"Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin [wanted] to take up subpoenas for conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo and Texas billionaire Harlan Crow during the panel's Thursday morning meeting," Politico reports.
"Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee tried to shout down Chair Dick Durbin after he limited debate on judicial nominees up for their third round of consideration by the panel, drowning out the clerk calling the roll," Politico reports.
"The panel, beset with partisan rancor in recent months, was thrown into chaos before getting to the most contentious agenda items set for votes on Thursday, subpoenas for conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo and Texas billionaire Harlan Crow regarding their relationships with Supreme Court justices."
Jewish Insider: In a Senate floor speech that lasted for nearly an hour on Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called out the wave of antisemitism that has followed the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel, denouncing anti-Israel protesters, young people, the media, erstwhile allies and others whom he said had were helping to propagate antisemitism, and who have abandoned or failed to grasp the scope and severity of the crisis Jewish Americans are experiencing."
Said Schumer: "I want to explain through the lens of history, why this is so dangerous: The normalization and exacerbation of this rise in hate is the danger many Jewish people fear most."
"Israeli warplanes resumed pounding Gaza, Palestinian civilians fled for shelter and rocket sirens blared in southern Israel on Friday," Reuters reports.
"Barely two hours after the truce expired, Gaza health officials reported that 35 people had already been killed and dozens wounded… The Israeli military accused Hamas of violating the truce first by firing rockets and failing to free all the women it was holding hostage."
New York Times: "Hostilities resumed almost immediately: Shortly before the truce expired at 7 a.m. local time (midnight Eastern), Israel said it had intercepted a projectile fired from Gaza. Moments after the deadline passed, Israel announced that it was restarting military operations, and Israeli airstrikes soon thundered again across the battered coastal strip.
"Speaker of the House Mike Johnson wrote the foreword and publicly promoted a 2022 book that spread baseless and discredited conspiracy theories and used derogatory homophobic insults," CNN reports.
"Written by Scott McKay, a local Louisiana politics blogger, the book, The Revivalist Manifesto, gives credence to unfounded conspiracy theories often embraced by the far-right – including the 'Pizzagate' hoax, which falsely claimed top Democratic officials were involved in a pedophile ring, among other conspiracies."
The House of Representatives voted to expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY), ending a term in office marred by revelations that he'd fabricated his biography, a blistering House ethics investigation and a 23-count federal indictment charging him with crimes like wire fraud and money laundering.
It's only the sixth time in history that a House member has been expelled.
The vote came despite the top House Republican leadership opposing the motion.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) will now have to call a special election to fill the vacancy.
"It's over. They just set a dangerous new precedent for themselves… I no longer have to answer a single question. That is the one thing that I'm going to take forever… To hell with this place." — Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), quoted by Politico, speaking to reporters after he was expelled from the House.
An NBC News analysis of newly-expelled Rep. George Santos' (R-NY) legislative record "shows that he introduced 40 bills or resolutions during his short career; that's roughly average for a member of Congress, according to Brookings Institution statistics. The House did not act on any of them, and all died in committee without a vote."
The Republican Leadership supported Santos. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) voted against ousting Rep. George Santos (R-NY), Politico reports.
CNN reports Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) is also opposed.
The Washington Examiner reports Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) is also opposed.
Politico reports Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is also opposed.
Philip Elliot: "Americans love a comeback story, and there will always be room on far-right platforms to reward a panderer, no matter how ridiculous the record."
"Doubt it? A 91-times-charged ex-President who has his own tenuous relationship with reality is the far-ahead leader of the current Republican Party and, just seven weeks from the Iowa caucuses, is seemingly unreachable. If Trump can make a comeback while fighting four separate criminal cases and a raft of other legal troubles in the wings, Santos might believe he could do the same in miniature."
Axios: "We told you last month that Trump allies are pre-screening the ideologies of thousands of potential appointees and employees in case he wins back the White House. Now we have copies of the exact questionnaires Trump allies are using — and that then-President Trump used himself during his final days in office."
"These future Trumpers would staff an unprecedented effort to centralize and expand presidential power at every level of the administration."
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that he believes Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is a decidedly unserious member of Congress "who belongs in jail," Politico reports.
Gaetz, in response: "Tough words from a guy who sucker punches people in the back. The only assault I committed was against Kevin's fragile ego."
"Anybody who thinks that there are secrets in this town, there are not… You find out everything that happens. You eventually find it out. There are no secrets."— Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), in an interview with Politico.
"You fuck with my family, I'll end every relationship that you have!"— Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY), threatening his former campaign manager and chief of staff at a holiday charity event.
"Russia's Supreme Court has ruled the global gay rights movement to be an 'extremist organization' on a legal par with al-Qaeda and Isis, outlawing any display of support for LGBT+ rights," the Financial Times reports.
Susan Glasser: "Bidenomics, at least as a political slogan, is a bust. The concept grew out of a classic Washington lament: We've done so much—if only the voters knew about it, surely we'd get credit. The experiment, however, has not worked."
"When I first wrote about Biden's feel-good tour, in August, Biden had the lowest average approval ratings of any President since Jimmy Carter. Today, they're even worse: 38.2 per cent approve, 54.8 per cent disapprove. Hard as it may be for many to believe, Donald Trump currently has higher favorable and lower unfavorable ratings than Biden."
