Greene, Pence, Cole, and McCarthy in the Capitol: How did Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Scalise get their kicks?

It was also indicative of the personal power that she had after she broke with some of her GOP colleagues and lined up to support McCarthy. After coming to Congress as a fringe figure, and quickly losing her committee assignments over her past retweets of violent rhetoric against Democrats, Greene now promises to be one of the most prominent faces of the new GOP majority. She has the ability to make comments that are offensive to many people without being reprimanded by her party’s leader. And it also shows that while Trump’s power may be waning elsewhere after a lackluster launch of his 2024 campaign, his influence over his followers in the House, like Greene, remains strong.

Mr. Gaetz asked if Mr. Scalise had agreed with Mr. McCarthy about Mr. Gaetz’s comments regarding conservatives being insufficient loyal to Mr. Trump.

Two people with knowledge of the exchange said that he apologized and said he would wait until he had more facts to say.

The turmoil underscored how Republicans were toiling to find a path forward after disappointing midterm results, and still grappling with the influence of Mr. Trump and his election lies on their party, including the fallout from the Jan. 6 attack. It came as former Vice President Mike Pence made his most scathing comments yet about Mr. Trump’s actions during the assault on the Capitol, and as Mr. Trump himself, who has received an unusual torrent of internal blame for the string of midterm losses by candidates he had handpicked, geared up for an expected announcement on Tuesday night that he would run for president again.

McCarthy told the select committee to preserve all of the records from the Capitol getting overrun because he promised to hold hearings on the security failures that caused it.

Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma said that it was going to be a narrow one. “It makes it really critical that you’ve got somebody with superb political skills. Someone knows every part of the conference.

If Mr. McCarthy does have a plan, he has not shared it with members of his leadership team, whom he has cut out of his deliberations about the speakership race in what some regard as a display of paranoia. He has been spotted in the capital recently with Jeff Miller, a Republican lobbyist, who is his closest ally.

It was not clear whether Mr. McCarthy enlisted Mr. Trump to help his campaign, or if Mr. Trump was simply working on his own. The former president has spoken with Eli Crane, an incoming Republican congressman from Arizona, and Representative Ralph Norman, Republican of South Carolina, among others. Mr. Crane and Mr. Norman were part of a group of seven current and incoming Republican lawmakers who signed a letter with a list of concessions they are demanding from their leaders in the next Congress, including making it easier to force a vote to remove the speaker — something that Mr. McCarthy has so far resisted.

When Nancy Pelosi found herself about a dozen votes short of the required number of votes for the gavel, she quietly got rid of the defectors and cut deals to get the votes she needed. Ms. Pelosi, renowned for her ability to arm-twist and coax, won seven votes by agreeing to limit her tenure, picked up another eight by promising to implement rules aimed at fostering more bipartisan legislating, and won over her sole would-be challenger by creating a subcommittee chairmanship for her.

The California Republican has begun to make pledges in order to appease the right flank of his party. He traveled to the southern border and called on Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, to resign or face potential impeachment proceedings. He promised Ms. Greene, who was stripped of her committee assignments for making a series of violent and conspiratorial social media posts before she was elected, a plum spot on the Oversight Committee.

The attack on the Capitol in January of 2021 will be examined by the House select committee. He has been meeting with ultraconservative lawmakers to win them over. And on Monday night, he publicly encouraged his members to vote against the lame-duck spending bill to fund the government.

In an opinion essay, Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, who is running as a protest candidate in the speaker race, noted that Mr. McCarthy had said before the midterm elections that he did not see grounds for impeaching any Biden administration officials. Mr. Biggs dismissed Mr. McCarthy’s more recent threat against the homeland security secretary.

The Case for an Intelligence Committee in the midst of Global Tensions: When McCarthy and Greene met during a Meetup with Greene

The tiny GOP House majority that takes over in January, after a disappointing midterm performance, would mean a fragile governing mandate for any party at any point in American history. It would have made the majority more volatile because of the ideological struggle inside the party.

The California Republican is trying to protect his political power base, which is being threatened by members who want to make it easier to oust a sitting speaker and by those who are supporting ex-president Donald Trump.

Once an avuncular and smooth-talking GOP rising star, McCarthy has adopted some of the confrontational defiance of the “Make America Great Again” movement, seeming to seek out soundbite clashes with the press as badges of honor.

It is important that the government be funded for a full year since it could befall a fiscal crisis on top of a weak economy and easily manipulated new.

McCarthy told the Democrats that he was going to return the intelligence committee to one of genuine honesty and credibility that regained the trust of the American people. Sadly, at the worst possible time, during a moment of rising global tensions, he is doing precisely the opposite.

On Tuesday, McCarthy was asked about the latest inflammatory comments by Greene, and said she thought she was being facetious. His attitude was not a surprise; it was consistent with his attempts to rewrite the history of the worst attack on US democracy in modern times, for which he briefly said Trump bore responsibility.

The same dynamic was at play when McCarthy did not criticize the ex president for meeting with a white supremacist who made antisemitic comments, but instead praised the rapper known as Ye who is also making antisemitic comments. In a histrionic performance at the White House after meeting Biden and other congressional leaders last month, the House Republican leader falsely claimed that Trump had condemned Fuentes four times, when he hadn’t done so once.

Not all of those ultra-conservatives blocking McCarthy are making outlandish demands. Some are asking for a return to regular order in committees and more power for individual members. McCarthy has a trouble with a group of lawmakers that are more extreme.

