Three members of "The Squad" have renewed calls for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be impeached following a bombshell report on his relationship with a major Republican donor, however their Democratic colleagues have so far called for lesser measures.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) — all members of the progressive “Squad” — have called for Thomas to be impeached following revelations that he received lavish gifts and trips from a Republican billionaire donor over the course of his career on the court.
The ProPublica report that exposed the alleged gifts sparked outrage from Democrats, but the trio of progressive House Democrats have so far been alone in calls for his impeachment.
“This is beyond party or partisanship,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter last week. “This degree of corruption is shocking — almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached.”
“I've said it before and I'll say it again: Clarence Thomas needs to be impeached,” Omar said on Twitter on the same day.
Tlaib noted public confidence in the court was at “an all time low” and blasted Thomas for accepting" luxury trips from a billionaire mega-donor while doing the bidding of right-wing extremists from the bench.”
“Thomas must be impeached and SCOTUS needs a binding code of ethics,” Tlaib said on Twitter.
Thomas has defended his actions, saying he was advised early in his tenure on the court that he did not have to report trips from "close personal friends."
"I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines,” Thomas added.
While those House progressives have called for Thomas to be impeached, other Democrats have backed a probe into Thomas and efforts to create an enforceable code of conduct.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top lawmaker on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said his panel would act on the allegations laid out in the report.
“The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards,” Durbin said in a statement last week. “Today’s report demonstrates, yet again, that Supreme Court Justices must be held to an enforceable code of conduct… the Senate Judiciary Committee will act.”
A group of 16 congressional Democrats, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), sent a letter to Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts urging him to launch an investigation into the claims against Thomas.
“We believe that it is your duty as Chief Justice ‘to safeguard public faith in the judiciary,’ and that fulfilling that duty requires swift, thorough, independent and transparent investigation into these allegations,” the letter reads.
House Democrats reacted with mixed emotions this week to the historic indictment of former President Trump, with some cheering the move with bald jubilation and others approaching much more cautiously ahead of Trump’s expected arraignment on Tuesday.
While both camps are united behind the central premise that no one in America is above the law, the tonal contrast highlights both the toxic nature of Trump’s relationship with his congressional rivals and the Democrats’ deep-seeded anxiety that the indictment will only invigorate his conservative base and make him a more formidable force in the race for the White House next year.
Fueling that divide is the nature of the case being brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), which centers around Trump’s role in providing hush payments to an adult film actress more than six years ago — a salacious saga divorced from the more serious allegations facing the former president, which relate to his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
On one side of the divide are Democrats who cheered Bragg’s decision with evident glee. That group is composed largely of liberal and minority lawmakers, including members of the far-left “squad,” who have long accused Trump of being a racist and are now relishing an indictment they view as karmic justice.
“Grand Jury votes to indict Trump!” tweeted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), one of three Muslim lawmakers in Congress who has been a frequent target of Islamophobic Trump attacks.
“It’s time that we ensure Trump is banned from running for any public office again,” echoed Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.).
Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) shared in the celebration, saying the indictment is “one of many steps” toward eliminating Trump as a threat to fair elections.
“I will always believe that this twice-impeached former president is a threat to our democracy,” he tweeted.
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) tweeted a short clip of a crowd of women giving a standing ovation.
The celebratory mood is not being shared — at least not publicly — by a long list of other Democratic lawmakers, who are treading more carefully into the explosive debate. Those voices, which include members of Democratic leadership, have been no less critical of Trump over his political career, but are taking pains not to jump to conclusions before seeing the charges — which remain under seal — or reach a verdict before a jury does.
“This is not a moment to celebrate. This is a terrible moment for the country. But no one is above the law,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said on Twitter. “Those lock her up chants that people were chanting like hyenas in a stadium around the country were never funny, perhaps they now understand why.”
There are also lingering anxieties that Trump, the current frontrunner in the early field seeking the GOP presidential nomination, will get a boost from Bragg’s decision, as Republicans — even some of Trump’s 2024 rivals — race to defend the former president from what they consider a politically motivated witch hunt designed solely to damage his presidential prospects.
Shedding a no-holds-barred approach to Trump in the past, many Democrats have adopted a neutral tone in response to the indictment, keeping a distance from the judicial process to let the wheels of the courts grind away.
“No one is above the law, and everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the former Speaker who was a target of the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, said in a brief and subdued statement. “Hopefully, the former President will peacefully respect the system, which grants him that right.”
“In America we believe in the rule of law,” echoed Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a fierce Trump critic. “We should wait to hear from the grand jury before jumping to conclusions.”
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), who was among the managers of Trump’s first impeachment, called it “a somber day for our nation.”
And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) adopted the same muted tone, characterizing it as “a serious moment” for the country.
