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☆ 78% of voters in Republican Rep. George Santos' district want him to resign: poll
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

An overwhelming number of Rep. George Santos' own constituents want the Republican to resign. According to a new poll, 78% of voters in Santos' district want him to step down. According to a newly released Newsday/Siena College Poll, 78% of voters in Santos' district who responded to the survey want him to step down. The view was broadly supported by 71% of Republican respondents, 72% of independents, and 89% of Democrats. The poll comes after fellow New York House Republicans and some influential conservatives in the state previously called on Santos to resign.

☆ Republicans are mostly ignoring a $9.4 million sexual assault lawsuit against the Trump-aligned head of CPAC
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

A GOP staffer accused CPAC head Matt Schlapp of sexually assaulting him, filing a $9.4 million lawsuit. A screenshot of the staffer's texts with Matt Schlapp on the morning after the assault on October 20, 2022. "I had a private life before Matt Schlapp, and I want to have that life post-Matt Schlapp," he said. "Those are simply allegations, and I'm not going to comment on them," said Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee. "All matters pertaining to CPAC, I leave to CPAC internally," he said when asked if Matt Schlapp should remain atop the organization.

☆ TikTok CEO to testify before Congress in March
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify at an upcoming hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a committee spokesperson confirmed to CNN Monday. “We’ve made our concerns clear with TikTok,” said the committee’s chair, Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, in a statement. The high-profile hearing underscores the rising political risk for TikTok as its negotiations with the US government on a national security deal continue to drag on. Chew, who took over as TikTok CEO in April 2021, has largely stayed out of the spotlight at a time when the app he leads can’t seem to avoid it. Members of Congress previously grilled TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas, arguably the public face of the company in the United States, during a Senate hearing last year.

☆ George Santos's ex-boyfriend said he lived with the congressman and his wife while they were still married but thought the couple were just friends at the time: 'We all used to go party together'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | Joshua Zitser | Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Pedro Vilarva, who met Santos in 2014, said he lived with Santos' wife unaware that the pair were married. Pedro Vilarva, who was 18 in 2014 when he met Santos, described the living situation in an interview with Insider on Friday. Vilarva said that he eventually discovered the pair were married, but Santos told him that he was planning to divorce his wife. Vilarva and Santos met in 2014, and Santos announced an engagement party with Vilarva that same year. "He asked me 3x but I didn't accept it," Vilarva told the Beast via text.

☆ George Santos Dives Into Work, Puts Off Answers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Natalie Andrews | Jimmy Vielkind | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Embattled Rep. George Santos returned from a congressional break saying he was determined to do serious work as a Republican representative of New York state. But his week back in the Capitol shows that even if he is secure in his seat for now, he has made little progress in winning over his many colleagues who believe his history of false claims makes him unfit to be in office, to say nothing of the probes by state and federal investigators.

☆ C-SPAN gave us ‘America’s Hottest TV Drama’ as McCarthy struggled to become House speaker. Lawmakers aren’t so sure that’s a good thing.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But she's also wary of the cost that could come with giving C-SPAN cameras free reign to film lawmakers on the House floor, particularly given the lightning-rod role she's come to occupy within American politics. GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz talks to Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar in the House Chamber on January 5, 2023. Rep. Nancy Pelosi reading a New Yorker article about Kevin McCarthy on the House floor on January 4, 2023. "The original argument was, if you insert cameras, the behavior of the members changed," said Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California. But Lofgren said she was supportive of permanently allowing C-SPAN cameras into the chamber, arguing in essence that the cat's already out of the bag.

☆ Graphic body cam footage shows violent attack on Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi's husband
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Grace Eliza Goodwin | Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Newly released footage shows Paul Pelosi being struck in the head with a hammer. The footage, first obtained by NBC Bay Area reporter Bigad Shaban, below shows police arriving at the Pelosi residence. The footage shows Pelosi struggling with a man — identified by police as David DePape — who takes a hammer and bashes Pelosi over the head with it. The assault fractured Paul Pelosi's skull; he has since recovered and was released from the hospital. Over a month after the attack, Pelosi began to re-emerge in public, wearing a hat that concealed his healing skull.

