She spoke truth, not crime: The Arizona house committee’s vice chair and president Rusty Bowers, A.R.T. Thompson, Bennie Thompson, and Mike McCarthy

Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, was its obvious star, imbued with moral authority by the fact that she’d sacrificed her position in Republican leadership, and possibly her political career, to stand up to Donald Trump. But there were many others.

Rusty Bowers, the Trump-supporting speaker of the Arizona House who refused to help the former president subvert his state’s election results, was a portrait of rectitude, reading from his journal, “I will not play with laws I swore allegiance to.” Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump’s chief of staff, defied attempts at intimidation to describe a president at once calculating and berserk.

Bennie Thompson, the committee’s Democratic chairman, said that the most striking fact was that almost all of the evidence came from Republicans.

When pressed for specific on his plans to fight crime, McCarthy said Republicans would fund the police, provide grants for recruiting and training, and look at how crimes are being prosecuted. And to bring down inflation and gas prices, he said they would reduce government spending and make America more energy independent, though he did not name specific bills.

The US-Mexico border patrol report: Implications for the anti-McCarthy campaign, and how many people will vote for him?

Title 42 is a Trump-era rule that allows border authorities to turn away migrants at the US-Mexico border. According to data from the US Customs and Border Protection, in the fiscal year of 2022, the US border encounters exceeded two million. Of those, more than 1 million were turned away under Title 42.

McCarthy said that impeachment wouldn’t be used for political purposes. If something is used at the right time, it would not be used at any other time.

McCarthy said that he was very supportive of Ukraine. I think it’s important for accountability to go forward. … You always need, not a blank check, but make sure the resources are going to where it is needed. It is necessary that Congress and the Senate have the ability to debate it openly.

Bob Good, a Republican from Virginia who was against McCarthy, told CNN that how many members vote for someone else would show the strength of the anti-McCarthy group. “I think the second ballot is going to have more candidates. … There are already Republicans letting us know they’d like to be considered.”

McCarthy personally called Norman to ask for his support for speaker, but Norman wouldn’t commit. He told McCarthy there is a group of them that want to see each other in person.

What can you do about Mexico? Maurero’s warning on the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip in the Trump era

“I think ‘Stay in Mexico’ you have to have right off the bat,” he said, referring to the controversial policy where migrants were forced to remain in Mexico while they wait for their immigration proceedings in the United States.

To help stem the flow of fentanyl coming across the border, McCarthy said “you first do a very frontal attack on China to stop the poison from coming,” and then “provide the resources that the border agents need” and “make sure that fentanyl anytime anybody who wants to move it, you can prosecute him for the death penalty.”

Legislation to raise the national borrowing limit and to fund the government are unlikely to be passed because of the president’s veto and the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. McCarthy, however, signaled Republicans will demand spending cuts in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling, teeing up a risky fiscal showdown that could lead to a disastrous debt default.

Wouldn’t it be better if you first told a person to change their behavior so you don’t raise the bar all the time? He said so. “You shouldn’t just say, ‘Oh, I’m gonna let you keep spending money.’ No household should do that.”

McCarthy acknowledged Republicans were willing to raise the debt ceiling under Trump, but said the calculus is different now because Democrats spent trillions of dollars under Biden.

McCarthy would not agree to risk a default by using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip. You do not risk a default.

She can do what she wants, but she doesn’t have any restrictions on committees… Even if she wants to go on the steering committee

McCarthy has worked hard to get her back on committees after Democrats took her off because of her comments.

McCarthy said that he doesn’t have any restrictions about which committees Greene can serve on, even though he’ll have a say in the assignments. The key role of the House Oversight Committee will be played by the GOP, according to Greene, who once said that she wanted a seat there.

“She’s going to have committees to serve on, just like every other member … As we go through the steering committee, we will look at members request of different committees. She can do what she wants with the committees she wants, just like any other member of the conference.

Greene is not the only member who has spouted conspiracy theories or incendiary rhetoric. Some Republicans mocked the attack on Speaker Pelosi’s husband or peddled conspiracy theories about it.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/07/politics/kevin-mccarthy-interview-border-security/index.html

How Democrats and Republicans are planning to run for the House Speaker: A CNN Analysis of the Freedom Caucus New Member Orientation in Washington, DC

He wants the president to not say anything about them because they have a difference of opinion. I think leadership is important and I think it starts with the president. And it will start with the speaker as well.”

“I’ve heard from multiple of my constituents who question the wisdom of proceeding forward with that leadership,” Biggs said, adding that there needs to be a “frank conversation” about who they elect for the top job.

Lauren Boebert of Colorado said that it was a red line and not everyone in the Freedom Caucus was in agreement about whether to make that hard line.

