This article was originally published at The Post Millennial, a part of the Human Events Media Group.
*****
Former President Donald Trump urged members of the Freedom Caucus in the House to vote for Rep. Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday, in what will be a fourth round of voting for House Speaker. “TAKE THE VICTORY AND RUN!!!” Trump said on Truth Social. Trump has consistently backed McCarthy for Speaker.
Trump made the post after other posts encouraging the GOP to gather around McCarthy and boost him into the Speakership, one of which blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who leads the GOP in the Senate.
Trump said that after the three failed votes on Tuesday, “some really good conversations took place,” and that now is the “time for all of our GREAT Republican House Members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY…”
Speculations on the outcome of those conversations were made by Tucker Carlson on Fox News, and it’s believed that McCarthy’s team may be on board with some of those ideas, such as the “Release all files related to January 6 + new Jan 6 Cmte run by GOP,” and putting “Thomas Massie in charge of a new Church committee.”
The January 6 Committee was convened by Pelosi after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, in which Trump supporters occupied the Capitol Building for a time, causing Congress to postpone the vote to certify the 2020 election results for Joe Biden. Once the building was clear, voting continued, and Biden secured the Oval Office for himself and the Democrat Party.
That Committee held only two Republican members, after Pelosi refused to seat those members chosen by McCarthy to serve. Pelosi rejected Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, after which McCarthy and the GOP essentially boycotted the Committee. Pelosi, however, appointed two Republicans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both of whom are not present in the 118th Congress that convened on Tuesday. Cheney lost her seat, while Kinzinger declined to seek another term in office.
The Church Committee, convened in 1975, “investigated and identified a wide range of intelligence abuses by federal agencies, including the CIA, FBI, Internal Revenue Service, and National Security Agency. In the course of their work, investigators identified programs that had never before been known to the American public, including NSA’s Projects SHAMROCK and MINARET, programs which monitored wire communications to and from the United States and shared some of that data with other intelligence agencies. Committee staff researched the FBI’s long-running program of ‘covert action designed to disrupt and discredit the activities of groups and individuals deemed a threat to the social order,’ known as COINTELPRO. The FBI included among the program’s many targets organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and individuals such as Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as local, state, and federal elected officials.”
Once the full report from the Committee was released, it was revealed that “Investigators determined that, beginning with President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration and continuing through the early 1970s, ‘intelligence excesses, at home and abroad,’ were not the ‘product of any single party, administration, or man,’ but had developed as America rose to a become a superpower during a global Cold War.”
Trump slammed outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and encouraged the GOP to “not turn a great triumph into a giant & embarrassing defeat.” The GOP holds 222 House seats, and a potential Speaker needs 218 votes to secure the seat. However, the number of votes needed decreases as the number of representatives present decreases, and voting can take place so long as there is a quorum.
Trump took aim at McConnell, as well, saying that if there’s any infighting that should be happening among the GOP it is against McConnell, and not McCarthy.
Three rounds of voting took place on Tuesday, during which the Democrats nominated Brooklyn’s Hakeem Jeffries, voting for him unanimously, and the GOP nominated McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs, and saw members vote for other congressmen as well, resulting in a leaderless House.
By the end of the third round of voting, McCarthy had lost 20 of his party to votes for Jordan, who in turn was one of those who had nominated, and voted for, McCarthy. A fresh round of voting is set to take place on Wednesday at 12 pm. No business can move forward in the House until a Speaker is elected.
Read More
Johnathon Motsinger