George Santos resigns from House committees
Embattled freshman Rep. George Santos told fellow House Republicans on Tuesday morning that he would recuse himself from his positions on the committee.
But Santos has indicated that this may be temporary and that he will return to his committee seats once his legal and ethical reviews are resolved.
“That process is going to happen,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, another New York Republican who has backed Santos. But it will ultimately be the voters who decide whether to impeach him in the next primary or general election, she said.
Here’s what else is happening in politics on Tuesday.
- President to discuss political accountability legislation: President Joe Biden will meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday to discuss police reform legislation following the brutal beating of Tire Nichols that led to his died in Memphis, Tennessee.
- Biden in the Big Apple: Biden will travel to New York on Tuesday to announce that Amtrak will receive $292 million for the Hudson Tunnel project.
- CRT in schools? : Several Cincinnati-area school districts are featured in an anti-criticism race-theory sting, published by a conservative national media monitoring organization, in which local school administrators say they would continue to teach about diversity and social justice even though Ohio law prohibits teaching such concepts.
- Debt ceiling debate: Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., will discuss federal spending on Wednesday in a much-anticipated one-on-one meeting that could indicate how far apart the two sides are on meeting the law maturity of the debt ceiling.
George Santos resigns from House committees
Embattled freshman Rep. George Santos told fellow House Republicans on Tuesday morning that he would recuse himself from his positions on the committee.
But Santos has indicated that this may be temporary and that he will return to his committee seats once his legal and ethical reviews are resolved.
“That process is going to happen,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, another New York Republican who has backed Santos. But it will ultimately be the voters who decide whether to impeach him in the next primary or general election, she said.
His resignation from the House Committees on Small Business and Science, Space and Technology comes a day after he had a meeting with Chairman Kevin McCarthy. The speaker said he initiated the meeting on Monday, but he did not disclose their discussion.
Santos faces heightened legal scrutiny of his campaign finances, a House ethics complaint and numerous calls for his resignation, including from within his own party.
– Woodall candies
Biden to meet with Congressional Black Caucus to discuss police accountability
President Joe Biden will meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday to discuss police reform legislation following the brutal beating of Tire Nichols that led to his death in Memphis, Tennessee.
“Executive action cannot replace federal legislation and we need Congress to come together and act to ensure that our justice lives up to its name,” said Olivia Dalton, senior deputy press secretary for the White House.
Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., president of the CBC, has requested a meeting with the president according to a statement released Sunday. “No one in our country should be afraid to interact with the police who serve our diverse communities, large and small. We all want to be safe,” Horsford said.
-Ken Tran
House GOP to remove Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee, Scalise says
If House Democrats follow through on the nomination of Rep. Illhan Omar to the Foreign Affairs Committee, the majority party will move to a full House vote to impeach her, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said during a briefing. a press conference on Tuesday.
“Even if Omar were to be removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee, she would still be allowed to serve on other committees,” he said.
Chairman Kevin McCarthy has unilaterally removed Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee, but it will take a two-thirds vote of the House to remove Omar from Foreign Affairs.
– Woodall candies
Pelosi will not sit on House committees
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who left the powerful leadership post after the 2022 midterm elections, will not serve on any of the House committees.
The California lawmaker previously indicated that she would not accept any committee assignments this term, with her spokesperson Drew Hammill telling the Daily Beast in November that her “sole focus will be San Francisco.”
Pelosi’s biography on the House Clerk’s website does not list any current assignments.
–Ella Lee
House GOP budget expected by April deadline, Scalise says
After President Joe Biden challenged House Republicans to show him their budget, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said his caucus was working hard to meet its April 15 deadline.
Presidents are expected to share their budgets on the first Monday in February, but many have missed that deadline. Biden has said he will be ready on March 9.
“I hope the president will meet his deadline, just as we will work to meet our deadline,” Scalise said.
He also commented on Wednesday’s scheduled meeting between Biden and Chairman Kevin McCarthy on the debt ceiling and government spending.
The White House has said there will be no debt ceiling negotiations and that Biden will not consider any spending cuts.
