Chaos in Congress

[Frelga]

The concern in Congress is that a Chinese company has too much influence on American users. Having desperate users tell you they can't live without the company won't dispel that concern!

I read that the committee members also expressed concern that although TikTok claimed not to track its users, they apparently were able to target those who lived in the districts of the committee members.

[N.E. Brigand]

Donald Trump had for some time been warning about the dangers of TikTok:

Despite its growing popularity, TikTok has been under fire in the U.S. for years over national security and privacy concerns, including worries the Chinese government could force its parent company to hand over U.S. users’ data. The company—which says 60% of its shares are owned by investors outside of China—has argued it is not beholden to Beijing and would refuse any request to give user data, and U.S. data is generally stored outside of China. Following months of national security and privacy concerns, President Trump told reporters in early August 2020 that he would ban the platform. He issued an executive order days later, which gave ByteDance 45 days to sell the app or face a ban. Multiple federal judges blocked the order, which never came to fruition. Biden revoked the order in June 2021, but his administration has still pushed ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a potential ban.

See also this 2020 story. Trump's executive order said that the company's data collection "threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage."

Late in 2022, Congress passed a law that banned the platform from being installed on devices owned by the government.

The concerns motivating the bill now moving through Congress -- which as noted above is supported by President Biden -- are similar to those expressed about the dating site Grindr following its purchase in 2018. As pressures mounted (the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) requested that the Chinese owner disgorge), Grindr was sold to a U.S. company in 2020 for about $600 million.

However, last week, Trump met with with TikTok's largest U.S. investor, Jeff Yass, a longtime Republican donor who had been critical of Trump.

And following the Energy and Commerce vote yesterday -- in fact, during the State of the Union -- Trump posted on his social media that it would be wrong to move this measure to the full House. He says that doing so would empower Facebook, complained that Facebook stole the 2020 election from him, referred to Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg as "Zuckerschmuck," and described Facebook as "a true Enemy of the People."

Now it's probably true, as some suggest, that one factor motivating Congressional animus against TikTok is lobbying from U.S. companies that would benefit. On the other hand, and with the awareness that, as the saying goes, the plural of anecdote is not data, one reporter yesterday noted: "I put 'Uyghur genocide' into the TikTok search bar just now, and three of the top four videos that came up were saying anti-Uyghur repression is a big myth that needs to be debunked."

But I have to wonder if Yass just bought Trump and if TikTok, left in ByteDance's hands, will promote pro-Trump election disinformation to its users.

[N.E. Brigand]

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the Senate Minority Leader, will announce today that he will step down from the leadership position in November, although he will remain in the Senate through the expiration of his current term in January 2027. He became a Senator in 1985 and has led Senate Republicans since 2007.

Until Sen. Mitch McConnell mentioned it in this announcement, I had not heard that his sister-in-law, Angela Chao, aged 50, died in an accident in Texas on Feb. 11. It's awful: she "accidentally backed her Tesla into a pond after leaving friends at the guesthouse on the property around 11:30 p.m. and heading back to the main house where her son was sleeping. She called one of those friends to say she had put the car into reverse instead of drive and her car was sinking. The friends tried to save her and called 911 with emergency units arriving at 12:28 a.m.--almost half an hour after getting the call. Police tried to smash a window and a tow truck eventually pulled the car out of the water around 12:56 a.m." By that time she was unresponsive.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado has announced that he is leaving Congress next week instead of at the end of his term, as previously announced. That will leave the Republicans with an even smaller majority. There will be a special election to fill his seat. One of the previously announced candidates for his district (CO 4) is currently CO 3 Representative Lauren Boebert. If she runs in the special election and wins, she will need to resign from her current District, and then there will need to be another special election. But if she doesn't run in the special election, it would make it more difficult for her to win in CO 4 in November.

[N.E. Brigand]

And the stupidest impeachment ever just happened: by a vote of 214-213, Republicans have voted to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, for nothing. All 214 yes votes were cast by Republicans. The same three Republicans as last week joined 210 Democrats in voting no. Two Democrats and two Republicans each didn't vote, and there are currently four vacancies. Mayorkas will easily be acquitted in the Senate.

Huh. The guy who was in charge of this effort was Rep. Mark Green, Republican of Tennessee and Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee. Just yesterday, Green was asked: if Sec. Mayorkas were to be removed from office (which isn't going to happen), was Green concerned that President Biden would appoint a successor who was no more to Republicans' liking? Green replied, "Of course I am, but if that person doesn't do his job well, we will impeach his ass too." Which makes this news broken by Jake Sherman and Mica Soellner of Punchbowl all the more amusing: "Mark Green, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will retire at the end of this Congress. Green is in his first term atop the committee. He is the fourth Republican committee chair to forgo reelection in 2024." Green says, "I promised my constituents to pass legislation to secure our borders and to hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable," and he says he's now done those things. But the legislation to which he refers (H.R. 2, the "Secure the Border Act of 2023") is never going to become law, and Sec. Mayorkas is going to be acquitted in the Senate and keep his job!

