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GOP Rep. John Katko, who voted to question Trump, being recruited to run for NY governor

Rep. John Katko, RN.Y., speaks during a press conference following a House Republican meeting in Washington on Wednesday, April 14, 2021.

Caroline Brehman | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

A Republican Congressman who voted for the charges against former President Donald Trump is being recruited to run for New York governor next year.

Lawmaker Rep. John Katko has not ruled out running, said these individuals, who refused to be named due to the private nature of the conversations.

The development comes when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, comes under fire over several scandals. Several women have accused him of sexual harassment, which he denies while his government is under investigation for handling Covid-19 death dates. Cuomo has turned down calls for resignation and was on track to run for a fourth term.

Katko, who has called for Cuomo’s resignation, is a prominent member of the House Republican Caucus. He is the senior member of the House Committee on Homeland Security and may be named chair if the GOP Republicans retake the house during the 2022 midterm elections.

But Katko could again run into stumbling blocks running for Congress: there is a potential for backlash within his own party for his impeachment decision, and he represents a swing district. Katko’s campaign raised nearly $ 340,000 in the first quarter and has more than $ 580,000 available through April, according to new records from the Bundestag Electoral Commission.

The race in his district, the 24th in New York, is slated to be a litter next year, according to analysts at Cook Political Report. The district, which includes Syracuse, is one of at least 17 House Republican races that are considered competitive. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, won Katko’s district against former President Donald Trump by almost nine points.

Republicans won last year’s House of Representatives elections and are just a handful of seats away from becoming a majority.

Media representatives for both the Katko Convention Bureau and the 2022 re-election campaign did not return repeated requests for comments.

The recruitment surge for Katko shows that members of the GOP are looking for a more moderate candidate for the highest office in a traditionally democratic state. New York GOP MP Lee Zeldin has already announced his candidacy for governor. Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has said he could run on the Republican ticket.

Zeldin, Giuliani and others are due to speak for nationwide contenders at the New York Republican meeting in Albany on Monday, according to a person briefed on the matter. MEP Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., who has not publicly ruled out running for governor in 2022, is also on the list of speakers. Katko is not expected to attend, this person added.

Katko is the chairman of the moderate republican government group. His vote shows that he’s not necessarily a hardliner either. While Katko pushed back certain parts of the Affordable Care Act, in 2015 he didn’t vote to repeal it entirely. Katko later voted against the Affordable Health Care Act, the Republican’s replacement for the ACA, which passed the House but not received it by the Senate.

Cuomo has since said that he wanted to run for a fourth term despite the exam.

The poll is mixed for Cuomo. A March poll by Morning Consult shows that 53% of New York voters approve of Cuomo. However, a Quinnipiac poll conducted last month found that over 60% of registered registered New York voters would prefer Cuomo to stop running in 2022.

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The Virginia G.O.P. Voted on Its Future. The Losers Reject the Outcomes.

On the second front, how a convention would work, Republicans are grappling with a state ban on most gatherings of more than 10 people. As a result, the party cannot hold a personal meeting of several thousand people. Party leaders are trying to change their rules to allow for a congress that will be held in dozens of locations in Virginia.

This requires the approval of three-quarters of the members of the state central committee – a threshold that has not yet been reached, as 31 of the 72 members of the committee are campaigning for a primary school. In other words, these Republicans are trying to block the possibility of a convention in the hope that eventually a primary will have to be held.

“The fact that there is a minority faction that has lost and is standing in the way of a safe convention to try to get the primary that they can’t win fair – that says a lot about them,” said Patti Lyman, who Republican national committee woman for Virginia. “All of their arguments can be reduced to the following: We have lost and we don’t like it.”

Ms. Chase, who still argued with less than a week in Mr. Trump’s presidency that he could still be inaugurated for a second term, said Thursday that she “does not trust conventions” to which she is wrongly restricting electoral access Members of the military and others who cannot make it to a personal website.

“If we’re going to win as Republicans, we have to get more voters, who vote Republicans, rather than fewer,” she said. “Stop creating so many barriers for people who would normally choose.”

