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      Kevin McCarthy dismissed Liz Cheney warning before January 6, book says

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      When Liz Cheney warned fellow Republicans five days before January 6 of a “dark day” to come if they “indulged in the fantasy” that they could overturn Donald Trump’s defeat by Joe Biden, the then House GOP leader, Kevin McCarthy, swiftly slapped her down.“After Liz spoke,” the former Wyoming representative’s fellow anti-Trumper Adam Kinzinger writes in a new book, “McCarthy immediately told everyone who was listening, ‘I just want to be clear: Liz doesn’t speak for the conference. She speaks for herself.’”Five days after Cheney delivered her warning on a Republican conference call, Trump supporters attacked Congress in an attempt to block certification of Biden’s win.McCarthy’s statement, Kinzinger writes, was “unnecessary and disrespectful, and it infuriated me”.Kinzinger details McCarthy’s “notably juvenile” intervention – and even what he says were two physical blows delivered to him by McCarthy – in Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country, which will be published in the US this month. The Guardian obtained a copy.Nine deaths have been linked to the January 6 riot, more than a thousand arrests made and hundreds convicted, some with seditious conspiracy. Trump was impeached a second time for inciting the attack, and acquitted a second time when Senate Republicans stayed loyal. When the dust cleared from the January 6 attack, McCarthy was among 147 House and Senate Republicans who still voted to object to results in key states.Like Cheney, Kinzinger, from Illinois, sat on the House January 6 committee, then left office. Unlike Cheney, who was beaten by a Trump ally, Kinzinger chose to retire.Cheney has maintained a high profile, warning of the threat Trump poses as he leads polling regarding the Republican nomination next year, 91 criminal charges (17 concerning election subversion) and assorted civil threats notwithstanding, and refusing to rule out a presidential run of her own.Kinzinger has founded Country First, an organisation meant to combat Republican extremism, and become a political commentator. In his book, he says he responded to McCarthy on the 1 January 2021 conference call by issuing his own warning about the potential for violence on 6 January and “calling on McCarthy to say he wouldn’t join the group opposing the electoral college states.“He replied by coming on the line to say, ‘OK, Adam. Operator, who’s up next?’”Such a “rude and dismissive tone”, Kinzinger says, “was typical of [McCarthy’s] style, which was notably juvenile”.McCarthy briefly blamed Trump for January 6, swiftly reversed course, stayed close to the former president and became speaker of the House, only to lose the role after less than a year, in the face of a Trumpist rebellion.Kinzinger accuses McCarthy, from California, of behaving less like a party leader than “an attention-seeking high school senior who readily picked on anyone who didn’t fall in line”. And while characterising McCarthy’s dismissal of Cheney’s warning about January 6 as “a little dig”, Kinzinger also details two physical digs he says he took from McCarthy himself.“I went from being one of the boys he treated with big smiles and pats on the back to outcast as soon as I started speaking the truth about the president who would be king,” Kinzinger writes.McCarthy “responded by trying to intimidate me physically. Once, I was standing in the aisle that runs from the floor to the back of the [House] chamber. As he passed, with his security man and some of his boys, he veered towards me, hit me with his shoulder and then kept going.“If we had been in high school, I would have dropped my books, papers would have been scattered and I would have had to endure the snickers of passersby. I was startled but took it as the kind of thing Kevin did when he liked you.“Another time, I was standing at the rail that curves around the back of the last row of seats in the chamber. As he shoulder-checked me again, I thought to myself, ‘What a child.’”Kinzinger is not above robust language of his own. Describing Trump’s Senate trial over the Capitol attack, the former congressman bemoans the decision of the Republican leader in that chamber, Mitch McConnell, to vote to acquit because Trump had left office – then deliver a speech excoriating Trump nonetheless.“It took a lot of cheek, nerve, chutzpah, gall and, dare I say it, balls for McConnell to talk this way,” Kinzinger writes, “since he personally blocked the consideration of the case until Trump departed.” More

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      House speaker hopeful Tom Emmer spoke to Trump to ease tensions as race to replace McCarthy drags into third week – as it happened

