Both parties hear what they want to hear during rare Durham public hearing

Special counsel John Durham was both lionized and scrutinized by lawmakers as he appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to discuss his probe into the FBI’s 2016 investigation into the Trump campaign. 

Durham provided little new information in his May report but confirmed a series of FBI missteps previously documented by the news media, including that the FBI failed to provide a full picture of the evidence when seeking a wiretap of Trump campaign aide Carter Page.  

In a rare public appearance Wednesday, Durham called his findings “sobering.” 

“The problems identified in the report are not susceptible to overnight fixes. … They cannot be addressed solely by enhancing training or additional policy requirements. Rather, what is required is accountability, both in terms of the standards to which our law enforcement personnel hold themselves and in the consequences they face for violation of laws and policies of relevance,” he said. 


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Over more than five hours of questioning, Republicans and Democrats zeroed in on the parts of the report most favorable to their positions.  

To Republicans, Durham’s scathing 305-page report supports their arguments about a Department of Justice and FBI that has been weaponized against former President Trump.  

Democrats argued the report backed the FBI’s initial decision to open a probe into the Trump campaign, something they view as significant, since Trump called for Durham's appointment with high expectations that he’d find damaging material on the FBI.  

Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a chief Trump defender who has cast the FBI as “rotted to the core,” said the report served as an example that the bureau requires serious reform, as “any one of us could be next.”  

“There is [a double standard at the Department of Justice]. That has got to change, and I don't think more training, more rules is going to do it. I think we have to fundamentally change the FISA process, and we have to use the appropriations process to limit how American tax dollars are spent at the Department of Justice,” he added, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which has the power to authorize a wiretap. 

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It was a tip from an Australian diplomat that ignited the FBI’s interest. The diplomat had spoken with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who told him that Russia had damaging emails from then-competitor Hillary Clinton. It was that tip, not the later debunked Steele Dossier, that led the FBI to initiate the investigation. 

“We have many areas of disagreement across the aisle, but I am relieved that we have no disagreement about one of the fundamental conclusions of your report: that it was incumbent upon the FBI to open some form of investigation when presented with evidence that a presidential candidate and his associates are either coordinating campaign efforts with a hostile nation or being manipulated by such a hostile nation,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.). 

Several Democrats attacked Durham’s work, criticizing the report for not offering any recommendations for the FBI and calling attention to its failure to lead to criminal convictions. 

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) noted that five Trump campaign associates were convicted of various crimes following the Mueller investigation.  

“In contrast to multiple Trump associates who were convicted, you brought two cases to a jury trial based on this investigation, and you lost both. So I don't actually know what we're doing here, because the author of the Durham report concedes that the FBI had enough information to investigate,” he said. 

“And thank goodness the FBI did, because vulnerable Trump associates who committed crimes were held accountable. And the best way to summarize what happened is: Thank you to the brave men and women of the FBI for doing their jobs.” 

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.)

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) addresses reporters after a closed-door House Democratic Caucus meeting on Tuesday, June 6, 2023.

Republicans pivoted between complaints over the Justice Department and the treatment of Trump to possible FISA reforms that would limit law enforcement authority for spying both in the U.S. and abroad.  

“You detail how FBI personnel working on FISA applications violated protocols. They were cavalier at best, as you said, in your own words, towards accuracy and completeness. Senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor towards information that they received, especially information received from politically affiliated persons or entities and … a significant reliance on investigative and leads provided or funded by Trump's political opponents were relied upon here,” Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) said. 

Johnson went on to lament the involvement of Peter Strzok, previously deputy assistant director the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, who made negative comments about Trump in texts. 

“He said horrible things about President Trump, and all of his supporters by the way, how could we say he did not have political bias?” 

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.)

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) leaves a closed-door House Republican Conference meeting on Tuesday, June 6, 2023.

Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) criticized the FISA application that allowed the FBI to wiretap Page. 

“A FISA application was pursued without disclosing some relevant information to prosecutors or the court, without following standard procedural rules, utilizing investigative techniques that were the most intrusive without first exhausting other techniques, and instead pursuing the most invasive method possible from the outset against Mr. Page,” she said. 

Durham was also at times berated for his work, including by those who said he did not do enough to probe FBI misdeeds after Trump said Durham’s report would reveal the “crime of the century.” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) was also gifted time by other members to question the course of the investigation.

