By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, will plead not guilty to federal gun charges, his attorney said in a court filing on Tuesday. THE TAKE Hunter Biden, 53, is at the center of a political maelstrom, as House Republicans mount an impeachment inquiry against his father focused on alleged ties between his business practices and his father's policies during his father's tenure as vice president from 2009 to 2017. He is the first child of a sitting U.S. president to have been criminally indicted. Prosecutors last week charged him with three counts ...
A far-right anti-conservation group is being paid tens of thousands in taxpayer money by various Western counties to spread conspiracy theories about President Joe Biden's conservation policies, reported The Daily Beast on Tuesday — even comparing them to genocide.
"The Biden administration’s '30 by 30' plan is a voluntary environmental program with a goal of conserving 30 percent of the country’s land and water by 2030. But anti-conservation groups have a darker interpretation of the initiative. One group, American Stewards of Liberty (ASL), has whipped up opposition to the plan, with leaders comparing the program to genocide," reported Kelly Weill. "At least five counties that signed onto ASL’s anti-30 by 30 effort this summer have paid ASL tens of thousands in recent months. Another has earmarked unspecified funds for the group. Others have indicated involvement in a potential ASL lawsuit over federal conservation efforts, with the planning director of one ASL-aligned county announcing that the suit would be funded by counties connected to the oil and gas industries."
At its events, ASL has reportedly pushed theories comparing land conservation programs to the Holodomor, a genocide by famine conducted by the Soviet Union against Ukraine — and they are scheduled to push a conspiracy theory film by the misinformation outlet the Epoch Times, suggesting billionaires are plotting to draw down the world's food supply and force people to eat insects.
One ASL activist, Trent Loos, told The Daily Beast that "the natural state of the United States before Lewis and Clark was a horrific place ... even Lewis and Clark had to eat horses to get across mountain ranges. So to return it to its natural state is to regress us by 250 years.”
In recent years, ASL has sought to push itself more squarely into mainstream conservative circles, but has suffered setbacks as governors and members of Congress have withdrawn from working with the group.
This comes as other groups, like Moms for Liberty, continue to embed themselves in GOP politics around the country and set policy at the local level.
In a Tuesday, September 19 op-ed published by The New Yorker, longtime staff writer and columnist John Cassidy argues ex-President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers' claim of supporting the United Auto Workers (UAW) is laughable.
"What about Trump and Pence and the rest of the Republican U.A.W. stalwarts?" Cassidy writes. "So far, they have been conspicuously absent."
He notes that this week, UAW President Shawn Fain said, "Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers."
Cassidy emphasizes, "Most Republicans have consistently opposed legislative efforts to reverse that trend, including two bills that would have made it easier for unions to organize: the Employee Free Choice Act, which a Democratic-controlled House passed in 2007, and the Protecting the Right to Organize (pro) Act, which the House passed in 2019 and again in 2021."
Just days ago, the columnist notes the MAGA hopeful told NBC News, "The autoworkers are being sold down the river by their leadership, and their leadership should endorse Trump."
However, comparing the ex-president's labor record with President Joe Biden's, he writes, "After taking power in 2017," Trump "restored the Republican majority on the five-person National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the agency that was established during the New Deal to support workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively," which led to the agency's quick reversal of "several pro-labor rulings that it had issued during the [ex-President Barack] Obama Administration, including one that made it easier for workers at fast-food franchises to organize."
Cassidy notes that under Biden's leadership, "the agency has abrogated many of its Trump-era rulings, including the ones related to voting procedures and independent contractors. Last month, the N.L.R.B. ruled that if a company engages in intimidatory behavior during a unionization election, such as firing union organizers, the agency will order the company to recognize the union and bargain collectively."
Politics is politics, but the sight of senior Republicans posing as the true friends of the union workers is so outlandish as to be almost comical. From Trump on down, the G.O.P. has spent decades siding with employers and seeking to frustrate union efforts to organize workplaces and raise wages. Even as it has sought to rebrand itself as a workers' party, the G.O.P.'s actions have made a mockery of this claim.
