Senate Intel Chair: ‘There May Need to be Certain Changes Made’ to House-Passed TikTok Bill

Senator Mark Warner

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, expects the House-passed bill that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the U.S. might need to be amended in the Senate

Warner told reporters last week the changes could involve the timeline that it requires Bytedance to divest in the popular smartphone app.

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Commentary: The Marxism Behind the Open Border

Illegal Immigrants

America’s illegal immigration problem created by President Joe Biden’s administration embodies an ideology and achieves a very specific purpose — one that receives nearly no mention because to note it would reveal the game. Illegal immigration is a classic Marxist redistributionist plot. In this case, what’s being redistributed is America’s wealth to third-world nationals with no discernible skills and no intention of becoming “American.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, acting on behalf of the Biden administration, worked tightly with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to craft a terrible piece of legislation meant to jam not only House Republicans (McConnell’s favored enemy) but the people the House members represent.

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Sanctuary States Beg Biden for Aid amid Immigration Crisis

Illegal Immigrants

Seven sanctuary state governors signed onto a letter Monday begging President Joe Biden and Democrat and Republican leaders in the House and Senate for help in dealing with the surge of migrants arriving in their areas of the country.

Governors from the sanctuary states of New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Mexico joined with the governors of Arizona and Maryland in sending a letter to Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, citing their need for federal support in dealing with the crisis. Meanwhile, negotiations over permanent border security funding are continuing in Congress amid the ongoing surge of illegal immigration, and the governors are asking for more funding as part of the deal that is ultimately made. 

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Mike Johnson Says He Won’t Back Out of Spending Deal Despite Freedom Caucus Opposition

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he will not withdraw from a controversial spending deal to avoid a government shutdown that is opposed by several members of his conference.

Johnson, on Sunday, announced a deal with other congressional party leaders on a spending package of $1.59 trillion for Fiscal Year 2024, which has been attacked by members of the House Freedom Caucus as insufficiently conservative. After negotiations with dissident members, Johnson announced Friday that he would stand by the deal, even as members have threatened to remove him from office over the matter.

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Johnson and Schumer Spending Deal Ignores Biden’s $106 Billion Request for Israel, Ukraine Aid, and More

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s spending deal doesn’t include President Biden’s $106 billion request for a supplemental foreign aid package, Just the News has learned. Congress faces two appropriations deadlines of Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 before the federal government runs out of money.

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House Freedom Caucus Calls Speaker Johnson’s Proposed Spending Deal with Schumer ‘Total Failure’

The conservative House Freedom Caucus slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposed top-line spending deal with Senate Democrats as a “total failure,” arguing the potential agreement costs about $68 billion more than the Louisiana Republican said it would.

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The Senate Leaves Behind a Pile of Unfinished Business as It Heads Home for the Holidays

Congress at Night

The Senate has adjourned for the remainder of the year after failing to negotiate a deal to reform border security in exchange for aid to Ukraine and pass appropriations bills to fund the government.

Republicans in Congress have refused to support a $60 billion aid package to Ukraine during its war against Russia, requested by President Joe Biden unless Senate Democrats permit the passage of conservative border security priorities. After convening the Senate during its holiday recess on Monday, to give time for more negotiations, the Senate adjourned on Wednesday night for the remainder of the year without reaching a compromise, as well as without passing appropriations bills submitted by the House of Representatives to fund the government and a bipartisan railway safety bill.

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Senate Rejects Bill Stripping Section 230 Protections for AI in Landmark Vote

The Senate shot down a bipartisan bill Wednesday aimed at stripping legal liability protections for artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal first introduced their No Section 230 Immunity for AI Act in June and Hawley put it up for an unanimous consent vote on Wednesday. The bill would have eliminated Section 230 protections that currently grant tech platforms immunity from liability for the text and visual content their AI produces, enabling Americans to file lawsuits against them.

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Schumer Vows to Kill House-Passed Standalone Bill Providing $14 Billion to Israel

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed to kill the House-passed bill providing $14.3 billion in aid to Israel in response to the Hamas terrorist attack.

“The Senate will not take up the House GOP’s deeply flawed proposal,” Schumer said on the Senate floor just ahead of the final House vote on Thursday. “Instead we will work together on our own bipartisan emergency aid package that includes aid to Israel, Ukraine, competition with the Chinese government, and humanitarian aid for Gaza.”

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Commentary: SBF Trial Should Spur Dark Money Legislation

Last week, in the trial of former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, details emerged about how the now-disgraced entrepreneur attempted to co-opt U.S. senators from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

With $50 million in donations to secretive dark money vehicles linked to both party’s respective Senate leaders, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, Bankman-Fried presumably sought to influence future crypto regulations.

