Examples of GOP Leadership
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printer
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Under $23 right now.
Budzbuddha
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Lake’s campaign declined to comment when asked to clarify the point of her remarks and whether she was implying there might be political violence in the next six months.
While Lake didn’t explicitly warn of political violence, that’s how one of her supporters took her rhetoric.
“They’re gonna do everything they can to disrupt the election, whether it’s another pandemic, whether it’s going to be inciting the civil war,” said Geenee Roe, 63, when asked about Lake’s speech afterward. The event included a raffle of an AR-15-style rifle.
NBC News asked the Lake Havasu City resident, who plans to vote for Trump and Lake in 2024, if she believed another American civil war is a concrete possibility.
doublejj
Well-Known Member
Republican governors challenge UAW's southern autoworkers unionization push
www.wset.com
Republican governors challenge UAW's southern autoworkers unionization push
Six Republican governors, including South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, signed a joint statement condemning United Auto Workers’ push to unionize.
www.wset.com
compassionateExotic
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hanimmal
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Budzbuddha
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BudmanTX
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nothing like see Raskin and Comer going at it, toward the end of the clip Comer get humilated and tries to change the subject......
topcat
Well-Known Member
I love to hear Comer hit the high notes.
compassionateExotic
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Hugo Phurst
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Fogdog
Well-Known Member
From Kari Lake to - whatever the eff his first name is - Comer. They are showing more desperation than the polling numbers we've been looking at would indicate. Kari is already telling the radicals of Arizona to strap their Glocks on. Comer is repeating accusations that his own committee proved false in a high and whiney voice. They seem desperate and angry
Not saying the polls are being cooked. But whatever has Republican leaders, from candidates running for the Senate to US Congress committee chairmen to their unelected leader, going off the rails like they did yesterday doesn't reflect the lead they supposedly have for the fall elections.
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printer
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Speaker Johnson rolls out text for foreign aid package despite conservative outcry
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) released the legislative text Wednesday for three bills that would combine military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and allies in the Indo-Pacific with humanitarian aid for Gaza and other global hot spots — a high-stakes moment for the Speaker as he barrels into the politically prickly topic of sending aid overseas.
The trio of bills are part of his plan for moving foreign aid through the House, a process that has been delayed for months amid other pressing priorities and stalled this week as his initial proposal faced intense backlash from the right flank.
But Johnson, facing pressure from lawmakers in both parties, the White House and Ukrainian officials, vowed to move forward with his proposal, defying the outrage from his right flank.
Johnson told GOP lawmakers in a text message Wednesday morning that he also plans to unveil text for a fourth bill that includes other national security priorities designed to sweeten the deal for wary conservatives in his conference. That proposal will include a TikTok ban, a provision to help pay for aid by using seized Russian assets, sanctions and other measures to confront Russia, China and Iran.
Those four measures will move under one procedural rule that will allow for an amendment process, Johnson said.
But in a twist from the Speaker’s initial plan, the outline of which he unveiled Monday night, Johnson said he will move a border security measure separate from the foreign aid bills — a decision that is meant to appease conservatives who were up in arms that the priority was at first excluded. That legislation will include “core components” from H.R. 2, the border security bill House Republicans approved last year, he told members.
Johnson said he is eyeing a Saturday evening vote on the foreign aid legislation.
“By posting text of these bills as soon as they are completed, we will ensure time for a robust amendment process. We expect the vote on final passage on these bills to be on Saturday evening. Thank you all for your feedback and support. I value every Member of this conference and look forward to continuing our work together,” he wrote in the text message to lawmakers before the legislation was made public.
But if Johnson’s revisions were designed to mollify restive conservatives, there were early signs that it didn’t work. Indeed, before the bill texts were even released, a number of conservatives — who were already furious with the Speaker for cutting a series of bipartisan deals with President Biden — began sounding off against his foreign aid proposal. At the center of the criticisms was the border issue, which Republicans see as one of the greatest threats to national security.
Johnson had promised for months that tougher border security would be a part of any Ukraine legislation. But the plan he announced Monday excluded any border measures, and his revised strategy — while featuring a vote on border provisions — also divorces that language from the foreign aid package that’s expected to go to the Senate, meaning the Democratic leaders who control the upper chamber can simply ignore.
Conservative border hawks wasted no time hammering Johnson for caving on his demand to marry Ukraine aid to tougher border policies.
“The Republican Speaker of the House is seeking a rule to pass almost $100 billion in foreign aid — while unquestionably, dangerous criminals, terrorists, & fentanyl pour across our border. The border “vote” in this package is a watered-down dangerous cover vote. I will oppose,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) wrote on the social platform X.
“News flash for Speaker Johnson, we have already passed HR2, the Senate has it and refuses to secure our border, they want 5,000 illegals per day to come in,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) wrote in a post on X, later adding, “You are seriously out of step with Republicans by continuing to pass bills dependent on Democrats.” “Everyone sees through this.”
The conservative outcry was not unexpected, but it means Johnson will need Democratic support to move at least some of the foreign aid bills through the lower chamber.
Democrats have been open to Johnson’s multipronged approach, even as it broke with the single-package strategy they preferred. But Johnson’s inclusion of almost $9.2 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, Ukraine and other war zones around the globe — aid opposed by many Republicans — was a nod to the bipartisan support he’ll need to move the bills to the Senate.
