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      George Santos Must Be Held Accountable by Republican Leaders

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      George Santos is far from the first member of Congress to be indicted while in office. Both chambers and both parties have endured their share of scandals. In 2005, for instance, F.B.I. agents discovered $90,000 hidden in the freezer of Representative William Jefferson, who was under investigation for bribery. He refused to step down, wound up losing his seat in the 2008 election, and was later sentenced to 13 years in prison. James Traficant was expelled from Congress in 2002 after being convicted of bribery and racketeering. Bob Ney resigned in 2006 because of his involvement in a federal bribery scandal.But in one way, Mr. Santos is different from other members of Congress who have demonstrated moral failures, ethical failures, failures of judgment and blatant corruption and lawbreaking in office. What he did was to deceive the very voters who brought him to office in the first place, undermining the most basic level of trust between an electorate and a representative. These misdeeds erode the faith in the institution of Congress and the electoral system through which American democracy functions.For that reason, House Republican leaders should have acted immediately to protect that system by allowing a vote to expel Mr. Santos and joining Democrats in removing him from office. Instead — not wanting to lose Mr. Santos’s crucial vote — Speaker Kevin McCarthy pushed a measure to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee, notorious for its glacial pace, and the House voted predictably along party lines on Wednesday afternoon to follow that guidance.If the House doesn’t reverse that vote under public pressure, it’s incumbent on the Ethics Committee to conduct a timely investigation and recommend expulsion to the full House, where a two-thirds vote will be required to send Mr. Santos back to Long Island.Mr. Santos was arrested and arraigned in federal court last week on 13 criminal counts linked primarily to his 2022 House campaign. Mr. McCarthy and other members of the Republican leadership effectively shrugged, indicating that they would let the legal process “play itself out,” as the conference’s chair, Elise Stefanik, put it.In addition to expulsion, the Republican leaders have several official disciplinary measures they could pursue, such as a formal reprimand or censure, but so far, they have done little more than express concern. Mr. McCarthy has several tough legislative fights looming, including negotiations over the federal budget to avoid a government default, and Mr. Santos’s removal might imperil the G.O.P.’s slim majority. In effect, Mr. Santos’s bad faith has made him indispensable.His constituents believed he held certain qualifications and values, only to learn after Election Day that they had been deceived. Now they have no recourse until the next election.The question, then, is whether House Republican leaders and other members are willing to risk their credibility for a con man, someone whose entire way of life — his origin story, résumé, livelihood — is based on a never-ending series of lies. Of course they should not be. They should have demonstrated to the American people that there is a minimum ethical standard for Congress and used the power of expulsion to enforce it. They should have explained to voters that their commitment to democracy and public trust goes beyond their party’s political goals.At least some Republican lawmakers recognize what is at stake and are speaking out. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah reiterated his view that Mr. Santos should do the honorable thing and step aside, saying, “He should have resigned a long time ago. He is an embarrassment to our party. He is an embarrassment to the United States Congress.”Similarly, Anthony D’Esposito and Mike Lawler, both representing districts in New York, are among several House Republicans advocating his resignation. Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas has gone a step further, calling for Mr. Santos’s expulsion and a special election to replace him. “The people of New York’s 3rd district deserve a voice in Congress,” he wrote on Twitter.Mr. Gonzales gets at the heart of the matter. Mr. Santos has shown contempt for his constituents and for the electoral process. Mr. McCarthy and the other Republican House leaders owe Americans more.Source photograph by Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      in US Politics

      House speaker McCarthy says ‘I see the path’ to debt ceiling deal with Democrats – as it happened

