In June, members of the House Freedom Caucus voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) from the group — and not for being a far-right conspiracy theorist.
One factor was reportedly the animosity between Greene and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado). Another was Greene's alliance with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California), who Freedom Caucus members view as not being MAGA enough.
The Freedom Caucus, founded in 2015 during then-President Barack Obama's second term, has always been big on litmus tests. Now, according to Politico's Olivia Beavers, members are competing to succeed Freedom Caucus leader Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania) after his time in that position ends.
The possibilities, Beavers reports in an article published on July 17, include Rep. Bob Good (R-Virginia), Rep. Chip Roy (Texas), Rep. Dan Bishop (North Carolina), Rep. Ralph Norman (South Carolina), and Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio).
Beavers explains, "The Freedom Caucus board will likely decide who takes over, but the famously fractious and anti-leadership group is paying especially close attention this time to how chair candidates plan to deal with Speaker Kevin McCarthy's team. Perry has faced a particularly turbulent year so far, managing the Freedom Caucus as it split over the January speakership vote and later held an unprecedented vote to evict Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene."
Bishop told Politico that he is "not ruling out" running for Freedom Caucus leader, but said he is "more likely" to run for North Carolina attorney general.
Boebert told Politico, "Some qualifying factors, obviously, are their position on votes and policies, but also, how they can communicate that position and get the rest of the team on board. So, you have to have a leader who can unify everyone and get them on the same page without being unreasonable."
One far-right congressman who has managed to remain in good standing with both the House Freedom Caucus and Speaker McCarthy is Caucus Vice Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is also House Judiciary Committee chairman.
Jordan expressed no preference for a Perry successor, telling Politico, "I'm sure it will be somebody good."
Employees of Twitter Africa who were laid off after cost-cutting measures went into effect after Elon Musk took over the platform have not received any severance pay, CNN reported.
“They literally ghosted us,” one former Twitter Africa employee said. “Although Twitter has eventually settled former staff in other locations, Africa staff have still been left in the lurch despite us eventually agreeing to specific negotiated terms.”
The employees, who were based in the Ghanaian capital Accra, reluctantly accepted an offer of three months' severance pay without benefits.
“Twitter was non-responsive until we agreed to the three months because we were all so stressed and exhausted and tired of the uncertainty, reluctant to take on the extra burdens of a court case so we felt we had no choice but to settle,” another former employee told CNN.
When CNN reached out to Twitter for comment, it received an automated response in the form of a poop emoji -- which Musk tweeted in March would be the standard response to all press inquiries.
“Unfortunately, it appears that after having unethically implemented their terminations in violation of their own promises and Ghana’s laws, dragging the negotiation process out for over half a year, now that we have come to the point of almost settlement, there has been complete silence from them for several weeks,” said Carla Olympio, who is an attorney who is representing the former employees.
Legendary singer-songwriter Elton John took the stand on Monday, along with his husband David Furnish, to give details at the London sexual assault trial of actor Kevin Spacey, reported The Daily Beast.
The pair conferenced in from Monaco to the trial, where Spacey stands accused of 12 charges of assaulting four men in the United Kingdom over a span of 12 years starting in 2001.
"John was asked about Spacey’s attendance at a charity gala ball held at the singer’s home in Windsor for almost 20 years after one of the complainants said Spacey assaulted him as he was driving the actor to the gala in 2004 or 2005," reported Dan Ladden-Hall. According to the report, John told the court that he recalled Spacey went to stay at his home after one of the events — but that “I can’t remember him coming down after that.” John added that he didn't recognize one of the complainants outside a London theater, but that he wouldn't expect to because he was in a "mad rush" to return to his car after the event.
Spacey has denied accusations of "aggressive" sexual behavior and has called the charges against him "weak."
Prosecutors have argued that he has a pattern as a "sexual bully." One accuser said he kissed his neck and told him to "be cool." A police interview of one other accuser alleged that at an event in London, Spacey, disheveled and reeking of alcohol, grabbed his crotch "like a cobra." Another accuser said Spacey assaulted him while they were traveling in a car and it made him "almost [drive] off the road."
Spacey has also been accused of sexual misconduct in the United States. However, he was held not liable in a 2022 lawsuit that accused him of molesting actor Anthony Rapp as a teenager.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) squeaked out a razor-thin victory during the 2022 midterm elections, but that hasn't led her to reconsider he brash and confrontational approach to politics.
NBC News reports that some Republicans are concerned about Boebert heading into 2024, with Democratic rival Adam Frisch seeking a rematch after losing last year by fewer than 600 votes.
One Republican lawmaker tells NBC that Boebert needs to stop acting like herself in order to ensure she gets reelected next year.
