Republican Senator Glitches After Hearing Answer to His Own Question

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday on Trump’s mass deportation plans, Republican Senator John Kennedy, as is his wont, pestered a witness with questions he didn’t care to hear answers to.

The hearing, titled “How Mass Deportations Will Separate American Families, Harm Our Armed Forces, and Devastate Our Economy,” focused on the damaging effects of Trump’s proposed immigration agenda. But in one bizarre line of questioning, Kennedy asked the same question over and over again while pretending not to hear the answer.

Witness Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, testified that a mass deportation campaign could cost as much as $1 trillion and lead to a loss in total gross domestic product of 4.2 to 6.8 percent.

Louisiana’s John Kennedy was evidently more concerned with a November 2022 tweet in which Reichlin-Melnick criticized Texas and Louisiana for taking legal action against the Department of Homeland Security “for NOT expelling Haitian migrants to Haiti under Title 42,” when, in reality, he wrote, Title 42 expulsions were down “because Haitians stopped crossing illegally!”

“Both Texas and Louisiana have their knives out for Black immigrants,” Reichlin-Melnick posted at the time. “Once Haitians stopped crossing irregularly, it’s so telling that the plaintiffs once again demand that a federal court wield Title 42 against Haitians to stop them from entering at ports of entry too.”

Kennedy, apparently offended by the criticism from over two years ago, asked whether Reichlin-Melnick remembered the tweet. The witness said he did not recall the exact context.

“Who in Texas had their ‘knives out’ for Black immigrants?” Kennedy asked nonetheless, and Reichlin-Melnick began to respond before he was interrupted by Kennedy, who ordered, “Give me a name.”

As Kennedy spoke over him—intoning, “Give me a name. Give me a name. Give me a name”—Reichlin-Melnick answered that he was likely referring to the states’ attorneys general, mentioning Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton by name.

“Give me a name,” Kennedy continued.

“I just did,” said Reichlin-Melnick.

“You don’t have a name, do you?” asked Kennedy.

“I just said Ken Paxton,” replied Reichlin-Melnick.

“You don’t have a name, do you?” asked Kennedy, again.

“I just said Ken Paxton,” repeated Reichlin-Melnick.

This is not the first time Kennedy has malfunctioned, as progressive outlet Heartland Signal put it, while badgering a congressional witness. In September, while grandstanding during a hearing on hate crimes against Arab and Jewish Americans, the senator accused Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, of supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. Kennedy spoke over Berry’s repeated denials, making headlines for telling her she should “hide [her] head in a bag.”

One of Donald Trump’s former lawyers, Kenneth Chesebro, is in further trouble for taking part in a fake electors plot to overturn the 2020 election.

Wisconsin has filed 10 new felony charges against Chesebro, fellow Trump lawyer James Troupis, and Michael Roman, head of Trump’s 2020 Election Day operations, for their role in trying to overturn the presidential election results in the state. The charges include 10 counts of forgery, for the 10 fake electors they duped.

In June 2024, all three were charged with forgery for attempting to send fake certified elector documents—which falsely claimed Wisconsin and Michigan electors chose Trump—to Washington, D.C., ahead of 2020’s presidential electoral certification process. Tuesday’s charges come from interviews with fake electors who say that they were duped by the trio.

According to the charging documents, the fake electors were told that what they were doing was legal, with historical precedent from John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon’s election in Hawaii. None of them believed that their signatures were going to be submitted to the president of the Senate during election certification on January 6, 2021, and they did not give their consent for that, either.

Chesebro is cooperating with the state of Wisconsin but is still facing charges elsewhere. He’s a co-conspirator in Georgia’s fake elector case, where he has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the state. He’s also facing charges for fake elector shenanigans and cooperating with the state in Michigan. Since all of these cases are at the state level, Chesebro can’t be pardoned by Trump and ultimately, if he’s found guilty, could go to prison.

House Republicans are planning to have their annual retreat at President-elect Donald Trump’s golf resort Doral, Florida, Punchbowl News reported Tuesday.

