Republican lawmakers have been publicly and privately pushing the limits of acceptable discourse with race-baiting language in the age of Donald Trump, according to a report.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) insultingly highlighted the Somali birthplace of her Democratic colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on the House floor the same week as Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) slurred the Black husband of Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) as a "thug," and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) repeatedly mixed up the nationality of TikTok chief executive Shou Chew.
“The nature of Trumpism is to embolden extremism,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY). “Whether it’s badgering an Asian witness about his ethnic loyalties, or dehumanizing a cabinet secretary, or accusing a Muslim woman of treason, or describing a Black man as a thug, Republican members of Congress are crossing lines that should never be crossed.”
During a closed-door meeting of House Republicans, Homeland Security Committee chairman referred to DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as a “reptile with no balls” because he refused to resign amid an impeachment investigation, and Democrats have condemned the statement as antisemitic.
“Chair Green’s comments are plain bigotry,” said Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL). “This whole impeachment process has been a bigoted, prejudiced spectacle.”
Trump entered national politics with racist 'birther" lies about Barack Obama and has kept up racist rhetoric that bellows much louder than traditional GOP dog whistles, the Times reported. They include his recent attack on Republican rival Nikki Haley, whose birth name Nimarata he intentionally misspells as "Nimrada," but his spokesman defended the coarsening of political discourse
“President Trump is a truth-teller," said spokesman Steve Cheung, "and the more people who follow his lead and speak their mind, the better.”
Eyebrows raised in Washington Thursday after Mike Johnson appeared to renege on the endorsement of a far-right Republican who voted for a bill pushed by the House Speaker but that the House Republican had vocally opposed, a new report shows.
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) threw his support behind a standalone Israel aid bill as rumors circulated that Johnson was considering backing him, instead of Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, in the Senate race to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, the Daily Beast reported Thursday.
Three sources told the Daily Beast a low-key trade-off was in play, with Rosendale agreeing to back the package in exchange for Johnson backing Rosendale.
But after Punchbowl News reported Thursday morning that Johnson might soon endorse Rosendale, the House Speaker was slammed by top Republican strategists, the Daily Beast sources said.
According to one Daily Beast source, Johnson backpedaled. And the Israel measure ultimately failed, according to the Associated Press.
Johnson’s team denied the the Daily Beast's sources, saying bluntly "That's not true."
“There was no discussion about an endorsement until after the floor was adjourned Tuesday night," the spokesperson reportedly said.
"But what's happening with that war and the numbers that you're speaking of is a true, unbelievable tragedy on a massive proportion," Greene told right-wing podcast host Steve Bannon on Thursday. "And to think that our tax dollars were spent on basically just grinding down an entire generation of Ukrainian men, no wonder they don't want to serve."
Greene insisted that "America deserves answers" about the war.
"And I have to praise Tucker Carlson for going to Russia and being willing to interview Vladimir Putin just to get the truth out, just to get the story out, and let the American people decide for themselves," she said.
The lawmaker acknowledged that Putin might not tell the truth.
"It doesn't mean we have to believe everything he says, but we should be able to hear from him," she insisted.
Democratic operatives are telling Semafor that their Republican opponents this week have given them plenty of fodder to use in campaigns later this year with a series of votes that failed on the floor of the House of Representatives.
The operatives say that this week's events, which saw Republicans fail in their own campaign to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, will help them portray the GOP as the party of chaos that can't even get its own partisan agenda passed, let alone hammer out negotiations on a bipartisan basis.
“We’ve had a good week because Republicans have shot themselves in the foot,” a Biden campaign aide explained to the publication. “There’s a lot for us to work with, and we’re going to be able to highlight Joe Biden focusing on issues that matter for voters while Republicans are not.”
Democratic operative Kate Berner, meanwhile, told Semafor that this week shows "Donald Trump and congressional Republicans and the MAGA Republican Party can’t govern or deliver results for the American people."
A Trump spokesperson offered a profane response to Democrats and told Semafor that "their record has been s----y at best."
Now, there’s a legitimate chance Donald Trump could be running for president, or even serving as commander in chief, from behind bars.
Two overriding factors contribute to this bizarre reality.
Firstly, there’s very little — legally speaking — preventing Trump from doing so.
Secondly, Trump himself has offered no indication he’ll step away. To the contrary, he’s as emboldened as ever to run for and win the presidency he lost in 2020.
Thus far, juries have found Trump civilly liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll. He’s been ordered to pay more than $88 million combined in damages.
