Category: Senate

GOP senators warn Trump’s legal problems a ‘bad look’ for the party in 2024 

Posted on (Updated by Alexander Bolton

Republican senators are warning that criminal charges hanging over former President Trump will give the GOP a bad look if he is the party’s eventual nominee, especially in a year when Republicans are eager for a chance to retake the Senate.  

While GOP senators have accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) of waging a politically motivated prosecution of Trump, they acknowledge it nevertheless will hurt their chances in the 2024 election if charges are still hanging over Trump next summer and fall.  

Trump’s next in-person court appearance is scheduled for December, which means legal proceedings could stretch well into 2024. He also could face additional charges from the Department of Justice and the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney.  

“I think it’s a problem for a party to be considered legitimate by people who care about America to have someone who’s been indicted, who’s had to plead the Fifth multiple times, who’s been surrounded by individuals who’ve gone to jail, one after the other, or been convicted of felonies,” to be its nominee for president, said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who was the GOP’s nominee for president in 2012.  

But Romney doesn’t think any of that will stop Trump from winning next year’s presidential primary.  

“I don’t think that has any particular impact on the primary process or the likelihood that Donald Trump will be our nominee,” he said. “I don’t think the primary voters look at electability; I think they look for the person they think will pursue what they believe in.”  

Last year, criminal cases in Manhattan took an average of more than 900 days to proceed from indictment to a trial verdict, according to data reported by Reuters.  

Unless Trump can persuade a judge to dismiss Bragg’s case, he likely will remain under indictment and have a legal cloud over his head during next year’s election. 

He also faces a possible indictment from Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith — who is investigating Trump’s role in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as his possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago — and from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), who is investigating allegations that Trump interfered in Georgia’s 2020 election.  

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) suggested Trump’s growing legal problems could take a toll on his viability as a candidate.  

“Some of these things will drag out for some period of time, so I’m guessing a lot of it will be unresolved” by next year’s presidential election, he said.  

“But I don’t think it’s going to deter him from running,” he added. “It’s probably not going to deter people from endorsing him.” 

So far, nine Senate Republicans have endorsed Trump — Sens. Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), J.D. Vance (Ohio), Eric Schmitt (Mo.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (Miss.), Markwayne Mullin (Okla.), Ted Budd (N.C.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) and Bill Hagerty (Tenn.).  

Asked about Trump’s support from fellow Republican senators despite his legal baggage, Thune said Trump “will probably be a force in the nominating process so members, I think, are probably looking at their states, their constituencies and the politics around the former president and what makes the best sense for them.”  

Thune said many Republicans view Bragg’s prosecution as “very politically motivated,” but he warned “all this stuff,” referring to the legal battles, will likely have “a cumulative effect to it.”  

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to the Senate GOP leadership, told The Hill it “would be better” not to have a nominee for president who is under indictment.  

He was spotted stopping by a get-to-know-you event for Trump’s possible rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), in Washington on Tuesday. 

Cornyn said he “went by to pay my respects, shake his hand and wish him well” but doesn’t plan to make any endorsement ahead of next year’s primary. Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) also attended the event. 

Many Senate Republicans think Trump’s repeated yet unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen, which candidates he endorsed in the 2022 midterm election embraced, hurt their chances of winning back the Senate majority.  

And they fear Trump’s ongoing legal dramas could hurt their chances in 2024, as well.  

“I think there are several individuals who are looking at running for the presidency that could do a good job of uniting our country. I would prefer to look at one of those individuals — I’m looking forward to having one of those other individuals be successful in obtaining the presidency,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said of the Republican candidates who will challenge Trump in the primary.  

Asked about what it would mean for the party to have its nominee for president under indictment, Rounds said, “I can’t think of anything positive about having that occur.”  

One Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on what Trump’s legal problems mean for Republican candidates in 2024 said if the Republican candidate for president is under indictment, it’s a problem in the general election. 

“It’s a bad look,” the lawmaker added.  

“An indictment means something; conviction means a lot more. That’s a finding of fact that the law was violated. Someone has been charged; they’re presumed to be innocent, but from a political point of view, you never want your candidates under a cloud of criminal prosecution,” the source said.  

Yet Trump maintains a big lead in the polls over DeSantis and other potential rivals among Republicans nationwide. 

A Wall Street Journal poll of 600 likely primary voters conducted from April 11 to April 17 found Trump well ahead of the field with 48 percent support compared to DeSantis, who had 24 percent support, in a hypothetical matchup. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley came in a distant third with 5 percent support.  

A Wall Street Journal survey conducted in December showed DeSantis beating Trump 52 percent to 38 percent.  

Trump leads DeSantis by an average of more than 30 percentage points in polls conducted since the end of March.  

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who voted to convict Trump on the impeachment charge of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, wonders what Trump’s commanding lead in the polls says about the direction of the party and country more broadly. 

“How can this be? What country are we in?” she asked with a laugh.  

“Is it a bad look for the country to have an individual that is viewed not only as a viable candidate but the frontrunner who’s under indictment?” she asked. “I don’t know. I stopped trying to figure out Donald Trump a long time ago.”  

Marshall introduces vote of no confidence resolution for Mayorkas

Posted on (Updated by Rebecca Beitsch

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) on Thursday introduced a vote of no confidence resolution for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the first effort in the Senate to mirror impeachment efforts percolating in the House.

The resolution comes after Marshall said during an exchange with Mayorkas in a Senate appearance on Tuesday that the secretary was derelict in his duties and, “I would be derelict to not do something about this.”

The nine-page resolution lays out a series of complaints about the state of the border, blaming Mayorkas for everything from increased migration, including attempts to clear a camp of some 15,000 Haitians near the Texas border, to drug flows and overdoses.

"There isn't one American who believes our southern border is secure,” Marshall said in a release. 

“In the real world, if you fail at your job, you get fired — the federal government should be no different.”

The resolution would have little effect if passed — an uphill battle in the Democrat-led Senate, and it would not have any bearing on impeachment efforts in the House, which have still not formally taken shape. 

The resolution also points to an argument building in the House that Mayorkas was dishonest before Congress — a case built on the secretary asserting in prior appearances that he has maintained control of the border.