The Freedom Caucus, a group that includes dozens of hardline members, have been meeting in Washington, DC, this week for their new member orientation, where they have begun to plot out their strategy for the speaker’s race. With a slimmer-than-expected majority, they see an opportunity, and are planning to use their leverage to get more power in a GOP-led House.

Tensions inside the party have been intensified due to the group’s push for concessions from McCarthy. Said one senior GOP lawmaker: “They are a bunch of selfish, prima dona a**holes who want attention for themselves. They are competing for the affection of their followers on social media.

CNN believes Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives with 211 seats to 198 for Democrats, as of Friday morning.

What is wrong with the left-right coalition? A pedagogical analysis of two GOP senators in the wake of the 2016 midterm elections

Norman said the group hopes to formalize a lengthier list of all the rules changes they are seeking. McCarthy has not decided if he will push to delay next week’s internal leadership elections.

When asked whether McCarthy should get credit for delivering the majority, Norman responded: “The taxpayers that voted the representatives in deserve the credit.”

But there is at least one member who has said there is nothing McCarthy could do to earn his vote. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said on his podcast that not only was McCarthy not his first choice to lead, he was not “even in my top 100”.

Gaetz said that the C team shouldn’t start with a slim majority. To attract more people to our ideas, we need to put the stars in a position to shine.

Some of the Republicans speaking out now have previously enabled Mr. Trump and his policies, either through public support or silence. While they long privately claimed to disdain Mr. Trump’s politics, they were fearful of crossing the party’s base.

The party is reaping political consequences. Senate races in Arizona and Pennsylvania were lost by Trump-backed candidates. On Saturday, Democrats clinched control of the Senate with a hard-fought re-election victory for Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada. In the House, despite predictions of a G.O.P. wave, neither party had secured a majority.

Since Tuesday’s election, The Wall Street Journal editorial page and The New York Post — owned by the conservative media baron Rupert Murdoch — have called for Mr. Trump to be tossed aside. Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears of Virginia and Robin Vos, the powerful Assembly speaker in Wisconsin — both major Trump allies during and after his presidency — said Mr. Trump shouldn’t be the party’s presidential nominee in 2024.

Moderate Republicans used the moment to bash the party for its obsession with conspiracy theories and divisive issues. Romney said that the return to classic fiscal conservatism was necessary. During an interview on Friday, Chris Sununu said that Mr. Trump was going to ruin the party’s chances in Georgia.

And Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who spoke at a Trump rally in Sioux City days before the election, said on Twitter that it was time to move on from Mr. Trump’s pet issue. He said to quit talking in 2020.

In the Capitol, some House Republicans are questioning the leaderships embrace of the MAGA wing, lack of a unified message on abortion, and decisions to spend scarce resources late in the game.

Some GOP senators want their leadership elections delayed so they can have a family discussion about why the GOP didn’t do well. And at least one Republican, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, has publicly vowed to oppose McConnell’s bid for GOP leader.

In an opinion piece, Representative Andy Goggs from Arizona said that Mr. McCarthy didn’t see grounds for impeaching the Biden administration officials because of what he had said before the elections. Mr. McCarthy made a threat against the homeland security secretary.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is among those calling for a delay in the Senate leadership election scheduled for Wednesday, saying it “doesn’t make any sense” to have them this week.

“A lot of people have called me to see if I’ll run,” Scott said. My focus for now is to win Georgia. I will not remove anything from the table.

Implications of the GOP’s underwhelming midterm gains: Tom Emmer, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and Tim Pelosi

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. According to CNN, Republicans are on track to gain a narrow House majority, though no party has yet claimed control of the lower chamber. 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 drapes and putting together an agenda. They haven’t won it yet,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “After the election is concluded, depending on who was in the majority, there’ll be judgments made within their own party, in our own parties, as to how we go forward.”

Behind the scenes, the finger pointing has already begun, and those conversations are likely to accelerate as the full House and Senate return to Washington this week for the first time since the midterm elections.

Trump and his allies tried to blame McConnell for the GOP’s lackluster performance in the election, accusing him of recklessly spending in states where Republican candidates faced significant disadvantages in more competitive contests.

Pat Toomey said that there was a correlation between big losses and the candidates from the “Make America Great Again” movement. “I think my party needs to face the fact that if fealty to Donald Trump is the primary criteria for selecting candidates, we’re probably not going to do really well.”

McConnell and Scott have also been publicly at odds all election cycle when it comes to strategy, with McConnell sounding the alarm about candidate quality while Scott opted to take a hands-off approach in the primaries.

