Category: Politics and American Democracy

Subpoena could complicate Pence decision to run for president in 2024

Yahoo! News

Subpoena could complicate Pence decision to run for president in 2024

Special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed Pence after months of unsuccessful negotiations with his legal team to obtain his testimony.

Tom LoBianco, Reporter – February 9, 2023

Mike Pence
Former Vice President Mike Pence speaking at the Heritage Foundation in last fall. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

WASHINGTON — The subpoena issued Thursday to former Vice President Mike Pence by the special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol will likely complicate the Indiana Republican’s White House prospects.

Special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed Pence after months of unsuccessful negotiations with his legal team to obtain his testimony, according to multiple news reports. While Pence has been critical of Trump’s actions leading up to and on Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters sought to block the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, he refused to voluntarily sit for questioning with the Department of Justice and the special counsel.

ABC News first reported the subpoena had been issued Thursday evening.

Pence’s path to winning the Republican nomination in 2024 was narrow to begin with, and the latest development may make it that much harder for him, Republicans keeping tabs on the rapidly developing 2024 field told Yahoo News.

“It is hard, in my view, to say you are the grown-up in the room and in favor of law and order if you refuse DOJ subpoenas,” said one former Trump administration official. “Though, in the end, he still has no hope in 2024.”

Pence should respect the subpoena and cooperate, said Vin Weber, a former House Republican leader and longtime Republican operative.

“He’s got to be the straight-up guy he is, or he loses his brand,” Weber said.

Pence has been aggressively putting together a political team in recent months in anticipation of a formal announcement that insiders say will come this spring.

Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump at a New Hampshire Republican State Committee fundraiser, Jan. 28, 2023. (Cheryl Senter for the Washington Post)

A Pence spokesman declined comment for this story.

After leaving the White House two years ago, Pence largely avoided talking about his former running mate and the stunning attack on the Capitol, at which Trump’s supporters, egged on by the president, angrily chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” as they ransacked the building and delayed the certification vote.

But slowly, as Pence traveled the country in apparent preparation for his own presidential run, he began talking more about how it felt to have Trump falsely claim he could have overturned the 2020 election results.

Pence’s top aides played a key role in providing testimony and evidence to the House Jan. 6 select committee, and Pence himself floated the idea last summer that he might testify before the panel.

Following the 2022 midterm elections, many Republicans blamed Trump for the party’s worse than expected showing. The day after Pence’s memoir was released in November, revealing for the first time his thoughts on what transpired on Jan. 6, Pence announced he would not testify before the House committee.

Since then, Pence has continued aggressively campaigning in early primary states that will play a key role in deciding the party’s next nominee. He has routinely polled in third place in polls of Republican voters assessing a hypothetical field of candidates, outperforming other top names like former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is set to announce her entry into the race next week, but his standing has also slipped over the past year or so.

“I think Pence was always vastly overpriced as a 2024 stock. For all that, I think the subpoena is a low-intensity thing,” said Rick Wilson, a former longtime Republican operative who co-founded the Lincoln Project, a Never Trump group. “His campaign is already over … he just doesn’t know it yet.”

A secret Russian satellite has broken apart in orbit, creating a cloud of debris that could last a century

Business Insider

A secret Russian satellite has broken apart in orbit, creating a cloud of debris that could last a century

Morgan McFall-Johnsen – February 8, 2023

illustration shows satellite shedding bits of metal debris high above earth
An illustration of a satellite breaking up above Earth.ESA/ID&Sense/ONiRiXEL, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

A mysterious Russian satellite with a shady mission has broken apart in Earth’s orbit, creating a hazardous cloud of debris zipping around the planet and menacing other satellites, US Space Force announced.

The 18th Space Defense Squadron said on Twitter Monday that it had confirmed a satellite called Kosmos 2499 had broken apart into 85 pieces.

Previous collisions and satellite break-ups have created far larger and more hazardous debris fields than this.

But the pieces of Kosmos 2499 are orbiting at an altitude of about 745 miles — so high that they’ll probably be there for a century or longer before Earth’s atmosphere drags them down and burns them up, according to NASA.

Kosmos 2499 is one of three satellites that Russia launched secretly from 2013 to 2015. Its beginning is even more mysterious than its end.

NASA and the US Department of Defense did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.

