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Republicans Push Biden to Divert Federal Help for Infrastructure

Republicans Push Biden to Divert Federal Aid for Infrastructure

WASHINGTON — From California to Virginia, many states that faced devastating shortfalls in the depths of the pandemic recession now find themselves flush with tax revenues because of a rebounding economy and a soaring stock market. Lawmakers who worried about budget cuts are now proposing lucrative increases in school spending, tax cuts and direct payments to their residents.

That turnaround is partly the product of strong income tax receipts, particularly in states that heavily tax high earners and the wealthy, whose finances have fared well in the crisis. The unexpectedly rosy picture is raising pressure on President Biden to repurpose hundreds of billions of dollars of federal aid approved this year, in order to help fund a potential bipartisan infrastructure deal.

Last week, Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, suggested that Mr. Biden and Republican negotiators look to “some of the funding that’s been sent to states already under the last few bills” to help pay for that agreement. “They don’t know how to use it,” Mr. Romney said. “They could use that money to finance part of the infrastructure relating to roads and bridges and transit.”

Some economists and budget experts support that push, arguing that the money could be better spent elsewhere and that states’ spending plans could add to a risk of rapid inflation breaking out across the country. Other researchers and local budget officials say that the federal aid is rescuing harder-hit cities and states, like New York City and Hawaii, from a cascade of layoffs and spending cuts.

Biden administration officials say they continue to support distributing the full $350 billion in state, local and tribal aid that was contained in the $1.9 trillion economic assistance package that Mr. Biden signed in March. They say the aid will help ensure that the economic rebound does not repeat the years of state and local budget cutting that followed the 2008 financial crisis, which slowed the recovery from recession and contributed to millions of Americans waiting years to reap its benefits.

“We still feel strongly that the state and local plan is critical to ensuring we have a strong insurance policy for the type of strong growth we want, the type of equitable recovery the country deserves,” Gene Sperling, a senior adviser to Mr. Biden who oversees fulfillment of the March assistance package, said in an interview, “and to coming back from the 1.3 million jobs lost at the state and local level.”

Even if the administration wanted to recoup or divert the funds, it is unlikely that it could repurpose the money or make significant changes to how it is used without congressional action.

The debate over the state and local funding comes as Mr. Biden navigates a critical week of negotiations with Republicans over infrastructure in search of a deal, and as he prepares to travel to Cleveland on Thursday to speak about the economy. How to pay for any new spending is a primary hurdle in the talks, with Mr. Biden pushing to raise taxes on corporations and Republicans preferring increased user fees like the gas tax.

Repurposing unspent funds could help advance an agreement, particularly given Republican opposition to bankrolling state aid in previous rescue packages. Democrats pushed hard to include lucrative financial assistance for states, cities and tribes in Mr. Biden’s rescue bill. Republicans fought those efforts, warning they would serve as a “bailout” to high-tax, high-spend liberal states. They also cited a series of projections from Wall Street firms and other analysts suggesting that many states’ revenues were faring better than officials had feared in the early months of the pandemic.

It increasingly looks like many liberal states are not being “bailed out” — but also that some of them do not need more federal money. That is particularly true in states that do not rely primarily on the tourism or hospitality industries for tax revenues. Those with progressive tax systems that have caught surging revenues from investment income enjoyed by wealthy residents — like Silicon Valley moguls — are also faring well.

California officials expect a $15 billion surplus this fiscal year, after fearing a $54 billion shortfall. Virginia has seen nearly $2 billion in unanticipated revenues. As has Oregon, where economists recently upgraded the state’s revenue forecasts — moving it from projected deficits to surplus — in a report that surprised and delighted many lawmakers.

“It’s extremely surprising,” said Mark McMullen, the Oregon state economist.

“Obviously, when the shutdowns first set in and we saw these catastrophic employment losses, we treated them as a normal recession in our forecasts,” he said.

But surging income tax revenues and several rounds of federal assistance have now put the state “above our prepandemic forecasts,” Mr. McMullen added.

The strong revenue figures come as more federal relief money is just beginning to roll out the door. The Treasury Department began sending funds to states this month and has so far distributed more than $100 billion — about half of what is available to be disbursed immediately. Local governments are expected to receive the rest next year, although states still experiencing a sharp rise in unemployment will get a lump sum right away.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that state and local governments have received a total of nearly $1 trillion in relief money in the past year. State and local revenues were running about 7 percent above their prepandemic levels in the last quarter — excluding the federal aid they have received.

Marc Goldwein, the senior policy director for the committee, said that states like Hawaii and Nevada that rely heavily on tourism clearly needed the assistance, but that for many others, the money was unnecessary.

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May 24, 2021, 5:00 p.m. ET

The reasons vary, but Mr. Goldwein noted that home values have been surging around the country, providing a boost to property taxes; that states that were struggling from sagging oil prices have seen those prices pick up; and that consumers have been spending at a healthy clip thanks to stimulus checks and expanded jobless benefits.

“State and local governments, by and large, are frankly swimming in revenue,” Mr. Goldwein said. “It’s pretty clear to me that we spent a lot of money on states that we didn’t need to.”

Some economists, like Harvard’s Lawrence H. Summers, a former Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, have pushed Mr. Biden to repurpose the state and local aid for longer-term infrastructure projects, in hopes of easing what Mr. Summers warns is a dangerous buildup of inflationary pressure. Administration officials view high inflation as a much lower risk than Mr. Summers does.

Other analysts warn that state budget situations could sour if the stock market dips sharply or economic growth fizzles. Many cities, like New York, have struggled with sluggish tax revenues and still are reliant on federal to help avoid further layoffs.

New York expects to receive more than $22 billion in Covid-19 federal aid, according to the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission. Despite the funds, the city is still anticipating budget gaps in the coming years, the result of declining revenues like property taxes.

In retrospect, said Lucy Dadayan, a senior research associate at the Tax Policy Center, the March law should have included “more targeted funding” for the states and cities that need it most.

“I would still be all for helping state and local governments — more local governments than state governments, given what we know,” Ms. Dadayan said.

Treasury Department officials say the Biden administration wants states to have sufficient resources to cover immediate costs related to emerging from the pandemic and to be able to pay for more expansive services to help people who were hardest hit.

But many states and cities are eyeing windfall spending plans that go well beyond repairing their safety nets. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat facing a recall vote, has proposed a series of spending increases, including $1,100 stimulus checks to individuals and tax credits for filmmakers.

In Florida, the revenue forecast for 2021 has been revised upward twice in the past year. The state is now expected to get $8.8 billion from the federal government. Ben Watkins, the director of the Florida Division of Bond Finance, said the state was using the relief money to invest in infrastructure and water quality projects and directing some of its surplus funds to hurricane preparedness.

He described the windfall as staggering.

“It’s a good problem to have,” Mr. Watkins said, “but that doesn’t mean that it’s not excessive.”

States have substantial leeway in how they use the money, though they are prohibited from using the funds to subsidize tax cuts. Several Republican-led states have sued the Treasury Department, arguing that the restriction infringes on state sovereignty.

The lawsuits do not appear to be slowing the delivery of the funds. Ohio failed to win an injunction blocking the restrictions from being enforced this month, and Missouri had its case thrown out of court after a federal judge said the state did not demonstrate that the law caused it harm.