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      From 5h agoThe Republican House speake,r Kevin McCarthy, told reporters at the Capitol that he sees “the path” towards a deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling.Here’s video of the exchange, from CNN:Congress has till about 1 June to raise the US government’s legal limit on how much debt it can take on or face the prospect of a default. Republicans want Joe Biden and his allies to agree to cut spending, and also to scrap administration priorities such as the president’s plan to cancel some federal student debt.After months of refusing to negotiate, Biden agreed to appoint deputies to reach a deal with McCarthy’s team, and if the speaker’s comments are any indication, those talks are paying off.Debt ceiling negotiations seem to be on track, at least if you ask Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy. Some Democrats aren’t so sure. In the Senate, 11 lawmakers say Joe Biden should consider invoking the constitution’s 14th amendment to prevent a default, rather than agreeing to GOP-devised spending cuts. And in the House, just about every Democrat has signed on to a discharge petition that would force a vote on raising the ceiling without preconditions. But it needs the defections of at least a few Republicans to succeed, and thus far, that support has not emerged.Here’s what else happened today:
      Ron DeSantis is finally getting it over with: the Florida governor will announce his presidential bid next week, according to multiple reports.
      Progressive Democrats remain displeased with the prospect of implementing new work requirements for government aid programs as part of a debt limit deal.
      CNN’s Christiane Amanpour was not happy with how her network handled the town hall with Donald Trump last week.
      California Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein’s health may be worse than publicly known, the New York Times reports.
      The House Freedom Caucus says no negotiations with Democrats until the Senate passes the GOP’s bill to raise the debt ceiling while cutting spending and implementing a number of conservative policies – a nonstarter for Democrats.
      As Florida governor Ron DeSantis prepares to announce a presidential campaign where he will sell voters on his controversial governance of the southern state, Disney today announced they were cancelling a billion-dollar office project in Orlando amid a fight with his administration.According to the New York Times, a top Disney executive cited “changing business conditions” for axing the project, which would have seen about 1,000 employees relocated from Southern California. The company has been feuding with DeSantis since last year, when it spoke out against his so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, and last month sued his administration over actions they said illegally targeted their business in the state.That matter is ongoing, but as the Times reports, Disney executives have made clear that they are willing to reconsider their longstanding relationship with the state over DeSantis’s policies. Here’s more from the Times:
      In March, Disney called Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida “anti-business” for his scorched-earth attempt to tighten oversight of the company’s theme park resort near Orlando. Last month, when Disney sued the governor and his allies for what it called “a targeted campaign of government retaliation,” the company made clear that $17 billion in planned investment in Walt Disney World was on the line.
      “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more taxes, or not?” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said on an earnings-related conference call with analysts last week.
      On Thursday, Mr. Iger and Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s theme park and consumer products chairman, showed that they were not bluffing, pulling the plug on a nearly $1 billion office complex that was scheduled for construction in Orlando. It would have brought more than 2,000 jobs to the region, with $120,000 as the average salary, according to an estimate from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
      The project, known as the Lake Nona Town Center, was supposed to involve the relocation of more than 1,000 employees from Southern California, including most of a department known as Imagineering, which works with Disney’s movie studios to develop theme park attractions. Most of the affected employees complained bitterly about having to move — some quit — but Disney largely held firm, partly because of a Florida tax credit that would have allowed the company to recoup as much as $570 million over 20 years for building and occupying the complex.
      Another group of conservative lawmakers has issued demands in the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations, specifically that congressional leaders include new measures to crack on migrants in whatever legislative compromise emerges.The letter to Joe Biden and the top Democrats and Republicans in Congress including Kevin McCarthy was signed by 57 Republican House lawmakers, and asks that they consider including provisions of the Secure the Border Act in their negotiations.“American taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for the rapidly growing illegal immigration crisis. Thus, we support the inclusion of common-sense border security and immigration reforms in negotiations to raise the debt ceiling,” the congress members write.The bill, which passed with Republican votes in the House last month, would restart construction of Donald Trump’s border wall and increase Border Patrol funding, among other provisions. As is the case with much of what passes the House these days, Senate Democrats say they’ll oppose it.The far-right House Freedom Caucus wants Kevin McCarthy to stop negotiating with Democrats over raising the debt ceiling until the Senate passes the GOP’s Limit, Save, Grow Act.The legislation, which would cut spending, scrap Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan and implement other conservative priorities while raising the debt limit only through next March, passed the House on a party line vote last month, but Senate Democrats have rejected it and the president has threatened a veto.The impasse led to this week’s decision by McCarthy and Biden to appoint negotiators to find an agreement both parties could support, but the Freedom Caucus – which includes several members that objected to McCarthy’s election as speaker of the House earlier this year – insists the Limit, Save, Grow Act should take priority.Here’s their letter:Amid continued focus on the health of the California senator Dianne Feinstein, who recently returned to Washington after a long absence with shingles, the New York Times reports that the 89-year-old, who has appeared frail and sometimes confused, continues to be the cause of much concern for her party:
      The grim tableau of her re-emergence on Capitol Hill laid bare a bleak reality known to virtually everyone who has come into contact with her in recent days: She was far from ready to return to work when she did, and she is now struggling to function in a job that demands long days, near-constant engagement on an array of crucial policy issues and high-stakes decision-making.
      Ms Feinstein’s office declined to comment for this article beyond providing a statement from the senator: “I’m back in Washington, voting and attending committee meetings while I recover from complications related to a shingles diagnosis. I continue to work and get results for California.”
      The Times also notes the resurfacing of “questions about whether Ms Feinstein, who has announced she will retire when her term ends next year, is fit to continue serving even for that long”.Feinstein’s absence hamstrung Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee, on which she sits. On Wednesday its chair, Dick Durbin, told CNN: “We’re happy to have her back. We’re monitoring her medical condition almost on a daily basis. Our staff is in touch with her staff.”Senior Democrats including the former House intelligence chair and impeachment lead Adam Schiff are running to succeed Feinstein but, the Times report says somewhat mordantly: “People close to her joke privately that perhaps when Ms Feinstein is dead, she will start to consider resigning.”Here’s more, from Arwa Mahdawi…At his press conference on Capitol Hill, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was asked by a reporter about concerns that his proposal to invoke the 14th amendment to address the debt ceiling would face legal challenges.“I think it’s the best solution we have,” Sanders replied. “It’s not perfect.”Sanders said he did not have any details about a potential debt ceiling deal between Joe Biden and House speaker Kevin McCarthy, but Democrats emphasized that any proposal with welfare cuts would not be tolerated.“If the bottom line is that the only deal to be had that McCarthy will sign on to is one in which ordinary families are savaged and in which the economy is flooded with fossil fuels, that is unacceptable,” said Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon.Asked if he had spoken to the White House about his proposal to use the 14th amendment, Sanders said he had but declined to elaborate.Eleven Democratic senators have signed a letter calling on Joe Biden to invoke the 14th amendment of the constitution to address the debt ceiling and avoid a disastrous default.Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and his co-signers held a press conference on Capitol Hill to make their case.Sanders noted the 14th amendment states that the public debt of the United States “shall not be questioned,” arguing the policy empowers Biden to unilaterally act on the debt ceiling.“[Republicans] have made it clear that they are prepared to hold our entire economy hostage unless the president gives in to all of their demands,” Sanders said.“Using the 14th amendment would allow the United States to continue to pay its bills on time and without delay, prevent an economic catastrophe and prevent devastating cuts to some of the most vulnerable people in this country. It should be exercised.”Debt ceiling negotiations seem to be on track, at least if you ask Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy. Some Democrats aren’t so sure. In the Senate, 11 lawmakers say Joe Biden should consider invoking the constitution’s 14th amendment to prevent a default, rather than agreeing to GOP-devised spending cuts. And in the House, just about every Democrat has signed on to a discharge petition that would force a vote on raising the ceiling without preconditions. But it needs the defections of at least a few Republicans to succeed, and thus far, that support has not emerged.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Ron DeSantis is finally getting it over with: the Florida governor will announce his presidential bid next week, according to multiple reports.
      Progressive Democrats remain unhappy with the prospect of implementing new work requirements for government aid programs as part of a debt limit deal.
      CNN’s Christiane Amanpour was not happy with how her network handled the town hall with Donald Trump last week.
