Month: July 2023

House GOP gets set to grill FBI director

Posted on (Updated by Mychael Schnell

Lawmakers are returning to Washington this week after the July Fourth recess with a number of priorities on the docket, including high-profile hearings, legislative pushes and, at the top of the list, the appropriations process.

The Senate returns to session Monday, and the House will gavel in Tuesday. Both chambers are scheduled to be in session for three weeks ahead of the August recess.

The House on Wednesday is set to hold a hearing featuring FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has emerged as a boogeyman on the right amid GOP claims that federal law enforcement agencies are politicized against Republicans.

On the Senate side, top officials from the PGA Tour are scheduled to testify as the organization’s merger with LIV Golf comes under scrutiny from congressional lawmakers. And senators are scheduled to receive a classified briefing on artificial intelligence as the matter comes under increased focus in the current Congress.

For both chambers, however, appropriations will be top of mind this week and throughout July as Congress stares down a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown. House and Senate lawmakers have started marking up appropriations bills, but they are doing so at different levels — putting the two chambers on a collision course and raising the possibility of a potential shutdown.

Wray to testify before House panel

FBI Director Christopher Wray is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, putting him face-to-face with some of his fiercest Republican opponents —  a number of whom have floated impeaching the director.

The hearing, set to begin at 10 a.m., will cover “the politicization of the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency under the direction” of Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, according to the panel. Both men have been top GOP targets this Congress.

The House GOP majority this Congress has consistently criticized the Justice Department — especially the FBI — arguing that federal law enforcement has been politicized and is biased against Republicans.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced articles of impeachment against Wray in May, accusing him of “facilitating the development of a Federal police force to intimidate, harass, and entrap American citizens that are deemed enemies of the Biden regime.”

Two Republicans who sit on the Judiciary Committee — Reps. Barry Moore (Ala.) and Jeff Van Drew (N.J.) — are co-sponsors of the impeachment resolution.

The hearings come on the heels of a heated showdown between Wray and the House Oversight Committee. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of the panel, threatened to hold Wray in contempt over the FBI’s refusal to share a document detailing unverified allegations that then-Vice President Biden accepted a bribe, which the White House denies. On the eve of the vote, however, the FBI agreed to grant committee members access, leading Comer to cancel the vote.

PGA Tour officials to testify following merger with LIV Golf

The controversy surrounding the PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger will make its way up to Capitol Hill this week with, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations set to hold a hearing on the deal, which will feature testimony from two top PGA Tour officials.

The hearing — scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m. — is titled “The PGA-LIV Deal: Implications for the Future of Golf and Saudi Arabia’s Influence in the United States.” PGA Tour CEO Ron Price and board member Jimmy Dunne are slated to testify.

In a statement last week, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the chairman and ranking member of the subcommittee, said the hearing would examine the PGA Tour-LIV Golf agreement and “the future of the PGA Tour and professional golf in the United States.”

The event comes just more than a month after the announcement of the merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, a deal that will create a new entity that has not yet been named, which will include the two golf businesses in addition to DP World Tour. The agreement also put an end to the pending antitrust litigation that existed between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

The deal, however, has sparked criticism from athletes and lawmakers alike, who are voicing concerns over the American PGA Tour teaming up with LIV Golf, which is based in Saudi Arabia, a country that has well-documented human rights abuses.

“While few details about the agreement are known, PIF’s role as an arm of the Saudi government and PGA Tour’s sudden and drastic reversal of position concerning LV Golf raises serious questions regarding the reasons for and terms behind the agreement,” Blumenthal wrote to the PGA Tour commissioner and LIV Golf CEO last month.

Senate to received classified AI briefing, eyes SCOTUS reform markup

The Senate is scheduled to receive a classified briefing on artificial intelligence Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced over the weekend, as the top Democrat prioritizes AI in the current Congress.

The Defense Department and Intelligence Community will brief senators “to learn how we’re using and investing in AI to protect our national security and learn what our adversaries are doing in AI,” Schumer said in a letter to colleagues on Sunday.

Schumer said the briefing will be the first-ever classified all-senators briefing on national security and AI. It comes after the New York Democrat last month outlined his approach for crafting AI policy, which he dubbed the SAFE Innovation Framework for Artificial Intelligence.

In Sunday’s letter, Schumer also outlined the Senate’s agenda for July: legislation to lower the cost of insulin, prescription drug reform and measures to address Supreme Court ethics.

Some action on the latter issue, dealing with the bench, is expected this week: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has said his panel will mark up Supreme Court ethics reform legislation when the chamber returns after the July Fourth recess. Last week, he said an announcement on the timing of a vote would be made early this week.

Appropriations is the top priority

The top priority for Congress heading into the three-week July sprint is government funding, as lawmakers race to pass all 12 appropriations bills ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline — a task that is appearing more and more difficult as complicating dynamics emerge.

In the House, conservatives are pushing for aggressive cuts when it comes to the appropriations process — they want spending to move back to 2022 levels — which is below the levels that were set in the debt limit deal President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) cut last month. The hard-line stance comes after conservatives voiced strong criticism of that very debt limit deal, arguing that it did not do enough to bring down the deficit.

In a show of good faith to those conservatives, the House began marking up appropriations bills at 2022 levels, but the right-wing Republicans are skeptical, accusing leadership of using budgetary gimmicks known as recessions to make it look like they are spending less than they are.

