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Santos claims 'witch-hunt' after facing fraud charges in New York court video George Santos

New York representative is subject of a privileged resolution, which would need two-thirds support to succeed

Democrats moved on Tuesday to expel George Santos from Congress.

The New York Republican won election in November last year but his rsum has been shown to be largely made up and his campaign finances and past behaviour, some allegedly criminal, have been scrutinised in tremendous detail.

Last week, federal prosecutors indicted Santos on multiple counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and lying to Congress. Appearing in court on Long Island, he pleaded not guilty and claimed to be the victim of a political witch hunt.

Now, House Democrats have triggered a political manoeuvre designed to force Republicans to either break with Santos or publicly vote to defend him.

To succeed, a privileged resolution introduced by Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, must attract two-thirds support in the House. The resolution could come to a vote within two days.

On Tuesday, Garcia told reporters: The Republicans in the House are actually going to have to go on record and make a decision about if theyre actually going to stand for truth and accountability, or if theyre going to stand with someone thats clearly a liar.

Some Republicans have said Santos should quit but as yet party leaders have not broken with him, saying he has a right to seek acquittal while representing his district.

Republicans control the House by just five seats and Democrats would be favoured to win Santoss seat should it fall vacant. In January, amid a far-right rebellion, Santos supported Kevin McCarthy through 15 votes for speaker.

Garcia also said Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic minority leader, was involved in the process.

McCarthy told reporters he would talk to Jeffries about referring the resolution to the House ethics committee, which he hoped would move rapidly despite rarely doing so or imposing heavy punishments.

Only five members of the House have ever been expelled. Three were kicked out for fighting for the Confederacy in the civil war. Two were expelled after being convicted of crimes.

The last, James Traficant of Ohio, was expelled in 2002. Like Santos, Traficant cut a somewhat picaresque path through the halls of power.

Reporting his death in 2014, the New York Times said Traficant was known for his colorful personality and wardrobe, his legislative theatrics and his wild mop of hair.

So it was something of a surprise when the hair turned out to be fake, a fact that was made clear when he had to remove his toupe during booking after his arrest on bribery and racketeering charges.

Traficant did not let his expulsion stop him running for re-election, as an independent and from federal custody in Pennsylvania. Though unsuccessful, he received more than 28,000 votes.

Santos has announced a run for re-election. McCarthy has said he does not support such a move.

On Tuesday, Garcia told MSNBC McCarthy had lost all control of his caucus. He needs Santos for key votes on the on the deficit, on the budget, and so hes been working with literally a liar and a huge fraudster in the Congress.

So now McCarthys going to actually have to make a choice, if he will support George Santos or if hes actually going to listen to the American people.

And so were gonna continue to push this as best possible. We think its absolutely the right approach. And weve given plenty of time to George Santos to resign. Weve been calling for his resignation for months and for months. Its time for him to do the right thing.

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George Santos: Democrats move to expel indicted Republican from Congress - The Guardian US

Opinion: If Rachel Mitchell had embraced the MAGA line, she would have lost. And the outcome for two Phoenix police officers would likely be far different.

Arizona Republicans should pay heed to what happened this week at the Maricopa County Attorneys Office.

Rachel Mitchell, the Republican elected to the job in 2022, announced she would not prosecute two Phoenix police officers who shot and killed a man who was hurling rocks at a patrol car and later at them.

Mitchell was in charge of the case because she did not run for office as a MAGA Republican.

She did not kiss the Trump ring. She did not climb into the Stop-the-Steal barrel and ride it over Fantasy Falls to crushing defeat, as did so many other Arizona Republicans.

No, she ran as a traditional Republican. And she won.

Consequently, Mitchell was not standing on the sidelines nursing her wounds and playing the victim this week to phantom schemes of election theft.

She was standing in the breach as protesters and an attorney pressing a wrongful-death claim demanded two officers be fired and hauled to prison for shooting and killing Ali Osman.

The 34-year-old Osman was not just tossing rocks on Sept. 24 near 19th and Glendale avenues. He was whipping them at full strength and at close range at lawmen.

It may be news to some people, but it is not news to cops that a hurled rock can kill them.

For you Republicans out there still enamored of Donald Trump, still willing to risk a fourth election cycle of Republican defeat to make him and other MAGA candidates the partys nominees in the 2024 general election, its time to consider the counterfactual.

What if Rachel Mitchell had lost?

