The House GOP continued its war on the Biden admin's Homeland Security Secretary.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024
BY JULIA CLAIRE & CROOKED MEDIA

- Rep. Dina Titus ([link removed]) (D-NV) throwing some expert folksy shade at her GOP colleagues.

It’s an election year, so you know what that means: Republicans are pulling out all of their most ridiculous political stunts to cover up for being wildly ineffective at best, and actively harmful at worst.

* The House GOP moved forward with its sham impeachment hearings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday. Mayorkas resolutely defended his record to the Republican-controlled House Committee on Homeland Security ([link removed]) , which is drawing up articles of impeachment against him despite having failed to articulate evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. If successful, this would be the first impeachment of a Cabinet member in almost 150 years.

* The committee’s Democratic members excoriated their GOP colleagues for pushing ahead with the impeachment for purely political reasons. They also highlighted GOP hypocrisy for pursuing this impeachment on grounds that Mayorkas has been derelict in his duty to “secure the border,” while simultaneously opposing a bipartisan immigration package that would do just that. (Disgraced former president Donald Trump torpedoed Republican support for the bill because he wants to be able to run on border issues in November ([link removed]) .)

* While Mayorkas did not appear at the hearing, he sent a six-page letter on Tuesday morning to Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Green (R-TN). The missive threw cold water on the GOP’s spurious accusations about both his duties and his participation in their probe. Republicans have accused him of not just avoiding, but outright obstructing oversight requests. He shot back: ([link removed]) “We have provided Congress and your Committee hours of testimony, thousands of documents, hundreds of briefings, and much more information that demonstrates quite clearly how we are enforcing the law.” Mayorkas asserted that the committee’s “false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me from the law enforcement and broader public service to which I remain devoted.” The “obstruction of oversight” requests are particularly ridiculous given that Mayorkas has already testified before Congress more than any
other member of the Biden Cabinet—27 times in 35 months.

Constitutional experts have argued that Republicans are abusing the tool of impeachment ([link removed]) , adopted by the framers to protect the country from despots, not to put every member of your opposing party up against the wall. Yep, that sounds like them!

* Republicans and the conservative media machine have been very effective in whipping up hysteria in the American electorate over immigration. A recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll showed that the issue has overtaken even inflation ([link removed]) as the top concern reported by voters, which the GOP is using to its advantage. On Friday, President Biden implored Congress to grant him the power to shut down the border ([link removed]) , and pressed them to send the stalled immigration bill to his desk.


* Immigration has plagued nearly every presidential administration in modern U.S. history. The asylum system is broken, and Republicans have no interest in fixing it, or any other problem related to immigration that does not involve mass deportations and a ridiculous money pit of a border wall. GOP lawmakers have refused to allocate resources, obstructed efforts to update laws, and defied federal officials charged with maintaining border security ([link removed]) . But President Biden’s own posture on the issue has ebbed and flowed over the years as well. Despite what Republicans would have you believe, Biden has never been an “Abolish ICE” guy nor a Democrat who supports decriminalizing illegal border crossings, but he came into office seeking humane solutions, contrasting the previous administration. But now, departing from his 2020 rhetoric, Biden says he is “willing to make significant compromises on the border.”

President Biden and many Democratic lawmakers are doing their part to address the humanitarian crisis at the border, Republicans are not. As Biden said in his 2023 immigration address to the nation, the GOP “can keep using immigration to try to score political points, or they can help solve the problem.”

It’s 2024, and there’s SO MUCH to do, but it's hard to know where to start. If your decision paralysis has set in, It’s now easier than ever to find the volunteer opportunities that are right for you with Vote Save America’s brand new action finder! You tell VSA the causes you care about, they’ll tell you the most high-impact ways to get involved, from your state all the way to the White House. Call it the cure for doom scrolling. Go to votesaveamerica.com/volunteer ([link removed]) to get started.
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Newly-obtained CCTV footage from Ibn Sina hospital in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank appears to show armed Israel Defense Forces commandos disguised as Palestinians, including one wearing a woman’s head scarf and another wearing a white medical coat. Israeli authorities said the soldiers killed three gunmen in the hospital, one of whom they said was planning an imminent attack. The hospital’s medical director told Reuters that the three were shot in the head using silenced pistols as they slept in the room ([link removed]) where they were being treated. Hamas claimed one of the dead as a member, and allied faction Islamic Jihad claimed the other two.


