Month: June 2023

House Republicans desperately seeking reason to impeach Biden

Posted on (Updated by Laura Clawson

House Republican leadership isn’t happy with Rep. Lauren Boebert’s current impeachment shenanigans, but that’s not because they don’t plan to impeach Biden. They just don’t like the timing and the specifics. Speaker Kevin McCarthy knows that his members and the Republican base will demand a baseless impeachment while the party has a House majority, but he wants to at least pretend it’s not a foregone conclusion, and that Republicans only went where the evidence lead after sober consideration. (Ha ha ha.)

McCarthy’s line, offered to reporters on Wednesday, is: “What I am saying is these investigations will follow the information we get wherever it will take us.” He also repeated uncorroborated accusations against the president, though, in case you were tempted to believe that the fix wasn’t in.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, who is leading a series of “investigations” into the president and his son Hunter, is similarly pretending that impeachment is a giant question mark.

“We’ve never said impeachment, yes or no,” Comer told Punchbowl. “If it leads to impeachment, it leads to impeachment. Our investigation, we’ve still got several more months of work to do before I can issue a report … I don’t think what happens tomorrow [on the Boebert resolution] will have any impact. Nor will the plea-bargain deal with the president’s son.”

House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry insists, “The goal is not impeachment.” The real goal, he said, was information. “But if the information leads you to facts that require and demand accountability, that’s the only accountability.” And “yes,” Perry believes Republicans will uncover said “information” against Biden and support for impeachment will build.

Other Republicans are being even less circumspect.

“Ultimately, you’re going to see Biden impeached,” Rep. Andy Ogles told Punchbowl. “The question is when and is it soon enough for the American people?” Ogles, like Boebert and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, has introduced an impeachment resolution. Rep. Eli Crane said impeachment will “absolutely” be an outcome of the investigations.

The likelihood that McCarthy will be able to stifle the demands for Biden’s impeachment is only slightly higher than the likelihood that McCarthy will be remembered as an effective speaker. Under his leadership, House Republicans have few legislative accomplishments to tout, and the promised bombshell hearings on Hunter Biden and anything else they could dig up to undermine the president have flopped. Impeachment is what Republicans have left to pander to their base, mollify the people whose support McCarthy lobbied and traded for through 15 speaker votes, and pretend they have gotten something done.

But an impeachment could very well backfire on Republicans. They’ll be going into it, after all, with scant evidence and screamingly obvious partisan motivations. And unless they conduct impeachment hearings with a much higher level of professionalism than they’ve shown to this point, it’s going to be a clown show that reveals again and again that this is about revenge against Democrats for impeaching Donald Trump and about undermining the Biden presidency after Republicans failed to overturn the 2020 elections. Comer says his report won’t come out for “several more months,” which would likely put any impeachment proceedings into 2024. It might motivate their base, but it’s unlikely to be what independent voters want to see from the House of Representatives.

”How can you impeach someone with no evidence?” asked Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. Raskin is pretty smart, so I’m going to assume that was a rhetorical question. He knows Republicans don’t care about evidence, and if they move forward on impeachment, even voters who aren’t paying very much attention will realize that.

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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Texas Republican pushes Biden impeachment over ‘false’ compassion for migrants, ‘reach’ of cartels into US

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, scorched President Biden in a House floor speech Thursday demanding his impeachment, accusing the administration and Democrats of expressing "false" compassion toward migrants while allowing the "dangerous hand of cartels" to stretch into the United States. 

On Wednesday night, the House Rules Committee reported a rule to refer House Resolution 503 to the Committee on Homeland and Security and Judiciary laying out articles of impeachment against President Biden "for his failure to secure the southern border of the United States." 

"The laws of the United States are there expressly and specifically laid out to ensure that our border will be protected, that our nation will be secure," Roy told the House floor Thursday. "That is the fundamental question before us is when the Executive Branch fails to follow the law, when the Executive Branch fails to adhere to its duty to defend the Constitution, the laws of the United States, then what is it that the Congress – that the People's House – is supposed to do in response?"

"The founders gave us a mechanism, and here today we are talking about putting forward and referring these articles to the Homeland Security Committee for determination of the extent to which the homeland is, in fact, not secure as a direct consequence of the refusal of the administration, well beyond maladministration, but very specifically the refusal to follow the laws of the United States that is resulting in the direct consequence of the death and damage to the American people.," he continued.

