President Trump’s tweet about a 75-year-old Buffalo protester is getting pushback from Republican senators.
Trump on Tuesday floated that an elderly man pushed to the ground by police in Buffalo, N.Y., during a protest over the police killing of George Floyd could be a “set up” and an “ANTIFA provocateur.”
The tweet sparked immediate backlash from GOP senators and caused broader headaches as lawmaker after lawmaker was approached by reporters with a copy of the tweet. Continue reading.
Last week, 47 Republican senators and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted to make unemployment benefits less generous in the coronavirus relief legislation.
Although their amendment to cap unemployment insurance was unsuccessful, several Republican senators spent the next few days bragging about the more generous benefits in the final bill.
On March 26, McSally’s office sent an email touting the robust benefits she opposed just three earlier. The stimulus bill “makes benefits more generous by adding $600 per week on top of what the state normally pays in unemployment and provides an additional 13 weeks of benefits,” the email said. “And provisions will ensure state and local governments and non-profits can pay unemployment to their employees.” Continue reading.
Senate Democrats are waging a pressure campaign to try get their GOP colleagues to break ranks on impeachment witnesses.
Absent a deal with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Democrats are expected to force floor votes on their requests for trial documents and witnesses, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), backed by members of his caucus, is working to put Republicans in a bind and drive a wedge between GOP leaders, who say they don’t want witnesses, and a handful of moderate and retiring senators viewed by Democrats as persuadable on procedure. Continue reading
Senators are pushing for a speedy impeachment trial as the proceedings appear poised to spill into 2020.
With House Democrats aiming to vote on articles of impeachment by Christmas, Republicans view a trial as all but guaranteed but are warning they don’t want to drag it out.
How long a trial could last is a rolling point of debate. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) raised eyebrows by suggesting it could last six to eight weeks, longer than the proceedings against former President Clinton, which lasted just over a month.
View the complete November 14 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.
The president is tapping his vast donor network to buck up lawmakers whose support he badly needs — but who also need him.President Donald Trump is rewarding senators who have his back on impeachment — and sending a message to those who don’t to get on board.
Trump is tapping his vast fundraising network for a handful of loyal senators facing tough reelection bids in 2020. Each of them has signed onto a Republican-backed resolution condemning the inquiry as “unprecedented and undemocratic.”
Conspicuously absent from the group is Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a politically vulnerable Republican who’s refused to support the resolution and avoided taking a stance on impeachment. With his new push, Trump is exerting leverage over a group he badly needs in his corner with an impeachment trial likely coming soon to the Senate — but that also needs him.
Republican senators scrambling to protect President Trump from a formal impeachment inquiry are attacking the credibility of the whistleblower who filed a complaint.
GOP lawmakers are asserting the whistleblower did not have firsthand knowledge of the actions detailed in the complaint and question whether the person had a political agenda.
“It doesn’t come from a person with personal knowledge. It’s like I heard these people say this, and now I’m reporting it. I think that is pretty bizarre,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
View the complete September 30 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.
Senate Republicans have vowed that Trump will face no punishment if the House draws up articles of impeachment — no matter what the evidence shows,
The House has yet to begin impeachment proceedings, but if it were to file articles of impeachment, the Senate would then have to hold a trial to determine whether Trump is guilty of the charges and decide whether to remove him from office.
According to a report from The Hill newspaper published Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who runs the Senate with a 53-47 Republican majority in the chamber — would hold a sham trial that would acquit Trump of the charges, no matter what the charges are or how strong the evidence against Trump is.
View the complete May 28 article by Emily Singer on the National Memo website here.
Appearing on CNN’s “New Day,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) confided to host Alisyn Camerota that multiple Republican senators agree with Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) that Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses, but are afraid to go public at the moment.
Following a weekend filled with talk of Amash’s anti-Trump apostasy, Coons was asked by the host what GOP sentiment about Trump is like in the Senate.
“I was surprised to see a Republican congressman saying publicly what many are thinking privately,” Coons explained. “Those who have read the Mueller report cannot avoid the conclusion that the president and some of his advisers engaged in profoundly disappointing, reprehensible conduct that would rise to the level of obstruction of justice. “
View the complete May 20 article by Tom Boggioni of Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.
Several Senate Republicans on Wednesday challenged President Trump on his strategy for ending a 19-day shutdown during a closed-door meeting where they expressed specific concerns over the harm it is causing to federal workers and the economy.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who faces a tough reelection in a state Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won in 2016, said she asked Trump to consider a bipartisan compromise that would give certain immigrants, known as Dreamers, a path to citizenship in exchange for border security money.
“I suggested that we take a look at the package that we put together last February and brought to the floor as a possible compromise,” Collins said, recounting her conversation with Trump during a closed-door lunch meeting in the Capitol.
View the complete January 9 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.
