Jim Jordan

Most NU employees will not see a pay raise, including faculty and staff at UNL and UNMC. But faculty at UNO and UNK have secured increases through union contracts.

Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado laid into Rep. Jim Jordan during the House Rules Committee’s early Wednesday hearing on the GOP’s 1,100-page tax break giveaway to the rich, the “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”“I find it astounding. I'm not sure that many of your colleagues understand the full import of this,” Neguse said of a provision Jordan added to the bill that would make federal judges require citizens suing the government for a violation of their constitutional rights to post a security payment, which is not currently how things work. Jordan, one of President Donald Trump’s top attack dogs against federal judges who have challenged the administration’s many anti-constitutional actions, tried to deflect Neguse’s questions about the provision’s broad, unconstitutional implications. His response only exposed how craven and unintelligent he really is, leading to this memorable exchange:Jordan: I just want, I just want to say the situation we're trying to address is what's been happening around the country.Neguse: You didn’t write it that way.Jordan: As you know, there’s a single federal judge [who] gets cases brought to the judge. They waive the security and then issue a decision that applies nationwide to all immigrants who are in that situation.Neguse: Why didn’t you put ‘nationwide” in this language?Jordan: Well, we can look at the language. I, I, I mean—Neguse: It’s 6 AM, you're voting on this thing in like ten hours. What are we talking about?xxYouTube VideoIt’s not that hard to make Jordan look bad, but Neguse’s handling of the Ohio Republican in the early morning hours was a masterclass in managing the GOP’s unserious, slapdash approach to legislating.Republicans began the House Rules Committee’s hearing at 1 AM in an attempt to rush through finalizing the rules of Trump and the GOP’s signature piece of legislation. Speaker Mike Johnson is stuck trying to appease an unappeasable GOP on a disastrous budget bill that would add trillions to the deficit, cut popular, necessary programs like Medicaid, and hurt GOP voters. Johnson says he hopes to have it through Congress by Memorial Day. Campaign Action

'Most significant immigration legislation in years'

'Let's just say it wasn't a coincidence'

House Republicans on Wednesday advanced legislation to back a series of President Trump’s immigration priorities, raising fees on those seeking refuge in the United States while boosting resources to detain and deport a record number of migrants. The measure advanced by the House Judiciary Committee includes funding to support the removal of 1 million migrants [...]

Click to Continue »]]>

President Donald Trump is set to meet with some of the House GOP budget holdouts at the White House as Speaker Mike Johnson eyes a vote this week.

Hardline House conservatives say that personal appeals from President Trump will not be enough to sway them to support a Senate budget resolution to advance the White House’s legislative agenda. A group of House Republicans critical of the Senate’s framework for advancing Trump’s legislative agenda are set to meet with the president at the White [...]

Sen. Josh Hawley says former Meta employee Sarah Wynn-Williams will testify on claims Facebook built censorship tools and gave user data to China’s communist regime.

The number of people seriously hurt falling off the U.S.-Mexico border wall in San Diego County has dropped sharply since the Trump administration intensified security measures, according to the two trauma hospitals that treat those injuries.

Rep. Brandon Gill and his role model, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, are split in their response to President Donald Trump's commands to impeach judges with whom he disagrees.

Congressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions.As fury mounts over the Trump administration’s leaking of classified military operations in an unsecure Signal group chat that included a reporter who did not have a security clearance, GOP lawmakers have continued to downplay the seriousness of the situation.The ridiculous defenses—ranging from lies about the contents of the messages to conspiracy theories about how the reporter got added to the conversation in the first place—are even rankling some Trump administration allies, who told Politico that President Donald Trump and his team need to own up to the error, fire those involved, and end the controversy.But that message has clearly not been heard by congressional Republicans, who are still defending the monumental fuck-up that risked U.S. troops who were carrying out an attack on a rebel group in Yemen—even as more details emerge confirming that classified information was shared on an insecure platform.Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said that he stands by the Trump administration officials who were involved—including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared in the chat the exact timing of the forthcoming attack and the weapons systems that would be used.“President Trump and his team have admitted that having a journalist in the group text was wrong, will be reviewed and falls in the category of ‘lessons learned’ so that it doesn’t happen again. I think President Trump has handled this matter well. Further, I believe that all the participants in the chat were under the impression they were using an appropriate and secure form of communication. This will also fall into the category of ‘lessons learned,’” Graham said in a statement.He ended with, “I continue to support all members of President Trump’s national security team. Lessons learned.”Similarly, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, Republican of Florida, said in an appearance on CNN that this was just an honest mistake made by rookie administration officials who didn’t know any better than to share classified information on a text chat including a reporter. "Remember, they're just starting in the job. This game just started. Let's see how they do the next two years, and then we can judge them. But not because of one mistake that they put a reporter—maybe they made a mistake and they put that ... listen, those that do not have any sins, they can throw the first stone,” she said.xxYouTube VideoGOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who has become a regular in this series for saying idiotic things, said that anyone could have made the same mistake. “We all make mistakes. I don't know how it happened. It might have been a communication problem with somebody in the communications department," Tuberville told CNN, saying that there shouldn't be any investigations.xxYouTube VideoMeanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson said the blunder is not a fireable offense, which he certainly would not be saying had this been done by Democratic administration officials."I don't think someone should have lost their job over that because an errant number found their way onto a dialogue," Johnson said during a news conference on Tuesday.True to form, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio lied about the war plans leak entirely. "The signal chat didn’t contain classified information. Terrorists were killed. Americans are safer," Jordan wrote on X.And while Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas admitted on his podcast that the Signal chat was "a huge screwup," he then downplayed the seriousness of it.“It’s sort of comparable to a butt dial,” he said.I don’t know about you, but when I accidentally butt dial someone, they usually just hear me telling my kids to put on their shoes, not spilling classified intel that could get people killed.Ultimately, while Republicans shirk their responsibility to investigate the obvious security failure and to hold the Trump administration accountable, Democrats are filling that void.For example, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding answers to what he described as “one of the most humiliating and dangerous national security breaches in modern American history—one that put the lives of American service members and intelligence officers carrying out military operations abroad at risk and a rupture in national security protocol that almost certainly violates federal criminal and civil statutes.”In the letter, Raskin demanded to know if there is an FBI investigation into the security breach, if there have been other instances of classified information being discussed in improper settings, and if the Trump administration is using Signal to conduct other official matters.And in a letter to Trump, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called for “the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in American history” Hegseth to be removed from his administration.“His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law,” he wrote. “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should be fired immediately.”Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

You had your doubts about U.S. Bank Stadium’s roof, but it just made it through its 10th winter without incident.

Pennsylvania Sens. Dave McCormick and John Fetterman will host their first joint public event in Pittsburgh this Saturday.

'nonpartisan organization'

The heads of the nation's top public broadcasters faced an intense grilling from lawmakers Wednesday over their outlets’ funding and editorial objectivity.

The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Washington.

A Democratic member of the panel used his time to ask several questions about Sesame Street characters.

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content.

House Republicans are looking at multiple lanes to take on activist judges blocking President Trump's agenda.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Grassley is holding a hearing next week, back to back with the House, to look at the judges throttling President Trump’s agenda.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that “desperate times call for desperate measures" without mentioning impeachment for the judges directly.

Congressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions.Republicans in the House and Senate were quick to follow Donald Trump's March 18 orders to impeach federal judges who ruled against his illegal actions.But when pressed about which high crimes and misdemeanors the judges committed to warrant such an extreme measure, Republicans had no good answer.Instead, the only "crime" they came up with was that the judges didn't let the lawless president trample over the Constitution to do whatever he wants, whether that be deporting immigrants without due process; letting co-President Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency bros access sensitive government systems, shut down federal agencies, and chaotically fire federal employees; or remove health data from government websites because it was tangentially related to “gender identity.”For example, CNN host Kasie Hunt asked Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio what “high crimes or misdemeanors” these judges committed. Jordan replied with what can only be described as verbal diarrhea. “All I’m saying is, if you’re acting in a political fashion and not just following the law, the ruling on the law, and I would argue that frankly just his ruling in and of itself, remember the Constitution is pretty clear, Article II Section I, very first sentence, says the power in the executive branch shall be vested in a president of the United States. The president has the authority,” Jordan said.xxYouTube VideoOf course Jordan left out that Article III of the Constitution says that judicial power extends to “all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States”—which is what the judges were doing when plaintiffs argued that the Trump administration was violating U.S. laws while carrying out its destructive agenda.Rep. Brendan Gill of Texas, who filed articles of impeachment against the judge who tried to stop Trump’s illegal deportations of Venezuelan immigrants (an order the Trump administration ignored), was also asked which impeachable offenses the judge committed—and had a terrible response.“This is for usurping the executive's authority, for demeaning the impartiality of the court by making a politicized ruling, and forcing a constitutional crisis,” Gill said on Newsmax. “That is a high crime and misdemeanor.”xxYouTube VideoOther Republicans also backed Trump and Musk’s call to impeach judges who rule against the administration.“America is a Republic, not a dictatorship of the judiciary. It's time to get rid of the political activists masquerading as judges and re-establish proper separation of powers,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida wrote in a post on X. “That's why I'm proud to announce that I will be joining my colleagues in impeaching ALL the activist judges who are unconstitutionally blocking President Trump's agenda.”And Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said he was going to introduce a law that would ban judges from being able to order nationwide injunctions.“District Court judges have issued RECORD numbers of national injunctions against the Trump administration - a dramatic abuse of judicial authority. I will introduce legislation to stop this abuse for good,” Hawley said, without acknowledging that maybe it’s because no other administration has ever initiated so many lawless actions that violate the Constitution.Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley didn’t explicitly say he supported impeaching the judges, but he made it clear he believes what the judges did was wrong—and will use his powerful committee to go after those judges.“Another day, another judge unilaterally deciding policy for the whole country. This time to benefit foreign gang members,” Grassley wrote in a post on X. “If the Supreme Court or Congress doesn’t fix, we’re headed towards a constitutional crisis. Senate Judiciary Cmte taking action.”And it seems that Musk read Grassley’s comment as being supportive of impeachment, because after Trump’s demand to impeach the judges, Musk donated to Grassley and six other Republicans who have supported the effort to boot them, The New York Times reported.From the Times’ report:Mr. Musk contributed on Wednesday to Representatives Eli Crane of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin and Brandon Gill of Texas. He also donated to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, according to two of the people briefed on the matter.“This is a judicial coup,” Musk wrote on X of a court ruling that blocked Trump from banning transgender people from the military. “We need 60 senators to impeach the judges and restore rule of the people.”Of course, it takes 67 senators to impeach—a fact you’d think Musk, who Trump and Republicans have framed as a genius, would know.Ultimately, this impeachment effort is futile.Even if House Republicans somehow succeed in impeaching these judges, there is no way that Democratic senators would vote to convict and remove them in an impeachment trial.The end result of this ridiculous posturing: making judges fear for their own safety as they receive death threats for their legally sound rulings, thanks to Republicans’ vile rhetoric.Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

In the two-plus months since returning to the White House, Trump has attended the Super Bowl in New Orleans and the Daytona 500 in Florida.

Concerned about the future of American democracy? The vibrant elections in Chicago's suburbs should encourage you.

Columnist David Marcus visits Philadelphia, where President Trump on Saturday will attend the NCAA wrestling championships.

