Kevin McCarthy

Subterms

    More stories

    • 113 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Kevin McCarthy reportedly ‘will never leave’ Marjorie Taylor Greene

      by

      Kevin McCarthy reportedly ‘will never leave’ Marjorie Taylor GreeneThe far-right Republican congresswoman was a fierce advocate of the House speaker during the 15-vote marathon for the office Kevin McCarthy reportedly said he would “never leave” Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right, conspiracy theorist Republican congresswoman from Georgia, after she backed him through a rightwing rebellion and 15 rounds of voting for the position of US House speaker.Far-right Republicans Greene and Gosar restored to House committeesRead more“I will never leave that woman,” McCarthy told a friend, according to the New York Times. “I will always take care of her.”Elected to Congress in 2020, Greene quickly became a figurehead for the pro-Trump far right, particularly after Democrats then in control of the House ejected her from committees, citing her racist statements and encouragement of violence against political opponents. Eleven Republicans supported the move.Greene also voiced support for QAnon, the conspiracy theory which holds that Democratic leaders are pederastic cannibals; spoke at a white supremacist rally; criticised and contravened Covid-19 public health measures; and, among countless other controversies, suggested Jewish-controlled “space solar generators” were responsible for destructive wildfires.Recently, Greene said that if she had been in charge of Trump supporters who attacked Congress on 6 January 2021 – an attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s election win now linked to nine deaths and more than 900 charges – “we would have won”.In comments she later claimed were made in jest, Greene also said the protesters “would’ve been armed”.In a detailed examination of the emerging bond between McCarthy and Greene, the Times said the speaker’s remarks about the congresswoman’s support were made to a friend who wished to stay anonymous.But both politicians spoke to the paper of record.“If you’re going to be in a fight, you want Marjorie in your foxhole,” McCarthy said. “When she picks a fight, she’s going to fight until the fight’s over. She reminds me of my friends from high school, that we’re going to stick together all the way through.”Greene said that by sticking to his agenda as speaker, McCarthy would “easily vindicate me and prove I moved the conference to the right during my first two years when I served in the minority with no committees”.Greene told the paper McCarthy’s defense of her when Democrats removed her from her committee assignments in February 2021 “had a big impact on me”.Almost two years later, she and McCarthy were shown in regular and close contact during the 15-vote speakership marathon, a process covered by C-Span cameras and watched by a national audience.Last week, McCarthy assigned Greene to the homeland security and oversight committees, both set to be key engines of Republican attacks on the Biden administration over the next two years.Greene told the Times: “People need to understand that it isn’t just me that deserves credit. It is the will and the voice of our base that was heard, and Kevin listened to them. I was just a vehicle much of the time.”TopicsKevin McCarthyHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsRepublicansUS CongressDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

    • 163 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      Kevin McCarthy’s debt ceiling standoff is yet more Republican madness | Richard Wolffe