It is likely that tensions between Republicans in the House and McConnell will become more pronounced in the future, as McCarthy has made clear, and that it could become difficult for some Republican senators to vote for a spending deal now.

There is no strong alternative to the California Republican’s candidacy so he is likely to take the top job. GOP Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, the former head of the Freedom Caucus, has launched a long-shot bid.

“Right now, the emotions are high,” he said. “We’re running up against a holiday, trying to deal with this issue of funding the government and there are different opinions about how best to do that. I get that. I think it will get done. and I think it will set the stage for next year and it seems to be at least in the House next year, that would be an advantage for them. They will start with a clean slate.”

The silly season of a campaign is ongoing. For most of us, that’s over after you get elected. But he’s running for speaker of the House, so the silliness is still evident,” he said.

Four days before the House speaker vote, when his critics were still noncommittal about their support for his speakership bid, even after the California Republican had offered a number of key concessions – including making it easier to oust the sitting speaker – he attempted to give them the hard sell.

What has unfolded over the last two months is an all-out scramble for the speakership, which has taken the form of strategy sessions with close allies on and off Capitol Hill, intense negotiations over rules changes, non-stop phone calls with members, and even pro-McCarthy robocalls in some of the holdouts’ districts, according to over two dozen GOP lawmakers and aides familiar with McCarthy’s maneuvering. His team is hopeful that things will fall into place after they released a final rules package late Sunday evening, which formalized the concessions that he has agreed to, and are betting the opposition will fold on the floor.

A group of at least nine Republicans made clear that they were still not sold despite McCarthy telling them to and even after he relented to some of their most ardent demands during a Sunday evening conference call.

McCarthy is still working to seal the deal, with enough hardliners threatening to deny him the top job on Tuesday and his allies growing increasingly anxious that he is giving away his power for nothing.

“To be honest, we are preparing for a fight. We want to start out with our new majority, but you can’t really argue against the position that you won’t get anything in return. Rep. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, a member of the centrist-leaning Republican Governance Group, told CNN.

Kevin got a lot of credit from me. He’s brought everyone in and worked really hard to figure out a way forward. A way to make this place run better. I get the feeling that some people aren’t negotiating in good faith.

McCarthy worked the phones with critics and supporters to find consensus on rules changes designed to win over hold outs during a week in between Christmas and New Year.

Rep. Matt Gaetz Responds to Gaetz with a “Sad Threshold” on the Way to Vacate the Reheating Referendum

He can only afford to lose four votes on the House floor, and so far five Republicans have pledged to oppose him with a dozen more saying they are still not there.

The rules package was finalized by lawmakers over the weekend. Ultimately, McCarthy informed Republicans on the conference-wide call Sunday evening that he agreed to the five-person threshold on the motion to vacate – which he billed as a “compromise.”

McCarthy released the final rules package later that evening and also sent a letter to Colleague which included additional promises about how he would govern as Speaker, including making sure the GOP groups are better represented on committees.

A group of hard no votes began to speak out after McCarthy won the secret ballot vote. And after negotiations earlier last month dragged on, an additional group formalized their demands to McCarthy in a letter – further upping pressure on the Republican leader to cut a deal.

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of the holdouts against McCarthy, responded to the former President’s endorsement on Wednesday with a statement that seemed to mock Trump’s own rhetoric. I am sad! Gaetz said that. “This changes neither my view of McCarthy, nor Trump, nor my vote.”

CNN Investigates the Campaign of the South Carolina Democratic Electoral Candidate, C.C.McCarlen, M.R. Pelosi

That group is still pushing for a single member to be able to call for a vote toppling the speaker, which is what it used to be before Speaker Nancy Pelosi changed the rules, and they also want a commitment that leadership won’t play in primaries.

It is not possible to measure whether promises are kept or not, according to the letter obtained by CNN.

An aide to Norman said that the South Carolina congressman had gotten calls from people who were worried about what could happen if McCarthy was elected speaker. The aide told CNN that the campaigns had not influenced the congressman’s position but they had revealed the lengths some McCarthy supporters have gone to exert pressure on their detractors.

McCarthy supporters could use hardball tactics such as kicking critics off their committees if they don’t fall in line, and threatening to team up with the Democrats to choose a more moderate speaker. The group began wearing buttons that said, “O.K.” which stood for “Only Kevin”, in reference to McCarthy’s opposition.

In phone calls and text messages during the holidays, McCarthy’s defenders vowed to him and each other they wouldn’t let a handful of members control their conference.

The Republican Governance Group leader told CNN that the speaker fight had been holding them back from being able to get to work. “I have people who say they don’t care if it is 500 times, they are voting for Kevin. There is no one else.

McCarthy’s opposition, however, has also been working in tandem – and they are far more practiced in playing hardball, though the Freedom Caucus has been openly divided over McCarthy.

Does the fight against McCarthy in the House of Representatives have a Real Meaning? A letter to the committee in charge of law enforcement and other administrative matters

The committee in charge of administrative matters sent a letter last week showing the practical consequences and pitfalls of a speaker’s fight. A memo states that committees will be unable to pay their staff if a package of House rules is not approved.

If a rules package is not adopted by mid-January, student loan payments for committee staff will not be disbursed, warned a memo obtained by CNN.

Two of them, Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida, are ringleaders of the fight to block McCarthy. The speakership stalemate is not a sign of the turmoil still gripping the GOP, despite the ousting of two previous GOP speakers. It suggests the new GOP House majority will be perennially dysfunctional and – given the capacity of a few lawmakers to grind the chamber to a halt at any moment – chaotic political crises are likely to dominate the next two years.