DESANTIS ANNOUNCES NATIONWIDE COALITION OF 90 SHERIFFS TO PUSH BACK AGAINST BORDER CRISIS

Roy said since Biden took office, there have been more than 5 million illegal migrant encounters along the southwest border – including more than 240,000 illegal immigrants encountered at the border in May alone. Since the "relaxed enforcement" of Title 42, he argued about 2 million illegal immigrants have successfully evaded border agents, based on "relatively conservative accounting," Roy said. He said data shows 125 individuals from the terrorist watch list have been encountered this fiscal year, compared to about 98 in all the last fiscal year and about 10 in the last year of the Trump administration. 

In his floor speech, Roy referenced a recent opinion from U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas Reed O’Connor laying out how illegal immigrants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal migrants. The sentencing information shows that on behalf of the Juarez cartel, the defendants participated in a migrant smuggling conspiracy. 

The smuggling organization charged $10,000 to smuggle an adult illegal immigrant to the U.S. and between $12,000 to $14000 to smuggle a child.

The order lays out how authorities discovered that there was an illegal immigrant in Baltimore who was being held for ransom so that his family would not be abused by the Juarez cartel. The cartel member allegedly told the husband, "They would do things to his daughter he would not like," if he did not make a payment of $23,000, Roy said. 

"This is the state of affairs in our country. And this is the consequence to those migrants who were seeking to come here when my colleagues in the false name of compassion state that open borders is somehow good for them," Roy said. "But this is causing crime to extend into our communities. This is causing us to experience the dangerous hand of cartels. Just this morning, we had more news about cartels and their reach into Texas, into the United States. It is an everyday occurrence. Bailouts, damage to ranches, harm to Texans, death to Texans, fentanyl. How many more fentanyl moms? How many more angel moms? How many more Americans need suffer because this president refuses to follow the laws of the United States that he raised his hand and swore an oath to defend?" 

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

In a fiery response, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., slammed the House Rules Committee for convening Wednesday night to deploy emergency procedures to refer the Biden impeachment resolution to committee. 

"What a spectacular emergency. Truly something that needed to be done immediately," McGovern scoffed. "We all know the truth. The real emergency here was that the Georgia wing and the Colorado wing of the MAGA caucus got into a fight right over -- right over there on the House floor about who gets to impeach the president first. The truth is that Speaker McCarthy has lost control of this House, and it is being run by the MAGA fringe. This is nuts." 

Since the end of Title 42 on May 11, the Democrat argued that unlawful entries along the southern border have plummeted. As of June 6, Customs and Border Protection reported over 70% fewer encounters between points of entry or unscheduled encounters per day, McGovern said, adding that "fentanyl seizures have increased under the Biden presidency." 

"They would rather talk about building a stupid wall along our southern border that they know won't work," McGovern said of Republicans. "Or about a non-binding resolution they put on the floor this week that demonizes migrants but does nothing to fix our immigration system. I mean, they have a policy disagreement with President Biden and their first impulse isn't let's pass an immigration bill. Their first impulse is to impeach him. Our founding fathers must be rolling over in their graves." 

Before yielding his time, Roy responded to McGovern’s remarks. 

"I would just note that this morning, Texas DPS troopers arrested a Gulf cartel operative in the Rio Grande Valley moving smugglers across the river, having paid thousands of dollars, moving five illegal immigrants into the United States," Roy countered. "This is somebody that had been affiliated with a dangerous cartel. It's happening every day of the state of Texas because this administration refuses to do its job." 

Tense—or typical?—moment in House as MTG calls Boebert a ‘bitch’

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

It seems like only yesterday that Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert were sharing the single incoherent view that they should be the only two lawmakers to vote against the Bone Marrow Bill. Since then, like the rest of the circular firing squad that is the Republican Party, Boebert and Greene’s relationship has deteriorated.

It’s being reported that the two right-wing extremists got into a fight on the House floor Wednesday, with sources telling The Daily Beast Greene was angry at Boebert for stealing her impeach Biden thunder. One source said they got into it, with Greene calling the Colorado gun-toting Republican a “bitch.” Another source said the phrase used by Greene was “a little bitch.” Potato, potahto …

The fight between the two is triangulated under Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is reportedly none too happy with Boebert’s use of a privileged resolution for this bogus impeachment vote. Unlike Greene’s flotilla of impeachment articles against everybody, Boebert’s use of this procedural maneuver bypasses McCarthy’s authority. Instead it forces a vote within two days. Now the clock is ticking and the Yakety Sax music is playing.

