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'Bunch of spoiled kids': MAGA lawmaker defends 'no' vote on his own party's spending bill

A MAGA Republican who joined more than 30 of his fellow party members in voting against a GOP spending bill to fund the government — and avert a holiday shutdown — said that while he feels for the people affected by the vote, "collapsing the government" and "acting like a bunch of spoiled kids" wouldn't do anyone any good.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) spoke to reporters on the steps of the Capitol on Thursday night after his party's 11th-hour spending bill failed to pass a House vote just a day before the current funding bill is set to expire.

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'Absolutely sickened': Chip Roy scolds Republicans in fiery House floor speech

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) went after his GOP colleagues in the House while delivering heated remarks on Thursday targeting the now-failed Donald Trump-backed spending bill as the federal government faces a looming government shutdown.

Roy didn’t shy away from admonishing his own party in his floor speech that exposed party rifts weeks before Trump returned to the White House with a Republican trifecta. The MAGA lawmaker was especially fired up by Trump’s demand that lawmakers increase the debt ceiling.

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'Success!' Trump declares victory in salvaging spending bill deal he helped torpedo

President-elect Donald Trump declared "success in Washington" on Thursday afternoon and said lawmakers in Congress have come to a "very good deal" to avert a government shutdown.

Trump took to Truth Social to proclaim: "SUCCESS in Washington!"

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'Describes everything he did': Legal expert shares new details in health CEO's murder

New details about the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson were revealed in federal court Thursday.

Murder suspect Luigi Mangione had a hearing scheduled for Thursday afternoon in court in New York City after waiving extradition from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week at a McDonalds in Altoona. The criminal complaint against him was unsealed, revealing new evidence against the 26-year-old accused killer.

"This criminal complaint on the other hand, which is basically an affidavit attested to by an agent of the government, describes everything that Mangione did here," said MSNBC's Lisa Rubin. "It has some pictures and still photography, pictures of the guns, describes the casings that were found on the scene, and then goes on to describe a notebook that was found with several handwritten pages, and describes what Mangione wrote in greater detail than anything that has been reported yet."

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'Who's in charge — Trump or Musk?' Republican lawmaker put on spot by MSNBC host

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) was put on the spot by MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Thursday over the role that X owner Elon Musk is playing in negotiating a deal to keep the federal government open.

In particular, Mitchell asked Lawler what he made of the fact that Musk led the way to killing the bipartisan government funding bill despite the fact that no one elected him to any position of government authority.

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Johnson in ‘colossal mess’ with ‘no plan’ to avert shutdown amid rising anger: reports

Speaker Mike Johnson and his Republican majority in the House reportedly have "no plan" to avert a shutdown of the federal government—a shutdown that will begin at 12:01 AM Saturday unless they can draft and pass replacement legislation, convince the Senate to pass it, and get President Joe Biden to sign it into law—all in about 36 hours.

"It's a colossal mess," NBC News' Sahil Kapur reported Thursday morning (video below). "This bill looked all set to pass the House and the Senate over the coming days. It had broad bipartisan support after it was inked by Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and leadership in both parties."

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'Spectacle' Cabinet hearings could be 'potentially damaging' to Trump momentum: analyst

Noting that there is little expectation that any of Donald Trump's more troublesome nominees to join his Cabinet will fall by the wayside before their Senate hearings, MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire claimed they could become a different kind of problem for the president-elect.

With fellow MSNBC host Jen Psaki predicting the nationally televised hearings of characters like ex-Fox News personality Pete Hegseth and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard could be fiery, the "Morning Joe" co-host suggested that might not be in Trump's best interest.

"I was talking to Trump officials this week," Lemire began. "[Attorney general nominee] Matt Gaetz, he took himself out of the running there. He realized he had no chance and bailed out privately. The rest have been instructed to fight. This is the strategy from the Trump team; we're not going to ask any of our nominees to withdraw."

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"I mean, they allow for the possibility that some other damaging revelation could emerge that could change the calculus, but at least for now, they're saying, no, we want a full-court press," he elaborated. "Pressure these republicans, we're seeing that campaign already begin. We want to have these, Trump's choices, get confirmed, which means having those hearings."

"Those hearings, particularly for, you know, Tulsi Gabbard," he added. "Yes, Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel –– add Robert F. Kennedy to the list. They're going to be spectacles that could be potentially damaging to the momentum Trump wants to have coming into office."

Watch below or at the link here.

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Republicans showing signs they 'are going to overplay their hand': ex-lawmaker

Former Democratic lawmaker Bakari Sellers warned that Republicans would "overplay their hand" if they governed by the whims of Elon Musk.

