Tag: Mitch McConnell

Biden Administration Expects Neera Tanden to Meet ‘High Bar of Civility,’ Psaki Says

Minnesota Sun Staff

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that President Joe Biden’s administration expects Neera Tanden to meet “a high bar of civility.”

“Well, first I’ll note that when Neera Tanden testified just a few weeks ago, she apologized for her past comments and that she would be joining an administration, whereas we’ve noted in here, there’s an expectation of a high bar of civility and engagement, whether that’s on social media or in person,” Psaki said. “We certainly expect she would meet that bar.”

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Commentary: The Uniparty’s Wishful Thinking

Minnesota Sun Staff

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) committed a mortal political error on Saturday when, after voting to acquit President Trump on constitutional grounds, he accused the former president of the crime of being “practically and morally” responsible for the invasion and vandalization of the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and the deaths of five people. 

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McConnell Ties $2,000 Checks to Section 230 Repeal, Voter Fraud Investigation

Minnesota Sun Staff

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced legislation authorizing direct cash payments of $2,000 Tuesday, but with a catch to which Democrats will likely object.

The bill combines $2,000 payments with a repeal of Section 230, a provision that grants social media companies liability protections against content users post on their platforms, and the establishment of a commission to study allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

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GOP Unveils $1.4T Spending Bill Amid Post-Election Turmoil

The Associated Press

Republicans controlling the Senate unveiled a government-wide, $1.4 trillion spending bill on Tuesday, a largely bipartisan measure that faces uncertain odds during this period of post-election tumult in Washington.

The GOP-drafted measure contains funding for President Donald Trump’s border wall and other provisions opposed by Democrats, but top leaders in both parties want to try to mount a drive to enact the unfinished spending bills — which, along with a separate COVID-19 relief effort and annual defense policy bill, represent the bulk of Capitol Hill’s unfinished business for the year.

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Commentary: A Republican Senate Will Keep Biden in Check? Oh, Please!

Minnesota Sun Staff

In February 2020, Mitt Romney became the first U.S. senator in history to vote to convict the president of his own party. Despite a laughable impeachment case concocted by House Democrats and clear evidence of corruption tied to the Democratic presidential candidate whom the impeachment effort was designed to protect, Romney nonetheless supported the removal of Donald Trump from the White House.

“My faith is at the heart of who I am,” Utah’s junior senator claimed while working up tears from the Senate floor on February 5. “The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of high crime and misdemeanor. Yes, he did.”

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Commentary: Republicans Leading in the Senate May Save America from Democratic One-Party Rule

Minnesota Sun Staff

States are still counting votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina — and with disputed deadlines currently allowing absentee ballots to still be received days after the election in Pennsylvania and North Carolina — it is simply too close to call the presidential race.

President Donald Trump carried Ohio, Florida and Iowa by big margins despite many mainstream news polls saying he would lose those states handily — which are little better than astrology at this point — and is still promising to take the race for the White House to the Supreme Court with litigation, presumably challenging any late ballots that come in.

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Commentary: ‘Never Trump’ Now Means ‘Never Constitution’

Minnesota Sun Staff

We went from Never Trump to Never Constitution in a nanosecond, it seems.

Entrenched foes of the president base their opposition on the unproven allegation Donald Trump is staining our democracy and defiling the Constitution. That arc now has reached almost full circle as the president’s enemies, desperate to deprive him of any victory, are concocting harebrained compromises outside the clear boundaries of the Constitution related to the next Supreme Court justice.

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Commentary: No Reason for Senate GOP to Wait Until After Election to Confirm Trump’s Ginsburg Replacement to Supreme Court

Minnesota Sun Staff

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is under enormous pressure from his Democratic colleagues not to confirm whoever President Donald Trump may nominate to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court before the election.

But in truth, there is simply no reason, neither constitutional nor political, for Trump and McConnell to wait at all.

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Senate GOP Lines up with Trump to Quickly Fill Court Seat

The Associated Press

Senate Republicans have swiftly fallen in line behind President Donald Trump’s push to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat as one of the last holdouts, Sen. Mitt Romney, said Tuesday he supports a vote despite Democrats’ objections it’s too close to the Nov. 3 election.

Trump, who will announce his nominee Saturday, is all but certain to have the votes to confirm his choice.