Complicating the matter even more, the Senate is marking up appropriations bills at the levels set in the debt limit deal, setting the stage for a chamber vs. chamber clash that could bring the government to the brink of a shutdown.

Greene’s Freedom Caucus ousting underscores GOP-conservative tensions

Posted on (Updated by Emily Brooks

House Republicans will return to Washington this week amid rising tensions between GOP leaders and hard-line conservatives, a dynamic highlighted by the House Freedom Caucus taking a vote to oust Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

The apparent purge marks a stunning development for Greene, a conservative icon and close ally of former President Trump who has also, more recently, cozied up to House GOP leaders at the expense of her standing among her own hard-line colleagues.

And it could create new headaches for Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who has leaned on Greene’s firm support to shield him from conservative attacks throughout the year.

The “straw that broke the camel’s back,” Freedom Caucus board member Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) told reporters Thursday, was Greene calling Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) a “little bitch” on the House floor in June. 

But Harris also said that Greene’s close relationship with McCarthy, as well as her support for a debt ceiling deal the Speaker struck with President Biden over the objections of most Freedom Caucus members, all “mattered” in her ouster.

Greene told Breitbart News that she had not yet talked to House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) about the vote, and questioned whether there was a quorum for the “impromptu” meeting.

But the vote itself has highlighted broader frictions between GOP leaders and far-right conservatives, who were wary of McCarthy’s speakership from the first days of the year, grew furious with his handling of the debt ceiling and are now eyeing tactics to force McCarthy to hold a tougher line on deficit reduction in the coming battle with Biden over federal spending.

Hanging over that debate is the threat of a government shutdown — and a possible challenge to McCarthy’s Speakership. 

McCarthy and some of his leadership allies huddled with roughly a dozen of the conservative detractors on the day Congress left Washington for the July 4 recess — an effort to ease tensions before the long break. Lawmakers on both sides of the debate left that meeting with hopes of coming together to pass all 12 appropriations bills through the lower chamber in time to prevent a shutdown at the end of September.

“We're making progress,” Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) said afterwards. “We'll be working on finding as many opportunities to cut federal spending as possible.”

Yet no deals were sealed, and winning the votes of the hard-liners — many of whom have opposed most of the spending bills they’ve faced in Congress — will be no easy task given the Republican’s slim House majority and the unanimous Democratic opposition to the GOP’s proposed cuts.

That internal GOP battle will be front and center as Congress returns to Capitol Hill, where Freedom Caucus members and their allies will focus the next three weeks on pressuring McCarthy and House leadership to pass spending bills at levels below the caps McCarthy agreed to in the debt ceiling deal — and rejecting what they call budgetary gimmicks, like rescinding previously approved funds, in order to achieve those lower levels.

Conservatives are also gearing up to pressure leadership on hot-button social issues in amendments to the annual defense authorization, which the House takes up next week. Among the nearly 1,500 amendments are proposals to ban the Defense Department from paying for abortion services or travel to a state where abortion is legal, and “anti-woke” measures like eliminating diversity and inclusion positions and initiatives.

Greene’s apparent ouster from the Freedom Caucus has sparked plenty of questions about the underlying reasons: Was it policy differences, personality disputes, a clash of allegiances, or some combination of the three? Harris said there were multiple factors at play, but neither Greene nor the Freedom Caucus will officially confirm her membership status or the motives behind the push to remove her.

In a statement responding to news of the vote to remove her, Greene said that she “serve[s] no group in Washington” and “will work with ANYONE” on her top priorities.

But coming in the midst of the spending fight, the vote to expel her — the first in the group’s eight-year history — is seen by some outside experts as just the latest example of the conservatives flexing their muscles in a razor-thin GOP majority. 

In doing so, they’ve sent a message to GOP leaders that they aim to use their considerable leverage to achieve their policy goals, particularly on federal spending. They’ve also sent a warning to their own members that there's a price to pay for siding with the conventional governing strategy adopted by McCarthy on issues like the debt ceiling that demand bipartisan support.

“That's what Marjorie Taylor Greene's problem [is] here,” Brendan Buck, former aide to past Speakers John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), told NBC News. “It's not so much that she's fighting with her colleagues. It’s that she's become an ally of the Speaker.”

Some other observers see the Freedom Caucus’s recent moves as tactical errors that will cause leadership to resist the group’s demands rather than embrace them.

“If I’m Scott Perry, this is the last thing I want making headlines leading into three weeks of session before the August recess,” a senior Republican aide told The Hill in response to news of Greene’s ouster. “All of the continuous drama surrounding [the House Freedom Caucus] has put their members at odds of getting any agenda items passed. It has to be tiring for leadership.”

In addition to moving to boot Greene, members of the group blocked legislative action on the House floor for a week in June over outrage about the debt ceiling bill and an alleged threat to keep legislation from coming to the floor. 

Later, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Boebert surprised leadership by making privileged motions to force action on flashy measures to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for his role in Trump investigations and to impeach Biden over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The GOP passed the measure to censure Schiff after leadership worked with Luna to adjust the language. Boebert’s effort didn’t fare as well —  House lawmakers opted to re-refer her impeachment articles to committees — but the Colorado firebrand is threatening to force floor votes once again if those panels don’t act on them. 

Harris, for his part, told reporters that Perry is a “true leader” and doing a “great job.”