The Treasury Department plans to closely monitor how the money is spent and whether states are using budget gimmicks to actually fund tax cuts. The agency maintains that the federal government has a right to place conditions on how federal funds are used and that states are allowed to decline the money. A Treasury Department official said that no state had indicated yet that it would reject the funds.

In the meantime, states that are flush with revenues are pressing ahead with their plans. Nebraska approved a $26 million corporate tax cut last week, and lawmakers have told The Omaha World-Herald that they believe that by keeping the federal funds in a separate account from the state’s general fund, they will be in compliance with the law.

Nicholas Fandos and Dana Goldstein contributed reporting.

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Republicans Transfer to Restrict a Grass-Roots Custom of Direct Democracy

Republicans Move to Limit a Grass-Roots Tradition of Direct Democracy

In 2008, deep blue California banned same-sex marriage. In 2018, staunchly conservative Arkansas and Missouri raised their minimum wages. And last year, Republican-controlled Arizona and Montana legalized recreational marijuana.

These moves were all the result of electoral initiatives, a centuries-old body of American democracy that allowed voters to bypass their legislation to pass new laws, often with results that contradict the wishes of the elected officials of the state. While in the past they have been a bilateral instrument, in recent years Democrats have been particularly successful in using electoral initiatives to advance their agenda in conservative states where they have few other options.

But this year Republican lawmakers in Florida, Idaho, South Dakota, and other states passed laws restricting the use of the practice. This is part of a broader GOP attempt to secure political control for years to come, along with new legislation restricting electoral access and the party-political redesign of congressional districts that will take place in the coming months.

According to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a liberal group that tracks and supports community-based referendums, Republicans passed 144 bills in 2021 to restrict voting initiatives in 32 states. Of these bills, 19 were signed into law by nine Republican governors. In three states, Republican lawmakers have asked voters to approve electoral initiatives that limit their own right to initiate and pass future electoral initiatives.

“They have implemented web after web of technical details and hurdles that make it really difficult for community-based groups to qualify for the vote and to counter why electoral initiatives were launched in the first place,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, the managing director of the strategy center of the election initiative. “This is directly related to every attack we have seen on our democracy.”

In recent years, Democrats have used electoral initiatives to bypass Republican-controlled legislation, pass laws in red states that raised the minimum wage, legalized marijuana, expanded Medicaid, introduced impartial redistribution and apologetic absentee voting, and restored voting rights for people with it Convictions for criminal offenses.

Republicans seek to block this path in a variety of ways, including blunt measures that target the process directly and others that are more subtle.

“Petitioners have been very resourceful,” said Senator Al Novstrup, a 66-year-old Republican with glasses who sponsored the bill because the text of electoral initiatives is often too small for him to read. “There is no limit to the size of the paper.”

In Mississippi last week, the state’s Conservative Supreme Court, which ruled on a Republican lawsuit, technically invalidated the entire state initiative process, held a 2020 referendum legalizing medical marijuana, and the effort To collect signatures to bring Medicaid’s expansion into the state, suspended 2022 ballot. The constitutional amendment that created the state’s initiative law was passed in 1992 when the state had five congressional districts, each requiring signatures from voters. Mississippi has only four counties as of the 2000 census.

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that imposed a limit of $ 3,000 on campaign contributions to electoral initiatives. This cuts off an important source of income to subsidize the collection of signatures for petitions.

The Republican efforts, which are now gaining traction, have been in full swing for years.

In South Dakota in recent years, Republicans have limited the window of time for collecting petition signatures to the cold winter months, encouraging all recruiters to register with the state and wear state-issued IDs while collecting signatures. These are hurdles that according to the few Democrats in the state have increased the difficulty of qualifying for the vote.

“Republicans have every national office, 85 percent of the legislature and every constitutional office,” said Reynold F. Nesiba, one of three Democrats in the 35-member Senate. “The only place Democrats can make progress is in the action process in place, and Republicans want to take that away, too.”

Now the state’s Republican legislature will propose a constitutional amendment to voters in South Dakota to raise the threshold for passing referenda – and raise it to 60 percent by simple majority. (The threshold to raise the threshold? Still only 50 percent.)

The question will appear on the state’s main ballot for June 2022, which is expected to be dominated by Republican competitions. The new threshold could apply to the November 2022 general election, if a referendum on the expansion of Medicaid is expected before voters.

Republican Senator Lee Schoenbeck said in March that he specifically intended to block Medicaid’s expansion.

“It is fair protection for the citizens of our state,” he said on Thursday.

The proposals to limit electoral initiatives are part of an ongoing campaign by Conservatives to stifle progressive political efforts. To get a referendum on the vote, petitioners have to collect tens of thousands of signatures. The numbers vary depending on the state. The process can cost millions, so initiative campaigns are often signed by large donors.

In Arizona, Republicans have been smart since 2018 when Tom Steyer, the billionaire Democrat who later ran for president, helped fund an ultimately unsuccessful effort to pass a constitutional amendment that would put half of the state’s energy from renewables Sources.

In February, Tim Dunn, a representative of the Republican state, tabled a resolution to raise the threshold for an electoral initiative from a majority to 55 percent.

“If you look at the actual people actually voting on an electoral initiative, the number of people is quite small compared to the citizens of Arizona, and outside money could affect that pretty easily,” Dunn said.

Florida Republicans gave similar rationale for a new law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis that limits contributions to a citizen-led election initiative to $ 3,000 per person. Republicans were frustrated with some donors who supported electoral initiatives, including John Morgan, a wealthy Orlando attorney who spent millions of dollars on efforts to legalize medical marijuana Raise the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.

However, civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have said the new law will effectively stamp out community-based electoral initiatives, which often require substantial funding to collect signatures.

Campaigns like this are so expensive, proponents say, because of a cascade of restrictions Florida law has placed on the initiative. Recently, lawmakers cut the time it takes for signatures to expire in half. banned the practice of paying signature collectors per signature; urged those collecting signatures to use a separate piece of paper for each signature; and required that every signature be verified, which forbade a much cheaper “random sample” process.

“With every successful initiative or major effort that lawmakers don’t approve, there is a new law that makes it more expensive and burdensome to propose an initiative,” said Nicholas Warren, attorney at the Florida ACLU.

Republican sponsors of the new Florida law agree that constitutional amendments will be harder to pass. That is their goal.

“I’m not denying that holding a referendum on voting under the law will be more difficult, but that’s the point,” said Senator Ray Rodrigues, a Republican who sponsored the bill.

In Missouri, 22 Republican-sponsored bills this year attempted to restrict the state’s electoral initiative process, including a bill that would double the number of signatures required to qualify for the ballot and the threshold for passing one Measure increased from a simple majority to two thirds, that would be the highest in the country.

“These were really just politicians trying to dramatically restrict Missourians’ constitutional rights to use the process while telling us it was for our own good,” said Richard von Glahn, Missouri Jobs With political director Justice, a progressive organization.

In Idaho, Republican Governor Brad Little signed law last month that makes it significantly more difficult to meet the signature requirements for an initiative to be added to the ballot. Previously, an initiative required signatures from 6 percent of the population of 18 different legislative districts. The new law, signed by Mr. Little, now requires signatures from 6 percent of residents in each of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts.

