What we know about former Hunter Biden small business husband or wife Devon Archer

Julia Johnson

July 31, 10:44 AM July 31, 10:44 AM

Hunter Biden's former small business associate Devon Archer, who was also a Burisma board member, is scheduled to testify powering closed doorways on Monday just before the GOP-led Dwelling Oversight Committee that is investigating President Joe Biden's family members and their organization dealings.

Controversy erupted in excess of the weekend following the U.S. Attorney’s Business for the Southern District of New York asked for a demo choose to identify a date for Archer to report to prison to serve his 1-12 months sentence for an unrelated fraud conviction.

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This prompted many Residence Republicans to connect with on colleagues to return to Washington, D.C., inspite of Congress staying in recess. "The DOJ is now actively committing the criminal offense of obstructing a congressional investigation," Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) posted on X (previously identified as Twitter). "If Devon Archer is not in the witness chair Monday, we improved haul each and every SOB at the DOJ in advance of congress Every Day to make them fork out for this."

Household Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) known as the timing of the Section of Justice's ask for "odd" throughout a WHD News overall look on Sunday.

Here's what we know about Hunter Biden's previous affiliate who is testifying in advance of the Household Oversight Committee.

Evading the committee

Archer has canceled scheduled depositions with the committee on a few occasions. The committee issued a subpoena for Archer's testimony past month with a deadline of June 16, which he skipped.

Archer's testimony has been sought by the committee because it has "recognized Mr. Archer as possessing information and facts suitable to its investigation."

Historical past with Hunter Biden

His testimony is so crucial to the committee mainly because of his proximity to both of those Hunter Biden and the relaxation of the Biden loved ones, specifically their business enterprise dealings. Archer served alongside the young Biden on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian power firm at the center of allegations of affect peddling from President Joe Biden and his household. He also worked with Hunter Biden on quite a few other business enterprise ventures as a result of Rosemont Seneca, their investment agency.

Further more, Archer would be the closest business enterprise associate to day to testify in advance of the committee. Dependent on his testimony, he has the greatest potential to implicate the president and his family members members far more than everyone else.

Hunter has praised Archer greatly in the previous

In his memoir, the president's son explained his organization husband or wife as a "self-produced, supermotivated previous faculty lacrosse participant with a disarming allure who'd flown all more than the earth to raise cash for his actual estate financial commitment agency."

Archer introduced Hunter to Burisma

His organization affiliate was truly the a single to recruit him for the Burisma gig, which was found as a substantial conflict of fascination for then-Vice President Joe Biden. This is one of the focal details of the Residence Republican investigation into Biden's alleged affect peddling.

One more company associate of Hunter Biden, however, declined an invitation to join Burisma. Chris Heinz, the stepson of John Kerry, "strongly warned Mr. Archer that doing the job with Burisma was unacceptable. Mr. Archer mentioned that he and Hunter Biden intended to go after the opportunity as people, not as aspect of the agency," a spokesperson told the Washington Publish.

The essential races in New Hampshire in 2024

Jack Birle

July 30, 08:00 AM July 30, 08:00 AM

New Hampshire is historically a intense race in the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries, but the normal elections in the Granite Point out in 2024 are also shaping up to be a struggle.

In New Hampshire, there will be no Senate election, but there will be elections for the president, United States Property, and governor, all staying held on Nov. 5, 2024. Here is a appear at the vital elections in the Granite State.

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Gubernatorial race

With Gov. Chris Sununu's (R-NH) announcement that he would not be functioning for one more term as governor, the Prepare dinner Political Report moved the race from "sound Republican" to "toss-up."

Considering that Sununu's announcement, two Republicans have announced bids to become the state's up coming main executive. Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Former New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse announced their candidacies soon after the existing governor bowed out.

On the Democratic facet, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and condition Government Councilor Cinde Warmington announced runs for governor in the earlier two months. The Granite State final elected a Democratic governor in 2014, when it reelected then-Gov. Maggie Hassan (D-NH).

Sununu won his past gubernatorial election in 2022 in a 57%-41.5% landslide.

Household races

New Hampshire at the moment has two Democratic-held Residence seats, but one particular of them is staying eyed by Republicans as a pickup option.

Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH) has represented the state's 1st Congressional District due to the fact 2019, but with an "even" partisan voting index, according to the Cook Political Report, the GOP has designed it a single of its focus on seats in the 2024 elections.

The only declared Republican challenger to Pappas is Russell Prescott, who formerly ran in 2022 but lost in the Republican principal to Karoline Leavitt. The Prepare dinner Political Report rates the race as "very likely Democrat," but as much more challengers arise the race could be viewed as more of a toss-up.

Presidential race

Republican presidential candidates haven't fared perfectly in New Hampshire in far more than two a long time. The final time a Republican picked up the Granite State's four Electoral School votes was in 2000.

Although the key contest is undecided, polling from the Saint Anselm Higher education Survey Centre exhibits that both equally of the primary Republican presidential candidates, former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), path President Joe Biden in a hypothetical basic election in the Granite State, 49%-40%.

In 2016, Trump narrowly shed New Hampshire to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, 47.25%-47.62%, and missing additional floor in 2020, losing to Biden, 45.36%-52.71%.

Georgia lawmaker who remaining Democrats to be a part of GOP slams former get together

David Zimmermann

July 28, 11:14 AM July 28, 11:14 AM

Georgia state Rep. Mesha Mainor, a Republican who remaining the Democratic Occasion earlier this thirty day period, had some harsh text for her former party.

Talking with WHD News this 7 days, Mainor criticized Democratic leadership for not doing more than enough to enable minorities and the poor in small-earnings communities. The Ga congresswoman ran her campaign on college alternative, and her stance on the matter led previous colleagues to "ostracize" her, she mentioned.

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“It was not right up until I became a policymaker in looking at each individual solitary line of the legislation that I understood we are executing so numerous issues that are not benefiting people today of color, folks from very low socioeconomic backgrounds, despite the fact that we are advertising and marketing that we are,” she stated. “There's a good deal of propaganda.”

Mainor declared she left the Democrats for the Republican Social gathering on July 11, saying the political change was a “moral” selection. She experienced been a Democrat her “entire everyday living.

“Everyone was informed if you never vote with the occasion on this caucus line, you will be ostracized. You will be on the island by by yourself. I did not agree with that,” Mainor reported. “And so the other folks, in my feeling, I don't know, but I experience like they have been pressured into voting a caucus choice as an alternative of voting for their communities.”