RELATED STORY: McCarthy isn't happy with Boebert's impeachment shenanigans

Earlier this year, reports came out that the two congresswomen got into some kind of bathroom brawl connected to Boebert’s unwillingness to support McCarthy as speaker of the House. This kerfuffle came less than a month after Boebert told Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk she wasn’t aligned with everything Greene thought, such as “Russian space lasers, Jewish space lasers, and all of this.” Here was some of the discussion, captured by C SPAN cameras, on Wednesday.

Saw this conversation… not sure if it was a friendly one pic.twitter.com/tpz3z2Phtv

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 21, 2023

When asked to comment on the story, Greene told reporters, “I will not confirm or deny.” Boebert took a few seconds to try and be diplomatic before relenting and saying, “Yeah, I’m not in middle school.” In Boebert’s defense, her entire political party seems to act like it is.

The two congresswomen, who have made a career of sticking their feet in their mouths while attempting to attack others, fighting amongst themselves makes some kind of cosmic sense. It is just one small and tragically hilarious example of what the Republican Party now represents.

RELATED STORIES:

The stink behind the bathroom brawl between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert

Obnoxious congresswoman from Georgia in public catfight with gun-toting rep from Colorado

Lauren Boebert tries to own the libs and ends up embarrassing herself

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's committee debut was exactly as disgraceful as expected

Senate rejects House-passed measure overturning Biden rule on pistol braces  

Posted on (Updated by Alexander Bolton

The Senate voted largely along party lines Thursday to reject a Republican-sponsored resolution that would have overturned a Biden administration rule effectively banning the use of stabilizing braces on pistols — devices that have been used in several mass shootings.  

Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Jon Tester (Mont.), two centrist Democrats facing tough reelection races next year in red states, voted against the resolution. They both have a history of supporting gun-owners' rights.

The resolution failed by a vote of 49 to 50. 

President Biden had said he would veto the measure, which the House approved June 13.   

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said repealing the rule effectively banning pistol braces would have made it “easier to conceal an assault-style pistol, something that’s been used in mass shooting after mass shooting.”  

“Shame on them,” he said of Republicans who pushed to overturn the regulation.  

“If you’ve ever seen a gunman fire what looks like a machine gun with one hand, that’s what pistol braces allow you to do,” he said.  

The White House noted in a statement of administration policy that gunmen have used brace devices in mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and Boulder, Colo.  

The resolution, which Republicans moved under the Congressional Review Act, would have nullified the rule finalized in January by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) stating that any stabilizing brace attached to a pistol with a barrel less than 16 inches would be regulated as a “short-barreled rifle” under the 1968 Gun Control Act.   

Congress passed legislation in the 1980s to impose a 10-year prison sentencing enhancement for using a short-barreled rifle in any violent or drug trafficking crime.  

Under the new Biden administration rule, gun owners who have a pistol with a stabilizing brace can either add a longer barrel to the firearm, remove the brace, turn the firearm in to a local ATF office or register it as a short-barreled rifle with federal authorities.  

“Short-barreled rifles are more concealable than long guns, yet more dangerous and accurate at a distance than traditional pistols. For these reasons, they are particularly lethal, which is why Congress has deemed them to be dangerous and unusual weapons subject to strict regulation since 1934,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a June 12 statement of policy.  

The White House budget office said earlier this month that Biden would veto the measure.   

“For almost 90 years, short-barreled rifles have been controlled under the National Firearms Act, along with machine guns and sawed-off shotguns. Why? Because they combine the accuracy of a rifle with the concealability of a handgun. It’s a deadly combination,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said before the vote.   

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), the House sponsor of the resolution, called the ATF rule “unconstitutional” and an example of “executive overreach.”  

The House passed the resolution earlier this month by a largely partisan vote of 219 to 210.  

Two Democrats voted for it and two Republicans voted against it. 

Names of George Santos bond sponsors released

Posted on (Updated by Mychael Schnell

Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) father and aunt financially backed his criminal bail, according to newly unsealed court documents.

The release of their names — father Gercino dos Santos and aunt Elma Preven — on Thursday is the latest iteration of a months-long saga surrounding Santos, the federally indicted first-term lawmaker who has come under intense scrutiny amid questions about his finances and background.

