Matt Laslo

Based on Capitol Hill, Matt Laslo has been covering campaigns and every aspect of federal policy since 2006. In addition to his reporting for Raw Story, Matt has been a contributor at WIRED, VICE News, VICE News Tonight, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. He also contributes reports to NPR and more than 40 of its affiliates and numerous other publications, including The Atlantic and Billboard. He also has the The LCB — or Laslo Congressional Bureau — a Washington-based wire service. Since 2009, he’s sat on the board at the Regional Reporters Association, and in 2011, he graduated cum laude from The Johns Hopkins University MA in Government and Public Policy program. He now teaches there as an adjunct political communications professor, as well as teaching communications and/or journalism at George Washington University, Boston University and the University of Maryland.

'Height of hypocrisy': Dems target Trump for shutdown blame he said presidents should take

WASHINGTON — Heading into the third day of the government shutdown, senators from both parties continue speaking past each other, even as the House of Representatives remains closed for business.

Republican leaders continue denying Democrats a seat at the negotiating table — a table they say doesn’t exist.

“I don’t know what they’re doing,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told Raw Story while riding an elevator in the Capitol.

“I hear the Dems saying, ‘We want to make healthcare cheaper.’ Great, so do I, but I don't understand what this has to do with that. I just don't get it. I don't get it at all.”

But most Democrats remain unified in their blockade of the spending bill President Donald Trump keeps demanding they rubber-stamp.

“Republicans control the House. They control the Senate. They control the White House. They control the government,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) told Raw Story. “They have a responsibility to govern.”

Washington’s short on leaders these days, though.

‘Act like a king’

On first blush, the only thing bipartisan in the nation’s capital seems to be the finger-pointing.

As the minority party on Capitol Hill, Democrats say they should not be held accountable for Republicans’ failure to fund the government.

“Donald Trump, his own words, has said that presidents should not allow this to happen, so he needs to stop it,” Booker said, referring to 2013 remarks from Trump.

“He needs to take responsibility and step up to the table and bring people together and get something done that is actually going to help Americans with their rising costs.”

But there’s no help on the horizon, especially with the GOP-controlled House still out of town.

“It's very ironic when they send the House away,” Booker said. “It's the height of irony and hypocrisy.”

While Trump and Republican leaders blame Democrats and rebuff efforts to resume negotiations that unraveled at the start of the week, Democrats remain unified.

"We think they miscalculated," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Raw Story on the first day of the shutdown.

"Donald Trump was on TV yesterday saying a shutdown is good. I mean, it's pretty clear he wants this shutdown, because he thinks that it allows him to act like a king."

With Trump using the shutdown as cover to fire more federal workers while freezing federal funds for vital local projects in blue states — like the $18 billion he’s withholding from a new rail tunnel in New York City or the $8 billion for green projects canceled in 16 blue states — Democrats say their resolve has only grown since the federal government ran out of money at 12:01am Wednesday.

"The news today is that the president is deciding to act illegally and shut down funding for Democratic states and keep money flowing for Republican states. This is not a functioning democracy,” Murphy said.

“If the president seizes spending power in order to reward his friends and punish his enemies, that is exactly what our founding fathers worried about. That's exactly why they didn't give the president the power to decide unilaterally where funding goes."

Murphy says there wasn’t a shutdown throughout former President Joe Biden’s four years in the White House because Democrats reached across the aisle.

“We listened to [Republicans’] concerns. We wrote short-term and long-term funding bills that were bipartisan,” Murphy said.

“I know we can win this fight with the American public if we are loud and earnest about it. The American public don't want their [health care] premiums to go up by 75 percent. They don't want this lawlessness."

"So I want us to show a backbone right now. I want us to be loud in our defense of our democracy and our defense of family's budgets not being exploded by health care premium increases. This is not a moment for us to shrink. This is a moment for us to stand tall and explain to the American people what we believe in.”

After a bipartisan effort to keep the government’s lights on this spring, this time Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is following his party’s base and rank-and-file lawmakers — an effort Republicans dismiss.

“I don't see what Schumer gains from it. You know, it gets worse and worse for him,” Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) told Raw Story Tuesday afternoon, ahead of the midnight shutdown.

“I'm trying to picture his speech where he says, ‘We've come to some resolution,’ and I think he's losing his opportunities right now.”

“And that makes this different than times in the past?” Raw Story asked.

“Yeah,” Budd said. “We're the reasonable ones.”

Luckily for entrenched party leaders, bipartisan talks are happening — just off our screens.

‘Get the House back’

If they’re engaging the other side at all, party leaders continue yelling past each other — at least when not attacking the other side with racist memes. Behind the scenes, talks concern what to do about rising health care premiums and, ultimately, how to reopen the federal government.

“I do see room to address some of the concerns expressed, so I'll probably continue those conversations,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) told Raw Story. "There are a number of us who are like-minded, who think we can get this done.”

Even behind closed doors, Shaheen says it’s hard to take Republicans seriously when the House isn’t in town.

“We need to get the House back," Shaheen said.

Veteran Republicans counter that this shutdown is as stupid as past ones, even if the two parties' usual roles are reversed.

“Does this feel different than shutdowns in the past?” Raw Story asked.

“No, they're all the same. They cost money to shut down. It costs money to open government up,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said, in the hours leading up to the shutdown.

At 92, Grassley’s the president pro tempore of the Senate, third in line for the presidency. He’s spent roughly five decades in Washington, where he has now witnessed 11 government shutdowns.

“Government’s supposed to be a service for the American people,” Grassley said. “You can't serve the American people if the government shuts down.”

'Feeling good': MAGA GOP relishes shutdown and urges Trump to start firing federal workers

WASHINGTON — The federal government shutdown that began at midnight has Democrats distraught but Republicans divided on Capitol Hill, with some in the GOP looking for an easy off ramp even as others salivate over the opportunities a shutdown provides.

“Feeling good,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story Tuesday, through a broad smile.

“Go ahead and start combining agencies and cutting back on the bureaucrats and open up a few jobs.”

With President Donald Trump promising to use the shutdown for just such a federal government facelift, other Republicans are calling for cooler heads in the White House.

“They need to be careful with the use of that power,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told Raw Story. “Because at the end of the day, we have to come out of a shutdown.”

“Careful” seems to be missing from the lexicon of this 119th Congress, which is why fears of an extended shutdown loom large.

‘CEO of the country’

Last week, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed federal agencies to forgo as many furloughs as possible and instead implement mass layoffs throughout the government in the event of a shutdown.

That’s now here.

On Monday, talks with congressional Democrats sputtered and stalled out. On Tuesday, the president doubled down on the OMB’s painful promises.

“The Democrats want to shut it down, so when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs,” Trump said in the Oval Office, flanked by cabinet members. “So we'd be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected.”

If the government is to reopen, a bipartisan funding measure must ultimately pass the Senate and its 60-vote threshold. But instead of looking for a way to get the government’s lights back on, the more MAGA-wing of that chamber is encouraging Trump to turn rhetoric into a harsh new reality for an already beleaguered federal workforce, even in the face of critics.

“Can’t worry about that,” said Sen. Tuberville, who’s running for governor of Alabama. “[Trump] told everybody what he’s going to do.

“We’re gonna get blamed anyway. Don't make any difference. Y'all blame us for everything that happens, so we might as well take credit for it.”

Tuberville’s far from alone.

“Do you think the president will be empowered if the government shuts down?” Raw Story asked Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), a former Florida governor, on Tuesday as the clock ticked.

“Yeah,” Scott said. “When I was governor, they were talking about not passing a budget…”

Scott was hopping an elevator in the Capitol, so he didn’t have time to get into the details of his 2017 impasse with Florida’s GOP-controlled Senate.

In short, it was a dark, drawn out and very dirty brawl.

After a bipartisan deal was struck averting what would have been an embarrassing shutdown, Scott exacted legislative revenge and vetoed some 400 projects, including many earmarked by GOP senators who opposed his budget — an unprecedented number of vetos in the modern era, according to the Associated Press.

All told, Scott’s vetoes slashed a whopping 14 percent from the budget he had just negotiated with legislative rivals from his own party.

“You have latitude,” Scott recalled, before offering unsolicited advice to President Trump. “You're still the CEO of the country.”