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Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar: Trump Shouldn’t Pick the New SCOTUS Justice

Corinne Murdock

Senators Tina Smith (DFL-MN) and Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) stated that President Trump shouldn’t pick the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) nominee. Instead, Smith and Klobuchar say that the newly-elected president should, and the Senate should wait to vote until then.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday from cancer complications. The SCOTUS vacancy is now the epicenter of political leaders’ attention.

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

The Associated Press

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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Mitch McConnell Campaign Hires Covington Catholic Student Nick Sandmann as Grassroots Director

Minnesota Sun Staff

The reelection campaign of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell announced on Friday that it had hired as a grassroots director Nicholas Sandmann, the Kentucky teen who was catapulted into national prominence last year due to an incident at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. 

Sandmann was among the teen students from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, KY, who in January of 2019 were videotaped in what initially appeared to be an aggressive confrontation of an elderly Native American man, Nathan Phillips, at the Lincoln Memorial.

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

Minnesota Sun Staff

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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White House Drops Payroll Tax Cut After GOP Allies Object

The Associated Press

The White House reluctantly dropped its bid to cut Social Security payroll taxes Thursday as Republicans prepared to unveil a $1 trillion COVID-19 rescue package, yielding to opposition to the idea among top Senate allies.

“It won’t be in the base bill,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking on CNBC about the payroll tax cut, killing the idea for now. The cut in the tax that finances Social Security and Medicare has been a major demand of President Donald Trump.

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McGrath Wins Kentucky Dem Primary; McConnell Showdown Awaits

The Associated Press

Former Marine pilot Amy McGrath overcame a bumpier-than-expected Kentucky primary to win the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination Tuesday, fending off progressive Charles Booker to set up a bruising, big-spending showdown with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Voting ended June 23, but it took a week until McGrath could be declared the winner due to the race’s tight margins and a deluge of mail-in ballots. The outcome seemed a certainty early in the campaign but became tenuous as Booker’s profile surged as the Black state lawmaker highlighted protests against the deaths of African Americans in encounters with police.

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House Passes Bill to Make DC a State

Minnesota Sun Staff

The House of Representatives passed a bill Friday that would make Washington, D.C., a state amid increasing congressional support for the nation’s capital to be granted statehood.

The “Washington, D.C. Admission Act,” which had 227 Democratic cosponsors, was originally introduced by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s nonvoting at-large representative in Congress, in October of last year. It passed Friday 232-180 without any Republican support.

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Senate GOP Propose Police Changes

The Associated Press

Senate Republicans unveiled proposed changes to police procedures and accountability Wednesday, countering Democratic policing legislation with a bill that is less sweeping but underscores how swiftly the national debate has been transformed five months before elections.

Republicans are embracing a new priority with the “Justice Act,” the most ambitious GOP policing proposal in years, in a direct response to the massive public protests over the death of George Floyd and other black Americans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he believes America is not a racist country but “the stain is not totally gone” from slavery and the Civil War.

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Commentary: Without Exception, Republicans Must Actively Oppose the Anarchists Ruining the U.S.

Minnesota Sun Staff

Republicans are facing their biggest test in generations.

The mentality of a psychotic mob of radicals has taken control of the country and its institutions. With remarkable speed, America’s mayors, governors, media, lawmakers, health experts, artists, sports leagues, generals and troops, powerful corporations, and the wealthiest men on the planet, have all loudly endorsed this mob, its hatred of America, and its demands for radical transformation.

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Five Democratic Senators Kneel at George Floyd Memorial

Jason M. Reynolds

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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Commentary: Without Any Crimes Cited, the Impeachment of President Trump Is Doomed for Failure in the Senate

Minnesota Sun Staff

“House Democrats settled on two flimsy Articles of Impeachment that allege no crime or violation of law whatsoever—much less ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ as required by the Constitution… [T]he terminology of “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” makes clear that an impeachable offense must be a violation of established law. The Impeachment Clause did not confer upon Congress a roving license to make up new standards of conduct for government officials and to permit removal from office merely on a conclusion that conduct was ‘bad’ if there was not an existing law that it violated.”