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20 Senate Republicans Vow to Block All Non-Budget Legislation

Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott is leading a bloc of 19 other Senate Republicans in an effort to stonewall all legislation unrelated to government funding until Congress approves all of its appropriations bills.

The lawmakers warned Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of their intentions amid an intense congressional battle over spending that saw House conservatives take the unprecedented step of ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy. At issue are 12 annual spending bills, which Congress must approve by Nov. 17 following the passage of a continuing resolution this weekend to avert a government shutdown.

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Senate Unanimously Approves Suit-and-Tie Dress Code

The Senate unanimously approved a suit-and-tie dress code in a resolution that came a week and a half after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that the decades-old unofficial policy would be relaxed.

Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin proposed the resolution with the new enforceable standards, which the Senate agreed to Wednesday by unanimous consent.

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Bob Menendez to ‘Temporarily’ Step Down as Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey will temporarily step down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after he was indicted by federal prosecutors in New York on Friday, according to a statement issued by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office.

Menendez, the three-term senior senator from New Jersey, was indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on federal corruption charges, being alleged to have accepted bribes in cash, gold bullion and a luxury car in exchange for shaping U.S. foreign policy towards Egypt and interfering in investigations on behalf of his affiliates. Schumer announced that Menendez’s decision to step down from his role as chairman was temporary, according to the announcement.

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Commentary: The Experts Were the Crisis in 2020

The quote from Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a useful way to begin addressing the Washington Post editorial board’s confident assertion that “’A collective national incompetence in government’” was at the root of the U.S.’s alleged failure vis-à-vis the coronavirus in 2020. According to the Post quoting from a recently released report (“Lessons from the Covid War”), “The United States started out ‘with more capabilities than any other country in the world,’ but “it ended up with 1 million dead.” Were he still around, one guesses Tolstoy would mock the conceit of the Post’s editorialists.

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Feinstein Asks Schumer for Temporary Replacement on Judiciary amid Long Absence, Calls to Resign

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced Wednesday that she intends to return to the Senate upon recovering from shingles, but she also asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to meanwhile appoint a temporary replacement for her on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Her absence from the committee, and her vote, has stalled the confirmation of President Biden judicial nominees – the biggest political concern among fellow Senate Democrats regarding her absence. 

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Senate Advances Bill Enshrining Same-Sex Marriage Agenda in Federal Law with Significant Republican Support

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) moved for a procedural vote Wednesday on legislation that would enshrine same-sex marriage in federal law and block any states refusing to recognize such marriages.

The bill also would provide federal protection for interracial marriage.

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Manchin Caves, Asks Schumer to Drop Energy Permitting Plan from Continuing Resolution

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to remove his energy permitting reform plan from a continuing resolution in the face of bipartisan opposition.

Schumer promised that he would “continue to have conversations about the best way,” to advance Manchin’s plan by the end of the year, per Politico. Senate Republicans were poised to block the continuing resolution amid concerns about the Manchin proposal attached to it.

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Joe Manchin Drives a Stake Through Democrats’ Economic Package

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said that he will not back a bill that includes climate provisions and tax hikes, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Manchin informed Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he would only back legislation that includes provisions to reduce the costs of prescription pharmaceuticals and a two-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies on Thursday, the WSJ reported. The Democrats are rushing to reach a consensus on the bill before the August recess when legislators from both parties will begin to concentrate completely on bids for re-election.

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Schumer Says No Gun Control Vote Anytime Soon: ‘Americans Can Cast Their Vote in November’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that he will not immediately hold a vote on gun control legislation, following the mass shooting Tuesday at a Texas elementary school.

The New York Democrat says he does not think any such measure will attract enough bipartisan support to move forward.

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Senate Republicans Vow to Shut Down ‘Domestic Terrorism’ Bill

Josh Hawley

Republicans in the United States Senate appear united in opposition to a recently-passed bill that allegedly aims to combat “domestic terrorism” in the United States, which was passed in the aftermath of the Buffalo massacre.

According to The Hill, Republicans have called out the bill’s blatant partisanship, with Democrats immediately blaming Republicans for the shooting before introducing the bill as a mostly symbolic gesture.

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Senate Fails to Advance Democrat Bill That Would Have Forced Doctors to Perform Abortions Against Their Faith Beliefs

A bill Democrats pushed to shut down state pro-life laws and force doctors throughout the country to perform abortions, even if doing so violates their faith beliefs, failed to advance in the Senate Wednesday.

