Category Archives: Republicans

Republicans nominate Steve Scalise to replace McCarthy as House speaker

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Scalise defeats Jim Jordan by 113 votes to 99 but falls short of threshold needed to be elected speaker on House floor

House Republicans nominated Steve Scalise to be the next speaker on Wednesday, a week after the unprecedented ouster of Kevin McCarthy. But a handful of objections to Scalise’s nomination left House Republicans unable to move to a final floor vote, making it unclear when a new speaker might be elected.

By a vote of 113 to 99, Scalise, currently the second-ranking House Republican, defeated a challenge from congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the judiciary committee and a far-right firebrand.

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Kari Lake, Trump ally and election denier, announces Senate bid in Arizona

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Republican who lost state governor’s race but never conceded has challenged her defeat in court, so far unsuccessfully

Kari Lake, the Republican candidate who lost the race for Arizona governor but never conceded her loss, announced a run for US Senate in the western state Tuesday.

A former TV news anchor, Lake made her move into politics by making repeated false claims about elections. She aligned closely with former president Donald Trump and has been floated as a potential running mate for Trump, who once praised Lake for her ability to constantly bring up election fraud.

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Two US House Republicans make their bid for the speaker’s gavel

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Party members will decide between Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan on Wednesday by secret ballot

Prominent Republican party members Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan made their pitches for the powerful role of speaker of the US House of Representatives on Tuesday amid mounting pressure from a war in the Middle East and another looming government shutdown. Lawmakers exiting a closed-door forum said neither Scalise, the House majority leader, nor Jordan, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, will have a clear advantage when Republicans begin to vote for a nominee by secret ballot on Wednesday.

“We’ve got two good leaders within our party, with good perspectives on where the party needs to go and an understanding and an emphasis on reuniting the party,” Mike Garcia told reporters. But before voting for a candidate on Wednesday, Republicans will have to decide whether to keep internal disagreements behind closed doors by requiring any nominee to win 217 Republican votes, enough to elect the next speaker on the House floor over Democratic opposition. Current rules require only a simple majority. “The first order of business is figuring out a rules change that works for the conference,” said congresswoman Kat Cammack.

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More charges for George Santos: stealing donors’ identities and credit cards

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New 23-count indictment accuses Republican congressman of charging contributors’ credit cards to fund his bank account

Federal prosecutors added major allegations to the indictment charging the House Republican George Santos with fraud and lying about his campaign finance disclosures, presenting evidence that he stole donors’ identities and charged thousands of dollars to their credit cards without their knowledge.

The new charges, revealed in a superseding indictment returned on Tuesday by a grand jury in New York, increases the legal peril for the embattled congressman, given that his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, last week pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States.

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Biden says Americans among hostages in Gaza and reaffirms support for Israel – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For our latest reporting on Israel-Hamas war, you can read our live coverage here.

Special counsel for the federal January 6 case has also requested that Trump be restricted from doing juror research and publishing the identities of jurors, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports.

The request is, in part, because of Trump’s previous use of social media to “attack others”, argued the special counsel.

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Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan doesn’t rule out presidential run

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Republican says party is ‘a train wreck’ after Matt Gaetz initiates removal of Kevin McCarthy from House speaker

The former Maryland governor Larry Hogan said he had not ruled out a presidential run, as he contemplated the “train wreck” his Republican party had become amid infighting in Congress and the ascendancy in primary polling of the 91-times criminally charged Donald Trump.

Hogan also called the Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, the instigator of last week’s historic removal of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the US House, “a cancer on the party and on the Congress”.

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Robert F Kennedy Jr announces independent run for president; siblings condemn his ‘perilous’ campaign – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For our latest reporting on Kennedy’s presidential candidacy, you can read our latest report:

Robert F Kennedy Jr is expected to announce his independent run for US president at 12.00 pm ET in Philadelphia.

The 69-year-old has spent several months running for the Democratic nomination for the country’s highest office. He is the only challenge to Biden, who has a majority of the support within Democratic party.

