Tag: senate republicans
Senate Republicans Threaten To Move Trump Mega-Bill Without House Nod

Senate Republicans Threaten To Move Trump Mega-Bill Without House Nod

Top Republican senators are becoming impatient with the hold up around passing President Donald Trump's huge bill containing his main priorities – immigration, energy and defense — according to Politico.

Per the report, Senate leaders like Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) believe his fellow Republicans should move the legislation forward even before the House weighs in."We need to get moving,” the South Carolina leader told Politico.

The senator did send "a soft warning to the House," according to the news outlet, "saying he wanted to see what happened over there 'in the next day or two.'"

Similarly, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said,"We ought to move," referring to his Budget Committee colleagues.

Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-WI) told Politico, "I think if they fail to meet those deadlines that they set on themselves, then I think the Senate has to start moving forward."

Mullen has been assisting with coordination between Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Mitch McConnell

McConnell Complains About Trump -- After Persistently Enabling Him

Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote an essay in Foreign Affairs magazine critiquing Donald Trump for supporting isolationism. But for years, McConnell has enabled Trump’s political power, allowing the president-elect to isolate the country and back America’s adversaries.

McConnell endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, despite Trump’s open disdain for international cooperation and his opposition to NATO allies helping Ukraine resist attacks from Russia.

In his essay, McConnell praised Trump for using force against Syria in 2018, but added, “But Trump sometimes undermined these tough policies through his words and deeds. He courted Putin, he treated allies and alliance commitments erratically and sometimes with hostility, and in 2019 he withheld $400 million in security assistance to Ukraine. These public episodes raised doubts about whether the United States was committed to standing up to Russian aggression, even when it actually did so.”

The criticism of Trump’s longstanding openness to Putin is ironic considering McConnell’s own history on the topic of Russia.

During the 2016 election cycle, then-President Barack Obama’s administration sought to release a bipartisan statement alerting the public to Russia’s attempts to influence the result of that year’s presidential campaign. However, McConnell “dramatically watered down” the document, according to former White House chief of staff Denis McDonough. President Joe Biden, who was involved in those negotiations as vice president, said in a 2018 interview that McConnell “wanted no part of having a bipartisan commitment that we would say, essentially, ‘Russia’s doing this, stop.’”

When Trump was in office, McConnell was muted in response to Trump’s positive overtures to hostile nations.

In a 2018 interview, Trump said that he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “understand each other,” despite decades of political oppression and brutality by the North Korean regime.

When journalists asked McConnell to comment on the statement, McConnell replied, “What I think is that it would be wonderful is if we ended up with a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and I hope that’s where this all ends.”

In April, McConnell complained that Trump’s influence delayed passage of funds to help Ukraine. “Our nominee for president didn’t seem to want us to do anything at all,” McConnell lamented. “That took months to work our way through it.”

Just a few months later, McConnell voted to send Trump back to the White House, where he will be free to pursue the foreign policy agenda that McConnell claims he is largely opposed to.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Tulsi Gabbard

Kremlin Advocate Gabbard Will Plead For Senate Confirmation On Hill

Tulsi Gabbard is heading to Capitol Hill to beg senators for votes. Like so many of Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, Gabbard has her work cut out for her.

The felon-elect’s pick for director of national intelligence has drawn critical eyes as it has been revealed the former Democrat has a penchant for Russian propaganda.

Former Gabbard aides told ABC News last week that the Democrat-turned-MAGA apologist would regularly read and share stories from RT—a state-run media outlet formerly known as Russia Today.

Despite Democrats claiming Gabbard is a “Russian asset,” her former coworkers said that’s not quite the case. However, the ex-aides do think that the former Hawaii representative has adopted some more sympathetic viewpoints that align with the Kremlin due to her consumption of the pro-Russian media. Adding fuel to the fire, the aides released a memo, obtained by ABC, sent to them in 2017, which echoed this stance.

Gabbard pointed fingers at the U.S. and NATO for provoking Russian aggression, criticizing the U.S. for its “hostility towards Putin.”

“There certainly isn't any guarantee to Putin that we won't try to overthrow Russia's government,” she wrote. Gabbard added that she was “pretty sure” there were some “American politicians who would love to do that.”

She also drew ire for a controversial 2017 meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who, as of this week, has reportedly been granted asylum in Russia after rebel forces seized control of Damascus.

Speculation aside, Gabbard’s reputation for commingling with dictators has drawn fierce criticism as she is poised to oversee U.S. spy agencies and would have a treasure trove of the country’s biggest secrets.