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      Tom Emmer, the Minnesota Republican who is seen as a frontrunner in the race for speaker of the House, spoke with Donald Trump over the weekend, Punchbowl News reports:As the party’s whip, Emmer is the third-highest-ranking Republican in the House, but Politico reports that since announcing his candidacy, he’s been attacked as disloyal to Donald Trump – even though he repeatedly voted for Jim Jordan, the failed speaker candidate who won the former president’s endorsement for the job.Former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon referred to Emmer as a “Trump Hater,” while Boris Epshteyn, a current aide to the former president, attacked him for not endorsing his presidential campaign.“If somebody is so out of step with where the Republican electorate is, where the MAGA movement is, how can they even be in the conversation?”, Epshteyn said.After days of dysfunction and bickering that culminated in rightwing lawmaker Jim Jordan abandoning his bid to become speaker of the House despite winning the GOP’s nomination for the post, the party is again gearing up to elect a new leader in Congress’s lower chamber. This time, Republicans have nine candidates to sort through, and we’ll get an indication of who they are leaning towards this evening, when the party holds a forum for the aspirants.Here’s a rundown of what we learned today about the race:
      Tom Emmer, who is considered a frontrunner for the post, reportedly spoke over the weekend with Donald Trump. The former president’s advisers have criticized the Minnesota lawmaker as not sufficiently loyal, which could pose a problem to his bid for speaker. Fellow candidates Kevin Hern and Pete Sessions also said they got on the phone with Trump.
      Trump seemed to indicate he thought only Jesus Christ could win enough votes to become speaker of the House.
      Hern, who leads the large and influential Republican Study Committee, delivered his pitch to become speaker along with McDonald’s hamburgers.
      The rightwing House Freedom Caucus said lawmakers should not leave Washington DC until a new speaker is appointed. Some of their members were behind the effort to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair.
      Bob Menendez, the Democratic senator who last month was indicted for accepting bribes in return for political favors, has pleaded not guilty to a new charge of acting as an unregistered agent of the Egyptian government, the Associated Press reports.Menendez made the plea during a New York City court appearance, after which he departed without answering shouted questions:Here’s more on the latest charges:More Republican House speaker aspirants say they’ve spoken to Donald Trump ahead of this evening’s candidate forum.This includes the chair of the influential Republican Study Committee Kevin Hern, CNN reports:As well as Texas lawmaker Pete Sessions, who voted for objecting to Arizona and Pennsylvania’s results in the 2020 election:Donald Trump has been campaigning in New Hampshire today, where he was asked about the race for speaker of the House.It’s a little unclear, but appears to say that only Jesus Christ could manage to win election in the fractured chamber. See his comments for yourself:Progressive senator Bernie Sanders has come out against the Biden administration’s request for a funding package aimed at providing Ukraine and Israel with military assistance: Sanders is an independent who caucuses with the chamber’s Democratic majority, and it’s unclear what impact his opposition will have on the fate of the package. The Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell said he was partial to the request, meaning it may receive bipartisan support in that chamber.Its prospects in the House are less clear. Besides the fact that the chamber has no speaker and cannot pass legislation, a growing number of Republicans there have said they do not support further aid to Ukraine.Oklahoma congressman Kevin Hern just said in the corridors of the House that he hopes the Republican conference will be able to pick a nominee that they can coalesce around for speaker tomorrow night.The House is far into record breaking territory on its 20th day without a speaker while Congress is in session.Hern told CNN that he favors a roll call vote of GOP-ers behind closed doors – in hopes of having a nominee that the conference can unite behind sufficiently to have that person elected as speaker after the decision goes to a vote of the full House floor.The Biden administration wants to see safe passage for people out of Gaza ahead of a potential ground invasion by Israel, particularly for US citizens, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said moments ago at the regular briefing in the west wing, Reuters reports.
      We still want to see safe passage out and particularly for the several hundred American citizens that we know are in Gaza and want to leave,” Kirby said.
      Kirby said the US agrees with the Israeli government that “the top priority has to be going after Hamas.”
      There is no daylight there,” between Israel’s and the US position, Kirby said.
      We are on Israel’s side, here.”
      Kirby said that the US has sent some military advisers to Israel to advise the Israelis.Our global blog on the Israel-Gaza crisis can be read here.The White House is keeping information very tight on what it’s doing to try to speed the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Pressure has intensified on Israel to negotiate the release of more than 200 people, including chiefly Israelis but also some Americans and other foreigners, taken by Palestinian militants after the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7.Meanwhile, Kirby said it would “certainly be helpful” if House Republicans could produce a speaker for the chamber. This a day after Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said he endorsed Joe Biden’s $106bn aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine, which won’t get anywhere while the House is paralyzed.After days of dysfunction and bickering that culminated in rightwing lawmaker Jim Jordan abandoning his bid to become speaker of the House despite having the GOP’s nomination for the post, the party is again gearing up to elect a new leader in Congress’s lower chamber. This time, Republicans have nine candidates to sort through, and we’ll get an indication of who they are leaning towards this evening, when the party holds a forum for the aspirants.Here’s a rundown of what we’ve learned today about the race:
      Tom Emmer, who is considered a frontrunner for the post, reportedly spoke over the weekend with Donald Trump. The former president’s advisers have criticized the Minnesota lawmaker as not sufficiently loyal, which could pose a problem to his bid for speaker.
      Kevin Hern, who leads the large and influential Republican Study Committee, delivered his pitch to become speaker along with McDonald’s hamburgers.
      The rightwing House Freedom Caucus said lawmakers should not leave Washington DC until a new speaker is appointed. Some of their members were behind the effort to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair.
      Tom Emmer, the Minnesota Republican who is seen as a frontrunner in the race for speaker of the House, spoke with Donald Trump over the weekend, Punchbowl News reports:As the party’s whip, Emmer is the third-highest-ranking Republican in the House, but Politico reports that since announcing his candidacy, he’s been attacked as disloyal to Donald Trump – even though he repeatedly voted for Jim Jordan, the failed speaker candidate who won the former president’s endorsement for the job.Former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon referred to Emmer as a “Trump Hater,” while Boris Epshteyn, a current aide to the former president, attacked him for not endorsing his presidential campaign.“If somebody is so out of step with where the Republican electorate is, where the MAGA movement is, how can they even be in the conversation?”, Epshteyn said.Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician to Barack Obama and Donald Trump who is now a Republican congressman, endorsed Byron Donald’s candidacy for speaker.Here’s the Texas lawmaker’s announcement:Speaker candidate Kevin Hern is the chair of the Republican Study Committee, the largest ideological caucus in the House, which is geared towards advancing conservative policy goals.Below is the “Dear Colleague” letter he sent out to announce his candidacy for the chamber’s top job. The Oklahoman is also a former McDonald’s franchise owner, and sent the letter to Republican lawmakers along with the chain’s signature burgers:While the Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell is partial to Joe Biden’s request for a joint Ukraine-Israel aid package, speaker candidate Dan Meuser told CNN he opposes it.He’s just one man, and faces a crowded field of eight others to win the gavel, but is unlikely to be alone in his views. Here’s what he had to say: More

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      Who are the Republican candidates for House of Representatives speaker?

