Tag: House of Representatives

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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 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

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Congress Elections GOP

GOP Accuses Democrats Of ‘Stealing Another Seat’ As Their House Majority Shrinks Even Further

Since it’s the largest state in the continental United States, California is just now finishing up counting all the ballots that were cast on Election Day three weeks ago, and the result of a House race in the Golden State is enraging many in the GOP.

On Tuesday, Democrat Adam Gray overtook Rep. John Durate (R-CA) in a key race in the House of Representatives by a slim 100-vote margin.

If Gray holds on and wins the seat, Republicans would only have a razor-thin majority in the House of just a few seats, and that could prove disastrous for them as they seek to pass legislation.

As you’d expect, Republicans immediately began suggesting that the House was being “stolen” by Democrats.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) suggested that Democrats were “stealing another seat.”

Other MAGA morons also cried foul, but they failed to produce a shred of evidence to support such a claim. Take a look:

However, one person explained why some votes are still being tabulated in California:

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Congress Donald Trump Elections GOP

Democrat Swats Down His GOP Colleagues By Turning One Of Their Favorite Insults Back On Them

Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern (MA) is fed up with his GOP House colleagues who defend convicted felon Donald Trump yet happily attack Hunter Biden, who was found guilty Tuesday of three federal gun crimes.

According to Mediaite, McGovern used the verdict against President Joe Biden’s son as the jumping off point for a larger argument.

The Massachusetts lawmaker juxtaposed Republicans’ reaction to Trump’s criminal conviction last month to Democrats’ response to Hunter Biden’s conviction on Tuesday. Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records and the president’s son was found guilty on three gun-related charges. In the former instance, Republicans slammed the verdict and even claimed President Joe Biden was behind the state charges in New York. Meanwhile, regarding his son, the president said he accepts the outcome of his son’s trial.

McGovern began by contrasting Hunter Biden’s actions after he was found guilty with Trump’s constant whining since a jury convicted him last month.

“Did Hunter Biden walk out of the courthouse this morning and slam the judge or the prosecutors? Did he claim some vast conspiracy to weaponize the legal system against him? No, he did not. In a statement on the verdict, President Biden said, ‘I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process.'”

He then added, “Now I ask, after the verdict this morning, how can any Republican in their right mind argue that the Biden administration is weaponizing the DOJ to hurt Republicans and to help Democrats? They just convicted the president’s own son, to say nothing of the fact that the Department of Justice is currently trying a Democratic senator and has indicted a Democratic member of this House. I mean, do Republicans still believe that President Biden is weaponizing the justice system? Because if he is, he’s sure doing a lousy job.”

So who, McGovern wondered, is truly suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome?

“And as usual, the only Trump derangement syndrome going on around here is on the other side of the aisle. I mean, people are saying that Biden orchestrated the conviction of his own son in order to justify the criminal charges against Trump. That is how you think when you are in a cult. So, here’s the bottom line. Republicans just can’t wrap their heads around the idea that their presidential candidate, your presumptive nominee, is a convicted felon. That is not the result of a sham process or some vast conspiracy by the Biden administration. That is a result of the truth. And these attacks on our justice system have to come to a stop.”

Say what you want about Democrats, but at least their candidate for president isn’t a felon who’s facing a prison sentence next month.

And say what you want about Hunter Biden, but at least he’s admitted his mistakes and is working to change his life for the better. That’s something Donald Trump isn’t capable of doing.