The Democratic Party’s stance on defunding law enforcement also proved to be a key element in her decision, Mainor told WHD News. Nonetheless, faculty alternative was the individual conviction she could not compromise on “because I am that kid that it supports.”

School selection provides moms and dads different training possibilities for their young children other than public educational facilities. These plans, such as school vouchers and tax-credit rating scholarships, can be expanded by point out legislatures. Other illustrations consist of constitution schools, magnet colleges, and homeschooling.

Mainor stated, “The persons that are jogging the educational institutions have the capacity to modify the curriculum” but are choosing not to do so.

“Leadership is not accomplishing that. That leadership is Democrat management, and schooling is just also important of a price for us to let it go on without being concentrated on a minute more time,” she added.

In March, Mainor was the only Democrat to vote "of course" on Georgia's Senate Monthly bill 233, legislation that would have expanded the state's voucher plan to give $6,500 to the families of public faculty students in the base 25% academically. The bill failed.

Her departure from the Democrats to the Republicans comes two years just after former Rep. Vernon Jones (R-GA) manufactured a similar selection.

Man who spent two decades in prison announces run for California House seat

Misty Severi

April 19, 07:53 PM April 19, 07:53 PM

Francisco Carrillo, who spent nearly two decades in prison before his wrongful conviction was overturned in 2011, announced his campaign for a congressional seat in California on Wednesday.

Carillo, who was featured on the Netflix documentary series The Innocence Files, is running to represent the 27th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat.

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“I know what it feels like to be ignored, marginalized, forgotten about,” Carrillo said in his announcement video. “There are people who abuse their power and benefit from the system. Then there’s the rest of us. We play by the rules and get screwed by the same exact system. This is why I’m running for Congress against Rep. Mike Garcia [R-CA].”

Carrillo was arrested following a drive-by shooting at the age of 16 after police mistakenly identified him in a different case, according to the documentary. He was convicted of murder and six counts of attempted murder in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison. However, Carrillo was exonerated in 2011 because most of the witnesses recanted their testimonies and other men confessed to the crimes.

The 27th District is considered a battleground district after it went to President Joe Biden in 2020 but voted for the more conservative Garcia in 2022. The district is a target for Democrats in 2024 as they attempt to regain the House next year.

Carrillo, who is on the Probation Oversight Commission of Los Angeles County, said his campaign will focus on criminal justice reform and economic justice.

"[I want] to let them know that there are people who can endure, there are good people who will come to the aid of others," Carrillo told CNN. "And ultimately, there are people who have been wronged by systems, and social justice can prevail. We definitely have to think about this no longer as punishment but more reform and be more compassionate with those who made a momentary mistake in most cases."

Former NASA chief of staff George Whitesides has also announced a campaign for the Democratic nomination.

Bowman defends counter-demonstration to MTG's protest outside Trump arraignment

Emily Jacobs

April 16, 07:25 PM April 16, 07:25 PM

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) defended his role in counter-demonstrations outside former President Donald Trump's Manhattan arraignment earlier this month that clashed with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) rally protesting the indictment.

Greene, an ardent Trump supporter, made headlines when she announced her plans to protest outside the Manhattan courthouse where the former president was being arraigned on hush money charges. The news prompted GOP detractors, including progressive New Yorkers like Bowman and other progressive local lawmakers, to hold a counter-protest in the same area. Greene was only able to speak to the crowd for under 10 minutes before being escorted away by police over security concerns.

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Bowman was seen shouting, "Get out of here, get the hell out of here," at Greene's car as she was driven away from the chaotic scene before turning to reporters and saying, "Now, let's talk about the truth."

"We will never accept hateful rhetoric in our city," Bowman told the packed crowd of police, media, and demonstrators. "Any rhetoric that is divisive, any rhetoric that uplifts white supremacy, we are pushing back against that in all its forms."

“Marjorie Taylor Greene, she should take her a** back to Washington and do something about gun violence, do something about affordable health care, do something about childhood poverty, do something about climate change," he continued. "Do your freaking job, Marjorie Taylor Greene. You don’t need to be in New York City talking that nonsense. Go back to your district. What are you doing here? You’re here for politics, you’re here because you want to be VP, you’re here for your own fundraising, you’re here for your own nonsense."

Asked about the incident during a Saturday appearance on MSNBC, specifically what was going through his head when he told her to go back home, Bowman replied, "First of all, I was angry that she would even come, because she's coming for political theater and to help with her fundraising."

"It was the day of the Trump arraignment so for her it's about theater," he added. "It’s about going viral. It’s about fundraising, and I’ve heard she wants to be the VP nominee."

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump this month on charges related to the hush money matter, marking the first time a former U.S. president has been criminally charged.

Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, testified before Congress in 2019 that he paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, $130,000 during the 2016 campaign to prevent her from going public about an affair she claimed to have with Trump in 2005. Cohen, who pleaded guilty and served time over the alleged payment, told lawmakers Trump reimbursed him in monthly installments.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and vowed to fight the charges. He has also made targets of Bragg and the judge overseeing the case on social media while condemning the charges as unserious and politically motivated.

Greene has repeatedly decried the investigation and charges as an "unconstitutional witch hunt."

Jeffries oversees $33M in fundraising for first-quarter stint as House Democratic leader

Brady Knox

April 13, 04:29 PM April 13, 04:29 PM

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has raised more than $33 million in fundraising during his first quarter as House minority leader.

Jeffries took over the mantle from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) once she stepped down from the position after 20 years following the 2022 midterm elections. Jeffries credited the fundraising success with holding "extreme MAGA Republicans accountable."

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“Our historic grassroots support is a testament to the faith and trust Americans have in Democrats to hold extreme MAGA Republicans accountable, take back the House in 2024 and continue our work delivering For The People by lowering costs, creating better-paying jobs and making our communities safe,” he told NBC News.

While Jeffries credits the fundraising as coming from grassroots support, the outlet reported that a fair chunk came from a network of donors he has cultivated while in his position. He has spent nearly a third of his first 100 days traveling from state to state, largely to court donors. So far, he has clocked 20,000 miles across nine states.

Jeffries's statement about the large fundraising total being due to his party combating "MAGA extremism" has become a theme of his tenure as House minority leader. Last month, he said that the Republican Party had become extremist.

"The American people rejected political street extremism all throughout the country in the most recent midterm elections in 2022," the New York Democrat said. "And it's my expectation that they will continue to do so moving forward. It is unfortunate that the extreme has become mainstream for this version of the Republican Party."

