Congressional reporter @punchbowlnews max@punchbowl.news
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Klobuchar on KBJ: “She has more experience as a judge than four people who are already on the Supreme Court — not that we're keeping track.”
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This has a really struck a nerve among many Dems.
I've heard from countless House Dem sources telling me they couldn't disagree more with this take. Many pointed out AOC appeared with Pat Ryan close to the election and that Ryan cruised to victory in a tough seat
Another House Dem aide gets in touch:
“Our party must learn that outside of our tiny insular bubble, AOC is toxic to the Democratic brand with swing voters. Her primetime DNC speaking slot played directly into the narratives that lost us this election”
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New: Raskin and Blumenthal introduce bill to “subject the President, Vice President, Members of the Cabinet, Members of Congress, or other senior officials to both civil and criminal penalties for accepting foreign government payments without Congress’s consent.”
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News: Liz Cheney will serve as the vice chair of the Jan. 6 select committee.
“We will not be deterred by threats or attempted obstruction and we will not rest until our task is complete,” Cheney said.
Chair Bennie Thompson selected Cheney to the position.
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Hunter Biden is taking an aggressive approach to GOP questioning, according to Dems in the deposition.
Moskowitz: “They're asking lots of questions on Hunter’s business. He posed this question, ‘How come they're not curious about the $2B Jared Kushner got from the Saudis?’”
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I asked McCarthy about how he would describe his interactions with Biden during negotiations.
“Very professional, very smart. Very tough at the same time,” McCarthy replied
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Checking in on House Dem sources this AM…
“This is as bad as I’ve ever seen. This was a total and complete repudiation of the Democratic Party. People are not buying what we’re selling. Period.”
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A fired up John Fetterman has this message for his fellow Dems voting against the GOP CR:
“Just open up the whole thing and cut the shit.”
“I don’t care about who’s winning, who’s losing and who’s going to blink. America loses”
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This DOJ indictment says the confidential source informant — who was hailed by Hill Republicans as providing evidence of a Biden bribery scandal — was making it up. Wow.
BREAKING: DOJ has charged the informant who provided derogatory informaton about Hunter and Joe Biden with "false statements" and obstruction.
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News: Susan Collins tells me she is not on board with Gaetz as AG.
“I was shocked at the nomination”
“This is why the Senate's advise and consent process is so important. I'm sure that there will be many, many questions raised at Mr Gaetz’s hearing”
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Per a source, here's a photo from last night of a bunch of alcohol in Van Orden's office. Van Orden and staff were heard partying loudly before he cursed out a group of teenage Senate pages
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John Fetterman reacts to Mamdani’s success in NYC: “I’d describe it as Christmas in July for the GOP”
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Checking in on Senate GOP Gaetz reaction:
When asked whether he wants to see the Gaetz ethics report, Ron Johnson unfolds a printout of this picture of Rachel Levine and Sam Brinton and asks reporters whether they “harassed” Democrats about these nominees
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Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, who’s poised to be chief deputy whip, on what could possibly swing the 19 Jordan voters: “We’ll see what happens when Tucker and Sean Hannity and Ben Shapiro start beating up on these guys. Maybe that'll move it.”
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Motion to discharge Ketanji Brown Jackson from the Judiciary Cmte passes Senate 53-47.
Likely mirrors final confirmation vote, with GOP Sens. Collins, Murkowski and Romney voting with all Democrats
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Harris campaign sending out a press release featuring McConnell's criticism of Trump's tariff plan
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New: Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar all have statement out slamming Schumer position.
“House Democrats will not be complicit. We remain strongly opposed to the partisan spending bill under consideration in the Senate.”
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Sen. Manchin during WSJ event ripping Biden admin on inflation:
"We had people at that time saying inflation would be transitory. We had 17 Nobel laureates saying it's going to be no problem. Well, 17 Nobel laureates were wrong."
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Why isn’t @AOC attending the Netanyahu speech?
“Because he’s a war criminal,” she tells reporters.
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Collins is a YES on RFK to lead HHS
Just asked GOP Sen. Susan Collins, key swing vote, if she plans to support RFK Jr for HHS. She says she does plan to vote for him — a big boost for his confirmation.
She said that Kennedy told her that he would “re-examine” the WH’s NIH cuts and he “seemed to understand the concerns that I was raising about what it would be more very important biomedical research and clinical trials.”
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Jeffries slams House Republicans for their behavior last night.
“That was an embarrassment last night.”
“Marjorie Taylor Greene shows up in campaign paraphernalia. And then these people want to lecture Joe Biden because he delivered a strong and forceful speech?”
