Democrats ramp up pressure on Mike Johnson to swear in lawmaker who would vote to release Epstein files – live | US Congress
‘Stop covering up for the pedophiles’: senator chides Johnson’s decision to delay swearing in Arizona lawmaker In the halls of Congress, Mike Johnson, the House speaker, spoke to Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both Democratic senators, about his decision to push swearing in Adelita Grijalva, the representative-elect, until the House returns to session. When Gallego…
‘Stop covering up for the pedophiles’: senator chides Johnson’s decision to delay swearing in Arizona lawmaker
In the halls of Congress, Mike Johnson, the House speaker, spoke to Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both Democratic senators, about his decision to push swearing in Adelita Grijalva, the representative-elect, until the House returns to session.
When Gallego said that Johnson was staving off the oath because Grijalva would be the final vote needed to force a House vote on the release of the Epstein files, the House speaker called the claim “absurd” and a “publicity stunt”.
“Get your people in, and stop covering up for the pedophiles,” Gallego told Johnson. For his part, the speaker said that he is not “blocking” Grijalva from being sworn in, but forcing Senate Democrats’ hand to advance the House-passed funding bill and reopen the government. “They need to go and vote to reopen the government. The House has done its work,” Johnson said.
Key events
Pam Bondi just mentioned the arrest of right-wing influencer Nick Sortor, who was arrested by police in Portland, Oregon last week while covering the ongoing protests outside an immigration facility. Bondi said that Sortor was “protecting himself against Antifa”.
“He was pushed down and assaulted, yet the local police arrested Nick, not the Antifa thugs who did this to him,” Bondi added.
Trump, who has spent his time in politics denigrating the mainstream press, has spent this roundtable heralding the conservative “independent journalists” as heroes.
The attorney general is now speaking at the roundtable event:
This is not activism, it’s anarchy. We can’t and we will not let mask terrorists burn our buildings, attack our law enforcement and intimidate our communities.
Trump congratulates Bondi on combative Senate hearing
The president just congratulated attorney general Pam Bondi, who is sitting to his right, on the way she handled her oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week.
“It was amazing, and she just did it from the heart and the brain, because she’s very smart in all fairness,” Trump said. “She did an incredible, and everybody was talking about it.”
Donald Trump is now holding a roundtable on Antifa, the disparate left-wing group that he designated as a “domestic terrorist organization” recently.
He’s now listing examples of attacks against federal agents which he’s attributed to Antifa, and also suggested that the man charged with shooting Charlie Kirk was a member of the group. A reminder that law enforcement officials have not established a link between Tyler Robinson and any specific group.
“The epidemic of left wing violence and Antifa inspired terror has been escalating for nearly a decade,” Trump said.
IRS to furlough more than 34,000 workers as government shutdown continues
The Internal Revenue Service will furlough more than 34,000 employees according to a statement. It accounts for almost half of the agency’s workforce.
The treasury department’s new contingency plan means that due to the “lapse in appropriations” an agency-wide furlough began on 8 October “for everyone except already-identified excepted and exempt employees”.
According to the plan, while tax-filing preparations will stay in place, many taxpayer services will stop.
Democratic lawmakers say that vote on Epstein files is reason behind delay to swear in Arizona congresswoman
Per my earlier post, at today’s press conference Jeffries also added to the ongoing chorus of Democratic lawmakers calling on House speaker Mike Johsnon to swear in representative-elect Adelita Grijalva.
“There is no dispute or controversy relative to her election. And so many of us are asking the question, ‘why the delay Mike?’,” the minority leader said. “Does it have anything to do with Republicans, continuing effort to hide the Epstein files from the American people? Inquiring minds want to know.”
A reminder, Grijalva would provide the 218th signature needed on the bipartisan discharge petition to force a House vote on the release of the Epstein files.
Jeffries says Democrats will meet ‘anytime, anyplace, anywhere’ to negotiate on funding bill
Hakeem Jeffries, the House’s top Democrat, has said that members of his party are willing to “anytime, anyplace, anywhere” to negotiate a short term funding bill that includes several health care points they are pushing for.
“These extremists don’t even want to show up to work when they’re requiring hard working federal employees to show up to work without pay because of the Republican shutdown,” Jeffries added, referring to Republican speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to cancel votes, and keep the House out of session until the Senate passes a funding extension to reopen the government.
‘Stop covering up for the pedophiles’: senator chides Johnson’s decision to delay swearing in Arizona lawmaker
In the halls of Congress, Mike Johnson, the House speaker, spoke to Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both Democratic senators, about his decision to push swearing in Adelita Grijalva, the representative-elect, until the House returns to session.
When Gallego said that Johnson was staving off the oath because Grijalva would be the final vote needed to force a House vote on the release of the Epstein files, the House speaker called the claim “absurd” and a “publicity stunt”.
“Get your people in, and stop covering up for the pedophiles,” Gallego told Johnson. For his part, the speaker said that he is not “blocking” Grijalva from being sworn in, but forcing Senate Democrats’ hand to advance the House-passed funding bill and reopen the government. “They need to go and vote to reopen the government. The House has done its work,” Johnson said.
Angus King, an independent senator of Maine, issued a new statement about his decision to vote for the House-passed funding bill. King caucuses with the Democrats, who have made healthcare provisions – particularly the extension of expiring ACA subsidies – a key part of their pushback against Republicans.
“As serious as the health insurance crisis is, I believe the shutdown itself and the additional powers it conveys to Donald Trump and his henchmen, is the greater risk. The greatest challenge our country faces right now is the accelerating slide toward authoritarianism,” King said.