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Top Republican urges party to end ‘civil war’ and elect House speaker this week

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Texas congressman Mike McCaul calls on House to unify and ‘move quickly’ because ‘we cannot paralyze democracy’

Republicans in Washington need to elect a new speaker “this week” and end the party’s “civil war” in the House that is sending a message to the world of dysfunction, especially amid the conflict unfolding in Israel, a senior GOP figure said on Sunday.

The Texas Republican congressman Mike McCaul, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, urged his own party in the House to unify because “we have got to move quickly, we cannot paralyze democracy, especially when we have hotspots all over the world… and I’m just worried about the messaging this sends.”

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‘They didn’t stand up to Trump’: how the Republican party descended into disarray

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The GOP was once feared for its ability to unite and win – but Kevin McCarthy’s demise shows a party deeply divided

They are fresh-faced, suited and booted, the National Mall behind them and the world at their feet. Congressmen Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan smile out from the cover of Young Guns, their co-authored 2010 book about the next generation of conservatives. “This isn’t your grandfather’s Republican party,” said publicity material at the time.

Thirteen years later, the trio is neither young nor the future. Cantor (“the leader”) became Republican leader in the House of Representatives but lost his seat to a nascent rightwing populism. Ryan (“the thinker”) became speaker but retired early to escape a toxic political relationship with President Donald Trump. And this week McCarthy (“the strategist”) was ousted by some of the extremists he helped elect to Congress but could not tame.

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‘He loves this’: Trump takes 2024 campaign to the courtroom

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Legal woes that would destroy most candidates have become a defining feature of his campaign – and some say it might work

The blue suit, white shirt, red tie and American flag pin looked familiar. So did the TV cameras following every move and reporters hanging on every word. So did the wild hand gestures as he unleashed a torrent of incendiary rhetoric about the elites supposedly out to get him.

But this was not Donald Trump at one of his rollicking campaign rallies in middle America. This was the former US president standing outside a New York courtroom, with uniformed officers looking on, during a civil fraud trial accusing him of grossly inflating the value of his businesses.

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Former aide to Republican fabulist George Santos pleads guilty to fraud

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Nancy Marks tells court on Long Island she and congressman submitted campaign finance reports embellished with fake loan

The ex-treasurer for US congressman George Santos pleaded guilty Thursday to a fraud conspiracy charge and implicated the indicted New York Republican in a scheme to embellish his campaign finance reports with a fake loan and fake donors.

Nancy Marks, who was a close aide to Santos during his two congressional bids, entered the plea at a federal courthouse on Long Island, where she was a longtime political operative and bookkeeper for multiple candidates.

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Hardline duo emerge as frontrunners to succeed McCarthy as House speaker

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Jim Jordan confirms his run while Steve Scalise, House majority leader, reportedly sounds out support

Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio emerged as leading contenders to succeed Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the US House of Representatives, after the Californian was brutally removed by his own Republican party on Tuesday.

Scalise is House majority leader, Jordan chair of the powerful judiciary committee. In the aftermath of McCarthy’s defeat, both were widely reported to be making calls and sounding out support. On Wednesday morning, speaking to reporters, Jordan confirmed his run.

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Kevin McCarthy will not run for speaker again after being ousted by hard-right Republicans – live

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Former House speaker tells colleagues he will not go for the job again; Republican Patrick McHenry takes over as temporary speaker

In brief comments to reporters after meeting with Republican lawmakers, Kevin McCarthy sounded fatalistic about surviving the motion to remove him as speaker of the House brought by far-right insurgents.

“If five Republicans go with Democrats, then I’m out,” McCarthy said.

Joe Biden’s son Hunter is set to be arraigned in a Delaware court on Tuesday in a politically fraught case that could unfold in the heat of the US president’s 2024 re-election campaign.

Hunter, 53, the first child of a sitting president to be indicted, is expected to plead not guilty to unlawfully possessing a gun as an illegal drug user and lying about his drug use on a background check form when he bought a Colt Cobra revolver in 2018.

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Kevin McCarthy ousted as US House speaker by hard-right Republicans

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Now-former speaker confirms he will not run again as Republicans plan to hold a vote for a new speaker next Wednesday

After leading a successful, bipartisan effort to avoid a government shutdown over the weekend, Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday was abruptly removed from his role as US House speaker, ousted by hard-right members of his own Republican party less than a year after his election.