In a signal that Democrats will be on board, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, endorsed the first three bills shortly after GOP leaders unveiled them.
“We cannot retreat from the world stage under the guise of putting ‘America First.’ We put America first by demonstrating the power of American leadership – that we have the strength, resolve, and heart to fight for the most vulnerable people, protect their freedom, and preserve their dignity,” DeLauro said in a statement, which emphasized the inclusion of the humanitarian aid. “I urge swift passage of these bills.”
thehill.com/homenews/house/4599983-speaker-johnson-plowing-ahead-with-foreign-aid-despite-conservative-outrage/
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) released the legislative text Wednesday for three bills that would combine military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and allies in the Indo-Pacific with humanitarian aid for Gaza and other global hot spots — a high-stakes moment for the Speaker as he barrels into the politically prickly topic of sending aid overseas.
The trio of bills are part of his plan for moving foreign aid through the House, a process that has been delayed for months amid other pressing priorities and stalled this week as his initial proposal faced intense backlash from the right flank.
But Johnson, facing pressure from lawmakers in both parties, the White House and Ukrainian officials, vowed to move forward with his proposal, defying the outrage from his right flank.
Johnson told GOP lawmakers in a text message Wednesday morning that he also plans to unveil text for a fourth bill that includes other national security priorities designed to sweeten the deal for wary conservatives in his conference. That proposal will include a TikTok ban, a provision to help pay for aid by using seized Russian assets, sanctions and other measures to confront Russia, China and Iran.
Those four measures will move under one procedural rule that will allow for an amendment process, Johnson said.
But in a twist from the Speaker’s initial plan, the outline of which he unveiled Monday night, Johnson said he will move a border security measure separate from the foreign aid bills — a decision that is meant to appease conservatives who were up in arms that the priority was at first excluded. That legislation will include “core components” from H.R. 2, the border security bill House Republicans approved last year, he told members.
Johnson said he is eyeing a Saturday evening vote on the foreign aid legislation.
“By posting text of these bills as soon as they are completed, we will ensure time for a robust amendment process. We expect the vote on final passage on these bills to be on Saturday evening. Thank you all for your feedback and support. I value every Member of this conference and look forward to continuing our work together,” he wrote in the text message to lawmakers before the legislation was made public.
But if Johnson’s revisions were designed to mollify restive conservatives, there were early signs that it didn’t work. Indeed, before the bill texts were even released, a number of conservatives — who were already furious with the Speaker for cutting a series of bipartisan deals with President Biden — began sounding off against his foreign aid proposal. At the center of the criticisms was the border issue, which Republicans see as one of the greatest threats to national security.
Johnson had promised for months that tougher border security would be a part of any Ukraine legislation. But the plan he announced Monday excluded any border measures, and his revised strategy — while featuring a vote on border provisions — also divorces that language from the foreign aid package that’s expected to go to the Senate, meaning the Democratic leaders who control the upper chamber can simply ignore.
Conservative border hawks wasted no time hammering Johnson for caving on his demand to marry Ukraine aid to tougher border policies.
“The Republican Speaker of the House is seeking a rule to pass almost $100 billion in foreign aid — while unquestionably, dangerous criminals, terrorists, & fentanyl pour across our border. The border “vote” in this package is a watered-down dangerous cover vote. I will oppose,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) wrote on the social platform X.
“News flash for Speaker Johnson, we have already passed HR2, the Senate has it and refuses to secure our border, they want 5,000 illegals per day to come in,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) wrote in a post on X, later adding, “You are seriously out of step with Republicans by continuing to pass bills dependent on Democrats.” “Everyone sees through this.”
The conservative outcry was not unexpected, but it means Johnson will need Democratic support to move at least some of the foreign aid bills through the lower chamber.
Democrats have been open to Johnson’s multipronged approach, even as it broke with the single-package strategy they preferred. But Johnson’s inclusion of almost $9.2 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, Ukraine and other war zones around the globe — aid opposed by many Republicans — was a nod to the bipartisan support he’ll need to move the bills to the Senate.
In a signal that Democrats will be on board, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, endorsed the first three bills shortly after GOP leaders unveiled them.
“We cannot retreat from the world stage under the guise of putting ‘America First.’ We put America first by demonstrating the power of American leadership – that we have the strength, resolve, and heart to fight for the most vulnerable people, protect their freedom, and preserve their dignity,” DeLauro said in a statement, which emphasized the inclusion of the humanitarian aid. “I urge swift passage of these bills.”
thehill.com/homenews/house/4599983-speaker-johnson-plowing-ahead-with-foreign-aid-despite-conservative-outrage/
printer
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Why are we here?
Senate dismisses Mayorkas impeachment without trial
The Senate voted Wednesday to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, shutting down the possibility of a lengthy Senate trial, which Republicans had demanded to bring attention to the Biden administration’s record on immigration and border security.
It marked the first time in 225 years the Senate voted to immediately dismiss impeachment charges approved by the House instead of holding a floor trial or referring the matter to a special committee to review it.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued a trial wasn’t necessary because the House had sent over “the least legitimate, least substantive and most politicized impeachment trial ever in the history of the United States.”
