Texas Rep. Troy Nehls on Wednesday suggested Congress do nothing at all regarding the border.
“Congress doesn’t have to do anything to protect our southern border and fix it. Joe Biden, you destroyed it, you can fix it yourself through an executive order,” Nehls said while waving a cigarette a few steps from the U. S. Capitol, according to a video received via Rolling Stone.
“Why would he help Joe Biden with his dismal score of 33%, when he can fix the border and secure it on his own?He can download it himself by decree.
“Donald Trump, the most important president of my life, did it. We had Paul Ryan, him as a speaker. Very little. We had both rooms and did very, very little. Donald Trump did it all on his own,” Nehls continued.
“So this bipartisan bill on border security is border security,” he added.
Republican Rep. Troy Nehls on border security: “Congress has nothing to do. ” Story: https://t. co/QOTUEl6FkQ pic. twitter. com/9hcdFiRrpl
It’s unclear exactly which Trump executive order Nehls finds inspiring, but many of the former president’s attempts to single-handedly rewrite immigration law have proven unconstitutional.
Republicans have spent months clashing with the federal government and each other over a border security deal, as well as the enforcement of actual physical security measures along the U. S. -Mexico border in Texas, to appease Trump’s reelection bid, where he plans to make immigration a central issue.
But some lawmakers seem weary of this diversion, arguing that their own re-election chances will be hurt if they don’t seize the bipartisan opportunity.
“I don’t see this as a compliment to us,” North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer told CNN. “If we don’t try, it will be a disgrace for us. “
President Joe Biden also took a more aggressive stance on the issue over the weekend, following a Supreme Court decision that launched a standoff between Texas state officials and federal border patrol agents.
“Give me the power, I asked you the same day I took office,” Biden said. “Give me the Border Patrol, give me the other people, give me the judges, give me the other people who can prevent this and do it. “work,” he added.
Rep. Matt Gaetz is seeking to mobilize for a solution by claiming that Donald Trump did not participate in an insurrection.
Gaetz began looking for the reply email last week, according to the Daily Mail. He began handing out paper copies Wednesday and asked others to sign up as co-sponsors until the end of the next day.
The solution would specify “that the House of Representatives demonstrate that former President Donald J. Trump did not participate in the insurrection or oppose the United States, nor did he provide aid or comfort to his enemies. “
Rep. Matt Gaetz circulating this resolution declaring Trump “did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or give aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” to offices for co-sponsorship.First reported by @_phillipsmorgan pic.twitter.com/aVXPA9Yv2l
If the solution makes it to the House, it would force Republicans to show their hand and wonder if they are ultimately unwavering to Trump or their country. Gaetz’s solution already has several pro-Trump far-right co-sponsors, including Marjorie Taylor Greene. and Andy Biggs.
Of course, the solution doesn’t magically eliminate the charges Trump still faces. Indicted for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to corruptly obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempted obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to disrupt the right to vote. He was scheduled to stand trial in March, but that process has been postponed until an appeals court in Washington, D. C. determine whether Trump enjoys presidential immunity from prosecution.
Trump has also been booted from the primary ballots in Colorado and Maine, after the Colorado state Supreme Court and the Maine Secretary of State determined he was guilty of insurrection, rendering him constitutionally ineligible to run for president. Many Republicans are livid over his disqualification and have accused the Democratic Party (which is not involved in the decision process) of election interference.
A Trump-approved ruling Wednesday passed the keys to Disney World to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, ruling that the governor’s choice to dissolve the company’s special taxing district and personally appoint each member of its new local government framework “prima facie constitutional. “
U. S. District Judge Allen Winsor, in an order issued Wednesday, ruled that the entertainment giant “has status to sue the governor,” noting that the drama surrounding the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, or CFTOD, formerly known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, could be challenged through a free speech claim.
The lawsuit, which was filed through Disney in April, accuses DeSantis of instrumentalizing his political stance to punish the company for expressing war of words after the state passed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law in 2022 banning discussing sex. Gender Orientation and Identity in Public Schools. In a statement released the same day DeSantis signed the moot bill, Disney said it would remain committed to supporting organizations that would help repeal the law or take legal action against it.