      by

      Kevin McCarthy’s debt ceiling standoff is yet more Republican madnessRichard WolffeThe new House speaker is just a small man, talking a big game, taking a long walk off a short pier Kevin McCarthy might not look stupid.In the privacy of his home, far away from the TV cameras and the Maga bozos in his Republican caucus, he might not always sound stupid.US heads for debt-ceiling standoff as House Republicans refuse to budgeRead moreBut the new House speaker has fully embraced the politics of stupid.Stupid is picking a political fight you know you are going to lose. Stupid is taking the economy and the markets to the brink of debt default before caving like it’s no big deal. Stupid is pretending to look tough about deficit spending after waving through every budget-busting dollar that Donald Trump wanted to spend.Stupid is what Kevin McCarthy does. Because Kevin McCarthy was stupid enough to want the job of leading this motley crew of House Republicans in the post-Trump era.Still, our Kevin is something of a conundrum. He is smart enough to know he’s acting dumb.After all, he was present and on the job when the House Republicans first tried to prove their macho bona fides. Back in the heady days of 2011, when the Republican party was drunk with the Tea Party, McCarthy was the House majority whip – the third in command – as they thought the unthinkable about defaulting on Treasury debt.After months of pointless crisis, the Republicans caved and ended up with a package of budget cuts that were vastly outweighed by the billions of dollars in extra costs incurred by the crisis itself. According to the Government Accountability Office, the debt ceiling fiasco cost Treasury an extra $1.3bn in just one year, and billions more in higher borrowing costs for years to come.But saving money was never the point of this particularly predictable game of chicken. A chicken’s brain is the size of two peanuts, which is at least one peanut bigger than the political brains behind the debt ceiling crisis.Naturally, the House Republicans fared badly in the polls after 2011, and their attempt to wound then President Obama succeeded so well that he sailed to re-election the following year.Having learned precisely no lessons from their failures, they repeated the same chicken run in 2013, when they caved again with even less to show for the self-inflicted crisis than they salvaged two years earlier.Kev was still majority whip for that second Hail Mary, but why stop when you’re losing?This is the Republican leader who just lost 14 votes to grab the job of speaker, and succeeded only at the 15th attempt by offering what was left of his peanut-sized dignity as a ritual sacrifice to the craziest collection of Trump-inspired loons outside Florida.There’s a reason why Marjorie Taylor Greene has been handed a seat on the House homeland security committee. It’s either because of her desire to investigate the gazpacho police or the Jewish space lasers. Only time, and some delicious cold soup, will tell.In his private moments, Kevin can probably make sense of this insanity by telling himself that goddamit he’s all that stands between us and the end of civilization. Who else could possibly bridge the divide between the Trumpy-trons and regular, white middle America?If it weren’t for our Captain Kevin, they would still be voting for a House speaker and Marjorie Taylor Greene would have seized control of all the lasers.So what if he had to humiliate himself to get the job? It wasn’t the first time. He had to humiliate himself by groveling to Trump after that nasty insurrection thing got out of hand on January 6. Sometimes you have to take one for Team America.But these delusions can only take you so far: to the end of the cliff, where the lemmings finally realize the folly of their decisions.At the very point where the debt ceiling crisis ends, the speaker’s real suffering starts to kick in.Because that’s when the Kev-meister stares down the reality of the deal he made with the devil to get his job in the first place. This is the so-called motion to vacate, giving one single, unhinged House Republican the ability to call for a vote to fire their so-called leader.You see, the debt ceiling crisis is not, in fact, a show of strength by the House Republicans and the political mastermind who sits in the speaker’s office. It is a demonstration of weakness, unfolding over many months, with only one destination: the debt ceiling lifted, and the end of Kevin McCarthy’s career.For now, McCarthy is the only one at the negotiating table over the debt ceiling. Even his Republican partner in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, will have nothing to do with this nonsense.“I would like to sit down with all the leaders and especially the president and start having discussions,” said the incredible shrinking speaker. “Who wants to put the nation through some type of threat at the last minute with the debt ceiling? Nobody wants to do that.”Nobody, except Kevin. Nobody knows the trouble Kevin has seen. And nobody but Kevin knows how lonely he feels.It was his old boss, John Boehner – the House speaker who tried and failed to stare down President Obama over the debt ceiling – who put it best: a leader without followers is just a man taking a walk.Kevin McCarthy is just a small man, talking a big game, taking a long walk off a short pier.
      Richard Wolffe is a Guardian US columnist. He is the author of Renegade: The Making of a President
      TopicsRepublicansOpinionUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsDemocratsKevin McCarthycommentReuse this content More

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in US Politics

      Far-right Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar restored to House panels

