Category Archives: House of Representatives

Kevin McCarthy loses 10th round in bid for House speaker as stalemate drags on

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The impasse over choosing a House speaker continued as McCarthy fell short of votes held up by his detractors

The 118th Congress made history again on Thursday, as House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed to win the speakership for the 10th time. The protracted stalemate marks the first time since 1859 that the House has required more than nine ballots to determine a new speaker.

McCarthy entered the third day of voting with fresh momentum for his candidacy, amid reports that he had made significant concessions to his roughly 20 detractors within the Republican conference.

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House without a speaker as McCarthy fails to secure majority in six rounds of voting – as it happened

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US Capitol police officer Michael Fanone, who testified to the January 6 committee, visited McCarthy’s office today to highlight McCarthy’s failure to secure his House speaker vote.

While posing outside of McCarthy’s office, Fanone said he visited McCarthy to “rub it in”, referring to McCarthy’s election failure.

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House adjourns as speakership evades McCarthy even after sixth vote

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Republicans push back deadline of electing new speaker to noon on Thursday, after six failed votes in two days

The House remained paralyzed on Wednesday, after Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed for the sixth time to capture the speaker’s gavel as his critics stood firm in their opposition to his candidacy. After the House adjourned for a few hours, McCarthy and his allies went into negotiations with the Republican holdouts without a clear path forward to end the standoff, then pushed back a seventh vote on the House leadership until Thursday.

The House held a total of three inconclusive votes in the speakership election on Wednesday, mirroring the three votes held a day earlier. Across all six ballots, no speaker candidate successfully captured the 218 votes expected to be needed for a victory. The stalemate marked the first time in a century that a House speaker was not chosen in the initial vote. After the sixth vote on Wednesday evening, the House moved to adjourn until at least 8pm ET, giving Republicans more time to reach a solution, then pushed back the deadline again, voting to adjourn until noon the following day.

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George Santos scandal: Democratic predecessor calls him a ‘con man’

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Tom Suozzi, Santos’s forerunner for New York’s third district, says the Republican winner should be ‘removed by Congress’

The Democrat who vacated the US House seat won by the controversial Republican George Santos said on Tuesday Congress was letting in “a con man”.

Tom Suozzi won New York’s third district, which covers parts of Long Island and Queens, in 2016, but stepped down in 2022 in order to run for governor. Santos lost to Suozzi in 2020 but beat Robert Zimmerman for the vacant seat.

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House adjourns after Kevin McCarthy falls short in three rounds of voting for speaker – as it happened

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Leader of slim Republican majority has been negotiating to secure backing of hardliners but voting could go to multiple rounds

A crescendo of bipartisan outrage will accompany the swearing in due today of George Santos, one of the Republican party’s most controversial new Congress members, who has admitted large parts of his biography are a fantasy.

The New York politician, caught in lies over his family background, education and work history, is facing calls to step down from several senior figures within his own party before he even sets foot on the floor of the chamber.

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McCarthy faces long battle for House speaker after he falls short on third vote

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House adjourned until noon tomorrow as McCarthy becomes the first nominee for speaker in 100 years to fail to win the first vote

In a historic delay, the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, was on Tuesday facing a protracted battle to secure the speaker’s gavel after failing to win the first three votes on the opening day of the new Congress.

A fourth vote – and perhaps more, into the night – was avoided when the House adjourned, by voice vote, until noon on Wednesday.

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George Santos: Brazil reactivates fraud case against fabulist congressman-elect

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Republican is accused of using stolen checkbook and fake name at shop outside Rio de Janeiro in 2008

As the fabulist New York Republican representative-elect George Santos prepares to be sworn in on Tuesday, Brazilian prosecutors say they are reopening a criminal fraud case against him.

Santos, who faces federal and state investigations involving possible criminal activity related to his two congressional campaigns, is accused of using a stolen checkbook and fake name at a clothing shop outside Rio de Janeiro in 2008, the New York Times reported on Monday citing court documents.

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House of lies: outrage as Republicans prepare to swear in fantasist Santos

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New York politician who admitted making up large much of his life story is facing calls for him to quit, even from within his own party

A crescendo of bipartisan outrage will accompany the swearing in on Tuesday of George Santos, one of the Republican party’s most controversial new Congress members who has admitted large parts of his biography are a fantasy.

The New York politician, caught in lies over his family background, education and work history, is facing calls to step down from several senior figures within his own party before he even sets foot on the floor of the chamber.

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Kevin McCarthy’s speaker bid in balance as effort to placate hardliners flops

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Republican ‘Never Kevins’ say series of concessions to rightwingers are ‘insufficient’ to secure support

The final hurdle to Republican Kevin McCarthy’s years-long quest to secure the speaker’s gavel grew even more formidable on Monday as a sizable group of House colleagues from his own party said they were not yet ready to support him.

The nine Republican rebels made the announcement after the California congressman made a series of concessions on Sunday to try to shore up the support of conservative hardliners ahead of Republicans assuming control of the US lower chamber on Tuesday.

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Trump tax returns: key takeaways from the records release

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The former president had a bank account in China, failed to donate in 2020 and claims Democrats ‘weaponized’ his taxes

In one of its last acts under Democratic control, the House of Representatives on Friday released six years of Donald Trump’s tax returns, dating to 2015, the year he announced his presidential bid.

The thousands of pages of returns were the subject of a prolonged legal battle after Trump broke precedent by not releasing his tax returns while running for, and then occupying, the White House.