The congressman attempted to keep their identities private, citing fears of harassment as he unsuccessfully pushed back twice on media companies’ requests to unseal the names.

“As the News Organizations aptly note, family members frequently serve as suretors for criminal defendants in this country every day,” U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert, appointed by former President Clinton, wrote in a newly unsealed ruling handed down earlier this week.

"Consequently, it is more likely that disclosure of the Suretors’ identities will render any potential ‘story’ a ‘non-story,’ especially considering the News Organizations’ acknowledgement of this fact,” she added. “Indeed, it appears Defendant’s continued attempts to shield the identity of his Suretors, notwithstanding the fact that he is aware their identities are not controversial, has simply created hysteria over what is, in actuality, a nonissue."

More House coverage from The Hill

Joe Murray, Santos’s lawyer, previously suggested Santos would rather have them withdraw and the lawmaker go to jail, rather than let their names become public, citing a “media frenzy.”

The judge, however, rejected that notion when ordering the names unsealed.

"Defendant did nothing to diffuse the ‘media frenzy’ when leaving the courthouse, instead choosing to address the numerous reporters awaiting his departure,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Shields wrote.

Thursday’s order also revealed that five days after Shields presided over Santos’s arraignment, she held a bond hearing behind closed doors. Santos’s aunt and father were present, but the congressman did not attend, according to court documents.

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.)

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) celebrates the first ever Congressional Sneaker Day created by the Congressional Sneaker Caucus at the Capitol on Wednesday, June 21, 2023.

The filings indicate Santos’s father and aunt both “remained comfortable” at the hearing about their roles, even following days of media attention on the case.

Shields noted they didn’t secure the bond with cash or property, but were “deemed able to provide the necessary moral suasion” and are personally responsible for Santos’s compliance.

Santos last month was indicted on 13 federal charges that accuse him of misleading campaign donors, fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits and lying on financial disclosures. He pleaded not guilty.

But he has been the subject of controversy since before he was sworn into office after a bombshell report outlined questionable aspects of his resume in December. The criticism ballooned when more inquiries about his finances emerged and hit a fever pitch last month when he was indicted.

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Also last month, A House Democrat moved to force a vote on expelling Santos but the chamber ultimately voted to send the resolution to the Ethics Committee, which was already investigating the congressman.

The unsealing of the names of people who sponsored Santos’s bond — which Santos fought — could have implications for that inquiry.

The Ethics panel launched its probe into Santos in March to look into various areas, but in recent weeks the committee asked for information about his bond suretors.

In a May 13 letter from the panel to Santos — which was first revealed in a court filing this month — the committee asked the congressman to identify the individuals who co-signed his bond, inform the committee of any payments made on his behalf to the co-signers as compensation, lay out any exceptions to House rules that the congressman believes applies to the bond guarantors and provide all documents related to the bond, including communications with the co-signers.

Santos did not immediately comply with the request: Roughly two weeks later, his attorney, Joseph Murray, asked that his client receive a 30-day extension to respond to the panel’s request while also noting he could not share the requested information with the committee until it was unsealed by the court.

“Please understand that unless or until such time that the Court unseals the identities of the suretors, the surety records, and proceedings, I cannot share that information with this Honorable House Ethics Committee,” Murray told the committee in a May 31 letter first revealed in a filing this month.

“If the Court decides to unseal the identities of the sureties, the surety records and proceedings, I will share that information with the Committee. If, however, the Court upholds the sealing, I will also share that Order with this Committee,” he added.

Updated at 1:31 p.m.

Greene calls Boebert a ‘little b- – – -‘ as tensions boil over on House floor

Posted on (Updated by Emily Brooks

Editor's note: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said a Daily Beast story about her exchange with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) was "impressively correct." An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect quote.

Tensions between Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) boiled over on the House floor as Greene called Boebert a "little bitch" amid GOP frustration at the Colorado Republican's move to try and force a vote on impeaching President Biden.

During votes Wednesday afternoon, Boebert approached Greene over statements she made earlier in the day for critiquing her move to force an impeachment vote, the Daily Beast reported. 

Greene accused Boebert of copying her own articles of impeachment against Biden, which Greene had previously asked her to co-sponsor, the report said. And Greene also noted that she donated to Boebert and defended her.

At one point, Greene called Boebert a “little bitch.”

More House coverage from The Hill

Greene confirmed the exchange, later telling reporters that the Daily Beast’s story — including the name-calling — was “impressively correct.”

