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Post by Webster on Dec 7, 2023 16:38:22 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 14, 2023 20:07:54 GMT -5
(The Guardian) As we wait for the jury deliberations to complete in Rudy Giuliani’s federal defamation trial, the leaders of the House and Senate have issued two very different statements on the border crisis. In a tweet on Thursday, House speaker Mike Johnson wrote: “The border is not just a crisis, it’s a catastrophe. The House took action to secure our border. It’s time for the Senate and the White House to do the same.”Meanwhile, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer wrote: “Republicans say action on the border is urgent. If they’re serious about getting something done, they should not be so eager to go home. There is a lot of work left to do.”
Chuck Schumer has praised the Senate’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act and criticized what he called the “partisan race to the bottom we’re seeing at in the House.” In a tweet on Thursday, Schumer went on to say: “While the Senate is strengthening American national security, House Republicans are wasting time on a clown-car impeachment inquiry that will go nowhere.”
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Post by Webster on Jan 1, 2024 23:43:53 GMT -5
(American Family News) While many in society are eager to assist when a confused child questions his or her gender, daughters pledging to remain chaste until marriage are painted as out of touch … or worse, in the case of House Speaker Mike Johnson. ABC News this week unearthed – its own word – an eight-year-old news piece from a German outlet that told the story of Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana who assumed the gavel in November after the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, escorting his then-teenage daughter to a "purity ball." Randy Wilson, now the Family Research Council's director of men's ministries, was a leader in the purity ball movement years ago. He says coverage of Johnson and his daughter is now making the rounds because of media's disdain for the Christian faith that Johnson represents – and because they know he won't change. "They can't control him. Imagine if we had a nation of faithful men like Mike Johnson. It would be a different place here. We wouldn't be battling all the fights that are on every front here, particularly the family as it's being broken apart piece by piece. The culture can only pull down and bring down the family and good men like Speaker Johnson," Wilson said on Washington Watch Thursday. The German news segment showed Johnson and his family preparing for and attending a purity ball, which ABC described as a "controversial formal dance event." Wilson was a leader in helping bring about purity balls years ago. -Read more: abcnews.go.com/US/speaker-mike-johnson-daughter-profiled-attending-purity-ball/story?id=105785626
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Post by Webster on Jan 3, 2024 16:09:32 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Rightwing House lawmakers threaten government shutdown over border securityFox News reports that a group of rightwing House Republican lawmakers visiting Texas’s frontier with Mexico today are threatening to spark a government shutdown unless the border is “shut”: House and Senate negotiators are currently trying to find agreement on long-term government funding measures, with a 19 January deadline before a partial shutdown of federal departments occurs. It’s unclear how significant the conservative lawmakers’ opposition will be to that effort, as it is likely whatever compromise emerges will pass with votes from both Democrats and Republicans. Their statement nonetheless provoked a response from the White House, where spokesman Andrew Bates criticized the group for refusing to take up Joe Biden’s own proposals for more border security. “Today’s statements are just House Republicans’ latest admission that as President Biden and both parties in the Senate seek common ground to address the needs of the American people, their conference is instead choosing extreme politics that would subject American families to needless pain,” he said.
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Post by Webster on Jan 4, 2024 14:25:59 GMT -5
(The Guardian) A man was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill California’s Democratic representative Eric Swalwell and his children. The man has been identified by the US attorney’s office in the southern district of Florida as 72-year-old Michael Shapiro from Greenacres, Florida. Swalwell was not identified by the office but confirmed the threats on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “No threat is going to stop me from representing my constituents. MAGA Republicans have chosen violence over voting and this is what it looks like. But I’m not going away and neither should you.”According to the US attorney’s office, Shapiro left five threatening voicemail messages for Swalwell’s congressional office in DC last month. In one of the messages to Swalwell, Shapiro allegedly said that he was going to “come after you and kill you”. In another message, he allegedly said that he was going to “come and kill your children”. Shapiro also allegedly left messages in which he accused Swalwell of being a “Chinese spy” and repeatedly said “Fang Fang”. Last May, the House ethics committee ended a two-year investigation into Swalwell over allegations that he had ties to suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang. The committee told Swalwell that it will “not take any further action into the investigation”.
