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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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GOP Social Media WTF?!

GOP Lawmaker Mocked For Posting Photo Of Star Wars Prop He Claims Is A ‘Crashed Drone’

Pennsylvania GOP state senator Doug Mastriano announced on Twitter/X that he had located one of the drones that have been spotted hovering over areas in the Northeastern United States over the past several days, but was quickly humiliated when the photo included with his online posting proved to be a prop from the “Star Wars” movie franchise.

“It is inconceivable that the federal government has no answers nor has taken any action to get to the bottom of the unidentified drones. The fecklessness of this administration was on display last year when a Chinese surveillance balloon was allowed to fly over the entire continental United States before being shot down. Such should be viewed as a threat to our nation and citizens and action is long overdue. We have recourses and assets in our arsenal to get answers, but I suppose Ukraine is more important to the White House. January 20th can’t come soon enough,” Mastriano wrote.

Has Mastriano never seen a “Star Wars” film, or is he just trying to stir up fear over a situation that has drawn national interest?

Whatever the reason, the senator was sternly rebuked by others on Twitter.

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GOP Social Safety Net WTF?!

GOP Congressman: ‘We Can Move The Retirement Age Back’ To ‘Save’ Social Security

Republican Congressman Mark Alford (MO) said this morning that the way to cut trillions from the federal budget is to “move the retirement age back” and “save” Social Security.

On Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria, Alford said both Social Security and Medicare need to be changed because “people are living longer.”

Referencing a visit to Capitol Hill last week from Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have been charged by Donald Trump to slash the federal budget, Alford said, “You know they were here the last week speaking to members of Congress and really they weren’t speaking as much that’s were listening, getting some — from all sides of our conference — some ideas to cut our budget.”

The Missouri Republican added:

“We all agree this is an unsustainable area that we’re in right now — almost $36 trillion in debt and we are spending more on the interest on our debt than we are going to spend on the National Defense Authorization Act this year. Over a trillion dollars. And so we’ve got to right the ship and it’s going to mean cuts. It’s going to mean cuts to the 24% of the discretionary spending that we have and it’s also going to mean looking long-term at the front end of some programs like Social Security and Medicare. Not taking anyone off of what they paid into so far. But there is some waste, abuse and fraud in Medicare that we can take those numbers back and add to our general coffers and our treasury. And on the front end on Social Security, I think there’s a way, when people are living longer, they’re retiring later, then on the front end we can move that retirement age back a little bit.”

Move the retirement age back? How far? To the age of 70? To 80? Or would 90 be better for the GOP?

Hey, maybe we should say no one can ever retire and has to work until the day they die. And those who become unable to work can just starve, thereby making them less of a burden on the government. Sound good, Congressman Alford?

Here’s a better plan: Tax the rich at a rate of 50 percent or higher and cut every member of Congress’ salary to $5 a year with no benefits until they solve the problem without screwing over working people.