New York Judge Arthur Engoron also found Trump and associates of his business empire liable for fraudulently inflating the value of the Trump Organization’s assets. Determination of damages in the civil fraud trial are expected this month — and could be well into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
And then there's the felony charges: 91 in total across four cases. If convicted, Trump could face significant prison time — totaling more than 700 years combined.
His trials are scheduled in the midst of the Republican presidential primary.
The indictments:
For the first time in U.S. history, a grand jury on June 8, 2023, federally indicted a former president — Trump — on 37 felony counts related to the alleged willful retention of classified documents and conspiracy to conceal them. District Judge Aileen Cannon set trial to begin May 20, but in February, special counsel questioned whether the FBI missed searching some rooms at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, ABC reported.
Then it happened again on Aug. 1 when Trump was indicted on four separate federal counts related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He was set to be tried starting March 4, but U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan delayed the trial's start as Trump — unsuccessfully, so far — petitioned a federal appeals court to rule that he enjoys presidential immunity from such prosecution.
Trump also faces a criminal trial in Georgia related to election interference in the state, with trial requested for Aug. 5. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis admitted in February to having a romantic relationship with a special prosecutor overseeing the case but denied any tainting of the case, Raw Story reported.
Separately, Trump is charged in New York with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to payments the Trump Organization made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. His trial is slated for March 25.
Such a laundry list of legal woes would seemingly sabotage any politician’s campaign efforts. But the cases haven’t slowed Trump down in his pursuit of a second term as president or slashed his chances — now as good as ever — of winning the 2024 Republican nomination.
Trump, who has handily won in the Republican primaries thus far, is almost certain to become the Republican nominee — and has made it clear he has no intention of dropping out of the race no matter how severe his legal battles become.
“I see no case in which I would do that,” Trump said in June during an appearance on a radio show hosted by political strategist Roger Stone, a longtime confidant. “I just wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. I had opportunities in 2016 to do it, and I didn't do it.”
But Allan Lichtman, a professor of history at American University, said campaigning for president and defending himself against criminal charges are two very different endeavors.
“He thinks he can win this case in the court of public opinion, but the truth is, Trump can huff, and Trump can puff, but he can't blow the courthouse down,” Lichtman said. “It’s a very, very different game once you enter a federal courthouse or a state courthouse. You can't just bluster. Anything that you present has to be proven, and you're subject to perjury.”
Still, Trump can continue to run his campaign while facing these charges — and he could even do so from prison in the event he were to be tried, convicted and sentenced before the 2024 election.
“Trump’s legal problems shouldn’t affect his campaign. Many of his supporters believe that he is being treated unfairly, and there is no prohibition against a defendant under indictment or even a convicted felon from serving as president,” said Neama Rahmani, a former assistant U.S. attorney and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers. “Theoretically, Trump could even be president while in prison.”
Indeed, the U.S. Constitution stipulates only that a presidential candidate be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old and a U.S. resident for 14 years. Trump easily checks all those boxes. And congressional Democrats’ strongest efforts to potentially disqualify Trump from ever again seeking the presidency — convicting him following impeachment trials — failed.
So, what would it take for Trump to run a presidential campaign — or govern the nation — from prison?
Raw Story interviewed historians, legal experts, political operatives and former government leaders who pieced together a playbook for how he could do it — and the peril that he’d face along the way as he stands to secure the GOP nomination ahead of a general election rematch with President Joe Biden in November.
Campaigning from a cell
Each of the charges Trump faces in the classified documents federal indictment carries maximum prison sentences between five and 20 years. Across all four indictments, potential prison time could span hundreds of years.
Being behind bars would, of course, prevent Trump from campaigning in his signature fashion: at big, rowdy MAGA rallies.
But Amani Wells-Onyioha, operations director at Democratic political firm Sole Strategies, envisions Trump still figuring out ways to communicate with potential voters.
“There's no doubt in my mind that he would have some recorded press from the little prison phone. There's no doubt in my mind that he would set up press opportunities whenever he's out on the yard getting his recreational use in, that there would be cameras there,” Wells-Onyioha said. “He would be using every opportunity to campaign. I don't see him stopping at all, and I only see him using this as fuel to make him go harder.”
Keeping up his Truth Social posts from prison might not be such a challenge for Trump, Wells-Onyioha said, as some jails and prisons might allow internet access.
“I do see him using the internet because that's all that he has, and he's great at that already,” Wells-Onyioha said. “He's a huge internet, TV personality type of guy, so it really would just force him to be in a position to do something that he's the best at, which is unfortunate for the country, but as far as he's concerned, I think he thinks that this is political gold for himself.”
