Month: November 2021

Categories
Congress GOP GOP Whining

Kevin McCarthy’s Failure To Stop Biden’s Infrastructure Bill Sets Off A ‘Bloodletting’ Inside The GOP

 

For Republicans, last week began with ecstasy and ended with agony, as factions within the party began to turn on each other.

The high point for the GOP was when Glenn Youngkin (R) defeated Terry McAuliffe (D) in the Virginia gubernatorial election. For a while, it even looked as if the incumbent Democratic governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, might also be ousted by a GOP challenger, but Murphy managed to squeak out a narrow victory.

And then, as Aaron Blake of the Washington Post notes, came Friday, and for most of the day it appeared House Democrats might not have the votes to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. But something odd happened: Republicans in the House failed to hold all of their members to vote against the Biden bill:

Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed late Friday night and is headed for his signature after months of intense wrangling over the details — particularly whether it would be tied to a larger spending plan that progressives insisted upon passing alongside it. But in the end it wasn’t really those progressives who provided the key votes, but rather the 13 Republicans. The final vote count was 228 to 206, meaning if no Republicans had voted for the bill, it wouldn’t have passed.

Those 13 defections may have all but sealed the fate of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), especially if Republicans manage to retake the majority in the 2022 midterm elections.

The sniping began immediately after the infrastructure bill passed with GOP support, and the right-wing of the party wasn’t shy about expressing their disgust:

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) issued a statement which read in part:

“That 13 House Republicans provided the votes needed to pass this is absurd.”

The ever-histrionic Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) went on a tweet storm, threatening to do everything but call down a plague of frogs and locusts on the nation:

Keep in mind that McCarthy clearly misread what was building inside the House GOP caucus, saying earlier this week that he expected the infrastructure was doomed to failure:

While McCarthy previously kept his powder dry on whipping against the bill, he ultimately pushed for his members to vote against it. As recently as last week, McCarthy said, “I don’t expect few, if any, to vote for it, if it comes to the floor today.” In another interview, he was asked about the infrastructure bill and said, “It will fail.”

It did not fail. McCarthy and the GOP leadership did. And that alone tells you Republicans are in disarray. That doesn’t bode well for their plans to retake the majority a year from now.

Oh, and there’s also a human infrastructure bill headed down the tracks. It could come up for a vote as soon as next week.

The downfall of Kevin McCarthy, meanwhile, is almost complete.

 

Categories
Congress Donald Trump The Trump Adminstration

Adam Schiff: Former Trump Officials Are Lining Up To Cooperate With The 1/6 Committee

Even though he has told former members of his administration not to obey subpoenas they receive from the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection or talk to investigators with the 1/6 committee, many are doing exactly that, according to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA)

Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the 1/6 committee, was a guest on “The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell” recently, and he made it clear that many former Trump White House officials are talking without even being subpoenaed:

“They do include people from the former administration. They include people in the private sector. They include people are experts in some of the — for example, the social media issues that we’re investigating. So they run the gamut.

“But I think what has been encouraging to us is because we’ve had the cooperation of people in the public and private sector we know what to ask for. And we know when we demand the production of documents, and we’re not getting the full truth that we can hold those parties accountable.”

The House Select Committee will also be deposing former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark today, according to The Hill:

Clark, who was subpoenaed by the committee in October, was set to appear before the committee last week, but got a brief delay after splitting with his attorney. A source familiar confirmed that Clark will sit for a closed door deposition with investigators from the special House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. 

Clark, the former acting Civil Division assistant attorney general, won Trump’s favor after being introduced to the president by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), another staunch defender of Trump’s efforts in the days after he lost the election.

Clearly, former administration officials aren’t the least bit cowed by Trump’s demands that they remain silent and buck the inquiries of the Jan. 6 committee. That doesn’t bode well for the failed, one-term former president, and it also suggests that the committee will soon have enough evidence to make criminal referrals against Trump and top advisers such as former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Hopefully the DOJ will charge all of the guilty parties.

 

Categories
Crime Donald Trump The Trump Organization Uncategorized

New Grand Jury Seated In Manhattan As Case Against Trump Expands Again: Report

 

A second long-term grand jury has just been seated in Manhattan, according to the Washington Post, and the legal investigation of failed, one-term former President Donald Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, has expanded yet again.

The new grand jury, empaneled by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., will meet for three days a week over the next six months:

It was expected to hear evidence on Thursday, meeting in Manhattan’s Surrogate’s Court — usually a forum for disputes over the estates of the deceased — because the criminal court buildings are jammed with a rush of post-pandemic trials.