This kind of corruption is nothing new for Republicans.

The Republican National Committee held several meetings at Trump National Doral in early 2020, and the first GOP meeting was held there in 2018, raking in a whopping $630,000 for Trump’s resort, The Washington Post reported at the time. The RNC spent nearly $500,000 on rental and catering alone, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW.

Trump’s own 2024 campaign readily poured money back into the candidate’s businesses, shelling out around $60,000 between the Doral golf resort and the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas by June.

During Trump’s first administration, foreign governments and their associated entities spent more than $7.8 million on Trump’s many businesses, chief among them being Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., according to a damning report released by House Democrats in January. Ironically, this is the very same kind of corruption House Republicans have been desperate, and unsuccessful, to pin on President Joe Biden and his family members.

In 2019, Trump had pitched holding the G7 Global Summit at Trump Doral, before bipartisan criticism caused him to back off the idea.

The retreat is currently scheduled for January 27 through 29. While not all of the 220 Republicans representatives are required to go, or stay at Trump National Doral, it’s worth noting that room rates go for between $460 to $1,000 per night. Let’s hope the president-elect can at least get them a good discount.

Kash Patel was among 43 White House staffers whose phone records were obtained by the Justice Department during a leak investigation during Donald Trump’s first term, CNN reports, citing the department’s inspector general.

The investigation, which also included two members of Congress, was conducted secretly. Patel, whom Trump has chosen to replace Christopher Wray as FBI director, was not named in the report, nor were the two congresspeople. But two anonymous sources told CNN that the phone records of Patel and Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell were among those obtained.

The DOJ also went after the email addresses of journalists at CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, according to the report. At the time, the Trump administration was desperately trying to stop leaks of sensitive information, and were focusing on people who may have had security access.

An investigation based only on “the close proximity in time between access to classified information and subsequent publication of the information … risks chilling Congress’s ability to conduct oversight of the executive branch,” the inspector general wrote, adding that this kind of investigation creates “the appearance of inappropriate interference by the executive branch in legitimate oversight activity by the legislative branch.”

Patel may have been just one part of a broad investigation, but the fact that he was among those suspected of leaks calls into question why he’s now Trump’s pick to head the government’s largest law enforcement agency. If Wray is removed and Patel is confirmed to take over the FBI, such investigations might become the norm. The Trump gadfly only has three years as a federal prosecutor to account for his law enforcement experience, and seems ready to embark on haphazard attempts to prosecute the president’s real and imagined enemies.

Already, Patel may have preemptively undermined those prosecutions with the enemies list that he’s published. Any of his legal targets could use it to make a case of malicious prosecution if Patel tried to haul them into court. Patel has already sent a legal threat to one of his critics, signaling how he’d do Trump’s bidding at the FBI without a pesky Justice Department to conduct oversight.

House Republicans haven’t selected a single woman to serve as a committee chair in the next Congress.

With Representative Brian Mast winning out Monday over Representative Ann Wagner to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee, “no Republican women lawmakers will serve as elected committee leaders next year,” Punchbowl News reports.

Former Republican Representative Barbara Comstock responded to the news Tuesday, tweeting, “Very fitting in the MAGA Era—No Women Need Apply.”

Democratic Representative Don Beyer of Virginia wrote, “Women make up more than half of the population of this country but House Republicans didn’t elect a single one to lead a House committee.”

When asked Tuesday about the lack of women leading House committees, Speaker Mike Johnson said, “Chairmen of committees are very important positions, but we really do engage all the membership. We have extraordinary women serving in Congress.”

“We haven’t decided all the committee chairs yet,” Johnson continued, “so we’ll see how this shakes out.” While no women have been elected to head House committees, Punchbowl notes that Representative Virginia Foxx is a leading contender for House Rules chair, which will be appointed by the speaker.

GOP women’s representation among House committee chairs is shaping up to be even worse than it was at the start of the previous Congress, when women chairing committees were outnumbered by men named Mike 6–3.