"Her ass needs to get home to go campaign," the lawmaker said. "Cut ribbons, go to bar mitzvahs and take credit for stuff she had absolutely nothing to do with."
Dick Wadhams, the former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, tells NBC that many Republicans in Colorado are "bewildered" by her approach of maximizing controversy on culture-war issues and picking fights with fellow Republicans, despite the fact that voters in her district have signaled that they are growing tired of that approach.
“The perception, whether it’s fair or not, is that Congresswoman Boebert has paid more attention to fighting these battles within the Republican Party than she has paid attention to the district,” he said. “Now, I’m sure her office would refute that. The trouble is it gets obscured by how she conducts herself. And that’s what she’s battling right now.”
Democrat Frisch zeroed in on such criticisms of Boebert during an interview with NBC.
"“People want the circus to stop,” he said. “She’s one of these people that continues to love to get on Twitter and cable news networks and yell and scream.”
Their feud triggered the expulsion of Greene from the right-wing Freedom Caucus after she called Boebert a "little b*tch" to her face, but other GOP lawmakers say the acrimony is palpable, reported The Daily Beast.
“A fistfight could break out at any moment,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who made clear he was serious, but compared the situation to "professional wrestling." “I am friends with both of them. It’s entertaining to think that a fistfight could break out at any movement. I kind of dig that."
Another GOP lawmaker close to both women said the situation wasn't sustainable and that one of them would destroy the other -- but couldn't predict the outcome.
“They will be nailing that coffin shut and one of them is still in there kicking and screaming,” that lawmaker said.
Greene has refused to accept a phone call from Freedom Caucus chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) notifying her of the expulsion, and instead has suggested a conversation on the House floor, according to multiple sources, but the Georgia Republican is apparently upset that her expulsion came in a hastily called meeting.
“We were advised that there was an unscheduled meeting being scheduled, but there was no — I didn’t receive any kind of specific advisement on what was going to be discussed at that meeting,” said Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), a Greene ally.
Other caucus members declined to comment on the meeting or discuss whether Greene had been given an opportunity to defend herself.
“I’m not interested in that bullsh*t,” said Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO).
A lawmaker familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast that Boebert had initially seconded a motion at that meeting to allow Greene to remain in the caucus, but she later voted for her expulsion along with an “overwhelming” number of Freedom Caucus members.
Boebert refused to comment, while Greene declined to discuss specifics and bristled at the line of questioning.
“Dude, do you do anything besides report on complete drama and bullsh*t?” Greene said. “No, I’m serious.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) said there is "moral decay" in America because the country's leaders "traded truth for a lie."
While speaking to the Turning Point Action Conference on Sunday, Boebert told the group of activists that their work had helped to pass a bill to rescind restrictions on pistol braces. President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the bill.
"Let's make this very clear," she ranted. "You're not a felon because you add a piece of plastic to a firearm. You're an American and now a damn good marksman. They want you disarmed because they don't see you as free people. They see you as subjects."
"And that's why I have put my life on hold," she added, "and left my four boys and my grandson to make sure that you have a voice across this nation to take a stand for your rights and your liberties."
"I love that you won't back down and you confront lies with truth," she said. "That is what we need. There has been a moral decay in our country because too many of our leaders have traded the truth for a lie. But you speaking up and exposing that and speaking truth to power is changing the tides."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has been thrown out of the far-right House Freedom Caucus. But according to the Wall Street Journal, she is defiant — and even publicly saying it's a good thing for her.
“I think I enjoy being a free agent a lot better,” Greene told reporters, adding that while she agreed with the Freedom Caucus ideologically, she is “interested in getting accomplishments done, not doing things just to disrupt and fight leadership. And that’s a major difference.”
Notably, while Greene is saying she is happy about the expulsion now, her behavior over the previous few days suggests otherwise. She told reporters earlier this week she had not been told anything about being ousted from the Freedom Caucus, but other reports suggested she was actually avoiding calls from other members of the Freedom Caucus so that they wouldn't be able to deliver the news to her and make it official.
This comes as the Freedom Caucus, which was founded nearly a decade ago as an insurgent group that challenges GOP leadership to move as far right as possible, is fractured and divided over its purpose and goals under House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
Greene's removal from the group was triggered in part by her escalating feud with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), which escalated in recent weeks to Greene calling Boebert a "b*tch" on the House floor.
But there appear to be other factors that drove the decision too. Greene is close to McCarthy, having helped him secure the votes to become Speaker in the first place. According to previous reporting from CNN's Melanie Zanona, the Freedom Caucus distrusted her closeness to House leadership, to the point that some members even held secret meetings without her to make sure she wouldn't report on what they were planning to McCarthy's team.
