[ad_1]
Hakeem Jeffries urges Democrats to vote for bill
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has urged divided Democratic lawmakers to vote for the debt ceiling bill, a source familiar with the matter told CNN correspondent Manu Raju.
In closed meeting with WH officials this morning, Hakeem Jeffries strongly urged the divided Democratic caucus to back the debt ceiling bill, according to a person in the room. Dem votes will be needed to pass the bill
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 31, 2023
Key events
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has said that once the debt ceiling reaches the Senate, he will bring it to the floor as soon as possible, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
In a letter addressed to his fellow lawmakers, Schumer wrote, “When the bill passes the House, I will move to immediately begin consideration of the agreement in the Senate. Due to the time it may take to process the legislation in the Senate without cooperation, Senators should prepare for potential Friday and weekend votes,” the Hill reports.
He went on to warn senators of the 5 June deadline, saying, “As you are aware, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has notified Congress that the United States will no longer be able to meet all of its obligations on time by June 5.”
Meanwhile, Republican Utah senator tweeted last week that he will do everything in his power to delay the bill.
“I will use every procedural tool at my disposal to impede a debt-ceiling deal that doesn’t contain substantial spending and budgetary reforms. I fear things are moving in that direction. If they do, that proposal will not face smooth sailing in the Senate,” he said.
I will use every procedural tool at my disposal to impede a debt-ceiling deal that doesn’t contain substantial spending and budgetary reforms. I fear things are moving in that direction. If they do, that proposal will not face smooth sailing in the Senate.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) May 25, 2023
Donald Trump has lashed out at his former White House press secretary over “wrong” poll numbers, the Hill reports.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote:
“Kayleigh ‘Milktoast’ McEnany just gave out the wrong poll numbers on FoxNews. I am 34 points up on DeSanctimonious, not 25 up,” using a nickname he made for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, his current chief opponent in the presidential race.
Trump’s comments come after McEnany said on Fox News that according to polling in Iowa, DeSantis was “closing the gap” on Trump. It remains unclear which poll McEnany was referring to.
“While 25 is great, it’s not 34… She knew the number was corrected upwards by the group that did the poll. The RINOS & Globalists can have her. FoxNews should only use REAL Stars!!!” added Trump, referring to Republicans In Name Only, a pejorative used to describe Republicans who are seen as insufficient to the GOP.
DeSantis channels his inner Hulk (Hogan)
Martin Pengelly
At a rally in Iowa yesterday, the Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis used as his walkout music a song long used for the same purpose by Hulk Hogan, one of the most famous names in wrestling.
Lyrics to Real American by Rick Derringer include “I am a real American/ Fight for the rights of every man” and “I’ve got something deep inside of me/ Courage is the thing that keeps us free”.
DeSantis’s recent memoir is called The Courage to be Free. At 44 the Florida governor is a member of Gen X whose childhood coincided with Hogan’s heyday as a star of World Wrestling Entertainment.
However, further reading suggests DeSantis may be advised to consider changing his tune.
In March, Abraham Josephine Riesman, author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, discussed with Politico “How Pro Wrestling Explains Today’s GOP”.
The interview focused on the long relationship between Donald Trump and McMahon, the WWE owner, and how it shaped Trump’s political persona. But the piece also contained discussion of how Trump’s primary battle with DeSantis might be thought of in wrestling terms.
Politico said: “It might be more useful, Riesman suggests, to think in terms of roles: heroes and villains – in industry lingo, faces and heels – and the fluidity of such positioning.”
Asked “who’s the face and who’s the heel?” in Trump v DeSantis, Riesman said that to Republicans, they were two faces.
But she also said that in 1990, when DeSantis was 11, “Vince executed a very risky maneuver, which was that he had in his biggest match of the year, the main event at WrestleMania, the two faces going against each other.
“Hogan and [The Ultimate] Warrior were both faces. And Hogan was the champ and Warrior was an up-and-comer who was very popular. And they were going to have this match. And it was mind-blowing for fans.
“Hogan and Warrior, right after that, both of them – their careers tanked.”
Some say DeSantis’s campaign is already tanking, his polling numbers falling while Trump capitalises on unprecedented legal jeopardy to fire up supporters. Trump leads most polling averages by more than 30 points.