The GOP argues that Mayorkas is failing to meet the definition of operational control laid out under the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which says the standard has only been met if the country prohibits “all unlawful entries” of both migrants and drugs.

Mayorkas recently told lawmakers that the standard of perfection laid out under the law has never been met, but it encourages the secretary to use all resources at their disposal to improve security.

“The Secure Fence Act provides that operational control means that not a single individual crosses the border illegally. And it’s for that reason that prior secretaries and myself have said that under that definition, no administration has had operational control,” Mayorkas said.

“As I have testified under oath multiple times, we use a lens of reasonableness in defining operational control. Are we maximizing the resources that we have to deliver the most effective results? And under that definition, we are doing so very much to gain operational control.”

With escalating impeachment discussions, the Department of Homeland Security has also called on Congress to do more to address problems with the U.S. immigration system that exacerbate efforts to enter and remain in the country illegally.

“Instead of pointing fingers and pursuing baseless attacks, Congress should work with the Department and pass legislation to fix our broken immigration system, which has not been updated in over 40 years,” the agency said in a statement.

While numerous House lawmakers have expressed an interest in impeaching Mayorkas, the process has not yet begun. If successful, an impeachment resolution would be forwarded to the Democrat-led Senate.

McConnell defends Supreme Court after Clarence Thomas revelations

Posted on (Updated by Alexander Bolton

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Tuesday defended the Supreme Court from Democrats’ calls to pass judicial ethics legislation or even conduct an impeachment inquiry after reports that Justice Clarence Thomas received gifts and hospitality from a billionaire.  

“The Supreme Court and the court system is a whole separate part of our Constitution, and the Democrats, it seems to me, spend a lot of time criticizing individual members of the court and going after the court as an institution,” McConnell told reporters at his first leadership press conference in the Capitol since suffering a concussion on March 8.  

McConnell accused Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) of threatening conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh at an abortion rights rally outside the Supreme Court in 2020, when the Democratic leader warned they “won’t know what hit” them if they overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights case.  

“My counterpart went over in front of the Supreme Court and called out two of the Supreme Court justices by name and actually threatened them with some kind of reprisal — I don’t know what kind — if they ruled the wrong way in a case he cared about,” he said.  

McConnell also asserted that Attorney General Merrick Garland “seemed to be largely unconcerned with security issues around the homes of Supreme Court members” after a draft opinion of the court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe, leaked in May.  

The GOP leader said he has “total confidence” in Chief Justice John Roberts to handle any ethical issues facing the court.  

“I have total confidence in the chief justice of the United States to deal with these court internal issues,” he said.  

His comments came in reaction to a recent letter Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent to Roberts raising concerns about reporting by ProPublica that Thomas accepted luxury trips regularly from Texas billionaire Harlan Crow without disclosing the gifts.

ProPublica also reported that one of Crow’s companies bought a property in which Thomas owned a one-third share, which Thomas also failed to disclose.  

Senate Democrats informed Roberts that they will hold a hearing on “the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards” and urged the chief justice to investigate the matter.  

“And if the court does not resolve these issues on its own, the committee will consider legislation to resolve it,” they wrote. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in a CNN interview over the weekend suggested the House should conduct an impeachment inquiry into Thomas, telling CNN’s Dana Bash it is “the House’s responsibility to pursue that investigation in the form of impeachment.”  

GOP senator floats no confidence vote as Mayorkas defends border response

Posted on (Updated by Rebecca Beitsch

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other officials were on the defensive Tuesday as Senate Republicans became more vocal about their efforts to back impeachment for the secretary.

Mayorkas’s appearance before the Senate Homeland Security Committee sparked the usual heated exchanges and personal attacks now common in such forums, but the GOP posture escalated as Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) pledged to soon introduce a vote of no confidence resolution for the secretary.

House efforts to launch an impeachment of Mayorkas have been simmering for some time, with GOP lawmakers arguing he has failed to successfully manage the border amid an uptick in migration. But an official inquiry has yet to be launched, and those efforts have recently taken a back seat to debt ceiling talks.

But Marshall on Tuesday suggested a need to buoy that process in the Senate, where it is expected to make little progress given the Democratic majority.

“I stand at the ready to receive articles of impeachment from the House and conduct an impeachment trial in this body,” Marshall said. “But in the meantime, I think the Senate must show our colleagues in the House that we've had enough of the failures from the Department of Homeland Security and believe that the Secretary is not fit to faithfully carry out the duties of his office.”

Mayorkas at one point attempted to respond, asking to take a point of personal privilege, but Marshall objected, saying, “I want you to answer my questions, not give me lectures.”

Mayorkas, given an opportunity by the next speaker, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), declined to respond. 

“I just want to take a moment to ask my colleagues here today to treat the secretary with the respect he deserves,” Carper said, noting Mayorkas’s integrity, work ethic and dedication to a complex job.

“I was raised — my guess is most of the folks in this committee were raised — to treat other people the way we want to be treated. I wouldn't treat anybody the way that I've seen you treated before in other committees and again here by at least one of our colleagues today.”

At other turns during the hearing, GOP lawmakers sought to hold Mayorkas personally responsible for various issues at the border.

"Do you not care? Do you not just have an ounce of human compassion for what your open border policy, the kind of human deprivation it is causing?” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said.

Mayorkas would later defend the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) efforts to stem migratory flows, pointing to a program that largely blocks nationals from Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba from seeking asylum but allows those with U.S. sponsors to apply to enter the U.S.

Various GOP lawmakers zeroed in on a recent New York Times article delving into the extent Biden administration officials were aware unaccompanied children were being trafficked into child labor.

The care of children who arrive at the border without their parents spans multiple agencies, with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responsible for vetting the sponsors who ultimately care for them.

At one point, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has also called for Mayorkas’s resignation, accused Mayorkas of “pressuring officials and agencies to skip the vetting process and get these kids out as soon as possible to sponsors who weren't vetted.”

The Times story does not reference Mayorkas and primarily focuses on the roles of HHS and high-ranking White House officials in the matter.

“Senator, I look forward to discussing this issue further because you are misstating the facts so terribly,” Mayorkas responded.

Mayorkas also shot back when Hawley accused him of letting thousands of children into the country to be exploited, pointing to a Trump-era policy of separating parents from their children.