Plus, Trump isn’t building a campaign from scratch. His 2024 presidential campaign is flush with staffers. He enjoys the support of super PACs, which may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on his behalf to promote the former president and attack his opponents.
He also has a roster of high-profile MAGA acolytes — from Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) to Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — who gladly serve as Trump surrogates.
And save for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who remains in the race despite losses in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, with dim prospects going forward, Trump has already vanquished his other main GOP challengers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
Meanwhile, few politicians are as good as Trump at presenting himself as a victim — he’s single-handedly vaulted the terms “witch hunt,” “deep state,” “hoax” and “fake news” into the contemporary political lexicon. As an inmate, Trump could become a martyr to the MAGA cause.
“You’re obviously handicapped to campaign, but in this electronic age, you can certainly campaign virtually, plus Trump's pretty well known. It’s not like he has to introduce himself to the American people,” Lichtman said.
If not prison, maybe jail
Former President Donald Trump arrives for his arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 04 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Although it seems unlikely Trump will be serving an active prison sentence before the November election, it’s conceivable he could wind up in pretrial confinement of some sort while campaigning.
This, several legal experts said, will depend on Trump himself.
“He has to behave himself during a trial, and that's not beyond the realm of possibility that he'll act up, thinking that somehow he can win over the jury, but that would be a mistake,” said Kevin O’Brien, a former assistant U.S. attorney and partner at Ford O’Brien Landy LLP who specializes in white-collar criminal defense.
His social media antics stand to put him in potential violation of pretrial instructions and release terms, raising the question of whether a judge would dare throw the former president in jail. So far, he’s been fined thousands for violating gag orders.
Brazenly defying a judge’s order or attempting to intimidate witnesses are among the more common ways a defendant can get himself thrown in jail or home confinement before or during his trial.
This isn’t merely conceptual, said Mike Lawlor, a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven and former member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, who helped lead impeachment hearings against then-Gov. John Rowland, who ultimately pleaded guilty in federal court to political corruption.
Knowing Trump’s penchant for cutting outbursts, Lawlor can envision a judge sanctioning Trump for defying directives. Trump not only has one judge with whom to contend, but several, given the multiple legal actions against him.
“The opportunity to engage in contempt of court or witness tampering or obstruction of justice is fraught at this point. I’m not sure he has the self-control to keep himself from doing something that would get him confined pre-trial,” Lawlor said.
The U.S. House Jan. 6 select committee accused Trump of potential witness tampering, and Lawlor says he’s monitoring similar allegations here, especially because so many of the witnesses are GOP staffers of the former president.
“It’s so easy to imagine a situation where someone could be contacted and intimidated,” Lawlor said. “I think the temptation to do that for a guy like Trump is probably irresistible. I’m not sure his attorneys or the advisors he listens to can stop him from doing so. I don’t rule it out. As I said, it’s unlikely, but I can definitely see it happening.”
Using legal danger to fuel fundraising
The Trump campaign wasted no time in exploiting the indictments to raise money, leaning into a familiar claim that the candidate is a victim of a Democratic witch hunt.
Only one day after news broke about Trump’s first federal indictment, a fundraising appeal built around the charges appeared on the campaign website prominently displayed in a column on the left-hand side of the page, suggesting contribution amounts ranging from $24 to $3,300. The message lays out a bill of particulars with the former president at the center of the persecution narrative, beginning with the apocalyptic opener: “We are watching our Republic DIE before our very eyes.”
Trump Save America, the beneficiary, is a joint fundraising committee for Donald J. Trump for President 2024 and the Save America PAC, which supports Trump.
The fundraising appeal contends that a “witch hunt began when the FBI RAIDED my home and then staged it to look like a made-for-TV crime scene with police sirens and flashing red and blue lights.”
Alluding to his previous indictment in New York state, the appeals continued: “So, after a state prosecutor failed to break us, the Deep State sharpened their attacks and unleashed a FEDERAL prosecutor to TRY and take us down.”
Notwithstanding Trump’s claim, the charges in New York state remain pending, and Jack Smith, the special prosecutor appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, was investigating Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents four months before a grand jury in New Manhattan returned an indictment on the state charges related to the Stormy Daniels affair.
Minutes after the Aug. 1 indictment dropped, Trump started fundraising again, selling "I Stand With Trump" T-shirts featuring the indictment date, and Trump's mugshot from his booking at the Fulton County Jail helped him bring in more than $7 million after the Georgia indictment as he quickly took to selling mugs, shirts and other merchandise with the photo.