What if she had campaigned in the red ball cap, as did Kari Lake and Abe Hamedeh and Blake Masters and Mark Finchem you know, the losers?

Heres what:

Julie Gunnigle, an attorney funded and groomed in the likeness of soft-on-crime, tough-on-cops Democratic prosecutors, would be your county attorney today.

Gunnigle was going to be the next George Gascn, who as Los Angeles district attorney is notorious for his gentle treatment of violent offenders.

She was going to be the next Chesa Boudin, the San Francisco DA who proved so felon-friendly that even the left-wing Bay Area could no longer abide him.

Gunnigle wore her contempt for cops like an imperial plume, flirting with defund-the-cop schemes and planning tribunals to investigate them.

Had Gunnigle won the county attorney job, there is high likelihood those two police officers would be facing a bleak future.

The Gunnigle who ran for office would likely have sympathized with the lawyer demanding $85 million for Osmans death and asserting that it is another disturbing example of the extreme indifference to human life continually demonstrated by the [Phoenix Police Department] and its officers."

On Wednesday, Mitchell stood her ground and said it was the rock-hurling Osman, in fact, who had shown extreme indifference to human life.

The rocks Osman was throwing posed a serious threat to every motorist and pedestrian in that area, Mitchell said.

Osman had a rock in his hand, ready to throw it directly at the officer when the officer made the decision to shoot. And that decision was a reasonable one based on the force that Mr. Osman had used against them and was continuing to use.

The left doesnt want to hear this, but police officers have to make split-second decisions that can determine whether they live or die or spend their next decades in prison.

Because they have the extraordinary powers to take people into custody or to take life in extreme circumstances, they face enormous scrutiny.

For Mitchell and Gunnigle: 'Who won in 2020?' is a trick question

We dont expect doctors and lawyers and teachers to wear body cameras. We expect that of cops.

On the flip side, because the personal risk police take on is enormous, we have created laws that ensure we dont crush every police officer who acts in good faith in incidents that turn tragic.

So Mitchell explained, The law does not require a person using deadly physical force to prove their conduct was justified. Rather, the law requires the state to prove the persons conduct was not justified under the law beyond a reasonable doubt.

Under Arizona law, the officers decision to shoot was justified, she said.

All across the United States, the American left has worked to demoralize and marginalize police officers. They have broad-brushed them as brutes and made their jobs a living hell.

Yes, it is good and right to call out police brutality when it happens. But it is wrong to stereotype a million American cops as rogues.

Democrats have elected district attorneys who despise police officers and coddle criminals. They want to bleed the nations police departments of resources as they stigmatize the men and women in uniform.

As a result, police work has become the dregs.

Officers are retiring early and few young people want to become cops. Police recruiting across the nation and in Phoenix is way down.

Criminals are turning department stores and pharmacies in our major cities into turnstiles for shoplifters. Big cities have stripped police officers of the authority to clean up loitering and vagrancy and are making Los Angeles and Portland and San Francisco and Seattle look like sprawling skid rows.

Last week, comedian Dave Chappelle took one good look at San Francisco and asked his audience there, What the f--- happened to this place?

Yall ... need a Batman!

In Maricopa County, we have a county attorney with the guts to defend police officers when the facts support them.

She is there because in 2022 she wasnt just another MAGA sheep headed to the slaughter. She won her election.

And when she won, so did we.

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist. He can be reached at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.

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Conservatives are lucky the Maricopa County attorney did not run as ... - The Arizona Republic

Standing together Friday inside the Republican Party of Kentucky's headquarters in Frankfort, the message from the GOP's six candidates for statewide office was clear."We are going to win as a united team," said Daniel Cameron, the victor of Tuesday's Republican gubernatorial primary. "I can't tell you how excited I am about this slate of candidates that are behind me. We are going to make sure we maintain these statewide offices in Republican hands, and we're going to reclaim the governor's office."It's a message these candidates, as well as other Republican leaders, will likely repeat over and over again between now and Nov. 7.In order for Cameron to beat Democratic incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear, he and the state GOP will need to get their registered voters not only to turn out in a big way but to vote straight-ticket Republican.We've seen what happened before, when some GOP voters opted for a Democrat instead. In 2019, former Gov. Matt Bevin lost to Beshear by a narrow margin of only 5,136 votes. There were six statewide constitutional offices on the ballot that year in all. But while all the other Republican candidates garnered between 750,000-850,000 votes, Bevin only pulled in 704,754 votes. There's been a lot of speculation about why Bevin fared so poorly in 2019, from his prickly personality to his battles with Kentucky's teachers over their pensions. Perhaps Beshear was simply the better candidate.Either way, Republicans want to see more uniform results this year. "Each of us has consensus support within our party, and that augers well for us in November because it suggests we're going to have a united base voting for us on a straight ticket," Michael Adams, who is running for reelection as secretary of state, said. "The last couple of these elections, the Republican base voting straight ticket was about 48 to 49 percent of the vote. That's where we start."