And in Mississippi, the state Supreme Court ruled last week that the initiative process was “impractical and non-functional” because the number of statutory Congressional districts and the number of districts the state currently has differ.

Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler of Madison, Miss., A Republican who filed the lawsuit that led to the invalidation of the state initiative process, said the legal action was designed to protect her city’s ability to deter marijuana retailers through zoning.

“There were government officials who knew it needed to be corrected,” Ms. Butler said of the voting process. “If we want to move forward in the state and protect the initiative process, this must be corrected. If it’s buggy, the only option is to start over. “

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Republicans Reject Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal

Republicans Reject Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration sent Senate Republicans on Friday an offer for a bipartisan infrastructure deal that cut off more than $ 500 billion from the president’s original proposal. A move that White House officials hoped would fuel talks but Republicans were quick to reject.

The lack of progress encouraged Liberals in Congress to re-urge Mr Biden to abandon his hopes of compromise with a Republican conference that has labeled his $ 4 trillion economic agenda too expensive and undirected. Instead, they urged the president to begin an attempt to postpone his party line plans through the same process that spawned his economic incentive legislation earlier this year.

Mr Biden has repeatedly said that he wants to postpone his infrastructure plans with bipartisan support, which the main centrist Democrats in the Senate have also called for. But the president has insisted that Republicans spend far more than they say they are ready to spend.

He also says the bill must include a broad definition of “infrastructure” that includes investments in combating climate change and providing home health care that Republicans have termed overly expansive.

The sides stay wide apart. Mr Biden’s most recent offer includes spending of $ 1.7 trillion, a decrease of more than $ 500 billion from its original proposal. It includes building or repairing roads, bridges, water pipes, broadband Internet, the electrical grid, and a national network of EV charging stations, as well as investing in home care for the elderly and disabled.

The Republicans have countered with a $ 568 billion plan, though many Democrats consider that offer to be even smaller as it includes expanding some federal infrastructure spending to expected levels. In a memo to Republicans received by the New York Times on Friday, Biden administration officials rated the Republicans’ offer as no more than $ 225 billion, “above current levels that Congress has traditionally funded “.

The President’s new offer makes no effort to resolve the even more difficult problem that divides the parties: how to pay for these expenses. Mr Biden wants to levy taxes on companies that Republicans speak out against. Republicans want to use money from Mr Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion economic aid package, signed in March, for other purposes, including levying usage fees such as the president’s rejected gas tax.

Mr. Biden “fundamentally contradicts the approach of increasing the burden on working people through increased gas taxes and usage charges,” administrative officials wrote in their memo to Republican negotiators. “As you know, he has made a commitment to the American people not to levy taxes on those who earn less than $ 400,000 a year, and he intends to honor that commitment.”

Still, the new proposal shows some movement from the White House. It cuts out an important provision of Mr. Biden’s “American Jobs Plan”: hundreds of billions of dollars in advanced manufacturing, research and development efforts to enable the United States to work with China for supremacy in emerging industries such as advanced batteries to compete. Legislature has incorporated some, but not all, of the government’s proposals in these areas into non-partisan law currently going through the Senate.

Mr Biden’s counter offer would also reduce the amount he would like to spend on broadband internet as well as on highways and other road projects. He would essentially take on the Republicans’ $ 65 billion broadband offer of $ 100 billion and cut his highway spending plans by $ 40 billion to meet them halfway through. And what is known as an infrastructure bank would emerge, trying to leverage private infrastructure investments with public seed capital – and which the Republicans have been pushing for.

Updated

May 21, 2021, 6:50 p.m. ET

Republican senators, who were introduced to the offer on a conference call with administration officials on Friday, expressed disappointment despite vowing to continue the talks.

“During today’s call, the White House came back with a counteroffer that is well beyond what Congress can pass with bipartisan support,” said Kelley Moore, a spokeswoman for West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito who oversees the Republican negotiations leads group.

“There are still big differences between White House Republicans and Senate Republicans when it comes to defining infrastructure, proposed spending and how they are paid,” Ms. Moore said. “After today’s meeting, the groups seem further apart after two meetings with White House staff than they did after meeting President Biden.”

The White House’s updated offer was also immediately pushed back by the progressives, showing the extent to which the forces opposed to a deal are bipartisan. Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, urged his party not to waste time haggling with Republicans over details that do not share their vision for what the country needs.

“A smaller infrastructure package means fewer jobs, less justice, less climate change and less investment in America’s future,” Markey said in a press release.

Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have been skeptical of the talks, fearing that Republicans will waste precious time on the legislative calendar and ultimately refuse to agree to a deal big enough to please Liberals. While giving the White House Senator and Republicans leeway to pursue an alternative, party leaders are increasingly under pressure from progressives to unilaterally pass a bill through the Senate budget reconciliation.

They have taken quiet steps to make this possible in case the conversations break down. Advisors to Senators Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, and Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont and chairman of the Budget Committee, met with the Senate MP on Thursday to discuss options for a Republican-free trial under the rules.

Biden administration officials were frustrated that Republicans failed to approach the president in a new offer they made in negotiations on Capitol Hill this week. They made it clear to Republicans on Friday that they expect a significant move in the next counteroffer and that the negotiating timetable is getting shorter and shorter, said a person familiar with the discussions.

The administration could soon negotiate with several groups of senators. Another bipartisan group plans to meet on Monday evening to discuss the amount of expenses and proposals for their payment. Members of the group – including Mitt Romney from Utah, Susan Collins from Maine, Bill Cassidy from Louisiana and Rob Portman from Ohio, all Republicans as well as Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona and Joe Manchin III from West Virginia, both Democrats – helped draft a non-partisan coronavirus Aid law in December.

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Home Republicans introduce $400 billion transportation invoice

House Republicans introduce $400 billion transportation bill

Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), leader of the U.S. minority, can be seen on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 13, 2021.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

WASHINGTON – The Republicans of the House on Wednesday introduced a 5-year transportation bill of $ 400 billion, which sets the historical funding for highways, bridges and transit systems.

The bill comes as part of ongoing talks between the White House and Senate Republicans over their competing infrastructure plans this week.

The bill, unveiled on Wednesday, represents a potential third infrastructure funding option that is narrower than either the White House or the Senate Republicans’ plan.

“Our bill focuses on the core infrastructure that helps move people and goods through our communities every day, reduce bureaucracy that hinders project construction, and bring resources into the hands of our states and locals, with as few conditions as possible be knotted. ” said Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, senior member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the main sponsor of the bill.

Contrary to the proposals of the Republicans of the White House and the Senate, Graves’ bill does not exist as a separate piece of legislation. Rather, it is a re-authorization of the current five-year transport finance bill, which expires on September 30th.

Graves’ legislation, known as the Surface Transportation Advanced Through Reform, Technology & Efficient Review Act, or STARTER Act, would add a third, or about $ 100 billion, to land transportation projects.

However, it would not address some of the other elements of infrastructure that the stand-alone plans of both Senate Democrats and Republicans refer to, such as broadband, mass transit, water projects, and airports.

In addition, Biden’s plan would include billions more to fund research and development, schools, and charging stations for electric vehicles.