“The charges brought against Secretary Mayorkas fail to meet the high standards of high crimes and misdemeanors. To validate this gross abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future,” he warned.
The Senate voted to dismiss the charges by sustaining two points of order raised by Schumer asserting that they did not rise “to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor” as required by the Constitution.
Schumer moved to quash the charges immediately after freshman Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) objected to a unanimous consent request by Schumer to give senators time to debate the trial procedure and to consider resolutions sponsored by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to either hold a full trial or send the impeachment to a special committee for thorough review.
Schmitt was protesting Schumer’s plan to eventually move to dismiss the impeachment after defeating the motions to hold a trial or refer it to committee.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tried to block Schumer’s move to dismiss the charges by offering a motion to send the Senate into a private session to debate the constitutionality of the impeachment but Democrats voted it down.
Republicans offered several other motions to delay Schumer’s bid to avoid a trial, including motions to adjourn the proceedings to a later date and to table the Democratic leader’s objections. All those efforts failed on party-line votes.
Marking the solemnity of the moment, senators voted while seated at their Senate desks.
Republican senators wanted to delay the vote to dismiss the charges for as long as possible but were restricted by the Senate’s impeachment rules, which limit debate on the floor in the absence of a resolution setting the guidelines for a trial.
Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who was presiding over the chamber, had to bang her gavel several times to quiet Republican senators who tried to speak more than a few sentences on the floor.
The floor became slightly rowdy at times, such as when Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) tried to speak over Murray’s efforts to gavel him to silence, prompting Democratic senators to call out: “No debate.”
There was some uncertainty before the vote whether Schumer would be able to hold all 51 members of the Democratic caucus together as Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) told reporters last week that the charges would need to be reviewed seriously by the Senate if they turned out to be anything more than a political stunt.
Tester, however, appeared unfazed by the political pressure, at one point grabbing a bag of peanut butter M&Ms out of Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) desk during a lull in the action.
There was also some doubt about how independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) would vote, as she stayed quiet about her position in the leadup to Wednesday. Sinema has worked closely with Senate Republican colleagues on border security, and in a hearing with Mayorkas last year expressed concern about the dramatic increase in border crossings during the Biden administration.
The only defection came from the Republican side of the aisle when Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted “present” on Schumer’s point-of-order objection that the House had failed to allege conduct in its first article of impeachment reaching the constitutional standard of a high crime or misdemeanor.
She then voted with Republicans to reject Schumer’s similar point of order on the second article accusing Mayorkas of lying to Congress.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) accused Democrats of failing to perform their constitutional duty by shoving the impeachment aside.
“Under the Constitution and the rules of impeachment, it is the job of this body to consider the articles of impeachment brought before us and to render judgment,” he said on the floor. “The question right now should be how best to ensure that the charges on the table receive thorough consideration.”
Senate conservatives led by Lee, the chairman of the Steering Committee, accused Democrats of “nuking” more than 200 years of Senate precedent by declining to hold a trial and vowed to retaliate by slowing business to a crawl on the floor.
Lee was incensed that Democrats voted to reject the second article of impeachment accusing Mayorkas of breaching the public trust by making false statements.
He pointed out that making false statements is a violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 and a felony offense.
“If this is not that high crime and misdemeanor, what is,” he demanded.
Republicans accused Democrats of ignoring a huge breakdown in security at the southern border resulting in 7.5 million illegal crossings recorded by Customs and Border Protection.
Republicans have also repeatedly pointed to high-profile crimes allegedly committed by people ho had crossed the border illegally, such as the killing of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia and the shooting death of a two-year-old child in Maryland, to score as many political points as they can ahead of this year’s election.
The House passed the two articles of impeachment by a vote of 214 to 213 on Feb. 13, despite the defection of three Republican lawmakers who voted against it: Reps. Mike Gallagher (Wis.), Ken Buck (Colo.) and Tom McClintock (Calif.).
But the House push to impeach Mayorkas began almost as soon as Republicans overtook the lower chamber, with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) introducing the first resolution to do so just after the GOP selected a Speaker. Several colleagues followed, but it was repeated efforts by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to force a vote on the matter that accelerated its consideration in the House.
The first attempt by the House to approve the articles of impeachment failed on Feb. 6 by a vote of 214 to 216, an embarrassing temporary setback for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
The House articles embraced an unusual approach to impeachment, accusing Mayorkas of violating immigration laws as well as “breach of public trust” — arguing he had violated his oath of office.
The bulk of the articles lists various immigration statutes Republicans say Mayorkas violated. That includes a law requiring the detention of all migrants entering the country — something no administration has ever done. They also suggest enforcement policies laid out by Mayorkas were illegal, though they were upheld by the Supreme Court. Immigration law experts have also said Mayorkas’s policies are in line with immigration statutes and how they’ve been carried out by prior administrations.
They also fault Mayorkas for lifting several Trump administration policies — including one actually lifted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Republicans also accused Mayorkas of lying to Congress in saying the border was operationally secure, arguing he did not meet the definition under the Secure Fence Act, which says such a standard is met only when not a single person or good wrongly crosses the border.
Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, accused House Republicans of “wasting” the Senate’s time with a “sham” impeachment and urged GOP lawmakers instead to pass legislation to reform the nation’s asylum laws, which the administration argues must happen for it to stem the huge flow of migrants into the country.
