There’s a twitter link showing the video. Again, I don’t blame the GOP. I blame the voters who elected every last one of these clowns in this video. When republican voters ask why government doesn’t work, everyone needs to point directly at them. Because the only way these clowns are in office is because somebody elected them into said office.
This is disgusting behavior by a bunch of so-called adults.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
I am no fan of the Democrats, but there just has to be reckoning in 2024. Trump looks to be the presidential nominee again, and he just needs to get his ass completely kicked, and they also need to lose big in the House as well. I can't think of any other catalyst that can reset the Republican side back to sanity.
The problem is I don't know how to fix the HoR. The Senate doesn't have the same calamity because it doesn't have gerrymandering, but the way the HoR is, you will have career whack jobs choosing their voters, vs the other way around. Those whack jobs are pretty much ironclad perpetual in their districts, hence the stoopidity that we're seeing right now. Even if they lose the majority, they can remain in power because of their roots in their district.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
Quote from the article, by the way, that really stood out to me: "We're not doing any policy tonight." Isn't that...kinda your whole freakin' job????
Virginia Foxx is a real piece of work by the way. She is right up there with Comer, Jordan and Menendez on the "despicability" scale in Congress. She just isn't as front and center.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
Who is Rep. Mike Johnson, the House GOP’s latest speaker nominee?
Washington CNN — Rep. Mike Johnson, Republicans’ latest nominee to be the next speaker of the House, has been a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump and was a key congressional figure in the failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The Louisiana Republican, who is GOP deputy whip and vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, was first elected to the House in 2016. An attorney with a focus on constitutional law, Johnson joined a group of House Republicans in voting to sustain the objection to electoral votes on January 6, 2021. During Trump’s first impeachment trial in January 2020, Johnson, along with a group of other GOP lawmakers, served a largely ceremonial role in Trump’s Senate impeachment team.
Johnson also sent an email from a personal email account in 2020 to every House Republican soliciting signatures for an amicus brief in the longshot Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate electoral college votes from multiple states.
After the election was called in favor of Joe Biden on November 7, 2020, Johnson posted on X, then known as Twitter, “I have just called President Trump to say this: ‘Stay strong and keep fighting, sir! The nation is depending upon your resolve. We must exhaust every available legal remedy to restore Americans’ trust in the fairness of our election system.’”
Although Trump said he won’t endorse anyone in the speaker’s race Wednesday, he leant support to Johnson in a post on Truth Social.
“In 2024, we will have an even bigger, & more important, WIN! My strong SUGGESTION is to go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson, & GET IT DONE, FAST!” Trump posted.
Johnson serves on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services Committee. He is also a former chair of the Republican Study Committee.
After receiving a degree in business administration from Louisiana State University and a Juris Doctorate from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Johnson took on roles as a college professor and conservative talk radio host. He began his political career in the Louisiana legislature, where he served from 2015 to 2017, before being elected to Congress in Louisiana’s Fourth District.
Rep. Kevin Hern, an Oklahoma Republican who chairs the influential Republican Study Committee, dropped out of the race for speaker Tuesday evening and backed Johnson.
“I want everyone to know this race has gotten to the point where it’s gotten crazy. This is more about people right now than it should be,” he said. “This should be about America and America’s greatness. For that, I stepped aside and threw all my support behind Mike Johnson. I think he’d make a great speaker.”
Johnson’s win in the secret-ballot race for the House Republican Conference’s nominee for speaker followed Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer’s decision to drop out of the race hours after Republicans chose him to be the nominee following resistance from the right flank of the conference and a rebuke from Trump. Reps. Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan have also dropped out after earlier seeking the speaker’s gavel.
Johnson joined the speakership race in a Saturday post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I have been humbled to have so many Members from across our Conference reach out to encourage me to seek the nomination for Speaker. Until yesterday, I had never contacted one person about this, and I have never before aspired to the office,” he said in a posted letter. “However, after much prayer and deliberation, I am stepping forward now.”
Election denier, climate skeptic, anti-abortion: seven beliefs of new US House speaker Mike Johnson
The relatively little-known Louisiana Republican has been thrust into the spotlight and the attention has fallen on his extreme beliefs
Mike Johnson’s emergence as the new speaker of the US House of Representatives has earned the relatively little-known Louisiana Republican a turn in the national spotlight.
In turn, that spotlight has illuminated positions and remarks many deem extreme.