Schiff critiqued Durham’s decision to issue a statement about an inspector general’s report on the same topic and repeatedly asked why one of the top prosecutors on the investigation resigned, a question Durham refused to answer.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said Durham’s investigative trip to Italy was just “looking for authentic pasta” as he griped that the special counsel’s work was insufficient.

“It seems like more than disappointment. It seems like you weren't really trying to expose the true core of the corruption,” Gaetz said. 

“It's not what's in your report that is telling, it's the omission, it's the lack of work you did. ... You let the country down.”

McConnell: Democrats should ‘stay out’ of Supreme Court’s business 

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) says Senate Democrats don’t have any jurisdiction over the Supreme Court’s ethics and should “stay out” of the court’s business, after ProPublica reported conservative Justice Samuel Alito accepted a luxury fishing vacation from wealthy benefactors. 

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the chairman of a key Judiciary subcommittee, said in response to the report that they will mark up Supreme Court ethics legislation. 

But McConnell sent a strong signal Wednesday that any Supreme Court ethics reform bill is not likely to get enough Republican support to overcome a filibuster. 

“Look, the Supreme Court, in my view, can’t be dictated to by Congress. I think the chief justice will address these issues. Congress should stay out of it, because we don’t, I think, have the jurisdiction to tell the Supreme Court how to handle the issue,” he said. 

McConnell said he has “full confidence” in Chief Justice John Roberts to address any ethical issues facing the court.  

“I have total confidence in Chief Justice John Roberts to in effect look out for the court as well as its reputation,” he said.  

The Senate GOP leader made his comments after ProPublica reported that Alito did not publicly disclose a 2008 trip he took to a luxury fishing lodge in Alaska, and that he flew there aboard a private plane owned by hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer.  

Alito then did not recuse himself in 2014, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Singer’s hedge fund in a legal battle that resulted in the fund receiving a $2.4 billion payout.  

Alito explained in a Wall Street Journal op-ed responding to ProPublica’s reporting that he was not required to report the trip nor recuse himself from the court case.  

Senate Democrats warned Wednesday that they will take matters into their own hands if Roberts doesn’t announce new ethics guidelines for the high court soon. 

“The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards.  But for too long that has been the case with the United States Supreme Court.  That needs to change.  That’s why when the Senate returns after the July 4th recess, the Senate Judiciary Committee will mark up Supreme Court ethics legislation,” Durbin and Whitehouse said in a joint statement.  

“We hope that before that time, Chief Justice Roberts will take the lead and bring Supreme Court ethics in line with all other federal judges.  But if the Court won’t act, then Congress must,” they said.  

Whitehouse is the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights.  

Other Republicans joined McConnell in pushing back against Democratic calls to pass Supreme Court ethics legislation.  

“They’ve been after everybody from Clarence Thomas to anybody they can get their teeth into to try to undermine the credibility of the court. I think all of us need to be concerned about the public confidence in the courts, but this is not something that the Congress has any authority over. This is something the court itself needs to come to grips with,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  

House advances Schiff censure resolution, teeing up final vote

The House advanced a resolution Wednesday to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), overcoming a procedural hurdle that blocked a similar measure targeting the Democrat last week and teeing up a final vote later in the day.

A motion to table the measure was rejected 218-208 on party lines, with Republicans rejecting the Democratic-led effort to block the resolution from coming to the floor for a vote.

The chamber is expected to vote on the censure resolution, which will require a simple majority, late Wednesday afternoon. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters Tuesday that he expects the resolution to pass the House.

Wednesday’s vote marked the second time the House voted on a motion to table a resolution to censure Schiff for his handling of investigations into former President Trump.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) forced a vote on a resolution to censure Schiff last week, but the effort was blocked after 20 Republicans joined Democrats in supporting a motion to table the measure, effectively killing it.

Some of the GOP defectors raised concerns with a nonbinding “whereas” clause in the resolution that said if the Ethics Committee found that Schiff “lied, made misrepresentations, and abused sensitive information,” he should be fined $16 million.

That number was half the amount of money that American taxpayers paid to fund the investigation into potential collusion between Trump and Russia, according to the resolution.

Luna, however, introduced a revised censure resolution last week — which nixed the fine language, among other changes — and brought it to the floor as a privileged measure Tuesday.

A number of last week’s GOP defectors changed their vote and helped advance the bill Wednesday.

Luna’s resolution seeks to censure Schiff “for misleading the American public and for conduct unbecoming of an elected Member of the House of Representatives.” It would also direct the Ethics Committee to conduct an investigation of him.