Trump seems to have gotten that memo from his right flank, and that has moderate Republicans worried.

‘A steeper hill’

While moderates are close to extinct in Washington, the few remaining voices from the middle seem to be the only hope of getting the government back up and running. That has many cautioning calm from the Oval Office and cabinet members alike.

“I would hate to make it even more difficult to get consensus, and so they have to be very judicious in the exercise of their power,” Sen. Tillis told Raw Story. “Otherwise it just creates a steeper hill.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) speaks to the press. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon

Tillis is retiring next year, but in the meantime he’s reminding colleagues that Article I of the Constitution puts Congress in the driver’s seat when it comes to federal spending.

Tillis wants to find a way out of this impasse ASAP, in part because shutdowns empower the executive branch, whose powers are laid out in Article II of the Constitution.

“I'll be honest with you, as a member of the Article I branch, I'm not really excited about a lot of leeway for the Article II branch,” Tillis said. “I'm kind of old-fashioned that way. I like us being responsible for spending and that sort of thing.”

But a part of the reason the government shut down is because Democrats accuse this GOP-controlled Congress of ceding too much congressional authority to Trump and unelected administrators such as former Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE) head Elon Musk, who was given free reign to slash the federal workforce and impound appropriated funds.

‘Gone rogue’

That’s why Democrats were unmoved by arguments that a government shutdown would empower the administration.

“They do that anyway,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s votes that failed to avert the shutdown.

“They got rid of the Department of Education. So like whether we pass this or not, [Trump’s] going to do whatever he wants.”

Sen. Peter Welch, (D-VT) said: “You've got a president who's just not staying within the lines of the Constitution, so it's really undercut confidence that this is an on level negotiation.

“The reality is we've got extraordinary disorder in the constitutional system.”

That disorder is now on full display, as the shutdown saga continues.

“He's directed the Republicans not to speak to us,” Welch said. “He's gone rogue on assuming Congress' taxing authority with these arbitrary tariffs. He's done the same with the Justice Department, going after people without evidence.”

'Trying to erase history': Top Dems slam new GOP J6 probe but prepare to highlight horrors

WASHINGTON — At the insistence of President Donald Trump, U.S. House Republicans launched a new Jan. 6 investigation earlier this month. This time, though, the GOP is investigating the investigators, namely the bipartisan Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, which finished its exhaustive work two years ago.

“I want to see all the docs and find out how many lies were told by the people that were sitting on that committee,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) — who was referred to the Ethics Committee after refusing a request to testify from the first Jan. 6 panel — told Raw Story. “That's what I want.”

While the vote setting up the initial Jan. 6 select committee was bipartisan, earlier this month the new Select Subcommittee on January 6 was approved on a party line vote.

“Trying to rewrite history, that's just kind of clearly what they've done since January 6th, so this all fits the narrative,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), who served on the initial committee, which disbanded before the GOP took the House in 2023, told Raw Story. “It’s dangerous.”

It’s not just Democrats waving warning flags. Moderate Republicans say their leaders are making a mistake.

“I just feel like both sides lost their minds, because having the debate again is kind of bad for the nation,” retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told Raw Story.

Regardless, Trump wants it.

Unlike a GOP-led J6 investigation in the last Congress, this time House Republicans have subpoena power and are promising to use it.

‘What are they looking for?’

Before releasing their 845-page report in 2022, the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee interviewed upwards of 1,000 witnesses and reviewed more than a million pages of documents.

That’s why its chair, Rep. Bennie Thompsion (D-MS), and other former members decry the new GOP effort.

“The question is what are they looking for? We have no idea. We stand by the work of the committee. Anybody — whoever — wanted to come talk to us, we invited them,” Thompson told Raw Story before dismissing what he sees as an effort to change the narrative.

“They're trying to, but it doesn't change the facts,” Thompson said.

Republicans beg to differ.

“The sham committee did an injustice,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) told Raw Story. “The only thing they did is they wanted to blame Trump for everything. They weren't out there to seek the truth. We have an opportunity now to help kind of clear the air and let the American people know.”

On Jan. 6 2021, Trump told supporters to “fight like hell” in support of his lie that the 2020 election was stolen. They then marched from the White House to the Capitol, most seeking to block certification of Joe Biden’s win.

Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, including law enforcement suicides. After returning to power, Trump issued more than 1,500 pardons or acts of clemency, affecting convictions for offenses as serious as seditious conspiracy.

Nehls is one of five Republicans on the new J6 subcommittee. He’s already come to many conclusions, as laid out in his 2022 book, The Big Fraud: What Democrats Don’t Want You to Know about January 6, the 2020 Election, and a Whole Lot Else.

“Why was the Capitol so ill prepared that day?” Nehls asked Raw Story. “I tell you why, because the leadership of the Capitol Police and others didn't want to share the intelligence reports, and they were f—ing clear.

“It was quite clear that things were going to get stupid up here.”

Nehls isn’t the only Republican pushing a narrative. In December, the new subcommittee chair, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), released a report recommending former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), a member of the original J6 panel, be investigated by the FBI “for potential criminal witness tampering.”

"Right now, we're casting a pretty broad net trying to bring in any documents that were not preserved or we don't currently have," Loudermilk said. “Basically going out to all the organizations that provided information to the original select committee.”

“How much is your job, as you see it, or your mandate, to investigate the original J6 committee?” Raw Story pressed. “Or how much is your job investigating what happened Jan. 6, 2021?”

“It's both,” Loudermilk said, “because there are decisions being made in some elements based off that report that should not be made. In fact, because that's the official report, they've literally ruined people's lives from that.”

Loudermilk has plenty of questions.

“Did the FBI have actionable intelligence that this was happening? And what did they do with it? Did they pass it to Capitol Police? Was it passed on? Same with Homeland Security. We're investigating there, and we have reason to believe they had intelligence, it wasn't passed on.”

After an 18-month investigation, the bipartisan committee referred Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Loudermilk and other Republicans claim much remained unanswered.

“How did this Capitol get breached? Regardless of who did it, it should have never been breached,” Loudermilk said.

“An unarmed mob was able to get in the Capitol, you can't find anything in their report about that. ‘Pipe bombs’ are mentioned five times only in passing, but ‘Donald Trump’ was mentioned over a thousand. So that's why we're looking into it.”

In fact, court records show rioters were armed with weapons including firearms, tasers and knives, as well as makeshift implements used to attack police.

Loudermilk was investigated by the initial Jan. 6 committee after video surfaced of him giving a Capitol tour the day before the attack. Like other Republicans, he refused to sit for an interview.

‘Run the tape’

Democrats plan to hammer home that Loudermilk and other Republicans repeatedly rebuffed fact-finding efforts.

“We can go back to some of the people who didn't testify before and who blew off their subpoenas to see if they're ready to testify,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told Raw Story.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon

Since serving on the initial Jan. 6 committee, Raskin has become top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, making him an ex-officio member of the GOP’s new panel.

While he dismisses the investigation, Raskin promises to use his perch to highlight the terror of Jan. 6, 2021.

“It's going to be an opportunity for us to talk about the tremendous damage inflicted on the police,” Raskin said.

While Raskin is the only carryover from the initial select committee, other alumni also see Trump’s effort to rehash Jan. 6 as a chance to remind the nation of the attempt to overturn the will of the people that culminated in the brutal attack.

“Ridiculous, but it will give us an opportunity to run the tape over and over again. Why do they want to do this?” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told Raw Story.

“We found the facts. We posted them. It's terabytes of information. Anyone can get it. They're trying to erase history.”

‘Whitewashing’

Even some in Trump’s own party are questioning his goal.

“Why can't we just say those who hurt cops, they were wrong?” Bacon told Raw Story.

“They deserve to be punished — 140 cops were injured. I don't know why we can't have just some honesty, that there were some bad apples in this whole crowd. They deserve to be punished.”

Not according to Trump, who granted blanket pardons. Democrats see the new committee as an extension of that effort.

“The president, on day one, pardoning 1,500 insurrectionists, criminals — violent criminals — was a whitewashing, an attempt to rewrite history,” Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) told Raw Story. “Most importantly, he was pardoning himself. This is a continuation of that.

“It's so infuriating. Just distraction, that's what the administration wants. A little more whitewashing. Absolutely.”

