Tag: republicans

Republican South Carolina Senate Leader Kills GOP’s Redistricting Effort: ‘Competition Makes Us Better’

The Republican leader of South Carolina’s state Senate defied President Donald Trump and voted against a redistricting effort that could have slashed the state’s only Democrat-led congressional district, arguing that “South Carolina is stronger when we have a vibrant Democratic Party.”

State Sen. Shane Massey’s (R-NC) first time talking to the president came last week when Trump called him to discuss how he wanted the redistricting to happen, the New York Times reported.

Contrary to Trump’s wishes, Massey joined four other Republicans in voting against the proposal that would have allowed for the Senate to reconvene later this month for a redistricting effort.

The legislature has until 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 14, to approve House-passed changes to the sine die resolution, which would state what the lawmakers can take up after that date.

“Now, the state appears unlikely to join the redistricting frenzy that has taken hold across the country,” the Times reported.

Massey delivered a dramatic speech on the floor Tuesday before the 29-17 vote, arguing that he has “too much southern blood in me to surrender.”

“Our state is stronger with vibrant parties,” the senate leader stated. “I think we, as a whole, are stronger when we have a clash of ideas. I think that’s true at the national level, I think it’s true at the state level.”

He continued on to argue that “Republicans are stronger when the Democrat Party is vibrant and viable.”

“You are. Competition makes you better, y’all,” he added.

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Awkward moment an aging Mitch McConnell needs help from staff during hearing with Pete Hegseth

Mitch McConnell appeared confused when a staffer interrupted him because he tried to end a Senate hearing with Pete Hegseth before it was set to conclude.

The former Majority Leader, 84, was part of a hearing of the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Defense that had been questioning the defense secretary regarding the War in Iran. 

As McConnell was given the floor again after questioning by Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, he tried to end the hearing with Hegseth, much to his colleagues’ confusion.

‘Here’s where we are, the vote is about over, the secretary has to get with the President on the China trip, I’m gonna’ ask Senator Murkowski to wrap up and thank you all for being here.’

Before finishing, he was interrupted by a younger, male staffer who could be heard whispering into his ear. 

‘Baldwin, Shaheen, and Kennedy still have questions,’ the staffer said.

He was referring to Wisconsin Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin, New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican John Kennedy. 

The staffer can then be heard clarifying that the hearing should ‘wrap up after’ those questions. 

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GOP Senator Name-Checks Top Dems Over Party’s Violence Problem – Not a ‘Both Sides’ Issue

Political violence has become a major factor within left-wing politics, according to Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

“Political violence has become a core pillar of what the Democratic Party stands for,” Tuberville wrote in an opinion piece from Breitbart.

“Since Donald Trump came on the scene more than ten years ago, Democrats have lost their minds. An uncomfortably large number of Democrats now think it is okay to murder someone you disagree with politically,” he said, noting that glee over murder erupted “last year when leftists were celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk.”

“And we’ve seen it again and again on display every time a sick assassin gets close to taking out President Trump,” he continued.

Tuberville cited several recent examples: “Former Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump a ‘fascist.’ Former President Joe Biden repeatedly referred to Trump as a ‘threat to democracy.’ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Trump a ‘rapist.’ Rep. Jasmine Crockett has referred to Trump as a ‘wannabe Hitler.’”

Breezing through the descent to such rhetoric that marked President Donald Trump’s first term and the lawfare that marked the Biden era’s attempt to weaponize the Department of Justice, Tuberville took on the argument that political violence is endemic to both sides in modern America.

“The inconvenient truth for Democrats is that political violence is not a problem on both sides of the aisle. I’m not saying no Republicans have ever committed atrocious acts of violence against Democrats — but it is far more common on the left,” he wrote.

He noted that attempted assassin Cole Tomas Allen “doesn’t appear to have been radicalized by some overseas cult.”

“Perhaps more disturbingly, he was indoctrinated by mainstream Democrat politicians, CNN, and MSNBC.”

“We need to stop sugarcoating this and start calling it what it is. Until Democrats start policing the kind of speech cavalierly thrown around about President Trump and Republicans, this violence will continue,” he wrote.

