Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) will leave Congress in June to take over as the president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, his office announced on Tuesday.
“Serving the people of Rhode Island’s First Congressional District has been the honor of my lifetime,” Cicilline, 61, said in a statement. “As President and CEO of one of the largest and oldest community foundations in the nation, I look forward to expanding on the work I have led for nearly thirty years in helping to improve the lives of all Rhode Islanders.”
Cicilline, who has represented Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District since 2011, will officially step down June 1. Cicilline’s staff will continue to operate the district’s Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., offices until a new representative is chosen in a special election, his office said.
“The chance to lead the Rhode Island Foundation was unexpected, but it is an extraordinary opportunity to have an even more direct and meaningful impact on the lives of residents of our state,” he added.
Cicilline easily sailed to reelection in his solidly blue Rhode Island district in November’s midterm elections, securing about 64 percent of the vote.
His decision to leave Congress comes after longtime Rhode Island Rep. James Langevin (D) stepped down from the state’s only other congressional seat last year, after more than 20 years in office. He was replaced by Rep. Seth Magaziner (D) in the state’s first open congressional race since 2010.
A special election for Cicilline’s seat cannot be scheduled until he officially resigns from office, according to The Boston Globe.
Cicilline rose to even greater prominence as one of the Democrats' impeachment managers for former President Trump's second impeachment trial.
Prior to joining Congress, Cicilline spent over a decade in Rhode Island politics, getting his start in the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1995. In 2003, he was elected mayor of Providence, becoming was the first openly gay mayor of a state capital city.
Cicilline is currently one of only 13 openly gay, lesbian and bisexual members of Congress, according to the Pew Research Center, and is a co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.
In November, Cicilline briefly made a move for House Democratic leadership, launching a last-minute bid for the assistant leader position against veteran Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.). However, Cicilline ultimately stepped aside.
Three key figures connected to former President Trump are at the intersection of two accelerating Justice Department probes seen as the most viable pathways for a prosecution of the former president.
Special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing what began as two entirely separate cases: the mishandling of classified records at Mar-a-Lago and the effort to influence the 2020 election that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Several Trump World figures straddle both events, providing prosecutors with what experts say is a potent opportunity to advance both investigations.
Alex Cannon, Christina Bobb and Kash Patel played different roles in the two sagas, but each has been sought by the Justice Department in the documents dispute and has also been called in by the special House committee, now disbanded, that investigated the Jan. 6 riot.
Cannon, a longtime Trump Organization employee, was pulled into campaign efforts to assess allegations of voter fraud and then served as a liaison for Trump with the National Archives as officials there pushed for the recovery of presidential records.
Bobb, a lawyer for Trump’s 2024 campaign, aided in the Trump 2020 campaign’s post-election lawsuits. She later shifted to doing legal work for Trump that culminated in her signing a statement asserting classified records stored at Mar-a-Lago had been returned.
Patel was chief of staff to the secretary of Defense as the Pentagon was grappling with Jan. 6. Trump also named Patel as one of his representatives to the National Archives upon leaving office, and he was later one of Trump’s chief surrogates in pushing claims that the former president declassified the records discovered in his Florida home.
It’s unclear whether any of the trio faces significant legal exposure, but their unique positions could be valuable for Smith, who is racing forward with both cases. In recent weeks, Smith has subpoenaed former Vice President Mike Pence and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, while securing another batch of materials from Mar-a-Lago.
“Typically, you don't have two separate investigations and two separate sets of possible crimes to work with as you're negotiating. Smith does have that here,” said Norm Eisen, a counsel for Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment who has penned analyses of both cases.
“For him, it's like a two-for-one sale. If he cuts a cooperation deal with some of these individuals, he can advance multiple cases at the same time,” Eisen added.
Patel was granted immunity by a judge and compelled to answer questions in the Mar-a-Lago case after being previously subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury and repeatedly pleading the Fifth. Bobb has also spoken with prosecutors in relation to the case and testified before a grand jury. And the Justice Department is seeking to speak to Cannon about his dealings with the National Archives, The New York Times reported.
“I think that is a potential fruitful avenue for the Justice Department in these cases,” said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney under President Obama. “Their overlap in the two cases is very interesting, because you could use criminal exposure in one case to flip them in the other case.”
Attorneys for Cannon and Bobb did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story, while a spokesperson for Patel declined to comment. The Trump campaign also did not respond to request for comment.
To be clear, other figures also may have insight into the two probes, including Meadows and former deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin. Former White House attorney Eric Herschmann is also reported to have warned Trump about holding records at Mar-a-Lago.
Still, the trove of transcripts released by the House Jan. 6 committee offers a window into three figures who, despite diverging paths, became central in the Mar-a-Lago probe.
Bobb and Patel, who now serves on the board of Trump’s social media enterprise, remain deeply enmeshed with the former president.