Some proponents of a convention advocate ranking voting, a system promoted by progressives elsewhere. The dispute threatens to undermine the already tough Republican struggle in this year’s elections and to extend democratic control of the state.

At the center of the party’s argument is a crowded group of Republican gubernatorial candidates, each with a candidate from the Trump and Establishment wings of the GOP and two wealthy wildcards. The main candidates are Ms. Chase; Kirk Cox, a former State House Speaker who is the party’s elected legislature favorite; Pete Snyder, a technology millionaire who lost an offer for lieutenant governor nomination at a party conference in 2013; and Glenn Youngkin, an even richer former private equity executive who is new to politics.

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Politics

GOP senators who voted to question Trump going through warmth at residence

The seven Republican Senators who voted with all 50 Democrats to convict former President Donald Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection in the Capitol are now exposed to the heat of Conservatives in their home states.

Party leaders and local GOP officials, many of whom are trying to find favor with the broad swath of conservative voters still loyal to Trump, have condemned the seven lawmakers for engaging with the rest of the party.

The criticism illustrates the strong influence Trump continues to have nationally against Republicans despite his defeat in November and subsequent refusal to admit defeat.

Polls conducted after last month’s attack on Congress continue to show that Trump has a sky-high approval rating among Republicans and that roughly half of the GOP are primarily loyal to the ex-president himself rather than the party.

The Senate acquitted Trump on Saturday after an unprecedented second impeachment process with 57 to 43 votes.

While Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was the only GOP member to vote against Trump after his first trial, this time there were six more: Richard Burr from North Carolina, Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, Susan Collins from Maine Lisa Murkowski from Alaska , Ben Sasse from Nebraska and Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania.

Some of the senators, including Cassidy, have already been reprimanded by official reprimands from their state party, while many of the others are criticized by local conservatives. Cassidy was censored by the Louisiana GOP a few hours after his vote.

The backlash against Sasse, which is also expected to face formal criticism, was directly mentioned by one of Trump’s Senate defenders.

“There seem to be some pretty clever lawyers in Nebraska, and I can’t believe the United States Senator doesn’t know,” Bruce Castor Jr. said during an at times confusing address. Castor said Sasse “is facing a whirlwind, even though he knows what the judiciary thinks in his state.”

Based on previous comments criticizing Trump, local GOP chapters in several Nebraska counties have passed resolutions calling for Sasse’s criticism, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. A meeting of the state GOP to officially reprimand the senator has been postponed because of the weather, the newspaper reported.

Burr, a senior Republican whose election to condemn Trump came as a surprise to most observers, also drew fire from home-state Conservatives.

“The Republicans of North Carolina sent Senator Burr to the United States Senate to uphold the Constitution and today’s vote to condemn a process he ruled unconstitutional is shocking and disappointing,” said Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley, in a statement.

Burr is not seeking re-election for a fourth term in the Senate. Mark Walker, a Republican aspiring to succeed him in 2022, wrote in a post on Twitter shortly after the vote on Saturday: “Wrong vote, Sen. Burr,” and added a donation message.

Toomey could also face “possible setbacks at home”, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The newspaper reported that in response to Toomey’s vote, Lawrence Tabas, the state’s GOP chairman, said he shared “the disappointment of many of our grassroots leaders and volunteers.”

Overall, the backlash is unlikely to cause election damage in the short term. Six of the seven Republicans will not be re-elected next year in the 2022 cycle. Only Murkowski, who has served in the Senate since 2002, faces an upcoming re-election campaign.

Some have speculated that the impeachment vote in Alaska could give former Governor Sarah Palin an impetus to run in a primary. Palin herself has fueled rumors that she would be entering the race.

Each of the seven Republicans who voted to condemn Trump have defended their decision in statements and posts on social media. In a video posted online before the vote, Sasse reiterated his warnings about Republicans’ loyalty to Trump, saying “Politics is not about strange worship of a man.”

Toomey admitted in a thread on Posts on Twitter that Trump’s attorneys “made several precise observations” during their arguments. But he said, “As a result of President Trump’s actions, the transfer of power from the president was not peaceful for the first time in American history.”

