Tag Archives: Kevin McCarthy

Could Pelosi Be President?

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by Daveda Gruber

Even President Trump brought it up. Is it possible that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi could become president if the 2020 election is delayed or if the Electoral College has not yet named a successor?

Well, it depends on lots other factors.

Judge Andrew Napolitano, who is a senior judicial analyst for FOX News, has a theory.

While on FOX Business with Stuart Varney, Napolitano said, “It might be right. President Trump’s term ends at precisely noon on Jan. 20, 2021. If the Electoral College has not yet named a successor, presumably either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, then whoever is the speaker of the House would become the acting president of the United States.”

He went on to say, “If the Democrats retain their majority in the House, and it appears likely that they will, but if they do, and if they choose Mrs. Pelosi, knowing at that point that they’re choosing the president of the United States, then it would be she.”

The judge added, “Stated simply, whoever is the sitting speaker of the United States, would become president at noon on Jan. 20, 2021, if the Electoral College has failed to elect someone.”

So then, if the House gets flipped, the Speaker of the House would be a Republican. That person would likely be House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and he would become the interim president.

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, and an absolute majority of at least 270 electoral votes is required to win the election.

But I see another scenario that could happen. If ballots are not counted because of mail in ballots and the Post office’s inability to deliver them in time, the Electoral College doesn’t have the ability to see who was elected. They also don’t know who would have the majority in the House or the Senate, for that matter.

According to the Constitution,  Congress would run the country. But then the outgoing Congress would not be known nor would the incoming Congress be known.

That would lead to an unprecedented situation. There is no law in place that would cover this type of a circumstance.

Hopefully, enough votes will be counted to determine a winner.

My prediction is that when all is said and done, we will have re-elected Trump.

McCarthy Blames Pelosi for Personal Wish List

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by Daveda Gruber

On Sunday House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wasn’t timid in blaming Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi D- Calif., for her personal wish list being the problem for Congress not being able to pass another stimulus bill.

McCarthy also defended the use of executive orders by President Trump.

The executive orders defer payroll taxes and replace already expired unemployment befits, as of August 1st, but with a lower amount that would be up to $400 payments each week, one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving.

Trump’s executive orders extends previous unemployment benefits, which expired on Aug. 1, was fully funded by Washington, but Trump is asking states to now cover 25 percent.

McCarthy did an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures” a day after Trump signed his executive orders following the collapse of negotiations with Congress on a new coronavirus rescue package and said, “Remember, every time we’ve done legislation when it comes to COVID, Nancy Pelosi has always held it up for her own personal wish list. Remember when we did the Cares Act, she held it up for more than a week when thousands of people were being unemployed because she wanted more money for the arts and the Kennedy Center…now when we are sitting here coming forward with people unemployed again, she held it up.”

There may be legal challenges over control of federal spending.

Still, Trump cast his actions as necessary because lawmakers have been unable to reach an agreement to put more money into the economy.

A failing economy isn’t a good factor for the president in the upcoming November reelection.

Trump is seeking to set aside $44 billion in previously approved disaster aid to help states. It would be up to states to determine how much to spend and when.

McCarthy said, “What President Trump did, he really showed he was the one person in the room that put people before politics.”

He also went on to say that Trump said, “You know what? I’m going to continue to help the people on unemployment. If you’re going to continue to play these games, I’m going to take action and put America first instead of your own personal ambitions.”

McCarthy tweeted:

Trump’s executive orders extends previous unemployment benefits, which expired on Aug. 1, was fully funded by Washington, but Trump is asking states to now cover 25 percent.

He is seeking to set aside $44 billion in previously approved disaster aid to help states, but said it would be up to states to determine how much, if any of it, to fund, so the benefits could be smaller still.

Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., used their own talking points to criticize what Trump did. They wanted to spend more.

At the start Democrats wanted a $3.4 trillion package, but said they lowered the amount to $2 trillion. Republicans had proposed a $1 trillion plan.

My guess would be that Republicans didn’t want the “pork” that Democrats wanted.

