Mitch McConnell is hatching a plan to avert future government shutdown — but it would give credit to Dems
CNN's Manu Raju reported Monday evening that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is at work on a plot to avert the next government shutdown.
The plan, however, would have Democrats cast a vote to raise the debt ceiling. It's something Republicans did three times under former President Donald Trump, adding over $7.8 trillion to the deficit. McConnell assumes that the vote would be toxic for Democrats, but the reality is that shutting down the government would be toxic for Republicans.
To accomplish his goal, Raju writes that Republicans will need to cooperate under the Senate rules, and break the filibuster. That would mean McConnell would have to find ten Republicans that would agree to allow the debt ceiling bill to come up and then vote against raising it.
The report also says that McConnell has been working behind the scenes with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for weeks.
"The country is never going to default," McConnell promised, speaking to a Wall Street Journal event Monday. "We frequently have drama associated with this decision. But I can assure you the country will never default."
According to Raju, Schumer and McConnell are working on a deal that would allow the debt ceiling to be raised by just 51 votes in the Senate without a filibuster. It would then give both sides the ability to weaponize the vote even further. The crisis is a relatively new one, created by Congress and could easily be eliminated by Congress to avoid future government shutdowns.
Steve Bannon to try turning his contempt trial into being all about Joe Biden: court documents
President Joe Biden has nothing to do with the House Select Committee on Jan. 6, but that doesn't mean Steve Bannon isn't going to try and drag him into it.
Bannon refused to appear before the House when subpoenaed, and instead of using the House to fight against the subpoena, Bannon is choosing another route. The Daily Beast explained that Donald Trump's former campaign CEO and senior White House aide is attempting to attack Biden over whether his appointees were involved in the decision to prosecute him for contempt.
A grand jury was impaneled when the House referred the contempt charge to the Justice Department. The grand jury then looked at the evidence and indicted Bannon. The Justice Department didn't make that decision, the grand jury did.
"In its subpoena, the Select Committee said it had reason to believe that Bannon had information relevant to understanding events related to Jan. 6. Bannon, formerly a Chief Strategist and Counselor to the President, has been a private citizen since departing the White House in 2017," said the Justice Department release on the indictment.
Bannon's lawyers filed court documents saying they're seeking evidence from the White House and Justice Department that includes “documents reflecting the decision to charge Mr. Bannon."
U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols is presiding over the case and was appointed in 2019 by former President Donald Trump.
"Although the DOJ did not say so in its filing Monday night, the legislators who kickstarted this process have made clear they want to make an example out of Bannon to show that witnesses will be punished for defying congressional subpoenas," said the Daily Beast.
Bannon, on the other hand, is pressing for the trial to happen just before the 2022 election in Oct.
The report said that the Justice Department recognizes the uniqueness of the trial. "It involves a former president claiming he still has the power to exercise executive privilege and keep his ex-employees from helping the current government conduct an investigation."
The Justice Department said that the Bannon "case raises complex constitutional issues of first impression. Some of these issues involve inter-branch relationships and on the operations of the U.S. government at its highest levels."
Oxford school shooter appears 'disoriented' in newly released video — and brother admits parents gave him weed
A video obtained by the Daily Mail shows the Oxford, Michigan shooter, Ethan Crumbley, as he appears to wobble through the kitchen of a diner and slips on the floor, falls and hits his head.
The teen who would become the latest in a long line of mass shooters was just 14 at the time. He was working at a diner in Sept. 2020 where he appeared to be walking funny, collapsed, and hits his head on a cabinet. He appeared to have a problem getting up, and someone comes to help him.
Crumbley's mother was called, and she said that he may not have eaten that day, but the owner didn't buy the excuse. She then said that it could have been caused by Crumbley's medications.
The owner also said that Ethan's older brother Eli was caught smoking cannabis while working at the same diner. The staff threatened to call Eli's parents, who said, "Where do you think I got it from?"
See the video below embedded from TMZ:
Copyright © 2021 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | Masthead | Privacy Policy | For corrections or concerns, please email corrections@rawstory.com.
Happy Holidays!