Tag: republicans

Caucus That Claims Congress Is Silencing Black Voices Silences Black Voices

The Congressional Black Caucus, which frequently complains that Congress is silencing black voices, has denied the application of four congressional black voices.

The four black members of Congress include Reps. Burgess Owens, R-Utah; Wesley Hunt, R-Texas; Byron Donalds, R-Fla.; and John James, R-Mich.

“Unfortunately, for the Left, their priorities are power and profit” Owens told the Daily Signal.

Owens and Donalds pushed to rename the Capitol’s press gallery after civil rights icon Frederick Douglass, a Republican, but caucus members refused to co-sponsor the resolution.

“Democrats know Douglass was a Republican,” Owens said. “They don’t stand up for the things that really should make a difference. They stand up for everything the Democratic Party wants, which means the black community is not always in a good place.”

Owens, who sits on the House’s Education and Workforce Committee, said the Congressional Black Caucus will advocate against the things that could strengthen the black community, such as education.

“That means they are going to vote against school choice,” he said. “Our kids are going down so fast, so far because they’re not getting the right education. … The Black Caucus doesn’t want [school choice] to happen because the Democratic Party doesn’t want that to happen.”

Owens said he grew up in the 1960s deep South, where his community “was doing well” and people believed in faith, family, and the free market. However, he added, the Left doesn’t value those ideals today.

“Marxists and socialists hate faith, family, and free market education because that sense of independence takes away their power and ability to make profit,” he said. “When they make profit on people’s misery, that’s a big business.”

Owens added, “They allow people not to feel good about themselves, feel hopeless, feel desperate, then they depend on you. … And when people have that kind of mindset, and they have no concept of what it is to believe in God or have empathy, they’ll do everything selfishly.”

The Congressional Black Caucus is pushing legislation asking young black athletes to avoid playing college sports for universities in the South, as a method of retaliating against states that redrew congressional maps. Owens, who was the third black athlete to receive a football scholarship from the University of Miami, criticized the effort, saying it’s a move by “black elitists” who want to “take the dreams of young black people away so that they can keep theirs.”

The caucus has received criticism for other decisions, including denying membership to Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., a white congressman who nevertheless represents the largest black community in Tennessee.

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US author and son of Texas politician charged with helping to provide classified information to China

The son of a prominent Texas Republican politician has been swept up in an explosive federal case accusing him of helping funnel sensitive information to China.

Thomas Pauken II, an American author and political commentator who spent years living in China, allegedly acted as a go-between for contacts linked to Beijing dangling cash incentives to influence US policy from inside the federal government.

Pauken is now facing a felony charge alleging he operated on behalf of the Chinese government inside the United States without properly registering with the attorney general.

Federal investigators claim Pauken compiled confidential reports for a Chinese intelligence-linked handler who allegedly told him the material would ultimately be passed up the chain to Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

According to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court, Pauken also delivered electronic devices to another individual seeking work in the Trump administration later offering that same person a lucrative arrangement tied to providing weekly policy-related reports.

The allegations have thrust Pauken, who wrote under the pen name Tom McGregor while working in China, into the center of an increasingly tense standoff between Washington and Beijing over espionage, foreign influence and national security.

Court documents obtained by Politico say Pauken was first confronted by US authorities after returning from China in January 2025. 

But instead of immediately arresting him, investigators allegedly instructed him to continue behaving normally out of concern that abruptly cutting ties could place him in danger from China’s Ministry of State Security.

FBI Special Agent Timothy Healy wrote in the affidavit that Pauken was specifically warned not to alert Chinese officials about his contact with American law enforcement.

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The Devil Neither Political Party Will Name

The widening wealth inequality gap is the political third rail nobody in power truly ever wants to touch.

Politicians will scream at each other all day over taxes, healthcare, immigration, tariffs, student loans, climate policy, or whatever outrage is currently driving engagement on cable news and social media. But the second the conversation turns toward monetary policy, toward the machinery of money creation itself, the room suddenly gets very quiet.

That’s because monetary policy has quietly become the single most powerful force reshaping wealth distribution in modern America. And unlike the endless partisan theater surrounding fiscal policy, monetary intervention oddly enjoys remarkable bipartisan support.