“It is stunning to me, stunning, to hear you say that the prior administration reunited children with their parents,” Mayorkas said.

Mayorkas at another point said lawmakers, including Johnson, were “disparagingly mischaracterizes our commitment to address trafficking and the exploitation of vulnerable individuals, including children."

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) offered a defense of Mayorkas and DHS, saying that senators must not forget the role of corporations hiring the migrant child labor outlined in the Times investigation.

"It is the employers breaking child labor laws,” Padilla said. “We should not misplace the blame here."

Mayorkas was one of several officials called before Congress on Tuesday to discuss immigration-related matters. 

HHS officials appeared before both the House’s Energy and Commerce and Oversight committees, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tae Johnson appeared before House appropriators.

Much of the discussion with Johnson surrounded the number of detention beds funded through the ICE budget, a figure that determines the extent the agency is able to house people in detention centers versus other means of supervision. President Biden’s budget cut detention capacity by about a quarter.

At various points during the hearing, Johnson said he would like to see funding for a greater number of beds than covered in the budget but acknowledged that the agency simply would not be able to detain all those who may be slated for deportation.

Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said that would undercut the administration’s ability to remove people from the country as their immigration cases work their way through the court system.

“If it's easier to remove people once they're in detention, and you've agreed with that, and I agree with that, but yet we have a budget which is actually shrinking detention beds. I find that counterproductive,” Guest said.

“As these additional cases work their way through the system, we're going to see those numbers grow exponentially. And it just doesn't seem to me that we either don't have the resources or we don't have the policies in place to enforce the law.”

Johnson said even when the agency has rapidly expanded the number of beds in the past “we filled those beds up in no time.”

“So I personally don't think there's a number of beds that you can actually buy that's going to solve this problem that we're seeing,” he said.

At another point, Johnson was asked about the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit, which works to combat cartels and other transnational crime.

Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) pointed to reporting that HSI staff at one point proposed separating from ICE, arguing the agency’s reputation made it difficult to carry out their work.

Johnson said he opposes siphoning off the unit, but backs giving them “flexibility” to minimize their affiliation with ICE, saying efforts like removing the “ICE” part of their email address has proven helpful.

“One of the things we did this year was to give HSI the flexibility to use whatever branding they felt was necessary to increase cooperation in the communities. So in other words, if removing the ICE moniker completely and just using the HSI brand was going to result in greater cooperation, they had the flexibility to do so,” he said.

But Underwood said those moves failed to address the underlying problem.

“ICE has the responsibility to proactively and intentionally build trust in the communities that you serve,” she said.

“And so I think that this is an area where the agency definitely needs to do more.”

Nick Robertson contributed reporting

Updated: 2:28 p.m.

Senate GOP wants Trump to stay away from 2024 races as his legal woes mount 

Posted on (Updated by Alexander Bolton

Senate Republicans, including members of leadership and even Trump allies, say former President Trump should stay out of the 2024 Senate primaries, hoping to avoid a repeat of last year’s disappointing midterm elections.  

They view Trump as becoming more of a political liability in next year’s Senate races as his legal problems mount.  

The Manhattan district attorney charged the former president Tuesday with 34 felony counts related to payments to two women, and he could face additional charges from federal prosecutors and Georgia's Fulton County district attorney.   

GOP lawmakers and strategists fear Trump will mire GOP candidates in debates over his pet issues such as election fraud and defunding the Department of Justice instead of issues that more voters care about, such as the economy, inflation and health care.  

And they worry that Trump’s endorsements again will be more driven by how he perceives candidates’ loyalty to him and his agenda than on their electability in November.  

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), who has stood in for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) while he recuperates from a concussion, said it would be better if Trump stays out of the way.

“Sure seems like that would be helpful based on our lack of success in 2022,” he said.  

Even Trump’s strongest allies would like to see next year’s Senate races play out without Trump’s thumb on the scale.  

“If I were him, I’d focus on his own election, but I doubt if he’ll take that advice,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). 

Trump announced his presidential campaign in November.  

He had a mixed record supporting gubernatorial, Senate and House candidates last year.   

He had a losing record in the six states where his super PAC spent money on behalf of Republican candidates gubernatorial and Senate races in Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

He compiled a 1-6 record in those states, where only Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), whom Trump endorsed in the primary, won.  

And the candidates Trump endorsed in the five most competitive House races lost.  

Many Senate Republicans think Trump hurt Republicans’ chances in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania by endorsing candidates whom Republicans in Washington did not view as the candidates with the best chances of winning the general election.  

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who voted twice to convict Trump on impeachment charges, said the consensus in the Senate Republican conference is that Trump would do more harm than good if he tries to play kingmaker in next year’s primaries.  

“I hope he stays out because him getting involved last time led to us losing key Senate races we could have won,” he said. “I think it’s viewed [that way] by almost every single member of the caucus, if not all of them, but I think few will say it because they don’t want to get the wrath of Donald Trump.”  

Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist and former Senate leadership aide, said Trump didn’t have a good record picking winners in last year’s toughest races.  

“Trump has a very poor track record of backing top-tier candidates that can get elected to the Senate. It’s no wonder that Senate Republicans want Trump to stay away from the primaries as much as possible because he’s been radioactive in the general elections.” 

Some Senate Republicans thought Trump dragged down candidates in the general election by making it tougher for them to appeal to moderate and swing voters. 

Retired Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who twice won election statewide in Pennsylvania, blamed Trump for the loss of his seat.  

“President Trump had to insert himself and that changed the nature of the race and that created just too much of an obstacle,” Toomey told CNN in November, explaining why he thought celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, whom Trump backed in the primary, lost to now-Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).  

Toomey was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on the impeachment charge of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.  

Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that he lost the 2020 presidential election because of widespread fraud became a litmus test in some Senate Republican primaries and came back to haunt those candidates who embraced those claims in the general election.  

In New Hampshire, where at the start of the 2022 election cycle Republicans thought they had a good chance of knocking off vulnerable Sen. Maggie Hassan (D), Republican candidate Don Bolduc won the primary after embracing Trump’s election fraud claims. That turned out to be a liability in the general election, and Bolduc tried to back away from that stance after winning the primary, telling Fox News in September that he concluded after doing research on the matter that the election was not stolen. He wound up losing to Hassan by 9 points.  

