David Edwards has spent over a decade reporting on social justice, human rights and politics for Raw Story. He also writes Crooks and Liars. He has a background in enterprise resource planning and previously managed the network infrastructure for the North Carolina Department of Correction.
Reps. Matt Gaetz (FL), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), and Louie Gohmert (TX) complained on Thursday after prison officials refused to allow them to enter a facility housing people who allegedly attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Conservative news outlets OAN and RSBN covered the lawmakers' attempt to enter the facility. The stunt was billed as an attempt to check on the welfare of Jan. 6 "political prisoners."
But before Gaetz could open the door, it was locked by an officer.
Former Gov. Marc Racicot (R-MT), a conservative and a signatory to an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the ballot, was aghast at Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) for his recent statement that he would have blocked certification of the 2020 presidential election if he were in the place of former Vice President Mike Pence.
Vance, a former critic of Trump turned MAGA loyalist, made the comments during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on "ABC This Week."
"If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there," said Vance. "That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020. I think that's what we should have done."
"He's basically saying he would have done the coup," said anchor Ari Melber, himself an attorney. "Kicked it to the House. And allowed Republican majorities, maybe, to make Donald Trump president despite losing by 7 million votes. What's your reaction to hearing a sitting U.S. Republican senator say that?"
"Well, I think it's stunningly uninformed and mistaken," said Racicot. "And frankly, it's preposterous. In the first place, the selection of electors is a matter within the exclusive province of the individual states. So, he's terribly wrong. He doesn't understand the constitutional history, nor the requirements of the law. Or of the Constitution."
"To suggest that you would do something that would once again incite more chaos and disruption is beyond the pale," he added. "And frankly I think it's an unbelievable demonstration of a lack of information and knowledge about what's appropriate under the Constitution."
The House Republican majority is beginning to have buyers' remorse over their October ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California).
The New Republic reported that following two failed votes on the House floor for Israel aid and the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, some Republicans are openly regretting their decision to replace McCarthy last October. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), who is among the more conservative members of the GOP majority, tweeted his frustrations with his colleagues on Wednesday.
"Getting rid of Speaker McCarthy has officially turned into an unmitigated disaster," Massie wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "All work on separate spending bills has ceased. Spending reductions have been traded for spending increases. Warrantless spying has been temporarily extended. Our majority has shrunk."
Massie even pushed back on a supporter who said they missed expelled former Rep. George Santos (R-New York) but still supported the decision to force McCarthy out of his position.
"Name one thing that’s improved under the new speaker," Massie said in response.
Massie's quip is similar to remarks Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) made on the House floor in late 2023, who challenged his colleagues to name "one thing" Republicans did since taking the majority in 2022 that he could campaign on back in his district. Even the Republican who led the effort to strip the speaker's gavel from McCarthy voiced his regret for triggering the motion to vacate that seven other Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting. In an interview with far-right network Newsmax, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) said Mayorkas' impeachment would have passed had McCarthy — who retired at the end of 2023 — still been in office.
"Wouldn’t it have been nice to still have Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives?" Gaetz said. "Never thought you'd hear me say that."
When the nine justices making up the Supreme Court convene on Thursday, they will try to decide whether the Civil War-era Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — barring anyone from seeking office who once took an oath to uphold the Constitution but then "engaged” in “insurrection or rebellion” against it — applies to the presidency and Trump.
Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig is especially interested in how the court's three liberal-leaning justices will engage when they hear oral arguments in the case.
The case is based on voters in the Rocky Mountain State accusing Trump of violating the Constitution when he attempted to reverse his 2020 election defeat and fomented an attack on the Capitol Building to stop Congress from certifying the vote back on Jan. 6, 2021.
The ex-president remains the frontrunner to nab the GOP presidential nomination and is contesting a move by some Colorado voters to disqualify him from appearing on the primary ballot.
He's also interested in seeing how Chief Justice John Roberts works to protect his legacy and that of the court.
"The last thing Chief Justice Roberts wants is for his tenure to be the one where the court split apart," he said.
As far as what could transpire, Honig said they could uphold Colorado's disqualification of Trump and then he's off the ballot and can't run for a second term there. But doing so opens the "door for other states" to file challenges, who are waiting and seeing what happens with Colorado decision.
If they strike down Colorado but "do it in a certain way, either say the president does not count under the 14th Amendment, or if they say Congress must act first, then they put an end to it."
Another panelist, a senior Supreme Court analyst, also said to look to the liberal judges. As for who could compromise with the conservatives on the court, she cited Kagan.
