Category: US House

GOP picks fight over states’ rights in coronavirus relief

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Republicans are aiming to stir up a legal battle over Biden’s pandemic relief bill, targeting a provision in the American Rescue Plan they say is an unconstitutional infringement on states’ ability to devise their own tax policies.

A provision in the bill that forbids states from using billions in aid to offset any tax cuts they might implement has sparked a backlash from Republican lawmakers and state attorneys general. Their criticisms could lay the groundwork for a court battle over states’ rights and government overreach akin to the Supreme Court case over the fate of ObamaCare.

This time, the GOP appears to be framing the issue as the Biden administration getting in the way of state and local leaders cutting taxes for their own residents. Continue reading.

Kremlin Assets Aided Pro-Trump 2020 Documentary Featuring Caputo, Nunes

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Russian government proxies “helped produce a documentary that aired on a US television network” as part of the Kremlin’s wide-ranging effort to influence the 2020 presidential election by falsely accusing President Joe Biden of corruption in Ukraine, the U.S. intelligence community revealed in a report Tuesday. 

The report does not explicitly identify the documentary or network in question. But the timeline and subject matter match The Ukraine Hoax: Impeachment, Biden Cash, and Mass Murder, which the pro-Trump One America News Network aired in late January 2020. Former Trump aide Michael Caputo hosted that one-hour special, which featured separate interviews with a former Ukrainian official later sanctioned by the federal government for his role in a Russian influence operation and with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), at the time the chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

According to the report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized Russian influence operations aimed at undermining Biden’s campaign and supporting then-President Donald Trump during the 2020 election cycle. The report assesses that Russian intelligence services and their Ukraine-linked proxies — including “Russian influence agent” Konstantin Kilimnik and Ukrainian legislator Andriy Derkach — sought to use U.S. media outlets and prominent Americans to launder allegations of corrupt ties between Biden, his family, and Ukraine, and to falsely accuse Ukraine of interfering in the 2016 presidential election. Continue reading.

In Restricting Early Voting, the Right Sees a New ‘Center of Gravity’

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Donald Trump is no longer center stage. But many conservative activists are finding that the best way to raise money and keep voters engaged is to make his biggest fabrication their top priority.

For more than a decade, the Susan B. Anthony List and the American Principles Project have pursued cultural and policy priorities from the social conservative playbook, one backing laws to ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat could be detected and the other opposing civil rights protections for L.G.B.T.Q. people. From their shared offices in suburban Virginia, they and their affiliated committees spent more than $20 million on elections last year.

But after Donald J. Trump lost his bid for a second term and convinced millions of Americans that nonexistent fraud was to blame, the two groups found that many of their donors were thinking of throwing in the towel. Why, donors argued, should they give any money if Democrats were going to game the system to their advantage, recalled Frank Cannon, the senior strategist for both groups.

“‘Before I give you any money for anything at all, tell me how this is going to be solved,’” Mr. Cannon said, summarizing his conversations. He and other conservative activists — many with no background in election law — didn’t take long to come up with an answer, which was to make rolling back access to voting the “center of gravity in the party,” as he put it. Continue reading.

Kevin McCarthy buried by ex-GOP staffer for ‘rolling over’ and becoming Trump’s ‘good dog’

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In a column for the Bulwark, a former speechwriter for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has given up all pretense of being his own man and now does Donald Trump’s bidding — even if it means contradicting his own previous statements.

Under a biting headline that reads, “Kevin McCarthy, Fetch,” Amanda Carpenter took the senior Republican to task for performing for Trump while on TV in exchange for “belly rubs and treats.”

Setting the stage, she wrote, “Some dog lovers believe that what makes their canine companions wonderful is their ability to ‘live in the moment’—meaning that, although they can be trained and obedient, and can learn to recognize and remember things they love and things they fear, they don’t have distinct memories of the past, let alone an ability to plan for the future. These dogs—or so the thinking goes—love their owners unconditionally. And they just want to submit and play nice for belly rubs and treats,” before complimenting the New York Times’ Julie Hirschfeld Davis for once observing McCarthy as a “golden retriever of a man who hates to be by himself.” Continue reading.