☆ FEC presses George Santos campaign after it lists treasurer who denies taking the job
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The campaign of embattled Republican Rep. George Santos is facing new scrutiny from the Federal Elections Commission after a person listed as Santos' campaign treasurer denied that he had taken the job. It was addressed to Santos' campaign and Thomas Datwyler, the person listed as its treasurer in an amended form filed Wednesday that appeared to replace Santos' longtime treasurer, Nancy Marks. "On Monday, we informed the Santos campaign that Mr. Datwyler would not be taking over as treasurer," Ross said in a statement at the time. The lawyer added that he has not tried to contact the Santos campaign because it "seems like a waste of time." The letter gave the Santos campaign a March 2 deadline to respond.

Musk responded on Twitter to the initial exclusive Reuters report that he met with the officials, saying it was "True." Later, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed the meeting took place and added that Musk did not meet with Biden personally. A Reuters witness on Friday saw Podesta, Landrieu and Musk entering a downtown building that houses both Tesla's Washington lobbying operation and the Center for American Progress, a think tank Podesta founded. BIDEN, MUSK TENSIONSRelations have often seemed antagonistic between Biden, who has pushed for companies to use union labor, and Musk, who has pushed to keep unions out of his factories. Biden only publicly acknowledged the role of Tesla in U.S. electric vehicle manufacturing over a year after taking office, after Musk repeatedly complained about being ignored.

☆ House Speaker Kevin McCarthy finally won his battle against letting members vote remotely. It could cost him critical GOP votes when he needs it most.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Madison Hall | Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

As COVID-19 raged, the House of Representatives voted in 2020 to allow members to vote by proxy. New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has now ended it. With newfound control of the House, one of McCarthy's first moves was to eliminate proxy voting when finalizing the House rules package. Joined by 20 other GOP representatives, the lawsuit claimed the US Constitution only allowed for in-person voting and that proxy voting was unconstitutional. These trips are generally funded by the federal government, and proxy voting allowed members to vote while abroad on important business.

☆ Splits emerge as U.S. House Republicans demand Biden negotiate on debt limit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

I mean, if he refuses to negotiate, you're not going to get any Republican support for anything," Bacon told Reuters. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden are expected to meet and discuss the debt ceiling among other issues. The White House has repeatedly rejected the idea of negotiating over spending levels to secure an agreement on the debt ceiling. They can't just circumvent the House of Representatives," said Republican Representative Mike Lawler, whose New York district Biden won by 10 points. "We can spend at defense spending levels for the '23 omnibus.

☆ Democrats urge House Speaker McCarthy to deny GOP Rep. George Santos access to classified info
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Two congressional Democrats asked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday to restrict Republican Rep. George Santos' access to classified information, arguing the scandal-plagued freshman lawmaker "cannot be trusted" with confidential materials. "It is clear that Congressman George Santos has violated the public's trust on various occasions," Reps. Joseph Morelle and Gregory Meeks, both from Santos' own state of New York, said in a letter to McCarthy. "His unfettered access to our nation's secrets presents a significant risk to the national security of this country," the Democrats wrote. "We urge you to act swiftly to prevent George Santos from abusing his position and endangering our nation." Santos' "untrustworthiness could warrant the Intelligence Community to slow down or limit certain classified information it shares with Congress," they told McCarthy.

☆ Josh Hawley needles Nancy Pelosi by renaming his congressional stock trading ban bill after her
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sen. Josh Hawley is trying to taunt Nancy Pelosi by renaming a stock trading ban bill. His PELOSI Act is a retread of a proposal that garnered no support in the last Congress. House lawmakers recently reintroduced a bipartisan stock trading proposal with broader backing. Pelosi famously pushed back against any stock trading prohibitions during the 117th Congress — "We're a free market economy." Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas have reintroduced a more comprehensive stock trading ban bill (H.R.

☆ House Republican heavyweights are tripping over each other to launch hearings on Biden's handling of the border
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Bryan Metzger | Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

House Republicans are fighting to be the first to bash Biden at border security-related hearings. Judiciary is rushing to hold a meeting next week, with Oversight scheduled to follow a week later. Republicans will hold the Biden Administration accountable for this ongoing humanitarian, national security, and public health crisis that has turned every town into a border town." Comer invited four border patrol agents to the Oversight hearing and sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting documents on various border-related programs. Border security and immigration continue to be an area of key concern for Republicans in particular.

