The Gaetz Report

Our next book will examine Trump's return to power.  He actually wanted to make this guy attorney general.

Sarah Ferris and Jeremy Herb, CNN:

The House Ethics Committee found evidence that former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid tens of thousands of dollars to women for sex or drugs on at least 20 occasions, including paying a 17-year-old girl for sex in 2017, according to a final draft of the panel’s report on the Florida Republican, obtained by CNN.

The committee concluded in its bombshell document that Gaetz violated Florida state laws, including the state’s statutory rape law, as the GOP-led panel chose to take the rare step of releasing a report about a former member who resigned from Congress.

“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,” panel investigators wrote.

The panel investigated transactions Gaetz personally made, often using PayPal or Venmo, to more than a dozen women during his time in Congress, according to the report. Investigators also focused on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas – which they said “violated the House gift rule” – during which he “engaged in sexual activity” with multiple women, including one who described the trip itself as “the payment” for sex on the trip. On the same trip, he also took ecstasy, one woman on the trip told the committee.

Earlier this month, the House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release its report after initially voting against doing so. The vote to put out the report – which was opposed by panel Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican – was the culmination of a years-long probe into allegations surrounding Gaetz. He was President-elect Donald Trump’s first pick to be attorney general but dropped out amid opposition from GOP senators and after CNN reported key details of this same ethics report.

FULL TEXT OF THE REPORT HERE.

 

Gaetz as Caligula's Horse

Kyle Cheney at Politico:

Donald Trump is not a monarch.

That’s the unmistakable lesson of the ill-fated nomination of Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Rather than showcasing Trump’s absolute power over his GOP allies, it revealed his limits. The doomed nomination lasted just eight days — and its failure is an unwelcome lesson for the president-elect, who has been projecting invincibility and claiming a historic mandate despite his reed-thin popular vote victory.

“The short version is ‘checks and balances work,’” said Eugene Volokh, a UCLA professor of law.

Though Republicans will control both chambers of Congress, the resistance from Senate Republicans to Gaetz’s nomination proved that there are still some checks on Trump — no matter how limited — that can hold, despite fear on the left that he will squeeze Congress into submission, get carte blanche from the conservative-dominated Supreme Court and enact his agenda at will.

“I think it shows that Donald Trump cannot get anything he wants,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California-Berkeley School of Law.

Chemerinsky and others cautioned against extrapolating too much from the Gaetz debacle; he was so uniquely despised and compromised by legal and political scandal, and vying for a position that wields unique and extraordinary power, that his failed nomination may not be a harbinger of the pushback Trump may face for other nominees.

In fact, if Trump is able to muscle through his other controversial nominees, the lesson may be that Trump is more unchecked by Congress than ever, said Edward Foley, an Ohio State University constitutional law expert.

Loyalty to Trump

Our recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. 

“I don’t want loyalty. I want loyalty! I want him to kiss my ass in Macy’s window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses. I want his pecker in my pocket.”  -- Lyndon B. Johnson

With the Gaetz and Hegseth nominations, Trump is rejecting the idea that anything other than loyalty is important in someone leading a massive government department and he is challenging the Senate to dare to disagree.
Gift link: https://t.co/icOsDNtyvA

— Philip Bump (@pbump) November 14, 2024

Andrew Kaczynski at CNN:

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, is now refusing to stand by her previous push for Ukraine’s NATO membership — a stance she once framed as critical to regional stability.

Her office also declined to say whether she still believes Russia committed genocide in Ukraine, as she said in 2022.

In 2022, Stefanik urged NATO to admit the nation, especially as Russia’s invasion escalated. At the time, she argued for extensive military aid support, highlighting the Trump administration’s previous providing of Javelin missiles.

“I’ve seen how important Ukraine is for the region,” she said. “They need to be admitted into NATO and we need to do everything we can by providing them munitions and javelins, and remember, the javelins were supplied under the Trump administration.”

Her comments at the time reflected the strong pro-Ukraine stance that aligned with broad bipartisan support for Kyiv in the early days of the conflict.

Now, when asked if she still supports NATO membership for Ukraine, Stefanik’s spokesperson declined to specifically address her current position. Instead, her office signaled that she is aligning with Trump’s approach.