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NEW: Susan Collins will support Tulsi Gabbard. Huge sign that Gabbard’s chances for DNI confirmation are on the right track
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I asked Cori Bush about the investigation directly last night. She repeatedly declined to comment and reprimanded me for approaching her as she had a toothache.
🚨BREAKING NEWS -- THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT is conducting a criminal probe into @CoriBush, according to six sources familiar with the investigation.
The Justice Department subpoenaed the House Sergeant at Arms for records relating to the misspending of federal security money.
MUCH MORE in @PunchbowlNews Midday, out in a bit.
(TEXT ALERT out a few minutes ago).
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McConnell on Finland/Sweden NATO vote:
“If any senators are looking for a defensible excuse to vote no, I wish them good luck. This is a slam dunk for national security that deserves unanimous bipartisan support.”
Measure expected to pass Senate with 90-plus votes today.
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Nebraska...? Nebraska. Independent Dan Osborn is up 10 points over GOP Sen. Deb Fischer with 35pct in.
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Moskowitz trolling Comer: "As a former director of emergency management, I know a disaster when I see one."
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New: Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) is writing to colleagues that she will run to be the new Battleground Leadership Representative, if the House Dem Caucus approves the rules change creating the position.
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Sen. Peter Welch is calling on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race in a new WaPo op-ed.
“We cannot unsee President Biden’s disastrous debate performance. We cannot ignore or dismiss the valid questions raised since that night.”
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New: A source close to Elissa Slotkin's team says she's seriously considering running for Senate in '24
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How House Dem aides are reacting
“A sex trafficker, a Russian asset, and a Fox News host walk into a bar…”
“This is what happens when you give a monkey a machine gun”
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Tammy Duckworth is quizzing Hegseth on military issues. She asks him details about ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). Hegseth mentions South Korea, Japan and Australia.
Duckworth informs him none of those nations are in ASEAN
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News: Rep. Ritchie Torres is introducing a new rule — the GEORGE (Getting Expelled Officially Revokes Guaranteed Entry) Rule — that would revoke House floor privileges for expelled members of the House of Representatives.
Comes after Santos was on the floor for #SOTU yday
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New Dem Chair Annie Kuster, head of influential center-left caucus, tells me Kamala Harris has her "full throated endorsement."
So leaders of biggest progressive and moderate House Dem groups are on same page here
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal endorses Harris, an important sign of left wing coalescing around Biden’s chosen successor
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Spanberger beats Cartwright to be the House Dem Battleground Leadership Representative, 33-20
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Matt Cartwright, Dem who represents a Trump district, tells me he will vote to oust McCarthy.
“After I saw Kevin McCarthy's interview with Margaret Brennan, all magnanimity left my body.”
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News: Top Progressive Caucus lawmakers -Jayapal, Casar, Frost, Deluzio- are calling for DNC chair candidates to endorse reforms aimed at winning back working class voters, including banning super PACs from spending in Dem primaries and refusing corporate PAC donations to the DNC
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Matt Gaetz just living absolutely rent free in McCarthy’s head. Trolling the entire GOP conference.
Staggering, outrageous scenes.
Welcome to the 118th Congress. This is just week one.
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Jeffries calling for vote on national security bill, says “it’s not too much to ask to let the House of Representatives actually work its will as opposed to allowing Donald Trump to work his will”
Adds “there are more than 300 bipartisan votes” in the House to pass the bill.
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Tlaib wouldn’t respond just now when I asked if she had considered taking this post down, after Biden said he believes Israel didn’t bomb this hospital
Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that.
@POTUS this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate.
Your war and destruction only approach has opened my eyes and many Palestinian Americans and Muslims Americans like me. We will remember where you stood.
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Spanberger looks set to HOLD #VA07, a big victory for Democrats in Virginia. Spanberger's district was substantially changed after redistricting. The incumbent campaigned heavily on Dems' legislative achievements.
Rs were hoping to flip the seat, which Youngkin won in '21
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Cory Booker is heated as he exits Senate floor. Says Klobuchar/CCM were “enabling Donald Trump to do a broadside attack on my state.”
“There's a lot of us in this caucus that want to fucking fight. And what's bothering me right now is we don't see enough fight in this caucus.“
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Fresh from the Emmys, Seth Rogen is in the Capitol appearing with Sen. Bob Casey to advocate for American caregivers
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Just caught up with Gov. Youngkin on his Pelosi comments that drew strong criticism last week.
“At the end of the day, I really wanted to express the fact that what happened to Speaker Pelosi’s husband was atrocious. And I didn't do a great job.”
