Tag: GOP

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Congress GOP

Maxine Waters Takes A GOP Colleague To School When He Whines About ‘Socialism’ In The US

It’s a favorite red herring used by Republicans when they cannot possibly win a debate on facts or reason: Cry socialism.

But as one GOP congressman found out Tuesday, using the socialism cry doesn’t always end well when someone turns the argument on its head and exposes you as as fearmongering demagogue.

The setting was the House Rules Committee. Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) insisted, “We will not have a cradle to grave dependency. This country will not be all things to all people. We cannot create an expectation that government is all things to all people.”

Langworthy then asked Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who was testifying as a witness:

“Do you agree with Donald Trump’s statement in the 2019 State of the Union that America will never be a socialist country.”

Waters noted that the Trump administration ran up the national debt and spent like a drunken sailor, pointing out that Langworthy’s fears about socialism were bogus, asking him if the vaunted GOP/Trump Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that many Republicans in Congress took funds from was socialist.

Langworthy reiterated his question about whether or not Waters agreed with what Trump said about socialism. To that, she responded:

“President Trump said a lot of things. He said he thought Hitler did some good things. For those of you who continue to embrace Trump and all that he did and said — I reject all that. Trump has proven to be someone who is in line with dictators and admires them and claims to love them, so I reject any and everything Trump has to say.”

Finally, Waters shut down Langworthy by telling him:

“Sometimes you like socialism, sometimes you act like you don’t.”

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Climate Change Congress GOP Viral Video

WATCH AOC Emasculate A GOP Congressman After He Tells Her To ‘Educate Herself’

Video of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) laying a verbal smackdown on a condescending House Republican colleague has gone viral on social media.

During floor debate Thursday on a bill that would require the federal government “to approve a plan to increase drilling on federal lands and waters” before drawing fuel from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in non-emergency cases, Ocasio-Cortez proposed an amendment to the legislation, HuffPost reports.

(AOC) argued in a speech on the House floor Thursday that leasing more land to fossil fuel companies wouldn’t guarantee a drop in gas prices and added that companies making profits won’t “pass along” the savings to consumers.

“What leasing more land does do, however, is guarantee that we will accelerate the devastating impact of climate change,” Ocasio-Cortez argued.

That led Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) to rise and address Ocasio-Cortez:

“You care about the air quality, you care about climate change. Natural gas is what got America there. Educate yourself on that.”

In response, Ocasio-Cortez took a rhetorical flamethrower to Duncan, telling him:

“I understand in this body it’s not the first time that it seems as though the opposing side can’t seem to be able to debate the issue and so they must come after my character.

“While I cannot control the fact that the other side seems to have made the assumption that I am uneducated, one of the things I can say… is while I may not work for Wall Street, that is true. I may not be here with the mission to increase profits for corporations, that is true. My mission here is for the well-being and dignity of our family and our planet’s future, for our children’s ability to live on this planet.”

She also took Duncan to task later in the day on Twitter:

“Fewer things are more predictable than Republicans having a meltdown when I’m clearing them in a debate.”

“In case you’re curious about why this man is so angry with me, it may be because I introduced an amendment to a GOP bill that would prohibit oil and gas companies who engage in stock buybacks from leasing federal lands,” she wrote, adding “Seems as though I hit a nerve!”

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Congress GOP

MT Greene’s Attempt To ‘Legislate’ Gets Defeated By One Of The Largest Margins In History

Now that she has the full support and backing of Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, who said earlier this week that he will “always take care of her,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is trying to act like a responsible legislator and try to pass legislation.

However, her first attempt at that endeavor didn’t go very well on Thursday, as an amendment she introduced regarding the sale of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) went down in flames, losing by one of the largest margins in the history of Congress.

According to HuffPost:

New House rules put in place by the Republican majority allow any lawmaker to offer an amendment. The Hill reported that led to some 140 amendments being proposed for a bill regarding the use of the strategic petroleum reserve. Greene’s proposed amendment would have forbidden President Joe Biden from selling oil from the reserve.

The conspiracy theorist ― who spoke last year at a white nationalist event ― was joined by just 13 others as the amendment failed 14-418.

418 to 14. Wow! That’s about as lopsided of a margin as you’ll ever see in the House of Representatives, and it’s indicative of a much larger trend taking place now that Republicans run the House: Amendments and bills that have no chance of passing being introduced so someone can claim credit as proof that he or she is doing their job.

Some even suggested that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who was once best friends with Greene, was clearly trying to troll Greene with this tweet:

That was followed by other online mockery aimed directly at the Georgia Republican, who was reminded that she’s not very good at pretending to be anything other than a punchline.

https://twitter.com/alice_radley/status/1618784312341704706?s=20&t=0Nni94RqK-aGjrvWUIZUOg
https://twitter.com/GaryLegum/status/1618794763519676416?s=20&t=cE4gj2r0AMa6TthjqRnboA

For her next feat, perhaps Marge can pull a rabbit out of her ass and pretend she’s finally accomplished something.