GOP Rep. Troy Nehls to us just now after Trump meeting:

“If Donald Trump says, ‘jump three feet high and scratch your head,’ we all jump three feet high and scratch our head.”

He was wearing a Donald Trump tie while he said it.

— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) November 13, 2024

Divisive GOP House Primaries

Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses state and congressional elections.

Bridget Bowman reports at NBC

Former President Donald Trump endorsed the primary challenger taking on House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-Va., saying the congressman "turned his back on our incredible movement."

Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday morning that he is endorsing state Sen. John McGuire, who is challenging Good in a June 18 primary. Trump made a veiled reference to Good's being one of the few members of Congress who endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the presidential primary, writing that Good "was constantly attacking and fighting me until recently."

Good endorsed Trump back in January, but the former president wrote that it was "too late."

"The damage had been done!" Trump added. "I just want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and the person that can most help me do that is Navy Seal and highly respected State Legislator, John McGuire, a true American Hero."

Josh Peck at Texas Public Radio:

Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales defeated a primary challenge from gun YouTuber Brandon Herrera in Tuesday’s runoff election.

The incumbent's March primary opponents forced him into a runoff with Herrera after Gonzales failed to earn support from a majority of voters.

By 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, Gonzales had 51.06% of the vote to Herrera's 48.94% — a difference of just over 500 votes.

The Texas 23rd Congressional District, which Gonzales represents, stretches from just east of El Paso to western Bexar County. It includes large swaths of the border and the town of Uvalde, where the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting took place.

Gonzales’ primary challengers went after him for his vote in support of gun control measures in Congress in the aftermath of the school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

The runoff election occurred just days after the Uvalde community marked two years since the shooting.

Gonzales’ gun control vote, along with several other votes on issues like support for gay and interracial marriage, led the Texas GOP to censure Gonzales in 2023.

Herrera, who had never held political office before, has 3.4 million subscribers on YouTube, where he primarily uses and promotes firearms and is known as “The AK Guy.”

Many of his videos are controversial, including one from 2022 where he uses a gun associated with Nazi Germany, goose-steps to a popular Nazi marching song, and refers to the gun as “the original ghetto blaster” and “Hitler’s street sweeper.”

Later in the video, he says he’s “not really a big fan of fascism” and explains that his comments throughout the video are “really f— up jokes.”

Florida Republican congressman and fierce Trump loyalist Matt Gaetz campaigned to support Herrera’s primary challenge to Gonzales.

Gonzales outraised Herrera by four-to-one, receiving more than $4 million from supporters.

House GOP Woes

Our new book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses state and congressional elections. 

Scott Wong, Sahil Kapur and Ben Kamisar at NBC News:

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., who frequently defied his own party and announced last fall he would not seek re-election, said Tuesday he will resign from Congress at the end of next week, further shrinking the GOP's already razor-thin majority.

"Today I am announcing that I will depart Congress at the end of next week," Buck said in a statement. "I look forward to staying involved in our political process, as well as spending more time in Colorado and with my family."

His departure will cut the House Republican margin to 218-213; Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will continue to have two votes to spare before needing Democrats to govern. But illnesses and other unexpected absences could make his already difficult job even more ch

Reese Gorman and Riley Rogerson at The Daily Beast:

For their annual retreat, House Republicans traveled to the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia this week to rally around a message to defend their House majority and to settle on a path forward to fund the government.

There was just one problem: Less than half of the GOP conference even bothered to show up.

...

[M]uch of the schedule fell apart even before Republicans arrived. The poor turnout prompted organizers to compress the retreat from a two-and-a-half day event into little over a day. House Republicans invited former President Donald Trump to attend, but he declined. And the retreat’s marquee speaker, Fox News Business host Larry Kudlow, dropped out at the 11th hour. (Republicans replaced him with Howard Lutnick, the CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald.)

...

Many of Republican leadership’s loudest detractors skipped out on the retreat. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who has bemoaned the dearth of conservative policy wins this Congress and dangled ousting Johnson, didn’t deign to make an appearance.

