Democrat tears into GOP over BS Biden probes and campaign lies

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida used his time at Thursday’s House Oversight Committee to slam Republicans for resurrecting their failed impeachment investigation of former President Joe Biden as a distraction from years of unfulfilled promises.

"So I want to do the ‘don't listen to what they say, watch what they do.’” Moskowitz said. “They said they would lower food costs. They said they would take us into the Golden Age. They said they would end the war in Ukraine and Gaza. They said they wouldn't touch Medicaid. They said they would lower interest rates. They said they would lower our debt. They said they would release the Epstein files. … The biggest one, my favorite, they said they would make [the] government more efficient,” he added. "Name one department, one government service—anything that the government does that they made more efficient? Certainly not the Newark airport. Definitely not FEMA."

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Moskowitz’s righteous rebuke came just hours after President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing his administration to investigate Biden, using the fallacious conspiracy theory that Biden wasn’t mentally fit during his presidency. Biden himself has noted that Trump’s obsession with him conveniently aligns with the GOP’s deepening divisions over their “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” which would throw millions off health insurance and add trillions to the deficit. 

Moskowitz’s skillful breakdown of the GOP’s unkept promises highlights the conservative movement’s ongoing failures. Trump’s ill-conceived tariffs have only driven up costs, the exact opposite of his campaign promises to lower grocery prices. Trump’s need to ingratiate himself with Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin has not only embarrassed the U.S. but also jeopardized its relationship with foreign allies, while failing to end a single conflict.

The Republican-led assault on government agencies has left our aviation safety in chaos with delays caused by understaffing and technical issues. At the same time, it has greatly diminished the federal government’s ability to predict and respond to extreme weather events that affect millions of people.

As for the promises of releasing billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s case files? It turned out to be just a publicity stunt. In fact, as of the writing of this story, former co-president Elon Musk has thoughts about the Epstein case files and Trump’s lack of transparency on the matter.

Republicans’ hope to use their committee as a distraction from their party’s catastrophic failures to govern has been dashed, as Democratic lawmakers make it clear that they will no longer play their games.

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Migrant deported to third country returned to US after Trump admin yields to judge’s order

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

A Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico by the Trump administration was returned to the U.S. this week, his lawyers confirmed to Fox News on Thursday, marking the first known instance of the Trump administration complying with a judge’s orders to return an individual removed from the U.S. based on erroneous information.

The individual, identified only as O.C.G, was returned to the U.S. via commercial flight, lawyers confirmed, after being deported to Mexico in March.

The news comes one week after lawyers for the Justice Department told U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy that they were working to charter a plane to secure the return of the individual, identified only as O.C.G., to U.S. soil. 

Murphy had ruled that O.C.G., a Guatemalan migrant, had been deported to Mexico earlier this year without due process and despite his stated fears of persecution, and ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return. 

TRUMP FOE JUDGE BOASBERG RULES DEPORTED MIGRANTS CAN CHALLENGE REMOVALS, IN BLOW TO ADMIN

Additionally, Murphy told laywers for the administration that O.C.G. had not been given the chance to contest his removal to a country where he could face threats of torture, a right afforded under U.S. and international law.

O.C.G. was previously held for ransom and raped in Mexico but was not afforded the chance to assert those fears prior to his removal, Murphy noted in his order, citing submissions from O.C.G.'s attorneys.

"In general, this case presents no special facts or legal circumstances, only the banal horror of a man being wrongfully loaded onto a bus and sent back to a country where he was allegedly just raped and kidnapped," Murphy said earlier this month, noting that the removal process "lacked any semblance of due process."

US JUDGE ACCUSES TRUMP ADMIN OF ‘MANUFACTURING CHAOS’ IN SOUTH SUDAN DEPORTATIONS, ESCALATING FEUD 

"The return of O.C.G. poses a vanishingly small cost to make sure we can still claim to live up to that ideal," Murphy said in his order.

Lawyers for the Trump administration told the court last week that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations Phoenix Field Office made contact over the weekend with O.C.G.’s attorneys and are "currently working with ICE Air to bring O.C.G. back to the United States on an Air Charter Operations (ACO) flight return leg."

That appears to have happened, and O.C.G. was flown via commercial airline to the U.S. on Wednesday.

The news comes amid a broader court fight centered on Trump's use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act – an 18th-century wartime law it invoked earlier this year to deport certain migrants more quickly. Many were sent to CECOT, El Salvador's maximum-security prison.