      Meanwhile in the House, Democrats are pushing forward with a parliamentary maneuver intended to force a vote on raising the debt ceiling without preconditions.The party had yesterday encouraged its lawmakers to sign a discharge petition filed in the chamber, and in an interview with MSNBC yesterday, House Democrat Brendan Boyle, who is leading the effort, said the document has so far received 210 signatures.It needs a majority of 218 signers to pass, and what Democrats are banking on here is that some Republicans will eventually come on board, perhaps moderates who are nervous about the prospect of the US economy defaulting, or rattled by the demands of the House GOP’s far-right members. But there hasn’t been any sign of those defections – yet.Here’s more from Boyle’s interview with MSNBC:Eleven Democratic senators have signed a letter to Joe Biden urging him to consider invoking the 14th amendment to prevent the United States from defaulting if the debt ceiling is not raised.The letter, which first became public yesterday, was signed by Democrats Tina Smith, Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Ed Markey, Mazie Hirono, Peter Welch, Richard Blumenthal, Jack Reed, Sheldon Whitehouse, John Fetterman and Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.“The choice we face is clear. We cannot reach a budget agreement that increases the suffering of millions of Americans who are already living in desperation,” the lawmakers write in the letter, which accuses Republicans of “not acting in good faith”.“We write to urgently request that you prepare to exercise your authority under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which clearly states: ‘the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned,’” the signatories conclude.“Using this authority would allow the United States to continue to pay its bills on-time, without delay, preventing a global economic catastrophe.”Speaking of CNN, one of its best known anchors is apparently not a fan of how it handled last week’s town hall with Donald Trump, the Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo reports: The CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour has strongly criticized her own network for hosting a town-hall event with Donald Trump last week, saying she had “a very robust exchange of views” with Chris Licht, the chief executive under fire for approving and then defending the decision to stage it.Amanpour, giving the commencement address at Columbia Journalism School in New York on Wednesday, said in comments reported by Variety: “We know Trump and his tendencies – everyone does. He just seizes the stage and dominates.“No matter how much flak the moderator tries to aim at the incoming, it doesn’t often work. I would have dropped the mic at ‘nasty person’, but then that’s me.”If Democrats and Republicans are indeed on the path to reaching an agreement to increase the debt ceiling, they’ll have to overcome the thorny issue of work requirements for anti-poverty programs.The GOP wants to tighten rules for recipients of aid such as SNAP or TANF to have to work, arguing that’s the best way out of poverty. A major government study released last year disputed this, while many Democrats, particularly progressives, say such requirements would be unacceptable to them.Here’s House Democrat Katie Porter saying so, in an interview with CNN:The Republican House speake,r Kevin McCarthy, told reporters at the Capitol that he sees “the path” towards a deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling.Here’s video of the exchange, from CNN:Congress has till about 1 June to raise the US government’s legal limit on how much debt it can take on or face the prospect of a default. Republicans want Joe Biden and his allies to agree to cut spending, and also to scrap administration priorities such as the president’s plan to cancel some federal student debt.After months of refusing to negotiate, Biden agreed to appoint deputies to reach a deal with McCarthy’s team, and if the speaker’s comments are any indication, those talks are paying off.Ron DeSantis’s latest attempts to swing elections may have floundered, but he’s been more successful at getting lawmakers in Florida to react to his demands.As the Guardian’s Sam Levine reported earlier this week, his Republican allies, who control both the state Senate and House of Representatives, have approved laws that will allow DeSantis to remain governor while running for president, and also reduce scrutiny of his campaign financing.Here’s more from Sam’s story:
      DeSantis is poised to sign a bill that would exempt him from Florida’s “resign-to-run” law, so that he won’t have to give up his office in order to run for president. Under existing state law, if he were to run, DeSantis would have had to submit a resignation letter before Florida’s qualifying deadline this year and step down by inauguration day in 2025. Last month, Republicans in the state legislature passed a measure that says the restriction does not apply to those running for president or vice-president.
      The bill also imposes sweeping new voting restrictions in the state and will make it much harder for non-profits to do voter registration drives.
      “I can’t think of a better training ground than the state of Florida for a future potential commander-in-chief,” Tyler Sirois, a Republican state lawmaker, said when the bill was being debated.
      Some Democrats questioned why lawmakers would allow DeSantis to take his attention away from being governor. “Why are we signing off on allowing Ron DeSantis the ability to not do his job?” Angie Nixon, a legislator from Jacksonville, said last month.
      DeSantis also signed a bill last week that will shield records related to his travel from public view. The new law exempts all of DeSantis’s past and future travel from disclosure under Florida’s public records law, one of the most transparent in the US. It also exempts the state from having to disclose the names of people who meet with the governor at his office or mansion or travel with him, said Barbara Petersen, the executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, who has worked on transparency laws for more than three decades in the state.
      Republican lawmakers and DeSantis have cited security concerns to justify the law. But Democrats and transparency advocates have said it is a brazen effort to keep DeSantis’s travel secret.
      As Ron DeSantis gears up for a likely presidential bid, the rightwing Florida governor has suffered a few political blows in recent days in his state and beyond.On Tuesday, voters in Jacksonville, Florida elected their first female mayor, Donna Deegan, a Democrat who beat Republican Daniel Davis despite the endorsements of DeSantis and a handful of business leaders.“Love won tonight, and we made history,” Deegan said as she won the election.“We have a new day in Jacksonville because people chose unity over division – creating a broad coalition of people across the political spectrum that want a unified city,” she added.Meanwhile, in Kentucky, the Florida governor suffered another blow when Donald Trump-backed Daniel Cameron won against DeSantis-backed Kelly Craft in the state’s Republican primary.Cameron, the first major-party Black nominee for governor in Kentucky, will face off against Democratic incumbent Andy Beshear in November.Marjorie Taylor Greene has said that being called a “white supremacist” by New York representative Jamaal Bowman is equivalent to a person of color being called the “N-word.”On Wednesday, Greene and Bowman got into a shouting match on the Capitol steps with Bowman and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Democrats who called for Republican New York representative George Santos’s resignation following his recent indictment on federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering, among other charges.“Save the party!” Bowman yelled as Greene shouted, “Save the country!” At one point, Bowman told Greene, who has spread various conspiracy theories, “No more QAnon, no more MAGA, no more debt ceiling nonsense.”Minutes after, Greene pointed to her temple and said, “Hey let me tell you something Jamaal. Not very smart.”Addressing the interaction afterwards, Greene said:
      “I was swarmed. It’s all on video. Everyone can see this, but I will tell you what’s on video is Jamaal Bowman shouting at the top of his lungs, cursing calling me … horrible … calling me a white supremacist, which I take great offense to. That is like calling a person of color the n-word, which should never happen. Calling me a white supremacist is equal to that. And that is wrong.”
      Banking regulators testifying before the Senate banking committee on Thursday morning proposed a slew of recommendations that would strengthen regulation and supervision in light of Signature Bank and Silicone Valley Bank’s financial collapse.
      “The underlying issue was concern about insolvency … Stronger capital will guard against the risk that we may not fully appreciate today. And we’ll also reduce the costs of bank failures,” said Michael Barr, the second vice chair of the Federal Reserve for supervision.
      “In addition, we need to reconsider our prudential requirements. These include evaluating how we treat available for sale securities and our capital regulations, how we supervise and regulate a bank’s management of interest rate risk, how we supervise and regulate liquidity risk and how we oversee incentive compensation practices,” he added.
      “Supervision should intensify at the right pace as a bank grows in size or complexity. Once identified issues should be addressed more quickly both by the bank and by supervisors. Moreover, we need to ensure that we have a culture that empowers supervisors to act in the face of uncertainty,” he continued.
      Florida governor Ron DeSantis is set to officially launch his 2024 presidential bid, according to multiple reports citing sources familiar with the matter.One Republican source told CNN that the Republican governor will file candidacy paperwork next week with the Federal Election Commission and is set to make an official announcement in his home town of Dunedin, Florida, the following week.The reports follow DeSantis’s visit to Iowa last week where he participated in a public gathering hosted US House representative Randy Feenstra in the crucial early-voting stage. Prior to his visit, DeSantis rolled out a hefty list of endorsements from 37 Republican Iowa lawmakers, including senate president Amy Sinclair and house majority leader Matt Windschitl.“I think we need to restore sanity in this country,” DeSantis told a crowd of Iowa supporters last week, adding, “We must reject the culture of losing that has impacted our party in recent years. The time for excuses is over.”DeSantis’s comments appeared to be a subtle jab at Donald Trump, currently the Republican frontrunner who has repeatedly attacked his ex-ally and is currently leading in the polls. Should DeSantis enter the presidential race, he will become Trump’s chief challenger.In the past year, DeSantis has ramped up his “culture war” in Florida, from signing the state’s so-called “don’t say gay” bill into law to approving abortion bans after six weeks. Most recently, the rightwing governor signed a bill on Monday that defunds diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the state’s public colleges.Florida governor Ron DeSantis is set to officially launch his 2024 presidential bid, according to multiple reports citing sources familiar with the matter.One Republican source told CNN that the Republican governor will file candidacy paperwork next week with the Federal Election Commission and is set to make an official announcement in his home town of Dunedin, Florida, the following week.Earlier this week, reports emerged that DeSantis is poised to sign a bill that would modify a Florida law and allow him to run for president while serving as governor. The bill is also expected to impose new voting restrictions across Florida and will make it increasingly difficult for non-profits to conduct voter registration drives.Last Saturday, DeSantis rolled out a hefty list of endorsements from Iowa lawmakers and visited the crucial early-voting state in an attempt to garner support for his likely bid.Here are other developments in US politics:
      Dianne Feinstein, the oldest serving senator, has prompted renewed scrutiny over her fitness to serve following her return to Capitol Hill after a months-long absence due to shingles.
      California representative Adam Schiff said he is “not backing down” in the face of a Republican-led effort to expel him from Congress.
      The Pentagon leaks suspect was warned repeatedly about his mishandling of classified material, according to prosecutors. More