“A jury of Donald Trump’s peers will now determine his legal fate,” Jeffries tweeted.
Trump’s GOP allies, meanwhile, have rallied in his defense, characterizing the indictment — the first against any president, sitting or former — as a blatant “weaponization” of government by Democrats to take down a political rival.
“It's Trump derangement,” Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said Thursday evening as he was leaving his Capitol Hill office. “It's an illness of hatred that just — it shouldn't be in American politics.”
Wilson said House Republicans will move “immediately” to uncover the details of Bragg's probe, and he has confidence that GOP investigators — notably Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), chairman of the Administration Committee — will demonstrate that Bragg’s prosecution has been politically motivated from the start.
“We're going to find out, from the inside, as to their correspondence and communications,” he said.
Bragg’s case revolves around a $130,000 hush payment made by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, to the adult actress Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election in return for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier — an affair Trump denies.
A Manhattan grand jury voted Thursday to indict Trump, who is expected to be arraigned in New York on Tuesday. The specific charges remain unknown, sealed until Trump’s appearance, but reports from CNN and NBC indicate he will face around 30 counts related to business fraud.
Not all of Trump’s critics cheered the arrival of the indictment this week.
Trump is also facing a series of separate criminal investigations into his conduct, including his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and the discovery of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his resort-residence in South Florida. And some Democrats have hoped that the Justice Department, which is investigating Trump on several fronts, would have moved more quickly on those other cases to lend more gravity to their underlying charge that Trump is unfit to serve as president for another term.
Those voices fear that Bragg’s case, by coming first, will only bolster the argument from Trump and his allies that Democrats are pursuing “frivolous” cases designed solely to damage Trump politically.
“After inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, pressuring local officials to overturn the 2020 election, receiving financial kickbacks from foreign powers, and numerous other crimes during his presidency, it’s embarrassing and infuriating that the first indictment against Trump is about ... Stormy Daniels,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement.
“The January 6th Select Committee and bold leaders like Jamie Raskin did their job,” he continued. “It’s time for Merrick Garland and the Justice Department to do theirs.”
Amid the emotional debate, some lawmakers are urging restraint by pointing out an obvious hole in the discussion: No one weighing in knows what charges await Trump next week.
“Just a reminder,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), “that there is no rule that you have to express your opinion before reading the indictment.”
CNN offered Ilhan Omar, Eric Swalwell, and Adam Schiff an entire panel segment so they could continue whining about being removed from House committees by Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
By now, you all know the background. Swalwell has engaged in a reported relationship with a Chinese spy while Schiff has been accused of leaking classified information in order to propagate the Russia collusion hoax.
As such, he has rejected a bid to keep Schiff and Swalwell on the House Intelligence Committee and is seeking to do the same with Omar on the Foreign Affairs Committee due to a career’s worth of anti-Semitic comments.
CNN swooped in and offered all three a panel on “State of the Union” with host Dana Bash – not a single dissenting voice – to express their outrage for being removed from their committee assignments.
Because the press conference they held on the matter, Swalwell’s statements accusing the Speaker of trying to have them murdered, Schiff’s TikTok video, and the trio’s incessant tweeting on the perceived miscarriage of justice wasn’t enough publicity.
Claim They’re Being Targeted Because They’re Really Good at What They Do
All three Democrats took a swipe at McCarthy for removing or seeking to remove them from various committee assignments.
Swalwell called the Speaker’s actions “BS” and suggested he targeted them because he perceives all three to be “effective political opponent(s).”
Swalwell, aside from having an affair with a Chinese spy – allegedly – is best known for riding a camel shirtless in Qatar during the pandemic and blaming a mug for an extremely embarrassing live interview moment.
But yea, he’s effective.
Schiff suggested the whole thing was some sort of effort by McCarthy to protect former President Donald Trump and secure support from MAGA Republicans.
“The only real explanation is he needs Marjorie Taylor Greene’s vote, he needs Paul Gosar’s vote,” Schiff stated.
“He wants to retaliate for their removal from the committee, and apparently, he believes I was very effective in exposing … Donald Trump’s misconduct, and that’s what they’re trying to stop.”
Oh boy! Dana Bash brings up Fang Fang to Eric Swalwell: “Did you put yourself in a vulnerable position in any way so that this alleged Chinese spy could have benefited or even learn American secrets?” pic.twitter.com/XupwMTcNc5
Schiff, Swalwell, and Omar Run Into Some Trouble Explaining Behavior That Led to Loss of Committee Assignments
Perhaps the triumvirate of weak Democrats thought an interview with CNN would go off without a hitch, but each congress member had to do some level of explaining as to the real reasons for the committee controversy.
Bash brought up Swalwell’s Chinese spy affair.
