Month: June 2023

Meet the dumbest Republicans in the House—it’s not who you think

Posted on (Updated by kos

You would be forgiven if you thought Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert—last seen calling each other “bitch” on the floor of the chamber—were the dumbest Republicans in the House.

You wouldn’t be wrong to think Reps. Paul Gosar and Matt Gaetz ranked near the top, or any of the rest of the Freedom Caucus nihilists—like Chip Roy, Andrew Clyde, or even serial pathological liars like Reps. George Santos, Anna Paula Luna, or Andy Ogles.

But no, those aren’t the dumbest Republicans in the House.

The dumbest Republicans in the House are those who voted to impeach President Joe Biden, despite representing Biden districts. Their political fate already in jeopardy, they just threw away their reelection chances for a meaningless Boebert gesture. RELATED STORY: Republican disarray is somehow, miraculously, getting worse

Eighteen Republicans currently represent districts carried by Biden in 2020. They were either beneficiaries of low turnout in California and New York, or sitting incumbents who pulled off reelection thanks to midterm dynamics. In a sane world, they would be finding ways, the way Blue Dog Democrats do, to cast key votes against their leadership, thus building a narrative of “independence” they could sell to voters come election time.

Here are those 18 House Republicans that represent districts won by Biden, with the president’s margin of victory, courtesy of Daily Kos Elections:

  • Juan Ciscomani (AZ-6), Biden +0.1

  • Nicholas LaLota (NY-1) +0.2

  • David Schweikert (AZ-1) +1.5

  • Jen Kiggans (VA-2) +1.9

  • Young Kim (CA-40) +1.9

  • Thomas Kean Jr. (NJ-07) +3.9

  • Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1) +4.6

  • Marcus Molinaro (NY-19) +4.6

  • Michelle Steel (CA-45) +6.2

  • Don Bacon (NE-2) +6.3

  • Brandon Williams (NY-22) +7.5

  • George Santos (NY-3) +8.2

  • Lori Chavez-DeRemer (OR-5) +8.9

  • Michael Lawler (NY-17) +10.1

  • John Duarte (CA-13) +10.9

  • Mike Garcia (CA-27) +12.4

  • David Valadao (CA-22) +12.9

  • Anthony D’Esposito (NY-4) +14.5

Remember, the current Republican House majority is just nine seats, meaning that Democrats only need to flip five to regain the majority. It’s a target-rich environment, even before drilling down into Republican-held seats in narrow-Trump districts. Abortion, issues of freedom, and the improving economy are all conspiring to make the Republican hold on the House tenuous at best.

A smart caucus wouldn’t just spare these Biden-district Republicans tough, unpopular choices, but would openly give them opportunities to vote against their leadership. Legendary House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was a master of this, giving tough-district Democrats the opportunity to vote and rail against her. But it was all political theater: When she needed their votes, they delivered.

McCarthy isn’t as witless as this bunch. He would offer similar opportunities if he could. But it’s not up to him. It’s up to Donald Trump and his MAGA acolytes, none of which brook any dissent. You might think, “well, isn’t the dumb one Trump, for not giving those Republicans the ability to pretend to be independent?” Well, no! Trump doesn’t care about the Republican Party. All he cares about is his own power and self-aggrandizement. He’s actually playing the game smart, forcing those blue-district suckers to bend the knee, kiss his ring, and vote for their own political demise. Same with McCarthy: His speakership hangs on a thread, and he’s doing what he needs to do for his own political survival. He clearly has no interest in Republicans retaining the House if he’s not the one in charge.

This is why Thursday’s Boebert impeachment vote was so incredibly stupid. It has zero chance of passing, the Senate would dispose of it in two seconds if it did, and there’s no plausible reason for it other than retaliation. Republicans, desperate for anything on which to hang their efforts, have found nothing. Remember all the explosive revelations from the Hunter Biden hearings? No? Me neither. Nor does anyone else, because there were none. An impeachment effort without any hint of underlying crime would be such a calamitous disaster for Republicans, it’s amazing they don’t see the danger signs. The last thing Republicans need heading into 2024 is yet another reason for voters to hate them—not that that’s ever stopped them before.