Boebert’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the exchange, but she told CNN of the reported exchange, “Like I said, I’m not in middle school.”

Greene expanded on her frustration with Boebert while speaking to reporters at the Capitol.

“I have defended her when she's been attacked. She and I have virtually the same voting record. We're both members of the House Freedom Caucus. We should be natural allies,” Greene said. “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.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) speaks during a press conference held by the Republican Study Committee announcing their Fiscal Year 2024 Budget at the Capitol on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.

Greene said that she supported Boebert’s impeachment articles because she also wants to impeach Biden, but she critiqued her approach. Boebert's move to force a vote surprised and angered many of her colleagues.

“She didn't talk to anyone about it. She didn’t come to the conference [meeting]. She didn't address it with anybody. She copied my articles of impeachment, refused to cosponsor mine,” Greene said.

The Trump-supporting firebrands both arrived in Congress in 2020, and due to their ideological and stylistic similarities, were often lumped together. But the two have diverged in their tactical approaches over the last year or so, and they have made clear they do not get along with each other.

One House GOP member told The Hill that Boebert and Greene have never liked each other and sit at opposite ends of the table during House Freedom Caucus meetings.

Sign up for the latest from The Hill here

The tension between the two has burst into public view in the past — particularly around the time Boebert and other conservatives blocked Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from immediately becoming Speaker, while Greene was a staunch supporter of McCarthy.

During the drawn-out Speaker’s fight in January, Greene and Boebert got into a confrontation in the women’s bathroom, the Daily Beast reported.

“You were OK taking millions of dollars from McCarthy, but you refuse to vote for him for Speaker, Lauren?” Greene reportedly said.

Boebert later recounted the exchange to conservative commentator Dana Loesch. 

“When she started going after me, I looked at her and said, ‘Don’t be ugly,’” Boebert said.

Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

And in a December interview with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, Boebert lamented being “accused of believing a lot of the things that [Greene] believes in.” 

“I don’t believe in this, just like I don’t believe in Russian space lasers — Jewish space lasers and all of this,” Boebert said, in reference to a 2018 Facebook post from Greene in which she floated that a “laser beam or light beam” from “space solar generators” could be to blame for wildfires in California, also mentioning the “Rothschild Inc.” Greene later said she did not know the Rothschilds have long been at the center of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Greene shot back on Twitter.

“She gladly takes our $$$ but when she’s been asked: Lauren refuses to endorse President Trump, she refuses to support Kevin McCarthy, and she childishly threw me under the bus for a cheap sound bite,” Greene said of Boebert.

Senate Democrat on new filing in documents case: Trump lawyers will have ‘bad Christmas’

Posted on (Updated by Jared Gans

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said attorneys for former President Trump in the classified and sensitive documents case will have a “bad Christmas” following a recent filing that hints prosecutors have additional evidence beyond what was previously known. 

A court filing from Wednesday states that special counsel Jack Smith has begun providing the evidence he plans to use to Trump, including multiple interviews of the former president, which seems to indicate the government has recordings of Trump discussing the documents he held at Mar-a-Lago beyond what is mentioned in the indictment. 

Whitehouse told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell in an interview Wednesday that the filing tells him Smith has a strong case and feels comfortable turning over the evidence early in the process. 

“It tells me that there’s gonna be bad Christmas for the Trump lawyers as they open the different files of evidence and find out how awful the evidence is against their client,” he said. 

“And it tells me that they want to get Trump’s attention early, by getting his lawyers the evidence that they need to be able to go to their client and say, ‘Hey, you are in real trouble here,’” Whitehouse continued. 

More Senate coverage from The Hill

Judge Aileen Cannon has set a preliminary trial date for the case Aug. 14, but Trump’s team will likely delay the trial past then through pre-trial motions. 

Trump was indicted on 37 federal charges earlier this month in relation to his handling of the documents that were taken from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act. He has also been charged with obstructing the investigation into his retention of the documents. 

The indictment alleges that Trump had documents containing military secrets and information on U.S. nuclear programs, pushed his attorneys to help cover up that he had the documents, and showed sensitive documents to people who were not authorized to see them at least twice.

Sign up for the latest from The Hill here

Trump has maintained that he did not commit any wrongdoing in the case and the charges are politically motivated. 

Smith defended the integrity of the Justice Department and FBI after the indictment was unsealed and emphasized the “scope” and “gravity” of the charges outlined in the indictment. 