Republicans in Congress are at considerable odds over whether to pursue the impeachment of federal judges who block President Trump's agenda.Why it matters: Trump kicked the conversation to another level this week by advocating impeachment himself, but virtually all GOP lawmakers would need to be on board for it to actually happen. They are not."We have a tradition going back to 1789 of respecting judges' decisions or appealing them," Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), one of a handful of Republicans in districts Trump lost last November, told Axios.He added, "It is the way we respect the Separation of Powers in the Constitution."Driving the news: Trump said Tuesday in a post on Truth Social that Judge James Boasberg, "like many of the Crooked Judges' I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!"Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for D.C., ordered a flight deporting roughly 250 alleged Venezuelan gang members turned around as he adjudicates the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to carry out the removals.Trump's call to impeach Boasberg was swiftly answered by Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), who introduced articles of impeachment just hours later.Zoom in: Boasberg is one of at least four federal judges against whom House Republicans have filed articles of impeachment for issuing rulings unfavorable to the administration.Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) has also said he plans to introduce articles targeting a fifth: John J. McConnell Jr., a Rhode Island federal judge who ordered the administration to lift its freeze on federal payments.Successful judicial impeachments are rare — the last one was in 2010 — and usually involve gross personal misconduct or financial corruption.Zoom out: It's not just Bacon. According to Politico, even some House conservatives are unenthusiastic about the idea of impeaching judges.Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, a Republican appointee, waded into the fight Tuesday with a rare public comment pushing back on Trump's call to impeach Boasberg."For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose," he said.State of play: House Republican leadership isn't ruling out holding votes on judicial impeachments. "Everything is on the table," said Russell Dye, a spokesperson for House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a statement: "Activist judges with political agendas pose a significant threat to the rule of law, equal justice, and the separation of powers.""The Speaker looks forward to working with the Judiciary Committee as they review all available options under the Constitution to address this urgent matter," they added.With a House majority of roughly two seats, however, Republicans will have virtually no room for error if they bring impeachment to the floor for a vote.What to watch: Trump probably isn't about to let the issue go any time soon despite the divisions within his party. In fact, he's more likely to hit the throttle.On Wednesday his political operation sent out a fundraising email with the subject line "Impeach. Impeach. Impeach." It called Boasberg a "troublemaker and agitator" and said he "should be IMPEACHED!!!"

Egged on by wannabe dictator Donald Trump, House Republicans are pushing GOP leadership to let them embark on impeachment proceedings against federal judges who dare to rule against their Dear Leader—a time-consuming and destined-to-fail effort that harms the rule of law and could even wound the Republican Party in elections moving forward.Multiple Republican lawmakers have filed articles of impeachment against four federal judges who recently ruled against the Trump administration.“Congress has the constitutional power to impeach rogue activist judges—and we intend to use it,” Republican Rep. Brendan Gill of Texas, who filed articles of impeachment against a federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to turn around planes that were deporting alleged Venezuelan immigrants to a gulag in El Salvador, wrote in a post on X.House Republicans are pushing for the impeachments to move forward even as Politico reported that some GOP lawmakers view the effort to be “idiotic.”“You don’t impeach judges who make decisions you disagree with, because that happens all the time,” Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told Politico in early March. “What you do is you appeal, and if you’re right, then you’re going to win on appeal.”Supreme Court Chief Justice John RobertsEven Chief Justice John Roberts warned that impeachment is not the way to handle disagreements with judicial decisions.“We are going to keep the impeachments coming,” Republican Rep. Andy Ogles Tennessee wrote in a post on X. Ogles himself filed articles of impeachment against a judge who ordered the Trump administration to restore websites it had taken down to comply with Trump's executive order targeting “gender ideology extremism.”But complicating things for Republican leadership is that Trump blessed the impeachment efforts on Tuesday, saying that the judge who tried to block his effort to deport immigrants without due process is a "Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama."“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump wrote in a deranged Truth Social post.Co-President Elon Musk, who has threatened to fund primary challenges to Republicans who don’t do what Trump says, also wants judicial impeachments.“This is a judicial coup. We need 60 senators to impeach the judges and restore rule of the people,” Musk wrote in a post on X on Tuesday after another federal judge ruled against the Trump administration, this time on its attempted ban of transgender troops.Given that GOP leaders acquiesce to all of Trump's wants, no matter how immoral or unconstitutional, his demand puts them in a difficult place of having to choose what’s right or to make their Dear Leader happy. “Everything is on the table,” Russell Dye, a spokesperson for House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, told Politico. An unnamed spokesperson to House Speaker Mike Johnson also told Politico that judges “with political agendas pose a significant threat” and that Johnson "looks forward to working with the Judiciary Committee as they review all available options under the Constitution to address this urgent matter.”Speaker of the House Mike JohnsonBut as aides for Johnson publicly said all options are on the table, top GOP aides privately admitted the impeachment route is stupid and will take up time the House needs to pass the rest of Trump’s destructive and unpopular agenda.“It’s never going to happen,” an unnamed senior Republican aide told Politico. “There aren’t the votes.”Plus, forcing Republicans to vote on impeachment could be politically damaging for the GOP.Polling from February—when Republicans began crowing about impeaching judges who ruled against Trump—showed that voters want Trump to follow court orders."This court issue is a big loser for Trump," CNN's Harry Enten wrote in a post on X, referring to a Washington Post poll from February. "The belief that Trump must follow court orders is more popular than Mother Teresa: 84% of all adults, 92% of Dems, 82% of Indies & 79% of the GOP."Other polls have similar findings, including an NBC News survey released Wednesday. It found that a plurality of voters (43%) believe the president and executive branch have too much power, as opposed to the 28% who believe the Supreme Court and judicial branch have too much.The cherry on top of this for GOP leaders is that their members would be taking potentially damaging votes on impeachment for nothing. The charges would be disposed of in the Senate, where there is no way on earth that two-thirds of the chamber would vote to convict and remove judges. Republicans have just 53 votes there. To impeach a judge, they’d need 14 Democrats to also join in. But never put it past Republicans to do stupid things in the name of subservience to Trump. Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

