Tag: republicans

Lone Member of Congress to Vote Against Epstein Files Release Says it Was a ‘Principled’ Decision

Few political issues, if any, have taken a life of its own quite like the files pertaining to disgraced financier and power broker Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein — a convicted pedophile and apparent mastermind of a horrific underage sex trafficking ring — had made quite a number of powerful friends.

People naturally wanted justice after Epstein seemingly killed himself in August 2019. But people also just wanted answers.

And that includes people of all political persuasions.

According to The Hill, a bill looking to unseal the Epstein files passed almost unanimously across Democratic and Republican lines.

Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna spearheaded the bill, which passed 427-1.

That lone dissenting vote belonged to Rep. Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana.

And he explained his controversial decision on social media:

I have been a principled “NO” on this bill from the beginning. What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America. As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses,…

“I have been a principled ‘NO’ on this bill from the beginning,” Higgins posted Tuesday. “What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America.

“As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people — witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc.”

Higgins then doubled down on his “no” vote (emphasis his).

“If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt,” Higgins posted. “Not by my vote. The Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation that has already released well over 60,000 pages of documents from the Epstein case.

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Albany Republicans’ $20B shame: state spending madness is their fault, too

Albany Republicans, the minority in the state Senate and Assembly for the last seven years, face a long hike back to political relevance.

They can start by answering the $20 billion question.

That’s the difference between what New York state expects to spend this fiscal year — $148 billion, excluding federal aid and borrowing — and what it would be spending if the last budget enacted with GOP support, in 2018, had kept growing only at the rate of inflation.

That amount is $128 billion.

Republicans correctly note state spending is higher than ever — and, given Albany’s reliance on a small subset of high earners, rising unsustainably.

But they can’t put the blame on the Democrats alone.

The $20 billion question isn’t about what Republicans would cut if voters again entrusted them to steer the state.

It’s a deeper challenge: It asks them to explain, to themselves especially, how they can credibly claim to be the taxpayers’ champions when they not only supported much of this fiscal bulge, but pushed to make it worse.

Most of the budget growth since 2018 has been in just two programs: Medicaid and school aid.

Republicans supposedly concerned about the state’s fiscal picture have repeatedly agitated for higher spending on both.

New York spends $4,942 per resident (enrolled or not) on Medicaid, per Empire Center’s Bill Hammond. That’s 23% more than the next-highest state, Kentucky, and double what New Jersey spends.

A credible opposition party would be hammering Gov. Kathy Hochul on this, arguing that the program is pushing up taxes, crowding out essential services and often failing the vulnerable people it’s meant to help.

But the tiny group of upstate fiscal hawks making these points are undercut by their own Republican team: Sen. Pat Gallivan, ostensibly his conference’s health care point man, last year joined 1199 SEIU, the state’s largest health care union, to demand  “Medicaid equity,” a budget-busting increase in what the state pays hospitals and other providers.

New York’s GOP can’t even credibly levy its evergreen complaint about “waste, fraud and abuse” in Medicaid.

The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, a once-tiny initiative meant to help a small group of people live outside nursing homes, mushroomed into a $9 billion boondoggle that pays more than 400,000 people to care for 250,000 New Yorkers.

Republicans should have been first to sound the alarm on CDPAP — yet when Hochul proposed modest reforms by eliminating middlemen, they called her suggestion a “full-blown catastrophe” and all but ignored the fiscal hemorrhaging.

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Trump’s Republican Party insists there’s no affordability crisis and dismisses election losses

Almost two weeks after Republicans lost badly in elections in Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, many GOP leaders insist there is no problem with the party’s policies, its message or President Donald Trump’s leadership.

Trump says Democrats and the media are misleading voters who are concerned about high costs and the economy. Republican officials aiming to avoid another defeat in next fall’s midterms are encouraging candidates to embrace the president fully and talk more about his accomplishments.

Those are the major takeaways from a series of private conversations, briefings and official talking points involving major Republican decision-makers across Washington, including inside the White House, after their party’s losses Nov. 4. Their assessment highlights the extent to which the fate of the Republican Party is tied to Trump, a term-limited president who insists the economy under his watch has never been stronger.

That’s even as an increasing number of voters report a different reality in their lives.

But with few exceptions, the Trump lieutenants who lead the GOP’s political strategy have no desire to challenge his wishes or beliefs.

“Republicans are entering next year more unified behind President Trump than ever before,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels said. “The party is fully aligned behind his America First agenda and the results he’s delivering for the American people. President Trump’s policies are popular, he drives turnout, and standing with him is the strongest path to victory.”

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Rhode Island’s US Senators Defend Vote To Ban Hemp Despite Concerns It Will Kill A Growing State Industry

Mike Simpson is one of Rhode Island’s biggest cheerleaders for hemp cultivation and the plant’s derivative products—remedies, he believes, that may help where pharmaceutical medicines cannot.