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The House minority leader's fundraising total isn't unprecedented, as his predecessor reportedly raised over $32 million in the first quarter of 2021 alone.

Jeffries was bested by his Republican counterpart, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who raised $38 million, setting a record, according to Axios.

Congress inquires about Chinese spying risks from cargo cranes: Report

Misty Severi

April 03, 09:06 PM April 03, 09:06 PM

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are requesting classified and unclassified documents from the Department of Homeland Security that reveal potential security vulnerabilities from dozens of Chinese-made cranes used at ports nationwide.

House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) said it was "worrisome" that 80% of U.S. port cranes use Chinese software made by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries in China, which has ties to the People’s Liberation Army.

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“On behalf of the American people, this Committee is demanding answers on the risks these cranes pose to U.S. cybersecurity and the resilience of our critical infrastructure, which is a core aspect of the homeland security mission,” Green said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.

There is no evidence that the Chinese government has used the cranes to conduct nefarious activity at American ports, U.S. officials said. However, the software could be used to observe or manipulate port operations.

The House committee is hoping to hold public and potentially closed-door hearings on the potential security risks by April 18. The committee is requesting documents that show a risk assessment and DHS's mitigation efforts that were directed by Congress in 2021.

In a letter to DHS officials, Green and Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), chairman of the subcommittee on oversight, investigations, and accountability, said if another country exploited potential weakness from the ports, it would have "catastrophic" economic and security consequences for the United States.

“If an adversary exploits the operational technology system of these cranes, port operations could completely shut down, suspending all commercial activity which would also disrupt our nation’s military and commercial supply chains,” the lawmakers said.

“Any potential port shutdown could create catastrophic economic and security consequences. ... These vulnerabilities could provide opportunities to near-peer nation-state adversaries, such as China, to cripple our economy from behind a computer screen,” they added.

Ports in the U.S. help facilitate $5.4 trillion worth of commercial and military goods each year.

Chinese officials dismissed the crane concerns as paranoia and claimed it was an attempt to obstruct the trade and economic relationship between the U.S. and China.

WATCH: Rep. Waltz calls for sending ‘very clear message’ to Mexico and drug cartels

Heather Hamilton

March 13, 10:33 AM March 13, 10:35 AM

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) is calling upon the Biden administration to demonstrate stronger leadership and confront the Mexican drug cartel crisis.

“This is more weakness from this White House,” Waltz told WHD News’s Steve Hilton. “Now cartels, these narco-terrorists that control our southern border, that control upwards of a third, according to some estimates, of the entire country of Mexico.”

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“Look, I would ask the White House, 'If ISIS or al Qaeda pumped chemicals into the United States that killed 80,000 Americans, more than the worst year of World War II, would we be treating it as a law enforcement/diplomatic problem?' Hell no, we wouldn’t!” Waltz said. “We would go after them, ISIS and al Qaeda, with everything we’ve got. And that’s what we’re demanding now in the Congress.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) joined Waltz in January, introducing legislation to authorize military force against the major Mexican drug cartels. Their effort has found support from former Attorney General William Barr.

Waltz said efforts could utilize offensive cyberstrategy through military or space assets, in addition to going after the cartels’ money or dismantling the cartel leadership with special operation forces.

"We’re at a point now where we need to send a very clear message ... to say we’re going to have to do this with you or without you. We have no choice. We cannot accept, actually under international law, to allow your territory to be used as a sanctuary for narco-terrorists to then kill the citizens of your neighbor is a violation of international law," Waltz said.

“And I think we send a message that we have no choice: Work with us, or we're going to have work alone to protect our sovereignty, our people, and our interest. I think if we send that message the right way, much like we did with the 'Remain in Mexico' policy, that we’ll see folks get on board," the congressman said.

When it was suggested that a new president might be needed for Waltz to see his ideas come to fruition, the Republican congressman said immediate action is needed in light of the recent kidnapping and slaying of American citizens in Mexico.

“We owe it to those families to do everything we can do from Congress and at least set the stage for the next president if this one won’t … act,” Waltz said.

House Republicans face thorny challenges in Afghanistan withdrawal investigations

Mike Brest

March 06, 06:15 AM March 06, 06:21 AM

People long thought of the 2001-2021 Afghanistan conflict as "the good war." U.S. military action in the landlocked central Asian conservative Muslim nation was a direct response to the 9/11 attacks, which claimed nearly 3,000 lives on American soil.

The public largely saw the Afghanistan war as a matter of self-defense since its Taliban government had allowed al Qaeda terrorists to train there and use the country as a base from which to plan the Sept. 11 attacks. Though more than 2,400 Americans died in military efforts fighting terrorists in Afghanistan, its moral authority shone brightly compared to the invasion of Iraq and subsequent war, a conflict of choice, which, according to critics, stood as the worst U.S. foreign policy decision of the modern era after it empowered neighboring Shia Mulsim majority Iran and more broadly destabilized the Middle East.

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What the American public wasn't counting on, though, was a chaotic and deadly withdrawal process by American and allied troops, one that harkened back to the U.S. loss in Vietnam, with American helicopters in April 1975 ignominiously taking off from the roof of their country's embassy just before communist troops rolled in.

Worst of all, congressional Republicans said in late summer 2021, problems that plagued the Afghanistan withdrawal were likely foreseeable by President Joe Biden and his military and diplomatic advisers. So, since House Republicans in November won a narrow 222-213 majority, its leaders have been chomping at the bit to investigate the U.S. military's Afghanistan withdrawal.

But GOP lawmakers are finding that simply blaming the Biden administration for the seemingly botched withdrawal isn’t so easy, as they’ve had mixed luck obtaining documents and other materials from the Biden administration. The narrative of the Afghanistan troop withdrawal being Biden’s fault isn’t as simple as they’d make it seem since Biden’s Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump, laid much of the military and diplomatic groundwork that led to the chaotic withdrawal, completed on Aug. 30, 2021.

A Difficult Investigation

House Republicans have said they want to focus largely on the disastrous end to the war. One main question is how the Taliban's August 2021 offensive easily toppled the U.S.-backed Afghan government despite the Afghan forces having been the recipients of billions of dollars for training and aid since the United States launched operations there on Oct. 7, 2001, upon the orders of then-President George W. Bush.

In the end, Afghan soldiers effectively laid down their weapons. U.S. forces ultimately conducted a chaotic evacuation effort for U.S. citizens and Afghan allies who had worked with American troops and were at risk under the Taliban regime. Thousands of Afghan allies were left behind, and many remain there to this day, under threat as the security situation worsens.

