Some Republican senators are pushing for the unusual step of making public a key vote on Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination in the Senate Intelligence Committee, in an attempt to exert pressure on the members of a panel that typically does business behind closed doors.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton is being prodded to make the change by senators allied with President Donald Trump, according to two Senate GOP officials granted anonymity to speak about private conversations.

Senate Republicans see some warning signs flashing after an embarrassing week for former President Trump, despite his strong poll numbers in battleground states against President Biden.

Some Republican lawmakers think Trump needs to step up his appeals to disaffected GOP voters, especially women, after Nikki Haley won 128,000 votes in solidly Republican Indiana despite ending her presidential campaign in early March.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has become the subject of much bemusement among his Senate GOP colleagues as he has taken a detour from his role as a conservative rabble-rouser to playing the lead on reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The Texas senator, long known for stirring up trouble for leadership, has suddenly gone in the reverse as he has prodded Republicans against gumming up the works for the last must-pass bill in Congress for months.

Republican senators, whose hopes of winning the Senate majority are riding on former President Trump’s strength as a general election candidate, say the hush money trial beginning this week in Manhattan will have little impact on the presidential race.

Senate Republicans by and large predict that few votes will change in November even if Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) convicts Trump of some or even many of the 34 felony counts he faces for falsifying business records in connection to payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels.

Donald Trump’s dominating victories on Super Tuesday cemented his lock on the Republican presidential nomination but Senate GOP leaders are reluctant to fully embrace the former president given his tendency to alienate college educated women and other swing voters.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) finally announced his endorsement of Trump on Wednesday, the same day Nikki Haley dropped out of the presidential race.

Conservative hardliners once celebrated Mitch McConnell for wrestling the federal judiciary to the right and thwarting progressive hopes.

Now he is under open attack from the right for even trying to work with Democrats on the border.

The Senate GOP leader is facing internal resistance not seen in more than a year as Republicans descend into discord over two issues they once demanded be linked: border security and the war in Ukraine.

Former President Trump is taking on Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his leadership team by calling on Republican lawmakers to reject a compromise on border security.

The runaway front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination is also setting up a crucial battle over both his party’s future and Ukraine, as precious aid to that country is tied to the border deal along with help for Israel and the Indo-Pacific.

Republican senators expect former President Trump to win the Iowa caucuses by a large margin, giving him plenty of momentum to take the New Hampshire primary and cruise to the presidential nomination.

GOP lawmakers, including those who support Trump and those who want the party to find another standard-bearer in 2024, view Trump as the overwhelming favorite, though they think former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley still has a slim path to challenging for the nomination.

Republican senators are slapping down President Trump’s claim that people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes are “hostages” who should be pardoned or set free by President Biden or a future president.  

Three years after a mob of pro-Trump protestors invaded the Capitol to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election, GOP senators who witnessed the violence of that day bristle at the characterization of individuals who were convicted of crimes as “hostages” or political prisoners.