Tag: House Republicans

Republicans Who Voted to Impeach Trump Are Outraising Pro-Trump Challengers

The 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump brought in sizable campaign cash to start the 2022 cycle — and outraised their primary challengers — amid scathing attacks from the former president and his allies.

The GOP lawmakers’ historic Jan. 13 votes made Trump’s second impeachment the most bipartisan in history, but sparked tensions both nationally and in their own districts. Trump has said he will use his leadership PAC to help primary challengers take them down. 

House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) raked in about $1.5 million from January through March, far more than she raised in previous years during the same period. Much of that total came from wealthy donors and corporate PACs, while roughly 11 percent came from small donors giving $200 or less. Continue reading.

House Republican proposes constitutional amendment to prevent Supreme Court expansion

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Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, introduced a proposed constitutional amendment on Thursday to maintain the size of the Supreme Court at nine justices.

The amendment, which has no path to succeed with Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress, is a response to a bill introduced by Democrats that proposes expanding the size of the Supreme Court from nine justices to 13.

“The Supreme Court must faithfully interpret the Constitution. We cannot allow it to fall victim to partisan attempts to pack it with far-left radicals,” Biggs said in a statement. “This desperate power-grab by Democrats will only further divide our Nation. I will not stand for a ‘Supreme Coup’ of our highest court.” 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.

House GOP delays police reform bill

The Hill logoHouse Republicans are delaying legislation addressing police reforms after initially signaling that a GOP proposal would be introduced this week.

GOP sources confirmed that Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, does not plan to roll out a police reform package by Friday, despite telling GOP colleagues that his package would be unveiled by the end of the week.

One senior GOP aide said a House GOP package could be unveiled as soon as next week, but the situation remains fluid. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Republicans may want to wait and see if they can attach GOP amendments to a Democratic police reform package that will be marked up in his Judiciary panel next week. Continue reading.

National security expert appalled by Matt Gaetz cell phone stunt: ‘I cannot emphasize enough how serious this is’

AlterNet logoA national security expert and former congressional staffer broke down the seriousness of a breach by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and other Republican lawmakers into a secure area beneath the Capitol.

A group of GOP congress members carrying prohibited cell phones stormed a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility in the Capitol basement, where Laura Cooper, a Pentagon official with jurisdiction over Ukraine policy, was scheduled to testify as part of the House impeachment inquiry.

“Aside from disrupting the testimony of a DoD official shedding light on the President’s attempts to extort a sham investigation into the child of his most feared political rival by withholding military aid that Congress gave to resist a Russian invasion,” tweeted Mieke Eoyang, vice president of the Third Way think tank’s national security program, “storming the SCIF without respecting the security protocols that require people to leave their electronic devices *outside* the space, is actually compromising our national security.”

View the complete October 23 article by Travis Gettys from Ray Story on the AlterNet website here.

The Rooms Where Congress Keeps Its Secrets

House Republicans in a performance meant to impress their “audience of one” (President Trump) abused House rules and put national security at risk with their stunt rushing a closed hearing being held in a SCIF facility complete with their electronic devices. That behavior (what would our Republican friends have done if that had happened when they held the majority (during the closed Benghazi hearings?) put our country’s national security at risk.  Why?  Here’s an article from The Atlantic  that talks about how Congress uses these room:

They’re called SCIFs, and they’re designed to let members see sensitive information beyond the reach of prying eyes.

They are tucked all across the Capitol complex, unassuming, behind doors numbered just like any other room. They are rarely mentioned in public, and what is viewed inside is spoken of even less.

But unlike many offices, these rooms host entourages of sharply uniformed military or intelligence officials throughout the day. And every now and then, glassy-eyed members of Congress emerge, shaking their heads, looking as if they’ve just seen a ghost.

They’re the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (acronymed SCIFs and pronounced “skiffs”) that serve as secure rooms where those with top-secret clearance can view some of the country’s most classified information.

But what is most remarkable about the rooms, members say, is just how unremarkable they seem. Unlike the dimly lit intelligence offices of pop culture, adorned with flashing space-age computer screens, a congressional SCIF more resembles any ordinary room in the Capitol complex, with a wooden boardroom table and pastel painted walls.

View the complete May 28, 2015, article by Daniel Newhauser and The National Journal on The Atlantic website here.

House rejects GOP measure censuring Schiff

The Hill logoDemocrats in the House turned aside a GOP-led privileged resolution to censure House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Monday in a straight party-line 218-185 vote.

Republicans and President Trump have increasingly targeted Schiff, a public face of the impeachment effort.

They have taken issue with Schiff’s exaggerated account of the details of President Trump‘s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a hearing in September. Schiff has defended his remarks as being an intentional parody of Trump’s comments.

View the complete October 21 article by Juliegrace Brufke on The Hill website here.

House Republicans break 2-to-1 against Trump on withdrawal of Kurd support

Veterans who fought alongside them praise Kurds as allies who ‘had our back’

By a 2-to-1 margin, House Republicans on Wednesday broke with President Donald Trump and opposed his decision to pull back U.S. forces in Syria, a move that exposed Kurdish fighters to attack from Turkey.

A resolution opposing the move passed 354 to 60, with 129 Republicans siding with the unanimous Democrats and 60 opposed. It was a noteworthy rebuke of Trump from Republicans who have long been wary of crossing the president.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that the Kurds are “no angels,” but Republican lawmakers who fought alongside them in Iraq and Syria called them reliable and effective U.S. allies.

View the complete October 16 article by Griffin Connolly, Simone Pathé and Bridget Bowman on The Roll Call website here.

With Name-Calling and Twitter Battles, House Republican Campaign Arm Copies Trump’s Playbook

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is portrayed as wearing clown makeup. Democratic congressional candidates — including an Air Force combat veteran — are labeled “socialist losers” or anti-Semites. Others have been singled out as Lyin’ Lucy McBath, Fake Nurse Lauren Underwood, Little Max Rose and China Dan McCready.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, with the blessing of House Republican leaders, has adopted a no-holds-barred strategy to win back the House majority next year, borrowing heavily from President Trump’s playbook in deploying such taunts and name-calling. After losing 40 seats and the House majority in November, Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the committee’s new chairman, and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, decided that their messaging needed to be ruthless.

The offensive hinges largely on the relatively facile notion that by tagging all House Democrats as socialists, anti-Semites or far-left extremists, Republicans will be able to alienate swing-state voters. On Tuesday night, after the House voted to condemn as racist President Trump’s attacks on four congresswoman, the campaign arm’s communications team deluged reporters’ inboxes with message after message calling vulnerable Democratic lawmakers “deranged.”

View the complete July 17 article by Catie Edmonson on The New York Times website here.

House Republicans Vote To Let Domestic Abusers Keep Guns

Given the choice between preventing women from being murdered by their partners, or fighting for domestic abusers to keep their guns, Republicans overwhelmingly sided with domestic abusers.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) by a vote of 263-158. Only 33 Republicans voted in support of the bill, while one Democrat voted against it.

The bill provides resources and strengthens legal protections for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault. In addition, the reauthorization this year contains a provision making it harder for known domestic abusers to obtain guns.

View the complete April 4 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.