He tried to overturn the 2020 election
In the modern Republican party, supporting Donald Trump’s lie about voter fraud in his defeat by Joe Biden is hardly an outlandish position. But Johnson took it further.
After the election, he voiced support for Trump’s conspiracy theory that voting machines were rigged. Later, he was one of 147 Republicans to object to results in key states, even after a pro-Trump mob attacked Congress on January 6, a riot now linked to nine deaths and hundreds of convictions.
Johnson also authored an amicus brief filed to the supreme court in a case in which Texas sought to have swing-state results thrown out. According to the New York Times, a House Republican lawyer said Johnson’s brief was unconstitutional. Nonetheless, he persuaded 125 colleagues to sign it, using tactics some thought heavy handed.
The supreme court refused to take the case. On Tuesday, Johnson refused to take a question about his work on Trump’s behalf – smiling as fellow Republicans booed and jeered the reporter.
He was a spokesperson for a ‘hate group’
Before entering politics, Johnson worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom – designated a hate group by the Southern Law Poverty Center, which tracks US extremists.
According to the SPLC, the ADF has “supported the recriminalisation of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ+ adults in the US and criminalisation abroad; defended state-sanctioned sterilisation of trans people abroad; contended that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to engage in paedophilia; and claimed that a ‘homosexual agenda’ will destroy Christianity and society”.
On Wednesday, the ADF senior counsel, Jeremy Tedesco, denied the organisation was a hate group and attacked the SPLC designation as partisan.
“The truth is, Alliance Defending Freedom is among the largest and most effective legal advocacy organizations dedicated to protecting the religious freedom and free speech rights of all Americans,” he said.
He opposes LGBTQ+ rights
In state politics and at the national level, Johnson has worked to claw back gains made by LGBTQ+ Americans in their fight for equality.
In 2016, as he ran for Congress, he told the Louisiana Baptist Message he had “been out on the front lines of the ‘culture war’ defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage, and other ideals like these when they’ve been under assault”. He has since led efforts for a national “don’t say gay” bill, regarding the teaching of LGBTQ+ issues in schools, and is also opposed to gender-affirming care for children.
On Wednesday, Rev Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality, said: “Johnson has made a career out of attacking the LGBTQ+ community at every turn. His positions are out of touch with the clear majority support for LGBTQ+ equality in our country. His new leadership role is just further proof of the dangerous priorities of the GOP and the critical stakes for our democracy – and for LGBTQ+ Americans – in 2024.”
He is stringently anti-abortion
Johnson has maintained a relatively low profile in Congress but when last year the supreme court removed the right to abortion, Johnson celebrated “a historic and joyful day”.
Though Dobbs v Jackson returned abortion rights to the states, Johnson has co-sponsored bills for a nationwide ban. And as he neared his position of power, footage spread of striking remarks in a House hearing. “Roe v Wade did constitutional cover to the elective killing of unborn children in America, period,” Johnson said.
"You think about the implications on the economy. We’re all struggling here to cover the bases of social security and Medicare and Medicaid and all the rest. If we had all those able-bodied workers in the economy, we wouldn’t be going upside down and toppling over like this … I will not yield I will not. Roe was a terrible corruption of America’s constitutional jurisprudence.”
He wants to cut social security and Medicare
As those comments indicate, Johnson wants to cut programs on which millions rely. Such cuts are widely regarded as a political third-rail – Trump has used the issue to attack Republican presidential rivals, saying only he will defend such benefits – but Johnson is far from alone in wanting to swing the axe.
He is an advocate for ‘covenant marriage’
When he married his wife, Kelly, in 1999, the couple agreed to a “covenant” marriage: a conservative Christian idea that makes it harder to divorce. The Johnsons promoted the idea on ABC’s Good Morning America.
“My own parents are divorced,” Johnson said. “As anyone who goes through that knows, that was a traumatic thing for our whole family. I’m a big proponent of marriage and fidelity and all the things that go with it, and I’ve seen first-hand the devastation [divorce] can cause.”
He is a climate skeptic
In 2017, Johnson told voters in his oil-rich home state: “The climate is changing, but the question is, is it being caused by natural cycles over the span of the Earth’s history? Or is it changing because we drive SUVs? I don’t believe in the latter. I don’t think that’s the primary driver.”
He has also opposed proposals for a Green New Deal and been named an “energy champion” by the American Energy Alliance, a rightwing group that has defended fossil fuel use.
