She had to sign it to make the debate stage. Good Party leaders show allegiance to and support the Party above all else.
Republican infighting
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Republican Banned from State House Floor After "Aunt Jemima" Incident against fellow GOP Rep
South Dakota State Senator Tom Pischke (R) was banned from the House of Representatives floor and lobby after placing a bottle of syrup on Rep. Kristin Conzet‘s (R) desk. (Video below.)
Pischke co-sponsored a legislative commemoration recognizing Nancy Green, whose image long ornamented Aunt Jemima brand syrup, as “the spokesperson” for the syrup and pancake mix brand. Pischke’s legislation says Greene’s “true American success story” has been “erased by politics.”
[Note: In 2020, Quaker Oats, the owner of the Aunt Jemima brand, said it would retire the name and image "to make progress toward racial equality." The company acknowledged that Aunt Jemima's origins were "based on a racial stereotype."]
Rep. Conzet objected to the Pischke’s commemoration effort and saw the resolution as intentionally provocative.
Argus Leader reports that Pischke received a letter from Speaker of the House Hugh Bartels (R), which called Pischke’s action “a violation of decorum,” prompting the ban.
Pischke said the House ban is an "overreaction," and "I was simply giving a gift to my good friend.”
Donald Trump Jr. Slams Republican Senate Candidate as 'Pro-BLM Liberal'
Donald Trump Jr. has denounced a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio as a "pro-BLM [Black Lives Matter] liberal."
Ohio State Senator Matt Dolan is one of three major Republican candidates vying for the GOP nomination to challenge incumbent Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown in November. The primary election is set for March 19.
Trump Jr., eldest son of presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, accused Dolan of being a "liberal" on Wednesday while sharing an article from right-wing news website Breitbart to X, formerly Twitter.
The Breitbart article rehashed a June 2020 Dolan statement urging his constituents to "rise above partisanship" after mentioning that he had attended a bipartisan hearing "on the issue of racism as a public health crisis" in the wake of BLM protests following the murder of George Floyd.
"WTF!!!" Trump Jr. wrote on Wednesday while sharing the Breitbart article. "If you agree with Democrats that racism is a "public health crisis" then you shouldn't be running in a GOP Primary for Senate. Dolan is a pro-BLM liberal!"
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Dolan campaign via email on Wednesday night.
Dolan's original statement, shared on Twitter, condemned comments from his fellow Republican Ohio state Senator Steve Huffman, who had asked during the hearing if "African Americans have a higher incidence" of COVID-19 because they "do not wash their hands as well as other groups."
Kinzinger blasts Trump for calling US third-world country: ‘Eat dirt scumbag’
Former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) took to social media to tell former President Trump to “eat dirt” after Trump called the United States a third-world country in his Super Tuesday victory speech.
“Trump just called America a ‘third world’ country.’ With all due respect (which is none), eat dirt scumbag,” Kinzinger posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “This is the best country on earth. You, are our biggest embarrassment and stain. But you’ll be over in a year.”
In a roughly 20-minute speech from his Mar-a-Lago estate after winning more than 10 primary contests, Trump highlighted a key talking point — border security and immigration — and likened the U.S. to a third-world country.
He argued that the United States is “in some ways … a third-world country,” referencing border security. He later added that “our country is dying,” Forbes reported.
Kinzinger, an outspoken critic of Trump, served on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack before leaving office. He has warned of the danger Trump will pose if reelected and asserted that the former president does not care about the U.S. Constitution.
In a Wednesday appearance on CNN, Kinzinger acknowledged that Trump’s victory Tuesday is an “impressive political victory.” Still, he said he hates “to normalize” Trump’s wins, especially now that he is the only candidate lined up to take the GOP’s nomination.
“After an insurrection, it’s tough for me to just talk about this horse race as normal, but regardless, it was an impressive victory,” he said, pointing to Trump’s landslide wins in states including Texas.