“Congressional Republicans should stop wasting time with unfounded attacks, and instead do their job by passing bipartisan legislation to properly fund the Department’s vital national security missions and finally fix our broken immigration system,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
thehill.com
Senate dismisses Mayorkas impeachment without trial
The Senate voted Wednesday to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, shutting down the possibility of a lengthy Senate trial, which Republicans had demanded to bring attention to the Biden administration’s record on immigration and border security.
It marked the first time in 225 years the Senate voted to immediately dismiss impeachment charges approved by the House instead of holding a floor trial or referring the matter to a special committee to review it.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued a trial wasn’t necessary because the House had sent over “the least legitimate, least substantive and most politicized impeachment trial ever in the history of the United States.”
“The charges brought against Secretary Mayorkas fail to meet the high standards of high crimes and misdemeanors. To validate this gross abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future,” he warned.
The Senate voted to dismiss the charges by sustaining two points of order raised by Schumer asserting that they did not rise “to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor” as required by the Constitution.
Schumer moved to quash the charges immediately after freshman Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) objected to a unanimous consent request by Schumer to give senators time to debate the trial procedure and to consider resolutions sponsored by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to either hold a full trial or send the impeachment to a special committee for thorough review.
Schmitt was protesting Schumer’s plan to eventually move to dismiss the impeachment after defeating the motions to hold a trial or refer it to committee.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tried to block Schumer’s move to dismiss the charges by offering a motion to send the Senate into a private session to debate the constitutionality of the impeachment but Democrats voted it down.
Republicans offered several other motions to delay Schumer’s bid to avoid a trial, including motions to adjourn the proceedings to a later date and to table the Democratic leader’s objections. All those efforts failed on party-line votes.
Marking the solemnity of the moment, senators voted while seated at their Senate desks.
Republican senators wanted to delay the vote to dismiss the charges for as long as possible but were restricted by the Senate’s impeachment rules, which limit debate on the floor in the absence of a resolution setting the guidelines for a trial.
Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who was presiding over the chamber, had to bang her gavel several times to quiet Republican senators who tried to speak more than a few sentences on the floor.
The floor became slightly rowdy at times, such as when Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) tried to speak over Murray’s efforts to gavel him to silence, prompting Democratic senators to call out: “No debate.”
There was some uncertainty before the vote whether Schumer would be able to hold all 51 members of the Democratic caucus together as Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) told reporters last week that the charges would need to be reviewed seriously by the Senate if they turned out to be anything more than a political stunt.
Tester, however, appeared unfazed by the political pressure, at one point grabbing a bag of peanut butter M&Ms out of Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) desk during a lull in the action.
There was also some doubt about how independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) would vote, as she stayed quiet about her position in the leadup to Wednesday. Sinema has worked closely with Senate Republican colleagues on border security, and in a hearing with Mayorkas last year expressed concern about the dramatic increase in border crossings during the Biden administration.
The only defection came from the Republican side of the aisle when Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted “present” on Schumer’s point-of-order objection that the House had failed to allege conduct in its first article of impeachment reaching the constitutional standard of a high crime or misdemeanor.
She then voted with Republicans to reject Schumer’s similar point of order on the second article accusing Mayorkas of lying to Congress.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) accused Democrats of failing to perform their constitutional duty by shoving the impeachment aside.
“Under the Constitution and the rules of impeachment, it is the job of this body to consider the articles of impeachment brought before us and to render judgment,” he said on the floor. “The question right now should be how best to ensure that the charges on the table receive thorough consideration.”
Senate conservatives led by Lee, the chairman of the Steering Committee, accused Democrats of “nuking” more than 200 years of Senate precedent by declining to hold a trial and vowed to retaliate by slowing business to a crawl on the floor.
Lee was incensed that Democrats voted to reject the second article of impeachment accusing Mayorkas of breaching the public trust by making false statements.
He pointed out that making false statements is a violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 and a felony offense.
“If this is not that high crime and misdemeanor, what is,” he demanded.
Republicans accused Democrats of ignoring a huge breakdown in security at the southern border resulting in 7.5 million illegal crossings recorded by Customs and Border Protection.
Republicans have also repeatedly pointed to high-profile crimes allegedly committed by people ho had crossed the border illegally, such as the killing of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia and the shooting death of a two-year-old child in Maryland, to score as many political points as they can ahead of this year’s election.
The House passed the two articles of impeachment by a vote of 214 to 213 on Feb. 13, despite the defection of three Republican lawmakers who voted against it: Reps. Mike Gallagher (Wis.), Ken Buck (Colo.) and Tom McClintock (Calif.).
But the House push to impeach Mayorkas began almost as soon as Republicans overtook the lower chamber, with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) introducing the first resolution to do so just after the GOP selected a Speaker. Several colleagues followed, but it was repeated efforts by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to force a vote on the matter that accelerated its consideration in the House.
The first attempt by the House to approve the articles of impeachment failed on Feb. 6 by a vote of 214 to 216, an embarrassing temporary setback for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
The House articles embraced an unusual approach to impeachment, accusing Mayorkas of violating immigration laws as well as “breach of public trust” — arguing he had violated his oath of office.
