Tag: GOP House

Comey memo fallout is mostly fizzle

The following article by Katie Bo Williams was posted on the Hill website April 20, 2018:

President Trump and former FBI director James B. Comey. (Evan Vucci, left, and Susan Walsh/AP)

The public release of seven memos written by former FBI Director James Comey documenting his interactions with President Trump has divided Washington down political lines.

The president swiftly tweeted that the fifteen partially-redacted pages show Comey leaked classified information. Some of his supporters have called for prosecution.

But outside of Trump’s core allies, the verdict is less certain.

Even some Republicans on Capitol Hill have privately acknowledged that the release of the memo might have been an unforced error, thrusting scrutiny back onto Trump’s alleged interactions with Russian prostitutes and off of Comey himself. Up until Thursday, the former director had been taking some heat for the personal shots he takes at the president’s appearance in his new book, which was released on Tuesday. Continue reading “Comey memo fallout is mostly fizzle”

House Republican Farm Bill Proposal Launches a Dangerous Attack on Nutrition Assistance

The following article by Rachel West and Eliza Schultz was posted on the Center for American Progress website April 13, 2018:

U.S. Capitol. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Yesterday, House Republicans released a draft of the 2018 Farm Bill, opening up another front on their ongoing attack on struggling Americans’ access to food assistance. The Farm Bill, which Congress must reauthorize by the fall, funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helped 41 millionAmericans put food on their tables in January and protected an estimated 8.4 million Americans from poverty in 2015. More than $8 in $10 in SNAP benefits go to households that include a child, a senior, or person with a disability. The program also helps make groceries affordable for workers who face low wages, shifting schedules, underemployment, and unstable incomes. These benefits don’t just mitigate hardship today; they also have significant positive effects on children’s health, educational attainment, and employment outcomes in the long-term. Continue reading “House Republican Farm Bill Proposal Launches a Dangerous Attack on Nutrition Assistance”

Worried GOP views Trump trade war with angst

The following article by Alexander Bolton was posted on the Hill website April 9, 2018:

President Trump speaks to reporters before leaving the White House on Friday. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)

Republican lawmakers are returning to Washington this week with their eyes focused on an escalating trade war with China that has roiled the stock market and put them on edge over the economy and this fall’s midterms.

Congressional aides say Trump’s tariffs will be the hot topic of conversation at party caucus meetings this week, even as they wonder what leverage they can exert on a president who vowed to put his stamp on trade.

“I don’t know there’s much you can do there,” said one senior Senate GOP aide. Continue reading “Worried GOP views Trump trade war with angst”

Suburban voters angry with Trump threaten GOP’s grip on House

The following article by Kari Lydersen and Michael Scherer was posted on the Washington Post website March 26, 2018:

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), a six-term congressman, faces a tough challenge in November’s midterm elections, as Democrats and moderates opposed to President Trump are energized in his suburban Chicago district. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

GLEN ELLYN, Ill. — Control of the U.S. House will be decided in America’s next political battleground of aboveground pools, bike trails, and oversized Tudor and Victorian houses full of working professionals like Karrie Sullivan, a Republican voter who cast her primary ballot last week for a Democrat.

In a suburb outside of Chicago, Sullivan is determined to replace her congressman, six-term Rep. Peter J. Roskam (R), whom she has supported in the past. His sin, she said, was his affiliation with President Trump.

“Just the lack of respect for women, the authoritarianism, it’s too much,” said Sullivan, 47, a digital consultant. “As a professional woman, it’s very difficult for me to reconcile.” Continue reading “Suburban voters angry with Trump threaten GOP’s grip on House”

Republicans on defensive over Russia report finding

The following article by Katie Bo Williams was posted on the Hills website March 16, 2018:

U.S. Capitol. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Republicans are on the defensive about their own announcement concluding the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russia’s election interference.

