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GOP Watch Keeping an Eye on Republicans for You - Page 30

“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.” ― Theodore Roosevelt Welcome to GOP Watch keeping an eye on Republicans for you. The Republican Party is using lies, hate, fear, alterative facts and whataboutism to stay in power and protect a comprised and corrupt Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party and Putin. The GOP is a danger to America and Americans.
Story by Ahmad Austin Jr.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) gave a telling response to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday when asked if members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet lied under oath about the Signal chat controversy.

The American political landscape spiraled into chaos as a result of a report from The Atlantic explaining how editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to a chat on Signal — an encrypted messaging app. In the chat, multiple members of Trump’s Cabinet discussed an attack on the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Then, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took things a step further when he provided a detailed timeline of the attack. Goldberg initially left the timeline out of the report due to the sensitive nature of the information.

When asked about the chat at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe insisted that the material wasn’t classified information and that they weren’t aware if the timing of attacks and the weaponry were discussed in the chat. The next day, Goldberg published the screenshots to confirm that information was indeed mentioned.
Story by Ryan Bort

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) instituted a $5 cap on overdraft fees under President Joe Biden. Thankfully for major banking institutions - and unfortunately for working Americans - Donald Trump won the presidential election last November, and with his administration's blessing, Republicans just advanced legislation to repeal the cap on overdraft fees.

The Senate voted 52-48 on Thursday in favor of a resolution from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to repeal the rule. Scott had the gall to say that removing the CFPB's cap on overdraft fees would be "good for consumers" while arguing for the resolution on the Senate floor.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), the only Republican to join Democrats in opposing the resolution, disagrees. "Why would we help the big banks at the expense of working people?" Hawley asked reporters following the vote, per Semafor. "I just don't understand it."
Story by Sarah K. Burris

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told reporters he can edit federal spending and revenue baselines as the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.

“As Budget Chairman, under section 312 of the Congressional Budget Act, I have the authority to determine baseline numbers for spending and revenue. Under that authority, I have determined that current policy will be the budget baseline regarding taxation," Graham said, according to HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic.

The full legislation text was posted on the committee's website.

The remark quickly led to ridicule from Democrats and critics on social media, who called out perceived hypocrisy from the GOP.

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz (HI) swiftly called out the financial impact.

"They are going to double the debt," he cautioned on X.
Story by Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN

When Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden faced intense scrutiny for their handling of classified material, top officials now serving in Trump’s Justice Department and FBI demanded criminal probes and severe penalties.

Yet today, those same figures – including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, and DC interim US Attorney Ed Martin – have all declined to publicly criticize senior Trump officials who used Signal to share military attack plans in a chat that inadvertently included a journalist.

The Trump administration has denied any classified information was discussed in the text messages released by The Atlantic about plans to bomb rebels in Yemen, but CNN reported that information shared in the chat was highly classified at the time it was sent.

Bondi, now the country’s highest ranking law enforcement official, vigorously defended the officials who participated in the Signal chat, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and suggested it was unlikely their actions would be investigated criminally. But previously, Bondi argued that both Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin needed to face charges after emails that contained classified information were found on the computer of her ex-husband, former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner.

“This has everything to do with the security of our country,” Bondi said in January 2018 on Fox News. “When you have the top-secret security clearance that Huma Abedin had – you know when you send those emails that you are violating the law, and there is no objective law enforcement officer in this country that would not charge her based on that. Alright? No one.”
Story by Michael Hiltzik

The old political adage that "where you stand depends upon where you sit" has been getting aired out in Washington.

Republicans and conservatives used to celebrate judges' issuance of nationwide court injunctions to block Biden policies or progressive government programs.

Now that nationwide court injunctions are being used to block Trump policies, however, onetime fans of the practice have decided that it's unconstitutional and illegal and needs to be outlawed.

Law professors Nicholas Bagley and Samuel Bray
"When a single district court judge halts a law or policy across the entire country," Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote his colleagues on Monday, "it can undermine the federal policymaking process and erode the ability of popularly elected officials to serve their constituents."