In addition to removing language about a $16 million fine, the revised Schiff censure resolution just calls for censuring Schiff; last week’s involved censuring and condemning the congressman.

The new version also omitted nonbinding “whereas” clauses that say Schiff “purposely deceived his Committee, Congress, and the American people” and that he “exploited” his positions on the House Intelligence Committee “to encourage and excuse abusive intelligence investigations of Americans for political purposes.”

The revamped resolution does, however, add several clauses: It cites a March 2019 letter signed by Republicans on the Intelligence panel calling on Schiff — the committee's chairman at the time — to resign from the top post, argues that Schiff “hindered the ability of the Intelligence Committee to fulfill its oversight responsibilities over the Intelligence Community” and says he “misled the American people and brought disrepute upon the House of Representatives.”

McCarthy isn’t happy with Boebert’s impeachment shenanigans

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was not a happy camper in the Republican conference meeting Wednesday morning, thanks to the latest antics of Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado’s contribution to the debasement of Congress. On Tuesday evening, Boeber introduced a privileged resolution to impeach President Joe Biden on the made-up charge that he violated his oath by not stopping illegal immigration. The charge isn’t important, it’s the mechanism that’s got McCarthy’s knickers twisted.

Under House rules, privileged resolutions bypass the regular process—and leadership’s ability to determine what goes to the floor—and have to be voted on within two legislative days. There are only two legislative days left this week before Congress heads out to celebrate July 4 for the next 19 days. So this eats up time and energy that the House can’t really afford, not that they were going to accomplish much of anything in these two days. It also exposes the whole Republican conference as a clown car, and McCarthy’s weak leadership for what it is.

Democrats said they would move to table the motion, which puts McCarthy in the position, again, of having to rely on Democrats for help, which only serves to piss off the Freedom Caucus maniacs and their allies more, which will lead to exactly what is happening now: escalation.

.@RepMTG says she will speak to McCarthy later today on her push to impeach Biden, others. She says she addressed the conference about impeachment telling them it’s “the right thing to do.” She plans to convert all her articles to privileged resolutions.

— Mica Soellner (@MicaSoellnerDC) June 21, 2023

Greene has a raft of impeachment resolutions, and if she makes them all privileged, there’s another two weeks of work eaten up. She’s mad that Boebert upstaged her on this one, calling Boebert a “copycat.”

At the same time, Rep. Adam Schiff’s stalker colleague, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Freedom Caucuser, is pushing a second privileged resolution to censure him. Luna has sponsored six resolutions so far this year. Five of them are about Schiff. The first privileged one failed last week when 20 Republicans joined with Democrats to table it.

Which leads to the question of just how orchestrated all this is. It doesn’t seem likely, but the Freedom Caucus might just be organized enough to be planning this in another effort to gum up the works in the House and just to harass McCarthy.

The week before last, 11 of them shut the House down by blocking a rule vote—the first time that had happened in 21 years—and refusing to agree to let it pass until McCarthy sufficiently appeased them by agreeing to renege on the debt ceiling deal he had negotiated with Biden. It’s hard to credit those people with enough organizational skills or procedural knowledge to look at what Boebert and Luna are doing as strategy, but stranger things have happened.

All of which McCarthy brought upon himself. For one thing, he’s amplified and encouraged the border hysteria. That’s despite a substantial decline in actual illegal border crossings in recent weeks. He greenlit bogus investigations of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to determine whether he should be impeached. There are at least four impeachment resolutions out there against Mayorkas, one of them from Greene. This latest from her and Boebert will likely encourage all these yahoos to make their resolutions privileged too.

Which is what got McCarthy worked up. “There was a discussion about regular order in January,” he reportedly said in Wednesday morning’s conference meeting. “And going through committee—but now we have members doing privileged motions without going through committee or even speaking with the conference.”

“What majority do we want to be?” he said. “Give it right back in 2 years or hold it for a decade and make real change. How are we going to censure Adam Schiff for abusing his position to lie and force an impeachment and then turn around and do it ourselves the next day?”

Welcome to the bed you made, Kev. Enjoy the fact that you’re going to have to rely on the Democrats to bail you out again.

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Boebert forcing vote on Biden impeachment hits a nerve with her own party: ‘Playground games’

Several House Republicans said Wednesday they were frustrated with Rep. Lauren Boebert's attempt to bypass the committee process to push for an immediate vote to impeach President Biden.