The cocaine recently found at the White House doesn't represent the first drug discovered there.
The Secret Service found small amounts of marijuana on the White House grounds on two separate occasions in recent years, NBC News reports.
The drug was found on both occasions by uniformed officers and reports were subsequently filed but no charges were brought because the amount of marijuana found was below the limit under Washington D.C. law at the time, Secret Service officials said, according to the report.
Kelly O'Donnell and Rebecca Shabad write for NBC News that, “The individuals were notified they could not bring the marijuana to the White House campus, the officials said.”
The report follows the agency’s discovery of a small baggie containing a white substance on the White House grounds over the July weekend later determined to be cocaine.
The Secret Service notified members of Congress about the discovery of marijuana in the White House during a classified briefing over the cocaine probe, Fox News reports.
"No one was arrested in these incidents, because the weight of the marijuana confiscated did not meet the legal threshold for federal charges or D.C. misdemeanor criminal charges, as the District of Columbia had decriminalized possession," a Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News. "The marijuana was collected by officers and destroyed."
The marijuana was found at the White House in July and September of last year, the report said.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who was among those briefed by the Secret Service, appeared to be trying to make political hay from the revelation.
"We did not have scandals when President Trump was in office to this degree," Boebert told Fox News.
"And it just poses the question: What kind of people is Joe Biden bringing into the White House?" she added.
Speaking to both Capitol reporter Garrett Haake and former GOP Speaker aide Branden Buck, Jansing said that the feud hasn't yet made it to the celebrity gossip pages.
"This is a very kind of high school cafeteria storyline, as it has been for the last week or so now," quipped Haake. "The freedom caucus doesn't publish their membership, and they have been trying to not talk about this too much."
But it's a fact that Raw Story confirmed on Wednesday when known Freedom Caucus members outright yelled at reporters to "mind your own business.
"It's clear they have become fed up with some of the activities of Marjorie Taylor Greene that, frankly, frustrated Democrats in the last Congress," Haake continued.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), a Freedom Caucus member, told MSNBC that Greene has "consistently" been a problem for the caucus by attacking several members, not only Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
Haake said Democrats are quietly nodding as if to say, "I told you so."
That might be why Buck doesn't see any changes on the horizon.
"In some ways, she's bigger than the Freedom Caucus," he said. "What I'll be curious to see, though, is her entire brand is about being controversial. It's not being the teacher's pet. She's going to have to break out a little bit of that, and see if it comes back to bite Kevin McCarthy. The Freedom Caucus is going to be a problem with McCarthy. They exist to do that. It only takes four or five to cause a real headache. I expect the road ahead is going to be quite difficult with or without her on his side."
"She said I don't have time for the drama club, but drama is her stock in trade," Jansing zinged.
Meanwhile, Greene has been pressing her amendments to the defense reauthorization to remove any funding for gender-affirming care for American soldiers and withdraw Ukraine funding.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on Thursday torched his Republican colleagues on the House Oversight Committee for potentially letting themselves be used by an alleged agent for the Chinese government.
While appearing on CNN, Raskin said that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and his colleagues were all too willing to believe allegations leveled by Gal Luft, the man who was indicted last year for being an unregistered agent for China among other crimes.
"They are out there playing spy-versus-spy with these people who are basically using the Oversight Committee of the United States House of Representatives as a dupe," Raskin charged of Republicans' interactions with Luft. "This guy is in hiding. He is a fugitive and he is using his ability to wow the members of the majority of the Oversight Committee to wrap himself in some kind of legitimacy or authority."
Raskin then compared Luft to another man who attained prominence within the Republican Party by telling them false claims that they wanted to believe were true.
"It's kind of like with what George Santos did with the Republican Party," he said. "They are attracting con men."
Raskin was then asked if Luft's claims about President Joe Biden taking bribes for foreign governments could still be credible, and he cast doubt on the proposition.
"He has been indicted for making false statements," said Raskin. "This is the person we are going to rely on?"
WASHINGTON — Since December, when the U.S. House’s Jan. 6 select committee released its damning final report, its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), has attempted to resume his usual low profile.
But in an exclusive interview this week with Raw Story, the quiet-tempered lawmaker said his special committee “forced” the Department of Justice to finally investigate the role then-President Donald Trump and his closest associates played in fomenting the failed insurrection.
“The work of the committee kind of forced DOJ to get engaged, because a lot of what we did we passed on to them,” Thompson told Raw Story just outside the Capitol on a muggy summer day.