Pelosi and Schumer put out a joint statement which stated, “Today’s meager announcements by the president show President Trump still does not comprehend the seriousness or the urgency of the health and economic crises facing working families. We’re disappointed that instead of putting in the work to solve Americans’ problems, the President instead chose to stay on his luxury golf course to announce unworkable, weak and narrow policy announcements to slash the unemployment benefits that millions desperately need and endanger seniors’ Social Security and Medicare.”

The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden called the orders “a series of half-baked measures” and accused him of putting at risk Social Security, which is funded by the payroll tax.

There was also a Republican Senator, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who is a member of the Senate’s Judiciary and Finance panels, who had negative comments for the president.

Sasse said, “The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop.”

He added that Trump “does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law. Under the Constitution, that power belongs to the American people acting through their members of Congress.”

You can’t please all of the people all of the time but the Congress, especially Pelosi and Schumer, must have added money for their own benefit and/or the DNC in general.

In the end, it’s our tax dollars that are being spent and personally, I don’t want to fund the DNC nor do I wish to keep Pelosi with ice cream, chocolate and vodka.

 

Pelosi Swears in New GOP Congressmen

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by Daveda Gruber:

On Tuesday Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., swore in two GOP congressmen into office.

The two seats went from blue to red in special elections that were held on May 12th.

Mike Garcia, R-Calif., and Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., both won their elections and the Speaker swore them into office today while Republican leaders flaunted the wins as a shift in momentum moving forward to the November election.

Pelosi saw things in a different manner. She actually expressed confidence that Democrats will retake the California seat in November. She believes that the loss in the special election happened due to the unusual circumstance that the pandemic brought.

Last week Pelosi said, “We intend to win that seat in November. We don’t see it as any referendum on anything other than it’s the first time we had vote-by-mail in the district … overwhelmingly.”

After being sworn in, Garcia and Tiffany joined House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for a press conference.

McCarthy was quick to say that these two wins will have a ripple effect for Republicans retaking the House.

McCarthy said, “This is an early indication of what November looks like.”

Republicans needed nineteen seats to win back control of the House last year but now need seventeen.

Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey switched parties late last year and became a Republican. His decision was made because he didn’t want to go along party lines to impeach President Trump.

Van Drew was thanked by Trump and Trump held a big campaign rally in his district in January.

Garcia is a former Navy combat pilot. He flipped California’s 25th congressional district from blue to red after freshman Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., resigned from the seat in October 2019.

Garcia said, “I can think of no better place right now to serve my country than in the House of Representatives.”

Tiffany is a former state senator. He won the seat in Wisconsin that was vacated by GOP Rep. Sean Duffy.

Tiffany said, “People want reform. They want our country to get back up on its feet again. And that means government needs to be responsive to the citizens of this country. That’s what I will fight for every day.”

It appears that having three seats flip from blue to red in elections and one simply by choice, doesn’t sound positive for Pelosi to be bragging about holding the House.

McCarthy seems to be on the right side for bragging rights as the number nineteen has dwindled to seventeen.

Let’s take back the House in November and while we’re at it, let’s increase our numbers in the Senate.

Vote RED down the line in November and Keep America Great!

 

Republicans Angry Over Pelosi Oversight Committee

 
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by Daveda Gruber:

It appears that Republicans are, once again, not happy with Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and her move to create a new House committee in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

As I explained yesterday, there is already oversight measures built into the stimulus bill that was passed last week.

Pelosi insisted that the committee was unbiased but Republicans are not buying what she’s selling.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has expressed his opinion on the bill in detail.

While on “Fox & Friends” Friday, McCarthy said, “This isn’t about oversight, it sounds like pure politics. Let’s take care of the crisis at hand right now. We have five different oversights already looking at this and this is what she comes up with?”

McCarthy also stated, “That’s why in the CARES act we implemented three new oversight entities within there that [Pelosi] has an appointment to, but we already have the Oversight Committee only to focus on this, and we also have…every single committee has an oversight subcommittee.”

