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Michele Bachmann’s No Good Very Very Bad Week

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Michele Bachmann, head of the Congressional Tea Party caucus and a former presidential candidate who withdrew from the race in January, has had a devastating week.

Michele Bachmann, who represents a conservative district in Minnesota, is being blamed on Twitter, along with Rush Limbaugh, for contributing to an environment of hate that some say led to yesterday’s tragic shooting which left six dead, plus the shooter, at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

“Twitter users have already begun to imply that public figures like Michele Bachmann and Rush Limbaugh are somehow responsible,” The Blaze reports:

Bachmann seemed to be the recipient of most of the allegations, presumably because of her calls to investigate the Muslim Brotherhood and its influence within the United States government.

If that seems a stretch, last night the Minnesota Star Tribune published an open letter signed by ten leaders of various faiths, that accuse Bachmann of “discriminatory and unsubstantiated accusations about Muslims.”

Writing that, “Bachmann’s fear-mongering hurts our country,” the group states:

We want to send a clear message to Congresswoman Bachmann that her efforts to demonize American Muslims are not welcomed by the Minnesota faith community. The safety and security of our country necessitates that we work together and not sow the seeds of division.

We the undersigned faith leaders stand in solidarity with our fellow American Muslims. Any attack on them is an attack on all of us.

…

Minnesota is known for its strong track record of interfaith work. Our interfaith alliances run deep and encompass a wide network of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Baha’i groups. We are proud of the trust and goodwill that our synergistic efforts have engendered over the years.

As interfaith leaders, we are appalled by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s discriminatory and unsubstantiated accusations. We strongly repudiate her past and current efforts to malign by association honorable American Muslims and respectable Muslim organizations that are serving our nation with great distinction. We deplore her finger-pointing and name-calling against the American Muslim community.

Despite the interfaith group’s position, Congresswoman Bachmann just announced she has joined a “citizens advisory board” on the Thomas More Law Center, a far right Christian legal defense group that claims to be “Christianity’s answer to the ACLU.” The Thomas More Law Center recently defended what the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as the “anti-Muslim Koran-burning publicity hound Terry Jones.”

The Detroit Free Press reports:

“I am pleased to join forces with the Thomas More Law Center,” Bachmann said Thursday. “They are in the courts aggressively fighting the internal threat to America posed by radical Islam.”

Richard Thompson, the center’s president and chief counsel, said that Bachmann “puts country before politics.”

“She understands the threat of radical Islam,” Thompson said. “We share her concerns regarding the stealth jihad that’s being perpetrated against the United States.”

Thompson was referring to what he and some other conservatives say are quiet ways in which some Islamic organizations are trying to take control in the West. Last month, Bachmann sent an open letter asking whether officials in the U.S. government — including Huma Abedin, a Muslim born in Kalamazoo who is a close aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — have ties to Islamic extremist groups.

Bachmann’s letter, signed by several other Republicans, was criticized by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and others who praised Abedin. Bachmann defended the letter, saying there are legitimate concerns about Abedin’s family ties.

Established in 1998 by Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, a conservative Catholic, the Thomas More Law Center has filed suits in a number of cases involving the rights of conservative Christians. It supported the right of a school in Pennsylvania to teach creationism, fought gay rights ordinances and opposes the contraception mandate announced by the Obama administration this year.

No word on what her compensation will be.

But Bachmann, despite pulling in $1 million in donations in the month of July, thanks in large part to her defamatory and scurrilous accusations against U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s top aide, Huma Abedin, is having serious financial difficulties.

Noting that “Bachmann’s campaign debt stand [sic] out, however, because the three-term congresswoman from Stillwater has been among the harshest critics on Capitol Hill of deficit spending and the nation’s debt under President Barack Obama,” SCtimes, a Gannett newspaper, reports that “Bachmann’s presidential campaign finance report for the second quarter showed a total debt of $935,000 but only $199,000 in available cash.”

Those figures presumably do not include Bachmann’s July haul, which begs the question, Did Michele Bachmann level charges against Huma Abedin and others in an attempt to gain attention — and cash?

Regardless, Bachmann may need that cash.

Via the Kansas City Star:

An Iowa campaign aide for former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann sued the Minnesota congresswoman and her senior campaign aides on Monday, alleging an official stole a private email list and that she was blamed for its use.

The lawsuit filed by Barb Heki claims that Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chairman, state Sen. Kent Sorenson, took the list from Heki’s private computer to promote Bachmann’s candidacy among Christian home-school advocates before the Iowa caucuses. Heki was hired to coordinate home-school supporters for Bachmann’s Iowa campaign.

Of course, if things get really, really bad for Bachmann, at least she can count on the former Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell.
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News

McCarthy Ousted as Speaker in Historic First as Republicans Vow Vengeance Against Gaetz: ‘Kiss My A–‘

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October 3, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has been ousted as the elected Speaker of the House of Representatives after a weeks-long campaign by his fellow Republican, Congressman Matt Gaetz. The Republican Florida lawmaker vowed over the weekend to put a “motion to vacate” on the House floor, which he did Monday night. Tuesday afternoon McCarthy lost the support of the majority in a full House vote.

No Speaker of the House has ever been ousted by a motion to vacation, according to the Associated Press, until McCarthy.