'If the KKK shot a Black man': GOP rep's hair-raising hypothetical on Jimmy Kimmel affair

WASHINGTON — ABC and Disney were right to suspend Jimmy Kimmel over his remarks about the killing of Charlie Kirk, a leading far-right U.S. House Republican told Raw Story — only to bizarrely equate the national flashpoint with a hypothetical instance in which the late-night TV host might have made similar remarks about “the KKK [shooting] a Black man.”

Kimmel’s suspension last week was an instance of a “private company making a choice [regarding] somebody who took the side of the shot that's heard around the world,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told Raw Story at the Capitol.

“Let him do it and face the consequences. I could … if the KKK had shot a Black man, what would the result be? Wouldn't be close.”

Norman, who has served in the House since 2017, appeared to be suggesting that Kimmel would have been suspended without outcry from Democrats and the press, if he had made remarks about that hypothetical racist murder.

In fact, Kimmel was suspended over remarks about the search for a motive in the killing of Kirk, who was shot on 10 Sept., during an appearance on a college campus in Utah.

A 22-year-old suspect, Trent Robinson, has been charged.

Kimmel first condemned the killing and stated his sympathy for Kirk’s family.

Then, on air last Monday, Kimmel said: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

He then joked about Donald Trump’s response to questions from reporters who asked him about Kirk’s death and how he was coping, which was to boast about his project to build a new White House ballroom.

“Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction,” Kimmel said. “Demolition, construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.”

Kimmel was suspended indefinitely after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr discussed his remarks and rising rightwing anger about them on a far-right podcast, suggesting Kimmel’s employers could “do this the easy way or the hard way.”

It also emerged that two companies that control TV networks that carry ABC content, Nexstar and Tegna, were close to a merger and that Nexstar wanted action against Kimmel.

Kimmel had also long been a target of Trump. In July, the president celebrated CBS’s cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show by saying Kimmel would be next.

Republicans who spoke to Raw Story at the Capitol as the drama unfolded had zero sympathy for Kimmel.

Some also hit out at media coverage of the affair, particularly charges that Trump and his administration were attacking free speech rights under the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Another South Carolina far-right firebrand, Rep. Nancy Mace, told Raw Story: “It wasn't the FCC or Trump, it was ABC themselves” who chose to suspend Kimmel.

“So it's just a media lie to say Trump did this, or that the FCC did this. They didn't. ABC News made the call themselves. Trump didn't call them, the FCC didn't call them. So they did it on their own because of the blowback. It's a free market.”

Kimmel’s suspension was not ordered by ABC News but by Disney, parent company of all ABC divisions.

Legal observers agree that private companies can fire people over speech. Many, however, say a president cannot lean on companies to fire individuals on such grounds.

The issue may now be moot — or at least will remain so until Kimmel next crosses Trump and his supporters. On Monday, Disney said Kimmel would return Tuesday night.

“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” a statement said.

“It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

‘Payback for cancel culture’

Needless to say, Democrats see the affair differently to Norman, Mace and their allies.

“You can't even say a good joke in public anymore,” Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) laughed ruefully, before predicting: “Based on what I've seen so far, you’ll probably have more attempts at censorship.”

Correa was under no doubt as to who was really responsible for Kimmel’s suspension.

“He [Trump] essentially controls the FCC, controls Congress, controls the Senate, very strong influence on the Supreme Court,” Correa said.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex) said the president was guilty of “an abuse of power,” adding: “Without the pressure of Donald Trump and the federal government, I doubt Disney or Nexstar would have done what they did.

“Nexstar has a multi-billion-dollar merger pending. That very much played into their decision.”

Like Correa, who wondered “if the voters speak loudly next year” on free speech, Castro signaled Democrats will look to use Kimmel’s suspension on the campaign trail, going into the crucial midterms next year.

“Donald Trump is spending way too much time looking after late-night comedians and not enough time working on improving the economy for the American people,” Castro said.

To Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT), Kimmel’s plight was in large part an instance of Republican “payback for all the cancel culture” – instances of public figures being called out, mostly by liberals and progressives, for remarks deemed inappropriate or offensive.

But, Courtney said, “This is different because it's the arm of the government that's now involved, and that’s different than having, you know, people tweet at you and complain about nasty things you said.

“Having the government weighing in … obviously … that puts this in a much different place.”

'Kill the people': Dems double down as Congress leaves for break days before shutdown

WASHINGTON — Democrats are “not going to cave” and approve a Republican funding measure to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month because “the whole health care system is going to be under attack,” a senior Florida congresswoman said, adding that lives were at stake.

On Friday morning, House Republicans passed a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open past Sept. 30. It failed to pass the Senate the same day.

“Look, nobody really wants to have a shutdown, but we're not just going to cave,” said Lois Frankel (D-FL), a former mayor of West Palm Beach turned seven-term member of Congress. She was talking as both sides of the U.S. Capitol headed towards a week’s break for Rosh Hashanah, with no solution to the shutdown stand-off in

Last time government funding came to a crunch, in March, Democrats did cave, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) corralling enough votes to pass a Republican measure.

Schumer and other senior Democrats say that won’t happen this time.

House Democrats are angry Republicans cut them out of negotiations over the CR, which would keep the government open until Oct. 31.

The GOP measure therefore does not address Democratic concerns prominently including the impending lapse of tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare, through which millions of Americans are able to access affordable health insurance.

“I think for most of us, the ACA, the running out of the tax credit is going to be a calamity,” Frankel told Raw Story.

“The premiums are expected to rise about 75 percent and there's 24 million people on the ACA.”

This week, the Congressional Budget Office said extending the ACA tax credits would let 3.8 million more people access health insurance by 2035. It also said doing so would cost $350 billion.

In a statement, Schumer said the CBO report showed it was “beyond time for Republicans to come to the negotiating table and work with Democrats to find a solution to this upcoming catastrophe.”

Speaking to Raw Story, Frankel cited cuts to Medicaid contained in the GOP “One Big Beautiful Bill” budget that passed earlier this year but is not yet in effect, saying: “The whole health care system is going to be under attack.”

“They want to kill Obamacare,” Raw Story said.

“Or kill the people, I don’t know,” Frankel said in reply.

Another veteran Democratic representative, Mike Thompson of California, told Raw Story, “Trump and Republicans aren't interested in helping people get the health care that they need and deserve.

“I think the health care thing is people’s top priority and I don't think we should take a knee to this guy. He's come out and instructed Republicans. It's just crazy.”

Asked if constituents back in California had told him not to work with Trump’s Republican party, Thompson, 74, said: “Well, I think there's folks who express those concerns.”

Blame game

Any shutdown swiftly becomes a blame game as much as an endurance test, the longer federal employees go without pay and members of the public go without vital services.

Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress but they think a shutdown will work in their favor, Democrats attracting more blame.

It’s set to be a key test before the 2026 midterm elections, when Democrats desperately need to take back at least one chamber of Congress, if they are to press the brakes on Trump’s agenda.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, told Raw Story he wasn’t overly concerned about Republicans taking all the blame for a shutdown.

“I'm not worried, we're doing our job,” he said. “I don't like a CR, but it's the way to go. I’m sure we’ll get some blame. Comes with the territory.”

Raw Story asked: “Would your base like a shutdown?”

“I don't think so,” said Norman, 72. “There's all the good things going on.”

In March, Democratic leaders explained their climbdown by saying they worried Trump would fill the vacuum of a shutdown, moving to seize yet more power for himself and attack federal government functions.

Asked if Trump would move aggressively if a shutdown happens this month, Norman said: “Oh, yeah … the only thing we can do is what we’re doing.”

Another Republican, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), said it was “kind of ridiculous” for Democrats “to shut the government down in order to try and force some kind of weird policy wins here.

“They're irresponsible. So I think that the CR play makes a ton of sense.”

Raw Story asked if Gill, 31, was worried Republicans would attract any blame for a shutdown.

No, he said, “Because it's not our fault. We'll do our job and then expect the Democrats to do their job.”

When Congress returns from its week-long break, a shutdown will be just two days away.

Tennessee Republican muses about underwater 'entities' that came to Earth a millennium ago

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told Raw Story that aliens may have come to the Earth 1,000 years ago or more and could have been living in the deep ocean.