John Cassidy's full op-ed is available at this link.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, has reportedly been considering leaving Congress for CNN.
Buck, who is reportedly facing a "serious" primary threat over his reluctance to impeach president Joe Biden, has recently made headlines for breaking with his party on issues involving Biden. He also wrote an op-ed explaining why his GOP colleagues are wrong on impeachment evidence.
According to the New York Post, Buck has been talking behind the scenes about going to CNN.
"Buck said privately last month that he was interested in a job at CNN, a source told The Post, after he weighed other options over the past year — including joining a DC-based law firm or seeking Biden’s nomination to the Federal Trade Commission," the outlet reported Tuesday. "Buck, 64, confirmed to The Post he’s exploring his options and said it would be 'great' to join CNN."
“I am interested in talking to folks at CNN and other news organizations — on the, I don’t want to call them left, but sort of center-left — and having an opportunity to do that full-time or do that as a contributor would be great also,” Buck said in a phone interview, according to the article.
He also reportedly hasn't ruled out working for some right-wing networks.
"The congressman called back later in the day to say that he had also expressed interest in a position at right-leaning Fox News or Newsmax," The Post reported. “I didn’t want to give you the impression that I’ve only talked to folks at CNN, on the left. I’ve also talked to others about this,” Buck said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday announced the forthcoming publication of her first book, which she says will be called "MTG" and will help pave the way for her to attain higher office, up to and including the vice presidency.
Greene, who recently made news when she backtracked and adopted a slower approach to the purported impeachment of Joe Biden, announced Tuesday that the book would be put out by a Trump-aligned publisher in November. She said in an interview with a right-wing outlet that she “wanted people to hear my side of the story."
The Washington Examiner reported the following quote from the lawmaker:
“I'm always controversial, but I think this book might be a little controversial with some of the stories,” she said, adding that it will allow her to “introduce myself to America as me, not the character that the mainstream media created and has sold to America over the past few years.”
The outlet also picked up on what Greene hopes to accomplish, even noting that the cover shows her on stage at a rally for Trump.
"Greene acknowledged that the book has a higher purpose of laying the groundwork for a bid for higher office," according to the news report. “I have options. Anything from a governor's race to a Senate seat,” she said.
The report noted that "former President Donald Trump has hinted that Greene is on the short list of running mates."
"Greene, who is an adviser to the former president and a regular at his rallies, said, 'I'm not sure who Trump will pick for a VP. I haven't closed the door on anything,'" the report stated. "Notably, the photo on the cover of her book is a silhouette of Greene taking the stage at a Trump rally. A huge American flag is the backdrop."
When asked about this, Greene reportedly said: “I think I’m going to let people have their own interpretation."
WASHINGTON — Raw Story's Matt Laslo discovered a House resolution regarding the future of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy discarded in the men's restroom under the House floor on Tuesday.
Posting a photo of it to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Laslo explained that it was resting on the baby changing area in the restroom.
"House Resolution: Declaring the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant," it reads.
The upper left corner shows the source of the document is G:M\18\GAETZ\GAETZ_194.XML.
It shows a date in the lower left, September 15, 2023 (11:22 a.m.), as Laslo observed.
“No comment,” is the response Gaetz office has given reporters who called to verify the motion-to-vacate copies Laslo found.
Gaetz often exits House votes out of the Capitol’s east front steps where a throng of network camera crews await. But after today’s lone House vote series — where his fellow House Republicans peppered him with questions about the motion to vacate stamped with his name — Gaetz took the underground tunnel back to his office.
The congressman could not personally be reached for comment.
Gaetz has become one of the key players in the ongoing drama over funding the government, which is set to run out of money — and shut down at least in part — when it does at the end of September.
Gaetz has openly battled with McCarthy this year. Last week, speaking from the House floor, Gaetz accused McCarthy of going back on agreement struck with far-right Republicans who, earlier this year, blocked his path to the speakership for days. Among the points of that agreement: to aggressively pursue the impeachment of President Joe Biden.