“It’s a recklessly irresponsible position on President Biden’s part to just tell him to give him more money so he can keep spending money that we don’t have,” he said. declared. “We need to control spending in Washington.”
— Woodall candies
West Virginia: ‘In God We Trust’ term advances in state Senate
A West Virginia bill that would require all K-12 public schools and higher education institutions to display the phrase “In God We Trust” in a “prominent place” in the building is a step closer to passing the law after the state Senate passed the measure Monday.
“We know there are a lot of kids having issues at home, tough times at home that we don’t know about,” Azinger told the state Senate. “Maybe one day they will look up and say, ‘In God We Trust’ and know they can put their hope in God.”
The bill must pass the West Virginia House of Delegates before heading to the state’s Governor, Republican Jim Justice, to be signed into law.
– Ella Lee and the Associated Press
Grand jury to see Trump hush up New York money case: reports
A New York grand jury will hear evidence about former President Donald Trump’s potentially criminal role in payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to stop her from sharing details of an alleged sexual encounter with the former president. , according to several reports.
Manhattan prosecutors began presenting evidence to a new grand jury on Monday, The New York Times and NPR reported. It would be the latest of Trump’s legal troubles as he fast-tracks his bid for president in 2024.
In an article on Truth Social, Trump said the “stormy” nonsense “happened a long time ago – “well past the very well-known and accepted statute of limitations deadline,” he said. declared. The former president added that he had “full confidence” in his then lawyer, Michael Cohen.
-Ella Lee
Conservative media group goes undercover in search of CRT in Ohio
Several Cincinnati-area school districts are featured in an anti-critical race theory sting released over the weekend by Accuracy in Media, a national conservative media monitoring organization. In the video, local school administrators say they would continue to teach about diversity and social justice even though Ohio law prohibits teaching such concepts.
“We’ll just call it something else,” Vivian Alvarez, assistant director of the Mason Early Childhood Center, says in the video. “We’re still going to do the same job.”
Mason City Schools spokeswoman Tracey Carson told the Cincinnati Enquirer, a USA TODAY affiliate, that the district does not teach CRT, “nor do we teach it in practice while l ‘calling otherwise’.
— Madeline Mitchell, Cincinnati Investigator
Will white women be more reliable voters for Democrats in 2024?
Although women as a whole are Democrats, white women tend to vote more conservatively than women of color.
In recent years, Republican messages about schools’ alleged teachings on “critical race theory” — the idea that racism is embedded in all American laws and institutions — have been particularly effective in nudging white women voters toward the right, said Jatia Wrighten, a professor of African-American studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Critical Race Theory is an academic concept that is not taught in public schools.
But Roe’s 2022 overthrow brought many white women back into the Democratic fold. In the midterm elections, Democrats successfully defended every sitting Senate seat and managed to minimize substantial losses in the House, largely due to women who were furious with the decision.
That leaves Democrats with a daunting task for 2024: persuading white women to join — and stay with — the party, giving Democrats a chance to control Washington.
— Ella Lee, Mabinty Quarshie
Biden travels to New York on Tuesday
President Joe Biden will travel to New York on Tuesday, where he will announce that Amtrak is receiving $292 million for the Hudson Tunnel project.
His trip is the second of three this week to promote the benefits of the infrastructure bill. The president highlighted a rail tunnel project in Baltimore on Monday and will discuss the removal of lead pipes in Philadelphia on Friday.
In New York, Biden’s trip also includes a fundraising stop for the Democratic National Committee.
— Maureen Groppe
“We are here” :Donald Trump resumes election campaign in New Hampshire, South Carolina
Biden family hearing in House Oversight set for next week
The day after his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden and his family will be the subject of a GOP-led House Oversight Committee hearing.
A hearing into Twitter’s decision to initially block New York Post reporting on the “Biden family’s business plans” and Hunter Biden’s laptop will take place on Wednesday, February 8, a committee spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY.
Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, has repeatedly said the panel is focused on the president, not his son. Former Twitter employees Vijaya Gadde, Yoel Roth and James Baker will testify at the hearing, according to the committee.
– Woodall candy
Following:Biden’s most vocal Republican antagonists come off the sidelines – with subpoena power
USA Today