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      After more than two weeks of failing to choose a speaker, Republicans in the US House plan to reconvene on Monday to begin the process of nominating a third candidate to try to get the 217 votes needed to secure the speakership.So far, Steve Scalise, the No 2 Republican in the House, and Jim Jordan, the far-right congressman, have both failed in their bids.Here’s a look at the nine candidates who signed up to run ahead of a noon deadline Sunday.Tom EmmerEmmer was first elected to the House in 2014 and forms part of the chamber’s leadership. He is the majority whip and responsible for counting and marshaling votes on key issues. He narrowly won that job in 2022 in a closely contested race. Kevin McCarthy, who was removed as speaker on 3 October, has endorsed Emmer’s bid for the post.He previously served as the chairman of the House Republicans’ campaign arm – the National Republican Congressional Committee – in 2020 and 2022. He helped Republicans win back control of the House in 2022 but won fewer seats than was expected.Emmer also reportedly advised candidates on the campaign trail that year to avoid talking about Trump, according to CNN. Emmer has denied he offered such advice.Donald Trump and his allies are already reportedly marshaling support against Emmer, whom the ex-president has said has not defended him strongly enough. Unlike Scalise and Jordan, Emmer voted to certify the 2020 election, though he signed an amicus brief urging the supreme court to throw out electoral votes from key swing states. He was also one of 39 Republicans who voted to codify federal protections for same-sex marriage.Emmer previously served in the Minnesota legislature for six years and lost the 2010 governor’s race by a razor-thin 9,000 votes.Mike JohnsonThe Louisiana congressman was elected in 2016 and has twice been chosen by his colleagues to serve as vice-chairman of the Republican conference, a leadership position.Johnson helped organize efforts to object to the 2020 election results, getting his House colleagues to sign on to an amicus brief at the supreme court urging the justices to throw out electoral votes from key swing states. The New York Times described him as “the most important architect” of the legal strategy to get members of Congress to object to the electoral college vote. Specifically, Johnson pushed the idea that changes to election rules during the pandemic gave Congress the right to second-guess the election results, the Times reported.A former lawyer for the powerful and anti-LGBTQ+ group Alliance Defending Freedom, Johnson is a close ally of Jordan.Kevin HernHern, an Oklahoma congressman, is the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a powerful caucus including most GOP members in the House which helps devise conservative policies. Well-known Republicans, including former vice-president Mike Pence, Scalise and Jordan have led the group.He had no political experience before getting elected to Congress in 2018. Previously, he was an aerospace engineer and owned several McDonald’s franchises in Oklahoma. He voted against certifying the 2020 election and signed on to a supreme court brief urging the justices to throw out votes from key swing states.Byron DonaldsA second-term congressman from Florida, Donalds earned 20 votes for speaker across a few of the 15 rounds of voting earlier this year that ultimately resulted in McCarthy winning the speakership.In September, Donalds drew scrutiny when he displayed a purported screenshot at a hearing as part of Republican efforts to impeach Joe Biden that was lacking important context. The image Donalds displayed appeared to be a screenshot of a text message exchange between Hunter and the president’s brother, James Biden. But the content had been edited to omit key passages.He previously served in Florida’s legislature and has picked up support in his speakership bid from other members of the state’s delegation. If chosen by his colleagues, he would be the House’s first ever Black speaker.Austin ScottScott represents Georgia’s eighth congressional district, which stretches from the Florida border to the center of the state. He was first elected in 2010.Scott launched a last-minute bid to challenge Jordan for the House speakership earlier this month but lost. “I care more about the conference and that it’s doing our job than I care about who the speaker is. I truly do,” he said when he launched his previous effort. “If we as Republicans are gonna be the majority, we have to do the right things the right way. And we’re not doing that right now,” he said.Scott signed an amicus brief urging the US supreme court to throw out electoral votes from key swing states but ultimately voted to certify the 2020 election.Jack BergmanBergman, who represents Michigan’s first congressional district, has said he would only serve as speaker until the end of the current congress. “I have no special interests to serve; I’m only in this to do what’s best for our nation and to steady the ship for the 118th Congress,” he said in a statement announcing his candidacy. He voted against certifying the last election and signed on to an amicus brief urging the US supreme court to throw out valid electoral votes.Pete SessionsSessions, a Texas congressman, is the longest-tenured member in the speaker’s race. He served in Congress from 1997 until 2019 and then returned in 2021. He has been the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the powerful House rules committee.Gary PalmerPalmer has represented Alabama’s 6th congressional district since 2015 and joined the race for speaker shortly before Sunday’s deadline. He is the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, a House leadership position. He was the founding member of the board of directors of the State Policy Network, a group of rightwing thinktanks backed by the Koch brothers and other influential conservatives.He voted to overturn the 2020 election and signed on to an amicus brief asking the supreme court to throw out electoral votes from key swing states.Dan MeuserMeuser is a third-term congressman from Pennsylvania who previously backed Jordan but said he would enter the race if Jordan couldn’t muster enough votes. “I’m considering it because I’m not gonna let this kindergarten continue. I’ll do it,” he told the National Review Online last week after Jordan’s first failed vote.He voted against certifying the 2020 election and signed on to an amicus brief urging the supreme court to throw out valid electoral votes. More

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      Mitch McConnell backs Biden’s $106bn aid request for Israel and Ukraine