He added that the decision to break from the party was not easy: “I have determined that preserving our democracy has to be the highest priority. I hope I’m wrong about this risk, but the stakes are too high to take that chance.”
Senate fails again to pass short term funding bill as government shutdown enters eighth day
The Senate has rejected a House-passed funding bill that would keep the government funded until 21 November.
This is the sixth attempt to pass an extension, as the shutdown enters its eighth day.
With a vote of 54-45, lawmakers in the upper chamber failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the bill.
Again, the same three lawmakers broke ranks with the Democratic party and voted “yes” on the continuing resolution written by Republicans. Only one GOP senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted “no”.
The Senate also rejected the Democrats’ version of the funding patch, which includes several health care provisions. Failing to pass the dueling bills leaves Washington in gridlock.
Joaquin Castro, a Democratic representative of Texas, has urged the Senate to vote on a resolution introduced by California’s Senator Adam Schiff and Virginia’s Senator Tim Kaine to halt the US military from attacking vessels near Venezuela.
In a statement on Wednesday, Castro said:
“Over the last few months, the Trump administration has pursued illegal military action in the Caribbean and are preparing for what looks like a regime change military operation in Venezuela. Without a vote and without public debate. Later today, the Senate will have the opportunity to vote for @SenAdamSchiff and @SenTimKaine‘s resolution to prevent Trump from taking us into yet another endless war. I urge Senators to vote yes.”
The resolution, which was introduced under the War Powers Act, would stop US military strikes against vessels in the area which Donald Trump has accused of being illegal drug-trafficking boats.
On Saturday, US forces struck another alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela, marking the latest attack in at least four strikes in the Caribbean against such suspected vessels.
George Chidi
The US supreme court is hearing arguments in a lawsuit challenging an Illinois law governing how the state counts mailed-in absentee ballots received after election day.
Arguments center on who has standing to challenge the law, not whether the practice itself is constitutionally valid.
Republicans have been eager to challenge mail-in ballots, with Donald Trump centering it in his attacks on the electoral process. Mike Bost, a Republican representative from Illinois, filed the suit to argue that the Illinois law allowing ballots to be counted up to two weeks after election day if they are postmarked by the deadline unconstitutionally allows an extension of the election period.
Lower courts threw Bost’s suit out, ruling that the conservative congressman in his fifth term did not suffer an injury and had no standing to sue. The appeal argues that the cost of staffing a campaign past election day is a financial injury giving him sufficient standing to challenge the law.
“[C]andidates have standing to challenge the rules that govern their elections,” the appeal argues, “especially when … the challenged rule produces an inaccurate final tally.”
For the full story, click here:
Dharna Noor
Donald Trump has placed dozens of people with ties to the fossil fuel sector in his administration, including more than 40 who have directly worked for oil, gas or coal companies, according to a new analysis.
The report from Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy and ethics non-profit that has been critical of the Trump administration, alongside the Revolving Door Project, a corporate watchdog, analyzed the backgrounds of nominees and appointees within the White House and eight agencies dictating energy, environmental and climate policy. That includes the Environmental Protection Agency, the interior and energy departments and others.
The analysis comes as Trump wages broad attacks on climate and energy policies and on renewable energy. The president’s so-called one big beautiful act, for instance, opened swaths of federal land to drilling and mining and enshrined the rapid phaseout of incentives for renewable energy.
For the full story, click here:
Johnson says federal workers should receive back pay, despite White House mixed messaging
Mike Johnson, the House speaker, said today that he does believe furloughed federal workers should and will get paid, despite mixed messaging from the White House which has suggested that employees might not be guaranteed to back pay.
“There is some other legal analysis that’s floating around, I have yet had time to dig into and read that. But it has always been the case that is tradition, and I think it is statutory law that federal employees be paid,” Johnson said.
He went on to further chastise congressional Democrats, saying that their decision to hold out on passing the Republican-written continuing resolution, leaves them responsible for certain groups of federal workers not getting paid. “They voted that they did not want the troops to be paid. They did not want TSA agents to be paid. They did not want air traffic controllers, border patrol agents and all the rest. They live with that vote. They made that decision,” Johnson said. “The House is done. The ball is now in the Senate’s court. It does us no good to be here dithering on show votes. We did it. We sent the product over. It is clean.”
‘This madness needs to end’ say House Republicans, as shutdown enters eighth day
At a press conference, several House Republicans spoke to reporters as the government shutdown enters its eighth day. “This madness can end. This madness needs to end with sanity finally emerging,” said Steve Scalise, the majority leader, while continuing to blame Senate Democrats for not passing a House-passed funding bill. “Chuck Schumer, if you can’t do the right thing because you’re so afraid of your political job, think about the jobs of millions of families out there who don’t want to have that suffering inflicted on them.”
Throughout the conference, a number of lawmakers continued to push misleading claims that Democrats are “fighting to give illegals health care”. Undocumented immigrants remain ineligible for federally funded healthcare, except for emergency Medicaid – which is required under federal law.
The arraignment of James Comey is now over, according to reporters in the courtroom. The former FBI director’s lawyers are also moving to dismiss the case, arguing that the federal prosecutor who brought the charges against Comey, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed.
A reminder that Trump installed Halligan after he pressured her predecessor, Erik Siebert, to resign. The former US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia had said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Comey and other political adversaries of the president.
Outside the courthouse today, a small group of demonstrators gathered ahead of Comey’s appearance in court to protest against the criminal charges brought against the former FBI director.