The former congressman said Trump’s speech “was okay,” though he noted there is a “low bar for him” and took issue with the former president calling America a third-world country. He questioned “in what world” Trump provides the “inspirational leadership” needed in the country.
Kinzinger said he is glad that the GOP primary is now largely over, since former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley announced she would be suspending her campaign, and “now we can kind of go forward” and prepare for the general election.
In the past, Kinzinger said there is “no question” that he would support President Biden in the 2024 election over Trump.
Texas Republican Rips His Party’s Leadership For More Spending at a ‘Greater Level’ Than Nancy Pelosi Did
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) joined Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto on Wednesday to discuss a variety of issues, including the GOP-led House passing a bill to keep the government funded temporarily. Roy had just voted against the bill before joining Cavuto live on air and slammed his own party for continuing to spend at a “greater level” than former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) did.
After a discussion about whether or not Donald Trump and President Joe Biden should debate, Cavuto asked, “While I have you, Congressman, this US House bill that will apparently fund parts of the government and avoid a shutdown.”
“It’s apparently getting more and more support. I don’t know if it’s bipartisan support, but it’s support. What do you think of that? Where are you on this whole avoid a protracted shutdown? Because what we’ve got now keeps us going for another week or two,” continued the Fox host.
“Sure. Yeah, well, I just voted no, and then I ran out here to come do the interview with you. I hope I’m not missing another vote here, but, but, look, we, I don’t know. I mean, look, this bill will spend money that we don’t have, it busts the caps that were passed on a bipartisan basis last year,” Roy replied, adding:
Roy made similar comments on the House floor and slammed his party’s leadership for breaking the spending caps and “then we had the audacity to try to claim to the American people, publicly, that we cut spending. This is what the American people are sick of.”
Group submits signatures to recall top Wisconsin Republican targeted by Trump
A group that's aiming to recall Robin Vos, the speaker of Wisconsin’s state Assembly and a top target of former President Donald Trump, said it has submitted the amount of signatures needed to move forward with an effort to oust the Republican leader from office.
Recall Vos said it had gathered more than the nearly 7,000 required signatures from voters in Vos' district. The filing deadline for the recall effort is Monday.
"I carry with me the voice of more than 10,000 Racine County residents," the group's recall petitioner, Matt Snorek, said at a news conference outside of the Wisconsin Election Commission shortly before delivering the signatures. "Together we are challenging the status quo, driven by the numerous ways in which Speaker Robin Vos has failed us."
Riley Vetterkind, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Elections Commission, confirmed that the group had submitted signatures, but said that they had not yet been reviewed.
Members of the bipartisan commission are scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the recall petition. The six-member panel will decide whether the petition is sufficient to call for a recall election. The officeholder targeted by a recall effort can also challenge the petition within 10 days of its submission.
Vos did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday night.
Snorek characterized the petition as being driven in part by comments he said Vos made about Trump's candidacy this year.
“I don’t think Robin Vos should be going and working against a conservative candidate, when they’re the leading candidate, because in my opinion that runs us the risk of getting Joe Biden elected here in 2024,” Snorek said.
Snorek also pointed to Vos not advancing an effort to impeach the state’s chief election official Meagan Wolfe, who has been criticized by Wisconsin Republicans over how she conducted the 2020 election. Wolfe has also been outspoken in condemning election fraud falsehoods promoted by Trump and his allies in Wisconsin.
Vos, the longest-serving speaker in Wisconsin history, has been a target of Trump and his supporters after the former president lost the battleground state in the 2020 general election by about 20,000 votes. He refused Trump's urging to dismiss the 2020 results during what he said was a call from the former president in July 2022 demanding that he retroactively apply a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that restricted the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in future elections.
Vos had previously launched a probe into the election results under pressure from Trump, which found no evidence of widespread fraud.
Trump also campaigned against Vos' re-election bid in 2022, endorsing challenger Adam Steen. Vos ultimately prevailed in that primary by 3 percentage points — the slimmest margin in his political career. He was re-elected as speaker in 2022.
