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John:
Good afternoon from Capitol Hill. Happy belated Mother’s Day!
The House and Senate are both in session this week, with Speaker Mike Johnson coming off a fresh motion to vacate vote. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called the vote on Wednesday of last week. As promised, House Democrats made a motion to table (or, kill) the motion. The subsequent vote was on the motion to table – a yea vote was in favor of keeping Johnson as speaker, and a nay vote was against his tenure.
The motion was successfully tabled by a vote of 359 to 43, with Democrats overwhelmingly voting in favor, and 11 Republicans voting against. Speaker Johnson survived by the grace of Democrats, sparking notions of “coalition government.” But as House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told 60 Minutes recently, “even though we’re in the minority, we effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority because we continue to provide a majority of the votes necessary to get things done. Those are just the facts.”
In other news, President Biden has announced he will be halting some shipments of American weapons to Israel – which he justifies because “civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs” – if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
There are clear policy issues with this decision but the political precedent also looms large – didn’t congressional Democrats impeach the last president because he held up congressionally appropriated aid to Ukraine? “Yes, but…” say Democrats. “This time is different.” Right.
The most senior Republican member of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Panel, Sen. Jim Risch, had this to say at a press conference last week:
“We have a situation here where Congress passed funding, the administration allowed these weapons sales, myself and the other three members of Congress who closely look at these sales – and take that obligation seriously – also signed off on it, and now in the heat of battle, this administration is saying ‘we’re gonna pull this back.’ This is unprecedented. It’s going to be watched by our enemies. It’s going to be watched by our allies. And it is not helpful to the national security of the United States . . .
“What is the system the administration has held up? It’s the kits that make the bombs smart bombs and precision bombs instead of dumb bombs. They’re doing exactly the opposite of what they say they’re trying to do. This is simply a nod to their far-left flank. It’s trying to have a foot on each side of the fence, which it can’t do.
“Within two hours of the president’s announcement last night, Hamas said they were withdrawing from negotiations on hostages and on a ceasefire. What the president has done is handed a great victory to Hamas. It’s going to invigorate the fighting that they’re doing in Gaza. And it’s going to stop the negotiations that have been ongoing. This was a horrible mistake."
The Latest From Around The Conservative Movement
One More Thing…
The illegal migration surge is a policy choice, not an accident – and if you need further proof of that, read this full investigation by The Free Press examining the NGOs making billions in profits from facilitating what amounts to human trafficking. Migrants are being brought across the border with federal grants, housed at federal expense, and nonprofits are being paid to give them “pet therapy” and “people-plant interactions” while working with the Unaccompanied Children Program to place minors with unvetted sponsors across the country. The work of America First Legal, run by Stephen Miller, is cited in the The Free Press’ investigation.
Add to this two recent developments: The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office announced that Marvin Perez Lopez, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was arrested on Saturday for kidnapping an 11-year-old girl, throwing her in the back of a van, and raping her. Lopez entered the U.S. through the southern border and applied for asylum; he had a court date for 2027.
And in Congress, which continues to fund all of this, House Democrats unanimously voted to give illegal migrants representation in Congress and the electoral college. Their efforts were narrowly unsuccessful after a bill banning the practice passed the House by four votes. It now awaits consideration in the Democrat-majority Senate.
The border invasion is deliberate and by design. It is funded by your taxpayer dollars, and done in your name.
Sincerely,
Rachel Bovard
Vice President of Programs
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