All posts tagged "republicans"

'A little implausible': CNN anchor gets in testy exchange with GOP lawmaker over shutdown

A Republican lawmaker Wednesday got in a fiery exchange with a CNN anchor over what Republicans are learning following the Democratic elections sweep and made a surprising implication about negotiations to try and reopen the government.

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt interviewed Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and asked what Republicans might be thinking about following the elections.

"Well I say, first of all, I don't know if we really lost. I mean that sincerely..." Mullin responded.

Hunt then interjected, saying "it's a little implausible on its face."

Mullin described why he thinks Republicans saw election losses, saying Republican candidates need to be better quality.

"Virginia was a blue state. Kamala won it by five points. We didn't win New Jersey. We didn't win New York. And we sure the heck didn't win California. So it wasn't a state that the president lost," he said. "It was just like the issue was if you start looking like Jay Jones, the attorney general in Virginia, you know, how did the Republicans lose that race? I mean, here you have Jay Jones, who wanted to, you know, kill one of his colleagues and hoped his kids died. And you go, how did a candidate like that beat a Republican? That's a question that you got to ask."

Hunt pushed back, asking more about the candidate and if they were a weak fit for the race.

"I don't know the candidate personally, but that goes that says, well, maybe we should do a better job in recruiting," Mullin said.

As President Donald Trump admitted Wednesday morning, Republicans lost. And voters voiced what they really think of the shutdown.

"I think the shutdown is bad for everybody," Mullin said. "That's why it's so frustrating that the Democrats want to continue to use it as leverage."

Hunt pushed back.

"You seem to imply that Republicans need to end the shutdown to make it better," she said.

"Well, we're trying to I don't know where we negotiate, though, because we've offered a clean CR that [Sen.] Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wrote a year ago. This isn't any legislation that has Republican policies on it. I don't know how you negotiate when it's already clean. Well, maybe what we should have done, and this is what we talked about is, well, maybe we instead of offering a clean CR because we thought that the Democrats would play ball with it, maybe we should have put a whole bunch of Republican policies on it. They put a whole bunch of Democrat policies on their CR and then we negotiate back to the clean CR," he said. "Maybe that's what we should have done. Maybe there was a negotiating tactic that we that we didn't do, but there's no place to negotiate. When you have a clean CR because what policy do you take off of a clean CR?"

'Get your act together!' GOP pollster undercuts top Republican on election losses

A GOP strategist is calling out Republicans for their reactions to the strong Democratic election response Tuesday and telling them to "get their act together!"

Pollster Frank Luntz reacted to GOP Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's (R-LA) comments that off-year elections don't matter for the Republican Party during an interview Wednesday with CNN anchor Brianna Keilar.

"It does matter. And Democrats voted and Republicans did not," Luntz said. "Let's start with turnout motivation. When you've got the presidency, the House, the Senate, you're pretty happy. And so you don't see any reason to participate. When you don't have any of those and you feel like your voice doesn't matter, you're absolutely going to go to the polls. So this is an indication that the Democrats are motivated and are going to get out and do something over the next 12 months."

Luntz also focused on California's Proposition 50, saying "that California initiative is such a big deal" and could bring five more seats to the Golden State.

"That could very well make the difference in the majority one year from now," Luntz said. "And it completely blunts everything that Texas did to redraw the lines."

Luntz also emphasized how affordability — health care, food, living expenses — were top of mind for voters. It's what sent people to vote in droves, he explained.

"...It is very clear... and it's not inflation, it's affordability. It's very clear that the public's challenge, that affordability in housing, health care, food and fuel, is essential in this election, in this environment. And the public is voting for candidates that they think will make life more affordable," he said.

Keilar pointed to how the Democratic candidates in races in Virginia and New Jersey, with newly elected Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill, are considered more moderate compared to the newly elected Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani — but that their messages were similar. They all focused on affordability.

"The president made promises. Now he has to keep them," Luntz said. "And so the prices of bread, the prices of milk, the price of an automobile and a home, and finally, the price of health care really does matter to the average voter. And the Democrats have started to discover that, that their silence a year ago hurt them. And now they're boasting of what they're going to do to make everything more affordable, particularly New York City. Those are pretty big promises to make. They're going to have a challenge to keep them, but make no mistake, how much you pay at the cash register is going to determine who you vote for in these elections."

Trump has admitted it wasn't a good election cycle for Republicans. He's blamed his own party and argued he wants to get rid of the filibuster. Despite that he wasn't on the ballot, it was a referendum on how Americans are feeling, Luntz explained.

