Congress

Cory Mills denies ‘anything salacious’ as he seeks to fend off restraining order

Published

1 year ago

September 26, 2025

LAKE CITY, Florida — Rep. Cory Mills tried to convince a Florida judge Friday that he never planned to circulate “salacious” videos of his ex-girlfriend or harm any of her future lovers, suggesting at one point he knew it would be politically damaging to take any such action.

Mills spoke in court as he tried to fend off a request for a restraining order from Lindsay Langston, the 2024 Miss United States and a Republican state committee woman, who is accusing Mills of causing her extreme emotional distress.

Circuit Judge Fred Koberlein said he plans to rule on the injunction request once he receives final recommendations from attorneys that are due next Thursday. The announcement followed the second of two hearings this month where both Mills and Langston testified and answered questions about their relationship and the meaning of a flurry of text messages, phone calls and direct messages between the two of them.

The push for the restraining order against Mills comes amid a swirl of controversies this year for second-term Republican, including a since-withdrawn allegation of assault and an ethics investigation into whether he’s benefited from contracts from the federal government while serving as a member of Congress. Mills has denied any wrongdoing in either matter.

During the first hearing Langston spent extensive time explaining how scared she was of the 45-year-old Mills. She described him as a “powerful” and “wealthy” member of Congress who first became involved with her in late 2021.

The second hearing focused on testimony from Mills. A key part centered on whether Mills had a sexually explicit video that he planned to release. He maintained that while Langston had sent him intimate videos, he no longer had access to them because his phone was damaged and had to be replaced.

Mills maintained the videos he mentioned to Langston were those of her baking and wanted to show any potential boyfriend of hers that the two of them had an ongoing relationship.

“You’re talking about giving up my entire career — for what?” said Mills about the prospect of releasing the intimate videos, adding that he had no “intent to do anything salacious.”

Mills also contended another message he sent where he suggested a future boyfriend would need to “strap up cowboy” was not a potential threat of violence but instead was a rodeo term meant to suggest that a “wild ride” was about to happen.

Mills also pushed back on previous testimony from Langston that he had been “suicidal” at one point earlier year and instead said he was under stress due to the ill health of his mother and the death of a close friend.

Bobi Frank, Langston’s attorney, tried to undercut Mills’ testimony and grilled him over why he was still married after saying he planned to divorce his wife. Mills answered that he has been trying to end his marriage for four years but that it was complicated due to his business interests and that it “wasn’t a typical divorce.”

Mills’ relationship with Langston unraveled in the aftermath of an incident where police in Washington were called to investigate an alleged assault by the lawmaker against a woman. Both Mills and the woman denied that any assault took place, and Mills was not charged in the incident.

Langston testified earlier this month that the incident led her to conclude Mills was in a relationship with another woman.

The attorney for Mills put Langston back on the stand late in the hearing where he tried to suggest that she was not in emotional distress as she previously testified. He also tried to get her to explain why she turned to Anthony Sabatini, a combative Florida attorney who challenged Mills in the 2022 GOP primary, for legal advice.

She asserted again that she was “terrified” of Mills and remains “afraid” to go on a date because of his threats. Asked if she had ever been physically harmed by Mills, she said, “Not yet.”

Mills first won his seat in 2022 after post-Census redistricting created new GOP-friendly lines for the 7th District, stretching from Orlando’s north suburbs to the Atlantic coast. His campaigns in both 2022 and 2024 were run with the aid of James Blair, a GOP consultant who now works as a deputy chief of staff for Trump and plays a key role in pushing the president’s agenda on Capitol Hill.

Congress

Trump apparently shares Tom Cotton’s phone number in push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent

Published

5 hours ago

October 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump appeared to share Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number in a Saturday morning social media post imploring the Arkansas Republican to get behind a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

“Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

The president has spent months personally pushing Senate Republicans to end the practice that sees Americans change their clocks twice a year, cementing more sunlight hours in the evening for all twelve months of the calendar. Cotton, whom Trump called “a friend of mine” in the Saturday post, has long argued that making daylight saving time permanent would leave children, farmers and other early risers in the dark for hours on winter mornings.

One of Trump’s key selling points on Saturday: the PGA tour.

“The PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments,” he said, attaching a letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp endorsing the bill. ”Likewise, regular Golfers, Tennis Players, Hunters and, perhaps most importantly, Farmers who want more Daylight to play or work.

A Blue Light News call to the cellphone number went to voicemail. A spokesperson for Cotton did not respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The current version of the bill was introduced in the House in January 2025 by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) leading the Senate version. The legislation would make daylight saving time permanent across most of the country, ending the twice-yearly clock changes. The legislation has been stalled in the Senate since July.

The president encouraged supporters of the bill, dubbed the “The Sunshine Protection Act,” to call Cotton to “let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he publicly gave out the personal cellphone number of then-rival Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina Republican criticized him. Trump, who came to count on Graham as a reliable Senate ally after he won the presidency, revisited the moment during Graham’s funeral in July, acknowledging that sharing the number was something he “shouldn’t have done.”

Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.

Congress

Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine

Published

1 day ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.

The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.

The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.

“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”

Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.

He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,

Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.

Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.

Congress

Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics

Published

1 day ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.

“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.

Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.

Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”

Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.

Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.

“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”

Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.