He went on to say, “It seems to me that this is just politics as usual instead of focusing on the crisis we need to be today, focusing on the American public and getting the resources to them.”

McCarthy brought to light that the $2 trillion CARES Act that passed Congress last week already has oversight in it.

Measures consist of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, made up of inspectors general to locate and investigate waste and abuse of spending under the bill, and in response to the crisis. It also sets up a Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery to conduct oversight over stimulus spending by the Treasury.

On top of all that, is a Congressional Oversight Commission set to oversee spending by the Department of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve that is required to send reports to Congress every 30 days.

On Thursday Pelosi announced that she is creating a House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis. She also stated that the committee will appoint both Democrats and Republicans and that it would have subpoena power to seek information from the Trump administration.

She went on to say that Democrats would hope that there would be cooperation because this was not a kind of an investigation of the administration but that it was about the whole response.

On Thursday President Trump said, “I want to remind everyone here in our nation’s capital, especially in Congress, that this is not the time for politics, endless partisan investigations. Here we go again. They’ve already done extraordinary damage to our country in recent years.”

Trump also said, “It’s witch hunt after witch hunt after witch hunt. And in the end it’s people doing the witch hunt who are losing  ̶̶ ̶  and they’ve been losing by a lot. And it’s not any time for witch hunts.”

The President also sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. I do love a well written letter!

You can see it here in this tweet by a friend of mine:

I guess Trump is getting upset with the wasteful spending and the actions of the Democrats. I know I’m upset with all the nonsense that is actually going on.

Do the job that you were paid to do Democrats!

Pelosi Creating New Oversight Committee

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by Daveda Gruber:

On Thursday the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, announced that she is creating a new House committee to oversee the coronavirus response.

The committee will have subpoena power to seek out information from the Trump administration, Pelosi said on Thursday during a teleconference call with reporters.

The Democratic Speaker from California said, “”It would have subpoena power that’s for sure. It’s no use having a committee unless you have subpoena power. And we would hope that there would be cooperation because this is not a kind of an investigation of the administration it’s about the whole [response].”

James Clyburn, the Democratic Representative from South Carolina will chair the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis.

Pelosi said that the committee will be bipartisan and have both Democrats and GOP members appointed to it.

In 1941 a committee chaired by former Senator Harry Truman was set up to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in defense spending in the early days of World War II and Pelosi compared her new committee to that one.

In reference to large stimulus bill that was just recently passed Pelosi said, “With over $2 trillion in emergency relief, we need to ensure those dollars are spent carefully and effectively.”

She went on to say, “The committee will be empowered to examine all aspects of the federal response to the coronavirus, and to assure that the taxpayer dollars are being wisely and efficiently spent to save lives, deliver relief and benefit our economy.”

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA., spoke to reporters on a separate call and appeared to have concerns about

McCarthy hasn’t said who would lead his side or who would participate but he did say that he was concerned about the choice of Clyburn because Clyburn had called the COVID-19 crisis an opportunity  to restructure things to fit the Democratic vision.

McCarthy said, “The other concern that I have from this standpoint is inside the bill that we passed, we did put in oversight and it seems really redundant.”

If McCarty says that oversight is already taken care of, then this new committee could be a wasteful expenditure.

Unfortunately, the Democrats certainly know how to add expenses to everything that they do. They certainly added expenses (pork) to the stimulus bill and I did explain those expenses in detail in my article on 03.30.2020.

This new Pelosi invented committee is not the same as the one proposed by Representative Adam Schiff, D-CA., and others, which would be more like the 9/11-style after-action committee.
In any case, any committees that are created will ultimately cost us, the taxpayers, more money.

Do Lawmakers Want Another COVID-19 Bill?

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by Daveda Gruber:

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are already considering another stimulus package for the COVID-19 outbreak.

The largest piece of legislation in U.S. history for $2.2 trillion was passed last week. That legislation Which is set in place to provide economic relief has $350 billion in funding for small businesses.

