Tag: GOP congress

GOP Senate intel chair rips House committee’s sham Russia probe

The following article by Carolne Orr was posted on the ShareBlue.com website May 9, 2018:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, walks away from a meeting with House GOP members, on Capitol Hill January 30, 2018 in Washington, DC. Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

‘I’m not sure that the House was required to substantiate every conclusion with facts.’

Senate Intelligence Committee chair Richard Burr (R-NC) just threw some serious shade on the the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe, saying his colleagues didn’t “substantiate every conclusion with facts.”

Burr made the remarks Tuesday, in response to a reporter’s question about whether the Senate intel committee’s report on Russian interference would agree with the findings of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). That report concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence operation aimed at helping Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Continue reading “GOP Senate intel chair rips House committee’s sham Russia probe”

Secret intelligence source who aided Mueller probe is at center of latest clash between Nunes and Justice Dept.

The following article by Robert Costa, Carol D. Leonnig, Devlin Barrett and SHane Harris was posted on the Washington Post website May 8, 2018:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Last Wednesday, senior FBI and national intelligence officials relayed an urgent message to the White House: Information being sought by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes could endanger a top-secret intelligence source.

Top White House officials, with the assent of President Trump, agreed to back the decision to withhold the information. They were persuaded that turning over Justice Department documents could risk lives by potentially exposing the source, a U.S. citizen who has provided intelligence to the CIA and FBI, according to multiple people familiar with the discussion and the person’s role. Continue reading “Secret intelligence source who aided Mueller probe is at center of latest clash between Nunes and Justice Dept.”

Trump calls on Congress to pull back $15 billion in spending, including on Children’s Health Insurance Program

The following article by Damian Paletta and Erica Werner was posted on the Washington Post website May 7, 2018:

Credit: J. Scott Applewhite, AP

President Trump is sending a plan to Congress that calls for stripping more than $15 billion in previously approved spending, with the hope that it will temper conservative angst over ballooning budget deficits.

Almost half of the proposed cuts would come from two accounts within the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that White House officials said expired last year or are not expected to be drawn upon. An additional $800 million in cuts would come from money created by the Affordable Care Act in 2010 to test innovative payment and service delivery models. Continue reading “Trump calls on Congress to pull back $15 billion in spending, including on Children’s Health Insurance Program”

Then and now: How Congress reacted to impeachment threats against Presidents Clinton and Trump

The following article by J.M Rieger was posted on the Washington Post website May 4, 2018:

According to Congress, a president can obstruct justice. Just as long as that president is a member of the opposite political party. (JM Rieger/The Washington Post)

On April 27, 1998, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) laid out what would soon become one of the four articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton.

“What you have lived through, for two-and-a-half long years, is the most systematic, deliberate obstruction of justice, coverup and effort to avoid the truth, we have ever seen in American history,” he said. Continue reading “Then and now: How Congress reacted to impeachment threats against Presidents Clinton and Trump”

Justice Department Won’t Be Extorted, Rosenstein Warns Republicans

The following article by Katie Benner and Nicholas Fandos was posted on the New York Times website May 1, 2018:

Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, said at the Newseum on Tuesday that “there have been people who have been making threats, privately and publicly, against me for quite some time.”Credit: Michael Reynolds/EPA, via Shutterstock

WASHINGTON — After months of conceding to demands from a small group of House Republicans for more visibility into continuing investigations, the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, pushed back on Tuesday, declaring that the Justice Department “is not going to be extorted.”

His comment came the day after revelations that several of those Republicans, led by Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina and other loyalists of President Trump, had drafted articles of impeachment to use against Mr. Rosenstein in case the long-simmering dispute with the deputy attorney general boiled over. Continue reading “Justice Department Won’t Be Extorted, Rosenstein Warns Republicans”

GOP strategists admit their party ‘just can’t be saved’ in midterms

The following article by Eric Boehlert was posted on the ShareBlue.com website April 19, 2018:

Several veteran Republicans don’t have much faith for the upcoming midterms, fearing ‘the smoking rubble of a 40- to 50-seat pounding.’

Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

With lots of Republican House incumbents getting buried by their opponents in fundraising, more and more Republican strategists are denouncing their party’s prospects for the upcoming midterms, and acknowledging they may be facing the worst possible outcomes.

“Thanks to a map that puts more Democratic than Republican seats at risk, our party will still cling to control of the Senate, but GOP House members lack insulation: They will crawl out from the smoking rubble of a 40- to 50-seat pounding to find they have lost their majority,” writes longtime GOP operative Alex Castellanos. Continue reading “GOP strategists admit their party ‘just can’t be saved’ in midterms”

Poll: Distrust Over Trump And Tax Cuts Driving Democratic Midterm Wave

The following article by Joe Conason was posted on the National Memo website April 13, 2018:

Donald Trump meets with Speaker Paul Ryan on Capitol Hill. Credit: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

For Republicans, disaster seems to dominate every news cycle: Paul Ryan, the House Speaker and one of his party’s most prolific fundraisers, announces that he will not run for reelection (and the leading would-be GOP nominee in his district is an actual Nazi). Ryan’s retirement is only the latest of at least 40 Republican members who are doing likewise. Nonpartisan analysts continue to increase the odds in blue turnovers in usually safe red districts. The historically unpopular president has instigated a trade war that is alienating his own rural base.

And the tax cut that was expected to serve as the centerpiece of the Republican midterm campaign? A new poll from Democracy Corps and the American Federation of Teachers shows that in House battleground districts, relatively few people believe the benefits were distributed fairly or that the tax cut benefits them and their families — indeed, the more they learn, the more voters are motivated to vote for Democrats. Continue reading “Poll: Distrust Over Trump And Tax Cuts Driving Democratic Midterm Wave”

GOP proposes stricter work requirements for food stamp recipients, a step toward a major overhaul of the social safety net

The following article by Caitlin Dewey was posted on the Washington Post website April 12, 2018:

Many Democrats and anti-hunger advocates harbor deep reservations about the proposal — even if they have supported employment and training programs in the past. Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

House Republicans took their first step Thursday toward overhauling the federal safety net, pushing for new work requirements in the food-stamp program used by 42 million Americans.

The plan, introduced as part of the 2018 Farm Bill over objections of Democrats, would dramatically expand mandatory state workfare programs in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps.

Under the proposal, most adults between 18 and 59 will be required to work part-time or enroll in 20 hours a week of workforce training to receive assistance. The plan budgets $1 billion per year to fund the training program expansion. Continue reading “GOP proposes stricter work requirements for food stamp recipients, a step toward a major overhaul of the social safety net”

Fiscal hawk Ryan leaves behind growing deficits and a changed GOP

The following article by Erica Warner was posted on the Washington Post website April 11, 2018:

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) made a name for himself as a deficit hawk, but backed a tax plan and a spending bill that are ballooning the national debt. (Video: Jenny Starrs/Photo: Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Mitt Romney was all smiles as he introduced an ebullient Rep. Paul D. Ryan to the nation as his Republican vice presidential choice on a sunny Saturday in Norfolk in the summer of 2012.

“I did not make a mistake with this guy,” Romney boasted, as Ryan proclaimed himself “deeply honored and excited.” The crowd cheered. Continue reading “Fiscal hawk Ryan leaves behind growing deficits and a changed GOP”

Trump fury after Cohen raids prods Hill Republicans to take sides on Mueller

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve was posted on the Washington Post website April 11, 2018:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on April 10 he doesn’t believe special counsel Robert S. Mueller III will be removed from his office. (The Washington Post)

THE BIG IDEA: 

Every time President Trump threatens to fire Bob Mueller, it gets harder for congressional Republicans to dismiss questions about why they are not protecting the special counsel.

For the better part of a year, GOP lawmakers have tried to straddle the fence — saying Mueller’s investigation should be allowed to run its course while expressing confidence that Trump wouldn’t fire him. Continue reading “Trump fury after Cohen raids prods Hill Republicans to take sides on Mueller”