And despite divisions on some issues, Freedom Caucus members say they are united on spending issues and their approach to securing cuts.

“We share a vision for reigning in wasteful government spending and re-focusing on the core functions of the government,” Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) told Punchbowl News last week. “There are more of us on Appropriations now than there have ever been and that gives us a little bit more insight into the process and how to influence the process.”

Democrat Adam Frisch raises $2.6 million in 2nd quarter for 2024 rematch against Lauren Boebert

Posted on by Charles Jay

Democratic challenger Adam Frisch has raised more than $2.6 million in the second quarter for his rematch against MAGA Republican extremist Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. Frisch almost pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the 2022 midterms when he lost to Boebert by a mere 546 votes in what surprisingly turned out to be the closest House race in the country. 

Frisch’s campaign, in a statement released Thursday, described the second-quarter fund-raising haul of more than $2.6 million as “shattering the record for the largest quarterly fundraising for a U.S. House challenger in the year before an election, excluding special elections and self-funded campaigns.”

The campaign said the average donation was just over $32 coming from over 81,000 individual donations from all 27 counties in the district and all 50 states. He is not accepting donations from corporate PACs.

RELATED STORY: After voting against infrastructure, Lauren Boebert dimly wonders why we don't spend more on it

In the statement, Frisch, a businessman and former Aspen city council member, thanked everyone who had donated to his campaign “to give the people of Southern and Western Colorado a representative who will take the job seriously and work across the aisle to find solutions to the problems facing the district.”

“Boebert continues to vote against the interests of her constituents while devoting her time to ‘angertainment’ antics that do nothing to help CO-3," Frisch said. "We can do better than Boebert, and thanks to our generous supporters, we will defeat her in 2024.”

Honored and humbled. Thank you to everyone of you who has donated, RT'ed, messaged, and joined this growing coalition. We are just getting started! pic.twitter.com/HxdsZVQ6c6

— Adam Frisch for CD-3 (@AdamForColorado) July 6, 2023

So far this year, Frisch has raised $4.4 million which is nearly two-thirds of the $6.7 million he raised for the 2022 campaign, much of which came in during the final weeks of the campaign after polls showed the race to be competitive.

In the first quarter of 2023, Frisch’s campaign brought in nearly $1.75 million compared to just over $763,000 for Boebert. Boebert has not yet reported her second-quarter fund-raising totals.  She raised $7.85 million for the 2022 campaign.

Frisch filed his paperwork for a 2024 rematch with Boebert on Feb. 14.

“People want the circus to stop. They want someone to focus on the district, not on themselves,” Frisch said. He added that the issues in CD3, such as water, mental health, agriculture, and the importance of domestic energy, are not “red and blue."https://t.co/5ghBlqTIwu

— Adam Frisch for CD-3 (@AdamForColorado) February 16, 2023

Boebert is considered the most vulnerable of the big-name MAGA Republican extremists in the House, most of whom represent deep-red congressional districts. Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District is rated as +9 GOP.

By contrast, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene won reelection by a 66% to 34% margin over Democrat Marcus Flowers in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District even though part of Democratic-leaning Cobb County was added to her district as a result of gerrymandering to give Republicans a bigger advantage in neighboring districts. Flowers raised more than $15.6 million in a totally noncompetitive race.

In 2022, both national parties mostly ignored Colorado's Republican-leaning 3rd Congressional District, which was considered solidly Republican by nearly all election forecasters.

In April, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee listed Boebert as among the Republican incumbents it considers most vulnerable. House Republicans have also put Boebert on their list of most vulnerable incumbents.

At the time, DCCC spokesperson Tommy Garcia told the website Colorado Politics in an email:

“Lauren Boebert is more obsessed with catching headlines and being the token MAGA extremist than actually working for everyday Coloradans. Between her dangerous conspiracies and outright racist bigotry, CO-03 voters can see that Lauren Boebert is an unserious member of Congress, unwilling to go to bat for them on issues facing Colorado. Her time in Congress is ticking down.”

A poll released in April by a Democratic firm showed that Boebert and Frisch were in a dead heat in the 3rd Congressional District, Colorado Politics reported.

The Global Strategy Group's Mountaineer poll, conducted March 29-April 2 in partnership with liberal advocacy group ProgressNow Colorado, found Boebert and Frisch tied at 45% each among likely voters, with the remaining 10% split between voters who are undecided and those who say they plan to vote for someone else. Cook Political has shifted the district to Leans Republican from Safe Republican.

Despite her razor-thin victory margin, Boebert has done little to tone down her extremism in the new Congress. Boebert was among about 20 extreme right-wing House Republicans who opposed Kevin McCarthy’s speakership bid until the very end. She also pushed for the House to vote on a resolution to impeach President Joe Biden—a move that McCarthy dismissed as “premature.”

Frisch still has his work cut out for him. This time he doesn’t have the advantage of surprise, and turnout will be greater in a presidential election year. As a national figure, Boebert can raise lots of funds from MAGA Republicans across the country.

The last Democrat to represent Colorado’s largely rural 3rd Congressional District was three-term Rep. John Salazar, who lost his bid for reelection in 2010.

RELATED STORIES: 

Watch this amazing breakdown of Republican antics on the House floor

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Republican disarray is somehow, miraculously, getting worse

McCarthy isn’t endorsing Trump yet. America will pay the price

Posted on (Updated by Kerry Eleveld

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has reached that stage of a GOP-controlled congressional session where he is simply perfecting the art of playing political Whac-A-Mole—nothing more, nothing less.