To date, the Trump administration has not complied with federal court orders to facilitate the return of those individuals to the U.S., even individuals who were deported in what the administration has acknowledged was an administrative error. 

Unlike the migrants at CECOT, however, O.C.G. had not been detained in Mexico.

The Trump administration did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. They did not immediately respond to questions about whether the administration plans to follow suit in other cases in which a federal judge ordered the administration to return an individual deemed to have been wrongfully deported.

The news comes just hours after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to provide all migrants removed to CECOT under the Alien Enemies Act an opportunity to seek habeas relief to contest their removal, as well as the opportunity to challenge their alleged gang status, which was the basis for their removal under the law.

WHO IS JAMES BOASBERG, THE US JUDGE AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP'S DEPORTATION EFFORTS?

Judge Boasberg also gave the Trump administration one week to submit to the court information explaining how it plans to facilitate the habeas relief to migrants currently being held at CECOT.

That ruling is almost certain to provoke a high-stakes legal standoff with the administration, and comes as Trump officials have railed against Judge Boasberg and others who have ruled in ways seen as unfavorable to the administration as so-called "activist judges."

Trump called for Boasberg's impeachment earlier this year, prompting Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare public statement of rebuke. 

"America’s asylum system was never intended to be used as a de facto amnesty program or a catch-all, get-out-of-deportation-free card," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement over the weekend.

Crazed Republicans can’t stop obsessing over Joe Biden’s health

Posted on by Alex Samuels

House Republicans are ramping up their investigation into President Joe Biden’s health, targeting a new round of former aides with interview requests.

GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chair of the House Oversight Committee, announced on Wednesday that he’s now seeking testimony from more top Biden officials, including former chief of staff Ron Klain and senior adviser Anita Dunn. Also on Comer’s list are longtime adviser Mike Donilon, former deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, and counselor Steve Ricchetti.

“The Committee requests your testimony to evaluate your eye-witness account of former President Biden’s decline,” Comer wrote in nearly identical letters, adding that the aides must agree to appear by June 11 or face a subpoena.

This latest batch of targets follows Comer’s round of demands last month, when he requested to question Biden’s personal physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, and White House staffers Anthony Bernal, Neera Tanden, Annie Tomasini, and Ashley Williams.

“These five former senior advisors were eyewitnesses to President Biden’s condition and operations within the Biden White House,” Comer said, claiming that they could shed light on who was really “calling the shots.”

It’s not clear what Comer expects to get out of this, but we won’t have to wait long to find out. 

On Tuesday, he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that staff attorneys have already been in touch with the various aides’ legal teams and that he expects each official to testify voluntarily. Where that actually happens, and what the GOP even considers a “win” here, remains to be seen.

But even if this whole thing turns up nothing, Republicans will still have accomplished what they set out to do: keep the attacks on Biden coming. It’s all part of a larger GOP effort to undermine Biden’s legacy by painting him as unfit for office, even after leaving it. 

Ed Martin, pardon attorney for the Department of Justice 

Similarly, President Donald Trump’s pardon attorney for the Department of Justice, Ed Martin, is now digging into Biden’s end-of-term clemency decisions, including the mechanics of how they were approved.

Comer, who just wrapped up a failed 15-month impeachment probe, even floated the idea of having Biden testify before Congress over the use of an autopen. Despite MAGA’s breathless obsession, autopens are legal, and presidents have used them for years.

The GOP has seized on a string of stories to fuel its narrative: first, gossip that Biden’s team downplayed health concerns during his reelection bid, then the announcement of his metastatic prostate cancer diagnosis. Republicans immediately—and without evidence—accused his staff of orchestrating a cover-up.

While Biden’s health decline was evident during his chaotic final debate against Trump, there’s no public proof that others were running the show for him or that he couldn’t perform the core duties of the presidency. His allies have rejected that framing outright.

But those facts haven’t slowed the GOP down. According to CNN, the House Judiciary Committee is also preparing to interview David Weiss, the former Hunter Biden special counsel, behind closed doors this week. And Republicans have also been chasing two DOJ tax prosecutors involved in the Hunter Biden probe.

These moves are easier with a compliant House and White House, and the political benefits are obvious. The investigations feed their narrative, keep Biden in the headlines, and pull focus from GOP turmoil. Even Comer admits as much.

