What is the problem with Correlation? The Freedom Caucus wants a resolution of the a**holes in the House of Representatives

McCarthy needs to do something to get to 218, and that includes a promise that leaders will not play in primaries, restoring the motion to oust the speaker, and giving members at least 72 hours to read bill text.

Multiple of my clients want a discussion about who they choose for the top job, as they believe that the wisdom of moving forward with that leadership is questionable.

Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said it was a “red line” for her, but not everyone in the Freedom Caucus is united on whether to make that a hard line.

The group wants to get concessions from McCarthy, which causes tensions inside the party. Said one senior GOP lawmaker: “They are a bunch of selfish, prima dona a**holes who want attention for themselves. They were trying to find a way to get the warm embrace of their social media followers.

McCarthy will be in a better position to clear the hurdle during the speaker vote. The full House holds a vote on the floor for Speaker and to win, a candidate needs to win a majority of all members, which amounts to 218 votes if no member skips the vote or votes “present.”

CNN has not yet said which party will control the House of Representatives, however, it is estimated that the Republicans will have more seats than the Democrats.

Why the Republicans should not be starting the C team: Reply to Norman, McConnell, Gaetz, Moore, Oates, Murphy and all that

Norman said the group hopes to formalize a lengthier list of all the rules changes they are seeking. They are also pushing to delay next week’s internal leadership elections, though there is no indication McCarthy plans to do so.

When asked if McCarthy deserves credit for delivering the majority, Norman said the taxpayers that voted for him deserve the credit.

McCarthy can lower the threshold for becoming speaker by trying to convince Democrats or Republicans to not show up for the floor proceedings. But McCarthy promised his GOP colleagues he would not court Democratic votes.

“With a slim majority, we shouldn’t be starting the C team,” Gaetz said. We need our star players to shine bright so that we can attract more people to our policies and ideas.

Following the disappointing election results of the last two years, the House and Senate will meet in private this week to discuss what went wrong and what can be done to make up for it.

A small, but vocal, group of GOP senators has been calling to delay their leadership elections so they can have a “family discussion” about why the GOP underperformed. A senator from Missouri said he would oppose McConnell’s bid for GOP leader.

One congressman who is trying to prevent the California Republican from being the most powerful member of congress is from Arizona and he doubled down on his commitment.

What Are We Do Now, Where Are We Going? Rick Scott’s Theorem to follow up with the GOP and the PLOIDS

The Senate leadership election is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, but Florida Sen. Rick Scott is calling for it to be delayed.

What are we doing now, what are our plans for the future? What are we for? Scott said Sunday on Fox News. “The leadership in the Republican Senate says you cannot have a plan, we’re just gonna run against how bad the Democrats are. And actually they cave into the Democrats. Now they want to rush through an election. We have not even finished what has happened in Georgia.

Meanwhile, Trump aides and allies have been privately critical of Tom Emmer, head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, amid the GOP’s underwhelming midterm gains, especially on the House side. CNN has not yet projected which party will control the lower chamber, though Republicans appear on track to gain a narrow House majority. Emmer is competing against Rep. Jim Banks, an ally of Donald Trump Jr., for the position of House GOP whip.

They have been measuring the draperies and putting together an agenda. Pelosi told CNN that they had not won it yet. We will have to make decisions as to how we move forward, depending on who was in the majority during the election.

Ahead of the return of the Senate and the House to Washington, finger pointing has begun and those conversations are likely to intensify.

Trump and his allies have tried to make McConnell the fall guy for the lackluster midterm performance, accusing him of spending recklessly in states where Republicans faced significant burdens in more competitive contests.

Pat said there is a correlation between big losses and candidates from the populist movement. If fealty to Donald Trump is the primary criteria in selecting candidates, we are probably not going to do very well.

McConnell and Scott have been at odds about strategy all election cycles, with McConnell sounding the alarm about candidate quality while Scott chose to stay out of the primaries.

Even though Scott had little chance of succeeding, he wouldn’t rule out challenging McConnell for the top spot.

