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.
The House Freedom Caucus still hasn't officially told Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that she's been booted from their group, the far-right congresswoman said Tuesday.
Greene told reporters that she learned the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus voted to expel her from their group through media reports, CNN’s Melanie Zanona tweeted.
"MTG told us she still hasn’t been informed by the Freedom Caucus that she has been kicked out of the far-right group, but said she’s 'not really concerned about it,'” Zanona reports.
“No one has told me that. As a matter of fact, all the information I found out was from you guys,” Greene said.
Greene’s ouster from the Freedom Caucus was first reported by Politico, citing Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), a Freedom Caucus member, who told the outlet a combination of factors led to her expulsion vote, noting her backing for the debt limit deal, her ongoing support for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and an exchange with fellow Freedom Caucus member Lauren Boebert in which Greene reportedly called the Colorado congresswoman “a little b--ch.”
Axios reports that Greene has been ducking calls from top Freedom Caucus members trying to inform her that her membership in the group is no more.
An unidentified Freedom Caucus member told Axios that Greene did not accept or return calls from the group's chair, Scott Perry (R-PA) before and after the vote to remove her.
“She was unresponsive and resisted and refused efforts to meet with or talk with Chairman Perry, and so the vote was held without that conversation being held,” the HFC board member said. “It's my understanding that after the vote took place by the general membership, that she also refused to meet with or talk with Chairman Perry — I suspect it was somewhat like someone refusing to be served legal documents.”
During an interview with Charlie Kirk, Boebert confused the potential impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas with the possible impeachment of Attorney General Merrick Garland.
"What can we expect from the House Republican Conference to start putting points on the board here against this crime syndicate?" Kirk asked.
"Well, so Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) already has, excuse me, sorry, I was thinking about Mayorkas for just a second," Boebert said. "There's so many people we want to impeach."
"We know that Merrick Garland needs to be impeached," she added. "We need to give jurisdiction to start actually looking into this, just like I did with the impeachment for [President] Joe Biden, giving the Homeland Security Committee jurisdiction for an impeachment inquiry."
Boebert said she would force a vote on the impeachment of Biden if Republicans did not act quickly.
"I still need everyone to continue to put pressure on their members of Congress to make sure that this inquiry actually comes up in the Homeland Security Committee," she explained. "I have been promised that it will."
"Because currently, if we're going to get jerked around and this inquiry doesn't take place, I want due process," she concluded. "So I forced the vote on the House floor and was promised that this would actually take place. If it does not, I will once again call up articles of impeachment and force a straight up and down vote."
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow listed off some of the bizarre things happening in the Republican Party around the country that has popped up in the news over the past week or so.
Last week, at a GOP convention in Michigan, a man wiggled the doorknob of one of the meeting rooms when another guy came out swinging and kicking him "in the balls."
"The scuffle intensified and long story short, the Clare County Republican chairman provided this to the Detroit News from an emergency room in Clare, Michigan, in an emergency room, 'he was being treated for what appears to be a broken rib,'" read Maddow.
"To say the least, this is not how anything in politics is supposed to go," she explained. "But this is how it's going in Michigan Republican politics. Two consecutive statewide Michigan Republican Party meetings, both at the same hotel in Clare, Michigan, both which resulted in physical fights among Republicans who were there for the meeting. I should note that, I mean, I was going to say it's understandable, tensions are high. It's not understandable. No matter how high tensions are, you don't need to kick anybody in the who'sy-whatsy at a political meeting. There's no excuse for it. Michigan Republicans, you should know, are doing poorly right now in lots of different ways."
This comes amid Donald Trump's demand that Michigan Republicans find a way to overthrow the 2020 election three years after the fact. However, the Michigan GOP now has an election denier as the state party chair. Meanwhile, the state's GOP lost every state-wide office and Democrats now have both chambers of the legislature.
"That said, Michigan Republicans are apparently still capable of breaking each other's ribs at meetings. So, they've got that," quipped Maddow.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, some of the county parties signed on to sponsor an event with a neo-Nazi as the speaker. A county Republican leader posted the flier online and begged others to withdraw their support. They did, except for the student GOP group that is hosting the neo-Nazi. The county GOP groups said the young Republicans "tricked" them into sponsoring the event.
"Okay, bullet dodged," said Maddow. "Three Arizona Republican Party county organizations are not, despite earlier reports, sponsoring the neo-Nazi speaker at their conference. That said, this College Republicans group from Arizona still is. They're the ones who invited him, and they are absolutely still hosting him. So there's that, the group is called Arizona College Republicans United."