Trump has upended decades of U.S. foreign policy in less than two months.

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, said he has filed articles of impeachment against Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

A House Republican is moving to impeach the federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to stop some of its deportation flights.

On Friday, Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, upped his investigations into Big Tech by sending subpoenas to 16 major tech companies, asking whether the federal government had pressured them into using artificial intelligence to “censor lawful speech” – a new front in his long-running quest to prove the tech [...]

The documents include information about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, the FBI's communications with social media firms, and school threat investigations.

EXCLUSIVE: FBI Director Kash Patel is working aggressively to comply with congressional document requests in order follow through on his commitment to transparency, Fox News Digital has learned.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., has led House GOP efforts to reexamine the 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Discussions at a committee hearing became heated over immigration issues and solutions.

New FBI Director Kash Patel has told senior officials that he plans to relocate 1,000 employees from Washington to field offices around the country and move an additional 500 to a bureau facility in Huntsville, Alabama. That's according to a...

New FBI Director Kash Patel has told senior officials that he plans to relocate 1,000 employees at FBI headquarters to field offices around the country and move an additional 500 to a bureau facility in Huntsville, Alabama

Patel said Friday that the FBI's “national security mission” was equally as important as its efforts to fight violent crime and drug overdoses.

Bannon is not the only person in Trump’s orbit whose gestures have come under scrutiny.

A brewing battle pitting MAGA loyalists against traditional Republican defense hawks is brewing on Capitol Hill – and President Donald Trump’s foreign policy vision is at the center of the drama.That’s according to a Friday report in Politico, which detailed the effort inside MAGA world to cast aside individuals whose foreign policy views are more aligned with traditional approaches championed by conservatives. That mission was stepped up over the last week, according to the report. The “escalating clash” comes as Trump’s top allies see the “once-powerful defense hawks” as “key obstacles standing in the way of a thorough remaking of U.S. foreign policy that would realign the world order with Trump’s America First vision,” Politico reported.High-profile targets the president’s loyalists have aimed at include Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, who the publication notes has been "undermined in Washington as he meets this week with top Ukrainian officials in Kyiv."ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Michael Waltz “are under intense internal scrutiny,” given their “past lives as Russia hawks,” according to the report. It added that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Sergio Gor, who oversees decisions involving personnel, “have shown little tolerance for anyone who diverges from the MAGA mindset.”The early infighting among the MAGAfied Republican Party underscores the new foreign policy mindset Trump ushered in “that elevates his personal relationships with leaders of rival superpowers, and the use of American threats to push allies and adversaries to buckle to American power, over the traditional alliances based on long-term cooperation and democratic governance,” Politico said.The divide has already been put on display on the world stage over the last week. But, as the publication noted, Vice President J.D. Vance and other administration officials have been emboldened by Trump’s bullish foreign policy approach to send a clear message to the global community “that Republican foreign policy as they have known it is dead — and they’re not sorry about it.”