Boebert, R-Colo., filed a privileged resolution on the House floor Tuesday evening aimed at impeaching Biden over the border crisis, and it appeared to catch members of her own party off guard. A privileged resolution allows lawmakers to force a vote on the House floor without going through the committee, a move that some Republicans seem to oppose.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., would not say if he would support Boebert's resolution but suggested he was unhappy about how her resolution skirted his committee despite its months-long investigation into corruption accusations against the Biden family.

"I don't like how she presented it by bypassing the committee process, especially when the investigation in the oversight committee, which she's on, is producing new information almost daily," Comer told Fox News Digital."

EXCLUSIVE: BOEBERT INTRODUCES NEW IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES AGAINST BIDEN OVER BORDER CRISIS

"I feel like we've got some more work to do on the Oversight Committee before we issue a report, then once we issue a report, depending on what's in that report, then the Judiciary Committee would be the committee that would then have hearings on any potential wrongdoing and potential impeachment," he said. "So I wish she had gone about it a different way."

"I think the previous majority cheapened impeachment," Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told Fox News Digital. "I think it was politicized. This shouldn't be playground games."

"This should be serious, should go through the Judiciary Committee or Oversight committee. And if there [are] real facts for impeachment, then you go there, but doing this is wrong," he said, agreeing with Comer.

"I would prefer regular order, I think regular order has worked for us," said Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D. "I think we fought really hard to get rank-and-file members to have committee access and all of those things. That was a big part of the 15-vote speaker fight, so I think we should use it."

IT'S TIME TO BRING IMPEACHMENT CHARGES AGAINST JOE BIDEN

Bacon said he would vote with Democrats to kill the resolution when it comes up, something that could happen today; so did Rep. Ryan Zinke. R-Mont., who previously served as President Trump's Interior Secretary and recalled the impeachment process Democrats underwent during that administration.

GOP REP. OGLES INTRODUCES IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES AGAINST BIDEN, HARRIS

"I loathe how they treated President Trump. If you want to go through impeachment, it should go through Judiciary, they should look at all the evidence and have a case that is clear," Zinke said. "I think it should be pursued. I think it should be done, absolutely, so the American people can see it all transparent. I think Jim Jordan, and that committee of jurisdiction is the right place."

"But doing a privilege motion off the floor is, to me, theater, and smacks of self-service and not service," he added.

Boebert was not at Wednesday morning's regular party-wide meeting, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told reporters. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer was noncommittal when asked about her move, stating, "People have a right to do what they want to do."

With the thinly-divided House chamber, Democrats just need a handful of Republicans to vote with them to table Boebert's motion.

Adam Schiff vows to wear House GOP censure like ‘badge of honor’

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., vowed to wear a censure vote by House Republicans as a "badge of honor" Wednesday in an exclusive interview with Fox News.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is poised to begin the process of censuring Shiff on Wednesday, with the final vote taking place Friday. Censure is the second most serious form of discipline a representative can face in Congress, following only expulsion.

When asked by Fox News for his thoughts on the censure, Schiff expressed pride, claiming that it validates the actions he took.

"I take it as a badge of honor because this says that I'm effective," Schiff said." They go after people that they think are effective, I exposed the corruption of former President. I led the first impeachment trial of the former president to the first bipartisan vote to remove a president and U.S. history."

HUNTER BIDEN AGREES TO PLEAD GUILTY TO FEDERAL TAX CHARGES

"I'm proud of that work and I would do it again, if the circumstances required," he added.

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO CENSURING SCHIFF THIS WEEK

Schiff went on to argue that former President Trump's attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election validated his actions in the investigation.

"I warned the first trial, that if it didn't hold Donald Trump accountable, that he would go on to try to do worse in the next election, and he did, leading to a violent insurrection against the U.S. Capitol," he said.

"To be admonished by Kevin McCarthy and like--it is an honor. These are the authors of the Big Lie, who attacked me for telling the truth, and I'm proud to stand up to them," he concluded.

Wednesday's process marks the second attempt by Republicans to formally censure Schiff. A previous attempt failed earlier this month because it included a $16 million fine against the lawmaker. Twenty Republicans joined Democrats in voting to table that measure.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has now revamped her notice to censure to remove the fine, and will speak about the move on the House floor on Wednesday.

Republicans bash Boebert for forcing Biden impeachment vote: ‘Frivolous’

House Republicans teed off Wednesday on one of their own colleagues, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), over her stunning move to force a vote this week to impeach President Biden.

