POLITICUSUSA
Ron DeSantis doesn’t seem to care much about what happens in Florida right now. The state is in crisis mode thanks to the Delta variant of COVID-19. But the state’s governor seems more interested in fighting culture wars than combating the virus.
Lobbyists cop to fossil fuel behemoth Exxon Mobil’s clandestine efforts to appear supportive of climate change-mitigation legislation while simultaneously shoveling money to senators hoping they will work to weaken climate elements included in President Biden's infrastructure plan.
His belief that he is still president, or entitled to the presidency, is simply the most honest and overt expression Republican ideology.
Over the last 5 years, states like Georgia and Arizona have become bluer and helped Democrats gain control of the senate. At the same time, states like Florida and Ohio have become redder.
Florida, once the biggest swing state in the country, now has a GOP governor and two Republican senators. That does not mean, however, that Democrats can’t win there.
Val Demings, a Congresswoman from the 10th district, is very popular on both a state and national level. She was on Joe Biden‘s short list of Vice Presidential candidates. And the former police officer could have her eyes on a bigger Florida seat.
The congresswoman told Politico, “I’ve received so many calls and texts and emails, and have been stopped when I’m out and about by people who are asking me that very same question. Matter of fact, they think I should run for statewide office and maybe challenge the governor, or challenge Sen. Rubio next year. I’m seriously considering a statewide run. And we’ll see what happens.”
Demings had a highlight reel moment this week during an exchange with Jim Jordan. She responded to Jordan’s police officer comments by saying, “I served as a law enforcement officer for 27 years. It is a tough job, and good police officers deserve your support. It’s interesting to see my colleagues on the other side of the aisle support the police when it is politically convenient to do so.”
When Jordan tried to interrupt, she ruthlessly replied, “did I strike a nerve?”
Watch a video of the exchange below:
Let's just say things got pretty heated between Val Demings and Jim Jordan in today's House Judiciary meeting pic.twitter.com/SaE5gQBB7b
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 20, 2021
In a new ad, the Republican Accountability Project took Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) to task for his continued support of former President Donald Trump despite warning voters in 2016 that Trump “would shatter the party and the conservative movement.”
The new ad comes after Rubio accepted Trump’s endorsement for his re-election.
Rubio has “known all along that Trump would be a unique danger to the GOP and our country,” the video’s voiceover says.
Most hospitality businesses had an incredibly difficult year in 2020 and the Trump Washington DC hotel was no exception. The hotel struggled to book guests with the COVID-10 pandemic raging.
And the hotel is also having trouble due to Donald Trump being voted out of office. CNN‘s Brian Todd recently reported, “It wasn’t that long ago the Trump International Hotel was buzzing, but tonight there are serious questions about its future. With Donald Trump out of office, there now seems to be little to attract guests to his gilded hotel.”
That fact, though, doesn’t mean that Ivanka Trump didn’t make a lot of money off her stake in the hotel in 2020. Yahoo Finance reports:
“Documents show that Ms. Trump earned $1,463,449 from the struggling Washington, D.C. hotel in the Old Post Office. It was reported on Tuesday, that the hotel wasn’t doing well, not only because of the impact the pandemic has hurt the hospitality industry, but because there are hefty bills coming due for the Trump Organization for the property.”
During the 2016 primary season, Marco Rubio tried to go toe to toe with Donald Trump. This ended in embarrassing fashion for the Florida senator. Trump even gave him the emasculating nickname, “Little Marco.”
Rather than standing up for himself, the Florida senator became a supporter of the ex-President. The only pushback from Rubio came in the form of vague bible verses.
The Trump family, though, has no interest in rewarding Rubio for his support. In fact, there are rumors that Ivanka Trump may primary him for his seat. Rubio discussed that possibility with Neal Cavuto on Tuesday.
Rubio began the spot by telling the host that it’s hard to know what the political landscape will look like in the years to come. “But again, I’m not going to speculate and get into the political gamemanship. I have an election in 2022 and I don’t even know what I’m going to be thinking about in two or three years. Or what anyone is going to be talking about.”
Cavuto jumped in, “We do know that next year you could be facing a primary challenge. And there’s talk that Ivanka Trump is interested in running against you. What do you think of that?