"To some degree, yes. He wasn't on the ballot. His people did not find a reason, a need to come take the time to vote, to invest that time and effort. But that said, both sides are being hurt by the shutdown. And we've talked about it on the show before," Luntz said.

"The public doesn't care who's responsible. Just open up the gosh darn government. And I'm using really controlled language right now and they don't use control language in the focus groups. I can repeat to you what the American people say, we cannot air this on CNN, but the people in Washington who watch this program need to understand that the public is fed up with this, and the idea that people will not get food stamps, that our men and women in uniform will not get paid, that the civilians who work for the Defense Department haven't been paid for weeks, air traffic controllers and the list goes on and on," he added.

"The public has had enough of this. Get your act together. Do your job. Come together. Compromise and move everything forward. And make no mistake, they will punish both sides if they don't get their act together over the coming days."

Alarmed red state Republican hammers Trump for 'missing bigger picture' in election crash

A sitting Republican lawmaker says his party should be alarmed following a Democratic election sweep amid President Donald Trump's second presidency and the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told CNN anchor Boris Sanchez Wednesday how Trump and the GOP might not have anticipated the strong response from Americans on election night — and that it's time for both parties to negotiate and reopen the government.

He explained how "in these elections, normally the party in power is going to lose. You're going to go backwards. But I think what should alarm Republicans is the margins of victory in New Jersey and Virginia. They weren't even close. And you got to look at it."

Democrats are now in a new position, he explained.

"The Democrats are galvanized. They're angry at DOGE cuts that were on and off, the chaos. They're angry at, whether it's the guard, the National Guard being sent to our cities. I mean, a whole host of issues has galvanized the Democrats, which is somewhat normal."

He also voiced another worry: swing voters "who don't see an improvement in the economy."

"But I think what's concerning is a lot of our swing voters also went back towards Democrats, mainly because they don't see an improvement in the economy. And I think tariffs are part of that problem. And I think the president, by trying to assign blame on the shutdown, I think he's missing the bigger picture on what was the cause of the defeat last night."

Bacon said affordability remains a key concern for Americans and cited Trump's tariff policies for further damaging the party's election results.

"[The president] thinks tariffs is a way forward to bring back manufacturing. And I don't see it," Bacon added. "You know, the Republicans have not supported tariffs since the 1930s. And the tariff strategy has been a lot of tariffs on and off again. And it's been very unpredictable. And I think our economy has had instability because of this.

"The average person, when they go to the supermarket, as you say, they've not seen an improvement. And I don't think you see an improvement in our job numbers. And a whole host of data. We're not seeing really not going backwards, but it's not going forward. And I really think tariffs have undermined the president's economic progress here."

'Worst in the administration': MAGA civil war breaks out over Trump Pentagon nominees

A MAGA civil war broke out over President Donald Trump's Pentagon nominees, with a Republican lawmaker criticizing one of them and saying they are "the worst in the administration."

Tensions were brewing during a hearing Tuesday over Trump's choices to lead the Pentagon’s policy office and exposing some of the infighting happening among Republican lawmakers and the party, The Daily Beast reports Wednesday.

Austin Dahmer, nominee for the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defense for strategy, and Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, were under fire over several major policy decisions. Republicans questioning the two expressed their disappointment in both of them.

Republicans slammed Dahmer, claiming he is hard to reach and calling out his choice to withdraw U.S. troops in Romania and end military aid for Ukraine.

"Many of the frustrations aired Tuesday came from GOP senators who argued that, regardless of such policy disagreements, Colby and Dahmer’s office has been uncooperative whenever lawmakers have requested information," according to The Washington Post.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) accused Dahmer of lying about briefing Congress over pulling the U.S. troops in Romania. About 1,000 troops will reportedly remain in that country.

The committee chair, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) at one point paused the hearing, saying that the briefings never happened. He asked, “Where did you get that information?”

Dahmer responded saying it was a miscommunication.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) described his and other lawmakers frustrations, saying they “can’t even get a response…and we’re on your team.”

He argued Colby as being uncommunicative and claimed that he is “really bad on this. The worst in the administration.”

Republicans are also weary of Colby, arguing that they feel "blindsided" by his decisions, frustrating allies and going against the White House policies, Politico reports.

It's unclear if Dahmer's nomination will go forward.

'He's not engaged': Steve Bannon pre-blames Trump for GOP election losses

Steve Bannon, MAGA strategist and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, called out the president on Tuesday saying "he's not engaged" and blaming him for GOP election losses before the official results are in.

