Tag: Senate GOP

‘I’m not going to let you do this’: CNN anchor shuts down Republican’s attempt to dodge Trump’s lies

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If you haven’t heard, this Donald Trump guy doesn’t seem to be a particularly good guy. He doesn’t seem to be a particularly competent guy. Frankly, he seems like he’s bad for our country. Hold on while I set fire to my possessions for fear I catch and spread the very real United States coronavirus pandemic. As former journalist turned celebrity political author Bob Woodward releases excerpts and audio recordings of President Trump to promote Woodward’s new book, the public is once again being treated to information we already knew, just coming out of the pedestrian mouth of the Donald himself.

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana has made a name for himself as a slow-talking craven insect of a politician. Whether he is defending the Confederacy, or promote pro-Putin conspiracy theories on the Sunday shows, or blaming China and Mardi Gras drinking for the spread of the coronavirus in Louisiana, Sen. Kennedy has shown himself to not only be a foolish mind, but also a truly shameless one.

Kennedy came on CNN to talk with anchor Pamela Brown about the day’s news. Brown’s opening question to Kennedy was whether or not Trump’s admission that he “downplayed” the threat of the virus—literally calling it the “new Democratic hoax”—was “acceptable to you?” Kennedy gave a nice via satellite pause before beginning on-brand dumb: “You’re talking about the Woodward book?” Oh, man. Wow. It is literally the reason he is on the show, to be asked his thoughts on a Republican leader who has been recorded admitting to misleading the public about the then-impending public health crisis. A crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of American lives, and will potentially take hundreds of thousands more American lives. Continue reading.

Senate Republicans scramble to contain fallout from Woodward bombshell

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Senate Republicans hoping to go on offense this week found themselves instead playing defense once again because of controversial remarks by President Trump — this time to Watergate reporter Bob Woodward.

It was a familiar dilemma for GOP senators used to being chased by reporters over their thoughts on Trump’s latest furor, but in this case it came with terrible timing — eight weeks before an election in which the Senate is on the line and as they hoped to call attention to Democrats blocking a coronavirus relief bill Thursday on a procedural motion.

Privately, Senate Republicans expressed bewilderment over why Trump agreed to 18 interviews with Woodward, some of then happening as late as 10 o’clock in the evening. Continue reading.

Trump folly steps on Senate GOP message again

Questions over Woodward revelations overshadow Republican effort to show unity on coronavirus relief

Senate Republicans spent a month developing a coronavirus relief bill that their conference could unify around and go on record as supporting to show voters they were trying to help families and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

But as the messaging vote arrived Thursday, Republicans couldn’t talk to reporters about Democrats blocking their bill — which fell short on a 52-47 procedural votewith only one GOP senator in opposition — without also having to dodge or defend President Donald Trump’s latest folly.

Washington’s press corps was still consumed with news that broke the day before about Trump admitting to journalist Bob Woodward back in February that COVID-19 “is deadly stuff” and then in March that he was intentionally understating the danger of the novel coronavirus in his public comments. Continue reading.

Senate Democrats block GOP relief bill

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Senate Democrats blocked a GOP coronavirus bill on Thursday amid a deep stalemate over the next relief package. 

Senators voted 52-47 on the roughly $500 billion Republican bill, which marked the first coronavirus-related legislation the chamber has voted on since it passed a $484 billion package in April. 

The vote handed a symbolic victory to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who spent weeks haggling with Republicans and the White House over the contours of the pared-down GOP bill as he sought to overcome deep divisions over the path forward. Continue reading.

Anger grows at GOP over economic pain: ‘I blame Mitch McConnell the most’

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With jobless Americans growing increasingly desperate and furious at congressional Republicans for skipping town for summer recess without approving Covid-19 relief, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday ripped the Trump White House for “abandoning” tens of millions of workers and children after her brief conversation with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows yielded zero progress.

“This conversation made clear that the White House continues to disregard the needs of the American people as the coronavirus crisis devastates lives and livelihoods,” the California Democrat said in a statement after speaking with Meadows, an ultra-conservative former congressman, by phone for less than half an hour Thursday afternoon.