RELATED STORY: House Republicans desperately seeking reason to impeach Biden

And yet every single one of those Biden-district Republicans voted to impeach Biden. Well, they voted to refer the impeachment to the Judiciary Committee, but good luck explaining that distinction to voters. The correct vote was to squash the effort dead.

Thing is, we’ve seen that resisting Trump can be smart politics, particularly in areas where college-educated suburban voters are a key swing vote. Look at Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger both won reelection easily in the face of Trump’s fury. It wouldn’t be inconceivable for these Biden-district Republicans to win reelection by playing the same game. Sure, they’d still have to survive primary challenges, but they’d likely have better chances there than being reelected in a general election in most of these blue seats.

Voting with the Freedom Caucus nihilists is political suicide, and the fact that these 18 don’t seem to see this is bad enough. But voting to impeach the president that the voters in their district voted for? That’s a whole ‘nother level of idiocy.

Joining us on "The Downballot" this week is North Carolina Rep. Wiley Nickel, the first member of Congress to appear on the show! Nickel gives us the blow-by-blow of his unlikely victory that saw him flip an extremely competitive seat from red to blue last year—including how he adjusted when a new map gave him a very different district, and why highlighting the extremism of his MAGA-flavored opponent was key to his success. A true election nerd, Nickel tells us which precincts he was tracking on election night that let him know he was going to win—and which fellow House freshman is the one you want to rock out with at a concert.

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Republican disarray is somehow, miraculously, getting worse

Posted on by Laura Clawson

House Republicans aren’t getting anything done to benefit the nation or the voters, but they are achieving at a high level in at least one area: sheer disarray. Actually, make that two areas: sheer disarray and intense spitefulness.

The big talk among Republicans these days is impeaching President Joe Biden, with a split between people who want to impeach now without even pretending to have investigated and assembled impeachment-worthy evidence against him, and people who want to do it after a series of show trials designed to insert uncorroborated allegations into the public consciousness. Then there are the so-called “moderates,” who will whine to the press about the awful position they’re being put in—then fall in line when it’s time to vote on whatever the extremists have gotten Speaker Kevin McCarthy to back.

All of these groups are sharing their feelings with the press. The biggest splash this week was made by reports that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called her former ally Rep. Lauren Boebert a “bitch” as the two joust over whose impeachment resolution will get the most attention and fundraising leverage. But it’s just one moment of hostility in a party with a lot of them.

RELATED STORY: House Republicans desperately seeking reason to impeach Biden

Greene says Boebert “copied my impeachment articles and probably did it, it seems to me, because there’s a fundraising deadline coming up at the end of the month,” and that she will be forcing a vote on her own impeachment resolution soon. When she does, have no doubt that she will fundraise off of it—in fact, Boebert sucking up Greene’s planned fundraising juice is no small part of the fury here.

RELATED STORY: Tense—or typical?—moment in House as MTG calls Boebert a 'b----'

Greene, though, is at risk of being purged from the far-right House Freedom Caucus over her closeness to McCarthy, which is seen as compromising her far-right purity. For her part, Greene says she’s just being “more realistic” in her tactics.

Greene’s “more realistic” tactics will still put Biden-district Republicans on the spot, though, and they’re unhappy about how often that’s happened recently.

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“I am concerned,” about having to vote on impeaching Biden, Rep. Tony Gonzales told CNN. “One witch hunt for another witch hunt makes this place all about witch hunts. Meanwhile, the American public are focused putting food on the table, keeping their kids safe in schools, keeping inflation down. Real issues.” That’s nice talk, but since Gonzales participated in party-line votes on referring Boebert’s impeachment resolution to two committees and on censuring Rep. Adam Schiff, it has to be filed as just talk until he actually votes against a Republican witch hunt.