“It is a whole different environment,” he told CNN.

In other words, the hunt continues.

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Here are Biden’s most controversial pardons, with most signed using AutoPen

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

The Justice Department is reviewing the list of people that were granted pardons by former President Joe Biden, amid new concerns about his use of an AutoPen to automatically sign documents, as well as concerns about his state of mind and mental acuity in his final months in office. 

TRUMP DOJ INVESTIGATING BIDEN-ERA PARDONS AMID CONCERNS OVER STATE OF MIND

Biden used his final weeks as commander-in-chief to grant clemency and pardon more than 1,500 individuals, in what his White House described as the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president. 

But critics blasted Biden for some of the pardons and preemptive pardons for members of his family, inner circle, and some allies, amid concerns that the Trump administration would investigate and attempt to punish their actions. 

WHAT IS AN AUTOPEN? THE SIGNING DEVICE AT THE HEART OF TRUMP'S ATTACKS ON BIDEN PARDONS

Biden signed the pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, by hand. But the others appear to have been signed by AutoPen. 

Here is a list of the former president’s most controversial pardons: 

Former President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden in December 2024—after vowing to the American people for months that he would not do so. 

Hunter Biden was found guilty of three felony firearm offenses stemming from Special Counsel David Weiss’ investigation. The first son was also charged with federal tax crimes regarding the failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. Before his trial, Hunter Biden entered a surprise guilty plea. 

Biden, in December, announced a blanket pardon that applies to any offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden "has committed or may have committed" from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024. 

HUNTER BIDEN: A LOOK AT HOW THE SAGA SPANNING OVER SIX YEARS UNFOLDED

"From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted," Biden said. "There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."

Biden added, "I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision." 

Just a day before leaving office on Jan. 20, 2025, Biden signed an Executive Grant of Clemency for his brother James Biden and his wife Sarah Jones Biden; his sister Valerie Biden Owens and her husband John T. Owens; and his brother Francis W. Biden. 

The "full and unconditional" preemptive pardon for his family members covered "any nonviolent offenses against the United States which they may have committed or taken part in during the period from Jan. 1, 2014, through the date of this pardon," which was signed on Jan. 19, 2025. 

The pardon appears to have been signed with AutoPen. 

Members of the Biden family had fallen at the center of the congressional investigation into their business dealings. 

The House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry against Biden, finding that Biden committed "impeachable conduct" during his time as vice president and "defrauded the United States to enrich his family." 

PRESIDENT BIDEN PARDONS HIS SIBLINGS JUST MINUTES BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE

During the inquiry, congressional investigators heard testimony from James Biden, who ultimately was referred to the Justice Department for prosecution for making false statements to Congress about "key aspects" of the impeachment inquiry. 

The House of Representatives found that the Biden family and its associates received more than $27 million from foreign individuals or entities since 2014.

They also alleged that the Biden family leveraged Biden’s position as vice president to obtain more than $8 million in loans from Democrat benefactors. The loans "have not been repaid and the paperwork supporting many of the loans does not exist and has not been produced to the committees."

The Republicans said the alleged conspiracy took place while Biden was serving as vice president.

Biden, on Jan. 19, 2025, pardoned Milley, after an administration marred by the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. 

Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has admitted the withdrawal where 13 U.S. troops lost their lives was a "strategic failure."  

BIDEN COMMITTED ‘IMPEACHABLE CONDUCT,’ ‘DEFRAUDED UNITED STATES TO ENRICH HIS FAMILY’: HOUSE GOP REPORT

"My family and I are deeply grateful for the President’s action today," Milley said in a statement, accepting the pardon. "After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights." 

The pardon appears to have been signed with AutoPen. 

Biden, also on Jan. 19, 2025, pardoned former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci also served as Biden’s chief medical advisor and oversaw the U.S. public health response and research on the COVID-19 virus and vaccine development. 

Fauci accepted the pardon in a statement shortly after Biden announced the move, claiming he was subject to "politically motivated threats of investigation and prosecution."

DR. FAUCI SAYS HE APPRECIATES PRESIDENT BIDEN'S PARDON BUT INSISTS 'NO CRIME' WAS COMMITTED

"Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me. The fact is, however, that the mere articulation of these baseless threats, and the potential that they will be acted upon, create immeasurable and intolerable distress for me and my family. For these reasons, I acknowledge and appreciate the action that President Biden has taken today on my behalf," Fauci said. 