“The Office of the Speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant,” the presiding Republican lawmakers declared. The final vote was 216-210.

No Democrats voted to support McCarthy as Speaker.

Overall House Republicans are furious with Gaetz, with some vowing to expel him should the House Ethics Committee submit a negative report on their investigation into his alleged, possible sexual misconduct, unlawful drug use, and public corruption.

In addition to Gaetz, other House Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy include Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Tim Burchett, Eli Crane, Bob Good, Nancy Mace, and Matt Rosendale.

READ MORE: Trump Has Now ‘Crossed the Line Into Criminal Threats’: Top Legal Scholar

“After talking to a few House Republican lawmakers and aides,” during the vote to oust McCarthy as Speaker, Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reported he “would not be surprised to see someone move to have Gaetz expelled from the House Republican Conference.”

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) in a profane rant slammed Gaetz, in a recorded video, saying, “You want to come at me and call me a RINO you can kiss my ass! You go around talking your big game and thumping your chest on Twitter. Come in my office and have a debate mother —!”

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-LA) help up his phone while delivering remarks against Gaetz, chastising him for fundraising off his efforts to oust McCarthy.

“Using official actions to raise money. It’s disgusting!” he told his colleagues.

What happens next? According to The New York Times on Tuesday, “If McCarthy is removed, the House would be paralyzed.”

“A vacancy in the speaker’s chair would essentially paralyze the House until a successor is chosen, according to multiple procedural experts. An interim speaker would be chosen from a list prepared by Mr. McCarthy and his staff at the beginning of the year, but staff intimately familiar with House rules say the role of that person would be to oversee a speaker election and little more.”

As for McCarthy, he has said if removed as Speaker he would not resign from Congress. On Tuesday he suggested he would definitely run again for Speaker.

READ MORE: ‘Fool or a Liar’: GOP Knives Out for ‘A–hole’ Matt Gaetz as Vote to Oust McCarthy Appears Likely to Succeed

Watch the videos above or at this link.

 

 

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‘Fool or a Liar’: GOP Knives Out for ‘A–hole’ Matt Gaetz as Vote to Oust McCarthy Appears Likely to Succeed

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October 3, 2023

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House Republicans are expressing outrage at one of their own, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who by day’s end may succeed or come close to ousting Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy for relying on Democrats’ votes to keep the federal government from shutting down Saturday night.

“I prefer, you know, common sense over chaos,” Republican Congressman Anthony D’Esposito, who referred to Congressman Gaetz as an “a–hole,” told Fox News on Tuesday.

“I think that we should be focused on governance rather than grandstanding, and the fact that we have one a–hole that is holding us up and holding America up is a real problem,” D’Esposito added.

Far-right Republican Derrick Van Orden told CNN’s Manu Raju that Gaetz is “either a fool or a liar.”

“I’m telling you,” warned Republican Andy Barr of Kentucky, “it definitely puts the majority in jeopardy when you see disunity.”

READ MORE: Trump Has Now ‘Crossed the Line Into Criminal Threats’: Top Legal Scholar

GOP Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas said, “I think it’s sending a terrible message to the electorate in advance of the 2024 election that this Republican majority could not govern itself.”

On camera, another Republican called Gaetz “a chaos agent,” and another said: “I don’t have tolerance for some pseudo psycho political fetish.”

Still another warned, “I think it’s sending a terrible signal to the electorate in advance of the ’24 election, that this Republican majority cannot govern itself.”

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’: ND Republican Unleashes Anti-LGBTQ Christian Nationalist Rant Calling for ‘Christ Is King’ Laws

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‘Probably So’: McCarthy Says His Speakership Likely Will End After Vote

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6 hours ago

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October 3, 2023

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The Republican Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, is acknowledging his leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives “probably” is about to end.

“If five Republicans go with Democrats, then I’m out,” McCarthy, sounding resigned to his possible future, told reporters late Tuesday morning. The Speaker acknowledged that if all Democrats vote against him in a vote schedule for Tuesday afternoon, and just five Republicans join them, he will lose his job.

“That looks likely,” ABC’s Rachel Scott told McCarthy.

“Probably so,” he responded.

There are currently at least five Republicans who say they will vote to oust McCarthy, according to CNN’s Haley Talbot, as of last Monday night.

Democrats on Tuesday have said they will not support McCarthy.

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has been on a campaign to oust McCarthy, who was elected Speaker in January but only after the House voted 15 times before granting him the gavel. That gavel came with public and private concessions, among them, that any one member of the House could initiate a “motion to vacate,” which Gaetz did Monday night.

Gaetz claims he is working to strip McCarthy of the Speakership because he reached across the aisle and accepted votes from Democrats very late on Saturday to avoid what had been an almost-certain shutdown of the federal government. But McCarthy has long contended for Gaetz it’s “personal,” because the Speaker would not intervene to save Gaetz from a re-opened House Ethics Committee investigation into possible violations including sexual misconduct, unlawful drug use, and public corruption.

if Republicans do succeed on the motion to vacate, there currently is no one named to replace McCarthy. That would leave the position that is second in line to the presidency vacant.

Watch today’s House session live below, starting at 11:45 AM, see his remarks to reporters above, or watch both at this link.

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