In South Carolina, a flier circulated promoting the idea of Trump supporters starting their own party to "secure a permanent white majority."
In a letter to Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), 21 members of his own GOP caucus listed their demands to support any appropriations bill.
According to the letter, “We plan to vote against any appropriations bills" that don't remove the debt ceiling "deal" that the House and the President agreed to earlier this year.
They also want no floor consideration of any appropriations bills until the 12 bills before the Appropriations Committee have been passed out to be voted on by the full House.
The Republicans are also rejecting any supplemental funding for Ukraine.
Finally, they say, "Through continued conversations, we will consider options in good faith that address the spending crisis in concert with other urgent policy changes — beyond simple one year riders that likely won't make it past the Senate and the President's desk. For example, enactments of H.R. 2 to secure the border, capping or cutting the harmful impacts of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, and/or forcing the President to follow current laws and restricting its ability to abuse executive power to advance his radical agenda."
The demands aren't likely to go anywhere as it would mean another government shutdown by eliminating the debt ceiling deal.
The 21 members that signed on to the letter are: Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA) Chip Roy (R-TX), Bob Good (R-VA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Mary Miller (R-IL) Barry Moore (R-AL), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Bill Posey (R-FL), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), and Keith Self (R-TX)
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) objected on Monday after a former Colorado state representative said she was "rancid on the inside."
In a tweet on Sunday, Colorado Democratic National Committee member Joe Salazar, a former state lawmaker, blasted Boebert over a photo she posted.
"I really don't care if @laurenboebert has makeup on or doesn't," Salazar wrote. "I don't care if she's well educated or not."
"She is rancid inside and her poison pollutes our society. She needs to be replaced," he continued.
Salazar added a plug for Boebert's potential Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch.
"The misogyny of calling a woman 'rancid' for taking a selfie isn't lost on me," Boebert complained on Monday. "Sadly, this is the harassment so many conservative women go through every day for simply existing."
It was not clear if Boebert had reported the tweet for alleged harassment.
In addition to Mayorkas, the House Republicans also have their eyes set on going after the salary of Attorney General Merrick Garland and even Trump-appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray.
However, some Republicans representing swing districts are balking at the moves and worrying about what precedent they will set for future administrations.
"Let’s say Ron DeSantis happens to be the next president, and now [Democrats] will be cutting off his Cabinet because they don’t like his policies,” said one swing-district Republican. “This keeps getting worse. We need some sanity.”
Even if the plan to defund Garland and other officials passes the House, it will be dead on arrival in the Democratic-led United States Senate.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is reportedly ducking calls from top members of the House Freedom Caucus who are trying to let her know she's been booted from the conservative group.
The Georgia Republican did not accept or return calls from group chair Scott Perry (R-PA) before and after a vote to remove her. He wanted to discuss the reasons for the move, according to one caucus board member, while another senior source confirmed she was out of the caucus "pending a conversation with her," reported Axios.
“She was unresponsive and resisted and refused efforts to meet with or talk with Chairman Perry, and so the vote was held without that conversation being held,” the HFC board member said. “It's my understanding that after the vote took place by the general membership, that she also refused to meet with or talk with Chairman Perry — I suspect it was somewhat like someone refusing to be served legal documents.”
That lawmaker said the vote was "overwhelming" to kick out Greene, the first member to be removed since the group was established in 2015, and she will no longer be able to take part in meetings once Congress returns from the July 4 break
"This was a notification, not a negotiation," the board member said.
Other members were unhappy that she had supported Kevin McCarthy for House speaker and the debt ceiling negotiations, and the last straw was apparently calling Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) a "little b*tch" during a confrontation on the House floor.
"She was unique among the Freedom Caucus members in her attack on other members of the Freedom Caucus during the speaker battle, who shared a different view than hers with respect to now Speaker McCarthy," the HFC board member said.
"Over the last six months, she rarely comes to meetings," the board member added. "She's rarely participated in other activities and the Freedom Caucus has conducted and she was on a different side in the major legislative battle of this congressional term so far in the debt ceiling bill.”
Greene is back in the committee game. But some two weeks ago, the far-right Freedom Caucus in part ousted her for cursing: specifically, for calling Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) “a little b----” on the House floor.
Politicians talk dirty. But not that dirty, at least not within the ranks of the Freedom Caucus — a gleefully brazen band of far-right rabble-rousers with a history of fighting GOP leadership.
In exclusive interviews with Raw Story, one current and two former members of the Freedom Caucus — who requested anonymity to speak candidly about a colleague — described the inner-workings of the group and why its members could no longer tolerate Greene’s antics.