More Than 100 Reps Plan to Skip House GOP Retreat Amid Infighting
More Than 100 Reps Plan to Skip House GOP Retreat Amid Infighting: Report
Also cited as reason to skip the retreat was the location selected by House Speaker Mike Johnson: West Virginia.
www.thedailybeast.com
Stillwater Townie
Deputy
Trump’s GOP is already dying
Trump’s GOP is already dying
The MAGA movement, once so skilled at enforcing loyalty, is cracking. What’s left of the Republican Party is cracking with it. The sooner it shatters, the better.
thehill.com
U.S. Rep. Randy Weber kicked out of House Freedom Caucus
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, R-Friendswood, was kicked out of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus last week.During a one-on-one chat that Caucus Chair Bob Good requested with Weber to address his sparse attendance to weekly meetings members are expected to attend, first reported by Politico, Weber said Good asked him if he had lost interest in the caucus. The Texas Republican said it wasn’t so much a lack of interest as a dislike for the “burn the house down” procedural tactics the rightmost flank has come to be known for. In response, Weber said Good told him he’d need to reapply for admission back into the caucus.
“It was a shock because I've disagreed with some of the Freedom Caucus chairs … but I've never had them tell me you need to get out of the Freedom Caucus,” Weber told The Texas Tribune.
Good did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon. The House Freedom Caucus declined to comment on membership and internal processes.
Weber said he still hasn’t decided whether he’ll reapply to the caucus.
“I’m going to wait, give it some time and see,” he said.
Weber was a Freedom Caucus member for nearly a decade. He said he has seen the group shift from being party rabble-rousers to playing a major hand in holding up budget fights and forcing an unprecedented Speaker election last year. The rightmost flank holds more weight now given House Republicans' razor-thin majority, dangling the threat of a motion to vacate or a government shutdown if leadership doesn’t concede to their hardline demands.
Weber said Good had been checking in with caucus members who had missed previous weekly meetings, but Weber is the only known member to have been removed altogether.
Weber said he had “no interaction with Bob Good” beyond the Freedom Caucus’ weekly meetings until he was called into his office last Tuesday.
Weber said he believes Good “had an agenda” and removed him from the caucus unilaterally. He said the clash over that strategy with Good and perhaps some bad blood left from the presidential Republican primary — Weber is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump and Good initially supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — led the caucus chair to single him out.
The last email invite Weber received for a caucus meeting was Dec. 4 — about a week before Good was tapped to succeed Rep. Scott Perry as caucus chair.
Weber added he’s had conversations with Board of the Caucus members who said they were surprised by Good’s move.
“I know that there's bylaws about missing so many meetings, but there's a lot of people who've missed a lot of meetings and why it would be me singled out I don't know,” Weber said.
Weber said he missed the meetings to have dinner with his wife, who has started frequenting Washington, D.C., more. But he added his lack of attendance was also spurred by his disillusionment with the caucus’ tactics, like the motion to vacate that ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy with just one vote — a move Weber did not support because he said there was no strategy beyond “throwing a monkey wrench into the gears.”
Several Texas Republicans hold membership in the caucus, including Reps. Chip Roy of Austin, Keith Self of McKinney, Troy Nehls of Richmond and Michael Cloud of Victoria. Roy serves as the Freedom Caucus’ policy chair and declined to comment on Weber’s removal. A 2014 article in The Hill about Weber quoted him saying he didn’t see himself staying in Congress for more than a decade, but the recent dysfunction among Republicans has incentivized him to stay longer.
“If anything, it redoubles my resolve to stay here and try to make this place work because it is broken beyond belief,” he said.
The only other House Republican known to be kicked out of the caucus was Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. She was booted over comments she made about Freedom Caucus colleagues.