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      Conspiracy theorists to address US House subcommittee, watchdog warns

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      Witnesses set to testify to Congress about the “weaponisation” of the US government on Thursday have links to far-right groups and a history of supporting conspiracy theories about coronavirus vaccines and the January 6 insurrection, a congressional watchdog has warned.In February, Republicans in the House of Representatives created a panel on what they say is the politicisation of the FBI and justice department against conservatives. Critics saw it as an attempt to entangle Joe Biden in spurious investigations ahead of next year’s election.On Thursday the judiciary subcommittee, chaired by Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, an ally of former US president Donald Trump, will hold its latest hearing on Capitol Hill. Research by the Congressional Integrity Project, a group that monitors the Republican investigations, suggests that its witnesses will come armed with political grudges.Among them is Stephen Friend, a former FBI special agent who claims to be an FBI “whistleblower” despite failing to receive federal whistleblower protections.Last September, the project notes, Friend was suspended from the FBI after filing an official complaint alleging that the “politicised” bureau was using “overzealous” January 6 investigations to “harass conservative Americans”. He had already been declared absent without leave for refusing to participate in Swat raids against insurrection suspects.The project adds: “Friend has a record of collaborating with Trump’s closest allies. He received payments and legal counsel, and even received a job, from a Maga group affiliated with former senior Trump administration official Russ Vought. Kash Patel sent Friend $5,000 almost immediately after they connected in November 2022, and gave Friend a job at a far-right thinktank.“Friend has been celebrated in rightwing circles, especially among Maga pundits, and is poised to release a book with an introduction and foreword by two rightwing figures.”Friend is also a regular contributor to an exposé-style blog run by “an early and prominent promoter” of the QAnon conspiracy theory and has suggested that Covid-19 vaccines were ineffective, with public health restrictions designed to engineer “societal changes”.Witness Garret O’Boyle is a former FBI special agent who last year filed a complaint alleging that the FBI was exaggerating the threat of domestic terrorism. Soon after, he alleged that the FBI suspended him, claiming, “The FBI retaliated against me for being a whistleblower.”O’Boyle is a prolific Covid-19 vaccine conspiracy theorist, and once compared Covid-19 vaccine mandates to the Nazi regime. He signed on to a major federal lawsuit against the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal employees and once referred to a subset of vaccinated individuals involved in an FBI investigation as “blind sheep”.The project says O’Boyle has supported and publicly engaged with an “early and prominent” QAnon influencer known as Tracy Diaz, who has been banned from Patreon, Facebook and Twitter and is labeled as an extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center.O’Boyle is an election denier who has liked tweets claiming “two blatantly stolen elections”. He claims the FBI has retaliated against him for resisting investigations into the January 6 insurrection, writing: “The government has an obsession with ‘Insurrectionists.’ They hate them. They [want to] round them up, hold them in perpetuity.”Another witness is Marcus Oryan Allen, a staff operations specialist for the FBI who was suspended and had his security clearance revoked after the bureau found he “espoused conspiratorial views … which indicates support for the events of January 6th”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionLast December, Allen filed a lawsuit claiming that his suspension violated his first amendment rights, arguing that the FBI’s rules “regarding loyalty to the United States is overbroad”. The FBI called these claims “meritless”, pointing out that Allen’s complaint “identifie[d] no speech” that was being violated.The project says Allen is represented by Judicial Watch, a far-right group that has spread false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, warned of attempts to “rig the 2024 election” against Trump, and condemned Trump’s recent indictment as a “hoax” and “bunk”.Witnesses also include Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, which describes itself as a “legal watchdog” and, the project says, has downplayed the seriousness of the January 6 riot or sought to shift the blame elsewhere.Leavitt represents a number of suspended or retired FBI employees who claim to be “whistleblowers” and helped congressional Republicans’ highly politicised investigation targeting Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project, said: “These witnesses are extreme for even Jim Jordan’s standards, but we shouldn’t be surprised he’s continuing to hand-pick conspiracy theorists and insurrection supporters to appear before the so-called ‘weaponisation’ subcommittee.“The witnesses are Trump loyalists who will go to any lengths to defend the former president’s lies, just like Jordan himself.” More