“Did you put yourself in a vulnerable position in any way, so that this alleged Chinese spy could have benefited or even learn American secrets?”
“Absolutely not,” Swalwell fired back adding that the FBI claimed, “All I did was help them, and also, I was never under any suspicion of wrongdoing.”
Bash pivoted to Schiff and pointed out he lied about not knowing who the whistleblower involved with the first Trump impeachment was.
“Ahead of the first Trump impeachment, you said the committee had not spoken to a whistle-blower,” Bash challenged. “In fact, that turned out not to be true. The Washington Post said so in their fact check.”
Schiff responded that he “should have been more clear in my answer.”
“Ahead of the first Trump impeachment, you said the committee had not spoken to a whistleblower. In fact, that turned out not to be true.”
That’s an incredibly strange way of saying, ‘I lied and got caught doing so.’
The former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee also continued pushing the Russia collusion hoax, the very thing he’s accused of using classified information to help spread in an effort to take down Trump.
“To most Americans, that is collusion,” Schiff said referencing the famed Mueller report. “Now, whether it’s proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the crime of conspiracy … I have always distinguished between the two.”
Bash brought up her history of anti-Semitic comments to which the Minnesota Democrat insisted she had no idea that suggesting pro-Israel politicians were “all about the Benjamins” and that Israel had “hypnotized” the world would be controversial.
Finally, CNN’s Dana Bash asks Ilhan Omar about her antisemitism and why that shouldn’t bar her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee: pic.twitter.com/coL5J62ADm
“I might have used words at the time that I didn’t understand were trafficking in anti-semitism,” Omar asserted. “When that was brought to my attention, I apologized. I owned up to it.”
Where will the whining tour head next? Swalwell has insisted they are “not going away” and McCarthy will “regret giving all three of us more time on our hands.”
It’s clear the attention-starved Democrats will continue soaking up the media spotlight as long as they can.
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Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) removal of Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell (Calif.) and Adam Schiff (Calif.) from the panel will hurt the county.
Himes told “MSNBC Reports” host Alex Witt that he understands why Republicans are so angry with Schiff, who led the first impeachment of former President Trump.
“That made them angry. And to appease his right wing, Kevin McCarthy sort of had to throw Adam Schiff on the fire along with Eric Swalwell,” Himes said, referring to the Speaker's decision to block the lawmakers from the Intelligence Committee.
“That hurts our national security. Between the two of them, they’ve got 20 years of intelligence oversight, and that evidently is gone now,” Himes added. “And that’s a — that makes us a less safe country.”
McCarthy formally blocked both Schiff and Swalwell from serving on the Intelligence Committee in a letter to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), writing that both lawmaker's previous actions made them unfit to have jurisdiction over and access to sensitive national security issues.
“In order to maintain a standard worthy of this committee’s responsibilities, I am hereby rejecting the appointments of Representative Adam Schiff and Representative Eric Swalwell to serve on the Intelligence Committee,” McCarthy wrote in his letter.
McCarthy is also seeking to block Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. However, unlike Intelligence, which is a select committee, McCarthy will need majority support in the House to oust Omar, and it's unclear he has the votes.
“This is some Bakersfield BS,” Swalwell said on CNN’s “State of the Union”.
“It’s Kevin McCarthy weaponizing his ability to commit this political abuse because he perceives me, just like Mr. Schiff and Ms. Omar, as an effective political opponent,” he said.
As members of the House continue to receive committee assignments for the new Congress, Republicans are shaking up several panels with their newly obtained majority.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has doubled down on promises to block certain Democrats from top panels, while several Republicans who played key roles in his long, drawn-out fight for Speaker have found their way onto prominent committees.
More committee assignments remain to be handed out, but here are the six main takeaways so far:
Greene, Gosar back on committees
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined at left by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) were placed back on committees on Tuesday, after having their committee assignments stripped in 2021.
Both Greene and Gosar were selected to sit on the Oversight and Accountability Committee, while Greene was also chosen to serve on the Homeland Security Committee and Gosar was picked to sit on the Natural Resources Committee.
Greene, who had reportedly lobbied for the spot on the Oversight committee, was a key supporter of McCarthy throughout his bid for Speaker. She was stripped of her committee assignments in February 2021, just one month after joining Congress, for espousing conspiracy theories and encouraging violence against Democratic officials on social media.
Gosar was censured and removed from his committees in November 2021, after he posted an anime-style video that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and engaging in a sword fight with President Biden.
McCarthy sparks fresh anger with vow to keep Omar off Foreign Affairs
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) speaks to reporters during a break in a House Democratic caucus meeting and leadership election on Wednesday, November 30, 2022 for the 118th session of Congress.
