Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is spending part of his congressional recess on a luxury yacht in Italy with his family after criticizing President Biden for vacationing in Delaware, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Scott is the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, whose job is to win back a GOP majority in the upper chamber. Republicans' prospects for winning back the Senate have been worsening over the course of the summer, according to polling and analysis.

Scott is already under fire for his management of the committee.
Vacationing in Europe while Republicans face cash problems and rough headlines about their midterm chances could further hurt his standing with his GOP colleagues.

....By the numbers: At the end of July, the NRSC reported just $23.2 million cash-on-hand. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee reported $54.1 million in its account, more than double the GOP amount.

"We’ve spent more than $40 million on TV while the DSCC has spent $2 million dollars. If you spend money, you have less of it," Hartline told Axios.

Zoom out: If House Republicans coast to victory while Senate Republicans fail to pick up the one seat necessary to win a majority, Scott is poised to be the GOP’s fall guy. It would be a rare setback for the Florida politician, who has beaten long odds before and boasts an undefeated record in his own campaigns.

It might be tempting to scrutinize the filing as if it were a serious legal document, submitted in a credible way. That would be a mistake. Orin Kerr, a conservative law professor at UC Berkeley, noted overnight that many actual lawyers “are giggling at Trump’s motion, and how poorly it was done.”

The chortles are understandable. Team Trump’s court filing is a mess.

Among the many problems is the fact that it’s oddly late. The FBI executed its search warrant on Monday, Aug. 8. At that point, federal law enforcement officials reclaimed classified materials the former president brought to his glorified country club, taking stock of what he improperly took. Two weeks later, Trump’s lawyers went to court, apparently in the hopes that the FBI would stop reviewing the documents.

The idea that the FBI’s search was “shockingly aggressive” is even more difficult to take seriously. The Justice Department tried a series of lesser means, including subpoenas and in-person meetings in the hope of avoiding this step. When Team Trump refused to cooperate, the FBI went to court, obtained a search warrant, and executed it in the least aggressive way possible: The bureau sent plain-clothed agents who coordinated in advance with the Secret Service.

The former president keeps calling it an illegal “break-in” and “raid,” hoping that the public will imagine swarms of agents in tactical gear, pointing assault weapons at scared Mar-a-Lago customers. That’s plainly absurd.

The documents that Donald Trump hoarded at Mar-A-Lago could have caused a "massive firestorm" and gotten people killed if they had somehow leaked out, according to new reports.

The New York Times reported that more than 300 documents with classified markings have been recovered from the former president's home, including some marked with the highest level of classification, and NBC News reporter explained the seriousness of those to MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"In terms of a lot of people might be looking at this and going, he was president, he had access to all the secrets, so what if he accidentally had some classified documents or even intentionally in his house?" Dilanian said. "But we're talking about some documents marked TSSCI, sensitive compartmented information. I have been asking around just to reaffirm my understanding of how sensitive those documents are. Those are documents, the reason they're compartmented is because they could betray and likely would betray the sources of information, either a human source or a technical source."

"They could literally -- the disclosure of those could get people killed," he added, "so we're talking about the most sensitive documents and at least one set of documents there that the government has, and any time there's any kind of spill or disclosure in the real world of those kinds of documents, it's a massive firestorm. The federal government swoops in and does everything they can to secure this stuff. You can only look at them in special facilities, even within the Capitol or other kinds of buildings, you have to go to a special room to look at those documents. That's how sensitive some of those documents allegedly in Trump's possession were."

A federal jury on Tuesday convicted two men of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in 2020, a case that raised alarms about the possibility of politically motivated violence amid the coronavirus pandemic and ahead of a bitterly contested presidential race.

Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. were also found guilty of conspiring to obtain a bomb to blow up a bridge and prevent police from catching them so they could kidnap the governor at her lakeside vacation home, according to the Associated Press.

Federal and state officials originally charged multiple people in the plot. Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate.

Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta were acquitted in the April trial at which the jury deadlocked over the roles of Fox and Croft. Jurors seemed to agree, at least in part, with defense lawyers’ arguments that FBI agents entrapped the men in the violent plot.

– A third resident of The Villages has admitted to voting twice during the 2020 election, court records show.

Joan Halstead, 73, entered a pretrial intervention program Wednesday that will allow her to avoid potential prison time if she successfully completes court-ordered requirements such as performing community service and attending a civics class, Local 10 News partner WKMG News 6 in Orlando reports.

Halstead acknowledged her guilt as part of her agreement with prosecutors.....

Two other residents of The Villages accused of voting twice, Charles Barnes and Jay Ketcik, signed similar pretrial intervention contracts earlier this year.

– A third resident of The Villages has admitted to voting twice during the 2020 election, court records show.

Joan Halstead, 73, entered a pretrial intervention program Wednesday that will allow her to avoid potential prison time if she successfully completes court-ordered requirements such as performing community service and attending a civics class, Local 10 News partner WKMG News 6 in Orlando reports.

Halstead acknowledged her guilt as part of her agreement with prosecutors.....

Two other residents of The Villages accused of voting twice, Charles Barnes and Jay Ketcik, signed similar pretrial intervention contracts earlier this year.

Barrett, a federal appellate judge, has disclosed serving on the board of a network of private Christian schools affiliated with the group. The organization, however, has declined to confirm that she is a member. In recent years, it removed from its website editions of a People of Praise magazine — first those that included her name and photograph and then all archives of the magazine itself.

Barrett has had an active role in the organization, as have her parents, according to documents and interviews that help fill out a picture of her involvement with a group that keeps its teachings and gatherings private.

A 2010 People of Praise directory states that she held the title of “handmaid,” a leadership position for women in the community, according to a directory excerpt obtained by The Washington Post.,,,,

In 2010, Barrett was one of three handmaids in the South Bend branch’s northwest area, according to the directory obtained by The Post. She and 10 other area handmaids were overseen by the branch’s principal handmaid.,,,,

The community was led by men, who taught members to run their families according to their interpretation of biblical views of gender roles, according to former members and group documents.

“Women were homemakers; they were there to support their husbands,” one former member said in an interview. “My dad was the head of the household and the decision-maker.”