Mark Weaver, a Republican strategist based in Ohio, where Republicans are hoping to defeat Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) next year, said Trump’s endorsement is a liability for GOP candidates in a general election.  

“In the general election, a Trump endorsement is always going to hurt because he will always be a red cape to the Democratic bull, and I don’t see independents growing any fonder of Donald Trump,” he said, referring to the energizing effect Trump has on Democratic voters.  

Some Republican strategists outside the Beltway, however, see Trump as an asset for Republican candidates in battleground states such as Ohio.  

Mehek Cooke, a Republican strategist and attorney based in Columbus, Ohio, said Trump’s endorsement is “a very net positive” in a general election.

“I think there’s a lot of support for President Trump in the state of Ohio,” she said. “If the Senate Republicans in Washington really want to win against Sherrod Brown, they’re going to come together and work with Trump or any other candidate, rather than continuing the division we see in our country."

Trump carried Ohio in 2016 and 2020 with 51 percent and 53 percent of the vote, respectively.

Now, Trump is dividing Republicans over another controversy: his call to defund the Department of Justice and FBI in response to federal investigations of his role in the incitement of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and his handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

A Senate Republican aide told The Hill that idea won’t get any significant traction in the Senate GOP conference, while House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) says Congress should use its power of the purse to push back on federal investigations of Trump.  

Jordan on Thursday subpoenaed Mark Pomerantz, who formerly worked in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, citing Congress’s interest “in preventing politically motivated prosecutions of current and former presidents by elected state and local prosecutors.”  

Bonjean, the GOP strategist and former leadership aide, said that Trump shifts the debate in Senate races away from the topics that GOP leaders want to emphasize: inflation, gas prices, crime, the border and federal spending.  

“When Trump injects himself into these primaries, then our candidates have to talk about Jan. 6, Stormy Daniels, stolen elections and those are not matters that Main Street voters really want to hear about,” he said.  

“They want to know how you’re going to solve their problems and if you’re actually relatable as a politician, as an elected official, and those issues aren’t very relatable to general election voters,” he added.

GOP warns Trump charges will lead to more political prosecutions 

Posted on (Updated by Alexander Bolton

Republicans are warning that the unprecedented indictment of former President Trump on multiple charges sets a dangerous precedent that will lower the bar for future political prosecutions while putting the nation on a precarious slippery slope. 

Some Republicans are comparing Trump’s indictment — over crimes related to the payment of $130,000 to an adult film actress — to the House Republican impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton in 1998 on charges related to his affair with a White House intern.  

They predict that indicting Trump will make future former presidents and other political figures more susceptible to politically motivated prosecutions.  

Democrats counter with the refrain that no person is above the law, regardless of whether he served in the Oval Office.  

But some Democrats were not thrilled to hear that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) would be the first prosecutor to indict Trump; the conduct he is targeting has been publicly known for five years and other prosecutors, including Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., passed on the opportunity.  

“I think it is a terrible precedent for the country. I think it’s bad for America, bad for the Republican Party and it’s bad for the political system in our country. Once you start down this path, there’s no way you’re going to reverse it. That’s what we saw with impeachment,” said Vin Weber, a Republican strategist and former member of the House GOP leadership.  

“We’re going to see political prosecutions brought, some of them for meritorious reasons, some of them to advance the careers of the prosecutors. But all of this is harmful to America and our political process,” he added.  

Weber said “another whole aspect” of the case is that Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, according to 10 of the most recent national polls.  

“There are people in this vast country of ours who have less than sterling motivations and you want them to be inhibited by rules that we’ve established, informal rules, that are designed to protect the whole system,” he said.     

“Once this wall of precedent has been destroyed, we’re going to find people around the country who are going to find reasons to engage in political prosecutions,” he added, noting that some Republicans are talking about the possibility of bringing charges against President Biden or his son Hunter after he leaves office.  

“I don’t know if that’s likely or not but we’re going to see something somewhere,” he said.  

Some Republican officeholders are framing Trump’s indictment as motivated purely by politics. 

“These charges aren’t about enforcing the law. Democrats barely pretend they are. They are the left telling the nation, we’re in charge here. And if you threaten us, we will destroy you,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) tweeted last week.  

Former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), a one-time adviser to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s (Ky.) leadership team, said “it’s extremely dangerous for our democracy to indict a former president unless there is an unequivocal violation representing a very significant offense.” 

“This does not appear to rise anywhere near that. In fact it appears to be extremely political from a distance,” he added. “So I think it sets a precedent, and it’s a very dangerous precedent for democracy.  

“It creates an atmosphere where the courts are being used as a political weapon,” he said. “It undermines I think the confidence of the American people in their democracy, in their legal system.” 

Critics of Bragg’s case, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), point out that Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, made the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election and the statute of limitations in New York is two years for misdemeanors and five years for minor felonies.  

These critics believe Bragg will try to tie that payment to an effort to conceal another crime, most likely a violation of campaign finance law, to get around the statute of limitations. 

Cruz noted that a similar charge was brought against former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) and was thrown out at trial. Edwards used nearly $1 million in payments from his political backers to support his mistress during the 2008 campaign. Democrats at the time criticized the charges brought by a Republican prosecutor as politically motivated.  

“Bragg’s case is even weaker because [the New York law in question] is ordinarily a misdemeanor with a two-year statute of limitations, so he couldn’t bring the claim,” he said. “In order to get it to be a felony, there’s a separate New York statute, which requires you have a fraudulent business record that aided in another crime. 

“He’s got to bootstrap presumably a federal campaign finance violation, which the federal government declined to bring,” Cruz explained. “The core allegation at the heart of Bragg’s case is that Trump mischaracterized a payment as legal fees when it was not in fact legal fees. 

“Hillary Clinton at the exact same time, in 2016 during the presidential campaign … paid $1 million for the Steele Dossier to be compiled — the fake and fantastical work of fiction that her oppo research team put together that tragically became the basis of [Special Counsel Robert’ Mueller’s] investigation,” he said.

Cruz said Clinton also characterized the funding of the Steele Dossier research as legal payments, arguing that this shows Bragg is playing politics.

“It make obvious this is partisan politics,” he said.  

Experts say the precedent set by indicting Trump will reverberate into the future.  