Members are openly frustrated at what they say is inaccurate media coverage of an alleged split between Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and other committee lawmakers over the issue of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s preference for then-candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 election. Continue reading “Republicans on defensive over Russia report finding”

Intel panel Republicans seem to back away from finding that Russia was not trying to help Trump

The following article by Karoun Demirjian was posted on the Washington Post website March 13, 2018:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) makes a startling claim about the Russian investigation. But there’s no evidence to back it up. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

The leader of the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation seemed to back off Tuesday from the most surprising finding in the GOP’s report that Russia was not trying to help President Trump, as the panel’s top Democrat trashed the product as a political gift to the White House.

Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Tex.) told reporters Tuesday that “it’s clear [Russian officials] were trying to hurt Hillary [Clinton]” by interfering in the 2016 election and that “everybody gets to make up their own mind whether they were trying to hurt Hillary, help Trump, it’s kind of glass half full, glass half empty.” Continue reading “Intel panel Republicans seem to back away from finding that Russia was not trying to help Trump”

Republicans on House panel, excluding Democrats’ input, say there’s no evidence of Russia collusion

The following article by Karoun Demirjian was posted on the Washington Post website March 12, 2018:

President Trump called the conclusion of the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee “a powerful decision that left no doubt” of collusion. Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

House Intelligence Committee Republicans say they have found no evidence that President Trump and his affiliates colluded with Russian officials to sway the 2016 election or that the Kremlin sought to help him, a conclusion at odds with Democrats’ takeaways from the congressional panel’s year-long probe and the apparent trajectory of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation.

The findings are part of a 150-page draft report that Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Tex.), who oversees the committee’s Russia probe, announced on Monday. It will probably be weeks before the document is made public. Continue reading “Republicans on House panel, excluding Democrats’ input, say there’s no evidence of Russia collusion”

Paul Ryan’s 3 Years Of Arguing Against ‘Knee-Jerk’ Reactions To Shootings

The following article by Mary Papenfuss was posted on the Huffington Post website February 15, 2018:

His biggest fear: taking away gun rights.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has been arguing against what he calls a “knee-jerk” political response to mass shootings for years.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes presented a video mashup Thursday of the times Ryan has argued against “taking away” America’s gun rights. Continue reading “Paul Ryan’s 3 Years Of Arguing Against ‘Knee-Jerk’ Reactions To Shootings”

GOP faces challengers in 226 House seats while struggling to raise cash for midterms

The following article by Eric Boehlert was posted on the Shareblue website February 8, 2018:

This year’s battleground map is now expanding into red states.

Credit: Scott Applewhite

Passing a Republican tax bill late last year has done nothing to improve the GOP’s chances in the upcoming midterm elections. Meanwhile, Democrats continue to raise way more money than their opponents, as the party expands the map of competitive races in the House to 101 contests.

Meanwhile, the bipartisan Cook Political Report just updated the status of 21 House races and moved the needle in all 21 races in the direction of Democrats. Continue reading “GOP faces challengers in 226 House seats while struggling to raise cash for midterms”

How Partisan Has House Intelligence Panel Become? It’s Building a Wall

The following article by Sharon LaFraniere and Nicholas Fandos was posted on the New York Times website February 8, 2018:

Democrats accuse House Intelligence Committee’s chair, Rep. Nunes of using the position’s coveted access to classified information for the nakedly political purpose of bolstering President Trump. Credit Erin Schaff, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Beneath the Capitol, in a secured room where the House Intelligence Committee is supposed to be pressing its inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, two dozen staff members await a construction crew.

The workers will be erecting a physical barrier to separate the cubicles of aides who serve Republican members of the committee from those who serve Democrats.

To committee members of both parties, the planned division of one room into two is emblematic of how far the panel, a longtime oasis of country-first comity in a bitterly divided Congress, has fallen since it began its Russia inquiry last year. Any pretense that committee members will come together to get to the bottom of that matter — or any other — has disappeared. Continue reading “How Partisan Has House Intelligence Panel Become? It’s Building a Wall”