Whatever supposed agenda House Republicans were pursuing, that all ended when McCarthy struck a deal with the White House on raising the debt ceiling that miraculously avoided a catastrophic debt default. While the country undoubtedly benefited from that relatively reasonable outcome given McCarthy’s band of heretics, we will all be paying the price for his betrayal of the caucus extremists for the remainder of his speakership.

The first bill came due in early June, when House GOP extremists shut down the floor and McCarthy was forced to recess the chamber for the better part of a week. Several weeks later, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna went on a censure crusade against Rep. Adam Schiff of California over comments he made several years ago about Donald Trump's ties to Russia. Luna originally folded a $16 million fine into the measure, which she pushed in the form of a privileged resolution in order to skip going through committee and using regular order. But when 20 vulnerable Republicans sided with House Democrats to table the resolution, McCarthy sprang into action, trying to convince Luna that this very bad look for the GOP was only benefitting one person: Schiff, who ultimately raked in more than $8 million in second-quarter donations for his Senate bid. Luna dropped the fine, McCarthy backed the measure, and the censure passed on a party line vote, 213-209.

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That same week, McCarthy went through the exact same drill with a privilege resolution pushed by Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado to impeach President Joe Biden: no investigation and no high crimes, misdemeanors, or explicit violations of the Constitution. She just felt like it—so there.

McCarthy once again convinces this low-level GOP talent that her resolution will fail, embarrass the Republican majority, and be a boon to Biden. Instead, she agrees to refer the articles to the Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees in return for bragging rights that she initiated the impeachment push.

But that's what McCarthy exists for now—he's a glorified cat herder in a necktie.

"The best he can do in these situations is mitigate the damage," remarked The New York Times' Annie Karni on The Daily podcast. "And he knows every day that his troubles are not behind him and are only probably getting worse."

McCarthy's next challenge is avoiding a massive rift within his caucus over which 2024 Republican hopeful to back. For now, he has declined to endorse Trump—yet another slap in the face to the MAGA misfits who would just as soon burn the House down as build bridges.

It's a placeholder position that could yield fast considering how quickly McCarthy walked back his recent observation that Trump might not be "the strongest" Republican candidate in the GOP field.

Trump fumed over McCarthy’s disloyalty and, in a near-immediate clean up interview with Breitbart, McCarthy asserted, “Trump is stronger today than he was in 2016.”

Sure, watching McCarthy squirm amid the MAGA death grip is entertaining. But the longer McCarthy holds out on endorsing Trump, the bigger the price we'll pay. McCarthy owes his precious speaker’s gavel to Trump, and when Trump wants something, he'll hang McCarthy's delinquency over his head like the Sword of Damocles.

And more than likely, Trump will extract the biggest pound of flesh he can get from McCarthy, whether that's a massive investigation escalation into Biden’s son Hunter, or a full on impeachment proceeding. One way or the other, Trump will get his due.

Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: The sun sets on MAGA, however long the days are

Posted on by Greg Dworkin

Greg Sargent/The Washington Post:

Why MAGA elites are facing a fresh set of disasters

In the elite world of right-wing lawyers, an intriguing split screen effect has taken hold. On one side, longtime conservative legal causes are prevailing, most recently with the Supreme Court invalidating affirmative action programs and upholding the right of some businesses to deny service to LGBTQ+ couples.

But on the other screen, the legal causes championed by elites associated with the GOP’s MAGA wing are facing a string of disastrous setbacks.

Views for "Tucker Carlson on Twitter" posts (assume the number of people who actually viewed the videos is much much lower). Announcement: 137.1M Ep. 1: 120M Ep. 2: 60.6M Ep. 3 (Trump indicted): 104.1M Ep. 4: 32.4M Ep. 5: 17.3M Ep. 6: 32M Ep. 7: 15.4M Ep. 8: 8.6M 😬😬😬 pic.twitter.com/qd9Ox2WiFx

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) July 7, 2023

Walter Shapiro/The New Republic:

House Republicans’ Impeachment Fever Is a Gift to Democrats

The GOP’s nutjob squad is going after Biden and a growing list of administration officials. If they keep it up, they’ll suffer the consequences in 2024.

The Republicans were only getting started last month when Marjorie Taylor Greene called Lauren Boebert “a little bitch” on the House floor in a dispute over whose effort to impeach Joe Biden should take priority. But now the Republicans appear to have a dizzying array of targets in addition to the president, as The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. And rather than quaking in terror, Democrats should be shouting, “Bring it on.” Impeachment fever may be emotionally satisfying for the Republicans, but the frenzy comes with political costs for the GOP in 2024 and beyond.

The Hill:

GOP’s ‘dereliction of duty’ impeachment argument gets skeptical reviews

Republicans eager to impeach a Biden administration official have rallied around a new phrase to justify the rarely used move, accusing President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of “dereliction of duty.”

The term, borrowed from the military, allows a court martial to punish service members who fail to obey orders or carry out their duties.

But experts say the GOP’s basis for removing either man from office is an odd fit for impeachment, which requires demonstrating high crimes or misdemeanors.