Gaetz argued that McCarthy had only taken "baby steps" and "move much faster."
"Do these things or face a motion to vacate the chair and let me alert the country," Gaetz warned. "And if Democrats bail out McCarthy, as they may do, then I will lead the resistance to this uniparty and the Biden-McCarthy-Jeffries government that they are attempting to build."
House Republicans descended into a bitter feud during a closed-door meeting to discuss plans for funding the government Tuesday.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy canceled plans to hold a vote on the proposal later this week, leaving him without a plan in place to fund the government less than two weeks before a shutdown would begin Sept. 30 following the contentious meeting, reported CNN.
“There are a lot of ‘No’ votes in that room. I don’t know how they will get to 218,” said Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) after the meeting. “Without a deal with Democrats, I don’t see it passing. … It is going to be a long two weeks.”
Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) said GOP leaders were “entertaining everything” to get a proposal ready to vote on, including even lower spending cuts, but he predicted that a shutdown was likely inevitable, and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) called on Republicans to work through the weekend to reach an agreement on keeping the government funded.
"[Norman] said he accidentally voted to support a rule for the short-term funding bill, saying he was 'asleep at the wheel' during the meeting on Monday night, but plans to vote against the rule when it comes to the floor," CNN reported.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) suggested McCarthy set out a topline spending number and numbers for each of the appropriations bills to help undecided lawmakers understand the range of options.
“I think the biggest thing that I have heard – and this is where my colleagues I think have a really important point – what do we do next? The speaker needs to set a topline, needs to set a structure, a target,” Roy said. “I have been saying that for months. We are here in my opinion because we haven’t had a clear target.”
At least 16 Republicans pulled support for a short-term spending package Monday as hardliners such as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) threatened McCarthy's continued leadership.
“It’s an unmitigated disaster right now on the majority side,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR).
Speaker Kevin McCarthy, acknowledging his leadership is under threat, is promising even if his own Republicans succeed in taking his gavel he will not leave Congress. Former GOP Speaker John Boehner left the House after resigning his Speakership amid Republican infighting.
Late Tuesday morning legislation that would keep the government open for 30 days was scrapped amid what Fox News described as Speaker McCarthy being "in a bind as GOP factions, and factions within factions, [are] at loggerheads."
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is widely seen as Speaker McCarthy's top critic, actively working to promote and highlight dissent and even calling McCarthy "out of compliance" with far-right GOP demands.
The increasing divide among House Republicans, despite having the majority, is a battle between those including McCarthy who say they want to avoid the increasingly likely October 1 shutdown of the federal government, and others, like U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), who are not only promising a government shutdown, but demanding one.
House Republicans claim they want to shut down the government to stop what they claim is excessive federal government spending, but as The New York Times reported, shutdowns are expensive and actually cost the American taxpayers even more money.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), has been pushing for a shutdown since last summer – before the House flipped to Republicans, saying as soon as they take control they should shut down the government "on day one" and "actually fight."
Some Democrats are expressing outrage over House Republicans' priorities.
"James Comer is going to waste all of our time on yet another Hunter Biden hearing just 2 days before the government is expected to shut down," saidU.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) on Tuesday, referring to the Oversight Chairman. "MAGA Republicans are saying very clearly they don’t care if the economy gets wrecked as long as Donald Trump is happy."
Last week Congressman Gaetz on the House floor threatened to force a vote to remove McCarthy as Speaker, while claiming McCarthy is working with Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and President Joe Biden:
On Tuesday Speaker McCarthy promised CNN's Manu Raju, "I'm not quitting."
"Speaker McCarthy says he’s not going to leave if Gaetz’s vote to oust succeeds," Raju reported. "And he denied he’s avoiding working w Dems on the stop-gap bill to keep government open to save his speakership. Says he’s pushing for most conservative outcome. 'I’m not quitting,' he told me."