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Congress GOP Kevin McCarthy

Hakeem Jeffries Just Put Kevin McCarthy On Notice

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has just put Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on notice regarding committee assignments, and if McCarthy ignores the warning it could well make his tenure as Speaker shorter than he ever imagined.

The Washington Post reports that Jeffries wrote McCarthy to let him know he was recommending Reps. Adam B. Schiff and Eric Swalwell be reappointed to the House Intelligence Committee, which Schiff once chaired.

In a letter dated Saturday, Jeffries argued that McCarthy has no justifiable reason not to accept his appointments of Schiff, who served as chairman of the Intelligence panel until Republicans took control of the chamber, and Swalwell.

In his letter, Jeffries writes:

“It is my understanding that you intend to break with the longstanding House tradition of deference to the minority party Intelligence Committee recommendations and deny seats to Ranking Member Schiff and Representative Swalwell. The denial of seats to duly elected Members of the House Democratic Caucus runs counter to the serious and sober mission of the Intelligence Committee.”

McCarthy has said he will not place Schiff and Swalwell on the Intelligence Committee, seeking to exact revenge on Democrats for removing Reps. Paul Gosar (AZ) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) from committee assignments. But as Jeffries notes in his letter, both Gosar and Greene were removed by a vote of the full House.

Greene and Gosar were removed “after a bipartisan vote of the House found them unfit to serve on standing committees for directly inciting violence against their colleagues. It does not serve as precedent or justification for the removal of Representatives Schiff and Swalwell, given that they have never exhibited violent thoughts or behavior.”

Jeffries also pointed out that McCarthy had no problem appointing “serial fraudster” George Santos (R-NY) to committees despite the fact that he is facing multiple investigations, including from the House Ethics Committee and may also be subjected to criminal prosecution for lying in order to win his congressional seat.

If McCarthy insists on refusing to seat Schiff and Swalwell, Democrats could call for a motion to vacate, a procedure which would result in a formal vote to remove McCarthy from the Speaker’s chair. Considering that McCarthy only holds a slim majority in the House, such a move could further weaken him.

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Congress GOP

Marjorie Taylor Greene Confronts Lauren Boebert In House Restroom: ‘Don’t Be Ugly!’

The growing divide between Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) began on January 3, 2023, the first day of the new Congress.

Greene had already aligned herself with then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), making it clear she planned to support him in his bid to be the next Speaker of the House.

Boebert, on the other hand, was in the Anyone But McCarthy camp, and a confrontation between her and Greene seemed inevitable.

As debate began on who would be Speaker, Boebert and Greene had a nasty tête-à-tête in a House restroom, according to The Daily Beast.

According to multiple sources, the two women were nearly in a screaming match in the Speaker’s lobby ladies room just off the House floor.

“Greene questioned Boebert’s loyalty to McCarthy, and after a few words were exchanged, Boebert stormed out,” a source familiar with the fight told The Daily Beast.

According to another source familiar, while in the bathroom, Greene asked Boebert, “You were OK taking millions of dollars from McCarthy but you refuse to vote for him for Speaker, Lauren?”

That wasn’t all that took place, the source noted. As Greene continued to press Boebert, the Colorado congresswoman ran away like a child.

The first source said Greene was in a stall and, upon coming out, confronted Boebert about taking money from McCarthy for her re-election and then turning against McCarthy when it came time to vote. The Colorado Republican was allegedly unaware that Greene was also in the bathroom at the time.

“That’s when Lauren said, ‘Don’t be ugly,’” the first source said, before she—in the words of this source—“ran out like a little schoolgirl.”

When confronted with details of the dustup between the two women, Boebert again ran away, telling a reporter, “See you later. Bye.”

The two women are also going in opposite directions when it comes to supporting Donald Trump in his 2024 bid for the White House.

On one hand, Greene issued an early endorsement of the ex-president. Boebert, on the other hand, has left the door open to backing a Republican 2024 presidential contender that isn’t Trump.

“I certainly would not turn my back on President Trump. I am a huge supporter of his,” Boebert told a local Colorado CBS affiliate back in November, while not pledging her alliance to Trump’s 2024 presidential endeavor. The lawmaker went on to add that she also does “love” Trump foe Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor.

What remains unclear is whether it will be Boebert or Greene who winds up surviving in the new cutthroat world now that Republicans control the House. McCarthy is hanging on as Speaker by the skin of his teeth, and some in the GOP are already hinting they want to see him deposed and replaced by a more right-wing Republican.

Boebert and Greene, meanwhile, may need to try and coordinate their bathroom breaks to avoid future confrontations.