Cannon was most recently employed by Michael Best, a law firm that in December severed its ties with several Trump-connected attorneys, including Stefan Passantino, who represented former aides before the Jan. 6 panel. The firm also allowed contracts with Cannon and former Trump deputy campaign manager Justin Clark to lapse, Bloomberg News reported.
The firm did not respond to a request for comment.
Cannon, who was initially hired to work on contracts for the Trump Organization, expressed hesitation during interviews with the Jan. 6 panel about being pulled into working on fraud issues for the campaign as the pandemic brought hotel operations to a trickle.
“I believe that the only reason I was asked to do this is because others didn't want to. I have no particular experience with election law or anything. I do vendor contracts,” he told the committee.
When asked if he found that work undesirable, he responded, “I'm sitting here right now. Yes, it's undesirable.”
The conversations show Cannon was tasked with evaluating a number of claims from “crazy people,” as he once described it, as well as other claims that dead people may have voted — something he was unable to verify given limitations in voter databases.
He ultimately relayed those concerns to Pence, recounting to the committee in what would become a brief appearance in a hearing that “I was not personally finding anything sufficient to alter the results of the election.”
It was a stance that caught the eye of former Trump adviser Peter Navarro.
“Mr. Navarro accused me of being an agent of the deep state working … against the president. And I never took another phone call from Mr. Navarro,” Cannon said.
Bobb, in contrast, made clear in her interview that she believed there was suspicious activity on Election Day that merited review.
Once a reporter for the far-right One America News, Bobb had come to the network after working as an attorney, including during stints with the Marine Corps. She would later get a master of laws degree from Georgetown University, joining the Trump administration at the Department of Homeland Security after graduation.
While working as a One America News employee, she volunteered her time to the Trump campaign immediately after the election. The arrangement was approved by the network, though the campaign required her to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
“There was plenty of evidence to be concerned about fraud,” she said, even if the legal team wasn’t prepared to launch a case on the first day following the election.
“I volunteered and I wanted to look into it because I was concerned about the integrity of my vote, of the country. I think that's why we all got involved. So I don't want you to take my statement and say, Christina Bobb said that in the beginning the legal team knew there was no fraud. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying there was plenty of reason to believe there could be fraud.”
Bobb was present in the “war room” at the Willard Hotel on Jan. 6 and was listening in to Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — a discussion she told the panel was “unremarkable.”
The Jan. 6 committee transcripts indicate Cannon and Bobb had no interaction throughout the litigation process, with Bobb saying they did not connect until after President Biden was sworn in. Bobb told investigators she didn’t speak with Cannon until later, adding nothing more when investigators asked if it was on an unrelated matter.
Bobb’s role with Trump on the Mar-a-Lago documents picked up where Cannon left off.
In February 2022, Cannon declined Trump’s request to sign a statement indicating all classified material at Mar-a-Lago had been returned because he wasn’t sure the statement was true, according to reporting from The Washington Post.
Bobb would join the team later, agreeing to sign a declaration given to the Justice Department in June attesting that all sensitive government documents had been returned — with the stipulation that her attestation was “based upon the information that has been provided to me.”
“The contrast between the two as lawyers speaks volumes,” said Josh Stanton, an attorney with Perry Guha who contributed to a model prosecution memo for the Mar-a-Lago case.
“Alex Cannon refus[es] to sign a certification that everything had been turned over where he wasn't able to do himself the diligent work to actually independently verify that, whereas Christina Bobb is in a position where she's told to sign the certification, and is told that that's correct, then just goes ahead and signs it anyway,” he said.
“Whether or not you could actually make out, say, criminal charges against Christina Bobb for signing that certification … it certainly puts her ethically, as a lawyer, in really hot water,” he added.
Patel, who spoke to the Jan. 6 committee after being subpoenaed, began his deposition with an opening statement expressing frustration that the panel did not think he would be cooperative with its investigation.
Patel later answered questions during a lengthy interview after noting privilege concerns, but investigators at times seemed baffled by details the former high-ranking Defense Department official could not remember. Patel struggled to recall specifics about some conversations with Trump and demurred when asked about reported plans near the end of the Trump presidency to install him as head of the CIA.
“I know you guys try to think this is improbable, but I was in one of those positions for a two-year period of time, approximately, where I had many conversations with the president impacting things that I would only read about or watch in movies,” he said.
“So, after a certain period of time, they tend to stack up and you just do the mission,” Patel added.
Patel largely sidestepped questions on whether Trump should have done more to stop the chaos on Jan. 6, but spoke at length about the process for securing assistance from the National Guard and Trump’s approval for the use of as many as 20,000 troops that day.
The committee panned Trump’s inaction as dereliction of duty, and Stanton said Patel’s comments could forecast a response should Trump or others face culpability for Jan. 6.
“Some of the most powerful testimony in the hearings themselves was the sort of hours Trump seemed not to act. And so I think he's previewing what they're going to say, which is, ‘Oh, no, I actually did authorize 10,000 or 20,000 National Guard members to be able to respond,’” he said.