US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky take centre-stage at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to address world leaders on the war in Ukraine that has divided the global body. Biden has urged world leaders to stand with Kyiv against Russian aggression, while also touching on Washington's tense relationship with China.
The United States is seeking to "responsibly manage" its rivalry with China to avoid any possible war, US President Joe Biden has told the UN General Assembly.
"When it comes to China, I want to be clear and consistent. We seek to responsibly manage the competition between our countries so it does not tip into conflict," Biden said in a speech.
Touching at length on the war in Ukraine, the US president appealed to world leaders to stand with Kyiv against Russian invaders – hoping Republicans in Congress will also take notice.
"Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence," Biden said in his speech to UNGA. "If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?"
Biden has made rallying US allies to support Ukraine a leading component of US foreign policy, arguing that the world must send a clear signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he will not be able to outlast the West.
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Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, saying "no solution will be lasting if it is not based on dialogue".
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Lula said: "I have reiterated that work needs to be done to create space for negotiations."
Brazil's leader has been criticized in the West for failing to openly condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and suggesting presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky were equally to blame for the war.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has kicked off this year's UN General Assembly with a stinging rebuke of Russia's war in Ukraine.
Moscow's invasion marked a violation of the UN Charter that "has unleashed a nexus of horror", Gutierres told the annual gathering of world leaders.
He warned that the world badly needs Ukrainian food and Russian food and fertilisers to stabilise markets and guarantee food security, adding – to the applause of leaders – "I will not give up on my efforts to make it happen."
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade grilled a Freedom Caucus member set on shutting down the government instead of passing a 30-day continuing resolution to negotiate on funding.
Kilmeade began the 6-minute interview on Tuesday by asking why Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) was "dead set" against funding the government for the next 30 days.
"Brian, I've said for months now that I will not support any continuing resolution that is merely an extension of Nancy Pelosi's spending and Joe Biden's policies that we voted against, Republicans voted against for the last two years," Rosendale asserted. "We were assured by Kevin McCarthy, this Congress is going to be different."
"But this is a continuing resolution," Kilmeade countered. "You're not signing on for any permanent spending caps. You're just saying one more month to negotiate. You guys took the whole, you took all of August off. I don't know why. You didn't pass any appropriations bill."
Rosendale said that he wanted to send a message with a government shutdown.
"What if they just tell you I need another month?" Kilmeade asked. "They just need another month. You fund the government. Republicans will get totally blamed."
But the congressman suggested the continuing resolution was a trick.
"How long has Speaker Pelosi — Speaker McCarthy had the job?" Kilmeade pressed.
"I think you had a Freudian slip just there," Rosendale pounced. "We're seeing the same kind of work ethic come out of Speaker McCarthy as we saw out of Speaker Pelosi."
Kilmeade noted that Rosendale did not seem to like the Republican Speaker of the House.
"It's not about who I like!" Rosendale exclaimed.
"Let me finish, big guy," Kilmeade said. "Scott Perry and Chip Roy said I need another month, and you say I'm not giving you another month, so the government shuts down. Who gets blamed if the government shuts down?"
"This is about messaging," Rosendale insisted. "Let's take the time that we have remaining. Let's develop the appropriation bills, all 12 of them. We could do it in seven days."
"This didn't arise seven days ago," Kilmeade observed.
"I was not sent here to kick the can down the road," Rosendale replied.
"Congressman, you just know the government gets shut down," Kilmeade said. "Republicans get the blame because they're not even providing even a CR, a pathway to a CR. You're saying I'm not going to go over 30 days. So the government shuts down. That means your investigation stopped. That means the border funding doesn't happen. And that's OK."
"Who are you getting your talking points from, Brian?" the lawmaker complained.
"It's called research!" Kilmeade shouted back. "If you don't agree with what I'm saying, it doesn't mean talking points. You just don't agree with what I'm saying."
House Republicans are moving forward with their impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden with a hearing scheduled for next Thursday — but their core narrative is already disintegrating, Newsweek reported Tuesday.