That's not untrue. But I couldn't find evidence that Jordan ever made this point before Trump came into office. I asked his committee staff to identify any such reference, but haven't heard back.

The issue of nationwide injunctions — in which federal judges apply their rulings beyond the specific plaintiffs who have brought suits in their courthouses — dovetails with another widely decried abuse of the judicial process. That's "judge-shopping," through which litigants connive to bring their cases before judges they assume will rule in their favor, typically by filing lawsuits in judicial divisions staffed by only a single judge whose predilections are known.

The combination of these schemes allowed conservative judges in remote federal courthouses to block major policy initiatives by President Biden, such as his efforts to enact student debt relief.
Story by Carl Gibson

Nearly all Republicans are lining up in support of President Donald Trump's newly announced tariffs on essentially all imported goods, despite the sharp downturn in financial markets. But journalists at the Washington Post have discovered that some of those same Republicans cheerleading the president's new import taxes were huge critics of the approach just a few years ago.

On Thursday, JM Rieger, who is a video journalist for the Post, tweeted a supercut of several high-profile Republicans in Congress that showed them criticizing tariffs as economic policy in years past, followed immediately by them heaping praise on Trump in the wake of Wednesday's sweeping new trade duties. Post journalists included quotes from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and James Lankford (R-Ark.) along with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas).

Expand article logo  Continue reading

"For years, Republicans in Congress warned against tariffs," Rieger tweeted. "Now, those same Republicans are downplaying massive tariff increases from President Donald Trump."
Carl Gibson

One Republican U.S. Senate candidate running on his private sector experience is now being scrutinized for a deal in which he sided with wealthy investors over his own would-be constituents.

NBC News reported Tuesday that Tim Sheehy — who is running against Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) in a competitive Senate race — has yet to explain why jobs his company promised to Montanans have yet to materialize. The outlet reported that his aerial firefighting business, Bridger Aerospace Group, convinced Gallatin County, Montana commissioners in 2020 to use the county's credit rating to raise $160 million in a bond issue. That money would then be used to help the company expand, creating local jobs in the process.

Bridger executives ultimately won over county leaders, who unanimously voted for Bridger's proposal. But four years later, that money has been spent without any benefit to the county.

According to NBC, $134 million of that $160 million (more than 83%) ended up in the pockets of the New York-based private equity firm Blackstone Group in 2022. And while Bridger pledged to build two new hangars in Gallatin County, only one hangar has actually been built, and its workforce has actually declined rather than grown as promised.
Ailia Zehra

President Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller reportedly disrupted a lunch gathering Thursday for GOP Senate chiefs of staff to defend Trump's controversial tariff policy with a confusing and "arrogant" presentation.

Politico reported that the arguments made by Miller, who is also Trump's homeland security adviser, alluded to the British Empire and left the aides asking one another, “What on Earth was that?".

However, members of the GOP have warned the decision to impose tariffs would be bad not just for the economy but for their chances in future elections.

Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who benefited from the backlash against former President Barack Obama during the 2010 and 2014 midterms, cautioned that Republicans could face a similar outcome in 2026, the year he is due for re-election.

In an interview with Politico published Thursday, Tillis said the GOP may be up against a "storm" next year due to President Donald Trump's decision to impose sweeping tariffs on United States imports.
Experts say the arrest is part of a pattern of criminalizing pregnancy that has accelerated since the fall of Roe v. Wade.
By Bracey Harris

On March 20 in rural Georgia, an ambulance responded to an early morning 911 call about an unconscious, bleeding woman at an apartment. When first responders arrived, they determined that she’d had a miscarriage. That was only the start of her ordeal.

Selena Maria Chandler-Scott was transported to a hospital, but a witness reported that she had placed the fetal remains in a dumpster. When police investigated, they recovered the remains and Chandler-Scott was charged with concealing the death of another person and abandoning a dead body. The charges were ultimately dropped; an autopsy determined Chandler-Scott had had a “natural miscarriage“ at around 19 weeks and the fetus was nonviable.