      by

      Far-right Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar restored to House panelsGreene will sit on the House homeland security committee while Gosar will be on the natural resources panel Two far-right members of Congress whose threatening behavior prompted their removal from committees when Democrats controlled the US House were given assignments on Tuesday by the new Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy.George Santos will be seated on committees, House speaker says Read moreMarjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia will sit on the House homeland security committee. Paul Gosar of Arizona was named to the natural resources panel.Democrats removed Greene from committees in February 2021, citing incendiary behavior including advocating the assassination of opponents and voicing support for QAnon and other conspiracy theories, including bizarre claims about 9/11 and the Parkland school shooting.Eleven Republicans supported Greene’s removal but despite being condemned by party leaders for speaking at a white supremacist conference last February, the Georgia congresswoman has since become close to McCarthy.Earlier this month, Greene refused to join the far-right rebellion which dragged McCarthy through 15 rounds of voting before he was confirmed as speaker.Greene, who recently said the January 6 attack on the US Capitol would have succeeded had she organised it, will now sit on the homeland security committee.That panel is set to spearhead Republican attacks, possibly including impeachment, against Alejandro Mayorkas, Joe Biden’s secretary of homeland security, over immigration policy and border security.On Tuesday, Greene tweeted: “It is time to restore dignity to the people, Border Patrol, ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], and the families who have lost a loved one to the cartel’s fentanyl murders and illegal alien crime.“I serve the American people and no one else. As far as I’m concerned American dignity is the only one that matters.”Gosar, who attended the same white supremacist conference as Greene, was censured and removed from committees in November 2021, after tweeting an anime-style video which showed him striking the New York progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword and also menacing Biden. Two Republicans supported the move.Earlier this month, early in the run of votes by which McCarthy became speaker, Gosar and Ocasio-Cortez were filmed talking to each other in the House chamber.Ocasio-Cortez told MSNBC: “In chaos, anything is possible, especially in this era.”TopicsRepublicansHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressUS politicsKevin McCarthynewsReuse this content More

    • 125 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      George Santos will be seated on committees, House speaker says

      by

      George Santos will be seated on committees, House speaker says Kevin McCarthy deflects growing calls for Santos to resign over his largely made-up résumé and suspect campaign finances George Santos – the New York Republican congressman under local, state, federal and international investigation over his largely made-up résumé, suspect campaign finances and potentially criminal aspects of his personal history – “will get seated on committees”, the US House speaker said on Tuesday.How McCarthy’s speaker deals will cause ‘cannibalistic brawl among extremists’Read moreSpeaking to reporters at the Capitol, Kevin McCarthy said: “We will be done with all committees today – he will get seated on committees.”McCarthy must govern with a narrow majority, 222-213. Earlier this month, Santos supported McCarthy through 15 votes for speaker.McCarthy has deflected growing calls for Santos to resign, from Republicans in New York’s third congressional district and on Capitol Hill from senior Democrats.Instead, McCarthy and other Republicans have said the New York freshman should be subject to a House ethics process the party is trying to gut.Santos’s résumé has been shown to be largely fictional, including claims about where he went to college, which companies he worked for, and his racial and family background.Democrats and an outside watchdog have called for an investigation of Santos’s campaign finances. He is under investigation at local and state levels in New York, by US federal authorities and by authorities in Brazil, in that case over the use of a stolen chequebook.On Monday, the Washington Post extended the story to Russia, reporting that Santos “has deeper ties than previously known” to Andrew Intrater, “a businessman who cultivated close links with a onetime Trump confidant and who is the cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch”.Intrater is related to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire in the Russian energy industry. Intrater’s links with Michael Cohen, then Trump’s lawyer and fixer, came under the gaze of Robert Mueller, the special counsel who investigated Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow.Santos has admitted to “embellishing” his résumé but denied wrongdoing and insisted he will not resign.Democrats have raised questions about how much McCarthy and other Republicans knew of Santos’s falsehoods before he won last November.On Sunday, Daniel Goldman told CBS that he and another New York Democrat, Ritchie Torres, had written to McCarthy, his lieutenant Elise Stefanik and the head of McCarthy’s Super Pac about “bombshell … reporting from the New York Times that they all knew about Mr Santos’s lies prior to the election”.On Monday, McCarthy told reporters: “I never knew about his résumé or not but I always had a few questions about it.”The Times report said that in 2021 a member of Santos’s staff pretended to be McCarthy’s chief of staff.On Tuesday, McCarthy said: “My staff had concerns when he had a staff member impersonate my chief of staff and that individual was let go when Mr Santos found out about it.”In a column for NBC News, meanwhile, Torres said that having grown up across the street from former president Donald Trump’s “gilded golf course, I know what it’s like to have the neighbourhood you love hijacked by a man who is deceitful to the core”.“Now”, Torres added, “as I begin my second term in Congress representing the good people of the Bronx, I find myself in an institution that I love hijacked by yet another liar, cheat and fraud.”TopicsGeorge SantosHouse of RepresentativesRepublicansUS politicsKevin McCarthynewsReuse this content More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      How McCarthy’s speaker deals will cause ‘cannibalistic brawl among extremists’