While McCarthy has been willing to hear out his critics and the potential hold outs, so far, he is not giving in to any of their demands for more power and promises of investigations into the Biden administration.

A senior Republican said that political physics says that you cannot appease the moderates and HFC at the same time. If you cross that fence, you should hope it is not barbed wire.

Despite Trump’s pro-McCarthy campaign, it hasn’t fully broken through. Conservatives have been attacking McCarthy in the conservative media. There was support for McCarthy from one of the Trump allies who went on Steve Bannon’s show. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Ohio, called it a risky idea to challenge McCarthy given their thin majority.

Trump has been eager to lock up public support from Republicans for his third presidential bid, with a separate GOP source saying he has been asking to see which GOP lawmakers have endorsed him in the media. To date, House GOP Conference Chair is the highest-ranking member of the Republican Party to support Trump in his bid.

The speaker nominee will be chosen by House Republicans this week, but the vote for the new speaker will take place in January.

Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the House but she hasn’t said what her next move will be. There is a lot of speculation over her political future, whether or not she will run again for the top leadership spot for the House Democrats or if she will step away as a new generation of leaders waits in the wings.

Republicans are scheduled to hold a candidate forum on Monday evening, followed by leadership elections on Tuesday, November 15, according to a copy of the schedule shared with CNN.

Behind closed doors, the elections are done with a secret ballot. In the GOP’s internal leadership elections, McCarthy only needs a simple majority to win his party’s nomination for speaker. That is expected to happen, but McCarthy could still fall short of 218 votes – the magic number needed to win the speaker’s gavel in January.

House Democratic leadership elections have been announced for Wednesday, November 30. Voting will take place behind closed doors via secret ballot using an app.

To be elected to any position in Democratic leadership, a candidate needs to win a majority among those present and voting. If more than two candidates run and no one wins a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes after the first round of voting will be eliminated and voting will proceed to a second round. Until one candidate has a majority, that process continues.

What do the Democratic Party members are saying about elected officials? ‘We delivered’ Emmer, Rep. Banks, Democratic Chief Whip, and State Sen. Clyburn

While speaking to reporters Tuesday he said he did not know if his bid would be affected by a smaller majority. But his pitch to members is similar to McCarthy’s, saying: “we delivered.”

Emmer is running against Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana, the Republican Study Committee chair, and Drew Ferguson of Georgia, the chief deputy Whip, for the post.

Of course. The California democrat told Bash that people are campaigning and that is a beautiful thing. “And I’m not asking anyone for anything. My members are asking me to consider doing that. Let’s just get through the election.

Currently, Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer serves as the No. 2 House Democrat, in the role of House majority leader, and South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn serves in the role of House majority whip. Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark serves in the role of assistant Speaker and New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries serves as House Democratic caucus chair.

Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, who currently serves as the co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, has announced his run for caucus chair to replace Jeffries who is term limited.

The race to lead the party’s campaign arm, DCCC chair, is starting to take shape up after the current chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York lost his reelection.

Democratic Rep. Tony Cardenas of California announced his race for the spot on Friday but others are being floated as well including Reps. Ami Bera and Sara Jacobs of California.

Sen. Scott McCarthy and the Freedom Caucus: Defending the Bounds on Rep. Randall Greene from his 2024 Campaign

After she broke with some radical GOP members and lined up to support McCarthy’s speakership, it also reflected her growing personal power. After coming to Congress as a fringe figure, and quickly losing her committee assignments over her past violent rhetoric against Democrats, she is one of the most prominent faces of the new GOP majority. She can say what she wants without fear of censure from her party leader, which tells a lot about her position. 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.

The members of the Freedom Caucus were in McCarthy’s office Monday trying to get concessions from him in exchange for their speaker votes.

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry said that while McCarthy has been willing to hear them out, he doesn’t see McCarthy cutting any deals until after Tuesday, when Perry is “99% confident” that someone will challenge McCarthy to show him he doesn’t have the 218 votes he would need on the House floor in January.