While no fans of the president, Boebert’s GOP critics said her move to stage an impeachment vote this week is wildly premature, harming the Republicans’ ongoing efforts to investigate the Biden family’s business dealings while undermining potential impeachment efforts in the future.

At a closed-door meeting of the GOP conference on Capitol Hill, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took the remarkable step of urging his troops to oppose the impeachment resolution when it hits the floor later in the week, a House Republican told The Hill.

“I don't think it's the right thing to do,” McCarthy later told reporters.

“This is one of the most serious things you can do as a member of Congress. I think you've got to go through the process. You've got to have the investigation,” McCarthy said. “And throwing something on the floor actually harms the investigation that we're doing right now.”


More House coverage from The Hill


McCarthy told reporters that he called Boebert on Tuesday and asked her to talk to the closed-door House GOP conference meeting about her impeachment resolution before moving to force a vote. McCarthy said Boebert told him she would think about it, but then went ahead and made the privileged motion Tuesday anyway.

The Colorado Republican also did not attend Wednesday's meeting.

Boebert instead appeared on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s show Wednesday morning, defending her move to force a vote on impeachment despite leadership encouraging her not to.

“I would love for committees to do the work, but I haven’t seen the work be done on this particular subject,” Boebert said. She later said that there are not enough GOP votes to pass impeachment articles out of committee.

“This, I’m hoping, generates enthusiasm with the base to contact their members of Congress and say, ‘We want something done while you have the majority,’” Boebert said.

McCarthy told Republicans that he opposed the two impeachments of former President Trump because Democrats were acting on emotion, not facts, according to a source familiar with the Speaker’s remarks.

Boebert made the surprise privileged motion Tuesday evening to bring up her resolution to impeach Biden over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, forcing a floor vote on the measure some time this week. Democrats plan to make a motion to table the resolution, blocking a vote on impeachment itself. The table resolution is expected to succeed. 

On Bannon’s show, she urged Republicans to not vote to table her impeachment resolution.

“We have the majority. This does not have to be tabled,” Boebert said. “If we have Republicans stick together, we can have that debate about the sovereignty of our nation and how important it is to shut the southern border down and secure it.”

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Boebert’s impeachment push comes as Republicans have tried to turn their attention to other Biden-focused criticism this week. After the president’s son, Hunter Biden, agreed to a plea deal involving federal tax and gun charges Tuesday, Republicans dug in on their investigation into the business dealings of Biden’s family members.

It also follows Boebrt’s ideological ally, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), forcing a vote on censuring Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) over his handling of investigations into Trump and the first Trump impeachment. The House will vote Tuesday on a modified version of the resolution after 20 House Republicans helped to tank the Schiff censure resolution last week.

McCarthy argued that the Schiff censure was a reason to not rush impeachment articles.

“We're going to censure Schiff for actually doing the exact same thing — lying to the American public and taking us through impeachment,” McCarthy said. “We're going to turn around the next day and do try to do the same thing that Schiff did? I just don't think that's honest.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) speaks during a press conference held by the House Freedom Caucus regarding the proposed Biden-McCarthy debt limit deal on Tuesday, May 30, 2023.

More privileged resolutions could be coming. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said that she will convert all her impeachment articles against Biden and top figures in his administration into privileged resolutions to use “when I feel it’s necessary.”

Republicans have spent years hammering Democrats for what they said were a pair of thinly argued impeachments of Trump, and many are now warning that Boebert’s impeachment effort — which sidesteps all committee action — follows in the same flawed mold.

“This shouldn't be playground games, in my view. This should be serious,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) groused Wednesday. “If there's real facts for impeachment then you go there. But doing this is wrong, and I think the majority of the conference feels that way.”

Bacon said there are “viable areas” of Biden’s background that merit investigation, but he suggested there’s no proof of wrongdoing — at least not yet — to warrant impeachment.

“Impeachment shouldn't be something that is frivolous,” he said. “We should get to the facts of that, but just doing a privileged motion is wrong,” he said. “It's a person thinking about themselves instead of the team.”  

Rep. Don Bacon is among the Republicans bashing Rep. Lauren Boebert over forcing a vote to impeach President Biden. (Greg Nash)

Others quickly piled on.  

“I think that things like impeachment are one of the most awesome powers of the Congress, it's not something you should flippantly exercise in two days. And I think that it actually undermines efforts to hold people accountable in the future,” Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), a close McCarthy ally, told reporters.

He said the “right way” to go about the matter is through regular order, “empowering the committee chairs and members.”