Fauci’s pardon also appears to have been signed with AutoPen. 

Biden, also on Jan. 19, 2025, used AutoPen to sign a pardon for members of Congress who served on the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. 

BIDEN PARDONS MARK MILLEY, ANTHONY FAUCI, J6 COMMITTEE MEMBERS

The pardon also covered committee staff and the police officers from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police who testified before the committee. 

New Jersey gubernatorial candidates gear up for competitive primary in early test of Trump’s 2nd term

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

New Jersey voters will choose their Democrat and Republican nominees for governor on June 10, closing out competitive primary contests that could have major implications for the Garden State. 

It's a crowded field on both sides of the aisle as six Democrats and five Republicans are vying for the chance to replace Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, who is term-limited this year. 

Democratic candidates include Newark mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop, New Jersey Education Association president Sean Spiller, former New Jersey Senate president Steve Sweeney and U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherill.

2021 Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli, radio personality Bill Spadea, New Jersey state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and political outsider Justin Barbera are among the Republican candidates. 

DEM LAWMAKER FUNDRAISES OFF FEDERAL ASSAULT CHARGES AFTER ICE FACILITY CONFRONTATION: 'DOING MY JOB'

Democrat and Republican candidates have evoked President Donald Trump's name during their gubernatorial campaigns, as Democrats position themselves as the most anti-Trump and Republicans try to be the most pro-Trump. 

REP. MIKIE SHERRILL SUGGESTS THIRD TRUMP IMPEACHMENT AS SHE CAMPAIGNS TO BE NEXT NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR

New Jersey is one of just two gubernatorial elections in 2025, along with Virginia. Both races will be used by politicians and pundits to gauge how Americans are responding to Trump's second term ahead of the midterm elections next year. 

Trump outperformed in the Garden State in 2024, according to Fox News Voter Analysis. 

While Vice President Kamala Harris won New Jersey in 2024 as expected, Trump gained a nearly five-point improvement from his 2020 vote share and Harris' support dropped by about five points. He gained across New Jersey, with his largest swings in the northeast corner of the state. Hudson and Passaic counties lead the pack.

Trump held a large "Make America Great Again" rally on the Jersey Shore during his 2024 presidential campaign as he told the crowd that New Jersey was in play, despite its reputation as a reliable blue state. 

Republican gubernatorial candidates have been eager to play up their relationships with Trump and cast their campaigns as the most aligned with Trump. But the president endorsed Ciattarelli on Truth Social earlier this month – a blow to Ciatarelli's closest competitor, Spadea.

Ciattarelli is leading the pack of Republican candidates with 42% of New Jersey registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton/SSRS Garden State Panel poll conducted from April 1 to April 10. Spadea comes in a distant second, with 12%. Four percent of Republicans said they preferred Bramnick, 3% chose Barbera, and no one chose Kranjac. Four percent say they don't prefer any of the candidates.

This is the leading Republican's third consecutive gubernatorial bid. Ciattarelli lost by a hair to Murphy in 2021 and has framed his candidacy as a referendum on the Democrat policies that have driven New Jersey for the past eight years. 

Meanwhile, the Democrat candidates have walked a fine line between building on Murphy's legacy and promising to change the status quo in Trenton. Like Murphy, Democrat candidates have rejected Trump's executive orders, crackdown on illegal immigration and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts. 

The same poll found Democrats were more split about their leading candidate. 17% of registered Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents said they prefer Sherrill and 12% said they support Fulop, which is within the margin of error. Spiller picked up 10%, Baraka had 9% and Sweeney landed 7% of the vote. Four percent didn't prefer any of the candidates. 

Democratic candidates threw their support behind Baraka this month when he was arrested for trespassing at an ICE facility in Newark. The Department of Homeland Security called it a "beyond bizarre political stunt," but Baraka has maintained that he did nothing wrong. 

As the New Jersey primary comes to a head next month, the Garden State has dominated national headlines this year. Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) has experienced multiple FAA system outages, prompting concern among fliers and air traffic controllers. 

And a New Jersey transit strike created more travel mayhem when railways closed last week. Not to mention the large sinkhole that shut down Interstate 80, redirecting even more New Jersey travelers and commuters. 