Standing together Friday inside the Republican Party of Kentucky's headquarters in Frankfort, the message from the GOP's six candidates for statewide office was clear.

"We are going to win as a united team," said Daniel Cameron, the victor of Tuesday's Republican gubernatorial primary. "I can't tell you how excited I am about this slate of candidates that are behind me. We are going to make sure we maintain these statewide offices in Republican hands, and we're going to reclaim the governor's office."

It's a message these candidates, as well as other Republican leaders, will likely repeat over and over again between now and Nov. 7.

In order for Cameron to beat Democratic incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear, he and the state GOP will need to get their registered voters not only to turn out in a big way but to vote straight-ticket Republican.

We've seen what happened before, when some GOP voters opted for a Democrat instead.

In 2019, former Gov. Matt Bevin lost to Beshear by a narrow margin of only 5,136 votes.

There were six statewide constitutional offices on the ballot that year in all. But while all the other Republican candidates garnered between 750,000-850,000 votes, Bevin only pulled in 704,754 votes.

There's been a lot of speculation about why Bevin fared so poorly in 2019, from his prickly personality to his battles with Kentucky's teachers over their pensions. Perhaps Beshear was simply the better candidate.

Either way, Republicans want to see more uniform results this year.

"Each of us has consensus support within our party, and that augers well for us in November because it suggests we're going to have a united base voting for us on a straight ticket," Michael Adams, who is running for reelection as secretary of state, said. "The last couple of these elections, the Republican base voting straight ticket was about 48 to 49 percent of the vote. That's where we start."

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Republican candidates present united front in bid to unseat Gov. Beshear - WLKY Louisville

California

California representative targeted after the release of the Durham report, which investigated FBI inquiry into Trump and Russia

Adam Schiff said he was not backing down, after a Republican from Florida filed a motion to expel the California representative from Congress.

Referring to the failure the same day of a motion to expel George Santos, the New York fabulist indicted on multiple criminal counts, Schiff said: When Democrats do something for the right reason, [Republicans] use the precedent to do something for the wrong reason.

Ana Paulina Luna moved against Schiff after the release of the Durham report, which Republicans claim shows the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Donald Trump and Moscow was a conspiracy between Democrats and the FBI.

Schiff was House intelligence chair and led Trumps first impeachment, for seeking political dirt in Ukraine. He published a book about the Russia investigation and is now running for Senate.

Luna said Schiff lied to the American people. He used his position on House intelligence to push a lie that cost American taxpayers millions of dollars and abused the trust placed in him as chairman. He is a dishonour to the House of Representatives.

The Durham report makes clear that the Russian collusion was a lie from day one and Schiff knowingly used his position in an attempt to divide our country.

John Durham was appointed to investigate the FBI inquiry, which led to the appointment of the special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller did not establish collusion between Trump and Moscow but did secure criminal convictions and lay out evidence of potential obstruction of justice.

Schiff said: When Republicans lacked the courage to stand up to the most unethical president in history, they consoled themselves by attacking those who did. Im not backing down.

Speaking to MSNBC, he added: The Durham investigation was an investigation Donald Trump demanded, investigating the investigators.

Durham, he said, spent four years trying to prove this deep state conspiracy theory that Trump kept telling his base was going to be proven The whole thing of course, was a big bust.

And so their response is, Lets go after Adam Schiff. Lets go back to the person they most view as standing up for the rule of law, standing up against Trump, leading the first impeachment, participating in the January 6 committee. Thats what this is about.

Republicans have removed Schiff and another California Democrat, Eric Swalwell, from the intelligence committee.

Only five members of the House have ever been expelled, three for fighting for the Confederacy in the US civil war. The other two were convicted criminals. Expulsions require two-thirds majorities. Lunas resolution is likely to fail.