It’s that very reason Simpson helped co-found Rhode Island’s only outdoor hemp farm, where he says many of the business’ products ship all across the country.

But Lovewell Farms may cease operations now that Congress has approved reopening the federal government under legislation that would effectively ban hemp products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC. Now that it has been signed by President Donald Trump, the ban will go into effect in a year.

“This might be the final straw,” Simpson said in an interview Wednesday. “I may have to shut my whole company down.”

Simpson doesn’t sell intoxicating products, but said crops grown at his Hopkinton farm can contain up to 1 milligram of THC in it, as is allowed under existing Rhode Island hemp regulations.

“I have 700 to 800 pounds of flower that I grew this year that under that law would not be legal,” he said.

Simpson said he would grow crops with lower concentrations, but as a USDA-certified organic farm, there aren’t that many seed suppliers he can buy from.

“We’re really at the whim of what those folks are providing,” he said.

The provision in the shutdown-ending appropriations bill was championed by GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky in order to close a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp but inadvertently paved the way for the proliferation of hemp-derived THC products like infused drinks—products which states have since scrambled to either regulate or ban.

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GOP Senators Rick Scott and Ron Johnson go to California to Hear Pacific Palisades Fire Victims While Gavin Newsom Attends Climate Change Summit in South America 

Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, both Republicans, just traveled to California to hear testimony from victims of the California wildfires in the Pacific Palisades.

Spencer Pratt, a reality TV star who lost his home in the fires was there to testify and remarked about the fact that Republicans came from thousands of miles away to listen while Democrat leaders in California were nowhere to be found.

In fact, California Governor Gavin Newsom is at a conference in South America focused on climate change, which he still insists was responsible for the fires.

Breitbart News has details:

Thursday’s senate hearing was part of a congressional investigation into the genesis of the fire and what went wrong before and after the conflagration by the various California governments responsible for warning residents and putting out the flames.

The hearing was led by Senators Johnson and Scott (R, FL), who are looking into the fire. Six Pacific Palisades residents who lost their homes also delivered powerful remarks. California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff were not at the hearing.

One of those who spoke at the confab was The Hills reality show star Spencer Pratt, who has become a leading advocate for the victims of the fires.

“By the grace of God, my family survived,” he said during his testimony.

“My family has not lost our hope, but we did lose our home and everything we own in the Palisades fire,” Pratt said during the hearing, wearing a hat with the words, “Newsom will never be president.”

“It’s been 10 months,” Pratt said, “and our government leaders, instead of helping us rebuild, have only served to make the rebuilding process so painful and slow that many just quit and are forced out of their hometown through attrition so vultures like Gavin Newsom and [state Sen.] Scott Weiner have a blank slate to remake the Palisades in the vision of their wealthy donors and foreign investors.”

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Married Congressman finally breaks silence on alleged affair with aide who set herself on fire… after he dodged the media for months

Two months after his alleged mistress doused herself with gasoline and set herself on fire, Congressman Tony Gonzales finally addressed cheating accusations with his former aide for the first time.

Appearing Thursday at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, the Republican lawmaker who represents the border and San Antonio denied he had a relationship with his former regional director Regina Aviles.

‘The rumors are completely untruthful. I am generally untrusting of these outlets,’ Gonzales said to reporter.

‘Regina’s family has asked for privacy. If it was your family or any of our families, I would argue that you would want privacy as well. I don’t know exactly what happened. Nobody has contacted me. I haven’t contacted anyone. I’m waiting for a final report. I think that would make a lot of sense.’

Daily Mail was first to report that Aviles’ death has been ruled a suicide, after she doused herself with gasoline and set herself on fire at her Uvalde, Texas home on September 13. 

Even though her death has been ruled a suicide by self-immolation, the medical examiner’s office in Bexar County told Daily Mail it would be a few more weeks before a final report and autopsy on Aviles’ death is available. 

Sources who spoke with the Daily Mail on the condition of anonymity said that Aviles and the married congressman became romantically involved after she joined his staff in November 2021. 

Gonzales’s spokesman didn’t engage when repeatedly offered the opportunity to deny the affair by the Daily Mail. But his office did offer a comment.

‘Regina Aviles was a kind soul who had a lasting impact on her community, which she continued to serve until her untimely death,’ a spokesman for Gonzales told the Daily Mail on October 7.

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Federal THC ban sends hemp companies scrambling

The Senate late Monday passed a funding package that would reopen the government and fund the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. Tucked into the funding bill is a provision that would re-criminalize many of the intoxicating hemp-derived products that were legalized by the 2018 Farm Bill.   