At least one prominent surrogate helped retail the fundraising push.
Kari Lake, a fellow election denier who lost her race for governor of Arizona in 2022, joined a Twitter Spaces co-hosted by Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lynn Lawrence on the night news broke about Trump’s indictment on charges of mishandling classified documents.
Stockton and Lawrence helped organize the rally that provided the springboard for the Jan. 6 insurrection. During her appearance on Stockton and Lawrence’s Twitter Space, Lake, who is now running for U.S. Senate, told more than 1,300 listeners she had just gotten off the phone with Trump shortly after news broke about the indictment on June 8. Lake said it wasn’t enough for Republican voters to just say they stand with Trump or condemn the indictment.
“And if we really stand with him, we need to go to DonaldTrump.com and make a donation tonight,” said Lake, who is herselfpreparing a 2024 U.S. Senate run in Arizona. “Everybody, whether it’s $5, $10, $500 — whatever you can afford. Because if we’re gonna stand with him, we need to put our money where our mouth is tonight.”
The political monetization of Trump’s legal woes grows deeper by the month. Go to Trump’s campaign website and you’ll find several items on sale — a black-and-white ceramic coffee mug is $24 — featuring a fake mugshot of Trump above the words “NOT GUILTY”. Of late, Trump hassuggested that he would “end” his campaign in a deceptive bid to squeeze money from supporters.
The Federal Election Commission, which enforces federal campaign finance laws, would have no grounds to intervene in Trump’s fundraising efforts while facing criminal charges or even time in jail or prison, said Ann Ravel, who served as an FEC commissioner from 2013 to 2017, including one year as the commission’s chairwoman.
Trump's campaign is selling these black-and-white ceramic coffee mugs for $24. (Screen grab)
Trump’s campaign could easily continue sending supporters incessant fundraising emails and text messages in Trump’s name.
“The only problems for him would be if there's failure to disclose, or if people are giving more than the limits, all of the things that are traditional FEC issues, but they don't have the authority to do anything with regard to a person who's been indicted and is still fundraising,” Ravel said. “That in and of itself is not sufficient for the FEC to take any action.”
Lessons of Eugene Debs, incarcerated presidential candidate
Trump wouldn’t be the first candidate to run for president from prison if he were convicted.
In the weeks before the 1920 election, Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist Party candidate for president of the United States and an inmate in federal prison, touched on the significance of the moment.
“Has there ever been anything like it in American history before?” Debs said, as reported by the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason. “Will there ever be anything like it in American history again? We must impress it upon the people that this scene is symbolic of what has befallen this country.”
There has been one other. Lyndon LaRouche, whom The New Republiccalled “The Godfather of Political Paranoia,” ran from prison in 1992 after being convicted of tax evasion and mail fraud.
His vice presidential running mate, the Rev. James Bevel, did most of the campaigning. This suggests that a jailed Trump could lean heavily on the presence of a charismatic vice presidential candidate — be it someone such as Lake of Arizona, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia or even banished Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
LaRouche received .02% of the popular vote — 26,334.
Debs, who was serving a 10-year sentence for decrying the United States’ involvement in World War I, received 3.4% of the popular vote — 919,799.
He received 6% of the vote as a candidate eight years earlier, in 1912.
While emphasizing that she’s speaking as an individual, Allison Duerk, director of the Eugene V. Debs Museum, located in Debs’ home in Terre Haute, Ind., said she cringes at comparisons between Debs and Trump. In material ways, the two men are polar opposites.
“I bristle at recent casual references to the 1920 campaign — not because they are inaccurate on the surface, but because these two men and their respective projects are diametrically opposed,” she told Raw Story.
Duerk does believe Debs predicted the emergence of American political leaders such as Trump.
Illustration of Eugene Debs while running for president in prison. Indiana State University archives
“Take this quote from the speech that got him locked up,” she said, quoting Debs: “‘In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the people.’"
In an Appeal to Reason article, Debs said he believed in change “but by perfectly peaceful and orderly means.” He added, “Never in my life have I broken a law or advised others to do so.”
Unlike Trump, who nurses grievances daily, the article said of Debs, “Nothing embitters him. Injustice, oppression, persecution, savagery do not embitter him. It is a stirring, an uplifting thing to find a man who has suffered so much and remains so ardent and so pure.”
The U.S. government and the prison warden made small accommodations to Debs’ candidacy. He was, for one, allowed a single written message per week to voters.
“Where Debs had once stormed the country in a verbal torrent,” wrote Ernest Freeberg, author of Democracy’s Prisoner, “he would now have five hundred words a week.”