One person familiar with the matter said the second grand jury was expected to examine how former president Donald Trump’s company valued its assets.

The first grand jury investigated possible tax fraud by members of the Trump Organization, which resulted in the indictment of Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of Trump Organization who allegedly hid compensation from the IRS that was paid to them by the ex-president.

Trump and his company are also under investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James:

James (D) said in a court filing last year that her office was investigating Trump’s valuations of three properties: his Los Angeles golf course, a Manhattan office building and an estate in suburban New York called Seven Springs.

James’s filing said she was interested in a “conservation easement” that Trump obtained on the Seven Springs property in 2015 — giving him tax benefits in exchange for renouncing his right to build houses on part of the estate. Trump boosted the value of that tax break by estimating that the land would have brought him $21 million if he’d sold it.

The Trumps have repeatedly whined that they are being targeted by the legal system for political reasons, with Trump Org. Executive Vice President Eric Trump saying:

“This type of targeting and harassment violates every ethical guideline of a prosecutor. It’s wrong.”

Categories
Capitol Insurrection Domestic Terrorism GOP Whining

‘Karen’ Taylor Greene Gets Humiliated When She Berates A Warden At A Jail Holding Jan. 6 Rioters

When you consider how much she whines and complains about everything, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene really needs to change her name to “Karen.”

For example, Karen Taylor Greene showed up at a jail in Washington, D.C. (along with Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas) and demanded to visit with some of the Jan. 6 rioters/insurrectionists who are being held there, with Greene telling a deputy warden who denied the two entry (because they didn’t get approval from the Federal Bureau of Prisons in advance) that she was convinced he was “hiding” something:

“What do you have to hide here? Really, what are you hiding? I would like to see the whole facility. I’m concerned about every single person staying here.”

The warden refused her and Gohmert entry, asking in a calm, even tone:

“Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Clearly in need of a hearing aid, Greene remarked:

“Yes, you can open this door.”

Once again as calm as can be, the jail official told her:

“I’ll give you the phone number to the director’s office.”

Getting even more agitated, Greene retorted:

“You cannot deny them visitors. You’re clearly out of line in your position.”

At that point, Gohmert laughably suggested that he could have the deputy warden held in “contempt” by a federal judge, adding:

“We’ll be seeing you again.”

But what’s even more amazing is that Greene seemed to think the confrontation at the jail had been a win for her, so she shared a video of it on Twitter:

While her video will probably be a big hit with her acolytes (most of whom are the same brainless zombies that worship the failed, one-term former president), Karen Taylor Greene was quickly taken apart by others on social media, with many noting that the entire episode had been little more than a setup to garner attention:

https://twitter.com/TheOldOlaf/status/1455951493148786689?s=20

https://twitter.com/TheLesson55/status/1455962754804854785?s=20

Categories
Climate Change GOP Social Media The Karma Is Gonna Get Ya

Lauren Boebert Tries To Troll Greta Thunberg But Only Succeeds In Owning Herself

Much like her political idol, failed, one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) loves to try and use social media for the purposes of trolling those she disagrees with.

The problem, however, is that Boebert is so dense that most of the time all she accomplishes is owning herself in the most humiliating ways imaginable.

And that’s most certainly the case with a tweet Boebert sent out in reaction to remarks made by climate change activist Greta Thunberg, according to HuffPost:

Conspiracy theory-endorsing Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) faced mockery on Monday after she attacked climate activist Greta Thunberg’s “no more blah blah blah” comments at the United Nations COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

Outside the summit, Thunberg called out world leaders for being all talk and too little action on addressing global warming. “No more blah blah blah,” she said. “No more whatever the fuck they’re doing inside there.”

That led Boebert to provide her own snarky take on the well-known “tell me without telling me” meme that’s become a staple online:

Here’s the thing Boebert completely neglected to realize: She’s making fun of an 18-year-old girl who is genuinely trying to make the world a better place. Thunberg has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and will likely win that honor before she reaches the age of 21, which is virtually unheard of.

Lauren Boebert, on the other hand, is a loudmouth and a boor who barely managed to earn a high school diploma and seems to get dumber with each every word she speaks or tweets, suggesting on Monday that she would like to use explosives in order to blow up metal detectors at the U.S. Capitol.

It didn’t take long before Boebert got exactly what she deserved: A thorough verbal drubbing on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/JAS16AZ/status/1455269033540947969?s=20