Category: Congress

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Congress Donald Trump Elections GOP

Nervous Republicans Fear Internal Fighting Will Delay Trump’s 2024 Election Certification Beyond Inauguration Day

Next week, Congress is set to convene and certify the results of the 2024 presidential election, officially making Donald Trump the 47th president of the United States.

But there’s a very real chance the House of Representatives will be busy trying to determine who will be the next speaker of the House, which could take weeks and indefinitely delay election certification, a scenario that would humiliate Trump and leave the GOP in total disarray.

According to CNN, Republicans are terrified about what could be on the horizon.

But this time, there’s a huge shadow over the race: Congress has never before tried to certify a presidential election without a House speaker in place. Even senior Republicans say it’s unclear what would happen if there is no speaker on January 6 — when Congress is scheduled to certify Trump’s win — and they’re not eager not to find out.

“To oppose Johnson now weakens the GOP and strengthens Hakeem Jeffries. It also puts at risk the Electoral College Certification scheduled for 6 Jan. These guys serve as a ‘fifth column’ for the Dems,” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told CNN.

Here’s the conundrum facing Republicans: They can’t conduct official business in the House if they don’t have a speaker, which would leave them with two options that have never been tried before: Electing a temporary speaker or doing without one completely.

“Some Republicans are privately discussing ways to push the procedural limits so that Congress could certify Trump’s win without a leader. One person described an “emergency break glass option” that would involve allowing the House to vote to go into a special session. But that would be a tough sell for many institutionalist Republicans.”

Another possibility is to move up the date of Trump’s certification, making sure it takes place sometime before he’s inaugurated on Jan. 20. But what if that fails, too? In that case, it would likely trigger a constitutional crisis that the country has never experienced before.

Would Biden remain as president? The country has to have a president, right?

January is going to be an interesting month. And it could well end with Trump still waiting to be officially named as head of state. That’s certain to enrage him and make Republicans look incompetent.

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Congress Donald Trump Elections

Here’s How Democrats Can Legally Refuse To Certify Trump’s 2024 Victory

If Democrats in Congress want to make sure that Donald Trump isn’t sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on January 20 of next year, there’s a way they can block his taking office, but they’ll have to act now and invoke a section of the Constitution that was added shortly after the Civil War in 1868 and has never been used before.

That, according to former Ivy League law review editors Evan Davis and David Schulte, is a viable option, and they lay out the process in a fascinating article published by The Hill.

The Insurrection Clause of the U.S. Constitution states, “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

As Davis and Schulte explain, that one clause would delay Trump from becoming president until the matter could make its way through the federal courts, which could take months.

“Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution and not the government. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel,” they note, citing Trump’s second impeachment trial and the bipartisan House January 6 Committee.

Even though the Supreme Court has ruled on efforts to disqualify Trump for insurrection, all they decided was the proper venue hadn’t been chosen to keep a candidate off the presidential ticket. Federal legislation was necessary, the justices explained.

Federal legislation now exists in the form of the Electoral Count Act, which was updated in 2022. The updated Electoral Count Act says electors cannot be counted if one or more of them was not “regularly given,” which leads the authors to explain, “A vote for a candidate disqualified by the Constitution is plainly in accordance with the normal use of words ‘not regularly given.’ Disqualification for engaging in insurrection is no different from disqualification based on other constitutional requirements such as age, citizenship from birth and 14 years residency in the United States.”

Granted, Congressional Republicans will never agree to go along with their Democratic colleagues and disqualify Trump, but that doesn’t mean Democrats should refuse to issue a challenge.

“Democrats need to take a stand against Electoral College votes for a person disqualified by the Constitution from holding office unless and until this disability is removed. No less is required by their oath to support and defend the Constitution.”

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Congress Donald Trump Elections GOP

Looming Battle Over Next House Speaker Could ‘Indefinitely’ Delay Certification Of 2024 Election

One of the first duties of any Congress after a presidential election is to formally certify the results and declare who will be the next president and vice president of the United States.

However, that normally routine procedure could be put on hold for weeks or even months if the House of Representatives cannot elect a new speaker when they return to Washington on Jan. 3.

According to a report from Newsweek, current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) is facing an insurrection from hardline members of the GOP caucus, and that could seriously complicate matters when the lower chamber of Congress is supposed to certify the 2024 balloting three days later on Jan. 6.

Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) told Fox News, “If we have some kind of protracted fight where we can’t elect a speaker—the speaker’s not elected; we’re not sworn in. And if we’re not sworn in, we can’t certify the election.”

And that concern was echoed by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY).

“To ensure President Trump can take office and hit the ground running on January 20, we must be able to certify the 2024 election on January 6. However, without a speaker, we cannot complete this process,” Tenney fretted.

House Democrats are also not going to cross the aisle and try to save Johnson, according to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who told MSBC’s Jen Psaki, “There will be no Democrats available to save him or the extreme MAGA Republicans from themselves based on the breaching of a bipartisan agreement that reflected priorities that were good for the American people.”

What would happen in such a scenario? Joe Biden would remain as president until the House manages to elect a new speaker. And you can bet Trump will kick and scream in rage if his inauguration, which is scheduled for Jan. 20, is delayed for even a second.

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Congress GOP

Ethics Report: ‘Prostitution, Statutory Rape, Illegal Drug Use’ By Matt Gaetz

Former GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida allegedly engaged in several illegal activities, including drug use, prostitution, and statutory rape, according to the draft of a report from the House Ethics Committee that has not yet been made public.

CBS News reports, “The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”

One of the most explosive allegations details a 2018 trip the Florida Republican made to the Bahamas where he reportedly had a drug-soaked party with at least four women.

“From 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use,” noted the report, which lists payments totaling more than $90,000 to 12 different women.

The committee said it also received testimony that at a 2017 party, Gaetz twice had sex with “Victim A,” who was 17 years old at the time and had just completed her junior year in high school.

“Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex,” the committee wrote. “Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age.”

Drugs are a constant theme at the parties Gaetz was a part of. So much so that some of the women who were present at them said later they could only recall portions of what happened because they had been so loaded.

The report noted that while all the women who testified said the sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual, one woman told the committee the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have “impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.”

Gaetz resigned from Congress in November after Donald Trump said he planned to nominate him as the next attorney general. After pushback from Republicans, Gaetz withdrew his name for consideration.

It remains to be seen is if Gaetz will ever face legal consequences for his behavior, especially since he has hinted he may seek office in Florida, either as governor or U.S. Senator from the Sunshine State.

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Congress GOP

Mike Johnson’s ‘Extremely Tenuous’ Speakership Is Coming To A Humiliating End

When the next Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2025, one of the first things you can expect to see transpire is a vote to remove Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA).

On Thursday, Johnson watched as a bipartisan funding bill to keep the U.S. government running through the holidays went down in flames after both Donald Trump and Elon Musk signaled they didn’t want it to pass.

Mychael Schnell of The Hill explained Johnson’s precarious position as he tries to please members of the House GOP caucus and the Trump-Musk coalition, which appears to be a co-presidency, even though Musk wasn’t on the ballot.

“The fact that Mike Lee and, for example, Marjorie Taylor Greene also are floating other people for speaker, including Elon Musk, is a reflection of their discontent with speaker Johnson, and that’s the significant part here,” Schnell noted. “The House is going to gather in the chamber on Jan. 3 to select the next speaker of the House, and while Mike Johnson was unanimously nominated by his conference last month for the gavel, his grip on that looks extremely tenuous right now.”

“There’s at least one Republican, Tom Massie, who’s already saying he will not support Johnson on Jan. 3,” Schnell added. “I’ve spoken to a number of others who say they are uncertain, and they are very upset with how speaker Johnson is currently handling the spending deal. Talking about Marjorie Taylor Greene for a second, she was somebody who led the motion to vacate against Johnson earlier this year, then ultimately said she would support him. The fact that she is now floating somebody else shows how deep this discontent is with the Republican conference, and it is a worrying sign for Mike Johnson as he heads into the speaker vote next month.”

“I will note the whole conversation in the lead up to this spending fight was Republicans were saying, we are watching so closely to see how Mike Johnson handles this, this will determine if we can support him in January,” Schnell concluded “Right now, it’s not going well for him.”

While it’s certainly fun to watch Johnson get dealt a giant dose of karma, his imminent downfall raises a troubling question: Who will replace him? Might it be a hardcore MAGA maniac like Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) or some other right-wing extremist who is only too happy to do the bidding of both Musk and Trump? If so, we could be in for some very dark days ahead.