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☆ Perry, a Far-Right Incumbent, Faces Shifting Political Ground in Pennsylvania
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Robert Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Like other Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus, Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, the group’s former leader, carries a pungently far-right portfolio. He has been an unswerving loyalist of former President Donald J. Trump. He has voted against aid to Ukraine and against keeping the government open. Such stances are not especially controversial to Republican primary voters. But among archconservative House members, only Mr. Perry must sell those same views to voters in a politically competitive district this November.

Persons: Scott Perry, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Donald J, Trump, archconservative, Perry, Janelle Stelson Organizations: Caucus, Republican, Democratic, Congressional District Locations: Scott Perry of, Ukraine, Pennsylvania’s

☆ Where Kamala Harris Lives, a Little Known History of Enslavement
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Robert Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Three years ago this month, Vice President Kamala Harris moved into her official residence in northwest Washington, a quiet 73-acre enclave where the U.S. Navy keeps an observatory as well as the nation’s master clock. Near the villa, the team had found something else: A brick foundation of a smokehouse used to cure meat. Ms. Harris did not have to be told who had used it. Well before moving to the new residence, the nation’s first Black vice president had been told by aides about the 34 individuals who once lived on the property against their will. A subsequent opinion essay for CQ Roll Call was the first mention of it in the news media.

Persons: Kamala Harris, Harris, Peter, Mary, Ellen Jenkins, Chapman, Sarah, Henry, Joseph, Louisa, Daniel, Eliza Toyer, Towley, Judah, Andrew Yates, Kitty, William, Gilbert, Phillip Silas, Susan, Dennis, Ann Maria, William Carroll, Becky, Milly, Margaret, Mortimer Briscoe, Richard Williams, Mary Young, John Thomas, Mary Brown, John Chapman, William Cyrus Organizations: U.S . Navy Locations: Washington

☆ A Nerve Center for the Right Wing Rises in Washington
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Robert Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the lobby of the grand Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Fla., where a sprawling new force in Washington’s right-wing ecosystem, the Conservative Partnership Institute, was holding its winter conference, the former Trump legal adviser Cleta Mitchell was exultant. “Did you hear the ‘War Room’ today? Bannon was on fire!” she said to a friend. She was referring to the podcast hosted by Stephen K. Bannon, the former Trump White House senior adviser who had been condemning Republican senators for supporting billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine and Israel earlier that day. Ms. Mitchell was among some 150 conservative donors and activists who gathered in Coral Gables earlier this month to celebrate the ascendancy of a group that has become a well-paying sinecure for Trump allies and an incubator for the policies the former president could pursue if elected.

Persons: Trump, Cleta Mitchell, Bannon, Stephen K, Mitchell, Ben Carson, Byron Donalds, Florida — Organizations: Conservative Partnership Institute, Trump White House, Trump, Housing, Urban Development Locations: Coral Gables, Fla, Washington’s, “, Ukraine, Israel, Florida

A lawyer for the chief witness against Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, said on Friday that the witness was cooperating with a House Ethics Committee investigation into whether Mr. Gaetz had sex with an underage girl while he was serving in Congress. Fritz Scheller, a lawyer for Mr. Gaetz’s former friend and political ally Joel Greenberg, said he provided documents to the committee that he said backed up his client’s claims that he witnessed Mr. Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl. Greenberg has and will cooperate with any congressional request,” Mr. Scheller said in an email on Friday. Mr. Greenberg, who pleaded guilty in May 2021 to charges including sex trafficking, is serving an 11-year prison sentence. He had previously cooperated with a Justice Department investigation into whether Mr. Gaetz had engaged in sex trafficking of a minor, a federal offense that carries a minimum of 10 years in prison.