Neither did several of the eight Republicans responsible for ousting McCarthy. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) was busy prepping for her appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told CNN he has “a farm to run.” And fittingly, as Johnson emphasized to members that they needed to support their colleagues, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was in Texas campaigning for Republican influencer Brandon Herrera, who is challenging fellow Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales.

Mace

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

Jonathan Weisman at NYT:

When South Carolina’s First Congressional District evoked wide sand beaches, Spanish moss, oyster and cocktail bars and hot yoga, its Republican congresswoman, Nancy Mace, made her name appealing for moderation on abortion, climate change and marijuana legalization, while calling out the G.O.P.’s biggest bomb throwers as bigoted clowns.

Then in 2022 came the redrawing of district lines, as rural reaches like Cordesville, S.C., with their modest one-story brick homes and prefabricated double-wides, replaced the graceful mansions and Black neighborhoods of Charleston. So last week, when Ms. Mace shocked Washington and joined seven hard-core conservatives to oust Representative Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair, her new constituents were not surprised.

“I’ve always heard the squeaky wheel gets the oil, and when you’re a female, you don’t get heard unless you’re loud,” said Janet Jurosko, a new constituent of Ms. Mace’s from Cordesville and the auditor of Berkeley County, S.C., which joined the First District in its totality last year. “I think she’s doing a good job — I really do.”

Ms. Mace still calls herself an iconoclast, but her transformation from denouncing the likes of Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, to joining him in the first overthrow of a sitting speaker underscores a truism: Voters lead their politicians; politicians don’t lead their voters.

Brennan: Do the past allegations of Jim Jordan that he turned a blind eye to sexual abuse give you reservations?

Mace: I'm not familiar or aware of that.

Brennan: Ohio state university allegations.

Mace: I don't know anything pic.twitter.com/OGQQFqR9pt

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 8, 2023

Brennan: McCarthy said his ouster is personal payback from Gaetz for the house ethics committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct… Does that bother you?

Mace: Well, again, he's not indicted for anything. I don't really -- I don't know much about it. pic.twitter.com/i9qINKGP2m

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 8, 2023

Mace: I’m wearing the scarlet letter after the week I had being a woman and being demonized for my vote and voice. pic.twitter.com/guVpxGHUq7

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 10, 2023

Mace: There are Democrats who trust Jordan

Tapper: Jim Jordan?

Mace: Yes

Tapper: From Ohio?

Mace: Yes

Tapper: Name one pic.twitter.com/22QdZLARx2

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 11, 2023

Background on McCarthy's Fall

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

On Saturday morning we had no idea what was happening. Scalise told the GOP they were moving bills that signaled imminent shutdown. This is what we expected. Then McCarthy suddenly and unexpectedly did an about face and announced a vote on a CR. We didn't know what to make of it pic.twitter.com/m3eyB1eB0k

— Aaron Fritschner (@Fritschner) October 4, 2023

David Weigel at Semafor:

But the vote that empowered Gaetz empowered the new conservative media, too, becoming the latest in a decade-long run of stories about Republican leaders underestimating their insurgents. On One America News, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs condemned the “uniparty” of Democrats and Republicans who’d funded the government without deep cuts; on Steve Bannon’s “War Room,” Biggs and other conservatives who’d deposed McCarthy were saving the country from weak, unserious party leaders.

...

In the mainstream and older conservative media, McCarthy’s prolific fundraising — he raked in more than $260 million to help Republicans win the House in 2022, including some of the members who ousted him — was one of his chief strengths. Among the newer MAGA personalities, it was a source of deep suspicion and resentment.

The latter ecosystem has grown in influence and audience since Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, which he renamed X; Laura Loomer, an activist banned from the site for much of the Trump presidency, was reinstated last year, and kept her nearly 600,000 followers informed of the donations McCarthy was routing to Republicans like Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, implying that he was buying off support to keep his job.

...

After Gaetz’s gambit against McCarthy succeeded, his many enemies inside the GOP conference went to mainstream media outlets to denounce him. Gaetz isn’t allergic to that; Republicans have vented all week about outlets giving him so much time when they should be skeptical of what he’s saying. “You all know Matt Gaetz,” McCarthy said, sourly, at the press conference where he confirmed that he wouldn’t try to get the gavel back.