… and progressives are alarmed
On Wednesday, Democrats and progressives greeted Johnson’s ascent with criticism – and opposition research.
Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog Accountable.US, called Johnson “a far-right extremist who led a desperate attempt to subvert democracy … [who] boasts a voting record deeming him one of the most extreme members of the Republican conference.
“A Speaker Johnson means more of the same from the Maga [pro-Trump] majority: pointless partisan political stunts, peddling dangerous conspiracies and ultimately undermining American democracy.”
I was surprised to see he made it. I think exhaustion took its toll, plus the fact a lot of the representatives didn't know him well enough to hate him yet. We'll see how that evolves over the next year.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
I think it all boiled down to exactly what I thought it would. They were looking like a total laughing stock and they knew it. So one side had to give. As I suspected it wasn't going to be a cray cray's on the far right so it ended up being the moderates who caved to save the looks of the party overall. A desperate act of self preservation.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
There will be no playoffs. Can’t play with who we have out there and compounding it with garbage playcalling and worse execution. We don’t have good skill players on offense period. Browns 20 - Bears 17.
Republican Sen. Tuberville doubles down on blocking military nominees despite GOP pleas
It's dangerous to play political games with military, Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville said Thursday he is not backing down after his fiery battle with Republican colleagues on the Senate floor over his unprecedented move to hold up hundreds of military nominations and promotions.
Senate Republicans, led by Sens. Dan Sullivan and Joni Ernst, on Wednesday night angrily challenged Tuberville in an all out Republican-on-Republican brawl on the floor, during which they held the floor for more than four hours as they repeatedly tried and repeatedly failed to get Tuberville to cave on his military holds -- his attempt to change Pentagon abortion policy. Republicans brought 61 military nominees up for individual consideration on the Senate floor Wednesday night. Tuberville spiked every single one.
The Senate on Thursday did confirm three military nominees using a process to circumvent Tuberville's hold. The process to confirm the nominees was underway before Wednesday's drama on the Senate floor. The Senate confirmed Lisa Franchetti to be Chief of Naval Operations, Gen. David W. Allvin to be Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Lt. Gen Christopher J. Mahoney to be Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps.
On Thursday, Tuberville doubled down, saying he "works for the American people" and speculated that many don't want their money to go toward service members' abortions. Tuberville has been holding military nominees for months over objection to a Department of Defense policy that allows service members to receive compensation to travel out of state for abortion, asserting that it is taxpayer-funded abortion and a violation of the Constitution.
"I've told you all along -- I hate I have to do this, but somebody has got to listen to us. I work for the people of this country; I don't work for another senator or a president -- I work for the tax payers of this country," he said at the Capitol Thursday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuberville's actions are allowing for vacancies that are "causing damage to our military readiness."
"The world is too dangerous to play political games with our military," she said during Thursday's White House press briefing.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said in Thursday's White House press briefing that Tuberville's moves are "beyond ridiculous" and listed some of the crucial military positions that are vacant as a result of Tuberville's blockade.
Tuberville has maintained that his hold does not impact troop readiness.
ABC Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott asked Tuberville what his message was to his Republican colleagues who say that he's weakening the military by continuing to block confirmation of generals.
"They're wrong -- we've been doing this nine months, all of a sudden it's an emergency," Tuberville told Scott. "We tend to drag our feet around a little bit, so I don't agree."
Tuberville was clear he will not be changing his position on military nominees despite growing frustration among his GOP colleagues about his methods. Scott asked him if he would consider budging, he was blunt: "No."
Republicans were out in full force Thursday airing their frustration with Tuberville.
"Well I'm frustrated on behalf of the force," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said. "The effect on the force is real, people are losing their slot ... and the ripple effect is going to the lower ranks." 'It needs to change'
On Wednesday, Sullivan was defiant, sarcastic and even sullen in his pleas to Tuberville. At times, Sullivan was livid. One after one, Republicans raised specific military nominees, reading off impressive lists of credentials and then asking for consent for their confirmation. One after one, Tuberville stood on the floor and blocked them.
"As a U.S. Marine Corps colonel, I know we all know here in the Senate, America needs to have our best players, most combat-capable leaders on the field, and right now that's not happening," Sullivan said. "It needs to change."
