Tag: Sen. Lee

Why it matters that some GOP senators huddled with Trump’s lawyers

Graham, Lee, and Cruz aren’t just ignoring their impeachment oath, they’re flaunting their indifference to their responsibilities.

Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment proceedings is only a “trial” in a colloquial sense. Many Americans have some sense of how a case is tried in court, and this isn’t it.

Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), for example, is overseeing the proceedings, while also serving as a “juror.” He’s also, incidentally, a witness to the crime. In fact, in this case, each of the jurors are witnesses, which in a normal trial would never be permissible.

And because the usual rules and procedures of an American trial do not apply to the Senate’s impeachment proceedings, it stands to reason that there will be dramatic differences in how senators approach their responsibilities. But by any sensible measure, it’s tough to defend tactics like these. Continue reading.

Sen. Mike Lee appears in person at Barrett hearing after Covid diagnosis

The Utah Republican wore a blue surgical mask and fist-bumped his GOP colleagues.

Sen. Mike Lee, who tested positive for Covid-19 less than two weeks ago, appeared in person Monday for the first day of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

When the Utah Republican arrived in the hearing room Monday morning, he was wearing a blue surgical mask and could be seen fist-bumping his GOP colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also briefly exchanged words with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Lee removed his mask when it was his turn to address the committee with an opening statement, but he immediately put it back on when he finished speaking. Continue reading.

Mike Lee’s insistence that America isn’t a democracy is a dangerous slide toward fascism

There’s a certain type of obnoxiously precocious middle schooler who loves to lecture their peers (and everyone else) about things like how the word “decimate” actually only means “1 in 10,'” and how I bet you didn’t know the word’s largest desert is in Antarctica, did you? — the sort of “technically true”-isms that are incredibly annoying but ultimately harmless when issued from a 12-year-old eager to show how smart they are.

And then there’s United States Republican Sen. Mike Lee, of Utah, whose “um, ak-shu-a-lee!!!” shtick isn’t so much an endearing exercise in ephemeral trivia as it is one of the more overt examples of the GOP slide toward fascism in an era already rife with undemocratic Republican power plays. 

The shtick in question is Lee’s denial of American democracy, which he insisted on reiterating over and over again Wednesday evening during the vice presidential debate between California Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence. Continue reading.

Graham, Paul rift deepens over Trump’s war powers

The Hill logoA high-profile debate over President Trump’s war powers is fueling a feud among Senate Republicans.

The fallout from a closed-door briefing on the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani has put a spotlight on the divisions among two of President Trump’s biggest congressional allies: Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

“If I had an eye problem, I would go to him. If I had a constitutional question, he would be the last guy I would pick,” Graham said on Thursday when asked about Paul, who is an ophthalmologist. Continue reading.

GOP Senator Says Having More ‘American Babies’ Is The Solution To Climate Change

 

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah raised eyebrows with his strange and cheeky attack on the Green New Deal.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) tore into the Green New Deal on Tuesday, stating on the Senate floor that the only thing needed to combat climate change is for Americans to “fall in love” and have “more babies.”

Lee, who has expressed doubt before over the climate science finding that human activity is the main driver of global warming, bashed a resolution laying out the tenets of the Green New Deal. The congressional resolution was introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) last month.

“I’m not immediately afraid of what carbon emissions unaddressed might do to our environment in the near future, or our civilization or our planet in the next few years,” Lee said during a Senate debate. “I’m mostly afraid of not being able to get through this speech with a straight face.”

View the complete March 26 article by Hayley Miller on the Huffington Post website here.