“In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder in September, you heard Democrats on TV briefly talking about ‘unity.’ But here’s the thing – you can’t have unity with people who want you dead,” Tuberville continued.

“There will be no unity and no peace until Democrat leaders like Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, and Gavin Newsom tell their party to stop referring to the President of the United States as ‘Hitler,’ ‘fascist,’ ‘rapist,’ ‘pedophile,’ and ‘a threat to democracy.’”

“This type of false rhetoric is incredibly dangerous and radicalizes people to the point of violence. It needs to stop now,” Tuberville added.

Tuberville is not the only Republican to call out Democratic rhetoric leading to left-wing violence.

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Woman Indicted for Attempted Arson at Texas Republican Party Headquarters, Left Note Saying ‘F*CK DJT, F*CK ICE’

A 22-year-old woman has been federally indicted for attempting to burn down the Comal County Republican Party Headquarters.

According to federal prosecutors, Grace Carol Brown broke a window at the building on Landa Street on January 14, threw a backpack containing ethanol, gasoline, a lighter, and matches inside, attempted to climb through the broken window, and when that failed, lit a rolled-up magazine on fire and tossed it into the structure.

A small fire caused minor damage, but no one was injured.

Employees discovered the damage when they arrived for work.

Investigators also found a note at the scene in which Brown allegedly expressed extreme hostility toward the Republican Party, ICE, and federal officials.

Court documents and multiple reports describe the note as saying, “Report this: I burned down the Nazi Party of NB’s office. F-CK DJT F-CK ICE, Liberty or die.”

Additional writings found in the backpack called Republican officials “Enemies of the U.S. Constitution.”

The DOJ explained in a press release:

An investigation determined that Brown displayed antipathy through writings and actions, toward the goals and activities of the Comal County Republican Party Headquarters, law enforcement elements of the United States government to include ICE, and certain Executive Branch officials whom she allegedly referred to as “Enemies of the U.S. Constitution.”

Brown was arrested on January 22 by New Braunfels Police and the FBI.

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Reckoning: Islamic Group with Terror Ties Set to Be Investigated by GOP

The Council on American‑Islamic Relations is coming under attack as House Republicans examine the extent to which it is trying to subvert American law with Sharia law.

A House Judiciary subcommittee has scheduled a hearing to examine how CAIR and its fellow travelers are pushing anti-Western ideals, according to the Daily Signal.

“Sharia law has no place in the United States, and these hearings are about exposing it, defending the rule of law, and protecting the values that make America strong,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said.

Roy chairs the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, which will hold a hearing titled, “Sharia‑Free America: Why Political Islam and Sharia Law Are Incompatible With the U.S. Constitution, Part II.”

The hearing announcement said the hearing will focus on “the role organizations like CAIR play in promoting and funding” actions contrary to U.S. law.

“In our first hearing this February, we exposed how Sharia law and Islam are being pushed,” Roy said.

“This follow‑up hearing will highlight new incidents unfolding throughout our nation and examine the role organizations like CAIR play in promoting and funding these efforts. Islam is incompatible with Western civilization,” he said.

Roy, who has accused CAIR of having a “30‑year history replete with associating with terrorist groups and individuals who want to undermine the security and values of the U.S. and its allies,” has proposed legislation to make the group a Specially Designated Terrorist Organization.

CAIR, he has said, “has harbored ties to terrorist organizations including Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other extremist groups while operating under the guise of a nonprofit and reaping the benefits of 501(c)(3) tax status.”

In April, Roy was the lead author of a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking him to suspend and debar CAIR.

“CAIR’s longstanding ties to terrorist organizations, including Hamas — a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) — combined with documented financial mismanagement and misuse of federal grant funds administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), pose a grave risk to national security and render CAIR unfit to receive taxpayer dollars,” the letter said, noting that $15 million federal money sub-granted by California has gone to CAIR since 2022.

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Senate Republicans Defy Trump and Shelve Voter ID Bill

It seems that no one is coming to rescue the SAVE Act.