Is there an alternative to McCarthy? A big factor in Mr. McCarthy’s favor is that no viable candidate has emerged to challenge him, but Republicans could coalesce around someone else. The most obvious backup for House Republicans is Steve Scalise.

Even with the race far from settled, boxes from McCarthy’s office were spotted by CNN being moved into the speaker’s suite last week – a standard protocol, but a sign he’s committed to seeking the job.

“It is a bizarre game of chicken where both sides have ripped the steering wheel off the dashboard and are just going pedal to the metal,” one member said of the ongoing standoff between pro- and anti-McCarthy factions.

McCarthy and his allies are trying to find a way to adjourn the House but it is not certain if that will happen because there are not enough votes.

Voting to adjourn will require 218 votes and Democratic sources say they will whip against a motion to adjourn. Plus some Republicans would likely vote against it as well.

The Correlations in the House of Representatives: A Day in the Life of a Reply to the Corrupt Voting Legacy of Kevin McCarthy

The two GOP sources said that McCarthy’s allies were worried because the former president did not give a strong response when asked about his support. The former president also declined to issue a statement Monday reiterating his endorsement of McCarthy despite a behind-the-scenes effort from several McCarthy allies to get Trump to do so, two sources said.

Another member warned that after Tuesday, it’s clear that the opposition to McCarthy is personal – meaning there may be little that he can do to turn the tide at this point.

As the votes continued on Tuesday, the situation appeared to become more dire for McCarthy as he lost votes in his speaker bid.

The tally for the first ballot in the speaker vote was 203 for McCarthy, with 19 Republicans voting for other candidates. The second ballot had 203 votes for McCarthy and 19 for Jim Jordan. In the third round of voting, there were 202 votes for McCarthy and 20 votes for Jordan, with Rep. Byron Donalds joining the 19 GOP lawmakers who had voted against McCarthy in the first two rounds.

Trump has been making calls on McCarthy’s behalf over the last 24 hours but his efforts have so far been unsuccessful.

After more than 10 votes, the Republican obstructionists still didn’t budge. And while Gaetz cast a vote for Trump in the seventh and eighth round (and nominated him on the 11th), the prolonged deadlock was yet another sign that the former president’s power has diminished at a time when the 2024 presidential campaign is expected to ramp up.

The camera shots in the coverage are different than the wide-pans that saturate C-SPAN on a day-to-day basis.

The House forbids independent media coverage of proceedings, which means networks can’t rely on a government feed for coverage. Independent coverage is allowed during special events in the House, such as the election for speaker.

If we could give this type of coverage even during deliberations on major legislations or other times beyond the speaker election, it would be great. We hope the day cameras are allowed more frequently than they are now.

For example, C-SPAN’s cameras showed Republican Rep. Paul Gosar, who has voted against Kevin McCarthy for speaker, on the floor speaking Tuesday with Democratic Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. Gosar was asking Ocasio-Cortez if any Democrats were planning to leave the floor or vote present so McCarthy could have a lower threshold, according to Ocasio-Cortez spokesperson Lauren Hitt. Ocasio-Cortez, according to Hitt, told Gosar that there was no plan to do that.

The image of seeing the two next to each other is striking: Gosar was censured and removed from committees in November of 2021 by the House, after it was found that he altered a video in order to kill or attack President Joe Biden.

Getting the journalists behind the cameras: The C-SPAN view of Paul Gosar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“We are able to show Paul Gosar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sitting down and speaking to one another. We are able to show Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan talking before the next votes,” Ben O’Connell, C-SPAN’s director of editorial operations, told me by phone. “We are able to show scrums of members migrate across the floor as negotiations go on. You don’t see that during standard coverage.”

The C-SPAN would like to do this a lot more often. The organization has asked the Congress for more control over the camera shots it chooses to air dozens of times.

“I think it is really important for journalists to be behind the cameras rather than the government be behind the cameras,” O’Connell added. “We, during a typical legislative day, have a government entity covering the government. It would be good to have journalists behind the camera.

When cameras were first allowed, they became a potent political weapon. Gingrich, the House speaker in the 1990s, was one of the congressmen who used to give speeches for TV. Since there were hardly any people in the chamber, it seemed as if there was no answers from the other side.

The Corrupt Behavior of McCarthy and the 2016 January 6 Insurrection: The Case For Changing the Core of the Investigative Intelligence?

In the past few years since leaving policing there have been a lot of conclusions drawn about the former president and the January 6 riot. And a lot of my now-negative opinions about him, not surprisingly, have to do with the emotional and physical trauma that I and my brother and sister officers suffered that day. The values that I’d always lived by as an officer were thrown back at me by the same mob that was trying to cut us down.

Scores of House Republicans refused to certify the election of Joe Biden two years ago, while many spent years appeasing Trump. The GOP controls only one half of Capitol Hill, if it gets its act together and picks a speaker.

The most violent day in my law enforcement career was two years ago, the same day as a violent uprising that House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy continues to downplay. Two years ago the violent insurrectionists attacked the Capitol, almost taking my life, and ignored my pleas that I have kids.

Just to mention a few examples. Without long overdue intervention by Republican top brass, the frightening trend towards violent rhetoric seems certain to continue.

The conspiracists have a lot of public support and millions of Americans believe that using force to get Trump back to the presidency would be justified. It’s important to reverse this dangerous trend.