But Gaetz and the rest of the GOP’s rebels kept up a direct line of communication with conservative activists and influencers, who could not be mollified by McCarthy. Not by the impeachment inquiry, which Gaetz and Bannon agreed was set up to fail; not by the threat of retaliation, which they relished, after a 2022 cycle when Republicans who’d defied Trump and voted to impeach him were nearly wiped out. (The two Republicans who voted for impeachment and remain in the House come from states with all-party primaries, not states where only GOP primary voters decide who’s nominated.)

“Rep. Gaetz has always been more in tune with younger audiences, and good with social media, and he often hops on X Spaces with the public,” said Alex Lorusso, who posts across different social media networks as ALX — and was restored to Twitter/X last year after a lengthy ban. “I would describe most of the online action as encouraging him to file the motion to vacate, rather than him having to build support… Republicans will be doing next week what I believe they should have done from the beginning.”

McCarthy Lashes Out on his Way Out

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.

Yesterday, eight Repblicans voted for Matt Gaeta's motion to vacate:

• Andy Biggs of Arizona
• Ken Buck of Colorado
• Tim Burchett of Tennessee
• Eli Crane of Arizona
• Matt Gaetz of Florida
• Bob Good of Virginia
• Nancy Mace of South Carolina
• Matt Rosendale of Montana

McCarthy was displeased:

I don't think it says about the Republican Party. I think it says something about some people who are not a conservative.

I mean, if you were a conservative and you only had one entity making the battle and you vote against securing the border, you vote against cutting funding -- this wasteful spending and then you partner with all the Democrats. Now, you'll phrase it all the other different ways, that's not a conservative.

Look, you all know Matt Gaetz. You know it was personal. It had nothing to do about spending. It had nothing to do about -- everything he accused somebody of, he was doing. It all was about getting attention from you. I mean, we're getting e-mail fundraisers from him as he's doing it. Join in quickly. That's not governing. That's not becoming of a member of Congress. And regardless of what you think, I've seen the texts, it was all about his ethics. But that's all right.

...

Well, would any of you think if it took that long and you had one person, you knew it was always a possibility. So, that was fine. It didn't bother me. It didn't change any of decision I made. But what's interesting, I read a tweet the other day of Matt Rosendale. He goes to Mass every day. But you know what he said his prayer was all last year? That Republicans didn't have a big victory, that they had a narrow victory.

When you have members like that that are part of your team, you got a tough team.

...

QUESTION: But do you regret not reaching out personally to people like Nancy Mace, Tim Burchett, who sat down on the House steps today and told reporters that you said something condescending to him...
MCCARTHY: OK, let's get through this. I personally like Tim Burchett. And I called Tim Burchett because I read his quote. And Tim Burchett's a friend of mine, which I'm, kind of, shocked by this. And Tim Burchett, in his quote, said he's "leaning towards no" -- he's on CNN -- but "I'm going to pray about it."

So I pick up the phone and call him because I didn't think he was already there. I said Tim, "I read your quote. You said you were going to pray about it. I wanted to talk to you about it."

And somehow he construes that -- I'm a Christian. I'm not going to offend somebody for -- I simply read his quote back. I thought there was still an opening, and I wanted to talk to him about it. He never mentioned anything when we were communicating like that, and he said it.

Nancy Mace is a whole 'nother story, OK. (LAUGHTER)

MCCARTHY: Let's just be honest here. This is the one that -- I just got a -- I just got a text from her primary opponent saying, "Why did you spend $3 million?" But... (LAUGHTER)

MCCARTHY: ... I called Nancy Mace's chief of staff yesterday, and...

QUESTION: She didn't like that.

MCCARTHY: Because I called the chief of staff?

QUESTION: Yeah, she wanted you to call her. It wasn't good enough.

MCCARTHY: Well, she was on "The View" saying I didn't keep my word. So I didn't know what to do. Listen...(LAUGHTER)

MCCARTHY: ... I can't say this in a press, but OK. (LAUGHTER)

MCCARTHY: But so I -- I... (CROSSTALK)

MCCARTHY: No -- you keep it among yourselves, right?

QUESTION: This is like (inaudible) without the (inaudible).