Scott didn’t rule out a challenge for McConnell’s top spot even though he wouldn’t have a chance.

McCarthy has listened to his critics, and the potential hold outs, but doesn’t agree with any of their demands for more power or investigations into the Biden administration.

One senior Republican said political physics says you cannot appease the moderates and HFC at the same time. “If you straddle that fence, you better hope it’s not barbed wire.”

The House Democratic Leadership Elections: Candidate Forum & Voting Schedule for Thursday, November 30, 2016 at the Hilton Inn Las Vegas

Trump and McCarthy have spoken multiple times since the midterm elections, sources said, and McCarthy’s camp is hoping Trump’s endorsement will help win over some of the staunchest Trump supporters who have been critical of McCarthy.

Trump is eager to lock down public support from Republicans for his third campaign and has been asking to see the names of GOP lawmakers who have endorsed him.

Whoever is elected for the top leadership spot in the House Democratic caucus will be their party’s Speaker nominee. But if Republicans have a majority, that nominee would be expected to fall short in the vote by the full House in the Speaker’s election in January and would be poised to become House Minority Leader instead.

If Pelosi runs again for the top leadership spot in the Democrats, she won’t give up her role as leader of the caucus. Pelosi, the leader of the Democratic party, has the support of her membership and is seen as an effective leader within her party.

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.

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

A candidate needs to win a majority of the people present and voting in order to be elected to a position in Democratic leadership. 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. One candidate will be in charge until a majority is achieved.

How Will We Get Through the Election? The California Democrat, Jim Banks, and the Chief Deputy Whip, Emmer, on the Freedom Caucus

He has long resisted the temptation to make deals to weaken the speakership if enough Freedom Caucus members don’t support him.

Emmer told reporters he didn’t know if a smaller majority would affect his bid. His pitch was similar to McCarthy’s, saying “we delivered.”

Jim Banks of Indiana, a Republican Study Committee chair, as well as Drew Ferguson of Georgia, the chief deputy Whip, are Emmer’s competitors for the post.

Yes. The California Democrat said that people are campaigning, which is a beautiful thing. I am not asking for anything from anyone. My members are asking me to consider doing that. But, again, let’s just get through the election.”

Rep Hakeem Jeffries: Campaigning for Change in House Policy and Communications During the Decree of the Jan. 6 Capitol Attack

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. New York Rep Hakeem Jeffries is the chair of the House Democratic caucus.

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.

On Friday, Democratic Rep. Tony Cardenas of California said he was running for the spot and others have joined in as well.

Several members of the Freedom Caucus met with McCarthy in his office Monday in an effort to extract concessions from him in exchange for their speaker votes.

Rep. Bob Good, who said McCarthy faces “an uphill climb” to the speakership, said they’ve asked McCarthy to bring to them his proposal for running 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.

“We want to see this place change dramatically, to reflect the will of the people and to acknowledge how broken it is,” he said. “It’s incumbent upon everybody to kind of lay out their vision, how they would change their portion of it.”

Hard-right Republicans were able to give promises and apologizes from their would-be leaders. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has said she will support Mr. McCarthy and predicted he would give her a significant amount of power in a Republican-led House, asked Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the party’s No. 2, whether he would commit to investigating Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Justice Department for their treatment of defendants being held at the D.C. jail without bail in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

“No, I’m not going to get into speculation,” Scalise told CNN. We’re focused on getting it resolved by January 3. And there’s a lot of conversations that everybody has been having, Kevin, surely, with the members who have expressed concerns.”

Two people familiar with the exchange say Mr. Scalise apologized and said that he didn’t have enough information to comment.

Democrat Kevin McCarthy in the Light of the January 6 Critics’ Flare: Defending the Tea Party in the Context of Pence’s Crises

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 after former Vice President Mike Pence had made his most pointed comments yet about Mr. Trump, as the president has received a torrent of internal blame for the string of defeats in the election.

“It’s going to be a narrow one,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma. It makes it very important that you have someone with political skills. Someone that knows everything about the conference.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is hoping to pass a crucial test on Tuesday in his campaign to become House speaker despite an underwhelming midterm election performance that launched a search among conservatives for a challenger.

Idaho GOP Rep. Mike Simpson said he’ll support McCarthy for leader, noting the GOP gained House seats the last two elections. Simpson said that he had done a good job.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said, “If we don’t unify behind Kevin McCarthy, we are opening up the door for the Democrats to be able to recruit some of our Republicans.”

During a closed-door leadership candidate forum on Monday, Virginia Rep. Bob Good, a McCarthy critic, complained that a Super PAC aligned with McCarthy opposed some pro-Trump candidates, and criticized McCarthy for not calling to congratulate him when he won his primary, according to a source in the room. McCarthy said he directed two million dollars 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.