The Republican senators who challenged Tuberville Wednesday night were especially frustrated that the Alabama senator blocked the nominees as they were being brought up individually. For months, Tuberville has blocked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer from advancing military nominees en bloc, but Tuberville had previously said he wouldn't object to votes on individual nominees.
"We have done the best we can to honor the request of a fellow senator that these nominations be brought to the floor and voted on individually," Ernst said. "I really respect men of their word. I do not respect men who do not honor their word."
While unanimous confirmation requisitions like the ones made Wednesday night aren't quite the same as individual Senate votes, which could in theory take several days to clear, Senate Republicans hoped this tactic would be the dam break they needed.
It wasn't. Tuberville blocked every single nominee.
"I cannot simply sit idly by while the Biden administration injects politics in our military from the White House and spends taxpayer dollars on abortion," Tuberville said on the floor.
Wednesday night's debacle was a rare moment of Republican infighting on full display on the Senate floor, and speaks to the palpable frustration the Republican conference has with Tuberville for his nine-month blockade.
Ernst, leaving the floor at the end of the night warned that Tuberville's move Wednesday night would have consequences: "This will be remembered. This will be a dark evening," Ernst said.
It's not expected to be the last either. After trying and failing to confirm the 61st military officer of the evening, Sullivan vowed he would continue his efforts to bring nominees up for individual consideration.
"My message to our generals and admirals who are being held up: hang in there. Some of us have your back -- we have your back, we will be coming here every night to try to get you guys confirmed," Sullivan said.
"...You deserve it and our nation has to have it," Sullivan added.
Sen. Jack Reed, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who has for months been trying to find a way around Tuberville's hold, was presiding over the chamber when Sullivan concluded his remarks for the night. He later called Tuberville's unwillingness to allow nominees to be confirmed an act of "willful ignorance or stubborn hubris.
"After tonight, one has to wonder why Senator Tuberville persists in his obstruction, which only benefits America's enemies," Reed said in a statement. "Over the last ten months Senator Tuberville has undermined our military readiness and callously mistreated military families."
Reed applauded the Republican senators who tried to get nominees confirmed Wednesday night.
Most of Tuberville's Republican colleagues have said they agree with his position on the Pentagon's abortion policy, but not his tactics.
"I'm as pro-life as they come, I strongly disagree with what Secretary [Lloyd] Austin and President [Joe] Biden have done with their politicization of the military on a whole host of fronts including the abortion policy," Sullivan said.
But Republicans are fed up with Tuberville's blockade on nominees, who they say should not be punished for the policy decisions of the administration.
"Our service members have been failed by their commander in chief and we must do right by them and the security and protection of our own nation," Ernst said. Kennedy: Senate rule change could be a 'double-edged sword'
Senate Majority Leader Schumer Schumer earlier Wednesday announced intentions to support a Reed-authored proposal that would allow the Senate to temporarily circumvent Tuberville's hold and to confirm the more than 300 nominees Tuberville is now preventing from going through.
Details of that resolution aren't quite clear yet, and it will need to go through the Senate Rules Committee to determine the threshold of votes it would need to pass.
The Thursday confirmations are part of a procedural tool to force votes on individual nominees. Schumer had been reluctant to use this tool to overcome Tuberville's holds over the last nine months because he's argued it risks playing to Tuberville's hand and politicizing the military.
Even as frustration mounts with Senate Republicans, most ABC News spoke to Thursday morning are pushing back on a growing effort by Democrats to pass the temporary change to the Senate rules.
Senate Republicans have been resistant in recent years to any sort of modification to the rules. This move, they say, would weaken the individual power of each senator. Rules that allow senators to hold certain nominees or policies make the chamber distinctly unique from the House.
Republicans warned on Thursday that if Democrats try to circumvent Tuberville by modifying the chamber rules, it could backfire on them down the line.
"I think it would be an extraordinary mistake to change the rules on holds, and that I would remind my Democratic colleagues that's a double-edged sword," Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said.
Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., all said they would also reject efforts to skirt the rule on nominee confirmation.
"I'm pretty reluctant to change the rules ..." Hawley said. "If we're going to change the rules, if we are going to depart from the tradition that we leave the rules as they are, then I have a whole bunch of rules I'd like to see changed so if we're going to do that, I'll have my own thoughts about what other rules we'd like to change."
Schumer has been clear he will support it, and advance it to the Senate floor.
