Fogbow

Speaker Mike Johnson delivered a presentation at a weekend GOP retreat that — although it was billed as a map to keeping the House majority — took on a surprisingly religious tone, according to two people in the room.

Johnson’s private remarks to a small group of Republican lawmakers at Miami’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel over the weekend alarmed both people, who addressed the speech on condition of anonymity. Rather than outlining a specific plan to hold and grow the majority, these people said, Johnson effectively delivered a sermon.

Rolodex wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 4:20 pm The GOP House folks are at a retreat in (surprise!) south Florida. There's squabbling.

Speaker Mike Johnson delivered a presentation at a weekend GOP retreat that — although it was billed as a map to keeping the House majority — took on a surprisingly religious tone, according to two people in the room.

Johnson’s private remarks to a small group of Republican lawmakers at Miami’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel over the weekend alarmed both people, who addressed the speech on condition of anonymity. Rather than outlining a specific plan to hold and grow the majority, these people said, Johnson effectively delivered a sermon.

Shocking, I know. A hyperreligous nut bag goes all religious on people?

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2 ... t-00142436

I read elsewhere that the GOPers are frustrated because Johnson isn't "leading" them they way they want; he's pushing (encouraging?) them to work to solve problems. But he doesn't seem to understand that all they know how to do is push back against something...they want Johnson to tell them what to do so they can say no. It's their one-trick pony.

Scoop: Mayorkas impeachment sparks new Senate GOP fight

Stef W. Kight
Feb 20, 2024

A group of Senate conservatives is demanding help from Mitch McConnell on forcing a full impeachment trial for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Senate Democrats will control the process. But the historic impeachment articles are proving to be the next flashpoint for the GOP minority leader.

13 Republicans, led by Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Ted Cruz (Texas), plan to send a letter to McConnell on Tuesday morning, demanding they "fully engage our Constitutional duty and hold a trial."

A Democratic effort to dismiss the impeachment articles would be "an action rarely contemplated and never taken by the U.S. Senate," the senators argue in a copy of the letter first obtained by Axios.

If the tables were turned, "the opposition would be fierce and the volume from Democrats would be deafening," they write.



https://www.axios.com/2024/02/20/mayork ... l-cruz-lee

A Democratic effort to dismiss the impeachment articles would be "an action rarely contemplated and never taken by the U.S. Senate," the senators argue in a copy of the letter first obtained by Axios.

Kendra wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 4:19 pm

Just heard on MSNBC: The Gang that couldn't impeach straight.

p0rtia wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 5:24 pm

Kendra wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 4:19 pm

Just heard on MSNBC: The Gang that couldn't impeach straight.

Molly Jong-Fast. She is wearing well as an MSNBC talking head. She goes on Morning Joe and argues loudly against their dependence on polls (they agree--till she's gone, then they're back at it. Cheap content.)

Adam Parkhomenko @AdamParkhomenko wrote: Molly Jong-Fast: This is the gang that can't impeach straight. They have two impeachments they are running here. Impeachments are for high crimes and misdemeanors. Even Jonathan Turley says you can't impeach Secretary Mayorkas for not doing what I want. @MollyJongFast

Republican: Colleagues were warned informant’s Biden claims were not verified

BY LAUREN SFORZA -
02/22/24 9:44 AM ET

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) on Wednesday criticized his Republican colleagues for using a former FBI informant’s claims in their impeachment inquiry even though the statements hadn’t been verified.

“We were warned at the time that we received the document outlining this witness’s testimony. … We were warned that the credibility of this statement was not known,” Buck said on CNN’s “The Source.”

“And yet, people, my colleagues went out and talk to the public about how this was credible and how it was damning and how it proved President Biden’s — at the time Vice President Biden’s — complicity in receiving bribes,” he added.

The informant, Alexander Smirnov, was arrested and charged last week with making false statements to the FBI. He had previously told the FBI that President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, received $5 million bribes from the head of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.

House Republicans have previously put that claim at the front and center of their investigations into the Bidens. Buck said it is evident now that the information Smirnov relayed was false.

“It appears to absolutely be false, and to really undercut the nature of the charges. We’ve always been looking for a link between what Hunter Biden received in terms of money and Joe Biden’s activities or Joe Biden receiving money,” Buck explained. “This clearly is not a credible link at this point.”

On Wednesday, CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins then asked the Colorado Republican if House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) used the information “to fuel these investigations, regardless” of them knowing the information was not corroborated.

“That’s what it appears,” Buck responded. “I certainly didn’t have any evidence outside the statement itself that it was credible. And as a prosecutor for 25 years, Kaitlan, I never went to the public until I could prove the reliability of a statement.”

But Jordan and Comer, who are leading the impeachment inquiry, have pushed back on the idea that Smirnov’s arrest dealt a blow to the investigation.



https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4482 ... roborated/

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2024 5:26 pm That's because they, and a lot of other republicans, live in la-la lie-lie land.

Informant who allegedly lied about the Bidens is rearrested
Alexander Smirnov was taken into custody to await trial after prosecutors argued he was a potential flight risk

By Devlin Barrett
February 22, 2024 at 6:50 p.m. EST

The FBI informant charged with telling lies about President Biden and his son Hunter was rearrested Thursday in Las Vegas, apparently out of concern he might flee — just days after a federal magistrate decided he could be released on bond.

Alexander Smirnov, whose arrest last week surprised Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike, was taken into custody again Thursday morning in his lawyer’s office. Prosecutors had argued that Smirnov’s claims of having significant relationships with Russian intelligence operatives, as well as millions of dollars at his disposal, meant that he was a flight risk.

“He was inside our law office at the time of his arrest, preparing his defense,” Smirnov’s attorneys, David Z. Chesnoff and Richard A. Schonfeld, said in a statement.

In a court filing, the defense lawyers called their client’s rearrest “bizarre” and unnecessary and ask that he be released again. “At no time since his release on February 20, 2024 has Mr. Smirnov left Clark County, Nevada,” the lawyers wrote, adding that the fact he was arrested in their own office shows he was not preparing to flee.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... ov-arrest/

Former House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) is calling on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to stop President Biden from giving his annual State of the Union address next month.

Perry said during an appearance Monday on Fox Business that Republicans should use the opportunity to ramp up pressure on Biden over the southern border amid an influx of migrants.

“We need to use every single point of leverage,” Perry said. “[The president] comes at the invitation of Congress, and Republicans are in control of the House. There’s no reason that we need to invite him to get more propaganda and actually blame the American people for the crisis he’s caused.”

House Republicans have rejected bipartisan legislation that Biden’s backed aimed at providing additional border security, after former President Trump, the clear front-runner for the party’s presidential nomination, spoke out against the bill. Critics say Republicans would rather use the issue to help Trump in 2024 than solve the problem.

Perry, a retired National Guard general, previously has said he doesn’t think Biden is mentally “competent” to continue leading the country.

Frater I*I wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 4:52 pm Well seems like we have yet ANOTHER QOPer who's never read the constitution they so claim to love and cherish....here's my shocked face...

The formal basis for the State of the Union Address is from the U.S. Constitution:

The President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Article II, Section 3, Clause 1.
The constitutionally mandated presidential message has gone through a few name changes:

It was formally known as the Annual Message from 1790 to 1946.
It began to be informally called the "state of the Union" message/address from 1942 to 1946.
Since 1947 it has officially been known as the State of the Union Address.