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Kevin McCarthy Makes Key Concession in House Speaker Battle

By
Madeleine Jackson
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15
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy delivers remarks at the 2021 Capitol Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Washington DC, December 1, 2021. USDA Forest Service photo by Tanya E. Flores.

Current House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy just made a key concession in what has become an uphill battle to become Speaker of the House once the GOP takes control of Congress on Jan. 3rd.

Six Republican sources familiar with internal discussions told CNN that McCarthy conceded to reducing the threshold that is required to force a floor vote on ousting the sitting speaker in an effort to win over holdouts.

One of the numbers that has come up in recent conversations between McCarthy and GOP lawmakers – and which has not been previously reported – is a five-person threshold, according to two of the Republican sources.

Currently, the majority of the House GOP is required to call for the so-called motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. However, some conservatives such as Reps. Matt Gaetz (FL) and Ralph Norman (S.C.) are pushing for a single member to be able to call for such a vote, which they see as an important mechanism to hold the speaker accountable.

A five-person threshold, however, may be too low for the moderate wing of the party, some of whom have privately suggested they would be willing to agree on a 50-person threshold.

The compromise which McCarthy previously said he would not budge on could be key to unlocking the votes he needs to secure the speakership. But his willingness to negotiate on the issue also shows how desperate McCarthy is to seal the deal, even if it means giving away some of his power.

“The ‘devil is in the details’ as far as threshold & other rule concessions,” Norman said. “Until the details are spelled out, in writing and sealed with social media posts, people will not move on votes.”

Former Trump Official A Slams Ex-White House Press Sec. Kayleigh McEnany

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Kayleigh McEnany via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    The claws are out.

    In a scathing attack former White House communications director Alyssah Farah Griffin called former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany a “liar and an opportunist” during her interview with the House Jan. 6th committee.

    “The View” co-host’s shocking view of her former colleague, was included in a batch of interview transcripts released by the House panel on Thursday. According to The Hill, Farah Griffin criticized McEnany for helping perpetuate the notion that the 2020 election was stolen throughout the interview.

    “I am a Christian woman, so I will say this. Kayleigh is a liar and an opportunist,” Farah Griffin said in her April interview with the committee. “She’s a smart woman. She’s a Harvard law grad. She knew we lost the election, but she made a calculation that she wanted to have a certain life post-Trump that required staying in his good graces.”  

    “She got her FOX News gig. It worked out precisely how she’d always planned for it to, but she knew better.” 

    She said McEnany wasn’t a “true believer” in the idea that former President Trump actually won the 2020 election. 

    Farah Griffin resigned from her position in the White House as then-President Trump continued his legal battles to overturn the 2020 election results.

    “The View” co-host has also faced accusations of being an opportunist and of shifting her political values to line up with her priorities at the moment.

    Amanda Head: ‘Clueless’ Star Bares All for Magic Mushrooms

    By
    Amanda Head
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    2

    “Clueless” star Alicia Silverstone stripped all the way down for another campaign for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

    Watch Amanda explain the latest controversy below.

    House Releases Trump Tax Records

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    13
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    The House Ways and Means Committee released a partially redacted version of former President Donald Trump’s taxes on Friday.

    The committee voted 24 to 16 along party lines to release Trump’s tax returns late Tuesday evening. 

    The House Ways and Means Committee released six years’ worth of Trump’s tax returns totaling 46 individual documents with hundreds of pages and more than a gigabyte’s worth of data.

    According to Fox News, the financial documents cover six years of Trump’s individual returns filed jointly with his wife, Melania, including his time in the White House. The document dump also includes tax forms for several of Trump’s business entities that were investigated by Ways and Means Democrats, a report from the Democratic majority, and a response by Republicans on the committee. 

    Ways and Means Committee Democrats released a report on Trump’s taxes last week that showed the former president paid little to no federal income taxes on his multimillion-dollar income from 2015 to 2022, as he claimed millions in business losses.

    The analysis within the reports conclude that any lack of proper taxation on Trump’s earnings appears to have been ultimately a failing of the IRS and not the result of pressure or obfuscation from the White House.

    Trump’s family of enterprises used reported losses, foreign tax credits, deductions, charitable donations and many other financial maneuvers to great effect in offsetting taxation on profits.

    These business tactics frequently shrank his otherwise sizable tax requirements down to miniscule amounts — sometimes under $1,000, according to the committee.

    This story is breaking. Stay with Great America News Desk for the latest updates.

    Arizona Attorney General Recount Results in Disappointing Loss for GOP Candidate

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Missvain, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

    The highly anticipated recount results are in for Arizona’s attorney general race.