Still, Chandler-Scott’s arrest comes at a time when a growing number of women are facing pregnancy-related prosecutions in which the fetus is treated as a person with legal rights. And her experience raises troubling questions about miscarriages that happen in states with strict abortion laws, women’s health advocates say. How should remains be disposed of? And who gets to decide?

Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, provides any fetus with a heartbeat legal recognition under the law.
Story by Matthew Chapman
Raw Story

A federal judge in Rhode Island accused the Trump administration of "covertly" withholding funds for Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief programs from states that didn't vote for him, Courthouse News reported on Friday.

"In March, U.S. District Judge John McConnell issued a preliminary injunction in favor of 23 states that sued the government over its plan to implement a broad pause to state aid," noted the report.

McConnell, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, "ruled that the plan 'fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government,' and ordered the Trump administration to 'immediately end any funding pause' until further notice."

However, per the report, 19 states, all with Democratic attorneys general, provided "undisputed evidence" that the Trump administration has since then continued to withhold FEMA aid.

"Oregon claimed that more than $120 million in disaster relief assistance for winter storms, flooding, landslides, wildfires and flood mitigation remains frozen by FEMA. Hawaii said that the agency still hasn’t answered a roughly $6 million request for aid to rebuild after the 2023 wildfires in Maui," noted the report.
Story by Lindsey Toomer, Colorado Newsline

A sweeping executive order from President Donald Trump would overhaul the administration of U.S. elections and upend how they’re run in Colorado, but election experts in the state say the measure is unconstitutional, and it already faces several legal challenges.

The order, issued late last month, requires proof of citizenship to register to vote and vote, requires all ballots be counted on Election Day, and threatens federal funding for states that don’t comply, among other changes. On Thursday, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser filed a lawsuit alongside other Democratic states challenging the order, saying it will cause imminent and irreparable harm to states and voters.

“This elections executive order is an overreach by the White House and it threatens to undermine Colorado’s well-established gold standard for free and fair elections,” Weiser said in a statement. “That’s why we are challenging this illegal action and protecting our freedom to vote.”

Voting rights advocates and the Democratic National Committee have filed separate lawsuits challenging the legality of Trump’s order too. Doug Spencer, a professor at the University of Colorado who specializes in election law, said legal challenges to the order “will prevail.” He said the executive order is similar to others Trump has issued in that it attempts to take actions that are beyond the president’s authority.

“Some of the executive orders I think raise some interesting questions or novel questions, and some of them are just blatantly wrong, like if you’re born here, you’re not a citizen. That’s just blatantly wrong,” Spencer said, referring to Trump’s attempt to end the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. “That the president can dictate how states run their elections, even for federal offices, is just wrong. The Constitution has clear language: Congress has authority to do this, and Donald Trump is not Congress, so those lawsuits will be successful.”
Opinion by Rex Huppke, USA TODAY

It seems clear, based on my years of listening to conservatives holler about liberty, that Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a nanny-state liberal who wants to tell Americans what they can and can’t eat.

In a recent statement, Kennedy said: “I urge every governor to champion legislation that bans ultra-processed foods and dyes in public schools, and submit a waiver to the USDA to remove soda from SNAP.”

Do you want government officials to control the ultra-processed and dye-delicious foods I want my kids to eat? Sounds like the “K” in “RFK Jr.” stands for “Karl Marx.”

RFK Jr. goes full nanny state on America's school-lunch programs
A recent Kennedy opinion column published right here at USA TODAY, co-written with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, discussed childhood obesity and concluded this: “As the leaders put in charge of overseeing our nation’s food supply and human services, we have a duty to fix this.”

To make sure I was responding properly to what I assume is communism, I looked back on how my conservative friends responded to health and food-safety initiatives that came up while Barack Obama was president.
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