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Trump says tax returns release will ‘lead to horrible things for so many people’ – as it happened

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More elections news from Arizona, a swing state where pro-Trump Republicans have of late caused a lot of trouble with claims of electoral fraud in races in which they were beaten.

On Thursday, in a recount triggered by the closeness of the first count, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, Kris Mayes, was declared the winner for a second time, beating the Republican candidate, Abe Hamadeh.

“Outside court, Mayes attorney Dan Barr said the results should give the public confidence in elections, despite the adjustments in vote totals as a result of the recount.

‘They didn’t just do a rubber stamp of what it was,’ Barr said. ‘They did a careful evaluation of the votes and they came up with a different result. And so I think people should have a lot of confidence in the process.’

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‘Do you have no shame?’: Tulsi Gabbard grills congressman-elect George Santos

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Adding to his woes, prosecutor in part of Santos’ legislative district launching investigation into his ‘nothing short of stunning’ claims

Republican congressman-elect George Santos is under fire on multiple fronts – including in a blistering interview with Tulsi Gabbard and an investigation by Long Island prosecutors – after admitting to lying about his heritage, education and professional pedigree.

Late Wednesday, Santos also faced questions on social media over contradictory tweets on the timing of his mother’s death. One post on his account suggested she died in the September 11 attacks in New York, another said she died in 2016. The tweets appear to have been sent from his official Twitter account.

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Maryland representative Jamie Raskin says he has ‘serious but curable’ lymphoma

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Trump adversary and top Democrat in next House oversight committee says prognosis is ‘excellent’ and will continue to legislate

Maryland representative Jamie Raskin said on Wednesday that he has a type of lymphoma that’s a “serious but curable form of cancer” and he is beginning several months of treatment.

Raskin, who will be the top Democrat on the House oversight and reform committee in the next Congress, said he expects to be able to work through his outpatient treatment at a Washington-area hospital.

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Donald Trump’s tax returns to be made public by US House panel on Friday

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The House ways and means committee confirmed that the former president’s tax records from 2015 to 2021 will be released

Donald Trump’s redacted tax returns will be made public on Friday after a powerful congressional committee voted last week to release them.

A spokesperson for the US House of Representatives ways and means committee confirmed the timing of the release in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday.

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New York congressman-elect admits lying about college and work history

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Republican George Santos, elected to represent parts of Long Island and Queens, admits ‘embellishing résumé’

A New York Republican congressman-elect has admitted that he lied about his job experience and college education during his successful campaign for a seat in the US House.

George Santos, who was elected in November to represent parts of northern Long Island and north-east Queens, told the New York Post: “My sins here are embellishing my résumé. I’m sorry.”

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Tlaib and MTG among more than 220 House proxy voters on spending bill

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Republicans rail against pandemic-era rule as 226 House members from left to far right take chance not to vote in person

Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, one of two Democrats to oppose the $1.7tn spending bill that averted a US government shutdown on Friday, did so by voting “present”. But Tlaib was not present at the Capitol, voting instead by proxy.

Proxy voting was instituted during the Covid pandemic and is due to come to an end on 3 January, in the new Congress with Republicans controlling the House.

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House passes $1.7tn spending bill to avert US government shutdown

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Bill will be signed by president after receiving Senate approval and passing the House mostly along party lines

A $1.7tn spending bill financing federal agencies through September and providing more aid to a devastated Ukraine cleared the House of Representatives on Friday as lawmakers raced to finish their work for the year and avoid a partial government shutdown.

The bill passed mostly along party lines, 225-201. Having already received Senate approval, it is headed to Joe Biden’s desk for the president to sign it into law.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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January 6 panel accuses Trump of ‘multi-part conspiracy’ in final report

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House committee publishes report three days after recommending criminal charges against ex-president

The congressional panel investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol has published its final report, accusing Donald Trump of a “multi-part conspiracy” to thwart the will of the people and subvert democracy.

Divided into eight chapters, the 845-page report includes findings, interview transcripts and legislative recommendations and represents one of the most damning official portraits of a president in American history.

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January 6 panel releases transcripts of key witness Cassidy Hutchinson – as it happened

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Committee releases closed-door testimony of former White House chief of staff’s aide but full report is still delayed

White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson said she felt she had “Trump himself looking over my shoulder” as she discussed with her attorney her upcoming testimony to the January 6 committee earlier this year.

Hutchinson, an assistant to then-president Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, makes the revelation in a transcript of a deposition to the panel that was released on Thursday morning.

It wasn’t just that I had Stefan sitting next to me; it was almost like I felt like I had Trump looking over my shoulder. Because I knew in some fashion it would get back to him if I said anything that he would find disloyal.

And the prospect of that genuinely scared me. You know, I’d seen this world ruin people’s lives or try to ruin people’s careers. I’d seen how vicious they can be.

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January 6 panel releases transcripts of testimony ahead of 800-page report

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Most of 34 witnesses whose transcripts have been released invoked fifth-amendment right against self-incrimination

An 800-page report set to be released on Thursday by House investigators will conclude that Donald Trump criminally plotted to overturn his 2020 election defeat and “provoked his supporters to violence” at the Capitol with false voter fraud claims.

Before the release, on Wednesday night, the January 6 committee released 34 transcripts from 1,000 interviews conducted over 18 months. Most of the interviewees were witnesses who invoked their fifth-amendment right against self-incrimination.

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