An Oath Keeper member who appeared to serve as one of infamous Trump ally Roger Stone’s security guards on the day of the Capitol siege on January 6 has been arrested on charges connected to the attack.
Continue reading “Oath Keeper Tied To Roger Stone Arrested On Charges Connected To Capitol Attack”
In states where local election officials took creative actions to make voting easier and safer during the pandemic, Republican legislatures are now looking to prevent such local creativity in the future.
Amid mounting criticism that guidance around what the COVID-19 vaccines allow people to do once inoculated was unclear, the Centers for Disease Control has released new recommendations for what freedoms the shots should allow.
Continue reading “CDC Comes Around To Issuing Guidance For What The Vaccinated Can Do”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is insisting that the next big Biden administration package, centered on infrastructure improvements, not go through the budget reconciliation process right off the bat.
House Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Sunday lambasted retired Army Lieutenant General Russel Honoré and his “notorious partisan bias,” a statement he put out a day before Honoré briefs House members on security failures around the Capitol attack.
Continue reading “McCarthy Shoots The Messenger As Honoré Preps To Brief House On Jan. 6 Failures”
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), a top Senate Republican, will not run for reelection when his term is up next year.
He announced his decision in a video posted Monday.
Thank you, Missourians, for the opportunity to work for you and a better future for our state and our country. pic.twitter.com/1GjX74zhZB
— Senator Roy Blunt (@RoyBlunt) March 8, 2021
Blunt serves in the Senate GOP leadership, and before his election to the Senate in 2010, served in top positions in House Republican leadership as well. Some in Washington perceived Blunt as someone who could eventually have taken over as the leader of the Senate caucus.
In the video announcing he would not be running, Blunt did not give an explicit reason for why he was ending his Senate career. He did, however, note that he had cast nearly 12,0000 votes in Congress.
Missouri was once considered to be a swing state, but has reddened over the years, and Blunt was not on the list of Senate Republicans up for particularly tough re-election fights next year.
While it’s unclear whether Democrats will be able to put up a competitive candidate this time around, Blunt’s decision not to run injects more uncertainty into the 2022 map. Already, Senate Republicans will have to defend open seats in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Ohio, after their respective Sens. Patrick Toomey, Richard Burr and Rob Portman announced that they wouldn’t be running for reelection. Sen Ron. Johnson, who represents Wisconsin, a state that turned back to blue in 2020 after going for Donald Trump in 2016, also has hinted that he may not run again in 2022, though that decision is not final.
Beyond its implications for the Senate map, Senate Republicans will also be losing an institutional figure with Blunt’s departure. In addition to holding the top GOP position on the Senate Rules Committee, Blunt serves on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and also on the Intelligence Committee. Having served as a whip when he was in the House, Blunt is also considered one of the most plugged in Republican senators and is a close McConnell ally.
Ex-Vice President Mike Pence is slated to give a speech at a conservative Christian lobbying group in South Carolina next month, marking his first public appearance since leaving the White House.
Continue reading “Pence To Reemerge In South Carolina For First Time After Leaving White House”
Leaving off the Trump Era we are now headlong into the Joe Manchin Tea Leaf Reading Era. But here from Manchin this morning we have yet more evidence that we’re not in Fiscal Policy Kansas anymore.
In addition to his tour of the Sunday shows yesterday, Manchin sat for an interview with Axios/HBO and Mike Allen. In it Manchin says he’s ready to back a big infrastructure bill – in the neighborhood of $2 to $4 trillion. But he’s got a big demand first.
His demand? He wants a higher corporate tax rate and a rollback of most of Trump’s tax cut. From Axios …
I feel sheepish admitting this. But after seeing Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) comments on the Sunday shows yesterday I felt pretty optimistic that this year might be significantly different than I’d anticipated and that the legislative possibilities are more expansive than I’d imagined. More than optimistic – I felt a hint of excitement. Yes, yes, there might as well be a bible verse that says ‘Put not your faith in Joe Manchin!’
But it’s not quite like that.