Republicans and Democrats may pretend to be existential enemies on television, but when it comes to flooding the financial system with dollars, both parties reliably fall into line. And that support is precisely why this topic is politically radioactive: once people understand how the system works, the illusion of two competing economic ideologies starts to collapse. Republicans want less spending, Democrats want higher taxes…but both parties want the Fed to keep printing dollars.

Since the early 2000s, and especially after 2008 and the COVID era, America has effectively entered a permanent regime of monetary intervention. Quantitative easing, near-zero interest rates, endless debt monetization, emergency lending facilities, and the mainstream acceptance of Modern Monetary Theory-adjacent thinking have fundamentally altered the structure of markets beyond recognition.

When Ben Bernanke first rolled out quantitative easing during the 2008 financial crisis, Americans were repeatedly assured it was a temporary emergency measure. Bernanke described the programs as targeted interventions designed to stabilize markets and support recovery, not permanently redefine the financial system.

QE1 was supposed to calm panic. Then came QE2. Then Operation Twist. Then QE3 became effectively open-ended, with the Fed purchasing tens of billions in bonds every month indefinitely. What began as a supposedly temporary crisis tool metastasized into a permanent feature of the modern economy. And every subsequent crisis only justified bigger interventions: larger balance sheets, lower rates, more liquidity, more market dependence on central bank support.

The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet exploded from under $1 trillion before 2008 to nearly $9 trillion after the pandemic era. Like nearly every government “emergency” program in history, the temporary measure never truly disappeared, it simply normalized, expanded, and embedded itself deeper into the system. It culminated in Neel Kashkari taking to national television to let the world know the Fed has “infinite” cash.

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GOP Congressman Tom Kean Provides Update After Missing More Than 50 Roll Call Votes Since Early March

Last month, it was reported that Rep. Thomas Kean (R-NJ) had missed more than 50 roll call votes.

Speaker Johnson told ABC News that Rep. Kean is dealing with personal health matters.

“I was happy to speak to Tom Kean, Jr. this afternoon by phone. He is attending to a personal health matter and expects to be back to 100% very soon,” Johnson told ABC News last month.

“Tom is one of the most dedicated and hardest-working Members of Congress, and I am grateful for all he does and will continue to do to serve New Jerseyans and our country,” Johnson said.

Tom Kean eventually broke his silence and thanked his constituents for their patience as he addressed his personal medical issue.

The lawmaker told the New Jersey Globe that he expects to return to a full schedule in the next few weeks.

Kean is also running for reelection.

The New Jersey Globe reported:

Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) told the New Jersey Globe that he is nearing a return to work and intends to discuss publicly the health issue that has sidelined him since March. He also confirmed that he will seek re-election to a third term this year.

“My doctors are confident that I’m on the road to a full recovery,” said Kean in a lengthy telephone interview this afternoon. “I understand the need for public transparency, and I appreciate the support of my constituents.”

Kean, 57, said his prognosis is positive, with no expected long-term effects or chronic health complications. He said his medical issue would not affect his cognitive health.

He also laid out a rough timetable of his return.

“I anticipate that in the next couple of weeks, I’ll return to voting and to the campaign trail,” Kean stated.

In the meantime, the two-term Republican lawmaker said he is in daily touch with his congressional office and monitoring issues facing Congress and his district.

Kean was also clear about his future plans.

“I’m running,” he said.

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RINO TREACHERY STRIKES AGAIN IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Senate KILLS Motion to Expedite Trump-Backed Redistricting – 6 Republicans Join Democrats to Jeopardize 7-0 GOP Congressional Map and Protect Jim Clyburn’s Gerrymandered Seat

The South Carolina Senate just killed a critical motion to expedite the Trump-backed congressional redistricting effort, putting the entire push for a bold 7-0 Republican map in serious jeopardy as Democrats and their weak-kneed GOP enablers drag their feet past the start of early voting on Tuesday, May 26.

State Rep. Adam Morgan blasted the vote and sounded the alarm:

“South Carolina Senate KILLS motion to expedite Redistricting! This puts the entire effort in serious jeopardy. 6 Republicans voted with Dems to kill it… The motion would [have] suspended Rule 15b to allow immediate cloture. Without this they can drag the debate out past the start of early voting (Tues, 5/26). This 25-15 vote failed to meet the required 2/3 threshold. Luke Rankin (R-Horry) did not vote.”