In the Mar-a-Lago probe, Patel repeatedly asserted his Fifth Amendment rights during his first appearance before a grand jury.
“Trump declassified whole sets of materials in anticipation of leaving government that he thought the American public should have the right to read themselves,” Patel told Breitbart News in May.
“The White House counsel failed to generate the paperwork to change the classification markings, but that doesn’t mean the information wasn’t declassified,” Patel said. “I was there with President Trump when he said ‘We are declassifying this information.'”
Trump’s attorneys have not directly backed that claim, though it would not be a bulletproof defense should he face Espionage Act charges, as the law deals with those who mishandle “national defense information.”
The special counsel appears to be ratcheting up the probes in recent weeks, even seeking to pierce the attorney-client privilege of Evan Corcoran, one of Trump’s attorneys in the document dispute, arguing his legal advice may have been given in furtherance of a crime.
It’s a move observers say should give warning to other attorneys involved in the probe.
“Any lawyer associated with Donald Trump is at great risk,” Eisen said. “I mean, he's like a neutron bomb for the legal profession.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a new interview that he will not be pushed out of his position amid efforts from some House Republicans to impeach him.
"They will not force me out," he told CNN's Chris Wallace on Sunday's episode of "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace."
Many House Republicans have repeatedly called to impeach Mayorkas, arguing that the secretary does not have "operational control" of the border despite repeated claims the border is secure.
Two articles of impeachment have now been levied against Mayorkas this year, alleging that Mayorkas lied to Congress about having control of the border and that he has failed in his duties to control the border.
The GOP's impeachment case against him is dependent on a 2006 law that states operational control of the border is defined as the prevention "of all unlawful entries." Critics have argued that this definition of operational control was commonly seen as impossible to meet.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called on Mayorkas to resign in November, saying that a House investigation will determine if an impeachment inquiry is warranted. The Department of Homeland Security has previously said that Mayorkas has no plans to resign.
Mayorkas said that he takes calls for his impeachment "seriously" and that he intends to appear before Congress when he is called to.
"I take them seriously," he said. "It is the leadership of the House that provided those remarks. I don't dismiss it by any measure, but what I do is I focus on my work."
He also added that he does not think he has done anything wrong.
"I think it is a disagreement over policy," he said. "And I think it is used for political purposes to continue a negative dialogue about a migration challenge that is not unique to the United States, to continue that dialogue to uplift it for political reasons."
The impeachment of cabinet members has been exceedingly rare throughout U.S. history.
Former President Grant’s secretary of war, William Belknap, was the only Cabinet member to be impeached in history. He resigned in 1876 before he would have been likely convicted for taking kickbacks for appointing a contractor to run a trading post in Oklahoma.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is increasingly in the eye of the GOP storm in the aftermath of a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that spilled toxic chemicals.
The disaster, which came just a month after a series of embarrassing air travel issues that snarled plans for millions of Americans, is prompting renewed scrutiny of his tenure atop the department.
But Democrats charge those aren’t the only reasons Buttigieg has become the target of such ire.
“Before, if you got your flight delayed, you weren't like ‘oh that damn Elaine Chao,’” one Democratic operative said, referring to the Transportation secretary under former President Trump. “That's the downside that comes with being such a good public figure.”
Republicans, for their part, point to Buttigieg’s role as one of Biden’s top surrogates and his potential aspirations for higher office as central to their frustrations. They say he’s not paying enough attention to his current job when there are plenty of high-level issues on his plate.
And as an example, they blasted him this month for taking 10 days to make a statement about the crash in Ohio, which occurred Feb. 3, and are turning up the heat on Buttigieg and his department over what caused the derailment and the agency’s response.
“I understand that the secretary is politically ambitious, and he’d like to move to government housing in Washington right up the street, but he does have a job to do,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the ranking member on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, told reporters. “Maybe instead of focusing on gun control and denouncing freeways as racist, he should focus on addressing the enormous challenges we have on our railways, with multiple derailments where the secretary has been AWOL.”
Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter to Buttigieg on Wednesday raising questions about the department’s oversight of the U.S. rail system.
And Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) floated impeaching Buttigieg over how he has handled the derailment.
"I hope he does resign, and if he doesn't, there's a long list of impeachment criteria,” Davidson told conservative outlet Real America’s Voice Thursday. “I never would have thought we'd see a point where we need to impeach a Secretary of Transportation, but daggon, how many failures have to happen on his watch before we call it?”
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has defended its overall response as it assists the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) investigation into the crash and the Environmental Protection Agency's handling of the fallout from the toxic chemicals that have ravaged the eastern Ohio town.
In a statement, the department said its staff “were on the ground hours after the derailment” in support of NTSB’s probe.
