Are Democrats Showing Signs of Life?
In just 24 hours, Democrats have shown us they are capable of revitalizing some lost energy, explains Bloomberg Opinion columnist Sarah Green Carmichael. (Source: Bloomberg)
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Fox News
8 minutes ago
- Fox News
Joe Rogan urges progressive Texas Democrat to run for president, calling him a 'good person'
Podcast giant Joe Rogan suggested on his show Friday that his latest guest, Texas Democratic State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, run for president as Democrats scramble for a new leader. "You need to run for president," Rogan told Talarico near the end of the nearly 3-hour conversation. "We need someone who's actually a good person." The two shared a laugh, though Talarico warned against people putting faith into one politician, regardless of whatever side of the aisle they support. He used Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whom Rogan has frequently supported, as an example. "I like Bernie a whole lot, but some people treat him as if he's a messianic figure," Talarico said. "And Trump on the right, people treat him as a messiah in some ways. This is a problem." He added, "The change is going to come from your listeners, not from me, right? I can be a part of that, but I mean, if there's any hope I can give people, it's that the people in power, including the billionaire mega-donors who basically run this whole thing, and I can get more into that if you want… But they are very afraid of the power that the people have. That I know for sure." Talarico has called himself a "proud progressive" in the past and has pushed back against Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. In 2022, Talarico called Abbott "the greatest public safety threat" to the state following the Uvalde mass shooting. "You know me well, and I try to be careful with what I say, but Texans are dying. The kids in Uvalde, the teachers in Uvalde, the hundreds of Texas who died during the blackout last year, the Texans who died needlessly from Covid-19 because our governor chose to open bars too early in the pandemic. Greg Abbott is the greatest public safety threat in our state. He is the greatest public safety threat to Texans right now," Talarico said on MSNBC. By contrast, Rogan has been outspoken about his opposition to lockdowns and has invited guests who have blamed the "Defund the Police" movement for the response to the Uvalde shooting.
Boston Globe
37 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
GOP push behind Trump agenda has Congress in an uproar
Advertisement And that was just last week. Veteran lawmakers said that the level of vitriol and dysfunction in the Capitol had reached a fever pitch. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'It is bad — really bad,' Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said when asked to assess the mood on Capitol Hill. 'There's a level of frustration. How do we get back to doing our jobs?' Republicans have achieved hard-won legislative victories, but those have come at a cost, setting the stage for a meltdown that has, among other things, raised the prospects of a government shutdown this fall. Some GOP lawmakers are feeling squeezed, while Democrats, outraged that the White House is shredding funding agreements and doling out money however it wants, are threatening to abandon a tradition of bipartisan spending deals. Advertisement 'I want to warn my colleagues once again: If you keep going down this path, you are going to further undermine our bipartisan process,' said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. 'The more bridges you burn, the fewer paths you leave to get things done.' Her comments came as all but two Republicans banded together to push through legislation around 1 a.m. Friday allowing the Trump administration to cancel $9 billion in previously approved spending on foreign aid and public broadcasting. Murkowski, one of the two opponents in her party, said the measure was an unacceptable breach of congressional spending power. It was not just the spending divide that was inciting tumult on Capitol Hill. In a lengthy session Thursday evening, Democrats and Republicans on the powerful House Rules Committee engaged in nasty back-and-forth over the rising clamor for Congress to vote on releasing criminal files in the investigation of Epstein, who died by suicide in a federal jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. That morning, Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee had stormed out of a meeting in protest after Senator Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who leads the panel, cut off debate and forced a committee vote on the disputed judicial nomination of Emil Bove. Bove, a Justice Department official and former defense attorney for Trump, is up for an influential post on a federal appeals court that encompasses Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. He has been accused by a former Justice Department colleague of declaring a willingness to defy court orders on immigration, a charge Bove has disputed. Advertisement Democrats wanted more time to examine the nomination. But Grassley forged ahead despite those demands, ramming the approval through in one of a series of Republican-only votes. Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, implored him to stop, accusing the chair of 'an abuse of power.' The two had worked closely in the past on criminal justice issues. 