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      House Republicans sidestep effort to expel George Santos from Congress

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      Republicans successfully sidestepped an effort to force them into a vote to expel George Santos, the New York representative, from Congress, which could have narrowed their already slim four-seat majority.The House voted along party lines, 221-204, to refer a resolution to expel the congressman to the House ethics committee, with Santos himself joining his Republican colleagues in voting to do so.The freshman congressman has been charged with embezzling money from his campaign, falsely receiving unemployment funds and lying to Congress about his finances. He has denied the charges and has pleaded not guilty.Robert Garcia, a California Democratic representative, introduced a resolution in February to expel Santos, something the House has only done twice in recent decades. He sought to force a vote on that resolution under a process that left three options for Republicans: a vote on the resolution, a move to table or a referral to committee.Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker, chose the third option, much to the chagrin of Democrats who described it as a “complete copout”. They noted that the ethics panel is already investigating Santos and that it was time for Republican House members who have called for Santos to resign to back their words with action.“It is simply an effort for the Republicans to avoid having to take an up-or-down vote on whether or not George Santos belongs here,” said Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat.Democrats appealed to Republican lawmakers from New York for support. Many have been highly critical of Santos, and face the prospect of Democrats trying to link them to Santos in next year’s general election.“I say to you, if you vote for this motion to refer it to the ethics committee, you are complicit in George Santos’ fraud and you are voting to make sure that he continues to be a member of Congress,” Goldman said.Anthony D’Esposito, a New York Republican, made the motion to refer the expulsion resolution to the ethics panel. He said he was personally in favor of Santos being expelled, but added that “regrettably”, there were not enough votes to meet the two-thirds threshold necessary.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“I firmly believe this is the quickest way of ridding the House of Representatives of this scourge on government,” D’Esposito said.Republican leaders have said Santos deserves to have his day in court before Congress weighs in. The position Republican leaders have staked out generally follows the precedent that Congress has set in similar criminal cases over the years. The House has expelled just two members in recent decades, and both votes occurred after the lawmaker had been convicted on federal charges.The Department of Justice often asks the ethics panel to pause its investigations when a member of Congress has been indicted, but there has been no announcement of that kind from the committee regarding Santos. More

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      Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett: ‘A Black woman’s voice needs to be at the table’