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) waged a last-minute fight to try to keep the provision out, threatening to drag out the process of debating the underlying bill until he got a vote on an amendment to strip the language.  

He got the vote on Monday; Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) were the only Republicans who voted in favor. 

“The bill, as it now stands, overrides the regulatory frameworks of several states, cancels the collective decisions of hemp consumers and destroys the livelihoods of hemp farmers,” Paul said on the floor ahead of the vote. “And it couldn’t come at a worse time for America’s farmers. Times are tough for our farmers.” 

The provision “prevents the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products,” according to a Senate Appropriations Committee summary. 

The proposal was first included in the House’s funding bill for the Department of Agriculture, but it was removed from the Senate version over the summer following a disagreement between Paul and his fellow Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell.  

Hemp industry representatives and lobbyists have spent months campaigning against the language. Many said they were caught by surprise when the funding bill text was unveiled on Sunday.  

McConnell was a champion of legalizing hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill. But he’s since soured on what he says is a “loophole” that companies use to take legal amounts of THC (or tetrahydrocannabinol) from hemp and turn it into intoxicating substances.  

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Nancy Mace outraged by whistleblower report that she is targeted by TSA, airport officials

Rep. Nancy Mace is railing against the Transportation Security Administration after being told she has been almost constantly surveilled by the agency.

She said current and former airport employees told her about the TSA surveillance, and she called on more whistleblowers to come forward.

“This appears to be yet another example of the weaponization of government agencies against a conservative,” the South Carolina Republican said in a statement. “If these allegations are true, it represents a disturbing abuse of power and a clear case of political retaliation. No American — let alone a sitting Member of Congress — should be subjected to this kind of targeted harassment.”

She said she was subjected to surveillance every time she was at the Charleston airport, with TSA officials allegedly trying to block her from using the crew-only entrance. She claimed using the entrance is “standard operating procedure for all members of Congress.”

The Washington Times reached out to the TSA for comment.

Ms. Mace reportedly rebuked police and TSA agents at a security checkpoint last month at Charleston International Airport.

She took to social media, saying, “If this turns out to be the weaponization of government officials and law enforcement agents against a sitting member of Congress — HEADS NEED TO ROLL!!!”

Ms. Mace has been accused of outbursts, including swearing at a constituent and police officers. She said the stories were fabricated.

In the case of airport surveillance, Ms. Mace urged current or former TSA employees, airport security personnel, airport employees and others to come forward with information. She said she will refer information to federal and state oversight committees and inspectors general for investigation.

Ms. Mace is running for South Carolina governor in a crowded 2026 primary. Republicans who have announced bids include Attorney General Alan Wilson, state Sen. Josh Kimbrell of Spartanburg County, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman.

“When I’m Governor, the era of good old boy politics will be over,” Ms. Mace said on social media. “The POWERFUL will become the POWERLESS, and power will return to the people where it belongs. Corruption will not be tolerated, and those who abuse their positions will be FIRED or worse yet — PROSECUTED!”

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Bill to end government shutdown would let senators snooped on by Jack Smith seek up to $500K

A provision tucked into the government funding bill that passed the Senate on Monday would compensate GOP senators whose phone records were seized without their knowledge during former special counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Up to nine Senate Republicans would be able to sue the government and be eligible for up to $500,000 in damages, plus attorneys’ fees, for each instance in which their call logs were coughed up to the feds. A payout for one incident apiece could cost taxpayers about $4.5 million.

Phone carriers would also be required to immediately notify senators and their offices if their devices, accounts, records or communications are sought — unless the lawmakers are the target of a criminal investigation.

In such cases, judges can issue a 60-day nondisclosure order if they find an imminent threat to “the life or physical safety of any person” or that the targeted senator poses a flight risk, that evidence would be destroyed, that witnesses would be intimidated or that the investigation would be jeopardized.

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Florida GOP Lawmaker Files Bill To Ban Public Marijuana Smoking As Campaign Works To Put Legalization On 2026 Ballot

A pro-legalization Florida lawmaker has filed a bill to amend state law to codify that the public use of marijuana is prohibited.

Rep. Alex Andrade (R)—who has voiced support for removing cannabis from the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and earned an “A” grade from NORML—introduced the public smoking and vaping legislation on Thursday.

Under the proposal, state statute on the use of tobacco in public would be revised to incorporate cannabis, making it unlawful to smoke or vape in any public space.

A public space would be defined as place “to which the public has access, including, but not limited to, streets; sidewalks; highways; public parks; public beaches; and the common areas, both inside and outside, of schools, hospitals, government buildings, apartment buildings, office buildings, lodging establishments, restaurants, transportation facilities, and retail shops.”

The legislation specifies that the prohibition on public smoking “does not apply to the smoking of unfiltered cigars.”

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