And Gonzales is going to face that again and again. Whether it’s Greene and Boebert with their separate efforts to force an impeachment vote, or committee chairs like Jim Jordan and James Comer taking a little longer to put a fig leaf of fraudulent “investigation” and “evidence” on their eventual impeachment efforts, House Republicans are not letting this go. Given their failure to show how they would productively govern the United States by passing meaningful legislation—even if it died in the Senate—attacks on the president, the president’s son, and top administration officials are all they have to convince their base they’ve done something with two years in control of the House.

Extremism is a powerful drug. And these people are so awful that infighting was probably inevitable the moment Republicans had power. It's a virtuous (from Democrats’ point of view) circle: Republican disarray begets failure begets more disarray.

So-called moderates like Gonzales are reportedly trying to get McCarthy to stop giving in to the Freedom Caucus, but giving in to extremists is what McCarthy does—especially since the deal he struck to become speaker on the 15th vote gave any single member the ability to call for a vote to replace him. McCarthy is spending as much time trying to save his own hide as he is trying to lead his party. Not that McCarthy’s party is leadable, even under someone far more adept than he is.

RELATED STORY: Freedom Caucus insists McCarthy broke promises

Take Rep. Matt Gaetz, sounding like the id of the Republican Party. Using privileged resolutions to force votes on things like impeachment, as Boebert did, is “actually going to be a new doctrine for us,” he told CNN.

“I sort of have had enough struggle sessions,” he said. “I’m ready for action, action, action.”

If that action involves Greene and Boebert trading insults, Greene at risk of being kicked out of the Freedom Caucus, McCarthy being eternally under pressure, and every Republican who represents a district that voted for Biden having to take unpopular vote after unpopular vote, I’m here for it.

This week on “The Brief,” we are joined by Christina Reynolds of Emily’s List. Reynolds is the Senior Vice President of Communications and Content at the progressive organization, which works to get women elected to office. On the anniversary of the outrageous Supreme Court decision to take away the reproductive protections of Roe v. Wade, Reynolds talks about what she is seeing up and down the ballot this election cycle.

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McCarthy, Senate Republicans Shrinking Away From Biden Impeachment Efforts, House Sidelines Vote

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

This may come as a surprise, but it’s glaringly apparent that Republican leadership does not have the stomach to pursue the impeachment of President Joe Biden.

MAGA Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) leveraged a procedural tool earlier this week to force a vote on an impeachment resolution. The resolution alleges Biden violated his oath by failing to enforce immigration laws and secure the southern border.

In a strictly party-line vote, 219-208, the House voted Thursday to send the matter to a pair of congressional committees – the House Homeland Security and Judiciary – for possible consideration.

Sounds good, right?

Except, as the Associated Press points out, those committees “are under no obligation to do anything.”

They describe the effort as having “pushed off” the impeachment resolution, while Reuters reports that the House has “sidelined” the measure.

RELATED: GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy Pre-Surrenders, Saying GOP Won’t Impeach Biden

Shrinking Violets: Republicans Retreating From Biden Impeachment

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has been trying to tamp down impeachment efforts from firebrand GOP lawmakers Boebert and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

Greene (R-GA) has announced plans for similar impeachment initiatives against Biden, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, the attorney prosecuting January 6 participants.

McCarthy, meanwhile, urged Republicans to oppose Boebert’s resolution, saying, “I don’t think it’s the right thing to do” and citing a need for investigation and following the traditional process.

McCarthy is being true to form, so long as you listen very carefully to what he says. Just a couple of weeks before the midterm elections he wasn’t a fan of impeaching President Biden.

“I think the country doesn’t like impeachment used for political purposes at all,” said McCarthy. “If anyone ever rises to that occasion, you have to, but I think the country wants to heal and … start to see the system that actually works.”

Perhaps he doesn’t recall that Democrats didn’t give a rip about whether or not former President Donald Trump “rose to the occasion of impeachment,” going after him twice for requesting an investigation of corruption in Ukraine and for telling people to protest peacefully at the Capitol.

Considering recent news, Trump’s ask for an investigation was perfectly legitimate.