Debs still had some of the trappings of a political campaign, including a button that had his photo from prison with the words, “For President - Convict No. 9653.” He had printed material that said, “From Atlanta to the White House, 1920,” a reference to his residency inside the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.
On election night, Debs received the results in the warden’s office and soon conceded the election to President-elect Warren Harding.
In his book Walls and Bars, Debs wrote that the question came up in the room about his potential ability to pardon himself as president — an action over which Trump has reportedly mused.
“We all found some mirth in debating it,” Debs wrote.
Serving as president from prison
If Trump ran a successful campaign from jail or prison, is there anything stopping him from assuming the Oval Office if he were elected president?
“There is nothing in our traditions or the Constitution that prevents someone who is indicted or convicted or, in fact, serving in jail, from also serving as the president,” said Harold Krent, law professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, who formerly worked for the Department of Justice. “Does it make any sense? No. But there is no Constitutional disablement from that happening. So, you could think of a scenario in which the case goes to trial, maybe after the primary and results in a prison time with President Trump and then he is inaugurated, and he gets to serve as president from some prison farm somewhere.”
Lichtman said “of course” Trump would just pardon himself of any federal crimes were he reelected president. There’s also the possibility of Trump attempting to preemptively pardon himself, with then-President Gerald Ford’s pardoning of Richard Nixon serving as an imperfect template.
But if Trump is convicted on any state-level charges, where federal pardons do not apply, that’s a different story.
“That's unprecedented, but the pardon power is pretty absolute,” Lichtman. “He can’t pardon himself for the New York case because that’s a state case. If he's convicted in New York, he's stuck. If ... he's convicted in Georgia, he can’t pardon himself from that either, because that's also a state case.”
Trump’s ability to pardon himself is widely debated in the academic community, Krent said.Federal document listing indictment counts against former President Donald Trump. U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
“There's no law on the books that says you can't. You just have to reason from the idea of separation of powers and the Constitution or to think that it doesn't make any sense to have one person aggregate or accumulate so much power,” Krent said. “As a constitutional matter, I think that that would be too much of a conflict of interest to be able to pardon yourself.”
Interestingly, the classified documents federal indictment didn’t include counts related to 18 U.S.Code 2071, which deals with the concealment, removal or destruction of government documents. This would disqualify anyone found in violation of the code from running for office, Rahmani said.
“That particular provision was passed after Nixon as a disqualification provision that prevents anyone convicted of it from holding public office,” Rahmani said. “Trump's lawyers would have said that it's unconstitutional because only the Constitution can place limits on who could be president. You can be a felon. You can be in prison and still theoretically be president of the United States.”
The Constitution could be interpreted — ostensibly by the U.S. Supreme Court — that an imprisoned president wouldn’t qualify as capable of carrying out his duties, preventing him from taking the office, Ravel said.
“There's nothing to stop him from becoming president either because the provisions in the Constitution about the presidency and the requirements for presidency don't reflect any concern if a president has been indicted or is in jail,” Ravel said. “Although if he goes to jail, it would create a problem for him because the Constitution does have concerns about the inability to carry out the obligations of the office, which he certainly wouldn't be able to do in jail.”
Specifically, Section 4 of the Constitution’s 25th Amendment potentially empowers Congress to determine — via a two-thirds vote of both chambers — that a president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and thereby transfer presidential powers to the vice president.
But if Trump is elected in November, and trials end up taking place after the general election, some of his legal peril could subside — at least at the federal level.
“There's clear Department of Justice memos and policies. It's pretty clear that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted,” Rahmani said.
If Trump won and was convicted but on appeal, he would “probably” still be able to get inaugurated, Krent said.
“The question is whether they would stop the appeal and let him serve out the presidency before it would continue,” Krent said. “Uncharted waters in terms of how this would go. It's gonna affect the primary. It would affect the general election, and it certainly would affect his ability to conduct a presidency.”
Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally published on June 13, 2023, and has been updated to reflect numerous legal and political developments involving Trump.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), faced with a difficult election after only winning by hundreds of votes in the previous race, decided to jump ship to a more conservative district on the other side of the state — and according to straw polling, she is unlikely to even get the nomination there.
But whether she finds a new seat to stay in Congress or not, one thing appears to be true: Many of her constituents in Western Colorado are happy to see her go, reported The Independent.