There has been no shortage of such reprehensible behavior in recent months, starting with McCarthy himself. McCarthy once vociferously condemned the President for his role in the Capitol violence, but after a few days he retreated from his condemnation. He went to Mar-a-Lago to try to appease both the defeated president and election deniers in his own caucus.

GOP House members have referred to the January 6 assault as a normal tourist visit. Some have called for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s execution for treason and shared antisemitic messages on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

I hoped that the outrage and horror over the insurrection would encourage people to believe that political violence is not part of our society. Republican leaders should join other Americans in condemning such behavior and the former president who inspired it.

She has promoted a conspiracy theory around “grooming” amongst her rightwing allies in the House. In the wake of those outrageous statements, irate protesters are overrunning story hour at their local libraries, and calling for banning books from neighborhood schools.

There are a lot of acts of violence that seem to have been instigated by right-wing rhetoric. The homes of three New York City council members were damaged by vandals last month, allegedly because of their opposition to drag queen story hour at libraries.

As voters cast their ballot, Gaetz told them to arm themselves at the polls. Research has even shown that MAGA Republicans are more likely than others – including GOP moderates – to endorse violence as usually or always justified to advance their political objectives. And after agents searched Mar-a-Lago, Twitter posts threatening the FBI saw a dramatic spike.

Over-the-top rhetoric by GOP lawmakers is troubling enough. Unfortunately their extremist views also have been all-too-evident in their voting records. That includes the 147 members of Congress who voted against the results of 2020’s free and fair election and the 35 House Republicans who voted against the creation of the January 6th Commission.

And – what was for me a personal affront – there were 21 Republican members who, in an unconscionable action, voted against DC and Capitol Police officers like me receiving the presidential medal of freedom for our role defending the Capitol during the insurrection.

It might surprise some people who didn’t know me before January 6, but I’ve never considered myself to be a political person. I went for Trump in 2016 after being turned off by the police rhetoric on the left.

I fought a few Trump-inspired candidates in the last election, because I thought they posed a danger to democracy. I’ve never believed in politicians, but I do believe in people. And that is why I’m supporting two new groups demanding sanity and accountability from our elected politicians.

This week, at an event calling on lawmakers to ramp up the fight against political violence, I’ll join veterans, members of Congress, and the group Courage for America, (which I’ve helped to found and have a leadership role in). Courage for America is joining forces with another, new group Common Defense to call for a renewed effort to combat the kind of right-wing violence that almost ended my life. The planned venue for the event is the Capitol reflecting pool, where just two years ago, MAGA supporters erected a noose which they threatened they’d use to hang the nation’s Vice President, amid chants by the rioters of ”

            hang Mike Pence.”

What Happened when President John Boehner Left Washington: Is It Really He or What Jordan Did He Open the Door to Power?

As a kid growing up, I was always a bit of a troublemaker; law enforcement turned out to be the perfect landing spot for a rambunctious kid without a clear sense of direction. Being an investigator and being a police officer taught me to revise and refine my conclusions as I gathered more information.

At that moment, even though I was surrounded by violent, shouting protesters, all I could see were my kids’ faces: My four daughters are the ones I’m speaking out for.

I want them to grow up in a country where elected officials are accountable to the people they serve. Condemning political violence isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a moral one.

Editor’s Note: Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author and editor of 24 books, including his forthcoming co-edited book,Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest lies and legends about our past. Follow him on social media. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. You can also give your opinion on CNN.

Even former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, a founding father of the politics of smashmouth partisan warfare, implored the GOP to elect McCarthy: “It’s him or chaos.” It is a sign that the extreme parts of the GOP have become that the legislator who enjoys reveling in chaos made that statement.

In certain respects, Trump is facing a dilemma many other presidents and legislative leaders have encountered before. These leaders shift the political playing field and inspire a younger generation of politicians to do what they did. Former Speaker John Boehner, himself part of the Gingrich generation of Republicans that rocked Washington by abandoning old norms of governance and promoting a much more aggressive version of partisanship, repeatedly clashed with the Tea Party legislators he opened the doors of power to.

Over time, the acolytes demand more and become more extreme than the leader who originally welcomed them into the fold. This is what led Boehner to later blast Republicans like Jim Jordan as “legislative terrorists.” They were the rebels, he had become the establishment.

Trump had a nihilistic attitude towards political combat. He helped to spark a group of younger, more extreme people to demand power. It seems these burn-down-the-house conservatives will do almost anything in pursuit of victory and believe – like Trump – that chaos, instability, and hyper-divisiveness have great political value. And now some of these Trump loyalists might be close to concluding that they no longer need him – or at the very least, they no longer need to follow his every move.

As for Trump, his very influence could end up playing a role in his defeat. Even though he is no longer able to sway votes on Capitol Hill, he is still capable of presenting a new version of his ideas without the baggage that comes with it. If the GOP is full ofTrumpian Republicans who run with it and voters choose someone else than Donald Trump, then they may want to choose someone else.

The Last Stand in the Cascade: Kevin McCarthy and the Embery of the Surreal and Inflationary Metrics on the Hill

Kevin McCarthy is the latest Republican leader to find out that it’s impossible to get ahead of his party’s inexorable march to its far-right extremes.

But on Friday’s two-year anniversary of the worst attack on American democracy in the modern era, he’s finding out that even that supposedly career-enhancing bet is insufficient to unlock the votes of Trump’s heirs in the chaos wing of the GOP.