“That’s a big damn deal in there. You don’t have to agree with everybody. What you do have to f------ do is not violate anyone's confidence,” one former Freedom Caucus member told Raw Story. “I can never remember anyone ever yelling at anyone in a Freedom Caucus meeting. Ever.”
The Freedom Caucus is notorious for its methodicalsecrecy. For one, the group keeps its full membership rolls hidden from the public. And members prize having candid meetings with one another even when there’s fierce intellectual disagreements within the group.
“The sort of code of the members: You disagree with somebody, you still don't burn them down because it's important for you to be able to have an honest discourse,” the former Freedom Caucus member said.
While the former member doesn’t know Marjorie Taylor Greene personally, the former member questioned whether Greene knows herself.
“What’s important to MTG? I don't know the answer to that question — that's rhetorical,” the former Freedom Caucus member asked. “It may have backfired, but it may not have. She may have gotten exactly what she wanted. Who knows?”
Tactics are one thing. Just ask now-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). At the start of the year, over 15 Groundhog Day-esque ballots, a mere handful of Freedom Caucus members — along with some of their far-right allies — kept McCarthy in political purgatory until he doled out concession after concession.
Greene — whose aides didn’t make her available for an interview — wasn’t a part of the speaker standoff. She was fully in Camp McCarthy, which also left bitter feelings among some corners of the Freedom Caucus. McCarthy has since rewarded Greene.
Tact is another value Freedom Caucus members prize, and critics say Greene doesn’t have much.
“You can’t say things like that,” the Republican lawmaker told Raw Story. “I really don’t understand these people who will say crazy things just to get in the papers, and — maybe that’s her personality — I would never say anything like that.”
The Freedom Caucus lawmaker fears populist politics is overtaking prudent policy making.
“There are some of the newer members who would prefer to be hardlined, and it does worry me for the future of the Freedom Caucus — because if you push out the intellectual debate aspect, I’ll think you’ll chase off a lot of people,” he said.
While the Freedom Caucus is only eight years old, it’s already strayed from its fiscal conservative roots, according to another former member who has since left the U.S. House but remains in elected office elsewhere.
“When I joined the Freedom Caucus, I was hoping that I’d finally found a place where fiscal conservatives could go — and I think that’s why a lot of other people went there,” the former Freedom Caucus member said. “And then it turned out that, maybe, that wasn’t the major driver even for the Freedom Caucus.”
In the past, the Freedom Caucus was more selective on the front end.
“I don’t think we ever kicked anyone off when I was there,” the former member told Raw Story. “But there were people that wanted to join that we decided not to invite to join and it tended to be people who struggled so hard to articulate their positions in a pleasant way without insulting groups of people that we didn’t want to be identified with them.”
Echoing the Republican Party's attempt to impeach former President Bill Clinton, which led to bolstering his popularity, the drive by current GOP House members to impeach President Joe Biden and various members of his cabinet may help to seal his re-election prospects.
As Shapiro wrote, the divisions over going after Biden are already apparent among House Republicans, particularly those representing swing districts, to say nothing of the widely-publicized squabbles between Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) over whose impeachment motion should get priority. That type of turmoil is not helpful going into the 2024 election.
"Rather than quaking in terror, Democrats should be shouting, 'Bring it on.' Impeachment fever may be emotionally satisfying for the Republicans, but the frenzy comes with political costs for the GOP in 2024 and beyond," Shapiro wrote. "In general election terms, impeachment is a boon for the Democrats, which is why [House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy is desperately trying to slow walk these simpleminded drives for vengeance."
The New Republic columnist added that impeachments on "flimsy" charges will do nothing to bring back the independent voters the GOP badly needs for Trump, the presumptive nominee.
Add to that, impeachment proceedings against Biden would once again put the House Republicans under the spotlight after a series of hearings under Chairs James Comer (R-KY) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) that have flopped so far.
"Since taking over the House in January, the Republicans have provided scant evidence that they know how to run a compelling congressional hearing. So it strains credulity that the so-called evidentiary hearings leading up to a House vote on impeachment of Biden or a Cabinet member would sway anyone who doesn’t already live in the right-wing fever swamps," he wrote before adding, "When Elise Stefanik, who is supposed to be the telegenic voice of the House Republican leadership, routinely talks of 'the Biden crime family,' you get a sense of how over-the-top GOP rhetoric would be during an impeachment hearing (especially one led by Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who is known for intemperate antics and a disdain for suit jackets)."
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