Perhaps Greene should have been directing her recent remarks about Boebert to the Speaker instead.

RELATED: MAGA Fight Consumes House Floor as Marjorie Taylor Greene Goes After Lauren Boebert, Calls Her a ‘Little B****’

Senate Republicans Too

A new Axios report indicates Senate Republicans are also a bit squeamish about pursuing President Biden’s impeachment. Several top GOP senators – members of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s leadership team – are quoted as being in opposition.

  • Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) – “I don’t know what they’re basing the president’s impeachment on … I can’t imagine going down that road.”
  • John Thune (R-SD) – “I’d rather focus on the policy agenda, the vision for the future, and go on and win elections.”
  • Steve Daines (R-MT) – Hasn’t “seen evidence that would rise to an impeachable offense.”

Senator Daines – You haven’t seen any evidence?! Perhaps a visit to the optometrist is in order.

The border crisis, Afghanistan withdrawal, the criminal pursuit of political opponents, colluding with school boards to treat parents like terrorists, corruption and bribery, an obvious lack of mental acuity? Do any of these things ring a bell?

What is the point of the Republican party right now? Can anybody explain what they’re doing?

Perhaps these Republican squishes should listen to the words of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) who pointed out that it was the Democrats who opened Pandora’s Box when it comes to impeachment.

“Whether it’s justified or not, the Democrats weaponized impeachment. They used it for partisan purposes to go after Trump because they disagreed with him,” Cruz said.

It’s time the GOP exercised its own power. Their colleagues on the other side of the aisle didn’t hesitate to take down Trump’s presidency. They won’t hesitate to do the same if a Republican wins the White House in 2024.

Grow a spine.

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Supreme Court hands Biden admin major win on challenge to ICE enforcement policy

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

The Supreme Court on Friday handed the Biden administration a major victory on a key immigration case – ruling that GOP-led states do not have standing to challenge a policy narrowing federal immigration enforcement.

The justices, in an 8-1 ruling in U.S. v Texas, found that Republican states did not have standing to challenge a narrowing of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) priorities for arrests and deportations of illegal immigrants. 

"In sum, the States have brought an extraordinarily unusual lawsuit. They want a federal court to order the Executive Branch to alter its arrest policies so as to make more arrests. Federal courts have not traditionally entertained that kind of lawsuit; indeed, the States cite no precedent for a lawsuit like this," the opinion, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said.

Justice Samuel Alito was the sole dissenting justice.

DHS SAYS IT WILL ABIDE BY COURT ORDER BLOCKING BIDEN ICE RESTRICTIONS

The case involved the issuing of new enforcement guidelines by the Department of Homeland Security. After initially attempting to impose a 30-day moratorium on all ICE deportations, the department issued guidance that restricted ICE agents to targeting three types of illegal immigrants for arrest and deportation: recent border crossers; threats to public safety; and national security threats.

"The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in the memo. "We will use our discretion and focus our enforcement resources in a more targeted way. Justice and our country's well-being require it."

The department said it was the most efficient use of limited resources to protect the American people, but critics saw it as part of a broader rolling back of enforcement and border security. The imposition of those guidelines coincided with a sharp drop in ICE deportations. In FY 2021, which included the final months of the Trump administration, ICE arrested 74,082 noncitizens and deported 59,011. Of the 74,082 arrests between October 2020 and October 2021, only 47,755 took place after Feb. 18 when the new priorities were implemented. Of removals, just 28,677 of the 59,011 deportations took place after Feb. 18.

NEARLY 17 MILLION ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LIVING IN US, 16% INCREASE SINCE 2021: ANALYSIS

Texas and Louisiana challenged the legality of the guidelines, arguing that the policy breached the Administrative Procedure Act and that they had standing because their states would incur greater law enforcement costs and a significant impact on social services due to the increase in illegal immigration that resulted. A district court found that the states did have standing and blocked the implementation of the policy.