In Clive, Iowa on Tuesday, DeSantis took a tentative jab at Trump over attacks about his handling of Covid, saying: “I’m going to fight back. Hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship. Are you kidding me?”
One attendee told the Associated Press she voted for Trump twice but could switch.
DeSantis is a “little softer” and “more appealing to the masses”, said Kim Riesberg, 59, adding: “At some point, I would like to see them on the same team.”
Riesman had a warning for such voters. Hulk v Warrior, she said, “was kind of the last gasp of that era … because it sort of broke the system.
“Fans had to pick a side. You can’t just cheer for both guys. You have to cheer for one. And that means somebody is getting written out of the story. Someone has to lose. Someone has to look bad in your eyes. And that kind of confusion [can be] very damaging to … both participants.”
President Joe Biden has nominated a highly decorated Marine officer who has been involved in the transformation of the force to be the next Marine Corps commandant.
The Associated Press reports:
The nomination of Gen. Eric Smith, now the assistant commandant, had been widely expected and has been forwarded to the Senate. The current top Marine, Gen. David Berger, is wrapping up his four-year term and preparing to retire.
Smith, a career infantry officer, has commanded at every level, serving multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, including time in Fallujah and Ramadi during heavy combat in 2004 and 2005 in Operation Iraq Freedom. He later was the senior military adviser to Defense Secretary Ash Carter and in in 2019 took over as the deputy commandant for combat development.
In that post, Smith worked with Berger on a broad campaign to transform the Marine Corps to better be able to fight amphibious wars in the Pacific after years of battling terrorist groups in the Middle East. The plan was lauded by many in the Pentagon and Congress as a critical way for the Marines to prepare for a potential conflict with China.
Smith and Berger argued that the changes will improve the Marine Corps’ ability to fight in contested areas, particularly within striking range of an enemy. That element is critical in the Indo-Pacific, where thousands of U.S. and allied forces are easily within missile — or even rocket — range of both China and North Korea.
But some of the moves, including the transfer of Marine tanks to the Army, triggered sharp criticism from a group of retired Marine generals.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has hailed the tentative debt ceiling bill and president Joe Biden in a news conference ahead of the House’s vote on the bill.
Speaking to reporters, Jeffries said:
“Some things that were incredibly important to the American people, all of which were on the chopping block because of the extreme MAGA Republicans and their ransom demands…
But because president Biden held the line, some very important things were protected in this resolution. President Biden protected social security…Medicare…Medicaid…veterans…the Inflation Reduction Act…the clean energy tax credits that will be transformational…billions of dollars in funding to combat environmental injustice. And president Biden protected the American people from the types of devastating cuts proposed by right-wing extremists that would have hurt millions of everyday Americans.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed his support for the debt ceiling bill expected to go up for a vote Wednesday, crediting Pres. Biden with negotiating a deal that helps protect Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ benefits, and more pic.twitter.com/EFFXUawwy6
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) May 31, 2023
Hakeem Jeffries urges Democrats to vote for bill
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has urged divided Democratic lawmakers to vote for the debt ceiling bill, a source familiar with the matter told CNN correspondent Manu Raju.
In closed meeting with WH officials this morning, Hakeem Jeffries strongly urged the divided Democratic caucus to back the debt ceiling bill, according to a person in the room. Dem votes will be needed to pass the bill
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 31, 2023
Former vice president Mike Pence to launch presidential bid: reports
Mike Pence is expected to launch his 2024 presidential bid within the next two weeks, The Messenger reports.
In a screenshot of an email sent by former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to delegates of the Georgia Republican Party, Lake wrote:
“Vice president Mike Pence was originally slated but has been forced to re-schedule because of a televised national town hall at which he will be making an announcement regarding his future plans.”
The outlet reports that Pence is scheduled to headline a CNN town hall, in Des Moines, Iowa (a crucial early-voting state) on June 7.