Persons: Matt Gaetz, Gaetz, Fritz Scheller, Gaetz’s, Joel Greenberg, “ Mr, Greenberg, ” Mr, Scheller, Mr Organizations: Republican, Justice Department Locations: Florida

☆ How Mark Meadows Became the Least Trusted Man in Washington
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Robert Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Even without the knowledge that his annual salary as a senior partner at C.P.I. is $847,000, and that he purchased his house overlooking Lake Keowee for $1.6 million six months after the Trump administration came to an end, it would be natural to conclude that Meadows, the 64-year-old former White House chief of staff, is doing very well for himself. The Mark Meadows they know has always been a peerless escape artist, ever ascending over the bridges he has burned. In August, a grand jury in Fulton County, Ga., indicted Meadows on charges related to his alleged participation in a racketeering scheme to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results and keep Trump in office. Two months later, Katherine Faulders of ABC News broke the story that Meadows had been furtively speaking with prosecutors in the federal case being pursued against Trump by the Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith.

Persons: Trump, Jordan’s, Meadows, Mark Meadows, Georgia’s, Katherine Faulders, Jack Smith, — Organizations: White House, Capitol, peerless, Trump, ABC News, Department of Justice, White Locations: Lake Keowee, North Carolina, Fulton County ,

☆ Incarcerated for Life, an Inmate Is Left Behind by Prison Reforms
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-24 | by ( Robert Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“I’ve heard all these Republicans say, ‘Well, we don’t care if Mr. Trump did wrong, we’re going to support him anyway,’” Bonnie Erwin said in a recent phone conversation from prison. Partially paralyzed on his right side from a stroke a decade ago, Mr. Erwin relies on other inmates to push his wheelchair and to type his emails. Mr. Erwin is both a reflection of an earlier era’s draconian prison sentences and an example of how recent reforms can miss their mark. He was convicted by an all-white jury two years before the Supreme Court forbade the racial pruning of jury pools. He was sentenced three years too early to qualify for “compassionate release” under the terms of a law, the First Step Act, signed by President Trump in 2018.

Persons: Donald Trump, “ I’ve, Trump, ’, Bonnie Erwin, Mr, Erwin, President Trump Organizations: Federal Medical Center Locations: Texas, Fort Worth

☆ For an Atlanta Reporter, a Trump Scoop Long in the Making
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Robert Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Chidi, concluding that something odd was taking place on the other side of the door, turned the knob and stepped into history. What he saw, and simultaneously live-streamed from his phone, were six to 10 people who reacted with alarm to his presence. As the source, an 18-year-old Republican activist named CJ Pearson, bustled wordlessly out of the room, Mr. Chidi asked what was going on. Mr. Chidi was soon escorted out of the meeting, but once in the corridor he asked who had reserved the room. Eventually, a clerk informed him that it was the House speaker, David Ralston, a Republican, who had done so at the behest of one of President Donald J. Trump’s lawyers, Ray Smith.

Persons: George Chidi, Chidi, CJ Pearson, bustled, David Ralston, Donald J, Ray Smith, David Shafer, Trump Organizations: State Capitol, Republican, “ Locations: Georgia

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was voting on the floor of the House on the morning of June 23 when she saw her name trending on Twitter. Ms. Greene, a high-profile, right-wing Republican who is no stranger to trending online, flicked through her feed and learned from the internet that two hours earlier, her colleagues in the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus had voted to remove her from the group. Just then, an emissary from the caucus, Representative Ben Cline, Republican of Virginia, approached Ms. Greene. He asked if she would attend a one-on-one meeting with its chairman, Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, who had been waiting to officially announce her ouster until he had spoken to her in person. Ms. Greene balked.

Persons: Marjorie Taylor Greene, Greene, Ben Cline, Scott Perry, Kevin McCarthy’s, Cline, Ms, Perry Organizations: Republican, Caucus Locations: Georgia, ultraconservative, Virginia, Pennsylvania

☆ An Untested Judge in the Trump Documents Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Robert Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a previously obscure Trump judicial appointee, has been viewed with incredulity by much of the legal establishment ever since she issued a ruling temporarily halting the federal investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents. After a conservative appeals court slapped her down, Democrats said she was either incompetent or some kind of black-robed Trojan horse for the MAGA movement. “The notion that she’s inexperienced is misplaced and ignores her exceptional résumé before taking the bench,” said Jesse Panuccio, a prominent Florida defense lawyer who served in the Trump administration as acting associate attorney general. “It also penalizes her for being a mild-mannered woman. Over two hours, she left little doubt as to whose courtroom it was.