President Donald Trump was first impeached by the House of Representatives (by a vote of 228-193) on Dec. 18, 2019. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, didn't formally convey the articles of impeachment to the Senate until Jan. 14, 2020, some 26 days later. She was widely criticized for the delay. I must have written some two dozen journalists at the time defending Pelosi's decision as itself being good for the country, e.g.:

If you take the Democrats' stated reasons for impeaching Donald Trump to be truthful -- and it is hard to believe that the Democrats in vulnerable districts that went for Trump in 2016, not to mention the lone former Republican, would have voted for impeachment if they didn't think it was morally imperative that they do so -- then the president abused his office and obstructed Congress in the service of attempting to undermine our national security by attempting to coerce a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 election. What's more, he had just been shown by Robert Mueller to have committed multiple acts of obstruction to cover up apparent (successful?) attempts to cheat in the 2016 election, indicating that he is recalcitrant and likely to keep on attempting to cheat. Accordingly, the only way to prevent him from doing it again and to assure that we continue to have a functioning democracy is to remove him from office.

If that's not possible -- and it appears that McConnell will ensure that it's not possible -- then Democrats' best hope is to limit Trump's ability to continue his Ukrainian scheme or undertake other plots to cheat this year. And Pelosi seems to have felt the best way to do that is to hold onto the articles until McConnell agrees to a fair trial. A trial with testimony from the witnesses that Trump has previously blocked presumably would bring new evidence of Trump's crimes to the public's attention. (He's been blocking them for a reason.) Even if Pelosi eventually sends the articles without McConnell agreeing to witnesses, the delay itself allows more information to come to light (like John Bolton stating that he has relevant testimony that he is willing to provide -- if that information were exculpatory, we'd know by now). And the more information that the public has, the harder it is for Trump to cheat, for at least three reasons: (1) heightened scrutiny constrains his ability to act secretly; (2) evidence showing how he's tried to cheat will make the public more savvy about further attempts to do so; and (3) voters who don't like cheaters won't support him, thus undercutting the success of his misdeeds.

By contrast, I though Pelosi's decision not to impeach Donald Trump for obstruction of justice based on Robert Mueller's report probably was bad for the country.

But the reason I'm mentioning all this is that Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas was impeached by the House on Feb. 13, 2024 (by a vote of 214-213, after a vote on Feb. 6 failed 214-216). It is now Mar. 14, 2024: that's 30 days later. House Speaker Mike Johnson has yet to transmit the articles to the Senate.

[N.E. Brigand]

Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, had been subpoenaed in a defamation suit and will sit for a deposition on April 5th.

Last year, Chris Dorworth, a lobbyist and friend of Gaetz, sued former Gaetz associate Joel Greenberg (now serving 11 years for sex trafficking) and other individuals for allegedly engaging in a scheme to "falsely accuse him of 'child sex trafficking, sex with a minor, prostitution, obstruction of justice, and an illegal ghost candidate scheme,' according to the suit." The other defendants of Dorworth's suit include a "A.B.," woman with whom Gaetz is alleged to have had sex while she was a minor. A.B.'s lawyers had rplied that Dorworth's suit "improperly seeks to preempt any claims A.B. may have against Mr. Dorworth for raping and trafficking her by making a threadbare request for expansive declaratory judgement." It is A.B. who has subpoenaed Gaetz to testify.

A.B. is not the same woman who was subpoenaed recently by the House Ethics Committee investigating Gaetz's conduct.

[N.E. Brigand]

Sen. Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey facing a twice-superseded indictment on corruption charges, gave a speech in the Senate today complaining about corruption.

"U.S. Senator Bob Menendez will not file for re-election in the Democratic primary but is keeping the door open to running as an independent in the general election if his legal issues are resolved."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Spoiler alert: they won't be.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here we go again!



ETA: To be clear, Rep. Greene has to actually be recognized and call up the resolution, which she has not done. Until that happens, this is only talk. If she does do so, the motion has to be voted on within 2 legislative days. But since there is already a 2 week recess scheduled, it would not take place until after that.

Further edit:



One last edit:



I'm guessing that this is just a stunt and no vote will ever happen.

[N.E. Brigand]

Rep. Mike Gallagher, Republican of Wisconsin, had previously announced that he would not be running for reelection.

Today he announced that he's also leaving Congress early: his last day will be Apr. 19th.