“It’s no surprise to see some playing politics with every crisis, even something as serious as the impacts of a global pandemic on our transportation systems or a train derailment,” a Department of Transportation spokesperson said in a statement. The spokesperson added that Buttigieg and the department is continuing to “focus on getting results” on a number of topics, including requirements for airlines to cover hotel and food expenses for stranded travelers and overseeing the implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure package.
However, the issues with Buttigieg run deeper for Republicans. In addition to his political aspirations, multiple senators argued that his priorities at the department are out of place and that his level of outreach with committee members is far off from those of other cabinet members.
“The thing they want more than anything else is competence, particularly in the midst of crisis. My sense is that he, like many others in the administration, are not the types of, sort of, hands on managers that you need at a time like that,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who is also a member on Commerce Committee. “I think part of it too is just the efforts he makes. … Some members of the cabinet, particularly on the relevant committees, the committees of jurisdiction, do a really good job of outreach and I don’t get that from him.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), another Commerce member, told The Hill that Buttigieg’s “philosophical push for everything to be climate and politically correct” is at the heart of the issues for GOP members.
“We have practical matters we need to do like permitting and building new roads and having new constructions and he pretty much puts his foot down on a lot of that stuff,” Capito said. “He’s just not leading and I think that’s the frustration.”
The Transportation Department disputed criticisms from the two lawmakers, noting that Buttigieg has had more than 100 interactions with GOP members of Congress since taking on the role.
The department added that it is “committed to building more resilient infrastructure,” including roads, bridges and evacuation routes “that can withstand extreme weather and climate events,” pointing to a program unveiled last year alongside Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) that would “help states and communities better prepare for and respond to extreme weather events.”
Buttigieg, 41, has been one of the most visible administration officials over the past two years. After a surprisingly strong but ultimately failed presidential bid, he was a vocal and often-seen proponent of Build Back Better and crisscrossed the country to tout the White House’s bipartisan infrastructure law.
He also drew public condemnation last year from right-wing pundits — though not from lawmakers — for taking paternity leave to care for the newborn twins he welcomed with his husband.
Among cabinet members, Buttigieg is one of the precious few who is considered a potential White House candidate in the coming years. Democrats far and away believe that is the main genesis for the attacks from Republicans and argue that he is an invaluable member of the administration.
The intense criticism led the White House to weigh in on Thursday. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden has “absolute confidence” in the secretary who has turned out to be one of the White House’s most trusted voices in defense of administration policy.
A number of Commerce Committee Democrats have also dismissed attacks against him. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the panel’s chairwoman, said that the criticisms are intense because some consider him “the future of our party.” Others pointed to his key voice in the administration.
“He’s smart and he knows the English language very well, so he represents himself very well under pressure. … He’s pretty damn good, I’m always impressed,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) told The Hill. “The issues with the flights and all that stuff — he’s secretary of Transportation. He’s going to get some shit, that’s the way it is.”
Buttigieg’s political stature coupled with the fact that the areas he oversees — infrastructure and air travel, for example — affect Americans daily creates a perfect storm for attacks by the GOP.
The derailment in Ohio has also led to some strange political bedfellows as Republicans are not the only ones criticizing the former South Bend, Ind., mayor.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee joined the chorus on Wednesday, hitting him for not reinstituting Obama-era safety regulations that were nixed during Trump’s presidency, saying that he has “done nothing in two years to reinstate them.”
Some, however, have held off. When asked if Buttigieg shared any of the blame for the crash in East Palestine, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told reporters, “Was he driving the train?”
Lawmakers are doling out blame and demanding answers on the train derailment in Ohio.
Legislators from both parties are expressing frustration and asking for more to be done, though Republicans in particular have put Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg directly in the hot seat.
“Secretary Buttigieg is nowhere to be found on this issue. It really is a remarkable thing that he hasn't gone to East Palestine to see what happened there,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Fox Business this week. “He hasn't come to Congress to explain what happened. For whatever reason, the Secretary seems to fill his days with politics. I know he has aspirations, but he actually has a day job.”
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) floated impeaching Buttigieg over how he has handled the derailment.
"I hope he does resign, and if he doesn't, there's a long list of impeachment criteria,” Davidson told conservative outlet Real America’s Voice Thursday. “I never would have thought we'd see a point where we need to impeach a Secretary of Transportation, but daggon, how many failures have to happen on his watch before we call it?"
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week that the White House has “absolute confidence” in Buttigieg.
The derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3 released chemicals, including toxic vinyl chloride, into the surrounding community, prompting a temporary evacuation.
State and federal authorities have said that the area’s air and water are now safe, but residents remain fearful and concerned.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are questioning Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about why it isn’t providing emergency assistance.
Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), who represents East Palestine, led a letter signed by the entire Ohio congressional delegation urging FEMA to provide assistance.
Johnson also told The Hill in a written statement that there may be room for congressional or administrative action once investigations on the issue are complete.
