Early Tuesday morning in the Capitol, Mayorkas walked into the lion’s den, taking a meeting with House GOP members of the “border security caucus” – a group of members particularly fired up over the announcement last week that the White House would lift Trump-era covid restrictions at the border, known as Title 42.

Republicans said they gave him an earful.

“It was a rough crowd, and you got to give him a lot of credit for picking the roughest crowd, going in, and listening to them,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican who attended the private briefing, where Mayorkas appeared voluntarily. “Nothing was really resolved, other than he made a promise to give a number of follow-up pieces of information.”

Added Rep. Brian Babin of Texas, the co-chairman of the caucus: “We appreciated his courage to come in, knowing that we were opposed to him 100%. But we were not satisfied with the answers he gave us.”

When asked if impeachment proceedings could be launched against Mayorkas in a GOP majority, Babin replied, “Definitely on the table.”

As the thorny politics of immigration have caused a rift within the Democratic Party, with a number of the party’s most vulnerable members revolting against the Title 42 move, Republicans see the matter as a rallying cry that will be central to their push to take back the House and the Senate in the fall.

The Title 42 move has upended efforts to pass a $10 billion Covid-19 relief bill, forced the Biden administration to quietly attempt to calm nerves on Capitol Hill and could lead to a series of tough questions for Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday when he goes before the House Budget Committee. Republicans say they’re not done yet, planning theatrics this week to consume the House floor and try to force votes on the issue – all an attempt to put the squeeze on vulnerable Democrats.

While some leading Democrats say the policy must be lifted, they are uncertain about the political price they may pay for it.

“It’s the right thing to do, but I don’t know if it will be a political problem or not,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday.

The decision to end Title 42 – which allowed migrants to be turned away at the border instead of processed under normal immigration rules during the global pandemic – is already causing problems on the legislative front, potentially scuttling a push to pass $10 billion in long-sought aid to deal with the pandemic.

On Tuesday, Republicans blocked an effort to advance the Covid relief plan as they demanded votes on amendments – namely one to target the Title 42 policy. But unlike many vulnerable Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has backed the White House’s move on Title 42, saying the current policy “wreaked havoc on our asylum system.” And the New York Democrat is rejecting calls for a vote on an amendment over the issue, a fight that could stall the package for vaccines and therapeutics for weeks.

“The bottom line is this is a bipartisan agreement that does a whole lot of important good for the American people: vaccines, testing, therapeutics,” Schumer said. “It should not be held hostage for an extraneous issue.”

Democrats look to avoid tough vote
In a private lunch on Tuesday, one Senate Democrat told CNN that the consensus among Democrats was to try and avoid holding a vote on the measure at all. Such an amendment would divide Democrats – and could potentially pass the Senate – and threaten the White House’s immigration policies while embarrassing the President.

Democrats in competitive reelection battles are now racing to distance themselves from President Joe Biden’s decision-making and bracing for the possibility of a surge of migrants at the border, even as many acknowledge that the pandemic-era rule can’t remain in perpetuity as a way to control the surge at the Southern border.

Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat who is close to the White House but who also faces voters this year, made clear his displeasure with the administration’s move.

“I think this is the wrong time,” Warnock told CNN. “And I haven’t seen a plan.”

Several other Democrats in tough reelection battles echoed that sentiment.

“There are options,” Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat up for reelection in the fall, said when asked if he’d back an amendment on the issue.

“It’s obvious that there’s not a plan in place,” Kelly said. “This is a national security issue for the country, it’s a public health issue as well – not only for people in communities on the southern border, but for migrants. We need an orderly process.”

The administration says it does have a plan to deal with the expected surge.

Chris Magnus, commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, said once the policy ends May 23, they have taken a number of steps to prepare for an influx of migrants and beef up security at the border.

“We are doing everything we can to prepare for this increase, ensure we continue to process people humanely, and impose consequences on those who break the law,” Magnus said in a statement. “At the same time, we will continue to use all available resources to secure our borders. This includes the increased use of technology, on-ground monitoring, use of drones and additional support personnel to supplement (Border Patrol) agents and free them up from processing duties whenever possible.”

But both the House and Senate Democratic chairmen of the homeland security committees are not yet sold on the administration’s plan – even after getting briefed regularly by Mayorkas.

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, but also is in charge of the Senate Democratic campaign committee, said Tuesday, “It’s important that the administration has a plan to deal with what will happen as a result of lifting” the policy even as he said he’s “confident” it ultimately will.

But asked if he supports lifting Title 42, Peters said: “I want to see the plan, but it’s still a work in progress.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, met Tuesday morning with Mayorkas to discuss the issue and warned that he still wanted to see a more robust plan for how the Homeland Security Department plans to combat a potential increase in border crossings this summer.