“There are people I know that are Trump supporters that don’t support her, and they started out, like, ‘Yeah, ra, ra, ra,’ and now, they’re just embarrassed – because she just makes a fool out of herself,” said a 40-year-old independent voter in New Castle. “When she comes to public places around here, it’s just not professional.” Another elderly grandmother told the paper, “She’s always in drama here in Rifle and Silt."
"She’s not the most popular person anymore,” that voter reportedly added.
"It’s a common refrain from constituents represented by the 37-year-old new grandmother, who has endured a spectacular rise and fall between her home turf and DC," reported Sheila Flynn. "A Democrat briefly until 2008, she first came to power in a shock 2020 upset, riding a MAGA wave of rural Colorado libertarianism and covid restriction backlash to victory over five-term incumbent Republican Scott Tipton. Boebert tapped into the fringe elements of the right, weaving Christian nationalism and conspiracy theory bait into her unique brand of Trump-tinted braggadocio, and it played well for a time … before she seems to have taken it too far."
Boebert has found herself at the center of multiple dramas in recent years, from a highly public and personal feud with fellow far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), to an incident in which she was kicked out of a local performance of "Beetlejuice" for publicly groping her date and causing a scene.
Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) expressed confusion on Wednesday after a stinging defeat in her attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
During an interview on Real America's Voice, right-wing host Charlie Kirk asked Greene if intelligence agencies had compromising photos of three Republicans who voted against impeachment.
"Marjorie, do you think these people are being blackmailed by the intel agencies?" he wondered. "They might have had relations with certain people and pictures and [are] compromised. Do you think that they're currently being blackmailed?"
"But I, again, I can't understand the vote, so nothing surprises me in Washington, D.C. anymore, Charlie," she remarked. "Literally nothing surprises me because it doesn't make sense to anyone, right?"
"Why would anyone protect Mayorkas unless they're being bribed, unless there's something going on, unless they're making a deal?" Greene added. "You know, because you can't understand it. It makes no sense."
In a presidential election year where their likely nominee often leads in the polls, it is close to unheard of that the leaders of that party would be under direct and very public attack from the base and their own elected leaders, yet Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel are facing increasing dissatisfaction – and even some calls for their ouster.
After two critical and "embarrassing" losses Tuesday night – one on the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the other on aid to Israel, some House Republicans and staffers have called into question the "decision-making abilities" of Speaker Mike Johnson, according to Punchbowl News.
"Tuesday’s debacle — failing to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and then choosing to lose a vote on $17 billion in aid to Israel — is truly one of the most embarrassing days in recent House GOP history," Punchbowl News reported. "Inside Johnson’s leadership circle, there are plenty who doubt his decision-making capability while being forced to begrudgingly execute his questionable strategies. And among rank-and-file House GOP lawmakers, there are a lot of people scratching their heads about where he’s leading them."
Late Wednesday morning, Speaker Johnson defended those failures, telling reporters "democracy is messy," while blaming Democrats for bringing one of their members who had been in the hospital in to vote.
“Last night was a setback, but democracy is messy … We have a razor-thin margin here ... People show up when they’re not expected to be in the building, it changes the equation … We will pass those articles of impeachment.”
— Speaker Mike Johnson on failed Mayorkas impeachment pic.twitter.com/4ukTmq3rud
— The Recount (@therecount) February 7, 2024
When confronted with remarks attacking him from Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, that ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy "was an 'unmitigated disaster' for your party," Johnson tried to turn the tables.
"Well, look, it was a mess, what happened here, but we're cleaning it up. And Massie is one of my dear friends and colleagues and I don't think that this is a reflection on the leader. It's a reflection on the body itself."
On the other side of Congress, Politico reports, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is "under open attack from the right for even trying to work with Democrats on the border."
McConnell's "far-right critics are speaking out more loudly: Several held a press conference Tuesday where they denounced his handling of the border talks, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) calling on McConnell to step down."
McConnell put U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-OK) a hardcore conservative, on drafting the border bill that includes funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. McConnell supported Lankford and endorsed the legislation, before walking away and throwing Lankford, as Mother Jones' David Corn noted, "under the bus."
Politico adds that "Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted a fundraising link asking donors to 'kill this border bill' in the middle of a closed-door GOP meeting on Monday and demanded 'new leadership,' while Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) memed McConnell as Charlie Brown whiffing on an attempt to kick a football held by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.)."
“'I’ve been super unhappy since this started,' Johnson said in an interview. 'Leader McConnell completely blew this.'”
The Guardian's Hugo Lowell reports, "RNC chair Ronna McDaniel discussed with Trump stepping down after South Carolina primary, per person familiar. NYT reported she told Trump she’s planning to step down. Trump met with her at Mar-a-Lago yesterday where Trump didn’t ask her to quit but told Newsmax she needed to go."
