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Barr, a vocal Trump critic, says he will ‘support the Republican ticket’ in November
Former attorney general previously said voting for Trump would be “playing Russian roulette with the country,” but said Wednesday that a “continuation of the Biden administration is national suicide”
Asked Wednesday whether he would vote for Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, in November, Barr told Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom”that he would vote for the Republican ticket.
“I’ve said all along, given two bad choices, I think it’s my duty to pick the person I think would do the least harm to the country, and in my mind, that’s — I will vote the Republican ticket,” said Barr, who remains a Republican. “I’ll support the Republican ticket.”
Senate rejects impeachment articles against Mayorkas, ending trial against Cabinet secretary
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and FARNOUSH AMIRI
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate dismissed all impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday, ending the House Republican push to remove the Cabinet secretary from office over his handling of the the U.S.-Mexico border and shutting down his trial before arguments even began.
Senators voted to dismiss both articles of impeachment and end the proceedings, with Democrats arguing that the articles were unconstitutional. The first article charged Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply" with immigration law and second article charged him with a “breach of trust” for saying the border was secure. The votes were 51-48 and 51-49, both along party lines.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the House Republicans’ charges failed to meet “the high standard of high crimes and misdemeanors” and could set a dangerous precedent.
“For the sake of the Senate’s integrity and to protect impeachment for those rare cases we truly need it, senators should dismiss today’s charges,” said Schumer, D-N.Y., as he opened Wednesday’s session.
Senate Republicans had argued for a full impeachment trial after the House narrowly voted in February to impeach Mayorkas for his handling of the border, stating in the two articles that he “willfully and systematically” refused to enforce immigration laws.
An outright dismissal of House Republicans’ prosecution of Mayorkas, with no chance to argue the case, is an embarrassing defeat for House Republicans and embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who made the impeachment a priority. And it is likely to resonate politically for both Republicans and Democrats in a presidential election year when border security has been a top issue.
Republicans argue that President Joe Biden has been weak on the border as arrests for illegal crossings skyrocketed to more than 2 million people during the last two years of his term, though they have fallen from a record high of 250,000 in December amid heightened enforcement in Mexico. Democrats say that instead of impeaching Mayorkas, Republicans should have accepted a bipartisan Senate compromise aimed at reducing the number of migrants who come into the U.S. illegally.
House impeachment managers delivered the charges to the Senate on Tuesday, standing in the well of the Senate and reading them aloud to a captive audience. But they did not get a chance to present the case before the Senate dismissed it.
The historic nature of the trial — the first time in nearly 150 years that a Cabinet secretary was impeached — contrasted with the almost routine feel of the proceedings after senators have sat through two previous impeachment trials against former President Donald Trump in 2020 and 2021. And with a quick dismissal almost inevitable, the Senate never even set up the chamber for the occasion, which usually includes tables on each side for the impeachment managers and defense lawyers.
Still, there was a bit of the traditional pomp. As the trial began, senators approached the front of the Senate in groups of four to sign an oath book that is stored in the National Archives.
Schumer called for the votes to dismiss the two charges after Republicans rejected a proposed agreement for Senate debate time and several votes on GOP objections. Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt stood in the chamber and said Republicans wouldn't accept Schumer's offer because Democrats were “bulldozing 200 years of precedent" on impeachments by trying to dismiss the trial.
Angry Republicans called for several votes to delay the inevitable final outcome, but none of them passed as Democrats and three Independents held together.
Frustrated, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said “history will not judge this moment well.”
“This process must not be abused," McConnell said. "It must not be short-circuited."
At the same time, Republicans similarly moved to dismiss former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in 2021, weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. All but five GOP senators — including McConnell — voted to end the trial, arguing it was unconstitutional because Trump had already left office.
After Democrats dismissed the charges, Johnson and members of his House GOP leadership team said in a joint statement that “by voting unanimously to bypass their constitutional responsibility, every single Senate Democrat has issued their full endorsement of the Biden Administration’s dangerous open border policies."
Even if the Senate had held a trial, Republicans would not have been able to win the support of the two-thirds of the Senate that is needed to convict and remove Mayorkas from office — Democrats control the Senate, 51-49, and they remained united against the impeachment effort. Not one House Democrat supported it, either.
Even some Republicans questioned the impeachment effort from the start. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney had said for weeks that he was considering voting with Democrats to dismiss the charges but ultimately voted with his own party. After the votes, he said he does not believe the charges rise to high crimes but he did not want to dismiss them because “it was important to engage in some level of debate.”
Mayorkas, who was in New York on Wednesday to launch a campaign for children’s online safety, reiterated that he’s focused on the work of his department. “The Senate is going to do what the Senate considers to be appropriate as that proceeds,” he said. “I am here in New York City on Wednesday morning fighting online sexual exploitation and abuse. I’m focused on our mission.”
Department spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said after the votes that the Senate's decision to end the trial “proves definitively that there was no evidence or Constitutional grounds to justify impeachment.”
Johnson delayed sending the articles to the Senate for weeks while both chambers finished work on government funding legislation and took a two-week recess. Johnson had said he would send them to the Senate last week, but he punted again after Senate Republicans said they wanted more time to prepare.