McCarthy has recently doubled down on his previous vows to keep Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) off the Foreign Affairs Committee, sparking fresh anger among Democrats and Muslim advocacy groups.
Omar, one of three Muslim members of Congress, has been critical of the Israeli government and its supporters, leading to accusations of antisemitism.
“Last year, I promised that when I became Speaker, I would remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee based on her repeated anti-semitic and anti-American remarks,” McCarthy said in a tweet in November. “I'm keeping that promise.”
McCarthy reportedly told the GOP conference last week that he still plans to remove Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Robert McCaw, the government affairs department director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called the decision to reinstate Greene and Gosar while threatening to remove Omar “absolute insanity and hypocrisy” in a statement on Wednesday.
“Racism and Islamophobia would be the only explanation for this hypocritical double-standard,” McCaw said.
While McCarthy has promised to block Omar’s appointment, he cannot do so alone. In order to remove Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee, House Republicans would have to bring the matter to a vote on the House floor.
Schiff, Swalwell future on Intel panel still in peril
In this May 28, 2019 file photo, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., left, and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., speak with members of the media on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Reps. Adam Schiff’s (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell’s (D-Calif.) futures on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence also remain in peril, as McCarthy has similarly promised to boot both California Democrats from the powerful panel.
McCarthy has cited accusations that Schiff, the former chair of the Intelligence Committee, lied to the public about the extent of former President Trump’s ties to Russia during his 2016 campaign and exaggerated the central assertion of Trump’s first impeachment.
The first impeachment, which Schiff led, accused Trump of pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate his political rivals by threatening to withhold aid.
In Swalwell’s case, McCarthy has pointed to his ties to an alleged Chinese spy who helped fundraise for the congressman in 2014. However, Swalwell reportedly cut ties with the individual after the FBI informed him of her identity.
Swalwell was also an impeachment manager for Trump’s second impeachment over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Schiff’s and Swalwell’s positions on the Intelligence Committee are in a particularly precarious state, given that McCarthy can unilaterally reject their appointments without bringing a resolution to the House floor for a vote.
Santos gets committee assignments
Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., departs after attending a House GOP conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), the embattled first-term lawmaker who has admitted to lying about his background on the campaign trail, was seated on the Small Business Committee and Science, Space and Technology Committee on Tuesday.
McCarthy had confirmed last week that Santos would be seated on committees, even as several members of the Republican conference called for his resignation.
“I try to stick by the Constitution. The voters elected him to serve. If there is a concern, and he has to go through the Ethics [Committee], let him move through that,” McCarthy told reporters.
Santos is facing investigations on multiple fronts, as his claims about his background continue to unravel. The Nassau County district attorney and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York have both launched probes into the New York Republican, while Brazilian authorities reopened a fraud case against Santos from 2008.
Complaints have also been filed with the House Ethics Committee and Federal Election Commission over allegations that Santos falsified his financial disclosures and violated campaign finance laws.
McCarthy detractors get seats on Financial Services, Appropriations panels
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) addresses reporters after a closed-door House Republican conference meeting on Tuesday, June 14, 2022.
Several Republican members who opposed McCarthy’s bid for Speaker, drawing out the fight over a historic four days and 15 ballots, received seats on top House panels last week.
Of the 20 members of the anti-McCarthy group, Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) were both appointed to the Financial Services Committee, while Reps. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) and Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) found their way on to the Appropriations Committee. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) also maintained his spot on the Financial Services Committee.
While GOP leadership has said that no members were promised committee assignments as part of its negotiations during the Speaker fight, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) noted last week that they did agree to ensure that “committees are represented by a whole swath of our membership.”
This has largely translated into providing hard-line conservatives with more spots on prominent committees.
Foxx gets waiver to lead Education panel
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) at a House Education and Labor Committee hearing examining the policies and priorities of the Department of Labor on Tuesday, June 14, 2022.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) was selected to chair the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, after receiving a waiver from GOP leadership.
House GOP rules only permit members to serve as the head of a committee for three consecutive terms. As Foxx is beginning her fourth term as the top Republican on the education panel, she required a waiver to serve as chair.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is toeing a delicate line on national security issues in the lame-duck session as he seeks to win enough votes on the House floor to win the Speakership in January.
McCarthy is torn between competing factions of the GOP as he weighs a series of moves targeting the Biden administration and other Washington Democrats in the next Congress — all while trying to convince conservative GOP lawmakers to back him for Speaker.
He’s vowed to boot California Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell off the House Intelligence Committee and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He’s also threatened to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his handling of the southern border.
And McCarthy has indicated he will withhold GOP support for a lame-duck vote on a bipartisan defense policy bill as a way to fight “wokeism” in the military.