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

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert appeared to get into a heated exchange on the House floor, with reports suggesting Greene called Boebert a “little bitch.”

The altercation between the two Trump supporters took place as the House debated a motion to censure Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) for pushing false claims that former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.

Greene, an acolyte of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Boebert have reportedly been feuding for months.

A clip surfaced of the two firebrand lawmakers engaging in a conversation that at times looked tense.

The animated exchange was posted to social media.

RELATED: Steve Bannon Wants Marjorie Taylor Greene Primaried After Voting in Favor of Biden-McCarthy Debt Ceiling Deal

Marjorie Taylor Greene Allegedly Calls Lauren Boebert a ‘Little Bitch’

The Daily Beast found multiple witnesses to the conversation between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, confirming that it wasn’t simply a friendly chat.

The sources claim Greene “cursed out” Boebert over who should take the lead on impeaching President Joe Biden. Boebert (R-CO) leveraged a procedural tool earlier this week to force a vote on her own impeachment resolution, undercutting Greene’s repeated efforts.

McCarthy dutifully defended Greene by urging Republicans to oppose Boebert’s resolution, saying, “I don’t think it’s the right thing to do.”

With that as a backdrop, Boebert was clearly not pleased with Greene making statements to the press about her impeachment effort, and Greene was clearly not pleased with Boebert trying to upstage her.

Boebert, according to the report, instigated the confrontation, initially addressing “statements you made about me publicly.”

Three sources claim Greene (R-GA) called Boebert a “bitch” while one of them contended the full phrase was “little bitch.”

“I’ve donated to you, I’ve defended you. But you’ve been nothing but a little bitch to me,” Greene allegedly told Boebert, according to the Daily Beast’s source. “And you copied my articles of impeachment after I asked you to cosponsor them.”

Neither Greene nor Boebert’s impeachment resolutions have any chance of moving forward. It took the House multiple votes just to censure Schiff and his transgressions were as obvious as anybody’s.

RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene Sees Herself as Trump’s VP Pick in 2024

A Bathroom Fight to Boot

This isn’t the first time these two women have reportedly engaged in a bitter exchange.

Greene got into a shouting match with Boebert in a bathroom back in January.

Boebert at the time said Greene approached her in a congressional ladies’ bathroom and started “being kind of nasty” about the vote for Speaker.

“No one else had been nasty about it. Everyone had been very professional,” she said. “And so when she started going after me, I looked at her and said, ‘Don’t be ugly.’”

Greene clearly has designs on attaining greater power in her congressional role, hitching her cart to McCarthy in a manner that has seen the two team up to scold MAGA reps and celebrate a debt ceiling agreement benefitting President Biden together.

Steve Bannon, the former campaign manager for Donald Trump, called out Greene for voting in favor of the debt ceiling agreement and even called on Republicans to primary her.

Sources have said Greene is seeking to place herself at the forefront of Trump’s selection for Vice President in 2024.

She has consistently gone along with Trump and McCarthy in an obvious attempt to prove she’s not quite as fringe as lawmakers like Boebert, showing she is willing to go along with the more lucrative political position of the day.

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In rowdy scene, House censures Rep. Adam Schiff over Trump-Russia investigations

Posted on by Associated Press

The House voted Wednesday to censure California Rep. Adam Schiff for comments he made several years ago about investigations into Donald Trump's ties to Russia, rebuking the Democrat and frequent critic of the former president along party lines.

Schiff becomes the 25th House lawmaker to be censured. He was defiant ahead of the vote, saying he will wear the formal disapproval as a “badge of honor" and charging his GOP colleagues of doing the former president's bidding.

“I will not yield,” Schiff, who is running for the Senate in his home state, said during debate over the measure. “Not one inch.”

When it was time for Schiff to come to the front of the chamber to be formally censured, immediately after the vote, the normally solemn ceremony turned into more of a celebratory atmosphere. Dozens of Democrats crowded to the front, clapping and cheering for Schiff and patting him on the back. They chanted “No!,” “Shame!” and “Adam! Adam!"

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., read the resolution out loud, as is tradition after a censure. But he only read part of the document before leaving the chamber as Democrats heckled and interrupted him.

“Censure all of us," one Democrat yelled.

Schiff, the former Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the lead prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment trial, has long been a top Republican political target. Soon after taking back the majority this year, Republicans blocked him from sitting on the intelligence panel.

