Elise Stefanik, the once-moderate Republican who became a full-on Trumpist and supplanted Liz Cheney in the House GOP leadership, was intercepted by a reporter this morning as she headed into work at the Capitol Hill Club – and when asked about her thoughts on the audio of Mr McCarthy and Ms Cheney discussing Donald Trump’s responsibility for the 6 January riot, she was remarkably unflapped.

Kevin McCarthy has already declined to speak to the 6 January select committee as a witness to the events of the Capitol riot, but it seems the panel’s members are not giving up just yet.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, chairman Bennie Thompson said he and his colleagues were still intending to ask Mr McCarthy to appear voluntarily. He also confirmed that the committee’s work, which has mostly taken place behind closed doors, is moving at an unexpected clip.

Newly released recordings of Kevin McCarthy blaming Donald Trump for the 6 January insurrection and describing some of his own members as potential security threats have infuriated many on the right – among them Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, who has long trafficked in conspiracy theories about the 6 January insurrection and hauled anyone who questions his preferred narrative of the event over the coals on live TV.

Mr Carlson’s disgust at Mr McCarthy frothed over on his show last night, pre-empting the public reactions of some of the right-wing members the would-be speaker mentioned by name in his unambiguously damning comments.

Evan McMullin, the independent candidate who’s challenging hardline GOP Utah Senator Mike Lee in November, is running hard on the revelation that Mr Lee was in frequent contact with Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows after the 2020 election. Texts from Mr Meadows’s phone released as part of the 6 January investigation appeared to show Mr Lee asking Mr Meadows for advice on talking points as the Trump team embarked on their effort to subvert the election result.

Mr McMullin, who ran for president in several states including Utah in 2016, has been endorsed by Utah’s Democratic Party as the best hope against Mr Lee in the fall.

A similar incident happened last year at Asheville regional airport, again involving a 9mm in his carry-on luggage.

Nathan Place has the story.

Despite horrific allegations of domestic abuse and worries from mainstream Republicans that he could lose a winnable race, former Missouri governor Eric Greitens is determined to stay in the GOP primary for the state’s open US Senate seat.

And while Donald Trump has yet to endorse anyone in the contest, the ex-president’s oldest son appears to be all in, sharing a video of himself and the Senate hopeful at an outdoor firing range.

Polling indicates that the primary to run for retiring Republican Roy Blunt’s seat is currently a three-way tie, raising the possibility that a full-blown Trump endorsement could put one candidate or another over the top. The vote will be held in August.

Maine Republican Susan Collins, who has a reputation as one of her party’s most moderate senators and voted to convict Donald Trump over his impeachment after the 6 January riot, has said that the ex-president should get his Twitter profile back.

“Although I obviously don’t agree with a lot of President Trump’s tweets, I do think he should have his account back. To me, it’s ironic that we allow Russian government sites to be on Twitter but we don’t allow President Trump,” she told HuffPost.

Back in 2020, Ms Collins – who is no Trump fan – voted against convicting Mr Trump in his first impeachment, and drew flak for saying she hoped he had “learned his lesson” from the affair.

Eric Garcia has the story.

The Republican Accountability Project, a campaign group of anti-Trump GOPers that’s targeting incumbents who toe the ex-president’s line, has launched an attack on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, putting up billboards in his congressional seat that attack him over the newly released recordings revealing what he really thought of the Capitol attack.

On the latest audio to emerge, Mr McCarthy can be heard suggesting that extreme members of his own House caucus should have their Twitter accounts removed – criticising specific representatives like Mo Brooks Louie Gohmert for their “incendiary” remarks around the time of the Capitol riot.

Andrew Feinberg watched the second part of Piers Morgan’s interview with Donald Trump last night – and in case you had something else to do, he’s put together this summary of what was discussed.

Read Eric Garcia’s full report