Desperate to appeal to his party’s radical leftist supporters in the wake of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion in a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the vote was “urgent” to prevent states from restricting abortions within their borders.

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Senate Democrats Tee Up Vote to Codify Abortion Law with Long-Shot Odds of Getting 60 Votes to Pass

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a plan Thursday to force a vote on legislation that would codify Roe v. Wade – following the release earlier this week of a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion indicating justices may soon overturn the high-court’s decades-old abortion-related ruling.

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Still Teflon: The Trump Comeback No One’s Talking About

Former President Donald Trump now enjoys the highest favorability rating among the seven U.S. political leaders tracked in the RealClearPolitics (RCP) polling average, marking a striking political transformation from where he was 15 months ago while leaving office.

Trump has a favorability rating of 45.8%, more than three points higher than President Joe Biden’s rating of 42.6%, according to the RCP average.

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Antifa-Linked Organizers Hosted a ‘Candlelight Vigil’ for January 6 Anniversary

Woman holding a candle in the dark

Democrats commemorated the January 6 riots with the help of far-left, antifa-linked agitators who planned to disrupt former President Trump’s inauguration in 2021 had he won the election, counterterrorism expert Kyle Shideler reported on Twitter.

A group called Movement Catalyst, led by longtime direct action community organizer Liz Butler, is organizing the Democrats’ “Candle Light Vigil for Democracy” Thursday afternoon, according to WUSA.com.

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Senate Clears Way for Democrats to Lift the Debt Ceiling After Agreement Between Schumer, McConnell

Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell

A bill that would enable Democrats to raise the debt ceiling without overcoming a Senate filibuster passed the chamber Thursday afternoon with bipartisan support.

The debt ceiling provisions were attached to a bill that prevents automatic cuts to Medicare. Ironically, the legislation, which passed the House on near party lines Tuesday, required 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, and passed after 14 Republicans joined Democrats in advancing it.

The provision was the product of a deal struck Tuesday between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Under it, Congress would pass a law allowing the debt ceiling to be raised with a simple majority this one time, and the bill’s passage puts the limit on a glade path to be lifted by Democrats alone ahead of Dec. 15, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned a default could occur.

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Schumer Endorses Socialist in Buffalo Mayoral Race

India Walton and Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday endorsed India Walton, a democratic socialist, to be the next mayor of Buffalo.

“As Buffalo voters start to head to the polls this weekend, I urge them to cast their ballot for India Walton as the next mayor of Buffalo,” Schumer told The Buffalo News. “India is an inspiring community leader, mother, nurse and a lifelong Buffalonian with a clear progressive vision for her hometown.”

Schumer’s endorsement is the most high-profile one Walton has received. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, another democratic socialist, called Walton’s nomination an “important step forward for the working people of Buffalo” in June, but other New York Democrats, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Brian Higgins, who represents Buffalo in the House, have stayed silent.

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House Approves Debt Ceiling Increase, Temporarily Delaying Nationwide Default

The House on Tuesday voted to lift the debt ceiling by $480 billion, temporarily averting widespread economic calamity after weeks of partisan gridlock and sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk.

The House briefly interrupted its weeklong recess to pass a rule governing debate for three separate bills to which the ceiling raise was attached. It passed on a party-line vote given Republicans continuing opposition to lifting the ceiling.

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Man Accused in Sicknick Case: ‘We’ve All Been Destroyed’

George Tanios’ fiancée encouraged him to go to Washington on January 6 to hear President Trump’s speech. “You’re gonna regret it if you don’t go,” she said, hoping he could take a break from working 100-hours-a-week to run his popular sandwich shop in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Tanios and I both laughed after he told me that during a two-hour interview this week. (I was in contact with his fiancée, Amanda, as she cared for their three young children while he was incarcerated for five months.)

But there is nothing funny about how Joe Biden’s Justice Department is trying to ruin Tanios’ life to maintain the myth that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died at the hands of Trump supporters on January 6. 

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Commentary: Biden’s Desperate Race to the Lying Bottom

On Monday, Joe Biden uncorked the largest lie of a 50-year political career overstuffed with them.

“My Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars,” he tweeted. “Instead of wasting money on tax breaks, loopholes, and tax evasion for big corporations and the wealthy, we can make a once-in-a-generation investment in working America. And it adds zero dollars to the national debt.”

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Senate Fails to Wrap Up Infrastructure Bill After Talks to Expedite Process Collapse

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer set up a critical vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill Saturday after talks to expedite the process fell apart late Thursday.

