did finally arrive, it would have the wrong item in it!"
Sorkin didn't laugh.
"That's a skills issue!" Bezos added. "It's just competence."
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Bezos also argued that the government could double the taxes he pays and it wouldn't help the theoretical nurse in Queens because government spending is so out of control.
"You can't connect those two things, not logically," he said.
The entire segment on taxes with Bezos can be viewed on CNBC's YouTube channel.
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When Raskin asks "Why has no one sued the Southern Poverty Law Center?" the answer is very clear: Violence and annihilation of conservatives is a feature of premium membership.
More and more, Americans attack one another’s character and accuse each other of the most egregious crimes in order to win political battles.
If you're looking for an explanation of Massie's defeat in a Republican primary election, consider the extraordinary possibility that Republican voters might have had something to do with it.
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