If the delay is successful, it would mark the first time in more than 60 years that has Congress failed to reauthorize Pentagon spending by the end of a calendar year; the delay would allow a GOP House to take it up next year.
Democrats have blasted McCarthy’s plans to boot Democrats from panels as purely political, while Republicans say Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) set Congress on that slippery slope when House Democrats impeached former President Trump twice and later expelled two Republicans from their committee seats.
The House voted last year to punish Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) for sharing an animated video showing him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) was removed months earlier for promoting the execution of leading Democrats before she was elected to office.
McCarthy blamed Democrats for “this new standard.”
“Never in the history [of Congress] have you had the majority tell the minority who can be on committee,” McCarthy said at the start of 2022. “This is a new level of what the Democrats have done.”
For Schiff, McCarthy has zeroed in on his role in the investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia, accusing him of lying to the public about the former president’s ties to Moscow and Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine. He’s bashed Swalwell for his ties to a Chinese spy with whom he cut off contact after being warned of her true identity by the FBI.
Schiff said his targeting is nothing more than an effort by McCarthy to win support for his Speakership bid.
McCarthy was elected Speaker-designate in a closed-door GOP conference vote, but lost 31 votes. He will need to win over many of them to be elected Speaker on the House floor.
“McCarthy’s problem is not with what I have said about Russia. McCarthy’s problem is, he can’t get to 218 without Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar and Matt Gaetz,” Schiff said Sunday during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union."
“And so he will do whatever they ask. And, right now, they’re asking for me to be removed from our committees. And he’s willing to do it. He’s willing to do anything they ask.”
The Mayorkas fight reflects the awkward line that McCarthy is trying to walk.
He courted conservative votes last week by vowing an investigation of Mayorkas but did not fully embrace an impeachment vote, allowing himself wiggle room to change his mind next year.
“If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate. Every order, every action and every failure will determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy said at a press conference in El Paso, Texas.
In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) expressed doubt the GOP would be able to impeach Mayorkas swiftly.
“You’ve got to build a case. You need the facts, evidence before you indict. Has he been derelict in his responsibilities? I think so,” he said.
Other Republicans, however, want to go full steam ahead, suggesting anything short of Mayorkas’s removal would put the country’s security at risk.
“He needs to go,” Rep. Ronnie Jackson (R-Texas) told Fox News on Sunday. “We need to make an example of Mayorkas. And he will be just the start of what we do in this new Congress.”
Other Republicans have dismissed an impeachment vote as a stunt.
“It would basically be putting form over substance to go through a big performance on impeachment that’s never going anywhere,” former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, a George W. Bush appointee, said over the weekend, “rather than actually working with the administration to solve the problem.”
McCarthy also faces divisions on delaying the defense bill, as some Republicans want to move forward and also pull back from threats to limit support for Ukraine.
McCarthy says he wants to pump the breaks on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and another round of funding to aid Ukraine in its battle against Russia, saying he wouldn’t back a “blank check.”
“I’ve watched what the Democrats have done on many of these things, especially the NDAA — the wokeism that they want to bring in there,” McCarthy told reporters shortly after the midterms. “I actually believe the NDAA should hold up until the 1st of this year — and let’s get it right.”
McCarthy is far from the only Republican with complaints about the NDAA. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) put out a report slamming the “Woke Warfighters” of the Pentagon. But McCarthy is also facing pressure from the right.
“Let’s hold the bill hostage. Let’s leverage what we have,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who opposes McCarthy’s Speakership bid, recently said on a podcast.
Democrats and the Biden administration argue a delay will hurt the military.
“If you kick it off four, five, six months, you are really damaging the United States military. So I hope Kevin McCarthy understands that,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said. “You are damaging the United States military every day past Oct. 1 that you don’t get it done, and certainly more so every day past" Jan. 1.
On Ukraine, some Republicans have bristled at the idea of holding back any funding as the country continues to make advances against Russia.
“We're going to make certain they get what they need,” House Intelligence Committee ranking member Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said in an appearance alongside McCaul.
“The fact is, we are going to provide more oversight, transparency and accountability. We're not going to write a blank check,” McCaul added. “Does that diminish our will to help the Ukraine people fight? No. But we're going to do it in a responsible way.”
Americans love reality TV. Oh sure, we can post our own families’ dirty laundry on social media, or find the truly weird in our own daily lives, but watching the antics of other peoples’ sketchy, eye-rolling, family dramas is way more appealing.
Perhaps it affirms for us that we are not alone in having to corral and deal with the less-than-desirable elements in our lives. It makes us feel better about our own circumstances.
But for those who have relatively normal and boring family lives, America has its very own reality show: the latest episode of the Democrat politicians and the wacky things they say and do that they think Americans will actually embrace whole heartedly.