GOP senator shuns endorsement of GOP candidate who demanded Obama's public execution:
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) is apparently drawing a line at being asked to endorse Republican North Carolina superintendent nominee Michele Morrow.A spokesperson for Tillis offered a statement to WNCN reporter Michael Hyland in which he spoke in unsparing terms about the person whom North Carolina Republicans want to see run their state's school system.
"Highly unlikely he'd support her," the spokesperson said. "Spewing terrorist propaganda and calling for public executions of elected officials you disagree with are things we usually hear from radical fundamentalists in places like Iran, Afghanistan, and Russia, not candidates running for office in North Carolina."
Tillis' statement came just hours after CNN revealed that Morrow had called in 2020 for the public execution of former President Barack Obama.
“I prefer a Pay Per View of him in front of the firing squad," Morrow said of the possibility of killing America's first Black president. "I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.”
Morrow also reacted with violent rhetoric to President Joe Biden when he asked Americans to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic that killed over 1 million U.S. citizens.
"Never," she told Biden. "We need to follow the Constitution’s advice and KILL all TRAITORS!!!"
Morrow doesn't just limit her death wishes to elected officials, as she has also wished death upon Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who has been a strong advocate for vaccines.
In response to reports on her past extremist statements, Morrow doubled down and restated her belief that Obama was a "treasonous" president.
"The insanity of the media demonstrates the need to teach K-12 students real history and critical thinking skills," she argued in a Twitter post.
Stillwater Townie
Deputy
“I Don't Identify As MAGA Anymore”- Outrage As Black Conservative Exits GOP Over Racist MAGA Event
According to a report by Newsweek published on Monday, March 18, 2024, Rob Smith, a gay and Black conservative who faced a barrage of racist and homophobic
www.askinweb.com
‘A Mistake Made’: Tuberville Blames GOP Leadership For Not Vetting Misleading Claim In Katie Britt’s Speech
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke to CNN’s Manu Raju about his fellow Republican Alabama Senator, Katie Britt, and the factual error uncovered in her response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
Raju asked Tuberville about Britt “attacking Biden over his border policies by citing something that happened in the Bush administration and in Mexico.”
“Yeah, well, that obviously didn’t go over too well,” Tuberville replied, adding:
Britt cited a story of a migrant woman she had met, who told her about her horrific experience being a victim of sex trafficking. While Britt put the story in the context of President Biden and the current flow of migrants over the southern border, it was later revealed that the woman’s story took place years before and in Mexico, not the U.S.
“I think she should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude,” Karla Jacinto Romero told CNN last Sunday about being included in Britt’s speech. “Someone using my story and distorting it for political purposes is not fair at all.”
Raju followed up, “Tuberville, a former football coach, shared his thoughts on Britt’s tone. What do you think about her delivery?”
“I thought it was good, you know. You know, she. She really expressed heart, and she’s that type. You know, she gets emotional. It’s not like that wasn’t something that was just brought up. I mean, it was she’s really emotional about being a mom and her kids,” the senator replied, brushing aside the widespread criticism of Britt’s uneven and overwrought delivery.
“And then delivering it from the kitchen?” Raju pressed.
“I mean, would I’d have done it, would I have done it from a football field? You know, who knows? You know, you just got to make the decision you think it’s the best for you. And she obviously was up there because she was a mom,” Tuberville replied.
Reagan Conservative calls on anti-Trump Republicans to stop playing around and endorse Biden
Mona Charen, a former White House staffer for Ronald Reagan and now a columnist for The Bulwark, called out another veteran of that presidential administration who lamented the choices in this year's election and concluded that a principled conservative must reject Trump in favor of a third-party challenger."The world might look very different if traditional Republicans had been willing to stand firm for their values when they came under assault from an ignorant, cruel demagogue," Charen wrote. "So I was briefly optimistic when I saw that an honest-to-goodness Reaganite, John Lehman, who served as secretary of the Navy under Reagan, had weighed in [with a Wall Street Journal op-ed]. The headline was promising: 'Reagan Would Never Vote for Trump.' But after that bold beginning, the subhead was deflating: 'He also didn’t care much for Biden. Like me, he’d be looking for a strong third-party candidate to support.'"