The bulk of the articles lists various immigration statutes Republicans say Mayorkas violated. That includes a law requiring the detention of all migrants entering the country — something no administration has ever done. They also suggest enforcement policies laid out by Mayorkas were illegal, though they were upheld by the Supreme Court. Immigration law experts have also said Mayorkas’s policies are in line with immigration statutes and how they’ve been carried out by prior administrations.
They also fault Mayorkas for lifting several Trump administration policies — including one actually lifted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Republicans also accused Mayorkas of lying to Congress in saying the border was operationally secure, arguing he did not meet the definition under the Secure Fence Act, which says such a standard is met only when not a single person or good wrongly crosses the border.
Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, accused House Republicans of “wasting” the Senate’s time with a “sham” impeachment and urged GOP lawmakers instead to pass legislation to reform the nation’s asylum laws, which the administration argues must happen for it to stem the huge flow of migrants into the country.
“Congressional Republicans should stop wasting time with unfounded attacks, and instead do their job by passing bipartisan legislation to properly fund the Department’s vital national security missions and finally fix our broken immigration system,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Senate dismisses Mayorkas impeachment without trial
The Senate voted Wednesday to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, shutting down the possibility of a lengthy Senate trial, which Republicans …
thehill.com
printer
Well-Known Member
Sorry guys, you just do not have the votes.
thehill.com
Senate dismisses Mayorkas impeachment without trial
The Senate voted Wednesday to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, shutting down the possibility of a lengthy Senate trial, which Republicans …
thehill.com
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Fogdog
Well-Known Member
Well. alrighty then. Now that that's settled, Congress can get back to doing the people's work.Why are we here?
Senate dismisses Mayorkas impeachment without trial
The Senate voted Wednesday to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, shutting down the possibility of a lengthy Senate trial, which Republicans had demanded to bring attention to the Biden administration’s record on immigration and border security.
It marked the first time in 225 years the Senate voted to immediately dismiss impeachment charges approved by the House instead of holding a floor trial or referring the matter to a special committee to review it.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued a trial wasn’t necessary because the House had sent over “the least legitimate, least substantive and most politicized impeachment trial ever in the history of the United States.”
“The charges brought against Secretary Mayorkas fail to meet the high standards of high crimes and misdemeanors. To validate this gross abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future,” he warned.
The Senate voted to dismiss the charges by sustaining two points of order raised by Schumer asserting that they did not rise “to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor” as required by the Constitution.
Schumer moved to quash the charges immediately after freshman Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) objected to a unanimous consent request by Schumer to give senators time to debate the trial procedure and to consider resolutions sponsored by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to either hold a full trial or send the impeachment to a special committee for thorough review.
Schmitt was protesting Schumer’s plan to eventually move to dismiss the impeachment after defeating the motions to hold a trial or refer it to committee.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tried to block Schumer’s move to dismiss the charges by offering a motion to send the Senate into a private session to debate the constitutionality of the impeachment but Democrats voted it down.
Republicans offered several other motions to delay Schumer’s bid to avoid a trial, including motions to adjourn the proceedings to a later date and to table the Democratic leader’s objections. All those efforts failed on party-line votes.
Marking the solemnity of the moment, senators voted while seated at their Senate desks.
Republican senators wanted to delay the vote to dismiss the charges for as long as possible but were restricted by the Senate’s impeachment rules, which limit debate on the floor in the absence of a resolution setting the guidelines for a trial.
Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who was presiding over the chamber, had to bang her gavel several times to quiet Republican senators who tried to speak more than a few sentences on the floor.
The floor became slightly rowdy at times, such as when Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) tried to speak over Murray’s efforts to gavel him to silence, prompting Democratic senators to call out: “No debate.”
There was some uncertainty before the vote whether Schumer would be able to hold all 51 members of the Democratic caucus together as Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) told reporters last week that the charges would need to be reviewed seriously by the Senate if they turned out to be anything more than a political stunt.
Tester, however, appeared unfazed by the political pressure, at one point grabbing a bag of peanut butter M&Ms out of Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) desk during a lull in the action.
There was also some doubt about how independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) would vote, as she stayed quiet about her position in the leadup to Wednesday. Sinema has worked closely with Senate Republican colleagues on border security, and in a hearing with Mayorkas last year expressed concern about the dramatic increase in border crossings during the Biden administration.
The only defection came from the Republican side of the aisle when Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted “present” on Schumer’s point-of-order objection that the House had failed to allege conduct in its first article of impeachment reaching the constitutional standard of a high crime or misdemeanor.
She then voted with Republicans to reject Schumer’s similar point of order on the second article accusing Mayorkas of lying to Congress.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) accused Democrats of failing to perform their constitutional duty by shoving the impeachment aside.
“Under the Constitution and the rules of impeachment, it is the job of this body to consider the articles of impeachment brought before us and to render judgment,” he said on the floor. “The question right now should be how best to ensure that the charges on the table receive thorough consideration.”
Senate conservatives led by Lee, the chairman of the Steering Committee, accused Democrats of “nuking” more than 200 years of Senate precedent by declining to hold a trial and vowed to retaliate by slowing business to a crawl on the floor.
Lee was incensed that Democrats voted to reject the second article of impeachment accusing Mayorkas of breaching the public trust by making false statements.
He pointed out that making false statements is a violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 and a felony offense.
“If this is not that high crime and misdemeanor, what is,” he demanded.