Schiff said: When Democrats do something for the right reason, [Republicans] use the precedent to do something for the wrong reason.

This serial fabricator George Santos, this person whos just been indicted, whos admitted guilt to a foreign crime, to distract attention from that in the wake of the added disappointment of the Durham report, lets go after Adam Schiff, lets please the Maga crowd and send a message to anyone else that stands up to Donald Trump.

Luna has experienced controversy of her own. In February, the Washington Post reported that she swapped liberal positions and claims to be Middle Eastern, Jewish or eastern European for a Hispanic identity and Trumpist beliefs.

Lunas sharp turn to the right, the paper said, her account of an isolated and impoverished childhood, and her embrace of her Hispanic heritage have come as a surprise to some friends and family who knew her before her ascent to the US House.

Luna called the report racist.

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Schiff not backing down in face of Republican bid to expel him from Congress - The Guardian US

By Scott Bauer and Todd Richmond, AP

MADISON, Wis. (AP) Wisconsin Republicans voted May 18 to put $125 million aside to combat pollution from so-called forever chemicals, but delayed a decision on how exactly to spend the money.

The influx of money to deal with PFAS pollution comes after Republicans for years have declined to spend as much on water pollution as Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has called for. But the Republican spending in the budget would exceed the $107 million that Evers proposed to spend on additional statewide water testing, investigation, mitigation, new positions and grants.

Allocating money to fight PFAS, while eliminating testing for it and new positions to work on the pollution, doesnt make a bit of damn sense, Democratic Sen. LaTonya Johnson of Milwaukee said.

Republicans heralded the $125 million, calling it a historic investment in the fight against PFAS pollution.

The Legislature is taking this problem very seriously, committee co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein said.

There will be follow-up legislation to spell out how the money will be spent, said Rep. Mark Born, co-chair of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee.

We need to give ourselves time to find the right solutions, Republican Sen. Eric Wimberger of Green Bay said at a news conference.

Johnson called the funding pretty significant, but said more should have been done sooner.

We dont get to sit here and act like were doing the Lords work when our constituents and their children are being harmed every single day, she said. We should be ashamed that we did not address these issues earlier.

Democrats also faulted Republicans for not specifying what the $125 million should be spent on, saying they feared it would sit unused or at least delay action.

Meanwhile, our communities continue to struggle with this significant problem, Democratic Sen. Kelda Roys of Madison said.

The committee approved the spending with all Republicans in support and Democrats opposed. The committee is working to crate the two-year spending plan, which must next be approved by the Senate and Assembly and then signed by Evers.

The committee is expected to complete its work in June. The budget takes effect in July.

Democrats, including Evers, have called for enacting tough standards about acceptable levels of PFAS in the water, moves that have met resistance from Republicans and the states business community.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are man-made chemicals that dont easily break down in nature. Theyre found in a wide range of products, including cookware, firefighting foam and stain-resistant clothing. The chemicals have been linked to health problems including low birth weight, cancer and liver disease, and have been shown to make vaccines less effective.

Municipalities across Wisconsin are struggling with PFAS contamination in their groundwater, including Marinette, Madison, Wausau and the town of Campbell on French Island. The waters of Green Bay also are contaminated. The state Department of Natural Resources has issued an advisory warning people to limit their consumption of fish from the bay of Green Bay as well as from portions of the Peshtigo, Oconto and Menominee rivers due to PFAS contamination.

Republicans have passed bills in recent years restricting the use of firefighting foam that contains PFAS, but have resisted doing anything more substantial amid concerns from industry and wastewater treatment operators that clean-up and filtration efforts and new well construction would cost tens of millions of dollars.

The Evers administration adopted regulations in 2022 establishing limits on PFAS in surface and drinking water. Conservatives on the Department of Natural Resources policy board blocked a proposal to limit the chemicals in well water, however.

Evers administration has since relaunched an attempt to write standards for PFAS in well water. The governors budget lays out a multipronged approach for dealing with the chemicals as well.

Republicans previously stripped language from Evers budget that called for restricting PFAS levels in state waters and air and requiring the DNR to create rules on how to determine financial liability for PFAS contamination.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul sued about 20 companies in 2022 alleging their products contaminated the environment with PFAS. Those cases are still pending.

Excerpt from:
Republican budget-writers approve $125 million to fight PFAS but ... - PBS Wisconsin