At a hearing with Mayorkas on Tuesday about President Joe Biden's budget request for the department, some of the House impeachment managers previewed the arguments they would have made.
Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, the chairman of the House Homeland Security panel, told the secretary he has a duty under the law to control and guard U.S. borders, and “during your three years as secretary, you have failed to fulfill this oath. You have refused to comply with the laws passed by Congress, and you have breached the public trust.”
Mayorkas defended the department's efforts but said the nation's immigration system is “fundamentally broken, and only Congress can fix it."
Schumer said the charges against Mayorkas did not compare to those against Trump and were engineered to help the former president as he runs again this year. He said the Republican charges were policy disputes, not high crimes, and it was important to set a precedent.
“Secretary Mayorkas has not been accused of treason or accepting bribes or unlawfully attacking our elections or anything of the sort,” Schumer said. “He did not blackmail a foreign power to dig dirt on a political opponent. Nor did he incite a violent mob to wage an insurrection against the peaceful transfer of power.”
He called the Republican case “an illegitimate and profane abuse of the U.S. Constitution.”
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, acknowledged that dismissing the trial was “a different Senate process," but said the “risk of normalizing what the House did is bigger than the risk of establishing a new precedent in the Senate.”
___
Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego, California contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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Senate rejects impeachment articles against Mayorkas, ending trial against Cabinet secretary
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and FARNOUSH AMIRI
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate dismissed all impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday, ending the House Republican push to remove the Cabinet secretary from office over his handling of the the U.S.-Mexico border and shutting down his trial before arguments even began.
Senators voted to dismiss both articles of impeachment and end the proceedings, with Democrats arguing that the articles were unconstitutional. The first article charged Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply" with immigration law and second article charged him with a “breach of trust” for saying the border was secure. The votes were 51-48 and 51-49, both along party lines.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the House Republicans’ charges failed to meet “the high standard of high crimes and misdemeanors” and could set a dangerous precedent.
“For the sake of the Senate’s integrity and to protect impeachment for those rare cases we truly need it, senators should dismiss today’s charges,” said Schumer, D-N.Y., as he opened Wednesday’s session.
Senate Republicans had argued for a full impeachment trial after the House narrowly voted in February to impeach Mayorkas for his handling of the border, stating in the two articles that he “willfully and systematically” refused to enforce immigration laws.
An outright dismissal of House Republicans’ prosecution of Mayorkas, with no chance to argue the case, is an embarrassing defeat for House Republicans and embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who made the impeachment a priority. And it is likely to resonate politically for both Republicans and Democrats in a presidential election year when border security has been a top issue.
Republicans argue that President Joe Biden has been weak on the border as arrests for illegal crossings skyrocketed to more than 2 million people during the last two years of his term, though they have fallen from a record high of 250,000 in December amid heightened enforcement in Mexico. Democrats say that instead of impeaching Mayorkas, Republicans should have accepted a bipartisan Senate compromise aimed at reducing the number of migrants who come into the U.S. illegally.
House impeachment managers delivered the charges to the Senate on Tuesday, standing in the well of the Senate and reading them aloud to a captive audience. But they did not get a chance to present the case before the Senate dismissed it.
The historic nature of the trial — the first time in nearly 150 years that a Cabinet secretary was impeached — contrasted with the almost routine feel of the proceedings after senators have sat through two previous impeachment trials against former President Donald Trump in 2020 and 2021. And with a quick dismissal almost inevitable, the Senate never even set up the chamber for the occasion, which usually includes tables on each side for the impeachment managers and defense lawyers.
Still, there was a bit of the traditional pomp. As the trial began, senators approached the front of the Senate in groups of four to sign an oath book that is stored in the National Archives.
Schumer called for the votes to dismiss the two charges after Republicans rejected a proposed agreement for Senate debate time and several votes on GOP objections. Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt stood in the chamber and said Republicans wouldn't accept Schumer's offer because Democrats were “bulldozing 200 years of precedent" on impeachments by trying to dismiss the trial.
Angry Republicans called for several votes to delay the inevitable final outcome, but none of them passed as Democrats and three Independents held together.
Frustrated, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said “history will not judge this moment well.”
“This process must not be abused," McConnell said. "It must not be short-circuited."
At the same time, Republicans similarly moved to dismiss former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in 2021, weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. All but five GOP senators — including McConnell — voted to end the trial, arguing it was unconstitutional because Trump had already left office.
After Democrats dismissed the charges, Johnson and members of his House GOP leadership team said in a joint statement that “by voting unanimously to bypass their constitutional responsibility, every single Senate Democrat has issued their full endorsement of the Biden Administration’s dangerous open border policies."
Even if the Senate had held a trial, Republicans would not have been able to win the support of the two-thirds of the Senate that is needed to convict and remove Mayorkas from office — Democrats control the Senate, 51-49, and they remained united against the impeachment effort. Not one House Democrat supported it, either.