I realize this isn't some cause for great national concern like a book in a local school district library in Tampa, Fl. is, but I thought it deserved mentioning.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
One after one, Republicans raised specific military nominees, reading off impressive lists of credentials and then asking for consent for their confirmation. One after one, Tuberville stood on the floor and blocked them.
This is the one line that stood out above all others.
How broken is a party, that one dude can hold up everyday procedural processes for some cheap, niche-oriented political stunt? How broken is a system that allows dysfunction like this to happen?
Normal, rational people use a certain amount of cost/benefit analysis in the choices they make. I see no benefit in this dude's choice, other than stunting for future votes. How does this help US citizens in any way?
One after one, Republicans raised specific military nominees, reading off impressive lists of credentials and then asking for consent for their confirmation. One after one, Tuberville stood on the floor and blocked them.
This is the one line that stood out above all others.
How broken is a party, that one dude can hold up everyday procedural processes for some cheap, niche-oriented political stunt? How broken is a system that allows dysfunction like this to happen?
Normal, rational people use a certain amount of cost/benefit analysis in the choices they make. I see no benefit in this dude's choice, other than stunting for future votes. How does this help US citizens in any way?
Not sure how scientific this is, but my understanding is that most polls show a deepening resentment of Tuberville. They don't seem to like him over this in Alabama.. But this guy is too damn stupid to see that.
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
One after one, Republicans raised specific military nominees, reading off impressive lists of credentials and then asking for consent for their confirmation. One after one, Tuberville stood on the floor and blocked them.
This is the one line that stood out above all others.
How broken is a party, that one dude can hold up everyday procedural processes for some cheap, niche-oriented political stunt? How broken is a system that allows dysfunction like this to happen?
Normal, rational people use a certain amount of cost/benefit analysis in the choices they make. I see no benefit in this dude's choice, other than stunting for future votes. How does this help US citizens in any way?
Not sure how scientific this is, but my understanding is that most polls show a deepening resentment of Tuberville. They don't seem to like him over this in Alabama.. But this guy is too damn stupid to see that.
It’s Alabama. They gonna vote for him anyway.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Trump describes imprisoned Jan. 6 rioters as ‘hostages’
Former President Trump on Thursday referred to those jailed over their actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol as “hostages” during a rally with supporters in Texas.
Trump walked on stage at a Houston rally to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” as he typically does. But when it concluded, a song in which Trump collaborated with a chorus of inmates detained on charges related to the Jan. 6 insurrection began to play, and the former president stood saluting.
“Well, thank you very much, and you know what that was,” he said to open the rally. “I call them the ‘J-6 hostages,’ not prisoners. I call them the hostages, what’s happened. And you know, it’s a shame.”
In the song “Justice for All,” which was released on multiple streaming services in March, Trump is heard reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The 45th president’s portion on the track follows a chorus of Jan. 6 inmates, credited on the song as the “J6 Prison Choir,” who sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The end of the song features the chorus repeatedly chanting “USA!”
Money raised from the song was reportedly directed to families of the Jan. 6 mob who participated on the track.
Trump has repeatedly expressed sympathy for rioters charged in connection to Jan. 6, when his supporters violently clashed with law enforcement and stormed the complex to try and halt the certification of President Biden’s 2020 victory.
The former president has said he would consider pardoning some of those charged in connection to the Capitol attack, and he spoke earlier this year at a fundraiser organized for Jan. 6 defendants.
Trump himself is facing federal charges in Washington, D.C., over his attempts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, and he is facing charges in Georgia over his efforts to overturn to the state’s 2020 election results.
It’s going to take a lot of people who have affiliated themselves with Republicans coming to realize that they are no longer who we thought they were. I say “we” because I was one of such people.
If we’re looking for proof, just look at how the 2008 and 2012 Republican presidential nominees are/were viewed by those currently steering the party.
They’ve only won the Presidential popular vote once since 1992. They need a rebirth, but seem to be spiraling in the opposite direction with the situation in the house and folks like Tuberville in the Senate.
If they want to hope to deliver a more popular and constructive message to the people and provide a legitimate alternative to the Democrats, they need to rebuild. For now, I don’t see that happening unless Trump takes a major L in 2024.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
I should actually correct my post. H.W. Bush lost the popular vote in 1992. They have only won the popular vote once since 1988, in 2004, when the Dems for whatever reason decided to put Kerry up, despite the fact he was a total dud, and his running mate was the epitome of a sleazebag.
