Tag: Senate GOP

GOP’s Obama-era probes fuel Senate angst

The Hill logoThe Republican investigations into the Obama administration are fueling public animosity in the Senate.

Those tensions, which have been simmering for months, boiled over this past week, resulting in shouting matches and multiple warnings of long-standing damage to the chamber as an institution.

The scene played out across days, on and off the floor and in multiple committee rooms, as both Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Lindsey Graham(R-S.C.) took up subpoenas related to their investigations and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified for the first time since resigning last year. Continue reading.

GOP chairmen stake out turf in Obama-era probes

The Hill logoGOP chairmen are carving out their turf in controversial probes stemming from the Obama administration.

Senate Republicans are set to escalate their investigations on Thursday, when two panels will vote on dueling subpoenas that have significant areas of overlap.

But Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)—who chair the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, respectively — say they are trying to avoid a jurisdictional fight as they prepare to do a deep dive into decisions stemming from the Obama era.  Continue reading.

Senate confirms Miller to be pandemic inspector general

Miller comes from White House counsel’s office

Corrected, 8:46 p.m. | The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s controversial pick to oversee a $500 billion coronavirus economic bailout fund on Tuesday.

The chamber voted 51-40 to make Brian Miller the special inspector general for pandemic recovery.

Along with a budget of $25 million and a staff of more than 100, Miller will oversee how the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve deploy $454 billion to create upwards of $4 trillion in lending facilities aimed at keeping financial markets operational and offering larger businesses enough bridge lending to make it through the sharp recession caused by COVID-19.

The inspector general will also track another $46 billion provided to the airline industry and companies considered “critical to maintaining national security.” Continue reading.

Reporter diligently chronicles the pathetic excuses Republicans are using for Trump’s ghastly photo-op

AlterNet logoNBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent Kasie Hunt asked 16 top GOP Senators what they thought of President Donald Trump’s Monday evening photo op, where he had Lafayette Park and St. John’s Church cleared of protestors by teargassing them.

Usually, reporters might use one or two of the responses in a news story, but Hunt, who is also the host of MSNBC’s “Kasie DC,” decided to tweet out their responses.

Among the Senators she asked – not all answered – are the only African-American Republican, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Continue reading.

Frustration builds in key committee ahead of Graham subpoena vote

The Hill logoSenate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) plans to force a vote next week on a wide-ranging subpoena as part of his probe into the Russia investigation is reviving long-simmering frustrations on the Judiciary Committee. 

Graham has set a vote for June 4 on a subpoena that would let him compel documents and interviews with dozens of officials as he plans to ramp up his months-long probe into “Crossfire Hurricane,” the name for the FBI’s investigation into Russian election interference and the Trump campaign.

Included in the subpoena, which is likely to be approved along party lines, are some of President Trump’s biggest political targets. Democrats view it as Graham’s latest breach of the panel’s bipartisan history that underscores his shift from Trump critic to ally. Continue reading.

 

Speculation swirls about next Supreme Court vacancy

The Hill logoJust months before Election Day, the question of whether President Trumpwill get to select a third Supreme Court justice hangs over the final weeks of the court’s term.

Speculation over a possible vacancy has focused in recent years on the prospect of Justice Clarence Thomas exiting while Republicans control the White House and Senate, and alternatively on the health of the court’s aging liberal bloc.

Top Senate Republicans drew fresh attention to the bench recently when they said they would confirm a new justice if given the chance despite 2020 being an election year, in an apparent reversal of their rationale for blocking President Obama’s nominee late in his second term. Continue reading.

Senate confirms Ratcliffe to be Trump’s spy chief

The Hill logoThe Senate on Thursday confirmed Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) to be President Trump‘s next spy chief. 

Senators voted 49-44 on Ratcliffe’s nomination to the director of national intelligence(DNI), a position that has been filled in an acting capacity since former DNI Dan Coats stepped down in August.

The vote is one of the final items on the Senate’s to-do list before the chamber leaves town for a weeklong Memorial Day recess. And it comes only days after the Senate Intelligence Committee advanced Ratcliffe’s nomination along party lines. Continue reading.

FBI director stuck in the middle with ‘Obamagate’

The Hill logoFBI Director Christopher Wray is sitting in an increasingly hot seat as Republicans and the White House press forward with investigations into what President Trump is calling “Obamagate.”

Congressional Republicans are pressing Wray to provide more information after recently released FBI field notes showed officials debating how to handle the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The controversy over the notes contributed to Attorney General William Barr’s contentious decision to drop charges against Flynn, despite his guilty plea. Continue reading.

Sen. Graham Using Judiciary Committee To Enact Partisan Vengeance

Journalists should treat Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) pending Judiciary Committee hearings into the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe as an abuse of power intended as political payback. After all, Graham has explicitly said that would be why he would conduct such an inquiry.

Graham issued a startling threat during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on November 14, 2018. House Democrats had just won a majority in the midterm elections, and their incoming committee chairs were proposing rigorous investigations of the Trump administration. But Republicans held the Senate, putting Graham in line to become chairperson of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Graham warned congressional Democrats that if he became Senate Judiciary chairperson and House Democrats investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election, he would retaliate by probing whether there was “political bias” involved in the FBI’s handling of the Russia probe and its decision not to indict former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in relation to her use of a private email server. Those allegations are at the heart of numerous conspiracy theories that had been championed by Hannity, his Fox colleagues, and President Donald Trump. Continue reading.

A guide to the players Senate Republicans want to subpoena as they re-litigate the Russia probe into Trump

Washington Post logoSenate Republicans are suddenly ramping up their efforts to dig into the origins of the probe of President Trump’s 2016 campaign. Two committees are launching investigations that essentially ask whether there was an effort at the highest levels of the Obama administration or the FBI to undermine Trump.

This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee took a step toward this by issuing a list of dozens of names of Obama officials they would like to subpoena, either for documents or testimony. And Tuesday, the Senate’s homeland security committee issued a subpoena related to an investigation of Hunter Biden.

Why are they doing this now? The committees say that if there was wrongdoing by the intelligence community as Trump got his presidency started, the American public deserves to know about it. Continue reading.