A quick NCRM review found only one other time in the U.S. when the chair of a major national political party stepped down just months before a presidential election: the DNC's Debbie Wasserman Schultz, after emails were leaked in 2016. Donald Trump, the Republican, went on to win that election.
The rules around campaign funds — and the levels of threat faced by elected women of color — are in the spotlight as the Justice Department investigates spending by Rep. Cori Bush.
Threats targeting members of Congress — especially women of color — have grown over the past few years, and so has some members’ spending on security. This spending, and the rules surrounding it, are in the spotlight in the wake of news that the Justice Department is investigating spending by Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat.
Bush said she used campaign funds to pay for security services provided by her husband but that she did so in compliance with regulations and in response to “relentless” threats. She has denied wrongdoing.
The House Committee on Ethics and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) are also reviewing Bush’s campaign spending. The Office of Congressional Ethics also conducted an investigation and found no wrongdoing, according to Bush.
Here’s what we know about Congress, campaigns and security spending.
What rules are there around campaign spending on security?
The FEC prohibits campaign spending on personal use — that is, anything that an officeholder would have even if they weren’t in office. These things include rent or mortgage payments, food, household supplies, clothing and tuition.
Any expense that an officeholder incurs as a result of their position — such as security following excessive threats — does not count as personal use. Candidates can pay family members to work on their campaign if they are providing a service to the campaign — such as security — but their family members are not allowed to work in their congressional offices. Additionally, the cost for the campaign services they provide must be within fair market value.
What security services are provided by Congress?
The Capitol complex, where members work in Washington, D.C., has security staffing. But not all members are guaranteed security when they’re outside of the complex.
Rank-and-file members, or those who do not have leadership positions, such as Bush, don’t get extra security. Only leaders, such as the speaker of the House and the Senate and House majority and minority leaders and whips are eligible for full-time protective services from the U.S. Capitol Police.
How much are Congress members spending for security?
An analysis from CQ Roll Call found that congressional campaign spending on security recently jumped, increasing from $385,000 in the entire 2019-2020 campaign cycle to nearly $3 million in 2021 alone. Bush, along with fellow Squad member New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, were the only women among the top 10 security spenders in 2021. Bush, the top spender among women, spent $170,000 that year; Ocasio-Cortez $73,000; and Cheney $59,000.
Once in office, candidates can hire security personnel to accompany them during member-hosted events, events and to be stationed in district offices during business hours, according to the Committee on House Administration.
U.S. Capitol Police are seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
How often have women in politics experienced threats in recent years?
The Capitol Police said they investigated 8,008 threats last year. They do not provide details about who received the most threats, but other studies show that elected officials who are women or people of color are more likely to face threats and acts of violence than men and White politicians.
In a poll of former Congress members by the University of Massachusetts Amherst last year, women, African-American and Latinx officials were more likely to say they and their families received threats often.
The same trends hold in other offices. A recent report on intimidation of state and local officeholders from the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, found that women officials experience gender-targeted abuse three to four times more than their men counterparts, and officials of color were more likely to experience race-based abuse than White officials. Over 40 percent of state legislators faced threats or attacks over the past three years.
The year started with a spate of threats of violence against elected officials, many of them women. A number of those have come in the form of swatting, or when false reports are filed that result in police dispatching to someone’s home, and happened to officials including Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley; Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene; Boston Mayor Michelle Wu; and Judge Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s election case. In the Brennan Center’s report, more Republican local and state officeholders said they experienced abuse than Democrats.
“The big takeaway is there’s no level of government, and there’s no type of candidate that’s immune from this problem, so really everybody should care about it,” said Gowri Ramachandran, the deputy director of elections and government at the Brennan Center’s Democracy program and author of the report on abuse.
What is the impact of these threats?
Threats discourage people, especially women of color, from pursuing political offices. Forty-four percent of the former Congress members surveyed by the University of Massachusetts Amherst said they are very concerned about election-related violence this year. In the Brennan Center’s report, half of the local officeholders who were women were less likely to run for reelection or a higher office due to abuse.
“It has been very difficult to recruit candidates for this upcoming election cycle. I’ve noticed it more this year than any other year that I’ve been involved in trying to get women and people of color to run for office,” Oklahoma state House Minority Leader Cydni Munson, the first Asian- American woman elected to the Oklahoma legislature, told the Brennan Center.
Beyond even their potential reelection, some expressed hesitancy to speak out on issues such as reproductive rights and gun safety for fear of threats.