Persons: Aileen M, Cannon, MAGA, ”, Jesse Panuccio, Trump, Judge Cannon Organizations: Trump Locations: Florida, Fort Pierce, Fla

☆ Far-Right Pushes a Through-the-Looking-Glass Narrative on Jan. 6
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Robert Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Six months since the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol completed its work, a far-right ecosystem of true believers has embraced “J6” as the animating force of their lives. They attend the criminal trials of the more prominent rioters charged in the attack. They gather to pray and sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” on the outer perimeter of the District of Columbia jail, where some two dozen defendants are held. Last week, dozens showed up at an unofficial House hearing convened by a handful of Republican lawmakers to challenge “the fake narrative that an insurrection had occurred on Jan. 6,” as set forth by Jeffrey Clark, a witness at the hearing and a former Justice Department official who worked to undo the results of the 2020 election. The 90-minute event was a through-the-looking-glass alternative to the damning case against former President Donald J. Trump presented last year by the Jan. 6 committee.

Persons: Jan, Jeffrey Clark, Donald J, Trump, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, Ralph Norman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Troy Nehls —, Biden Organizations: Capitol, J6, District, Justice Department, Republicans, Trump Locations: Columbia

☆ A Loud Republican Minority Opposes More Ukraine Military Aid
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Robert Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A congressional delegation of five Republicans and two Democrats met with representatives of Ukraine’s Parliament this month in Poland, where the Ukrainians thanked the delegation for American aid and asked for F-16 fighter jets to help in the war against Russia. Three members of the delegation described the meeting as cordial and informative. One left the session in a state of indignation. Ms. Luna is among the boisterous proponents in Congress of former President Donald J. Trump’s “America first” worldview that regards financial commitments overseas with extreme skepticism. Senior Republicans who support the war, and maintain the hawkish traditions of the establishment G.O.P., fear the movement will gain momentum as the conflict grinds on and Mr. Trump’s candidacy consumes the 2024 spotlight.

☆ William Burns, a C.I.A. Spymaster With Unusual Powers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Robert Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To mark the 20th anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq, the C.I.A. director, William J. Burns, stood in the lobby of the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va., and sought to exorcise the ghosts of the prewar intelligence failures that haunt the building to this day. officials on March 19, Mr. Burns acknowledged how the agency catastrophically blundered in its assessment that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Notably Mr. Burns added, “We’ve learned from that hard lesson.” The intelligence the agency and others collected on Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine, he said, “stands as a powerful example of that. And yet the moment only hinted at how Mr. Burns, a key figure in the Biden administration’s support of Ukraine, has amassed influence beyond most if not all previous C.I.A.

☆ Kyrsten Sinema’s Party of One
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Robert Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Katie Hobbs, who received almost 11 percent of the Republican vote in her 2022 victory over the far-right Kari Lake. Sinema, even before she left the party in December, had become the Democrat whom Democrats love to hate. In January 2022, after her refusal to pass voting rights legislation by discarding the Senate filibuster that stood in the way, Sinema was censured by Arizona’s Democratic Party. “The decision was really a no-brainer,” a former state party official told me, adding that the censure resolution was supported by more than 90 percent of Arizona’s Democratic precinct committee members. Hobbs, on the other hand, relied heavily on the turnout of a progressive base that might have reacted poorly to Sinema’s presence on the stump.

☆ Matt Gaetz says Trump should pick Sarah Huckabee Sanders or Kristi Noem as his running mate to get votes from women who don't like him
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Matt Gaetz thinks Trump should pick Sarah Huckabee Sanders or Kristi Noem for his 2024 running mate. Gaetz said Trump should run with a woman to get votes from women who don't like him. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former White House press secretary, as his pick for Trump's 2024 running mate. Kristi Noem as a possible Trump running mate, calling her a "pretty stellar" alternative to Sanders. Representatives for Trump, Gaetz, Sanders, and Noem did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

☆ Marjorie Taylor Greene says a GOP-led House will investigate companies that stopped donating to Republicans after the Capitol riot
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Marjorie Taylor Greene said a GOP-led House would probe firms that stopped donating to Republicans. She said some "big corporations" and lobbyists have ceased donations after the Capitol riots. They stopped donating. All the lobbyists, all the big corporations stopped donating to a whole bunch of my Republican colleagues that they used to donate to," Greene said. A source close to Trump told Rolling Stone this role could be a senior position at the Department of Justice.