“Every time a threshold is crossed in politics, it sets a predicate for another line to be crossed. Once a taboo is violated politically, it just makes it easier to do it a second time. There’s precedent,” said Ross K. Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University.  

He said Bragg’s case appears to be weaker than possible charges anticipated from Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith and Georgia's Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.  

“I think it would be better if the precedent were stronger. If it were an open-and-shut case, it would be harder to argue … local district attorneys shouldn’t have the power to indict presidents,” he said.  

Baker said the “gravity” of the allegations against Trump related to his alleged role inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and to his alleged role in trying to subvert the election results in Georgia in 2020 would give any charges brought by the Department of Justice or the Fulton County DA's office more credibility than Bragg's case. 

Trump Has the Perfect Job in Mind for MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

Posted on by Guest Contributor

By Dr. Derek Ellerman

One complaint you’ll never hear about Donald Trump is that he doesn’t have any good ideas. 

Sure, you’ll definitely hear that his execution isn’t always perfect, and you’ll definitely hear that some of the people he chooses to accomplish those ideas leave much to be desired. (Hello, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and Nikki Haley!)

But the man most certainly has many good ideas. And he just dropped a great one: 

(Shoutout to Citizen Free Press for the above video!)

RELATED: Trump Demands January 6th Prisoners Let Go, House Select Committee Prosecuted After Tucker Carlson Releases Bombshell Videos

MTG for Senate! 

At his campaign rally in Waco, Texas over the weekend (also an excellent idea, as the crime against women and children that took place there 30 years ago still has not been prosecuted), Trump wondered aloud if MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia should run for the Senate in Georgia. 

It took long enough, but Trump finally endorsed someone for Georgia Senate who is actually worth voting for. 

I’m not going to get into the question of “electability” here. 

“We have to vote for Empty Suit Candidate because they can win” has no power here. 

Whether or not someone “can win” depends on many factors, first and foremost their campaign operation. But crucially, whether or not a candidate can win is a question that comes only after the question of whether or not they should win.

Should they win because they have the correct ideas and positions? If the answer is yes, let’s hit the trail. 

If the answer is no, because they’re a big-spending warmonger who will do whatever Mitch McConnell tells them to do, then it doesn’t matter if they “can win.” 

So let’s start with that first and most important question. 

RELATED: MSNBC’s Joy Reid Livid Over Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Oversight Committee Assignment, Compares MTG to Jefferson Davis

MTG: Get Rid of the RINOs

At the rally in Waco, MTG went after McConnell and Lindsey Graham:

OK, we’re off to a good start. She knows who the empty suits are. 

Is she committed to doing the right thing, even if it’s unpopular? 

Let’s check: 

Alright, we’re off and running now! 

Only one thing could derail this train. Where is MTG on the singularly most important topic?

Now we’re cooking with gas! 

The truth is, Ukraine, in addition to being the most important subject at the moment, also provides the world’s easiest litmus test for our politicians. 

Should the people currently conducting an illegal war in Syria continue to unnecessarily provoke a nuclear power by taking money from Americans and giving it to a corrupt authoritarian?

Or should our politicians, who have rung up over $30 trillion in debt, actually put America and the American people first? 

Like I said, easiest litmus test. MTG passes with flying colors. How many other Republicans can say the same? 

Now let me be clear, I don’t think MTG is going to run for the Senate, and I don’t think she should risk her House seat at the current time, given how “voting” currently works in Georgia. 

But the difference between people like you and I and the grifters who latch on to establishment politicians for a big payday is that you and I ask the right question first. 

Can she win? I’m not sure. 

Should she win? No doubt about it. 

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Congress ponders TikTok ban after CEO’s grilling

Posted on (Updated by Mychael Schnell

Discussions of a potential ban on TikTok in the United States are expected to heat up this week after the CEO of the social media app was grilled by House members during a blockbuster hearing last week.

Congressional leaders from both chambers and parties have backed bills that could lead to the Chinese-owned app being banned, while Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has explicitly said he would support a national ban on TikTok.

“The House will be moving forward with legislation to protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party,” McCarthy said in a tweet on Sunday.

What that legislation will look like remains unclear, but will likely be a topic of conversation among lawmakers this week.

Also this week, House and Senate committees are slated to hold hearings on recent bank failures, after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were seized by regulators earlier this month. The collapses spooked markets and raised concerns about future bank runs.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold an oversight hearing this week featuring testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — his first appearance before the 118th Congress. A number of GOP House members have expressed a desire to impeach Mayorkas.

Additionally, former interim Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is set to testify at a Senate hearing on the company’s alleged union busting.

On the legislative front, the House is slated to take up a major energy package — given the esteemed H.R. 1 nomenclature — and the Senate is expected to hold a final vote on legislation to repeal the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) for the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

TikTok in the crosshairs

Fallout from last week’s heated TikTok hearing will likely continue to reverberate on Capitol Hill this week, as lawmakers look toward legislation targeting the app, which is used by some 150 million Americans.

McCarthy on Sunday said the House would move ahead with legislation pertaining to TikTok, writing on Twitter “It's very concerning that the CEO of TikTok can't be honest and admit what we already know to be true—China has access to TikTok user data.”

McCarthy told reporters last week that he supported Congress moving to ban the app, but said he wanted to "make sure we get it right."

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday, during which lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed concerns about national security threats, data privacy, the spread of misinformation and safety for minors.

TikTok is owned by Chinese-based company ByteDance, a fact that has fueled the worries over data privacy and national security. However, TikTok’s chief operating officer blasted the hearing, saying it "felt rooted in xenophobia.”

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.), the top Democrat on the House select committee on competition with China, told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the hearing “created more concerns” regarding the popular social media app.

A number of TikTok-related bills have been introduced this Congress, including one bipartisan measure that would give the federal government the ability to ban the app. The Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act (RESTRICT Act) would direct the Commerce Department to review and mitigate risks posed by technology that has ties to foreign adversaries, including China, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Cuba and Venezuela.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) introduced the bill, which currently has nearly two dozen bipartisan co-sponsors. The White House endorsed the measure earlier this month, and Warner on Sunday said the bill has received “strong interest from the House.”