The House Republicans’ plan is also to spend much less than Biden’s proposal, the US $ 2.3 trillion employment plan, or the Senate Republican counteroffer which is roughly $ 570 billion.

“As the process of reviewing infrastructure legislation progresses, I look forward to seeing these proposals become part of a solid bipartisan effort – as the president continues to urge,” said Graves.

Biden has said he wants to reach a compromise deal with the Republicans on infrastructure. To do this, he appears ready to bundle the “hard infrastructure” elements of his American employment plan into a separate bill, if that means it could be passed with the support of both parties.

But Republicans have resisted Biden’s infrastructure plan, deciphering both its price and the proposed increase in the corporate tax rate Biden would pay for it.

The GOP counter-offer plan would be limited to hard infrastructure and pay for a mix of usage fees, misappropriated coronavirus aid funds, and public-private partnerships.

After meeting with Biden last week, a small group of Republican Senators met with White House negotiators on Tuesday to continue working on a bipartisan infrastructure deal.

A White House spokesman later said Biden’s team had been “encouraged” by the talks and that the White House would be in touch with the senators later this week.

Republicans also said the closed session was productive. “We talked about how to get into some nontraditional revenue streams,” said Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, who attended the talks. “How to do things like public-private partnerships, maybe some [vehicle] kilometers traveled and a type of vehicle charge for electric vehicles. “

The question of how electric vehicles can be included in traditional infrastructure financing turned out to be an unexpected sticking point in the talks this week.

Republicans insist that every bipartisan bill includes a tax or fee for electric vehicle drivers who do not pay the gas taxes that fund the Federal Highway Trust Fund.

However, Democrats insist that any final bill includes money to install hundreds of thousands of new EV charging stations across the country.

Biden spent Tuesday at a Ford Motors electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Michigan, the day before Ford officially launched its first all-electric F-150 pickup truck. The rollout marked a milestone in an effort to make electric vehicles more attractive to US consumers, who typically prefer larger cars than buyers in Europe and Asia.

Biden used the trip to announce the American employment plan.

“The American Jobs Plan is a blueprint for rebuilding America,” he said. “And we need automakers and other companies to keep investing here in America and not take advantage of our public investments and expand production of electric vehicles and batteries overseas.”

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Republicans Rewrite Historical past of the Capitol Riot, Hampering an Inquiry

Republicans Rewrite History of the Capitol Riot, Hampering an Inquiry

WASHINGTON – Four months after supporters of President Donald J. Trump stormed the Capitol in a deadly riot, an increasing number of Republicans in Congress are making great efforts to rewrite the January 6th story, downplaying or downplaying the violence denial and distraction to investigate it.

Their denialism, which has been intensifying for weeks, and which was vividly demonstrated at two congressional hearings this week, is one reason lawmakers have been unable to agree on the formation of an independent commission to review the attack on the Capitol. Republicans have insisted that any investigation include an investigation into violence by Antifa, a loose collective of anti-fascist activists, and Black Lives Matter. It also reflects an embrace of misinformation that has become a trademark of the Republican Party in the age of Mr Trump.

“A refusal to establish the truth is what we have to deal with,” said spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday. “We have to find the truth and we hope to do so in the most bipartisan way possible.”

It made a direct link between the overthrow of Wyoming Republican Representative Liz Cheney as her number 3 – a move that arose from Ms. Cheney’s vociferous rejection of Mr. Trump’s election lies that inspired the uproar – and her refusal to acknowledge them Reality of what happened on January 6th.

A House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on the insurrection on Wednesday underscored the Republican strategy. Arizona Representative Andy Biggs, chairman of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, used his time to show a video of mob violence allegedly by Antifa that took place in Portland, Ore, 2,800 miles away.

His member of Freedom Caucus, representative Ralph Norman from South Carolina, asked whether the rioters involved in the attack on the Capitol were actually Trump supporters – despite their Trump shirts, hats and flags, the “Make America Great Again” paraphernalia “And the professional’s trump chants and social media posts.

“I don’t know who took the poll to say they were Trump supporters,” said Norman.

Another Republican, Georgia Representative Andrew Clyde, described the scene during the attack – which injured almost 140 – as a “normal tourist visit” to the Capitol.

“Let’s face it with the American people: it wasn’t a riot,” said Clyde, adding that the floor of the house was never breached and that no firearms had been confiscated. “There was an undisciplined mob. There have been some rioters and some who have committed vandalism. “

He then asked Jeffrey A. Rosen, who was the acting attorney general at the time of the attack, whether he viewed it as a “riot or riot with vandalism similar to last summer,” apparently referring to protests against the racial justice system that swept over the country Country.

Immediately after the attack, many Republicans joined the Democrats in condemning the forcible takeover of the building known as the Citadel of American Democracy. But in the weeks that followed, Mr Trump, backed by right-wing news outlets and some members of Congress, expressed the fiction that it had been carried out by Antifa and Black Lives Matter, an allegation that federal authorities had repeatedly debunked. Now a much broader group of Republican lawmakers have agreed on more subtle efforts to tarnish and distort what happened.

The approach has hampered the creation of an independent commission, modeled on the one that dealt with the September 11, 2001, attacks to investigate the Capitol uprising, its roots and the government’s response. Ms. Pelosi said discussions stalled as Republicans insisted on including unrelated groups and events, and that Democrats may be forced to conduct their own investigation through existing committees of the House if the GOP doesn’t drop demand would.

“Now we get this outrageous Orwellian revisionist story where Donald Trump says his most loyal followers walked in – literally he said he hugged and kissed the Capitol officers,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland. “My colleagues should stop all the evasive maneuvers, distractions and distractions. Let’s find out what happened to us that day. “

Republicans involved in efforts to divert attention from the January 6 attack are merely arguing that they are pointing to the hypocrisy of the Democrats in investigating supporters of the former president, but not those in favor of movements on the left Orient the page. The subject was the focus of Ms. Cheney’s fall this week.

Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, has insisted that the commission investigate the violence of the left, while Ms. Cheney publicly undercut him, arguing that they are closely focused on the January 6th events should.

“This kind of intense, narrow focus threatens people in my party who may have played roles they shouldn’t have,” Ms. Cheney said in an interview that aired on NBC Thursday.

Ms. Cheney may be referring to the fact that some Republicans were actively promoting Mr. Trump’s lie that his election had been stolen, urging their supporters to come to Washington on January 6 for a defiant final stand to address him to keep the power. Legislators linked guns to the organizers of the so-called Stop the Steal protest that preceded the uprising and used inflammatory language to describe the operations.

Republicans are also deeply concerned that an independent investigation will target their party negatively in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections. And many Republicans say they listen to their voters who want them to continue to stand with Mr. Trump and reject Mr. Biden’s victory as illegitimate.

Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois and a supporter of Ms. Cheney, said some sort of circular logic has taken hold of his party where Mr Trump makes false statements, his supporters believe them, and then Republican lawmakers who need support from those voters who are to be re-elected, they repeat.

“The reality is that you can’t blame people for believing the election was stolen because that’s all they hear from their leaders,” said Kinzinger. “It’s the job of executives to tell the truth even when it’s awkward, and we don’t.”

Instead, Republicans portray themselves and their supporters as victims of a Democratic plan to silence them for their beliefs.