MIGRANT NUMBERS EXCEEDED 200,000 ENCOUNTERS AGAIN IN MAY AS TITLE 42 EXPIRED

However, the high court disagreed: "The threshold question is whether the States have standing under Article III to maintain this suit. The answer is no." The opinion said that while monetary costs are an injury, the injury to allow standing must also be "legally and judicially cognizable."

It also clarified that it was not stating that states may never have standing over an alleged failure to make more arrests or prosecutions – including if the Executive Branch "wholly abandoned" its responsibilities in this regard -- but not in this case.

Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas concurred in the judgment, but said they "diagnose the jurisdictional defect differently…the problem here is redressability." They say that the states lack standing "because federal courts do not have authority to redress their injuries."

Justice Alito, in his dissent, says that the majority "brushes aside a major precedent that directly controls the standing question, refuses to apply our established test for standing, disregards factual findings made by the District Court after a trial, and holds that the only limit on the power of a President to disobey a law like the important provision at issue is Congress’s power to employ the weapons of inter-branch warfare—withholding funds, impeachment and removal, etc."

Alito notes that Congress passed legislation in the 1990s that commands the detention and removal of illegal immigrants who have been convicted of certain crimes.

"The Secretary of Homeland Security, however, has instructed his agents to disobey this legislative command and instead follow a different policy that is more to his liking. And the Court now says that no party injured by this policy is allowed to challenge it in court," he says, accusing his colleagues of "a deeply and dangerously" flawed interpretation of executive authority.

The case is one of a number of immigration challenges that have faced the Court, including recent challenges to end the Title 42 public health order. It is likely to eventually consider a challenge to a "Parole with Conditions" policy, which saw migrants released without court dates due to overcrowding and was implemented as Title 42 ended in May. The policy was blocked by a federal judge just days later. 

Morning Digest: Presenting our race-by-race guide for November’s top battleground

Posted on by Daily Kos Elections

The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.

Subscribe to The Downballot, our weekly podcast

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Leading Off

● Virginia: It's on in the Old Dominion: With Virginia's primaries now in the rearview, Daily Kos Elections is previewing the key races that will determine control of the 100-member House of Delegates in November.

  • Just three seats to flip it: Republicans currently hold a 52-48 advantage after netting seven seats in 2021, which followed two straight cycles that saw Democrats collectively add a whopping 21 members to their caucus. Set against that, three seats seems small, but Democrats only flipped a single seat in both 2011 and 2013.
  • Going by Biden or going by Youngkin? Joe Biden carried 59 districts under Virginia's new map, but Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin won 52, including 11 that had gone for the president. Was Biden's performance a high-water mark, or is a similar showing once again possible for Democrats with abortion still a major albatross for the GOP?
  • The make-or-break districts: Seven of those Biden/Youngkin seats are hotly contested battlegrounds all across the state that will likely decide who ends up with the majority. Many look very different than they once did, though, thanks to redistricting, and four are open seats.

Read more about each of these top-tier contests—as well as nine additional races that could come online depending on the political environment—in our comprehensive roundup that's chock-full of data.

Senate

● DE-Sen: EMILY's List has endorsed Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who has no serious opposition in sight.

Governors

● KY-Gov: Medium Buying reports that the RGA, via its Kentucky Values/State Solutions affiliate, has increased its total spending on ads opposing Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear to $1.55 million, an increase of more than $1 million compared to 10 days earlier.

● WA-Gov: Republican state Sen. Drew MacEwen tweeted Wednesday that he spoke with former GOP Rep. Dave Reichert, whom he reports is "actively exploring a run" for governor next year, and MacEwen said he would support Reichert rather than run himself. Reichert had previously refused to rule out running last month, but he has had a long history of flirting with running for statewide office yet never actually doing it.

Reichert's political career began when he was appointed sheriff of heavily Democratic King County in 1997, a post that he easily held in that year's elections and again in 2001. He gained further prominence when notorious serial killer Gary Ridgway, better known as the Green River Killer, was brought to justice during his tenure in the early 2000s. Reichert benefitted from this fame in 2004 when he ran for and won an open congressional district in the eastern Seattle suburbs that had historically favored Republicans downballot but had become Democratic-leaning at the federal level.

