'A disaster': GOP's top speaker prospect loses votes as Republican House fractures

Negotiations about appointing a new Speaker of the House appear to be breaking down among Republicans, as Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) is actually losing votes rather than gaining them, and Republicans are debating trying to find a different candidate just a day after nominating him.

That's what CNN correspondent Melanie Zanona reported seeing on Thursday afternoon.

"Congressman Steve Scalise's bid for the speakership of the House of Representatives now appears to be in very serious jeopardy," said anchor Wolf Blitzer. "How are Republicans finally going to break this deadlock?"

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"That is the question of the day, Wolf," said Zanona. "Republicans had this closed-door meeting earlier today, and based on my conversations with lawmakers, it was a disaster. Steve Scalise failed to win any holdouts, and in fact, he seems to be bleeding support. Last night, Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna told us she was going to be behind Scalise, but she left that meeting telling my colleague she is going to be voting against him on the floor."

"Things seem to be turning in the wrong direction for Steve Scalise," Zanona continued. "He is meeting in his office as we speak with some of these holdouts, trying to win over their support and assuage their concerns. There are serious doubts whether Steve Scalise can ever get there. That is creating deep frustration in the GOP now. Members are warning they don't have that type of time. It's not like in January they can go through rounds of votes and dealing with a crisis in Israel, and they have another government funding deadline coming up."

"At this moment there are discussions about a Plan B," Zanona added. "If Steve Scalise can't get there, they're talking about drafting a new candidate to step up to the plate. There's a group of centrist Republicans talking about empowering the interim speaker to help the House function more properly. At this moment the House is paralyzed and no consensus on the path forward."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

Melanie Zanona says speaker talks are a "disaster" www.youtube.com

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The Trump administration’s prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey “could get interesting fast” as Comey’s legal team presented the presiding judge with a new request, one that could pose a threat to President Donald Trump, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance argued on Sunday.

Comey was indicted in April on two felony counts related to a social media post he published on Instagram: a photograph of seashells on the beach laid out to read “86 47.” The post was interpreted by Trump allies as a threat on the president’s life, with 47 likely referencing Trump as the 47th president, and 86 being an informal term used to reject or eject something.

“[Comey’s lawyers] are arguing the prosecution is selective — Comey is being prosecuted because Trump views him as a political enemy — and vindictive — Trump’s personal animus for Comey is the reason he is being prosecuted — and the indictment should be dismissed,” reads an analysis published Sunday on Vance’s Substack.

As flagged by Vance, Comey’s legal team has asked that if the case is not dismissed out of hand, then at the very least, they would be entitled to discovery, during which new evidence proving Comey’s prosecution to have been “vindictive” may emerge.

“[T]he current record justifies dismissal. But at the very least, discovery and a hearing are warranted based on the ‘reasonable likelihood of vindictiveness,’ … and the existence of ‘some evidence tending to show the existence of the essential elements of’ impermissible selection,” Comey’s legal team argued, according to Vance.

As such, Vance noted: “This case could get interesting fast.”

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Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz reached its “lowest” level since May, Reuters reported on Sunday, just days after President Donald Trump insisted that the critical shipping waterway was “open” and under the full “control” of the United States.

According to shipping data reviewed by Reuters, an average of 10 commodity ships per day transited the strait over the past 10 days, a sharp drop from just a week prior. Six vessels transited the strait on Sunday, and only two on Saturday, “mostly using the Iranian route,” according to Reuters.

And yet, on Aug. 27, Trump declared that “the Strait of Hormuz is open,” and that “we have control.” A day before that, Trump again declared that “the Strait is open,” and that the United States was guiding “a lot of ships through the strait now,” adding that it was “a very functioning strait” with “a lot of oil pouring out.”

Trump has insisted that the Strait of Hormuz has been open since at least Aug. 10, when he claimed that the United States controlled the strait “100%.”

The cratering of traffic through the strait comes as average diesel prices reach their all-time high in the United States, eclipsing $5.85 per gallon for the first time in history last Friday, breaking the previous record set in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline has also reached record highs, eclipsing $4 every day in August for the first time in history, according to the American Automobile Association.

“On Sunday, one very large crude carrier and three bulk carriers laden with metals, grains or oilseeds entered the strait, Kpler data showed,” Reuters’ report reads.

“A tanker carrying refined products loaded from a Saudi port attempted to exit but was turned back, data from LSEG showed. There has been no VLCC exiting the strait since Wednesday, according to Kpler data.”

Foreign policy expert Trita Parsi issued a dire warning Sunday that “all signs” were pointing to a “major escalation” in the U.S. war against Iran, one that “may very well” occur next month.

“All signs point to a major escalation between the US, Iran and Israel. And it may very well be initiated by Tehran itself a week or two before the midterm elections,” Parsi wrote Sunday in a statement published on social media. “Iran’s pattern of behavior suggests preparation for that war, including how they are clearing the path for even more effective strikes against Israel.”

The U.S. war against Iran has seen few direct exchanges of fire since July, a trend that was broken last week after Iran responded to a wave of U.S. strikes by attacking U.S. allies Jordan and Bahrain. On Saturday, the United States struck three Iranian oil tankers, an attack that Iran’s parliament speaker vowed Sunday to answer with a "more intense and more painful response,” CBS News reported.

And yet, Iran’s response to U.S. attacks, as previously noted by Parsi, has been comparatively reserved, suggesting Tehran may be waiting for a more “optimal moment to strike back.” That moment, Parsi previously theorized, could be “two or three weeks before the congressional elections, maximizing the political damage to Trump.”

Should a “major escalation” in war occur, Parsi also warned that it was likely Israel would play a larger direct role in the conflict.

“While the US kept Israel out of the second round of war because Washington feared Israel would escalate beyond what the US believed was manageable, Trump may, in this third round, see himself far more aligned with Israel’s desire for a far larger war,” Parsi wrote.

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