New Georgia Poll Highlights Enduring Problem For Republicans

A new poll from SurveyUSA, sponsored by an Atlanta NBC affiliate, sought to collect data on a question Republicans and Democrats alike have been asking for weeks: will Republicans who believe the general election was rigged vote in the runoff?

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Outgoing GOP Rep. Accuses Colleagues Of ‘Mindless’ Obedience To Trump

Outgoing Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) rebuked his GOP colleagues for what he called a “mindless sort of obedience” to President Donald Trump, saying the blind following “doesn’t do credit to the individuals” and ultimately undermines democratic institutions.

“Congress was created to be and meant to be a separate independent branch of government – not one in which its members take their direction from a president of either party,” he told The Dallas Morning News in an interview published early Tuesday. 

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We Laughed At Jade Helm 5 Years Ago. We Shouldn’t Have.

Remember Jade Helm?

After a summer of heated racial justice protests that drove President Donald Trump to dispatch federal law enforcement officers to liberal cities — and prompted a sitting senator to call for the president to “send in the troops” against the American people — it’s quaint to look back on a crackpot conspiracy theory about former President Barack Obama enacting martial law.

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‘Sadly, Mitch Forgot’: Trump Attacks McConnell In Email To GOP Lawmakers

President Donald Trump lashed out against Senate Majority Leader Mitch (R-KY) for finally acknowledging Joe Biden’s clear electoral win. Trump sent a slide to Republican lawmakers that suggested the President had saved McConnell’s political career by endorsing him earlier this year

“Sadly, Mitch forgot,” the slide, which was sent out by Trump’s personal assistant on Monday and obtained by Axios, reads. “He was the first one off the ship.” 

The slide includes polling data that appeared to show McConnell in a dead heat against Democratic challenger Amy McGrath ahead of the Nov. 3 election until Trump offered his endorsement.

McConnell handily beat McGrath by nearly 20 points in last month’s election, despite her well-financed $94 million fundraising effort to unseat him.

Trump’s latest effort to trash a top member of his party reflects an increasingly desperate effort to alienate any GOP lawmaker who shows a commitment to carrying out the traditions of democracy which delivered a win to his opponent, President-elect Biden.

Trump’s slide points to polling that depicted a very tight race in Kentucky until Trump tweeted his endorsement of the Senate leader on June 19. 

The slide again shows polling tightening to 51%-40% before Trump delivered an Oct. 31 robocall in support of McConnell.

Although McConnell easily won over McGrath for his 7th term, the slide plays into an enduring perception that in the wake of Trump’s White House departure, he will continue to hold sway over the election campaigns of Republican lawmakers in 2022 and beyond. 

The unprecedented move comes weeks before the all-important Georgia runoff elections where Trump loyalists Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler have vowed their continued support of the president and have turned on GOP officials in their own state in efforts they hope will boost their prospects of holding onto seats that will determine which party holds Senate majority.

Thune Says Any Challenge To Electoral College Tally Would ‘Go Down Like A Shot Dog’

Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-SD) said Monday that a desperate effort by a handful of House members in his party to challenge the Electoral College’s results reaffirming Joe Biden as the next president would “go down like a shot dog.”

“It’s just not going anywhere,” Thune told reporters on Monday, adding that he knows of no senators who have committed to back an effort by several House Republicans to challenge the Electoral College votes when Congress convenes Jan. 6 to open and count certificates from each state that contain a record of electoral votes cast this month which cemented Biden’s win.

“In the Senate it would go down like a shot dog,” Thune said. “I just don’t think it makes a lot of sense to put everybody through this when you know what the ultimate outcome is going to be.”

Thune’s comments came hours after reports that several House GOP members met privately at the White House with President Donald Trump to discuss elements of Trump’s latest election gambit — plans to challenge the Electoral College votes in at least six states.

The Oval Office meeting with Trump included loyalists like Reps. Mo Brooks (AL), Matt Gaetz (FL), Jim Jordan (OH) and Jody Hice (GA) and Rep.-elect Marjorie Greene, among others, per Bloomberg News

After the meeting, Hice tweeted that he would “lead an objection” to his state’s electors on Jan. 6.

“The courts refuse to hear the President’s legal case. We’re going to make sure the People can!” he added.

Greene tweeted on Friday that she was looking for the support of a senator to back her effort to fight for Trump who she said has always “fought for us.”

Under federal law, Congress will meet in a joint session to reaffirm Biden’s win and are permitted to object to votes from any given state, but any attempt to do so would require a member of both chambers to object in writing — and would almost certainly fail.

Assuming a member of both the Senate and House offered objections both chambers would then have to agree to it by a simple majority vote. 

Senate Majority Leader who finally faced the reality of Biden’s win last week has warned GOP senators not to advance a futile effort by any members of the House saying they would have to vote it down and it would be “terrible.”

Congress Passes $900B COVID Relief Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress passed a $900 billion pandemic relief package Monday night that would finally deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and resources to vaccinate a nation confronting a frightening surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Lawmakers tacked on a $1.4 trillion catchall spending bill and thousands of pages of other end-of-session business in a massive bundle of bipartisan legislation as Capitol Hill prepared to close the books on the year. The bill goes to President Donald Trump for his signature, which is expected in the coming days.

The relief package, unveiled Monday afternoon, sped through the House and Senate in a matter of hours. The Senate cleared the massive package by a 92-6 vote after the House approved the COVID-19 package by another lopsided vote, 359-53. The tallies were a bipartisan coda to months of partisanship and politicking as lawmakers wrangled over the relief question, a logjam that broke after President-elect Joe Biden urged his party to accept a compromise with top Republicans that is smaller than many Democrats would have liked.