MCCARTHY: Wait until my book. (LAUGHTER)

MCCARTHY: No. So I call her chief of staff because, I don't know, maybe I don't connect her with something else. But I just said to him -- I said, "Can you please tell me; I don't understand; where have I not kept my word?

You know what her chief of staff said? "You have kept your word, 100 percent."

Members come to me, and -- one thing, I don't like the idea tjhat a member comes and tries to leverage me. I don't -- I don't go for that. You know, I'll vote for the bill you -- that's not well. But if you have a problem with a bill, I want to help you.

But I can't sit there and write your entire bill and work it all the way through committee. We just got one bill out, and it came back. The other bill we're doing on guns, it just wasn't working, "Do you want to do something else?" We did something else.

I -- I just don't appreciate -- look, I bite my lip. I let people say things that are not true. But it's not right. It is not right. Her chief of staff told all of us we have kept every single one of our words. And he said he's told her that, too.

Now, if somehow he gets fired, I'll still get him a job.

Gaetz

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  g

House GOP members are seeking to quickly expel Gaetz if the ethics report comes back with findings of guilt.

Following threats to vacate McCarthy, one tells me “No one can stand him at this point. A smart guy without morals.”

— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) October 1, 2023

Is Gaetz secretly an agent for the Democratic Party? No one else is doing as much to undermine, weaken and cripple the House GOP

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) October 1, 2023

The effort to expel Matt Gaetz for being a destructive, irresponsible anti-Republican may be a step too far. Expulsion from the House requires a two thirds vote. However expelling him from the House Republican Conference and eliminating all his committee assignments and all…

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) October 1, 2023

Motion to Vacate

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

 Aileen Graef, CNN:

Rep. Matt Gaetz is planning to attempt to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the role this week after the House leader worked with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown on Saturday.

Speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” the Florida Republican said he intends to file a motion to vacate this week, which would force a vote on whether McCarthy will keep his job.

“Speaker McCarthy made an agreement with House conservatives in January and since then he’s been in brazen, repeated material breach of that agreement,” Gaetz said Sunday. “This agreement that he made with Democrats to really blow past a lot of the spending guardrails we set up is a last straw.”

I think the play here is that Democrats en masse vote present on the motion to vacate. That way, it's not Dems keeping McCarthy as much as Rs not having the votes to remove. Just need a majority of Rs then. https://t.co/ZY0Zc4MNrf

— Jacob Smith @jacobfhsmith_ on Threads (@jacobfhsmith) May 23, 2023

Kevin's Gate

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  Disarray threatens the GOP's tenuous grip on the House.

Kimberly Leonard at Politico:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is gunning for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, attacking the embattled GOP leader from the right and aligning himself with insurgent conservatives in Congress who are threatening a government shutdown.

What started as a private strategy session last week between DeSantis and House hardliners has now erupted into a frontal attack on McCarthy. On Monday, DeSantis ridiculed McCarthy’s record on government spending and accused him of being complicit in running up a massive federal debt balance. On Tuesday, the governor’s campaign sent out an email admonishing McCarthy all over again while urging House Republicans to buck the speaker in the current government funding negotiations.

  Melanie Zanona, Haley Talbot and Manu Raju, CNN:

Tensions are flaring inside the House Republican conference as it barrels toward a government shutdown, with the infighting spilling out into public view and growing increasingly nasty.

“This is stupidity,” New York Rep. Mike Lawler said of GOP hardliners’ demands on spending, prompting the Republican freshman to privately float a new plan to work with Democrats and force a vote keeping the government open past September 30.

At the center of much of the drama: Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, attacking Speaker Kevin McCarthy in personal terms. But he’s also engaged in social media spats with fellow hardline conservatives who helped broker a House GOP plan to fund the government first revealed on Sunday evening.

Rep. Byron Donalds, also a Florida Republican, shot back at Gaetz’s criticism of the plan, writing on social media: “Matt, tell the people the truth. … What’s your plan to get the votes to defund Jack Smith? You’ll need more than tweets and hot takes!!”

Rep. Chip Roy, a conservative from Texas who helped reach the deal, also slammed hardliners’ opposition, saying on a conservative radio show: “I don’t know whether we’ll have the votes or not, because I’ve got a lot of conservative friends who like to beat their chests and thump around going, ‘Oh, this isn’t pure enough.’ “

House GOP Disarray, continued

 Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses state and congressional elections.