Republicans accused Democrats of ignoring a huge breakdown in security at the southern border resulting in 7.5 million illegal crossings recorded by Customs and Border Protection.
Republicans have also repeatedly pointed to high-profile crimes allegedly committed by people ho had crossed the border illegally, such as the killing of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia and the shooting death of a two-year-old child in Maryland, to score as many political points as they can ahead of this year’s election.
The House passed the two articles of impeachment by a vote of 214 to 213 on Feb. 13, despite the defection of three Republican lawmakers who voted against it: Reps. Mike Gallagher (Wis.), Ken Buck (Colo.) and Tom McClintock (Calif.).
But the House push to impeach Mayorkas began almost as soon as Republicans overtook the lower chamber, with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) introducing the first resolution to do so just after the GOP selected a Speaker. Several colleagues followed, but it was repeated efforts by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to force a vote on the matter that accelerated its consideration in the House.
The first attempt by the House to approve the articles of impeachment failed on Feb. 6 by a vote of 214 to 216, an embarrassing temporary setback for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
The House articles embraced an unusual approach to impeachment, accusing Mayorkas of violating immigration laws as well as “breach of public trust” — arguing he had violated his oath of office.
The bulk of the articles lists various immigration statutes Republicans say Mayorkas violated. That includes a law requiring the detention of all migrants entering the country — something no administration has ever done. They also suggest enforcement policies laid out by Mayorkas were illegal, though they were upheld by the Supreme Court. Immigration law experts have also said Mayorkas’s policies are in line with immigration statutes and how they’ve been carried out by prior administrations.
They also fault Mayorkas for lifting several Trump administration policies — including one actually lifted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Republicans also accused Mayorkas of lying to Congress in saying the border was operationally secure, arguing he did not meet the definition under the Secure Fence Act, which says such a standard is met only when not a single person or good wrongly crosses the border.
Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, accused House Republicans of “wasting” the Senate’s time with a “sham” impeachment and urged GOP lawmakers instead to pass legislation to reform the nation’s asylum laws, which the administration argues must happen for it to stem the huge flow of migrants into the country.
“Congressional Republicans should stop wasting time with unfounded attacks, and instead do their job by passing bipartisan legislation to properly fund the Department’s vital national security missions and finally fix our broken immigration system,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Senate dismisses Mayorkas impeachment without trial
The Senate voted Wednesday to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, shutting down the possibility of a lengthy Senate trial, which Republicans …
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Well-Known Member
They should call out every false statement.
Moskowitz confronts Greene on Ukraine, Nazi remarks
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) confronted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in a Wednesday hearing about her false claims that Nazism was rampant in Ukraine — an argument frequently touted by Russian President Vladimir Putin to justify his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a House Oversight Committee hearing titled “Defending America from the Chinese Communist Party’s Political Warfare,” Moskowitz issued a searing rebuke of the Georgia congresswoman’s efforts to paint Ukrainians as Nazis and pushed back against her comparisons of Ukraine’s government to that of Nazi Germany.
“Stop bringing up Nazis and Hitler. The only people who know about Nazis and Hitler are the 10 million people and their families who lost their loved ones — generations of people who were wiped out,” Moskowitz said.
“It is enough of this disgusting behavior, using Nazis as propaganda,” he continued. “You want to talk about Nazis? Get yourself over to the Holocaust Museum. You go see what Nazis did.”
“It’s despicable that we use that, and we allow it, and we sit here like somehow it’s regular,” he said.
Moskowitz began by invoking his own family’s history, saying, “Now, I want to address something else that went on in this committee by another member,” referring to Greene’s comments earlier the same day.
“And I say this as someone whose grandparents escaped the Holocaust. My grandmother was part of the Kindertransport out of Germany. Her parents were killed in Auschwitz. My grandfather, her husband, escaped Poland from the pogroms.”
Moskowitz described Nazi Germany’s efforts to wipe out the Jewish people, and criticized fellow lawmakers for tolerating false claims, saying, “We pretend that behavior is acceptable and regular.”
“There are no concentration camps in Ukraine. They’re not taking babies and shooting them in the ear because they’re Jewish. There’s no gas chambers. There’s no ovens. They’re not railing people in, they’re not ripping gold out of people’s mouths. They’re not taking stuff out of their homes. They’re not trying to erase a people, the Ukrainians,” Moskowitz said.
His remarks follow Greene’s line of questioning in the hearing, which she used to push back on Democrats’ witness, historian Timothy Snyder, an expert on the Holocaust, fascism, the Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe.
In her remarks, Greene highlighted several news stories and displayed several photos that she said depicted neo-Nazis in Ukraine. She raised concerns that it is now widely considered misinformation to talk about “the Nazis in Ukraine and their recruitment efforts that go all around the world.”
Greene displayed a news story, entitled, “Inside a White Supremacist Militia in Ukraine,” and then held up a photo of what appeared to be two Ukrainian soldiers, smiling, and holding their right hands up as a form of salute.
“This looks like something you’d see out of Hitler’s Germany from Ukraine. And this is something that’s extremely important to talk about,” Greene said.
When given a chance to respond to Greene’s remarks, Snyder refuted the suggestion that Nazis were pervasive in Ukrainian government, and he urged lawmakers to redirect their concerns about fascism to focus on Russia.