As U.S. forces evacuated more than 120,000 civilians in the final two weeks of August after the Taliban took control, their efforts were marred by a pair of tragic events. On Aug. 26, an ISIS-K operative detonated a suicide vest killing 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 civilians outside the gates of the airport where the evacuations were occurring. Then, on Aug. 29, U.S. forces launched a strike at what they believed to be another imminent threat to the personnel at the airport, but the target was wrongly identified. Ten civilians were killed, including multiple children, while none of them posed a threat to U.S. forces or those at the airport.

The Biden administration ending the Afghanistan War under such circumstances was an obvious target of GOP investigation once they took power. At the start of the new Congress in early January, the issue got tied to support of Rep. Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) bid to be House speaker by incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX), Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL), and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence lead Republican Mike Turner (R-OH). The trio released a statement in support of McCarthy, saying in part that the California Republican's "Commitment to America agenda outlines ... a plan to investigate the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan."

McCarthy won the speaker's gavel on the 15th ballot, in the wee hours of Saturday, Jan. 7, after three and a half days of voting. The Foreign Affairs Committee became the first panel to get its Afghanistan investigation off the ground and running. McCaul, the new chairman, sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Jan. 12 asking for a litany of documents related to the withdrawal. McCaul set a response deadline of Jan. 26, two weeks later.

The State Department met that deadline late on the night of Jan. 26, a House Foreign Affairs Committee majority staffer told the Washington Examiner, but not to the committee's satisfaction.

“We indicated to the State [Department] that we understand we won’t get everything by the 26th, but expect a substantial initial production. They instead responded on the 26th with a meager 218-page production of documents that had already been FOIA’d — and were heavily redacted,” the staffer said, alluding to past Freedom of Information Act document requests. “They told us in our meeting on Jan. 19 that they would send us unredacted documents. Instead, there were extensive redactions.”

The State Department also claimed to the committee that they couldn’t begin compiling the documents until receiving a letter from the chairman, while the staff said they are not aware of any law that would bar the department from internally compiling the documents they knew he’d want because he wrote them as the ranking member.

The agency declined to detail its response to the GOP-led committee.

That kind of back-and-forth was expected once Republican-led House investigations got underway. Biden administration officials suggested what they deemed legitimate issues of public concern would warrant their response to GOP requests, while other requests, like those probing alleged misdeeds by presidential son Hunter Biden, might be ignored. Biden administration officials cited ignored subpoenas by figures from the administration of former President Donald Trump and even Republican House members themselves during the Jan. 6 committee investigation.

A State Department spokesperson directed the Washington Examiner to spokesman Ned Price's recent comments on the topic: "On the various topics and regions of oversight, we are going to continue with the approach that we have exercised with the prior Congress, with the 117th Congress, with the 118th Congress. Congress has important functions: authorization function, appropriation function, and an oversight function."

McCaul, whose 10-page letter included a long list of questions he wants answers to, is planning for public hearings on the Afghanistan withdrawal. The majority staffer called the investigation "a top priority for the committee."

Nor is McCaul the only House committee chairman eager to bring the disastrous end of the Afghanistan War back into the public sphere.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) sent letters in December, before he took the committee gavel, requesting information and documents from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas, and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Powers.

“The Biden Administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal was a humanitarian and national security catastrophe," Comer told the Washington Examiner in a statement. "U.S. servicemen and women lost their lives, thousands of Americans were abandoned, billions of taxpayer dollars are still unaccounted for, military equipment fell into the hands of the Taliban, progress for Afghan women has stalled, and the entire region is now under hostile Taliban control. Nearly two years later, the American people are still without answers and sitting in the dark."

Comer spokesman Austin Hacker told the Washington Examiner that no Biden administration officials have responded to the requests.

Trump Administration Responsibility?

While the end of the war did not go as Joe Biden intended, the situation was more complicated, having bedeviled four presidential administrations. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found that the Trump administration's agreement with the Taliban in February 2020 to leave within 14 months put the Biden administration in the position of having to uphold it.

That was a "catalyst" and the "single most important near-term factor" in the Afghan military's collapse, in part because it led to a drop in morale, a SIGAR report from last May lays out.

Anthony H. Cordesman, the emeritus chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the best way to learn from the mistakes in the war is to look much further back than just how it ended.

"One of the key issues is, does the committee basically focus on trying to blame the [Biden] administration for the near chaos of the worst phase of the collapse? Or does it look at the overall set of problems that led to the collapse? Historically, I think we can just focus on the most immediate crisis and never really look at the causes, and I think that if we do that again, it simply will not provide any clear guidance for the future," Cordesman told the Washington Examiner.

Cordesman believes that to get a comprehensive understanding of the collapse of the Afghan government, the scope of the investigation should “certainly” go back to “at least 2015,” during the Obama administration, specifically on how the U.S. could have begun the peace process with a date certain — without "having any clear plan for peace or examination of how the sort of negotiating options would occur."

Bradley Bowman, an expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who was a defense adviser for former Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), thinks the national security implications from the withdrawal are too important for committees to get dragged into partisan exercises.

"I get frustrated by Democrats who just want to put it all on Trump, and I get frustrated by Republicans who just want to put it on Biden because I think neither of those approaches is fact-based or accurate. It's just not," Bowman told the Washington Examiner. "And I think the stakes that we confront and the threats that we confront as a country are just too serious for partisan gamesmanship, and I think on Afghanistan and everything else, if we're going to adopt the national security policies we need, we need more serious-minded folks who are more interested in securing our country then winning partisan points."

With the U.S. leaving Afghanistan, Joe Biden and defense officials have said their counterterrorism strategy in the region focuses largely on the U.S.'s over-the-horizon capabilities, or the ability to launch strikes without troops in the country, though it's much harder to collect the necessary intelligence required for such an action without personnel there to gather it. In the roughly 18 months since forces withdrew, the U.S. has conducted one such strike, in July 2022, that successfully targeted Ayman al Zawahiri, the successor of Osama bin Laden in al Qaeda’s leadership.

Al Zawahiri's presence in Kabul’s Shirpur neighborhood, where U.S. officials alleged Taliban leaders not only knew he was there but engaged in a cover-up in an attempt to his presence there, demonstrates the tenuous security situation in Afghanistan.

Hockey coach experience helps House Majority Whip Tom Emmer in new leadership role

Juliegrace Brufke

March 05, 07:32 AM March 05, 07:32 AM

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) played a key role in building the new House Republican majority. Now, as House majority whip, he's helping to coach it, a familiar position going back to his ice hockey days.