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Cornyn campaign spox goes in hard against Paxton.
“Ken Paxton is a fraud”
“Ken claims to be a man of faith but uses fake Uber accounts to meet his girlfriend and deceive his family.”
Full statement >
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In new letter to Comer, Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell offers to let Hunter testify in front of Oversight on any day in December in a public setting.
Oversight Rs have subpoenaed Hunter for a closed door deposition.
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.@RepMcCaul pessimistic on Jordan’s speaker future.
“If he has 21 nos, I don’t see how he can recover,” McCaul says. “For me the wild card is McCarthy coming back.”
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Retiring GOP Sen. Ben Sasse on Trump: “I think people are gonna have to choose if they're for the circus clown or they're for the Constitution.”
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Caraveo CONCEDES- Republicans flip #CO08 with Gabe Evans.
House Rs on the brink of retaining their majority. Dems now need a major miracle in CA and AZ
It’s been the honor of a lifetime to serve the people of #CO08. Thank you to my family, volunteers, staff and supporters who believed in this campaign. While this isn’t the outcome we hoped for, the work is not over.
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Jamie Raskin says Trump assassination attempt is "a double failure"
Failure by Secret Service to protect Trump
And failure of the country to protect its citizens against gun violence
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83% of vote in and Dems aren't close to knocking off Anna Paulina Luna. This was a pretty big reach for Dems, but they had talked a big game in #FL13 since Luna is seen as a fairly hardline R candidate for a swingy district
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Adam Schiff, Padilla’s delegation partner, says there should be an investigation of the officers who apprehended Padilla.
“To be treated the way he was, to be essentially brought to the ground and shackled, is a disgraceful action”
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Eli Crane, who’s a strong Jordan backer, isn’t happy with McHenry resolution.
“I know what my voters want. And I know what the American people want, and it's Jim Jordan. I don't think a lot of the people in this conference actually give a shit what the American people want.”
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Another House Dem aide gets in touch:
“Our party must learn that outside of our tiny insular bubble, AOC is toxic to the Democratic brand with swing voters. Her primetime DNC speaking slot played directly into the narratives that lost us this election”
Checking in on House Dem sources this AM…
“This is as bad as I’ve ever seen. This was a total and complete repudiation of the Democratic Party. People are not buying what we’re selling. Period.”
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News: Jack Smith will appeal the dismissal, per statement from special counsel spox
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New: Jamie Raskin, the top Dem on Oversight, is calling on the Secret Service to release visitor information from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and Pence’s Carmel, Ind., home “to assist the Committee in investigating the mishandling of classified information.”
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Following, the NYT report on RFK's links to anti-polio vaccine figures, Mitch McConnell slams the connection
"Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts”
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Bynum defeats incumbent GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer in #OR05, big flip for Dems.
DCCC and national Dems deserve credit for getting involved early and backing Bynum in primary over Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a more progressive candidate who lost to Chavez-DeRemer in 22.
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Bowman's office sent out this guidance to House Dem offices, looking for social media backup on fire alarm situation.
One proposed rebuttal: "Republicans need to instead focus their energy on the Nazi members of their party before anything else"
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Ethics Cmte says it's reviewing allegations that Matt Gaetz may have "engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use"
"accepted improper gifts"
"dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship"
and obstructed investigation
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DAVID TRONE is walking back into the House floor with his arm in a sling. He just had shoulder surgery and is back to vote for Jeffries. I asked how he was feeling: “Been better”
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A Senate thought: With Senate Rs heading for a majority (and potentially a sizable one), Dems are probably thankful that Sinema and Manchin stood up against filibuster reform...
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Dick Durbin, no. 2 Senate Dem, on his votes to suspend U.S. weapons sales to Israel:
"The United States should not be sending arms and ammunition that continue to take the lives of innocent people.
"I will stand by Israel, but I will not support the devastation of Gaza"
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Pelosi recounts a conversation she had with Obama when the ACA passed.
“He called me and said, ‘I'm happier today than I was the night I was elected President of the United States.’”
Pelosi has the gavel from when the ACA passed the House. Schumer says, “remember what that was like?”
Pelosi welcomes him back to the House side
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We’re hearing fury from House Dems about reporting that Hunter Biden is sitting in on high-level meetings with the president and serving as an informal advisor.
Their take is that Hunter should be nowhere near these conversations about the president’s future.
On Hunter Biden showing up at White House meetings with the president and his advisers, Karine Jean-Pierre responds, "He came back with his dad from Camp David. He walked into the speech prep. He was in the room.”
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New: Utah GOP Sen. John Curtis, who is undecided on Gabbard, wasn’t impressed today.