The call represented the latest failed attempt to jumpstart relief negotiations that collapsed earlier this month after White House negotiators refused to budge from their trillion-dollar price ceiling and opposition to the $600-per-week federal unemployment supplement, which officially expired on July 31. Continue reading.

GOP seeks to boost Senate hopes with convention

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Republicans are looking to their national convention to boost their most vulnerable Senate incumbents and help preserve their increasingly tenuous majority in the chamber.

With President Trump’s poll numbers sagging in recent months and the political fortunes of several GOP Senate incumbents largely following suit, Republicans believe that any post-convention bump for the president will also lift up their party’s senators as they head into the crucial final stretch of the 2020 election cycle.

“Obviously it’s a Trump-centric convention, but if the party puts forward something that can reframe the national conversation, yeah, the senators will get a bump,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican consultant and former campaign adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “It won’t just be for Trump. It’ll help all Republicans.” Continue reading.

Trump’s 2016 campaign chair was a ‘grave counterintelligence threat,’ had repeated contact with Russian intelligence, Senate panel finds

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President Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman posed a “grave counterintelligence threat” due to his interaction with people close to the Kremlin, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday that found extensive contacts between key campaign advisers and officials affiliated with Moscow’s government and intelligence services.

In its report, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee states that Trump’s then-campaign chair Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intelligence officer “on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election,” including the idea that purported Ukrainian election interference was of greater concern.

It found that a Russian attorney who met with Manafort, along with the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and his son-in-law Jared Kushner at Trump Tower in 2016, had “significant connections” to the Kremlin. The information she offered them was also “part of a broader influence operation targeting the United States that was coordinated, at least in part with elements of the Russian government,” the report stated. Continue reading.

Senate report finds Manafort passed campaign data to Russian intelligence officer

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The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released the fifth and final volume of its report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which details “counterintelligence threats and vulnerabilities.”

Why it matters: The bipartisan, 996-page report goes further than the Mueller report in showing the extent of Russia’s connections to members of the Trump campaign, and how the Kremlin was able to take advantage of the transition team’s inexperience to gain access to sensitive information.

Highlights

Paul Manafort: The report found that the former Trump campaign chairman began working on influence operations for the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and other pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarchs in 2004. Continue reading.

McConnell’s refusal to help states could cause US economy to ‘contract by 3%’ — and result in over 4 million job losses: report

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During the coronavirus crisis, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has stressed that he has no interest in “bailing out” blue states that have been suffering budgetary problems because of the coronavirus pandemic. But Democrat-dominated states are hardly the only ones suffering: according to analysis from Moody’s Analytics, the U.S. economy could contract by 3% if Congress does not give states the help that they need — and Moody’s told the Wall Street Journal that more than 4 million jobs could be lost.

In July, Senate Republicans introduced a coronavirus relief package, but it did not include any aid for states or cities. However, negotiators in the Trump Administration have since said they are willing to offer states $150 billion in coronavirus relief — which is how much was included for state and local governments in the CARES Act when Congress passed it in March. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, however, have said that states need a lot more help and called for $915 billion in relief when they passed a bill on May 15. But Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin described the Democratic recommendation as “an absurd number,” and McConnell made it clear that the Democratic bill passed on May 15 was dead on arrival.

McConnell has dismissed aid to states as a “blue state bailout,” and on August 10, President Donald Trump tweeted that House Democrats “only wanted BAILOUT MONEY for Democrat run states and cities that are failing badly.” But in fact, red states are also suffering budgetary woes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue reading.

McConnell in a pickle after GOP senator blasts Trump’s executive orders as ‘unconstitutional slop’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump on Saturday signed four executive orders that may provide economic relief for some Americans as Congress remains at an impasse.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) backed Trump’s moves, despite their dubious legal grounding.

“Struggling Americans need action now. Since Democrats have sabotaged backroom talks with absurd demands that would not help working people, I support President Trump exploring his options to get unemployment benefits and other relief to the people who need them the most,” McConnell said in a statement. Continue reading.