Walking on Capitol Hill Wednesday night, Burchett mused, "What if these are entities that are on this Earth that have been on this Earth — who knows how long, and that we, we, think that they're coming in from way out. Maybe they did a millennium ago, but they're here in these deep-water areas and that's why — I mean, like we say, we know more about space than we do what's going on there."

The oceans have gone largely unexplored and unmapped. Google began a project 12 years ago to map the oceans as part of a partnership with The Catlin Seaview Survey. The images can be seen on Google Maps and Google Earth.

"We have a higher propensity of silence around these five or six, I believe, deep-water areas," Burchett continued. "And so, for me it, just, um, creates a question. And then when we have Naval personnel telling me that we have these sightings and that there's these underwater craft they're chasing that are doing hundreds of miles of hour and the best we've got is something that goes a little under 40 miles an hour. So, I got a lot of questions about that stuff."

Last week, Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) showed a video seen on social media in a House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee hearing that showed a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone attempting to intercept an unidentified object off the coast of Yemen in 2024. It failed to do so, VICE reported.

Four witnesses spoke in the Sept. 9 hearing about their experiences with unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).

USA Today noted that congressional leaders allege that the federal government knows more than is being said and is intentionally keeping Congress in the dark on the matter.

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'Fog of war': GOP senators excuse Kash Patel's FBI bungles in Charlie Kirk case

WASHINGTON — FBI Director Kash Patel was back on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, for a second straight day of grilling by unfriendly Democrats.

In the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk, Patel’s many clashes with lawmakers were splashed all over cable news and social media. But the controversial FBI director was welcomed by Republicans, who rolled out an array of excuses to protect President Donald Trump’s top cop.

While Patel faced criticism from Democrats and the far right for bungling the investigation into the assassination of Kirk — prominently including tweeting out false information regarding an arrest within hours of the shooting in Utah last Wednesday, at the start of a manhunt that would last more than 24 hours — Republicans on Capitol Hill stayed behind their man.

“I don't know that it was a mistake,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) told Raw Story, of Patel spreading bad information on social media.

“I know that Kash Patel is doing a wonderful job, and that guy I support to the end.”

Mullin was far from alone — and that has dumbfounded Democrats.

"What every law enforcement agent in America would say is [Patel committed] a massive bungle,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) told Raw Story. “In the midst of an investigation he released incorrect information. That is unfortunate.”

Raw Story asked if this could be seen as “a teachable moment” for Patel.

"He was recalcitrant,” Booker said, after clashing with Patel Tuesday. “He was combative. He refused to answer basic, simple questions.

“We have a constitutional obligation for oversight — he undermined that constitutional check and balance … It's the Trump way, right? Not to work within the bounds of the Constitution but to assault, attack, demean and denigrate.”

‘So heartbroken’

Since Patel’s combative confirmation in January, Democrats have warned the public defender turned far-right troll is unfit to lead the FBI. After Kirk’s murder, they claim to have proof.

But the GOP controls Congress and though Patel has faced criticism from some inside Trump’s White House and among Republicans on Capitol Hill — let alone frustrated FBI agents — Kash remains all but king.

Despite being confirmed by the bare minimum number of senators, 51-49, Patel has cover from the GOP, including when he tweets out misinformation in the midst of a nationwide manhunt.

“Oh, you know, the fog of war,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the former Senate Republican whip, told Raw Story. “I thought he did fine.”

Other Republicans are seemingly going out of their way to make up excuses.

“I suspect Kash probably knew Charlie,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) told Raw Story. “And he was so heartbroken that he wanted to make sure that the perpetrator was caught right away.

“So, at least, I understand, he might have jumped the gun a little on whether the guy had been actually apprehended or not. I get it. You know, people were just kind of hyper-emotional.”

As information about suspect Tyler Robinson fills headlines, Patel stands by the misinformation he initially spread. Nonetheless, other Republicans are blaming his aides.

“He was just going by the people that worked for him,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story. “Somebody made a mistake, obviously, but I mean, no harm, no foul.”

“But some folks say Patel and [FBI Deputy Director Dan] Bongino are politicizing the agency?” Raw Story pressed.

“‘Politicizing’?” What does that mean?” Tuberville asked.

“Going after what Democrats call the president's enemies list or [Patel’s] enemies list,” Raw Story explained.

“I don't listen to all that stuff,” Tuberville said.

Other Republicans aren’t listening to Patel either, but that doesn’t mean they’re not standing by him.

“He's trying to be transparent,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story.

“When you're transparent, you're providing information that ends up not being 100 percent correct. I'm sympathetic from that standpoint. Investigating crimes is not easy.”

“Overall you're pleased with him?” Raw Story pressed. “And the direction of the FBI?”

“I haven't had much contact with him, quite honestly,” Johnson said. “I know all these people have enormous challenges. They're trying to ferret out the partisans in their ranks and still have an awful lot of work to do.”

Johnson must not have gotten the memo on rooting out “partisans,” because throughout two days of testimony before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, Patel denied targeting FBI personnel over personal politics.

‘Not familiar with the case’

Despite a torrent of reporting on Patel’s misinformation-laced tweets, some Republicans claim to remain blissfully unaware of the steady stream of negative headlines.

“Where do you see false information?” Mullin asked.

“He said someone was in custody when it wasn't accurate,” Raw Story explained.

“I'm not familiar with the case,” Mullin said.

“You didn't hear that?” Raw Story asked.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Mullin said, “but if you're going to talk about purposely misleading people, let's talk about the White House and the last administration.”

“It wasn't purposeful,” Raw Story explained.

“But then it wasn't misleading. Information may have been a mistake,” Mullin said. “You and I make mistakes all the time. I don't know that it was a mistake. I know that Kash Patel is doing a wonderful job, and that guy I support to the end.”

‘Everybody needs to calm down’

Patel verbally scrapped with Democrats this week, even amid worries that rhetoric is out of control in Washington — and thus spilling out in states like Utah and Minnesota, where in June Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were killed and state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, were wounded.

Still, tensions remain high in Washington, with lawmakers from both parties braced for further violence as members keep pointing fingers.

“I'm totally for free speech — even speech I don't like,” Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) told Raw Story.

“That being said, I mean, it's just sad, because I think that we've seen kind of an explosion of it. I think we're going to see more of it.”

The Trump White House continues pointing fingers at the left, which it blames for incendiary political rhetoric and deepening division, even as more moderate Democrats urge their base to give the GOP time to grieve.

“I don't care, you know, if you think someone's extreme,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told Raw Story. “So what? It's just like, that's democracy, that's free speech. And now I'm not going to make it any more complicated than just that. It’s terrible.”

Many Democrats say the Kirk assassination highlights the peculiarly American problem of easy access to high-powered weapons. But the GOP has rebuffed calls for new gun control measures as a response to Kirk’s death.

“Everybody just needs to calm down,” Rep. Lois Frankel, a Florida Democrat, told Raw Story. “We have to have debates with words, not with guns. That's how I feel about the whole thing.

“Really, debate with words.”

GOP scoffs as it hurls Dem threat back at Schumer

Republicans seemed unbothered on Wednesday that Democrats have threatened to force a government shutdown, believing the GOP holds all the cards heading into the fall.

Democrats have said they oppose the current Republican stopgap funding plan, arguing that it does not include key provisions such as extending Obamacare subsidies, reversing steep Medicaid cuts, and providing inadequate negotiation over health and social program funding.

But Republicans who spoke to Raw Story didn't appear concerned.

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Raw Story he feels confident the GOP has more leverage.

"How are you feeling about the shutdown politics? Do you guys feel like you have a stronger hand?" Raw Story asked.

"Oh, yeah. We're not even playing games," Hudson replied. "We're just doing it clean. You really gonna shut it down?"

Hudson said it'll take a few weeks, and a funding fight could ensue in November, as Democrats will have a "leverage point" once the continuing resolution ends.

"I can't speak for what [House Speaker Mike Johnson] is going to do. I don't know," he acknowledged.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told Raw Story Democrats are taking a "big risk" with trying to angle for a shutdown.

"I think it comes down to who shows the best faith in terms of negotiations," he said.

He warned Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) might be making a mistake by "waiting for an invitation" from Republicans to negotiate.