“Congress and the administration must take a close look at the findings to determine what policies to modify and/or implement to better prevent anything like this from happening again,” he said.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has called on Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) to declare an emergency, though DeWine’s office has said that it was told by FEMA that it was not eligible for assistance.
Beyond the issue of FEMA, Republicans have sent mixed messages on water quality.
The state has said testing indicated that municipal water in East Palestine is safe, but DeWine has also told residents to drink bottled water out of an “abundance of caution.”
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has also said that he would drink bottled water; He posted a video on Thursday showing what appeared to be chemicals in a creek, saying there were “dead worms and dead fish all throughout this water.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, traveled to East Palestine and posted a video of himself drinking water that he said came from its taps — saying that he was helping the mayor of East Palestine get the word out that the tap water is safe to drink.
“What's clear is there is a lot of work to do. I thank the first responders and personnel on site for all their efforts thus far. I will work in a bipartisan effort to ensure our freight rail system is as safe as possible and prevent tragedies like this from occurring again,” Nehls said in a statement.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), too, has criticized the administration’s timeliness.
“It is unacceptable that it took nearly two weeks for a senior Administration official to show up,” he said in a statement on EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s visit to the area.
DeWine, for this part, called on Congress to take action if it is true that the railroad was not required to notify the state about the chemicals on the train because they were not considered high hazardous materials, Fox 19 reported.
Vance supported the call for labeling the materials as hazardous, though he said that the responsibility lies not only with Congress but also with the Transportation Department.
“I don’t want to let Congress off the hook here because Congress can legislate a solution to this problem and that’s exactly what I'm going to try to do. We should have some legislation coming out here to that effect in the next few days, but look, the Department of Transportation can act on this issue too. This is a regulatory problem and a legal problem,” he told reporters this past week.
Republicans are turning the U.S.-Mexico border into something of an extension campus for the House of Representatives.
A two-week recess kicked off a flurry of hearings and visits to the border by multiple GOP-led House committees, with more in the works.
Republicans are looking to place blame on the Biden administration for drug trafficking, national security and the humanitarian crisis as migrant encounters at the southern border remain near record highs.
And they think being on location will help build up public disapproval of Democratic policies.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday visited the border in Cochise County, Ariz., with four freshman House Republicans who flipped Democratic-held seats in 2022: Reps. Juan Ciscomani (Ariz.), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Ore.), Jen Kiggans (Va.), and Derrick Van Orden (Wis.).
Speaking from the property of a rancher with the border fence in the background — the location found by GPS coordinates rather than an address — McCarthy said the GOP activity at the border is aimed at forcing Democrats to pay attention.
“The new majority in Congress, we're gonna fight to fix this problem. No longer will the Democrats be able to ignore the issue and act like it's not happening,” McCarthy said. “We will have hearings on the border. It’s the responsibility of all members to attend. Those who come to testify will come from both sides of the aisle.”
The House Energy and Commerce Committee investigations and health subcommittees held a joint field hearing in McAllen, Texas, on Wednesday, arguing President Biden’s border policies have contributed to a public health crisis with fentanyl deaths.
Next Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing near the border in Yuma, Ariz.
Members of the House Homeland Security Committee will go to El Paso, Texas, next week as part of a “border boot camp,” with a focus on educating freshman members on daily operations of Customs and Border Protection and the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to a committee source. It plans to hold a hearing at the border in March.
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the new chair of the Homeland Security Committee, wants to hire full-time staff members based on the U.S.-Mexico border. After being selected as chair last month, he told reporters that those staffers will be “sending us real time updates” on issues at the border.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee, which held a hearing in Washington about the border earlier this month, also plans to travel south for oversight activity in the future.
Border hawks are pleased to see Republicans there in person.
“It's really common sense. It's what leaders do. They go to the heart of the crisis, whether it's a hurricane or tornado, a terrorist attack, it doesn't matter,” Mark Morgan, the former chief operating officer and acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the Trump administration, told The Hill. “When you physically see it up close and personal, it changes your understanding. It changes your perspective.”
Morgan, who is now a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, talked about the emotional impact of seeing in person Border Patrol agents interact with migrants. And he criticized White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for commenting last year that “it’s not like somebody walks over” the border.
“That is exactly what they do all day long,” Morgan said. "Had she spent 30 seconds at the border — 30 seconds — she would have seen … It would have changed her understanding; it would have changed her perception.”
But Democrats see the activities as little more than publicity stunts.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), whose district encompasses parts of Cochise County, paid his own visit to the border Thursday and criticized the tenor of Republicans' focus on the border.
"I don't see this thing as serious, what McCarthy's doing, parachuting in, doing the photo-op, hanging out with the one rancher and Sheriff [Dannels], taking their word as Bible and moving on,” Grijalva told The Hill on Thursday.
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels is a favorite witness on border issues for the GOP and a frequent guest on Fox News, but he has been accused by Democrats and immigration advocates of espousing an anti-immigrant agenda.