“That’s really unfortunate because we need more women in the legislature. We need more mothers in the legislature. Those are real-life stories she could be bringing to the state Capitol,” Munson told the Brennan Center.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough mocked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for whining about a "sneaky" ploy Democrats used to sink the impeachment of Homeland Security secretary Alejandra Mayorkas.
Four Republicans joined all Democrats – including Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who dramatically rolled up to the the U.S. Capitol in a wheelchair and wearing hospital scrubs after a recent surgery – and voted against the measure, which ultimately failed by 216-214, and the Georgia Republican cried foul afterward.
“They hid one of their members, waiting to the last minute, watching to see our votes, trying to throw us off on the numbers that we had versus the numbers they had,” Greene said. “So, yeah, that was a strategy at play tonight.”
Scarborough and "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski were mystified by her complaint.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins cut off a congressman while he was in mid-sentence to correct him on-air as he was knocking his Democratic colleagues across the aisle.
The anchor of "The Source" welcomed Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) to understand from him why the House Republicans' effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was brought to the floor when they didn't have the votes — being the final tally was 214-216.
"Well, there could be a lot of reasons," he started. "Republicans generally don't use the carrot or the stick like the Democrats have done in the past."
"You've seen on the floor where votes have been dragged out and they circle them in leadership and whisper in their ear and tell them things that they maybe are not too comfortable hearing, but we don't do that. We allow for the free-thinking —"
That's when Collins pulled the needle off the record.
"Actually, congressman," she said.
But Burchett didn't hear her yet, saying: "And frankly I just —"
Collins continued, "Congressman, I want to hear your answer, and I like to let people talk when they're a guest on this show, but I do have to say there were reports that people were going up to Congressman Mike Gallagher after he had voted against impeachment."
That revelation didn't seem to bother Burchett, who voted in favor of impeaching Mayorkas.
"Oh, sure," he said. "I'm sure there were. But it wasn't any orchestrated thing. It was different people."
In the dizzying situation, Burchett said he asked colleagues, one of them being Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), about Gallagher, and he was informed nobody knew.
He then suggested going against the impeachment will hurt the lawmaker when they have to face their constituents.
"But obviously, the speaker knows that these folks will go home and they do know the lack of popularity that they have, this vote will have with the base," he said. "I suspect we'll be coming back next week and you'll probably see a different outcome."
House Speaker "MAGA" Mike Johnson reportedly just "bolted" away without speaking to reporters after losing two major votes.
Billy House, Bloomberg News Congress reporter, reported on Tuesday evening, "Johnson bolts from capitol....does not stop to talk to reporters."
That report came after the House Republicans failed in their impeachment vote of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his immigration policies, as well as a loss on a vote to send $17.6 billion to Israel.
"I've seen a lot of embarrassing days for different House Republican leadership teams. This one is pretty high on the list," Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News reported. "They lost a vote to impeach Mayorkas. And then they lost a vote to send $17.6 billion to Israel. They didn't need to vote on the Israel bill today. They knew it would fail. They chose to."
Johnson's demeanor seems to align with what is being said about him by various right-wing pundits. Trump ally Steve Bannon said, "This I got to tell you is an absolute catastrophe for Johnson.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) complained after Democrats called out her past statements during a debate over the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
During a House floor debate on Tuesday, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) noted that Republicans were following in line behind Greene's impeachment resolution despite her history of conspiracy theories.
"Though she sits on the Homeland Security Committee, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has raised doubts about 9-11 to the false assertion that 9-11 was done by our own government," Thompson noted. "She said that's all true. She also thinks Jewish space lasers cause wildfires. She fundraises off defunding the FBI."
"She's a person whose advice Republicans are taking today on this impeachment," he pointed out.
Greene later complained during an appearance on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast.
"You really took some beating today," Bannon observed.
"That's right, Steve," Greene replied. "I've been the Democrat punching bag. Well, it's kind of been that way since I became a member of Congress, but especially through our debates and impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas."
"They would rather defend the man that has caused our country to be invaded by over 10 million illegal aliens with nearly two million gotaways," she added. "They would rather defend the man that has caused that to happen to the American people than actually agree with me."
"They defend him and attack me all day long and attack President Trump."
Former President Donald Trump arrives for his arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 04 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Trump's campaign is selling these black-and-white ceramic coffee mugs for $24. (Screen grab)
Illustration of Eugene Debs while running for president in prison. Indiana State University archives
Federal document listing indictment counts against former President Donald Trump. U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
U.S. Capitol Police are seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)