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Commentary: A ‘Fair’ Senate Impeachment Trial Is Exactly What Democrats Are Afraid Of

Minnesota Sun Staff

On January 7, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote her Democratic colleagues to explain her strategy and to respond to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) announcement that he would not negotiate impeachment trial procedures with the House. Instead, McConnell simply plans to use the procedures employed in the Clinton impeachment

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Tina Smith Continues Her Month Long Attack of Mitch McConnell: ‘A Big Fat Waste’

Zachery Schmidt

  Minnesota Senator Tina Smith appeared on the “AM Joy Show” Monday where she continued her attack of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). During her appearance, she told host Joy Reid that McConnell would “continue to obstruct.” “There are places rank and file members of the Senate, Republicans and Democrats,…

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GOP Divided on Trump’s Mexico Tariff Threat

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Jason Hopkins   Republicans in the House and Senate appear divided in their reaction to President Donald Trump’s threats to slap Mexico with incremental tariffs. “There is not much support in my conference for tariffs, that’s for sure,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday after a closed-door lunch…

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Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Calls for Raising Minimum Age to Buy Tobacco Products to 21

Minnesota Sun Staff

U.S. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday he plans to introduce legislation to raise the minimum age for buying tobacco products, including vaping devices, to 21 from 18 to curb their “epidemic” use among teens. McConnell said the bill would be introduced in May. Shares of Marlboro maker…

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Commentary: Mitch McConnell Opposes Nominees Who Agree With President Trump

Minnesota Sun Staff

by CHQ Staff   Personnel is Policy, and despite his effectiveness in confirming some relatively conservative federal judges, the Senate’s Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has long been recognized as one of the major impediments to governing America according to conservative principles. And McConnell’s real anti-conservative character was on full…

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Ocasio-Cortez Takes Credit for Not Getting Any Votes in Favor of Her Green New Deal

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Molly Prince   Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed on Tuesday not a single Senate Democrat voted in favor of the Green New Deal because she asked them to vote “present.” “Because I encouraged them to vote present, along w/ others,” Ocasio-Cortez responded when Republican Wyoming Sen. John…

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McConnell Blocks Unanimous House Resolution to Release Mueller Report

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Whitney Tipton   U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a resolution Monday calling for the public release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. The Kentucky Republican claimed the Department of Justice needs more time to determine which parts can be released publicly, The Hill reported. The measure, which…

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McConnell and Senate Republicans Vote to Kill Green New Deal

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Chris White   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues torpedoed the activist-backed Green New Deal Tuesday as Democrats called the vote a dog-and-pony show. Republicans defeated the proposal 57 to 0 as Democratic lawmakers derided the vote as a political gesture meant to rile up conservatives…

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GOP and Democrats Clash Over The Green New Deal On Senate Floor

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Michael Bastasch   A rhetorical brawl over climate change broke out on the Senate floor as Democrats chided Republicans for criticizing the Green New Deal without proposing an alternative plan. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP Senate colleagues took to the chamber’s floor to criticize the Green…

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Cheaper to Buy Every American a Ferrari Than Fund the Green New Deal, Mitch McConnell Says

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Michael Bastasch   For the cost of implementing the Green New Deal, the federal government could buy every American a brand new Ferrari luxury sports car, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “For the comparatively cheap price of just $66 trillion I’m told the government could buy every…

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McConnell: President Donald Trump Will Sign Funding Bill, Announce National Emergency for Border Wall

Zachery Schmidt

President Donald Trump is set to declare a national emergency Thursday evening to deal with the southern border crisis, a move that will come as he signs the bi-partisans border security legislation passed by the Senate earlier in the day and expected to be passed later in the day by…

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Commentary: Mitch McConnell’s Complicity with Democrats

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Rachel Bovard   The partial government shutdown is well into its second week. And given the mix of Democrat enthusiasm and complete Republican apathy, it looks like it may stay that way for a while. Ask any reporter or Capitol Hill staffer who has worked through previous government shutdowns, and…

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Senators Give Up On Effort to Rename Senate Office Building in Honor of John McCain

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Molly Prince   The effort to rename a Senate office building after the late Republican Sen. John McCain has seemingly gone to the wayside as months pass without any further action. Following McCain’s death in August, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged to introduce a resolution that would change…

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Commentary: If Left Unchallenged, Unrepentant McConnell Is Set to Plague Conservatives for Years to Come

Admin
Mitch McConnell

by Jeffrey Rendall   Mitch McConnell in 2020? No, the senate majority leader isn’t clandestinely plotting a presidential primary challenge to Donald Trump in two years and as far as can be determined McConnell’s not tossing out hints he’s conspiring with #NeverTrumpers to overturn the Trump presidency through a coup…

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