“I think they wanted to get through their hearing. And, clearly, while I appreciated Mr. Chew's testimony, he just couldn't answer the basic question,” Warner told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told the CBS show “we'd love to see that passed by the Congress, so that the president can have additional tools and authorities,” referring to the RESTRICT Act.

Separately, House Republicans earlier this month advanced a separate measure — titled the Deterring America’s Technology Adversaries Act (DATA Act) — which would allow the president to possibly ban software applications, including TikTok.

It specifically calls for amending an existing exemption under the Berman Amendments — which restrict the president from regulating informational materials to encourage the exchange of ideas across country — so it does not pertain to “sensitive personal data.”

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the sponsor of the bill, told “Fox News Sunday” this weekend “I think Congress is going to move forward on this.”

“One thing you saw from the hearings in a bipartisan way that both sides of the aisle were standing together saying this is a threat to our children and we need to stop it,” he added.

Hearings on Silicon Valley Bank collapse

Senate and House panels are set to hold hearings this week on this month’s collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, marking the first congressional events looking into the failures.

On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is scheduled to hold a hearing titled “Recent Bank Failures and the Federal Regulatory Response.” Those slated to testify are Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Martin Gruenberg, Federal Reserve System Board of Governors Vice Chairman of Supervision Michael Barr, and Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang.

On Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee is slated to hold a hearing titled “The Federal Regulators' Response to Recent Bank Failures,” featuring the same trio of witnesses.

Federal regulators took over Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 after a significant run on the bank amid liquidity issues. Two days later, state regulators seized Signature Bank in New York.

The collapse of the two banks sparked a blame game on Capitol Hill. Democrats generally cited a 2018 deregulation bill that former President Trump signed into law, despite the fact that 49 Democrats and one Independent who caucuses with Democrats voted for the measure. Some Republicans, on the other hand, blamed the collapse on Silicon Valley Bank pursuing “woke" strategies, while others have pointed to inflation and raised questions about regulators.

The failures have also prompted discussion about what action Congress can take in response to the collapses.

“The House Financial Services Committee is committed to getting to the bottom of the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank,” House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) wrote in a statement.

“This hearing will allow us to begin to understand why and how these banks failed,” the pair continued. “We will conduct this hearing without fear or favor to get the answers the American people deserve.”

Mayorkas to testify before Senate panel

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is heading to Capitol Hill this week for his first hearing before the 118th Congress. The DHS secretary is slated to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing.

The hearing comes as Republican lawmakers, particularly those in the House, have harshly criticized Mayorkas, arguing that he has not made enough of an effort to secure the southern border and decrease the influx of migrants into the U.S.

In February, a coalition of House Republicans introduced a second impeachment article against Mayorkas. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the sponsor, accused him of being the “chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border,” and said the increase in migration was a “willful and intentional” violation of the secretary’s oath of office.

House Republicans, however, have been split on how to move ahead on Mayorkas.

Former Starbucks CEO Schultz to testify

Former Starbucks interim CEO Howard Schultz is scheduled to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee this week on the coffee chain’s treatment of union organizing efforts.

The hearing, titled “No Company Is Above the Law: The Need to End Illegal Union Busting at Starbucks,” is scheduled to begin on Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Schultz’s testimony comes after weeks of back-and-forth between the executive and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has accused the company of not bargaining in good faith after a number of employees working at shops across the country have unionized.

More than 350 of the company’s stores have voted to unionize since the first one, in Buffalo, N.Y., voted to do so in December 2021. Starbucks has tried to crack down on the unionizing efforts by utilizing methods that, according to the National Labor Relations Board, are unlawful.

Sanders announced earlier this month that the Senate panel would vote on issuing Schultz a subpoena. But before the vote, Schultz agreed to testify. Last week, Schultz — who was set to step down in the beginning of next month — announced that he was stepping down immediately, two weeks earlier than planned.

“I look forward to hearing from Mr. Schultz as to when he intends to end his illegal anti-union activities and begin signing fair first contracts with the unions," Sanders wrote in a statement last week.

House to take up energy package; Senate expected to hold final vote on AUMF

The House this week is scheduled to consider a major energy package, titled the Lower Energy Costs Act. The legislation received the title of H.R. 1, signaling that it is a top priority for the House Republican conference.

The package aims to, broadly speaking, accelerate the approval process for energy projects. It also includes provisions that zero in on bolstering mining and domestic production of oil and gas.

The office of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said the measure “reduces expenses across the board for American families by unleashing American energy and restoring our energy independence” in a floor lookout released Sunday night.

In the upper chamber, senators this week are expected to hold a final vote on a bill to repeal the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) for the Invasion of Iraq and the 1991 Gulf War AUMF. The Senate advanced the legislation in a 68-27 vote earlier this month.

A cloture vote is scheduled for Monday evening, and then the chamber could vote on a number of amendments. Final passage could come on Tuesday or Wednesday, sending the measure to the House.

McCarthy signaled support for the legislation last week, telling reporters during the House GOP retreat in Orlando “I’m into it.”

“I don’t have a problem repealing that,” he added.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will work from home this week after announcing this weekend that he completed impatient therapy following a fall that left him with a concussion.

Senate, House committee hearings

A number of Senate and House committees are scheduled to hold hearings this week on various topics, including the situation at the southern border and the 2022 midterm elections.