To be more specific, I am talking about American politics’ First Family of reality TV. No not the Bidens, although they do have quite a few reality TV show elements – just look at Hunter.
No, the first family of political reality TV is of course, “The Squad.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez & the radical leftist Squad have taken over the Democrat Party.
They want to ram open borders, indoctrination, federal election takeovers, and a litany of socialist policies down our throats.
As your Senator, I promise to be the Squad’s WORST nightmare.
Most average Americans, if there is any weirdness to be found in their family tree, have a pretty good idea of how it got there. When it comes to politics, the conventional wisdom is that it takes a special kind of person to run for office.
What that usually means is a person who isn’t overly-caring of their fellow citizens. What it usually means is the kind of person with an ego big enough to think they are the only ones who can save the district, state, country from impending doom.
The newest Squad reality TV show started in New York City. (Where else?) A 29-year old bartender named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat out a long-time incumbent for her congressional seat. At the time of her election, she was the youngest member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
But then things started to happen. Things on Twitter that made conservatives cringe and liberals giddy. She described herself, like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, as a “Democratic Socialist.”
What the hell is a “democratic socialist,” you ask? It is a Socialist who is too afraid to come right out and say they are a Socialist.
Behold:
Two major economic actions we should take to stabilize working families:
1. Get checks into everyone’s hands NOW. We can tax it back next year from the privileged who don’t need it.
2. Stop the money OUT. Suspend all major bill payments including mortgages, rent, loans, etc. https://t.co/lmSfcS72N9
And if that wasn’t enough to make you scratch your head, there’s the “Green New Deal.” Trillions of dollars for things like “net zero” emissions, choo-choo trains, and solar panels.
After all, don’t forget, we will all be dead in 12 years if we don’t Save the Planet.
The 12 year deadline never seems to come, does it?
"Millennials, and Gen z, and all these folks that come after us, are looking up and we're like 'the world will end in 12 years if we don't address climate change, and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?'" @AOC#MLKNow#MLK2019pic.twitter.com/fbUxr2C0tJ
Rational people dared to ask, “But who will pay for all of this?” Ocasio-Cortez’s answer: “Some people are like, ‘Oh, it’s unrealistic, oh it’s fake, oh it doesn’t address this little minute thing. And I’m like, ‘You try! You do it.’ ‘Cause you’re not. ‘Cause you’re not. So, until you do it, I’m the boss. How ’bout that?”
The boss? Perhaps Boston University should have required a course on Civics as well.
Just when you get used to a certain level of crazy, it gets better. Reality TV requires new and absurd drama to keep viewers locked in.
Now AOC had buddies in the form of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). For those old enough to remember, it’s starting to look like those old “Road To” movies with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, or even the Three Stooges, only without the ensuing hilarity.
Tlaib is no better. After being sworn into Congress in January 2019, Tlaib said that when her young son asked her if bullies win, her answer to him was that they don’t, and speaking of President Donald Trump continued, “Baby, they don’t,’ because we’re gonna go in there and we’re going to impeach the motherf****r.”
Hey Rashida, do you kiss your son with that mouth?
FLASHBACK: Rashida Tlaib Screams ‘We’re Gonna Impeach the Mother F***er!’ in Jan 2019 https://t.co/SUTSkVkPj8
Does it get better you ask? Oh yes it does. Not wanting to let decent crazy go to waste, a fourth Squad member, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), when recounting the riot on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, told MSNBC’s Joy Reid that she felt “deep ancestral fear.”
"The experiences of Wednesday were harrowing and, unfortunately, very familiar in the deepest most ancestral way … I'm fearful but that fear is not new."@AyannaPressley on #TheReidOutpic.twitter.com/tKSYEKQopG
But perhaps nowhere in the history of political instability is the crazy more on display than the newest member of the Squad, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO).
An in-your-face Black Lives Matter activist, Bush is famous for standing outside the home of Mark and Patricia McCloskey with a bullhorn with a group of 300 or so protesters who came through a gate of their private street.
The McCloskeys now-famously stood in front of their house armed with a pistol and rifle.
The cherry on this crazy cake comes from a report in the Washington Free Beacon that reveals that Bush has worked as a “faith healer” for a group that claims to have cured AIDS, cancer, and yes even COVID-19. Apparently, they have also claimed to resurrect the dead.
The report continues, with the head of the “church,” Charles Ndifon describing a phone call with Bush. Ndifon claims to have cured her of COVID within 30 minutes through the phone.
Bush also started a chapter of the church in St. Louis in 2011.
Kingdom Embassy Churches are headquartered in Rhode Island, and while Ndifon says he does not take a salary, he does mange to stay in luxury hotels and wear designer suits. Praise Jesus.
Ironically, curing COVID over the phone is far more realistic and plausible than the Squad’s economic ideas.