“Obviously, the administration has to come with policies that would convince the public that this issue will be managed. Not controlled, but managed,” Thompson said. “The policies have to be clear. … I am being told those policies are being worked on as we speak.”

Asked if he was convinced that the administration’s policies will be able to combat a surge, he said, “Well, I will wait until I see the policy.”

Conservative Democrats, too, are pushing back.

“Security of the border is everything,” said West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a leading moderate Democrat. “It’s everything. And we have to get our head straight about this and get secured borders.”

GOP plots midterm plans
House GOP leaders are eager to keep Title 42 in the spotlight, with a strategy that is largely centered around messaging.

The GOP leadership has encouraged Republicans to participate in a so-called conga line on Wednesday, according to GOP sources, in which members will line up on the House floor and repeatedly ask for unanimous consent to consider a bill from Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell of New Mexico that would keep the Trump-era policy in place.

And last week, sources said Republican leaders began officially whipping support for a “discharge petition” that would force a floor vote on that same bill if 218 lawmakers sign on to the effort. So far, 211 members have signed the petition: every single House Republican besides Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

Conservative Rep. Chip Roy of Texas filed the petition last year, but has been steadily building support for it ever since; the effort picked up new steam in the wake of Biden’s Title 42 announcement.

“What are they afraid of? Just put it on the floor,” Roy said. “If you think it’s bad policy, then put it up.”

When asked if he would support the discharge petition, Rep. Dean Phillips, a Minnesota Democrat in a tough reelection race, said he would have to look at it. But Phillips also made clear he has concerns with Biden’s Title 42 decision, and said he has begun to express some of those worries to the White House.

“I’ve been to the southern border twice. It appalled me, as it should appall any member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, and any American,” he said. “And I do concur that there should be a thoughtful, actionable plan in place before rescinding it. Plain and simple.”

“I would be shocked and dismayed if they don’t,” Phillips added. “Have I seen it? No.”

On Monday evening, the House Republican conference held a briefing with border patrol agents to hear how the end of Title 42 will impact their operations, then followed it up with a news conference in the Capitol afterward.

“You know, President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, said they would do something about this and they have not,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said. “They’ve only opened it up worse.”

Republicans have already taken dozens of trips to the southern border since last year, and there are more in the works in the near future: McCarthy said he will lead another border trip at the end of this month.

Republicans are confident that hammering Democrats over the border will not only energize their base, but also resonate with moderate and independent voters – especially since they have linked border security to the fentanyl crisis that has impacted communities all around the country.

“It’s far more than just aliens coming across, it’s far more than just the drugs coming across. This is a national security issue that’s gonna further get worse as time goes on this summer,” said Rep. John Katko of New York, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee.

One reason the GOP feels like it has the political upper hand: the National Republican Congressional Committee has shown members internal polling that shows the border is a salient issue in battleground districts, according to GOP sources.

Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the head of the House GOP’s campaign arm, told CNN: “Democrats will pay a political price for their incompetence.”

CNN’s Ted Barrett and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/05/politics/title-42-gop-election-strategy/index.html

The post Biden’s immigration move divides Democrats as GOP plots election-year strategy first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of approving their final report and sending it to President Biden’s desk.

The vote concluded the work of the 34-member commission, which held six public meetings and called on 44 witnesses. Biden, who has expressed opposition to expanding the court, formed the commission in April to study court expansion and reform amid calls from some within the Democratic Party to add more justices.

The final draft of the 288-page report, which drew vocal opposition regarding some of its conclusions, was released Monday and stopped short of offering specific recommendations. Instead, it offered a summary of arguments for and against issues ranging from court-packing and judicial term limits to various elements of court practice.

During Tuesday’s virtual hearing, several members noted the sharp differences of opinion among those on the commission regarding such issues, which the report summary said mirrors “the broader public debate.”

“Given the size and nature of the Commission and the complexity of the issues addressed, individual members of the Commission would have written the Report with different emphases and approaches,” the report’s summary read. “But the Commission submits this Report today in the belief that it represents a fair and constructive treatment of the complex and often highly controversial issues it was charged with examining.”

Regarding court-packing, the report said: “No serious person, in either major political party, suggests court packing as a means of overturning disliked Supreme Court decisions, whether the decision in question is Roe v. Wade or Citizens United. Scholars could say, until very recently, that even as compared to other court reform efforts, ‘court-packing’ is especially out of bounds. This is part of the convention of judicial independence.”

“The commission takes no position on the validity or strength of these claims,” the report’s summary added. “Mirroring the broader public debate, there is profound disagreement among commissioners on these issues. We present the arguments in order to fulfill our charge to provide a complete account of the contemporary court reform debate.”