"If I'm the minority leader, I'm coming up with what I think is a good-faith offer. And put it out there," he said.

Tillis said Democrats' base should "own" a shutdown if Schumer is pressured to follow through on threats to shutter the government.

"I think this is the first time in modern political history that a shutdown — full title to the shutdown — could be conveyed to the Democrats for letting their base shut us down," he added.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) gave a more blunt assessment of the possibility of a shutdown.

"That's not a debate. I'm not worried about that at all," he said.

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) told Raw Story his constituents are less concerned about a shutdown, and more vocal about whether Congressional Democrats will let President Donald Trump "keep overreaching and not driving down costs."

"None of us should be talking about that term," he said.

Ryan said he and his colleagues have a choice before them.

"Do we want more of Trump's budget? More overreach on a bunch of bad errors? Or do we want to get back to affordability and lowering costs?" he said.

"My constituents don't care about the means so much as they care about the ends," Ryan added.

He said Americans are with Democrats in that they want lower costs — not military troops deployed against U.S. citizens.

"Public will matters," he said.

'Don't care if someone's extreme': Fetterman tells Dems to let GOP grieve Charlie Kirk

WASHINGTON — Sen. John Fetterman is cautioning his fellow Democrats to ease up on their rhetoric in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

“It's horrific. It's absolutely horrific. I mean, I've seen the video multiple times,” the Pennsylvania Democrat told Raw Story outside the U.S. Capitol, of the killing of Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah last week.

Kirk was speaking to a large crowd when was shot in the neck.

In the seven days since the killing, debate has been intense.

Republicans have blamed the political left, with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other senior figures promising a legal crackdown on groups they say promote violence against political opponents.

Some Democrats and progressives have pushed back, pointing to the prevalence of right-wing groups among perpetrators of politically motivated violence.

The full motivations of the 22-year-old suspect, Tyler Robinson, remain unclear.

But Republican Utah Governor Spencer Cox has said Robinson’s views shifted left after he spent time in “dark corners of the internet.”

Authorities have said they will seek the death penalty.

Fetterman insisted: “I'm not going to talk about the politics. I'm not going to talk about who's right or who was this or that. It's just like: Don't shoot [and] kill people if they have different political views.”

The first-term senator is warning fellow Democrats that the murder of Kirk, who was 31 and the founder of youth-oriented rightwing group Turning Point USA, is different to other high-profile instances of gun violence.

“This isn't like ‘thoughts and prayers,’” Fetterman said, referencing a common, evasive response to mass shootings from gun rights supporters that often stokes fierce debate.

“This is not about trying to use that to argue your own positions.

“I don't care, you know, if you think someone's extreme. So what? It's just like, that's democracy, that's free speech. And now I'm not going to make it any more complicated than just that. It’s terrible.”

Saying it was “so sad it’s become predictable” that partisan debate should break out after high-profile instances of gun violence, Fetterman expressed concern for Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, and two young children.

“It’s just, like, they lost their father, they lost their husband,” the senator said.

“And it has traumatized our nation, having someone’s neck torn apart by a bullet … someone that has his different political views.

“It’s like, I mean, don't do that. Condemn that.”

‘That’s free speech’

Raw Story asked if Fetterman’s thoughts had turned this week to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania during the election last year, after which “we saw people dancing.”

Fetterman said: “Well that’s turned into one thing … It's just like, don't shoot anyone. Especially for having different political views. It's always wrong.

"I mean, you know, like if someone murdered my … I mean, when [Kirk’s] kids grow up, that will live forever on the internet.

“Not everything has to turn into the next political argument. It's like, you condemn that and just allow people to grieve. And, you know, for the Republicans, that was part of their big point. Like, give it to them. Allow them the space to grieve.”

Prayers for Kirk were said on the House floor, followed by a congressional vigil. Some Republicans have called for further memorializations, including a likeness of Kirk in Statuary Hall.

“Like, give them the opportunity to [grieve],” Fetterman said. “I'm not going to hold them accountable for everything that they say if they’re upset or whatever.

“Just let them have their space with that.”

'Women are more brave': MTG, Mace and Boebert praised as GOP men cave in Epstein civil war

WASHINGTON — It’s becoming increasingly clear to a handful of powerful MAGA congresswomen that their fight to release more Epstein files now pits them against some of the most powerful politicians in the Republican Party.

Bring it on, they say.

“Sometimes, you just have to f—ing do what you gotta f—ing do,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told Raw Story at the Capitol. “Excuse my language.”

Before Congress’s August recess, there were 10 Republicans willing to publicly buck President Donald Trump and force his political lapdogs — Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP leaders — to hold a vote on releasing details of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the financier, sex trafficker and longtime Trump friend who died in federal custody in August 2019.

“The women are more brave in the face of the White House,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) told Raw Story.

Massie is the lead Republican sponsor of the Epstein discharge petition, a formal mechanism that forces a vote on any measure supported by more than half the 435-person House, an effort that has made Trump and GOP leaders uneasy for months.

Their efforts to quash the move have left most Republican men neutered, but they haven’t been able to dissuade three GOP congresswomen from their demand for full disclosure — or at least as full as appropriate, given minors are involved.

‘Close to home’

Most of his victims are still alive. That doesn’t mean the judicial system and its alleged congressional enablers haven’t made them feel powerless.

“The thing that got me was these women have been fighting for 30 years for justice and still don't have it. You have people who don't want to help them, and to me, it's infuriating,” said Mace, a rape survivor herself.

“It hit close to home.”

In the ring with fellow Republicans, Mace is joined by firebrands Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). They have yet to cave.

“The truth needs to come out, and the government holds the truth,” Greene told a large crowd outside the Capitol this week, as a group of Epstein victims gathered to speak.

“All of the fault belongs to the evil people that do these things to the innocent. This is the most important fight we can wage here in Congress, is fighting for innocent people that never received justice. And the women behind me have never received justice.”

Even MTG’s Democratic critics hailed her effort.

“I thought Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking was very, very powerful in terms of a signal to other Republican congresspeople,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), co-sponsor of the discharge petition with Massie, told Raw Story.

“The tone of this was not partisan. There are partisan fights: California redistricting is a partisan fight, the president militarizing the streets [is] a partisan fight.

“This is actually an issue that can bring this country together, and, frankly, the president can get credit if he releases the files.”

Trump doesn’t want credit. Rather, he continues to reverse campaign promises to release the files, dismissing survivors as perpetuating a “hoax”.

Following the president’s demands, this week Republican leaders tried to get out in front of the issue by releasing upwards of 30,000 Epstein-related files, many of which were public already.

“I think it’s a massive win,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who had supported the push for full disclosure, told Raw Story, adding: “I've always been pushing for the documents to be housed publicly somewhere for everyone to be able to access.”

Others panned the move.

“There's a lot of redactions. Like the flight logs, I mean, we have entire pages that are blocked out and blacked out, and I don't think those are all victims,” Boebert told Raw Story.

‘I don’t buy that’

At the Capitol, Epstein survivors — or surviving family members — concurred.

“Were you able to see some of the documents that came out last night?” Raw Story asked Sky Roberts, who lost his sister, abuse victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre, to suicide earlier this year. “Just all the black on there, all the redactions?”

“The people in these files are, like, politicians,” Roberts said. “They aren’t interns. They are very wealthy and powerful people, and it shouldn't be up to the survivors to have to release that list.”

Some GOP congressmen have now distanced themselves from the discharge petition they tried to force on party leaders, to bring a vote on the House floor.

“You're not signed on to the discharge petition anymore?” Raw Story asked Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), the day after Epstein survivors met members of Congress. “Why not?”

“I'm afraid of what the ladies told us yesterday is that they were saying that some of them could be outed publicly,” Burchett said. “I want them to remain anonymous. They don't need to be hounded by the press or people or freaks out there.”

Raw Story asked: “What do you make of your supporters and the president’s supporters saying you’re now a part of a cover-up?”

“I don’t buy that,” Burchett said.

Tim Burchett and AOC Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) shares a fist-bump with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Cover-up or not, Republican men have undeniably retreated.

“What do you make of the men kind of bailing on this?” Raw Story asked Massie. “Before recess, you guys had about 10 [supporters] and now it's the dudes who bailed?”

