Category: Congress

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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.

 

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Congress Donald Trump

Jasmine Crockett Has The Perfect Clapback To Donald Trump’s Latest Absurd Demand

Even though he doesn’t become president for another month, Donald Trump is already making ridiculous demands of Congress that he seems to believe have validity.

Trump has even decided to insert himself into the process of passing a federal budget to avoid a government shutdown before funding expires on Friday, just days before Christmas.

Specifically, Trump is insisting that an increase in the debt ceiling be included in the bipartisan package that has been making its way through the House of Representatives, The Hill reports.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appeared caught off guard Wednesday as President-elect Trump demanded that a debt ceiling hike be paired with a stopgap government funding bill, rejecting a sweeping bipartisan plan to avert a government shutdown this week.

Trump said in a joint statement with Vice President-elect JD Vance that while the party wants disaster aid and support for farmers — issues that are tackled in the temporary funding plan — he wants Congress to pass a “streamlined spending bill” that doesn’t give Democrats “everything they want” and has “an increase in the debt ceiling.”

Trump’s demands didn’t sit well with Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner, “This quote unquote ‘mandate’ that MAGA thinks exists, it ain’t going nowhere because they literally can’t do the basics. We have passed the least amount of bills in this Congress because of the Republicans.”

“Listen, I ain’t got no favors for you, Trump. When you get here then yes, you will have the House, the Senate as well as the White House and y’all can see if y’all can figure it out. But right now, I am not trying to shut down this government…” Crockett added, making it clear she has no plans to take marching orders from a rapist president-elect who thinks he can issue edicts via social media.

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Congress Elon Musk GOP WTF?!

Rand Paul Suggests Making Elon Musk Speaker Of The House

When he donated hundreds of millions of dollars to help Donald Trump win the 2024 presidential election, Elon Musk apparently managed to purchase the entire Republican Party, too

Sen. Rand Paul provided irrefutable evidence of that this morning on the social media platform that Musk happens to own.

“The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress,” Paul wrote on Twitter/X. “Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk . . . think about it .  . . nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’ minds)”

Could Musk qualify for the post of leading the House of Representatives? Perhaps, but would that be a good idea? After all, his only qualification is being the richest man in the world and Trump’s benefactor. Also, the fact that he was born in South Africa might be a sticking point, especially since he’d then be in the presidential line of succession.

Also, the fact that Musk’s space exploration company, SpaceX, has millions of dollars in contracts with the federal government would raise serious conflict of interest questions.

Sen. Paul’s harebrained suggestion was immediately met with online pushback. Here’s a sampling:

https://twitter.com/Vincinnatus/status/1869726376854766076