Category Archives: Republicans

January 6 committee set to subpoena Trump allies, Republican Kinzinger says

Posted on by

Members of Congress involved in attempt to overturn election have refused to testify voluntarily before June public hearings

The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol will decide “in the next week or two” whether to issue subpoenas trying to force Republican lawmakers to testify about Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, one of two Republicans on the panel said on Sunday.

“If that takes a subpoena, it takes a subpoena,” Adam Kinzinger said.

Continue reading...

Republican: Biden’s $33bn Ukraine aid request likely to get swift approval

Posted on by

Michael McCaul’s comments come while Nancy Pelosi leads a congressional delegation to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian president

Joe Biden’s $33bn request to Congress for more aid for Ukraine is likely to receive swift approval from lawmakers, a senior Republican said on Sunday, as the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made a surprise visit to the war-riven country.

The president on Thursday had asked for the money for military and humanitarian support for Ukraine as it fights to repulse the Russian invasion now in its third month.

Continue reading...

Rand Paul promises Covid review if Republicans retake Senate in midterms

Posted on by

Kentucky senator who has clashed publicly with Dr Anthony Fauci champions lab leak theory in remarks at rally

The Kentucky senator Rand Paul promised on Saturday to wage a vigorous review into the origins of the coronavirus if Republicans retake the Senate and he lands a committee chairmanship.

Speaking to supporters at a campaign rally, the senator denounced what he sees as government overreach in response to Covid-19. He applauded a recent judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs.

Continue reading...

Democratic senator Joe Manchin cuts ad for West Virginia Republican

Posted on by

Manchin cites Biden Build Back Better spending plan he sank in ad for David McKinley, challenger to Trump-backed incumbent

Joe Manchin has recorded an ad for a Republican in a West Virginia US House election, in which the Democratic senator trumpets his opposition to Joe Biden’s Build Back Better domestic spending plan.

“David McKinley has always opposed reckless spending because it doesn’t make sense for West Virginia,” Manchin said.

Continue reading...

Marjorie Taylor Greene accused of lying in hearing in Capitol attack case

Posted on by

Lawyers for groups challenging Republican say text Greene sent to Meadows, released by House panel, shows she lied in testimony

Lawyers for voters seeking to bar the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress over her support for the January 6 insurrection have accused her of lying in a hearing in the case.

In a filing Friday, lawyers for groups challenging Greene said a text from the Georgia congresswoman to then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, released by the House committee investigating January 6, shows she lied in testimony.

Continue reading...

Trump claims he doesn’t have documents New York attorney general is seeking – as it happened

Posted on by

Nancy Pelosi says the House will vote to pass Joe Biden’s $33bn request for aid for Ukraine “as soon as possible.”

Speaking at her weekly press briefing on Friday morning, the House speaker framed the administration’s request as one of a number of “emergencies” Congress needed to address urgently.

Continue reading...

Capitol attack panel set to issue letters to Kevin McCarthy and other key Republicans

Posted on by

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert among those poised to receive letters requesting voluntary cooperation, sources say

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is expected to issue letters requesting voluntary cooperation from House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and around a dozen other Republican members of Congress, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The panel intends to issue a letter to McCarthy – the top House Republican – and is considering further letters to Scott Perry, Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mo Brooks, Lauren Boebert, Andy Biggs, as well as some Republican senators, the sources said.

Continue reading...

‘We’re not attacking Russia,’ Biden says as he asks for $33bn in Ukraine aid – as it happened

Posted on by

Joe Biden is also taking steps to ensure the money raised from assets seized from sanctioned allies of Vladimir Putin directly aids Ukraine.

According to a White House fact sheet about Biden’s new aid request, the administration is “proposing legislation to streamline the process to recoup proceeds from seized and forfeited assets and use them to remediate the harm caused in Ukraine”.

Continue reading...

Republicans in Congress give McCarthy standing ovation for defense of leaked audio – live

Posted on by

Joe Biden has delivered a moving eulogy to Madeleine Albright, telling mourners at her funeral in Washington DC that the former secretary of state “turned the tide of history”.

The president was among about 1,400 masked attendees at Washington National Cathedral service honouring the top diplomat from the Bill Clinton administration who died last month at the age of 84.

With her humanity and her intellect, she turned the tide of history.

Her story was America’s story. She loved to speak about America as the indispensable nation. To her, the phrase was never a statement of arrogance, it was about gratitude.

That’s why there was nothing she loved more than swearing in new citizens to this great nation of ours. She’d light up reminding them that she once stood where they stood. Having gained the blessings of liberty she wanted nothing more than the share them around the globe.

To Madeleine, from my perspective, there was no higher mission, no greater honor, than to serve this great experiment of freedom known as the United States of America.

Continue reading...

Republican can’t list himself as ‘The Patriot’ on ballot, state rules

Posted on by

State lawmaker claims it’s his nickname – but he struggles to spell it and opponent says he doesn’t use it

A state Republican lawmaker who wanted to refer to himself as “The Patriot” on the ballot can’t use that nickname, the Oklahoma Election Board has ruled.