Hamas said on Tuesday that it had received a new proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, presented by mediators after talks with Israel in Paris. The group is studying the proposal, which appears to be the most serious bid for peace in months. A senior Hamas official told Reuters that the proposal involves a three-stage truce ([link removed]) , during which the militant group would release the remaining civilian hostages captured on October 7, then soldiers, and then the bodies of the hostages who have been killed. It is unclear how long each stage would last, or what is proposed to follow the final stage.

President Biden announced on Tuesday that he has made a decision on how to respond to the drone attack in Jordan that killed three American service members ([link removed]) , but not what that decision is. The Pentagon said that Iran-backed, Iraq-based militia Kata’ib Hezbollah was likely responsible for the attack, and in a surprise move, the group announced on Tuesday that it was suspending military operations in Iraq, citing pressure from Baghdad and Tehran.

Aimeen Penny, the 20-year-old far-right extremist from Ohio and member of the neo-Nazi group White Lives Matter, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison on Tuesday for firebombing a church in Chesterland, OH ([link removed]) that had been planning to host two drag events in 2023. Penny had told the FBI “he would have felt better if the Molotov cocktails were more effective and burned the entire church to the ground.” He appeared in court for the sentencing, where he was unrepentant, and instead justified his actions as an attempt to “protect children" ([link removed]) from transgender individuals.


A federal appeals court denied a request from a civil rights group representing Black voters in Arkansas to revisit a ruling that could undermine a key tool of enforcement for the Voting Rights Act ([link removed]) , setting us up for a frightening wait-and-see with the Supreme Court.


The Illinois State Board of Elections ruled that it did not have the authority to decide whether disgraced former president Donald Trump engaged in insurrection ([link removed]) , and he would therefore remain on the state’s ballot.


Elon Musk says his startup Neuralink has implanted a device in its first human patient ([link removed]) . The device is called “Telepathy” and will let people control their phones “just by thinking.” Sounds terrifying in every conceivable way!


UPS plans to cut 12,000 jobs ([link removed]) after their revenues were forecasted to fall short of Wall Street targets.

The Justice Department is investigating Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) for allegedly misusing funds meant for private security for members of Congress ([link removed]) . The scope of the investigation nor the specifics of the allegations have yet been disclosed.

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives may vote on a $78 billion tax package this week, and in the middle of the deal is a rare measure with bipartisan support: expanding the child tax credit ([link removed]) . Expanding the CTC was a pandemic-era policy that cut child by a staggering 35 percent ([link removed]) , and when it was allowed to expire, the percent of American children in poverty quickly shot back to it’s pre-pandemic level. (What a sentence.) The poorest families would see the most significant benefit from the tax credit (which is why we kind of can’t believe any Republicans might go for it) but it’s not as generous as the pandemic-era expansion, and is only projected to cut child poverty by about 5 percent. Research has shown that families use the money they receive from the ETC on food and other
necessities ([link removed]) , not drugs, as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) ([link removed]) and many Republicans were so eager to claim.
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The Democratic Governors Association raised $71.5 million last year ([link removed]) , breaking its previous records for off-year fundraising.


Democrats in the Senate sent a letter to the Biden administration on Tuesday pressuring him to reschedule cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance ([link removed]) . The Department of Health and Human Services formally recommended this change in August.

Today is National Help America Vote Day ([link removed]) ! This day was established by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to encourage people across the U.S. to get involved in the electoral process by signing up to be a poll worker. By encouraging more people to become poll workers in their communities, Help America Vote Day is addressing the critical shortage of poll workers, strengthening our democracy, inspiring greater civic engagement and volunteerism, and helping to ensure free and fair elections this November. Head to powerthepolls.org/votesaveamerica ([link removed]) to sign up!
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