The tech billionaire helped kill a government spending bill negotiated by House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), which could result in a government shutdown, and Sellers blasted the GOP majority for caving to Donald Trump and his outside allies

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MSNBC panel paints chilling portrait of threat to Trump enemies — even with pardons

Taking an off-road from a discussion on Donald Trump's nomination of Kash Patel to be the next director of the FBI, MSNBC host Jen Psaki and NBC News National Security Editor David Rohde described the onslaught of harassment Trump's enemies could face even of President Joe Biden gave them preemptive pardons.

During their appearance on "Morning Joe," Psaki noted that the FBI job comes with a ten-year term which would allow Patel to do the president-elect's dirty work for an extended period of time.

As she told the panel, for Trump targets like ex-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), a pardon would be not shield from legal and congressional harassment.

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"The last piece I would note is there has been a lot of talk of preemptive pardons" she told the panel. "The more Trump and people around him mention it, the more it seems like a good idea. But even if a list of people is on a pre-emptive pardon list, they can still be investigated, and hauled in front of Congress which is run by Republicans. They can still have their names tarnished, still forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands in legal fees."

"And part of this is tying up these voices, intimidating people, and forcing people to be obedient in advance which should be chilling to people," she warned. "It is not just the media. it is voices of opposition within the Republican party, obviously Democrats, outside groups –– that's the clear goal here. Threatening, creating fear, fear as a form of silencing people."

Watch below or at the link.

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'Raucous caucus': Mike Johnson's new actions said to show 'inherent weakness of the GOP'

A Democratic lawmaker slammed House speaker Mike Johnson for losing control of his Republican majority and risking a government shutdown.

Donald Trump and J.D. Vance helped kill a continuing resolution that would have kept the government funded until March 14, following outspoken opposition from Elon Musk and other outside allies, and Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) harshly criticized the speaker's leadership.

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'Washington-speak': MSNBC's Jen Psaki laughs at senators' comments on Trump nominees

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," MSNBC host Jen Psaki couldn't contain her mirth on Thursday morning after co-host Wille Geist reported on comments made by senators on several of Donald Trump's more troublesome Cabinet nominees.

With DNI nominee Tulsi Gabbard, defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., slated to head of Health and Human Services, all facing more scrutiny than usual due to their lack of experience for their proposed new jobs, Psaki claimed any comments right now are just stalling tactics.

Morning Joe's Willie Geist started the conversation by pointing out that the embattled Gabbard has met with Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and John Fetterman (D-PA) and they claimed that were having an "on-going dialogue" with her, with Geist prompting Psaki with, "Decode Washington-speak for us, if you would. What do you hear in the statements from some of the senators?"

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That led to a sharp laugh from the smiling Psaki who replied, "Well, reserving judgment until the confirmation hearings doesn't mean the person is going to support them –– and I will say that especially for Democrats. It's a respect for the process. A lot of these people have decided they will or won't support nominees."

"The national security ones here are the ones who are of biggest concern with the most chatter," she reported. "What is of interest to me is a lot of Republicans have been holding their fire publicly. Is that the same as what is happening privately. Because we know as with the [Matt] Gaetz nomination was ended privately, quietly. That's where important conversations happen in Washington, not necessarily publicly."

Adding that she didn't think anything will happen soon, she later explained, "The last thing I'll say here, the hearings, I think, which clearly seem to be on track to happen for all of these nominees, for Hegseth, for [attorney general nominee] Pam Bondi, for [FBI director nominee] Kash Patel, could be quite fiery. We haven't seen hearings like that in some time, and it'll be an interesting thing to watch."

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Teamsters Union launches 'largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history'

The Teamsters launched what the union described as "the largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history" on Thursday morning to protest the e-commerce behemoth's unlawful refusal to bargain with organized drivers and warehouse workers across the country.

Workers in New York City, Atlanta, San Francisco, and other locations are expected to participate in Thursday's strike, with more facilities prepared to join if Amazon's management doesn't agree to negotiate contracts with unionized employees.

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'Footnote in history': CNN Republican writes Matt Gaetz's political epitaph

A CNN conservative commentator wrote off Matt Gaetz's political future as the House Ethics Committee prepares to release a report on its investigation into shocking allegations against the former lawmaker.

The panel voted in secret earlier this month to reverse its previous decision on the report, which will reveal findings from a congressional investigation into allegations that Gaetz paid for sex with teenage girls, used illicit drugs and shared lewd images with colleagues on the House floor, and Republican strategist Brad Todd told "CNN This Morning" that this would be a nail in the coffin of his political career.

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