“The women are more brave in the face of the White House,” Massie said.

“And look at who the women are: They're supporters of Donald Trump: Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“This isn't political. I know some Democrats are trying to make it political and some Republicans are trying to make it political. But our base — and even the Democrat base — are all in the same place on this.”

‘Moving pieces’

Some female Trump fans on Capitol Hill say they are giving the administration time to reverse course.

“Obviously, there's a lot of moving pieces, but we are going through them right now,” Luna said, praising the administration for its files release this week. “And there has been some stuff that was not previously up there.”

While Luna went from endorsing the discharge petition in July to removing her endorsement, she says she isn’t judging GOP colleagues on the other side of the scandal.

“Every member has a right to do what they feel is best, but I think the files have been released. So if there's more, we'll find out in the investigation,” Luna said.

“It sounded like you were saying that you could still support the discharge petition — just not now?” Raw Story asked.

“If there's stuff that hasn't been released that we need and then we're getting blocked, yeah,” Luna said. “But I'm not going to do that without … looking through all the documents myself.”

Like Trump, Luna campaigned on releasing the Epstein files. But she remains dubious of Democrats who she accuses of piling on late.

“Why now?” Luna asked. "It just seems there’s a little bit more to the story than a lot of people are saying.”

‘Burn the system to the ground’

Congress just returned from summer recess, with the federal government slated to run out of funding at the end of the month.

Still, some say there's no bigger issue than righting Epstein’s wrongs.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) departs in tears from a meeting with Jeffrey Epstein survivors. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

“This might not be the biggest issue in America right now, but it is the issue everybody can agree on,” Massie said. “Honestly, I think a lot of people are going to be embarrassed on both sides of the aisle.

“Powerful political figures will be embarrassed, but that's not a reason to not do this, to avoid embarrassment for somebody.

“Again, I don't think Jeffrey Epstein was particularly partisan in his sexual malfeasance … he committed many crimes. It's basically a group of people that don't need to belong to a party, because they don't report to the law when they do.”

What’s universally agreed upon is the Epstein saga isn’t going anywhere.

Raw Story asked Mace: “Before you guys left town for August recess, there were about 10 of you supporting the discharge petition. Right now, it seems like all the men are trying to bail. Is that just the old boys club at work?”

Mace smirked.

“I hope that more will join us,” she said. “We need to burn the system to the ground and start over.

“I'll do anything to help the Epstein victims. I'll do anything I can in my power to help them.”

‘Get the deal done’: GOP hardliner hails new Jan. 6 committee as Dems cry foul

WASHINGTON — This week House Republicans formally launched their long awaited new January 6 subcommittee. Unlike the first select committee, which investigated the attack on the Capitol Jan. 6, 2021, the new panel is tasked with investigating the investigators.

“I want to see all the documents and find out how many lies were told by the people that were sitting on that committee,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said on Thursday. “That's what I want.”

The former chair of the far-right Freedom Caucus joined 211 of his fellow Republicans — with only Rep. Kevin Kiely (R-CA) voting present, as not a single Democrat joined the effort — in unveiling and then establishing a “Select Subcommittee to Investigate the Remaining Questions Surrounding January 6, 2021.”

It will be chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA). He’s been helping the GOP rewrite the record on J6 for years but now he’s got a formal if hyper-partisan mandate, along with subpoena power hailed by Biggs and others on the far-right.

“Now I think the structure is going to really be much more helpful for it,” Biggs said. “In other words, I think the structure is necessary. It's a good structural change.”

‘I’ve done that’

The panel will have eight members, including three Democrats appointed after consultations between Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

The subcommittee’s subpoena power is expected to be a gamechanger.

“I think so, yeah,” Biggs said: “In talking with Chairman Loudermilk about it, he's been doing some good work. I've watched what he's done. We've talked. I think he just needed a new structure, and I think it's gonna provide the structure necessary to get the deal done.”

The first January 6 committee was formed in 2021. It staged high-profile hearings in 2022 and issued its report in January 2023, shortly after Republicans re-took the House.

That committee consisted of seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans — deputy chair Liz Cheney, then representing Wyoming, and Adam Kinzinger, then a congressman from Illinois.

Both no longer sit in Congress, Cheney having lost her seat, Kinzinger having retired.

On Wednesday, Kinzinger posted a meme of the actor Will Ferrell beckoning a confrontation and said: “The fact that the so-called moderates in the House voted for this, is especially corrupt. But bring it on, happy to remind America how you guys attempted a coup.”

The next day, a Democrat who sat with Kinzinger on the original committee, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), told Raw Story the new panel was another instance of the GOP “trying to rewrite history.

“That's just kind of clearly what they've done since January 6,” he said. “This all fits the narrative.

“And it's dangerous. We'll see where they take the committee but it's dangerous behavior.”

Still, Aguilar has no desire to sit on another J6 panel.

“No. I’ve done that,” Aguilar said.

‘Distraction, deflection’

Loudermilk’s previous efforts to investigate the January 6 investigation and investigators were carried out from his perch on the House Appropriations Committee.

Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) told Raw Story she was “so infuriated” by Loudermilk’s new effort.

“It’s distraction, deflection,” Dean said.

“And I have said that the president pardoning insurrectionists, pardoning criminals, violent criminals, was a whitewashing, an attempt to rewrite history, and most importantly, he was pardoning himself. This is a continuation of that.”

On returning to power this year, Donald Trump pardoned around 1,500 offenders convicted over their actions on Jan. 6 2021, as part of the mob that listened to Trump speak then stormed Congress, in an attempt to block certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.

Dean also lamented what she called “the stupid, the insane fight over the plaque” — a memorial to police who defended Congress which Republicans have refused to display.

“I actually went to the archives, to the basement, to see the actual plaque,” Dean said. “They have it. It's there. Oh, it's been there for months. It's done.”

“I don't know at what point the fever breaks,” Dean added of a Republican party in Trump’s grip.

“At what point do they say, ‘No, this is too much?’ Do you think Epstein might do it?”

Even through emotional and high-profile appearances on Capitol Hill from survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, House GOP leaders are refusing to release files relating to the late financier and sex offender who was long close to Trump.

Groceries, rents, tariffs

On the other side of the Capitol on Thursday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) told Raw Story Republicans should focus on kitchen table issues, not rehashing old wars over January 6.

“Maybe they should be focused on the price of groceries,” Klobuchar said. “That might be better.

“Maybe they should focus on the tariffs and what's happening to people, not just their grocery bills, but their health care and their rent. So that would be a much more useful thing.”

There seems little chance of that.

Raw Story caught up with Rep. James Comer (R-KY), a leading Trump ally and chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee. Asked about the new Jan. 6 panel, he deflected.

“Trying to just keep up with my own portfolio,” Comer told Raw Story before lauding the new committee he expects “to investigate the investigators, to see if they were truthful in what they put in that final report. That’s what I understand.”

'What were they paying off?' Lauren Boebert warns GOP colleagues not safe with new push

A firebrand MAGA lawmaker put her colleagues on notice Wednesday — including members of her own party — as she aims squarely at Congress' sexual misconduct "slush fund" amid a bipartisan House effort to release documents in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) made the comments exclusively to Raw Story on Wednesday after joining House efforts to release the Epstein files by signing a discharge petition led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA). Boebert was one of four Republicans who officially endorsed the petition, which seeks to force a House vote demanding the full release of Department of Justice records related to Epstein and his associates.

Talking to Raw Story, Boebert went a step further, suggesting details of sexual misconduct from fellow Congress members ought to also be brought to light.

“Also, I think the sexual assault slush fund, members of Congress paying off staffers to be quiet, that this should be released too,” Boebert told Raw Story's Matt Laslo.

Since the late 1990s, the Office of Compliance has spent more than $17 million in public money to settle workplace disputes on Capitol Hill. But that doesn't include sexual harassment, Politico reported in 2017, including a settlement for a woman who accused her former boss, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), of sexual misconduct. That money, the report said, came out of Conyers’ office budget and wasn’t included in the $17 million total.

In 2018, data released by a House committee showed nearly $300,000 in taxpayer money was spent to settle 13 claims against members of Congress or their offices since 2003, including over sexual harassment or sex discrimination, The Associated Press reported. The statistics didn't include names or other identifying information, except settlement amounts and the basis for the claim.