"I would have gone to the cities and the communities that are on the border. I would have him go and sit down with the people in Douglas, sit down with the people in Nogales, sit down with the people in San Luis and Somerton, sit down with the people in Naco, sit down with the people in Sasabe, sit down with the people that do business on that border, sit down with the families that have been there multi-generationally, sit down with them and talk about their needs and their perception of the border," Grijalva said.
A White House spokesman on Wednesday dismissed McCarthy’s trip, saying “House Republicans should spend less time on partisan publicity stunts and more time working on solutions.”
And House Judiciary Committee Democrats will not attend next week’s hearing in Yuma.
Ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement subcommittee ranking member Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a joint statement Thursday that there was “no consultation” with Democrats on the hearing, and that many Democratic members had already committed to other congressional delegation trips.
They called it “a brazen act of political grandstanding,” adding, “as a result, Democrats, who have been to the border regularly the last few years, will not attend next week’s performative hearing. Additionally, Judiciary Democrats will conduct their own trip to the border next month where we will hear from the community and government officials on the ground."
The House Judiciary GOP said in a tweet that was “FAKE NEWS,” and Republicans had been in consultation with Democrats for weeks about the trip — sharing a video of comments from Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in the committee’s first meeting to make the minority aware of a planned trip to the border that week.
"They're just scared to face the harsh realities of the #BidenBorderCrisis,” the committee tweeted.
Also looming over the in-person border activities is the potential impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Those calling for his impeachment argue that he has not achieved “operational control.”
McCarthy has not committed to impeaching Mayorkas, saying that impeachment will not be “political.” But in November, he called on Mayorkas to resign or face House GOP investigations — warning that it could lead to impeachment.
But even as they try to draw attention to the border and take aim at Democrats, Republicans face internal disagreement over legislation to address immigration issues. GOP leaders had planned to quickly bring to the House floor a bill that would allow the Homeland Security secretary to turn away migrants in order to achieve “operational control” at the border.
Objections from moderates like Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) over the legislation being “anti-immigrant” derailed that plan.
Republicans are now working on border and immigration legislation that will go through a normal committee process.
“We've got a lot of ideas inside Congress. It’s different than the Congress before,” McCarthy said at the border Thursday. “We're just not going to write the bill and put it onto the floor. We're going to listen to the people that are on the border. We're going to listen to border agents. We want the very best ideas.”
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took aim at Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, fueling an argument that could help lay the groundwork for a potential impeachment.
“This has got to stop. And it starts with the Secretary of Homeland. Stop lying to the American public. Tell them the truth what's happening, and change back the regulation that we had before so our border can be secure,” McCarthy said in a press conference from Cochise County, Ariz., with the border fence in the background.
McCarthy did not specify what he thought Mayorkas lied about, but Republicans have repeatedly dinged him for testifying in a congressional hearing last year that the border is secure.
The issue of whether there is “operational control” at the border is central to the argument from hard-line conservative House Republicans that Mayorkas should be impeached.
That term refers to the Secure Fence Act of 2006, a law that says operational control of the border means prevention “of all unlawful entries” to the United States.
McCarthy has not endorsed impeaching Mayorkas, but in November called on him to resign, saying that House GOP investigations will determine whether they can open an impeachment inquiry.
“What has changed from President Trump to President Biden? There has been no legislation change, but why has the border — why has this region gone from 66,000 people come across to 250,000?” McCarthy said.
The press conference took place on the private property of a rancher.
“His family has found 14 dead bodies on his ranch in just the last couple years,” McCarthy said. "Those are human bodies. He tells the story of his grandson smelling the body. That is different from a dead cow.”
“Why is that happening? Because the administration's policies that is allowing it to happen,” McCarthy said. “When you look at the gaps in the wall. Why are they there? Why are these lights wired but not working? Because we got a new president that said to stop it. We paid for the metal to go up but it's stored far away. There's gaps that allow it to come in. That’s wrong.”
The trip marks McCarthy’s first visit to the border as Speaker. He was accompanied by four freshman House Republicans who flipped Democratic-held seats in 2022: Rep. Juan Ciscomani (Ariz.), whose district includes parts of Cochise County; Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Ore.), Jen Kiggans (Va.), and Derrick Van Orden (Wis.).
“There are two people that can really have an immediate impact on the situation in this country, and that's President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas,” Ciscomani said. “They both have failed, and they have shown no interest in fixing this issue. So I invite him here to the border to see what we saw today. Talk to the people that we talked to today and realize what impact this is having in our communities.”
Ciscomani said that the purpose of the trip was not to discuss immigration reform, but to discuss border security.
“These are two different issues and we need to deal with them separately,” Ciscomani said.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is leading a congressional delegation to the southern border on Thursday, marking his first visit to the border since winning the gavel last month.