Disarray threatens the GOP's tenuous grip on the House.

 Zachary Basu at Axios:

• The House was forced to cancel a vote Wednesday on advancing funding for the Pentagon — typically viewed as the least controversial appropriations bill — after Freedom Caucus Republicans rebelled over spending levels.
• Another typically uncontroversial appropriations bill funding agriculture has been scrapped entirely over an internal GOP debate about abortion policy, pitting moderates against conservatives.
• McCarthy's announcement of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden — which he bet would mollify conservatives itching for a government shutdown — appears to have backfired, with some Republicans trashing it as a "distraction."
• GOP leadership now is advocating for a short-term continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30. But if McCarthy puts such a bill on the floor, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has vowed to trigger daily votes to oust him as speaker.

Rep. Matt Gaetz: McCarthy is "lying like a dead dog." pic.twitter.com/1ejv2hBirB

— The Beat with Ari Melber 📺 (@TheBeatWithAri) September 13, 2023

Meanwhile, Lauren Boebert -- who won reelection by the narrowest of margins -- has not exactly helped her prospects for a third term.

Rep. Lauren Boebert’s “outrageous” behavior at the 'Beetlejuice' performance included vaping ad nauseam, and simply replying “no” when the woman—who said she is pregnant—requested she stop. https://t.co/f47DCRIpGM

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 14, 2023

Congressional Republicans in Disarray

Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. The 2024 race has begun.

To distract attention from Trump's indictments, some House Republicans want to impeach Biden.

Carl Hulse at NYT:

Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s job is on the line as the House returns on Tuesday to confront a funding impasse that could lead to a government shutdown or a challenge to the California Republican’s hold on the top post in the House.

Far-right Republicans are refusing to back a measure to keep the federal government funded past Sept. 30 without substantial spending cuts and stringent new border policies that stand little chance of becoming law. They are also threatening to depose Mr. McCarthy should he turn to Democrats for assistance in scrounging together the votes he needs to avoid a shutdown.

Intensifying the pressure, Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and frequent critic of the speaker, planned to deliver a floor speech on Tuesday outlining the arch-conservative case against Mr. McCarthy, laying the groundwork for a potential move to oust him. The criticism was to cover what Mr. Gaetz and others see as Mr. McCarthy’s failure to live up to promises he made to win the speakership, including his handling of the budget process and continuing investigations of President Biden and his family.

“Stay tuned,” Mr. Gaetz said on Monday night when reached for comment, though he declined to elaborate.

In a bid to hold off his detractors, allies of Mr. McCarthy said he would tell House Republicans this week that he endorsed an impeachment inquiry into Mr. Biden, a plan reported earlier by Punchbowl News. The move is intended to rally conservatives behind him, but it is unclear whether it would be sufficient to protect him from a challenge should he cross the right wing in the spending negotiations.

Gaetz: Mr. Speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role. The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you into immediate total compliance or remove you, pic.twitter.com/KbrkpZ14hZ

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 12, 2023

 

Melanie Zanona and Annie Grayer at CNN:

Conservative Rep. Ken Buck is just one of several House Republicans standing in the way of the right’s push to impeach President Joe Biden.

But his high-profile seat on the key House Judiciary Committee, recent outspoken interviews railing against the House GOP’s investigative efforts, and long track record of bucking his own party have put a target on his back in conservative circles.

Now, there is a serious effort underway to find a candidate to mount a primary challenge against Buck in his solidly red district in eastern Colorado, three GOP sources told CNN – the latest sign of tension as the House GOP grapples with internal divisions over everything from its agenda to former President Donald Trump.

Alexander Bolton at The Hill:

“It really comes to how do you prioritize your time? I don’t know of anybody who believes [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] will take it up and actually have a trial and convict a sitting president,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate GOP leadership team.

Cornyn noted that House Republicans could investigate the Bidens without launching a formal impeachment inquiry because they control the lower chamber.