Bush also recently made headlines when she referred to mothers on the eve of Mother’s Day as “birthing people.”
What will she call fathers next month? “Impregnating people?”
When we face adversity, we keep pushing. It’s all we can do.
So yes, I’m bringing my bullhorn to Congress. And I’m not going to stop fighting for justice for our people.https://t.co/zUOmmXgrF6
The examples are far too numerous to chronicle here. One merely needs to plug in a Squad members name into the Twitter search bar to find countless instances ranging from the bizarre and absurd to downright silly.
One thing is for certain: the Squad reality show will go on. All are in deep-blue, safe Democrat districts.
You’ll have to keep tuning in to see what new preposterous drama they’ll cook up next!
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House Democrats on the Education and Labor Committee voted to approve a $15 minimum wage proposal as part of the coronavirus relief package, despite warnings from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that it would put 1.4 million Americans out of work.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) celebrated the passage of a proposal to more than double the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour by the year 2025.
“It’s a wrap,” she tweeted. “$15 #MinimumWage passes the [Education and Labor] committee after more than 13 hours of debate.”
CNBC reports that it is unclear if the minimum wage provision would survive inclusion in the final $1.9 trillion aid package due to strict Senate rules.
Still, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is hoping to get it through.
“We’re trying to work as well as we can with the [Senate] parliamentarian to get minimum wage to happen,” he told reporters.
The vote supporting a $15 per hour federal minimum wage comes within days of a CBO report indicating such a move would cost 1.4 million American jobs.
Raising the minimum wage would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty, the report adds, but 1.4 million would presumably dip down in take-home pay considering they’d be out of work.
“Young, less educated people would account for a disproportionate share of those reductions in employment,” the CBO states.
Worse, they’d likely be out of the workforce for quite some time.
“In 2021, most workers who would not have a job because of the higher minimum wage would still be looking for work and hence be
categorized as unemployed,” they write.
“By 2025, however, half of the 1.4 million people who would be jobless because of the bill would have dropped out of the labor force.”
The CBO projects that Joe Biden’s federal nationwide wage mandate would eliminate 1.4 million jobs by 2025.
Big-government mandates from Washington do not create growth and opportunity, they destroy it.
If House Democrats don’t get their $15 minimum wage wish with this coronavirus relief package, President Biden has vowed to push for the pay hike at a later time.
“I put it in but I don’t think it’s going to survive,” Biden told CBS News in an interview this past weekend. “My guess is it will not be in [the stimulus bill].”
That doesn’t mean he’s about to give up.
“I’m prepared as the president of the United States on a separate negotiation on minimum wage to work my way up from what it is now,” Biden argued.
“No one should work 40 hours a week and live below the poverty wage and you’re making less than $15 an hour, you’re living below the poverty wage.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders says he hopes Pres. Biden is wrong about a minimum wage hike being unlikely to make it in the final coronavirus relief package: “You cannot make it in any state in this country on $9 or $10 an hour. We’ve got to raise that minimum wage to $15 an hour” #CNNSOTUpic.twitter.com/7Cup5rofH1
A recent post by Factcheck.org indicates the numbers could end up being better than the CBO estimates, but they could just as easily be worse.
“There also is a 33% chance that between zero and 1 million jobs would be lost, and a 33% chance that the decrease would be between 1 million and 2.7 million jobs,” they write.
A Biden adviser dismissed concerns about jobs being lost due to a $15 minimum wage.
White House Counsel of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein said “we have a tendency to focus on some of the big negatives.”
Being jobless would seem like a pretty big negative for most Americans.
On Sunday, Republican Sen. Rand Paul said that if Democrats insist on claiming that former President Donald Trump’s rally speech incited the January 6th Capitol Hill attack as a basis for impeachment, then Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer along with Democratic Congresswomen Maxine Waters and Ilhan Omar should be held accountable for similar language.
Sen. Paul: Democrats Have Used Violent Language With No Consequences
The GOP senator referenced Schumer’s rhetoric before a protest at the U.S. Supreme Court in early March 2020.
“I opposed the notion of — which I think was a misguided notion, a voting to overturn the election either with Congress or with the vice president,” Paul told Fox News Chris Wallace.
Paul continued, “But I think if we are going to criminalize speech and somehow impeach everybody who says, oh, ‘go fight to hear your voices heard,’ really we ought to impeach Chuck Schumer then.”
“He went to the Supreme Court, stood in front of the Supreme Court, and said specifically, ‘hey Gorsuch, hey Kavanaugh, you’ve unleashed a whirlwind, and you’re going to pay the price,'” Paul reminded viewers.
“You won’t know what hit you if you continue with these awful decisions,” Paul recalled Schumer saying.