Thompson — with a scraggly gray beard and the unhurried gait of a 75-year-old Southern gentleman — walks alone these days. Gone is his security detail and phalanx of staffers. No more idling SUV ready to whisk him away at a moment’s notice. The gaggle of Capitol Hill reporters that used to flock about him now professionally-stalks Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), George Santos (R-NY) or the other GOP political flavors of the week.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who served as chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Everything changed when Republicans took over control of the House at the start of this 118th Congress.
Instead of investigating those who stormed the Capitol, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) introduced a censure resolution against Thompson last month, which – after more than 30 days of being public now – has only garnered one cosponsor, Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC).
Greene and Gaetz also held a hearing into the J6 attack where the FBI, DOJ and Capitol Police were portrayed as guilty or culpable parties. The hearing took place at the very moment federal officials were arranging Trump in Miami on 37 felony charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified and other sensitive government documents.
“They're trying to normalize the abnormal,” Thompson said. “And so if that's how they see democracy at working, then that's who they are.”
Thompson told Raw Story his committee’s work speaks for itself — no matter how much Republicans try and rewrite history.
“The notion that somehow you can change the material facts in this situation, is just not the way it is,” Thompson said. “So I thought they would really legislate, come with their agenda, but their whole agenda is to undo everything that Democrats did. You gotta be in favor of something. It's like, okay, what are you gonna do? Wait until one of your wild cards say something stupid again?”
Thompson says he is proud the Jan. 6 special committee’s work is now being used by prosecutors who are convening a special grand jury in Fulton County, Ga., to investigate whether Trump attempted to illegally affect the outcome of the state’s 2020 presidential vote. The Jan. 6 committee, Thompson added, laid out an airtight case in its 800-plus page final report.
“There's no question in my mind, he knew everything that was going on. There was nothing that went on in Georgia that Donald Trump didn't know,” Thompson says.
Thompson says Georgia is key to it all, because of the recording of Trump’s call where he allegedly pressured Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to overturn the will of his people and fraudulently tilt the election against Democrat Joe Biden, who narrowly won the state.
"I just want to find 11,780 votes,” Trump said on the Georgia call.
“He got caught,” Thompson said.
“How’d he get caught? What’s the smoking gun?” Raw Story asked.
“The Raffensperger call. And now I think there’s a couple calls out in Arizona,” Thompson said, referring to a newly revealed attempt by Trump to seemingly pressure then-Gov. Doug Ducey to overturn election results in Arizona, which Biden also won.
While Thompson thinks the Georgia case is airtight, he says that doesn’t mean it’s a lock.
“I would say based on the fact that, [Trump’s] role talking to the Georgia secretary of state, him having other people serving as his surrogates go talk to people, him promoting the electors who were not duly elected — all that is part of his orchestration,” Thompson said. “Now how the district attorney presents that [evidence] and on what charges?”
Thompson is the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee where he’s been busy this year defending Biden from attacks over his handling of security on the southern border.
Thompson doesn’t hold press conferences and generally remains silent these days. He points back to the Jan. 6 committee’s body of work and findings.
“Under no circumstances can anybody say, ‘No, we’re gonna erase it, because what you saw with your own eyes, wasn’t what you saw.’ So the work on the committee was tremendous,” Thompson told Raw Story. “Not only did we save our democracy, but in the long run, I think we strengthened it.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) said this week that she is "truly" qualified to preserve U.S. freedoms because she is a Christian.
"My number one job is to secure the rights of Americans and make sure that they remain free. That is exactly why I'm here," Boebert told the Christian program Flashpoint on Tuesday. "I love freedom, not because I'm a Republican, not because I'm a conservative. I love freedom because Jesus set me free because I am a Christian."
"And so I truly know what it means to be free," she continued. "And that's something that I'm here to preserve for generations to come. And I will fight each and every day to do that."
While Boebert said she loved being free, she also recommended curbing freedom of the press.
"It's the American people that can start touching that freedom of press," she explained. "It's the American people who can say, I am not listening to you anymore. I'm not turning your channel on. I'm not reading your paper. I'm not subscribing to your subscription. And that is how they will be the most impacted, is when it starts hitting their wallets."
Boebert has previously suggested God directed her to impeach President Joe Biden.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has made an unusual demand to a member of the House Freedom Caucus who wants to meet with her.
Earlier this month, Greene was ejected from the far-right group, but Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) apparently wants to clear the air.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) confirmed to Punchbowl's Mica Soellner that Perry tried to contact Greene, but she refused to talk.
"She requested a meeting on the House floor instead which Norman said 'doesn't make any sense,'" Soellner revealed.
A House floor confrontation would mean the conversation would have an audience of congress members.
Greene recently admitted calling Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) a "little bitch" during a House floor confrontation. She was kicked out of the Freedom Caucus just days later.