Even some Republicans questioned the impeachment effort from the start. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney had said for weeks that he was considering voting with Democrats to dismiss the charges but ultimately voted with his own party. After the votes, he said he does not believe the charges rise to high crimes but he did not want to dismiss them because “it was important to engage in some level of debate.”
Mayorkas, who was in New York on Wednesday to launch a campaign for children’s online safety, reiterated that he’s focused on the work of his department. “The Senate is going to do what the Senate considers to be appropriate as that proceeds,” he said. “I am here in New York City on Wednesday morning fighting online sexual exploitation and abuse. I’m focused on our mission.”
Department spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said after the votes that the Senate's decision to end the trial “proves definitively that there was no evidence or Constitutional grounds to justify impeachment.”
Johnson delayed sending the articles to the Senate for weeks while both chambers finished work on government funding legislation and took a two-week recess. Johnson had said he would send them to the Senate last week, but he punted again after Senate Republicans said they wanted more time to prepare.
At a hearing with Mayorkas on Tuesday about President Joe Biden's budget request for the department, some of the House impeachment managers previewed the arguments they would have made.
Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, the chairman of the House Homeland Security panel, told the secretary he has a duty under the law to control and guard U.S. borders, and “during your three years as secretary, you have failed to fulfill this oath. You have refused to comply with the laws passed by Congress, and you have breached the public trust.”
Mayorkas defended the department's efforts but said the nation's immigration system is “fundamentally broken, and only Congress can fix it."
Schumer said the charges against Mayorkas did not compare to those against Trump and were engineered to help the former president as he runs again this year. He said the Republican charges were policy disputes, not high crimes, and it was important to set a precedent.
“Secretary Mayorkas has not been accused of treason or accepting bribes or unlawfully attacking our elections or anything of the sort,” Schumer said. “He did not blackmail a foreign power to dig dirt on a political opponent. Nor did he incite a violent mob to wage an insurrection against the peaceful transfer of power.”
He called the Republican case “an illegitimate and profane abuse of the U.S. Constitution.”
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, acknowledged that dismissing the trial was “a different Senate process," but said the “risk of normalizing what the House did is bigger than the risk of establishing a new precedent in the Senate.”
___
Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego, California contributed to this report.
how funny is it that the one thing this house was able to pass got smacked down in the senate?
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
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Speaker Johnson is putting the aide packages on the floor, despite right wing threats. That tells me he probably has assurances that enough Ds will vote to keep him in the position of there is a motion to vacate. That's a good deal for America and the world.
Speaker Johnson is putting the aide packages on the floor, despite right wing threats. That tells me he probably has assurances that enough Ds will vote to keep him in the position of there is a motion to vacate. That's a good deal for America and the world.
which? the senate bill? or did he spllt them up and put forth gop bs ?
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Should be deported, yes? Seems we have more GOP voter fraud than immigrant voter fraud but you know, ‘Murica.
Turning Point Action official resigns after accusation of election-related fraud
PHOENIX — A top leader of the national conservative group Turning Point Action, which has amplified false claims of election fraud by former president Donald Trump and others, resigned Thursday after being accused of forging voter signatures on official paperwork so that he could run for reelection in the Arizona House.
State Rep. Austin Smith (R) — who was senior director at Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA — was accused by a Democratic activist of submitting petition sheets with rows of voter names, addresses and signatures that “bear a striking resemblance” to Smith’s handwriting, according to a complaint. Smith “personally circulated multiple petition sheets bearing what appear to be forged voter signatures,” the complaint said.
The complaint was sent to the Arizona secretary of state, who forwarded it to the Arizona attorney general for review. State election officials do not assess the veracity of allegations made against candidates. A spokesperson for the state prosecutor’s office, which runs a team that focuses on claims of voter and election fraud after widespread claims following the 2020 election, declined to comment. Both state offices are overseen by Democrats.
Smith submitted his resignation to Turning Point Action on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it publicly. Smith also publicly ended his reelection campaign.
Smith did not respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, the first-term lawmaker said the allegations against him were “silly” and part of a “coordinated attack” by Democrats and “those unhappy with my politics.”
Smith is aligned with some of the most conservative members of the Arizona House — sometimes referred to as the “Freedom Caucus” of the larger Republican caucus — and he has previously derided signature-verification work by local election officials as “a joke.”
During his time with Turning Point Action, Smith worked to support the candidacies of conservatives who spread false information about elections. At a rally in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021, Smith tweeted a photo of himself speaking to “thousands of patriots.” In that since-deleted tweet, he urged followers “Don’t get comfortable” and to “fight like hell.” The next day, as Congress met to certify the 2020 election results, the U.S. Capitol came under attack.
Smith said the prospect of costly and public fallout from the allegations shaped his decision to drop out of the race.
“The recommendation I received most was that I bow out and live to fight another day,” Smith said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I might be confident of victory, but all it would take is a judge believing any one person, and all would be lost. … To be better protected in the future, if and when I run again for something, I’ll rely exclusively on the online signature system, and eliminate paper petitions from my campaign. Then no one can make up any stories.”
The complaint alleged that Smith submitted multiple pages with dozens of forged signatures that he claimed to have collected, and it contained images of two of those pages.