Arizona Representative Paul Gosar, a leading Congressional proponent of the Stop the Steal movement, used his time at the hearing earlier this week to accuse the Justice Department of “molesting peaceful patriots across the country.”

“Open propaganda and lies are used to unleash the national security state against law-abiding US citizens, especially Trump voters,” he said.

Republican Jody B. Hice, Republican of Georgia, identified Trump loyalists as the real victims of the January 6 attack.

“It was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day,” he said, “not Trump supporters who took the lives of others.”

Nicholas Fandos contributed to the coverage.

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Trump Nonetheless Has Iron Grip on Republicans

Trump Still Has Iron Grip on Republicans

Donald J. Trump, who was banned from Facebook, stranded in Mar-a-Lago and mocked for an amateurish new website, went largely out of sight this week. However, the Republican Party’s surrender to the former president has become clearer than ever, as has the damage to American politics he has caused by his lie that his election was stolen.

In Washington, Republicans moved to remove Representative Liz Cheney from her leadership position in the House of Representatives. This was punishment for denouncing Trump’s false claims of electoral fraud as a threat to democracy. Florida and Texas lawmakers have taken sweeping new measures that would restrict voting and reiterated Mr Trump and his allies’ fictional narrative that the electoral system had been rigged against him. And in Arizona, the state Republican Party began a bizarre November election results review looking for traces of bamboo in last year’s polls.

The tumultuous dramas clearly demonstrated the extent to which, six months after the elections, the nation is still grappling with the aftermath of an attack by a lost presidential candidate on a fundamental principle of American democracy: that the nation’s elections are legitimate.

They also provided clear evidence that the former president not only managed to quell dissent within his party, but also persuaded most of the GOP to make a gigantic bet: the surest way to regain power is by his Accepting combative style, racial divisions and acceptance Beyond the pale conspiracy theories, rather than wooing the suburban swing voters who are costing the party the White House and who may be following substantial policies on the pandemic, the economy and other issues search.

Loyalty to the former president persists despite his role in inciting his supporters prior to the January 6 uprising at the Capitol, with his supporters either ignoring, redefining, or in some cases tacitly accepting the deadly attack on Congress.

“We’re just so far from any reasonable construction,” said Barbara Comstock, a longtime party official who was swept out of her Virginia suburb of Congressional headquarters in the 2018 medium-term backlash against Mr. Trump. “It’s a real disease that infects the party on all levels. We’re just going to say that black is now white. “

Yet while Republicans wrap themselves in the fantasy of a stolen election, Democrats are entrenched in the day-to-day business of running a nation still struggling to get out of a deadly pandemic.

Strategists from both parties say that a mismatched dynamic – two parties operating in two different realities – is likely to determine politics in the country for years to come.

At the same time, President Biden faces a bigger challenge: what to do with that large part of the public who questions its legitimacy and a Republican party that is wooing support for this segment by putting forward bills that restrict voting and, possibly, confidence in them Would further undermine the future? Elections.

A CNN poll released last week found that nearly a third of Americans, including 70 percent Republicans, said Mr Biden did not legitimately win enough votes to win the presidency.

White House advisors say Mr Biden believes the best way to restore confidence in the democratic process is to show that the government can provide tangible benefits to voters – whether vaccines or stimulus measures.

Dan Sena, a Democratic strategist who oversaw the Democratic Campaigns Committee’s strategy to win the house during the recent midterm elections, said the Republican focus on cultural issues like bans on transgender athletes was a “win-win” situation for his party. Many Democrats will only face scatter-shot attacks on their agenda as they continue to stand up against the polarizing rhetoric of Mr. Trump, which helped the party flip suburban swing districts in 2018 and 2020.

“I would much rather have a record of my side by side with the Americans in recovery,” said Sena. “What story does the American public want to hear – what have Democrats done to get the country moving again, or Donald Trump and his culture war?”

Mr Biden predicted during the election campaign that if Mr Trump were gone, Republicans would have a “revelation” and be back to the party he knew during his decades in the Senate. When asked about Republicans this week, Mr Biden complained that he no longer understood them and seemed a little baffled by the “mini-revolution” within their ranks.

“I think Republicans are further from figuring out who they are and what they stand for than I thought they’d be at that point,” he said.

But for much of the past week, Republicans have been vividly portraying exactly what they stand for now: Trumpism. Many have adopted his approach of paying homage to white grievances with racist utterances, and Republican-led legislatures across the country are imposing restrictions that would restrict electoral access in ways that disproportionately affect color voters.

There are also high-level electoral considerations. With his highly polarizing style, Mr Trump motivated his grassroots and critics alike and urged both parties to register the turnout in the 2020 election. His total of 74 million votes was the second highest ever, after just 81 million from Mr Biden, and Mr Trump has demonstrated the ability to turn his political supporters against any Republican who opposes him.

That convinced Republicans they had to show unwavering loyalty to a late president in order to keep the voters he won.

“I would just say to my Republican colleagues, can we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no, ”Senator Lindsey Graham said in an interview with Fox News this week. “I’ve found that we can’t grow without him.”

In some ways, the former president is downsized more than ever. Defeated in the polls, he spends his time at his Florida resort playing golf and entertaining visitors. He is missing the presidency bullying pulpit, has been banned from Twitter and was unable to restore his account from Facebook this week. He left with an approval rating of less than 40 percent, the lowest final rating for the first term of president since Jimmy Carter.

Still, its dominance over Republicans is reflected in everything from Congress to the state houses. Local and federal lawmakers who have urged their party to accept the election results, and with them the loss of Mr Trump, have faced a steady drumbeat of criticism and primary challenges. Those threats seem to be having an impact: the small number of Republican officials who have been critical of Mr Trump in the past, including the ten who voted for his impeachment in February, was largely silent this week, declining interview requests and offering little public support for Mrs. Cheney.

Her likely successor, Rep Elise Stefanik, has publicly applied for the post and has sought to establish her Trump as bona fide by giving credibility to his baseless allegations of electoral fraud in interviews with die-hard supporters of the former president.

The focus on the elections has displaced almost any discussion of politics or party orthodoxy. The Heritage Action Scorecard, which is used to rate lawmakers based on their conservative voting results, earned Ms. Cheney a lifetime score of 82 percent. Ms. Stefanik, who has a more moderate vote, but is a much louder supporter of the former president, scored 52 percent.

Ms. Stefanik and many other Republican leaders are betting that the way to maintain Trump-era election wins is to bolster their base with populist politics, which is central to the president’s brand, even if it is swing- Fending off voters.

After months of feeding lies the conservative news media about the elections, much of the party has come to believe them to be true.

Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist who has led focus groups of Trump voters for years, said she had found an increased openness since the election to what she calls “QAnon curious,” a willingness to share conspiracy theories about stolen elections and a deep one to entertain state. “Many of these grassroots voters live in a nihilism for the truth, where you don’t believe in anything and think anything could be wrong,” said Ms. Longwell, who spoke out against Mr. Trump.

Some Republican strategists fear the party will have no opportunity to attack Mr Biden, who has proposed the most comprehensive spending and tax plans in generations.

“Republicans need to get back to the kitchen table issues that voters really care about, sprinkling a bit of culture here and there but not getting carried away,” said Scott Reed, a seasoned Republican strategist who helped create this last election has to destroy right-wing populists. “And some of them make an industry out of getting carried away.”