“Behind closed doors, people think she might be compromised. Like it’s not hyperbole,” one Republican Senate aide told The Hill, adding, “There are members of our conference who think she’s a [Russian] asset.”

But that hasn’t stopped Fox News from drumming up their own pro-Gabbard takes as well. The outlet has leaned on veterans and bashing Democrats as a means to prop up Gabbard. As Fox News writes, many other outlets have “attempted to paint Gabbard as a national security risk who is sympathetic to U.S. adversaries.”

However, instead of addressing the narrative further, Fox has only addressed these claims of dictator sympathy once. The Murdoch-owned outlet seemingly buried any information regarding the accusations at the bottom of a story bashing one Democrat for even suggesting Gabbard was associated with the likes of Putin or al-Assad.

As for Gabbard, she isn’t the only one of Trump’s picks on Capitol Hill this week vying for votes that may be stacked against them. Fox News’ Pete Hegseth is on the Hill pleading to senators as he tries to collect favorable votes—despite being an alcoholic with sexual assault allegations among a list of other offenses.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Tulsi Gabbard

Former National Security Officials Urge Closed Senate Hearings On Gabbard

Dozens of the nation’s former national security officials say they are “alarmed” about President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the top official overseeing the entire U.S. Intelligence Community. They are calling for closed-door sessions during the confirmation process so senators can “consider all information available to the U.S. government” regarding the former member of Congress.

The ex-officials cite what they say is Gabbard’s lack of experience and her “sympathy for dictators,” which “raises questions about her judgment and fitness.”

“As the Director of National Intelligence, Ms. Gabbard would be entrusted with oversight of 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the identification and protection of human sources working in the most dangerous settings around the world to defend our national security, and the protection of our most sensitive sources and methods of gathering intelligence,” the officials write.

“In light of this extraordinary responsibility,” they say in the letter published by Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio (below), “Senators must carefully scrutinize her qualifications as an intelligence professional and her record, including her uncoordinated trip to Syria in 2017 to meet with President Bashar al-Assad. Several of Ms. Gabbard’s past actions call into question her ability to deliver unbiased intelligence briefings to the President, Congress, and to the entire national security apparatus.”

The national security experts, nearly 100, warn of Gabbard’s “sympathy for dictators like Vladimir Putin and Assad” and say it “raises questions about her judgment and fitness.”

In their letter, they suggest America’s intelligence partners may be unwilling to continue to share valuable information and assets if Gabbard is confirmed. They also suggest she is not qualified.

“Ms. Gabbard, if confirmed, would be the least experienced Director of National Intelligence since the position was created. Prior directors had executive branch experience working on intelligence matters or served on a congressional intelligence committee. Most have also had significant management experience. The Senate must carefully evaluate whether Ms. Gabbard is equipped to effectively oversee an organizational structure as unique and large as the National Intelligence Program and also the effect of her holding this position on the willingness of our closest allies to share intelligence with the U.S.”

The officials also “ask that the Senate fully exercise its constitutional advice and consent role with respect to this and other nominees, including through appropriate vetting, hearings, and regular order. In particular, Senate committees should consider in closed sessions all information available to the U.S. government when considering Ms. Gabbard’s qualifications to manage our country’s intelligence agencies, and more importantly, the protection of our intelligence sources and methods.”

In 2017, during his first few months in office and just after firing then-FBI Director Jim Comey, Trump threatened America’s relationship with its intelligence partners around the world by handing highly classified information to Russian officials during a closed-door Oval Office meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. No other Americans were in the room, but a Russian photographer was, and Russian media published his photos.

The letter from the former national security officials is dated Thursday. It is addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, a Democrat, and his incoming Republican successor, Senator John Thune of South Dakota.

Some of the more well-known officials whose names appear on the letter include Wendy Sherman, former Deputy Secretary of State; Anthony Lake, a former National Security Advisor and Executive Director of UNICEF, Tom Malinowski, a former Member of Congress and Assistant Secretary of State; Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and Israel; Rose Gottemoeller, a former Deputy Secretary General of NATO; and John Tien, a former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.

“The DNI has access to every single secret that the United States has, every single bit of information that we know,” It’s the keys to the intelligence community kingdom,” said Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), The Hillreported last month. A former CIA officer, Rep. Spanberger sits on the House Intelligence Committee. She said she was “appalled” by the selection of Gabbard for DNI.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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