But DeSantis didn’t like that, arguing that Disney had “crossed the line” and that he would “fight back. “
Referencing DeSantis’ own memoir, released last spring, Disney claimed that the Florida governor had tried to punish the company for exercising its right to relaxed speech, citing sections of his book that called the media conglomerate “promising a frontal attack” on the state. of Florida, after which “things got worse for Disney. “
But according to Winsor’s ruling, Disney “has alleged any express action taken (or will take) through the new board as a result of the governor’s alleged control” and “has alleged any express harm resulting from any action through the board. “
“His alleged harm . . . is that it operates under a board of trustees that it controls,” Winsor wrote. “This wound would exist regardless of whether or not the governor controls the board. “
“To the extent that the governor contributed to Disney’s harm by appointing members of the CFTOD board of directors, this action is a thing of the past,” the order said. “Because Disney is seeking an injunction, it will have to allege imminent long-term harm, and it has not alleged facts that appear that any imminent long-term appointment would contribute to its harm. “
“Ultimately, under this circuit’s law, ‘courts do not deserve to look at the legislative history of a statute to find illegitimate motivations in favor of a different constitutional law,'” Winsor added, thus rejecting the entire premise of Disney’s case. . Formation
DeSantis’s office glibly celebrated the win, with his press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, calling it an end to the “corporate kingdom.”
“This resolution, however, puts an end to Disney’s futile attempts to control its own special government and enjoy benefits that cannot be enjoyed by other corporations or the state,” the press release reads.
But Disney vowed its great adventure against the state wasn’t over, promising in a statement that it would continue the legal battle.
“This is an important case with serious implications for the rule of law, and it will not end here,” a Disney spokesperson told CNN. “If left unchallenged, this would set a dangerous precedent and give license to states to weaponize their official powers to punish the expression of political viewpoints they disagree with. We are determined to press forward with our case.”
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton on Wednesday grilled TikTok’s CEO with a series of racist questions about the tech executive’s ties to the Chinese government.
TikTok chief Shou Zi Chew testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee alongside the CEOs of Meta, X (formerly Twitter), Snap, and Discord about the risk of child sexual abuse material on their platforms. This was Chew’s second time on Capitol Hill, after a marathon House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing in March about data privacy.
At one point, Cotton repeatedly demanded if Chew had been a member of or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. Chew, clearly growing increasingly frustrated, replied every time that he is Singaporean.
Cotton also asked if Chew had any citizenship or passport other than Singapore. Chew said no. (Neither China nor Singapore has dual citizenship. )
Tom Cotton: “Were you ever a member of the Chinese Communist Party?TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew: “Senator, I’m from Singapore. Nope!” Cotton: “Have you ever been or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?Chew: “No, Senator, I’m a Singaporean again!” pic. twitter. com/5Wa72aJIr9
This is rarely the first time lawmakers have insinuated (or in Cotton’s case, outright suggested) that Chew has ties to the CCP. At the House hearing in March, Rep. Dan Crenshaw asked whether Chew deserved to comply with China’s National Intelligence. Law, which requires citizens to cooperate with government intelligence agencies. Members of Congress returned to that line of questioning on Wednesday, when Chew attempted to assert that any company operating in China will have to comply with the law.
TikTok is a popular target for both Democrats and Republicans, as the company is based in China. A company associated with the Chinese government also owns a 1% stake in TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance. While both political parties are willing to appear defiant with China, cracking down on TikTok is a straightforward move.
Republicans also regularly use TikTok as a scapegoat because the platform is popular with young people, the majority of whom tend to lean left.
But TikTok is far from the only problematic actor when it comes to protecting children, which is what Wednesday’s hearing was intended to focus on. A report released last year through the Tech Oversight Project found that Google and its subsidiary YouTube violated children’s privacy in 2019. The live streaming platform Twitch is rife with sexual harassment and child predators, while Alphabet, the parent company of Apple and Google, designs its products to be addictive on teens.
Internal documents leaked in 2021 showed that Meta knew its products were destroying teens’ mental health, particularly teenage girls’, but made no changes to its platform. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was aware of this but lied to Congress under oath about it.
Meanwhile, Congress has failed to pass laws protecting young people online. Over the past decade, Congress has passed only a limited child online protection law. Since then, all other security spending has stalled due to cross-party disagreements over express security and privacy provisions, as well as opposition from the tech industry.
Donald Trump is no longer so attached to one of his star lawyers.
Instead, the former president says he’s looking for new legal skills to appeal the verdict after squandering the second defamation lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll, which charged him a whopping $83. 3 million.