  • House Oversight and Accountability’s Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services: “FDA Oversight Part I: The Infant Formula Shortage”
    • When: Tuesday at 10 a.m.
    • Witness: Frank Yiannas, Former deputy commissioner of food policy and response at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  • House Oversight and Accountability’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic: “The Consequences of School Closures: Intended and Unintended”
    • When: Tuesday at 10 a.m.
    • Witnesses: David Zwei, author and investigative journalist at The Atlantic, New York Magazine, The Free Press; Tracy Beth Høeg, physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist, epidemiologist, private practice physician; Virginia Gentles, director of the Education Freedom Center at the Independent Women’s Forum
  • House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability: “Biden’s Growing Border Crisis: Death, Drugs, and Disorder on the Northern Border”
    • When: Tuesday at 10 a.m.
    • Witnesses
      • Panel I: Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), Pete Stauber (R-Minn.)
      • Panel II: Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council; Robert Quinn, commissioner of New Hampshire’s Department of Safety; Laura Dawson, executive director of the Future Borders Coalition; Andrew R. Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy and the Center for Immigration Studies
  • House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials: “Government Response to East Palestine: Ensuring Safety and Transparency for the Community”
    • When: Tuesday at 10 a.m.
    • Witnesses: Debra Shore, regional administrator for Region Five at the Environmental Protection Agency; Anne Vogel, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency; Wesley J. Vins, health commissioner of the Columbiana County (Ohio) General Health District
  • House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs: “Examining Progressivism’s Impact on an All-Volunteer Military”
    • When: Tuesday at 2 p.m.
    • Witnesses: Jeremy Hunt, media fellow at the Hudson Institute; Brent Sadler, senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense; Meaghan Mobbs, senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum
  • House Committee on Oversight and Accountability: “Overdue Oversight of the Capital City: Part I”
    • When: Wednesday at 10 a.m.
    • Witnesses: D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson; D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen; D.C. Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee; D.C. Police Union Chairman Greggory Pemberton
  • House Foreign Affairs Committee: “Oversight, Transparency, and Accountability of Ukraine Assistance”
    • When: Wednesday at 10 a.m.
    • Witnesses: Diana R. Shaw, deputy inspector general performing the duties of the Inspector General at the State Department; Nicole L. Angarella, acting deputy inspector general, performing the duties of the Inspector General at the U.S. Agency for International Development; Robert P. Storch, inspector general at the Defense Department
  • Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government: Examine the Missouri v. Biden case
    • When: Thursday at 9 a.m.
    • Witnesses: Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.); Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry; D. John Sauer, special assistant attorney general at the Louisiana Department of Justice

GOP lawmakers cringe over Trump’s effort to destroy DeSantis 

Posted on (Updated by Alexander Bolton

Senate Republicans are wincing over former President Trump's early barrage of attacks against his chief rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), fearing they’re seeing a preview of a brutal primary to come that could leave both candidates weakened heading into the general election.  

GOP lawmakers acknowledge DeSantis needs to show he can take a punch and aren’t shocked Trump would take hard shots at a rival as the campaign heats up.

But some are surprised the former president is unloading such a heavy barrage before DeSantis is even in the race, and they worry that getting into a yearlong mudslinging battle with Trump isn't good look for the party heading into 2024.   

“I winced in 2016 and I’m wincing now,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) when asked about Trump’s hardball tactics. “That’s just because that’s not my style. 

“I don’t think you’ll ever take the New York style out of Donald Trump. It’s too much to ask, he’s a fully-baked cake,” she said.  

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who won reelection in 2022 despite casting one of seven Republican votes to convict Trump of an impeachment charge in February 2021, signaled she’s not happy about the vitriol Trump is already unleashing in the primary.  

“Why anyone feels it’s necessary as part of a campaign to be nasty and personal is beyond me. It doesn’t have to be. Talk about the issues,” she said.  

Trump has already settled on a nickname for the Florida governor: Ron DeSanctimonious.  

Some GOP lawmakers worry that Trump attacking DeSantis before the Florida governor has even officially entered the race will hurt the party heading into 2024. (Associated Press)

Last month he flagged a photo on his social media platform, Truth Social, that allegedly showed DeSantis posing with three young women while drinking an alcoholic beverage when he taught at boarding school 20 years ago.  

Trump claims that DeSantis cried in front of him while begging for his endorsement in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial primary, when he trailed his rival Adam Putman by double digits.

He said this week that he “probably” regrets endorsing DeSantis in the race.  

“He was dead as a dog; he was a dead politician. He would have been working, perhaps, for a law firm, or doing something else,” Trump told reporters who traveled with him to Iowa.  

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said on Wednesday that he wished Trump would focus on drawing contrasts with Democrats on the issues instead of tearing down fellow Republicans. 

“That’s his style. If you’re going to be in the arena, you should expect that,” he said of Trump’s personal attacks on DeSantis.  

“Yes, I would like to keep it focused on the issues. I think there’s plenty to talk about, lots of contrasts you can draw with Democrats. I’d rather [they] keep their fire focused on them instead of each other,” he said.  

DeSantis has tried to focus on fighting what he calls “woke activism” in Florida and getting his agenda through the state legislature, but Trump is already aiming the heavy artillery at the governor.  

A super PAC aligned with Trump, Make America Great Again Inc., on Wednesday filed a complaint against DeSantis with the Florida Commission on Ethics, accusing the governor and his allies of running a “shadow presidential campaign.”  

Trump’s campaign this month starting buying Facebook ads promoting a picture of DeSantis sitting next to Trump in the Oval Office captioned: “An Apprentice Leaning from the Master” and “Re-elect President Trump in 2024.”  

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)

DeSantis has put an emphasis in recent months on fighting "woke activism," despite the attention that Trump's attacks on him have drawn. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Speaking at an event in Davenport, Iowa, Monday, Trump accused DeSantis of wanting to “decimate” Social Security and compared him to Utah Sen. Mitt Romney (R), who voted twice to convict the former president on impeachment charges.  

He also accused DeSantis of being a Republican in name only and connected him to former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), a Republican leader who for many Trump conservatives embodied the GOP establishment’s leeriness of Trump when he entered the White House in 2017.  

“You have to remember, Ron was a disciple of Paul Ryan, who is a RINO loser currently destroying FX, and would constantly vote against entitlements,” Trump said in Iowa. “And to be honest with you, Ron reminds me a lot of Mitt Romney.”  

Some Republicans worry relentless negativity on the campaign trail could wind up turning off swing voters, especially suburban women and college-educated voters. 

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) tacitly blamed Trump’s influence on the Republican Party’s brand for the disappointing performance of GOP Senate candidates in the 2022 midterm.  

“Here’s the problem, we underperformed among voters who did not like President Biden’s performance, among independents and among moderate Republicans, who looked at us and concluded [there was] too much chaos, too much negativity. And we turned off a lot of these centrist voters,” he told reporters in November.   

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a counselor to the Senate GOP leadership team, said negative politics tend to backfire in North Carolina, a swing state that Trump carried in 2016 and 2020.  

He said he “never used it” and “never found it productive” to wield the politics of personal destruction to win a race.  