In a conversation with conservative commentator Eric Bolling on his "War Room" podcast, Bannon recommended Trump should have the Department of Justice officials on a plane to California to try and "talk about the unconstitutionality of what they did in California" in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom's move to redistrict House seats under Prop. 50 after Trump demanded more Republican House seats in Texas.

Bannon said there is a common theme among Republicans who are expected to face a challenge from Democratic rivals in their elections.

"They think Trump's a passing summer storm... the Republican establishment hates Trump. They've had no engagement in Trump in any of these elections. He wasn't engaged in New Jersey. He's not engaged in the commonwealth of Virginia. He's not engaged in New York City. He's not engaged in California," Bannon said.

They use Trump to build momentum, he argued, and that it hasn't worked.

"He just won the greatest political comeback in history," Bannon said.

In California, where Prop. 50 is expected to draw a substantial turnout, it will likely not be positioned in the president's favor, he said.

"That thing could be over the moment the polls close," Bannon said.

Bannon argued that Trump should be more forceful than he's been over the last nine months, especially amid the government shutdown and his pushback to fund SNAP benefits.

"You can't bend to the Democrats... I think we need Trump and we need harder Trump," he added. "How 'bout this? Suck on this. Give 'em Trump and MAGA — Trumpism, full unvarnished. Let's roll."

"You're gonna see tonight, when they all talked him out of getting involved and all the campaigns in those states, you know, Winsome [Earle]-Sears and [Glenn] Youngkin... they couldn't be bothered for four years to implement any MAGA programs. They couldn't be bothered to have Trump down there," he said.

Bannon called Sears "the worst" and a "never Trumper" who should have been more grateful to the president.

"What you're going to get tonight is you're going to get to the Republican party without Trump... And people think you're going to get these low propensity, low information voters without Trump, you're kidding yourselves," he added.

Bannon continued by saying "Trump 2028, show me what you got..."

'Exquisite irony' exposed as MAGA men struggle to find love

MAGA men are struggling to find love — and it's a trope that isn't going away.

Salon's Andy Zeisler writes Tuesday that "after all the sexual assault and reflective misogyny, the overturn of Roe v. Wade and the promise to protect women 'whether they like it or not' — why liberal women don’t want to date Trump supporters is akin to asking Why don’t you want to be with someone who hates everything you stand for?'"

The writer focuses on a series of reports focusing on the challenge for Trump voters to find dates, including a recent Washington Post story featuring an interview with a D.C. woman who said she hoped to meet a conservative man. She found it wasn't what she had expected.

“I felt like, being in conservative politics, there would be more, like, masculine men in the conservative movement,” Morgan Housley, 29, told The Post, adding, “and I find that a lot of them aren’t as masculine as I would have hoped.”

The reality is that MAGA men aren't up to par for conservative or liberal women, and "the fact that these stories remain evergreen speaks to an ambient cultural misogyny that still sees women as accessories to men, of course, but they also speak to a persistent belief, endemic to popular culture, that relationships are inherently oppositional."

From "witty banter" to "opposing sides" there is a reason these stories carry on. It speaks not only to the reality of how hard dating while MAGA is, but the "there is an exquisite irony that the same men who have spent the last decade signal-boosting a circle jerk of masculinist propaganda are now being told that they are insufficiently high-value. But corporate media has committed too hard to this narrative for too long to just let it go that easily."

And, there's another common theme.

"That is, of course, the goal of every attempt to portray Trump voters as romantic martyrs. The premise of all the digital ink devoted to finding the hidden depths in men who support Trump is that they must in some way be profoundly misunderstood, that their embrace of bigotry and megalomania is not nearly as much of a problem as people who find it repellent," Zeisler writes. "Mentions of polarization and extreme ideology imply that liberal, anti-MAGA voters are being similarly shunned on the apps and the Washington Post just doesn’t want to cover it. Lamenting the loneliness of people who take pride in alienating others requires recasting antisocial behavior as political bravery."

But that's not actually happening.

"One of the defining themes of romance narratives in any medium is that (spoiler alert) heterosexual women are at any given time ready to compromise their principles, desert their passions and become unrecognizable to themselves for the love of a man, but they can have some intellectual sparring and political-argument foreplay as a treat," Zeisler writes.

Republicans launch bid to impeach 'radical' judge who sent Trump a stern message

A Republican lawmaker is pushing to impeach President Donald Trump's latest enemy — a "radical activist" judge the DOJ has previously targeted — but failed after a clerical error put a stop to the attack.