“I am in the process of interviewing law firms to appear in an appeal against one of the most ridiculous and unjust witch hunts our country has ever seen: the farce presided over by a highly qualified Clinton appointee, Trump. ” one of the most partisan and uncontrollable activists I’ve ever faced,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial Tuesday night.
That may simply mean Alina Habba, the lawyer who did more than embarrass herself in representing Trump, to the point of clashing with Judge Lewis Kaplan over what she described as “Exhibit 101. “Regardless, Array is excluded.
Habba was noted not only for his pathetic and over-the-top courtroom appearances for the GOP front-runner, but also for his unforeseen appearances in places he didn’t have to be, such as at Trump’s victory party after his victory in the New Hampshire Primary. just a day after Habba claimed she was not feeling well and the trial was postponed due to Covid issues.
On Truth Social, Trump then baselessly accused Kaplan of being a “bully” who “only allowed me to be on the witness stand for a few minutes,” denouncing the lawsuit he filed as a “hoax” and a “disgrace” to American justice. system.
But Trump would probably have a harder time finding someone to upgrade his already insignificant legal team than we would have. Law firms are reportedly reluctant to incorporate the TV star, fearing they won’t be able to prevent him from undermining their own defense. and that he probably wouldn’t pay them.
“First, Trump has a reputation for not paying his lawyers. And it’s so poisonous at dividing the population that lawyers risk losing more cases if they settle for it as clients,” Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told Newsweek. .
Earlier this month, another of Trump’s most sensible lawyers, Joseph Tacopina, announced that he and his firm would no longer represent Trump in the E. Jean Carroll case and in the criminal case against Trump, in which the GOP front-favorite is accused of silencing. his repairman and another former private attorney, Michael Cohen.
A Pennsylvania man was arrested on suspicion of killing his father early Wednesday after uploading a YouTube video loaded with far-right conspiracies depicting the decapitated head.
Justin Mohn, 32, is charged with first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and intentional possession of a criminal instrument, according to local authorities.
“We were called to the home and officers came in and discovered the deceased father upstairs,” Middletown Township Police Chief Joe Bartorilla told reporters Tuesday night.
The father, Michael Mohn, was found decapitated in the bathroom of the home he shared with his son in Levittown. Police said his wife, Denice Mohn, discovered the frame in the first-floor bathroom after arriving home around 7 p. m. On Tuesday, after which her screams prompted neighbors to call the police.
Local authorities found the head inside a plastic bag in a pot in the first-floor bedroom, according to a police affidavit. Mohn reportedly used a machete and a large kitchen knife to sever the body. Both weapons were found in a bathtub in the home, according to court documents.
Mohn was arrested in his father’s car hours later at Fort Indiantown Gap, home to a National Guard elementary school, more than 100 miles (160 miles) from his home, according to police.
“We didn’t know where he was going or what his intentions were when he left here,” Middletown Township Police Capt. Pete Feeney told NBC News. “Fortunately, we were able to get a location through his mobile phone. “
A YouTube video, titled “Call to Arms for American Patriots” and posted on the Mohn’s Militia channel, showed Mohn holding up his father’s decapitated head while claiming he now controlled the U. S. military.
“Now he’s in hell for eternity as a traitor to his country,” Mohn in the clip.
The video has since been removed from YouTube for violating the site’s graphic content policy, but allegedly featured written political speech about “far-left woke mobs” and the “treacherous Biden regime,” The Daily Beast reported.
For 14 minutes, Mohn lashed out at the LGBTQ community, the Black Lives Matters movement, and the anti-fascist organization antifa, which he called a “terrorist organization. “He also called for the seizure of federal buildings and claimed that federal workers be “publicly executed for betraying their country,” adding, however, that state workers should not be the target of his imaginary uprising, local newspaper PhillyBurbs. com reported.
“He talked a lot about his father,” a longtime friend of Mohn’s told the Beast. “He believed in all these conspiracies. The government is putting things in the water, it’s pestering us to pay attention to our conversations, things like that. His father was attached to it in one way or another.
Mohn is out on bail. His hearing is scheduled for Feb. 8.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn on Wednesday became the latest Republican to be afraid of Taylor Swift.