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      Mitch McConnell offered a strong endorsement on Sunday of the Joe Biden White House’s $106bn aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine, saying he and the president were essentially “in the same place” on the issue.McConnell, the powerful Republican leader in the Senate, also rebuffed some of his GOP colleagues in the Senate who have called for a package separating assistance for the two countries, saying it would be “a mistake” during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation.The Republican leader offered significant backing to the White House’s $106bn request, including $14bn in assistance to Israel, $60bn in aid to Ukraine and another $14bn to improve security on the US Mexico border. An additional $10bn would be allocated to humanitarian relief as well as an additional $7bn to the Indio-Pacific region.Nine Republican senators wrote a letter to McConnell on Thursday saying that Ukraine and Israel aid should not be paired together. “These are two separate conflicts and it would be wrong to leverage support of aid to Israel in an attempt to get additional aid for Ukraine across the finish line,” the group wrote.McConnell rejected that view on Sunday.“I view it as all interconnected,” he said during the interview. “If you look at the Ukraine assistance, let’s – let’s talk about where the money is really going. A significant portion of it’s being spent in the United States in 38 different states, replacing the weapons that we sent to Ukraine with more modern weapons. So we’re rebuilding our industrial base,” he said.He added: “No Americans are getting killed in Ukraine. We’re rebuilding our industrial base. The Ukrainians are destroying the army of one of our biggest rivals. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that. I think it’s wonderful that they’re defending themselves.”During a speech to the nation on Thursday, Biden also made his case for why the two issues were connected. The president said Hamas and the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, “represent different threats, but they share this in common: they both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy – completely annihilate it.“If we walk away and let Putin erase Ukraine’s independence, would-be aggressors around the world would be emboldened to try the same. The risk of conflict and chaos could spread in other parts of the world – in the Indo-Pacific, in the Middle East, especially in the Middle East.”The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, also said on Sunday that Israel had restored some water and power access to Gaza.“Israel turned on one of the pipelines six or seven days ago – there are a couple of other pipelines that we’d like to see restored,” the US’s top diplomat said during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.Blinken also noted that 20 trucks that were recently allowed in to Gaza provided clean water, saying: “We’re getting more that we hope will be moving as early as today.“We do have concerns about the spread of disease as a result of people drinking dirty water,” he said. “This is a work in progress. It’s something we’re at all the time.”Blinken also said Israel had no intention of governing Gaza long term after the war.“Israel cannot go back to the status quo,” he told NBC. “At the same time, what I’ve heard from the Israelis is absolutely no intent – no desire to be running Gaza themselves. They moved out of Gaza unilaterally, unconditionally a couple of decades ago. But they can’t be in a position where they’re constantly under threat of the most horrific terrorist attacks coming from Gaza. So, something needs to be found that ensures that Hamas cannot do this again, but that also does not revert to Israeli governance of Gaza, which they do not want and do not intend to do.”While McConnell backed Biden’s aid plan, he did not offer support for Jack Lew, whose nomination to be ambassador to Israel has been held up by Republicans. McConnell said: “He is a very controversial nominee because of his relationship with the Iran nuclear deal, which was opposed by everybody in my party.”The 81-year-old senator also dismissed a question from CBS’s Margaret Brennan about whether there was more that should be disclosed about his health after multiple cases in which he froze up while speaking in public. “I’m in good shape, completely recovered and back on the job,” he said. He also said he was “concerned” about increasing threats of violence members of Congress have received.Additionally, McConnell said the US House needed to fill its vacant speakership before 17 November, when funding for the government is set to expire. “We need one because the House can’t do anything without a speaker,” he said. “And it’s a – it’s a problem, but I hope it’s gonna get solved pretty quickly.”Both Blinken and the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, on Sunday said the US expected the Israel-Hamas war to escalate through involvement by proxies of Iran. They asserted that the Biden administration was prepared to respond if American personnel or armed forces become the target of any such hostilities.“This is not what we want, not what we’re looking for. We don’t want escalation,” Blinken said. “We don’t want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire. But if that happens, we’re ready for it.”The Associated Press contributed reporting More

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      Jim Jordan says he’s ‘going back to work’ after losing secret ballot for House speaker candidacy – US politics live