In another surreal scene on the Hill this week, one of those Republicans, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene – who has downplayed the insurrection and said rioters would have “won” if she was in charge – is complaining about the extremism of some of her colleagues who oppose McCarthy.

There are strong political incentives for disruptor politicians in the ex president’s image despite the attacks on the US Capitol.

Trump may no longer be in the White House, but he’s still in the circus style politics that he built in the GOP and has caused so much turbulence in Washington again. The GOP can’t even take power given they can’t swear in a leader until the speaker is selected.

The narrow margin is caused by voters being ircustomed to the false voter fraud claims made by the former president, and the party failing, which lead to the narrow margin.

After a humiliating three-day stretch of 11 consecutive defeats in an election that is now the most protracted such contest since 1859, Mr. McCarthy dispatched his emissaries Thursday night to finalize terms with the ultraconservative rebels, including agreeing to conditions he had previously refused to countenance in an effort to sway a critical mass of defectors.

According to Boebert, the country was watching democracy in action, even as McCarthy repeatedly racked up around 200 votes from his conference while his various radical opponents could only attract around 20. (The defections made it impossible for McCarthy to get a majority of the House’s support since Democrats backed their own leader, Hakeem Jeffries, who routinely got more votes than McCarthy, but also short of 218).

This is not chaos, that’s for sure. This is a constitutional republic at work. Boebert said that this is a really beautiful thing. She is correct that the messiness unfolding on the floor is based on rules and procedures, which is what Trump wanted to disrupt with his efforts to overturn the Electoral College votes.

The Right-Wing Rebellion against Kevin McCarthy: Is It Really a Democracy of the Collaborative, The Left or the Right?

But her arguments founder on the reality of the rebels’ behavior. Many other Republicans are not sure what the concessions the group around Gaetz are going to make in order to get McCarthy to support them.

“This ends one of two ways: Either Kevin McCarthy withdraws from the race, or we construct a straitjacket that he is unable to evade,” Gaetz, who cast his vote in the seventh round for Trump, told reporters on Thursday.

In other words, the most extreme hardliners will only accept a candidate that shares their no-compromise, Nihilistic form of politics that effectively makes governing impossible.

In many ways, these demands are the culmination of anti-establishment, anti-government forces first unleashed decades ago by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Republican revolution. They were also the brains behind the anti-Washington Tea Party movement. The governing wing of the GOP was driven out by Trump as he worked to bring down the accountability of government inside as president.

He told CNN that he was confident a solution could be found in the next few days.

They included allowing a single lawmaker to force a snap vote at any time to oust the speaker, a rule that would effectively codify a standing threat that Mr. McCarthy would be at the mercy of hard-right lawmakers at all times, and could be removed instantly if he crossed them.

Who are the detractors? The House Republicans who are voting against Mr. McCarthy include a few of the chamber’s most hard-right lawmakers. Most denied the results of the 2020 presidential election, and almost all are members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus.

What do they want? The right-wing rebellion against Mr. McCarthy is not just about personal animosity, it’s also an ideological drive. To make it easier to change the way Congress works, the holdouts want to limit the size, scope and reach of the federal government.

Hakeem Jeffries: Principles of Democracy and American Values in the era of Democratic racial inequalities

Editor’s Note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio’s daily program “The Dean Obeidallah Show.” You can follow him on social media: Dean Obeidallah. His opinions are not shared by this commentary. CNN has more opinion on it.

The speech Hakeem Jeffries delivered after giving the speaker’s gavel to McCarthy was a great example of the peaceful transfer of power.

In his speech, Jeffries unapologetically defended American values and our democratic republic — if only we had a speaker who had the courage to do the same.

Instead, McCarthy vowed that House Republicans’ “first bill will repeal funding for 87,000 new IRS agents.” The January 6 report concluded that Donald Trump was the central cause of the attack on the US Capitol.

Jeffries has consistently lived up to his first name, Hakeem — which translates from Arabic into a “wise” or “learned” person seen as a fountain of deep knowledge. (The lawmaker from New York City is Baptist, but as a Muslim, I wish he were Muslim!) His speech in Saturday’s early hours was the most recent example of his wisdom.

The first Black leader of any major party in Congress told the House chamber, “We believe that in America our diversity is a strength, it is not a weakness.” He offered his hand of partnership to the Republicans, saying: “We extend, and intend, to try and find common ground, whenever and wherever possible on behalf of the American people.”

Jeffries claimed that Democrats will never compromise their principles. The newly sworn-in Democratic leader followed this pledge with the most impressive part of his speech, listing each principle literally from A to Z.

He stated that Democrats will always reject so much that has defined Trumpism: “House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy, prosperity over bigotry, the Constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, freedom over fascism and hope over hatred.” …

Quality of life issues, reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, and understanding over ugliness are listed in alphabetical order by Jeffries.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/08/opinions/hakeem-jeffries-speech-kevin-mccarthy-obeidallah/index.html

“Thank You, President Trump,” said McCarthy on the anniversary of the January 6, 2021, mob riot attack in Washington, D.C.

He sent people looking for the definition of one word when he mentioned “Xenial over xenophobia.” In this context, xenial means warm, welcoming and hospitable.

It is not that the House GOP leader does not understand threats. Only a week after the January 6, 2021, attack, McCarthy took to the House floor and proclaimed without any ambiguity about Trump: “The President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”

But fast-forward to the day after the two-year anniversary of the January 6 attack. Minutes after leaving the House, the newly elected speaker paid tribute to Trump.