      by

      How McCarthy’s speaker deals will cause ‘cannibalistic brawl among extremists’The deals struck between Kevin McCarthy and the far-right House Freedom Caucus will give the most conservative figures considerable power The deals struck between the new House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and almost 20 members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus are already emboldening the most conservative figures in the Republican party with moves set to give the caucus considerable power in the months ahead.In order to secure the speakership McCarthy was forced into a humiliating series of defeats before his deal-making and concessions finally offered enough to bring rebel members of the Freedom Caucus onboard.Now in McCarthy’s first days as speaker, the roughly 40-member Freedom Caucus has already scored big. Several caucus members landed plum seats on rules and appropriations panels, had a role in creating a new panel to launch a far-flung investigation of the Department of Justice (DoJ) and other agencies conservatives argue are “weaponized” against them, and stand to benefit from the gutting of House ethics oversight.Quite a few Freedom Caucus members have close ties to Donald Trump, whose role in finally sealing the deal to give McCarthy the speakership appears to have helped notch some votes.Craig Snyder, a former chief of staff to ex-Republican senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said the Freedom Caucus members are “bomb-throwing nihilists who try to tear down the institution without regard for consequences..“Trump helped spur this Frankenstein monster on. It’s not a battle between extremes and the establishment, because there’s no real establishment anymore. It’s a cannibalistic brawl among extremists … It’s all about how to advance their personal brands.”The Freedom Caucus was launched in 2015 by Ohio congressman Jim Jordan and Trump’s ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows when he was in the House. It has evolved into a more extreme version of the small government rightwing Tea Party that emerged during the Obama administration opposing Obamacare, say critics.During Trump’s presidency, several of the Caucus’s most combative figures, including its current chairman, Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry, QAnon sympathizer Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jordan, were close allies of Trump as he sought to overturn his loss in 2020.“They don’t do compromise very well. They take hard positions and they’re doctrinaire. The Freedom Caucus more or less became Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers,” said former congressman Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania.Dent added: “It’s striking that individuals who humiliated the incoming speaker by withholding their votes for almost 15 rounds have been rewarded with seats on powerful committees.”Jordan’s confrontational brand was palpable when the incoming chairman of the House judiciary committee announced a sprawling inquiry by a newly created select subcommittee he will lead into the alleged “weaponization” of the justice department, the FBI and other agencies against conservatives.Significantly, the subcommittee is expected to have resources similar to those of the House select committee that investigated the January 6 insurrection, a chit that Freedom Caucus hardliners demanded as a reward for voting for McCarthy, whose campaign Jordan in a twist backed from the start.The panel’s sweeping mandate, which in another concession to the holdout gives the panel power to review “ongoing criminal investigations”, immediately sparked sharp criticism from some former senior justice department officials and others.Critics say the subcommittee’s real agenda is to provide a high-profile avenue for defending Trump from the DoJ investigation he faces into his attempted coup to stay in power and to rally the Republican base, under the guise of defending conservatives from alleged improper government targeting.“It’s essentially an effort to stop the legitimate work of law enforcement and the justice department to secure accountability for Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election,” said Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general during the George HW Bush administration.Michael Bromwich, a former DoJ inspector general, said: “Jim Jordan and his Freedom Caucus allies now have an institutional vehicle to air out their baseless conspiracy theories and attacks on the FBI, DoJ and the intelligence agencies. They will make a lot of noise, demonize good public servants and mislead millions of Americans.”Similarly, Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, a top Democrat on the House January 6 committee, told the Guardian: “This is an insurrection protection committee. These members have every interest in thwarting criminal investigations into what happened on January 