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      Jim Jordan lost a secret ballot held by House Republicans which removes him as speaker designate, said the Republican Florida representative Kat Cammack.Steve Scalise of Louisiana said that Republicans will start over on Monday.Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman reports that the vote margin was large, according to sources familiar with the vote.The Supreme Court on Friday kept a Missouri law on hold that bars police from enforcing federal gun laws, rejecting an emergency appeal from the state.The Associated Press reports:The 2019 law was ruled unconstitutional by a district judge but allowed to remain in effect. A federal appeals court then blocked enforcement while the state appeals the district court ruling.Missouri had wanted the law to be in effect while the court fight plays out.Justice Clarence Thomas was the only member of the court to side with Missouri on Friday.The law would impose a fine of $50,000 on an officer who knowingly enforces federal gun laws that don’t match up with state restrictions.Federal laws without similar Missouri laws include registration and tracking requirements and possession of firearms by some domestic violence offenders.The court expanded gun rights in a 2022 decision authored by Thomas. It is hearing arguments next month in the first case stemming from last year’s ruling. An appeals court invalidated a federal law that aims to keep guns away from people facing domestic violence restraining orders.Long-shot Republican presidential candidate Perry Johnson has announced his decision to suspend his presidential campaign.On Friday, the Michigan businessman released a statement, saying, “With no oppurtunity to share my vision on the debate stage, I have decided at this time, suspending my campaign is the right thing to do.”Johnson criticized the Republican National Committee and its “corrupt leaders” with “authoritarian powers.”“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the people should decide the next president of the United States, not the head of the RNC and her cronies,” he added.Johnson said that he is only suspending his campaign, rather than withdrawing entirely and plans to keep a small political team on staff “in the event the dynamics of the race change.”Tennessee’s Republican representative Mark Green is not runnning for speaker, Green’s office told Punchbowl News.With Jim Jordan out of the speaker race, here is an explainer by the Guardian’s Sam Levine on why he lost and what happens next:Why did Republicans oppose Jordan?Several of the members who are opposed to Jordan are members of the House appropriations committee, who are reportedly opposed to the way Jordan has embraced a hard line on spending cuts and shutting down the government.There is also reportedly bad blood over the way Jordan and his allies treated Steve Scalise. Scalise previously beat Jordan to win the conference’s nomination to be speaker, but withdrew his bid after it became clear he couldn’t get enough votes to win in the House. Some Scalise allies think Jordan didn’t do enough to rally Republicans around Scalise.What happens next?No one knows. Even as it was clear that Jordan had no clear path to becoming the speaker, no Republican emerged to seriously challenge him. Republicans currently have a Sunday noon deadline to announce their candidacy ahead of another round of speakership talks.For the full explainer, click here:Mike Pence has called on House Republicans to “decide what team you want to be on” as Republicans revert back to square one following their inability to decide on a speaker.Speaking on SiriusXM, the presidential candidate said:
      “Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined eight Republicans partnering with every Democrat in Congress to throw out a Republican speaker of the House. All roads lead back to the eight members of what I call the chaos caucus who set all this into motion.”
      “With everything that’s happening in the world … the American people are looking to Republicans in the Congress to stop fighting with each other and start fighting for them.”
      House Republicans have set Sunday 12pm as the deadline to file as a speaker candidate.A candidate forum for the speaker will be held on Monday at 6.30pm and a secret ballot leadership election will be held on Tuesday at 9am.It remains unclear when a floor vote for speaker will be.Texas’s Republican representative Chip Roy said that it was a “mistake for the Republican conference to just walk away from arguably the most popular Republican in the Republican party.”Speaking to CNN’s Manu Raju, Roy said, “We shouldn’t have done that,” adding, “I think having the American people be able to see how we are wrestling with the tough decisions and what we’re trying to do, and doing it with intensity and doing it because we care about this country.”Former speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is throwing his weight behind GOP whip Tom Emmer’s bid to replace him, Punchbowl News reports:It’s a boost for Emmer, but not necessarily a decisive one. McCarthy also supported Jim Jordan, and look how that turned out. Meanwhile, Punchbowl reports that Emmer is among a fairly sizable group of Republicans running for the House speaker post, or considering it:They’ll be having a busy weekend.The judge overseeing Donald Trump and his family members’ civil fraud trial in New York City fined the former president $5,000 for a post he determined violated a gag order, but did not order him to jail – yet.Here’s more on that, from the Associated Press:
      Judge Arthur Engoron avoided holding Trump in contempt, for now, but reserved the right to do so – and possibly even put him in jail – if he continued to violate a gag order barring parties in the case from personal attacks on court staff.
      Engoron said in a written ruling that he is “way beyond the ‘warning’ stage” but decided on a nominal fine because Trump’s lawyers said the website’s retention of the post was inadvertent and was a “first-time violation”.
      Earlier, an incensed Engoron said the failure to delete the post from the website was a “blatant violation” of his 3 October order, which required Trump to delete the offending message.
      Trump lawyer Christopher Kise blamed the “very large machine” of Trump’s presidential campaign for allowing his deleted social media post to remain on his website, calling it an unintentional oversight.
      Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, wasn’t in court Friday. He’d returned to the trial Tuesday and Wednesday after attending the first three days in early October, but skipped the rest of the week.
      Speaking of people who are running for office, Donald Trump has made it clear he won’t be at the third Republican primary debate in Miami on 8 November.But he will be in the city in his role as spoiler, hosting an open-air rally at the same time that his rivals for the party’s presidential nomination are taking the stage.Trump’s campaign announced Friday that the former president would be appearing at Ted Hendricks stadium in Hialeah, 10 miles from the Adrienne Arsht performing arts center in Miami where the Republican National Committee debate will take place.The former president is the runaway leader for the nomination, despite his worsening legal problems. He skipped the first debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in August, and last month’s second event in Simi Valley, California, although he still emerged as the most-talked-about candidate despite his absence.Trump has called for the RNC to cancel the Miami debate, arguing that he’s so far ahead of his challengers as to make it meaningless, and that a failure to do so would be an admission that “national Republicans are more concerned about helping Joe Biden”.Tom Emmer, a Minnesota congressman who is the third-highest-ranking Republican in the House, will run for speaker, Punchbowl News reports:Before Kevin McCarthy’s removal from the speaker’s post, the Washington Post reported that conservative hardliners were in favor of nominating him for the chamber’s top job.Jim Jordan started out the day by hinting that the House would have to stick around through the weekend to vote on his candidacy for speaker.Hours later, the GOP stripped him of the party’s nomination in a closed-door meeting. No more weekend votes for them.As CNN reports, the next phase of the speaker’s race will play out starting Monday with a candidates’ forum, but you can bet that Kevin Hern and other Republicans who throw their hat into the ring will spend this weekend campaigning within the party:Republican majority leader Steve Scalise, who was briefly the party’s nominee for speaker before withdrawing when he concluded he would not win majority support, will not run for the post again, Punchbowl News reports:Oklahoma’s Republican representative Kevin Hern has announced he will run for House speaker.Hern, the chair of the Republican study committee (the House’s largest caucus among Republicans), said:
      I just voted for my good friend Jim Jordan to stay as our speaker designate, but the conference has determined that he will no longer hold that title. We just had two speaker designates go down. We must unify and do it fast.
      I’ve spoken to every member of the conference over the last few weeks. We need a different type of leader who has a proven track record of success, which is why I’m running for speaker of the House.
      Following the secret GOP ballot, Jim Jordan said on live TV, “I’m going to go back to work.”In reference to who the next speaker would be, Jordan said, “Let’s work out who that individual is,” and added, “It’s time to unite.”White House spokesperson Andrew Bates has commented on the latest House speaker vote, urging House Republicans to “end their chaotic infighting and their competitions to out-extreme one another.” “While Joe Biden fights to advance bipartisan legislation that will protect our national security interests – including in Israel and Ukraine – provide humanitarian assistance for innocent civilians in Gaza, deliver critical border funding, compete with China, and grow our economy, House Republicans are somehow still fighting with each other,” said Bates.He went on to call upon House Republicans to “join President Biden in working on urgent priorities for American families shared by both parties in Congress.”The former House speaker Kevin McCarthy said that Republicans will now “have to go back to the drawing board”.“I’m concerned where we go from here,” added McCarthy. More