Bob Good said they asked McCarthy to give them a proposal about how he would run the House.

Perry said that while their primary focus has been seeking rules changes that would empower individual members – and weaken the speaker – that is “not the limit” of their issues.

He wants to see this place change to reflect what the people think and to acknowledge how broken it is. “It’s incumbent upon anybody that wants to lead to kind of lay out their vision and how they would change their portion of it.”

But hard-right Republicans seized the opportunity to extract promises — and in some cases apologies — from their would-be leaders. Representative Steve Sasso of Louisiana asked whether Mr. McCarthy would commit to investigating Nancy Pelosi, since he has said she will support him.

Clarifying his position, the congressman told CNN that he was not going to get into speculation. “Obviously, our focus is on getting it resolved by January 3. Kevin had a lot of conversations with members who had expressed concerns.

According to two people familiar with the exchange who are not authorized to talk to the media, Mr. Scalise apologized and said that he should have waited until there were more facts to say.

The Correspondence Between Rep. Tom Cole and Rep. Jim McCarthy on a Closed-Door Leader’s Congressional Candidate Forum

Republicans were toiling to find a path forward after disappointing midterm results and still grappling with Mr. Trump’s influence on their party, even after the attack. It came as Mr. Trump was blamed by his own staff for the string of losses in the election because he had hired many of them.

“It’s going to be a narrow one,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma. “It makes it really critical that you’ve got somebody with superb political skills. Somebody that is familiar with the whole of this conference.

McCarthy is hoping to pass a crucial test on Tuesday in his campaign to become House speaker, even though his abysmal performance in the election has led to a search for a challenger.

Simpson said he would back McCarthy for leader because the GOP has gained seats in the past. Simpson said that he had done a good job.

McCarthy has been warning his critics that if Democrats don’t unify, then the GOP will peel off a few Republicans and the Speaker will be a Democrat.

A source said that Bob Good criticized McCarthy during the closed-door leadership candidate forum for not calling to congratulate him when he won his primary and for opposing some pro-Trump candidates. McCarthy replied that he directed $2 million to Good for his race. Good had to be gaveled down in order to cut him off from speaking so they could move to the next question, the source said.

At the private intraparty meeting, McCarthy received a standing ovation from his colleagues. The source said that if elected, McCarthy would take away the power from Democrats and kick them off committees. And he underscored his role in returning Republicans to power.

But McCarthy’s allies have recently attempted to convince moderate Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar to switch parties in hopes of padding their slim margins, according to two sources familiar with the conversation. Cuellar flatly rejected the idea. McCarthy was not involved if these conversations took place and this is not a part of their plan for the majority or his speakership bid, said the GOP leader’s spokesman.

At the private forum, Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the National Republican Congressional Committee chair, was pressed on his vote in support of a bill to codify same-sex marriage earlier this year, according to a source in the room. His reply was divisive social issues shouldn’t be brought to the House floor.

As a right-wing faction threatens to tank his speakership ambitions, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy delivered a promise: “I’ll never leave,” making clear he has no plans to drop out of the race even if the fight goes to many ballots on the floor.

“If a small group refuses to play ball and be part of the team, then we’ll work across the aisle to find an agreeable Republican,” Bacon said. “But I hope we don’t get there.”

If Kevin took his name out, there would be good people running. Scalise would probably be the guy,” one GOP lawmaker said.

If McCarthy cannot get the votes, Scalise would likely jump into the race, but he didn’t mention whether that would happen if he could.

Rep. Jim Jordan, the conservative set to become the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, went even further, ruling out jumping into the race even though Gaetz and other hardliners have urged him to seek the speakership.

After leaving a meeting in McCarthy’s office on Wednesday, the South Carolina lawmaker said that he would vote for Andy for speaker. He later added: “All this is positive. Regardless of what happens, we are having good change. You will see more of it.

In addition to those five, a new group of seven Republican hardliners on Thursday laid out a list of conditions to earn their vote, although they did not specifically threaten to vote against McCarthy if their demands aren’t met.