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      Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was in Dallas when the shocking news broke. At a shopping mall in the suburb of Allen, a gunman shot and killed eight people, including three children. He was later revealed to have posted photos online displaying Nazi tattoos on his arm and torso.“I was texting my mom to see where she was, because it’s a suburb 30 miles north of my district, and on the weekends she usually goes shopping,” Crockett, 42, recalls in an interview at her office in Washington. “She texted me: ‘I’m at my friend’s house. Why?’ ‘Because of Allen.’ ‘What’s going on in Allen?’ And I’m like, ‘There’s a shooting at the mall.”Crockett was already scheduled for an interview on the MSNBC network and spent the next hours responding on air to a developing story that now has a sickening deja vu quality in America with the nation’s political class seemingly paralysed.The Democrat reflects: “It’s heartbreaking. At the end of the day, as we saw the carnage, I wasn’t thinking or wondering, well, is that a Democrat or Republican or independent? I was thinking, ‘We’ve got to do better,’ and honestly, those bullets didn’t have R, D or I on them, either.”Crockett can see the failings and follies of Washington on this and other issues through fresh eyes.The former lawyer and Texas state representative was sworn in last January to represent Texas’s 30th congressional district, which is home to 750,000 people and includes portions of Dallas and Tarrant counties. She is the first Black woman to serve as freshman leadership representative.After the mass shooting in Allen, she saw firsthand Republicans’ refusal to budge on gun safety. Ted Cruz, senator for Texas, and Keith Self, a freshman congressman who represents Allen, both offered prayers for the families but offered no meaningful solutions.Crockett adds: “No one seemingly wants to take up the conversation about the far- rightwing extremism that he had. No one wants to accept that part of the chaos and carnage is actually being stoked by the rhetoric that is being spewed by the Republican party.”If Congress took responsibility, she argues, it could pass smart gun legislation instead of staging yet another partisan brawl. “I myself am a Texan. I own a gun – or a couple. I am licensed to carry. I am all the things. But it’s all or nothing, ‘Oh, well, Democrats just want to take your guns away.’ No.”She does support Joe Biden’s call for an assault weapons ban. “There are definitely guns that we want to take away because it’s the equivalent of some of these people having cannon; I’m sorry, but it’s not OK for my next door neighbor to have a cannon.“If we want to minimise the carnage and damage that is done when someone is evil and is just going to do what they do, this is about mitigation, this is about saving lives. People literally have almost no chance of surviving when some of these weapons are used. I don’t understand why we need them.”She describes Republicans as “cowards” on the issue and believes that their stance can be explained by a primary election system that rewards extremism and discourages moderation. This, in turn, flows from gerrymandering – the manipulation of district boundaries to favor one party – made easier by erosion of the Voting Rights Act.“People have told me, ‘I’ll lose my primary if I don’t do this,’ even if it’s completely against what even the majority of their district wants because of who’s going to show up in that primary.”Two years ago Crockett was among Democrats in the Texas legislature who fled Austin for Washington to deny a quorum to Republicans seeking to overhaul elections and impose new voting restrictions. The standoff lasted for 38 consecutive days and remains one of the dramatic showdowns over voting rights in America. Crockett believes there was a lesson for national Democrats: sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.“I’ve been all over the state of Texas for various campaigns and I talk to people and ask them, why is it that you don’t want to vote? Honestly, I have heard more than once that Democrats are weak. We are not weak, but there is this perception.”She added: “I was only the 22nd black woman ever elected to the Texas House, and I wouldn’t be here but for people having courage. At some point in time we can’t just rely on the traditions and sit here because it doesn’t work if both sides aren’t in and, at this point in time, I’ve decided that the Republicans are not in for democracy. So we have to be in.”Republicans are determined to retain power by any means necessary, she argues, because they know their policies do not align with the majority of Americans. She cites examples such as abortion bans, firmly rejected by voters in Kansas, and student loan forgiveness, popular in opinion polls, as evidence that Democrats are more in touch with public sentiment.Yet this does not always translate at the ballot box as Republican tout themselves as the party of middle America and Democrats as the party of coastal elites. “It’s hard to understand how we are failing at communicating that, no matter if you’re in urban America or if you’re in rural America, we’re fighting for you.”Is it lonely to be a Democrat in Texas? The Lone Star State has gone red in 11 consecutive presidential elections from Ronald Reagan in 1980 to Donald Trump in 2020. Both its senators and its governor are Republicans. Counterintuitively, however, Crockett contends that Texas is already a blue state.“People think I’m crazy because it’s so extreme and all we get is the extreme stories. But I believe my state is blue because we’re probably the only majority-minority state that is ‘red’; most majority-minority states are blue. So demographically it’s there.”But despite record turnout in 2020, Texas ranked 44th out of 50 states in terms of ballots counted as a proportion of the total voting-eligible population, according to the United States Elections Project.Crockett said: “We continually have one of the lowest voter turnouts in the entire country. If you make it difficult to access the ballot box, then you can have this minority rule.”Another opportunity to change the narrative of Texas politics will come in next year’s presidential election. When Crockett speaks to young people, she finds that their first concern is guns and their second is voting rights. Since the overturning of Roe v Wade by the supreme court, Republicans have been struggling to defend unpopular restrictions on abortion or even a potential national ban.“As a criminal defence attorney, I have had to deal with cases where fathers were raping their little girls. This is the reality of some of the things that happen and then telling that little girl you can’t do anything about it? There are people that aren’t necessarily for abortion for whatever reasons but they understand that you can’t just say under no circumstances, we’re not doing this, period, ever. Honestly, the Republicans have thrown us a bone and it is going to be moms and young people.”Biden was elected on a vow to heal the soul of the nation after the horror of white supremacists and neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, Virginia. But the president’s efforts to pursue racial justice through police reform and voting rights stalled in the Senate while Trump still looms large in the political landscape. The government has warned racially motivated extremists pose a bigger terrorism threat than potential attacks from overseas.Crockett admits: “We’ve got an affirmative action case in the supreme court and I’m sure the darkest one [Justice Clarence Thomas] on the supreme court is probably gonna lead the charge in getting rid of it. Then it’s like, ‘Oh, see? The Black man on the supreme court said it.’ It’s ridiculous. We also know, especially in the state of Texas, that our governor is going after DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion].”But, if Biden faces Trump in the race for the White House again, Crockett believes the Democrat will repeat his 2020 victory, in part because of LGBTQ+ voters and young voters who feel they are under attack. But what of the Black voters who were so fundamental to Biden’s success?“It’s always complicated for the African American community but, if we make the investments, then we’re fine. Black people for the longest have felt like they have carried this country, whether it is building literally these houses that I sit in right now, or showing up and being the backbone of the Democratic vote. It is a tough conversation to have with Black folk.”This was a crucial motivation for Crockett to become the freshman representative to leadership. “I thought, golly, I have enough on my plate trying to figure out how to be a member of Congress but it was time that we are at the table. There had not been a Black woman elected to leadership in the Democratic caucus since Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman in Congress.“It is important I make it clear that we are making strides, ever so slightly. It’s even a fight within our party. A lot of times there’s this idea that we should paint everything as if it’s perfect and I don’t subscribe to it. I subscribe to being real and most people respect when they feel like you’re being honest and real.”Crockett has to head off to the House chamber to cast a vote. But first she shares another thought. “Nothing in this world is perfect but at least the Democrats are fighting for a more perfect union. The Republicans are not.“I am in leadership because I think a Black woman’s voice needs to be at the table as we are crafting our messages, as we are prioritising our voters. That’s necessary, and so that’s the role that I intend to continue to play – fight for the courting of Black voters, fight for listening to what their priorities are, fight for them to truly believe that they will be heard if they show up.” More