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In-person early voting runs Tuesday, June 3, to Sunday, June 8. Vote-by-mail ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, and received by the county Board of Elections on or before the sixth day after the close of the polls. In-person voting on election day, Tuesday, June 10, will be from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

Republicans won’t stop beating up on Biden because it’s all they have

Posted on by Alex Samuels

President Donald Trump hasn’t even been back in office for 200 days, and already, his second term is a full-blown disaster.

He’s sort of breaking up with his tech billionaire co-President Elon Musk. His so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” pitched as the cornerstone of his legislative revival, is tearing the GOP apart. His power grabs are being dragged through the courts. And his tariff plan—if it survives—could drive up prices and tip the economy toward a recession.

With all that chaos on their plate, Republicans should be laser-focused on solving problems. Instead, they’re still obsessed with former President Joe Biden.

Two recent stories gave them just enough cover. First, a Beltway tell-all claimed Biden’s team downplayed his health issues when he launched his reelection bid. Then came news of his metastatic prostate cancer diagnosis—and Republicans immediately, and without evidence, cried “cover-up.” 

Rep. James Comer, after leading a failed 15-month impeachment investigation, even suggested that Biden should testify before Congress over his use of an autopen, as if that somehow proves cognitive decline. For the record: Autopens are legal. Presidents, including Barack Obama, have used them, despite MAGA’s ongoing paranoia.

To be clear, Republicans aren’t the only ones who raised questions about Biden’s mental and physical fitness. Democrats did too. So did the media. His age and decline weren’t hidden—they were headline news. Voters knew what they were signing up for.

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And sure, it’s possible this issue could resurface in 2026 or 2028. But if it does, it won’t be because MAGA world kept doomposting about Biden’s brain scans; It’ll be because Democrats failed to give voters anything else to care about.

Let’s be real. The defining story of the next election won’t be Biden’s prostate. It’ll be Trump—his chaos, his legacy, and the wreckage he’s already leaving behind.

To name just a few lowlights: He’s nuked the economy with asinine tariffs. He’s gutted the federal workforce, undermining basic services like Social Security and weather forecasting. He’s threatened law firms to scare them away from challenging his illegal moves—or defending his political enemies. He’s openly ignoring court orders, plunging the country into a full-blown constitutional crisis.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Voters won’t forget. Republican lawmakers are already getting grilled by angry constituents at town halls. The idea that Biden’s medical chart will outweigh Trump’s reign of chaos is laughable.

But that’s the GOP’s bet because they need Biden in the narrative. They need a scapegoat, a boogeyman, a distraction. They can’t run on their record, so they run on fiction.

Just look at how Democrats have responded to the Biden book: no freakouts, no backstabbing. Most agree he shouldn’t have run again—but they aren’t re-litigating 2024 or knifing one another over 2028. That unity says more than any hot take. Republicans need Biden in the story. Democrats have already moved on.

Of course, in MAGA-land, Biden’s name will never die. His health, his staff, his supposed “cover-up”—all filed under the same deranged umbrella as Benghazi, birth certificates, George Soros, and Kamala Harris’ laugh. None of it’s real. It’s just Republican fan fiction. And when the headlines dry up, the fever swamp always circles back to its favorite fantasy villains.

Still, if swing voters are actually talking about Biden in 2028, Democrats will only have themselves to blame for failing to give the country something better to talk about.

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This House Republican just can’t quit investigating Joe Biden

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

The GOP’s obsession with former President Joe Biden shows no signs of letting up. After Rep. James Comer’s 15-month impeachment investigation during Biden’s presidency failed spectacularly, the chair of the House Oversight Committee has now latched on to a conspiracy theory pushed by fellow Biden stalker Donald Trump back in March.

“Some of these bureaucrats, these unnamed bureaucrats in the White House were using the autopen to sign Joe Biden's name on very important things like pardons and like executive orders,” Comer babbled to Fox News on Thursday.

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Comer’s evidence includes “whistleblowers in the administration” and Jake Tapper’s new book, which claims the now-82-year-old Biden was significantly impaired during his final months in office.

“It raises a lot of questions as to, what was the decision process and who was forging,” Comer said. “Because if Joe Biden wasn't authorizing, someone was forging his name on some very important documents.” 

The foundation of this latest “investigation” is the same conspiracy theory Trump himself promoted when he claimed Biden was incapacitated while president because he used an autopen—a device presidents have used for decades to sign documents remotely. Less than 24 hours after pushing this theory, Trump himself admitted to using an autopen while in office. 