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      Jim Jordan forced out of House speaker race after losing secret ballot

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      Jim Jordan of Ohio was forced out of the House speakership race on Friday after his Republican colleagues voted against his continued bid for the seat in a secret ballot after his third failed attempt to corral enough support to win the gavel.Jordan’s lost bid followed a contentious week on Capitol Hill, during which he and his allies attempted to cajole more moderate Republicans into backing Jordan.After his loss, Jordan told reporters he was “going to go back to work” and that it was “time to unite”.It is not clear who Republicans could elevate as a next nominee. There’s a deadline of Sunday at noon for candidates to announce interest in the speakership. The conference is expected to return on Monday evening to hear from candidates for the speakership, with voting set for Tuesday. By that time, the House will have been without a speaker for three weeks, hamstrung on conducting the work they were elected to do.Some moderates want to see a consensus candidate, while the far-right flank that ousted former speaker Kevin McCarthy previously said they would be “prepared to accept censure, suspension or removal from the conference” to get Jordan the speakership.A handful of Republican House members have either said they’ll seek the speakership or are considering the idea. Most prominent among them is Minnesota’s Tom Emmer, currently the majority whip, the No 3 Republican in the chamber, who has McCarthy’s backing. Others in the mix include Oklahoma’s Kevin Hern, Georgia’s Austin Scott, Florida’s Byron Donalds, Louisiana’s Mike Johnson and Michigan’s Jack Bergman.In the first floor vote of the speakership election, on Tuesday, 20 House Republicans opposed Jordan, leaving him far short of the 217 votes needed to capture the top job. Because of Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House, Jordan could only afford four defections within his conference and still ascend to the speakership.Even as Jordan tried to assuage moderates’ concerns, a second floor vote held on Wednesday revealed that opposition had only grown, as 22 Republicans opposed Jordan’s candidacy. By the third vote, on Friday, Jordan lost more support, with 25 House Republicans voting against him.As long as the House remains without a speaker, the chamber cannot advance any legislation, leaving members unable to pass critical bills like a stopgap government funding measure or an aid package for Israel and Ukraine. Government funding is set to run out in less than a month, raising the threat of a federal shutdown next month.Jordan’s announcement came two weeks after the historic ouster of McCarthy, after eight House Republicans joined Democrats in supporting a motion to vacate the chair. Following McCarthy’s removal, the House majority leader, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, initially won his conference’s nomination for speaker, but he dropped out of the race last week due to entrenched opposition among hard-right lawmakers.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAs of Friday, it remained unclear how Republicans could end the standoff and resume the business of the House. One idea floated by centrist Democrats and embraced by some of Jordan’s critics involved expanding the powers of the acting speaker, the Republican Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, but the plan fizzled. Such a solution would raise serious constitutional questions, as the powers of an acting speaker are murky.With Republicans embroiled in conflict, the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, has repeatedly called for the creation of a bipartisan governing coalition between Democrats and more moderate Republicans. Even Jordan’s staunchest opponents have rejected the idea of teaming up with Democrats, although that could change if the House remains at a standstill.On Friday, Jeffries, who has received the most votes in the speakership votes but would not be able to get enough support to take the spot since Democrats are in the minority, called on his Republican colleagues to get to work. “Embrace bipartisanship and abandon extremism,” Jeffries said. More

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      Jim Jordan loses third House speaker vote as Republican holdouts reach 25