Emmer, first elected in 2014 to Minnesota's 6th Congressional District in the northern and western Minneapolis exurbs, was twice chairman of the House Republicans' campaign arm, where he had a strong run. Heading the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2020, Emmer oversaw the effort that shaved down the House majority that the Democrats won two years earlier, boosting House Republicans' ranks by 14 seats. And in 2022, with Emmer again chairing the NRCC, Republicans nabbed the House majority halfway through President Joe Biden's White House term — although they only have a narrow 222-213 edge over the Democrats.

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Emmer's House Republican colleagues rewarded him by backing him for majority whip in a contest where he beat out rival Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA) on the first ballot and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) on the second, by a 115-106 vote. That made Emmer the third-highest House Republican leader behind Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA).

The majority whip's job is officially to whip House votes for the party's position on leadership, but the role is as much about being the eyes and ears of the conference and knowing how to make members succeed. That's all hard-earned experience from Emmer's eight years in the House, on top of six years as a state representative, his work as a city councilman, and his work as an attorney and establishing a youth hockey team in the 1990s, where the father of seven and onetime collegiate hockey player himself learned how to get people to work together.

Emmer immediately drew on those skills in the opening days of the closely divided House. He helped McCarthy rally the support needed to secure the speaker's gavel amid a group of conservatives threatening to derail the California Republican’s bid. The effort took 15 ballots, and three-and-a-half days, before McCarthy finally won in the wee hours of Jan. 7.

“It's like problem-solving, right? People are entitled to their opinions," Emmer told the Washington Examiner about trying to overcome dissension in the House GOP ranks. "We're entitled to our emotions. We're entitled — all of that is just human stuff, right?"

Emmer recalled working in his office with House Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) to figure out a way to victory for McCarthy.

"We did the [speaker] first vote that Tuesday — I can't remember how many we did before we went to adjourn. And then we ended up in here, Guy and I ended up in here with just a few members," Emmer said. "I won't get into which ones, but having a discussion — and by the way, they were on the opposite side of Kevin. So the discussion was, 'Is there a path?' How do we get there? And at that point, they weren't too inclined to talk that way.”

It helped grease the ultimate agreement that led to McCarthy's eventual win. The rules package that will govern the operations and priorities of the 118th Congress passed the House after McCarthy used it to barter a deal with conservatives in exchange for the speaker's gavel. The 55-page package includes an end to proxy voting as well as a return to the traditional "motion to vacate," which allows any member to bring forward a motion to oust the speaker.

Additionally, instead of an omnibus bill, all 12 appropriations bills will be considered and passed separately. Two new committees also were created: one to investigate China and the other to investigate the "weaponization" of federal agencies under the Biden administration. The rules package further calls for lawmakers to have 72 hours to review bills before voting on them. Moreover, the House side of the Capitol would be reopened to the public.

"It's like, 'You guys can make some significant changes — and significant changes, by the way, that the entire conference agrees with,” Emmer said about GOP House holdouts against McCarthy.

Emmer, who was the 2010 Minnesota Republican gubernatorial nominee, noted that he doesn’t expect his job to be easy over the course of the next two years. But the speaker’s race was a good “practice run” for what’s ahead, noting that hearing out members about their concerns and maintaining strong communication on where members of the conference stand will be a key part of his strategy.

“It was a great practice run for us. I mean, we literally set up our whip team on the fly, the whip counters, we couldn't rely on others to do things on the floor. So we literally stepped it up, put that together. I called it practice," Emmer said. "Imagine this is what we're going to be doing as a whip operation, so just we're going to use it, we're going to do some test things right and see how it works like a fire drill.”

The Minnesota Republican said he believes his background as a hockey coach has also provided him with a skill set that will be beneficial for his new leadership gig.

"A good coach celebrates the team when they're successful and, by the way, takes all the responsibility when they fail. I think that's the No. 1 rule," Emmer said. "And you also have to get your team to believe in the mission that you're setting out to — if they trust in the leadership, and if the leadership knows what they're doing, teams can achieve things that they really never should have been expected to achieve.”

Emmer offered a more specific hockey analogy.

“It's recognizing, like I did with every team I've coached, that every player has a role, and if that player is not performing, it affects everybody else," he said. "That comes from the top scorer on the team to the penalty kill guy that's out there for just a few minutes of every game, and you were only as strong as your weakest link. So everybody gets held to the same standard, everybody has the same consequences, and then they all start leaning on each other.”

With the razor-thin majority, Emmer acknowledged that there are likely to be significant hurdles during the course of the next two years, with factors like occasional absences potentially being a problem.

“I think the biggest challenge is going to be human issues," he said. "We've got members who have lives at home and, you know, making sure that people take care of themselves and stay healthy.”

But while Democrats utilized proxy voting during the 117th Congress, making it easier to pass legislation, Emmer said that he is glad that Republicans got rid of the pandemic-era practice. Proxy voting was being abused and shouldn’t have been extended for as long as it had, according to the congressman.

“If you don't want to come to work, then get a different job — proxy voting and Zoom hearings and all of this nonsense should never have happened," Emmer said.

Republicans control the House. Now what can they do?

W. James Antle III

March 05, 04:00 AM March 05, 04:01 AM

Like the Democrats they dethroned, House Republicans have big dreams but a small majority. They would like to cut spending, eliminate inflationary fiscal policies, confront China, secure the border, and hold the executive branch accountable without willing partners in charge of the White House or the Senate.

Some go so far as to see a historic opportunity for entitlement reform, even as President Joe Biden centers his likely reelection campaign around the need to defend Social Security and Medicare from Republican cuts.

"When Republicans only control one half of one of the three branches of the federal government, they are limited in what they can do from a lawmaking standpoint because it is a numbers game, and they simply don’t have the numbers to pass sweeping legislation into law,” said GOP strategist Ford O’Connell. “But that doesn’t mean House Republicans don’t have significant power to change the conversation and direction of policy in Washington, D.C., and across the country, if they can maintain a strategic legislative focus and sound communications discipline.”

HERE'S HOW RON DESANTIS PLANS TO ATTACK TRUMP: VERY CAREFULLY

One thing Republicans can do is stop the more partisan elements of the Biden agenda cold. Tax and spending measures must originate in the House, according to the Constitution. Barring massive defections by the more centrist GOP lawmakers representing the most Biden-friendly districts, these bills won’t even make it to the House floor. Reconciliation, the budgetary promise by which the Democrats passed two of Biden’s biggest spending bills, is a nonstarter.