Former GOP Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who is weighing a 2024 Senate bid, will headline the Georgia GOP convention’s Friday night event. She has refused to concede her narrow election defeat, and she’s become a favorite among Trump supporters. #gapol pic.twitter.com/oSSbfewIeG
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) May 31, 2023
Four Republicans familiar with the matter told The Messenger that Pence’s team have begun ramping up their outreach two weeks ago and have told supporters that his presidential campaign launch is imminent and is set to take place in mid-June.
Should Pence join the race, he will be facing off against several Republican heavyweights including his former boss and current chief contender Donald Trump and Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis began his presidential campaign in Iowa yesterday, telling a crowd of several hundred reporters:
“The tired dogmas of the past are inadequate for a vibrant future. We must look forward, not look backwards,” DeSantis said. “We must have the courage to lead, and we must have the strength to win, because the stakes couldn’t be higher,” Des Moines Register reports.
“I wish the elites in Washington, D.C., would take a page out of the Iowa playbook, but instead, they have ignored what works and they have continued to plunge this nation into the abyss,” he added.
DeSantis’s visit to Iowa comes weeks after he visited the crucial early-voting state earlier this month after he secured 37 endorsements from Republican Iowa state senators and representatives.
As a result of a state supreme court ruling that allows partisan gerrymandering, North Carolina residents will likely be put into congressional districts that will be in favor of GOP, despite the state having less registered Republicans than Democrats and unaffiliated voters.
Daniel Walton reports:
The ruling will permit the state’s legislature, which is controlled by Republican supermajorities in both chambers, to draw new congressional district maps in advance of the 2024 election. North Carolina’s congressional delegation is likely to go from its current even split to 10-4 or 11-3 in favor of Republicans, despite the state having fewer registered Republicans than either Democrats or unaffiliated voters.
“It’s hard for me to think of a more consequential decision,” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University.
In February 2022, the court had ruled that maps drawn for partisan advantage by GOP lawmakers in 2021 were “unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt”, and North Carolina’s 2022 elections were held using district lines drawn by a panel of court-appointed experts. Those districts resulted in a congressional delegation of seven Democrats and seven Republicans, mirroring the roughly even split of state voters between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
But elections for the supreme court itself, also conducted in 2022, switched its makeup from a 4-3 Democratic-Republican split to 5-2 in favor of the GOP. The new Republican majority agreed to take up the gerrymandering case again – an unusual move, as the court had previously agreed to rehearings just twice over 30 years – and overturned the previous decision, with both Democrats in dissent.
The Republican-controlled legislature now has no legal barrier to creating congressional lines that concentrate Democratic voting power in a handful of districts, thus tilting the scales for GOP candidates in more parts of the state.
For more, click here:
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is expected to announce his presidential bid next Tuesday, Axios reports.
Christie, who will be joining a race including former president Donald Trump and Florida governor Ron DeSantis, is expected to deliver his announcement at a 6.30pm town hall at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.
According to an adviser, Christie, a former Trump ally, will be delivering a “a non-traditional campaign that is highly focused on earned media, mixing it up in the news cycle and engaging Trump… Will not be geographic dependent, but nimble.”
Another far-right Republican lawmaker who condemned the tentative bill is Colorado representative Lauren Boebert.
In a video posted on Twitter yesterday, Boebert said the debt limit deal is bad for the country.
“The bill Biden negotiated fuels inflation, adds trillions to our debt and leaves a blank check for more of the same nonsense I came here to stop. I am not for an unlimited debt ceiling increase,” said Boebert.
“I am voting no,” she added. “That’s why I am pushing right now to make sure this new bill is allowed to be debated and amended, if not killed entirely.”
The debt limit deal is a bad deal for America.
As the bill is currently presented, my vote will be NO on tomorrow’s anti-deal. Unit then, I hope the House will either amend it or kill it entirely. pic.twitter.com/6vdXFsevTV
— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) May 30, 2023
Kevin McCarthy: debt ceiling bill ‘going to become law’
The debt ceiling bill will become law, Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Wednesday ahead of a final House vote later today on the bill which if passed, will move next into Senate.
“It’s going to become law,” McCarthy told reporters, Reuters reports.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Republican Florida representative Byron Donalds urged Republican lawmakers to vote against the bill.