The satellite was launched secretly and made ‘suspicious’ maneuvers in orbit
rocket spews orange flame lifts off in the arctic
A Russian “Rokot” rocket lifts off from a launch pad near the town of Plesetsk in Arctic Russia.Reuters

On Christmas Day 2013, Russia launched a small Rokot rocket into the skies above Plesetsk, carrying three military communications satellites into orbit.

It seemed like a standard launch, until space trackers noticed that the Rokot had released a fourth object into orbit, according to Anatoly Zak, an English-language reporter who covers Russia’s space program and runs Russianspaceweb.com.

A few months later, Russia admitted to the United Nations that it had launched a fourth satellite, which came to be known as Kosmos 2491. Its purpose was unclear.

Russia launched another secret satellite in May 2014, and it soon began maneuvering itself in orbit, dropping and raising its altitude until it brought itself “suspiciously close” to the rocket stage that had delivered it to orbit, according to Zak. The US military designated the object Kosmos 2499.

For nearly half a year, this mystery satellite trailed its rocket stage and maneuvered up close to it repeatedly. Then it transmitted telemetry data back to Earth in Morse code, according to Zak.

The bizarre behavior led to speculation that Russia was testing technology to follow or wreck other satellites, according to Space.com.

The head of Roscosmos at the time, Oleg Ostapenko, assured the world in a December 2014 press conference that Kosmos 2491 and Kosmos 2499 were not “killer satellites,” Zak reported. Ostapenko said the satellites had peaceful, educational purposes and that “they completed their mission.” Zak said the Roscosmos chief never specified what that mission was.

A similar Rokot launch sent a third unregistered satellite into orbit the next year.

The first secret satellite, Kosmos 2491, broke apart in 2019. Kosmos 2499 just met the same fate.

The satellite may have exploded, rather than crashing

The cause of the satellite’s disintegration is not yet clear.

Brian Weeden, a space-debris expert at the Secure World Foundation, told ArsTechnica that he doesn’t think a collision caused it, since two of the secretive satellites have gone out like this.

“This suggests to me that perhaps these events are the result of a design error in the fuel tanks or other systems that are rupturing after several years in space rather than something like a collision with a piece of debris,” Weeden told ArsTechnica.

That aligns with a preliminary analysis by LeoLabs, a company that tracks objects in Earth’s orbit. The company tweeted that its early data “points toward a low intensity explosion,” likely from the satellite’s propulsion system.

LeoLabs said its models had “moderate confidence” in this finding.

“As more of the fragments get cataloged and included in the analysis we will be able to provide a more definitive cause of the event,” the company wrote, adding that “understanding why these types of events occur is key to preventing them in the future.”

How Hecklers Turned the State of the Union Into a Biden 2024 Ad

Time

How Hecklers Turned the State of the Union Into a Biden 2024 Ad

Philip Elliott – February 8, 2023

State of the Union 2023
State of the Union 2023

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., yells during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, February 7, 2023. Credit – Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

When a fur-coiffed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene yelled “liar” Tuesday night, among the loudest in an abrupt chorus of boos, the oldest President to ever deliver a State of the Union address didn’t miss a beat. He smiled and went far afield from his script as GOP lawmakers tried to reject his claims that Republicans were ready to gut social entitlement programs.

“Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? We’ve got unanimity?” he asked. “Apparently it’s not going to be a problem,” he deadpanned at another moment.

The striking exchange, and Biden’s ease in handling it in front of an audience of millions, illustrated why the Democratic establishment isn’t yet ready to toss their 80-year-old standard-bearer overboard.

Despite a halting, vamped opening to Tuesday’s State of the Union speech—a Super Bowl joke? Why?— Biden proved himself plenty capable of holding his own when his Republican hecklers started to stalk him. In fact, he actually demonstrated how he might be able to troll them into their own self-own status in real time. Give Biden acrimony, he’ll toss back accomplishments. Throw him hostility, he’ll offer hope.

“As my football coach used to say, ‘Lots of luck in your senior year,’” he deadpanned at one point, mocking lawmakers who seemed to think high school was the same as the big leagues of Congress.

Biden baited Greene’s fellow Republicans into pledges of fealty to Social Security. When others pummeled him on the U.S.-Mexican dotted line—”secure the border”—Biden taunted them with an offer to work on comprehensive immigration reform. And when Republicans tried to lay blame at the ongoing drug addiction and overdose crisis at Biden’s feet, he simply asked Republicans if they’d work with him to combat it.