That is just late enough that he won't be replaced until after the regular November election.

Gallagher was a Republican floated as a possible compromise Speaker by Democrats last year. And he was one of just three Republicans to vote against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

After Gallagher's departure, Republican control of the House will be 217-213.

[N.E. Brigand]

The House passed the second "minibus" $1.2 trillion funding bill, 286-134. The no votes came from 112 Republicans -- more Republicans voted against the bill than for it -- and 22 Democrats. It's uncommon for Republicans when in charge, to allow a vote on a bill that won't get the support of a majority of their own caucus.

The Senate must approve the bill by midnight to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Some House Democrats today say that they are willing to support Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson if he'll bring the Ukraine spending bill to the floor.

[N.E. Brigand]

You really can't make this shit up. (Just to be clear, this link is to an article in the NY Times, not the Onion)

George Santos Says He’s Running for Congress Again

George Santos is leaving the Republican Party.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Senate passed the spending bill at about 2 a.m. by a vote of 74-24. Two Republicans didn't vote. All Democrats voted for it except Michael Bennet of Colorado, who voted against it because it doesn't include Ukraine funding. Bernie Sanders also voted against it. Although the shutdown deadline was midnight, the White House sent a directive to agencies at that time saying that because (1) there was a high likelihood of passage within a few hours and (2) finances are tracked on a daily rather than hourly basis, they could cease their shutdown plans. The president signed the bill early this afternoon.

[N.E. Brigand]

Sen. Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey facing a twice-superseded indictment on corruption charges, gave a speech in the Senate today complaining about corruption.

"U.S. Senator Bob Menendez will not file for re-election in the Democratic primary but is keeping the door open to running as an independent in the general election if his legal issues are resolved."

The two leading Democrats vying to oust Menendez were Rep. Andy Kim and New Jersey's first lady, Tammy Murphy. The primary isn't until June 4.

New Jersey does something weird called the "county line," which "allows political parties to give preferential placement on primary election ballots to endorsed candidates. Known as the county line or party line, the first column of the ballot includes candidates for federal, state, and local offices who have received the endorsement of the county party while non-endorsed candidates are listed in other columns (often referred to as 'ballot Siberia')."

Candidates listed on the county line typically outperform their opponents by an average of 38%. Accordingly, it's important to secure those county endorsements, and Murphy and Kim have been traveling to each county's convention over the past few months, pitching themselves to local Democratic officials. Even though Kim looks likely to hold a slight edge in total county endorsements after all the conventions (although Murphy won some of the biggest counties, so it may be a wash), he filed a lawsuit a few weeks ago to overturn the county line system as being unconstitutional. (A separate suit that others filed in 2020 is still pending.) It will be interesting but not immediately relevant to see how that turns out, because...

Tammy Murphy has suspended her campaign. She says it's better for the party to be united against Donald Trump and the Republicans.

[N.E. Brigand]

An unexpected retirement for Democrats: Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire, who's been in the House since 2013, has announced she's not seeking reelection this year.

[N.E. Brigand]

The AP reports that Rep. Troy Nehls, Republican of Texas, is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee for matters related to his 2022 campaign.

[N.E. Brigand]

CNN reports that in December, Rep. Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, had to be cut off by a server after drinking too much at a Republican fundraiser in New York. Also, Donald Trump headlined that event, and his security team told her to stop trying to take selfies with the former president.

[N.E. Brigand]

And the stupidest impeachment ever just happened: by a vote of 214-213, Republicans have voted to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, for nothing. All 214 yes votes were cast by Republicans. The same three Republicans as last week joined 210 Democrats in voting no.

President Donald Trump was first impeached by the House of Representatives (by a vote of 228-193) on Dec. 18, 2019. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, didn't formally convey the articles of impeachment to the Senate until Jan. 14, 2020, some 26 days later. She was widely criticized for the delay. ... The reason I'm mentioning all this is that Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas was impeached by the House on Feb. 13, 2024 (by a vote of 214-213, after a vote on Feb. 6 failed 214-216). It is now Mar. 14, 2024: that's 30 days later. House Speaker Mike Johnson has yet to transmit the articles to the Senate.

Last week, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that he would be transmitting the articles this week, but CNN now reports it will be next week. So that means at least 61 days after the House voted toi impeach, and more than twice as long as then-Speaker Pelosi held the articles for President Donald Trump's first impeachment.

Edited to add: as I was typing that, Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, said, "I'm grateful to Speaker Johnson for his bold willingness to delay this."

[N.E. Brigand]

A few minutes ago, Kevin McCarthy said that he's no longer the Speaker of the House "because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old."

[RoseMorninStar]

(guessing) Matt Gaetz? I have a feeling McCarthy (a good fundraiser) is out for revenge.