Legislation such as Build Back Better or the shrunken version found in the Inflation Reduction Act won’t make it out of the House. If they somehow did, they would be subject to filibuster in the Senate. The 49 Republican senators may be one fewer than last year, but that is more than enough to blow up bills under a 60-vote threshold.

Republicans argued on the campaign trail that this type of spending was Biden’s biggest contribution to inflation, which spiked to a 41-year high before the Federal Reserve stepped in with an aggressive blitz of interest rate hikes. They will be able to stop it.

Democrats countered with concerns about abortion and Roe v. Wade, which was overturned by a conservative-dominated Supreme Court in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision a few months before the midterm elections. Republicans will similarly be able to thwart Democratic efforts to codify, or go beyond, Roe.

In terms of a positive legislative agenda, House Republicans will have to decide between trying to find measures Biden could sign into law and messaging bills that will put their Democratic opponents on the record ahead of the next elections.

“Legislation that tackles inflation, strengthening the economy, and fiscal sanity are winners, so long as Republicans stay out of the Democrats’ Medicare and Social Security traps,” O’Connell told the Washington Examiner. “Same goes for legislation concerning border security, crime, the Chinese Communist Party, domestic energy security, and government accountability. These are all issues that appeal to Main Street, including independents.”

That’s precisely the trap Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) hope to set in the debt ceiling fight. House Republicans hope to win some spending concessions in exchange for an increase in the federal debt limit. Biden wants a clean debt ceiling hike with no conditions, saying Republicans are willing to default and tank the economy to force Social Security and Medicare cuts.

Republicans did win some spending concessions, with threatened enforcement through sequestration, in 2011 under former President Barack Obama. The circumstances were similar: a Republican House, a Democratic Senate, and a Democrat in the White House. So House conservatives see that as the model.

Biden was involved in those debt ceiling negotiations over a decade ago when he was vice president. No deal was struck before a credit rating downgrade took place. The stalemate probably helped Obama get reelected. And Biden has to wonder if House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who took 15 ballots to get elected, really speaks for his conference.

“The American people want to see Washington, D.C., stop with the utter dysfunction that has plagued the city for so long,” Republican strategist Jon Gilmore said. “We need to have real conversations about spending, debt, and putting forward meaningful policies to enact real change. I have confidence in the speaker and his leadership team, and we are all rooting for their success.”

Dysfunction is exactly what Democrats want swing voters to see in McCarthy’s House, exploiting tensions among the various Republican factions.

Oversight of the Biden administration is another sure bet from House Republicans. They now control the committees and have subpoena power. Presidential son Hunter Biden and retired Biden administration chief COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci, as well as current officials, are going to be on the receiving end.

Committee hearings don’t have the same bipartisan credibility as they did decades ago. Grilling Attorney General Merrick Garland could be seen as a substitute for governing, pleasing only the base. But some voters also want answers on the border, the FBI, and Afghanistan. Republicans will at least be in a better position to ask the questions.

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With a divided government, most of the next two years will really be about why Democrats or Republicans should be returned to full control. Each will be trying to make the argument that their candidates should be the next president and congressional majority.

“How do we measure GOP House success? Simple,” O’Connell said. “Do Republicans win control of the White House and all of Congress in 2024? If they do, then they have been successful."

McCarthy light-touch leadership differs from his predecessors' top-down approach

Virginia Aabram

March 04, 07:30 AM March 04, 07:30 AM

Even in the moments when it didn’t look like there was any way that Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) would emerge victorious from the grueling speakership race, Washington insiders said he would win.

McCarthy has the ability to overcome just about anything, as his most hard-line detractors found out over the course of four days and 15 rounds of votes. After starting with 20 adamant naysayers that he eventually whittled down to six, the race ended with the gavel in McCarthy’s hand and zero Republican votes against him. The rocky start now has one member comparing him to Rocky Balboa.

THE NEW RULES

"He's doing great,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) told the Washington Examiner a few weeks into the busy new Congress. “I come from Philadelphia, the city of Rocky Balboa. Kevin McCarthy is the Rocky Balboa of Congress. He has overcome so much adversity. And he should be very proud of all he's accomplished.”

McCarthy negotiated his way to the speakership by cutting deals with conservatives that dispersed power over legislation from the majority party's leadership and into the hands of rank-and-file members. It's a stark departure from the role of his immediate predecessors, a job that's second in the line of succession after the vice presidency.

While House speakers of an earlier era deferred considerably to committee leaders about which pieces of legislation moved or didn't, the first House Republican House speaker in 40 years, former Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) strengthened the role considerably. After House Republicans won the majority in the 1994 midterm elections, Gingrich, as the incoming speaker, quickly restricted the power of committee chairmen. Gingrich instead hand-picked the chairmen for the next Congress, in some cases disregarding seniority.

Subsequent Republican House speakers, such as former Reps. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), John Boehner (R-OH), and Paul Ryan (R-WI), further consolidated power in the office. But it was the only Democratic House speaker of the past 28 years, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who operated with what critics deemed imperious powers. She kept in line a sometimes-fractured House Democratic Caucus and wasn't afraid to punish members of her own party who strayed from the fold on votes. The daughter of a World War II-era House member from Maryland who became Baltimore's mayor, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., Pelosi in her two turns as speaker (2007-2011 and 2019-2023) was more of an old-school, big-city war boss than the effete San Francisco liberal critics often characterized her as.

McCarthy, under the new House rules, won't be able to operate so unilaterally. Key rules changes conservatives won in exchange for McCarthy becoming speaker include a provision under which just one House member can sponsor a motion to remove the speaker. (The old rule required a majority of either party to do so, which was put in place by House Democrats when Pelosi became speaker, again, in 2019.)

There also needs to be 72 hours' notice before voting on a bill. Several other procedural changes became part of the House rules package — all of which were aimed at dispersing power in the chamber to rank-and-file members instead of just a few top leaders.

The Republican House majority is 222-213 over the Democrats. That's considerably smaller than the dozens of seats McCarthy had predicted Republicans would gain in the 2022 midterm elections, halfway through President Joe Biden's White House term.

Ironically, the smaller Republican majority probably resulted in a more conservative House than if the hoped-for "red wave" had occurred during the midterm elections in November. Conservatives aligned with the Freedom Caucus used the five-vote majority to withhold support until, for 14 of them, their demands for rule changes were met. The final six ended up voting present after the negotiations went so well that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), one of the final holdouts, said he was "running out of stuff to ask for."