For as much as Democrats are gritting their teeth and girding for the worst when it comes to Biden’s likely 2024 campaign, Tuesday night’s State of the Union gave them reason to hold onto optimism. It wasn’t a robust reason, but it was sufficient. Biden showed he can keep his ground in the face of Republican attack; in fact, he seemed to delight in the heckling that came from the floor of the House. For every “liar”—and worse—that rose from the floor, Biden seemed ready with the rejoinder of his first-term economic record. For every peel of stage laughter coming from his physical left and his political right, Biden stood ready to offer some undeniably impressive facts. And for every protest to his trolling suggestion that Republicans were ready to ditch Social Security, Biden had a taunt right in the margins of his heavy black binder.

Biden’s third joint address to Congress set the tone not just for the next year but also his still-unannounced re-election campaign. Biden laid the trap of bipartisan collaboration as well as anyone in recent memory but also set the timer on some partisan timebombs.

Biden is convinced that he is the only Democrat in the land who can block Donald Trump’s return to the White House and is increasingly itchy to make his 2024 re-election bid real. He has effectively frozen the field of would-be challengers, resetting the nominating calendar in such a way that renders challengers as also-rans. He has never been a strong fundraiser or nurturer of outside moneybags, but the deep-pocketed allies are nonetheless ready to bankroll his efforts to stay in the gig that he has chased since his 20s.

So it’s worth considering Tuesday night’s State of the Union as the prologue to Biden’s next chapter, perhaps the final eighth volume in his Robert Caro-esque chronicle. (For the record, not that I’d write it: the first volume would be the first Senate race; Volume II: his Senate term ahead of the 1988 race; III: his return to the Senate; IV: the 2008 primary: V: his time as Vice President; VI: his time as a free radical from 2016-20; and VII: the last two years, leading us to the present.) Biden holds dear to him the spirit of Irish poets, in that the specter of legacy is always just barely off-stage and always above it. Biden wants wins, and his speech—and the interruptions to it—suggest a measure of confrontation is going to define it.

That said, Republicans weren’t entirely sure that the interludes of heckling and hectoring were useful to their side. In fact, plenty of Republicans groaned in the chamber and groused privately that the likes of Greene managed to make the speech into an interactive experience not terribly dissimilar to the British Parliament’s tradition of P.M. Questions. In public, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy shushed his caucus a number of times as they chucked invectives at Biden. More quietly—but still in view of the public—Utah Sen. Mitt Romney tried to silence a GOP House member who has proven plenty shameful to the brand. Romney—who in 2008 and 2012 thought he would do well to be giving a State of the Union himself as President—told Rep. George Santos that he was an embarrassment. Biden seemed to share that assessment, opting to see Santos and deny him a handshake on the aisle.

Again, Biden mightn’t be the most optimal nominee-in-waiting Democrats have ever had on deck, but he’s hardly the most problematic. And that, right there, is why Tuesday night’s State of the Union leaves a whole of the Democratic Party’s top donor roster less dour than they began their week. It’s also why the ragtag Republican contenders hoping to see a slow, doddering commander in chief ready to be put out to pasture were standing at the starting line with empty hands.

George Santos grabbed an aisle seat at the State of the Union. Not everyone was eager to shake his hand.

Insider

George Santos grabbed an aisle seat at the State of the Union. Not everyone was eager to shake his hand.

Nicole Gaudiano,Bryan Metzger and Warren Rojas – February 7, 2023

Republican Rep. George Santos of New York at the State of the Union address on February 7, 2023.
Republican Rep. George Santos of New York at the State of the Union address on February 7, 2023.Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images
  • Embattled Rep. George Santos grabbed a premier center aisle seat ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address.
  • That seating put him in a prime position to shake some hands.
  • But he soon discovered that not everyone, including some Republicans, was interested in seeing him.

Republican Rep. George Santos of New York grabbed a seat on the center aisle ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, putting him in a prime position to shake some hands.

Seated beside Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Santos soon discovered that not everyone — including some Republicans — was interested in seeing him.

As they began to enter the chamber around 8:30 pm, several senators customarily shook hands with the scandal-plagued Long Island congressman, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Whip John Thune, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, and even a couple of Democrats: Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Dick Durbin of Illinois.

But several senators were visibly uninterested, particularly Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.