"President Joe Biden is reemphasizing his focus on an economic populism with a strategy that browbeats big business for not bringing down prices in the face of slowing inflation, an apparent response to voters expressing pessimism about the state of the American economy," The Messenger reports.
"This messaging, which White House officials and operatives close to Biden said will continue in the weeks and months to come, is reminiscent of the more populist 'Scranton versus Park Avenue' pitch Biden successfully made to voters in 2020 and builds on some of the work his administration has done over the course of his nearly three years in office."
Rupert Murdoch is being deposed in the $2.7 billion Smartmatic defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. over allegedly damaging election lies, CNBC reports.
It is the second time this year that Murdoch has been deposed in a high-stakes defamation lawsuit accusing Fox News of airing damaging lies about the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
"More than 800,000 student loan borrowers are set to receive a message from President Biden Tuesday afternoon," Axios reports.
"The email is a direct appeal from the president to beneficiaries of his administration's debt forgiveness push, as his approval rating among Democrats hit a record low last month, jeopardizing his 2024 re-election bid."
"Almost as soon as Pope Francis became the head of the Roman Catholic church in 2013, Raymond Burke, an American cardinal, emerged as his leading critic from within the church, becoming a de facto antipope for frustrated traditionalists who believed Francis was diluting doctrine," the New York Times reports.
"Francis frequently demoted and stripped the American cleric of influence, but this month, the pope apparently finally had enough… Francis told a meeting of high-ranking Vatican officials that he intended to throw the cardinal out of his Vatican-subsidized apartment and deprive him of his salary as a retired cardinal."
"One of the Republican Party's most prominent health care thinkers doesn't know what the GOP's current health care strategy actually is," Stat reports.
"Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Tuesday evening that the party's previous health care focus — on technocratic strategies like increasing competition in drug markets or supporting private Medicare plans — have largely fallen off platforms and out of stump speeches."
"A New York appeals court Thursday reinstated a gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting about court personnel after he disparaged a law clerk in his New York civil fraud trial," the AP reports.
"The one-sentence decision from a four-judge panel came two weeks after an individual appellate judge had put the order on hold while the appeals process played out."
The Messenger: Trump civil trial may wrap up ahead of schedule.
A lawyer who represents Donald Trump told federal prosecutors that she "very clearly" warned the former president that it would "be a crime" if he failed to fully return all classified materials to the U.S. government after being issued a subpoena, ABC News reports.
The lawyer, Jennifer Little, told investigators Trump "absolutely" understood the warning.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) seemingly made a veiled threat against special counsel Jack Smith, telling Newsmax that his "days are numbered."
Said Higgins: "I consider it a badge of honor to be on another one of Jack Smith's lists."
He added: "So, I'll just say that his days are numbered, and American patriots are not going to stand idly by, good sir, and allow our republic to dissolve. We are prepared to fight legally and peacefully and within the parameters of the Constitution with every ounce of our might and focus."
Elon Musk was interviewed by Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Deal Book conference:
MUSK: Jonathan, the only reason I'm here is because you're a friend…
SORKIN: I'm Andrew.
The Economist: "The 6-3 conservative majority on America's highest court, forged by the three justices Mr Trump appointed between 2017 and 2020, is only part of the story. The 45th president seated 27% of all active judges on federal district courts—the 94 trial courts that dot America. He also replaced 30% of judges on America's 13 circuit courts of appeal. Unlike the Supreme Court, which picks its cases (and in recent years has heard just 60 or so per term), circuit courts are obliged to review, with few exceptions, district-court decisions that the losing party seeks to appeal. These cases number in the tens of thousands annually."
"Since only a tiny fraction of circuit-court decisions reach the Supreme Court, the mid-level players in America's judiciary exercise tremendous power. Often three-judge appellate panels have the final word in the region of the country where they have jurisdiction. By managing to invert the ideological make-up of several circuit courts—including the previously liberal-dominated Ninth Circuit, which covers California and eight other western states—Mr Trump pushed the law to the right in large swathes of America."
"Nowhere is Mr Trump's thumbprint on the judiciary deeper than in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the tribunal based in New Orleans that handles appeals from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Active Republican appointees outnumber their Democratic-tapped colleagues by 12 to four. Half of that supermajority was named by Mr Trump."
NBC News: "In a quarterly report on inauthentic account behavior on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, Meta said it had taken down five distinct Chinese networks targeting foreign audiences this year, more than from any other country."
"A former server at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster alleges she was sexually harassed and coerced into sex by a supervisor, then tricked into signing an illegal non-disclosure agreement by Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba," Politico reports.
TikTok won a reprieve in Montana after a judge ruled a state law banning the app can't go into effect in January, saying it "likely violates the First Amendment," the Wall Street Journal reports.
Wall Street Journal: "Following the legalization of marijuana in many states, Chinese-run marijuana farms have emerged across the U.S. Some are run by investor groups with a commercial growing license. But just as illegal marijuana shops have proliferated, so have unlicensed growing operations."
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) claimed he loaned his campaign $320,000 but his financial disclosures report no substantial investments or even a savings account, WTVF reports.
Politico: "The federal government is investigating multiple hacks suspected to have been launched by an Iranian government-linked cyber group against U.S. water facilities that were using Israeli-made technology, according to two individuals familiar with the probes."
No comments:
Post a Comment