The six Republican traitors who voted with the Democrats to block the motion and protect the status quo are:

  • Rex Rice (Pickens)
  • Shane Massey (Edgefield)
  • Sean Bennett (Dorchester)
  • Chip Campsen (Charleston)
  • Tom Davis (Beaufort)
  • Greg Hembree (Horry)

This is the same crew of weaklings (plus one new addition) who previously blocked efforts to extend the session, as The Gateway Pundit reported earlier this month when five of them handed Democrats a temporary win and defied massive pressure from President Donald Trump himself.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, the South Carolina House just rammed through a bold new 7-0 Republican congressional map – a direct strike at far-left Rep. Jim Clyburn’s unconstitutional, race-based 6th District stronghold. Governor Henry McMaster even called an emergency special session to force the issue and secure a clean Republican sweep of all seven U.S. House seats in the Palmetto State.

But these Senate RINOs just can’t help themselves. They’d rather side with Democrats, protect entrenched power, and risk losing ground for conservatives across the country than deliver the fair maps South Carolinians deserve ahead of the 2026 midterms.

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South Carolina’s New Social Media Law Puts Every User Under Age Surveillance

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed H.B. 4591 on May 19, turning the Stop Harm from Addictive Social Media Act into a law that will reshape how every resident of the state uses major social media platforms.

The bill passed with almost no opposition, clearing the House 115-0 and the Senate 42-1. It takes effect January 1, 2027, and it brings with it a surveillance apparatus aimed at all users.

We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.

The law, sponsored by Rep. Brandon Guffey (R-York), requires covered platforms to repeatedly estimate and verify the age of every South Carolina account holder.

The stated goal is child protection. The way it claims to do that is continuous behavioral analysis of anyone who spends enough time on a platform, combined with escalating confidence thresholds and penalties of ten thousand dollars per violation if platforms get it wrong.

Here’s how the age estimation system works. Once an account holder hits 25 cumulative hours on a platform within six months (the “first trigger date”), the platform has 14 days to estimate whether that person is over 15, with 80% confidence.

At 50 hours (the “second trigger date”), the confidence requirement jumps to 90%. After that, the platform must update its estimate every 100 hours of use, or whenever it runs data analytics on the user for any other reason, whichever comes sooner.

That last clause is easy to miss and it means any time a platform runs its profiling algorithms on you for ad targeting, content recommendations, or anything else, it also has to re-evaluate your estimated age. The law essentially piggybacks mandatory age surveillance onto whatever commercial surveillance platforms already conduct, expanding the scope of both.

Because platforms face significant liability if they can’t meet these confidence thresholds, the law creates powerful incentives to harvest far more sensitive data about users than they do today, including about minors.

A platform that guesses wrong faces $10,000 per violation. A platform that overinvests in behavioral profiling to avoid those fines faces no penalty at all. The incentive structure points in one direction.

The bill claims it “does not create any duty on the part of a covered social media platform to request, collect, or retain any information from or about any account holder” and that age estimates must be “derived based on information collected and retained by the covered social media platform in the ordinary course of operation.”

This is the bill’s central fiction. Platforms that can’t achieve 80% or 90% confidence from existing data will need to collect more data, or face financial ruin from accumulated violations. The law doesn’t mandate new data collection in the same way that holding a knife to your wallet doesn’t mandate you hand over cash.

For users classified as children (under 16), the restrictions are extensive. Accounts require verifiable parental consent, with privacy settings locked to the most restrictive levels by default.

Platforms cannot show children profile-based feeds, profile-based advertising, or any “addictive interface features,” a category that includes infinite scrolling, auto-play video, push notifications, and display of personal metrics like reaction counts.

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Rep. Tim Burchett Warns GOP He’ll “Embarrass” Colleagues if Trump Agenda Stalls — Vows to Do “Whatever It Takes” to Push SAVE America Act Before Midterms

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) is done playing nice.

In a fiery interview, the Tennessee congressman made it crystal clear that patience inside the Republican conference is wearing thin as key elements of President Donald Trump’s America First agenda remain bogged down in Washington gridlock.

Burchett blasted the slow pace of Congress and warned fellow Republicans that if they keep dragging their feet on critical legislation, including election integrity measures such as the SAVE America Act, they’re going to have a very uncomfortable time.

