Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has pulled Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who tried to oust him as the Senate’s top Republican in a bruising leadership race, off the powerful Commerce Committee. McConnell also removed Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who supported Scott’s bid to replace McConnell as leader, from the Commerce panel, which has…
Author: Alexander Bolton
McConnell accuses Schumer of hypocrisy on debt limit
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Wednesday accused Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) of hypocrisy for refusing to negotiate with House Republicans on raising the debt limit, even though the Democratic leader saw the debt limit as “leverage” to negotiate spending increases with former President Trump. “It is right, appropriate, and entirely normal…
GOP senators rally to defend DeSantis from Trump attacks
Republican senators are rallying to defend Ron DeSantis from former President Trump’s attempt to keep the popular Florida governor out of the 2024 presidential race. At the same time, Trump is picking up more formal endorsements within the Senate Republican Conference as his feud with DeSantis intensifies, an early signal that the 2024 Republican presidential…
McConnell defends Senate’s ‘reasonable’ push for info on Biden classified documents
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday urged the Department of Justice to cooperate with his Senate colleagues who have called for detailed information about the classified documents found at President Biden’s Delaware home and former office in Washington. McConnell emphasized that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.),…
Vance says he will back Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a rising conservative star who won a hard-fought race to replace retired Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), announced Tuesday that he will back Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Vance, who won Ohio’s competitive Senate Republican primary last year after receiving Trump’s endorsement, told radio host Hugh Hewitt “the…
Scott says Democrats are to blame for the failure of police reform legislation
Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), the lead Senate Republican negotiator on police reform, on Monday signaled he’s willing to have another go at the tough issue in the wake of Tyre Nichols’s death at the hands of Memphis police, while criticizing Democrats for blocking his reform bill in 2020 for not going far enough. Scott pushed…
Tim Scott is pivotal figure as Tyre Nichols beating rekindles talk of police reform
Presidential politics are hanging over efforts to rekindle police reform in Congress after the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols at the hands of police in Memphis. The lead Republican negotiator in the talks, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), is widely believed to be exploring a presidential bid, and Republican strategists warn any deal with Democrats could…
Manchin sees himself as shuttle diplomat from Democrats to McCarthy
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is seeking to carve out a new role for himself now that he’s no longer the power broker that he was in last year’s 50-50 Senate. Manchin now envisions himself as a shuttle diplomat working to bridge the partisan divide between Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker Kevin…
Scott pushes plan to prioritize certain payments if debt limit bill stalls
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) circulated a letter to Senate colleagues Thursday urging them to back his plan to ensure the federal government does not default on interest payments or payments to Social Security beneficiaries if Congress fails to raise the debt limit before the Treasury Department runs out of borrowing authority. Scott’s bill, which…
Cotton vows to block nominees until Congress sees documents seized at Biden, Trump residences
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he and other Republicans will hold up President Biden’s nominees until the administration shares with Congress the classified documents seized at Biden’s Delaware home and Washington office and former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Cotton vowed “there will be pain” until the Biden…