House Republican wants to have attorney general arrested just because

Posted on June 17, 2024 by Walter Einenkel

GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, best known for fabricating her entire life story, told Fox News that she has a plan to get the sergeant-at-arms to arrest Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“Several months ago, I introduced a resolution for something called inherent contempt of Congress. This is something that Congress has the authority to do, and it hasn’t been done since the early 1900’s,” she told host Maria Bartiromo on Monday.

Luna was responding to questions about the Justice Department’s announcement that it would not prosecute Garland for not turning over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur.

“And what that allows Congress to do is really be the punitive arm and really hold Garland accountable by using the sergeant-at-arms to essentially go and get him,” Luna went on, “as well as the tapes, bring him to the well of the house and really be a check-and-balance on the Department of Justice.”

Like most of what Luna says, there are all kinds of facts being misrepresented here. For one, her assertion that she introduced her inherent contempt of Congress resolution “several months ago” is belied by the fact that she actually announced it on May 7. And while that is technically more than one month, it is far less than several months. Though, to be fair, her announcement could have been missed, since it came the same day that Stormy Daniels was testifying … in Trump’s criminal trial.

The sergeant-at-arms is "the chamber’s primary law enforcement official and protocol officer, responsible for maintaining security on the House floor and the House side of the U.S. Capitol complex.”

The case from the “early 1900’s” that Luna is referring to is something some legal scholars felt was more apropos to the unwillingness to comply with requests from Congress by the Trump administration.

The Teapot Dome scandal, which involved President Warren G. Harding’s Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall’s no-bid contract to lease federal oil fields in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, happened in 1922. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty was heavily criticized at the time for not more thoroughly investigating Fall, who was later convicted of taking a $100,000 bribe.

The scandal escalated to the Senate committee subpoenaing Mally S. Daugherty, the attorney general’s brother.

When Mally Daugherty refused to show up to testify before Congress, the Senate Sergeant at Arms David S. Barry deputized John J. McGrain to arrest him and bring him to Washington to testify.

The Republicans’ fixation on getting audio, despite having already received the entire transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden, has been a transparently political endeavor. Hur, a Republican, released a 375-page report in February saying that no charges were warranted and that Biden had likely kept the documents as a private citizen by “mistake.”

Since then, House Republicans voted to hold Garland in contempt. Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to take the Garland contempt case to court after the DOJ announced it planned no further action. But whether Johnson will bring Luna’s resolution to a vote remains to be seen.

There has been very little tangible action that has come out of the GOP’s neverending political theater. This past year it spent an inordinate amount of time attacking Biden’s border security while trying to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas—a stunt that failed miserably.

Luna’s newest resolution is the GOP’s latest political stunt to create a cloud of doubt over Biden’s reelection campaign against convicted felon Trump.

Hopium Chronicles' Simon Rosenberg joins Markos to discuss the “red wave-ification” of the economy and how prepared Democrats are for November. There is still work to do but we have a better candidate—and we have the edge.

Embedded Content

Campaign Action

Rep. Matt Gaetz wants to force House GOP to take a Trump loyalty test

Posted on February 7, 2024 by Walter Einenkel

On Tuesday, Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz and honorary “Florida man” Rep. Elise Stefanik, and 64 House Republicans presented a resolution to declare that Donald Trump “did not engage in insurrection or rebellion” related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Gaetz began the press conference by saying “We are here today to authoritatively express that President Trump did not commit an insurrection,”

More importantly, Gaetz made it clear that he plans to use this as a MAGA purity test. After thanking Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio for filing a companion bill in the Senate, Gaetz said, “And now it's time for members of the House and Senate to show where they stand on this question.” And just like that, Gaetz’s remarks were followed by a series of Republicans praising dear leader Trump and saying how the insurrection on Jan. 6 was a concoction by “leftists.”

“[What] we have seen is mass hysteria caused by you, the reckless leftist media,” said Rep. Andy Biggs. “That's what we've seen.”

YouTube Video

Stefanik flanked Gaetz during the press conference, suggesting they’ve patched things up since the two spent October bickering at one another’s expense. Gaetz’s resolution reads in its entirety:

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that former President Donald J. Trump did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or give aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

You can flip the paper over if you don’t believe me.

The idea that after hundreds of arrests, convictions, and prison sentences—as well as a congressional investigation that left very little to the imagination about how very much Trump and his allies orchestrated the insurrection—the horrors of Jan. 6 should be forgotten with a single-sentence resolution is almost hallucinogenic! It also signals how Trump and his supporters expect the GOP to fall in line. Those who sign on to Gaetz’s resolution will be on a list that Trump can point to and threaten Republican officials with for however long he lives.

As of now, two names are conspicuously absent from the list of sponsors of the bill: Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comer, both of whom have been doing Trump’s dirty work as chairs of House oversight committees.

Maybe they are too busy not finding evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden to sign on to a bill as ludicrous as this one. But as former Rep. Liz Cheney knows, Jordan will surely sign on to any bill pretending that Jan. 6, 2021, never happened.

Campaign Action

George Santos interview with CNN went way off the rails

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Walter Einenkel

Suspected pathological fraudster Rep. George Santos went on CNN to be interviewed by host Erin Burnett Tuesday evening. Santos started by saying he supported House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announcement of an impeachment inquiry, which is based on no evidence, of President Joe Biden. Burnett then asked Santos questions about recent reports that he had entered into talks with prosecutors in his own fraud case. The fundamental issue with interviewing George Santos is that he is a well-documented liar. Santos quickly said none of the reports were true and that he wouldn’t and couldn’t talk about it—but it wasn’t true, so there.

Burnett asked Santos to speak to his plea deal in Brazil, which was reported on in May by multiple news outlets (including CNN). Facing fraud charges in Brazil, prosecutors allowed the embattled congressman to admit guilt and pay a pittance of restitution. Santos responded to Burnett’s question by opening up the gaslight machine and sending the interview off the rails: “I don't know where you're getting your information from, but I would challenge you to bring up receipts on that because that's not how it happened in Brazil.” Santos similarly denied knowing anything about accusations of fraud surrounding his work with rescue animals and of potentially defrauding a veteran, as well as about the complaints of misuse of campaign funds.

After more combative lying from Santos, Burnett brought down the hammer in the form of an edited montage of Santos’ lying in his own words about his grandparents being Holocaust survivors, about his mother surviving 9/11, about various schools he did not attend and degrees he did not earn or receive. Santos’ response was to say CNN should have Biden on to be “grilled” like this. Burnett didn’t let this pass, responding that his answer was “completely irrelevant to the conversation,” adding, “and to be very clear, you and I spoke this afternoon and I said we would begin with impeachment and talk about many other things about you. You are well aware of that. So it would be unfair to claim anything otherwise.”

It was breathtaking.

YouTube Video

Sign the petition: Expel George Santos

George Santos was accused of writing more than $15,000 in bad checks for puppies back in 2017

New report says there's another lie on top of George Santos' lie about his mother on 9/11