“To my Republican colleagues, do not vote for this bill… Your voters back home are going to look at you and say, ‘Why did you vote for a bill that keeps all of Joe Biden’s policies in place and all you did was raise the debt ceiling?’” he said.
To my Republican colleagues: DO NOT vote for this deal.
Your constituents will ask you why you voted to keep ALL of Biden’s policies intact while all you did was raise the debt ceiling.
They’ll ask why you didn’t STAND UP & DEMAND renegotiation.
Now is the time to weigh in. pic.twitter.com/5vfLIS6EUR
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) May 31, 2023
“Now it’s time for Republican members of Congress to weigh in on the negotiations. That is why I am a ‘No,’” he added.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to vote against debt limit bill
New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said that she plans to vote against the debt limit bill.
“My red line has already been surpassed … I mean, where do we start? [No] clean debt ceiling. Work requirements. Cuts to programs. I would never – I would never – vote for that,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
Democratic Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib echoed similar sentiments, telling reporters that she would “absolutely not” support a bill that includes tougher work requirements.
Meanwhile, an aide to a progressive lawmaker in the Congressional Progressive Caucus told Axios anonymously, “My boss is leaning no and we think a good number of [CPC] members will follow suit.”
Republican-led House to hold final vote on debt ceiling bill amid far-right pushback
The House is set to convene today to hold a final vote on the debt ceiling bill amid opposition from far-right lawmakers, including members of the House Freedom Caucus who have vowed to vote against the bill (some Freedom Caucus members previously opposed House speaker Kevin McCarthy’s speakership bid in January).
The tentative deal reached by McCarthy and President Joe Biden would raise the debt ceiling until 2025 and includes measures such as rescinding Internal Revenue Service funding and expanded work requirements.
With the House scheduled to convene at 2pm today, the first round of votes is expected at 3.30pm and the last round of votes is expected at 8.30pm.
Over 20 Republicans have vowed to vote against the bill, with Pennsylvania Scott Perry, chair of the Freedom Caucus saying on Tuesday, “We had the time to act, and this deal fails – fails completely … We will do everything in our power to stop it and end it now.”
Texas representative and Freedom Caucus member Chip Roy called the deal a “turd sandwich” as it did not include spending cuts demanded by far-right lawmakers.
North Carolina representative and Freedom Caucus member Dan Bishop predicted that the majority of House Republicans will oppose the bill, saying, “This is a career-defining vote for every Republican … This bill, if it passes, must pass with less than half of the Republican conference.”
Meanwhile, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries emphasized the importance of Republicans providing the majority of the 218 votes required to approve the bill.
“This is an agreement that, at their insistence, they negotiated with the administration,” Jeffries said. “It’s our full and complete expectation that they are going to produce at least 150 votes,” he said.
Should the bill pass, it will move on to the Senate where lawmakers will have only a few days to approve it before the 5 June default deadline.
House to hold final vote on debt ceiling bill
Good morning, US politics readers. The House is expected to hold a final vote on the debt ceiling bill as opposition from far-right Republicans continue to grow.
Last weekend, talks spearheaded by House speaker Kevin McCarthy and president Joe Biden culminated in a tentative deal to raise the $31.4tn US debt ceiling.
Speaking to reporters, McCarthy said that the bill was “the most conservative deal we’ve ever had”, referring to the two-year agreement which includes spending freezes and slashing Internal Revue Service funding.
As the deal heads into a chamber vote in the Republican-led House today, more than 20 Republicans have vowed to vote against the deal. On Tuesday, Texas representative Chip Roy, a member of the powerful House rules committee which met to review the deal, told Fox News, “This is not the deal that we should be taking.”
The House will convene at 2pm today, with the first round of votes expected at 3.30pm, and the last round of votes expected at 8.30pm.
Here are other developments in US politics:
-
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is expected to announce his presidential bid next Tuesday in new Hampshire, Axios reports.
-
Former president Donald Trump has repeated his pledge to strip birthright US citizenship if he becomes president again.
-
President Joe Biden will meet with leaders of his federal emergency preparedness and response team today to receive annual briefing on extreme weather preparedness.
[ad_2]
Source link
(This article is generated through the syndicated feed sources, Financetin neither support nor own any part of this article)