Weeks after Donald Trump stressed to his party that passing that voter restriction bill was the “most important thing” they could do, Senate Republicans have shelved the legislation entirely, unable to bypass the Democratic filibuster that stands in the way of its potential passage, Punchbowl News reported Thursday.

Republicans have tried and failed to pass the SAVE Act multiple times. The latest iteration suggested numerous amendments to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, including line items that would have abolished mail-in voting, required voters to bring proof of citizenship and proof of residency to register to vote, required voter ID, and mandated voter roll purges every 30 days—an enormous bureaucratic task that would have placed undue burdens on local election officials.

Nonetheless, Trump demanded that his caucus figure it out. In March, Trump insisted that the bill would “guarantee the midterms,” and that there would be “big trouble” if Republicans failed to force it through Congress. The president also said that the SAVE Act was such a tremendous priority that it “supersedes everything else,” threatening to veto all other bills until the SAVE Act made it to his desk.

But a lot can change in two months. Now, even the bill’s most ardent proponents are viewing the SAVE Act as a lost cause, pointing to vote-a-rama held in the Senate last month that failed to get even 50 votes in support of the bill, with four Republicans joining Democrats in their opposition.

Tabling the SAVE Act is expected to anger the party’s base, and could spark renewed calls to scrap the filibuster—something that the bulk of the GOP, and especially its leadership, does not want to do. The issue has raised tensions between Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has thus far resisted Trump’s pleas to ax the long-standing, minority-power rule.

“I completely understand my colleagues who want to maintain the filibuster. We all want to maintain the filibuster, honestly,” Republican Senator Ron Johnson told Punchbowl. “But I know the Democrats won’t. That’s the only division here.”

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GOP bill earmarks $1B in taxpayer funds for ballroom Trump said donors would cover

Senate Republicans have expanded the scope of their immigration enforcement funding package to include $1 billion for security upgrades in the White House ballroom project and $1.5 billion for the Justice Department’s investigative and prosecutorial efforts.

The filibuster-proof budget reconciliation package that Republicans hope to pass this month provides a total of $71.8 billion through fiscal 2029, designed to last through President Trump’s term.

The bulk of the money, $69.3 billion, will go to the Department of Homeland Security to fund immigration enforcement agents and operations.

Democrats filibustered the annual Homeland Security Department appropriations bill over their objection to funding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol functions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection without significant policy changes.

That led to a record 76-day department shutdown, which ended last week after Congress passed a spending bill that funded the department, except for ICE and Border Patrol.

The budget reconciliation package is designed to fill those gaps. It provides $38.2 billion for ICE and $26.1 billion for CBP, as well as $5 billion in additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security, to be used largely at its discretion.

Much of the language describing the allowable uses of the funding is purposefully broad.

Still, it has a few specifications, including that $3.5 billion of the Border Patrol funding be set aside for upgrades of border surveillance and screening technology and “new platforms for rapid air and marine response capabilities.”

The $1 billion for the White House ballroom also falls under the Homeland Security Department. The funds are directed to the Secret Service for “security adjustments and upgrades” related to the project.

The Secret Service is planning to build an annex underneath the ballroom, along with other military-grade security infrastructure. The ballroom itself will include security features, such as bulletproof glass and counter-drone technology.

The bill says the $1 billion cannot be used for nonsecurity elements of the ballroom project. However, that figure is more than double the projected $400 million cost of the East Wing renovation.

Mr. Trump has raised the bulk of the funding needed through private donations, and some Republicans may object to taxpayer funds being spent on the ballroom project.

The reconciliation package also includes $1.5 billion for the Department of Justice, giving it wide latitude to spend the money.

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Governor Kay Ivey Calls Special Session to Redraw Alabama Maps – Delivering a COMPLETELY REPUBLICAN Congressional Delegation

It is now official.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has called a special session of the Alabama Legislature for Monday, May 4, ordering lawmakers back to Montgomery to redraw the state’s congressional maps after the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling declaring race-based gerrymandering unconstitutional.