While sticking with Mr. Trump could help the party increase voter turnout in its base, Republicans like Ms. Comstock argue that such a strategy will harm the party with key demographics, including younger voters, color voters, women and suburbanites.

Intraparty battles are already cropping up in the emerging primaries as candidates accuse each other of infidelity to the former president. Many party leaders fear that doing so could result in die-hard candidates coming out victorious and eventually losing parliamentary elections in conservative states, where Republicans like Missouri and Ohio were supposed to gain the upper hand.

“To declare Trump the winner of a shrinking minority, this is not an area you want to go to,” said Ms. Comstock. “The future of the party will not be for a 70-year-old man in Mar-a-Lago to speak in the mirror and all these sycophants to come down and levitate to get his approval.”

However, those who have objected to Mr. Trump and paid the price say there is little political incentive to tackle the flood. Criticizing Mr. Trump, or even defending those who do so, can leave elected officials in a kind of political no man’s land: viewed as treasonable to Republican voters, but still too conservative on other issues to be accepted by Democrats and Independents .

“It seems like it’s getting harder and harder for people to go down the stump and defend someone like Liz Cheney or Mitt Romney,” said former Senator Jeff Flake, who endorsed Mr Biden and was censored by the Arizona Republican Party during one this year Panel appearance at Harvard this week. “About 70 percent of Republicans likely genuinely believe the election was stolen, and that is debilitating. It’s really.”

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Biden Attracts Criticism From Republicans After Job Positive factors Disappoint

Biden Draws Criticism From Republicans After Job Gains Disappoint

WASHINGTON – The disappointing job report released by the Department of Labor on Friday represents the biggest test yet of President Biden’s strategy to revitalize the economy. Corporate groups and Republicans warn that the president’s policies are causing labor shortages and that his broader agenda risks runaway inflation.

However, the Biden government showed no signs of changing course on Friday. Defending the more generous unemployment benefits included in the $ 1.9 trillion bill he signed in March, the president said his proposed $ 4 trillion spending on infrastructure, childcare and Education and other measures would help create more and better-paying jobs after the pandemic.

At the White House, Mr Biden pushed for a “perspective” on the report, which created only 266,000 new jobs in April. He said it would take time for his relief bill to revive the economy and welcomed the more than 1.5 million additional jobs since he took office. And he rejected what he called “loose speech” that Americans just don’t want to work.

“The data shows that more workers are looking for jobs,” he said, “and many cannot find them.”

Republicans cited the report as a sign of the failure of Mr Biden’s policies, although job creation has accelerated since Mr Biden replaced President Donald J. Trump in the White House. They called on his government to end the $ 300 weekly unemployment benefit while several Republican governors – including those in Arkansas, Montana and South Carolina – ended unemployment benefits in their states, citing labor shortages.

“This is an amazing economic setback and clear evidence that President Biden is sabotaging our job restoration by promising higher taxes and regulations for local businesses that hinder and encourage overseas job creation,” said Representative Kevin Brady from Texas, the top Republican on the Ways and Approach Committee, said in a press release. “The White House also denies that many companies – both small and large – cannot find the workforce they need.”

Business groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce, which have supported parts of Mr. Biden’s broad business agenda, also suggested the aid is holding back hiring.

The job report “is beginning to acknowledge that this is an obstacle – not the only obstacle, but an obstacle to filling open positions during recovery,” said Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer of the chamber.

“We absolutely have to start preparing to turn the supplement off,” he said. “The sooner we do that, the sooner it becomes clear how it has held us back.”

The unemployment supplement has quickly become the Republican weapon of choice when it comes to attacking Mr Biden’s economic responsibility. Lawmakers and conservative economists argue that its heavy spending will negatively impact recovery and will ultimately slow growth. While Democrats have a narrow majority in Congress, Republicans are trying to turn public opinion against Mr Biden’s approach and halt plans to spend $ 4 trillion on measures that would be offset by higher taxes on corporations and the rich.

Republicans supported a weekly $ 600 surcharge in the first stimulus bill approved by Mr Trump, but said the need for it no longer existed and that it created a negative incentive to look for work. Economists who support this view cited details of the employment report – including rapid wage increases in the hospitality industry – and stated that employers are rapidly raising wages to encourage new hires to take up jobs.

White House officials denied this reading. White House Economic Advisory Council members Heather Boushey and Jared Bernstein both cited 300,000 jobs in the recreational and hospitality sectors and a declining number of workers who told the department they had left the workforce out of concern about the contagion with the coronavirus as a sign that the unemployment supplement did not deter employees. Other officials noted that under unemployment benefit rules, workers could not turn down suitable job offers and still be eligible for assistance.

When asked whether he believed that the improved performance had an impact on employment growth, Mr. Biden replied: “No, nothing measurable.”

Administrative officials say any clogging in the job market is likely to be temporary and that once Americans of working age are fully vaccinated again, schools and daycare are fully open, and people are more comfortable returning to work, the recovery will smooth again .

“This is progress,” Ms. Boushey said in an interview. “We are creating an average of over 500,000 jobs a month over the past three months,” she said.

“This is proof that our approach works, that the President’s approach works,” said Ms. Boushey. “It also underscores the steep rise resulting from this crisis.”

Administration officials were optimistic that the pace of job creation would accelerate in the coming months. Substantial parts of the aid money approved in March still have to flow into the economy. That includes the $ 350 billion allocated to states and communities that have 1.3 million fewer jobs than their pre-pandemic peak.

States and cities are waiting for guidance on how exactly the money can be spent and what the conditions are. Republican-led states have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration for its position that states cannot use aid money to subsidize tax cuts, which could further slow adoption.

Mr Biden said at the White House that this month the government will begin releasing the first amount of money to state and local governments. He said the money wouldn’t restore all lost jobs in a month, “but you will see those jobs return for state and local workers.”

The government also took steps on Friday to get money out the door faster. The Treasury Department would release $ 21.6 billion in rental assistance, included in pandemic relief legislation, to provide additional assistance to millions of people who could face eviction in the EU in the coming months.

Officials said they expected increased vaccination rates to allay some lingering fears about return to work amid the pandemic. The number of fully vaccinated Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 rose by 22 million from mid-April, when the job report poll was conducted, to Friday. That was an acceleration compared to the previous month. Some White House officials said the government’s urge to keep increasing the number of those vaccinated could be the main policy variable for the economy this summer.

Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said at the White House that a lack of childcare combined with irregular school schedules makes it a challenge to get the job market back on track. She also said health concerns about the pandemic held some workers back from being able to return to the market.

“I don’t think the unemployment benefit increase is really the factor that makes the difference,” said Ms. Yellen.

She said she believed the job market was healthier than the numbers released Friday suggested, but she allowed the economic recovery to take time.

“We had a very unusual blow to our economy,” said Ms. Yellen, “and the way back will be a bit bumpy.”

Ms. Boushey and Mr. Bernstein said the economy appears to be going through a number of rapid changes related to the pandemic, including supply chain disruptions that have affected automobile manufacturing by reducing the availability of semiconductor chips and businesses that are being shut down after a year who have decreased from depressive activity because of the virus.