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. The idea was flatly rejected by Cuellar. McCarthy was not involved in the conversations if they took place, because they were not part of his speakership bid.

There are at least two leadership races open in the House, one of which is for the position of House GOP majority whip.

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 answer was that divisive social issues shouldn’t be brought to the House floor.

In the event of a doomsday scenario where McCarthy or Biggs don’t get 218 votes, some pro-McCarthy Republicans are signalling support for a different approach. Some people are willing to work with Democrats to find a republican who can get 218 votes to become speaker, but this is a longshot idea.

If there is a small group that doesn’t play ball or be part of the team, we will work across the aisle to find an agreeable Republican. I hope we do not get there.

If Kevin withdrew his name, you would have good people running. Scalise would probably be the guy,” one GOP lawmaker said.

If the GOP leader can’t win the votes, Scalise won’t jump into the race and wouldn’t say whether he would if he did.

Jim Jordan, the conservative who will become the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, decided not to run for the speakership even though other hardliners have urged him to.

There is a chance that Mr. Norman will vote for Andy for speaker even though he doesn’t know what we’re discussing. He added that it was all positive. We’re having good change, regardless of what happens. And you’ll see more of it.”

Their list of demands – which shows the work McCarthy needs to do to get to 218 – includes a promise that leaders won’t play in primaries, restoring the motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, placing more conservatives on key committees, giving members at least 72 hours to read bill text before a vote, and committing to using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip to demand more spending cuts, according to a copy of the letter obtained by CNN.

McCarthy has more levers that he could pull. Conservative hardliners are pushing for more representation on the powerful House Rules Committee, a leadership-aligned panel that decides how and when bills come to the floor. A person familiar with the matter said that a member of the House Freedom Caucus told McCarthy to take a harder stance on policy issues during a private meeting.

The majority of the House GOP voted against restoring the motion to leave the chair, after McCarthy opposed it at a closed-door meeting last month. When asked by CNN on Thursday if he would visit the issue, McCarthy laughed and refused to answer.

The idea that people are sick and tired of the noise and fighting is one of the reasons that we didn’t see a red wave. Wherever I live, I get the idea that people should just get things done.

As McCarthy scrambles to lock down speaker’s votes, he also delayed the GOP’s internal elections for committee chairmanships. There was some speculation that one of the members competing for a gavel, Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida, may retire early if he doesn’t win, which would make McCarthy’s math problem even tougher. But Buchanan vehemently disputed the notion.

Some Democrats have said they would entertain the idea, including Rep. Henry Cuellar, a moderate Democrat from Texas who told CNN some of his GOP colleagues have approached him “informally” about it.

Joyce also said some members have reached out to him about potentially running, but he dismissed it. Kevin is the new speaker at the end of the day.

There are no behind-the-scenes discussions that he has had with Republicans regarding a candidate for Congress, says the next House Democratic leader. But he refused to rule out a scenario where his caucus would help elect the next speaker if McCarthy couldn’t get the votes.

“Democrats are in the process of organizing the Democratic Conference,” Jeffries told CNN on Thursday. The Republican Conference is in the planning stages. We want to see what happens on January 3.

Some of the potential consensus picks that have been floated included retiring Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and John Katko of New York, who both voted to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol insurrection; Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus; and Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, a veteran lawmaker and incoming head of the House Rules Committee.

It would take agreement from every single Democrat as well as the help of five Republicans. The man said that he will be skiing and will not be in Washington that day.

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. Westerman privately made this case to his colleagues at a closed-door meeting this week.

Dialogue with Nancy Pelosi: Democrat National Committee Chairman Jayden Westerman at the Capitol after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack

“I’m concerned about January 3 getting here and us not being able to form a Congress and organize committees and getting delayed in pushing the policy objectives that we want to push,” Westerman said.

The discussion over changing House rules is beneficial to the party. He said that he was not really excited about destructive movement.

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 was spotted in recent days around the Capitol and the Republican National Committee headquarters with Jeff Miller, a lobbyist who is one of his closest friends.

Mr Norman described his call with Mr. Trump as a private conversation. He was uncertain about who he would support for speaker. Mr. Crane did not respond to questions or comments.

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 won seven of the vote by agreeing to limit her tenure, eight by promising to implement rules to foster a more bipartisan legislating, and one 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. 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 the woman that was stripped of her committee assignments for violent and conspiratorial postings on social media that she would be a member of the Oversight Committee.

He has threatened to investigate the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, promising to hold public hearings scrutinizing the security breakdowns that occurred. He met with ultraconservative lawmakers in an attempt 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.