Gaining a reputation as a pragmatic conservative, Reichert had repeatedly survived difficult reelection battles until post-2010 redistricting made his seat redder and insulated him from a tough challenge until the 2018 elections. But Reichert finally opted not to seek reelection ahead of that year's blue wave, and Democrat Kim Schrier flipped his 8th District that year and still holds it to this day.

House

● TX-32: Former Dallas City Council member Kevin Felder has filed to run in the Democratic primary to succeed Senate candidate Colin Allred in this heavily Democratic seat, though he has yet to comment on his interest in the race.

Felder previously led the NAACP's Dallas chapter and won election to the City Council in 2017, but he lost his reelection campaign in 2019 after he had been charged with a felony over an alleged hit-and-run incident, and he lost a comeback attempt for the seat in 2021. However, the case was dismissed last year on the condition that Felder complete a defensive driving course.

Attorneys General

● TX-AG: Texas' Republican-controlled state Senate has voted to establish a package of rules for the upcoming trial of state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican who was impeached and suspended from office last month. The trial will commence on Sept. 5, and senators voted with wide bipartisan support to bar Paxton's wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, from voting in the trial, though she will still be able to attend the trial. However, despite his wife’s recusal, it will still take 21 votes in the 31-member chamber to permanently remove the attorney general from office.

Meanwhile, earlier this month the FBI arrested Ken Paxton ally Nate Paul, a wealthy real estate investor who is at the center of the scandal that led to Paxton's impeachment. Paul was charged with several counts of defrauding financial institutions, for which the government is seeking $172 million in restitution. Most of the impeachment charges against Paxton accused him of illegally using his powers to help Paul, whom the attorney general also allegedly convinced to hire the woman Paxton was having an affair with.

Boebert dodges Hannity question on Greene spat: ‘Marjorie is not my enemy’

Posted on (Updated by Julia Shapero

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) on Thursday dodged a question from Fox News host Sean Hannity after a recent spat with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

“Sean, I did not put my life on pause and leave my four boys and my now grandson to come here and just get in spats with people,” Boebert said. “I came here to legislate and to be effective for Coloradans — Coloradans who are suffering from the Democrats’ policy.” 

“Marjorie is not my enemy,” she continued. “Joe Biden’s policy, the Democrats, that is my enemy that I am combating right now.”

Greene reportedly called Boebert a “little bitch” on the House floor Wednesday over the Colorado Republican’s recent push to force a vote on impeaching President Biden, according to The Daily Beast. 

The Georgia Republican, who later confirmed the exchange, accused Boebert of copying her articles of impeachment against Biden, noting she has previously donated to and defended the congresswoman.

“I have defended her when she’s been attacked,” Greene told reporters. “She and I have virtually the same voting record. We’re both members of the House Freedom Caucus. We should be natural allies. But for some reason, she has a great skill and talent for making most people here not like her. And so, it’s her issue.”

House Republicans voted to punt Boebert’s impeachment resolution to the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees on Thursday, at least temporarily avoiding a vote that threatened to split the party.

Whistleblowers say IRS recommended felony charges in Hunter Biden probe, allege political interference

Posted on (Updated by Julia Shapero

Two whistleblowers told a House panel that the IRS recommended additional felony tax charges against Hunter Biden and alleged that the case was slow-walked by prosecutors.

Gary Shapley, an IRS supervisory special agent, told the House Ways and Means Committee in testimony released Thursday that the IRS recommended felony tax evasion charges, as well as felony charges for filing false tax returns, against Biden.

Biden ultimately agreed to plead guilty to two minor tax crimes and to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement on a separate charge of unlawful possession of a firearm while addicted to a controlled substance, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

In Shapley's opening statement to the committee, he alleged that Biden received “preferential treatment” and said the Justice Department, then under the leadership of Trump appointee Bill Barr, “slow-walked the investigation.”