“If the chamber is interested in the degree of far-right participation in Ukrainian politics, you can be assured that no far-right party has ever crossed 3 percent … in a Ukrainian election,” he said. “So, of course, there are bad people in every country, but by any comparative standard, it is a very small phenomenon.”
“In Russia, on the other hand, the army includes openly Nazi formations … the government itself is fascist in character, and it is carrying out a war, which includes deportation of children by the tens of thousands, the open intention of destroying a state, as well as mass torture,” Snyder said. “So if we’re looking for fascism, and if there is anyone who is sincerely concerned about halting fascism or racism, you would wish to halt Russia.”
thehill.com
Moskowitz confronts Greene on Ukraine, Nazi remarks
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) confronted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in a Wednesday hearing about her false claims that Nazism was rampant in Ukraine — an argument frequently touted by Russian President Vladimir Putin to justify his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a House Oversight Committee hearing titled “Defending America from the Chinese Communist Party’s Political Warfare,” Moskowitz issued a searing rebuke of the Georgia congresswoman’s efforts to paint Ukrainians as Nazis and pushed back against her comparisons of Ukraine’s government to that of Nazi Germany.
“Stop bringing up Nazis and Hitler. The only people who know about Nazis and Hitler are the 10 million people and their families who lost their loved ones — generations of people who were wiped out,” Moskowitz said.
“It is enough of this disgusting behavior, using Nazis as propaganda,” he continued. “You want to talk about Nazis? Get yourself over to the Holocaust Museum. You go see what Nazis did.”
“It’s despicable that we use that, and we allow it, and we sit here like somehow it’s regular,” he said.
Moskowitz began by invoking his own family’s history, saying, “Now, I want to address something else that went on in this committee by another member,” referring to Greene’s comments earlier the same day.
“And I say this as someone whose grandparents escaped the Holocaust. My grandmother was part of the Kindertransport out of Germany. Her parents were killed in Auschwitz. My grandfather, her husband, escaped Poland from the pogroms.”
Moskowitz described Nazi Germany’s efforts to wipe out the Jewish people, and criticized fellow lawmakers for tolerating false claims, saying, “We pretend that behavior is acceptable and regular.”
“There are no concentration camps in Ukraine. They’re not taking babies and shooting them in the ear because they’re Jewish. There’s no gas chambers. There’s no ovens. They’re not railing people in, they’re not ripping gold out of people’s mouths. They’re not taking stuff out of their homes. They’re not trying to erase a people, the Ukrainians,” Moskowitz said.
His remarks follow Greene’s line of questioning in the hearing, which she used to push back on Democrats’ witness, historian Timothy Snyder, an expert on the Holocaust, fascism, the Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe.
In her remarks, Greene highlighted several news stories and displayed several photos that she said depicted neo-Nazis in Ukraine. She raised concerns that it is now widely considered misinformation to talk about “the Nazis in Ukraine and their recruitment efforts that go all around the world.”
Greene displayed a news story, entitled, “Inside a White Supremacist Militia in Ukraine,” and then held up a photo of what appeared to be two Ukrainian soldiers, smiling, and holding their right hands up as a form of salute.
“This looks like something you’d see out of Hitler’s Germany from Ukraine. And this is something that’s extremely important to talk about,” Greene said.
When given a chance to respond to Greene’s remarks, Snyder refuted the suggestion that Nazis were pervasive in Ukrainian government, and he urged lawmakers to redirect their concerns about fascism to focus on Russia.
“If the chamber is interested in the degree of far-right participation in Ukrainian politics, you can be assured that no far-right party has ever crossed 3 percent … in a Ukrainian election,” he said. “So, of course, there are bad people in every country, but by any comparative standard, it is a very small phenomenon.”
“In Russia, on the other hand, the army includes openly Nazi formations … the government itself is fascist in character, and it is carrying out a war, which includes deportation of children by the tens of thousands, the open intention of destroying a state, as well as mass torture,” Snyder said. “So if we’re looking for fascism, and if there is anyone who is sincerely concerned about halting fascism or racism, you would wish to halt Russia.”
Moskowitz confronts Greene on Ukraine, Nazi remarks
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) confronted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in a Wednesday hearing about her false claims that Nazism was rampant in Ukraine — an argument frequently touted by Russ…
thehill.com
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Well-Known Member
Boo Hoo mudda fukkasWhy are we here?
Senate dismisses Mayorkas impeachment without trial
The Senate voted Wednesday to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, shutting down the possibility of a lengthy Senate trial, which Republicans had demanded to bring attention to the Biden administration’s record on immigration and border security.
It marked the first time in 225 years the Senate voted to immediately dismiss impeachment charges approved by the House instead of holding a floor trial or referring the matter to a special committee to review it.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued a trial wasn’t necessary because the House had sent over “the least legitimate, least substantive and most politicized impeachment trial ever in the history of the United States.”
“The charges brought against Secretary Mayorkas fail to meet the high standards of high crimes and misdemeanors. To validate this gross abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future,” he warned.
The Senate voted to dismiss the charges by sustaining two points of order raised by Schumer asserting that they did not rise “to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor” as required by the Constitution.
Schumer moved to quash the charges immediately after freshman Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) objected to a unanimous consent request by Schumer to give senators time to debate the trial procedure and to consider resolutions sponsored by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to either hold a full trial or send the impeachment to a special committee for thorough review.
