Donald Trump’s allies are getting involved in the fight to shape the Republican Party’s platform. Racing legend Mario Andretti recalls a confrontation with a Formula 1 owner amid his attempt to sign up a new team to the sport. And the Utah grief author accused of her husband’s fatal poisoning makes her first statements.
Here’s what you should know today.
Trump team seeks to change the Republican Party platform and keep the party’s right flank at bay
Former President Donald Trump’s allies are quietly engaging in little-noticed fights over who will sit on the committee that will set the Republican Party’s national platform. The goal is to prevent the party’s right flank from trying to push the Republican National Committee’s official platform too far to the right, according to nine people familiar with what’s happening in states across the country.
A Trump campaign official acknowledged that there is talk across the party about culture war-infused policies and that they have been observing and participating in some state-level races for seats on the RNC Platform Committee.
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The official also noted that it is not uncommon for people more closely aligned with the president to take senior roles at the convention. However, a longtime RNC member said the involvement of Trump’s allies in selecting platform committee members is “definitely out of character with past experience.”
A big consideration is that the RNC did not make adjustments to its platform in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic. But that means that some platform fights that might have happened four years ago are now having repercussions in this year’s election cycle. Two big issues the party is paying more attention to: abortion and same-sex marriage.
Company at Center of Battle of Graceland Is a Mystery
Hours after a Tennessee judge blocked the mortgage sale of Graceland, Elvis Presley’s famous Memphis estate, a big question remains in the case. Who exactly is trying to take the property? Presley’s family doesn’t even know the judge overseeing the fight.
A representative from Naussany Investments & Private Lending was not in court for yesterday’s hearing. In fact, it’s been difficult to find out much about the company or who runs it. NBC News searched several public records databases and found nothing. The documents provided for company addresses correspond to post offices and PO boxes. Emails to addresses claiming to be people associated with the company also added to the mystery. Here’s what our reporters know – or rather, what they don’t know.
In blocking the sale of Graceland, the Shelby County Chancery Court judge presiding over the case said Riley Keough, one of Presley’s granddaughters, would likely succeed in the legal battle.
Where buying a house is most difficult, county by county
Today’s home buying market can seem like one scam after another, from bidding wars filled with all-cash offers to homes that land on Zillow or Redfin already under contract. Not to mention it’s counterintuitive. If mortgage rates are high and demand is low, why are prices still high? And how does my situation compare to other people – is it worse? To improve?
To simplify the math, the NBC News data graphics team created the NBC News Home Buyer Index. We developed a new metric that measures the difficulty of buying a home, based on four categories: cost, competition, scarcity and economic instability. Together, they form a single number, on a scale of 0 to 100, that answers the question “how hard is this?” (Right now, the US is 82 years old, which is really bad). Data Reporter Jasmine Cui shares four key findings from our April report:
$92,000: The annual income needed to buy an average home in today’s market — and that number is closer to $100,000 if you want the kind of low-interest, down payment loan that first-time homebuyers are looking for, experts say.
Everything, everywhere: Buying a home may be “local,” but its challenges are anything but. Twenty-six states are represented among the 100 counties where it is most difficult to buy a home.
In addition to the cost: And 43 of those counties have median list prices below the national average – showing that price is not the only factor making it difficult to buy a home.
Rocky Peaks of Colorado: Topping the April Difficulty Index are three Colorado counties: Routt, Garfield and Mesa. In Routt County’s Steamboat Springs, buyers face a housing boom so intense that even the highest earners can’t afford a home.
See your county’s ranking in the Home Buyer Index, and see more tips of the report.
Mario Andretti says F1 owner promised to block his team
Legendary driver Mario Andretti said he clashed with Greg Maffei, CEO of Formula 1 owner Liberty Media, at a recent event in Miami over a blocked bid to become F1’s 11th team. NBC News senior political reporter Sahil Kapur spoke with Andretti about the exchange, which came a few days after Andretti visited Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress. Lawmakers accused Formula 1 of engaging in anti-competitive practices by denying Andretti’s request.
During an event last weekend, Andretti said he was speaking with Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali about why he was coming to Washington. Then Maffei “interrupted the conversation,” Andretti said, “and [Maffei] said: ‘Mario, I want to tell you that I will do everything in my power to ensure that Michael never enters Formula 1.’” Maffei was referring to Andretti’s son, Michael Andretti — president and CEO of Andretti Global and the one who leads the company’s bid to enter the sport.
However, a source close to Liberty Media said the incident played out differently than Andretti described. Read the exclusive story here.
Utah mourner makes first comments since arrest for husband’s murder
The Utah mother accused of spiking her husband’s cocktail with a fatal dose of fentanyl is speaking out for the first time since his arrest. In a series of statements provided exclusively to “Dateline”, Kouri Richins, 34, criticized the prosecutors in the case and maintained his innocence. “You took an innocent mother from her babies,” she said. “That means war.”
And in recent months, Richins’ lawyers withdrew from her case, a decision she said was “forced,” “not my choice” and “not the personal choice of any lawyer on my defense team.” . Here’s what else Richins said about the case against her.
Richins is charged with aggravated murder and other crimes in the 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins, who died after prosecutors said she gave him a Moscow mule spiked with a lethal dose of fentanyl. A year after her husband’s death, Richins released a children’s book that sought to comfort children who had lost loved ones.
Politics at a glance
Immigration: The Biden administration is finalizing details of new executive action this would allow the president to temporarily close the southern border to migrants if necessary.
Consequences of deepfake robocall: The political consultant who admitted he was behind a robocall posing as President Joe Biden ahead of January’s New Hampshire presidential primary was indicted.
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Team pick: Hundreds of mountain goats were airlifted to a new home. Very few survived.
In a 2018 news report in Washington state, I was struck by the strange sight of blindfolded mountain goats being transported under helicopters. The scene was part of a project to remove 325 non-native goats from the Olympic Mountains to increase numbers in their home range in the nearby Cascades. Since then, I have been curious about the fate of the creatures. Years later, Now we know that few survived – a worrying result that drew attention to a broader threat to the species. – Evan Bush, scientific reporter
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