DeSantis defends abortion ban Trump suggests is ‘too harsh’
May 16, 2023, 2:02 PM ET
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Nearly 40 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus broke with the majority of their House Democratic colleagues late Wednesday to vote against the debt ceiling agreement negotiated by President Joe Biden and Republican leaders.
The legislation, which would lift the debt ceiling until January 2025 and enact painful caps on non-military federal spending, passed the GOP-controlled House by a vote of 314 to 117, with 165 Democrats joining 149 Republicans in supporting the measure.
The bill's passage came after weeks of talks between the White House—which repeatedly said it would not negotiate over the debt ceiling—and Republicans who manufactured the standoff to pursue austerity for low-income Americans, gifts for rich tax cheats, and handouts to the fossil fuel industry.
While Republicans didn't get anything close to what they called for in legislation they passed in late April, progressives who voted against the bill on Wednesday said the final agreement will harm vulnerable people and the planet by imposing new work requirements on aid recipients and approving the Mountain Valley Pipeline—a top priority of fossil fuel industry ally Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).
Progressives also raised alarm over a provision that would codify the end of the student loan payment pause, setting the stage for a disaster if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the Biden administration's debt cancellation plan.
"I cannot vote for a bill that guts key environmental protections and greenlights dirty fossil fuel projects for corporate polluters who are poisoning our communities, pushes our residents deeper into poverty by implementing cruel and ineffective work requirements for our low-income neighbors who rely on SNAP and TANF for food and housing, terminates the student loan payment pause, and slashes IRS funding to make it easier for the rich to cheat on their taxes," Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said in a statement.
"We cannot continue to capitulate to a far-right Republican Party and their extreme demands while they inflict policy violence on working-class people, gut our bedrock environmental protections, and decimate our planet," Tlaib added, referring to the bill's work requirements for food aid.
In total, 36 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) voted against the legislation:
Reps. Tlaib, Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Greg Casar (D-Texas), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Chuy García (D-(Ill.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), and Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.).
But the CPC members who joined Republicans in voting yes on the bill, including prominent progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), outnumbered those who opposed it.
Jayapal, the CPC chair, said Wednesday that she could not in good conscience be part of the Republican Party's "extortion scheme" by voting for legislation that "rips food assistance away from poor people and disproportionately Black and brown women, pushes forward pro-corporate permitting policies and a pipeline in direct violation of the community's input, and claws back nearly 25% of the funding Democrats allocated for the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats."
Bush, who represents St. Louis, added that "this agreement, whose worst elements are undoubtedly the fault of MAGA Republicans who shamefully took our economy hostage, pairs raising the debt limit with many policies that will harm our most vulnerable communities."
"I am disgusted with the chief hostage taker Kevin McCarthy and his MAGA insurrectionist conference for threatening economic catastrophe," said the Missouri Democrat. "For the good of our country, and to prevent the GOP from politicizing the debt ceiling to harm our communities moving forward, I believe we must eliminate the debt ceiling altogether."
The bill now heads to the Senate, where lawmakers are expected to act before the June 5 debt-limit deadline set by the Treasury Department.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the lone Senate member of the CPC, announced ahead of Wednesday's House vote that he will oppose the legislation, calling it "a bill that takes vital nutrition assistance away from women, infants, children, and seniors while refusing to ask billionaires who have never had it so good to pay a penny more in taxes."
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the measure's new work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients would put nearly 750,000 low-income adults between the ages of 50 and 54 at risk of losing food aid.
"The fact of the matter is that this bill is totally unnecessary," Sanders said. "The president has the authority and the ability to eliminate the debt ceiling today by invoking the 14th Amendment. I look forward to the day when he exercises this authority and puts an end, once and for all, to the outrageous actions of the extreme right-wing to hold our entire economy hostage in order to get what they want."
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'Overwhelming and clear-cut' evidence will push DOJ to 'very quickly' indict Trump: Ex-Mueller prosecutor
June 01, 2023
A new recording that shows Donald Trump discussing a classified document could be the final nail that results in criminal charges, according to one legal expert, and there could be tremendous pressure to prosecute him before the 2024 election.
Special counsel Jack Smith's team has an audio recording of the former president from July 2021 discussing a classified document that outlined a possible attack on Iran that he took from the White House, and he showed awareness that he no longer had the authority to declassify it, and MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann said the case against Trump was "overwhelming."
"It's always fraught to give predictions, but I would think that the Department of Justice and Jack Smith are going to be very concerned about getting information into the hands of the public and trying to have a trial before there is an election," said Weissman, a former federal prosecutor who worked under special counsel Robert Mueller. "Not for the sake of speed but for the sake of the electorate knowing what the proof is, so they can factor that in in deciding who to vote for. That's a long way of saying that I think they'll feel a lot of internal pressure to act very quickly."
READ MORE: New Trump evidence is almost as good as 'a guilty plea': Former House GOP Intel Chair
"There is, I think from a procedural perspective, we've heard that Donald Trump has sent this letter to the attorney general, so he can appeal to the attorney general, who has the power to sort of do a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on any potential indictment," Weissman continued. "I find it highly unlikely that the attorney general would reject a potential indictment proposal from Jack Smith. The only question there is how long that appeal process would in the department take. Then I actually -- if I guess, I'd say it'll probably be the next couple weeks that you will see some sort of charge on Mar-a-Lago. I think Jan. 6 may take a little longer because it is a much more complicated case."
"I agree with you Mar-a-Lago, at this point, the proof seems overwhelming and relatively clear cut," he added.
Watch the video below or at this link.
06 01 2023 07 13 22 youtu.be
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Former Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers on Thursday said that new evidence on former President Donald Trump's handling of classified documents puts him in real legal jeopardy.
Speaking to CNN, Rogers broke down the significance of reports that prosecutors have an audio recording of the former president boasting that he retained a classified document about a potential attack on Iran after he left the White House.
Rogers said that this particular piece of evidence, if accurate, would be "very significant" in any criminal proceeding.
"It's the cavalier nature of which he... had the document, which is also a crime if he did... and secondly, what is causing the information in that document to be disclosed to people who are not authorized to hear it," he said. "And the very nature and sensitivity of the topic that was in that particular document as described is very concerning."
RELATED: 'That's going to be his undoing': Legal expert tells CNN that Trump has cornered himself
He then speculated how prosecutors could potentially use this evidence against the former president.
"It showed his intent," he said. "As an old FBI guy, I can tell you: One thing about having a tape with your voice on it, the only better piece of evidence is a guilty plea... It is really significant."
Watch the video below or at this link.
New Trump evidence is almost as good as 'a guilty plea': Former House GOP Intel Chair www.youtube.com
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