All posts tagged "Gary Peters"

The already contentious and fiery Senate hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine went off the rails as Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Hegseth devolved into shouting at each other.

"Despite your failure to win this war, you are back now before Congress asking for almost $70 billion in additional funding," said Peters. "You're asking the American people for a blank check, because once again, the Trump administration's efforts have been an utter and complete failure to win this war to this point. So my question for you, sir, is how is your strategy different than what we've seen in the past?"

Hegseth appeared rankled at the premise of the question....

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) on Wednesday said he regretted what he said about 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis this January.

Ranking member Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) pushed Mullin to respond to his statement blaming Pretti for his own death, saying he was a "deranged individual that came in to cause max damage" during Mullin's confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Mullin was selected by President Donald Trump to replace outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and was facing a number of serious questions from lawmakers.

"Those words probably should've been retracted," Mullin said. "I shouldn't have said that. I regret those statements."...

Donald Trump's trade war gives Democrats the perfect opening to go after his economic policies if they have the stomach to pounce, argues a new article from Politico.

Democratic leadership has been criticized for failing to construct a clear message on the upcoming spending bill vote, and they've been equally ambivalent on criticizing Trump's sweeping tariffs that have fomented fears of recession.

"Democrats from states like Michigan and Pennsylvania are trying to thread the needle by condemning Trump’s erratic policy pronouncements and attacks on allies like Canada, while not criticizing tariffs or protectionist policies," wrote reporter Daniel Desrochers. ...

Members of Congress are on a summer stock shopping spree — and still violating a financial disclosure law — amid a reinvigorated movement to ban congressional stock trading.

Three members of the House of Representatives appear to have violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act this week by filing required reports late — some as much as two years past a federally mandated deadline.

From Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), more than a dozen other members of Congress continue trading stocks and securities, even in the immediate two weeks after the Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act passed out of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security. ...

But what about Donald Trump’s Truth Social stock?

The former president’s massive financial assets were a primary concern of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) during a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs debate Wednesday over whether Congress should ban federal lawmakers — and presidents — from owning and trading stocks and other investments.

“We don't want people in Congress trading stocks, playing the stock market. That's, if you will, the sheep's clothing over this wolf piece of legislation,” Romney said at the meeting. “What you're not talking about is that this has been drafted in a way that is really quite thoughtless, which is it requires divestiture for people who want to become a congressperson or president or vice president.”...

For 12 years, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) has pushed for a ban on congressional stock trading, calling the practice “corrupt,” “unacceptable” and “wrong.”

The first time he and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) presented an amendment in 2012 that would prohibit members of Congress from playing the stock market, they only got 26 votes in support.

Now, Merkley is confident an amended version of the Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act has enough bipartisan support that it will come out of a markup meeting with the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday with the votes necessary to present the amendment for a vote....