Other dignitaries who passed by Santos also passed over him, even as they shook hands with Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, seated on the other side of him. Among them was Vice President Kamala Harris.

Santos sat just in front of Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee and behind Rep. Trent Kelly of Mississippi.

Aside from reserved places for leadership, seats in the House chamber are not assigned to members of Congress during the State of the Union Address. Seats are reserved for senators as a group in the front of the chamber and House members sit behind them. House members can claim preferred spots during the day but they have to camp out there to reserve them for the entirety of the speech.

Many Republicans have spent the last month avoiding Santos, who is at the center of a media circus sparked by myriad lies on his resume and investigations of his campaign finances, and who has faced calls to resign from members not just within his own party, but from his home state delegation.

Many of those who spoke recently with Insider’s Bryan Metzger made it clear they wanted nothing to do with Santos.

But as Metzger noted, the congressman who initially sat by himself during his first days in office eventually found a “receptive crowd” among the chamber’s right-wing lawmakers.

Photos of Santos from earlier this session show him sitting between Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and fellow freshman Andy Ogles of Tennessee or with Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas, who told Metzger that Santos seems like a “nice guy.” Greene appears to have known Santos at least since 2020.

During the House speaker vote fight, Insider spotted Santos hanging out by Kevin McCarthy tormentors Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

In recent weeks, Insider has watched Santos roam around the chamber during votes. Sometimes that entails standing alone along the back wall as members weigh in on pending bills, while on at least one occasion he spent about 10 minutes chatting up fellow freshman GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida.

GOP on GOP: Romney scolds Santos, ‘You don’t belong here’

Associated Press

GOP on GOP: Romney scolds Santos, ‘You don’t belong here’

Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick – February 8, 2023

Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and other Republicans gather in the House Chamber before President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Ind-Ariz., center, speaks with Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, left, and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., right, and others, before President Joe Biden arrives to deliver his State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Rep.George Santos, R-N.Y., lower center, and other Republicans, gather in the House Chamber before President Joe Biden arrives to deliver his State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., talks with people before President Joe Biden arrives to deliver the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., sits as other Republicans stand as President Joe Biden talks about American manufacturing during the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, leave after President Joe Biden delivered the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. George Santos positioned himself in a prime location for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address — an uncomfortably prominent place for the embattled new lawmaker who faces multiple investigations and has acknowledged embellishing and even lying about his life story.

Santos’ presence at the center aisle to see and be seen with the arrivals was met with a stern rebuke from a fellow Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney.

“You don’t belong here,” the Utah Republican scolded Santos as he entered the House chamber and spotted the New York Republican on the aisle.

Words were exchanged, it was reported, though Romney said later he did not hear it all.

“He shouldn’t be in Congress, and they are going to go through the process and hopefully get him out,” Romney told reporters afterward, his office confirmed. “But he shouldn’t be there, and if he had any shame at all he wouldn’t be there.”

The exchange was an unusual lashing by the more reserved Romney, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2012, but shows the discomfort Santos is bringing among traditional conservatives critical of the rightward drift of more extremist elements of the GOP.

Santos retorted with a tweet: “Hey @MittRomney just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!”

The arrival of Santos has been a problem for the Republicans since he won a New York congressional seat, which helped to deliver the party a slim majority, once his personal story began to unravel.

Santos has acknowledged fabricating, and at times lying, about parts of his education, work experience and even his family’s own religion and history.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met privately with the congressman last week amid a swirl of potential investigations on and off Capitol Hill. Santos announced he would step aside from his committee assignments ahead of an expected House Ethics Committee probe.

McCarthy said Tuesday the situation with Santos would work its way through the House Ethics Committee. Fellow New York Republicans have called for Santos to resign from Congress. Santos faces other investigations beyond Congress.

Other Republicans heard the exchange and one Republican lawmaker who was told about it said there was widespread displeasure that Santos had situated himself in such a prominent spot. The lawmaker requested anonymity to discuss what others said about the subject.

The center aisle basically gave Santos the chance to seize the limelight by greeting the president and other prominent officials as they entered the House chamber and made their way down the aisle.

As senators entered the House in a line, it was then that Romney spotted Santos and delivered his message.

“I didn’t expect that he’d be standing there, trying to shake hands with every senator and the president of the United States,” Romney told reporters later.

Romney said that given the investigations, Santos “should be sitting the back row and staying quiet, instead of parading in front of the president and people coming into the room.”