Kelly Shackelford, who serves as president, CEO and chief counsel for First Liberty Institute, said in a statement: “The American public reject court-packing and any other attempt to destabilize the judiciary. Even after numerous polls show Americans reject court-packing, far-Left progressives are clearly trying to expand their political power under the guise of ‘court-reform.’

“Expanding the membership of the United States Supreme Court is nothing more than a transparent, partisan scheme to achieve purely political objectives and exercise raw power that must be rejected,” Shackelford added.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/presidential-supreme-court-commission-votes-unanimously-to-send-controversial-report-to-bidens-desk

The post Biden Supreme Court commission votes to send president report taking ‘no position’ on court-packing first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Big earthquakes offshore in Alaska or Chile lead Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders to worry about tsunamis coming from thousands of miles away. People take precautions. They move to higher ground. Faced with a real threat, Hawaiians prepare to make major changes to survive.

Apparently, Hawaiians are more interested in survival than Washington Democrats.

Democrats have now had three weeks of tsunami warnings, and the dictatorship of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., seems determined to force through trillions of dollars of additional spending and a host of radical woke policies – even though the American people are screaming, “No!”

KEVIN MCCARTHY DROPS THE GLOVES ON BUILD BACK BETTER AND KICKS OFF 2022 MIDTERM FIGHT

Big government socialism and woke radical policies – and incompetence on issues such as inflation, crime, controlling the border, leaving Afghanistan, and solving logistics problems – are all adding up to an easily repudiated mess. Fed up Americans have a simple battle cry: “It just doesn’t work.”

You may think I am exaggerating about a tsunami-like anti-Democrat wave, but consider recent evidence.

On Nov. 2 Glenn Youngkin led an entire team to victory in Virginia. The team included Lt. Gov.-elect Winsome Sears, a Jamaica-born naturalized citizen who served in the U.S. Marine Corps and loves America. It also included Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares, the son of Cuban refugees who escaped the oppression of communism.

This diverse, impressive Republican team swept Virginia and carried with it a new Republican majority in the legislature. For Pelosi and the Democrats, this was earthquake No. 1.

A few miles north, in New Jersey, Ed Durr Jr., an independent truck driver, defeated New Jersey State Senate President Stephen Sweeney in one of the biggest upsets in modern politics. Durr spent only $2,300. Clearly, the voters were saying: “Not Sweeney.” Consider that Sweeney got almost 59% of the vote four years earlier. This was earthquake No. 2.

Nationally, the polling has been increasingly bad for Democrats.
On the opposite side of the country, in Seattle, a Republican won the city attorney’s race for the first time in more than 30 years.

In a state legislative special election in San Antonio, Texas, a Republican won in a 73% Latino district.

A few days later Democratic Texas State Legislator Ryan Guillen switched parties, saying: “After much consideration and prayer with my family, I feel that my fiscally conservative, pro-business, and pro-life values are no longer in-step with the Democrat Party of today, and I am proudly running as a Republican to represent House District 31.”

Last week in South Carolina, Republicans had solid victories in municipal elections. In Georgetown, Carol Jayroe became the first Republican ever elected mayor. In Columbia, Republican Daniel Rickenmann was elected mayor in a county that went 68% for Biden.

Nationally, the polling has been increasingly bad for Democrats. A generic ballot is a question of whether you are more likely to vote for one party or the other.

On Nov. 7, the Suffolk University/USA Today poll showed an 8% generic advantage for Republicans (46-38) in congressional voting and 38% approval for President Biden. On Nov. 11, the ABC News/Washington Post poll showed a 10% Republican generic advantage (51-41). On Nov. 16, Rasmussen reported a 13-point generic gap (51-38).

As Rasmussen reported:

“The 13-point edge for Republicans in the latest poll is larger than Democrats enjoyed at any time during the 2018 midterm campaign, due both to greater GOP partisan intensity and a wide advantage among independents. While 89% of Republican voters say they would vote for their own party’s candidate, only 77% of Democrats would vote for the Democratic candidate. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 48% would vote Republican and 26% would vote Democrats, with another 17% undecided.”

In less than two weeks, the generic ballot has moved against the Democrats in every poll. But, of course, in the Pelosi dictatorship none of these results in real elections or polls have had any impact. Democrats seem more worried about being kneecapped by Dictator Pelosi today than being thrown out by voters next year.

Furthermore, the threat to all Democrats is compounded with President Biden at 38% approval and Vice President Harris down to 28% approval. (And anyone who listens to the 10 hours of her laughing will understand that she is likely to go even lower when her supporters hear how whacked she sounds.)