Republican Reps. Juan Ciscomani (Ariz.), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Ore.), Jen Kiggans (Va.) and Derrick Van Orden (Wis.) — all first-term lawmakers — will accompany McCarthy on the trip. The group will be traveling within the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, and they will be briefed and receive an aerial tour from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to McCarthy.
Ciscomani delivered the Republicans' State of the Union response in Spanish last week.
The trip comes a little more than one month after McCarthy won the Speakership in a 15-ballot election that forced him to give up a number of concessions to shore up support among the party’s right flank, including a floor vote on border legislation.
McCarthy made securing the border a key part of his agenda during the midterm elections, and in the lead-up to the Speaker race. In November, shortly after the midterms, McCarthy traveled to El Paso, Texas, and called on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign over his handling of the southern border — a gesture toward conservative Republicans who had been pushing for impeachment.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) in December said the Border Safety and Security Act would pass in the first two weeks of the new Congress, but it has not yet come to the floor because of disagreements within the party.
The legislation would allow Mayorkas to turn away migrants in an effort to reach "operational control" at the border. Some lawmakers, however, have raised concerns about the limits it would place on asylum.
Some Republicans have been adamant about impeaching Mayorkas. Earlier this month, GOP lawmakers filed a second bill to impeach the secretary. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) called Mayorkas the “chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border.”
McCarthy has on a number of occasions said he will not use impeachment for political purposes, vowing to launch an inquiry if a reason presents itself. He reiterated that stance last week.
“We will never use impeachment for political reasons. It's just not going to happen,” McCarthy said during a press conference when asked about a potential timeline for impeachment. “That doesn't mean if something rises to the level [of] impeachment, we would not do it.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Biden and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met at the White House on Friday and reflected on how their nations were tested in their respective battles to preserve democracy, with the U.S. president declaring that democracy ultimately “prevailed” over the far-right mobs that stormed their governments’ halls of power in an attempt to overturn election victories.
Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump in a fraught 2020 race, securing victory with thin margins in several battleground states. In Brazil’s recent election, its tightest since its return to democracy over three decades ago, Lula, the leftist leader of the Workers' Party, squeaked out a win against right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, who earned the nickname “Trump of the Tropics” and was an outspoken admirer of the former U.S. president.
Both Trump and Bolsonaro sowed doubts about the vote, without presenting evidence, but their claims nevertheless resonated with their most die-hard supporters. In the U.S. Capitol, Trump supporters staged the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection seeking to prevent Biden's win from being certified. Last month, thousands of rioters stormed the Brazilian capital aiming to oust the newly-inaugurated Lula.
“Both our nations’ strong democracies have been tested of late ... very much tested,” Biden said at the start of their Oval Office meeting. “But both in the United States and Brazil, democracy prevailed.”
Lula said that he was moving to restore Brazil on the world stage after Bolsonaro's term.
“Brazil marginalized itself for four years,” Lula said. “His world started and ended with fake news.”
Biden joked that Lula’s complaint “sounds familiar,” an apparent knock on Trump.
Both Biden and Lula sought to spotlight that Brazil’s democracy remains resilient and that relations between the Americas’ two biggest democracies are back on track.
The leaders also discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, insecurity in Haiti, migration and climate change, including efforts to stem deforestation of the Amazon, according to the White House.
During his 2020 run for the White House, Biden proposed working with global partners to create a $20 billion fund that would encourage Brazil to change its approach to the Amazon, and there was speculation that the U.S. administration would use the visit to announce a major contribution. But following the meeting, the leaders said in joint statement that the Biden administration only “announced its intent to work with Congress to provide funds for programs to protect and conserve the Brazilian Amazon, including initial support for the Amazon Fund.”
The Amazon Fund is the most important international cooperation effort to preserve the rainforest, raising donations for efforts to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation and promote sustainability.
The fund has mostly been financed by Norway, and has received a total $1.29 billion. In 2019, Bolsonaro dissolved the steering committee that selects sustainable projects to finance. He argued the rainforest is a domestic affair. In response, Germany and Norway froze their donations. After Lula took office, Germany’s government announced a fresh donation.
Climate was a prominent topic in two recent phone calls between the leaders since Lula's October victory, according to the White House.
After their meeting Friday, reporters asked Lula whether the U.S. would join the initiative. Lula responded that he believes so and that its participation is necessary.
“I didn’t specifically discuss an Amazon Fund. I discussed the need for rich countries to assume the responsibility of financing all the countries that have forests,” he said, specifically noting Brazil then listing its South American neighbors.
But Lula’s biggest objective going into the visit was securing ringing support for the legitimacy of his presidency as unease continues at home. It remains unclear how the animus Bolsonaro generated will be channeled going forward, and some opposition lawmakers allied with the former president are already calling for Lula’s impeachment. Lula sacked the army’s commander, with the defense minister citing “a fracture in the level of trust” in the force’s top levels.