Seven federal and state GOP lawmakers from western Wisconsin were no-shows at an event packed with farmers concerned about the Trump administration's impact on their communities and jobs, the Wisconsin Examiner reported on Friday."Madison-area U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth), state Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Eau Claire) and state Reps. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) and Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire) were in attendance," reported Henry Redman. However, "U.S. Reps. Tom Tiffany and Derrick Van Orden, state Reps. Rob Sommerfeld (R-Bloomer), Treig Pronschinske (R-Mondovi) and Clint Moses (R-Mondovi) and state Sens. Jesse James (R-Thorp) and Rob Stafsholt (R-New Richmond) were all invited but did not attend or send a staff member," according to the report.The Democrats in attendance seized on their GOP colleagues' absence, with Phelps telling the crowd at Chippewa Falls hosted by the Wisconsin Farmers Union, “All four of us want you to know that there are people in elected office who want to fight for you. Because I think there’s a lot of fear that comes from the fact that we’re seeing a lot of noise and action from the people who aren’t and some of the people that didn’t show up to this. So I hope that you will also ask questions of them when you get a chance.” ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'Pocan took an even more direct approach, repeatedly joking that Van Orden must be "on vacation."Trump rattled global markets as he entered office by vowing massive new tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico, proclaiming it was in retaliation for trade deficits and for drug and migration problems at the border. Ultimately, he blinked on the Canadian and Mexican tariffs at the very last minute, agreeing to a one-month delay in exchange for some border security measures Canada and Mexico previously agreed to enact. Economists have broadly warned that if fully enacted, Trump's tariff plans could lead to a surge in prices for energy and retail goods. Farmers at that event, who frequently sell to international markets and simultaneously face threats to their labor markets from Trump's mass deportation plans, emphasized how bad the tariffs could be for them.“How do you offer a price to a farmer? Is it gonna be $400 a ton, or is it gonna be $500 a ton?” said Les Danielson, a farmer from Cadott. “I’m not even thinking about the fall. I’m just thinking about the spring and the uncertainty. This isn’t cuts to the federal budget, this is just plain chaos and uncertainty that really benefits no one. And I know it’s kind of cool to think we’re just playing this big game of chicken. Everybody’s gonna blink. But when you’re a co-op, or when you’re a farmer trying to figure out how much you can buy, it’s not fine.”

New FBI Director Kash Patel has told senior officials that he plans to relocate 1,000 employees at FBI headquarters to field offices around the country and move an additional 500 to a bureau facility in Huntsville, Alabama, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions.The plans were communicated Friday, the same day Patel was sworn in at the White House. They reflect his long-stated determination to reduce the FBI’s footprint in Washington and have more of a presence in offices in other cities.The person who discussed Patel’s vision did so on condition of anonymity to describe plans that have not been made public.At his swearing-in ceremony, Patel called the opportunity to lead the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency the “greatest honor” of his life.Patel was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday by a 51-49 margin, with two Republican lawmakers, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, breaking party ranks and voting against him.“I think he’ll go down as the best ever at that position,” President Donald Trump told reporters Friday ahead of the White House swearing-in, which was conducted by Attorney General Pam Bondi and attended by Republican supporters in Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. Trump added that the ”agents love this guy.”Patel will inherit an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.FBIFeb 11Democrat accuses Trump FBI pick Kash Patel of secretly ordering firingsTrump administrationJan 31Trump administration forces out multiple senior FBI officialsTrump administrationJan 30Trump's FBI chief pick, Kash Patel, insists he has no ‘enemies list'Democrats had sounded the alarm about the appointment, saying they fear Patel will operate as a loyalist for Trump and abuse the FBI’s law enforcement powers to go after the president’s adversaries. They’ve cited past comments such as his suggestion before he was nominated that he would “come after” anti-Trump “conspirators” in the government and media.Patel sought to assuage those concerns at his confirmation hearing last month, saying he intended to follow the Constitution and had no interest in pursuing retribution, though he also said at his swearing-in Friday that reporters had written “fake, malicious, slanderous and defamatory” stories about him.Republicans angry over what they see as law enforcement bias against conservatives during the Democratic Biden administration, as well as criminal investigations into Trump, have rallied behind Patel as the right person for the job.Patel has spoken of his desire to implement major changes at the FBI, including a reduced footprint in Washington and a renewed emphasis on the bureau’s traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering work that has come to define its mandate over the past two decades as national security threats have proliferated.He said Friday that the FBI’s “national security mission” was equally as important as its efforts to fight violent crime and drug overdoses.“Anyone that wishes to do harm to our way of life and our citizens, here and abroad, will face the full wrath of the DOJ and FBI,” Patel said. “If you seek to hide in any corner of this country or planet, we will put on the world’s largest manhunt and we will find you and we will decide your end-state.”A former Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor, Patel was selected in November to replace Christopher Wray, who was picked by Trump in 2017 and who resigned at the conclusion of the Biden administration to make way for his chosen successor. Wray infuriated Trump throughout his tenure, including after FBI agents searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August 2022 for classified documents in one of two federal investigations that resulted in indictments against Trump that were dismissed after his election win.FBI directors are given 10-year terms as a way to insulate them from political influence and keep them from becoming beholden to a particular president or administration. But Trump fired the FBI director he inherited, James Comey, after Comey had spent over three years on the job and replaced Wray after more than seven years in the position.