Swift has not yet weighed in on the 2024 elections, nor has she given any indication that she intends to. Yet in recent days, Republicans have increasingly accused Swift of being a Democratic operative, including insisting that she will rig the NFL Super Bowl to get more attention ahead of endorsing President Joe Biden (as if one of the biggest musical performers in the world needs to attract more attention).
Although Swift rarely meddles in politics, and tends to inspire her enthusiasts to take action without telling them how to do it, she supported Biden in 2020. And in the past, he’s specifically targeted Blackburn, which represents Swift’s house estate. Tennessee and is re-elected in November.
Asked Wednesday morning if she thought Swift’s endorsement could affect the upcoming election, Blackburn quickly dropped her jaw. She began by congratulating Swift, in an apparent effort not to alienate the singer’s millions of fans, and then stumbled into complaining about “the border, the Open Border, Biden’s border policy. “
Imao Marsha Blackburn is terrified of Taylor Swift. Read this respuesta. pic. twitter. com/DvbMzPPynG
Blackburn is one of many Republican senators resisting a bipartisan border deal. The GOP spent months trying to derail the deal because Donald Trump, Biden’s most likely opponent in 2024, has said any compromise with Democrats would be too lenient on immigrants. You don’t need a bill that could potentially give Biden leverage to pass.
Swift ended her long-standing apolitical advertising technique in 2018, when she subsidized Blackburn’s warring Democratic parties in the midterm elections. Swift said in a report that Blackburn’s voting record “horrifies and terrifies me. “
Swift’s 2020 documentary, Miss Americana, shows the singer in tears as she explains to her father why she wants to speak out against Blackburn, about the latter’s opposition to LGBTQ rights and the Violence Against Women Act. Swift criticized Blackburn’s policies and dubbed her “Trump. “with a wig. “
Trump himself is frustrated by all the attention paid to the singer and has privately insisted that he is “more popular” than she is and has more unwavering following, Rolling Stone reported Tuesday. Trump also said it “obviously” didn’t make sense for Swift to be named Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year instead of him.
Trump’s anti-Swift ire has some of his more powerful supporters plotting a “holy war” on the pop star, according to Rolling Stone.
The genuine danger Swift poses to Republicans is particularly his politics. Instead, as Edith Olmstead wrote in The New Republic in September, “it is because of her enormous influence over a younger population that conservatives have struggled to attract or exert influence. ” about themselves. “
Mike Johnson’s ties to Christian nationalism are well documented, yet a new report shows his long-standing ties to a specifically extremist tendency in Christianity, and the House speaker’s refusal to repudiate them is a primary concern.
An investigation published Wednesday via The Daily Beast shows that Johnson has close ties to the leaders of Christian Dominionism, a radical sect of Christian fundamentalism that supports the status quo of an all-Christian nation, opposes LGBTQ rights and even defends slavery.
The Beast asked at Johnson’s workplace if the speaker “thought Bible-sanctioned violence conflicted with his duties as a constitution-worker, if he had denounced the teachings of radical fundamentalists who endorsed biblical slavery and rejected constitutional provisions such as liberty and justice, and whether he condemned her. He believed that the Bible legalized slavery, but a spokesperson refused to explicitly repudiate those beliefs.
“None of those moves or comments that you refer to were made through President Johnson. The president will not apologize to The Daily Beast for his Christian religion or judge the ideals or statements of others,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
While Johnson has been outspoken about his fervent faith, in the past he has evaded other questions about his deep trust in Christian fundamentalism. Keri Ladner, a devoted scholar and author, told The Beast that Johnson is “too smart” to blatantly claim to support widely maligned Christian sects.
But “when you dig deeper into the other people around Johnson, that’s what you locate when you peel back the layers,” Ladner said. “He’s probably in that orbit. “
One such user is David Barton, a Christian nationalist activist. The Southern Poverty Law Center notes that Barton has “continually demonized other LGBTQ individuals and communities, arguing that HIV and AIDS are divine consequences for a user living their LGBTQ life. “He objected to some facets of the Thirteenth Amendment, insisting that there is a biblical defense of slavery.
Johnson has had Barton for at least a quarter-century and said two years ago at a meeting with Christian lawmakers that Barton had had “a profound influence on me, on my work, on my life and on everything I do. “
After Johnson was elected president, Barton said in a podcast in October that he and his organization had been advising the Louisiana Republican on who to hire for his staff. In another, more recent podcast, Barton said Johnson’s adaptation as a speaker has given him and his organization “some equipment at our disposal” that “we haven’t had in a long time. “
Johnson also touted his relationships with Tony Perkins, a virulent Christian nationalist, and Mat Staver, who has called for the criminalization of same-sex relationships.