Businesses with fewer than 500 employees are eligible for up to $10 million in loans. The loans can be used for payroll,  insurance premiums, mortgages, rent or utilities.

On Monday Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would be willing to ask Congress for more money to help during the coronavirus outbreak.

Congressional Republicans and Democrats had indicated that there could be a fourth coronavirus response bill.

Mnuchin told Fox Business, “This is a very popular program with Republicans and Democrats, and the president likes it a lot. If we run out of money, and this is a huge success, we will absolutely go back to Congress and ask for more money.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told The Hill, “I think the odds are we’ll need more legislation. First, we don’t know the extent of the crisis in terms of the magnitude, so that could rise. But there are going to be problems that we don’t realize now that we’re going to have to grapple with. So I think the odds are high there will be a COVID-4.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told CNN that Democrats “had bigger direct payments in our bill, and we think we’ll get more direct payments in another bill.”

Pelosi added that she planned to push for pension protections which did not make it into phase three of the stimulus package. Last week Pelosi said that pension protections were supported by President Trump, but that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would save it for another piece of legislation.

In a fourth stimulus package, Democrats are allegedly seeking additional funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is also known as food stamps. Also being reported, is including emissions restrictions on airlines. That inclusion was blocked last week.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has stressed that phase three of coronavirus legislation that was approved last week, was critical, but he wasn’t certain that another bill would be necessary.

McCartthy was on Fox News and said, “I’m not sure we need a fourth package. And before we go to start drafting a fourth package, I’d like these three packages just put out…to take care and get this economy moving.”

Last week New York Govenor Andrew Cuomo said, “The congressional action in my opinion simply failed to address the governmental need. I’m disappointed, I said I was disappointed. I find it irresponsible, I find it reckless.”

He also said that the money New York does receive from the stimulus package was “earmarked only for COVID virus expenses, which means it does absolutely nothing for us in terms of lost revenue.”

The 880-page coronavirus stimulus package helps many people but the amount of money that have nothing to do with the COVID-19 outbreak is very high.

Here is a list of the money and where it goes:

The entire bill can be seen here:

https://www.scribd.com/document/453273118/Cares-Act-Final-Text

If there is more money given in a fourth bill, more pork will be added. We are in big debt now. I agree that the third bill was needed but there’s also a lot of pork in it. To get money from Democratic lawmakers is tricky. They always want something that has nothing to do with the issues at hand.

Why Did Whistleblower Attorney Appear on CNN?

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by Daveda Gruber:

Attorney, Mark Zaid, who represents the whistleblower who is smack right in the middle of the Democrats’ ongoing impeachment inquiry, said that CNN will play a key role in removing President Trump from office.

Zaid, who never liked Trump, is the attorney for the whistleblower who is allegedly Eric Ciaramella, who is another person who doesn’t like Trump.

Zaid appeared as somewhat of a regular guest on CNN, and in fact, appeared at least eleven times since 2017.

After one of Zaid’s appearances on the liberal leaning CNN, Zaid was tweeting that CNN will play a key role in Trump not finishing his term as president. He tweeted

CNN has a reputation for glorifying anti-Trump guests and the network itself as it puts out dirt on the president or distorts Trump’s comments on a regular basis.

CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker has a longstanding feud with President Trump.

Zaid defended his posts as common sentiments and that can been seen in the tweets that Zaid has put out. He contends that his tweet referring to a coup was referring to a lawful process.

Zaid tweeted this in 2017:

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy said, “We should take [Zaid] at his word that this is a coordinated, premeditated plot to overturn the election.”

Trump tweeted about Zaid’s tweets with this:

It’s easy to determine that Zaid is not a fan of the president. It’s also quite clear in most people’s minds that CNN is definitely not pro-Trump. Putting the two ingredients together, we can see the reasoning behind what they were attempting to do. The aforementioned parties were attempting to get Trump out of office.

It is my opinion that both Zaid and CNN don’t really care how they get the president out. Will they lie and cheat to do it? You decide.