“After former Vice President Joseph Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee for President in early April 2020, career DOJ officials dragged their feet on the IRS taking these investigative steps,” he said.

A second unnamed whistleblower, a special agent on the IRS criminal investigation team, said that the conduct of prosecutors since October 2022 “has honestly been appalling,” alleging that they slow-walked the case.

The Biden investigation was handled by U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss, a Trump appointee who retained his role despite the common practice of presidents asking U.S. attorneys to resign at the start of a new administration.

“As both the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney David Weiss have said, U.S. Attorney Weiss has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate.  He needs no further approval to do so,” the Justice Department said in a statement Friday.

Chris Clark, an attorney for Biden, likewise suggested the investigation was thorough.

“Any suggestion the investigation was not thorough, or cut corners, or cut my client any slack, is preposterous and deeply irresponsible,” Clark said.

While Shapley’s statement suggested IRS agents were interested in probing a comment in a Biden WhatsApp message that referenced his father, Clark pushed back on any suggested President Biden had any involvement in his client's business dealings.

“The DOJ investigation covered a period which was a time of turmoil and addiction for my client. Any verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family,” Clark said.

“Biased and politically- motivated, selective leaks have plagued this matter for years. They are not only irresponsible, they are illegal. A close examination of the document released publicly yesterday by a very biased individual raises serious questions over whether it is what he claims it to be. It is dangerously misleading to make any conclusions or inferences based on this document.”

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said Thursday that the whistleblowers’ testimony suggests Biden “received preferential treatment in the course of the investigation," noting that the president's son "has struck a plea deal that will likely keep him out from behind bars.”

The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), called the allegations from the chairman “premature.”

“The Minority takes whistleblower allegations extremely seriously, but the fact is this exercise was not ready for primetime. Two interviews do not make an investigation when more than 50 employees were named, especially when you consider that one recanted key elements of his testimony earlier this week,” he said, noting an inspector general review of the matter is underway.

“It’s all premature, and the rush shows how pretextual this is. In this stunning abuse of power, Republicans relinquished the Committee to the fringes of their extremism, and without any regard for a legitimate legislative purpose.”

Shapley complained that DOJ concerns over Biden’s ties to his father hindered numerous investigative steps. 

He said prosecutors withheld the laptop from investigators - something he said was an unprecedented move. He said prosecutors were also hesitant to execute various search warrants, instead seeking cooperation from Biden’s legal team. He was also investigating possible tax violations from 2014 and 2015, complaining the delays hindered the chances of bringing charges on some of the most serious conduct given the statute of limitations.

"This investigation has been hampered and slowed by claims of potential election meddling,” Shapley said he wrote in a May 2021 memo.

Updated at 4 p.m.

Boebert blasts Dem opponent fundraising off family members performing abortions: ‘Disgusting’

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., accused her 2024 Democrat opponent of choosing "to fundraise off the killing of innocent babies" after a campaign email touted his family members' long history in the abortion industry.

Adam Frisch, the Democrat vying for the Republican-held Colorado seat next cycle, sent an email blast Saturday, highlighting that members of his family were abortion doctors and labeling Boebert's pro-life position as "extreme."

Adam's father, Melvin Frisch, has a decades-long history of work in the abortion industry dating back to the early 1970s, when he served in the Public Health Service on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana.

Frisch said in the fundraising email that his abortionist father – who in 1982 published an analysis arguing that dilation and evacuation abortions were safe to perform after 13 weeks of pregnancy – "really shaped how I think about the issue."

REP BOEBERT SAYS SHE WILL USE PRIVILEGED MOTION TO BRING IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES AGAINST BIDEN

According to the Foundations of Life Pregnancy Center, dilation and evacuation abortions usually occur within the 13th to 24th week of pregnancy, but the "fetus is too large to be broken up by suction alone and will not pass through the suction tubing."