But Santos, as is often the case, had his moment, becoming for a time the face of the GOP.

Mitt Romney calls George Santos ‘a sick puppy’ after Biden State of the Union

USA Today

Mitt Romney calls George Santos ‘a sick puppy’ after Biden State of the Union

Candy Woodall, USA TODAY – February 8, 2023

WASHINGTON—Utah Sen. Mitt Romney at the State of the Union address joined the growing number of Republicans who have said embattled freshman Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., shouldn’t be in Congress.

“If he had any shame at all, he wouldn’t be there,” Romney told reporters after the address.

Santos has admitted to embellishing parts of his personal and professional resume, but Romney said they are lies, not embellishments. To embellish, he said, is to say you got an A instead of an A-. “Lying is saying you graduated from a college you didn’t even attend.”

Santos lied that he graduated from college and was a volleyball star, a Wall Street resume that did not exist, his ancestry and more. He is facing the most legal scrutiny, at the local and federal levels, for his campaign finances.

State of the Union takeaways: Blue-collar Joe, GOP boos and a 2024 preview

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-UT, and Krsten Sinema, I-Ariz., listen to President Joe Biden during the State of the Union address from the House chamber of the United States Capitol in Washington.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-UT, and Krsten Sinema, I-Ariz., listen to President Joe Biden during the State of the Union address from the House chamber of the United States Capitol in Washington.

As Romney entered the House chamber Tuesday night, he told Santos he didn’t belong in Congress.

“I didn’t expect that he’d be standing there (in an aisle seat) trying to shake hands with every senator and the president of the United States,” Romney said to reporters after the State of the Union. Given the investigations facing him, including a House Ethics complaint, “he should be sitting in the back row and staying quiet instead of parading in front of the president and people coming into the room.”

The senator described Santos as “a sick puppy” for his lies.

“He shouldn’t be in Congress, and they’re going to go through the process and hopefully get him out,” Romney said. “But he shouldn’t be there and if he had any shame at all, he wouldn’t be there.”

State of the Union live updates: Biden tells Americans economy roaring back, spars with GOP over debt

Heckles, spats and deflection: The biggest moments you missed from Biden’s State of the Union

Candy Woodall is a Congress reporter for USA TODAY. 

‘Daily Show’ Guest Chelsea Handler Is ‘Sexually Attracted’ To This GOP Lawmaker

HuffPost

‘Daily Show’ Guest Chelsea Handler Is ‘Sexually Attracted’ To This GOP Lawmaker


Ed Mazza – February 8, 2023

Comic Chelsea Handler made a surprising confession on “The Daily Show” on Wednesday night: She’s got the hots for Republican Sen. Mitt Romney.

Romney got into a spat with Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), the lawmaker busted in a plethora of lies and now facing investigations and calls to resign, on Tuesday night just before the State of the Union address.

Those standing nearby reported that the Utah senator told Santos he ought to be embarrassed showing up and called him an “ass” to his face.

Handler rolled the footage, then made her confession.

“I would like to go on the record tonight and say that I am sexually attracted to Mitt Romney,” she declared. “It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last time. I don’t even care that he’s a Republican or a Mormon. In fact, since he’s a Mormon, he’ll be open to another wife, and if not he’s a Republican, so he’ll be open to having an affair. Problem solved.”

See more in her Wednesday night monologue:

Climate change contributing to spread of antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’: UN report

The Hill

Climate change contributing to spread of antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’: UN report

Zack Budryk – February 7, 2023

Climate change is heightening the risk posed by antibiotic-resistant viruses, according to research published Tuesday by the United Nations Environment Program.

The report found so-called superbugs have been exacerbated by climate change due to increased bacterial growth caused by warmer temperatures and pollutants that have increased the spread of antibiotic-resistance genes.

The analysis notes that overuse of antimicrobials and pollutants can spread resistance, while contact with resistant microorganisms can create resistance in bacteria already present in air, water and soil. Pollution associated with wastewater, particularly from hospitals, is a major factor, as well as runoff from pharmaceutical production and agriculture, according to the report.

The risk is particularly great for historically polluted waterways, which are more likely to provide shelter for microorganisms that foster antibiotic resistance. A combination of increased pollution and decreased resources for pollutant management has made the problem worse in combination with resistance in health care and agriculture settings.