“You have the environment and other stuff, but Lula sitting down with Biden is an exercise in coup-proofing Brazil’s democracy,” said Oliver Stuenkel, an international relations professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university and think tank. “There is still genuine concern in the Brazilian government about the armed forces, and the biggest partner in containing the armed forces is the United States.”
Bolsonaro, who is facing several investigations in Brazil, traveled to Florida during the final days of his presidency and has remained there since. He applied late last month for a six-month tourist visa to extend his U.S. stay. A group of Democratic lawmakers urged Biden to expel the former president on the grounds that the U.S. shouldn’t provide safe harbor to would-be authoritarians.
The White House and State Department have declined to comment on Bolsonaro’s visa status, citing privacy concerns.
Analysts have noted that Bolsonaro’s absence from Brazil is a welcome change for Lula, and he told CNN earlier Friday that he didn't plan to discuss the former president with Biden.
Lula also met with several lawmakers, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and union officials before his meeting with Biden.
“It is enormously important for the future of this planet that we stop the deforestation of the Amazon," Sanders said after his meeting. "Bolsonaro encouraged that in a terrible way. Lula has turned that around, but Brazil is going to need help globally. The issue of the Amazon is not just a Brazilian issue. It’s a global issue.”
Ukraine marked a divergence between the Lula and Biden. Lula previously said the country was as much to blame for the war as Russia, though he more recently clarified that he thought Russia was wrong to invade.
Lula has declined to provide Ukraine with munitions, and he told reporters Friday night that he had proposed to Biden the creation of a group of nations to negotiate peace.
“I am convinced that we need to find a way out to put an end to this war,” he said. "The first thing is ending the war, then negotiating what will happen."
Asked about Lula's proposal, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it is up to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to determine “if and when negotiations are appropriate, and certainly under what circumstances.”
The GOP’s government weaponization subcommittee launched its first hearing Thursday, offering a dizzying flood of claims that highlight the partisan divisions over the role of the federal government and the legitimacy of the newly created panel.
Republicans formed the committee as a way to counter alleged abuse of a government they say is abusing its power to target conservatives. Democrats see the committee as the weapon itself, a vehicle for the GOP to forward conspiracy theories that will mobilize the Republican base ahead of 2024.
Helmed by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of both the subcommittee and the overall Judiciary Committee where it is housed, Thursday’s hearing included a quartet of current and former lawmakers, with the GOP inviting former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party, to testify.
“Over the course of our work in this committee, we expect to hear from government officials and experts like we have here today. We expect to hear from Americans who've been targeted by the government. We expect to hear from people in need. And we expect to hear from the FBI agents who have come forward as whistleblowers,” Jordan said Thursday.
“Protecting the Constitution shouldn't be partisan,” he added.
Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.), the top Democrat on the panel, countered that the conception of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government itself was purely partisan.
“I'm deeply concerned about the use of this select subcommittee as a place to settle scores, showcase conspiracy theories and advance an extreme agenda that risks undermining Americans' faith in our democracy,” Plaskett said at the outset of the hearing.
The hearing, convened to broadly explore politicization of the FBI and the Justice Department, went even wider, with a first panel of current and former lawmakers offering a roadmap of the suite of potential topics the panel could cover.
References to the investigation of former President Trump, probes into President Biden's son Hunter Biden, alleged abuse of authority at the IRS, complaints of media coverage and social media company actions were woven together in opening statements from Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rob Johnson (R-Wis.).
Grassley complained of a “triad” of influences seeking to limit a number of his own inquiries, stymied by what he said were partisan media, the FBI and Democratic colleagues.
“What I’m about to tell you sounds like it’s out of some fiction spy thriller, but it actually happened,” he said.
Johnson said his 10-minute opening statement “barely scratched the surface in the striking complexity, power and destructive nature of the forces that we face.”
The two, along with Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the oversight committee who served as the party’s witness Tuesday, each took a page out of Jordan’s book, rattling off a list of examples of impropriety, whether by the government or allies of Trump.
“Weaponization is the right name for this federal subcommittee. Not because weaponization of the government is targeted. But because weaponization of government is its purpose,” Raskin said.
“The odd name of the weaponization subcommittee constitutes a case of pure psychological projection.”
A second panel included Jonathan Turley, an attorney and often-used Republican witness, as well as two former FBI agents, including James Baker, who penned the book “The Fall of the FBI: How a Once Great Agency Became a Threat to Democracy.”
In questions with the witnesses, lawmakers' own assessments of the FBI were on display.
“We come not to trash the FBI, but to rescue the FBI from political capture,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.), who served as counsel to House Democrats in the first impeachment of Trump, asked Jordan to turn over transcripts of its interviews with the FBI whistleblowers they’ve spoken with.
He also said it was the former president who politicized the agency.
“I worked in the Department of Justice for 10 years alongside a lot of FBI special agents, and their biggest concern and the most damage to the morale of the FBI occurred after Donald Trump started attacking the FBI because he was being attacked by the FBI. And that is what this subcommittee is all about,” he said.