“It sounds quasi-official — it has a sort of military ring to it. But it’s not as though high crimes and misdemeanors and dereliction of duty go together. … It’s not traditionally one of the impeachment concepts that you would find in the panoply of presidential mistakes,” said Claire Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in national security law and democratic governance.  

“They’re looking for a phrase that will kind of draw people in because it sounds semi-official, but will not actually require them to say something true and correct, like, ‘The President has actually done such and such,’” she added.

Jennifer Rubin/The Washington Post:

A perpetually surprised media isn’t doing its job

“U.S. Economy Shows Surprising Vigor in First Half of 2023” a Wall Street Journal headline proclaimed this past week. On Axios, one read: “The economy’s latest upside surprise.” Yahoo Finance intoned, “Surprisingly Strong US Economic Data Keeps Recession Fears at Bay.”

You might find it remarkable that outlets touting their economic foresightedness and keen analysis could be continually surprised about the economy’s strength after 29 consecutive months of job growth, inflation steadily declining, durable goods having been up for three consecutive months, 35,000 new infrastructure projects, an extended period in which real wages exceeded inflation and outsize gains for lower wage-earners. It’s as though outlets are so invested in the narrative of failure and imminent recession that reams of positive data have had little impact on their “narrative.”

The unemployment rate fell for "good" reasons: Employment up 273k, unemployment rate down 140k, labor force modestly larger. (Participation rate little changed.)

— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman) July 7, 2023

Amanda Marcotte/Salon:

Mike Pence's Big Lie campaign trail torture: He's reaping the disinformation he sowed

GOP voters torture Mike Pence with the Big Lie — too bad he was an avid disinfo fan for decades

"Do you ever second-guess yourself? That was a Constitutional right that you had to send those votes back to the states," a woman griped at Pence during an Iowa meet-and-greet at a pizza restaurant on Wednesday. She was, of course, flat wrong, and Pence told her as much.

"The Constitution affords no authority for the vice president or anyone else to reject votes or return votes to the states," Pence pushed back. He even sucked it up and mentioned Trump by name, saying, "President Trump was wrong about my authority that day and he's still wrong."

Pence's willingness to stand firm on this point has drawn him praise in the mainstream media, especially from the legion of never-Trump Republicans who are well-represented on cable news but not much elsewhere. Certainly, Pence has distinguished himself from most Republican leadership, especially people like Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, who voted in favor of overturning the election even after Trump sent a bloodthirsty mob to the Capitol on January 6. Pence did hang in and make sure the election was certified that day, which showed a sense of duty lacking in most of his party.

What all this praise fails to take into account, however, is just how much responsibility Pence bears for getting the GOP to a place where January 6 was even possible.

A vote “intention” model, not a result:

Westminster voting intention: LAB: 47% (+1) CON: 22% (-2) LDEM: 9% (-1) REF: 9% (+1) GRN: 7% (-) via @YouGov, 05 - 06 Julhttps://t.co/5TZkBdel30

— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) July 7, 2023

Jamelle Bouie/The New York Times:

No One Can Stop Talking About Justice John Marshall Harlan

The language of colorblindness that Roberts and Thomas use to make their argument comes directly from Justice John Marshall Harlan’s lonely dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, the decision that upheld Jim Crow segregation. “There is no caste here. Our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens,” wrote Harlan, who would have struck down a Louisiana law establishing “equal but separate” accommodations on passenger railways.

But there’s more to Harlan’s dissent than his most frequently cited words would lead you to believe. When read in its entirety, the dissent gives a picture of Harlan not as a defender of equality, but as someone who thinks the Constitution can secure hierarchy and inequality without the assistance of state law. It’s not that segregation was wrong but that, in Harlan’s view, it was unnecessary.

YouTube Video

David French/The New York Times:

The Rage and Joy of MAGA America

It’s hard to encapsulate a culture in 22 seconds, but this July 4 video tweet from Representative Andy Ogles accomplishes the nearly impossible. For those who don’t want to click through, the tweet features Ogles, a cheerful freshman Republican from Tennessee, wishing his followers a happy Fourth of July. The text of the greeting is remarkable only if you don’t live in MAGAland:

Hey guys, Congressman Andy Ogles here, wishing you a happy and blessed Fourth of July. Hey, remember our Founding Fathers. It’s we the people that are in charge of this country, not a leftist minority. Look, the left is trying to destroy our country and our family, and they’re coming after you. Have a blessed Fourth of July. Be safe. Have fun. God bless America.

Can something be cheerful and dark at the same time? Can a holiday message be both normal and so very strange? If so, then Ogles pulled it off. This is a man smiling in a field as a dog sniffs happily behind him. The left may be “coming after you,” as he warns, but the vibe isn’t catastrophic or even worried, rather a kind of friendly, generic patriotism. They’re coming for your family! Have a great day!

“Vote for me *because* I am a violent homophobe," is the message of DeSantis' video, which tries to replicate some of Trump's rogue glamour and uses Fascist-style devices to equate leadership with the power to harm your adversaries. My new Lucid essay: https://t.co/JUKlezaqmL pic.twitter.com/gh1D4F095b

— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) July 7, 2023

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin will not run for Senate in 2024

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., announced Friday night he won't run for the open U.S. Senate seat in Maryland in 2024, which is occupied by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.

Raskin, who served as the lead impeachment manager for former President Donald Trump's first impeachment proceedings, said he will run for re-election in the House of Representatives.