According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, 31 Republican women will serve in the House in 2025, compared to 94 Democratic women.

Pete Hegseth is hoping you’ll forget he thinks women aren’t suited for combat roles in the military. Too bad he enthusiastically declared it on camera a little over a month ago.

The vitriolic television host, who is also Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, appeared on Fox News Monday to try to clean up comments he made disparaging all female U.S. soldiers. It was less than convincing.

“I also want an opportunity here, to clarify comments that have been misconstrued that I somehow ‘don’t support women in the military.’ Some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors out there are women, who serve—raised their right hand to defend this country, and love our nation, want to defend that flag, and they do it every single day around the globe,” Hegseth said.

But little more than a month ago, Hegseth said he doesn’t believe women are even fit for active duty.

“I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated,” Hegseth said during an appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show in November.

“We’ve all served with women, and they’re great. It’s just, our institutions don’t have to incentivize that in places where traditionally—not traditionally, over human history—men in those positions are more capable,” he said.

Hegseth did not deign to explain whether it was being forced to carry around tampons or all the crying that made combat just so much more difficult. And to be clear, it is simply impossible for Hegseth to actually “support” women in the military while thinking, no, advocating that they aren’t suited for combat. It isn’t some kind of brain teaser; it’s just a lie. He’s lying to get a job—specifically, one that would put him in command of 1.3 million active duty troops, many of whom he finds less capable than their male counterparts.

Hegseth has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill this week, hoping to mount Republican support for his increasingly insupportable nomination.

It appears that disgraced former Representative Matt Gaetz has found his new job: anchor on One America News Network.

CNN reports that Gaetz is set to join the pro-Trump network after his bid to be attorney general collapsed under a mountain of drug and sexual misconduct allegations outlined in a buried House Ethics Committee report. It’s the second post-Congress gig for Gaetz, who last month announced that he was setting up an account on the celebrity video website Cameo.

Gaetz will apparently be hosting his own show on OANN, and a webpage bearing the name The Matt Gaetz Show is already live on the outlet’s website. OANN is not widely carried on cable and satellite television, and it was dropped by DirecTV in 2022. The network encourages viewers to stream its programming online.

Last month, Gaetz alluded to his new job in an interview with conservative personality Charlie Kirk.

“I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress,” Gaetz told Kirk.

If Gaetz were to return to Congress, his Ethics Committee report could be released, further damaging his image and political future. His role in the successful effort to unseat former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was actually connected to the misconduct allegations against him, according to McCarthy.

In an interview on Fox News Sunday, McCarthy said Gaetz has himself to blame for his nomination failing.

“I blame Matt Gaetz for lying to [Donald Trump] about his ethics report,” McCarthy said, making the case that Gaetz convinced the president-elect to appoint him attorney general so that he could quit Congress and try to sink the Ethics Committee report against him. McCarthy also claimed Gaetz backed his ouster because of the report.

“People know that’s why he’s not capable of even staying in Congress,” McCarthy said. “He needed an excuse to resign because the Ethics report would be done in a couple days.”

Kari Lake, the television anchor turned twice-failed Republican political candidate from Arizona, is reportedly the leading contender to serve as Donald Trump’s ambassador to Mexico—and no one is happy.

Lake, who built her failed candidacy by mimicking Trump on issues of immigration, border security, and election denialism, is likely to receive the president-elect’s nomination to manage diplomacy with Mexico, Semafor reported Monday.

Lake rose to prominence within her party after refusing to concede that she lost Arizona’s gubernatorial race in 2022. Last month, the MAGA acolyte lost Arizona’s Senate race to Representative Ruben Gallego, a Democrat.

Lake’s Senate failed platform contained a 10-point plan that fell in lock-step with Trump’s hardline immigration policy, including finishing the wall at the southern border, ending asylum claims for people from countries experiencing endemic crime, and the immediate, automatic deportation of undocumented immigrants.

Earlier this month, Trump announced his intention to implement a 25 percent tariff on all goods imports from Mexico, which will more than likely damage border state economies (such as Arizona) and could spark retaliatory tariffs. As the ambassador to Mexico, Lake would advocate for Trump’s immigration and tariff policies to the Mexican government.

Online, the possibility that Lake would land this enormous responsibility was met with exhaustion and derision.

“Tell me you’re not serious about negotiating with Mexico over trade or immigration without telling me …” commented Reason’s Eric Boehm.

Meanwhile, Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, Councilman Tony Heyl wondered, “How is she going to have time to do this when she is already Governor and Senator from Arizona?”

Senator Lindsey Graham appeared hard-pressed for praise beyond personal niceties for Tulsi Gabbard after meeting with Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence.

“We’ve had policy differences. I know her, I like her, you know. She wanted to stay in the JCPOA. I thought that was a mistake,” Graham told CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju on Monday, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, from which Trump withdrew in 2018.

“But, you know, she’ll be serving Trump,” the South Carolina Republican said.

“We’ll see how the hearing goes,” he continued, per footage from WAAY 31 News. Asked whether he was satisfied with Gabbard’s answers, Graham replied, “She’s gonna get back with me, we had a very good meeting. And I’m inclined—well, let’s see what the answers are.”

Gabbard is meeting with senators this week, hoping to alleviate concerns about her sympathetic stances on Russia and Syria’s now-ousted President Bashar Al Assad.

But if Graham has any reservations about Gabbard, that doesn’t mean they will last.

The senator had a sudden change of heart regarding allegations of sexual assault and other misconduct plaguing Trump’s defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, who is also making the rounds on Capitol Hill. Last Tuesday, Graham called the accusations against Hegseth “very disturbing,” saying, “Some of this stuff is going to be difficult.”

Within 24 hours, Graham pivoted, telling Fox News, “I’m not going to make any decision based on an anonymous source.… None of it counts, no rumors, no innuendo.”

Donald Trump mocked Justin Trudeau and Canada after the Canadian prime minister pointed out that Americans are realizing how expensive life would be under Trump’s proposed tariffs.

“Trump got elected on a commitment to make life better and more affordable for Americans, and I think people south of the border are beginning to wake up to the real reality that tariffs on everything from Canada would make life a lot more expensive,” Trudeau said in a speech on Monday, promising retaliation if Trump went ahead with his planned tariffs.

In response, Trump made a Truth Social post shortly after midnight Tuesday referencing his recent dinner with Trudeau and yet again joked about Canada being part of the United States.

“It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada. I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all! DJT,” the post read.

Canada is America’s biggest trading partner, and while 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports would hurt their economy, retaliatory tariffs wouldn’t be good for the U.S. economy, either. Trudeau pointed out that the U.S. gets 65 percent of its crude oil from Canada, along with many other goods, ranging from steel to agricultural products.

Over the weekend, Trump tried to defend his tariff plan on NBC’s Meet the Press but couldn’t promise that it wouldn’t cause higher prices for Americans. He claimed that the U.S. was “subsidizing” Canada and Mexico, and offered a nonsensical solution.

“If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state. We’re subsidizing Mexico, and we’re subsidizing Canada, and we’re subsidizing many countries all over the world,” Trump said. “And all I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field.”

Realistically, Trudeau is right that tariffs would hurt both the U.S. and Canadian economies, and it’s hard to see any positive outcomes from a back-and-forth trade war. Trump may be able to threaten politicians in the states, but he might find that foreign leaders aren’t cowed by his brash rhetoric. Mexico has already made threats of its own in response to Trump’s tariffs, for example.

If Canadian and Mexican leaders acted like Trump, it would be “Canada First” versus “Mexico First” versus “America First,” and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Trump negotiated to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement during his first term, would end up torn to shreds. If Trump isn’t careful, that is exactly what will end up happening, to the detriment of all three countries’ economies.