Just a few weeks after the intraparty squabble that came to a dramatic conclusion in the middle of the night, the Republican conference has become a lot more optimistic — at least publicly. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), who voted against McCarthy until the last night of votes, told reporters he now thinks McCarthy "is doing a fantastic job — so far" and reiterated that "218 is the magic number," meaning Republicans have to listen to all corners of the party to pass anything.

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), the chief deputy whip and one of McCarthy’s most effective allies during the speaker election, said he knew McCarthy was going to win, even when negotiations appeared to be stalling out.

"During the speaker's race, somebody asked me, 'What was your low point in the speaker's race?' I was, like, 'I didn't have any low point. I knew that McCarthy was going to win. It just took some time,'” he said.

McCarthy has been gunning for the speakership for nearly a decade, and his deep experience in the political arena prepared him for the third-top job in the U.S. government. In 1987, he began working for his Bakersfield, California, hometown representative, Bill Thomas (R-CA), and forayed into politics himself with an election to the California statehouse in 2002, quickly rising to Republican floor leader the next year. He then won his election to the House in 2006 and has been on an upward trajectory ever since.

He got a spot on the powerful House Steering Committee as a freshman and was the chief deputy whip by the next term. By 2011, he was the whip, and after 2014, he was the House Republican leader. In 2015, he withdrew from the speakership race, knowing he wouldn't have the votes, and the spot went to Ryan.

“Of course, Kevin can do every job here,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) said, calling him a “great resource” since he has experience in many of the top GOP positions.

Democrats, of course, aren't thrilled with the power exchange since they lost their majority and Pelosi lost her job as speaker. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, will see a lot of changes to his panel since it was one of the central pawns in the negotiations between McCarthy and the conservatives.

"I'm nervous to even think about what might be coming our way," McGovern told the Washington Examiner. He said the addition of several conservatives to the committee was because Republicans "wanted those seats for a reason, and that is to make sure that the bills that come to the floor are as extreme as possible."

On McCarthy's leadership during the first three weeks of the new session, McGovern said he hasn't seen anything substantial come from the GOP, such as bills to address inflation.

"We're not doing anything. He's threatening to default on our debt, which would ruin our economy, so it's safe to say I'm not impressed."

There seems to be at least one basic reason for McCarthy's survival, and that's the simple fact that he's nice. Everyone from journalists to Hill staffers to TV bookers to fellow lawmakers says McCarthy is genuine, pleasant, and enjoyable to work with — something that's not said of everyone in politics.

It's a trait that served him well through decades at the top of the political game, and it may see him through at least one full term as speaker. Much attention has been paid to McCarthy's assent to allowing only one member to bring forward a motion to vacate the chair, triggering an immediate vote on keeping him in the seat he fought so hard for. But one journalist recalled hearing from a Hill staffer years ago, "I believe in three things: God, the superiority of the U.S. Navy, and Kevin McCarthy’s ability to survive."

Juliegrace Brufke contributed to this report.

Matt Gaetz vows to continue speaker stalemate until McCarthy concedes or limits power

Cami Mondeaux

January 05, 08:49 AM January 05, 08:49 AM

One of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s most stubborn opponents in his House speaker bid is vowing not to fold and to continue the current stalemate until the California Republican either agrees to the defectors’ demands or drops out altogether.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who has been one of McCarthy’s most vocal opponents, pledged not to back down in the House speaker showdown, intensifying what has already been a dayslong fight as the chamber looks to elect its next leader. The House is set to reconvene at noon on Thursday for its third day of leadership elections after lawmakers adjourned the night before without selecting a speaker.

MCCARTHY OFFERS UP MAJOR CONCESSIONS TO ‘NEVER KEVINS’ IN BID TO SEAL SPEAKER

“I think this ends one of two ways,” Gaetz told WHD News after the House adjourned on Wednesday. “Either Kevin bows out, realizing there is no path to become speaker of the House even with one or two or three or five of the 20 who have opposed him half a dozen times on the floor, or he essentially has to wake up, bring the House into session, and put on a straitjacket with a rules package that we’ve presented to him that doesn’t allow a lot of discretion for the speaker of the House.”

After failing to make headway in three rounds of roll call votes on Wednesday, McCarthy proposed a new bout of concessions to some of his most stubborn opponents in a last-ditch effort to win their support before the chamber reconvenes. As part of his latest concessions, McCarthy agreed to a proposal to add more Freedom Caucus members to the House Rules Committee, as well as further lowering the number of members needed to call for a floor vote to oust a sitting speaker, according to CNN.

The compromise builds on previous concessions in which McCarthy agreed to lower the number of votes needed to oust him from the position possibly should he be elected, marking a significant win for far-right conservatives such as Gaetz.

“The reason we’ve demanded that is we do not trust Kevin McCarthy, and it’s not a small body of work,” the Florida Republican said.

Even if those demands are met, however, Gaetz has vowed not to back McCarthy’s bid.

“I’m not voting for McCarthy, but there are some of the 20 who I suspect might if we got control of the Rules Committee and the Appropriations Committee,” Gaetz said. “If things stand as they are, I suspect the opposition will only grow.”

Twenty GOP lawmakers voted against McCarthy to back Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) in the latest round of voting, with one Republican voting present. Donalds initially voted for McCarthy in the first two roll call votes before backing Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) in the third round on Tuesday, conceding that “at the end of the day, we’ve got to get to 218."

McCarthy critics say concession on motion to vacate doesn't go far enough

Juliegrace Brufke

January 01, 11:23 PM January 01, 11:23 PM

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is continuing to struggle to lock down the votes needed to become the next Speaker just two days ahead of the floor vote, with conservatives stating that his major concessions laid out on a New Year’s day conference call fell short of what is needed to secure their support.

McCarthy told GOP lawmakers that he would lower the threshold for the motion to vacate the chair — a procedural tool used to oust a sitting Speaker that was changed under Democrats in 2019 from allowing any single member to initiate the motion to only be able to be brought up for a vote over the objection of leadership — down to five members despite pushback from moderates in his conference. While his defectors — who laid out a series of demands including the motion to vacate, placing more GOP hard-liners on “A” committees, a ban on leadership playing in primaries, cuts to spending and a return to regular order — said that changes to the rules is a step in the right direction, the California Republican still does not currently have the 218 needed to get him over the finish line.