Watch GOP congressman refuse over and over again to admit Biden won the election

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Rep. Lee Zeldin said ‘it’s a bit ridiculous’ to even ask him.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) on Thursday refused to acknowledge that President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. Zeldin’s denial came a day after U.S. intelligence agencies warned that similar rhetoric is fueling ongoing extremist threats in America.

Zeldin made his comments in an interview with Politico as part of the publication’s “Playbook Live” series.

Noting that he was one of several Republicans to vote against certifying the election results, reporter Ryan Lizza asked Zeldin to acknowledge that Biden won. Continue reading.

House passes bills providing citizenship path for Dreamers, farmworkers

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House Democrats passed a pair of bills Thursday that would create a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and some migrant farm workers, taking a piecemeal approach as the fate of President Biden’s major immigration package looks increasingly uncertain. 

The Dream and Promise Act, which passed 228-197, would provide certainty to undocumented people brought to the U.S. as children whose ability to go to school, get work and even remain in the country has hung in the balance from administration to administration. 

Sponsor Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) called the bill “a major step in ending the veil of fear and uncertainty that has plagued the lives of our Dreamers for far too long.” Continue reading.

‘I didn’t know they were Jewish!’ Marjorie Taylor Greene claims ignorance for sharing anti-Semitic theory

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) claimed ignorance as her defense for spreading an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

The Georgia Republican suggested in a November 2018 post on Facebook that the wildfire that ravaged California was started with a laser beam as part of an effort to clear land for building a high-speed rail project involving corporate and banking interests, such as the Rothschild family — but Greene insisted she wasn’t aware of the anti-Semitic implications of her claims, reported Forward.

“I didn’t even know and didn’t find out until recently that the Rothschilds were Jewish,” Greene told the print-only Ami Magazine. Continue reading.

Rep. Boebert makes a baffling and conspiratorial claim, saying the GOP may retake Congress ‘before 2022’

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Rep. Lauren Boebert, a far-right GOP congresswoman known for embracing the QAnon conspiracy theory, covered a lot of ground on Monday night during a town hall event in Montrose, Colorado — where she railed against everything from “cancel culture” to the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that President Joe Biden recently signed into law. Things became especially bizarre near the end of the event when Boebert expressed hopes that Republicans will retake both houses of Congress before the 2022 midterms.

One of the attendees asked Boebert if there is “any hope for the people” when “top-level government officials…. violate the law,” adding, “Will they ever be held accountable?”

Boebert responded, “I want to tell you, I heard someone who is in very close contact with President Trump and the ins and outs of the White House under that administration. They talked to the owners of the Epoch Times, and they said, ‘Don’t change anything, you are right over the target.’ So, anyone who tries and tells you that this is a fringe newspaper — don’t listen to them. I have very good sources that tell me this is very good information.” Continue reading.

12 Republicans opposed Congressional Gold Medals for police who protected them on Jan. 6

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A dozen House Republicans voted against a resolution to award three Congressional Gold Medals to the Capitol Police, the D.C. police and the Smithsonian Institution in recognition of those who protected the U.S. Capitol when it was attacked by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6.

The GOP lawmakers, many who said they objected to the use of the term “insurrectionists” in the resolution, are: Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Andy Harris (Md.), Lance Gooden (Tex.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Louie Gohmert (Tex.), Michael Cloud (Tex.), Andrew S. Clyde (Ga.), Greg Steube (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.) and John Rose (Tenn.).

“We had to combine it with these editorial comments about the January 6 sequence of events, and then we had to logroll it with this exhibit at the Smithsonian, and … that was a little much for me,” Gaetz said after the vote. Continue reading.

Full List of 172 Republicans Who Opposed the Violence Against Women Act

The House voted on Wednesday to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act after 29 Republicans broke with their party to support the bill, which offered women protections from domestic violence, sexual assault and other harassment.

Lawmakers approved the bill in a 244-172 vote following its lapse in late 2018. The Democratic-controlled House sought to renew the bill the following year, but it was held up in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Now the Democrats hold a one-vote majority in the upper chamber and are hoping to garner the Republican support needed for a 60-vote supermajority that negates the threat of the filibuster. Continue reading.

NOTE: Rep. Tom Emmer, Rep. Michelle Fischbach, Rep. Jim Hagedorn were among these Republicans.