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      The far-right congressman Jim Jordan lost a third consecutive bid for speaker on Friday, failing to overcome entrenched opposition from a widening group of Republican holdouts, some of whom say they have received death threats for blocking his ascent to the gavel.With the House leaderless for an 18th day, Jordan, a founder of the ultra-conservative House Freedom caucus and hard-charging ally of Donald Trump who led the congressional effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, won 194 votes, well shy of the majority needed to be elected speaker.In a troubling sign for Jordan, 25 Republicans voted against his nomination, three more than in the second vote and five more than in his first failed effort. All Democrats rallied behind their party’s leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who received 210 votes.Earlier on Friday, Jordan indicated that he was prepared to plough through several more rounds of balloting, noting that it took the former Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, 15 rounds to claim the gavel. Following the third vote on Friday, Republicans were planning to retreat once again behind closed doors to chart their next steps.Nominating Jordan for the job, McCarthy nodded to the chaos engulfing House Republicans. “Being speaker is not an easy job, especially in this conference,” he said, drawing some laughs in the chamber. But he urged the group he once led to set aside their objections and grievances and vote for Jordan: “I know he is ready for the job.”Congresswoman Kathleen Clark, the No 2 House Democrat, then nominated Jeffries to the speakership, warning that Jordan was a “true threat to our democracy and our constitution”.“It is not too late for the majority to choose a bipartisan path forward to reopen the House,” she said.The speaker’s chair has been empty since a cadre of hardline Republicans ousted McCarthy at the start of the month, a first in American history. Without a speaker, the immobilized chamber has been unable to conduct legislative business as wars rage in Europe and the Middle East and a government shutdown looms unless Congress passes a federal funding bill before mid-November.The White House on Friday sent a sprawling package to Congress, requesting more than $105bn in funding to, among other things, aid Ukraine and Israel and address rising numbers of migrants entering the country without authorization at the US-Mexico border.At a brief press conference on Friday morning, Jordan attempted to rally his conference behind him with remarks that placed his quest to win the speakership alongside American achievements like taking flight and landing on the moon.“The fastest way to get to work for the American people is to elect a speaker so the House can be open and we can get things done,” Jordan said on Friday morning.After three failed votes in which Jordan saw his opposition widen, additional rounds of balloting were not expected to break the impasse. A number of the holdouts have expressed their outrage at the hardball tactics employed by Jordan’s allies to win over their votes, which has devolved into harassing calls and even death threats against lawmakers and their families.“One thing I cannot stomach or support is a bully,” said a statement from the congresswomanMariannette Miller-Meeks, an Iowa Republican, who switched her vote against Jordan on a second ballot after receiving “credible death threats”.With no end in sight to the present situation on Capitol Hill, a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed a plan to expand the authority of the interim speaker, a position currently held by Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. Jordan briefly backed the proposal as a way to allow Congress to return to its work while he continued to campaign for the post that is second in line to the presidency.But a group of hard-right conservatives revolted, calling the plan “asinine” and arguing that it would in effect cede control of the floor to Democrats. Jordan dropped the idea and vowed to fight on.Republican infighting reached a boiling point this week as lawmakers vented their frustration and traded accusations of who was to blame for plunging the party – and the chamber – into chaos.The bitter feud over Jordan’s speakership bid has pitted an assorted coalition of political moderates and institutional pragmatists against the pugnacious chair of the judiciary committee. The Ohio Republican has relied on an endorsement from Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, and support from the party’s conservative grassroots to pressure them to fall in line behind him.Concerns about a Jordan speakership vary. Some fear his combative brand of politics will make it harder for Republicans to defend their House majority in the 2024 elections, while others believed the challenges facing the country and the world were too great to hand the gavel to a lawmaker one former Republican speaker branded a “legislative terrorist”.Jordan’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost to Joe Biden has also cost him the vote of at least one Republican lawmaker, Ken Buck, a conservative from Colorado.Asked on Friday whether he believes the 2020 election was stolen, Jordan replied: “I think there were all kinds of problems with the 2020 election.”In the narrowly divided House, Jordan would need the support of nearly every Republican in the conference to claim the gavel. In a second ballot on Wednesday, Jordan also lost ground, with 22 Republicans voting against him, two more than on the first ballot.Late on Thursday, Jordan met with his detractors. At the press conference, he characterized the conversation as “good” but it was clear he remained far off from winning the 217 votes needed to become speaker.Following a meeting with Jordan, the congressman Mike Lawler, a New York Republican opposed to Jordan, called for the conference to reinstate McCarthy or empower McHenry.“We must prove to the American people that we can govern effectively and responsibly or, in 15 months, we’ll be debating who the minority leader is and preparing for Joe Biden’s second inaugural,” he said. More

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      Jim Jordan says he will seek third vote and not planning to drop out of House speaker race – live