The bill combines coronavirus-fighting funds with financial relief for individuals and businesses. It would establish a temporary $300 per week supplemental jobless benefit and a $600 direct stimulus payment to most Americans, along with a new round of subsidies for hard-hit businesses, restaurants, and theaters and money for schools, health care providers and renters facing eviction.

The 5,593-page legislation — by far the longest bill ever — came together Sunday after months of battling, posturing and postelection negotiating that reined in a number of Democratic demands as the end of the congressional session approached. Biden was eager for a deal to deliver long-awaited help to suffering people and a boost to the economy, even though it was less than half the size that Democrats wanted in the fall.

“This deal is not everything I want — not by a long shot,” said Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass., a longstanding voice in the party’s old-school liberal wing. “The choice before us is simple. It’s about whether we help families or not. It’s about whether we help small businesses and restaurants or not. It’s about whether we boost (food stamp) benefits and strengthen anti-hunger programs or not. And whether we help those dealing with a job loss or not. To me, this is not a tough call.”

The Senate, meanwhile, was also on track to pass a one-week stopgap spending bill to avert a partial government shutdown at midnight and give Trump time to sign the sweeping legislation.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a key negotiator, said on CNBC Monday morning that the direct payments would begin arriving in bank accounts next week.

Democrats promised more aid to come once Biden takes office, but Republicans were signaling a wait-and-see approach.

The measure would fund the government through September, wrapping a year’s worth of action on annual spending bills into a single package that never saw Senate committee or floor debate.

The legislation followed a tortured path. Democrats played hardball up until Election Day, amid accusations that they wanted to deny Trump a victory that might help him prevail. Democrats denied that, but their demands indeed became more realistic after Trump’s loss and as Biden made it clear that half a loaf was better than none.

The final bill bore ample resemblance to a $1 trillion package put together by Senate Republican leaders in July, a proposal that at the time was scoffed at by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as way too little.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took a victory lap after blocking far more ambitious legislation from reaching the Senate floor. He said the pragmatic approach of Biden was key.

“The president-elect suggesting that we needed to do something now was helpful in moving both Pelosi and Schumer into a better place,” McConnell told The Associated Press. “My view about what comes next is let’s take a look at it. Happy to evaluate that based upon the needs that we confront in February and March.”

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, D-Calif., came to the Senate to cast her vote for the bill. “The American people need relief and I want to be able to do what I can to help them,” she said.

On direct payments, the bill provides $600 to individuals making up to $75,000 per year and $1,200 to couples making up to $150,000, with payments phased out for higher incomes. An additional $600 payment will be made per dependent child, similar to the last round of relief payments in the spring.

“I expect we’ll get the money out by the beginning of next week — $2,400 for a family of four,” Mnuchin said. “So much needed relief just in time for the holidays.”

The $300 per week bonus jobless benefit was half the supplemental federal unemployment benefit provided under the $1.8 billion CARES Act in March. That more generous benefit and would be limited to 11 weeks instead of 16 weeks. The direct $600 stimulus payment was also half the March payment.

The CARES Act was credited with keeping the economy from falling off a cliff during widespread lockdowns in the spring, but Republicans controlling the Senate cited debt concerns in pushing against Democratic demands.

“Anyone who thinks this bill is enough hasn’t heard the desperation in the voices of their constituents, has not looked into the eyes of the small-business owner on the brink of ruin,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, a lifelong New Yorker who pushed hard for money helping his city’s transit systems, renters, theaters and restaurants.

Progress came after a bipartisan group of pragmatists and moderates devised a $908 billion plan that built a middle-ground position that the top four leaders of Congress — the GOP and Democratic leaders of both the House and Senate — used as the basis for their talks. The lawmakers urged leaders on both sides to back off of hardline positions.

“At times we felt like we were in the wilderness because people on all sides of the aisle didn’t want to give, in order to give the other side a win,” said freshman Rep. Elssa Slotkin, D-Mich. “And it was gross to watch, frankly.”

Republicans were most intent on reviving the Paycheck Protection Program with $284 billion, which would cover a second round of PPP grants to especially hard-hit businesses. Democrats won set-asides for low-income and minority communities.

The sweeping bill also contains $25 billion in rental assistance, $15 billion for theaters and other live venues, $82 billion for local schools, colleges and universities, and $10 billion for child care.

The governmentwide appropriations bill was likely to provide a last $1.4 billion installment for Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall as a condition of winning his signature. The Pentagon would receive $696 billion. Democrats and Senate Republicans prevailed in a bid to use bookkeeping maneuvers to squeeze $12.5 billion more for domestic programs into the legislation.

The bill was an engine to carry much of Capitol Hill’s unfinished business, including an almost 400-page water resources bill that targets $10 billion for 46 Army Corps of Engineers flood control, environmental and coastal protection projects. Another addition would extend a batch of soon-to-expire tax breaks, such as one for craft brewers, wineries and distillers.

It also would carry numerous clean-energy provisions sought by Democrats with fossil fuel incentives favored by Republicans, $7 billion to increase access to broadband, $4 billion to help other nations vaccinate their people, $14 billion for cash-starved transit systems, $1 billion for Amtrak and $2 billion for airports and concessionaires. Food stamp benefits would temporarily be increased by 15%.

The Senate Historical Office said the previous record for the length of legislation was the 2,847-page tax reform bill of 1986 — about one-half the size of Monday’s behemoth.

Dems Brace For GOP Ploy To Pin Under-Planned Vaccine Rollout On Biden

President Trump and his top lieutenants would love to have the country believe that the COVID-19 vaccine will be widely available very soon, just a few weeks into the Biden administration. 

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