Reacting to Elon Musk being the focus of voter anger at a Georgia town hall that had Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) being shouted down by voters from his district, longtime political observer Elisabeth Bumiller claimed the billionaire made matters worse for Donald Trump and Republicans with his appearance at CPAC on Thursday night.During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Bumiller followed MSNBC's Ali Vitali noting that a McCormick constituent accused Musk of using a "chainsaw" to destroy government services which was followed on Thursday night with the unelected billionaire brandishing one when he took the stage at the far-right conservative conference. According to the journalist, that image will be used by Democrats to bedevil Republicans already on their heels defending the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts.ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'Co-host Joe Scarborough promoted his guest by noting that "you can talk generally about balancing the budget, you can talk generally about reducing the workforce and, again we're talking about what amounts to about 9 to 10 percent of the budget.""But when those cuts, that general idea turns into specific cuts that impact working Americans and middle class Americans? Boy, you have scenes like the congressman had last night and I suspect we'll start seeing much like we did in 2009 when Barack Obama started to roll out the possibility that Americans may not be able to visit their own doctor anymore if the ACA passed," he added."Yes," Bumiller agreed. "And actually, that photograph of Elon Musk with the chainsaw and the hat and the sunglasses –– that's political. That's a political problem for the administration."You can watch below or at this link.- YouTubeyoutu.be

A new presidential order that takes aim at a San Francisco achievement Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was instrumental in seeing through opened up a fresh clash between President Donald Trump and the former House speaker.A new Trump executive order takes aim at a 1,500-acre national park set on a former military base that boasts sprawling views of the Golden Gate Bridge, according to Politico. The order calls for funding to be ripped from the Presidio Trust, the agency that oversees the historic landmark's scenic grounds.The move is widely seen as “an act of political retribution,” though Pelosi characterized it Thursday as “a distraction” to draw attention away from Republican plans to cut Medicaid, which she said is unpopular.“We’re here to talk about Medicaid, Mr. President,” Pelosi said, according to Politico. “We will not be distracted with other things. He called himself a king the other day. Really? King of what? Anyway, the emperor has no clothes as far as I’m concerned.”ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'Pelosi said the agency, created in the 1990s, was protected under an act of Congress.“I don’t take it personally if he wants to insult something as innovative and wonderful as the Presidio,” the former House speaker told the New York Times. “There are some people who don’t believe in urban parks. We believe in urban parks, and that’s why we have the Presidio.”A former Presidio Trust member echoed Pelosi’s position. “It’s not going away, it cannot be eliminated by one person,” Marie Hurabiell told Politico.Other San Francisco residents were equally roiled by the president’s escalation of the notoriously fraught relationship between him and Pelosi. “He’s not just targeting the trust,” city Supervisor Stephen Sherrill is quoted as saying. “He’s not just targeting Speaker Pelosi. He’s targeting all San Franciscans.”