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Tag: susan brooks
Four House Republicans Join Democrats To Condemn Trump’s Racist Comments

Four House Republicans Join Democrats To Condemn Trump’s Racist Comments

During what some thought would be a strict party-line vote, four House Republicans broke ranks with their party and joined all of the Democrats to approve a resolution condemning President Donald Trump’s recent racist attack on a group of progressive lawmakers.

The following Republicans approved the resolution:

  • Rep. Will Hurd of Texas
  • Rep. Susan Brooks of Indiana
  • Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan
  • Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania

Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, who recently left the GOP after calling for Trump’s impeachment, also voted in favor of the resolution.

It was a humiliating blow to Trump, who would have loved to cast the vote as a purely partisan act. Instead, he’ll have to face the fact that a bipartisan House resolution has called out his racism.

Nevertheless, most Republican lawmakers remain steadfast in their support of the president and have refused to call out his racism.

The core of the resolution read as follows:

Whereas President Trump’s racist comments have legitimized fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color: Now, therefore, be it resolved, That the House of Representatives —

(1) believes that immigrants and their descendants have made America stronger, and that those who take the oath of citizenship are every bit as American as those whose families have lived in the United States for many generations;

(2) is committed to keeping America open to those lawfully seeking refuge and asylum from violence and oppression, and those who are willing to work hard to live the American Dream, no matter their race, ethnicity, faith, or country of origin; and

(3) condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color by saying that our fellow Americans who are immigrants, and those who may look to the President like immigrants, should “go back” to other countries, by referring to immigrants and asylum seekers as “invaders,” and by saying that Members of Congress who are immigrants (or those of our colleagues who are wrongly assumed to be immigrants) do not belong in Congress or in the United States of America.

The final vote was 240-187.

IMAGE: Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), one of four House Republicans who voted for a resolution to rebuke Trump’s racism.

 

Tasked To Recruit Women Candidates, GOP Rep. Susan Brooks Quits

Tasked To Recruit Women Candidates, GOP Rep. Susan Brooks Quits

House Republicans’ pitiful number of women in their ranks could fall even further in 2020, as Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) announced on Friday that she is retiring rather than seeking reelection, according to USA Today.

Brooks is one of just 13 women in the House Republican caucus and serves as the head of candidate recruitment for the National Republican Congressional Committee — which seeks to elect Republicans to the House.

As part of her role of convincing Republicans to run for the House, Brooks has said that she wants to see more women and people of color run.

“It’s important that we, as a conference, do a better job of looking like America, and better representing the very diverse country that we have,” Brooks told Roll Call in April.

So her decision to leave Congress in 2020 looks like a pretty bad omen for the House GOP as it desperately tries to diversify its almost entirely white male membership and win back the majority they were swept out of in spectacular fashion in 2018.

Brooks painted her retirement as a personal decision to spend more time with her family. However, Brooks is a top Democratic target in 2020, as her suburban Indianapolis district is one that is shifting away from the GOP thanks to suburban voters’ disdain for Trump.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which seeks to elect Democrats to the House, put Brooks on their “retirement watch list” for 2020. Trump carried Brooks’ district by 12 points in 2016, while Mitt Romney carried it by 17 points in his failed 2012 presidential bid — meaning the district has gotten less Republican in the Trump era.

The DCCC gloated about her retirement in a Friday morning tweet following her announcement.

 

DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos said Brooks’ retirement is indicative of the problems Republicans have in convincing women not only to run, but also to support the Republican Party.

“In a party whose leadership continually marginalizes women’s voices, losing Congresswoman Brooks, who was working hard to recruit women to run for office, underscores the problem Washington Republicans have created for themselves,” Bustos said. “Furthermore, as the head of the NRCC’s entire recruitment effort across the country, Congresswoman Brooks’ retirement is the clearest evidence yet that Washington Republicans efforts to retake the majority are in a tailspin.”

Not to mention, House Republican leaders have made comments that would likely be discouraging to Republican women looking to grow the number of women in their white-male dominated caucus.

“I think that’s a mistake,” NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer (R-MN) said back in December about efforts by House Republican women to increase the number of women in their conference. “It shouldn’t be just based on looking for a specific set of ingredients — gender, race, religion — and then we’re going to play in the primary.”

Because there are so few women in the House Republican conference, Brooks amounts to eight percent of House GOP women.

Her retirement is ultimately a setback for both Republicans’ efforts to diversify and their efforts to win back the majority in 2020.

Published with permission of The American Independent.