☆ For months, Trump has 'repeatedly' discussed choosing Marjorie Taylor Greene as his 2024 running mate: journalist
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Donald Trump has "repeatedly" discussed choosing Marjorie Taylor Greene as his running mate, a journalist said. He's been discussing it since February, NYT magazine reporter Robert Draper told the Daily Beast. "It's been discussed repeatedly," he said, per the Daily Beast. Earlier this week, Greene told Draper that she's discussed with Trump the possibility of serving as his running mate. Rolling Stone reported that Trump is interested in giving Greene a job in his administration if he wins in 2024.

☆ The House rules chairman blocked Lauren Boebert's measure under a 'new rule' against 'lunatics'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Rep. Lauren Boebert offered a "rational" amendment, but the House Rules Committee chairman blocked it. Rep. Jim McGovern said his committee's "new rule" is that "if you're batshit crazy, you're not getting an amendment," a new book says. His recollection is described in "Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind." "As McGovern would recall it, his response was, 'We have a new rule in the Rules Committee. One Republican member told McGovern that, because of the riot, he would vote to uphold the election results.

☆ Kevin McCarthy called his chance of becoming House Speaker a 'silver lining' of the GOP's election lies, book says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

McCarthy partly acknowledged the trouble with Trump's refusal to accept losing the 2020 election. He told a confidant that the "silver lining" is that he has "a pretty good chance of being Speaker in two years." "'The silver lining,' Kevin McCarthy said, 'is that I have a pretty good chance of being Speaker in two years,'" Draper wrote. Trump and his supporters do, in fact, continue to deny the 2020 election results and perpetuate the lie that it was stolen. McCarthy says he's confident Republicans will win control of the House in this fall's elections.

☆ A top House Republican gifted Kevin McCarthy an ornate silver bowl as a nod to a famous scene from HBO's 'The Wire' about leaders having to eat crap: book
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A top ally of Kevin McCarthy loved "The Wire" so much that he gave the Republican a silver bowl. Nonetheless, McHenry continued to email the Republican clips of the scene that incredibly is a parable an actual politician used to tell. "There's a knock at the door in the corner of the room, and Pete comes walking in carrying this gorgeous Sèvres silver bowl, hand chased ... 'It's from the unions,' Tony, played by Sam Coppola, says. You're sitting, eating shit all day long, day after day, year after year." So according to Draper, the North Carolinian bought an ornate silver bowl that was once the property of the British army.

☆ Marjorie Taylor Greene says she's the 'last person that the RNC or the national party wants' to be Trump's 2024 running mate
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Marjorie Taylor Greene said she and Trump have discussed her being his 2024 running mate. Greene told New York Times reporter Robert Draper that she "would be honored" to serve as Trump's running mate. "I think the last person that the RNC or the national party wants is me as his running mate," she told Draper in an excerpt of his forthcoming book, "Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind." Pence has declared that Trump was "wrong" to suggest he had the ability to overturn the election. "Frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president," Pence said in a February 2022 speech before the Federalist Society.

☆ Kevin McCarthy yelled a curse word down the phone at Trump on Jan 6, saying his supporters were trying to kill him, book says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Kevin McCarthy angrily confronted Donald Trump in a phone call on Jan. 6, a new book says. He told Trump his supporters were "trying to fucking kill me," per author Robert Draper. McCarthy has pivoted sharply on the riot since, seeking to rebuild his relationship with Trump. "Well, Kevin," Trump reportedly said to McCarthy by phone on January 6, "I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,""More upset?" Initial criticism soon softened, and morphed into the displays of loyalty to Trump McCarthy has made since 2021.

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