Smith’s withdrawal drew immediate reaction from members of his own party, some of whom faced death threats and harassment for upholding the will of voters — and Republican losses — during the 2020 and 2022 elections.
Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman (R), who lives in Smith’s district west of Phoenix, cast Smith as a hypocrite. Hickman rejected attempts by Trump to talk to him in the weeks after the then-president narrowly lost the 2020 election. Hickman has faced death threats, threats against his family and protests at his home. On Thursday, he called on Smith to resign from office.
“This is a man who has lied to the people of Legislative District 29 and the entire state about our election operations for at least three years,” Hickman said in a statement. “And now he is accused of lying about the signatures he personally collected to get on the ballot again. An investigation will reveal the truth.”
Speaker Johnson is putting the aide packages on the floor, despite right wing threats. That tells me he probably has assurances that enough Ds will vote to keep him in the position of there is a motion to vacate. That's a good deal for America and the world.
which? the senate bill? or did he spllt them up and put forth gop bs ?
No it's a House bill with separate votes due Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. But each should pass. You might need 3 Republicans to vote for it to pass.
Ever since POOTWH rode down that escalator, nothing but winning, repub cohesion and dominance and nothing but a future full of repub, conservative dominance for generations to come, eh professor?
From Letter From An American:
Many congress members have left Washington, D.C., since Friday was to be the first day of a planned recess. This meant the partisan majority on the floor fluctuated. Olivia Beavers of Politico reported that that instability made Freedom Caucus members nervous enough to put together a Floor Action Response Team (FART—I am totally not making this up) to make sure other Republicans didn’t limit the power of the extremists when they were off the floor.
Ever since POOTWH rode down that escalator, nothing but winning, repub cohesion and dominance and nothing but a future full of repub, conservative dominance for generations to come, eh professor?
From Letter From An American:
Many congress members have left Washington, D.C., since Friday was to be the first day of a planned recess. This meant the partisan majority on the floor fluctuated. Olivia Beavers of Politico reported that that instability made Freedom Caucus members nervous enough to put together a Floor Action Response Team (FART—I am totally not making this up) to make sure other Republicans didn’t limit the power of the extremists when they were off the floor.
be best.....
Finally, Moskowitz proposed “that Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene…should be appointed as Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy to the United States Congress.”
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Ever since POOTWH rode down that escalator, nothing but winning, repub cohesion and dominance and nothing but a future full of repub, conservative dominance for generations to come, eh professor?
From Letter From An American:
Many congress members have left Washington, D.C., since Friday was to be the first day of a planned recess. This meant the partisan majority on the floor fluctuated. Olivia Beavers of Politico reported that that instability made Freedom Caucus members nervous enough to put together a Floor Action Response Team (FART—I am totally not making this up) to make sure other Republicans didn’t limit the power of the extremists when they were off the floor.
be best.....
Finally, Moskowitz proposed “that Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene…should be appointed as Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy to the United States Congress.”
i say johnson should call mtg's bluff and see how she does. be like "you want to be speaker? fine, take the job and see how you do."
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Ever since POOTWH rode down that escalator, nothing but winning, repub cohesion and dominance and nothing but a future full of repub, conservative dominance for generations to come, eh professor?
From Letter From An American:
Many congress members have left Washington, D.C., since Friday was to be the first day of a planned recess. This meant the partisan majority on the floor fluctuated. Olivia Beavers of Politico reported that that instability made Freedom Caucus members nervous enough to put together a Floor Action Response Team (FART—I am totally not making this up) to make sure other Republicans didn’t limit the power of the extremists when they were off the floor.
be best.....
Finally, Moskowitz proposed “that Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene…should be appointed as Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy to the United States Congress.”
i say johnson should call mtg's bluff and see how she does. be like "you want to be speaker? fine, take the job and see how you do."
it all passed out of the rules committee. floor votes on seperate bills to be recombined for the senate.
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
speculation that at least 2 moderate members of congress will resign immediately if motion to vacate goes to the floor. this would give the house to the dems and make jeffries the speaker if true.
are house republicans really this stupid? i would bet on it. a small bet, but i still think they would file the motion to vacate because maga can't help themselves.
speculation that at least 2 moderate members of congress will resign immediately if motion to vacate goes to the floor. this would give the house to the dems and make jeffries the speaker if true.
are house republicans really this stupid? i would bet on it. a small bet, but i still think they would file the motion to vacate because maga can't help themselves.
freedom causcus is really the chaos caucus. their goal is to hamstring congress. thats it. been given outsized power with this stupid fucking party line vote bullshit. I hope its over but with so many so called moderate republicans or even the tea party fucks leaving that opens the door for more extremist bulshit.
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The House passes billions in aid for Ukraine and Israel after months of struggle. Next is the Senate
By STEPHEN GROVES and LISA MASCARO
26 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House swiftly approved $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies in a rare Saturday session as Democrats and Republicans banded together after months of political turmoil over renewed American support for repelling Russia's invasion.