6, and protecting themselves from further consequences.”To be sure, Jordan, Perry and other key Freedom Caucus members backed Trump in several ways as he schemed about ways to block Biden from taking office by echoing some of his false charges and conspiracies about 2020 voting fraud.Days before Christmas in 2020, Trump met at the White House with about 10 Freedom Caucus members – including Jordan, Perry, Greene, Harris, Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar – where there was talk of how his 2020 election loss could be reversed.Perry, whose cellphone was seized last summer by federal agents and then returned, has drawn other scrutiny since he said publicly that he “obliged” Trump by introducing him in late 2020 to Jeffrey Clark, the head of the justice department’s civil division, as a useful ally at the DoJ, as Trump was prodding department leaders to support his false charges of massive voting in 2020.Clark was referred last year to the justice department for criminal prosecution by the House’s January 6 panel, after revelations about his meetings with Trump to discuss schemes to block Biden from office including an abortive plan to elevate Clark to replace Jeffrey Rosen, who was acting attorney general, to help push baseless claims of major voting fraud in key states Trump lost.On a related track, three caucus members, Jordan, Perry and Biggs, plus McCarthy, were all referred for ethics investigation by the January 6 panel because they stonewalled the committee’s requests and subpoenas for testimony and documents.The trio of caucus members may well benefit from another early move by McCarthy when he pushed through a controversial change revamping the House ethics process, which effectively reduces the number of Democrats who make recommendations about reviewing members for improper conduct, a move that quickly spurred sharp criticism from Democrats and watchdog groups.Craig Holman, a veteran ethics watchdog with the liberal group Public Citizen, said: “The emasculating of the ethics process was very self-serving for McCarthy and some members of the Freedom Caucus who were facing public investigations by OCE for refusing to comply with legal subpoenas from the January 6 committee.”Others concur.“The attack on the congressional ethics process is part of an effort to confer upon themselves and participants in the insurrection effective impunity and immunity,” Raskin said.On another front that suggests growing Freedom Caucus influence, the House on a strictly party line vote passed a measure last Monday to strip $80bn from the IRS that the Biden administration helped enact last year with an eye to going after tax cheats and bolstering the famously understaffed agency by hiring 87,000 new employees.The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that rescinding the $80bn for the IRS would increase the deficit by $114bn through 2032.Although the House measure has little chance of passing in the Senate and Biden wouldn’t sign such a bill, it signaled how McCarthy and his allies have moved fast to go after the IRS, an agency that conservatives have long charged is biased against them.Marc Owens, a former head of the IRS’s tax exempt organizations division, told the Guardian: “Rather than pushing for cuts to curb the agency that actually funds the government, the Freedom Caucus inspired crusade might help citizens more by pushing for adequate agency funds to go after tax cheats and sketchy non-profits, rather than protecting scammers by defunding enforcement.”Taken together, the influence of the Freedom Caucus with McCarthy is likely to keep growing, and breed chaos.Ex-Republican congressman Tom Davis of Virginia said the Freedom Caucus is able to “punch above its weight because there’s a slim majority … McCarthy landed the plane. But these guys [in the Freedom Caucus] were steering it.”That outsized influence is worrisome to analysts and liberals too as battles loom over major issues like raising the debt ceiling where Freedom Caucus members seem likely to demand key spending cuts for their votes.“The Freedom Caucus is a more extreme version of what the Republican Party used to stand for – low taxes, a small state, deregulation,” Princeton sociologist Kim L Scheppele said. “But they will take these ideas to an extreme – defunding the IRS and shutting down government.”Raskin too noted that the Freedom Caucus’s “basic credo is they will run everything in authoritarian fashion while they’re in charge, and to make public progress impossible when they’re not running things.”Looking ahead, Public Citizen’s Holman warned: “Expect dysfunction and chaos in Congress for the next two years. McCarthy has given away far too much of his leadership role to the Freedom Caucus, a group of rightwing Republicans whose agenda is to bring government to a halt if they do not get what they want.”TopicsKevin McCarthyRepublicansHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