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) announced Tuesday in a social post that he filed articles of impeachment against U.S. District Judge James Boasberg and his alleged role in the FBI's "Arctic Frost" investigation under former special counsel Jack Smith. Boasberg reportedly issued nondisclosure orders in Smith's investigation.

"Judge Boasberg abused his power by weaponizing the judiciary against critics of the Biden Administration," Gill wrote. "As part of the Arctic Frost Investigation, Judge Boasberg signed off on frivolous nondisclosure orders to conceal the fact that sitting US Senators were being surveilled. Not only was this action egregiously improper; it was a gross violation of the separation of powers.
Judge Boasberg is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, is unfit for office, and should be impeached."

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) announced that he is a co-sponsor on X, saying, "Boasberg must be brought to account for his actions."

Boasberg "dramatically scolded" Department of Justice officials in March, sending a "message" to the entire administration that their continued challenges to the U.S. judicial system "is not acceptable." The judge reportedly issued the takedown of deputy assistant attorney general Drew Ensign "over the government’s conduct in the case" as the DOJ continued to defend the administration’s failure to comply with a court order to return flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador.

At the time, Trump responded in a social post on his Truth Social platform and argued that Boasberg was trying to usurp his presidential authority.

"No District Court Judge, or any Judge, can assume the duties of the President of the United States. Only Crime and Chaos would result," Trump wrote.

'He will blow them up': Fed-up Trump ready to go 'nuclear' on his own party

President Donald Trump has signaled a rampage is in store if Republican senators don't kill the filibuster — and he's "ready to go nuclear," according to a new Axios report Tuesday.

The president has indicated he will make life a "living hell" for GOP loyalists who don't follow his command and posted about it multiple times on his Truth Social platform. He appears to be frustrated with lawmakers and the shutdown. And it's starting to bother him.

"He will make their lives a living hell," a Trump adviser, whose name was not released, told Axios.

"He will call them at three o'clock in the morning. He will blow them up in their districts. He will call them un-American. He will call them old creatures of a dying institution. Believe you me, he's going to make their lives just hell," the source said.

Trump initially thought Democrats would drop their demands and didn't pay much attention to the shutdown, but now, as the stalemate reaches the longest government closure in history, he has changed his tune.

"He's really mad about this," another Trump advisor told Axios.

Trump is reportedly calling out Republican senators for not changing the filibuster rules. A filibuster requires 60 votes for most legislation and Trump argues it gives Democrats the leverage to keep the government closed.

"The more he thinks about it, the more he thinks the filibuster is outrageous and anti-democratic," an advisor said.

GOP fears Jack Smith request will cause Trump vendetta to blow up in his face: report

The former special counsel Jack Smith has requested a public hearing before Congress — scaring Republicans who fear President Donald Trump's quest for vengeance is about to blow up in his face, according to a report.

Trump has maintained an obsession with humiliating and prosecuting his enemies. Generally, "his targets have not been in a position to inflict serious retributive pain on him," according to analysis by Glenn Thrush published Monday in The New York Times.

But Smith, who headed up investigations into Trump, is in a different position. He spent more than two years "aggressively collecting evidence to prove Mr. Trump mishandled classified documents and tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election." The former special counsel "appears eager to publicly challenge a foundational pillar of MAGA canon: that the president was a sinned-upon innocent who did nothing to deserve scrutiny, much less two prosecutions."

And among the GOP, some are worried.

"Some Republicans have privately expressed concern that Mr. Trump’s quest for vengeance could backfire by giving a credible anticorruption investigator an open mic," The Times reported.

Smith "has told people in his orbit that he welcomes the opportunity to present the public case against Mr. Trump denied to him by the Supreme Court decision asserting broad presidential immunity from prosecution and adverse rulings from a Trump-appointed judge on the federal bench in Florida."

And although Trump "has been able to order up investigations of his political enemies like Ubers," this could present a different situation entirely.

So far, Smith's request for a public hearing has not drawn a response.

“Name the time and place,” Lanny Breuer, a lawyer in Smith's legal team, said in a statement. “Jack will be there.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is expected to issue a subpoena instead of accepting Smith's public hearing request, and in that case, Smith would most likely not defy that, the report stated. However, the Senate could give Smith a public hearing before he has to make that decision.

‘Very savage time of cruelty’: Whispers of deal as Dems keep shutdown spotlight on Trump

WASHINGTON — Happy Groundhog Day. Again.