I want to thank President Trump for that. I don’t think you should doubt — anybody should doubt his influence,” McCarthy said, adding, “He was with me from the beginning. … So, thank you, President Trump.”

Is it possible that the man who refused to accept losing the 2020 election and whose words and actions inspired his supporters to attack the Capitol deserves a thank you? The speaker of the house should not be saying that.

But these are words without meaning, given McCarthy’s track record of flip-flopping on key issues such as standing up to Trump over January 6 to remaining silent over the lies by new GOP Rep. George Santos, whose vote he desperately needed in the speakership battle.

CNN Opinions of the Day Frederick Huntington Gillett: The First Day of the Congressman’s Black Hole Trial in the House of Representative Paul McCarthy

Editor’s Note: Sign up to get this weekly column as a newsletter. The strongest, smartest opinions of the week were taken by CNN and other outlets.

Frederick Huntington Gillett was the model of a New England gentleman. He was educated at Harvard Law School and attended several colleges before entering the US House. It was joked that the congressman would refuse coffee in the morning because it would keep him awake.

His inoffensiveness may even have been an asset in winning the support of his Republican colleagues for House Speaker in 1919 and 1921. Gillett was denied victory by a small group of progressive Republicans until the ninth ballot, which was after party leaders agreed to rule changes that gave rank-and-file members more influence.

McCarthy has been blamed a lot for the spectacle of legislative majority spending days trying to organize itself. “McCarthy, who in the early days after the January 6 attack said (President Donald) Trump bore responsibility for it but didn’t support his impeachment, and who helped usher conservative extremists into office and then protect them once there, is experiencing the all-too-predictable outcome of handing power to the unhinged,” wrote Filipovic, before Republicans finally elected McCarthy.

“Even if McCarthy manages to squeak out the leadership, a powerful and vocal contingent of his party has publicly humiliated him and expressed their lack of confidence in his control,” she observed.

After this bruising episode, the House Republicans face even bigger tests: Will they hold America’s credit rating hostage by refusing to raise the debt ceiling? What type of oversight do they have over the Biden administration? Will they not provide aid to Ukraine? And will McCarthy be able to effectively lead?

The speakership drama extended through the second anniversary of January 6, 2021, when rioters stormed the Capitol to try to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election as president. In a striking moment that day, police drew their guns at the door of the House chamber to protect its members, who were later evacuated.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/08/opinions/kevin-mccarthy-chaotic-victory-opinion-column-galant/index.html

Damar Hamlin, the Detroit Lions and his tragic loss of the 1968 NFL quarterback, Jeff Pearlman, died of an heart attack on Monday Night Football

Americans held their breath when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed moments after tackling a rival player on Monday Night Football. Hamlin was resuscitated on the field and could move his arms and legs by the end of the week.

Coy Wire, who played for the Bills and Atlanta Falcons before becoming a journalist, wrote about the brutal nature of the sport he loves and about the physical injuries he suffered in the NFL. I have titanium and screws in my neck. I had several concussions, including a one in Buffalo where I didn’t remember what happened until I watched the game the next day. I remember vividly how scary injuries can be.”

When the terrible scene unfolded on Monday, players’ faces were filled with tears as they prayed, and the mental wounds were reopened.

Before Hamlin collapsed, Paul Rieckhoff was watching his two sons play a game of playground football. I was talking with a dad who played college football and had a son one year older than my oldest. We chatted about his son’s first experience playing full tackle football in pads this fall. I can’t see letting my son hit that early. Or maybe every now and then. I can not.

According to Jeff Pearlman, the Detroit Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes died of a heart attack at Tiger Stadium in 1971 and was the only player in the league to die during a game. Less than 10 minutes after Hughes’ body was taken off the field, the game was back on, Pearlman noted. The times have changed. The Hughes tragedy led to the suspension of the Bills-Bengals game.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/08/opinions/kevin-mccarthy-chaotic-victory-opinion-column-galant/index.html

Avatar: The Way of Water, David, Peggy Drexler, and the Prince Harry-Mumford-Drexler Correspondence

The cell phones being used by the inexperienced troops in violation of regulations allowed Ukrainian forces to target them most accurately, if the Russian account is correct. “The errors by the Russian military are now becoming so blatant, and as the Makiivka attack shows, so deadly to Russian forces, that some of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s most ardent apologists have now begun turning on the military establishment.”

“Avatar: The Way of Water” may be on its way to earning as much as $2 billion at the box office, but Jeff Yang was wary of going to see director James Cameron’s sequel until his 14-year-old son persuaded him. “Though I’d recalled feeling like the 2009 original was more of a weirdly off-putting immersive experience than an actual motion picture,” Yang wrote, “Cameron’s masterful narrative instincts and intricate worldbuilding overwhelmed my reflexive cynicism…for the first half hour of ‘Way of Water”s epic three-hour running length, anyway.”

Audiences and critics will appreciate the creativity of CAMERON, but they will not know how much of the franchise is based on our world.

Prince Harry chose to title his new book, publishing Tuesday, “Spare,” after the adage that people in the line of succession need to have “an heir and a spare.”

The book’s revelations are already being called “jaw-dropping,” but there’s a basic contradiction in the continuing saga of Harry, Meghan and the royal family, wrote Peggy Drexler.

Harry and Meghan quit the family “amid complaints that they preferred a private life as ‘regular people,’ no longer wanting the media attention that came with being royals, including being tabloid fodder. In an excerpt from an upcoming interview, Harry told ITV: ‘I want a family. Not an institution.’”