Both Republicans and Democrats engaged in marathon talks Thursday in a bid to vote on a package of amendments and to advance the sweeping public works package. Doing so, however, required approval from all 100 senators, and Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Haggerty refused to go along even as his Republican colleagues urged him to do so.

In a statement, Hagerty attributed his objection to  the Congressional Budget Office’s estimation that the bill would add $256 billion to the national debt over 10 years.

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Senate Democrats Attempt to Add Funding for Dreamers, Border Security to Budget Bill

Senate Democrats are attempting to add funding for “Dreamers” and border security to their budget bill, Axios reported Friday.

The Democrats are looking at adding $10 billion to their $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package towards border security infrastructure at legal points of entry, according to Axios. The Democrats previously planned to allocate around $120 billion for citizenship for undocumented essential workers, immigrants with Temporary Protected Status and Dreamers.

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Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework Fails to Advance in the Senate

US Capitol Infrastructure

Senate Republicans rejected an effort Wednesday to begin debate on the bipartisan infrastructure deal endorsed by President Joe Biden, saying that the vote came too early and that the bill was not yet finalized.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer scheduled the procedural vote in an attempt to begin debate on the package, but after filing cloture on Monday Republicans came out against it on the grounds that the deal had yet to be put into text and that senators were still finalizing how the plan would be financed. The bill failed 49-51, with Schumer voting no so that he can bring it up again in the coming days.

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Chuck Schumer’s 2017 Warning About the Intel Community Seems to Have Come True

Weeks before Donald Trump took office, Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer issued an ominous warning.

“You take on the intelligence community? They have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you,” the New York Democrat said in an interview with MSNBC on Jan. 3, 2017.

Schumer was responding to Trump’s criticism of an intelligence community assessment that said Russia interfered explicitly to help the Republican win the 2016 election.

“He’s being really dumb to do this,” Schumer said of Trump.

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Commentary: There’s No Mandate for Democrats to Nuke the Filibuster

Democrats by no measure have a clear mandate in Washington. But they sure do act like it.

Senate Democrats know that they don’t have support for many items on their radical agenda, more of which Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to force votes on in the coming weeks. That’s why talks are recirculating in the Senate to end the filibuster once and for all.

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Schumer, Gillibrand Call on Cuomo to Resign

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called for Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign Friday over allegations of sexual misconduct and assault.

The Democratic senators released a statement Friday afternoon after the majority of the New York Democratic congressional delegation called for Cuomo’s resignation in coinciding statements Friday morning. One of Cuomo’s accusers, Lindsey Boylan, had announced earlier Friday that she would focus a political action committee against both Schumer and Gillibrand since they had not yet called for Cuomo to resign.

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Democrats on Filling a SCOTUS Vacancy in 2016: ‘A Responsibility to Vote’

Several Democratic leaders favored a Senate confirmation vote for President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland in 2016.

Following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Obama nominated Garland, who had been the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to block a confirmation vote for Garland until after the 2016 presidential election, The Washington Post reported.

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GOP’s Slimmed-Down Virus Bill Scuttled by Senate Democrats

Senate Democrats scuttled a scaled-back GOP coronavirus rescue package on Thursday, saying the measure shortchanged too many pressing needs as the pandemic continues its assault on the country.

The mostly party-line vote capped weeks of wrangling over a fifth relief bill that all sides say they want but are unable to deliver. The bipartisan spirit that powered earlier aid measures has given way to election-season political combat and name-calling. The 52-47 vote fell well short of what was needed to overcome a filibuster and seems likely to end hopes for coronavirus relief before the November election.

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Federal Unemployment Benefits Expiring as Democratic Leaders Demand Non-COVID-19 Related Policies

The additional $600 weekly federal unemployment benefits expire Friday after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected a White House offer to temporarily extend them.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that, “Senate Republicans tried several ways to extend the expiring unemployment assistance. Democrats blocked them all and refused another dime for COVID-19 relief unless they get to pass a bill that includes an unrelated tax cut for rich people in blue states.”

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Five Democratic Senators Kneel at George Floyd Memorial

Five Democrat senators knelt during a moment of silence for George Floyd in a caucus meeting on Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon.

Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) knelt, which lasted for eight minutes and 46 seconds, The Hill reported. That was the length of time fired Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck before he died. Chauvin faces a second-degree murder charge over the incident.

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Republicans Call on Tina Smith to Condemn Schumer’s Threats Against Gorsuch and Kavanaugh

Republicans are calling on Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) to condemn Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) threats against Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

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