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WASHINGTON — Chaos prevailed this week in the U.S. House as Speaker Mike Johnson tried to tee up bills to help Israel and Ukraine in their war efforts amid plenty of GOP pushback and a continued threat to oust him from his leadership position.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was joined by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., this week in vowing to force a vote on Johnson’s leadership if the speaker brought the Ukraine aid bill to the House floor for a vote.
Several of the most conservative members of the U.S. House oppose sending Kiev any more U.S. military help, saying the money could be better spent at home. And it only takes one lawmaker to file a “motion to commit” that would result in a vote over Johnson’s leadership.
Yet, after prevaricating for weeks, Johnson appears ready to hold a vote on a Ukraine aid bill devoid of the “poison pill” of tough new GOP immigration requirements that would turn Democrats away from the legislation.
The latest is the speaker will bring up five bills. There will be one each for aid to Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific allies, another featuring a GOP wish list of foreign policy priorities — including new regulations on Tik Tok — and a fifth bill that would impose tough GOP immigration restrictions. The U.S. House plans to stay in session through Saturday to vote on all five bills.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial, based on charges that Trump falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal, also began this week.
Proceedings were slowed by difficulties in finding 12 jurors who said they could be impartial.
Before Trump was required to be in New York for the trial, however, he held a campaign event over the weekend in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where Emmer continued his charm offensive toward the former president.
Emmer attended a roundtable and reception with Trump ahead of his rally, CNN reported.
“Tom was very well praised by the president. … He was very pleased to see the whip there,” Republican Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania, who also attended, told CNN. “A lot of people were happy to see the whip there.”
As Majority Whip, Emmer is in the No. 3 position in the U.S. House GOP leadership. While Trump sank Emmer’s chances of becoming speaker last year, the Minnesota Republican has recently made several efforts to repair his relationship with the former president.
Trump has rewarded those efforts by naming Emmer his Minnesota campaign chairman.
The CNN story also said Emmer is at the top of the list of those who are “quietly positioning themselves” should there be a new shakeup in the House Republican leadership.
Omar’s daughter suspended at Barnard over war protests
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, was arrested by police in riot gear Thursday with more than 100 others who were protesting the war in Gaza at the Columbia University campus in Manhattan. The protestors were charged with trespassing.
Earlier in the day, Hirsi posted on X that she was one of just three students suspended by the school for protesting the Israel-Hamas war on campus. Hirsi attends Barnard College, which is affiliated with Columbia.
“I’m an organizer with the CU Apartheid Divest@ColumbiaSJP. In my three years at @BarnardCollege, I have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings,” Hirsi wrote. “I just received notice that I am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”
The suspensions and arrest came one day after Columbia University President Minouche Shafik was grilled about the protests by the GOP-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce, of which Omar is a member.
“Antisemitism has no place on our campus, and I am personally committed to doing everything I can to confront it directly,” Shafik testified.
Omar questioned Shafik at the hearing, pressing the academic on whether she had seen anti-Muslim, anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian protests on her campus.
“No, I have not,” Shafik responded.
Omar also asked if there had been protests against “Jewish people.”
“No …” Shafik answered after a little hesitation.
Omar said “there has been an increase in anti-war and pro-war protests, because it has been anti-war and pro-war protesters.”
Omar also grilled Shafik about incidents of what she termed were harassment of Palestinian students and about a Columbia professor who attacked students online for their support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Smith needles candidate for rural upbringing claims
Sen. Tina Smith seemed to really enjoy herself this week, ragging on Tim Sheehy, a GOP candidate for Senate in Montana who said he grew up in rural Minnesota but actually was born in the Twin Cities and grew up in a multimillion dollar lake house in Shoreview.
“I grew up in rural Minnesota,” Sheehy told the Working Ranch Radio Podcast last October. “And although we were not farmers, I grew up in an old farmstead and we were surrounded by farmland.”
In addition, Sheehy, who is trying to unseat Sen. John Tester, D-Mont., attended the tony St. Paul Academy.
Smith, who as vice chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is working to keep the U.S. Senate in Democratic hands, trolled Sheehy on X. Tester is one of the most vulnerable Democratic senators of about a half-dozen who face very tough races for re-election.
A memorable posting by Smith features two side-by-side photos — one of an aging red barn near what looks to be a wheatfield, and another an aerial view of a well-kept Shoreview neighborhood with some pricey looking homes.
“Hope this helps @SheehyForMT,” Smith posted on X.
In an earlier post, Smith wrote, “So does Tim Sheehy actually think Shoreview is farmland? Because I love my constituents in Shoreview but farmland it is not.”
Democrats are going to have a tough time hanging on to the U.S. Senate this year. There are currently 48 Democrats, 49 Republicans and three independents in that chamber. The three independents caucus with Democrats, giving the party a narrow 51-49 seat majority.
This year, there are 23 Democratic and independent U.S. Senate seats up for re-election and only 11 GOP seats. So, Democrats can’t afford to lose Tester, whose race the Cook Report rates a “toss up” — or lose any other endangered Democratic senators.
Meanwhile, few if any GOP senators are in tough races this year, although there’s an open seat in Arizona that Democrats could pick up.
In Montana, many of the discrepancies in Sheehy’s upbringing were known for months, thanks to stories in the Montana Free Press and other outlets. But the campaign is heating up and more recent disclosures about Sheehy’s resume revived the candidate’s “rural Minnesota” story this week and extended its reach.
Londregan case a ‘weaponization of government?’
Minnesota’s GOP House members kept their promise this week and asked the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing on the actions of Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty because of the charges she brought against a trooper that killed a motorist at a traffic stop.
Trooper Ryan Londregan shot and killed Ricky Cobb II after he pulled away from the traffic stop, dragging Londregan and another trooper several feet.
Moriarty is accused of ignoring a use-of-force expert’s opinion that Londregan’s actions were justified. That has prompted many public officials, mostly but not exclusively Republicans, to insist the case be removed from Moriarty and given to someone else.
But Minnesota’s federal lawmakers wanted to go a step further.
A letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan that was led by Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-7th District, and also signed by Reps. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, Pete Stauber, R-8th District, and Brad Finstad, R-1st District, said “the case is a flagrant example of a problem your committee has been committed to exposing this Congress: the weaponization of government.”
The Minnesota lawmakers reminded Jordan that “the federal government has demonstrated its willingness to involve itself in Hennepin County’s justice system in the past,” citing a Justice Department report on the Minneapolis Police Department following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 by department officers.
The report found “systematic problems in the MPD that made what happened to George Floyd possible.”
The House Judiciary Committee did not respond when asked whether the panel would investigate Moriarty’s actions.
Your questions and comments
Several people commented on a story about what Rep. Dean Phillips’ plans are now that his political career has been derailed by his aborted challenge to President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Responses were brief, sometimes terse, and usually unsympathetic.
Here are some:
“OB-SCUR-IT-TY!! OB-SCUR-IT-TY!!”
“Fortunately, Dean has a lot of resources to use to help him decide how to spend the next few years.”
“Phillips should have known that challenging a sitting president usually does not turn out well.”
Another reader commented on a story about the Biden administration’s new regulations of PFAS.
“The east metro has a lot of private wells (including mine in Baytown), some of which are no-doubt contaminated with PFAS. For your next PFAS story, please include a well map showing where private wells have PFAS.”
Sounds like a good idea!
Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.
Ana Radelat
Ana Radelat is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. You can reach her at aradelat@minnpost.com or follow her on Twitter at @radelat.