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      George Santos: Democrats move to expel indicted Republican from Congress

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      Democrats moved on Tuesday to expel George Santos from Congress.The New York Republican won election in November last year but his résumé has been shown to be largely made up and his campaign finances and past behaviour, some allegedly criminal, have been scrutinised in tremendous detail.Last week, federal prosecutors indicted Santos on multiple counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and lying to Congress. Appearing in court on Long Island, he pleaded not guilty and claimed to be the victim of a political witch hunt.Now, House Democrats have triggered a political manoeuvre designed to force Republicans to either break with Santos or publicly vote to defend him.To succeed, a privileged resolution introduced by Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, must attract two-thirds support in the House. The resolution could come to a vote within two days.On Tuesday, Garcia told reporters: “The Republicans in the House are actually going to have to go on record and make a decision about if they’re actually going to stand for truth and accountability, or if they’re going to stand with someone that’s clearly a liar.”Some Republicans have said Santos should quit but as yet party leaders have not broken with him, saying he has a right to seek acquittal while representing his district.Republicans control the House by just five seats – and Democrats would be favoured to win Santos’s seat should it fall vacant. In January, amid a far-right rebellion, Santos supported Kevin McCarthy through 15 votes for speaker.Garcia also said Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic minority leader, was “involved” in the process.McCarthy told reporters he would talk to Jeffries about referring the resolution to the House ethics committee, which he hoped would “move rapidly” despite rarely doing so or imposing heavy punishments.Only five members of the House have ever been expelled. Three were kicked out for fighting for the Confederacy in the civil war. Two were expelled after being convicted of crimes.The last, James Traficant of Ohio, was expelled in 2002. Like Santos, Traficant cut a somewhat picaresque path through the halls of power.Reporting his death in 2014, the New York Times said Traficant was known for his “colorful personality and wardrobe, his legislative theatrics and his wild mop of hair.“So it was something of a surprise when the hair turned out to be fake, a fact that was made clear when he had to remove his toupée during booking after his arrest on bribery and racketeering charges.”Traficant did not let his expulsion stop him running for re-election, as an independent and from federal custody in Pennsylvania. Though unsuccessful, he received more than 28,000 votes.Santos has announced a run for re-election. McCarthy has said he does not support such a move.On Tuesday, Garcia told MSNBC McCarthy had “lost all control of his caucus. He needs Santos for key votes on the on the deficit, on the budget, and so … he’s been working with literally a liar and a huge fraudster in the Congress.“So now McCarthy’s going to actually have to make a choice, if he will support George Santos … or if he’s actually going to listen to the American people.“And so we’re gonna continue to push this as best possible. We think it’s absolutely the right approach. And we’ve given plenty of time to George Santos to resign. We’ve been calling for his resignation for months and for months. It’s time for him to do the right thing.” More

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      Suspect named in baseball bat attack at Democratic congressman’s office

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      Police in Virginia on Monday named the suspect in a violent attack in which two staffers for a Democratic congressman were assaulted with a baseball bat, requiring hospital treatment.Xuan Kha Tran Pham, 49, was arrested after the attack at Gerry Connolly’s office in Fairfax. Connolly told CNN one staff member was hit in the head while the other, an intern on her first day in the job, was hit on the side.Connolly said the attacker, a constituent, caused widespread damage to the office, including shattering glass and breaking computers.“The thought that someone would take advantage of my staff’s accessibility to commit an act of violence is unconscionable and devastating,” Connolly said in a statement.He told CNN the suspected attacker “was filled with out of control rage”.A police spokesperson, Sgt Lisa Gardner, said police were called at about 10.50am. Connolly was not at the office, Gardner said, adding that some staff members hid during the attack.Acts of political extremism, including ones targeting lawmakers, have become increasingly common in the US.Last October, Paul Pelosi, husband of the former Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked in his home in San Francisco by a man armed with a hammer.Afterwards, the Michigan representative Debbie Dingell predicted “somebody is going to die”.Speaking to Axios, Dingell said that two years previously, after the now fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson broadcast a segment about her, she “had men outside my home with assault weapons that night”.The Democratic governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, was the target of a rightwing kidnap plot foiled by law enforcement.Justice Samuel Alito, meanwhile, has complained of an increase in threats to members of the supreme court. Last year, a man was charged with attempting to kill Brett Kavanaugh, like Alito a member of the 6-3 conservative majority.Connolly, 73, has represented the 11th congressional district in Virginia since 2009. A prominent Democratic voice in Congress, he frequently spars with Republicans who control the House.Connolly last week criticised CNN’s decision to host Donald Trump for a town hall in New Hampshire, telling Fox News that the event was a “travesty”.“Why would you put a liar and a convicted criminal on a town hall?” Connolly asked during his appearance on the network. “And why would you give him that privilege? … To me, it is frankly reprehensible.”Trump is not a convicted criminal. Last week, in a civil case in New York, he was found liable for sexual assault and defamation against the writer E Jean Carroll.On Monday, Connolly thanked police and emergency medical professionals. The person who attacked his office was taken into custody, he said, adding that his focus was on ensuring his staff members were “receiving the care they need”.“I have the best team in Congress,” Connolly said. “My district office staff make themselves available to constituents and members of the public every day.”Mark Warner, one of two Democratic senators from Virginia, said: “Intimidation and violence – especially against public servants – has no place in our society. This is an extraordinarily disturbing development, and my thoughts are with the staff members who were injured.”Jason Miyares, the Republican attorney general of Virginia, wished Connolly’s staff members well and said: “Political violence is always unacceptable. The coward who did this should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”But Dan Goldman, a Democratic congressman from New York, linked the attack to remarks about political violence by Republicans.“This is horrifying,” Goldman wrote. “From ‘very fine people on both sides’” – which Donald Trump said about violence at a far-right march in Virginia in 2017 – “to calling January 6 a ‘peaceful protest’, there are serious consequences when elected officials refuse to condemn or outright glorify political violence.” More