“We believe these misalignments and bottlenecks are temporary,” said Bernstein, “and they are what you want in an economy that goes from closure to reopening.”

Other key business figures saw the report as a sign that the imminent labor recovery is likely to prove unpredictable. Robert S. Kaplan, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said in an interview that his economic team had warned him the April report could show a significant slowdown as material shortages – including wood and computer chips – and labor plummeted job growth.

He said he hoped these supply bottlenecks would be resolved, but he will be watching closely in case they cannot be resolved quickly.

“It shows me that there will be fits and starts to lower the unemployment rate and improve employment in the population,” said Kaplan. He noted that sectors that were struggling to acquire materials, such as manufacturing, had lost jobs, and he said that leisure and hospitality companies would have created more jobs if there had been no job search challenges.

“It’s just a job report,” warned Tom Barkin, president of the Richmond, Virginia Federal Reserve Bank. But he said labor supply issues might play a role: some people might have retired, others might have health concerns, and unemployment insurance might encourage poorly paid workers to stay at home or allow them to join theirs return on own terms.

“I feel like people are picky,” said Mr Barkin. “The first question I have on my mind is: is it temporary or more structural?”

He said that supply constraints would likely wear off over time and that while companies may have to complain about rising input costs and possibly raise entry wages a bit, he is having trouble seeing that it would lead to much higher inflation – like this one the case would be to worry about the Fed.

The Fed is trying to achieve maximum employment and stable inflation averaging 2 percent. It is committed to maintaining its cheap money policy, which makes borrowing inexpensive, until it sees realized progress towards these goals.

Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said disappointment with payroll confirms the Fed’s slow stance.

“I feel very good about our results-based policy approach,” Kashkari said in a Bloomberg television interview shortly after the report was published. “If we actually let the labor market recover, we don’t just forecast that it will recover.”

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Politics

Rep. Liz Cheney urges Republicans to reject Trump ‘cult of character’

Rep. Liz Cheney urges Republicans to reject Trump 'cult of personality'

Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Speaks during a press conference following a House Republican meeting in Washington on Tuesday, April 20, 2021.

Caroline Brehman | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

The GOP must “turn away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump personality cult,” argued Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 Republican in the house, on Wednesday.

“The Republican Party is at a turning point and Republicans have to choose whether to vote for truth and allegiance to the Constitution,” Cheney wrote in the Washington Post.

The Cheney clear-up call came as a flurry of House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise, saying they are done with serving as Chair of the House Republican Conference.

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But in the statement, Wyoming’s Cheney appeared to be addressing concerns about her status in the party.

“History is watching. Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the fundamental principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am determined to do so regardless of the short-term political consequences.” Cheney wrote.

Cheney was the only member of the Republican leadership to vote for the impeachment of former President Donald Trump following the January 6th invasion of the Capitol by a crowd of his supporters. Trump “called this mob, gathered the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said at the time.

Trump was acquitted in the Senate for instigating a riot.

Since Trump left office, Cheney has set himself apart from many of her Republican counterparts in her willingness to continue speaking out against Trump, who continues to falsely insist on beating President Joe Biden and spreading unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about widespread electoral fraud.

On Tuesday, McCarthy reportedly said of Cheney, “I’ve had it with her. You know, I’ve lost confidence.” A Scalise spokeswoman said the whip had pledged its support to Rep. Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., who emerged as a passionate defender of Trump during his first impeachment.

Trump and other Republicans also supported Stefanik.

Cheney’s comment claimed that it was not enough to simply look away from Trump’s unsubstantiated election claims.

“Trump is trying to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that make democracy work – confidence in the outcome of elections and the rule of law. No other American president has ever done this,” Cheney said.

“While accepting or ignoring Trump’s statements may seem attractive to some for fundraising and political causes, this approach will cause profound damage to our party and our country in the long term,” she wrote.

She noted that after the attack on the Capitol, McCarthy said Trump “was responsible” for the attack and “should have denounced the mob as soon as he saw what was going on”.

McCarthy has now “changed his story,” said Cheney.

Cheney rejected Trump’s persistent claims about a “rigged” election that cast doubt on US institutions. “This is immensely harmful as we are now on the world stage against communist China and its claims that democracy is a failed system,” she wrote.

Republicans, Cheney said, should support the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into the Jan. 6 invasion. More than 400 people are now charged with the attack.

The GOP should also support a “parallel bipartisan review” of the invasion “by a summoning commission to seek and find facts,” she said.

After all, Republicans must “stand up for truly conservative principles and turn away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump personality cult,” Cheney said.

Citing the memory of former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican icon, she said he had “formed a broad coalition from across the political spectrum to bring America back to its senses, and we must do the same now”.

“But that will not happen if Republicans choose to abandon the rule of law and join Trump’s crusade to undermine the foundation of our democracy and reverse the legal outcome of the last election,” she said.

Read the full comment The Washington Post.

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Home Republicans Have Had Sufficient of Liz Cheney’s Fact-Telling

House Republicans Have Had Enough of Liz Cheney’s Truth-Telling

WASHINGTON – The first time Donald J. Trump’s defense attorneys came for Rep. Liz Cheney for voting against him for impeachment, Republicans closed their ranks to save her leadership position, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy boasted that theirs “big tent” party doing this had enough space for the former president and a strong critic.

Obviously not anymore.

Just three months after knocking back a vote of no confidence by a unilateral lead, the Republican of House No. 3, Ms. Cheney, of Wyoming, faces a far greater challenge that is more likely to end in her fall from the leadership. This time, Mr. McCarthy, the minority leader, encourages efforts to replace them.

Her transgression, say colleagues: Ms. Cheney’s continued public criticism of Mr. Trump, her condemnation of his lies about a stolen election, and her demand that the GOP tell the truth about how his supporters attacked democracy during the January 6 uprising in the Capitol to have .

The turnaround again reflects the passion with which Republicans have hugged Mr Trump and the voters who worship him, and how willing many members of the party are to uphold, or at least spread, falsehoods about the 2020 election that he has spread to tolerate.

What began as a struggle for the future of the party after the violent end of the Trump presidency has collapsed in a one-sided bunch by Team Trump with critics like Ms. Cheney, the scion of a famous Republican family and the lonely woman The house leadership of their party, ostracized or moving towards the exits.

The final test for Ms. Cheney could be as soon as next week, if a growing group of Republicans, with Mr. McCarthy’s blessing, plan another attempt to dethrone her. Many of her colleagues are now so confident that they will succeed that they openly discuss who will replace Ms. Cheney.

Tensions escalated Tuesday when Mr. McCarthy asked on Mr. Trump’s favorite newscast, Fox & Friends, whether Ms. Cheney could effectively carry out her role as the party’s top ambassador. (He previously told a Fox reporter, “I’ve had it with her” and “I’ve lost confidence,” according to a leaked recording of the exchange published by Axios.)

“I have heard from members who are concerned about their ability to carry out the work of conference chair and carry the message,” McCarthy said during the portion of the interview that was aired. “We all have to work as a unit if we can win the majority.”

Ms. Cheney, known for her steely temperament, has only dug herself harder with former allies. Minutes after Mr. McCarthy’s TV hit, she barbed her response through a spokesman, effectively suggesting that the minority leader and the Republicans who are cracking down on her were involved in Mr. Trump’s breakup.