It’s no secret that Johnson has excessive convictions. He blames LGBTQ people for the collapse of the Roman Empire and opposes abortion access. He himself, before Moses, denounced the separation of church and state, and had a Christian nationalist flag hung in front of his office. The mounting evidence of other people and the reasons they allow for influence is additional evidence that he will use to push Congress to the right.
At least one Republican has reached a breaking point over Donald Trump’s border security disputes.
On Tuesday, North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer had an influential electorate in mind and threw his own dust on Trump for describing the bipartisan deal as a “betrayal. “
“This is what worries me. If we don’t try to do anything when we have time, all the volatile voters in swing states where the border is the number one priority have a right to look at us and “You squandered your chance. “We were in a position to give you a chance and you missed it,” Cramer told CNN’s Manu Raju.
“I don’t see it as a compliment to us,” Cramer added. “If we don’t try, it will be a disgrace to us. “
Republican Senator Cramer blames Trump for calling the border deal a “betrayal. “He states that “voters in swing states for whom the border is the number one priority have any and all rights to look at us and say, ‘You missed your chance. ‘”We were in a position to give you a chance and you missed it,” pic. twitter. com/jCixsO8yx9 told me
Republicans have spent months tanking a potential border deal in an increasingly transparent attempt to help Trump get reelected to the White House.
“As the leader of our party, there’s no way I’m going to commit this terrible betrayal of America by opening the borders,” Trump told a crowd at a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday. “In the end. Many senators want to say, with respect, that they are blaming me. I say, okay. Please blame me. Please. “
Meanwhile, Democrats are going on the offensive and Republicans, who hold a narrow two-seat majority in the House, have walked away from a “hard deal. “
“It’s clear that when it comes to border security, Democrats are for the solution and Republicans are for fiction,” Rep. Eric Swalwell told CNN.
And President Joe Biden took a more competitive stance on the factor over the weekend, following a Supreme Court ruling that sparked a showdown between federal and state Texas Border Patrol agents.
“Give me the power, I asked you the same day I took office,” Biden said. “Give me the Border Patrol, give me the other people, give me the judges, give me the other people who can prevent this and do it. ” work,” she added.
During a campaign in South Carolina, Biden supported the emerging deal and said he would close the border if Congress gave him permission.
“It would also give me, as president, emergency authority to close the border until it can be brought back under control. If this bill were signed into law today, it would close the border now and fix it quickly,” he added.
Republican Rep. Troy Nehls launched a racist dog-whistle-laden tirade against his Democratic counterpart Cori Bush after confirming that the Justice Department was investigating his spending on the crusade.
Bush, a progressive from Missouri, said Tuesday that the Justice Department is investigating her use of the campaign budget for security services. Bush said she used the money for her personal protection, adding that her husband’s protection was because of the “relentless threats. “to my physical protection and to my life. “
Congressional ethics rules for representatives allow them to use campaign budgets to pay family members for “good religious services,” as long as those bills don’t exceed fair market value. Bush said she hired her husband on his security team because he could provide coverage at or below market rates.
Nehls lashed out at Bush on Tuesday night. The idea of paying him cash to help him with this and that, for what?” the Texas Republican asked. Maybe if I wasn’t so loud all the time, maybe I wouldn’t get threats. “
When asked by CNN’s Melanie Zanona if he felt Bush deserved the threats, Nehls said, “No, what I’m saying is, is that when you’re out there talking the way she does.… She’s pretty radical. And maybe she should tone it down a little bit.”
Although Nehls explicitly mentioned Bush’s race, he used several anti-black tropes such as “bully” and “loud black woman. “Bush said this when he responded to Nehls on X (formerly Twitter), it’s not easy for him to apologize.
. @RepTroyNehls just called my husband, a black man and an army veteran, a thug. And I’m the loud black woman who wants to remain silent in the face of violence, right?This is the kind of rhetoric that endangers lives. of blacks. He wants to apologize. https://t. co/QeqZ7yYfRX
Bush also pointed to the veiled risk in Nehls’ comments that she would have to “tone down her words” or face risks. Republicans are resorting to both veiled and overt language that seems to call for political violence, and others are all too willing to listen.