A now flustered Rubio responded, “But, but, but, who can’t. I mean all of us are elected. Every single one of us can be primaried. Every single one of us can have a primary challenger.”
“But what would you think if it were Ivanka Trump,” countered Cavuto. Rubio answered, “I would, I would, I like Ivanka Trump.”
Watch a clip of the conversation below, courtesy of Fox Business:
Cavuto: You do know that next year you could be facing a primary challenge? There’s talk that Ivanka Trump is interested in running against you. What do you think of that?
Rubio: Bu Bu Bu But… pic.twitter.com/MW7h6S5poS
Conservative Steve Schmidt offered stinging criticism of Marco Rubio on Tuesday after the Republican senator mocked actor Eva Longoria for appearing at the Democratic convention.
Rubio sent a tweet sarcastically claiming that celebrities understood what ordinary Americans were going through. This prompted Schmidt, who worked on several Republican presidential campaigns, to lay into the Florida senator.
“I was just thinking about you,” Schmidt wrote.
“Your Father fled Castro’s tyranny with nothing but the clothes on his back. He tended bar in the back of the room and watched you rise to the heights of political power within one generation. Only in America.”
I was just thinking about you. Your Father fled Castro’s tyranny with nothing but the clothes on his back. He tended bar in the back of the room and watched you rise to the heights of political power within one generation. Only in America. Of course, the origin story was an https://t.co/PXXoGqqZKQ
Marco Rubio has bluntly suggested that people should be wearing masks to help stop the spread of Covid-19. The Republican’s suggestion comes as his home state is recording more cases.
The Florida senator spoke to reporters after a lunch featuring Vice President Mike Pence. Many of the journalists were wearing masks. Rubio mentioned assisted living facilities (ALFS).
“The area where I think we have to definitely really surge on is nursing homes, ALFs, congregate living facilities that have a high number of people or obviously populations of people that are high risk,” he said.
“Those are the places where you’re really going to cut down the death rate if you can prevent outbreaks .
“And that’s where I hope we focus both our testing and our prevention effort.”
“And then everyone should just wear a damn mask, like you guys are, like I am right now.”
“I would just encourage everyone — that’s what I said in there — to sort of become informed of the nuances of how your state is reporting,” Rubio said.
“In Florida, the state tells us 20 percent of the COVID cases that register as hospitalizations are people that are in the hospital for something else, like a knee replacement, but they’re tested so they tested positive.”
Rubio’s comments represent a break with President Donald Trump and other Republicans. However, some of his GOP colleagues have also begun to change tack on the virus as it has hit their states.
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Yesterday, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent out a series of Tweets implying a vast conspiracy was taking place due to his belief that “democratic lawyers are trying to change the results” of this past Tuesday’s election. Governor Rick Scott continues to hold a slim lead over his opponent, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), however, that margin continues to deteriorate as more votes continue to be counted.
According to Mr. Rubio, votes “still being tallied,” should not be counted due to his ignorance of Florida election law. Mr. Rubio cites a portion of the law which requires election officials to report “within thirty minutes after the polls close those ballots which are the result of early voting and vote by mail.”
States Rubio:
“#Florida law requires counties report voting and vote-by-mail within 30 minutes after polls close. 43 hours after polls closed, 2 Democratic strongholds #BrowardCountry & #PalmBeachCounty are still counting & refusing to disclose how many ballots they have left to count.”
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) said that Republican Sens. Graham (SC) and Rubio (FL) talk a big game, but they have never stood up to Trump on a moral issue.
Trump judicial nominee Ryan Bounds withdrew his nomination after Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said that he couldn't vote for him, and he was going to be rejected by the Senate.
President Donald Trump’s latest controversies surrounding Russia have not gone over well with Republicans in Congress. But even worse for the GOP, they have not gone over well with the majority of American voters. As a result, Republicans on Capitol Hill are now desperately trying to find a way to distance themselves from the actions (and the words) of the president in order to avoid what they fear might be a disaster in this fall’s midterm elections.
There are less than four months until the elections, and new polls this week show Trump’s approval ratings are falling while the Democrats have increased their lead in the generic congressional ballot. A Democratic “Blue Wave” may be coming, and Republicans are trying to find some way to stop it.
