Ex-president touched upon a range of topics from crime to immigration in his speech with mostly made-up statistics
Donald Trump addressed a fully-packed venue in downtown Atlanta on Saturday, with thousands of people waiting in the Georgia heat outside to enter, or to protest his appearance in a city he has condemned repeatedly.
His remarks were consistent with the tenor and comportment of restraint and probity Atlantans are used to hearing at this point.
Continue reading...Republican extremist tells crowd ‘The man that I worship is also a convicted felon’
Donald Trump has been compared to Jesus Christ by the far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene at a campaign rally for the former president in Las Vegas, a city more renowned for evoking images of gambling than biblical scenes.
Greene, who makes frequent references to her Christian faith, cited Trump’s supposed Christ-like qualities to challenge the Democrats’ efforts to capitalise on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s status as a convicted felon following his recent conviction in a case involving hush money paid to an adult film actor and falsified business records in a New York court.
Continue reading...Squabble started when Marjorie Taylor Greene insulted House member, spurring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to demand apology
The two most famous sets of initials in US politics clashed in a chaotic House hearing on Thursday, as the progressive star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC, objected fiercely to an attack on another Democrat by the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, or MTG.
The oversight committee hearing concerned Republican attempts to hold the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, in contempt, for refusing to release tapes of interviews between Joe Biden and the special counsel Robert Hur.
Continue reading...Vice-president calls abortion access a ‘fundamental freedom’ in Florida as state’s six-week ban takes effect
Greene wrapped up the press conference by demanding, essentially, that Mike Johnson resign or be fired:
What I’m calling on is, like my colleague here said, Mike Johnson … can pray about it, think about it all weekend, do the right thing and resign, giving our conference time to elect a new leader, a new speaker of the house. He should reject the endorsement of Hakeem Jeffries and the entire Democrat leadership team. That is not an endorsement that any Republican speaker should ever want or embrace. And this vote will be called next week, and I would just want to urge all our colleagues to prepare for it. It’s the right thing to do for America. It’s time to clean house and get our conference in order and get ready to support President Trump’s agenda. God willing, he wins in November and we take back full power here in Washington in January.
I fight for his agenda every single day, and that’s why I’m fighting here against my own Republican conference, to fight harder against the Democrats.
Continue reading...Extremist’s bid to remove House speaker appears certain to fail as Democratic leaders indicate they will table or kill motion
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Wednesday that she would move to force a vote next week on removing her fellow Republican Mike Johnson as House speaker, even though the measure appears certain to fail.
“I think the American people need to see a recorded vote,” Greene said at a press conference. “And so next week, I am going to be calling this motion to vacate – absolutely calling it. I can’t wait to see Democrats go out and support a Republican speaker and have to go home to their primaries and have to run for Congress again.”
Continue reading...Anyone who thinks far-right congresswoman will drop plan to remove Mike Johnson is ‘simply out of their mind’, aide says
Anyone who thinks Marjorie Taylor Greene will drop her threat to force the removal of the Republican US House speaker, Mike Johnson, is “high, drunk, or simply out of their mind”, a senior aide to the far-right Georgia congresswoman said.
“That’s absurd,” her deputy chief of staff Nick Dyer told Politico, adding that Greene was “not going to tell the press” her plans for activating the motion to vacate she filed more than a month ago.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president thanks America after Speaker Mike Johnson secures bipartisan support for funding Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan
After months of stalling, the US House of Representatives finally approved more than $61bn worth of military assistance to help Ukraine in its desperate defense against Russia, as well as billions for other allies including Israel and Taiwan.
In a bipartisan vote, 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans joined to support Ukraine, with 112 Republicans – a majority of the GOP members – voting against. It came after the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, forced a series of bills onto the floor in the face of fierce resistance within his own Republican party, many of whom oppose spending more on Ukraine’s defense.
Continue reading...Ukraine aid component threatens to throw the Republican party into disarray – and endangers the speakership of Mike Johnson
The US House of Representatives will finally vote on Saturday on a series of foreign aid bills, bringing an end to a months-long standoff in Congress led mostly by Republicans who refuse to support funding Ukraine’s ongoing military defense against Russia’s invasion.
House members will hold separate votes on four bills that represent $95bn in funding altogether – including roughly $26bn in aid for Israel, $61bn for Ukraine, $8bn for US allies in the Indo-Pacific region and $9bn in humanitarian assistance for civilians in war zones, such as Gaza.
Continue reading...As the speaker of the House finally allows a vote to go forward on aid, GOP infighting is tearing apart the party
Republican divisions over military support for Ukraine were long simmering. Now, before Saturday’s extraordinary vote in Congress on a foreign aid package, they have erupted into open warfare – a conflict that the vote itself is unlikely to contain.
Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, triggered an all-out split in his own party’s ranks last week by finally agreeing, after months of stalling, to a floor vote on the $95bn foreign aid programme. Passed by the Senate in February, it contained about $60bn for Ukraine, $14bn for Israel, and a smaller amount for Taiwan and other Pacific allies.
Continue reading...Far-right Republican says motion intended as ‘more of a warning than a pink slip’ and stops short of forcing vote to eject him
The far-right Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene filed a motion to remove Mike Johnson as House speaker on Friday but did not pull the trigger on a move that would probably pitch Congress into a repeat of chaos seen last October, when the right ejected Kevin McCarthy.
Speaking after Johnson relied on Democratic votes to pass a $1.2tn spending bill and avoid a government shutdown, Greene said her motion was meant as “more of a warning than a pink slip” because she did not want to “throw the House into chaos”.
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