Category: US House

Kevin McCarthy Ripped For Absolutely Orwellian Line In His Liz Cheney Letter

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The House Republican leader gets blasted after attempting to redefine “free thought.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced Monday that he was leading an effort to boot Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from her GOP leadership post. 

Cheney is on the outs because she has refused to endorse former President Donald Trump’s “big lie” about the 2020 election being “stolen” and has blamed him for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that was carried out by his supporters. 

That makes one line in McCarthy’s letter to his Republican conference stand out: 

“We are a big tent party. We represent Americans of all backgrounds and continue to grow our movement by the day. And unlike the left, we embrace free thought and debate.”

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Top female GOP senator compares Cheney ousting to ‘cancel culture’

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Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the only woman in Senate Republicans’ elected leadership team, compared efforts to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from leadership to “cancel culture,” and argued that the party should be focused on unifying heading into 2022.  

“I feel it’s OK to go ahead and express what you feel is right to express and, you know, cancel culture is cancel culture no matter how you look at it. Unfortunately, I think there are those that are trying to silence others in the party,” Ernst told reporters on Monday asked about Cheney’s likely ouster.

House Republicans will vote Wednesday on whether to remove Cheney as their conference chair. Though she survived a similar attempt earlier this year, she’s all but guaranteed to be ousted Wednesday amid growing frustration over her criticism of former President Trump and the false claim he and some of his ardent supporters have made that the 2020 election was “stolen.” Continue reading.

Trump Guilty Of ‘Egging On’ Capitol Riot, Says Facebook Oversight Panel Co-Chair

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Washington (AFP) – Donald Trump encouraged the Capitol rioters and so earned his Facebook ban, but the social media giant’s rules are in “shambles” and need fixing, the co-chair of the network’s oversight panel said Sunday.

The panel agreed just days ago that Facebook was right to oust the ex-president for his comments regarding the deadly January 6 rampage, though it sidestepped an overall decision on whether he will ever be allowed back.

“He issued these statements which were just egging on — with perfunctory asking for peace — but mostly he was just egging them on to continue,” oversight body co-chair Michael McConnell told Fox News Sunday. Continue reading.

Failure to communicate: The Capitol Police leadership gap on Jan. 6

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Lack of direction, preparation, according to rank-and-file officers

On the morning of Jan. 6, as a group of Capitol Police officers was being briefed on what to expect before a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, a captain told them to be on the lookout for a handful of people wanted for crimes from previous Make America Great Again protests.

The captain also discussed the Proud Boys, an extremist group that would play a substantial role in the violent insurrection, and advised that many people in the crowd could be armed. 

But when asked what the response should be if the officers did encounter armed protesters, the captain’s reply was useless, according to one officer on duty that day. Continue reading.

‘It’s a big lie’: Chris Wallace challenges GOPer for refusing to say election wasn’t ‘stolen’

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Fox News host Chris Wallace challenged Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) over his effort to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from her leadership position in the Republican Party.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Wallace noted that Banks had deflected when asked about Cheney’s criticism of former President Donald Trump, who has claimed that the election was stolen from him.

“I’ve asked you two questions, Congressman,” Wallace said. “Why are you unwilling to discuss her criticism of President Trump?” Continue reading.

Liz Cheney secretly organized key move to block Trump from using military to overturn election: report

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Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was the organizer of an open letter by all living former Defense Secretaries against the military intervening in election disputes.

The revelation was made to Susan Glasser of The New Yorker by Eric Edelman, a friend of Cheney’s who served as an advisor to her father.

“Cheney’s rupture with the House Republican Conference has become all but final in recent days, but it has been months in the making. Edelman revealed that Cheney herself secretly orchestrated an unprecedented op-ed in the WashingtonPost by all ten living former Defense Secretaries, including her father, warning against Trump’s efforts to politicize the military,” Glasser reported. Continue reading.

GOP’s Mo Brooks refusing to be served in Capitol riot lawsuit as ‘political stunt’: attorney

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Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) has refused to be served in a lawsuit over his role in inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to an attorney for Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA).

The California Democrat has sued President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Rudy Giuliani for their own roles in the Capitol insurrection, and the complaint also alleges that Brooks incited the riot with his speech ahead of the violent assault on the democratic process, reported Axios.

“We have been attempting to serve our complaint on Mo Brooks for more than a month,” Swalwell attorney Philip Andonian told Punchbowl News. Continue reading.

Cheney fight stokes cries of GOP double standard for women

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Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remains safe as the minority leader. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) survived a recent censure vote at home. And few on Capitol Hill are going after the likes of Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) or John Katko (R-N.Y.).

Yet for Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the No. 3 House Republican, the cost of denouncing former President Trump appears almost certain to be her expulsion from leadership, perhaps as early as next week. And that’s sparking a backlash from some Republicans who see a vicious double standard in the GOP’s hard-charging effort to demote the most powerful woman in the party’s ranks.

“The women don’t get the same slack that the men get,” former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), a Cheney ally, said this week by phone. “And I think a lot of the men are attacking her because they resent that she’s got guts and they don’t.  Continue reading.

Republicans promote pandemic relief they voted against

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said it pained her to vote against the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

But in the weeks that followed, the first-term Republican issued a news release celebrating more than $3.7 million from the package that went to community health centers in her district as one of her “achievements.” She said she prided herself on “bringing federal funding to the district and back into the pockets of taxpayers.”

Malliotakis is far from alone.

Every Republican in Congress voted against the sweeping pandemic relief bill that President Joe Biden signed into lawthree months ago. But since the early spring votes, Republicans from New York and Indiana to Texas and Washington state have promoted elements of the legislation they fought to defeat. Continue reading.