The center describes how after "the cervix is stretched open, the doctor pulls out the fetal parts with forceps. The fetus’ skull is crushed to ease removal. A sharp tool (called a curette) is also used to scrape out the contents of the uterus, removing any remaining tissue."

COLORADO DEMS VOTE AGAINST HARSHER PENALTIES FOR INDECENT EXPOSURE TO KIDS BECAUSE IT COULD ‘BAN DRAG SHOWS’

Melvin Frisch was also medical director of Planned Parenthood Arizona, which his congressional candidate son said "helped train the next generation of health care providers at Planned Parenthood," according to the email.

Frisch noted in the email how he is excited that his OB-GYN sister, Hope Frisch, is continuing his father's "legacy" in the field.

"My opponent, Lauren Boebert, wants you to think that women having the freedom to make their own medical decisions is some extreme idea. It’s not," Frisch said of his pro-life contender.

Boebert has a history of siding with pro-life legislation in Congress, most recently introducing the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2023 in January to place a one-year moratorium on federal funds given to Planned Parenthood.

"Abortion is the Frisch family business," Boebert told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement. "Abortions paid for Adam's privileged childhood and private schooling, and abortionists help fund his campaign."

"It's disgusting Adam Frisch chooses to fundraise off the killing of innocent babies, but everyone needs to understand for Adam, abortions mean lining his family's pockets and filling his campaign coffers," the congresswoman said, hitting back at the Democrat's email.

Frisch's campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

US has ‘downplayed’ the number of UFO sightings: Senator Hawley

Posted on (Updated by Urja Sinha

(NewsNation) — Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (R) said he was "surprised" to learn how many unidentified aerial phenomena the U.S. government has come across, amid calls from lawmakers for investigations into a whistleblower's claims of a secret UFO program.

"The number of these is apparently huge, huge. And that is something that the government has, the best I can say about it, downplayed, if not kept from the public, for a long, long time," said Hawley.

While he acknowledged that he can't assess the truth of David Grusch's allegations, Hawley pointed to government reports that indicated there were UAP sightings that remain "unaccounted for."

"I don't have any basis to evaluate them but do some of the details that he's alleging, do they sound plausible? Yeah, sure. They sound plausible, based on what I've seen this government do in other instances," Hawley said.

Hawley said his remarks concerned the government's response to the Chinese spy balloon spotted over the U.S. back in January.

"What we learned from the Chinese spy balloon incident is that one part of the government actively concealed it from other parts of the government," Hawley explained. "Because that's what they do all the time."

A House oversight committee has vowed to hold open hearings to address the whistleblower's allegations.

David Grusch, an Air Force veteran and former member of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, alleged the U.S. government has recovered non-human craft for decades. He recently filed a whistleblower complaint, stating he gave what he referred to as classified “proof” to Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General.

Hawley said he felt that Grusch's claims track with what he alleges to have heard in briefings.

"He's saying that the government knows more about this than they have previously let on. That doesn't really surprise me. Because it looks to me like the government has been tracking these UAPs for a long time now, and has not been saying much about it," said Hawley.

Not all lawmakers are convinced, however.

"If we'd really found this stuff, there's no way you could keep it from coming out. … My gut belief is if there's a physical piece of a spacecraft or an intact spaceship, we would've known about it by now," said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Hawley doesn't buy that argument, saying the government is good at keeping secrets when it wants something to stay hidden.

Unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), formerly referred to as UFOs, in theory, could include alien spacecraft, but the two aren't synonymous.

The Defense Department's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) considers a UAP "anything in space, in the air, on land, in the sea or under the sea that can't be identified and might pose a threat to U.S. military installations or operations."

In a statement to NewsNation, the Pentagon said, to date, that “AARO has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”

However, Grusch is claiming very few people are aware of the alleged secret UAP program, saying even those at the Pentagon who respond to UAP reports are in the dark.

“I have plenty of senior, former intelligence officers that came to me, many of which I knew almost my whole career, that confided in me that they were part of a program," Grusch claimed. "They provided me documents and other proof, that there was in fact a program that the UAP Task Force was not read into.”