It’s fodder. Among the gossipy allegations Harry lobs at his brother in ‘Spare’ are details of a physical altercation between the two during which William knocked Harry to the floor and left him scratched and bruised, and claims that William and his wife, Kate Middleton, were the ones responsible for encouraging Harry’s controversial Nazi costume in 2005…”

Competition between children and siblings is common, and sibling rivalry more so, especially when there are just two of them, said Drexler. Most aren’t born into families with set hierarchies that remind them of where they came from. But brotherly discord has existed throughout time, inspiring countless works of art in all spheres (most of them tragedies). One of the most common dramas of human nature is Harry.

CNN Sen. Frida Ghitis: CNN Investigates Russia’s Spontaneous Attempt to Topple the US Senate

Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly contributor to CNN, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN. This piece has been updated to reflect the latest news.

With the war in Ukraine growing more tense by the day, and the United States playing a pivotal role in preventing Russia from succeeding in its attempts to win an unprovoked war, one might be excused for thinking the new leadership of the House of Representatives would restrain its impulses to politicize But no such thing is happening.

Anyone concerned that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would find it difficult to steer a moderate course after having to compromise with the most extreme members of the Republican Party to win the seat, had their fears confirmed this week when McCarthy announced he was barring key Democrats from the crucial House Select Committee on Intelligence.

A year ago, he pledged that if Republicans became the majority, they would strip Schiff, Swalwell and Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota from their committees, as payback for what Democrats had done.

The attempt to topple the US Senate in January was made even more complicated by the fact that Gosar and a few other election deniers used social media accounts to promote their crazy conspiracy theories.

Some of the most sensitive information and delicate matters of national and international security are dealt with by the Intelligence Committee. It is the wrong place for partisan games.

It also had to delve into Ukraine’s desperate plea for more American weapons to defend against Russia’s assault. Trump threatened to withhold funding from Ukraine asking President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019 to “do us a favor though” and announce an investigation of Joe Biden, a man he correctly surmised could defeat him in 2020.

These were topics for the committee to discuss. Trump was impeached because of his mishandling of relations with Ukraine.

McCarthy knows this. He explained his decision to Jeffries in a letter. He said, “I cannot put partisan loyalty ahead of national security.”

He has signs of his own brittle integrity. Who can forget his denunciation of Trump from the House floor on January 6, followed promptly by a contrite pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago. The famous quote, “These are my principles and if you don’t like them, I have others,” is similar to one by Groucho Marx.

He forcefully denied the New York Times report that he urged Trump to step down after the January 6 attack. He said that the Times report was false and wrong. But, Lordy, there was a tape with him saying exactly that.

Schiff had dismissed stories surrounding the contents of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, the President’s son, as disinformation. The former intelligence committee chief had also come under fire for inartful paraphrasing of the call between Zelensky and Trump. The Speaker wrote a letter justifying his decision by accusing Schiff of using his position as committee chairman to leave the country less safe.

McCarthy is justifying the case of a Chinese spy who had developed ties with California politicians like Swalwell, by saying that he had been involved in a case a decade ago. After the FBI told him, Swalwell cut ties with her. Two years ago, the matter was discussed with GOP leaders, and they were not opposed to Swalwell serving. He was one of the first accusers of Trump.

Because the Intelligence Committee is “select,” the rules allow the speaker to choose or remove members. For other committees, he needs a majority of a House vote. The removal from the Foreign Affairs Committee of a person who made statements that were considered antisemitic was more difficult due to this.

What do conservatives think about campaigning and the media? The case of George Santos, the president’s son and a media-hungry congressman

After a crazy week in Washington, it’s time to ask the people on either side of the line if they’re on the same page.

The GOP used the national television audience to recommit to the hardline “Make America Great Again” base strategy pushed by Trump, whom Sanders served as press secretary in the White House. Her strategy did not come in a single line. Liberal policies on social, economic and foreign policy may be considered crazy by many conservatives. And Democrats have had their own issues with extremists in recent years, including left-wingers who once called for “defunding the police” – a position that turned into a huge political liability for their party in successive elections.

The new House majority is struggling with the distraction of GeorgeSantos, a New York congressman who lied about his education, family background and job history in order to get elected. On Wednesday, LaLota told CNN he couldn’t talk about what Republicans ought to be doing instead of talking about George Santos.

Meanwhile, new Republican-led oversight hearings – including one on Wednesday apparently designed to prove that some combination of Twitter, the FBI and Biden stole the 2020 election – have further erased the line between conservative opinion TV and governance. The all-day session featured a series of histrionic questioning and grandstanding that verged onBullying of the witnesses, which delights the GOP’s base and runs on a loop of right-wing media. But if anything, it undermined the premise that a massive media, deep-state swamp conspired against Trump as witnesses testified that there was no order from the FBI to temporarily suppress a New York Post story about a laptop purportedly belonging to the president’s son, Hunter. A House hearing on the first of a series into the alleged “weaponization” of the government against conservatives will once again bring to mind the right-wing talking points the GOP uses to build scandals.

Party leaders can fire up vital base voters and cook up a general stench of scandal that could harm the Biden administration but they risk alienating moderate voters by highlighting the GOP’s most extreme, media-hungry personalities.

Of course, political normality is in the eye of the beholder. Sanders argued that Biden had surrendered to a “woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is” and that the country is in the grip of a left-wing cultural purge.