With overwhelming support, the $61 billion in aid for Ukraine passed in a matter of minutes, a strong showing as American lawmakers race to deliver a fresh round of U.S. support to the war-torn ally. Some cheered on the House floor and waved blue-and-yellow flags of Ukraine.
Aid to Israel and the other allies also won approval by healthy margins, as did a measure to clamp down on the popular platform TikTok, signs of how unique coalitions formed to push the separate bills forward. The whole package will go to the Senate, where passage in the coming days is nearly assured. President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately.
“We did our work here, and I think history will judge it well," said embattled Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who is risking his own job to marshal the package to passage.
Biden, in a statement, thanked Johnson, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and the bipartisan coalition of lawmakers “who voted to put our national security first.”
“I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law and we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs,” the president said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said he was “grateful” to both parties in the House and "personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track,” he said on X.
“Thank you, America!” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
The weekend scene presented a striking display of congressional action after months of dysfunction and stalemate fueled by Republicans, who hold the majority but are deeply split over foreign aid, particularly for Ukraine as it fights Russia's invasion. Johnson relied on Democratic support to ensure the military and humanitarian support, with the first major package for Ukraine since December 2022, won approval.
The morning opened with a somber and serious debate and unusual sense of purpose as Republican and Democratic leaders united to urge quick approval, saying that would ensure the United States supported its allies and remained a leader on the world stage. The House's visitor galleries crowded with onlookers.
“The eyes of the world are upon us, and history will judge what we do here and now,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
Passage through the House cleared away the biggest hurdle to Biden's funding request, first made in October as Ukraine's military supplies began to run low.
The GOP-controlled House struggled for months over what to do, first demanding that any assistance for Ukraine be tied to policy changes at the U.S.-Mexico order, only to immediately reject a bipartisan Senate offer along those very lines.
Reaching an endgame has been an excruciating lift for Johnson that has tested both his resolve and his support among Republicans, with a small but growing number now openly urging his removal from the speaker's office. Yet congressional leaders cast the votes as a turning point in history — an urgent sacrifice as U.S. allies are beleaguered by wars and threats from continental Europe to the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific.
“Sometimes when you are living history, as we are today, you don’t understand the significance of the actions of the votes that we make on this House floor, of the effect that it will have down the road,” said New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “This is a historic moment.”
Opponents, particularly the hard-right Republicans from Johnson's majority, argued that the U.S. should focus on the home front, addressing domestic border security and the nation's rising debt load, and they warned against spending more money, which largely flows to American defense manufacturers, to produce weaponry used overseas.
Still, Congress has seen a stream of world leaders visit in recent months, from Zelenskyy to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, all but pleading with lawmakers to approve the aid. Globally, the delay left many questioning America's commitment to its allies.
At stake has been one of Biden's top foreign policy priorities — halting Russian President Vladimir Putin's advance in Europe. After engaging in quiet talks with Johnson, the president quickly endorsed Johnson's plan, paving the way for Democrats to give their rare support to clear the procedural hurdles needed for a final vote.
“We have a responsibility, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans to defend democracy wherever it is at risk,” Jeffries said during the debate.
While aid for Ukraine failed to win a majority of Republicans, several dozen progressive Democrats voted against the bill aiding Israel as they demanded an end to the bombardment of Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians.
At the same time, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has loomed large over the fight, weighing in from afar via social media statements and direct phone calls with lawmakers as he tilts the GOP to a more isolationist stance with his “America First” brand of politics.
Ukraine's defense once enjoyed robust, bipartisan support in Congress, but as the war enters its third year, a bulk of Republicans oppose further aid. Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., offered an amendment to zero out the money, but it was rejected.
The ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus has derided the legislation as the “America Last” foreign wars package and urged lawmakers to defy Republican leadership and oppose it because the bills do not include border security measures.
Johnson's hold on the speaker's gavel has also grown more tenuous in recent days as three Republicans, led by Greene, supported a “motion to vacate" that can lead to a vote on removing the speaker. Egged on by far-right personalities, she is also being joined by a growing number of lawmakers including Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who is urging Johnson to voluntarily step aside, and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.
The package includes several Republican priorities that Democrats endorse, or at least are willing to accept. Those include proposals that allow the U.S. to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to rebuild Ukraine; impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China and criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl; and legislation to require the China-based owner of the popular video app TikTok to sell its stake within a year or face a ban in the United States.
Still, the all-out push to get the bills through Congress is a reflection not only of politics, but realities on the ground in Ukraine. Top lawmakers on national security committees, who are privy to classified briefings, have grown gravely concerned about the situation in recent as Russia pummels Ukrainian forces beset by a shortage of troops and ammunition.
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speculation that at least 2 moderate members of congress will resign immediately if motion to vacate goes to the floor. this would give the house to the dems and make jeffries the speaker if true.
are house republicans really this stupid? i would bet on it. a small bet, but i still think they would file the motion to vacate because maga can't help themselves.
freedom causcus is really the chaos caucus. their goal is to hamstring congress. thats it. been given outsized power with this stupid fucking party line vote bullshit. I hope its over but with so many so called moderate republicans or even the tea party fucks leaving that opens the door for more extremist bulshit.