"At this moment, I believe the best way for me to make the greatest difference in American politics in 2024 and beyond is this: to run for re-election to the House of Representatives in Maryland’s extraordinary 8th District," Raskin said in a statement. "To mobilize thousands of Democracy Summer Fellows and raise millions of dollars and everyone’s spirit to fortify and build up Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.

"I am profoundly grateful not only to those who have encouraged me on this exciting path but also to those from all over Maryland who have strongly encouraged me to run for the U.S. Senate seat being left vacant by Sen. Ben Cardin."

REP. RASKIN ARGUES OLDER LEADERS OFTEN 'PRAISED FOR THEIR WISDOM' IN DEFENSE OF BIDEN'S OLD AGE

Raskin entered remission in April after completing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

"Tuesday I thanked nurses, doctors & pharmacists at @MedStarGUH who serve with splendid kindness—and saved my life over 5 months. I finished 6 rounds of 5-day chemo sessions—which they organized so I didn’t have to miss votes or hearings—and I rang the bell! A new chapter begins," Raskin wrote in an April tweet.

MARYLAND REP. JAMIE RASKIN DIAGNOSED WITH 'SERIOUS BUT CURABLE' CANCER

Raskin said that "If these were normal times," he would be "pretty sure" he'd run for senate.

"But these are not normal times, and we are still in the fight of our lives for democratic institutions, freedom and basic social progress in America as well as human rights and opportunity for people all over the world," he said. 

"If I had two political careers, I would gladly give one of them to the year-and-a-half campaign for the Senate, a prospect that remains alluring to me because of my profound love for our state and the incredible people who live here. I would even be open to restarting my political career as Senator No. 99 or 100 at the bottom of a new institution."

MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Was Expelled From the Conservative House Freedom Caucus

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has aligned herself with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and launched verbal bombs at fellow conservatives on the chamber floor, has reportedly been expelled from the House Freedom Caucus.

The Freedom Caucus is the most conservative bloc within the House Republican Conference.

The news came from a statement by Representative Andy Harris (R-MD) to reporters.

“I mean, the vote was taken to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from the House Freedom Caucus for some of the things she’s done,” Harris said.

Axios points out that Greene did not receive “formal notification of her removal” but confirmed that a vote had been held prior to the July 4th break and would have required “a sizable number of her colleagues supporting her ouster.”

She becomes the first member of the Caucus in their history to be voted out.

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

What Led to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Ouster From the House Freedom Caucus?

Congressman Harris noted possible contributing factors to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ouster from the House Freedom Caucus – including her unabashed support for McCarthy, the duo’s support for the debt limit deal, and an altercation with fellow member, Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO).

“I think all of that mattered,” he said.

Greene hitched her cart to McCarthy after the GOP regained control of the House in a manner that has seen the two team up to scold MAGA reps and celebrate a debt ceiling agreement benefitting President Biden.

The Boebert incident to which Harris alludes was reported by The Political Insider late last month.

Greene and Boebert got into a heated exchange on the House floor, with reports suggesting the Georgia Congresswoman called her colleague a “little bitch.”

The two appeared to be bickering over their dueling efforts to impeach President Biden.

“I think the straw that broke the camel’s back was publicly saying things about another member in terms that no one should,” Harris explained.

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

Greene Responds After Vote to Have Her Oustered

Marjorie Taylor Greene did not specifically address the vote to expel her from the House Freedom Caucus but did post to social media a video that appeared to mock the ongoing drama.

“Avoiding distractions is the key to staying focused,” she wrote.

The video showed her practicing on a putting green. No word on whether or not McCarthy was caddying for her.

Greene also released a statement that seemed to strongly reference the vote to remove her without mentioning it directly.

“In Congress, I serve Northwest Georgia first, and serve no group in Washington,” she said, seemingly unaware that she has been doing McCarthy and the centrist GOP’s bidding since January.

“My America First credentials, guided by my Christian faith, are forged in steel, seared into my character, and will never change,” added Greene.

No doubt she has a strong MAGA resume and does find a way to infuriate the left. But teaming up with McCarthy is not ‘America First.’ It’s closer to Ukraine First or Biden First than anything else.

Greene insists her sole focus is on moving the country forward “when President Trump wins the White House in 2024.”

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Biden headed to Greene’s district to showcase ‘Bidenomics’

Posted on (Updated by Alex Gangitano

President Biden said Thursday that he is headed to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R) district in Georgia to tout investments in manufacturing and his economic agenda.

“Since I took office, we’ve seen over 60 domestic manufacturing announcements all across the solar supply chain. One of the biggest is in Dalton, Georgia," the president said during remarks in South Carolina. "You may find it hard to believe, but that’s Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district. I’ll be there for the groundbreaking."

He was visiting the company Flex LTD to tout $500 billion in investments that private companies have made in manufacturing and clean energy during his administration.

Greene has emerged as one of Biden’s top critics on Capitol Hill and the president recently has been targeting Republican lawmakers who did not vote for his agenda but have hailed new investments in their states. 

In South Carolina, Biden called out Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for supporting part of his agenda while still joining every GOP lawmaker in voting against the Inflation Reduction Act last year.

While the White House did not confirm when the president will be heading to Georgia —another GOP stronghold like South Carolina — they shared that he will be showcasing how his "Bidenomics" agenda has brought jobs there.