The ousting of McCarthy represented the first time in US history that a speaker of the House has been removed from office, marking an ignominious end to a short and fraught tenure for the California Republican. It comes as Americans’ approval ratings of Congress and the federal government remain near historic lows, with a majority saying they have little or no confidence in the future of the US political system.

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Matt Gaetz introduces motion to oust Kevin McCarthy as House speaker

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Far-right congressman files motion after expressing outrage at speaker’s bipartisan effort to avoid government shutdown

Congressman Matt Gaetz, a hard-right Republican of Florida, introduced a motion to remove Kevin McCarthy as House speaker on Monday, expressing outrage over the Republican leader’s successful efforts to avoid a government shutdown this weekend.

“I have enough Republicans where at this point next week, one of two things will happen: Kevin McCarthy won’t be the speaker of the House, or he’ll be the speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats,” Gaetz told reporters after he filed the motion. “I’m at peace with either result because the American people deserve to know who governs them.”

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Matt Gaetz accuses Kevin McCarthy of cutting ‘secret side deal’ with Biden

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Far right of Republican party split as congressman attacks House speaker for working with Democrats to avoid shutdown

Congressman Matt Gaetz continued to attack Kevin McCarthy on Monday over the House Republican speaker’s successful efforts to avoid a government shutdown, even as other hard-right lawmakers came to McCarthy’s defense.

Speaking on the House floor on Monday, Gaetz railed against McCarthy, accusing the speaker of cutting “a secret side deal” with Joe Biden to provide additional funding to Ukraine. The stopgap spending measure passed by Congress on Saturday, which extended government funding through November 17, did not include additional money for Ukraine, but members of both parties have called for a supplemental bill to address that omission. Biden said on Saturday that he did “fully expect the speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine” and soon pass a supplemental funding bill.

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North Dakota state senator, wife and two children die in Utah plane crash

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Doug Larsen and family killed shortly after taking off from Canyonlands airfield, about 15 miles north of Moab

A state senator from North Dakota, his wife and their two young children died when the small plane they were traveling in crashed in Utah, a senate leader said Monday.

Doug Larsen’s death was confirmed on Monday in an email that the Republican state senate majority leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators and was obtained by the Associated Press.

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Republicans attacking Bowman but backing Santos should ‘check values’, AOC says

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defends Democrat who set off fire alarm as key vote loomed, citing charges against New York opponent

Republicans calling for action against the New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman for triggering a fire alarm in a congressional office building as a vote loomed on a deal to avoid a government shutdown should “check their own values”, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, citing the lack of action against a GOP New Yorker, George Santos, after he was indicted for fraud.

“They are protecting someone who has lied to the American people, lied to the United States House of Representatives, lied to congressional investigators,” Ocasio-Cortez, widely known as AOC, told CNN’s State of the Union.

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Feinstein death inspired lawmakers to avoid shutdown, Pelosi says

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California Democrat says loss of Feinstein may have focused politicians on, ‘Let’s get the job done to keep government open’

The death of the California senator Dianne Feinstein may have helped inspire US lawmakers to avoid a federal government shutdown, the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

Speaking on Sunday, to CNN’s State of the Union, the California Democrat mourned the loss of Feinstein and said: “Some of the senators said that maybe her departure and the sadness that went with us focused people more on, ‘Let’s get the job done to keep government open for the people.’”

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‘Red Caesarism’ is rightwing code – and some Republicans are listening

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Argument for a ‘red Caesar’ to rule US may seem esoteric but conservative thinktank behind idea has connections to Trump

In June, rightwing academic Kevin Slack published a book-length polemic claiming that ideas that had emerged from what he called the radical left were now so dominant that the US republic its founders envisioned was effectively at an end.

Slack, a politics professor at the conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan, made conspiratorial and extreme arguments now common on the antidemocratic right, that “transgenderism, anti-white racism, censorship, cronyism … are now the policies of an entire cosmopolitan class that includes much of the entrenched bureaucracy, the military, the media, and government-sponsored corporations”.

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