Senate Republican leaders are proposing new legislation sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) that would impose stiff economic penalties on Russia if it meddles in a U.S. election in 2018 and beyond. Rubio predicted his bill could get 70 to 85 votes.
The legislation would require the director of national intelligence to tell Congress if a foreign country has
interfered in a U.S. federal election
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) admitted in an interview that there is no sign that workers are getting any of the benefits from the GOP/Trump tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
One hallmark of Donald Trump’s presidency to date has been his ignorant blustering about the office he holds, notoriously over-reaching in his assertions of power and bumping up against the checks and balances our founders put in place precisely to protect our democratic institutions against bullying tyrants such as Trump has proven himself to be.
From his behavior during the Republican primary and Presidential debates, referring to Senator Marco Rubio as “Li’l Marco” or hovering behind Hillary Clinton, to his harassing tweets, to his recent harassment of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, not to mention the infamous Planet Hollywood tapes in which he bragged about his ability to get away with grabbing women’s genitals, Trump has gloried in being an abusive bully and availing himself of any opportunity to exert over others whatever power his positions have afforded him.
So when then-candidate Trump promised on the campaign trail to repeal the carried interest tax loophole that allowed hedge fund and private equity fund managers to pay a much lower tax rate on their cut of the funds’ profits than those in other professions pay on profits, you might be inclined to think he would use the full force of his bully pulpit to, well, bully those corporate robber barons he had indicted as “getting away with murder.” In draining the swamp, Trump was going to disarm the powerful influences of lobbies and corporate interest groups to protect the interests of the middle class.
But now that the Tax Cut and Jobs Act bill has sailed through Congress with the carried interest tax loophole intact, hovering on the verge of landing on Trump’s desk, all signs point to the likelihood, even certainty, that Trump will delightedly sign the bill into law, desperate as he is for a major legislative accomplishment as his first year in office dwindles to an otherwise infelicitous conclusion.
But why is the bully abdicating the power which, in this case, the bully pulpit of the Presidential office actually affords him?
In the case of this tax bill, Trump actually held quite a bit of power which he could have chosen to exercise.
It’s called a veto.
And if Trump were to veto this tax bill, the slim Republican majority in the Senate would be powerless to overturn that veto. Trump has plenty of leverage to fulfill his promise to the American people and insist on a repeal of the carried interest tax loophole.
Given this obvious flourish of power with which our founders endowed the office of President, the explanations of Gary Cohn, chief economic advisor in the White House, come off as decidedly dubious and disingenuous.
In an interview Wednesday with Axios, Cohn claimed, “We would have cut carried interest. We probably tried 25 times.”
So what went wrong? Why did these apparently strenuous efforts of the bully Trump fail? According to Cohn, “We hit opposition in that big white building with the dome at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue every time we tried. It is just the reality of the political system. The reality of this town is that constituency [hedge funds and private equity] has a very large presence in the House and the Senate. They have really strong relationships on both sides of the aisle. We just didn’t have the support on carried interest.”
“We just didn’t have the support”?!?
Seriously?
Now that finally Trump actually has the power at his disposal to assert in the service of the American people and to keep his promise, he abdicates that power and has his economic advisor blame those very lobbyists and politicians Trump had promised to take on, denying the fact that he has the power to subvert those very lobbyists and politicians.
What this instance clarifies is that, once again, Trump has lied to and hoodwinked the American people, reneging on a promise he has the power to fulfill—a promise he never intended to fulfill. What is apparent is that all along he intended to abuse Presidential powers to enrich himself and others of the elite classes in the United States.
This fact is clear because now that he has the power of the veto to insist on removing the carried interest tax loophole, he chooses not to exert the powers of his office.
In this case, Trump seems to have chosen to talk loudly and brandish little to no stick whatsoever.
Marco Rubio never planned on opposing the GOP tax proposal.
When Trump used his press conference to defend white supremacist and Nazi violence, a growing group of Republicans went after their own president.
At a donor dinner, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) urged people to pay less attention to the Trump Russia scandal, and instead focus on Islamic terrorism, youth unemployment, and the rise of China.
Rex Tillerson says one thing, Nikki Haley another. If there is any sort of messaging being sent, it is impossible to determine what it might be
"After the votes taken earlier this afternoon, the U.S. Senate has now confirmed all of the available Cabinet nominations" - Marco Rubio