Trump appears to want to create a divide between DeSantis and the working-class and rural voters who largely make up his base. (Getty)

“I think it turns off a lot of people that are part of gettable votes for the Republican nominee,” he said.  

He emphasized he wouldn’t presume to give Trump political advice, but he cautioned that “I don’t think in a purple state like North Carolina it’s the best posture, the best message for suburban voters — the voters that we saw move the other way or not vote in the last election cycle.” 

Trump’s political strategy appears to be to drive a wedge between DeSantis and working-class and rural conservatives who don’t have college degrees and make up the core of Trump’s base.  

Some Senate Republicans privately speculate DeSantis will not be able to defeat Trump in next year’s primary unless he can make bigger inroads with rural, evangelical and working-class white voters without college degrees. Recent polls show Trump leading by large margins among this swath of the GOP primary electorate.  

GOP lawmakers say they expected a bruising race but some of them are marveling over how early the carpet bombing has started. 

“Whenever you’re going to have a hard-fought primary as opposed to something that has consensus, there’s going to be injury from the warfare,” said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.). “It looks like it’s getting started very early.” 

McConnell’s hospitalization raises questions for GOP’s future

Posted on (Updated by Alexander Bolton

Senate Republicans found themselves shaken and disoriented Thursday after finding out their leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was in the hospital after tripping at a private event, raising questions about his health and future leadership of the GOP conference.  

McConnell, who in January became the longest serving party leader in Senate history, has led the Senate GOP conference since 2005 and has helped guide his colleagues through some of the biggest moments in recent history — the 2008 financial collapse, the near default of the U.S. government in 2011, the fiscal cliff of 2012, the two impeachment trials of former President Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

McConnell fell after attending a private dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington and was taken to the hospital by an ambulance and is being treated for a concussion. 

The 81-year-old Kentucky senator’s sudden absence came only a day after he helped Republicans achieve a big political victory by stampeding Democrats into voting to block a District of Columbia crime bill. And it left some GOP senators feeling unsettled and worried about the future.

“I am a huge fan of Mitch McConnell. I think he has the ability to lead a very diverse group of individuals in a way that is masterful,” said one GOP senator who requested anonymity to discuss the impact of McConnell’s injury on the Senate GOP conference.  

“I think, who would be our next leader and what kind of leader would that person be?” the senator added. “Yeah, I do worry about that.”  

“He’s always thinking ahead in terms of initiatives. He’s thinking about how the players on his team can fit. He’s got a knack for that that I don’t think you find in many others,” the lawmaker said.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), former Senate GOP Whip John Cornyn (Texas) and Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso (Wyo.) are viewed as McConnell’s three most likely successors. 

But there hasn’t been any serious discussion of a future Senate GOP leadership race among Republican senators themselves because McConnell has a secure grip on the job and hasn’t dropped any hint about planning to retire.

He easily defeated former National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott (Fla.) by a lopsided vote of 37 to 10 when Scott tried to capitalize on Republican disappointment over the 2022 midterm election by challenging McConnell for the top job.  

Scott, who has feuded with McConnell over party strategy since that race, tweeted on Thursday that he and his wife are keeping the leader and his family “in our prayers” and wished him “a speedy recovery.”

Senators were in the dark

The news that broke Wednesday night that McConnell had been rushed to the hospital after tripping and falling at a dinner event left Republican senators scrambling the next morning for more information about the severity of his injuries.

Speculation veered in all different directions, and the lack of details from McConnell’s office had lawmakers wondering about how bad the situation was.

McConnell’s top deputies, Thune and Cornyn, didn’t get a chance to talk to their leader before being pressed for details by reporters in the Capitol’s hallways.  

Thune, looking somber Thursday morning, only said: “Don’t know a lot yet.”  

Thune rushed straight to the floor before taking any other questions to be sure he first addressed his Senate colleagues, telling them that his “thoughts and prayers are with Leader McConnell” as well as “with his family” and “with his team.”  

Cornyn was also in the dark.

“I understand that he’s resting up, but I don’t have any details,” he said.  

McConnell’s office disclosed at lunchtime Thursday that he was being treated for a concussion and would remain in the hospital for a few days of observation and treatment.

What exactly happened

As the day went on, a few other details leaked out about the accident.  

McConnell was at the Waldorf earlier in the evening to attend a reception for the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC that he is affiliated with and that played a major role in the last election by spending $290 million.

The reception was a thank-you event for the super PAC’s supporters, and several GOP senators attended. 

“I think it was more of a thank you to the people that had helped with the fund in the last election cycle,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “It was a pretty good showing of Republican colleagues. I don’t know how many showed up, but it seemed like there was a lot of us.”  

McConnell later attended a small, private dinner that a person familiar described as “adjacent” to the reception. He tripped and fell after that dinner.

McConnell's significant impact

A second Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic said McConnell’s hospitalization raises questions about the future leadership of the Senate GOP conference but emphasized, “It’s not time to be talking about [it].” 

“My thoughts and prayers are with Elaine and Mitch, and I hope it’s not too serious,” the senator said, referring to McConnell’s wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. 

“I haven’t found anything good about getting old,” the senator quipped.  

McConnell has been such a major political force in Republican politics for so long that his GOP colleagues have come to rely on his ability to pump huge sums of money into Senate battleground states and to insulate them from the turbulence in conservative politics that has roiled the House GOP conference.  

He leadership is especially valued by mainstream and moderate Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) — one of McConnell’s closest friends in the Senate — because he gives them space to work with Democratic colleagues and practice the style of Republican politics they see as best suited to their home states. 

Colleagues also value McConnell’s ability to get their party out of tough political situations.  

One example came in the fall of 2021, when he rounded up his leadership team and other allies to provide the 11 GOP votes needed to pave the way for Democrats to pass legislation to raise the debt limit.  

McConnell took enormous heat from Trump and other critics for the vote, but it took the danger of a federal default off the table.  

And McConnell has historically shown a willingness to inject himself in Senate Republican primary politics to pave the way for candidates he views as the most electable in a general election — an approach he adopted after Republicans fumbled away their chances to win seats in Delaware, Nevada, Missouri and Indiana in the 2010 and 2012 elections.  

Even senators who voted to oust him from his leadership job in November admit their respect and admiration for his toughness in battle.  

“He’s a tough old crow. My money’s on him,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).