But while Sanders may be adopting a shrewd approach for a rising star in a party that often rewards far-right candidates in primaries, it would seem to fly in the face of lessons of the midterm elections, when voters in swing states rejected far-right extremism.

Some Republicans may feel aggrieved at Biden’s claim they want to sunset Social Security and Medicare, especially since McCarthy has said that’s not on the table in debt ceiling talks, although some prominent Republicans have suggested such a step. And McCarthy’s comment on Fox that it was one of the most partisan State of the Union addresses he’d ever heard was not totally wide of the mark.

The president positioned himself as the bulwark of moderation between the more moderate Americans and the excess of what he labeled “ultraMAGA” Republicans, a tactic he used very well in the midterms.

This is why McCarthy’s followers went to acting out on Tuesday night after Biden said Americans didn’t want to see fighting in Congress.

McCarthy, meanwhile, dodged efforts from reporters to get him to comment on the performance of Greene, with whom he has developed a strong political relationship. While he tried to avoid a public spectacle of Extremism with millions watching on TV, his hopes of keeping his job depend on radicals like Greene and her colleagues. One reason McCarthy hasn’t repudiated Santos, who is due to face a House ethics probe, is the fact that he has a small majority.

Despite providing Democrats with the exact image they most want to highlight, she didn’t apologize for her poor manners during Biden’s speech. She said she was “pissed off” and “I don’t clap for liars.” Former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN on Tuesday night that Greene’s antics encapsulated a choice for Americans between “chaos” and “stability.”

Not every Republican is tolerating the party’s incivility. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney went where McCarthy has failed to go, telling Santos he had no place in the House. LaLota, meanwhile, in his interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, stressed how the New York Republican had become a distraction from the party’s priorities.

“We want to talk about putting our economy back on the right track, securing our border, hold the administration accountable – these are the things that Republicans campaigned on, these are the things that Republicans want to govern on,” LaLota said.

There is more to be done by House Republican chairmen given Biden White House handling of Afghanistan, Covid-19 and the border crisis. There’s no reason why a thorough investigation into Biden’s finances shouldn’t be part of the oversight.

The chairman of the House Oversight said that a story could hurt Biden and that there was a plan to cover it up.

There was a misconception that a private company would be in violation of First Amendment free speech protections if it did not carry certain material on its platform. The case relied on the documents released by the new owner of the company, who Republicans say is proof that the company and the FBI may have colluded. But the material doesn’t appear to prove that contention. CNN has reported that the allegations are false and a half-dozen tech executives and senior staff, along with multiple federal officials familiar with the matter, denied any such directive was given.

McCarthy decided to give the footage to a conservative media network. Specifically, he opted to give the exclusive to Carlson, who has been one of the most vocal voices in conservative media calling for the footage to be released. Carlson has been a huge McCarthy critic – so this move could help win the speaker some favor with Carlson’s camp as McCarthy tries to hold together both the conservative and moderate wings of his Republican conference.

Carlson was a promoter of January 6 conspiracy theories. He has devoted a lot of airtime to the false claim that liberals within the FBI staged the insurrection to try and undermine the former president. He has conducted sympathetic interviews with some of the rioters who were subsequently charged by the Justice Department.

A Fox News spokesman declined to say if the report was true or not. Carlson told the news site that there was no reason for the footage to remain secret and that the videos will show what actually happened on January 6.

McCarthy – who has already been fundraising on the move – did indeed promise to release the footage as part of his bid to become speaker, and it was something Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz had specifically been demanding. In fact, it was on a lengthy list of demands that Gaetz walked into McCarthy’s office with on the Monday night before the speaker’s vote, according to a GOP source familiar with the list.

The Jan. 6 panel had a separate, password-protected computer set up for committee staff to review the security footage. Capitol Police were enlisted to coordinate which clips the committee wanted to show during its hearings.

Bennie Thompson added in a statement that if McCarthy allowed Carlson access, he owes the American people an explanation of why he did so.

Protecting the State Capitol from Fox News Using a Cyber-Security-Independent Investigation of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Attack

A protective order has been placed on the videos, which defendants are not allowed to release, as well as the online database, which contains thousands of hours of footage from the attack.

“Once the capabilities of a U.S. Capitol interior surveillance camera, including its position and whether it pans, tilts or zooms, is disclosed to the public via the release of a single video from that camera, the cat is out of the bag,” Justice Department prosecutors wrote in a July 2021 court filing.

They are worried that the capitol could be in danger if a host of Fox News got access to the security tapes.

He issued a warning after reports that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Tucker Carlson access to tens of thousands of hours of tapes.

Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, House Democrats met virtually for a briefing on the matter, led in part by Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the former chair of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, which completed its work in December.

“I’m not comfortable with the fact that people who work at the capitol are protected and other people who visit are not,” said Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security panel. There are items that should not be made available to the public.

Thompson went on to detail the painstaking process the select committee followed during its investigation to access the security footage, and his worries the same procedures aren’t in place today.

“When Congressional Leadership or Congressional Oversight Committees ask for things like this, we must give it to them,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a statement.

I said they belong to the American public, when I was asked about them in the press. I think sunshine lets everybody make their own judgment,” he told the Times.

McCarthy’s re-evaluation of the “Right flank” of the Green Party, and a rebuttal to Schumer

McCarthy hopes the media will be able to help appease his right flank without upsetting his moderates and majority makers.

Schumer said in the letter that McCarthy’s decision to give the footage to Carlson was just a ploy to get attention.