In a formal proclamation issued Friday, Ivey stated the Legislature would consider “primary elections” legislation and redraw districts whose boundaries were altered by prior court rulings, injunctions, or judicial orders.

That means Alabama Republicans are moving swiftly to reclaim control of congressional lines that had been reshaped through years of legal warfare and activist court intervention.

For years, Alabama has been at the center of a bitter redistricting battle after left-wing groups sued to force the state into creating a second Black-opportunity congressional district. Federal courts repeatedly interfered with maps passed by elected lawmakers, overriding the will of Alabama voters.

But the legal landscape changed dramatically this week after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the use of race as the predominant factor in redistricting, dealing a massive blow to the race-based mapmaking agenda pushed by Democrats and activist groups.

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Former Congressman David Rivera Convicted of Lobbying for Venezuela

Former Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.) was found guilty on Friday of secretly lobbying on behalf of Venezuela’s government, following a seven-week federal trial.

Rivera—alongside associate Esther Nuhfer—was convicted on all charges, including failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiring to commit money laundering.

Prosecutors said the pair worked for the government of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as part of a covert influence campaign.

According to the government’s case, Rivera leveraged his Republican political connections, including ties from his time in Congress, to push U.S. officials to ease their stance toward Venezuela’s socialist leadership.

Prosecutors alleged that Rivera secured a $50 million lobbying deal from Venezuelan official Delcy Rodríguez, with funds connected to the state oil company PDVSA.

As part of the effort, Rivera worked with Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and others to arrange meetings with U.S. officials and business leaders.

Sessions has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

The case highlighted Miami’s long-standing role as a center of influence in U.S.–Latin America relations, shaped by its large exile community and history of anti-communist activism.

Rivera was first charged in 2022. Prosecutors said he used encrypted communications to conceal his activities, including a messaging group called “MIA.”

One of his key contacts was Venezuelan businessman Raúl Gorrín, who has separately faced U.S. bribery charges.

Messages presented at trial allegedly showed the use of coded language—referring to Maduro as “the bus driver,” Sessions as “Sombrero,” and money as “melons.”

Rivera denied any wrongdoing.

His defense argued that his firm was hired by a U.S.-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s oil company, not directly by the Venezuelan government, and therefore did not require registration under foreign agent laws.

They also said his work focused on business matters, including helping Citgo operate in the United States, and on encouraging political change in Venezuela.

However, prosecutors pointed to a related civil case alleging Rivera performed little of the contracted work and used the agreement to mask illegal lobbying.

Of the roughly $20 million he received, they said millions were diverted to personal expenses, including maintaining Gorrín’s luxury yacht.

Prosecutors said Rivera viewed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a key ally for gaining access to senior U.S. officials. Rubio was not accused of any misconduct.

Court records showed Rivera met with Rubio in Washington in 2017 and later encouraged him to support negotiations with Maduro, suggesting the United States should help facilitate a peaceful resolution.

The effort ultimately failed.

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Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Tighten US Ban on Chinese Vehicles

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation aimed at strengthening a U.S. government ban on Chinese automakers accessing the U.S. market, citing national security concerns.

Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) introduced the Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 on April 29, which would codify a Commerce Department rule that effectively bars all Chinese automakers from selling passenger vehicles in the United States and take other measures to block China from entering the U.S. light-duty market.

“The American auto industry is the backbone of the American industrial economy, we cannot afford to make the same mistakes globalists have made for decades and see these great American companies devastated by predatory and massively subsidized Chinese state enterprises hellbent on the destruction of our economy,” Moreno said in a statement.

“As Europe, Mexico, and others allow their markets to be overrun by Chinese predators, the U.S. must act before it’s too late. The answer is simple: Chinese vehicles can never be allowed into the U.S. market—the fate of the American auto industry and countless autoworkers depends on it.”

The legislation would ban internet-connected vehicles and related hardware and software tied to the Chinese regime or other foreign adversaries from being imported, manufactured, sold, or resold in the United States.

It would empower the Commerce Department to identify and block technologies or parts deemed national security threats from entering the U.S. market.

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