 

McCarthy Calls on Pelosi to End Impeachment Inquiry

 
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by Daveda Gruber:

On Thursday House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy R-Calif., sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling on her to suspend the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Citing the need for “transparent and equitable rules and procedures” to be established, McCarthy criticized Pelosi about the “swiftness and recklessness” which House committee chairs have proceeded with the impeachment inquiry.

McCarthy also brought up the need for Republican participation in the proceedings.

McCarthy said in his letter, “Unfortunately, you have given no clear indication as to how your impeachment inquiry will proceed – including whether key historical precedents or basic standards of due process will be observed. In addition, the swiftness and recklessness with which you have proceeded has already resulted in committee chairs attempting to limit minority participation in scheduled interviews, calling into question the integrity of such an inquiry.”

The Minority leader took to Twitter and tweeted:

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was alleged to have been leaning to limiting Republicans’ ability to ask questions during Thursday’s testimony by former U.S. envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker.

Quite a few questions were posed to Pelosi by McCarthy in the letter. He asks Pelosi if she has plans to hold a full House vote on authorizing the impeachment inquiry.

McCarthy, in the letter, also asks the speaker whether or not she plans to grant subpoena powers to both the committee chairs and the ranking members. It also asks Pelosi whether she’ll allow trump’s lawyers to attend the hearings.

Generally, it appears that McCarthy was asking Pelosi for a fair shake in the questioning of former American diplomat Kurt Volker.

There are representatives from the Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committees, but only the Intelligence Committee can ask questions.

Republicans who have been in the closed door session are already commenting.

Jim Jordan R-OH., came out of the non-televised session during a break and spoke to reporters.

Here is what he had to say:

According to Jordan, Volker, who resigned from his post as the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine until his resignation on September 27, 2019, voluntarily answered questions and gave responses that were not to the detriment of the president.

This impeachment investigation started over a phone call in which Trump allegedly asked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s family’s dealings in the Ukraine.

It is alleged that Trump threatened to withhold $400 million in military aid unless the Ukraine investigated Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s dealing with that country.

Is Amash the Latest Fool on the Hill?

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by Daveda Gruber:

There are many fools on Capitol Hill and a GOP Representative, within the last 48 hours, has just become the newest “Fool on the Hill”.

Justin Amash made statements that President Trump “engaged in impeachable conduct”. It did not take long for another Republican to rise up to challenge Amash in the upcoming primary election.

Amash has served as the representative for Michigan’s Third District since 2011. Amash tweeted his statements on Saturday after reading a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

Amash is not fond of Trump and he made that clear when on May 18, 2019 he tweeted this:

On Monday morning Michigan state Rep. Jim Lower announced that instead of seeking a third term in the state legislature, he will run against Amash for their party’s nomination for the 2020 election.

Lower, according to the Detroit Free Press, said, “Congressman Justin Amash tweets yesterday calling for President Trump’s impeachment show how out of touch he is with the truth and how out of touch he is with people he represents.”

Lower has described himself as “pro-Trump” and he was going to announce his plan to challenge Amash on July 4. Lower accused Amash of siding with left-wing Democrats against Trump and it was Amash’s tweets that inspired Lower to announce his run to challenge Amash sooner.

Lower, as you can see reported in this video below, said, “Amash has not only failed to support President Trump as the President works to make the United States stronger and safer, he has now united with radical liberals like Democratic Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib to try and bring down our President.”

The feelings that Amash has for Trump have brought Trump’s regard towards Amash out into the open.

Trump tweed this:

Needless to say, not all Republicans have stood by Amash’s opinions.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was on “Sunday Morning Futures” this weekend and said, “This is exactly what he wants, he wants to have attention.”

McCarthy also expressed doubt over Amash’s Republican leanings in general. He said, “You’ve got to understand Justin Amash. He’s been in Congress quite some time. I think he’s asked one question in all the committees that he’s been in. He votes more with Nancy Pelosi than he ever votes with me. It’s a question whether he’s even in our Republican conference as a whole.”