McCain won the nomination in 2008, and then he was denigrated by the current leader of the major wing of the party, even after his death. Same for Romney, the 2012 nominee. Cheney, Kinzinger, Gonazalez and other reasonable people were ousted or got tired of the idiocy they were experiencing from within their own party and called it quits.
It's going on the wrong direction, and it'll take a big loss in 2024 for that pendulum to start swinging back the other way, if it's even still attached.
Last edited by dawglover05; 11/06/2312:49 PM.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
New York Times blasts Cotton for ‘harvesting disinformation’ about journalists in Middle East
The New York Times sent a scathing rebuke in response to a letter from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) demanding more information from the outlet on its news-gathering process as it covers the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
In a letter to Times leadership dated Thursday, Cotton cited “reports” that suggested journalists working on its behalf were embedded with Hamas around the time of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and “knew about the attack.”
“If your employees, as part of their work, participated in terrorist activities or if your organization or employees provided material support (including any funding) to Hamas, the leadership of your organization may also face criminal penalties under federal law,” he said.
Cotton’s letter follows a report from the pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting that asked if freelancers working for the Times, CNN and other leading news organizations had advanced knowledge of the attack or were complicit in it.
The group’s leader on Thursday said it was simply “asking questions” after a stream of denials and condemnations from the Times, CNN, Reuters and other outlets followed.
In its response to Cotton, the Times wrote that his letter “exacerbates” the “spread of disinformation and incendiary rhetoric” around journalists covering the war.
“You are merely parroting disinformation harvested form the internet based on a website that has conceded it had no evidence for its claims,” the Times said.
Cotton separately wrote a letter to the Department of Justice on Thursday asking it to probe whether or journalists working for the international news outlets “committed federal crimes by supporting Hamas terrorists.”
Eight Republicans raised concerns with a provision that would have blocked D.C. from enforcing a 2014 law prohibiting discrimination based on reproductive health choices — a large enough bloc to make a difference due to Republicans’ slim margin, especially given some absences.
Tailely Their pushback surprised D.C. officials, who are not used to seeing Republicans defend the deep-blue city, and it was enough to threaten the entire financial services appropriations bill, which included about a dozen other policy restrictions on the District. City officials were bracing for a whole barrage of budget riders to sail through on Thursday, including allowing people with out-of-state weapons permits to carry guns in D.C. and banning the city from using automated traffic cameras, a measure that could deal a serious blow to D.C.'s finances. Yet some moderates drew the line on the attempt to block the city’s Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act, especially as abortion has made the GOP increasingly vulnerable in critical swing districts and states, with Tuesday’s elections offering more evidence.
Abortion rights advocates win major victories in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia Rep. John S. Duarte (R-Calif.), among the Republicans to object to the D.C. rider, told reporters that the group of moderates wanted to see the provision stripped from the bill and offered as a separate amendment. He described it as “completely unrelated” to the funding package and questioned why anyone would want to allow discrimination against people who may have had abortions. Related video: Having failed with segregation, and with abortion backfiring, GOP in search of new wedge issue (MSNBC) We call upon Southern Baptists to work for legislation that Current Time 0:04 /
“The moderates are standing our ground,” Duarte said. “A lot of us in swing districts — and a lot of us that want to be very respectful of where the American people are and aren’t on these social issues — are standing our ground and setting some limits as to what can get jammed into these bills.”
Rep. Marcus J. Molinaro (R-N.Y.) said that for the House and Senate to reach an appropriations bill they both agree on, he believed this provision could not be part of it. The appropriations bill, for financial services and general government, includes funding for the District.
“The city of Washington, D.C., has established a nondiscrimination provision. It is both their right to do so within the city — but it is also not something the House should seek to eliminate and undermine those protections,” Molinaro said in an interview Thursday morning.
Separately, complicating the vote further, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and other House Freedom Caucus members were still angered that their party helped defeat Gaetz’s amendment to block funding for a new FBI headquarters and some were prepared to vote against the appropriations bill, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
Council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large), who drafted the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act while a council staffer in 2014, said the moderate group’s stand against the D.C. rider was “a welcome gift” she was not expecting.
“I was confused,” she said, describing her reaction when reading initial news reports Thursday morning. “Usually, for Republicans, there aren’t enough restrictions. ... I do wonder if it has something to do with Tuesday’s elections and whether they’re concerned about their fates in their own districts. But I appreciate it — I don’t want to minimize what this means for residents in the District to finally have not just Democrats but other members of Congress standing up and saying, ‘This is ridiculous.’”