With the US federal government shutdown entering its fifth week and a growing number of Americans feeling deepening economic pain, there are whispers of a thaw on Capitol Hill. At the very least, some more middle-of-the-road Democratic and Republican senators are talking to each other.

Such signs of bipartisanship seemed to have spooked President Donald Trump, who took to Truth Social late last week to demand GOP leaders “INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION’” and get rid of the filibuster, so Republicans can more easily ram Trump-approved policies through Congress.

Democrats are dubious about anything Trump might say.

“I’m not sure if you can really trust the president,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NM) told Raw Story mere hours before Trump called for nuking Senate norms.

“You're going to have to maybe take a leap of faith at some point, but you better come out and do something. This is his shutdown. He owns the White House, the House and the Senate. It's up to him to be a leader and bring us together to be sure people have the dignity of health care.”

Health care, specifically the soon-to-spiral cost of insurance under the Affordable Care Act — aka, Obamacare — is the issue that drove the Democrats to trigger a shutdown now rocketing towards the record for the longest such closure.

That mark sits at 35 dismal days, set during Trump’s first administration.

After that shutdown, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost to the U.S. economy at $11 billion.

Then, as now, Republicans controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Democrats say that means the onus is on the GOP to come up with a deal to get government workers paid and food stamp recipients fed, and to shame vacationing House members into returning to Washington for the first time in more than a month.

“This is a president and a Republican Party that is taking a battle ax to bedrock that American families rely on,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) told Raw Story.

“They've already cut a billion out of SNAP [food stamps]. Now they're putting in health-care work requirements that even Republican states like West Virginia have said don't work and actually cause people who are eligible to lose their coverage that was intended by Congress.

“So this is just a very, very savage time of cruelty where you're going to see millions of Americans suffering because of the things that they're doing to bedrock programs and providing health care and food programs.”

On Friday, a federal judge in Rhode Island blocked the Trump administration from suspending Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, as was due on Saturday.

Speaking before that ruling, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) told Raw Story. “SNAP beneficiaries are not a part of this fight.

“Whatever you think about the fight, they're not in it. They're being dragged into it by the administration. They've got $5 billion in a contingency fund and they ought to use it.”

‘They’ll get some votes’

Republican senators, publicly at least, remain resolute: if Democrats back down and re-open the government, GOP leaders are promising to hold votes on whether to extend Obamacare subsidies without which insurance costs will soar.

“They'll get some votes, and you can't assure an outcome on a particular vote,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told reporters. “You can provide them with a chance.”

But Rounds also indicated resolute Republican opposition to extending subsidies.

“You have to recognize that the marketplace does not support what we're trying to do with the product in the first place,” he said, “and it's exactly what has been said by Republicans for 15 years,” going back to passage of the ACA in 2010.

Extending subsidies has found support among remaining Republican moderates, but their ranks have dwindled since the MAGA era kicked off in 2016. Most in the party seem opposed to continuing the subsidies.

“The Democrats voted for this identical spending level in December of last year, and [now] they're voting against the spending levels that they instituted,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said.

“So to me, it seems to be an untenable position. Continue to oppose spending levels they've already stated support for, and their rationale for doing it is they want to preserve Obamacare subsidies for somebody making $200,000 a year.

“I think most people out there think it'd be kind of crazy to close down the government to keep a subsidy of $1,500 a year. So I'm surprised that they've gone this long with us.”

Democrats have refused to budge.

Political watchers are sensing change in the air now the country is starting to lose patience — though polling shows majorities blame the GOP.

Republicans remain bullish.

Saying he had “no issues” with the Trump administration using a $130 million private donation to pay the military during the shutdown, despite concerns about possible corruption, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) told reporters he thought the shutdown would end this week, after high-profile state and city elections in Virginia, New Jersey and New York.

“I would assume [after Democratic] victories on Wednesday, even though it's blue states and they elect a communist in New York City [Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, favorite to be elected mayor], they're going to consider that a victory,” Mullin said.

“And then they're going to go out there and say they fought hard and it's time to open the government.”

‘People will be hungry’

The more progressive wing of the Democratic Party begs to differ, as members continue trying to focus the conversation on the deepening human cost of the shutdown.

Politics aside, the cost of the government shutdown to federal workers, contractors and those dependent on federal programs is undeniable — and increasing by the day.

“People will be hungry, people will not be paid,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said, starkly.

“And people are going to have to pay so much more for their health insurance that there are people making the decision this weekend to drop their insurance because it's the only way they can still afford rent.”