Twitter faces interest payments totaling close to $1.2 billion in the next 12 months on the debt that Musk piled on it.

McConnell: There is no room in the Republican Party for anti-Semitism or white supremacy. Anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgement, are highly unlikely to ever be elected President

Question: In light of what you said that there’s no room in your party for anti-Semitic views, if Trump wins the nomination, would you support him?

Senate passes same-sex marriage protections
 
The Senate passed legislation Tuesday to enshrine same-sex marriage protections in federal law, bringing the bill a critical step closer to President Joe Biden’s desk.
 
Senators spent months negotiating adding language to the bill related to religious liberty, a bid to attract the necessary 10 GOP votes to break a filibuster. The legislation still needs to clear the House, a likely easy lift since a previous version was approved by nearly 50 House Republicans and all Democrats.
 
A total of 12 Republicans voted with all Democrats in support of the bill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer indicated Tuesday that the House would take up the Senate version as soon as next week.
 
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Although the Supreme Court guaranteed the right to same-sex marriage in 2015, proponents of the bill argue that the legislation will provide more certainty to same-sex and interracial couples. Democratic lawmakers were particularly keen to act after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in Dobbs questioned the Court’s previous rulings, including on same-sex marriage.
 
Republican opponents to the legislation argue that it’s unnecessary given there’s no case challenging the 2015 ruling.
 
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Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, and one of his subordinates were convicted on Tuesday of seditious conspiracy as a jury found them guilty of seeking to keep former President Donald J. Trump in power through a plot that started after the 2020 election and culminated in the mob attack on the Capitol.
 
Seditious conspiracy is the most serious charge brought so far in any of the 900 criminal cases stemming from the vast investigation of the Capitol attack, an inquiry that could still result in scores, if not hundreds, of additional arrests. It carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

In between those remarks, prosecutors showed the jury hundreds of encrypted text messages swapped by Oath Keepers members, demonstrating that Mr. Rhodes and some of his followers were in thrall to outlandish fears that Chinese agents had infiltrated the United States government and that Mr. Biden — a “puppet” of the Chinese Communist Party — might cede control of the country to the United Nations.
 
The messages also showed that Mr. Rhodes was obsessed with the leftist movement known as antifa, which he believed was in league with Mr. Biden’s incoming administration. At one point during the trial, Mr. Rhodes, who took the stand in his own defense, told the jury he was convinced that antifa activists would storm the White House, overpower the Secret Service and forcibly drag Mr. Trump from the building if he failed to admit his defeat to Mr. Biden.

Prosecutors sought to demonstrate how Mr. Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper with a law degree from Yale, became increasingly panicked as the election moved toward its final certification at a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. Under his direction, the Oath Keepers — whose members are largely former law enforcement officers and military veterans — took part in two “Stop the Steal” rallies in Washington, providing event security and serving as bodyguards for pro-Trump dignitaries.

Biden Gets Victory Lap With $12 Billion TSMC Plant, Arizona Wins
 
President Joe Biden will help celebrate a landmark step in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s construction of a $12 billion facility in Arizona next Tuesday -- its first advanced chip plant in the US -- a White House official said, capitalizing on his efforts to reinvigorate manufacturing in a politically crucial state.
 
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TSMC’s new site could be a turning point in the Biden administration’s efforts to bolster chip manufacturing in the US.  
 
Apple Inc. is preparing to begin sourcing chips for its devices from a plant under construction in Arizona, likely the TSMC factory, Bloomberg News reported.
 
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The Biden administration intends to bolster domestic manufacturing through the $50 billion in subsidies from the Chips and Science Act that the president signed into law in August. TSMC is likely to receive billions in subsidies.  
 
Intel Corp. and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. are among the companies that have announced plans for new cutting-edge facilities in the US.  
 
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Colorado elections officials formally order recount in race between Lauren Boebert and Adam Frisch
Boebert leads Frisch, who has already conceded, by 550 votes. The recount is not expected to change the outcome of the 3rd Congressional District race.