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      Jim Jordan said that he plans to seek a third vote and has no plans of pulling out the House speaker race.Speaking to reporters after tense closed-door meetings with other Republicans, Jordan said:
      “I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the vote and win this race.”
      He added that he plans to speak with the 20 Republicans who voted against him to secure their support.In attempts to buy time for a third round of votes for his own speakership, Jordan has thrown his support behind expanding House speaker pro tempore’s powers. The current interim House speaker is North Carolina’s Patrick McHenry.Jordan’s decision to support McHenry’s interim speaker position has spurred mixed reactions, with Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene calling it “the wrong thing to do.”Republican Matt Gaetz echoed similar sentiments, saying, “We need to stay here until we elect a speaker.”Meanwhile, Democrat Jared Moskowitz hailed the decision, saying, “If there is a bipartisan deal to empower the pro-Temp, which I’m a favor of, I want to see the details of course first.”The House of Representatives remains in limbo and without a speaker, despite far-right Ohio representative Jim Jordan trying his best to rally holdout colleagues.With the House in its weeks-long gridlock, there are increasing calls from Democrats and Republicans expand the powers of the chamber’s acting speaker, North Carolina’s Patrick McHenry, so that the chamber can carry on with business.The chaos in the House of Representatives comes at precarious moment on the world stage amid the ongoing conflicts between Israel and Hamas, as well as Ukraine and Russia.
      Former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell is taking a plea agreement in Georgia’s Fulton county and will plead guilty in the Georgia election subversion case.
      The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said that the justice department was monitoring an increase in reported threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities.
      Joe Biden is set to deliver a primetime address tonight at 8pm ET in which he will discuss the US response to the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.
      Jim Jordan’s bid for speaker appears to still be an uphill climb.Per reporters at Capitol Hill, he did not take any questions from the press after meeting with holdout Republicans.Mike Lawler, the New York Republican who voted against Jordan previously, issued a statement endorsing Patrick McHenry as an interim speaker. “In the absence of an immediate resolution, we must empower Speaker Pro-Tempore Patrick McHenry to serve as Speaker temporarily to allow us to get back to work,” he said.Meanwhile, some Senate news: Laphonza Butler, who was appointed just over two weeks ago to fill the seat left vacant by California senator Dianne Feinstein’s death, said she would not run for a full term.The New York Times reports that Butler said that the Senate was “not the greatest use of my voice”.Her appointment to serve the remainder of Feinstein’s term by California governor Gavin Newsom drew criticism, especially from supporters of congresswoman Barbara Lee, a Black Bay Area representative who had already been campaigning for the upcoming Senate term before Lee died last month.Newsom had promised that given the opportunity, he would appoint a Black woman to the seat. But he also implied he would not be appointing anyone who was already running for the senate, and said that he would instead choose an “interim” candidate. When announcing Butler’s appointment, his office made clear that she was free to run for a full term if she chose to.Still, his choice drew the ire of many Lee supporters, including the Congressional Black Caucus. “Barbara Lee, and Black women, are not mere caretakers, but the voting and organizing center of the national Democratic party,” Aimee Allison, whose organization She the People promotes women of color in politics, said at the time.Butler became the only Black woman in the senate and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber.In a statement, Butler said: “California voters want leaders who think about them and the issues they care most about. I now have 383 days to serve the people of California with every ounce of energy and effort that I have.”Butler had never held elected office. Prior to joining the senate, she led Emily’s List, a national political organization dedicated to electing Democratic women who support reproductive rights. She also served as a strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign and was a former labor leader of SEIU California, the state’s largest union, representing more than 700,000 workers.Meanwhile, Democrats are continuing to push the message that Republicans’ inability to work together to elect a speaker is a sign of the party’s incompetence ahead of a big election year.DNC spokesperson Sarafina Chitika wrote:
      Today, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution affirming their support for Israel, President Biden returned from Israel and is preparing to address the nation, and House Democrats stand ready to get back to work. All of the adults are in the room working, except for House Republicans who are – literally – cursing at one another and fighting among themselves. It’s time for the House GOP to grow up, pull themselves together, and join Democrats in working for the American people.
      In an interview with CNN, hard-right congressman Matt Gaetz, who started the push to oust former speaker Kevin McCarthy, said “This is how its supposed to be, and it’s not clearn and its not orderly… I don’t seem to mind it too much.”CNN’s Manu Raju asked Gaetz what he got out of removing McCarthy, he said, “We’re shaking up Washington, DC.”White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates has urged Republicans to “get their act together” amid their “self-inflected, extreme chaos.”In a memo released on Thursday, Bates said:
      “The House GOP’s backbiting and competition to out-extreme each other is also surfacing hardline positions that the American people have solidly rejected again and again. Including dangerous conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, radical abortion bans, and cuts to Medicare and Social Security…
      As president Biden acts to make America more secure, grow our economy for the middle class, and protect our freedoms, House Republicans are falling over one another to find out who can be the most erratic and out of step with the priorites of working families.
      They need to get their act together and join this president at the adults table.”
      In a new interview with CNN, Democrat representative Nancy Pelosi said that “you have to make him speaker,” referring to interm House speaker Patrick McHenry.Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash, Pelosi said:
      “From a standpoint of the speakership, you really cannot give Mr. McHenry power. Someone suggested, well, just let him do this and let him do that. No, you have to make him speaker, and then he has the awesome power of the speakership.
      Question is, for how long, the longevity of it? My hearing is that it will be to the end of this session, so until the end of the year. Secondly, what is the legislative scope of it? What does it contain? And third is the structure. Do they do anything about the motion to vacate or what we do about motions, other motions on the floor?
      So it’s substance. It’s timing. It’s structure. It’ll be up to Hakeem, and we all have confidence in him,” she added.
      Jim Jordan said that he plans to seek a third vote and has no plans of pulling out the House speaker race.Speaking to reporters after tense closed-door meetings with other Republicans, Jordan said:
      “I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the vote and win this race.”
      He added that he plans to speak with the 20 Republicans who voted against him to secure their support.In attempts to buy time for a third round of votes for his own speakership, Jordan has thrown his support behind expanding House speaker pro tempore’s powers. The current interim House speaker is North Carolina’s Patrick McHenry.Jordan’s decision to support McHenry’s interim speaker position has spurred mixed reactions, with Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene calling it “the wrong thing to do.”Republican Matt Gaetz echoed similar sentiments, saying, “We need to stay here until we elect a speaker.”Meanwhile, Democrat Jared Moskowitz hailed the decision, saying, “If there is a bipartisan deal to empower the pro-Temp, which I’m a favor of, I want to see the details of course first.”Here is video of Jim Jordan telling reporters that he made a “pitch” in attempts to “lower the temperature” by throwing his support behind the House speaker pro temporare.
      “We decided that wasn’t where we’re going to go. I’m still running for Speaker, and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race. But I want to a few of my colleauges. Particularly I want to talk with the 20 individuals who voted against me,” said Jordan.
      Additionally, Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman reports that Jordan said that he expects another speaker vote and added that he wants to meet with the 20 Republicans who voted against him.It remains unclear when the next round of votes would be.Sherman also reports that House majority whip Tom Emmer as well as House majority leader Steve Scalise are curently opposed on the idea to elect a temporary speaker.Commenting on the Patrick McHenry House resolution that is set to expand the chamber’s speaker pro tempore’s powers, Jim Jordan is reported to have said:
      We made the pitch to members on the resolution as a way to lower the temperature and get back to work. We decided that wasn’t where we’re gonna go. I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go the floor and get the votes and win this race.”
      Steve Scalise, the majority leader of the House of Representatives, is reported to be opposed to the resolution to empower a temporary speaker.“I’d rather us focus on getting a speaker elected,” Scalise is reported to have said, according to Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman.The closed-door GOP meeting is reported to be fairly tense.According to CNN’s Melanie Zanona, sources said that Florida representative Matt Gaetz was told to sit down by former House speaker Kevin McCarthy and refused.“Then Rep. [Michael] Bost ‘got all emotional’ and ‘was cussing at him’ and ‘telling him it’s all his fault,’ one member said,” Zanona added.She also reported that other Republicans are reportedly furious over Jim Jordan supporting the resolution to expand House speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry’s powers, with some claiming that it is a self-serving move.Dan Newhouse, a Republican representative from Washington, said “We need a reset” upon being asked by CNN’s Manu Raju whether Jim Jordan should stay as House speaker nominee.Raju also reports that in a closed-door meeting, a handful of Republicans urged Jordan to drop his speakership bid but he is not yielding, according to several sources. More