Charen agrees that Reagan, like most conservatives in the 1980s, were bothered by Biden's opposition to failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and supported a nuclear freeze, but she's baffled that Lehman would not endorse the one candidate who actually has a chance of stopping a candidate he believes to be a genuine threat to constitutional order and democracy itself.
"One might suppose that given all of that and so much more, Lehman would counsel that Trump’s reelection would be a disaster and accordingly, that he would vote for Biden," Charen wrote. "It would be bracing to hear people say, as Dick Cheney has, that 'In our nation’s 236-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.' But no, Lehman makes a feeble accusation in the final paragraph that Biden has 'turned his platform over to Bernie Sanders' and accordingly, Lehman will vote for the No Labels candidate."
"That’s rubbish. Biden has done no such thing," she added. "Lehman, like so many who should know better, is failing to take responsibility for the decision we must all make. He’s treating his vote as a resume item, unwilling to tarnish his conservative bona fides by voting for the internal enemy. His longing for purity is overwhelming his judgment. If Trump is reelected, none of the things he worked for as Navy secretary is safe. The country will be in secure hands with a reelected Biden. But with a reelected Trump, we risk our most cherished freedoms and traditions."
Wisconsin GOP leader calls the Trump supporters trying to oust him 'whack jobs and morons'
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin's top Republican derided supporters of former President Donald Trump who are trying to recall him from office as “whack jobs and morons,” predicting Tuesday that their effort would fail and they would be subject to fraud charges.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is being targeted for recall because he refused to impeach the state’s top elections official or proceed with attempting to decertify President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Wisconsin. His actions angered Trump, who accused Vos of covering up election corruption, while Trump's followers mounted an unsuccessful primary challenge in 2022 and are now trying to force a recall election.
Vos lashed out at recall organizers at a WisPolitics.com luncheon Tuesday, saying organizers are "so out of touch with reality."
“The people who did this? Whack jobs and morons,” he said.
Recall organizers did not return a message seeking comment.
They submitted petitions last week. An initial review by the Wisconsin Elections Commission determined they did not have enough valid signatures from the district Vos was most recently elected to serve in 2022. Also, numerous people have said their signatures were forged, leading to an investigation by the Racine County district attorney.
Recall organizers on Monday said that some “unverified petitions slipped through due to a volunteer oversight,” but they called it an isolated mistake. Vos has until Thursday to challenge signatures.
Vos said he has found “a ton of fraud,” including up to 400 duplicated signatures, missing and misspelled information, and the names of people who didn’t actually sign, including his own. He predicted fewer than half the nearly 11,000 signatures submitted will be found to be valid. Vos said he hoped the elections commission would refer to local prosecutors anyone determined to have committed a crime related to the petition circulation.
It's not clear what legislative district boundary lines should be used for determining what signatures are valid, how many are needed and where any recall election would take place. The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission, to address that uncertainty, last week asked the state Supreme Court to decide which maps should be used for any recall or special election that’s held before November.
The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court in December tossed the legislative maps that were last used in 2022 and barred them from being used in future elections. The new maps signed into law last month by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers don’t take effect until November.
The court, in a 5-2 order on Tuesday, gave all parties in the redistricting case until Thursday to file a response to the request for clarity from the Elections Commission.
Conservative Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, along with Justice Rebecca Bradley, dissented. At best, they said, any action by the court is premature because the question was not properly before the court. They also noted that no recall election has been ordered yet.
The commission has until April 11 to determine whether a recall election should be called. Either side can challenge its decision in court.
“The court should not even pretend to be poised to issue a decision in a nonexistent case presenting a hypothetical question,” Ziegler and Bradley wrote.
The question about district boundaries the justices are being asked to resolve is “a thorny and complicated matter not easily answered, even if we were the law firm for WEC,” they said.