MCCARTHY CRITICS TAKE AIM AT SPEAKER HOPEFUL'S TACTICS TO SWAY VOTES

During the course of the call, multiple members “said they won’t vote for it [the rules package] if Kevin is not Speaker,” one lawmaker told The Washington Examiner. Another member said moderates expressed grievances with the changes to the motion to vacate despite pro-McCarthy lawmakers attempting to sell the package to defectors in hopes it would shift critics' support toward the California Republican.

“They started [the call] with this new rules package that we're all about to see and are obviously saying the rules package - it's great, everyone worked so hard, we got all these great things and they're gonna be historic. And then [Gaetz] got on there and said, 'Well, if everyone wants the rules package, we should accept it no matter who the speaker is because if these are good rules are good rules, right?’” the lawmaker said. “But then the mods piled on and said actually, we hate the rules package."

The member said that McCarthy floated lowering the threshold down to a single lawmaker after Rep.-elect Mike Lawler (R-NY) asked Gaetz — one of the five “Never Kevin” members to initially come out against the California Republican — if it would change his position.

McCarthy stated "Well, if it's one will you vote for me?" Gaetz responded: "Is that an offer?" to which McCarthy responded: "There's other people that don't like five so they'll really not like one."

Shortly after the call, a group of conservatives released a letter stating the changes had fallen short of what they see as necessary to support him.

“Regrettably, however, despite some progress achieved, Mr. McCarthy’s statement comes almost impossibly late to address continued deficiencies ahead of the opening of the 118th Congress on January 3rd. At this stage, it cannot be a surprise that expressions of vague hopes reflected in far too many of the crucial points still under debate are insufficient,” they wrote.

“This is especially true with respect to Mr. McCarthy’s candidacy for Speaker because the times call for radical departure from the status quo — not a continuation of past, and ongoing, Republican failures. For someone with a 14-year presence in senior House Republican leadership, Mr. McCarthy bears squarely the burden to correct the dysfunction he now explicitly admits across that long tenure.”

The letter — spearheaded by House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) — asserted that “there continue to be missing specific commitments with respect to virtually every component of our entreaties, and thus, no means to measure whether promises are kept or broken.”

Due to the slim majority after Republicans fell short of their anticipated red wave, McCarthy can lose just four votes on the floor unless his critics opt to not vote or vote present to bring the threshold down from 218.

Pelosi mocked for wishing 'Happy Shwanza' in final speech as House speaker

Heather Hunter

December 24, 05:11 PM December 24, 05:24 PM

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) used her final remarks as speaker to wish everyone a "Happy Shwanza" following the passing of the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill.

The soon-to-be former speaker closed the 2022 session of Congress by sharing holiday greetings, including incorrectly pronouncing the African American holiday Kwanzaa, an annual celebration held from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1.

HERE ARE THE HOUSE REPUBLICANS WHO VOTED WITH DEMOCRATS ON THE $1.7 TRILLION OMNIBUS BILL

"I want to wish everyone a happy, healthy and safe New Year. Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas. Happy Shwanza. Happy Hanukah," said Pelosi on the House floor. "Whatever it is you celebrate, be safe."

This gaffe prompted social media users to mock Pelosi by wishing others to have a "happy Shwanza." Others joked that she had already started drinking for the holidays.

WHD News personality Jimmy Failla said that it "might be safer to let Paul drive home from the Christmas Party this year."

Human Events Managing Editor Celine Ciccio asked her Twitter followers, "What are you doing for Schwanza this year???"

Another social media user asked what kind of food is appropriate to make for Schwanza. One woman reminded Pelosi that a "schwanz" is another way of describing someone as a jerk.

Boebert says she won't support McCarthy unless there's a check in place to remove speaker

Ryan King

December 19, 06:53 PM December 19, 07:11 PM

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is predicating the prospect of her backing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for speaker on the establishment of a check and balance system on the speakership.

Refraining from outright opposing him, the Republican firebrand stressed that no agreement had been reached for a mechanism to easily remove McCarthy as speaker down the line but kept her options open during an interview Monday with Real America’s Voice at a Turning Point USA conference in Phoenix.

LAUREN BOEBERT CALLS FOR FOCUS ON POLICY AND NOT BOMB-THROWING NOW GOP IS IN HOUSE MAJORITY

"We have to have accountability here, and without that, Kevin McCarthy's not speaker. There has been no agreements made on that, and how can we believe anything else moving forward? So maybe things will change on Jan. 3," she said.

Boebert made her remarks standing next to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a fellow member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who has been one of the most vehement House Republicans opposed to a McCarthy speakership. Gaetz reiterated his opposition, despite former President Donald Trump backing McCarthy, stressing he would back Trump in 2024 but "will not follow him" on McCarthy.

"President Trump should take a look at what is being said in the House of Representatives right now," Boebert added.

Boebert barely crossed the finish line in her reelection race against Democrat Adam Frisch during the midterm elections. Afterward, she argued the GOP needs to show more "discipline and targeted focus" on policy rather than partisan flamethrowing.

She has also previously been noncommittal about whether she would support McCarthy, who has appear to be staring down nearly half a dozen possible defections already. Traditionally, one needs to clinch 218 votes to become speaker, though that threshold can shrink if members of Congress choose to vote "present." Republicans will have 222 House seats to the Democrats' 213 in the new Congress.

At least one MAGA acolyte, who has been friendly with Gaetz, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), has backed McCarthy, warning her party not to gamble with the speakership given the GOP's razor-thin margins in the House. When asked about Greene saying McCarthy will be a "great speaker," Boebert took a shot at her colleague.

"I've been aligned with Marjorie and accused of believing a lot of the things that she believes in. I don’t believe in this just like I don’t believe in ... Jewish space lasers,” she quipped.

Greene fired back on Twitter, belittling Boebert for her anemic election performance and bashing her for fomenting "high school drama."

"I’ve supported and donated to Lauren Boebert. President Trump has supported and donated to Lauren Boebert. Kevin McCarthy has supported and donated to Lauren Boebert. She just barely came through by 500 votes," Greene tweeted. "She gladly takes our $$$ but when she’s been asked: Lauren refuses to endorse President Trump, she refuses to support Kevin McCarthy, and she childishly threw me under the bus for a cheap sound bite."

At one point, Boebert and Greene reportedly nearly got into a physical confrontation during a heated exchange over Greene attending an event hosted by far-right Nicholas Fuentes.

McCarthy has secured the House GOP votes for the nod to be speaker, but he must win a majority in a full floor vote in January in order to win the gavel.