The road to the 2024 GOP presidential nomination appears to have a new stop along the way: an influential group of House conservatives. Sen. Tom Cotton Tom Bryant Cotton Hillicon Valley: Biden administration sanctions Russia for SolarWinds hack, election interference The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Tax March - CDC in limbo on J&J vax verdict; Rep. Brady retiring Republican lawmakers reintroduce bill to ban TikTok on federal devices MORE (R-Ark.) has addressed the Republican Study Committee (RSC) about the surge of migrants at the border. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Chris Christie Energy secretary: 'We don't want to use past definitions of infrastructure' Christie: Biden lying about Georgia voting bill Experts take pro-vaccine message to right-wing skeptics MORE (R) told the conservative group last week they need to get tougher on President Biden Joe Biden Graham: 'I could not disagree more' with Trump support of Afghanistan troop withdrawal Obama, Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley team up to urge communities of color to get coronavirus vaccine Biden to hold second meeting with bipartisan lawmakers on infrastructure MORE and that former President Trump Donald Trump Graham: 'I could not disagree more' with Trump support of Afghanistan troop withdrawal GOP believes Democrats handing them winning 2022 campaign Former GOP operative installed as NSA top lawyer resigns MORE was to blame for losing the White House and Senate. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Mike Pompeo Pompeo violated ethics rules, State Dept. watchdog finds Why the US needs to clear the way for international justice Tim Scott to participate in GOP event in Iowa MORE will join the RSC this week at a news conference on Iran. And Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard Pence GOP believes Democrats handing them winning 2022 campaign Secret Facebook ...
Gop
Madrid: GOP anti-trans bills could be deadly to a vulnerable population
This attack is reprehensible, irresponsible and hypocritical. And it starts with the children. Anti-trans bills are on their course of destruction. They endanger the lives of trans children and teens. The GOP leaders who sponsor these bills are well-aware of the secondary effects of their legislation but don’t seem to care. It’s an old tactic, not very surprising but still repulsive. Conservative lawmakers choose a vulnerable group then gin up a frenzied attack targeting trans and gender non-conforming youth. Around 100 proposed bills across the nation comprise the concerted assault orchestrated by conservatives. End goal: deprive transgender people of their rights, health, safety and existence. The bills ban young trans girls and boys from playing sports; they deny gender and life-affirming health care. Lawmakers in favor of anti-trans bills are complicit in the torment that follows. Even politicians like Arkansas’ Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who vetoed an anti-trans bill last month that was later overruled by legislators, call this a culture war. It’s a balance between his party’s financial, social and political conservative identities. This isn’t a conflict between a difference of ideals. This is a matter of life and death for young trans people. Hutchinson told The New York Times that the bill was government overreach. Then he called his colleagues to practice more compassion as he wiped his hands clean. In an act of benevolent lawmaking he told young trans Arkansans he was on their side. “All I can say is I tried, and I hope that they have a sense that the highest official in Arkansas supports them,” he said. His words are empty. Especially when his previous actions have attacked the very same youth. There’s a reason why his GOP colleagues felt emboldened to overrule his veto. Affirming health care for trans youth is imperative. It helps decrease feelings of dysphoria, anxiety, and suicide. Decisions happen between a patient, ...