“President Biden looks forward to showcasing how Bidenomics is bringing good-paying manufacturing jobs to Georgia,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. “Bidenomics centers on growing the middle class, and is delivering the biggest manufacturing surge in decades."

"Meanwhile, congressional Republicans are attempting to repeal many of the policies that are fueling that manufacturing resurgence so they can cut taxes for the wealthy," Bates added.

The White House picked a fight with Greene, a close ally of former President Trump, last month after her hometown newspaper touted federal public safety grants the area was set to receive through the American Rescue Plan. Greene voted against the plan in March 2021 along with every other House Republican.

Greene has introduced impeachment articles against Biden and other members of his administration. Meanwhile, Biden mocked Greene in March, asking the crowd at a Democratic retreat, “isn’t she amazing?”

The Georgia lawmaker is also an ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and supported him for the top House spot, breaking with the her House Freedom Caucus colleagues that opposed him. The Freedom Caucus voted this week to remove her from its ranks.

Marjorie Taylor Greene booted from House Freedom Caucus

Posted on by By Jordain Carney

The House Freedom Caucus voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from the pro-Trump group last month, a member confirmed Thursday, indicating that her fight with Rep. Lauren Boebert was part of the group's reasoning.

“A vote was taken to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from the House Freedom Caucus for some of the things she's done,” said Freedom Caucus board member Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.). When asked if she was formally out, he replied: “As far as I know, that is the way it is.”

It's the first public confirmation of Greene's fate within the conservative group. The vote was first reported by POLITICO, though it was unclear at the time whether she had been ejected. It took place less than two days after Greene got into a verbal floor fight with Freedom Caucus member Boebert, during which Greene referred to the Colorado Republican as a “little bitch.” After the exchange was first reported, Greene confirmed the fight and doubled down, adding another pejorative.

The two have clashed repeatedly in the past, but Harris indicated that particular spat had factored into the conservative group’s thinking.

“I think the way she referred to a fellow member was probably not the way we expect our members to refer to other fellow, especially female, members,” Harris said Thursday. The Maryland Republican declined to say how he voted but called the decision to remove her “an appropriate action.”

It's the first time the conservative caucus has booted one of its own and reflects the group's increasing level of frustration with Greene. She's closely allied herself with Speaker Kevin McCarthy this year, lining up against many Freedom Caucus members when she supported both his rocky speakership bid and his debt deal with President Joe Biden. At the same time, the group is working through a post-Trump crossroads, with some fretting the group is at risk of becoming too friendly with the party establishment.

Asked if her support for McCarthy and the debt deal fed into the decision to remove her from the group, Harris replied: “I think all of that mattered.”

“I think the straw that broke the camel's back was publicly saying things about another member in terms that no one should,” he said.

A Freedom Caucus spokesperson declined to comment on Greene’s status, noting that the group doesn’t comment on membership or internal processes. Greene did not directly address her Freedom Caucus membership in a statement on Thursday, instead saying that: “In Congress, I serve Northwest Georgia first, and serve no group in Washington."

“The GOP has less than two years to show America what a strong, unified Republican-led Congress will do when President Trump wins the White House in 2024. This is my focus, nothing else,” she added.

Greene typically attends the group’s weekly off-campus meeting. But that closed-door gathering is limited to members, meaning she would no longer be able to attend.

While it's the first time the group has formally voted to remove a member from its ranks, she's not the first to leave. Then-Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan previously quit the group in 2019 and left the Republican Party shortly after. Harris noted that there was “one other member a couple of years ago, who we probably would have asked to leave, but we just decided not to.”

And it might not end at Greene. There’s been discussion about targeting a handful of members beyond the Georgia Republican, who critics see as violating group standards by being inactive. House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) previously told POLITICO that he had denied those purge requests, which came before the vote to remove Greene.

“The speaker’s race, there was some difference in opinion. The debt ceiling, there were differences of opinion. And we had to get 80 percent on any major issue that we take positions on,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a Freedom Caucus member, previously told POLITICO, referring to the threshold needed for the group to take a unified stance. “On some big issues, we have not been able to get there.”

The group is currently at the center of the fight over government funding as they try to push McCarthy and members of leadership to go below levels set in the debt deal and to hold the line when he, ultimately, has to negotiate with the White House and Senate Democrats.

Though the group is largely unified on wanting lower spending, they’ve also haggled in private about what their strategy should be after they cut a deal with McCarthy to end a weeklong standoff that ground the House floor to a halt.

Harris, however, argued that after booting Greene there were no other remaining “large divisions” and praised Perry.

“This wasn’t even a speed bump,” Harris added.

Olivia Beavers contributed to this report. 

Posted in Uncategorized

Missouri town to host Loser-palooza for Jan. 6 rioters, and not everyone is happy about it

Posted on by Aldous J Pennyfarthing

What is it with America and its penchant for celebrating failed, deadly insurrections launched in the name of white supremacy? We had that whole Civil War business in the mid-1800s, and that probably should have settled the issue once and for all. But we let Confederacy-humpers hang around like a bad bathroom chandelier, and so on Jan. 6, 2021, they tried again.

And now they’re so enamored with their bumblin’ coup, they’re holding events to honor the perpetrators. Because nothing says “I’m sorry” like a $9 Costco sheet cake that actually says, “Nice Try, Traitor—Better Luck Next Time!”