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Barr, a vocal Trump critic, says he will ‘support the Republican ticket’ in November
Former attorney general previously said voting for Trump would be “playing Russian roulette with the country,” but said Wednesday that a “continuation of the Biden administration is national suicide”
Asked Wednesday whether he would vote for Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, in November, Barr told Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom”that he would vote for the Republican ticket.
“I’ve said all along, given two bad choices, I think it’s my duty to pick the person I think would do the least harm to the country, and in my mind, that’s — I will vote the Republican ticket,” said Barr, who remains a Republican. “I’ll support the Republican ticket.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/17/barr-vocal-trump-critic-says-he-will-support-republican-ticket-november/
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate dismissed all impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday, ending the House Republican push to remove the Cabinet secretary from office over his handling of the the U.S.-Mexico border and shutting down his trial before arguments even began.
Senators voted to dismiss both articles of impeachment and end the proceedings, with Democrats arguing that the articles were unconstitutional. The first article charged Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply" with immigration law and second article charged him with a “breach of trust” for saying the border was secure. The votes were 51-48 and 51-49, both along party lines.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the House Republicans’ charges failed to meet “the high standard of high crimes and misdemeanors” and could set a dangerous precedent.
“For the sake of the Senate’s integrity and to protect impeachment for those rare cases we truly need it, senators should dismiss today’s charges,” said Schumer, D-N.Y., as he opened Wednesday’s session.
Senate Republicans had argued for a full impeachment trial after the House narrowly voted in February to impeach Mayorkas for his handling of the border, stating in the two articles that he “willfully and systematically” refused to enforce immigration laws.
An outright dismissal of House Republicans’ prosecution of Mayorkas, with no chance to argue the case, is an embarrassing defeat for House Republicans and embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who made the impeachment a priority. And it is likely to resonate politically for both Republicans and Democrats in a presidential election year when border security has been a top issue.
Republicans argue that President Joe Biden has been weak on the border as arrests for illegal crossings skyrocketed to more than 2 million people during the last two years of his term, though they have fallen from a record high of 250,000 in December amid heightened enforcement in Mexico. Democrats say that instead of impeaching Mayorkas, Republicans should have accepted a bipartisan Senate compromise aimed at reducing the number of migrants who come into the U.S. illegally.
House impeachment managers delivered the charges to the Senate on Tuesday, standing in the well of the Senate and reading them aloud to a captive audience. But they did not get a chance to present the case before the Senate dismissed it.
The historic nature of the trial — the first time in nearly 150 years that a Cabinet secretary was impeached — contrasted with the almost routine feel of the proceedings after senators have sat through two previous impeachment trials against former President Donald Trump in 2020 and 2021. And with a quick dismissal almost inevitable, the Senate never even set up the chamber for the occasion, which usually includes tables on each side for the impeachment managers and defense lawyers.
Still, there was a bit of the traditional pomp. As the trial began, senators approached the front of the Senate in groups of four to sign an oath book that is stored in the National Archives.
Schumer called for the votes to dismiss the two charges after Republicans rejected a proposed agreement for Senate debate time and several votes on GOP objections. Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt stood in the chamber and said Republicans wouldn't accept Schumer's offer because Democrats were “bulldozing 200 years of precedent" on impeachments by trying to dismiss the trial.
Angry Republicans called for several votes to delay the inevitable final outcome, but none of them passed as Democrats and three Independents held together.
Frustrated, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said “history will not judge this moment well.”
“This process must not be abused," McConnell said. "It must not be short-circuited."
At the same time, Republicans similarly moved to dismiss former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in 2021, weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. All but five GOP senators — including McConnell — voted to end the trial, arguing it was unconstitutional because Trump had already left office.
After Democrats dismissed the charges, Johnson and members of his House GOP leadership team said in a joint statement that “by voting unanimously to bypass their constitutional responsibility, every single Senate Democrat has issued their full endorsement of the Biden Administration’s dangerous open border policies."
Even if the Senate had held a trial, Republicans would not have been able to win the support of the two-thirds of the Senate that is needed to convict and remove Mayorkas from office — Democrats control the Senate, 51-49, and they remained united against the impeachment effort. Not one House Democrat supported it, either.
Even some Republicans questioned the impeachment effort from the start. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney had said for weeks that he was considering voting with Democrats to dismiss the charges but ultimately voted with his own party. After the votes, he said he does not believe the charges rise to high crimes but he did not want to dismiss them because “it was important to engage in some level of debate.”
Mayorkas, who was in New York on Wednesday to launch a campaign for children’s online safety, reiterated that he’s focused on the work of his department. “The Senate is going to do what the Senate considers to be appropriate as that proceeds,” he said. “I am here in New York City on Wednesday morning fighting online sexual exploitation and abuse. I’m focused on our mission.”
Department spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said after the votes that the Senate's decision to end the trial “proves definitively that there was no evidence or Constitutional grounds to justify impeachment.”
Johnson delayed sending the articles to the Senate for weeks while both chambers finished work on government funding legislation and took a two-week recess. Johnson had said he would send them to the Senate last week, but he punted again after Senate Republicans said they wanted more time to prepare.