More than 20 Republicans voted with Democrats last week to block the censure resolution, but they changed their votes this week after the measure's sponsor, Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, removed a provision that could have fined Schiff $16 million if the House Ethics Committee determined he lied. Several of the Republicans who voted to block the resolution last week said they opposed fining a member of Congress in that manner.

The final vote on Wednesday was 213-209 along party lines, with a handful of members voting present.

The revised resolution says Schiff held positions of power during Trump’s presidency and “abused this trust by saying there was evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.” Schiff was one of the most outspoken critics of the former president as both the Justice Department and the Republican-led House launched investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia in 2017. Both investigations concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election but neither found evidence of a criminal conspiracy.

“Representative Schiff purposely deceived his Committee, Congress, and the American people,” the resolution said.

The House has only censured two other lawmakers in the last 20 years. Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona was censured in 2021 for tweeting an animated video that depicted him striking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., with a sword. Former Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York was censured in 2010 for serious financial and campaign misconduct.

The censure itself carries no practical effect, except to provide a historic footnote that marks a lawmaker’s career. But the GOP resolution would also launch an ethics investigation into Schiff's conduct.

While Schiff did not initiate the 2017 congressional investigation into Trump's Russia ties — then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican who later became one of Trump’s most ardent defenders, started it — Republicans arguing in favor of his censure Wednesday blamed him for what they said was the fallout of that probe, and of the separate investigation started that same year by Trump's own Justice Department.

Luna said that Schiff's comments that there was evidence against Trump “ripped apart American families across the country” and that he was “permanently destroying family relationships.” Several blamed him for the more than $30 million spent by then-special counsel Robert Mueller, who led the Justice Department probe.

Schiff said the censure resolution “would accuse me of omnipotence, the leader of some a vast Deep State conspiracy, and of course, it is nonsense.”

Democrats aggressively defended their colleague. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who led Trump's second impeachment, called the effort an “embarrassing revenge tour on behalf of Donald Trump.”

Mueller, who led the two-year Justice Department investigation, determined that Russia intervened on the campaign’s behalf and that Trump’s campaign welcomed the help. But Mueller’s team did not find that the campaign conspired to sway the election, and the Justice Department did not recommend any criminal charges.

The House intelligence committee probe launched by Nunes similarly found that Russia intervened in the election but that there was no evidence of a criminal conspiracy. Schiff was the top Democrat on the panel at the time.

Schiff said last week that the censure resolution was “red meat” that McCarthy was throwing to his conference amid squabbles over government spending. Republicans are trying to show their fealty to Trump, Schiff said.

He said he warned the country during impeachment proceedings three years ago that Trump “would go on to do worse. And of course he did worse in the form of a violent attack on the Capitol.”

After Democrats won the House majority in 2018, the House impeached Trump for abuse of power after he threatened to withhold military aid to Ukraine and urged the country’s president to investigate then-candidate Joe Biden. Schiff was the lead House prosecutor making the case for conviction to the Senate, arguing repeatedly that “right matters.” The Republican-led chamber ultimately acquitted him.

Trump was impeached a second time a year later, after he had left office, for his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. The Senate again acquitted Trump.

In the censure resolution against Schiff, Luna also cited a report released in May from special counsel John Durham that found that the FBI rushed into its investigation of Trump’s campaign and relied too much on raw and unconfirmed intelligence.

Durham — who testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday — said investigators repeatedly relied on “confirmation bias,” ignoring or rationalizing away evidence that undercut their premise of a Trump-Russia conspiracy as they pushed the probe forward. But he did not allege that political bias or partisanship were guiding factors for the FBI’s actions.

In the hours before the vote, Schiff’s campaign sent out a fundraising email that said Luna had introduced “yet ANOTHER resolution to censure me.”

“The vote and debate will happen imminently,” the email read, asking recipients to donate to help him fight back. “Once more, I have to be on the House floor to listen as MAGA Republicans push false and defamatory lies about me.”

Democrats argued that the House censure resolution is an effort to distract from Trump’s recent indictment on federal charges of hoarding classified documents — several of which dealt with sensitive national security matters — and attempting to conceal them. House Republicans, most of whom are loyal to Trump, say the indictment is more evidence that the government is conspiring against the former president.

“This is not a serious resolution,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., but political theater to “distract from Donald Trump’s history of transgressions and now indictments.”