☆ George Santos says he's undecided on whether he'll vote to kick Ilhan Omar off of the Foreign Affairs Committee
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The GOP wants to remove Ilhan Omar from a committee over years-old comments seen as anti-Semitic. George Santos, who has lied about being the Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors, is undecided. As he boarded an elevator, Santos re-affirmed that he hadn't decided how he would vote on Omar. Omar apologized at the time, and on Wednesday, she called the effort to remove her from the committee was a "political stunt." Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) January 25, 2023

☆ U.S. Will Send Abrams Tanks to Ukraine; Germany to Send Leopard Tanks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Rep. George Santos Says He Will Address Allegations ‘Soon’Republican Rep. George Santos said in mid-January that he would respond "soon" to accusations made against him. The freshman Congressman from New York has admitted that he lied on the campaign trail about his education and work experience. Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the matter would be referred to the Ethics Committee. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Rep. Victoria Spartz, an Indiana Republican, said Tuesday she'll oppose Speaker Kevin McCarthy's efforts to keep a handful of Democrats off key House committees. But he may need the support of a majority of the House to block Omar from Foreign Affairs. Given McCarthy's slim Republican majority, every vote is important. The speaker's plans are widely seen as retaliation against Democrats for kicking Republican Reps. Paul Gosar, of Arizona, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, off their committees in the last Congress over incendiary or violent rhetoric. “Speaker Pelosi took unprecedented actions last Congress to remove Reps. Greene and Gosar from their committees without proper due process.

☆ House Republican tells Kevin McCarthy to 'start governing for a change,' says she won't vote to boot Ilhan Omar off of the House Foreign Affairs committee
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

McCarthy is set to hold a vote on removing Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs committee. He cited Omar's previous comments on Israel as well as previous votes to do the same to Republicans. But at least one House Republican — Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana — has firmly declared that she will not vote for the resolution. Speaker McCarthy needs to stop 'bread and circuses' in Congress and start governing for a change." But as House Speaker, McCarthy has the unilateral ability to reject Jeffries's picks for any select committee.

☆ Half Moon Bay Shooting: Police Suspect Workplace Violence as Cause
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Watch: Footage Shows Moment Man Disarms Monterey Park Mass Shooter
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ A Majority of New Yorkers Want George Santos to Resign, New Poll Shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Joseph De Avila | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Most New Yorkers say Long Island Republican Rep. George Santos , who has admitted to lying about his education and work experience, should resign, according to new poll figures. Nearly six out of 10 New York voters said Mr. Santos should step down, according to a poll released Monday by the Siena College Research Institute.

☆ House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene 'reminds me of my friends from high school'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have become political allies. McCarthy said in an interview that Greene "reminds me of my friends from high school." Greene was once a McCarthy critic, saying he "doesn't have the support he needs" in the House GOP. She reminds me of my friends from high school, that we're going to stick together all the way through." Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) January 22, 2023But it wasn't always this way for McCarthy and Greene.

☆ Hakeem Jeffries tells Kevin McCarthy that it's a 'double standard' if 'serial fraudster' George Santos serves on committees but Schiff and Swalwell get kicked off of the intelligence committee
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Hakeem Jeffries is arguing that Reps. Schiff and Swalwell should be kept on the intelligence committee. The House Democratic leader sent a letter to Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Saturday making the case. He pointed out that George Santos has been "welcomed" by the GOP despite being a "serial fraudster." "The apparent double standard risks undermining the spirit of bipartisan cooperation that is so desperately needed in Congress." "It does not serve as precedent or justification for the removal of Representatives Schiff and Swalwell, given that they have never exhibited violent thoughts or behavior," he wrote.

☆ Matt Gaetz tried playing kingmaker during the House speaker vote after spending 2 years as a political pariah. Republicans say the grandstanding is unlikely to stop.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz was a key player in the House speaker vote fight. "I don't think this guy's looking to be a policymaker," the GOP strategist told Insider. Doug Heye, a former House leadership aide turned GOP strategist, said the jury's still very much out on Gaetz's motivations and his endgame. Or, it could be as easy as believing that guy who donned a gas mask to ridicule a House vote on COVID-19 relief is committed to troublemaking. Not a workaholicA former House GOP leadership aide said Gaetz's reputation precedes him on Capitol HIll.

☆ GOP Rep. George Santos should resign from Congress, New York state voters say in new poll
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Scandal-plagued Republican Rep. George Santos should resign from Congress, voters from his own state of New York said overwhelmingly in a new poll released Monday. Some 59% of registered Empire State voters say Santos, who admitted he lied and is facing multiple investigations, should resign, according to the latest survey by the Siena College Research Institute. The poll of 821 New York state registered voters, conducted between Jan. 15-19, has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other top Republicans have declined to join calls for Santos to resign. If Santos were to leave office, it would likely trigger a competitive special election in New York for his seat.

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