At a hearing with Mayorkas on Tuesday about President Joe Biden's budget request for the department, some of the House impeachment managers previewed the arguments they would have made.
Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, the chairman of the House Homeland Security panel, told the secretary he has a duty under the law to control and guard U.S. borders, and “during your three years as secretary, you have failed to fulfill this oath. You have refused to comply with the laws passed by Congress, and you have breached the public trust.”
Mayorkas defended the department's efforts but said the nation's immigration system is “fundamentally broken, and only Congress can fix it."
The impeachment trial was the third in five years. Democrats impeached Trump twice, once over his dealings with Ukraine and the second time in the days after the Capitol attack. Trump was acquitted by the Senate both times.
Schumer said the charges against Mayorkas did not compare to those against Trump and were engineered to help the former president as he runs again this year. He said the Republican charges were policy disputes, not high crimes, and it was important to set a precedent.
“Secretary Mayorkas has not been accused of treason or accepting bribes or unlawfully attacking our elections or anything of the sort,” Schumer said. “He did not blackmail a foreign power to dig dirt on a political opponent. Nor did he incite a violent mob to wage an insurrection against the peaceful transfer of power.”
He called the Republican case “an illegitimate and profane abuse of the U.S. Constitution.”
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, acknowledged that dismissing the trial was “a different Senate process," but said the “risk of normalizing what the House did is bigger than the risk of establishing a new precedent in the Senate.”
___
Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego, California contributed to this report.
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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which? the senate bill? or did he spllt them up and put forth gop bs ?
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Turning Point Action official resigns after accusation of election-related fraud
PHOENIX — A top leader of the national conservative group Turning Point Action, which has amplified false claims of election fraud by former president Donald Trump and others, resigned Thursday after being accused of forging voter signatures on official paperwork so that he could run for reelection in the Arizona House.
State Rep. Austin Smith (R) — who was senior director at Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA — was accused by a Democratic activist of submitting petition sheets with rows of voter names, addresses and signatures that “bear a striking resemblance” to Smith’s handwriting, according to a complaint. Smith “personally circulated multiple petition sheets bearing what appear to be forged voter signatures,” the complaint said.
The complaint was sent to the Arizona secretary of state, who forwarded it to the Arizona attorney general for review. State election officials do not assess the veracity of allegations made against candidates. A spokesperson for the state prosecutor’s office, which runs a team that focuses on claims of voter and election fraud after widespread claims following the 2020 election, declined to comment. Both state offices are overseen by Democrats.
Smith submitted his resignation to Turning Point Action on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it publicly. Smith also publicly ended his reelection campaign.
Smith did not respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, the first-term lawmaker said the allegations against him were “silly” and part of a “coordinated attack” by Democrats and “those unhappy with my politics.”
Smith is aligned with some of the most conservative members of the Arizona House — sometimes referred to as the “Freedom Caucus” of the larger Republican caucus — and he has previously derided signature-verification work by local election officials as “a joke.”
During his time with Turning Point Action, Smith worked to support the candidacies of conservatives who spread false information about elections. At a rally in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021, Smith tweeted a photo of himself speaking to “thousands of patriots.” In that since-deleted tweet, he urged followers “Don’t get comfortable” and to “fight like hell.” The next day, as Congress met to certify the 2020 election results, the U.S. Capitol came under attack.
Smith said the prospect of costly and public fallout from the allegations shaped his decision to drop out of the race.
“The recommendation I received most was that I bow out and live to fight another day,” Smith said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I might be confident of victory, but all it would take is a judge believing any one person, and all would be lost. … To be better protected in the future, if and when I run again for something, I’ll rely exclusively on the online signature system, and eliminate paper petitions from my campaign. Then no one can make up any stories.”
The complaint alleged that Smith submitted multiple pages with dozens of forged signatures that he claimed to have collected, and it contained images of two of those pages.
Smith’s withdrawal drew immediate reaction from members of his own party, some of whom faced death threats and harassment for upholding the will of voters — and Republican losses — during the 2020 and 2022 elections.
Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman (R), who lives in Smith’s district west of Phoenix, cast Smith as a hypocrite. Hickman rejected attempts by Trump to talk to him in the weeks after the then-president narrowly lost the 2020 election. Hickman has faced death threats, threats against his family and protests at his home. On Thursday, he called on Smith to resign from office.
“This is a man who has lied to the people of Legislative District 29 and the entire state about our election operations for at least three years,” Hickman said in a statement. “And now he is accused of lying about the signatures he personally collected to get on the ballot again. An investigation will reveal the truth.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/18/austin-smith-turning-point-action-election-fraud/
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From Letter From An American:
Many congress members have left Washington, D.C., since Friday was to be the first day of a planned recess. This meant the partisan majority on the floor fluctuated. Olivia Beavers of Politico reported that that instability made Freedom Caucus members nervous enough to put together a Floor Action Response Team (FART—I am totally not making this up) to make sure other Republicans didn’t limit the power of the extremists when they were off the floor.