The power of the emerging anti-Democrat tsunami coming this early creates huge problems for the Democratic Party. The scale of the tsunami will encourage Democrats to retire (note Sen. Patrick Leahy announced his retirement just last week). We will have to see if Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., can withstand the psychological pressure of their radical members and the constant harassment of left-wing activists invading bathrooms, surrounding cars and boats, etc.

At the same time, the wave will encourage Republicans to run everywhere, at every level. (If a little-known truck driver can spend $2,300 to beat the most powerful state politician in New Jersey, any Republican can win anywhere.) In the process, Democratic fundraising will get harder, and Republican fundraising will get easier.

Still, with the tide receding, Pelosi charges toward the beach – and the lemmings (replacing the donkey as the symbol of the Democratic Party) march in lockstep behind her, toward the coming tsunami.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/voter-tsunami-democrats-pelosi-newt-gingrich

The post Voter tsunami begins to drown Democrats first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

It will come as a surprise to few, but media polarization has increased in the past half-decade and, a new Pew Research report asserts, appears to have been driven by Republican’s increasing distrust of the media. Pew will track that divide as the nation ultimately comes together at the polls to pick then next President and a slate of elected officials nationwide.

Of the 30 news sources* cited in the survey, “U.S. Media Polarization and the 2020 Election: A Nation Divided,” none were trusted by more than half of the respondents.

That is according to a survey of 12,043 U.S. adults, all members of Pew’s American Trends online panel, conducted in October and November of 2019. They were asked which news outlets they relied on and trusted for news about politics and the upcoming 2020 election.

Certainly, the current head of the Republican party, President Donald Trump, has done his part in fomenting that distrust, regularly branding the mainstream media as political enemies and fake news.

Republicans said they distrusted 20 of the 30 sources cited, with only seven of those news sources them generating more trust than distrust led by Fox News, with 65% saying they trust that outlet. That outlet “towers above all others” among Republicans as a go-to source for political news, Pew said.

CNN was the most trusted by Democrats, with 67% saying that was the case.

A big difference is that while no other news sources come close to rivaling Fox among Republicans, a number of sources besides CNN are highly trusted and frequently used by Democrats. For example, two-thirds of liberal Democrats trust the New York Times, while just 10% of conservative Republicans do.

Between the 2014 study and this latest one, Republicans’ distrust increased for 14 of the 20 sources that were the same in both years, including distrust of CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times (all particular targets of the President’s animus).

The survey found that Republicans and Republican-leaning independents view many mainstream media outlets as untrustworthy, the same outlets Democrats and leaners mostly see as credible.

Compared to a similar study in 2014, Republicans are even more alienated from most of the “more established” sources, while Democrats remain confident in them, and in some cases even more confident than before.

One big takeaway is that just because people use a news source does not mean they necessarily trust it. While 24% of Republicans said they got news from CNN “in the past week,” some four-in-ten who did say they distrusted CNN. Similarly, of the 23% of Democrats who got political news from Fox nearly three-in-ten (27%) said they distrusted it.

The survey also marks the launch of a Pew Research Center Election News Pathways initiative that will extend through the 2020 election and explore how American’s news habits and attitudes affect their perception of that election.

There will be five more surveys conducted as part of the initiative, all drawn from Pew’s American Trends Panel. 

Pew will make that raw data available online for independent analysis via an online tool, API and data set, updated approximately every other month. It will also issue weekly (Wednesdays at 10 a.m.) email alerts with analysis that news outlets can use in their reporting on the election. Pew will also hold workshops for journalists interested in learning more about the initiative.

* The 30 outlets polled were: ABC News, BBC, Breitbart, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, CBS News, CNN, Daily Caller, Fox News, HuffPost, MSNBC, NBC News, Newsweek, New York Post, NPR, PBS, Politico, Rush Limbaugh Show (radio), Sean Hannity Show (radio), The Guardian, The Hill, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Time, Univision, USA Today, Vice, Vox, Washington Examiner.

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The post Pew: Political Divide is Also News Trust Divide first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“The transcripts speak for themselves. These witnesses speak for themselves. It’s damning, it’s a problem. And I think there’s a lot of merit to that,” he said.

“However — and this brings [Adam] Schiff back into it, and this is where Democrats are in trouble — the American people just sat through two years of Adam Schiff saying there’s collusion, there’s clear evidence of collusion,” Benson continued. “He’s still saying it. We went through all of this. And then eventually we got to the finish line with the Mueller report, and it was just kind of a fizzle… I think there is some burnout.”

He also criticized the media for sleeping through Barack Obama‘s presidency and letting their personal animus for Trump drive their newfound commitment to fact-finding and investigative reporting.

The post Guy Benson: Here’s why Democrats are ‘in trouble’ with impeachment push first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.