'To me, it is a president who has such a thrall over the Republicans in the Senate that he could get them to surrender not just their power, but their constitutional obligations,' Booker said after the blowup, adding that Republicans were relinquishing their ability to provide a check on White House nominees. Grassley dismissed the complaints, claiming Democrats had executed 'a political hit job' on Bove. He said Democrats had shut down Republican members of the committee in the past, when they held the gavel in the majority. 'This is not unprecedented — either the walking away or what we did as a majority,' Grassley said. 'It has happened before, and we have to move things along.' Russell T. Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget and the chief architect of a campaign to pry spending power away from Congress, exacerbated tensions on Capitol Hill. He told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast that there needed to be less bipartisanship around federal spending — not a sentiment typically heard on Capitol Hill. He also reiterated his contention that spending levels set by Congress were an advisory ceiling, not a floor. His commentary infuriated Democrats already bristling at the $9 billion in added cuts — the first approved by Congress in decades under a special procedure that allows the president to cancel spending. Advertisement 'He wants to destroy,' Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, the minority leader, said as he called for Trump to fire Vought. 'Destroy the way that Congress works, destroy the balance of power and upend our entire Constitution. Russell Vought doesn't believe in this democracy.' Vought's comments could complicate efforts by Republicans and Democrats to work out spending levels for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Democrats said that his argument destroyed any incentive for them to strike deals, since he made clear the White House would seek to unravel them later with an assist from Senate Republicans. A test vote in the Senate on the first of the annual spending bills is scheduled for Tuesday. 'That just profoundly undermined the stability and purpose of a bipartisan appropriations process,' Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, a member of the Appropriations Committee, said of Vought's comments. Some lawmakers attributed the congressional edginess to lawmakers being wrung out from repeated all-night sessions to push through the Republican tax cut and domestic policy bill, and from late-night Senate debate over the additional cuts sought by the administration. 'A lot of this is people are just tired,' said Senator John Boozman, Republican of Arkansas. 'Hopefully this all blows over soon.' Some of the fights have occurred within Republican ranks. On Wednesday, an internal House Republican dispute over cryptocurrency legislation led to a usually routine process vote being held open for more than nine hours as leaders toiled to secure the necessary support. It was just the latest in a series of congressional records being set with extended floor fights and speeches. 'I am tired of making history,' Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Wednesday night. 'I just want a normal Congress.' Advertisement Given the intensity of the divisions so far and the potential momentous clashes ahead, normal seems out of the question. This article originally appeared in
The Hill
37 minutes ago
- The Hill
Majority oppose the way Trump is using detention facilities: CBS poll
A majority of Americans oppose the way President Trump is using migrant detention facilities amid his broader crackdown on immigration, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll. When asked in the survey if they 'favor or oppose the way the Trump administration is using detention facilities to hold people it may try to deport,' 42 percent said they back it, while 58 percent were against. Republicans' 'big, beautiful bill' passed earlier this month included billions of dollars to ramp up what was already significantly increased immigration enforcement under Trump. The administration and Florida leaders recently came together to build a detention facility on a remote site in the Everglades to hold migrants waiting on deportation. The site, dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' opened earlier this month, featuring soft-sided holding units for hundreds of detainees via a partnership in which the federal government would provide funding and the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) would oversee the build-outs as well as management. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended conditions at the facility after Democrats said the detained migrants faced 'inhumane' treatment there. 'Our detention centers at the federal level are held to a higher standard than most local or state centers and even federal prisons. The standards are extremely high,' Noem said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' at the time. In the CBS News/YouGov poll, 53 percent said 'the way Donald Trump and the Republicans are handling immigration' is 'too tough,' while 18 percent said it is 'not tough enough' and 29 percent called it 'about right.' Majorities say the administration is deporting more people than they though they would, and also that officials are not prioritizing dangerous criminals. The survey took place from July 16 to 18, featuring 2,343 people and a margin of error of about plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
