Last night, Pelosi allowed Republican Michael McCaul to introduce a bipartisan resolution about Russian war crimes in Ukraine. It passed overwhelmingly-- 418-7. Wonder who the 7 are? Other than Liz Cheney, they are all the core of the Putin wing of the Republican Party: Marjorie Traitor Greene (GA), Paul Gosar (AZ), Scott Perry (PA), Andy Biggs (AZ), Thomas Massie (KY) and Warren Davidson (OH). The pro-Trump/pro-Putin vote against the bill was so potentially toxic that even jackbooted hardcore fascists like Madison Cawthorn, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Matt Rosendale, Jody Hice and Mo Brooks demurred.
An hour earlier, the House debated and voted on the Select Committee's recommendation to hold insurrectionists Peter Navarro and Daniel Scavino in criminal contempt of Congress and to send that along to the Department of Justice. It passed more narrowly, 220-204, every Democrat voting in favor and every Republican but Cheney and Kinzinger voting against it. Navarro and Scavino have repeatedly refused to comply with subpoenas so they were clearly in contempt-- but, basically, so is the whole House Republican conference.
“We have two people who are flagrantly, brazenly defying the authority of the House of Representatives of the United States,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and a member of the committee. He said the men had “nothing but excuses for their noncompliance-- excuses you would not accept from a teenage child.”
...Dozens of Republicans lined up on the floor of the House on Wednesday to demand a change of topic, trying to force a vote on immigration legislation in line with their efforts to use problems at the border as a political weapon against Democrats ahead of midterm congressional elections.
After that failed, Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, attacked the investigation in a floor speech as a “political show trial” and accused the panel of bullying the men and trampling on their civil rights.
“Let me be clear: The riot on Jan. 6 was wrong. But make no mistake: the Democrats’ response is also wrong,” Mr. McCarthy said, adding, “Democrats are using the power of the federal government to jail their political opponents.”
Mr. Raskin shot back that Republicans were using “circus antics” to try to slow down the vote with a “conga line” of lawmakers queued up on the floor while they skipped out on their committee assignments.
He accused the Republicans of “slavishly” following Mr. Trump like “sycophants,” instead of joining efforts to investigate the deadly attack on the Capitol that left more than 150 police officers injured.
A contempt of Congress charge carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a maximum fine of $100,000. The House vote steered the matter to the Justice Department, which now must decide whether to charge the two men.
A few hours before that, the Arizona Mirror reported that neo-Nazi GOP congressman Paul Gosar had changed his mind about publicly celebrating Hitler's birthday this year. Gosar had been promoting his status as the "special guest" at the Hitler birthday celebration with the white nationalist American Populist Union in Tempe on April 20, Hitler's birthday. Once Gosar's role became public, he suddenly claimed he didn't know anything about it and no one asked him... despite having promoted it on his official Instagram account. Kevin McCarthy has no comment and no plans to discipline Gosar or any other of his members who celebrate Hitler's birthday.
The American Populist Union is closely aligned with groypers, a group of white nationalists who strive for their ideas to become a part of the Republican mainstream and are largely followers of 23-year-old white nationalist Nick Fuentes. In 2021, Gosar was the first elected official to speak at Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference in 2021. This year, the conference saw speeches by Gosar, Rogers and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Earlier this month, Gosar said his March video message to attendees of AFPAC was the fault of a staffer who sent his video message to the wrong group. He distanced himself from Fuentes, telling Politico that the young Holocaust-denying racist “has a problem with his mouth.”
Fuentes shared the story on the encrypted messaging app Telegram with the message “April Fool’s!” and later said in a livestream that he and Gosar will continue to “collaborate behind the scenes.”
American Populist Union has connections to Fuentes ideologically and through its members. The group hobnobbed with Arizona politicians in December when it held an event across the street from Turning Point USA that attracted a slew of fringe activists and groypers.
The other featured guest at the event, John Doyle, has allied with and promoted groypers, and he organized a “Stop the Steal” rally in Michigan with Fuentes. Doyle, a YouTube personality who runs a show called “Heck off Commie,” regularly advocates far-right ideology. He has said that Martin Luther King was “not a hero” and has claimed that liberalism is linked to satanism.
Doyle has also posted highly misogynistic content, such as saying that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote, and he once called for “low IQ offenders” to be executed in response to a story about a Black man committing a violent crime. Doyle, along with other members of APU, were also in attendance at the first 76Fest which was dubbed “Hitler Youth, without the Hitler” by one of its organizers.
This is an amazing floor speech by Jamie Raskin (D-MD) with Q-Anon Putinista Marjorie Traitor Greene heckling him and being put into her place. Enjoy:
4 pieces in one. #2 -- the contempt of congress -- after all this time has passed, was designed... to be forgotten and supplanted by the next 2 items?
any idea why liz cheney voted against the russia war crimes resolution? is it because she's massively evil? but the enemy of your enemy is your friend... so ya gotta luv her dontcha?
since merrick garland has refused, so far, for all of a year, to do "merrick garland" about anyone wrt 1-6 save for the hapless douchenozzles who were cattle-prodded into storming the capital, you really should refrain from reporting that the committee referred anyone to the doj for anything... since we all know that the doj won't do "merrick…