Sean Roberts can still run for Oklahoma labor commissioner, but he can’t refer to himself using that nickname on the ballot, the board decided Monday.

Continue reading...

Republican Madison Cawthorn cited for carrying gun in his bag at airport

Posted on by

North Carolina congressman faces misdemeanor criminal charge after gun spotted at security screening checkpoint

The far-right North Carolina Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn is facing a misdemeanor criminal charge after police at an airport in his home state said they found a gun in his bag Tuesday.

Police at Charlotte Douglas international airport handed Cawthorn, 26, a municipal citation accusing him of possessing a dangerous weapon on city property, officers said in a statement.

Continue reading...

‘Get up off our rear ends’ or lose badly in midterms, Elizabeth Warren warns Democrats

Posted on by

Warren gives party stark warning in CNN interview, and condemns House minority leader Kevin McCarthy as ‘liar and a traitor’

Democrats need to “get up off our rear ends” and work to bring down prices and runaway inflation, or face wipeout in November’s midterm elections, the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren warns.

In a forthright interview Sunday morning on CNN’s State of the Union, the former candidate for her party’s presidential nomination also lambasted the Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy as “a liar and a traitor” after he was caught on tape lying about his support for Donald Trump after the 6 January insurrection.

Continue reading...

Marjorie Taylor Greene appears in court over attempt to bar her from Congress

Posted on by

Effort, brought by voters and liberal groups, to ban Republican for aiding the Capitol attack comes under the 14th amendment

The far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared in court in Georgia on Friday for a hearing in an attempt to bar her from Congress for aiding the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

A lawyer for Greene, James Bopp, tried to portray her as a “victim” of the Capitol attack, rather than an instigator.

Continue reading...

Kevin McCarthy said Trump recognized ‘some responsibility’ for Capitol attack, report says – as it happened

Posted on by

The questioning moves on to Greene’s use of social media to communicate with her “hundreds of thousands of followers” and possibly millions of other people. There is extensive argument about what Greene tweeted about the 2020 election and whether it was fraudulent, and what she was trying to tell her Twitter followers.

Things are not proceeding smoothly. The court did swear Greene in, even though the prosecutor thought it didn’t. He then asks: “Can I ask the court to acknowledge that this is an adverse witness?”

Continue reading...

Biden: Republicans’ Disney law shows ‘far right has taken over party’

Posted on by

Florida strips company of self-governing power for opposing Governor Ron DeSantis’s ‘don’t say gay’ law

For Joe Biden, the vote by Florida Republicans on Thursday to strip Disney of its self-governing powers was a step too far.

“Christ, they’re going after Mickey Mouse,” the president exclaimed at a fundraiser in Oregon, in apparent disbelief that state governor Ron DeSantis’s culture wars had reached the gates of the Magic Kingdom.

Continue reading...

Florida Republicans pass congressional map severely limiting Black voter power

Posted on by

Plan drawn by Ron DeSantis gives Republicans a significant boost and is one of the most aggressively gerrymandered maps in US

Florida Republicans approved a new congressional map that severely curtails Black voting power in the state on Thursday, taking a final vote as Black lawmakers staged a sit-in on the floor of the legislature.

The new plan, which was drawn by Governor Ron DeSantis, gives Republicans a significant boost in the state and is one of the most aggressively gerrymandered maps passed in recent months. Republicans would be expected to win 20 of the state’s 28 congressional districts, a four seat increase from the 16 they hold now. It also eliminates two of four districts where Black voters have been able to elect the candidate of their choice.

Continue reading...

Biden announces another $800m in military aid for Ukraine: ‘We’re in a critical window’ – as it happened

Posted on by

Here are some more details from the defense department on the new $800m military assistance package to Ukraine:

For those keeping track on how much the US has provided Ukraine so far in military assistance:

Continue reading...

Joe Biden weighs appeal as judge’s lifting of travel mask mandate sows confusion – live

Posted on by

Ruling by district court judge in Florida that Covid-19 measure was illegal is opposed by 49% of Americans, poll shows

Defense secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his counterpart in China today for the first time since Austin became Pentagon chief more than a year ago, breaking a communications stalemate that had American officials concerned amid the possibility that Beijing might provide military support to Russia in its war on Ukraine, the Associated Press is reporting.

Austin had requested the telephone call with general Wei Fenghe after months of failed efforts to speak with general Xu Qiliang, the highest ranking uniformed officer in the Communist Party military structure.

Continue reading...

Florida rejects 54 math textbooks over ‘prohibited topics’ including critical race theory

Posted on by

Move follows a series of hardline measures by Republicans in the state to alter teaching in schools as governor welcomes news

Florida’s education department has rejected 54 mathematics textbooks from next year’s school curriculum, citing alleged references to critical race theory among a range of reasoning for some of the rejections, officials announced.

The department said in a news release Friday that some of the books had been rejected for failure to comply with the state’s content standards, Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking [Best], but that 21% of the books were disallowed “because they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT”.

Continue reading...