Congress has oversight of D.C. thanks to a provision in the Constitution — and Republicans have leveraged that authority with unprecedented success this year, including rejecting the city’s criminal code revision in March. House Republicans have long taken aim at this D.C. nondiscrimination law involving reproductive rights, which they voted to block on ideological grounds in 2015 and have tried to torpedo in budget riders before. Even in 2015, a group of moderate Republicans did not support their party’s attempt to block the law.
But since the Supreme Court struck down the right to an abortion, moderate Republicans in Congress have grown increasingly vocal against GOP attempts to enact more abortion restrictions as consequences have mounted at the polls. Similar to Thursday’s action, in September, some moderates voted against an agriculture appropriations bill over a provision to ban delivery of abortion pills by mail, ultimately helping to tank the bill.
House Republican moderates have repeatedly made clear to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) since his election to the post two weeks ago that he should not make them take votes on abortion-related issues and that, if he did, they would be willing to sink the measures for the sake of their districts.
Tuesday’s elections only amplified their concerns, as voters in Ohio enshrined abortion protections in the state constitution and Virginia Democrats flipped the House and won control of the General Assembly, crippling Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s pursuit of a 15-week abortion ban with some exceptions. Also this week, a Democratic-backed coalition announced a plan to target five New York Republicans ahead of the 2024 elections, in part on the issue of abortion. Some of those Republicans, including Molinaro and Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, brought concerns against the D.C. abortion-related rider.
“The American people want every level of government to more appropriately respect the difficult choices women have to make,” Molinaro told reporters Wednesday. “These are difficult choices, and politicizing them is not helpful.”
This specific rider is not in the Senate version of the appropriations bill. And President Biden has already said that he would veto the financial services appropriations bill, which also includes funding for scores of government agencies, if it reached his desk. Among the reasons, the White House pointed to the plethora of restrictions House Republicans wanted to put on D.C. that would “undermine the principle of home rule for the Nation’s capital.” The statement specifically pointed to Republicans’ attempt to block enforcement of D.C.'s reproductive health anti-discrimination law.
House Republican leadership had anticipated passing the funding bill Thursday since roughly a dozen Democrats would be absent, allowing moderate Republicans to object but not sink it. But four Republicans did not show up for votes, immediately complicating its passage.
The financial services appropriations bill was the second funding proposal that Johnson had to pull from floor consideration this week due to deep intraparty disagreements. He had to delay consideration of the transportation and housing funding bill because of concerns primarily from New York Republicans about the deep cut in spending for the Amtrak train system.
Failure to pass all 12 bills that fund the government for the full fiscal year will greatly irritate the far-right flank of the GOP conference, even though it, too, has been deeply entrenched in making sure its own spending demands are met throughout the process.
“What I felt that we were going to do is we were going to do everything we can to get these appropriation bills through the house before the deadline,” said Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-Tex.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus. “You get all these individual members that say, ‘I don’t like that. … If I don’t get what I want, I’m going to take my sack lunch and I’m going home.’ I think that’s what we’re seeing play out here.”
The immediate impact on the financial services appropriations bill is unclear, and it could come back up for a vote at a later date. Officials in the D.C. mayor’s office, still assessing what the development could change for the city’s outlook, did not want to speak too soon about expectations.
Reacting to the failed vote, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said of Republicans, “They’ve got enough to do without trying to worry about what the District of Columbia is doing.”
The city has for years protested “legacy riders,” which were part of Thursday’s package, as well. Those riders prohibit the city from creating a legal marketplace for marijuana, even though it’s legal to possess in D.C., and also prohibit D.C. from spending local funds on subsidizing abortion. Moderate Republicans did not raise any issue with that provision.
Additional traffic-related restrictions would halt D.C.'s prohibitions on turning right on red at many intersections and ban the city from using automated traffic-enforcement cameras, which is of serious concern to D.C. officials considering their sizable impact on the city’s finances.
That provision alone could create a $1 billion hole in the city’s budget over the next four years, something Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) warned congressional leadership about this summer in a letter pleading for the provision to be removed.
One rider would also prohibit the city from spending local funds to carry out the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act, the city’s major policing legislation that only just survived Congress’s vote to block it this year after Biden intervened to veto that action. The impact of that rider is unclear, given that many provisions in the policing bill don’t necessarily require funds, such as restricting certain policing tactics.