Boebert said that needs to change.

“That's a pretty big one, and, you know, I was promised before this Congress that we would be all over it. And I've heard more about the Epstein list and other things than that. So why are we — are these members still here? What were they covering up? What were they paying off? That's something the American people need to be demanding answers on," she said.

“That's just like a bipartisan swamp?” Raw Story asked.

“Yes,” Boebert replied. “Absolutely.”

“Like, this is how this place has worked,” Raw Story pressed, “but a part of your mandate is to upend that and, like, rid your own party of some of those elements?”

“Absolutely. I don't care what letter is next to anybody's name,” Boebert said.

She warned of what could emerge should the secret side deals face sunlight.

“Of course, you know, some things in there could be, you know, sound worse than they are,” Boebert said. “I understand that aspect of it, but I want to see what's in there. Why is this something that the House of Representatives is paying out to people and we have no transparency on it? We don't know what they're being paid for.”

Fellow Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie have also called for releasing the names of members who've settled with accusers.

“Congress has secretly paid out more than $17 million of your money to quietly settle charges of harassment (sexual and other forms) in Congressional offices,” Massie wrote on X in December.

“Don’t you think we should release the names of the Representatives? I do,” he said.

“Yes. I want to release the congressional sexual slush fund list,” Greene wrote on X at the time.

“Taxpayers should have never had to pay for that. Along with all the other garbage they should not have to pay for,” she added.

'No trust': Congress's return re-ignites major headaches for MAGA

WASHINGTON — It may now be fall, but that doesn’t mean Congress finished its summer homework.

After taking August off, Congress returns this week to face basically the same teetering stack of unfinished business that was on its plate at the end of July.

A government shutdown looms, even as the Jeffrey Epstein scandal threatens to doom President Donald Trump and the stack of nominees before the Senate has only grown longer.

Buckle up. It’s promising to be a feisty fall in the nation’s capital.

Smoke, mirrors, subpoenas

While the Epstein scandal seems to have united Democrats around a common enemy, on the GOP side of the aisle many on the far right blame fellow Republicans for attempting to bury the story.

That has veteran Republicans fuming — in their sedate congressional way.

“I see us being able to get our work done, the question is, do others?” 14-term Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) told Raw Story.

“I am a person who goes to fix, not fight. You know that. We need to understand that we've got to see the bigger picture, and that is the job the American people also sent us here to do.”

When it comes to the far right, the answer remains no — especially when it comes to Epstein.

GOP leaders’ heads are likely pounding but their lingering, months-long headaches should be a surprise to no one, especially after Speaker Mike Johnson caved to pressure from Trump and recessed the House early in July, to avoid a vote on whether to release the Epstein files.

At the time, rank-and-file Republicans were wondering why the party’s big plan was to effectively kick the can down the road.

“Does leadership really think this issue isn't going to be front and center when y'all come back in September?” Raw Story asked veteran Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC).

“No,” Norman said. “Nothing's going to change.”

“You made a promise to your people?” Raw Story asked.

“And the promise is going to be kept,” Norman said, “should it be in 30 days or should it be in 45.”

That doesn’t mean GOP leaders haven’t tried to wag the dog. For example, August brought an announcement from House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) that the committee had “issued deposition subpoenas to Bill and Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Merrick Garland, Robert Mueller, William Barr, Jeff Sessions, and Alberto Gonzales for testimony related to horrific crimes perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein.”

Smoke, mirrors and subpoenas may not work this time, though.

Raw Story asked: “Do you think your leadership believes that we're not going to be asking these same questions in September?”

“I don't know what they think. They’re attorneys, I'm not. That's the difference,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said, before a horse broke his rib during the August recess.

“I’m over it,” he said. “We need to get on with it.”

Nothing’s really changed.

“Your position on forcing release of Epstein files (that don’t endanger victims) hasn’t changed since July, right?” Raw Story texted Burchett, in August.

“Right,” replied the congressman — who in October 2023 was one of eight Republicans who ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

‘Not good for the country’

Democrats seem to have exploited the Epstein drama to their political advantage, but rank-and-file members say the extended, GOP-induced impasse isn’t about scoring a win.

Since leaving town in July, they haven’t taken their eyes off the ball.

Raw Story asked: “When you guys come back in September, are we going to be having the same conversation?”

“Yes,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI).

“How frustrating is that?” Raw Story pressed. “Or is it good? Does it mean you guys are–?”

“I don't think it's good,” Dingell interjected. “I don't think it’s good policy. It's not good for the country.

“The budget expires September 30th and people are going to talk about the budget all August. They're going to talk about Epstein all August. And we're going to come back and people are going to be demanding files.”

When it comes to trying to avert a government shutdown at the end of September, Dingell said, she and her fellow Democrats will still be smarting from the Trump administration's rescissions package, which gutted foreign aid programs and left many local public media outlets struggling for survival — even after large bipartisan swaths of the 118th Congress approved those spending levels.

Additionally, Dingell didn't know then about Trump's hugely controversial “pocket rescission” of $4.9bn in foreign aid, announced at the end of August, to uproar and predictions of a shutdown for sure.

But she said her party hasn’t forgotten about Trump's charred-earth approach to spending conventions.

“They’re gonna wanna know: Are we going to have a regular order or are we going to get f––––d again?” Dingell told Raw Story, bluntly.

“There's already a debate happening within the Democratic Party about whether to allow a shutdown or whether you all should salvage it,” Raw Story pressed. “Is that the wrong debate you guys are having?”

“No it's not,” Dingell said. “If you don't have an appropriations process that's real, that if what you're going to do is going to get rescinded, why the f––– should you vote for it?”

'No trust at this point'

At least one former Trump cabinet secretary has a few reasons why Democrats should avert a shutdown at all costs.

During Trump’s first term, proud cowboy hat-wearing Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) served as Interior Secretary.

Zinke vividly remembers how when the government runs out of congressionally approved cash, as it did twice during Trump’s first term, cabinet members swiftly amass new powers.

“I had a lot of latitude of what was ‘key and essential’ — I didn't shut down the parks,” Zinke told Raw Story. “I could’ve. The previous administration did. The previous administration brought concertina wire and chain link fence around the monuments and the [National] Mall. Remember that?”

Last spring, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) faced blowback from both the party’s progressive wing and rank-and-file electeds for voting to keep the government funded, even as Democratic priorities weren’t included in the spending measure.

While many Democrats are itching for a fight with Trump, Zinke says they should think twice before withholding their support from this fall’s government funding package.

"So there is an argument that shutting it down is going to give the Trump administration more power,” Zinke said.

“I think it's more power but for a shorter amount of time, because you really can't sustain a long-term government shutdown. The consequences are too great, but you can do it for a short period of time and it gives you an enormous amount of executive power."

While Democrats fear empowering President Trump and his cabinet even more, many don’t view him, Johnson and Vice President JD Vance as honest negotiating partners.

“You guys have no trust at this point?” Raw Story asked.

“No,” Dingell replied.

“What can they do to regain your trust or is it just gone?”

“Let's see,” Dingell sighed. “We'll see.”

'Chump at the table': Dems can't get enough as Trump sparks new right-wing civil war

WASHINGTON — After a slow start, President Donald Trump has been ramping up the pace of judicial nominations — but it remains to be seen if his recent public breakup with the increasingly far-right Federalist Society will impact the quality of his picks.

While Senate Republicans have tried to stay out of the fray, Democrats have enjoyed watching the brewing right-wing civil war.

“I love it. It's delicious,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told Raw Story.

“It's a fine sight to have those two corrupt factions warring with each other, and it puts the point on the fact that this is, in fact, a captured [Supreme] Court. Trump is just discovering that the wrong people captured it.”

‘Got what they wanted’

In late May, after Trump’s new tariff regime was blocked in federal court, the president lashed out at first-term allies who helped him transform large swaths of the federal judiciary.

“I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges. I did so, openly and freely,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, before lashing out at one of the group’s longtime leaders by name.

“But then realized that they were under the thumb of a real ‘sleazebag’ named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions.”

Leo is the fundraising Svengali behind a range of right-wing groups who has become a bête noir of Democratic progressives.