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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are house republicans really this stupid? i would bet on it. a small bet, but i still think they would file the motion to vacate because maga can't help themselves.
https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1781390284573544942
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House swiftly approved $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies in a rare Saturday session as Democrats and Republicans banded together after months of political turmoil over renewed American support for repelling Russia's invasion.
With overwhelming support, the $61 billion in aid for Ukraine passed in a matter of minutes, a strong showing as American lawmakers race to deliver a fresh round of U.S. support to the war-torn ally. Some cheered on the House floor and waved blue-and-yellow flags of Ukraine.
Aid to Israel and the other allies also won approval by healthy margins, as did a measure to clamp down on the popular platform TikTok, signs of how unique coalitions formed to push the separate bills forward. The whole package will go to the Senate, where passage in the coming days is nearly assured. President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately.
POLITICS
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Biden signs bill extending a key US surveillance program after divisions nearly forced it to lapse
A look at what's in the $95 billion foreign aid package passed by the House
“We did our work here, and I think history will judge it well," said embattled Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who is risking his own job to marshal the package to passage.
Biden, in a statement, thanked Johnson, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and the bipartisan coalition of lawmakers “who voted to put our national security first.”
“I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law and we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs,” the president said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said he was “grateful” to both parties in the House and "personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track,” he said on X.
“Thank you, America!” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
The weekend scene presented a striking display of congressional action after months of dysfunction and stalemate fueled by Republicans, who hold the majority but are deeply split over foreign aid, particularly for Ukraine as it fights Russia's invasion. Johnson relied on Democratic support to ensure the military and humanitarian support, with the first major package for Ukraine since December 2022, won approval.
The morning opened with a somber and serious debate and unusual sense of purpose as Republican and Democratic leaders united to urge quick approval, saying that would ensure the United States supported its allies and remained a leader on the world stage. The House's visitor galleries crowded with onlookers.
“The eyes of the world are upon us, and history will judge what we do here and now,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
Passage through the House cleared away the biggest hurdle to Biden's funding request, first made in October as Ukraine's military supplies began to run low.
The GOP-controlled House struggled for months over what to do, first demanding that any assistance for Ukraine be tied to policy changes at the U.S.-Mexico order, only to immediately reject a bipartisan Senate offer along those very lines.
Reaching an endgame has been an excruciating lift for Johnson that has tested both his resolve and his support among Republicans, with a small but growing number now openly urging his removal from the speaker's office. Yet congressional leaders cast the votes as a turning point in history — an urgent sacrifice as U.S. allies are beleaguered by wars and threats from continental Europe to the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific.
“Sometimes when you are living history, as we are today, you don’t understand the significance of the actions of the votes that we make on this House floor, of the effect that it will have down the road,” said New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “This is a historic moment.”
Opponents, particularly the hard-right Republicans from Johnson's majority, argued that the U.S. should focus on the home front, addressing domestic border security and the nation's rising debt load, and they warned against spending more money, which largely flows to American defense manufacturers, to produce weaponry used overseas.
Still, Congress has seen a stream of world leaders visit in recent months, from Zelenskyy to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, all but pleading with lawmakers to approve the aid. Globally, the delay left many questioning America's commitment to its allies.
At stake has been one of Biden's top foreign policy priorities — halting Russian President Vladimir Putin's advance in Europe. After engaging in quiet talks with Johnson, the president quickly endorsed Johnson's plan, paving the way for Democrats to give their rare support to clear the procedural hurdles needed for a final vote.
“We have a responsibility, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans to defend democracy wherever it is at risk,” Jeffries said during the debate.
While aid for Ukraine failed to win a majority of Republicans, several dozen progressive Democrats voted against the bill aiding Israel as they demanded an end to the bombardment of Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians.
At the same time, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has loomed large over the fight, weighing in from afar via social media statements and direct phone calls with lawmakers as he tilts the GOP to a more isolationist stance with his “America First” brand of politics.
Ukraine's defense once enjoyed robust, bipartisan support in Congress, but as the war enters its third year, a bulk of Republicans oppose further aid. Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., offered an amendment to zero out the money, but it was rejected.
The ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus has derided the legislation as the “America Last” foreign wars package and urged lawmakers to defy Republican leadership and oppose it because the bills do not include border security measures.
Johnson's hold on the speaker's gavel has also grown more tenuous in recent days as three Republicans, led by Greene, supported a “motion to vacate" that can lead to a vote on removing the speaker. Egged on by far-right personalities, she is also being joined by a growing number of lawmakers including Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who is urging Johnson to voluntarily step aside, and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.
The package includes several Republican priorities that Democrats endorse, or at least are willing to accept. Those include proposals that allow the U.S. to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to rebuild Ukraine; impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China and criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl; and legislation to require the China-based owner of the popular video app TikTok to sell its stake within a year or face a ban in the United States.
Still, the all-out push to get the bills through Congress is a reflection not only of politics, but realities on the ground in Ukraine. Top lawmakers on national security committees, who are privy to classified briefings, have grown gravely concerned about the situation in recent as Russia pummels Ukrainian forces beset by a shortage of troops and ammunition.
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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