The town of Rogersville, Missouri, will host a Loser-palooza this weekend for a passel of peeps the organizers are oddly referring to as the “J6 community.” And not everyone is happy about it.

RELATED STORY: Music to Trump's ears: Whitewashing Jan. 6 riot with song

Called the J6 Truth and Light Freedom Festival, the event runs Friday through Sunday in Rogersville and is supposed to feature numerous speakers, live and via Zoom. Some are facing multiple felony charges in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and one recently was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

“An amazing weekend of love and support for our J6 community!” says a flyer being circulated about the event. “Bring your RV, tent, lawn chairs and the whole family for this annual gathering of the Jan6 community!”

Nice to know J6 rioters are a “community” now. Of course, it makes perfect sense. Bashing in cops’ heads with flagpoles is hard work, and everyone needs to pitch in. You know, like when Amish towns all get together to raise one lazy fuck’s barn that he can’t be bothered to raise himself.

But those who monitor extremist groups say the festival raises concerns about the potential for future violence.

“These events are really important to watch,” said Chuck Tanner, research director at the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, which has tracked extremist activity for decades. “You see at them the contours of a movement stretching from the halls of government to far-right publications and groups — and a movement that continues to frame January 6 insurrectionists as martyrs and build out a framework for another far right, nationalist insurrection.”

Good point. After all, OG insurrectionist Jefferson Beavis Trump is still at large, and we’ve even heard rumors that he’s running for president. Which is almost too outlandish to believe given that he literally tried to end American democracy, but I swear I read that somewhere.

Sadly, conservatives have been doing their best to normalize the events of Jan. 6, 2021, pretty much since the evening of Jan. 6, 2021, when Fox News, et al., openly speculated that the riot had actually been launched by liberal agitators who had inexplicably decided to disrupt the election of the guy they’d voted for and desperately hoped would win. And when the Senate voted to acquit Trump during his second impeachment—and Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. Kevin McCarthy decided once again to find succor at Donald John Trump’s oleaginous, heaving bosom—Insurrection 2.0 was officially underway.

As the Southern Poverty Law Center noted on the second anniversary of Jan. 6, the danger Trump and his followers posed to our democracy on that fateful day has arguably grown.

We have also learned that white supremacy and hard-right extremism have been normalized and mainstreamed to a dangerous degree. White supremacist groups played a lead role in organizing, coordinating and executing the deadly Capitol attack and in other efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. SPLC Intelligence Project experts submitted testimony to the [House Jan. 6] committee on how extremist groups and individuals – like the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and white nationalist Nick Fuentes – have infused once-marginalized, white supremacist ideas into mainstream Republican discourse and politics with the goal of maintaining a grip on power and silencing communities of color.

The threat of political violence substantially increased in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack. According to a June 2022 poll jointly conducted by the SPLC and Tulchin Research, the mainstreaming of hate and antigovernment thought, and the willingness to engage in political violence, are now widely accepted on the right.

According to promotional materials distributed by the organizers, the festival is “a closed event only for J6’ers and their families.” Which is odd, considering how proud they appear to be about their gaffe riot. 

Nicole Reffitt, one of the scheduled speakers, said in a video posted by Sedition Hunters that the event would be “mostly peaceful.” She appeared to be “joking,” but then these are the same people who support the guy who wants you to believe the rioters were hugging and kissing the Capitol Police.

Apparently the event celebrating the violence at the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021 in Rogersville, MO sponsored by @godfatherspizza will be "mostly peaceful" hope @FBIKansasCity is keeping an eye on things https://t.co/uNFn6qTik6

— TheRealJ6 (@SeditionHunters) June 28, 2023

Meanwhile, members of the non-white-nationalist-insurrection community remain alarmed over the troubling lack of political consensus that attempting to overthrow your own democracy is a bad thing. The Star spoke with Don Haider-Markel, a University of Kansas political science professor and an expert on extremism, who remarked that the festival had a “pretty narrow appeal” but was nevertheless emblematic of a bigger—and festering—problem. 

“But I definitely think it’s further evidence of the sort of radicalization of the far right,” he noted. “It allows participants to essentially publicly express their identity. That not only reinforces those identities, but it also can tend to radicalize people further.”

Of course, you’ll hardly be surprised that the lineup of event speakers is worthy of a TED Nugent Talk. Scheduled to appear are Oath Keepers founder and convicted seditionist Stewart Rhodes; Micki Witthoeft, the mother of insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt, whom Donald Trump indirectly killed; and George Tanios, a rioter who was charged with providing another insurrectionist with the pepper spray that was used on three Capitol officers, including Brian Sicknick, who died the day after the insurrection. Tanios later pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors, but his participation in this event suggests he’s not into the whole remorse thing.

“They’re trying to create the historical view that these people did the right thing, that they were the patriots that stood up to the government corruption, that they were there to save our Constitution,” Daryl Johnson, a former senior analyst for domestic terrorism with the Department of Homeland Security, told the Star. “These people believe that God’s on their side, and they are these righteous truth-holders that are protecting our country. That’s why they’re calling it the Truth and Light Rally. Light means you’re enlightened, and the other people aren’t. And celebrating these people that participated in the riot by calling them patriots is keeping that fervor alive for the 2024 election.”

RELATED STORY: Five singers from Trump's pro-J6 tune have been identified. They're not 'very fine people'

Check out Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s four-volume Trump-trashing compendium, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE.