You Won’t Believe Mike Johnson’s Wild Plan to Avoid a Government Shutdown

Lawmakers had until Friday to do their primary job and coordinate a spending package to continue funding the government and avoid a partial shutdown. But now, that’s next week’s problem.

House leadership have indicated that they plan to vote Thursday on a one-week continuing resolution, and will use next week to vote on a combined five to seven appropriation bills, according to Fox News’s White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.

But have no fear: Despite wasting the better part of nearly six months on in-party bickering, holding foreign aid measures hostage in exchange for a more aggressive border deal, and subsequently nixing that too, at the behest of Donald Trump, Republicans seem incredibly confident that they can get it done on time.

“We are not going to shut the government down,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News reporter Chad Pergram on Wednesday.

“We’re going to keep it moving forward with all the good work of all the committees and everyone who has been engaged with this for weeks will come together in due course,” he continued.

“Is there enough time to get this done?” asked Pergram.

“Yeah. There’s enough time,” Johnson said briskly.

A stopgap bill “would be part of a larger agreement to finish a number of appropriations bills, ensuring adequate time for drafting text and for members to review prior to casting votes,” a spokeswoman for Johnson told The New York Times.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats appeared optimistic at the relative progress, claiming the parties were on the verge of a deal for a budget that was supposed to close in October.

“We continue to make very good progress on an agreement, and we are very close to getting it done,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday morning, following an “intense” three-on-one meeting at the White House in which Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries ganged up on the freshman speaker. Schumer, McConnell, and Jeffries urged Johnson to find some sort of solution to avoid a shutdown.

“I’m hopeful that the four leaders can reach this agreement very soon so we can not only avoid a shutdown on Friday, but get closer to finishing the appropriations process altogether,” he added later.

For all his bravado about his fabulous wealth, Donald Trump clearly doesn’t have the cash to handle his legal comeuppance.

On Wednesday, the former president counter-offered his now $454 million penalty in his New York civil fraud trial, suggesting instead that he could post a $100 million bond until his appeal concludes.

In a nearly 1,800-page court filing, Trump’s attorneys argued that it would be “impossible” to secure a bond covering the full amount of the multimillion-dollar ruling.

“The exorbitant and punitive amount of the Judgment coupled with an unlawful and unconstitutional blanket prohibition on lending transactions would make it impossible to secure and post a complete bond,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, instead suggesting that Trump’s New York real estate could be used as collateral should he lose his appeal.

It’s unclear why Trump—who reportedly holds roughly $600 million in liquid assets—is struggling to pay off his legal debts, especially with all the help from his newly launched sneaker campaign and a fan-funded GoFundMe. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. New York Attorney General Letitia James has said that she would seize some of his assets if he can’t muster the moolah.

“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” James told ABC last week.

Justice Arthur Engoron had originally slapped a $354 million fine on Trump for committing real estate–related fraud in New York, but by last week, that sum had grown to $454.2 million thanks to added interest, which is tacking on an additional $112,000 with each passing day.

The penalty also came with an addendum that Trump cannot serve as an officer or director of a New York company for three years, including his own Trump Organization. His two adult sons were also penalized by the ruling: They’ll have to stay out of New York business for two years. All in all, Trump will owe roughly $354 million for the real estate–related fraud. His two sons will owe $4 million each.

They will also be prevented from obtaining loans from any New York financial institutes for three years.

In a transparent attempt to salvage votes, Alabama Republicans have introduced a bill that would save in vitro fertilization across the state—but only until after the upcoming election.

On Tuesday, the Alabama legislature introduced Senate Bill 159, which would grant third-party fertility clinics immunity from IVF lawsuits. The measure follows a devastating ruling issued by the all-conservative Alabama Supreme Court earlier this month that classified single-celled, fertilized eggs as children, and which effectively stalled IVF access across the state.

The new bill would offer a great solution for a decision that affects roughly one in five married couples—if it weren’t for the fact that a 2025 automatic repeal date is baked into it.

Republicans have been roundly slammed for the restrictive ruling, with critics deriding it as the Handmaid’s Tale–esque outcome of the party’s decades-long crusade on reproductive rights across the country. As a result, the party has been on a tear in an attempt to save its “pro-family” branding.

The Senate Republican campaign arm recently issued a memo urging its political candidates to “clearly and concisely reject efforts by the government to restrict IVF.” But the effort casually glosses over the fact that many GOP lawmakers (including 166 House Republicans) supported the 2021 Life at Conception Act, which sought to recognize fertilized eggs as children at the federal level.

Republicans’ recent promises will be put to the test as early as Wednesday, when Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth will introduce legislation to protect IVF at the federal level.

On Tuesday, Duckworth told NPR’s All Things Considered that she wasn’t happy to see the Republican-led effort to protect IVF in Alabama, claiming the party was only “covering their butts.”

“This is not just about one state and one Republican state politician who wants to try to cover his butt on this,” Duckworth said. “This is about the fact that Republicans across the nation have for decades now worked as hard as they can to give rights to a fertilized egg that are far greater than a living, breathing human being and to take away women’s access to reproductive health care.”

Duckworth’s bill is seeking unanimous consent to pass, calling the method the “fastest way to move forward”—assuming Republicans actually put their money where their mouths are. “And if they truly believe it and support IVF, then they won’t show up to object,” Duckworth said.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Wednesday that he is stepping down as GOP leader this November. The Kentucky Republican is the longest-serving Senate leader, and has served in Republican Senate leadership for nearly two decades.

McConnell, who is now 82 years old, will be leaving the post after a series of episodes last year where he seemed to freeze and shut down entirely in front of the press. The news comes as a wave of longtime members of Congress (especially Republicans) are also announcing their retirements, many of them exhausted by the infighting in recent years. McConnell will serve the remainder of his Senate term, which ends in 2027.

“I think back to my first days in the Senate with deep appreciation for the time that helped shape my view of the world,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “I’m unconflicted about the good within our country and the irreplaceable role we play as the leader of the free world.”

“Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time. I have many faults. Misunderstanding politics is not one of them.”

“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” McConnell concluded. “So I stand before you today...to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. However, I’ll complete my job my colleagues have given me until we select a new leader in November and they take the helm next January.”

Republican senators were shocked by McConnell’s announcement, reportedly not having been informed of his resignation beforehand.

As Senate leader, McConnell had two main objectives in the role. First, he wanted to completely block campaign finance reform. Second, he wanted to stack the courts with conservative reactionaries.

McConnell’s main goal as Senate leader seemed to be to encourage more money in politics, welcoming the role of corporate America in U.S. democracy. It’s impossible to go through the full history of how he has blocked campaign finance reform efforts over his nearly 20 years in leadership, but he has opposed any real change at virtually every turn.

A big reason for his decades-long fight with former Senator John McCain, for example, was over McCain’s signature campaign finance law.

In 2002, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, commonly known as the McCain-Feingold Act, aimed to limit the role of “soft money” in political campaigns as well as the political advertising of corporations and nonprofit organizations in elections. Almost immediately after it became law, McConnnell took the law to court, challenging its constitutionality. By 2010, the Supreme Court weighed in with Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, overturning key aspects of the law and effectively freeing corporations to spend money directly advocating for the election or defeat of specific candidates.

This was a recurring theme for McConnell during his leadership. More recently, in 2021, he helped kill Democrats’ sweeping voting rights and election overhaul bill, which would have required additional disclosures on funding and stiffened campaign law enforcement. McConnell at the time called the bill, which would have also expanded voter registration and vote by mail options, “jaw-droppingly audacious.”

On the courts, McConnell was just as cruel in his leadership.

He single-handedly held up the appointment of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court during President Barack Obama’s tenure—arguing that the president couldn’t appoint a Supreme Court justice in an election year. But when it came to President Donald Trump’s term, McConnell suddenly sang a very different tune.

He helped Trump appoint three Supreme Court justices, including Amy Coney Barrett in 2020. That Supreme Court, of course, overturned Roe v. Wade and repealed the right to abortion just two years later.

And it wasn’t only the Supreme Court. McConnell helped Trump completely reshape our judiciary, allowing Trump to appoint 54 appeals court judges during his 4-year tenure. For comparison, President Barack Obama appointed only 55 appeals court judges over his eight years in the White House. The court of appeals, it’s critical to note, handles tens of thousands of cases annually and is reshaping laws in ways that don’t get nearly as much attention as what the Supreme Court is doing.

All this to say, McConnell did nothing good for this country as Senate leader. He used his position in power to help only himself and his party.

This story has been updated.

House Oversight Chair James Comer is finally laying down his cards. Republicans’ Biden corruption impeachment crusade is over, at least for now.

“I am ready to try to begin to close this investigation,” Comer told reporters in the Capitol Wednesday. “This has been a very difficult investigation. This administration has been very obstructive. They haven’t been cooperative, [feels] like we are having to battle the Department of Justice and the FBI on a daily basis to get basic information.”

“Many of our witnesses that we brought in would be what I consider hostile witnesses, but at the end of the day I think with every interview we’ve learned new information and the basis of what we’ve learned is that the Bidens didn’t have a legitimate business,” he said.

It’s an amazing and last-minute reversal by one of the main House Republicans spearheading the entire Biden impeachment quest. In fact, embattled first son Hunter Biden testified in a closed-door hearing on Wednesday as part of the GOP’s investigation. But what should have been a major win for Republicans instead was accompanied by Comer’s admission of loss.

The sign of defeat comes as two major developments have essentially doomed Republicans’ impeachment efforts.

First, earlier this month, Republicans lost their key witness, Alexander Smirnov, who made up the very foundation of the GOP’s corruption claims about the president. Republicans had for months pointed to an FBI informant who in 2020 reported that President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden received $5 million each in bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch, thanks to Hunter Biden’s businesses. That claim, while unverified by the FBI, was the main piece of evidence Republicans pointed to in their impeachment quest. Republicans last year went so far as to publicly release the FBI’s report, over the agency’s objections.

But two weeks ago, Smirnov was indicted for lying to the FBI and essentially making up the whole thing. As if that wasn’t bad enough, upon arrest, the Justice Department reported that Smirnov confessed to law enforcement that the story actually came from Russian intelligence officers.

Republicans have been desperate to pretend that losing Smirnov wasn’t a big issue, but Comer’s admission on Wednesday seals the deal.

The other big problem, which Comer surely realizes, is that Republicans now have an even narrower majority in the House. Representative-elect Tom Suozzi will be sworn in on Wednesday, taking over George Santos’s House seat. House Republicans will soon hold a majority of just 219–213, with three vacancies in the chamber. As a reminder, they rushed through the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas with just one vote, hours before Suozzi was elected.

The numbers are no longer in Republicans’ favor, and the evidence definitely isn’t, either. Finally, Comer is waking up to that reality.

Republican Representative Lauren Boebert accused President Joe Biden of running a “crime family”—while just a couple hours before, her 18-year-old son was arrested in connection with a crime wave in Colorado.

Tyler Jay Boebert is facing 22 charges over “a recent string of vehicle trespass and property thefts” in Rifle, a town in Colorado’s 3rd congressional district, which his mom currently represents, said police.

The teen faces “four felony counts of Criminal Possession ID Documents—Multiple Victims, one felony count of Conspiracy to Commit a Felony, and over 15 additional misdemeanor and petty offenses,” according to the Rifle Police Department.

On the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office website Wednesday morning, Tyler Boebert was listed as a current inmate at Garfield County Jail.

To be clear, the criminal justice system in this country is not a joke—and neither is dragging politicians’ family members (let alone teenage kids) into the news cycle. But the irony is a bit startling given Representative Boebert’s own post on crime families Tuesday afternoon.

According to the Rifle Police Department, Tyler Boebert was arrested at around 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday. At 4:35 p.m., his mom took to social media to warn about the “Biden crime family.”

House Republicans including Lauren Boebert have been leading a fruitless crusade to impeach President Joe Biden while exposing his family’s corruption. But so far, their efforts have revealed no real evidence.

Just this month, their star witness, Alexander Smirnov, was indicted for lying to the FBI about claims that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden both received bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch. According to the Justice Department, upon arrest, Smironv admitted to law enforcement that the story came from Russian intelligence offices.

You know Republicans are in troubled waters when even Fox News has abandoned ship.

On Tuesday, a Fox host highlighted that Hunter Biden’s closed-door deposition would prove a critical juncture for a monthslong probe that has amounted to, basically, nothing.

“So this is coming at a critical moment for the Republicans’ impeachment inquiry,” said Steve Doocy on Fox & Friends. “And on Capitol Hill, a lot of Republican lawmakers say they have seen zero evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. And right now, the Republicans do not have enough votes to impeach. And after dozens of interviews and over 100,000 documents released to the committees, the Republicans have yet to produce any direct evidence of misconduct by Joe Biden.”

But the other anchors behind the desk couldn’t quite leave it at that. Instead, they offered their own spin on a probe that recently crumbled after its key witness, FBI informant Alexander Smirnov—whose self-admitted lies served as the primary foundation for claims that Biden pocketed millions in bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch—was indicted by the Department of Justice for making it all up with the help of top Russian intelligence officials.

“But man, this looks absolutely terrible, 150 suspicious activity reports around them,” Brian Kilmeade objected. “Joe Biden was in on meetings with every major deal regarding Hunter Biden. He said my dad is sitting next to me while talking to a Chinese CFC official.”

That led to a bit of sparring between the two, with Doocy doubling down that Republicans had come up with nothing—and yet again on the eve of a looming government shutdown.

“I think there are many lawmakers who say they’ve seen zero evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors,” Doocy repeated.

“But we just said that they have,” Kilmeade replied.

“But they’ve … to impeach somebody you need direct evidence of misconduct by Joe Biden,” Doocy said, flustered. “Look, Hunter Biden, it sure looks like he traded on his name and he’s going to have plenty of time today—”

Kilmeade then interjected, adding that “the role his dad played is key.”

“Some Republicans say they’ve got the goods on Hunter Biden and Joe Biden. But a number of Republicans who I’ve spoken to on Capitol Hill say there’s no direct evidence of misconduct by the current president,” Doocy continued.

Even before the president’s son, once the GOP’s most sought-after witness, took the stand on Wednesday morning, House Republicans were already hyping their next witness, special counsel Robert Hur. His invitation—just weeks after Hur issued a damning report on Biden’s health—could prove to add yet another dimension to the seemingly endless impeachment probe.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper tried to cut off a guest panelist speaking about Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, during a segment on the number of  “uncommitted” votes in Michigan’s presidential primary.

Former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner was reacting to the early results Tuesday evening, which had already revealed a high number of votes for “uncommitted,” thanks to a protest campaign over President Biden’s horrific backing of Israel’s war on Gaza.

“I am young enough to remember, colleagues, when Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and also Congresswoman Cori Bush called for a cease-fire very early on, they were called abhorrent,” said Turner, who’s been a vocal supporter of the “uncommitted” vote protest campaign. “And now fast-forward to all of these bodies laying in the wake, and people are living through this every single day.”

“By the way, there’s also been slaughter in Israel,” Cooper interrupted, as other panelists also tried to jump in. 

“So there’s a lot of pain on both sides,” Cooper continued, questioning why Turner was giving a “lecture on the problem.”

“I’m talking about the politics of this tonight,” he stated. “What, to you, would be a victory, as someone who was calling for this ‘uncommitted’ vote?”

“I’m not denying that pain,” Turner responded. “All I’m saying is that at a certain point after October 7, it becomes clear. I mean, you have a right-wing prime minister.” 

“Right. We don’t need to debate the issue,” Cooper interrupted again.

The whole exchange is mind-boggling and worth watching in full to see just how much Cooper and other CNN panelists seem to be missing the point.

More than 100,000 Democratic voters in Michigan’s primary election Tuesday chose to show up to the polls and check the “uncommitted” box rather than vote for Biden. That’s about 13 percent of voters, or one in seven people.

The reason for that protest vote is clear: Organizers of the “Listen to Michigan” and “Abandon Biden” campaigns spent weeks reaching out to Democratic voters, urging them to make their voice known—and help send a wake-up call to Biden on his support for Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.

So despite what Cooper said Tuesday evening, it is actually critical to talk about Gaza in any analysis of Michigan’s results. Talking about Israel’s bombing of Gaza—and how Biden is backing that bombing—is the actual politics of the issue.

“I think sometimes as we’re talking about this issue, we are centering President Biden, we are centering former President Donald Trump, when the ‘uncommitted’ effort is the center, the people closest to the pain, and that is the Arab American community, that is the Palestinian community, that is communities that care about peace,” Turner said on CNN Tuesday evening.

“And so while this president was in the ice cream shop saying, ‘I think there’s going to be a ceasefire,’ 30,000 people have been slaughtered. People are living in famine. They can’t get medical care. So it can’t come soon enough for them, and that was really the weight that I picked up on when I was in Dearborn, [Michigan].”

Republican Representative Darryl Issa offered a strange prediction ahead of Hunter Biden’s testimony on Wednesday, leaving room for the possibility that a statement from the president’s son could basically crumble the investigation.

“Thanks for covering what might be a big nothing, or an incredible opportunity to get to the bottom of this very complex scheme that the Bidens worked out for a decade,” Issa said on Fox Business.

It’s a bout of unexpected waffling from the California Republican, who has been a vocal ally of former President Donald Trump since 2016. Issa has gone to bat on several conspiracies that were predicted to help Trump, including the 2020 election interference campaign.

The closed-door testimony will be the first time that the junior Biden yields to Republican insistence on a private meeting. In December, Hunter Biden made a splashy show by refusing to participate in a closed-door hearing, making a rare public statement just steps away from the U.S. Capitol and risking a contempt of Congress charge in the process.

Republicans are expected to press Biden on his father’s alleged involvement in his overseas business dealings and the contents of his infamous laptop—which, by the way, was never verified by the FBI.

Regardless of the apparently baseless allegations that President Joe Biden was tied to his son’s foreign business arrangements, appearing before the committee is a risky move for Hunter Biden, who is already under federal indictment for related tax crimes. Anything he says on the stand could potentially be used against him during his criminal trial.

Earlier this month, Republicans’ star witness Alexander Smirnov—an FBI informant who claimed Biden had pocketed millions of dollars from a Ukrainian oligarch—was indicted by the Department of Justice for lying to the FBI. Since then, Smirnov has admitted to law enforcement that top Russian intelligence officials were involved in cooking up the smear campaign against the sitting president and his son.

In a sane and rational world, you’d imagine that Hunter Biden’s appearance (which Republicans have purportedly been trying to secure for months) would be the pinnacle of their impeachment inquiry into his father. But instead, House Oversight Chair James Comer and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan have opted to hype another, forthcoming interview with special counsel Robert Hur. His invitation—just weeks after Hur issued a damning report on Biden’s health—could prove to add yet another dimension to the seemingly endless impeachment probe.

Meanwhile, Republicans are using the opportunity to stall yet again on a government funding package, this time with a pressing deadline set for Friday.

The Michigan primary results are in—and the number of “uncommitted” Democratic votes is astounding.

As of Wednesday morning, more than 100,000 Democratic voters chose to check the “uncommitted” box rather than back Joe Biden in his reelection campaign, according to the Associated Press. That’s about 13 percent of people—or one in every seven—who voted “uncommitted,” thanks in large part to a protest campaign urging the president to reverse course over his reckless support for Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza. Biden won the primary with only about 80 percent of the vote.

That 100,000 “uncommitted” number is a much bigger deal than it seems. Organizers of the “Listen to Michigan” and “Abandon Biden” campaigns had set a goal of just 10,000 voters—and they flew far past those expectations.

Uncommitted vote campaign organizers spent weeks reaching out to Democratic voters, urging them to make their voice known—and help send a wake-up call to Biden on his horrific support for Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.

The number of “uncommitted” votes is also concerning if you recall what the 2020 election looked like. Biden won the state of Michigan by a mere 154,000 votes, a much narrower margin than most polls and pundits at the time had predicted. That margin is only about half of the number of people in Michigan who listed Middle Eastern or North African ancestry in the 2020 census. About 146,000 Muslim Americans voted in Michigan’s 2020 general election, according to an analysis by the Muslim advocacy group Emgage, nearly Biden’s entire margin of victory.

These aren’t just random numbers. Polling indicates that a majority of Muslim and Middle Eastern Americans backed Biden in 2020. The Associated Press reported that 64 percent of Muslims across the country supported Biden in 2020, while only 35 percent supported Trump. And in heavily Arab American counties in Michigan, voters backed Biden by nearly 70 percent.

All of this was a safe assumption in 2020, given that the race was between Biden and the guy who pushed the Muslim ban, which targeted several Middle Eastern countries. But by November 2024, that may be no longer enough.

“The overwhelming shift of voters away from Biden makes one thing clear to the Biden administration: complicity in genocide isn’t up for debate,” the Abandon Biden campaign said in a statement Tuesday. “And if Michigan’s message says anything, it is that what awaits Biden in November isn’t victory but loss. And what awaits the Democratic Party is irrelevance.”

Many Arab and Muslim activists from Michigan speculated that the large uncommitted vote means that it’s not even just Middle Eastern or Muslim Americans who are concerned about Biden’s policies in Gaza.

“The uncommitted results are showing that this isn’t just Arabs and Palestinians. This is an issue for all Democrats in [Michigan],” Abed Ayoub, the national executive director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, warned Tuesday evening. “We’ve been saying this for months, but the experts and paid consultants tried their best to refute this point.”

Michigan Representative Debbie Dingell, who before the Michigan primary tried to warn that Trump would be much worse than Biden and “nuke” Gaza completely, had another dire warning after the results came in.

“We’ve watched too many innocent people die there. Gaza is in terrible shape,” Dingell said on CNN Tuesday evening. “But I think [Biden] does need to sit down with this community when feelings are quite so raw.”

Dingell also warned that it’s not just Arab Americans responsible for the protest vote. “It’s young people,” she said. “They are watching innocent civilians being killed.”

For nearly five months, Biden has ignored a huge swath of Americans worried about Israel’s relentless bombing turned ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza. He has downplayed the death toll in Gaza, studiously avoided using the word “cease-fire,” overseen the vetoing of multiple U.N. resolutions calling for a cease-fire, and bypassed Congress twice to deliver more than $250 million in military aid to Israel. The Biden administration keeps saying it’s doing something behind the scenes to stop these atrocities—but as Michigan’s primary results show, far too many Americans no longer believe him.