“Since they got the majority, they got the chairmen of the various committees, they could do all of that now without going to a formal inquiry,” he said. “Members of the House don’t really care what I think. All I can tell you, it’s unlikely to be successful in the Senate.

“Rather than doing something they know is unlikely to end the way they would like, maybe they want to emphasize other things.”

Cornyn is far from alone in his assessment.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) on Monday expressed reservation about linking a bill to avoid a government shutdown to a vote on launching impeachment proceedings.

“Well, obviously they can launch [a formal inquiry] there without tying it to government funding. Hopefully they can work all that out, how they want to handle those issues in the House,” he said.

Asked if there’s enough evidence to impeach Biden, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), another member of the Senate GOP leadership team, replied: “I do not.”  

McCarthy: Winning to Lose

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses state and congressional elections. It also discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

It took 15 ballots for Kevin McCarthy to overcome hard-right resistance and become speaker.

This is what it came to before #KevinMcCarthy finally secured enough votes to become Speaker. We don't normally get to see all this on TV, and once McCarthy reinstates the C-SPAN camera rules, we won't again. Alabama's Mike Rogers had to be restrained from attacking Matt Gaetz. https://t.co/MIlfclu76l

— Doug Sovern (@SovernNation) January 7, 2023

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, holds her smart phone with former US President Donald Trump on the line, as Rep. Matt Rosendale, a Republican from Montana, waves it off during a meeting of the 118th Congress in the House Chamber on Friday.#SpeakerVote pic.twitter.com/VWvOGfXd9Q

— Al Drago (@Al_Drago) January 7, 2023

ICYMI — REUTERS snapped this pic of Santos voting for McCarthy as his other hand conspicuously forms the 👌🏻 sign, known by many to mean “white power” and frequently flashed by white supremacist groups.

He also has hired an aide who is a former Bannon producer. pic.twitter.com/P70VBeueGK

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) January 6, 2023

When you can’t tell whether Democrats or Republicans wrote the talking points. https://t.co/IXHx6ffz25

— Francis Wilkinson (@fdwilkinson) January 7, 2023

The Sopranos: Gaetz and Stone

Our new book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good. Trump and his minions falsely claimed that he won the election, and have kept repeating the Big Lie.  And we now know how close he came to subverting the Constitution.  

Jon Swaine and Dalton Bennett at WP:

As Roger Stone prepared to stand trial in 2019, complaining he was under pressure from federal prosecutors to incriminate Donald Trump, a close ally of the president repeatedly assured Stone that “the boss” would likely grant him clemency if he were convicted, a recording shows.

At an event at a Trump property that October, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) predicted that Stone would be found guilty at his trial in Washington the following month but would not “do a day” in prison. Gaetz was apparently unaware they were being recorded by documentary filmmakers following Stone, who special counsel Robert S. Mueller III had charged with obstruction of a congressional investigation.

“The boss still has a very favorable view of you,” said Gaetz, stressing that the president had “said it directly.” He also said, “I don’t think the big guy can let you go down for this.”

 

Gaetz also spoke with Stone about redacted parts of the Mueller report that DOJ showed House Judiciary members in a secure room under a confidentiality agreement: “There was a lot on you in the full redact that came out in the skinny redact.”https://t.co/GcePQC3vcg

— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) July 30, 2022

Season 3, episode 13 of The Sopranos: 

Paulie: How is Carmine? 

Johnny Sack: He asks about you. 

Paulie: Give him my love. 

Johnny: I will, he'll like hearing that.

A Weekend in Crazytown (aka Turning Point)

 Our book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good. See, for instance, the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit. 

Trump repeats the myth that NATO charges dues, says he told allies that he would not defend them if they were delinquent on the nonexistent dues.

"That's right, I will not come to your defense" -- Trump claims that he once told NATO countries he wouldn't come to their defense if they were attacked by Russia pic.twitter.com/4cZAnR3EvQ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 24, 2022

Matt Gaetz shows how to win suburban women.

Gaetz: "Why is it that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions? Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb." pic.twitter.com/0qqvun3Pf8

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2022

MTG does MTG:

Marjorie Taylor Greene takes the stage at the Turning Point USA event and immediately gets the crowd booing the idea they should care about Ukraine pic.twitter.com/hALbBMccT6

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2022