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Post by Webster on Jan 4, 2024 14:26:53 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Jan 5, 2024 17:22:16 GMT -5
(The Guardian) House Republicans announce hearings to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of CongressHouse Republicans will convene hearings next week to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena and appear for a behind-closed-doors deposition. Joe Biden’s son is facing federal criminal charges over failing to pay taxes and unlawfully obtaining a gun. Republicans claim he is part of a larger corruption plot involving the president, but they have not made public any proof that the older Biden illegally benefited from his son’s overseas business dealings. In November, the House oversight committee issued a subpoena to Hunter Biden ordering him to appear for a deposition, but he insisted he would only testify publicly. On 13 December, the day the subpoena told him to appear, Biden gave a speech outside the Capitol, and said: “Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry or hear what I have to say.” He departed without attending the deposition. In announcing the hearing to hold Biden in contempt, Republican House oversight committee chair James Comer said: We planned to question Hunter Biden about this record of evidence, but he blatantly defied two lawful subpoenas, choosing to read a prepared statement outside of the Capitol instead of appearing for testimony as required. Hunter Biden’s willful refusal to comply with our subpoenas constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States attorney’s office for prosecution. We will not provide him with special treatment because of his last name.Both the House oversight and judiciary committees will hold their hearings beginning at 10am on Wednesday, 10 December.
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Post by Webster on Jan 10, 2024 18:01:13 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Rightwing House Republicans tank party's own procedural vote as spending revolt brewsHouse Republicans’ bad day just got worse, after conservative lawmakers disrupted a procedural vote in protest at speaker Mike Johnson’s deal with Democrats to fund the government: A vote on a rule to bring multiple pieces of legislation up for consideration just failed, and the House’s Republican leadership then announced there would be no votes for the rest of the day. It was the latest disruption for the House GOP, after Hunter Biden upstaged an oversight committee hearing convened this morning to hold him in contempt by showing up unexpectedly. That gave Democrats the opportunity to claim the majority does not actually want to hear from the president’s son about allegations of corruption. Just take it from the spokesman for the committee’s Democrats:
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Post by Webster on Jan 16, 2024 17:16:08 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Senior lawmakers in Congress have announced a bipartisan deal to expand the child tax credit and provide a series of tax breaks for businesses. The deal would enhance refundable child tax credits in an attempt to provide relief to families that are struggling financially and those with multiple children. It would also adjust the tax credit for inflation starting in 2024. Senate Finance committee chair Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and House Ways and Means committee chair Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, unveiled the agreement as a “common sense, bipartisan, bicameral tax framework that promotes the financial security of working families, boosts growth and American competitiveness, and strengthens communities and Main Street businesses.” In a statement, Smith said: American families will benefit from this bipartisan agreement that provides greater tax relief, strengthens Main Street businesses, boosts our competitiveness with China, and creates jobs.Wyden said in a statement: Fifteen million kids from low-income families will be better off as a result of this plan, and given today’s miserable political climate, it’s a big deal to have this opportunity to pass pro-family policy that helps so many kids get ahead.Wyden has said he hopes to pass the deal by the beginning of tax filing season on 29 Jan but the deal, which was not negotiated by the leadership, still faces many hurdles amid a looming government shutdown.
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Post by Webster on Jan 26, 2024 16:28:35 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Senate Republican leader walks back Trump-driven opposition to Ukraine and border dealYesterday kicked off with the somewhat shocking news that Senate Republicans were, at Donald Trump’s behest, willing to walk away from a deal they had been negotiating with Democrats for months to implement some conservative immigration policies in exchange for approving new aid to Ukraine and Israel’s militaries. The reason, the Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell told his lawmakers in a private meeting, was that Trump wanted to be able to attack Joe Biden over immigration on the campaign trail, and passing the deal would undermine that. The comments unsurprisingly sparked outrage from Democrats and some Republicans, and later on Thursday, McConnell seems to have walked them back. According to Politico, he again convened his party to tell them that he was still behind the deal. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen – the odds of enacting legislation in an election year dealing with one of the most divisive issues in American politics, immigration, were also going to be long, but the parties seem resolved to at least try. We’ll see what more is revealed about this kerfuffle over the course of the day. McConnell's comments on Ukraine, border deal 'flipped around' – reportAfter meeting yesterday with their leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans told Politico that earlier comments he had made expressing opposition at Donald Trump’s urging to a deal to arm Ukraine and Israel while enacting conservative immigration policies were misunderstood. McConnell’s remarks were “flipped around”, Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville said, adding “he just tried to get it straight … some of the senators came out and got kind of misconstrued on what he was talking about.” “McConnell has not changed his point of view,” according to Mississippi’s Roger Wicker, who said McConnell had earlier just been speaking plainly about the political calculations that would go into approving the deal. “And I don’t think anybody disagreed with him. We are at a particular set of crossroads and intersections,” Wicker said.
