Pelosi rejects GOP Reps. Jim Banks and Jim Jordan for the Jan. 6 committee, saying they could hurt “the integrity of the investigation."
Why?
Oh, both voted to overturn the presidential election based on a lie that fueled the insurrection that day. huffpost.com/entry/nancy-pe…
“With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these Members, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee."
Kevin McCarthy has responded by saying he's pulling all 5 of his GOP picks from the committee.
Also the committee is charged with investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection that was fueled by the same lie he told about voter fraud when he voted to overturn the presidential election.
In other words, guy who voted to overturn presidential election based on lie that fueled insurrection acts mad that other guys who voted to overturn election based on lie that fueled insurrection aren't allowed on panel to investigate insurrection.
(This is all very circular.)
McCarthy et al are now holding a press conference to look mad that Republicans who voted to overturn the election based on a lie that fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection being excluded from a committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection
McCarthy's decision to angrily pull all 5 GOPers from the committee and then immediately hold a press conference with all of them is happening so fast, it's... almost as if this was planned in advance so they could make a show of acting very mad.
It's almost as if -- and hear me out to on this -- McCarthy et al want to make sure their base sees them acting very mad about this in order to fire them up and then raise some money off of it for themselves.
What a coincidence -- House GOP Conference chair Elise Stefanik has a lengthy, nonsensical statement out criticizing Pelosi for this decision.
How did she write this so fast??
So much nonsense, ugliness, spin by GOP leaders in all this
Remember how plans for this committee even began? House Dems + GOPers worked together to stand up an independent, bipartisan commission -- and even had a deal. Then McConnell killed it, so McCarthy went along with him.
And the deal that House Dems + GOPers struck on the independent bipartisan commission involved Dems conceding all kinds of things they wanted -- when they didn't have to. They did anyway.
And then McConnell/McCarthy killed the deal anyway.
Now McCarthy is holding his press conf saying how terrible Pelosi is.
"Pelosi has broken this institution," says McCarthy, who voted to overturn the presidential election based on the same lie about voter fraud that fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
McCarthy says a committee chosen by one person can't work... an hour after he pulled all of his members from that committee just to hold a press conference like this.
This is 100 percent performative anger.
McCarthy says Pelosi is "a lame duck speaker" who is going to "destroy this institution."
What?
I think literally every sentence out of McCarthy's mouth right now is nonsensical.
"Pelosi knows we were prepared to fight for the truth," says Rep. Jim Banks.
The truth is that Banks voted to overturn the presidential election based on a lie about voter fraud that fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection.
"Democrats normalize anarchy," Rep. Jim Jordan* declares for some reason.
*Jordan voted to overturn the presidential election based on a lie about voter fraud that fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection.
That was one of the most disingenuous bullshit press conferences I've ever seen on Capitol Hill in like ~15 years of covering Congress.
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Hi. While I've got you here: You voted to overturn the presidential election based on a lie about voter fraud that fueled a deadly Capitol insurrection. Why should any of the 147 Republicans who rejected democracy that day, including you, play a role in investigating that attack?
As a follow-up question: Of those 147 Republicans I just referenced, 139 of them -- including you -- also voted against standing up an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.
Six months in, Biden has already appointed more Black women to lifetime seats on federal appeals courts than all but one president in U.S. history. huffpost.com/entry/joe-bide…
Only 11 Black women have *ever* served as a federal appeals court judge since the U.S. courts were formed in 1789.
Of those 11, three have been appointed by Biden in the six months he's been in office. huffpost.com/entry/joe-bide…
And those 11 Black women are out of a total of 838 people who have been appointed to lifetime seats on U.S. appeals courts since... 1789.
Tonight, the Senate voted 63-33 to confirm Tiffany Cunningham to be a lifetime judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
She will be the court's first-ever Black judge.
She's also Biden's third appeals court judge confirmed. All have been Black women.
For a little context:
In four years, Trump appointed zero Black women to any federal appeals court seat.
For a little more context:
Only 11 Black women have *ever* served as a federal appeals court judge since the U.S. courts were formed in 1789. That includes today's confirmation of Cunningham.
Of those 11, 3 have been appointed by Biden in the six months he's been in office.
Five more of Biden's nominees to lifetime federal court seats are getting their Senate confirmation hearing today.
Up first, Myrna Perez, Biden's pick for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
She's a voting rights attorney and if confirmed, she'd be the only Latina on that court.
Just watched GOP Sen. John Kennedy do what he does all the time in these hearings:
Repeatedly interrupt a female nominee after asking her to answer a "simple" question that is not simple. And then complain and/or say he can't support her because she didn't answer his question.
This basically went on for 5 minutes:
Kennedy: Are you gonna use the Constitution to try to create new rights?
Perez: Senator, appellate court judges don't create new rights.
After secretly leaving their state to kill a voter suppression bill, 50+ Texas Democratic lawmakers plan to hunker down in D.C. for the next month to beg Congress to protect the voting rights that they can't huffpost.com/entry/texas-de…
I caught up with one of these Texas Dems, @jamestalarico, to talk about how 50+ lawmakers came up with the plan to leave the state, how long they’re prepared to stay in DC + what their endgame is back in Texas.
Talarico said Texas Ds are well aware that Gov. Abbott can keep calling special sessions til the GOP passes the voter suppression bill. They can't stay in DC forever.
"This is not a long-term plan to kill this bill....We are living on borrowed time. We are buying Congress time."