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      A House Republican wants to prove Biden is compromised – but where’s the evidence?

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      “This is a very serious investigation,” James Comer, chairman of the US House of Representatives’ oversight committee, told the rightwing channel Newsmax recently. “The allegations and the things that we’re investigating make Watergate look like jaywalking.”The Watergate scandal needed a whistleblower, John Dean, to bring down President Richard Nixon half a century ago. Republican Comer claims that he, too, has a “highly credible” whistleblower who will provide evidence that Joe Biden has been compromised by a foreign power.Such a monumental allegation from such a senior politician would once have been front page news. Even if Republicans were assumed to have partisan motivations, many observers would have begun with the premise that there is no smoke without fire.However, Republicans’ embrace of former president Donald Trump and his bogus conspiracy theories has turned the default response in Washington to one of skepticism. With the identity of the whistleblower still shrouded in mystery, the burden of proof falls on Comer – and he is yet to deliver.Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist, said: “We should always take the whistleblowers seriously but this committee, at least so far, is cheapening the use of whistleblowers because they keep saying that they have found all this evidence for a whistleblower, and I think they even mentioned they might have more, but where is it?”Comer has previously been rebuked by Democratic colleagues for exaggerating the number of whistleblowers that his investigation has. He took his latest claim to national television earlier this month.Appearing on Hannity on the rightwing Fox News network, he said a whistleblower had provided Congress information raising concerns that, during Biden’s vice- presidency under Barack Obama between 2009 and 2017, he was allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national.He said: “Senator [Chuck] Grassley and I have reviewed this whistleblower disclosure. We find it very credible. We have a lot of questions about whether the FBI even looked into this.”In a fundraising email to supporters, the House oversight committee chairman added: “It is with a heavy heart that I fear our Commander-in-Chief may be compromised by foreign actors, and I’m going to do everything in my power to deliver the whole truth to the American people.”In a letter that used the word “alleged” three times in the opening paragraph, Comer issued a subpoena to FBI director Christopher Wray for a document that, according to the whistleblower, “describes an alleged criminal scheme” involving Biden and a foreign national “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” when Biden was vice-president and includes “a precise description” about it.But the FBI this week declined to provide the document. Christopher Dunham, acting assistant director for the FBI’s office of congressional affairs, wrote in a letter to Comer: “The mere existence of such a document would establish little beyond the fact that a confidential human source provided information and the FBI recorded it.“Indeed, the FBI regularly receives information from sources with significant potential biases, motivations, and knowledge, including drug traffickers, members of organized crime, or even terrorists.”Comer has also said he obtained thousands of pages of financial records showing that at least nine members of the Biden family – including the president’s son, Hunter, and brother, James – allegedly exploited the Biden name in their business dealings by accepting money from foreign nationals in China and Romania.The oversight committee chairman followed up with an eagerly hyped press conference this week, stating in an interim report that some Biden family members, associates and their companies received more than $10m from foreign entities between 2015 and 2017.Hunter, a lawyer, received more than $1m from a company controlled by Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu, who was the subject of a criminal investigation and prosecution for corruption in Romania.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBut the financial records showed no evidence that Biden himself acted improperly or took any official action because of his family’s business affairs. Nor, despite the claims of “influence peddling”, did they demonstrate actual wrongdoing by the Biden family. The press conference was widely ignored or panned.David Brock, president of Facts First USA, a non-profit watchdog, said afterwards: “The reality is we don’t even have a scandal here, much less Watergate.”Humiliatingly, Comer was even given a rough ride on Fox News. Host Steve Doocy told the Kentucky congressman: “You don’t actually have any facts to that point. You’ve got some circumstantial evidence. And the other thing is, of all those names, the one person who didn’t profit is that – there’s no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegally.”Republicans are under pressure to deliver after winning the House majority last year and promising to use their subpoena power to investigate foreign entities that did business with the Biden family, with a specific focus on Hunter.The effort coincides with an imminent decision by federal prosecutors over whether to charge Hunter with tax crimes and lying about his drug use when he bought a handgun.Although Hunter never held a position in the White House, his membership on the board of a Ukrainian energy company and his efforts to strike deals in China have raised questions about whether he traded on his father’s public service, including reported references in his emails to the “big guy”. There are no indications that the federal investigation involves the president in any way.The White House has dismissed his investigation as “yet another political stunt”. Spokesperson Ian Sams said: “Congressman Comer has a history of playing fast and loose with the facts and spreading baseless innuendo while refusing to conduct his so-called ‘investigations’ with legitimacy.”Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project, a watchdog monitoring the Republican investigations, suggests that Comer is abusing the term whistleblower.“If they have a whistleblower that’s what he the public would be interested in but, other than them talking about it, I haven’t seen anything materialise from that,” he said.Comer’s office did not respond to a request for comment or further details. More