“This is about whether the Republican Party will uphold lies about the 2020 elections and try to whitewash what happened on January 6,” said Jeremy Adler, the spokesman. “Liz won’t do that. That’s the problem. “

One of the few Republican voices willing to stand in Ms. Cheney’s defense was Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who himself was attacked by his party for his unrepentant criticism of Mr. Trump – and even at the Republican Party conference in Utah was booed on Saturday.

“Every person with a conscience draws a line they will not go beyond: Liz Cheney refuses to lie,” wrote Romney on Twitter. “As one of my Republican Senate colleagues told me after my impeachment vote, ‘I don’t want to be part of a group that has punished someone for following their conscience.'”

Many House Republicans insist they have no problem with Ms. Cheney’s vote against Mr. Trump, which she called a decision of conscience. Nor, they say, are bothered by their neoconservative political positions, which – like that of their father, former Vice President Dick Cheney – lead to a falsehood that contradicts the “America First” position of the party that Mr. Trump cemented.

However, they fear that if they hope to portray Democrats as socialists of big governments that are so vicious, Ms. Cheney’s refusal to stop criticizing Mr. Trump or condemn the January 6 events could weaken the party’s message in the 2022 midterm elections are that they should be elected from the majority. It made Mr. Trump angry too.

Many, including Mr McCarthy, had hoped that as the elected leader, after surviving the February vote of no confidence, how the rest of the party would fare and just move on.

Instead, she has doubled in size and sometimes turned her fire on coworkers. The final straw for many came in Orlando last week, where Republicans gathered for their annual political retreat in hopes of sending a message of unity.

Ms. Cheney told Punchbowl News that in Wyoming – where she faces a major challenge – she would run a campaign to defend her impeachment vote “every day of the week.” She told reporters that any lawmakers who led the bid to invalidate President Biden’s election victory in Congress should be banned from running for president. And she broke off with Republican leaders when she said a proposed independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 uprising should focus on a pro-Trump mob’s attack on the Capitol, rather than the violence by Antifa and Black Lives Matter as Investigate Mr. McCarthy and other Republicans have called.

A few days later, she attracted right-wing attacks for poking Mr Biden with her fist when he was speaking to a joint congressional session, and went to Twitter to defend herself for treating the President in a civil, respectful and dignified manner “had greeted.

“We are not sworn enemies,” she wrote. “We are Americans.”

On Monday, after Mr. Trump issued a statement calling the 2020 election “FRAGRANT” and “THE BIG LIE”, Ms. Cheney quickly tweeted her counter-argument, writing that anyone who made such claims was “our democratic system poisoned”.

Some Republicans have privately compared their performance to scab picking, and many of Mr. Trump’s allies saw this as an opening to try again to depose them.

“Liz tried (badly) to split our party,” Texas Republican Lance Gooden wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, mimicking Mr. Trump’s caustic Twitter style. “Trump is still the LEADER of the GOP, Liz! I look forward to it being removed soon! “

Ms. Cheney’s troubles show a rapid shift for the Republican Party in the few months since Mr. Trump left Washington. Early on, she was part of a small but influential group of Republicans that included Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, and denounced Mr. Trump’s role in fueling the rebellion with false claims of a stolen election. But many of those lawmakers have since gone quiet, leaving Ms. Cheney, who was once enthusiastically talked about as future speaker or president, in isolation.

Ms. Cheney declined to speak through a spokesman and some of her allies in the House of Representatives failed to speak on the record in their defense, underscoring the tense nature of the vote and the pessimism some of them feel about their chances, another Challenge to survive. A spokeswoman for Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger, another Republican who voted for the indictment against Mr. Trump and was a leading critic of the former president, said in a statement that the Congressman “clearly supports Liz Cheney as conference leader.”

Those who know her best say privately that Ms. Cheney’s predicament reflects both her principles and personality, including a stubborn trail that sometimes leads her to act against her self-interest. An ally who has been upset with her for the past few months described her actions as classic Liz Cheney: she will always do what she sees fit, the Republican said Tuesday, but she will just never stop believing that she is is wrong.

With Ms. Cheney’s support for Bleeding, Republicans have already begun going through the names of possible replacements for what has traditionally been seen as a stepping stone to the top positions in the party. Republicans are aware of the optics of replacing the only woman in the leadership with another man and are careful to choose a woman.

The lead candidate appears to be Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, a rising star in her fourth term who has spent a long time increasing the number of women in the Republican ranks and, more recently, a fierce defense attorney for Mr. Trump has become.

Ms. Stefanik, 36, has begun reaching out to Republican lawmakers to gauge her support, according to two people familiar with the private conversations. On Tuesday evening, one of her political advisors tweeted again speculation that she would “make an excellent conference chair. ”

Pennsylvania representative Guy Reschenthaler, a member of the Republican leadership who initially cast votes for Ms. Cheney, said he was counting potential votes for Ms. Stefanik and believed the job would be hers if she ran.

Republicans have also hovered Indiana representative Jackie Walorski as a possible alternative. As the Republican chief on the ethics committee, Ms. Walorski has successfully reconciled the task of condemning Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s earlier statements of conspiracy this year, arguing that she should not be expelled from their committees.

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Politics

Tim Scott Will Ship the Republican’s Rebuttal to Biden

Tim Scott Will Deliver the Republican's Rebuttal to Biden

After President Biden delivered his first joint address to Congress on Wednesday night, the task of countering the president’s vision rests with Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.

Scott, 55, offers a kind of unapologetic conservatism that has helped him rise from a seat on Charleston County Council to national notoriety in the Republican Party.

More than a decade ago, Mr Scott raised his profile as a vocal critic of the Obama administration and brought a wave of tea party support to Washington, winning a seat in the House of Representatives in 2010 and endearing himself to conservative groups with a strong little government philosophy .

As the only black Republican in the Senate, Mr. Scott has also become a pioneer within his party breaking a number of historical barriers and rising in an environment that was often hostile to black politicians.

In the primary election for his first House campaign, Mr. Scott defeated Paul Thurmond, the son of former Senator Strom Thurmond, who for years helped lead the Republican Party’s resistance to racial integration. And in 2013, when then-Gov. Nikki Haley appointed Mr. Scott to fill a position left by former Senator James DeMint. He entered the Senate as the first black politician since the reconstruction to represent a southern state.

Mr Scott was tapped by Republican leaders – Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California – to provide the counter-argument at a time when the GOP was keen to increase its support for people of color. And during his years in the Senate, Mr. Scott has often advised colleagues on racial issues.

More recently, as the debate about police brutality has intensified, Mr Scott has had his own candid experience in the Senate of police profiling against racism. He has also positioned himself as an informed voice on the challenges of working families, referring to his early years growing up poor with a single working mother.

While many of the policy proposals Mr Biden is due to discuss Wednesday have met with stiff opposition from Republicans, Mr Scott has stated that he does not intend his rebuttal to constitute an excoriation of the President’s agenda similar to the highly charged rhetoric that has become common on Capitol Hill.

“We face serious challenges on several fronts, but I am more confident than ever about America’s promise and potential,” said Scott in a statement anticipating his remarks. “I look forward to having an honest conversation with the American people and sharing the Republicans’ optimistic vision of expanding opportunities and empowering working families.”