Meanwhile, 2021 research published in the journal Sci Total Environ suggests urban flooding is also increasing the threat from antibiotic resistance due to disruptions of soil, with the risk possibly lingering for up to five months after major floods or hurricanes.

“While the relationship between environmental pollution and AMR [antimicrobial resistance] and the reservoir of resistance genes in the environment has been established, the significance and its contribution to AMR globally is still unclear,” researchers wrote. “Even so, there is enough knowledge to implement measures to reduce the factors that influence AMR from an environmental perspective; this will also address the triple planetary crisis by addressing sources, sinks and waste.”

The report calls for stronger regulatory frameworks to address the spread of AMR, as well as increased incorporation of environmental factors into National Action Plans for antimicrobial resistance and international standards for signs of antimicrobial resistance.

Policymakers should also develop stronger water sanitation standards, U.N. Environment Program researchers wrote.

Biden, Republicans engage in fiery debt ceiling back-and-forth during State of the Union address

Yahoo! News

Biden, Republicans engage in fiery debt ceiling back-and-forth during State of the Union address

 David Knowles, Senior Editor – February 7, 2023

President Biden and Republican lawmakers engaged in an animated back-and-forth during Tuesday’s State of the Union address over whether to raise the debt ceiling.

“Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage, I get it,” Biden said over threats made by Republican lawmakers to insist on spending cuts before they would agree to raise debt ceiling, “unless I agree to their economic plan. All of you at home should know what those plans are.”

As Biden continued his speech, a handful of Republicans began voicing their displeasure, calling out and interrupting the president.

Joe Biden with Kamala Harris and Kevin McCarthy
President Biden delivers the State of the Union address as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy look on. (Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via AP)

“Instead of making the wealthy pay their fare share, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security sunset,” Biden said as many Republican booed him.

“Anybody who doubts it,” Biden said as a chorus of Republican boos ensued, “contact my office, I’ll give you a copy of the proposal.”

As Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, continued to boo and taunt the president, he quipped, “That’s OK, I enjoy conversation.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene heckling President Biden
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene heckling President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

“If Congress doesn’t keep the programs the way they are, they can go away, Republicans say. I’m not saying it’s a majority of you. I don’t even think it’s a significant majority—” Biden said before being cut off by more jeering. “It’s being proposed by individuals. I’m politely not naming them, but it’s being proposed by some of you.”

At one point, Greene could be heard calling Biden a liar.

“The idea is, we’re not going to be moved into being threatened to default on the debt if we don’t respond,” Biden said, drawing applause from his Democratic colleagues.

After Republican curtailed their vocal objections, Biden concluded by saying, “So folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? They’re not to be touched. All right.”

That again gave Democrats something to cheer.

While it’s unusual for lawmakers to shout during presidential addresses to Congress, it’s not entirely unprecedented. In 2009, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., yelled out “You lie!” during a health care speech by President Barack Obama.

Wilson’s outburst was roundly criticized by Republican leaders at the time and he quickly issued an apology.

Romney tells embattled Republican George Santos he ‘shouldn’t be in Congress’

Reuters

Romney tells embattled Republican George Santos he ‘shouldn’t be in Congress’

February 7, 2023

U.S. Senators at the U.S. Capitol in Washington
U.S. Senators at the U.S. Capitol in Washington
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Mitt Romney told embattled fellow Republican Representative George Santos on Tuesday that should not be in Congress and shouldn’t have taken a central seat at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.

Romney, an elder statesman of the party and former Republican presidential candidate, was seen having a brief exchange with Santos, who has made multiple false claims about his past on his way into the House of Representatives chamber before the address.

“He shouldn’t be in Congress and they’re going to go through the process and hopefully get him out,” Romney told reporters after the speech. “But he shouldn’t be there and if he had any shame at all he wouldn’t be there.”

Romney said he had told Santos as much.

Santos, who represents a New York district, had taken a seat along the center aisle of the chamber, which the president, members of this Cabinet, Supreme Court justices and senators use to enter the hall.

Santos is facing ethics complaints from fellow members of Congress, but the House Ethics Committee has yet to organize for the next two years and thus cannot launch any potential investigation, an aide to Speaker Kevin McCarthy said earlier on Tuesday.

Santos has apologized for “embellishing” his resume but has rebuffed calls for his resignation from constituents and fellow New York state Republicans, saying he would vacate his seat only if he loses the next election, in 2024.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)