“His betrayal of the constitution and his oath of office required conviction,” wrote Toomey, defending his decision.

Cassidy said in an interview on ABC News on Sunday that he “tried to hold President Trump accountable” and that Cassidy was “very confident that people will move to that position over time”.

“The Republican Party is more than just a person. The Republican Party is about ideas,” he said.

CNBC has reached out to each of the seven Republican lawmakers.

Criticism of the Senators reflects previous attacks on the House Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment in the lower chamber. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was censored by Republicans in her state after her House colleagues unsuccessfully urged her to be removed from her leadership role.

Some Republicans who didn’t even vote for Trump’s impeachment have been criticized for not being respectful enough of the ex-president. For example, Senate Minority Chairman Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Voted in favor of the acquittal, but harshly criticized Trump’s January 6 rally speech, accusing him of being responsible for the day’s violence.

Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., sentenced McConnell on Sunday for the speech.

“I think Sen. McConnell’s speech obviously took a burden off his chest, but unfortunately he put a burden on the Republicans,” Graham told Fox News. “You will see this speech in campaigns in 2022.”

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The 7 Republicans who voted to convict Trump in second impeachment trial

Senator Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Attends a campaign event at Herbert W. Best VFW Post 928 in Folsom, Pa., Sept. 23, 2016. John McCain, R-Ariz., Is also attending in support of Toomey.

Tom Williams | CQ appeal | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – Seven Republican senators and all of the Democrats found former President Donald Trump guilty on Saturday for instigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection, despite the bipartisan vote that was insufficient to achieve the two-thirds majority required for conviction.

In Trump’s second impeachment trial, Republican Sens. Richard Burr from North Carolina, Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, Susan Collins from Maine, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Mitt Romney from Utah, Ben Sasse from Nebraska and Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania voted for the 45th sentence. President.

The seven GOP senators joined 48 Democrats and two independent senators.

The Senate acquitted Trump in a 57-43 vote on charges of instigating riots for his role in the deadly January 6th Capitol riot. It took Democrats 17 Republicans to join Trump.

The decision came after the House impeachment managers reversed course and dropped a call for testimony that would have delayed the verdict. The acquittal marks the end of a five-day impeachment trial.

Trump is the first president to be tried and tried twice.

Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah speaks to a group of bipartisan lawmakers during a press conference to unveil a COVID-19 emergency relief framework at the Dirksen Senate office building in Washington on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

Caroline Brehman | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

During Trump’s first impeachment trial, Romney was the only Republican to quit his party and convict the president. The Senate acquitted Trump in 2020 on impeachment proceedings resulting from his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, who can be re-elected in 2022, had previously called for Trump to resign after the Capitol uprising. Senator Pat Toomey had also called for the president to resign. He has stated that he will not run for re-election if his seat expires in 2022.

Senator Ben Sasse said last month he was open to considering impeachment proceedings against the former Republican president.

Senator Burr, who has announced that he will not seek re-election, had previously voted to oppose impeachment on constitutional grounds. Burr’s term ends in 2022.

Senator Cassidy originally said he would dismiss the case on the grounds that it was unconstitutional, but then changed his voice last week, saying Trump’s lawyers had done a “terrible” job clarifying the matter.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, speaks during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions nominations hearing for Marty Walsh to be the Secretary of Labor on February 4, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Graeme Jennings | Pool | Reuters

Trump’s defense team denied the former president instigated the attack, arguing that the former president’s rhetoric was protected by the first change. His lawyers also called the trial unconstitutional as Trump was no longer president.

“The Democrats were obsessed with indicting Mr. Trump from the start,” said Trump’s attorney Michael van der Veen in concluding arguments.

“In short, this impeachment was a complete charade from start to finish. The whole spectacle was nothing more than the opposition party’s unreserved pursuit of longstanding political vengeance against Mr. Trump,” he added.

Senior impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, urged Senators to review in his closing remarks what he called “overwhelming,” “irrefutable,” and “not refuted.”

“This process is ultimately not about Donald Trump. The country and the world know who Donald Trump is. This process is about who we are,” said Raskin.