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A Florida GOP lawmaker says he made an "error" when he filed an amendment allowing the flying of the Confederate flag, Newsweek reported.
State Sen. Jay Collins posted a statement to Twitter through a spokesperson denying that he's a "Confederate sympathizer," and added that the legislation was retracted.
The amendment, SB 668, provided a list of flags to be displayed by Florida's governmental buildings, saying that the government entities "may expose to public view only the following flags in and on the grounds of public buildings and other public properties" -- one of which was the "flag of the Confederate States."
"Jay Collins is an American patriot who personally sewed his arm back together on the battlefield in Afghanistan as he was hemorrhaging blood along with losing his leg due to injuries sustained in active combat in defense of the flag of the United States of America," the Twitter statement said. "Any insinuation that Jay is a confederate sympathizer is disgusting. This amendment draft was filed in error and has already been pulled as we work to ensure the wording of our bill is in line with the state constitution and statute, which is what created this issue in the first place."
IN OTHER NEWS: Kimberly Guilfoyle’s 'weird' 54th birthday party featured some incredible Trump rants and a YMCA dance
While the bill did not specifically mention Pride flags, LGBTQ advocacy group PRISM president Maxx Fenning said last month that at "first glance, this feels like a no-brainer that this is directed at pride flags."
"We see continuous attacks on efforts to erase us, marginalized people, our community, and to write us out of existence," Fenning said.
Atlantic reporter McKay Coppins appeared on CNN Wednesday to discuss his recent reporting on Republican voters' views of Mike Pence, and he said it was becoming clear that the former vice president has no constituency within the GOP.
Coppins said that Trump supporters loathed Pence for not throwing out certified presidential election results, while more Trump-skeptical Republicans resent Pence for being so slavishly loyal to Trump for so long.
"I think this was the fundamental miscalculation that Mike Pence made," he said. "He thought that by being incredibly loyal, incredibly willing to cover for Trump to defend Trump to offer fawning praise of trump throughout his presidency, he would win goodwill with the Trump base."
In reality, argued Coppins, Pence came off to Republican voters of all stripes as an opportunist rather than as someone who could be counted on to do the right thing.
IN OTHER NEWS: Trump reeling after Murdoch media makes 'coordinated effort' to ridicule him: Morning Joe panel
"Voters just don't like that," he said. "They want a candidate who they think is following his gut and doing what he thinks is right and they don't see that when they look at Mike Pence."
Pence has not officially announced a run for the 2024 GOP nomination but he has repeatedly teased an intention to do so.
Watch the video below or at this link.
Mike Pence's 'fundamental miscalculation' about Trump is blowing up in his face www.youtube.com
Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana garnered applause from a room full of bankers on Tuesday after he dismissed calls for tougher regulations following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
"There are a lot of talking heads out there who are saying that the solution is more regulation, and I strongly disagree," Daines said in remarks to the American Bankers Association's Washington Summit, an annual gathering of bank CEOs and other top executives.
The Montana Republican went on to defend a 2018 law that progressive lawmakers and experts have said is at least partly responsible for the recent bank failures. That measure, known as S.2155, weakened post-financial crisis regulations for banks with between $50 billion and $250 billion in assets, subjecting firms such as SVB—which lobbied for the changes—to less stringent oversight and paving the way for more risk-taking and industry consolidation.
Daines, a member of the Senate Banking Committee and a major recipient of securities industry donations, called the stricter liquidity requirements and other rules gutted by the 2018 law "overreaching regulations" and claimed that efforts to revive the safeguards are creating "more worry" in the banking sector.
"This was not the cause of this failure," Daines said of S.2155, which former President Donald Trump signed into law after it passed with bipartisan support.
Watch the senator's remarks, which begin at the 1:32:04 mark:
It's unsurprising that Daines' defense of S.2155 was received favorably by a gathering of the American Bankers Association, which was one of many industry groups that lobbied aggressively for the measure.
"The lobbyists were everywhere. You couldn't throw an elbow without running into one," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who vocally opposed S.2155, told reporters last week.
Warren and Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) have introduced legislation that would repeal a critical section of the 2018 law.
The Associated Pressreported Tuesday that in the hours before Congress approved the measure, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.)—one of the legislation's top Democratic supporters—"huddled with executives from Bank of America, Citigroup, Discover, and Wells Fargo, who were there on behalf of the American Bankers Association."
"The American Bankers Association, which helped lead the push, later paid $125,000 for an ad campaign thanking Tester for his role in the bill's passage," the Associated Press noted.
The banking group's PAC spent more than $2.6 million on campaign contributions during the 2018 election cycle, with more than 76% of the donations going to Republicans, according to OpenSecrets.
Daines, who won reelection in 2020, received $10,000 from the American Bankers Association PAC during that year's campaign.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Donald Trump can't be happy about seeing Ron DeSantis, Piers Morgan and Fox News gang up on him.
The Florida governor teased a likely 2024 presidential run in an upbeat interview with Fox Nation's Morgan, who has long been friendly with Trump, and DeSantis took the opportunities presented to him to bash Trump's character and record.
"Trump would rather be perp-walked a thousand times than have Fox News, Piers Morgan and Ron DeSantis laughing at him," Scarborough said. "Look at that, it's a nice little warm family get-together. Fox, the [New York] Post giving Ron DeSantis whatever he wants and DeSantis laughing at Trump, and then at the end, call me whatever you want just as long as you call me a winner."
Co-host Willie Geist agreed, saying Trump was especially vulnerable to mockery.
READ MORE: Christian Trump supporters explicitly compare him to Jesus as indictments loom
"As you suggest, this is a coordinated effort -- the front page of the New York Post this morning, 'Ron hit Don,' with a picture of Piers Morgan and Gov. DeSantis there.," Geist said. "You're right, that is exactly the tone that gets under the skin of Donald Trump the most, which is being laughed at, and that is the posture that Ron DeSantis seems to have figured out now for the last few days at least, which is, 'I don't have time for this, I don't have time to social media fight with the former president, I'm down here winning by 30 points getting things done for the people of Florida.' His posture is, 'I don't have time for that guy, I don't even know what the nickname is -- I'm down here doing my job.'"
Watch the video below or at this link.
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