This is just the latest example of Trump and the GOP’s unending beef with Biden. Following the former president’s announcement of his Stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis, House Republicans launched an investigation into the former president’s health while in office in a further attempt to beat that dead horse.

Republican lawmakers’ fixation on all things Joe mirrors their cult leader’s preoccupation with the man he lost to in 2020. Just last month, Trump even used the passing of former President Jimmy Carter as an opportunity to insult Biden.

Comer’s repeated failures to prove the existence of a shadowy Biden family crime syndicate only highlighted how the Kentucky congressman did the exact things he accused Biden of doing. Even after Biden dropped out of the race and Trump won the presidential election in November, Comer kept pushing his evidence-free investigation, telling Newsmax he wanted to continue it.

When it comes to being the target of a petty vendetta, it seems Biden’s greatest mistake was being the last president since Barack Obama to win more than 50% of the popular vote.

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New report shows how Trump is breaking the law, and nope, he doesn’t care

Posted on by Lisa Needham

The Government Accountability Office just issued a giant detailed report about how the Trump administration illegally impounded billions of dollars by suspending approval of any new electric vehicle charging projects. Predictably, however, the administration does not care and responded by just shrugging it off. 

You are probably wishing you lived in an era where you did not have to care about dense GAO reports, and you could trust that the government was just sort of humming along. But we all live in the Trump era, which means that government projects are subject to the whims of President Donald Trump or Elon Musk, which is why you’re now reading about the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program. Lucky! 

Back in February, the Federal Highway Administration—which is part of the Department of Transportation and currently being wildly mishandled by former reality TV star Sean Duffy—issued a memo saying that the new leadership of DOT has “decided to review the policies underlying the implementation of the NEVI Formula Program.” 

 Trump shakes hands with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy

The memo rescinded the Biden-era guidance for NEVI and suspended approval of all State Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment plans. The only thing that would continue is reimbursement to states that have already incurred costs—but only until the administration gets around to issuing new guidance. 

So why is the administration holding back this money? According to the FHWA memo, it’s the now-familiar justification for most of the administration’s actions in gutting programs: guidance has to be “updated to align with current U.S. DOT policy and priorities.” 

There’s just one problem with holding back this money: the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which says that the executive branch cannot withhold funds already allocated by Congress. But the administration has been flouting the ICA for months, beginning with Trump’s attempt to freeze all federal spending, despite those funds already being appropriated by Congress. 

So what happened when the GAO report dropped? Well, Russell Vought, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, currently very busy implementing Project 2025, went on X to say the government was just going to ignore it. Oh, and also that the GAO “played a partisan role in the first-term impeachment hoax.”

The GAO is a boring thing, and that’s meant in the most complimentary way. It’s a congressional watchdog that examines government spending and provides Congress and agencies with “objective, non-partisan, fact-based information to help the government save money and work more efficiently.” Huh. That sounds a lot like it was already doing the sort of thing that the made-up Department of Government Efficiency says it was doing. 

The GAO has 39 other open impoundment-related investigations, but Vought preemptively shrugged those off as well, saying that the GAO would call everything an impoundment to “grind our work to manage taxpayer dollars effectively to a halt” and that all investigations were “non-events with no consequence.”

Related | Senate Republicans killed the filibuster. Good

While the administration is busy flat-out rejecting the oversight functions of the GAO, Republicans in Congress are busy flouting a different oversight body. Last week, when Senate Republicans voted to block California from setting its own emission standards, they did so by overriding the Senate parliamentarian. Like the GAO, the Senate parliamentarian is a nonpartisan body. It advises Congress on anything that requires interpretation of the rules of the Senate. 

Both the GAO and the parliamentarian advised that the Congressional Review Act couldn’t be used to strip California of its emissions waivers because those waivers are not the same as agency rules. Paying that no mind, the GOP just overrode the parliamentarian. 

It’s in no way clear what happens when Republicans just ignore oversight bodies. There seems to be no consequences for the administration upending checks and balances to grab as much power as possible for the executive branch. 

Republicans in Congress seem to be on board with this, letting the administration impound funds with nary a peep. Ultimately, the stance of the GOP is that oversight is for suckers and that anyone who tells them they can’t do something should pound sand. 

This isn’t governance; It’s defiance wrapped in pretending that refusing to spend duly allocated funds is actually a boon for taxpayers, saving them billions. We know those savings are a lie, but no one seems to have any idea how to stop the administration from doing whatever it wants.

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