    • 163 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      McCarthy may be speaker, but Trump is the real leader of House Republicans

      by

      AnalysisMcCarthy may be speaker, but Trump is the real leader of House RepublicansDavid Smith in WashingtonAfter Trump’s pick for speaker narrowly won, what sway will the former president hold over Congress’s Republican majority? Like an exhausted marathon runner, Kevin McCarthy had just about staggered across the finish line. But even at 2.11am, with tempers frayed and eyes bleary, the newly elected speaker of the US House of Representatives wanted to single out one person for praise.“I do want to especially thank President Trump,” McCarthy told reporters after prevailing in the longest election for speaker since before the civil war. “I don’t think anyone should doubt his influence. He was with me from the beginning.”‘It’s going to be dirty’: Republicans gear up for attack on Hunter BidenRead moreThe gushing tribute obscured the complexity of Donald Trump’s intervention in the election for speaker – and what sway he might hold over the narrow Republican majority in the new Congress.The week that followed brought a series of extremist actions and appointments that appear designed to resonate with his rightwing base. But whether House Republicans’ agenda will ultimately complement or conflict with Trump’s 2024 presidential election campaign remains uncertain.McCarthy’s election as speaker took four gruelling days, 15 roll call votes and concessions that he might come to regret. Trump’s endorsement appeared impotent for much of that time, even among some of the former president’s champions in Congress. As he made calls in the dying hours of Friday night, a memorable photo showed Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene attempting to give her phone, with “DT” on the line, to colleague Matt Rosendale, only for him to wave it away.But in the end, Trump’s man won – a sign that he remains important if not decisive. McCarthy duly felt obliged to heap praise on the kingmaker. He also made a somewhat optimistic claim: “This is the great part: because it took this long, now we learned how to govern.”That was immediately put to the test. On Monday evening, Republicans passed legislation to cut funding that was intended to bolster the Internal Revenue Service on a party-line vote. The speaker proclaimed: “Promises made. Promises kept.” Democrats called it a deficit-raising windfall for wealthy tax cheats at the expense of the majority that has no chance of passing in a Senate they still control.On Tuesday, Republicans formed a panel to tackle what they perceive as rampant abuse of power in the federal government, not least by law enforcement agencies investigating Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and handling and storing of presidential records at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.The subcommittee focusing on “the weaponization of the federal government” falls under the judiciary committee, headed by Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, who has repeatedly said Trump should become president again. It will have access to classified information, a privilege usually reserved for the intelligence committees in the House and Senate.Its “investigate the investigators” mandate was doubtless music to the ears of Trump, who has spent years airing grievances at rallies about a “deep state” conspiracy that led to the Russia investigation and two impeachments. Democrat Jamie Raskin, a prominent member of the now dissolved January 6 committee, called the new panel an “insurrection protection team”.US House of Representatives: who’s who in the new leadership?Read moreOn Wednesday, Republicans targeted abortion. Their majority passed a resolution to condemn attacks on anti-abortion facilities, including crisis pregnancy centers, and a separate bill that would impose new penalties if a doctor refused to care for an infant born alive after an abortion attempt. Neither is expected pass the Democratic-led Senate.The moves were condemned by liberals but did not go as far as some conservatives would have liked – a tacit acknowledgment that abortion has become politically awkward for Republicans since last year’s supreme court decision that overturned Roe v Wade after half a century. Trump has blamed anti-abortion hardliners for Republicans’ disappointing midterm elections results.Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said: “Would you start with that, if you were in their position, having just lost a midterm election effectively because of the abortion issue? What was that doing there in the first place? Forty-eight hours of the actual Congress and this unorganized? Just amazing. There must be a stupidity chemical in the Washington water system.”McCarthy also spent the week fending off questions over calls for fabulist New York congressman George Santos to resign and the deal he struck with the House Freedom Caucus during his epic election battle. Like the Tea Party before it, the House Freedom Caucus is fixated on small government and less spending. Media reports suggest that it intends to seek cuts to entitlement programs such as social security and Medicare as well as to defense and law enforcement.It is all part of an “extreme Maga Republican agenda”, according to Democrats.Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said in a statement: “In the last week Republicans have given a free pass to wealthy tax cheats, empaneled a committee to undermine and threaten law enforcement, undercut women’s healthcare, and put forward a draconian budget plan that will lead to cuts to Medicare and social security and defunding the police.”There was a further statement of intent in House committees. Despite claiming to have embraced diversity and inclusion, Republicans named fewer women as committee chairs than men named Mike. The new chairs also have records that suggest they are ready to push Trump’s “Make America great again” agenda.Jordan, leading the judiciary panel, has amplified Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen and refused to comply with a subpoena issued by the January 6 committee over his communications with the former president.The new chair of the oversight committee, James Comer, has co-sponsored a national abortion ban that could have imprisoned doctors, amplified false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and called attempts to investigate the January 6 insurrection a “political stunt”, “a big show” and “illegitimate”.2024 Veepstakes: who will Donald Trump choose as his running mate?Read moreJason Smith, chair of the ways and means committee, has supported cutting social security and Medicare, voted to overturn the 2020 election and described the January 6 committee as a “sham” that was “designed to attack President Trump”. Jodey Arrington, chair of the budget committee, has adopted similar positions.Mark Green, chair of the homeland security committee, has introduced legislation to build a border wall and called for the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, to resign. He has also asserted that being “transgender is a disease” and said America must “take a stand on the indoctrination of Islam in our public schools”. Green identifies as a creationist and has argued against the theory of evolution.At first glance, it has the makings of a Trump caucus ready to do its master’s bidding and aid his run for the White House. Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman, said: “Most of what they’re going to focus on is a bunch of revenge stuff for Trump, for how they believe Trump was treated, and a lot of this culture war bullshit.“I’m convinced that a big part of what all these investigations involve is a lot of these guys believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump: the FBI did it, the justice department did it. Trump and the Republicans declared war on the FBI some years ago so they’re going to go after them.”That McCarthy credited Trump with helping him secure the gavel “tells you exactly still where Trump stands in the party”, Walsh added. “McCarthy said that publicly, which is why Trump is still the king of the GOP hill unless something happens.”It was McCarthy who initially condemned Trump over the January 6 assault on democracy only to then make a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago a few weeks later and signal that all was forgiven. Now that Trump has backed McCarthy for speaker, despite significant opposition from his own base, he might expect the California Republican to repay the favour in 2024.But Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, has doubts. “McCarthy is going to go where the winds blow,” he said. “To begin with, as a speaker he has to recognise where everyone in his conference is so he could very easily tell Trump at least during the early part of 2023, ‘Look, I’ve got a five-vote majority. I’ve got people who love you, I’ve got people who hate you, you know I love you but I’ve got to keep this group together.’“He may not like that but, if McCarthy did anything other than that in the initial jousting phases of the primary, McCarthy would be a poor political strategist. And McCarthy may lack certain attributes necessary to be a speaker but reading the room is not something he lacks.”As Trump’s star wanes, rivals signal presidential nomination campaignsRead moreThere are other icebergs on the horizon. Congress faces an agenda of must-pass bills to fund the government, resupply a military depleted by decades of war and support for Ukraine, authorise farming programmes and raise the nation’s borrowing limit to avert a disastrous federal default. In this context, an obsessive Republican pursuit of dead-on-arrival bills and Biden investigations could backfire on Trump.Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington, said: “Between opposition within their party, between the Senate and the presidency, they’re not going to win anything. What it’s going to do is be a constant reminder to people of the extremes of the far right and Trump is so firmly associated with them. Substantively they’re alike but stylistically they’re alike as well. It’s bad for him. It paints him into a real corner.”Kamarck, who served in Bill Clinton’s White House, added: “The thing that was amazing about his presidency was that, unlike any other president before him, he did not ever seek to expand his base. He was purely and simply happy with his factional base. The demographics of his factional base are that they’re old so every year that he relies on that base gets more and more problematic.“He’s simply weak. And he’s going to have challengers for the 2024 Republican nomination which will make him look weaker.”TopicsDonald TrumpRepublicansKevin McCarthyHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsanalysisReuse this content More