“It's important for the Republican conference to act together in unison to counter the bad policies of the Biden administration,” Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) said. “And therefore, if members want to suggest or bring up the idea of a privileged motion, they ought to come to the conference to discuss that in advance and have a collective discussion of it before they take the decision to do it.”

Greene said some members of the conference were mad at Boebert because her privileged motion “came out of nowhere.” And some of the criticism was personal. Greene, who has had public dust-ups with Boebert in the past, accused Boebert of copying her own impeachment push.

“I had already introduced articles of impeachment on Joe Biden for the border, asked her to co-sponsor mine, she didn’t. She basically copied my articles and then introduced them and then changed them to a privileged resolution,” Greene said. “So of course I support ‘em because they’re identical to mine.”

“They’re basically a copycat,” she added.

Not all Republicans were criticizing Boebert on Wednesday. Some conservatives defended her strategy, even as it would circumvent the conventional committee process they had demanded of GOP leaders this year. 

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) — the chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus who was one of several Republicans who pushed for regular order during the drawn-out Speaker’s race in January — argued that lawmakers were not trying to circumvent the process by bringing up privileged resolutions.

“Regular order also includes individual members being able to represent their districts,” Perry said. “[It] might not be what I do, but if that’s what they see as necessary then that’s their prerogative.”

Updated at 12:59 p.m.

Trump Announces Plan to Slash Government Spending and ‘Starve the Warmongers’

The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has announced his plan to slash government waste, eliminate the influence of the deep state, and cut the spending power of “warmongers.”

Trump’s plan is to restore executive branch impoundment, something he describes as “a crucial tool” in the battle to cut waste.

Impoundment is a now-limited presidential power that would require legal measures to revert back to the President. Congress enacted the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which transferred most spending control to the House and Senate.

Trump wants to fight it.

“For 200 years under our system of government, it was undisputed that the President had the Constitutional power to stop unnecessary spending through what is known as Impoundment,” he explained.

“This meant that if Congress provided more funding than was needed to run the government, the President could refuse to waste the extra funds, and instead return the money to the general treasury and maybe even lower your taxes,” he continued.

RELATED: Trump Reveals Exactly Why the Deep State is Desperate to Stop Him

Trump Will Use Impoundment To Slash Waste, Starve The Warmongers

Trump’s entire plan is predicated on the idea that he’ll convince Congress to overturn a Budget and Impoundment Act that has been in effect for nearly 50 years. An Act that gives spending control to Congress.

In other words, he wants Congress to willingly turn over control of the nation’s purse strings. It’s not going to happen, but that hasn’t sullied Trump’s optimism.

“This disaster of a law is clearly unconstitutional—a blatant violation of the separation of powers,” he said.

“When I return to the White House, I will do everything I can to challenge the Impoundment Control Act in court, and if necessary, get Congress to overturn it,” added Trump. “We will overturn it.”

On the off chance that he’s successful in that regard, Trump’s goals for using impoundment sound excellent.

“I will use the president’s long-recognized Impoundment Power to squeeze the bloated federal bureaucracy for massive savings. This will be in the form of tax reductions for you,” the GOP candidate explained. “This will help quickly to stop inflation and slash the deficit.”

Yes, please.

The plan also seeks to cut power to the “globalists,” the “deep state,” and those pushing the country into endless wars.

“Bringing back impoundment will give us a crucial tool with which to obliterate the Deep State, Drain the Swamp, and starve the Warmongers,” Trump said. “We are going to get the Warmongers and the Globalists out of our government.”

RELATED: Trump Reveals Plan to Drain the Swamp: Require All Government Employees Pass Civil Service Test to Prove Understanding of the Constitution

Draining The Swamp

Trump previously announced a plan to drain the swamp and take on the entrenched federal bureaucracy. That plan includes requiring all federal employees to pass a Civil Service test to prove their understanding of the United States Constitution.

“I will require every federal employee to pass a new Civil Service test demonstrating an understanding of our Constitutional limited government,” he announced in April.

“This will include command of due process rights, equal protection, Free Speech, religious liberty, federalism, the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure … and all the other constitutional limits on federal power,” he continued.

But it just might be his “starve the warmongers” comment that results in the most resistance.

Trump blamed “deep state actors” for his consistent legal issues several months ago and hinted it was due to his push for peace in Ukraine.

“It’s no coincidence that the deep state is coming after me even harder since I pledged to swiftly end the war in Ukraine,” he pondered.

Since then he has been indicted twice.

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