Sen. Paul wanted to know why this speech did not qualify for potentially inciting violence.
Schumer called for unleashing a whirlwind such that Gorsuch & Kavanaugh would “not know what hit them.” Perhaps we should impeach Schumer?
Trump impeachment is 'partisan farce,' Schumer would deserve to be impeached too: Rand Paul | Fox News https://t.co/XcIK8RVtd4
“This inflammatory wording, this violent rhetoric of Chuck Schumer was so bad that the chief justice, who rarely says anything publicly, immediately said this kind of language is dangerous as a mob tried to invade the Supreme Court,” Paul continued.
Paul added, “So if people want to hold President Trump accountable for language, there has to be a consistent standard, and to my mind, it’s a partisan farce because they’re not doing anything to Chuck Schumer, not doing anything to Representative Omar, not doing anything to Maxine Waters.”
“It’s just not fair,” Paul finished. “It’s just partisan politics under a different name.”
"For the president of the United States to sit and watch the invasion and the insurrection and not say a word … if that's not inciting the kind of violence that we have witnessed, I don't know what is," Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) said. pic.twitter.com/Ck1EzTsxoZ
Chief Justice Roberts Chastised Schumer’s Violent Rhetoric
The senator has a point, and Schumer was even accused of trying to incite physical violence at the time he made his controversial remarks.
As the Supreme Court was weighing a case about abortion, Schumer said at a rally in March 2020, “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.”
“You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” Schumer said.
“Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous.
All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.”
Some Senate Republicans called on Schumer to apologize or face possible censure.
Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso said, “To me, this sounds like he is talking about a physical price, violence.’
Maxine Waters: Trump should be charged with pre-meditated murder.
Also Maxine Waters: If you see anybody from the Trump Administration in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you create a crowd. And you push back on them.
Waters Encouraged Physical Intimidation Against Trump Administration
Rep. Maxine Waters appeared to encourage physical violence and intimidation against members of the Trump administration at a political rally in June 2018.
“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up,” Waters told a crowd. “And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd.”
“And you push back on them,” Waters added. “And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
Omar appeared to endorse further violence when she retweeted Hollywood actor Tom Arnold’s comments about an incident in which Rand Paul’s neighbor severely injured him in an attack in 2017.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar retweeting calls for political violence against @randpaul. I’m not surprised, and look forward to the forthcoming silence from the media on the issue. pic.twitter.com/r9BQloVoL9
Paul told Fox News Sunday that Omar was “wishing and celebrating the violence that happened to me when I had six ribs broken and part of my lung removed.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) spoke out on Thursday to say that if Republicans do not remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene(R-GA) from office, then “we must.”
Omar said this during an interview on SiriusXM’s “The Dean Obeidallah Show.”
“Today, Speaker Pelosi just a short time ago at a press conference talking essentially about the ‘enemy within’ the House, and she slammed congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has made comments about Muslims if you’re a practicing Muslim you shouldn’t serve in government, and that you and Rashida Tlaib are part of an Islamic insurrection, I mean more and more despicable stuff,” said host Dean Obeidallah.
“In Congress, should the Republican Party not be the ones leading to remove her?” he asked.
Omar Attacks Greene As ‘Dangerous And Violent’
“They should be. This person, as you’ve stated, is dangerous and violent,” Omar replied.
“She has not only posed what many of us would consider a threat against myself and many of my colleagues, but she’s harassed people who have survived violence, children who have survived violence, and is lying about the deaths of so many children, and is really victimizing their families,” she said.
“This is not somebody that should be in office, you know, someone said yesterday instead of being in Congress, this person needs to be on a watch list,” Omar added.
“And if the Republican Party and its leadership is not going to do the work of removing her from Congress, we must do it,” she concluded.
This came after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) slammed Republican leaders for ignoring alleged past extreme statements that Greene had made.
“What I’m concerned about is the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, who is willing to overlook, ignore those statements,” Pelosi said, according to CNN.
“Assigning her to the Education Committee when she has mocked the killing of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, when she has mocked the killing of teenagers in high school at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school — what could they be thinking?” Pelosi added.
“Or is thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing? It’s absolutely appalling, and I think the focus has to be on the Republican leadership of this House of Representatives for the disregard they have for the death of those children,” she concluded.
Greene has also spoken out to defend herself in the face of this backlash.
“Over the years, I’ve had teams of people manage my pages,” she said in a statement.
“Many posts have been liked. Many posts have been shared,” Greene added. “Some did not represent my views. Especially the ones that CNN is about to spread across the internet.”
Fake News CNN is writing yet another hit piece on me focused on my time before running for political office.
I will never back down to the enemy of the American people and neither should you. pic.twitter.com/K3JuvqrDGS
(@mtgreenee)