Bowser has already put forth legislation asking the council to adjust some provisions she said went “too far,” such as language surrounding a prohibition on neck restraints.
Other restrictions in the funding bill would repeal the Death with Dignity Act, a 2016 measure permitting physicians to help terminally ill patients die, and would divert funds for D.C. Public Schools to a voucher program. On Wednesday, Republicans also succeeded in adding a pair of riders prohibiting the city from requiring coronavirus vaccinations for public school students or the public at large.
The D.C. Council had already repealed the coronavirus vaccine requirement for students in a vote Tuesday.
“If you want to legislate on local D.C. matters, become a D.C. resident and get elected mayor or council member,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said on the House floor during debate Wednesday.
The morality police are at it again. The party that claims the federal government should allow cities and states to make their own decisions. Until they don't.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
US House Speaker Johnson floats two-step measure to avert gov't shutdown
Updated Sat, November 11, 2023 at 6:17 PM EST·4 min read By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a Republican stopgap spending measure on Saturday aimed at averting a government shutdown a week from now, but the measure quickly ran into opposition from lawmakers from both parties in Congress.
Unlike ordinary continuing resolutions, or "CRs," that fund federal agencies for a specific period, the measure announced by Johnson would fund some parts of the government until Jan. 19 and others until Feb. 2. House Republicans hope to pass the measure on Tuesday.
"This two-step continuing resolution is a necessary bill to place House Republicans in the best position to fight for conservative victories," Johnson said in a statement after announcing the plan to House Republicans in a conference call.
The House Republican stopgap contained no supplemental funding such as aid for Israel or Ukraine.
The House and Democratic-led Senate must agree on a spending vehicle that President Joe Biden can sign into law by Friday, or risk a fourth partial government shutdown in a decade that would close national parks, disrupt pay for as many as 4 million federal workers and disrupt a swath of activities from financial oversight to scientific research.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a release that the proposal was "just a recipe for more Republican chaos and more shutdowns." She said "House Republicans are wasting precious time with an unserious proposal that has been panned by members of both parties."
Johnson, the top Republican in Congress, unveiled his stopgap a day after Moody's, the last major credit ratings agency to maintain a top "AAA" rating on the U.S. government, lowered its outlook on the nation's credit to "negative" from "stable," citing political polarization in Congress on spending as a danger to the nation's fiscal health.
The Louisiana Republican appeared to be appealing to two warring House Republican factions: hardliners who wanted legislation with multiple end-dates; and centrists who had called for a "clean" stopgap measure free of spending cuts and conservative policy riders that Democrats reject.
The legislation would extend funding for military construction, veterans benefits, transportation, housing, urban development, agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and energy and water programs through Jan. 19. Funding for all other federal operations would expire on Feb. 2.
But the plan quickly came under fire from members of both parties. "My opposition to the clean CR just announced by the Speaker to the @HouseGOP cannot be overstated," Representative Chip Roy, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, said on the social media platform X.
"It's a 100% clean. And I 100% oppose," wrote Roy, who had called for the new measure to include spending cuts.
Democratic Senator Brian Schatz called Johnson's measure "super convoluted," adding that "all of this nonsense costs taxpayer money."
"We are going to pass a clean short term CR. The only question is whether we do it stupidly and catastrophically or we do it like adults," Schatz wrote on X.
A stopgap measure would give lawmakers more time to implement full-scale appropriations bills to fund the government through Sept. 30.
Johnson put Democrats on notice that failure to reach agreement on 2024 spending would prompt House Republicans to implement "a full-year CR with appropriate adjustments to meet our national security priorities."
House Republican hardliners have been pushing to cut fiscal 2024 spending below the $1.59 trillion level that Biden and Johnson's predecessor agreed in the May deal that averted default. But even that is a small slice of the overall federal budget, which also includes mandatory outlays for Social Security and Medicare, and topped $6.1 trillion in fiscal 2023.
Johnson, who won the speaker's gavel less than three weeks ago, could put his own political future at risk if his current plan fails to win support for passage and he is forced to go with a standard CR that Democrats can accept.
His predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from the job by eight Republican hardliners early last month, after he moved a bipartisan measure to avert a shutdown on Oct. 1, when fiscal 2024 began. McCarthy opted for the bipartisan route after hardliners blocked a Republican stopgap measure with features intended to appease them.
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