Schmitt was protesting Schumer’s plan to eventually move to dismiss the impeachment after defeating the motions to hold a trial or refer it to committee.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tried to block Schumer’s move to dismiss the charges by offering a motion to send the Senate into a private session to debate the constitutionality of the impeachment but Democrats voted it down.
Republicans offered several other motions to delay Schumer’s bid to avoid a trial, including motions to adjourn the proceedings to a later date and to table the Democratic leader’s objections. All those efforts failed on party-line votes.
Marking the solemnity of the moment, senators voted while seated at their Senate desks.
Republican senators wanted to delay the vote to dismiss the charges for as long as possible but were restricted by the Senate’s impeachment rules, which limit debate on the floor in the absence of a resolution setting the guidelines for a trial.
Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who was presiding over the chamber, had to bang her gavel several times to quiet Republican senators who tried to speak more than a few sentences on the floor.
The floor became slightly rowdy at times, such as when Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) tried to speak over Murray’s efforts to gavel him to silence, prompting Democratic senators to call out: “No debate.”
There was some uncertainty before the vote whether Schumer would be able to hold all 51 members of the Democratic caucus together as Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) told reporters last week that the charges would need to be reviewed seriously by the Senate if they turned out to be anything more than a political stunt.
Tester, however, appeared unfazed by the political pressure, at one point grabbing a bag of peanut butter M&Ms out of Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) desk during a lull in the action.
There was also some doubt about how independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) would vote, as she stayed quiet about her position in the leadup to Wednesday. Sinema has worked closely with Senate Republican colleagues on border security, and in a hearing with Mayorkas last year expressed concern about the dramatic increase in border crossings during the Biden administration.
The only defection came from the Republican side of the aisle when Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted “present” on Schumer’s point-of-order objection that the House had failed to allege conduct in its first article of impeachment reaching the constitutional standard of a high crime or misdemeanor.
She then voted with Republicans to reject Schumer’s similar point of order on the second article accusing Mayorkas of lying to Congress.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) accused Democrats of failing to perform their constitutional duty by shoving the impeachment aside.
“Under the Constitution and the rules of impeachment, it is the job of this body to consider the articles of impeachment brought before us and to render judgment,” he said on the floor. “The question right now should be how best to ensure that the charges on the table receive thorough consideration.”
Senate conservatives led by Lee, the chairman of the Steering Committee, accused Democrats of “nuking” more than 200 years of Senate precedent by declining to hold a trial and vowed to retaliate by slowing business to a crawl on the floor.
Lee was incensed that Democrats voted to reject the second article of impeachment accusing Mayorkas of breaching the public trust by making false statements.
He pointed out that making false statements is a violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 and a felony offense.
“If this is not that high crime and misdemeanor, what is,” he demanded.
Republicans accused Democrats of ignoring a huge breakdown in security at the southern border resulting in 7.5 million illegal crossings recorded by Customs and Border Protection.
Republicans have also repeatedly pointed to high-profile crimes allegedly committed by people ho had crossed the border illegally, such as the killing of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia and the shooting death of a two-year-old child in Maryland, to score as many political points as they can ahead of this year’s election.
The House passed the two articles of impeachment by a vote of 214 to 213 on Feb. 13, despite the defection of three Republican lawmakers who voted against it: Reps. Mike Gallagher (Wis.), Ken Buck (Colo.) and Tom McClintock (Calif.).
But the House push to impeach Mayorkas began almost as soon as Republicans overtook the lower chamber, with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) introducing the first resolution to do so just after the GOP selected a Speaker. Several colleagues followed, but it was repeated efforts by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to force a vote on the matter that accelerated its consideration in the House.
The first attempt by the House to approve the articles of impeachment failed on Feb. 6 by a vote of 214 to 216, an embarrassing temporary setback for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
The House articles embraced an unusual approach to impeachment, accusing Mayorkas of violating immigration laws as well as “breach of public trust” — arguing he had violated his oath of office.
The bulk of the articles lists various immigration statutes Republicans say Mayorkas violated. That includes a law requiring the detention of all migrants entering the country — something no administration has ever done. They also suggest enforcement policies laid out by Mayorkas were illegal, though they were upheld by the Supreme Court. Immigration law experts have also said Mayorkas’s policies are in line with immigration statutes and how they’ve been carried out by prior administrations.
They also fault Mayorkas for lifting several Trump administration policies — including one actually lifted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Republicans also accused Mayorkas of lying to Congress in saying the border was operationally secure, arguing he did not meet the definition under the Secure Fence Act, which says such a standard is met only when not a single person or good wrongly crosses the border.
Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, accused House Republicans of “wasting” the Senate’s time with a “sham” impeachment and urged GOP lawmakers instead to pass legislation to reform the nation’s asylum laws, which the administration argues must happen for it to stem the huge flow of migrants into the country.
“Congressional Republicans should stop wasting time with unfounded attacks, and instead do their job by passing bipartisan legislation to properly fund the Department’s vital national security missions and finally fix our broken immigration system,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Senate dismisses Mayorkas impeachment without trial
The Senate voted Wednesday to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, shutting down the possibility of a lengthy Senate trial, which Republicans …