    Republican nominee Abraham Hamadeh has lost to Democrat Kris Mayes in one of the tightest races in Arizona history.

    The initial tally had Mayes leading Hamadeh by 511 votes, though that margin tightened considerably during the recount. Mayes was certified the winner by 280 voters.

    The Arizona Republic has more on Arizona’s other recounts:

    Wins by state schools superintendent-elect Tom Horne, a Republican, over incumbent Democrat Kathy Hoffman and Liz Harris over fellow Republican Julie Willoughby in Legislative District 13 in the Southeast Valley also were affirmed in the recount.

    Results were announced in a hearing before Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason.

    The race for state attorney general had the narrowest margin heading into the recount, with Democrat Mayes winning by a 511-vote margin, or 0.03 percentage points, over Trump-endorsed Republican Hamadeh in the initial tally.

    The other two races were nowhere near as close but fell within the 0.5% percent margin that a new state law requires for an automatic recount.

    Hamadeh’s attorneys are reportedly weighing their legal options.

    Wednesday morning Hamadeh tweeted, “My team is filing a Motion for Stay to delay inauguration for the Office of Attorney General next week until we resolve all matters regarding the potential discrepancies in the recount and litigation.”

    “We request [Attorney General Mark Brnovich] remain in office until all issues are resolved.”

    Hamadeh further explained:

    In November, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner dismissed an election lawsuit brought by state attorney general candidate Abraham Hamadeh and the Republican National Committee (RNC) that sought to challenge the state’s election results.

    Texas Begins Construction of Makeshift Border Barrier

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    19
    CBP Photography, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    Don’t mess with Texas.

    The Lone Star state is taking matters into its own hands and creating its own defense against illegal immigration. According to Gov. Greg Abbott, the state is using shipping containers in addition to other measures along the El Paso border to build a border wall.

    The move comes as El Paso saw an average of 2,400 migrants per day entering over one seven-day period, leading the city to declare an emergency. 

    “Texas is adding shipping containers to the US-Mexico border in El Paso,” Abbott tweeted on Wednesday. “This is in addition to the razor wire and National Guard. Together, the strategies are causing illegal immigration at that location to plummet.”

    Abbott’s announcement also came shortly after he provided an update to announce that Texas has bused 15,900 migrants to sanctuary cities in 2022.

    Abbott shared the update in a Twitter post with details on the number of migrants sent to each of the four included cities. The totals included over 8,900 migrants bused to Washington, D.C., over 4,900 to New York City, over 1,500 to Chicago, and over 690 to Philadelphia.

    Gov. Abbott linked to a San Antonio Fox 29 report on the barrier:

    Shipping containers were placed next to the Rio Grande in El Paso in hopes of diverting people crossing.

    In El Paso, the state of Texas lined up new shipping containers.

    The Lone Star state seems to be following the lead of Arizona which also used shipping containers to form a makeshift border wall to fill gaps left unresolved by the Biden administration.

    The Biden administration eventually sued the state of Arizona to remove the containers, claiming the state trespassed into federal lands.

    Amanda Head: Hugh Jackman Goes Insanely Woke

    By
    Amanda Head
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    0

    Another Hollywood hero has gone woke!

    “X-Men” Actor and Broadway performer Hugh Jackman says that gender-specific awards are a thing of the past!

    Watch Amanda explain the newest controversy below:

    House Committee Withdraws Subpoena

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    The House Select Committee appointed to investigate the Jan. 6th, 2021 Capitol riot has withdrawn its subpoena of former President Trump as the panel concludes its work ahead of the 118th Congress.

    According to committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the former president’s testimony is “no longer needed.”

    Trump was initially subpoenaed by the committee in October for testimony and documents regarding the protests at the Capitol Building on January 6th.

    Thompson noted in a letter to Trump’s attorneys: “In light of the imminent end of our investigation, the Select Committee can no longer pursue the specific information covered by the subpoena.”

    He added, “Therefore, through this letter, I hereby formally withdraw the subpoena issued to former President Trump, and notify you that he is no longer obligated to comply or produce records in response to said subpoena.”

    Trump shared a message on his social media celebrating the “win.”

    This story is breaking. Check back with Great America News Desk for the latest updates.

    House Committee Set Date to Reveal Trump Tax Returns

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    The years-long battle into Donald Trump’s tax records could be concluded as soon as this Friday.

    A spokesperson for the Democrat-led House Ways and Means Committee told multiple news outlets that the disclosure will take place Friday, less than a week before Republicans take control of the lower chamber.