The impeachment is based on the idea that the president somehow profited from his son Hunter Biden's overseas business deals while he was vice president. A key theory was that his involvement in ousting Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin was to prevent the investigation of an energy company Hunter was involved in — but this has been debunked several times, and ironically the latest evidence destroying it comes from right-wing commentator John Solomon, who published a pre-meeting memo from the State Department to Biden on Shokin.
That memo, noted Bickerton, "called for Shokin's 'removal,' claiming he was 'widely regarded as an obstacle to fighting corruption, if not a source of the problem'" — in other words, making clear that Biden was simply executing the official U.S. foreign policy position that a corrupt prosecutor needed to be removed.
This comes after Republicans have held hearings trying to tie Biden to his son's business dealings, but have not established any evidence for this. One of Hunter's business associates, Devon Archer, testified that the elder Biden was sometimes on calls with his son while they met, but that they didn't discuss business and Biden was simply checking in on his son's well-being.
Even a number of House Republicans have expressed doubts that the evidence is there to charge Biden with an impeachable offense, with Freedom Caucus stalwart Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) suggesting this whole thing is motivated more by "revenge" for former President Donald Trump's impeachments than any compelling evidence against Biden.
Hunter Biden is separately facing federal charges for tax violations and the improper purchase of a firearm, in a case that some legal experts have criticized as excessively charged.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is paying the price for running “around making promises willy-nilly to the House’s small band of right-wingers” – and it’s put the whole country at risk, a New York Times columnist wrote Tuesday.
In “his desperate pursuit of the speakership last winter,” McCarthy made all sorts of backroom deals with his party’s fringe. Now, quite rightly, they’re expected to be delivered, wrote Michelle Cottle.
“The speaker is clearly fed up with being bullied by his radicals,” she wrote. "But here’s the thing. (Rep. Matt) Gaetz & Company have a point: Mr. McCarthy is out of compliance with several of his promises — or at least several they claim he made."
Attempts to placate them with support for an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden were widely seen as an effort to buy them off, Cottle wrote.
The disarray looming with the threat of a shutdown cannot be blamed on the Freedom Caucus dissenters, she added.
“It is Mr. McCarthy who led them to believe he would champion their policies and priorities,” she wrote.
“And it is Mr. McCarthy who elevated their influence in the conference, empowering them to wreak even greater havoc. Of course they are going to make more and more outrageous demands. That’s what they do.”
She added, “I get their frustration and anger. Mr. McCarthy created and unleashed this right-wing monster to serve his own ambitions. And yet somehow he seems flummoxed that it is now smashing up things and demanding its due.”
Donald Trump's army of online trolls are increasingly confident they've helped bury Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential race, but they want to make sure he's "dead on arrival" for the next election cycle.
DeSantis was running neck-and-neck with Trump in some polls before entering the race, but he's usually more than 40 points behind now and struggling to raise money.
Now the former president's advisers and right-wing social media influencers are already looking ahead to the general election -- and the one after that, reported The Daily Beast.
“He still comes up in conversation, but the fire is gone because he’s already toast,” said one Trump adviser. “It was fun nuking him, though.”
A Republican strategist noticed that influencers and the official Trump campaign had already moved on to attacking President Joe Biden over the economy and his age, but there's still some lingering bitterness toward DeSantis for launching a primary challenge against the former president in the first place.
"Things got so personal in the primary that I don’t think Team Trump will ever fully take their boot off of Ron’s tiny neck until they feel like he’s not just dead on arrival in 2024, but also dead on arrival in 2028," said another Trump adviser. “The memes got out of control, though.”
Multiple Trump allies compared the lingering attacks on DeSantis as running up the score in a football game, but the dynamic is approaching what one of the Florida governor's leading allies described as the end-game scenario for the faltering candidate.
“What would concern me is if I woke up one day and Trump and his team were not attacking Never Back Down [PAC] and Ron DeSantis," Chris Jankowski, the CEO of that DeSantis-aligned PAC, said two months ago. “That would be concerning. Other than that, we’ve got them right where we want them.”
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