GOP Rep. Comer: D.C. Statehood Vote About ‘Creating Two New Democrat Seats’
Monday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Rep. James Comer (R-KY) railed against providing Washington, D.C. statehood. The House this week will vote on whether to Washington, D.C. a state. Comer said the vote is a “Democrat political power grab to create two new Democrat Senate seats.” He warned the power shift would allow Democrats to end the filibuster and pass “liberal progressive legislation.” “They shouldn’t be a state because our founding fathers made it clear they wanted the capital city to be independent of any states,” Comer advised. “Washington, D.C. is the best-represented city in America in Congress. Each member of Congress spends half their year in Washington, D.C. If Washington, D.C., needs something, then the members of Congress will make sure of it. Plus, the 23rd Amendment gives Washington, D.C., three Electoral College votes in the presidential election. So, pound for pound, Washington, D.C. has more input than any major city in America on presidential elections.” He added, “This vote this week on making Washington, D.C. the 51st state is about one thing: creating two new Democrat Senate seats. That’s all. We can argue the merits. I can give you dozens of reasons why it’s a bad idea. But at the end of the day, it’s about a Democrat political power grab to create two new Democrat Senate seats so they can end the filibuster and they can pass all the liberal progressive legislation that Nancy Pelosi is forcing down the throats of the Democrats in the House. So, I’m going to do everything in my power to be against this bill, and I think every Republican in the House and Senate will vote against D.C. statehood.” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent ...
Joe Biden’s audacious gambles
Sign up to get our new weekly column as a newsletter. We're looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. (CNN) Tom Stoppard's play, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," begins with the two minor characters from "Hamlet" betting on the toss of a coin. It comes up heads ... and heads ... and heads -- 92 times in a row -- and Guildenstern has to keep handing over his money. "I'm afraid it isn't your day," says Rosencrantz. "Life is a gamble, at terrible odds," says another character near the end of the 1966 play , "if it was a bet you wouldn't take it." This week President Joe Biden continued taking some hard bets, hoping the coins will land his way. He set the pattern in January, days before he took office, by outlining a huge Covid relief package amounting to $1.9 trillion and then topped it last month with a proposal for a $2 trillion infrastructure bill. On Wednesday he made another consequential gamble by announcing he would pull all US troops out of Afghanistan , a decision his predecessors were tempted to make, but didn't. Along with new tensions with Russia and China, Biden is facing leadership challenges in the wake of the mass shooting in Indianapolis, police violence in Minnesota, Chicago and elsewhere and the stubbornly high rate of Covid-19 cases. The White House revealed that he would speak to a joint session of Congress on April 28 -- ratcheting up the stakes of the prime-time presidential ritual by scheduling it just two days before his 100th day in office, a milestone that shapes perceptions of new presidents. Read More When Biden goes to the Capitol that was overrun by rioters enraged that he, and not Donald Trump would be certified as the winner of the 2020 election -- and when he enters the House chamber that had to be defended at gunpoint on that chaotic January 6 -- it will be a defining moment, either an opportunity to show that he ...
Polls suggest House Democrats will buck midterm curse and add to their ranks
Conventional wisdom in Washington is that the party in control of the White House usually loses any number of congressional seats in the midterms. In 1994, President Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones calls on Breyer to retire Modern biomedical breakthroughs require a federal ethics commission Biden must compel China and Russia to act on climate MORE saw his House majority collapse with the Democrats losing 54 seats and the speaker’s gavel, something that had held true since the Truman Administration. After wresting control back from the GOP in 2006 during the final two years of the George W. Bush Administration, Democrats faced a similar blood bath during the 2010 midterms losing 63 seats in what President Barack Obama aptly described as a “shellacking.” With one of the slimmest majorities for any new president in modern history, President Joe Biden Joe Biden Graham: 'I could not disagree more' with Trump support of Afghanistan troop withdrawal Obama, Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley team up to urge communities of color to get coronavirus vaccine Biden to hold second meeting with bipartisan lawmakers on infrastructure MORE is already banking on the popularity of his legislation and executive actions to buoy Democratic prospects heading into the elections. Polling from last month following the passage of the American Rescue Plan indicated that 63 percent of Americans, including 58 percent of independents, supported the $1.9 trillion package passed with just Democratic votes. Similarly, according to a new poll out from The New York Times , Biden’s new infrastructure proposal, the American Jobs Act, “garners support from two in three Americans, and from seven in ten independent voters.” Interestingly enough, the plan has the support of more than 30 percent of registered Republican voters according to the same poll. In addition to the broad level of support behind the ...