McCarthy has already begun brokering some rules changes to empower rank-and-file members, created a new select committee on China, vowed to boot some Democratic lawmakers from their committees, and sketched out in greater detail his investigative plans – including a potential impeachment inquiry into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The anti-McCarthy group wants a procedure that would allow any member to have a floor vote on ousting the sitting speaker, which was used by the far right in 2015, to oust JohnBoehner.

A majority of the House GOP voted against the idea of restoring the position of chair vacating during a closed-door meeting last month. McCarthy would not answer when CNN asked if he would visit the issue.

One of the reasons we didn’t see a red wave was the belief that people are sick and tired of fighting and noise. “And I know I get that wherever I go in my district is, ‘why can’t you guys just get things done?’”

A short-term fix that takes the issue into early next year could provoke a gargantuan showdown with the White House in the first days of GOP control of the House, with members firmly committed to slashing Biden’s spending plans and domestic agenda. Setting up the possibility of a confrontation is one way to shore up his vote in the speakership race even though it would be a high risk for McCarthy.

Some Democrats, like Henry Cuellar, a moderate from Texas, said they would entertain the idea.

Joyce said that some of his members had approached him about potentially running, but that he dismissed it. “At the end of the day, Kevin’s going to be the new speaker.”

New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries said that there are no behind the scenes discussions that he has had with Republicans to find an alternative candidate. He refused to rule out a scenario where his caucus would help elect a speaker if McCarthy couldn’t get the votes.

“Democrats are in the process of organizing the Democratic Conference,” Jeffries told CNN on Thursday. The Republicans are in the process of putting together a conference. Let’s see what happens on January 3.”

Some of the potential consensus picks include retiring legislators who voted to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol insurrection; and the co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.

It would take agreement from every single Democrat and the help of five Republicans. He told CNN he will be skiing that day and he had no plans to be in Washington.

But Republican Rep. Bruce Westerman said this has happened before – nearly a decade ago in his state where minority Democrats in the Arkansas legislature joined forces with a handful of Republicans to elect a GOP speaker of their choice. At a closed-door meeting this week, Westerman made his case to his colleagues.

When will Congress get here, and when will we get there? An interview with A.J. Westerman during a meeting with Mr. Trump

Westerman is worried about the fact that January 3 will see us getting here and not being able to form a Congress and organize committees.

Westerman added that the discussion over changing House rules is good for the party. He said he was not really excited about destructive movement.

If Mr. McCarthy does have a plan, he has not given it to his leadership team because they don’t like it and he thinks it’s a display of paranoia. Instead, he has been spotted in recent days around the Capitol and the Republican National Committee headquarters nearby with Jeff Miller, a Republican lobbyist who is among his closest confidants.

Mr Norman declined to speak about his discussion with Mr. Trump, describing it as a private conversation. He said he was still undecided about whom he would support for speaker. Mr. Crane did not respond to requests for comment.

When Nancy Pelosi in 2018 found herself about a dozen votes short of what she would need to secure the speaker’s gavel, she quietly picked off defectors, methodically cutting deals to capture exactly enough support to prevail. 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 already made a series of pledges in an effort to appease the right flank of his party. Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, was called to resign by the man after visiting the southern border. He promised Ms. Cox that she would get a plum spot on the Oversight Committee, even though she was stripped of her committee assignments for posting violent andconspiratorial social media posts before she was elected.

He promised to hold public hearings examining the security breakdowns that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol. He has been quietly meeting with ultraconservative lawmakers in an effort to win them over. He encouraged members to vote against the spending bill on Monday night.

The Case For A Perfectly Flavoured President And The Future Of The GOP. On the Importance Of The Year-Ended Budget Crisis

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. And the ideological struggle being waged by pro-Donald Trump extremists inside the party would have made even a more comfortable majority volatile.

McCarthy acts in a way that is most likely to allow him to reach power, even if the speaker’s givenl might turn into a poisoned chalice and require him to violate democratic values to keep it.