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Post by Webster on Jan 26, 2024 16:29:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) CNN heard from both Democratic and Republicans senators yesterday who were not interested in throwing out months of negotiations over the complex deal to change immigration policy and unlock aid to Ukraine and Israel, simply to help Donald Trump. Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who is a party to the talks, expressed dismay that Trump could wield so much power. Meanwhile, James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican who is the party’s lead on the issue, downplayed the former president’s effect on the negotiations. Here’s more:
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Post by Webster on Jan 26, 2024 16:30:46 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Johnson warns Ukraine-immigration deal likely 'dead on arrival' in House, pledges to impeach MayorkasIn a letter to House Republicans, speaker Mike Johnson warned that the immigration deal under consideration in the Senate may be “dead on arrival” in his chamber, while also vowing to move forward with plans to impeach homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The Republican leader’s statement bodes ill for the bargaining in the Senate, which is seen as crucial to unlocking GOP support for aid to Ukraine, as well as Israel and Taiwan. Democrats and Republicans in the upper chamber have been negotiating for months on an agreement to restrict immigration policy in a bid to keep undocumented migrants from entering the United States. While no compromise has yet been reached, Johnson said today that “if rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway.” Johnson said he would support the effort to impeach Mayorkas, who Republicans have accused of mishandling border security. “When we return next week, by necessity, the House Homeland Security Committee will move forward with Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas. A vote on the floor will be held as soon as possible thereafter,” he wrote. Impeachments of cabinet secretaries are exceedingly rare, and the Senate’s Democratic majority will almost certainly refuse to convict Mayorkas.
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Post by Webster on Jan 26, 2024 17:04:28 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Jan 28, 2024 20:16:44 GMT -5
(The Guardian) A US Muslim group has criticised former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she suggested, without offering evidence, that some protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza could be linked to Russia and urged the FBI to investigate. Her comments were dismissed as “unsubstantiated smears” by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who said such remarks amounted to dehumanization of the Palestinian people, Reuters reported. Pelosi made the remarks in a CNN interview after she was asked whether opposition to President Joe Biden’s policy in the war in Gaza could hurt the Democrat in November’s presidential election. She said: For them to call for a ceasefire is Mr. Putin’s message, Mr. Putin’s message. Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he (Russian President Vladimir Putin) would like to see. I think some of these protesters are spontaneous, and organic, and sincere. Some I think are connected to Russia. Some financing should be investigated and I want to ask the FBI to investigate that.Pelosi’s comments marked the first time a prominent US lawmaker has accused Russia’s leader of backing US protesters calling for a ceasefire. The Russian embassy in Washington was not immediately available to comment. Protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza have recently occurred across the US, including near airports and bridges in New York City and Los Angeles, vigils outside the White House and marches in Washington. Demonstrators have also interrupted Biden speeches and events. The protests have been organised by a range of human rights, Jewish and anti-war activist groups. Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesperson for CAIR, said: It is unconscionable that an individual with such influence in this nation would spread unsubstantiated smears targeting those who seek an end to the slaughter of civilians in Gaza and a just resolution to that conflict.CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad added that Pelosi’s comments: echo a time in our nation when opponents of the Vietnam War were accused of being communist sympathisers and subjected to FBI harassment.
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Post by Webster on Jan 29, 2024 14:47:29 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden administration prepares counterattack to GOP attempt to kill immigration negotiations, impeach MayorkasThe White House is kicking this week off by hitting back against Republican attempts to sink compromise legislation intended to curb migrant arrivals on the southern border, and also at plans by the House GOP to impeach homeland security chief Alejandro Mayorkas. A bipartisan group of senators has for weeks been bargaining over a bill to reform the immigration system to better handle the surge in migrants, but last week, key Republicans in both the Senate and House – including speaker Mike Johnson – suggested they wouldn’t support whatever deal they reach. Johnson also announced the GOP would move forward this week on impeaching Mayorkas, even though the Democratic-controlled Senate is almost certain to reject the charges against him. Neither development is pleasing to the Biden administration, and this morning, the White House attacked Johnson over his assertion that no immigration legislation is needed because the president has the authority to “close” the border with Mexico, pointing out instances in the past where the speaker has said the opposite. They also steered reporters to a Wall Street Journal op-ed from a former Republican homeland security chief opposing the charges against Mayorkas. Expect many more salvos in this war of words to be fired over the course of today.
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