Veteran newsman Dan Rather demands every White House staffer answer a single critical question
July 16, 2018, 5:08 PM ET
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Conservative sees trouble for Ted Cruz after his support for Texas Attorney General was useless
May 28, 2023
Conservative Margaret Hoover joined CNN's Jim Acosta on Sunday, where she and her spouse John Avlon addressed the impeachment vote for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Avlon commented that both Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) supported Paxton and asked local lawmakers not to impeach him. In the end, the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of impeachment.
"There's something to be said about the Texas Republican Party," said Hoover. "Ted Cruz doesn't have a lot of sway with many Republicans anywhere. No one. He's barely held onto that senate seat with begrudging Republican support in his own state. And Donald Trump, same thing. There is a real — for the state that was a republic before it became a state, there was a real sense of fierce independence and not having anybody else tell us how we're going to run our business, how we're gonna run our government and how we're gonna run our parties. And, so, I do think that the Texas Republican Party is, in its own way, a bit inoculated from elements of Donald Trump being able to tell it what to do."
Donald Trump won Texas in 2016 by nine points, but when he ran again in 2024, he won by five.
Speaking about Ted Cruz's problems in the state, former Republican Party strategist Tim Miller explained that when Cruz last ran, in 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) was also on the ballot. He got about 500,000 more votes than Ted Cruz did.
"They had pretty indistinguishable positions. Cruz only wins by two points," Miller told MSNBC earlier this month. This shows he's just that unpopular, right? It wasn't even about the policies, it was about people don't like Ted Cruz, they like Beto. Now, six years later, we've done Cancun, the fact that he's obsessed with his podcast and not actually a senator, just how embarrassing and sniveling he's been, cozying up to Trump after Trump insulted his wife. And then you get to Jan. 6."
See the comments the video below or at the link here.
Conservative sees trouble for Ted Cruz after his support for Texas Attorney General was useless www.youtube.com
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CNN's Jim Acosta and John Avlon compared notes on Republicans speaking on raising the debt ceiling over the weekend only to realize that the far-right members refuse to support the deal between Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden.
Acosta cited an interview he conducted Saturday with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who said he's voted for shutdowns and would vote again this week.
After ranting about cutting spending, Acosta said, "Well, you can have the argument about cutting spending during the budget and appropriations process, but as you know, Congressman, the U.S. has never missed making payments on its bills before. In the last 45 years, Congress has raised the debt ceiling 65 times. So, again, I go back to the question: is it responsible — I understand what you're saying about how much your daughter spends, but we're not talking about $15. We're talking about the American economy. Is it responsible to be the deciding vote to send the country into default?"
Burchett claimed that the country wasn't going to be sent into default. He crafted a conspiracy that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen kept changing the date the U.S. default would happen.
"Nobody is, as the young people say, nobody has provided the receipts. Nobody has called her into Washington and said, 'Show us the math on this,'" he said.
Treasury Secretary Yellen works at the Treasury Department, which is in Washington.
Burchett also had his own math, saying that if they cut the budget spending to the 2022 levels, the country would be in a surplus. The House passed a massive defense spending package that would have required cuts from other places.
"All they're doin' right now is scarin' people," Burchett claimed. "They're talkin' about cutting programs that have no need other than political cronyism, we're tellin' our seniors — and the Democrats will, and I get it — they're tellin' the seniors they're gonna be cut. Veterans are gonna be cut. And nothing can be farther (sic) from the truth. And that's just the reality of politics."
The reason Democrats were citing cuts to seniors and veterans goes back to the Republican Party budget bill that required cuts to seniors and veterans. That's because returning to the 2022 budget levels means making cuts to increases already passed by Congress.
Acosta turned back to Rep. Burchett to ask if he believed the debt ceiling wasn't real.
"I think the debt ceiling is — it's just a creative thing to hold us into responsible — into check," said Burchett.
Avlon cited Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), who claimed he refused to sign a bill that would bankrupt the economy.
"Well, hold it right there," said Avlon. "I mean, if you let the country default on its debt, that's functionally the same thing."
An annoyed Avlon was frustrated the process was even something allowed to happen.
"It's a fact, Congress has to control the pursestrings. So, frankly, someone should figure out the 14th Amendment side of this because I think this is not the way we're supposed to play ball, the greatest nation in the world constantly every couple of years when there's a Democratic president flirting with defaulting on our debt because it's fiscal policy by extortion," said Avlon. "This is a win to the extent that we came up to a bipartisan agreement, but this is not the way the greatest nation in the world should conduct its fiscal policy. It's ridiculous. And it didn't happen when Donald Trump was president because Democrats worked with Republicans to ensure the debt ceiling was raised three times."
See the discussion below or at the link here.
Reporters reveal Republicans don't understand what a debt default means www.youtube.com
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Republican rejects claim they were holding economy hostage — it's using 'leverage' to 'force' Democrats
May 28, 2023
Speaking to CNN's Jim Acosta on Sunday, Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) disputed the characterization that his party was holding the debt ceiling hostage, and the economy along with it.
It was an attack lodged by Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) on Saturday, saying that Republicans never had to use the debt ceiling in their negotiations. The GOP could have used the budget negotiations to get the cuts they wanted without bringing the American economy to the brink of another shutdown.
After watching the shutdown during Barack Obama's administration, political analysts think Biden drew a line for that reason, saying he wouldn't negotiate on the debt ceiling. He'd only negotiate on the budget. In the end, it's what Republicans ultimately did, but Kelly twisted the comment to say that Biden said he wouldn't negotiate and the GOP got him to do it.
"I think the White House is coming around to the point that they don't control all three branches of government anymore," Kelly claimed. "As we've done through Congress and all times in divided government, we're going to take the leverage we have and we're going to force fiscal sanity back."
A hostage is someone who is "captured by a person or organization and who may be killed or injured if people do not do what that person or organization demands," the definition says. Using leverage to force demands is what Kelly said.
The comments and the agreement came days after the chairperson of the Republican Party said that a default on the debt would help Republicans in 2024.
See the clip from Kelly below or at the link here.
It's not a hostage crisis it's force through leverage www.youtube.com
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