    According to The Daily Wire, The panel voted along party lines last week to release Trump’s tax returns following a years-long legal battle capped by the Supreme Court rejecting the former president’s plea to block the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from giving the tax records to the committee.

    Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) said the release would happen after a few days, allowing staff to make redactions of sensitive information.

    With Trump engaged in a third bid for the White House, his campaign condemned Democrats over the vote to release his tax returns.

    “This unprecedented leak by lame-duck Democrats is proof they are playing a political game they are losing,” said Trump’s campaign, according to The Washington Post. “If this injustice can happen to President Trump, it can happen to all Americans without cause.”

    While Democrats have argued that they needed access to Trump’s tax returns for the sake of oversight, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, echoed concerns raised by Trump’s team, saying the disclosure will “set a terrible precedent that unleashes a dangerous new political weapon that reaches far beyond the former president and overturns decades of privacy protections for average Americans that have existed since the Watergate reforms.”

    The House Ways and Means Committee has already summarized its findings, issuing a report last week that said the IRS failed to adhere to its own policy and audit Trump during his first two years in office, only started one on Trump’s 2016 income tax return the same day in 2019 the panel requested access and failed to complete it by the time Trump left office in January 2021. A supplemental report prepared by Joint Committee on Taxation was also released last week, showing how much Trump paid or did not pay in taxes each year, per CNBC. That review found Trump paid no federal income taxes during his final year as president.

    Deadly Mexican Drug Cartels Using Biden’s Open Border to Cause Chaos in US

    By
    Paul Crespo
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    5
    CBP Photography, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    ANALYSIS – Totally ignored or hidden by the establishment media is how powerful and deadly Mexican drug cartels are using Joe Biden’s deliberately open border to access the United States and cause chaos.

    They do this in various ways. One of course is their bread and butter — drugs. 

    The cartels have drastically ramped up their supply of drugs to the U.S., especially deadly fentanyl, since Biden took office. 

    This is shown by the record number of fentanyl captures at or near the Mexican border.

    But they are also clearly involved in human trafficking and in sending operatives to swell the ranks of their already large criminal networks inside our country.

    These organized criminal networks distribute drugs, are involved in human sex trafficking, and many other serious crimes (potentially including terrorism), all within our borders. 

    The Republican-led House must do all it can to investigate and thwart Biden’s damaging border policies beginning in January.

    Beyond the difficult political task of ending Biden’s disastrous border and immigration policies while he remains in office, and the Democrats control the Senate, there are other measures that could be taken.

    In an opinion piece for Fox News, Robert S. Wells, a retired U.S. Navy Captain, and former Special Advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney explain one way to help our law enforcement and Homeland Security team fight back.

    This involves revamping the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House to properly address the cartel threat by “connecting the dots.”

    Wells notes that:

    Every day the leadership in the Homeland Security and Justice Departments receive comprehensive reports from the Intelligence Community (IC), but those findings fail to translate into effective policy and strategy that strengthens our network against the cartels.

    Those findings include the “known-known” Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reports on drug cartel distribution of fentanyl distribution and the limitations of Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s capability to scale to address the threat.

    Unfortunately, under Biden, despite this deluge of valuable intel, these law enforcement agencies are not organized to use the information to succeed in an organized response.

    Wells then recommends using a revised version of President GW Bush’s Executive Order 13228 to coordinate the fight against the cartels at the NSC.

    That order, which created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was signed after the terror attacks on 9/11 2001 precisely to help our Intelligence Community (IC) “connect the dots” after a massive intelligence failure allowed al-Qaeda terrorists to fly jetliners into the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon, and almost one into the Capitol.

    The order also created the Homeland Security Council (HSC) within the Executive Office of the President.

    Sadly, in the Biden NSC, Homeland Security has been downgraded, and coordinating the fight against the cartels now has to compete with Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. 

    Wells states that a revised Executive Order 13228 could be drafted and implemented by Biden in a day and a new newly established Homeland Security Council could be up and operational within a week:

    Once established, the IC and agency professionals at Justice (DEA), Defense (SOUTHCOM), Homeland Security (CBP and USCG) can bring forward their recommendations against the cartels and their networks throughout the US.

    This focus would help “connect the dots” through strategic communication that provides Colin Powell-style efficiency using a macro slide that illustrates the cartel networks operating in the US, the top 3 focal points to “cut off and kill” the cartel networks and executive authority to surge homeland security task forces to the top three areas.

    Once rebooted, the office of the Homeland Security Adviser would be able to strategically communicate and lead efforts to “connect the dots” on the growing drug cartel threat.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

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