Burchett: If we listen to what President Trump proposes, and in his cuts and things, I think we would be ahead everywhere. But we’re not. We’re running our own little game, and that’s going to cost us. I believe the redistricting has helped us, mainly a Trump initiative.

The price of gasoline, honestly, I think is what people are going to be going to the polls about, either yay or nay, wherever it is. They have a very short memory that it was higher under Biden than it is even now. But with the media constantly bombarding them with all that, you’re not going to get that message.

So people are upset, and they have a right to be. I just wish we would follow President Trump’s initiative from day one and stop with all this nonsense.

You know, it’s like DOGE. I’m chairman of the DOGE Committee, and it’s just like pulling teeth to get any cost-saving measures through these committees.

But I’m just a little different. I don’t work for anybody up here. I work for the good people of Tennessee. And so I don’t care if I tick off every chairman up here. I don’t care. I’m going to embarrass them if they don’t start moving our legislation.

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Senate Republicans Don’t Have the Votes to Fund Trump’s Ballroom

President Donald Trump may not be getting taxpayer money for his ballroom after all.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday indicated they expect the funds intended to secure the planned East Wing project to be stripped out of the single-party package because they lack the votes to include the money in the bill.

Adding to the troubles, Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian, ruled that language fails to pass muster with the strict budget rules for what can be included in the $72 billion proposal for border security priorities.

“We’re going back to square one,” Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy told NOTUS. “What I’m told is it’s not based on an interpretation by the parliamentarian. The votes are not there. If we go forward, we will lose.”

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis also said Republicans don’t have the votes to pass the funding, warning that if they go forward with it, it would needlessly subject Republicans to brutal Democratic attacks ahead of the November midterms.

“They should have never conflated the other legitimate Secret Service needs because it’s just giving everybody the ‘billion dollar ballroom’ and it’s just a bad idea,” Tillis told NOTUS.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged the struggle to lock down the votes, telling reporters that despite Trump’s calls to oust the parliamentarian, that is the lesser of the worries at present.

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LONG OVERDUE: Republican Nancy Mace Introduces Legislation to Ban Naturalized Citizens Like Ilhan Omar From Serving in Congress

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina has introduced legislation designed to ban naturalized U.S. citizens from running for the House and Senate, and from holding any position that requires Senate approval.

Having something like this in place would have prevented people like Ilhan Omar, Pramala Jayapal and others from ever running in the first place.

This is long overdue. It’s the type of law that people just kind of assumed already existed but it doesn’t. Every single Republican should get on board with this.

The New York Post reports:

Nancy Mace unveils legislation to ban naturalized citizens – like Ilhan Omar, Pramila Jayapal and Shri Thanedar – from serving in Congress

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) unveiled legislation Wednesday aiming to ban foreign-born US citizens from serving in Congress and other high levels of the federal government.

The South Carolina congresswoman singled out Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Shri Thanedar (D-Ill.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) in announcing her joint resolution to add an amendment to the US Constitution that would prohibit naturalized US citizens from becoming federal judges, holding Senate-confirmed positions or serving in the House or Senate.

“All born in foreign countries, none were citizens by birth. All sitting in the United States Congress. All making clear every single day their loyalty is not to America,” Mace said of the trio of Democratic reps.

Mace noted the proposed amendment would impose the “very same standard the President and Vice President are already required to meet” on lawmakers and top government officials.

“The people writing America’s laws, confirming America’s judges, and representing America on the world stage should have one loyalty: America. Not any other country,” she argued.

“For too long we have allowed foreign born members to hold seats in this government while making clear they are America last, not America first,” Mace added. “We see it every day.

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Rep. Thomas Massie Concedes Race — Says He Couldn’t Congratulate Opponent Because He Was in Israel 

Rep. Thomas Massie has conceded his race in Kentucky’s fourth congressional district.

As reported earlier in the evening, Massie lost to former NAVY Seal Ed Gallrein in Tuesday’s primary election by a decisive margin.

During his concession speech, Massie said he was unable to Gallrein because he was in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

“Listen, I would have come out sooner but I had to call my opponent and concede and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv.”

”I have called and conceded the race. We have been honorable the whole time and we are going to stay that way.”

“Welcome to the most expensive congressional primary ever, in the 250 year history of this country.”

”It is not just the most expensive, this thing went on longer than Vietnam.”

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