There is a battle going on in congress between members who want it easier to remove a speaker and those who want to protect the political power base of the party.

McCarthy, who once had a pleasant demeanor and a smooth talking personality, has adopted some of the strident defiance of the “Make America Great Again” movement while seeking out soundbite clashes with the press as badges of honor.

This is one reason why the current year-end debate over funding the government is so important, since a bipartisan framework agreement for which was announced Tuesday night was so critical and could dump a fiscal crisis on the lap of a weak and easily manipulated new.

McCarthy said that she thought she was being facetious when she said she was being inflammatory. It was not a surprise that his attitude was consistent with what he had been attempting to do with his attempt to rewrite the history of the worst attack on US democracy in modern times.

The same dynamic played out when McCarthy refused to criticize the ex-president for meeting with a white supremacist at a dinner that also featured neo-Nazi rapper Ye as he has made antisemitic remarks. The House Republican leader made a bizarre statement at the White House after meeting Biden and other congressional leaders.

Thune’s Dilemma: Why the U.S. Budget Package isn’t Going to Congress, But the Future is Now

Senate GOP Whip John Thune on Tuesday downplayed the threat by McCarthy that he would block bills in the next Congress backed by senators who vote for the spending package. Republicans are doing a favor for McCarthy by passing the spending bill before the Republicans take over the House, he said.

The split raises the possibility that it will become more politically difficult for some Republicans to vote for a budget deal now that conservative media has taken up McCarthy’s line.

On Friday, McCarthy took to the airwaves to argue the detractors threaten to put the entire House Republican agenda in peril, warning that basic decisions on legislating and investigating will be “all in jeopardy” – such as getting a new select committee on China up and running. McCarthy can only afford to lose four GOP votes on January 3, assuming all members are in attendance and vote for a specific member.

McCarthy’s dire warning comes as the five GOP members – Gaetz, Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Bob Good of Virginia and Matt Rosendale of Montana – have warned they may vote as a bloc on January 3, meaning they’ll all vote the same way.

McCarthy said that you only have so many months to govern this year because of the presidential year. “And you want to hit the ground running. Every day you lose, if you lose a quarter, you don’t start strong. You don’t get new, strong candidates. You do not have more resources to provide those candidates with the message.

“Right now, the emotions are high,” he said. There are differing opinions about how to deal with funding the government when we have a holiday. I am aware of 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 continuing. For most of us, that’s over after you get elected. The silliness is still evident because he is running for speaker of the House.

Why Did George Santos Make a Great First Amendment Candidate? An Update on his False Claims About His Educational Background and Education

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 through Masto.ai. His opinions are his own in this commentary. View more opinion on CNN.

GOP Rep.-elect George Santos has been making headlines since December 19 — when The New York Times published its jaw-dropping article documenting his litany of false claims about his work experience, education and just about everything in between. Santos admitted to misrepresenting his educational background and later described them as “resume enhancement” but did not specify what it was.

When he claimed his family fled the Holocaust as Ukrainian Jewish refugees from Belgium, this was not true according to his genealogy records. TheSantos campaign did not reply to the request for comment.

Adding to the firestorm are recent developments that federal and state authorities have launched criminal investigations into Santos over his finances and fabrications. When he first ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 2020, Santos reported he had no assets, yet somehow he was able to lend his 2022 campaign $700,000.

Barring something unexpected, Santos likely will be sworn in as a member of Congress on Tuesday without a word of criticism by McCarthy. This is today’s GOP on display. Even if it is gravely bad for the republic, it is a party that stands for nothing other than power.

McCarthy has also criticized the Biden administration’s border policy and played up accusations on Fox Business that the FBI worked to suppress news stories hurtful to Democrats.

Imagine for a moment if an incoming Democratic member of Congress had been engulfed in such a scandal. McCarthy likely would be screaming about how this representative-elect should not be in Congress and how the Democratic leadership needed to denounce this politician.