“I leave today’s hearing with more questions than answers. Some of her responses, and non-responses, created more confusion than clarity and only deepened my concerns about her judgement”
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Vice President Vance enters the Capitol as he prepares to break a potential tie on the first procedural hurdle on the GOP reconciliation bill
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McConnell: "It's time to move something, hopefully including a border agreement. But we need to get help to Israel and Ukraine quickly."
"There is bipartisan support here in the Senate for both Israel and Ukraine, hopefully at some point we can get them the support they need."
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Chris Murphy on his concerns with Dems supporting the CR:
“I really worry about putting a bipartisan veneer on a bill that could allow the president to act illegally.”
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Another Dem win in a toss-up district. Gonzalez beats GOP Rep. Mayra Flores, who won a South Texas special election this spring.
#TX34 seat voted heavily for Biden in 2020, but had shifted to toss-up due to expected shifts among Latino voters toward Rs
BREAKING: Democrat Vicente Gonzalez wins re-election to the U.S. House in Texas's 34th Congressional District, NBC News projects. nbcnews.to/3WLXajP
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NC GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx said she “hasn’t really followed him closely” when asked about latest Mark Robinson news
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More GOP nomination woes. If Braun and Cruz were present and voted no, then would have forced Harris (currently in Hawaii) to break tie...
By a vote of 50-48, the #Senate confirmed the nomination of Rebecca L. Pennell to be District Judge for the Eastern District of Washington.
Senator Manchin voted No.
Senators not voting: Braun and Cruz.
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Jeffries’ take on debt limit bill:
“President Biden protected Social Security. President Biden protected Medicare. President Biden protected Medicaid. President Biden protected veterans. President Biden protected the Inflation Reduction Act.”
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Cheatle says internal Secret Service investigation is aiming to be completed in 60 days.
.@AOC follows up and says that timeline is unacceptable given the threat environment
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.@RepRaskin: “I stand 100% by my statements that we were told by the FBI team that visited us on Monday, June 5, 2023, that the Department of Justice team of prosecutors and FBI agents under U.S. Attorney Scott Brady determined that there were no grounds to escalate their probe"
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Post-Hegseth meeting, Sen. Wicker says he was impressed by the SecDef nominee and appreciated his vision for the DOD.
Wicker also says Hegseth addressed the allegations
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“I feel very reassured by the president’s plan,” @MaxwellFrostFL says, backing Biden
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Vulnerable Pat Ryan, who’s fresh off his third competitive election win in a row, touts that he campaigned with AOC + attacked big corporations, while combining that with criticism of Biden on the border.
A POV Dems may want to pay attention to, given Ryan outperformed Harris
I called on Biden to step down and gave him hell for failing to secure the border. That doesn’t make me a “moderate.”
I campaigned with AOC and called out big corporations for screwing us over. That doesn’t make me a “progressive.”
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Moskowitz asks for a show of hands of who wants to hear from Hunter Biden right now. No Republicans raise their hands
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Sen. Rand Paul, speaking about McConnell’s health: “I don't think it's been particularly helpful to have the Senate doctor describing it as dehydration, which I think even a non-physician seeing that probably aren't really accepting that explanation.”
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Really good sense of where Frontliners are at from @RepSpanberger, who represents vulnerable member perspectives in House Dem leadership
If anyone who thinks some vulnerable moderate Dems may be in the mood to save for McCarthy, think again. Lots of angst toward KM from those members and no appetite to bail Rs out
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Speaker McCarthy tried it.
Majority Leader Scalise tried it.
Whip Emmer tried it.
Vice Chair Johnson tried it.
Policy Cmte Chair Palmer tried it.
RSC Chair Hern tried it.
All who’s left in GOP leadership yet to launch a speaker bid? Elise Stefanik
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The anti-Jordan block is strong.
Austin Scott said he didn’t even want to be speaker. His candidacy is a good marker of how many House Rs aren’t comfortable with a speaker Jordan right now.
BREAKING ...
JORDAN - 124
SCOTT - 81
Jordan picked up just 25 votes. Scott, who didn't campaign for the job and got in minutes before the race, got 81 votes.
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More from Hunter Biden's fiery opening statement:
"You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn’t any"
"My testimony today should put an end to this baseless and destructive political charade."
New: Check out Hunter Biden's full opening statement here:
"I am here today to provide the Committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business."
punchbowl.news/hunter-biden-…
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Dem @RepRitchie joins calls for an investigation into Trump assassination attempt
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New: Rebecca Cooke, the Democrat running against Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) in #WI03, raised $2.75 million in the third quarter.
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