Leo did not fire back at Trump — in public, at least — choosing to tell reporters he was "very grateful for President Trump transforming the federal courts.”

Regardless, Democrats can’t get enough.

“Listen, those are judges that Trump nominated,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) told Raw Story. “The whole strategy of the Federalist Society was to create a court that ruled in favor of corporations and the rich. They got what they wanted.

“If you want a conspiracy thesis that is actually true, it's how [the Federalist Society was] created 30 years ago for this purpose, basically, to ensure that we don't have government by and for the people, but by and for the powerful, and the Federal Society succeeded.”

Other Democrats agree that Trump got played.

“It's a little bit Bizarro World,” Sen. Whitehouse said, referring to the world in the Superman comics in which everything is the opposite of the same thing on Earth.

“But it's not Bizarro World if you have thought that you appointed a court that was going to do what you wanted and you've discovered that you've appointed a court that's going to do what the polluter billionaires want, and you got had in the scheme.

“You were the chump at the table. You weren't the person who was calling the shots.”

Whitehouse pointed to the libertarian-leaning Koch brothers — billionaires Charles and David Koch, the latter now deceased — and their political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, which opposed Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

“That was real combat back then,” Whitehouse said.

But the former Rhode Island attorney general said it was evident the Koch brothers came around to Trump after he pledged to only nominate Federalist Society approved judges for lifetime appointments.

“The combat evaporated, and the Federalist Society list emerged,” Whitehouse said.

“Now it wasn't the Federalist Society list. The Federalist Society never considered a list, never approved a list, never had a list on the agenda — not a thing. But they called it a Federalist Society list to give it some cover.

“Every clue points to there having been a deal where the Koch political apparatus would back off of thrashing Trump and the Kochs would get to appoint his Supreme Court justices.

“House of Trump is beginning to figure out that they had their pants pulled down around their ankles by the House of Koch.

“It appears now that Trump has finally figured out that he was the chump in the scheme, and that his rivals, who he despised, the Kochs, actually picked his Supreme Court justices.

“They've got the 100 percent batting record at the Supreme Court for polluter interests, and he does not have a 100 percent batting record.”

‘Those who will serve him’

Republican senators have tried to avoid the rift between Trump and the Federalists altogether.

“What have you thought of this little spat between Trump and the Federalist Society?” Raw Story asked.

“Who? I don’t keep up with that — why would I keep up with that?” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said. “It’s for you guys. We got day jobs.”

The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee also shrugged off the spat.

“I don't know anything about the fight between the Federalist Society and Trump,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told Raw Story.

In Trump’s first term, Senate Republicans confirmed 234 of his picks to fill vacancies on the federal bench. But after former President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats confirmed 235 federal judges between 2021 and 2025, there just aren’t many vacancies left to fill.

That’s partly why Trump didn’t get his first federal judicial nominee confirmed until July 14th, just before senators left Washington for their summer recess.

Before Trump sent five more nominations to the Senate on August 12th, an Associated Press review found “roughly half” of his first 16 judicial nominees had “revealed anti-abortion views, been associated with anti-abortion groups or defended abortion restrictions.”

While such views are in line with those of the Federalist Society, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), said Trump was deploying a new litmus test.

“Don't look for any consistency. He is just looking for those who will serve him personally,” Durbin told Raw Story.

“Occasionally the Federalist Society, which was the secret handshake of Republicans for so many years, disappoints him.”

'Horrible!' Trump accused of using immigrants as guinea pigs for terrifying tech trial

WASHINGTON — Before leaving town for the August recess, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz was forced to pull a measure aimed at limiting federal government use of facial recognition data captured at airports by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

But the Texas Republican says he’s got no problem with federal agents deploying more invasive facial recognition technology against immigrants.

“ICE, quite reasonably, is using every tool available,” Cruz told Raw Story.

The Trump administration is deploying facial recognition apps on agents’ phones, testing wrist-worn GPS monitors, collecting migrants’ DNA, and buying eye-scanners.

“It's horrible,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told Raw Story.

Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats are aghast that their GOP counterparts are willing to cede so much power to the Trump administration. They’re also bracing for the federal government to deploy these new technologies against American citizens in the near future.

‘It’s great’

Self-described GOP privacy hawks on Capitol Hill are up in arms over the TSA deploying facial recognition tools without their constituents' knowledge.

Cruz is vowing to bring the facial recognition measure aimed at the broader traveling public — forcing TSA transparency with travelers, while limiting how the government stores biometric data — before his committee when Congress returns this fall.

But according to Cruz, that’s different from what the Department of Homeland Security and its ICE — Immigration and Customs Enforcement — agents are doing in migrant communities.

“ICE, quite reasonably, is using every tool available to try to apprehend dangerous criminals and potential terrorists before they murder or otherwise harm American citizens,” Cruz told Raw Story.

“ICE is confronting an acute public safety and national security challenge. After four years of Democrats’ open borders, we have millions of illegal immigrants, criminals, murderers, gang members and potential terrorists who come into this country.”

In Trump’s GOP, Cruz is far from an outlier.

“It’s great,” Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) told Raw Story, on the other side of Capitol Hill.

“To me it’s just really important that we make every effort to deport, in my view, anyone illegally in the United States.”

Raw Story asked: “Do you worry we might see technology creep, that we’ll use it on migrants but then it will start being deployed on everyday citizens?”

“No,” Wilson said.

“Why not?”

“What ICE is doing is just so important to the future security of the United States,” Wilson said.

“The countervailing argument is that they’re arresting the wrong people. This is a way to prove that you’re going after people who are actually illegal aliens. And so, to me, you can’t have the argument both ways.

“So I will be consistent and unequivocally support any and every technology to identify illegal aliens and remove them from the United States.”

‘Not their first attempt’

Democrats are questioning just how “consistent” their GOP counterparts are.

To many on the left, the fear goes beyond ICE and extends to how the federal government treats citizens’ data.

“It's horrible from any agency perspective whatsoever,” Ocasio-Cortez told Raw Story.

AOC Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) attends a House Oversight hearing. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura

“ICE, of course, is one of the most concerning, not just because it's an immigration thing, but because they have some of the least guardrails. They privately contract with Amazon, Microsoft, and so I think that from a privacy perspective for all of us, this is highly concerning. Highly concerning.”

Such concerns stem, in part, from how the government now surveils social media, tracks cell phone GPS data, utilizes public camera footage and more.

"I was surprised over the years having to realize how much of technology is developed first with the purpose of military uses and intelligence uses, and then it goes from there,” a veteran member of the House Intelligence Committee told Raw Story, speaking anonymously in order to discuss sensitive matters.

“And then even the companies that develop for consumer purposes or commercial purposes first, they start to draw towards getting contracts with the government and the military and the intel services.

"The military and intelligence sectors draw on the companies that have succeeded in the commercial sector. It's amazing to watch, like just to see it. I don't think most Americans realize the deep connection.”

The deep connection isn’t lost on members of Congress who represent migrant communities.

“This is not their first attempt” to use surveillance technology in immigration enforcement, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) told Raw Story.

“And from what I understand, they've been collecting DNA without any public knowledge.”

“How worrisome is that?” Raw Story pressed.

“It absolutely should be worrisome,” Tlaib said, “and I think it's important for people to understand our immigrant neighbors: these are human beings. They're not experiments for the tech world and all these folks that want to profit off of the federal government.

“They're not experiments and they're our loved ones, but also they always start with immigrants and then it will be us.”

“You think [use of such technology is] guaranteed to creep?” Raw Story pressed.

“It will be. Guaranteed,” Tlaib said. “They always start with those that are incarcerated, those that are in systems that are in custody of the government and we can't allow human rights violations for immigrants.

“It will trickle down to many other people so I think it's really important to understand it's all profit driven and it's really shameful.”

‘People in masks with guns’

The new surveillance state is coming as ICE agents from coast to coast are being recorded wearing masks on raids — an irony far from lost on critics.

"It's very ironic and hypocritical that the government is using facial recognition technology on Americans and at the same time insists that its agents not show their faces," Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) told Raw Story.

"It's very un-American, and it feels like we're watching something happening in another country from the 1970s where, you know, you turn on the TV … and on the evening news they would have something going on in Nicaragua or somewhere around the world, and you have these people in masks with the guns, right? That's what it looks like."