    • 88 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

      Headlocked: inside the 13 January Guardian Weekly

      by

      Headlocked: inside the 13 January Guardian WeeklyWhat’s the matter with the US Republican party? Plus: Britain’s battle royal
      Get the magazine delivered to your home address Two years after the Capitol riot, the toxic legacy of Donald Trump’s big election lie has been fully evident this week, not just in the US but also in Brazil.In Washington, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives took 15 attempts just to fulfil its primary duty of appointing a speaker. Kevin McCarthy eventually squeaked through by four votes, after quelling a days-long revolt from a bloc of far-right conservatives. But, with a wafer-thin majority, and few powers, Nancy Pelosi’s successor looks set to be one of the weakest speakers in history.For our big story, Washington bureau chief David Smith examines the chaos within Republican ranks and what it means for the party. It’s a theme picked up for this week’s cover by illustrator Justin Metz, who took the traditionally harmless-looking motif of the Republican elephant and turned it into something altogether more confrontational.In Brazil, meanwhile, supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed congress buildings in scenes eerily reminiscent of Washington on 6 January 2021. Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips reports on a dark day for Brazilian democracy, while Richard Lapper considers the potential fallout for the new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and a deeply fractured nation.There’s a feast of great writing elsewhere in this week’s magazine. British food writer Jack Monroe, who taught us how to eat well on a shoestring, opens up to Simon Hattenstone about her struggles with addiction.And Chris Stringer, who has received a CBE for his work on human evolution, tells how his remarkable quest as a young researcher transformed understanding of our species.Get the magazine delivered to your home addressTopicsRepublicansInside Guardian WeeklyUS CongressUS politicsKevin McCarthyDonald TrumpBrazilReuse this content More

    • 163 Shares109 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump call to ‘play tough’ on debt ceiling stokes fears of chaotic Congress

      by

      Trump call to ‘play tough’ on debt ceiling stokes fears of chaotic CongressNew House rules package sets up showdown on federal debt limit with Republicans expected to push for deep spending cuts Following the passage of a new House rules package on Monday and with Donald Trump urging House Republicans to “play tough” on raising the federal debt limit, Democrats are warning of a chaotic 118th Congress that could see the government cease to function normally.The rules package passed the House under the Republican party’s slim majority by a 220-213 vote. A single Republican, Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas, voted against the package, as did all Democrats.Republicans could cause US to default on its debt, top Democrat warnsRead moreThe new rules contain a slew of concessions to the far right of the Republican party, including a measure to force a vote on confidence in the speaker by a single representative, and gutting the office of congressional ethics, the body that carries out bipartisan inquiries into allegations of misconduct by members of Congress.“Kevin McCarthy hasn’t held the speaker’s gavel for a whole week, and already he’s handed over the keys to Maga extremists and special interests for the next two years,” said the House Democratic whip, Katherine Clark, in a statement on Monday.The rules package also sets up a showdown over the federal debt limit. It removes the so-called Gephardt rule, which allowed the House to circumvent a vote on lifting the debt ceiling, which had remained in place while Democrats controlled the House.Republicans have made clear that they plan to leverage consideration of further debt increases in order to secure significant government spending cuts – potentially including to social security and Medicare. The move opens the possibility of a government shutdown similar to the one in 2013, or even a federal debt default. Both would have severe consequences for the US and global economy.On Monday, Trump, whose influence over the party was shaken somewhat by poor midterm election results for his endorsed candidates but who remains the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, called on House Republicans to leverage power “by simply playing tough in the upcoming debt ceiling negotiations”.Posting on the social media network he set up, Truth Social, Trump pressed all wings of the Republican party, including those rebels who initially voted against McCarthy, to join the negotiations: “It will be a beautiful and joyous thing for the people of our country to watch.”On Tuesday, senior House Republicans were already offering warning signs of disruptive negotiations ahead. The majority leader, Steve Scalise, was asked by reporters if he could guarantee US would avoid a debt limit breach. He argued of the need for “living within our means” by suggesting the US was “about to max out the credit card”.Forecasters predict that the current debt ceiling of almost $31.4tn will need to be raised some time around August this year.But the chaos last week, which saw 15 floor votes before McCarthy won the speakership, underlined the bitter divisions within the House Republican party and empowered a smaller group of ultra-conservative lawmakers belonging to the Freedom Caucus. The result means that negotiations on the debt ceiling are likely to be extremely fraught, as the speaker will need to continue to appease the extreme Republican fringe that demands deep spending cuts.The situation is likely to bear the hallmarks of the 2011 debt ceiling crisis, in which the Republican-controlled House demanded spending cuts from the Obama administration, resulting in market volatility and the downgrading of the US government’s credit rating for the first time in history.TopicsHouse of RepresentativesKevin McCarthyUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsUS CongressnewsReuse this content More