They blamed the confusion over district boundaries on the liberal court majority that overturned the legislative maps and ordered new ones.
NO MTG. you don't control what the entire Govt does. There are 3 branches
Marjorie Taylor Greene Declares, ‘Our Republican Majority Is a Complete Failure’ While Putting Speaker Johnson on Blast
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called the Republican majority in the House “a complete failure” on Thursday in a social media post attacking House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
Reacting to a viral video of migrants storming the southern border and shoving members of the Texas National Guard, Greene declared, “Our Republican majority is a complete failure.”
She continued, “We have the power of the purse, which means we can control what the entire government does. Tomorrow Speaker Johnson is funding the government that has created this invasion. I’m voting NO! SHUT IT DOWN!”
Greene, a loyalist of ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, has repeatedly attacked Johnson since he took over as speaker in October 2023.
In December, Greene lashed out at “terrible” Johnson in an interview, while the following month she threatened to launch a motion to oust him.
Johnson, in turn, told CNN he was not concerned by Greene’s threats, remarking, “I’m not worried about that. I got a job to do here.”
The House is set to vote on Friday on a $1.2 trillion spending bill that will fund a myriad of government departments, including Defense, Health, and Homeland Security.
In a statement, Johnson said the spending bill would move the Department of Homeland Security’s “operations toward enforcing our border and immigration laws” and increase the number of border patrol agents and migrant detention beds.
“It significantly cuts funding to NGOs that incentivize illegal immigration and increases detention capacity and the number of Border Patrol agents to match levels in the House-passed appropriations bill and the Secure the Border Act,” he said.
Despite this, the bill has received heavy criticism from many Republicans.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) accused Johnson and other supporters of the spending bill of lacking a “backbone,” and called the bill “a total failure by Republican leadership.”
“This bill is an abomination. I don’t even have words for any Republican that votes for this bill,” said Roy, who added, “I promise you I will not be going out and supporting any Republican who votes for this bill for any position, ever again.”
Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, meanwhile, warned that the bill would “hamstring” a second Trump administration should Trump win the 2024 election against President Joe Biden.
Freedom Caucus Chair blasts GOP colleagues for campaigning against him: 'RINOs'
Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-VA) on Thursday took to X (formerly Twitter) to blast a few of "his House Republican colleagues who backed his primary challenger," according to Politico.
Per the news outlet, "The battle goes against Johnson’s entreaties for Republicans to refrain from campaigning against each other in primaries, as the party tries to keep its control of the lower chamber."
Good wrote, "The RINOs who hosted a DC fundraiser for my opponent last night are going to vote for the massive uniparty spending bill on the House floor without having time to read it. Shows how he would vote if he were in Congress with them."
The Virginia lawmaker also tagged the GOP members, including, US Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA), US Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA), US Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), US Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), US Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), and US Rep. Derrick Van Arden (R-WI).
Similarly, US Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) last week went against GOP leaders' "pleas" by campaigning against his fellow Republican House member, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) for a far-right "pro-gun social media influencer."
Last month, Politico reported as Johnson faces several obstacles that "include twin government funding deadlines, a twice-punted surveillance fight and growing concerns that Republicans are poised to lose House control in November," several GOP members, like Good, threaten "consequences" for the Louisiana lawmaker if he makes the wrong move.
As GOP House members, like McCarthy, US Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) — most recently, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), and others, announce their retirement, threatening an already razor-thin Republican majority, Good couldn't care less.
The Freedom Caucus chair told CNN last month, "Why don't you survey the country and see if there is any brain to drain in Congress. Congress has a 20 percent approval rating. Most of what we do to the country is bad. I think the retirements are a wonderful thing.… I have no concerns, zero concerns. We probably need a few more retirements."
In January, Good was one of the far-right members among about a dozen others who told reporters, according to the New York Times, that despite a potential government shutdown, the bipartisan spending deal Johnson and US Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reached was "unacceptable."
